Little Dipper

Father

Stan and Ford stood across from their father, Bill standing nearby. There was a tense silence in the room, almost suffocating, as the three Pines waited for the first one to make their move. Filbrick Pines was staring them down, almost daring them to say anything to him.

"Wow, this is so exciting. I think I'm going to vomit from the excitement of your staring contest. Do you NOT want to leave here?" Keyhole said dryly before he rolled his eyes. "Filbrick, just start talking." He snapped his fingers.

Filbrick finally opened his mouth. "What are those expressions for? Do you DARE show your father such disrespect? Glaring at me, like you deserve such a luxury? You're both ungrateful little brats!"

"Us, ungrateful? You never knew what you had!" Ford snapped. "You treated Stan and I horribly, called him weak and me a freak! I know that you didn't actually want us, but guess what? You should've had better protection, because if you have sex you get kids! Simple math!"

"As soon as Shermy left to go to college, you got even worse! Mom could barely keep you in line, you were that bad! And you wondered why we didn't get many customers? Maybe because people could hear you yelling at your kids? You're lucky no one called the cops on you!" Stan stepped closer to Filbrick. "Were you this abusive to Shermy? Is that why he rarely came home? Did you not want him, either, think he's a failure?! Well, guess what! The only reason your kids are failures is because YOU are a failure of a FATHER!"

"You..." Filbrick clenched his fists.

"I what?" Stan challenged.

"I don't want to hear about being a failure from a punk kid that could never do anything by himself!" Filbrick snapped.

"I was NEVER a failure!" Stan cried. "Everyone your age called me one, but I was not a failure! You just kept raising the fucking BAR! It's impossible to reach your expectations, much less surpass them, when you keep moving the goalposts, you sick bastard!"

"Yeah, Stan, you tell him!" Bill cheered.

"You were never satisfied with our decisions! No matter what we chose to do, how we chose to live our life, you were never satisfied! Never impressed! We got trophy after trophy, all to impress you, and you just shrugged it off and said that they were pointless if they didn't get you money! Money isn't everything!" Ford stepped forward. "There are things more important than money! You didn't marry our mother for money, didn't you? At one time, you had a heart!"

"Nothing is more important than money." Filbrick growled. "Money brings security, money ensures you never want for anything!"

"Love is more important! No matter what, even if you have nothing else, if you have your loved ones with you then you still have something great!" Stan argued.

"Don't talk back to me! You know NOTHING about the world! Still lost in your pathetic fantasies about sailing off to find treasure. No matter how much you try to deny it, I know you still dream of that ocean! Will there be room for your loved ones on that boat with you? You'll never have room for treasure!"

"Then I'll skip out on treasure so I can adventure with my loved ones!" Stan insisted.

"You're a giant fool!" Filbrick swung his fist.

"Stan!" Ford moved to block it, but Stan was already moving, catching Filbrick's fist in his palm.

"I may be a fool...but at least I have friends and family who LOVE me!" Stan swung his free hand and punched Filbrick, knocking him back into the wall. "And right now, they need me! Get out of my way, I'm not afraid of you anymore!"

"And neither am I." Ford walked over and grabbed Filbrick's shirt collar, pulling him up. "As far as I'm concerned, you can just disappear. Because, guess what? The only one that EVER dragged me down...was you."

Filbrick reached up and wiped blood from his mouth. "...You really...aren't afraid of me. You've finally grown strong." He reached up and touched Ford's shoulder. "I'm proud of you."

Ford's eyes widened and he slowly stood up as Filbrick's image started to fade away.