#the hyper fixations are at balance once again...

[anonzentimes]

finished side order.... no more spoilers to avoid... i can now look up pearlina as much as i want..... also I like my locker so i wanted to share it, I might edit it more later but It looks pretty cool!

[dawdlecentric]

Man, this doujin isn't fucking around

Meanwhile, Seikuri in the background...

Doujin: Flashbackers by Totobe

[logansargeantsbabymom]

Wide Awake

Lewis Hamilton x Fem!Wolff!Reader

Warnings: Cursing, Self-Doubt, age-gap (reader is 22), slight smut (just fingering) , oh and slight orgasm denial.

(SOFIA IS A RANDOM GIRL I MADE UP!)

A/N: This was supposed to just be a one off thing but I kept writing and writing and I'm 99% sure that no one wants to read a 25k worded chapter only for it to BARELY get to the whole point/plot of the fic. so there's going to be another chapter (3 at max)

(Also I promise Too Good To Say Goodbye 7 is coming but I was hyper fixated on trying to finish this which isn't happening ) 🫶🏽😊

Follow my instagram account (THATS STRICTLY FOR THIS BLOG) for updates on when i post and fun stuff like that!

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My dad’s always warned me about getting involved with the drivers. He told me that they’re all too young, naive and that all they’ll be good for is breaking my heart. For the longest time, I believed him. I’ve seen the way some of these young drivers were with girls.

Max cheating on Sofia with Kelly, Lando talking to 3 girls at once and George, well George hasn’t done anything. Point is, I’ve seen how they are and I don’t want to get with one of the young drivers only to have my heart ripped out. AGAIN.

I secretly dated one of the hottest drivers, Charles Leclerc for about 2 months. All was going well we were happy, we had secret dates and maybe I thought he was the one.

That was until one day In Monaco when I showed up to the paddock for Free Practice 1 & 2 I saw him hand-in-hand with Alexandra Saint Mleux. When I saw them together and I realized everything she had that I didn’t. She was at taller than me, skinnier, gorgeous, had flawless skin and had a modeling career. In other words, she was a goddess.

Seeing them together broke my heart and all I wanted to do was curl into a ball and sob, but I couldn’t. My dad warned me about the young drivers but I still went behind his back and did the exact opposite of what he told me not to do. I deserved this.

I had made a beeline for the Mercedes garage just to get out of the public eye but I was so focused on getting as far away from Charles and Alexandra as possible that I hadn’t noticed I was running straight into someone.

I hit this person's body with such force I almost went flying back and I reached my hands out in front of me to try and grab anything for stability and at the same time I felt two hands on either sides of my waist trying to balance me.

I was feeling so many different emotions right now I couldn't even think straight, clearly. I was so angry at Charles for cheating on me even if weren’t technically even dating, sadness because I actually thought Charles was actually capable of loving me, and full fledged embarrassment because I just ran full on into someone thinking about how Charles just ruined my life. And my makeup.

I looked up to face the person I just ran into and tried to profusely apologize for my actions, but when I looked up tho I was met with the most gorgeous brown eyes I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I wanted to stare into his eyes forever but in the half a second it took me to look up I also realized who it was that I ran into.

The 7x WDC Lewis Hamilton.

Even more embarrassment coated my face as I realized that not only did I just bump into someone while trying so hard not to have a mental breakdown but I ran into the Lewis Hamilton, my dad's best and most loved driver. “Oh my gosh Lewis, I’m so sorry! I wasn’t watching where I was going and I really didn’t mean to run into you. Please don’t tell my dad” Honestly, it sounded pathetic. ‘Don’t tell my dad’? what are you, 12?

I stared at him in silence for about all of 2 seconds which felt like an eternity until I saw his lips curled up into a smile and heard a small chuckle come from him. “I won’t tell your dad, cross my heart” Lewis said while making an ‘X’ motion over his chest “Who are you running from? I feel like maybe I'm obligated to know since you ran right into me trying to avoid them?”

My face fell in shock. How did he know I was trying to avoid someone? I mean it wasn't rocket science, if I saw a random girl running to an isolated area with tears streaming down her face, I too am going to assume she's avoiding someone. “I- Uh, Well. See”

“It’s okay, Y/N/N, I’m not going to tell anyone. You also don’t have to tell me if you don't want to but I’m willing to help you avoid them if you do.” Lewis said as he placed a hand on my cheek.

I’ve always found comfort in Lewis’ touch. Actually, I’ve always felt comfort whenever I was in the same room as Lewis. Something about his Aura screamed ‘You’re safe with me’

As much as I wanted to, I knew there was no point in lying because one thing about Lewis is that could read people like a book. Including me. With a long, loud and dramatic dragged out sigh I reluctantly told him the truth.

“I was seeing Charles behind my father’s back for about 2 months, everything was going well and I actually kinda thought he was my person but I just now saw him hand-in-hand and all cuddly with Alexandra.” Tears sprung in my eyes and threatened to fall as I recounted what I saw a few minutes prior to Lewis.

He had a sympathetic look in his face and I could tell he genuinely felt bad for me. The hand Lewis once briefly had on my face had moved down to grab my hand before he whispered, "How about this: Tomorrow we wear almost matching outfits and we come back here also hand-in-hand. We'd be together all day and we'll be cuddly too. You know, just to make Charles jealous and regret cheating on you."

Lewis was always putting people's well-being ahead of his and it made a shy smile creep onto my face. As much as I want to, maybe I shouldn't read too much into this though, he's probably just being nice to me to stay in my father's good graces.

"Lewis," I whispered as I placed my hand on his cheek "You don't have to be nice to me because I'm your boss's daughter"

he looked a bit hurt by my accusations. "Is that why you think I'm doing this?" his hand squeezed mine a little tighter.

"Why else would you, Lewis?" his hands came up to cup my face forcing me to look at him.

"Because Y/N/N, I-" he paused, almost like he was trying to find the right words to use. "I think you're the most beautiful woman in the world. I've seen you sneaking around with Charles and it took so much in me not to go over there and tear you away from him, to show him that you're mine. I know I'm older than you but I'm wiser and I'll treat you better than he can." My jaw dropped, there's no way that Lewis Hamilton, a 7x WDC is head over heels in love with me, right?

"Lew, I-" a voice interrupted me, turning my body into stone and my blood into ice.

"Y/N!" I knew that voice anywhere and if he saw the moment that me and Lewis just shared, we were both dead.

"Dad! Hi!" I tried to sound enthusiastic but I was so flushed from Lewis' confession.

"My baby," His hands cupped my face inspecting the red all over "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine, I'm just hot. You know how the sun is in Monaco." I said with a shrug, trying to change the subject

"Oh you have to go in the AC! Lewis," my dad turned to face Lewis who was already facing in our direction

"Yes, Toto?" he said as he cocked his brow.

"I need you to take my darling girl inside. She has a condition where she can't sweat which causes her to overheat and pass out. I am too busy with this race and getting everything perfect to be worrying about my daughter having a heat stroke."

"Oh, jeez, thanks dad. Just send Lewis to do everything for you" I said in a playful tone

"Of course Toto, I'll take her in right now." Lewis said as he walked over to me and linked his arms with mine.

Lewis started guiding me through the garage and to his driver's room where he opened the door and gestured me in. Once inside he closed the door before facing me with unsure eyes.

"What's wrong Lew?" I said as I cautiously walked over to him.

"What were you going to say before Toto cut you off?" his voice so low, I almost didn't hear what he said.

"I was going to say," I stopped right in front of him, our chests were touching. We were so close I could feel his breath against my skin. "I think that you have to prove what you said about treating me better than how Charles did."

Lewis grabbed my face and pulled me into a searing kiss, our tongues fought for dominance but his won. Lewis picked me up and sat on his couch with me on his lap so I was straddling him all without breaking the kiss.

His hands found their rightful place on my hips and applied pressure forcing my hips down as I rocked my hips to apply more force against his hardening cock.

"Mmm, you taste so good. I can only imagine how much better you taste when I'm eating your pussy." Lewis mumbled against my lips as his hands went just a little bit lower to stop at the elastic of my leggings. I guided Lewis' hands under the fabric to release some of the tension building in my core.

He understood what I needed and quickly started to run his middle finger up and down my fold, collecting all my juices before inserting it in my pussy. Lewis slowly moved his finger in and out of my hole while using his thumb to rub circles on my clit. His movements were slow and sensual bringing me closer and closer to my orgasm. I started rocking my hips into his palm to add more friction to my core and to chase my orgasm which I really needed right now. I was just about to go over the edge until a knock at the door quickly halted both of our movements and caused Lewis to yank his hand out of me leaving me without finishing.

"Mate, FP2 starts in 15. They need us by our cars now" The voice of George could be heard from he other side of the door.

“Oh fuck me” I grunted as I pulled myself off of Lewis’ lap

“Trust me, I was planning on it” He said with a smirk on his face as his hand came to rest on my ass before giving it a smack.

Lewis poked his head out of the door to make sure no one would see us leave, after the all clear we quickly rushed out of his room, both of us going in opposite directions as to not get caught.

————

The next day I heard a knock at my hotel door at the early hours of 6:00am. With a grunt I pulled myself out of the comfort of my warm and cozy bed and made my way to the door. Whoever was interrupting my beauty sleep was going to get a mouthful, I’ll tell you that.

“Do you know what time it is?!” I whisper yelled as I opened the door, not even bothering to look through the peephole to see who I would be yelling at. And boy do I really wish I did look because I was met with the tall, beautiful, muscular frame of Lewis Hamilton.

“Woah honey, I told you we were going to the paddock together. We need matching outfits” Lewis said while looking at me up and down "Do you by any chance have a matching Tommy Hilfiger set?"

"No?" I said, a little nervous

"Perfect, I bought you one that matches mine so put this on" Lewis said as he handed me a bag of 4 different sets.

"Lewis, there's four sets in here. Which am I wearing?" I said I let him in my room and watched as he took a seat on my bed right were I was once peacefully sleeping.

"Wear whichever one you want and I'll match it. I didn't know which of those four you'd like so I bought them all." My heart fluttered a bit at his confession.

--------

When Lewis and I pulled up to the race and got out of the car, we walked to the entrance hand-in-hand.

Charles and Alexandra were the first people to spot us and I took notice on how Charles dropped Alexandra's hand. When I saw that I squeezed Lewis' hand and leaned into him to tell him

"Lew, it's working. He dropped Alexandra's hand" I said with a smirk on my face.

"Wanna give them a show?" I cocked my brow at what he was suggesting but reluctantly nodded my head.

Without thinking twice, Lewis pulled me into a kiss, his hand finding their place to rest on my ass while mine traveled to the back of his neck to pull him deeper into the kiss.

I heard a strings of words which I'm assuming were curse words before I heard faint shuffles of feet echoing away from where me and Lewis were stood. Faint footsteps weren't the only thing we heard because next thing you know we heard clicks of camera shutters.

I pulled away from him with a horrified look on my face.

"Lewis! My dad might see those!" I don't think I was ever more scared in my life than I was in that moment. My dad can't know that I'm sneaking behind his back with Lewis. Well technically this is the second day of this 'sneaking around' but still, he doesn't know."

"Do you want to be with me Y/N/N?" He said dead serious while interlocking our hands

"Yes"

"So you shouldn't care about the pictures and your dad's opinion. Not everyone is going to accept our relationship but that doesn't matter because this relationship is between us. Not them"

"I need FP3 and Qualifying to end ASAP because I so badly want to suck your cock."

“I’m holding you to that” Lewis said as he swatted my ass. Surely the press people got photos of that and when those get out. I’m gonna have a fun conversation with my dad

It took us about 15 minutes to get the Mercedes Hospitality area because of all the fans asking for pictures, Press asking questions and other drivers asking what Lewis thinks he’s doing going out with me.

I almost took offense to that but quickly realized that they didn’t mean it in a rude way but more as a ‘you better be careful because if you break her heart, Toto will never resign you to Mercedes’ type of way.

When we entered, we were met with the angry eyes of my father.

“Lewis.” He said stern, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose “what are you doing with my daughter?!”

“Sir,” Lewis started but my dad cut him off

“Y/N/N, I told you not to go off with the drivers!” His voice raised, not too loud to be classified as yelling but a couple octaves louder than how it was before

“Actually, you said no messing around with the younger drivers. Lewis is older and more wise” I said as I grasped Lewis’ hand tighter.

“What are your intentions with my daughter?”

“Well sir, I intend to give your daughter the best life I can give her, I want to take her everywhere with me, I want to spoil her, I want to have her move in with me, I want to be her husband and I want her to be the mother of my kids.” Lewis squeezed my hand as he said that last sentence.

I never thought about being a mother, I never felt like it was an obligation of mine. I never thought that I wanted kids but hearing Lewis admit to my dad that he wanted me to be the mother of his kids sparked something in me. Lewis made me realize that deep down, I longed to be a mom and now I wasn’t going to be happy if I wasn’t.

“I will kill you if you break her heart.” My dad stated as he stared in Lewis’ eyes as if to try and intimidate him.

—————

It's not the best but I promise the plot is to die for!

taglist:

@luckyladycreator2 @itsmiamalfoy @jeffs77 @ilivbullyingjeongin @forevercaffeinated-lee @daemyratwst @gulphulp @callsignwidow @f1wintermoon13 @teenwolf01 @victoriassecret101 @hiireadstuff @formulaal @kazza72584 @zabwlky1999 @dark-night-sky-99 @rougekiki @xoscar03 @jess-wither @bountychanti@dhanihamidi @Ggasly.p @tellybearryyyy

[prince-toffee]

In Blackest Night

Summary: Silver always thought something was missing in his life, some half-remembered dream that always irked him, an image of a girl in every window he passed by where his own reflection should have been. And he feels like he was always meant for something greater. He feels every emotion rushing through his mind: Rage, Greed, Fear, Compassion, Love, Hope, Willpower, with no end. Until one fateful day when destiny falls from the sky in the form of an emerald-green ring.

A crossover between STH and DC Comics which sees Silver become a Green Lantern. A very niche idea about two very polar hyper-fixations of mine, but perhaps not that niche because there's an official crossover between the two going on right now. But for the record I thought of this idea years beforehand! Though I thought there'd be no interest in it.

| To quote scripture: The first one given a ring was not The First Lantern. The first was Avra. The Book of Oa, first chapter, first verse. Long ago, before our stars had ignited - long ago, when life was new and the universe was in its infancy - before order, there was chaos. |

| Chaos out balanced creation, hate out balanced fellowship, and all life suffered. |

--- Crisis City, Sector 2,006 ---

Who was she? Silver saw her everywhere he looked. In every reflection, in every window, in every building of shattered glass - There she was, this mysterious woman whom he did not recognise. A purple hue. A kind smile. And then, flames, and then it was gone, only being met with the reflection of his own face. Sad and lonely. Silver sighed and bowed his head. Behind him as a lava plume erupted, he snapped out of his haze and gained altitude quickly escaping the clutches of the running magma stream. The ground on which he stood only seconds ago began to shake and fracture and fall away. He wordlessly watched as the lake of fire consumed the ruins of the once grocery store that he had just been in, searching for rations.

“...Why do I see your face?” And why did it bother him so? Not knowing who she was? And why did seeing her bring tears to his eyes.

He supposed it didn't matter, he had to move on, there was still roughly half of the city he had to search, and he would surely see her again, he always did. In every window he'd pass he'd cast her reflection instead of his own.

The city had shifted by now, no doubt. It always did, day-to-day, shifting as if the city stood on a coupling of tectonic plates. New pockets would be unearthed and hidden day-to-day, there was always a new hope each morning that maybe- just maybe this time he'd find something, or someone. Food, water, medicine... survivors. Anything. Wishful thinking. He supposed that was all that kept him going, wishful thinking, hope. Every day, day after day, the young man searched for anything living, looking for anything he could use to help the world.

He had no true understanding of what he was fighting for, what the world was like before The Great Cataclysm, what he was living for... what was the point of carrying on? Why didn't- Why couldn't he just give up? And rest. Maybe he could just drift off to that nice warm place he saw in his dreams when he closed his eyes. But he couldn't, could he? Why? Silver, himself, could not explain it, but in truth what drove him to fight the dark and glow bright, was Willpower.

Willpower, such a strange, immaterial, positively conceptual idea. How could you even describe it? A kin to valour and bravery, a neighbour to determination, perhaps even heroism. Will is the choosing of freedom, forging one’s own path step by step outside of fate and destiny and pre-determination. Will is the first cause behind any action. Or so I've heard.

Hours had passed, or at least Silver thought so, it was hard to tell. No sun, no moon in the sky. The heavens above were blanketed by a smog of dark clouds of ash and smoke and pollution. Silver had only seen beyond the veil a handful of times, always testing the limits of his strange telekinetic, enigmatic powers - seeing how far he could climb. He refused to be caged by the dark ceiling. And then, one day, he made it, he broke through. And he was met with a gorgeous sight of what he later would find out to be stars, glistening lights speckled across the canvas of space. He was lucky to catch the sight of one of the sparks streaking across the sky, a beautiful purple hue, before his stamina ran out and he fell back down to the cage. And then every subsequent time he visited the beyond, sadly, the purple spec was gone and a little bit of him dimmed too. He tried over and over again, at different times, but he could not find her.

