#I'm pretty proud of how the metal effects came out

[pinkestmenace]

Schrödinger's Dark Meta Knight

Featuring my favourite undying silicon based lifeform/catbatman in all his quantum glory

[reallyromealone]

So like

I made a fic

It's not a reader fic but instead about my twisted wonderland oc that's the vorpal blade and I'm proud of this so yeah, this is new for me so please be gentle

🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑

Deep within the woods surrounding the Night Raven College shrouded by ivy and plant life stood a sword. A soft glow radiated off the pearlescent sword, the longsword handle made of a silver-like metal twisted like roses and vines. Students didn't know what the sword was, and no one was able to release it from its prison from the stone it was stabbed in no matter the strength or the magic; it stood in its lonesome amongst the trees and the leaves.

"Please help me get a good grade on this test!" A student would beg for the sword, leaving an offering to the blade for fortune in their studies.

It was a school ritual of sorts, those daring to go through the woods to find the sword and hope it granted their wish of good grades or a confession of sorts.

And sometimes the sword granted it.

No one knew where the sword came from, what it was named, or who it belonged to but many theorized it was from the battle that created the Night Raven Academy, a bloodbath that took two centuries to heal both sides. "Why are you praying to some sword? Studying is all you need to pass!" Riddle grumbled as he and Carter went to this sword "This sword works! Not just in classes but occasionally with day-to-day!"

"Isn't that cheating?" Riddle glared and the other chuckled "Nah, it's only sometimes it works..." Maybe it was a placebo effect or maybe it worked but students liked to feel it had magic, it wouldn't be out of the realm after all. Riddle stared at the sword curiously, it seemed familiar, something heed seen before...

...but where?

Riddle didn't think of the sword much after that, his classes were his priority after all, and some sword in the woods didn't matter much to him. "Yes!" Carter seemed excited as he had a surprisingly high test score, he was pretty average in grades so it was something out of the ordinary "Told ya that sword was real!" He boasted as he leaned in his chair. It was late as Riddle looked through books in the library, skimming and searching for anything of use, he had seen this sword before!

Countless books stacked around him, looking for anything and everything... Then he found a book, old and dusty with red engravings on a grey binding "The Collapse of the Country of Roses" he was exhausted... But he will give this book a go he supposed... The candle was flickering as he looked through the pages, the grandfather clock ringing three, he should be asleep but he couldn't...

"The white Queen then cast a spell onto her general, once the man turned back into the... vorpal blade"

There it was.

The sword.

He knew of the vorpal blade, it was something every child in the queendom of hearts knew about... A sword so powerful it could slay the strongest of foes... When swung it sounded like singing...

He didn't care that it was the dead of night, trudging to the sword that glowed in the moonlight, the wind causing it to ring ever so slightly "So you are real..." Riddle couldn't believe it but here it was, just like the pictures...

Riddle did more research, days and nights between classes and club activities, he didn't know why he was so fixated on the sword...

He just wanted to know... What curse was placed?

"Oh it was a forbidden curse, old fae magic that we banned a few millennia ago" Riddle jolted as he looked to see Lilia hovering over him as he stared at the vorpal blade on the old book with a knowing look "the white Queen did it, did you know that? He didn't deserve it"

Wait...

"Did... You know him?" Riddle knew Lilia was old... But... How old was he?

"I did... He was quite a nice...person?" Lilia didn't know he could describe the other as a person, he was technically a person... But he was also a magic sword...

"Do you know how to free him?"

Lilia was quiet "I'm not sure...let's ask Headmaster Crowley"

the two speed walked to the headmaster, students looking curious as these two never really hung out like this, the two holding Riddle's research close as the sound of their feet tapped against their feet, by the sevens why did this school have to be so big?! They finally reached the headmaster's door, grand and imposing as usual, knocking twice as the door creaked open with magic no doubt "My my, don't you two look out of breath~" Crowley teased as he sipped his tea "Why are you two coming to my office in such a flurry? Is the world ending in such a hurry?"

