#Also a lot of the people who I assume are doing it probably aren’t following me. Which means I have to search through favorites on drawings

[tokyosgroeningverseblog]

Small rant (TW: Mentions of Fetishes)

Sometimes I feel like one of my Simpsons OCs is being fetishized (Rhonda) on DeviantArt because of her thicker body type. Ik someone’s gonna say “Tokyo, it’s DeviantArt. Ofc they are.” And yes, I agree. But it’s still disgusting to me. Especially because I’m a literal minor (yes, I make sexual jokes, but fetishes are not okay to me at all.)

Honestly, I feel like it’s being done in silence. Nobody’s said anything or put her in a special fetish favorites stash, or privately favorited any art of her. I’m just kinda paranoid tbh

Anyways, here’s Rhonda, cuz the last few artworks/posts have been Terwilliger related

[alphajocklover]

InstaJock: Going Viral

**Hey! This is my entry for @occamstfs Viral Transformation Challenge. Congrats on getting 2,000 followers, and thank you for beta reading this and helping me edit it. I hope I can get to 2,000 followers myself one day! For those who are new to my stories, this does connect to the plot established in my blog, but the concept is simple enough you should be able to follow along even if you don't usually read my stuff! I hope you all enjoy!**

When I talk about the InstaJock App Phenomenon – which I seem to do a lot. What is this, the 17th InstaJock related post? I need to diversify more – I usually talk about the transformation aspects and not the app itself. That’s partially because the transformation is the most interesting and hottest part, but it’s also because I haven’t been able to take a good look at the app. Even with all the protective spells and equipment I have, I can’t use a phone with InstaJock on it for very long without getting an urge to set up an account. 

Until now.

With some help from the devilishly handsome (and literally devilish) Nick, I’ve been able to get my hands on some better equipment and better explore the app. I was able to spend a couple hours on it before I needed to quit, and actually got some very interesting information, mainly about how the app works post-transformation. I had always assumed that once a user got transformed into a jock, they’d ignore the app from then on unless they wanted to change someone. I was very, very wrong, not just about that but about the purpose of the app itself. It’s not just for making people into jocks: it’s for finding the best ones.

The app generally works like any other social media app, with its members posting about their interests. It’s set up is a lot like Instagram, where pictures and videos are the main format used for posting, but what really makes it different from other social media apps is the content. You can probably guess what an app full of buff cocky jocks looks like, but I’ll confirm it for you: the app is a thirst trap paradise.

The entire app is stuffed with half naked –  and sometimes fully naked – photos of buff jocks, ones of all different kinds. If you can think up a jock related stereotype, they have a full hashtag dedicated to it. Just buff jocks playing sports, flexing and making out with other hot people, for as far. I know that doesn’t sound too different from normal social media apps, as most have a healthy NSFW side, but the posts have more in common then just showing jocks. Each and every post, every one that I saw, mentioned a Master. Some were talking about how they were getting pumped up at the gym for Master, some were talking about how they loved being jocks and were so glad Master had found them, and some were literally begging for Master to notice them, often wantonly describing how they’d debase themselves and be the sluttiest jock ever, all for him. Everyone on the app would post at least once a day about this mysterious Master. It doesn’t seem to matter if the jock is a dom, a sub, a top, a bottom, in a relationship, single, gay or even straight, all of them wanted this mysterious unnamed master – so much so they seemed to completely change personalities whenever he is mentioned. It seems instaJock has an additional side effect I didn’t know about till now: complete and utter devotion to their Master.

It took me a while, and some covert interviewing of a number of jocks in their DMs, but I think I figured out what's happening. The Jocks aren’t just posting for fun, they’re competing with each other. InstaJock isn’t really a social media app, it’s a sort of ranking app. Every day the jocks log on, post a picture of themselves with a caption somehow related to their Master, and leave likes on some of the other posts, usually the ones they find hot. If a jock’s post gets enough likes though, they get what every jock wants, what all of them are trying to get. They get to Go Viral.

Going Viral on IntsaJock isn’t like going viral on a regular app. It essentially means you’ve gotten enough likes, been reposted enough times, and have become popular enough on the site… that Master has noticed you. That's what the social media part of the app is really for. It’s just a way for Master’s jocks to organize themselves so only the hottest ones show up on his feed. If he really likes you, he’ll do more than just look too. Soon that Jock will disappear from his regular life, never to be seen again, whisked away to become a part of Master’s personal harem. This entire time the app has been about one thing: creating lovestruck sex slaves for the man who created InstaJock.

Like most actual social media apps, InstaJock jumps from one thing to another, and what's viral is always changing. But there are two tags that are always trending on InstaJock. The first, and most popular, is #JockMaster, which is only ever used by this mysterious Master when he makes a post. I’ve seen his account. He never shows his face on it, but from what little of his body that makes it into the photos, he’s… enchanting. As much as I hate to admit it, seeing just a bit of that creep almost made me drool. He usually only posts a couple times a week, as opposed to the jock who posts daily, but everything he posts goes viral on the app in moments. I’ll admit, there's something about his posts that is just… hypnotic. I almost set up an account after seeing one myself, and probably would have if Nick wasn’t there to stop me.

The other tag that's always trending is… more interesting, at least to me. It’s #MastersBoyfriend. It’s another tag used only by Master, and one he uses whenever he posts a picture of one particular member of his harem. 

Whenever he posts pictures… of my Uncle John.

I finally know who took my Uncle. I know who this Master is. I suspected it was him for a while, but now I’m sure. The man who made InstaJock and the man who turned my Uncle into a slutty buff himbo are one in the same. I finally have proof.

So now what?

**The identity of the person behind InstaJock AND the person behind my Uncle's transformation and kidnapping has finally been revealed! Been working up to this for a long time, and I'm glad to keep this story moving forward! Hope you liked it as much as I do! Thank you to @occamstfs once again for being absolutely awesome and inspiring!**

[ripplestitchskein]

@angelshizuka I didn’t want to add on to your post and derail it so just doing a screen grab.

But this really bothers me. Like WHY did Blitz think this was a good idea? And how did he plan on keeping it once he had it? He’s not like unintelligent, the whole business is a good idea and they have no competitors we’ve seen other than CHERUB trying a reverse uno.

I pointed out in another post about this topic that Blitz is aware that there are other ways to get to Earth. He dated several succubi and incubi who have crystals. He was able to get one really easily to find Barbie. He could have gotten back with Verosika or any of the others if he was willing to have sex for it. It’s the same kinda arrangement and would involve a few groveling phone calls instead of a heist and fingers crossed you aren’t arrested or killed if you get caught. For Verosika her feelings probably stopped him there but there are other succubi and incubi and obviously he has the game to convince them.

Like if the plan was sneak in, get the book and he won’t know it’s me, fine. But he was already caught and Stolas already confirmed he knew who he was. That same plan would also work a lot better with lower risk at some succubus’s apartment than a royal party. And Asmodeus has hundreds of succubi and incubi and associated crystals versus one guy’s personal spell book. Risk analysis says. “Steal some random nobodies crystal from their probably unsecured house”. And even after Stolas clocks him he’s still like “I’ll just take it” and then thought just ghosting Stolas after would be enough??

I just feel like there has to be a reason, even if it’s like a subconscious one. Why Stolas? What reminded Blitz of a royal who has a book that can go to the human realm 25 years later when he had fairly recently ended a relationship with a succubus who can also do that? And Barbie was able to find a job to get to Earth so it seems like that was also an option. He could have doubled up, run drugs or human shit and also killed people at the same time and done it legitimately. Partnered up to ride along with a succubus even, “Hey, you go do your sex demon shit and I’ll be killing people, we’ll meet back here at 3”. He’s still the boss in that scenario even if he also works with someone else to do it, he’s doing that with Stolas anyway. The consequence of running afoul of Asmodeus if he finds out and is mad because of his partnership with Fizz is only slightly higher than it is stealing from an Ars Goetia.

I don’t know if it was to fuck with royals specifically? He thought Stolas would be an easy mark, but he doesn’t really know him now from what we’ve seen so that’s a weird assumption to make. He seems to think pretty negatively of royals why would he assume this one wouldn’t be the same if he was caught?

Did he follow Stolas before hand to get a vibe? How did he know about the party? Did he just pick a random day and there happened to be a party? What was the lead up? I guess it was in the paper, maybe he saw it there and was like “Now is my chance”. I can buy that from an impulsive desperation level but like I said, there were easier ways.

I hope they get into that but I dunno if they will, it’s not like crucial to the story so maybe better to not waste time in it, it really just adds to the basic framework established but I just have questions.

[retellingthehobbit]

….I’m suddenly realizing that I posted chapter 17 of The Hobbit comic on January 13th of 2024, so it’s been almost exactly one year since I last posted a chapter XD.

Really though, Ive realized my new Webcomic Goal is to be more like my favorite YouTube video essayists — who post one excellent high-effort video a year, and then vanish to work on their next video privately for another year (only giving rough draft updates to their Patreon members.)

I think a lot about Hbomberguy’s video essay on the widespread problem of plagiarism on YouTube, where he talks about how the incentive to Post More Content All The Time leads to creators producing plagiarized poorly-researched insincere videos about topics they don’t know/care about, videos that are horribly constructed and riddled with severe mistakes— and how the rise of AI is only going to make that kind of insidious plagiarism much easier to get away with. I also think about how I’ve seen webcomics I used to like start using AI-generated imagery for backgrounds in order to keep up with their rigid update schedule, assuming their readers won’t care as long as they get New #Content.

But people actually do care about quality and sincerity, is the thing! People like having things that are created with love, that they can slow down and revisit multiple times and appreciate more each time. People like things that aren’t shallow, and that the creator put their heart into making. I know that I value that, and I think most people actually do! Social media algorithms want us to prioritize frequency and regularity, and shove that data-driven content in our faces all day, but people actually do value things that are made with love and care even if they take a long time!

I know that I would rather wait an entire year for each video from Defunctland or Folding Ideas or Lindsay Ellis, than follow a thousand YouTube channels that keep to a rigid update schedule via lazy shallow poorly constructed plagiarized content. XD

Similarly, I’m always surprised every time I update that people are still Around and check on this goofy little fanfic comic project regularly? ;_; It’s still ultimately just a small fan-project, but it’s cool that people are still following it after all these years.

