Here's The Finished Version . . . Honestly Not My Favorite, But It's Okay.

"If you use em dash in your works, it makes them look AI generated. No real human uses em dash."

Imaging thinking actual human writers are Not Real because they use... professional writing in their works.

Imagine thinking millions of people who have been using em dash way before AI becomes a thing are all robots.

REBLOG IF YOU'RE A HUMAN AND YOU USE EM DASH

don't know much about enneagram but this is an interesting look at their personalities!

What Enneagram types are the main cast? I've been thinking about this for some time and here's my two cents. If anyone has ideas/corrections about any mistypes I'd love to hear them. This is mostly coming at it from the 'core fear' aspect rather than outward displays of personality, but I think it could inform potential character arcs.

*Jesse: 2, Helper. Fears being unwanted/unworthy of love. 2 empathetic, self-sacrificing type fits the optimistic protagonist role Jesse plays, and the fears can really be pushed in dire situations where her friends end up throwing in the towel and leaving. Potential backstories for this root fear include (as one anon mentioned a while ago) being an unmoored orphan.

Olivia: 5, Investigator. The fear of being useless/incapable adds depth to her self-worth issues over not being good enough in her abilities (building competition, redstone, etc.) and can be maximized for profit with Ellegaard's death, whereby Olivia can step into her shoes as a kind of successor.

Axel: 9, Peacemaker. Fears separation and conflict, which manifests as a passivity and resignation of the state of things. Axel is dissatisfied with their—the Treehouse Trio's—situation, but has convinced himself that it's just the way it is. Growth would be following his passion when the opportunity arises (finding Magnus and becoming the King of Boomtown)

Petra: 8, Challenger. Fears being harmed or controlled. This one may be a stretch but the rest of Petra's personality (self-reliance, resisting weakness and the need to stay in control (e.g. her conflict with Jesse in S1E7) seems to fit this. Could be explained by a really shitty childhood. Growth is learning to take a back-seat and show vulnerability (which is excellent fodder for a romantic subplot)

Lukas: 6, Loyalist. Fears not having stability. Very loyal and cooperative: Lukas is repeatedly loyal to his friends, shown when he goes back for the Ocelots or even Jesse in S2 if you ended things on bad terms earlier. Growth is abandoning his old post (The Ocelots), finding his own way and taking the risk to join Jesse's gang instead.

Bonus Aiden just for sillies: 3, Achiever. Shares a similar basic fear of worthlessness with Jesse, but manifests it outwardly with ladder-climbing and hunger for fame instead. Hangs around the negative levels of Type 3, with growth being accepting his inherent self-worth and actually doing some good instead of endlessly chasing Jesse's shadow.

