progress on absopro 13th anniversary edition is going steady.

"but stan, you said it was going to be out on 09/14! it's not the anniversary edition anymore! you missed the anniversary!"

i did! that's true! some stuff came up (i don't really wanna talk about it) and i'm going to be a bit late to the party. but it'll be fashionably late. i hope. also i am probably going to be the only one at the party. nobody really cares about absopro anymore besides crazyass diehards like me who've been trapped in this gamer hole for 13 years for reasons that may or may not have to do with pewdiepie.

...ahem. anyway.

it's coming. the story will continue to continue! i'm trying my best over here, okay! i'm just a guy!

this gives me more time to make it actually presentable, so not too bad.

and i hate it so much i'm so fucking obsessed with jlin and caro right now it's unreal. i love these two deranged mad scientist women who are unhealthily obsessed with each other to such a point they're slowly killing themselves over it. they're so allergic to self-reflection they'd shrivel up and die if they saw a mirror. they're horrible and toxic but they can't be without each other. i can't stop fucking thinking about how real it is, how it's exactly what happens when someone with unchecked BPD finds an FP that's obsessively devoted to them right back (i might be speaking with experience on that note).

ABSOLUTION PROGRAM, commonly shortened to absopro, is a 2012 multimedia webcomic about some kids in a fucked up, surreal magic users' society that make deals with demons for magic powers in return for fighting aliens. the absolution program, as it's termed, is intended for teens and young adults who feel trapped in their current life situation, for one reason or another, as a way of "redeeming" themselves. ABSOLUTION PROGRAM: 13th Anniversary Edition, however, is the true story at play here: AP13AE (as is shortened when distinction is necessary) is a character study of its (deceased) author lucas through the lens of the comic. it has multiple layers of narrative: in-universe, popular fanfic writer turned official absopro team member ghoulishtemperance has taken it upon himself to archive the webcomic as it existed pre-death of flash and recreate it while also adding real-world context and his own commentary when appropriate. the result is typically the webcomic itself being sandwiched in between the author's own commentary, the state of the fandom at the time, and GT's own interpretation of what the fuck is going on. why is this necessary? because lucas is a fucking murderer.

despite the other, surviving author's assertions, absopro does contain wild amounts of subtext about lucas's moral philosophy that can't be ignored. this is why the comic is so polarizing. as the story goes on, GT realizes this is true and wonders if it's right for the team to continue on with a murderer's comic. is it okay to still be a fan of lucas's work, even if he's not hurting anyone anymore?

as for absopro itself, it does seem unassuming at first glance. it's not a deconstruction of mahou shoujo or even a dark mahou shoujo, but a very earnest one that just happens to have darker things in it. while Being a Magic User absolutely sucks, the comic tends to shrug this off as a "yeah, it just be like that." and focuses more on the systemic abuses perpetuated both by the society and the real-world society that pushes these kids into thinking their only option of turning their life around is becoming a magic user.

the first two parts, written by lucas himself, focuses on the main team and their struggles with completing their first few missions and becoming "official" magic users, until something goes completely awry and exposes them to how corrupt the society is. the third part, released ten years after the comic's indefinite hiatus, shows them just what happens when you dare to question it. also, the main villain is a tumblr sexyman and totally not a self insert of lucas. that's probably relevant.