The Silver Standard, Version Zero: A Retrospective, Sorta

As I’m sure most of you are aware by now, The Silver Standard finished yesterday last week a week and a half ago (darn you, work-induced procrastination). I originally planned on a longer retrospective of how long it took us to get here, let you in on some old notes, and spell out a couple of theses on characters and the obtuse floriography symbolism that I threw in because it’s my fic and nobody can stop me.

Then I remembered that endings to long projects, especially projects I’ve grown very fond of, are both overwhelming in the sheer depth and scale of things to cover, in addition to wondering what TO cover (also why The Last Human’s retrospective still hasn’t happened sorry about that). All of this to say nothing of just how sad I am for it to end. Work aside, most of the reason this blog is so late is because thinking of the end of the fic bummed me out too much.

I always liked the middle of the book best. That’s where all the juicy buildup and crunchy character development is, we’ve already finished all the work of setup and introductions, but best of all, the ending’s way in the horizon, so there’s plenty of time to just hang around and enjoy the story. Also, I only wrote an ending to a long-form story exactly once, and I didn’t 100% stick that landing, so doing it again was minorly nerve-wracking on top of the general depression that comes with ending a story. Yet, all stories worth their word count DO end, and here we are.

Since it’s still #TooSoon for a real retrospective, let’s hop in the ol’ Delorean and take a cruise down memory lane and have a look at what I like to call The Silver Standard: Version Zero.

Longtime followers and friends may be aware that Silver Standard’s been in production since 2011. Even if the final product wasn’t absurdly long and didn’t take three years to finish, it’d be my longest work no matter what. (Does it still count if you leave the story for dead in a ditch for four years, then dig up the bones four years later to build a totally different animal? Screw it, I’m counting it anyway.)
Version Zero had the same title, same main character, and same basic premise (i.e.: a Silver Spoon character piece focusing on her rise to power and friendship with Diamond Tiara) but the similarities all run in broad strokes.

The majority of Version Zero’s main arc, as per my messy outline and early drafts, is essentially what would eventually become the first chapter of the current Standard. The main conflict centered on Silver Spoon not fitting into her new school due to speaking too erudite for her classmates, overdressing for the occasion, and generally being a less complex version of the Silver Spoon we see in the current Standard.

Version Zero’s Silver had none of the current one’s pride, snobbiness, fussiness, or basically any of the flaws that made the character interesting. She was nerdy, slightly whiny misfit from a rich family and… that’s it. There was no particular reason for her to act the way she did, no discernible flaws to speak of, and she tugged along as Diamond’s passive hanger-on without much personality here or there. In other words, she was basically every other fanon version of Silver Spoon: nice, bland, and flat.

Oh, she felt conflicted with her friendship with Diamond, yes, but that was as deep as she got, and even that depth traded one archetype for another: the beta bully who’s secretly nice and sweet but that mean ol’ alpha bully’s got them under their thumb, so nothing the beta bully does counts because it’s the alpha bully who’s the real problem.

As it happens, it’s this typical version of Silver Spoon I set out to deconstruct in the current Standard. Reading over Version Zero and realizing that I’d basically written that same flat dull character turned my stomach a little bit. That said, I also understand why I’d written her that way; in 2011 all we had to go on was Season One, and had been a perfectly understandable conclusion to draw at the time. I try not to be too hard on myself (or others) about it, but six years of pre-COTLM apologetics for one nine year old while throwing the other under the bus has soured my outlook on that character interpretation.
Scapegoating Diamond Tiara doesn’t strengthen Silver Spoon as a character, it cripples her. Absolving Silver of all guilt means that she has no reason to grow or change. The character learns to stand up for herself, yes, but aside from that one moment—a moment that’s rarely expounded upon because the preceding friendship tends to be a hollow or one-sided before the breakup and results in a toothless conflict—we’re given little to nothing else.

Version Zero’s main character was entirely reactive instead of proactive, and the milquetoast outline I’d drafted had few plans for major development, neither positive nor negative. When you’re writing a character study of how this character became a bullying jerk, that’s a major problem. The driving action started and continued via Diamond Tiara, while Silver latched to her like a suckerfish for protection from Silver’s own bullies, eventually realizing over the course of the story that she’s in too deep and the bullied has become the bully.
What begins as a self-defense becomes revenge, and revenge morphs into a hostile takeover of Wisteria Academy. That’s honestly not a bad plotline, if not for the fact that my characterization was pretty wea—

Sorry, what’s that? Why are they at Wisteria?
Right, right, I forgot to mention that.