"We have reason to believe the vorpal blade is on campus"

This caught the man (?) Attention as he set his tea down "Do you have your evidence to prove this claim?"

Riddle set all his evidence on the table and let the headmaster look through "This exact blade is in the enchanted woods in the exact way the story says, it grants wishes and when the wind hits it, it sings" Riddle said seriously and Crowley's face no longer held that playfulness, serious etched behind the mask he wore "let me see this sword"

Crowley, Vargas, and Crewel accompanied the students as they went to the sword, the two showing them the sword that had ivy growing on its side and Lilia felt sick.

This was the sword.

This was Rovina.

"Rovina..."

"You two knew each other right?" Lilia nodded as he gently touched the blade "his signature spell was vorpal glory... He summoned this exact sword... He was a great general you know? Served the white Queen right down to the last moment..."

"How do we free this... Sword?" Vargas looked confused as he stared at the glowing blade, it was the vorpal blade "Maybe we take it out so we can examine it further?" Crewel said casually and Riddle walked to the blade and grabbed its handle, a wave of familiarity washed over him as he pulled it out.

A white glow overtook their vision, the sword transforming... Into a man?

On his knees, skin pale as the moon, and long strands of ivory hair were Rovina, the vorpal blade. His toga was an off white and the gold accents of his jewelry made him look almost angelic, the golden coronet on his head acting as a halo "holy shit" was all Vargas could muster as Crowley felt something bubble inside of him, a smug pride knowing that this would infuriate the royal swords academy.

"My my, why don't we get you inside yes?"

[rose-of-redwall]

Happy Post-Halloween!

I haven’t talked about my Redwall costume very extensively, but it is a dear treasure to me. I have been designing, creating, and collecting clothes (some pretty beautiful ones) for my Redwall character for the past two-ish years! You may have seen my design worn in all the wonderful drawings on my page. I have countless lofty goals for myself, and I'm sure I won't be done until decades from now, but c'est la art. Nevertheless, I do have quite a good costume as it is, and how could I not wear something so special?

I have been wearing my Redwall outfit as my Halloween costume for two years so far and I will continue doing so indefinitely. (I think I do a better job every year BLUSH) And now, I would love to share it with you guys!

This is me with my ADORABLE mouse face which I am SO proud of

These are photos from last year (while I was in the same state as all of my costume materials) while I was getting ready for a party- you can see: - my habit (which has a very cool hood) - my wooden glasses chain, which I made - my orange shawl, which can also be worn as a scarf! - the habit cord I crocheted- the habit came with a cord, but I wanted something authentically emotionally significant - and my two necklaces which I "corded" myself- one is a painted metal pendant of a flower basket, and one is my very own cross-stitch Martin the Warrior tapestry replica (and my prized possession) You can also see a pair of hare earrings, which I love but have recently switched out for three lovely pearls.

Many other aspects of my outfit are obscured beneath the habit, including a tan dress and a homemade blue apron with flowery medieval pockets. I keep some trinkets and necessities in the pockets, and have hopes to one day open a slit in the habit to access the inner skirt. As I said, I have lofty goals...

And this is me being so very cute (last year and this year, respectively)! I've been evolving my technique for my mouse makeup in the attempt to make it "natural" and nature-ey, which I am very excited about, but an unfortunate side effect is that it kind of rubbed off by the time the second photo was taken.

I hope to share more of my outfit when I am able- including details of the necklace, which I shared on the Re:Redwall podcast zine- and to share developments as they come. In the meantime, I hope that everyone will be happy with my linking the company I got my habit from!

Irongate Armory is a company located in Finland that sells authentic recreation of "historical items," including my habit! Not kidding, I cried when I found their website. The manufacturer of the "green monks robe" is listed as "Windlass Steelcrafts," which makes historical and fantasy products, and also sells the habit on their website. Unfortunately, the item is not currently in stock in either location.

Thank you for your festive entertainment of my costumery story, and I welcome you all to this post!

