#so I'm back to fighting with the parallax...

[dru-plays-starbound]

The Shipyard

Here in the microgravity of Volaris, the first moon of Propus Tide II, the enterprising shipbuilders of Indagoda have set up shop. They're still a small company, with less than 100 employees, but they hope to be able to take on the big guys like Letheia by making quality, bespoke ships.

Built for the February monthly prompt, "Shipyard".

Mods used: Immersive Props, General Store, Foodie's Furniture, WW Furnishing, Letheia Expanded, Prop Pack, More Outpost Objects, nuggubs' Mega Mod, The Black Armory, More Teleportz, Safer Moons, Elithian Races, Admin commands for the ship greebles.

[academia-dearden]

Two ways I'm picturing Mia kicking Batman's ass (it's therapeutic for me but also I need to be way too intense about it).

#1: Batman gets a debuff

Okay fine. Maybe just because she's my blorbo and very talented and very skilled and has learnt with some of the best teachers in the world doesn't mean that Green Arrow's sidekick who is still relatively a rookie in the superhero world in comparison to many other heroes and who has been shown losing fights to Oliver Queen Jason Todd and, far more importantly, Tim Drake, might not be able to immediately beat Batman in a fair fight. Okay. (<- extremely grumpy about it.) So we make it not fair.

We're gonna have Green Arrow prepare the terrain for her. Now in my heart of heart I believe Ollie could make Bruce eat shit, but for the sake of this story let's say uh Bruce has turned evil (or Ollie has realized how evil canon bruce currently is but that's another question) and is in shock of watching his complicated ally/maybe friend turn completely dark, and maybe is reminiscing of Hal's Parallax era and what went down so he's in shock and hesitating, meanwhile Bruce doesn't give a fuck, which is how he ultimately takes Ollie down. This coincidentally gives Mia a reason to beat Bruce to hell and back.

Now before Ollie went down, he managed to deal quite a bit of damage to Bruce: a couple of broken ribs, a snapped ankle and a poisonous dart that should have made Bruce pass out. Unfortunately Bruce has some resistance to most poisons, making the toxin unusually slow-acting and slowing his movements+ disorienting him instead of knocking him out.

First thing that's going to happen is Bruce is going to underestimate Mia and stand in plain sight instead of attempting to hide in the shadows. He is going to throw a batarang at her and force her to choose a shoulder wound to avoid getting slashed in the neck, thus disabling her archery- however due to his disorientation and underestimating her gymnastic skills, the arc of his throw is gonna be slow enough that she will be able to backflip over it. While she's in the air she's gonna throw a modified arrow with boomerang arrow dynamics and a concussive arrowhead, banking on Bruce continuing to underestimate her if he thinks she missed her shot. It works as he takes advantage of her moment of faint confusion to go and punch her, only to be hit in the back of the helmet with a concussive arrow, throwing him over and giving Mia time to retreat away from his reach.

Now Mia knows he's taking her seriously now, and she takes advantage of Batman being slowed by the concussion disorientation+ toxin to hit him in the chest with an acid arrow that should dissolve his chestplate and be very painful. Again, Batman ignores the pain, but his chest (with broken ribs) is very vulnerable. While he's getting up again, he throws a smoke grenade so she can't aim anymore, which would be a good strategy if Mia didn't know how to shoot a target while blindfolded.

He is going to dodge a bunch of arrows targeted as his chest, forcing him on the defensive as he's too slowed to do that while going after Mia, and she's going to leap over him and land behind him and manually jam him with an electro arrow in his unprotected chest. As he falls to his knee, he tries to fight and grasp back, but she's gonna step on his twisted ankle.

After that, she's going to put his head between the arch of her bow and the wire diagonally (so half behind the cowl and half uncovered, the wire pressing from where his right eyebrow would be down to the lower left side of his jaw) and pull all at once while pressing against his back with her shoe, which should break his nose and several other bones in his face as well as give him a concussion. Then, she's gonna take advantage of his stunned state to flip him lying down on the ground and sit on his chest (again, with several broken ribs and an electric burn) with a knee on each side of him and punch him in the face again and again until she's beaten him unconscious.

#2: Mia ascends to her true form

Not only an absolute natural with the bow, but also an incredible fast learner, Mia is a character with incredible potential. Give me a couple of Mia runs (a Speedy/Ravager mini, a two to three issues short support group Speedy & Red Hood arc, a titan arc where she gets her revenge on Tim Drake, a long/developed crash-out arc starting in a GA comic and ending with a brief stints with my version of the Outlaws, a healing arc spanning between the same GA comics and the titans, and a 70-ish issues Speedy solo including a training arc with an unmatched martial artist (maybe somehow Shiva? Idk yet) culminating in a rematch spar between Ollie and Mia (mirroring the one in GA 2001 #38) where Ollie's inner monologue marvels over how far she's come ending up with her beating him and ending with Mia considering leaving behind the Speedy mantle to take on her own persona. Like, give me that, first of all because I want it, I want to write Mia so bad omfg please, but second of all, this version of Mia (we'll say she's about 23-24) is absolutely kicking Batman's ass no doubt about it.

As far as reasons come, it's Bruce, so uh, let's just assume he's done something. Or maybe he's even the one who's coming at her this time, mistakenly thinking she's responsible for a murder or something. In any case, he's gonna attack her.

I don't think he'd underestimate her in that context, or at least not as much. He's gonna use smoke grenades to try and blind her right off the bat (🦇). He's also gonna make sure to attack in close quarters because the arrows might be great at close-range shooting for archers, but he's not gonna give her any advantage. He's also gonna throw in a couple of batarangs targeted at her shoulders and arms.

Mia is going to leap into a complicated bunch of twists that allow her to evade the batarangs and land on a ceiling beam. Unfortunately for him, as we've established, the smoke isn't gonna work to blind Mia, and she's going to rapid fire three armour-piercing arrows at him. He's wearing heat-vision lenses in his cowl that allow him to see through her the cowl and dodges the arrows by listening to the woosh sound they are making as they fly towards him. (I'm trying to picture this Batman as competent as possible because he isn't debuffed and he gets glazed so much in comics, I need Mia to get a honourable win, though this is very hard for me to do, so be nice. At least echolocation is bat-themed).

He's going to throw a net at Mia to try and catch her on the ceiling. She's going to slash through the net with a knife or katana (from the The Away Game arc + got better at it later on?) and, realising that he can still somehow see her through the smoke, throw a flash grenade arrow straight at his eyes, which doubles as a blinding + concussive attack since this is a subtype of explosive arrow. She's then gonna drop from the ceiling straight into drop kicking him in the head. Ensues a bout of close combat where she keeps him at a distance with her blade, attempting to target the weak points in his armour. In pure martial arts skills they're about evenly matched, though Batman has the advantage in size and frame, and she knows she needs to gain some distance to shoot at him again. He notices a pattern of her overextending her right arm when punching and leaps into the opening to taze her, but that weak point was a strategic feint, and she blocks the attack with her katana, electrifying the blade. He attempts to say something and she immediately shoves the katana in his mouth, electrifying him and giving her the opening she needed to take more distance.

She leaps up onto a beam and before he can leap after her, shoots an acetylene arrow at his shoulder-he dodges, but his cape catches fire (Batman's cape is supposed to be uninflammable (or however y'all say that) and can resist high temperature but well, acetylene burns. So there's combustible and the flames are hotter than even Batman's cape can withstand). She's gonna add to that by using the ever-reliable acid arrow to chip away at his defenses while shooting at him with armour piercing arrows- managing to get him in the shoulder, knee and side while he dodges or catches the rest until she runs out of armour-piercing munitions.

Finally, she's gonna take advantage of his burnt/falling apart defenses to simultaneously capture and wound him with a razor-wire arrow, and while he harms himself further attempting to get out, she's gonna dropkick him again, knocking him out as blood pools underneath him.

[crazy-dark-rainbow]

GrimmIchi - cats, rain, Ichigo's warm body

Cats. I can't think of Grimmjow and not think of cats at the same time. I always love his cat attitude in fanfic. I imagine Grimmjow likes cats. (I'm sure of it and not even Mugetsu can convince me otherwise.)

Maybe Ichigo and Grimmjow were walking somewhere, maybe after a fight, maybe after a Hollow hunt? Maybe they were walking from somewhere. And they heard a quiet meow in an alleyway? Grimmjow has great hearing, he heard the meow and found a small, frozen kitten. Maybe the kitten is tiny and lonely. Grimmjow thinks he has no heart, but when he sees this kitten he feels a tug in his belly hole and feels sympathy? Maybe the kitten feels that Grimmjow is a cat and immediately runs up to him and grabs his hand and demands to be petted. Maybe Ichigo is barely holding back a nosebleed at the sweet sight? The rain is getting heavier but they both can't leave him here. Grimmjow can't leave him here. He takes the small kitten in his hand and hands it to Ichigo. "Your human body is warmer." Ichigo blushes like a strawberry but takes the kitten and hides it behind his jacket. Grimmjow holds a parallax over them and they go to Ichigo's house. Close together, with a quietly purring kitten.

Or… Grimmjow doesn't have a mask, so maybe it's an AU where there's no Shinigami and Hollow, and they're humans. Maybe Grimm is a "boy with problems", he has a tattoo by his eyes and a lot of others on his body. Maybe he fights on a rung, maybe he's a musician. Maybe he knows Ichigo, an English student, and they sometimes spend time together, even though people say they're from completely different backgrounds. Maybe Grimmjow likes cats and when they find a kitten he doesn't want his "image" to suffer and gives the cat to Ichigo. Ichigo thinks Grimmjow is cute with a blush. Or maybe it's something else…

Or in other words… After a terrible day, Grimm returns home. There is a terrible downpour, water flowing in rivers along the street. Suddenly, in the rain, he hears an angry voice. By the river, a small kitten meows mournfully as a young boy with fiery red hair takes it down from the tree. Gimmjow mutters quietly "crazy", but just then the wind blows and tugs at the red hair and he sees the freckled face of the Cat Rescuer. And he fell in love. He comes closer and gives Ichigo an umbrella and head. Grimmjow later walks him home and that's how their story begins. Theirs and the Panther.

