#do you know how many times I wrote Dipper Pines out of character?
Text
Tagged by @fezwearingjellybananas! thank you!
1. How many works do you have on AO3?
117 (115 of which are solo authored)
2. What’s your total AO3 word count?
810,361 (717,002 of which are solo authored, and more than a quarter of that is just mitm 😂)
3. What fandoms do you write for?
Whatever catches my attention long enough to give me a fic idea that I finish writing, honestly! I'm fully of the 'scroll twice to get to the end of my fandoms list' writer. But for specifics I'll try to just stick to the past two years, where I've collaborated on fic for USS Interpreter - a cast of original Star Trek ttrpg characters, the Spider Gwen comics (and Squirrel Girl comics), Star Trek Strange New Worlds (and Discovery, and a bit of TOS), Spider Man 2017, Raimi Spider Man, The Flash, IDW Transformers, The Untamed by way of Murderbot fusion/crossover, and Arcane
4. What are your top five fics by kudos?
Does It Hurt? - MCU CACW fix-it fic, with Tony and Bucky, and tonyrhodey
Don't Miss It - Ford and Mabel Gravity Falls Weirdmaggedon fic, optimistic speculation at the time
Meet in the Middle - My very, very, veeery long-ongoing driftrod fic
More than This - Aro (and ace) Obi-Wan
What You (Don't) Need to Hear - Aro Stanford and Dipper Pines
I do love that 2/5 of these are aro-centric fic
5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?
Yes! I love comments and I enjoy replying, and from talking to regular readers I think it helps encourage folks to comment. It's never something I expect from when I comment on other's fics, I just want to share my appreciation, but I always am happy to get replies myself.
6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?
Restraining myself to the past two years for specifics, I think You're Just A Little Boy, my transmasc La'an fic, has the most outright Unhappy Ending - at least for this fic, I might write a more hopeful follow up. I'll throw in when you're gone we won't say a word (but you know that's okay), my alternate future Pike fic, goes in for the most bittersweet, and I've definitely cried the most over it
7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?
I write a lot of happy endings, but they're often threaded with a bit of angst or bittersweetness. Fungus Not-Amongus is altogether pretty delightful fluff for Tilly and Pike, though.
8. Do you get hate on your fic?
I have once or twice, but not for a good long while, I've been quite lucky
9. Do you write smut?
Not yet! Got a project or two down the pipe that might have some, but it's not something I typically write
10. Do you write crossovers?
Yes! All the time. In the past couple years, I've written Ghosts in Your Head, Ghosts in My Head, The Flash fic in a Pacific Rim setting, more of a fusion setting, but I'll count it. Intersections, with Spider Gwen & Squirrel Girl, which are technically both Marvel Comics, but I'll count them as a crossover event in the comics spirit. Artificial Survivor is more of a Untamed fic in a Murderbot fusion setting, but the Murderbot characters are technically alluded to, so I'll count that too. Plus there's the Star Trek/Star Wars crossover with Star Trek OC's I'm helping out on. Generally you can find a lot of crossovers I've written, I find them really fun.
11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?
Not to my knowledge
12. Have you ever had a fic translated?
Yes! A reader asked to translate a tonyrhodey fic a few years back
13. Have you ever co-written a fic?
Given that I specified solo-authored fics above, you can probably guess the answer to that is yes! 😁 I'm co-writing fic about ttrpg Star Trek characters - I play & write Chief Engineer Piper Hawthorne. @severeannoyance is our captain and @plokoonsdisapprovingeyebrows is our Star Wars expert for our Star Wars crossover fic.
14. What‘s your all-time favourite ship?
Given that MITM is 1/4 of my solo wordcount, and I have updated it in the past two years, it's probably gotta be driftrod, at least for this ask. ask me next week, you might get a different answer 😂
15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?
I have a West Wing / X-Men 2 crossover that's been sitting in docs for many many years. I might release some of the finished scenes at some point, like I did with E2bard, because there's lots of good stuff and I always have fun with the West Wing character voices
16. What’s your writing strengths?
Dialogue, introspection, and replicating particularly strong character and narrative voices
17. What’s your writing weaknesses?
I tend to repeat phrases and overuse dashes, and don't expect much setting description XD
18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?
I usually just indicate that something's in another language and keep it in the same language as the rest of the fic - English for me, I'm currently pretty monolingual, but I think other options are perfectly workable for other authors.
Not actually related to the question, but I've gotten comments in other languages or with phrases in other languages, and I always find them an especially high compliment - that my fic was not only worth reading in a language that wasn't someone's first, but that they also put in the time to leave a comment. I usually have to use a bit of google translate and ask my bilingual friends for help translating (thank you), but all the comments have been very nice.
19. First fandom you wrote for?
I think I wrote what was Star Wars fanfic for vocab assignments back in middle school, though I didn't know that was what it was called. My first published fic was for Bleach.
20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?
Sticking in the past two years, Ghosts in Your Head, Ghosts in My Head is one I'm really proud of. And of course I have to mention Meet in the Middle, something I've stuck with for more than five years at this point.
tagging @severeannoyance and @plokoonsdisapprovingeyebrows plus @philcoulsonismyhero and @vetoing-clocks if yall want! Plus a blanket tag for anyone who wants to!
3 notes
·
View notes
Note
calli what do you think of sherman pines. you have a lot of opinions about stuff so I would like to know. I think I might go around and ask everyone actually. actually yes I will… anyway. i really like him. he is very cool 2 me and I wanna know what you think of him. is he the baby? the older sibling? someone completely different? there is a correct answer /hj. i have him as the older brother—I have three fics with him as a titular character. you haven’t reached the chapter where shermie appears in The Search yet, but I think he is very delightful and that you would like him too. i have a lot of a headcanons and personality traits about him. like for one; he loves popcorn. he used to make it for his brothers back in new jersey. he loved them a lot and was always the normal brother, which was sometimes okay but left him out of the loop for many things like ford’s life and stan’s kick out. ksjjdhdidgrgr one post has triggered my love for shermie again and now I pester Everyone (this went on for a while. sorry!)
The fun things about my having lots of opinions on everyone is...I usually don’t even know what they are until I start typing. I usually make ‘em up, applying canon to justify or refute as needed, as I go along. So...this could get interesting!
As I begin typing, though, at least, I’m a true agnostic on the subject of Shermie. I’ve written him in as the older brother, the younger brother, and the Non-Specified. In the original very rough outlines for parts II and III of FWJB, it was a plot point that Shermie both did and didn’t exist at the same time without his age ever being specified.[1] I keep saying I’m going to do a proper time travel Shermie someday; time will tell if this is true. As for theories I might run with in a story, if I were writing one where I couldn’t leave him unspecified:
1) If I wrote Older Brother Shermie, he’d be, like, much older. Possibly actually only a half-brother, as Caryn (irrc) looks a fair bit younger than Filbrick (though even if I recall incorrectly, eh, I believe I read somewhere that it was Word of Hirsch that Stan made the infamous remark about how your life will fall apart if you get someone pregnant at the drive-in movie because he’d heard Filbrick complain along those lines in the past. Who knows – I’m making things up as I type here - maybe there was a first Mrs. Filbrick who got cheated on at the drive-in, resulting in Stan and Ford and the half-brother they are only vaguely familiar with the existence of. That’s the fun of Filbrick and Shermie, there’s very little you can’t do, except, like, make Filbrick a nice person outside of Anti-Mabel’s home dimension, I guess). In any case, this variant of Shermie had a motorbike as a teenager and had only the foggiest notion that he even had siblings, making it vaguely plausible, when they bonded after the parents’ deaths, for Stan to sell the idea that “nah, you got us mixed up, Stanley was the one with six fingers” in the unlikely event that this variant of Shermie even knew one of them had had six fingers.
2) Younger Brother Shermie works, in my opinion (or at least, my opinion as it stands right now), only in one of three ways. One: he’s a time traveler. Two: his life is an angstfest on par with Stan’s. Three, of course, is that both of the preceding are true, to one degree or another. But anyway. If he didn’t go time traveling, his life’s pretty definitely an angstfest, considering that it implies that at least one of Dipper and Mabel’s parents was the product of Adolescent Indiscretions (my second fic ran with that idea, actually – in that case, the “next thing you know, you gotta raise a kid, your life falls apart….” remark was Stan talking about his brother. Though that plotline could also work with an Older Brother Shermie as well, of course.[2])
But yes – even after writing all of this and its footnotes, I’m...still a Shermie agnostic, really. Heck, you could probably call him into existence with the Infinity Die and I’d just nod and proceed without hesitation, lol. I will say, though, that the only Shermies I have actually read and clearly remember are yours and another Old!Shermie, who was also relatively normal and was a functional enough brother to the Stan Twins back in the day. I quite liked both of them (I have got to see more of your Shermie attempting to converse with Fiddleford sometime...and just more of that guy in general) – I’m far too cruel to Stan to allow him a decent person in his young adulthood, but I apparently enjoy reading the results when other people show mercy. My apologies if this document is, due to all this failure to promote a single thesis and the way it was written, useless and/or incomprehensible; will attempt to clarify any incomprehensible bits when I get a chance tomorrow (I’m actually going to have to go to bed at a reasonable hour for once and...at least make a better-faith-than-usual effort not to give up on sleeping too soon and whip the phone out; I’m having brunch with some friends in 3D tomorrow morning, so gotta sleep tonight and then be occupied for a while tomorrow, but yeah, it’s inevitable I’ll be online at some point.)
(1) To vaguely explain that very long story, in the unlikely event anyone wants to know: the half-baked idea (I never put it through all the wringers that ideas which make it into print get, so it’s still quite rough) was that time broke due to Weirdmageddon, time travel antics, or both, and – to borrow a metaphor from Terry Pratchett – had to do the equivalent of being put back together with glue sticks; among other problems, this created Shroedinger’s Shermie. Therefore, Ford nearly caused the end of the world by being like “...who’s this guy?” when Shermie showed up to help save the day in the finale, which caused Stan to realize “...I don’t actually have a single childhood memory of this guy, but I keep thinking I do??” while meanwhile, Shermie is like, “can you guys debate my existential status later, this is giving me a literal headache.” In the end, though, FWJB Shermie ended up being a killed-off Not Specified.
