Art under the cut for spoilers for chapters 13 and 16 of Then it becomes, it becomes, it becomes a problem by @tempusedax-rerum on ao3. (Along with transcriptions) Are you a fan of cleverly worded chapter titles? Do you like your fair share of references to the real world? Do you want to see Bill Cipher face the horrors of self introspection and painful awareness??? Then you should read this fic! Cause it does all that and so much more, and it's a total blast babes: check it out if you're 18 or older and the tags don't bug ya! (yes, every time I post fan art for this I'm going to make a sales pitch, it's a good fic and I like the sound of my own voice (cough EGO-)). I've actually been holding on to these drawings for a while; figured I'd post them when we've got only ONE chapter left?! What! I'm not ready for it to end!!! Nevertheless, consider it my sweet goodbye for the time being, as I put the most effort into this out of everything. I'm not done with fan art for this, mind, just busy at the moment. I'm not even caught up, haha, I haven't read chapter 25 yet (and it's driving me nuts). More rambles about the art under the cut. (I'm a gabber! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
Transcription for the doodles (Guys honestly my handwriting usually sucks butt): Image 4: Meanwhile 'Is my boyfriend going to implode?' Image 5: Bill: "Aw c'mon, I haven't even seen her yet-" Ford: "Bill. Yes or no?" 'How do I help her? Will she die? What happened? Is she ok? This was a mistake. Let me be wrong about you. What did you do?' Bill: "...Ok so maybe I sent her mind to hell-" Ford: "WHAT" Image 6: Bill: "Finally, everything's comin' up BILL! Dumb ol' Jan-Jan's out of the picture, the gang's come back, and Sixer loves me again! What could possibly go wro-" Ford: "Now hold on-" Image 7: Stan: "HEEEERE'S STANLEY!! and Fids!" Ford: "Hm."
Ok so for the big fancy one, it's actually the first fan art I made for this fic and what pushed me to actually draw any at all, because the moment I read Ford getting all flusters at the thought of his and Bill's future I just lost it! This silly guy, getting excited by getting to do science! I saw it so clearly in my mind and just had to get it on paper. (digital paper that is)
I also drew all of these before I figured out my coloring style, so I was experimenting with this one. Yellow, as pretty as it is, is very frustrating on its own, particularly in dark values. I have mixed feelings about the final look.
The doodle of guilty Bill, I stopped reading the chapter to draw, haha! Once again, the vision was so clear, I just had ta! Rushed it though, since I had to get back to it and read the rest, but I'd like to come back to this one and touch it up sometime.
These are old drawings, so back around those chapters I was wondering if Stanley and Fiddleford showing up. Those last doodles were my joking prediction of how that'd happen. I have no clue honestly how the story is going to end and if that's even still a possibility. (Probably not, I mean, oh my god how would that work out, but I swear if that's happened in the latest chapters and I don't KNOW-) (don't tell me if it did or not)
I love the henchmaniacs, we should all draw them more I think.
WHOOO ONE MORE CHAPTER LEFT HOW WE FEELIN' TIBIBIBAP GANG?!
Part 1
Part 2
u/LackaFreak27
Reposted with permission as the co-writer of this comic.
Bonus
Credits
pattern recognition girl final moments
So, yesterday, I got into a rather stupid internet argument with someone who was peddling what seemed to me to be a rather insidious narrative about slur-reclamation. Someone in the ensuing notes raised a point which I thought was interesting, and worrying, and probably needed to be addressed in it’s own post. So here we go:
The word ‘queer’ itself seems to be especially touchy for many, so let me begin to address this by way of analogy.
Instead of talking about “queer”, let’s start by talking about “Jew” - a word which I believe is very similar in its usage in some significant ways.
Now, the word “Jew” has been used as a derogatory term for literally hundreds of years. It is used both as a noun (eg. “That guy ripped me off - what a dirty Jew”) and as a verb (eg. “That guy really Jew-ed me”). These usages are deeply, fundamentally, horrifically offensive, and should be used under no circumstances, ever. And yet, I myself have heard both, even as recently as this past year, even in an urban location with plenty of Jews, in a social situation where people should have known better. In short – the word “Jew”, as it is used by certain antisemites, is – quite unambiguously – a slur. Not a dead slur, not a former slur – and active, living slur that most Jews will at some point in their life encounter in a context where the term is being used to denigrate them and their religion.
