YOU'RE BEING HUNTED.

listing all my ninjago aus [again]

because i have more since last i did this and should update anyway

feel free to ask about any of these i live for rambling about things [and might also draw something if requested]

[i am sorry there are so many words this was meant to be a summary]

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the big sip [bigger sip, biggest sip] - ok so basically, the premise of big sip is that the gang loses control of their powers and have to get snatched by wu before multiple bad things happen, the plot changes slightly depending on your flavor of sip. bigger sip has them already reach the uh oh point by the time wu gets them, and [SEABOUND SPOILERS] merge with their elements like nya did that one time in canon. they turn back once wu gets them. biggest sip has them NOT turn back once wu snatches them, and multiple concerns arise from this. big sip is the only au that has fanfiction of it [i’m gonna write the next chapter of the sipquel..... someday]

forever superstar rockin - one of two simple canon divergence aus, this one is exactly as the name implies. during prime empire, jay never switches out of his superstar rockin avatar, and once he leaves the game he simply. stays that way. he does not change back and is stuck like that now. and this is literally the entire au, just him looking like That for the rest of the series. at least the clothes aren’t stuck?? [this also has an alternate setting, where kai too gets stuck in his avatar design. fools, the both of them]

frozen [no not that one] - the second canon divergence au, this one set in season 11 of course. okay so you know that scene where boreal just hecking deletes the entire village? this divergence is basically just. what if kai did not escape unharmed. what if he got hit and just, froze over like everyone else when the rest of the gang got back. that would be terrible. the angst potential. do not be fooled by my lack of coherency explaining this one, i have Many Thoughts about it, i simply cannot speak

no more trauma - bear with me on this one lads, it’s a wild ride. this au started as a complete joke and, it still is, but it’s also still an au. a joke au, if you will. basically the premise is, what if my friend and i’s sonas, yasa and star, who are multiversal explorers of a sort, just. went to ninjago. and stopped every terrible thing from happening right when it’s about to happen. they immediately leave right after, so they get the effect of weird yet helpful cryptids. this is a very strange au, i am fully aware. yet it is so funny

lighthouse - this is a big one, has ties to another au but only in terms of character design. i spoke in length about the plot a bit ago, but basically the whole gang is varying degrees of animal person, [MORE SEABOUND SPOILERS] by the time it starts, nya is already the entire ocean, and jay lives at the lighthouse now. the plot’s just like. jay gets kidnapped by pirates [guess who], the gang saves him, shenanigans occur in which jay is forced to become a ninja again, he HATES it for various reasons, and everything spirals until the end, where jay simply retires. he literally retires back to the lighthouse. there is a reason this is called lighthouse au. there is so much going on here

band [also vigilantes] - this is also a bit weird but honestly all my aus are like that. band au is not what you think from the cover. the gang IS the instruments. for example, lloyd is a microphone. there’s more to it than that i swear, they turn into regular people at night, where they then do vigilante stuff under wu’s guidance. also they still have powers. lloyd’s doubles as a booster for the others because. microphone. hah. also featuring various other characters as the actual band, like pixal. i would like to send you the image of edna playing an electric guitar, because that is canon information. i do not know who nya’s player is please help me. she is a piano

crreature [spelled exactly like that] - this is the one that ties into lighthouse design-wise, because crreature au started by me going “what if lighthouse designs.... but more?” anyway i have also yelled incomprehensibly about this one and will continue to do so for THIS is the au i obsess over. what is the plot. the plot is everyone [except lloyd this time] is humanoid animals of some sort, called creatures in lore, and they live in a reserve owned by wu and there are so many shenanigans. a pool party. jay and nya have a ‘wedding’. zane is constantly interviewed cause he’s literally the only one who can talk. lloyd manages what is essentially a youtube channel,

gaming - this, surprisingly, is the self indulgent au, and not crreature. this is the other one i’ve talked about, especially jay’s role in it. i love gaming au. it’s zane and jay centric since they’re my friend and i’s favorite characters and this, as stated, is the self indulgent au. basically in gaming au, jay’s the companion npc / final boss of a vr rhythm game, and zane is Just A Guy who works for videogame-flavored borg industries. shenanigans with a prototype vr portal allows jay to literally just. walk out of his game into the real world. and zane essentially gets put on babysitting duty. the entire au is just Shenanigans as jay terrorizes the city and zane tries desperately to keep his sanity. this is such a good au. lloyd is here and he works at subway

elemental - “i am the most powerful subway employee to ever exist” - lloyd... that is the summary of this au. in which lloyd is exactly that, just some guy who works at subway. everyone else, however, are manifestations of their elements [and also the elements themselves... it is Complicated]. there’s too much plot to explain here [feel free to ask me to explain it though!], but basically lloyd has to go on a journey to reunite the elements of creation [+ water] in order to prevent some big disaster event from happening. along the way he discovers that oh, turns out he’s the descendant of the guy who made the world and that is why he’s the one who is doing this. cool.

lost lightning - this one is. weird. i introduced it here, but basically lost lightning starts off as a “ninjago without jay” situation up until the tournament of elements, where chen, not having lightning, opens a portal to the first realm to find a dragon to steal. the others follow him and find jay, who in the au is a funky cryptid not-quite-dragon man called a scavenger. after many shenanigans, jay ends up following them back to ninjago, not quite becoming a ninja but still mostly joining the gang, and the series goes along from there with MUCH rewriting to fit the whole... y’know... cryptid man... it’s a weird au, idk what to tell you

oops i did it again [here be dragons] - okay, so legally, this is called “oops i did it again”, but OFFICIALLY, it’s “here be dragons”. this is to lost lightning what crreature is to lighthouse, meaning i took one look at a design and went “what if... it was MORE?” ...here be dragons is, as you can guess, an au where the gang [minus lloyd, as it goes], are dragons. in the au, dragons are very, very extinct. or so they were SUPPOSED to be. zane, in the au, was built to preserve their legacy, but went missing, and upon his discovery ALSO happened to bring the discovery of four more dragons, which are kai, nya, jay, and cole. they’re the last known dragons in the whole world, at least, to anyone’s knowledge. so lloyd has a pretty important job of keeping them safe and protected, not that they. make it easy. they are very feral. help him