(Though now that I think of it, if I combined the idea with the ideas that took its place...Dipper already had to deal with a fair bit of temporal displacement. Mix that with a grandfather who both does and doesn’t exist...existentially unstable Dipper leads to existentially unstable Mabel, Tracey, and Quattro (especially the latter two), which leads to issues with both halves of the split-by-the-town-limits timeline, which all defies the fact that yet: here all four of them are, just as prophecy demands...dang, I could have horrified y’all more, huh? Or at least confused and/or induced headaches more. Plus, the rest of the story got significantly darker and more serious than it originally was supposed to be between the first and second outlines, only to get darker and more serious still between the second outline and the final product because of reasons, so the scene as originally pictured would have likely gotten much too slapstick to fit where it would have gone. Eh, probably for the best, it really did get trippy enough as it was. )
(2) No matter which Shermie I use, I seem to saddle the Child of Shermie with a pretty dysfunctional family, too, now that I think of it – the most detailed one I’ve come up with involved his mom running off with some guy in the Navy when he was two, leaving him to be partially brought up by the dysfunctional trio of Filbrick, Caryn, and Shermie and later be brought up by a stepmother who was loving on one hand, but had a personality of cast iron on the other. She and Shermie had an only half-joking agreement that she would not try to murder Stan during Shermie’s lifetime. She was Not Amused to get back from a cruise and find that Mr. Pines had sent the twins to Gravity Falls while she was away; she was Even Less Amused by the explanations Mr. Pines and Stan attempted to give her for why there were suddenly two Stans around after she discovered Ford’s existence. I haven't developed the other potential backstories for other versions of Shermie I've touched on much, but ten to one they're equally fun. Why stop at Dysfunction Junction when you can take the whole family right on to Soap Opera Station, am I right? (jk; I haven't seen them done in much detail anywhere, including my own work, but I have no objection to the idea of Dipper and Mabel's parents being semi-normal humans. They're another set who are fun because there's very little that you can't do with them, if so inclined).
#gravity falls#gravity falls fic#gravity falls characters#gravity falls timeline#gravity falls theory#the problem of shermie#warning: not edited to usual standards#rambling happened
6 notes
·
View notes
Text
Me, when I was just starting to use the Internet on my first phone: Why would people do headcanons and write AUs? I think the characters and the plot is just fine.
Me now:
Original meme from @fangirl-616
#fanfiction#fanfic#heacanons#AUs#do you know how many times I wrote Dipper Pines out of character?#ninjago#the lego ninjago movie#polyninja#billdip#cipherpinescone#voltron legendary defender#the last 2 seasons never happened#also me being introduced to billdip:#ah yes#I get it now
920 notes
·
View notes
Text
Under the Same Roof
I wrote two things for @halogalopaghost because I couldn’t decide between two concepts. Here’s the first one. I hope you like it.
Also on AO3
-----
Stanley Pines can always tell when his niece has some sort of plan up her wide knitted sleeves. She's never been one to hide her feelings and keep secrets, so the little twitches she does when she's trying not to spoil a surprise are always amusing.
For the past couple weeks Mabel has been flitting about the shack, working on various knitting projects but hiding most of them when her grunkles enter the room. It's endearing but a dead giveaway that she is plotting something. Dipper is no more forthcoming than his sister, though he sweats and rubs the back of his neck in his own nervous way when pressed. Stan also catches him whispering into the phone more than once, which is concerning but not entirely out of the ordinary.
They do manage to keep their mouths shut though, which Stan finds to be an admirable character trait. He loves a good surprise, even if he can see it coming from miles away.
On the other hand, Ford approaches the younger twins like he does his mysteries and it is starting to drive Stan a little nuts.
“What do you think Mabel is making for us?” He asks on the morning of their birthday, flopping down beside his brother on the worn porch couch. Stan levels him with an unimpressed stare and sips his coffee in silence. “Not even a guess, Stanley? I would have thought you would be excited by the prospect.”
“I am,” Stan lowers his can and bumps his shoulder against his brother's. “But until she tells us or gives it to us, we shouldn't ruin the surprise for ourselves. She's already trying so hard to keep it a secret, why make it harder?”
Ford frowned at his brother, who had always been the first one to scour the house for birthday present clues as a kid. He'd pulled Ford into many secretive late night escapades looking for mysterious boxes and hidden packages. But now his twin sat completely at ease with not knowing, their birthday swiftly approaching.
Stan glances at him out of the corner of his eye and sighs, slumping a little farther into the well-worn couch. “You're thinking of tearing through the house in Glass Shard looking for those books Ma bought us too, aren't you?” At Ford's nod he chews his lip and tears his eyes away. “I know we didn't get a lot of presents as kids but it was fun to find them and then act surprised. That... kind of lost its appeal after I... well, lets just say getting a nice surprise now and then made me really appreciate the simple things.”
Stan neglects to mention the way Ma had snuck him a few dollars in the mail for birthdays on the road and how even though he knew it was coming he teared up every time. He doesn't mention how much it hurt that first birthday after the portal, after he'd faked his own death, to get a book in the mail with a note that said “I was going to send this book to your brother too this year.” He'd stopped looking for what the surprises would be and started accepting that they would come. She'd sent something every year after that. Stan never asked for a hint and she never gave one, but he always had a feeling...
“Shit.” Stan sits up with a start and rummages through his pockets for his phone. “Did we tell Ma we were back on land for our birthday this year?”
“No, but a mother always knows,” comes a voice from the doorway and twin sets of eyes snap up to meet the fond gaze of Caryn Pines. She's smaller than either of them remember her ever being but she's standing in the doorway of the shack with a watery smile on her face.
“Ma?” Stan's voice breaks and then he's hurtling off the couch to gather his mother into his arms. “Why... how are you here?” He feels Ford come up behind him and he backs off so his brother can hug their ma as well.
Caryn reaches out and ruffles both her her sons' hair affectionately. “Did you think I'd miss your first birthday together again after all these years? I'm not so old yet that I can't get on a plane and cross a country for family.” Her smile turns mischievous. “Besides, it gave Shermie another excuse to come up. We got in a few minutes ago and the kids said you two were out here.”
“Shermie's here?” say Stan and Ford together, though Ford sounds excited and Stan's voice is full of trepidation. They haven't managed to get down to Piedmont yet to see their sister and now she's here and she'd promised to kick Stan's ass.
“Uhh... I gotta go do some stuff,” says Stan hastily, backing away from the doorway. He gets about two steps away when he turns around into a wall of solid and familiar muscle.
“Going somewhere, Stanley?” growls his sister's voice and Stan swallows very hard. Ford stifles a laugh and Stan feels his sister's gaze snap towards him as the laugh breaks off into a strangled choke. “You're next, Stanford. Don't think I've forgotten you.”
Even in her 70s and wearing something as nonthreatening as one of Mabel's sweaters (“I put the Grand in Grandma”) and a summery skirt, Shermie Pines towers over her younger brothers. She hauls them both bodily out into the yard and gives them a sound tongue lashing while their mother steals their spot on the couch and nods along, sipping on a mug of coffee she procured from somewhere. Maybe one of the kids brought it out but Stan is too preoccupied with the dressing down his sister is dealing him to really notice.
“... been back a whole year and you haven't visited family in all that time?” She's yelling now, eyes flashing with fury. “I know you've been calling but for fucks sake, a visit wouldn't have been amiss!” Stan can count on one hand the number of times he's seen his sister cry, but tears are starting to track down her cheeks as she waves her arms in the air. She pauses to suck in a ragged breath and then she's launching herself at them. Both twins flinch, expecting the first blow but it doesn't come. Instead she pulls them into a rough hug, nearly knocking all three of them off their feet. “I've missed you two dumbasses. Even if I did see one of you occasionally.”
Her brothers return the hug, tears gathering in their own eyes. “Sorry, Sherm.” says Stan at last, pushing away from his siblings to swipe a hand over his face. “We figured we'd better get used to each other again before inflicting ourselves on the rest of the family.”
“Inflict...” starts Shermie, ire rising again, and Stan holds out his hands placatingly. She takes a couple deep breaths and then lays a heavy hand on each of her brother's shoulders. “You two are family. I'm sorry you ever thought you would be a burden to us.” Shermie catches the flinch on Stan's face and a wince crosses her own. “Now or in the past, little brother.” She heaves a sigh and shakes off the somber mood threatening to overtake them. “Now, today is a day of celebration! You've made it around the sun another year and this time you managed to do it together!”
Shermie herds them back towards the shack, past their ma who still sits casually sipping coffee on the couch like she's always belonged there, and through the door into the kitchen. The space is peaceful in the morning sunlight for about ten seconds before all hell breaks loose.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” shrieks Mable as she careens out of her hiding spot just beyond the doorway. Dipper pops up from behind the kitchen table with a grin and pulls a party popper full of tiny streamers that somehow manage to cover the whole space. Shermie pushes her brothers forward and they have just enough time to brace themselves before they are hit with the force of their niblings sprinting into their arms.
Caryn made her way in from the porch and laid a hand on each of her boy's heads, smiling down at them and the younger twins. Behind her, Shermie gently lays her own hand on her mother's shoulder.
“It's been too long since we had all my children under one roof,” says Caryn with a smile. “I'm glad it's for something as special as a birthday.”
Stan feels his breath catch in his throat and he breaks away from the children long enough to throw his arms around his mother. A few minutes later Ford and Shermie are wrapped around the both of them and he hears the distant sound of a camera shutter click.
“Scrapbookortunity!” says Mabel in a delighted half-whisper before reaching over to high-five Dipper.
The rest of the day passes in a haze of presents and cake presided over by a gathering of family Stan never thought he would witness again.
It's perfect.
-----
Some things that I wanted to include that didn't fit:
Shermie Pines is trans. Transitioned late in life and kept the "Shermie" nickname as her legal name. Is also ripped af and could probably break both her brothers in half if she really wanted to.
Mabel made matching sweaters for the Grunkles that say "Birthday Grunk" on them. Stan's has a tiny question mark on it and Ford's has a tiny beaker.
#gravity falls#my writing#pines family feels#stanley pines#stanford pines#you can pry caryn pines still being around out of my cold dead hands#idk how else to tag this tbh
29 notes
·
View notes
Text
Gravity Falls S02E18 - Weirdmageddon Part I
I really like that name for the end of the world. I'm not sure what to expect from this one since this is literally new territory for everyone. My one hope is that Mabel gets forgiven easily but there has to be some drama, either for the twins or the Stans (since that relationship really needs some mending, and the end of the world seems to be a good place for that kind of thing.) I think that's all so let's do this!
If this is the first shot of the episode, things are going to get _weird_.
Wait. Wait. What.
Okay, had to go back and check Bill's summoning circle.
I completely forgot about this but I guess he needs all the symbols for something beyond summoning everything weird into this dimension? But why? Uhm.
Anyway, back in Dreamscaperers I wrote:
Glasses = The ones Stan found in the room with the magic carpet?
Question Mark = Soos
Ice - Fish with food? > Pine = Dipper
Star with an eye
Hand = Whoever wrote the journals considering the symbol on their covers?
Llama/Alpaca?
Shooting star = Mabel
Heart with stitches
Fish with food ended up being Stan's fez. I _think_ Heart with Stitches could be Robbie. Hand is obviously Ford. I'm still not sure about Glasses (they really look like Stan's glasses but... how would that work?) and Star (maaaaybe Gideon? The star appears in the ending cypher in S02E14.) The alpaca/llama and the ice are a complete mystery. Considering everyone of importance is in there already, maybe Wendy is one of those two?
Symbols aside, does this mean that Mabel is going to be missing until who knows when? That's a bit disappointing.
Imagine being able to choose any physical form at all and choosing to keep being a dorito.
Before I paused I was convinced this guy was some weird Nigel Thornberry cameo.
So, Bill has 10 friends, which is exactly the number of symbols in the summoning circle. Huh. Interesting.
Maybe it means nothing but their appearance feels so sudden that I feel they have to be important somehow.
Immersion ruined, the Northwests would never lower themselves and go "downtown"
What a trianglist, she had no problems with Mabel.