And I hope people can sorta view this comic that way— something that takes a long time to update, but only because anything worth reading takes a long time to create.

Anyway, I need to prepare some stuff so I’ll probably post the next chapter in the next couple weeks— I’ve been considering February 1st?— but in the meantime the full 30-page draft of the next chapter is on my art patreon, and you can see the full archive of the entire comic on my website RetellingTheHobbit.com :3.

Thank you again for continuing to follow me even during the Long Hiatuses! I really do appreciate having a small group of readers still sticking around in this fandom!! <333

[skrewtiny]

Welp, i said i wanted to do more hpma x broadway projects, so here we are! This took a little while though, been out of motivation…so, i’m sorry if some of the drawings aren’t on par with the others xd

I promise, i have more ideas that don’t have the Freys as the Main Character, but I like drawing those boys a little too much, and this one has a lot more parts for a lot more characters. But dw, Ivy, Daniel, and possibly Lottie will come up eventuallyyyy

Prepare for my yapping. I will be doing quite a lot of it. I apologize to your attention spans in advance.

So, as you can probably tell from this, the Musical I’ve adapted this time is Newsies. 

*Note: I know that Newsies is based off of an actual event in history, however i will only be basing this off of the Musical/Movie, so it will not be historically accurate and will be mostly fictitious.*

For those who don’t know, the basic plot of Newsies is:

Newsies is a musical inspired by the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City. It follows a group of young newspaper sellers, or "newsies," who band together to protest unfair treatment by powerful newspaper publishers.

The story centers on Jack Kelly, a charismatic and rebellious newsie who dreams of escaping the hardships of city life and moving to Santa Fe. When newspaper magnate Joseph Pulitzer raises the price of newspapers that the newsies must buy in order to sell them, Jack and his fellow newsies—including new kid Davey and his younger brother Les—organize a strike to demand better treatment.

With the help of Katherine Plumber, a determined reporter who wants to cover the strike, the newsies gain public attention.

Ultimately, the newsies' unity and resilience force Pulitzer to back down, leading to improved conditions.

The roles shown above are: 

•Fischer as Jack

and

•Wénshī as Davey

Now, if you’ve seen the musical, you’ll probably be thinking something about how Fischer doesn’t exactly fit Jack’s character. And y’know what? You’re right. He does not. Which is why i will be basing his character on Jack from the movie, which fits him actually rather well. 

Yes, Jack is nicer than Fischer in most respects, however given the situation he would be in, i could see Fisch acting better. Think. Surrounded by a bunch of people who look up to him and think he is so so cool, i think he would embody that more, whereas in hpma he is seen and treated as more of a jerky arrogant boy(don’t get me wrong he does act like it more often than not), and so he becomes as such. We have however, seen that he can be civil when he wants to be, (still with some teasing and jabs) but he isn’t a complete jerk, especially to people he likes/is close to.

I will mention as well that, Film Jack does get into quite a few more fights than Musical does, and does more of the teasing/insulting of the Delancy’s and others. Which frankly, is more of a Fischer thing than other characters i could have chosen.

And it isn’t far off to assume he could rally a bunch of kids to strike, as he (and Cass) pretty much (kind of) rallied a bunch of students against Daniel in y3. Now he is far from the best spokesman, but he also isn’t the worst, seemingly having little to no qualms with speaking in public, rather loudly too.

He also, contrary to somewhat popular belief, is not in fact completely incompetent, and is actually rather clever when it comes to certain things. Is he book smart? By absolutely no means. He’s more ‘street smart’, which i’d probably take out street in favor of duel, but for the sake of this i won’t. Also, the kid can perform at least one nonverbal spell, which according to the hp books, is a very difficult thing to master. He is not completely dumb!

*See the Frey Twins Companion Card Quest

There are also some lines that make me think of Fischer, such as ‘Besides, it’s not lying. Just…improving the truth a little.’ 

Yeah, Fischer has been known to…fabricate, a bit. The best example of this is at the beginning of ‘A Light in the Darkness’ season, where he tells a story about how he beat a troll(?) in the Forbidden Forest to Wen, who promptly called him out on it. (Which, actually, Davey does to Jack too, so)

Which also goes hand in hand with ‘If i hate the headline, i’ll make up a headline, and i’ll say anything i ‘ave to’ , which, similarly, is something I’m pretty sure Fischer would do, especially to sell more papers, thus getting more means for himself.

Also this line, in the most recent Puzzle Event:

Actually kinda reminds me of the line:

‘In the words of union leader Jack Kelly, "We will work with you, we will even work for you, but we will be paid and treated as valuable members of your organization."’

Which of course is a biiiit more elaborate speech than he ever uses, but Kathrine is the one who wrote it, he just gave the basic idea.

Jack also, according to the Newsies Wiki is rebellious and passionate, which are traits that Fischer also portrays. They also seem to share the same first instincts, fight or bolt, usually fight unless he knows for a fact he cannot win the fight(aka going up against Snyder). Jack also(movie-wise) says to solve a good deal of their problems with ‘well then we’ll bleed ‘em’ or ‘we’ll bash their heads’, something along those lines at any rate.

Oh yeah and uh Jack does have a little brother, he’s just ah…dead, along with his Mother. So. I’m sorry there will be no Colby in this. 😔

Now, onto Wénshī as Davey.

I really can’t think of anyone i’d place in this part over him, they have similar personalities, being on the more studious side, and fairly a voice of reason at times.

Also, family situations. Both Wénshī‘s and David’s families are struggling for various reasons, causing both boys to have to do something about it. But where Davey’s Father got hurt, and got fired from the factory for it, Wénshī‘s Family’s business is suffering. Both could have the same effect though, being the reason the boy starts working as a News boy.

And, despite Fischer being based on Movie Jack, i would probably base Wen off of a mix of both Movie and Musical. For example, Wen is more on the confident side than the shy and closed off side imo, and so is Musical Davey. However there are certain lines from the Movie i’d give him, such as telling Jack their deal needs to be 50/50, which is a line they gave to Les in the musical.

Now the ‘Antagonists’:

I chose Victor Gridley and Midas Gullveig to play Pulitzer and Snyder. (VG=P MG=S).

Gridley and Pulitzer are both Businessmen, so I find this fitting. They are also both the type to screw over the rest of their ‘employees’, so long as it benefits them. Gridley also employs Pronk, whom you will see later is Wiesel. 

Changing Midas from an illegal loan shark to Warden of the Refuge also somewhat makes sense as well, both Midas and Snyder work in their own self interest, and pocket the money they collect for…uses. He also has that creepy air to him, someone lurking in the background, waiting for their perfect time to strike. Not to mention, he just looks/seems like the kind of guy people’d call ‘Snyder the Spider’. 

And, funnily enough, both of their outfits match pretty closely to their Musical counterparts, i didn’t have to change too much hehe

Question though, if both of those men are the ones in power, does that mean that the cops should be the Dementors?? That’d be fun to draw..

Next introduction: The Brooklyn Newsies

I wanted to utilize the Americans we got in hpma, considering the fact that Newsies takes place in the US. So, it only felt right.

Viggo takes the place of Spot Conlon, the leader of the Brooklyn Newsies, and most respected(and probably feared) Newsy out of- well, probably them all. One of the most notable lines that made me put him here was:

‘You’re right Jacky-boy, brains. But I got brains too, and more than just half a one. How do I know you punks wont run the first time some goon comes at ya with a club? How do I know you got what it takes to win?’

And we all know that Viggo loves winning, oh so much. Yes, i’m spouting off his Y4/Season Trailer line. Muahaha. In all reality that is something i could see him saying, maybe minus the ‘Jacky-Boy’ part.

Also at one point, one of the Manhattan Newsies says: ‘I ain’t afraid of no turf!! Spot Conlon just gets me a little…nervous.’

Yeah, no kidding. Viggo would get me nervous too, seriously..

And as Viggo is the leader, i put Zach and Vi as Brooklyn Newsies as well, though they don’t necessarily have specific roles.

*Also, their outfits are based on the Broadway Brooklyn Costumes.

Now for the final introductions:

I’ll go in the order that I've drawn them. 

The Delancys:

I try not to chuck in my OCs, however I didn’t know who else to put as the Delancy Brothers. Daniel and Reggie might have worked, but I don't know Reggie’s character very well, nor did I want the two of them to work on the side of Gridley and Pronk(for…reasons, y3 reasons). So, Ev and Tavis it was. It also rather fits because Ev and Fischer absolutely hate each other and get into fights often, similar to Jack and the Delancys. Tavis, for his part, actually does end up working as some sort of ‘law enforcement’ (kinda)in his story, which is also sort of what the Delancys do as well. 

*Tavis also doesn’t wear his glasses in this, but still sees just as poorly without, hence the squint. This is also why he follows his younger brother around, so he doesn’t make a fool of himself and give those Newsies more ammunition against him. 

Wiesel:

Pronk works for Gridley. That’s literally it. That, and I didn't know who else to put here. So. 

Other Newsies:

I took the majority of the main cast, shoved them into Newsy costumes, and put them on a page. I also took Freddie Clemmons(Gryffindor Prefect) and Jenna Hexsmith(Seasonal Character + NPC near the Lake), as they seemed promising to place here. 

There are three who were actually based off of the Newsies in the Show, Robyn as Racetrack, Daniel as Kid Blink, and Kevin as Crutchie(He seems the most alike out of what I've got, though I do not consider him as the part, rather partially based). The rest are purely fabricated, though I did try to give a nod to their original designs, as I did, and do, with the majority of the Characters I adapt. It is harder to do so without colors, and a lot of them have the colors in my imagination more than anything. hh.

You may notice that Cass and Lottie are missing…well, this is because i’ve given them different roles. They are, rather than Newsies, the people who help Jack, Davey, and Kathrine print the newsies own paper, when Pulitzer banned his from covering any strike news. I thought Cass fit this role better than she would a Newsgirl, and Lottie also seemed to fit. You’ll see this below,

I know some of you might have been waiting to see who i would put as Kathrine and thus Fischer’s love interest, however i do regret to inform you that i have nobody. There really aren’t any hpma girlies who i think actually fit. Some share characteristics, but not enough to say ‘Yes, that’s her!’ Not to mention, i wouldn’t subject half of them to be with Fischer, considering relationships and things that he’s done to people they’re close to. 

