a man of action

i-want-candy​:

Candace blinked, feeling like Ferb kept violently beating her over the head.

That wasn’t at all what was happening. In fact he was just communicating. Being honest. Being frank and straightforward. It was a surprisingly rare trait in someone and, of course, Candace had defaulted to thinking that there was something she needed to help with. That he was asking her advice because why else would he come to her?

But now she saw that she had fucked up and she wasn’t exactly sure what to do with that information. It was just…kind of a bizarre concept. For Ferb to tell her things. Maybe even things he wasn’t telling Phineas. The two of them were always head-bent, coming up with their next scheme. And it always made Candace feel like she was on the outside. The odd one out. The person that didn’t belong.

Ferb had invited her in and she’d more or less slammed the door in his face.

Red was starting to creep up her chest as she felt herself starting to blush. Her mouth opened to say something on instinct, but even if Ferb could hear it–it wouldn’t matter because she didn’t say anything for a second more.

“No, I mean–” Candace’s fingers tripped over themselves, “–no you weren’t wrong. I just…I guess I thought you were asking for…help. With what to do, because you were talking about all these numbers and statistics and…I dunno. I guess I got mad. I just don’t like you talking about yourself like that. Anyone would be lucky to date you…”

No, he wasn’t wrong and yet he had made her angry when he had talked about himself. Ferb didn’t know that he quite understood what she meant. How could he have been right but still have upset her?

Anyone else and Ferb would have waited for the timing to allow him to politely leave, never to be seen or heard from again by the person he was attempting to make conversation with. This method was very easy, it had worked for him for years now. He supposed he could have modified it for Candace— she was going to be graduating soon and no doubt off to bigger and better things. He could possibly avoid her at family gathers, default back to how they had been when Linda and his father had first met. Strangers who happened to share family.

Except he did not want to revert back to that. He had liked being friends with Candace— or at least the concept of it, he didn’t know if she thought of him that way. There had been brief glimpses here and there.

So he would just have to go back to the drawing board. (Starting with crossing out talking about his relationship from it. Or possibly insecurities?) He had been clumsy with it, it seemed. Pushed too hard, too fast, instead of keeping that steady pace of progression, and driven them right off the track. For any following interactions, he’d modify.

oh-phineas​:

Phineas… mostly understood what those words meant. He could piece it together, anyway. He glanced at the blueprint and then got to work on his section, occasionally looking at what Ferb was doing so that he could make sure he was staying on track.

It took him a little longer than Ferb, but eventually, he was at thumbs-up point, too. “Alright… moment of truth…” he signed, and then picked up the chamber to hand to Ferb so that he could attach the two pieces. At this point, Phineas trusted Ferb more than himself, which was rare for Phineas, to trust someone else with this kind of thing. “How are we looking?”

Ferb took the piece from Phineas, giving it a once over— when everything seemed to be in place, put glue and accelerant on the connecting joints and slotted the two parts together to create the whole make up. It took some finagling to get the PVC pipe to get into place, even going so far as to put it on the floor (barrel end on the ground) and use his body weight to press down until it felt snug.

After a minute of jiggling things to see if anything would fall off and that the button worked without sticking, all seemed well.

He looked up and gave Phineas a thumbs up. Ferb set the thing back down on the work table, regarding their work for a moment. Then—

madmagicmim​:

This time as they walked, Mim kept her eyes trained on their surroundings, trying to get a sense of what was going on. She sniffed, but all she could smell was old dust and even older stone, and there was nothing she could see that marked the difference between these walls and any others.

She wished she had her tools. She had her markers, of course, as she always carried at least one in her pocket out of habit. It had felt too strange for the wand pocket sewn into her clothes to be empty, so the markers had been the obvious replacement to give it weight and still give it some feeling of usefulness. It meant she could draw runes if necessary, but it wasn’t like she had anything else to help her diagnose what was going on. 

As Ferb found the spot, Mim stopped, running her finger along one seam along the wall, and then the other. As she did, she found an identical tiny nick in each at the same point. 

“I think you’re right, this seems like it.”

