#I do really recommend checking the zine out when you can!

[anderstrevelyan]

I’m delighted to be sharing my piece about Orin for @bg3womenswrongs—it was my first time contributing to a zine, and what a zine it is!

Orin sees him first on the hill, that twist-turning road fleeing shadows in the east. He looks the same as he squints, scenting the Rivington air: scales like blood-brushed bone, black robe shifting with the breeze. The Dark Urge doesn’t see her. Though he does look her way, at dark hair cropped short, thin wrists, shabby clothes, at just another refugee huddling-hoping by the gates. At another set of lungs fat with life, folded against a quick-flutter heart. Ribs moving, breath pluming, at potential, so much potential. She wonders if she should let him follow, to a quiet corner, an empty barn—to see if he’ll act with vestigial violence. So she might feel again the stroke of his blade, bleed wet and black into the dirt, writhe, and whimper, then laugh, laugh, laugh, at the look on his face when he sees she’s fooled him. But his attention wanders, and Orin changes form.

Keep reading on AO3.

Preorders are closed, but you can still reach out to the team at @bg3womenswrongs if you’d like to get access to the charity bundle now! Otherwise, the full zine will be available for free on March 8.

[genderqueerdykes]

Hi! What are some queer history sources you’d recommend on the transmasc experience that aren’t stonebutchblues? Also any tips on making a zine?

the best 2 i can think of off the top of my head will be Lou Sullivan and his various writings, some of which can be found here:

i also recommend checking out Original Plumbing, a publication for and by transmasculine people!

you can purchase issues, and you can also find them at libraries if your library has queer books :) i was able to find a collection called original plumbing: the best of ten years of trans male culture by Amos Mac & Rocco Kayiatos! these may be of interest to you!

as for writing zines, i actually don't really have a lot of tips, it's going to depend on how you want to write them, personally! some people prefer using physical mediums, some prefer digital. i really just sit down and write when the inspiration hits me, but i'm a writer in general so it kinda happens often. zines are kinda what you make of them, it can be whatever you'd like. sorry that's such a vague answer but it's really up to you! it's a good idea to decide if you want to do it digitally or traditionally, what topics you want to write about, what you feel you don't see enough representation for, and so on. what kinds of experiences do you have that you feel would benefit others if you shared. that kind of stuff

hope this helps! take care, stay safe!

[unforth]

Alright not to like liveblog my breakdown on main but yesterday was a really bad day after a really bad, like, 4 months, and I've hit a bit of a breaking point and one of the only things in my life that can give is running @mdzsartreblogs , @tgcfartreblogs , @svsssartreblogs , @erhaartreblogs , @tykartreblogs , and @cnovelartreblogs , so that is what has to give. It's been a 99-out-of-100 days thankless job. A small number of people do say thank you and yall I appreciate you so much (HUGE shout-out to the artist I met at Flamecon who gifted me a zine when I said I ran these blogs, @bonesblubs you rock) but I have never done an act of fandom labor simultaneously this labor intensive yet this invisible before and, uh. It sucks. I spend an hour or more a day on this every day, if it's under 2k hours since I started the first of these in September 2020 I'd be shocked. And I do it because I love it but doing it means I don't have time or energy to do other things I love. And I really don't want to just quit, but I can't keep this up.

In a last-ditch effort to try not to just give up, I'm making the following changes:

1. Only watching one tag per fandom for the MXTX fandoms. I am going to check *only* #tgcf, #svsss, and #mdzs. Artwork posted to any other tag, I will not see unless a mutual reblogs it.

2. Reduced tagging (even more). I'm only going to tag characters and maybe overarching au type (eg, "modern au," "fantasy au"). I'll no longer tag creatures. I will continue to tag the same common trigger warnings I already tag.

3. If a work's appearance doesn't make it obvious what it is AND the tags aren't clear, I'm not going to reblog. I can't keep spending 5 minutes or more trying to figure out what I'm even looking at, scared that if I guess wrong the artist will get mad at me for mistagging their work. If I do reblog, I'll tag only the artist name and/or whatever else I can identify for sure.

4. I am no longer going to follow #link click. The fandom is just too big. I've started dreading checking it. If I was more into it and less busy I would make another spin off just for it but neither of those is true. (The art is so good, I hate to do this, but. If you love link click, highly recommend the main tag, lots of great stuff there.)

5. I will no longer tag any non-cnovel content in the art/post. Like, if someone draws, idek, Xie Lian and Marinette from Ladybug, I'm not gonna put any tags for Marinette, just for Xie Lian.

6. Basically if I run into something hard to tag or confusing or unclear, my new policy is I'm not gonna fricken bother.

I think those are everything but idefk, I cried for 3 hours last night and got 4 hours of sleep so I'm mostly fueled by exhaustion and desperation right now and my memory is even more fried than usual.

How artists can help. This is obviously all optional. You do you. But since some people might want to know what would make my life easier, I'm sharing. I'm not claiming I feel entitled to dictate how people fandom or anything like that.

1. Put the tags for the character(s) and ship(s) early in the tag list.

2. If you make art for a fandom that isn't one of the big ones (right now the only big danmei fandoms on tumblr as far as I can tell are the MXTX fandoms and maybe 2ha) I am begging you to use my tracked tag #cnovelartreblogs

3. Do mdzs art? Tag #mdzs. Do tgcf art? Tag #tgcf. Do svsss art? Tag #svsss.

4. Not only artists, but everyone, *please* stop tagging fandoms not discussed and/or depicted in your post. It's gotten to be stupid common for people to blanket the danmei fandom tags with posts only about one fandon (like, svsss-only works also being tagged mdzs and tgcf and 2ha for some damn reason). This isn't about just my sideblogs tbh this is just fandom etiquette that seems to have been forgotten or never learned by many. Tagging unrelated fandoms isn't "reach," it's annoying. People go into the #mdzs tag to see mdzs, not whatever not-mdzs stuff people have decided to tag for ~reach~, and seeing the same post in 8 tags, none of which it's related to, is so damn irritating, and makes scrolling the tags looking for content that IS relevant take that much longer. Knock it off.

Okay. I think that's as much as I'm prepared to meltdown where everyone can see. Thanks in advance everyone for your understanding, and apologies to everyone about to see this 8 times as I reblog it to each sideblog.

