Hi, i'm Linz, your local dumbass with wildly varying interests. like seriously sorry for how quickly my interests change and how much random stuff i reblog. Occasionally I do art or fics for fandom, or post about my OCs when im not burned out from work. i try and tag things but i forget sometimes so lmk if you need me to tag something and i will do my best to remember
Phone addiction (specifically social media addiction) is real and it's not a joke and it is everywhere. Phone addiction literally reduces the grey matter of your brain. It's no secret young adults are more anxious and depressed than ever; more lonely than ever; more aimless than ever. Do you remember being a hugely creative kid, and feel like that spark is gone now? Can't sleep at night? Yeah, your GABA receptors are probably fucked from getting hits every 60 seconds from checking your phone. What's your daily screen time like? 6 hours? 12? These are common numbers. It's insane! It's insane and it's deliberate. Companies make more money from you when you're brain is fried from scrolling 10 hours a day through meaningless content.
But it can be reversed. Start small. If you hit this post then take 5 minutes to put your phone down in another room and do something. Do a crossword. Go for a walk. Be present! CBT is a hugely successful therapy for phone addiction and can even reverse the damage done to your brain.
I get it. I have dozens of beloved friends online, and I'm more informed now than I would ever have been without access to the Internet, but wouldn't it be nice to wonder sometimes? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to go outside and not itch for your phone screen? To have that creativity and confidence back? Start small. Start now.
I very much want to write a crack fanfic about Ford somehow landing on the Hail Mary during his portal-years in honor of the Stanford Pines vs Ryland Grace poll, but i also havent written in 3 years and i'm a little intimidated lmao. Should i just say fuck it and try to write it anyway?
@mimosa-sexypeople-contests-2026 I wrote the Ford Pines x Ryland Grace fic in honor of the semifinals. And I guess also the finals since that's already almost over. I'm a slow writer what can I say.
Link to the fic on AO3
Also there's a bonus doodle at the bottom of the read more so hope you all enjoy lol
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There was a man lying in the middle of the Hail Mary’s lab.
Normally, this wouldn’t be too unusual – Grace did dumb human things like that from time to time – but this human wasn’t Grace.
In fact, Grace is standing next to Rocky, staring down in disbelief at the stranger too.
“Uh, Rocky… how… how did he get in here?”
“Unknown,” he replies. “Like I told you, one moment there was nothing, the next I could sense this strange human here.”
“Huh,” was Grace’s intelligent reply to that statement. “Well, uh…”
The stranger chose that moment to groan, beginning his return to consciousness. Rocky hums nervously as the man sits up, rubbing his head.
“Great, just great,” he mutters. “So where in the multiverse am I now – ?”
The man cuts himself off as he finally turns his head towards Rocky and Grace. Rocky chitters a wary greeting that the translator doesn’t quite pick up, but the man barely pays him any heed anyway, instead staring at Grace while Grace stares at him.
“Huh,” the man says. “Well, this is definitely not where I intended to go.”
Ford Pines has been through a lot over the past 15 years. He’s seen some weird shit across the multiple dimensions he’s travelled through.
He still can’t stop glancing over at the rock alien named Rocky in the clear not-plastic ball (it actually more closely resembles a 38-sided die, but that’s neither here nor there). Ford has never encountered anything like him before, either in his research in Gravity Falls or during his travels throughout the multiverse. The researcher in him can’t help but be fascinated – he’s never met a rock alien with five limbs before, it’s fascinating to see the pentagonal symmetry! The way Rocky uses a form of echolocation as his primary sense is also a bit mind-boggling, as even creatures Ford has met that are blind still had eyes and still perceived the world in a way similar to himself (so far as he could tell, at least); it reminds him of echolocation in bats, but even bats had eyes, so it’s still not a one-for-one comparison. Ford desperately wants to study Rocky under a microscope, even knowing it would be in bad taste to do that to a sentient, sapient being – plus Grace would definitely put up a fight about it.
And that’s where Ford’s attention has mainly stayed: the first human he’s had contact with in 15 years. (“Grace. Ryland Grace. Doctor Ryland Grace if we’re getting into all the nitty gritty details or whatever…”) Ford can’t help but orbit Grace just to have that comforting human presence, even as he struggles to make sense of how the hell this man has ended up light years from Earth with an alien on his ship.
Nothing about their story made any sense to him – Earth’s space programs had definitely not advanced this far from when he, uh, left – but it was also apparently the year 2040 or so back on Earth, with this spaceship having been launched in 2026 (even though Grace said it had only been about 4 or 5 years for him. Relativity was weird). Ford wasn’t sure he trusted Grace or Rocky at all, but he also saw no reason for them to lie to him about their story, so. Sure. Microscopic aliens were eating the stars and these two had been sent by their people to find a solution, and they did. In the form of another microscopic alien that ate the star-eating one. Made about as much sense as anything else in Ford’s life, really.
