#WHY I CAN'T JUST MAKE A SINGLE DRAWING TO PUBLISH?

[nicoliharu]

Heavens valentine's day is near and I don't even have any idea what to do, whenever I think of something it becomes deep and very emotional with many pages....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

[industrations]

one thing about your art which makes me uncomfortable is you make remus conventionally attractive. the fandom all agree remus lupin is a wet noodle of a man but actually no artist draws him that and it's getting weird. make him unattractive and he can be loved by sirius. he doesn't need to be that tall and buff like why do you always make him so tall to draw him next to sirius. is it because you're aware of the fact sirius is canonically tall? if so it's baffling indi, you just had the surgery but if you have some time you'd want to read it - www.tumblr.com/carlav-blogs/741256502359228416/i-hate-joining-the-fandom-discourse-because-i?source=share - and look deep inside of yourself and think again about your art. i know you can't publish it but i gotcha. good luck /gen

Hello!

I have been thinking about responding to this at all but it seems like i have a lot to say, so here goes.

Due to contrary belief i draw for myself. I draw for me because i enjoy it and it makes me happy. And if it makes others happy then thats a lovely bonus. I draw because i love the bit of magic and creative freedom of being able to put that on paper.

What i don’t do is draw for other people to give me validation or to give them satisfaction. What’s getting weird is that you are so upset over characters that are written by a terf. Someone that is extremely harmful. Characters that DO NOT EXIST.

I’m sick of this endless debate of "oh but CANONICALLY sirius was taller" who the fuck cares. In the movies remus had like a whole head on sirius.

You know whats the one wonderful thing about this fandom? Every single artists and writers version of these characters. They take them and make them their own. I love the way i can read 10 wolfstar fics and all ten of them are wildly different versions of them. They fall in love with each other unconditionally and i with them.

I’ve been told I’m not valid, that i don’t deserve to exist, that i should have DIED in surgery. There is really vile and hateful people in this fandom but you know what. I’m not here for you, my art isn’t for you it’s for ME.

I would like to say I resent this fandom but it’s brought me so much joy as well. I’ve met some of the most talented and wonderful people. I met my very best friend because of this fandom. I traveled places to see people i love because of dead gay wizards. I have found a place that is so wonderfully accepting. A queer community that I will never have in real life. The amount of freedom and expression is something that drew me in and will make me stay.

I hope you get the day you deserve, and I will continue my life where I live it for me and no one else <3

[ckret2]

One of my wishes in this fic is that Bill is forced to watch a movie with his family using 3D glasses, and that the movie includes a scene where Venetian blinds are shown, and when a character in the movie rotates them, the signal goes away and shows static. I want Bill to suffer the biggest scare of his existence.

u didn't expect a serious In Depth Writer Reply but ur getting a serious In Depth Writer Reply, sorry anon.

It's been a while since I wrote about this so there's no way I'm gonna be able to dig up the posts again—but I've got beef with the phobias listed on TINAWDC. Mainly because I can't figure a way for them to all make sense.

The TV static makes plenty of sense—we know from the deluxe version of TBOB that Bill hears voices in the static, it wouldn't be a stretch to guess that the messages hidden in the noise and in the visual static and in spectrograms on TINAWDC and the Lofi album might be the kinds of things he sees/hears in TV static. Hearing the Euclidean Massacre and seeing messages and songs from his parents and people is a damn good reason to have a phobia.

(So I plan to do a lot with the static in the fic. Multiple times. I have an entire plot arc around the static. Rainbow Brite is there. It's gonna be great.)

On the other hand, 3D glasses make less sense. The most obvious connections are "oh, 3D vision, 3D stuff is a big deal to Bill" and "the lenses are red and blue—like his parents!!" Except that's not sufficient for them to make sense as a phobia.

On the 3D front, 3D vision doesn't work like that, "3D glasses" don't give you "3D vision"—what 3D glasses do is make specially-colored 2D images have the illusion of depth due to how your binocular vision works. They're called anaglyphs, you can learn the science here.

A) Bill doesn't have binocular vision, so 3D glasses wouldn't have any affect on him anyway, because he'd only be able to see through one lens at a time, B) what we typically mean when we say "3D vision" is actually "depth perception" and Bill can already see depth just fine—he can see things that are close to him and he can see things that are far from him, that's what depth perception is, he can perceive depth, he wouldn't need the glasses for that even if they did work, and so C) the only way "he's scared of them because 3D vision" could make sense would be if... he was scared of them because they don't successfully let him see anaglyphs as an illusion of 3D? Which is goofy. He'd be frustrated, not scared.

We already see how Bill reacts when he's told there's an image that lets you see an illusion of depth if you have binocular vision. He talks about magic eye/autostereogram images in TBOB. He's not afraid of them; he says that people who claim they can see things in them are liars. He publishes an autostereogram in TBOB himself!

So much for the 3D vision theory.

And if he were scared of them JUST because their colors make him think of his parents... then why would he be drawing a bunch of red and blue triangles in art? Logically, he ought to be scared of a bunch of red/blue things, oughtn't he. But he isn't.

As it happens today I did think of a way for the Theraprism staff to have gotten the impression Bill has a phobia of 3D glasses that makes sense with canon and that I'm satisfied with... but, operating under the headcanon I've got now, "wearing 3D glasses" in general wouldn't trigger the phobia, and Bill can't be triggered by it as long as he's stuck in his current situation. For Reasons That I'm Not Going To Tell You. The right conditions don't exist to trigger it. (Might draw a comic about it.)

And the Venetian blinds thing I can't make sense of at all. I've yet to see a single theory for the Venetian blinds phobia that isn't either proposing it triggers him for a reason that would cause a lot of other things to trigger him too (ex: "maybe seeing narrow slits of light in the dark makes him think of how vision in Euclydia works"—if that's the case, then why isn't he also triggered by the slit of light under the door when you're in a dark room and the room outside the door is lit?), or just wholesale completely making up an explanation (ex: "maybe the jail he was locked up in after his post-breakup bender had a window with Venetian blinds"—okay, you can headcanon that, but you did just make it up).

I don't believe that "Venetian blinds" would've been listed as a trigger unless it was for a reason that we're supposed to be able to logically deduce (like the TV static). So I don't wanna just make up something unfounded.

So how can I write him being triggered by Venetian blinds if I don't know how they trigger him, why they trigger him, or how he reacts to them? Like, if (made-up example) he's scared of Venetian blinds because seeing the white slats with strips of black night sky between them makes him think of black and white striped prison uniforms, then if I wrote him getting scared of closed brown wooden slats on a sunny day... that wouldn't make any sense.

Without knowing how & why the blinds trigger him, writing him getting triggered would just be going "AAAUGH OH NO IT'S VENETIAN BLINDS AAAAH!!" with no depth.

So until we get the truth and/or somebody comes up with a theory I like, I'm just not including Venetian blinds in the fic at all. Everybody has beautiful curtains or quaint old-fashioned shutters now.

[ohcheezusitsevie]

Evie's Quacktacular Spectacular Celebration (A Competition for No Reason)

Ducks are beautiful(Tommy: Oh, dear God...). And I wanted to celebrate their existence. January 19th is National Duck Day and January 13th is National Rubber Ducky Day...which is bull shit! Everyday, under Evie, is duck day. Why? Because there is nothing greater than a duck and a slab of cheese...man, I love cheese, too. Cheese goes with everything. And ducks? Man's best friend(Tommy: That is a dog, Evie, a dog). IN EVIE LAND...ducks are a man's best friend......Anyway, let's look at 5 great things about ducks!

Any questions so far?! (Finn: What planet are you from?). Daddy! (Tommy: Finn, we know Evie is...different, but let's just get on with it, eh....). Okay, good...any questions about DUCKS? (John: they go well with a nice fig sauce. Arthur: I do like a nice roasted duck...). We don't eat ducks in Evie land! Anyway, seeing as we don't have a single intelligent thought among us about the slide show...I'm moving on......