I imagine Wendy can't wait to go to college a thousand miles away from her family.
Death, Famine, War, Conquest and Capitalism.
That's horrifying. But he's a dick. What a moral dilemma. Nah, he really deserves it.
Why steal Durland? Huh. Maybe he's also one of the symbols? Or Bill is just being Bill.
Oh, oh, I know what they do!
What an intro, I'm 100% sold.
What can our protagonists do? I guess Ford has a plan, maybe the symbols are for unsummoning Bill and that's why he's collecting them so they can't do whatever ritual they need to do. Maybe Ford and Stan will be in a similar situation that made them fight 30 years ago, but this time they actually communicate and win? Mabel is out so I hope they rescue her (or she rescues herself) before too much plot happens.
I _love_ how much of an effect the changed OP had on me.
After watching 37 episodes with the same opening song any changes are immediately noticeable and it feels _wrong_. What a great way to show how everything is changing for the worse thanks to Bill.
It does make me wonder how Gravity Falls is going to recover though. It looks _bad_, bad enough that in any other show I wouldn't be surprised by a time-machine or a literal genie undoing everything bad that happened. I doubt that'll happen here, since the town itself is so used to the "weird" but if someone dies all bets are off.
YESSSS, Dipper doesn't blame her! I'm sure there'll be some self-blame later on but I'm so glad his first reaction was to be worried.
Why is Soos unaffected? Is it related to his presence in the summoning circle? Looking for unaltered people may be a good way to find who are the missing symbols.
Soos deserved more episodes, what a hero
Has there been any positive romantic relationship in Gravity Falls?
Wendy and Dipper was an unrequited mess, Mabel and all her crushes were all disasters of some kind or another, the less said about Wendy and Robbie the better, and Tambry and Robbie is the result of the twins messing with their minds without their consent. Oh, and Gideon and his murderous crush on Mabel.
I love that tiny shiny dodrio.
I didn't need to know that Bill's hat was meat and bones.
What? No! Warnings later, explanations how to defeat a demon now!
This is the first time he calls Dipper by his symbol, right? He also called Ford "six fingers." The writers really wanted everyone on the same page here about making the relation between the symbols and the characters.
...I refuse to believe that the eye piece meant nothing with how much it has been shown!
Weirdmageddon sounds much better.
Wow. He has been wandering around for three days, probably having to scavenge for food and water. These kids are really going to need a therapist after summer break is over.
For some reason I find that guy more disturbing that most of the weirdness in this episode so far. He just sounds very predator-y.
...oh Dipper, those nachos are three days old at best. So young, so ignorant of the consequences of gastroenteritis.
...of course. I'm glad she's okay. She's been shown as a very badass so it would have been a shame if she was down without a fight.
But, but, rabies.
Can't wait for the weirdmaggeddon to be over and then immediately after everyone dying of infectious diseases.
So, how many post-weirdmageddon dipper/wendy fics did this scene inspire?
Robbie is conspicuously missing from that list
nevermind. Would have been an amazing selfie though, can't fault him for that
Aw. This got me a bit teary-eyed. They really can do anything if they are together.
Shame about Mabel being inside Bill's floating lair completely out of their reach.
What a raw deal, last game I played with twins on it they l– actually, never mind, spoilers. But it was really cool, believe me.
It looks like the mission briefing for a stealth game so, in my case, I'd try to avoid the lights, fail miserably a thousand times and then rage quit. Hopefully Dipper is better at stealth.
Making the world weird?
Wouldn't they know what's going to happen? Since there seems to be only one timeline? Actually, nevermind, I'm too sober to analyze the time travel mechanics of gravity falls.
Time Baby was the most powerful entity in the show so far! Stakes have been raised.
RIP Bodacious T, we never go to know you.
Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015
Two months being a villain and he still hasn't learned to avoid monologuing.
Don't worry, Gideon. It took Steven Universe 6 years to grow a neck, you'll get one someday.
Huh. So Bill manipulated him by using his obsession for Mabel. That's a nice way to explain why it came back after so many episodes without mentioning it too much.
Ugh.
She's a genuine action movie heroine trapped in a cartoon
I have no idea how Wendy manages to get more and more badass this season.
Right!? Right!? Wow.
Holy shit, this really is Fury Road.
that's deep, man
Ah, that explains it. Nothing more dangerous than a philosophy major.
Hatoful Boyfriend, 2014
My mind is exploding right now. I wasn't ready for anime Dipper and Wendy. What are the monkey and kid in the backseat referencing?
Lady Gag– nah, I refuse to use the same joke three times in the same liveblog.
* screams in terror too *
What a shame that we couldn't see the birth of the legend of Soos.
I can't believe Dipper is using the "Power of Understanding" to talk Gideon down.
This is really good. I almost want to joke and say "but it wasn't worth the Wendy/Dipper episodes" but it actually does make them work in retrospect. It's probably the largest source of character growth for Dipper during the show and here's the payoff.
I mean, yes.
WHAT
HOW DARE YOU
GAME IS OVER, AND I WON
NOW IT'S TIME TO START THE FUN
I ALWAYS LOVE CORRUPTING LIVES
NOW LET'S SEE WHICH PINES SURVIVES
well, that's nice.
---
I wasn't sure what to expect from this "Part 1", I thought it was going to be mostly setup. And it had a bit of that, just to show how screwed Gravity Falls (the town) is, but after that it was all action and it was all good.
I think getting Ford out of the way early was a good idea, it removes the possibility of a quick solution. Now Dipper has to figure things on his own. He still needed Wendy to remind him of what he and Mabel are capable of but that's a friend offering help, not "the mentor" giving him the answer to the problem. On the other hand, while Stan hasn't appeared after the goat, he hasn't been captured yet (he's important enough to deserve an on-screen capture, unless it's going to be revealed as a demoralizing surprise?) so I think he'll appear soon since he's just a guy, without any special knowledge about Bill.
Soos really deserves his own show. "The Legend of Soos" Or give Wendy her own show with Soos as the mysterious stranger that appears from time to time to help. Because wow, Wendy is lost in this show, she should be the protagonist of something.
But the star of the show was Dipper talking Gideon down. I _really_ didn't expect that. This is not a show where the protagonists defeat their villains by talking to them (with some exceptions) so I thought they'd defeat him in some other, more violent, way. And the way he uses the "Power of Understanding" to do it (go read Scott Pilgrim)! While Dipper never got to that extreme, he "gets" it and that's just * chef kiss *
I can't wait for the next episode, especially because this one ended in a cliffhanger, so until next time!
65 notes
·
View notes
Note
How do u feel about Mabel
I have an unending sense of adoration for what Mabel contributes to Gravity Falls. Technically, Mabel isn’t a favorite of mine – I don’t think of her or relate to her as much as others like Stan, Ford, Dipper, or Fiddleford. However, my appreciation for her is endless.
Gravity Falls couldn’t exist without Mabel. The story’s heart would be crippled. Mabel’s energy and charm provides a unique personality to the show through her unique personality. The show wouldn’t have the same vibe without her ridiculousness! Plus, GF is a story of familial love. And Mabel, as half of the younger Pines twins duo, is essential to giving us the feels of what it means to be in a loving but emotionally complicated family. They couldn’t have picked a better personality to interact with Dipper and Stan for the narrative’s central trio. The combination of Mabel’s vivacity, Stan’s gruffness, and Dipper’s paranoia… is what sells us on this cast. (With Bill, Soos, Wendy, Ford, Pacifica, Gideon, etc. making great additions.)
That’s already enough to celebrate Mabel, but I can’t say this enough: Mabel is the fulfillment of my greatest wish for women characters:
Let women be weird.
The Limited Scope of Female Personalities in Media
All genders get roped into stereotypical personalities in media, but I feel like women especially get reduced. I struggle relating to and loving fictional women… because they feel like the same restrictive subset of personalities I’ve seen reiterated again and again and again and again and again.
There’s the rude, prissy, popular rich girl.
There’s that easygoing cool tomboy.
There’s the hot, edgy, serious, sexy, COOL, highly skilled badass action woman who is the most hardcore of the main cast, hides a sense of internal empathy and compassion, but warms up from her coldness when she meets the main character lead… and then probably goes and kisses him once he, despite being a rookie, magically manages to best her years of hard training.
*ka-sigh*
Even when a fictional woman doesn’t hit something that cringeworthily stereotypical, she still feels… bland. Fictional characters can be enjoyable exaggerations of personality traits – we have the opportunity to create as weird, ridiculous, or diverse of individuals as we possibly can. And yet usually women aren’t written to be as wild or diverse in their personalities as men. The ladies will probably look standardly pretty, act standardly reasonable, act standardly feminine, and make standard choices. Women characters in a cast often feel the least distinct to me. I’m probably not going to find quirks in my ladies or something that sets them apart from the crowd. Let’s be real: media depicts women according to societal expectation. Women in media are reduced to a washed-out, generic fantasy that doesn’t relate anything to how women feel, nor does it try hard to relate to what women feel.
The writing doesn’t understand women. And I can feel it.
When a bland, stale action woman goes on screen in her hot sexy tight pants, is her presentation supposed to be female empowerment (she’s fighting [gasp!])? Or is it another quick, uninspired shortcut without thinking through what her humanity is? “She fights, she’s a ‘good’ female role model, that’s good enough.” Still caters to the male gaze, still caters to male fantasy for what an attractive woman is like, still doesn’t think through her psychology, still presents media’s “desire” for what women “should” be like.
We drastically need to improve how women are written.
You know what my women friends are like? Women are loud and unashamed belchers. Women crack terrible puns about the French Revolution while everyone boos. Women dress up their stuffed animal cats in goggles and a lab coat. Women geek out over how cute worms are. Women want to kill the opposing team in sports competitions. Women eat food off the floor. Women spend sleepovers watching chick flicks and musicals. Women shriek screamo songs at the top of their lungs, getting maybe a third of the lyrics right, racing through the night in their car twenty miles over the speed limit. Women spend thirty five minutes trying to get the perfect selfie because their hair finally fucking cooperated. Women repeatedly text their friends photos of them flipping the bird making derp faces. Women play beer pong until they’re drunk. Women do unnecessarily complicated mathematics calculations to prove their point in fandom. Women stay up all night screaming murder at first person shooter video games. Women play shitty pop song covers on their tubas. Women spend an hour and a half dyeing their hair pink in the sink (and dye the entire bathroom pink in the process). Women debate the finer points of Immanuel Kant with one another. Women demand their friends dish the details when they hear someone has a new significant other. Women binge watch anime eating frozen dinners heated from the microwave while sobbing out their mascara. Women get crushes on Simba or Kovu from The Lion King. Women work out at gyms because they want to get RIPPED. Women. Are. Diverse. And. Delightfully. QUIRKY.
I know I ranted a long time about it, but the point is to show the difference between what women are (personable and peculiar)… versus the stale bread, watered-down crap we get in the movies.
So this. This is why I will never quit raving about Mabel.
Mabel finally lets us see an ACTUAL GIRL as ACTUAL GIRLS act: she’s delightfully, realistically, over-exaggeratedly, charmingly, unforgettably WEIRD.
