#heh this is interesting to observe how this comic is getting more and more detailed and polished up

[sygneth]

"...I received a telegram from my friend imploring me to return to Donnithorpe, and saying that he was in great need of my advice and assistance. Of course I dropped everything and set out for the North once more"

Holmes College Adventures Masterpost Chapter 2: part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4 - part 5 - part 6 - part 7 - part 8 AO3

thoughts:

Now, Holmes mentions that he "went up to his London rooms". He also mentions (MUSG) that "when he first came to London he had rooms in Montague Street". Now I see several possibilities here: 1. Holmes moved to study in London, had the Montague rooms for his two years of college and stayed there for a couple years more, until he moved to Baker Street. 2. Holmes was studying elsewhere and moved to London after he dropped out of university, and the "London rooms" he mentions in GLOR were some other rooms he rented for vacation (?) 3. He moved to London after he dropped out, and the rooms meant he stayed at Mycroft's place, but he didn't think this detail nessecary enough to mention.

There is no particular reason to choose the third one, but hey, I wanted to draw Mycroft.

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Chapter 139 Review: Abyss

Story:  Unexpected Blast

Perspective matters.  From our perspective last chapter, the hole that should be a hole is full of a curled up figure.   We start the chapter with Flashy Flash, Saitama and Manako trying to make sense of something in the blackness.   Try as Manako might,  she can bring no light to bear on whatever’s out there.   They’re interrupted in their investigations by a voice.  This voice invites them to touch the cube and let it grant them their wishes... if it wants... like the world’s worst genie. 

For more see under the cut!  This is a long one!

Before they can consider the terms the infernal cube is offering, what happens but your regular rip in spacetime that just so happens to deposit the much-mentioned but never seen hero, Blast?  He grabs the cube,  spins it on a finger and off it vanishes into another dimension, along with the outraged shrieks of the being who wasn’t finished tempting Saitama’s little troupe.   Blast is nice enough to take them to the surface, although not before explaining that time is running slow in the hole. So don’t expect Flashy Flash and Saitama anytime soon.

...I must confess I’m distracted by Flashy Flash’s ass and heels.

Anyway, back to the now.   Directly on the heels of Orochi being cast down, we watch the heroes who weren’t part of the monster-bashing festival acting as the rearguard, but mostly spectating.  Well, Child Emperor isn’t spectating -- he’s deep in a personal crisis from having erroneously excluded Genos and Bang from participating and wants Zombieman to take over command.  As Sweetmask pooh-poohs the idea,  Zombieman demurs, pointing out that the boy’s ability to admit error and seek to understand make for the capacity to improve.

AND THEN!  FATALITY!  Zombieman shoves Child Emperor out of the way just in time to catch the fireballs of Homeless Emperor, ugh.

The rearguard is under attack, but unfortunately no help is forthcoming as everyone else is transfixed (metaphorically) by  Tatsumaki transfixing (literally) Orochi using the former Subterranean city as a skewer.   It drives Orochi into the earth, twisting and smearing him as it goes, until he finally expires in front of an altar where there’s a mural depicting a suspiciously Orochi-like figure receiving sacrifices.   Gee, I wonder what that means? Orochi dying where he was born, always sweet.

Well, the scumtastic monsters collectively known as the cadre are finally bubbling up to the surface.  They’ve conveniently waited until their boss has taken the punishment and tired out the really big scary heroes they don’t want to tangle with. This is going to get nasty.

Meta: Evil Space Lawyers and other beasts

You didn’t read the small print

I don’t know the anon who wrote to me to point out that the confiscation that ‘God’ spoke of is exactly the same as the word used when He took away Homeless Emperor’s powers and that it’s a legal term He used.   Evil Space Lawyer indeed.  Setting up and executing unilateral contracts without notice. 

We don’t know much about God yet, but so far, the people who we do know He’s ‘helped’ have been exceptionally homicidal freaks acting out of a deep-seated hatred of humanity who’ve been all too willing to use their powers to inflict sickening harm on the world. 

Keep spoiling his fun, Blast!

You know, I’m pleased to meet the coolest uncle in the world, Blast, but honestly, there isn’t much *to* him.  At least, not yet.  Sure he’s cool. It’s great to see that Blast really is an exceptional hero who can spoil ‘God’s’ fun -- at least better than he can kill off giant monsters. Yes, it’s neat to see that he has a means to get around to the unlikeliest of places.  Yes, it’s nice to look at his eyes and realise that Blue is telling no more than the truth (characters in OPM usually are).  But okay, and? So? I’m sure that he’ll be back, and when he is, we’ll have more reason to care.

I do enjoy the detail of showing how he’s been ageing over time through the discrepancies between characters’ memories of him and how he is in the present day.

Sitch really was just telling the truth when he said that Blast was someone who wouldn’t be ordered around.  I’m not wondering either at Sekingar saying that Blast is semi-retired and only a handful of executives can get hold of him.  It all fits.

I freaking love that the various jack-in-the-box reveals are being destroyed and turned into more organic story-telling.  ONE has the space, he may as well, as it also clears the way to do deeper storytelling about both the OPM world and its denizens.

Sit down, be humble

Man, the small but interesting changes between how Flashy Flash’s Very Bad No Good Day unfolded in the webcomic and the manga continue to amuse me. He’s been buried in an undignified position and dug out by a pair of clowns.  His beloved Instakill has been murdered by a hyperactive midget with a twitchy index finger.  And now the worst thing of all, not feeling like he’s the fastest thing on the planet has happened now once, but TWICE.

Heh, I wonder who Flashy Flash will take his wounded ninja pride out on.

Oh, the humanity!

Parentification is when a child is pressed into the role of taking on adult responsibilities to make up for unreliable adults.  It’s been a big problem that Child Emperor has been struggling with and I was both heartbroken and hopeful to see Child Emperor admit that the impossible position he was in was, in fact, impossible.  I wouldn’t call his decisions bad -- under the circumstances, with no one by him to advise, they were the best decisions he could make.   The outcome of the decision was just very unhelpful.

I was more than a little sad when the upshot of Zombieman’s kind words boiled down to Child Emperor still being left carrying the can.

Speaking of humanity,  it’s a gimme for web comic readers that Amai Mask is speaking without turning his head to look at Zombieman. So far, he’s been able to hide his shame from everyone, that he’s turning into a real monster.  But for how much longer?

In passing

Fun little thing.  As Manako lights up the world, just look at Flashy Flash’s body:

A second fun thing: Child Emperor’s memory of Genos being a mix of actual observation -- the lack of spikes -- and what he preferred to remember.  Choosing not to remember that he was naked, good boy!

Btw, between Flashy Flash, Saitama, and Blast, that’s three of the four known cape-wearing heroes in one room. Nice!

[snakeboistan]

WHUMPTOBER DAY TEN: THEY LOOK SO PRETTY WHEN THEY BLEED

Blood Loss I Internal Bleeding I Trail Of Blood

Ao3

“I just can’t wait,” Nagisa said, eyes alight with childish eagerness and an excited smile radiating off of his face, “I mean I’ve heard rumours that Sonic Ninja was going to get a TV show but when the trailer was released this morning - it was just so good and I’ve watched it like fifty times already. I mean everything about it was so perfect and it teased so many things from the comics that the movies missed out on - like there was this one scene that showed a building that looked like the orphanage where one of the characters’ mother was raised which is so cool because the movies didn’t really go that much into the backstories of the older generation that much. Oh and there was like this one part where the camera pans over the headquarters and it looks all destroyed but there’s this emblem on the floor that is the same one that the third Sonic Ninja wore in the League Of Cats Saga - which was one of my favourite storylines. I’ve already got like a ton of theories.”

“Well, you sound excited,” Sugino teased with amusement, smiling at the way his best friend always got so lost in his adoration of his favourite franchise. It was hard to tell if the rosy hue on the shorter boy’s face was because he was embarrassed at his enthusiasm or because of the biting cold of the Japanese winter but it was adorable regardless.

“Heh, yeah I am,” Nagisa agreed sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with an arm. He pierced another chocolate sauce covered mini pancake with his fork and plopped it into his mouth, closing his eyes in contentment at the warmth that covered his tongue, “I do get a bit carried away when it comes to superheroes.”

“There’s nothing wrong with that,” Sugino said as he threw the now empty box of pancakes into a trash can that they just passed, “It’s normal to get excited about the things that interest you. I mean, have you seen how I get about baseball. It’s not a normal week in my house if mum doesn’t offer taking me to a therapist at least once. Besides it’s nice to see you talk about the things you love, you rarely do in class. I bet you’re counting down the days until the premiere, huh?”

“Yeah, I am. Next Saturday is marked on my calendar. Well, next Sunday technically.”

“Oh, why’s that?”

“It’s a Netflix show and since I don’t have Netflix I’ll have to use my regular streaming site, which always uploads on the day after.”

“You could just use mine,” Sugino shrugs simply, casually placing his hands in his pockets, “you’re more than welcome to.”

“Wha-no Sugino,” Nagisa stopped dead in his tracks and Sugino was worried that the sudden movement would’ve made him slip on the snow-turned-sludge that caked the pavement, “I-you really don’t need to do that. I’m fine really. One day isn’t going to make that much of a difference.”

The black-haired boy gave an all-suffering sigh at the other’s words, knowing for a fact what was coming, “listen man, it’s no big deal. You’re practically family anyway. My parents and brother love you, you know that.”

“Doesn’t mean that I can freeload off of you,” Nagisa mumbled.

“You’re not freeloading if I’m offering,” Sugino gave him a light whack on the back of his head, “and if it really means that much to you then you could just come over and we can watch the first episode together.”

