#its been 1 year since his introduction post!!!!!!!!

[snowthedemonfox]

happy birthday to everyones favourite digital rabbit

[cozy-writes-things]

Electric Love: Pt. 1

Edgar [Electric Dreams 1984] x Gn!Reader

All of my fics so far have followed the same universe, so I thought it's only logical that I post an introduction to that universe.

The old man peering at you through puffy eyes and age seemed to have an air shrouded in mystery. His thin, white wisps of hair seemed to stagnate in place as he adjusted his button down.

“This old thing has been around for years now,” he gruffed—an unreadable tone—as his hand encased the yellowed plastic, “I don’t remember what happened to it; must have dropped it, or let some animal chip away at it.”

The dingy, vintage computer before your eyes surely had not been dropped, nor torn into by some animal. It sat upon his countertop completely destroyed; as if it had burst and shattered from the inside out, ripping the glass into jagged shards. You swallowed this thought; this was no time to debate the old man. He seemed to be quite senile as it was and pushing any further seemed like a fruitless effort. Instead, you stretched a thin smile his way, pursing your lips in thought.

“You actually think you can get this thing to work again?” he queried, raising a salt and pepper brow at your expression.

“Well, I’m not sure, but… I’d like to try,” what you hadn’t told him, however, was your infatuation with electronics. Ever since completing your bachelor’s in computer science, you have been tinkering away at many different projects in between jobs, building custom PCs, fixing old Game Boys, and many others. This little computer was an addition to your ever growing collection.

It came from a company you had never heard of before, only to learn it had become defunct in the 80s due to some inexplicable software issues in their products. This certainly intrigued you, as prodding into its code could provide some useful insight to real, vintage tech that just doesn’t exist anymore. But, that’s only if you manage to fix the heap of destruction limply hung before you.

The old man stiffened at your words, ever so slightly, before rattling out, “Well, if you do, don’t bring it anywhere near me. I can’t stand all this tech, and gadgets, and whatnot. Pisses me off.”

“Right,” you interjected, knowing people like him tend to go on long, anti-future, anti-technology rants, trying desperately to beat him to the punch, “well, how much do you want for it?”

He stilled, contemplating for a moment, “twenty-five should be fine.”

“Perfect,” you chirped, padding against your pockets and bag searching for some cash. Pulling out your wallet, you waded around the folds, only to find a crumpled up and faded ten dollar bill and a debit card.

“Ah, I’ve only got a ten…”

He rolled his eyes, “of course you do, you got PayPal, then?” Your cheeks flushed a burning red hot from embarrassment, “ah, yes, I do-”

“Great, just pay me that way,” he bent down and scribbled something messily onto a note, “here’s my information. I made sure to set this up for people like you, you know. Nobody carries cash anymore, or so my grandson tells me.”

You force out a nervous chuckle.

“That’s certainly true… these days, ah…” you unlocked your phone and began inputting his information into PayPal before pressing send on the digital payment, “okay, it went through.”

“Perfect. You need help getting this hunk of junk to your car?”

“No, I should be fine, thank you, sir,” you croak as you heave the broken computer into your arms, heading towards his door.

“Well, come back if you want to buy anything else. Nobody goes to yard sales anymore, it seems.”

You can only turn your head and chuckle at his quip, before awkwardly dashing out of his apartment and towards your car. The dampened asphalt from the rain squelched under your toes as you lugged the large piece of tech to the passenger side.

“There,” you whispered, to nobody in particular, as you awkwardly buckled the computer in place, “hopefully you won’t fall that way.”

And just like that, you were off, headed towards home to begin the massive project that was repairing this obsolete device.

“What to do with you?”

You groaned as you thumped the solid mass of plastic and metal against your desk, “you’re incredibly broken.”

First and foremost, it needs a screen replacement. Which is easier said than done. Especially considering the company who manufactured these things hasn’t existed in 40 years. Unfortunately, a close replica will have to do. Maybe you could even upgrade its screen with something with a bit more prowess.

Poking inside of its components seemed to tell a different story. Miraculously, none of the motherboards were damaged with the same ferocity the screen had been. There seemed to be some sort of dried, caked on water damage of some sort, that left a sticky residue, but otherwise, everything seemed to be relatively intact. The yellowed casing could use a wipe down from the thick layer of starchy dust, but it seemed to hold its original shape with surprising ease.

Following a closer inspection, it seemed as though the glass screen, and the components in charge of illuminating it, were the only things in need of replacing. A quick browse on Amazon, some tech forums, and a post on Reddit should be a good start in finding a usable replacement for this sad, broken gadget.

For now, however, you get some isopropyl alcohol and a soft bristled toothbrush to chip away at the water damage on the motherboards in hopes of restoring the electrical connections. You were quite hopeful that you’d get this little guy up and running just as soon as you could find the right parts. It’s only a matter of time.

[violetasteracademic]

I know this has been said a million times in a million ways, but I humbly request an audience to September Virgo out for a hot minute and share my dissertation on why the "Three Brothers and Three Sisters is *lazy writing*" take is by far the WORST.

If you found me through my Lucien Vanserra's Hero's Journey breakdown (I'll link that at the end) then you already know I am an absolute nerd about book structure. I do not beef with the other ships and genuinely love and am interested in every character in these shipwars. But I get a little hot when I see this take!

The reason being is that 3 and 3 is not "lazy writing." Lazy writing is:

⚫ Conveniently de-escalating all current stakes and conflicts established in the service of a romantic pairing.

⚫ Poorly pacing a book because now we have to explain why a character was thinking about offering another character 1 ticket to ride his face, but now he quickly wants someone else instead that many people offline don't even know about. Structure wise- (we are talking three act structure here, again I have broken that down in the link I'll post below) this means that by the end of Act One, the act in which the lead of our story has been presented with all of the information and their story has been laid out, they are now crossing into Act Two with clarity and set up, (side note-the first act is typically resolved within the first 20% of the book (or less!) we must resolve an existing romance with one character that has not even gotten its opportunity to be told in depth (i.e. Feyre and Tamlin). And reasonably introduce a new romance. As well as the introduction of new plotlines to accommodate the new romance. It's just... it's a plot and pacing nightmare. I'm getting the sweats even thinking about it.

⚫ Ignoring years worth of details and foreshadowing in an act of fan service because the fandom decided they don't like your character, even if you, as the author, very much do.

⚫ Introducing a brand new plot in the middle of a smorgasbord of unresolved plotlines so a newly introduced side character who has already had a complete arc in service of another main character can now become the next main character, leapfrogging over the remaining main characters who have been around since book one with active storylines in development.

Three and three is not "lazy writing." Three is simply a motif. A motif is an artistic/literary device. Three sisters. Three brothers. Three mountains. Three stars on the night court insignia, ect.

Writing is: Structure. Line level prose. Obstacles. Stakes. Character arcs.

I will absolutely allow the criticism that it is cheesy or corny. That is an opinion, and you are totally allowed to have it. We can respectfully disagree on that and it's no skin off my back.

However, Elriel (as well as Vassien) have the elements that *good* writing is comprised of. Characters with steadily increasing arcs. Obstacles at every turn. Incredibly high stakes. And in my opinion (though of course everyone is allowed their own opinion on this!) some downright BREATHTAKING one liners and line level prose in their interactions from ACOMAF all the way to the bonus chapter.

Please, I beg of you, understand that just because you do not like something does not make it lazy or poorly executed. Art is subjective, and when we use our taste to make objective assertions about things we don't prefer, art suffers.

For more on book structure and the possibilities of Lucien and Vassa's absolutely beautiful potential, hop on over here:

Thank you for your time 😂

[georgiapeach30513]

I'll be honest, while Deuxmoi always and still does post a ton of BS, thanks to the development of this never-ending saga...I'm starting to really feel like she's been used intentionally to push this narrative along all the way from the very beginning. Aka 2021.

A very out there theory but hear me out: Early on, the fandom had the general consensus DM was BS. Especially in regards to CE. Because DM was the one that first started spreading his super secret GF nonsense back in 2021, right before the introduction of Soba Saga. Her almost nonsensical rants about her having legit sources on this secret GF - while doing weekly podcasts where she insisted she never got any intel on him because his circle was so tight knit (interesting how that suddenly changed out of nowhere when someone showed up) - just made her seem like crazy cat lady gossip conspiracy Marjorie Taylor Greene on steroids.

She was the first to post that "dating Soba for over a year and everyone in PT/her circle knows about it" in early 2022.

They go public in late 2022. 2023 There's some Sunday Spotted (I could be wrong) vDAY post about CE and "fiancé" being seen in town at dinner (sounds very similar to the most recent vDay sighting). That was about 10 months before the super secret wedding and there had been no announcement of being engaged, minus the Tumblr blogs and random third rate tabloids and troll twitter accounts passing on the rumors. DM starts spreading around the same time some Tumblr blogs get the intel about secret engagement, wedding, rift in the family, people on his side not liking Soba, etc. Eventually it is revealed DM was right all along???? In a complete turn of events her credibility goes from zero to 1 (grudgingly of course, while she continues to spill BS daily)

Meanwhile, DM gets the first RPatz sighting with Scarlett and crew at dinner. Nobody believed it - as Nancy mentioned, it just seemed too farfetched with the way that restaurant was set up.

Then in early 2024 we get an actual RPatz sighting with with Soba/CE, and separately, sightings with Scarlett and Colin. Now there's more "credibility" to that random other sighting even if it still can't be proven.

Now...possible project with RPatz and CE's name circulating. Maybe just gossip fodder, maybe some truth to it. Time will tell. Coincidences once again.

DM gets the sighting of CE in LA with Russos. He actually confirms that one himself a month later.

Simultaneously, DM gets random sightings of CE doing other stuff where soba is not mentioned. Nobody knows really what to believe anymore.

But for every 15 BS things she posts, she actually gets 1-2 right. It starts to completely make her a hit or miss source but enough to get people riled up and worried if/when she gets something related to CE/Soba.

In a way, this strategy, if it were to have any salt to it, is kinda interesting. It also sort of enforces the idea of possible foul play. Because if CE is truly in such a happy, private, loveful relationship, why use somebody as uncouth as DM to throw out breadcrumbs? Especially since, in the past, his fanbase and most Tumblr blogs believed it was only legit if it came from someone like People Mag (his team's go-to). Ironically, Page 6 has been getting most of the exclusive scoops this time around, in addition to weird low rate tabloids that eventually make its way to the top.

I know I sound like crazy qanon conspiracy theorist, but I guess people see what they wanna see. But for the people who believe this relationship isn't as genuine as some want to believe, it kind of tracks that somebody's PR team pushing this out in ways to sort of make you wonder, question, and push back on the validity. Just enough to make you think, maybe, maybe there's something going on BTS that they're not saying but they're kinda telling. But you'll never know what the truth is. At least not for now.

I do find DM’s role since 2023 to be very interesting indeed. You missed nothing. Not one thing. She’s made herself be credible enough during this, but also, she’s questionable. So of course, take everything she says with a grain of salt.

I made this comment a bit ago to someone else, he still uses People. Who got the Jinx articles first. Think about that for a moment. He. Just him.

As far as the last paragraph, what I will say is celebrities need to be talked about. Good or bad, they need the press. They need to be in the front of people’s minds. What better way to have them in people’s minds, and to have fans talk about something long past their expiration date than by playing a game. PR has become such a hot topic word, and I think very few people even understand it. But to me, if you’re having to play so many games, what really is real? Live your life. Isn’t that what we continue to be told they’re doing?

[sarahjtv]

My Hero Academia Chapter 430 Spoiler Talk: The True End of An Era (Part 1)

This is it, the final chapter of My Hero Academia. A series 10 years in the making has finally ended. It's really insane to think about. This series has done so much good for a lot of people despite the fandom's flaws. MHA was both people's introduction and even reintroduction to manga and anime. It's bittersweet to write about the final chapter, but I will do the best I can to honor the series I love. This is going to be a very long one. Also a lot of screaming.

Now, please, if you want to wait until the official translation releases on Sunday, PLEASE TURN AWAY NOW! Save this post and come back to it on Sunday when everyone has read the chapter. I will be using spoiler hashtags for this, so if you end up spoiling yourself because of my post, that's on you. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING:

Here we go. We first start off with our Final Color page for the series! It's a gorgeous double-page spread featuring all Class 1-A (Now 2-A) kids that we've grown to know and love throughout the past 10 years including Shinso, Aizawa, and All Might of course. Izuku Midoriya AKA Deku, our beautiful MC who I will miss with all my heart and soul 💚, is leading the page and his friends towards the bright future they all fought so hard for. It's a wonderful way to conclude the series and I will make sure to get a high-quality version of it to use as my computer wallpaper.

The final chapter is titled "My Hero Academia" because of course it is ���. This was truly My Hero Academia.

OH FUCK WE GET A TIME SKIP TO THE FUTURE SOMEONE HOLD ME 😭

KOTA IS THE THE UA HERO COURSE AND IZUKU IS HIS TEACHER IT'S SO PERFECT FOR HIM!!!💚😭 I BET MR. AIZAWA AND ALL MIGHT WERE BIG INSPIRATIONS FOR HIM TO TAKE THIS PATH 🥹

IT'S ONLY BEEN 1 PAGE AND THIS CHAPTER HAS ALREADY ENDED ME IT'S SO JOEVER FUCK

BTW, Deku is saying a more optimistic version of the "Not all men are born equal" narration he told us at the beginning of the very first chapter of the series. Very nice way of bringing the story full circle.