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AND THAT IS ALL [of my aus]. i won’t list my friend’s aus this time [chicken au is great though and i am bullying them for content] cause this is so long already but i hope you enjoyed reading?? my aus are weird i am aware of this

as said up top though, if you want to know more about a specific one [or want me to draw something for them], feel free to ask! i love answering questions and we need more walls of text in this world [joking]

[edit as of the addition of elemental, lost lightning, and here be dragons: fun fact! here be dragons is called ‘oops i did it again’ because... it is another crreature au. i did it again. i made another one. i cannot be trusted, someone stop me]

Rambles of the more fun sort:

So a friend and i wanna make an rpg (who is to say if this will come to life? At the moment, we are having fun just coming up with ideas about it, bouncing them off one anothers brain, excited when we come to the SAME conclusions. Excited when we don’t. It’s been great). We are starting to think about how we’d like to sort out the gameplay and style - and my brain goes to games like earthbound/mother and generally gba and pixel graphic type stuff (partly because that’s what we grew up on, and partly because, apparently, gba style games are shockingly easier to make versus my original idea to code a choose-your-own-adventure text-based rpg through my limited knowledge of python).

We’ve been fleshing the main character out, who works at a used video game store (the ones that give you a nickel for a game and then resell for $150 - and a lot of the story is inspired by personal interest and where I live, and there’s a franchise like that here sooo projecting my own heavy anti-work sentiments and contempt for arbitrage and greed). I like when games give you some say in the character you play, in terms of their interests and idiosyncrasies, but at the same time, the creator is the one who gives that character a soul, or whatever you believe what someone is at their conception. and, that, can then be integral to the story at hand. How to find a balance (i dont have an answer, but it’s a hypothetical i’ll be thinking about elsewhere in the dome drain)

I am someone who is driven by character-based narratives, and more often, drawn to them. i like worldbuilding, actually I love it, but what I am interested in is how characters interact with the world. And, too, how the world then interacts with them. There’s a Butler quote from parable that has always stuck out to me: “all that you touch you change. All that you change changes you.” I’ve never been able to stop thinking about it, so it appears all around me, internally and externally.

on another note, but stay with me if youre here to begin with, because i swear itll all connect! Over the past 4 years, I’ve been writing a story, meaning i didn’t write any of it at all and it lives entirely in my head (and, in the air when I share with friends, on notebook paper when i want to draw out a joke, and, ok, about a million bullet lists on my google drive, so ive written a little - but do we count incohesive thoughts? I think I might have to, because that’s my whole entire life). It's about a kid in college named Newt who wanted more time to play video game but their RA job involved a lot more cryptids native to where I live than expected, and supernatural beings that aren’t really native anywhere (Back where I am in reality, I’m still holding out - just because I haven’t seen a vampire doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. Just because I haven’t knowingly met one, doesn’t mean I haven’t. I’d convince you I’m not unhinged, but I can’t convince myself). The story is also, if not largely, if not entirely, about having relationships that are unconventional.

I didn’t really understand myself while I was working on this little story. And that’s exactly why I created it. I desperately wanted to, and Newt, as well as the other characters, gave me an outlet for self-exploration. I wanted to consider concepts of relationships that felt “unrealistic” compared to what I saw in common practice - people who loved each other in different ways and different forms. And the way I was writing these, dare I call, love stories was through people being totally honest with themselves, and then naturally, with others. that had always been hard for me: honesty. i think sometimes it still can be. Call me a self-insert writer! Because honest to god I am. Every single character I write is a part of me I want to connect with.

Anyway, Newt becomes close to several different characters throughout the story (Gerb, another RA who has this sort of one-sided rivalry with Newt who actually just really wants to be liked by them; Carmilla, a vampire who finds an unconventional interest in Newt that makes her question her own notions of love; and the Sqwonk, which if im the first person telling you about the saddest western pennsylvania crytpid in my beloved hemlock backyards, boy howdy am i honored.) Gerbs and Carmillas relationships with Newt are very near and dear to me because they explore love in non-romantic contexts. the kicker is that i had NO clue i was aromantic at this point in time (heavily when i was still in my undergrad, so 2020 era). i think i confused a lot people describing these relationships, especially Newt and Carmillas, as i was very clear it wasnt exactly romantic, but it was just as, if not more, powerful (i caused so many 404 error blue screens for alloromantic/allosexuals - sorry! i was just as confused). the one thing i knew was that i wanted to experience the types of relationships i was writing, but at the time, i thought they could only exist on paper, in my head, in a reality much different than one with cryptids and leylines and witches and demons (it covers a lot - maybe one day ill get inspired to write about it more on here)

but im learning now that it really isnt that different ! or maybe that it doesnt have to be! that you can pursue and define relationships in a vast amount of ways. the one thing that has been helpful, is finding the way to communication that. i always felt indifferent about language - having remembered learning that language abides by the ways people need it, but i felt languge was only a barrier for me. i didnt know HOW to talk about about the ways in which i felt, to myself or to others. i wasnt sure how to use words to communicate. and while i didnt know how to talk about feelings, i innately knew how to feel feelings, even if they were buried deep. but i convinced myself most of the time my feelings were endlessly wrong. that i could feel the way others felt if i tried hard enough.

nope. not how that works! it just took me 24 years to figure this out.

ANYWAY, me and a friend are trying to make a rpg. me and this person are vastly different in infinite number of ways, but yesterday on a discord call i asked him what he was thinking to do with the main character, he told me he first wanted to enable some sort of attributes to signify gender and sexuality, but after coming out to him, he really wanted to, if i wanted to, make them aro.

I immediately turned my face away from the camera, for fear they saw 24 years worth of emotions surface on my pixeled face, and then i wondered why i still needed to hide that from them. realizing i didnt, i turned back, and told them I’d really like that

im even more excited to play around with this rpg idea now. here are my expectations: to try and make it. I don’t care if it's not good. I don’t care if anyone else plays it but me and my friend (I don’t even know if i fully want people too, beyond those i know either irl or on the internet corners im cozily tucked into). i really want to make a game about an aroace person. I really, really want to make a game about relationships. Relationships with yourself, with others, the world around. how they can change your life. how your life, and who’s in it, can change you.

Cryptid Jon (Blind Eye AU)

An AU where Jon prevents himself from finishing the watcher’s crown. He shut the eye but in doing so kind of resets everything and he gets erased from existence somehow.  

If you wanna do something more with this be my guest btw, write, draw, whatever. Don’t even have to credit i'm just throwing stuff out here.

