#including for the entirety of 2022

[longlivedead]

final playtime for fate/stay night

[painlandpalace]

dead boy detectives reading list

with the show finally out i figured it was a great time to share my reading list again! check it out below the cut 👻☠️🔎

-

⏳ the sandman #25 (1991)

this is their first appearance!

🐇 the children's crusade (1993)/free country: a tale of the children's crusade (2015)

1. the children's crusade #1

(2. black orchid annual #1

3. animal man annual #1

4. swamp thing annual #7

5. doom patrol annual #2

6. arcana annual #1)

7. the children's crusade #2

alternatively you can just read free country. whether or not you read the annuals i recommend reading free country's middle chapter

!!! in place of the annuals there is an additional middle chapter that was created for the book "free country: a tale of the children's crusade" where it is placed between the two children's crusade issues. the boys don't actually appear in most of the annuals (they are in two panels of swamp thing and appear in doom patrol) and reading them isn't necessary but i figured i would include them as they are part of the story.

❄️ winter's edge #3 (2000)

this is an anthology. their part is the 'books of magic: waiting for good dough' story starting on page 19

🐦‍⬛ the sandman presents: the dead boy detectives (2001, 4 issues)

i believe the tv show's esther finch was partially based on this run's villain.

*

(they do have a part in 'death: at death's door' from 2003. it's short and really just a retelling of events from sandman #25 with some minor changes. the entirety of their appearance in death: at death's door is included at the end of the next comic im listing so i am not really adding the death: at death's door book to the list)

☠️ the dead boy detectives (2005, one-shot)

this book was made by jill thompson in a very cute manga-esque style

👻 ghosts (2012), time warp (2013), the witching hour (2013)

these three are anthologies. the story 'the dead boy detectives in: run ragged' runs through all of them. 'run ragged' kicks off the next run.

🔮 from the pages of the sandman: dead boy detectives (2013, 12 issues)

this is the comic where crystal is introduced! a book collecting all 12 issues titled 'dead boy detectives by toby litt & mark buckingham' was released in 2023

🔎the sandman universe: dead boy detectives (2022, 6 issues)

the most recent run, centered around some really interesting thai mythology and featuring multiple edwin moments that i am sure you will love

-

and that's everything! i also recommend buying the omnibus if you can. it includes everything minus the 2022 run plus some additional bonus content!

i hope this is helpful! feel free to ask me any questions you may have about the comics. dead boy detectives is my number one interest so i should be able to answer

have fun reading! 👻

[vintagerpg]

My first encounter with Into the Odd was on a bookmark — the entirety of the rules system was crammed onto one included with my copy of Silent Titans. I’ve still yet to find a copy of the original 2014 edition from Lost Pages.

This is the revised edition from 2022, featuring gorgeous illustrative collage work by Johan Nohr throughout. I appreciate the use of orange on the cover (an under-appreciated color) and the book feels unusually good in the hand, like a book from an earlier era. The rules take up a bit more than a bookmark’s worth of space here, but not by much, honestly. I’ve no proof that the “Odd” of the title is a sly reference to Original D&D, but I’ve also got no proof to the contrary, and it seems appropriate: the system is recognizably D&D, but stripped utterly to the bone. Three attributes instead of six, doubling as saves. D20. Damage deplete hit points, then Strength, then death becomes a real risk. That’s basically it. This minimal framework is the basis for a whole sub-genre of light weight, short run D&D-ish engines, like Knave and Cairn.

Odd has its peculiarities. It is designed for a specific setting (that doubles as a meta commentary on settings, wildernesses, cities and dungeons) in which adventurers explore the underground in search of Arcana, which are powerful, largely uncontrollable magic items (there are no spellcaster classes, so Arcanum are the only option for magic). So, in some ways, it seems like there is only one way to play the game. On the other hand, Chris McDowall has hacked his own system to make Electric Bastionland, which uses the same basic framework without the magic and plays…completely differently. So maybe it really is all in the dressing…

[alacants]

in the space of 12 months jannik sinner happened. but i can't get into that or this post will REALLY get out of control. <- wait im new to tennisblr/this gen of tennis players (tho not to tennis, dormant fan ig) and i'd love to hear your take if u feel like elaborating!

oh hey welcome back to tennis!! idk how much exploration you've done so bear with me if i'm just telling you stuff you know. (and jannikblr sorry in advance for the abbreviated summary, i can't do 1200 words every time.) (edit: you'll never guess what happened next.)

the very brief recap is that jannik's tennis trajectory started out relatively normally compared to where he is now—he grabbed everyone's attention winning the 2019 nextgen finals, got a lot of hype, but then had ups and downs for the next few years. won some titles but got a reputation for flopping in big tournaments, for example the wimbledon 2022 qf where he was up two sets to love over novak and still lost. meanwhile carlos alcaraz, who apparently burst onto the scene fully formed, won the us open at 19 and wimbledon at 20. (and all the while was talking up jannik as his major rival. ok.) so the early narrative was that sinner was yet another victim of expectations who was failing to live up to the hype.

then in early 2022 he split with his long-time coach. took a while to adjust to his new team (his current coaches, cahill & vagnozzi) but by the end of 2023 he started to get results. and kept getting them, and kept getting them, until he won his first slam (ao 24), his second slam (uso 24), and went 73-6 for the entirety of 2024. he is now arguably the best player on tour, and inarguably the best player on hard court. and everyone compares him to novak.

(this is not necessarily a compliment.)

actual novak has lost three matches to jannik on the bounce, all on hard court. once again: end of 2023 was the turning point. jannik lost to novak 6-3 6-3 in the tour finals final—then literally the next week they met in the davis cup sf. jannik saved three third set match points, took the match (on the way to italy's first davis cup in 47 years), and has not lost to novak since. that includes the 2024 australian open, where jannik beat novak in four sets and handed him his first ao semifinal defeat ever. ever. 

this run of matches culminated with the shanghai 2024 final, where jannik beat novak in straight sets without breaking a sweat while roger and carlos watched from the box. like. ok we get it! thanks for the symbolism!

(as a side note, that match had me convinced novak was on the verge of retirement because he just did not seem to care, like, at all. sure, another final. whatever. well he certainly figured out how to solve that problem!)

so all of this—the 12 month meteoric rise—is going on in the background while carlos and novak are facing off at wimbledon, at the olympics, and finally at ao again. the very same australian open where jannik says he thinks djokovic/alcaraz is the best rivalry in tennis right now.

so the question is, why IS djokovic/alcaraz a rivalry in a way that djokovic/sinner is not, and why has novak embraced carlos with so much more enthusiasm than jannik. is it because right now the rivalry is so one-sided. (yikes but true.) is it because the comparisons rub novak the wrong way and he does not think he plays tennis like that actually. is it because he just likes other people persons more. (the historical record does not seem to bear this out.) is it because it's intensely frustrating to see someone who plays like you, who like you didn't come up through the ranks with a silver tennis spoon in his mouth,  get the validation you didn't at that age and then not respond to it. like if roger : carlos :: novak : jannik then this is incredible reverse fedole, where the charismatic genius is like LET'S BE FRIENDS and the self-made machine responds with, tennis isn't about friends.