Ok, the next 2 pages have a lot of things in them, so I'm going to try to sum it up as best as I can:

Izuku finally came home to see his mother, Inko, at their apartment and she looks happy 💚

All Might is out of his wheelchair and helping old Gran Tarino walk with a cane (how he still survived I have no idea).

All the kids running in their gym clothes in what looks like their second Sports Festival (god, what I'd give to see that in its entirety).

Miriko is very happy with her new prosthetics including one that looks like the Bullet Bill from the Super Mario series.

The kids struggling taking either mid-terms or finals written tests. Bakugo is still using his left arm to write, so I assume his right arm is still barely usable.

Shoji and Kota shaking some prominent mutant's hand I assume from their contributions towards the war.

Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods working together as usual!

Tokoyama meeting up with Hawks.

KOTA AND ERI HOLDING HANDS AND GETTING READY FOR SCHOOL WITH MADALAY'S APPROVAL THAT'S SO FUCKING CUTE 😭❤️🤍

Endeavor being followed around by his sidekicks and Hawks.

Aizawa and Present Mic visiting what I bet is Shirakumo's grave 😢

The fan translator says that the kids finally meet Melissa from the first MHA movie! We don't see her face, but I'll take what they say is truth.

Spinner's book selling and Compress reading it in jail.

Bakugo going through rehab to get his right arm back!

Deku and Ochako spending time in the snow.

OUR KID'S GRADUATION OH MY GOD MOST OF THEM ARE 18 THERE AND THEY'RE OFFICIALLY PRO HEROES I'M SO FUCKING PROUD OF THEM 😭❤️ Interesting though since none of them really look much older except for maybe Iida and Shoto, but it's hard to tell from the scans. And Bakugo and Monoma keep the crazy graduation tradition of blowing things up as their goodbye present to UA!

And finally, we see the embers of One For All slowly fade away in Izuku's hand until there's nothing left...

Oh, god. The time skip takes place 8 YEARS in the future geez. So, if this is 8 years since we left the kids in Class 2-A, they would be about 24-25 years old now damn. We're actually going to see them all grown up that's crazy.

The next page shows us a middle school class very similar to how we saw Deku and Bakugo at the very beginning of the series. The teacher asks them what they want to do in the future and we get to see small glimpses of other characters now such as Hatsume who has her own lab (go, girl!), and LaBrava who seems to own a company with Gentle!

The main kid we focus on in this class is Dai, the young boy with dark blue-ish dotted hair who was looking at the All Might statue in Kamino before the first war started (I don't blame you for forgetting; I had to look him up too). He says he wants to be a hero, but everyone else says that his Quirk is too weak for him to become one. Despite that, he still goes to the All Might statue (which sounds like has been rebuilt) for inspiration. Sound familiar? 🤔

Next we see Shoji accepting a prestigious award for his efforts in resolving mutant prejudice-based incidents! He looks SO BULKY HOLY SHIT DUDE 😳 And his hair got longer to the point of putting it in a ponytail! Also, Koda and the glue Class 1-B kid (I think his name is Bondo or something) are there to congratulate him too! I bet you that Shoji making it to the top 10 in the final popularity poll helped Horikoshi give him a little spotlight and it's a good way of following up on what happened after his bout in the Final War.

Next up, we see Ochako, Tsuyu, Momo, and Iida visiting schools across the country! Ochako has also set up a Quirk Counseling expansion project that's become one of the most essential things in the future society!

Ok:

1: It's hard to tell with Iida, but the girls all look slightly older especially with their hair being a little longer.

2: Their future costumes look great! It's not a 100% match to what we saw in Endeavor's vision, but it's still great! Iida's armor got more detail to them; Tsuyu's frog goggles got gogglier?; Momo is finally coving up her cleavage and showing less exposed skin took you 10 years, but you finally got there, Horikoshi; and Ochako's got updated headwear, the two dots on her outfit are side-by-side instead of on top of each other, and her collar thing looks similar to Deku's hero mask which I know was intentional.

3: Good for Ochako for doing something about Quirk Counseling. Definitely inspired by what happened with Himiko Toga. I hope this means that we won't have another incident like Toga had and that kids are now able to get help with their Quirks as opposed to being villainized. I hope Ochako's making good money out of this too for her family like she originally intended.

We also see a teenage Eri going to her music club with a guitar on her back! She has a normal girl's sailor uniform, so my best guess is that she's either still in middle school (I think she would be 14-15 at this point) or she's not in UA like a lot of us thought. Either way, she wants to pursue music instead of Hero work so I wouldn't be surprised if she didn't go to UA at all. It also looks like her horn did fully grow back, but whether her Rewind Quirk still works the same is up in the air.

And we see that Mr. Aizawa is still working at UA, BUT HE CUT HIS HAIR SHORT 😭 WHY DID YOU CUT HIS BEAUTIFUL, LONG LOCKS, HORIKOSHI??? OF ALL THE PHYSICAL CHANGES YOU GIVE OUR CHARACTERS THIS IS THE MOST DEVASTATING 😭

*BREATHS* But, he shows Deku and us a video of Bakugo SCREAMING AT A CIVILIAN FOR FILMING HIM TOO CLOSELY 😂😭 PLEASE NEVER CHANGE, KATSUKI BAKUGO 🧡 I'm also really glad he still got to be a Pro Hero despite his injuries.

AND NOW WE SEE MY SWEET FAVORITE BOY, SHOTO TODOROKI WHO CUT HIS HAIR A LITTLE SHORTER!!! I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS, I LIKE HIM BETTER WITH SHORT HAIR AND STILL LOOKS LIKE THE BEAUTIFUL PRETTY BOY HE ALWAYS WAS! STAY PRETTY, SHOTO!!! 🩵

Anyway, Shoto patrols day and night and is very nice to his fans! Kind king 👑! He's also become his own man to the public now as he's barley called "Endeavor's Son" anymore. That's a real relief because I know for a fact that that was haunting him for years. Also, there's a chance he'll pass Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, and even Mirio in the rankings! I'm so proud of my fave! 🩵❄️🔥

GAH! I'm actually hitting a world limit here! I have to make a Part 2!

[sinhal]

Hal Jordan Reading List

Hal Jordan is a man of many names and many legends. He was once the Green Lanterns' best and brightest. His name and legend is written into the stars. He fell, brilliantly and terribly. He rose again as the Spirit of Vengeance, the Spirit of Redemption! He returns in the end to his place among the Green Lanterns. But to truly know the man, you must read the stories.

Most important stories are bolded and my favorites are asterisked

Origin Stories 

Some of these repeat, not all are necessary but I advise reading at least Emerald Dawn/Emerald Dawn II or Secret Origins or Showcase #22

Emerald Dawn (1990), first appearance of the Martin Jordan backstory

Emerald Dawn II (1991)*, Hal is trained by Sinestro for the first time

Secret Origins (Green Lantern (2005) #29-35), Geoff Johns’ version of Hal’s backstory if reading modern Hal stuff, its important

Showcase #22*, what actually started it all

Superman: Man of Steel Annual #4*, Hal meets Clark for the first time

Secret Origins (1986) #36, Hal retells his origin to a new friend (set post Action Comics (1938) #606)

One Shots

Green Lantern Secret Files (2004) #1 “Flight”, three flights in Hal Jordan’s life*

Justice League: The Darkseid War - Green Lantern #1, Hal becomes a God and gives it up*

Green Lantern 80th Anniversary, a tribute to the Green Lanterns across the ages* (Skip Geoff’s story. You’ll thank me. Four should be read after Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #35.)

Early Days

Green Lantern (1960) #6, first appearance of Tomar-Re*

Green Lantern (1960) #7, first appearance of Sinestro*

Green Lantern (1960) #8, introduction of the Solar Director of 5780 plot*

Green Lantern (1960) #9, second appearance of Sinestro + first appearance of Hal’s brothers*

Green Lantern (1960) #13, first team-up with The Flash (Barry Allen)

Green Lantern (1960) #16, first appearance of Star Sapphire

Green Lantern (1960) #26, second appearance of Star Sapphire

Green Lantern (1960) #30, first appearance of Katma Tui*

Green Lantern (1960) #36, Hal falls in love with an alien*

Green Lantern (1960) #45, Hal and Alan team up issue*

Green Lantern (1960) #49, Hal leaves Coast City

Wanderer

Green Lantern (1960) #51, conclusion of the Solar Director of 5871 arc

Green Lantern (1960) #53, family team up issue*

Green Lantern (1960) #57, an old enemy returns

Green Lantern (1960) #63, Hal saves the world from an alien who wants to destroy it*

Green Lantern (1960) #64, Hector Hammond returns*

Green Lantern (1960) #70, Hal gets a new job + first questioning of Guardians*

Green Lantern (1960) #73-74, Hal returns to Coast City and fights Sinestro and Star Sapphire* (note: there will be a panel that will make your jaw drop in how racist it is, there’s some good meat besides that panel but that panel…its bad)

Questioning and Politics

Green Lantern/Green Arrow

Green Lantern (1960) #76-#87, #89

The Flash (1959) backup stories: #217-#219, #226

Hal’s solo backups in The Flash (1959)

The Flash (1959) #220-#225

Space Exile and Return (I frankly rec reading all of Green Lantern (1960) #133 to #200, but these are the best issues out of it)

Green Lantern (1960) #149-150, 164-170, space exile!

Green Lantern (1960) #172, Hal gets to return to Earth

Green Lantern (1960) #181, Hal quits

Green Lantern (1960) #191-192, the Predator is revealed

Green Lantern Corps (1986) (might be under Green Lantern (1960) depending on website) #220-224, Sinestro is executed (warning, this is part of Englehart glc and thus includes small references to hal/arisia, that relationship is out of character for everyone involved and I don't support it, but these issues are otherwise good)

The Return

Action Comics (1938) #606 "The List", Hal reaches out and no one responds*

Green Arrow (1988) #20, Hal goes and helps Ollie once again*

Secret Origins (1986) #50, Hal and Ollie make up from their fight (last story, only)

At this point, Hal has been wandering and questioning for years. He’s a drifter, especially since the Guardians left the Universe to go make new Oans. 

Green Lantern (1990) #1-8, the reintroduction of the Corps*

Green Lantern (1990) #25, Hal and Guy fight

Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale, Hal learns the Guardians have been lying to him

Green Lantern (1990) #32-35, the Third Law*

Parallax

Superman (1987) #80, the Destruction of Coast City

Green Lantern (1990) #46, Hal fights against Mongol and speaks of hearing voices*

Green Lantern (1990) #47, Hal and Ollie team up

Green Lantern (1990) #48-50, Emerald Twilight* (if you read one thing on this list read this)

Guy Gardner: Warrior (1994) #18-21, Guy learns about the destruction of Coast City + what Hal did

Zero Hour (1994) #4-0, Hal destroys time*

Green Lantern (1990) #0, Hal and Kyle finish their fight from Zero Hour*

Green Arrow (1988) #96, Hal meets Ollie once again*

Green Lantern (1990) #61-63, Hal attempts to get Kyle’s ring back

Final Night (1996) #1-4, Hal dies to save the universe

Parallax: Emerald Night (1996) #1, read between issues #3 and #4 of Final Night, Hal looks over his life

Green Lantern (1990) #99-106, Kyle travels through time and meets Hal Jordan, in the middle of his first fight with Sinestro. Young!Hal returns to the present with Kyle.* (Read Green Arrow (1988) #136 inbetween #104 and #105, One of my favorite arcs of all time. Please read it 🥺)

The Spectre

Day of Judgment (1999) #1-5, Hal becomes the Spectre

Day of Judgment: Secret Files #1, Hal gives others the way to kill him

Legends of the DC Universe #33-#36, Hal’s first mission as the Spectre*

Green Arrow (2001) #7, Hal reveals that he’s the reason why Ollie is alive*

The Spectre (2001) #1-27

Especially read

The Spectre (2001) #1 

The Spectre (2001) #5, Hal and Carol reunite*

The Spectre (2001) #15-17, Spectre but in Space!

The Spectre (2001) #21-23, the return of Sinestro*

Geoff Johns era Hal

Green Lantern: Rebirth #1-6, Hal comes back to life

Green Lantern (2005) #7-8, Hal and Ollie get stuck in Hal’s version of their perfect world

Green Lantern (2005) #10-13, the lanterns Hal killed come back to life*

Green Lantern (2005) #14-17, Hal deals with his time as a POW and gets wanted in Russia*

Green Lantern (2005) #18-20, creation of the Star Sapphire corp (note; this is the most sexist set of issues I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading, I will tell you what happened if you want)

Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War (You’ll be confused but the Hal portions are in Green Lantern (2005) #21-28)

Blackest Night (2009) #1-8, the dead return

Green Lantern (2005) #43-52, Green Lantern tie in to blackest night

War of the Green Lanterns, the 4 Earth GLS must become members of the other corps to save the Green Lanterns*

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #7

Green Lantern Vol. 4 #63

Green Lantern Vol. 4 #64

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2 #58

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #8

Green Lantern Vol. 4 #65

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2 #59

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #9

Green Lantern Vol. 4#66

Green Lantern Corps Vol. 2 #60

Green Lantern: Emerald Warriors #10

Green Lantern Vol. 4 #67

War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath #1 (2011)

War of the Green Lanterns: Aftermath #2

N52

Green Lantern (2011) #1-20, Sinestro is a Green Lantern and Hal Jordan isn’t!* (Conclusion of Geoff Johns’ run, Actually one of my favorites especially issue 20)

Green Lantern (2011) #21-26, Annual #1, Hal is in charge of the GLC

Green Lantern (2011) #29, Hal tells Jim he can't come back to Earth

Green Lantern (2011) #41-46, Annual #4, Hal steals Krona’s gauntlet and becomes a Renegade Green Lantern*

Convergence: Zero Hour #1-2, Parallax Hal returns!*

Green Lantern (2011) #47-52, Renegade!Hal meets Parallax Hal*

Rebirth

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps: Rebirth #1, Hal makes his own Green Lantern ring*

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #1-7, Hal fights the Yellow Lantern corps!