Nagisa looked at him and gave a small smile, “okay, but I’ll have to ask my mum first, though.”

“Great.”

“If she lets me, though, you have to let me pay for the snacks.”

“Wha-Nagisa.”

“Hey, you’re paying for the account, I’m paying for the food. It’s the very least I could do.”

“Hm, you’re not going to drop this, are you?”

“No,” Nagisa replied brightly.

“Alright then.”

The two of them continued to walk along the sidewalk, feet crunching against freshly fallen snow and hands interlocked between them.

“The snow’s really pretty,” Nagisa mused, looking up at the metallic silver clouds looming over them, “I’ve always loved walking home in the winter. Everything just looks so magical when it’s covered in snow, especially when people start decorating with the lights.”

“Yeah,” Sugino agreed softly, watching as the snowflakes twirled around in their own ballet dance, gracefully and elegantly descending like falling sakura blossoms, “I remember how I used to catch snowflakes with my tongue when I was younger. Last year, when the roads were closed because of too much snow, my dad took my brother and me out to the park and we had the best snowball fight ever and went sledding and mum made hot chocolate that was so amazing - totally made up for how I couldn’t play baseball for a week.”

“Sounds awesome,” Nagisa smiled, “snowball fights are enjoyable. Remember the one we had yesterday during break? I had a lot of fun.”

“Only because you were like the last one to get hit,” Sugino countered, “I still don’t know how you could hide when the snow showed your footprints. At least you were safe from that full-blown war.”

“It wasn’t that bad.”

“Fuwa started charging at everyone with a sword. I don’t even know where she got a sword from.”

“But it was funny when I got Karma, right?”

“Yeah, it is really cool when you just appear out of nowhere like that. I mean it’s bad for the crazy people that try to hurt us but it’s cool when you use it for fun.”

“Heh, thanks,” Nagisa wore an expression of something Sugino couldn’t identify, “it’s weird though. All my life, I’ve been invisible. I’m used to people ignoring me and not paying attention to me. I never thought that me being invisible could be something useful in assassination. I guess I’m learning all sorts of things about myself this year.”

“I think we all are,” Sugino squeezed his hand, “and I can’t wait to learn more.”

“Me too,” Nagisa squeezed back, “I hope we make more memories with our class.”

Sugino opened his mouth to say something, probably to comment about how deep they were being on a Saturday afternoon fifteen minutes after they had been colouring the black and white picture on the back of WcDonalds’ kids menu, when it happened.

Nagisa’s eyes widened, mouth opening with a surprised gasp, and before he knew it, Sugino felt all the breath leave him as he got shoved to the side, leaving him to stare aimlessly at his best friend who was running towards, towards-

“WATCH OUT!” Nagisa cried, jumping forwards and pushing some elementary school kid away right before-

Sugino wished that the following events would be a blur later. He wished that he would never be able to recall with complete lucidity the way Nagisa’s azure eyes widened just the tiniest fraction when the car had struck him, the way the air was bombarded with the screeching of tires, the blaring of headlights, the blood-curdling snap of what sounded like bones. For a split-second it was like someone had pressed pause and time was stuck in a freeze-frame, just so that the image of Nagisa a second away from death could be forever ingrained into his mind, so that every detail can be observed with perfect clarity. Then it was like a movie that was played both in fast-forward and slow-motion; the events that followed happened so rapidly that Sugino could do nothing but watch but so slowly that he was able to memorise every change that occurred at every second.

Nagisa’s body collided with the hood of the vehicle and he was sent flying, sprawling onto the side of pavement with a heavy skid. His body laid there, still, stationery, unmoving. The movements of his chest - if there were any to begin with - were infinitesimal and it was impossible to tell if his eyes were open or closed because of the red-coated strands of blue that hid them from view.

Sugino ran. Fast. Faster than he does when he hits a home run, faster than he does during training, faster than he’s ever run before because that’s Nagisa, that’s his best friend who’s lying there still still still.

“NAGISA!” he screams, cries, begs, dropping to his knees. The sting of the tarmac grazing his knees has nothing on the corrosive cyanide that wells up in his eyes, blurring his vision but he can’t lose focus, can’t stop trying, “NAGISA GET UP! NAGISA COME ON!”

He shuffles closer to the - the body, ignoring the scarlet wetness that stains his jeans, of the pool of rich crimson that’s a sickening contrast to the pure white snow and light grey gravel beneath them (like it’s yelling ‘look at me, look at me and know the truth’), and takes a limp hand. He fumbles with the wrist, his hands sweaty and loose against the frail, malleable appendage. At last, he places a thumb against the right artery-

Seconds pass.

Minutes pass.

Hours pass.

Nothing.

“Nononononono,” he mutters frantically. He grabs at Nagisa, turning him over-

Nagisa looks at him, eyes open but unseeing, their cerulean gaze foggy and clouded up. Tear tracks of red running down half of his ashen white face, dripping and dripping onto the street, painting his jacket, mingling with the pastel blue strands and dots of snow. Like a marinette, the shorter boy’s actions were under the control of the hands that held him. Sugino shook him and shook him and shook him.

“NAGISA! WAKE UP! COME ON MAN! THIS ISN’T FUNNY! WAKE UP! GET UP! NAGISA PLEASE!”

The blunette remained unmoving, unblinking, un-anything-ing. His head resting on the baseball lover’s lap, as if he was just in a deep sleep.

“Nagisa…”

Sugino doesn’t think he’ll ever find snow fun anymore.

[derenyanai]

Araquu Journal Session #6- Cecily and Aldrid

Time: A day after Episode Twelve Characters: Cecily, Aldrid, Willow, Navi

Posts indented like this were typed by the GM.

Posts that were not indented were typed by the players.

The aftermath of the mission at Lakeshore Library has left Cecily with an unusual dilemma. As a show of companionship, Aldrid offers his assistance...

Aldrid knocks upon Cecily's Door, standing back and wrapping his arms behind his back, waiting for her to answer said door.

It takes a few minutes before footsteps can be heard inside the apartment, getting closer to the door. Before long, Cecily opened the and faces Aldrid. “Aldrid?” Cecily raises her visible eyebrow. “What are you doing here? And... when did you find out where I live?”

"To answer ze latter question..." Aldrid starts. "I'm essentially a detective, I figured it out. As for the former..." He looks her over. "...You have a date, no?"

“Um, apparently yes,” Cecily said, darting her eyes to the side. She admittedly wasn’t trying to focus too hard on that situation she put herself in. That case O’Hara gave them at the library gave them much desired access to any type of research. And in order to improve her job’s efficiency... she accepted a date with a witch named Willow. Still not 100% sure what her thinking was on that choice. “Wait, why are you asking?”

"...When you accepted said date your eyes dilated nearly fifteen percent, the lids widened and your breath shortened. You also perspired slightly... this believes me to believe you are nervous about such a thing, or...more accurately, you have no idea what you are doing."

“H-huh?” Cecily said in visible befuddlement. “What kind of weird deduction is that? Do you do that to everyone you work with?”

"Only those who are horrendously out of their depth." He responds.

Cecily only raises a finger to retort, before slumping over in defeat. “Ugh, I have no idea how a date works,” she groans. “I’ve spend most of my time practicing swordsmanship, not stuff like this. What did I get myself into?”

"Hence, I will assist you on this." He says simply.

“You’re going to what now?” Cecily said with sudden concern.

"I will assist you in preparing for your date."

“What?!” her eye widened. “Why?!”

"...Because you look like you need it." He states. "may I come in?"

“But, wait, I...” Cecily tried to protest before facepalming. “Ugh, come inside.”

Aldrid nods gently. "Danke..." He says as he enters the home...and immediately removes his shoes.

Cecily’s apartment doesn’t seem messy inside, granted it’s only her living there, but it’s at least well kept. The eye patched swordswoman over to the open room that acts as the small living room and sits on the couch. “So... how do you plan on helping me exactly?”

"Well, we can start with your expectations." Aldrid says. "What do you expect to happen on zis date?"

“Uh...” Cecily only rubs the back of her head. “...people getting to know each other or something?” Well... that’s one of the basic principles.

"Very good." Aldrid nods. "It is... something akin to fencing." he says, trying to help her find common ground. "In a way, you must show her who you are and what you are made of... yet- you must also keep your own motives and wishes more secretive... give a little, but not too much, yes?"

“Uh, okay, that’s a fair analogy,” Cecily cuffed her chin in thought. Like fencing? Sure she never specialize in that type of swordsplay, but she studied enough on the style itself. So in a way the comparison made sense. “Is that really all there is to it? Or is that just the nutshell?”

He chuckles. "If I could explain it as simply as that, I would not have bothered coming over... no- I believe you will be fine with the general concept. It is the... fine technique that I am worried about." He states.

“...Fine technique?” Cecily said in confusion. She for some reason didn’t feel as confident when he used those terms regarding the topic. “What do you mean by that?”

"For instance... what do you intend to wear?"

“Wouldn’t what I usually wear be just fine?” Cecily asks. Oh dear.

"Precisely." He sighs. "You must give an impression of yourself beyond what you are seen as normally."

“And, dare I ask, how would I do that?”

"...What are your nicest clothes?"

“Uh...” Cecily tried to dig into her memory. “Well, I have a formal dress that I usually wear at traditional gatherings but...”

"May I see it, please?"

A buzz from Cecily's phone as she gets a text message. And then, a few moments later, Aldrid gets one as well.

“Uh, yeah, just... one sec,” Cecily claps her hands together and looks at her phone.

Aldrid sighs, annoyed. How many times does he have to tell people not to text him?! He checks his messages, his phone flips up satisfyingly. 