So, rather than waiting for who knows how long to post this, I’m bringing it to you. Suggestions? Ideas? Please. I don’t care if it’s a canon character or someone’s OC either, and hey, if it’s an OC, free fanart yayyyy(this is half a joke half not, i will likely draw it once i get a character idea lol)

Anywho, to compensate for the lack of Kathrine, have these silly doodles, in the order of which they happen.

Anyway! I hope that made at least some semblance of sense, I’m pretty bad at conveying my ideas on here 😭

Thanks for reading all of this, anyhow

[schmergo]

My controversial opinions about the current trend of highly minimalist Shakespeare:

I like a minimalist approach to the Bard, but I think it has to be done within certain parameters.

Too many theatres seem to think that either everybody already knows the play and they don’t need to worry about the audience understanding everything OR they assume that nobody cares about Shakespeare and massively cut down everything except the celebrity leading actors’ lines. But if you play your cards right, audiences might actually enjoy other aspects of the play besides the stars!

1. A smaller cast is fine, great even. I’ve heard the estimate that Shakespeare’s plays might have been originally performed by about 15 people. A cast of 11-15 tends to work well in most spaces.

You can do an enjoyable Shakespeare play with 8-10 people (with significant cuts and doubling), but it doesn’t do anything to IMPROVE the theatergoing experience. And under 8 actors? It better be done for comedic effect or highly avant- garde, or it will be incomprehensible to most.

2. If you’re using a lot of doubling/tripling/quadrupling, you need to differentiate characters with costumes. Having everyone wear plain black minimalistic outfits or military uniforms only works if half the actors aren’t playing 5 different people.

As originally staged, Shakespeare’s plays didn’t have much in the way of sets, but costumes did a lot of storytelling. Even if yours are simple and modern, they should tell us something about the characters. The humble Friar Lawrence and the powerful Prince Escalus probably wouldn’t dress the same.

3. Similarly, if you’re doubling, tripling, etc. and significantly abridging the script, do not cut dialogue like “I have disguised myself as a monk!” or “They will never know that I’m secretly Bob!” Otherwise, they might think this is a whole new character they need to keep track of if clothes/accessories are the only signifier for that!

4. Also, try not to cut too many lines that establish a sense of place if you don’t have actual sets. Lines like, “Here we are in the forest” or “We’ve finally reached France!” are Shakespeare’s audience lifelines!

5. If you’re combining small roles to create composite characters, pay attention to those characters’ arcs. For instance, if combining all the minor lords in Macbeth into Ross and Lennox, maybe one starts more naive and the other more jaded, maybe one turns against MacB long before the other.

Don’t assign them lines that don’t make sense for their role, like if Lennox teleports between Scotland and England from scene to scene or if someone reacts with shock to news they already witnessed firsthand in an earlier scene. In general, treat your supporting characters like characters, not just vehicles to move the plot forward for the lead actor’s star turn, even if the lead is played by a celebrity!

6. Relying on voice and facial expressions only to tell the story, absent of sets, costumes, props, ensemble characters, or action scenes only works in a suitably intimate space. I don’t want to sit in the nosebleed seats in a 2,000 seat theatre and see a huge bare stage with only 9 people sitting or standing, emoting to only the first few rows.

Sitting through a play without following the story at all will make lots of people hate Shakespeare who may have otherwise fallen in love with his work after attending your play. “Stripping Shakespeare down to its bare essentials” can be raw and invigorating, just be careful not to remove binding ingredients or the whole recipe falls apart. The text can be tricky enough to comprehend, let alone with next to no visual signifiers to guide them. Work with the text, not against it! So many helpful tools are built into it!

[realitythroughthelensoffiction]

Good Omens Movie predictions: Jesus, Adam and their possible roles in the finale

I'm quoting some things Neil Gaiman said in this post. Please do not take this as me condoning his actions, but just as properly citing my sources. For further explanation, see this post.

The ending of season 2 of Good Omens left us with a cliffhanger that hinted at the Second Coming as a part of the plot of the finale. Fans have been wondering since then whether we will actually see Jesus in the movie. Some have suggested that he won't appear because the creative team behind the series would not want to depict him in a negative way.

There have also been discussions about whether Jesus even is the son of God in Good Omens. But the series doesn't state otherwise, so I think it is in line with the Christian belief here. And I don't really get why people think that Jesus would be portrayed in a bad light. His depiction in the series so far has been a very positive one. He has been established as "a very bright young man" whose only crime consisted in telling people to "be kind to each other".

Moreover, Terry Pratchett himself wrote in an article that although he never liked the Old Testament, he did like the New Testament and thought that "Jesus had a lot of good things to say" (you can read the full text here). So I'm convinced that if Jesus is featured in the Good Omens finale, he will be nothing but a nice guy.

But will he be featured? In 2005, both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman talked in Q&As with fans about the Good Omens sequel they had planned. You can find summaries of these Q&As in two old Livejournal posts, written by @irisbleufic (links here and here). Neil Gaiman revealed that the book would have opened with Jesus landing in an airplane and then getting lost in Times Square. Both authors also said that if they ever decided to publish the sequel, they would have to change much of the plot, because people's worldviews had changed, too.

However, since Terry Pratchett is no longer around, they did not get the chance to draft a new plot. And the announcement of the ninety-minutes-finale on the website of the Terry Pratchett Estate mentions that it "will bring to life a serendipitous conversation from almost 35 years ago". So I think we can assume that the plot of the Good Omens finale will pretty much follow the story the authors had originally discussed. This would include the beginning with Jesus landing in an airplane (in Times Square or more likely somewhere in Great Britain, since shooting takes place there). And indeed, an airplane with the inscription "Thy Kingdom Airways" is visibly featured in the title sequence of season 2, as spotted by @ennas-aesthetic (cf. this post).

Prediction No. 1: The Good Omens finale will - maybe after a prologue - open with Jesus landing in an airplane.

And after that? The summary that was teased for the plot of season 3 - now the 90-minutes-finale - reads as follows: "Now in Season Three, we will deal once more with the end of the world. The plans for Armageddon are going wrong. Only Crowley and Aziraphale working together can hope to put it right. And they aren’t talking" (cf. this article). Jesus getting lost would pretty much fit the definition of "the plans for Armageddon going wrong". And maybe Crowley and Aziraphale will (reluctanctly, as they are still angry at each other) go searching for him and talking to him about why the Apocalypse shouldn't happen.

Meanwhile Jesus will perhaps travel around a bit to look at the current state of the world, and will probably discover that humans haven't changed for the better since he's last been on earth. I've always imagined a scene where he meets some Christian fundamentalists (you know, the hardcore ones who believe in Jesus as a warrior and Armageddon being a good thing) and tries to bring them his message of peace and charity. And then they get angry and Jesus is like "I'll better leave before they crucify me again".

Since the title of the Good Omens sequel was supposed to be 668: Neighbour of the Beast, there's also the possibility that Jesus will quite literally become the neighbour of Adam in Tadfield.

Speaking of Adam: both the book and the series imply that he retained some of his powers after the events around the averted Apocalypse, as shown by him being able to miracle a hedge away to escape his garden.

And frankly, that's one of the things I didn't like. Because if Adam changed reality so that Satan isn't his father anymore, then this means that he is no longer the Antichrist. I thought the whole point of the ending of the book and season 1 was that Adam used his powers to give up on said powers, because supernatural forces shouldn't mess with humans' lives.

But anyway, the authors decided to leave the door for Adam to become relevant once more open, and since the title of the planned sequel suggests that he would have played a role in it, and because he was one of the main protagonists in the book (though not so much in the series), I think chances are high that we will see Adam again in the finale.

People - for example @idliketobeatree in this post - have also pointed out that Jesus and Adam meeting would fit the theme of opposites coming together (although, again, they technically aren't even opposites anymore, because Jesus is the son of God, but Adam is no longer the son of Satan).

Prediction No. 2: We will see Jesus and Adam together.

But what will their roles be? I've explained in this post why I am almost certain that the finale will feature the Last Judgment. This would for sure be the climax of the movie and happen in the third act of it. In classical three-act structure, the third act makes up for the last 25% of a movie (cf. this article). So with a total length of 90 minutes, this would mean that we have a bit more than one hour to build up to that moment. This building up would include the trouble with Jesus being lost. But since we also need time to get to know what is happening in heaven and hell as they're preparing for the final conflict, I think the part with Jesus exploring the world will be the one that will be shortened the most due to time restrictions.

Nevertheless, I believe we will somehow get to the bit with the Last Judgment, and that raises some questions. Will Jesus be reluctant to judge people? Or will he come to the conclusion that it is inevitable, because humans simply cannot be convinced to "be kind to each other"? It will also be interesting, as @flameraven pointed out in this post, how they will handle the fact that in Christian belief, Jesus is the son of God, but he also is God (God became human in Jesus). So does Jesus know what the ineffable plan is? Or is he trying to figure it out just like the rest of the characters? How much independency does he have?

And what role will he play in the final resolution of the conflict? I don't think that his contribution will be game-changing. Since he is the son of God, that would be a little bit too much of a deus ex machina. But then again, Jesus was human, so maybe he will team up with the other humans against heaven and hell. In any case, I believe that Jesus will have a hand in finally averting the Apocalypse (otherwise, they would probably not include him in the story).

Prediction No. 3: Jesus will play a role when it comes to averting the Apocalypse, but the main agency will still come from other characters.

A scenario I could imagine is this: Jesus begins to judge people, including angels and demons, sorting them into the saved and the damned. But they object to it, finally standing united. And Jesus takes this as a prove that the earth, its inhabitents, and both angels and demons are not as depraved as they seemed to, that they are still capable of love, and that the things that unite them will always be stronger then the things that divide them. So he retreats from judgment, and as a consequence of it all heaven and hell cease to exist, ruling out the possibility of Armageddon forever. The conflict is thus resolved by humans and maybe even angels and demons displaying unity, with a little help from Jesus (you can read more about why I think that love/unity will save the day in this post).