At the very least, Ford trusted them not to toss him out the airlock without a suit – or well. Ford trusted Grace to not toss him out the airlock. It probably helped that he’d warmed up to Grace almost immediately, what with all the science talk they’d delved into as soon as the initial wariness and confusion abated. Rocky, on the other hand – well, he didn’t have a good enough read on Rocky to be fully comfortable in that regard. It might be that the computerized voice of the translator was off-putting, or that Ford had no idea how to read Rocky’s body language, but there was just something that made Ford hesitate just a little bit with fully trusting him. Which made the alien’s insistence on watching him sleep all the more strange.
“Does… does he do this with you too?” Ford asked Grace that first night, and Grace chuckled.
“Yeah, man, it’s an Eridian thing. They’re completely paralyzed when they sleep, can’t wake up like humans can, so they sleep in cycles and always have someone else watching them. If you’re sleeping at the same time as me, then Rocky’s gonna watch us both sleep. You get used to it, after a while.” That probably explained the obvious codependency going on between the two, and Rocky’s overprotectiveness when it came to Grace.
On the one hand, Ford didn’t want to ‘get used to it’ – he was still trying to make his way home and stop Bill, after all – but on the other hand…well, it would be nice to sleep without having to keep one eye open for once…
(He’ll never admit it, but it’s the best sleep he’s had since meeting Bill.)
--
Ryland is… confused by Stanford Pines and his story.
After the initial shock of seeing another human for the first time in 5 years – his first human contact in 5 years – he, of course, went into ‘nerd mode’, as Rocky liked to say. Asking every relevant question he could think of about who Stanford Pines was, how he got here, and what the heck he meant by that ‘multiverse’ comment.
Because Ryland could accept a lot – that aliens were real was a given, when considering present company – and quantum mechanics wasn’t something totally foreign to him, even if it was far outside his microbiology fieldhouse – but the idea of demons and magic was a bit much for even him to believe.
But Ford was insistent, and Ryland was doing his best to wrap his head around it.
“So, to make sure I fully understand… you’re telling me that a magical triangle with a top hat named Bill gave you instructions to build an interdimensional portal through your dreams but then you fell through it and you discovered that he was actually evil and trying to take over your world? And the multiverse is real? Did I get that right?”
“Yeah, that’s… very simplified but basically it,” Ford confirms, peering curiously at a taumoeba shake. “You really eat this sludge? This is some of the most questionable food I’ve ever encountered, and that’s saying something.”
“Yeah, I – well, I’m trying not to starve to death before I get to Erid, so, y’know. Figured out I could eat the taumoeba and I’ve been supplementing my diet with it ever since.”
“Very important Grace not die,” Rocky chimes in.
Ford splutters at that statement. “Well – no, of course, obviously, just – argh, nevermind,” he grumbles, setting the taumoeba shake down. “I ah, still have some rations from the last dimension I went to, so I don’t need to eat any of your, uh, taumoeba – which. Is an alien microorganism that eats the astrophage, which is the thing eating your stars or whatever, right? How in the world did you manage to figure out this stuff was even safe to eat?”
“Well – ” and Ryland launches into how he bred the taumoeba and discovered that he could eat them without any harm in excruciating detail, much to Ford’s delight. They talk science for most of the remainder of the day, slowly migrating into to each other’s personal space for shoulder bumps and elbow nudges. Ryland never considered himself a touchy-feely guy, and with the way Ford had been closed off initially, he’s willing to bet he isn’t either, but – well, it’s been years since either of them have had any sort of human contact, so it’s only natural, right?
--
Ford and Grace spend the next night decidedly not sleeping. Rocky was going to watch them sleep, but as soon as he realized what they were actually about to do he made a swift exit from the bedroom.
Not that leaving the room helped any, because thanks to superior Eridian echolocation Rocky can still hear everything from the other side of the ship, every leaky disgusting intriguing detail.
He may or may not insist upon joining them to ‘watch more closely’ the night after that, but the details are for him to know and you to imagine.
--
Both humans are admittedly a little torn up when Ford finally decides to leave after only a week on the Hail Mary.
“It has genuinely been a delight, gentlemen, but, well. I still have to get home, and stop Bill, and I don’t want to attract his attention to your universe by lingering too long.”
“If you can’t figure it out, stop by again,” Grace says, and Rocky can tell the smile on his face is the strained kind, the one that means he is trying not to cry. “We’d be happy to have you back.”
Rocky chirps in affirmation, and Ford chuckles.
“If I get desperate, I… probably will take you up on that, actually. Thank you, Ryland – and thank you, Rocky.”
“Of course, man. Good luck out there!”
“Have safe travels,” Rocky says, and runs one forelimb over the other. Grace copies the gesture.