Or maybe another way: Grimmjow as an Arrancar doesn't know the human world. He lived in it, but he doesn't know it, he doesn't remember. Sometimes it frustrates him terribly. But he remembers the cat. In his fragmentary memories, you can see a gray cat. Maybe that's why the only bearable and noteworthy thing in the human world are cats. And Ichigo, but cats are better because they don't talk as much as Berry.

Grimmjow may not want everyone to know he likes cats. Maybe he trusts Ichigo not to tell anyone, Berry isn't like that. It's easier to open up to him.

❗️ FANART Autor: ➡️batemeuma (link do deviantart)

[superman86to99]

Zero Hour: Crisis in Time #1 (September 1994)

In this issue: Superman gets punched! The real villain is revealed! And, oh yeah, EVERYONE DIES.

We open with Supergirl, Steel, Alternate Timeline Batgirl, and a distraught Guy Gardner coming out of a big hole in reality in what used to be Coast City. Guy is muttering something about how he "just saw the woman I loved die" (which, if you're following @greenlantern94to04, you also just saw in the latest post about Guy Gardner: Warrior #24). More of these "entropy fissures" pop up all around and one of them gobbles up Steel, despite Guy's efforts. It's been a humbling day for the once obnoxiously arrogant Guyster.

While Guy curses Extant for causing all this, Extant is like "The hell is causing all this?" Turns out he's not the one opening all those fissures. That's when the mysterious glowing green figure from the end of last issue shows up and demonstrates that Extant isn't the top dog here (although you could still use a word for "canine" to describe him in this page). The Actual Big Bad chastises Extant for "forgetting who's in charge here" and acting like he's the villain of this comic just because he's all over the covers, ads, preview blurbs, and, you know, the comic itself. Until now, anyway.

The mystery villain's next stop is the 30th century, or at least the tiny Pocket (Earth) of it that still survives. The Time Trapper has stashed a few Legion of Super-Heroes members (including his own past selves, Cosmic Boy and Cosmic... Man?) in there to prevent them from being eaten by entropy, but they end up fading into nothingness anyway. Then, TTT is easily taken down by the mystery character again -- yep, it was him who did that at the start of ZH #4 (the first issue), not Extant. In fact, TTT even does the exact same pose while being blasted just to make it clear that it's by the same guy.

(And also because Dan Jurgens drew six books this month and deserved a little break here.)

Back in the 20th century, everyone born in the past or future starts disappearing as their eras of origin are deleted from history. That means Impulse (30th century), Booster Gold (25th), and the old folks at the Justice Society (early 20th). Before being wiped out, however, Jay "First And Apparently Only Surviving Flash" Garrick manages to convince his old friend The Spectre that they've finally reached the part of the crossover where he decides to get involved. (I only said decides, though; he'll actually do it next issue.)

As time gets erased, Metron takes Superman and a few others outside of it: meaning, to Vanishing Point. The heroes need someone who can easily ride the waves of time, so it's too bad that Waverider died last issue. Luckily, they still have his alternate human version Matthew Ryder, so they just turn him all Waverider-y using convenient comic book science. (It's kinda funny that no one asks for Matthew's opinion on this; he's just like "Oooh, I don't know about thi-- whelp, guess I'm Waverider now!")

In the present, the rapidly declining number of surviving heroes (Batman, RIP... ped apart by a time hole) fight Extant with the help of Waverider 2... and NO help from Wonder Woman, since she's busy delivering Power Girl's baby. At one point, Extant tries to de-age The Atom into primordial goop, but Waverider 2 stops that process when Atom is merely at 18 years old (ironic, considering The Other Atom died from being aged into bones back in ZH #3 (the second issue)).

Just when the heroes are about to defeat Extant, someone punches Superman himself into the ground. Everyone looks in shock as we learn that it's none other than...

Freakin' Psi-- I mean, Hal Jordan! Wait, isn't Hal a good guy? Nice, he can help bring down the mystery villain! The day is saved!

Wait, no. Hal is the mystery villain. He's taken the name Parallax and decided that the universe needs to be restarted from zero to correct injustices like the destruction of Coast City. Oliver Queen / Green Arrow can't believe that his old friend Hal is the one who just wiped away 99.999999...% of all of humanity across history, but Hal says that yep, it's him alright -- and proves it by wiping out the rest now. Everything fades to white.

As he fades away too, Hal says: "Who knows? Maybe one universe... one world -- won't be enough." But right now, there's no universe and no worlds. Just nothing. THE END. OF EVERYTHING.

Except this post, because there's more from Don Sparrow!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

Probably the best cover of the series as some of DC’s most recognizable heroes disintegrate into the widening wave of nothingness.  Having so little of the image inked in pure blacks was very rare for the time and gives the cover a distinguishing look on the shelves.

Inside the issue, the art keeps up the excellent standard of quality with a stunning shot of Supergirl soaring into action.

Guy Gardner is among the characters most consistently drawn in this book, so he feels like a real person.  The shot of him lit from below as he watches Steel disappear is particularly well rendered.

I love Jurgens’ use of long tall panels, and the one of the Greatest Generation Flash huffing his way from New York City is a good one and gives a real sense of his effort.  On the next page, the Spectre hissing through clenched teeth is one of the best images I’ve ever seen of the character (second only, perhaps, to his holy cries in issue #7 of the original Crisis—like this page, inked by the incomparable Jerry Ordway).  I really am trying to restrain myself from commenting on each page, but it’s hard with the art being this good throughout.  Page 18 is almost all highlights, with Batgirl jumping into the fray (in a pose reminiscent, to me at least, of her Million Dollar Debut in Detective Comics #359) and a great shot of Green Arrow taking aim at Extant (though his inner monologue could use an edit).

[Max: DC, please incorporate Don's addition to the next printing.]

The new and improved Waverider’s sudden appearance is a great visual, but nothing compares to a couple pages later where we see who has the power to KO Superman.  Designed by perhaps my favourite Green Lantern artist Darryl Banks, Parallax Hal Jordan’s costume has always been a favourite of mine (in spite of its '90s hallmarks like the giant shoulder armour), and it’s never looked better than here (though for some reason, this Hal has lost his Reed Richards white hair at the temples).  Just so we fully understand he’s a villain, he defies not only all of DC’s heroes, but the late great Jim Croce himself by not only tugging on, but—get this--stepping on Superman’s cape.  Nihilo sanctum estne, Hal Jordan?

I know from the comments we’re getting that there’s still a lot of bad feelings out there for this mini-series.  Maybe knowing the continuity changes that came later to explain this all away made it more palatable but I have to tip my hat to what a huge swing it is revealing the villain this way, especially keeping him under wraps for months as Kyle established himself as the new Green Lantern.  And the art goes an incredibly long way.  Honestly, apart from Bryan Hitch’s work on The Authority 5 years later, it’s hard to think of any non-fully painted comic that had such dynamic realism.     

SPEEDING BULLETS:

The Steel/Supergirl/Batgirl/Gardner team up came immediately from a needlessly cruel set up by Extant, where they were forced to see the active destruction of Coast City as they chased Extant through time as he toyed with them over in Guy Gardner: Warrior #24.  Most tragic of all, Guy temporarily lost his eyebrows in the battle. [Max: NoOoOoOoOoOoO!]

There’s a sense of diminishing returns in big event comics when characters die.  It’s impactful when one or two big names fall in a story, but sometimes as very popular characters die (in this case, Steel, Jay Garrick and no less than BATMAN) as a reader you start to realize—oh, none of this matters, they’re gonna do a reset, there’s no way they’d leave characters this financially important stay dead for long. [Max: At least Jay got a good arc. Batman is kind of an ineffective chump in this series... and as a Superman loyalist, I approve of that narrative choice.]

The whole storyline of Power Girl’s labour is hilariously out of place here.  Purportedly she went to NYC to help, but all she really accomplished was taking one of the big guns (Wonder Woman) out of the arsenal (confirmed by both Impulse and Booster saying there are more important things to worry about).  I’m also a bit confused as to why she has to deliver on the ground. She’s clearly on some kind of shiny, gurney-like thing on page 8, but Wonder Woman’s elevated knee (and Captain Atom looking down on them) seems to show she’s on the floor.  But why? Also, Wonder Woman comes from an island with exactly one childbirth in the last two thousand years or so—why is she pulling rank on Captain Atom for delivering PG’s baby?

Batman seems uncharacteristically broken up about Impulse “dying”, especially since they just met. [Max: I know I just called him a chump, but I think Batman can be forgiven for still being sensitive about teenage sidekicks dying in front of him.]

We get more of that weird pattern in this story, of a character (Geo-Force) boldly declaring they want to do something about the crisis, and then being told, no, “wait until we’re organized” (by Hawkman).  For a quickly developing disaster, we’re losing quite a lot of space with those kinds of exchanges, though I suppose they have them in order to get more characters into speaking parts.

Metron looks so consistent throughout, he must be based off photo reference of an actor.  Who do you guys think?  Jeremy Irons is close.

I kinda love the running theme of Wonder Woman snapping at ineffectual Justice Leaguers, first Captain Atom, then a shell-shocked and barely bandaged Aquaman. [Max: Reading the Spanish version as a kid, I was never clear on whether she was telling him to get a doctor for Power Girl or himself, on account of the whole "just got his hand eaten by piranhas" thing. It's a bit clearer in English.]

In my first (hundred) readings of this issue, I kinda glossed over the foreshadowing between Metron and Atom about how they’ll solve their “Waverider is definitely dead” problem, but it’s not exactly subtle on a closer reading.