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #8-12, Kyle helps revives Hal while Soranik and John try to work out the Sinestro Corps-Green Lantern Corps partnership

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #14-17, Hal and Kyle attempt to revive the Blue Lantern Corps

You can read Prism of Time and Fracture (#18-#25) but also you can chew glass. So. Soranik is evil now and Tomar-Tu killed a Yellow Lantern from Xudar named Romat-Ru. Don’t read it, it took me three days to finish those issues at a point where I was reading more than 30 issues a day. 

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #30-31, Hal meets Parallax again, this time possessing Clark Kent*

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #33-36, the Earth GLs work together to save the Guardians

Famous Quotes- “Four legs on a table, four walls on a house, and four seats in a mustang gt. We’re the four corpsmen. You don’t screw with what works.” (Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #35)

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #37-41, Hal is captured by Zod*

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #42-50: Rise of the Blackstars*

The Green Lantern (2018) #1-12, Morrison writes some very interesting Hal stories

Green Lantern: Blackstars #1-3, Hal creates a perfect world*

The Green Lantern Season Two (2020) #1-12, major stories include the multiversal Green Lanterns and Carol Jordan and Hal Ferris

Present

Green Lantern (2021) #1-12, more John and Jo focused but Hal has some fun moments.

Green Lantern (2023) is currently coming out.

[ontheoddoccasioniwritestuff]

Star-crossed in the Crosshairs (John Price x Reader)

Chapter 1: It's Bigger Than You

Fic Summary: This mission is the pinnacle of your efforts for the past three years. Your whole team and yourself have worked countless hours, slaughtered hundreds, risked life and limb for scraps of intel, and now it all boiled down to pairing up with another taskforce to get this job done and dusted. An unexpected spanner in the works comes in the form of your best friend, now also a Captain and somehow resurrected from his KIA status, John Price.

You can't afford to let feelings - old and new - get in the way of your purpose. No matter how much you've missed, wished for, loved him, and no matter how much he might feel the same.

Content warnings: Usual COD content (violence, torture, death, guns), mutual pining, back from the dead, friends to allies to lovers

Reader is GN, some use of Y/N.

Masterlist // AO3 Version // Chapter 2

The long term was drawing to a close, ultimately. More and more of the covert ops were starting to bring up more details that bore fruit in the form of puzzle pieces, all the same colour and shape so that putting the fragments together was a near impossible ordeal. But your team had finally made connections, threads of red stabbed into satellite images, maps, and post-its with scribbled intel, ready to be uploaded to the higher ups overseeing your dirty work.

Your team was not the only one to make headway against this new threat. Which is why you were all loaded into a heli, shipped to your new temporary home bordering Russia to pair up with another taskforce.

Taskforce Banshee was eager to work with the 141. You’d been briefed names, not faces, and delivered those to your subordinates who teemed with delight – especially Crash who was eager to meet with someone she’d trained with upon entering the armed forces.

You hid your reluctance well. You weren’t ungrateful for reinforcements, especially from an elite squad of soldiers whose names rang clear with reputations earned in the blood of a thousand. But one of those names conjured an image, and it did not have to travel deep into the archives of your memories, since you had been offered a gentle reprieve between punches from some cocksure wannabe torturer not one month prior. As you spat in your captor’s eye, that image had appeared in your head to comfort you. It was far from your end, but it seemed to rub balm over your mind as it grew dizzy with the wonder that perhaps he’d done the same when he was in this same position: captured whilst assuring their team’s escape. So when you were discharged officially and ready for active duty, and Chief Laswell said the name of the man whose memory had comforted you in your closest interaction with your own death, you were not best pleased. Your ribs were healed enough for you to join your team for this collaboration. But they ached around your sternum with the remembrance of the man you would have laid your life down for.

The heli jolted its passengers, though you all maintained composure besides an exchange of raised brows. Stepping off onto solid tarmac was much appreciated. You were met by a younger man, classic London charm in a baseball cap and tac vest.

“Sergeant Kyle Garrick,” He offered you his hand first, “Call me Gaz.”

You introduced yourself, without an additional nickname - the one you’d been assigned by your squad was lost many years ago, in transfers and promotions. Then came your team who shook hands with the Sergeant as you role-called: Sergeant Rosie “Crash” Simmonds, Sergeant Grant “Bronze” Ray, and Second Lieutenant Lucia “Chance” Halloway. Although Rosie needed no introduction. She and Garrick entered into a brief but elaborate looking handshake before bumping chests with broad grins. You liked that about Rosie. She had a good sense of humour, made you feel a half a decade younger. Not quite the entire decade. Precious few people could bring that version of you out. But she made your life a bit brighter, and it was an honour to mentor her.

“We’re starting briefing in a few. I’ll take you right there.”

He walked with a brisk pace, effectively flushing the stiff joints

As much as you’d rehearsed this in your head, it didn’t stop your ears from feeling like they were stuffed with cotton wool.

Your captured essence of John Price, back when you were both fresh meat with hardly any hairs on his chin worth keeping around, vanished and was replaced by the man he’d become. His body had bulked up beneath the uniform, his features framed by facial hair that finally connected moustache to beard.

He was leaning over the room’s table, one hand to balance his inclined weight and the other pointing at the centre of the paperwork gathered for this mission. At the sound of the door opening, he’d turned his head ninety degrees right to meet the gaze of all who entered. He was looking directly at you, his eyes in the shadow thrown by the brim of his boonie.

You only stared at him for a second. It was long enough for the room to notice, you feared. So you resumed your business-like appearance to the best of your acting ability.

“Captain,” and you reached out to shake his hand.

Blinking three times in quick succession, John Price accepted with a firm grasp in a fingerless glove.

“Captain,” He repeated after you, his voice like dark roasted coffee. He only gave your hand a single shake. Yet it still managed to send shockwaves up through your muscles and reverberated against your bones whilst, in their bulky uniforms, Taskforce Banshee shuffled around into position, chair legs screeching along the floor before they took up their manilla folders. You had your own handed to you by Captain Price. Your head despised how his forefinger reached out to brush against yours, like Hannibal Lector had done in his final meeting with Clarice Starling, against the wills of everyone else in that prison. However your heart leapt into your throat at the accidental touch, and you had to clear it a little harshly to ensure you could talk through it before the briefing started.

Price went first, introducing the other members of his team: Sergeant John “Soap” MacTavish and Lieutenant Simon “Ghost” Riley. Your team replied with their own names, probably hoping for this section of the briefing to be over before someone suggested they tell each other a fun fact about themselves to aid bonding. Thankfully, Price took back over and began explaining the intel he and his team had uncovered. You recounted it in your mind from what you’d seen before, trying not to breathe in the cedarwood beard oil that matched an all too familiar aftershave.

You spoke next, after Price smoothly handed the subject to you, briefly about the history of this project. Then you delegated to Bronze who had completed his last mission solo and discovered the info that clinched this entire operation together. He informed everyone about the name that had sporadically popped up in the background noise of missions over the years: Jaromir Čiernik. How, over a period of years and months, he’d built up his terrorist portfolio over in the three countries he’d earned residence: Russia, Belarus, and Odristan (his place of birth and comfort zone). He’d only slipped under the radar due to his many precautions and wide spread net of contacts and aliases. Except last week, he’d grown impatient, tripped on his ego enough for your team to force entry into this new cell.

The meeting looped back to you and the plan to poison this organisation against itself. You’d made with your taskforce in mind but modifications were included to best make use of your new allies in 141. Speaking of which, your gracious hosts were delightful audience participants: Ghost offering a single nod, while Gaz and Soap offered their compliments to the detail without speaking over you.

After a thorough ten minutes, you made it to your closing statement and your offer: “Any questions?”

A few head shakes were sent your way, eyes still on the written details or the map on the big screen.

Price took hold of the two straps of his vest, addressing Taskforce Banshee: “My men will show you to your quarters. Heli leaves at 1800 hours. See you there.”

With the meeting closed, the door to the room was opened. Your team filed out after their hosts, though you noted Chance lingering a few feet behind and watching you shuffle your papers back into its file.

“Something the matter?” You prompted, openly, not interrogatively.

Chance’s eyes flicked over to Captain Price for a split second then returned to you: “Nothing, Cap.”

You nodded, filing this conversation as something to address before leaving at six, and watched the door close behind her. Out your back pocket, you tapped on your work phone an alarm for twenty minutes before launch.

“Y/N?”

Your lungs were still and holding you ramrod straight on your suddenly unsteady feet. If you dared to let even a hint of personal feelings out of its cage, you would be ruined for this mission and you couldn’t let that happen. Not to you, your team, the innocents who would lose everything and not even know your name to blame you for it. So you took the greatest amount of care to face Price with all composure maintained inside and out.

His hat was on the table besides the laptop, his eyes bluer now they were out of the shadow. It was a blow to see him again, but to see him with the full eight years on his face, each grey hair that flecked his strong brown beard, the sparse ones that lined against his temples, and more sprouting along the hairline that had shot back a centimetre. Crow’s feet carved against his eyes, brackets from his nose shielding his mouth beneath the beard. Which meant he still smiled the same, and he had done so often in the gap since you’d seen him.

The freckle, off-centre near the end of his nose, caught your attention, and your geeky younger self’s desire to kiss it reared its ugly and humiliating head, spawning right next to your thundering heart. The sound of which, you hoped, was muted beneath your protective layers, and you hoped that John didn’t realise how much energy you were spending on soaking up his presence again like a lovesick teen.

He cleared his throat, “I think I should explain-”

“It’s good to see you again.”

You didn’t mean to interrupt what was likely a well-rehearsed speech, your eyes wide to take him in in his entirety.

But you meant what you’d said. There was no part of you that felt anger at his sudden resurrection. Only relief that your wishes to see him once more had been granted, and melancholy at all the time you’d lost and would not be able to recapture or resume until this mission was far in the rear view mirror. If only this mission was the kind where everyone walked away.

He was still, watching you, his hand frozen two inches raised from his side and you realised that he had gone to reach for you. You didn’t back away, trusting that he wouldn’t do that to you after all that you’d gone through, his fault or otherwise.

Finally, he replied, “You too.” And his hand lowered cautiously back to his side.

You gave him a quick nod then spun on your heel to leave the office. The echo breadcrumb clues of footsteps and mild chatter led you back to your team who were just entering their respective rooms.

“Yours is up here, Captain,” Gaz said with an arm out to indicate his direction.

The spare quarters were just down the corridor and to the right, your rank allowing you the privacy of a room to yourself – if only for the time you needed to prepare yourself for this mission. You thanked the Sergeant, finding your belongings already dumped in the corner.

The lock twisted in the door handle, darkness collapsing behind you. A breath slid out of your mouth with a whine. Your hand snapped up and pressed your palm to your lips, a silencer to the bullet that burst through your chest, as raw as the day they told you Price was KIA. How you’d wept silently and unknowingly at an empty grave, poured a drink to it and hid in shame from other visitors to the graveyard, as if your grief was an embarrassment. A decade’s worth of recuperation, dashed to pieces like a ship on rocks, and you were taking water fast, sinking down against the weak door. If anyone heard this distress, they could easily kick the door in, and they would see you in your moment of weakness.

The room was shrinking against your efforts to see the corners of it. Boots stiff and dusty, you planted them down with your knees bent for ease. You began forcing yourself to breath slow by blocking your airways for set amounts of seconds, counting down each second as accurate as a timer.

Using the door to support yourself, you pushed up into standing and closed your eyes. Your mind brought forth a picture of your posture, your position, and everything that hung from you. It began to adjust itself. Your shaking hands steadied out from wrist to fingertip. Spine aligned, hips adjusted, ready to carry half your weight in gear, you stopped timing your breathing and went on with your pre-mission routine: brushing your teeth, flossing, final deodorant checks, quick piss.

Then your phone buzzed with the alarm. You silenced it fast then turned it off completely. You knocked at the doors of your subordinates, all waiting for your go-ahead, then you made your way back to the tarmac.

Drawing up to the heli, you found Soap with a large crate that he was just crow-barring open. Brimming with the weapons necessary for your future, and he was letting your team take their pick first.

“Cheers,” Bronze said, and the rest of the team – yourself included – echoed the sentiment as you loaded up.

The M13 found itself in your gloved hands, taking it apart and putting it back together like pieces in a Lego set. If you’d allowed it to become a coping mechanism, rather than a day-to-day task, it might’ve allowed you to ignore the rest of 141 joining you for their canisters of tear gas and grenades.

“How’d you know what the Captain likes?” Crash cracked, and Soap seemed to glow under the wit.

Then, for the first time, Ghost spoke: “Price organised it.”

Anyone could tell the portion of silence that followed was the awkward kind, but you just continued loading your weapons, not lurking on what Ghost had said (and implied).

“Chance?” Your head tilted back once you caught her eye. Checking the chamber of her M21, she followed you back into the hanger, though you kept in sight so that the others would know you weren’t late.