At least I'm not tagging it to everywhere. 🤣🤣🤣

[hillbillyoracle]

So you want to print and distribute a free zine...

I wanted to throw together a short tutorial on how I print zines using this excellent COVID safety zine by @newlevant as an example.

Printing

First make sure you are clicking on the printable file. When you open it, it should look slightly jumbled. I always look for seeing the front cover and the back cover on the same page.

Then click "print" (usually a printer icon) and open "more settings".

The key things people tend to get wrong when they try printing zines is they forget to make sure that it is double sided and flips on the short edge. If you tried printing one and it came out looking wonky, make sure to check this.

Also, it will make your life infinitely easier if you use the collate option should you have it available to you.

Fit to printable area is a helpful setting to have on if you're printing zines who use a different paper standard than you. This zine didn't for me but I leave this on out of habit.

When you've got this all set up - print as many copies as you want to assemble.

Assembling

When you get them out of the printer they'll look like this. Just a big old stack. I highly recommend parsing out each individual copy before you try assembling any. I have made that mistake before.

This is how I stack mine.

I like to leave the cover side up as it makes for a clearer division as I'm assembling.

As you're flipping through these to parse and stack them, check them over for any issues with printing. I ran out of printer toner on the first three so I'm glad I checked.

Imperfections are fine but you're looking for anything that makes critical information unreadable.

To assemble a copy, get them lined up by tapping them on the table along a short and a long edge.

Both hands is a lot easier but I was trying to take a picture lol

Then fold them hamburger style and smooth down the spine as best you can. If you have a bone folder or similar use that.

Again, let go of perfection. We are looking for good enough here. Minor errors here should not make info unreadable so don't sweat the small stuff.

I recommend doing all your folding in one go to prevent errors. Or at least it really helps me.

Now it's time to staple. You will see my fancy stapler in the background - you do not require it and I would not recommend it. Unhinging a normal stapler is way easier to use in my opinion and this one gets jammed fairly easy. Use what you've got.

If you don't have staples, but you do have sewing supplies - check out this tutorial for a way to bind it with thread.

If you have no staples and no thread, you don't have to staple every zine. Smaller ones (~5 pages or less) do fine with no staple. They can be a little tougher for some people to use and don't hold up as well being taken in and out of places so I would consider that when thinking of where to leave them. They're still well worth printing and putting out.

This zine is small enough that one staple in the center should be enough to keep it together.

I opted to staple in two places - one about an inch in from either edge - mostly out of habit. It does add a little stability and will make them a little better for putting in Little Free Libraries and other places where they'll be removed and placed back.

Here is my partner looking over the zines to make sure my stapling didn't cut off any important information in each copy. It's a little tedious but it's pretty important. A quick flip through can mean the difference between someone getting the info you want them to have or not.

And here's the finished product

I made 15. I'm pretty privileged and have been making zines for over a decade now so it's almost like knitting or crochet for me. Feel free to make fewer copies or just one for yourself. It still counts.

I will stick some in each car and my bag. I have some medical appointments coming up so I will for sure be leaving some of these in the waiting room.

I'm also going to keep an eye out for Little Free Libraries and other place where people are looking for something to read. I might also toss some on the tables of a coffee shop I pop into sometimes (masked, take out only) and the library to pick up books (also masked).

I tend not to give them to specific people, even people I know, because people are way more open to information they've picked up themself than something it feels like someone is pressuring them to read. But if people bring it up in conversation, I'll be sure to offer a copy to anyone who is interested.

Hope this is helpful!

Go out there and print!

[blueskittlesart]

hey so i’m really wanting to make a book/field guide of my art and i was wondering what your process is from creating an art piece all the way to getting a zine-style physical copy of your work? i was inspired by your zines so i thought i’d ask you about it. what websites do you use? how do you like,,, talk to a business to get stuff from the digital illustration into a (relatively small) book?

also this is a personal project to fuel my hyperfixation so i’m not looking to like,,, produce in bulk or anything lol.

thanks :)

for my larger-quantity zines I used mixam.com! they're a print company that specializes in booklets and catalogs, and everything on the production side can be dealt with online. I've had very good experiences with their customer service (I was put through to a real person on their chat function almost instantly when i needed an answer to a more in-depth question) and their prices are really good imo, especially for bigger quantities! They also have pretty high customization options--you can choose the weight and type of your paper, multiple types of binding, etc.

if you go that route, though, all of the graphic design and layout is on you. I'd recommend getting indesign or a similar program to help you lay out your booklet, so you can keep all your pages in one easily-accessible, editable file. (and remember that in order to be printed as a booklet your page count MUST be a multiple of 4!) mixam (or whatever printer you use) will usually give you a template that lets you know exactly how much bleed and gutter space you're working with, and you can then input those numbers into indesign. (If you do this, make sure you export your final pdf WITHOUT CROP MARKS, because your printer will add their own crop marks later on.) once you've arranged your booklet the way you like in indesign, export it as a pdf (in single pages, not spreads, and make sure your pages are in sequential order rather than optimized for booklet printing; it's on your printer to do that step for you!) and upload that pdf to your printer. Mixam gives you a few days to check over your work and either confirm it's correct or cancel the order, and then once you've confirmed it goes into production. more pages and more complex printing will be more expensive, but i've had nothing but good experiences buying from mixam and if i ever selfpub again i'm definitely going to be using them!

[psychhound]

psychhound games 2 year anniversary

wow ... i cant believe its already been two years since i started publishing games on itch but so much has happened in that time. i got promoted at my job, quit that job, started a master's program, became a teacher, decided to continue on to a phd, got published (twice), found meds that helped, made a lot of new friends, learned to cook, played in a good number of campaigns and short shots, and somehow, through all of that, i managed to publish (checks notes) 24 games, 2 zines, and an srd

in that time ive gotten over 20k views and almost 5000 downloads, as well as shout outs in video essays and podcasts. i've run two successful kickstarters and one that made it a far way but ended up teaching me more from its failure than i wouldve hoped

my goal when i started making ttrpgs was just to get a little bit of practice before i made my Big Dream Game. get my feet wet a little to learn the ropes and then design what i had actually set out to do in the first place - make a game designed specifically for therapeutic practice. and then i realized that i actually just really enjoy making games and kept making more and more and more of them until ... here we are