They really just had no idea what to do with Atom at this point.  Having tried turning him into a sword and sorcery guy, they now throw “he’s a teenager” at the wall to see if it sticks.  At least this is the last time they’ll make fundamental changes to his mythology in a Crisis book. [Max: I'm very curious about the Teen Titans series that spun out of the Teen Atom thing, though, mainly because Jurgens/Pérez and Jurgens/Rapmund are both such great art combos. I'll read it once we get there!]

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[halkyles]

oh god the orgasm metaphor. personally i dont think they had sex on that plane, i think the plane ride WAS the sex!! anyways that aside [sticks my leggy in] hiiiii my hal knowledge is limited and the only kyle comic ive ever read was the one where his gay friend (not hal) gets hate crimed but even still i kneel before their power. like wtf how are they not the face of DC Pride w how they act about each other?? -lazaruspiss

The plane ride was the sex. Yeah. Hal literally made them get on the plane with no protection and thrusted the plane into the atmosphere and made Kyle scream in joy at the climax of the flight just like how he would scream in orgasm. He nutted. He nutted on the plane. Like it's a metaphorical nut but also he literally nutted on that plane. Kyle is Hal's true successor because danger makes his dick hard and Hal is the one to show him this, continuing with the fatherly metaphor where Hal takes Kyle's hand and guides him through his tangled psyche, just like how when he broke into Kyle's apartment and beat him. Like you can't tell me Kyle didn't come to some personal revelations after that, especially after Hal's fuck-me eyes to the lead up to that fight.

I'm sure I can come up with a sex metaphor for that time Hal dove into Kyle's mind and momentarily merged with his consciousness and gave Kyle the strength to fight back against Parallax's possession. Which is a thing that happened btw, for the people watching. This is canon. Hal dove into Kyle's head and waded through his memories and tumultuous feelings and pulled Kyle out from the depths of his despair and gave him enough strength to keep fighting. And they were both naked. AND they stepped out of Parallax's weird belly mouth thing that had a billion fangs on the desecrated husk of Kyle's body. It was hot.

Or how about the time Kyle became god and rifled through Hal's past and memories to understand who he was?

Or the time Hal gave Kyle his ring and Kyle was Overcome By The Essence Of Hal and he kept saying plane puns.

There's intimacy and then there's whatever the fuck they have going on. What is the point of physical touch when they already know each other beyond how normal people can know each other. They've been in each other's minds. Kyle has literally brought Hal back from the dead. They've grabbed each other's frozen, shattered corpse and said: no. You don't get to rest. You don't get to sit idle while I still suffer this world. My time is not up, and neither is yours, and you WILL come back to this body, back to me.

Like Kyle LITERALLY wore Hal's ring. Hal was dead and Kyle wore his ring and Kyle made it so that no one BUT him could ever wear that ring again. What more do you want?? They literally keep having sex on page without having sex.

[kooki914]

We all know how you feel about chapter 2, so how would you "fix" the issues with the chapter?

This is the kind of ask that would've made me go apeshit in excitement a few years ago. TL;DR, I made an AU specifically addressing all my issues with Chapter 2 (and the future of deltarune as a whole), it's called Kingdomrune and you can find it here.

If you want the in-depth explanation, continue under the cut.

First and foremost, visual overhaul of cyber city. It kills me because the concept art for the city that was released recently looks gorgeous but something is just lost in translation when trying to make the concept art a playable area rather than just a purely visual piece of art that you can take in at your own pace. Limiting the palette and making it a bit more muted is the option I pivoted to for Kingdomrune, but I'm admittedly not very good with colours, so make of the result what you will

(Added bonus - there's a parallax effect in the windows of the buildings that reflect the rest of the city, what would usually be street lights is replaced with wi-fi antennae that visually call back to the cliffs, a lot of the floating ads are, instead, replaced with "bug checkers" and loading icons which are animated but not so fidgety to be distracting, and a lot of the "blocky" looking items (trash cans and balloons) are more just stylized in-universe rather than actually clashing with the rest of the environment.) (Also, I hate "WELCOME TO THE CITY" so just imagine "a cyber's world" being the theme of the city instead)

Additionally, the city shouldn't be 90% of the chapter, it just gets boring after a while. My solution to this is splitting the City into two parts, the iconic Cyber City as the second of the two, with the lead-up to it being a place called Hardware Outskirts. I don't have spritework for it, nor presentable concept art sadly, so just imagine a cross between old soviet brutalist buildings and old yellowed computer hardware, and you've pretty much got the mental visual for it. The music I associate with it is anything by Molchat Doma, but more specifically This Song, which adds a necessary tonal contrast to the City's vibrant feel.

Second of all, SOME KIND of conflict in the wider world outside just the kids' adventure. There's hints scattered throughout the game that Queen is planning something big in the city and that nothing's running on time because of it, but we don't get explicit payoff for that. My way of resolving this, and tying it back to the light world, is that Cyber City is essentially at war with the rest of the library.

The new tech is trying to conquer and replace the books and stories that have been there much longer, and the Bookbound Kingdom (in my version of events, at it's head are the card queens that are missing in chapter 1) is fighting tooth and nail to keep the "Evil" Queen at bay. The Bookbound Kingdom is themed after fairytales and textbooks and stuff, the kinds of things kids would most often check out at the library, and it would provide a very necessary tonal and visual contrast to the Cyber City that actually makes it's GOOD aesthetic and thematic choices pop. Where the Bookbound kingdom is wild and whimsical and outdated, Queen's kingdom is rigid and complex and new.

It also gives Queen a reason to ransack the first area like we (implicitly) see her doing in the game. She's actually, violently trying to take over Bookbound and that's when she found Noelle, and decided to kidnap her. Sweet Cap'n Cakes get a bit of a rewrite as well, originally Queen's scouts and allies until the protagonists befriend them through dancing during their battle, which causes them to turn on Queen because their new friends treat them better than she's treating them at the moment (giving us in-universe characters reacting to Queen's change in character caused by the fountain that, in-game, is just told to us rather than shown).

Thirdly, write out Berdly. Entirely. This is probably a controversial take, but I genuinely think Berdly's arc would benefit from having his OWN chapter dedicated to HIM specifically (one I dubbed chapter 2.5 in my AU), instead of him being at odds with Noelle for screen time. Setting up a context where Berdly's the character very clearly out of his own depth and not thriving with people claiming to be helping him, is a much more compelling way to get (me specifically) invested. Put emphasis on Berdly and Noelle being friends and him overcoming his comphet crush on her, no more weird love triangle shit with him inserting himself into Susie and Noelle's business, and most of all, Ralsei and Kris bonding with him in their own ways. Give Kris a REASON to forgive Berdly for the way he treated them, give the two common ground and let Berdly GROW into someone who WANTS to be nice to Kris, rather than whatever the hell happened at the end of Deltarune's chapter 2.

And lastly, I need to talk about Noelle. Like, a lot.

While she was (and still is) my favourite part of Chapter 2, there's still improvements to be made. For one, going from "freezing up completely at conflict" to "ACTing with kris to spare enemies" after just ONE conversation with Virovirokun that completely breaks the flow of battle is... kind of odd to me. In my rewrite, Noelle's first escape from Queen is with SCC involved, they target Noelle as a lightner they can beat (because they can't beat the heroes) and in doing so essentially open her cage. Queen is furious with them and while Susie tells Noelle to get the hell out of there, Queen is trying to coerce her to stay, and Noelle is frozen in place. She doesn't WANT to stay with Queen, but she's rooted in one spot and can't move. When something loud/startling happens, it FINALLY makes her budge and she's able to run away.

Freeze -> Flight

When Noelle first joins Kris' party in Hardware Outskirts, it's not because Susie and Ralsei ditched Kris out of nowhere with weird traffic cones to block them (??? im still salty about that), rather it's because there's a two-way puzzle (kind of like the December puzzle) that makes Kris' team split up in two, and Susie chooses to go with Ralsei because she trusts Kris'll be fine on their own. For context, in my AU there's also chapter 1.5 where the team more firmly learns how to work together, specifically through Kris learning how to bond with them one at a time, so Kris trying to cling to Ralsei and Susie in chapter 2 is weird from those two's perspective because Kris should know by now that a team of two will be fine, the three of them don't need to stick together like glue all the time. Susie and Ralsei aren't completely out of the picture, for the record, they're still checking in on Kris and Noelle and making sure they're okay, even distracting Queen to give them opportunities to get out of dodge. (again, instead of the weird love triangle stuff, I still don't know why that's there in-game.)

Noelle at first runs from every battle that happens. Kris has to fight every darkner on their own, leaving them at a huge disadvantage, because Noelle is too scared to fight them. As you may have guessed, this makes the snowgrave route not possible the moment Noelle enters your party (I'll get to that). Noelle eventually gets forced into battles with Kris during a car chase minigame, where they compete with Ralsei and Susie to see who can take out more enemies in a semi-enemy rush. The problem is, Noelle still doesn't contribute, and when the teams get separated, Kris ends up encountering WareWarewire, who they can't hope to defeat on their own, and at THIS point Noelle runs away again, which opens up the option for KRIS to flee as well (essentially unlocking a new mechanic). Once they're both safe and enter Cyber City, Noelle starts to feel bad for constantly leaving Kris on their own, and asks them to tell her what to do next battle, because she wants to be stronger.

Freeze -> Flight -> Fight

THIS is where the snowgrave offshoot can happen. Once Noelle is with you during battle willingly, she listens to your every command and that can include freezing/killing enemies if you so choose. You can completely erode the positive aspects of her development and ingrain "fight" as the only valid response to stress to her, which undermines the journey she went on for the sake of making battles more convenient for the player. This entire portion of the game after Noelle joins your party would be specifically curated to not make it feel bloated when seeking out enemies and doing puzzles no matter which route you take.