[earlgraytay]

Updates on the Vash the Stampede cosplay:

I'm doing this cosplay for fucking ColossalCon, meaning it has to be ready to go in a week. It took me way, way, way too long to find an even halfway appropriate coat, meaning that I'm basically putting this together... now.

So, how am I doing? Well...

The coat is a trenchcoat I got from the thrift store. I tossed it in the washing machine with some rit dye and it came out looking like this:

The world has seen more even dye jobs! Especially on the back there- in pictures, it doesn't look so bad, but in person it came out looking outright stripey.

To draw attention away from it, I decided to take some cues from Manga!Vash's design. Meaning, liberally applying both fabric scissors and fire to the hem of this thing:

It's coming along, but it's pretty slow going- I have to do this under the faucet so that if the fire starts smoking, I can turn it off and not set off the smoke alarm. I do like the way it looks, but this was too short of a coat for me to really get the correct effect. Ah well.

I'm really proud of the way the kneepads turned out, though. That doesn't look like paint!! it looks like shitty scratched up metal!!! I'm happy with it and I'm glad that it turned out so good first try.

Once I bleach my hair, I'll have the minimum amount of cosplay done to be recognizable!

[purplekoop]

(@daylightcommand3 once again responding in a separate post to keep things tidy with the original)

First off, thanks! I wrote the bulk of that story log a while back, only touching up a few minor details that I wanted to add, change, or clarify, and I'm still pretty proud of it. It felt important to properly establish the world and how it works before I could really figure out how these characters work as more than just gameplay functions. There were a lot of things I didn't feel right just shrugging off as "don't worry about it", like how they made more robots and what makes a new sentient bot different from a person-shaped pile of metal and circuitry. There's still a few gaps in the logic, like "how did they repopulate and rebuild if humans depleted all the natural resources", but like. I'll get there. probably.

I haven't talked much about the plants (or to use the official and also very temporary term "Plantoids"), and while they deserve their own posts soon, I'll say for now that their intelligence and capacity for strategy is comparable to ants or other eusocial insects more than anything else. This is actually based (very loosely) on behaviors some real plants can do! While not to an extremely apparent effects to us, plants can communicate through roots or chemical signals, warning each other about environmental dangers so their systems can prepare accordingly. This is an extension of that, where most individual Plantoids have evolved a capacity to communicate and cooperate similar to eusocial insects. The main unique advancement is that separate species can cooperate seamlessly, both to increase their odds of taking out opposition that could take on one species but not another, and also to increase enemy variety within missions. That said, it's rare to see an ant colony without a queen, so expect some even more advanced plantoids to be responsible for coordinating their attacks...

The comparisons to Overwatch are very much fair and intended, which should make sense considering... *vaguely gestures around everything here.* While the whole "rag-tag team of heroes stepping up against a sudden threat" angle is very much Overwatch inspired, the rest of the backstory is actually much more directly based on Splatoon, particularly the logs from Splatoon 3, in both structure and content. I wanted this log to feel like something that could semi-convincingly be a historical text in-universe, hence why the knowledge is limited to what could be common knowledge to the bots themselves.

That's also a big reason why I included dates, to add to that historical record feeling. Admittedly I was pretty scared to add them at first, since I wanted to avoid a time scale so absolutely incomprehensible to us (zelda timeline ever since the BotW trilogy my detested), but still long enough to explain the state of the world. I actually just recently added a whole extra millennium to the timeline, with the awakening originally taking place in 4000 CE/AD instead of 5000. 2,000 years is probably still a little short to explain how the plantoids came to be, but again, I'll get to that. This cast in particular also has some interesting things to consider when it comes to character ages (every Overwatch fan's favorite subject), since there can very realistically be characters who've been around since the dawn of their civilization, so it's gonna be interesting trying to decide who'd make sense to be a new blood bot and who'd make more sense being around since the awakening. Ages are weird for these guys since they don't really need to age like we do from childs to adults, and with proper maintenance are theoretically immortal, so the main difference between a 1 year old and a 500 year old in this world is experience and knowledge past basic innate functions. Again, dates and years are the part of the story I have the most caution tape around right now, it's a hazardous construction zone.