Yeah, that’s the other main difference with Version Zero. The whole thing takes place at Manehattan’s Wisteria* Academy.
*About 2/3s into The Silver Standard I realized that the pony I named the school after is actually named WYsteria and I’d been spelling it wrong the whole time, but it was too late to change it. It’s something nobody cares about but me, and even I’m going to forget about it in like a month but I’m still mad darn it.

What’s Silver doing at Wisteria? Same reason as now: she’s a rich Manehattanite daughter of a museum curator and an opera star (more on that later). A better question is: What the hell is Diamond Tiara doing in Manehattan?

Again, Version Zero’s draft began in 2011 and was planned in late 2010, before we knew Filthy Rich existed or of the Rich’s establishment in Ponyville. At the time, I proposed that Diamond Tiara was a beauty pageant star, full stop Toddlers and Tiaras mode, moving town to town with her single mother—an early Golder Glitter prototype previously named Gold Digger or something lame like that—who lived off Di’s pageant winnings and sought out a rich pony to marry. (I have no clue if that last part was added after Filthy’s canon introduction or not.) How can Diamond afford to attend a private school with her upper-middle-class-at-best income? Hell if I know. Maybe she blackmailed the dean.

How do Diamond and Silver get to Ponyville if they’re both from Manehattan?
...Good question, wish I knew.

In the death throes of V.Zero (circa early 2012), desperately trying to make this weak story work, I had it that Diamond’s mom got together with Filthy Rich, meaning Diamond Tiara had to move again. Fair enough. Less so is the fact that Silver wants to follow her to Ponyville and her elite family deeply entrenched in Manehattan with wealth and careers that they absolutely can’t continue in a small town decide this is a totally feasible reason to just up and move out to the sticks, Silver Spoon’s just that spoiled I guess.

Honestly, I always knew this reasoning was hot trash garbage, and kept it on the outline’s backburner, hoping to smooth it out later. This, dear readers, is what you call denial and a key example of a darling that needed to be killed with extreme prejudice. The Manehattan setting and move just plain did not work. It didn’t work in 2010, it didn’t work in 2011 or 2012, and I knew it that whole time, but I kept telling myself I could fix it. In truth, the only way to fix this was to make this an A.U. or ice the Wisteria setting altogether.

The actual plot arc, what little of it I remember, was always vague at best (this was when I still fancied myself a pantser instead of a plotter) but from what I can scrounge up it went something like this:

• We begin basics of five-year-old Silver’s life and daily routine well before the plot or conflict start. (A rookie mistake; it’s generally better to start as close to the conflict as possible, but that’s why this is Version Zero)
• Despite her protests, Silver Spoon doesn’t get to accompany her father to the museum or stay at home with their butler all day anymore, and has to start school
• School at Wisteria sucks. It’s still a private school for rich kids, but otherwise functioned more like a normal school (more Mean Girls than the Game of Thrones-eqsue thing we have now). Social hierarchy was still very much a thing, but to a lesser degree. (Then again, everypony was between six and seven, rather than nine and eleven. Most educators I’ve talked to say that’s the mean stage.)
• Many Wisterians in the current version appear, with larger roles. Quiet Wondermint was still Silver’s friend. Brights Brightly was a mostly neutral party. Fair Weather began as Silver’s enemy, switching to an ally as soon as the waters change later in the story; fake as hell in both versions.
• Toola Roola, scholarship student, is a painter from the Broncs: loud, fun, likeable, uncouth, and a breath of fresh air for the school full of sheltered and over-scheduled fillies of Wisteria. She easily becomes the most popular filly in class, along with her crew, Dibble Dabble (fellow painter) and Fair Weather (professional ladder-climber). She is also Silver Spoon’s bully, leading the charge making fun of Silver’s glasses, “fancy schmancy talk” and elaborate wardrobe (“who does she think she is, dressed like it’s the Grand Galloping Gala?”). Often did the blowing her mane out of her face thing
• As revealed later, Toola Roola comes from a poor background, and very insecure with herself. Somehow, I managed to write Babs Seed before Babs existed, down to the mannerisms and accent. This coincidence was eventually the last nail in Version Zero’s coffin.
• Rival rich fillies at the top of the social ladder include Palanquin (who’s mostly the same) and Taffeta Twirl, the mob princess (she became Diamond’s unseen pageant rival in Standard proper, while her role in Wisteria got handed to Toplofty).
• Enter Diamond Tiara. She and Silver become friends because reasons.
• They hatch a plot to upturn the social scene, starting with the evisceration of Toola Roola. Diamond is quick to turn everything Wisteria loved about the filly inside out: she’s not eccentric, she’s weird; she’s not talented, she’s a charity case; she’s not cool, she’s a freak with weird hair and where does she get off dissing Silver's fancy clothes when Toola’s came from the bargain bin?
• Power shift: Diamond and Silver are on top, the rest of the school falls in line.
• Something something Silver starts shedding the few characteristics she has, like pretending she’s not into museums and other nerdy interests in the name of popularity as she learns how to play ball.
• Somewhere later in there, Silver rolls by Toola Roola’s place for a birthday party nobody came to, thanks to her. Feels bad, probably? I barely remember this plot point.