(aka MEANWHILE, THE SINCARAZ OF IT ALL, which i TRULY cannot even begin to recap. i assume you've picked this up elsewhere. if not. god. idek where to begin man.)

i don't have an answer for this lol. jannik is going to stay harder to beat for novak, at age 37, than carlos because more of novak's game is going to hinge on finding exploitable weaknesses and jannik has so few. especially psychologically. novak and jannik both have terrifying levels of mental control; that makes jannik pretty immune to a lot of the strategies novak (or anyone else) might use to try and get inside an opponent's head. ...at least on hard court. novak and jannik haven't played each other on clay since roland garros 2023 sf or on grass since wimbledon 2022 qf, so. i think that might be fun. :)

addendum #1: there is more than one hallway in the big 4 house of mirrors. as if i would get through this whole post without bringing up novandy, please! there is something in carlos' eagerness to put himself and jannik on a special level together, and jannik's hesitance to accept, versus how novak did start out with a peer who was supposed to be his rival-partner in overthrowing the established order at the top, and who now tries to remove himself from that discussion entirely. carlos singling out jannik as his special rival and novak talking up the big four while jannik is like, i love djokoraz! and andy captions photos "the big 3 + some clown."

addendum #2: WAIT late-breaking addition to this post, user @virtual-particle just described novak getting close to carlos as potentially a low-key power play on not just carlos himself but also jannik, a "steal your boyfriend special rival's attention" vibe. and i would like 6000 words of fanfiction about this on my desk by monday ok thanks!

[limeade-l3sbian]

Who was Kagney Linn Necessary?

(the gofundme for her memorial/funeral will be at the end.)

Kagney Linn Necessary was born in Harris County, Texas in 1987, and raised in St. Joseph, Missouri and in Ridgway, Pennsylvania. [x]

In her early years, she moved to California with ambitions of becoming an actress and a singer but entered work as an exotic dancer before signing with LA Direct Models, a pornographic agency. Karter entered the adult film industry in September 2008.[x]

But that wasn't the entirety of who Kagney was. At face value, the only information I could find with a quick search was the basic information above from Wikipedia. All anyone seemed to know about her was who she was when she was in the "industry." I wanted to see what I could find about her, the person. Not Kagney Linn Karter, but Kagney Linn Necessary.

I raked through interviews she had, her personal social media accounts, and any other articles that I could find just to find any little facts about her that I could.

I thought about omitting her time within the porn industry to focus solely on everything else except that. But I feel it would be tasteless to keep it out. I think it needs to be mentioned. I think it is important to show that women pulled into the porn industry are not these separate beings from any other woman with dreams. This was a 36 year old woman who was just like any other woman who was preyed upon.

Necessary released an EP, The Crossover, in 2018. In 2022, Karter released her debut album, titled The Take Over. [x] She would post clips of her singing covers of songs as well as songs from her upcoming EP on her Instagram.

In 2022, she began learning how to play the piano, even posting a video of her progress.

Necessary was also a recovering addict. In 2021, she posted about the things that helped her stay clean and how she was pleased at having a second chance at life. In an interview, she was intentionally vague about the substances she used, only referring to them as "candy" and "a little bit of everything." But with no insurance or money for rehab, she opted to detox herself at her parents home, working at their tanning salon for free in exchange for "produce."

She moved from Los Angeles to Ohio in 2019 and got involved with pole dancing fitness studios before being involved the opening of one in Akron, called Alchemy Pole Fitness. She posted many videos of herself having fun and practicing new/old moves.

In November 2023, she was posting pictures of her new house and how well it was coming together,

[their website leads to a website called Alchemy Space Studios and says that it was founded and run by a separate woman. But upon looking up the LLC for the business, Kagney is named as the registrant and she is named as the owner of the space in two separate articles.]

In 2015, Carter claimed musician Chris Brown paid her $2,500 to be his escort. She reportedly tweeted things like 'I WILL NEVER F*** A WOMAN BEATER EW DISGUSTING' and 'HE IS PURE EVIL' about Brown.

I just felt like adding that because what a queen.

From her students from the studio and friends, she was known to love animals, including her dog, Murphy, and had a deep devotion to the community she was cultivating in Ohio. She was known to be fearless and empathetic, creating her studio as a place for people to feel safe and accepted.

These were the things I could find of her from her personal accounts and the people who loved her. She wasn't an object that will be missed for what "uses" it had. She was a woman who had dreams, who had a community who love her, who had a husband who loves her, dogs she cared for and loved who loved her, and a mother who loves her. I didn't want her story to be another reblog of a lost life.

I know this post is sporadic and clunky, but I wanted to just grab any information I could without crossing boundaries (ex. contacting the family or something tasteless like that). I just wanted to share what she had already shared with the world.

Her friend, Megan Lee, has posted a gofundme that has already surpassed their goal. But I would still suggest donating if you are able. Rest in peace, Kagney Linn Necessary. 💜

[finkriel]

A Serious Confession

No amount of vitriolic emotions within me for these past two days will ever satiate the level of hatred, disgust and betrayal I am feeling. But it cannot compare to the numerous amount of people that feel the same way.

As a former ex close friend of Kittycorn Samson, I need to get this out as it has been eating me away for these past four days. I was one of her friends that was not only introduced to her incestuous content but also contributed to enabling her behavior and hiding it from the public. While I engaged it in private and controlled settings, I did contribute to it throughout these past nine months and I take full accountability for my bad decisions there. Many people have already spoken on the matter and I will do the same here as I owe it to everyone.

To start off, my relationship with her has always been that of a close friend. As someone who was a sparklecare fan since the middle of 2022, I met her on the official Sparklecord, to which I would approach her on her personal tumblr blog on November 2022, to where she introduced me her comet characters and we soon found commonalities with each other, such as living in the same state as well as so it was fairly simple to connect with her. With the way she described her trauma experiences to me as well as the love she had for her characters, it was easy for me to sympathize with her and I grew to care for her immensely. While I was never a clown myself, she would spoil to me the entirety of the story she was planning (including the Mickey Family and Sly’s “secret canon” character archetype) and the more stories she shared, the more I got invested. But it was during June 13th, 2024, where she asked me a strange and specific question that I never questioned, about the topic of being into something that comforts the person that other people would say otherwise and, being into something that heals the traumatized person that other people would say otherwise. While I was uncomfortable and confused at the time (hence why it took so long to answer her questions), I pushed aside those feelings just because she was my friend. And I thought that it wasn’t as harmful like she described it to me here. (The screenshots here were taken on Tuesday, where I blocked her afterwards, I still have access to her messages so if anyone wants me to divulge additional information, I am more than willing to do just that)

Looking back at how I acted when she revealed to me about this and her incestuous story, I feel so disgusted and ashamed of myself. The "googles" I had on, did not allow me to see how truly deplorable that the content she had been indulging and the only reason I did support her was from the pure belief that it was helping her heal her trauma when nothing else at the time could, which to an extent it was, given the way she has been acting throughout out 2024. I truly believed during all that time that it was the right thing to do and that it wasn’t as bad as she made it out to be. In addition, it was around this time where I was finally in a place to work again that I felt the immediate compulsion to help her out financially, which boosted my incentive to keep supporting her and not tell anyone about this. This also extended to Imani, who also engaged with this incestuous content and I sacrificed countless days and nights at work to financially support her, given the sympathies I had for the abuse she was suffering from. (This screenshot from the callout document, took place in one of Kittycorn’s private servers that she invited me five days later (the one with Emsody, Kai, and chaosblast) and as you can see, the person blurred out that was responding to Imani, was me. What I said here, I no longer believe but I know it is not an excuse.

Little did I know that Kittycorn has secretly been in contact with groomers, pedophiles and predators such as Chimera, Woof, and so many countless others, to the point that she was actually friends with them and has been abusing and silencing victims all this time. Keep in mind that during all of these months, it was knowledge that I was completely unaware of, knowledge that she HIDED away without me knowing it and it was only until the callout document came out that I found out about the matter. That was the point where I blocked her out from my life. (Edit [Sunday - 3:22 PM]: I removed the part about Imani of her action in the doc, as chaosblast_ has informed me in a server that the art was shared in an 18+ server so anyone could have sent it to the alleged minors. In addition, sparkletroll [the person marked in yellow in one of the screenshots] said that they didn’t want the person behind the doc to share it anywhere since they weren’t sure if they had the right story but the person did. The proof is unsubstantiated so know that information has been updated.)