To celebrate the beauty of ducks, I will host a competition. It is not a serious one, but just something silly for laughs. Anyone in the Peaky Blinders fandom can contribute, whether or not they follow my story. :) As long as you are 18 and over. None of the sections are overly strenuous or hard, but all three are incredibly silly. Please enjoy and there will be prizes! You can join all three, but you cannot submit more than one submission per a game. :) All entries must be submitted by Friday, January 3rd at 8:00pm EST. All winners will be announced Saturday, January 4th at 8:00pm EST. Some Rules: ---> You can enter all three games, but you can only submit once per a game. You can win a spot in all three, but you can't win #1 in more than one.

---> You don't have to follow Novashelby or ohcheezusitsevie, but all submissions have to be submitted to ohcheezusitsevie. You want to submit it through the ask box and you can't be on anon!

---> For the drawing, it has to be YOUR OWN. For the joke, you can use a previously published one, just tell me where you got it.

In game one, you will submit a little drawing that you did of a duck. You are probably wondering to yourself, I CAN'T DRAW. And guess what? You should still do it because it is funny and for fun. I am not judging on accuracy or artistic skills. I am judging solely on how much I smiled and giggled. :) This drawing doesn't have to take fancy art supplies or a lot of time. Just a pencil is fine! Prizes: -> There are 3 winners spots and so, there are 3 prices. ->1st Place: You will win a 1,000 word one-shot. Nova, my creator, will write anything of your choosing within the Peaky Blinders Fandom. It can be an OTP, smut, fluff, Y/N, and so on and so forth. ->2nd Place: You will win an 800 word one shot that abides by the same rules as above. -> 3rd Place: You will win a 500 word One Shot that abides by the same criteria as above!

This one is really silly! And kind of a lie because...there are no ugly ducks(Finn: Really? I can name one-OW!). Ignore him, he's insignificant. In this game, you will find the "ugliest" duck picture you find and submit it. The one that makes me snort my choccy milk out of my nose the hardest, wins. These pictures should be kind to the ducks...obviously nothing that shows abuse or neglect. We don't like that in Evie land. And no ducks with fig sauce on it, either....(John: ☹️). Prizes:

->There will be three winners, and so there will be three prizes.

-> 1st Place: You will win a Moodboard of your chosen theme, and Nova will surprise you with a 200 word drabble. ->2nd Place: You will win a Moodboard of your chosen theme, and Nova will surprise you with a 100 word drabble. -> 3rd Place: You will win a Moodboard with a 50 word drabble of your choice.

For this game, you can either send in an original joke or the funniest one you find. They have to be duck oriented, but no jokes about abuse or eating ducks. :( Only duck friendly jokes. If you get it from elsewhere, you should tell me where. :) And the joke that makes daddy laugh the most, wins. (Tommy: what?! Evie, you can't just subject people to things...I did not agree to this. Am I being compensated?). And that will be hard, considering Daddy hasn't laughed since 1914.....I'll give him some whiskey before...

Prizes:

-> There will be three winners and three prizes!

->1st Place: 350 word drabble of your chosen themes and characters. -> 2nd Place: 250 word drabble of the same criteria as above. ->3rd Place: 150 word drabble of the same criteria as above!

Well, that's it for now folks! I urge everyone to join whether or not they are familiar with me. :) It is all for silly laughs and fun, and Miss. Nova just wants people to have a good time. There is no need to follow or be following Nova or me. Remember, all submissions should be entered here at this blog, not Novashelby. If you have any questions, remember to ask them at this blog as well. :) Remember, adhere to the deadlines and rules.

Have fun my ducky friends!

[decembermidnight]

Cherry Liqueur

Summary: You tease Mando in public, drawing too much attention. He reminds you and everyone else who you belong to.

Pairing: Din Djarin x f!reader

Word count: 3.6k

Warnings: this is pure smut 18+ mdni, no plot - straight to the point, teasing in public, helmet stays on (sort of), oral (f receiving), female edging, semi-public sex, unprotected sex (p in v), possessive!din, dom!din, cumplay, degradation kink... the list goes on

A/N: this is the first time I'm publishing!! So excited for this. This whole thing was inspired by a perfume. Of course I bought it. Also, keep in mind that English is not my first language! Have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!

Masterlist - Read on Ao3

It's the twilight of a hot summer night on some unknown planet in the outer rim, the suns still setting at the horizon are painting the sky with gorgeous shades of dark orange, lilac and blue. The cantina you’re sitting in is slowly getting crowded and is dimly lit by blue, purple and green lights. 

The vanilla ice cream you are savoring is slowly melting in the glass cup in front of you and it’s so sweet and cold, you moan in pleasure and close your eyes when you bring the teaspoon into your mouth.

He is sitting in front of you and watches with his arms crossed, silent and unbothered, as always. The lights of the cantina gorgeously reflect on his shiny beskar armor.

"Mando, why don't you get some? It's so good." you tease him, your voice sounding so seductive.

He doesn't reply, but won’t take his eyes off you. You can’t see them, but you can feel them scouting your body.

The cherry liqueur you ordered to go with your dessert is thick and sugary, a slight burn in your throat. It makes you brave.

"I want you to kiss my lips and taste how good this is." you whisper to him, glass in your hand, licking your lips.

"I can't, pretty girl." his voice is firm, and you take that as a challenge. He will taste cherry liqueur from your lips tonight. 

You eat the ice cream slowly, not breaking eye contact with the beskar helmet in front of you. You lean on the table on purpose, letting him enjoy the view of your cleavage squeezed in the tight black dress you are wearing, licking the spoon sensually every time, putting on a show for his enjoyment. You know he's watching and loving every single second of it.

You drink your sweet cherry liqueur, intentionally letting one drop spill over your mouth, only to collect it with your finger and spread it all over your plump lips, and only when they’re coated, you bring the fingertip into your mouth to lick it clean. You know how much he loves your lips, especially when they're wrapped around his thick cock. 

He watches still, leaning back against the booth where he’s sitting, arms crossed, chest moving regularly, not a sign of distress coming for him, apparently. You love teasing him like this in public. You know he's definitely rock hard under the table, and the thought of it turns you on so much, you can feel you’re already dripping between your legs.

When you are done with your show, you go to the restroom with the excuse to wash your hands and face. You do not realize until you stand up how much the liquor hit you. You're not drunk, just a bit dizzy, but it boosts your confidence, makes you feel like a bombshell and can feel his eyes glued to your hips that are swaying sensually, hugged by the light fabric of the revealing dress you are wearing, subtly inviting him to follow you, hoping he'd understand.

When you hear the door opening behind you, you turn around happily, thinking it's him.

It isn't. It’s an ugly mug who clearly does not know who you belong to, a grin on his face.

He tries to approach you blurting obscenities, but he can't even finish the phrase, the door behind him opens, and Mando enters.

"Is there a problem here?" The cold, intimidating tone of his masculine voice makes your pussy clench. Fuck - you love how badass and protective he is.

The creep grins at you, pissed off at the interruption, and turns around, only to find a fully armored Mandalorian staring at him, his hand on the blaster at his belt, ready to fire. He is always ready. So swift and scary.

"No" he answers, raising his hands "I was just leaving." the other man replies, immediately leaving the room, intimidated by the bounty hunter who just entered.

Can’t explain enough how much you love when he acts possessive towards you. He loves when you wear seductive and revealing clothes around him for everyone to see how hot you are, but when random men even just try to interact with you, he’s quick to assert his dominance and defend his property. You fucking belong to him.

The second the door closes behind him, Mando leans with his arm against the wall behind you, towering you. It’s intimidating and turns you on so much. You sigh in arousal and wrap your arms around his neck.

You feel his erection, rock hard against your lower belly.

'Mando..." You call him in an inviting tone.

"You're such a nasty girl. Teasing me in public in front of everyone. Making me hard." he whispers as he cups your cheek with his other hand. "What do I have to do with you?"

"Kiss me." You say, alcohol suddenly makes you brave. "Here. Now." you challenge him.

He clenches the hand he’s leaning on in a fist, staying still for a few seconds as you look at him, your eyes filled with desire. The music coming from outside fills the silence between you two.

"Close your eyes." he says firmly.

You obey, as you always do when he gives you orders.