But how? This loop couldn’t be in place all the time. She would have heard if students regularly went missing in the bowels of the castle, and there was no one else stuck in this loop with them. But the magic involved wasn’t obvious either. Was it a new spell? Or was it something designed to keep people trapped in it for a short amount of time before letting them go again? But how long was that going to be?

Now that they were starting to get answers to some questions, it brought one of the other main ones to the surface. Turning back towards Ferb, she asked, “The person who sent you down here, who was it again? A friend of yours?”

That was— not good per se, but it was something. A sign that they were right and that this was happening physically rather than psychologically. Hopefully it meant there was a physical way to stop it, too.

It was also a shame to admit that it was also pretty interesting! Had he not forced Mim to be here, making her get stuck, too, he most likely would have spent a while just going through the loop, observing. Then a few more times to take notes and a few more times to test his limits within it, the limits of the loop itself, and so one and so forth. But seeing as there was someone else in there with him, a very special someone who he didn’t want stuck in there for longer than absolutely necessary, the only goal on his mind was how to get out of it.

He watched Mim ask her questions.

Ferb shook his head. No, it hadn’t been a friend of his. Ferb didn’t really have that many people he considered friends and he very much doubted any of them would have asked him for such a favor. Not because they couldn’t but because he didn’t think they would have needed anything from the basement of PrideU’s main building.

princess-su​:

Su hesitated as the desk moved, hands hovering over Ferb’s until it stopped moving. After a few more seconds to show that it was going to hold she knew she couldn’t waste anymore of that time and hurried around the length of him until she was at his shoe where the wire…or, no, wait, was it a branch? No, definitely a wire! Three all braided together into one, to be exact! It just seemed like a branch to Su. She was certainly out of practice when it came to Wood Magic, but after all the time she’d spent around plants and studying them with the guiding hand of her grandmother, she still knew the basics.

And it was showing her that this appendage was very much alive when technology was usually anything but.

She shook herself out of it as she watched it continue to tug on Ferb and went to her knees beside his leg and did the simplest of fixes that she could think of, she reached forward and started to unlace Ferb’s shoe. Once the knot was undone she tugged it off.

The wires went flying back with it, the force it had been pulling with now had nothing to counteract against it. She heard the sound of it, and the shoe, knocking against something but wasn’t about to wait around in there to see what it would do next.

She pushed herself to her feet and grabbed Ferb by the back of his shirt, pulling until he was up, too, and kept pulling until they were on the other side of the lab door, it shut firmly behind her, back against it just in case. Su looked up at Ferb, eyes wide, but trying to make sure that he was okay.

Ferb remained where Su had left him, hanging on to the desk that he could feel moving ever so slightly the longer he clung and the thing clinging to him pulled tighter. It was worrisome, yes, but he did trust Su. He just hoped that whatever she had planned was enough to keep him from getting dragged off.

As soon as she got his shoe off, the counter force gone, Ferb flopped to the floor, allowing his grip on the desk to loosen completely. He probably would have laid there for another minute (to process, to let his muscles rest) but then Su had him by the collar— a nice reminder that he shouldn’t lay anywhere in that room and needed to go. He let her pull him along, across the room, out the door, and into the corridor.

He was panting, bent over a little, but head lifted to keep his eyes on Su as she gave him that look. Ferb nodded in reply. Yes, he was fine. Only a little bit shaken, but physically fine. (Down a shoe, too, but surprisingly this wasn’t the first time he’d lost a shoe to an adventure in Swynlake— though the last time he’d voluntarily given both of them up.)

After catching his breath, letting out a final long sigh, he stood back up to his full height. They needed to figure out what that had just been and put a lid on it. He pulled out his phone, hastily typing out something for Su.

lucathedreamer​:

The stranger turned away from Luca’s question, and he felt his heart sink. Had that been the wrong question to ask? Was he not supposed to ask questions? Was this another of those rules he was supposed to understand but didn’t because the world here kept working so much more differently than he expected. 

But then the stranger was back again, holding out his phone with a message. As soon as he read it, his eyes lit up with understanding. “Oh! Oh I’m sorry.”

Except of course, the stranger couldn’t hear that either, could he? Luca was still a little awkward in his typing considering how new he was to phones, but he carefully typed out: Hi I’m Luca. Sorry. I was asking how this worked. It’s very cool.

