#you were a ray of light

[iloveacronix]

RAYA ART RAYA ART RAYA ART 😭😭😭😭😭

Literally Cadence and Shining Armor

[fullscoreshenanigans]

I headcanon that at first Ray is adamantly against the use of nicknames and pet names for himself because he thinks it's silly.

"My name is Ray. It's literally three letters and one syllable long. Just call me Ray."

But Emma can't let that stand. She has "sunshine" and "Em," Norman has "Nor," "Norm," and "Boss."

So her proposed solution is for Ray to change his name so that "Ray" can be a nickname and show of affection. Ray balks at the suggestions she litters throughout their conversations, addressing him as Raymond, Rayner, even Raybert at one point.

Norman is more deft in his timing so the first time he drops a "Raymond" during one of their chess matches he ends up on the receiving end of Ray channeling Isabella with this look

He does eventually come around to them calling him Sunray.

[headphonemouse]

redraw (light mode users try clicking it! dark mode users there's a solid version below)

My favorite tags from @borealiszero that gave me the strength to finish this

[raycatzdraws]

Shenanigans with @squoache. ✨🕯️💙

Happy birthday, Squash!

[isfjmel-phleg]

The choice of Joshua Terrill's name is interesting. Joshua is (and was in the mid-1990s when The Ray was written) a very common name. But it wasn't so much in 1946 when the character was born. It ranked 608 in popularity that year. If he has an uncommon name in his own time, it's for a reason.

Due to time-travel shenanigans, Ray ends up meeting his father as a young man in 1941, around the time he acquired his powers, and has to try to keep him reined in when Happy develops an extreme case of hubris (Ray has to tell him point-blank that he is not God. repeatedly.). But the pride never fully goes away, and after Ray returns to his own time, Happy is left with the knowledge that he will eventually father a son who will become an even more powerful hero than himself--or as he puts it, "such a noble and heroic boy would some day come from my loins--follow in my footsteps." It's all very self-aggrandizing.

So he's not surprised that he and his first wife have a son right after the war--surely this is the future great hero upon whom all expectations must be placed. So why the name Joshua? Well, it means "God is salvation." This is the child "born with the light," the boy who is supposed to save the world, son of a man with a God complex. (Note also what name Joshua becomes when translated into the Greek.) The name is a further reflection of the father's hubris.

But of course poor Joshua doesn't live up to expectations and must be discarded.

So with the next son, Happy chooses a name with the legacy expectation directly in it--Raymond (meaning "counsel protection"), son of the Ray. The expectations are not just implicit now; they're tied to this child's identity whether he likes it or not.

[slverblood]

Hey also know what I've been obsessed with since yesterday? That the Dark Justiciar armor you find all over the Grymforge + Gauntlet is apparently near-identical to Selûnite armor in Reithwin prior to Ketheric's conversion.

[killjoy-prince]

So I reached the hacked chat era of the route

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Which era of Archie Sonic did you enjoy more? Pre reboot or post reboot?

Hmmm that's a good question. Idk I think I liked some of the writing post reboot better and I did like the new characters. I also personally think the removal of the love triangles specifically made the comic so much more enjoyable for me and opened up for better characterization for Sally. However, reading post sgw I did miss some of the old charcters (rip all those claimed penders ocs) and their now unresolved storylines, was sad at the loss of certain character struggles (like Rotor who was struggling between his health and wanting to be in the field again), and I missed how pre sgw had just some of the most insane or out of the blue plot developments/world building choices.

In terms of enjoyment, though, I'd have to say post reboot for the following reasons:

1. I enjoyed pre reboot for what it was more often than not, but I had my most fun during Flynn era. I liked how the Penders era moved things to being more serious, but I often felt like he had good and interesting concepts/ideas without the writing to back it up. Meanwhile, while Flynn wasn't perfect either, I felt like he was able to make a lot of those established relationships more believable to me, and while he also made some batshit plot choices he had more of the writing skills to back it up. This is all to say that aside from some stuff at the very beginning of pre reboot, it was a long while before I was able to really enjoy what I was reading instead of just taking things I liked where I could. Post reboot was a lotta Flynn, so despite the loss of characters and plotlines I enjoyed greatly, I at least felt like I could enjoy everything post reboot.