Things get reset back to episode one basically

Although Jon doesn’t and has never existed there’s no real butterfly effect from this, things are the same but he’s absent.

Archivist!Sasha?

None of the Fears nor their avatars are aware of him, not even the web or eye.

In fact he’s a blind spot for the eye, at least to Jonah.

He’s still got those good good Archivist powers and can fight avatars, it just doesn’t feed the eye like it used to. Just him. They’re HIS powers now.

He decides he should keep his distance because w h a t  t h e  h e l l  he is NOT rushing into this one. Keeping his card close as he can.

Basically tries to secretly help out the Archivist Crew with as much self control as he can. (LOTS of angst from the shadows about Tim, Sasha, Martin)

Lives in the tunnels and chats  with Leitner some before he gets piped.

“accidentally” Fails to mention to Leitner that there’s a pipe with his name on it.

Meets Michael and they’re kinda buds now(?)

He kind of reveals himself preventing the Jane Prentiss attack.

Manages to stop the Not!Them from taking anyone.

Everyone’s just worried and confused like “oh no there’s another monster and he knows all about us?”

except Elias who is kind of freaking out because he has no idea who that is and he can’t See it either what the fuuuuuuu but files it in the back of his head as some weird Darkness Avatar and maybe it can mark Sasha.

Elias is trying to build the watchers crown with Sasha now btw because he has no idea of what happened before.

•••

Well shit, Basira is looking into him now because he managed to still be blamed for Leitner’s murder.

This wouldn’t be a problem if Daisy (currently unchecked avatar of the Hunt) wasn’t helping her GF.

Jon’s out of the tunnels now because the Archive Crew’s exploring. (Not!Them escaped and is staying away from the Eye’s domain so it’s not trapped there. Preparing for the unknowing probably.)

Jon makes some knew friends! (The other Avatars) They hate him! Very Much!

Jon’s actually become a bit infamous among the things of the fears as this (supposed) Avatar to The Eye that just keeps fucking their stuff up.

Micheal is just loving watching everyone pull their hair about this. He’s still taking people though (Helen…)

Peter complains about it to Elias. Elias has moved him up a few spaces on his his concern list.

Meanwhile Sasha, Tim, and Martin have also shifted their focus to that strange man that helped(?) them, supposedly clocked an old man to death, then vanished.

He shows up in statements sometimes and they’re debating on wether he’s a monster or some kind of monster hunter or maybe just a friendly-ish monster...

Tim think’s he’s good because he killed the worms (and stopped a circus mannequin in one statement), Martin’s cautious because he showed up at his house right before the worms attacked him and Sasha’s torn and undecided.

Sasha and Daisy have a fight like Daisy and Jon did but it gets sorted in a similar way except with less Elias hate.

Elias doesn’t face as much resistance in this au so doesn’t let his mask slip as much but he is being thrown so off by Jon.

Elias gets less hate because everyones focusing more on Jon aka strange library man aka Joe Spooky.

But I cannot stress enough how much worse this is for him than cannon.

•••

Melanie and Georgie are on a date or something when they come home to find a stranger petting the Admiral. Freaking out they jump to fight (Melanie)/call the police (Georgie) but the man stands up apologizing they froze.

Having him look directly at them made them feel like he was looking at every layer of them, from clothes to skin to bone.

It felt like he could riffle through their minds like a file cabinet but (even worse) like he didn’t need too. Like he already knew everything he wanted to about them.

He said they clearly didn’t recognize him, disappointed, like they should have, and that he just needed something familiar to be with for a while (gesturing to the cat).

He then mumbled something about recommending they avoid travel for a while and started to walk briskly (almost… awkwardly?) past them to the door.

He paused halfway out the door and mumbled to “stay away from The Magnus Institute, especially the Archivist. Don’t give them anything and whatever you do-”

He turned, and they could feel him seeing something about themselves even they didn’t know, all apologeticness gone from his character. “Do. Not. Give. A statement.”

They knew- they KNEW- with every fiber of their beings that he meant them no harm but would bring it regardless. In that moment, with every fiber of their beings, they knew.

Then he blinked and hurried out before either of them could snap to their senses.

They filled out a police report and tried to forget it but could constantly swear they caught glimpses of him around their neighborhood after that.

•••

Oh Boy The Web Keeps Trying To Wrap Itself Around Jon But It’s Not Working And It’s Pissing It Off!

The Unknowing happens much earlier

Eventually they go to stop the unknowing (guided by Elias) along with Basira and Daisy.

Nikola actually kidnapped Jon because she was obsessed with this “stranger” and thought he’d be fun for the ritual.

Micheal frees him and Helen shows up but they don’t kill each other. 

Micheal liiiives. 

Instead The Archive Crew finds a door opening up and the strange man from the tunnels assures them that the unknowing will fail whether they do anything or not.

He warns Sasha (and subconsciously Tim) especially to stay away from the stranger.

He lets slip a BUNCH more of way more personal information he knows about them to convince them to stay away.

He also warns them to not trust Elias. After Matin went “but Elias said-“

Sasha want to know what The Stranger means.

Tim does not like this. Neither does Daisy. They end up trying to fight Jon. Jon refuses to fight and let’s slip something about The Hunt controlling Daisy then bolts back into Helen’s door.

The Archivcrew end up being stalled enough that by the time they get there the whole place is aflame. (Thanks Jude….)

Tim and Martin have switched opinions of him. Tim distrusts him now and Martin feels he’s an ally, at least. Sasha has decided that whatever he is he’s information and goes on a search to find him with Daisy (uh oh) and Basira.

They end up going to where a break in was reported, nothing stolen and the description of a short, heavily scarred man with long hair matched their spooky man. (It’s Georgie’s house.)

Georgie and Melanie accidentally end up giving a statement which made for a very awkward moment when they said he said to not give anything to the Archivist and Sasha had to clear her throat and mention that she is the Archivist. Oops.

Meanwhile Elias is going nuts because now this blind spot has actively disrupted his plans. Jon has his full attention.

Elias (…Jonah) is patient. He’s waited so long for this, putting plans on hold to stomp out an unwanted rock in the road is fine.

1/? will probably make more of this EDIT: part 2

MellowElbow FAQ

1.) What is your gender/sexual identity and what are your pronouns?

I’m non-binary and bisexual! Any pronouns are fine by me.