Instead of trying to write a “girl” first and getting tied up in the tropes and gender biases, Gravity Falls writes a character who happens to be a girl with some girl traits.
What Makes Mabel Different
Instead of writing some standard bland stereotyping “oh this feels vaguely feminine and attractive” excuse-for-a-cardboard-cutout-of-a-woman… Mabel is given real love, real personality, real demonstration of what women are. After all these years of me suffering in theatres thinking, “Oh look, it’s the same uninspired sexy badass action woman stereotype,” I can finally find a character who’s not what media pretends women should be like. I see a character who the writers actually thought about her personality for!
Gravity Falls allows a woman character to do things I almost never see of women characters.
For starters: Mabel’s gross. She finds leftover tacos in the backseat of the car and decides it’s a perfect snack. She sticks her head into a dusty barrel and laughs when caterpillars crawl over her face. She makes fart sounds and laughs at those fart sounds. She lets a statue pick her nose. She shoves food into her mouth voraciously. She’s animated with wild, ridiculous, non-flattering facial expressions. Gravity Falls allows Mabel to be gross.
This is already amazing to me. Cartoons are a little better than live action movies, where the latter can’t let a woman look imperfect when she’s crying or fighting villains. But cartoons often have limitations for how women are shown, too. It’s refreshing to see a girl who is gross.
And I don’t know about you, but I’d be hard-pressed to name even three other contemporary Western women characters who’re allowed to be girly AND gross. Mabel Pines. Princess Fiona. The list ends there for me? Sometimes I’ll see girls in media dressed with “unruly” appearances – their hair is SLIGHTLY frazzled and they wear glasses (gasp) – but that’s not real grossness, and it’s especially not grossness combined with girliness.
Gravity Falls isn’t afraid to make Mabel both gross and “girly”, and that’s special.
Next, Mabel’s girliness feels authentic. By “girliness” I mean Mabel taking actions according to Western societal gender norms for ciswomen. I don’t mean that’s how girls have to innately be. I hate the idea that people “should” behave according to gender roles and encourage us all to express our individuality. Anyway. Yes, most women in media have girliness to them… but nothing prepared me to seeing a twelve year old girl act like the twelve year old girls I knew.
Mabel loves bright colors, rainbows, unicorns, cute boys, formal dances, boy bands, and looking cute. These are girly traits and girly interests. But the way they show Mabel, Candy, and Grenda bonding over boy talk at a sleepover? That ridiculous, unrestrained screaming, combined with the mischievous grins, is exactly the sort of stuff I grew up with. It’s not just “oh we wrote a girl who likes pink and makeup who gets catty about crushes” – it’s “oh, we wrote a girl who enjoys her girly side like a twelve year old would!”
Gravity Falls allows Mabel to live according to some elements of the gender norm. The show doesn’t tote the idea that people live without gender influence, that people live in a vacuum of culture. It shows people in society often live by some pattern of gender roles. But, the show doesn’t make Mabel be that norm or preach she should be that norm. Honestly, I don’t see many shows try to strike this balance: willing to give characters gender role interests, while still respecting that everyone is unique and doesn’t need to live by those roles. Either the shows completely drop gender roles (which can be refreshing and help us overcome our biases) or they stick too close to assumptions that your gender = your brain, which is backwards thinking.
GF doesn’t lazily pin a character with girly traits because “that’s what women are.” It doesn’t stop at some assumptive “She wears pretty boots.” It understands Mabel’s psychology, lets her express that girliness unrestrained, provides her screen time to live this (!!! screen time to girl time in an all-gender-demographic-show!!!), and allows her to intersect that girliness with her grossness and her weirdness.
Next, Mabel is allowed to be confident and bold. Society isn’t good with women being bold and outspoken yet. Women often get criticized for being bossy, bitchy, obnoxious, etc. when they speak their minds and act with the confidence that men are “allowed” to have in their daily lives. And yet Mabel can be an outspoken and unrestrained character.
It works well for her age, too!
Last, Mabel is weird. Mabel has quirks. I’ve said this three hundred times and I’ll say it three hundred more, but Mabel being weird is a delight. It’s not often that women are allowed to be the ridiculous comedic side in children’s / family animation. (Yay Ruffnut for also fulfilling this role.)
Mabel is unrestricted, allowed to be a wild dork on screen. She’ll eat tubes of toothpaste because they’re sparkly, make “Mabel juice” with plastic dinosaurs in the pitchers, dress pigs in costume, knit scratch-and-sniff sweaters, slap stickers on her uncle’s nose, scream for a minute straight before coughing up glitter, dream up the centaurtaur, and more.
But it’s not just that. It’s her mindset. Mabel’s excitement for things – down to an eight legged cow having “more limbs for hugging” – is a perspective I essentially never see in stories. She’s got a way of looking at the world like no one else I know. It’s a wild, bizarre perspective… but that’s what makes her so good and human.
Mabel has a “What the heck?” vibe from her, whether it’s her interests, her thought processes, or her choices.
And frankly, that’s so much more relatable, personable, and beautiful to me… than almost any other woman I see on screen in media. When I see Mabel, I can remember what I was like as a kid.
Although I’m non-binary, I didn’t grow up knowing about non-cis gender. I grew up more or less thinking of myself as a little girl. Many of my childhood experiences were with little girls. So, when I look at old photographs of myself, I see someone with unrestrained energy, joy, and weirdness - just like Mabel.
That is what kids are like, guys! That is what kids are like!
Not this weird restricted stereotype on television I see! But THIS.
So yeah.
Even just from the topic “What does Mabel bring to women’s representation in media,” Mabel is a shooting star. She’s a success. I love it. It’s freeing, exciting, and refreshing to me, being able to see a woman character given this loving treatment. I’m passionate about women being represented well in media, and not in the sense of falsely-portrayed empowerment. Mabel is the glorious three-dimensional, unique, bizarre, memorable type of girl I want!
She’s worth celebrating for all her personality traits, too: her creativity, her energy, her lightheartedness, her love for her family. But that’s content for another essay.
In short: bless Mabel Pines. Bless, bless, bless Mabel Pines.
This is a damn great character.
#non-dragons#GF#Gravity Falls#Mabel#Mabel Pines#analysis#my analysis#ask#ask me#awesome anonymous friend#wrote this at like 4 am#hope it's coherent hahahaha#Anonymous#representation#women's representation
389 notes
·
View notes
Text
Flat Friends
Long story short: @pengychan wrote this adorable short titled Friend Shaped (i don’t know how to do anything on this website, so pretend I added the link and send help) and my sleepy brain (author) decided that it would be a great idea to continue it; my awake brain (editor) agreed it was feasibile and here we are.
Special thanks to @itsfreecollectorzombieus for pushing me to finally startin.
Title: Flat Friends
Characters: the population of Gravity Falls, Oregon; Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines, Bill Cipher, Liam Cipher
Rating: T
Chapter 1: Two more
Dipper was by now a hundred percent sure that the bus driver was deaf. That, or he was being incredibly oblivious to the two people singing a variant of “99 bottles of beer” where said beer had been exchanged for glitter.
The impromptu duet didn’t seem in any way close to an ending, if the “fifty-eight bottles of beer” Mabel and Bill all but shouted was of any indication (which it wasn’t, seen how the counting system the two used could go from seventy to twenty-three to forty without either notice or method).
Their ear-shattering chanting, however, didn’t wake Liam, who merely shifted in his sleep, burying himself a little deeper into Dipper’s puff vest; the movement made the “neck” of the greenish cyan sweater Mabel knitted him rise to his eye.
The scalene triangle had acted like the dictionary definition of the word narcoleptic since the – accidental, mind you – “summoning” of a week ago, falling asleep pretty much anywhere and anytime, which had led to a couple of really close calls that forced Dipper and Mabel to invent new methods of hiding evidence mere seconds before their parents entered the room.
Hey mom, we have been hosting a couple of aliens, please don’t be mad. Yees; that would have been awkward.
Immersed as he was in his reverie, Dipper took a bit to register a fairly dreading notion: Mabel and Bill had stopped singing.
Mabel couldn’t help but giggle: seeing how Dipper all of sudden shot up like a bug had bitten him – clearly expecting to see some kind of havoc – then deflated as quickly upon seeing and hearing her knitting was hilarious. Billy had accepted to hold the yarn; Mabel still didn’t trust him to knit himself, and seen how last time he had managed to turn a scarce two yards of yarn in a magenta web that had been an absolute pain to re-knit into the sweater he was currently wearing, for all the good reasons.
“Mabel-
Speak of the devil…
“Can we play a game? I’m getting bored”. Bill yawned out the last word for emphasis.
Uh oh. Mabel had seen what Bill was capable of doing when bored, and sure as heck didn’t want a rerun of the experience (word of advice: Bill is to keep WELL AWAY from Mabel Juice).
Let’s see…
I spy? All she could see out the window were trees, so that was a no.
Cards? Billy was too tiny to even hold them, let alone play.
His tiny size also prevented him to participate in a Seat Treasure Hunt: they would lose him, bright sweater notwithstanding.
The only books she brought were homework…
“Earth to Mabel. You receive me?” asked Dipper, stirring and creaking his joints – which produced a concert of fizzle candy pops – effectively snapping her out from her train of thoughts.
“Yes, just thinking about stuff”.
“Mind to share? If you are conspiring against me, I want in!” he teased good-naturedly.
Bill decide to throw in his two cents.
“Believe me, the only conspiracy that anyone will hold against you is the one to throw you into a bathtub! I don’t even have a nose and I can tell you stink”.
Whatever reply Dipper could have formulated was drowned out by Mabel’s laughter.
After a couple of moments spent in a vain attempt to maintain a disgruntled face, Dipper joined in, shaking and wheezing, failing to register that Liam was waking up.
Unfortunately for them, Bill noticed.
“Welcome back to the waking world, Brainiac!” Bill yelled into his brother’s metaphorical ear, speeding the waking process quite a lot.
“Morning, guys”.
“Actually it’s four in the afternoon”, clarified Dipper.
“Good afternoon, then”, Liam corrected himself. He was still unused to the gradual shift of light, so different from the switch-like way day and night alternated back home.
“How much longer do we have left until we arrive?” He had noticed a shift in the colors, the green of trees darker than when the bus ride started.
Colors weirded him, in a good way. He often wondered if he wasn’t just dreaming; every time the realization hit him with the same force it did the first time: there was no color back home! How could he dream of something he never experienced? He couldn’t! So that meant he was really seeing the colors, just as he always wished to!
Just as Mabel was about to answer, having re-tangled the unused yarn in a tight ball and stabbed it with her knitting needles, they passed in front of a sign.
“Welcome to Gravity Falls” read Mabel, guessing the first two words. Who wrote in cursive on a street sign?
“Nothing to see here folks” added Dipper, reading the small font at the bottom of the board.
They arrived in the town square five minutes later. When the bus stopped they were ready: Liam was sitting in the emergency pocket Mabel had added to her favorite sweater and Bill had been coaxed quite literally into Dipper’s hat, accepting only because sitting on the soft mop that were the tween’s hair was worth the smell of it.
Stepping out the bus the four exchanged a meaningful look: it was going to be a great summer.
