Reported for premarital handholding.

A great start, and I'm excited to see how this balloons. Who will write and judge for the zine, and what sorts of tales will be submitted? Is the printing press secretly home to some eldritch horror like basically everything else on the Isles? Will Hooty be ignored? Most importantly: will the shared experience coax Amity and Luz into taking their relationship wholly into ‘girls kissing as they support and cuddle eachother’ territory?

Fantastic. It begins.

Thought Prism said:

A great start, and I'm excited to see how this balloons. Who will write and judge for the zine, and what sorts of tales will be submitted? Is the printing press secretly home to some eldritch horror like basically everything else on the Isles? Will Hooty be ignored? Most importantly: will the shared experience coax Amity and Luz into taking their relationship wholly into ‘girls kissing as they support and cuddle eachother’ territory?

Mwahahahahah.

Okay, what brand of phone does Luz have such that it can hold a charge for like a year and a half?

Thought Prism said:

Okay, what brand of phone does Luz have such that it can hold a charge for like a year and a half?

She'd been charging it through the portal up until the end of the season, so it's only been 8 months, but still, it's been a while, phone's probably haunted. :V

(Chapter 5)

Really interesting! The mystery of the printing press and the underwing is intriguing, and the story of Luz and Amity putting together the magazine is fun in and of itself.

The characters' voices really pop. The bit in chapter 4 where Luz reacts to Eda laughing about kids dying especially stands out.

This makes me think about a sequel to my own TOH fic.

(Chapter 7)

The mystery of the printing press grows. Bit of unexpected characterization with neither Gus nor Willow being interested in reading, but it isn't bad. I liked the confusion about how “press” became a word for journalists in the Boiling Isles. Good to see things progress on the 'zine side.

I was not expecting POV sections for Gus and Boscha. Gus' story got a chuckle out of me. The whole zine plot device is making things quite meta.

(Chapter 10)

This chunk of chapters was a bit slower in terms of revelations, but it was interesting seeing them slowly piece together the history of the newspaper. Plus, it's better than them not looking into this. I like how you were able to incorporate what the show established of the history of the coven system. Also, lol, Penstagram.

(Chapter 12)

Whoa, the zine's way more successful than I expected. Honestly, I feel like the sequence of them figuring out how to anonymize the submissions could have been shortened a fair bit without much loss, but the rest of what we got with this set has been great. Maybe Amity's finally starting to realize what's going on with her relationship with Luz? Nah. Can't be a disaster lesbian if she does now.

Can plants on the Isles actually transmit vibes, or is that just a Willow thing? If other people can feel the vibes, I imagine most of them aren't as nice as Fifi.

Can plants on the Isles actually transmit vibes, or is that just a Willow thing? If other people can feel the vibes, I imagine most of them aren't as nice as Fifi.

I think it's mostly just a Willow thing, but not unique to her, you've just gotta be really skilled at plant magic to pick up on plant vibes, and if you're that skilled, the plants probably like you quite a bit and are sending you good vibes.

(Chapter 14)

Things continue moving forward with the magazine. Not much to say about these two chapters, just that it's nice to see the characters interact. Oh, and Luz and Amity bonding over tea is great.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

This is the incredible, super cute payoff I was waiting for. The bludgeoning of heteronormativity to death is just icing on the cake.

(Chapter 16)

Oh huh, the confession really happened. I admit I sort of glossed over that part at first, since I assumed Amity was just imagining it. But then it kept going and I went back. Nice that Luz was able to figure things out from that poem, and that things worked out well.

Speaking of working out well, the judging went shockingly smoothly. I'm surprised they were able to wrangle everyone into finishing it.

In chapter 16, while the explanation of codes was informative, and it was interesting to see the culture clash, I also thought it dragged out a bit.

(Chapter 16)

Oh huh, the confession really happened. I admit I sort of glossed over that part at first, since I assumed Amity was just imagining it. But then it kept going and I went back. Nice that Luz was able to figure things out from that poem, and that things worked out well.

Speaking of working out well, the judging went shockingly smoothly. I'm surprised they were able to wrangle everyone into finishing it.

In chapter 16, while the explanation of codes was informative, and it was interesting to see the culture clash, I also thought it dragged out a bit.

HAH. I predicted it was a dream when I was editing it, too. You see bats!? We're all prepared for your bait and switch cruelty!

(Chapter 17)

I understood that reference with entry 42 :eyes:

Nice fluffy chapter. I liked how Eda reacted to all of their disgusting homework and studying.

So now that we know part of the printing press's secret, seems like it's innocent after all. Or so it seems.

(Chapter 21)

Eda finally catches them in the act!

You know, I was thinking for a while that the judging was going way too smoothly, given how we know FimFiction contest judging goes, but now we see issues. It is weird that there haven’t been any no-show judges, though.

Good chapter, though I have to be honest, I am starting to get bored with the descriptions of the judging.

(Chapter 22)

And now a full news article has come out of the printing press. The fact who ever made it had to make various attempts at the proper format makes my theory that it’s the printing press acting on its own less likely at first glance, but it could also be the press getting back up to speed.

It was nice to see some comforting girlfriends (and also friends) too, though I did find it a bit odd that they reacted to the content of the paper and assumed it was true before focusing on who made it.

I did find it a bit odd that they reacted to the content of the paper and assumed it was true before focusing on who made it.

That would likely be a rational response to it in general, and were it just Luz, Willow, and Gus in the room, Luz would have probably focused on wondering about who wrote it and why first and largely ignored the content of it. Amity, on the other hand, is both predisposed to believing the worst out of Boscha and reacting with anger thanks to the bad blood between them, and is primed to assume everything in the article is true thanks to it lining up with the rumor mill stuff she heard about Boscha earlier. Even if the who wrote it and why part is the better series of questions to be asking, Amity just saw red, and thus Luz’s initial reaction then shifted to focusing on Amity, since the article upset her so much. All and all not the most rational way to deal with some random rumors they found, but sometimes being rational first is hard.

Makes sense. Thanks!

(Chapter 23)

And judging is done! It was interesting to see what sorts of other stories succeeded and who wrote them.

So whoever is putting up these posters was able to do it very quickly, such that no one saw it happen even though people were taking bathroom breaks. Assuming the article is accurate, this provides an alternative explanation for Gus’s bad state, though I’m not dismissing the idea that the printing press is using him as a medium. However, the fact that the printing press is how they left it, meaning it doesn’t appear to have been shifted to print the article, is intriguing.

(Chapter 25)

Nice set of fluffy chapters. The observation that the printouts are focused on their friend group could be another hint toward this being the printing press itself.