*This is written with F!Jesse in mind, at least. I haven't seen an M!Jesse playthrough so I can't determine whether it's accurate or not.

~~~

Good news and bad news.

Good news: I finished the next chapter of A Fight To Remember!

Bad news: I want to wait until I've finished the final two chapters to post it.

Potentially good news: I'm going to try and get them finished soon so I can post all three in quick succession, hopefully by the end of the first week of the new year.

Merry one day late Christmas!

Edit: Here's a link to the series I'm talking about: https://archiveofourown.org/series/3995638

what if the pines family were cursed to have constantly terrible love lives.

like Filbrick pissed on some ancient enchantress so bad that she decided to curse the bloodline. That’s why no pines can get a date that lasts.

wrote this a while ago on the tube. Please steal the idea and run with it. Idk if I’m gonna…

The love curse

Dipper wanted to ask Pacifica Northwest out. They’d been friends for 4 years, texted all the time, and they kept having these intimate moments that ended in awkwardness. Pacifica even said she’d be upset if Dipper dated someone else! It was practically a done deal.

Except every time he tried to ask her out, something went comically wrong. The first time, at the beginning of the summer, dipper was about to ask, when Stan came out completely naked. Apparently, he’d pissed off a gang of pixies, who kept stealing Stan’s clothes as he was putting them on. Needless to say, it ruined the moment.

The second time, they were at the lake. It was just Dipper and Pacifica, a nice quiet day. But just as the sun was setting and Dipper was about to ask, the Gobblewonker decided to take a bite out of the boat, and they had to swim to shore. The gobblewonker barely came out in the day! It was absurd!

Then there was the time with the gnomes, that one time a piano fell out of nowhere, when Ford accidentally set the stanleymobile on fire, when that witch decided to turn pacifica into a tapeworm… it was frankly ridiculous how many things kept getting in their way. After the 27th time, Dipper had had enough.

“I don’t get it, Mabel!” Dipper said, pacing around their room, “Yesterday, i tried to ask her out and I was STRUCK BY LIGHTNING!  It wasn’t even raining! It’s like I’m cursed or something!”

Mabel was dressing up waddles as she considered this. “maybe you ARE cursed, dip!”

Dipper stopped pacing and turned to Mabel.

“OF COURSE! That’s the ONLY. Possible explanation! Someone or something must be pissed that I’m trying to ask Pacifica out!” Dipper resumed his pacing. “But who…”

Mabel looked at dipper with wide eyes. “I have an idea, dipper! The Woodstick Festival is back in town next week, and guess who’s going to be there” Mabel shoved a poster in Dipper’s face. He grabbed it and then looked at Mabel.

“The love god? Doesn’t he hate you for stealing his potion or something?”

Mabel waved him off.

“Pffft water under the bridge, brother. We can ask him for advice on whatever love curse you got!”

So the next day, the two went looking for the Love God. It wasn’t hard, they just had to follow the trail of kissing teens to greasy’s. They sat opposite from him, uninvited, and gave him a look.

“Ah, you kids looking for some love?” Love god said. Dipper glared, and Mabel stuck out her hand.

“Hi, I’m Mabel! Big fan of your work!”

“I know you! You stole my love potion!”

Mabel looked away sheepishly. “ uh… sorry about that. I realised it was a bad idea pretty quick. Anyway my brother needs your help!”

Love god turned to look at Dipper. He gave him a charming grin. “How can I help you, kid! You seem like you would be into …” Love God closed his eyes and wiggled his fingers, “…lumberjacks and mean girls. I can do that in a heartbeat, just say the word!”

Dipper blushed. “Um no thanks, mr Love God. Actually I think I’m cursed.”

“Ahh” replied Love God, “I see what’s going on. Look, kid, it’s normal for boys your age to feel like you’re cursed when It comes to lo-“

“Like actually cursed! Not just bad at talking to women!” Said dipper. The love god gave him a strange look. 

“Kid I’m telling you, it’s probably nothing.”

Dipper sighed. “Can you just check! Please, then we’ll leave you alone.”

The love god sighed and held out his hand. Warily, dipper took it. Love God sprayed some blue liquid onto dippers face and waved his arms around. He looked confused, so he did it again. And again. He then let go of dipper’s hand.

“What is it?” Asked dipper. Love God ignored him and turned to Mabel.

“Give me your hand…”

Mabel offered it and Love god did the same to Mabel. He gave both of them a grave look.

—————————

“Our bloodline is cursed?!” Cried Ford at dinner that night. 

“That’s what the love god said” dipper said with a sigh, “cursed to have terrible love lives.”

“Honestly, that explains some things” said Stan.

“The worst part” cried Mabel, “is that we can’t break it without figuring out who cast it! How am I supposed to find the perfect boyfriend like this!” She cried into the table. Ford got a look of consideration on his face, before he pulled out the second journal.

“Don’t worry kids, we can summon the person who cast the curse with this Curse Tracing spell I found in the 70s! It will bring them here, and then we can demand they break it!”

So half an hour later, the Pines’ were standing in a circle, chanting something in Latin.

—————

the idea I had was that the Pines (read: Stan) have to reconcile with all their exes before the curse is lifted. I think it would be funny. But please! Steal the idea! Make it your own! I want other people’s ideas constantly.

the most important thing when i write dipper and mabel is to understand that they are not stan and ford.

that's not to say that there aren't similarities. obviously, the twins have dynamics that can be compared to each other in a myriad of ways, both separately and together.

but it's so very vital that dipper is NOT a 1:1 ford. and mabel is NOT a 1:1 stan.

dipper has ford's love of rationality and mysteries, but he has stan's love of stories and family. mabel has stan's pure chaos, but ford's pre-bill trust in people.