He takes his gloves off and tosses them on the sink on his left, then he covers your eyes with one hand. You hear a hiss of air, and then you feel warm lips on yours. A slow, soft kiss that makes your knees weak, your head light and the air escape your lungs, leaving you breathless. You part your lips in a sigh of arousal and he pushes his tongue inside your mouth, tasting you just like you wanted. You let out a moan, he swallows it greedily and bites your lower lip, chuckling.

Your mouth tastes like cherry, vanilla and sin, he wants to taste it all, your lips tickled by his mustache. His other hand is wrapping around your neck, lightly choking you. The Mandalorian is dangerously bending the rules of his creed just to taste you, giving in to lust and desire. What adds even more to the excitement of it, is that he’s doing this in a public place, where anyone could enter at any moment and see him.

For a man who never removes his helmet, his kisses are to die for. Your hands travel to his jawline, masculine and well-defined, covered in a scruffy beard. His skin is so hot to the touch, his heart is racing, you can feel it with your fingers while running them on his neck. He lifted his helmet just enough to kiss you and you can't look at him, but you can feel him. That is more than enough. The more you kiss, the more you want to keep going. You can't stop kissing and moaning into each other's mouth. His body is pressed heavily on yours.

The door opens behind Mando, but he is quick to shut it with a back kick, never leaving your lips, on the contrary, kissing you even harder because he’s getting even more turned on, knowing that someone tried to enter, and keeping his foot on the door to prevent other incidents. His reflex is always so ready, always so alert. Curses from the outside, he won't let anyone in, not now that he is finally giving in and kissing you. It makes you so happy to know that you have him all to yourself.

He bites your lower lip. "You taste so good" growls between his teeth. Every time you hear his real voice, not distorted by a modulator, you get goosebumps. "So fucking good. My pretty girl." His voice is hot and dark, masculine and firm.

You giggle in his mouth and keep kissing him, wrapping one leg around his body, letting him rock his hips against yours and hump against your soaking wet entrance, and groaning in his mouth. He bites your lip grinning, hungry like a starving beast, knowing that you're already so wet and turned on just because of the kisses he's giving you.

You feel the dry humping will make you cum within seconds if it doesn't stop. When you are so close you could feel your heart racing and your face blushing, he suddenly stops and lowers his helmet back on. You whimper as you stop feeling his body on yours and his hand removed from your eyes. When he does, you see the beskar helmet looking at you, towering you as before. Mando then goes on his knees, slowly, you don't take your eyes off each other, he runs his hot hands on your thighs, under your dress, on your hips softly, making you sigh, his gentle touch is making you shudder. He grabs your soaked panties and takes them off, slowly, never interrupting eye contact. You take out one leg, then the other. He spreads your legs with his arms and looks at your swollen, throbbing, needy cunt.

"Mmm - so beautiful" he says, running one finger between your folds and pushing his middle finger inside your entrance, making you arch your back, squeeze your eyes shut and moan loudly. He starts fingering you slowly, but he is quick to speed up the pace.

Your panting and the wet, lewd noises your pussy makes as he fucks you with his finger fill the tiny room, and you're pretty sure people can hear from outside. He takes his finger out, followed by the hissing sound of him lifting his helmet, and then you feel a warm and wet tongue on your clit, making you gasp and groan deeply and way too loud. Everyone out there’s gonna know that the Mandalorian is making you feel so good. You feel so shameless, and you fucking love it.

"F-fuck!" you scream loudly as the Mandalorian grips your thighs and sinks into them with his mouth. You cover your mouth with your hands as he tastes how much you want him, humming in pleasure, the vibrations coming from his throat making your eyes roll over your head in pure ecstasy.

The way he eats you, as if he could never have enough, and keeps doing that for as long as he wants, tasting your sweet juices, taking all the time in the galaxy to reduce you to a whimpering, trembling mess, drives you fucking crazy.

You get so close to your orgasm already, your head gets dizzy, and when you're just there, he suddenly stops licking your clit. The sensation of the pre-orgasm rush leaving your body makes your legs shake in frustration and you desperately rock your hips looking for his mouth, but his iron grip on your thighs prevents you from moving one inch.

“Uh-uh. Not so fast” he whispers. You can feel his hot breath on your clit, just holding there as you tremble desperately.

And then, after a few seconds that seem to last like an eternity, he starts circling around your clit with his tongue, extremely slowly, carefully avoiding it, teasing you. When he feels that your body is calming down, he starts licking your clit once again, and then, when he feels you're getting closer, he fucking stops again, edging you once more. He kisses and bites your inner thigh, completely drenched in your arousal, and laughs sadistically at how much your body is begging for him.

He does that multiple times as a vengeance for teasing him so shamelessly in public. You are on the verge of tears, and your whole body is shaking, especially your legs, but his grip is so firm that it keeps you still and open wide over his mouth at his mercy.

"Please-please-please" you whimper desperately.

"What?" He asks in between slow, light licks around your clit.

"Please Mando make me cum" you cry out.

He does not answer. Only a single, swift lick on your swollen clit that makes your whole body jerk under his touch.

"Please, Mando! I'm begging you!" You sound so pathetic, he loves it. You hear a chuckle as he circles around your clit once again, then his middle finger is back inside your hot entrance, fucking you. Your pussy is so embarrassingly wet, you can feel your juices dripping down your inner thighs.

“You can only cum when I tell you so.” he says in between licks to your clit, the light touch of his lips making you shiver and sigh.

“P-please I c-can’t-” you try to articulate desperately.

“Hold it there.” he just doesn’t care how much you whimper. On the contrary, whimpering will only make this edging torture last longer.

He can hear your panting getting more and more out of control by the second.

“Yeah - hold it there” he loves having all this power on you.

You let out a deep sigh, trying to control the way your body reacts to his, but it’s impossible. You can’t focus on anything else apart from holding in your orgasm but you’re not sure how much further you can resist.

"Yeah mesh'la - cum. Cum for me." you can feel his hot breath against your pussy, and then his tongue is finally back on your clit, there to stay.

He pushes another finger inside and once again you feel the hot sensation of the orgasm building in your pussy, this time begging that he won’t stop.

"F-fuck Mando I-I’m-"

He purrs into your pussy and you finally cum into his mouth, your muscles desperately clenching around his fingers, your hands cover your mouth and muffle the screams of your orgasm, eyes so rolled back over your head, all you can see is pitch black darkness, you’re completely blown away by those few seconds of pure bliss.

By the time you are done, you are completely drained by pleasure and your head is spinning. He is licking dripping juices from your inner thighs, then he bites your soft flesh, humming, knowing he'll leave bruises only he'll be able to see, and finally he stands back up on his feet.

"Open your mouth" he says, you obey. You're still shaking and panting from how mind-blowing that was.

He sticks his two fingers coated in your arousal in your mouth and you sensually wrap them around your lips, pushing them deep in your throat.

"Yeah - like this" he says grinning satisfied as he watches you lick his fingers clean from tips to knuckle, his erection against your belly. He takes his fingers out and grabs your jaw, forcing your mouth open, and then he spits inside of it. You fucking love it, moaning at the feeling of being dominated that way, and swallow his saliva greedily. He slaps your face and chuckles. "What an obedient little slut." says, whispering in your ear, and then his tongue is again inside your mouth.

You can feel his mustache, lips and chin are wet from your arousal, his mouth now tastes like you, a warm and slightly salty taste that you don't mind. "Fuck. My pretty girl. Can’t ever get enough of you."

He kisses you for so long, taking all the time in the galaxy to make you feel like the most worshiped woman of the outer rim, cupping your face with his hands, caressing your cheeks, holding you tight and running his hands all over your body, wanting to feel every inch of you.

He lowers the helmet back on his face, then turns you around and bends you over the sink, in front of the mirror. 

“Open your eyes” he orders.

"Fuck" you whisper biting your lip, looking at how he towers over you, gripping your hips, feeling his rock hard erection grinding against your ass as his hips rock into yours.

He takes out his cock and starts sliding it between your folds and you can see fucking everything. You shake in anticipation and gasp. When he slowly inserts his dick inside of your needy, wet cunt you both moan shamelessly loud, not caring that anyone can hear you from outside, and when he starts thrusting into you, you go out of control and can't control how loud you're screaming.

