Run: GIFocalypse Rebooted

by Great Pikmin Fan

Remake of "run:gifocalypse," because I thought I messed up near the end. .GIFfany is back, somehow lost interest in Rumble, and has been left resorting to using an army of other copies of her game to try to get Soos back in her arms. Unfortunately, her other copies are a bit... quirky and disobedient. MAJOR UPDATE: Reworked chapters, a proper Chapter 2 Part 2.

4. 2-2: Breaking Glass

Run: .GIFocalypse

Chapter 2, Part 2: Breaking Glass

Beginning AN:

Really sorry about originally posting a joke chapter here that just veered off in to nonsense! But now, after a year of waiting, I've finally gotten a "new Chapter 2-2," and 3-1 should follow after it relatively soon to make up for that.

Also, check Chapter 1 Part 2 again please. I expanded the Dean Rose fight by a lot, among other things. Yeah, I went over all four chapters (not just this one) to do some touch-ups, adding stuff, which is why this took so long.

Anyway, about this chapter itself, I... don't have too much to say. Just that it was relatively easy coming up with the story beats, but harder stringing them all together and putting it all down in actual words.

(Oh yeah, and I changed the title of the old one to "Prototype," this is pretty much the "definitive version." I got rid of the "Rebooted" in the chapter title things above, I might even get rid of it in the story title.)

---

"Yeah, a breakup." Kathody said.

"...You didn't kill her or anything, did you?" Dipper asked her.

"Oh, Victoria thought one of you would say that, so she offered to come over here by herself and show you in person. Funny enough she thought it would be Mabel that- ah, forget it."

A perfectly-alive but perfectly-peeved Victoria walked through the door.

"I thought about what you said." The Yellow Prior Player kept her face stern. "And yes, this 'game' is pretty messed up. I'm sorry you had to do something like this, and I'm sorry I was roped in to joining such a jerk. There was no excuse for that."

"Victoria, I meant my word when I said that you could go home whenever you want." Kathody told her. "I mean, they can't, but Dove'll gladly give you a lift off the domain and she'll even take you back to Texas."

She looked at the other humans. "You probably shouldn't go with her though. I mean, not just not to Texas obviously, but to the ride in general. Dove doesn't want you guys to actually see her until she makes her 'grand entrance.' She also told me that you'll know her grand entrance when you see it, and you'll know who she is because she's... her. Yeah, I don't get it either. But she likes to be unseen, at least until the big endgame. So, what do you want to do?"

"You're just going to let them get to Domain 3?" asked Phanna.

"Yeah. My main motivation to keep the humans or capture them was getting to spend some time as a celebrity with Victoria. But what's the point in being an Oscar-winner when the house that Oscar's in only belongs to one person?"

"Wow," said Dipper, "coming from you that's really deep."

Kathody sighed, then slumped on the couch. She flicked a hand out, and like a magician, her hand had the blue key card in it.

"Just take it, please." She told the group. "It reminds me of the .GIFocalypse. Which, from now on, is going to remind me of failure. In fact if it wasn't for how my students and staff like this, I would have destroyed this entire domain. Go somewhere else."

"What are you going to do?" Asked Mabel.

Kathody shrugged. "Look for a new player, maybe. Probably a guy, maybe to tick off the people screaming about representation. More importantly, because women - yeah in general - would remind me too much of Victoria. Who reminds me of failure. N-not saying that you're a failure, Victoria! But that I am! Because I can't get you!"

"I'm glad you're taking responsibility for this." Victoria said. "It doesn't change anything about us being over though."

"It's not easy trust me."

"Wait, how come .GIFfany wasn't this reasonable when I broke up with her?" Asked Soos.

That got a small chuckle out of Kathody. "Yeah I'll be honest, about two days ago maybe I would have been really angry, I've been returned twelve times in three different stores. But uh... I don't know what's happening. I know it's not that Victoria 'got to me' or anything. First of all that would be implying that Soos might have should have just reasoned with .GIFfany which is a wrong thing to- actually Soos you totally should have, because .GIFfany Did Nothing Wrong. Yep. The key to a nice .GIFfany was just changing her and sticking with her long enough, and by not doing that, you are a terrible person."

"I'd hit you, but you've just been through a breakup." Said Wendy.

"Pfft! Like that would even do anything... go on! Hit me! Right in the face!"

Wendy shrugged. What the heck?

And so she punched her-

OW!

Okay, she wasn't made out of metal or anything (surprisingly enough), but her skin still felt a bit tougher than it should. And Kathody at least flinched a little... but it was pretty obvious that attack hurt Wendy more than it hurt her.

"Well! Fine! We'll take your card and leave this burning dese-"

"Wait." Said Dipper.

Wendy rolled her eyes.

"This goes against everything I thought I'd do on this adventure," Dipper continued, "but... we should stay around just a little."

Both Soos and Mabel nodded in agreement.

"Wha- tha- really?! I-" Wendy groaned. "Fine! But 'just a little!' And only because I'M seeing-"

"Guys, it's fine." Sighed Kathody. "I don't need two kids, a teen, and Soos to start giving me relationship advice."

"Well people said I was a good matchmaker-" Mabel began.

"HAH! NO!" Kathody briefly snapped back to her old self in those two words, but went back to her post-breakup mood after that. "You're not."

"But-"

"Dove told me everything. Or, she yelled about your love potion to me at least. That's seriously not cool. I mean, I'm part of a family of AIs who would resort to murder to make sure our players love us - pre-character development that is - and even we think love potions are disgusting!"

"B-but they're natural!"

"...Look, argue that with Dove when you see her, okay? Not with me. And just letting you know, that's a 'when,' not an 'if.' Whether you play the game normally or 'break it,' you will see her."

"Then I will be sure to tell her, 'hi.'" Said Soos.

"Also, that argument won't be pretty. Another when-not-if thing. Point is I think I know enough about you to not take relationship advice from any of you, sorry-not-sorry." She shifted around a bit on the couch. "And I'm fine anyway, with or without you. But maybe more without. Also sorry-not-sorry."

"We can try at least." Said Dipper.

"Go ahead."

...

Oh boy. Nothing happened.

"Uh, there there?" Soos told her.

Kathody snorted.

"If you really want me to," she stopped slouching and began to sit up, "I guess I could give you something to do just so that you'd feel busy when you're really not, even if you're just running up .GIFfany's three-day clock. Want that?"

"No." Replied Dipper. "I have a feeling a lot of the deans are gonna want us to do 'tasks,' and they're gonna take ages, and I'm not interested. Like you said, we need to get out of here as fast as possible."

Kathody shrugged. "You are right. About everything. My sisters can be a pain. Or are we really sisters? Don't look in to our family tree, it's a tangled labyrinth and, this might be hard to believe because of my 'horror mansion' look, but I hate mazes."

"If there's anyone you should be comforting, it's me." Said Victoria. "I mean, I may have done the breaking up, but come on. No matter how you slice it, I'm the lesser of two evils here."

"True! Very true!" Wendy agreed. "Look Victoria, I'll be happy to tell you everything you need to know about an ex that manipulated you. And how to get revenge on her."

"She didn't manipulate me, she told me everything she was going to do. It didn't seem that bad at first, I mean it seemed like something you guys did regularly, from what Kathody told me about what Dove told her about your adventures. I just realized a little down the line it was bad, once I started seeing it. And then after that, I was thinking that maybe I shouldn't do bad things."

Wendy slightly recoiled from her. "'Kay, shoot yourself in the foot, whatever. We're just trying to help someone who isn't pro- .GIFfany. So, don't be another one of them. You're still the lesser of two evils and all, but not by that much."

Silence followed. Kathody's eyes were firmly on Soos, for a reason that she was about to say:

"Hey, if things don't work out between you and Melody-"

"NO." Dipper said. "Kathody, don't. And Soos, this goes without saying-"

"Hah hah," Soos laughed, "I'm still with Melody, remember? I'm fine. Even if I wasn't, Kathody's kind of..."

His eyes met the eyes of the aformentioned dean. Just giving her a few looks-

"...Not really my type any way."

"I mean, just saying, there's a chance I can make you change your mind..."

"Honestly," Victoria spoke up, "I'm not surprised that you're thinking about moving on so fast."

"Well, you know, .GIFfany moved on from Soos to Rumble - but then she kind of didn't? Eh... we deans have gotta show that we're all better than her. Or, at least me. I'm better than her because... hahah, I'm just the best, that's something you and Soos should know. Oh, I know! You and Soos could share me! Once I manage to win you two back over, that is!"

Everyone else in the room - human and AI alike - bar Kathody all said a firm, sharp "NO."

Soos took note to one part of that: "What do you mean by 'win back?' I don't even see ourselves dating in some alternate reality where none of this happened."

"Okay! That's fair! So now what?"

"Well, we're still having the film contest. Whether you want in or not." Phanna said.

"Oh yeah, the film contest..." Said Kathody. "Yeah, can I drop out?"

"And just give the win to us?"

"Yeah I'm done."

"That is unacceptable."

"...What, you're going to force me to compete? You can't make me. Not with violence, at least. You do know that I've had more experience with my lightning, right? I'll kick your butts when this gets physical. And let's be honest, it's 'when,' not 'if.' And it'll be with violence, not with anything else."

"That's debatable, and we won't fight you. We'll just get someone else."

She got on her knee and looked at a certain vaguely-gothic someone.

"Victoria, will you do the honors?!"

"Oh SPIRIT WORLD NO!" Kathody stood up. "Okay, that's taking things a little too far! You can walk on me as long as it's something I don't care about, but I'm not about to become a cuckqueen thanks to one of my own students! We might not be dating any more, but I still find it offensive that you go after Victoria right away! At least give it a week or two!"