2.) Do you have any other social media platforms?

Yup! I’m @/mellowelbow on twitter and @/mellow_elbow on Instagram. I also keep a link to all my platforms (I’m not always active on things such as YouTube and twitch)

Here’s the link!

3.) How long have you been drawing?

I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a pencil, but my first medium has always been baby food and finger paint. I’ve been seriously drawing since 2005 (age 6) and started working toward becoming a professional in 2018 when I started attending art college!

4.) I drew your OC’s, can I tag you in the post?

Please do!!! I would love to see them!!!!! 🥺🤲🏻💗 I’ll literally never be mad about it I swear on my life

5.) What are your current hyperfixations/special interests?

Sonic (hyperfixation [active] since ~2003)

ABOP/pwnagemcgee (active; special interest; since ~2011)

Animal Crossing (hyperfixation [active] since ~2016)

SuperMega (hyperfixation [active] since ~2017)

6.) What are your hobbies?

I’m a person of many hats! I love creating digital art and traditional sketches, every now and again I’ll paint or sculpt something. I also enjoy writing (even though I rarely do it), roller skating, kayaking, singing/acting, researching about religions and historical events, the paranormal/cryptids, and reading/creating comics! There’s way more, but I don’t want to make this paragraph any longer than it already is :)

7.) How old are you?

I was born October 4th, 1999 which makes me currently 24!

8.) Will you draw _______ for me?

I rarely do commissions as I have TERRIBLE executive dysfunction and oftentimes forget to do them in the first place AND because I have a job. When commissions ARE open and available you will see me reblog a post about it once a day. You can also just check here if you’re interested ⬇️

COMMISSIONS: CLOSED

9.) What time zone are you in?

I’m on the east coast of North America so anytime I post about a specific time it is usually in EST. I’ll usually mention this when necessary or if I’m going off of a different time zone due to travel.

10.) You reblogged something that is triggering to me, can you please tag it as ___?

I don’t necessarily have a tagging system other than tagging my art to make it easily accessible to anyone looking for it. When I reblog something, I may not always remember to tag it but if you point it out I will happily do so :) please don’t get mad if it happens more than once because I don’t just have a list of possible triggers to go through before tagging something. I try to avoid reblogging any sensitive materials that feature visual gore or descriptions of any assault, but that isn’t always guaranteed as I often reblog posts of injustice across the world to educate people. Sometimes we need to see those things to educate us to never let these crimes happen ever again. If you have an issue with my tagging system, you are not obligated to follow me.

Here’s a list of things I have tagged fairly well:

#my art (any and every kind of art I’ve posted including fully finished pieces and sketches)

#my ocs (fan characters and personal OC’s. These are usually also tagged with the media they’re from)

#art inspo (check this one for really cool art)

#art motivation (really inspiring posts or tags/responses I noticed from people who interacted with my art)

11.) Can I ever talk to you?

While I don’t always have time to answer every message or I may forget to check my inbox, I do try and be present for as many people as possible. I’m a little slow, so I may read things wrong, misunderstand, or seem to “ghost” but chances are I just never know how to reply.

MINORS! While my messages and inbox are ALWAYS open please be careful talking to adults online. I try to be an older sibling to everyone, but if I ever make you uncomfortable please let me know so I can apologize and fix my mistake- it is never my intention to hurt you mentally or emotionally.

At the same time, I don’t HAVE to respond to any of you. The second I feel uncomfortable with a conversation that YOU are refusing to end I will cut the communication and may resort to blocking you if necessary. It is not my job to fix any of your problems although I will often try to give advice to those who may need/want it. Please do not put me in an uncomfortable situation by flirting with me or venting about your life and problems unless you have explicit permission from me that I’m in the right headspace to help. Please also warn me of any triggers to the subject if they include gore, hate crimes, or assault of any kind ahead of time. Please do not *** out any random vowels.

12.) Do you do requests?

As of now, yes! Requests for me are simply prompts that I’ll use as an artistic warmup. They’ll mostly range from doodles to colored sketches and are never fully finished pieces. I may not answer them in any specific order or even every day- seeing as I don’t draw every single day- but I’ll usually find some that are more specific to what I plan on working on that day to get me in the mood. I’d prefer any fandom related requests to be about canon-specific characters (no OC’s), but it can also just be vague like “draw a lady” and I’ll just fill in the blanks with whatever.

All requests must be SFW and can come from anyone on or off anon. Any inappropriate requests will be deleted.

Stanuary 2019 Week One - Love

Stanuary Week One - Love

Summary: The most important baby born in the last eighteen years hits a developmental milestone.

Word Count: 1514

AO3

Santiago Lee Ramirez, otherwise known as Baby Yago, was born July 23, 2018, and Stanley Pines hadn’t been there. He’d planned to be there. He’d planned to be there the first week of August. But no, Baby Yago just HAD to take after his dad and show up early to EVERYTHING. Including life itself. So Stan had still been up in the middle of nowhere, hiking the mountains around Gravity Falls with Ford and the kids. Baby Yago’s official time of birth was 8:27PM, and Stan could even pinpoint exactly what he’d been doing at that time. He’d looked at his watch not five minutes before while Mabel chattered on about class options next year at Southern Oregon University. Ford had been engaged in the conversation, Dipper’s mind had seemed a million miles away, and Stan? Stan had been checking the time to see if it was late enough to turn in without being teased about being old. He’d been worried about being called old when the most important baby born in the last eighteen years came into the world.

They’d been relegated to McGucket’s Mansion that summer, as the attic bedroom of the Mystery Shack had already been changed into a nursery. Technically, nothing had been keeping Stan and Ford from returning to their former home, just the younger Pines twins. Neither of them had wanted to be underfoot. Abulita had gone full mama bear mode this late in Melody’s pregnancy, and Melody herself was turning out not much better. When they got back from the camping trip though, Stan had braved the angry women to come back and help out.

Toward the end of September, when Mabel finally left for her second year of college, Stan had asked Ford “So, when were you thinking we’d head out?”

The look Ford had given him was strangely calculating. As if trying to make some sort of judgement. Finally he said “I’ve heard forecasts of a fairly mild winter coming here to Oregon this year. Which, while good news for the locals, is likely bad news for some snow-dwelling cryptids in the area. I might like to stay through the season to observe.”