"Quiet. Quiet, pretty girl." He puts one hand on your mouth, panting in your ear.

Your muffled screams seem to excite him even more. He is having fun sliding it in and out of you, painfully slow and groaning in your ear to drive you fucking crazy. He knows how much you love hearing him enjoying himself. The sound your dripping pussy makes when it takes it all in, greedily, desperately clenching around his thick cock, fills the room together with his hips rocking against your ass.

Having you bent like that, in front of the freshener's mirror, your leg on the sink, forced to look at the mess of you, blushing and sweaty, one of his hands on your thigh, the other one on your mouth, begging for the dick of that fully armored bounty hunter that terrified everyone out there, towering over you, turns you on so much and can’t take your eyes off the mirror. 

The banging on the door outside, the thought of someone wanting to enter, but it's blocked from Mando's foot planted firmly on the ground against it, knowing there's only a thin door separating your throbbing, needy cunt from the outside, all of those men looking at you earlier, hearing your screams and wishing they were the ones locked inside the bathroom with you, fucking you raw and dirty like the filthy whore that you are, but it's only the Mandalorian that you want, that can make you scream like this.

For a second he lifts his hand from your mouth, wanting to hear your voice.

"M-my - fuck - Mandalorian warrior, fucking me so good."

"Yeah?" You clench around him just by hearing his voice, his hand back on your mouth to muffle how much you are loving being fucked that way.

You take his hand and slide it towards your clit, but he slaps it away. You are so desperate, you want - no, you need - to cum again and start rubbing your clit with your own hand, only for him to take your hand away and cause you to whimper on the verge of tears for stimulation.

"Beg me." He orders, lifting his hand from your mouth so that he can hear you.

"P-please Mando make me cum, please, please" you whimper desperately.

He grins and achingly slowly moves his hand towards your slit, widening your pussy and starting to draw circles around your swollen clit with his middle finger, purposefully avoiding it to tease you.

It makes you shake and whimper desperately. Then he takes the soaked finger and puts it into your mouth.

"Yes, lick it all. Taste how much you want me."

You do, moaning and sucking and licking his finger clean. "Good girl." He slaps your face, then grabs your chin and forces you to lock your very same gaze in the mirror.

"I want you to look. Look at yourself when I make you cum."

His hand reaches your clit, starts rubbing it and you can't avoid arching your back and rolling your eyes in pleasure and letting out a deep moan.

He stops thrusting and massaging you, the hand holding your jaw grips tighter. "Hey. I told you to look." Then slaps you on the clit, making your body jerk and clench around him, making him gasp.

He starts thrusting and rubbing your clit again immediately after scolding you.

"When we're done, I - fuck - don't want you to put your panties back on. I want you to walk with my cum dripping down your legs. Everyone out there has to know that you're fucking mine." He growls between his teeth, his voice raspy through the modulator. That sentence takes you over the edge and you cum so hard, screaming with your mouth closed by his hand, gaze locked on yourself as he commanded. The muffled screaming is so loud, it fills the little room.

"Cyar'ika" he growls as soon as he feels your cunt rhythmically clenching around him. "Do you see how fucking beautiful you are when you cum for me? F-fuck I-I-" he muffles his scream gritting between his teeth as he cums, his cock is pulsing, his seed is spilling hot inside of you, but he keeps riding through both of your orgasms. 

He leans on you, panting and holding you tight, his dick still throbbing into your pussy. When he takes it out, you feel his seed slowly dripping from your inner thighs.

"Turn around." He orders, still panting.

You do, and he sits you on the sink and spreads your legs open.

"Fuck. So beautiful." He is mesmerized by the sight of your pussy filled by him, still clenching in waves of aftershock. He runs his fingers on your inner thighs to collect all the drops of seed that escaped and pushes them back into your opening. He has some fun with it, you can tell he is grinning under the helmet, then he brings his fingers to your mouth and you obediently suck them clean, tasting the lust of you both.

When you get out of the bathroom, you feel everyone's eyes on you two. You've never done anything so shameless and nasty in your life, and you fucking loved it. Every second of it.

You walk towards the exit, Mando behind you, his hand wrapped around your hip. You feel his cum dripping down your legs and you wonder if the people looking at you are noticing. Mando's words echo in your head. Everyone out there has to know that you're fucking mine. He definitely made sure of that. You can’t help smiling.

[ihopesocomic]

Sorry for the mini-essay but I think people massively underestimate how much hard work and dedication goes into a Passion Project. People think that creators who make free content, who do their work as a hobby and not as a job, must only get enjoyment out of it.

That’s not how it works. Doing it purely because you want to doesn’t automatically make the more challenging, frustrating, or (gasps) TIME CONSUMING parts of the project any less burdensome. If anything, it makes it worse because you aren’t being paid for all of that labor. You’re just doing it for the sake of doing it, and as rewarding as it can be, it can also be demanding.

Im finally publishing a fanfic for the first time and don’t get me wrong, it’s been great to get feedback on my work and interact with a community. I love that there are usernames and profile pictures I can actually identify because they’re regulars on my work.

But does that mean I don’t have to constantly redo work because I don’t like how it turned out? No. Does that mean I always update on time? No. Never get burnout? No. I still very much go through all of the things paid writers do, because the Creative Process is difficult and demanding no matter what they paycheck is or isn’t.

And all of that is just if you guys WERE missing updates, which you’re NOT. So like… these complaints are not only very entitled and ignorant, but also just confusing. People really just be mad for the sake of being mad, I guess?

Anyways yeah, free content creators are still content creators, and passion-driven hard work is still hard work. You two are cranking out absolutely STUNNING visuals, compelling characters and engaging worldbuilding every single week and that’s amazing. Thank you for your hard work and I’m sorry about the twerps that don’t appreciate it enough!

Ah the price we pay for being human and having a brain, amirite haha

It's to be expected, to a certain point, that people simply don't understand that things like comics and cartoons take time. General impatience is something that can be ignored. If people asking for updates bothered us, we wouldn't post anywhere ever haha You gotta have at least SOME backbone if you want to do a comic. Or anything really.

Comics are a TON of work, and I knew this going in cuz I've done shorter comics before. It is not to be treated as if its easy. (Well, its easier than animating a whole series by yourself LOL) There's a lot of pre-comic planning that people don't tell you about. And that's just the stuff you have to do before you even start drawing. Of course this only applies to long-form storytelling, there's different rules for different kinds of comics.

And I won't even get into what it takes to making the comic itself, there's a lot of parts that need to be considered like formatting, time-management, what shortcuts you have to take to save on labor, and getting across as much information as you can in a short amount of time, while using mostly visuals. It's a skill, so it can be learned haha

A lot of doing comics is on-the-job training. Which I know can be frustrating for perfectionists, but from a reader's perspective, part of the joy of webcomics is seeing how far the art has come. And you can't exactly get out a webcomic if you keep redoing things over and over. You'll burn yourself out even faster. This is why it's important to have a plan lol it just makes it easier to adjust if you have to change things, than if you have no plan at all.

Even if RJ and I for whatever reason no longer felt passionate about this story, and wanted to move on to something else entirely, we wouldn't leave everyone hanging. We'd tell everyone what happens one way or another. Because too many people just abandon a story just to tell another one, and that's not fair to people who were here to read a story that appealed to them.

But the entitlement of people sucks, the constant heckling, the fact we can't moderate our own comment section, and more importantly Webtoons just sucks as a site anyway. - Cat

[emeryleewho]

The thing is, I know not everyone is gonna read everything I write or like everything I write. I am well aware that even reaching a couple thousand people with any work is a great accomplishment to be proud of. But I've also been in publishing so long, I think part of me has internalized that "book of your heart" nonsense where people insist that if you don't love a story with all your heart, it'll show and no one will want to read it, but if you love a story, everyone will find it and love it too by sheer force of your love for it.

So when I'm out here every week begging people to read the story that I love more than any of the other 30 I've written just to get at most a single nod, it feels like *I'm* the problem because I obviously just don't love the story enough. Spending 5 years writing it, countless hours drawing it, putting together over 500 pages of lore--none of that proves I care about this story because if I *cared* about it, other people would care too and they'd all be shouting about it and I'd be flooded by fan support by now.

