Ok this is really bad and unpolished but I just, I wanted to try my hand again at writing for FH? Especially for Skully cuz Iâve never felt confident in writing any version of him, even this one, but I kinda wanted to tackle the other side of Neomaâs fics? I donât know man Iâm kind of riding the wave here, sorry if it conflicts with headcanons or heâs really out of character. orz
âI said something really stupid about Carlton, and it got back to him.â
Skull had spent a long time sitting out with Vanessa, fine tuning this admission to give to his father. They were sitting in the basement workshop where a few hours earlier Jack had been laying, spasming as his Core pulsed erratically. Now he was asleep upstairs and Nurse Walter had departed-- after pulling Thadeus aside and pointing to the facial scar heâd gifted Walter years earlier, quietly urging him to go easy on Skull. Sometimes we do stupid things when weâre hurt.
That didnât stop Thadeus from being angry. But it kept him from immediately shouting The Skull into oblivion when he finally did come home.
âWhat kind of âsomething stupid?ââ Thadues asked, delicately repairing a wire running up his sonâs jaw. Skullâs silence spoke volumes. âActually deserved to get punched stupid?â
Skullâs optics clicked around the room uncomfortably. âSorta.â
Thadeus hemmed. âWell, are you going to apologize for it?â
He thought it was an obvious answer, but Skull was quiet.
âOr did you mean what you said?â
âNo,â Skull mumbled. âI didnâ mean it.â
âSo why wouldnât you apologize?â
Skull looked down, thinking it over. It was a good question. âCuz he didnâ respect me enough to talk tâ me about it. He wants to think Iâm the bad guy so bad, maybe Iâll just let him.â
Thadeus screwed the last part of Skullâs faceplate back into place, absently running a thumb over the spot to check it was flush.
âThe onus is on you, Skull. Either apologize or donât.â He paused, then set his hand on his sonâs back. âBut I think I know you well enough to say that you donât want to be the bad guy.â
In one universe, it took another year and a half and a surprise kiss before Skull would talk to Shi again.
In another, he paid for their paintball admission three days later and let Shi win.
Sometimes an apology is the biggest choice we can make.
Ok this is really bad and unpolished but I just, I wanted to try my hand again at writing for FH? Especially for Skully cuz Iâve never felt confident in writing any version of him, even this one, but I kinda wanted to tackle the other side of Neomaâs fics? I donât know man Iâm kind of riding the wave here, sorry if it conflicts with headcanons or heâs really out of character. orz
----
Once, when The Skull had been a childform, he had broken the hand of another robot that had pushed Hare into the mud. At the time, he had felt powerful, like a righteous protector, unconquerable when he chose to step in to the affairs of the world around him. That bloom of confidence was quickly stripped away when his father appeared on the scene. Itâd be years before Skull understood how what heâd done left his father feeling humiliated, but the angerâthe cold, sharp anger and the disapproval in his eyesâthat nearly killed Skull then and there.
Ten years later, he got into a fist fight with Shi Carlton at school, and it was like no time had passed at all.
His father, being the vice principal, had sent him home immediately. âWeâll talk later.â Maybe Thadeus knew the waiting would hurt him more than any amount of yelling would. At the time, Skull hadnât even considered going anywhere else. He just went home and sat in the living room, TV off, staring a dent in his arm plates and thinking Iâm an idiot, Iâm a goddamn idiot.
Thadeus got home half an hour before school should have let out, likely to cut off Hare and Jacky. He didnât have to give the order; Skull simply got up and walked into his study, taking the spare seat while Thadeus leaned against the desk, staring him down over his folded arms.
âIâm not going to ask any questions,â Thadeus said quietly. âYouâre going to explain to me what happened.â
âHe swung first,â Skull muttered, staring at the carpet.
âSo Iâve been told.â
Silence.
