#(I'm also trying to make the new scars not overlap in design so they can be distinguished from one another)

[handsomethrowrug]

OOC:

Who would have thought designing AU versions of S.car would be tricky because I'm trying to figure out what extra scars he should get depending on the situation?

[bat-boy-beckett]

Ask my Ocs!

hey, I'm really bored and I wanted to answer some asks. here's a little description about the Oc's/ story

Annoying info ramble:

These characters are from a Fnaf/ Dsaf (maybe a bit Dialtown since there's phone peoples and I think Dsaf and Dialtown overlap a bit? idk it's complicated) Au/ story, I've been working on it for like years now. But when I first made it, it was mainly a rough draft and when there wasn't any Phone Guys (I added them just recently) but now I've been adding more like lore and stuff, anyways what I'm saying is you can ask my Ocs (yes, including the animatronics) please reblog this when you can I really would like to get attention.

Bio/ info on this specific story/ AU:

It takes place in California in the 1980's (like most FNAF/ DSAF stuff) it's a rarely new Pizzeria named: Wolf Wonderworld's Pizzeria (I know, Cheesey) and it's run by this guy named Mr. Kent (he's the main antagonist, he's not a great guy) But basically it goes that there was a lot of problems going on during the first couple years of the Pizzeria being opened stuff happened, yada yada, but now the Pizzeria is more popular and thriving and not-so bad stuff is happening (except your average every now and then shenanigans. I will post updates as I go along)

anyways instructions and characters are under the cut

Pick a character from the list down below, ask a question and I will respond with a comic-panel like format with a response, easy peasy

here's the characters, folks:

1st, the Phone Guys:

John "Gino" Dalton, He's the first phone guy to be added to this location. (ask him about his scars and stuff) Mr. Kent crudely created him in a Dr. Frankenstein-esque way. He doesn't remember anything besides for working at this location. however he does get flashbacks/ memories but... they're not his. He does not know exactly who's memories these are since, when he gets the flashbacks it's just in 1st person perspective, so he thinks they're his own (they're not).

Jesse (that's right, just Jesse) nothing really crazy about him except that he's the co-manager of this location. he's pretty stuck up and bossy (especially to Gino)

(also a quick warning the upcoming art is horrifically old and uh yeah just prepare for terrible proportions and a inconsistent art style also there's some parts of the character designs here that aren't canon so yeahhh) I'll try my best to make new refs for these guys

Kenneth "Kenny" Williams just an employee there, nothing too special, he's pretty shy around certain people (mostly people who seem intimidating) he's a pretty nice guy. He unfortunately lost his right arm in "an accident with some machinery" so yeahh (also he has a romantic interest in Vincent)

Vincent Daniels what a guy, he's quite the guy. he lost his right eye in an accident as a child (an accident which lead him to being an orphan) he has a goth sister named Cassie. he's also quite a stubborn guy and he can be flirtatious to try and win people over/ intimidate them.

Kip Fletcher (holy shit this art is so freaking old) again, just another employee, nothing to crazy. he's a nice fella, one of the younger employee's and he's dating Vuk

Vuk Munoz again, just another employee, he's pretty chill as well and he's one of the younger employee's and he's dating Kip

uh next will be just a list of the other employees (cause I couldn't find good refs, this'll just be their names and will be a bit of a surprise for you to see them since I didn't post any art/refs)

Mr. Kent (the owner and main manager of this location)

employees: Fritz, Everett, Jessica, Berry

next up, the Animatronics (yes you can ask them)

Wolf Wonderworld (the main guy) he's the main singer for the shows and talks the most during the shows as well, he's the main mascot and face of the Pizzeria (basically plays the "Freddy" role)

Katerina Kitten, she's the second singer in the show and she's also one of the main speakers. (basically plays the "chica" role)

Carl Coyote, he plays the electric guitar and is the back up singer as well as having solos in some songs and having solo acts/ skits. beside from that he mainly performs skits with Matt (next guy) (Carl basically plays the "Bonnie" role)

