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[isfjmel-phleg]

Audio ask: 22!

22. I’ll talk about something that makes me happy

[isfjmel-phleg]

Voice asks: #5! :)

5. I’ll talk about what I did today

[isfjmel-phleg]

3 and 6 for the voice asks?

3. I’ll talk about my favorite outfit

6. I’ll talk about something I’m obsessed with/currently interested in

[isfjmel-phleg]

3 for the voice ask💜.

3. I’ll talk about my favorite outfit

[isfjmel-phleg]

Voice Ask: 10

10. I’ll describe where I’m sitting at the moment

[isfjmel-phleg]

(Impulse #56, 65)

Bart-as-Thad, Thad-as-Bart.

One of these impersonations is the result of eons of intensive study, analysis, and preparation...and the other is a spur-of-the-moment plan thrown together with newly-acquired sewing skills, a wig, and memories of a single encounter with the person being portrayed.

Thad had to have known that Bart impersonated him once to fool CRAYDL and that (shockingly!) it worked, right? He would not have been happy about that, no doubt.

Can we also appreciate that these issues have the reverse digits of each other.

[isfjmel-phleg]

Like I promised I'll still try to draw the other requests on the 'six character challenge' that I couldn't add, so here is Secret by @spspspspspkitty :DD

[isfjmel-phleg]

And what are we using the few all-important pencils that we still have for? Deliberately leaving a check mark on the back cover of a returned interlibrary loan to indicate to me that the patron wants a certain book listed there. Instead of, you know, just telling me this information, or using some means of pointing this out that doesn't deface a book that doesn't belong to us.

I couldn't get the mark out, and now it's a smudge. Small, but still noticeable. Really hoping we don't get in trouble with the lender.

[isfjmel-phleg]

I'm always on the lookout for hints of religious beliefs in characters from comics, and there seem to be a few hints that Burt Hayes, father of Greta (Secret), has some kind of religious (Christian) background.

He thinks that the best solution to the problem of their son is to "pray that he walks out and never comes back." This could indicate that he is a praying man--or it could just be an expression.

(Young Justice 1998 #4)

In prison, when Greta comes to see him, he while possessed by Billy accuses her of being an evil spirit and tries to repel her with a wooden cross. Although this is Billy acting here, the cross is evidently something that Burt already owns. Note that it is a bare cross, rather than a crucifix, which would feature an image of Jesus. This suggests that Burt is likeliest to be some kind of Protestant.

(#42)

He is seen with a clergyman in clerical dress (with a purple stole, which is associated with Lent, confession, repentance, etc.) and slightly misquoting from the KJV translation of Psalm 23: 4 before his intended execution.

(#53)

My best guess is that Burt (and possibly the rest of the family, at least nominally) is from a background that's likely Episcopalian, Lutheran, Methodist, or something comparable. And if that's the case and that's how Greta would have been raised, it might inform how she would see herself in her post-death role as a sort of gatekeeper between life and death and why she's so worried about being evil.

(is she or her abyss a sort of "valley of the shadow of death" in universe?)

[isfjmel-phleg]

So true

[isfjmel-phleg]

@brown-little-robin replied to your post: last song listened to: "Extraordinary Machine" by...

Extraordinary machine!! Elystan!!! you will HAVE to expand on that at some point bc I know the song but am too 100% tired to grasp why it's a him song right now

Okay, so this is Book 3 Elystan.

I certainly haven't been shopping for any new shoes And I certainly haven't been spreading myself around

After the disastrous attempted coup he got mixed up in toward the end of Book 2, resulting in his narrowly escaping implication and his father being executed, he has retreated to his house in the country and basically become a shut-in. He stays in his room, stays in his bed, sees no one.

I still only travel by foot and by foot it's a slow climb But I'm good at being uncomfortable so I can't stop changing all the time

Not literally traveling by foot, but he has physical limitations that make navigating life difficult, but he's used to that and thereby used to adapting. He thinks he's adapting well here.

I noticed that my opponent is always on the go And won't go slow, so 's not to focus, and I notice He'll hitch a ride with any guide, as long as They go fast from whence he came

This is Delclis, whom Elystan currently regards as his mortal enemy. From Elystan's perspective, Delclis has been keeping himself so busy with the responsibilities of being king that he has no time to focus on anything that he has left behind since taking that role. And although Elystan would probably rather die than admit to himself, that would include his relationship with Elystan. Not that Delclis ever had much time to bond with Elystan even before becoming now, but now there's nothing whatsoever between them, as far as Elystan can see, and that hurts.

"Any guide" is Delclis's Prime Minister, Sir Jowan Mitchett-Scorbrook. Elystan hates this man after a traumatic thing that Sir Jowan put him through, and he thinks that Delclis both approved that incident and is on board with Sir Jowan's agenda. Which, as far as Elystan is concerned is to completely change Delclis into a ruthless king.

But he's no good at being uncomfortable, so He can't stop staying exactly the same

Elystan knows that Delclis doesn't handle pressure well, and he believes his brother is always going to retain his worst traits. He's not adaptable, not like Elystan.