âHe didnât give me a chance to explain.â
âThen explain it to me.â
Skull balled his fists on his knees. âIâŠit was misunder--âŠâ
âI donât even like him. I owe him for fixinâ 'Nessa. Heâs an aft, but itâs not like heâs got any other fuckinâ friends, a'right?â
Thatâs what heâd said to Hare, over a week ago now. He just wouldnât shut up, joking about Shi being his boyfriend. It rankled on so many levels; the fear, the abhorrence the thought of romance brought up in him, that sick dependence that made even brilliant people like their father turn mad; the suspicion that Shi did like him like that; the potential that that time-bomb would destroy the only friendship he hadâ
God, he was an idiot. He didnât know how Carlton had heard what heâd said, maybe Hare had played his words back for him, but he knew that heâd caused this and he was an idiot and Dad knew it too.
Fate intervened, and they tried to ignore it. But Thadeusâ cell phone kept ringing, and on the third round he snatched up and hissed âWhat,â into the receiver. He paused, then mumbled, âWhat do you mean youâre in the driveway? Iâve shown you how toâhis core?â Thadeusâ fist slammed against the deskâs edge and he swore, shoving the cell back into his pocket. âWalter brought Jack home. Heâs having a fit. Stay. There.â And with that, he stormed out of the room.
Jack. In a bizarre twist, he felt a pang of almost-jealousy that even now, when Dad should have been wringing him out, Jackâs problems came first. But it was a chunk in an awful stew of emotions churning inside him, and for a moment Skull just dropped his forehead onto his palms and sat quietly.
Then he panicked.
He couldnât tell Dad what heâd done. Not now. Even now oil was pulsing in the back of his optics and he couldnâtâwould notâ
Skull grabbed his car keys and ran for the garage. Vanessa, his precious Vanessa, was waiting for him; she seemed to spring to life as soon as he touched the key to her ignition. They torn backwards out of the driveâDad was standing in the doorway, shouting something he couldnât hear.
And he drove away.
No music, no radio, just no thinking, no nothing but driving aimlessly toward the edge of town.
This spot had a nice view. Part of a park or something. Skull pulled over, and leaving the keys in the ignition, got out of the Jeep and sat down next to it, staring out over the city and leaning his head against Vanessaâs chassis, listening to her rumble. It was calming. He was calm.
I MISS THIS FUCKIN AU OKAY, I MISS THESE IDIOTS. I took a lot of liberties here but this is just my headcanons about a thing happening on graduation day. Feel free to tell me Iâm a fool.
Jacky leaned over the railing, squinting through his bangs at the gowned robots sitting below them. âLike theyâre not holding hands or anything.â
âUh, duh? Of course not, have you met them?â Gage was leaning back in his seat, spinning a mechanical pencil heâd found between the bleacher seats. âThey wouldnât hold hands if the world was about to end. But I can tell. Totally kissed.â
âOk, but that is so-so-so unfair. Like weâre just gonna GUESS that I lose?â
âEducated guess.â
Jacky blew a pouting cloud of black smoke out of his nose, then dug into his hoodie pockets and pulled out a crumpled, stained five-dollar bill, slapping it into Gageâs waiting hand. âYouâre full of crap, dude.â
I MISS THIS FUCKIN AU OKAY, I MISS THESE IDIOTS. I took a lot of liberties here but this is just my headcanons about a thing happening on graduation day. Feel free to tell me Iâm a fool.
I think... this is about it. Iâm sure Iâve forgotten stuff that Iâll add later, but I think I got all the big stuff. I feel like I should be really emotional, but Iâm going to avoid thinking about it for now.
This isnât all of it, simply because I know some things I made posts about already. This is more trying to collect all the scraps that never got presented anywhere else.
-The Walter and Becile family trees were flipped upside down, so Six was actually the one to discover Blue Matter. He was extremely enigmatic, though, signed shit with a keyhole instead of a name and eventually disappeared, so Peter's relation to him is either unknown or secret.
-Speaking of Peter's family, they all blew up. His father (II) had a catastrophic accident in his personal lab and it took out most of the manor. Peter and QWERTY (who acts more like Hatchworth than canon here) were the only survivors, and Peter lost all hearing in one of his ears. After that, he was somehow made a ward of the Cavalcadium itself rather than the state.