the first ttrpg i ever made literally came to me in a dream. my little sister was working for his college paper at the time and i dreamt that when he came to visit we played a silly comedy interviewing game i had made for her. so i woke up and made it. and then she visited and we played and it was a lot of fun!! and i was like. oh wait i can make games to make very specific people happy ... baller. so i kept doing that. made a game for my best friend where they could play as their cat and cause mischief and playing it for their birthday is such a cherished memory. my by far best selling game was made for a dear friend who's a photographer and lives in a big city and i wanted to blend city exploration, photography, and his love of a well-designed tarot deck into something fun he could do when he got out of the house. my most recent game was made because i wanted a tiny game i could print and send with my friends' holiday cards, and i know how much we all love writing and making crazy blorbo playlists so i made a playlist-driven writing game

over these two years its just become more and more obvious to me that my creativity that was once fueled so wholly by grief and trying to process it has now flipped around to being powered by joy and just overwhelming love. so many people in my life now who i love so wholeheartedly i found or got close to through playing ttrpgs, or being in the ttrpg community, and channeling that energy and that joy into making more of them to put out into the world has made my life so much better a million times over. i dont know where the future will take me but i hope to have such a long career of this - making through joy, engaging through play, growing through community - and i cant thank everyone whos supported me in getting here enough. im feeling very touched and very overwhelmed but just know that if youve ever bought one of my games, posted about playing it, left a nice review, or recommended it to a friend, you have my whole heart and i hope you have such a sweet new year

if you wanna check out my games you can find them on psychhound on itch or check out my portfolio and such on my website :) thanks everyone. happy new year

[fox-teeth]

ShortBox Comics Fair/The Maker of Grave-Goods FAQs

I've been asked these questions a few times in things like post notes, so I'm putting them here so everyone can see:

Q: Is The Maker of Grave-Goods a digital or physical comic? A: Like all ShortBox Comics Fair comics, its is a digital comic. As soon as you buy it you get a download for a DRM-free PDF!

Q: Will the comic be available digitally after October? A: It will be available again sometime in the future when I decide the time is right--get it now so you don't have to wait!

Q: Will the comic be available physically? A: While that would be really cool it's too long to print myself, meaning I would have to raise funds to outsource printing or get it picked up by a publisher with more resources than me. Uhhh...I wouldn't count on either of those things happening.

Q: What's with the mini printed copies? A: Those are a promotional zine containing the first eight pages (you can also read those here) I printed to give away at SPX and with purchases from my store (yes, even if you get a $3 sticker during October, you get a free zine).

Q: What other ShortBox Comics Fair comics do you think I should get? A: I wrote a post here with recommendations of comics for readers that liked mine. Stay tuned for more recs as we close out October, or check out my Bluesky (yay) and Twitter (bleh) accounts for shares of other SBCF artists' promos.

EDIT: updated some wording for clarification and accuracy purposes regarding future digital releases.

[ilovedthestars]

for the ask game!

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

Hi scorpio! thanks for the ask!

(Writers truth or dare) (i keep forgetting to link the ask game)

🪐 ⇢ name three good things going on in your life right now

I really need this. It has been A Week. Here goes:

We've had a lot of really sunny days lately. The sky is blue, the daffodils by my dorm are blooming. It's Spring and that makes me happy.

I'm taking a minicourse about zines, and it's been soooo much fun for me.

My work recently got accepted to a small student-run literary magazine! It's nothing fancy but I'm excited to have made the cut.

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

Ooh, okay, so I went digging WAY back in my bookmarks for this one, since it's been a while since I read new fanfic and nothing was coming to mind. And I found this, which was I think the first murderbot fanfic I ever read, and set a very high bar: Discomfort Protocol by the lovely @broken-risk-assessment-module

Just the right amount of complex & intriguing plot to set up some Really Juicy emotions, particularly character friction between Murderbot and Gurathin. Perfectly captures the "they don't necessarily Like each other but they absolutely care about each other" energy. It's really stuck with me! Highly recommend.

🪲 ⇢ add 50 words to your current wip and share the paragraph here

SO. Turns out almost all of my wips are in desparate need of editing and not really new words (i checked). So while going to do this I instead ended up doing a pretty good editing pass over chapter 7 of Old Unit, Young Unit instead!! Here's 50 words of that, to fulfill the spirit of the question:

I have an escape route. I can disappear before the ship gets here. But once I’m off inventory, I can’t come back for you. I need to know if you’re coming with me. The same offer it made when it hacked my governor module. Do you want to get out?

[alethiometry]

9 books i plan to read in 2025! // tagged by @aeide and @leofrith and i think it will be interesting to see if i can actually stick to this lol

1-2. calling on dragons & talking to dragons by patricia c wrede // i read dealing with dragons about a billion times as a kid, it remains one of my favorite comfort reads, but my school library never had the sequel books. so now i'm finally revisiting the series (am almost done with book 2, searching for dragons) and finishing it once and for all. it's just very cozy and nice!

3. bad cree by jessica johns // has been on my to-read list forever, for whatever reason i could never find it on libby, but i got it as a christmas present and am so excited to dive in!

4. cue the sun! the invention of reality tv by emily nussbaum // i actually just got this as a skip-the-line checkout on libby so i've already started reading! i've watched so much more reality tv in recent years and the whole industry never fails to fascinate me in mostly a morbid way.

5. fevre dream by george r r martin // during my revisit of asoiaf last year it was recommended that i check out some of grrm's other horror works. all i know is it has something to do with vampires in the bayou, and some asoiaf theorists refer to it a lot when discussing bolt-on which i find to be one of the wackier crack theories lol.

6. the tenant of wildfell hall by anne bronte // i've been reading through the bronte sisters on serial reader so this will be my next one after i finish wuthering heights!

7. dust child by nguyễn phan quế mai // the mountains sing was my absolute favorite book that i read last year and it moved me to tears/made me ugly-cry so so so many times. so of course i am beyond excited to read everything else she has written! also if you haven't read the mountains sing this is your sign from the universe to do so. it's amazing.

8. the orchid thief by susan orlean // so i got this as a birthday gift last year and read probably the first 1/3 or so before i fell off of reading pretty hard for most of the year (aka got super busy with 5,000 other things). i really want to pick it back up and finish it this year.