Matt the Bat, he is mainly the comic relief in skits, he's placed in a barrel, he used to be a standing up animatronic like the others but was heavily damaged in the legs and the owner was too lazy to fix him up so they just put the animatronic in a more stationary position (basically plays the "foxy" role)

there is other characters in this story/ AU but they aren't as important or just simply don't work at the Pizzeria

anyways I hope you enjoyed reading this and consider asking the characters, thank you so much, please reblog this 💜

[fireheartwraith]

GUYS I'VE JUST FOUND THE GREATEST THING EVER

Maybe I'm the only one who struggles with it, but I have a really hard time dressing up my characters. All of them end up using The One Dress I know how to draw, just in different colors. Maybe some Loose Pants & Tunic combo.

But that’s boring!! I want them to feel unique, to show their personality through their wardrobe, I just can never figure out how to do that.

And that’s where this site comes in! It’s on meiker.io and it works like picrew, only this one is focused on the outfit!

It's not so extensive that you will get lost among the options, but it has enough things that even if you are an absolute moron like me you can get many ideas on how to dress your characters up.

This was a randomized outfit, so some things overlap weirdly, but you can see how many different items you have on the right. Notice how the top is separated into body, lower half, sleeves, and collar?

You can also change the color or add a pattern to certain things.

And you can also lightly costumize your character to make sure you are capturing their spirit! This includes skin tone, general hairstyle, scars, freckles and a couple of other things. There’s not a lot since the focus is on the clothes, but it’s loads better than just having a generic mannequin.

Here's how I used it!

I was having trouble designing the main character of the webcomic I'm planning because I couldn’t find a balance between "unique enough that you know they are the main character but still fits into their world" and "simple enough that I won’t go crazy every panel they’re in while also not making them look generic". So, I went to the generate and started planning an outfit from scratch.

I kept in mind that she’s 12, rich, a bit spoiled, into fashion, not afraid of getting her hands dirty to achieve her goals and will go to hell and back for those she cares about. Also, her whole motif is the moon and the night. I ended up with a patterned dress of sensible length (not so long that it will drag on the ground or stop her from running, but not too short either) with a heart-shaped neckline and flats.

When drawing her in her new fit, I decided the dress should have this upside-down V opening, some ruffles, and some simple cap sleeves. Her shoes now have a very small heel. The only jewelry she's wearing is a braided belt and a hair piece.

In the end, she ended up looking like a tween that is going to a party dressed up as a princess, but who will kick their shoes away to play tag with everyone else.

Even though the final outfit the generator gave me is really simple, it helped me figure out how to best convey what I wanted without going overboard with it, and I finished my sketch in record time. This new design is miles above my last one that, although not terrible, didn’t really tell me anything about her other that she's probably a student who likes stars.

So definitely give this outfit generator a try if you also struggle with this or just want to have fun!

[20elements]

Zodiac Fighting Inclinations

(The photo above has little to do with the topic below; it's just there for decoration, really.) The following is a generalization of how a lot of fictional characters per sign tend to fight and what they may have in common. And just like the zodiac traits themselves, some can overlap, exceptions are possible, and these should all be taken with a grain of salt.

I only base this on my own limited exposures to anime and video games (e.g. Naruto, Bleach, MHA, TWST, to name a few) but for the sake of length, I won't be listing any specific examples.

Aries - Observation

Whether they're more brain or brawn, Aries are likely to keep an attentive eye on everything around them, especially reading enemy movements, before adapting the right approach. They'll keep their options open and flexible to real-time changes.

Taurus - Suppression

The bulls will do whatever they can to limit their enemies' options, whether it's their breathing room, tools, or skills (i.e. debuffs). Sometimes Taurus will even force their opponents to be in a specific corner for them to target. They can achieve this with either their own strengths or strategic planning.

Gemini - Misdirection

The twin-faces often like to add subtle secondary purposes to their movements. It's easiest to imagine fakeouts and diversions, but even techniques that are obviously substantial will likely still have another goal (i.e. two birds one stone).