Silver tripped as he explored the old remains of what once was a hospital, because he was too busy gazing at the sky rather than watching his step. You could say he had his head in the clouds. He was distracted. That girl's face kept replaying in his mind, she fogged his mind, though for some reason the thought of her... brought him comfort. Just as much as it did misery. Though now in this moment all the comfort had gone as he laid on the jagged floor of a ruined city street. The thought of her filled him with longing and emptiness. He took a moment and remained still, and silent. He laid there, on the jagged shattered chunks of glass and stone, shrapnel and debris made his bed. Small shallow breaths escaped throat, his chest raising and falling slowly. Though the scorching winds blew loudly and thunder roared in the distance as if gods were battling in the sky, Silver felt... peaceful. He looked around at his surroundings, everything was so still. He had never been so peacefully hopeless and nihilistic.

A question popped into his head; What had he accomplished, in all these years? All this struggling, fighting, and powering-through, and what had he to show for it? He was alone, he found no survivors. His city burned in ruin, no paradise existed. He had vowed to save the world, but to who did he vow this? - the parents that abandoned him as a boy, the survivors that didn't exist? He knew nothing of the old world, didn't even know what he was fighting for. Every day was the same. He wondered, should he just give in? Give up? Let the beast take him? And let himself waste away? What difference would it make? Who would miss him?...

He waited for The Black Racer to come and take him, for kind Death of The Endless to greet him, take his hand and take him away, what tormented afterlife would be worse than this place?... And then, that reflection, that face, that girl - there was still some spark burning inside him and then…

As he stared aimlessly into the darkened, polluted sky, something happened, something returned; he had never seen anything like it before; the sky lit up. A streak of bright green light cut through the veil of clouds and then thundered to earth. Silver heard the BOOM of the crash landing not far off. A shooting star. Silver remained there for a moment, he considered it. And so, he rose up to his feet, he couldn't die on his back - he had to hope, because if he didn't, he'd already lost. He would will his survival. He moved with purpose.

| The Guardians saw it all. That evil was too great to be left unchecked. And so, they gathered to the light. They knew of its variety and strength, and the light with the most power. But they sought their answer in the light of will - to form from it a weapon unequalled, to turn armies to sand. Will, given substance. |

A light fell from the sky. That was new. What did that mean? That never happened before. Was the sky crumbling and falling down on his head? Or was it a sign, a call? Silver did not speculate much, as he more or less moved like on autopilot, his body and muscle memory carried him forward rather than clear thought. The light had landed within the Magnesium Plateau, the old town square back in the day, it seemed. He carefully sidestepped the cracks in the pavement which exuded purple flames, due to the large magnesium deposits underground. Silver had made it, before him was the impact crater, the rimmed ridge formed slightly above his eye line, the hedgehog climbed up and over to investigate the inner contents, but what he found he did not expect. And he quickly rushed into the crater, to their side.

It was a man. An injured man. Silver couldn't tell what species they were; porcupine, mink? Didn't really matter, they needed help, so Silver helped. He was somehow embedded into the ground, he was still hot, piping hot. Did- Did he break through the atmosphere? They wore a strange uniform, a bright glowing green costume, with accents of white and black. The costume bore a symbol at its centre, on his chest, one Silver had never seen before. A green ring with two tangent horizontal lines at its top and bottom, superimposed against a white circle. The strange visitor from the clouds sported a large horn or spike atop his forehead, with light lines running throughout it in an almost circuitry-like pattern. Similar to Silver's owned markings.

Silver spent no time rushing to and kneeling down at the alien’s side, they quickly placed their arms under the green visitor and began to lift them. But a hand rose up, which stopped Silver, the stranger had motioned for Silver to stop and put him down. Disheartened, Silver obliged.

The stranger opened their mouth, in preparation to speak, but Silver stopped him, pleading, “No, please, don't talk, save your strength. Just apply pressure on the wound, breathe slowly. Just- Just wait here, okay? I'll go find some medicine. I can find a med-kit somewhere here, I know I can! Please, just hold on, don't go.”

“It is too late for me.”

“No, no, please don't say that, sir. You'll make it, you'll be alright.” This was the first survivor Silver had ever found, the only other living being as far as Silver knew was still alive besides him. He couldn't- he wouldn't let them down. He wouldn't accept it.

“Please, listen to me, let me meet my final moments with valour and control and satisfaction. Let my words guide you.” Silver pouted mournfully, but nodded understandingly, “You have been chosen. Silver The Hedgehog, you have the ability to overcome great fear. You view all life as precious and worth preserving. You have great willpower. Welcome, to the Green Lantern Corps.” The nigh-magical, emerald, supercomputer ring on Abin’s middle finger lit up aglow and flew off his finger. It looked almost like a firefly, the emerald light reflected in his golden eyes, he almost instinctually reached out with his hand. The limelight was warm. The ring warmed, welcomed him, but it did not go into his palm, but rather it zipped onto his finger.

| The greatest warriors of the universe gathered. |

| The Guardian Ganthet spoke: ‘Stand tall warriors. If we are to be guardians, you are to be our strength. If you are to be our strength, these shall be your arms.’ |

And then, everything changed, a surge diffused through his body as if life itself had returned to him after a long time of absence. His body lifted off the ground and a new sight unfolded before Silver; it was as if he was looking out at the vastness of space, all of its countless stars, through a green tinted lens. A neon energy shot out from the ring, and somehow it was as if light itself was wrapping itself around Silver's body, somehow made tangible, material. Silver felted it morph and adjust to fit his figure, and then a burst of energy emanated from within him. And when he once again touched the ground, he noticed his new uniform.

A skin-tight costume of green, black and white. On his face he wore a green ‘V’-shaped visor, sitting atop his nose almost unnaturally hovering there, in front of his face. His white gloves remained, his greenish-cyan light lines fitting now more than ever. Same was the case with his white boots. A belt sat loosely on his hips. His chest fur still visible over the suit. There, at the centre of his chest, stood a symbol proud and aglow, the same one that Abin bore, a circle was two horizontal tangent lines at the top and bottom, being projected out like a neon sign. For it was the insignia of Oa, The Guardians, of Will itself. “What-” Silver muttered under his breath, almost speechless, and in awe looking down at his hands.

Finally, his golden eyes returned to the fading man at his feet. He spoke out his final words bravely and without a quiver of fear in his voice, “Please remember me, I am Abin Sur. Please remember my name, I was a teacher, husband, and father. Please, if you are able, take my body and bury me on my home world of Ungara, in my mother's flower patch, next to my wife. Find my son, tell him I am sorry, tell him I love him, tell him to let go of all that hate.” A heavy and bloody cough cut through that sentence. Silver jolted forward to help, but there was nothing he could do. “And finally, my last words to you, my heir; Be good... be good...” His voice faded, as so did the light in his eyes, and on the other side of that moment there no longer was a man at his feet, but rather just a body.

Silver stood there for a moment, in silence, with his head bowed, mourning the only other living sentient being he had met within living memory. And suddenly he was all alone once again.

| But then the unexpected happened. They called it an accident. An accident is only the will of the universe expressing itself. And it was the universe’s will that the Lantern be Avra - a mere scribe, chronicler to The Guardians. And so it would be for all time, the rings would choose their successors. |

He took the body in his own hands, gently, and rose to the skies briefly noticing that it wasn't his telekinesis lifting him up but rather... the ring? It coated him in a green aura and carried him in the direction he desired in his mind's eye. Little did he know the aura not only provided him with levitation, but also protection and a personalised breathable atmosphere, adjusted to every species’ unique atmospheric requirements. But the rookie greenhorn hedgehog did not know that just yet.

Silver buried Abin under a pile of debris atop a skyscraper, far from the ground, from the flame of running rivers, where The Beast couldn’t claw at him and pull him down to its realm; He always buried bodies atop the buildings closer to the sky and stars, he thought that maybe it would help them escape out of this awful place, to somewhere nicer, some paradise far, far, away. Of course, Silver had no proof that he was helping in any way or of any real afterlife. But he hoped.

THOOM!

And Silver was knocked down on the ground, some kind of blunt force had struck him, and sent him crashing down through a few floors into a nearby building. Silver massage his head, definitely feeling a headache, but being mostly unharmed due to the ring’s protective aura. He didn't stay on his back for long as a huge green claw took hold of Silver immobilising him. The claw looked like a construct made out of jade crystal. The appendage brought him up closer to Silver's attacker: a caramel-yellow tenrec, with a bellowing poncho and fallen quills, and an angry expression on their face.

Silver gritted his teeth as she spoke to him face to face, “Where did you get that ring from!? Who did you steal it from, huh?! What are you, a Reach puppet, a Dark Star?!”

“I don't know what-”

“Where is Abin Sur!?” She exclaimed and anger.

“I- Abin?... I’m sorry. I- He's dead. I'm sorry. I was just burying him. I'm sorry... But you- you're a person! You're alive! I- I never thought I'd meet another person like me!” He remarked with a weary smile. She did not return it, she turned away from Silver, and closed her eyes, holding back tears.

She flung him back onto the roof, she screamed, “You lie!”

Still bound in the emerald construct, Silver struggled against its power. But he noticed something, something truly spectacular - the pincer claw was coming from the tenrec’s ring. A ring like his. And from it another construct emerged; Some strange surgical tool that Silver didn't recognise. It was veering up to life, and closing in on his ring finger. “I want it off.” She remarked sternly and cold.

Silver was done playing passive, he was getting angry, and tired of being swung around. She could do things with her ring so maybe he could too, he reasoned. He tightened his fist and focused his mind on the ring. It glew bright. Silver reached out and expanded his limbs and broke through the construct’s hold on him. The jade shattered like glass and he decided it was his turn to go on the offensive. The grey hedgehog reeled back his arm and fist - a green light covered his fist as he launched at his attacker. The tenrec formed a brick wall in front of her within a split second. Silver’s fist collided with the wall, shattering it, but losing all of his momentum and kinetic energy with it. The tenrec was sent back, but unharmed. She readied her ring and launched back into a counter-attack. Silver shot forward to meet her. But they were both stopped by a barrier that separated them forcibly forced them to slow down.

A voice came from above, cool and smooth, matter-of-factly but stern. “Well, well, well, looks like we've got ourselves a fighter, that's good. We need that. Stand down, Sergeant.”

“But Mephiles-” Gold protested, but this ‘Mephiles’ interrupted her.

“Ring. Authority print: 1417. State your designation?”

The ring on Silver's finger lit up and spoke out which surprised the unexpecting hedgehog, “2006.”

“It is true, then... Abin Sur is dead.”

“Are you really just going to trust a random anomaly!? No one’s even supposed to exist in his in this time! Isn't it convenient that Abin dies here and there's someone just ready to take the ring!? Why didn't return to Oa instead?!”

“The ring authenticated itself, it is no facsimile, and if that is the case then no force in the universe could have forced that ring on his hand. He is worthy.”

Silver, annoyed, raised his voice and snapped at the two alien strangers, wearing his own stern face dominated by a frown, “Excuse me, could you explain yourselves!? Who are you? Where did you come from?... Why did you attack me?” That last question came out more sad and whimpery than he had intended. He was genuinely hurt.

Arms behind his back, the leader of the two flyers hovered towards Silver, “Forgive me and my partner, for our rude manners, or lack there of. My name is Mephiles, Thaal Mephiles.” Silver now had a better look at the stranger with the perfect straight posture, black fur with greyish-purpleish accents on the tips of his quills. Unlike the other uniforms Mephiles’ wasn't green but rather black and purple, with a zigzag, jester-like pattern on his chest, “You've already met our charming Drill-Sergeant Katma Gold. You must forgive her, she has a right to feel such distress. Our dear Abin Sur, was her partner, you see. One of the best. As far as Green Lanterns go, he was the finest.”

“... I'm sorry, for your loss.” Silver offered his condolences. Gold did not respond. She turned away just so she wouldn’t have to look at him. This led Silver to approach the conversation from a different angle, “You mentioned a word; Green Lantern?”

“Yes, it must be tough running without a manual. Perhaps it's time for a history lesson.” Silver took a step back in shock as an entire model of a solar system unfolded from Mephiles’ ring, changing the environment around them. “Green Lanterns are the stewards of the space-time continuum. We are Green Lanterns, and now, seeing as Abin’s ring has chosen you, you are too. We hail from all across time and space, however we operate as a corps from the planet Oa, at the centre of the universe, present all throughout time. We are the heralds of the Time-Guardians, the time keepers, one of the eldest races who have existed since the dawn of creation.” Thaal transformed the image conjured by his ring into a representation of the mentioned Guardians, a form Silver could hardly comprehend. “At the dawn there was chaos and at the dusk there was death, The Oans saw it all. And fashioned us our rings, out of the green light of Will from The Emotional Spectrum - An invisible force which binds all things together, created by all living, feeling beings in the universe who in turn feed off of it to live and simply be, be sentient. The Oans sought to bring order, structure, and safety to the continuum, dividing the hyper-time into 3,600 Sectors, each sector being overseen by a pair of Lanterns from that native time. From The Great Ignition to The Heat Death of the universe, protecting and defending all that is, was, and will be. For instance; I am of sector 1,417, from the planet Korugar. As part of the Honour Guard I am given the authority to travel back and forth between Sectors and deal with extreme threats and supervise other Reg-Lanterns, not that you are regular in any way, Kat.”

“Hmm.”

“Hence me being here, and asking for aid from Gold and... Abin, the native Lanterns of this Sector.”

“2,006.” Silver finished.

“Correct. At least now we know you're a good listener.”

“But wait, you said I wasn't even supposed to be here. But you're from this time.” Silver pointed to Gold, “That- that must mean there are others, other survivors! There’s no way… I can't be the only one… alone. There have to be others.”

“Hmm. You are a curious case, my boy. The Book of Oa and all the records held within state that there are no survivors of The Cataclysm, which brought the end of Sector 2,005 and the beginning of 2,006. Sergeant Gold hails from Korugar same as I, another world lightyears away, only several ages in the future from my ‘present’. Apologies if it's a little confusing.”

“Yeeeah.”

“You must forgive, my colleague’s wordage, but you are indeed something we would classify as an ‘anomaly’. You must understand, you... existing, proves The Book of Oa wrong, that does not happen often. I do not know how you have come to be here, you are a curiosity to be sure.”

“So… What? Am I?... Was I not meant to be here?... Was I meant to be born in some other time? Some other place? I wasn't meant to live out my days alone in this nightmare?!” Silver clenched his fists and swung his arm angrily to the side in thin air, which caused the side of a skyscraper to collapse and crumble from his telekinetic aura.

Mephiles saw the fire in Silver, both the bright, and the unstable, and saw the opportunity in it, he sought to use it, “I, personally have to say, that I do not know. Anomalies, ‘glitches’ in time are not unheard of hence our purpose; Mending events that would otherwise alter the timeline in... unforeseen ways. We are here to maintain peace and order.” This made Silver perk up, a glimmer of hope returning to his eyes.

“Wait, that's right! The Cataclysm! That must be one of those ‘glitches’! None of this was meant to happen! We- We can fix all of this! That's why you're here, isn’t it?”

Gold was about to open her mouth, when Mephiles interrupted her, spinning his web, “Yes. Yes, you can, son.” Gold looked shocked, eyes wide, wordless and disappointed. Mephiles continued before she could interject, “The reason why I was assigned to this high profile case was because I was tracking The Oan's own greatest sin. One of their own number, a rogue element. An entity of fear itself. The Yellow Element. The parasite. Parallax.” His voice quivered at the pronunciation.

“Wait, do you mean- The Beast, The Iblis?”

Mephiles quirked a brow, “You know of the monster? You have lived under its reign and lived to give it a name?... you truly are something else, uhhmm--”

“Silver. My name's Silver The Hedgehog.”

“Well, Silver The Hedgehog of Sector 2,006 it seems that you are our only hope. You're a survivor, and you're intimate with the lay of the land. You very well may be the key to all of this. I have a proposition for you, if you're willing to listen. Come with us, aid us in our mission to capture, contain, and destroy The Yellow Element, save your home from this desolation and make the universe a safer place for all, everywhere... or you can hand in the ring and return to being... Disadvantaged. But I see the fire in your eyes, Silver. You don't give up, you're not a bystander of someone else’s story, you're a champion, you've got a burning will like no other. You're a hero.” Silver was taken aback by that, speechless, and flustered, the first and only praise and compliment he had ever gotten. Mephiles extended his hand to Silver, “Am I right?” Silver wordlessly nodded and took his hand, and shook it. And so, they set off.