Stan couldn’t keep himself from grinning. Ford had never been a very good liar, but Stan didn’t call him on it. He was too grateful. Instead he just asked “You think McGucket’s gonna let you stick around that long?”

Ford shrugged. “Probably, but if it becomes an issue I’m sure I can return to my basement study at home.”

It never became an issue. Ford stayed at McGucket Mansion, and Stan stayed at the Mystery Shack. It was actually good to have the space after the close quarters on the Stan O’War II. They saw each other often enough, and Stan trusted McGucket to make sure Ford ate and slept. Which meant Ford was probably getting more sleep than him for a couple months there, given the newborn Stan was living with. Early on he got up for a share of the nightly feedings and changings and whatnot, and as time passed he and Abulita took turns just taking the baby monitor entirely for a night or two at a time to let Soos and Melody rest.

By late November, taking the baby monitor for the night was a little less like giving up on getting a full nights sleep and more gambling with one. Stan had arguably “won” a round with baby Yago’s sleep habits the night before Thanksgiving, when it was well past six in the morning when the little speaker starting blaring the familiar cries that had Stan out of bed and out the door in under a minute. Arguably, because Stan himself had been awake until nearly three.

December 12, 2018 saw Stan offering over dinner for the fourth time that month “I can take care of Yago if he wakes up tonight.” and for only the second time that month, Melody agreed. A handful of hours later, Stan was halfway up the stairs to the attic when he realized he hadn’t even checked the time before he bolted out of his room when the baby monitor kicked on. Maybe it was just the bad dream baby Yago’s cries had pulled him from talking, but Stan would swear there was something urgent sounding in the four and a half month olds voice.

Turns out, there might have been. The little athlete had managed to roll himself most of the way over and gotten wedged at a weird diagonal against the bars of his crib. Stan reached in carefully and managed to dislodge baby Yago and pick him up. He rested the baby against his chest and held him close for a second, bouncing his arms just slightly in what had become a reflexive gesture to help calm him. Then he turned and walked the few steps to the rocking chair by the foot of the crib. If Yago didn’t settle in a minute or two of rocking, Stan would take him downstairs for a bottle. Normally that’d be his first move, but Soos had told him repeatedly to stop reaching to feed the kid every time he was the tiniest bit distressed so Stan was trying to listen.

Stan hummed a little, making quiet sounds that almost passed as musical and mumbling things about “Rocking baby Yago, ‘cause he woke up after I took the baby monitor like a dumb-dumb.” Sure enough, after less than a minute Yago settled and Stan said “There. That’s better. Now maybe you’ll learn somethin’ and save rolling over in your sleep for when you’re older, huh?” The rolling forward-and-back of the rocking chair was also comforting to Stan, even more than half a year since his last time on the ocean. It wasn’t exactly the same at all, but it was a change from solid ground, and Stan always felt at peace sitting up here. Of course, that probably had just as much to do with who he was sitting up here with as with some dumb rocking chair. “Think you’re gonna get back to sleep soon?” Stan asked the baby, not expecting an answer. It’d be hilarious if the kid promptly fell asleep though. That had actually happened once.

This time, Yago did the opposite. His little hand pressed as hard as a baby could press on anything against Stan’s chest, and the little guy actually pushed up and lifted his little head right off of Stan’s shoulder, then looked Stan square in the eye. Stan blinked. Yago was still looking at him, big brown eyes wide open and alert. “Huh.” Stan said. “You uh...you couldn’t’ve waited ‘til morning for this?” Yago wiggled a little, but kept his head in the air. “Seriously, kid, your ma’s gonna kill me if she finds out she missed you lifting your head for the first time.”

As if concerned by the threat, Yago dropped. The side of his little face plopped against Stan’s shoulder. “There ya go.” Stan said. Then “...I’m still gonna have to tell your parents, huh? Can’t keep major milestones a secret.” He rocked the baby a little bit more, then, observed “I mean I could.” Before he could get into the ethical dilemma of lying to family to make them happy, something he probably shouldn’t be talking about with an infant, he felt a little tug at the side of his neck opposite from where Yago was.

By the time Stan remembered he’d been too wiped from the day in general to take off the thick gold chain Dipper had sent him for Hanukkah this year before going to bed, Yago already had his little fist around it and was drawing it into his mouth.  Stan eyed him for a moment, and concluded that the chain was big enough, and attached enough, that it wasn’t a choking hazard. “Ya like that, huh?” he said. “Well, somebody in your family’s gotta have a sense of style. May as well be you, right?” Stan chuckled and shifted the baby against his chest, adjusting him slightly before dropping his own head against the back of the rocking chair with a sigh.

Yago gummed contentedly at the chain for a few minutes more before his eyes began drooping. “That’s it.” Stan encouraged. “Get some more sleep, kiddo. We both need it.” Only another few moments later, Yago seemed to have listened to him. The babys eyes were completely closed and he’d stopped actively gumming.  So now Stan faced the challenge of getting his chain out of baby Yago’s mouth without waking him. This would be fun.

Sure enough, Yago stirred on his first effort and fussed a little. “Hey, hey, hey, it’s okay…” Stan attempted to soothe, shifting the baby slightly and gently patting him on the back. Yago was asleep again shortly, so Stan stood and put him back in the crib. Then he started back to his own room.

If he stayed in the doorway just watching baby Yago a whole lot longer than necessary, no one had to know.

The Northeastern United States and Its Cryptids - Part 1

I don’t know about you guys, but I love cryptozoology. Bigfoot, Loch Ness, Mothman - you name it, I love it.

Whether you share that same love or not, cryptozoology and urban legends play a big cultural part in places all over the country, and the northeast is no exception.

If you guys like this kind of thing, I’ll gladly do more in the future.

Let’s get started 😎

New Jersey - The Jersey Devil

Starting off with my home state, I of course have to bring up the classic Jersey Devil.

In New Jersey, there’s a large area of land known as the Pine Barrens, which is a massive forest stretching through several counties in the state. It’s a beautiful natural landmark with a very unique ecosystem and a lot of history. More importantly, the Pine Barrens are the host of many local legends and folktales.

The story of the Jersey Devil goes back to the 1700s and starts with a family known as the Leeds Family. A large family consisting of a couple and their 12 children, the Leeds Family was pretty run-down from being so large, and meeting the demands of such a big family was a strenuous task. So when Mother Leeds found out she was pregnant with a 13th child, you can imagine she was very upset.