-The Cavalcadium was bad news, yo, like actual science Illuminati. They secretly directed the evolution of public technology across the world and actively prevented Matter stuff from being used widely.
--HENCE their taking in of Peter had more to do with his bloodline and the chance to groom him to be a tool than anything else.
---Spoiler: it doesn't work
-Thadeus grew up in Philadelphia. His father (Norman) died of a brain tumor when he was 8. The only time he met his uncle Ignatius and roughly-same-age cousin Alraune was at the wake.
-I barely came up with a backstory for Delilah. I think her mother was a magazine journalist and she was from the Southwest.
-Cav the university type place for kinds of Matter studies. Thad goes to live with his uncle Igantius, who's a professor there. Meets Peter and QWERTY in the library, I think they met Delilah there too? They definitely shared some classes at least. (Peter is bi and slightly gay for Thad at first, before getting to know him and ârealizing that [he's] an asshole")
-CUTE IDEALISTIC COLLEGE FRIENDS, photographs of them together bundled up in the winter, sprawling out in each other's apartments with pizza and 1000 books.
-Ignatius HOO DAMN he is a hot mess. Green Matter Master/Professor, lost both his left arm and young daughter Alraune in a driving accident, has a wicked bionic arm and is hella skeezy and boozy. -Lowkey creeps on Delilah, mostly to get Thadâs hackles up. He succeeds and gets punched in the jaw for it. (âHeh! Guess you got a spine after all. Alright, alright, Iâll back off.â)
-Once he gets to higher level classes, Thad chronically suffering from Green Matter exposure/mutation, nausea and food intolerences, often found being miserable on the couch. Peter and Dee bring him hamburgers because thatâs basically the only thing he eats then. spoiler-- heâs becoming an obligate carnivore.
--*Has a shitty dark humor joke that everyone side-eyes him for. âWhatâs the difference between a zombie and a Green scientist? A doctorate.â
--Also totally punches dudes for catcalling at Dee, so we get the ââyou're an idiot' while applying ice pack to his face" scene. hell yes.
-Dee finds out she has a terminal illness. I canât remember if I decided what kind, probably cancer or Huntingtonâs. Both Pete and Thad are very supportive, even as Thadâs mental health gets worse.
--Things come to a head when Dee decides to stop her treatments. Goes on a private walk in the park with Thad to tell him in a âcalmâ setting, backfires when he flips out, basically calls her a quitter, and leaves her there. Itâs already fall, Peter ends up having to go pick her up where sheâs stranded.
--Dee passes away. Peter is at the funeral. Thad isnât.
--He is, though, at the cemetery with a shovel. Peter suspected this (for some reason; Green Matter has a reputation after all), and shows up to stop him.
--Peter gets hit in the face with a shovel, and Thad gets Blue Matter tazed in the shoulder. Both have scars from this.
-Thad goes to the hospital, probably the psychiatric ward as well, and then immediately takes a plane back to Philly. Gets treated for mental health issues, but is still depressed. They donât talk again for like, 5 years.
-Peter made Rabbit because he was bored, basically. Like he had been toying with a design for fun, then Iris leaves for a weekend and he just keeps working on it, and then suddenly Rabbit. So she totally walks in, still rolling her suitcase, and thereâs Peter looking sheepish and hiding something behind his back.
-As such, it took Iris a little while to warm up to Rabbit. Partly jealousy, partly the disruption to her home life. Like, at least with an unplanned pregnancy you have a couple months notice, this one popped up over a weekend. But Rabbit of course is just a sweet little nugget.
-Iris was a trans woman. Big bonding moment with little Rabbit when they âcome outâ as genderqueer.
-I think I had Rabbit as bigender, specifically. At the time it seemed like a good... I guess âcompromise?â That seems like a shitty way to put it, but I didnât want to have them struggle with it up through adulthood or eliminate the trans aspect by having them AFAB OR completely cut the male design.