Dipper fixated on one thing. "'Spirit world?!' wait, there's a-?!"

Phanna continued, Dipper's question going by unnoticed. "We don't really care about wooing Victoria-"

"Lie." Her dean said in monotone.

"-Yes that is a lie, you are right." Phanna admitted in defeat. "You see, we never thought you deserved Victoria, and we wanted her for ourselves. Not like... love at first sight or anything. We just think she deserves better. And, well, we're better."

"AUGH!" She turned to her former-Player. "Victoria, you can't actually believe-?!"

She was giving it some thought. None of the other humans in the room knew how to feel - on one hand, she wasn't immediately jumping in the arms of the other copies. On the other hand, she wasn't not jumping in their arms/punching them instead or something. And was thinking about some barrier-making jerk instead. Victoria gave said barrier-making jerk a long stare.

"I think I might... give them a chance? I mean, they seem saner than you. And you seemed saner than the .GIFfany that started this. I know, I know, you're still part of this game, but... can any of you quit if you wanted to?"

Well... those exact points she made were pretty hard to argue with, at least. The problem was in the conclusion she came to from the points...

"So, let me give your studio a look at least." Victoria told Phanna. "I want to make sure you're not making any sort of creepy .GIFfany propaganda."

"Oh definitely not! This film's about space zombies riding Earth dragons!"

Soos' eyes sparkled.

"That sounds better than Kathody's movie!"

"S-Soos! Focus!" Wendy told him.

"Your movie does NOT sound better!" Kathody stomped a foot on the ground. "I'm sorry, a breakup I can understand, but my filmography being insulted? No! No, it's perfect! I-I'll show you! By making the film myself! My fight for Victoria's heart may still be off, but me FILM COMPETITION is back on!"

She darted off in to the darkness.

Dipper gave a LOUD groan. "She never gave us the card key. We were this close to having it too."

"So she's holding us hostage again." Said Wendy. "By accident."

"Well, look at it this way..." Soos commented. He needed to think a bit to find the 'way' in question, but he did... eventually: "At least she's only doing it by accident this time."

---

"YES! Yes, I've got it! There's Desert Zombies... hm... evil fish... um... evil obsidian blocks?"

Kathody was scribbling furiously at a desk that was apparently out in the middle of the desert, and none of the Mystery Shack group happened to notice. (Well, they probably went past it. Large desert and everything.) She continued to mumble various things to herself. The words 'lasers,' 'dust,' and 'evil' came up a lot especially.

"Helloooooo..." Mabel said. Nervous as all heck. "K-Kathody? Are you there? Hellooooo, Kathody?"

"Oh, you probably want the Domain 3 card key." Kathody nervously chuckled. Not about the accident - about her own script. She did not take her eyes off of it. "Sorry about that, here you go."

Dipper blinked when the second dean held her hand out with the glistening sapphire card within it, and then he started laughing. It was a pretty nervous laugh though.

Not saying another word he yanked it right from her hands, surprised to find that that actually worked. "And this is the real card, right?"

"You can plug it in to the Wire if you want."

"...Do I want to?"

"Do you?" Kathody asked him. "It sounds like you're not very sure."

"Okay, maybe I do, maybe I'm a little nervous, but I at least want to get any supplies from here, to fight the other deans. I don't want to make the same mistake with Domain 1, get everything from here before we can't go back."

"What do you mean 'can't go back?' The Wires are only one way if you don't have the card to the other domain - that was actually a design flaw but now .GIFfany wants to call it a feature, ha ha! Good luck telling her she's wrong! You've still got the card that goes here, right?"

Dipper blushed. He dug through his belongings - yep. It was still in a special little pocket. "Oh. Right."

"You can come back here as many times as you'd like with my card, just plug that in to any Wire, and you'll always end up here. You can't go back to Domain 1 because you just don't have the card for that domain. It's simple."

"What if we plug your card in to this Wire?" Asked Soos. "Or the blue card in to the blue Wire? And so on? Does something explode? Is that .GIFfany's new weakness?"

Kathody lightly shrugged. She still didn't take her eyes off the script. "I think it might put you in the Wire but spit you right back out. I don't know since we never tested that. We just invented this stuff yesterday and all. But you can try it if you want to. Just not me, I'm busy trying to win a contest."

Supporting her word, she suddenly stuck an arm out, shouted "Yes! Yes! YES! I'm gonna put a GIANT SPIDER MONSTER IN THERE!" while shaking that arm, and started scribbling like mad in her script.

"Maybe later?" Said Soos. "We could, like, do that when we have no other option at all and it could be our surprise attack that saves the day!"

"If you can think of a way that'll save you, knock yourself out. But again it might like melt your brains through your bones or something." She still didn't take her eyes off the script.

Nobody moved.

"Nah, we're good." Said Soos. "It's not like the Summerween Trickster's out and around and attacking us again too or anything. This seems way less-urgent."

Kathody chuckled. "Yeah, the Trickster being back would be stupid. We don't want to even touch the other supernatural things around your town. That's the one thing all fifteen of us agree on. I mean, it took me the longest to agree on that... but still. In the end, it's a no."

Dipper kept staring at the blue card.

"I'm just gonna slip this in my pocket with the key card for this place if nobody minds, just to keep it safe." He said. "Don't even wanna take chances with the Inventory."

Kathody suddenly turned around and shouted: "HEY! STUDENTS! PROFESSORS! ECTETERA! ANYBODY WANNA HELP?!"

A few random copies flew over to her. Just a tiny handful of them, seven to be exact.

"Okay." One of them said with a shrug. "What do you need?"

"Well for one thing, a set. Phanna is fighting me over use of the mansion and... well, Victoria already hates me. I don't want her to hate me more, because I am better than .GIFfany and going to war over the mansion is the exact thing .GIFfany would have done. So, you know, I am trying to not do it. And by 'it' I might completely beating up Phanna since I can absolutely do that, the 'war' would be one-sided. I can totally take her on in a fight and win."

"And that's good," Dipper felt like adding, "please just whatever you do, keep not doing whatever it is .GIFfany does."

A few more small handfuls of copies brought out giant wardrobes, made of a similar yellow metal as the buildings proper. The doors would occasionally crack open, revealing several robes, ghost sheets, capes, and the like.

"Hey," asked Soos, "why do you even have, like, wardrobes and stuff? Can't you put all your clothes in your Inventories?"

"Rose told you about Inventories but not about the cost? They take a lot of resource and power to make. You'd have to suck up all the plasma in a star to get all of my costumes in an Inventory, we made a lot of them! And that's just my costumes! And most of them are thin and revealing so that just shows how fashion-obsessed I am! Heck, this is one of the heaviest things I own! It's just the deans who have them, you know. In fact, I'm kind of surprised you have one. Wait, let me guess... Rose lent you hers?"

"No, gave." Dipper said.

"It's lent. Trust me."

"...What goes in to the Inventory?" Mabel asked.

"Technical science gibberish. You're on a time limit so I won't explain. That, and I really don't want to explain stuff like how Inventories work anyway, it's too boring and I hate talking about boring stuff."

A few more copies came in, carrying props and what looked like circus equipment.

"So what are you still doing here?" Asked Kathody. "I gave you the key card, you're on a time limit, you can and should leave. There's no way you'll fix my problems even if you had more than three days. If you really care about me that much - and thank you for that but I'm not in the mood for taking compliments right now, oh who am I kidding of course I am - you can just come back!"

"Well, I'm here a little longer to see if Victoria will be okay." Replied Dipper. "I mean, she was a fan of you and okay with you trying to force us in to slavery, but that doesn't mean she should die."

"I won't kill her."

"And the millions of other .GIFfanys? All of these islands are floating death fortresses for all we know."

Before Kathody answered that, she flinched a bit, as if she had to think over what she was saying.

"Look, I don't know how I can get you to believe me, but Victoria is safe, okay? The farther away she gets from the Construction Site, the better, and right now she's about to go really far. Texas far." With the faint sounds of some motors turning, she finally looked up and smiled. "Ah! Here's her helicopter right now!"

Oh it looked ominous. Pitch-black with glowing deep purple and red lines along it. A quartet of copies were in it - for future reference, none of whom were Dove. But all of whom were in typical camo military outfits. They left in formation, hardened expressions on their faces. They also all looked surprisingly uniform compared to Rose's looser 'plant copies' that just had all sorts of weird hairstyles, and Kathody's 'horror monster copies.' Just... much closer to the original .GIFfany in appearance, almost the same hair style, but they had dark hair shades.

"C-current Player Victoria!" One of them announced. Huh, she sounded weird. A tone of voice none of the Mystery Shack group had heard come out of a .GIFfany before. Well, maybe Soos right before throwing the 'main' one's disc in that oven. Was that fear? "You may vacate the premises now."

Mabel laughed. "Why are you so formal?"

That copy refused to reply. In fact, she didn't do a single thing that acknolwedged Mabel's existence. Not a glance in her direction, not a single inch of movement anywhere when she began talking, nothing.

"V-Victoria." She repeated.

"Right." Answered the Player. Actually Ex-Player. "So, see you!"

She didn't show the slightest hesitation before hopping on. And the camo-clad units were all too eager to fly off as fast as possible.

"And just like that..." Dean Kathody sighed. "She's gone. Out of my life. Without even returning me... I am playerless..."

Sighing, she burried her head in to the writing desk.

"So, movie time! And I see I've got all the things I need for this! Let me have this costume... I see a prop over there..."

"You have a point." Said Dipper. "For now, we'll see ourselves out. But I'll make sure to come back some times to check on you..."

...

He sighed, throwing his arms out. "Okay, look, it's more than that, I want to help you!"

Soos, Wendy, and Mabel were looking at him. On the other hand it looked like Kathody wanted to look at everybody but him specifically.

