#THIS POST WAS ORIGINALLY GOING TO BE A JOKE HELP

[tinfoil-jones]

For Your Own Good: Intermission

Askbox? Open

If you don't know what this post is about, "For Your Own Good" or tagged as "Early Amnesia AU" on tumblr is a dialogue-only Gravity Falls fanfiction I've been working on that kinda-sorta follows a Mystery Trio -esque timeline, where Ford doesn't build the portal. To sum it up, the whole fanfiction boils down to:

Researcher Ford: I told you I never wanted to see you again.

Mullet Stan: Dude, I don't know who you are or WTF you're talking about right now, but I'm leaving this town and never coming back. You are never seeing me again after this. I'm probably going to forget you in like five minutes.

Researcher Ford:

Researcher Ford: *immediately kidnaps him*

You can consider chapters 1-10 to be Act 1 of the fanfic, and I’m taking a break for at least a week, most likely longer. The chapters so far were already written out in advance, and so was a huge reveal, but I still need to tie things together.

Here’s some authors notes/extra stuff about it, some of it might have already been put in the AO3 before or after notes. These are in no particular order:

This takes place 10 years after Ford and Stan were separated, currently they are both 27 about to be 28. Fiddleford is slightly older than them, being in his early 30s.

Ford is unironically the only person who finds Stan’s really dumb jokes funny.

Ford is the one who displays the most behaviours that would be seen from Mabel and Dipper decades later. Like Dipper, he views washing clothes as a waste of time, and like Mabel he ate an entire tube of toothpaste (granted, it was on accident)

While Ford is the more likely of the two to display traits that later present in Mabel and Dipper, it still happens with Stan as well. Stan has a similar nervous-chewing habit that Dipper displays in the OG series, but his only comes out when he’s particularly anxious. In this case, it was because he had nicotine cravings.

The 'That motherfucker is ugly' line that Stan used on Ford can be considered extra ironic because of how much the Stan Twins look like their dad.

Bill Cipher was originally supposed to speak in Times New Bastard (which is Times New Roman except every 7th letter is jarringly sans serif, a meme from tumblr), but AO3 and tumblr don’t let you change the font.

Stan goes out of his way to avoid using Ford and Fiddlefords given names- but this isn’t because he doesn’t know what they are. In the few times he has used their names, it was a sign that he was being sincere.

If you want to wonder whether or not Fiddleford likes Stan back, consider the fact that he could have walked away at any point, and either washed his hands of the whole thing, or just outright reported Stanford to the authorities. 

Bill is more like Discord from MLP - he’s just chaotic, often to the detriment of others, but he isn’t outright malicious (anymore), and he’s too busy SIMPING to cause any real harm. Basically, Bill is Fords patron for studying weirdness - he helps Ford in his research, but the cost that Ford pays is that Bill is able to possess him when he sleeps, and has unlimited access to his brain.

If Ford knew Rick Sanchez, why didn’t Rick see how similar Stan looked and put 2-and-2 together? Easy; Rick didn’t give a single shit about Ford, so he never committed his face or name to memory. Ford himself only remembered Rick because Rick was such a massive, egotistical asshole. If anything, Rick would think Ford is the lesser version of Stan.

Chapter 10 was the first concrete proof that the Stan we’ve been following likely is Stanley Pines and not some similar conman named Stan Malone. The last time Ford saw Stan would have either been when they were teens, so other than Stans commercials for his failed products there’s no way Ford would know what an adult Stan would even look like, and he’d have to use himself as a reference.

Stan has given some insight on his Thalassophobia (fear of the ocean / large bodies of water). In Chapter 10, he told Ford a number of things he escaped, including the trunk of a sinking car, and cement shoes. Cement shoes are either when you tie someone to a cinder block and throw them into a body of water, or when you literally incase their feet in cement, wait for it to dry, and then toss them into a body of water, so they’ll drown. Presumably, these are still things that would have happened to him even if he didn't lose his memories, so why would it give him a fear of the ocean now? Stan Pines in the OG still had a lot of positive memories associated with the ocean - he grew up on the coast, and had a lot of his hopes and dreams tied to the ocean. But without his childhood memories, he has no positive associations with it, only memories of times he almost drowned. 

