#⋘ MAIN VERSE. elias. ⋙

[starrymused]

@lannamused

"Don't be so grumpy. We bring offerings as a way of apology, I promise!" But Imhotep was still glaring at them both even as he settled in his owner's lap for the drive back to Elias' place. Two weeks was the longest he'd been apart from Elias since he got him and clearly it hadn't made the king (who still wasn't a king) very happy.

Pressing his cheek against the cat's head as Aidan pulled away from Elaine's home, Elias stifled a laugh.

"I think he's placed a curse on us, so be extra careful driving." According to Elaine, Imhotep had been a deathly quiet guest who didn't do much other than stare at her from his throne — a shelf near her tv — and judge her choices in dramas.

They'd landed in LA. at around 5.45am and the only reason they'd picked up Imhotep this early was because Elaine was already awake and texted to ask if they had landed yet. Funeral home staff tended to have interesting night/morning schedules. Elias was planning on getting a bit of rest once he'd taken his luggage inside and then he'd catch-up with his staff later in the morning. There was only a three hour time difference between LA and Hawaii, so there wasn't really any chance of real jetlag.

"Are you going to rest before heading to work?" He knew this was now the start of a busy time for Aidan and he'd be itching to see what was going on at the office. For the next two weeks they wouldn't get to see each other much because of it. That was okay, though. Aidan said they could meet up for Halloween (their first one together!) for some very important festivities.

[playedbetter]

@the-haunted-office said: "This place isn't haunted, I swear" Doomsday to Elias

He pulls his coat a little closer to himself, his fingers are trembling at the moment from the unnatural chill in the air. "Then what the hell is it? Because it seems pretty haunted to me,"

There was a thump from somewhere above them that makes him nearly jump into Doomsday's arms. "Christ! Okay! Better question, you're absolutely sure what's here is worth all this trouble?"

[chillin-at-partys-bar]

@sovereigntism from {here}

The man looked from the musician to the person threatening him. He held the violin by its neck, hesitant to return it. It was clear by the violin's shape, color, and adornments that it was valuable as well: by taking it he could earn plenty of money. But this person threatening him was scarier than the potential and he held it out by the neck.

"Fine, take it!"

Elia saw it happening before it started. The man's hand opened, the violin began to fall. Now Elia was never one to do anything really to put himself in harms way. It simply was not what he cared to do. But his violin was more important than anything else. And so he slid to catch it, cradling the instrument before it hit the ground at the expense of his knees and elbows.

The man had run off by the time Elia figured out that he had yes, saved his instrument, and yes, was also bleeding. But he looked up at the person who had come to his aid with a smile.

"You got it back for me! Thank you! Once I can stand again, I can play you a song!" And then recognition washed over him. "Ah! I know you! You're that person who has been around Mercedes lately, correct?"

[sicariusvoit]

──────────────────── ⋅🕸⋅ ────────────────────

Main verse & main chick.

What aren't I capable of these days?

──────────────────── ⋅🕸⋅ ────────────────────

ITS BEEN DECIED SPENCER IS MARRIED TO ELIAS(@sicariusvoit ) EXCLUSIVELY IN HIS MAIN VERSE. AND HIS ONLY ELIAS.

[riveracheron]

eh. might as well post this now. a few of these are wish fulfillment rather than actual theorizing but explanations under the cut

i have an alchemy hyperfixation and all the alchemy stuff in tmagp makes me very excited so a lot of my theories are related to that

spoilers for the pilot btw

main character gets an eye injury - the image will not leave my head. in the magnus institute ruins statement there was this whole thing about redcanary having some kind of encounter with or experience with eye trauma and that feels like something thats just. gonna come up again

another mechanisms va - self explanatory, we need to complete the set. would love to hear kofi or rachel.

gwen has trauma related to something that happened with elias - this is going on the theory that she’s not elias’ counterpart, but a relative of some kind. something spooky happens to him and that pushes gwen to research the paranormal.

character referencing nicholas flamel - all the main characters have names that reference alchemists, and nicholas flamel is probably the most famous alchemist of all time. i doubt he’ll be given the smirke treatment because that kinda already happened with the transphobic wizard books, but someone could be sharing his name.