-And hereâs where Peterâs fatal character flaw comes in: he does things because he can, without a ton of consideration for long-term consequences. So he kept building baby robots with no regard to him (and Iris) being ready to take care of them.
-Spine was an experiment in making a highly transferable consciousness. So instead of having one good quality human-like chassis, he had a very generic human chassis and several smaller novelty bodies like dogs and RC type cars. He rejected these more as he got older and ended up with a sort of bodily disassociation/dysphoria (never feeling ârightâ in his body, like a pretender, sub-human). When he was grown up, he became estranged from his family and started living as a âfalse-skinâ-- a shitty placeholder name for a robot trying to pass as a human full-time. I think he was playing guitar on street corners. I made him blonde so heâd look less like David, which is funny now that I think about it, since he dyes his hair.
-Jon was Jon, as I typically wrote him. Heavy on the mystical side of things, vaguely spiritual, sorta psychic.
--So, at first, when the little giraffes started getting individual personalities, Peter viewed them as undesirable and took them into the shop to wipe them. Once he was old enough, Jon flipped out about this on the other side of the manor, a real waterworks show over the poor things âdying.â After that, Peter just let them develop.
---Kit also came up with a cool additional thing, where the rest of the kids also criticize Peter for doing it. âWhy isnât it acting the same?â âWhat was wrong with it being funnier?â âWhyâd you wipe it?â âWould you wipe us if we started acting weird?â
-Hatchy really kinda got the short end of the stick. Peter didnât spend much time on his design or construction, which is what lead to his Core cracking. Turns out thatâs both painful and traumatizing, and he never forgave Peter. He actually became a radical robot terrorist and eschewed his faceplate and other things designed to make humans more comfortable around him.
--His most loyal follower is actually The Controller, who had lead a life similar to his canon one, including killing robots and absorbing their memories in an attempt to keep them alive forever. Hatchy found him sobbing in an alley over two dead chassis and took him in, and he quickly became a devout radical utterly devoted to Hatchworth.
-BACK TO THE PAST, 5 YEARS AFTER GETTING THE SHIT TAZED OUTTA HIM
-Uncle Ignatius dies, Thad returns to take possession of the house and get Ig's estate in order.
-He calls Peter to let him know he's back in town. (Cute scene of Peter running to phone and falling, Iris picking up phone, Thad thinking he has the wrong number, then calling back again and Iris passing the phone down to Peter on the floor, then âo_o!â and awkward conversation).
-Sad shot of Thad sitting on the couch, still in his travelling coat with a single suitcase, alone in this giant house.
-Eventually Thad goes over, meets Iris and Rabbit.
-Next eventually, he and Pete confront the elephant in the room (lol) and drive out to Delilah's grave, where Thad has a good cathartic cry.
-As it turns out, skeezy uncle Ignatius had jumped off the slippery slope and was âmanufacturingâ Green Matter crystals IE killing people in his basement. His accomplice, a red-haired man known by the alias âLocke Smithâ remains at large. Thadeus finds three usable crystals and GUESS WHO THOSE TURN OUT TO BE.
--There were several versions of why Thadeus used those crystals. One was that the ghosts were haunting his house, one was that he felt a need to make amends for what Ignatius had done. Then there were versions where he just straight up kept the crystals as contraband and where he got them back from the Cav. The logic train fell apart around this area so I never finalized it.
-Idea for the robot school comes about with Peter and Thad having a talk one night with Rabbit conked out on Peterâs lap. He talks about his fears about putting them into a regular school but worries about the downsides to home schooling. Finally culminates in a âwell, if a good school for robots doesnât exist, weâll just have to make oneâ
-Big part of the schoolâs funds comes from the Blue and Green reactors located underneath the school. Energy is produced and sold to the city and the profits go toward the school. Thadâs job was more on this maintenence end while Peter was more the Principal Guy.