Ford himself is not a touchy guy. The reason he hugs Stan even though it isn’t reciprocated is because from his perspective, this is his twin brother who is in pain and has been suffering all by himself for a long time. And Stan - at least how Ford remembers him - had a very touch-based love language. Fords doing it because he thinks it’d comfort him.

Stan seems pretty calm and chill for someone who’s been kidnapped by a ‘stranger’. This isn’t because he’s an overall chill guy because of amnesia, no he’s super pissed and the second he knows he’s free he will let them know that with his words, and incredible violence. He’s remaining calm because he’s been imprisoned and kidnapped enough times to know that pitching a fit or lashing out at his captors won’t do him any favours.

Fiddleford is still married to Emma-May and they do have Tate. But it's one of those lavender marriages (they're both gay and mutually bearding each other)

[smallishzine]

very important official zine stuff for real this time guys please spread this around

we realized we haven’t asked you what you want this zine to be, so here is poll with some different options for things we could do, but this still won’t set things in stone cause we’re aware that we’re working with a relatively small albeit amazing awesome and extremely appreciated audience, but it’ll give us a good idea for what direction you want the zine to go in.

some examples of what we mean for added coherence, please read before voting unless you wanna be like that guy in the Simpsons movie:

an eras tour zine (yes this is a Taylor swift joke shut up if you’re judging us you’re wrong) would be like different pieces dedicated to each, for lack of a better word, “thing” that Joel has done. @/inthelittlezine is a great example of this concept, except the mod has far better organizational skills than we ever could hope to

tourism brochure would be like we pick a specific thing Joel, such as esmp 1 or 2, or x life, or one of his hardcore/survival worlds (I haven’t listed Hermitcraft season 10 cause that’s still in progress but if you guys really really wanna, that too), and make an in universe guide to it expanding upon the lore and characters and builds and stuff. @/scarland-artbook is an amazing example of this, though of course we would be a much smaller scale of a project.

do you wanna tell a story? Or ride our bikes around the halls? We can’t help with the second one, we’re not very sporty people, but this option is both the most difficult and dangerous to the success of the zine, and the one that intrigues me specifically the most. Like, guys, I know I’m polling this, but I’m secretly hoping that this one wins. Like all the hoping. Ever. But I’m not gonna just say yeah let’s do this because if like only three people also wanna this zine will never get made and I will be really, really sad. This option is basically do we wanna take something Joel has done and work together to create an original universe/story based off of it, each contributing a small part of the story in comic or writing form. Unless you’ve been living under a rock and/or this post broke containment sorry if it did I assure I’m usually mostly sane, you probably know where I’m shamelessly stealing taking inspiration from. We heart you @/hotguycomiczine. If we went with this we would obviously create our own universe and storyline, and we’d try to base it off of one of Joel’s characters if possible. Also, if we went with this, we’d start the mod and application process and stuff and once we knew everyone who was going to be in the zine then we’d all get together and start working on the story, and this is the part I’m worried about because if we’re all stumped then I guess the zine is out of luck and I’d be sad. Also even if we did do this, like preemptively temper your expectations I am no where near as good as the legends at hotguycomiczine at organization and promotion and story writing and all that good stuff. However, if you have an idea for a story and want to share, send us an ask cause we might just end up using it.

I think the last two are mostly self explanatory.

please reblog for reach.

[absolutelyzoned]

videogames dont make me violent, i make the videogames violent.

[mvshortcut]

In another world, the Mysterious Benedict Society lost and the Improvement went ahead as planned. Now, MASTER Ledroptha Curtain must face his toughest challenge yet: The Internet...