And that’s about it. Looking at it after the fact, I realize the bones of this arc could actually hold up as backstory for the current Silver Standard with some tweaking. After all, Silver Spoon didn’t come from the womb already knowing the value of appearances and how to game the system.

PROTO-CHARACTER STUFF

• Spoony’s parents were originally the background ponies Caesar and Lyrica
  

• In the finalized SilverStandard, they look roughly the same, except Laurel now wears a derby hat instead of a topper, and Pitch Perfect’s eyes switched to green and her mane is a different color and style. Obviously, the names changed too. I realized it was much simpler to just make OCs rather than use background ponies. Also, Caesar’s name is kinda terrible, and I wanted the Silvers to have a common family name.

• Originally, Lyrica barely saw Silver Spoon at all, and showed her love with material possessions rather than actual maternal affection. A mare strict on appearances and obsessed with keeping up with the Joneses, she maintained perfect dignity and composure, especially in public.

• 

  "If that fabulous pony likes it, then I do too! Bravo! !"

  That's it, that's the character.

• This was the rough plan for Pitch Perfect as well (to contrast the free-wheeling cool mom Golden Glitter) buuuuuut then Spoiled Rich happened. I ended up transferring most of Lyrica’s setup to Spoiled since she presented evidence for it in canon. This was just as well, because Pitch veered into a quiet character arc when I wasn’t looking and developed on her own. Turns out that personally coaching Ponyville’s citizens got her to loosen up and find common ground in the basic love of music. (Sweetie Belle also got her to like musicals, though Pitch will deny it to the grave.)

• Fun Fact: In Silver Standard Version Zero’s very very first version, Caesar was the main character. Well, about him and the whole family, but he centered the whole thing.
• The Silver had something of a family curse going on: throughout the centuries, they have always been elite and accomplished, but always second-tier and second place. Many have worked under powerful ponies, but none were powerful themselves. A long tradition of B-pluses. The tradition continues with Lyrica’s slavish obsession with trendiness and the fact that Caesar himself lives in the second-biggest city in Equestria in the second-best museum in the nation, as the 2nd director for the CoMA. (He used to do modern art instead of antiquities.)
• Watching Silver’s slow shift into blindly following Diamond Tiara, Caesar fears the cycle isn’t ending anytime soon. His cutie mark and Special Talent (both of which stayed the same into the current Standard) tell him the worth of things, and the beauty of the overlooked. He sees the inherent worth of his family, even without wealth or social climbing, and is disappointed they don’t see it in themselves.
• As I progressed, I realized that the story became more and more about Silver Spoon, so I just gave the whole thing to her. And here we are. Although the shallowness of the Silver family doesn’t exist anymore, the shame over being second-best still remained in the current version of the story; it’s just more about himself than the family in general. Poor Laurel, I need to give him his own side story eventually.

• In Version Zero, Caesar and Lyrica’s marriage clung together by a few measly threads. If not for Silver Spoon and appearances, they might have split already. Silver Spoon originally got her cutie mark with a tea party that got them to stop fighting. This aspect got split between Diamond and Silver, with the former getting the divorce angle, and Silver still with the tea party mediation. (I honestly didn’t intend to carry either of these over and didn’t realize I did so until I wrote this blog. I guess my subconscious hung on to it. Good looking out, Patch’s subconscious.

• Brass Tacks is here, as regular ol’ valet (instead of a bodyguard posing as a valet) by the name of Inkwell. He’s a watered-down version of the pony we know in Standard-canon, sans guard school, and was probably a decade or two older. (The Tacks we know is currently around his early 30s)
• One of the many things I love about the current Silver Standard is the vast improvement on the Silver family’s names, and Brass Tacks has one of the best ones. The name’s versatile, working with the metal theming while implying roughness and practicality. I’ve got a rotten streak of giving all my good names to background characters we never see again, so I’m glad that for once I got to give one to a character that actually matters.