So, what do you think? What will Jesus's (and Adam's) role in the finale of Good Omens be?

[blizzardsuplex]

arospec!RS: a meta ramble

(disclaimer: this is pure headcanon of an ultimately fictional/put-on version of a real person, I do not claim to know anything at all for certain, this is entirely just for fun. Also I probably missed some things RIP)

So, full disclosure: I myself identify as being, orientation-wise, on the asexual and aromantic spectrum. Just in case someone who reads this doesn’t know what either of those mean, I will (probably poorly) operationalize them, very simply, as follows: asexuality is experiencing little to no sexual attraction, aromanticism experiencing little to no romantic attraction. Pithily, the first means a lack of desire to bang, the second a lack of desire to smooch.

This of course assumes the split attraction model, where who you want to sleep with and who you want to romance aren’t necessarily the same. In addition, what constitutes a “lack” or “little” enough to fall under these labels is, in itself, pretty nebulous. This is why asexuality and aromanticism—ace(ness) and aro(ness) for short—is often thought of as a pole or trend on a spectrum with allosexuality and alloromanticism (which just means the full experience of sexual and/or romantic attraction), rather than a point by itself. Some people who identify as aces or aros don’t feel them at all, or low enough that is doesn’t matter. Some people have their levels of attraction fluctuate depending on this or that circumstance, or even nothing specific at all. And some people only start experiencing any sexual or romantic feelings after there’s lots of groundwork laid in terms of platonic closeness.

With that assumed and established, here comes my actual headcanon: RS is not on the acespec, but he is on the arospec. I tend to specifically label him demiromantic (so he only feels romantic attraction with people he already gives a shit about), but regardless of specificity those arospec tendencies are there.

Why do you think he’s not on the acespec?

It’s Roddy Strong, guys. Have you guys seen and heard things about how much of a manwhore he was, especially in the early to mid 2000s? That guy got around (and, according to Excalibur, was best friends with his local STD clinic).

In slightly more seriousness: across a couple of recent (as in post-joining AEW) interviews, he has directly stated that, until meeting Marina Shafir (which we will touch upon again later), his relationship with women in general was pretty weird/poor. The first half of that is that sometimes he’d instantly be attracted to this woman or that—that is, want to sleep with them. That plus the references to him doing things like picking up women and talking about getting blowjobs in wrestling venues or whatever over the years leads me to conclude that he is, in fact, allosexual (and probably heterosexual, really, though my thoughts on his feelings towards men is worth another post of its own).

Why do you think he’s on the arospec?

Here’s where it gets juicy.

First off: you may be wondering what he thought of women he didn’t want to immediately sleep with. The answer is: nothing. In his own words, he didn’t want anything to do with them at all—not because he hated women, but because he literally didn’t know how to interact with them beyond the bounds of sexual attraction.

Now, this on its own may raise eyebrows for reasons totally unrelated to orientation. To that, I have to note here that, thanks to his A+ childhood that we will kind of have to get into later (again, RIP), this aloofness was not just reserved for women: he was pretty distant with most men, too. It was only in his mid to late 20s that he started opening up to people (his fellow wrestlers, who were mostly, yes, men) and stopped pretending to be a “meathead quiet guy who let wrestling talk” for him.

I mention this because he has also directly said that without opening up to these guys he would have never been able to form actual lasting romantic relationships with women. According to him, making actual friends he could be emotionally close to and vulnerable with (which, by the by, is something he desperately wanted during his childhood that he didn’t really get) is what allowed him to realize that, oh, wow, he’s capable of having and maintaining normal relationships—and that it was probably similar with women, right?

...well, I say “romantic relationships”, plural, when I really just mean romantic relationship, singular. Marina, who he is by all accounts extremely happily married to and raising a kid with, was only his third ever girlfriend in his life. His first was a cheerleader in high school, his second a decade long on-again, off-again relationship that ended in divorce—and, if he had it his way, that number would’ve been even fewer; he has also gone on record saying that for a long time he only had a girlfriend not because he was romantically into her but because “that’s what someone like him is supposed to do, right?”, which is a sentiment I’ve seen echoed in ace and aro spaces so often it’s not even funny.

Speaking of Marina, Roddy’s relationship with her is very interesting. When they met, he immediately wanted to sleep with her—but she was in a relationship with someone else at the time. Since this was post-power of friendship teaching him how to open up his heart or whatever, though (LOL), he decided to try and be friends with her instead (his first close friendship with a woman, apparently, that he described once as “having the training wheels on”). Clearly, it worked out!

But the statement that personally solidified my headcanon, especially my demiromantic hc, is this: he has said that he realized that how he acts around his close friends is exactly how he acts around his wife—minus, explicitly, “physical intimacy stuff”. From how touchy he is with his best friends, he clearly doesn’t mean physical intimacy in general. He’s definitely sexually attracted to Marina/women and always has been; it’s non-sexual closeness with anyone that he he didn’t feel and eventually did.

Okay, but...isn’t he just traumatized?

Well, yes. Yes he is (and if you don’t know about his childhood, I made an equally messy lore dump doc about it). He’s even mentioned that how he used to be with women was probably heavily influenced by his relationship with his mother. Also, if you’re not in ace/aro discourse spaces, you probably aren’t aware that the topic of “do people who are ace/arospec because of trauma still count as ace/aro” comes up on occasion.

Let me state my opinion on it: yes, traumatized aces/aros get to use the label/identify with the community if they want to. No, I do not think RS uses the term himself; he’s like a 42 year old white dude, IDK if he even knows that the “A” in LGBTQIA+ stands for asexuality and aromanticism. I do think he’s aware that he has an interesting relationship with attraction, though—and that’s where I will stop being delulu, if anyone is still reading this, LOL.

[devouredbyflame]

The risk of mysticism

The reason most people have trouble reaching the Gods is because they do not consider that whatever trouble they are having is a direct reason to what they feel that they are risking as a response.

For example, if you think yourself unworthy of Them or constantly worry that They are mad at you, it is more likely than not that you have an underlying trauma that has led to people pleasing. Deal with that first because the Gods aren’t going to make that go away - They will probably make it worse, actually.

Any issue you have in any other relationship be it with friends, relatives, lovers, you name it - the Gods will magnify those issues tenfold just by existing.

Another good example is if you are upset because you cannot hear Them clearly, consider that you have not been close enough to Them yet. And if you aren’t close enough, what can you do to make it better?

It’s not that you’re not doing enough or that you have failed. It’s because you aren’t aware enough of yourself to even begin to understand the nuance of what the Divine can offer.

The problem with people on social media who think it is a cakewalk to have a relationship with a Deity tend to steer those people who have just started out towards failure. It isn’t easy to do this - it takes work and inner reflection and dedication. You don’t go into this and think you have a right to a relationship with a God and it should just be given to you because you exist. That idea came from Christianity.

The Gods are not all-loving, omnipresent and omnibenevolent. Not all of Them even work with humans. And not all of Them care enough to go out of Their way to prove to you that They are real unless you put in your side of the effort to encourage Them to come to you. People who have 5-10 Deities they think are following them around all day don’t actually have 5-10 Deities - they are lucky if they have one.

Otherwise, if you’re okay with just giving offerings and seeing the Gods as a symbol rather than a real, living being who has needs and wants, then by all means. It just isn’t going to get you any closer to Them and a lot of people I see tend to assume They aren’t real enough of an authority to care either way.

To be clear, this is no fault of any person. This is the fault of a society that has failed in giving us a culture that allows the relevance of the Gods in ordinary to flourish.

What people don’t understand is that by walking a mystical path, you are already not going to abide by the standards of the religions that are most practiced in the modern world. What you do is not going to be what Christians or monks or nuns or priests do - it is going to be new and it is going to take effort to forge a new path into the future of paganism.

It won’t be completely from scratch but it’s also not going to have much of anything to do with Christianity no matter how much you love to hate Christians. It won’t have much to do with mainstream society at all, actually. The reality of mysticism is actually not terribly popular at all.

The people who walked closely with the gods and heard Them and felt Them always in ancient times existed outside of what was widely agreed upon to be society. It is otherwise not normal to be as close to the Gods in the way modern polytheists seem to think it should be or think it’s something everyone else is capable of doing while very few are willing to make that kind of sacrifice or risk being wrong long enough to successfully gain traction.

At the end of the day, it’s not a highly probable thing that 99.99% of people on the internet that newer people or even aged pagans compare themselves to actually have done the work to be able to claim the relationship that they believe they have with the Gods.

[read-write-thrive]

part 1 (both girls in their full outfits) ; part 2 (Edwina in several other outfits/sketches) ; part 3 (the companion to this piece aka Edwina getting ready :)

part 4 of my fem!payneland fanart series!!!! as I talked about with the poll, I have quite a few variations of this piece as I couldn’t make up my mind on a few of the elements, but I listened to your feedback and have included them all here !! the winner of the poll is above the cut with the rest of the variations below to hopefully make this not take up too much of your dash lol

lmk what you think - especially people who voted on the poll!! I’ve also included my thought process below the cut since I know y’all are interested :)

- first and foremost: I have absolutely no idea what order someone would get ready in with all these outfit components, so if you’re sitting here like “why is her makeup done when she has to pull a shirt over her head?” or something like that: you’re probably correct but my getting ready process is always chaos and there aren’t exactly articles on this sort of thing

- along with that: her straightening her hair is probably not accurate to how hair works but again I’ve got v little experience to pull from and trying to find a proper reference was a pain in the ass

yes her bra is fully rendered and then got covered up by her arm. I'm still mad that I did that to myself but I like the pose too much to change it so oh well

- (onto actual historical stuff!!)

- her hair is being straightened here despite straight not being in style during this era for several reasons:

1. I based her hair (and a lot of her style, as per part 1) on Rhoda Dakar of the band The Bodysnatchers, which was an all-female band that was part of the ska revival in the late 70s/early 80s. Rhoda Dakar in particular is a British artist (who’s still making music!) with an English mother and Jamaican father—so not only was she one of the only women of color I could find as part of this subgenre/in ths era/with plenty of photo references, but considering Jayden Revri is Jamaican and English (alongside Indian) himself I thought it was fitting! Her Bodysnatchers look is also much more femme leaning than the rest of the band, as well as her hair styled in a way that suggests straightening, so I carried that over to Charlotte here as well.