Both messages are from Willow! The one for Cecily reads: 'Hey I just realized we didn't actually figure out any details when should we meet up how formal etc etc??' The one for Aldrid reads: 'YOU KNOW CECILY RIGHT I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO IMPRESS HER I HAVEN'T BEEN ON A DATE IN EVER'

Crap, it’s Willow. Cecily should of figured that the witch would contact her first. But how the hell would she respond? In a slight panic, she only points at her screen to Aldrid because the man apparently knows more about this date stuff than the swordswoman does.

Aldrid pauses. "..." He sighs... and tries with all his might to not facepalm at this situation. "...I- ..." He then realizes what he's just gotten himself into. "...Please be prepared with coffee, we will be here a while."

“I only have tea, will that work?” Cecily sheepishly smiles.

"It will." He texts back 'TTYL PLS DN TXT"

Damn number-text things.

“Thanks, also what should I respond to this? Should I say a cafe or something?” Cecily says, still pointing at her phone screen.

"I would say... yes, a cafe would be a neutral and easy to work with locale."

“Right!” Cecily nodded, as she begins to quickly text the following: ’Café Bleu de la Lune should work. Just wear whatever makes you look best I guess’ After sending she puts her phone down and begins making tea.

Aldrid sighs, pulling up a notepad and starting to take notes.

It takes a good few minutes before Cecily gets the kettle of water hot enough and begins spooning in the tea leaves. Once she finishes steeping it, she pours out the completed drink into a mug and walks over to Aldrid with it. “So... what do you suggest I do?”

Aldrid looks toward her and takes the tea. "Danke... well, the first thing as I said, is that you must dress properly for the occasion. Considering this is a cafe and not say... a high end restaurant, you have more options." He says. "Although, you must still look your best... for instance, do you have a comb about?"

“Of course,” she nodded. “Is my usual hair style not going to do?”

"It will be fine. However we will want to take a few of those tangles out." He smiles. "...It is also my experience that if you wish to make a good first impression, a gift would help. Considering her interests, I have something that will help."

“If you say so,” she sighs, now sitting down. “I’ll just wear something more... casual and nice.”

He nods. "I believe that would be best, yes." He strokes his chin lightly as he reaches into his coat and pulls out a little tome and hands it to her.

Cecily only eyes up the book and holds it. “A tome?” She asks. “That... should work really well. Thanks.”

"To be specifc, it has information about very difficult to find and unusual ingredients. With notations from... er... my teacher." He explains. "She should find it rather useful."

Cecily places it back onto the table and stretches. “I guess I should go ahead and change, so that I know what I’m going to wear,” she sighs. “You just enjoy your tea while you wait.”

"Danke." He says as he sits back and pulls out a book... said book being a...  comic trade of sorts? Some sort of retelling of a superheroes' adventures, the Mighty Brutalibre to be precise.

It takes time for her to change, and before long, Cecily comes back out wearing a white tanktop and an open jacket over it. Also on her was a skirt and black boots, complimented with stockings. She’s holding her sword next to her waist and using the other hand to scratch her cheek. “Will this do?”

"You look nice, yes this is acceptable." Aldrid smiles genuinely. "However, I have a thought." He gestures to her blade. "I do not recommend carrying that in a relaxed setting."

"...fair point, eh heh," Cecily laughs, placing her sword against the wall.

"...Relaxed?" He asks, looking her body language over.

"Still... a bit anxious about the whole scenario," she admitted. "Is that normal?"

"I would be worried if you weren't feeling it." He kinda helps her with her posture.

“Well, that’s kind of comforting... in a weird sort of way,” walking over to where she left the tome.

"Is this your first then?"

"If that wasn't evident already, then yes," Cecily answered. "The most I know is from what my parents use to retell me in stories at some occasions."

"And how old are you?" Aldrid asks, crossing his arms.

"19, why?"

"Ah, you carry yourself as someone far older in most other respects. I had thought you such."

"That's suppose to be a compliment, right?"

"It was not meant to offend, just an observation." He states.

BZZ BZZ- Oh, a group message just came through. At some point, I suppose one of the DISC unit set up a group message window so they could send relevant messages to each other. For convenience's sake, or something. Anyway, the message is from Navi. It reads, "Taking Survey: is the best way to calm someone down punching them in the face"

Cecily only sweatdrops as she looks over the text and simply begins typing. 'No... should I ask why?'

'A friend of mine is freakin' out, something about a date and not wanting to be rude and bother the girl, tryin' to get her to calm her tits.'

"..." Oh lord help her. She had a feeling on who Navi was referring to. 'Is that so? Did she say who it was?'

'Hot Library Swordslady'

Oh yeah, they never traded names. God the situation is more awkward than expected. 'She'll be fine, the lady probably doesn't know any more what to do than her.' Well, that's certainly not a lie.

'How do I calm her down to tell her that, you haven't answered the first question, she's considering camping at the location if she doesn't get a time to meet'

'...I can explain.' Cecily anxiously texted back. It's clear that Navi knows.

'I'm not sure you can.'

'It was a case of situation and it just happened, I will explain this in detail later if you really want, just tell Willow that I'll be ready and heading over to the cafe shortly.' Cecily had to resist the urge to cover her face with a free hand.

'Will do. And Cecily, if you do anything to hurt her? Nothing in the city will make you able to hide from me.'

'Yes ma'am' gulped the swordswoman. No pressure or anything.

Aldrid glances to Cecily and blinks. "...You look as though you've contracted rotgut within the last twenty minutes, is something wrong?"

“Apparently, Navi knows Willow,” Cecily sweatdrops. “And... has established a type of ‘mutual understanding’.”

"I see." Aldrid looks on, rather surprised.

“That being said, she might kill me if I mess this up,” the swordswoman facepalms.

"I had suspected a close relationship between the two, however I did not account for the possibility that she was... that protective?"

“Well, it’s a good thing you showed up to help me,” she sighed. Can’t tell if that’s sarcasm or honesty. The mood in her voice is a bit mixed.

Aldrid just sorta walks up, places both hands on her shoulders and looks her in the eye. "You will be fine... if you have no intention of hurting her feelings I have no doubt you will be fine."

"...You have a point," Cecily says, darting her visible eye to the side. "I'm just overthinking this now, aren't I?"

"There is that possibility." Aldrid states. "...Now whether you succeed or fail, you'll still come away knowing more about yourself and a potential partner. Yes?"

“I, uh, wouldn’t know about potential partner just yet,” she awkwardly replied. “But... I guess it doesn’t hurt to be optimistic, eh heh.”

"Heh, just...keep an open mind."

“Sure thing,” Cecily says, taking a step back. “So... do I look ready?”

"...As ready as you can be." He nods.

“Heh, that’s better than nothing,” she smiles. “Thanks Aldrid.”

"Not a problem." He pats her on the shoulder. "If you need anything else do not hesitate."

“Sure thing.” Cecily walks back over to the table, grabbing the tome Aldrid gave to her. “I hope this isn’t a charged service like how you help us on missions,” she joked.

He chuckles. "Twenty percent on the meal." He responds equally joking.

Cecily laughs in response. “...That is a joke right?”

Aldrid chuckles.

Cecily only squints her eye at Aldrid.

He sighs. "In all seriousness, I make more than enough on my pay. I have no need to open business in the realm of date advice."

“Certainly would be odd for a Monster Hunter to be selling that kind of service,” Cecily mused. “How would you even advertise that?”

"...There are individuals who have a taste for dating monsters. The sentient sort, of course."

“I’d find it strange if not,” Cecily sweatdrops. “Anyways, If you think I’m ready, I should probably get going.”

Aldrid nods. "...Here-" He passes her an address. "If you need me, this is where I'm staying."

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Cecily takes the info. “Wish me luck.”

[[END OF JOURNAL SESSION...?]]

[cutegirlmayra]

Im not used to asking these,but i admire your work!

(x Archie comics)

So, I’m pretty sure only in Underground and Archie Sonic was ever a prince..? It’s not actually modern canon that he is one. But I can pull a few strings here and there and do my best to combined Underground with Modern :) Making it more a ‘past’ than anything else, and awww~ This is your first prompt request for me? ;w; so excited then!!! I hope you enjoy it :) as always~

Prompt:

Sonic was his usual self for a while, until a fancy letter arrived that took those fond times of laughter away from him…

He was sitting with everyone outside of Tails’s workshop on a hillside, close to Angel Island when a mailman handed him the letter with a neat-looking seal attached to it.

Sonic’s smile immediately faded, taking the letter and suddenly looking it over in his chair…

His feet were up, one over the other, and warming by the campfire as the others laughed over stories they were telling, before Tails noticed the shift.

Amy took notice of Tails’s silence and also looked curiously worried over to Sonic. Knuckles caught on with a few blinks, turning to the main attention of everyone else’s interests…

In their little friendship circle, Tails took notice of the man leaving…

His head cocked upwards to look over the fire’s glow… and squinted passed the flames.

“He doesn’t look like the normal mail-delivery guy.” it sounded like a joke, but he was… just observing in all seriousness.

Amy frowned too, narrowing her eyes in suspicion a bit too. “And I’m pretty sure no mail comes at this hour…” she looked with concern over to Sonic, her expression softening in her care. “Is it urgent?”

Sonic continued to stare at the letter, having leaned back far down in the chair already, he seemed frozen in his own thoughts…

The lights flickered as he shifted his eyes over the first few details of the letter’s heading and address… before sitting up and leaning on the edge of his little lawn chair, and rubbed the back of his neck.