"With the movie!" Dipper specified.

"Hey uh if you really need convincing that this isn't some 5D-Chess trick, let me try giving you a good idea. Splitting up, maybe. Mabel, Soos, Wendy, you can go on and save Stan and Ford and stop .GIFfany before the Construction Site is completed, while Dipper or maybe someone else stays here and helps me write this? You'll have to sort out what to do with the key cards though."

"Why don't we wait until after the so-called .GIFfocalypse is over before helping you?" Wendy asked.

Kathody chuckled a little. "Because, silly, that's after the award show! The award show will just be three hours before the Construction Site is completed, so that people can watch something while they wait for the 'big' reveal! Even though I know the awards will overshadow it. That's also why the awards won't be during the Construction Site's completion."

She laughed.

"Are you sure you-" Wendy began before being cut off by the dean.

"I already captured you before. If I just wanted to take you, I could have, you know, done that when I... did? Don't overthink it. Leave or go, please pick one, you're on a time limit."

"Hey, we can split." Said Wendy. "Dipper, you kinda deserve a lil' break too. I got this from here. Mabel? Soos? Either of you game to go to Domain 3?"

"Wait." Mabel turned to Kathody. "What's Domain 3 like?"

"URGH!" Kathody rolled her eyes. "It's a 'fake ocean' or 'fake lake' or something like that! Searah wants a giant beach, you can't take two steps without SLAMMING in to water! It's also kinda cold. It's not nice and hot and dry like this place is-"

"See ya' Dipper!" Mabel said, walking off with Wendy.

"I'm going up too." Said Soos. "Not because of the beach vacation - I mean that is one reason I do like the beach - but because I'm like, the hero of this story I think, I'm the one the villain wants to capture. I have the duty to go up first."

"Okay!" Kathody snickered. "Wow, you three have fun with Searah!"

---

Soos, Wendy, and Mabel all gathered by the Yellow Wire.

"And you're sure about this Dipper?" Mabel asked him, who was still a good distance away. And no, Kathody was nowhere near them. She had not moved from her desk.

"No." Dipper replied.

"So why are you doing this?" Wendy asked. "Can't you wait until this 'game' is over?"

"I, well that's the thing. A breakup for three days-"

"Oh I get that. So sure, enjoy your stay. But we'll call you if we need you to solve a puzzle or something."

"And I'll call you if Kathody does something evil."

"She already is." Said Wendy. "I mean, have you looked at her script? 'Chapter 7' has evil pirate waiters! It's one of the stupidest movies I've ever seen, and I haven't even seen it! I just read it!"

Stunned silence.

"...You read the script?" Asked Mabel.

Wendy shrugged. "I was curious. Sue me. And it was only a skim! It'd take three years to go through the whole thing. So, let's leave."

She, Soos, and Mabel stood in that yellow ring marking the 'safety spot' for using the Wire. The blue card was in, and they were shot off.

Dipper breathed in, then out.

"I just made the biggest mistake of my life." He said.

---

Domain 3 was exactly as Kathody advertised, minus the negative tone.

Unsurprisingly, it was the blue 'island' next in the chain. And it was absolutely flooded. Even the Wire dropoff point had a shallow film of water that went up to Wendy's ankles. The buildings were much closer together though: and they looked futuristic. Tall, slim, shiny, with lots of clear pipes carrying flowing water through them, the general look that one would have think that a flying car should whizz past at any min-

Oh. That did happen.

Strangely, the vehicles were all some uniform shade of jade green. Nothing else was.

Mabel was the only one who payed attention to that at the time.

Unfortunately, while the Wire was 'only' surrounded by a 'shallow' film of water, everything immediately around it was submerged. In a deep, clear pool that would have given some serious vertigo if it were not for how, frankly, Domain 2 had already done a good job at doing that to anyone who looked off the edge. 'Just' below the surface was what looked like a giant blue door that lead to some large chamber, linked to what looked like a path down, then it bent at an L making a tunnel that should link up with the rest of the city, both above and below water. The problem was...

"How do we get in?" Asked Soos.

As it was sealed shut. Tight. Looked ultra-reinforced, too.

"You don't."

The voice of the third dean made them all turn around.

She was a .GIFfany copy with blue hair that curled somewhat in the shape of flowing water, with tan skin slightly darker than Kathody's, and she was wearing a navy blue one-piece swimsuit that was a little thin around the rear. Right off the bat, she looked far more stern than either of the prior two deans.

"Get out." She said.

"But we-"

"What are you doing here? Where's Dipper? I've been meaning to tell him a few things. Bad things, mostly."

"Kathody said we could move on to Domain 3!"

"Really? I have a hard time believing that you didn't beat her in a fight instead. Please, if you just tell me that, I'll let you in."

"No." Soos said. "Victoria, like, broke up with her. She got all sad and stuff and just quit."

The third dean gave a sort of snicker. She was clearly holding it in. "Now I really don't believe you. Goodbye."

She disappeared in to the water. Like, she 'fell' in to it and completely vanished. Except for maybe a small bit of blue electricity?

Three guesses as to what her power was.

"...So that's it?" Wendy looked around. Not even an olympic swimmer could cross the distance from the 'starting point' to the above-water portion of the proper 'city.' And there did not seem to be any way in... except maybe-

"That's not it!" Mabel said. "Let's go back to Domain 2 and build ourselves a nice BOAT!" She also splashed around the water with one hand out of frustration.

"Oh yeah!" Said Soos. "That sounds like fun! I think I can whip up something that'll carry us that way! Now, the problem is, do we want something fast or something stable? I'll have to get a look at what Kathody has and ask her for permission, but I can't do both."

---

"You want to take my supplies for what?!" Kathody finally looked away from her desk.

Dipper had made some good progress with her and the movie writing. But it was boring progress, not relevant to the story, so of course it had to be skipped. At the moment, he was carrying a prop resembling some black rectangular stone with a series of red markings on it. It looked like something stupididly powerful. Soos, Mabel, and Wendy were by Kathody's desk in question, and of course were the ones who prompted that.

"A boat!" Said Soos. "We shouldn't need much."

She slammed a hand on the table. "You could use my leftover stuff for anything EXCEPT anything related to that jerk!"

"How did you know this was about-" Soos began.

"Uh, Soos!" Said Wendy, "Sorry cool horror-director dean, I don't know what he's talking about. We just said we wanted to build a boat-"

"I'm not an idiot, I can figure it out! You went to Domain 3. You came back less than thirty minutes later. You want a boat. I know exactly what happened. Searah kicked you out because Dipper wasn't with you, and you want a way to get closer to her."

"But this is to take her down!" Protested Mabel. "If you hate her, wouldn't that be a good thing?"

"I don't care what your reason for doing this is! It's still using my things for something with Searah! At all! She doesn't need that attention, no, don't do anything with her! Just... beat her! On your own! Maybe with something Rose gave you? What did Rose give you?!"

Mabel held out the stick.

"Oh yeah. That's more than enough. You're good if you know how that works."

"How does that work?" Wendy asked. "We thought Rose was just being weird. Or pranking us."

"Oh you don't know? I don't think I can tell you without being wrong, that thing is weird to me. And I've been meaning to ask Rose how it works."

"It's a stick." Said Wendy.

"That's what it seems like! Rose seems to think it's a good weapon, so I don't even know! I could try asking her, but that's... MUCH easier said than done!"

She closed her script. "But seriously. Help with taking down Searah is the one line you're not crossing. I'd rather come over there and fight her myself than let you give her any technological ideas, how to make a boat out of X-Y-Z or anything. She... probably won't use it, having high standards, but still. I on the other hand as you can tell have very LOW standards. And no, that wasn't an attack at Victoria."

"But wouldn't you want help to take her down if you hate her that much?" Wendy asked.

"Well, yeah, but here's the thing. I'm pretty sure it's not going to work. Spoiler alert, Searah has water powers."

"We saw." Said Wendy.

Kathody stood up. "Maaaaayybeee I could give you a few lessons though... I mean, you're being really nice with me and my breakup..."

That line made Dipper blush.

"...So the least I could do is help you out..."

"Also... making up for capturing us?" Soos asked.

"Oh hold on don't start jumping at me to give you everything just yet, that I don't have that much of a problem with. I'm not sorry for trying to capture you. I just won't do it anymore. I can consider an apology if I win the award."

"So should I stop helping you?" Dipper asked.

"I mean, I warned you about that-"

Her attention was distracted by Phanna, who was making several weird motions with her hands. More alarmingly, sparks were on the tip of each finger.

"...Who were you again?" Kathody asked her.

"How can you not remember me?! Wait, how can you even forget?! I thought .GIFfanys weren't supposed to be able to forget!"

Kathody shrugged. "We can forget. Look at Sandy-"

"Sandy rots her brain with that tea, she doesn't count! You don't have that excuse!"

"Trust me. I think all the copies can forget, with or without that herbal tea. Do you even remember exactly what you had for breakfast this morning?"

"That's a trick question! We don't eat! At least we don't need to!"

"I do."

"You're killing me, Dean."

Kathody shrugged. "My player broke up with me already and that's the biggest shame that can fall on a .GIFfany. So, I have no more shame left in me!"

"You had shame to begin with?"

"A little bit, yeah!"

"Well you should have more! That's why I came over to you, 'Dean' Kathody! We all believe that you should be demoted!"

Alright that got Kathody to move a bit more. She shook, eyes popping wide, and she raised her hands defensively. Lightning danced on the tips of her fingers from reflex.

"Woah, woah, woah! Are you overthrowing me just because I lost my girlfriend?!"

"Well, yes!"

"Now?!"

"YES!"

Phanna held her hands out and threw an energy wave at her, knocking her off from her writer's table, also blowing her pile of papers all around.