Ferb waited, not reacting when the stranger’s mouth moved again (a lot of people had this same reaction.) When they typed out their reply he leaned forward to read it.

Luca— he glanced up, keeping the record of the name and face together for safe keeping.

They were asking how it worked. This seemed like a very complicated answer to type out. Did they want to wait all that time while he did? Probably not, most people did not seem to have the patience for it, and since Ferb didn’t know Luca, he was just going off the data.

i-want-candy​:

Candace blinked a little, feeling as if she had missed a step on a flight of stairs. The conversation had just taken a turn, veering off in a way that she wasn’t quite sure of.

Hadn’t he asked for advice? Wasn’t that the point of this conversation? How was she supposed to just hear him saying “I’m not good enough” and not say anything about it? She had thought…

“Oh, okay,” she signed, haltingly, the confusion still plain on her face.

She wasn’t sure what to say, but now something had soured and she didn’t want to leave the conversation like this. Clearly, she had fucked something up. Clearly, Ferb needed…something else from her. She had no idea what. Or why even her, but…she didn’t want to just leave it alone. Maybe she should. Maybe the Candace from two years ago would. No, she definitely would’ve. But, Candace had grown since then and she–wanted to be a better sister. To Ferb.

Not that she really knew how to do that. Her and Phineas had an advantage. They’d always been siblings, so however she acted towards him was sisterly by nature. And he’d also had nineteen years experience of ignoring her. Pissing her off.

Ferb didn’t have that. They’d only known each other for a few years. And for most of that time…Candace had been suspicious that they were suddenly going to disappear from her life. She’d kept her distance, except that she physically couldn’t do that. Lawrence and Ferb were always around. They were on all the family trips now. They were at all the holidays and events. They had come to all her showcases. She had gone to their science fairs and whatever. There was no escaping it. And now–

Well, she felt like she had messed up. And she wanted to fix it.

“I’m sorry. I just–I thought you wanted advice?” Candace signed, her fingers fumbling over the words as she tried to get it out before Ferb got up.

The palms of his hands had been placed down on the edge of the table, body preparing to move the chair back so he could stand— then Candace signed something else, pausing him in his actions.

Ferb went over everything he had signed to her, just to be sure, but came away with the conclusion that he hadn’t asked for advice. But it may have looked like that. After all, he had presented her with a problem, most people would see that as a place to give their attempt at solving it, wouldn’t they? He understood his mistake, should have probably led with his intentions in the first place to let her decide whether she wanted to partake in the conversation at all— she had probably just thought he was going to ask her something trivial and he had gone dumped a whole load of weight on her instead.

“Sorry.” He repeated the sign back to her, shaking his head. “That would be a rather difficult ask.”

Then again, it seemed like talking about this at all was a difficult ask of anyone. He had thought that it would interest her to some degree. (Her words from two years ago always replayed as he thought of speaking with her about anything—  People should need a reason to want to communicate with you.) Ferb had thought that maybe this would be enough reason to have more of a conversation that wasn’t the usual small talk.

Again, he shook his head.

“No, I just wanted to tell you.” A repeated line. He didn’t know how else to put it. It was as plain and simple as that.

oh-phineas​:

That… sounded like it just might work. There was only one way to find out, because even though Phineas trusted Ferb’s engineering abilities, the whole thing was also a bit mysterious to him, the physics of it all. But it was worth a shot (pun intended). What was the worst that could happen?

“Alright, I think that sounds like a plan,” Phineas signed, grinning. He picked up the pipes and held them up to the light, examining them. “Whaddya say we put this baby together? I mean— the first prototype. It’ll probably be a bit of trial and error.”

“If you do the combustion chamber I can do the modified distribution.”

Ferb went back to the bucket of leftover PVC to look for something that would fit within the larger tubing— luckily there was still a two cm piece just long enough that it looked like it could be cut into four equal parts. He went to work, measuring it out, marking it off, and cutting them down to size.

eilonwy-notjustgirl​:

She had been able to tell he was tall, but she hadn’t realized exactly how tall he was until he stood up. Her choice was proven right a moment later when even he had to stretch and reach way up to grab hold of the book. it made her feel slightly better for having trouble. 