Cancer - Surprise

Intentionally or not, the crabs tend to catch their opponents off guard one way or another. Some Cancers will lay traps, some will hide their claws, some will simply ambush their enemies, and others are resourceful and spontaneous enough to yield astonishing results with so little.

Leo - Optimization

Leos have a utilitarian mindset. As long as a method gets the job done, the lion will use it (their own strength, intimidation, or even other people). At the same time, they prefer not to put more weight than they need. Convenient one-shots or simple deceptions would be ideal for them.

Virgo - Configuration

Some are particular about the designs or positioning of their methods; some try to tweak others to their preferences. How detailed their techniques or tools depends on the individual Virgo, but either way they try to have some structure that works for them.

Libra - Control

True to the scales, Libras want to have a steady hand over their finest abilities so that they can achieve all their objectives while also factoring several challenges (individually or externally). Their mindset makes even the most lonesome Libras ideal partners for co-op.

Scorpio - Layers

Tenacious as they are, scorpions like to conceal many hidden aces up their sleeve. Secret weapons or techniques are intuitive, but Scorpios are also the type to possess multiple phases (if not transformations) to stay in a battle. And don't be surprised if they make use of even previous scars in some way.

Sagittarius - Exploration

The adventurous archers like to approach their battles with trial and error, learning about their opponents through experience. But once they exploit a weakness or opening, they'll likely stick to targeting it until they find the need to make changes or "reinvestigate".

Capricorn - Solidarity

If a Capricorn has multiple different assets, they'll want to try and combine them into a singular technique or pattern. Alternatively, if they only have one style to begin with, they'll work on adapting it to fitting all sizes. Either way, they like to find all their solutions in one basket to fall back on. And as soon as they're introduced to a new problem, they'll first consider if they can integrate any new solutions to their pre-existing belt. (I'm a Cap myself btw.)

Aquarius - Environment

Many water bearers have great spatial awareness and like to take full advantage of their surroundings, if not occupy them in some way. Wherever there is still room to maneuver, they have options for evasion, deceptive ranged attacks, or placing traps.

Pisces - Equipment

The fish like to keep their assets as close to them as possible; if they could feasibly "wear" their powers like an armor, they would. What they keep in their pockets, in hand, floating around them, or even a part of them can be anything they like, as long as their strength, growth, and wellbeing are all assured.

__ While my focus is on fighting characteristics, a lot of these can also be applied to how they perform tasks outside of arenas as well.

[grison-in-space]

I'm willing to bet the ADHD types you know can mask out nearly all of the symptoms that don't overlap with autism.

I mean... masking in the sense of "avoid pissing people off" definitely, definitely not. Identifying masking levels for this sort of stuff is hard because it's difficult to correct for the level of attunement held by most people about 40 and older these days (i.e. nil) and because most of these things can be papered over for the cursory meetings that fill a lot of academic relationships. That said I have certainly observed people whose symptoms--particularly time blindness, difficulty organizing themselves, and inattention--incurred pretty strong professional consequences. And you know, I have never in my fifteenish years around academia worked for a straight man? I mean, obviously they exist and the caretaking wife phenomenon you mention is absolutely a real thing, but it's not something that the people I am thinking of necessarily get to rely on.

The "get overwhelmed and paralyzed" thing? Is also me. The thing about the PhD leaving scars so deep that years later I'm still trying to work out what is salvagable? Me too. I am not trying to argue that academia is happy funtime neurodivergence space: in fact, the point I am making is that even assuming a space chock full of other neurodivergent people, academia can be hellish--in part because no one talks openly about this, and because power dynamics cascading down from highly-ranked people to lower-ranked ones conspire to "fill in the gaps" for highly-ranking folks with unmanaged disability issues.

I hope we are not talking past one another, but I feel like I am hearing "really disabled people with ADHD cannot survive in this environment" and that is just not true--if you can manage to charm enough powerful people to paper over the plates you drop, if you can figure out which ones are fine, if you can be lucky enough to not run afoul of too many pissed off people. If you can use a variety of tools to cover your deficiencies--and it's all too easy for faculty members to use students to do this.

