#might as well make a mascot kinda guy right

[tangyyposting]

log day 1

inspired by a discord convo with a friend to post this. me n her were watching old s*mg4 videos from back in 2014 and girl i miss those days,, not that i was a better person or anything in fact i honestly like who i am and the fact i ended up where i am, but i sincerely wish that my current self could be transported back to 2014 so i could properly interact with the 2014 internet. the most online interaction i could get back then was on roblox bc my mom was super strict with me being online, and honestly rewatching those mario vids made me really dive deep into 2014 randomXD culture until like 4 in the morning,, i think the most appealing part about it is that it feels so freeing, weirdly enough. cringe culture really wasnt mainstream from my knowledge and although being random was ‘the thing,’ from my experience, people genuinely liked it, and it was strangely wholesome that way. ppl were also alot easier to interact with bc no media was like super mainstream (so you didnt have to be necessarily ‘in the know’ to start convo) other than creepypastas, and towards the end of the randomXD era, fnaf. but like, info about that stuff was super widespread and ppl made interacting with fnaf and creepypasta media super fun, and they were always at least mentioned in one topic point during conversation. other stuffs i sincerely miss include nyan cat, mlg montage parodies, and rainbows. lots of them, too. too bad ppl got homophobic and dropped rainbows as soon as it became a symbol of pride, lol. anyways, tbh i dont have much to add onto the whole randomXD topic, but i do wanna say that holy carp do i hate the new morbius sweep stuff that’s going down (yes i know i have a morbius pfp shush my friend made it for me). like new wave gen z culture is honestly super similar to the 2014 randomXD culture in alot of ways, but back then ppl were genuine about it, and now we’re actively drowning in layers of irony. i could tolerate it until this point but the morbius memes have become so obnoxious i can no longer take it. i think what i hate about it the most is the fact that ppl arent genuine about it, like theyre ranting and raving (kinda like i’m doing now) about how good a movie it is and i just want to shout out loud in a public space abt how i’m so genuinely angry that ppl arent genuine for their passion about the movie. like please, be genuine with the things you like, and the things you dont. we were so close to reaching that sort of nirvana during the early years of the lockdown but as soon as things started opening up again ppl went right back to cringe culture like oh my godddddddd i am actively melting into primordial sludge just thinking abt it,,,,,,,,,, anyways i think that’s abt it for today, thanks for reading if u got this far. if i have something to add believe me i’ll add it later,,,, anyways have a good day mwah srry for the wall of text 💙💙

#web diary #homophobia mention #tw homophobia #drowning mention #tw drowning #daily diary #daily doodle #morbius sweep #wall of text #tw gun mention #sorta gun mention #watch out tho luvs #hell mention #hellrabbit #rabbit #might as well make a mascot kinda guy right #covid mention #these tags are a mess #honestly sorry im making them as i go #today’s topic: 2014 random culture !!

[blackopals-world]

How successful do you think Fellow would be? Honestly part of me thinks he might get beaten up by Jester!Yuu in a kinda slapstick style for bringing a bad name to funny little silly guys

Let me answer that with this

Circus Jem

Fellow tries to claim a new attraction.

Fellow felt very lucky. Very lucky indeed that such a perfect doll waltzed right in.

One so perfect they looked as if they belonged already, no need to dress them up.

Sure the others that came along were just a bonus now that they brought such a gift.

Their face was painted porcelain with a golden star and pastel lips. All dolled up in ribbons and bells. Their clothes were designed to look like the wearer had been pulled from a circus poster.

He could already see those lovely ribbons pulled taunt like puppet strings.

Fellow watched his prey flit from attraction to attraction their charm sending waves of excitement through the other patrons.

They gathered and praised their looks and asked for pictures and took videos. The little clown juggled and danced doing tricks on the merry-go-round.

A mascot. Yes! They were perfect to play that part.

Fellow waited until the little one had separated from the group that fawned over them like a beloved toy. He even laughed at that thought knowing he would steal it from them.

"Are you enjoying your day here?" He asked leaning over the entertainer.

"Absol-tully! I love it here!" They practically chirped.

"And your group? Where are they?" He asked examining his prize more closely. They were in good condition, no visible marks at least.

"Oh, I wanted to get some cotton candy. Villy would never let me have any. But it's my favorite treaty." They whined their lower lip poked out.

Fellow felt an arrow in his chest. He understood why the clown was dotted on. Their strange speech pattern and childish mannerisms could draw anyone in.

"You poor thing. Why don't you come with me. I show you the best candy stall in the park. I won't tell a soul what you did." He said taking the jester by the hand. "

He led them away deeper into the heart of the park.

"I hope you don't mind me saying this but you fit in quite well here. It's a shame you won't be staying longer. You've really brightened this humble park." Fellow said in sorrow.

"I know! This place is just so cozy but also cold. Chilly but no cheese! It feels like home though." They said. Fellow didn't get the meaning behind those words.

" I could use your help to change that. You could stay here. I promise you'll love it. Fun and games every day and an adoring crowd to perform for every night. You would always fit in among the others. All the cotton candy you want and no one to tell you no." Fellow lead the clown to a special room away from the park. A space with a lovely cage just for his new doll.

"Em. No, thanks! I'm not just some clown you know. I'm a jester! As such I need my people. As long as they're happy I'm happy too. But I can't make them happy if I'm far far away. That would make me super sad." They said agast "Hey wait. This isn't the candy place."

"Unfortunately for you, it's not. But don't worry my precious doll. I bring you some to decorate your new cage." Fellow laughed as he raised his staff.

Only for it to be knocked form his hand.

"You lied! You aren't Honest at all. In fact, you aren't even fun. That makes me mad! And I hate being mad!" The jester growled as they grabbed the fox by the front of the shirt.

Fellow struggled to get out of the iron grip.

"Hey wait! I-" He tried to say.

"I'm bored. You're boring me with the flip-flapping of your lips. Now you have to take responsibility and entertain me funny man."

The group was in chaos. They had lost Yuu!

There was no telling where they went. Were they kidnapped?! That clown has no survival instincts and no sense of fear at all.

Lilia suggested they ask if anyone had seen them after all a brightly dressed jester is hard to miss.

And lucky them they found their missing clown standing on a stage with Fellow's staff in hand.

"Come one come all! And see a wonderful show! See the disgrace that is the Fallen Ringmaster! Watch him dance upon my strings!" Yuu commanded the fox to do tricks like a dog. "Jump Fellow! Now Speak! Jump through the hoop and don't get burned!"

The audience was losing it as they laughed at the foolish display. Honest seemed to be under some sort of hypnotic spell but was still fully aware of his torment.

Yuu figured out the staff was a magic tool to control people. They were such a smart cookie.

Unfortunately, the spell didn't last long as Fellow regained his body and turned to attack the little clown.

The group charged the stage to stop him only for-

*CRACK*

Yuu stood there holding a broken staff-well stick in their hands after they swung it full force across Fellow's head.

The fox went down with a thud after getting a definite concussion.

"Oopies!" The jester giggled, bashfully hiding the bloodied staff behind their back.

#jester!yuu #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #twisted wonderland yuu #fellow honest #playful land event #vil schoenheit #twst vil #twisted wonderland vil #twst lilia #lilia vanrouge #twisted wonderland lilia

[trappednyourheart]

I'm so braindead( not actually ) and my stupid ass made an prompt

HERE TO PRESENT

Haunted mansion!

( It's Sam's idea! Shush shut up!)

It's the Halloween day and Sam's plan was to make a haunted mansion! The school had like some kind Halloween charity and every student of Casper high had to participate because of Fruit loops!-..ehem the Mayor of Amity Park for charity ( he's going to overshadowed someone to be more rich isn't he?)

And what's more perfect for a half dead teen vigilante, a goth girl, a tech geek (if I spelled that right? Oh Ancients I've been in this community and I don't even know tucker much!?💀) to participate? Much more! There going to held it at the most crimiest ( if that's a word?) city in the world!

GOTHAM!

Yeah lady Gotham was kinda strict but just those cute puppy eyes from the trio and especially from his Majesty ( Yes it's Danny ghost king au? But much more secretive) so she did let them know a few rules

* they can kick jokers ass

*be low as possible from the radar of her dark knights (cough*‼️ furries‼️*cough*)

*and have fun,

* and also can his Majesty like take that nasty shit of ectoplasm away from her red knight

Danny: ( oh yeah sure!)

Lady Gotham: ( that's so kind of you, your majesty 😇 *blinks*blinks*)

So they set up the haunted mansion from a literally haunted mansion, the old couple who own the place back 1988 was very nice and goodheartedly, let them use there home to make it a haunted mansion. ( Which was funny cause it was haunted, well it's the king! Who wouldn't disagree with those kind eyes, unlike some guy *coughs* Pariah Dark *coughs* I swear i have asthma)

It was going great! Street kids were in line, men, women, children, they were having a blast from this new haunted mansion, when it's Halloween, the crimes would go higher more and the bats and birds would patrol much more...

Well someone had to ruin it- meet The JOKER! and let the rules progress much faster, so let's kick his Ass!

*cue the situation, you can imagine what happen,I'm like so tired that I don't have the time to make a whole ass fight scene*

So that's how the Bats and The Bee$- I mean Bats and the Birds- I mean sorry- the Bats find out a very beat-up and full of bites marks,( there clearly sure might have a been a dog,) and floating in the air, and is being shredded by zombies staff mascots that look so high as fuck in Lazarus pits effect (Danny duplicates DUH🙄)

And a certain crime lord laughing his ass off, cheering them!

-JOKERS FUCKING DEAD!

#yeah i made this like...midnight or some time #batfam #dcxdp #jason todd #danny fenton #batman #danny phantom #dc x dp #ghost king danny #dcxdp prompt #dcdp #dp x dc #dc x dp crossover #dc #jokers fucking dead! i mean he should be...Yeah ok im so tired and i just wanted ti kike mke it mjdjnyeagmgoodnught

[astro-b-o-y-d]

Triangulum - Chapter 1- Return to the Falls

— — — — — — —

“Tree. Tree. Billboard. Gas station. Telephone pole. Tree. Billboar—hey, that one’s got a whale on it!”

The clink of metal to glass echoed through the nearly-empty bus as Mabel pressed her cellphone against the window. “I wonder why they always use whales as mascots for things like car washes?” she inquired. “It’s not like they can actually drive cars or anything! They’re too big to fit through the doors!”

Such a question drew an amused chuckle from the person on the other end of the phone. “I think the thought process there is, like…you use water to clean cars?” they guessed. “And whales live in the water? And then they figure everyone can make the rest of the connection from there.”

From the seat besides Mabel, Dipper looked up from his journal. “Whales are also filter-feeders,” he pointed out. “They filter their food through something called baleen plates, which kinda look like the flappy, hangy-down brushes and sponges in a car wash? Maybe that’s one reason.”

He pointed the tip of his pencil at Mabel. “Also, you know Dev can’t actually see the billboard over the phone, right? …Adding onto that, how are you getting a signal this far out in the woods?”

Mabel moved the phone from the window and pressed it tightly against her chest. “Through the power of love!”

“Yeah, well, I’m almost positive that the ‘power of love’ isn’t gonna make your phone magically grow a video screen and a high-quality internet connection.”

With a scowl, Mabel placed her hands on her hips. “Almost positive isn’t completely positive, Mr. Negative!”

She punctuated her remark with a raspberry, before turning her attention back to her phone. “Sorry, Dev, you know how Dipper is,” she said fondly. “The big dorkus always has to apply logic to everything.”

“He raises a good point, though,” Dev replied. “I wouldn’t’ve made the connection between baleen plates and car wash sponges on my own, so I’m glad he had all that off the top of his head.”

A laugh, before their tone grew more accusatory. “Almost as if someone’s in the middle of researching whales for a certain reason.”

Dipper shifted in his seat, his gaze suddenly and intently focused on a stain of unknown origin on the back of the seat in front of them. “I-I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“...Diiiiip, you promised we’d look into that story about those sky whales off the coast together!” Dev whined playfully. “We were gonna make a whole night of it once you guys got back, with a red yarn board and everything!”

“I swear I was going to wait!” Dipper insisted. “But, like, listen…we’re gonna be spending all summer with our great-uncles. And they’ve spent the last few months sailing around the world, hunting a bunch of cool, paranormal beings out there on the open seas.”

He pressed a hand to the back of his head. “And I thought…you know—”

“—you thought sky whales might be one of the things your uncles saw out on the ocean, and you wanted to learn as much as you could to look all cool and smart in front of them,” Dev finished for him. “Especially in front of the totally awesome, Multiverse-jumping—studier of all things weird and strange—Stanford Pines?”

A beat. “…The one you promised me you’d get an autograph from and I’m totally not using this as an excuse to remind you about that?”

This earned a laugh out of Dipper. “Subtly noted, but it’s just…they’re gonna have so many stories about the places they’ve been over the past nine months,” he elaborated. “The most exciting story I have is that Phoenix incident, and it wasn’t even a real Phoenix!”

Dev let out a groan. “Ugh, don’t remind me! Whose bright idea was it again to smuggle a chicken into Science class?”

“I guess that’s one mystery we’ll never solve,” Dipper added with a look of disgust. “But what we did learn is that burnt feathers smell like someone lighting their hair on fire in a barn.”

“No kidding, I’ll never get the smell of stale hay and dirt outta my nose.”

“This is why pigs are the superior livestock,” Mabel said, punctuating her point with an indignant harrumph. “No stinky feathers!”

Dipper nudged her with his elbow before he set his journal and pencil down on his lap. “Weren’t you complaining a month ago about how Waddles is too big to smuggle into school anymore?”

“That’s not his fault! It’s the fault of society and their inability to stop body shaming everything!” She pressed her hands, phone and all, against her cheeks. ”Especially the most adorable wittle piggy in the entire world and his fat wittle piggy tummy~!”

This earned a laugh from Dev. “They’re just jealous they can’t be him, I bet,” he agreed. “Either way, Dip, it’s no worries about the sky whales thing. Just means I’ve gotta start stocking up on new research material for when you guys get home.”

There was a light tapping sound from the other side of the phone, as if Dev were tapping the speaker with their finger. “And it means that you owe me one!” they insisted. “Which you can easily pay off by spilling all the deets about what went down up there last August!”

The twins exchanged a mirrored look. “Dev—”

“Come on, Dipping Dots, you can’t leave me hanging forever,” Dev begged. “I know it was more than just some weird weather patterns! Just…just give me a hint at least! Was it ghosts? Aliens? …Alien ghosts?”

Dipper shot his sister a look, one that she returned with an understanding nod. “Dipper, stop trying to steal my boyfriend’s attention with your nerdy-nerd talk!” she said, loud enough for Dev to hear. “I wanna get as much talking time as I can with him before we get to town!”

With a smirk, he gave her ribs another nudge with his elbow. “Hey, Dev was a part of the Paranormal/Supernatural Club before you two started going out!” he pointed out. “So technically—aha, stop!”

His words dissolved into laughter as Mabel retaliated by putting as much of her weight on him as she could. “Technically, schmechnically, you can’t do nerdy-nerd stuff with Dev if you’re flat as a pancake!” she said, her body vibrating with giggles as she smushed against him.

“Dev, help, I’m being smothered!” Dipper called to the phone, between bouts of his own laughter. “Tell Mabel she’s cute or something!”

This earned another laugh from Dev in response, one warm and full of affection. “Mabel Syrup, could you please stop trying to kill my best friend and Paranormal/Supernatural Club co-president?”

Smiling wider, Mabel straightened herself upright in the seat and held the phone in her ear. “We~ell, since you’re using that nickname, I guess I can be merciful today!”

With a dramatic gag, Dipper pointed a finger at his throat in disgust. “Ugh, I said call her cute, not break out the pet names.”

“It’s not my fault she’s as sweet as her namesake.”

“It’s not her namesake!”

“Boys, boys,” Mabel interrupted with a giggle. “As fun as it is to both flirt with my boyfriend and annoy my brother at the same time, I do think we should circle back to the point Dip made earlier about my cell reception.” 

She held the phone back up to her ear. “Since we’re almost at the Falls anyway, you wanna go ahead and hang up before the majestic oaks of Oregon do it for us?”

Dipper raised a finger. “Technically the trees around here are mostly firs and birch trees.”

“Oaks, Oregon…I wanted the words to sound all samey-samey,” Mabel pointed out. “And firs doesn’t start with an O.”

“...Neither does majestic?”

“Yeah, we can hang up for now,” Dev said. “I’m sure you guys probably wanna spend the rest of the day settling in, but if you don’t mind talking later tonight—”

“Uh, of course we can talk tonight~!” Mabel interrupted excitedly. “Not only that, I can introduce you to my Grunkles if they’re finished settling in by that point, too! And I’m sure Soos and Melody will want to say hi—ooh, and of course you can meet Candy and Grenda when we have our inevitable ‘Back In Gravity Falls’ sleepover—”

“Okay, maybe we slowly ease Dev into the weirdness that is Gravity Falls and everyone in it?” Dipper suggested. “Besides, I’d like some time to talk to them over the summer, too!”

“Hey, I take offense to that,” Dev said. “The first thing, not the second. Are you forgetting who sought you out to join your club in the first place? And brought his own research material to the very first meeting?”

Dipper gently pulled the phone towards him. “Are you forgetting who’s actually been to Gravity Falls in the first place?”

“No, but I’m also not forgetting who’s keeping all the juicy details about what happened last summer to themselves,” Dev pointed out in return.

“Okay, okay,” Mabel said, pulling the phone back. “No more nerd talk about nerd things, you’re wasting all my minutes! Use your own minutes for that!”

She returned it to her ear with a wide grin. “But we can figure out a proper talking schedule later,” she said sweetly, then paused. “...After tonight though, because you already said we could talk and no take backs!”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Dev assured her. “Love you.”

“And I looooove—” Mabel wiggled her finger with a mischievous look before booping it against the screen of her phone. “—you~!”

“...Did you boop the phone?”

“Yeah-huh~!”

“Bye, Dev!” Dipper called as well. “...I know you two are having a moment, but I wanted to say bye, too!”

“Bye to both of you!” Dev replied. “Talk to you tonight!”

There was a click as the call ended and Mabel pressed the phone against her chest. “Ehehe, I love them!”

“So I’ve gathered,” Dipper said with a smile. “What’re you guys at now, seven months?”

“Seven months, and seventeen days~!” Mabel clarified, with a closing slap of her flip phone and a delighted kick of her feet. “Can you believe it? Last year I would’ve gone through at least seventy guys in that amount of time! Now look at me! Miss Lady-In-A-Serious-Relationship-With-One-Of-The-Best-Guys-In-The-World over here~!”

