#ahahaha here we go again with a different art style…

[aoarcturus]

Lily, Marlene and Mary in a band!!! (Click for better quality)

ok, im actually so proud of this one:)) it was so fun to make so I hope u guys like it :)

Also lily has a petunia tattoo, Mary a lily tattoo and Marlene has Dorcas and a meadow tattooed (among others haha)

[bleachbleachbleach]

💠華麗結晶💠

This feels like the kind of post that will languish in drafts for a year if I don’t write it right now, on a time limit, so here goes! This weekend involved a lot of Tourism and tams and my slow burn horror realization that all of the food was going to be held hostage by Socializing with the Regional Archetype Parents of my sister’s cohortmates. But before all that my family and I went to a museum and looked at glass flowers, so I spent a lot of time staring into the middle distance thinking about those. 

Specifically, these ones:

These are plum blossoms, and they are made out of glass. HOW. WHAT. And rest assured, this iPhone snapshot does not do their uncanny verisimilitude justice. In person, it’s completely unreal. They were made by Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the late 19th century, and now I’m obsessed with them.

Even more specifically, I wanted to know: 

Can Hitsugaya make flowers like these out of ice? 

(For Hinamori, obviously. They are plum blossoms, after all.)

We know from the SC that Hitsugaya does ice sculpture--enough to have a semi-regular column about it. Personally, I headcanon that the majority of these sculptures are in the vein of Ruth Asawa’s work, abstract and interested in negative space and in thinking about qualities of space, weight, volume. This headcanon mostly comes from the ash net vacuum ice wall thing he does with Matsumoto in TYBW. But canonically, mostly we just know that he made that very ornate but also ridiculous chair: 

[Colorful Bleach]

I find the chair hilarious, because add a few gargoyles and this is also 100% an Edward Elric chair, and I guess I can’t imagine Hitsugaya naturally posing with something he made like that unless he were explicitly told to, because this is also 100% one of those awkward Early 00s Soccer Team Photos where you have to pose with a ball in the most ridiculous way possible. (As a survivor of this era of soccer photography, we’re talking like... posed lying on the ground propped up on elbows, legs crossed and the ball balanced between your ankles. Why?)  Hitsugaya probably hates that photo, LOL.  But I digress.

We also know he’s made this bad boy:

[Episode 316]

Though maybe that doesn’t count, since I headcanon that he does do the ice sculpting manually rather than magically, and is meticulous about it. This ice blorbo took like 2 seconds and was definitely magical. Talk about phoning it in for Sad Ghost Kid though, ahahaha. (I am joking. The kid loved it, and all he wanted was to see snow. He didn’t want or need some rando showing off his mad art skillz at him. Ice Blorbo is perfect and the best thing about the entire episode.)

But while we’re talking about magical ice... As far as his capacity for artistic verisimilitude goes, we also know he’s made this weird little guy:

(Bonus headcanon: I think he developed this technique after the fight with Luppi. I don’t know how much he was able to keep track of re: Urahara’s fight with Yammi and his use of his blowup doll gigai while he was running around setting up his own attack, but afterwards he was definitely interested in/wary of Urahara. There’s something about this move that doesn’t feel 100% his style, but I am very attracted to the idea that it was inspired by a combination of his encounter with Aizen in the Central 46 HQ + glancing knowledge of Urahara’s gigai.) 

Though, again, this seems less in the vein of hyperreal sculpture than it is some kind of atmospheric mirage that’s making use of water/light refraction to create a double. So maybe it’s not quite what we’re looking for:

[Chapter 357]

Verdict: Given the examples we have to work with, I kind of feel like Hitsugaya could not, at present, make ice flowers on the level of the Blaschka glass ones. He has the most experience working with ice at scale, and producing things very quickly under duress. Even though the ice sculpting seems to take a different tack--producing things slowly, with no time limit--the projects we’ve seen tend to be fairly large, rather than flower-sized. Credit where credit’s due, Hitsugaya would have to work for it to get on the Blaschkas’ level.