2. On a related note, there is a clear historical and modern difference in hairstyles worn/made popular/deemed fashionable by non-white versus white individuals and I thought it only appropriate to acknowledge that in my design of her. I even went so far as to research how her mom’s hair may have been styled since I assume that’s who would’ve been teaching her how to care for her hair in the first place. With that, I looked at popular Indian hair trends from the 60s (figuring that’s when Charlotte’s mom could’ve still been in India and following those trends) which also involved a preference for straight/wavy hair, with soft fringe made popular by Sadhana and the styles ranging from long and luscious to styled up into a very 60s beehive. Charlotte could easily also rock a beehive, especially since the 60s revival was a part of the ska revival movement and Dakar herself styled her hair as such, but I figured Charlotte is a little too much of a rebellious teenager to go for a look she’s seen her mom wear!

- her makeup is based off of the different members of The Bodysnatchers as well as other punk/ska fans at the time. The look usually required more blush that what I gave her here, but I wanted to make sure the eyes were the feature (since Charles wears eyeliner himself) and then the lips being any less just looked weird to me. Also, Dakar doesn't seem to wear the same heavy blush that the other members do, which could be a stylistic choice but could also be the potential lack of blush shades that would work well on her skin tone, so I went that route for Charlotte here

- her underwear is all based off of meticulous searching of historical advertisements, though I will admit the sources are (presumably) American since I couldn't find British equivalents (I'm hoping the styles were similar enough...) in particular:

1. Her bra is based off of: Playtex’s New Made for Me, Playtex’s Right For Me, and Playtex’s Thank Goodness It Fits (which are seriously the names of these as per the ads—how creative /s)

2. Her panties (or pants or underwear or whatever term you want to use) are based off of: Sears Best’s Nylon tricot panties, Sears Very Impressive Panties Nylon panties, and JCPenny’s eiderlon fashion panties

3. (In the below variations) Her pantyhose are theoretically based on L’eggs and Spirit by Stevens’s Slim & Slender pantyhose. But, honestly, they’re mostly based on my own experience wearing hose bc almost none of the ads showed how the gusset of the pantyhose actually looked so I needed to fill in the gaps (one of the many reasons I’m still unhappy with them—plus the wrinkles would not look right no matter what I did !!)

4. Her socks are called slouch socks! I don’t have a specific brand for them but the style was all the rage in the 80s-90s (and I want to own some so bad ngl)

- the hair straightener is just a blob based on the reference photo since trying to research historical hair tools was beyond me at the time apparently, but the style of outlet/plug is accurate to Britain in 1989 so there’s that at least (I have no idea why my brain works like this)

- since I talked about it in the poll I feel like I should address it here: technically having a bush was well out of fashion by 1989 due to the grooming boom and new types of hair removal popular throughout the 80s and 90s. However, she’s wearing multiple layers over it and is technically a teenager (in an abusive household and a catholic all-girls school, at that) so I kept going back and forth on it. It won the poll so it’s in the main post, but you’ll see in the below variations that I really went back and forth on it. that being said I do think it’s interesting given her nylon pants being semi-sheer besides at the gusset, so I’m not mad at it. plus I figured she was definitely shaving her legs/underarms, so maybe that balances it out ?

and finally here’s the other seven variations of this piece :) lmk what you think!!

[wylanzahn]

New-ish post, kinda posting this on different platforms and getting a general vibe check for some ideas I have. But basically this Halloween I want to actually do something for the TTRPG and Actualplay world (oh yeah I’m into those kinds of things). I want to try and get both players, GMs, and casual viewers alike something fun to look forward to this especially spooky season. I’ll probably talk a little more when we get closer to the actual season of scare-giving but just know that if you’re interested I’m still looking for people to join in!!

As my team and I’d first debut we’re going to try and do a two to four session actual play, which will probably be released in the weeks leading up to Halloween. We’ve had a couple good friend way in on the matter of “setting” but now I come to you fine folk. Mind you this is a horror campaign/arc so if…

Isn’t your thing, keep on a moving.

But without further ado here are a couple of the possible settings for our players, and myself, this coming espookee season…

1.) Somewhere off the coast of Florida, 1926 end of the first major housing boom in the state, a small island which calls back to the Spanish Empire, is Isla Boñyela, a small port made tourist location during the boom of disposable wealth in 1920s America. A small group of friends from the northeast tag along down for the perfect paradise vacation. Only to discover the island is much much older than anyone could have ever assumed. Whilst dealing with upstart gangsters, unnerving US soldiers, and the terrified locals they find something older than even undead conquistadors.

While I don’t have a working title, this is an old project in the running which I’ve had a few attempts at revamping over time. Its previous title was “perfect paradise vacation,” and runs on the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition game. Anywho it’s a blast of fun with Caribbean lore, tone of anti-imperialism, and something dark lurking beneath the waves.

2.) 1950’s America, the nonexistent state of Mid-Atlantia (DMV coded) in a small suburban neighborhood where nothing goes wrong… it’s almost “All-Hallows-Eve” and little Johnny and Susie want nothing more than to trick or treat this year with all the big kids, Dad’s finally getting the big promotion at work, and Mom just got a new waffle iron! Sure everything is neat here in America. Heck you just got new neighbors! Newlyweds in fact from somewhere big and fancy, they sure aren’t like any of us in our simple town. But… and you can’t say exactly why but things are different. Or perhaps they’re all too the same? Everyday a repeat of ever other bland day that followed you over and over and over and over… and you could swear, while no one may listen to you there’s someone out there. Stalking you from outside your own home- or- perhaps, he’s just your friendly new neighbor welcoming you… to the end.

Ahhhhhh! I’ve also been working on this one for a sec and god writing it out does excite me. This is also a Call of Cthulhu game but modified/homebrewed to have a uniquely 1950s horror feel. This is definitely one of the more unique games I’ve written and am truly interested in seeing where it goes (even if we don’t choose it). This is for those who feel like isolation, fear of the unknown, fear from within, and liminal space horror comes best into play! So whadya say neighbor?

3.) The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend, or How I Learned to Love Strahd, okay so this one is a lot less horror-y and falls much more under the comedic spooky category, just so yall know. Deep in the middle of Barovia, the ancient kingdom of Vampires, meets a council of Count Strahd von Zarovich's greatest commanders and lieutenants to hunt down Strahd's greatest enemy Rudolph van Richten and his party of heroes known as "The Grape-Smashers." Strahd's lieutenants have been gifted powers greater than any mere mortals, but are these gifts enough to stop Van Richten, or even enough to stop the personal ambitions of each other? Come find out in "How I Learned to Love Strahd."

Okay, as much as this may seem like a joke suggestion it cracks me up and I feel like it would be ill-advised of me to not at least mention it. In an era where "The Curse of Strahd," is well-overdone at this point, it's worth a take from an all evil "revenge story." Obviously this will be in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition, which, in my opinion, is really hard to use for horror, but this is a nice go-around. Come for the evil PCs, maybe a PvP battle or two, and a game of intrigue in the shadows of Barovia! All that and a buff Van Richten.

4.) Before Annapolis was ever called such it was known as Providence, a settlement of exiled Puritans in the Province of Maryland, but these early days were no easy set-up for the far-flung protestants... in the mid 1600s the English Civil War spilled out into their holdings across the waves as brother turned on brother, clan erasing clan, and something from the shores of the Old World would arrive in the New. When around every corner could be someone you've known your whole life, what's stopping them from hunting you in the depths of winter. All matters made worse when rumors of a witch begins circulating your small home.

Think "The VVitch" (2015) meets "A Field in England" (2013) meets Atun Shei's recent film "The Sudsbury Devil" (2023). It is the unexplored wilderness of early colonial Maryland, but the hateful warmongering that slowly builds that makes the horror and tension so clear. Unsure of what system we'll be using, but maybe the new Regency Cthulhu system.

5.) The Great Baltimore Fire of 1904 destroyed some 140 Acres of Baltimore proper... and in it's rubble awakened something far worse. But you and your fellow survivors are just trying to get by in the aftermath of the fire... only for something to call out, whether some strange magicks or perhaps just a sickness... but sickness doesn't even linger like this... it doesn't call to you...

Some more local history, aspiring from the actual Fire of 1904 things quickly devolve from there as rumors of a cult begin to spread along the streets of Rosland Park... a mysterious illness leaving even more dead... and the death of an eclectic professor. Definitely using the Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition for this one.

Aaaaaaaand that's it! Let me know what y'all think!

[rosetheocto]

Among Us Logic: Rewritten • A Bunch Of Yapping!! (Part 1)

Once again, AULR is a colab project between me and @coinholder! HUGE huge yapping session and stuff is under the cut!! Note that all of this is still a work in progress and will probably change!!

Worldbuilding (I guess?)

For this series, we’re actually leaning into the Logic of Among Us, most stuff that doesn’t line up with the game are getting a proper explanation here!! I’m fully going into this with it being a group of people on a call playing a game together, so no Cheese restaurants or Crewmate College or anything implying that they’re inside the game itself pre-NV, sorry! There’s a lot of stuff I’m changing, and a handful that I’m keeping. Starting with the groups we see throughout the series, we have…

The Among Us Losers (shortened to “AUL”)

The main group of the series that we follow!! Pretty much all of these guys make some kind of appearance in most episodes. This consists of Player, Veteran, Noob, TheGentleman, Mr. Cheese, Mr. Egg, Captain, Ninja, PoopyFarts96, Cub, Stoner, Bro, Engineer, Gnome, and Blue! The Fall Guys Logic Trio are the primary characters, but that doesn’t mean that characters like Captain or TheGentleman (and his Business Associates™️) don’t get the spotlight from time to time! Others like Angel, NotOrange, and Hornsly do show up for an episode, but they don’t stay like the rest of the group. The lobby mostly met online through Discord (with a couple knowing other members irl), which is also where they call to play the game together! There’s also other games and events they do occasionally, but their main thing is Among Us!