“You know that number’s a wild exaggeration, right?”

“You’re a wild exaggeration,” Mabel retorted, with a nudge to his shoulder. “And I like how you couldn’t even argue the ‘one of the best guys in the world’ thing, because you know it’s true! Well, he’s the best guy whenever he’s actually in guy mode, of course. Otherwise he’s just the best significant other! But right now, he’s the best guy in the world! 

With a wide grin, she snaked an arm around Dipper’s shoulder before once again smushing most of her weight against him. “Except for thiiiiis best guy in the world, of course~!” she said, words slightly muffled from how her cheek was squished against his arm. “Who knows he absolutely doesn’t count when it comes to me talking about the best guys in the world, because it already goes without saying that he’s the best guy in the world!”

She gave him a squished little smile. “He knows that, right?”

With a warm smile of his own, Dipper gently pushed her back to her side of the bus seat. “He knows that. Although ‘best guy in the world’ is starting to sound like a fake sentence.”

“Haha, yeah,” Mabel agreed with a giggle. “I used it a lot, huh?”

An oink beneath their legs turned their attention to the underside of the seat in front of them, where a fat, pink hog peered up at them with a lazy tilt of his head.

With a squeal of utter delight, Mabel reached down and scooped him up in her arms. “Aww, we can’t forget about the other best guy in the world~!” she cooed, cradling him like a baby. “Are you having fun crawling around and eating all the abandoned wrappers and gum stuck to the underside of the seats?”

Waddles let out another oink and contently buried his snout in the bend of her arm, as if he considered himself nothing more than a simple lap dog. Despite his own amusement at the sight, Dipper raised an eyebrow at his sister. “Seriously, you should probably stop letting him do that before the driver gets fed up and makes us walk the rest of the way.”

“He wouldn’t dare,” Mabel insisted. “This bus is probably the cleanest its ever been! If anything, the driver should be thanking Waddles for helping him out!”

After giving Waddles’ body a shake for additional emphasis, she pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “Isn’t that right, you big, pink angel? You even missed your chance to say hi to Dev because you were too busy being the most helpful piggy around!”

“Too bad we couldn’t use him as a distraction,” Dipper said, and reached for his journal again. “You know Dev’s as crazy about him as you are.”

Mabel’s smile fell, and she tightened her embrace around Waddles’ body. “Right…”

Dipper’s hand froze less than an inch from the journal, and he gave her a sympathetic look. “The squishing me was a nice touch,” he said with a halfhearted smile of his own. “Really took his mind off the Weirdmageddon topic…”

With a sigh, he flipped it open to the page he’d been writing on and picked up his pencil. “You know, we could just ask Mayor Tyler if we can bend the rules a little bit and we can tell our buddy back home about what happened last summer.”

Mabel leaned her body back towards the window, her head hitting the glass with a light thump. “What if he doesn’t believe us?”

“Who, Mayor Tyler? I mean, if we promised that Dev wouldn’t go blabbing it to other people and told him about how obsessed he is with the town, he’d probably understand—”

“Dev, Dipper,” Mabel clarified. “What if Dev doesn’t believe us?”

“Have you met the guy?” Dipper asked. “Out of anyone back home, I feel like he’d be the first one to believe us. I mean, are we forgetting that this is the same person who swears up and down that they've kissed an alien before?"

A pause. "Before following that claim up with ‘but I’d rather kiss Mabel before kissing a thousand aliens’ like the hopeless romantic he is?”

A small smile tugged at the corners of Mabel’s mouth, but disappeared just as quickly as it threatened to appear. “I mean, he does say that all the time. But…”

“But?”

Mabel let out an uncertain hum, but any further response was cut off by the sound of faint crackling from the bus’s loudspeaker. “Attention, passengers, we are approaching the city limits of Gravity Falls, and will be arriving within the town itself in a matter of minutes,” the driver’s voice rang out cheerfully. “Just in case anyone was interested in peering out their window as we passed by the welcome sign, for sentimental reasons.”

The twins shared a mirrored look before quickly scooting over to the window, just in time to see the familiar sign that marked the town’s border whiz past the bus.

It was a fleeting sight; one that came and went within seconds. But their silence continued for a just a bit longer after it passed, even as the endless line of trees finally began to melt into familiar homes and buildings.

Still keeping her attention fixed on the view outside, Mabel’s hand instinctively found her brother’s and gave it a light squeeze. “We’re back…”

Dipper nodded, squeezing her hand in return. “We’re back.”

They remained still, letting themselves be lost in the thrill of finally being back in that old, familiar town for just a few minutes longer, before the realization that they needed to be ready to exit the bus motivated them to finally move and start gathering up their belongings.

“Okay, since we’re now officially back in town,” Mabel began, setting Waddles aside so she could pull her bag to her lap. “What’re you looking forward to the most this summer?”

“Hmm, hard to say,” Dipper said, reaching for his own. “I mean, last year I spent most of the summer trying to uncover the mysteries behind the journal’s author, then spent the remaining time after that with the author himself!”

He unzipped the front and stuffed his journal inside. “Guess I’m just looking forward to spending more time with Grunkle Ford again, now that he doesn’t have to stay down in the basement and deal with all that Bill stuff,” he said. “I know I wanna tell him all about the stuff me and Dev have studied together, and—ooh, I really wanna introduce him to that DDnmD podcast we started listening to recently—”

“Hey, that was what I was looking forward to, too!” Mabel said delightedly. “Well, not the nerd stuff but the ‘spending time with Grunkle Ford’ stuff! You got to spend so much time with him last year, and I barely got to see him at all!”

She placed her hands on her hips. “Well, this year I’m determined to spend as much time with him as I possibly can! You know a guy who puts that much effort into his journals has to be a pro at scrapbooking!”

She reached into her bag and pulled something out with a wide grin, before holding it up for Dipper to see. “I even made him a personalized sweater, so he has another one to wear besides his red one!” she explained, pointing to a smiling picture of Ford on the front. “See? I knitted a happy little picture of him—” She moved her finger to the next one. “—and this one’s of the six-fingered hand that was on his journals—”

And finally her finger landed on the stitched writing at the bottom. “—and this part says ‘A-FORD-able! Not like ‘affordable’, but like ‘adorable with Ford!’’ …I was already halfway done when I remembered ‘affordable’ was already a word, so I just added that last part instead of undoing everything.”

While she stuffed the sweater back into her bag, Dipper added: “I think I’m also looking forward to just spending time with Grunkle Stan in general, too. I mean, sure, we got to spend a lot of time with him last year.”

He waved his hands. “But he was hiding such a big secret, one he had to deal with by himself. This year, he’s got nothing to hide!”

Mabel held up both pointer fingers. “Right! Because the something he had to hide is gonna be right there next to him! And the thing that was hiding no longer has to hide in any way!”

She smushed them together with silly little noises for emphasis. “And since Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford are getting along now, it means we can all spend time together like one big happy family!” 

Satisfied with her own amateur pantomime, she dropped her hands and returned to her belongings. “Speaking of which, who did Grunkle Stan say was going to be greeting us at the bus stop?” she asked. “I know Soos and Grunkle Ford will be there, but I really hope Candy and Grenda can make it!”

She beamed widely. “Grenda said in her last letter that she’s been taking up wrestling, and that she learned a move that could possibly snap me in half! Although Candy discredited this claim with the fact that she only got a fractured disc when Grenda tried it on her, but you know what they say: practice makes perfect!”

Dipper raised an eyebrow. “You guys can’t just hug each other?”

“We can hug as she’s breaking my spine in two!”

With a shrug, Dipper slung his bag over his shoulder. “Well, to answer your original question; yeah, Ford and Soos are gonna be there. Other than that, I’m not sure. Your friends being there is something you’d know more than I would, and I can’t think of anyone else who would come.”

He tapped a hand to his chin as he thought hard for a moment. “I know Soos and Melody wanted to throw that welcome-back party for us tomorrow, though. So maybe they’ll only have a small group of people at the bus stop today. You know, to give us time to get settled in without being bombarded by a billion people?”

Mabel stuck out her lip and gave the seat in front of them a defiant slam with her fists. “Boooooo, I want to be bombarded by people! I wanna be able to give out at least three-dozen hugs before Grenda snaps me in half like a twig!”

“I once again ask why you guys can’t just hug each each other.”

“Bombardment!” Mabel chanted, slamming her fist in rhythm. “Bombardment!”

There was another crackle of the loudspeakers over their heads as the driver spoke again: “Attention, passengers; this is a follow-up to the previous announcement, but there might be a bit of a delay in getting you to the next stop.”

Dipper and Mabel exchanged a curious look, before Dipper cupped his hands around his mouth. “Why?” he called towards the front of the bus.

“Has the traffic here gotten that bad in nine months?” Mabel added.

Another crackle from the intercom. “See for yourselves, kids.”

At the driver’s suggestion, the twins scooted out of their seats and into the aisleway, remaining bags in hand and Waddles at their heels as they made their way to the front of the bus. As they came to a stop near the bus driver’s seat, their eyes grew wide at the sight that awaited them in the street below.

To the eyes of an unknown tourist, it would look like nothing more than a dozen garden gnomes stacked atop each other before a collection of golf balls spilled all over the road. 

To anyone who’d spent enough time in Gravity Falls, however—

“For the last time, Franz; either you cross the street quickly or we’re letting a car run you over.”

At the front of the collection of golfballs—or more accurately, small persons by the name of Lilliputtians who happened to strongly resemble golfballs—a blue ball crossed their arms with a sour look towards the gnome at the top of the pile. “And we’re telling you for the last time, Jeff, we’re going as fast as we can!” he argued in return. “It’s not like we can just stack ourselves on top of each other like you gnomes can!”

“You’re golf balls!” The gnome, Jeff, pointed out irritably. “You can roll!”

Franz scoffed and placed his hands on his hips. “Oh, so just because we happen to look like golf balls, you think we can roll everywhere?” he asked. “What about you gnomes, huh? Without linking up to each other, I’ll bet you couldn’t go more than a few feet without getting winded!”

Jeff crossed his own arms with a roll of his eyes. “Yeah, well, you’ve never seen Shmebulock run after six nosefuls of mushroom spores.”

His point was emphasized by an enthusiastic “Shmebulock!” from one of the gnomes at the bottom of the snack.

From the bus, the twins shared a knowing look before Mabel turned to the bus driver. “You know what? You can just let us off here, we can walk the rest of the way.”

“And we’ll see what we can do about clearing the road for you,” Dipper added.

With a shrug, the driver opened the doors to the bus and the two headed down the stairs; Mabel bounded out the door and onto the sidewalk with a delighted laugh while Dipper followed behind with more reserved steps. 

Despite their different methods of stair descension, their smiles were equally bright as they looked to the smaller beings still crowded in the middle of the road. “So, what do you think’s going on?” Dipper asked.

Mabel turned back to the bus steps and reached out to grab Waddles, who had slowly and piggishly ambled down the steps after them. “Not sure, but isn’t it wild to see both groups just…out in the middle of the street like this?”

“Right?!” Dipper said with enthusiastic agreement. “It’s like—not even five minutes back in town and we’re already getting a taste of peak Gravity Falls weirdness!”

After setting Waddles down to the sidewalk, Mabel clapped her hands together with just as much gusto. “I know, isn’t it great?”

“I’m warning you for the last time, Jeff: get out of our way before we knock your bearded butts down like rolling pins!” Franz insisted firmly. “You wanna see how fast we can actually roll? Keep pushing my buttons and you’ll find out!”

The twins exchanged a look. “Right, we should probably do the thing we got off the bus early to do,” Dipper said. “Otherwise we just made getting to the shack harder for ourselves for no reason.”

“Well, at the very least you can add ‘breaking up a fight between golf ball people and gnomes’ to the list of cool stories to tell Grunkle Stan and Grunkle Ford,” Mabel pointed out. “I’m almost positive they haven’t had a chance to do that yet!”

Dipper let out a laugh. “Weren’t you just saying a little bit ago that almost positive isn’t completely positive?”

With a laugh of her own, Mabel pushed a lighthearted fist to his arm before turning her gaze to the groups bickering in the road. “So how are we doing this?”

A shrug. “I mean, smartest method would just be to ask them why they’re fighting.”

“Very true!” Mabel said. “And who knows? Maybe if we know why they’re fighting, we can help them work it out peacefully.”

“Or we can at least distract them long enough to get them outta the road,” Dipper pointed out. “Then if they wanna continue the fight on the sidewalk, we just start heading for the shack.”

“That is also something we can do~!” 

She cupped her hands around her mouth and called loudly: “Hey, boys! What’s with all the commotion and bus blocking?”

“Yeah, none of you are more than two feet tall, and you should probably get out of the road before cars realize they can just run over you,” Dipper added helpfully.

From his spot in the road, Jeff let out a scoff. “Maybe on our own, but we gnomes could always just—”

He fell silent, the delayed realization of whom he was speaking to finally settling in as he looked to Dipper and Mabel with wide eyes. And he was not the only one; the attention of both gnomes and Lilliputtians alike were now focused solely on Dipper and Mabel.

“Well, shiver me timbers, amongst other pirate-y exclamations of surprise!” One of the pirates piped up. “The Saviors of the Falls be returned to us at last!”

“The Hugelings are back!” A knight Lilliputtian added excitedly.

The rest of the group (both gnome and golfball alike) let out similar exclamations of delight, their crosswalk argument momentarily forgotten as they all hurried to the sidewalk to greet the twins. 

And once the bus driver took advantage of the cleared road to continue onwards, the commotion was enough to also draw the attention of other nearby townsfolk. Townsfolk who—Dipper and Mabel observed as they got a good look around—were not quite as human as they had been the year prior.

A fair number of them were still clearly human; Tad Strange could be seen purchasing a loaf of bread through the window of a nearby store, while the man known as the ‘Free Pizza’ guy was taking a leisurely stroll just a short distance up the road.

But there was also no mistaking the mermaid in a small, mobile tank at an outside table for the nearby bistro, pulling her attention from her waterproof phone long enough to look their way.  

Or the Abominable Bro-man stepping out of a nearby Jeep, the remaining three Bro-men still seated in the vehicle and pumping their fists in the air as they chanted his name with fraternal unity. A chant that quickly melted into the twins' names when the original Bro-man pointed them out with a look of pure, righteous elation.

And there was certainly no missing the flock of Eye-Bats resting comfortably on the nearby powerlines alongside a group of ordinary woodpeckers, or the Woodpecker-peckers that had taken up residence upon the original birds’ backs. 

While the peckers and pecker-peckers showed little interest in the kids, one Eye-Bat shifted its attention down towards them with mild curiosity, before turning to the nearest Woodpecker-pecker and shooting a burst of energy from its cornea. In a flash, the miniature bird had been transformed into solid stone, the extra weight causing the powerline to sag beneath the original—but otherwise unbothered—Woodpecker.

As more townsfolk—human and supernatural alike—also turned their attention towards the kids, Dipper cast an amused look to his sister. “You still in the mood to get bombarded by a bunch of people?”

Mabel giggled in response, and carefully picked up one of the Lilliputtians for a hug. “I don’t know what point you’re trying to prove, this is awesome! It’s like our own little welcome parade!”

“Well, if this isn’t a delightful delight of a sight~!”

At the sound of another voice, both turned their attention towards a thin man approaching them from further down the sidewalk. His overall demeanor was riddled with giddiness and a cartoonish banner that read ‘Mayor’ was displayed prominently across his chest. “Dipper and Mabel Pines! I was wondering when you two would finally get back to town!”

He waggled a finger at them. “And here I thought I’d have to wait until tomorrow night to say hello to you kids again!”

“Hi, Mayor Tyler,” Mabel said, giving him a wave with the arm that wasn't wrapped around the Lilliputtian, before using it to gesture to the rest of them. “I see someone’s been having a busy nine months~!”

Dipper nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s so cool to see the gnomes and everyone else just…wandering around the town like this!”

From where the gnomes were gathered, Jeff let out a smug little chuckle. “Hear that, Franz? We got a personal shoutout and everything.”

Franz turned to glare at him. “You know he was only using you pointy-hatted jerks as an example!”

“I’ll make an example outta you, you round son of a—”

Their heated exchange from before returned in full swing as the two groups began to argue again, the Lilliputtian in Mabel’s arms leaping back down to join the fight with balled fists and a collection of gnome-targeted obscenities.

In response, Mabel’s gestured arm shifted to a pointing finger. “Oh, right, they were fighting in the middle of the street and blocked our bus.”

With a sigh, Tyler pressed a hand to his forehead. "Again?"

Near his foot, a French Lilliputtian piped up with a mighty: "Sacré bleu!"— one that likely translated out to "Again!"—before he hurled his body at the nearest gnome.

While they watched this unfold, Dipper looked back to Tyler. “So is this, like…normal for them?”

“I’m afraid so,” Tyler replied wearily. "They simply cannot stop butting heads no matter how I try to clear the air—oh, hold on, I worry they might start biting if I don’t do something—”

He moved towards the center of the combined groups, carefully tiptoeing between the small golf balls with an ease that implied he had done this countless times before, and came to a stop near both Franz and Jeff. “Now, boys, you know we’ve talked about this no less than a week ago!”

Franz pointed a finger at Jeff, eyebrows furrowed. “He was trying to rush us again—”

“—and I was pointing out how, again, they can just roll across the crosswalk!” Jeff argued in retaliation. “I just don’t understand how they’ve got the ability to move that fast, but then get mad at people for pointing out they have it!”

Franz shook a fist at him. “Oh, I’ll show you fast, with how fast I can ram my hand up your—”

“Okay, gentleman,” Tyler interrupted quickly, and took a knee so he could be closer to them. “Jeff, you know what I’ve said about antagonizing the Lilliputtians. If you and your boys can’t play nice, I might have to resort to—well, looking elsewhere for a crossing guard!”

“Wh—aw, come on!” Jeff protested. “That’ll be the fifth job we’ve lost in a month! Do you know how hard it is to nab the attention of a potential queen if we go back to being a bunch of unemployed chumps?”

Franz rolled his eyes. “Yeah, pretty sure it’s not the lack of a job they hate about you.”

“Why, you little—”

Jeff launched his entire body at Franz as the two of them began to squabble again, and Tyler reached out to grab them both by the back of their shirts. “Hey, come on now! I’m a fan of a good fight as much as the next guy, but you’re setting a bad example in front of our special guests—”

This earned a shrug from the twins. “I mean, we really don’t care,” Dipper said.

“One of them tried to kill us, the other tried to marry me,” Mabel added. “We’ve kinda already seen both of them at their worst already.”

“Need some help?”