Now here’s the thing, though: I’m a Jew. I call myself a Jew. I prefer that all non-Jews call me a Jew – so do most Jews I know. “Jew” is the correct term for someone who is part of the religion of Judaism, the same way that “Muslim” is the correct term for someone who is part of the religion of Islam, and “Christian” is the correct term for someone who is part of the religion of Christianity.
In fact, almost all of the terms that non-Jews use to avoid saying “Jew” (eg. “a member of the Jewish persuasion”, “a follower of the Jewish faith”, “coming from a Jewish family”, “identifying as part of the Jewish religion”, etc) are deeply offensive, because these terms imply to us that the speaker sees the term “Jew” (and by extension, what that term stands for) as a dirty word.
“BUT WAIT” – I hear you say – “didn’t you just say that Jew is used as a slur?!?”
Yes. Yes, I did. And also, it is fundamentally offensive not to call us that, because it is our name and our identity.
Let me back up a little bit, and bring you into the world of one of those 2000s PSAs about not using “that’s so gay”. Think of some word that is your identity – something which you consider to be a fundamental and intrinsic part of yourself. It could be “female” or “male”, or “Black” or “white”, “tall” or “short”, “Atheist” or “Mormon” or “Evangelical” – you name it.
Now imagine that people started using that term as a slur.
“What a female thing to do!” they might say. “That teacher doesn’t know anything, he’s so female!”
Or maybe, “Yikes, look at that idiot who’s driving like an atheist. It’s so embarrassing!”
Or perhaps, “Oh gross, that music is so Black, turn it off!”
Now, what would you say if the same groups of people who had been saying those things for years turned around and avoided using those words to describe anything other than an insult?
“Oh, so I see you’re a member of the female persuasion!”
“Is he… a follower of the atheist beliefs? Like does he identify as part of the community of atheist-aligned individuals?”
“So, as a Black-ish identified person yourself – excuse me, as a person who comes from a Black-ish family…”
Here’s the fundamental problem with treating all words that are used as slurs the same, without any regard for how they are used and how they developed – not all slurs are the same.
No one, and I mean no one (except maybe for a small handful of angsty teens who are deliberately making a point of being edgy) self-identifies as a kike. In contrast, essentially all Jews self-identify as Jews. And when non-Jews get weird about that identity on the grounds that “Jew is used as a slur”, despite the fact that it is the name that the Jewish community as a whole resoundingly identifies with, what they are basically saying is that they think that the slur usage is more important than the Jewish community self-identification usage. They are saying, in essence, “we think that your name should be a slur.”
Now, at the top I said that the word “Jew” and the word “queer” had some significant similarities in terms of their usage, and I think that’s pretty apparent if you look at what people in those communities are saying about those terms. When American Jews were being actively threatened by neo-Nazis in the 70s, the slogan of choice was “For every Jew a .22!″. When the American Queer community was marching in the 90s in protest of systemic anti-queer violence, the slogan of choice was “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” Clearly, these are terms that are used by the communities themselves, in reference to themselves. Clearly, these terms are more than simply slurs.
But while there are useful similarities between how the terms “Jew” and “Queer” are used by bigots and by their own communities, I’d also like to point out that there is pretty substantial and important difference:
Unlike for “queer”, there is no organized group of Jewish antisemites who are using the catchphrase “Jew is a slur!” in order to selectively silence and disenfranchise Jews who are part of minority groups within Judaism.
This is the real rub with the term queer – no one was campaigning about it being a slur until less than a decade ago. No one was saying that you needed to warn for the word queer when queer people were establishing the academic discipline of queer studies. No one was ‘think of the children”-ing the umbrella term when queer activists were literally marching for their lives. Go back to even 2010 and the term “q slur” would have been basically unparseable – if I saw someone tag something “q slur”, like most queer people I would have wracked my brains trying to figure out what slur even started with q, and if I learned that it was supposed to be “queer”, my default assumption would be that the post was made by a well-meaning but extremely clueless straight person.
I literally remember this shift – and I remember who started it. Exclusionists didn’t like the fact that queer was an umbrella term. Terfs (or radfems as they like to be called now) didn’t like that queer history included trans history; biphobes and aphobes didn’t like that the queer community was also a community to bisexuals and asexuals. And so what could they possibly say, to drive people away from the term that was protecting the sorts of queer people that they wanted to exclude?
Well, naturally, they turned to “queer is a slur.”
And here’s the thing – queer is a slur, just like Jew is a slur, and no one is denying that. And that fact makes “queer is a slur so don’t use it” a very convincing argument on the surface: 1) queer is still often used as a slur, and 2) you shouldn’t ever use slurs without carefully tagging and warning people about them (and better yet, you should never use them at all), and so therefore 3) you need to tag for “the q slur” and you need to warn people not to call the community “the queer community” or it’s members “queer people” or its study “queer studies” – because it’s a slur!