[sundial-bee-scribbles]

"my education is my highest priority" everything returns to vocaloid

[burningcomputerpersona]

Pick a song for each letter of your URL, and then tag that many people! Much thanks to @angelthingy for tagging me <3

Bird, you can fly - Eyemèr Untitled - Knuckle Puck Re-emerging Signs of the Apocalypse - Spanish Love Songs Never Meant - American Football I Was Hiding Under Your Porch Because I Love You - Waterparks Nightmare On Southfield - Action/Adventure Green Squirrel In Pretty Bad Shape - Hot Mulligan Cigarettes & Saints - The Wonder Years Overstepping - Belmont My Life For Hire - A Day To Remember Pints Of Guiness Make You Strong - Against Me! Understanding In A Car Crash - Thursday Thank God It's Friday - Ice Nine Kills Early Sunsets Over Monroeville - My Chemical Romance Right Choice - Can't Swim Paradise Lost, a poem by John Milton - The Used El Niño Considers His Failures - Spanish Love Songs Rationalize - Action/Adventure Sick Of It All - Magnolia Park One Step at a Time - Four Year Strong No Children - The Mountain Goats And Now I'm Nothing - The Wonder Years

Good lord did that take a while to finish... time to start tagging uhhh *counts* twenty-two people now: @sucker-for--anything-acoustic @tradedsymmetry @broke-bruce-wayne @mackie-ds @juliens-bakery @breaking-justin @flashlight-smallknife @cemetery-pigeons @ogbulesky @dysphoria-things @eyemermusic @plainramennoodles @unnervinglyferal @ameliafromafairytale @aiam-maianaise @weirdpinkandmagical @crazyworkswell @kind-wizard @leonidele @thevictorianpirate @mira-kyria @cant-even-spell-my-own-url

Okay I think I tagged like all my mutuals and then some... suffice to say I am sorely regretting my longass username. Anyway these tags are low pressure and open as always, so feel free to join in! (or not, I'm not the cops)

[missionel]

it's kinda funny to me how punch out of all things has probably had the most welcoming fandom on tumblr (not in general but for me personally). out of everything out there, i didn't expect the game where a high schooler beats up adult men that could (and sometimes try to) kill him to havea fandom i felt so comfortable posting in, but here i am 😳 not trying to make a sappy post or anything, just an observation i had

[kyofsonder]

Life, aiming a loaded crossbow at me: I'm sorry. You were involved in the decisions that led to this, but you can't know whether they're worth it until everything is done. This is the first step. Endure it as best you can.

Me, shot with the crossbow bolt: [looks down and sees a label tied to the bolt that reads "metaphor for stressful situation"] Ow. Thanks for the warning, I guess? At least it's the only thing I'm getting shot with for a good while.

Life, reloading several bolts into the crossbow at once: Have you ever heard of speed shooting?

Me: I want it to be known that I resent this.

Life: Noted. [shoots me multiple times in quick succession]

Me, on the floor and stuck full of crossbow bolts all over my body: Recovering from this is gonna suck.

[deepseacolors]

Spring of Ingo, March, Day 1: RXR

Ingo and video games!

Unexpectedly, I actually have something. Mostly complete! And on time, even!

This is actually something I wrote last May that I touched up for the event. It was the first thing I'd written in... gosh, at least ten years? And I wasn't a super active writer even back then. So it's pretty rough, even by my standards.

It was more an experiment with the twins' voices than anything else. I doubt that it'd come out the same if I wrote it today, but I remember having oodles of fun with it at the time. (Pokemonifying a Katamari level was unexpectedly interesting!)

So even if it's a little rough, a lot silly, and not exactly aligned with even my own headcanons, I'm still pretty fond of it.

Anyways! Onwards!

--

Emmet glanced up from his Xtrans once the tune for the new level began.

“What is the goal?” he asked.

“For this stage, I am tasked with creating an ‘elegant’ constellation,” Ingo informed him. “It seems that I am searching for Swanna and various other Flying-types, due to the natural grace and beauty that bird Pokemon posses.”

Emmet glanced over at Archeops, who was, at present, pouring all of her dexterity into jamming her head into an empty paper towel roll that she had dug out of the garbage. Then he turned to Ingo with a bland smile that said volumes.