On a normal route, Noelle's character continues to progress steadily, but the one thing she still refuses to do are spelling puzzles, with a bit of emphasis put on it. Her and Kris bond for the first time in a long time without being interrupted by Berdly or Queen, and in the end, she's able to help you do the December puzzle. Together, Noelle and Kris are able to move past their trauma, at least partly, and become closer friends than they were before.

Before the December puzzle, though, there's a miniboss, and instead of a Berdly, this section would actually feature Rouxls as a miniboss. In my mind, he's using the boat as a way to traverse a minesweeper puzzle and tries to stop Kris and Noelle in order to give them over to Queen. On a normal route beating him always leaves him somewhat injured and fleeing, with Noelle worried about his safety. In a snowgrave route, Rouxls is painfully outmatched and while Noelle isn't particularly invested in his safety as an individual, after being forced to do Snowgrave she's in shock, both because of what she did, but also because Lancer leaves your inventory to check on Rouxls.

Oh yeah Lancer, remember Lancer? He was here the whole time!!! Your actions have consequences.

He's very clearly distraught and doesn't fully understand what happened to Rouxls, and his distress at his "lesser dad" being unwell and dying without him being able to do anything rings a little too close to home for Noelle, who's losing her own dad to illness that she can't really stop. She leaves the scene, feeling responsible and out of place, while Lancer stays by Rouxls and refuses to go back to Kris' pocket. Kris enters the mansion without Queen trapping them and encounters Susie and Ralsei inside, grateful Kris caught up to them but confused at Lancer's absence. The rest of the snowgrave route would play out as expected, Spamton taking over the mansion and Susie trying to help Noelle even if she doesn't really know what's going on. Same with the light world, except Noelle doesn't have an "oh Berdly, you overwork yourself too much" moment, rather she has an imposter syndrome moment with Kris and Susie coming to the library together and, apparently, being there long enough that its late in the day and neither of them bothered to wake her up to hang out with her. She's glad the dream is over, but the waking world isn't much better.

On a normal route, though, Lancer helps get you out of the cages and rooms Queen put everyone in. In my AU, he doesn't turn to stone (lore bending go brrr) and instead lets the team do their own thing and find Noelle and the fountain while he goes and looks for his lesser dad. And then there's the mansion. God the mansion. This is such a nitpick but I hate that in-game it geometry makes no sense, so I literally devised a map in which the progression essentially stays the same but the building kind of actually makes sense.

(Bonus - specifically mapping out how her giant robot body upholds the mansion/where each body part is referenced and is most visible)

Once Noelle is rescued, she briefly joins the rest of the team before deciding to help them in her own way, disabling security that Queen has around the fountain in order to grant them access from the inside (because she's still scared of confronting Queen). There's only one fight against Queen, also, none of the giant mecha stuff. She has her speech about the Knight as the protagonists approach and Noelle is already caught on her hand. Noelle is essentially stuck and forced to watch the whole fight as the gang try and fail to set her free, or beat the shit out of Queen. Either way, when they seem to have the upper hand, Queen pulls out a second giant hand and knocks them all down. Tired and almost defeated, Queen turns to Noelle and releases her from the hand, telling her to make another fountain, just like in the base game, threatening Susie if Noelle doesn't comply. Noelle turns around and stands up to Queen, just like in the base game, and in response Queen rethinks what she did. She tells Noelle to choose the world that makes her happy, and uses the giant hands that kept the kids trapped as a makeshift throne that she sits down on and gets carried out of the scene with.

On their own, the kids slowly recover while Susie and Noelle still muse about how much better the dark world is compared to the light world. When Susie offers they open a fountain on their own terms, Ralsei stops her and explains the roaring. Essentially the same as the base game from here on out, except Noelle comes with Kris and Susie once the fountain is closed, filling in the gap on Kris' right when closing the fountain that Ralsei will (hopefully) one day fill.

The rest of what I'm about to lay out is pure wish fulfillment and is less "fixing" chapter 2 and more just adding things I want to see:

Susie tells Noelle the dark worlds are real after she wakes up on a normal route, and offers to take her to Castletown since that's basically a permanent dark world without any of the immediate danger. Noelle promises to keep it a secret, visits her dad at the hospital, then visits Ralsei with Kris and Susie. While those two eventually leave to explore Hometown, Noelle decides to stay in Castletown with Ralsei for the rest of the day. She has a lot to learn from him when it comes to magic and the dark world, and I just want them to be besties.

There's explicit references to Berdly in Cyber City mostly as an homage to the fact that he was once part of the story line of it. They reinforce that Susie and Kris don't like Berdly (kind of like how some of the Hometown kids talk about not liking Susie, it's framed as kind of childish and closed off), while Noelle kind of defends his intentions as positive at their core. It's entirely setup for ch2.5 where Berdly is slowly redeemed not because Noelle holds his hand through his character development, but rather because Kris and Susie are antagonists that want better for him than his so-called allies of the chapter do.

Ralsei and Noelle also have a brief bonding moment in Cyber City, mostly revolving around Noelle being curious as to who Ralsei even is, and him genuinely not having an answer to that question. It reinforces Ralsei's identity crisis during the chapter as well as shows why Noelle is so well liked by other kids in class (she's perceptive and tries to get everyone involved even if she doesn't know them that well).

All in all I think most of the things that would "fix" the chapter for me could genuinely take a lot of the whimsy out of it for other people. I prefer more sombre and subtle emotional beats, but the original chapter 2 was very clearly not aiming for that, and people enjoy it for its peppiness and hype in a way that I just can't. To me it feels forced and unearned, to other people it feels entirely natural and warranted. There's no one way to appeal to everyone and, outside of the structural problems of the chapter (not idiot-proofing the maps so I got lost and frustrated for a while, no save in front of Berdly's fight for snowgrave reasons and not taking into account that the battle is difficult on a normal playthrough and quick resets would be necessary for people not that great at the game, the general unnecessary fluff around that weird teacup puzzle where Noelle is there in the party as well and it's just a very confusing portion of the chapter that doesn't even lead into anything later on that unironically made me scrap the idea of the teacups for Kingdomrune altogether, etc) that could be fixed with trimming fat or just quality of life small tweaks. There's nothing Fundamentally wrong with chapter 2, it's just not what I wanted out of the game, personally. So, if you don't like my rewrite, more power to you. It's literally meant to appeal to just me and no-one else lmao

[four-birds-in-a-trenchcoat]

Okay so I've been thinking of this post here for a while now:

We all know this post is hilarious, but really how well would the Justice League handle the Cloudburst and the Arkham Knight's tank? Could they survive? Could they take out the tank? So as a little thought excersise I'd go through on a member by member basis and how well they'd handle it. Welcome to my unofficial dissertation.

(If you think I'm wrong or missing something I probably am but let me know, I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this.)

SUPERMAN - MOST LIKELY

It's been consistent in most media that Superman is not affected by fear gas unless it's mixed with Kryptonite, however this is explicitly stated to be the most powerful version of Scarecrow's toxin, so for the sake of argument we'll say it will affect him, just slower than a human. Superman would have three practical options in that case: Use super breath to blow a path through the Cloudburst, hold his breath, or survey from above with X-ray vision to minimize contact with the gas.

WONDER WOMAN - VERY LIKELY

The Arkham Knight's Tank shouldn't be an issue to the Man of Steel; the shots would absolutely knock him back in a head-on approach but as soon as Superman makes it to the body of the tank it's all over.

Being an Amazon warrior and their princess, Diana's rigorous training has given her a strong mental fortitude, strong enough to at least once break through fear gas. (A/N: I haven't read much Wonder Woman and ultimately it's up to the writer but from my understanding this is what I've come to) Personally I think she's the most likely to last as long as Batman did in the cloud. If Wonder Woman can make it to the Batmobile (which seems to filter out the air from the Cloudburst) before the fear gas takes over her mind she'd be able to cross the first hurdle.

Based on the scenario I described, Wonder Woman could absolutely take out the Cloudburst tank using the Batmobile. But what about other methods, just for fun? In a one-on-one fight Wonder Woman could take out the tank, albeit just a bit slower than Superman. She likely wouldn't go for a head-on attack but could break through the shell of the tank with ease. Problem is this hypothetical only applies if you argue WW can handle the fear gas directly, which I do not think they would.

GREEN LANTERN (Hal, John, Guy, or Jessica) - SOLID CHANCE

If you don't think this Batman would trust Diana with the Batmobile, she still has the Invisible Jet but all things considered it wouldn't do much. The Cloudburst is so thick it disrupted even the Batmobile's sensors making any attempts to fire at the tank a literal shot in the dark. What's more is the jet doesn't have the precision anti-tank weaponry that the Batmobile has. According to Wikipedia the Invisible Jet (in Wonder Woman 1984) is based on a combination of the F-111 Aardvark and Panavia Tornado GR1, of the two the highest caliber of precision weapon is a 27mm revolver cannon, which comparably is a joke to the Batmobile's 60mm cannon needed to take out the heavy drones and tanks. Ultimately the jet would not be much help against the tank but it came to my mind so I had to discuss the potential of it.

THE FLASH - UNLIKELY

Green Lantern's weakness is Yellow due to being the color of fear (well actually it's because of a battle against Parallax but he is a physical manifestation of fear so...). Because of that it's unlikely that anything whichever Lantern constructs wouldn't even break through the cloudburst. I wasn't sure if there was ever an instance of a Lantern dealing with fear gas and somehow the ONLY instance I could find is Justice League: Doom where Hal was able to conquer the effects after learning it's an illusion. So if whichever Green Lantern would attempt to fight the Arkham Knight would need to be very experienced.

Assuming Green Lantern can enter the cloudburst without issue, the tank is a goddamn joke. They could create a high powered sniper rifle, their own batmobile, or literally a hand with a Tech Deck to grind the tank and smash it.

The Flash still needs to breathe when he runs so he can't just dash in and punch a hole in the tank. His best solution to clear the path would be to form a tornado around Gotham in order to dissipate the cloud, but that's a serious risk to everyone left in the city, not to mention the collateral damage of scattering the Cloudburst across the sky. So no, I don't think Flash could get past the fear gas.