That however, does not cancel out the complicity I am a part of when it comes to Kittycorn. In no way, does it make any of the things I have said, an excuse. Hell fucking no, is it not, and I do not want to deny it. I have nothing blame for but myself and the blinded love and compassion I had for Eve as a friend.

To anyone that reads this, you do not have to forgive me and you all have every right to be furious at me. I’m not innocent in any way and there’s no excuse for the participation that I played a part in all of this. I just want to let you know that I am truly, truly sorry. I can never ever forgive myself for supporting her nor can I ever make it up. But know that I will always stand against incest and pro-ship content. It was never something I indulged prior to that day and I for the life of me, would rather stand my morals and my gut feelings than blindly accepting excuses that individuals such as Eve, engage in, while hurting hundreds of people in the process. I hope you all can at least gauge the information I have provided here. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

[latecommentevryday-blog]

I originally responded as a repost to this post by asgardswinter but I think it's important that the entirety of the fandom knows this.

Edit: I've been blocked by the OP :(

Below is my response:

There's a few problems with your take here and I'll break it down in the most respectful way possible.

1. Motion Capture and Actors

Call of Duty uses Motion Capture to animate its characters in game, which reflects the actor's real-life motions, and consequently (In Call of Duty's case) the image of the actors themselves.

"big cod fanartists draw the characters eerily similar to the VA’s even though the characters look VERY different from the VA’s."

When we look at Neil Ellice and John MacTavish's character model, the similarities are very close because the game developers have based Soap's looks off of Neil.

Here we have an in-game screenshot of Soap from MW3 2022 and Neil Ellice

The player model looked so similar, that they even had Neil do a live action sequence for advertising (Sources: Neil Ellice's Instagram).

Link to advertisement reel on Neil's Instagram

Link to sneak peak inside the studio on Neil's Instagram

"It also bothers me that these fanartists draw some of the characters such as Gaz and Simon exactly like the zionist VA’s even tho they clearly look very different."

Ok, I see that you mentioned Gaz and Elliot Knight. Let's analyze them.

Here's an image of Elliot Knight (Source: imdb.com)

Here is a skin available in the reboot MW3's store.

Elliot also appears as Gaz in the live action sequence for the Call of Duty advertisement (Again, Link to advertisement and an image from the live-action set from Neil's Insta)

Do you see the similarities? When the animators and sculptors were creating the characters, they essentially scanned the actors into their data-base and used them as the base models for each character.

A few other examples are:

Alejandro Vargas and Alain Mesa John Price and Barry Sloane Phillip Graves and Warren Kole

The fanbase, and in extension the large COD artists, are making assumptions that Simon 'Ghost' Riley's face will also reflect Samuel Roukin's facial structure because of the techniques the game developers used when creating the other characters. I encourage you to look further into how Motion Capture was used during the making of the Call of Duty Franchise.

2. Zionism, the Actors, and the Character's themselves

"Like u have no problem with drawing characters looking like real people that support genocide. Its despicable. Get a grip and stop being complicit in this."

Has it ever crossed your mind that there are other, different ways a person could protest Zionism?

Your way is completely erasing the Zionist actor's participation, which includes trying to change how the characters canonically look (With an exception for Ghost). While I respect your choice, it is simply not easy to change a game character's appearance, especially if we can clearly see the similarities between actor and character.

Drawing and creating such masterpieces is hard to do from scratch and artists use references from the game, which will, in extension, reflect the actors.

Does that mean the artist agrees with the actor's support of Zionism? No. Unless explicitly stated that they support Zionism and the actors, the only thing you've made are very damaging assumption.

These artists are paying tribute to a franchise that they enjoy interacting with and they have free will to choose what they want to look at, receive, and contribute.

Wombywoo blocking people for accusing her of being a Zionist is a fair and reasonable action, especially if the messages you are sending contains cursing, slurs, and other offensive and rude language. It's considered spam.

If you want to point out that an artist is supporting a Zionist actor, respectful language is the best way to get your point across.

Do I support Israel and Zionism? No. Hard no. I am extremely disappointed in both Roukin and Elliot for having such viewpoints and supporting such groups. The slaughter in Palestine and other surrounding countries needs to stop and Israel needs to be held accountable.

However, the game material and the characters do reflect the actors and the artists who portray 141 like their actors are doing so because they want to stick as close as possible to the original content.

The character's personalities are different from the actors and their careers are completely different, as well.

The best thing to do if content reminds you of something is to block that category and move on. Especially when the content reflects the in-game designs and consequently look like the in-real-life actors.

You are entitled to your own opinion, asgardswinter (this reply post does not encourage any user to go harass the original user), but there is more to these characters than just their voice actors. Find something else to associate the 141 with instead of their VA's and continue spreading the information that Roukin and Elliot support Zionism, but don't harass artists that draw the characters like their in-game designs who have not explicitly stated that they show support for Zionism themselves.

[p6to]

What the fuck is going on?

I was in the process of typing out several essays worth of thoughts in the tags of @tsarinablogs's lestappen 2024 manifesto, because what else is new. Since I am uncannily similar to Max in all aspects of his public persona (except his driving abilities and his apparent need to come out as bisexual in every third interview), including the 'tism allegations and the certified "parent has a very weird sense of seeing their child as their own person" experience, in this essay I will be yapping about Screwderia Ferrari, shady business and of course: Charles Leclerc.

Charles has given his life and a large part of his career in f1 to Ferrari, leading to six wins, including his own home race Monaco and Ferrari's home race Monza, but also ten gazillion strategy fuck ups and now a (likely) second failed championship battle.

How much is too much for a person to handle?

Ferrari has not won a championship since Kimi Räikkönen in 2007. That much was known when Charles went through the ranks in the Ferrari Driver Academy, so he knew they were not suddenly going to dominate the way Red Bull did the last few years and Mercedes before them. He still had faith in them, made promises about his achievements to his dying father when he must have known that they might be impossible to ever reach.

His devotion and his talent have made him into an (almost) religious figure to the tifosi. Charles Leclerc is Ferrari, and Ferrari is Charles Leclerc.

Or is it?

Time and time again, we have witnessed Charles getting fucked over in favour of his teammate (see "it looks like they're going to sacrifice Leclerc" - George, or the entirety of the SF-23, maybe even today). While a team principal and a good number of other employees were fired in 2022 because things were going horrible and Charles insisted on it, and things were looking better when competent personnel and even Lewis Hamilton were signed by Fred Vasseur, it seems like the actual problem is still there.

Based on what we saw with the Barcelona upgrades and Carlos' interviews, we may have to expect the car to be developed to suit Carlos' understeer-y preference once again, which is wild considering that he is a driver who is leaving at the end of the year, has been outperformed by Charles pretty consistently over the time they were teammates, and has shown very clearly (alone this season!) that he is (in the words of a friend) not driving for Ferrari but for Carlos.

How can it be that Charles has mechanical and technical problems every second race weekend, while his teammate does not, and not only does nobody from the team leadership say anything about it but they also let Carlos downplay Charles' very severe brake issues in Bahrain?

Silverstone has marked the third race this season where Charles did not score points due to either inherent issues of the car (tire warm up in qualifying), mechanical issues (engine), damage (front wing in Austria) AND very questionable strategy calls. Three races of the twelve that have passed is 25%, a figure that is much too high for any top team, let alone Ferrari who were very close to catching up to Red Bull in the WCC just four races ago.

