I think that this is objectively a really interesting character!
In fiction, the easiest (or at least most common) supernatural kind of plot to execute involves only young children, no parents, no family (unless used as a vehicle for pulling the story), and a lot of events happening TO a character to kickstart the story or whatever. So when the formula changes, the whole way I think about character development changes!
and just for me personally, the most interesting route to go with is ‘integration.’ He doesn’t have to stutter and learn and build up his ability, control and power step by step. He isn’t going to curl on the ground and turn white and frightened when the world suddenly seems too big for him. Henry Pines already accepted magic a long ago. Years, practically a permanent choice by human standards. He’s not a child, he’s an almost unnaturally well-adjusted, steady, adult. He’s kind, healthy, and already grown, he knew what he was getting into as soon as he accepted Dipper as a permanent fixture of their household, blood sacrifices and all. He’s not going to suddenly change personalities. He isn’t isolated. He isn’t alone or reviled.
So, for a personality like him, there’s no point in making a big fuss. It is what it is. And his kids have no problem with it.
So the most interesting part is ‘integration.’ Henry Pines is used to being the ‘normal one.’ Henry Pines is used to being one shift left out of his family, patiently understanding, nominally blind to all these strange little quirks his brother-in-law and wife have to deal with, his kids coming in wide eyed and silent on weekends because guess what they just saw? A bloody hand reaching out of a toilet, the butt ghost, that’s what. That’s very interesting, he’ll tell them, mildly at a loss at what to say. Somehow, supernatural things happen around him, but don’t seem to touch him. Henry Pines is human. Perfectly normal, beloved, safe.
Protected.
Ok, so let’s talk about Woodsman powers. It’s a contractual deal, something that responds to emotions, puts him out of control. It takes his steadiness, his self-assurance, and turns it into rage, right? Hypothetically. That’s apparently what happens when you make deals with demons, when you make them desperately enough and worded loosely enough to give carte blanche makeovers to your psyche and all. It turns it into power, at the cost of what, humanity? I guess Henry Pines is finally a part of the family legacy, the supernatural one, this time.
Henry Pines is at the supermarket, inspecting vines. Not for any particular reason, he just had the urge to. He doesn’t know it’s unusual until he makes it back home and he has three pots of tomatoes and peppers in the trunk, until he’s elbow deep in loam and shredded grass and Mabel is leaning against the back porch, smiling quizzically. And he just shrugs and gets on with it, if he can make them grow better than the store can, that’s just how it goes.
Henry Pines watches Acacia out of the corner of his eye, that’s something he can do a little more easily now– he equates it to parental alarm– she trips, and in two heartbeats, he catches her gently without spilling a drop of apple juice from both their cups. She giggles and pushes off. This is perfectly normal, even though she was a few feet away. It’s not outside the realm of possibility. Humans can move pretty fast, and parents have a sixth sense for these things.
Henry Pines being utterly inconspicuous and doing the most suspicious things, casting shifting shadows at twilight and staring at the moon just a little too long, his warm smiles sending an animal uneasiness that slips under your skull that makes you step a little more gently around him. Nothing noticeable.
He’s a little more opinionated, a little physically stronger. He ducks under doors he doesn’t need to, just a tic. He’s partly supernatural now, whether he knows it or not, now, he can turn and suddenly see that herd of gnomes almost knocking over the sugar jar, and he doesn’t do more than raise his eyebrows in surprise before they inexplicably screech and scatter into the corners.
He feels a kind of sting and he turns sharply, strangely angry, before scolding himself. There’s an asian girl with a long streams of paper wrapped around her arms, he can barely see strains of ink almost seeming to writhe and move under the shifting light. She looks at him just as intensely. He smiles, welcomes her to some tea. Perfectly normal, and now he meets some interesting people who make him kind of uneasy by the way they eye him up. They don’t sting when he touches them.
So I guess, that’s the sum and parts of this life of Henry Pines. Beloved, perfectly normal, safe. But he doesn’t need to be protected.
Tag: ficlet
Nursery Rhymes?
aquawyrm said:
He whispers to babies
And watches their dreams.
He guards little children,
And is not what he seems.