But the crucial step that’s missing here is exactly the same one above, for the word “Jew” – and that step is that not all slurs are the same. When a term is both used as a slur and used as a self-identity term, then favoring the slur meaning instead of the identity meaning is picking the side of the slur-users over the disadvantaged group!
If you say or tag “q slur” you are sending the message, whether you realize it or not, that people who use “queer” as a slur are more right about its meaning than those who use it as their identity. Tagging for “queer” is one thing. People can filter for “queer” if it triggers them, just like people can filter for anything else. Not everyone has to personally use the term queer, or like the term queer. But there is no circumstance where the term “q slur” does not indicate that you think queer is more of a slur than of an accurate description of a community.
If I, as a Jew, ever came across a post where someone had warned for innocent, positive, non-antisemitic content relating to Judaism with the tag “J slur”, I would be incensed. So would any Jew. The act of tagging a post “J slur” is in and of itself antisemitic and offensive.
Queer people are allowed to feel the same about “q slur”. It is not a neutral warning term – it is an attack on our identity.
your bed is probably as happy to see you as you are to see it. ‘here comes the warmth slab’ it thinks
cw eldritch cat/ lots of eyes/blood (?
sorry for the long post btw
I added this one just because lol
I really thought i could finish these in 2 week when i barely have free time lmao
spanish ver. of the last drawing and references⬇⬇⬇
references ⬇⬇⬇
like the first rule of cooking is to have fun and be yourself and the first rule of baking is to stay calm because the dough can sense fear
love to follow veterinarian practices on facebook because every one in a while they’ll post a picture of something so bizarrely funny. this axolotl getting an x-ray just took me out
favourite rpg trope is the merchants in incredibly hostile environments. we are at the evil curse mountain and youre just selling me items normal style
*doom music starts to play* I actually kindof like scheduling these kinds of appointments now...
but seriously Fellas, don't forget to schedule a pap smear every couple of years just in case. If you still have a cervix you can still get cervical cancer. ilu
this has been a psa
ZARA puts together a little "Eldritch Horror Companion Support Group" for Vi. Keep reading for close-ups.
"Hang in there, baby!" is on a pink poster of a cat barely holding onto a branch.
ZARA sits on top of Vi's head. Stanley is to the right of Vi from our perspective.
Arthur chats with Eddie. Venom and John seem to argue silently about something.
Bill watches over Ford's shoulder as Ford takes notes on his surroundings.
Jack sits miserably while Aku attempts to fit a plastic star through a circular hole.
idk has someone done this yet
wip comic based off a tumblr post i saw the other day
eat drink sleep play
Ford says he traded some teeth to get his lab from Bill, but the truth is a lot stupider than that.
Supplementary backstory for Step IV of Theseus' Guide to Ruining a Perfectly Good Boat.
Two steps ahead.
Dipper was two steps ahead.
I gotta,,,
the queen of the disco or whatever
If you're new here, this is one of those "human Bill in the Mystery Shack" redemption fics, you know the drill: Bill illegally escapes death via reincarnation; the Shack crew imprisons him til they can figure out how to kill him; but they won't, because Bill's gonna make friends with them and literally everybody else in town. Whether they like it or not.
Featuring!! The slowest redemption arc you've ever read; "human" Bill that doesn't decide being trapped in an alien body is fine; show-style episodic plot structure; individual plot arcs for characters you've never even cared about; so canon compatible we even include the dang coloring book; and so TBOB-compatible over a year before TBOB came out that I'm considering taking up a position as the Oracle of Delphi just so Apollo stops barraging me with dodgeballs.
New chapter every Friday, 5pm CST! Yes, that includes this Friday!
For art, doodles, upcoming scene excerpts, and posts about characterization & plot plans, see my #bill goldilocks cipher tag. For the fic itself, the first few chapters are on AO3, but tumblr's 60 chapters ahead:
⛓️ 1 Part 1. Bill returns, in a bedsheet toga.
⛓️ 1 Part 2. Bill tries to murder the Stans & Soos (with time travel).
⛓️ 2. Dipper and Mabel save the day (with time travel).
⛓️ 3. A tense evening as the Pines prepare to get rid of Bill.
⛓️ 4. Plot twist: the Pines physically can't get rid of Bill.
⛓️ 5. The gang goes to a diner at 3 a.m. for hostage negotiations.