Another thing I wanted to note with that last paragraph though is that I wanted there to be a solid start point where every character could theoretically be there from the start of the main action. While I think a story where characters are more scattered in factions we follow and when they join those sides, I want something plain and simple for the sake of the mission mode feeling like "the canon" while also letting players pick the characters they want from the start. It's like a DnD party: the campaign starts with everybody in the same place, though their backstories differ on how they get there. And while the whole cast is fighting the same fight, their thoughts on the mission and each other can differ greatly as well. Velenna for instance isn't exactly the friendliest member of the crew, and she especially isn't happy working with Arber, but she'll tough it out so she can get what she wants out of the mission. Every job has people you do and don't get along with, including fighting off hordes of mutant plants.

Lastly in this overly long session of tooting my own horn, I'm also pretty content with the state of the mysteries I've laid out already. While I don't think literally everything needs an explanation, some things are better left unanswered, I don't wanna have the big questions be JJ Abrams unopened boxes. Some things I still need to figure out, but there's one big mystery in particular I already have a very fun answer for. At least I think it's fun, opinions exist, but like. I hope it's cool anyways.

So yeah, thanks again! I'm at least assuming you don't mind me taking this chance to mention a few more meta things that wouldn't've fit with the story log and would be more convenient to say now rather than later.

I think next up I'll introduce just a taste of what the plantoids are like, with some rough concepts I have lying around and some info on how the hordes operate on a gameplay level. Stay tuned!

[veliseraptor]

So this is in NO WAY PRESSURING, get to this whenever you're bored and have nothing better to do, but I (have still not watched The Untamed) would love to hear any disorganized rambles around your fic 'Punitive Measures', like your thoughts while writing it, how you view Xue Yang's fight/flight/freeze instinct, and/or where you would take the plot if you ever came back to it (again, not pressuring, I'm not asking for a sequel, I'm asking for director's commentary. Also I know the mysterious flute was implying Wei Wuxian, I know that much and not much more.) It's a really fun, quick fic that I enjoy reading through while I keep circling around your longer, more intimidating stories. I aspire to write like you.

oh boy, well, I don't know that I ever have nothing to do but here I am answering this ask anyway, because I like talking about my fic even if I get self-conscious about it.

this entire fic falls solidly into the genre of fic I write that is legitimately just “I’m gonna fuck up this character I love because it’ll be fun and I love to do that” and then just kinda...went for it. actually harder than I was initially planning! my vague sense of what I was going to do with this fic didn’t have Xue Yang down an eye at the end of it.

but when inspiration strikes, what’s a girl to do, etc.

I actually thought recently about writing a sequel to this fic (or, well, continuing into the AU it started, more like) because the concept of Wei Wuxian and Xue Yang being bloodthirsty vengeance brethren is a very good one for me, personally, and at the point their paths would be intersecting in this AU a more plausible one than it would be at pretty much any other time (I would argue, at least in CQLverse). And that’s where I think this would be going. Because Xue Yang would see Wei Wuxian, in his bloodiest frame of mind, powered up with a gorgeous flute of bad vibes and go “fuck yes” even if he wasn’t in a place where he really needed the help.

The question I had was whether Wei Wuxian would be interested in accepting company, and I feel like Xue Yang on that front could be convincing. And the way that the latter would both enable and egg on all the former’s darkest fantasies and impulses...I’m just saying, Wen Chao and everyone he has ever known is in for a very bad time, possibly even worse than they already were.