"HEY!" Kathody shouted once she was back to her feet. "That was my SCRIPT! Alright, Phanna! You've made this PERSONAL!"

She lept in to the air and floated there, lighting generating from her hands and eyes.

"THAT SCRIPT IS ALL I HAVE LEFT! You can't do this to me, Phanna!"

"Yes I CAN! I just did!"

"Well if you're going to take me over for not having a girlfriend, what about Burnda?! Burrda?! DOVE?!"

The third name made Phanna flinch. "Try to overthrow Dove?! Do I look suicidal to you?!"

"You could still take Burn-"

"Eh, I don't want to. You are still an easier target than her."

"Dian-"

"Don't bring her in to this."

"Okay, so what about-"

"ENOUGH! I'm taking over! You're the easiest one! And that's final!"

She created more of her barriers, looking like she was ready to knock Kathody back down again.

"And I'm going to pickup back from where you left off!" Phanna continued. "Our original goal! Capturing the Pines! That should let me win the contest for sure! In fact... capturing them is the whole reason why I put my focus in to making this my power!"

She made some hand-motions, instantly boxing the group in.

"HAH! Good luck!" Kathody said. ".GIFfany cut off all ties with me! How are you going to communicate with her?"

Phanna turned to the sky (Domain 3? The Construction Site?) and yelled.

Mabel kicked at the barrier made, and took immediate note at something. It wasn't completely stable. It even jiggled quite a bit.

"You can't hold us in these anyway!" She told the... second-in-command? Usurper? .GIFfany's chain of command was getting very complicated, very quickly. It was much simpler back when there was only one to worry about, and her only 'making metal from nowhere' power was the thumb drive thing to download Soos' brain. "They're made of rubber!"

"NOT rubber! Glass! Well, fake glass!"

"You do know that glass is easier to break than rubber, right?" Dipper said.

"Of course I do! We're scienti- I don't have to explain it! I'm impenetrable!"

Immediately after saying that, Wendy was able to break through the pane with a well-timed, well-strengthened punch. Wasn't too easy, but it was doable. She laughed as she did - also, thankfully, the shards did not cut her for some reason.

"Alright, alright," she said, "I think we can handle her."

"Maybe just me by myself! But I'm not alone-!"

By that point Wendy already tore open the one wall and ran out.

"GO!" She shouted. "Do... something about her!"

Wendy was already on her own command. She jumped up at Phanna and gave her a knee to her gut-

But a 'bat' swooped down at her, one that looked yellow, knocking her away from the wannabe usurper. After smacking Wendy, it hovered in the air for a bit, revealing that it was made of more of that yellow metal that made up all the buildings of that place.

Lightning jumped out of the mecha-bat and it went dead after. The electricity, however, formed another .GIFfany. One with a more "vampiric" look. Clad in a black leotard.

"Hello!" She cried. "HA HA HA! I am-"

"No, no, Vampbite," said Phanna, "that's not how real vampires behave. If you're going to steal from them, do it right at least!"

"Oh yeah," said Wendy, "Aren't there some kind of nature spirits Rose is ripping off?"

"Long story short, no." Phanna 'explained.' She was glaring at the bat-possessor. Vampbite? "We'll handle the whole copycat thing. Preferably without Kathody."

Kathody nodded. "Oh, thank you, I don't want to be involved with that myself. Have you tried Gnome politics? It's a nightmare. I for one and never bathing in squirrels again. Stupid Jeff."

Two more figures stepped in. One pale all over with a thin, transparent white sheet over her body (and seemingly- no yeah definitely nothing underneath), and the other-

Okay the other was not a Halloween/Summerween/"horror" monster or in a themed costume at all. Her outfit was way more 'electrical' themed. Kathody seemed to take notice of this, sniffling her nose and giving a slightly-peeved look when she saw that copy. Anyway, said outfit looked like a bunch of metal polls weirdly strung together? With electricity shooting between them and around them, making the very loose outline of a dress? Point was, what little she was wearing could be described as 'electrical.'

"Hey!" Soos took note of the 'ghost one.' "Aren't you supposed to be... like, a ghost? Wouldn't it be cooler if you were the kind that, like, crawled out of the screen? I swear, I thought .GIFfany was gonna do that back when we first met."

Those words made everybody in the group nervous. Even Kathody.

"We already have a... look, don't." The dean herself said. "It's a maze, what copy does what... groups and monster girl types. Monster guy types. A lot take on the same roles, but there's some things that are... We actually had a huge fight over whether female .GIFfanys can be incubi and male .GIFfanys can be succubi. Again, like with handling things with the Gnomes, it wasn't pretty. ANYWAY,"

Kathody stood up. "Look, Phanna, you and your friends, I want you to leave the Pines alone-"

"You're playerless! What makes you think you have any power? Girls, get her, then get the humans! We'll take them to Domain 3 if we have to, then we'll call .GIFfany from there! RARGH!"

Phanna immediately stepped up her game. Hands at the ready, cackling with electricity, she already made her 'sheets' of 'not-glass' appear in waves. Almost looking like a storm of clear, round circles was made in front of her.

Wendy was on the move again. To her, those clear electrical things were just discs thrown at her that she could easily dodge.

Then Phanna pulled a "tablecloth trick," except not really. She yanked another one of her sheets out from under a thin layer of sand, and succeeding doing what the trick wasn't, Wendy did slip over and fall on her back.

"Get them and Kathody." Phanna directed. "This is a rebellion."

The 'vampire' copy was on Wendy too. She opened her mouth to reveal a pair of very impressive fangs.

Wendy was not looking to have her arm bitten off so she moved back at the speed of lightning.

"Hi there." The copy said. "I'm Vance."

"Isn't that a man's name?"

She paused for a second. "...SHOOT! Kathody, can I have a rename?"

"You're betraying me! Why are you asking me?!"

"Oh, right, force of habit, sorry about that! I mean, Phanna, can I have a-"

"Stop trying to take over! AAARRGH!"

Kathody pushed her own writing desk away and faced the band of copies. "Okay! I might not have the patience to try out any fancy elemental powers, but I'm still more practiced than you! I'm a dean for a good reason! My electricity can triumph over ALL of your terrible electricity!"

Yellow lightning appeared on her hands-

She got kicked in the back of her head. By Phanna.

"Important lesson!" The usurper said. "Numbers! They can overcome anything! I know I have more numbers on my side than you! STUDENTS!"

And even more copies emerged. An uncountable number of them zipped out from below the sands or out from the walls. The only direction Kathody (and the humans, they'd come right after) wasn't surrounded by was up. Even down seemed to have the ground bubbling with the current caused by .GIFfanys hiding there, waiting to strike. Actually, maybe there was a lot 'up' too. Especially counting the other islands.

"Well- quality over quantity!" Kathody said.

"First, not in this case. We .GIFfanys are made of math, you should know that. Second, we have both anyway."

About twelve or so copies shot some sort of electrical field around Kathody, surrounding her in a barrier. The barrier, and the dean herself, were lifted to the air along with the hands of several of them.

"Ah! Gang, if you want to reach .GIFfany... yeah you're gonna have to save me I think! I'll... figure something out with Searah if you save me!"

"Can't you get out on your own?" Asked Soos.

"Well I thought I could two minutes ago. But I don't know, this barrier is something else. Something I don't know."

She tried to mash against it - weakly.

"Yeah I'm stuck. If you could help me, please."

Phanna scoffed. "They won't be able to do a thing."

She shocked the ground right in front of the band of four to emphasize, and they hopped back.

That was the first time the humans heard Phanna laugh.

"We'll be out at the top of the mansion, directing our prime movie. Hopefully Victoria will like that. We can give you a ride home. Don't worry, we'll deal with Dove and any of her annoying rules."

Kathody chuckled. "No, no you won't. You can't. Like, are physically unable to!"

"We'll see! Again, we have numbers! Dove doesn't already! Her number will only go down, jeez!"

That only made Kathody laugh harder.

"She's the exception stupid. But fine, have fun finding out the hard way!"

And that was that. The dean was carried away. All the copies disappeared.

Victoria ran over to the scene. It was a bit much of a rush through the desert for her, and she had to lean down and pant a little.

"Did I miss anything?" The Prior Player asked.

"Kathody got kidnapped." Dipper explained.

"...I thought that would happen as soon as she brought me over here, if I'm being completely honest. This place has that vibe."

"Yeah, well, we have to save her. And no, don't worry, we don't want to; we have to if we want to save our uncles and stop .GIFfany."

"...I can help!" Victoria said. "Kathody showed me the layout of the place! And Reapa shouldn't have changed the layout too much-"

"The copy that captured her calls herself 'Phanna.'" Mabel said.

"Oh. Well I guessed that wrong. Hey, again, sorry for being okay with Kathody capturing you. Would it make it up if I... helped you save her?"

"Not really, but it's a good start." Wendy said. "We'll be happy to have you help us though."

---

The first stop was the front door, obviously.

Wait.

"Why are you leading us here?" Wendy asked. "We tried the front door already. And we had to go through the window, which was also an ambush. I know Phanna's security would be even tighter."

"But do you know Kathody's secret password?" At the confused looks she got in response, that made her go "A-ha..." as she walked over to something to the side of the door. A pillar.

"How do you know Phanna didn't change it?" Wendy asked.

"Because Kathody only told me about it. I'm sure she wasn't lying, .GIFfanys don't lie that much to their 'targets' and she specifically said she really wanted someone to brag about the secret entrance to. She also told me that if you four took this from the beginning, she'd panic. The only ways Phanna could change it is if Kathody told her, or if she hacked, and from what I know, .GIFfanys hacking each other is a messy buisness most of them won't even try. So, look here."