SURPRISE a good chunk of this AU was just me coming up with Becile fluff
-Thadeus was still nervous-stand-offish with Hare for the first month, then one night heâs tucking him in for stasis while over at Peterâs and baby hare is like ânight night papa i love you.â Thadeus chokes, goes downstairs, and throws something at Peter âWHY DIDNâT YOU WARN ME?!â because now heâs crying and full of fatherly emotions and he sits down at the table and Peter just pats him on the back while pouring him a drink âWelcome to fatherhood thadeusâ
âugh shut upâ
-When finishing Jack, Hare and Skull hang-clinging to the sides of the workbench looking at him and Skullâs like â.... I dunno know to be an older brotherâ
And Hareâs like âDonât worry, Iâll teach youâ
-Baby Hare absolutely did that bit where he slowly descended the curtains, ripping them with his claws while Thad stares in dismay from the kitchen table. Baby Skull also at table helpfully is like âHEâS IN TROUBLEâ
-Baby Skull getting upset while out with Thad because he forgot to look both ways before they crossed the street, and it's The Rules so he has to go back and do it right. Thad has a Dad Moment where he's like âdid anyone get hurt? will you remember next time? then you can let it go."
-Itâs a dark and stormy night and That is asleep until âpssst pssst papaâ Itâs lil Hare carrying even littler Jack âPapa Jackâs scared of the storm we have to sleep here tonightâ
âHare that robot is in complete stasisâ
â...Well he WAS soâ
Thad just grabs him by the collar and hoists him onto the bed. Thereâs a beat, then we see a nervous Skullâs eyes appear in the room and the tiniest little âumâ and Thad doesnât even say anything before grabbing him and putting him on the bed.
-Imagine an entire comic thatâs just lil Skull pushing a chair over to the counter, climbing up, and starting the coffee machine. And then Thad comes in and is like âwhaâ and pauses and pats Skull on the head, âwhy thank youâ ITS SO CUTE
-And the bit where they donât understand coffee grounds =/= ground up coal and make this horrible sludge for Thadeus. I am still laughing about this and I hope I always will be.
-Oh also the turning point in Skullâs life where he realizes he can be frikkin scary-- Hareâs getting bullied by some other baby bots, Skull steps in and catches a thrown punch easily. Flashback to Thad explaining that heâs skeleton-themed because âbones are stronger than steelâ and that Skull too will be stronger than people expect.
So he crushes the kidbotâs hand, gets totally grounded, and thatâs the start of Scary Skull.
-Ok so Thadâs walking down the hallway and sees a laundry basket wiggling along at the intersection. Inside is Jack, who is like, âSurprise!!â And Thadâs like, âWow you sure got me. Wait why are you wearing your raincoat.â Thatâs when Hare and Skull flank him with the super soakers. âOh. Clever boys.â
Cut to after the massacre, Skull is giving Thad a third towel and Thadâs like, âWhile your execution was admirable, donât you think this wouldâve been a better prank to pull on Peter?â
Hare: âWho do yaâ think gave us the super soakers?â
-Also bab Hare chasing Rabbit with gross things, or relatively gross idk
-I think I made a post about this but Green radiation from Thadâs basement lab causes animals in the surrounding forest to reanimate. Hare gets jumped in the face by a zombie raccoon in their chimney and now hates raccoons.
-Jackâs accident happens a few months before The School year. He wants to get Hare a bday present, but heâs super grounded for something and Thadâs like no. Jackyâs a bit of a spoiled brat so he steals Thadâs wallet and takes the bus into town. Of course thatâs when a huge storm sweeps through town and Jack gets electrocuted when a powerline falls.
-Heâs actually missing for about two days, with Peterâs family helping to search while Thad orders Hare and Skull to stay home so they wonât disappear either. Hare is especially upset by this. Thad does eventually come home to try and rest, which is when they get a phone call from Peter. (Hare sitting with feet up on couch, forehead on knees. Jumps for the phone but Thad gets there first.) Jackâs at the city impound, offline and in awful shape, water damage ontop of the electrocution.