Author Notes: The driver is neither deaf nor oblivious, just used to weird stuff. @methaley said something about Mabel knitting ugly sweaters and I had to prove her wrong (the only instance where Mabel would knit a ugly sweater would be for Celestabellebetabelle’s birthday gift). Stll on the topic of sweaters, Bill’s sweater is magenta because: A) pink is the first color he sees in this AU, B) I may or may not have read @altairattorney‘s Technicolor so many times I can quote it, C) Magenta and Turquoise (Liam’s “canon“ color, sorry for describing it as “greenish cyan) are almost complementary colors and i love accidental symbolism.
99 notes
·
View notes
Text
Filly was tagged!!! Yet again!!!
(I was tagged by the rad, @misscrazyfangirl321)
Rules:
1. Always post the rules.
2. Answer the questions given by the person who tagged you.
3. Write 11 questions of your own.
4. Tag 11 people.
What was the first fanfiction you wrote about? (Fandom, ship, plot, etc.): Oooooh gracious,, (Why would you do this to me) I believe it was freaking Arthur Christmas x reader (I was a child don’t judge me- also, not the show Arthur, a different one)
Who was your first friend on Tumblr?: Hmm,,, I could be wrong, but I think it was Psy? (@psychedemigod)
Do you collect anything unusual?: I collect a lot of things!!! Shells, rocks, figurines, do-dads, nick-nacks, ect.,
What was the name of your first pet?: Bella the goldfish!! (Who died exactly 1 week after coming home)
What was your first “Ship that you shipped before you knew what shipping was”?: Ooooh my goodness I have so many!! I don’t even remember the first! XD
How long is the longest fic you’ve ever read?: The first thing that comes to mind is Blue Sky, but technically I never finished it
What is your favorite memory? (That you’re comfortable sharing, of course.): I don’t know if I have a definite favorite, but once me and my friend Katie stayed up all night at her house playing Minecraft, and in the morning we sat around eating and watching Doctor Who (and later played even more Minecraft) and that’s definitely one of my favorites
If you could only pick three ships to be canon, and you knew that none of your other ships ever would be, which three would you pick?: None, just cause ships aren’t really a ‘hope it becomes canon’ thing for me lol
If you could recast one character, who would you recast? Who would you pick to play them?: *Shrug*
Do you play/have you ever played any sports?: No, but if I did I might have had an asthma attack, passed out, and just don’t remember it
Have you ever dressed up for Halloween, and if so, what’s your favorite costume?: Yes! My favorite costume that I’ve worn would have to be the Mabel Pines costume I wore last year, because my brother was Dipper and our cousin was a human Bill Cipher and there were so many jokes it was great
My questions are:
Would you rather be a big part of your favorite characters life, but not remember who you are, or have them be a big part of your life, but not remember who they are?
Are you as bad at coming up with questions as I am?
Ya’ like jazz?
Favorite AU for everything?
Do you wanna build a snowman?
*Jazz hands*?
Fidget spinners or fidget cubes?
That one song thats p good except the chorus is terrible?
Space or time?
I’m almost to the last question!! Are you excited!?
Minecraft, or Terraria (Hint: Minecraft)
I tag: @rin-fate @roseboxdraws @blasterboltssaidjacen @takeabreathandsmile @thehunteress915
I DON’T HAVE THAT MANY FRIENDS
4 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Oracle
A/N: I bring you the thing I had wanted to write in like forever: the saltiest reunion yet. But come on, did you really think I’d leave this character out? Not a chance.
Based on Flat Dreams by @pengychan. AU by @doodledrawsthings. Enjoy.
Part 1
Part 2
“He is awake.”
“So soon?” Jheselbraum casts a look at at dimension 46’/, where Mabel Pines reaches to shake the hand of the monster they defeated only a year or so ago. “I would have expected at least a few more centuries.”
“I’m sure you know that time is relative.” The is a tone of amusement in the Ancient’s words. “It has been a lot longer than that.”
The Oracle takes that in, watching the events in Stanford’s home dimension play out, and hums in amusement, “‘A different form’,” she repeats to herself, “You couldn’t resist the irony, could you?”
The Axolotl chuckles, “Rather fitting, considering the many times humanity was deceived by him.”
“And who brought him to his demise.” she mutters. It is strange, seeing the used to be triangle in a completely different form, and she feels a certain satisfaction when he starts to panic, staring at his newfound body in shock. That’s when Mabel Pines finally collects herself, putting her grappling hook to good use. “Looks like the universe is giving its tormentor a warm welcome.”
Another chuckle. “What will you do now?”
She shrugs, her gaze still aimed at the two small Pines twins as they argue on what to do. She’d waited for a trillion years to see her mistakes paid for. And now, when Bill Cipher is finally getting what’s coming for him, she can’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed. Interfering now seems too soon. She’ll stay, and wait her turn. For now, she has her own personal comedy to watch. If the Pines family handles him as well as they had so far, then she has nothing to worry about. Besides, she has a feeling her meeting with Bill Cipher wasn’t that far away. A brief glimpse in the future tells her as much.
Then she’ll rub his loss in his eye. Or eyes. Seems like he has two now.
“I’ll stay.” she answers finally, turning to her friend. “A confrontation now doesn’t seem all that appealing.”
“It’s your choice.” the Axolotl seems to have expected that from her. He gives a farewell nod before leaving. The temple seems quiet now, but it doesn’t matter. There is a calm relief, now that Bill would not be posing a threat to anyone. And a certain anticipation, an emotion the Oracle hadn’t felt in a very long time. She will wait, then. After a trillion years, waiting doesn’t seem that hard at all.
…
“Wait, so you’re the one that helped my uncle defeat Bill, right?”
“That would be me, yes.” Dipper Pines is, as Jheselbraum soon finds out, extremely likable. He’s smart, resourceful, and has a thirst for knowledge not unlike that of his great uncle. In only a few hours the boy manages to ask enough questions to fill a star system. She tries her best answering all of them, seeing as how they are somewhat predictable, yet some just have her at a loss of words.
“Can I get your autograph??”
“Um…”
“NEVERMIND THAT!” Mabel literally jumps in the conversation, pointing an accusing finger at her. “Tell me, if you’re really an oracle, how come you don’t speak in rhyme?”
“Mabel, this isn’t Percy Johnson-”
“Shush, this is an important question.”
While the younger Pines twin is subdued but thoughtful, the older one is the complete opposite. She’s loud, lively, and a welcome change to the usual quiet of the temple. Unlike her brother, the questions Mabel asks are often slightly absurd even for the Oracle.
“It would be a pointless amount of effort to do so.”
The girl seems to think it over, then nods approvingly. “Fair enough. Okay, but why are you purple?”
“…Symbolism.”
Mabel gives another satisfied nod, “Gotcha.” Her brother looks even more confused.
The Oracle’s attention is briefly torn away from the children as she casts an unimpressed look at the balcony, where her third visitor sits with his back to her, trying his best to ignore all three of them. “He’s always like that.” Mabel supplies. “Plus, you know, you kinda helped defeat him and all that junk. He’s probably still mad about that.”
“Of course.” Her tone turns cold, and the twins seem to flinch slightly at that. The Oracle noticeably softens her demeanor. “Why don’t you two go explore?” she asks instead, careful to keep her voice friendly. Often times she ends up intimidating the mortals she converses with, and while that’s understandable, it mostly makes her conversation with them…awkward. She’s sure not to make the same mistake with the Pines children.
Judging by the brightened looks on both of their faces, that shouldn’t be a problem. “Oh, we did,” Dipper confesses eagerly, “though most of your books aren’t in English, so kinda hard to..read. I wrote some stuff down though, so-”
“And I found a lazer gun!” Mabel cuts off her brother, “Or I think it was a lazer gun. Maybe it’s a can opener…it looks like a gun. And you’ve got a lot of weird gadgets, lady. Where do you get them all, some kinda sci-fi black market?”
“Yes, a lot of the parts come from…interesting places.” she smiles, the two lower eyes crinkling in amusement. The girl’s enthusiasm seems to be contagious, and the Oracle doesn’t mind at all.
“Wait, so what kind of stuff do you actually have? Can you show me? I mean, you don’t have to I just- yeah sorry, it’s just so cool.”
That is flattering, extremely so, despite the fact that the boy is slowly running out of air. “I’ll be glad to show you sometime, but for now, I’m sure you’d want to see what the rest of this dimension is like.” The Oracle gestures toward the balcony, where far below them the valley extends into the fading sun on the horizon. The village lights were just starting to appear, blinking serenely in the distance.
The two human children stare at her dimension in silence, before Mabel brakes it with a whoop of joy. “YES! Wait…” she glances back down at the settlement warily, “It’s not gonna be like last time, right? Cause we kinda pissed off an alien princess, and then these giant buff guards started chasing us. Through one of them was kinda cute…”
“Correction, Bill pissed her off.” Dipper glares at the figure who made himself comfortable on her terrace.
“Bill pisses everybody off.” the boy’s twin shrugs. “I don’t know what’s so surprising.”
“Good point.��
After she assures them that her dimension is one of the safest they could possibly visit, Jheselbraum hands both of them translators and sends them on their way. To think that the two were running around without one. No wonder their journey hadn’t been that pleasant.
The woman finally turns her attention to the elephant in the room. Bill Cipher. The monster she’d worked most of her trillion year old life to defeat is now sitting on her stoop like it’s nothing, so the least she could do is give him a nice warm welcome. The Oracle fixes her seven-eyed stare on the back of his head, silently watching. The tension in the room winds up, ready to burst as soon as one of them speaks. Of course, the one that eventually does is Bill. “Whatever you gotta say, say it already.” he doesn’t turn around, but she can tell by his tone he is angry. That is not surprising in the least.
“I have nothing to say to you.”
“Oh come on! What, don’t even wanna gloat about anything? That stupid piece of metal in Sixer’s head, maybe? Or maybe that unicorn spell you were so eager to share with him? Don’t think I didn’t notice it was you.” the demon finally turns around to give her a humorless sneer. Jheselbraum, in turn, keeps her expression calm, devoid of any fury she might be feeling right now. That only seems to fuel his own anger. “Let me guess: the big frilly got you those eyes, didn’t he? I betcha you’re one of the guys whose dimensions I freed, right? And you were pissed because you couldn’t take a little change. So he offered you some kinda deal, to “stop his chaos”, yada yada, and you took it because you were so eager to play hero. Did I get it right? I bet I did, didn’t I?” he fixes her a mirthless smile. It seems like Cipher tried his hardest to find the words that would best get a reaction out of her. To be fair, it was a pretty good try. But considering that it’s exactly what the Oracle expects from him, it doesn’t prove to be very effective.
“Yes. I suppose there’s some truth in it.” As tempted as she is, she doesn’t mention that the dimension he destroyed was hers as well. So far, Bill Cipher did not give any hint that he knows her identity. She’d like to keep it that way, for the time being. It’s interesting to see how long it will take until he figures it out. Perhaps he won’t. It has been a trillion years after all, easy for him to forget. “Though some respect could be shown for the Ancient. He’s the reason you’re still here, after all.”