Ingo returned the look with one of his own before turning back to the television to begin his mission in earnest. “Grace is in the eye of the beholder,” he said, beginning the stage by carefully maneuvering his Katamari to aim for the small eggs scattered throughout the level. “As such, it can take many forms.”

Emmet kept his gaze pointedly on Ingo as the sound of a beak tearing through cardboard, followed by a despairing squawk, echoed through their living room.

Ingo did not respond. He was doing important work, here.

And he most certainly did not smirk when Archeops dropped a soggy chunk of cardboard directly onto Emmet’s lap, causing him to jerk in mixed surprise and disgust.

She was looking at up him with wide, pleading eyes as she rested her chin on the couch. Clearly, Archeops had the utmost faith that Emmet would be able to fix her new toy.

Making a noise somewhere between a choke and a hiss, Emmet delicately plucked the mangled corpse of what was once a perfectly serviceable cardboard tube off his leg and brought it towards the kitchen—speeding up and holding his other hand under the trash to catch the droplets once he realized how thoroughly sopping the mess was.

Archeops cheerfully followed him, circling his legs and remaining wholly unaware of what a darling menace she was.

The Katamari on the screen brushed just a little too close to one of the Rattata too large for it to absorb, and several of his gathered items were knocked loose. Drat. Now he had to scramble to re-gather the eggs before they disappeared.

(Hah. Scrambled eggs.)

Ingo could hear Emmet lightly scolding Archeops in the next room as he disposed of the tube, likely making sure to secure the lid of the trash can to prevent future break-ins, before moving on to wash his hands and then heading down the hall towards his room.

After a few minutes, Emmet returned to the couch. Out of the corner of his eye, Ingo saw that his twin was now sporting a clean pair of sweatpants— which were quickly covered up by Archeops as she clambered up on to the couch and made herself at home on Emmet’s lap.

Emmet heaved a beleaguered sigh that was belied by way his expression softened and the gentle hands that began scratching at the spot along her side that she liked. Archeops chirped in pleasure as she rolled to lean into his hand, her eyes drifting shut.

“She still believes herself to be the size of an Archen,” Ingo observed fondly. His attention returned to the game just in time for him to avoid an obstacle in his intended path.

Huffing a laugh, Emmet brought his other hand up to lightly rub his fingers along Archeops’ head. She leaned into that attention too. “She is a big baby,” he agreed affectionately.

After a few moments of peaceful silence, Emmet asked, “...Why did a Swanna just hatch from that Chansey egg?”

“I believe it is a misdirection tactic,” Ingo says. “Swanna are the most important Pokemon to gather, but they are all hidden in Chansey eggs; there are also Pidgey among the lot, and quite a few soft-boiled eggs as well.”

Ingo misjudged the angle of descent and sent his Katamari tumbling off the roof of the building. No matter; there were plenty of items to gather in the yard section.

After watching for a few more moments, Emmet said, “You are gathering dandelions. Those are not Flying-type Pokemon.”

“I am simply gathering those to increase the size of my Katamari. The larger it is, the lower the odds that a valuable item will get knocked from it in the event of a collision. Additionally, a larger Katamari makes it easier to traverse throughout the level.”

Emmet hummed as Ingo wedged the Katamari underneath the porch. “Really.”

“...Generally, that is the case,” Ingo admitted.

“Your task is to gather Flying types. You are gathering plants. You are going to get scolded.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. We shall see what station I reach once the time limit is up.”

Emmet turned to give him a faux-serious look, the effect enhanced by the flatness of his voice when he says, “Father is going be be upset.”

Ingo choked, sputtering on laughter so loud and sudden that Archeops was startled out of her doze.

[husband-steve-cortez]

Zaeed's loyalty mission really would have been better if the mission was explicitly to take out Vido and we knew this beforehand, and freeing the hostages technically wasn't what Zaeed was being paid for here.