9. the will of the many by james islington // a couple friends made a book recs list/zine at the end of 2024 and they honestly all look great and i don't have space to list all of them here! so i picked this one at random out of the ones i haven't read yet!

oh also my secret 10th answer is if either the winds of winter* or the book of dust vol. 3 drop this year they will immediately take priority over any other books on this list 👀

idk who else has already done this but i'll tag @winedark and @roadtriphoax 😘

* lol. can you imagine.

[picnokinesis]

Have you any way of vetting the people who ask you for donations or do you just trust they’re authentic

Hi there!! So, from what I understand, most of the actual vetting is being done by palestinian-run blogs such as gazavetters and 90-ghost, who are better able to confirm and communicate with individuals who are asking for help. Gaza Vetters in particular have a list that you can check which is right here, so if you get people in your inbox and you want to check if they're a vetted campaign, you can check the list. A lot of people will also say on their blogs or in the ask that they send if they are on the list, and which number they are on the list.

If you want to try and vet something for yourself - another thing you can do is do a reverse image search of the photos that people are using in their campaigns, and see if those same photos are being used in other campaigns by people with different names, or check if campaigns are duplicated - although, be very aware that GoFundMe and other fundraising organisations are being pretty terrible about this and will shut down people's fundraisers without warning, which might mean someone has made a new fundraisers elsewhere. Also, people may have restarted fundraisers in a different currency, because there was an issue with conversion rates, and people donating what they thought was like, £10 or £5, but it was actually 10 or 5 units of a much weaker currency, which basically amounted to less than a penny. So people changed campaigns to be in pounds, dollars and euros instead of SEK, I think it was.

I think also try and remember what the people sending these asks are going through too, and the fact they will not be using their first language - so, when you're looking, please don't judge people for poor spelling, emotive language, or if they send multiple asks or it's a blatant copy-paste thing, or anything like that. Imagine if you were in their position, I guess - desperately trying to get enough money to get yourself and your surviving family members through extortionate border prices, and also have money for food and supplies and just to live - and you're already living in a horrific situation. So I never judge the 'validity' of an ask or campaign based on things like that. People are extremely desperate.

I personally don't share any campaign where I can't find out if it's been vetted or not. I have, unfortunately, not shared every campaign that I've received, and that is at least in part because I have a problem with my tumblr inbox where I actually can't see or interact with roughly half the asks that I receive, it looks like (case in point: right now, I have two asks in my inbox, but I can only see yours). I only realised this when I had a lot of asks in my inbox the other month, and when I got through them all I still had a ton of ghost asks left.

My main rule of thumb - it's up to your own discretion. If you don't feel comfortable donating to individual fundraisers, but you do want to donate, I strongly recommend checking out any of the organisations in this post here (which I will reblog after this ask as well) which is a list of Gazan mutual aid projects and non-profits. That is a very good thing to do. I know the PCRF does good work, and all the proceeds of the zine that I was involved in at the start of the year when to them. Alternatively, donating to crips for esims is another really good one, because enabling people in Palestine access to the internet is incredibly important.

Hope that's helpful! 💜I am by no means an expert, but this is what I've picked up upon going around.

[nijigay]

hiiii :3 I noticed ur one (of a few) ppl who ships boniji on tumblr, and I wanna know if you know any accounts/artists who ships them so I could follow them to satiate my boniji fixation >.< Also, some bocchi x nijika questions I wanna personally ask: what songs do you recommend that reminds you of them? Also, what are some boniji fanfics you recommend/like? I probably already read most of their fics but I wanna know what others like. Lastly, ur personal boniji headcanons if you don't mind sharing... 👉👈

I only ask blogs rarely cuz I'm shy so no need to answer immediately...

I'm just brainrotting over boniji so much! im so normal about them (◔‿◔)

AWAWAWA i love boniji like so much like too much like its become my main personality trait!

but youre right!!! it feels like boniji fans are mostly japan natives and there dont seem to be many english speaking boniji fans! ohhh i wish there was more of a following! imagine a boniji zine in the west! i would pay money to get involved with that

im kind of embarrassed about shoving my ships in ppls faces all the time and this might get long and its just me like rambling about my OTP so like .. gona put it under a read more lol. seriously this post is like almost 2k words long thats longer than my average fanfic chapter

i hate to be a shill but im going to be a shill for my fic recommendations:

ive been working on a lowkey corny boniji hanahaki fic on AO3 and some other oneshots, so maybe you would be willing to check my own stuff out?? (if u want .-. im really amateur with this stuff despite being an art student lol) its been on hiatus for like half a year but im just adhd af and keep restarting. im still working on it frequently tho and im secretly hoping to start updating on a consistent basis soon. but i also liked fics like "Midnight and Daydreams" and "Bubblegum Detergent" and "A Sellout Night" and "Just Enough to be Enough" and "A Kiss is Not A Cure". MANNN i remember that last one fucked me up bad when it was posted. it was only the second ever dedicated boniji fic and like I LOVE angst but with how small the sample size of fics was at the time it was like AUFHAUIJKADGF. all those fics are super super good though! i also love the third one, i love the trans bocchi HC personally

umm as far songs songs tho, i guess the ones i associate with boniji most are:

"veil" by keina suda, i remember drafting some animatic for an angsty AU of Hitori living on post-Kessoku

"STEP&CLAP" by yoshino aoyama (aka yoppi aka bocchis VA <3), i think yoppi making the song speaks for itself but its a rly cute song and i love thinking of Hitori and Nijika like tap dancing to it?? check out the rest of yoppi's debut album too!! her voice is so pretty and i was so happy finding out that there are 11 songs with her voice, instead of the 1 from the anime

idk why but i also think of them a lot when listening to PMMM's ost by yuki kaijuri, like "desiderium" and "not yet" and "mada dame yo"? these r kinda a stretch though but idk!!