I invite you to picture in this AU the part where Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji find not just darker and edgier Wei Wuxian at the end of their scavenger hunt but darker and edgier Wei Wuxian with a friend. A familiar friend! Now down an eye and practically picking his teeth with Wen Chao’s finger bones. :D

since you asked for disorganized rambling I went back to reread and I’ll give you some director’s commentary on a few things

And he’d kind of hoped Wen Ruohan would be too busy figuring out how to deal with his brewing war to dedicate much attention to looking for one absent retainer. And even if he did, Xue Yang had sort of figured that finding him would fall to Wen Chao, who’d probably struggle to find his own ass with two hands.

kicking off this director’s commentary with Xue Yang’s brutal assessment of the competency of Wen Chao.

tbh one of my favorite things about CQL’s involving Xue Yang in the whole Sunshot storyline, despite the merry hell it plays with timeline stuff later, is how obviously little regard Xue Yang has for the Wens, even when they’re at the height of their power. He shows Wen Ruohan himself very little respect, and I can’t imagine anyone else getting more (except maybe Wen Qing, because Wen Qing is competent and if nothing else Xue Yang can respect competency).

and he just like. ditches them. walks out! promises to deliver very powerful magical artifact, and then gets what he wants and is like “smell ya later, peace” and they never catch him.

that’s just a kind of gutsiness and casual disregard for very powerful people that I really both love and respect about Xue Yang. and also that he has in common with Xiao Xingchen, tbh. and Song Lan (though him I think to a slightly lesser degree, partly because he has a little more tact and sense of societal norms as something relevant to be thinking about)! they can all vibe on that.

They took Jiangzai. Well. One of the Wen disciples took Jiangzai in the stomach and Xue Yang didn’t get it back.

this isn’t an important line or anything. I just like it a lot.

Wen Chao gestured again and he went down in a hail of fists and feet. Xue Yang tucked his chin down to protect his throat, curled his hands into his chest, and drew up his knees to guard his stomach.

He knew how this worked. Sure, it’d been a while since someone had beat him like this, but the lessons stuck. It was almost boring, really. If Wen Chao was going to play torture games then he could at least do Xue Yang the favor of trying to be creative.

He checked out the part of his brain that registered pain as anything other than a thing that was happening and focused instead on opportunities. Weaknesses in his assailants. Escape routes. Getting away would be the first thing. Nice if he could take a piece of Wen Chao with him on the way out - arm, or maybe even a head - but the priority was freedom and survival.

okay, this I feel like cuts into some of what you were talking about regarding Xue Yang’s fight/flight instinct, and also a lot of what if, I was feeling pretentious, I feel like this fic is digging into on a level under “what if I just tortured Xue Yang a whole bunch,” which is something about the relationship Xue Yang has to (a) pain and (b) his own body. Specifically, the relative indifference he has toward both. Or...not indifference, exactly, because it’s not like he’s enjoying himself, it still hurts. It’s just...expected.

unremarkable.

which is a lot of what I was trying to convey with Xue Yang’s narration during the whole torture sequence, with the commentary on methodology and how things are mundane or boring, because the suffering itself is mundane! as far as Xue Yang is concerned that’s exactly what suffering is! other peoples’, for sure, which is part of why it doesn’t matter, but also his own.

the world hurts and that’s just how it is and you learn how to cope with that. pain as...a thing that [is] happening.

I also, since you mentioned the fight/flight instinct, think a lot about how Xue Yang is, while he’s very proud and very stubborn, absolutely not someone to pick fights (in general) that he knows he can’t win. Xue Yang will almost always be on the side of “run and come back another day” over “stand and fight when all is lost.” survival, first and foremost.

which feeds into the weird paradox that I kind of hint toward at the end of this fic about Xue Yang as someone who has a definite death drive, who is profoundly obsessed with his own death in a lot of ways, and simultaneously is attached to staying alive above pretty much all else.

“Snap and snarl all you want,” he said. “You’re not going anywhere. And the only part of you I need intact is your tongue, so you can tell me where you hid the Yin Metal you promised. Everything else is optional.”

A prickle of fear rolled down Xue Yang’s spine and he flicked it away, baring his teeth.