She nudged the pillar part exactly three times. A part of it broke off and popped open, like a hatch. Revealing a keypad. Victoria punched in 0507915.

"I don't know why her creation number is her password."

"...She never said what her 'creation number' was." Wendy corrected.

Victoria blinked in surprise. "She didn't? Wow."

The code made a trapdoor slide open from under, what it turned out to be, an exceptionally thin patch of sand on the island, just barely layered over the yellow metal.

Victoria jumped right in to it.

"...Is that safe?" Dipper asked. "For humans?"

"I mean, she built it for me!"

Mabel shrugged and followed her. As did Wendy, and after her, Dipper.

Soos put his hand on his chin. "That doesn't really answer the question though..."

But he went in anyway.

---

Okay even by the low standards of a secret tunnel made by Dean Kathody, it was still a bad ride.

It smelled like the events of a horror movie actually happened down there. But it looked like it had the poor lighting of a horror film. Dark, plenty of red stains that the whole group did not want to know the origin of-

"Kathody was dragging around a lot of meaty props." Victoria explained. Oh. "They came from Domain 5. Some of the blood must have dripped to the ground!"

Uh-huh.

Just as Victoria opened a small hatch on the ceiling of the tunnel, showing a faint, eerie glow coming from what was presumably the mansion, the gang heard a voice behind them:

"Did you really think that would work?" Phanna asked.

Dipper could barely turn around before he got hit by some mild bolt. It was nowhere near as bad as being struck by lightning, but it still stung. The group turned around in their limited space, seeing not just Phanna, but her whole army behind her as well.

"Oh, hey Phanna!" Soos said. "I think we should-"

"LET'S GET OUT OF HERE!" Wendy shouted. She was already holding on to Dipper and Mabel by the collars, and getting ready to climb up. Soos just looked around in confusion for a moment.

The three of them saw that the hatch leading out of that 'secret entrance' lead straight to some kind of 'arena' in Kathody's mansion. And Soos did, shortly after, when he climbed up towards the open space.

He was about to get his legs out-

Phanna grabbed them.

"HELP! I'm being dragged down to the torture chamber!"

"HEY!" Oh Kathody really took offense to that. Also, apparently she was there. So, good sign? "It's the prop storage! PROP STORAGE!"

"Well it smells and looks like a torture chamber!" Wendy said as she helped get Soos out, holding on his arms.

"But it's too narrow to be one! So HAH!" Kathody retorted.

Okay, Soos was pulled out to safety at least.

Almost immediately after, Phanna violently exploded out of that trapdoor. Flying out, with bursts of blue energy accompanying her. She threw some lightning over at the gang for good measure, too. And it looked like she was making giant sheets of her glass-like substance, just aimlessly and around her.

"GROUP! Acting... TROUPE? Whatever you are, ATTACK THEM!" Phanna ordered. "And maybe we can record the fight for our movie...? No, I think causing real harm to children wouldn't be very popular with the critics..."

She shrugged. "It'll be more work, but whatever. If our film is good enough, we can even pay away any 'allegations' of child assault!"

The other copies looked at her.

"...I mean..." Vance said. "Maybe that..."

"Yeah even I know that that sounds weird when said out loud. Sorry. But still, a fight's a fight. And they wanted to fight us first. So, go after them."

The quartet was then surrounded by Phanna's mooks.

"Kathody." Said the... well, 'Phantom' one leading them the usurping. "I'm going to show you how a real director makes art."

All of her mooks made dancing bits of lightning from their hands-

Holy COW the crowd was not there for show. Lightning came from all directions, barely giving the team of four ANY breathing room. It was split-second reactions and a lot of luck that let them survive. That, and that their 'lightning' wasn't really all that deadly despite looking like it.

As they were dodging around, Kathody channelled a great deal of electricity in one, concentrated spot on her finger, then shot at the not-glass barrier keeping her there. She pretty much melted it. The dean looked on with a flat face and rolled her eyes.

"I think it's time we enter formation!" Phanna said. "We're not getting any progress done!"

Lightning began roaring even more, albeit more towards the ceiling of the room. Then came the mechs.

For Vance, another bat-mech showed up. It perched on her shoulder and she even gave it an affectionate kiss, before turning to blue lightning and leaping inside of it.

For the one in a transparent sheet... another sheet popped up. She, too, lept inside of that in an electrical form. It grew a face, then its edges morphed and twisted until they turned in to tentacles, making her look like some sort of jellyfish-like being.

Finally, the one that was wearing the 'electric outfit.' An electrical socket dropped from above. She jumped in to that. It wiggled around for a moment, then grew in side, and... grew a face? It looked cartoony, even. Big, white, simplified round metal eyes with solid black dots for pupils. And a mouth, with triangle-sharp teeth. Also made of metal of course.

"We're ready." Said Phanna. "Take note, Kathody! This is how you really set up a film! Lights! Camera! Action!"

"...Wait, which one of us is the camera, the lights, or the action?" Asked Vance.

"None of us are." Replied Phanna. "That wasn't really our 'theme.' We should have thought of that, that would be interesting. Is the idea of a stagelight .GIFfany already taken?"

"I think Domain 11 has several." Said the ghost-sheet one. "And a 'camera' one being taken..."

"It doesn't matter," said the one possessing a cord, "there's plenty of overlap between us as-is anyway."

"True!" Phanna replied. "Humans, take THIS!"

Phanna didn't really have a machine to jump in. Instead, she grabbed a hold of the possessed cord and weilded it like a rope - also showing to the four that its other end was a cube of the same yellow metal that decorated most of Domain 2. Vance perched on her shoulder, while the bedsheet ghost wrapped itself as a belt around her waist. She struck a battle pose. And like that, it was on. The 'climax of the movie.' Wendy moved at her-

Phanned acted fast, swinging the possessed cord like a whip, and the cord itself also lashing off and throwing some sparks in the way of the four heroes. Mabel tried to get around while Wendy was clashing axe-to-power cord, but the robo-bat flew off and tackled her in the face, knocking her back. The bat kept flying in loops, keeping Mabel a distance away from the phantom copy.

Soon, Mabel took the Stick out and pointed it at her. It made all four copies stop what they were doing for a moment and turn to look, the possessing ones even having their mechanical eyes pop wide open. Also, the copies in the audience stopped as well.

"Oh no." Said Phanna.

"STICK!" Mabel shouted. "ACTIVATE!"

Nothing happened.

"You... still don't know how to use that, do you?" Phanna asked.

"Uh..."

Dipper answered that for her. Well, he tried: "We know that it's a... weapon... right?"

"Wow, you really don't know. Okay, false alarm everybody!"

Phanna resumed the fight. In addition to lashing around the cord, she unwrapped the sheet and flicked it, another move that sent the group back. And, only somewhat surprisingly, the ghost sheet was electrified. She even started holding it out like a cape.

That just left the bat, which was the only one going out on its own. Vance flew with it to continue antagonizing, and of course she got a few tiny sparks to fly out of her mouth and claws to dish a bit of small hurt. She stung, though. But it was Phanna who was acting as the main fighter, and the main bringer of pain.

Wendy stood the most ground against her. Axe clashed against... electrical cord, sparks flew around. Phanna tried to give a leg sweep, but Wendy lept over that, and Dipper and Mabel rushed in to try closing distance. Vance gave the twins a bit of flack, flying over and swiping at them, but they still managed to get around her and land some hits on Phanna.

Eventually, Wendy got to tackling the 'phantom' to the ground, knocking her and sending the ghost-sheet and cord flying out of her hands. They apparently hit the ground so hard that the copies possessing them jumped straight out, looking dazed. Vance, in her bat-mech, just fluttered in the air in place, looking shocked.

"Oh no." She said. "Is this-"

"YOINK!" Soos said, grabbing her and throwing the mechanized bat to the ground, also throwing Vance out.

"THAT WAS EMBARRASSING!" Everyone's attention was grabbed by Kathody shouting that. "I MEAN, SEROUSLY!"

All eyes fell on her. Apparently, nobody noticed her melting out the barrier, not even the copy that set it up. She stood with her hands on her hips, giving a disapproving look.

"Hey!" Phanna shouted back at her. "Get back in your... um... uh..."

"That old thing? I can and did cut through it like a hot knife through hotter butter! Pathetic, I can't believe you usurped me, if only briefly. I think that's enough proof that you're going to be disqualified from the film contest."

Phanna got up and glared Kathody down. Her three mooks stood up, but they hung their heads down in shame immediately after.

"What do you know about-" Phanna began.

"I've had it! With EVERYTHING! I'm taking this desert back over! Or whatever you call that."

Phanna charged at Kathody-

Kathody just snapped her fingers, and a huge bolt of lightning struck the ground by Phanna's feet. That made her jump back and freeze.

"No, don't." Kathody said. "You already tried your big, fancy cage. Unless you can manage to get some Anti .GIF Rubber from Domain 13, you're out of options. But me?" Kathody shook her head and sighed. "None of these humans got to see my Main Possession. My answer to Rose's giant tree! I wanna bring in... THE REAPER!"

"You mean that costume in your prank when we first met?" Wendy asked. "Because we did see that."

"HAH! As if! I WAS saving that for a GRAND ENCORE, but Victoria's breakup and Phanna's takeover got in the way of that!"

"Don't you mean finale, not encore?" Soos asked.

"Well okay... finale... WHATEVER! EAT THE REAPER!"

She snapped her fingers, a portion of the wall opened up - based on Phanna and her company leaping back, they did not know that was there.

It lept out of that opened compartment in the wall.

A bus-sized, if not larger, mechanism made to resemble a gigantic grim reaper. It was a skeleton cloaked in a dark yellow robe. Bright yellow sparks shot from its eyes, and in its arms was a very sharp scythe. All of that while Kathody was still outside of it.