i also like compiling music that reminds me of them into spotify playlists, if youd like some inspiration for your own! this one and also this angstier one

i have a lot of boniji headcanons but i feel like its hard for me to like list them all in one spot because they usually come to me with context during relevant conversations?? but ill list whatever i can think of!:

this ones not necessarily boniji but i was thinking about it like an hour ago, but i really like the idea of Seika being a huge boniji supporter. like in the source material she already finds Bocchi really cute, so I get the impression she would really like to be an older sister figure for Bocchi (and probably gets jealous of Kikuri for holding that spot in Bocchi's life lol), and so Nijika being a potential love interest for Bocchi would make Seika double down hard on supporting boniji. she'd probably be the one who brings Bocchi up to Nijika more than Nijika would bring her up to Seika?? i also like to imagine that for Seika she has a similar complex to Yoyoko. but instead of "Bocchi is stealing my spot as Hiroi's younger sister figure," it would be "Kikuri is stealing my spot as Bocchi's older sister figure" LOL . if that makes any sense at all

this ones actually taken from a japanese twitter user, but they moved on from boniji after the anime ended. but they had some headcanons that REALLY stuck with me. my favorite was the idea that Bocchi and Nijika both have inferiority complexes with one another. iirc their (translated) words were along the lines of "Bocchi thinks of Nijika as a pure, comforting light in her life, one that could be muddied if Bocchi got involved with her. On the other hand, Nijika thinks of Bocchi as a reliable hero who outshines an ordinary girl like her." i just REALLY like it. it also reminds me of this conversation that Yoppi and Suzushiro had on the BTR podcast, about Bocchi and Nijika's first meeting! like nijika literally brought light into Bocchi's life awdsfsgdhgfjh

actually that same user above also made a tweet that is the reason why i associate Keina Suda's "veil" with boniji! they made a tweet about an AU idea, where, in the event that Nijika would ever pass away, Seika would give Bocchi her ribbon, which Hitori would wear from that point onwards as she continues to play music to honor Nijika's memory. they also suggested that in the opposite event of Hitori passing away, Nijika would possibly do something very rash out of despair but thats dark hahaha!!!!

i kinda think this goes without saying and i think its actually a fairly common HC for BTR characters in general, but I can definitely see Bocchi being trans

I like to imagine that shortly after Volume 2, Bocchi and Nijika would probably have another conversation

eventually, i'm sure if Bocchi and Nijika pursued a relationship that they'd eventually move in together (or like into the same room? if Kessoku Band had a sharehouse?), and since both Bocchi and Nijika tend to be minimalistic with their room decor, their shared room would again become filled with a ton of Ryo's clothes and items and instruments, like how Nijika's room at Seika's apartment is

i think they'd both end up being really touchy with each other, especially when nervous? Bocchi kind of already does this when she's in new places (eg bringing Kita to Shimokitazawa, or going to FOLT for the first time and being dragged by Nijika), but I think it would grow to them finding comfort with each other?

idk if this is necessarily a HC but i really like how Bocchi and Nijika emotionally support each other, even in source. Nijika is shown to have a really good read on Bocchi (to the point of Bocchi worrying that Nijika is actually a psychic), knowing Bocchi's common thought processes, and picking up from Bocchi's mother during her first visit to Kanazawa that karaage chicken can bring Bocchi out of her anxiety attacks, and seems to be the only character who actually comments on Bocchi's growth as an individual and actively tries to facilitate it; but she also doesn't lovebomb Bocchi with praise, striking what seems to be a good balance for pushing Bocchi but also being a reliable confidant for her too.

one of my favorite details from the anime that i really feel doesnt get talked about as often as it should is when Nijika finally notices that Bocchi is guitarhero! she definitely wasn't the first to notice (Seika noticed first, but it seemed like Seika only knew about guitarhero via Nijika. When she notices that Bocchi's playing sounds familiar, her thought process immediately goes towards wondering why Nijika isn't noticing, and then she just tells them to get back to work) but she was the first one that Bocchi admits it too. but my favorite part is how Bocchi says that she wanted to change and grow as a person before telling them the truth, and she says that she especially wanted to grow before Nijika in particular found out! its just really cute, i love how Bocchi was worried about disappointing Nijika. and i like how, after some growth, Bocchi's dream turns from "becoming popular" to "making Kessoku Band the best band it can be" which is like almost basically the same as Nijika's dream! and so it's really nice when Bocchi doubles down on that goal by not remotely entertaining the idea of leaving Kessoku Band, even when goaded by promises of popularity.

last headcanon! because i ran out of thoughts and just came up with this on the spot. but i also like the idea that as the years go on, Bocchi and Nijika in particular may kind of become more similar in personality. i mean, they'd definitely still be distinctly them, but i like to think that Bocchi would eventually start picking up more optimistic habits and stop grimacing all the time, while Nijika would eventually become a little more lax and not reflexively try to dismiss her own negative feelings via looking at the silver lining. i thought of that when Nijika kinda dismisses her family dynamics with her mother's passing and her father's neglect after Kessoku's first real performance, as well as Nijika seeming to admit after inhaling Bocchi Dust(?) during her and Kita's Kanazawa visit that some of her optimism is performative

ok another one Nijika seems to have her art skills commented on sometimes so i like to imagine she has doodles of Bocchi in her sketchbook (alongside everyone else but mostly Bocchi). like think of like Miles Morales drawing a ton of Gwen Stacy like that kinda deal but with Nijika drawing Bocchi. and like Bocchi finds the sketchbook and Nijika freaks out and Bocchi actually doesnt look bc she doesnt want to do something wrong. but then Ryo or Kita take it and look instead and then show Bocchi and Bocchi melts into a flustered puddle

wowwow this got long! sorry! i really mean it when im like OBSESSED with these two like i think ive thought about them on a daily basis ever since the episode aired where Nijika bought Bocchi a cola. isnt that cute, too!? she picked up on Bocchi's favorite soda so quickly! and her buying a box of energy drinks for Bocchi despite not understanding why at all! girlfriend behavior

i really really want to make more boniji content, i'd like to be more active in posting my fics and drabbles and drawings, someday soon. right now most of my boniji content is just illegible sketches in my sketchbook lol

also thank u so much for like sending this ask im like BEGGING internally all the time to be given the chance to talk about them! i dont think theyre like a rarepair or anything, especially with them seeming to be like the second most popular BTR ship in japan, but i do think that not many people talk to them in the english side of the fandom! theyre super super cute and have really good chemistry.

this entire post is probably like a total carwreck i hope its even readable

ill also use this post as an excuse to post my own HCs for a Kessoku Band's relations chart. it's a bonus for reading this far. i'm sorry for draining 22 HP from you with this brain dump

[half-deadfic]

Q&A with Darth Frodo

Hey, everyone! Two years ago, this project started as a way to reach out to authors who had left some beloved projects unfinished, mostly to reach out to them and see how they were doing, show them appreciation, and see if they needed any support in case they wanted to finish their projects or just wanted to have fun sharing behind the scenes information and tips through a Q&A.