Silver led the way, he knew well how to track The Beast, attempted to face and vanquish it many times before, but never succeeded. But now, maybe-- maybe things could change. Most of the journey Gold played the back seat, stewing and giving her superior judgmental glares from behind. Mephiles paid it little mind as he narrated the journey, “First some clerical work; Your ring, it has the potential to be the greatest weapon in the universe, but in essence it is simply a conduit, a funnel. Allowing you to tap into your will, your very spirit, shape it and give it form by your creativity, by all means your only limitation is your imagination. The ring is the means by which thought becomes matter. Think it, imagine it, feel it, believe it, and it shall be so. Your ring is powered by your will, as long as you hold valour, drive, initiative, bravery, and motivation close to your heart you will never be powerless, but the ring at the end of the day is a device, a highly advanced supercomputer, but a device nonetheless. So, every Lantern is issued a portable Power Battery with which you can charge your ring, and knowing Abin his ring’s probably running low, that daredevil needed more fear in him, I knew it’d kill him one day...”

Silver attempted to change the topic as he noticed Gold grimace behind them, “... Charge?... charge how?”

Mephiles snapped his fingers and a booming sound of wind brushing could have been heard, a green blur of light beamed from the dark sky above and flew perfectly into Mephiles’ hand. He didn't even flinch. In his hand he now held a metallic emerald tinted old-timey lantern. Or at least it resembled one somewhat. Instead of a flame inside it had a glowing core of radiant light. “This is a Power Battery. Abin’s battery to be specific. To charge your ring, one must point their ring at the core and recite The Oath. It's a password of sorts, an unlocking mechanism, for the supercomputer housed inside.”

Gold interjected, “It's a ritual. The sacred appeal to the great Ion, a permission to use its might, and a promise to use it responsibly. A sacred, Mystic ritual.” Silver watched Mephiles narrow his eyes at her, they were butting heads, they weren’t fans of each other, clearly.

THOOM! A thundering crash reverberated throughout the city, the sound of skyscrapers falling down, the earth shattering and lava plumes jetting up from beneath the surface. They felt the air super heat and increase in pressure - enough to sting their eyes. “The Beast. It has re-emerged.” Silver remarked.

“You know the way?”

“I do.”

“Then by all means, hero, lead on.” Mephiles proclaimed. And so he did.

| Avra spoke: ‘Will can do more than pave our retreat. Will is the first cause behind any action. We must will our survival. |

He knew this city, he had traversed it a thousand times, he knew the best hiding spots, the safest routes, and what areas to avoid. His knowledge was invaluable on the journey. Gold questioned why they had taken the trek on foot, Silver explained that bright colours often attracted the hordes, and they did not want to alert The Beast to their presence. The track was far from easy, but it was significantly less perilous thanks to the newly found might of the ring. But it had Silver wondering, would it be enough?

“Do you really believe you can kill The Iblis? I've been trying my entire life, numerous times, and never succeeded. The Beast simply reemerges after each conflict, renewed. Feeding off of the soil and the earth, devouring life to maintain itself, the parasite.”

Silver gritted his teeth, clenched his fist, in anger. Mephiles saw the flame grow within the boy, “Parallax is no simple beast, but rather a physical manifestation of a metaphysical concept, fear itself. You cannot destroy fear. It is the mightiest emotion, the cause behind any and all action, it keeps us in line, keeps us alive, it makes the world go round, in a way.”

“So, there is no hope?”

“But-- let me finish, we can contain it. The portable Power Battery I showed you is a downsized version of the Central Power Battery stationed on Oa at Battery Square, it holds the might of the entire Corps, and as Gold believes, the entity of Willpower, the great Ion. The Power Battery is believed to be an indestructible monument created by The Guardians. Inside it burns a core of pure willpower warmer than any quasar, and containing a gravitational field stronger than any black hole. The Guardians theorised that we could imprison Parallax within it, and then its directionless chaos,” he turned to place a hand on Silver's shoulder, “-and save this and every time. All of it.”

Mephiles was only a head or so taller than Silver, but it was clear he was looking up to him as he often did to others for guidance, “I suppose this is the best to the odds have looked in a while.”

“Of course they do. Greater things are always possible through a force rather than as an individual. The Green Lantern Corps is proof of that much… though... We could ... go further, do more, employ more... comprehensive measures to secure the cosmos.”

“And that's what you do? This Corps of yours? Go around, help people, keep them safe? Protect the innocent? Be heroes? And there is more of you?”

“Of course, Silver. I promise you every word I speak is the truth - all I have ever desired in this life has been to bring peace and order at any cost. No chaos. No more hurt. No more apocalypses. And with what might transpire here today, we might-- just might transform that desire into a shared reality. That all depends on you, my boy, and your eagerness and the choices you will make today.”

“I-- I want to help. I want to go with you. I want to see what's out there. I want to do good.”

“I thought that. Luckily, we stumbled across your noble soul, the ring chose well.” Mephiles had climbed over a small ridge of debris, he knelt down and reached out his hand to help pull Silver up. Perhaps this... was who he saw in his mind's eye in every reflection instead of his own. Silver took his hand, and put his weight onto them - another living being for the first time in this life. Perhaps this was what he had been missing, a partner. “And who knows, mayhaps, this Yellow Element will allow us to surpass our limits, and bring proper order and authority for the betterment of all.”

“Which would be improper and unlawful, as attempting to wield any other light of The Electromagnetic Emotional Spectrum is outlawed and forbidden by decree of The Time-Guardians. As no one being should be given such power.” Gold interrupted once more from behind, outraged by what she had heard.

“Yes, yes, quite right.” Mephiles spoke out with thinly veiled irritation as he rolled his eyes, “The eternal wisdom of The Guardians blesses us once again.” He spoke the next part quieter, “What would we do without them?” Gold thought she had gotten him to shut up finally as he fell silent for a moment, but he returned, he couldn’t leave a conversation he hadn’t won, “But, for the sake of argument. Let us say our faith is true, Sergeant. That we're eternally stuck within and between an endless tug of war between The Entity at The Ignition of Creation and Necron who presides at The Heat Death of The Universe. We’re prisoners within our own lives. So small in comparison to the vastness of space and time. The Sectors form our own jail bars. Therefore, wouldn't it be within one's desire to stand up above these bars, and break out of our linear lives, with whatever tools available to us, wouldn't you say, Silver?” Silver did not know how to respond.

Gold huffed annoyed and growled to herself in anger, she needed to cool off, and physically make some distance between her and Mephiles. “I'm going to patrol this route- Don't. Bother. Following.” She glided away, fists clenched. All Mephiles responded with was a ‘hmm’.

“I-- I'll check up on her. Make sure she doesn't wander off.” Silver remarked.

Mephiles waved him off, matter-of-factly, “By all means, be my guest, waste your time. I have a field report to file anyhow.”

Silver didn't wait for permission, he lifted himself with his ring and zoomed down the ruined side street, he had caught up with Gold easily enough, she luckily hadn't ventured far. The tenrec had sat herself down on a flat slab of volcanic rock and had taken to skipping stones across the lava lake in front of her. She was tense, angry. Silver could tell. The green aura around her burned bright, he could feel the air pressure increase around her. The asphalt around them had flaked and fractured, she was muttering angrily to herself. Silver slowly approached her on foot, making a perfect landing. It seemed that thanks to his natural telekinetic powers he was a near-natural with his rain. He stood there, silent, searching for what words to use, he had very little experience with interacting with other people. He had no clue how to reach out or comfort someone. “What do you want? I'll be there in a moment, I just need a minute.”

“No, I get it, I get it. I... I get angry too sometimes, even when I don't want to be, I need space to cool off too.”

“So why won't you leave me?”

“Because deep down I secretly wanted to talk to someone about all the thoughts rushing through my head, or at least I wanted someone to vent to.” Gold didn't respond, she just sat there, still, looking away from him. Silver sighed, “I'm sorry, about Abin Sur, your partner...” No response from Gold, “I-- I know you probably can't even look at me, without it hurting. I'm sorry. I wish it wouldn't be like this, but even if you do hate me-- I just want you to know that I'm still happy to have met you both, to know that I'm not alone.” Gold perked her ears up, her head turned around to him ever so slightly. She wasn't remorseless, she was hurt. But she herself did not know how to reach out to him, not now.

“Yeah...”

“Y- You know, I know it's-- I know how you feel.”

“You? You know how I feel? How could you possibly?” Silver wondered if he should have revealed it to another, share that half remembered dream, on the other side of each glass he passed that surely couldn't be real, “... Because I, once, had a partner to... she was very near and dear to me.”

“You had a partner?... I had no idea.”

“It feels like a lifetime ago now. Like a dream, of a life too good to be true... I see her everywhere I go, where my shadow should be, tethered to me. Perhaps it's a gift, perhaps it's simply the universe mocking me. Because every time I see her, I see me, letting her go. It's me who condemns her. I'm the one who's never strong enough to hold on.”

Clearly touched by this, Gold gestured for the hedgehog to sit down with her, at her side. He did so, accepting her generous gesture. “You know,” she began without any real destination in mind, “When Abin locked on to The Parallax’s signal, he went on his own, we were partners, I should have been with him, but I was busy Sectors away. Maybe if I was with him-- maybe if we had swapped patrols or shifts-- maybe if I did something differently he'd still be alive.”

“Maybe.” Silver remarked, “Or maybe you’d both be gone now. You never know.” He attempted to console her, “Maybe you being here and now will snowball into something positive. Maybe all this will led to a better sunrise.”

“Hmm. Maybe.” She retorted with a small smile. It seemed that her ploy had worked. The two sat there, in the moment, considering each others’ words – actually beginning to enjoy each others’ presence. Enjoying the fact that they weren’t alone for a moment.

But the smile soon faded from the tenrec’s face and was replaced by a cold serious frown, she turned to Silver, “You seem like a good guy. So, a word of caution; Be careful around Mephiles.”

“What? Why? What’s wrong with him?”

“Have you not seen the way he speaks? About The Guardians. About everyone, everything, he speaks with venom.”

“He seems… critical.”

“No, no he hates them. He hates all life – sees it akin to cattle, needing to be herded, ordered.” She looked off into the distance with misery and anger. Silver pouted, he had much to think over. “Silver…” The words struggled to make their way out of her throat, forming up a lump in her throat. She didn’t want to crush the boy’s bright hope, but she would not let him believe in a lie. He looked up at her with his big wet puppy eyes. “…You know, that we can’t fix your time… your world. Mephiles — lied. He does that. Everything that leaves his mouth is a veiled dagger. I— I’m sorry.”

Silver’s eyes searched her face for some clause, some ‘but’ or ‘if’, some joke or prank, some pulling of the carpet from under his feet, but it never came. She spoke the genuine truth. “…I— What do you mean? What are you saying?- This. All of this-” He gestured to their surroundings by flailing his arm in an arc, “Was meant to happen?!” Gold knew not how to respond to him. “How could that be possible?! How could the end of everything be meant to happen!?”

“I’m sorry, Silver.”

“…There has to be something we can do.”

“There is, Silver.” She reached out her hand, but pulled back before she could make contact, too afraid of the closeness, “This isn’t the end of everything, just the end of something. There will be life reborn anew in the coming billion years or so. And you- you can come with us, you can help us protect it all. We can truly do some good.” Gold attempted oh so hard to inspire the crushed hedgehog. Her hand finally found its way to his shoulder, and landed with a gentle impact. “And, well, look at you – you’re here. Maybe there are others that we can find. You could help our scholars uncover pages never thought to be written.”

A small movement of what could have been a smile graced his face, but only for a second, “Hmm, that’s a nice way to put it.”

“Do you have any… good memories, of your partner? What was her name? How did you meet?”

“I-… I don’t- ”

Gold interjected quickly, “No, it’s okay, if it is too painful to recall. You mustn’t have to.”

“No, it’s- I wish I could. But so much of her is… a haze. Most of her comes to me… in dreams. A life so vivid it brings me to tears each time, but the moment I awaken it’s all gone, forgotten all over again. I dream of her every night. Someone I feel I know so intimately, yet someone I’m not allowed to get to know more.”

“…This, girl… comes to you in a dream?”

“I know it sounds silly- ”

“Silver, are you sure- this girl… is real? And not just a figment of your- ”

“No! I’m not crazy! She’s- She’s real… I’m not crazy.”

“…”

Then, Silver caught something just at the corner of his eye - just in time to save her life, “Look out!” Silver pushed Gold out of the way saving her from the maw of a charging beast, its throat and chest glowing with heat like a furnace. Claws like jagged rocks. It quickly corrected itself and snapped at Silver, who was facing away from it at the moment. Luckily Gold wasn't. She held out her ring and formed an emerald simulation of a riptide, which washed the monster away. Silver got up and pulled Gold up with him. “There's never, just one. We need altitude.” And as they ascended upward right on cue the horde of stone beasts burst through the nearby building out of the lake of fire and from every other direction - they scrambled and scaled over each other, forming mounts of writhing stone in attempt to reach the Lanterns.

Gold swung her ring at the horde; launching a wave of saw blades that made mince meat out of the demons. Which she followed up on with conjuring a hailstorm of swords that nailed the beasts to the ground. Silver however was struggling more so, all he could conjure was a singular green beam from his ring, that cut through the beasts’ ranks, but not fast enough.

“Silver, you have to conjure a construct!” She explained as she swatted away a handful of monsters with a giant jade mallet. “The ring is the conduit to your creativity and imagination, the more detailed or the more emotionally resonant to the person, the more powerful the construct!”

“What?! How?! How do I make... shapes?” A monster charged and managed to cage Silver in a bear hug from the behind, which prompted the hedgehog to shoot out his quills piercing the beast and shrugging him off with an energy burst of telekinetic power.

Silver opened his mouth, intending to argue, he did not understand-- but there was no time for doubt. He closed his mouth. Something within him trusted her. He went over Gold's words in his mind. He took a breath in and closed his eyes - he raised his ring. He reached within himself, for something intangible, something ethereal, something he had no word for before today. The part of self that he drew power from, the very thing that fuelled his natural telekinetic power, the very thing that drove him to never give in, to get up each morning into a doomed world with no sunshine, no people, and yet he chose to endure, to fight, to live.

| He held his first construct. |

He reached for that - that willpower. And when he pulled it out, with it came a blinding green light that covered him, and above Silver stood the construct of a giant, a woman coated in flame whose fist descended upon the demons and wiped them out with her green wave of flame.

Silver opened his eyes, surprised himself, of what he had brought forth. The giant woman rose and turned to face him. They gazed at each other for a brief moment. Silver thought there was almost a look of recognition, but it was just his mind playing tricks on him, it wasn't really her. And as soon as that realisation crossed his mind she faded away. Once again.

“That... was quite impressive, you’re a natural.”

“Thanks.”

“We should alert and regroup with Thaal, we're stronger together.”

“... yeah.” They flew off, in search of their third member.

“... Was that her?”

“...”

“Okay... okay... Aya, locate Lantern 1417; Thaal Mephiles.”

The ring responded with a female computerised voice, “Unable to locate Lantern 1417 due to mass Yellow Element interference.”

“Hmm, then that must mean we're getting closer to The Parallax.”

“Or it's getting closer to us. The Iblis has a tendency to find me wherever I go or hide, as if its only purpose in life was to torment me.”

The two Lanterns crossed the blackened sky, leaving a streak of green across a lightless canvas. The only other colour among the smog of black and red where the peculiar veins of yellow that ran through the scorched earth. A sight Silver knew all too well as a resident of this hellish world, an indicator of which areas to avoid, “This Yellow Element; it wouldn't take form as yellow crystals, would it?”

“In its physical form, yes, much like our rings are of the green light of The Electromagnetic Emotional Spectrum. But the Yellow Element’s true form is fear itself, if The Book of Oa is to be believed. Do you know of such crystalline structures?”

“I do. And I've spent most of my time avoiding them, they have an effect on your mind. Gives you nightmares... makes you relive your greatest failures. It also indicates that The Beast’s primary form is near.”

“Indeed, be careful, it is said that the yellow light is so corrosive and corruptive that it could counter and pierce our green constructs.”

“Wonderful.”

Just then a thundering cracking sound could have been heard for all as it echoed throughout the city, like ice glaciers shattering. They could not have reacted in time, as a gathering of brimstone spires stabbed out of the ground causing a massive skyscraper off to the side to topple over on top of them. “Silver! Merge construct: Car Jack!”

“What!?”

THOOM! The building crashed on top of them, crushing them against the earth floor, kicking up a dust storm for miles around. And the hordes did not stop, they approached the crash site. They would soon be overrun.

However, in the meanwhile, under the streets of Crisis City, once in its heyday known as Ranx, something far more insidious was taking place. In what once were the subway tunnels of the once prosperous city, now covered in yellow crystalline matter, treked an inquisitive Thaal Mephiles. He hovered calmly through the sub levels, all the lava beasts fell into pieces around him as his constructs defended him; Various torture tools making quick work of the stone demons, he passed along without paying them much mind. He was traversing deeper into the perimeter of The Beast, the closer to the source the more potent the crystals became, soon enough his green ring would stop functioning, but that did not concern him. The only thing on his mind was the journey of how he got here - it truly felt like everything, his entire life, had been building up to this. This was his time.