And it just really sucks how much publishing has fucked with my head that I can't even enjoy finally sharing this story with an audience because I have to feel guilty about "not loving" it enough like that's a thing that's even possible. I hate that publishing killed so much of my sense of joy and wonder when it comes to creating and made it where everything feels like I'm competing to prove myself.

So, anyway, yeah, this is why my number one advice to writers is "consider if you even *want* to be a published author" because if you're thinking of going trad, it's more likely to break you than make you, and it blows to lose the one thing that meant the most to you because of how badly this industry fucks with your head.

[houseofbrat]

Never fear HoB - Becky English is here with the KP sponsored spin. If you look closely, you could see Lee scribbling this sycophancy out for her:

“Yes, he is thinner, more drawn around the face. Noticeably so, in fact. The new lines and shadows make clear that the trials and tribulations of the last year have taken their toll. But the prince has also been more animated, energised and, yes, even joyful than I have seen him for a very long time.”

“At times of crisis you draw your loved ones closer. Which explains why the Prince of Wales hasn’t left his family to go abroad since December last year.” — that’s odd considering Cathy was only having a “planned, routine surgery” in Dec and “cancer had been present” was found late Feb conveniently to explain Willy’s absence from the memorial?! 🤥

“On top of that he has had to protect his three young children as a ‘papa’ who could, at any sad turn, find himself acceding to the throne, thereby turning their relatively sheltered little lives upside down.” 🙄

“And the prince has been touched by the way in which Cape Town, not to mention the rest of Africa, has taken his ‘green Oscars’ to their hearts.” — no they haven’t, they’ve largely been apathetic…just like Heidi Klum who admitted she had no idea what EP was until Willy’s people approached her to attend (probably as a paid appearance).

“While William appears to be a man who has found his groove both as an innovator and heir to the throne.” 🙄🤥🤣

“Friends tell me he’s been talking non-stop about his children on the trip.” — it’s giving peak overcompensating single dad energy 🥴

Interestingly Becky’s article to wrap up The King’s state visit was behind a paywall so either Charles is a bigger draw or those Duchy funds are going towards making it worthwhile to publish such drivel.

I had to look up what his international trip was last December (2023). It was when he went to Kuwait to present condolences.

So tough.

Somehow he was able to travel to Germany more than once for the Euros. But that doesn't count as traveling "abroad"?

Can't wait to see his beard and weight loss in this year's Christmas card photo!

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #21

Ghost / Batgirl #1-4 Words: Mike Kennedy Pictures: Ryan Benjamin Additional Work: Randy Emberlin, Howard Shun

One impression I used to have that going back to look at ~all~ of Cass's early appearances has forced me to reconsider is the idea that she didn't appear outside of her own books very much. While later on that is more the case, early on she does have a fair few guest appearances and cross overs, including in this bit of non-canon dual publisher cross promotion with Elisa Cameron, aka Ghost, a Dark Horse character with a solo that had been running since 1995.

The miniseries pits long time Batman villain Harvey Dent against brand new Ghost antagonist Malcolm Greymater - a (fictional) confederate general turned zombie libertarian corpse reanimator - in a conflict over Greymater poaching some of Dent's employees (ie reanimating goons that Dent killed). Babs, Cass, and Elisa get caught in the middle and are forced to work together after following separate threads of a bombing by Two Face and bodies stolen by Greymater only to be sold off into unsavory employment after failed reanimation experiments.

I don't want to go through the whole thing with a plot summary - it's four issues of non-canon stuff after all. But as a stand alone story it works fairly well, worth a read if you're a fan of early Cass. In particular there's solid characterization of Harvey Dent and what it's like to work for him - pretty bad actually. You can see why he'd get upset at someone trying to poach his guys, working conditions for goons in Gotham are terrible, if word got around of better conditions in Arcadia (Ghost's hometown) or wherever else then Batman's villains could easily find themselves suffering a labor shortage. The mere idea of that is funny enough to me that I can't help but like this little mini series, and it's an idea I'd love to see brought back. Goons On Strike - now there's a solid idea for an ongoing Gotham event crossover.

Anyway, Ghost/Batgirl is definitely a higher fantasy story than we usually see from Cass, at least back in the early days, but there's a focus on the individual lives and humanity of the underlings working for the villains that's very grounded and down to earth. That fits in really well next to the "street level" focus of Cass's early solo title. As for the book's cross-promotional function, it does make me curious about Ghost, though probably not enough so to go back and look at her solo title. I like her villain here, but Malcolm Greymater and his crew seem to be more or less exclusive to this crossover? Comicvine is telling me he maybe appears in a single issue outside of this, so that's kind of disappointing.

So setting aside the story, how's our girl in this? Well, first of all, she's being drawn by new hands. In costume she's mostly fine.

Sleek and spooky, glossy black. The details of her form are sometimes lost in the darkness, which loses some specificity in the action panels, but in a way that mostly works aesthetically. My only real complaint here is that her facial expression doesn't really show through the mask. You don't get a sense of what she's thinking or feeling in costume, she's just this dark angry spooky form, not so much a person or a character. As I've said in the past, though, that's as much or more a criticism of her costume design as it is of how any particular artist draws her in it.

It's also worth noting that, as with Cass's early pairing with Azrael, her costume contrasts very nicely with Ghost's. White with round hood and billowing cape vs. Cass all black and pointy. Aesthetically it's a great fit.

Out of costume, though...

I don't know. Just doesn't quite look like Cass to me? I know, I know, comic character facial features don't have the same specific canon as their costumes do, different artists have different styles so characters will look different, and there's definitely a stylistic element here that isn't gelling with me. The overall shape of the head is too thin, maybe, making her look a bit older than she should, where I'm used to Scott's more rounded face, stronger jaw, bushier eyebrows, shorter, poofier hair.

Scott's style, at least at the time, also just packs in more emotional expression, which is absolutely critical for a silent protagonist.

By contrast Benjamin's Cass, when she's not in costume, is often just standing a bit behind Babs with a sort of blank, neutral expression while Babs interacts with other characters or the audience for her.

...

Which also kind of brings us to the writing for Cass here. Ghost / Batgirl is probably the best example yet that silent Cass was a mistake, because yeah, the creators of this book just do not know how to convey her character to the reader without words. The first image starts with Cass looking out over the wreckage of a bombing, and of course there's pseudo noir internal monologue all over it, because how else do you start a bat-book, only Cass can't narrate so Babs provides the narration even though she isn't even in that scene.

Babs goes along on the adventure mostly so the writers have someone who can talk for Cass, or even in some panels quite literally talk over Cass.

Cass is an intimidating physical presence in costume, but in this book she functions more as an extension of Babs than as a person in her own right.

...

It's not all bad, though. In particular there's this one bit introducing an additional ability for Cass that makes perfect sense with her backstory and yet sadly I don't think is ever mentioned again in a canon Batgirl story:

Cass gets poisoned, but she survives, and recovers remarkably quickly, because she has a natural resistance to many poisons and venoms built up from repeat exposure to tiny amounts when she was a child, because of course that's something David would do. You could just imagine little Cass and David having drinking contests to see who could take the most poison before passing out, or even sneakily poisoning each other as a little game of escalating pranks.

...

So yeah, overall a nice little stand alone series with maybe not the best depiction of Cass, but one that is illustrative of why the major change to have her start speaking, while I still don't like how it was done, was probably for the best.

[shinydelirium]

hi, just wanna say that without the essays and analysis people as you have published here, I wouldn't love Kiro as much as I do nowadays, he's my precious sunshine. I don't really expect anything from Papergames as a company, so I'm keeping my little treasures regardless of what's gonna come out of it in the end. do you plan in the future to explain what you think ended up going downhill with the direction of the game you have briefly mentioned?