As a part of bringing this project half-back to life, I would like to present the first Q&A of this project, in this case with the one and only @darthfrodophantom, who returned after almost 10 years to the phandom to share the ending for "A Secret Uncovered".

Special thanks to @dp-marvel94 for the questions submitted!

If you want to find out other amazing authors participating, make sure to check out this recommendation list for the project!

❇️ About Darth Frodo ❇️

[AO3] [FFN] A multi-fandom writer who has also written for Danny Phantom since the show was still on air, Darth Frodo joined the phandom classics early in the Fanfiction.Net era with beloved works such as "Tortured Truth" (2006) and "A Secret Uncovered" (First published on 2006). The latter was left on standby as life happened, but Darth's desire to finish the story was always close to her heart.

Her love for identity shenanigans and the philosophical analysis behind characters also took her to explore other ideas and stories back in the day, but also recently as she returned to the phandom for events such as Ectoberhaunt or the DP Reality Trip AU Zine, for which she published delightful new adventures.

Now that she has rewritten all of her first vision for "A Secret Uncovered" and added an incredible ending and epilogue, we reached out to Darth with a few questions...

❇️ Q&A ❇️

Q: What inspired you to write your story ("A Secret Uncovered")?

Darth: Not sure if you’ve caught on to this based on pretty much everything I write, but I love identity reveal fics. I love the awkward tension that happens right before, during, and after the reveal. I love the moment where you just don’t know how it’s going to turn out. And I love watching the aftermath of the characters struggling to adjust. I really wanted to write an identity reveal fic on a huge level that involved everyone finding out, and it kinda went from there.

Q: Who is your favorite character to write and why?

Darth: I feel like I have to say Danny because he’s pretty much my POV of choice. His internal monologues are so fun to dive into because he’s witty and snarky, but he can also be so clueless sometimes. I love putting him into different scenarios and watching him struggle through them. But if I had to pick a character outside of Danny, I’d have to go with Jazz. I just feel like I get her. She’s the mom friend and the big sister who ‘s an overachiever, and I love that. Jazz can connect pretty obscure dots, be the emotional comfort, and a voice of reason, which are so helpful.

Q. Are there any characters or types of scenes (action, dialogue, ect) that you struggle to write?

Darth: I feel like I struggle the most with transitions. How do we move from one scene to the next and conveying what happened in the downtime we don’t cover? How do we give the readers a sense of the emotional or logistical events that happened without actually having to spell it all out, but also not make it too exposition heavy? I want to include the details, but I don’t want to bog people down with exposition and passive tenses. It’s contrary to that “show don’t tell” tenet of writing, but it’s also acknowledging that from an editing perspective, you can’t show every minute. (Of course this is now all you're going to pay attention to when reading my writing lol)

Q. This one is based on a screenshot I saw on tumblr of a tweet saying "writing a fic consists of having one scene you want to write and scrambling to come up with an entire plot just so you can write one scene." If this applies to your story, what is THAT SCENE for your fic?

Darth: I actually did! I literally pictured the scene where Danny walks into school that first day after his secret has been revealed and everyone stares at him and whispers about him and crowds around him. When I first thought of doing an “everyone finds out” identity reveal, this was the first scene that popped into my head, and everything else spun from that concept.

Thank you so much Darth for the time to reply to these questions.

To anyone reading, we'll bring back the Q&A part of this project before we reach the 20th Danny Phantom Anniversary, as a way to hear from beloved writers and celebrate our phandom.

Stay tuned!

[genderqueerdykes]

How can i find queer spaces irl? clubs arent really my thing, but its all i can find thats around me

good question!

this one can be tough, as bars/clubs are usually what come up the most readily when searching on google maps and social media. they can and do have days where the atmosphere is calmer but i still don't like being in bars. i think there may be some options for you, depending on your area

i would recommend checking your library if you can, a lot of the time they will advertise queer events if there are any going on in the area. if not they often times have information on local queer organizations. if you are unable to do this, universities usually have good lists of local queer events and spaces. usually people are going to say LGBT (event) so phrasing it that way may help a bit. but regardless universities often have groups that are open to the public so you may be able to find support there, or at least suggestions on where to look

you may have transgender resource or gay or lesbian resource centers in your area. you may have some type of organization that helps local queer folk get in touch with things like HRT, top surgery, drag shows, art/zine nights, when local queer businesses are hosting events and so on. if you use instagram or facebook, they are very good for finding these types of events if you search for lgbt (your area) and "local lgbt events", those kinds of things

you can also try to take a look at if you have a pride parade/event in June, you can try to find the information about who is organizing it and what types of organizations and businesses show up to those kinds of things. you may be able to find local social media pages that post about local queer events. sometimes it's something simple like a queer operated coffee or ice cream shop holding socials with reduced prices, for example. in a lot of places, there are spaces for queer minors who need somewhere to go away from alcohol, drugs, uncomfortable contact with adults, and so on

it can be harder to find spaces for adults that don't involve or contain alcohol which makes it difficult for someone like me who has a lot of trauma with that and bars. however, sometimes you can find small political organizations or even art collectives, who use parts of their buildings as queer hangout and event spaces. it's going to depend heavily on your area, so the best you can do is search for "lgbt events in my area" and "lgbt (your city)", things of that nature, as well as trying to keep an eye out for businesses you see when your'e out and about who have LGBT flags inside or outside. if they have even 1 progress pride flag it's worth asking if they can tell you about other LGBT businesses in your area or if they do any collaborations with other queer places and events

i hope any of that helps or makes sense. some places, people can find queer spaces very easily- in big urban cities in California like San Francisco, for example, has a lot of queer historical locations, political organizations, casual hangout spots, advocacy groups, resource centers, and more. some places may only have one or two spots where they can safely meet, and a lot of people are somewhere in the middle. good luck, i know it's not easy, but i hope you find something that works for you

folks are welcome to contribute any ideas they may have. take care for now!

[t1meslayer]

It's peanut butter jelly T1me!

... Alright, now @alchemicallymoon doesn't have to call the authorities.

You know the drill — go check out my latest Dungeon Meshi fanfic, "Peanut Butter & Jelly." Then click that button down below to read my completely overindulgent author's commentary!

Dungeon Meshi... Ah, Dungeon Meshi.