His memory wound time back to a life when he was but a young anthropologist studying the ruins of dead civilizations, the wars that made and fell them. A time in his life before the ring had found him, how could he have lived without all that power? So weak, so frail. It was a lifetime ago now, but he remembered the day well, the day a green shooting star fell down from the night sky at his feet. A Green Lantern, the first he had ever seen, mortally wounded.

The dying Lantern summoned Mephiles to him with their ring and gifted it to Mephiles who the ring found worthy, a man who had the ability to overcome great fear. And overcome it he did. Soon enough the fallen Lantern’s pursuers made themselves seen; Horrid filth and grime of the universe, The Great Weaponer's, The Qwardians. Weapons dealers, war bringers, chaos seeders, the greatest criminal element in the known cosmos. Mephiles had no qualms about dispatching them, and even took pleasure in it. Though not as much as he'd like, for as he pointed his ring at the conquered Weaponers of Qward to end their miserable lives, the ring would not let him. It spoke: “Temporary Lantern of Sector 1417, lethal force is not authorised.” A shame it was, in his opinion. He returned to the fallen, bleeding Lantern who had survived the battle, it had turned out. The Lantern of course thanked Mephiles for his valiant help and said that he would speak highly of him across the stars for years to come. But then, the Lantern asked for their ring back, to call for help, to help maintain his declining health in the meantime. But Mephiles could not part with the power. His will was stronger than that of the dying man, the Lantern could not summon the ring back to their hand. And Mephiles simply watched the Lantern die out slowly.

And, in his mind, he went on to become one of the greatest Lanterns within Oan recorded history, and use his ring to bring order and authority to his home world of Korugar, becoming the unofficial law of his government, strong arming the politicians from behind the scenes. But his true passion did not leave him in his later law man years uncovering the past secrets of his world. Fortunately, as a Lantern he found a fellow Lantern who shared his fascination with history and its various mysteries. The passionate Abin Sur. They shared and discussed their theories and discoveries. Abin had been a teacher on his homeworld before being granted the ring. Mephiles shared his dogmatic obsession with the enigmatic all powerful Yellow Element which was rumoured to lay deep within the purely-theoretical anti-matter universe. Which just so happened to be the rumoured home of the Qwardians, which he so hated. Though he never found the mythic entrance to it, the planet Qward, though he never stopped looking.

All while Abin shared his own great fascination and fixation, The Prophecy of The Blackest Night. A war of light between all the emotions of the spectrum that would burn the face of Oa black. Which would usher death to walk on earth on two feet and claim the universe as its own with an army of the dead. But this darkest hour would bring upon a hero unlike any other - The most powerful of the Lanterns, who'd be comprised of every light, the one who would bring upon a new sunrise. A Miracle Maker, as the texts pronounced them, a healer who would heal hearts from hate and greed, shield the dead and bring them back to life. The great travel Lantern who wielded the first ring of the first Lantern. The White Lantern; Who shall bring up on The Brightest Day.

Oh how did he miss those long chats, Abin was one of the few people Mephiles could stomach, and now he was gone. But enough of that, no more looking to the past, now it was time to look to the future. There it was, a pure and potent yellow crystal, a blackened core stood at its centre. As suspected his ring began to malfunction and fade. Mephiles raised his hand and clenched his fist. SHUNK. A purple crystalline blade extended from his forearm, exuded radiant dark power. And slashed at the crystal spike, slicing it in half. He caught it in his other hand as the spike fell. He raised it up to his face illuminating his maddened features. He glared at it in awe and wonder. There it lay, within his grasp, the answer to everything, in his hand he held the potential greatest weapon in the universe. A tool with which he would bring true peace and order to the universe. With this he would wipe out the criminal filth from the face of the cosmos. And take what he saw in his mind as his righteous vengeance.

For years ago, when Mephiles was still but a greenhorn, he bit off more than he could chew, when he attempted to control the authorities of his world, as there were others who stood against his ironfist rule. He still remembered the crowd, the chaos, the randomness of it.

His family had come out to cheer him on, and that-- that anarchist, he came out of nowhere, Mephiles didn't even see him approach. He only heard the explosion… He wished to visit the wrath upon the insurgents a thousand fold, but the ring would not let him. And on that day Mephiles believed he had discovered a flaw in The Guardians’ design for The Green Lanterns. He believed the corps could not go far enough, there were some places in the vast universe that needed to be burned down to the ground. The Guardians did not share his perspective.

But now in his hand he held the answer to that flaw, an opportunity to create a weapon that would surpass The Oans’ ring. To enforce order through fear, something that could put him on equal level to The Guardians to break free from his chains, no longer bound in this linear cage. With fear he would punish the wicked, all because he could not accept the randomness, the entropy of it all.

The subway tunnels trembled and shook, the ceiling began to give way and collapse inward. Mephiles clutched the yellow element and hid it within his suit, ringless he shot upward through the cement up to the surface. Where his ring began to function once more. He was greeted by the sight of Gold and Silver taking on an entire horde wave of stone beasts. It was total mayhem, pandemonium, Mephiles joined his cohorts in repelling the siege. Mephiles was even saved by Silver who formed the construct of a giant beanstalk that tore a lunging demon apart before it could make it to Mephiles, he thanked him, “My thanks, Silver. You seem to be getting a hang of the ring slinging, heh, and without a manual.”

“Who's Emmanuel?”

“...What?”

“Gentlemen, could we focus?”

“Merge constructs!” Mephiles exclaimed.

“How do I?- ”

“Let your mind flow, fill in the missing pieces that we will leave for you, we’ll take the lead, fall in step with the rhythm of our constructs. Think it, will it. Take inspiration from our surroundings! Ready? Merge constructs: Skyscraper! Descended on our location!” The three Lanterns stood back-to-back to each other and raised their rings to the skies, Silver followed their lead. The horde scrambled underneath them attempting to reach their light. Silver watched in awe as green constructs began to materialise around him from thin air. Entire floors of nigh-realistic detail formed before his eyes, brick by brick, girder by girder assembled like a puzzle, floors passing him by with accelerating speed. The newly formed skyscraper descended and pierced into the ground annihilating the swarm underneath, sending shockwaves and tremors for miles around, shattering the earth. The emerald construct drilled into the ground like a nail driven in by a hammer. After a moment of mayhem, a disquiet came over the battlefield, and once they were sure the threat had passed the build faded away, and the Lanterns could sigh in brief relief.

“Good work, greenhorn”

“Did-- I did that?”

“But a fraction of our power - strength in numbers and all that.”

KRSHUUM! KRSHH! KRACKSHH!!

“What was-- did our construct destabilise the city’s foundational tectonics?” Gold questioned in concern, “Maybe we exuded too much power! We should have been more careful.”

“No.” Silver grimaced, “This isn't us… It's awakened again. The Beast. The Iblis.”

The earth erupted with towering plumes of lava! Streets came undone. Buildings fell by the wayside. A ravine of lava formed before them and from its centre slowly emerged a dark, seared, charred mass. The air began to sting. The dark clouds began to stir and an animalistic cry sounded out like thunder across all of Crisis City. A primal roar like a hurricane, spelling disaster. It was enough to put fear into the heart of the young haunted hedgehog, and the ring on his finger loosened ever so slightly. The Green Lanterns conquers fear, but could he? Doubt was his second nature. And as he witnessed to the eternal nightmare rise before him he could feel his metal being tested. This was it. “Here goes everything.”

The Iblis had emerged. The manifestation of the apocalypse had arrived.

The Beast’s roar shattered any remaining windows in the city, and it gave Silver pause. “Silver, no time to freeze up.” She summoned the battery to her side, “Silver, take your power battery and pincer it, we can't contain it permanently but we can cage it temporarily, while we contact the Corps for reinforcements and trap The Parallax within the Central Power Batter- ”

“Gold, look out!” Silver exclaimed as he leapt towards Gold, trying to push her out of the way of the enormous yellow beam erupting from The Iblis’ maw, but he wasn't fast enough. The force of the beam pushed him back. It shot right through them into the horizon creating a massive searing hole within a distant skyscraper behind them. Gold had taken the brunt of the force of the beam - she plummeted to the ground like a stone down to the ocean floor. As soon as Silver managed to steady himself he shot off to check up on Gold on the ground level.

This sight, this feeling, of letting someone down, it was all too familiar for him, and he didn't like it. He transitioned from flight into a full on sprint as he touched down onto the ground and descended into the crater. And gently lifted the groaning Gold covered in bruises and burns. Silver began to panic, “Gold! No, no, no. Please don't go, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry.” He could feel moisture building up at the corners of his eyes. It was happening all over again. He was letting it all slip between his fingers! His second chance was crumbling before his eyes. As his anxiety took root in his mind reality began to fade in and out but Silver didn't have the awareness to tell it apart. Flashes of Abin-- of Blaze flashed before his eyes. “Blazey, I’m- ”

Gold’s eyes shot wide open, “Silver, behind you!” The hedgehog turned around just in time to face The Iblis’ enormous fist as it stormed on top of him. In one swift motion Silver encased Gold in a protective green bubble and swung her out of the way which only left Silver a split second to create a half-formed shield which shattered like a frail sheet of brittle glass upon the impact.

Which sent him flying through a series of buildings, across the length of the city, skipping him like a stone across a pond. Disappearing over the horizon. Gold reached out for him, but he was already gone to her eye, “Silver! No.” She whispered softly. The pain, the guilt, the shame, was all that passed through her mind - she had now allowed two partners to die on her watch in the span of one day.

But she was not allowed to grieve for long as Mephiles pulled her up onto her feet.

“On your feet, sergeant! Or you’ll die on your knees!”

“But Silver- ”

“Is gone! But we’re still standing. And if you wish to mourn him I suggest you stand and fight!” But it was too late. The Beast had turned its gaze back to The Lanterns, like a burning spotlight. They turned their rings to the monster, but nothing came of it – The Parallax’s power negated their constructs, the Yellow Element empowered by their paralytic fear had done its job. Powerless, they prepared for the end, which stared them in the eye.

…

Silver awoke in pitch blackness, or... was he awake at all? Wait, wasn't he just in Crisis City? Where was he? Wasn't he just-- Gold! Was she okay?! Did he-- did he get her out of the way in time? He had to get back! He had to protect them. He now had someone to actually fight for, to protect, he was fighting for something more than just a dream. “I'm going back! You hear me?! You can't keep me here! You-- you can't keep me apart from them! You can't make me alone!” He felt every emotion, a dozen of thoughts passing through his mind, his head was buzzing, and the dark space around him began to swirl - And soon it felt like he was standing within the eye of the storm. Colours began to bleed into the black, first Violet which brought with it the flash of a purple cat, she was smiling but why did it make him so sad? Yellow brought with it a bruised Gold tenrec lying on the ground. Red brought The Beast and its internal flames. Pink showed him a girl taking his hand leading him to a world of new friends. Blue carried with it a canvas of clear skies the likes of which Silver had never witnessed before. Orange brought a mournful scene of a little orange pup falling asleep. And Green brought a reflection of himself. He smiled. Silver smiled back.

And so, the void transformed into a bright space of pure white. He felt something surge through him that drove him forth, purpose, no - life, itself. Silver felt every emotion of the Spectrum radiated through him, and his spirit began to glow:

Compassion.

Fear.

Hate.

Love.

Hope.

Greed.

Will.

He felt his eyes open and the darkness was gone. The rubble and debris around him rose upward and parted out of his way. The young hedgehog shot forth from the shallow grave, he recognised the monster looming in the horizon. And he went straight forward to! He lit up the dark sky, and he brought a new sunrise with him. The ring felt strange, different on his finger, but it didn't matter to Silver, all he saw was Gold and Mephiles in trouble and that was all that took to have him leap head first into danger, against Armageddon itself. Silver screamed at the top of his lungs as he reeled back his arm clenching his fist. He approached at the speed of light with the might of a radiance sun. He changed the wind direction, raised the temperature and brought along daytime with him. Iblis saw him as did Gold and Mephiles. All in awe of what they saw.

And though The Parallax was but an animalistic beast - for a moment it seemed like, for the first time in its long lifespan, it looked afraid. Its wide eyes betrayed fear. The white streak cleaved the sky in half and impacted The Iblis with a sound akin to that of a sound barrier breaking. The impact shattered The Iblis’ rock hide, forcing its head back, Silver's fist dug into the monster’s cheek. The Beast attempted to resist the force of the hit, pushing up against it. But it was not to be. Cracks and fractures cut across its entire body. Silver's fist formed a transparent drill of pure energy, his ring no longer an emerald green, but rather a platinum, chrome white. And his form began to shift between each and every colour, his suit changing with it. Until his form settled upon white. And with that final shift, Iblis’ form gave way and shattered. CRACK. THOOM. It echoed throughout the lands like thunder. The rubble showered upon Gold and Mephiles. Gold summoned an umbrella over herself, while Mephiles was too entranced in watching Silver above them.

Gold, too, was mesmerised, “The legends, they’re true.”

Mephiles whispered to himself, “The White Lantern.”

Silver seemed shocked too at what he had done as he looked down at his own hands... He had done it. He did it. After all these years, of pain and torment. He had finally done everything he promised he'd do; the endless night was no more. The hedgehog slowly descended down to his Lantern teammates. His White Lantern form faded away like petals in the wind, revealing his standard green uniform underneath, he looked up at Gold and smiled, “Are you guys okay?” Gold just burst out into manic laughter falling to the ground. Gold’s laugh was just too infectious and soon Silver himself was sharing in the mirth.

Mephiles was however not sharing in the laughter, still speechless – in awe. His eyes were still  stuck on the boy, mesmerised – replaying what had just happened in his mind. He was stunned but no thoughts of his own passed through his mind. Eventually he managed to tear his gaze away from Silver to look up in the sky, now empty, bereaved of the giant monster. “Where- Where did it go? The Parallax… Surely it cannot be so simply vanquished. None can defeat - fear.”

Silver turned to him, “I- I don’t know. I’ve never ‘defeated’ it before. This… has never happened before.” Then something drew Silver’s attention, a faint yellow light which emanated from his power ring, which was green once more. But now, a faint yet unmistakable yellow hue was present swimming around the ring. Silver’s eyes widened, mouth agap, “…Hello.”

--- Oa, The Centre of The Universe, In All Sectors ---

Silver was nervous. He kept adjusting and fiddling with his honour gown, wanting to make sure he looked proper for the grand ceremony even though his fiddling didn't do much. “Leave it.” Gold spoke from behind him. She took gentle hold of his hands stopping him from fiddling and creasing the poncho-esk gown any further. “You've thought gods and monsters, you've survived the apocalypse, and you're scared of an honour ceremony and the morning pledge?”

“Hey, I only learned it this morning.”

THSOOM! Their heads turned upward to the huge pyres above them; they had been lit, with a raging green flame. “That's my queue.” Silver remarked with a smile, Gold sent him on his way through the curtains, ring on his finger - his decision made, he walked down the aisle a true Lantern, a steward of the universe, protector of time, defender of the innocent. He hovered proudly toward the main stage, where Mephiles, arms behind his back, awaited him. Though no mouth was present on his face he could tell a sense of pride was evident. He nodded, as if to wordlessly proclaim ‘you've earned it’ Silver couldn't help but grin to himself.

Legions, hundreds upon thousands of Lanterns, stood at attention at Silver’s sides, applauding and cheering. There, assembled, were Lanterns of every shape and size, aliens from all across the universe, from all across time. There truly was life all throughout the cosmos, it was truly beautiful, it almost brought a tear to his eyes when he first arrived on Oa. From sentient botany, to living crystalline structures, to giant levitating marine life, to imperceptibly microbial small life forms. All present. And now Silver was not only no longer alone, but he was now a part of something bigger.

Above Mephiles and the stage he stood on hovered a circular platform on top of which a set of entities descended. The Oans, The Guardians, some of the eldest beings in the universe, forgers of the Lantern rings. It was strange; Silver could tell they were blue in some way with enormous heads and arms, with long red robes but other than that he could tell little apart, it was like a blur, and constant mist that Silver’s eyes could not comprehend, he thought he could make out a pair of horns atop their heads, but little else. As Silver reached the stage The Guardians spoke, “We are here to celebrate a great victory and congratulate our newest member, who had defeated a great evil, and righted a wrong from our own past. And for that we are forever thankful. Once again the Corps’ diversity has proven to be its greatest asset, and that great heroism can arise from the most unexpected of places. As such, we grant our newest Lantern the honour of leading us in our Oath. Silver The Hedgehog of Sector 2,006 if you could?” Silver gulped and cleared his throat as the entire corps turned to look at him, Gold, now among the crowd, giving him a thumbs up. Silver raised his ring to the sky. Every Lantern followed suit.

“In Brightest Day, In Blackest Night,

No Evil Shall Escape My Sight,

Let Those Who Worship Evil’s Might,

Beware My Power, Green Lanterns’ Light!”