A familiar voice from behind—followed by a massive shadow enveloping both of them in shade—turned both twins around, only for them to be greeted by the sight of a tall Manotaur towering high above them. But what really grabbed their attention was the teenager seated on his left shoulder, smile wide as she hopped down to the sidewalk in front of them. 

Her hair was much shorter than the last time they had seen her, just barely peeking out from beneath the faded hat that she had swapped with Dipper for her own. And her original green flannel shirt had been exchanged for an unbuttoned red one over a white tank top. 

Despite the differences in her appearance, however, there was no mistaking who she was—and her old hiking boots had barely touched the pavement before the twins rushed to embrace her in a joint hug. “Wendy!”

With a laugh, Wendy slunk an arm around each of their shoulders to hug them in return. “And here I thought you squirts would beat me up to the Shack,” she said, moving her hands to playfully noogie the tops of their heads. “What’re you doing all the way down here?”

Mabel gestured to the small crowd before them. “Well, our bus had to stop because—”

“Oh, for the love of—” Wendy interrupted with a sigh, before looking over to Tyler. “Are they fighting again?”

From where he stood—desperately holding the two leaders at arm’s length to prevent more blood from being drawn—Tyler’s expression melted into a look of relief. “Wendy! Thank goodness you’re here!” he said. “Uh, would you and Chutzpar mind—”

She crossed her arms with a miffed look. “You know, people are going to think it’s unprofessional that the mayor has to keep getting help from outside sources to solve the town’s issues—”

“Wendy, please?”

Wendy rolled her eyes, and looked up towards the Manotaur beside her. “Whaddaya think, Big Guy?”

“Many months ago, I would’ve encouraged the idea of using violence to solve one’s problems,” Chutzpar said stoically. “And I still would, were it not an inconvenience to Mayor Tyler.”

He held up a finger. “Punching out your feelings is not inherently a bad way to solve some issues, but there is a time and place for it,” he continued. “And right in the middle of town where people are looking to enjoy their day isn’t the right time nor the right place! So KNOCK IT OFF or I’ll knock YOU OFF!”

He punctuated the last sentence with a warning stomp of his left hoof, one strong enough to rumble the sidewalk beneath everyone’s feet. And once he was finished, he looked to Wendy hopefully—as if he were expecting her to praise him for his answer—and she gave an approving nod before looking to the crowd: “You guys chill now, or does he need to do that again?”

Thankfully the fighting had immediately ceased at Chutzpar’s warning stomp, both gnome and Lilliputtians alike trembling in shock. “H-hey, that’s a really rude way to get someone to stop doing something, you know!” Franz said irritably.

“Yeah,” Jeff piped up in agreement. “You can’t just use your Manotaur buddy to push us around like that!”

“Yeah, well, maybe next time you’ll stop fighting when Tyler asks you to stop first,” Wendy said. “Besides, it worked, didn’t it? You guys are actually agreeing on something and have chilled out a little bit, right?”

Franz and Jeff exchanged a skeptical look, before they both turned away in disgust with halfhearted mutters of “I guess so.” and “Whatever.” in unison.

“Guys...”

Jeff crossed his arms. “Fine, I guess it doesn’t really matter how long they take to get across the street," he said defeatedly. "Besides, the longer we man the cross work, the more chances we get to snag attention from potential queen candidates."

“And I guess we could speed up a bit when we walk,” Franz added. “We’ll probably have to now, if we wanna make it to the sticker store and back to the golf course before our lunch break is over.”

Tyler clasped his hands together. “There, you see? Problem-solving!” he said delightedly. “Now, let’s clear off the sidewalk and give Dipper and Mabel some breathing room, okay?”

With only a small handful of grumbling, the gnomes and Lilliputtians shuffled back towards the crosswalk. Once they had properly dispersed, Tyler stood up to full height again and clasped his hands together. “Thank you so much, Wendy, you are an angel in lumberjack’s clothing~!”

Wendy crossed her arms again, expression souring at his compliment. “I meant what I said; you’ve really gotta get a handle on doing stuff like this by yourself,” he said. “The town’s not gonna take a guy who can’t even break up a fight between some gnomes and sentient golf balls seriously.”

Tyler chuckled nervously and once again pressed a hand to his forehead. “Well, regardless, your help is always appreciated!” he said, with a look to Chutzpar. “And thank you once again for all your help, big fella. I’m actually glad I caught you, I was actually on my way over to the lumbermill to discuss Thursday’s plans with Dan—”

This earned him an annoyed scoff from Wendy, while Chutzpar simply nodded. “Yes, that is the reason we were on our way to see you—”

“I was on my way to the Mystery Shack.”

“—why we were on our way to see you, before we made our way to the Mystery Shack,” Chutzpar continued, paying no mind to Wendy’s interruption. “I come with a message from him. And a gift.”

He looked to Wendy, who gave him a nod far more halfhearted than his own, before he held out the small object he had been carrying in one of his mighty fists. 

It was a small, wood-carved animal (a bear to be specific), and it was clear that every notch in the wood had been carefully sculpted with care. A care that Tyler recognized with a look that was far less whimsical than his usual demeanor, and more of a genuine tenderness as he took the carving in his hand. “Oh, that darn man really knows how to spoil me rotten, doesn’t he?”

His smile widened as he looked back to Chutzpar. “You said he also had a message for me?”

Chutzpar nodded and reached into his pocket for a small stack of index cards. After taking a moment to shuffle them, he cleared his throat and began to read: “‘I am looking forward to Thursday. I was wondering if you would wear the panther shirt to dinner that I bought you in that two-for-one special. Panthers are powerful, and could tear a puma to—”

He casually flipped to the next index card, before gripping the entire stack tightly with both hands and ripping it in half a powerful yell of: ”—SHREDS!!!!’”

He held his stance for a moment, before slipping back into a more relaxed pose. “He specifically requested that I rip them up when I said ‘shreds’,” he explained. “It was an opportunity to be needlessly loud and violent in a healthy fashion, so I was in full support of the idea.”

“Aww, a show of force and a clever pun?” Tyler said, pressing his hands to his flushed face. “He really does know what I like~!”

He gave Chutzpar a wink. “Well, you be sure to tell Dan that I will certainly be wearing the panther shirt on Thursday!”

“Super,” Wendy said, her tone deadpan. “Can we go to the Shack now?”

“Of course, sorry for holding you up,” Tyler said with a laugh. “I suppose I should be getting back to work as well. This town’s not gonna mayor itself, after all~!”

“It might if you don’t learn how to break up fights without help,” Wendy muttered under her breath.

Tyler gave the group a little wave with the hand that held the wood carving. “Oh, and welcome back to town, Dipper and Mabel~! Can’t wait for the party tomorrow!”

With that, he turned and headed down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of the group, leaving Wendy to turn her attention to the twins. “So, you guys need a second to unpack everything that just happened, or are we good to continue on to the Shack?”

Dipper and Mabel shared a look, before Dipper took the initiative: “Yeah, so I have about a dozen questions—”

“What are the gnomes and Lilliputtians and all the other creatures doing walking around town?” Mabel interrupted quickly, with a wide gesture of her arms. “What’re you doing with a Manotaur? And why’s he giving Mayor Tyler gifts from your dad?!”

Dipper pointed to his sister. “Actually yeah, she covered pretty much all the questions I had,” he said, turning his full attention to her. “Except for the last part, because I feel like that’s pretty obvious, Mabel.”

Mabel placed her hands on her hips. “Duh-doy, I know it’s obvious. I just want to know when it started being a thing,” she explained. “I don’t remember hearing about it in any of the letters we got.”

Wendy made a face. “Yeah, it’s…kinda new.”

“They have been dating for four months,” Chutzpar pointed out.

“It’s new,” Wendy said flatly, before giving a shrug to the twins. “Anyway, the other stuff’s pretty easy to answer. Wanna swap stories as we head to the shack?”

“Yeah!” they answered in unison, before Dipper looked further up the road. “Kinda wish we’d asked the bus driver to stick around, though. The walk to the shack from here’s going to take forever.”

Wendy looked up at Chutzpar with a smirk, and he nodded knowingly in return. “Sounds like the two of you require a ride.”

Before either twin could question what he meant by ‘ride’, they suddenly found themselves being scooped up from the sidewalk and settled onto his muscular shoulders.

Wendy watched with a smile as they adjusted themselves. “You two chill up there?”

From the left shoulder, Dipper gave a thumbs up. “All good!”

Doubling over in a fit of giggles, Mabel reached over and grabbed hold of Chutzpar’s horn to steady herself. “Oh, this is way better than taking the bus~!”

Wendy let her gaze fall to the sidewalk below, where Waddles was staring up expectantly. “And while he’s got you, I’ll get—”

She bent down to pick him up, lifting him with just as little issue as his owner, and adjusted him until he was situated comfortably in her arms. “Woah, buddy, you feel a lot heavier than fifteen pounds this year!”

“I’ve fed him only the finest of leftover table scraps,” Mabel said proudly.

“And he used to sneak into my junk food stash at least once a week before I found a way to stop him,” Dipper said, giving Waddles a pointed look.

Waddles gave him a proud snort in response as Wendy took another quick glance at the sidewalk again. “Alright, no bags or any other random pets that you might’ve picked up since last year?”

“Bags are in our arms,” Dipper said, giving his a pat for good measure.

“And sadly no,” Mabel added in a solemn tone. “Mom said owning Waddles is like owning three pets in one. She says it as a compliment, because that just means he’s three times as lovable. But like we said before, he also just eats about as much as three animals so she don’t see any reason to get a fourth.”

This earned another proud snort from Waddles and a laugh from Wendy. “Sounds like an okay to begin walking, then.”

Chutzpar nodded, the sidewalk rumbling with every thunderous step he took as the group began their trek towards the winding trail on the edge of town.

— — — — — — —

“Mr. Pines, there’s no need to be so nervous.”

“What makes you think I’m nervous?”

From beside Soos, Grenda raised her hand. “The fact that you’re pacing in a circle so much, you’re practically digging a new bottomless pit with your feet?”

Candy turned to her, eyes bright with inspiration. “Ooh, if there are two of them, maybe they could be advertised as twin bottomless pits!” she said, holding up a finger on each hand. “Twin pits for twin pairs—“

She brought her fingers together with a smile. “—of twin Pines!”

Grenda let out a loud cackle, and gave her shoulder a hearty slap. “God, Candy, save some of that genius for when Mabel gets here!”

While Candy rubbed her now-sore shoulder with a wince, Soos gave the two of them a thumbs-up. “But I’m adding that to the list of attraction ideas when we get back to the shack. It’s a good one, dude.”

Stan looked down at the thin dent in the gravel that he’d worn down with his shoes, and crossed his arms with a gruff sigh. A sigh that was interrupted by the familiar sensation of a six-fingered hand on his shoulder.

His mouth curled into a smile as he locked eyes with the hand's owner, a near-identical set of features to his own staring back at him. “They raise a good point, Stanley,” Ford said. “Mostly about the nervousness, not the second bottomless pit idea.”

At that, he gave the girls a thumbs up. “But that is some impeccable wordplay, Candy!”

“My name gives me plenty of chances to make puns in everyday conversation,” Candy informed him with a smile. “It’s second nature to me at this point~!”

Stan tsked at that, although his smile didn’t disappear. “And who’s to say that pit-idea of theirs ain’t exactly what I’m doing?” he said. “Building some kinda new, twin-themed shack attraction with my feet?”

Candy held up another finger. “Shack-traction!”

“I said, stop! You’re gonna use up all the good ones!”

While the girls chattered on, Ford turned his gaze from them to Soos. “Actually, Soos, don’t you and the girls want to go, uh—” A pause. “—discuss that second bottomless pit idea further?”

Grenda ceased her attempt to give Candy a noogie of approval, and raised an eyebrow at him. “Why? He already said we’d—”

“Don’t worry, Dr. Pines!” Soos interrupted quickly, taking each of the girls’ hands in his own. “I’ll keep ‘em busy!”

Ford gave him an appreciative nod, one that Soos returned with a smile as he lead them away; not too far from the bus stop, but far enough to give the older men some space.

Once the three of them were at a distance that would make eavesdropping impossible, Stan playfully nudged his brother’s arm. “Real subtle there, Poindexter.”

“Wasn’t trying to be,” Ford said, as he turned back around to face him. “And even if I was, it’d be a lot more convincing than you’re trying to be about not being nervous.”

Stan rolled his eyes. “Hey, I’m the King of Subtlety! Or are you forgetting the New Jersey Lil' Wise Guy Subtlety Competition of 1956, where I took first place?”

“It was 1957,” Ford corrected him. “And I distinctly remember you quite literally taking the first place medal and attempting to pawn it off to one of the customers in the shop. Which failed, because you were three.”

Stan pressed a hand to his forehead. “Was it? Could’ve sworn it was—” With a huff, he waved it away. “Whatever, so maybe I’m a little nervous about seeing my great-niece and nephew again for the first time in nine months,” he said with a halfhearted shrug. “So what?”

“As I’m sure we’ve discussed at least two dozen times on the ride back to town—”

“Three dozen.”

“—there’s no reason to be nervous about seeing Dipper and Mabel again,” Ford finished. “If all the letters they sent to the Mystery Shack are anything to go off, they’re just as excited to see us as we are them.”

Stan waved his hand again, this time with the addition of a scoff. “Oh, I’m not worried about all that,” he explained. “I know the kids love us, and I know as soon as they step off that bus, I’m gonna put on the tough-as-nails, no-nonsense Grunkle act and pretend I wouldn’t erase my own mind for ‘em again if they needed me to—”

“Don’t joke about that.”

A shared look of somberness crossed their faces for a brief instant, before Stan’s gaze fell to the ground again. “It ain’t us I’m worried about,” he repeated. “They headed outta this place only a week after we barely managed to save it from going to heck in a handbasket. Barely managed to save them…”

His gaze returned to Ford. “Just don’t want them comin’ back to a whole boatload of new things to be worried about, you know?”

The hand on Stan’s shoulder moved to Ford’s own hair, which he pushed back with a tired sigh. “Don’t I know it. I’ve had this pit in my stomach for about two weeks now, both from the excitement of getting to spend the full summer with my great-niece and nephew and—”

He paused, before letting his hand fall back to his side with a weak laugh. “Well, I guess it was inevitable that our return to town would be accompanied by some…complicated emotions.”

Forgetting his own nerves for a moment, Stan’s attention immediately snapped to his brother. The shift in Ford’s features was subtle, as it always was whenever the topic of Bill came up in passing. But the pain behind Ford’s eyes, a pain that held the weight of the past thirty-plus years, and the way his entire body tensed from the memories that Stan could only assume made up that weight—

Stan shoved his hands in his pockets with a sigh. “Psh, listen to me gettin’ all worked up over the kids, when I should’ve been asking if you were alright.”

Ford looked to him, eyebrow raised. “Wh—no, that’s not the point. The point is—”

He was cut off by Stan slinging an arm around his shoulders, his knees buckling slightly from the extra weight. “The point is we’re both stressed,” Stan said. “And if we’re both stressed, then the kids are gonna end up stressed as well and that’ll just have the opposite effect of what we want. Like that law. You know, from that one guy?”

With his free hand, he snapped his fingers thoughtfully as he racked his brain for the answer. “Somethin’, somethin’, every action’s got a reaction and it’s opposite?”

An amused smile spread across Ford’s face. “Are you referring to Sir Isaac Newton and his laws of motion?” he asked. “Those laws by that world-renowned philosopher?”

“Hey, you’re the one that finished high school, Smart Guy, you tell me!”

Satisfied with his answer, he shifted the arm around Ford’s shoulder to pull him into a proper headlock. Ford attempted to slink out from beneath his brother’s embrace with a laugh, but unfortunately the past forty years had done little to weaken Stan’s technique and kept him locked as firmly in place as it had during their childhood.

On the other hand, three decades of wandering the Multiverse had provided Ford with a few defensive maneuvers of his own. Combined with spending the past nine months on a fishing boat together, it had taken little time for him to readapt to his brother’s attempts at rough-housing—

His gaze fell to Stan’s exposed ribs, to which he delivered a light—yet firm—jab with his elbow.

—and even less time for him to find the most effective methods of countering them.

Sure enough, Stan released him with a surprised yelp, one that melted into a fit of rough laughter as Ford effortlessly slipped out of his grasp. “Cheap shot.”

“I believe you’re the last person to talk when it comes to fighting dirty, Stanley,” Ford replied with a smug grin.

“Oh, I’ll show ya dirty—”

The laughter doubled as the two of them spent another moment attempting to one-up the other in lighthearted fisticuffs, until the distant, rumbling sound of tires against asphalt pulled them back to reality. And if the sight of the approaching bus alone hadn’t been enough, Grenda’s boisterous cry of “THE BUS IS COMING!” as the rest of the group hurried back to rejoin them would’ve done the trick.

As they straightened themselves out again in preparation to greet the kids, the brothers exchanged another look. One that clearly displayed their shared nervousness that even rough-housing hadn’t completely eliminated.

It was Stan who broke the awkward silence first, mouth curling into a halfhearted smile. “Guess we’d better give that Newton chump a call, huh?”

Ford managed a weak smile in return. “You realize you’ve wildly misinterpreted the laws of motion and their relation to the situation at hand, don’t you?”

“And you realize you’re a giant nerd, right?” Stan countered.

“Well, regardless of misinterpretation, you do raise a good point,” Ford said. “If we’re both stressed, then the kids are bound to pick up on it and get stressed in turn.”

He inhaled slowly, and exhaled slower. “It’s a new summer. A chance for everyone to start over.”

“You know it,” Stan said, lightly touching his knuckles against Ford’s arm. “And hey, uh—that doesn’t stop at summer. We don’t have to do anything alone ever again, right?”

They exchanged a look, silently lingering in their shared understanding for a moment before Ford spoke again: “You’re right, Stanley. We don’t have to do anything alone. Not now, not ever again.”

The two remained still for a moment more, before Stan reached over to give him a nudge. “And y’know, if that doesn’t work, I’m pretty sure I saw some kinda zombie-summoning spell in one of those nerd books of yours.” 

He crossed his arms. “I know we chucked them down into the Bottomless Pit, but I also know for a fact that you’ve got one’a’those smart-guy photographic-memories and could probably recite it off the top of your head.”

“Are you suggesting I use necromancy to summon Sir Isaac Newton?” Ford asked, the corners of his mouth twitching in amusement. “To prove his first law that you seem insistent on misinterpreting?”

“I mean, I ain’t telling you to give him a kiss on the cheek or nothin’,” Stan said.

Their smiles widened in amused unison as the bus finally slowed to a stop, the creaking of the brakes echoing loudly through the forest around them. Almost as if they were announcing the long-awaited arrival of the teenagers on board to anything within earshot.