mag 114 statement is relevant - thats the. hill top road statement that deals with other realities, and anya (the statement giver) could be from the protocol verse. we could totally hear about the aftermath of her departure

alice/sam/gwen = three primes - the three main alchemical symbols on the OIAR crest, and a good sort of symbolic trio sorter. the three peimes are salt, sulphur and mercury, and are the basis for alchemy. the down to earth, reliable salt, the firey, unpredictable sulfur, and the adaptable, easygoing mercury. i think these could apply i just want to have it called out in universe

lena is a good person - i don’t think they’d pull the evil boss thing twice. i just think lena’s weird mannerisms are from her autistic swag

celia is related to or is agnes - (related to as in. her story involves agnes, not that shes like. a sister.) this comes from a theory by @/pinklotjeart, i think. basically: through the way her death was described (spark returned to the lightless flame) and some timeline discrepancies and general avatarness making it weird, agnes might not be Dead dead. and celia’s counterpart, lynne - well, she saw a fire ghost. also, both her and agnes are the only non one-off characters who have shakespeare names afaik. agnes MONTAGUE, celia from as you like it…

annabelle cane is related somehow - self explanatory, she was at hilltop road when everything went down. might have been pulled in.

a famous alchemist is robert smirke’d - self explaining, give me more canon historical figures jonny

another kitty cat - i want more kitty in podcast is that a crime

augustus is not jonah - we hear jonah’s voice as ben meredith in 193, so im skeptical that tim fearon’s character is jonah for that reason.

oiar group has a messy moment that devolves into actual physical violence - mmm angst i think they deserve to smack eachother around a bit

bonzo cult - yeah.

oiar found family - we got the group of coworkers that hate each other angst last time gimme the “hurting one to get to the others” and self sacrifice angst this time

colin dies early - mmmm i cant say much about this bc its based on one throwaway line at the MCM panel where jonny doesn’t mention colin in the main character group. so . death flags.

oiar is containing the entities scp style - this was a super early theory of mine, either this or theyre using them for power or energy in some way. even more heavy handed capitalism metaphors yay

someone gets ushanka’d - its computer horror: the podcast. that’s all

cookbook statement - a few clues in the ARG had to do with cookbooks, and alex and jonny have already said they’re getting weird with the statement formats (they mentioned an insurance report!) so. cookbook doesn’t seem too far-fetched

tiktoker/influencer character - archives was 2010s and they had a podcaster and youtuber, which were like. the big things. whats the hip trend now??? instagram and tiktok baybee

protocol editors va a small role a la mag 100 or the wtgfs cult - those characters were voiced by other rq team members (ie helen as laverne and martyn as robin) and the team has since expanded!! some editors dis stuff for cry havoc, so im guessing nico, annie, april and others will get a small role!

a villain’s goal is creating the philosopher’s stone or other alchemical thing - tmagp is heavily inspired by alchemy, and the philosopher’s stone was the main goal of alchemy!! it would grant you eternal knowledge snd the ability to turn lead into gold- which seems like a good. evil dude’s ambition

the desolation gets more focus - the institute burned down, the oiar crest has a lot of sulfur symbols (the fire element), alchemy as a whole having to do with fire, celia and her connection- it paints a very. lightless flame picture

trip to germany - a lot of the arg was set in and around berlin, and there was that exchange between sam and colin about german in the pilot! i could see a germany trip happening in the same way jon took a trip to china and america.

[annabelle--cane]

okay. round up of lingering protocol thoughts/predictions before the patreon early release tomorrow and the wide release on thursday. I did listen to the pilot draft back in october, but the following takes are only about publicly available information, I'll save anything else for later this week.

the title. "the magnus archives" wasn't just the main location of the original show, it was integral for the framing device of every episode and the meat of the protagonist's journey. if this title functions at all similarly, then "the magnus protocol" means, well, the protocol to follow in the event of "magnus." this implies to me that a main force behind the plot is going to be the OIAR responding to Something that happens with their world's burnt down magnus institute, and that following set rules and codes will be a major theme. less passive observation and cataloging, more the unstoppable force of bureaucracy.

same vibes for "vigilo. audio. opperior." (I watch. I listen. I wait.) vs "non vacillabimus" (we will not falter). to me, a promise not to falter implies steadfast action in the face of resistance as opposed to passive absorption of experiences.

