make her a member of the midnight crew

...You find yourself in a vast ocean. Treading water. Are you on the surface? Below the waves? You've got no hair to indicate this.

Someone's swimming beneath you. A microphone, wet and sparking, is held to your face. It tastes nothing like Flamin' Hot Nacho Cheese.

“You're a 'Star Athlete'. What strengths and magics within you make that so?" * I always play fair and I never give up. * Those are the two most important aspects of sportsmanship! "Do you have any passions or desires outside of sports?" * I've pretty much dedicated my entire life to baseball, but I also think math is fun. * It's like a bunch of little number puzzles. "Your coaches and teammates should know you. How'd they describe you, if I asked?" * "She's reliable", I hope! "If your team had a mascot, how would you want it to be?" * Hmm... A mascot for the KNIGHTS... * I'm kind of imagining a creepy-looking black knight, like the one from that old pinball game. * Maybe it'd have a baseball bat instead of a sword.

"When I try to open this face... I can't see any women playing in the MLB. What's your plan for when you grow up?" * ... * I'll make it work. * I have to. "I see, I see... thank you, North Star, knight of the third base, pinch-hitter past the millennium. Before you leave me behind... here. Make sure to bring someone’s justice..."

"...and watch out for cars."

"And the third... oh, that's a mirror. Here, face yourself."

* (You've got your game face on.) * (Like always.)

you have to be kinder to people who are slow processors.

you have to be kinder to people who don't understand your jokes.

you have to be kinder to people who forget important dates.

you have to be kinder to people with cognitive decline.

you have to be kinder to people who were always this way, too.

this arc starts in september 2012.

his future self comes out of a time portal and says "hey shit's fucked and it's my fault. go and fix this by not fucking the future."

he gets caught by future rebels who hate him because his future self fucked the future.

escapes and punches his future self.

his future self shoots a rebel and the time machine fucking breaks for basically no reason and threatens to destroy all of reality

and his future self gets shot before *he* can make the dramatic heroic sacrifice to stop it.

i cannot express just how much of a Shit Just Happens plot this is. this takes place in-universe over the course of like a couple hours if that. Imagine for a second that you were keeping up with ctrl alt del in 2012. Okay now that you've imagined that i'm gonna give you a minute to stop laughing. Okay now that you're done laughing, just fucking, imagine. You'd have no clue the story was building to any kind of big dramatic conclusion until the literal last possible page??!?! this is such a "oh god i really don't want to be writing CAD anymore" ending but the series was fucking rebooted after this so that can't've been it.

this is the last time any of Ethan Ryan MacManus's friends saw him alive.