#rick.

[pathetiiic]

Trans Rick still just makes me so happy

[isafell]

    America is a place that Isabelle has always treated with some level of derision despite never going for longer than a few days. It stemmed not from her own xenophobia but from others'; any time she'd encountered someone from the States in her homeland, they'd been nothing but rude. Haughty.

    Still, she'd rather be stranded here, far away from Madame Genet and her men, than back on the ship that had been taking them on what she was certain was their last voyage.

    "Issa." She turns her head to heed the boy, though no sooner does she do so does she instantly see what he's about to point out. In the near distance looms a large gate of some kind. Though she's wary about the idea of walking headfirst into the crosshairs of unfamiliar people, if they don't leave this forest they'll be deep within it by nightfall. Not ideal. "We should go. There could be people there. We can ask them for help."

    "Laurent…" His insistent belief in the inherent goodness of the human race stuns her, but it's also a source of deep pain. She wants more than anything for her son to be able to trust others— to invite them into his kind open arms, but strangers have proven time and time again that their desire to survive outweighs their shame. "It's—"

    Before she can get another word out, a nearby rustle of the trees steals their collective attention. There in the brush stands an oddly kempt man, hard blue eyes focused on them almost as keenly as his gun. Without even thinking about it, Isabelle throws herself in front of Laurent, shielding him from the open barrel with arms outstretched and fear evident.

    "Don't." It's uttered quietly, but in the quiet of the woods it echoes like a scream. "...we were just leaving. Please don't."

@paralyziingfears / plotted starter!

[soletignis]

I finished reading Daughter of the Deep and WHAT THE FUCK WAS CHAPTER 41.

[calmedflames]

@cotiere !!

   “ — i’m sorry, miss.. do you happen to know where i can buy some flowers? i’m basically new to this town , i’ve kinda forgotten my way around... or maybe even  somewhere i can get a drink and catch up with an old friend? ”

[sacrificesmade]

           SHANE WALSH    &     RICK GRIMES      ( post liked by @mercyprevailed​ )

[rickgression]

SEASON 2, EPISODE 5 - GET SCHWIFTY

I've been rewatching the show for my own reasons (fic research!) and S2EP5 (Get Schwifty) feels a bit different given what we learned in S5EP8 (Rickternal Friendshine of the Spotless Mort). Just some general thoughts about it, searching for evidence or overlaps.

"What's that? Who's that baby?" -- Morty

Morty seeing the baby version of himself being held by younger Rick. This implies Bird Person's Rick met (a version of) Morty as a baby, which may not be the Morty we know nor the one that Bird Person is speaking to.

This is further evidence that Rick returned to a family that was abandoned by Rick for twenty years, and that he potentially lost his original family. That was suggested by Memory Rick, who may have been younger -- but as a Memory, his knowledge would probably include a little more loose information, not an exact day or time.

Because for BP's Rick to have held Morty, he'd have to have at least had Beth and Beth would have had to have had Summer. So that sort of suggests that if Beth died, it would have been post-Morty.

"Morty, suppose you could retrieve your family from Earth but had to abandon Rick. I could give your loved ones shelter on Birdworld, even jobs, possibly as worm ranchers. How often do you think you might look up at the stars and wonder what might have been had you just put your faith in Rick?" -- Bird Person

Is this Bird Person speaking from experience? It wouldn't surprise me if he thought back on his choice to stay in his universe and fight rather than going to a world where the war with the Galactic Federation never even happened.

Unrelated to BP and Morty, there's also this conversation that I think relates to Rick and his family in general. Not directly, but as a thematic mirror to what Rick's been going through in the series.

"We've been waiting 16 years for our daughter to respect us, but the key is, it has to be our daughter, not this person she's become." -- Beth

I feel like this is a reflection of one of the show's core concepts; the fact that Rick can go between universes and everything and nothing matters, being attached to your actions and your true timeline contrasts with the infinite possibilities.

(I firmly believe that Rick has gotten to the point where his actions are his own and that he has to own his mistakes because that's what makes him who he is. If he started jumping between worlds on a whim because things got messy, he'd stop being himself and be some wish fulfilment detached from any true reality... And that's a weirdly dehumanizing thought, as we are our consequences as much as we are our actions.)

I do think this all builds up the case that the Rick we know isn't the 'original' Rick, of when we met him,. He's likely a Rick who lost his family sometime after Beth had Morty, then skirted around the universe self-soothing and coping. Then something triggered his return to his family, just in a different universe.

I think his universe goggles are part of that -- small side note, Rick asks Morty to wear a backpack when he's using the goggles, but doesn't make the others wear the backpack when they're browsing in S1E8 -- so I think the backpack helps the search by INCLUDING that person into his search, like adding additional terms in a Google search. Rick could have left that Morty in the Cronenberg universe but made sure to take him. So he could have saved himself and left Morty in that Cronenberg universe, but didn't.

(Also weird because he just... abandons Beth, Jerry and Summer without even trying to bring them along, so clue what the fuck to do with that.)

This harkens back to S1E8 where Rick gives them goggles to be able to see alternate versions of themselves -- he had to have MADE those goggles, likely to see where he'd want to move to originally, then as the backup in Rick Potion #9/the C-137 universe jump.

Rick: [walking to the cupboard] Hey, do we have any wafer cookies? [grabs cookie box. eats cookies and starts walking away] Mm! [stops and looks back at Jerry, Summer and Beth] Oh, boy. Looks like you guys have been checking out alternate lives and realizing you don't have it as good, huh? That's too bad. You know, me and Morty are having a blast, We just discovered a show called "Ball Fondlers". I mean, I don't want to rub it in or anything, but you guys clearly backed the wrong conceptual horse. [eats another cookie, walking offscreen]

Additional note, whenever we see wafer cookies are mentioned, we get Rick backstory. Or it feels that way at least. But the nod towards backing the 'wrong conceptual horse' gives me the impression that Rick has done that himself, plenty of times. There's no way he didn't check in on other versions of himself, or seek out other versions of his family just to keep tabs.

[symptomatiq]

*     @saintsdeath​     …     ❛  i’m  sitting  right  here ,  there’s  no  need  to  holler .  ❜

rick  o’connell  does  not  consider  himself  a  patient  man.  no  one  would,  actually.  most  would  say  he’s  the  exact  opposite  :  hot-headed,  brash,  &  reckless,  with  a  healthy  dash  of  foolhardiness  to  him.  it’s  not  that  he  never  thinks  plans  through  -  more  that  he  doesn’t  think  them  through  enough,  &  believes  himself  able  to  wing  the  rest.  fortunately  (  or  is  it  unfortunately  )  this  belief  has  been  proven  right  more  often  than  not.  ❛     is  that  right  ?     ❜  he  breathes  out,  bent  half  over  &  resting  his  forearms  on  his  shins  as  he  catches  his  breath.  ❛     could’ve  fooled  me  with  the  way  i’ve  been  calling  you  for  THE  LAST  GODDAMN  HALF  A  MILE.     ❜