“…Heh, must be serious.” Knuckles put his hands together and also leaned forward, waiting for Sonic to clue them in. “Care to enlighten the rest of us?”

“…” Sonic was still a moment, before smiling up to Knuckles, “Isn’t it illegal to read someone else’s mail?” he joked, but it was clearly an avoidance mechanism.

“And Knuckles?”

He perked his head up, along with an eyebrow… just slightly raising to answer his call.

“You’re far passed due enlightenment.”

“Hey!”

“The rest of us have evolved since then.” Sonic teased, before leaning back and starting to open the letter.

The laughing stopped and so did his hands…

He looked around and gave everyone a teasing scold. “Can’t a man have his privacy?”

They smiled.

But didn’t look away…

He got nervous suddenly, shifting his eyes to all of them and then getting up to sit in the chair normally again.

“Hey, what is this?” he held his arms out, questioning them. “Can’t you all take five minutes to talk with each other instead of relying on me to get the party going?”

Their smiles grew, a few heads tilting as if they were innocent to his claims, but also clearly knowing they weren’t being so.

“We want to know.” Tails piped up, also putting his hands together and leaning on the edge of his seat. “I don’t recall you ever having a pen pal.”

“And it better not be a girl..! Ehem.” Amy spoke rather quickly and loudly on that one… but silently restrained herself from accusing him further.

Sonic gave her a look,… “It’s not a pen pal. And it’s not one person…” he then looked at the letter in the light.

He took it out and quickly skimmed it.

His eyes grew soft and gentle… as if nostalgia of fond memories returning.

The crew were silently waiting…

Sonic then looked around, and tossed the letter into the fire, leaning back with his hands looping behind his head and legs kicking up over the other.

“Ah, well! Wrong address.”

“Sonic!!” the three jumped up but were too late.

The fire took the letter, but Amy could make out one word…

“High…” she squinted her eyes, tilting her head as the paper burned to yellow, red, and black; curling up on it’s ends. “…Ness..?”

“Highness?” Tails gave her a funny look.

Sonic broke from his chilled stature and suddenly clung to the chair, his feet flying everywhere before landing to the chair in his shock, eyes wide open.

Knuckles looked over and smirked suddenly, “Ohh… I bet it’s some code word, huh!”

Sonic weakly smiled but that ended quickly, looking at the ground.

“Must of miss read it, Amy.” He sat back and folded his arms, looking away.

Amy pouted, puffing up a cheek. “I know what I saw!”

“I saw ‘ess’. So I believe her.” Tails stood firm on that too, before looking back to Sonic with a matching offended expression. “And with how you freaked out,… I’d say she was right on, too!” he pointed, accusing him of lying to them.

“What are you not telling us, Sonic?”

Sonic was surrounded.

turning his ‘trying to not freak out’ eyes back to his friends, he noticed that Amy, Tails, and Knuckles had all gotten up and walked over to him.

Tails held the chair and Amy put her hands to her hips as Knuckles glared and took Sonic’s chest, lifting it up and back down.

“Come on! Ol’buddy…” Knuckles smirked. “Fess up! Who you writin’ too..?”

“Er… It’s not who I’m writing too… it’s whose writing to me.” Sonic admitted, sweat dropping at how serious they all were for wanting to know. But they were also just playing… and he knew that.

Knuckles let him go, blinking. “Wait… the highness… is who you’re writing? W-wh-wha-woah!” he stumbled back as Amy knocked him away, tears in her eyes as her fists came up to her face.

“WHAT!? Oh, Sonic, it can’t be true! Tell me you’re not cheating on me with some… some.. Princess!!! WAH-HA-HA-HA!!!” She started to cry, raising her hands to her eyes as Sonic sweat dropped again, his eyelids coming down at Amy’s dramatic explosion.

“W-well.. you wouldn’t be half wrong…” he mumbled, before getting up.

“Look, look. Everyone calm down.” he swished his hands out, trying to calm the guys down.

“It’s not my girlfriend…” he sternly gave Amy a look, and she started to sniff and calm down. “It’s also not JUST their title…” he looked to Knuckles.. and then to Tails. 

“It’s mine.”

He lowered his hands, and took a deep breath.

“That was my brother and sister… My sister’s getting married.”

The group’s jaws all dropped at the same time.

“S-sister?” Tails stated.

“Brother?” Knuckles replied.

“MARRIED?!?!?~

“This can’t change anything.” Sonic shook his head, moving his hands out again to his friends, looming a bit over them.

“I don’t want anyone thinking they can’t just be real with me.”

“So… you’re a… prince?” Tails leaned his head forward, looking up and blinking disbelievingly up at Sonic.

“Woah.” Knuckles took a step back for a minute. “…I need another smore.” he wobbled back to his chair, sitting down and shaking his head. “Whoo.. that explains that pompous attitude of yours.”

He shook his head, as if it all made since, as Sonic glared at him with a poutful frown.

He didn’t seem to appreciate that deduction.

Tails laughed, but then gripped his head, “Woah, I think I’m light-headed. You mean to tell me… my best friend… is royalty?!”

“A royal pain! Hey, that actually makes MORE sense now!” Knuckles billowed another insulting laugh, as Sonic folded his arms and gave him a killer look.

“Explains why he’s such a stinker too…”

“Amy!” Sonic unfolded his arms and threw them up, done with them judging him. “This is exactly why I didn’t want to tell you-!”

Amy jumped up on the chair and hugged him, “Aw! My prince! I knew it was meant to be! Emmm~ My own little fairy-tale.”

He looked like an over-sized doll in that girl’s hands… and he didn’t look too happy about being in her arms either…

Tails chuckled nervously, pointing weakly to the two, “Haha…ha… I love how no one is questioning this.” Tails gestured around him, as if this was ridiculous. “Don’t tell me.” he put his two fingers to his forehead’s temples and closed his eyes.

“…Runaway?” he peeked back up at Sonic. “Are we gonna go with cliches with this fable?”

“LEGEND.” Sonic teased, and got Amy off of him.

He pulled her arms down, and gave her a look like, ‘Okay, stop.’ and then turned to Tails, hopping down as Amy followed him, not disturbed by his discreet asking for less ‘hugs’ from her still.

“I’ve been asked to bring some company along…” he gestured a weak hand out.

“Tails?”

“Oh-ho. Me? Sitting through a boring, royal wedding? That’s got to be the funniest thing I’ve ever-”

Sonic nonchalantly walked by him. “My sister’s ladies-in-waiting have mentioned wanting to be some intelligent men for a change…”

“-On second consideration, is food involved?” as if not hearing, but clearly analyzing what Sonic was saying, he turned to his best friend.

“Oh… three or so meals? Maybe four for the… ‘party’ occasion?” He turned with a smirk. “But my sister said there’d be a buffet.”

“…And will this buffet be symbolic of our previous discussion?”

Sonic and Tails both tilted their heads in.

“Tails, I promise you both.”

“And they like shorter men?”

“What are you two talking about?” Amy didn’t hear what Sonic mumbled as he passed by Tails, so the two turned and wrapped an arm around each other’s shoulders, laughing quietly to themselves.

“And Amy… I’m sure you won’t object to… meeting royalty?” he beamed sarcastically to her.

“Oh, you know I have to meet your family, Sonic.” she placed her hands back on her hips, “After all, I’m sure she’ll LOVE me! Ah-! Will she love me? Oh no! If I don’t get your sister or brother’s approval I may never be able to marry you!” she turned to an aside as the two looked at each other with comical expressions.

“Cause I’m sure they control his life.” Tails rolled his eyes, and then the two looked back at Knuckles.

“There’s still room for one more… buddy ol’pal of mine..?” he was clearly teasing him again, but Knuckles looked back up, and then away to poke the fire.

“I don’t think I’d be able to fit in with such a crowd…”

Tails lowered his eyes and smirked, “Buffet, Knuckles. And I mean the literal kind, cause the figurative were offered to me, you savvy?”

He broke arms with Sonic and hit Knuckles lightly in the shoulder and laughed, gripping his stomach.

“I’m only playing.” he admitted, “I’ll go to support you, Sonic. And nothing more.” he winked to him.

Sonic smiled and nodded, but then leaned in to whisper, “You better be. Cause you know the code, Tails. Bros before-”

“Flowered prose. I get it.” he smiled back.

Amy was still freaking out, and Sonic rolled his eyes, kicking a leg out to go over to her.

“I better calm the ‘raging seas’ before it floods the ‘good news’.”

“Ah! I knew it!” Knuckles leaped up, pointing accusingly at Sonic.

“You are speaking in codes!”

Sonic and Tails rolled their eyes.

(Haha, this was fun xD)

[kierongillen]

Writer Notes: the Wicked + the Divine 455

Spoilers, obv.

The specials have been quite the time, having several ways to stress everyone the hell out. The amount of work that goes into a special is far more than any single script can justify in cold commercial terms. It's lucky that I'm only choosing periods that I'm interested in researching to death.

I suspect (or at least hope) that in terms of background reading, 455 is the most. 1831 was hard, but is a relatively tight period I looked at in depth. 455 basically involved researching the whole of the Western Roman Empire. This means the work was a much broader sweep. In the same way I suspected the 1831 story would be about Frankenstein, I knew this would probably be about what happened at one of the sacks of Rome. Not definitely – I've always got room to change tack if something more profitable turns up in the research – but likely.

As I started work, I realised the main advantage of the sack near the end of the Western Roman Empire is that it means you can do a swan song for the whole thing. Everything has already happened, so you can use it all. Thus we've got something which feels a little like a Roman Greatest Hits story.