I am still pulling for agnes relevance. lowri ann davies playing celia ripley, "celia" being the name her archives character chose after losing her memory, that character's strange interaction with a fire ghost woman. if we presume this is the same universe as the one the statement giver came from in mag 114, the tree at hilltop road was still standing when she crossed over, implying agnes was still alive over there as of 2009. jonny's comments in q&as about wishing he has done a little bit more with agnes. it could happen.

I. I've been sitting here trying to figure out a take for what's up with gwendolyn bouchard because her connection to elias obviously has to be relevant somehow, but I've got nothing. archives verse elias was meant to be middle aged (at least in body) by the time of the show and my guess is that gwen's in her 20s so she might be a younger sister? a cousin? theoretically possible that she could be a daughter but the idea of elias raising children in either his original or jonah forms makes my brain return a 404 error. don't like that.

bonzo

[mako-designated-driver]

Okay, so I'm replaying mass effect and I've started a list of things I stumbled on for the first time. Might be interesting, but it's mostly not taking interrupts.

If you tell Anderson to go to Citadel Control instead of making Udina pay a visit to his dentist, he will actually be caught and get shot, but he is still going to get it done, like the main character he is (what do you mean the story is about Shepard? No it isn't!)

If you don't take the renegade interrupt to headbutt Uvenk on Grunt's loyalty mission, then ask him if he wants to die, Shepard will warn Uvenk that if he keeps talking crap, his "few brains are going to meet the light of day". The Shaman will be impressed and call Shepard (at least femshep) a "human Shiagur", then proceed to shit on Uvenk.

Alternatively, you can investigate, then take a paragon choice to call him the worst insult Shepard can think of: A Citadel politician.

If you take Thane to recruit Jack, when the Warden says "bounty hunters aren't dependable", he'll tell him to "try assassins"

If you ignore Bailey until you get reinstated, he will call you "Spectre Shepard" the first time you talk to him, and you won't get the "scanners think you are dead" conversation.

In the first part of Garrus loyalty mission, when you are talking to the volus, there is a renegade interrupt to shoot the bodyguards, right? If you don't take it, Garrus is going to tell them to leave and... they will. Without a word. While the volus screams for them to come back cause he already paid the guys.

If you go paragon with Elias (the guy who hired Kolyat), then take the last renegade interrupt, his lawyer will show up and tell him to "shut the hell up". Before that, you will also get the chance to rat on Mouse.

Also on Thane's mission, Talid will talk how about he is being observed and how someone is "walking on his grave, or thinking about it". His bodyguard will dismiss him by calling him paranoid.

If you don't take the renegade interrupt to blow up the krogan in Mordin's loyalty mission, you will start to regret it immediately. He will have a LONG speech about what Weyrloc is going to do to the galaxy, like throwing the Citadel in the sun, keeping salarians as slaves and eating their eggs as "a delicacy" (Mordin didn't like it much). The good news is that the interrupt will be there until he is finished talking, so there is no need to actually hear the guy.

If you stick around to hear Charr's whole poem, he will kneel in (one of) the last verses. Just a tiny detail but it was actually adorable.

If I find anything else, I'll let you guys know!

[playedbetter]

I have to be seen to be believed. (ingvar, for Elias or Leah, whichever you think would be more fun?)

Meme / Accepting!

"Well... I do believe you might be a giant," Elias can't help but crack a grin, lightly stained teeth showing. She very well knows that the joke likely is flying over the man's head, this is a world of fantasy after all, she had broke out her more medieval clothes and had a dagger strapped to her leg and everything. Folding her arms together trying to keep herself from cackling at her own bad joke she strings together a half way decent question. "Beyond that though, I think I need a little more than just sight to understand what exactly is going on here?"

It was increasingly rare for her to encounter something that truly bewilders her, this however, really was doing it. One minute she's trying to put together notes on the magic of this universe, next... well the only part she really knows how to explain to herself is that she literally bumped into Ingvar.