“What did you want to ask me earlier?” You asked, loud enough to be heard over the propellors but not so that anyone else could hear.

Shifting her weight onto her left hip, Chance glanced back at the teams assembling before the belly of the heli before turning back to you: “You met Captain Price before, right?”

As calmly and nonchalantly as you could muster, you answered: “Yes, why?”

“Just seemed like you knew each other. No introductions, you know?”

“Hmmm,” You tried not to avoid eye contact nor stare for too long, “We worked together in the army. Briefly.”

That last word caused Chance’s right brow to quirk up. Too much effort to seem effortless on your part. But she accepted this and no other follow-ups when you asked if there were any. She wasn’t questioning you or your authority or your judgement. In fact, you were happy she asked. It kept almost kept you in check, ensured your team understood your rationale and trusted your decisions as their leader. Still you had no clue why your cortisol levels were rising at the idea of your team knowing the answer to that question.

It'd have to be filed with the other doubts you had about your role as a Captain, the ones you kept to yourself, only to be challenged with your therapist on the other end of the phone once or twice a month.

You wondered when you would speak with them, but you knew you would definitely discuss seeing Price again.

The other had loaded themselves onto the heli during that private chat, so you went and found yourself your seat beside Crash. She didn’t acknowledge you, too busy engaging eagerly with Gaz, and you didn’t hide the fond smile that sight caused.

At five to six, the heli closed itself up and the propellers kicked into high gear, the lift off causing your stomach to drop an inch despite knowing full well what was happening. You rubbed a fingertip beneath your watch, swiping the sweat from the inked skin underneath. One of these days, you’d pull that watch off and your tattoo would be distorted by the impression left behind – now as permanent as each other.

“Good?” Bronze said on your right.

As you turned your head, you tried not to focus on the boonie hat that tempted in your sightlines opposite you. This was the culmination of countless efforts. It was your responsibility to get your team through this, to give your lives to keep the world spinning for a few minutes longer. Not some retreat to reconnect with your risen-from-the-dead best friend. He would not be a distraction. He would be an ally, and nothing more.

You tapped your fist to Bronze’s, “Solid.”

______________

AN: Hello and welcome to another series I'm writing. But I have this one half finished so I'm dead set on getting this one completed, especially since it's one near and dear to my heart.

Thank you to @mockerycrow for your permission to use your post/now a fic as inspiration! I'm running away with it, and I'll come back to see what you do with it too! Make sure you send them some love for their updates <3

Final note, if you wanna be tagged, talk to me about this fic or any others, or even request a fic/update on this, inbox me! I'd love to talk more COD content, and the more you talk to me, the more likely I'll post sooner!

[fairypowerful]

The Ship That Was Endgame Since the Beginning (confirmed)

Narratively, Michaela and Zeke were always meant to find each other and be together.

Narratively, Jared and Mick were not meant to be.

From the very beginning – S01E01.

(Edit: The show’s creator, Jeff Rake, said this was always the ending, “just tightened up along the way.” You got that? Zekaela were planned since long before Matt Long got the role as Zeke – Matt said that his first phone call with Jeff in 2018 after getting the role was himself being told that Zekaela were soulmates! LMAO 😂 I didn’t need this double confirmation in order to know that, because in hindsight, the clues were there from the way everything led to them and when looking at their first two episodes together.)

The offscreen event that led to Mick being in a bad place mentally/emotionally (her BFF Evie’s death) had also led to her hesitation of Jared’s proposal, which led to her getting on Flight 828 because she didn’t wanna have to deal with that and her family pressuring her to accept. (“It’s not just about you. This family needs something to celebrate” / “And I know you love Jared” / “Why are you fighting this when all it’s gonna do is make you happy?”)

It was a domino effect. The plane disappearing led to Jared marrying Mick’s other BFF, Lourdes, four years later, and the plane reappeared a year after that.

Mick became the other woman in that marriage, which she deeply regretted; and she not only destroyed her now-ex BFF’s marriage, but also lost another lifelong friendship on top of being too wrought with guilt over Evie (which she forgives herself for in the final season). Jared didn’t really show any remorse, but Mick now had all of that weighing her down and didn’t want to continue with him. And Jared certainly didn’t make it easy on her.

Really, these two were not right for each other. Not to mention, Jared unnecessarily stirred up trouble and a lot of stress for Mick due to his possessiveness over her, and his immediate jealousy and rather extreme hostility towards Zeke upon first meeting. Very toxic. Just gross. Not right.

~~~

I think it’s important to remember, too, the original series order was 13 episodes – the “find her” Calling was in the tenth episode, Zeke appears in the twelfth episode, and the thirteenth ended with him and Mick in front of the petroglyph of two stick figures holding hands, outside under the stars.

Those episodes would’ve been written in cohesion with the preceding storylines, especially considering the nature of the show and its mythology needing to be mapped out instead of written on the spot – meaning that Zekaela was not shoehorned into the show. Keyword, “cohesion.”

Those episodes and the character would’ve been written long before the actor was even cast into the role. It was always planned.

🤭 It’s also confirmed.

Their soulmatism was sprinkled all over their story, starting in their first two episodes together.

“It’s all connected,” didn’t you know? 😉

The show’s been consistent about that.

Look at the acting choices in Season 1 from before Zeke’s introduction. In multiple scenes, Jared told Mick they were supposed to be together and she’d shake her head ‘no.’ Like her heart knew, but she consciously didn’t yet. When Jared told her she’s his soulmate, Mick said, “No, I’m not.”

Narratively, her heart always belonged elsewhere. After she met Zeke, she always chose him over Jared from that point onward. Everything that happened led her to him, including her conscious choices post-Pilot and pre-Vanishing Point, which basically worked in tandem with the universe. The cheating/ruining BFF’s marriage/losing her BFF was a major deciding factor for her in not getting back with Jared anytime soon … and then she finally meets Zeke whom the universe had also brought forward in time.

~~~

So, I want to put my thoughts to some of the things I’ve read by antis…

“The only thing Zeke and Mick had in common were the Callings”

That’s not true. You had to have watched the show with your eyes closed to come up with that.

A Calling brought them together, sure, but it didn’t make them connect and fall in love, or be happier around one another. A Calling isn’t a love potion or a magic spell.

Zekaela was a pretty peaceful relationship in a sea of turmoil (the government, the X-ers, the hatred and violence against 828ers), whereas Jachaela was an angsty teen drama amidst the external turmoil. 😶

I’m going to quote a character from a different story who chose his wife over someone else he had feelings with, because I think it applies very much with Mick choosing Zeke over and over again every single time. “Passion is … it’s fire. And fire is great, man. But we’re made of water. Water is how we keep living. Water is what we need to survive. My family was my water. I picked water. I’ll pick water every time.” And I’ll add another quote from the same character talking about his wife and what it was like in meeting her, replacing the name with Mick’s because it is very much in alignment with Zekaela’s story. “But when I met [Mick], it was something different altogether. She just … made the world make sense to me. She even made me like myself more. And there was a calmness to her that … nobody else had. It felt like when I was with her, I knew everything would be fine. It was like I was following the North Star.”

Mick being Zeke’s North Star is literally canon, by the way.

(S01E13 and S04E18).

~~~

“The only reason why Zeke and Mick got together was due to the time travel and the Callings”

Yeah, that’s how storytelling works.

Crying about this is like complaining that the only reason the Doctor regenerates is because he’s an alien from Gallifrey and the Doctor Who writers in 1966 came up with a way to replace the leading actor without getting rid of the main character. Or rather, it’s like complaining that the only reason Mary Margaret and David fell in love despite the Dark Curse amnesia is because they were Snow White and Charming in the Enchanted Forest.

Trying to belittle Mick and Zeke’s love by attacking the narrative, that’s pathetic.

“But it’s forced”

No, it’s not. The little things the writers added years later, like Afterlife!Zeke telling Mick about them having moments in their lives where they almost met, is not forced, because the audience (who don’t have blinders on during their story) already knew they were soulmates and it’s literally how storytelling works.

Heaven forbid TV writers foreshadow, expand, and give callbacks to scenes from previous seasons ever again! Heaven forbid we ever get flashbacks in later seasons! Heaven forbid you ever watch another TV show with more than 1 season because “they added this years later, so it’s forced”!

“But Mick and Jared knew each other the longest”

So? That doesn’t matter. Do you actually believe length is an indicator of whether or not someone is the love of your life? Just…wow! Heaven forbid anybody not get back together with an ex simply because they knew them longer. Heaven forbid anybody leave behind a former or current longterm relationship without getting told, “But it’s been years, so you belong with him forever/were meant to be with him.”

Mick wanted Zeke. She chose Zeke. I think that’s a good indicator of whom the love of her life is.

In S01E13, Mick tells him that she wished she could redo her re-entry into 2018 but wasn’t sure what she would’ve done to change the way her situation at home turned out.

In S02E01, Zeke tells Mick he wished he’d met her some other way in some other time. (Edit: With Jeff implicitly saying he always knew how he wanted the story to end, and explicitly confirming that Zekaela was always the plan from the very beginning, along with Matt implicitly saying they were written as soulmates since before he got the role, Zeke’s line is now major foreshadowing).

In S04E19, Mick tells Ben she doesn’t regret taking a later flight because it led her to Zeke.

It’s very telling. Ben’s heart belongs with Grace, and Mick’s heart belongs with Zeke.

“She would’ve married Jared if Flight 828 landed in its proper timeline in the Pilot episode”

There’d be no show to watch if the plane landed in 2013, for one thing.

Those 5 years gave Mick an experience where she learned what and whom she really wanted, without the enormous pressure of immediately accepting a proposal, and she also got the opportunity to meet her real soulmate. It’s okay to not want the same thing you wanted a few years ago. It’s called growth.

~~~

“Mick only stayed married to Zeke, after he survived his Death Date, out of pity and duty (because he survived, and she expected him to die)”

I remember seeing a remark like this, and you must dislike or hate Mick if you think she’s like that. Even as a joke, that’s just cruel.

Mick was so happy and relieved when Zeke survived his Death Date. She loves Zeke, or did you just close your eyes to their whole love story?

She told him she’d continue to choose him even if he had one day left, or ten thousand left. And with or without empath powers, Zeke knew she loved him too.

“But she still had feelings for Jared”

Okay, and? Even if the situation were reverse, she’d also still have feelings for Zeke. It works both ways.

And as Mick told him, she chose him instead of Jared. Sure, she loved Jared, but as Zeke told Mick in S04E02, her huge heart has room enough for anyone who’s lucky to be loved by her. Loving Zeke doesn’t mean she has to stop loving anyone else in her life. Love isn’t limited.

It’s canon that the only way she could choose Jared is if Zeke is dead. He didn’t look happy at all when he saw Zeke survived.

Just because you love someone doesn’t mean they’re the one for you. She chose Zeke.

~~~

“The writers only made Drea pregnant to put her and Jared together”

Do I need to be petty and remind y’all that pregnancy happens when two people regularly have sex, and protection isn’t always a 100% guarantee? 😶

Jared and Drea match really well, that was quite clear when they first got together. Their relationship grew organically. Just take off your blinders. Even Mick could see that Drea is perfect for him.

It helped Mick to see that Jared was compromising his happiness by being with her. She didn’t want children, and she was confronted with the fact that they could never have a full life together, not without compromising her vision for her own life.

By the way, that breakup post-reset was made before she remembered Zeke telling her about one of their almost-meetups where he was a cab driver at the airport on the night Flight 828 was supposed to land. So, it was fully her choice to end things with Jared going forward and starting anew; Zeke didn’t even need to be alive for her to choose that for herself. But she was so happy when she remembered. If you truly like the character, her choice makes complete sense narratively and character-wise.

~~~

“But Jared and Mick have more chemistry”

If arguing and fighting is chemistry, then yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I do think JR and Melissa have chemistry outside of angst and volatile tension, but if you think “more chemistry” is a reason why a fictional couple should be endgame, you have a juvenile view of an adult romance. This ain’t a teen drama. So, congrats, what a way to reveal you don’t care about the story or a cohesive narrative! 👀

Zekaela have a calmer romantic chemistry, and their sweet love story is so much better than Jachaela’s constant tension-filled drama where Jared put on tantrums when she wouldn’t give in to him. Their story up until Season 4 was volatile in a bad way, which only went away when Jared stopped chasing after her and let her live peacefully married to Zeke. I’m glad his character got better, thank goodness!

~

And don’t even get me started with “We won in real-life because JR (Jared) and Melissa (Mick) are together,” because we’re here for the TV show, not real-life. It’s entertainment, so chill out.

~~~

I think that 2013-Jared calling off his proposal to Mick, because it was for the wrong reason (“to help you get past [Evie’s death]”), isn’t forced/lazy writing.

Consider for a minute that, in 2013, he’s not the character you were introduced to in Season 1 (the now-former 2018 timeline). He’s not unhealthily obsessed with her like the Joker is with Batman, or Eobard Thawne is with The Flash. And he never got the trauma from losing someone in a perceived airplane accident. As for his breakup, he got time to think, and ultimately he didn’t want to take advantage of her in a vulnerable state.

And consider for a moment, at the time, 2013-Mick was grieving and didn’t believe she deserved happiness – and it’s been a year since Evie’s death. I don’t imagine there were many smiles and laughter for the past year in their relationship, meaning it was dying. So, Jared not being heartbroken over 2024-Mick’s breakup kinda makes sense.

To him, Mick broke up with him because she wasn’t gonna heal any time soon, and wanted him to move on with someone who can give him what she can’t.

But to her, Mick grew in those 5 years since getting on Flight 828 the first time, and the life she thought she wanted back then isn’t the same anymore (and that’s okay, we’re not the same person we were half a decade ago) and she got to meet the real love of her life whom she can be with now. Zeke.

I don’t believe love is a choice, because you can’t force yourself to love or not to love someone. But I believe happiness is a choice, you can choose to walk towards it or away from it. Mick walked towards happiness by choosing Zeke. It’s really beautiful.