Of course, problems in car development and maybe even a higher lack of reliability in mechanical parts can happen to any team. However, we will now come to the area where I see the biggest problem.

This entire triple header, Fred Vasseur has been giving unacceptable statements about BOTH of his drivers. In Barcelona, he downplayed the issue between Charles and Carlos at the start, positioning himself directly against the driver he should be supporting since he was objectively (data-supported) correct. In Austria, Sky Sports had to make him watch the moment Charles sustained the damage to his front wing, because he could not be bothered to watch it during the actual race.

And now in Silverstone, he blamed both Carlos and Charles for not performing miracles with this shitshow of a tractor during qualifying, let his drivers be fed different information regarding the incoming rain leading to one of them making the wrong tire choice, ruining his race, and then had the audacity to lie about that and Charles position during this incident, making it look like he was still behind Lance when he had actually already overtaken him and was now behind Carlos after starting four places behind him, EVEN THOUGH there were radio transcripts and of course the fucking broadcast that showed the truth.

Us Chirlies have to preface our posts about conspiracy theories with statements about tinfoil hats and "for legal reasons this is a joke", but I will not do this here.

I fully believe that there is shady business going on at Ferrari, including but not limited to potential blackmailing, software sabotage and bribery. I will not pin these onto specific people/groups, because there are too many options. I also think that there is shady business going on at every team, but not to this extent.

The way things are going, with Charles already being on an actually not so subtle PR warpath, I expect some form of news in the next three weeks, including either announcements about people being fired or a Charles-to-Red Bull announcement, although Charles to Mercedes would not surprise me either.

Merc fans joined in on criticising Fred yesterday, and hardcore Max fans are saying Charles should leave Ferrari and join Max at Red Bull. This issue has breached containment, as it should.

Either things are changing at Ferrari or Charles will be exchanging Ferrari for a different team. There is no other solution.

(You have made it to the bottom of this yap-fest. Congratulations! I wish you a very nice day/week/month/year/life without Ferrari-like fuck ups and thank you for reading my stuff :) )

[tremendouskoalachild]

Doctor Aphra reading guide 2025

we are nearing 10 years of having our favorite doctor in star wars! before A New Legacy comes out in a couple weeks with anniversary stories featuring Aphra, let's run down all her many many comics :)

(there are a few guides online, but mostly outdated or don't include everything i feel they should)

(includes Aphra's comics storyline. issues of other comics that feature Aphra as a cameo but don't really fit anywhere into her story are summed up at the end, same with non-comic material.)

Vader - Darth Vader (2015) issues 1-6

Shadows and Secrets - DV issues 7-12

Vader Down - Vader Down one-shot -> DV 13 -> Star Wars (2015) 13 -> DV 14 -> SW 14 -> DV 15

Rebel Jail - Star Wars (2015) issues 16-19

(optional) The Shu-Torun War - DV issues 16-19

End of Games - DV issues 20-25

Aphra - Doctor Aphra (2016) issues 1-6

The Screaming Citadel - The Screaming Citadel one-shot -> SW 31 -> DA 7 -> SW 32 -> DA 8

The Enormous Profit - Doctor Aphra Annual 1, DA issues 9-13

Remastered - DA issues 14-19

The Catastrophe Con - DA issues 20-25

Worst Among Equals - DA issues 26-31, Doctor Aphra Annual 2

Unspeakable Rebel Superweapon - DA issues 32-36

Rogue's End - DA issues 37-40, DA Annual 3, The Empire Ascendant one-shot

Fortune and Fate - Doctor Aphra (2020) issues 1-5

The Engine Job - DA issues 6-9

War of the Bounty Hunters - War of the Bounty Hunters 1 -> DA issues 10-11 -> WotBH 2 -> DA 12 -> WotBH 3 -> DA 13 -> WotBH 4 -> DA 14-15 -> WotBH 5

Crimson Reign - DA issues 16-21

The Spark Eternal - DA issues 22-25

Ascendant - DA issue 26 -> Revelations (2022) -> DA issues 27-29 -> Hidden Empire 5 -> DA issues 30-31

Ripple Effect - DA issues 32-34

Dark Droids - DA issues 35-40, Tall Tales story in Revelations (2023)

(War of the Bounty Hunters, Crimson Reign, Hidden Empire and Dark Droids are all bigger crossover events as well, which can optionally be read in their entirety. all content relevant to Aphra is included here.)

(for big-picture timeline purposes: arcs 1-14 take place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back; arcs 15-22 between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.)

additional Aphra-featuring issues outside this timeline:

flashbacks in Galaxy's Edge issues 3-5, set sometime between Vader and Remastered.

Bounty Hunters (2020) issue 1, set sometime between Rogue's End and War of the Bounty Hunters, probably around Fortune and Fate. conflicts with pre-established character dynamics a bit.

Darth Vader (2020) issues 35-36, set sometime between Ascendant and Dark Droids.

Dark Droids issue 5, difficult to reconcile with the rest of the Dark Droids Aphra arc, but taking place during it.

Battle of Jakku: Republic Under Siege issues 1-2, set after Return of the Jedi and thus after everything in this guide.

extremely minor cameos and mentions in other comics:

multiple flashbacks in Sana Starros miniseries (issues 1, 2, and 5)

mention in Star Wars (2015) issue 61

non-comic media starring Aphra (recommended for sure but outside this reading guide):

The Trigger - short story from the anthology From a Certain Point of View (2017). takes place shortly before Vader.

Doctor Aphra audio drama and/or its script (2020) - adapts the first six arcs of this guide, with additional material, including backstory aspects that are later incorporated into Aphra's comics.

[dcdreamblog]

You mentioned Beast Boy was in “Space Trek”. What did he do on that show as character “Tork”?

What did he do to prepare for his role (like: wear special uniform and makeup, shapeshifting his appearance, memorize lines for his role, practice stunts for action scenes, learn to do facial expressions on command, …) and how did he get the role?

Was he already an actor before he joined the Doom Patrol or became one while being on the team or after leaving the team?

Where else did he play as an actor? Was he a stunt performer, a creature performer, a stunt double, a motion-capture actor, an animal actor or a mascot (natural or anthropomorphic animal, human form in fursuit, …)?

Did he do all stunts on his own or were they sometimes performed by a stunt double?

Did he have to wear special gear (bodypaint, clothing, accessories, …) for certain acts?

Are you trying to get me to summarize a TV show for you? I mean I will because I think Gar Logan is one of the most interesting metahumans alive from this sort of thing because he IS so public and so prominent in his role as a metahuman but I should make a couple of things clear.

I am NOT a very good Space Trek fan. I have seen ONE series in its entirety, Space Trek: Engager. The prequel series with Scott Bakula which I liked and then found out I wasn't supposed to. I've also seen the first 2 seasons of Space Trek: The Next Chapter (the part of THAT show everyone says you're not supposed to like) and the movie Space Trek II: Revenge of Hun.

This is technically out of my purview since it comes from Mr. Logan's private life as a metahuman not his actions and the fallout thereof from his work as a SUPERHERO. Plus a lot of this is industry gossip and magazine faff so if I get it wrong go complain to the paparazzi websites where I had to find it.

(Logan on the series set and in his series costume delivering a PSA for missing meta-teens.)