Silver's words were echoed by his fellow Lanterns. Each ring blasting off into the sky until the entire skies of Oa were a radiant green aurora borealis. Which slowly faded away once the oath had passed.

However, Silver’s own beam emanating from his ring specifically shot directly into The Central Power Battery, which The Oans had positioned above themselves with their invisible might – Depositing The Parallax into the home-sized Power Battery, trapping it, hopefully, for good.

Once the ceremony was over The Oans had congratulated Silver once more in person before retreating to their chambers, and then the time for the true celebrations had come. Lanterns were celebrating, given their congratulations, there were pats on the back, exchanging of stories, dancing, food and cultural exchanges of every kind. Mephiles had excused himself from the celebration, said he had some business to take care of, said something about locating some ‘Weaponers’ on planet ‘Qward’. Not that it meant much to Silver. He left with a remark Silver did not know how to feel about, after placing a hand on his shoulder, “Best of luck to you, my boy. I will be watching your career with great interest.” Silver didn't know why he felt a shiver roll down his spine. But the feeling didn't last for long as Gold intercepted him next and drew his entire attention.

“Enjoying yourself?”

“I've- I've never been happier.”

“I- uh- I'm glad to hear it, ahem, anything, Silver, I just wanted to officially... thank you for saving me back at Ranx orehh- Crisis City, I mean.”

“Well in that case I feel bad because I should be the one thanking you for saving me, I wouldn't be here without you. Maybe the universe wouldn't be here without you.” He awkwardly avoided eye contact, scratching the back of his neck, he didn't know what possessed him but he gave her a friendly nudge at the forearm, “I guess I owe you, huh? Hehe?”

“Yeah, thanks... Look, Silver, I'm glad you've decided to be a Lantern, I just wanted you to know, that if you ever need a partner on patrol... you know.”

“Yeah, I do, you know I've been thinking; I could use a senior Lantern to help me learn the ropes in the field.”

“I'd be happy to ‘White Lantern’ hehehe... Silver, there's one more thing. Look, I've- if I could somehow- do anything to get my partner back, fix some mista- some things, I'd do it. So, I did some digging within the pages of The Book of Oa that are open to us. Do you remember back when we mentioned ‘glitches’ in the universe? Well, I think there is something more to your ‘dreams’ and ‘visions’. About that girl...”

“-You think... she could be real? You don't think I'm crazy? I'm not crazy?”

She gently caressed his face, “Of course you're not, I- I'm sorry you must have felt like that for so long. But I do think I know where you could find her, if anywhere. You see reality sometimes experiences ‘Quantum Derailment’, shifts in the time stream, sometimes due to events of celestial significance, and sometimes this can result in personal items, locations, past life experiences... and even people, being ‘displaced’. Leaving behind half-remembered memories, dreams, and visions, of the previous reality.”

“...Do you think something happened to us, in a previous life?”

“That is quite possible. And I think I know where you could start looking. I consulted some of our quantum mathematicians. Sector 2,005.” She handed Silver a Travel Lantern, a power battery with the routing to the selected Sector encoded into it. Silver wasted no time, he reached for it and grabbed it, but Gold didn't let go just yet. “Silver... Just be... ready for this to not go the way you think. To her, she's lived an entire life on her own without you in that time and place. There's no guarantee she'll remember you, or want to remember you.” She remarked solemnly. Silver understood. He weighed his options. And made his decision…

But first-

He made a stop at the planet: Ungara, where he brought with him the body of the late-Abin Sur. He gave his condolences to Abin’s mother, who broke down in tears, but not too entirely surprised, she had been preparing for this day for a long time considering her son���s occupation. Silver allowed her to mourn alone; he was sure seeing Abin’s ring on his finger must’ve hurt. But she did give him her blessing to bury him in the back yard next to his wife in the flower patch - in the backyard where he used to play when he was a young boy. And in turn where his children played. Which led him to his next stop.

It took some time to track them down, but Silver found them. Amon Sur, Abin’s son, Silver had promised to relay his predecessor’s last words to them – about letting go of hate, a father’s apology. This confrontation did not go as well as the last. Through tears and screaming obscenities, Amon cursed Silver out, throwing things at him. He exclaimed how that ring was his birth right, that it belonged to him, that Silver didn’t deserve it. Silver said nothing more. The hedgehog simply left Amon to mourn on his own however he wished, and departed for his next stop.

--- Earth, Midway City, Sector 2,005 ---

Midway City was a, by all means, average city, there weren't many touristy eye-catching landmarks, simply a quaint town, the less popular sister city of Keystone compared to that OF the bustling Central City. Some spots around town worth of note were The Fox Botanical Gardens, The Kubert School of Arts, Truman Park, and The Ostrander-Nolan Museum of History, best known for its brand new Decolonisation Relocation Facsimile Initiative which saw the returning of cultural artefacts to their countries of origin while replacing them with expert copies to educate western audiences about its xeno-cultural and colonised contexts. All thanks to the Director-Curator Blaze Hol-Sanders, a lovely place, unfortunately it would not last for long.

BOOM!

The front of the history museum exploded, wood, brick, and glass flying everywhere. From the dust cloud shot out a black beam of power which decimated the cop cars stationed outside one by one. Sending the police officers scattering. There was little the law enforcements could do against the might of a super villain such as The Infinite Hand! Even if he was more of a D-list villain. The super villain emerged from the debris cloud, taking to the sky his standard evil monologue was already revving up in his mouth, “Beware the might of The Infinite Hand! Herald of death! The bringer of the black! Killer of the light! Kneel before your new overlord!” He held up a monochromatic crystal diamond in his hand, “With this ancient emerald I will bring forth my master, the grand Necron, and he will- eh- burn the surface of our- ugh- eh- world black- euh guahh! How does this thing work?-”

THONK!

The echoing sound of metal hitting flesh sounded across the street, fracturing the jackal's helmet. And sending the villain into the asphalt, embedding him into the road. Above him in the sky hovered none other than the sentinel of Midway City, the angel of Solagar, Midway's very own superhero, The Hawkwoman!

She was majestic, like an angel, silhouetted by the sun behind her. Her gorgeous, majestic, massive wings flapped up and down, hovering separate from her back consisting of metal shards, shimmering with beautiful bismuth-like colours. She wore a yellow and green armour, and wore a hawk-like golden and black helmet with piercing white eyes. The lower half of her face remained uncovered teasing her purple fur underneath. She will do it and Nth metal mace and axe, one in each hand, charged with dark purple lightning. At her waist laid The Nth Emerald Belt from which her powers and wings came from. Museum Director Blaze Hol-Sanders by day and the vigilante superhero Hawkwoman by night. For this was a world of wonders, of idols personified, of superheroes.

“Sorry to disappoint, but that's not the authentic article, but I'm still going to ask you to return that. You know, before I bludgeon your face in.” She briefly turned to the policemen licking their wounds, “Evacuate the civilians to safety, I'll take care of this, this won't take long, make yourselves useful, please.” She lowered down to the ground to the groaning, immobile jackal.

Angry, he turned up to her, teeth gritted, “Why must you interfere!? You matter not to me! You mustn't die-...” The jackal paused as his one visible red eye widened and dilated, he had noticed something. Blaze quirked a brow at him. “You have the smell of death on you... you shouldn’t be here. A kindred spirit.” He smiled at Blaze. A new flaming anger arose within Blaze, the grip on her mace tightened. She raised the mace and brought it down on top the jackal.

---

He was fine, carted away by the police of to Belle Reve Penitentiary. Later in the day, now a civilian, Blaze had retreated back to her apartment, troubled and shaken. She was angry and a slight bit... weary? In a way she fully did not understand herself. But something irked her the wrong way, that crazy D-lister had somehow hit on a sore spot. How could have he gotten into her head with so little words? Surely, he did not mean those dreams that she'd been plagued with her whole life? Of letting go. Of leaving something behind. Of flame and fire. A sacrifice. And a boy… but why did he look so sad? And why did she always feel her eyes watering at the sight of him? She had shared these visions with no one, how did he know?

She missed the keyhole to her apartment with her key once again, for the dozenth time, which drew an irritated growl from her. She embarrassingly caught herself and looked around to see if she had embarrassed herself in front of anyone. She got a disapproving look from an older lady neighbouring her who was just leaving her apartment. “Sorry, hehe.” She chuckled to herself nervously. She managed to unlock her door and slammed it shut behind her. She threw her gym bag hiding her costume onto her couch. She huffed, once again the day had her exhausted, her social battery completely drained for today. She passed by her coffee machine gifted to her by her young atlantean mentee Marine and put in an order for a six shot of expresso, no milk, no water. It was quite frankly frightening. And had Marine worried, and partially regretful for buying the coffee maker for her mentor.

She was about to plant herself down on her leather couch to decompress before inevitably being called again by The Justice League, but she did not get to, as a knock on her door interrupted her. She froze, she wasn't expecting anyone today. And even though it might have sounded strange the knock had reverberated throughout her whole being, through to her core.  She did not move. Normally they would simply ignore the intrusion and let the disturbance pass, but... there was something, something nameless, that drew her to it, some itch, some feeling that pushed her onwards. Blaze sat up and slowly walked over to the door. There was another knock, and Blaze could see a faint green glow coming through the door’s seems. Her hand hovered over the doorknob, but didn't make contact. She recoiled. What was she doing? What compelled her to get up and walk up to the door? It was just some stranger. What possessed her? Just ignore it like she did normally, less to deal with. She stood there for a moment, motionlessly. The knocking had stopped, and the green light had vanished. It was over then, a moment had passed, something had passed, and… she had missed out on something- something important. She waited for another knock, but it didn't come.

Blaze weighed her options. And she made a decision. Blaze took hold of the doorknob and swung the door open, she didn't know why, but she looked into the hallway... and there on the other end of the hallway, about to leave, was an all too familiar hedgehog.

Blaze and Silver locked eyes. He was in the midst of leaving. And, in an instant, everything, all the memories, their entire life together, it all came flooding back. As did the tears. They embraced each other, fell to their knees, and held each other impossibly close so tightly. The tears of joy no streaming down their faces.

| This was the beginning. In time, the first of the rings would be passed on, while a hundred more were forged, and then thousands. All would be taught as The First Lantern had learned. A use for the ring not even The Guardians had predicted. |

| In time, old Lanterns would fall. Even Avra would fall, his ring given to one who would be taught his lessons, and would one day teach them. What was once a unique innovation became the way for all. The way of will. Know then, when you shape the light of your ring - you walk in the footsteps of The First Lantern. |

Notes: So, I don't usually do notes at the end of my stories, but as it turns out I'm a big nerd and I love Green Lantern, and I wanted that to come through here on the ‘page’. First thing’s first, I wanted Silver to be an amalgamation of every main (Earth) Lantern and I wanted to honour them all in some way shape or form: like Alan he deals with the trauma of a lost love and thought to be crazy and gaslit into believing against it (read Alan Scott; The Green Lantern by Tim Sheridan, beautiful book), he has Hal’s mentor-mentee-rivalry with Sinestro, now Mephiles, he has that jerk, contempt for authority personality reminiscent of Guy, John's Hawkgirl-romance with the desire to build and create as an architect, I gave him Kyle's mantle of White Lantern the most well emotionally rounded individual of the sth cast who typically lean toward a single characteristic where I think Silver is very malleable as a character, like Simon he's the profited Miracle Maker and is a little rough around the edges a little less idealistic but a puppy with his partner, speaking of which Jessica’s anxieties and doubts were a really good fit for Silver as well as having his ring be forged from the First Lantern, but unlike Jessica's ring which was forged from Volthoom's, Silver’s is passed down from Avra, and Silver’s costume is based on Jo's as well as having him operate from a ‘far sector’ quote unquote apart from most of the corps, alone. (Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin and the KING Jamal Campbell, , amazing book, GORGEOUS book).

The omniscient narration punctuating the story is taken directly from Hal's monologue from Green Lantern: Emerald Knights animated movie (and the best GL movie) I wanted to pay homage to those direct to DVD animated movies because they were what made me fall in love with Green Lantern and DC as a whole. The introduction of Gold and Mephiles and the ending Oath are lifted from Green Lantern: First Flight.

I hope this story finds its audience, I had fun writing it even though I had to brute force through an awful writer's block, and I hope you enjoyed it too. And I hope all the deep cuts haven't chased you off, and instead intrigued you into learning more about GL instead. Thanks for reading and I'm glad I'm finally done and rid of this thing and I never have to look at it again. Have a lovely day.

[storm-angel989]

Could we see how Val and the other Vee’s react to Reader having a hyper fixation?

Hi friend,

I love this idea- but I sort of struggled to come up with the most relatable hyperfixation. So I decided to go in the direction of one I think we can all relate to- our favorite show! I really tried to show Val being both supportive and teaching her how to manage her hyperfixation. Speaking from someone who has personal experience with hyperfixation- it's all about learning to balance! 

Enjoy!

<3 Mandy

“Daddy, Daddy look, they make dolls for it too,” I squealed as I showed my father the latest and greatest from my most current obsession. “Please, please please can I have them?”

My father kissed the top of my head and shook his head no. “You know the deal, baby. And tablet time is almost done for the day. Homework next.” 

I pouted and laid my head down on the table as he carefully removed the tablet from my hand. Left to my own devices, I would have watched episode three again, and maybe read through a few pages of fanfiction. And maybe even written the next chapter of my own. Instead, my father insisted I do things like homework and chores. 

“What’s your assignment for ELA?” my father prompted as he set my backpack between us at the kitchen table. “Tell me.” 

I scowled and opened up my agenda as I read outloud from the assignment page. 

“Write a story about a time you and your family did something fun. Hey! I can write about my favorite character and the time they….”

“No, sweetheart, that isn’t the assignment,” my father redirected gently. “But you could write about when we sit down and watch the new episode together each week.”

That perked me up. I took the pen from my father’s hand. And truth be told, every word I wrote was true- how my Dad and Uncle Vox and Aunt Velvette all made Thursday nights our home night. We ordered pizza and watched the newest episode of my favorite show, and when there weren't any new episodes, we still sat together and rewatched old ones. 

“There, done,” I announced. “Tablet, now.”

“Excuse you, no. Math now,” Valentino said firmly. “I…”

Whatever he was about to say got cut off from the ringing of his phone. I felt my heart skip a beat. Was Daddy getting called into work? Would I have to wait on my math homework? It was Friday after all- no sense in making me do everything all in one night if he had to work!

A scowl on his face and any hope I had of escaping math homework vanished as he made another phone call. When he hung up, he leaned over and kissed the top of my head. 

“Baby,  I have to go to work, but your Uncle Vox and Aunt Velvette are on their way. Once they get here, you can finish your homework with them,” he told me. “And then yes, you can have your tablet.”

“Can I at least watch on the big TV until they get here?” I asked, ever hopeful.

“Only if you promise to shut it down-without an argument- when they get home. And eat dinner without complaint. Deal?” He gave me a firm look as he pulled on his signature red jacket. 

That was one deal I would definitely take. As soon as he left, I turned the TV on and lost myself once again in my favorite show.

[stari-hun]

After TWS and retrieving the ugly squid when everyone’s all together again and the world is back in one piece. I feel like YJH would get chubby, hear me out bros fully a gamer besides literally being forced into an apocalypse and getting the body builder physique because he’s likely always slightly dehydrated and hungry with how much he’s burning off. So once everything calms down yeah he’s still very healthy cause he probably knows from beforehand how having too much weight can be a burden on daily life but I definitely think he would put on some chub. If only because his body would be so used to burning at extreme rates that he gets super hungry after the apocalypse. Like that learning curve year or even up to 3 after, the entirely of KimCo would have a hard to adjusting to how their bodies are doing out of fight or flight mode.

YJH would just take a pretty big hit from adjusting to being human again and not a fighter. Something something long explaination on society but Yoo Sangah and Jung Heewon would have an easier time adjusting, but Han Sooyoung wouldn’t give a shit. She’d let her body absolutely fail and crash until she gets put into the same group as the kids with supervised meal plans and fitness routines that’ll ease their body from full survival mode back into leisure exercise. I’m talking HSY would absolutely forget to drink water one day after a nap, everyone’s bodies would be used to retaining water and food on nothing, to where she eventually passed out in the YSH’s kitchen and nearly killed her and JHW via heart attack. YJH is also in that boat with her but not quite as bad, he’d just be flipping around from too much to neglecting his body until he found proper balance by joining everyone’s Apocalypse Recovery Routine (named by Lee Hyunsung). YJH took over cooking and meal prepping because he was already making Yoo Mia’s stuff and claimed it wouldn’t be any more effort. Lee Hyunsung is also one of the only people who easily rebalanced their body to daily life again.

1863 YJH looks like an absolute tank. He still has the same amount of muscle mass he’s just getting in a proper diet now and balancing everything out. He’d be so paranoid afterwards that he’d never let himself not be in top fighting and survival shape at all times, he gets a recruitment once a month for basically every type of sport. Besides keeping his muscle tone up I feel like he’d go for the most mundane job possible afterwards and be an office worker (and totally not for any other reason), but he’d still game on his off days while his preferences changed to comfy games, anything without fighting and survival. If he does however he always gets hyper fixates until he’s strong enough to clear everything, I’m talking exp farm and grinding til he can beat the enderdragon in one hit. He’d also be super popular online though not by his own volition. People will be people and he’d find himself online from pictures of him in public or at the gym posted by others, every work out one gets reported to staff immediately.