MARTIAN MANHUNTER - UNLIKELY

If you negate the gas itself it wouldn't be too hard for the Flash to destroy the tank. Dash around it so fast it starts to break apart, run around the Earth a couple of times and punch its weak points, all things considered the tank is the easy part.

As a side effect of watching his entire race dying, J'ohn J'onnz's has a crippling fear of fire. That doesn't even require fear gas to create, just a bit of gas and a match. While we have no real reference on if Scarecrow's fear toxin affects Martians, but it can then this fight is over before it even began.

Like most members with actual powers, the Arkham Knight's tank is simple enough to take down. Being as strong as Superman not to mention invisibility he could walk right up to the tank and destroy it before the Knight even knows what happens.

AQUAMAN - UNLIKELY

This was interesting to think about because I didn't actually know if Aquaman even has to breathe above water, but from a bit of research yes he does in fact breathe oxygen on land. This means the Cloudburst would affect him on land. What's more, the final appearance of Scarecrow in Batman: Arkham Asylum has him threatening to drop the chemical into the water, poisoning Gotham, meaning to some extent fear gas can travel through water. HOWEVER, the version of the gas in Batman: Arkham Knight was already dispersed into the form of a cloud, making it a lot harder to disperse into water. So hypothetically, Aquaman could create a torrent running through Gotham's streets as a shield against the cloudburst, but he could not leave the water.

Aquaman is incredibly strong, but not as strong as Superman or Wonder Woman. Given the hypothetical of needing to stay in a constant stream of water, any direct shot from the cannon would knock him loose and he'll have to face the fear gas. Putting this together, Arthur Curry would have to be fast and precise aiming to the tank's weakest points while moving very fast lest he get shot. While I considered Aquaman just hucking a whale at the tank could probably work, the streets of Gotham are not built for that kind of attack and would cause tens of millions in property damage, not to mention possible unnecessary casualties.

------

This covers the founding members of the Justice League, but for fun I'll point out a few more members worth thinking about.

------

CYBORG - While I don't think it's possible for him to make it through the Cloudburst, I would be remised if I don't acknowledge that he could hack the Batmobile in order to take out the tank.

PLASTIC MAN - I think Plastic Man might be the only member with a natural immunity to anything Scarecrow throws at him due to his entire biology being changed to plastic. That said, he poses no chance against the tank.

RED TORNADO - Since he's a robot, fear gas does nothing to Red Tornado. However the Cloudburst is powerful enough to damage electronics. Whether or not the weather will affect him would be up to the writer, but that fact might not even matter due to just being able to blow it all away.

The tank would absolutely devastate Red Tornado in a one-on-one fight meaning he'd have to move really fast with direct strikes to the weak points in order to defeat it.

DOCTOR FATE - This isn't even a contest he could just teleport the Arkham Knight and his tank to Hell.

------

In doing this thought experiment I have come to realize that the plot of BMAK would be incredibly boring with any other hero because they'd decimate the Knight's militia in ten minutes. Furthermore, Batman is one of the only League members with enough willpower to brute-force fear gas, making him more or less the only one insane enough to take on this threat. So from all of this I think it is safe to say that he is in fact NOT stupid for not calling the Justice League. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[postgamecontent]

The Kung Fu/China Warrior (TG-16 Mini)

Well, let's get started with the games on the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine Mini consoles. I'll be covering the lot, including the games exclusive to each version. I'm going to look at them in the order the games first released globally, which is the Japanese release date in most cases. I think it's fun to do it that way, as we can see how the games evolved on the platform.

That means our first entry is The Kung Fu, also known as China Warrior. This was not a launch title for the console. Bikkuri Man World and Shanghai were the only games available when the PC Engine first hit the Japanese market on October 30th, 1987. Neither of them are available on this mini-console, so the oldest game here is The Kung Fu, which came a few weeks later. However you slice it, this is a very early game for the platform, and it really shows.

The huge sprites are a clear statement about what the PC Engine offered over the then-market leader, the Famicom. Big, colorful, detailed, and technically animated sprites pressed against a vivid background with parallax scrolling was something the Famicom simply could not do. The difference was huge, even at a glance. And in that respect, I suppose The Kung Fu did what it needed to do.

Still, it's important to remember that this is a 1987 game. We're only a few years past Irem's seminal Kung-Fu Master here, and barely a year had passed since Technos Japan broke the beat 'em up mold with Renegade. The late arrival of the PC Engine's North American version combined with the admittedly great graphics for the time create loftier expectations for the gameplay than The Kung Fu was ever going to live up to.

This is a very simple spin on Kung-Fu Master with a fancier presentation. Nothing more, nothing less. You more or less auto-scroll through each level, stopping to punch or kick or jump-kick enemies as needed. Sometimes you kill certain enemies or collect power-ups and get a boost to your life bar. At certain score intervals, you'll get an extra life. At the end of each stage, you'll fight a boss. Repeat for all twelve stages and that's the game. Lose all your lives and it's back to the start.

As you play, a few new enemies and obstacles will be introduced, but the gameplay doesn't change much from start to finish. It's shallow, and I think it lacks the verve of Kung-Fu Master or the soon-to-arrive Vigilante. There isn't much to make it stand out beyond the graphics. This isn't a very good game, and it's one a player would likely get tired of quickly. But again, a 1987 game that was scant days off from a launch title for its platform. Every console has one or two of these. It looked good in magazine ads, and that's perhaps the point. We can only go up from here.

[meara-eldestofthemall]

I seriously don't know what DC was thinking with this whole Gotham War bullshit. I'm willing to accept even the most hair-brained retcon out there if it means it'll even remotely salvage Batman's character. This is Parallax!Hal Jordan and HiC!Wally West all over again.

Agreed! This is t he worst mangling of Bruce's character since the "Bruce Wayne Murder" storyline back in the very early 2000s (2002?). Bruce was accused of killing Vesper Fairchild so he dumped his identity as Bruce Wayne and decided to be Batman 24/7. That crazy decision led to the infamous Bruce/Dick fight in the Batcave.

What we're seeing Szdarsky and Jimenez do with Bruce isn't exactly new but it's being taken to a level not done before. I recently read that what they want to do is give Bruce the ultimate mid-life crisis. Break him down further than he's ever been and then rebuild Bruce back up into a "new" kind of Batman.

I hate the idea.

I understand that every writer wants to be the one to do something that will forever shift Batman's paradigm. That said, there are better ways to do it than the current disaster they're engaged in. Want to do something dark and edgy? DC has a platform for that already. For the love of pity, pick an Elseworlds storyline and get as dark as you'd like but stop fricking up the main continuity! No one likes the abusive jerk they're making Bruce out to be.

[macabrebat]

Green Lantern Rebirth Issue 3

I have so many questions from the last issue. That I hope will get answered here. Who/What is Hal as he literally is out of his body? How is he corporeal??? I feel bad for Hal just from the cover art, poor man is literally trying to fight of the Specter and Parallax at the same time. Bro. Oh well. How about we just jump in and hope for the best LOL.

Ganther's power is TERRIFYING, I wonder why him and Kilowog are fighting over Hal's corpse.. And what's up with Kyle?? Why is his ring freaking out aarghh. And John?? Buddy?? What are you doing. Everything points to something being wrong or the rings being corrupted..

Hal is so handsome- Oh sorry, sorry back to the plot. Hal (aka Parallax) stole THE green lantern, sheesh. Ohh so fear has corrupted the rest, but because Kyle knows its coming he has managed to spare himself,, fascinating. And it completely slipped my mind that Kyle's ship crash landed from the sun- of course he flew out of it, retreating Hal's body duhh. I assume that they'll try to put his soul back into his body? I'm still so curious to have Hal is still corporeal..

That three way fight was so trippy yet cool. Vengeance attempting to help Hal was unexpected, but not surprising in hindsight when you think about what Parallax is. Also?? The history of Parallax that Kyle just told Ollie?? Is fucking sick. I love the idea of willpower and fear being these two indestructible forces that even with their immense power cannot take each other out. because they're interchangeably strong.

Oh my god.. the fact that Parallax slowly over time weakened Hal until it struck when he was at his weakest, without him realising until made HIM afraid is crazy. Holy fuck Parallax just ripped through the Specter like butter... I wish you all luck in stopping Hal, because it's looking pretty ROUGH. SINISTRO IS STILL ALIVE?? BITCH HOW?

Ollie needing more time with Hal's corpse lowkey broke my heart sjdhjs. Damn this issue was great!

[wajjs]

what would you think of "Let It Happen" and "New Person, Same Old Mistakes", both by Tame Impala for Hal Jordan

like hear me out, both songs have strong Parallax Hal vibes. like in "Let It Happen" : /It's always around me, all this noise/ /But not nearly as loud as the voice saying/ /Let it happen, let it happen/ /(It's gonna feel so good)/ /Just let it happen, let it happen/

now this could be for after the bug retcon, but it could also fit with the loss of Coast City weighing on his mind. In GL 1990 #46, Hal literally says that even before he sees the crater, he hears them screaming.

there is also : /All this running around/ /I can't fight it much longer/ /Something's trying to get out/ /And it's never been closer/ /If my take-off fails/ /Make up some other story/ /But if I never come back/ /Tell my mother I'm sorry/

sdfvgbhnj. I'm totally normal about thses songs and this man. NOw the first half also works for the bug retcon, but the part about /If my take-off fails/? Reminds me of that one comic where Hal is all "If I die flying this plane, they can take the money out of my life insurance. " which wow honey. man is on a mission.