Hackers’ Lobby

More lore for the Hackers’ Lobby is explained in this post, but it was basically started as Innersloth’s first defense against the NoVisor Cult that just silently evolved into just a general punishment area when the game got more popular! For a majority of the series, it’s ran by Admin and Ms. Pink (and occasionally Clogsworth when they’re desperate) but after the NoVisor Arc, some of the Cultists lend a helping hand too as a way to make up for all the trouble they’ve caused in the past years! The way this group communicate without a Discord server is through built in proximity chat! This place has a mod for everything, I swear

Other than Admin, Ms. Pink, and Clogsworth, the notable characters we see in this group are Angel (violated the Kill Cooldown), Mother (modified her hat and pet to be more “sentient” and “like [her] children”), Goober (NoVisor Cultist who Got Caught), along with a handful of other AUL side characters (who aren’t in the GTG Server) popping up as well. In this version of the Hackers’ Lobby Arc, Angel, Mother, and Goober team up with Player to him get on Admin’s good side to increase the chances that they can all escape the lobby! Oh yeah, the only way to escape the Hacker’s Lobby is to gain his approval, which is EXTREMELY difficult to do, so good luck! The only notable person who leaves the lobby is NotOrange, but that’s because he exploits a glitch (that he keeps a secret cuz he’s selfish) to ban evade without much problem other than Admin being Pissed As Hell about it

The Got To Game Server (shortened to “GTG”)

You know all those characters exclusive to GameToons Gaming? This is the discord they all reside in! It’s a far bigger server than the Among Us Losers, and they do a much more variety of stuff. Even outside of that channel, if someone from the original series doesn’t show up in an episode, assume they’re chilling somewhere in this server! Player joined impulsively while looking for other lobbies to possibly score a win, and ends up getting acquainted with some of the people there who were playing the funny space bean game! In the episode Player is in this lobby, the others there are BDay, Rose, Hunter, Rookie, Sheriff, Happy, Flamingo, and Pirate-Captain (all subject to change)!! In the AULR canon, this is where a lot more of the variety content would take place in-universe, if that makes sense! They’re a very large group, with a lot a different characters!

The Cult of NoVisor & Other ‘IRL’/Non-Game Stuff

This one is technically multiple groups, but it’s pretty much any character that isn’t really shown playing the game in a server. This category’s for those like Aiden, Dr. Doktor, Duncan, a handful of NV’s Cultists, Punk, his bandmates (who I’m making actual characters), Dum, That Pink Bastard From The Christmas Special, Blondie, Baggy, Hollywood, the GameTunes characters, etc! The Cult of NoVisor (along with a few story things that happen before the NV Arc + a certain trio) is something I will go more in depth on in a future post so stay tuned for that!! A lot of the GameTunes characters (and Hollywood) also work for a music and acting company called Tunes Theater! Oh also, here’s a drawing I did with my designs for the rest of Punk’s band in this universe, called Punk & The Voices!! :0

Episode Summaries/Descriptions

this is just like. what they would be like if I made AULR into an actual series with animation and stuff. obviously there’s some minor spoilers for stuff like the NV Arc but if something doesn’t make sense I’ll probably explain it in another post! Some of these episodes align with the original series, some don’t, some new eps get added, some get removed, you get the point! I kinda just did this for fun lmao. Definitely still a WIP

AULR 1: So This Is Among Us…

Player is back at it again, though this version of his story is different than what people have been used to. Although there are some changes, he’s still in Among Us; a game where Impostors and deception lurk around every corner. After all this time, a question that most have wondered during the GameToons Among Us Era is being revisited: Will Player be forced to accept a fate of constant defeat, or will he be able to truly secure a proper Victory using the logic of the game?

AULR 2: Trust & Betrayal

As Noob and Veteran join the wonderfully evil world of Among Us, Player is starting to get sick of losing as a Crewmate. When luck gives him a chance to be The Impostor, he must take matters into his own hands. Can he get away with murdering all of The Skeld’s Crewmates, including his girlfriend and closest buddy?

AULR 3: A Team of Three

Player is paired with his best friend Veteran and girlfriend Noob as Impostors! But while Veteran is taking his time learning how the game works, and Noob is trying to not get caught as a killer, Player has other things on his mind. Mainly, getting his very first win at The Skeld...

AULR 4: Nothing Personal (It’s Just Business)

Veteran has been steadily improving at playing Among Us as he finds his footing, But when Mr. Egg and TheGentleman’s skills get thrown into question, he alongside Player and Noob find themselves up against a deadly duo of Impostors at MIRA HQ.

AULR 5: A Perfect Revenge

The Impostor is having the game of his life in this round of Among Us. He is skillfully eliminating every Crewmate, nobody suspects a thing, and he’s getting some sweet payback! Player must be getting a win on a silver platter… or is he?

AULR 6: Being Egg-nored

For better or worse, Mr. Egg joins back into the Among Us Losers Server. Desperate to get TheGentleman back from Mr. Cheese, he and Player reluctantly team up. The two are both on the losing end of something, but for the first time in their lives, will they be able to emerge victorious?

AULR 7: Omelette Impostors

In a surprising turn of events, Mr. Egg is paired with Mr. Cheese as his Impostor partner! With their skills, a duo like them could win this game easily. However, the hatred between them is still very intense, and if they don’t get their acts together they will quickly be found out by the others…

AULR 8: A Soul That’s Fading

A seemingly normal game of Among Us quickly takes a turn as Player is suddenly face to face with a being that has only been described in hushed rumors: The soul of someone who has been trapped in the game since it first released back in 2018. After Player gives them a few small reminders, they remember barely enough to tell him their story…

AULR 9: Why So Blue?

When Blue joined the Among Us Losers, he was quickly weirded out by everyone’s demeanor. The way this Lobby functions is so different from others, it would be impossible for someone as straightforward as him to get along with anybody there. But, a certain pink Crewmate just might prove Blue’s theory incorrect…

AULR 10: Ruthless Impostor

Ninja is in the Lobby once again, joining up with Player as The Impostors. Stuck in The Skeld together, what will happen when someone with an Impostor winning streak works with the guy who has done nothing but lose?

AULR 11: Change of Pace

After having the temptation several times, Player decides to see how joining a new Lobby will go for him. Will his losing streak still be as present as ever? And will he click with the Got to Game Server as much as he did with the Among Us Losers?

AULR 12: Mods-For-1

A new face joins the Among Us Losers, this stranger being a skilled hacker. When Player is paired up with him as an Impostor, he is faced with a risky opportunity: Will he join him and cheat in order to get his first victory?

AULR 13: Entering the Hackers’ Lobby

Player is now trapped in the Hackers’ Lobby, where every single game is full of weird mods, cheats, and glitches. Admin is insistent that there is no way to leave, but Player is still determined to figure out some way to escape…

AULR 14: Exiting the Hackers’ Lobby

After Ms. Pink lets it slip that leaving the Hackers’ Lobby is possible, Player with the help of some others must conjure up a plan to gain Admin’s approval. Will Player be able to go back to his friends, or is he going to remain stuck in this messy modded world?

AULR 15: Zombie Virus

Just when Player makes his return to the Among Us Losers, the gang are on the run from hacked-in zombies! And to make matters worse, no one knows who caused it, nor who The Impostor is! Can the group survive on Polus long enough to unravel the sinister plot before them?

AULR 16: ‘Mogus Operandi

Outside of the Server, it turns out Cub and PoopyFarts96 have actually been close friends for a long time! The moment fate allows them to be able to play Among Us together, they will quickly become the trickiest team of Impostors…

AULR 17: In Love with An Impostor

Love is in the air in MIRA HQ, and so is the threat of an Impostor! Will the couples of the Lobby be able to do their tasks and save the day, or will they all get their hearts broken by a heartless killer?

AULR 18: Friendly Redemption

Captain is finally back from the Hackers’ Lobby, and is now seeking forgiveness and a second chance from the rest of the crew. After how badly the Zombies hack went down with everyone, will the Among Us Losers allow Captain to take a leadership position again?

AULR 19: The Airship’s Arrival

The Airship has finally landed in Among Us! Player and the rest of the Lobby take the first opportunity they have to explore every little thing this new map has to offer! Will Player get enough luck to become an incredible Impostor, or will the crewmates come out on top?

AULR 20: Hornsly’s Robot Companion

A player named Hornsly joins the Among Us Losers, alongside his pet robot QWERTY! The Lobby loves the lil’ guy, however things quickly start getting more and more weird with it as the round goes on…

AULR 21: The Mystery Of NoVisor

Throughout the times he’s played Among Us, Player has been seeing more and more visions of faceless ghosts, along with glimpses of a familiar brown Crewmate calling to him for help. When Player wakes up trapped inside the game, he wanders the dark halls of The Skeld in search of an answer…

AULR 22: The Ghosts of NoVisor

Not only is NoVisor a real being in the code of Among Us, he also has it out specifically for Player! As more and more of the lobby gets stuck in the game, the time to stop NoVisor’s reign of terror in the Digital Space is running out…

AULR 23: The Cult of NoVisor

The crew glitch their way from MIRA HQ to Polus just as evil is about to strike. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for NoVisor’s minions to follow them there. The ghosts of Blue and Mr. Egg try to warn Player and the others of their impending doom, but can they find a way to save everyone trapped in the game all before it’s too late…?

AULR 24: The Vessel of NoVisor

As Player tries to put a stop to NoVisor on The Airship, the Ghost’s plan is only just getting started. While its Cultists perform a ritual to get everyone permanently contained inside the Digital Space, a man named Dr. Doktor goes to assist Ninja and Player with his vast knowledge of NoVisor’s history…

AULR 25: The Battle of NoVisor - The Fate of Aiden

Player has landed in an old scrapped version of Polus, the place NoVisor calls home, and now faces his greatest challenge yet. Will NoVisor and the Cultists complete their goal and make Player their newest Vessel? Or will he rise against the odds and finally secure a Victory? The entirety of Among Us depends on how Player plays his cards, so he can’t risk to screw this up…

AULR 26: Welcome to the Fungle! (Epilogue)

After a nice long break of playing Among Us, Player makes his greatest comeback! As the game has been getting more maps, colors, and roles, along with a certain spirit no longer haunting him, Player just might get another win under his belt!

OK THAT’S EVERYTHING FOR NOW CHAT PART 2 POST COMING SOON AND THAT WILL BE MORE PLOT-RELATED YIPPEEEEEE!!!!! :D

Feel free to send me (or coinholder) any questions about this rewrite too cuz I’d be down to answer them!!