And there you have it, Version Zero.

Though the project stood at the forefront of my MLP fic work (barring a short break to write Somewhere Only We Know) I was never that gung-ho about it. I picked at it on and off from late 2010 to mid-2012 as canon slowly whittled away my measly outline until a computer crash nuked all of what I’d written in Word thus far. It wasn’t much to lose, but enough to shelve the project permanently.*
*It also got me into the good habit of backing up my work on google drive at the end of every session. It’s also part of why I draft in longhand, so I have a record even if I have a hardware accident driving home from a place with no wifi.

Though I didn’t know it at the time, that crash was for the best. As I’ve said, Version Zero’s drafts were barely a story, my drive to write it had dwindled to a trickle, and writing it around canon was more trouble than it was worth.

I believe that stories come to us when it’s the right time to know them, both as a reader and as a writer. For example, I didn’t get around to reading Harry Potter until I was twenty eight, and I tried and failed to read The Martian Chronicles three times in high school before I came back to it in college and now it’s one of my all-time favorites. I’ve read The Last Unicorn at least a dozen times since age thirteen, and it’s never the same story twice. Stories are different for the stage in life you’re in; if something doesn’t click, then maybe it’s just not the right time for it.

I wasn’t ready for The Silver Standard in 2011, and it wasn’t ready for me.

In the four year hiatus, I wrote three one-shots, along with The Last Human while I honed my skills. The learning experience of writing—and FINISHING—a novel-length work cannot be overstated in its value. The Last Human did more for The Silver Standard than anything else. By the time I wrapped up Diamond and a Tether, I realized that I finally had the urge to come back to Silver Spoon.

In the brainstorming stages, I fully planned for a more sinister Silver Spoon: a devious éminence grise masterminding all of Diamond’s plans, with Diamond taking the fall when those plans inevitably failed, as Silver quietly climbed her way to the top. (In other words, exactly the kind of pony Spoiled Rich suspects her of being.) I don’t recall if Diamond was the safety net/scapegoat in case things went pear-shaped or if it actually was a slow-burn scheme to accumulate power for herself and throw Di under the bus or not.

Either way, this plan lasted all of 48 hours tops, because
A) that plan formed from bitterness over Poor Little Silver Spoon did Nothing Wrong stories, and malcontent fix-fics aren’t good for anyone, the author least of all
and
B) Come the heckadoodle on, Poltergeist. Like you gonna even do your OTPP (one true platonic pairing) like that. You’re ready to fight every single person who implies these two aren't the best of best friends. Who you think you kidding, girl. Write your best friends story.

Originally, I wanted to write a one-shot, but couldn’t decide between several promising plots. After an hour or so of debate, I threw up my hands and decided to write all of them, and nobody had taken the title yet, so what the hell, Silver Standard 2.0 is back on.

By the by, the original plan for one-shots is the reason for the episodic format and arguably why it ended up so dang long. It’s not one, but about nineteen stories in a tight little series with continuity. I think of it less like a movie and more like a miniseries.

...Okay, fine, that’s not really true. Crusaders of the Lost Mark is the real reason why Silver Standard ended up as long as it is. It moved the goalposts for my outline, and suddenly I had a brand new flashpoint for Diamond and Silver’s relationship, and Diamond’s character arc became more streamlined thanks to a solid ending on the horizon. A lot got rerouted, and almost all of it for the better.

Not saying she saved this story, but she did bump it up a letter grade or two.

Good things come to those who wait. The Silver Standard is the story I’ve wanted to write for this fandom for over seven years. I’m glad to say that I produced something that I’m truly proud of. It’s not the story I originally planned; it’s so much better.

For all the grief that Silver Standard: Version 0.0 gave me, it laid the groundwork for a fanfiction that was a blast to write and, on my end, pretty fun to read. I still owe it a lot, and it's why I came full circle to introduce the freshly canonized Toola Roola in the epilogue. You can imagine my delight this morning when I discovered the talented Robsa made me a little something to celebrate the story's ending

Thematically appropriate and a beaut to look at. Loving those textures and the addition of Diamond's stained glass window that I somehow keep forgetting exists even though there was an entire arc about it.