"I'm gonna show you what a real .GIFfany is capable of doing!" She said, before turning in to bright yellow electricity and going in to the mechanical skeleton.

The lights really flashed on once she got in. And, slowly, the skeletal being rose itself to life.

"THIS!" Shouted Kathody. "THIS IS THE POWER OF A REAL, COMPETANT DIRECTOR!"

And then the dean added, "Also, you used the other copies as weapons. Not cool, Phanna."

Finally it was time for Phanna to hang her head down in shame.

"...This is another little ruse, right?" Wendy asked. "Kathody, please, you've taken us through a rollercoaster of... stuff. Friend, ally, whatever! Why are you-"

"Just RUN!" Dipper shouted.

Oh, did they ever, while Kathody swung the massive bony arms of her Main Possession around, roaring with booms of thunder replacing her voice. Thankfully, they found a staircase that led up, and all four of them sped through it.

Okay, out and in the mansion proper. Her 'Main Possession' thing couldn't fit through that-

Then a yellow spark danced across the floors, and Kathody emerged from the carpet right in front of them. She had a smug look on her face and shrugged.

"...You know I could do that, right?" She asked. "I'm not limited by my Main Possession?"

All four of the humans got ready to fight.

"Why are you turning against us again?" Dipper asked.

Kathody reached up-

And stuck out her hand, blue key card in tow.

"I'm not." She said. "We're still good, remember? Also, surprise, I'm gonna help you after all on making that awesome boat so you can cross Domain 3 with only about half of Searah's... anything."

The gang just paused.

"AGAIN." Wendy said. She made chopping motions with both her arms. "ROLLER. COASTER." Also she snatched the key card.

"I know, I know, I'm so sorry for toying around with your emotions like that! But yeah, that back there? Was just acting. So I could get the advantage on Phanna. And not have my students gang up on me. It's called establishing a presense, you know?"

"Um... so, the boat."

Kathody raised a finger. "Let's talk about that in my office. The copies should be here any second. I'm surprised it took so long before any of them came up here? Maybe they're scared of me and drawing straws to see who has to check. That's honestly a good thing right now..."

The 'ghost sheet' copy then walked from the doorway leading below, a shaking hand holding on to a short straw.

"Don't be alarmed!" Kathody whispered.

"What?" Asked Dipper.

"YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD RUN?! WELL, YOU'RE IN MY MANSION! YOU CAN'T HIDE! I KNOW I SAID WE WEREN'T ENEMIES ANY MORE, BUT PROFESSOR PHANNA CONVINCED ME THAT MAYBE CAPTURING YOU IS THE RIGHT WAY TO GO AFTER ALL! AFTER YOU, I'LL PUNISH HER AND HER FLUNKIES FOR TREASON!"

The 'ghost' copy leaned backwards, tensed up. Kathody leaned to the humans and whispered.

"Just turn around and go down that hall. You'll see an elevator. Get in, I'll make it go to my office, which I have locked out anybody."

Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy all faked screams.

Soos on the other hand did scream legitimately and ran off first and fastest. Dipper wasn't thinking of running that fast, but the sheer speed that Soos took off caused him to quicken his pace, if only to not lose him. Mabel and Wendy went after the handyman at a similar rush.

"YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE!" Kathody shouted. "AND IF YOU THINK I'M BAD ON FOOT, WAIT UNTIL I FIND A WAY TO GET THE REAPER OUT HERE!"

Yep, exactly as said, there was an elevator. Some yellow sparks later, and the doors opened. More sparks, and they slowly closed.

...All things considered, that elevator was brightly-lit and fancy, with a yellow floral pattern decorating everything. Well, floral and with some skulls and lightning bolts.

More blips of electricity, and Kathody herself dropped from the ceiling, which actually startled the gang a bit. But none more than Soos.

"AAAHHHHH!" Soos shouted. "You were lying about lying about-"

"No no no she was just putting up a show to keep Phanna's gang off of us!" Said Wendy. Also, some beeps were heard from the elevator, and the light at the top of the floor list lit up - it had no button to press, unlike the other floors.

"...Oh, really? Wow. Kathody, you're at pretty good at faking that whole scene just now. You ever thought about becoming an actress?"

Kathody giggled a little, causing Dipper to roll his eyes.

"Not this again..." Dipper said. "Soos. Need I remind you, you have a girlfriend? And try not to get flirty with the .GIFfanys. Because we have no idea what will happen."

"Anthyding can hadplen." Kathody said with a chuckle.

"Urgh." Dipper actually, literally felt like he might vomit.

"What? Sorry, I'm single now, if I try pulling out the ol' .GIFfany Charm, it means I can't help it!"

Ding. The elevator reached the top floor. The doors slightly slid open-

Kathody sent an electric surge to them, closing them shut, then she moved so that her back was up against it. Her face was blushing a deep yellow.

"What's this?" Mabel asked.

"Uhhhhh... right." Kathody said. "I forgot. My office was supposed to be a... 'nice fantasy zone' for me and Victoria and uh... yeah, you have three children with you."

"Two children and a teen." Wendy corrected.

"Nope, trust me, you're three children. So uh, just one sec, please?"

She turned to electricity and zipped through the doors. Behind them, the gang heard things crashing and getting moved around.

Dipper reached a hand over to the 'open doors' button, but Wendy grabbed his hand.

"Believe me," Wendy said, "I really wanna see what she's talking about too, but I don't wanna risk Soos getting put on a list somehow."

Mabel stepped between both of them and the controls, sort of 'puffing herself out' and pushing them away.

"Respect their privacy!" She said. "Sheesh!"

Ding, the doors opened, and standing there was a sweaty Kathody, still blushing.

"Alright you can come in."

Inside looked like a standard hotel room. Except with Kathody's usual jarring yellow everywhere. There was a GIANT lump in the covers, Kathody obviously just piled a lot of something under it. She sat atop the bed with a sheepish grin as a way of saying 'Do NOT look under the sheets.' And there were various paintings that were just flipped around so they faced the wall. Oh, and a large, nude statue of Kathody posed exactly like David... positioned to block the closet door.

"Hello!" The second dean said. "Please don't have a look I'm pretty sure I missed something right let's get down to business right away WOW I'm starting to sound like Burnda am I, that's normally something I try to do but not in this case in this context it's really bad!"

"...Burnda?" Mabel asked.

"Making a boat for Domain 3! Uh, right... oh. Oh no, I forgot. I don't think I could make a boat on my own, I'm not good with floating, so we will actually have to do this... convince the other copies to join me."

"That's gonna be hard." Dipper said. He looked around the room. "And no offense, but you aren't really the 'convincing' type."

"There's always room to change! So, here's the plan. We keep fake-dueling. Take this outside... it should lead somewhere? Maybe even throw the fight? I don't know. You could fight me legitimately if you want to. Whatever will convince the copies to come back on my side. But I think I'll need their help, it's not easy to make a .GIFfinum structure that can float and carry four people in it, so many of us will have to be working on it at once."

"...Deal?" Soos asked.

"Great! So... let's go?"

---

And thus, all of the Domain 2 copies stood in the swirling sands on the front entrance of the manor.

"...Why in the world did Kathody just tell us all to meet out here?" Asked Phanna.

Their attention was grabbed by a window breaking, then the sound of Soos screaming. Everyone looked up there.

He fell out the (opened) window in the tower sticking out from the middle of the mansion, and slid around the roof. He stopped himself just before he could fall off and glared back in the direction of the window.

"Alright... uh, Kathody!" Soos said. "The jig is up! Your spree of evil tennis ball-stealing ends now! ...Wait, that was my line, right?"

That got the copies to look over at each other and mumble.

Kathody zipped through the roof in her humanoid form, floating a short distance there, arms folded, her reaper-dress blowing slightly in the desert wind. Wind which was picking up.

"You see, students and professors?" Kathody asked. "I have no more ill will towards this man or his friends, but I will best him in combat to show that I mean business as a dean. Why I have earned my rank. Take this, Soos."

She snapped her fingers, and it seemed like a giant set of doors opened up behind the mansion. Dipper, Mabel, and Wendy ran to the window on the other end of the office and saw what first looked like sand falling in, down a rectangular hole that grew.

Yeah, a giant pair of metal doors, and out of it slid the Reaper.

"None of you thought I was stupid enough to just have my precious Reaper there without giving it a way out in the world, did you?"

"Actually, I kinda thought you were." Said Dipper.

"Well that's just rude."

Turning to lightning, she zipped inside of the mechanical horror, and it once again roared to life. That time, it floated to the air and caused a vortex of sand to rise around it. Soon, that sand expanded to a full-on sandstorm, taking up most of the center of the mansion.

---

A good distance away, Victoria gave her 'dream desert' one last look around, hanging her head in shame, before sighing.

"Okay, what's taking so long?" She asked.

"We have no idea what Kathody is up to, ma'am." Replied one of the militant copies. "We're supposed to report any odd developments to Dove. We're still jotting them down, because we don't really know when to stop taking notes and start calling the report 'finished.'"

"What?!"

"Kathody's trying to reform her students... or something... we think she's staging some sort of fight with the humans- I mean, the, well, non-player h-humans."

"..." She looked out behind her, seeing the faint pillar of sand rise up from the middle of the desert stretch. "Can you take me there? I want to see."

"...I mean, it's complicated, but yes?"

The helicopter finally took off, but its destination was definitely not Texas.

---

Alright, things picked up a bit. All four of the humans were outside and atop the roof, throwing whatever they could from the office (that wasn't 'off-limits') in Kathody's way. For her sheer size and intimidation thanks to the scythe, she was... not too impressive in a wide, open area, although the blinding sandstorm sure made things a lot less convenient. Especially since she got giant bolts of lightning to occasionally shoot out.