~~~

Credit for most of the Manifest screenshots and tweets go to @gracestone

[leothil]

Introduction to TV ratings

Hi! I know a lot of us in the 9-1-1 fandom have started looking more closely at episode ratings this past year, but every time I see them posted I also see a lot of comments from people being unsure what the numbers really mean. I'm someone who first got introduced to tv ratings from being involved in the pro wrestling fandom and learned a lot about them through osmosis, so I thought I could make a small informative post explaining the main concepts and why tv ratings matter!

What I'll cover below:

What are tv ratings?

What exactly are they reporting?

How do I know what the numbers mean?

Are the numbers any good?

Let's dive in!

What are tv ratings?

Tv ratings, or Nielsen ratings, is an audience measurement system operated by Nielsen Media Research that tries to figure out the audience size and composition for tv programs in the USA. The Nielsen company has been measuring this since the 1950's, and their ratings is the currency that drives business between advertisers and broadcasters. To simplify it, the higher the rating a program gets, the more the broadcaster can charge the advertisers and agencies for broadcasting their ads to the audience during that program.

The data collection methods have varied over the years, but right now they're using Portable People Meters and track data from DVR:s. Since 2017 they're also tracking data on Hulu and YoutubeTV, and select programs on Netflix. It is an approximation, since they (naturally) aren't getting the full data from every single tv in the country, but they are good enough (and trusted enough) that their reported metrics are what's considered official.

So what exactly are they reporting?

A couple of different things! The most interesting numbers are total viewers, demographic shares, and demographic ratings. According to Nielsen they also track "gender, race, ethnicity, income, education, occupation, etc." but those are usually not reported as openly as the aforementioned three numbers and are mostly used by advertisers.

Sites like Tvline, Tvseriesfinale and Showbuzzdaily often report daily ratings very quickly after Nielsen releases them. The Fast Nationals are usually what gets the most attention, since they're released the morning after, but they're time period ratings, which means it only measured what was watched during primetime. The more accurate Official Nationals are released later the day after, and are program ratings. So if a program was moved from its usual slot for some reason, the fast nationals will still count the original time slot towards its ratings, while the official nationals will count the slot it actually aired in.

There are also C3 and C7 ratings (live viewing + DVR three/seven days after the airing), but they are seen much more seldom and are largely a fighting point between networks (who want to get paid for more days) and advertisers (who only want to pay for live viewings).

How do I know what the numbers mean?

Let's dive into that! I'll use tables from Tvseriesfinale and Showbuzzdaily with ratings for Monday March 20th (the air date of 9-1-1 S6E12) as my examples.

Here's how Tvseriesfinale reports the ratings, they're using the fast nationals (or "fast affiliate ratings"). The %change is compared to last aired episode of the same show. If you're wondering how the demo change can be positive while the number of viewers change is negative, I'll get to that in a minute.

And here's Showbuzzdaily, they report Live+Same Day which include live viewership + DVR views from the same day (which should be the same as fast nationals, but sometimes varies a bit). You can see that they colour code according to how far above/below the average rating of the night a program placed in different ratings categories.

Now for what the different columns mean:

Viewers (mil) or Persons 2+ (000s): the total number of viewers, in millions, who watched the program. So here Tvseriesfinale reports that 4.3 million people watched 9-1-1, and Showbuzzdaily reports that 4.413 million people did.

18-49 demo and Sales Demo Ratings Adults 18-49: These are the numbers that everyone is really looking at! The demo rating means proportion of a certain group (in this case adults 18-49) that are watching a particular show. In other words, this is the percentage of all adults aged 18-49 in the United States that were watching the show. So a 0.6 (or 0.59) rating for 9-1-1 means that 0.6% (or 0.59%) out of all people aged 18-49 were watching 9-1-1. This is the money demo, this is the number all advertisers and networks are looking at. Persons 18-49 is considered the most lucrative demographic, so the more people in that group your show can draw, the better for the network since they then can ask for more money from the advertisers. Persons 18-49 are considered to be the group to best target advertisements towards for a variety of reasons (disposable income and interest towards buying new things being two of them).

As you can see above, Showbuzzdaily also reports the demo numbers for Adults 18-34 and Adults 25-54. Some advertisers are more interested in these demographics, but overall 18-49 is still the most popular demographic. As you can see, the audiences skew older for all programs. I believe the general consensus is that younger people (<35-year-olds) watch much less tv than older generations, and these numbers support that. This is also why total viewers and demo ratings can have different %change - the 18-49 demo rating cuts off a relatively large part of the audience.

Demographic shares: While the ratings are based on percentage of all people in a demographic, the shares are based on percentage of the number of people who were actually watching TV at that time. So a 6.0 in Women 18-49 means that of all women aged 18-49 watching TV at 8PM, 6% chose to watch 9-1-1.

So... are the numbers any good?

That depends on what you're looking at. TV ratings as a whole have been dropping steadily for many years now, so trying to compare ratings to even, say, five years ago can be hard. For example: in the late 90's, pro wrestling regularly pulled in ratings of 5.0 and higher (I'll put a few below as an example), but those same shows would now be ecstatic if they managed to get above a 1.0 rating; their regular numbers the past year (for the big shows RAW, Smackdown and Dynamite) have mostly hovered around 0.4-0.7.

The first number is the demo rating

For the best overview, it's best to compare ratings for a certain show to the ratings of other shows on air, and I believe that's what the networks are doing as well. In that context, 9-1-1 is doing very well, as it regularly ends up near the top for scripted shows, even when looking at all shows over a week. The average rating for S6 so far is 0.63, which is lower than the average rating of 0.76 for S5 (which in turn was lower than the average rating of 1.05 for S4 and so forth). The ratings consistently dropping year over year are a concern for the industry at large, and it's pretty clear streaming services have played a big role in causing this, but I find it hard to believe tv networks would consider stopping producing shows for live tv anytime soon.

And that's it! If something still feels unclear, feel free to drop me a message and I'll do my best to answer any questions! If you want to dive a bit deeper into the different metrics, I recommend this page on Showbuzzdaily, and if you want to look at ratings from previous seasons, Tvseriesfinale's 911 ratings tag is a good place to find articles summarizing both individual episode ratings and ratings for a whole season.

[ask-commander-arild]

OOC Post:

Hi, there! I'm @jnix-2006 and welcome to my ask blog, ask-commander-arild!! I made this blog for @pkmoth's @motherbound-askapalooza, and I plan on participating the entire month of August, but if it does well, I may continue it!! But, bear with me, because I don't use tumblr much, so this is all very new to me, haha. Before we start, I feel I should give a little bit of introduction to what exactly this is. So, firstly, what exactly is an Arild? Well, Arild is an OC I created for the game Mother 3 (Heavy spoilers btw)! He can be seen below!

Art done by @pinkalliums!!! Go check them out!!

Say hello to Arild Eskildsen! A young Norwegian lad of 15 years old who, through a series of unfortunate events, was once a pigmask. I know his design may look a little... 2015, but the design quite literally came to me in a dream, and I would've been stupid not to use it. Now, as much as I'd love to go into detail about his backstory, I wanna save most of it for the asks. I guess the most basic gist is that he was taken from our time, currently in the 2010's but may change later, from a very young age, and made to be a pigmask. Yippee, child soldier! He goes on to be promoted to captain. But after yet another unfortunate event, he ends up being chimera-ified and he gets promoted to commander, but not of the pigmasks... Of what, you ask? Well, we'll get there. For now, here's him as a captain!

Art also by @pinkalliums!! Seriously, go check them out! >:)

Few things to keep in mind for this blog:

1. I don't have many artistic abilities, unfortunately, so this will be a text only blog. Some friends have kindly made a few pieces for Arild, and I will show them off, but for the most part, there won't be much in the way of visuals. If you feel like making art of him, feel free! I would actually love to see it!!

2. Quite a lot of the stuff here is going to involve my own headcanons for the Mother series, especially post-game Mother 3. For example, in my headcanon, Claus survives and becomes the leader of the army, rebranding it in the name of peace, and that is why Arild is a commander. Basically, since everyone has unique headcanons for the series, you can just consider this an AU.

3. There will be mention of a couple real life places that will have Mother-ified names. With any mention of Norway, the name will changed to Fjordland, on account of its many... fjords. Canada is also an important place within the story, and that I have decided to call Mapleland. Creative, I know. I figured I would bring it up to avoid confusion

4. Feel free to ask whatever! Though, obviously, just make sure it's on topic, of course. Silly questions are easy to answer and will usually be answered quickest! Lore relevant questions are a little trickier and may take me just a bit longer to respond to, but I will be happy to get to them!! Also, RP is okay with me, if you want to!!

5. When it comes to asking questions, please don't be weird or anything. Like... being a former pigmask, Arild is a plus-sized character, so a comment about his weight would not be great. More importantly, absolutely NO NSFW. This character is a minor, and that stuff is not okay to ask. I don't think any of this will be an issue, but it's good to mention just in case

6. I do not speak Norwegian, so if I want to sprinkle it in a little bit, I have only on option. Google Translate. I know, I know... it's not the best, but I will try my best to avoid mistranslations or misuse of phrases. I wouldn't want to be the new version of that one post about the Norwegian Butter Crisis, haha.

If you're still here, thank you for reading until the end!! As said, I've never done something like this before, so this intro is probably super chaotic in comparison to other blogs, haha. I am really excited to get started here! I've always wanted to do an ask blog, and I really needed an excuse to flesh out my OC, so I'd say this is perfect! I'd like to give thanks to all the friends, and my bf, who helped me out on this!! Thank you to Moth for setting this event up! Thank you to Hal and a few others for the art! And also thank you so much to my friend Red who helped me create this character in the first place! He didn't tell me what his tumblr was, but he is @/Doc_Glowstick on Twitter!! Alright, I think I've rambled enough now. I'll probably go through this and change it later, but for now, let the blog begin!!!

[asexual-spongebob]

Wail Of The Siren - Master Post:

(Last edited: September 2nd , 2024) Basic info:

Wail Of The Siren is an AU where Dib and Gaz are sirens, it’s kinda an h2o like thing but instead of turning into sirens whenever they encounter water, they only turn into sirens when specifically in salt water.

Their transformation is much like that of Freeform’s Siren, which I haven’t watched but have seen some clips of.

Is post IZ: Enter The Florpus, does not line up with the comics (Other then issue 7) though because I haven’t read many of them.

Tak and Mimi are back, Skoodge and Tenn are also there after crashing on Earth.

Is ZaDr + TaGr centric, with some minor GaMf (could also be interpreted as GaMqp) KaZf, DaKf, KaSf, ZaSf, and TaSf (tenn and skoodge friendship). And also Gaz, Dib and Membrane.

Clembrane is there too :)

AU Summary:

Dib accidentally gets a chemical spilt on him and Gaz after accidentally dropping it while in Membrane’s personal lab. At first, the two don’t think much of it, other then Dib strangely eating raw fish at night a week after, until Dib and Gaz go to the beach.

Dib dives into the water, everything is fine and dandy at first. But then, he feels a strange sensation come over him, as if his legs are fusing together. They glance down at their hands in horror. They’re webbed, scaly and green.

He wonders what the hell is happening to him, but he then remembers the incident in the lab that occurred two weeks ago, putting two and two together.

The chemical had turned them into a siren. They go find Gaz to show her, Gaz is absolutely horrified, wondering what the hell happened to her sibling.

She asks what happened, Dib says he thinks it was the chemical. Gaz has an oh shit moment and wonders if that also means she’s a siren too. Dib figures that she probably is, and it is confirmed shortly after Gaz gets into the water. She’s a siren to.

After that, the story basically follows Dib and Gaz after they became sirens, with some ZaDr, TaGr and GaMf (or GaMqp depending on how you interpret it) and also Tenn, Skoodge and Keef as well.

Chapters:

AO3 Link

Wattpad Link

Links the chapters on Tumblr:

Chapter 1: The Stolen Salmon

Chapter 2: An Invader’s Return

Chapter 3: The Offer

Chapter 4: Chopsticks

Chapter 5: Song Of The Siren

Chapter 6: Hyacinth

Chapter 7: That’s What You Get When You Let Your Heart Win

Chapter 8: Calm Before the Storm

Chapter 9: Bullet With Butterfly Wings

Chapter 10: Spaceboy, I’ve Missed You

Ask and Answer:

When is Zim going to discover that Dib is a siren?

What got you into the whole mermaid/siren thing?

What are Dib and Gaz’s favorite fish?

If your fics had theme songs, what would they be?

How Would Gaz react if I gave her a bucket of Fish?

Does Dib ever tell the Swollen Eyeballs he’s a siren?

Videos/Shit posts regarding the AU + WOTS: The Animatics.

these are videos or shit posts I’ve made about the AU, some of which are apart of a series I’ve called “WOTS: The Animatics” where I take a scene from the fic series and turn it into a animatic type thing.

Wail Of The Siren as Vines

The Teabag Incident

Incorrect Quotes

WOTS: The Animatics:

Part 1: Introduction

Character Designs:

Tenn and Skoodge

Dib and Gaz

Zim, Tak, Gir and Mimi

Dib, Zim, Gaz and Tak as adults!