dipper and stan both approach the world with cynicism. young ford and mabel approach the world with wonder.

stan was the twin worried about being left behind, just like mabel. ford and dipper both wanted to carve a path for themselves and their future.

mabel was so scared of losing her brother that she accidentally caused weirdmaggedon, just like stan was worried about losing ford that he accidentally sabatoged ford's science project/collegiate future. but dipper was the one who fought like hell mostly by himself in the apocalypse for three days to get her back, just like stan worked for thirty years to save ford. there is nothing dipper wouldn't sacrifice for mabel.

in my humble opinion, this is why the pines family dynamic is so damn compelling. they aren't carbon copies because that's not how people work. there is a sincerity, an honesty, a relatability between all of these characters and their flaws.

mabel and dipper aren't just the younger version of their grunkles. they are a crazy mishmash of the best and worst traits swapped around and punted to the moon and back.

exploring each micro-dynamic is so fascinating. i love this weird little family.

I had a dream and now I headcanon that Dipper is magic and has the power of coincidences, which is why so many cartoon plot things happen to him (like finding Journal 3 and the "ultimate power" inscription from the video game episode)

Mabel's perspective in Sock Opera is equally, if not more sympathetic than Dipper's: An Essay

Most people generally wouldn't consider Mabel to have a terribly sympathetic plotline in Sock Opera, even those of us who don't necessarily feel that she's horribly selfish. I think that's because, from a narrative perspective, her plotline is (as it so often is) shafted in favour of Dipper's, and from a viewer's perspective, Dipper's makes more sense. We, as viewers want to know who the author is. We, as viewers, know that Gabe is inevitably going to turn out to be some variety of impossible, and we know that the Author of the Journals is a major mystery. However, from Mabel's perspective, none of this is true, because she doesn't have the luxury of knowing she is in a TV show. Even if you take out Gabe, her perspective still makes perfect sense.

At the beginning of summer, Dipper found this journal, and Mabel has generally been pretty happy to go along with his adventures as the journal has led them, but it's clear she doesn't have the same degree of fascination with it. Maybe she may have been a little intrigued by who the Author is, she's probably a bit curious, but not to the same extent. By the time of Sock Opera, she's probably reasonably ready for the Journal fixation to be over, considering that they nearly all got killed by a shapeshifter trying to find the author. She knows that trying to investigate the author is dangerous--Stan warned them away from the supernatural, they've all nearly died multiple times, but Dipper cannot be stopped. And now Dipper has decided to spend hours and hours and hours, forgoing sleep, sitting in front of a screen, typing in passwords. The fact that Mabel tries to drag him away from it is a good thing--anyone with a relative who spends excessive amounts of time in front of a computer can tell you that. Generally, having someone close to you become deeply fixated to the point of obsession with anything can be challenging, however in Mabel's case, Dipper has become obsessed to the point of prioritising getting into the laptop above anything, and this isn't just a regular hyperfixation: this is a hyperfixation that has nearly gotten them both (plus their loved ones) nearly killed multiple times in the last few weeks. It's absolutely the responsible, good thing for Mabel to do to not enable that behaviour.

And then if you add the puppet show back into the equation, then yes, it is kind of ridiculous of Mabel to put on a whole show of that kind of magnitude just for a boy (regardless of whether the boy deserves it), however, as viewers we must accept that this is, in fact, thoroughly within character for Mabel, who is kind of ridiculous. Any kind of production of that size is a huge commitment, especially if you've given yourself a week to work, and I'm not remotely bothered by the fact that Mabel has to get everyone involved on this. And to Mabel's credit, she does try to help Dipper as soon as he appears to her in puppet form, she just isn't immediately willing to stop the show. Back in high school, my drama class did a play that I mostly wrote, mostly managed and also had a small acting role in (yes, I was an overachiever in drama), and let me tell you, it would have taken a lot to have gotten me to call off the show halfway through, much less publicly sabotage it. A demon threatening the lives of one of my siblings? Probably yes. That probably would have done it. And Mabel does allow the thing that she poured blood, sweat and tears into to go literally up in flames in front of everyone, once she realises that's what she has to do (and personally, I don't think that there's anything wrong with not immediately being willing to drop everything for this. It's not like Dipper doesn't dig in his heels about doing what's best until the very last possible second). I don't know why people insist it's not 'technically a sacrifice', because while, yes, obviously Dipper's life was more important, and she 100% made the right choice, it's not easy to wreck something you worked hard on in front of people.

All this is to say that although it's easy to become irritated at Mabel during this episode because she's hindering Dipper's ability to figure out who the author is, it's also very easy not to realise that she has a thoroughly reasonable perspective, simply because the narrative puts greater emphasis and attention of Dipper's perspective.

Headcanon that Harper loves listening to Ivor’s rambles because she was isolated for so long and it’s comforting hearing someone else’s voice, like a constant reassurance that she isn’t alone anymore and accompanied by someone that adores her unconditionally.