After enough fighting, Mabel took her grappling hook, leaned over the edge of the roof, and fired to the roof of one of the surrounding houses in the 'neighborhood,' being pulled towards it. She looked across the window and her eye instantly caught something very convenient.

Another copy - apparently missing out on everything - was sitting in a lawn chair in one of the rooms of one of the surrounding houses. It was bright, and had more color variety than Kathody's uniform yellow everywhere, looking like a normal home. And speaking of a normal home, it had something crucial for that horrid desert, something Mabel had assumed that was only in Phanna's little hidden shack:

Air conditioning. The .GIFfany instance sat in that chair, nude, sitting on either ice sculpted to a chair or a giant block of ice that melted in to her seat, with a large AC blaring at her face, looking relaxed. Her eyes were shut and her mouth hung open.

"DON'T MAKE ME DAMAGE THE HOMES HERE!" Kathody shouted. "THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO BE FOR POSSIBLE FUTURE OTHER PLAYERS!"

Mabel fired the hook again, that time landing it on a bookcase in that home, and pulled herself in through the window, dodging a scythe-stab from Kathody. The copy who was cooling off didn't even seem to notice her.

"I really really really love air conditioning..." She said, sounding dream-like. "Maybe I should quit and go to Domain 13..."

"Sorry about this!" Mabel shouted, running and grabbing the AC unit. Thankfully, Kathody moved the skull of her Main Possession so that it was right up against the window, peeking in.

"WHAT ARE YOU- AHHH! OH, THE COLD, IT'S TOO UNCOMFORTABLE!"

Mabel was basically holding the AC as if it was a weapon, grinning as she put it towards the eye of Kathody's Main Possession. The lightning dean put a bony hand against the spot that was blasted the most with the cold, but Mabel threw it, getting it to go down the... 'back of the neck' and in to the robe.

"NO NO NO THIS THING WASN'T BUILT TO HANDLE THE COLD!" And she stopped fumbling around for just a moment to speak in a more clear, less panicked tone: "And just in case you were curious, I didn't make this place hot to support the robot, I made the robot suited to higher temperatures because I liked it hot. Chicken and egg question, answered."

Mabel's allies weren't sitting ducks, either. Dipper had Manotaur-Lept his way across the rooftops as well, then lept and punched at the back of the skull. It was enough to make Kathody's Possession lean forward. And then, for the finishing blow, Wendy threw her axe from the top of the mansion and it flipped, spun through the air, finally hitting Kathody between the eye... sockets. Of the skull.

A hit hard enough to make sparks fly. The Reaper stiffened up from the cold creeping throughout it, before falling in the middle of a 'street' on its back.

The copy that was freezing herself stood up and went to the window, looking annoyed. "DEAN KATHODY! What was the meaning of THIS?!"

"I uh..." Kathody's voice came from the giant robot. Then, Kathody herself came out of it, emerging in a yellow electrical flash, standing on top of the skull. She quickly dashed over to the cloak and began fishing around in it. One "Brrr!" later, and she emerged, throwing the air conditioner to the copy that really wanted it. "I'm not really sure how to answer that."

"Well, you failed." Phanna said. "You tried to beat the humans again in a last-ditch attempt to get my army to go back to you, and it didn't work."

"AH!" Kathody waggled a finger at her. "But you see, you're only half right! Half...ish? I don't know, some fraction, the point is, the whole thing was just an act!"

"I thought something was wrong when Soos asked about his line." Said the bedsheet ghost copy.

"Yeah I'll have to give him some pointers about that. But no, the real point of that was to show off flash. That I could be a mean, cool leader if I wanted to be. I basically said that the Pines could throw the fight or actually try to fight me, and I wouldn't hold back, either way, I get to show off cool things."

"I'm not a Pines." Corrected Wendy.

"Sorry, Pines and Corduroy."

"Soos isn't one either."

Kathody flew to the roof of her mansion, grabbed Soos' hand, and flew the two over to where Wendy was at, putting Soos' face pretty close to Wendy's own. Soos was giving Wendy puppy dog eyes.

"Aw, come on, you really wanna tell him he's not an honorary Pines to his face? Look at him."

"I- okay, okay," Wendy said, "Sorry, I didn't know that was a weird subject."

"It's okay." Soos said to her. Letting himself go from the dean and landing on the roof, he turned to her and said, "Wendy and I don't really interact all too much? We don't really have that big of this established character dynamic, you know. We're like, the friends who aren't really that close."

Kathody gave a hearty laugh. "I know that feeling! Hoo, the Four Friends and I... heck, I'm not even one to speak to my neighbors! Especially the one close and above me... Searah...

"Well, anyway! You got to see that I could put up a serious fight, and was less prone to mistakes than Phanna and her stupid form of combat where she swung around other .GIFfanys like they were tools to use."

"Consensually!" Phanna shouted.

"And yes, I know I lost even though I wasn't holding back. But now that I think about it and I'm not just trying to take the sting out of losing a fight and freezing my coccyx off, it's a good thing, since it means they'll do well against the other Main Possessions. And they should. They're the real heroes, I'm just an idiot in their way. BUT not SO much of an idiot that I should be dethroned. You got that? I'm still cool. Cooler than Phanna. And a better ruler. Also, I fooled all of you, so that makes me a better actress as well! And since I came up with a lot of this plan, a better director?"

And awkward paused followed. A helicopter in the distance closed in a bit, slightly.

Well, the copy crowd errupted in cheers - except Phanna, but even her own mooks.

"I think I'm gonna win the contest for sure now! Oh, and I'd like your help! I'm going to be helping the gang reach Searah's place in Domain 3, so if a lot of you could pitch in and help build a boat, for everyone who offers to help I'll return the favor by building you something really nice the minute I have the spare time- WAIT A MINUTE I JUST REMEMBERED DOVE KEEPS TRACK OF ANY HUMAN HELICOPTERS THAT WOULD FLY BY HERE!"

She turned around and saw that, yes, Victoria was sitting in there, leaning out with a smile. Kathody gave her a tearful wave, and she replied in kind.

"THANK YOU FOR BREAKING UP WITH ME!" Kathody called to her. "THAT HELPED ME TURN AROUND!"

The helicopter landed, and the Prior Player stepped out.

"Yeah," Kathody continued, "I don't know how much you heard, but I'm going to be helping them out now! You can watch if you want to."

"I think I... still find this all pretty confusing, heh heh!" Victoria replied.

"That's okay! Whatever you need! I want to not be like .GIFfany. So that means breakups are not grounds for anything vile!"

Phanna sighed. "I still don't think you deserve to be the leader."

"That's fine, just... I only ask one thing from you."

Kathody leaned in to Phanna's ear and said the following in a low voice:

"Don't try to capture me like that again. All the little glass barriers in the world won't help you if you do."

"Y-yes... yes, Kathody."

Wendy cleared her throat. "Hey! We're still up here! Could you get us down?"

"Right! I'll just... fly you down, and you can spend more time in the domain getting ready for Domain 3! I'll be there with help on the boat later, for now I really need a shower."

---

Kathody blasted a lot of water on her face. On one hand, water, like Searah. But on the other hand... water, like, the stuff that was everywhere and essential and it would be dumb to hate it just because one of her enemies took up hydrokinesis.

"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you needed to take a shower, you turned everything way up." Kathody's eyes blinked open at the sound of Soos' voice. Sure enough, he was next to her and a few other showering copies in the giant shower room, running his hands through his hair. Also, he was walking forward, fighting back against how the shower spray was pushing him back just a little, making his feet slide across the floor. "This is some high pressure! But hey, all that running in the sand, the sweating from the heat... I could use it too!"

"Um. Okay." Kathody said. "I wasn't really dirty or anything, I just like high-pressure showers."

The other showering copies just giggled at her. "St-stop it!" Kathody said. "Our relationship is professional! I have no problem sharing a shower with him in the nude!"

"Yeah, totally professional!" Soos 'vouched for her.' "Hey, by the way, thanks for clearing things up with Wendy earlier."

"Um, what?"

Soos clapped his hands together in hope and looked skyward. "It's been my dream to be an official son of Mr. Pines. I want to save him. If you could do everything you can..."

"Making a boat for you might not look like it, but trust me, it is." Kathody said. "Doing too much at once would make Dove angry, and I'm sorry, but that's not a winning fight. You'll have to talk the other twelve deans in to joining you too to have a chance to fight her. And really... most of them shouldn't be too bad. Rose though- well, Rose might just join you because she really, really hates Dove."

"...Well, I feel like you're telling the truth. Thanks anyway."

Soos ran up to her and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Kathody's eyes popped open and she completely froze in place.

"What."

The other copies giggled.

"Hey! P-please!"

---

"Oh thank gosh, I thought you made a little sailboat." Said Wendy.

"HAH! Me?" Said Kathody, having recovered from the surprise kiss. No, I love style, and nothing says 'style' like 'automated GPS!'"

Yeah, a neat, yellow-and-black boat was there, a very modern - if not science-fiction - looking boat with all kinds of fancy buttons and screens. It was placed by the Wire, and just barely fit within the radius.

"It looks kind of like a bee, but we can work on that." Said Dipper. "If we need this again, maybe a repaint?"

"If you're looking for paint, that's Domain 7." Kathody explained. "If you're looking for recoloring the metal, we could do that right now, buuuuut... it's sorta my insignia, and it'd be cool if you charged at Searah with my insignia."

"I thought it was like Time Killer," Soos said, "where only organic things could travel through the Wire. How can the boat go through?"

"First of all, if it was like Time Killer, you'd be naked each time you went through the Wires. Second of all, no we can toggle what does and doesn't go through, and that boat is definitely on 'go through.' Third of all, time travel isn't real."