The thing is that it's a numbers game. A lot of us try it, and most of us get chewed up but some stick, and there's a huge chunk of luck in there. No one ever cared (or, honestly, noticed) if I was reading a book while I was running experiments; I did a lot of it, too, because I do behavior work and there's a lot of waiting there. It sounds like you got really unlucky and wound up in a bad situation, and I have all the empathy in the world for that, and I don't think I would have survived an environment with people that rigid about their-method-or-the-highway, either. I barely survived the one I started in; my career, such as it is, is limping along.

(By the way, in my experience non-ADHD autism often hits ADHD shit with a particularly nasty bang, especially if the autistic person is senior and doesn't know they're autistic: rigidity about Rules and the Proper Way To Do Things and How It Should Go tends not to mix well with ADHD. Again: neurodivergence doesn't necessarily mean supportive. I am so, so sorry that happened to you. It is devastating and I am so sorry you had to go through that.)

I see a lot of people carefully hiding disability in my workplace, often with jury-rigged supports or janky-ass homebrewed ways of doing things that are designed to help them keep succeeding... often powered by shame, anxiety, and terror. I think this is actually a major factor by which faculty who come into new PI positions often sour, burn out, and start relying on an endless supply of fresh new students to "make up the difference": at each inflection of seniority you're expected to take on more responsibility in new and different ways for which no one is trained at all. The hard truth is that disability services on campuses are usually seen as being almost wholly for undergrads, and the high rate of competition for academic jobs makes it very easy to lose disabled scholars.

I do think things are, slowly, changing. A few years ago, the neuroscience students in my department challenged for and won the right to extended time in a quiet room on coursework exams--a bog-standard accommodation that had previously been denied because, apparently, you're not supposed to be in graduate school if you can't succeed on those grounds. This was news to me, but so be it.

But it's hard won and hard fought work, and I think much of that is in part because so much ableism in academia is internalized, which means that shoving through it can mean shoving through people who view the change in openness with emotional reactions that shade to terror and fear, which often transmutes into outright hostility.

I don't have good answers about how to fix it. Only grief and a desire to see and do better, if I can.

yesterday's talk to the neurodivergency activism program also included a fun "ethics in research on neurodivergence" panel conversation at the end when one person expressed this real frustration with the academy: that it's so unfriendly to neurodivergent people who can't navigate the social structures of academia, and it is so frustrating to this person to know that they want to go back to school and get the PhD but it's so unfriendly to neurodivergent people--

bear in mind, I'm the only openly neurodivergent researcher on the panel and by far the most junior (the others are all established faculty), plus I do animal research which is probably as far from the rather clinical focus of the folks in that program as humanly possible. and I've discussed openly how relational academia is, and how much it relies on the approval of your supervisors. we've even had a nice conversation about the same thing in clinical practice.

but I'm sitting here going... you know what, the interpersonal fuckery that almost ended my career actually was a result of blundering into another neurodivergent person's unacknowledged shame spiral, actually? you know that neurotypical research PIs are a distinct minority in my experience? you know that this is an incredibly dysfunctional institution, I ain't arguing that, but it's also one that has been by and large built for, by, and around neurodivergent people's needs and desires?

it's just they don't know it, so if you talk about it openly you get panic reactions. but it's so, so, so funny to see. (as I expanded on this theme the lady I liked best, a black woman working on intersections between developmental disabilities, race, and access to health care, is just grinning SO wide and almost giggling to herself.) you label yourself and people go OH NO A LABEL but if you know how to see the shape of the thing the label is supposed to describe, you can see that they oughta have a label, too.

so on the one hand, real consequences for being too open about yourself, but on the other hand, things actually have gotten so much better in the last 5-10 years. and on the gripping hand, just being in a space with only other neurodivergent people does not necessarily fix the problem of inadequate communication, hurt feelings, bad relationships with power, and weird insecurities. it just doesn't fix it. what works is understanding how to resolve conflicts, building structures that are less reliant on single dyadic relationships, and finding alternate ways to make connections with scholars in your field.

dammit, this means I should probably poke my bluesky again. fff.