[burekforsatoru]

1/ sunny's first flower dance blues

sebastian/sunny (original character) | read it on ao3 sincerely, sunny masterlist << >> part 2 part 1 - the stupid tradition that is the annual flower dance throws sunny into a pit of overthinking, once again being pushed aside and feeling like an outsider to where she is supposed to build a new life. wc: 1.5k

day 24, spring, year 1

so… nobody tells you it would feel like this, being the center of attention, and yet feeling so alone. sunny sits on the edge of the pier once again, staring out into the horizon, only this time it’s not raining. in fact, there has been only one rainy day this spring, only one day when she didn’t have to worry about watering the crops and instead slept for an extra fifteen minutes. sunny is exhausted .

it’s not even the fact that she wanted to have a partner for the flower dance, being turned down hurt nonetheless. she asked sam, it was a safe bet, right? it’s not like she proposed, or asked him to make out in the bushes. they had bonded at the egg festival, balancing eggs on their heads and laughing when they dropped them while everyone else was frantically looking for the little colorful treasures. he was all smiles and accidental touches then, holding her when she tried to stand on his skateboard, getting so close to her she could smell the shampoo in his hair.

and then…

sam had his eye on penny the entire time, they had always danced together. tradition , he said. there was a really apologetic look in his eyes as well, sunny could tell. he felt bad for turning her down but telling penny he wouldn’t dance with her would hurt more. so why the hell do her eyes hurt so much trying to keep in the tears. if it really doesn’t matter, like she keeps telling herself, if she doesn’t even want to dance, doesn’t even know the steps since nobody fucking showed her… why does it feel like being on the outside of the clique again. “there you are, my mom was worried you got lost or something.” sebastian’s voice comes from behind, followed by the light huff as he sits down on the pier. by now, it’s a familiar scene, be it at the lake or the ocean, sunny sits on the edge and sebastian joins her. as always, he takes out a pack of cigarettes and offers her one, which she politely refuses, and he smokes while they sit. usually in silence.

sometimes they would talk, one time he even shared his headphones with her, scrolling through his music library to show her what he’d been hyper fixating on recently. sunny could appreciate his darker taste despite her cheerful name. that was how she got the stupid little nickname gloomy back home in the city, made to irritate her, but instead it just made her roll those warm brown eyes and shake her head disapprovingly at her peers. she quickly blinks away any potential tears before looking towards sebastian, noticing he is once again out of that stupid jumpsuit mayor lewis makes them wear. he’s scratching his back, annoyed at the traditional dance outfit. “i swear lewis actually wants us dead, that shitty material always rides up my ass during the dance.”

apparently, it’s been his goal to make sunny smile, because he sure looks pleased with himself, smirk and all, when she snorts in laughter and smiles at her feet that just dangle a few inches above the surface of the ocean.

“it’s usually you pulling words out of me, what’s going on?” sebastian leans over a tiny bit, nudging her shoulder lightly. “nothin’s going on” sunny shifts towards the edge and points her toe a little lower, grazing the water surface with the shoe before sliding back again. “i can smell you’re lyin’, you know?” sebastian doesn’t let it go, perhaps he can sense that she doesn’t really want to drop it. perhaps he feels that she needs to be reassured. sunny sighs, glad to see him in his usual clothes, not that shitty outfit that would only remind her of all the ways she doesn’t belong there.

“seriously, there’s nothing–” “you rub your thumb on your index finger when you lie, you know that?”

wait… sunny opens and closes her mouth, trying to figure out how he could have noticed that, but it eludes her. she looks down at her hand and sees that he’s right. quickly, she forms a fist, pressing it against the side of her thigh. “how did you–”

“what’s. going. on. come on, sunny, for fuck’s sake, you’ve made me open up before and made me feel better after talking to you, let me… let me return the fucking favor.”

sunny takes a deep breath before pulling her feet up onto the pier and sitting criss-cross, trying to find a way not to sound so damn childish in her troubles.

“you’re all paired up for the flower dance.”

sebastian scoffs in disbelief.

“is that the issue? the fact that we’ve been dancing with the same people for years?”

“no, but–”

“for most of us it’s no big deal”

“yeah, but–”

“maru’s been wanting to dance with penny for ages, but lewis is a dick”

“i asked sam, okay!”

it comes out louder than she wanted and she turns around to see if anyone is there, if anyone can hear her embarrassing outburst.

“sam?” sebastian asks softly, as if unsure if he heard her correctly.

“yeah… i thought he might say yes since,” sunny shakes her head, closing her eyes for a second, “since we had a good time at the egg festival together. i dunno…”

“and he said no?”

“he said he would have, but he dances with penny every year.”

sebastian finally takes another drag of his cigarette, stubbing it out before slotting it into a small tin in his pocket and taking out another one, repeating the process of offering one to sunny before lighting it.

“yeah, like i said. lewis is a dick. he won’t let us actually pick who we wanna dance with, or if we wanna dance at all,” he scoffs and leans back on his palms, “because i sure as hell wouldn’t want to dance if i had that option.”

the breeze carries sunny’s hair over her shoulder and she shivers a little. it’s enough for sebastian to pick up on it, so he slides a little closer to her, internally cursing the fact that he didn’t take a hoodie, instead rushing out in just a t-shirt and jeans.

“does it really hurt that much that he turned you down for a stupid dance that’s definitely fetishizing fertility and… youth and… whatever else?” he makes sure to blow the smoke away from sunny, not wanting her to get more grossed out by the smell.

“not–�� she starts, leaning a little closer to him once she realizes he intends to share body heat with her due to her shivering, “not really, i just feel… excluded. i know i’ve only been here for three weeks, but i’ve always been a second choice, always last to get picked, always, always forgotten and pushed aside.”

sebastian nods along as she speaks, baring her insecurity to him, and he was right - it does feel better once she opens up.

“why didn’t you ask me ?” his words surprise her a little, especially after he himself proclaimed that the partners were decided years ago and he didn’t even want to dance in the first place.

“ask you ?”

“okay, don’t make it sound sooo repulsive…”

“no, no i mean… you said you didn’t want to dance? and besides, isn’t abigail your dance partner until… what, until one of you dies?”

he chuckles lightly at the snarky thought. “yes and no. i’m pretty sure lewis would make an exception if it was just switching you and abby. and besides,” he stubs out the cigarette and discards it into the tin again, not taking another one, “i know i said i hated dancing but… for you i’d make an exception.”

sunny can’t help but look at him with a raised eyebrow and an incredulous smirk.

“i’m sure you didn’t just say–”

“yeah yeah, don’t spread that shit around okay? yeah, i’d have said yes. i still would’ve complained the whole time, though. so you’d hate every second along with me.”

he nudges her shoulder, only this time in a co-conspiratorial manner, making her giggle.

“those outfits do look absolutely horrendous, though…”

“oh, don’t even start , they itch sooo badly”

“you looked like you were going to kill someone”

“or we could skip it…”

sunny stops chuckling along with him, instead just looking at him through the curtain of her copper hair.

“skip? you mean…”

“skip. the whole thing. we could hang out by the lake, we could go into those abandoned mines, we could go for a ride on my motorbike…”

the offer sounds better than the alternative. apparently the town doesn’t have an extra dress for her so she would stick out even more than usual, wearing something similar but not quite there.

“yeah… that would be nice”

“yeah? we can do that then. getting some food and riding away for a picnic sound good to you?”

very quickly, sunny forgets about not belonging, about being on the outside looking in, instead maybe getting a little excited over the possibility of skipping next year’s dance and going away for a while. and sebastian has to admit that the sky is a little clearer when sunny smiles. see how they like it when she throws a wrench in their circus of a tradition.

[dieaverage]

ROSE-COLORED BOY — eddie munson x female reader as childhood friends to enemies to friends again to sickeningly-in-love lovers

eddie munson x female reader

series summary: six months after the death of your mother darlene byers, you return to hawkins, indiana to try and make sense of everything. what you don’t anticipate is how much running into him on your first night back, five years after your desertion, will break your heart (and his) all over again.

author’s note: hi! going to be so unapologetically real with you all and say i have no clue of where this is headed, but after my hyper-fixating ass decided to host an eddie munson revival party of one on the cusp of the year of our lord 2024, i knew i had to write something so other people could at least be subjected to the workings of my mind. i hope you like it, and if you don’t, well, that’s a you problem i fear! but seriously if you do have any ideas/directions you would like to see this heading, please please please do not hesitate to let me know! this is my first time posting any of my work on tumblr *gasp* so i mean it when i say criticism is warmly welcomed. <3

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chapter one — spaghetti and meatballs

word count: 1.6k+

NEXT

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A thin mist descended upon the forested thoroughfare to the town you once felt you knew so well, though were no longer so sure. The weighty four-worded acknowledgement bounced around in your head over and over as you approached the deceptively disarming "Welcome to Hawkins, Indiana" sign, so heavily you were almost convinced it was rousing a sleeping migraine, and yet no matter how many times you repeated the seemingly familiarising phrase under bated breath, it felt no less alien to you.

After all, this was never truly your home. Countless summers spent at your cousins' house, even four begrudgingly defining years clocked up at Hawkins High School, had never allowed you to feel like you had earned the right to label it as such. It was your mother's home, as if she had beat you to staking any claim on it, and now that she was no longer around, any ties you thought you might have had to it felt well and truly severed.

Precarious ties aside, it was here you found yourself, in Hawkins. Mere months after the death of your mother. The offer had unfalteringly been there, "whe- if- it ever gets to be too much, Daphne, you know you can come stay with me and the boys", and yet your eventual acceptance of it made you feel nothing short of an imposter.

Any hopes for a discreet arrival were instantaneously dashed as your Cavalier pulled onto the unforgiving gravelly driveway, your tires connecting with the stones to create a disturbance you were sure could have woken any nearby animals out of hibernation, had they assumed an early one. Hawkins air had a perpetually wintry quality, after all. The front door swung open before you even had a chance to remove your keys from the ignition, and the sight of the emerging sixteen year old boy unwillingly brought a beaming smile to your face.

"Daphne!!!!" he called out, advancing towards you at an incredible and equally terrifying speed.

"Hi, Will!" a laugh couldn't help but escape your lips as he wrapped you into a tight hug, the force of which setting you off balance momentarily. He used to be so... delicate. "You've gotten so big!"

"He's got what, like, a foot on you now?" a voice exclaimed from the doorway, the discerning sarcasm of it all widening your already unshakeable grin.

"Lovely to see you too, Jonathan. And it's a couple inches, at best!"

Soon the three of you were embraced in a group hug, which although you would never admit it, had been long overdue. The slight stinging sensation in your eyes signalling the impending flood of tears prompted your swift ejection from the embrace. "So, where is my darling pseudo sister?" you questioned as you walked through the threshold of the Byers abode, attempting to inject some humour into what had already become a far too confronting display of emotions, and almost as if on cue Joyce emerged from the adjoining room.

"Oh, Daphne!" she cried out, consuming you in a hug that could only be described as motherly. You felt it considerably harder to fight back the tears this time. "Hi, Joyce." you exhaled into her shoulder, trying with all your might to resist crumbling in her arms right there. You had been alone for, what, six months? This exhibition of emotion, or rather, the suppression of it, left you feeling weak, and was perhaps the very reason you had avoided coming for so long.

Darlene would never have earned an award for her maternity, and you often thought that if there were such a scale to measure someone who would, your own mother would, against all odds, find a way to fall below it. She wasn't well, that much had been evident for the entirety of your time together, and increasingly so in the end, but in her wake you wondered how much longer you could accept it as an excuse. Above all else, you felt abandoned. Joyce, and the boys, they were wonderful. Truthfully speaking, Joyce had been more of a mother to you in your formative years than Darlene ever was, and Will and Jonathan, they would always be your little brothers as far as you were concerned. But still, in their house now, observing the three of them together, you helplessly felt like a guest, as if years of intimacy had been erased. Nothing had occurred to suggest this, of course. No, these thoughts were all of your own creation, from the mind you had so wished to desert so many times in the last six months.

“Daphne, honey, you must be starving. What can I whip up for us?”

"Spaghetti and meatballs, Mom, please?" Will exhorted, snapping you out of your self imposed hypnotic state.

"I think we should let Daphne choose, Will." Joyce sweetly urged him. "Daphne, what would you like?" You looked up at her from your place on the couch which you hadn't even recalled assuming, and then over to Will who was waiting in anticipation for your answer.

"Spaghetti and meatballs sounds great. Gotta love Italian!" you exclaimed, and Will and Jonathan high-fived quietly from across the room. Joyce shared a knowing look with you and giggled before turning back towards the kitchen. It brought a certain degree of reassurance to you that some things truly never change, one of which being the Byers boys' inability to grow up.

"Joyce," you scurry behind her, "thank you. I- it's been a... weird couple months, but being with y'all, it's already helping."

"Oh, Daphne," Joyce pushed a stray strand of hair behind your ear, "I thought about you constantly. I wanted to make the trip down to Austin, to be there for you, but with the boys and then work-"

"I know. It's okay. I'm here now. You don't have to worry anymore."

"Easier said than done." Joyce gave an unassured look. "Please, just... don't hesitate to talk to me, okay? If it's too much. You're like a daughter to me, Daphne, and I know the boys think of you as a big sister. This is your home. For as long as you want it to be."

You promptly gave her a cuddle, hoping it could express your gratitude in a way you knew your words couldn't without risk of activating the waterworks, before announcing, "Hey, I think I might head out for a while after dinner. Check out that booming Hawkins nightlife. I can't even remember the last time I got a drink here."

"And legally, at that!" Joyce countered playfully, you giving her a slight push to quiet down, afraid that Will or Jonathan might wish to learn a thing or two of your teenage antics, ammunition you certainly were not ready to equip them with.

"Hey, I handled my alcohol well, okay!" you argued, though not compellingly.

"Law enforcement might disagree." she laughed, her head elsewhere, presumably recalling your countless run ins with the Hawkins police department.

"Okay yes, somewhat of a troubled teen..." you admitted, "but you know, I got over it. I went to college. I grew up." Joyce met your eyes with a smile, "I know you did. I'm so proud of you, Daph."

Eventually, dinner was ready, and the group had no sooner sat down at the dinner table before Will had engulfed the contents of his plate, now proudly demonstrating its emptiness to Joyce. "Finished! Can I please go to Mike's now?" he asked her with eyes so wide you feared they could momentarily eject from their sockets, making the question posed that much sweeter.

"Alright, alright." she giggled, "Just be careful, okay? Biking at a reasonable speed will not hinder your chances of escaping dungeons or slaying dragons, I promise."

Will met his mother's failed attempt at understanding his favourite game with an unforgiving roll of the eyes before the table burst into laughter with Will pulling Joyce into a hug, and then Jonathan.

"See you later, Daphne!" he exclaimed before wrapping his arms around you and hurriedly darting out the front door, leaving you once again with an aching smile plastered on your face. What a sweet boy, you thought to yourself.

"A couple hours and he already has Daphne wrapped around his finger!" Jonathan said jokingly, sending both you and Joyce into laughter once again. "What can I say, he's a good kid!"

"Once upon a time, you were too, Jonathan!" you said wiggling your finger at him with an air of mockery, giving a playful nudge to his shoulder before grabbing your bag and heading out the door.

Closing the door behind you, you catch sight of Will wheeling his bike down the rough driveway. "Hey, wait up!"

Even from a distance you could make out his cheesy grin, and you couldn't help but think about what a heartbreaker he would make one day.

"So, Will the Wise! Off to another campaign?" you proclaim as you reach him, and the use of his nickname only causes his smile to grow wider.

"You remembered?"

"How could I forget?! I was only gone a couple years. Will the Wise's legacy, now that will last centuries." you tease.

"I really missed you, Daphne. So did Mom, almost as much as Jonathan!"

"Jonathan? Wow, he said that? Can we get that in writing?"

"Seriously!" he slapped your arm lightly as the briefly shared portion of your journey came to a close, preparing to mount his bike for the ride to the Wheeler house, "I'm so glad you're home."

With what felt suspiciously like watering eyes approaching, you swallowed harshly before taking his hand in yours. "Me too."

[vellichorom]

Hello Discord User Vellichorom AKA Twinkie AKA Velli AKA individual who’s character I love so much who has consumed my literal every day for the last year plus that I have not stopped thinking about (literally, over three hundred and sixty five days have gone buy and every single one of them I’ve had this man in my head, Vellichorom, do you know what you’ve done Vellichorom, you did this to me.) 

NOW I MAY BE UNHINGED ABOUT THIS MAN but how about I take a step back for a moment to just, talk about it? To discuss the absolute mastery I feel has been carefully and lovingly crafted into him? 