And as the group watched, the older adults with tense shoulders while Soos and the girls all leaned into each other with excited anticipation, the doors of the bus slid open to reveal—

“Are you all looking to get on?”

—nothing more than the bus driver.

Candy blinked in confusion. “Have Dipper and Mabel turned invisible since we last saw then?”

Stan’s brow furrowed, balling one hand into a warning fist as he stared at the driver. “Yeah, pal, what gives?! Where’s our kids?”

“The ones from earlier?” the driver asked. “Oh, they got off somewhere in town. There were a buncha golfballs and gnomes in the road, said they’d take care of it and for me to just go on ahead without ‘em.”

He pressed a hand to his chin. "Good kids, though! The bus floor's practically sparkling thanks to that pet pig of theirs!"

“Did they tell you if they were going to walk the rest of the way or not?” Ford asked.

“I believe that’s what they said,” the driver said. “But seriously, is no one here going to get on?”

A varying chorus of ‘No’s earned the group a closed door, before the bus continued onwards down the road. After it eventually descended down a hill and out of sight, Grenda’s shoulders fell. “Aw, man! I was gonna pile drive Mabel into the ground as soon as she got off the bus! Now our whole ‘Welcome Back To The Falls’ greeting is ruined!”

Candy patted her arm sympathetically. “I am sure she would’ve appreciated the effort regardless.”

“Of course she would!” Grenda lamented, her loud voice booming through the nearby wood. “She’s an angel who appreciates when we go the extra mile!”

“Back in town for five minutes and they’re already getting caught up in some kind of weird shenanigans,” Ford said, swelling with pride. “They’re a couple of Pines, alright.”

Stan slapped a hand over his eyes, and dragged it down the rest of his face. “Yeah, a pair from your side of the family, maybe.” 

It was said in exasperation, but there was an undeniable fondness in his tone. One that transferred to his expression as he turned to the rest of the group. “Alright, on one hand: the kids know the way to the Shack like the backs of their own hands and they’ll probably get here just fine on foot,” he pointed out. “On the other—”

“Getting here could take a while and none of us want to wait that long to see them again, so we go and meet them halfway?” Soos guessed.

“You got it.”

From beside his brother, Ford shot a glance down the road from whence the bus had came. “Looks like halfway might be closer than we think.”

He pointed a finger for emphasis, and the rest of the group followed his gesture to the sight of an approaching Manotaur coming up the road. One that was delightfully conversing with the two thirteen-year-olds seated on each of his shoulders, and the sixteen-year-old walking beside him.

A conversation that had been clearly happening since the four of them had been back in town, Dipper and Mabel’s attention fully fixed on Wendy as she continued to speak: “—and after everyone teamed up during Weirdmageddon, the vibes of the town just kinda shifted. As if a lot of the weird stuff in town suddenly realized: ‘Hey, we’re not much of a mystery anymore so there’s not really a reason to keep hiding’, and the people in town realized they weren’t as weird and terrifying as they originally thought.”

She pressed a finger to her temple. “Combine that with the Society of the Blind Eye going belly up and leaving no one around to go blasting memories out of people’s heads—” Then pressed her hands together and laced her fingers for emphasis. “—everyone and everything just kinda started mushing together over time.”

“Manly Dan caught news of us Manotaurs when we were forced to relocate our Man Cave,” Chutzpar added. “Impressed by our manliness and feats of strength, he offered us jobs in his lumberyard. We told him we’d only accept if the toughest combatants from his family defeated us in battle.”

“And you guys lost to him?” Mabel guessed.

“Not to him.”

Chutzpar cast a gaze down at Wendy, and the twins followed suit in the hopes of further elaboration. “Originally, it was just going to be Dad and my brothers in the fight,” she explained. “Not because Dad didn’t think to ask me; I was at work at the time and happened to come home just as all of them were getting their butts handed to ‘em on a silver platter.”

“It was a mighty battle of strength and determination,” Chutzpar said in a faraway tone. “They fought well, even if their efforts were inevitably in vain.”

“Nearly in vain,” Wendy corrected. “But then I showed up and volunteered to finish the fight.”

“And they let you?”

“Of course not, the big meatheads all laughed at the idea of fighting a girl. But then I punched one of ‘em in the gut, and suplexed another into the ground, where he got stuck by his horns.”

This got a laugh out of her. “Taking down the rest wasn’t too hard, since Dad and the others had already worn most of 'em down. But even if they hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been difficult. Their fighting style was all punch, no technique. Even an amateur could’ve taken all of them down with a few well-placed hits.”

She shrugged with amusement. “That was also why Dad wasn’t able to win against them; he fights the exact same way. It was just lunkhead against lunkhead out there, swinging fists wildly until at least one of ‘em hit something. And unfortunately for my lunkheaded family, they didn’t have as many fists as the Manotaurs to keep swinging around. Until I showed up, at least.”

While the twins giggled at the visual image, Chutzpar gave a stoic nod. “The Manotaurs lost the battle that day, but it was a loss we hold with pride,” he said, with a shift of the arm that held Dipper. “One that taught us that—between her and the things you taught us last year, Destructor—we have plenty to learn about what it means to be men.”

He gave his chest a hearty thump. “And that sometimes that manliest men among us are actually girls!”

Dipper raised a mildly-confused eyebrow at Wendy, who shrugged in response. “Eh, they’re still a little confused but it’s better than where they were last year,” she said, shoving her hands in her pockets. “Not to mention being called the Manliest Man in Gravity Falls kinda hits in a way I’m not complaining about—”

“Kids!”

At the sound of another voice hailing them from further ahead, Dipper and Mabel turned their gazes forward to see their welcome party hurrying towards them from the opposite direction. Grenda and Candy were bringing up the rear with Soos, while Ford was keeping a steady pace in the middle. 

But at the very front of the group, Stan was charging towards them with a speed and passion that couldn’t be matched by anyone else.

Except perhaps by Mabel, who had quickly jumped down from Chutzpar’s shoulder at the sound of his voice and began to sprint towards her great-uncle at Mach speed. “Grunkle Stan!”

It was a miracle that the two of them remained standing, with how hard they crashed into one another in a bone-crushing embrace; Mabel linking her arms around Stan’s neck like a spider monkey while he spun her around with a hearty belly laugh. 

Only for that miracle to shatter when the embrace of two became three as Dipper caught up to them, and all of them tumbled to the ground in a mess of laughter. “What, are you kids tryna kill me before we even get to the Shack?” Stan asked, slinging an arm around Dipper’s body. “I don’t remember the two’a’you being this big last year.”

Mabel let out a little giggle and pressed her hands to his face. “Yeah, well, you weren’t this hairy last year!” she pointed out in return. “I mean you were still really hairy, but now you’ve got a full-grown beard!”

“Sure do!” Stan said brightly, and patted the hair covering his chin. “Ol’ Poindexter and I made a decision early on that if we were spendin’ our days as men of the sea, then we were sure as heck gonna look the part!”

Mabel pressed her own hands to her mouth, stifling a laugh. “You sound like Dipper at Hanukkah! He was soooooo excited to show Grandpa Shermie his beard~!”

The last word was said with clear amusement, and Dipper shrank a bit before slapping his hands over his face. “Mabel, come on, you don’t have to—”

“Oh, didja grow one too?” Stan asked, peering at him. “Come on, Slick, let’s see those Pines genetics at work.”

After a moment of hesitation, Dipper nervously lowered his hands and Stan leaned closer to examine the few, noticeable hairs on his chin. “I know it’s not much,” Dipper explained quickly. “But it’s more than I had last year! A-and Mom says that I’m bound to get more as I get older!”

With a proud laugh, Stan reached up to ruffle his hat. “You kidding? That’s more than I had at that age!” he said. “You be proud of those few hairs, and don’t let your sister steal ‘em for her scrapbook.”

“Too late,” Mabel said brightly. “I stole both one from the chin and one from the shin~! He has some there, too!”

Dipper gave her a pointed look, before turning back to Stan with a more confident smile. “I’d be more annoyed at her for that if she wasn’t right,” he said, and held up his leg. “Because look, I got so much on my legs, too!”

“Woa-hoh, get a load of Mister Big Man over here!” Stan said, and brought him closer for a noogie. “Those genetics really are kickin’ in early for you, huh?”

“He’s not the only one they’ve kicked in for,” Mabel added. “Or should I say—”

She kicked out one of her own legs with a cheeky grin. “—kicked~!”

There was a moment of pause, before she gave her leg another wiggle. “You get it because—”

“Mabel also got leg hair,” Dipper clarified. “If that wasn’t obvious.”

“I tried shaving it at first, but it just made my legs soooooo itchy,” Mabel said. "So now I just have built-in leg warmers!”

“I’d suggest the fire method, but it’s far more effective at removing facial hair than body hair,” a voice behind them said. “Also something tells me that your parents wouldn’t be too happy if we sent you back home with burns on your legs.”

The trio looked up to see Ford standing before them, a hand outstretched. “Room in the dirt for one more?”

A series of grins were exchanged before three hands reached for Ford’s in unison and pulled him down to the ground with them. “It’s good to see you again, Grunkle Ford!” Dipper said. 

“Especially since we actually know you exist now!” Mabel added. “This time last year, we still thought Grunkle Stan was you! And then when we did find out that you were you and he was him, we only got to spend a little bit of time with you!”

Her arms moved from around Stan’s neck to Ford's, her spider-monkey grip once again unbreakable as she hugged him tight. “But this year, we get to spend aaaaallllllll summer with both our Grunkles!”

Ford’s smile widened and he slinked an arm around her as Stan piped up with: “That’s right, Pumpkin! No more mysteries or weird demons or monsters or anything that’s gonna get in the way of me spendin’ time with you kids and my brother!”

“Well, I mean, a monster here and there’s not a bad thing—” Ford begin, just as Dipper finished with a: “I wouldn’t mind a mystery or two, honestly.”

The four of them doubled over in laughter as the remaining party from both directions finally caught up to them. “Aww, you guys are having a cuddle pile in the dirt without us?” Grenda piped up unhappily.

“Candy adds a dash of sweetness to every cuddle pile!” Candy added.

“Or did the squirts knock you down ‘cause you’re older than the dirt you’re sitting in?” Wendy chimed in, as her and Chutzpar also came to a stop.

“Watch it, Corduroy,” Stan said, pulling his arm out from around Dipper so he could point a finger at her. “Just ‘cause I’m not your boss anymore doesn’t mean I can’t ask Soos to fire you.”

Wendy raised an eyebrow in Soos’ direction. “Would you fire me if he asked?”

“Uh…” Soos shifted uncomfortably in place. “Do I really have to answer that?”

This got a disbelieving “Wow.” out of Wendy and a delighted cackle out of Stan, one that was cut short by a grunt of pain as he shifted in place. “Ow, maybe we should get up outta all this dirt and gravel,” he muttered. “I got rocks in place I don’t wanna mention in front of a bunch of impressionable teenagers, my brother, or Soos.”

Soos offered him a hand. “Maybe we can move the cuddle pile to the Shack, then? Then Melody can join us!”

With a look of disgust, Stan took his hand and pulled himself to his feet. “Pass. Last thing any of us needs is for you two to start making kissy faces at each other.”

“Keep that in mind,” Wendy muttered with a grin.

“Soos does raise an excellent point about making our way the Shack,” Ford said. “The sooner the kids get settled in, the sooner we can exchange stories.”

He emphasized the last word with a knowing look to his brother, and Stan’s mouth spread into a wide grin as he offered his own hands to the kids. “Hey, yeah! You squirts wanna hear about the time your Grunkles tore the head off a Kraken along the coast of Texas?” he asked with a wink. “‘Cause lemme tell ya: when they say everything’s bigger down there, they mean everything!”

Dipper and Mabel exchanged a unanimous “Yeah!” as they were also pulled to their feet—

“Nope! I said I was giving Mabel a proper ‘Welcome Back’ pile drive, and I’m gonna do it!”

—and Mabel was immediately brought back down to the tampered dirt path by a charging Grenda, any pain from the impact momentarily drowned in a fit of giggles as she hugged her friend. “Oh, it’s just as spine-shattering as I hoped it’d be!”

“Don’t forget Candy, for a dash of sweetness!” Candy piped up, as she flopped over the other two with a laugh. “I made that pun already, but it was so nice, I had to say it twice!”

“Agreed, it was hilarious!” Mabel agreed, arms going around both of them in a tight embrace. “Ugh, I missed you girls sooooo much! I’ve got loads to tell you since my last letter—ooh, also I’ve got a phone now!”

While Mabel attempted to fish her phone out of her pocket, Wendy cast a smirk to the adults. “Anyone wanna bet that we won’t get to the Shack until nightfall?”

Chutzpar looked down at her. “I respect a show of friendly violence, but should I intervene again?

“You know you don’t have to listen to me,” Wendy said, folding her arms. “I’m not, like, actually in charge of you guys or anything.”

“I’m aware.”

“And I don’t take any bets I know I’ll lose,” Stan said, and snapped his fingers at the girls. “Hey, come on, I know we’re all excited to be seein’ each other again.”

He pointed a finger at Grenda, which shifted between her and Candy. “But I already told you two that I need at least one night without wondering if a family of bats moved into my attic, or if you girls are tryin’ to break the sound barrier with your squeals.”

“Seconding that,” Dipper piped up quickly. “I would also like a buffer between now and the inability to sleep in my own room, please.”

The girls let out a disappointed chorus of ‘Awwwww’s as they untangled themselves and returned to their feet. “But Grunkle Staaaaan, I missed my people!” Mabel argued.

“And her people missed her!” Grenda added, squeezing her close.

“Never said you couldn’t hang out with ‘em after tonight,” Stan pointed out. “Plus there’s that party tomorrow—”

“Oh, yeah!” Grenda said excitedly. “We can catch up at the party!”

“We can catch up on stories while we tear up the dance floor!” Candy added with an excited wiggle, before she raised her fists to the air. “And remind this town who the real party animals are!”

She let her arms fall again. “Plus my parents said that I needed to come home after we said hi to you, anyway,” she explained further, then added as an afterthought: “Hi, Mabel!”

With a giggle, Mabel replied: “Hi, Candy!”

“And I got my pile drive in, so I guess I did everything I wanted to do today,” Grenda added with a shrug.

While Stan leaned close to Ford with a quiet: “I’d point out that it was more of a tackle than a pile drive, but also I don’t wanna be out here longer than we hafta be.” (earning a “Smart call.” from Ford in return), Mabel tightened her grip around the other girls. “Well, when you put it that way, I guess I can wait another day to hang out with my beeeeest friends in the whoooolllllle world~!”

Candy’s gaze moved over to Wendy and Chutzpar. “By the way, we saw that Dipper and Mabel got a Manotaur ride up here,” she said. “Is there an option to catch a Manotaur ride back to town?”

“Ooh, me too! Me too!” Grenda added. “Wendy, make him give us a ride!”

“Once again, I’m not in charge of the Manotaurs,” Wendy pointed out, with another look to Chutzpar. “It’s up to you, pal. You offering rides back to town?”

Chutzpar held out both hands for them to take. “Small girls who greet their friends with violent pile drivers are worthy of a ride,” he said, before raising an eyebrow at Wendy. “But will you be alright getting home?”

“I can always hitch a ride from someone,” Wendy assured him. “Or—”

She reached into her pocket for her phone, and glanced at the screen for a moment. “—yeah, or I can just spend the night at the Shack if I really need to.”

“Aw, what?” Grenda said unhappily from Chutzpar’s shoulder. “How come you get to spend the night and we don’t?”

“Good-bye, girls,” Stan said, and gave Wendy a pointed stare. “Tell the big guy to go.”

“I’m not—” Wendy started to say, then shrugged it off and gave Chutzpar a wave of her hand. “Go ahead.”

Chutzpar gave her a nod in return, and turned back towards the direction of the town. “Let’s make haste, small female children,” he said, and began to walk. ”I have a response from Mayor Tyler to deliver to Manly Dan about their Thursday plans.”

“We are teenagers now, you know,” Grenda pointed out with a mild huff of indignance. “Or at least I am.”

“Ooh, is the response a loooove message~?” Candy added delightedly. “Are the plans a date?”

“Oh, you know it—!”

Chutzpar’s voice echoed through the wood with amusement, the volume only matched in power by Grenda’s laughter as the trio drew further and further away from those who had stayed behind. Eventually though, even their powerful baritones could not be carried such a distance, and the forest around the group fell silent again.

Silent, until—

“So, we’re not gonna question the big man-cow thing?” Stan asked. “We’re just acting like he’s been here the entire time, then?”

Ford shrugged in response. “He was clearly a Manotaur, and one that seemed to be on good terms with Wendy and the kids,” he said. “Didn’t see any reason to question his presence.”

“He’s visited the Shack several times,” Soos chimed in as well. “Also he was staying with us in the Shack during Weirdmageddon.”

“Did he?” Stan said. “Huh, feel like I should remember that.”

“I also met him and the rest of the herd last year,” Dipper added, just as Mabel chimed in with her own: “The Manotaurs work for Wendy now, and also Manly Dan is dating Mayor Tyler!”

Wendy made a twirling motion with her finger. “What they all said, minus the ‘working for me’ thing. They’re part of my dad’s logging crew now, and even if they listen to me when I ask them to do stuff, I don’t want anything to get weird with that.”

“And the part about your dad and Mayor Tyler?” Stan asked, an eyebrow raised.

Wendy’s expression shifted for half a second, before her usual, disinterested grin took its place. “Hey, here’s something I never thought I’d hear myself say: let’s stop standing around and doing nothing, and get to the Shack so I’m not late for my shift!”

Soos raised a hand. “Uh, but Wendy, I’m your boss and it’s your day off—”

“Race you knuckleheads there~!”

Wendy took off like a shot before Soos could finish his point, taking great care to lightly plap a hand against the heads of the younger twins and deliver a loving fist to the arms of the adults as she zipped between them and ran towards the direction of the Mystery Shack.

With a laugh, the younger twins sprinted after her in a rush with cries of: “Wait for us!” and “How are you running that fast with a pig in your arms?”

The adults watched them go for a moment, before Soos turned to the Stans: “...We don’t actually have to run all the way back there, do we?”

Stan, who had been watching Wendy and the kids race ahead, pulled his attention back to Soos. “Absolutely not,” he said flatly, and pressed a hand to his back. “Especially not after the kids knocked me down like that.”

He winced as the three of them began to follow after the kids at a much slower pace. “Gonna be feeling that for at least a few days.”

“Well, at least it’s a sign that we won’t have to give Sir Isaac Newton a call,” Ford pointed out with a smile. “With the way the kids tackled you, there’s zero doubt that they’re thrilled to be back.”