2. It didn't have all of those Sonic based love triangles. I know I know I'm a multishipper I ship Sonic with a lot of people but by god. I just could not take the Sonic/Sally drama anymore. Bunnie/Antoine was fine. Flynn actually made me believe in Julie-Su and Knuckles as decent partners. But by that point (and this is coming from someone who loved Sonic/Sally before reading the comic) everything going on re-Sonic and Sally's romance prospects with the opposite gender and each other was like beating a dead horse. And for Sally specifically, she had been recharacterized so so so many times pre-reboot just for the sake of drama that she often...didn't feel like her own character. So post reboot with the love triangles and the romance with Sonic removed I felt like we could really see who she was as a character and a clear vision of her ambitions/cares. I could feel like who she *is* wouldn't be changed on a whim for the purpose of plot.

3. As they say, people get better with practice. And while I thought some of his pre-reboot stuff was interesting, I felt like by post reboot era, Flynn had grown better at depicting the nuance of living under the eggman empire.

ㅤ

So yeah I guess I'd say, gun to my head? Post reboot. But it's really more complicated than that. I did enjoy both a lot, and especially in the last like 80 issues pre reboot. Pre reboot was wild an interesting in a way that I enjoyed with characters and storylines I loved, but it wasn't always written amazingly and contained much too many ongoing love triangles and mehhh canon relationships to me. Post reboot gave certain characters more time to shine as characters, reverted the pre reboot growth of other characters, delivered some of its nuanced situations better, and was largely written nicely, but you could often feel that the post reboot team was now restricted in a much different way than they were pre reboot (like, pre reboot's struggle was keeping up with existing storylines and relationships and keeping things true to what they have been, but post reboot's struggle feels more like it may have had some of Sega's restrictions we see nowadays).

In the end, though, I miss characters and storylines from both pre and post reboot after the cancelation.

[syn4k]

Can I ask for a 🍉 in the ask game?

you may indeed!

*exhales* okay. this one's gonna be terrifying to elaborate on but here we go anyways.

there is no art without the artist and there is no artist without the art. they are, in a lot of cases but not all of them, one and the same. every detail you write into these little stories is probably revealing a small patch of your soul without your even realizing it.

this goes double for some of our longer works, for example- take twice., a story that was written during one of the worst times of our life. there was a situation with a guy, you know how it goes, and we literally threw ourself into working on it as an escape. that one's got a lot of themes of healing and how one mistake can cause horrible outcomes. actually now that i think about it a lot of our works deal with hope and healing. i guess it's a mirror

(btw whoever said that your teens are your golden years can die of a thousand tiny papercuts. i am NOT thriving and it is NOT my fault)

ashes is... a long and complex thing. it's faceted. it's messy. to be completely honest we absolutely hate some of the chapters we've posted. but it's been an exercise of honesty- both with ourself, and with our readers.

the characters in it, they fucked up SO bad. most of them are dealing with some serious shit. but there's still hope for them. (i'm not gonna lie, i finished chapter 7 and read back through it like "huh. if anyone ever thinks for half a second about us the author writing that in such staggering detail, we're toast")

there's a lot of projection. like a lot. i aint gonna say where but it's there. it's such a personal thing to be doing this for free and of your own will, both for your own good and others.

life is fuckin tough, and as writing is a reflection of life, the things expressed there will also be fuckin tough. i keep on, though because 1. if i ever stopped writing i would literally explode and 2. i've already promised myself to NEVER abandon a work. (breaks are allowed, though.) i have a commitment here both to the story ive started and to the readers

[fivestoriesfallingg]

i’m gonna have that song stuck in my head for the next two days

[aria0fgold]

Lil rambling bout how Alec was as a kid. One word, troublemaker. But, in a good way??? Like, he is also very precious, friendly, and kind that it cancels out how much of a troublemaker he can be until he does something to remind that: "Oh yeah this kid can be a headache sometimes."