Tenn, Skoodge and Keef as adults!

Siren Lore

Part 1: Fun Facts

What Lurks Beneath the Surface:

What Lurks Beneath the Surface is a sequel to Wail Of The Siren. It takes place a year after its predecessor and is a bit more darker (while still having the humor of the original) than its predecessor. Taking place directly on Dib’s 13th birthday. Everyone knows the superstition behind 13 being an unlucky number, and that couldn’t be more true here.

Dib and his family get kidnapped by a former friend of Professor Membrane, Devon Walters. On Dib’s 13th birthday.

Unlike its predecessor, It will dives into the depths known as Professor Membrane’s past, instead of what lurks on the surface.

Installment Summary:

It’s been a year since the chemical spill Professor Membrane’s lab, a year since Dib and Gaz became sirens.

It’s now Dib’s 13th birthday, nothing could go wrong right? Yeah right.

Zim and Tak, an unlikely duo now must save their partners Dib and Gaz, and their father, Professor Membrane from the clutches a ghost of Membrane’s past.

Chapters:

AO3 Link

Chapter 1: Unlucky 13

Road Trippin:

Road Trippin is the third and final installment of the series, taking place not long after What Lurks Beneath the Surface.

In it, Zim accidentally creates a smeet while on a strange planet and brings them home. Him and Dib and their friends then go on a crazy road trip, and chaos ensues, Zim feeling nervous about being a parent, though.

It also includes the AU’s ending, where Zim and Dib become ghosts. Same w/ the others.

Installment Summary:

Not long after the “Dib, Gaz and Membrane got kidnapped” incident Zim, Dib, Gaz, Tak and the others go on a road trip for the summer. With the addition of Zim’s and Dib’s new, accidentally created smeet, Seven. Chaos ensues, the good, bad and ugly.

•••

Alt Title: a group of stupid kids go on a krazy road trip 2gether with a baby.

AO3 Link

Side Stories:

basically side stories for the au that I’m planning on making or have written.

Late Night Swim.

Spooky Scary Sirens, Sending Shivers Down my Spine. (Halloween special)

A Very Siren X-Mas. (W.i.P title)

[dedalvs]

Fiat Lingua Top 10 for 2023

It's time for the annual Fiat Lingua rewind!

Background: I created Fiat Lingua over ten years ago with the idea that it could be something like the Rutgers Optimality Archive: A place where conlangers could post work that they wanted to showcase, or work that was in progress. We've had tons of contributions over the years, and some standout work I'm really proud of.

Using our fancy statistics program (you know, the free version) we're able to determine the top 10 visited posts for this year (though, note, the numbers for the current year's December post will always be down a little bit, since it didn't have a full month. If you'd like to take a look at it, Carsten Becker did a version of "Silent Night" in his conlang Ayeri!). Here they are!

NUMBER 10

"Road Trip Conlanging with Kids" (August, 2023) by Mia DeSanzo: Fiat Lingua is supposed to be an archive of long, detailed conlang articles, and also short, breezy conlang ideas, and this is one of the latter! It's less than a page long, but a fun idea, and it was quite well-received!

NUMBER 9

"Art & Anxiety: Conlanging through impostor syndrome" (February, 2023) by Jessie Sams (now Jessie Peterson): This is a personal reflection by @quothalinguist on how she has dealt with impostor syndrome, and how it's impacted her conlanging.

NUMBER 8

"Taadži Linguistics" (March, 2023) by Lauren Kuffler: This is a wonderful introduction to the Taadži language, which features a writing system reminiscent of Mayan epigraphs.

NUMBER 7

"Tone for Conlangers: A Basic Introduction" (April, 2018) by Aidan Aannestad: Making a second consecutive appearance in the top ten, Aidan Aannestad's introduction to tone has been an invaluable resource for conlangers producing tonal conlangs for just over five years now!

NUMBER 6

"Afrihili: An African Interlanguage" (April, 2014) by William S. Annis: Afrihili is an a posteriori auxlang from the late 60s that uses Bantu languages as its source, and it is fascinating! One of my all-time favorite auxlangs, and William provides a wonderful introduction. Of interest, this article was number 6 in the top ten last year, as well!

NUMBER 5

"Names Aren’t Neutral: David J. Peterson on Creating a Fantasy Language" (March, 2019) by David J. Peterson: Up four spots from last year, this is my article on best practices when coming up with names in a fantasy setting—even when no conlang is present.

NUMBER 4

"Grambank & Language Documentation: Zhwadi and Its Features" (June, 2023) by Jessie Sams (now Jessie Peterson): The first of the game-changing mega-resources for conlanging Jessie created in 2023, this is a short description of how to use Grambank in conlanging with a link to a fillable Google spreadsheet any conlanger can copy and use to introduce their conlang to others.

NUMBER 3

"Patterns of Allophony" (April, 2015) by William S. Annis: Definitely one of the most popular papers on Fiat Lingua, William illustrates graphically a number of very common sound changes. This article once again occupies the third spot of our top ten!

NUMBER 2

"A Conlanger's Thesaurus" (September, 2014) by William S. Annis: We have a new number 1 for this year! This has, historically, been the most accessed article on Fiat Lingua, and it's obvious to see why. The article is relatively short, compared to the information and use you can get out of it. William Annis details ways in which languages relate words to other similar words. For conlangers who struggle either with coming up with words that are different from English in meaning, or who struggle with coming up with words at all, this reference article should prove very useful. Using the word maps in this article, you might be able to come up with words you never dreamt of before, but words which could exist in some language. A great resource for conlangers who are desperately trying to break out of the influence of their L1 or L2!

And now for the top viewed article for 2023 on Fiat Lingua...

NUMBER 1

"A Surreal Conlang" (January, 2023) by David J. Peterson: Quite the surprise! Late 2022 I wrote an article about how one might go about creating a surreal conlang—neither naturalistic nor regular and artificial like an auxlang or engelang—and it went up on Fiat Lingua on January 1st. I think (or hope) it served as a useful jumping off point for conlangers who are looking to try something really different from what they've seen done elsewhere.

* * * * *

And that's it for 2023! I'm looking forward to posting more conlang articles next year. If you are a conlanger, a conlang-researcher, or conlang fan who has something to say in .pdf format about a specific conlang or conlanging in general, please consider submitting something to Fiat Lingua! We take any and all articles related to conlanging in whatever form you have them. I'm also happy to help you think up ideas, or refine those ideas you have. There is no strong review like in a fancy journal: I just want to get what you have up. I'm especially in interested in hosting personal conlang stories—stories about how or why you started to create a language, or your experience creating your own language—personal stories that are often lost, but are so vital, as there is an absolute dearth of literature about conlangers! If you think you have even the seed of an idea, please get a hold of me! I want to share as many stories and ideas as I can.

[natsumiheart]

Ever since I met you.

…Hello world! Lmao

Hi, I'm Natsumi, and I'm wondering who is even reading this but if you are, welcome to a very long post about how I got into Tears of Themis, how it helped me through such a hard time, and how I ended up falling in love with a certain detective.

I made this post for an event on hoyolab but I’m posting it here too in my trashcan! I already wanted to have a post documenting this online just for myself, even if in the future I cringe while reading it, I can look back and remember the emotions I felt through the year. I also wanted to share it with the world so that maybe people will feel like me, or come to appreciate this character that I love so much as much as I do. (you’re free to reblog btw!)

Warning: This post is mostly about Luke!

It contains spoilers about some Luke cards and some spoilers for his Blossom Chapter. There are small scenes from episodes 2 and 5 of main story as well. Oh, and Artem and Luke 2nd anniversary cards.

If you are here because you’re interested in learning or reading more about Luke and do not care much for the rest, I recommend the interlude, part 6, and The end: part 1. The other parts also talk about Luke and his stories but those are the most important in my opinion.

Due to Tumblr’s 30 image per post limit, this will be divided into 3 parts, each part added with a reblog.

______________________________

Index because this post ended up incredibly long so here are the parts laid out to read anything you’re interested in!

> Part 1: Introduction

(How did I learn about this game?)

> Part 2: Contact

(Getting the game)

> Part 3: The Beginning

(Starting the game and first impressions lol)

> Part 4: Falling

(FOR LUKE AHAH)

> Interlude: Luke Pearce’s Fear

> Part 5: Obsession

(How and why did this obsession start?)

> Part 6: Reflection

(Thinking back on Luke’s personality that attracted me)

> The end: Memories

(Extra memorable moments)

______________________________

Part 1: Introduction

I play Genshin (shocker) and I have some online friends who play it as well, so when Tears of Themis came out globally since it's made by Hoyoverse as well, most people who played genshin went to check it out. I discovered Tears of Themis through those people, and I was recommended the game by my online friends.

What was my response?

“I have no phone storage.” AAHAHAH, yes. I'm not a day one player. I only started during the second anniversary because back when the game came out despite being interested I could not play because I did not have any device that could handle the game. My phone could not handle Genshin's size either, it's not compatible to begin with- I played Genshin on the PlayStation [emoji]

However I did not forget about the game, I was just hoping that somehow one day, a miracle will happen and I will be able to play mobile games like other people LOL but what are the odds of that happening?... Well, a miracle happened 2 years later.

Bonus: I had a little beef at the time with Artem because I kept thinking drawings of him were actually of Jumin who is a very well written character I love like crazy from mystic messenger since 2016 BWAHAHA

Every masterpiece.. has its cheap copy.. IM JKJK PUT THAT KNIFE DOWN AHAHA

______________________________

Part 2: Contact

So one day I was visiting my aunt's house and met my cousin's acquaintance. I met the guy for like.. only 2 hours and during those hours my cousin told him about how I draw digitally but I have been drawing on an 8 year old phone that stays alive for like 30 mins at a time AHHAHA

The guy was like “That's it, I'm getting you an iPad to draw on.” I laughed, thinking he was joking- but then 2 days later I received TWO iPads, one for me and one for my little sister! W t f. Angels do exist on earth? And I was never able to thank him in person because he's a busy guy who only visited my village and I never saw him again o.o

Can you guess what I started doing when I got it? Download a bunch of games I wanted to try throughout the years but couldn't! Among them was Tears of Themis. My house didn't have the best Internet and had a couple hours of electricity a day so I downloaded it very slowly at my aunt's house.

I remember so clearly about how I sat next to my sister as I was downloading the game, and it started playing the second anniversary promotion video since it was starting during that time. At first I was like “aww, they proposing!” but suddenly things turned spicy and I almost dropped the iPad from my hand HAHA.

I did not know what to expect going into this game because I stayed away from spoilers and videos about it since I knew I wanted to get into it myself one day (I was interested in the main story). It made me sad too to be honest because I wanted to play it but couldn't, so I avoided it for years.

I however, did not expect at all that the game would get THAT spicy LMAO my sister noticed my reaction and she was like “What's up?” And I was like “you cannot see this” though she is older than the game’s age rating AHAHHA

______________________________

Part 3: The beginning

I was so excited getting into this game! When I started I was incredibly hooked to the main story, and at the time.. hear this.. I had a bias towards Artem because he looked like Jumin AHAHA

I was honestly more interested though in the main story than the boys, because the boys didn't make me feel much at the time- I do not have a “love at first sight” I never had that kind of experience for real life people or fictional people. (Anyone can experience it, and that's valid! It's just for me personally that never happens.)

After knowing characters and learning more about them, that's when sometimes- I fall in love with them as a character, they end up giving me so much happiness just seeing them, they give me comfort.. And they fill up my sketchbooks HAHA is this love romantic? Usually no, that's very rare!

I did not feel much for Artem (turns out the only thing he and Jumin have in common were their looks and being socially awkward, shocker-) but I had a little interest that led to me pulling for his second anniversary card when I started being able to wish. I lost- and got a standard Artem, but then I won and got his card LMAO you can get a lot of wishes starting off. However I was doing the stories of the standard SRs, along with the main story and someone.. someone was warming up a lot to my heart.

______________________________

Part 4: Falling

The boys were all very interesting and lovely characters! (The NPCs as well!!)

Artem, despite how he comes off at work, is actually just a shy guy who is bad at communication outside of work.

Vyn is actually a very interesting and well written character being very different than the rest of the cast due to his unique upbringing (honestly? His family feels like a cult, bro literally is running from a cult) and you learn more about his own psychology the more you get to know him.

Marius is literally just an artist who wants to chase the life he wants but is hindered by responsibility and his position.

And Luke- Luke stole my heart LOL

First off, he's a detective and I've already confessed online to having a thing for detectives by a drawing- that starting since I was a kid and I watched detective conan🧍‍♀️his introduction chapter.. was very interesting. It was literally the first episode, Rosa clearly knows and cares about this character right off the bat you're like hmm? What was this guy doing for 8 years? Why did he show up now after so long? Almost making him suspicious even. But he and Rosa seemed so close despite it all.

After that Luke had started showing up in the story here and there, a moment that made me go “ohh.. what a cool guy.” Was when after Marius’ case in episode 2, he shows up on a bike like “get in we outta here” and saved her from all the reporters.

His theme plays at this scene.. my heartttt

Revealing he'd been watching her and the case from afar and was literally waiting for her to get out and get her away.

