The first ten-year outline — earlier concept
The first outline brings the lifetime of Despair, the discovery of Joy, and the Miracle Machine together. Its crossing count and original dedication placement belong to that earlier concept.
From the writer’s notes
Okay… ten year anniversary special: JLD: Sometimes Gild Can Stay
TLDR: Grundy, now living Despair, has traveled despair so much that he’s discovered all the joy he’s lived between.
Meanwhile, shits getting real out there! There some shit about infinite crisis (see the DCAU Crisis trilogy) … they’re saying they need a miracle (out story tells the secret story of what really powered the miracle machine … and the writer, maybe): Grundy, pulls forth his joy, he realizes what Specs couldn’t see, cause it wasn’t his lesson to learn, his embodiment to inhabit, it was always meant to be Grundys. Grundy who has lived so much despair that only he could understand the true power of joy - it’s not quantitative - it doesn’t have to linger, to stay … if you do it right, you understand why that road in Oz was made of it… it’s what leads the way, it’s a self fulling prophecy, it’s the rise of: True Gold … as Boosted Gold lead to Was, Was shall lead to True Gold … and True Gold Grundy (I’m gone home just fully dusted in gold, pulled from the moment Boosted Gold’s armor crumbled, now circling and caking his skin, feeling warm (something he’s not felt in so long) and he sends himself to the the Miracle Machine on that station and, as Joy unseen to all, powers the machine. As the machine powers on, the gold dust gently falls away revealing him to his surroundings, still unnoticed. As the machine is explained, its explanation goes over Grundy’s head… but, there goes helmet head through that giant tv thing… he shrugs, sighs and smiles ever so slightly, understanding things that no one will ever get and he will soon forget and says “it’s Monday” and he orocoeeds through the machine… being rewritten by the metaverse in a new way. The writer knows that Metatron made a choice, he stayed on this side of the portal, like The Question and Constantine…. That is, he never took form and crossed that threshold … but, we know this: many of Specs friends went through, and today don’t remember him … and the writers husbands name was/is/ever Allen and this is dedicated to him (and that’s the last panel of the last book, 10y anniversary”
The opening with John and Z
The later opening uses the ten-year distance from the friends’ point of view and Metatron’s different experience of that interval.
From the writer’s notes
Okay, I’ve got stuff (I went to the bathroom) on Grundy’s book, I’ve given it the opening… and more on Emerald Glass, Ebon Frame: Grundy story: later, Z and John have managed to summon Specs… a glowing WHITE (Akashic) Light “I AM METATRON… Oh!” The white like gives way and we see Specs standing there “John, Z, hey! he smiles happy to see friends Long time! Wzup?… Wait, how did you manage to get me here? Do you even know what I am now… then… was… I still can’t get it down.” “Well… no… actually” “We tried to figure it out, the best we could come up with is … angel?” “Well, I guess you didn’t have a lot of time, I just left ya really.” “It’s been 10 years, mate!” “I guess that’s one perspective” “Look, I’m sorry we never really figured all this out for you, we…she gets cut off” “Trust me, I’m good. But why am I here?” “There’s this… crisis… we’re just trying everything we can think of” “Aye, and for once I’m not involved, but damned if I don’t still feel like this is all my fault” What’s happening here is we’re establishing that the last Crisis movie is happening, that (my) John isn’t involved, but he and Z are tapping all possible answers… but, a John is involved… or is that my John? Doesn’t matter… they say it how they say it… Z takes John’s hand and smiles softly and comfortingly to him before turning back to Metatron. His eyes zip back and forth between the two, like he’s downloading cosmic data before response, parsing it keenly and tailoring the exact right repsonse: “No comment.” “NO BLOODY COMMENT?!! Well now I know you know something” “sigh This one isn’t on me… and it’s not on the two of you either. To quote an old fiend, sliding into Blue “All will be well.” And Metatron departs in a WHITE LIGHT. “Well, any other ideas?” Z asks. John squeezes her hand tighter and turns to her, pulling him close into an embrace “Just one.” He smiles as they kiss and we fade out… and into the Grey, where Solemn Grundy The Grey, Was, has been seeing his life over and over… and then that story continues as written.
The title and a possible letter from the writer
The title’s relationship to the quotation led to this possible letter and the Thundercats association.