During class he can be well behaved, can be, which is only sometimes. He's not the, I'm going to disrupt the class misbehaving type but it also lowkey disrupts the class anyway (He loves asking questions, at first his questions will be on topic but if you let him ask questions for too long it'll end up getting derailed.)

He's just a really curious and incredibly talkative kid. The moment Alec talks to you prepare listen for hours on several topics (cuz he jumps from topic to topic he can barely stay on track, he will try if you tell him but... dont count on it). Bubbly and cheerful too like, he's like a golden retriever combined with a samoyed.

At some point, Alec became their school's lil unofficial mascot cuz nearly everyone knows him. And it's a reputation split between "annoying" and "lovable." Also don't mistake his kindness as being really nice, he's kind, but he can be mean too if you're mean to him as well. (Which is not a good thing unless you're prepared to have an earful of angry ranting from a kid that won't shut up. he can practically insult you without using that many harsh words. also it may end up as a semi-rap he'll be talking so fast with barely any breaks in between).

Don't even try to get physical with him as well, he knows martial arts (if Ray's parents enrolled him in acting lessons, Alec's parents got him in martial arts training. In their defense, it can hopefully help spend some of Alec's seemingly unlimited supply of energy. And hey, Alec enjoys it too anyway!)

Basically, Alec is a very sporty kid! He loves doing physical activities a lot more than studying... You can see where that went for him (he only gets barely passing grades up until Ray started helping him out with it which thankfully improved that a bit!)

Ray on the other hand is like the complete opposite of Alec in that he's very shy, not at all good with groups and talking to practically everyone unless he's close to them. These two are a great combo where Alec helps Ray in terms of socializing and physical activities, while Ray helps Alec in terms of studies and keeping him in check (making sure he doesnt get into too much of a trouble).

[koushirouizumi]

{Syo} ~ [Rai Rai All * R i g h t]

[rayvern-sheep]

Were they always planning on the identity of the mage???

(Very vaguely worded spoilers ahead)

Cos I just rewatched the first arc of the first season and…. There’s only one person who hands the uh arcane stones(?) to Jayce… like… it zooms in on their hands… both times. First on the OG stone in the bracelet, then on the new one he made himself. And who else hands Jayce a stone that we know of..? 👀👀👀

It also directly mirrors the hand placement and shit. Jayce switches side of the screen and turns his hand down to pick up the stones as an adult. Instead of holding his hands up. I’m getting away from myself… And may be misremembering shit cos boy howdy that 3rd ep is a hard one (emotionally i mean, its very fantastic but I am in painnnn rn)

[llycaons]

ik I've made this post when I first saw the scene but in house there was a really dramatic emergency situation and cameron (or 11?) was like 'suture on a kelly' all intently and I almost died laughing. like, for one. WHICH suture? there's like, dozens! if it's an experienced emergency tech they probably know which to grab - just based off my vascular and transplant days, maybe a 4-0 or smaller prolene - but like, type and size matter. also a kelly is a clamp, not a needle driver, it's NOT an instrument really meant for holding something small and sharp like a suture. I imagine having a consultant would have been too expensive but imo if they'd said 'repair stitch on a castro' or '6-0 prolene on a serat' it would have sounded right to ME. but like I'm not in emergencies so idk exactly what they'd need I just know what DID happen was incorrect. didn't ruin the scene and I KNOW house and other medical tv shows aren't made to be accurate but I still got a kick out of it

[psycolynx]

HOW UA SHOULD HAVE ENDED

Hard cut to Klaus talking to the girl on the bicycle

Klaus: “Did we save the world or screw it up again?”