Basic background I'm sure everyone already knows: Space Trek 3016 is one of the many, many, MANY series in the wide Space Trek franchise descended from 1966's Space Trek: 2022. Most of its core series follow the adventures of various ships under the designated ship Engager to seek out new life and new understanding in a utopian science fiction setting usually based around a mix of pulpy sci fi and sociopolitical commentary. 3016 was positively received by fans and is touted as "controversial" by bigoted man-babies on the internet who are too dumb to have gotten any of the previous series' bold faced political allegory and so are threatened when black and gay people exist in science fiction. Logan was cast as Lieutenant T'imm T'ork the son of Tham Tork a character from the original Space Trek 2022. The T'orks were always envisioned as Martians since the original show but in later entries have been pretty thoroughly retconned into resembling what we know of what Martians were actually LIKE and how they existed. (Notice that the character names began including the verbal stop that all Martian names have, though obviously T'ork is not a real Martian Clan). Since the existence of real Martians wasn't widely known when Space Trek 2022 aired but it certainly is now. Logan was obviously cast because his green skin and ability to shapeshift into different animals means he can pull off things that Martians can do without the use of special effects (as one can imagine telepathy and invisibility are WAY cheaper to fake on screen than shapeshifting). Logan isn't able to do the kind of minute shapeshifting that would allow him to alter his face with his powers, limited instead to fully bodily transforming into an extant Earth animal but they write around it in what episodes of the show I watched for "research"...and am now watching the rest of for...research, yea that's the ticket. (It's a good show, since nobody asked, and he's good in it) While Space Trek 3016 was Logan's breakout role he credits his interest in acting to one of his mentors in the Doom Patrol and his adoptive mother, Rita Farr (Commonly known as Elasti-Girl). Who is obviously a famous actress in her own right. Who has been supportive of Logan in his pursuits and even guest stars on Space Trek for 2 episodes as T'ork's martian mother T'ena T'ork (they did have to paint her green, BUT the woman can shapeshift!). He's been in a LOT of things since then, as the first really famous and really open metahuman performer he's played roles as diverse as the leading man in romantic comedies to playing himself in biopics about the Doom Patrol and the Teen Titans. He is "hard to work with" in that he usually tries to insist on doing his own stunts with the logic that what he survives as a superhero on a daily basis is more dangerous than a well rigged performance but is usually shot down by the logical that if something DOES go wrong the movie needs all his limbs intact and that that safety is what stunt people are for. He's never really gone into heavy makeup or special effects, one of his main boons in performance is that the most impressive things he can do, he can do totally naturally (he's even starred in a few family films AS animal sidekicks or the like because of the things he can do in animal forms that animal actors can't). One images though that more than a few directors have wanted to break something when he had to run off set AGAIN to go save the world. It hasn't dampened his fandom any, as any perusal of this very website will obviously attest.

[jimin-bangtan]

Official BangtanTV folder highlight: BTS Episode

Have you ever seen BTS content floating around and wondered where the footage originally came from? Well, sometimes it's paid content (which probably shouldn't be circulating) OR it is absolutely free official content that can be found in its entirety on BigHit's/BTS's official YouTube channel, BangtanTV.

They have organized a ton of free - past and present - original content on the Playlists page.

There are over 80 folders of content. The one I wanted to highlight today is BTS EPISODE. (See red arrow on pic below.)

Some of the [episode] videos in this folder can also be found in the members' solo album folders on this same playlist page, BUT sometimes whoever organized it only put a particular [episode] video here - even if I feel it should have been included in the album folder as well. That is why it's worthwhile to look through all the folders for material you may be looking for or just to see what else is available.

You can also search with words directly on BangtanTV's page.

In the BTS EPISODE folder, you can find past and present footage or activities that are or are not related to an album.

For example: (Links are underlined.) -Jin's 2024 Olympic torchbearer moment

-Suga's AgustD's D-Day Tour final encore stages behind the scenes video (with BTS members)

-JHope's 2023 New Year's Rockin' Eve performance

-RM's "Live In New York" (Indigo) behind the scenes sketch

-Jimin's Vibe music video behind the scenes sketch

-V's contributions as Visual Project Manager for Be album's photo shoot

- JK's 2022 FIFA World Cup (Dreamers) behind the scenes sketch

I hope you're inspired to take some time to explore the official content on their YouTube page. It is company material that has not been edited by fans. It supports BTS's achievements by improving the algorithm so others can find their official pages. I'm sure the guys would appreciate seeing thumbs up or positive comments to encourage them and to counter any unnecessary noise on those pages. I am also told these official views are counted toward their Billboard charts.

Enjoy!

💜

[fullmoonficlet]

SIGN-UP FOR PROMPT 626: STITCH

This week's prompt is: STITCH.

Welcome to Full Moon Ficlet, the weekly prompt community for Teen Wolf!

In order to sign-up, just reblog this post or fill out this form and get writing a fic or ficlet that is inspired by this week's prompt. There are just a few rules:

Be inspired by the prompt of the week!

Reblog the original prompt post to sign-up for the week in order to be included in the masterlist, or fill out the form above. Do this by Tuesday morning at 10 am Eastern time!

Your creation must be a part of the Teen Wolf fandom. Crossovers and fusions are welcome as long as TW is the primary focus.

Starting 07/03/2022, RPF will no longer be allowed as part of the challenge.

To be considered a ficlet, your story should be at least 200 words minimum and a maximum of 1499 words.

To be considered a fic, your story should be at least 1500 words minimum, and there is no maximum!

Art is art, and we love it! We will not be reblogging art, only a link, so please just make sure we know to mark the link NSFW if it is.

New chapters from a WIP or series are welcome, but please post your story or chapter in its entirety! Posting a chapter or story that is incomplete just makes readers sad. Choose the closest proper category (fic or ficlet) when you submit your completed work for the masterlist.

You can post your fic(let) or art ANYWHERE. If you post on AO3, please feel free to add it to the collection for this week's prompt (FMF_626).

Use the submission form to tell us about your fic by Saturday, February 01, 2025, by 10 am Eastern time in order to have it included on the masterlist.

There is no limit on the number of people who can sign up! Every prompt is a new week and a new event; you only sign up for one week at a time. There is no consequence for pledging to write and being unable to submit a fic that week. We understand that life interferes!

Now go have fun and create new fanworks for Teen Wolf! Art, fic, ficlets; everything is welcome. Enjoy, and get creative!

[sophiebaek]

Asian Sophie fancast! ✨

I literally drafted this post a week ago and with the news of the potential Sophie casting call I feel like it was a sign to share my thoughts 😊

—————————

This is all for fun and as Sophie’s arrival seems to be getting closer and more inevitable, so here are some of my Sophie fancasts! As a SEA woman I would love to see representation in the Bton universe and have always pictured Sophie as Asian. [EDIT] With the assumed confirmation that Sophie will be East Asian I’ve included actresses that I love and have been fancast of mine for some time; these actresses are all East Asian (chosen before the casting call) but I also want to call to attention the lack of non-East Asian representation we see at this time. Fancast are at the end!

This is a good time to bring up what Asian representation even looks like since the continent is so big! I will be referencing this Variety article.

So we’ve seen that Asian representation has had a “significant increase of Asian characters from 3% to 16% over the course of 2007 to 2022” and while that seems like a step in the right direction it’s clear that the entirety of Asia is still not represented in media.

The release of 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians saw the increase of Asian stories and characters; but only “90% of the most visible of Asian characters on streaming platforms were a light or medium complexion”. Right now Asian representation is mainly centered around East Asians, and while any representation is good it’s important to be knowledgeable that not all Asian people are descended from that area.

There is a large disparity on how we view the term “Asian”. There are so many ethnicities that are beautiful and deserve representation. A larger representation needs to be seen within the Asian diaspora and also mindfulness to avoid common tropes and stereotypes is extremely important.

Any ways, here are some of my favorite fancasts I have right now! Conveniently all of these actresses are mixed race and with the obvious fact that Lady Cowper’s name is Araminta, it’s assumed Sophie is somehow related to them (which is a choice I do not agree with if now that Sophie is casted as a POC).