-Peter and Thad run themselves ragged working on him once they bring him back to Thadâs workshop.
--Just imagine a lot of trite, sappy shit where Jackâs still mostly offline but can hear them talking, and youâll have pretty much those scenes.
--Eventually when heâs able to boot up, he says âpapa?â and manages to barely focus on Thad, who starts crying again and telling him heâll be alright.
-Despite their best efforts, Jackâs left with a lot of glitches. His movements jerk sporadically and unintentionally, his voice will catch and stutter, occasionally he freezes, his brain-to-mouth filter doesnât always work, he has fits of hyperactivity/recklessness/aggression, and of course thereâs the laughing.
-Thad and Hare both blame themselves. Skull doesnât, and kinda thinks he brought it on himself, but smartly doesnât volunteer his opinion.
-Convenient blue matter wormhole opens between FH!Walter Manor and Box!Spineâs. Â Awkward emotional âre-unionâ between Box and âPappy.â Eventually Peter brings up the school for robot children and Box goes âding! I have a child! SOCIALIZE HIMâ
-Introductions with Thadeus go a lot worse. Kind of puts a downer on the fact that this is the first documented trans-dimensional exchange in their universe.
-Boodle is awkward Boodle, welcomed by Peter, Iris, Rabbit, and Jon. Spine and Hatchworth suspiciously absent.
-First day of school, certain hooligans are throwing water balloons full of jello from the giraffe/elephant statue. Boodle takes a balloon to the face. Jacky walks up and immediately starts chattering while helping him up, then freezes. Boodle pushes him out of the way of another balloon. FRIENDSHIP CEMENTED
--*Hooligans in question include Hare and McCoy (rofl) (and for some reason Skull, even though that doesnât make sense?) Anyway Hare/Skull ties McCoyâs weird squid head to the top of the statue for throwing a balloon at Jacky, and thatâs the last we ever hear from him.
-I sincerely wanted to give every single personâs character a subplot that would occur over the course of the one school year. Heart in the right place, but waaay too ambitious and presumptuous about other peopleâs involvement.
-Random running joke: people playing pokemon in the middle of a conversation asking âwhatâs a good name for a Mareep?â
-Jacky steals Skullâs DS at one point and is walking out with Boo and Gage, Skull kicks open the door behind them and is like âYOUâ and in the next shot Jack is already disappearing into the distance in a dead run and Skull is fucking vaulting over shit to get at him.
-Jacky had a low key crush on The Mouse, oh god. Mightâve been in a large part to awe over her give-no-shits attitude
-Jack canât always control what he says, and once makes a really insensitive joke about Gageâs last name and his parents being dead. Everyone, even Boo, ends up leaving the table to go check on Gage after he storms off, and Jack sits there and thunks his head on the table and cries
-They make up tho, Jack cries on Gage a lot
-Two sets of hall monitors, giraffes and elephants, about 4 and 3 ft tall respectively. Giraffes have names like Kiki, Mimi, Vivi; elephants are named after greek alphabet. There is a rogue giraffe reprogrammed to swear that is hiding out in the courtyard, and one very stern, beat-up elephant that used to babysit the Becile boys.
-Skull has an old (army?) Jeep named Vanessa. Saw her at an old car restoration show and just immediately crawled underneath to get a better look. Had idea that robots would randomly become very attached to inanimate machines (Rabbit-Jenny also example), so he was very protective, Hare was abso-fucking-lutely not allowed to drive it, Jack was never stupid enough to ask.
-Sort of considered a plot point where he crashes Vanessa while driving with Shi and Shi saves his life, but I only got as far as Thad giving him a manly-respected handshake as for the effects of this
-Hareâs name was originally going to be something incredibly pretentious like Prometheus. Thad changed it out of spite because Peter kept making jokes about him being a âRabbit IIâ
-This may have been the root origin of Hareâs inferiority complex/jealousy issues. He constantly felt the need to fight for peopleâs attention
-If Tipsy was human in this AU, she and Thad might have gotten together. /trashcan
-Ghost Delilah âhauntingâ the school but in a totally chill âI just like seeing what theyâve done with the place, its very flatteringâ kinda way. Only Boodle can see her.