Bicycle God: “You were never the problem”

She holds up an action figure of Reginald and crushes it in her bare hands. Marigold lights emerge from it. Golden light envelops everything

Hard cut to Klaus waking up in bed. He is wearing pajamas covered in marigolds.Street noise can be heard from outside.

(From offscreen) “You okay, Hon?”

Klaus looks over and Dave is cooking breakfast in their flat

Klaus: “Yeah, just had a weird dream.”

Looks out the window and sees an empty lot where the Hargreeves mansion should be.

Klaus: “Wasn’t there a building there?”

(Naïve Melody by the Talking Heads begins to play over a montage)

Diego and Lila Are wrangling their kids into the camper van. One of the kids gives Lila a picture of her family in a field of bunch of orange flowers (marigolds)

Luther is stripping and the obsessed lady in the crowd is Sloan. He has a marigold in his mouth. He takes it out and gives it to her.

Viktor is playing the violin with Harlon. Sissy is setting the table. She sets a bouquet of marigold into a center vase.

Allison is gardening while Clare and Ray play in the yard. She is planting Marigolds.

Five is teaching at some university. An older woman comes in. “Dolores” he says as she kisses him. He has a Marigold in the lapel of his suit jacket.

Jennifer serves Ben at the dinner. Closeup on her pouring coffee. He has a Durango flower tattoo that says “Jennifer” and she had a marigold tattoo that says “Ben”

Cut back to Klaus staring out the Window

Dave: No, been an empty lot as long as I can remember

Klaus, smiles: Yeah, I don’t know why I thought that

Camera Zooms out from the window as music continues

Reginald, voiceover: And that is how our unlikely heroes manage to create one timeline where everything was fine.

BTS footage plays with the final credits 

[isfjmel-phleg]

The recent Lost Children comic (which I enjoyed!) dealt with the fates of a lot of unaccounted-for child sidekicks. Secret is back! The Newsboy Legion is back! Etc.!

But I recently encountered one such character who should have been among that group. What happened to Joshua Terrill, aka Spitfire? He's Ray Terrill's half-brother, thirty years his senior...but he's also only eight. And he completely disappeared in 1996 shortly after being introduced.

Story time!

Joshua was born in 1946 to Langford "Happy" Terrill (the original Ray) and his first wife, Gayle. He inherited his father's light/energy-based powers but with greater intensity and became the Ray's sidekick for a while, using the codename Spitfire.

(The Ray 1994 #18)

He had a lot of power at a very young age and didn't know how to control it. In times of heightened emotion it was quite dangerous. The powers also seem to have affected his aging (perhaps similar to how his father's aging has been slowed/stopped), and he started to mentally regress. By the time he was eight, he had the mentality of a four-year-old.

And then one day he got upset when his father didn't return from a mission in time for his birthday, and he accidentally destroyed the house...and his mother.

Happy's solution to this was to drug Joshua's food, stash him away in a cryogenic chamber buried in the middle of nowhere, and pretend this kid never existed.

Forty-one years later, some guys fool around with the site of the buried chamber, and Joshua, not a day older than in 1954, is on the loose.

We find out that he's got enough control of his powers to use them to convert a truckload of corn into popcorn.

(The Ray 1994 #18)

But he's scared and confused and desperate to find his dad, and unfortunately this results in lashing out with his powers at almost anyone who comes near him, regardless of intention.

Quite possibly ends up killing a few people here.

Not that he seems to realize that. He's still a small child who talks to cows.

(The Ray 1994 #19)

At one point, he thinks he's found his dad, but false alarm, it's the villain who's been impersonating Happy for a while (long story).

Soon it's Christmas. This child is still on his own and without shelter in Colorado in the middle of a snowstorm. His efforts to get Santa's attention fail.

(The Ray 1994 #20)

A couple happen to find him and naturally are concerned. Where is his family?

He's actually a sweet kid when he doesn't feel threatened.