Natasha Liu Bordizzo (29)

Known for: Ashoka, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, The Voyeurs

Ethnicity: Born in Australia, Chinese/Italian

Netflix connection: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny, Wish Dragon, The Society

Obviously Natasha is busy with her Star Wars projects but she’s been a longtime Sophie face claim for me!

Havana Rose Liu (26)

Known for: Bottoms

Ethnicity: Born in the USA, Chinese/White

Netflix connection: The Chair

The whole time I was watching BOTTOMS I was just so mesmerized by her beauty! She has this ethereal gracefulness that really makes me think of Sophie!

Adeline Rudolph (29)

Known for: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Resident Evil

Ethnicity: Born in Hong Kong, Korean/German

Netflix connection: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Resident Evil

Adeline always caught my attention in CAOS and I wanted to see more of her! She also has quite a bit of projects lined up rn but I’ve loved using her in some edits!

[actualbird]

Statistical Report of Marius/Luke Ao3 Literature (2024)

(aka, a pet project i've been working on behind the scenes for a while. if you'd rather read it as a PDF, you can check it out here, but i've copy pasted its entirety into this text post, beginning in 3...2...1...)

Introduction

Ahhh, Marius von Hagen and Luke Pearce…such wonderful characters from hit mobile otome game “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis.” As love interests to Miss MC Rosa Qiangwei, they each are incredibly compelling characters with incredibly nuanced backstories, personalities, and dynamics with MC.

Also, there’s a small but dedicated community of shippers that want them to kiss and make out and be in love with each other. Hell yeah!

Welcome to the Statistical Report of Marius/Luke Ao3 Literature (2024), a report that aims to capture this community’s literary contribution to the MariLuke ship by crunching the data available to the public on Ao3! 

Before going into the data, there are some notes and caveats to this census that the author would like to make clear.

This report’s data was taken from the “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag on Archive of Our Own. This means that all works outside of this tag or outside of this website (ex. Twitter thread fics or Tumblr drabbles not crossposted to Ao3, fanfiction only on other sites like FanFiction.net, Wattpad, Weibo, etc.) have not been included.

This report’s data is as of May 31, 2024 as a cutoff date. This was so that I wouldn’t have to endlessly update the data and go insane.

Works that did exist but have since been deleted as of May 31, 2024 are not included, as the author does not have an encyclopedic memory of fanfics that no longer exist on the site :( 

Now with all that said, let’s dive in.

---

Number Of Fics Posted and Surge Periods

Now, let’s begin with the number of fics posted. As of May 31, 2024, there are 166 fics in the “Lu Jinghe | Marius von Hagen/Xia Yan | Luke Pearce” tag on Ao3. This number (and subsequently, this report) counts fics as they are listed in AO3 as unique fics, meaning that if it takes up its own little box in the AO3 feed, that’s one fic in itself. This does unfortunately mean that fics that act as a collection (i.e. each chapter is a different story) are only counted as one fic. This number also excludes podfics, because that’s basically the same fic in a different format.

That being said, this number is still nothing to scoff at. And things get even more delightful when we track down the frequency of fics posted month by month in a timeline.

The earliest MariLuke fic posted on Ao3 was “You are King” by itshaku on August 8, 2021, a mere 10 days after ToT’s official global release. The folks who posted the very first few fics in August 2021 laid down the foundation and bedrock of the Ao3 tag, and as ToT’s existence to the global audience continued, more and more fic started to populate our hallowed halls.

However, while that’s the earliest MariLuke fic as is recorded by Ao3 now, I happen to know that there was a fic that was posted even earlier. A fic called “Don’t Let Me Go” by sakurei. Both the fic and the author’s account has since been delated, but I knew this fic existed because I originally started this report in 2022. When I had first put together the preliminary data, I noted “Don’t Let Me Go” as the first ever fic, and then was disheartened to learn that it was deleted. Like, no…the sacred texts… All hope seemed lost until my dear friend Z Lukevonhagen suggested I search the link on the Wayback Machine, and lo and behold, a copy of the True First Ever MariLuke Fanfic On Ao3 had been unearthed. Thanks, Z!

In the month of October 2021, the Marius/Luke tag experienced its first fic surge. For the purposes of this report, any month with 8 or more fics posted during their duration is counted as a surge. Why is 8 or more the qualifier? That number was picked solely off of vibes.

A total of 9 new fics were posted in October 2021, though the I can’t find any discernible reason for this fic. After some digging, I found no relevant fan events that occurred in October 2021 that linked to any of the MariLuke fics. In terms of in-game happenings, the only thing of note here is that this is when the Symphony Of The Night event was running, but it’s not like Marius and Luke made out on screen during that event’s storyline (oh, how I wished though…)

Our next surge happened in August 2022, with a whole 12 fics posted, when the tag suddenly and beautifully got a sizeable influx of CN fics. CN fics take up 6 of the 12 fics posted during this time period, which is half of the month’s total fic yield. Thank you for your service, CN MariLukers !

Our next surge period lasted for a whopping 3 consecutive months, ushering a Golden Age for MariLuke fics, so to speak. Month by month, what happened was:

In October 2022, another surge occurred with a total of 11 fics. During this month, Twitter account Thirst of Themis had run a ToT Kinktober fan event, and a number of new Marius/Luke fics were created and posted in accordance with the Kinktober prompts. 

In November 2022, a total of 9 fics were posted, and this was mostly because of two specific singular authors’ hard work, as they published several fics all on their own in rapid succession and contributed to the surge. Ao3 author Litchire posted a whopping 4 fics during this period, along with Ao3 author ynfzymokaihewo who posted 3 fics. 

In December 2022, a total of 9 fics were posted, though this is the month where I couldn’t find any discernible reason once again. Maybe the holiday season just made us all fic-happy? Who knows.

After that, it’s smooth sailing for a while with average MariLuke fic yields for a couple of months.

Then, the Recession came. Followed by a Revival. Followed by another Recession. 

In April, 2023, only one (1) MariLuke fic was posted. Authors recovered in the following month of May 2023, but right after in June 2023, we all died once again with a staggering zero (0) new MariLuke fics posted. I assume we all went into hibernation or something. But that’s fine, because the next month in July 2023, the crops started flowering once more and the MariLuke harvest began anew.

Our next surge happened a couple months later, in November 2023, with 8 new fics posted. The culprit here is Thirst of Themis once again, for they had run a November prompts event, and 7 out of 8 MariLuke fics posted this month were in fulfillment of the event.

Now, we arrive at our latest surge and also our biggest one. In may 2024, the MariLuke Ao3 tag saw a whopping 28 new fics posted. This is undoubtedly the result of the fan event MariLuke Week (May 2024) for 27 out of the 28 fics were posted in fulfillment of the event’s prompts. The following authors participated in MariLuke Week, with their fic counts for this event placed next to their name:

xXILoveMyFridgeXx (10 fics contributed)

wtfhoney (7 fics contributed)

quarterweeb / theobscenfraction (4 fics contributed)

reptilianraven (3 fics contributed)

lukevonhagen (2 fics contributed)

Litchire (1 fic contributed)

Congratulations and thank you to the writers who participated in the event! You all contributed to the biggest surge in MariLuke stocks THUS FAR, and you should all give yourselves a pat on the back.

That concludes the timeline of MariLuke works up til May 31, 2024! Hit the showers, everybody!