Simultaneously, there's the awareness that while I think a lot of this is relatively well known, even the most basic facts aren't. Early readers made me aware that even basic ideas like Julius Caesar being dead for 500 years by this period can't be assumed – a level of historical literacy equivalent of not blinking if Joan of Arc turned up in a WW2 story. That's just audiences, and the vague sense of “Rome stuff” fills about 1000 years of people's imagination. As such, that our story is acounter-history required the introduction of what the real history actually was.

As I knew this was coming along way off, the research was a slow boil. I knew Rome, in various periods, relatively well. From the Punic Wars to Augustus is stuff I've read about many times – Carthage is something I've always wanted to do a story about. What I was looking for is a long sweep across the whole thing, to live with it a while, and let me think along the way. The actual device I used was The History Of Rome podcast by Mike Duncan, which goes from legendary prehistory to about 20 years after 455. It's about 60 hours of stuff, by my rough match, which I worked into my listening routine – which is mainly when working out, running, travelling or doing the dishes. I listen to my podcasts at 1.5x.

That was for most of 2016. After that, it was digging down into specific texts, the majority which happened in December/January. Trying to play with various theories about the decline of the Roman Empire was paramount. Everyone has one, and be suspicious of anyone who gives you one reason. The book which generally was most influential in terms of how I chose to present Rome was The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History by Peter Heather, which basically forwards the idea that Rome fell due to trade across their borders creating increased population density of Barbarian tribes which (as opposed to earlier periods) the Romans were unwilling to integrate into the fabric of the Empire.

I went with my own counter-theory, of course, which was that an Old Lady Did It.

(The Old Lady Did It is a Roman Trope of long standing. I'm a proud owner of a Livia Did It T-shirt.)

Anyway – too much research, and I'll try and drop some things I'd wanted to use but didn't as we go through it. Suffice to say, there's nothing comforting about reading about Rome in the current political climate.

Anyway – Andre! I'd first encountered his work in Avengers AI, written by my friend Sam Humphries. That weird, neon-infused Cyberpunk vibe was a big part of the book's appeal for me, so I started following him. I believe we started talking properly around the time of his own Man Plus, which was is a Otomo-does-Akira-In-Portugal kick, and was another thing which made me file Andre in my “Sci-fi artist file.”

However, after we got talking, he showed me some of his other in-development pitches, which included historical and fantasy work. Which made me go “Hmm.” He's got a mass of gifts, but I had one image that I knew I needed for 455 – the Roman Triumph, with a God in the chariot. That demanded a certain sort of artist, namely one who was happy to actually draw a triumph in all its ludicrous glory. Andre, someone whose work had more than its fair share of city-scapes and crowds, seemed like someone who'd nail that – plus the confluence of European and Manga influences in the work would gel interestingly. We'd get Rome as a place, and that's what we needed.

He was working on Generation Gone with Ales Kot, but they talked, and Andre took as month off the preparation for that to do the special. Thanks, guys.

Colours are provided by Matt “Eisner For Matt” Wilson, and seeing how the two of them worked together was definitely one of the more intriguing parts of the process.

Andre's Cover

Done early, before the script was actually completed, which meant we were more conservative with the choice. The Laurel reef being lowered by elderly hands, the arrogance of it. A call back to the head-shots of the first year of WicDiv too. Also, compare and contrast Matt's colouring choices here with his ones in the issue. This is a much more subdued, chalkier mode. Or that's wot I think anyway.

Jamie's Cover| We were originally talking about statues of multiple gods, but as the script was still in process we didn't want to tie down any of the cast bar Lucifer. Equally, we leaned symbolic on the cover – the flames of Rome, the statue, the grafitti's Chi-Ro in paint (or blood)? Symbolic is good. We like Symbolic.

The Chi-Ro is an old Christian symbol. It's what they say Constantine had his soldiers paint on his shields to ensure victory. My fave thing of Constantine from the research was that while he was more responsible than any for the Christianization of the Empire, he didn't convert until just before his death. I enjoy the theory that it's because the idea that baptizing may have been a one-time “clear all your sins” opportunity. The idea of confession and absolution wasn't around as much. So if you convert and then commit a mortal sin, you're off to hell. But if you commit a mortal sin and then convert, you're fine. So Constantine may have just been gaming Christianity to ensure the best chance of a good afterlife.

IFC

Oh god. Looking at the last paragraph makes me think this could be eternally long if I just keep on stopping and telling you fun anecdotes from memory. Also, factually dubious, as they're from memory, and my memory cannot be trusted.

Jamie designed the icons, and had to work out what vibe to give it. I suspect he was grateful to me for having most the cast already being dead so saving him work.

The Inverted Chi-Ro isn't a real symbol anyone used, but our best way to make a Lucifer. The biggest historical cheat in the series is using any Lucifer figure like this in the period – as far as I'm aware, the idea of a singular satanic adversary in this mode simply wasn't around. But it dovetails with our mythology.

I get asked whether any special will happen earlier in the cycle. The tendency to lean towards the ends is basically the same urge which pushed towards a Roman Special at the fall. Ends let you write about the whole thing. It's only at the end where you can say with any hope of being correct what was really happening, and even then it's only a hope.

But the 1920s special is a little earlier than the end, if only because we've seen the actual end in issue 1.

(More on the 1920s special soon – there's been a few changes in my planning on that.)

The text on the page is the standard WicDiv one, but the final two lines, briefly explaining the history of the Vandal sack in 455 were added at lettering to provide the necessary context to a reader.

Page 1-2

Steady angle shot, three panels on each page. The issue has been compare to Uber by several readers, primarily for the volume of the violence and the detail of the historical focus. It's also a little like it in its storytelling like this – this lingering attempt to make a scene very normal. We don't see the battle against the Vandals – instead, we observe from a distance. We try and make it documentary, with us an observer.

The animal being gutted is a goat.

An example of an earlier tweak, the shepherd's first line was “Wh...who in god's name are you meant to be?” This could read as that our Lucifer actually is Julius. Changing it to “Dressed up as?” brings the artifice closer to the surface. While the nature of lucifer/Julius is explained in a few pages time, it's not meant to be a mystery. Creating a false uninteresting question is just a distraction for the reader.

I kind of laugh at the idea of Lucifer wandering around near Rome, trying to find an army.

Ave Atque Vale! Is a quote from Catallus, related to death. Originally was Ave in my first draft, which of course means “Hello!” so makes no sense to say when he's heading away to the shepherd. If you were generous, you could say he was greeting the Vandals.

The first pages which Matt coloured were these, and when I saw them, I knew it was going to be something special.

Yes, panicked sheep in the second panel of page 2 is a star.

Page 3-4

WicDiv is about many things, but “The fucking obvious” certainly rates highly. Triumphs are one of the big core Roman rituals we think of, when a general is given a personal parade. They're rare and hugely important. The slave whispering “remember you are only a man” to warn against hubris is the detail which everyone loves. Clearly, in WicDiv, the resonances are all kinds of fun.

In terms of how comics panels are not one moment in time, have a nose at the last panel. You read the line, then the Oh!, and then the response of the slave seeing something, and then you look at the miracle, the smug, painted face, of Lucifer, and his Heh.  That's a little journey.

The red face paint is ceremonial, to be akin to Jupiter. Bear that in mind for later, obv.

The big triumph is the first issue money shot – after 3 pages of very low atmosphere, we have the sprawl of Rome. Choosing the direction of the march was key – I gave Andre the best guess route of the triumph, and he chose his angle. By luck, he would enter via the gate here Lucifer is dragged out at the end of the issue. The triumph also ends at the temple of Jupiter, which is yet more fun subtext for those who really like digging into it.

We tweaked the colouring on the crowds, to try and get more of the cosmopolitan nature of Rome. The majority of legionnaires are white, but that's because most were Germanic in this period.

The triumph was originally planned for a spread, but I decided I needed another page later in the comic.

Page 5

Title drop, and a bleak laugh. The idea of calling a story IMPERIAL PHASE which isn't in the actual Imperial Phase trade came from thinking of Julian Cope having his single World Shut Your Mouth not on the album World Shut Your Mouth, an idea he in turn got from some sixties band I haven't time to look up.

The date was tricky to decide exactly, due to the timeline of real world events I wanted to get in. Clearly, for full trash-Roman pulp, I'd have pushed this story March, so I could Ides of March it, but alas, no dice.

Page 6

Nice atmosphere in the first panel, in terms of going from the chaos of the Triumph to something a little more contemplative.

Enter Dionysus/Bacchus. Flashback colours and... one of the thoughts of Matt was that the SFX budget for God Stuff would be lower back here. So the god powers aren't quite as SFX-y as they are in the present day. Not that there's much here, but I'm reminded by how low-key this is. The intent here is that he's done his god thing on stage and come off... but he could just be an actor, which is about as close as WicDiv gets to a 1:1 thing.

The nature of art in Rome (or “Rome”) is key here, and talked throughout. Actors were the underclass. To act was to be disreputable. The “actress as sexworker” trope arrives in Rome, I believe. I reference Lou Reed in the panel descriptions, in terms of these being a Walk On The Wild Side Romans.

Falerian is a type of fine wine. Mithras is presumably one of the other gods – Scythia being a place.

The nature of Imperial Phase has been about women involved with women, which has nagged. Having the humanising part of the story be a love story between men felt timely. It was a place we could do it, so we should. Though more on that later, in terms of the specifics.

There was the obvious worry of doing it, of course – where Lucifer ends up. Lucifer is not good representation. I haven't seen anyone pick up on that angle. We spend a lot of time worrying about stuff no-one picks up on, which is why we spend all that time worrying about it.

The word “play” is, of course, loaded, as are the name changes. Story about identity, we are in it.