Also you cannot tell me that if Hal's mother was still alive and he died as GL, he would not want someone to make up a story about it. but that's just my opinion on it. really this whole song is great imo for Hal and his character and here are the lyrics to it.

now onto "New Person, Same Old Mistakes" : /I can just hear them now/ /"How could you let us down?"/ /But they don't know what I found/ /Or see it from this way around/ /Feeling it overtake/ /All that I used to hate/ /Wonder what if we trade/ /I tried but it's way too late/ /All the signs I don't read/ /Two sides of me can't agree/ /When I breathe in too deep/ /Going with what I always longed for/

this fits him for the same reasons as above but also Coast City was a place of many ties and laced with history for him. Coast City was where he spent his childhood and a good portion of his adult life. He always found himself leaving it and coming back for some reason or another. But after it's destruction? He can never return home, however much he wishes he could. Coast City was his youth, his golden years, and its death was his undoing. /Feel like a brand new person/ /(But you make the same old mistakes)/ /I don’t care I’m in love/ /(Stop before it’s too late)/ /Feel like a brand new person/ /(But you make the same old mistakes)/ /I finally know what is love/ /(You don’t have what it takes)/ /(Stop before it’s not too late)/ /(I know there’s too much at stake)/ /(Making the same mistakes)/ /And I still don’t know why it’s happening/ /(Stop while it’s not too late)/ /And I still don’t know/

Am I sensing a theme here? Hal stole the power from the central power battery, he fought the entirety of the Corps, he named himself Parallax for god's sake! He went against his moral code to avenge Coast City against the Cyborg-Superman, he went against the Guardians, who he considered masters before this (which, whoo boy is not okay) ,and yet he knows what he's doing is wrong. He knows he shouldn't and he's doing it anyways, whether you want to involve the bug in this or not, it's Hal! pretty much the rest of the song is the narrator trying to justify their actions to the listener and it reads as the world's most unreliable narrator ever. The lyrics are here. im so normal for writing this. this is basically the start of an essay icant- how did I write all this

Okay first of all I love you for sending this ask and I'm sorry I took so long to reply

Then, yeah, I agree that the songs have intense Hal - Parallax vibes, though I have to say to me they're more 90s Parallax than bug retcon. It could be that I am biased, who knows?

(I'm 100% biased)

These lines: "I can just hear them now, how could you let us drown" are particularly poignant when it comes to 90s Hal pre-Parallax (but leading up to it) because YES. He is absolutely haunted by the screams of the people in the city dying. He's haunted by his inability to save them. He's haunted by all the choices that led to him being unable to save them.

(From The Last Will and Testament of Hal Jordan)

Also... "I tried but it's way too late"?

(Green Lantern 1990 #50)

[outpost51]

I'm still trying to imagine having 49 types of magic in one wip lol

Go nuts you say? 😏

6. COURAGE - What's the last word you had to google the definition of?

19. FEAR - What is your greatest fear as a writer?

31. LUST - Who is your hottest OC?

42. SOUL - What is your favourite WIP?

45. STRENGTH - What kind of scene are you best at?

49 Questions

starlit ilysm you matched the FUCK out of my energy

6. COURAGE - What's the last word you had to google the definition of?

wastrel, apparently! cannot for the life of me figure out....where i used it. hold on. OHO I NEVER POSTED IT HEY YOU WANT SOME ANGST I'LL SHOVE IT AT THE END

19. FEAR - What is your greatest fear as a writer?

despite overcoming the "i write for myself, and other people enjoying it is a nice bonus" fear (with a not-so-insignificant amount of emotional battle scars at the end), i can't seem to shake "but what if they hate it?"

31. LUST - Who is your hottest OC?

this is so hard (lol) just because i write erotica and therefore i design ocs that are (supposed to be) hot, but i think it's a toss-up between kadmos, rima, and zadimus?

42. SOUL - What is your favourite WIP?

hhhhhhhhh this changes from week to week tbh. right now, between a rock and a hard place is fighting me tooth and nail, so it's in the naughty box. helix? helix.

45. STRENGTH - What kind of scene are you best at?

fighting and ✨spice✨. those are the ones my friends go most feral over, and they're my target audience c:

anyway have some wlw grief-pining and some very yummy (subjective) waterlogged ghost imagery that takes place between chapters 2 and 3 of stellar parallax.

with mood music, natch.

★・・・・・・★

bitter bright wings.

this thing, all things, devours.

mature || 430 words || c/w: implied sexual content, vague gore?

Hannah didn’t sleep. Not since first contact, not since whatever other atrocities they’d had her commit in the name of exploration, expansion, extermination. As her physician, Dr. Chakwas felt the compulsion to nag her about it, offer sleep aids, ensure she got enough rest to properly harass General Arterius, or whatever it was she did in those meetings.

As her friend — nothing more, no-fuss, it had become her mantra, the thing that helped her sleep at night — Karin was perfectly content to settle for cold skin and trembling limbs wrapping around her and stealing a bit of peace in what narrow time frame they had left before wake-up calls started rolling out. Sometimes that cold took a bit more than no-fuss to chase it away; on those nights, she didn’t settle for anything, not until they were both breathless and laughing and the wake-up call had rang sometime between round three and round seven. They had better things to count, after all, as they drug them out of each other one-by-one.

It was another one of those nights, then, she thought as those cold limbs squeezed tight around her waist. “One day I’m just going to sedate you,” she scolded lightly.

A rush of frigid saline swilled over her back in response.

Karin spun violently in the embrace, already reaching for the phone’s blinking emergency call button — the deep, dark green eyes she once thought she could spend hours gazing into, that held an ever-raging storm like Jupiter’s Great Spot, had clouded over, turning them a milky jade.

Amazing how Hannah was still recognizable beneath all the discoloration and bloat one acquired when dropped into a watery grave. “Help her,” she rasped.

Her mouth opened to ask who, exactly, Hannah wanted her to help, but something jerked her out of bed and dashed her onto the floor.

“Dr. Chakwas!”

If Pressly’s shouting hadn’t managed to wake her from the nightmare, falling out of her chair certainly had. “Someone better be dying,” she grumbled, barely making an effort to rise.

“Shepard.”

That name had always given her wings, hadn’t it? “What happened to John?”

“The commander is fine.” A sneer twisted up Pressly’s features. “It’s his wastrel of a sister causing problems again.”

Karin’s jaw creaked with the effort of holding herself back. She’d taken an oath to do no harm. “Well, what are you standing here for?” she barked. “Clear a path.” Punching him wouldn’t help Jane, she told herself.

She imagined Hannah knocking his lights out instead as she snapped on a fresh pair of gloves.

[sinestrosmind]

He Isn't Helping

Summary: "Fear is everywhere, Fireclaw. And so am I."

Warnings: Physical abuse, Mental abuse, Emotional abuse, Anxiety attack?? (Parallax attack), Nightmare, Talk of death, Canon typical violence

Characters: Topaz Fireclaw, Parallax

Wordcount: 2,071

     "One day, you'll be gone." The deep, echoing voice tells the lantern, and he screams. In fear, in pain, in frustration, he didn't know. He's in a void in his mind, the large glowing monster stalking around him, the only source of light in this godforsaken darkness.

     "Stop!" Fireclaw snaps, eyes raw and irritated, face damp and stained from crying.

     "There's nothing you can do!" The monster taunts, and the Levanixian screams again, "Stop it!"

     He feels sick, like he's going to puke, and he feels numb, like he doesn't exist. His eyes feel like they're on fire, his vision is blurry, breathing shallow and ragged, hiccuping time to time as he cowers down again, covering his head with his forepaws. "Stop," Fireclaw begs weakly, voice hoarse from the ordeal. "Please, Parallax. Stop."

     "There's a way to stop it," Parallax starts, voice low as he stalks closer to the broken lantern. "But you're too afraid," the entity curls around Fireclaw, thin tail lightly gripping the tom as the beast leans over his shoulder. "It's rather interesting that fear has kept you alive, yet fear will be you and your love's undoing."

     Fireclaw snaps at the smallest mention of Sinestro, forming a weak construct based in rage instead of fear, lashing out against Parallax with a hoars yowl. The entity de-matieralizes immediately, before forming again behind the lantern, a safe distance away. Fireclaw looks around in a panicked rage before his eyes land on the beast, just sitting there watching him, an unamused expression on his face.

     "Why are you doing this?" Fireclaw asks, tone begging for answers. "Why are you so obsessed with tormenting me? Breaking me?"

     Both lantern and entity were silent, Fireclaw lowering his head after a while. He'd cry more, but he's got nothing left to give. Parallax continued to stare silently at the Levanixian, still seemingly unamused. When next Parallax spoke, his tone was different. Calm, almost remorseful, and not as loud or menacing. "I'm trying to help you."

     Fireclaw shivered, taking a shaking breath, eyes watering but unable to cry. "None of this helps," he whispered. "How is this help."

     "You'll grow numb to your fears," Parallax explained. "You'll learn to accept them, embrace them, instead of push them away, instead of fighting them."

     Again, both fell silent. Parallax could feel red bubbling up in his aura. If he were the entity Nekron, he'd surely see it instead.

     Fireclaw took another shaking breath. "I don't want to die," he told the entity, who sat unphased. "I don't want to lose Sinestro, I don't want to change, I don't want to grow old. I don't want things to change. I want everything to stop- I wish everything would stop," Fireclaw rambled, voice picking up in speed and volume, before he snapped his head up, his ears pinned to his head. "I wish you would stop!"

     "When you accept me, I will stop." Parallax told the lantern, now annoyed. "Or, you'll just become numb to my methods."

     Fireclaw once again screamed in pain, hands on his head as he arched his back in pain or in frustration, or both. Parallax resumed stalking slowly around the poor cat, returning to the menacing tone he had before. "Nobody can save you, Fireclaw. Scream and beg all you want, there is no escape from me or your fate!"

     The cruel grin was back on Parallax's face, claws clicking on the non-existent ground each step he took. "Time will not stop no matter how much you pray for it to, and neither will I!" Parallax lunged, pinning the Levanixian to the ground under a massive clawed hand, a pained, frightened, weak cry ripped from the tom's chest.