In her anger, she cursed the child, hoping for the devil to take it so she wouldn’t have another mouth to feed. Nine months later, the 13th baby was born. At first, it was a normal baby, but minutes after being delivered it began to transform and take on a horrifying shape. The baby grew a goat head and horns, hooves and a forked tail, and a set of bat-like wings.

The devilish creature that had transformed before their eyes killed everyone in the house: Mother Leeds, her husband, her previous children, even the midwife who was present for the birth. With the blood of all those on his hands, he climbed through the chimney and flew off into the Pine Barrens.

That was the night the Jersey Devil was born. Originally, he was dubbed the Leeds Devil, but when a sudden outcrop of sightings all across the state began in the late 1800s and early 1900s, he soon became known as the Jersey Devil instead.

To this day, it is said the Devil roams the Pine Barrens, preying on animals and leaving bloodbaths in his wake. He jumps from rooftop to rooftop in neighborhoods all over the state, and it’s said that if you go into the Pine Barrens at night, you might here the blood-curdling scream of the Jersey Devil himself.

You’re safe if you stay out of the Pine Barrens. People from all over the country who know of the legend will tell you that he is only in the Pine Barrens, but when you’re actually in Jersey, there are some who claim that the Pine Barrens is the only place the Devil can’t go...

Pennsylvania - The Green Man

Urban legends about cryptids are usually based on real life people or events, if only loosely. In the case of Pennsylvania’s Green Man, this ‘cryptid’ really wasn’t a cryptid at all.

In a rural area in Western Pennsylvania, an urban legend tells the tale of an ominous, inhuman being that would wander the woods at night, omitting a strange green glow. Called The Green Man as a result of his skin, people would actively seek out this cryptid at night, and many actually saw him.

However, The Green Man wasn’t a cryptid at all.

In fact, he was actually a man named Raymond Robinson, a gentleman who lived alone in the woods. As a child, Robinson climbed a telephone pole and got severely electrocuted, ultimately losing his nose and eyes and becoming permanently disfigured. Some inconsiderate people called him a monster because of his appearance, and in time, the legend of The Green Man came to be. The glowing green light he allegedly omitted was an addition made based on the fact that he was electrocuted.

Robinson only left the house at night due to his appearance. He didn’t want people to see him and be afraid, so he’d only go out at night when nobody was around. Many people taunted him and treated him awful, but there were many others who treated him like any normal person should be treated. He had friends and loved ones, and some claim that every once in a while he’d pose for a picture in exchange for beer or cigarettes.

Though it was revealed long ago that the so-called “Green Man” was simply a tale made up based on Robinson, the story spread so far and wide and was passed down through so many generations that to this day, despite Robinson having passed decades ago, there are still people who claim to see The Green Man in the woods.

New York - Champ

In upstate New York in the grogeous Adirondack mountains is Lake Champlain, the biggest lake in that region. Renowned for its fishing, boating, and beautiful scenery, Lake Champlain is a wonderful spot to visit, as well as the home of a creature named Champ.

The legend of Champ goes back centuries, starting as a legend for both the Iroquois and Abenaki natives in that region. They told stories of a large creature that inhabited the lake, called Tatoskok by the Abenaki tribe. Over time, Tatoskok came to be known as Champ, a nickname derived from the lake’s name: Champlain. Originally it wasn’t called Lake Champlain, a guy from France “””discovered””” it and it got named after him, but I digress.

The first specific sighting of Champ came in the 1800s when a captain was on Bulwagga Bay. He reported a massive black serpent in the water almost 200 feet in length that rose high out of the water. The captain reported “a black monster, about 187 feet long and with a head resembling a sea horse, that reared more than 15 feet out of the water. He claimed the monster he saw had three teeth, eyes the color of a ‘a pealed [sic] onion,’ a white star on its forehead and ‘a belt of red around the neck.’“

Over the next 100 years, a number of sightings were reported, and even to this day there are still reports of people spotting Champ swimming around in Lake Champlain. And then, as the world entered the 21st century, even more sightings surfaced, drawing attention from places as far away as Japan. To this day, many say that Champ still swims in the lake. Essentially, Champ is America’s Lock Ness!

Connecticut - The Melon Heads

The legend of the melon heads comes from Michigan, Ohio, and the Connecticut. Generally, they are described as small beings with unnaturally large heads, similar to some depictions of aliens. The legend itself varies in each of these states, but since we’re talking about the northeast, I’ll just talk about Connecticut’s version of the melon heads.

One of Connecticut’s stories behind the melon heads is that in the 1960s, an asylum for the criminally insane burned to the ground, everyone perishing in the fire save for a dozen or so unaccounted for inmates. It is said that those inmates survived and ran off into the woods, keeping themselves alive by cannibalizing each other and eventually inbreeding, resulting in hydrocephalus, a condition in which fluid fills part of the brain.

The second version of the history of Connecticut’s melon heads is that, back in the colonial days, a family was banished into the woods because they were allegedly performing witchcraft. Like the previous story, hydrocephalus as a result of inbreeding is claimed to be the reason behind their appearance, as it is said that the banished family began breeding among themselves to survive.

In Connecticut, the melon heads live in wooded areas at the end of dirt roads, and in certain towns, the said dirt road is called Dracula Drive. If you enter their territory in the woods, they will immediately attack, biting and even eating their victims.

Massachusetts - The Dover Demon

The Dover Demon is a strange creature that’s only been see twice, both times in the same night.

A little past 10pm on a spring day in the 1970s, three teenage boys were in a car heading down the road. The driver, Bill Bartlett, was driving his two friends home when he spotted something strange out of the corner of his eye. Along a stone wall on the side of the road, a small creature was slowly crawling by. For a split second in the headlights of his passing car, Bartlett described seeing a creature with an unusually large head and a disturbingly lanky, thin body. It’s skin was peach-colored and appeared to have a rough texture, its hands seemed to curl perfectly around the rocks beneath it, and it’s eyes were two glowing orange orbs.

Before Bartlett could say anything they had already driven past and the creature was gone. His friends hadn’t seen it. He dropped them both off at their homes and then returned to his own home, visibly shaken as he described the sighting to his father and drew a sketch of it.

In his sketch, he describes the creature, then he also writes, “I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of bibles that I saw this creature,” followed by his signature.