Hello @ladyjune26! Thanks for the ask and being so very patient with me on answering. Here are the major complaints/pet peeves I have with what Papergames has done and continues to do to lessen my love of the game and their treatment of Kiro as a main love interest: *WARNING* LOTS OF RANTING AHEAD

Kiro always being the "odd one out of the bunch" in regards to karmas: Honestly, why did Papergames think it was a good idea to do this? I can tell which love interest they favor most over Kiro just from looking at the karma illustrations during group events. It's almost like they use a different filter on them or use a different artist completely to draw his karmas cuz his stick out like a sore thumb. A perfect example would be from last year's Xmas/New Year's event (Modern Rhapsody) where all the guys get stylish hairstyles and Kiro gets the short end of the stick. They forgot he's a main love interest and now he's just an afterthought. Another example is the Valentine's event where all the guys get kiss karmas and say "I love you". All the guys have open-mouth kisses with their eyes open and once again they don't do that with Kiro. IS IT REALLY THAT DIFFICULT TO BE CONSISTENT!?!?! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!!! Plus, why can't they ever draw MC in gorgeous outfits or hot and intimate scenes with Kiro? She constantly looks plain and boring in many of them. Her relationship with Kiro is no longer friends anymore. THEY'RE LOVERS!!! Also, no creativity. There's a lot of karmas where they draw the same old stuff in them like a teddy bear, daisies, sunflowers....COME ON!!! THOSE AREN'T THE ONLY THINGS GOING FOR HIM!!! 'The Versatile King' my ass!!! Don't make statements like those if you can't even fulfill them. If they need ideas for karmas I have plenty...no wait, they already used them for the other love interests which leads to the next point.

Kiro has been reduced to a minor character/NPC role: In season 1 main story, Kiro had the least amount of screen time. I remember a Weibo post where a CN player calculated how much total screen time he had and it was 80 minutes! I haven't exactly tested if this was true but I've seen many CN fans mention this. Also, throughout season 1, his major plot points were all put into Rumors and Secrets and they're still doing it in season 2. And don't get me started on how much repetitiveness on certain aspects of his character...ISTG, I'VE NEVER SEEN SO MANY METAPHORS ABOUT A BEAR IN MY LIFE!!! Starting to see the pattern now?

Nothing gets changed when Kiro fans address issues: There was a time when during one of Gavin's bday karmas, his fans were hounding customer service to add the gingko bracelet to MC's wrist and within a very short period of time, it was done. However, whenever Kiro fans want something changed, nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, gets done. A while back, there was a magazine advertising the game and for some very strange reason, they typed Kiro's name wrong and his birthdate. The entire Weibo page was just post after post about it. There's no excuse for such a small mistake which could have easily been avoided.

His karmas are released last: Whether it's the Fragrant Sunshine ERs, solo Wish Tree events, or in general, Kiro tends to be the last one scheduled. So far, he has not had a single free SR/SSR karma this year and it's already July. When the first kiss karmas were released several years ago, Kiro was once again the last one released.

Storyline and character arc: Are they ever going to address how Kiro can change into his silver-haired Helios form? Why does he have those markings on his right arm and how can they appear and disappear whenever? Is he ever going to find his master KEY? Why does Kiro look so much like his master KEY who was the previous Helios? Does that mean KEY also had blue eyes? What is this mission they keep teasing about? HELL, HIS ORIGINS!?!? There's been no story development whatsoever and they keep reusing the same stuff in the chapters. What happened to all that awesome character development in the first half of season 2? Crumbs keep dropping but it leads to nowhere. Here's a hot take: Westmoon had a much better, cohesive story overall. I am forever sad that it's over. If it isn't already obvious, the writers are heavily milking the main story. As much as I don't like season 1, at least it was more entertaining and mysterious especially when MC "died" and ended up in Winter World where all the love interests didn't know her. They should have continued from there. It would have been interesting to see how the relationships developed and MC ended up staying despite everything. Did she have to go back to the "main world"? There's just too many questions or maybe I'm being too analytical.

Kiro is constantly paired with Victor or Gavin during top-up karmas: Mostly he's paired with Victor and outshines Kiro's karmas in art style even if Kiro's karma is a SSR one. What are you trying to say Papergames? Always catering to the love interests who are the most popular in the fandom and give you the most money. I never see Kiro paired with Lucien. The unfairness is through the roof when this happens.

Dates that coincide with Main Story: For real though. Whatever happened with that? I remember there were a handful of these dates that follow-up with events that occurred during the main storyline (i.e. Light Pursuit- God tier date👌and Clinic date). PG completely did away with them for some reason. It gave so much insight and fleshed out Kiro's character more. I have yet to see a SINGLE date in season 2 that does this.

That's pretty much all the major issues I've come across. There are others but I've done enough nit-picking. However, don't let my opinions sway your enjoyment of the game. If you still like it, then please by all means, continue to play. Hope you have a wonderful day and take care!

[amazing-spider-man-book-club]

Amazing Spider-Man #1 (1963)

Published: March 1963

Containing: "Spider-Man: Freak! Public Menace!", "The Chameleon!"

Introducing: J. Jonah Jameson, John Jameson, The Chameleon (unnamed)

Synopsis: following the death of his uncle, Peter now has to leverage his identity as Spider-Man to find cash quick as a means of taking care of himself and his Aunt May. Various attempts to do so are stopped by his need to maintain a secret identity, his slandering by media mogul J. Jonah Jameson, and indifference by the public at large.

Read alongside us here:

@frankendykes-monster : After the better part of a year, material originally intended for Amazing Fantasy can now be taken off the shelf and published in The Amazing Spider-Man. For as much as these are two separate stories, our first one is divided into three parts and they chain together incredibly well with the new through-line of Peter desperately needing to make money.

Peter's origins are oh so quickly recapped in less than a page and transition immediately to the new status quo he finds himself in, at least for this single issue. Lee's narration on the title page is right, there hasn't been a character like Spider-Man yet, he can't even begin to worry about altruism or emotionally come to terms with his actual ongoing motivations (which will not come to a head for quite some time, keep following this blog!) because he needs to help cover the rent first. I think a lot of subsequent Spider-Man media neglect this lowest point of Peter's life now that I think about it; I'm not sure why, it makes for great material even if it isn't a "fun" read to see Spider-Man suffer. We get to see some nice stuff like Peter making a parachute out of his webbing, which at certain points in this run might feel more like a Green Lantern ring in terms of objects that said web fluid can be molded into. Spider-sense is also used several times, which is a power I've never been hugely into if only because it's convenient for writers to forget Peter has said ability whenever he needs to be punched in the face by someone right in front of him. Said ability was created by Ditko on the spot when asked by Lee how Spider-Man could see and fight people in the dark (just draw squiggly lines above his head and call it a day.)

I actually had no recollection of why Peter can't go back to show business as Spider-Man beyond the ingenious "you can't cash a check signed to Spider-Man" bit, but it's because of the debut of one J. Jonah Jameson. I mentioned in the post for Amazing Fantasy #15 that many of the plethora of characters "introduced" there would only become retroactively important after Ditko left the title...welp...can't say that here. Jameson will become arguably the second most important and frequently appearing character after Peter and immediately hits the ground running.

I think it's a popular interpretation of the character now to say that his thoughts on the subject of Spider-Man are misguided when he, a character inside the story, does not have the benefit of knowledge the we the readers do. It's fair game to say something is off about Spider-Man, this completely anonymous individual that can climb walls and swing across buildings and has already gotten into the habit of being a vigilante. Peter's relationship with Jameson isn't at all developed here, they don't even meet, but that will change soon enough.

Spider-Man exists in the same fictional space as other characters published by Marvel, huh, that was fast. I actually had to double check and see if this was published the same month as Fantastic Four #12, which guest stars The Hulk. It was. Truly the Marvel Age of Comics is upon us (I feel like I've already said this). My general thoughts going forward are...meh? Ditko is going to introduce enough characters and concepts that The Amazing Spider-Man isn't really hurting to team up with or fight other superheroes, but if they're here to stay for the time being, one of his get rich quick schemes being that he wants to join The Fantastic Four isn't a bad one.