I’m really picky about the characters I like. Yeah I am fond of characters, I’ll like them and talk about them and whatever, but NOT ONCE has a character CONSUMED MY LITERAL BRAIN CELLS like Thierry has. Of course he has an amazing base to go off of, he IS THE NARRATOR, and I will admit that I absolutely ADORE TSP and all of the lore that has been crafted into him... but that alone was not enough for me to be purely interested in him for a long period of time (cough: see me not doing much tsp stuff aside from Thierry cough) 

The way that you have woven in every aspect of TSP and its canon into him, and then MADE IT EVEN BETTER AND MENTAL-ILLNESS-INDUCING has got me gripping the edge of my seat like a feral goblin every time you post literally ANYTHING about him ever. You blended TSP/TSPCC/adjacent lore together in a way that makes Thierry his own thing and also the perfect embodiment of the Narrator.

I have hyper fixations that wane and grow over time, things that I have enjoyed for long stints, but NEVER, EVER, Has there been ONE CHARACTER that has captured my attention so wholly. 

Looking at just him as a character, I adore the way you actually embrace and show off his flaws in a way that feels so human and also just like the weird fucking creature that The Narrator obviously is. You paid SO MUCH attention to detail and THAT SHOWS! IT DOES!! The Narrator is EGOTISTICAL, he is AN ASSHOLE, HE IS NOT PERFECT! EVER!I won’t shit on other people for wanting that for their own interpretations, but by god if you aren’t one of the like, two other people I’ve seen PERFECTLY capture that in his actions and behavior. You interpret the scenes in TSP/UD with such a nuanced and in depth eye with Thierry that I actually ENVY YOU FOR IT because I WANT TO DO THAT TOO. The expression of his ego balanced with his simultaneous self-loathing is just a perfect coat of icing on the proverbial cake. You miraculously made this man exactly as loveable and hateable as the straight up copy-pasted canon. I want him to suffer, and I love him so much, and I feel awful for him, and I think he’s an asshole. 

His relationship with Rosemary? Do I even HAVE to say anything? No, I don’t, but IM GOING TO. 

I seriously have never understood how you and Tomie so amazingly captured that Stanley/Narrator relationship through Gore/Guts in such an AWE INSPIRING, BEAUTIFUL, AND HORRIFIC way. Like, I genuinely do not know how to put into words the way that I absolutely ADORE this interpretation of it. The never ending spiral of desperation, need and reliance that the Narrator has on Stanley (and vice versa) is FLAWLESSLY executed and showcased with Rosemary/Thierry. I know I don’t really talk about Gogu as much as I talk about Thierry, but I have said it before and I will say it again, they are AMAZING, THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL, AND I CANNOT THINK OF ANY LITERALLY ANY NARRATOR X  RELATIONSHIP THAT PERFECTLY EXEMPLIFIES THE WAY THAT THE NARRATOR WOULD BE WITH SOMEONE, AND THE HORRORS THAT COME WITH IT. EVER. 

And the most amazing part is that you, YOU, a fucking EXCELLENT, BEAUTIFUL, TALENTED ARTIST, have made THE design ever. THE. DESIGN. EVER. No exceptions. OBVIOUSLY the enjoyment of a design of a character of such a nature is mostly up to personal taste, but for one second can we stand back and think about who the fuck we’re talking about? 

We can go based off of a few things:

His VA, Kevan Brighting: Mr. Brighting is a fat, old man. He has JOWLS, he has WRINKLES, he has WEIGHT not only to himself, but his voice. OBVIOUSLY not all VAs match their characters, but when you consider someone’s voice and the voice you assign TO a character, you usually want it to mimic that, and The voice that Mr. Brighting does for the Narrator is literally just that. And old, crotchety, fat british man. 

Specifically based on his Voice: Again, to piggy back off of what I was just saying, a character is meant to match the voice, you can hear the way he slightly slurs/mushes his words together, (which, by the way, if people didn’t know, slight lisps can be caused by more weight/fat being in the face! :D) You can hear him creaking around in his chair!

Based on context clues/general ideas of what the character is doing/does: The Narrator, as described in the game, is old (context clues people, context clues), codes/can create things using code, is not human (‘various human sensibilities’ gives that RIGHT away) and sits in a chair coding/reading shit most of the time. If anyone looks me in the eyes and tells me that a person who does that would not at least be heavy set, I will wack them with a stick. 

ALL OF THAT BEING SAID: this means that YOU MADE HIM! Look at him! Look at that man! It’s FUCKING HIM, ITS THE NARRATOR REAL! HE’S REALLL!!! I don’t give a flying fuck what my bias says, if I think of the Narrator I am going to think of someone that looks either like Kevan Brighting, or Thierry Ellis-Baker. There is no other thing for me. I can kinda smush other designs into it, and see it that way via The Square Hole /ref - but it will ALWAYS AND FOREVER be that. He’s an omnipresent voice that doesn’t show himself, when he’s not, he is NOT WEARING A SUIT. But he is FASHIONABLE, WHO is looking at him, seeing the fact that he wears a fucking fancy, flowing, stylish cardigan WITH A GOLD CHAIN, and saying NO He LOokS lIke A sLOb??? Because you are literally wrong, I would AND HAVE worn things that are LESS FANCY than that in professional settings. He’s wearing a turtleneck sweater, dress pants, and some comfy BUT PRESENTABLE shoes. If someone thinks he looks slobby they’re delusional. Like what do they think? That that old man should be wearing a suit for whatever fucking reason??? In his Office??? In his chair while sitting on his fat ass? (NOT TO SAY THAT HE CAN’T, AND I KNOW THIERRY HAS, AND CAN, AND WOULD IF HE NEEDED TO, BUT WHO ON GOD’S GREEN EARTH, ESPECIALLY WHEN CODING AND SHIT, WANTS TO WEAR A SUIT 24/7)  Also, tacking this on here at the end, you have helped SO much with my comfort with acknowledging my own body weight, accepting it, and liking myself more than literally anyone could ever have, and Thierry is a HUGE part of that for SO many reasons.

I love everything about him, Vellichorom, and it is of my humble opinion that everyone who does not and looks at him like he is anything less than what The Narrator is at his most basic, are dirty little liars who are jealous

TL;DR: Anyone who is disrespectful and disregards the expert care, craft, and love that has gone into Thierry lore and design wise can go and suck the fattest, dirtiest rock they find outside in a river, and report back to me in fourteen business days with their illnesses so I can laugh at them :)

Thank you for coming to my two+ page essay/TED Talk Uh... oh yeah this is an ask box... uh... what's your favorite fun fact about Thierry/Romary? :)

ujm jm, umm um that they love you

[the-courtsjester]

Greetings ladies and gentlemen... and things, life if hard and trying to actually make a story with my own characters that's being mixed in with a show's own lore and balancing life is draining, I have two other stories I'm trying to work on in Tumbler so hopefully soon enough I can get one of them out. But anyway now enjoy these headcanons

Stelle x Male Reader headcanons

Stelle is basically a dog let's say that she'll follow you everywhere even break open the door to the bathroom to just... watch you, her brain dosen't even register your pants are down or that you're naked if you're showering, she just stares into your eyes not blinking until you pat her.

Stelle is easily gets bored why do you think she jumps in trash all the time? But if a conversation doesn't directly require her but you don't need to go through the process of cleaning her later, she has her own built in leash on the back of her jacket, and as pouty as she gets your stare of disappoint is super affective against her.

You ever see someone in a cartoon or show sleep in the weirdest position? Well when you don't get in bed with her fast enough and she falls asleep she'll manage to get in some weird positions, like half her body hanging off the bed, you fix this obviously but in the morning she'll somehow look like she's trying to hit a dance move while sleeping.

She definitely doesn't spend money wisely, I mean she knows how to not spend all of it and have some in reserve, but if she has some extra money and sees something stupid she knows you'll enjoy she'll buy it so long as she has enough money, one time she once bought you a large plushie that now takes over a corner of your room but hey it's to see your smile so worth it.

Oh you some super hyper fixation on something? Well don't keep it from her she wants to know so you both can share a brain cell and enjoy it together while snuggling on a couch or something, in short term it's now our hyper fixation.

Stelle definitely stares off into space thinking of you in many different scenarios, when she's eventually brought back into the conversation she'll look at you before covering her face in embarrassment from what she just imagined.

That baseball bat of hers is really good for bonking her and stopping her from taking a trashcan from the worlds you visit, only once have you let her bring one onto the Express after decontaminating it several times over, she sits in it like a cat in a cup it's cute.

When you have to leave the Express for awhile she'll be much more bored then usual, which means it's the perfect time to join March on some mischief, one time they set up the Express to be full of traps like Home Alone... Dan Heng was not happy to be their victim.

Your late night talks get weird, like talking about what animal you could one v one with just fists, how much food you could consume in an hour, how amazing it would be to rest your head on Himeko's chest for even a second, you both agreed it would be one of the top things you'd kill someone for.

She's kinda in the middle when it comes to be jealous, she'll definitely feel like you could be paying attention to her more if it's someone you both don't know that much, but if it someone you at least know she doesn't particularly care as much thanks to you being a great boyfriend that shows all the love in the world for your weird dog raccoon girlfriend.

Ah finally I've finished something hopefully my lovely audience enjoyed the show, again I'll try and focus on finishing the stories but no promises but I hope you all have a great rest of your night or day

And scene...

[chuckeroo777]

Chuck's Backpack Hero Mods

So, I've obviously been hyper-fixating on Dungeon Meshi lately, but that isn't all I do. For the past year, I've been making mods for my current favorite game: Backpack Hero!

My collection of mods! Look here if you want to check out any of these mods for yourself!

So in this post, I thought it would be fun to go over all my mods, and share some of my favorite details.

Chuck's Bionicle Mod: contains 245 items

Naturally, my first mod was a Bionicle mod. I love Bionicle. While I did a lot of custom spritework for this mod, shout out to Danska's Bionicle Builder, which is what I used for the masks and set-accurate weapons.

The mod's main gimmick is loot boxes! You can find mask packs, and equipment packs which can be opened for random items from the corresponding set wave. If you're real lucky, you may even find a bulk parts pack, which contains random equipment packs!

Nearly every set is represented, and a wide assortment of items from MNOG and VNOG are included too. As my first pack, the balancing was pretty spotty at first, but a few updates have fixed the more egregious examples. Did you know it took me 6 months to realize that the nektann robots had accidentally been set to unfindable?

Chuck's Plants vs Zombies Mod: contains 654 items??? (probably cut that down to like, ~350ish, since packets don't really count as a separate item)

My second mod, and hoo boy is it a doozy. Probably my favorite mod, this mod has a ton of work put into it, containing every plant from the orginal game, PvZ 2, and chinese PvZ 2. Thats a lot of plants!

The main gimmick of this mod is plant packets. Instead of finding plants as loot, you get packets, which grow over time. Once enough encounters occur with it in your pack, it grows into the plant.

But plants aren't the only thing in this pack. There is also a suite of zombie equipment, which grows stronger based on how many plants you have. Not to mention watering cans, pinatas, guppies, and other essentials to help fuel your botanical battle pack!

Chuck's Bloons Mod: Contains 134 items (again, effective number is a lot lower due to upgrades)

Ah yes, my bloons mod. This is probably my least favorite mod, simple because of how jank it is.

Basically, monkey's grow more powerful based on how many bloons they pop. As they reach thresholds, they get upgraded. However, spriting and programming so many upgrades gets rather tedious. This, combined with the fact that playing with the mod is rather feast or famine makes me not particularly fond.

Getting enough bloons can be tricky if you don't find one of the generators, and some monkeys are just way more useful than others, since due to the effort required, fully upgraded monkeys are mostly an endless mode thing, and some of them just don't scale into endless very well.

That being said, most of the monkeys are at least okay at a base level, so in casual play, they are decent, if not exciting.

Also, the monkey loot packs being barrels makes me giggle.

Chuck's Random Items Mod: contains 10 items

A simple little pack containing a few endless focused items. Originally meant for random ideas, but the next mod ended up taking that role.

Some neat examples include the white manastone, which acts as fuel for the vanilla black manastone, the sticky token, which acts as both energy and duct tape, at the cost of gimping defense, and the Fatum Ruptor, my signature sword.

Chuck's Pack of Mediocre Items: contains 109 items

This is a fun one. Basically, when modding, one tends to make things stronger than vanilla. So I challenged myself to make a pack with intentionally weak, but useful items. That doesn't mean it's bad, just lacks a lot of the raw power my other mods have.

As such, it is my recommendation for if you want a more vanilla style pack. Some of these items are literally just vanilla items with a twist. Such as the glove of knife. Just the one. Glove of knives was OP anyway.

Plenty of cheeky little references in here too. Like the candy cane horns which fill you with rage, or the pristine blade which fractures into one of ten different variants.

Chuck's Terraria Mod: contains 111 items

Ah yes, my favorite Minecraft clone. This pack has a little of everything. You got arrows, spears, tomes of ichor based magic, what's not to love?

If you're really lucky, you might find a crate containing items from my second and third favorite mods, Thorium and Calamity. (Sorry guys, you aren't even close to beating Magic Storage in the top spot.)

This pack also has few item type gimmicks I think are cool. Spears can only be used once per turn, but they have strong AOE attacks. Bullets are arrows that can also be used only once per turn. And then there is the copper shortsword. If you swing it 999 times, something cool might happen.

Chuck's Stick Ranger Mod: 174 items

Anyone else remember this game? Man, Stick Ranger was awesome. Pity they never made a sequel. Anyway, this pack contains a wide assortment of items, including 16 weapons from each class, except angel and gunner. Gunner only gets 8. Angel gets... 34???

Yeah, I like rings. I gave them a cool mechanic where they buff other adjacent rings, like a variant of Satchel's hammers. So of course I included a ton of them.

Also, the imperial crown used to hold the record for the laggiest item I ever made, but engine optimizations has made it actually viable to use. Hooray! Much like the game it comes from, the crown massively boosts the threat enemies pose, but greatly rewards you for it.

Chuck's Neo-Battledome Mod: contains 130 items

To be perfectly honest, I never got past the level of duel-wielding scarab rings before I got banned due to my account getting hacked. Hasn't stopped me from obsessively keeping up with battledome weapon releases, even if they're currently releasing, like, three a year.

That's right, did you ever play Neopets and wished you could wield the Darigan Sword of Death? Or really wanted to own a Weird Scarab, even though it was an impossible to find yet completely ineffectual item? Well, now you can do the next best thing!

Chuck's Elder Scrolls Mod: contains 59 items

Ah, Skyrim. My first M rated game. Which I bought without my parents' permission. Honestly, get rid of those terrible blood splatters, and the strangely mild swearing, and it would pass for T. (Seriously, how do Skyrim and Stick of Truth have the same rating???)

Anyway, this mod contains items from not just skyrim, but oblivion and morrowind too. And maybe even an item or two from arena and daggerfall if you're nice.

If you collect 24 Stones of Barenziah, absolutely nothing happens. Just like in Skyrim.

Chuck's MSPA Mod: contains 49 items

Ah yes. Homestuck. I'd say it's pretty good. Shame it ended at act 7. Anyway, here's some items to shove in your sylladex backpack. Lots of Problem Sleuth items too. Those are probably a bit less polarizing.

Probably best to swiftly move along.

Chuck's Enchanting Crystals Mod: contains 18 items

A small, but simple pack. These crystals can be used to add permanent buffs to your items. The more powerful ones contain downsides though, so be careful.

Chuck's RPG Classes Mod: contains 68 items (Only 9 of which are actually findable, lol)

One of my most popular mods, this adds essences which boost various play-styles. They start off weak, but as you kill enemies, they level up! When leveling up, they branch into two options, with six of the base essences each having four different final forms.

Let me give you a hint. If you're using this, or any of my mods with upgrading items, I won't get mad if you use debug mode to check what items will do when they grow up.

Chuck's Card Slinger Mod: contains 88 items

Ask any Backpack Hero player who the worst playable character is, and we'll all agree. It's Tote. So here's a mod to try and make her more fun. Excuse the use of the thumbnail instead of a pack of items. Carvings are a pain to screenshot.

This mod contains carvings for Tote based on a variety of card games, like Hearthstone, Eternal, MtG, Inscryption, and more! Seriously, some of these are obscure as heck. Like the ones from my own card game that I have never shown off publicly.

Generally fitting into a discard-light setup, the minion cards attack each turn, but get discarded if you get attacked too many times. There are also self-discarding spells, and cards which buff your other cards.

Crown of Possibilities is my favorite TCG card of all time, and you can't change my mind.

Chuck's Mod of Loathing: contains 36 items

Couldn't really get into Kingdom of Loathing, but dang if West of Loathing and Shadows over Loathing aren't amazing games.

Anyway, items in this pack are neat, but I may have created the worst item ever in the Spittoon. It hurts you when used, but gives treasure! Most of the treasure is awful. There is only one good item in its pool. And it's a damn good one. So there I go. Reaching into every spittoon I find, taking ten damage for no reason, hoping to get lucky. If that doesn't capture the essence of the spittoon, I don't know what will.