That same night only a couple hours later, another teenage boy in the area by the name of John Baxter left his girlfriend’s house to walk home alone. After walking about a mile, he sees a small figure approaching him on the road. Based on its height, he assumes it’s a younger kid he knows who lives on the street and calls out. There was no response, and both parties continued towards each other when suddenly the shorter being stopped, causing Baxter to stop as well.

He called out again, and this time the being made a run for it. It runs off into the woods and down a slope, and Baxter follows right behind it. When he gets to the bottom of the slope, he manages to get a good look at the being. It’s small and lanky, with extremely thin, “monkey-like” limbs, a head shaped like a figure eight, and feet that curled perfectly around the rocks it stands on.

Baxter immediately backed up the slope, knowing that he had spotted something that wasn’t human. Afraid of what it might do, he made his way back to the road, hurrying down the street towards home until a couple driving by picked him up.

Popular cryptozoologist Loren Coleman later investigated the incident, and deemed the creature, dubbed the Dover Demon, to be an “unknown phenomenon.” It has not been seen since.

images: x, x, x, x, x, x, x

CRies deviantart user magentamustang wrote me a oneshot for the kur family au i made and its so good,,,, they gave me permission to post it for em so please read on if you’re interested!! 

Zak darted around the corner of the nearest building and tried to catch his breath. He could hear the shouting of the angry mob from a few streets away, their furious yelling only growing louder and more aggressive. Pressing his back further into the cold metal did little to hide him and soon, sure enough, he couldn���t shake the notion that he was all alone. He could feel his heart pounding against the confines of his chest as he tried to bring his erratic breathing under control, fearing that it would ultimately lead to his detection. His panic escalated when he realised he was failing to naturally sense any help nearby. His nearly ever present connection with his parents and uncle was gone, which indicated that they were all some distance away. Now desperate as he knew they couldn’t rescue him, he felt a warmth and agitation on his skin as Kur called out to his allies. They didn’t call back. Zak knew that there were cryptids running rampant on the city streets – he was flinching with their rage and frustration more by the minute. Yet although he was born with the remains of their ancient king flowing through his veins, he might as well have been a normal human being. They remained uninterested in his pleas. From what Zak could make out, after the Naga’s had learnt the family’s dark secret, Rani Nagi and her subordinates had seized control over most of the earth’s cryptid population. The disturbing part was that it seemed like the four ancient Sumerian cryptid entities in the family – or the parts of them that were evil at least: they were more than happy to let the Naga’s wreak havoc on New York city. The situation seemed bleak. Hopeless even. “Hey, there’s one of them!” Zak’s heart was in his throat as he saw one man come racing around the street corner and he practically felt like it was going to ditch his body when he saw the rest of the mob follow, their angry eyes set on him. Even though he felt rooted to the spot, Zak managed to work feeling back into his legs and run. Run for his life. He darted down the nearest alleyway. It was a good job he had the claw, otherwise he would have never been able to outrun some of them. Though his training didn’t prove faithful in the end because after losing his way in a back alley, he found himself cornered against three unscalable, solid brick walls. His eyes pinned from left to right and then back again wildly, looking for escape routes. The mob was rounding the last corner and the walls were all too high to grapple onto with the claw. As the angry crowd met him against the dead end, Zak felt like a rat in a trap. Back once again against a wall, Zak took out the claw and pointed it at the advancing people to create a barrier. “Stay back!” People were afraid of what they didn’t understand, so it was no surprise that the sight of the boy’s weapon glowing bright orange like a fiery stick in unison with his eyes made them move back and emit cries and gasps. However, Zak knew that his tricks wouldn’t hold them back for long. The strongest in the group were already starting to move through towards him. The situation had become so tense and heated that Zak knew it would be nearly impossible to escape on foot now. Just as he thought the people were going to grab him and the situation was going to explode into an inferno; Zak witnessed what he could interpret as a miracle. He heard the sound of a jetpack roaring overhead, slowly but surely growing louder. The people in the mob suddenly drew some of their attention away from him and started pointing to the sky, shouting and swearing profusely. Zak felt a large figure land behind him with a soft thud and a tide of relief washed over him as a strong arm was swiftly wrapped around his midsection. The crowd lunged for them in a mad bid but Zak’s rescuer sent the two of them airborne so that they hovered over the sea of people. The screaming of the mob was beginning to ring in Zak’s ears as objects were now being hurled at them alongside the array of curses and insults. Despite only enduring this for thirty odd seconds, Zak’s rescuer growled. Zak couldn’t blame him. The man had a much shorter temper, so it was no surprise for the boy to witness him plucking a grenade from his belt. Zak couldn’t help but sneer at their pursuers as the grenade was dropped into the crowd. It exploded with a loud ‘crack-bang’ and released a cloud of pungent gunpowder smoke which dispersed between the people who were now running for their lives. When Zak found that his feet were no longer dangling in mid-air as he was dropped atop a building, he felt himself (and Kur) relax. Doyle dropped down beside him, cutting the engines on his jetpack. Once Zak was able to catch his breath after being hunched over, Zak turned to his uncle. His thanks turned to worry. Doyle had never looked worse for wear. His expression was dynamite. His eyes were a warning amber, flashing erratically with little sparks threatening to ignite inside the whites of his eyes. Zak also picked up on the occasional twitch in the man’s posture. Zak could relate. He could feel the emotions of tens, if not hundreds of cryptids all screaming inside his head. He had no doubt that it was just as bad (or worse) for Doyle. When he recovered his breath and spoke up; his tone was rough. “Your parents and the gorilla cat have already made it back to the airship Miniman, it’s just us out here,” Doyle confirmed. He went to the edge of the building and looked over. “Now we just have to get there too with the near entire population of New York city trying to kill us in the process.” Zak cringed, “yeah, that should be a breeze uncle Doyle.” Doyle rolled his eyes. “We haven’t got very long before they find a way up here. The longer we stay, the worse this will get.” Zak knew Doyle was right. It was very rare for his uncle to get this serious. After they had been told by Doc and Drew that they were indeed reincarnations of Kur, Doyle had become incredibly tense and unstable. It was a wonder that he could still function that way. “I’ve had enough of helping people,” he spat. Zak broke the fragile tension forming, “H-how fast do you think you