I started reading the standard SRs, the first one I did was “Among the great blue” which honestly I recommend everyone doing again because I bet you all do not remember Luke saying this about Jellyfish

The card made me go *the rock eyebrow raise* GAHAH and at the time I was all innocent, not knowing anything about what Luke was going through, so when Rosa woke up and did not find him sleeping next to her (after she invaded where he's supposed to be sleeping lmao) and Luke was hunched over like “I'm fine I just accidentally swallowed gum lol” I actually believed him 💀 there were signs, but it would fly over a player's head until things are revealed ON THE FIRST FREAKING ACT OF HIS PERSONAL STORY and suddenly everything makes sense. Wow.

When I started personal story, I was just starting it because starting all of them is part of the “Rookie tasks” event you get when you start the game. Only to be punched in the gut immediately.

This is LITERALLY what you’re greeted with when you start his story 💀

I was starting to warm up to this guy and you're telling me.. he's sick and planning to leave us.. omg.

I got to choose one limited SR from the Rookie event, and I thought Luke looked adorable so I picked his card "A star in the palm" and the story.. omg that card, I'm weak. Everyone needs to see it, READ IT!

It’s illegal to be BOTH handsome and adorable smh

After that I started WANTING to do more Luke stories so I did the other standard SRs “Radiant Sunlight”, “Timely Rescue”, “Inner Sanctum”. They were all so good, my favorite being Inner Sanctum for how much it messed with my heart.

Dude is literally falling and he STILL makes sure to protect her.

I- was dying. I started pulling for Luke's anniversary card, starting to regret my choice going for Artem's. But he wouldn't come-

So I went back to main story because that's how you get the most schips, and guess what- I had reached episode 5…

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Interlude: Luke Pearce’s Fear

The way episode 5 starts, Luke joins the NXX and Rosa is incredibly surprised seeing him there introducing himself as an agent from the NSB. Meanwhile Luke… is mad.

At first he can't believe Artem would even make her do this but she confirms to him that it was her decision, and then he spills the truth about his identity, and about where he's been the past 8 years. He apologizes, for lying, for planning to leave her again, for everything.

And then this happens.

You guys, this scene made me go straight up insane. You can tell how much he had cared and loved her for all these years, and how his biggest fear is literally the main character getting hurt or something happening to her. I felt so emotional over it, that after this act I started DESPERATELY pulling for his card and I finally- finally got it

Episode 5 BTW is one of my favorites in the main story, it is 3 parts because it's THAT good. It's when people will start seeing what Luke is as a character, what's beneath the surface you see in episode 1. (Also this episode introduced the best character: Hugh Moss AHAHH)

The parallel between Rosa, and Jasmine (the reporter whose case you investigate), was not lost on me. That reporter died trying to expose the truth which is exactly what Rosa has been trying to do. I think the entire chapter literally is showing you why Luke is so scared of her continuing the path she's in.

But you know what's the best part? He's freaking terrified, yet he never forces her to leave. He says this:

People keep saying Luke is a red flag that keeps trying to control Rosa and her actions and I swear my reaction is always “Are you even paying attention?” Luke never forces Rosa, he only shows he's against it, but he always says he will support her whatever decision she makes.

A similar more light-hearted situation is the story of his summer card “Iridescent Heartbeat” where Luke is afraid of Rosa getting hurt or doing things that are too much for her so he doesn't consider doing things such as Bungee jumping or rafting. But Rosa insists that she wants to do it and when she's visibly afraid later, Luke teases her a bit (LOL)

but then holds her close to him and soothes her saying there's nothing to be afraid of cause he's there.

He encourages her to do what she wants! And when she does indeed get hurt because the rope was too tight around her leg, he does NOT put the blame on her, but on himself-

Y'ALL HOW IS THIS GUY CONTROLLING??

(The scene after kinda got on my nerves cause Rosa got “angry” that he’s not his usual “cheerful self” like girl I love you but please- can’t you see how much you getting hurt affects him? She pretends that she’s angrier than she actually is making Luke apologize over and over like 💀 but tbh it was also funny, I don’t like how she handled it but it was funny lol)

When they go rafting Luke lets Rosa take the lead and he will follow her because she wanted to prove to him that he doesn't need to plan everything, however Rosa's plan backfires, things go horribly wrong and she can't figure out how to get the raft to go straight. Luke again, does not reprimand her in any way and only helps her so she can do what she wants. Later on even after they've fallen off the raft and onto the water he immediately holds her and takes her up to the surface so worried like “are you okay???” And despite all that, he says she's right. That she's always right and he will stop trying to plan and go more with the flow. 

Luke never tried to control Rosa, he just loves her so much that he does not want to ever see her in pain or sad. He wants her to be the happiest girl in the world.

So who is Luke? Luke is the coolest mf, a guy that always jumps into action to help others with a heart so damn big that his own emotions slowly destroy him. He has felt an astronomical amount of guilt and regret since childhood- and has cared for and loved the main character just as long. The girl who is the reason he was able to keep his sanity, the girl who he always wanted to protect, and the girl who is the reason he is still here today. 

I wholeheartedly believe that without Rosa in his life, Luke would've ended up completely different, if still alive at all.

Bonus: I remember people being like, the characters have gemstones that match their color in the proposal ring, so why does Luke have Ruby instead of something like Topaz? This is why.. the ruby in the ring represents Rosa (getting emotional over here omg) and honestly that ring is freaking insane because not only did he design and make it and its box by himself for years.. but a ruby is inside the key that Rosa gave to him.

Remember how Luke when you click on the key in visit says “I wear it like this to have it as close as possible to my heart” now look at the key.. if the Ruby is Rosa, and Luke’s heart is the key, do you see what he conveyed in that ring? Yea, I’m crying too. 

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Part 5: Obsession

I have a bit of an obsession problem, I've been obsessed with stories, games, or characters and that obsession can last years of my lifetime. And it's understandable, when you're going through terrible things in your life, you get attached to what makes you feel happy and you hold on to that feeling. That's what starts that obsession.

When I got the second anniversary Artem card I did the story immediately and it was.. it was alright. Artem wants to propose, but in his attempt to keep it all secret distances himself too much and gets Rosa worried, but then wow! He proposes with the help of his coworkers and happy ending + things get a bit spicy at the end. 

But I felt like.. like I'm getting deja vu AHAHA like I've seen this kind of story a million times before. (Probably cause I did from watching a bunch of kdramas and having consumed a bunch of stories from a lot of media) It did not exactly get me to feel anything much, I'm sure it's different for Artem stans though having him propose after probably following his story for 2 years XD good on you guys have fun with your mans! 

For me though who had just started, it did not have that much of an effect. After I got the Luke anniversary card I was excited and went into the story oh so innocently not knowing back then that Luke cards are honestly heart wrenching. 

It led to me crying in bed while the sun was rising from the window as Luke says “That's because I love you.”

The way how he blocks the wind from her and lets it hit him instead at that exact moment is freaking PEAK writing.

That card showed me a lot more about this man who is so shackled by his own emotions and circumstance, that he's willing to sacrifice everything even his own wants and dreams for the one he loves.

Have you guys seen that one official art with Rosa posing as Themis? And the boys are represented by the objects around her? Luke is the sword, Artem is the balance, Vyn is the blindfold, and Marius is the snake by her leg.

It starts to make sense why Luke is holding onto her sword to the point of bleeding, he's bleeding yet he looks up to her in absolute devotion not caring for what happens to him and his eyes are only always on her. He’s willing to be her sword, to take all of the pain and protect her so she can be happy.

My life.. has not been what is considered “normal”. I'm not going to give my backstory in this post aHAHAH but at the time when I started Tears of Themis I was going through a very bad point in my life where I was close to have given up completely on my future and accepted my fate as it is. I had shut down completely, and I went back to becoming a shut-in which is honestly something I went through for four years before, it wasn't good. 

When you reach that point, you start becoming apathetic to everything.

Luke however, somehow started making me start having emotions again. Reading and learning about this character was actually affecting me in a way I have not been affected in a long time. He felt.. real, like I could feel his emotions, his love, his despair.

And that's part of why I got so attached to him and he became my comfort, because of him, I started to feel human again.

AHA CRINGE. OK enough with the sadness.

But I'll never forget how much Luke and Tears of Themis helped me keep a grip during those hard months. I'm in a better place now, it's not good- but it's better, and I still just open this game and visit Luke to help me ground myself.

One time after a bad day I accidentally touched him and he said this, I went insane-

I think that says a lot about the state of my sanity AHAHAH 

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[To be continued in reblog]

[seraphirism]

Do you know which story explain Lucas's tattoo? I knew he has his tatoo on his hip but the new card got me confused that he also has it on the chest too?

hiya, anon! hope you’re having a wonderful day (^^)! and yes, I do know (after dedicating this Sunday to it lol) since it wasn’t present in the event story so I had to pull out his card story for it :D

spoilers for [砂漠に消えた湖] event story and Lucas’s event card story.

[I do not know if the story behind the tattoo on his left flank (the one he has had since the start of the main story) has ever been explained 😭 but he’s had it for a long time; that’s for sure. I’ll try to look into it though, to see if it’s been explained in an event or card story ✨ as it hasn’t been explained in the main story.]

now, on to the rose tattoo from this event 🌹 which was your main question!

it was actually explained in his card story!

now, (just a brief synopsis), the butlers and Aruji are in the southern desert region. they were sent here on a request and get caught in a dispute between two native tribes over an oasis.

after the dispute gets over with, the children/heirs of the chiefs of the two tribes, Tribe A and B, decide to get married. Scheherazade/シェヘラザード was the daughter of Chief A and Hasan/ハサン was the son of Chief B. both of them were in love with each other and finally got the opportunity to be together openly when the butlers helped wrap up the conflict between their two tribes.

now, during the butlers’ stay in the desert, Lucas gets the rose tattoo on his chest. to be specific, it’s actually not a tattoo but a henna pattern!

[quick lesson for my readers who don’t know about it!

henna is a red-brown dye (variations in its colour exist) that is made from powdered leaves of tropical shrubs. it is temporary and typically lasts for 1-2 weeks. it’s used most commonly in South Asia, Middle East and Africa (mostly by women).

henna is most commonly applied in celebrations, typically weddings; though you don’t have to be the one getting married to apply it. close family of the bride/groom can apply it as well. applying it (as a bride or even groom) is seen to bring prosperity on your marriage.]

so in celebration of their marriage, he also partook in the tradition of applying a henna tattoo. he chose a typical (red) rose as it means “love” which he thought was perfect since there was going to be a wedding soon.

so the tattoo of the rose is temporary (Lucas said it would fade in a week)! also, he makes a henna tattoo on Aruji as well, on their right arm. and guess what pattern he chooses?

a rose, just like the one on his chest \(//∇//)\!! he also tells Aruji to not tell the other butlers and let it be a secret just between them such the other butlers wouldn’t just let “this” go.

there was a lot of Aruji x Lucas content in his card story so for Lucas fans there is peak content! we also get more insight into Lucas’s personality and how he was back then, 2 thousand years ago i believe?

also, he does explain explicitly call Aruji the one he loves! and he says he does not know any happiness greater than his loved one smiling next to him and he wants to protect this happiness forever 💞

so yay to Lucas fans!; you’re eating well (as usual)!

now, something else I wanted to bring up, which might be either a dev mistake or for an elaborate reason I have yet to reach.

a japanese fan on twitter (@/hanesoyo) pointed out that the rose tattoo is not present in the recent event card posts.

yes, the event introduction video (with the cards fully shown) does have it, but the other posts do not. see below:

the first picture you see here is from the event-card introduction video, the second is from the event-story preview in-game. the third picture is the event-gacha in-game. these were all dropped on day 1/2 of the event or even prior to that!

what these all have in common is Lucas having his rose tattoo on his chest. is that the case for the recent event posts? let’s see!

nope! the recent posts do not show him having it. is it because the tattoo has “faded” now considering 6-7 days have passed since the event has been dropped? [that’s me reading too much into it lol] there’s a chance it might be an artist/dev mistake? but it doesn’t feel like it’s a mistake, to me at least. feel free to suggest reasons below but for now I think it’s a mystery ✨

I hope this helped clear things up (*^▽^*)! if any fact I’ve stated is wrong, please correct me. I wish they had revealed the appearances of Hasan and Scheherazade in particular since she was such a girl boss ✨😔

[chelzone]

My WIP Games Ahead: An Assortment

feeling like rambling a bit to get myself motivated to work on stuff right now, as well give a fresh update on what projects ive been tending to this year. just gonna focus on three that have had a lotta work put into em already

not gonna tag this one since its a mixture of SFW and NSFW and hidden under a read more. dont open if u dont wanna read about the latter (more specifically expansion kink stuff)

Hallowed Discharge

this one i've been putting my heart and soul into for a long while now, as it's a mountain of coding and writing despite only being maybe 25-30% finished argubly. made within the Quest text adventure engine, much like my released SFW game Kindred Spirit. Hallowed Discharge revolves around a pooltoy priest named Reverend Artemis, and his task in trying to nonlethally expel a hell of a lot of spirits from an abandoned mall named Delícias do Vale. features a hell of a lot of NPCs to chat with, tons of tasks to do for the most important of spirits, a mixture of percentage-based stats to be mindful of (weight, faith, and energy), and a fuckton of early game overs if u aint careful along the way. so far currently i'd say half of the first floor's tended to, same for the basement, and nothing for the second floor or general outside yet.

last time i tinkered with this, i was tending to a mission where the player has to attempt to fix fuses around the mall to restore partial power to the basement generators (mechanically it works code-wise, still need to move them to proper areas before the task can be completed properly). as for the justification of kinky stuff, our beloved goddess of expansion herself Her Divine is puppeting the show from above