[chillin-at-partys-bar]

plotted starter with @lovehungered

It was one of his favorite things to do. His fingers danced along the neck of his violin, positioning them along as his other hand moved the bow. The music that came out was that from a fiddle, happy, upbeat, getting people into the cafe with the promise of the music.

Of course, this pied piper could lure just about anyone with toe-tapping rhythm, but it took someone else entirely to make them stay. As he played he caught an occasional glance at the blonde man behind the counter, the one who was completing orders like a one-man gourmet kitchen.

He moved with a rhythm that Elia liked. So when he checked in it increasingly went from seeing how the other man was fairing to finding his beat, and playing along. It was only by chance that he had stumbled upon the cafe, with the smell of food already emanating from it with hesitant patrons at the door. A brief conversation with the owner had told him a sob story about a sick child and needing money to save her and the business. Elia wasn't sure how much, if any, truth there was to that but their ship was docked for a while and he had nothing better to do.

So he had pulled out his violin, and he had begun to play. What was more fun than good food and a good ol' jig? not much he could think of.

At one point he slowed his playing, quieting down from a forte to a piano, moving over to where the man was cooking, "I think we make pretty good partners, friend. Got it in you for one more song?"

[p1nkwitch]

Alright end of the year fic rec list of my works from this year before i forget about it. All lonelyeyes themed of course.

Choke and swallow down my heart A hanahaki fic mixed with a different flavor of soulmate tattoos. Its a bit of an urban fantasy but it covers the canon story of the podcast. Had a lot of fun with that one, a lot of flower meaning with it too.

Who is that that i see? Peter suffers from Prosopagnosia and cannot recognize faces. Quite the ordeal for a relationship when you never mention it to your husband.

Tower of sins You know how its Jon and Martin who walk through the apocalypse in season 5? Well what if the eye did not reward Elias at all and he was forced to move through the wasteland with a Peter. Alternate take of events of s5, mind the tags.

Take me to Church My Big Bang fic! A TMA x Bloodborne fusion, i am very proud of that one and the art i got for it was lovely!!! Really mind the tags here. No need of previous Bloodborne knoweldge to understand i made sure its all self explanatory but still you probably will catch some references. Peter is a hunter having the worst time of his life with Elias the demon along for the ride.

Heat haze days Timeloop fic where Elias just cant stop dying and Peter has to repeat the same years over and over again trying to fix it while having a constant mental breakdown.

Repair my heart Afterlife fic with Peter waiting on Elias while fixing a house. The house is a bit of a metaphor. Kind of bittersweet but with a happy ending.

I want to break free Good Omens Au! An angel and a demon lose the antichrist and pine for each other for 6000 years now with Tma characters.

Buttons and Keys A Coraline Au with Jonah as the main character. It has two sequels covering Paranorman and Labyrinth if you like the verse. A personal favourite of mine because Coraline is one of my favourite movies.

They are only human The Magnus archives but with supernatural creatures hiding in plain sight, turns out Gerry was wrong and there are more creatures than just the fears going around. Peter is very aware of it, unfortunately Elias is not.

God damn you got me in love again Urban Fantasy somewhere else. Peter is a witch and Elias is demon working on a flowershop and tatto shop respectively.

There are a lot of more i could mention but these are some fics i really love.

[butchdykekondraki]

I’m not well versed in SCP community drama at all, but I AM curious, so if you don’t mind; what’s up with Dr. Bright’s Whole Existence?