~~~

Potentially a hot take but I think Dipper might be the most emotionally intelligent out of both sets of Pines twins, but in a very specific way.

Ford really isn't overly concerned about people's feelings; it's just not something he really tends to think about or prioritize. And when he does think about it, he tends to only view people's emotions based on how he would feel about the situation.

Stan is skilled in knowing how to handle people and quickly grasping their intentions. He's a con man that understands crowd mentality and how to play it. Overall, he just knows what people tend to want to hear and gives it to them, so quick with a lie. And because of this, he's wary of when people tell him what he wants to hear. He's a con man that recognizes a con, and knows a person's intentions and desires are important so he looks for them. But he doesn't really know how to interact and connect with people genuinely and openly. He wants to have genuine connections, specifically with his family, but for all of his life he's either delt with people that didn't care for him and made it obvious (his father), people who didn't seem as invested in having a relationship with one another as he did (Ford), or people he's had to constantly lie to and thrown on a persona to survive (his years being homeless and being Mr. Mystery). Because of this, genuine feelings and connections are difficult for him to navigate and articulate, or even really understand.

Mabel, out of all of them, definitely cares the most about other people's feelings. She spends time thinking about others feelings long after the fact, considers them carefully, with the end goal of everyone being happy. But she can get so caught up in what she thought would make everyone happy, that it can be difficult for her to take a step back and look at if what she's trying to do is really the right thing for people.

But Dipper is the one that tends to just, like, quickly grasp the heart of an emotional situation and just points it out. And, unlike Mabel, he doesn't really prioritizes everyone being happy, so when he points it out he tends to be very blunt about it. He also, surprisingly, is the first to take a step back and look at a situation, and what the right thing to do is, even if it's not what he wants, something Mabel and Ford have difficulties with. He also doesn't get upset if he's the one in the wrong, able to admit it easily once he realizes it and immediately has a desire to amend what he did wrong. However, he too has a blind spot, as does everyone. This blind spot being his paranoia; if he doesn't fully know about the situation, the conclusion he'll end up at will always be the worst one (stan portal situation). Dipper very rarely takes previous loyalties into consideration when trying to figure out what's going on; if it's someone he knows and loves he'll try to find out proof that go against his suspicions, but if he doesn't immediately find any he'll jump to an answer that speaks to his paranoia (opposite from Mabel, who is predisposed to firmly see the best in others even if there is evidence proving otherwise).

Every day I long to shake roughly 3/4 of the fandom by the shoulders and shout at them that any relationship Bill and Ford had was horrifically abusive