-Rabbit and Boo have a moment sitting with each other on the piano bench and Rabbit plays/sings Vienna Tengâs âLullaby for a Stormy Nightâ
Good character songs:
Peter, Thad, Dee: Let Her Go- Passenger
Jacky and Boodle: One Week- Barenaked Ladies, I Will Wait- Mumford and Sons
Good over-arching plot songs:
Letâs See How Far Weâve Come- Matchbox 20
Welcome to the Black Parade- MCR
-Oh also Rabbit convinces Peter to let them put on Les Miz as the school play.
-Hare steals a flyer for auditions and has a Dilemma about it
-At some point I think he has a breakdown of his own and runs away from home, and Rabbitâs the one to find him hiding in a big drain pipe and bring him back. Not entirely sure where that happened in relationship to this, but putting it here.
-Finally, at the auditions, Hare shows up looking all cleaned up, in a nice tucked shirt and everything. Rabbit is shocked but plays it cool and lets him do his thing.
-Hare ofc gets Jean Valjean, Spoons gets Fantine, and they totally have an adorable âfirst night opening goes well, excited hugs turns into first kissâ moment DâAWWWW
-So big interdimensional void, crisscrossed with lightning-bolt looking roads that bridged universes. Being there for too long will start to summon other iterations of yourself. This leads to shit, including Boo seeing a Spine there, assuming its Noodle-dad, and starts crying and trying to get to him while Jackyâs like âno dude we gotta go this is really bADâ
--the the spineâs like
--â404 mercy drive not foundâ
--OHHHHHHHHHHH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT
-Somewhere in all this, Hatchworthâs terrorist group was supposed to start recruiting students (particularly punks like Hare) and eventually raid the school, planning to blow it up. Hatchy claimed it was because it indoctrinated its students to be human slaves, but it was probably more to do with his grudge with his father. Tipsy gets held at gunpoint by The Controller, and itâs Awkward, because they were A Thing. But Tipsy was a BAMF and wasnât scared of him.
-Hareâs bullying reaches a breaking point when Boo unintentionally retaliates. Hareâs eye explodes and his jaw is broken in one fell swoop, and he starts to get sporadic flashes of canon!Hareâs memories. Thadeus is furious enough that he got hurt; its the final straw when Hare flinches as if Thad was about to hit him during repairs.
-Thadâs like, I sympathize, and if you really need my help Iâll be here, but he CANNOT come anywhere near my sons.
-Jacky: D,:
-Supposed to take place sometime before this next part, but Iâm not sure when? Link to the Itâs gone gone, baby itâs all gone verse in Letâs See How Far Weâve Come
--Boodle lost in void, sitting at the end of a road staring off into nothing.
--Jacky running up, being like, there you are!!
--Boodle just looks at him out of the corner of his eye dully
--And behind Jack we see a taller figure, arms bound up in a coat, and grinning
--Jack turns
--âSlashâ transition
--what happens next??
--I donât know, in my mind it transitioned right to this next scene because Music Video
-Big climatic moment when Boo goes out of control and starts reality warping the whole school.
-EVERYTHING IS BLUE AND ON FIRE
-Skull gets a Big Damn Heroes moment with his paintball gear, shooting crazy dimension monsters or something
-Hare and Spoons caught together, rubble sealing them in. Hareâs claustrophobia kicks in, Spoons helps him stay calm, itâs very sweet.
-Peter fortunately is immune? Because of exposure/family heritage? Walks up to catalyst!Boo, hugs him
-then shoves a giant hole punch through his chest and takes out his core
-Everything stops, Boo slumps, Peter sadly takes him home as everyone else picks themselves back up
-Boo then surprises everyone by growing a new Core and going back to ânormalâ
-But I think at this point, he follows the lead his actual canon had and disappears. They have one final meeting in Jackâs dreams, on a stormy playground, where Boo says goodbye. When Jack wakes up, time has rewound to the day before Box appeared and nobody else remembers anything. Boodle never comes back.