Page 7

The best thing about the specials is definitely getting a chance to write Ananke again. She is a fun time.

If I had more space, I'd have almost certainly done more with Lucifer's adventures during the day. It's worth stressing that by this point, I believe Gladiatorial fights were no longer actually happening in Rome, due to Christianisation. My research has went straight on from Western Rome and barged into Byzantine Rome, and the story of the chariot races there is a delight.

Page 7-8

These scenes are very much me getting my I, Claudius on. Very limited set, two actors going off at one another. Of course, all of this will resonate with anyone who's been following the main series.

Panels 3 and 4 on page 7 are the bit of tight acting I like most from Andre here – it's all about the actions, and the space, with us positioned a little back from it.

I smile at Lucifer referencing something that was said of 2014-Lucifer in the first arc. Ananke has been doing this for a very long time.

A quick buzz through various other gods' fates in the first panel on page 8. There's a lot of historical reference packed in there to unpack for those who wish.

The Inanna/Attila The Hun panel is, I think, the largest panel description in the issue. Well... not true. The Rome Triumph one is much longer, but that's a splash. This one included a potted history of a bunch of Hun-related information for Andre to play with, in terms of deciding the looks, etc.

It was also the most discussed panel at the stage of pencils – avoiding objectifying Inanna here was key.

Attila The Hun died on (one of his) wedding night in the real life.

The “As I understand” is pretty key in the captions, as is other distancing effects. Lucifer would not have been a god when Inanna did this. It is very early in this pantheon's time.

I think this may be a place to have a word about Pantheon times through history. 455 doesn't seem to fit in one of these 90 years, if you follow that strictly.

The short version is, as seen in the first scene of WicDiv which ends the 1920s pantheon at Dec 31st 2013 and we start our story about 6 months into the new Pantheon on January 1st 2014, the question of where the 90 years is measured for has to be (to some degree) flexible. Gods appear over a period of a year or so in our 2014, and die at their own rates. You can assume that the “true” length of a pantheon can wiggle a little – some would be less than a year, some could theoretically stretch across 4 calendar years. As such, it's hard to predict exactly on which year any given recurrence could occur – even from the data we have from 1831, 1923 and 2014, we know that.

I suspect before the end I may give hard dates for every Pantheon. I suspect, anyway. I know where it would appear.

Page 9-11

You know, I suspect Page 9 – for an action scene – is one of the most story-beat laden of the issue, in terms. Lots of great Andre stuff here – the casual-ness of both the burning and the brutal-ness of the kick. Matt goes to town on the colours too, the reds taking over. Obviously the fire is a key thing with Lucifer, and his flame grows and ebbs as we progress.

There's some difficult hard cuts here – page 10 to 11, for example. We just have the “Ananke leaving” beat there, then moving to Dio and Lucifer in bed.

There is a tendency when discussing the ancients to be a bit blasé in terms of writing about their sexual habits. This normally is based around us mapping our readings of sexuality onto the past, while erasing their own social mores. I've ran with some of the information on page 11 before, when doing THREE, specifically the politics of different sexual roles. Relevantly, the status elements Lucifer alludes to here – in terms of being a bottom is always dishonourable. I could ramble at this at length, but I'll spare you.

Lots and lots of stuff here, in terms of trying to set up thematic elements here, but let's just say none of it would matter at all if Matt and Andre hadn't nailed the last panel.

Page 12-13

Lots of historical bits and bobs here. Perhaps the implicit question we don't answer is “what happened to the last Emperor?” He was cut to pieces a few days before this and thrown in the river, because he'd pissed off the Vandals enough to have them invade.

You may notice how thin the senate is populated. That's because the majority of the population of Rome have fucked off to hide. Rome's population is artificially lower during this point in history, which is a thing which tries to lend a little credulity to the Ananke/Geiseric cover-up.

The main tweaks here was making sure the exact nature of Lucifer's slip was tricky. Someone getting mixed up in the time-line requires making sure the reader understands the timeline. I half wonder why I went with Crassus rather than Pompey.

Anyway, let's hope that Lucifer manages to keep on the straight and narrow.

Page 13-14

Well, that escalated quickly.

When planning the issue, you start doing maps of time and space, and I rapidly realised with 25 pages, and so many other essential scenes, there was no possible way to show a slow descent.

The story's structure immediately suggested itself.

While the Triumph was the image we needed to enter the world, this is the one that will be remembered. People reference my Crossed work here – which is true, to some degree, in that it was also about turning flesh into art. I suspect I was more thinking of Banks, and a certain beat involving a certain object of furniture. I say, dancing around spoilers.

The influence here which gets kind of buried is Domitian, who threw the most goth parties of all time. Have a nose at this here, in terms of Things Emperors Got Up To.

Page 15-16

We've already namechecked Caligula and here comes Nero, the other of the most famous Roman Bad Emperors. The elements about Nero here were the closest thing the research unveiled which made me want to reposition the story to a different period – Nero interacting with the gods would have been fascinating, for all the reasons described here.

We had a reader question the direction of Imperial Phase, in that the insanity-leading-to-murder trope that appeared to be coming and the inherent ableism in that. It was a usefully timed question, as it made me dig more sharply into the exact choices we were making in explaining the idea. This isn't about going mad. This is – as Dionysus puts it – about excess. I'm thinking of Bowie living off cocaine and peppers. We lean into it pretty heavily in this issue, and hopefully it delineates the aim.

Just looking at my script, and found the anecdote about the time I threw up a handful of blood slipped in there. I'd forgotten that this page was autobiographical. Comics, eh?

Look at what Matt's doing with the colours here – the whole panel is bloodshot as we progress.

Page 17-20

In terms of buried research in the comic, that a hole was knocked in the roof of the Temple of Jupiter during this sack of Rome is the one which makes me laugh. Behold! Let team WicDiv present the true story of how the temple of Jupiter got a dirty great hole in it.

(I also like that this makes the sack of Rome much more efficient for the Vandals.)

This is an actor making a soliloquy scene, perhaps obviously, recalling both the stage and the Passion. While this issue is heavily in the research, it's also doing ahistorical work. Shakespeare's fingerprints is all over this, to state another obvious thing.

The “Emerge like an Eagle” thing is very much Roman Pagan belief.

I mentioned Nero, Caligulia and Julius. The other Roman Emperor who is in the mix with Lucifer was Julian the Apostate who was the last Pagan Roman emperor, and tried to revive Pagan Rome before dying early. A “What if Julian had lived?” is a counter-factual history which is always a fun one to swill around your mouth. He's the one we don't reference, but much of Lucifer's thought comes from mashing Julian with someone of lower birth and more melodramatic tendencies.

This is the sequence which I cut the page from the Triumph earlier to expand. Clearly this could happen quicker, but we need to let the death sequence come out, in all its horror. Also, the collapse on the page turn seems essential.

I'm almost surprise Et Tu Jupiter reached the final page. We were always wondering whether it was too funny. In the end, it was decided it was, but in juxtaposition with the art, sufficiently bleakly to not break the mood. Especially before the collapse on the next page, which is very much human stripped by the divine.

Clearly this plot beat, is the biggest one for close followers of the book. I suspect at this point of the story, there would be strong suspicions that the “you die in two years” isn't true. Unless this sequence is deeply deceptive, it is true. You die in two years, by yourself. We place the specials pretty carefully, in terms of what they reveal, so this being half way through Imperial Phase underlines what could await our cast.

In terms of craft, going silent for a page after the monologuing seemed key. I mean, Ananke's fundamental disrespect in terms of how she's carrying Lucifer says everything.

Page 21-25

Out the gate towards the Tiber. The names listed are famous Romans whose bodies were thrown in the Tiber so that they could have no honourable end – and in the case of Marius, that there was no place for his followers to gather. The man who did that was Sulla, btw. Marius was dead, he dug them up.

The “Pagan burial, but a shit one” is very much Ananke at peak “I will tell you the truth, but you really have to pay attention to the details” mode.

And here's Geiseric! Looking good. The Vandals have been in Carthage for 20 years, but we decided to have him be kind of pallid so as not to confuse people. Stories like THREE were all about the pure-historical aspect and risked (and often did) lose people by doing things in line with the best research rather than common belief. WicDiv has a slightly different set of priorities, especially on secondary aspects like tanned Vandals.

Heh. Story starts with butchery of a goat, and ends with butchery of Lucifer. WicDiv is a very subtle comic.

Sulla's an interesting dude, and I think the use by Ananke here seems pretty fair. The future she's pointing towards never happens – the marriage is there. Germanic hands ended up ruling what came after the Empire, but that's not really what is going. Of course, Geiseric is also entirely right in recognising he's being manipulated.

They're a fun pair, actually, in terms of the fencing. I kind of realise this is the sort of conversation which is going to be key in Spangly New Thing, which makes me excited about writing it again.

I smile at the Vandal line. People have wondered why I didn't do the earlier sack, so I could have had the goths. Well, it didn't really work for the story, which is about the end of an era. But also it would have been perhaps too much. I did have a joke take, where Ananke is debating which Germanic tribe to manipulate into invading Rome. “The Goths again? No. No More Goths.”

But 455 isn't that kind of book.

The final image! Lovely, in its bleak and awful way.

Page 26

City of God being Augustine's book, written primarily in response to the crisis of faith in the Empire over the 410 sack of Rome by the aforementioned Goths.

Anyway – thanks for reading, and thanks for Andre for joining us on this beast. We're back (eek) tomorrow, with Imperial Phase II. Onwards, etc.

[kierongillen]

Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 26

Spoilers, obv.