I actually do think that, even before they get around to hand-specific trauma, permanent mutilation is one of those things that still scares Xue Yang. which is a short list! there isn’t much that actually either gets to or scares him, but I think the prospect of (further) mutilation does, because I think Xue Yang is very...acutely aware of the fact that his physical capability is a major factor in what has kept him alive and what, in all likelihood, is going to keep him alive moving forward. anything that threatens that capability, that limits him in terms of strength or mobility or otherwise has a disabling effect, is consequently going to be a short road to death, and Xue Yang would much rather die painfully fighting than die as a consequence of not being able to take care of himself.

for Xue Yang, the idea of a return to the kind of helplessness that is tied to his trauma is one of the worst possible prospects to contemplate. in my head this is exacerbated further by the fact that I figure Xue Yang didn’t get much if any medical care post hand incident, meaning that the recovery period was absolutely nightmarish and a whole stretch of time beyond the event itself where Xue Yang was struggling to survive because he’d been damaged.

in some ways I think that period of time probably did more to shape Xue Yang than the moment itself.

Wen Chao grabbed one of the branding irons from a disciple’s belt and pressed it to his stomach. That hurt. More. He clamped his back teeth together so he didn’t make any sound, absorbed the burn, owned it. His. You only hurt if you were alive. And anything you survived made you stronger.

Not that this was actually going to make him stronger. It was probably just going to make him dead. But then again, the worse this went the more resentment he’d have built up. He could use that. Would.

Dead didn’t have to mean finished.

obviously this is pulled almost direct from what Wei Wuxian himself says to Wen Chao. deliberate echoes based on character parallels! we love those.

and yeah, again here about Xue Yang and his relationship to pain, but in a less mundane way this time where it’s about pain as a tool, pain as something he can use. which is another thing about coping, I think - when pain and suffering are a regular part of your life, one way to deal with that can be to convert it into having some kind of purpose or benefit.

which in this case it definitely can. Xue Yang is definitely someone who, I think, has thought a lot about trying to arrange it so he becomes a ghost after he dies. or at least has thought a lot about what he’d do after dying to the person who killed him. 

and when you’re a necromancer by trade death really isn’t the end of the line anymore, just the start of a something new. Xue Yang’s relationship to life itself: about as jacked up as his relationships in general.

He felt the snap of bone in his teeth. Pain shooting up the side of his hand, all the way to his wrist, and Xue Yang couldn’t keep himself still enough not to try to wrench himself away. He swallowed his scream and turned it into a laugh. It was funny, wasn’t it? Funny, that he was back here, again. It wasn’t as bad, though. He knew how to take pain, how to breathe it in, make it part of himself, later turn it outwards magnified tenfold. They were old friends. Practically lovers. 

two things here:

1. the thread throughout this fic of Xue Yang making things funny so he can deal with them, here brought to you by reliving trauma! because it’s funny! right? laugh about it! just fucking hilarious.

I have a thing about characters basically deciding for themselves to make very unfunny situations funny because it makes them less awful.

2. and look, now he can deal with it better this time! he’s Learned. :) :) :)

Everything splintered. Splintered like bones under a wheel, and first thing he tried to struggle to get away but that just hurt worse and then old old old instincts kicked in and he went still, limp, dead.

“Did he faint?”

Someone nudged him with their foot. One part of him roared to grab that foot and rip it off along with the leg it was attached to. Immediately the same thing that’d made him play dead told him to wait.

at an end point where fighting is impossible and running is also impossible, the only thing left to do is play dead and wait it out. this is very much, in my head, a reversion to a tactic Xue Yang hasn’t used in a very long time and does not want to be using now, because it is absolutely the recourse of the extraordinarily helpless with no way out.

which he has been! and is now, but he really really really doesn’t want to be. Xue Yang has built his life around not being that, ever again.

but here it’s not a move he makes planning to turn it around the way he does, not at first. he gets there, but when he first does it I think it is literally just instinct that goes enough is enough and shuts down.