From the writer’s notes
I also want to discuss “sometimes gold can stay” - would this be more powerful as the actual quote? I feel like were it part of a line, it could stay - but as the final lesson, I think the quote is needed. I’d put a “letter from the writer” at the back with a “nothing gold can stay…and that’s the way it’s supposed to be…what’s gold anyway, Cheetara thought it was a pretty necklace but Panthro called it fuel…maybe they were talking about Joy?” (See Thundercats)
The cover reversal and the miracle
The proposed page turn puts the altered cover opposite the emergence of True Gold. Its question extends beyond the mechanics of powering the machine.
From the writer’s notes
Comic narrator: Soemtimes gold can stay… next oanel if it’s TRUE GOLD! reveals Grundy in Gold) Then you look to the right page (you just read the end of the left) it’s the cover, exactly, except Nothing Gold Can Stay (I guess I gotta design the cover now)… you turn the page to start the path to the miracle. Grundy, as Gold, tries to seek out Joy, to feel it amplified on his skin…but there none in the Now to be found, he can fell Was trying to break the gold shell, Despair is everywhere and it’s growing so strong…it’s like they need - a voice echos* “A miracle” good thing he’s packing some Joy, a lifetime of it, collected between despair - jokes with Bucket Head, gentle hugs from Bird Girl (see JL/U) - Joy - enough to power 1 miracle… which will lead to more Joy for so many - the reader realizes, looking back, is/was/will be/etc yet again… so when the miracle happens and the gold is gone, the reader is okay with Grundy having his Monday. It’s his choice, his power - one you may or may not understand…and that’s not the point … the real question is for the reader: are you Ever, Was or Will Be? Did you go through the gate or, did you hang behind with John and The Question to see if there were more miracle to be found? I mean, have you heard about the that guy? That Miracle guy? I wonder what that’s all about
Grundy appears before the Miracle Machine (and so on).
Time, memories, and The Voice
The Voice supplies perspective as Grundy moves among memories, while Grundy remains the person living them.
From the writer’s notes
lets jump ahead… we know we leave Grundy Of The Grey/Was/of the Grey/of The Ro/GrundyWas in the Grey where he’s been letting The Void/The Black/the Black (the thing that Boston by this point is the entity of) pull him around time and space watching all his memories… including the good ones… they’re not as many, and he’s seen them all on loop… but … what is time to an immortal (I’ll take this moment to point out that those words orignated on a ship off the shores of Avalon (see: Gargoyles, Weird Sisters, Archmage arc)… if you’re an immortal, if time has no meaning, then all time has value: a second of joy is as valuable as a decade.
What’s happening now that’s different than when Specs was Was… is Specs/Was wasn’t also The Grey… Specs/Was was just trapped in the Grey (the Despair that is the color Grey), The Rot would have taken him but not for the deal … GrundyWas needs no such deal, this is his place… The Void/The Black/the Black wouldn’t take Specs because it just wasn’t the time for him, but it did what it does in the Grey, it shows you despair… it’s doing that to GrundyWas too, but the difference is: Grundy has always lived in that… here, the Grey is his too now… so he can tweak it… he can negoatiate with The Void that can’t force him to pas through to one side or the other… he can see the good memories too.
The Void/The Black/the Black… the Will Be (Boston) doesn’t have to understand an agreement anymore than Grundy did when he made the deal on behalf of The Grey/Rot… nor does Boston need to be there for the unvierse to work how it’s supposed to… just because it’s his domain doesn’t mean he has to be there all the time… I mean, the first ten yeas of marriage are important… this is the kind of “voice over” The Voice is offering us in Grundy’s book… Grundy isn’t a narrator… not is this story overly long… it’s a 45 minute movie maybe? A way to say “remember”.
GrundyWas is in more control than he realizes but if oyu think that matters you’re missing the point. But maybe he can teach it to you… it’s Monday.