“Oh yeah, thanks! Feels great to be me again! Except I’m not, am I?” Bill raises his voice almost to the point of shouting, and it echoes through the temple, leaving an uncomfortable heat in the air. “SO YEAH, THANKS FOR PUTTING ME IN THIS USELESS SKIN PUPPET.”
“The alternative would be death.” Though you deserve a lot worse than that.
Bill falls silent, turning away abruptly to stare at the valley below. It isn’t hard to guess what he is thinking, she spent too much time observing him not to know. In this body he is mortal, the maximum he could live is 6 or 7 more decades. A long time for most, but for beings like themselves, it was nothing but a blink. To Bill, this form is nothing but prolonging the inevitable. No doubt it scares him.
Good.
“So, which dimension was it, anyway?” he asks suddenly, faking amusement. “22? 1.357? 666/513? Oooh, I bet it was one of those flowery, happy-go-lucky ones like this one, huh? Too bad it’s ALL GONE NOW. The nightmare realm’s got more use for it than the idiots that lived there.” he pauses, turning to stare viciously in all seven of her eyes. “And you’re still here, taking the ‘moral highroad’ or whatever. Helping people. And what did they ever do for you, huh? Nothing. Soon enough they’ll forget all about you, because mortals only care about what concerns them. So you’ve ‘defeated me’, congrats. Here’s a gold star, you’re free to go. What now, Seven-Eyes? Too bad nobody knows what you did, right? Nobody cares. You’ll just stay here, alone, dancing to his tune. Hope you’re HAPPY about that.” Jheselbraum casts long, cold look back at the demon. It seems that the horrifying one-eyed beast is now reduced to nothing but a pathetic kicked puppy, whose bark is far worse than his bite. Though the Oracle has to admit, it’s a bit impressive. For him, this is technically the first time they’ve ever met, and Cipher still finds something about her that actually hits its mark.
There’s a temptation to march over to the demon and shake him, to give him a harsh reminder that the only reason he is still alive is because of the mercy of those whom he has wronged. To rub his loss in his face, to remind him that he is nothing but a pathetic little man now, with not even a scrap of the power he had before. Nora wants to take all those millennia of hurt and hopelessness and anger and hurl it back in his stupid ignorant face, and make him feel at least a fraction of what she felt because of him. That was what she had planned to do.
But something holds her back.
Spotting the hesitancy, Bill looks ready to spout something else, but loses his nerve when she shoots one look at him. The Oracle finds herself fiddling with her pendant, a nervous habit she had developed a few millenia ago. It catches the demon’s eye, and from the corner of her vision she can see him staring at it, an unreadable look on his face. She drops her hand, leaving to tinker with one of her personal projects, though her attention is elsewhere, and the action seems more like a need to keep herself busy than anything else. After an eternity of waiting, that method of occupying her time seems common to her. All she does is wait, and the Oracle can’t help but feel frustrated just at the familiarity of it. She waited most of her existence to see Bill Cipher defeated, and waited for the right moment to rub that defeat in his face. But now, she can’t even bring herself to say anything, and the waiting game begins anew. Except now she is waiting for the twins to come back, and hopefully distract her from the thoughts of the past that keep on surfacing, despite her best efforts to snuff them out.
And, as if to her own silent plea, the children do come back, holding an assortment of trinkets that they seem to have acquired free of charge and chatting amiably with each other. “You’re such a nerd, Dip Dop!”
“Hey! This thing could be really useful, you know?” Dipper waves a small book around, and Jheselbraum could just make out the title: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Multiverse.
Well. At least he would get a laugh out of it. Once the disappointment clears away.
“Besides,” the boy continues, “who gets a freaking pillow when they visit another dimension?”
“Actually,” the Oracle gestures at the woven mass of cloth in Mabel’s arms, “It’s a bagpipe.”
“Ooh,” the girl looks down at her new-found souvenir. “So like an interdimensional bagpipe?”
“No, a regular one.” The two blink simultaneously down at the object.
“How did it-”
“Who cares!” Mabel squeezes the instrument in a strange sort of hug, making it emit a small tooting noise. “I’m keeping it!”
“Alright, just make sure not to break it.” the Oracle smiles at the girl. Yes, Mabel Pines is extremely likable. There is a sort of nostalgic feel she can’t shake away when taking to the child, though in all honesty she cannot place where it’s coming from. “I believe it is time for you to be heading back. Your family is extremely worried about you.”
“Oh man,” Dipper drops the books he’s been holding and grips the sides of the hunting hat he’s wearing. “The Grunkles! They’re probably freaking out right now. Mabel, we gotta go back! Uh-” he turns to her pleadingly. “How do we go back?”
The Oracle reaches for something cluttered among the shelves that she’s been saving a while ago for this exact occasion. She hands it to the boy carefully. “These are dimensional scissors. They would be able to get you back to your dimension safely. But,” she explains as the two twins look at them quizzically. “These are only good for three uses. So please don’t go joyriding.”
“Aye aye, captain!” Mabel salutes playfully. “Hey Bill, quit sulking, it’s time to go home!” The demon, who left her balcony a while ago to stare at the hydrodisplacer she had assembled a few weeks before with mild interest, turns to look back at the girl with a confused sort of frown. “Home?”
“You know, the Shack!”
“Oh, right.”
Dipper inspects the scissors. “It looks like one of those kiddie ones for arts and crafts. Uh, no offence,” he remarks quickly at her, blushing in embarrassment, “It’s just- how do you use them? Just cut the air or-?”
Bill stanches them away with an annoyed growl, dismissively slicing through the fabric of reality, leaving behind a glowing blue cut where spacetime had divided to provide a pathway through. “Great, LET’S GO.”
“Wait!” Mabel looks back at the woman, still clutching the slightly battered bagpipe. “We’ll meet again, right?”
Jheselbraum winks with three of her eyes. “Sooner than you think.”
The girl beams, waving one last time, before fearlessly dragging a nervous looking Dipper and an impatient looking Bill right through the portal.
“I’ll be watching you, Norm.” The demon freezes at the nickname, turning around to look back at her in newfound shock. Or more exactly, at her pendant. His eyes then dart up to her face, a realization in them that is hard not to catch on to. He opens his mouth to say something, only to be dragged into the portal by Mabel’s impatient grip. The Oracle watches the three disappear, and then the rip in reality closes, leaving the temple quiet and empty once again.
And for the first time in a trillion years, she breaks down laughing.
…
A week passes by before Bill Cipher finally returns, dimensional scissors in hand and looking ten times more livid than before.
“I take it you’ve figured it out by now.” She says, calmly watching the demon out of the corner of her bottom left eye. Cipher looks like he’s just about ready to break something, and her relaxed demeanor only seems to fuel his unrelenting anger. She tries not to smile in amusement.
“I thought you were dead.”
The last word seems to hover heavily in the air for a moment, and the Oracle blinks in surprise, turning around fully to stare back at her visitor. Enacouraged by her stunned silence, Bill keeps going, his volume growing with every word. “A TRILLION YEARS, and not even a ‘hey Bill, how’s it going? By the way, I’m totally fine, living it up in my fancy mansion on a freaking mountain, not a pile of dust and ashes at all, WHY WOULD YOU THINK THAT?’ SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE HELL, NORA?”
She pushes back her surprise and tries not to wince at that name, the one she hadn’t heard in quite a while. “Is that what you are mad about?”
“Oh trust me, I’ve got a whole list. THAT just takes the cake. I thought you were dead, and you just show up like it’s no big deal with your-haha-” he cuts himself off with laughter, gripping a nearby column to keep himself upright. “Wow, okay. The whole ‘wise, ancient oracle’ shtick? Real clever of ya, Nora, hard to guess it was you under all that.” he sobers up then, renewing his glare.
“That’s not my name anymore.” she remarks, watching as he sputters indignantly.
“No your- are you serious?” Bill throws his hands up. “That’s THE MOST CLICHE THING I EVER HEARD YOU SAY. WHERE DID YOU GET THAT FROM, SOME B-RATED SOAP OPERA??” He points an accusing finger in her direction. “OH YEAH, LIKE ‘JHESELBRAUM’ IS WAY BETTER. IS YOUR LAST NAME YOUR POSTAL ADDRESS, TOO?”
She blinks, considering how off kilter this conversation is going. Then again, this is Bill. “I…don’t think that’s relevant.”
“NO IT ISN’T! But you wanna know what is? YOU TRYING TO KILL ME!”
This is a little more of what she had expected. Jheselbraum’s expression turns from surprised to cold once again. “Actually, I believe I’ve succeeded.” The way he opens and closes his mouth, not knowing what to say, makes her snort under her breath. “What, the great Bill Cipher has nothing to say now? And here I thought you were a maser with words.” She looks away to examine the edge of her sleeve. “I guess dying changed that.”
“YOU- WHY WOULD-”
“Why do you think?” The spark of anger, the one that’s been death for so long finally ignites, and burns in a cold, unmasked fury as the Oracle slowly walks up to him. Bill notices the change, and almost subconsciously backs away a few steps as she looms over him. “I watched dimensions burn and people die just because you thought it might be fun. Do you know how many I’ve met that suffered because of you? Stanford Pines was no where near the worst case, oh no. There were people whose minds you’ve shattered completely because you felt like it. Beings whose scars were too deep to ever heal, and I had to put them back together again. So many I’ve watched that suffered because of my mistake, because I believed what you promised me. And what did you promise me, Bill?”
Make it worth something.
I will.
“Well, did you?”
Bill, who had been glaring at her as she talked, flinches away at that as if she were yelling, despite her voice being only slightly above a whisper. He looks to the side, biting his lip and not saying a word, and even though her mind is now clouded with anger Jheselbraum can’t help but notice how strange it is. The scenario she had seen had Bill yell back at her, defending the chaos he created, and giving her an excuse to throw him off her mountain.
He does none of those things, and it strikes the Oracle just how different this seems to be from how he had acted a week ago. And she berates herself for all this time not even taking a glance at Gravity Falls, because she has no idea what could have possibly happened to make him act this way.
“So, you’re not happy about that.”
Jheselbraum blinks down at him, and resists the sudden urge to laugh. “Now why would you think that?” she asks, the anger no longer present. She is still looming over him, and Bill only seems tense, something between fear and disappointment in his expression. The Oracle takes a small moment to note just how small he is compared to her. Nothing like the terrifying demon he made himself to be. She steps back finally, giving him space to breathe. Bill straightens out, only to fiddle with the sleeve of his sweater awkwardly. The bright yellow color and the big, black eye on the front has Mabel’s handiwork written all over it. That girl is a bit too open, a bit to accepting for her own good. “If you have something to say to me, say it now. Those scissors only have one more use, after all.”
That is an unsubtle message to get out. Bill takes it without comment. “You kept it.” he says instead, gazing at the pendant she’s wearing. The original grey has been gone for a long time, replaced with an intense dark purple that seems to absorb all light. So he still remembers it as well, despite how different it looks now. She regards the necklace with a detached sort of acceptance and offers him no explanation, partly because she is tired, the anger draining most of her energy, and partly because she has none. “You can go now,” is all she says instead. “The sun is almost rising.”