oh boy okay. bright is/was a very vocal part of scp lore, being featured in countless tales and scps alike, eventually having his own little list of sorts entitled "the things dr bright is not allowed to do". the character itself, dubbed jack bright (or just character bright), is most notable for being the most recognizable character besides a couple others (clef, kondraki, etc) that people saw from the scp fandom. he had his own little cult-like following in and of himself that was almost separate from the main-line scp fandom as a whole. eventually his creator, admin bright, was outed for being an abuser who used their influence over their cult-like following to solicit nudes and etc from primarily minors or people who were freshly 18, mostly using their power as a scp wikidot mod(? iirc) to get those things in exchange for site access (? again, iirc. the entire admin bright ordeal was poorly documented in the beginning and after more stuff came out it only got more poorly documented). after this (almost) everyone collectively decided to ignore and/or get rid of character bright, who was later replaced with elias shaw. eventually, in a now hated on move, djkaktus, a former(?????) wikidot mod completely wiped "the things dr bright is not allowed to do" off of the wikidot in an effort to scrub jacks existence away. all in all, it was an entire shitshow and everyone has pretty much collectively decided to move away from any mention of jack bright and instead most people have rewrites of 963/bright (<- elias shaw being the more popular one on the main-site, but others like dr myriad (created by mattastr0phic) are fairly popular in their own rights off-site. commonly you'll just see shaw, but i'd be remiss not to mention myriad bc she's a pretty big staple in the 963 rewrite community)

[jeweledstone]

Last few night’s dreams were like an entire fucking anime arc man: a recounting

DATE: JULY 14/15, 2023

Ok, so I’ve been having some weird and intense ass dreams lately that have been kinda-sorta connected in a weird way. Mostly because they all have this fucker as a main antagonist/villain in some way:

Yep

It’s gonna only get more cringe from here folks

Basically, his motivations/schemes were pretty similar to Elias’s shenanigans from back in the day (I haven’t seen him or “Dream” in my dreams for a while now and have assumed they were either captured or killed by the multiverse’s higher ups for their meddling, thank god amirite?).

The whole story behind him and why he’s after me in a nutshell is that he apparently has this one sided crush/obsession with the Peppino from his timeline, but was heartbroken after finding out Pep actually hates his guts the hard way (ie, getting the shit beat outta him in the game’s ending). So instead of, y’know, getting over it and moving on like a normal person, our old “pal” Tontino decided to kidnap someone, use some kinda weird black magic to transform them into Peppino, and basically just hold them hostage for the rest of their days. And UNFORTUNATELY for me, I just so happened to be the “someone” he (seemingly randomly) chose for this plan B of sorts. (Note: I’ve managed to escape his imprisonment several times, but the persistent bastard KEEPS. COMING. BACK. I HATE IT.)

I remember the context for how he got his hands on the weird black magic/curse stuff was that he made this pact of sorts with these ghost/demon creatures from another, fantasy-style verse known as The Dark Ones, who ended up appearing in the second or third dream I had featuring him along with their rivals/good counterparts, The Spirits.

Now, the actual anime arc-type shit started in the 4th PH dream where he was made by the Dark Ones to find some kinda ancient relic called the InfraStone which was supposed to have immense magical power as part of their deal/pact…only for the stone to possess him once he found it.

This incident led to him going mad from the stone’s power and betraying and absorbing the Dark Ones, which only added to his newfound power. The rest of the dream was me kinda-sorta teaming up with The Spirits and some other magic users to stop his rampage and free the Dark Ones from his control.

Now, as if this saga couldn’t get complicated enough, there was a part 2 to this 4th dream.

Part 2 took place several months after the possession incident, since part 1 The Dark Ones and The Spirits have seemingly made peace with each other and I (or at least the self I had control of in that dream) ended up living with the magic people that assisted me and the Spirits in a sorta found family of sorts. At this point, it’s been quite a bit since anyone in the fantasy verse had seen or heard of PH’s shenanigans and he was assumed to have fled from there back to the PT verse.

Nope, not in the slightest. Shit was just getting started.

Turns out PH was busy making what I can only describe as Pizza Tower 2: Electric Boogaloo in order to have his “revenge” against me and maybe try to capture me again. I remember that since the old bosses from the game were still in the PT fictoverse completely unaware of PH’s current whereabouts, the “bosses” in the second Pizza Tower were basically innocent people from the fantasy verse PH kidnapped and transformed/mutated into horrifying amalgamations that had slight resemblances to the original bosses. (I have no fucking idea how he did this since the Dark Ones have revoked there pact with him since the possession incident, for good reasons ngl) When he finally revealed the whole shebang, I remember my first instinct was to nope outta there as fast as I could (something I’m quite good at in my dreams, but could never do irl cause I’m out of shape af) only for him to catch up to me a LOT faster than humanly possible if I’m being honest. Upon being caught, he did the whole turning me into Peppino thing again, saying I wouldn’t be able to be turned back until I faced him in the tower. (Which I was probably gonna have to do anyway to save the other people he cursed and get his ass outta that verse for good.) I think there was also this catch where if I took too long to complete the Tower, the Peppino TF curse would start affecting my mind as well, mentally turning me into him as well as physically, leaving nothing left of me (or at least that version of me) behind, but my brain might’ve just made that up after the fact for the sake of drama/angst.