And our first proper supervillain of the run, The Chameleon! The Chameleon isn't one of the "heavy hitters" amongst this rogues gallery, more a perpetual b-lister, but he mostly gets by on his excellent design; a blank canvas face that he can easily slide life-like masks over. Though, this is a concept that Ditko had already visited in Out of This World #6 (1957):

That would be the end of things for this issue, a nice transitional piece in the fallout of Spider-Man's origin, but some cracks behind the scenes are already starting to show. Even though the character is officially titled Spider-Man, with the hyphen, the text within the issue can't seem to recall if it's spelled that way or not. The second story has Peter referred to as "Peter Palmer" several times, though this isn't a blunder that would be repeated across several issues (see: Bruce Banner being referred to as Bob Banner). Ditko, upon being given the plot for this issue, reportedly hated the sequence wherein Spider-Man jacks a plane to save John Jameson in a plummeting space craft, comparing it to the likes of a high school football player joining the Super Bowl.

Where the plot that Lee provided Ditko came from is unknown, people looking into the subject like Stan Taylor and Stephen Bissette have come to the conclusion that they actually were provided by Jack Kirby to Lee to pass on to whomever ended up taking over Spider-Man, but the evidence isn't conclusive so I'll not state that that was the case. Ditko wasn't the type to be into flights to space, or making Communist villains like The Chameleon's motivations here, is what I will say. Ditko is clearly already developing very clear ideas on who Spider-Man is and where to take him, and any influence Kirby had on the conception of the character will quickly be shed. This will not be the last time we here of Ditko rejecting or altering ideas presented to him by Lee however.

@duel1971 : So very excited that we can start talking about J Jonah Jameson. In this story we see only one side of the man: a loudmouthed, ungrateful bully. He’s a perfect antagonist for Peter at this point in his story. Peter and his aunt are broke and desperate. Jameson is financially secure and has a platform that allows him to totally destroy Spider-Man’s reputation practically overnight. The fact that Jonah doesn’t actually know he’s targeting a struggling high school student at the moment is his only real defense.

The parallels between the Jameson and Parker families are something I’ll be writing more about as we go. John Jameson is successful and beloved where Spider-Man is shunned and hated, and Jonah has all the power in the world while Aunt May has almost none. Their similarity is in their loyalty to each other: part of Jonah’s hatred of Spider-Man in this issue seems to be fueled by thinking Peter was out to steal John’s glory in some way or another. (I say “seems to be” because it’s hard to take anything he says at face value.)

Second story: This one is really interesting to me because of how ambiguous Peter’s character arc is in it. He continually tries to do the right thing: first trying to impress the Fantastic Four in a desperate bid for a steady paycheck, and then aiding the cops in stopping the Chameleon. Both times, he is rejected and he remains an outlaw at story’s end. The last page features the Fantastic Four reflecting that someone as powerful as Spider-Man may well be a threat someday.

Of course, we know Peter didn’t turn to evil. But things aren’t going well! In spite of being powerful enough to take on the entire Fantastic Four by himself, he’s just a kid who’s worried about his aunt and doesn’t know why everyone hates him so much. It’s all too easy to imagine the path his life might’ve taken.

[genericpuff]

What makes a comic good in your eyes? And what makes it bad?

Oof, that's a BIG question that I can't exactly give one single answer to. There are a ton of factors. For me the biggest thing is writing, while the art might be a turnoff if it isn't polished in the beginning, it's still not a dealbreaker for me, I've read tons of comics that started off still figuring out their art (and that's the beauty of webcomics, really). It's when the writing isn't interesting or good that I tend to drop off. Maybe the plot doesn't make sense or takes too long to establish what it's trying to do, maybe the jokes feel forced or poorly written.

I think writing tends to sort of take an unintentional backseat in webcomics, and it just comes with the territory. Tons of online artists naturally come up with their own characters that they want to write stories for, so they gravitate towards webcomics. Whereas writers - even online ones - don't tend to see webcomics as the default, they'll usually end up in the fanfiction circles or on Wattpad or even just ditching the online format entirely and going straight into trad publishing. It's why there are so many writers looking for artists in the webcomic community, you won't find artists looking for writers quite so much because they usually wind up using webcomics as an entry point into writing. Writers can't use webcomics as an entry point into drawing quite as well, there's a LOT more upfront work into learning how to draw vs. learning how to write (but writing is ultimately harder to master, knowing how to write scenes on the page doesn't necessarily mean you're writing those scenes well).

So I find more often than not the writing ends up being a dealbreaker for me. Art gets me interested enough to take a peek, but the writing is what keeps me invested, so if the writing isn't sound, I'm probably not gonna stick with it. If a comic does feel like it isn't written (or even drawn) up to what I would define as "good", I try to identify what exactly what's wrong with it, not just so I can better understand why it isn't working, but so I can implement that understanding into my own work. It's not just learning what works in a comic, it's also learning what doesn't work.

Still, I try to distinguish between whether a comic is "good or bad" vs. whether or not it's even meant for me. I've definitely read comics in the past that didn't click with me but I could totally see why people liked it, it just didn't appeal to what I was looking for or my humor or whatever. Some comics are objectively great and they just don't connect with me, like Scoob & Shag, Homestuck, etc. where I can respect why people like them, I just like, couldn't get into them no matter how many times I tried LMAO And then some comics are objectively not great and I enjoy them anyways, like Deep Fried Pudge, which is literally just a daily single panel dad-humor-full-of-puns comic, it had no right being in my subscription list when I was still on Tapas but something about it was so charming to me. I feel bad even calling it "bad" because it's not trying to be anything, it's just this humble little passtime project that someone started and never stopped. And I mean it has not stopped updating since 2012, every time I check in on it I'm astounded to see it's STILL going at 4,036 episodes. I have no idea what power the person who makes this possesses but they will surely outlive us all, I can only rationalize its existence as the closest I've ever been to perceiving God.

[atla-confessions]

Idk why we feel the need to interrogate people's personal identities in order to justify shipping cartoon characters. This coming from a person who ships cartoon characters. Can't we all agree that fandom isn't activism? & while criticism should be encouraged, it should not be the building blocks of anybody's morality? Babes i can't relate to these shipping wars, when I saw the show as a kid I was just obsessed with Toph. So idk, shipping as a stand in for activism is ludicrous. Aside from the fact that as an adult, platonic zutaraang is the most fun way of looking at the series. Whatever. this Is supposed to be fun.

Someone else posted this ☝🏽☝🏽☝🏽 and I just want to wholeheartedly agree!!!!

Shipping is a way to engage with media. It's not activism, it's not reflective of one's political stands.

But also, I want to say a word or two about fanworks that do indeed sexualize characters from original works where this aspect was absent:

'Ship and let ship', 'your kink is not my kink and that's okay', so on and so forth, are fandom basics. Yes even when characters are underage. Yes even when the target audience of the show is middle schoolers. We should always tag correctly (also a fandom rule) and choose the most adequate platform to share the work, but actual kids should not be free to roam the internet and bump into inappropriate content. It happens - I know. But look, fandom is not the worst offender but far. Have you heard about Rule 43 Of The Internet? It's just something we have to deal with. And writing discourse about how "it should not be the way it is you guys must just stop it is wrong to do the things you do!!!!" is not "dealing with it". Adults can engage with text and publish things about existing art freely, okay? This is paramount in a democratic society. And listen: moralizing sexual expression is never ever ever ever gonna be a good thing. Ever. It gives you ick? Okay there should be safe spaces. But that's it. Talking/thinking/writing/drawing/making art of/depicting very bad behaviours is not the same as doing very bad things. Also what constitutes problematic behaviour is very much always contingent on social-historical context. So yeah. There are explicit fan fiction involving EVERY SINGLE POSSIBLE CHARACTER COMBINATION I swear... And usually they're not representative of the fandom or of y/x shippers as a whole.

That's is that was my piece.

X

[skaruresonic]

you can just taste the salt pouring from this man lmao. I only dismissed an entire medium as never being able to be art, why are you all whining

1.) Myst released in 1993, the same year as Sonic CD. Calling it an example of games "from the infancy of the form" following the video game market crash of the '80s is laughable

2.) "I particularly didn't want to play one right now, this moment, on demand" - uwu I just shittalked this entire-ass medium and now people are saying I should try to know what I'm talking about before I talk about it and I don't wannaaaaa

This is just. Rude? Idk how else to put it. Your friend goes to the trouble of offering to fetch a game and a console for you, installing everything necessary to set it up - even offering to send the console back to Sony when you're done so you don't have to spend a single dime - and your response is to make some excuse as to why you can't do it.