If there was a better way to go then it would find me I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind me

Elystan considers his response to his situation the best and most reasonable one. He is surviving, where his father tragically didn't.

Be kind to me, or treat me mean I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary machine

And he tells himself that he doesn't care how his family treats him. He will emerge victorious. He always has.

I seem to you to seek a new disaster every day You deem me due to clean my view and be at peace and lay

The family is getting frustrated with him for stunts like the Infamous Lamplight Letter. They want him to keep his head down and stay out of the political picture, where he can't cause any trouble.

I mean to prove I mean to move in my own way and say I've been getting along for long before you came into the play

But Elystan will not be told what to do. As far as he's concerned, he's been doing this longer than Delclis (he was heir to the throne from birth, Delclis was a nobody who got the throne suddently foisted upon him).

I am the baby of the family, it happens So, everybody cares and wears the sheep's clothes While they chaperone

But because he is the youngest, the family treats him like a child (...which he still is, but don't tell him that), trying to look after him and express what he considers false concern.

Curious, you looking down your nose at me, while you appease Courteous, to try and help But let me set your mind at ease

Again, from his perspective, the family puts on a show of solicitude while holding him in contempt for what he and his father tried to do. So he sarcastically addresses them, trying to get them off his back.

Do I so worry you, you need to hurry to my side? It's very kind

This is what his mother does in "A Visit from the Murderess." He is sarcastic about what he believes is false kindness--this woman allowed his father to die, after all.

But it's to no avail; and I don't want the bail I promise you, everything will be just fine

He thinks being sent to school is his alternative to prison, and he's not on board with the idea. He has his own plans, and he can look after himself "just fine" without the family's help.

...or at least that's where my brain goes. Could be a stretch! I tend to be too prone to fit songs to whoever's been on the brain recently.

[isfjmel-phleg]

I recently accquired some issues of Superboy 1994. The letter pages are typically full of remarks from (usually male) readers who take the character and stories at face value (action! coolness! babes! the kid is living the dream!), but every once in a while there's someone who gets what's actually going on, and I think this letter, from a Laurie Flechner of Bridgeport, CT, is my very favorite of the original responses to this series.

Flechner is commenting on #59, in which Kon finally receives his name. She recognizes how meaningful a gesture this is for the character, reflects on how much he needs a parental figure, especially in regard to needing someone looking out for him in his love life, and hopes that Superman will take Kon under his wing more from now on.

She's expressing a lot of what I've been saying about the character and how badly the narrative is hurting him, at a time when that wasn't evident (or at least wasn't important?) to most readers whose letters were printed.

Of course I don't know what Flechner might be up to these days, but she has my respect. If an adult version of me had been reading these comics when they were released (I was actually around seven at this time!), I would have wanted to write to her and express my agreement.

[isfjmel-phleg]

Bulbasaur!

image descriptions: a little ceramic Bulbasaur in wintery blue with a green bulb and red eyes. It has a friendly smile.

[isfjmel-phleg]

criminal we didn’t get a reunion tbh

[isfjmel-phleg]

I've never before gotten a letter from the Department of Defense wanting information from me for a background check

...for someone whose name I don't recognize, who claims I was his supervisor when he was a student worker here years ago. And perhaps he was, but I have no memory of him and didn't work with him and have never supervised student workers. The person who did at that time no longer works here.

So I guess I'm going to have to explain that to the government now. o_0

[isfjmel-phleg]

Feedback from the recent presentation has come in, and unsuprisingly the judge said I need "more eye contact and confidence in your answers."

Kind of hard when they're slinging questions at me that I don't know how to answer and I am not in fact "the expert." But fair enough.

Otherwise the judge didn't seem to dislike it, so that's a relief, and there was a recommendation for further research and presentations.

So they may not have seen the last of me. Maybe.

[isfjmel-phleg]

This is the very first panel of the series Impulse. Manchester, Alabama (at least, the version portrayed in the comic) is a fictional place, but that statue on the left is real.

(Impulse #1)

It's the statue of Vulcan from Birmingham, Alabama, a well-known landmark in that city.

Mark Waid, co-creator of Bart Allen and writer of the first twenty-seven issues of Impulse, drew from the small Alabama town he grew up in, as well as from Birmingham, when creating the fictional Manchester, and he supplied artist Humberto Ramos with photos for reference.

I was in Birmingham recently, and I very badly wanted to go to Vulcan Park, where the statue is, and take a photo from the same angle as the above panel for comparison. However, I was traveling with a group, and one does not simply approach a faculty advisor and say "can we go to an out-of-the-way park in the limited amount of sightseeing time we have so that I can take a photo recreating a panel from a comic book?" She might have said yes, but I didn't feel that we had reached a level of our acquaintance where it was advisable to exhibit some of my more unexpected areas of interest.

I did get to see the Vulcan statue, but unfortunately it was from very far away and while in a moving car. This was the best photo I could manage, very zoomed in and fuzzy.

Even without a good photo, though, I can confirm that the general landscape of the Birmingham area looks a lot like what is pictured in Impulse.