She was fully ready for that to be the end of it, for him to hand over the book and then go back to his studying so they could continue on their merry way. 

But that was wen she saw the envelope that had landed at their feet. 

It meant she missed when Ferb turned towards her as she ducked down to pick up the envelope. If she was a non-curious person, perhaps she would have carried it to the front for the librarian to see and get it back to whoever had checked it out last. But when she flipped it over, it said ‘To Whom It May Concern’. 

She was concerned wasn’t she?

Breaking the seal, she opened the envelope and slid out the thick piece of paper inside. Immediately, her eyes brightened. “Look! It’s a map!”

Ferb, oblivious to where the paper came from still, tracked her movements as she stood back up, finding it a bit odd that she was just now taking the time to open a letter. (Did people still use wax to seal letters? Respectable.) He didn’t do anything, though. Maybe the letter paired with the book for her assignment or— something. It didn’t matter. He would wait.

A map. 

That was interesting. It certainly looked old enough to belong to someone who might have used this method of sealing documents. 

It still did not explain why she had it or what she was planning on doing with it.

So, Ferb nodded, unsure of what she intended when she had told him. It was probably just because he happened to be standing right there, an easy witness of someone to share this information with. He knew what that was like, prone to doing it when he felt like he had to share something— useless, unwanted information would come out.

i-want-candy​:

Then break up with her.

That was what Candace wanted to say, because she was an impatient kind of person. She was the kind of person that did not know how to explain things kindly to people. It was bad, obviously, she knew that. But it was also…just how she was. Some people put up with her anyway and she appreciated that.

As it stood, she wasn’t sure what she could say to help Ferb. Vanessa was Candace’s second real relationship and the first one had been an utter disaster. It was still to be determined if this one would be. Sometimes, she thought it might be. After all, Vanessa still pissed her off. She still pissed off Vanessa. That was just kind of how it went. Nothing was perfect, but she liked Vanessa because of that. She didn’t…always feel like she was supposed to be perfect.

“Isn’t that for her to decide?” Candace signed, finally. It was still kind of mean, but less aggressive, more…tempered.

“Why are you having this conversation with me, not her? If you have concerns, you should talk to your girlfriend about it.” She knew that was hard. And she wasn’t ever going to take her own advice about it, but that didn’t mean it was incorrect advice to give.

Ferb nodded. Yes, it was, but but that wasn’t what he was asking Candace. He was just trying to confide in her. Tell her the facts of the situation. He didn’t want an answer from her or expect a solution (there really was only one solution and he already knew what that was) he just— wanted to share results with someone who might understand what he meant. Candace was in a relationship and he had thought maybe, given the chance, she might want to share, too. 

Not necessarily about insecurities but something.

He supposed not.

His mistake. She had given him the chance to communicate and he had clearly gone and blown that. He probably should have tried this with something more interesting to her than himself.

Ferb’s eyes slowly fell to the table top, trying to think if there was any way to rectify this— but all of them would have some stage of awkwardness that he didn’t think he could withstand after (what he perceived to be) this rejection from Candace. If he tried to change the subject then it would only cause more of this. 

He looked up again.

oh-phineas​:

Something that automatically detangles… Phineas looked at Ferb pensively. The problem here, of course, was that they needed the webs to be sticky enough to stick to the houses, but slippery enough not to stick to each other. It was a problem that made Phineas wonder if they should go back to the two-chamber idea, but he wanted to see if he could figure something else out first. That design would just be so bulky…

“Maybe it’s something in the way we load up the webs?” Phineas suggested. “Like, if there’s a way to fold ‘em or ball ‘em up so that they don’t get stuck to each other, but once we shoot them out, they expand…” He took another piece of paper and tried to draw out what he meant, sketching first a scribbled ball, then an expanding web. “Man, if only we had Spider-Man’s powers, huh?”

An amused breath left Ferb at that. It would have made this a lot easier— it certainly would have made a lot of things easier, wouldn’t it? Or harder, he supposed, since with great power comes great responsibility etcetera, etcetera.

He studied Phineas’ drawing, eyes moving back and forth between it and placed out PVC piping.