---

Full List of AO3 Users Who Have Written Marius/Luke Fanfiction

The Marius/Luke writer population is a small but mighty one, with a total of 45 unique authors who have posted a fic Marius/Luke fic on Ao3 as of May 31, 2024. Before going into the full list of authors, here are some important caveats to the list:

ON ANONYMOUS AUTHORS: As this report deals with how Ao3 lists data, all authors who have opted to post anonymously will be counted as one entity. I personally know that some anonymous authors are different users, but verifying this without making any fuckups would make my tiny pea brain cry. For this reason, anonymous authors are counted as one unique author, so if you’re one of these anonymous authors, congrats on being a part of a Marius/Luke hivemind!

ON AUTHORS WITH PSEUDS: An Ao3 user who has different posted fics within the Marius/Luke tag under different pseuds will be counted as one unique author. Despite saying in the last paragraph that the my personal knowledge will not be enacted to tweak how Ao3 lists data, I’m making one exception here because it literally only pertains to three Ao3 users in the ship tag, so this won’t make my tiny brain cry at all.

So without further ado and in alphabetical order, here our are heroes:

Authors listed under the Anonymous Label

ajing_1124

artistic_gemini

asukryo

autumnsparrxw

BlazingSunflowers

CandorArchives

chechevitsa

darkbreak

doridoripawaa

dxpiarchaive / keeyamii

Eden_of_Amour / suffering_meguca

EnnTea

floweringlight

friedchickenlord

Goryo_Wataru

i_o_u_e_a

itshaku

kombat_exe

ladyhaspran

layla_wp

Litchire

lukevonhagen

m3i_day

marcipancake

monocuri

osamurice

pvsiytemhaver

quarterweeb / theobscenefraction

reptilianraven

RikuMorimachisGirl

Rxzaliya

samandspam

snocchiato

Solaste

sondepoch

strayris

Szim

Tinowenn

ThirdLibraryOfYumenosaki

turnscote

wtfhoney

xeriacat

xXILoveMyFridgeXx

ynfzymokaihewo

---

A Brief Glimpse Into Ratings and Tags

Before I looked at the ratings, I had a hypothesis that Explicit fics would take the lead because in majority of the MariLuke fics I’ve read myself, Marius and Luke are written to have incredibly active libidos. Lo and behold, when I did chart down the fics by rating, is is revealed that…

…statistically, we are horny. 

Not by a whole lot though! Fics that are rated Teen and Up comes in 2nd place by just a very small margin, so that’s a lot of fics that are accessible to those who don’t want to read Marius and Luke getting nasty.

In terms of Additional Tags, I checked out the Top 5 most frequented Additional Tags and charted them below.

The Top 5 most used Additional Tags are actually Fluff, Light Angst, Comedy, Humor, and Anal Sex. However, I reasoned that Comedy and Humor are the exact same thing, so I counted them as synonyms and added in the 6th most used Additional Tag: Established Relationship. 

Anyhoo, I think it’s really sweet to see that Fluff reigns supreme! And by a large margin, too. We love to write our boys having a wholesome lovely time. Of course, we also like just a smidge of narrative spice, which is where Light Angst comes in in 2nd place. That being said, I think it’s insanely funny that Anal Sex is in this chart. It is very out of place among the rest, LMAO.

---

A Brief Segue Into The Popularity of Marius/Luke In Relation to Other ToT BL Pairings

As of May 31, 2024, Marius/Luke is the 1st most popular M/M ship in the Ao3 tag, overall clocking in with a total of 166 works. 

In addition to that, I think it’s interesting to note that the 2nd most popular BL ship is Marius/Artem, with 130 fics, while the 3rd most popular BL ship is Marius/Vyn, with 66 fics. Tied for 4th place is Artem/Male or Gender Neutral Reader, and Vyn/Artem, both at 46 fics respectively.

The reason why I think the top 5 BL ships are interesting to look at is due to Marius’ participation in 3 out of the 5 most popular M/M ships in the ToT tag. Given this, we can veritably congratulate him for statistically beating the heterosexual allegations. Marius really gave off vibes that made many different shippers go “oh there’s no way in hell he’s completely straight.”

---

Accolades 

Longest Fic

As of May 31, 2024, the Longest Fic in the tag is [drumroll]...Losing Sight by pvsiytemhaver! This fic is actually primarily as ArtemRosa fic with MariLuke as an additional ship, and it currently clocks in at 90,109 words, taking the 1st spot as the longest MariLuke fic and the 18th longest fic overall in the general “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag. Let’s take a look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of the longest fics in the MariLuke tag:

Losing Sight by pvsiytemhaver (90,109 words)

the lips i used to call home (it was maroon) by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (58,185 words)

Five Points of a Star by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (25,494 words)

Risk of Pain by Solaste (25,157 words)

end of a decade (start of an age) by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (20,671 words)

Special shoutout to user xXILoveMyFridgeXx who consistently pumps out fics with gargantuan word counts.

Fic With Most Kudos

Next on the list is the Fic With The Most Kudos, and this title goes to [drumroll]... “standard operating procedure (x4 speedrun) by reptilianraven” which…oh, that’s me. 

This fic is not solely a MariLuke work, but an NXX Polycule work that has MariLuke within it. Weighing in with 827 kudos, it takes the spot as the 1st most kudos’d MariLuke work, while also weighing in as the 9th most kudos’d fic overall in the general “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag. Let’s take a look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of the Top 5 Fics With Most Kudos:

standard operating procedure (x4 speedrun) by reptilianraven (827 kudos)

every breath you take, every move you make, peanut will be watching you by reptilianraven (735 kudos)

how Puppy Pierce© conquered the world by reptilianraven (705 kudos)

the existence of a top student implies the existence of a bottom student by reptilianraven (575 kudos)

making out with your bro for fun and for profit by reptilianraven (567 kudos)

(Thank you for the kudos ;^;)

Author With Most MariLuke Works Written

And now, for our last accolade… the award for the author who currently has a large chunk of the MariLuke Ao3 tag coming from their own fics wrought by their own mind. 

This title goes to [drumroll]... oh goddamn it, it’s me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being insane about them. I don’t remember writing this much for them, I swear to god. Let’s look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of authors with the most MariLuke works written:

reptilianraven (24 works)

quarterweeb / theobscenefraction (quarterweeb) (23 works)

Litchire (15 works) and ynfzymokaihewo (15 works) tied for 3rd place

xXILoveMyFridgeXx (13 works)

wtfhoney (11 works)

---

Conclusion

I love this ship. I love this ship so goddamn much, but if there’s one thing I love more, it’s the community of shippers who write for this ship. This pet project was started as a little love letter from me to the MariLuke writing community. So, thank you, MariLuke writers!! Thank you for putting your heart and soul into the works you create, thus fashioning a beautifully wide array of fics to enjoy and read, and thank you for showing your love for this rarepair!

Alright, this report is too damn long. I’m gonna go reread MariLuke fics now. Bye! Hope you enjoyed!