Then it's "do the mission to the letter, take out a really bad guy and get Zaeed's loyalty at a cost" as the renegade option and "fail the mission (and Zaeed) and save the hostages" as a paragon option.

Because even for a renegade Shep. Letting Zaeed go the fuck off, blow up a refinery, bitch at you, and leave a bunch of people to die just so Zaeed can get some revenge and feel good about himself and be more loyal is a lot to swallow.

Not impossible to justify by any means (I make Ezra do it and he's not even really a renegade lol), and not every renegade option needs to be super justifiable. But it is a lot. Some of that even being directly contradictory to how renegades are typically characterized (saying fuck you you're acting crazy to Zaeed is kind of renegade to me tbh).

Vido is a bad dude that needs taken out and Zaeed will claim killing him solves a lot of problems, and I don't doubt it, but it would've been better justified if Vido was on our radar beforehand and needing to explicitly take him out was what we were here to do (Zaeed can still not reveal his personal stake until we get there, that I like).

[transmasc-tabris]

.

[pidgeyato]

Hey. This is pretty heavy but I might disappear for a while. I left a neglectful/tense home situation to go live with my granddad, and my dad is on his way to reclaim my car and phone (aka my only methods of both transportation and communication)

I'm writing down all my passwords into a notebook of mine so I'll hopefully be able to return in the future-- though, idk how losing my phone and thus my phone NUMBER will affect my socials.

I'll figure something out. I'll try to find a new device, and if I can, a new car. Idc how beat up it is. But until then: thank you for enjoying my dumb nerd shit. See you around?

[vlaserbeam]

One thing that isn’t being discussed about the White Pharaoh is where on Earth the image came from.

“Oh, it’s just from an online slots game”

BUT THATS THE THING!!! IM NOT SURE ABOUT THAT!!! CAUSE WHEN YOU LOOK CLOSER:

THE BACKGROUND AND COLORS ARE DIFFERENT. Noticeably so, too, the first one has more muted colors and a realistic background while the second is incredibly saturated with an obviously drawn background. This would make genuinely no sense to have two pieces of advertising for the game be so different if this was made for the slots game.

My proposed theory: white pharaoh is a piece of stock artwork / imagery, explaining the artistic differences between the two pictures.

But this can only be solved by either

A. Finding the origin of picture 1

B. Finding the source of the stock artwork

Those willing, please help my search.

EDIT: Because the sentiment keeps being echoed in the replies and reblogs, its important to remember there’s currently no proof the image was in a textbook. You’re likely recalling this social media post:

The post in question is a joke about how American education whitewashes cultures and figures it teaches about, a very important critique– but that doesn’t mean this specific picture was in a textbook. We haven’t found the textbook this picture supposedly comes from.

Though plenty of people in the replies have recalled seeing the image in a textbook, we haven’t found the supposed textbook in question. It’s part of the call to action in the post– you think you saw it before? See if you can recall what textbook you had that you saw it in.

EDIT 2: Additionally, @/goldenspirits has made AMAZING progress in finding background and image origins, with higher quality versions of the render than we’ve seen so far. Please go check their reblog out, because it’s genuinely the best lead we have so far.

[therealandian]

right okay now that i've had a minute where i'm not at work, i wrote a little drabble to go along with this:

Elias stopped dead in his tracks, not quite believing what was in front of him. “Wh—Since when did you get here!?” he demanded, pointing an accusatory finger at his best friend, who was meandering down the street like he'd walked it a thousand times. “We weren't anywhere close to Earth when you left—there's no possible way you could have arrived before me!” After standing stunned for a moment, Jon pointed back with a grin on his face and a twinkling glow in his eyes. Admittedly his eyes always looked like that, but that wasn't the point. “That's what you think!” he laughed. “I just happen to be good friends with an eldritch demigod!” He kept pointing, and he kept laughing, and at this point Elias was just a little bit peeved. “You bastard! Why didn't you tell me you wanted to come back here!? I spent thirty years on my own getting here, and that's barely counting the time travel!” Jon laughed harder. “I've been here since 1995!” At that point, Elias could feel himself beginning to tremble from rage, but he kept it together. Mostly. “This could've been significantly easier for both of us if you'd just told me!”