“Maybe we could make the distribution point four instead of one.” Ferb picked up a different pencil to draw what he meant, just below Phineas’— inside larger launcher tubing there would be four smaller tubes, all angled slightly outward from a meeting point in the middle.

madmagicmim​:

Mim raised her eyebrows when Ferb came up with a precise answer for her joke of a question, but she found herself glancing at her phone just to see what the exact time was so she could see how close they got. 

The next few minutes felt like the longest of her life as they walked down the corridor, heading entirely straight for what felt like miles. Until they came to the door with the written message. Sure enough? When she checked her phone, they were only off from Ferb’s guesstimated time by a few seconds (most likely accounted for by the time it took her to get her phone out to check). 

“I love how your mind works, holy shit,” she signed, not even thinking about the potential implications of using ‘love’, so distracted by her admiration that for a moment she forgot the reasons for it. 

Giving herself a small shake, she looked back at the door and put a little notch next to it to say they’d come back again. If they were stuck in a loop, the next thing to do was figure out their way out of it, if only because as much as she liked time with Ferb, time with Ferb that included food and videogames and being comfortable was infinitely superior. 

“Do you have any idea where the loop might be beginning? Where the switch happens? Is there any part of the floor or walls that seems different than any of the other parts?”

His eyebrows raised a tick— not so much at the turn of phrase (it would be filed away for later) but more so at the sincerity behind it. It surprised him. Most people didn’t enjoy his forwardness. Or lack of understanding it what was a rhetorical question. But those sorts of things, tone or pitch, got lost in translation if he was using his phone to communicate with someone, either through text or the talk-to-text. Here, when he had seen her ask it in sign, he should have known, it had just gone over his head like so many other things seemed to do.

Where he would normally shrug off such a compliment, here he indulged in it, letting it fuel an odd sort of embarrassment at the chance of being seen by someone he thought highly of.

Bringing them back on track, Ferb focused on Mim’s hands as she asked her questions.

He thought it over, picturing their last two trips, especially the last one where he had made sure to pay attention rather than just being a passive observant, and—

“Maybe. We should go there in person to be sure.” His brain may have been a good archive but if there was magic involved there was no telling what could happen. Maybe the loop reset at a new point within itself every time. Though, for both their sake’s, he hoped not.

i-want-candy​:

Candace just stared at Ferb.

Several times she opened her mouth on instinct to cut him off, but she was so flabbergasted that it just kind of…hung there, useless, like the hinge had broken.

What the fuck?

“What the fuck?” Candace said, forgetting to sign and then lifting her hands to repeat the refrain:

“What the fuck? Ferb…that’s not–what the fuck are you even reading like…Buzzfeed articles? Relationships can’t be boiled down to–communication and humor and conflict resolution. Also, you’re a fucking teenager, you don’t need to have, like, a 401(k) retirement plan.”

She had started ranting but now that she’d pointed out how stupid that all was, she didn’t know where to go from there. It was just way too much to unpack. Sure, everyone got some sense of relationships from media. That was just how the world worked, but you couldn’t base it all on that! Or reading some…Vogue magazine article. She had no idea if there were scientific studies but, despite wanting to be a scientist, she didn’t think that mattered all that much either. All relationships were different. Yeah. That was right!

“All relationships are different. If Mim hasn’t mentioned any problems–” she better not have “–or you don’t have an issues with her, then it’s fine. Don’t create problems that aren’t there.”

Probably super rich, coming from Candace but–she meant it.

Ferb remained still but attentive in taking in her answer. Even if it was a tad insulting that she would accuse him of reading from Buzzfeed for any sort of advice aside from What Star Trek Character Are You? (And even then, they were never very accurate.) He was fully capable of finding researched articles that had been published and put online. Especially now that he had the university’s access to more scholarly archives and— this was not the thing to be so hung up on.

“I’m not— but problems like this will happen in the future if I don’t figure it out in the present. I may be a teenager now, but I won’t be for much longer and with that comes financial worries.” From what he had observed in their parents, Ms Thompson, and pretty much any adult in the world, their lives always seemed to have some sort of financial anxiety.

“Along with the other things. Arguments. Repetitive dialogue from me, if there even is any.” He knew himself and he knew that he would probably say nothing at all instead of trying to come up with an answer for everything. He doubted Mim— that anyone would appreciate that. 

princess-su​:

One second everything was quite aside from the ever present humming of the computers around them, then she was letting out a yelp as Ferb’s arm released hers. She turned to watch just in time as he smacked against the carpet.