I wrote my first DunMeshi fic "Scrambled Eggs" when Trigger's anime was beginning to air. Maybe this was a silly idea given it's a post-canon event, thus alienating the people who might've been curious to join community spaces after watching the first couple of episodes. However, I read through everything before the anime started on the recommendation of friends (including my collaborating body of spiders @trybard) and fell deeply in love.

No joke, some things in that story changed my life at the exact moment I needed it. I couldn't hold myself back when it came to appeasing the DunMeshi faithful among us.

And hey... It worked out! "Scrambled Eggs" became my most successful fic of all time, sitting at over 250 Kudos as of this writing.

I can't judge any fanfiction.net metrics because that site doesn't even have a Dungeon Meshi tag... But that's a whole other story.

That Farcille story was not the only idea I had logged in my Notes app, but needless to say that success did encourage me to continue sooner rather than later.

... Perhaps a little bit later following self-imposed hiatuses for my poll-winning Stardew Valley fic "How You Get The Girl" and the first part of my ambitious Pokemon Scarlet and Violet fic "Fallout." But I have also been doing some Meshi writing for the Dungeon Meshi Cookbook Zine?

That brings us to "Peanut Butter & Jelly." I believe it's mandated by law that all DunMeshi stories are named after a relevant food item or monster within their narrative.

In this case, the titular sandwich was my inciting incident. I've recently found myself working retail for the first time, stocking shelves at a major brand store. One day I was pushing merchandise on the aisle with peanut butters and jellies and thought, "Senshi would make a killer PB&J."

My first developmental task was deciding what kind of monster could be cooked into the sandwich. One early source I came across was a blog for fantasy author Alex Maven, in particular the article "TENDING A GARDEN OF TERROR: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO PLANT MONSTERS IN 5E DND." This introduced the vegepygmy:

I haven't played much Dungeons & Dragons outside a "Gaming in American History" class during college, so I can't say I'm an expert in the subject. But I gathered through Maven's site and fandom projects like the Forgotten Realms Wiki that vegepygmies are forest-dwelling, humanoid rot creatures created by exposure to Russet mold spores who tend to use basic tools such as slings. They can drop skins upon death, which Maven describes as an item that "looks like a furry patch of mold. It has not much use to leatherworkers but can prove to be really useful to alchemists, healers, and medicinal experts."

A few details were simplified for my fanfiction (let's call those "creative liberties" ala Ryoko Kui's unique takes on classic monsters), but the gist still felt right: forest creatures using a weapon that fires small projectiles.

What better projectiles to find in a forest than hard-shelled nuts?

I imagined something like walnuts, but the semantics don't really matter. For the most part this was set-dressing to write a story in which the main party gets to interact, unlike my isolated Farcille piece. That's where this became a "lost chapter" set prior to the discovery of Thistle's home on the Dungeon's bottom floor.

I channeled my best Ryoko Kui absurdist cover art for the featured image, though using digital collage. Originally I planned to use full color, but a fun idea came later to desaturate things for more accurate manga sensibilities:

For comparison

The impetus to write this piece when I did was two-fold. On one hand, I had time to kill during production on "Fallout," and it only felt right to do a bit of extra prep for another Dungeon Meshi zine application I've had my eyes on.

On the other hand, I became obsessed with DunMeshi's second ED for a good while. Especially this frame with Kabru's party, and the implication that Rin is constantly on the verge of wiping her entire team on accident:

Kabru fic one day.

Later I became obsessed with DunMeshi's second OP. Long-time fans may remember when I had matching levels of anime opening brain rot for my Jujutsu Kaisen Satosugu fic "Infinitesimal Distance."

Obsession, it turns out, can be good for creating silly art.

I tend to give myself a challenge for each fanfic to help further my craft. This time, the challenge was to capture these wonderful characters in a way that matches the rhythms of the original series. I pulled from the styles of a few older pieces to differentiate stages in what Alchemically put as the manga's "kill-cook-eat" formula:

The brief Laios battle uses a Falin flashback ala the manga's Living Armor arc. I used text formatting and alternate tense to separate this moment as in my Splatoon fic "Yesterday is But Today's Memory." ... Also the action is almost directly lifted from my friend's Stardew Valley OC Lotus fighting a skeleton in "Willow."

I used a bit of funky text placement with sub- and superscript formatting to convey motion with details like Izutsumi's yawn in the post-battle cooldown period, like my ScarVi fic "Paradiso."

Senshi's cooking segment is vaguely reminiscent of the recipe at the start of my Breath of the Wild fic "Recipe to Please a Princess." I used blockquotes to convey Senshi instructions as "narration," interspersed with character reactions and interplay.

Finally, I discovered that you can set a "Heading 3" HTML format over empty text to create double-lined dividers. Thought that would be a fun way to present the final ingredients list (sans nutritional information - I'm barely qualified enough to write a recipe without looking up guides on how to make peanut butter and how to make jam).

Speaking of that splash screen... We should talk about the stand-out part of this fic.

My drawing!

That's right, I draw now. Expect to see a lot more funky stuff.

I took a figure drawing class hosted by one of my friends recently, which coincided with seeing fics written by lovely folks like @flutefemme and @duelbraids that utilized custom artwork. Extra special shout-outs to duelbraid's "Splatsville Daily's Concert Review" for inspiring this artwork insertion via a whole Getty Images pastiche.

Incredibly cool idea!

Go follow them. I'm not asking.

For my sandwich art, I looked at references for braided challah and whole grain breads (since I figured that was more natural for the setting than a "Wonder Bread" look), and drew those overtop the shape of stacked slices using real-life bread reference. The knife and plate are also based partially on utensils I used for reference.

My backdrop is simple, meant to look like the plate is atop a transition point between patches of tall grass and worn pathing in the forest clearing within which our scene is set.

Creating a recipe title card ala banners in Dungeon Meshi's anime (used to great effect with bits such as the dragon meat bundles rolling past Senshi) and an ingredient list ala the manga came later.

However, I do think it's fun that the titles look imposed over the food, rather than blending too much into the background.

===

Bonus content for those still reading along:

You can see me practicing bread on the opposite side of the page in this sketchbook. Plus, my "Fallout" teaser image is bleeding through.

===

In terms of actual writing quirks I'll be brief. My favorite part of this piece is the smaller arguments and references throughout.