The dream basically ended there so idk if I succeeded in conquering the tower and freeing everyone trapped in it, but considering PH has barely showed up in my dreams since then, I think I was able to make it.

So yeah, another dream recounted. Hope you enjoyed, might make more drawing stuff of this dream in the future if I feel like it :)

[envihellbender]

Web avatar main villain Martin

Fandom: The Magnus Archives

Verse: Roleswap AU, Martin is the Web

Characters: Martin Blackwood, Jonathon Sims

Content: Villainous Martin, manipulation, gaslighting, spiders

Martin recognised John on sight, how couldn’t he? Before Elias had decided to sink his claws into the Archivist John belonged to the Mother of Spiders. That’s who he was supposed to be under the control of. Whenever Martin saw John he felt sorry for him, he’d only been working there a few weeks but he could see how out of his depth John felt, how lost he was. It was obvious to anyone that he had been picked by Elias to be easy for him to control, especially after Gertrude. Martin had decided it was going to be his duty to try and take John back. He had no idea if it was possible but he had to try. He wanted him, he wanted his thin frame under his hands and to pull on the web he would attach to John’s limbs. He wanted to know everything about him, to control his life to suit Martin… He was supposed to be an Avatar of the Spider, the least he could do was become an Agent since he betrayed them by allying himself with the Eye (even if it was unknowingly.) These thoughts kept running through Martin’s head during his workday, which had resulted in him making several mistakes, and as such be scolded by John for them. Martin didn’t mind, he was used to this sort of treatment and it helped with his cover. Not even Elias suspected him.

It soon became apart of Martin’s act to seem incompetent - he would accidentally misfile something, forget to put the correct number on certain folders, little things like that. He’d stammer an apology and even John found it difficult to stay too mad at him, although he hid that fact very well. He wasn’t always bad at his job, he was good at getting people to talk to him - statement givers always said far more to Martin than they did to anyone else. He supposed he was good at twisting words and at finding out exactly what he wanted to hear. He may not have been the best at legwork but he often made connections no one else did, his pattern recognition was rather incredible. Occasionally his talent shined through and surprised his colleagues… so he made sure to make enough mistakes to cover it up, or portray it as a happy accident. He was careful to not make so many issues his co-workers despised him, if anything Tim and Sasha seemed rather protective over him like he was a little brother. They’d defend his mistakes, help fix them, and not notice the stammering quiet softness was an act. Although, sometimes Martin would forget that it was.

Martin wasn’t sure when he fell for John, and it almost certainly was not apart of the plan. He supposed he found him attractive on sight, although discovering John was terrified of spiders was a slight turn off. Every time John flinched or tried to crush one of his children Martin felt a flash of anger through his mind. Fortunately he knew enough sad looks and lectures was enough for John to grudgingly leave the spiders alone. At least whilst Martin was nearby. John’s habit of crushing them in secret made it a bit more difficult to keep an eye on his Archivist but not impossible, especially not with how attached John was becoming to his tape recorders. Martin made sure John always had one in his pocket, just nearby enough to record anything strange. Martin listened to them with joy and excitement, as if John was speaking just for him. Martin didn’t like how paranoid and upset John was becoming however, it played on his mind more than it should have. Eventually he worked out what John really needed to calm down was to start smoking again, it sounded insane given how week human lungs are but… Martin decided it would hardly matter. If John became his agent, or fully the Archivist, then death by lung cancer was unlikely. It was fairly simple, actually. All Martin had to do was send him a bespoke lighter covered in a web design. John didn’t even question it, just accepted it and carried it along with him everywhere. Since he did that, Martin could always see him. He could keep his eye on John all the time, it ensured his tape recorders constantly appeared, and he was able to keep the Archivist safe.