So watch what you do,
And spill not young blood,
‘Cause if you make him angry,
It’ll be your heart in the mud.
His twin, when she’s with him,
Is the fiercer star;
With smiles and bent nails,
Your face she will mar.
And when their children see danger,
The brilliant stars three,
They call on their guardian,
Who walks as a tree.
With his skin as bark,
And a collection of hands,
‘Tis killers he maims,
Across all the lands.
So watch what you do,
And watch what you say,
If you summon the Dreambender,
Or surely, you’ll pay.
Alcor nursery rhymes
FIC OPEN SEASON GO GO GO
Ok, but what if in the distant, post-apocalyptic future, some historian is researching the origin of these ancient nursery rhymes that apparently don’t make any sense. But as they get deeper into the history, it turns out that they’re actually the muddled scraps of old summoning incantations.
So eventually they’re able reconstruct the original summons, and they’re like LET’S FIRE THIS BABY UP BUT WITH THE APPROPRIATE SAFEGUARDS IN PLACE, OBVIOUSLY. Wham, shazam, they do the thing.
Alcor pops up, “Dude, no one’s called this number in ages, seriously, where the fuck did you find that thing, let me casually step out of your heavy-duty binding circle and hand you my business card, official circle and summons on the back, way more efficient than whatever you’re using, ok, BYE!”
(Because, come on: Alcor + children + how modern nursery rhymes refer to the Plague and whatnot.)
Omfg
Hey triplets, has your favorite uncle Dipper ever terrified you to the point that he has to eat the nightmares he gave you? What was the occasion? Also, what’s the coolest thing about having a demon for an uncle? (-Orion)
“What?! Uncle Dipper has never scared us!”
“Acacia, you’re lying.”
“Nuh-uh.”
“Yeah huh, I don’t even need to see your aura to tell that it’s on your face and-oh.”
Well, Acacia has stomped off to have a tizzy fit-that’s what Cousin Wendy calls them-and Hank is up in our room trying to rebuild Aunt Grenda’s laptop, so I suppose its just up to me to answer.
Sorry about Acacia, by the way. She gets really touchy about when people say anything about her being scared.
I can’t speak for Hank and Acacia obviously-despite what the media may have you think, just because I have the Sight does not mean I can read minds. That’s two separate things, despite what that show on ABC, Mindsplosion, will have you think and….poop. Getting off topic. Sorry….um, yeah.
When I was little, like five or six….um, so…I could always see auras. One of my earliest memories is seeing a bright red cloud around Mom and I remember feeling happy because Mom was happy. But when I was in kindergarten it really ramped up, and I went from seeing them here or there to seeing them all the time. Around the same time I made fire the first time, really.
And no, I don’t know why then and not earlier or later. Uncle Dipper doesn’t either and I know it drives him nuts.
But yeah, not long after that, I was in the house playing with my Legos while Hank and Acacia were outside playing, and Mom and Dad were at the store and Grunkle Stan was in the library so I was by myself and then Uncle Dipper came home from a really bad summon and…and…
I don’t know.
Maybe if it happened now I could better describe what it was like. Have the words for it and all that.
I just remember…feeling waves of hate and anger rush over me, and my stomach churned because it felt like they were my own feelings? And there was blood all over him and each patch had a different color and it made me dizzy to see all of those auras. Thinking about it now, I think I was reading the emotions of each person he…he…he, um dealt with.
He didn’t feel like my Uncle Dipper. He felt like something else.
And then I Saw him.
I don’t remember what I Saw, not really. The only thing that comes to mind is just a lot of wings.
And eyes. Lots and lots of eyes.
I actually passed out at that point; first time I ever did. And when I woke up my throat hurt really bad, like I had been screaming, and Uncle Dipper had me in his lap and he had been crying in my hair and it made my hair all sticky and kind of gross. And he kept apologizing, and saying he didn’t realize I could See him, and….
It’s weird, because I remember being viscerally terrified a moment before, but then I woke up, and Uncle Dipper still smelled like pine trees, and his suit was still soft on my arms and face, and he was gross crying on my hair and….
Uncle Dipper was still Uncle Dipper. There were (there are) parts of him that terrify me, parts of him I don’t want to see and he doesn’t want to show.