To those that have been with The Silver Standard since 2015 (or 2016 or 2017 or 2018) thank you for taking this journey with me. To those who’ve waited for the story’s completion, thank you for your patience, and I hope I’ve delivered something worth waiting for.

Tip the waiter, wear your seatbelt, remember to drink some water.

Em hotep, my dear readers. Walk in peace.

EDIT: Whups, I almost forgot! In case anyone's interested, the scraps of Version Zero that I had in Gdocs, those can be found here and here in their raw mostly unedited glory. These were typed up mostly as notes and scraps to be re-worked later and rougher than usual typed drafts.

Comments

[Autumn Colors Fall]

I have long felt that this story is one of the best companion works to read alongside the show. The development of the entire student body helps to really flesh out the town of Ponyville, it gives us a perspective other than that of the rather unconventional mane six. This depiction of Silver Spoon is also the very best one that exists and I will fight anyone who says otherwise cannot watch one of the episodes with her and D in it without trying to work out what is going on in her head. Just well done, this is one of my top 5 stories on FimFiction, up there with a few SS&E fics and the Weedverse.

[bigbear]

Thank you very much for writing The Silver Standard. I looked forward to every update along the way.

If you can, I'd love to hear more about how you planned stories around events in the show cannon. I think the way TSS weaves itself alongside cannon events is unmatched. Whenever I could identify cannon events happening in the background, it made me smile. But the weavingin of cannon events into TSS never felt forced. From the reader's POV, it was a fine conjurer's trick.

[Robsa990]

Holy mother of blogposts, that's a lot of words. I had no idea of the amount of planning that went on behind the scenes but at the same time it should've been obvious to me given the amount of detail in the story.

I'm happy to hear my fan art delighted you this morning, haha, you deserve it! I know you'll do well in your future endeavors, whatever they may entail. Get it? Because ponies have tai..... yeah never mind. I'll go ahead and post my comment now.

[Lurks-no-More]

Thank you for sharing!

I'm inclined to think that Version Zero wasn't quite as bad as you now say, because authors tend to be their own harshest critics, but I do agree that the Silver Standard we got is superior.

The episodic structure of the story was perfectly fitting, given the episodic nature of the show. Speaking of which, I've always been very impressed by how well and deftly you've included the changes and curveballs the show's thrown at you into the story.

Finally, seeing Caesar and Lyrica, I now have a good mental picture of Silver's parents for the first time. They managed to elude my inner eye whenever they appeared in the story. And yes, your names are vastly better! (And yes, a side story from Silver Laurel's perspective would be cool. Also, how about a Day With Brass Tacks?)

[Cold in Gardez]

But but but, PP -- what's next?

[QueenMoriarty]

Thanks for sharing, this was cool to read.

[howard035]

Thanks for sharing the process. I could tell at times you wanted to do more stuff at Wisteria, but I think you balanced out the occasional trips and flashbacks well.

Here's a big question: Did Spoiled ever go to Wisteria as a filly, or were the Rottens not quite thoroughbred enough to pull that off? Or there a smaller version of Wisteria in Canterlot she went to instead?

[The Great Derpsby]

Silver Standard is one of those stories where one wishes it were the series' own canon.

[FanOfMostEverything]

... Wait, Brass is only in his twenties? I always imagined him as a pony Walter C. Dornez, kicking butt and serving tea well into his seventies.

In any case, thank you for the look back at the raw ore that you refined into something so much more. Sometimes one doesn't kill one's darling, but merely deactivate them to better optimize them.

[TheJediMasterEd]

I guess the lesson here is "Kill your darlings and harvest their organs."

[Peachy Keen]

Thank you for posting this! It's always cool to read about ideas that didn't quite make the cut or what shaped a story to be what it is now.

Poor Laurel, I need to give him his own side story eventually.

Yes please! I'd love a story focusing on other members of the Silver Family. The Riches got their dues (ha), it's the Silver's turn!

Ps I've been so goddam busy lately, I still haven't read the last two chapters yet! That's just sad.

[PatchworkPoltergeist]

FINALLY I've got spare time to reply to comments properly.
4841830>>4841835
That was pretty much my goal all along. There's always a small set of goals one has when they start a long-form project, and after failing in a few aspects of Last Human (namely synthesizing the original novel and my own), it's nice to hear that this attempt's gone smoother. c:

4841868

Holy mother of blogposts, that's a lot of words. I had no idea of the amount of planning that went on behind the scenes but at the same time it should've been obvious to me given the amount of detail in the story.