However, I absolutely think that given enough time to do that work, Hitsugaya absolutely could and would. He’s already done work with flower motifs:

[Chapter 359]

So really, it’s just a matter of taking the scale down, and focusing on a different element of craft, both of which seem entirely within Hitsugaya’s wheelhouse and within the realm of things he would be interested in.

He probably spent his entire 10-year timeskip making tiny hyperrealistic ice flowers and learning how to do ice enamel coloring. They all finally had the time.

[break-slash]

Puzzleship JP & KR Fancomic Recommendation List

UPDATE (19-12-2020): Added two more artists and two more titles on the Japanese lists!

I don’t consider myself as someone very tidy and organized, but I just like making lists of the things I love, somehow. Hence this post. I haven’t been in the fandom for long but I thought I’d share some of my favorites primarily from two sites: pixiv and postype. Most of the postype ones are behind paywall, and I will mark them differently.

Some of my favorites come from the same artists, so I’ll also link their pixiv profile on top of my favorite work of them.

(I actually bookmarked a lot and picking them isn’t an easy task, so I will update this step by step. If you see only a link of an artist, that’s the reason, but I can guarantee you will love their works! Feel free to recommend me yours through reblogs or DM as well!)

Japanese

Artist: CYHGM

She is a Chinese and is more active on Weibo (she posted tons of puzzleship there, but my Mandarin is beyond rusty so I could only cry in despair lmao), but she has two fancomics that I absolutely adore of. Those two mentioned fancomics are:

The Past and The Future. You can check my translation for this one here. It tells about Atem who gets transported to 3000 years later before his coronation, and that’s where he met post-canon!Yugi. Just... everything about this comic is so wonderful. I teared up at the last page, not gonna lie ;_;

The Pharaoh and The Fairy: An Ancient Egypt-slash-fantasy AU featuring the S0/TOEI casts. The fairy Yugi was saved by Atem, and it’s an obligatory for fairies to grant their savior’s wishes. However, Atem doesn’t exactly have something he wants of, and this confuses Yugi on how he should repay him back. Pure undiluted sugar, and fairy!Yugi is just so cute.

Artist: Fushitas

Arguably one of the most popular Puzzleship fanartists in the JP fandom (look at their number of followers on Twitter, man), but maybe it’s also due to the fact they were in AoT fandom too. They’re mostly active on Twitter, and if you also watch Zexal, they draw tons of Yuma-centric pairings too. They have released lots of books, and their prices on the reseller sites are... well, let’s just say, unbelievable. Just to show how famous they are. 

From everlasting to everlasting: Set after DSOD. A mysterious figure appears in front of Atem, claiming to be his queen. Everyone in the after life somehow acknowledges this person, which makes him even more confused because he’s the only one unaware of this. On the living realm, Yugi who is on the way to his home got hit by a truck (isekai much??) and when he woke up, he suddenly plays the role of Atem’s queen. I’ve always adored Fushitas’ drawing, and this is no exception. The story is pretty simple, but is still good! The ending of this comic is everything I’ve always wanted from the canon lol. 

The King’s Guest: Ancient Egypt AU. The councils are starting to get worried because Atem shows no interest in marrying someone, so Shimon opens up a “chance” sort of for civilians to become “someone for the Pharaoh to talk with”. The civilian Yugi takes this chance right off the bat, and stuff happens? This one is just so sweet and the misunderstanding later in the story kinda cracks me up. I really love the way they build the two’s chemistry in here.

Artist: usi 

They only draw two puzzleship fancomics, but both are so good and explores the themes I’ve loved from the pairing.

The Lotus’ Devil: Set post-canon with a flashback. It tells about Yugi’s regret in the past where he wanted to show Atem a small pool supposed to be full of lotus flower only to arrive seeing them not blooming. Fast forward to the post-canon, he found out that there’s actually a monster residing on that pool. I really, really loved the ending scene of this one.

Who’s The Detestable, Fortunate Guy Here: I think this is set sometime in the canon story, although the exact timing is unclear. It’s a short comic of Yugi asking Atem to pretend to be his date and go on a “dating practice”. A very pleasant hurt-and-comfort kind of story, and who doesn’t love a story of them dating anyways? :”D

Artist: Houzuki Anzu

She doesn’t draw much YGO, but she has some Arc-V and 5D’s fanarts too if you watch the series! 