[teatraps]

Crazy take time!

- Chloe’s tragedy is the framework for following tragedies in game 5 and holds one of game 5’s main messages

Lemme explain: First you gotta understand Chloe’s situation FULLY. Just saying she killed Vera out of jealousy doesn’t cut it. Chloe was heavily neglected her entire life, so much so that she could disappear and no one would notice. Then, when she has a talent that could get her recognized and loved, it appears her sister, Vera, stole it and profited off it. The same sister who is already adored and she’s constantly compared to. If the story ended here, Chloe would honestly be a pretty sympathetic character. A woman who had been wronged every step of the way, cheated out of her creation, and betrayed by the person closest to her—finally getting her time to shine and getting a chance to get the appreciation she deserves.

However, the story didn’t end there. Turns out Vera did love her and only wanted to help. Chloe jumped the gun. She killed the only person who truly cared about her and there’s nothing she can do to undo that. The only thing she can do is live with her mistakes and try not to replicate them. What Chloe did to Vera changed her a lot. She almost never uses violence or force to get her way (as stated by her experiment file) because she doesn’t want to hurt an innocent person again. Her conscience continues to stick with her.

From the outside looking in, it’s easy to judge Chloe, it’s easy to say she was foolish and cruel for what she did to Vera. And when comparing her to the rest of game 5 at the start, she’s kind of the worst person out of the group. (as long as you don’t consider the atrocities Jose probably committed as a first officer in Spanish Navy during the Victorian era). She’s the only person who killed an innocent. Edgar killed his abuser, Patricia has the goal of killing but it’s always framed as virtuous so it largely goes unquestioned by the fandom, and the deaths Jose and Kevin feel guilty for aren’t directly their fault so from the audience’s perspective they’re just grieving victims. Chloe is directly responsible for the death of an innocent person, and that makes a lot of people look past the person she became from that experience in order to frame her as this heartless murderer and also makes people see her as “worse” than the other participants.

*Side note: I feel like this is also why so many people falsely label Chloe as the person who actively wanted to poison Patricia despite it very clearly being Jose. They’ve already decided Chloe is an awful and irredeemable person while Jose is seen as a grieving victim. It’s easier for people to take the person they already view as evil and push all of the blame onto her even when it’s not accurate to the story. While reading this, please keep in mind that Jose is the main person who wants to poison Patricia due to his misconceptions about vodou. It’s explicitly stated in Chloe’s file that after the poisoning, something Chloe felt pressured to participate in as to avoid being targeted as well, Chloe doesn’t engage in any other violent attempts on any participant. That’s not the kind of person she is anymore. This is why Jose has to try and hypnotize Chloe and Edgar into going along with it. They wouldn’t have otherwise.*

If you look closer at game 5 though, you’ll realize the others aren’t so different from Chloe, they just haven’t had a true “Vera moment.” Jose’s “Vera moment,” came by way of the poison. Like Chloe, Jose makes assumptions. He assumes he knows everything there is to know about vodou and assumes it’s evil and anyone who practices it is too. Based on that assumption, he targets Patricia and tries to poison her. The poison plan falls through and leads Jose to reassess how he views everything and makes him realize he was wrong. Kind of like how Chloe’s murder and steal Vera’s identity plan falls through after she learns she did Vera dirty.

I do think Jose’s whole poison thing was supposed to parallel Chloe, but it doesn’t parallel nearly as much as Patricia’s situation. Most people don’t clock it, but there are many implications to Patricia’s sacrifices not being good for her (in her file it’s mentioned she has to confront herself like everyone else, maroon crystal essence video brings up how she lost everything from her sacrifice, 5th letter brings up how she becomes disconnected from her homeland because of what she did in the manor, 6th letter mentions how her ritual severed her from her tribe, file also brings up the fallibility of her judgment, reservist skin description implies her faith faltering in favor of something calmer). As you look closer at Patricia’s actions, they begin to parallel Chloe too. Both spent their lives being mistreated and cast aside. When offered the chance to get the acceptance they desire (& honestly deserve) they take it—even if it requires violence. In Chloe’s case, that was killing Vera and stealing her identity. In Patricia’s case, that was striking a deal with Papa Legba in order to obtain favor with a Loa and get accepted by the people in Haiti through sacrificing sinners to him. And based on the explicitly stated stuff from Chloe, and the implied stuff from Patricia, they both end up in a similar spot. Their self perception is fractured. We already know Edgar is probably not the kind of person Patricia was looking to kill when she set out on her mission. Even if Edgar accepted it, I find it hard to believe Patricia would be content with killing someone whose worst crime was killing their abuser. (Let alone an abuser who’s implied to be a sexual predator).

Chloe’s 4th letter is key to this idea of the other characters falling down the same path she did. Chloe doesn’t call the others “unbearably arrogant” for nothing. She sees her naive mindset echoed through the others’ actions.

As I watch game 5 progress, I feel like one of the key points is: It’s easy to judge someone’s actions and think you’re above making the same mistakes they did, but you aren’t. And while you and I probably aren’t out there killing innocent people accidentally, it’s unlikely we’ve gone through life never making a mistake and hurting someone we cared about on unintentionally. At the heart of all their actions were well meaning people. It doesn’t make what they did right, but it doesn’t have to define their character forever either.

[luxiomahariel]

hey man, just found your blog and i love your stuff, definitely gonna follow. just a heads up that shinigami eyes has you flagged as red (i've tried to correct it to green but im not sure how much one flag can do), so you've probably been mass flagged by idiots. i've noticed a lot of transmasc and intersex blogs have been flagged as red recently.

(i'm a trans man myself so i know the flag is bullshit, dw. also, if you dont mind answering, whats mtm? because i looked it up and i dont think you mean mouth-to-mouth lmao)

yep im aware of shinigami eyes flagging me as red lol

im glad for everyone thats checked for themselves sending me messages about correcting it on their end and flagging me green and i encourage all of you to also leave a review on the shinigami eyes extension page to let other people know how that it can be inaccurate, especially on tumblr

as for what mtm means, ill copy from a different ask i answered because i think i summed it up best there lol:

mtm is a term for transgender men who consider themselves transitioning from male to male, as they have always been male, just not in the way being male is traditionally defined as i have always been male and will always be male regardless of whatever genital, hormonal, or chromosomal arrangements i was born with, and whether i choose to make changes to my body or not ftm implies that someone was female at some point, then transitioned to male, which does not accurately describe how some trans men view their gender. its rooted in the concept of binary sex distinctions and assuming gender based on sex, which many trans people want to do away with entirely it can be considered an agab-punk identity, agab-punk meaning someone who does not wish to disclose their agab for any reason, or simply doesn’t find the concept of agab to be important or relevant it can also be used by intersex people who are close-to-male or ‘almost wolffian’ but aren’t actually wolffian (wolffian meaning someone who has a penis and testes, the capacity to produce sperm unless if sterile, and has testosterone as ones natural primary sex hormone) and who transitions to a male gender identity these people can also choose to call themselves ctmtm (close-to-male to male)

[ourpickwickclub]

“I’m still waiting for the proof he wasn’t in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving.” Obviously no one here can prove a negative, but the entire family (including G’s parents, Todd and his family, but not K) went to Z’s show at OR then. He also hasn’t been at Z’s other shows, A’s games, or on G’s social media at all. There’s also been changes in his social media use with respect to G and B that people here have commented on for a long time. I think it’s a very fair assumption at this point that K’s doing his own thing, living at GR’s house, and isn’t as involved with GB. People can speculate as to why but I agree with B that people should give him a lot more grace at this time. He’s trying to figure out how to be an adult and is still in high school. He has a known narcissist as a father and it took G twenty years to finally get away from him. The judgment for him is over the top. People are praising Z for following in B’s footsteps with country music and being blatantly passive aggressive about K. They’re aren’t your characters. It’s awesome that Z has found something he’s passionate about and can share it with B. K not having the same passion isn’t a flaw or something to be upset about. I get why people could be upset at the thought of GR influencing him but G made the choice to marry and have kids with the guy. Him having influence isn’t something that can be undone or something to blame on K.

I feel for any person who has to deal with GR. King is in an especially tough spot. He is the golden child to GR. Apollo may assume that role eventually, but for now, it is King. Zuma has always been the scapegoat child to GR. That almost makes it easier for Z. He gets shame and guilt from GR (most likely - I know we don’t know for sure but we have lots of clues).

Z has a stepdad who adores him, loves him unconditionally, and just wants the best for him. Obviously, that feels better than dealing with GR to Z. And I think It is easier for Z to see that GR is lying when he disparages B & G because he isn’t getting love bombed and manipulated in the same manner as K. GR probably doesn’t think he’s even worth the effort. If Zuma takes off, I’m sure GR will switch tactics and will try hard to win him over. He wants credit for any kid’s success. 

As for King, i’m sure GR has spent a lot of time indoctrinating him into the false narratives that he lives by. I’m sure he’s making himself the fun parent and the supportive parent even if he supporting things he shouldn’t. And I bet GR looks for any small hole dig into and make massive about any differences between K and B & G. But I do believe King will see GR for his true self eventually. It just might take a very long time. It did for Gwen and Gwen and King are so similar.

- B

[moony-2001]

How I would’ve constructed the 10 year time skip

✨Brought to you by my deep loathing for Lore Olympus✨

•warnings: super long post (I’m not joking), death, kidnapping, violence•

What The Fuck Happened

There was so much potential for the punishment arc. We could’ve seen a lot of character development, fleshed out storylines, reconciliation between certain people. We could’ve seen both Hades and Persephone going to therapy instead of claiming that one therapy session has fixed all their problems and then never going again.

Instead we got horny Persephone, pretty much no clue about what happened to Demeter OR Persephone during that time, and an easy plot device (sorry Cerberus) for Persephone to be like “I’m a big girl now harrumph harrumph, time for me to go reunite with my crusty ass bf who I’ve only know for a month”.

I hate the way she reunited with Ares. Ares is just a bonafide creep throughout the whole comic (although I liked when he attacked Zeus lol). I guess what I mostly hate about Ares and Persephone’s interaction is, yet again, it’s another example of every guy in the comic going AWOOGA over Persephone. Also Athena’s design is so fugly. I guess Rachel is completely incapable of drawing masculine presenting women as actual women.