-Some five years later, we see a transdimensional ferry taking on passengers. It actually mostly looks like a normal steamboat ferry, except it's extra whimsical and it paddles through a foggy white void.
-We see a tall-ish, slim robot in line. He's a shiny bronze, wearing a nice jacket and his long blonde wig is tied back with a red bow. He hands over his passport, and the ferryman looks it over before passing it back with a, âWelcome aboard, Mr. Becile."
-Jacky gets onboard, taking a railing seat. He still has tics but they're more contained now, less dramatic, and he doesn't try to hide them in embarrassment. His knee bounces as the ship pulls out into the space in between places.
-About halfway through the trip, Jack gets up. A kid comments on his jacket. âYou like it? You can have it if you want. I probably won't need it." He takes off his jacket, tosses it to the kid, and climbs up on the railing. When people freak and try to get him down, he says, âDon't worry. Just tell them âhe was crazy.'"
-And he jumps off the boat.
-He doesnât die, but he does fall a long ways, or what looks like a long ways. The boat is out of sight.
-Something begins holding him back, slowing his fall until he can just sit in the void as if it were the ground.
- âYou... idiot. What were you thinking?â
-Boodle looks something akin to an angel, now, made of titanium and Blue Matter, glowing with electric blue between the joints, impossible arrangements of gears and struts jutting from his back like wings. Heâs no longer trying to fit the mismatched pieces of two forms together. He can flow, and it doesnât hurt.
-Jacky laughs softly, and shrugs. âThinkinâ I had a 50-50 shot.â
-âSeriously? You could have died or worse. And what, just to get my attention? This still doesnât change anything.â
-Jacky is quiet. He leans his elbows on his knees. âI had to know if you were real. That you werenât... that it all wasnât some immensely glitched memory file.â
- Now Boodle is quiet. âI never knew if I did the right thing, letting you remember. It must have caused you a lot of problems-- especially at the beginning.â
-âYeah. It... was really hard.â
-âIâm sorry.â
-âItâs ok. The crappy parts were worth it. ... I missed you.â
-â... I missed you, too.â
-Quiet.
-âYou gotta go before things start getting weird.â
-âYeah, I know. But Iâll see you again, this time, right?â
-Boodle hesitates. âI really canât...â
-âCome onnn, whoâs gonna care?â
-âThere are other people here...â
-âPbthhh. Youâre some kinda crazy angel thing, you should just do what you want.â
-âIâm not crazy, and Iâm not an angel.â His pouty tone is so childlike that neither of them can keep a straight face. Still grinning, Boodle holds out his hand a helps Jack to his feet.
-âBye, Jack.â
-âBye, Boo. Iâll seeya later.â
-âSeeya.â
-In a flash of light about a foot off the ground, Jack reappears in his own world. He hits the ground aft first, with a clatter and a whoompf. He looks around. Heâs on the hillside next to the school, overlooking the unchanged building. He smiles.
-Then he checks his phone. Itâs been three days since he left, and he has thirty missed calls, half of them from Hare.
-"Oops.â
-He thinks about his brothers. Hareâs slowly carving a name for himself in the music business. He has enough of a cult following that he can say he has fans and has signed pictures of himself. Jacky has a picture of him with his arm around Popsâ shoulders, wearing a proud toothy smile. Skully is still on the road. He got all of his general education done at college and has been working and road-tripping ever since, in what most people would call âtrying to find himselfâ but he just says heâs âlookinâ around.â He comes home for holidays and feels happy.
-Everyone is happy.
-You know the good ole days weren't always good, and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems.
-Jack turns off his phone for a little while longer.
-Credits roll over Jacky looking out over the school, Billy Joelâs âKeeping the Faithâ plays, I cry a whole lot.