Wen Chao, Wen Chao, Xue Yang thought. My body’s going to give out before I do.

someone should remind me at some point maybe (or not) to write something coherent about my Xue Yang vs. his own body thoughts. specifically the way that, while Xue Yang is very physical and very grounded, I think he has a somewhat antagonistic relationship with his own body, actually. not completely! he definitely respects what it can do for him! but I think he also treats it a little as a slightly separate entity that’s capable of betraying him rather than as a fully integrated part of himself.

not always! but it’s a little bit there. this idea that sometimes his body, and its capacity to be hurt or damaged, is a weakness that he’d like to be able to forgo entirely, if only it wouldn’t mean losing all the good things about having a body. and that’s present here in this line, for me, where he thinks about himself and his body as slightly separate, and his body as something weaker than its Xue Yang core.

[juicemitio]

Alright I went to Louisville Galaxycon and saw Travis and Clint twice, for their worldbuilding workshop and their Q&A. Here's some interesting stuff I learned (I didn't include stuff they talked about that's pretty common knowledge or they talked about on the last ttazz)

Graduation 

Fitzroy was originally going to be a jock that was weak bc he no longer had a team, Travis told Griffin that that didn't really work for the world so they reframed it as him training to be a hero, was great academically and behaviorally, but had a problem no one had seen before and no one felt like dealing with. It specifically wasn't "barbarian fails bc he can't keep his rage in check," it was that no one was willing to deal with his magic so they shipped him off

Someone asked Travis to explain fitzroy's magic, so from the DM's mouth- he's a barbarian subtype with elemental magic which has a random effect while raging, which we haven't seen yet (path of the wild soul if you want to look it up and see what he can do) and he took a feat which gives him the ability to cast 3 cantrips of his choosing. What I thought was interesting was that Travis described Fitz's magic using the word "elemental" twice, even though that isn't specifically stated in the path of the wild soul entry

Travis knows Argo's secret and is very excited about it 

Clint has a pirate fiction book he reads every night before they record to get into the headspace to play Argo, he told us the name but I forgot it 

There is one small little concept that made the whole of graduation make sense to Travis and is what the arc will be about, and he only figured it out a few days before recording. Obviously he didn't tell us what it was

Originally it was going to start with everyone starting at age 11 and slowly killing the other kids off, but Justin didn't feel comfortable playing a game surrounded by kids dying 

The accounting scene is already one of Travis' all time favorite taz scenes

The pegasus scene informed Travis on exactly how he was going to treat the firbolg

Also Travis referred to Justin's character exclusively as "the firbolg," which means "master firbolg" is solely a thing going on with the npcs in the game which I find hilarious. They just all decided to give him a dope title bc he deserves it, meanwhile no one will call Fitzroy "sir"

To Fitzroy, social threats are an extremely real and serious thing, like the Biggest thing to him (we were talking about what characters found threatening in the workshop, for context)  

There's some big concept/idea that comes up in the next episode that travis almost let spill and had to quickly stop himself from saying it

Someone mentioned eating breakfast in their question in the workshop and Travis goofed on it for a second, then said "cereal world" suddenly, and Clint had to pick up the question bc Travis had to take a second to make a note of it in his phone 

Travis started brainstorming graduation in March and they recorded the first episode in October, and his main job in that time was working on graduation 

Before Buckminster was adapted for graduation he could not fight at all, if he got into a fight he would die, he poured everything into charisma and could talk his way out of any fight (even the big bad of the game he crit 20d his check and the big bad walked away from the fight) 

Travis is really into psychology and how if you assign a label to someone they're going to act more like it (ie you tell a kid they're amazing and smart and talented and they become more like that, you tell a kid they're annoying and dumb and a problem they become more like that), and how that was a major contributor to play into hero/villain/sidekick/henchperson dynamics, you get assigned this arbitrary title of good/evil/subservient and you become like that to fit the role, and then the inevitable pushing against that mold

Travis is fully aware of his story being compared to harry potter and he doesn't care bc it's apt (people in a school arbitrarily divided into four groups and one of them is the Bad One), also he knows people describe it as "sky high meets Harry Potter meets my hero academia" and he actually finds that really flattering bc he thinks that sounds cool and like something he'd want to watch 