At first her brain was clouded in confusion, unsure what the heck he was doing and why he didn’t just crouch down if he wanted to look at something on the floor!

Then he started getting dragged back and oh. So that had been involuntary. No shit! Why was she so stupid?

“Ferb!” she yelled, stumbling forward to grab a hold of his hand, her knees knocking into the floor. Now, Su was not a very strong person physically speaking. Pair that with a boy who was very tall and a magically enhanced plant who was using all its strength against her, it seemed like this was going to be a game of tug-o-war she wasn’t going to win.

Except there was no way Su was about to let Ferb be dragged away. If strength wasn’t the answer then she was going to have to think of something else. She peered down at where the cables were attached to him and noticed- hey! They were only around his shoe!

She glanced beside them and hauled his hands over to the desk there, trying to get him to hang onto that. It wasn’t bolted to the ground or anything but at least the added weight would give her some time. Su gave a little nod of encouragement to Ferb, hoping that was enough for him to trust her to let go of her hands.

Ferb went down like a bag of potatoes. Or like he had done a belly flop—  except instead of landing on water he hit carpet, which was probably only covering concrete or some other hard material. (Though water was also arguably painful upon such a mode of impact.) Instinct had him turning over onto his back so he could get a look at whatever had tripped him while standing still, only then he was being pulled by whatever it was.

His arms flailed, trying to reach out for something, anything, that would keep him from getting dragged off to some unknown fate— only something caught him first. Ferb tilted his head back, thinking it may have been another version of whatever was around his foot, only to find Su there instead. When he saw that it was her hand around his Ferb clutched back, grip tight.

Given the competition (presumably it was whatever had infected the computer lab) versus Su’s physical capabilities he could only draw the same conclusion that she had— it was only a matter of time before her strength would give in. There was no point in depleting her energy for an inevitable ending, Ferb started to try letting go, pry her fingers off so she didn’t wind up locked onto him when he got carted off.

oh-phineas​:

Phineas didn’t necessarily mind “dangerous.” He had plenty of experience with “dangerous.” However, if the danger here was potentially burning up the webs before they had a chance to shoot them on the houses, Phineas wasn’t sure he wanted to take the risk.

Also, if the danger here was accidentally shooting fireballs at people’s houses… well, yeah, that’d be a problem, too. Phineas was willing to take some risks here and there, but it was different when you were potentially setting someone’s house on fire.

The aerostart seemed like a better bet. “Yeeeah, maybe let’s stay away from the fire this time,” Phineas chuckled. “Not a bad thought, though. I’m just thinking, I’m already on thin ice with some of the neighbors. Shooting fireballs at their house by accident might do me in for good.”

Ferb did his best to conceal a smile in response to that, and usually this was a very easy task since he’d spent years learning how to do so— but in the comfort of the garage in the company of Phineas it was almost too easy to smile and laugh along.

With a nod to confirm his agreement on the matter he turned back to the line up they had set out.

lucathedreamer​:

The boy gestured and nodded towards the large object in the center of the room, and before long it had Luca’s full attention. He just wanted to understand. It looked large and circular and a little bit menacing, but it also couldn’t be that threatening as it squatted in the corner of the room. 

Then it began to move! It began to MOVE!

Luca yelped and ducked behind the extremely tall stranger, sure that this was going to be the moment that it suddenly developed a mouth and arms so it could reach around to swallow him because of course this had been a trap and he was - 

It bumped into a wall and turned slightly, shifting a different direction. Which is what drew Luca’s attention back to the ground - and to the way the leaves had disappeared behind it but the little colorful worm shapes were still sitting on the ground. As it moved across the floor, the leaves disappeared up into it and more of the worms were revealed. 

Once again, he crept out from behind the boy in order to watch it more closely. It was amazing! He’d never seen anything like this before, but it looked like he was the kind of boy who wanted to leave animals alone. 

Which was…nice. It was nice. 

Glancing up, he asked, “How does it work?”