This felt like a big issue to us. I mean, in a literal sense it was a big issue. We normally are 20 pages of art (plus cheats). This is 23 pages of art, due to me completely fucking up and writing a 22 page script extremely early, thinking I'd go back to it and work out a way to compress it to 20. Except I forgot I had extra work to do on the script, so didn't leave enough time to rework it before Jamie had to get it. And then Jamie insisted on expanding a sequence by a page, because he loves you guys, or at least loves the comic.

I don't really think I could have compressed it without hurting the comic either. I compress the action at the start, and it leaves a reader cheated. I talked about false drama of cliffhangers last time, and if you don't have at least some manner of satisfying that promise, it's a cheat, and not in an interesting way people would thank us for. However, at the same time, that's not what we're really doing here. Equally, losing stuff from the back of the issue would move it into the next issue... and that is also sub-optimum, for reasons you'll see next time.

Put it like this: Jamie joked “can we split this issue in two?” and I took it entirely seriously, and started doing the math on making this a seven issue arc.

But no.

There's also one change which should be mentioned – we've gone up to $3.99 from $3.50. Why? Image suggested we should. There are very few Image books that are $3.50 now. The vast majority are $3.99. We've had our price set at $3.50 ever since 2006, with the exception of Immaterial Girl. We figured we should listen to our publisher. 50 cents across a decade seems reasonable, especially in an industry where $3.99 seems standard.

Anyway, let's do this thing...

Jamie/Matt's Cover The Norns, and they are kind of core to this issue, so more of a connection between cover and contents than for most of the issue. For reasons that become clear this issue, The Norns and Baal step forward as alternative protagonists for the story structure. They are key.

There was considerable EEEK! Over the wearing of masks.

Nicola Scott's Cover

Nicola's wonderful. I've wanted a candid photo cover for most of WicDiv, and I'm surprised it's only turned up now. It's also delineating Sakhmet and Persephone, which is a key note towards the end of the issue.

The Image 25th Anniversary Cover

It should be stressed, this was Eric Stephenson's idea.

You may wonder how we did it.

This is how we did it.

In short: we did it like an episode of Playschool. The lighting being a lamp, gaffataped to a wall is a particular highpoint.

And then Katie-west worked her magic.

All the good jokes on the covers are Jamie's, which is very annoying, but makes me feel better when I laugh at it, as at least I’m not laughing at my own crap.

Page 1

I love the first panel. I almost put it in the newsletter, but decided we should save that thrill for context. It's very much in the establishing shot mode, and a promise. Jamie and Matt executing things like Minervas concussive wind blasts out of the swirling body is lovely detail too.

I did have something akin to a NOT AGAIN! As a line of dialogue from Minerva here, but was obviously killed for breaking tone. See later in the notes for other thoughts on that whole sequence.

And by the end of the page, we've changed direction entirely. No, this isn't going to be a straight fight. We have other narrative fish to fry.

Page 2-3

RISING ACTION was basically four issues of straight punchy, with a middle act of woe. We're not the sort to do that again, and immediately try and make this feel different. That first panel where we get a very human observation of a superhero event. A glance out the window, and shit is going down out there. There is a lot to try and ground this as we go on, even as it escalates...

I suspect Amaterasu's realisation is one of the cruellest lines I've written for her.

Heh. Okay – want to hear another example of me messing up? I knew I needed Amaterasu here, ASAP. But I had also set the scene at night, so her long-range-teleportation doesn't work. This led to a rewrite to bring in the Woden-designed-arm-piece from Rising Action. And it helps in other ways – we get the interaction with her mum, which says a lot about Amaterasu. I do like the idea of Amaterasu having left this piece of fancy armour lying around on her bedroom floor and her mum tidied it up.

Jamie pushed a panel from page 3 onto page 2, which is obviously a smarter call, letting him keep a steady angle on the three teleportation panels, which nails the effect. The breaking up dialogue to show that things are instantaneous is obviously one of our tropes.

The lettering on this sequence involved some messing around with layers to get work, and to make the fade in operate. Nice work, Clayton. This is also an area where my suspicion of sound-effects was entirely over-ruled.

Page 4

And hulllllo Baal's family.

This strikes me as a very WicDiv take on a reveal. It could have worked with just a reveal of his family – we'd want to see that. But to reveal that, and juxtapose it to the creeping monsters, so mixing the excitement of meeting new people with the fear of losing them? That's WicDiv, innit? Sigh.

This was also the page which went through the most colouring notes. Getting the exact level of reveal on the Great Darkness creatures, of how much they're in the light or not took quite a few takes. We're very happy.

Page 5

We are totally not rated PG.

Page 6-7

If you follow me on twitter, you'd see me doing a crowdsurfed suggestion for a line of dialogue for someone to say when they're pulling someone out of the way. That was this page, and Persephone pulling the tentacles. I decided that any dialogue was too much. It even makes it jokey (clearly not the intent) or slows down the action. Even a “NO!” felt too much for me.

We're heading more towards action here, and doing a beautifully rendered fight-scene in someone's garden. This feels a very us thing to do.

I believe I described the Amaterasu laser beam shot in the mode of a Quietly moment, that sense of a still moment in time. Jamie and Quitely don't have a huge amount of overlap as artists for me – Quitely is all about the 3D space of a shot, which Jamie simply isn't – but this captures something really furious. The colouring from Matt on the heat vision is particularly A+.

The push and pull of Amaterasu is very much her thing. Her bravery is an open question, as is her capacity for anger and violence. From Persey-Poo to incinerating her foes in a couple of pages doesn't exactly make me feel comfortable about her. So nice work, J ane M.

Also Good Job Baal's Brother on spotting the baddies.

Page 8

Jamie and my debate on exactly how to (er) Biggify the Darkness creature was quite a thing. Of course, the creatures are granular. We can't just make the grains bigger.

We were a little worried that Persephone firing red thorns being a little confusing, when red is Amaterasu's signature. We may end up tweaking them green in the trade. Not that we've seen anyone complain about it.

I think Amaterasu's living-Darkseid-stary-beam is my favourite regular power signature in this book.

Lots of careful unpacking on what is said on the phone, to ensure clear storytelling. That we never actually show the Great Darkness Creature back at the shard defeated is an unsusual choice... but we need to make sure that people know it HAS been defeated and Minerva rescued. Equally, we come back to the nature of cliffhangers we mentioned earlier. We've promised a fight against the Great Darkness, but are much more interested in introducing Baal's family, showing Amaterasu's complicity in this, Persephone's powers, etc. So you DO get a great darkness fight, just not the one you were expecting, which is hopefully okay as the one you were expecting is a lot less interesting than this. Hopefully.

The Phone is a Woden design, as referenced later in the issue. Baal can't just go down any phone. You'll see one on his living room table in last issue.

Page 9

This is the sort of page I'd have ended up cutting if I tried to reduce the issue... and why would I want to do a thing like this?

There was a discussion of whether ALL I DO IS WIN was too much. It eventually worked around to obviously it's too much, but WicDiv is too much, so that's all fine.

This is a lovely set of colouring from Matt here. The white and purple is just a delight.

Notice tiny Scarab-esque thing shooting off in the top right panel. In a moving medium the Great Darkness' nature would be a lot cleaner, but we do stuff like this.

Page 10

And we're back to grounded colours. Just turn this page and see how things change. Isn't that a delight? Matt Wilson For Eisner, etc.

Yes, Baal's name is Valentine Campbell. Obviously we chewed it over a bunch. Valentine has so many connotations seemed to be useful.

I find myself thinking that in the first half of the issue Persephone is almost back to volume 2 Laura. She's primarily an observer, one who is taken places and sees thing. That does tend to make Amaterasu's final line particularly pointed.

Lovely pair of expressions in that final panel.

Page 11

The title for this was originally ONCE MORE, leading directly into Baal's first line, and hitting the beat again. That changed when I realised I wanted to do the whole sequence as a nine panel grid.

This is the first time all the surviving gods have been in a scene together, and it's a circular table. Luckily, when I mapped the gods to the seats, the ones who are most important to interact are actually sitting beside each other – imagine how difficult it would have been if Baal and the Norns weren't seated by each other.

(We'd have done something else, clearly, and had the Norns standing like Persephone is.)

So I was trying to work out how to panel all this political-meeting style chat, and hit the bit where the gods vote. And I realised that as there were nine gods voting, it'd work really well as a nine-panel grid. That rapidly expanded to... wait, especially with Baal/Norns sitting by each other (so minimising the need for wide shots) I could do the whole thing in a nine panel grid. That allows you to cut between individual characters speaking, and not have to worry about the interactions for most of it.

That unlocked the way to best dramatically sell the Persepone's final line. If we build a structure, we can get an aesthetic effect by demolishing it.

It's not the first time we've done a Nine Panel Grid in our work, but its' certainly the longest. And if we're doing Nine Panel, it brings it back to Watchmen, which means that we should highlight that. Hence, the title altering to THE WATCH, which obviously has all kinds of connotations.

I go through this to primarily show how much fun this job can be. Stuff builds on top of other stuff, and you eventually end up with something much more full than the original idea. For me, pretty much nothing is as good as writing is when it's going right.

Which is the sort of thing I'll get depressed about if I think too much about it, so let's not for now, eh?

Page 12

If we're going to do the nine panel thing, we need to establish the scene properly. Two panels, built on a nine-panel grid superstructure.

Obviously this was a heavy described panel, as we had to cram in all the character beats for all the people. Baph's slouch is particularly on point. The coffee that Dio is hanging onto for dear life another. The Norns not getting a seat.

One thing I particularly like about this page? It forefronts the visual element of the table with twelve gods around which people may not have noted. This, on a page after a big title saying THE WATCH is more obviously a clock face.