“Fine.” He says not without a hint of rejection. There is a sound of reality splitting at the seams, and then he is gone.
Jheselbraum gazes at the brightening hizon, watching as the sun showers Dimension 52 in a gentle golden glow. Her grip is on her pendant. It’s like the layers of hurt she kept buried for eons had emerged again, and the Oracle doesn’t quite know what to do. So she stares at the valley down below, and tries not to think about the conversation that just happened.
“He is still angry.” Well, that proves to be futile, and she turns to face her second visitor with a small frown. The Axolotl makes a sound not unlike a sigh, and his presence does seem to soothe the soothsayer somewhat. “I’m sure you aren’t very surprised at that.”
“What…happened?” she asks instead, eyes still directed at the horizon line. She absentmindedly rubs her pendant, and realizes that she is anxious. “Why is he-?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to ask him that yourself.” she could hear the slight smile in the being’s voice. “His bubble cracked, and of course the All-Seeing Eye was not left unscathed. No matter what he wishes you to believe.” He regards her patiently for a while, before his gentle voice breaks the silence once again. “Will you join them?”
Jheselbraum finally tears away from the scene outside to look at the piece of parchment that had made it to her only a short time ago. Stanford Pines had found a way to reach a dimension as remote as hers, and the Oracle can’t help but be impressed. “In a while,” she replies, hand on her pendant once again. “I…need to think.”
There is a silent acknowledgement, and then she is alone again. One of the few things Bill had gotten right simply by looking at her. In the silence, there is finally nothing to distract the Oracle from her concerns, and for once the concerns are about the past as much as they are about the future. Well, no, that wasn’t quite true. The future still worried her a whole lot more, and for good reason. The Oracle makes the mistake of, once again, glancing at what lies ahead.
And sees nothing but flames.
#human bill au#a different form a different time#my writing#fanfiction#bill cipher#nora#the oracle#jheselbraum the uswerving#doodledrawsthings#pengychan#flat dreams#mabel pines#dipper pines#as usual#ask box still open for prompts#don't worry i'll get to you shortly after this#you know who you are#i've had these scenes in my head for months you have no idea#these are so nonsequential#though its kinda intended that way#okay ill stop ranting now#bye
324 notes
·
View notes
Text
Nightmares
A/N: Well I mentioned that I’ve written some stuff for an AU I spoke of the other day (about a five-year-old Mabel being an only survivor in an accident with her parents and Dipper, and Stan taking her in). At this point I think I’ve decided to call this the (Grunkle) Guardian AU (with or without the grunkle part I can’t decide asfds). But, anyways - I decided to add-on and polish up one of my little drabbles I wrote over the AU. :’)
Characters: Mabel Pines, Stanley Pines
Word Count: 734
Summary: After Mabel wakes up suddenly from a nightmare, she approaches and wakes up a sleepy and grumpy Grunkle Stan. Some interaction/fluff ensues.
Suddenly, Stan found himself waking up to the soft calls of his name.
"...Great Uncle Stan?" Mabel whispered with concern as she lightly shook him.
He groaned, slowly rolling over onto his back. He turned his head to face his grandniece with weary eyes.
He still wasn’t quite used to living with someone else yet. Hearing the small footsteps travel across the shack, paying more on grocery bills (besides the occasional shoplifting antics), and cooking for two instead of one. Also, not to mention: actually learning how to cook more than basically just frozen and instant meals. At least, it’s been several years since he’s lived with other people. It’s only been a week or so since he’d taken his niece under his care, and so far it’s been nothing but awkwardness.
The kid missed her parents and brother – which he completely understood, as he had someone dear to him that he missed deeply. She was living with a complete stranger, with only knowing that he was her apparent great uncle. And even though it’s been confirmed Mabel’s family was taken from her forever, Stan still had no idea whether or not his was still alive. Whether his brother was alive or not, he was still determined to get that damn portal to work, no matter how much longer it took or how many obstacles were thrown in his way.
"Huh?" Stan mumbles tiredly, barely even aware of what was going on. "What is it, kid?"
Her small hands fumbled with her pink glittery pajama shirt anxiously. She averted her eyes cautiously. "I've been having nightmares...and since my momma and poppa and bro-bro aren't around ― I was wondering...I was wondering if I could…sleep with you?" She finished with hesitancy, clinging to her little worn unicorn toy. Even if she didn't really know who this man was right now― he was still (apparently) her family.
He took her in while the rest of her family was gone, and it wasn’t like he was a complete stranger – she had heard stories of the man from her parents, after all. She’d even stumbled across some pictures of an older man holding her and her brother when they were babies, recognizing him as a distant family member (which turned out to be her long-lost great uncle). If he didn’t care about her, she wouldn’t be here under his care right now At least, that’s what she assumed.
Why else wouldn’t he take her in? They were family. And she didn’t know it at the moment, but deep inside, Stan had a soft spot for family.
Mabel really hoped he would consider her request. Because she knew she wasn’t going to get any sleep anytime soon, without knowing someone was nearby.
He continued to slowly roll over on the mattress. "What?" Stan grumbled, trying to process her words as he felt his back pop. He released a breathless groan. Damn his old age.
Mabel placed her crossed arms onto his mattress, glancing curiously up at Stan's slightly distraught face.
"...Can I sleep with you? Please Great Uncle Stan?" She softly begged, yawning, "I'll even let you snuggle with my stuffed unicorn!" Mabel emphasized, placing her stuffed mythical animal beside him with a smile.
He lazily glanced down at her.
“My…my parents let me sleep with them if I had a bad dream…” She trailed off while twiddling her thumbs silently.
That statement tugged at his heartstrings for sure.
Stan, eager to go back to sleep complies with a sigh. "Sure, fine kid ― but keep your toy or whatever that thing is to yourself, please." He grunted while rubbing his now sore back. He then turned himself back to face the opposite side of the bed.
Mabel slightly beamed. She quickly climbed onto the bed, and wasted no time in slipping under the covers.
Before shutting her eyes Mabel noticed Stan facing her, eyes closed and starting to slip back into a deep sleep. Suddenly desperate for some snuggling and warmth, she shimmied her way over to his side of the bed before proceeding to curl up into a ball beside him.
At first Stan was completely taken aback ― unsure of what to do as his grandniece fell asleep at his side. Though, after eventually giving into his niece's actions, he took comfort in her warmth while wrapping an arm around her small form with a smile.
#grunkle guardian au#...its a weird au name lol#my fanfics#gravity falls#mabel pines#stanley pines#stan pines#grunkle stan#great uncle stan#pines family#fluff#gravity falls fanfiction#gravity falls fanfic
168 notes
·
View notes
Text
Stanford Pines Application: Accepted
Name/Alias: Rosenthorne (Or Jess or Thorne)
Preferred Pronouns: She/her/They/Them
Age: 29
Time Zone: Central
Discord name: *Private* (since you already know who it is 8U)
Triggers: Not much. Bit of a crime buff so I’ve seen/read a few morbid things. Or a lot. Don’t like feet.
Personal/About Yourself: I can be nice and squeaky clean or I can be downright morbid and not so clean. Depends on the situation. I’m a stickler for canon when it comes down to it. Not much for romance but I can write for it when the mood allows. I have written a LOT of smut in my day though. I love the strange, the unique, dark humor, dark stuff in general.
Fandom: Gravity Falls
Character Name: Stanford Filbrick Pines
Headcanon Age: Young to Adult (But like 15 minutes older than Stan XD)
Headcanons About Character:
-Asexual, aromantic. This is mainly for the fact that in Journal 3 he wrote that he found ‘romance more baffling to him than the greatest mysteries of the universe’. If that doesn’t scream asexual, I don’t know what does.
-Despite being asexual, he is very touch starved. He wants people to talk to him. He doesn’t mind hugs, holding hands, platonic cuddles, laying side by side while talking about anything really (it doesn’t have to be science based), etc, from those who are very close to him. He will always do what he can for those who mean a lot to him. Any unsolicited touching without his acknowledgement of who it is will usually end with someone’s arm twisted behind their back and on their stomach on the floor out of reflex.
-Has a hard time opening up to people and is still learning on how to do so. This is the result of being viciously bullied growing up with Stan as his only friend. This makes being touch starved even worse.
-He did love DDMD in middle school on up and tried to join the local clubs full of other nerds who adored the game, however he was shunned and avoided like the plague due to his extra fingers. Undeterred, Ford continued to make OCs and strategies in hopes that one day he’d have friends to play it with.
-He would quickly finish his tests in school and, instead of turning it in, ‘accidentally’ leave it somewhere that Stan could cheat off him. While Stan did this, Ford would use this time to draw or read paranormal books.
-Terrified of swimming in open water at a young age, opposite of Stan’s fear of heights. He slowly grew accustomed to the idea of sailing when Stan started to weave the idea of adventures on the high seas. He did have a fascination with boats despite his fear and he had tried learning to swim in a community pool, making him a mediocre swimmer. After he arrived in Gravity Falls, he included swimming in the lake as part of his exercise regimen. He had hoped to swim the areas Nessie or Ogopogo had been rumored to be.
-After Ford closed the curtains on Stan when he was kicked out, Ford sunk to his knees and cried while hugging a pillow. Time was lost to him (he spent two weeks in his room, barely eating what his mother brought to him or going anywhere). His heart and trust had been shattered by the only person he had ever trusted. During that time, his father started to beat ideas into his head, building him up to a more egotistical persona, one that re-sparked his interest in inventing and school. He made Ford believe he was better than everyone, that he was special and only people like him were destined for something greater. However, the motives to get Ford moving again was not without want of personal gain. Filbrick still wanted those potential millions. These motives have severely harmed Ford’s ability to forgive Stanley. Ford is slowly unlearning what his father had instilled in him.
-To Filbrick’s dismay, Ford did not go down the path of ‘potential millions’ right away. The father had tried to make Ford change his mind about going out west to pursue his interests in favor of being hired on as a scientist somewhere. However, the flattery had made Ford a bit more cynical to the world around him. He did not share his grant money like his father expected him to. He pretty much cut ties with the rest of his family minus the occasional phone call to his mother.
-If it weren’t for his mother and later Fiddleford and Bill in his early years, Ford would have been worse off. When he throws himself into his work, he forgets to take care of himself. He wouldn’t shower for weeks on end, forget to eat or sleep to the point of passing out and would often forget what day or year it was.
-Loves horror movies and has somewhat identified with the monsters but greatly criticizes them. He has never showed any fear toward ‘old school’ horror movies. However, he hates jump scares and will react violently to them out of reflex.
-Ford’s trench coats have been modified to be ‘bags of holding’ through a technique he learned while traversing the universe. When you look into one of the many pockets, you find nothing but a void of stars and nebulae which pretty much are ‘pocket dimensions’. **BU-DUM-TISS** He could pull more than a live rabbit out of any one of them at any moment. Probably an extinct Dodo bird or a mini noodle dragon.
-Ford has doodles all throughout Journal 1 and 2 of characters he created for DDMD. He also has a strategy journal floating around the shack somewhere that contains some of his best material that has been lost for years.