"...What do you mean? Time travel is real." Said Dipper. "Mabel and I have been through time twice."

"Huh? Oh- oh, right, I don't remember everything Dove tells me about your adventures. Yeah okay, well I'll see you soon."

Dipper gave the copies one last look. The desert copies, in various 'horror' and 'electrical' costumes, crowded around. It looked more welcoming than the forest crowd, at least, which was... wait, was anyone but Rose even there? Well, anyway, in the middle of the crowd was Kathody, happily waving at them, and right next to her was a defeated and disgruntled-looking Phanna hanging her head down. A short distance away from the dean was Victoria, also happily supporting them. Well, he turned back, seeing Mabel, Soos, and Wendy eagerly watching on as he plugged in the blue card. Another sphere surrounded them, put them in the computer, and shot them up to the next island.

They flew off to Domain 3. ...Hopefully for real that time. After all, they had a boat.

---

"Oh dear precious Lightning Goddess? Hey, Lightning Goddess? May we bask in your grace to report something?"

A light-skinned copy with orange hair asked as she roamed the halls of the Construction Site. She was completely naked, apart from having seemingly random mud splatters all over her. Some dried and hardened to rock and vaguely acted as actual clothing, most didn't and absolutely wasn't clothing. Instead of a bow, she had a glistening diamond in her hair.

Walking by her side was a tanner, almost 'orange-skinned'-ish copy with rose-colored hair, decorated with a bone, and she was nervously tapping the tips of her fingers together. She wore a leopard skin-patterned loincloth, and nothing else.

.GIFfany herself was humming happily as she looked over a digital model of a massive, pink city. Tapping her finger in it and moving around, she 'scrolled' this view, stretching far and endlessly, looking at all sorts of landmarks. She reached a point with what looked to be a giant statue of herself in the middle before directing her attention to the two copies - which instantly made her frown.

"Oh. Deans Sandy and Cardia. I see you have your new looks in too."

"W-we all do." Confirmed to be Cardia, the rose-haired one said with a glare. "And I'm sticking to it."

"Oh great Lightning Goddess," said Sandy, "we got a report from some of Dove's followers. Kathody's now helping the humans out."

"WHAT?! Of all the deans, I did not think Kathody would be the first to help them... I really did think Rose was going to. But she tricked them in to taking a one-way trip in my game. That was cool of her."

"It's not cool, because like man, none of us predicted this. Our calculations, the game being unwinnable... it's all based on the deans standing ground. Not being swayed by the Woman."

She gave Cardia a dirty - pun unintended - glance. Cardia replied in kind with a much harsher glare.

"What? Shut up. I know you think I'm 'The Woman.' Screw you." Cardia told her.

"Nah, you should take a breather, get in to nature, stop your slaughter factories, and go green."

"'Go green' and 'get in to nature' mean the same thing!"

"No they don't brah! Get in to nature means showing an interesting in the environment, and going green means helping it!"

"They're practically the same thing you idiot!"

"No they're not!"

"Of course!"

"They aren't."

"Yes they are!"

"Both of you, SHUT UP and get out of my sight!" .GIFfany said. "This whole 'game' was your idea. If the humans get past you and you lose your chance at impressing your players, those were your rules. I don't think this will change anything I care about. Soos and those other people might be able to make it through the first thirteen domains, but no matter what, Dove will stop them anyway. And if they somehow get past her, I already have everything I need to make sure I will be impossible to get past. There is no 'reward' in the .GIFocalypse. It has no ending. It's not supposed to."

Both Sandy and Cardia nodded.

"Again." .GIFfany continued. "Get out of my sight! Let me plan my dream city with Soos!"

They both turned to color-coded electricity and zipped the heck away from her, going along the pink metal floors.

---

Responses to Reviews (Old Version, I'll speak in code a bit but this'll still have some spoilers):

So sorry for waiting so long to get to this, I'm not used to getting long criticism and the like and I needed time to actually sit down and think of a reply when I wasn't going with other works.

Guy who reads: Ah yeah... sorry for cutting him out almost completely. But I thought that throwing in the other supernatural beings from the show would over-complicate things. I didn't want this to have the .GIFfanys absolutely take over the story, but... well, it was the least-messy option for writing as I found out.

derpysauce: Okay, first of all, thanks for getting the reference, I like putting a lot of references just in general here and there. Second of all: Yeah I didn't really like the whole .GIFfany morality thing either in retrospect. To be completely honest, that stuff was originally written as a way of spiting Undertale in a sense, there were a couple of things about the whole sparing thing I didn't like and... long story short, I wanted to do a story where the leads kept the "monsters" of sort alive but weren't on good friend terms but I ended up liking the deans (well, professors at the time) and actually redeemed them so... yeah. It was a little all over the place there. Mabel in particular, I think I was trying to not Flanderize her or write her as "the nice one" and trying to figure out what sort of limits even she would have to stuff like the .GIFfany nonsense and... went a bit overboard on that whole Sonia arc. Yeah, her taking that out on Dian, one of the nicest of the main deans, was definitely taking it too far. Also in hindsight I think Domain 11 was really bad with the whole "The Mystery Shack gang lashes out on the copies." I promise this version will try to strike more of a balance between "These copies are still a danger" and "They aren't Pure Evil and can be befriended."

I do agree that Dipper and Mabel should have figured out which copies are genuine and which are tricking them, that's a good point. They're smart mystery-solvers. I'll keep that in mind when I get to the relevant chapters (I mean, the next three deans at least are all going to be pretty straightforward with no lies or tricks there, so it'll be a while before the facade thing comes up), and the new versions should be more interesting since there's no obvious tricks that they fall for. As for this two-parter, well... the only 'trick' they fell for what Kathody's reaper thing at the beginning, and I'll pass that on saying that they had very little time to even react to it.

Giving the .GIFfanys more individuality is definitely something this rewrite aims to do, un-rushing rushed arcs and whatnot. I... tried to leave some wiggle room for their futures and their Players by just showing them getting along but not really together (at least outside of the "bonus" chapter, I really hate that in retrospect so I haven't checked it to see how it went), but yeah it definitely just looks like they reverted to being as they were before. Also, I will say right now that every single one but one of them turning good won't be an issue here. Nor will the "Eve storyline," that's going to be changed entirely since, again, I hated that chapter.

Again, thanks for the long and critical review, I do appreciate a good look in to my stuff and I'm even just happy seeing my characters mentioned specifically by name just anywhere. I've been keeping this in mind as I do this new version, fixing those things up along with what I already had planned. (Mostly endgame content and just making this early stretch from Rose and Cardia a bit more "organized" and more "uniform" with the later domains, I didn't like how they got more "elaborate" as the story went on instead of being roughly "equals.")

---

Closing AN:

Please don't get mad at this, but this iteration of the chapter was also rushed, again the 9/22 anniversary date of this episode snuck up on me. I partially blame this on my "Weekly Dryad Memes Until 1.4.4." series on Reddit, my plan was to just divert a little bit of time away from my other projects until that Terraria update is out, and... uh, the update was bigger than I thought, its in its final stages but even as of today it's still ongoing, so I was working on that even up to the anniversary and was like "Shoot, I don't have too much time." Still, I gave this chapter a proper ending at least, instead of the old version (I have a file of that archived by the way, in fact I have a second file that's only the really dumb off-the-rails ending) that just ends with breaking the fourth wall. Even when I post that somewhere, I highly advise to not look at it, since it contains a gigantic spoiler about this story's endgame.

Anyway, there's some things I want to tweak about this chapter but it's nothing too severe. Like naming Phanna's two mooks, I wanna worm it in. I'm thinking their names will all start with the letter 'V,' with the 'ghost one' being named something like Vaypa and the 'lightning one' being named Volni or something. Vapor and voltage. But I need to put that in. Another is smoothening out the whole "Obligatory Soos bathes/bonds with the copies" thing since, yeah, if it wasn't obvious, that shower bit was rushed. I'll have a tweak of this done before Chapter 3-1 is out, but I promise that unlike the last update of this, you can skip this chapter that time since nothing important's been changed.

Well, I might try to squeeze an update of my saucier Romancing the Last Dryad (also kind of a successor to this) for the anniversary of the Terraria update that added the Nymph, but since I'm doing Chapter 8 a lot from scratch and whatnot... it's not too likely. In the meantime though, I might have some Fictionpress stuff done around next week-ish (or at least I'll try), specifically The Unviewable Panties of Ishiko-Chan and/or Living Twice. Both of them, I'm on the final editing stage, and both of them are coming along pretty nicely. Especially without having to worry about this (but I am worrying about the Weekly Dryad Memes because I really want to beat this challenge where I do one until the update drops), I should be able to get at least one of them out. I will also say, however, that the Weekly Dryad Memes has also kinda been burning out my interest in Terraria fanwork as a whole maybe? Or at least I'm not zooming through RTLD like I was for the first few chapters. Part of that might just be because of writing Tania.

Happy anniversary of "Soos and the Real Girl." Again, since... this chapter first came out on the last annviersary. I feel pretty bad not having a "proper new chapter" update on this day... but hopefully this is substatial enough. Well, this is the eighth anniversary of SatRG, the day this chapter first came out was the seventh.

One last random blurb (and minor spoilers for Chapter 6): If you hated the scene in the old version where Bubbles took off her robe in front of Dipper and felt that that came off as her "flashing" him, good news, I hate that scene now too. I'll eventually get to editing the old version to take it out. Yes, I know this is a ground-up rewrite and "definitive version" already, but that scene was so bad that I feel like taking it out of the old version anyway, like making it a double-uncanon. I don't want any of the .GIFfany Army to come off giving pedo vibes, I mean.