Yes, Watchmen was a big influence on me as a writer. Did I mention it? I may have mentioned it.

Page 13

Oh man – look at Matt's use of shadow here. Baal in the darkness on last page was great, but passing from the shadow to light in the first panel.

When I first saw Jamie had put Minerva in plaid I worried for him. “Er... Jamie. Drawing Plaid is a lot of work.” He noted that as there was only a few panels with her in, it'll be fine. Jamie is not entirely foolish.

The page does show one of the things about the nine panel – as in, you get more beats... but you have to be pretty particular to choose those beats. 9 panel is good for a writer, for certain things (most important: timing), but you can do less with any one panel. On the plus side your beats are more deliberate, more delineated.

In this case, showing Persephone's is relatively “expensive” in page space, but clearly necessary – Baal is saying the stuff he's never said before. We need to see her response.

And yeah... Baal finally lays out his main motivation. I suspect for close readers or re-readers, things make a lot more sense.

The seventh panel is one of four two shots I can see in this whole sequence, to get an idea of how sparsely we tried to use them. Maybe 5 if you include the one with Woden asking “Does she get a vote.” Though I say this having only skimmed quickly, and am sure I must have missed one..

The non sequitur panel of the 8th is one of my fave things you can do with a rigid panel like this. Drop a silent panel and break it up.

Page 14-15-16

Honestly, this kind of shit is stuff I love. Just lock characters in a room and let them argue. Political dramas. Legal dramas. It's just a fascinating writing challenge – who speaks next and why. How to delineate the information, how to lampshade information is questionable, etc, etc.

I mean, in some ways this sort of debate is pure exposition – here are some statements – but the fact that each is immediately interrogated turns it into something else.

Basically, if left to my own devices, I'd have just done a 40 issue series in the style of 12 ANGRY MEN called 12 ANGRY GODS.

In terms of my outline, I knew that the pantheon would have a schism at this point. Until Brexit happened, I didn't realise that it would be by something as clear and true as a simple democratic vote.

The hand on Cass' shoulders is the sort of thing I'd have only done in a nine panel grid.

Yes, Baphomet, there was a time for jokes, and it was in the first arc.

PAGE 17

This issue, for reasons which we'll get to shortly, had some consultants' eyes on. That bit was fine. The thing which was tweaked then, and tweaked time and time over is trying to delineate the sides. The first draft simply hadn't sufficiently. Hell, the second or third lettering tweaks didn't do the trick completely. At least from the comments we've seen, no-one seems lost, so the effort seems worth it.

The problem is that each member of the debate wants to phrase their position in the best way possible and their enemies in the worst way, which actually leaves it hard to say what's actually go on. This led to Baal in the final panel actually bringing it together – the PRIORTISE THE GREAT DARKNESS vs STUDY is the key thing. ANARCHY had to be introduced explicitly by cass to describe someone else's position as a label before it could be used here too.

In terms of minor fact drops? One of the things people always ask is what's going on with the skulls. Here we just let people know they're ornaments.

In terms of the nine panel grid, I think the single hardest decision was letting go of showing the Norn's response to Sakhmet's threat. Alas, everything else is more important.

The second one would be Baal doing something like counting people around the room, to ensure that the reader knows that Baal thinks he's won. In the end, we highlight that later, and with the ellipsis  in the eighth panel. And, of course, as always a Jamie McKelvie expression goes a long way.

Er... I'm writing too much about this stuff, but I hope it's useful for people who think about comic craft. And to double-triple stress, as always in these notes, I really am just telling the surface level storytelling basics.

Page 18

And the vote page. As said earlier, was where the 9 panel grid came as possible.

These lines were especially tweaked to sell the positions and why.

And Dionysus, for the first time in the scene, speaks. Obviously a key issue for Dio, where we move him into an explicit new position in the plot.

Page 19

Man, I don't even want to unpack this page.

But I can easily imagine how both Baal and Cass are feeling in the last panel. Uh... wait...

Page 20

Formalism doing its formalism thing.

This was written in a nine panel grid, but with descriptions of which panels are covered by Persephone's hair.

Page 21

And then we go into our quick cuts to move to the new status quo, the nine panel.

It's very much our aesthetic that we show the break-up but don't show the getting-together.

I suspect it's the sort of scene I'd like to talk about further down the line, but not now.

The gold prize for Jamie here are panels 3 and 4. For me, that's comic, and that's why I love comics.

Well, one of the reasons, anyway.

Page 22-23

Cass continues to be a gift for those who like reaction images.

The strangest rewrite of the issue for me was the “What's the saying about stopped clocks?” line, which was originally a lot more suggestive and less explicit. But 2 of the first 4 people to read it didn't get it in its more suggestive form, which meant that I was always going to dial back for clarity's sake.

So, yes, this is a Cass/Dio/Woden team-up for the Study side. Splitting your cast into smaller narrative units is a good tactic in a team book (I sort of learned it properly when I was writing my 9-core-person Uncanny X-men team). You also see it all over the place – if you listen to Community notes, you'll see how they split their cast into different arrangements and see how the characters interact. Having three characters who, on the surface, appear to have very different priorties come together under a larger banner is an interesting one.

In terms of the explicitly delineating at least part of the sexualities, this has been considered for a while. Let's start with Cassandra.

Early on in WicDiv, I saw a random comment of someone annoyed with something I'd said. Specifically me saying something akin to “I sometimes need room to discover a character's sexuality.” Her response – and one I completely get – was annoyance with suggesting people don't know their own sexualities. The “No, I know I'm Bi – don't say it's a phase. Don't say it's something I'm discovering.”

As I said, I get it, but that's not what I meant. I meant characters. Writing often feels like excavation. Not always, but sometimes, and especially in a book like WicDiv. You get to know them by writing them, sometimes in actually fundamental ways, ways which were always there but now come to the surface. For all my planning in WicDiv, it's also a living creature.

So when starting off, I always had a few feelings about Cassandra. There was the possibility that she was actually asexual. It would fit with her for a few ways, and the evidence for a reading of that was certainly there. However, I rapidly realised it caused huge problems inside the narrative in terms of what it was saying about asexuality. One of Cassandra's primary traits is that she doesn't experience the performances. If she's asexual, that implies that it's linked to that – especially when the performances have been linked so strongly to sex at various places in the narrative. I thought that'd be true even if we had another asexual character in the primary cast to show the contrary. I continued writing her and thinking, and having an awareness of the various potentials I saw in her. I didn't have to make a choice yet.

The flashpoint was issue 20, where I realised that it just was untenable for her to be asexual. Because if performances are linked in the readers' mind to sex, that eventually Cassandra does response to a performance is a sign that asexuals just haven't met the right person yet.

No. I'm not writing a book that suggests that.

There is also the real world thing that trans women are viewed through a hypersexual lens or an asexual one, which is certainly one feeds into the final dialogue on the page.

So everything re-arranged and solidified in the other way I saw them – a stable lesbian polyamarous triad. I saw with Imperial Phase ahead, that felt more and more necessary. WicDiv is... not a book where relationships are healthy. Every single romantic relationship in the book is openly dysfunctional. Relevantly, there is a lot of people doing polyamory very badly. It comes to a point where it looks like the book saying this behaviour is bad rather than this specific practise is bad. The Norns would be the counter-argument. In this issue, we show them in an private, loving supportive relationship that's arguably more unconventional than any other in the book.

We don't get to see any of the sex, of course, as it's none of our business and they're not there for the readers' pleasure. But with them in our story, it shows there's nothing implicitly wrong with kink, or polyamory or anything else... as long as you don't act like sentient burning trashcans.

That was the thinking. Some of it, anyway.

Oh – on the note of discovery, I only realised that she'd lean submissive as I wrote the page. It was a surprise to me as well, but seemed to align with everything else and make a lot of things make more sense.

In Dio's case, it was there as a possibility even as I first wrote him into the bible. I see myself writing around it in my notes, saying that I just didn't feel like sex was a big drive for him in the way it was for so much of the cast. The problem eventually came for the place to introduce it, and how, and in the same action where we move Dio towards the centre stage (or at least primary supporting characters) seemed to be it.

We've had a lot of supportive messages about both of these, so thank you. And thanks again to our consultants, who we will continue to high five at the slightest encouragement.

Page 24-25

This was originally written as a page, but Jamie insisted on MOTORBIKE DRAMA!

And how could we resist that?

I actually wrote a first draft of this, and wondered if it was too much, and then did a completely different end scene based on Persephone leaving the Shard. Arguing it over with Chrissy, we came down strongly on this. It's WicDiv. We crash motorbikes into walls for the sake of it.

Worth noting: this is a return to a non-cliffhanger ending structure. The “read the next issue” comes from the whole of the issue rather than a specific beat. This is about leaving it with a mood.

Favourite thing in colour – the circle of light on the wall, a half second before impact.

I'll give you one for free: Persephone is on the phone to one of her people, probably an agent. I could have put an explicit call in that to the dialogue, but it was too crass and fake, and the specific identity doesn't really matter that much. It's just someone who's clearly going to get her a new bike.

Also: the main reason why I wondered whether this scene wasn't too much, is because it is literally the lyrics to Icona Pop's I LOVE IT.

Page 26

“Hey, C, is referencing Kesha too much on the interstitial? It sort of is a trashy pop take on Watchmen's encroaching apocalypse feel.”

“No, that sounds like exactly the sort of thing you do.”

“Cool.”

See you next month, where we reach the penultimate part of IMPERIAL PHASE (I). It's just being put to bed, and we like it a lot.

Thanks for reading.