But I know he would never hurt me. And that day was the first time I truly learned that.
Now if you excuse me, I’m going to find my uncle and give him a hug.
He’s a goof and he probably needs it.
Bloodbound
A/N: HAVE ANOTHER TAU PINES PARENTS FIC. YOU GUYS ARE GONNA KILL ME FOR THIS ONE I KNOW IT. Consider that a warning if you wish. Oh, and speaking of warnings: blood, death, gore, kidnapping and general terror – basically we’re riding the trauma train to the end of the line here.
Oh god, now I’m imagining Dipper reading The Mystery of Moon Ridge. The the first chapter or so is pretty decent, but as he gets further in –
“Mabel, I’m starting to get this weird vibe from the main character.”
“Mabel, she just killed the werewolf.”
“Mabel, this plot is terrible.”
“Mabel, why would Mom and Dad give me this book?”
“Mabel, do you think they’re trying to say something?”
I’m not going to write this out as a fic even though I probably could. I have too many other ideas to write right now. If anyone else out there wants to run with this, though, please do. 🙂 It’s just a quick brain blurb as I considered things like the effects of holy water on demons and theoretical ways to destroy theoretically indestructible beings…
First off, we all know that some people naturally won’t be happy with Transcendence. Change is stress and often feared/unwelcome, etc. And naturally among the discontents/those who take the emergence of the supernatural as a personal insult there will arise organized groups who try to do something about it, whether through politics or religion or whatever else. Among them will come a group that actually manages to pose a danger because they – most unusually perhaps – actually research the things they revile.
They figure out what sorts of things are deadly to gnomes and advocate “gnome poison” to rid neighborhoods of the “dangerous vermin,” for instance. Basically, anything with a supernatural basis they hold up as dangerous or threatening or the like, even the things that really aren’t, and try to find ways to destroy or drive away or otherwise control those things.
They’re probably the sort that like to blame Transcendence on either their political opponents or on any recent societal shifts or trends that they oppose personally/religiously. Maybe both. Depends on what track you want to take with them.
Anyhow, eventually they move up from gnomes and leprecorns and start working on demons. They’re smart about it though. They start small and with a sound theoretical basis drawn from existing demonology and the like, and they make sure it all works before moving on.
They figure out how to summon, trap, slowly wear down and eventually kill a demon. I figure that if you can force one to hold still and remain in the physical plane long enough to douse it in holy water, possibly while it’s surrounded by blessed candles and on some kind of sacred ground while prayers are recited all around (assuming actual believers, or just people self-righteous enough to substitute for actual righteousness, are in attendance), you could weaken it. If you can keep up that treatment long enough and move fast enough then it’ll be in too much pain to escape the circle traps keeping it there and will slowly grow weaker and weaker, losing energy and power, until you could theoretically finish the job without needing that huge energy discharge typically required.
It does rather hinge on people creating a binding that prevents the demon from returning to the dreamscape even when it would otherwise be banished there automatically, but, in theory, it might be possible…
Assuming this can be done, they work out how to ramp up the method until they’re starting to take out bigger ones. Maybe they fill up an entire pool with holy water and after a few initial soakings inside the circle they chain the (poor?) demon and toss it into the pool. The water might not be able to drown something that doesn’t technically have to breathe, but the holiness would probably eat away at it like acid. They might be slowed by caution or by supplies or both, so they aren’t exactly tearing huge swaths through the ranks per se, but they are effective.
Then they call on Alcor.
He escapes with his life, of course, and probably teaches them SUCH a lesson that they’re not in any conditions to pass on their findings after the fact, but he’s very much the worse for the wear when he returns to Mabel and Henry that night.
He’s never come so close to death since he became a demon.
All Aboard the Braid Train!
“Dad.”
“Hmm?”
“Can we have a braid train?” Tyrone Pines, aka Alcor the Dreambender, turned to face gleaming puppy-dog eyes.
“Um. Sure?” Maddie cheered.
“TOBY! HE SAID OKAY!”
And that is the story of why Alcor wore glittery braids to his next summon. As for Maddie, she nearly refused to take down her braids to wash her hair. And as for Toby, Alcor managed to get tiny braids in. Maddie approved.