But Nadine Terrill, his father's second wife (now divorced), isn't too pleased when he shows up. She knows her ex-husband had another son from a previous marriage who was born in the 1940s, but an eight-year-old child claiming to be his? Clearly the product of an affair from when they were still married.

Now that they have a lead on Happy's whereabouts, Joshua flies them out to Philadelphia, where they hang out at Ray's empty apartment for a while and Joshua spends a lot of his time floating around upside-down because why wouldn't you if you had flight.

(The Ray 1994 #21)

When he finally meets Ray, his initial impression is to attack him, but Ray's not having that.

(The Ray 1994 #22)

But once Joshua knows who this strange young man is (although it's unclear if he has grasped that this is his half-brother), he takes to him immediately.

And he jumps back into his old role of sidekick when Ray must go and protect his mom.

He continues to fight when Ray is removed from the equation, but unfortunately...he ends up destroying Nadine's house.

(The Ray 1994 #23)

But ultimately he helps Ray take down the villain.

And gets ice cream.

(The Ray 1994 #24)

It's been a long, exhausting day. The Terrills stay the night at Nadine's friend's house, and Joshua gets put to bed.

But he doesn't sleep well.

(The Ray 1994 #27)

And when he wakes up disoriented and terrified from a nightmare...

His father finally catches up to him, but Joshua mistakes him for the imposter he met earlier.

(The Ray 1994 #28)

In a state of extreme panic, he runs away.

Nadine survives the explosion, but her friend does not. Joshua has inadvertently killed again.

Ray goes after him, but Joshua has expended so much energy that his powers give out and he collapses mid-flight into the ocean.

He is rescued before he can drown, and the next we see him, he is back in bed at Ray's apartment, sleeping peacefully.

And that's the last we ever hear of this child. The series ended with this issue, Ray got regulated to guest appearances and team outings without much (if any) acknowledgement of his personal life, and Joshua was never even mentioned again.

So what happened to him?

Putting him back in the cryogenic chamber shouldn't be an option; not only is it unethical, it did nothing to solve his problem--rather, exacerbated it.

And how much of what we know about his background is true? We only know what Happy tells Nadine about him, and although she has demanded that he tell her the whole truth, he has a history of lying and manipulating, so everything he says is potentially questionable.

What we see of Joshua's behavior does seem to back up the story. He does get overwhelmed by emotion and uses his powers in destructive, sometimes deadly ways. His mentality does indeed seem to be that of a child younger than his physical age. But is he really as hopelessly uncontrollable as his father makes him out to be? Under normal circumstances he seems fine. Whenever he does lash out, his narration reveals that it's not erratic; he's in frequently in circumstances that would terrify any child, and he's trying to protect himself. Within less than a day, he destroyed his house, inadvertently killed his mother (...or did he?), and his father drugged, froze, and abandoned him. That would be incredibly traumatic.

Surely there's a way that his out-of-control powers could be restrained. Earlier in the series, it's shown that Happy has the ability to basically hypnotize Ray into believing he's lost his powers. Why didn't he try that with Joshua, if only as a temporary solution?

Ray's powers are greater than his father's, though, so if anyone could find a way to help Joshua out permanently, it would likely be him. After all, it wouldn't be the first time in this universe that a hero had to straighten out a younger counterpart's unmanageable powers (as Wally did for Bart in 1994).

So the ideal ending would involve not only Joshua learning to better control his powers but also getting the emotional support he needs (which would further help in that direction). Handing him over to the care of his father full-time would be a mistake, but the entire family should get the opportunity to work on rebuilding their relationships.

And with some stabilizing, maybe the Ray and Spitfire could be a thing again. Maybe Joshua, like his brother, could join a team. He's not too far in age from Damian or Jon or Chris.

But we never do get to find out, and since Ray and family have since been rebooted and made almost completely different, it's unlikely Joshua will make an official reappearance.

Doesn't stop me from having questions, though.