⛓️ 6. Bill escapes from Theraprism. [NEW!!!]
⛓️ 7. "How'd Bill get here" flashback; plus, entering his new prison.
💇♀️ 8. Bill gives himself a haircut and depression.
💇♀️ 9. Bill & Ford grudgingly have a sincere conversation; regret it.
💇♀️ 10. The kids decide Bill won't ruin their summer. Also: Pacifica!
📓🔺📓 TBOB BOUNDARY: Everything above this line has been edited for 100% compatibility with The Book Of Bill and posted to AO3! Everything after this line has not been edited... so it's only 98% TBOB compatible. 📓🔺📓
🧚 11. Mabel gives Bill the most beautiful makeover ever. (It's not.)
🧚 12. Pacifica advertises Harry's Hairy Fairy Formula. Bill wants it.
🧚 13. Pacifica refuses to share; the twins discover its side effects.
🧚 14. Mabel wins Bill's eternal friendship with arts & crafts.
💭 15. Bill, Ford, and Dipper have nightmares that are Bill's fault.
💎 16. Ford has a fun day with Mabel but everything goes wrong.
💎 17. The day goes right again thanks to healthy communication.
🎥 18. Mabel's Guide To Local Animals, co-starring Bill Cipher.
🧊 19. Wendy snoops into the weird things happening in the shack.
🧊 20. Wendy meets the weird thing (it's Bill).
🎂 21. Stan & Ford's birthday party! Bill gives evil gifts.
💭 22. Bill "helps" Dipper's nightmares; no one knows his motive.
👁️ 23. Bill's ex is back in town and nobody's happy about it.
👁️ 24. Everyone's even less happy to learn Bill has a sex life.
🧿 25. Mabel and Bill make friendship bracelets! :)
🧿 26. The Pines take Bill to the mall. He wears terrible things.
🧿 27. Bill breaks Mabel's heart (and panics to fix it).
🏳️🌈 28. Bill talks his way into going with Wendy to Rainbow Club.
🎃 29. Bill contacts the Henchmaniacs on Summerween morning.
🎃 30. Costume making. Mabel pries into Bill's past, with crayons.
🎃 31. The Trickster's pals trick-or-treat; and Bill terrifies Dipper.
🪮 32. Dipper & Mabel make a poppet to control Bill.
🦷 33. Stan takes Bill to the dentist. In handcuffs.
🦷 34. Dentist & tooth fairy attack. Stan & Bill are still handcuffed.
🦷 35. Bill & Stan reach a painful understanding and stop the fairy.
🛁 36. Anime night; and Mabel makes Bill do community service.
🛁 37. Bill plots escape and runs into Wendy. Dipper panics.
🛁 38. Bill has the worst and stupidest day of his afterlife.
🌅 39. A cultist finds Bill; Bill tries to re-recruit Ford.
🚙 40. Gideon broadcasts car commercials; invokes Bill's wrath.
🚙 41. Bill apologizes for bullying Gideon. lol no he blackmails him.
🌕 42. Bill tells Dipper secrets of the universe; predicts an eclipse.
🌖 43. Gravity is disappearing; Ford and Fiddleford investigate.
🌗 44. Ford & Dipper drag Bill hiking; Bill faces his death.
🌘 45. Ford demands answers Bill can't give as totality looms.
🌑 46. Totality. Bill decides whether Ford lives or dies.
🌒 47. Bill feels rotten but finally explains the eclipse.
🌓 48. Bill has a complete mental breakdown.
🌔 49. The gang limps home. (Plus: a second dimensional eclipse.)
💿 50. Bill finally processes that mental breakdown.
💿 51. Dipper and Mabel try to remember the Axolotl's poem.
📖 52. The gang reads Flatworld. Bill isn't thrilled.
📖 53. Mabel tries to get Bill to talk about his home world.
⚛️ 54. Dipper, Ford, and Fiddleford do paradox physics.
📖 55. Mabel learns college-level geometry.
📖 56. Mabel & Bill have fun; Dipper & Ford prepare for murder.
💀 57. The execution of Bill Cipher.
💀 58. Everything you wondered about how Bill escaped.
💀 59. Everything you didn't wonder about how Bill escaped.
💀 60. Everything you never imagined about how Bill escaped.
✨✨ 🪐 61. The Axolotl finds the second dimension's corpse. ✨
📙 62. Soos vacuums the attic (wow exciting)
📙 63. Soos decides how he feels about Bill's treatment.
📙 64. Fixin it with Soos: home redecorating!
🎥 65. The gang makes plans for the night.