Jane Prentiss’s attack had been unprecedented, of course it made some sense, Martin’s spiders had been killing and eating her worms after all. There wasn’t much Martin could do about it but Prentiss wasn’t accepting the ‘Circle of Life’ explanation. He had been a bit affronted that no one at the Archive had come to save him, until he discovered that John had received a text from him saying he was ill. He did intend to deal with Prentiss himself but for some reason when John jumped to his defence he felt … he couldn’t say no. He quite liked being protected and living in the Archive was a bonus. It meant he was free to roam the building and tunnels as much as he please. He could leave his tape recorders everywhere! It was too good to pass up. It would seem a relationship with John might be a useful goal to achieve after all.

[west1rosi]

THE REIGN OF THE DRAGON VERSE: RHAEGAR LIVES AU.

The rebellion starts after Rhaegar takes Lyanna Stark and King Aerys takes the lives of Brandon Stark and his father. Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark rise their banners and go to war. But instead of dying at the hands of Robert, Rhaegar arrives to a new accord; deposing his father Aerys as the new King in the realm, and mantaining his marriage with Elia. However, Lyanna still dies in a bed of blood and Ned Stark, finding his sister after childbirth, takes the child as his own, no one doubting the boy's Stark looks and the news that Lady Ashara had been pregnant. Now, with a Kingdom in a shaking state and the dragon's head having been cut to one (or so he thinks), Rhaegar plans to arrange political marriages in order to mantain peace in the realm.

a few key details:

viserys would still marry dorne to reinforce that alliance after the disaster that happened with lyanna. viserys would marry arianne.

robert and cersei are still married. and while the marriage is not as sour as in the main storyline,they are both unhappy.

cersei and jaime still did the targ and had the three children. however, jaime was pardoned by rhaegar under the conditions he became the lord of casterly rock.

he was bethroded to orysa baratheon (oc), robert's youngest sister and when she became of age, two moons past, they got married, once again to settle the baratheon alliance.

robb stark becomes engaged to princess daenerys targaryen to solidify the northern alliance.

direwolves are still appearing on the south of the wall and dragons will show up eventually, via dany's hand.

theon greyjoy was politically engaged to roslin frey however, he deicded to iniciate another political incident by marrying jeyne poole instead, breaking off her alliance with ramsey bolton (because fuck that guy).

prince aegon and sansa stark are to be wed.

joffrey baratheon is engaged to princess rhaenys, however, he has fallen"mysteriously" ill and soon dies. the rumors is that dorne via oberyn martell kill him.

to solidify the northern alliance once more, rhaegar legitimizes jon snow (unaware he is his son still) as a stark and sets an engagement with myrcella. jon is. . .not thrilled.

cersei still has her main fantasy man rhaegar alive so she is scheming to get close to that dragon's scale wink wink.

ned stress level must be always above 80% in any universe. with rhaegar legitimizing jon, that stress is peak.

robert suspects of the death of his son and rhaegar's cover up of it all and is one bad day away from starting the rebellion 2.0.

daenerys found three dragons eggs digging in the dragonpit. there is still a secret fourth dragon egg at winterfell, but shhh.

littlefinger would absolutely find out jon is rhaegar's son by lyanna.

my wifey mari made this flow chart:

[abuddyforeveryseason]

This is the Buddy for for April 13th. He's surrounded by family this time.

Here we have him, his twin brother, his older brother Billy Lynch, his oldest brother Tommy Lynch, his sister Sissy Lynch, his dad Elias Lynch (also known was Wally), and his mother, Dolly Lynch (or María de las Dolores).

There's also a younger brother, Baby Lynch, not in the picture (babies are hard to draw).

I was reading an interview with Tom Scioli (the comic book artist) and he talked about his book Godland being a book about a family, with not a lot of room for romance. I haven't finished that series yet, but that's an interesting way to put it, and he says that it was writer Joe Casey's idea - it was an artistic choice that made the book less popular. Although I'm not part of the audience that has any interest in romance, I know some fans are all about it.