[nadziejastar]

I'm curious, how do you reconcile your theory (as I understand it) that Isa was norted after he got his scar with the BbS concept art where he has yellow eyes but no scar yet? Do you think that means anything? I totally buy a lot of your Isa timeline but I wanted to know if you noticed that.

Nomura: There is a certain reason for Braig to proudly exclaim, “As for me, I’m already half Xehanort.” Isa (Saix) is included too. I think you’ll understand the details about their circumstances eventually. (Famitsu, May 2012)

Yes, I do think that concept art meant something. It was probably created because the story was originally going to depict in detail how Isa got Norted. Maybe there were plans to show that in the original BBS, before Nomura decided to split BBS into two parts.

Braig also has yellow eyes in a piece of concept art, but he doesn't have his eyepatch or scar. And we see in BBS that he got scarred and lost his eye before he got the yellow eyes. So, the concept art may have been old and not representative of the final designs. As far as my theory, it is mostly the same, but now I actually do think Isa may have gotten the scar just a bit later, after he was Norted.

In the new fanfic I am currently writing, I did my best to form a general outline. And interestingly enough, if Missing Link does delve more deeply into Lea and Isa's backstory, this general outline could still work, even with the mystery girl retcon. There's no reason they both couldn't be test subjects. Mystery girl is a valuable specimen because of her memories of the age of fairy tales. And Isa because he was a vessel. They both serve completely different roles in the story, even if there's some overlap.

Anyways, so far, this is my timeline:

-Around the time of Ansem Report 1, Xehanort and Ansem the Wise discover Kairi. Later on, Kairi's role was replaced with the mystery girl, but the general story for is the same.

-After some of his memories return, Xehanort experiments on the girl in secret and she has a mental breakdown. He imprisons her down in the Chamber of Repose.

-Ansem the Wise has no idea what happened to the girl and he becomes afraid. He calls off all of the experiments.

-Xehanort discovers that the girl is not broken. She becomes a prized specimen, and he continues to keep tabs on her while she's locked up. He continues his research himself in secret and kidnaps more subjects, but they all break down and become Heartless. This happens during the time of Ansem's Reports 2 and 3.

-During this same time period, the events of Saix's Memoirs occur. Lea and Isa visit the girl from time to time and they become friends.

-Mystery girl is then taken away from the prison by Xigbar-Luxu. Xehanort doesn't know what happened to her.

-Lea and Isa ask to become apprentices to figure out what happened to the girl. At this time Xehanort is impersonating Ansem. He allows them to become apprentices so he can use them.

-During the time of Ansem's Report 4, Lea and Isa are used as living samples to study the Heartless' behavior. They go along with it to prove their loyalty, hoping they can get info on the girl.

-Ansem's Reports 5-7 play out, Xehanort opens to Door to Darkness and causes a meteor shower.

-During the time of Ansem's Report 8, the apprentices try to create artificial Heartless. And to do so, they had to recreate the conditions that spawned the Heartless naturally. So, another experiment involving Lea and Isa takes place in the Heartless Manufactory.

-After that experiment, Isa was considered a broken failure. Xehanort locks him up in the Chamber of Repose. However, it turns out Isa was not completely broken. That is when Xehanort realizes he'd make an idea vessel and he is Norted. He would essentially be the new Subject X.

-The next thing that happens is around the time of Ansem's Report 9/Secret Ansem Report 2. Ansem the Wise discovers that human were being experimented on, and he orders the release of the subjects. Mickey takes him and Isa away to Twilight Town, so Ansem can restore his memory and atone to the children sacrificed in the name of his research.

