"Nighttime. Probably the best time there is without a sun. Solar eclipses are too brief and you need special glasses to look at where the sun's hiding. Then there's the time after the sun explodes, but the planet's probably too blown up to really enjoy it. Yes, nighttime is the best we have." A silence hung in the air for a full minute.

"Here he stands, The Tick! Protector of this fair city, The City! Watching over the night like an intrepid birdwatcher. Some heroes claim to be the night, but that's just silly. That would be like me claiming to be the brunch. Sure, I do some of my best work during brunch, but it's just the time I work sometimes. And if someone was the night, then I'd be a peeping tom right now when I'm just trying to prevent moonlit crimes and that's just not the way these things go down! So call me a Doubting Thomas, but I don't think anyone really is the night." More silence followed.

If The Tick weren't narrating atop a rooftop tonight, it would be an utterly quiet night. No crime, no citizens in need, not even a tiny little natural disaster! It was one of those nights where it just didn't seem worth it to put in time protecting people because nobody needed protecting!

A voice that belonged to neither The Tick nor his mind changed that.

( The Tick vs A Million Zillion Ninja )
( The Tick vs Coffee )

[OOC: Characters, ideas, and certain lines lifted from The Tick #3. "Next weekend" may not actually mean next weekend real time. See discussion on time from the previous post.]

It had been nearly a year since The Tick left Fandom. Well, a year in Fandom time. While Fandom's time was a river, always carrying lives downstream, time in The City was a gentle pond. There was no real discernible difference from one end to the other, but as soon as you got in it, you were still wet.

And yet, The Tick made ripples in the pond of time, changing the surface of the water with every wade.

When he first returned to The City (after an indeterminate amount of time locally but generally considered to be "a few months ago"), The Tick had taken a job as a playwright, only to abandon that when he found his crimefighting services needed once more. Things hadn't changed that much for the big blue bug of justice. Not much at all.

"Wake up time, inmates!" the guard called out as he walked down the hall of cells. "And The Tick. Coffee?"

( The Tick vs. Prison )
( The Tick vs. Shrubbery )

[OOC: Hey, lookit this! I posted something in this journal! The ninja bit is a fairly direct lift/homage to The Tick comic, of course. There will be more of that going on, too, if I get inspired to write more.]

( The Tick vs. The Bus )
***
( The Tick vs. The Commute )
***
( The Tick vs. Marriage )
***
( The Tick vs. Refunds )
***
( The Tick vs. Destiny )

[OOC: This has been an epilogue to The Tick's time in Fandom. Thanks for reading.

This journal will continue to be updated, though, because I can't completely leave the big guy behind. I have thoughts on Post-Fandom Tick Fic and what I would want to do with him from here on out, so I'll be using this journal for that.

If he ever returns as a guest character for some reason none of the stuff in here will be considered game canon. It's just for my use. :D]

Just a quick note to anyone who would like to talk to me on AIM: With The Tick leaving soon, I'm going to be looking for a new AIM name because bugofjustice will be kind of outdated. If for any reason you need to catch me, I'm usually on all weekend and every weeknight after about 8:00 ET. The other admins should know what my AIM of the moment is, so you can bug them to get to me. Once I have a decision made you'll be able to find the permanent AIM in my userinfo.

For now, though, I'm using the name of your next Dean of Students*, Robert H. "Bob" Mansquito, Esq. The AIM is rhmansquitoesq.

*Mansquito is not your next Dean of Students. But it would be awesome if he were.

On the last offical day of the semester, The Tick entered his office for the last time. He packed up most of his books rather quickly (leaving some of the more helpful ones for dealing with students for the use of the next dean) leaving the place looking kind of empty and lacking a certain amount of Justice.

Still, he had cookies for anyone who stopped by today.

[OOC: I've sucked with office hours this semester. I apologize for that. That's why I'm getting this up nice and early. I'll be going to sleep at some point and won't be doing much during work tomorrow, so kind of slow play is the key.]

The Tick was looking through his mail.

The Tick saw a letter from a theater in The City.

The Tick smiled.

"They're going to do A Time For Bagpipes!" he cheered.

The return address didn't say it, but The Tick knew that this letter actually came from his old chum, Destiny. Indeed, while the letter was made up of words, those words were part of a map that showed him where to go next. With the compas called Life, he would be ready for whatever he encountered.

He was going to need to talk to Zoe about this.

[OOC: And so it begins...]

After an urgent chat with Cameron, The Tick raced to the men's room down the hall from his office with a determined look on his face. There was a bomb in there and, egads, it needed to be removed!

He reached the bathroom and found the object that seemed out of place. "Hmm. Smaller and less ticky than what I used to deal with in The City, but there's definitely a certain bombiness to it. So, status report to self. I have a bomb. I know what it looks like. I know that there are probably more of these. Obvious question: If I were a bomb, where would I be?"

The Tick stepped out of the restroom and looked around. If there was one bomb in the area of the faculty offices, it made sense that the rest of the bombs would be in the same vicinity. "If you're looking for needles in a haystack, the fastest way to find them is to dive into the haystack and grab anything that pokes you. It's time to dive in! SPOOOOOON!"

( In which The Tick finds bombs and runs off with them. )

[OOC: Establishy!]

The Tick sat in his office, looking over the script to his play. The performance had gone well. Maybe it was good enough for the big stage in the big City. He thought about making some phone calls.

He also thought about getting more sheep into the play. Sheep were funny.

The door was open.

( And then somebody came into the office. )

[OOC: Preplayed with cameronmitchell. No interaction possible.]

I probably should have noted this a week ago, but I thought things would have stabilized by now. I was completely wrong about that, though.

Basically, a bunch of things happened at work and I am ridiculously busy there. Lots of extra hours and fun, whee. Anyway, my availability is shizophrenic and I'm at the bare minimum for interactive stuff until it eases up. My boys will be in classes, clubs, and Caritas, but that's about it for the time being.

The Tick had his garage cave door open so he could watch the snowfall.

"Truly, snow is the... the... Egads, I seem to be out of metaphors!" The Tick started watching the snow to clear his mind and let the metaphors come back to him. Some people meditated. The Tick metaphor...itated.

[OOC: Open to housemates and passersby!]