“Eridian way to say goodbye,” Grace explains before Ford can ask.
“Ah. In that case – ” Ford rubs his hand over his other arm, before reaching for what he called a ‘dimensional portal gun’ and pressing the trigger. It created a strange vacuum sensation Rocky could feel even through his xenonite barriers, and aiming his screen translator in that direction revealed the image of a strange gateway swirling in the air.
With one last wave, Ford jumps through the portal, and then it closes with the sound of a snap. Grace and Rocky both stare at the spot for a few moments, before Grace claps and turns to Rocky.
“Well, bud,” he says, “that sure was interesting, huh?”
“Yes. Probably going to be the most interesting thing to happen on trip to Erid.”
“Dang, that’s probably true. We still have, what, two and a half years to go?”
“Yes. Grace forget already, question?”
“Hey, hush, you know my memory kinda sucks after the whole coma-amnesia thing, and it was kind of a rhetorical question – whatever. By the way, when do you think that new suit you’re working on will be ready?”
“Give me few more days, need to make sure sure sure it will work. Your atmosphere sucks, statement. Do not want to experience it again without suit, statement!”
“Alright, geez! I get it, I get it… I just wanna know when I can properly hug you and not just the ball. Ford being here made me realize how much I miss hugs, Rock.”
“Understand understand, but Grace must be patient. Does Grace want Rocky to die, question?”
“What? No, of course not – ”
“Is joke! Rocky know Grace not want me to die, so Grace needs to not be so impatient. Grace can keep it in his pants until then, statement.”
Grace splutters, and Rocky trills with laughter, scurrying away as Grace shouts after him, “That’s not what I meant and you know it!” Rocky can tell that Grace is lying, but that knowledge just makes him laugh harder as he continues to race through the Hail Mary in his ball. Grace gives chase, and just like that, they fall back into their usual rhythm.
------
And here's the bonus doodle featuring live Rocky reaction lol
Something about the bastardization of the story time and time again proves that nobody in power really cares about the people who would resonate with King’s Carrie White. A girl so ugly and repulsive she’s been removed from her own story. The societal need for women and girls to be constantly perceived as attractive is what fuels a fair amount of her torment in the book, but that person isn’t even allowed to exist on the screen. We cannot empathize with her; it isn’t allowed. It’s fascinating to me.
no but the “”ai”” boom is crazy bc they made the entire internet so shitty that the only reason to use it is because it’s where all the people are and now they’re getting rid of the people. like i’m straight up logging off and going to the library there’s nothing on here anymore
‘here’s how to tell if an image is ai’ ‘signs the person you’re talking to is a bot’ ‘how to tell if a song is ai generated’ ah but consider this: i am shutting my laptop and walking outside
I saw a bsky post last year where someone said their grandma couldn't tell what was real on the internet anymore so she stopped using it and I really, genuinely think the techbros currently ruining everything have never even considered that possibility. their projections and pie charts and market share research and whatever simply do not take into account a scenario where people lose interest in being online. like yeah we're pretty much all gonna keep using the internet to book travel and look up words and order pizza, but in terms of how we spend our leisure time? I'm still extremely online, but in the last few years I've been learning candlemaking and carpentry and sewing, and I was already spending a lot of time cooking and reading books and skating at the rink and hiking, and an afternoon spent on any of those things always leaves me feeling better about myself than an afternoon spent doomscrolling. I think my daily life is going to keep reflecting that more and more as the slop encroaches, and it sounds like I'm far from the only one feeling that way. silver lining to everything, I suppose.
I have an absolutely massive russian guy as my driving instructor rn
Whenever i get into his car i have to spend an embarrassing 3 minutes adjusting everything back into clown car proportions so i can fit. Anyways a couple lessons ago he had me do the same route over and over to practice and there was a dead seagull in the middle of the road at one point and to keep correct positioning on the road i was required to drive over its carcass like 19 times just goring this seagull until the 20th lap when my instructor looked at the seagull that now more resembled tomato soup than a bird and said "this time. you spare seagull" and so i did and then he said "incorrect positioning on road"
Remember when Xbox was going to basically ban used games for the xbox one, and Playstation made fun of them with that video titled "how to share games on Playstation" and it was just one guy handing another a game disk? And now Playstation is getting rid of physical disks entirely
There is no drug on earth that can replicate the absolute euphoria of hitting a writing flow state at 2:00 AM. You aren’t even typing anymore. You are a vessel. You are a channel for the gods. The characters are speaking directly into your brain and you’re just the stenographer trying to keep up. You feel like you could fight a bear. You feel like you invented the alphabet
You personally enjoying a side character more than the main character doesn’t automatically turn the main character into the real villain of the story.
ALL ABOOAAARRDD!!!!! @linzerj - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