Once again, Stan mirrored his smile with one of his own. “Yeah, well, if they keep on bein’ that thrilled, you’re gonna have to bust out that necromancy spell to talk to me.”

Ford’s expression tensed for a moment at his brother’s joke, but any unease passed just as quickly as it had come when the sight of the familiar old cabin peered into view ahead of them.

#Hayley Writes Triangulum #Gravity Falls #Triangulum The Fic #Dipper Pines #Mabel Pines #Stanley Pines #Stanford Pines #My Writing #Long Post #(There's more characters but those four are on the poster so they get tags)

[easilyentertained99]

Wow what an episode. Well First off

COLINNNNNNNNN <3

He might not be happy or healthy but he sure is alive and up to... something? Kinda ominous sounding? He's way too calm. FR3-D1 count your days?

Loved the talkshow segment! Did not love Mr. Bonzo. Not at all. Please don't tell him I think he knows where I live.

Gwen killed me with that "can he read" tbh she was not panicking enough cause what the absolute fuck was that

There was a name and address in the envelope so is Lena asking Mr Bonzo to go take care of somebody wink wink? Yeah that tracks since she can't do it herself. Is that how Klaus or what's his face ended up getting himself got? She hired a freaky kids' mascot? Smart move, I hear they're pretty good at it.

So who does Lena want dead? First one that popped into my head was Colin, then Teddy since he made a recent appearance, "name and address" sure reminded me of Gerry and GeeGee but idkkkkk man I don't know what her deal is.

So um

CLICK

Magnus Institute Manchester!!!

I'm trying very hard to think about this in the context of tmagp because it is its own thing but I'm like a russian sleeper agent awaking when I hear my trigger word like Archive??? worms??? Worms??? WORMS??? Ancient otherwordly powers?????

I would question it but half of the shit Alice says is just Like That and I have no idea what to make of it at all

But she's right she is so sexy

<33333

In love with "floor creaks ominously btw"

Sam and Alice miraculously make it out alive. No one even got nibbled on or anything.

fucking tape recorders man fuck offffffffff

The scene at the end was so scary tbh cause that is a ruin who is moving who is BREATHING. THAT WAS A BREATH. EW. Also I thought I heard spiders???? better not be spiders. AHHHHHHHHH

Wow can you guys believe this is the 10th episode? There's so much happening and I'm actually so scared lol

I'm so excited for my will to liv-I mean this great podcast to come back in April !

#the magnus protocol #tmagp #tmagp spoilers #tmagp ep 10

[callmearcturus]

Arc Plays Games: Nora to Toki no Koubou: Kiri no Mori no Majo (NDS)

(apparently in English that's something like "Nora the Time Witch")

I'm gonna try something and try to keep track of all the games I play this year. First up is this extremely cute little that honestly got me through being sick as hell over the holiday. It is kind of perfect as a game for your brain at 40%.

Nora is a DS game that has better "Cozy" feel than most games under the cozy game genre. Basically, Nora (the character) is a chronomancer, so she can do time magic. She's a rookie so she's supposed to be learning how to get good at chronomancy. She's sent to a lil cottage in the woods to bone up on her skills.

The house and garden are extremely precious. You can redecorate the cottage, move furniture and crafting items around, change the walls and floor. The garden has friends and you can lure in cute creatures.

The main loop of the game is in three parts. First is making items to fulfill requests for townsfolk and friends. You'll be asked to make a certain item, and have to figure out the best way to do so with time magic, dismantling raw materials, and processing materials into new stuff. You start off with just a work table and the time magic thingie, then get more and more crafting options like sewing tables and smokers and stuff.

Then you turn in those items and get other items in return and make people happy!

There's also foraging, bc obviously you need materials to make stuff.

There's a whole map with multiple places to go and each of those locations has different materials to gather.

When you arrive at a location, there are interactable things that will give you different materials. Some are sparkly and also give you random effects, like increased rarity, more items, or monsters.

You might want to grab the sparklies first to try and booth the number of materials you get, but on the other hand you might find a monster instead.

Battles are the third pillar. There are a SHOCKING amount of party members, and you can pick and choose teams depending on what you want.

Want to make sure you survive really tough monsters? Go with the errant knight lady and the big friendly city watch guy. Want to get more materials? Go with the soft-spoken clinic worker who can spot more herbs of the 12 year old shop girl who fucking LOVES rocks and can find you more rocks. But the clinic girl isn't great in a fight, so you gotta be careful.

Party members include: a weird mercenary dude who just wants to be the cool knight lady, the buff city watch man who has tea parties and tries to kill monsters with stale bread, the clinic lady who secretly can deadlift a tree, aforementioned 12 year old who thinks rocks are just soooooo cool, the hot knight lady who i think has the hots for Nora but i'm not sure, a Capitalist, a thief who kinda sucks, and a mascot character.

I weirdly ADORE the economy/shop system in this game.

Sometimes when you are selling off old equipment or excess materials, the shopowner will counteroffer your request for money with rare items instead.

YOU CAN DO THIS TOO. Most of the stock in the shops can be bought outright OR you can choose "Buy with items" and offer up stuff in exchange for the item you want.

Shops have normal stock but also special stock you can only get by trading the right materials. The armory guy has swords and stuff BUT if you want the good shit, bring him a dragon scale instead.

I bounce off a lot of these kind of soft, cute games because they don't feel like they have depth but this game sooooo does. I would say the only downside is when you struggle to make a certain items or find a certain material, you... sometimes just gotta figure it out, because this game was an oddball Japanese-only Atlus title and the fan translation isn't super well-known, there isn't a robust wiki to refer you. Just figure it out!

Anyway, solid fucking 4 out of 5 on this game. If you can emulate DS games, you can locate this one pretty easily if you know where to look. (And if you don't know where to look, send me an ask off-anon and I will direct you a bit.)

gd i maybe need to try an atelier game...........

#arc plays games

[monty-glasses-roxy]

We lowkey talked about this before but I feel this deserves its own moment. So, Prototype Freddy, the headless guy, right?

What if Cassie and the others get him all fixed into a whole Freddy again (I like the idea that his repaired self mirrors Glamrock Freddy's like earring on the other ear and chest bolt facing the other way,) so he becomes their friends too.

And most of them at least, especially Roxy I think, not only welcome him with open arms but straight up treat him as 'their' Freddy AKA totally replacing Glamrock Freddy-- which only further isolates and excludes him when "choosing Gregory over them" already did that too.

I feel like that'd sting for Glamrock Freddy especially with Chica if they being longtime friends or family for being older mascots is a thing.

Also sting in a different way if Roxy and Prototype Freddy actually end up with a far better affinity than she and Glamrock Freddy ever did.

And to rub more salt, eventually Cassie finds Bonnie as well and they try to fix him as much as possible until it's st least enough for him to come online. Then when it's time to catch up with old friends or meet new ones, they have Prototype Freddy there instead of Glamrock Freddy.

I don't think Cassie would do any of this to purposely target Glamrock Freddy but I kinda feel like Roxy would be bitter enough to. After all he "chose that brat he calls a son Gregory and CONTINUES choosing him over them all despite everything he's done to them, so if that's the bed he chose to make then he's going to have to lie in it."

Oooooo this is fun

Imma start by thinking that if Roxy never liked Freddy before, then she probably wouldn't welcome a repaired Freddy into the group very quickly. That whole dynamic would be pretty interesting though, like Roxy could be getting between him and the others every chance she gets to try and make sure he doesn't hurt them again... It might be appreciated at first, I mean this guy looks almost exactly like him and talks with the same mannerisms as him, it's gotta be a bit difficult seeing him around again. Presuming everyone's fixed up, then yeah I can see Roxy going the over protective route until she's outright told to stop. Roxy's a security node/guard dog with nothing to guard anymore, and several very hurt friends to watch out for, she just fell naturally into this without even noticing :(

But that just makes the turnaround more fun, right? Despite everything, Prototype Freddy is a good guy! He could listen to her, try helping her out with whatever it is she's up to, find it funny when she starts a golf club sword fight with Monty, be nothing but protective of all of them, be so damn respectful of her boundaries she starts to feel bad for yelling at him about it... and gradually, she stops watching him like a hawk, waiting for an excuse to kick his shit in. At some point, these two are hanging out and getting along perfectly well it's crazy to her how similar he is to the old Freddy but so different in every way that matters. They're friends now! She wishes this Freddy was the Freddy they'd had from the very beginning! Things would have been so different with this guy and it pisses her off sometimes!

And oh god yeah it'd sting so fucking bad for the others, especially Chica and Monty that the old Freddy chose Gregory over them. He basically sacrificed them and for what? It's such a betrayal, and since they and Sunny and Moon were all friends with him, I can see at least a few of them forgetting this isn't the same Freddy every now and then. He says something they don't expect and they flinch as the truth hits them all over again... that's gotta hurt. Were they not worth anything to him? How could they do this to them?

That's fun...

But yeeessss bringing Bonnie back in a situation like this (though without the prototype Freddy) is something that I have happen in my Meteors AU and it's gold. How do you handle waking up after maybe a year has passed to discover your almost boyfriend set a rabid child on all your friends and family, then ditched them when they needed him the most? How is he supposed to take that? Denial? A desperate spiral into camera footage and questioning, searching for answers? For any kind of evidence that they all might be mistaken? That this was all just one big misunderstanding? His Freddy wouldn't do that... He wouldn't! He's sure of it!

And this Prototype isn't Freddy! Why is he here?! Did everyone just replace him?! This is some Fazbear Entertainment levels of bullshit!! His Freddy was worth more than that!! How could they do exactly what Fazbear would have done and just swap him out for a new one?! What's wrong with them?!

The pain is so good for this oh my god I love it

I like to think that once the reality of what Freddy did sinks in, Bonnie grows to hate him. It hurts to hate him, but he's so fucking betrayed by what he's done, how can he not hate him? He can't still love him! He can't! (He does) It's not fair!

And Freddy would be devastated by all of this holy shit. Seeing everyone with the Prototype, happier with the Prototype, and feeling like everyone moved on and replaced him. Even Bonnie. Heartbreaking.

And yeah you're so right. Cassie wouldn't have done any of this to target Freddy, but Roxy would have for sure. Maybe the idea that this would upset Freddy if he ever sees it is what convinces her to give Prototype Freddy a chance? A kind of "I'm going to pretend to be your friend on the off chance Freddy sees and feels like shit for it" turning into her genuinely valuing his company kind of thing. Maybe he kinda figured that's what her plan was originally and decided to just go along with it and let her do her thing, being genuinely surprised himself to end up friends with her? Lotta ways you can play that!

I love this Prototype Freddy is neat!!

#fnaf security breach #pop rox answers #behold!!! talking about the only version of freddy I actually think is cool!!! #Ruin Freddy is cool as fuck!!! #you go you funky lil headless monster!!! #all he needs now is a horse!!! #lmao anyway this is fun and I love this

[magicalgirlagency]

While rewatching the old Sailor Moon anime, I find the in-universe rumors about Ami and Makoto really interesting. Ami was seen as a snob because of her shyness and Makoto a delinquent because she punches bullies. Both were friendless before Usagi befriended them despite those rumors. Then I thought: "hey, this (the rumor - friendless part) could work very well as concept for a standalone magical story"

So I've read Severance, a dark Tokyo Mew Mew fanfic focusing on a team of ocs. The main idea for this fic is that putting a bunch of random different girls together and then ask them to save the world would in no way mean that they're going to be good friends with each other. While I prefer lighthearted Maho Shojo series, both this fic idea and the rumor-friendless stuff above can make some good Angst in a Magical Girl team. Like, the good character-development kind of Angst, not those shitty shock values and "humans are naturally bad" craps.

My idea is that a mascot searches for 4 different girls with pure hearts and gives them power to become magical warriors to defeat the bad guys, protect Earth and all that jazz like in a normal Maho Shojo show. All of the girls happen to live close to each other - and may or may not be studying in the same school. Pretty standard so far, right? Well, at their school/neighborhood/Im-not-sure-what, there are rumors about each of them already running around. They aren't too horrible (this is a lighthearted story), but still bad rumors nonetheless. The girls believe in these rumors about each other, and there isn't anyone that's brave enough to try and understand their teammates despite those rumors (lack of a genki protagonist). So they're kinda in this awkward situation where they, because of trusting the mean rumors, just assume the other teammates are not nice people. And none of them is really trying to learn about each other outside what they think they know. There might also be fights among certain members of the group, most of them remain rather chill but some are hot-headed. They don't try to hurt each other badly though, and still try to work well as a team to beat up the BBEGs. Their team overall atmosphere is slightly tense, awkward and weird, but not downright hostile and still leave plenty of space for improvement.

Since this idea comes from rewatching Sailor Moon, I think the Smart-but-Snob and the violent-delinquent rumor should be used here as well.

So one of the girls is extremely smart, and maybe infamous for her intelligence, but she doesn't speak much and often doesn't answer when people talk to her. The rumor about her is rather similar to that of Ami, people think she's bitchy due to how she interacts with other students. But in reality, she's not only just shy, but also it's very hard for her to actually talk to strangers (maybe she has Selective mutism) and she's rarely able to actually hold a long conversation. She’s much more into art and poetry instead of science because she found a lots of comfort in expressing herself using words and colors.

The second girl is the “violent delinquent” one. She’s not actively seeking out random fights, but has a clear set of rules on who deserved to be punched and have their chin stick to their nose. She actually chooses to actively avoid people who try to pick a fight with her due to her “delinquent” reputation. She breaks school rules many times to help some students who are mistreated. She also doesn’t care much about herself (often forgetting to feed herself), like if she got in a dangerous situation, she’d literally be the personification of that “ this is fine '' dog meme while shits happen to her. She’d go out of her way to defend her weaker teammates before they even consider each other friends.

The other two members could include:

- a rich girl who doesn’t know how to talk very well, having been friendless for a long time. So when she speaks to someone she could accidentally say some weird shits that offends people without knowing it. But they are scared of pointing put her “rudeness” since her family is incredibly rich and people are scared of getting on her bad side (which is non existence because she is more of a pushover than a bully) So her peers spread a rumor about how she’s this rude rich girl who’ll murder you if you do something wrong. Meanwhile she’s so confused about what is happening, she’s somewhat aware she’s probably doing something wrong, but can’t pinpoint exactly what it is since no one really told her. She and the Smart girl actually were the first two to learn more about each other than what their rumors said about them

*btw, halfway through typing this my brain start to ship the Rich girl and Smart girl together and they are so gay the fluff is giving me a sugar overload. Whoever would write a story with a similar concept in the far future please keep this ship it’s so fluffy

-a girl who hides her face and is really close to one of her teachers. The rumors include one about how she is hiding an ugly, scarred face beneath her face mask and the other one is that she’s bribing that teacher to give her good grades. The scarred parts aren’t as bad as the rumor describes, but she does have some face scars. The mentioned teacher is her aunt, which is why they’re close.

The story follows how the girls grow closer through their fights with the evil forces and eventually learn that the rumors they heard about one another aren’t truthful at all. Later in the story they’re much like a traditional MG team, but the BBEGs have seen them in their early days, so they use the misunderstanding and doubts from those days to try and separate the team.

It obviously didn’t work. However, it did end up creating some angst between the girls because of how they used to treat/think of the others. They help each other out of this guilty mindset and their bond only came out stronger than before - much to the BBEG dismay.

Ah, a story about how we shouldn't judge a book by just looking at its cover. Simple, but effective!

[mephinomaly]

[TL] Capture Your Heart/Chapter 5

Time: 5 minutes later

Location: Common Room

Kaoru: —Wait, what? You’ve got work?

Chiaki: Umu. On the day we were planning on visiting the hospital, something suddenly came up.

I’m sorry, Hakaze.

Kaoru: You can apologise all you want… I-, can’t you just rearrange that work?

Chiaki: Not really. If it finishes early, I’ll try to go but no promises.

Kaoru: Alright. This sucks…

...

…You’re gonna rip out that kid who sent you a letter’s heart you know.

But, how about Tomoya-kun being your substitute?

Tomoya: Me?

Kaoru: Yeah. You were planning on babysitting Hokuto-senpai-chan so you might as well join in whilst you're there.

But that’s a bit of an ask, isn’t it…

Tomoya: I don’t have a problem with it. Hm, doing a hero show just the two of us…

So then, who’s going to be the bad guy?

Kaoru + Chiaki: Moricchi! (Hakaze!)

Kaoru + Chiaki: ...Huh?

Kaoru: I thought I was the hero? You said I was going to be wearing Midori-kun’s costume?

Chiaki: I did say that but, won’t it confuse the kids if the villain is me as Ryuusei Red?

Kaoru: Well, one of us is going to have to be the villain. Every hero show has a villain.

Tomoya: Uhhh… How about I play the villain?

Kaoru: You? Uhhh…

…Nah, I’ll be the villain. UNDEAD’s costumes are perfect for it.

Your costume for Ra*bits has white in it which is the colour of justice. Plus with that penguin being a mascot of some sort, it’ll be perfect.

Chiaki: Sounds good, but do you really want to?

Kaoru: Of course. I was the one who suggested it.

UNDEAD is an extreme unit, it’s about that immoral demon that hides in the black of night - it’s way easier to play the villain than the hero…♪

Chiaki: Alright then. Thanks, Hakaze.

Kaoru: Ahaha. We’ve only just decided who’s who, isn’t it a bit early for saying thanks?

The main hero is Tomoya-kun, with Moricchi playing another hero who may or may not turn up. And then I’m the baddie—

With us three and Hokuto-senpai-chan, it’ll make for an exciting show. So what sort of story are we doing?

Tomoya: Let’s see… Ah, before that, shouldn’t we decide on the name of your character, Hakaze-senpai?

Kaoru: Name?

Tomoya: Heroes and villains usually have a super cool nickname, right? Something like UNDEAD Kaijin?[1]

Kaoru: UNDEAD Kaijin is kinda…

Tomoya: t-it was just an example. Anyway, I just think it’ll be best if we think of an appropriate villain name for Hakaze-senpai, and then expand the story from there!

Chiaki: You seem to know what you’re doing, hm? Do you have previous experience with hero shows?

Tomoya: This is my first time. I just have experience from improvisation practice at Theatre Club.

When improvising, it’s important to know where your character stands and to understand what their purpose is.

Villains usually have a name that reflects the evil deeds they do. Let’s start with that as our base.

Kaoru: Evil deeds, huh… What type of evil deed am I like? Playboy?

Chiaki: Uumuu. For a villain, that’s not really…

How about theft? Stealing the hearts of those around him, Kaijin Hakaze is ready to rock…☆

Kaoru: I like where this is going but it’s not exactly what I was thinking. I’d rather have a name that’s nothing to do with my own.