On that note, Travis is a self-identified Slytherin and he's always upheld that the reason Slytherin is depicted in a bad light is bc Rowling decided she didn't like them, and he's always sympathized with the idea of a first year Slytherin working their ass off following the rules and doing their work and getting points, and Dumbledore rewards three idiots for breaking like every rule and pulls the trophy away from you. This was a big inspiration for graduation, of one group getting a bad rep and being portrayed as evil for literally no reason 

Amnesty

Clint & Travis's favorite scene they've ever done together was Ned & Aubrey's final scene together 

Aubrey and Dani do move in with each other at the end of amnesty

Balance

Travis' main emotion around taz is pride and he's most proud of the scene in stolen century with the spirits in the robots, bc they had to record it a second time bc it got way too dark and ended in a really grim way and about 20 min after they finished they all decided that they weren't happy with it, that it didn't fit the tone, he's really proud they didn't just leave it be and they took the second pass at it to make it right

I'm pretty sure he's talked about wanting to kill Magnus off at the beginning before but he mentioned that it was only at the end of petals to the metal he actually realized he wanted Magnus to live, bc Hurley had to sacrifice herself to save Magnus bc Magnus had been so reckless, that hit Travis really hard. Travis realized that Magnus' recklessness was getting people hurt and so Magnus did too, so Magnus become a bit more cautious and took up rogue training to try not to get anyone killed again 

Dust

Dust wasn't designed to be anything more than a one off and the workload was completely unsustainable, the document of notes for dust was about 100 pages and only about 10% of it got used

The reason Travis loved it so much was bc it was a mystery and he found it really fun

Commitment

Clint would love to revisit commitment, but probably not in podcast form bc he didn't find himself really being in the moment as much bc of all the different things he had to keep track of, he'd like to see a comic adaptation/continuation if possible

It was based of a comic he wrote that never got published bc the company producing it failed (he still cashed his paycheck) so he reused it bc he still liked it a lot, it was about how America was founded as a monarchy instead of a democracy and what that changed in the usa's (united sovereignty of america's) history, and how people now were fighting to establish a democracy. Also there were cowboys and spaceships and other cool stuff he put in there bc he liked it

General adventure zone

The reason why they're are able to do romantic relationships w/o being weirded out by it (they joke about it but they don't actually care) is bc it's never done in an explicit or sexual way and since it's the decision the characters would make to pursue the relationship then that's the decision they make. He reframed it as it wouldn't be weird if a family were writing a script together and there was a romance and one person wrote lines for one character and the other wrote lines for the other. He did mention that two siblings playing characters in a relationship as actors on screen wouldn't be cool though

They sometimes get comments that some of the stuff they do is "fanservice," but they feel that they owe their success to their fans and they owe some to them 

They are both aware of and proud that Justin is the best at character creation, Clint specifically really was talking about how Justin's strong suit is definitely character creation and characterization

General mcelroy stuff

They walked pretty close to me when they entered the stage room for the q&a and like… they're short, like shorter than you think

Travis referred to his unborn child as "baby dod" (I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure) which I looked up and is a nickname for George, and given with their older kid being named Barbera and nicknamed BeBe and Travis talking before about how he and his wife like classic names with cool nicknames it makes sense

Travis had an earing in his right ear, I didn't get to see his left ear and I couldn't tell if it was an actual piercing or a fake, it looked really good though. Also his tinted glasses look a lot cooler irl than they do in pictures

Clint told the teenage mutant Ninja turtle story with the signatures that griffin told on mbmbam, but Clint remembered it as happening at King's Island, not Disney. This story was prompted by the question of the biggest lie he ever told his kids, and he only came clean about this a few months ago

Travis told a story about how he finished a videogame when he was younger and was so excited that he picked up a plastic knife, yelled "throwing knife!" threw it directly at Griffin who dodged it and it hit and shattered a window