Ferb had been so focused on the machine (which was thankfully working as he had hoped for) that he didn’t notice the nervous demeanor of his impromptu guest. Not until after they had decided to use him as a secondary shield. The movement had Ferb turning to look at them, concerned. He hadn’t meant to scare them— he probably should have explained what he was doing instead of just inviting them in for a demonstration.

He went to turn the machine off, wanting to fix the sudden problem as it had popped up. As soon as he had his finger over the off switch he felt the other move again. When he turned this time it was to find that similar look of (what Ferb thought was) curiosity. It still seemed tentative but less so than when he had been hiding behind Ferb.

He let the machine go on for a few more seconds, picking up the last of the scattered leaves, before finally giving it a well deserved break. It returned to its starting position before going still and silent. During its return trip Ferb looked up in time to catch the stranger’s mouth move and— where had he put his phone?

i-want-candy​:

“I’m sorry what?” Candace said and signed. She rarely only signed, unless she was trying to talk in code. Which didn’t really happen. Especially because Ferb’s stupid annoying birthmom didn’t come around anymore. Otherwise, she wasn’t good enough to emphasize without her voice. In moments like this, it was even more true. 

She needed to properly convey her utter shock and outrage that Ferb would say some shit like that.

And look: Candace didn’t have the best self-esteem. She was not as smart as she wanted to be. She could be bossy and naggy and neurotic and liked to be in control of things. She could be kind of a bitch–when she was anxious, this was even more true.

But! She also, objectively, knew she had some good qualities. She was a good artist, a good musician. She was a good, loyal friend. She liked helping people with their problems. (Case in point.) And she was a good leader. A rule follower.

She couldn’t fathom saying something like Ferb had just said. And, honestly, she could barely fathom that Ferb had said it. She knew that Ferb was…extremely soft. A huge pushover, despite being like 6′7 or whatever. This had never been something she understood and she…wasn’t the most sensitive to it. Her form of comfort could be a little…aggressive.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Candace said. “Who told you this? Was it Mim? I knew she was pushy.”

It was Ferb’s turn to sign a confused, “What?”

Because what? Pushy? Mim?

Well— maybe. It wasn’t a bad thing, either. She stood up for herself and what she believed in. He admired that about her. She wasn’t pushy to him, though. “Mim is very patient with me.”

Too patient, he would argue. Which was why he had said what he said.

“I told myself this. It is true, from an objective standpoint.” He had known it from a biased one, too, and in order to see that it was not a completely false statement tainted by his own opinions on himself, he had done what he always did when it came to wanting to learn: he researched.

“According to most sources, it’s said that a good partner should have good communication skills.” Ferb paused then to give Candace a look, his head tilted slightly, hands open, and mouth tightening at the corners. As if to say, obviously we both know I haven’t got that.

“Humor is also highly valued in a partner.” Another thing he was not good at. “As well as the ability to resolve a conflict.”

Ferb and Mim hadn’t gotten into any arguments as of present but— they were sure to come around the bend at some point and he knew he was not prepared for that and surely never would be.

oh-phineas​:

Maybe it seemed like a small thing, but it wasn’t a small thing at all, Phineas knew, to have a bit of style in your designs. It could make all the difference sometimes. It made people curious about your product when it looked cool to use (and Phineas wasn’t selling this thing, but hey, you just never knew!). And Phineas thought there was some value even if you didn’t try to sell it. Why settle for something being less cool than it could be?

“I like the way you’re thinking,” Phineas signed, then tore off the part of the paper with the multi-part design and crumpled it up. He tossed it in the bin (still in the habit of announcing “Kobe” when he did so) and then turned his attention back to Ferb and the design they had decided on. “Alright, let’s get this bad boy built. We need these pipes and… what else?” 

“Aside from the detangling portion, an igniter.”

Which he knew they did not have among the leftovers in the garage.

“And fuel but we should have—“ He cut himself off by turning away to go search what he had in mind. Aerostart. Ferb also knew they had some left over from working on Jolene. It would be perfect, better than something like hairspray or spray paint that would eventually clog up the chamber by sticking on top of themselves.

It took some digging, the pulling and closing of one drawer after the other in rapid succession, until eventually he found the red and yellow spray can he had been looking for.

He set it down among the ranks.