Enchanted Bliss

another game with a lotta heart put into it, this one's a SFW visual novel made within Ren'Py (my first proper one at that in said engine!). Enchanted Bliss revolves around a newbie and mid-to-late 20 something wizard Dylan Rhodes, being strung along on a mission with a bunch of professional wizards / coworkers (a field exercise for Rhodes, a bigger deal of trouble for the rest). within the ruined city of Filia Lunae, Dylan will have to tag up with one of their coworkers to investigate a part of said city and hopefully score a friendship / a romantic relationship along the way (or even beef it completely).

last time i worked on this, ive been in the process of redoing the art style completely to be a more neon and line-focused one (as seen in the image above). fuck ton of emotion sprites are done for the protagonist Dylan, supporting character / mission boss Carmichael, and one of said coworkers - Brava Denvers. still have to draw the rest of the emotions for the other 5 coworkers. past that ive made 16 short music loops (1 min or so each) that might wind up in the game or its soundtrack slated for post-game release in the years ahead. still a lot of drawing, writing, and music-making ahead along with sourcing any royalty free / public domain sounds with credits of course. current playable section is just the tutorial / introduction camp before starting any of the six routes

The Ballad of Hush and Clover

another kinky game, though this one made in the flicksy 2 engine much like me released SFW game For Your Eyes. this one revolves around wizard couple and toony folks Evelyn Hush an Patsy Clover, heading off to the Nilbrook Mountain Chain to investigate a strange cave stumbled upon by a coworker. from there, they stumble upon a small fragment of what used to be temple to the (shocker) goddess Her Divine. there, a mystical figure emerges as a proxy of said goddess an offers a challenge for one (whichever the player chooses) of the toony spouses / wizards present.

with enough vague story rambling outta the way, it's basically gonna be a point and click sort of storybook thang. you'll either be playing as Evelyn OR Patsy - not both. each spouse has their own setting and associated adventure in a simulated dimension tied to their challenge (the other stays behind in the real world with the mentioned figure / proxy). so far a fuckton of scenes are drawn for it already, fulfilling the entirety of gameplay in the introduction and tutorial. gameplay elements besides traveling From Here to There will also be opportunities to use your powers, think about the situation ahead, chat with the folks within the challenge, and utilize a map to figure out where the hell ur at.

last time i worked on it i started making the early parts of both playable stories for each respective protagonist. Evelyn gets to deal with potential inflation mischief on an airship resort of sorts, while Patsy deals with potential fattening mischief on a cross-country luxury train of sorts. this one has been fun as fuck to draw and write for, and is chock full of visuals oh my lord

anyway if uve read this or even a chunk of this write-up, thanks! feel its important to remind folks that im still working on things and offer any progress updates when i can lol. at the moment of writing (08-29-2024) im prob gonna try hopping back into game dev for one or all of these come early September this year. id say realistically it'll be a hot minute until i release any of these three (most work needed for Hallowed Discarge, least needed for The Ballad of Hush and Clover, yadda yadda)

[tyrantisterror]

Well gang, it's Walpurgisnacht, a time when the veil is thin and the supernatural powers are at their strongest. That also means it's the two-year anniversary of the publication of the first Wizard School Mysteries book. I had hoped to have a third out by now but life has been... well, it's been life, and things are progressing if at a slower pace than desired, that's how it goes.

ANYWAY! To keep with the faith and tide over the five or so of my followers who are actually looking forward to a third one of these (and five more after it at some point), I thought I'd share something special: the Wizard School Mysteries Freshmen Year soundtrack! Yes, like ATOM and No Sympathies before it, I've made a soundtrack for Wizard School Mysteries. It's not fully complete, mind you - this is the biggest writing project I've undertaken so far, and things are constantly developing, but the parts of it that cover the first three books are more or less done - and today, I'm sharing the first two with you, i.e. the songs that cover the freshmen year of my eight meddlesome youths.

As with the previous books, I've made a youtube playlist of the songs involved, and will post the tracklist below along with what each track corresponds to in the books. So if this kind of thing interests you, dive in after the cut!

Book 1: The Meddlesome Youths

Prologue: He's Leaving Home - She's Leaving Home by The Beatles, which is a song about a runaway teenager escaping a family that refused to acknowledge their pain. This is, obviously, a song for James Chaucer.

Chapter 1: The Treadscar Path - We Are Going to be Friends by The White Stripes. This song's about kids going to school for the first time and making friends, and while the protagonists of the song are much younger than our Meddlesome Youths, I still feel it captures the spirit of the first meeting of James, Ivan, and Gretchen.

Chapter 2: Elemental Orientation - Pursuing My True Self from Persona 4. The Persona games are the biggest influence on Wizard School Mysteries out of all its inspirations, and the opening theme for Persona 4 to this day screams "teenage sleuths diving into a mystery" to me when I hear it, which made it the perfect song for our introduction to the AAAM.

Chapter 3: Academics and Absences - Beneath the Mask -rain- from Persona 5. Second verse same as the first where Persona and WSM goes. I consider this another James Chaucer theme, both lyrically and in its general vibe, and the "rain" version's specifically moodier, more contemplative arrangement really suits where his head is at during this chapter of the book, as James is exposed to the faults in the AAAM and how it's failing some of its students.

Chapter 4: Of Chariots and Fire - She's Actual Size by They Might Be Giants. This is a Margot theme, and also kind of a James theme since it fits his view of her really well.

Chapter 5: What No Student Has Done Before - Rasputin by Bony M. This is an Oomlowt theme, which I struggled to find for a while when putting together the early versions of the WSM soundtrack, until one of my friends pointed out that, as an Aitvaras, Oomlowt could be considered Russian - and, well, as the first book's sole "cool" teacher, I think he's earned the right to claim one of the raddest fucking songs ever sung as his unofficial theme.

Chapter 6: The Hoard of Knowledge - Magic by The Mystery Skulls. I wanted a song that captures the feeling I got when entering my college's enormous, jaw-dropping library of books back in the day, which is a feeling this chapter also tried to catch. The fact that the song is full of language dealing with magic spells also helps it fit a wizard book.

Chapter 7: Tea With Mackers - The Nuckelavee Song from The Bard's Tale. Listen, this is the chapter where a nuckelavee plays a big role, and that's as good an excuse as any to use this song.

Chapter 8: The Matter of Manners - Changes by David Bowie. This is a Rodrigo theme, and I try to give him glam rock songs as much as possible to fit his vibe as the most fashionable of our wizard youths. I think the song also fits what Rodrigo is attempting to do in this chapter - namely, help his friends figure out how to fit in with a "higher" class of people.

Chapter 9: Hobgoblin Poetry - Magic Dance Underground / A Labyrinth Medley by Aurelio Voltaire. As I've opined before, I think Jim Henson's Labyrinth is one of the best illustrations of what folkloric fairies are like in terms of behavior/morality, and so for this chapter, when we get some characterization for a normal fairy underling for the big bad, I felt a Labyrinth song would be appropriate, and this medley is like half the soundtrack condensed into five minutes.

Chapter 10: The Samhain Celebration - Love Is All by Dio. Speaking of characterizing the Fae, there's a manic aspect to the cheery 70's positivity of this song that I find subtly sinister while still being playful and fun, which I think fits the dance-scene in this book quite well.

Chapter 11: Traps and Treasures - God's Away on Business by Tom Waits. This is a Fafgander theme - like Oomlowt, I kinda struggled finding a good song for him. I knew I wanted his theme to be something by Tom Waits, but I struggled to decided on one song in particular. I kept coming back to this one despite having already used it on the No Sympathies soundtrack - I generally try not to repeat myself on these to make sure each book's audio accompaniment is unique to it. But I couldn't stop picturing a big dragon slithering out of the clouds to the opening beats of this song, and the playful cynicism of the lyrics just felt very Fafgander.

Chapter 12: A Wild Hunt & Chapter 13: The Summer Prince - Tam Lin by The Fairport Convention. Yeah, I know, kinda cheating to lump two chapters under one song, but Tam Lin is a long-ass song, though short by Medieval Ballad standards. A song about a clever mortal finding a way to trick a high-ranking fairy noble into releasing a person she was intending to use as a sacrifice is, I think, a pretty fitting song for the climax of book 1.

Chapter 14: The End of the Beginning - This Must Be the Place by The Talking Heads. A song about finding comfort and solace despite the uncertain future that lies before you, because you have people around you to help lift your spirits, which is exactly where our heroes are emotionally by the end of book 1.

Book 2: Tournament of Death

Chapter 1: The Dragon Tithe - Don't Let's Start by They Might Be Giants. There's a fan-made Adventure Zone animatic to this song that kind of cemented it as a Fantasy song in my mind despite there being no inherent fantasy elements to the lyrics. I mean, I already loved this song, They Might Be Giants has been one of my favorite bands since I started actively considering what my favorite bands are, but this just added to that love. Like a lot of TMBG songs, it's got a very peppy, upbeat vibe while having pretty dark lyrics, which feels pretty appropriate to the tone of WSM as a whole and Tournament of Death in particular.

Chapter 2: The Dragon Trick - Just the Right Bullets by Annabelle Chvostek. This is a theme for Juno Panopte, and was chosen for a couple reasons. First, Annabelle performs this song with just the right sort of gritty, vaguely sleazy charm that I wanted Juno to ooze. She's a charismatic teacher who nonetheless puts you a little on edge - you're never sure if she's fucking with you or not. Second, it's a cover of a Tom Waits song by a lady, and Juno Panopte, the character who represents the Empress arcana in WSM's tarot motiff, is a sort of equivalent to Fafgander, the Emperor arcana - and another character with a Tom Waits song as his theme.

Chapter 3: Curios of Calampen - Marketland by Lemon Demon. This is a song about people trying to hock weird shit to you at a flea market, for a chapter about our heroes buying weird shit at a flea market.

Chapter 4: Herring Lordred - Chaos King (with lyrics) by ManontheInternet. A theme for Lord Dhenregirr, and specifically for his duel with James at the start of the titular deadly tournament.

Chapter 5: The Sundown's Shine - Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) by White Denim. Yeah, it's the version from the Fargo TV show. Obviously this is a song for Geoffrey Travers, out Dude-inspired wizard.

Chapter 6: Chivalry Dies - The Impossible Dream (The Quest) from Man of La Mancha. If there is a song that more succinctly captures the ideals of chivalry and gallant knighthood, I have not heard it, and no other song could make for a better funeral dirge for poor Gabriev Zelgad.

Chapter 7: Grudge Match - Barracuda by Heart. I looked for so many other songs for this chapter because Barracuda seemed like to obvious a choice, but nothing fit as well and, hey, this is me we're talking about, and more than that, it's Midgaheim. I am not one to avoid obvious, one might even say cliche, story choices if they appeal to me. And, like, this is specifically a song about confronting and telling off your abuser, very few things would fit this chapter better. A second theme for Margot, obviously.

Chapter 8: A Needlessly Gendered Night Out - Sandstorm by Danude. Ok, so, in every high school dance, as well as every dance club I went to in college (which was, like... three? I think? I did not party nearly enough when I was young) played this song at some point, so it's cemented in my head as THE song for teenagers/young adults doing stupid shit and getting into ridiculous drama, so I included it despite it being even longer than fucking Tam Lin.

Chapter 9: Lightning Struck - Under Pressure by Queen. A song that perfectly captures the teenager/young adult condition of, like, complete and total anxiety that any moment now you could ruin your life forever without meaning to. A song for Polybeus, but also for all the Meddlesome Youths, and really for all young people everywhere.

Chapter 10: Well-Timed Pranks - The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel. Once I remembered and accepted that being trite/cliche/obvious is very much my bag, I figured what the hell, let's use one of the most-overused songs about dealing with grief for the chapter that's about dealing with grief, because this song happens to be really fucking good at describing the process of dealing with grief.

Chapter 11: Wasp Under Glass - Woman!! Spirit of the Festival from Sakura Wars (2019). This song is a leitmotif for the most under-developed lady in the main cast of this game, which is a shame because the song itself is a fucking banger. Here it serves not just as a theme for Serena (hopefully more well-developed as a character) but specifically for her fight with Sadie Pineed. Can you hear the part where all the towers fall down? I can.

Chapter 12: Deadly Threads - General's Battle Song from Centaurworld. This is a song about a character who's seemed pretty affable and cool revealing his true colors as a total bastard, and on this unofficial soundtrack it serves as a theme for Richard Rainsford. If you read the second book, you know why.

Chapter 13: The Fury of Stars and Shards - Get Along from Slayers. This is specifically a theme for Margot and Serena's two-on-two fight with the saboteurs of the tournament. Can you hear the part where Serena gets the power up? Or when our two heroines, having dealt with the first saboteaur, bear down on the second and utterly curbstomp him? I can!

Chapter 14: Triumph of the Chariot - La Bete et la Belle by The Real Tuesday Weld. The Real Tuesday Weld is another of my favorite bands, and this song is actually a reprise of their song "The Ugly and the Beautiful" from their concept album I, Lucifer (which is in turn the official soundtrack for a novel of the same name by Glenn Duncan). The song itself is about a somewhat toxic relationship between two deeply unwell people, but this reprise differs from the first instance of it by being more sweet and mellow in how it's arranged which, combined with it being sung in French instead of English like its predecessor, softens a lot of its edges and brings the sweeter, more hopeful parts of the song to the forefront. I picked it as a song for James and Margot - two people who, while not toxic, are still a bit broken and unwell because of their life experiences - who are finding hope in each other and the people around them.