You could have just said "no," Roger.

yeah it's almost like talking out of your ass "purely on theoretical grounds" without engaging with the thing you're slagging off makes you seem too ignorant to hold a valid view on the thing you're slagging off. or something.

also "This is the gratitude you get for responding to comments at all" lol these salt levels could dry out the Dead Sea

my man has never heard of video games with linear narratives before

Billy cracked dick jokes, Ebert. Billy wrote his plays to appeal to the common people's interests, Ebert.

then why are you talking about video games if you don't want to be told to play one? real "I'm a Sonic fan who hasn't played the games, stop telling me to play the games you're picking on me" energy

The fuck is up with this weird capitalistic pitting of one art form against another? This isn't some zero-sum game where literature loses if video games win. Gamers read too, Ebert. In fact, many games take inspiration from literature, such as SH2 drawing inspiration from the themes of Crime and Punishment; The Witcher being based on Andrzej Sapkowski's book; and Metro 2033 springing from the self-published book of the same name.

I could name more. I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison even voiced AM!). Classic RPG Parasite Eve is a spiritual successor to Hideaki Sena's 1995 sci-fi horror novel. Beev will probably want me to add Castlevania as an example as well, taking the titular character from Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Category:Video games based on novels - Wikipedia

Acting like games and literature are two disparate mediums with no overlap is... frankly, deeply disingenuous. You spoke with fucking Clive Barker, Roger, you should know this. FFS.

Besides, anti-intellectualism runs a lot deeper than New Medium Bad. It has more fascist roots than simply "The kids want to play Fortnite all day and don't want to crack open a book!"

Roger goes on this tangent about how it's difficult to find a definition of art that would preclude video games. Even the one he settles on, his view that art ought to teach him empathy for other people - which... has its limits and when taken too far, borders on requiring moral didactism in art; my man has never heard of art for art's sake - doesn't necessarily rule out games. Because video games literally require you to step into the player character's shoes.

you are such a condescending ass, oh my God. could you not?

"I don't personally know how gamers can learn about other human beings despite the entire conceit of the medium requiring you to assume the role of another person, but whatever, I'll give you guys this one because I've run out of things to say. Perhaps one day gamers will learn to have refined tastes like me, the Movie Review Man. anyway y'all losers, I got better things to do despite the fact that I typed out this wall of text poorly defending my position"

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: September 2023

Oh yeah the air is getting crisp and the coats are getting heavier. I'm ready for fall and here's how I spent the month of September!

……….FILM……….

Hook (1991) There's so much to love about this (the sets! every single pirate! And I truly do love the story here) but taking away nostalgia, it really feels like a B movie. And I kinda forgot just how awful adult Peter is. I mean that's the point, but even the stuff with Rufio feels mean-spirited. But Pirate baseball and the croc clock more than make up for any of that.

A Night At The Roxbury (1998) Having never seen it, this was pretty fun. Maybe not as strong as some of the other SNL-inspired movies, but it ended so strong that it more than makes up for anything else.

Strays (2023) Slim movie pickings at the beginning of the month but this turned out to be way better than expected! I was worried all the decent jokes were in the trailer but it was consistent throughout. And a 1.5 hour runtime? The dream.

……….TELEVISION……….

Love is Blind (Episode 4.13 to 4.16) The beauty of missing the first 12 episodes of a season of reality tv is that they replay important clips so frequently that it's like I watched it. Still baffling that anyone signs up for these shows after seeing what happens to folks that go on. Is it hubris? Do they think they'll be different? Truly bizarre.

……….YOUTUBE……….

How Our Property Tax System Robs The Poor to Pay For The Wealthy by Strong Towns and The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry | Climate Town (feat. Not Just Bikes) by Climate Town Hey can you tell I'm into city planning and how to move away from crummy design? Can't stress enough that suburbs are a blight on society and it's making cities broke, contributing towards climate change, and ruining good spaces. Push your local councils to move away from minimum parking limits and towards multi-use buildings and public transit. VIDEO (Strong Towns) VIDEO (Climate Town)

when green screen actually makes the movie better by CinemaStix When folks complain about green screen (me included), I think what we're really complaining about is seeing a tool used poorly for the wrong job. Sin City (or another fave of mine, Speed Racer)wouldn't have worked if not for green screen. VIDEO

Why Policing in America has ALWAYS been Broken. by F.D Signifier A thoughtful and thorough crash course on policing in America. VIDEO

……….READING……….

Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell (Complete) The beginning is promising but the book is so casual and leans so much on the author's own experiences that I can honestly only recommend it as a loose introduction to cults. I really wanted a deep dive into language, psychology, and sociology but this isn't that. Hey if you know a good book about weaponizing language, let me know.

The Road to Oz and The Emerald City of Oz by L. Frank Baum, Eric Shanower, and Skottie Young (Complete) Finished rereading the omnibus collection of Oz comics and it really is a joy. Young's drawings and Shanower's writing does a lovely job at capturing the whimsy and warmth of Baum's books. Really really great adaptations.

……….AUDIO……….

Guts by Olivia Rodrigo (2023) Listening to this reminds me of what it was like when small problems felt like the biggest problems in the world and there's a sweet comfort in that. Realizing that those troubles passed means that maybe these current ones will too.

Punk Tactics by Joey Valence & Brae (2023) This hasn't hooked me the way that the Underground Sound ep did but I'm still going to give it a bunch more listens before I decide if the Beastie Boys schtick has worn off.

……….GAMING……….

Oz: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) The Mof1 Crew is dealing with the aftermath of causing some light domestic terrorism. So the usual.

Neverland: A Fantasy Role-Playing Setting (Andrews McMeel Publishing) Drama with the rival elves is ramping up and who knows what will happen next! You can read about it here.

And that’s it. See you in October!

[elio-monroe]

sad

it sucks i dont know when i'll get therapy again so just kinda putting something here so i remember it later i guess. im really struggling right now with writing cherries. and its for a dumb reason. i just can't stop thinking about how im writing all of this, how i've been writing all this for four years. and how im putting all this editing in to it and when im done... thats it. i'll close the document and never look at it again. hardly any of my friends will actually read it, bc its nearly 90k words and im not a published author so they aren't going to want to spend that much time on it. and like thats fine, im not going to throw a fit and force people to do something they don't want to do.

but at the same time how am i suppose to be happy with it when it done. i'll have written this massive thing that i'm so passionate about and well thats it. i keep thinking about how i could say ive finished the edits and its done today. that would be a lie but its the same outcome even if it was true. id say its done and then it would sit and no one would read it or even say a single word about it.

and i guess what im suppose to say is that i'd be happy i wrote something. say that im happy i made art even though no one is looking or paying attention. and im a dick if im upset about the lack of attention.

it just sucks so much. i hate feeling this way. i've worked really really hard to not care if my friends like my drawings or not, i don't care if people don't like my films or want to watch them. but i always get sad about my writing and i hate it because it just makes me a huge dick. like why can't i get over myself? im not even a good writer. im bad at drawing, im bad at filming, and im bad at writing yet i get really really upset at the reality that no one will read my stuff.

i just want this solved. i want my brain to work so that way when i finish cherries and close the tab for the final time i won't be a mess.

and trust me i've tried to stop writing and i just can't. idk if anyone knows how to like force yourself to stop writing my all ears. because honestly its so frustrating to be like this! i'm a nobody!! my life doesn't matter in the slightest and my impact on people's life is equivalent to a fly in their house. i'm so fucking good at being a nobody yet my big ass ego won't let me rest with writing! if i could grind myself down more i would! in fact im trying every day to be less and less!

please brain just give up and let me write in peace. stop tempting me with this idea that "people will really like this one!" no they won't! its pointless to even think about it because you know i'm not making this for an audience. i never wanted to be published. i never want to be known. i just want to make my stuff while no one ever looks at me because if they look at me thats bad. i've done something bad. if anyone even reads cherries that isn't me its because i forced them and thats bad so no one can fucking read it.