Tomoya: …This is pretty basic, but how about using your star sign?

Kaoru: I’m a Scorpio, so Kaijin Scorpio—

Yeah, Kaijin Scorpio sounds good. Sounds like a villain name, right?[2]

Chiaki: Yeah it does! It totally has Hakaze vibes!

Tomoya: Yeah, I think so too ♪

With what Morisawa-senpai said about him “stealing the hearts of those around him”, let’s create a story that properly reflects that!

Kaijin (怪人) means like, mysterious person,,, it doesn’t sound as cool in english lol

IS THIS A KYUURANGERS REFERENCE???? im joking but there is a character called Karo Scorpio like,, kaoru/karo,,,,scratches head

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#ensemble stars #enstars #translation #scorpio's venom #kaoru hakaze #chiaki morisawa #tomoya mashiro

[loonatic-moon]

Overall impressions after playing thru Y6– not my favorite entry, but left me with mostly bittersweet feelings. Absolutely what it should do given its place in Kiryu’s narrative.

Cut for spoilers

The father/son stories were really the star of the various running themes. That letter to Daigo. UGH. Honestly it’s some of the best quality RGG-brand cheese I’ve come to enjoy very much in my journey thru this series

Tbh I have mixed feelings and opinions on Haruka and how her character is treated throughout this series, and that are still very much baking— especially in light of this game

Went into the Onomichi mascot substory with fresh eyes and my god chefs kiss

While I felt for Kiryu and this being the ‘end’ of a volume of his life, you wanna know who I felt worse for? Akiyama lmao

First of all, Akiyama really did get his ass kicked for nothing in that one chapter. LOL when Date in the very next scene was just like “Yeah I talked to the child services guy. It’s chill about the kidnapping.” Like lol.

I love the idea of Akiyama being someone (anyone) who’s willing to call Kiryu out on some of his BS, but seeing the full context of that confrontation kinda landed weirdly to me for some reason. Oh well, it advanced the story and we got one of the Best Boss Fights to See Out of Context

But then two— lol when, after Akiyama gives Kiryu his impassioned plea to be taken off babysitting duty and get revenge for Kamurocho, he only makes it to like the 2nd floor of the millennium tower raid before he’s put right back on that duty. Like damn. So much for that. Would have liked to have seen him at least get that satisfaction with the 2nd confrontation with Ed earlier in the game, but alas...

Then he hides Yuta away down in his sewer palace or something idk

"All I did was sit on my garbage throne in the sewers” might also contender for most unintentionally hilarious line in this whole entire series

A disproportionate number of these bullets are Akiyama-related compared to how much he is actually in the game. Bittersweet feelings, you feel me

Dragon Engine glitchy fuckery is truly something special

#yakuza/rgg fuckery #rgg6 #ty if you read my brain dumps on this series

[nitrosodiumepicfps]

"Shooty Shooty Bang Bang"

or "It's the Style, Not You"

Don't ask about the title, I wanted to give this post two names, like those old movies. What I have decided is Sparkler isn't actually that fun of a game. The concept is there, it's a well put-together idea, just not one I would properly enjoy to play. I would've loved to play Sparkler three years ago, when I was super into horror, but things have changed and I'm more of an FPS guy now. And this makes sense, the original "Project Sparkler" treatment was written in August of 2021. But I don't want to constantly dredge up old ideas, I want to do something new, interesting! I want to do Overdeath! I'm going to have infinitely more fun working on a project that relates to my current fixations and likes in the modern day, than slaving over a project I'm only half-interested in. Not only that, but it'll be easier to playtest and design. I said that mascot horror is easier, but it won't be, because horror is divisive. If I'm making a game where you've gotta sneak about silently, how the hell will I test AI in a loud classroom? Not only that, but creating an interesting atmosphere is tough. I spent ages on that little canal snippet, making sure every detail lined up. We were supposed to be doing greyboxing that lesson.

I'm getting so caught up with creating this fabled "Sparkler aesthetic" that I'm missing the game part. I don't want to be stuck figuring out where to put lights, I want something fun dammit! I want simplistic, action-packed, arcadey fun. I don't want to get hung up over aesthetics or overly catering to original drafts. You know back on the old blog, where we were learning how to make launchpads, and I was adamant that Toxic Waters wouldn't have one? That was divisive, that was a turning point, when it struck me that I wasn't designing the same game we were being taught. But, I adapted. This is probably the last time I'll be able to change my project idea before we start laying proper groundwork. Sparkler is an idea I love, but a game I'll get sick of. But Overdeath? It's a fresh idea in a genre I legitimately enjoy. Keep that in mind, a fresh idea. It's not the prodigy of a two-year-stale Word document with some preliminary ideas outlining what I was into at the time. It's something I want to do right now, so I don't have to play within the confines of a past version of myself. That sounds super philosophical, but it does make sense to me.

So, Overdeath. Fast alien killing with a focus on momentum-based combat. I might not do the mech thing, maybe scale it down so your character is in power armour or some kinda battlesuit. That allows me to do mazes and real-life locations that a house-sized mech wouldn't realistically be able to fight in. And yeah, I'm gonna have bounce pads. And teleports! And power-ups! It's gonna be cool. But most importantly, I'm gonna find it cool.

#devlog #gamedev #indiegamedev #indie games #vent post

[castle-dominion]

c4x13 an embarrassment of bitches I have actually seen this one before! I didn't realize that! I also didn't really like it all that much & got it mixed up with another episode of another show but idk which.

boring ew lmao as if who cares lmao who cares

buttons is nonbinary Castle is right, be safe AC: We were going to take your Ferrari and hook up with some boys we met on Craigslist. buttons dutton lmao they are SO nonbinary RC: Please don’t call me that.

the girls are fightingggg

nice red coat on becks there autism or smth

Yeah keep the dog out of the room but dogs are the silent witness. ryan lookin pretty today as always. Purple shirt, top button undone but wearing a tie

this man is upset lol What was he into? On the take as in bribes? it's a dog... Ok this was funny: Just look at that mutt. XP Now back to my Max. UwU Now the mutt. XP That’s all the proof I need.

Oh gosh this lady is... something. Why'd she take a vid tho?

Next day? Different clothes it seems.

RC: Even more perplexing, why in almost every photo is she posed like this? *Castle strikes a ridiculous “sexy” pose in front of the paparazzi and they flock to snap his photo.* Paparazzo: Hey, that’s not Jason Bateman. Paparazzi: awwwwww

Love the music.

Reggie Starr: You two must be the, uh, soft drink people, right? KB: Actually, no. "We" are NYPD. We’re here to speak with Kay Cappuccio. RS: Oh, my bad. Uh…why don’t you just grab a squat right over there? KB: Excuse me? RS: Phoebe will bring you a goji berry juice. KB: You know what? I think I have a better idea. [Beckett steps forward into the photoshoot.] KB: Everybody, take five. RS: Whoa. Hold on a second. Kay Cappuccio doesn’t have five to spare. RC: How about 15 to 20? [That catches Reggie’s attention.] RC: And that goji berry juice sounds delightful.

Little dogs are just like that. RS looks sus there KC: Fine. We didn’t talk about anything, because he was already dead. KB: You found the body? KC: Yeah. KB: And you didn’t call 9-1-1? KC: No, I did as soon as I got into the limo. No harm, no foul, right? KB: You fled a crime scene. KC: All right. (chuckles) Have you heard the phrase, “There’s no such thing as bad press”? Having your picture taken with a dead guy is the exception. [idk if that is true, dead body doesn't seem so bad.] I have to be so careful with my image. My image is all I have. RC: Yeah. No, we were just talking about that.

Kate is pretty, turtleneck with a blazer. Rick is pretty, grey shirt with a blazer. Ryan is pretty, dress shirt+tie with a sweater. Espt is kinda grungy but I like it well enough. lol underdog? *hits espt* *espt looks at him bc "nobody touches me"* dr barker? Really? Lanie coming up with the doggo! They all look so happy to have the dog up here. RC: Or…we could keep him here at the precinct. I mean, we could use a mascot. JE: I thought that’s what you were. *dying laughing* RC: Thatwhat’s that? What’s that, buddy? Esposito’s sense of humor fell down a well and can’t get out? JE: ??

LP: Then you better find out what kind of food he eats, because he’s not touching the stuff I put out. KB: Well, there’s gotta be some food for him at Francisco’s place. Who wants to make a run for it? JE: To go get dog food? KB: [all three sort of at the same time] JE: Castle RC: Ryan KR: Esposito JE: *looks at ryan in betrayal bc they could have teamed up to send out castle* Ok the filipinos are right when they have that up hand down hand game that I don't understand. It's like evens & odds which is a game that I DO understand. Everyone puts in their hands & on three they put out a number of fingers, usually one or two. The odd one out is the winner. In this case they would be the loser though. Then once you eliminate that person you can do rock paper scissors. It works with three people or more but it might need a few rounds. You will always get rid of more than half of the people when playing odd one out. settle it like men lol. They don't count tho, rock paper scissors shoot. Espt: Snip

How did they not know who they were talking about? lmao She might still be a doctor! Yeah! Let the canine therapist talk to the dog! KB: Of your time, sure.

Becks has some crazy hair rn

RC: Tell me…did Francisco ever observe you during your sessions? PB: No. He waited outside. Why? Because either he was paying you too much or he had a pet play kink

Nice especkett is heading out here, love it. Espt has a nice scard rn btw. rly love it.

Oh no Growl right back at them bro.

Girl dogs are scary af running like obelix & asterix.

lmao dog breeding? srs? it was honest work <3 that guy passed away recently. the bug finder that ryan found

It could have been ANY time this morning ryan didn't specify.

Wow music. Wow people. Wow her walk. Ryan & espt's mouths lol. Royal sad. Booty. Ryan's device. Ooh & the way he picks it up nice nice.

ew dogs. RC: Tell me, does the phrase “corporate espionage” mean anything to you? KC: No RC: KC: No, seriously. I have no idea what it means. Why is ryan interrupting so awkwardly?

JE: Dude, look at that outfit. Where is she gonna put a wire? RC: Well, if I had to be creative, I’d guess— KB: RC: That’s rhetorical. KR: We went into the tech room [Ohhh so they have a tech room that's probably what that room with the tv is!] to isolate the frequency that the bug was transmitting on, and we found, uh, well… JE: Show ‘em. KR: All right. *turns on TV to get a good view of boobs, like real bazongas*

KC: Oh, well, I mean, it’s not just any celebrity video— I mean, TMZ’s offered, like, a million bucks for the first naked picture of me. JE, being horny: You ask me, that number’s on the low side. KB:

KB: And then there might be a trail that leads back to the guilty party. So we’re gonna have to find somebody to pull all those photos-- JE: I’ll do it. RC: Got a little case of, uh…puppy love there, Esposito? <3 they love making fun of him RC spotting royal in the conference room: Aw. Looks like Esposito isn’t the only frustrated dog in the precinct. Who closed him up in there?

*starts rubbing her hand intimately* GIRL This reminds me. When they had the murder suspect amnesiac they let him crash on the couch. The dog tho is going home with castle or beckett. Then later espt takes home that kid. & we finally get to see his apartment.

KC: I never thought I would say this, but I am so sick of looking at myself right now. I can’t even imagine how you must feel. JE, enjoying looking at pics of pretty women: Don’t worry about me. WHY are they going thru the pics so SLOW? Wow there's humanity here now. Weird. She's all depressed bc she feels talentless. You can be talentless tho bc skills are things you can build. ofc it takes more work bc talents just come naturally & skills take time & effort but shush.

Hyatt is such a name. I remember he sent a dead body to brackenreid once & john almost opened up the chest. Espt is being really protective of kay rn. Bro chill.

My dad's cat has a grease spot on the window from where her cat tree is & she puts her face on the window. it's so adorable. RC: Who’s a good boy, huh? Who’s a good boy? Is Marcus a good boy? No, he’s not a good boy. He’s a bad boy. Man has a bit of a lisp that makes it sound like he's shitting here not sitting here lol Could be dog trafficking, not necessarily drugs

Ah he's a US customs agent lol. Get ryan on the job he was a drug cop. Should have given him the hella fancy coffee

Beckett's on drugs lol Essence of poppyflower ohhhhh These are real narcotics, they are from poppyseed or smth. Not all street drugs are narcotics & ppl tend to forget that.

omg ryan is wearing a blue suit (kind of striped) with a pink shirt & no tie omg y'all I might be a lesbian. (Yes I'm only half woman, yes I'm also half man, yes he's also a man, but he's the kind of guy lesbians say are attractive even if they are not attracted themselves. Like I find him cute as a lesbian. Not as a straight girl not as a gay boy not as a straight boy but as a lesbian. it's complicated shut up.) Oh & while we're at it espt has a nice jacket too & it looks good on him, it has like the leather jacket looking bit (probs polyester or vinyl, tho in some lighting it looks almost denim) & then the fabric sleeves, I love it. Oh esposito is so sad that she's the one.

KB: So, we have reason to suspect that our killer was wearing your perfume. KC: Well, that’s impossible. It wasn’t even out yet. I’m the only person that had it. KR: Does she realize she just incriminated herself? JE: I said she was nice. I didn’t say anything about smart.

Looking thru the window like that? v sus. HOLY MOLY well as soon as my little bro is gone I am watching that fight scene again & posting the clip!

KB: Yeah, and, um, you know, I was wrong about something, too. Turns out having a mascot in the precinct can be pretty useful. Me: You mean rick or royal?

All the cops watching them fight over royal KC: Oh, yes, Lolita and I need a big strong man around the house, JE:

AC: You said, you’d be the one who’d wind up having to feed it, and it was hard enough remembering to feed me every day. RC: Yeah, I…I don’t remember that last part. AC: It was subtext. Barely. theyre so cute: So…this dog you want o get, you know, for me…this wouldn’t be an enticement to come home from college more often, would it?

Maybe I hadn't seen this one before. Regardless, it was fun enough.

#castle 4x13 #castle 4x13 spoilers #castle 4x13 quote #the dog show episode

[thesoulspulse]

Regarding My Good Vlad AU (College Years)

Sorry I’ve been kinda scattered as far as posts since I’m taking care of my mom who just got released from the hospital the other day but now that things are settling down at least a little I figured I’d share something that we touched on in my discord server a bit.

So, honestly, we know very little about Jack, Maddie, and Vlad’s true relationship and friendship beyond a few hints here and there about their shared past. Still, just look how genuinely happy Vlad and Jack are in the flashback below! Like seriously I just can’t help but feel they were ACTUALLY friends at one point and I wish we knew more about that to add a bit more depth to Vlad’s character.

Oh and btw, wouldn’t it be the cutest thing if Maddie’s the one who took this picture? Then again, she probably would have noticed the guy behind them about to dump punch on their heads much sooner and tried to warn them about that. Either that or Maddie barely managed to take this shot this before they got totally drenched...

Anyways, moving on!

In “Bitter Reunions” Jack tells us that:

“In college, he was my best friend. We were very popular guys. Roommates, lab partners, we did everything together. Until the thick fingers of fate stuck themselves right in Vlad's eyes.”

And after the flashback he concludes:

“He was hospitalized with a horrible case of ecto-acne. It devastated him...and killed his social life. We haven't spoken since that day. But the good news is, I think after all these years, he's finally forgiven me.”

Now, in my Good Vlad AU I’ve obviously changed one key element here in that Jack and Maddie BOTH apologized to Vlad much sooner when he was allowed to have visitors in the hospital (Here’s a link to a oneshot I wrote about it which you can also find here on tumblr: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13952979/1/Reconcile-Good-Vlad-AU-Oneshot) because it’s clear that in the show they never did that since they literally stopped talking to Vlad after he was hospitalized which come on, that’s a pretty crummy thing to do guys so you’d better hope you just weren’t allowed to visit him.

Moving on though I did notice something interesting in the quotes I shared above. And by that I mean Jack tells us that he and Vlad were in fact, roommates! Now, that might not seem like a big deal but it’s pretty telling, I mean they had to be close enough friends to decide to share a dorm room together right...? Well that or they just kinda met by chance and hit things off somehow then agreed to become roommates and I for one would LOVE to learn the story behind that or make something up myself someday!

Now this next part probably loosely applies to almost any version of Vlad if you keep it canon he went to the University of Wisconsin with Jack. I tried to do some research on the actual college and the most important things to remember about the University of Wisconsin are:

It’s a school that’s basically as old as the state of Wisconsin itself founded in 1848.

The college is located on the shores of Lake Mendota and its main campus is about 933 acres and includes 4 national historic landmarks (not sure which ones since I didn’t bother looking)

“Its academic programs include 136 undergraduate majors, 148 master's degree programs, and 120 doctoral programs.” ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Madison

The University of Wisconsin is what’s known as an R1 University, which simply means it does a lot of high end scientific research and honestly that makes sense given the kind of students Vlad, Maddie, and Jack were.

"The Wisconsin Badgers compete in 25 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference and have won 30 national championships. Wisconsin students and alumni have won 50 Olympic medals (including 13 gold medals).“ ~ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Wisconsin%E2%80%93Madison (Note: I bet you ANYTHING this is where Vlad got the term “Little Badger” from, not to mention the school mascot is a badger in a sweater. In Wisconsin they play a lot of football, basketball, and even hockey!) 

Ok this next little snippet is totally unrelated but I thought it was funny while reading the wiki I shared a link to above:

So yeah, long story short, this school is surprisingly large and important to the state of Wisconsin which we don’t really get much of an idea of in the show like a lot of Vlad’s complicated history with Danny’s parents. Speaking of parents, the tuition is nothing to sneeze at with about 10k for in-state students and 37k for out of state at least from 2019-2020 which is not including room and board and all that which makes me wonder...how did these three pay for it? Think about it, Vlad didn’t become a billionaire until much later so who paid for their college education?

Personally I like to believe Maddie’s family has a strong military background with some science splashed in while Jack’s family is also scientific but to be fair we know that they’ve been researching/hunting ghosts since the 1600′s so maybe they have money from selling their various inventions whether they were ghost related or not. On the other hand, I usually picture Vlad’s father as a businessman who could have easily sent his son to a college like that. That said, the most likely answer is actually the Master’s family was already pretty well off money-wise from the start because they’re related to the Wisconsin Dairy King. At least, I assume so going off what we know when Vlad still became rich even without his ghost powers in “Masters of All Time.”

Apart from that, I could see Maddie and Vlad getting into college on their own merits through a fully paid scholarship given how brilliant they are. Don’t get me wrong, I think Jack’s smart too but I think it’d make more sense personally if his parents paid for his college tuition plus room and board themselves so he could focus on his studies. And yeah good luck with that given Jack’s short attention span lolz! That’s why I can’t really see him focusing long enough to get a scholarship unless Maddie personally helped him through it so they could go to college together.