     "Sinestro!" the lantern sobbed weakly, eyes shut tight and head turned away from the beast above him. Parallax snarled, and Fireclaw cowered, raising his hands in a pathetic attempt to defend himself from a strike. "Help me!"

     "No!" Parallax roared, making the orange feline shake and whimper. "Sinestro can't help you! Not this time!" and that had pulled another sob from the cat. "Nobody can save you from me!"

     "Get out of my head!" Fireclaw cried, trying now to free himself from Parallax's hold. Useless, but, he can't be told by this beast that he didn't try.

     "No!" the entity roared again, tightening his grip upon Fireclaw and making him wheeze. "You'll never be free of me, Fireclaw! Even if Sinestro rips me from your soul himself, I will always be here, in the back of your mind, repeating our wonderful little song and dance every night until the day you die!"

     And Fireclaw screamed again, a sob following, though this was different. This one echoed faintly, and the tom felt something soft and warm and comforting below him and sunk his claws into it. He tried to cling to it as if his life depended on it, but shrieked in fear and despair as Parallax ripped him away from it. Parallax was off put by the echo, knowing exactly what it meant.

     Will fading, Fireclaw turned to clinging to one of Parallax's claws, rubbing his head against it in a weak, desperate attempt to make himself feel safe, feel some degree of comfort. He was crying again now, having regained enough stamina for that.

     "Just because Sinestro can do something doesn't mean you can." Parallax taunted, knowing that'd make Fireclaw cry harder, and it did. "You're weak, just as your mother said. No backbone. Overreacting. Always worried about things that shouldn't be worried about. Things you can't change."

     Fireclaw had no energy to fight or scream for help anymore, he just clung to Parallax's claw and sobbed, sometimes begging for Parallax to stop, other times begging for Sinestro to save him from this demon.

     "You'll leave this universe and it will carry on without you," Parallax told Fireclaw, ignoring the tom's sobs. "Isn't that terrifying? And imagine, nobody will remember you when you're gone! You have, and will never have, a legacy. You're twenty years old, and have done nothing worth while for your home. Pathetic!"

     The Levanixian's sobs have become weak, and he feels as though he's going to fall asleep. There's a warmth he feels on his face, like he'd buried his face into a pillow or blanket, and instinct has him rubbing his face against Parallax.

     "You're a disappointment to everyone you know." The entity continues to taunt. "Nobody you know truly cares for you, especially Sinestro." And Fireclaw is crying with renewed energy. Parallax gives him just a small moment before he's thrown the cat across the void, swiftly following.

     "You will lose everything and everyone you love!" The entity roared, sliding to a stop above Fireclaw. "If not by my hand or the hand of time, but by your own! And I will make you watch as I ruin your life! You will watch as I use your claws, your fangs, to rip the life from Sinestro!"

     If nothing else broke him, that did. The thought of Sinestro dying terrified him as much as his own future and death did. Fireclaw screamed again, curling up on his side, knees tucked close to his chest, hands covering his ears, form shaking.

     "Stop it," the ginger Levanixian begged weakly, shaking, his voice having the faintest echo. "Stop it, please. No more."

     "I will never stop. When you're on your deathbed, I will be there. I will make you question every choice you've ever made, I will make you fear every last second of your life. Your last breath will be laced with fear, and then your light will fade." Ironic, Parallax speaks of light fading as he himself fades away, giving way to pure darkness.

     "Fear is everywhere, Fireclaw. And so am I."

     The silence that follows Parallax's last words is nearly as deafening as his roars, and Fireclaw lays there, shaking and crying in the darkness and silence, but things start feeling more solid.

     Slowly, Fireclaw becomes aware of himself, of his surroundings. He doesn't feel as numb anymore, and the floor isn't hard. It's soft, warm, and if he could smell right now, it'd smell of gentle spices and woods of some sort that he couldn't think of the names of in his state, but would know he knows. Dry and earthy and familiar and comforting.

     A familiar voice shushes him gently, and Fireclaw is now aware of two arms around him and a form in front of him, his face pressed into the soft cloth covering it. He's now aware of a hand rubbing gentle circles in the fur at the base of his skull, close to one of his ears. The other hand gently scratching his back, just between his shoulder blades.

     He tries to speak, but his breath is so shaky that whatever he was trying to say is rendered incoherent by his breathing. He's hushed gently again, and there's words that follow, the voice so familiar and gentle and comforting that Fireclaw can't help but listen. He buries his face into the form in front of him, trying to get as close as he possibly can, and he feels the arms on him gently tighten as he shifts.

     The tom hears noise, but can't process it. It's quiet, that's all he knows, and it's followed by a gentle, kind, feminine voice. Familiar, just like the voice of the form in front of him. The two voices talk, but Fireclaw can't understand anything. His mind is mush, and it makes him uneasy.

     He feels a weight on his forehead, just between his eyebrows, and it stays there for a few moments, before shifting. It's a comforting gesture, and it works. Between the hand on his back, the hand on the back of his head, the smaller hand that is now on his shoulder rubbing small circles with the thumb, and the weight on his forehead, the Levanixian's breathing levels out.

     "Sin-!" Fireclaw manages to choke out, before his breathing picks up again. Sinestro gently shushes the cat, and he nestles his face into the soft turtleneck sweater that Sinestro was wearing.

     "I'm here," Sinestro says gently, but is immediately followed by a loud, deafening "ALWAYS HERE." from Parallax, echoing in Fireclaw's ears only. The exhausted cat flinched with a pained and frightened whimper, hands moving to cover his ears.

     The Levanixian feels a hand cover his own and gently rub small circles, and notices that the hand on his shoulder had moved. It takes a while before Fireclaw relaxes again, his hands falling from his ears and his eyelids heavy with exhaustion. He hears Sinestro say something, gentle and worried, but he doesn't have the energy to care what the worried Korugarian had said.

     Fireclaw didn't have the energy to protest as Sinestro moved to sit him up, propped up with pillows against the headboard. He also didn't have the energy to fight being made to drink, though he was thankful for it after. Once he drank, he started to regain some energy, able to think easier and process things.

     After a few moments, and a few more sips of water, Fireclaw is once again nestled up next to Sinestro, head buried between himself and Sinestro's chest.

     Soranik runs her fingers through Fireclaw's fur, sometimes pausing to scratch behind his ear before continuing to comb through the thick dark ginger fur. "It was Parallax again, wasn't it?" she asks gently, and Fireclaw weakly nods. The young doctor gives her father a worried and sympathetic look, and he sighs softly before once again resting his head atop Fireclaw's.

     Sinestro kisses the feline's forehead again and then rests there, closing his eyes as he holds his love close. Soranik sighs and gives Fireclaw's shoulder a gentle pat. "I'll see you later, buddy." the doctor says before standing up. "When he's more alert, I want you to bring him to the medical center. I need to make sure he's alright, at least physically."

     Fireclaw had no response, but Sinestro gave a hum in agreement. Before Soranik left, she gently tossed the blanket that had been shoved to the side and the floor over the two, getting a quiet, genuinely appreciative "Thank you" from her father.

     It wasn't long before Fireclaw had drifted off to a light state of sleep again, but Sinestro remained awake and by his side, holding the feline close and watching over him as he slept.

[royboyfanpage]

Relationship Rant- Dinah Lance

I'm gonna talk about one of the most endearing relationships in DC: Roy Harper and Dinah Lance.

As I've mentioned in other posts, I dislike the idea of Dinah as the "Arrowmum", I think it's a disservice to her character and, generally speaking, when fandom applies the title of "mother" to a female character it tends to reduce them down to that (as I've seen a lot of posts doing with Selina Kyle). That being said, there's something undeniably mother/son coded about Dinah and Roy's relationship, in the sense of mutual care and respect.

As far as I can tell, the first instance in which Dinah and Roy were seem interacting at length is in Snowbirds Don't Fly part 2 (Green Lantern/Green Arrow #86), and Arsenal #1 further backs this up by saying Dinah didn't even know Roy's civilian name until that comic.

This sets the tone for their entire relationship, as Dinah's literal introduction to Roy is when he's at his lowest. A lot of other people in Roy's life, particularly Ollie, had already known him extensively pre-Snowbirds; they had memories who they could look back on as "before it all went wrong with Roy." Dinah, however, doesn't have that. There's no pre-addiction Roy she can look back on, no fabricated "better" version she can judge the later Roy based on those standards. Everything she's seen of Roy has been improvement- she's seen him at his lowest, and seen him fight to improve and better himself as the years progressed, even stating that she views him as the bravest person she's ever met.

But that isn't to say their dynamic is exclusively Dinah comforting him. Their relationship is built on mutual care and affection, supporting each other, such as after Ollie died.

At that point, they're really the only two people they can speak to about their grief. I believe Hal's dead at this point, or at the very least he's Parallax, and Connor had only been in Ollie's life briefly prior to Ollie's death. Dinah and Roy are the two people who truly knew Ollie, and are alive to talk about it, at this point in time, and as a result they are each others mutual source of comfort.

They also just have a good relationship in general. They're able to joke around together, and they can talk to each other easily-

-and it's so clear to see their chemistry with one another.

When Roy later joins the Justice League, Dinah's one of his biggest supporters, even before his official initiation-

-showing just how much she respects Roy and believes he can do well. (From Green Arrow (2001) #74) Dinah's seen Roy as the competent hero he is, and knows that with his skillset and sense of morality he is far better fit amongst the greatest heroes of Earth compared to the controversial, underdog team Outsiders (which, while I adore the 2003 Outsiders cast, is a good point. Roy was seen routinely unhappy in that team, and the Justice League was one of his biggest dreams). Upon his actual induction into the League, Dinah's the one Roy dedicates his success to-

-demonstrating just how much he appreciates her and her constant support (From Justice League of America (2006) #7), and she's the one who reassures him that he does deserve the title of Red Arrow upon him joining the League and feeling anxous about it.