Jon was laughing too hard to speak. A tear slid down his cheek, followed quickly by another. To make matters worse, he was still pointing at Elias like he couldn't quite believe what was happening. Admittedly Elias was also still pointing, but he wasn't having nearly as much fun. He wished he was—it looked, well, fun! As if things couldn't get more confusing, another figure appeared from nowhere and froze as the light of teleportation faded around him. “Uh…,” said Martin Blackwood. Jon didn't notice; he was busy still. Elias did, of course, and a spike of dread stabbed him in the chest. “Uh…,” he echoed. As if pulled by some unseen force, Martin raised both his hands, one pointing at Jon, and one pointing at Elias. He glanced back and forth between the two as if he couldn't quite wrap his head around what he was looking at. His jaw flapped, but no words came out. Jon clutched his stomach and squeezed his eyes shut, not quite stopping the laughter, but at least getting it down to an uncontrollable giggle. He wiped away the tears. “You should've seen the look on your face!” he cried. Elias finally figured out how to lower his hand and stop pointing at his absurd comrade. “Erm…Jon?” “Yeah, yeah,” he breathed, waving a dismissive hand. “Give me a minute.” Meanwhile, Martin finally figured out how to make his mouth work, and spoke. “What the fuck did I just teleport into!?” Jon peeked up at him, grin widening once more as he wiped the tears off his cheeks. “Oh, hello, Martin! Fancy seeing you here!”

:P

i just want to end this off by saying something important to me: as of 5 days from now (may 29th), redeath will be turning 4 years old which is just. UTTERLY wild to me.

when i first started writing that thing i did NOT expect i'd still be working on it this much later. and the fact that i started on stts in late summer of '21 is just. wow this au has gone on for a while. and i still love it to bits! even now with this i'm still finding new fun ways to get them to reunite (thanks @ike9306 for the idea), and it's just. i have no idea how many iterations of the end of this fic i've gone through but i definitely didn't expect where i eventually wound up lol. i still can't believe i thought 50k was a reasonable expectation for stts XD

so i just wanna say thanks--to old fans who've been here from the start and to new ones who literally just found this today. to the people who leave comments on every chapter, those who occasionally drop one on their favorite parts, and to the lurkers i can't see but know are there. i've had an unbelievably fun time playing around with this goofyass concept, and i'm so happy to see other people have enjoyed it too. i don't know that i would've without the overwhelming amount of excited feedback begging for more <3

we've still got a few chapters to go, but i'm hoping yall will find it well worth the time it took us all to get here (looking at the person who read like. all of redeath and all of stts up to that point in one very long session. you know who you are.)

Commission for @therealandian for the fic "Search Through the Stars". Disclaimer, this is not actually what happens! Go check it out.

Thanks for the support!

[erinwantstowrite]

Halloween AU!!!

hey so. i put SOOOOO much effort into this au and for what? at least it ended up looking cool? anyways Halloween is my favorite holiday and i just HAD to make something for them!

i had a LOT of ideas for what everyone would be, but i really wanted to stick to a certain theme cause it's based around Halloween. i knew i had to have a vampire, werewolf, and a witch. cause like... obviously. iconic Halloween stuff!! but i took some liberties with everyone else and i think they turned out pretty cool!!

Jason was originally a fox shifter (which i still love and might draw art for some day) but i went with a bear in the end. is that because i thought about tiny bear cub Jaybin and wanted to cry? yeah. yeah it is. i KNEW Steph was going to be my werewolf though i started doubting myself when i went to draw her. turned out to be my favorite drawing on here which makes sense cause she is my light my love my daughter my will to live and all that jazz

Tim was actually gonna be a harpy but thank god i didn't go for that in the end. Duke was the one that was a bitch and a half trying to figure out BUT!! comments on the post asking what y'all thought led me towards Psychic so THANK YOUUUU everybody that commented!! (specifically those who thought of ghost!! Duke and Tim ended up being a perfect duo in this au)

Babs was pretty easy to figure out what I wanted for her. I read somewhere that they are seen as protectors of forests/ are considered spiritual authority figures and also.... she looks cool as fuck. Did not expect how easy it was to find a ref for a deer in a wheelchair though? I can never find the right hand or face angle reference but that was super easy???