Speaking of, since Jack and Maddie have so much natural chemistry when we were talking about it on my discord we thought that it’s most likely that they knew each other before they met Vlad and I got the impression he was kinda treated like the 3rd wheel in this episode “Masters of All Time” whenever Jack and Maddie were together. I mean, it makes sense because they are obviously a canon couple but it’s still kinda interesting, especially if it turns out Vlad and Jack only met Maddie in college...

Guess it depends on what route you wanna take story-wise. Because on the one hand, Maddie and Jack could have possibly been childhood/highschool sweethearts that managed to get into the same college where they met Vlad. Or I think they could have possibly met Vlad during their senior year in high school at the earliest and again, Jack and Vlad agreed to be roommates, but it seems more likely they met as Freshmen in college. We just don’t really have any info to go off of!

Going back to my Good Vlad AU, just as a reminder, my version of him realizes pretty early on that he was never in love with Maddie. In this version, Vlad just wanted to impress her since he admires her as a peer in the scientific field. And with Jack it’s pretty much the same as above in that I think Vlad and Jack had a pretty strong friendship with each other at one point and enjoyed performing various ghost experiments and hanging out together. Which reminds me, I do kinda have to wonder how Vlad ended up interested in researching ghosts in the first place.

Like, did Vlad become interested in it because of Jack? Or for canon Vlad was it only because he wanted to get closer to Maddie? Could Vlad have already had a fascination with ghosts long before meeting Danny’s parents? Who knows! But I do think we can all agree there has to be some reason Vlad ended up researching ghosts beyond when he became the first half-ghost himself. In the end, we may never know.

But, there is one thing we do know for sure...

Regardless of how long Jack and Vlad were roommates for or how long either of them have known Maddie, it’s a shame we know pretty much nothing about their friendship in the show or anything about how the three of them met. All we can do is ask ourselves, why they decided to try and make a ghost portal together in the first place? What’s the canon reason why Jack and Maddie didn’t visit Vlad even once while he was in the hospital? And most of all what it was like when the three of them were friends and did more than just research ghosts together?

While there’s no way to know for sure, I do hope I gave you guys something interesting to think about too! Because as far as my Good Vlad AU is concerned, the main premise is that even though they did have to part ways it’s because Vlad didn’t want to hold them back and he needed to sort out his new powers for himself after recovering from his condition which left him hospitalized for years. But since my Vlad WANTED to see his two oldest (possibly only) friends again one day that’s why he invited Jack and Maddie to their 20th college reunion since he was planning on coming clean to them about why he distanced himself too all these years...

However, all that changes when he discovers their son, Danny Fenton, is also half-ghost and decides its better for both of them at least for now to keep that a secret. Still, Vlad’s glad he’s not alone anymore and has someone he can actually help since they have the same “condition.” That almost makes letting Jack and Maddie move on with their lives totally worth it because now that he’s reconnected with his college friends in a positive way...Vlad gets to be an uncle to their children and a mentor to their son and everything has come full circle for them. And most importantly, Vlad can be part of the family and part of his best friend’s lives again...

What more could he possibly want?

#danny phantom #danny phantom au #good vlad au #college vlad #jack fenton #maddie fenton #vlad masters #vlad plasmius #university of wisconsin #au #alternate universe #long post #thesoulspulse #thesoul'spulse #the souls pulse #the soul's pulse #character analysis #character concept #story concept #story ideas #danny phantom theory #headcanon #danny phantom headcanon

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers DARK FATE ー Subaru Maniac [03]

ー The scene starts in the shopping district

Yui: ( I’m out shopping with Subaru-kun today. Fufu, I’m loving it. )

Subaru: Oi, whatcha been grinnin’ for this whole time? It’s kinda creepy, you know?

Yui: Ah...My bad. I’m just so happy to walk around town with you like this.

( After all, it kind of feels like a...date. )

Subaru: Che...The fuck you sayin’...? You’re so embarrassin’...

Stop spoutin’ that nonsense and move those darn feet instead!

Yui: Ah...Sure...

Subaru: So, you’ve got everythin’ on your shoppin’ list?

Yui: I got the last few things at the previous store.

( Now that I think about it... )

...You always come with me whenever I need to do some shopping, don’t you?

Subaru: Ah? ...Well, yeah.

Yui: Isn’t there something you want to buy?

Subaru: Hmph. What kind of question is that?

There’s nothing I want, really.

Yui: I see...

...

Ah, Subaru-kun! Can we drop by that variety store over there real quick?

Subaru: I thought we were done...?

Yui: I’ll be as quick as I can...!

Subaru: Haah...She honestly doesn’t need to hurry that much...

*TIMESKIP*

Yui: Sorry for the wait, Subaru-kun!

Subaru: Haah...Took you long enough!

Yui: I’m sorry. I got a little stuck on which one to buy.

Subaru: Chicks really take forever when they’re shoppin’, don’t they? ...I don’t get it.

Yui: ( I can’t deny that... )

Ah, but you know, I figured I’d give this to you.

Subaru: ...Ah? What is it? 

Yui: It’s this...

Subaru: Some rabbit...character? (1) 

Yui: Yeah. Although this might not be something you’d pick up yourself.

This rabbit kind of reminded me of you because it’s white in color and has red eyes... 

Subaru: Haah!? You...Who do you think I am!?

If anything...Rather than me...The one who’s like a rabbit is...

Yui: ( Is...? )

Subaru: ...Anyway! Why did you buy this shit?

Not just ‘cause it reminded you of me, right?

Yui: Well...

Selection

→ It looks like you (S)

Yui: Because it looks just like you!

Subaru: Haah!?

You really bought it for that reason alone!?

Yui: ...Just kidding...

While it did remind me of you, which is why I picked this one. 

But I did have another reason as well.

→ That’s a secret (M) 

Yui: ...I guess that’s a secret. 

Subaru: Haah!? The fuck!?

Yui: ( It’s embarrassing to admit after all... )

Subaru: Come on, tell me!

Yui: ( Uu...He’s glaring at me... )

Fine, I’ll tell you.

Yui: Think about it. You always come shopping with me like this, right?

Subaru: Yeah, so what?

Yui: Well...You see, since you’re being so kind to keep me company, it only felt right to thank you in one way or another. 

Subaru: So...That’s how you ended up buying this rabbit?

Yui: ...Anything would have worked really.

As long as it could be a way for you to remember our shopping trip together... 

( But I guess a rabbit for a guy just doesn’t work, huh...? )

I’m sorry, Subaru-kun. I think I’ll go return it after aーー

Subaru: ...No.

Yui: Eh...?

Subaru: I never said I don’t want it.

Yui: Eh? Then...!?

Subaru: You leave me no other choice so...I’ll accept it.

Yui: ...! Thank you, Subaru-kun.

Subaru: ...Che...Let’s go home already.

Yui: Yeah...!

Subaru: It’s gotten crowded...Oi, don’t get separated, ‘kay?

Yui: Ah...Yeah...!

( It really does feel like there’s more people than before, huh...? )

( I better be careful, or I’ll actually get lost in the crowd...! )

Subaru: Che...Yui! Gimme your hand!

*Rustle*

Subaru: It’d be a pain if I were to lose you amongst all these people so...I’ll hold your hand.

So if you get separated regardless, you’re gonna face the consequences afterwards!

...Hurry up!

Yui: Yeah...!

( He’s blushing up to his ears... )

( Somehow it’s even making me a little flustered... )

ー They start walking home

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー 

Translation notes

(1) マスコット or ‘masukotto’ literally just means ‘mascot’, referring to the cartoon-style characters which are very popular in Japan. When I googled it, a lot of (phone) straps showed up so I assumed that’s also what Yui got for him.

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<- [ Maniac 02 ] [ Maniac 04 ] ->

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #subaru sakamaki #dark fate #diabolik lovers translation #dfsubarumaniac3

[blackandgoldandeverythingnice]

among the fields of gold - c. mcavoy

Pairing: Charlie McAvoy x female!OC

Summary: A little sneak peek into the future of charlie and nellie from i’m so glad to know as they attend the 2026 Olympics 

Word Count: 4,682

A/N: Just the most self-indulgent little fluff I could come up with because I love writing them.

Warnings: none! the smallest hint of adult content but that’s about it.

“This is so fucking cool – did you ever actually tell me how cool it was to be at the Olympics?” Charlie was bouncing along the streets of Milan and swinging Eleanora’s hand as they went, a couple of other Team USA players behind them as they used the off day to do the touristy things they hadn’t yet been able to do during the first round of games.

“You’ve done plenty of World’s before, it’s almost the same.”

“It absolutely is not.” He argued back, glancing down and smirking at the little scowl on her face. He ignored the groans of a couple from the guys at the fact they were about to start bickering. It wasn’t their fault; he didn’t invite the idiots to come with them.

“You’re just excited because you’re staying in the Village and there are a bunch of girls there too – you don’t get that at World’s.”

“Yeah, I’m there for the girls.” He rolled his eyes and squeezed her hand before leaning over to kiss the top of her head.

The team was housed on their own floor in the dedicated USA building and it was like being back on a road trip in Peewees. They’d cruised through the round-robin, winning every game in their group and were heading into the elimination games. A lot of the guys had played together for years through development camps and national teams and they felt good about their chances.

They’d been wandering the streets of Milan, seeing as much of the sites as they could since all they’d seen were the inside of rinks. While Charlie had wanted to spend it just with Eleanora, some of the guys had caught him in the lobby with her on their way back from breakfast and insisted on joining them. She had pretty much become their team mascot: at every game, made a new sign for each and chatted with all the families happily. It made something in him burst in pride at the sight of her fitting so seamlessly into his life now. It hadn’t been an easy road to get there.

“Can you two not?” one of the Hughes brothers interrupted.

“Yeah, let’s stop this before it really gets rolling.” Matthew Tkachuk cut in, sweeping past Charlie with a smirk as he hit his shoulder and made his way across the square towards the Duomo. A few of the other guys sped passed them, running around the square and changing pigeons.

“And for a former Olympian, could you walk any slower?” Auston Matthews teased as he came right up close behind them.

Annoyed, Charlie shoved his teammate away just as Eleanora pinched his side. “I’m sorry, put some respect on the only gold medalist in this little crew right now. Also, I’m six months pregnant, dick head – you try carrying a bowling ball around your middle on these cobblestone ass streets.”

“Technically, a McAvoy has a gold medal – shouldn’t have changed your last name, babe.” Auston grinned, wrapping an arm around her shoulders but making sure to gently guide her as they walked around the various tourists and other athletes who had done the same thing they did.  

“Can you get the fuck away from my wife?” Charlie groaned, checking Auston away so he could pull Eleanora into his side.

The rest of the guys walked ahead, leaving the two of them alone. Charlie smiled down at the way Eleanora was basking in the bright, cold air, her cheeks flushed and nose a little pink. There was a visible glow around her. He’d always thought it was bullshit when they said pregnant woman glowed but since the second she’d taken the test, there was a light happy aura around her. Walking with her tucked into him like she was slowed them down but Charlie liked making sure Eleanora was okay, to the point that she might kill him at some point if he asked her again how she was feeling.

“How are you – ”

“Don’t you dare ask how I feel right now, Charlie McAvoy.”

He pouted down at her. “It’s a valid question, they keep you scheduled so late for some of the media shit.”

“It’s called my job, babe.” She hip checked him gently. She’d stayed involved in the figure skating community and this year they’d invited her to provide commentary for the ladies’ singles. Turns out she was incredibly personable in front of the cameras and enjoyed talking to the young skaters. “I’m just happy none of your games conflict with the skating. I don’t think they’d love me ‘calling out sick’ only to have me show up on TV on the glass yelling at you to play better.”

“Excuse you, I have the most minutes played and highest rating.”

“Yes, baby – you’re very highly rated.” She snuggled into his side, and he laughed when she slid her hand into his back pocket and squeezed his ass.

The pair of them walked slowly around the square, laughing at the guys as they ran around. A few of Team Canada showed up along with a few of the Czech players. Since most of the teams were made up of NHLers, all the teams were friendly off-ice and trying to control them was like corralling kids at their first away tournament. A few fans stopped them as they went but most of them were interested in getting pictures with Eleanora rather than any of the guys, something the team loved to tease Charlie about. Joke was on them, he couldn’t be more proud to watch the way people adored her.

“How’s my boy doing?” he changed tactics as a group of young girls walked away after spending five minutes taking pictures with her and asking what it was like to win gold.

“I think he wants pizza and pasta.”

“Pizza and pasta? Not or?”

“You’re really gonna ask how I feel then judge your pregnant wife for wanting all the food?” the glare she shot him was enough to have him throwing his hands up in defense.

He leaned down to kiss her but she dodged him. “No way, bud – find me food then you can kiss me.”

“In my defense, I asked what my son wants to eat – you’re incidental to me checking up on him.”

“Do you want to die? Is that your plan? You want Team USA hockey to lose the gold because their captain was murdered by his pregnant wife?”

“Why’s Goldie threatening your life?” Jake popped up behind them, scaring the shit out of Charlie while Eleanora had seen him coming.

“He’s judging how much I want to eat.”

“Well, come on my fellow sewer rat – if Chuckie won’t love you right, I will.”

Jake offered her his hand and she took it, tossing a teasing smile behind her as the two of them started towards one of the side streets to find a suitable restaurant leaving Charlie to scurry after them.

--- ---

Eleanora chewed distractedly on her cuticle, staring at the clean sheet of ice waiting for the guys to step on for warmups. As she had for every single game, she was standing on the glass at the corner where her and his family had sat for the entirety of the tournament. The jersey of Charlie’s she had on barely fit over her belly and the maternity leggings made her feel like a sausage. Bouncing on the balls of her feet anxiously, she was as nervous as she’d been for her own gold medal skate.

“How’re you feeling?” a voice interrupted her nervous thoughts and she glanced over to see her father-in-law sliding into the seat next to her. After the first win, they’d sat in the same order they’d been in for every other game that followed. While Charlie wasn’t overly superstitious, Eleanora was and there’d been half a dozen little rituals she’d come up with for this Olympics.

“Jesus, your son ask you to ask me that?” she teased back at Charlie Sr. She rubbed her belly slightly and tried not to wince at the pain in her back. “Pretty sure this asshole is sitting right on my sciatic nerve.”

“Can you not call my first grandson an asshole?” Charlie’s mom appeared on her other side, looping her arm through hers. “But seriously, you alright?”

“No pain I haven’t dealt with before but this kid is already putting me through the wringer. I have to do this for 3 more months?”

Mrs. McAvoy frowned sympathetically and rubbed her arm softly. “Sorry, Ellie but yes. It’ll be worth it though.”

Just as she spoke, the guys stepped out and Eleanora zeroed in on Charlie leading the way, pushing the pucks off the edge of the bench and onto the ice.

“I can’t believe this – my son is going to be an Olympic medalist no matter what.” His mom said, sniffling slightly as she watched them start skating.

“We want gold, Jen – right, kid?” Senior nudged her in the side.

Eleanora smiled slightly. “I just want him to do the best he can.”

“Bullshit, you’re more competitive than he is. I saw you cursing him out last game for - and I quote - ‘a bullshit lazy turnover’.” Holly added as she joined the conversation, pushing her mom out of the seat next to Eleanora so she could keep the right lineup. 

They all laughed while she just shrugged. “No one plays for second place...although I do kinda like being the only gold medalist. It’s how I get him to do things for me when I think I deserve them.”

The noise in the arena started to swell as the Canadians took the ice and Eleanora felt the familiar buzz and thrill of the pressure building. She hadn’t been able to see Charlie this morning, only getting a quick FaceTime as she’d been wrapping up interviews with some of the figure skaters who were getting ready for their final performance the following day.

“How was he this morning?”  

Kayla shrugged. “Quiet. He missed you.”

She frowned, cursing herself for not having been there. It was their routine for the last few years, she was always the last person to see him before he went into the locker room for a big game. It felt like a bad omen that she’d missed giving him a last kiss before the biggest game of his career.

But just then Charlie skated by them for the first time, helmet off and his hair flowing behind him. He tapped the glass as he went by but kept skating in loops. After a couple laps and drills, he returned to the corner and stopped in front of her.

She couldn’t hear him over the crowd but he was pointing at her and gesturing halfway across the rink to where there was an opening in the boards. She followed where he was pointing to see one of the arena staff standing by the entrance to the locker rooms and she got the hint, squeezing through the seats as fast she could. The belly didn’t exactly help her move quickly or the people that kept trying to stop her.

He was already waiting for her by the time she reached the space, his gloves off and resting on the side. He reached out for her and she stepped eagerly towards him. On skates he was so much taller than her that she had to stand on tip toe just to wrap her arms around his neck. She was cognizant of the eyes of those in the area on them and she was sure there were cameras zooming in too.

“I couldn’t play the biggest game of my life without getting my good luck kiss.”

The stares and camera clicks faded away as she stared up at him. Knowing how the media was obsessed with “Their Story”, this was bound to be everywhere in no time. It’s why they liked their moment to be private before a game but right now, Eleanora couldn’t quite care because all she wanted was Charlie to win.

Gently, he brushed her stomach and just as he did, the baby gave a hard kick. Charlie grinned, leaning down to press his lips firmly to hers and she smiled into the kiss. “I think someone’s telling you he wants you to win.”

“I plan on winning it for his momma, gotta impress her.” He smirked, his face still inches from hers.

“I love you, baby – so fucking much.” She pressed one final kiss to his lips. “I’m not gonna tell you just making it to the gold medal game is an achievement – even though it is. You know what you need to do. Go fucking win it.”

“I shoulda had you do the pump-up speech for the boys.” He kissed her nose quickly before pulling back and grabbing his gloves to return to warmups. “I love you, babe – see you on the ice after.”

She watched him skate away, her palm flat against her belly and she felt another strong kick. Rubbing her stomach she looked down at the USA stretched across her front, smiling softly as she whispered to herself.

“Don’t worry, little man – daddy’s gonna win it for us.”

--- ---

The second period started with the game tied at two. Charlie had an assist and had already spent almost twelve minutes on the ice. Despite most of the off-ice friendships and even teammates who were playing against each other it was getting chippy. They all clearly wanted it and weren’t holding back. Tkachuk had managed to draw three penalties while only going to the box once himself.

Eleanora felt like she was going to lose her voice the amount she’d been screaming throughout the game. It seemed like part of Team Canada’s game strategy was to go after Charlie as much as possible. They’d been hitting him hard and there’d been one particularly nasty penalty he drew when Chabot leveled him with a late hit. Charlie had been slow to get up from that one but within the first thirty seconds of the powerplay, he’d put a pass right on Auston’s tape for the tying goal.