And in Vixen: Return of the Lion, when Dinah is compromised, you can see Roy's panic and concern for her wellbeing-

-demonstrating just how much he cares for her. Dinah's arguably one of the only people who loves Roy the same way he loves everyone in his life- unconditionally, and without judgement or grudges- and so the concept of losing that person to which his type of love is reciprocated is understandably terrifying.

Overall, Roy and Dinah are one of DCs most endearing relationships that has so many layers- a mother/son dynamic, a mutual support system, and best friends.

[siffrins-therapist]

Seconding! (And added a few more fics to my ever-growing to-read list lmao)

And here's a few more! I think some of these are already in the notes, but ye (also many of these have spoilers for Act 6/Two Hats, even if they aren't post-canon). (I left out site-locked fics, though, since I'm not sure if any of those authors are okay with their fics being linked.)

Oh this got long sjflisjfisl

Like a Wheel Ever Turning by annasofroma is such a fun series! It's an Odile-looping AU, where she and Loop start off on the wrong foot as Loop panics about Odile being the one looping instead of Siffrin and Odile constantly growing frustrated that Loop is holding back information.

Play Fighting by Aniyha is 0w0 It's post-canon, and after the loops, Siffrin confides in their family that he's a vampire. Isabeau is very normal about this information. And I can't mention Play Fighting without bringing up its sequel Sleepover with the Vampire, where Siffrin and Mirabelle have quality Feelings Buddies time, and it's just very cute and sweet :3

Plus there's Aniyha's fic Nous Dormirons Ensemble, an Isafrin fic where both wake up with zero memory of each other, themselves, or how they ended up in a meadow. It has some very sweet but also some very gut-punching moments that had me tearing through the fic to catch up soon as I started reading owo

how this river runs by crashsite is cute, and I'm always up for more Loop & Mirabelle content!! It's post-canon and Mirabelle teaches Loop how to play tag <3

Parallax by discatded is *clutches heart* It hurts so much in places but it's so good. It's pre-canon, but Mal du Pays pops up and forces Siffrin to have some very difficult confrontations and discussions. Beautifully and heart-wrenchingly written <3

Memory of Black Holes by selkiesongs !!! Siffrin wakes up from a nightmare about eating their friends whole (which selkie adds detail to and I kicked my feet reading that whole dream sequence <3) and the Isafrin is so soft in this fic. And I also need to mention her fic A Trick of the Light! This one is n/sfw, and it grabbed me by the throat with the first line "Something's wrong with Sif."

In Silks and Fangs by TransgressivePistoleer is a fic I read in one (maybe two?) sittings and it was such so good and held my attention from the very start to the end. Siffrin is a vampire and also works at a bordello. Mirabelle, Isabeau, and Odile go there after hearing that a certain dancer might be able to help guide them to where one of the orbs is hidden. It's such a good AU, and I love Mirabelle's new outfit in this fic, very Magical Girl and I love that for her <333

I have have have to mention garden_snake20's Loopdile vivisection fic Let's get right to it. It /is/ vivisection, so CW for that, but Loop's more magical/starry anatomy makes it so it's really not that gory to me.

... Oedipus by Jazz_intown. Just. Okay, so it's a fic where the King is also Siffrin and it's so beautifully written. Lyrical prose if that's your jam as much as it's mine, and I'll just paste in my first reaction in my comment for this fic:

*lays on the floor like Frisk and Napstablook, staring up into the Universe*

It's just. Really good.

Break the News by DarkColdSummer is super fun and had me struggling not to laugh bcoz I was reading it in a coffeeshop. A tabloid prints a rumor that Mirabelle and Isabeau are dating after Mirabelle has a slip of the tongue, and... things spiral from there!

Echoes by reinapepiada!! It's post-canon and Siffrin has a nightmare. Isabeau accidentally makes a mistake when trying to wake them. Siffrin is healing but that comes with struggling to rewire his own brain, how they think/talk to themself. There's little lines peppered through that show how Siffrin and Isabeau have talked, and I love that even though Siffrin almost slipped, he's doing better and has Isabeau to help them up again <3

i will eat you (i hope you'll forgive me) by Bronzeflower! These are n/sfw with biting kink and discussions about kink as Isabeau and Siffrin. I went wild reading both fics in the series <33

This one is still in-progress, but Crown of Fools by circusfable is so good so far! It's Isafrin and will have n/sfw later on, but the world is currently still being fleshed out with Siffrin, the court jester, and Isabeau, the king of Vaugarde, mutually pining over one another (with plenty of delicious Siffrin angst). I love me some royalty AUs, and I've adored what I've read of this one so far ovo

STAY AWAKE by Blazing_rain has prose that kept having me reread previous paragraphs as I went, and this is a very high compliment when it comes to what I like to read. It focuses on Mal du Pays and Siffrin, and reading it made me feel like how I felt when trying to navigate the House in Act 5. Just amazingly written, and I still need to read Rippling out into the Source, a Mirabelle-centric, pre-canon fic where she sees Siffrin's ghosts in the House. I'm already sure I'll love it.

The Guiding Star by Hardcore_Introvert is another fic that's still in-progress but it's so good so far! Siffrin is a fortune teller with many secrets, which require them to make sure the Saviors of Vaugarde trust him and let him join them to find the rest of the orbs and fight the King. Too bad they're a suspicious fella; Odile is watching them closely.

In Blood and Stars by actingwithportals is also in-progress and will soon be the longest ISAT fic on ao3! /silly It's probably my favorite post-canon fic rn (in my top 3 definitely) and is Loop-centric as they try to find a new place for themself in the party. There are many ups and downs, as healing is far from a straight line, and what Loop went through isn't something they can shake the effects of. I just love how Loop is written here, and I keep trying to snag onto little bits and hints as I follow Loop and try to figure out what's happening. (I love that the Freezing had possibly long-lasting effects, like animals' biological clocks being messed up after being frozen in time for months and it suddenly being fall when it had been the end of spring/start of summer only a short time ago for them and this effecting things like chickens laying fewer eggs. It's just a really nice touch world-building wise, and this fic is full of little details like that, showing it was written with lots of love :3)

She'll be coming around the Mountain by Analytical_Cochineal takes place pre-canon, when Mirabelle, Isabeau, Siffrin, and Odile go out to a tavern for a night out. Siffrin only recently joined the group, Odile is a little suspicious of them, and Isabeau is starting to catch feelings. And then Siffrin gets drunk enough to put on a show :3 Very cute and fun, I loved reading this :D

I still need to read blueshine's Inutile, but I'm loving Four Eyes. I saw "Isabeau POV during Siffrin's loops" and was immediately intrigued. The non-linear story-telling works incredibly well, and I won't give spoilers, but there was a specific chapter that almost made me cry out in the middle of a restaurant, since I was incapable of waiting until after dinner to read once blueshine updated.

Ending this list off with the series The Funeral of Siffrin No Last Name by Kamary, which made me curl up and cry several times. I remember just diving right into these fics when I was supposed to be packing for my move, and reading them was like having my heart pressure washed (very very positive).

reblog with your favourite isat fanfiction so I can go and check it out

[haljordangreenjedi]

Hi I've been reading through your blog and saw your post on turning Parallax possession similar to a virus. I'm very interested in this as I'm not very knowledgeable about viruses. Could you explain it a bit more in detail on how it would work?

so, immunologically speaking, your body protects you from foreign proteins, bacteria, and viruses based on what it recognizes. if the body can recognize an antigen as having been there before, it responds and fights it off much quicker, because it's using a secondary immune response.

A primary immune response takes at least a week to develop, because first the body has to recognize the antigen as bad, and then develop a response for it (antibodies.) In that time span, the antigens overwhelm the immune system, and that's when you get sick, or a cut gets infected. once your body starts producing antibodies to beat up that foreign bacteria/virus, you start to recover, and then your body will store the knowledge of what that antigen is made of, so that if it ever comes back, it can respond quicker.

(you can see here, primary immune responses are much slower than secondary because they don't recognize the antigen right away.)

This is why we have vaccines, we introduce a dead or weakened antigen into the body, our immune system learns it & learns how to beat it, and so we're less likely to get sick (or less likely to be *severely* sick) when we're introduced to the antigen in full force, say... in the height of flu season.

Thinking of Parallax as a virus requires the mindset that Hal hasn't experienced fear since he was a child. He doesn't have anything to lose because in his mind, the worst thing that could happen already did, when he watched his father die. So, it's like Hal's skipped his flu shot for like 15 years. Eventually, the flu virus (or in comics' case, Parallax) will change enough that the body doesn't recognize it right away, and you get sick.

In this, weakness would be exploited by Hal experiencing the grief and fear of having Barry die, and then the destruction of Coast City.

(side note, if anyone remembers where this panel comes from, lmk because I don't remember the exact issue and I would like to know.)

The implication is then that the virus overwhelmed Hal's body, and entered his CSF(cerebrospinal fluid)/went to his brain and caused encephalitis—massive brain inflammation. The symptoms of encephalitis vary, but can include seizures, headaches, light/sound sensitivity, loss of consciousness, and depending on the localization of the swelling, personality and emotional or psychological changes.

So: thinking of Parallax as a virus means thinking that Hal got an infection to the extreme of it going into his central nervous system, and affecting his brain. This means it could potentially (and in this case, did) alter his personality and emotional state to that of what we see when he is Parallax, where he kills his friends and fellow corpsmen, and occasionally acts as though he's helpless to stop himself from completing the tasks he has set out for himself—claiming all of the Green Lantern energy and returning the universe to what he believes is its best possible state.

The hard part of this is that DC created the retcon and used it as a scape goat without any real research/scientific background, and then never continued their explanation. There should have been real physical and mental consequences to Hal having an "infection" for as long as he did, and i think they could have further addressed his feelings of guilt and better explained how this meant anyone could potentially be infected by Parallax.

I really hope this made sense, but hit me with some follow up if you have more questions.