[to-my-emil]

luca's 2024 letter

so i did a whole analysis/explanation/infodump about luca's newest letter on my discord server and. figured i may as well post it here! theres a lot of fun tasty things in here and some confirmation of things that have been implied in previous letters which is fun to look at. please keep in mind i dont have the entirety of every character and manor game's lore memorized so while i did double check some things i mightve missed some stuff. anyway its all below the cut since its Long have fun :)

(also feel free to chime in with any thoughts/feelings/opinions/ideas!)

so theres three sections to this letter! im gonna go section by section, but some parts of the last section are mentioned earlier so uh. sorry if you havent read it yet (id recommend u do read it first)

so part 1 is pretty fun. luca is confirmed to have survived game 10 (which also features tracy, charles, and bonbon though we dont currently know who the fourth survivor participant is) And its implied that hes the only survivor of the game (according to the "fleeting victory" thats the assumption at least). his traits w being able to connect the ciphers is also officially tied into the lore here; there are in fact wires running underneath each arena (or at the very least whichever arena lucas game was in which we dont know yet iirc) so its canon that he can do what he does in matches and its not something that the detective incorrectly deduced lorewise (idk if any of the survivor abilities are Actually incorrect deductions/not actually things that theyre doing (like for example priestess's portals, etc that seem more far-fetched) but since we know hes done other things incorrectly (like "prisoner" and "psychologist" titles being in quotes/technically wrong) i figure he mightve gotten some of those wrong too). luca is also Super Fucked Up w an unusuable left arm (and his previous injuries which we know includes at Least severe brain trauma but likely physical trauma too considering his time in prison + the leg braces) so uhhhhhhhhhhh. my money is NOT on him for the next game.

which is the fun next thing to talk about: baron deross is making him do another game!! this confirms whats implied in emmas 2022 letter (she writes "I've won the previous round, for now" which implies a second round if not more), and probably means that helena and galatea would also go through another round even though its not confirmed yet. so far we dont have a record of what happens in any second manor game for a player who has won (as far as i remember); usually what happens is entire groups are eliminated before the game and the only survivor goes on to the next round to try again by default rather than having won the game (like murro and luchino). so far luca's second game is the only one we have ANY info about for a survivor whos won their first game; we know that alva is in it and its heavily implied ann is in it (we'll get to this later) so we'll likely find out what happens once we get either of their experiment letters. its also interesting that the baron seems to reveal more information about the experiments to luca after luca won his game, but its hard to know whether thats because luca is also a scientist or if he reveals that to everyone who wins. my guess is maybe the former bc u Know luca would have questions and theres also no mention of baron deross saying anything like that in emmas, galateas, or helenas letters.

on to section 2!!! (there was a slur against disabled people in the last line of this section so. thats whats blocked out)

OKAY SO. definitely confirmed that hes in a second manor game, its not even subtext its just right there. assuming the "mechanisms" refer to the same mechanisms that are running under the arena and connecting the cipher machines my guess is that this is what he used to shock other participants?? rather than just being to conduct electricity through himself like he does in the game?? idk thats just spaghetti at the wall its not clear here how he actually got shocked and why. it Is clear that he passed the fuck out at some point or another/his memory issues have gotten worse and the wiki points to that guy in his dream being hermann, so that's. interesting. theres an implication here that luca and hermann used to be closer, but once luca started w physics hermann went mmmm time to stop being a father. which. checks out knowing hermann. whats even more interesting is that luca calls hermanns ideas "ludicrous fantasies" that are neither idealistic nor realistic, because like luca you went and did THE EXACT SAME THING. BRO HE WORKED ON PERPETUAL MOTION. YOURE WORKING ON PERPETUAL MOTION. IM SORRY YOU CANT CLOWN ON UR DAD FOR RUINING HIS LIFE OVER PERPETUAL MOTION WHEN U DID LITERALLY THE EXACT SAME THING

anyway.

i do wonder if this is meant to imply that hermann was in fact actually working on a More ridiculous version of perpetual motion or if luca is just biased as hell against hermann. im banking on the latter there is no way in hell that luca is a reliable narrator considering all his memory issues + his general tendency to outright grab people hes mad at by the throat (<- fun fact we see this at least twice once in alvas backstory video and again in gattos backstory video. luca is the same across all timelines). also implications that hermann became an alcoholic. im guessing as a kid luca was told it was medicine and he hasnt put the pieces together?? or its ironic. idk could be either with him. i highly doubt its actually medicine. ALTHOUGH. theres an alternate explanation here; when luca says "swallow them down" i initially thought he was referring to hiding his "final feelings", since sometimes swallowing down feelings is a phrase used for that kind of thing. but potentially this could be implying that hermann had luca take some kind of medicine potentially to get rid of those feelings in some way?? personally i think its the former because we already know hermann was wasting his life and money so becoming an alcoholic would be an easy answer, but this is probably just because i dont have any answers if it were the latter. something to think about

now the third part, which gives us info about the next manor game!

so first the "gaunt old man" is (according to the wiki which i agree with in this case) mad eyes, which makes sense because mad eyes was involved in game 8/9 right before this and game 10 was filled with inventors + bonbon so it only makes sense he was there. no idea where he went though. whats more fun is that luca is now In The Fucking basement Walls where mad eyes used to be bc luca doesnt trust the rest of the participants. considering the "abnormal eyes" and that alva is here we know for sure that this is those related to the eye of darkness cult, which means ann is also definitely there. whats even more interesting is that this implies the existence of at least one more member of the eye of darkness cult whos going to be in this game; luca says "new participants" and "these people", and considering how specific the letters usually are with other things i would guess hed say "those two" if it were only ann and alva (of course its possible that theyre the only two have arrived at the writing of this journal, but considering he refers to a ritual coming up soon my money is on all the participants being of the cat cult except luca). luca makes a good note that this new game is likely the opposite of the previous and more focused on religion/spirituality which checks out w the participants, but DAMN hes an asshole about their writing style LMAO. sorry luca not everyone can have the same notes u do

the "brother in faith" guy here is alva, and i personally believe that he can in fact believe see through walls just bc thats funny as hell. just kidding its likely because luca is not as subtle he thinks he is because alva Literally Knows Him. other people might not be able to know hes there but like. that guys also a scientist. hed be able to figure out that theres someone in the walls AND he does in fact know luca. its difficult to tell bc of lucas memory issues but this probably also implies that alva looks very different from how he did in life (i doubt its as tall/etc as in his hunter form since thats what they all see when drugged not what he Actually looks like but im sure theres some stuff like his shorter hair/grayish skin/etc that carries across). i for one am fucking thrilled that theyre in a game together bc oh my god this is a time bomb and im just waiting to watch it explode (again).

as for the last line about a ritual... teehee. im very excited for whatever this is going to be and its killing me that this is the Only Information we have on it so far. likely we're going to have to wait for more alva and ann letters on this one, as well as whoever the third eye of darkness cult member is going to be, but i have no doubt that we'll have some more info eventually. if i had to take a guess its going to heavily affect how game 10-2/11 turns out; i highly doubt any ritual goes on without a sacrifice, and, well... theres only one guy here whos not already part of the cult. things are not looking great for lucas future.

[oneknightstand-if]

How long did it take you to develop oks? You have a very broad range of subjects in the game including all of every arthurian lore it's damn impressive.

Also when writing code how do you keep track of every variable since there are so many that can be chosen and mixed and matched?

Last question - how did you get the code to host choicescript on your own website? I know it's to enable gifs and sounds which won't work properly on dashingdon.

Over a year and a half now. I started in November 2022 and the first chapter in its entirety (save for the fencing & book club routes) was posted publicly in October 2023. I could've conceivably posted it as early as May 2023 if I didn't keep polishing it 4x over (and then held it back for the IF Comp).

My version of the game is fully annotated explaining what variable does what, what gosub is going to where, what should be triggering with all the if/else cascades. The vast majority of the comments get deleted before the update is posted publicly.

The text files you need to upload to Dashingdon or post to your own site are the same and are part of the Choicescript package you need to download to start programming CS.

If you're self hosting, then you need to either run the HTML compiler mentioned here (with compresses everything down to a singular HTML file) or upload the files indicated in the wiki here. This also means including the the Save System files as well from the forum here if you want a save system better than Choicescript's native checkpoints.

Note that both Dashingdon and One Knight Stand use the old save system smPlugin while Moody.ink/Cogdemos.ink use the new save system ChoiceScriptSavePlugin. Also gifs and mp3s can be uploaded to Dashingdon, it's ogg sound files that can't be.

If you're having trouble with this, you're better off asking in the game development section of the CoG Forums.