can get us away?” “Fast enough.” In order to reach the jetpack’s top speed, Zak found himself being fastened into a makeshift safety belt (had his parents been there, they probably would have yelled at Doyle about it). It enabled Doyle to fly with the use of both arms and make the odds for their escape attempt lean more towards their favour. Once Zak was secured to his chest, Doyle dove straight off of the roof and into a nose dive. Zak had to brace himself for the rush of air that slapped him in the face when they jumped. Through the wind pelting him, Zak could see the concrete hundreds of feet below him drawing perilously closer through squinted eyes. Just when he began to panic, thinking that they weren’t going to pull up, Doyle straightened out above him and flew them into a curve, the jetpack carrying them down the open road like a bullet. The speed that they were flying at was taking its toll on Zak’s airway, the pelting air making it hard for him to move and even draw breaths. It was hard to keep his eyes open and the cold, harsh air made them water. His eyelashes were fluttering too, mixing with the tears and creating a blur of passing skyscrapers and people that whizzed by them every half-second. Zak had never before appreciated his uncle’s skill when it came to operating a jetpack so much. It was a wonder that Doyle could still see, let alone keep track of where he was going at all – Zak was experiencing vertigo and there were many times when he thought they were going lose control and crash. Doyle slowed and jerked to the right down a side street. Zak felt the ropes on the harness straining as he did so. Doyle continued with his zig zagging manoeuvres for a while to keep attention focusing on them for no more than a few seconds at a time. He eventually brought his arms out in front of him in a kind of superman pose as they flew straight up like a rocket towards the blue sky. Zak spotted the coast from their height and relaxed a little, knowing the airship was somewhere across the estuary. Once he thought that his vision had settled, Doyle annoyingly threw them into another nose dive. Whether it was to avoid detection or just for the thrill - Zak didn’t know. He wouldn’t have been able to tell with Doyle. Doyle pulled up so that they were flying just metres above the water this time. Zak could feel the salty spray whipping against him as they flew underneath the bridge connecting the two islands, to make them less detectable to the motorists on the bridge. As they flew in the shadow of the structure, over the noise of the jetpack, the traffic and the ocean, Zak thought he a scream from atop the bridge. He thought he had imagined it at first but then he heard it a second time – a very human cry from above them. He shouted to Doyle. “Doyle! Something’s happening on the bridge, we need to-.” “No can do Zakman, we need to get ourselves out of here. These people can defend themselves for all I care!” Doyle shouted back with a tone of disgust. Just as Zak was working up a reply, there was a loud bang and a few large chunks of concrete plummeted from the bridge, falling towards them. Doyle swerved between the falling rocks to avoid being him. He frowned and flew up the side of the bridge to investigate. Zak immediately spotted the problem. The Taniwha that had nearly crushed his dad during their inner city fight had someway found its way onto the bridge. Half of the lanes were clear but there were still a lot of cars and trucks in the opposite lanes. The people were exiting their cars and running for their lives, screaming terror. It was a wonder that the bridge could support the huge, 100 tonne mosasaur. However, the cryptid was knocking down the support columns and wires that kept the bridge stable. If no one stopped it, the bridge would collapse into the sea, taking the cryptid and innocent civilians down with it. “Doyle, we have to do something!” “What!?” The mercenary shouted in disbelief. “If this thing keeps destroying the bridge, hundreds of innocent people will die!” Zak argued. “You’ve seen what this thing can do, it’s out of our control!” Zak recoiled at Doyle’s words. He knew that he hadn’t meant it that way but he felt like making things worse was his only purpose right now. Pleading, he looked into his uncle’s eyes. They were angered but also full of concern for him. “I’m not doing this to waste your time Doyle, it’s for me,” Zak said with a sad sigh, “I just want to do something right for once. My powers have been nothing but trouble since Antarctica and I just want to help people for once instead of making them scared of me!” Zak hadn’t meant to sound so demanding but the coldness in Doyle’s eyes seemed to thaw and he gave in to his nephew’s argument. “Alright. You can try.” Doyle dropped his nephew onto the bridge. Zak pulled out the claw and pointed it at the creature. “Alright, time to go back to the open ocean fish lips!” The creature set its huge eyes on the boy, its green orbs glowing orange. It let go of one of the support beams it was shredding. “That’s it, surely you would rather be back home, right?” The creature dropped its huge tail onto the bridge, making it sway. Zak nearly lost his balance as he poured his power on. “Come on!” The creature looked at the water, tempted by the prospect. Zak could sense its emotions and the beast was riled up by the excitement of being around humans for the first time in its life. Despite handling larger creatures before his power spike, he couldn’t summon enough energy to persuade this one to get off the bridge. He could almost feel Kur feeding off of his fear that this would turn into another monotonous situation of lost control. Kur wanted this cryptid to hurt these people. Kur hated his reincarnation’s race and he wanted nothing more than to drive them to extinction. “Do I have to do everything myself?” Zak was relieved when he heard Doyle’s voice inside the creature’s mind as its eyes grew an even brighter orange. He glanced to the left to see Doyle in a defensive stance. His eyes were orange hollows and concentration was etched into his features. Zak could hear his uncle’s Kur muttering near undecipherable commands to the cryptid without Doyle having to move his lips. Zak was overwhelmed by a feeling of accomplishment as the creature dragged its lumbering body towards the railings separating it from the sea. Crushing them with ease, it plummeted down into the water. The bridge rocked and groaned as it was released from the creature’s weight and as a huge wave of surf erupted from the sea as the cryptid hit the water, surging over the side of the bridge and spraying, Zak, Doyle and the civilians with a cloud of spray. Zak wiped his eyes and laughed, somewhat overjoyed. He had missed his ability to coexist with Kur – even if Zak never knew he was there in the first place. The boy ran to the edge of the bridge and watched the creature swim away. “Straight on to open ocean!” Zak wiped his brow of the saltwater, “No stopping and no humans. Not ever again.” He breathed. He heard Doyle laugh. “Nice work Miniman.” His uncle was smiling. As if he was proud of himself. As if it didn’t matter that they were soaking wet, exhausted and surrounded by people with gawking mouths. “I can’t believe it worked! The Kur power actually listened to me!” Doyle and Zak high-fived. Doyle chuckled. “Okay, now can we get out of here?” Zak nodded as Doyle picked him up and they flew upwards at a now steady pace so that Zak could see the astonished faces of the crowd below as they exited their cars to look at their saviours as they disappeared into the distance of high rise buildings.