-When Xemnas finally gets Isa back, that is when he is branded with the recusant's sigil. It's a big scarlet letter meant to punish and shame him for his "desertion". In Days, Saix says, "'Deserter' is hardly the term for a broken specimen who wandered out from under the microscope." IMO, he was remembering something from his past and referring to himself more than Xion.

[fallout-lou-begas]

What inspired you to make a comic for Agnes? Wouldn't it have been easier just to write her story out? Not that I'm complaining at all, I love the comic and your art! I'm just curious how you decided on a comic

Oh!! Thank you anon, now THIS is an exciting question!!! This got pretty long so I’ll put it under the cut but I love going off about the craft and the art of comic-making and how it relates to storytelling so I’m reallky glad you asked:

I actually come from an essay and academic-writing background and earned my master’s degree for my thesis back in early June. After that, I got extremely invested in my art because I just...didn’t want to write anymore. I was working on and writing my thesis for over a year. I was simply extremely tired of the written word! What began as drawing for fun became something more dedicated and centralizing in my spare time (but still fun!) and then soon enough I wanted to channel all of this new passion into a project instead of idle doodles. I spent almost my entire childhood making comics of my own, and so making IKROAH a comic was a lot like returning to my creative roots for the first time in a genuine decade.

I also wanted to make IKROAH a comic because from the very beginning I had very little interest in simply recapping every event of FNV as it happens in-game; I was committed to this montage-like approach where every issue is its own vignette from the get-go. This is far easier, and feels far more natural, in comic form where visual information can be very dense and emotional as opposed to what would basically be microfiction if rendered in prose instead. The script for each issue is basically all just dialogue and no issue has ever been more than three-quarters or so of a page long yet. This idea of the density of visual information also ties into the ways in which I really try to “show, not tell” in IKROAH, eliding narration and often the explicit reference of notable character details in favor of evocative expressions, meaningful dialogue, and careful composition. Ask yourself, how much do you already feel like you know about Agnes just from reading IKROAH? How was that information conveyed, not only through the art and dialogue but through deeper details like character design, what characters carry with them, how they react to things, their reticence to say something, what they don’t say, and so on?

I also wanted to mention that comic books simply have medium-specific strengths that I’m extremely interested in, and that prose lacks. For example, you cannot have a moment of silence in prose. You cannot. You can say “it was silent,” but by narrating the silence you have broken it. Comics can have such beautiful pauses, and they can be tense or pregnant or pensive, and it gives you so much control over the way the story flows on the page. Comics can also overlap different stories or different scenes in a way that feels very organic and immediate, such as in IKROAH #3′s cutaways to Victor’s Shack, Agnes’ flashback to her childhood attack in IKROAH #7, and in the upcoming IKROAH #11 (stay tuned!) which has two completely different narratives going on simultaneously. Page and panel composition gives you so much power for structuring your story, and I do mean that very literally and in a way that feels very material. I could honestly talk about it for hours.

This isn’t to say that I think that comics are inherently better than writing, or that I’ll never write prose. I already wrote “Scar Tissue” as a companion to IKROAH #7, a short one-shot fic that goes into far more intimate detail about why exactly Agnes and Cass hit it off the way they do and the chain of events that led to that fateful encounter between Agnes and a Mr. Handy in the bomb shelter. The greatest strength of prose is its ability to let you make asides, prolong scenes, and generally have an infinite canvas with infinite dimensions for as many dialogues, ideas, scenes, and details as you want. With my creative writing background also being as rooted in horror as it is, a big difference I’m aware of is that prose gives me so much room for diving as deep into the sensory details of a scene as I can, something much harder to do in visual art.

And finally, would it have been easier and faster to just write a fanfic instead of drawing a fancomic? Hahahahahahaha yeah absofuckinglutely lmao, writing comes a lot quicker and more naturally to me than art, actually, and I’m the kind of person who can just pound out drafts as quick as I can think of them. Not to brag, but “Scar Tissue” took two days to write and publish from start to finish.

Ultimately, IKROAH exists as a comic because I just wanted it to be a comic, and I was interested in telling its story in a way that could only be done through the medium of a comic.