From the writer’s notes
also, The Voice… still part of the story. Grundy goes through scene after scene… taken to a place, watch the moment, on to another… each time: Monday… but then, that memmory: Wednsday… when he became Was… but going backwards … his… brother… his … sister? Why those words? When he pushed them out of the Grey, why those words?!!! He’s watching them in that moment, moving backwards, forwards “Sister! Brother! Go!!!!!” and him pushing them out (we may need to tweak that scene, but that’s the momoent we’re watching)… Then GrundyWas blinks and is directly in front of Orchid, smiling at him.. “SISTER!” - Boston’s face, smiling at him “BROTHER!” Grundy shouts! Hawkgirl “BIRD GIRL!!!” … The image starts to flicker between momments… Gold and gold… Boosted Gold… Fate… BG…. FATE… in between that moment “BUCKET HEAD!!!!” Part happy, part frustration, all Grundy… and GOLD… as the scene stands solid again, True Gold is standing on that station, looking at Fate, hearing how they need a miracle…
The Gold dust and the pull toward Fate
The flicker honors the fallen hue while giving Grundy a way to carry its Gold onward. The proposed Pyrite line is a related naming idea.
From the writer’s notes
The flicker between BG and Fate (GrundyWas being between two points) is to allow him to take on the gold dust of BG (this is mostly flair and callback and honoring a fallen hue… btw, keep in mind, Boosted Gold/Pyrite/True Gold aren’t Entities of Gold… they’re just hues worn… Grundy took a path and found something.. but that doesn’t mean he can do it all the time… and it doesn’t mean that he’s the living source of it…it’s just is hue in the moment… also, remind me to write a scene after SpecsWas is Blue where he explains “he’s a favorite… Boosted Gold I guess, but more like Pyrite” (that won’t be a big deal, but it’s a way to get it in there… so, if by some chance Spectrum came along again and managed to go Gold, he could pick a name based on what’s learned by then… mostly it gets the words out there … in a comic, I’d flash them in a banner when he appeared (no spoken, just that thing comics do when someone enters the room)… I don’t know how I’d swing it the same in motion, so this covers it enough for fans to go “oh, thats… or…he didn’t say”
From the writer’s notes
yep, it’s meant to be another “here’s a terrible moment… it’s not you, but it Was so it kinda is” moment, but latching onto Fate keeps him away from it, pulls him into that reality (which may or may not even be his Fate if you look at film source) but he brings along the Gold.
The speck is reward carried into another life. The later account limits the known crossing from this story to Grundy.
From the writer’s notes
Know: present, Was: past, I’ll : future… LOVE IT sooooo much!
OOH!!! Final panel moment of last book: the last panel zooms in on Grundy as he goes to cross the threshold, a sub panel zooms in on his shoulder, where sets a small, tiny, spec of Gold… and thus, contrary to just a few pages before, we learn: Sometimes…indeed… Sometimes Gold can stay. “Good Grundy”
From the writer’s notes
“good Grundy” is the last echo heard of The Voice… he doesn’t hear it, but it’s enough to make him feel like he needs to smile… to the reader, that could be any of or none of: You took the Gold with you… you did the thing… you didn’t fuck up… you didn’t get distracted… but no matter what: Good Grundy.
From the writer’s notes
related: I’ve deiced what the spec is… it’s reward. Grundy is (as best we know) the only character from our story that walks through the portal… but, he does that as Was, a wearer of Gold, of Joy… and he took piece with him… a small piece, a speck… enough to give the next life he lives, a little more.
The final question belongs to The Voice’s presentation.
From the writer’s notes
The last page of Grundy’s book, written in the font of the The Voice (or spoken over the black pre-credits): Do you understand? If you said “no”, then you understand more than you realize.
The story accompanies the animated Crisis ending and supplies the hidden account of what powers the Miracle Machine. The Fate imagery can cross realities; the figure Grundy follows may not be his own Fate.
The role list and the experience of Is developed alongside the distinction between Specs/Was and Grundy/Was.
From the writer’s notes
- Ever - Entity of Life/the White, the Beginning & End - Was - Entity of Despair/the Grey, the Echo (not The Echo)/the Transition (Echo/Transition are interchangeable like Grey/Despair, they mean the same in that one is representation and the other is cause) - Is - the Unchanging - Will Be - Entity of Death/the Black, The Void (which would stand between Order and Chaos in that trio), the End & Beginning
From the writer’s notes
Was, as we established late last night or early this morning (perspective), is also a representation of that quartet spectrum… the twin to Is (the Now), lol I can imagine them fighting over who has it worse, the one who can move but but is surrounded by no moment/progress or Was locked in the Grey (as we’ve only seen it) seeing things moving but unable to find the strength or desire or need to move and just hovers, blinking around space/time seeing mostly their own life moments, the dark ones, which occasionally let good ones slip in ..