Laios and Falin's childhood village having no magic uses, which means no ice cream [ :( ]. This points to the negative reactions people had when Falin discovered her own magical aptitude.

The introduction of Laios' party ending with Izutsumi just being. Izutsumi. I'd draw later attention to an "Izutsumi thinks about herself" joke with some fun gender(tm), but this early moment was meant to convey my intentions for capturing DunMeshi style.

Yes, Laios talking about using mold powers to regenerate limbs is a reference to Resident Evil Village. No, I have not played most Resident Evil games.

Chilchuck's laughter being stylized as "nahaha" draws a connection to Izutsumi's similarly smarmy sense of humor. It's also a reference to how PokeMas wrote Rika during a story event around the time I was writing this. I feel like those characters sound similar!

Marcille does ritualistic morning hair care. IYKYK.

Izutsumi flies across the sky like a startled cat in an old cartoon.

Chilchuck is tired of everyone using his lockpicking set for odd jobs like mimic meat retrieval and walnut cracking.

Laios wants to get Namari some slings to inspect!! I just think they were really chill buds, actually. He'd probably get her hyperfixations, even if he doesn't get armor.

Marcille's holier-than-thou speech about assuming there's some sexism in Senshi's Scooby-Doo party division is cut off by Chilchuck digging into the idea of the Canaries existing at all. What are they, some kinda Suicide Squad?

Izutsumi is always hesitant about their food. Luckily, this is perhaps the least monster-filled meal yet - unless you're Laios, using leftover Changeling sauce that was meant to be an ointment. He's a freak like that.

Food opinions: Senshi likes crunchy peanut butter. Marcille cuts the crusts off her sandwiches.

I actually presented a poll to my beta reader wondering whether Chilchuck or Izutsumi would chuckle first at Marcille using the term "nut butter." Izutsumi won handily.

Most divorced dad definitely made his daughters sandwiches. That's, like, the one real divorced dad meal I'd expect.

For those in the know on events in the manga, Laios noticing some droppings on the floor is a pretty solid indication of what story beat the gang is approaching within the fiction...

Finally, I know one of peoples' favorite parts about "Scrambled Eggs" was the sheer amount of food-related descriptors. I'm not sure I had quite as deft a hand this time around since most of my energy went toward dialogue interplay, but hopefully you still got your money's worth!!

[supercorpzine]

Hi! I'm curious what program you used to put the zine together? Did you use Abode InDesign? Do you have any tutorials/resources that you would recommend for learning whichever program you used? Thanks!

Hey there, this is Grace! Sorry for the delay I was out of town when we got your message.

Both I and Monica, who was the art mod before me, and Batten who tagged in on assisting with merchandise in later volumes, used Adobe InDesign. We didn't list any particular programs in our How To post (didn't want to assume skill level) but if you are hoping to have lots of text or go to print, InDesign will be your industry standard program for that. There are non-adobe alternatives, but I personally didn't use them because they often don't offer the tools needed for print production or meet my needs for a design program. This may be different for you! We unfortunately don't have any strong recommendation for a free program to try, but we do know of Gimp, SketchUp, and Adobe Spark. Take your time trying out different programs to see which one better fits your needs. If you can get InDesign free from a friend that may be worth it.

Should you choose to brave InDesign, Adobe's resource page for tutorials and trouble shooting will be helpful. They also have a forum community where you can connect with others and ask questions. You could also check out the reddit page if you would like to have another community option! A quick search on YouTube also yielded a bunch of different tutorials, so you'll just have to pick and choose which ones would work best for you for the task you're facing. I apologize I can't really give you more specific answers on InDesign tutorials, it's a large program (as are all Adobe programs) so I would suggest just learning about the pieces and parts that pertain to what you're trying to achieve!

[danggirlronpa]

After several months of forgetting, and then finally starting to get stuff together only to forget what day of the week it was: Merch Monday has officially become Merch Whatever-Day-I-Remember (Ideally Monday When Possible). But I AM finally back on it!

[Ko-fi to Support This Project]

And of the things that are overdue, the Chiaki Zine is having their leftovers sale, so it seems like about time for me to do a write up on it!

Firstly, the zine itself!

I love this zine. I don't consider myself a Chiaki stan, but this is one of my favorite zines I own. And while of course part of that is from a fantastic set of art and writing, a LOT of it is because of the theming. I had expected the video games to be a loose theme, but it was very tight - every single piece prominently featured a game, and the only repeats were in easter eggs like the Pokemon plushies in this Sims piece.

As someone who makes and loves video games, it was so cool paging through this and seeing all the references. They're all done with exceptional care. It takes a moment to figure out some of them just because of adjustments to match Chiaki's visuals (it took me a long time to figure out this was Sims because of the UI not being blue!) but most clock on sight.

There's a list of all the games referenced in the back so that you can check against yourself. The only thing I wished for was some sort of reference for which games were on which page, so that you could get the general sense of the ones you didn't recognize to investigate further. The theme makes this zine feel incredibly tight and well-crafted, in addition to the zine itself being high quality without any immediately noticeable defects.

This print is one of the things I was most excited for with merch! It has started to bend a bit now that it's been a few months, but not more than any other print I own. It's nice and smooth, texture-wise. And really cute!!

These stickers are very cute (for some reason I forget to get a picture of the larger Pokemon sticker sheet? Hopefully I'll remember to grab another one before this post is scheduled). The Smash Brothers are SO tiny!! That's not a bad thing, I just hadn't expected it. I picked up Sakura's Peach since she's my own Smash main (and namesake!) and Aoi's Daisy, and then my favorite fight girls. Part of me does want to order a couple more so I can get the super interesting concept of Mario Chiaki/Peach Sakura and my other main Isabel/Kaede. The stickers themselves are only 50 cents each, not counting whatever shipping!

And here is the keychain! (With Mario Chiaki and Peach Sonia this time! The tangled webs our Mario AUs weave.) This is actually one of the reasons it took so long to review the zine, as when I finally opened it up, it had a big crack across it. They got me a replacement more or less as soon as they switched shipping mods, and I had no trouble with the new one! I wasn't actually that excited about this keychain, but it's really growing on me.

I honestly didn't expect to love this zine as much as I do. It's so cute, and lots of love and care was obviously put into it. I have no significant complaints about it or its quality. I would definitely recommend grabbing it while you can!