For Bruce there was literally no question he HAD to be human. it's literally so funny that everyone who knows Batman thinks he's a spooky vampire but he's human. his first son, however?????? THAT'S the vampire. I knew Dick had to be a vampire too. A little nod towards that one comic run but in my au nothing bad happens ever 🥰 Damian also being a bat shifter is very on purpose because how funny is it that he's a bat man. Literally not a single person in the League thinks that Bruce is telling the truth about being human. Bruce you are NOT beating the secretly a vampire allegations.

adding in Jay's hilarious joke it's so fucking funny:

Alfred is actually a demon. I CAN NOT remember who made this post so if someone can help me find it, it would be appreciated!! because this was inspired by them!!! but somewhere i saw someone talk about Alfred being a demon that Thomas and Martha made a deal with (i think it was for an au idea?) and I just HAD to put it here. Alfred looks so human and everyone expects it, but he's definitely not. I put the ??? because it's so fucking funny. see if you can spot the 1 hint i put on his drawing that something is amiss!!

Peter is from an alternate dimension still, but it is not a world of creatures like him, it's just the same as LoF canon except Peter grew some extra limbs and eyes. He finds that it's actually pretty easy to fit in with the Waynes. Hard to feel like a freak when a guy can turn into a fucking bear, or your dad is a vampire, and the teenagers in the family are trying to summon ghosts or make potions.

additional doodles for this au:

i am still debating whether i am going to draw something for this au or write a oneshot, but i DO want to do something with these for Halloween

[kathaynesart]

It is done! *falls down*

BEGINNING || PREVIOUS || NEXT (SOON) MASTER POST

I have... so much to say on so many different things but it is 2:30 in the morning so I will keep this as brief as possible. First off, thank you to all my mom friends and mutuals who helped me with accurately portraying and normalizing the experience of giving birth. It is wonderful, and painful, and gross, and beautiful. I apologize if it made any readers squeamish (and I know there were a few gross jokes in there) but considering how gross the tv show got, I think it remained true to the overall vibe!

Second, I wanted to talk about the concept of "hope" in this story. When I first watched the movie, I felt like the idea of hope being their greatest weapon seemed sort of heavy handed and cheesy. However, after watching the ending of the show again I realized that hope is actually a huge reoccurring element in the story and a big part of what it means to be of the Hamato clan. Doubly so, I wanted Casey Junior in a way to symbolize that hope for Leo specifically, so when Leo talks about hope in the beginning of the movie, he's not just talking about some vague concept, but Casey Junior himself. He is their greatest weapon and he doesn't even realize it.

Thirdly, so uh... Casey Junior. I apologize if it had seemed out of left field, but do know that the decision of his origins was not made lightly. The shear similarity in his facial structure to Lou Jitsu as well as several other factors that I will refrain from stating due to future spoilers was too numerous to ignore! It is an integral part of his story for reasons that will go unsaid for now, and no, he does not know he's distantly related to them. Also, Big Mama! Been holding onto her concept for some time now! I loved the idea of her mystic broach becoming damaged so she can only be cloaked to a certain degree, making for an interesting blend of both her forms. She was really fun to figure out!

Finally thank you everyone for your patience. This special turned into quite the endeavor with most of the updates exceeding 20 pages each, but I'm so happy I was able to finish it... even if it did take so much longer than my projected hope. I can't wait to get back to the main storyline, though I shall miss these silly, overpowered boys. We got a lot of ground to cover and I'll likely be posting a summarized reminder before continuing. ...and after I finish work on some Zines and the holiday special winning commission!