🎥 66. Dipper's Guide to the Fremont Nightwigglers
🎥 67. Mabel's Guide to Secret Sleepovers
🎥 68. The aftermath of everybody pulling all-nighters.
🏖️ 69. Beach episode! The Pines fish! Bill tans!
COMING SOON:
🏖️ 70. Bigfoot, Agent Powers, and the cool teen gang.
Hey!! Go read chapter 61 now! I posted it out of order so you probably haven't read it!!!
🪐 61-2: The 2D massacre is so much worse than the Ax thought.
🪐 61-3: A building inspection in the Nightmare Realm.
🪐 61-4: Even when Bill fixes things he breaks them.
🪐 61-5: A shape meets Bill as the world burns.
🪐 61-6: The gods & Bill negotiate him leaving Dimension Zero.
COMING SOON:
🪐 61-7: The gods deal with Bill not leaving Dimension Zero.
EVENTUALLY WHEN WE GET BACK TO NORMAL NUMBERING THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL BE:
🕴️ 71? The government investigates the Mystery Shack... again.
I skipped chapter 61 because it was about the destruction of Bill's dimension and it was scheduled to post the week TBOB came out. By the time I finished rewriting it to be TBOB-compatible, it was like, 5 or 6 chapters. I'm gonna finish posting them first to see how many chapters they actually are and then I'll update the numbering of the subsequent chapters.
This post was last updated November 15, 2024! If you're seeing this post as a reblog and it's been a while since then, check back on the original post to see if more's been added!
New Part: 10 Lethal Injury Ideas
If you need a simple way to make your characters feel pain, here are some ideas:
1. Sprained Ankle
A common injury that can severely limit mobility. This is useful because your characters will have to experience a mild struggle and adapt their plans to their new lack of mobiliy. Perfect to add tension to a chase scene.
2. Rib Contusion
A painful bruise on the ribs can make breathing difficult, helping you sneak in those ragged wheezes during a fight scene. Could also be used for something sport-related! It's impactful enough to leave a lingering pain but not enough to hinder their overall movement.
3. Concussions
This common brain injury can lead to confusion, dizziness, and mood swings, affecting a character’s judgment heavily. It can also cause mild amnesia.
I enjoy using concussions when you need another character to subtly take over the fight/scene, it's an easy way to switch POVs. You could also use it if you need a 'cute' recovery moment with A and B.
4. Fractured Finger
A broken finger can complicate tasks that require fine motor skills. This would be perfect for characters like artists, writers, etc. Or, a fighter who brushes it off as nothing till they try to throw a punch and are hit with pain.
5. Road Rash
Road rash is an abrasion caused by friction. Aka scraping skin. The raw, painful sting resulting from a fall can be a quick but effective way to add pain to your writing. Tip: it's great if you need a mild injury for a child.
6. Shoulder Dislocation
This injury can be excruciating and often leads to an inability to use one arm, forcing characters to confront their limitations while adding urgency to their situation. Good for torture scenes.
7. Deep Laceration
A deep laceration is a cut that requires stitches. As someone who got stitches as a kid, they really aren't that bad! A 2-3 inch wound (in length) provides just enough pain and blood to add that dramatic flair to your writing while not severely deterring your character.
This is also a great wound to look back on since it often scars. Note: the deeper and wider the cut the worse your character's condition. Don't give them a 5 inch deep gash and call that mild.
8. Burns
Whether from fire, chemicals, or hot surfaces, burns can cause intense suffering and lingering trauma. Like the previous injury, the lasting physical and emotional trauma of a burn is a great wound for characters to look back on.
If you want to explore writing burns, read here.
9. Pulled Muscle
This can create ongoing pain and restrict movement, offering a window to force your character to lean on another. Note: I personally use muscle related injuries when I want to focus more on the pain and sprains to focus on a lack of mobility.
10. Tendonitis
Inflammation of a tendon can cause chronic pain and limit a character's ability to perform tasks they usually take for granted. When exploring tendonitis make sure you research well as this can easily turn into a more severe injury.
This is a quick, brief list of ideas to provide writers inspiration. Since it is a shorter blog, I have not covered the injuries in detail. This is inspiration, not a thorough guide. Happy writing! :)
Check out the rest of Quillology with Haya; a blog dedicated to writing and publishing tips for authors!
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I think she’d respect his methodology
my muse and I
is this anything
trump dies of congestive heart failure before being sworn in charge to like cast to reblog
I’m rewatching Fantasy High so here are some intrepid heroes! ⚔️❤️
They’re talking about their girlfriends