No kidding. I wrote out a rough draft of this in my notebook at work and had no idea how long this actually was until I sat down to write it and later realized I'd been at it for six hours. How on earth did this end up being like five thousand words, yeesh I need to relearn brevity.
it's not so much "planning" is more like a constant buzz of brainstorming and rambling on skype. When actually put into words after the fact, it all becomes much more coherent with the handy illusion that I totally knew what I was doing the whole time.

4841903
It probably isn't all that bad, especially in the context of being an S1 fic, both before the fandom started pulling harsh monster/woobie dynamics on Diamond and Silver, and before both of these characters got expanded on. For only being seen twice, it was a fair characterization. Plot structure was still garbage, but I hadn't learned how to plot yet at that stage of my writing career anyway, that's not the story's fault.
I meant to poke my buddy/cover page maker Saddlesoap Opera to make a set of reference pics for the OCs of Silver Standard but never got around to it. I oughta do that.
4842792
As for a story about the Silvers and/or Tacks, what I may do is kill two birds with one stone and write a little something about how he went from the rougher side of Hooflyn to a fancy bodyguard/butler, since a bunch of Silver stuff happens in the background and integrates well. That or that dumb comedy I kick around about Pitch Perfect and Brass Tacks secretly being fans of a cheesy musical, but everyone else thinks they're having an affair.
Also, every time I try to write about Laurel and Pitch they keep trying to turn it into bdsm clop. Like, every single time.

4842240

Here's a big question: Did Spoiled ever go to Wisteria as a filly, or were the Rottens not quite thoroughbred enough to pull that off? Or there a smaller version of Wisteria in Canterlot she went to instead?

Nope. Granted, one doesn't need to be thoroughbred to make Wisteria (being a legacy helps more, and Silver Spoon's got that covered with both sides of the family), just money and/or a promising little filly with concentrated parental effort to get them in. Spoiled had none of the above. No family history there, her family didn't quiiite have the bits for tuition AND board (Spoiled's always been a Canterlot pony), though they could have swung it if they really wanted to. And they didn't. Even with the needed funds, Spoiled's mother wouldn't have thought it worth the effort. In general, she didn't consider Spoiled to be worth a lot of effort.
Instead, Spoiled Rich (and her younger brother) attended a similarly structured Canterlot private school a couple rungs down.
Her sister, Honeymilk, almost went to Wisteria, but she made it in at high-school stage, but cried about leaving her city and her friends, so she stayed in Canterlot.

4842307
Aw, I'm flattered. n_n

4842494
He's in his early 30s, I miscalculated. You're not the only one though, my editor thought he was in his old age the whole time too. I guess it comes of acting like Alfred Pennyworth the whole time and not often mentioning his age or looks. The white mane doesn't help, either. But yeah, he's only a little older than Fleur; more Bond than Alfred.
And also from Hooflyn, though he trained the accent out years ago. (The idea of him seamlessly shifting from James Bond to Joey Wheeler is delightful though, and I might just give him story just for the excuse of that joke.)

4842592
No, no, you harvest bones not organs. Bones keep longer and you don't even need a cooler. And you can make it into jewelry! (I need more bone jewelry)

4841981
After giving Diamond Tiara such a rough time, I figured I owe her a nice lighter story where everything comes out okay, so now I'm rough drafting a little midsize story about getting a pet. It was SUPPOSED to be a comedy but these jerks don't know how to cooperate with me, so now it's more like a... dramedy? Straight slice of life?
It's at least not as somber as the last two Rich-focused stories, I'll give it that much. There's bird poop and cake in it.

[FanOfMostEverything]

4859047

(The idea of him seamlessly shifting from James Bond to Joey Wheeler is delightful though, and I might just give him story just for the excuse of that joke.)

Is it too much to hope that Brass somehow plays a foal's card game in that story? (That was how a gang really made a name for itself back in his day!)

[PatchworkPoltergeist]

4859059
I've been binging Yu-Gi-Oh for the past month, and that is not a fools hope in the least. (I also may or may not have theoretical themed decks for all of the characters because now that that plot's finished all I have is wacky memes and theoretical situations)

[TheJediMasterEd]

4859047

No, no, you harvest bones not organs. Bones keep longer and you don't even need a cooler.

And I declare
Where there's a way
There's a will.
And have you ever seen
The Boys from Brazil?...

[TheJediMasterEd]

4859059

"Oh, see now, that's a double fizzbin. And the odds of that are...well, Spock?"

"Astronomical."

"Yes, astronomical..."