The whole Kronos plot line is stupid. I hate it so much. Imo the whole “the titans are trying to escape so they can rule Olympus again” is overdone and not particularly done well. The fight between Kronos and Persephone is lame as shit. Like what, she gets big for all of 20 minutes, burps out a bunch of bees (which aren’t even aggressive creatures), and then does her version of the Wuxi Finger Hold from Kung Fu Panda and has Tartarus spirit Kronos away, magically fixing all of their problems (except it doesn’t and nothing is actually fixed).

Also I might get a lot of flack for this, but I don’t think the addition of Morpheus’ character was necessary. I like Morpheus. I think she’s cute. But she’s a) slowly turning into another version of Hecate and b) not really vital to the narrative imo. We already have so many other characters and plot lines that take away from the central “romance” the story is SUPPOSED to be focused on. I just don’t think we need ANOTHER character whose arc is probably not going to go anywhere.

So yeah, overall very L writing, L plot, and L characters.

What I would do differently

The first thing I would change is that the whole punishment arc would be an entire season unto itself. You’ll see why it has to be a separate season.

The second thing is (and this literally pains me to say) in order for me to rewrite this portion of LO without rewriting the entire comic, I kinda sorta have to throw the entire timeline of Greece out the window. If I try to follow a timeline based on the history of Greece, the entire timeline of LO has to shift massively. I’m already getting a migraine trying to think about how I could possibly make it work.

I do know this: Instead of 10 years I’d do somewhere between 1,000-3,000 years. 10 years is a joke. When you’re a god, 10 years is a trip to the time out corner

For now, let’s just say (assuming LO takes place in the Ancient Greece era) and Ancient Greece spanned ~1500 years, Persephone’s punishment would’ve needed to have been established near the very end of the collapse of the Late Bronze Age, spanned the entirety of Ancient Greece as we know it today, and ended some time in the very early Byzantine era. So like what, 1500-2000 years? Fine. I can work with this.

The Famine

You know how the first 400 years of Ancient Greece was deemed the “Dark Ages” and it was a time of war, famine, and loss? I want to start the punishment there. It would make sense for what we know about the characters thus far:

Demeter has had complete control over the growth of the flora and fauna on earth. She’s the goddess of the harvest after all. But we also find out that while Persephone has been in Olympus, Demeter has also been carrying out her duties as the goddess of spring. Plus Demeter has been around for forever and a day. She knows what she’s doing

Persephone doesn’t (at this point in the comic) really have control over her powers. Even in her fits of rage, she ends up doing more harm than good (i.e. her act of wrath, turning Minthe into a plant, etc.). In comparison with everyone around her, she is a literal infant. I mean shit, she’s only been alive for 20 years compared to the fact that everyone else has most likely been around for a minimum of 500 years.

If Demeter is stripped of her status as a goddess (and thus her powers) it would make sense that there would be a lot of death and famine and war over territory/food. Persephone would be left with nothing: no guidebook, no how-to. Of course a lot of people would die while she’s trying to figure her shit out. It could also be a very interesting tactic for psychological warfare on Zeus’ part. Zeus KNOWS Persephone doesn’t know what she’s doing. He knows people will die. And he knows that since life is precious to Persephone (or at least that’s what she claims), it would punish her further.

We can see episodes of Persephone struggling to provide for humanity. We could have real world examples of the affect of famine and depopulation. We would see her struggling with her powers, her mental health. We could get an episode that explains how her hands got destroyed from trying to mimic her mother’s powers. We can see what the fuck happened to Demeter in Attica.

Now obviously things will eventually go on the up and up for Persephone and her compatriots. The whole 1500-2000 years isn’t just going to be one big clusterfuck. As time progresses and chapters pass, we could see real character growth for Persephone not just mentally, but in almost every aspect. Since she will have been alive at that point for over 1000 years, the readers would be able to see her newfound maturity. We could also see her build strong female support systems and strengthen her friendships, something we NEVER saw in the OG comic (or at least they never happened without Hades somehow being involved). You get the point.

What’s Old Man Hades up to?

I have big plans for Hades and none of them involve him going into a 1000+ year coma or getting possessed by his creepy-ass dad. He is an asshole though. I kinda wanted to portray him in this the way he is in the original myths (which for those who don’t know or haven’t read it, it’s not good).

So in Greek mythology, Hades actually had a wife before he even met Persephone or Minthe. Can you take a wild guess as to who?

Bingo! It’s Leuce. Contrary to popular belief, Leuce is actually NOT a home-wrecking POC version of Persephone (don’t @ me we all know the nymphs represent the lower class and POC). In mythology, Leuce was Hades’ first wife/lover and she died sometime long ago and I believe was turned into a white poplar tree. No she is not a cousin of Thetis and Amphitrite. She is not even remotely related to them. And Thetis and Amphitrite are sisters, not cousins. Do your fucking research Rachel.

Unfortunately, Greek Mythology doesn’t really mention all that much about Leuce outside of the fact that she was a daughter of Oceanus, she was kidnapped by Hades, and when she died (for unspecified reasons) she turned into a tree. Which means I’m going to be taking a lot of creative liberties for this portion of the post. Sorry to all you diehard fans of Greek myths out there. I shall try to do her justice.

In my head-cannon Hades and Leuce had been in an arranged marriage for thousands of years. Leuce was offered by Oceanus as a peace offering after the War and Hades, not really having any other viable options for a wife, agreed to take her to the underworld (much to her dismay). Over time, they grew to have a mutually loving/caring relationship. Unlike LO Persephone, Leuce was a good queen and she worked hard to make sure the denizens of the underworld respected her and that they were well cared for. Unfortunately, they got divorced because Hades starting having an affair with Minthe. Even though she loved her kingdom and the people of the underworld, she divorced Hades because she couldn’t stand to be around him, which, y’know. Fair.

A few notes: in my head-cannon, Leuce is still around leading up the the trial and punishment. Her portrait would still be up, we would see signs that Hades and Leuce still interact (more in terms of business, not romance), etc.

Also, unlike Persephone, Leuce would not take her anger out on Minthe or turn her into a plant or destroy her apartment. She would simply wish her good luck. She would be mad at Hades for cheating and for taking advantage of Minthe while she’s at her lowest. But I’m going to be straight up: even though Leuce is meant to be the better Persephone, she still has her flaws. She’s not going to feel inclined to help Minthe in any way. Would you want to help out the person who your partner is cheating on you with? The answer is no and if you say yes, you’re lying.

Anyways, during the Punishment, Hades and Leuce reconnect and Hades finds out Leuce is dying. He tries to convince her to leave the underworld and return to her father, but she insists that she is going to stay, even if it means she dies away from everyone she loved. She won’t abandon her kingdom, her people, or her ex-husband (although that’s much better than he deserves). They move in together and Hades begins to take care of her, even as she begins to deteriorate. They also begin to rekindle their past relationship and (with the help of a therapist) work through some of their past problems together.

Note: their relationship rekindles a couple hundred years into the punishment so by the time the punishment ends, they’ve been back together for a minimum of 1200 years

The aftermath and the Rape of Persephone

Before any of you go gaga over me for the title used above, the original title used for the myth is The Rape of Persephone (or if you want to be really original, The Rape of Proserpina). In the context of the title, the term “rape” means to be taken/kidnapped rather than having sexual violence inflicted upon you. Rape stemmed from the traditional Latin word “raptus” which means “to be seized” or “carried off”. Okay? Okay.

So after the Punishment ends and Persephone feels like she has thoroughly improved herself, she goes to find Hades and talk with him about their relationship. Mainly that she feels they rushed into it, and even though she does like him she wants to take things really slow (kind of like how she wanted before getting married 3 episodes later).

Upon arriving to the underworld/Hades house, her worst fears are realized: not only has Hades (seemingly) moved on, he has found someone else. Or rather, he got back together with his ex-wife.

Persephone freaks out (“who is she?”/“I’m his wife!”)

Persephone, throughly upset for getting her hopes up, flees back to mortal realm. Hades goes to leave Leuce, but not before she tells him that if he leaves her for Persephone, she will never forgive him. Hades leaves anyways, much to the absolute despair of Leuce, who is left wailing as he runs off.

Persephone returns home and finds Demeter and they hug. Demeter is initially horrified to see what happened to her hands, but is proud of the work she did during the punishment. Persephone cries to her mother about Hades, and Demeter tries to comfort her but it inadvertently comes off more as “I told you so” rather than “I’m sorry you had to experience that” (although Demeter is sorry that Persephone’s heart is broken). Persephone, already feeling incredibly emotionally distressed, lashes out at Demeter and they start to argue. This is when Hades arrives.

Hades sees Demeter and Persephone arguing and inserts himself into the situation. Persephone becomes more upset after seeing him and Hades (assuming that Persephone is upset about the fact that Demeter is getting in the way of their “relationship” and not the fact that Persephone discovered Hades went back to his ex-wife after saying he loved her) whips out the the “one personal question, no exceptions” card and proposes to Persephone. He insists that he loves her and only her and that they should spend the rest of their immortal lives together.

Persephone says no.

Hades, not taking no for an answer and not wanting to leave the mortal realm empty handed, kidnaps Persephone, much to the dismay of Demeter, Artemis, and the nymphs. Hades returns with a traumatized Persephone to the underworld to find that Leuce has died and turned into a white poplar tree. While Persephone is sobbing on the floor, Hades weaves a mock crown from the branches and leaves of the tree, places it upon Persephone’s head, and tells her she better get used to their life together.

Thus ends the season and the punishment arc.

Afterthoughts

Thank you for sitting through my ramblings. I officially joined the anti-LO community about the time the trial happened and had been wanting to make a post like this for a reaaaaally long time. Besides the fact that the trial in of itself was completely unethical (@genericpuff made a whole post about that) the punishment arc just really pissed me off. Like go girl, give us nothing!

Anyways, I may or may not do a whole timeline reconstruction of LO depending on how much I feel like offing my sanity with the amount of research that would have to go into that. Until then, I hope you like this post and look out for other anti LO posts coming your way :)