That is also why devout followers of Alcor the Dreambender wear glitter braids on Father’s Day.
(In the braid train Toby wove Maddie’s hair and Maddie wove Alcor’s, who was then convinced to braid Toby’s rather short hair. It took less than a second of convincing.)
I keep coming back with more stuff to submit. I may have a problem.
So, we all know that Dipper loves his niblings, including those several generations removed from Mabel. However many greats are added, they’re still niblings and they’re still his. There are many fluffy warm feeling fics and headcanons attached to the concept.
I would like to inject an extra dose of angst into it please: just plain statistically speaking, not every niblet in this extending clan will be a good person. And I’m not talking “okay so maybe there was that parking ticket or that one time they lied about a coworker to get a promotion,” I’m talking selfish and greedy and all but evil.
Once upon a time, there comes a nibling into the family who, despite all attempts at influence to the contrary, turns out to be the antithesis of Mabel’s love and care. This nibling wants their way, wants the things humans always seem to want (wealth, power, glory, what have you) and they think to themselves, well why not? I’m related to the all-powerful Alcor the Dreambender. If he’s willing to do menial little things like babysitting and chores, why not the big stuff?
Dropping hints doesn’t work. Asking outright gets them a horrified no and a lecture, as if there’s something wrong with them, wanting what should be theirs by right of might if nothing else – what other family has such a powerful connection after all? How are they the first person to see this obvious point?
So they start to research methods of binding demons to a summoner’s will. Demonology is the family subject and they were always particularly good at working the runes and symbols and whatnot; building a circle trap strong enough to hold Alcor is (or should be) a cinch. He wouldn’t harm a nibling, so he’s unlikely to fight with strength to kill besides – all they have to worry about is keeping him there and contained and compliant.
Unless his true name has somehow faded out of use among the family, this nibling would know it, and that’s just another bind on him.
And thus is Dipper faced with a choice: what to do when family isn’t enough, when a loved one becomes irredeemable and seeks not only to enslave him but to use his power for their own selfish gain and against all the rest of the world.
Bonus angst points if it just so happens that this nibling is one of those named after their many-times great-grandmother Mabel. 😛
Alcor the Musical (only with a better title)
Okay, so imagine with me now: it’s generations, centuries and then some in the future. The Twin Souls novels are ancient, and while they are and have always been technically literary trash, their ideas and characters have proven…resilient. It helps perhaps that they’re based on an actual super-powerful supernatural entity, and that the myth and lore and baseless rumors do have a way of capturing popular imagination. They’ve spawned countless spin-off novels, comics, movies and TV shows. There are spoofs and cartoons and character cameos have cropped up in everything from puppet shows to comic strips. Alcor and his crew are practically Arthurian in scope by now, with the exception that everybody knows for sure that Alcor exists.
Then some writer teams up with some composer and they find themselves a producer, and together they create a full-fledged Musical Theater Production based on fragments of Alcor legend woven together into a Whole New Tale.
It starts with a pair of siblings – twins – named Tyrone and Terra. They have a musical number about their thoroughly ordinary human life, maybe with a bit of Disney Princess “There Must Be More Out There” or “I Just Don’t Fit In Here” thrown in for flavor. Somewhere in the course of Act 1 Tyrone meets a demon named Mizar, a powerful but secretive (and beautiful) being who claims she needs his help. He is intrigued but suspicious because he’s a Thoroughly Ordinary Human and how could he help a demoness fight against any sort of great shadowy evil?
Meanwhile Terra meets a charming and dapper young man – William Riddle perhaps? – and is completely swept away by him.
Somehow all through the bulk of the musical the twins manage not to run into each others crushes or whatever despite there being several songs about the matter and they start to grow apart because neither one understands what the other is doing or something? (Bear with me, I have no middle structure to this narrative, but I assume the writer of this mess in canon did. Just know there is much music, because it is a musical.)
Then, at last, the climax. William Riddle is actually the demon Cipher, escaped from his ancient prison when his old foe and jailer Alcor the Dreambender vanished from the Dreamscape some eighteen (or however long) years ago. He has spent these years searching in vain for Alcor, who took human form out of a longing to understand people and would therefore be weakened and powerless. Mizar had been searching for her love to protect him. There’s probably an entire song to this effect. Cipher’s part is probably really jazzy or the like.