Chuck's Backpack Battles Mod: contains 47 items

Ah yes, my third favorite backpack based game.

Some pretty neat mechanics in this mod. The versitile dagger and thirsting blade both have a mechanic where after using them for a while, they upgrade into a random crafted version. The gems also upgrade over time.

I also added some dragon eggs. I thought they were really swell. How swell? Well...

Chuck's Dragon Eggs Mod: contains 641 items!!! (Like the PvZ mod, cut that roughly in half.)

Originally based on Dragon Cave, I had to take it down and rework it with my own original sprite art. I'd say it turned out pretty good.

This mod contains eggs which hatch after a while into dragons. It is mainly focused on Pouchette, who can find the full selection, but the others can find a more limited selection too. (Except Tote. Tote never gets to have fun. Except when she finds a Darigan Sword of Death.)

I had a lot of fun figuring out the flavor for this mod. There are a ton of different dragon types, each with it's own type of effect. Tarasques are defensive, drakes have power in numbers, bug dragons are totally a real thing, and weren't the result of running out of unique body plans...

Chuck's Randomly Generated Mod: contains 38 items

Exactly what it says on the tin. I set up a random table, rolled two effects, a trigger, and a character, then made an item inspired by the results.

Chuck's Hyperrealistic Mod: contains 15 items

Gonna be honest, this one's a shitpost.

Chuck's Undertale Mod: contains 92 items

This was a fun pack to work on. I love Undertale and Deltarune, so I certainly wasn't lacking inspiration. Most of the equipment and consumables are in there, along with plenty of memes. I got you're stopsigns, a punchcard that provides massive value if you know how to exploit it, maybe even a Prunsel if you're good.

My favorite item has to be the cell phone. Each battle, you receive a random call, providing a small benefit. You might get Undyne slapping spaghetti against the receiver, you might get Papyrus complaining about spike regulations, you might get [half price baloney], you never know!

Chuck's Dredmor Mod: contains 36 items

Ever played Dungeons of Dredmor? It's very silly. And hard. I've never won a run.

Anyway, here's some random items from that game cause I felt like it. What more do you want?

Chuck's Dungeon Dice Mod: contains 52 items (more like 7 lol)

Contains items which randomize their effects at the start of each battle. Pretty cool.

Anyway, those are my mods. Enjoy a screenshot of the nonsense you can get up to with all my mods active.

Hope you enjoyed reading, and maybe enjoy playing with them!

Stay tuned for my next mod, based on Chips Challenge! This may or may not be a joke.

[bebx]

Hey there! I hope you are doing well. I don't mean to bother you again as you are gonna figure out I am the same person who asked about your unexpectedly but hopefully temporary drifting away from ST sub fandom hehe. So I decided to do my homework and see if you probably left some clues or hints regarding your hiatus from it before but unfortunately I couldn't find any unless my dumb@$$ missed it despite thorough research as if I was looking for easter eggs in a deeply layered show like ST. My search report :- It had been going well on your side even when there was a drought in HC contents but slowly it lost the 'momentum' which I feel you played a key role in wonderfully building up yourself, ironically right at the moment of D-day which honestly feels like if reality had tv drama like loopholes lol.

So all I have now is what you last said to me that you are busy with stuffs and other things like hyperfixation on a character from Harrow series { although I haven't watched it yet but based on your enthusiasm which mostly resonates with my own interest, I have added it in my watchlist :) Cuz Bingo I can't tell you how happy I was when I found you with the same sentiments as mine after watching Damsel! } plus point is you did mention how he is certainly still in your heart and you are planning to make more posts and fanfic about him in future. So I decided to wait, months passed with more tempting Henry Creel info pouring while I still kept up with *patiently waiting for my favorite Tumblr user's ST fandom era to resurface as well as coexist with her new obsession of Harrow series*, so that one hyperfixation won't have to be sacrificed for another still worthy subject of hyperfixation :) Hence it has been quite an introspective and empathetic time but now I am like "okay at least lemme just ask her how she has been and what exactly is the status", to stifle my other apprehensive thoughts forming with the passing time as well as disappearing silver lining( as there is no sign of either Henry or JCB these days at all lol apart from Jamie Bower World Domination post) out of overthinking.

I always felt your contribution to this fandom has been immensely valuable and even though others may or may not have been enough reminding you that as I can see I am probably the only anonymous seeker regarding digging this matter up, I miss you and your blogs about it. I have mostly been a lurker kind so I never interactively participated in any discussion or thread but I have always inwardly appreciated people with a good taste of art. So even if anonymously, this is a great deal to me, sharing my wish embedded in vulnerability. *nervously chuckles* Idk if this is a stretch but given how what Jamie manually allows to be displayed on his tagged section had most of your posts, tells me that he must have subconsciously felt your absence lately too. The fact that this is true tho, makes it a reasonable theory.

So now after hopefully doing a great job at explaining the deep context behind my "ask away" here are the main deal of questions xD;-

How are you, once again? (I don't want to pressurize you into rejoining it earlier than you planned according to your life and schedules uk. Besides I don't wanna interrupt your balancing of multifandom fascination.)

Is there any particular reason behind this seemingly complete "switch off mode" which you can share? ( because my Spidey senses keep feeling it's more than what it is, could be false alarm tho) Could it be potentially because Stranger Things is so addictive, it is not possible to keep a track of its updates while continuing with hyper fixating on other fandoms?

If the aforementioned fear is unfounded, then here are my other theories and questions, have you stumbled upon the TFS spoilers of any kind?

If no, are you planning to watch it LIVE soon or later? (as the canon play is gonna stick around for a long time) is this why have you been avoiding discussions as they would involve major spoiling of the experience?

Or are you planning of watching it whenever it streams on Netflix as technically it just has to one day?

Have you been weakly following any ST S5 leaks? ( as we finally got a very *greatest leak of all time* kind of leak not even exactly 24 hours ago lol) [to tell you the truth- this is exactly what triggered me to get some clarifications from you, as despite knowing that I would open your page only to be greeted by Harrow, deep down I felt maybe you would say something about it because it directly involves JCB and it's quite making waves already.]

Did you check out the VR Game released this February?

Or are you taking a complete long break for a while because once S5 release date inches closer, there is no going back from its fever for another 2-3 years anyways? haha ( ngl this is my most optimistic theory I am clinging onto)

(optional question xD) Am I seriously the only one approaching you by bringing this old buried fascination or others have felt the same way too and they express their perplexity in your inbox instead?

(anyways I will be very grateful if you respond to my plethora of mystified emotions even though I think it would secretly answer to many other lurkers like me who found a sense of kindred spirit through you but are too busy abiding by their lurking policy)

hi, I’ve been looking at this for…. a while, because… oh my 😅 I understand that it’s been so long since my Stranger Things era, and I know some of my followers follow me for my Henry / ST content. I just didn’t know my silly ST posts actually have this much impact that they stay in people’s memories even after it’s been a long time. so this ask actually brings back so many memories. and I really appreciate that you’re still sticking around. really. I had to take a moment to just sit here and stare at this ask in my inbox and go “whoa” — but it’s a good kind of whoa. I am touched that you still remember, because gosh how long has it been since my ST days!

to answer your questions, I am fine and I am doing well. thank you. I didn’t mean to “abandon” my interest. and I AM still interested in the show. I still love Henry, even though I don’t really talk about him on here anymore. it’s funny because a part of me is kind of sad that I don’t talk about him on here anymore? to tell you the truth, anon, I don’t exactly know why? I mean… sure, my blog currently focuses on something else, but I never really stop loving Henry as a character. this sounds extremely cliche, but it’s the truth. I still love him and I still think about him and those time I spent writing fics about him.

I don’t know if there’s any particular reason behind this, according to you, seemingly complete "switch off mode" on my blog. but there’s no conspiracy theory or anything, if that’s what you’re worried about? I just kind of focus my attention on something else, for the moment, but again, I still do love Henry. just because I don’t talk about him here like I used to does not mean I love him any less. rest assured. he’s still in my heart.

I haven’t stumbled upon any real TFS spoilers, but that’s probably because I don’t follow many blogs that talk about it so it rarely reaches my dashboard anyway.

and I don’t live near the place where the play takes place, so unfortunately I don’t see myself traveling there to watch it live, as life has been a little busy for me here to take that kind of vacations. but I would have loved to. if the time were right. I do look forward to streaming it when or if it becomes available on Netflix though.

I haven’t been following ST leaks much, I can’t see “weekly” because I kind of just look at them if they reach my dashboard here or my twitter’s/X’s timeline. but I don’t actively go search for it nor do I avoid it for fear of any potential spoilers either. but I did just see the leaks you talked about, and I’m actually very excited. it actually reminded me of my fic “Salvation” — I’m not sure if you’ve read it, but yeah. gosh I am genuinely very excited.

though I haven’t checked out the VR Game. I mean… I don’t really play video games so that might explain why.

and no. I’m not “taking a long break” because I think there is no going back from its fever for another 2-3 years after season 5 is released. I don’t even know why I’m “taking a break” except that my mind has just been focusing on something else, currently.

also, yes, some people have asked, and I haven’t had the chance to answer them (I’ve been meaning to, though), so this might be the answer they were looking for as well? there’s no “real reason” behind my lack of activity when it comes to ST fandom, except that I’ve been focusing my attention on something else lately, but that doesn’t mean I love the show — or especially Henry — any less. I still am a fan of the show and of Henry. and I still love Jamie with all my heart, obviously. I still keep up with him and his music and I am so incredibly proud of him as an artist and a person.

I am super excited to see Henry again when season 5 drops. I don’t know when or if my hyperfixation will come back, so I wouldn’t wish to make any promises. but what I can say for sure is that, even though it’s not exactly a hyperfixation, I still love Henry just the same. I hope I will start making lots of posts and writing fics about him again one day.

last but not least, I will always love and support Jamie in everything he does. and he will forever be my source of happiness that keeps me going when things are difficult.

I also want to thank you for reaching out. it means so very much to me. if there is any further matter you wish to talk or discuss with me about, you are very welcome to drop by my inbox anytime.

(and yes, I still love talking about Stranger Things and Henry here. anybody is more than welcome to drop by my inbox to talk to me about Henry — who knows, it might re-spark that hyperfixation within me…)

[crescenthistory]

heyy, congrats on 2k, u literally deserve it so much!

i’d like to request and interpret 🙈

i really like music, i play guitar, bits of piano, sing a little and write some songs. i’m building up a cd collection and cherish it very much. i love learning about different languages and want to learn them all, but i actually only just started learning italian as a second language. i can get really hyper fixated on things (like maraurders) i love jewelry, aka chunky rings and chunky bracelets. i play tennis, and it’s really the only sport i like to play or watch. i love to shop, but once i actually get to the stores i get so bored and anxious cause of all the people. i have like 3a, 3b curly hair that i love and am very particular about taking care of it properly ❤️

my music taste is all over the place but i love fiona apple, nirvana, taylor swift, lana del rey, deftones, olivia rodrigo, jeff buckley, billie eilish, conan gray, and charli xcx. i guess my favorite songs rn would have to be to your love (fiona apple), my own summer (deftones), and lacey (olivia rodrigo)

thank u so so much and congrats again on 2k ❤️❤️

thank you so much sweetheart, i appreciate it<33

✶・•・✦・•・✶・✶・•・✦・•・✶

i will INTERPRET for anon

carina's 2k celebration

✶・•・✦・•・✶・✶・•・✦・•・✶

i think you would be a good match for barty crouch jr.!

i feel like every aspect you shared of yourself is something i have touched upon with barty's s/o in various fics and headcanons, so congrats bubs you are the blueprint. barty is an obsessive individual, so to have a partner who also hyperfixates would help him feel seen and comfortable in his relationship. you could indulge each other while also helping make sure the other is grounded and that it never goes far enough to be harmful, the exact balance barty struggles with. he would love nothing more than to lay in your lap or help you with your haircare routine as you play your CDs and tell him of your interests. he would help teach you italian (and any other language you want, he's a polyglot) while you could help him finally learn the guitar. and this man loves spending his father's money on things he wouldn't approve of, so best believe barty would be getting you all the jewellery you want and taking you shopping. whenever you get anxious, he would be ridiculously soft on you (because once you're the centre of his universe, he will be soft) and help ease your mind. there would never be any questioning or insecurity with barty because he puts it to rest immediately.

[memilylove]

I kinda guess I would be considered a part of this fandom. Thinking and wanting to talk to endless lengths about Inuyasha and the entire fictitious world he is from is something that takes up a pretty large portion of my free time (and no so free time.)

I basically would like to say that I appreciate all of you who are so active in this fandom and keep it alive some decades after it’s initial release in the 90s. While I can be hesitant to directly comment in interact with many, I’m still here to quietly like and share the things that are put out there with my whole honest appreciation.

Lately, I’m feeling a major downturn in my mental health. If I were to map it out on a chart, it would go down six units before coming up two and nose diving once again, but further and further. I want to achieve in my career but am often set up for an extreme stress test with little to no salvation in site. I’m typically good at getting through tough spots, they suck, but I know and I will ensure that it’s not a forever feeling. Career rambling aside, what has helped me in the past is being able to to apply my passion and energy into things and topics I love. Hyper-fixate, if you will, so the juxtaposition of my means to live is balanced with something I /really/ care about.

Upon moving to a new city far, far away from my family and friends, the Inuyasha community was that but of salvation for me. I genuinely enjoy the fandom and all the pieces each person across the platforms brings.

Lately, that enjoyment has ebbed. I feel like what ever social insecurities I have have taken hold of me and now I’m oscillating between wanting to contribute to the fandom and being struck with the heaviest dose of impostor syndrome coupled with the questioning of my worth as a human being. I don’t have the answer of how to move past this feeling, but it’s making me feel estranged from those who I used to spend lots of time interacting or directly talking with in the fandom. I feel so isolated in the social space but I know it’s all of my own doing, and I don’t know how to un-do it.

Thank you if you gave this a read. I really don’t know what else to add so-uh. Bye.

[athena5898]

So a benefit to having autism and ADHD is that I end up having a lot of interests in things, especially art. However, there are of course a lot of downsides to this because it's the equivalent of having a dog and cat inside your brain constantly. I've gotten good at balancing a lot of things, but there is one thing that I am struggling with.

With ADHD, it is common to hyper-fixate on something, and then lose motivation, and eventually come back to whatever that thing was again at a later point. However, when it comes to artistic pursuits I run into this weird problem where suddenly I'll be called to try and do several different things at once which leads me to decision paralysis.

How do I work with this or around this?

I find myself getting sad and depressed because I can't fulfill that creative itch and it's really taking a toll on my mood and mental health. I've tried the "just pick something and commit to it in the list" but it's just not working

I think part of the problem is I get interested in things I want to try and do that are not things I have tools for or even the ability to get tools for those things right away because of price. Normally I get around this by planning and learning about the thing in case I find a cheap workaround or preparing when I save up money, but I think I've exhausted that option. I feel like i'm in the 'I need to *do* something" but I can't get myself to figure out what it is that I want to do.

[lichtgrau]

Daesung listens. Minh was correct, he never thought of it that way, but the younger had it right. He nods, feeling a little more relaxed. Seemed like he didn’t scare the other off completely with that silly behaviour. When Minh looks at the app, he looks at the door. The food must be close now, he thinks to himself.

“What kind of repairs can you do? I bet it must be rather difficult. Whilst I don’t know much about instruments, they can’t be easy to fix. Hundreds of little pieces.” He looks around, stopping on instrument after instrument. He smiles. “Compared to your job mine is super easy and rather boring. This here, even the atmosphere alone. So much better than the bar.” Daesung chuckles, attention turning back to the man. “I wouldn’t be able to focus on my work if you sat at the bar, I would just be talking to you. I have a feeling quite a few customers wouldn’t like it, they would even get jealous. For some reason they are hyper fixated on who I talk to and know, it’s odd. That doesn’t mean I don’t want you to visit though, I would love for you to come by.”

"Nah, it's fairly straightforward. I mean, I was trained for it but you can learn about anything if you want to on your own." Minh learned most of what he did as a hacker and locksmith entirely from making use of the many little corners of the internet and he proved to have quite a hand for it. "Tho here, since I am not a specialist, mostly basic stuff. Guitars, bass but also just lots of string replacements. Just if it's getting expensive like a violin or shit, that I send them off to an expert." He pushed himself up: "Wait here a second."

He took two stairs at once down to the entrance when the delivery girl was knocking, he tipped her before balancing everything back up. "Honestly, it's not the most thrilling of jobs but I like it. Spent my childhood here, and you meet lots of fun people. At least, if music is something you are into. I was thinking of investing in expanding the Vinryl corner again but don't know. I feel like it's more fashion to people than passion. Here we go, one burger menu for you." He got comfortable while unboxing his own. "I was thinking that", he winked. "It's more fun to meet outside of work when it's evening so we can just vibe and stuff. Are there specific days when you are off work?"