There had always been something both exhilarating and nerve-wracking about watching Charlie play. When he was on the ice, she only watched him, not even noticing where the puck was or what action was happening unless he was involved.

It was partially how she was able to react a second before the rest of the rink when she saw Chabot coming from behind him, hitting him hard and sending Charlie headfirst into the boards. He was splayed out flat on the ice while his teammates immediately rushed to his defense, Auston and Tkachuk jumping Chabot before Auston was pulled away by Dougie Hamilton. Eleanora felt like climbing over the glass to get to him and Kayla was gripping her arm tightly.

“Get up. Get up. Get up, Junior.” His dad was begging while Eleanora just kept staring in horror.

After what felt like hours but was probably only a minute, he slowly tucked his legs up under him and managed to get to a kneeling position just as the team doctor reached him. He was clearly still dazed, holding one hand on his helmet as he slowly got up. Gaudreau had come over and was kneeling next to him, offering to help him up but Charlie waved him off.

The arena applauded as he stood up, but Eleanora couldn’t feel the relief everyone else did as she watched them lead Charlie to the locker room.

“He’s okay. He got up on his own. They just have to check him out for protocol. He’s okay.” Kayla was chanting and all Eleanora wanted to do was rush to the locker room. Instead of watching the rest of the game, she stared at the locker room entrance, praying Charlie would return to the bench.

They ended the second period down by one and only during the intermission did she let herself pull her phone out to find the replay of the hit. They all huddled around together watching intently, only slightly reassured that Charlie had gotten up on his own and made his way quickly down the tunnel without support. It felt like time was moving in slow motion as the ice was cleaned. Finally, the lights dimmed again and the players started back out on the ice.

It felt like a weight was lifted when she saw Charlie hop out last, doing quick laps to warm back up as he shook his legs out. As he went by them, he tapped the glass and Eleanora felt like she was going to cry just from the quick wink he gave her.

“Thank god.” His mom sighed a breath and Eleanora felt lightheaded as she rubbed her stomach aimlessly. The baby had been active all game, bouncing around and kicking more than usual. It’s like he could sense what was happening around them.  

The third period wasn’t any less stressful, Team Canada was clearly content to play defense while Team USA threw everything at them but couldn’t seem to find the back of the net. But then in the last 27 seconds of the game, Charlie caught a pass from Quinn Hughes and buried it in the top corner of the net to tie the game. The roar of the arena felt deafening as they all jumped up and down, screaming happily while the players mobbed their captain. The crowd clearly expected overtime, neither team wanting to give one up in the remaining seconds of the game.

But then Conor McDavid of all people misplayed the puck in the neutral zone and it landed on Jack Eichel’s stick who shot down the ice on a breakaway with only 7 seconds to go, shifting to his backhand as he slid the puck between the goalie’s legs.

If it was possible, the roof would’ve blown off the top of the arena. Team USA hadn’t won since the 1980 Miracle on Ice game and the place was shaking with excitement. USA gear and equipment was strewn across the ice like confetti while Team Canada stared on in disbelief, some kneeling together watching while others had already started to make their way towards the locker room.

People were hugging her tightly and screaming in her ear. Eleanora wasn’t even sure they were all people she knew. Charlie Sr. pulled her away from whoever was holding her and into a tight hug while the rest of the family crowded around jumping as they celebrated. She didn’t even realize she was crying until she tried to spot Charlie on the ice but her vision was blurry.

Sobbing into one hand, the other pressed tight against her stomach she felt another strong kick which only made her sob harder. It was better than her own win because she hadn’t had any true family to celebrate with besides her coaches who had become replacement parents to her. This was entirely different and felt like they’d all won it.

The celebrations continued on the ice as the McAvoys all made their way towards the same opening Eleanora had talked to Charlie before the game start. Other wives and families were already there, pulling each other into hugs, most of the moms crying happily while a few of the dads tried to fight their own tears except for Jim Hughes who was openly crying as he held his wife tightly to him.

Standing on the glass so she could watch, Eleanora scanned the sea of blue jerseys to try to find Charlie, biting her lip to try to stop crying. She was still contemplating scaling the glass but knew the guys deserved to celebrate with their team first.

Finally, her impatience grew and Eleanora, just popped the door open and started to make her way onto the ice. Once the dam broke, the rest of the families followed, ignoring the staff asking for them to stay off the ice until they had carpets laid down.

It was decidedly difficult to maneuver on the ice in sneakers and a pregnant belly but she moved as quickly and carefully as she could towards her target. Their eyes locked and Charlie broke away from the guys to get to her. When he reached her, he went right for her waist, dragging her up and off the ice as he twirled her around as she held tightly to him.

Neither of them spoke at first as Eleanora pressed kisses all over his face as he laughed until he could kiss her back. It was awkward to be held up so Charlie carefully set her down on the ice, one hand tucking protectively against her back so she wouldn’t slip and the other pressed gently on her belly as he leaned down for the sweetest kiss they’d ever shared.

“I told you I’d win it for you.” He whispered, pressing his forehead against hers.

“Not before scaring the shit out of me first.” She shot back but squeezed his waist tightly, her face landing in the sweaty material. “I’m so fucking proud of you, Teddy.”

She stared up at him, and despite the fact that he had just won the biggest game of his life, he was staring at her like they were the only two people in the world.

“This is almost as good as our wedding night.”

She gave a watery chuckle in return. “Just the wedding night not the wedding itself?”

“Eh, that was okay too.” He teased just as the rest of his family joined them. Reluctantly, she released him so he could hug his family, stepping back to give them a moment.

A few of the guys paused to hug her as they went by but mostly she just stood there watching Charlie beaming at everyone around him. The camera crews were starting to show up as the staff worked to get the carpets out and set up the podiums. Eleanora knew they wouldn’t get a private moment together for hours and she tried to melt into the background but Charlie was having none of that, snagging her hand and dragging her towards him as they started to interview him.

From her position under his arm, she stared up at him as he spoke, beaming proudly as he talked about the win and how special it was for them. She was so focused on him she didn’t realized they’d asked her a question.

“Nellie.” Charlie whispered, nudging her with a nose to the top of her head and she glanced at the reporter who was beaming at her.

“I was just asking how this compares to your own gold medal win just four years ago?” they repeated the question.

Eleanora grinned and squeezed his side tighter. “There’s no comparison.” She started, enjoying some of the frowns that followed before continuing. “What Charlie and the boys did was so beyond historic and I’m so proud to have been able to watch it happen. This team worked so hard and never gave up. I’m just thrilled I was able to share in it. Although I’m pretty pissed that I can’t win arguments anymore by saying ‘well I have a gold medal so you have to do what I say’.”

Everyone laughed in response, Charlie squeezing her side lightly.

“I’m sure you guys haven’t seen yet but the video of you two right before the game has become quite popular.” Eleanora flushed slightly as they continued. “Charlie – did you get any last minute advice?”

She pinched his side, hoping he’d lie but the smirk on his face already told her differently. “She pretty much told me that just getting to the medal game wasn’t enough and that I knew what to do. Pretty sure the exact words were ‘now go fucking win it’ and honestly, I can’t really say no to my wife so I did.”

--- ---

It was nearly three hours later by the time Eleanora and Charlie were walking into her hotel room and shutting the door so they were finally alone. They were planning on changing then meeting up with everyone to celebrate. Most of the guys’ flights weren’t for another day or two so they planned to enjoy what little remained of their Olympic break before they’d have to return to their teams for the rest of the season.

Charlie face planted onto the king-size bed. “Fuck, you’ve been sleeping on this for two weeks while I’ve been on the worst twin mattress in the world?”

Eleanora giggled, pulling her jersey off leaving on her loose t-shirt, she slipped out of her sneakers and kicked them towards the door so she could sit and join him on the bed. Despite how happy she was, she was exhausted and the pain in her back went from dull to stabbing on a dime. It took a little effort for her to climb up onto the bed and get comfy as she curled up on her side.

Charlie inched up so his nose was brushing against her swollen belly. Her hand immediately fell to his hair, running her fingers through gently and scratching his scalp. He brought his arm up so he was hugging her middle and pressed his lips against her.

“Hi, Tripp.” He whispered causing Eleanora to tug his hair gently.

“Baby, no. Even if he ends up Charlie the third, we are not calling him Tripp.”

Charlie ignored her. “Ignore mommy, I’ll make sure you get a cool nickname.”

She rolled her eyes but he kept talking. “I don’t know if you heard all that noise but now you have two parents with gold medals. We’re pretty big deals.”

“Kid was bouncing all over the place for most of the game before settling directly on my sciatic nerve so I couldn’t get comfortable.”

“Be nice to mommy, sweet boy.” He mumbled and pressed a kiss to her stomach before turning up so he could stare at her. “I think I won because of you.”

“You won because you’re an amazing hockey player and leader. You did this. Next up you can win us a Cup.” She smiled softly, stroking his hair as he crawled up so their faces were level. They lay there quietly together, staring at each other and enjoying the peace. They’d both turned their phones off, telling his family they’d see them at the restaurant that USA hockey had reserved for them. For now, they just wanted to be alone.

Carefully, Eleanora brushed Charlie’s hair off his forehead. “Your head okay? I might kill that Canadian fuck.”

Charlie laughed but cringed slightly. His head hurt more than he let on but he passed concussion protocol and had a few days off before he’d have to be back on the ice for a game.

“Are you okay? I know when you’re in pain, Nellie.”

She winced despite trying to smile as he tucked his hand under her top to lay on her bare skin, soothingly running his thumb along belly.

“Just pregnancy, or so I’m told. I need to figure out how to get him off this nerve or I’m gonna spend the flight pacing the aisles because I won’t be able to sit.”

Charlie frowned. “I hate seeing you in pain. And I’m worried you won’t want the five that I want if this one is such a pain in the ass.”

She snorted, inching forward to kiss him softly. “Let’s get through meeting this little man first then we’ll talk more, kay?”

“You’re the love of my fucking life, you know that?” he gripped her neck gently.

Smiling, she leaned forward to steal another kiss. “Lucky for you, it’s mutual. Now…I bet we could find a comfy position for you to fuck me in before we have to go to the restaurant.”

A slow smirk spread across Charlie’s face as he rolled her carefully onto her back so he could lean over her.

“I can definitely do that.”

#charlie mcavoy #nhl writing #nhl fic #nhl imagines #charlie mcavoy fic #boston bruins #me writing hockey fics #hockey fic #my writing #hockey imagines #hockey blurbs #annnnd we're back #because i'm just gonna keep writing these two #because it's fun for me #I hope you like it! #let me know if you have requests or feedback

[shinygoku]

gordon gordon gordon gordon

Gordon Gordon Gordon Gordon!!

He's been sneaking into these asks by proxy, so it's finally time for his dedicated session, hehe~

First impression

WUAAAGH what's up with this WEIRD LONG NOT-THOMAS and his FACE?!

Impression now

His face is still pretty weird! But you know what else it is? Part of an Absolute Legend ✨

Like, man, Gordon is such a big presence and interesting character, the entire premise leans heavily on him. I'm inclined to go as far as to say that the Blue Boys of 1, 2 and 4 here are the three most important characters for the franchise (not at all to knock everyone else lmao) and they slot nicely into a Triforce of Courage, Wisdom and Power, and Gordon has Power in spades!

Gordon is The Vain One (not James!). He's legit very strong and the fastest on Sodor (which isn't just being a big fish in a small pond because that island has some crazy cool engines!) but unfortunately he lacks humility. His success seems to have been lodged in his head before the series even begins and this Pride is the source of pretty much every single conflict he's involved in.

But when it isn't his self satisfaction in his actions, it's being smug about being such a grand, magnificent Tender Engine and he is snooty as hell about it. He seems to look at smaller engines [pretty much everyone compared to him lol] as a lesser class, particularly if they're small and cheeky and Tank Engines. This may not be the case exactly, but his way of talking to them and some other things he says are very condescending.

However... as much as a gigantic jerk he is at several points, with Gordon I kinda feel like he plain ass doesn't conceive of his words being out of line. That and having to Unlearn things... he's not innately better than everyone else. He sees things in black and white. There are Useful Engines, and those who should be scrapped. There are Noble Tender Engines and Lesser Tank Engines who exist to do the tedious chores on behalf of the Superior ones. Edward doing shunting is seen as Demeaning and contradicts Gordon’s world view that Tender Engines Don't Stunt™, and he doesn't like that one bit! (Also Edward was crossing the picket line but that wasn't Awdry's concern lmao)

Related is Gordon does seem oddly dense at times, like assuming that Tenders are in of themselves a Status Symbol rather than a large lunchbox of sorts lol, or that Tender Engines like him being too heavy for Branch Lines being because something about Branch Lines are degrading. This might be all Elitist Brainwashing influence. But still, that he just takes these as The Truth means I get to affectionately call him an idiot. And there is no other way to explain how he genuinely believes Bill and Ben were going to murder him if he wasn't missing a few brain bolts in there.

Fortunately, he does eventually start to learn the important lessons.... very gradually, but the Early Gordon is a pretty different beast to Later Gordon, and it's wonderful~

Also, I gotta give credit to him for having some moments of utter brilliance and actual grasp of reality and more complex matters, like culture. (Yeah, I'm rolling with his geniune Opera Knowledge from s6 of all things. It's good!) As much as Awdry himself may have disagreed, Gordon was in the right to want a Station Pilot and the Strike was called for (not bullying Edward for it, but myeah) ...but this leads to my next point: He seems to have a mental block when it comes to Emotions.

Certainly, he's as emotional as the others are, it's not just a scale of Snooty, Arrogant, Condescending, Prideful ....well, it is, but ALSO the more mixed and varied feelings: Shame, Sadness, Fear, Ambivilance, Irritation, Anger, Passion, Amused, Delight and so on. However, Gordon is seemingly unaware of how his words may make the others feel, and even at his cruellest it doesn't look like he's aware he's twisting a knife in. To Gordon, he's being honest, but his verbose manner ends up twisting and wriggling away from any valid point like an overgrown vine that somehow links back to how [Other Engine] is disgracing him, Gordon, by association.

Examples include: Being offended by Henry's new shape (??? Gordon dude he nearly died and this is an improvement, a good thing!), saying that Edward's age and difficulty starting a heavy ass packed load of passengers is grounds to be Retired or even Scrapped, other little insulting things like calling the likes of Thomas and James Little insistently (it seems to vary if he's trying to put them down or actually be affectionate), and many more when in the hands of inept writers who have to wheel out the same Gordon Learns A Lesson Plot every other season.

Like I said in the James post, I also think he kinda poisoned the Red guy with his snooty attitude... but I maintain that I think Gordon was unaware of this. He may know he has Influence, and enjoy that, but he really truly doesn't appear to mean to mould James into a smaller, redder version of himself. He's oblivious and from his own point of view, benevolent. Which is in fact a dangerous combo indeed!

It's... a lot o7;;

Again though, if you're looking at the books and s1-s5 of TVS you can see him grow and change. He does take a while to learn the lessons, but as time goes on he moves 2 steps forward and 1 step back, then eventually less steps back entirely. It's great! And so is Gordon. A big dumb meathead with not entirely uncalled for delusions of granduer. A dramatic so-and-so who is the best engine for his job.

I love this sophisticated jock who grows more kindness~ 💙

Favourite moment

Hm! This isn't as easy to decide lol. We all like Gordon Goes Foreign... but you know what sticks in my mind more?

hOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH

Look, I’m not 100% objective, here! But Ringo’s read of this line is fantastic (and keeps making me expect him to finish saying OOOHH SHIT) and it’s also a well deserved bolt of divine retribution for how rude he was being earlier. (As long as my essay already was, he very much needed the knocking down of some pegs here!)

Idea for a story

While both my fics with him thus far have been variations of Pre-Canon, Full-Arrogance and Snobbish Gordon (and both were a lot of fun!) ...but I cannot bear the same expired horse being beaten more when the story is set waaay later but he’s still up his own ass. Please, PLEASE writers, let him hold what growth he’s managed to gain!

I think it’d be good to accept that he’s gonna be outdated sooner or later, so have him help train another High Speed Engine and take them under his wing. The Christopher Awdry books kinda have something similar with Pip and Emma, but I think a better way of having Gordon be involved would be if he was actively doing some mentoring himself, as well as being a neat parallel with Edward, whose type was once Express only but got outclassed by A1s, and so the same can happen to this big A1 -> A3 lad and he can form a healthy relationship with some bright eyed newbie (and maybe have some self awareness and try to stop their head getting too large, lol).

Unpopular opinion

I know I just said him mentoring would be a cool story idea, but in canon? He is NOT a resident Dad type!! He’s a hotshot young man but he’s also a hot mess. He’s physically large but he’s not got the Energy of someone who dispenses sage advice and a shoulder to cry on. At best, he’s a weird uncle! One who means well but you shouldn’t take his life advice to heart because he’s actually just as, if not more clueless than you!

Favourite relationship

I feel inclined to say Thomas here. Emphatically not because Gordon is ‘old’ and Thomas is ‘young’, but because they’re so damn alike and actually make an excellent, albeit unconventional type of Rivalry.

Both are self important with genuine finesse in their respective talents, both are honest to a fault, both have redeeming qualities to offset their initial abrasiveness, and the first TVS episode is centred on the both of them and sets the tone for the series as a whole. There’s more parallels, of course, but I also wanna point out they’re effectively the mascots of North Western Rail in universe too, and I absolutely love this picture:

I also have immense fondness for the Down the Mine paradigm shift! Thomas gives Gordon grief over the ditch incident and later when it emerges the Fat Controller is gonna send for Gordon to pull him out, Thomas is filled with dread. But Gordon isn’t using the chance to lord over Thomas, he’s actually so amused by Thomas’ mishap and it coming at a time where he’s been significantly humbled, they instead become Comrades and I love it. I eat it up! Paint Pots and Queens isn’t anywhere near as good but I adore the little bit where they’re appealing for the other, equals and watching each other’s back~

But yeah, as Friendly Rivals they both feel very authentic and yet, in a daft way, sweet ;3

Favourite headcanon

He still says “Hurry, hurry, hurry!” when pulling the Express. That’s a HC as I think the show phased it out, but I like it lol. I feel like my essay on him contains most of the headcanon stuff, but it’s all based on what’s shown, baybee!

#this is ttte #TTTE Gordon #ttte talk #Gordon the Big Engine #Thomas the Tank Engine #TTTE Thomas #snuck in a bit in there lol #mentioned Edward a lot as well but not in as much depth #I love me some Blue Engines #TTTE