So, he moved on to American Barbarian. It's pretty awesome. After that, he started working on Transformers vs GI Joe, and that's really not the type of stuff I'm into. I'm not that into He-Man, either, or Thundarr the Barbarian, but American Barbarian was fun. I still haven't read Transformers vs. GI Joe, maybe it's be good.

The thing is, it seems like some authors, be them comic creators or even movie directors, are creative in their early work, then get stuck making IP adaptations that reduce them to guns for hire, taking orders from the studio, and trying not to offend the fans.

The tyranny of fandom.

I know a lot of people complain about Marvel doing that to creators. You've got horror guys like James Gunn and Sam Raimi, and they're stuck making superhero movies with no gore. What gives? But I kind of think in the case of superhero comics, it's a bit more forgiveable because a lot of pop director nowadays are fans of superhero comics.

Still, I can't really resent people who complain about that.

Just like there's the Oscar carrousel that makes it so people who deserve the Oscar never get it, there's the adaptation carrousel that makes is so adaptations are never any good. In Scioli's case, for instance, you have American Barbarian, which is a great He-Man adaptation - but the actual licensed comics he made aren't as much fun because they're constraining that creative artist to using characters he didn't design, so, what's the point?

And of course, he was free to add a few twists to American Barbarian he wouldn't have been allowed to if it was a licensed comic. Make the main character a bit of a moron, add some gross jokes and postmodern elements...

A clichè example is the Fantastic Four movies. Terrible. But Brad Bird made The Incredibles - the perfect Fantastic Four movie, with different names for the characters. Why did they choose Josh Trank to make that creepy, dark, dull movie in 2015, then? Because he had made a great Akira adaptation a few years earlier, called Chronicle.

There are a lot of other examples. Supreme? Into the Spider-Verse. Kick-Ass? Super. Turok, Son of Stone? Prey. Astro Boy? A. I.

And that happens with a lot of movies, because directors are fans, but the unpleasant realities of copyright law keep them from making the movies they want. So, you've got stuff that's inspired by other stuff, written around the trademakrs, parodies that are better than the original, character interactions that could never happen...

But, the real money's in adaptations. Even if they're not very good. It's a pity, really. And of course, a really big movie has to follow the demands of executives and the audience, more than being a faithful adaptation or a personal vision.

So, if we ever had a movie adaptation of Godland (which is very unlikely anyhow, since it's a cult comic), there'll probably be a romance subplot shoehorned in.

[playedbetter]

Elias laughs, "I should tell the teacher that next time they tell me to quit bouncing off the walls," not that he's been to school in ten years. And also not like that while in his depressive states he was much like dear Marvin here in his lack of ability to muster passion for just about anything.

He squats down next to Marvin and puts out his smoke in the dirt, leaving the butt there. She looks at Marvin, squinting a little, as he considers if he wants to mess around here. "Haha the 'universe' is full of that, bad news robit, multiverse is a lot worse for that,"

Resting his elbows on his knees and face on his hands, not exactly the most stable posture given the squatting. "I wanna make you a bet, I can find a universe you'd find something to be happy about. If I can't, I'll track down some nifty trinket or some shit for you,"

"It's ridiculous when someone tells me "aren't there more important things to be mad about?" You novice. You fucking rube. You shit idiot. I can be mad about 20,000 things at once. I am a walking chimera of various furies and petty qualms." (Elias to Marvin)

Marvin can't really argue against this. Well, he could by stating that nothing is worth being mad about because it's all utterly worthless, but he is feeling especially depressed today and doesn't feel like making even that much effort.

He sighs.

"How lucky for you to have the energy to keep up with it all," he drawls in his solemn tone, like something that's been stuck in the back of the fridge for weeks being poured out into the sink to be washed finally, only the sink doesn't want anything to do with it either. "Some of us aren't so lucky. Some of us can only absorb the indignation directly into our circuits and hope it cancels out the rest of our ailments. I'll give you a spoiler - I'm not that lucky. The universe is full of all kinds of things to be depressed about too. I wonder if you'll have the energy to carry on with both given enough time."