Cipher kills Terra, having just been leading her on in hopes of confirming whether her rather familiar twin brother was actually his nemesis or else an actual human. He’s about to kill Tyrone when Mizar sweeps in to save him, and while the battle moves away we get a moving musical number where Tyrone mourns his twin sister’s death, regains his memories and power as Alcor, and transforms back to defeat Cipher once again and to rejoin his love Mizar, having been freed from the confines of the earth and the deal he had made.
And all in all Dipper, the real Alcor, hates this musical for so many reasons. There’s too much terrible ridiculous fiction (Mizar was not his romantic anything for the love of god!) and too many fragments that actually do reflect painful reality (the two times he had a twin sister and eventually lost her – though not quite as directly to Bill as in the play) and just too many corny songs (plus a couple that are so catchy he can’t get the damn tunes out of his head and he hates them all the more for it) and it’s all so over dramatic it’s ridiculous.
Plus there’s a new wave of fangirls who now think he can (and maybe even will) sing, among all their other usual embarrassing requests.
I present to you this R!Acacia OC
Her name is Bridget King. She is athletic, steadfast, adventurous, and proud. She’s also a few months older, possibly Australian, and blind in her right eye.
Bridget met Toby the first year Alcor enlisted him in grade school. Some kids were bulling him for having one eye. They said he was too chicken to fight because he knew he would loose. Bridget came up and asked what was wrong with having one eye. one bully said that one-eyed kids can’t win in fights. She challenged him, but he refused. “I can’t hit you. You’re one-eyed AND a g-” Pow! She hit the little spit right in the eye with perfect aim. After that, she started hanging out with him and they became friends. On their first play date, Alcor learned who she used to be and double face palmed.
Growing up, they were best friends and perfect compliments. Toby was cautous, she was adventurous. Toby was quiet, she wasn’t afraid to speak up. She got in a lot of trouble, Toby was well-mannered and could talk them out of it. Toby wanted to help everyone, she only cared about the well-being of herself and those closest to her. Toby blended in, she had a loud presence. Toby is guilty for his past, she focuses in the present. Toby is short, she is tall. Toby is blonde, she is a brunette. The list goes on.
They are close, but more of a platonic couple. However, they /do/ get married in their early twenties. They went to Vegas for Bridget’s birthday, got drunk, and woke up to find that they were married (all her idea). Alcor insisted that they get a divorce, but Toby didn’t really mind because it kept people from hitting on him and Bridget was too proud to call it a mistake. “It’s a good financial oppertunity. We don’t have to act like a married couple, but we can stay married for the tax benefits.”
She grows up to be an environmentalist/activist. There are supernatural creatures that don’t communicate with people and like to stay far away in their habitats. She fights people that try to hunt such creatures and that destroy their habitats. As a result, she is almost always out somewhere in the world, mainly her birth-place in Australia. She was tied to a pine tree protecting a forest when Toby died and she blames Alcor for his death. She wouldn’t talk to him for a while and Alcor doesn’t know what to do because R!niblet chose R!Bill over him-but she’s Bridget, not Acacia, and has different opinions from his Pole Star. (I want to believe they reconnect over Maddie.)
Also, she sometimes babysits Maddie. Alcor finds it amusing because R!daughter taking care of R!mother, but surprisingly has Toby babysit more. Maddie always gets into more trouble if she is with Bridget for too long.
Appearence: Green/Amber eyes, slightly pointed ears, and short, wavy brown hair. Typically wears a braid over her right eye that she will play with or redo when she’s bored. She’s tall for her age and towers Toby. She usually wears
Note: After I wrote this, I found the HC about Mackenzie (AKA Mack) and realized she was verry similar in concept and how/where/when she met Toby. Oops! I’ll leave it up to the mods or Mack’s op to decide if they’re the same person, but I don’t see her as extremely violent.
Further Note: I forgot that Toby was Australian, so that could change. The point is that she protects creatures because she grew up surrounded by them. She used to live in a supernatural animal preserve.
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