-He buys ALL of his clothes in bulk, sometimes the boots already have their own mud stains or have them printed on them at all times. It’s a look Ford loves. Speaking of looks, not all of his black pants are actual pants. Some of them are spandex or yoga pants in case he’s afraid he may rip normal pants when having to do something athletic.
-Yes, he does have 12 PHDs. He earned one on earth but the rest were earned during the 30 years he was away. None of them are in the medical field. That’s what spells are for. One has to wonder if the other eleven are even valid in our dimension. Even he ponders that but will probably aggressively state that they are.
-Everyone expects him to like classical music. While, yes, this is true, he actually took a liking to rock and alternative music. However, he somehow knows all the lyrics to songs that were not made in his time, possibly from a parallel timeline where he got his PHDs.
-He has commissioned Mabel to make him a knitted Plaidipus plush that he shamelessly sleeps with every night. Its name is ‘Theory’.
-Ford keeps up an exercise regimen that he doesn’t force on anyone. He couldn’t care less about anyone’s physical prowess unless they wanted to adventure with him. He doesn’t want them hurt. He only comments on his brother to rile him up from time to time. Sibling rivalry and all.
-Ford has killed before and he will kill again if he has to. He doesn’t like talking about it but most of his kills were the result of either protecting himself or someone or getting something he desperately needs.
-He has a lot of scarring all across his body. While he will admit half of them were from his years in the multiverse, a good chunk of them were from Bill after he found out that Bill was plotting against him.
-After Stan’s memory recovery and his adrenaline came down, Ford had to be taken to the hospital as a result of Bill’s torture on top of the ride in the alien shuttle that would have taken him to an intergalactic prison. He didn’t stay there long. In fact, after he was bandaged up, he declared himself healed and walked right out the front door. Remember, none of his PHDs were in medical. He probably memorized a healing spell.
-Ford may be looking into changing his name after seeing the list of charges Stan put on his legal name. Yeah.
-He and Fiddleford keep a close connection. When he isn’t skyping the kids on his adventures with Stan or spending time with Stan, he is talking with Fiddleford. They pretty much rekindled their bromance. He somewhat owes his life to Fiddleford for all the times the man had saved him from his own stubbornness.
-With Dipper turning down Ford’s offer of apprenticeship, Ford has turned his sights to another adventure loving child who was more local and could probably keep up with him like, if not better than, Dipper had. Wendy. However, during their first adventure out, instead of voicing her opinion on a matter, she ended up knocking sense into him with the back side of her axe. The clanging of it against the metal plate in his head echoed throughout the woods.
.
Example Writing Piece:
There he was. Lying flat on his back on the kitchen floor of his cabin with a bewildered look on his face as a pair of long, twiggy legs draped over his chest and hugged around his arm that was outstretched and held fast against a thin chest. Never in his life did he think he could have been taken down so easily by a man who claimed to be a complete pacifist.
“Say it!” Fiddleford panted, tightening his grip on the arm some while lying on his own back, perpendicular to Ford’s body.
“Never!” Ford snapped out of his bewilderment and started to try to struggle against the hold. “They’re nothing but a stupid fashion trend!”
“Facts are facts! Leg warmers are a practical piece of clothin’!”
“What warmth could you possibly get from leg warmers?!”
“Not all of us have paddin’ in the winter, Stanferd!” the assistant growled and twisted the arm. A yelp echoed off the walls as Ford tried to manage to get the upper hand. He should have been able to dominate this… whatever it was. He was a good bit stronger than his friend. When Ford found that he was not going to get out of the hold without resorting to dirty tactics that would hurt Fiddleford, he sighed and smacked his open palm on the floor next to him to tap out. “Ah ah! Ya gotta say it!”
“No!”
“Say it’s practical! I ain’t lettin’ go until you do!”
“Fine! Leg warmers are practical! Now get off!” Ford tried to remain irritated but then started laughing at the whole situation. All this over leg warmers? Well, now he had a topic to get under his friend’s skin other than his cubic’s cube. Maybe next time he’d get a running start.
1 note
·
View note
Note
It's anon-whose-dad-looks-like-McGucket again! He hasn't eaten any raccoons... yet... at least that I know of... XD Having fallen into this fandom hole rather aggressively with a lot of time on my hands, I have found the episode commentaries, graphic novel, and shorts. Are there any other behind the scenes or supplementary materials you recommend?
Hey there again! And bless, bless you for falling down the fandom hole.
As far as supplementary materials are concerned, I’m going to list everything I would recommend. I’ll even list things you’ve mentioned above, in case other people reading this post would be interested learning about GF extended materials too! I’ll be listing GF content in order roughly from “most essential” to “not so essential.” Note: this isn’t a comprehensive list of tie-ins. Also note: this list talks about spoilers from the show itself.
Journal #3. If you’ve already found out about the graphic novel and gotten your hands on that, I imagine you know about Journal #3 too - but since you didn’t mention it above, or if you were going to skip it over, I’m bringing it up now! Journal #3 is a *MUST*. I consider this book as essential to the Gravity Falls experience as the show itself. (Probably because the 1980s boys are my soul, life, and feels.) Journal #3 isn’t written to be a dump of monster lore, though there’s paranormal experiences in this book, of course. Journal #3 is a well-done narrative focusing on Ford’s hubris character arc and providing it amazing resolution. It also complexly dives into the relationship between Ford and Fiddleford, and to say that that narrative has ruined me and kept me awake at night would be an understatement. It makes the scenes and events of S2 more meaningful, and just… aughghgh. There’s so much to unpack there and I keep waiting for an excuse to yak about it.It’s also got several moments I wish could have been in the show proper (though I respect the need to cut for time and focus on the Essential Essentials, and think they did a great job prioritizing). If you’ve finished the commentaries (don’t know how far you are), you may remember Alex Hirsch saying they tried to get Dipper’s real name reveal into the show sev’ral timez, but ultimately cut it and left it for Journal #3. That scene definitely reads as “should have been in the show,” and it’s a great moment. Plus, Ford’s final remarks about “trust no one”? Ohhhhhh it’s so good, and makes the resolution to the show’s events all the better.
Journal #3 Blacklight Edition. Unless you can travel back in time to preorder, or have several thousand USD to spend today (no, I’m not joking, go onto eBay and cry), you’re not going to get your paws on the special blacklight edition of Journal #3. But there are people who have photographed important notes! Such as: [1] [2] [3]
Lost Legends. A graphic novel with several short adventures. They’re all side adventures, but there’s some development on Dipcifica, and Mabel confronting her selfishness, that are nice additions and expansions to people’s characterizations. Wonderfully done, nicely arted, and feels like reading four new short episodes of the show.
The shorts, etc. I know you said you’ve gotten to the shorts, but there are so many shorts and promotional ads that I hope you’re going through the wiki pages and not just DVD menus to unearth everything. I don’t feel like pulling up my DVD to check, but if I remember right, some things like Creepy Letters from Lil’ Gideon didn’t make it to hard copy release?So anyway. I know some of these are easy to find and you’ve probably gone through them, but for the sake of thoroughness:
The Unaired Pilot
Creature in the Closet
Dipper’s Guide to the Unexplained
Mabel’s Guide to Life
Fixin’ It with Soos
TV Shorts 1 and TV Shorts 2
Mabel’s Scrapbook
Mystery Shack: Shop at Home with Mr. Mystery and its Outtakes
Old Man McGucket’s Conspiracy Corner
Creepy Letters from Lil’ Gideon
Gravity Paws
’Pocalypse Preppin’
The deleted scenes. The special edition DVD/Blu-ray provides a ton of S2 footage of the writer’s room, Alex narrating the storyboards, and through that showing us scenes that were cut or altered. There’s AMAZING stuff there, oh my goodness.It’s complicated finding all released deleted scenes materials, though, and honestly, I’m still trying to fish through the interwebs for more. You’ll find some released storyboards online for S1 and S2 that didn’t make animation. There’s a second long animation of Ford and Stan adjusting their glasses at the same time that made trailers but not “A Tale of Two Stans.” Or you’ll find things on Alex’s twitter page, like the now-notorious Dipper-snaps-Dippy-Fresh’s-neck-on-screen moment. And things like Bill’s initial introduction scene have been animated by fans. :)
Shmeb-you-unlocked website. I have fondness for this page because I love learning minor details about characters. This is a hidden website url you can uncover going through Lost Legends. Got some fun stuff on Anti-Mabel, Tate McGucket, and Pacifica, for instance.
The Episode Commentaries. Seriously, these are the most enjoyable commentaries I think I’ve watched (outside of the LOTR cast commentaries, anyway). They’ve got insight into everything, from talking about character psychology, to storytelling techniques, to storyboard artists’ contributions, to how fans’ responses literally changed how the creative team wrote the show.
The Special Features for the Special Edition DVD / Blu-ray release. All the special features on the DVDs are cool and enjoyable! Between the Pines, etc.
The Hidden Special Features. The Special Edition DVD / Blu-ray release comes with lots of hidden special features! Grunkle Stan’s hidden commentary for Land Before Swine is treasure. Like, Stan starts rambling about his childhood and embarrassing stories about Ford and stuff… it’s amazing. There’s also a Bill special feature that I love.
Cipher Hunt! Most of it’s just fun, but it’s wild to consider that Alex staged an international scavenger hunt by choice. I don’t like road trips, but I would be very tempted to travel to see that Bill Cipher statue. Because I have… fandom issues. Haha.
Dipper and Mabel and the Curse of the Time Pirates’ Treasure! Though I’ve entertained myself with this, I don’t recommend this as highly as the other stuff on here. But if you want to keep living Gravity Falls, this is one of the books out there with original non-show content. There’s even a few moments in this book that were taken from the unaired pilot or deleted scenes. It’s a choose-your-own adventure, has nice art, and stuff. While it is written by Rowe, I don’t consider this as necessary of an addition to Gravity Falls fans because the choose-your-own adventure doesn’t (to me) capture the deep heart of the show. It’s more of a light, silly, random what-have-you. It does have a hidden web link to a page with the Axolotl, though, so that’s sort of important?
The Games. Most games are simple online flash games with no informative or lore-adding content to them. You won’t get anything new out of them, so take or leave them. But ya know, they still pass time in non-objectionable ways. If you’re really craving ANYTHING GF, why the fuck not. That’s how I ended up playing them. Some games have enjoyable versions of the main theme… the Weirdmageddon: Take Back the Falls game did not have to go so rocking hard on the music, and yet it did. (I may have recorded the audio to the level select and stuff and added it to my iTunes library.)I know you’ve been watching me play Legend of the Gnome Gemulets on my twitch. The other games that I think are the most entertaining are Rumble’s Revenge and Pinesquest (mostly Pinesquest, but it’s a “sequel” to Rumble’s Revenge).
And if you haven’t gone clue hunting and decrypting yourself, and don’t want to extend the effort to do so, the cryptograms page on the wiki is a must!
Alex’s old twitter posts have some interesting things too from time to time?
I hope I remembered the main things. And I hope this helps!
#Anonymous#GF#Gravity Falls#long post#Journal 3#ask#ask me#Lost Legends#Gravity Falls Lost Legends#Gravity Falls: Lost Legends#awesome anonymous friend#analysis#my analysis#blabbing Haddock#non-dragons
63 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