Hourglass: Sets after the Memory World arc. Yugi keeps hearing a strange sound inside his mind, and he finds out there’s a huge hourglass standing there, guarded by the will of Millenium Puzzle. Apparently, the hourglass is linked to Atem’s remaining time in the living realm? Anyways, the ending of this comic might look like a cliffhanger, but I personally think it isn’t. I love the theme this comic picks to explore and the way it is presented.

Present: Same setting with Hourglass, but this one focuses more on Atem sorting out his feelings about the Ceremonial Duel and what he has learned from Yugi in general. It’s a very nice extra detail that the canon slightly lacks of, and I just love... bittersweet stuff in general haha.

Artist: Chiriko

Are you the type who wants puzzleship to be full of happiness and fluff and nothing else? Well, she has a number of comics to fill that need! I actually love all of her works, but if I have to pick, these two are my favorite:

...Don’t Ever Leave Me Again: A short story about Yugi having a nightmare of where he was stuck in the fire accident at Otogi’s store. Well... this isn’t a fluff sort of, but it’s... a happy ending still? /shot

[Untitled]: A dialogue-less comic, but this is the sort of post-canon what-if that I really, really like. Atem stroking Yugi’s face while sleeping is just... so soft man....

Artist: Komori Nea

Their art style was one of those that’s very noticeable and has a certain charm on it. They are pretty active on Twitter, and even draws puzzle comics once in a while that haven’t been uploaded to pixiv (which is why I recommend you to check their twitter gallery too haha)

The Soul Stays Awake: Post!DSOD. Atem comes back from afterlife in hoping that Yugi would be as happy as he is, but months after, Atem’s existence still hasn’t been registered on Yugi’s life just yet. Another post!DSOD take that I like which involves the fear of another farewell and uncertainty, but this is a good hurt-and-comfort. I swear, it’ll hurt you just... for a while. :”)

The Attack’s Aim: Set during the canon series. A short comic mostly portraying Yugi’s hidden strength but also the tenacity of duelist that is not only targeted toward the opponent, but also to Atem, without the person actually noticing it. The last page of this one is so... soft and gentle I had to put it into this list.

Artist: caf

Often draw with S0/TOEI style, characters and characterization in mind. Their coloring in illustrations is so soft, plus artists who specialize in S0/TOEI style can’t be found so easily. Their comic style is not a manga-like one and they write the dialogues with handwriting, but if you can read hiragana and write and understand how kanji works (so you can write it on translation machine), their comics are easy to understand!

magenta: S0/TOEI AU where Yugi and Atem are two separate person. A short comic of Yugi lying under the rain as Atem searches for his whereabouts. I really love the way they portray the rain and the atmosphere surrounding the scene. Or maybe I’m just biased with rains in general, ahahaha.

Yuugi and Mao’s Stay Home: Same AU as above. Our two boys has to face the same shit we do IRL in this comic, which is quarantine. Atem offers to cook something for Yugi since he can’t eat outside. You love seeing Yugi eating stuff? This is a perfect comic for y’all. 

Artist: Kkyut

Artist: Kayu(i)

Others:

Gemini: As Atem comes back to the living world, Yugi faces the dilemma of having being separated by “his other self” physically and mentally. A short comic, but the lines the artist used are so... beautiful. Like, the way they describe Yugi’s loneliness?? Just hits the park so much. 

Until The Hourglass Runs Out: Set after the Memory World Arc. As their farewell day goes closer, Yugi decides to give Atem a full control of his body at school so he could spend his time with Jounouchi and the gang more. However, things don’t go as smooth as Yugi had expected. If you like that little teeny weeny pain before the Ceremonial Duel, this comic perfectly suits the taste. 

see you sometime: Post-canon. Mahaad offers Atem a chance to meet Yugi in the living realm one more time, but with several conditions. Firstly, he could only stay for a day at maximum. Secondly, Yugi won’t be able to remember who he spent his time with after Atem hangs out with him. Thirdly, Yugi will not be able to “recognize” this Atem; he will only be registered in Yugi’s mind as a new classmate. A bittersweet comic in whole, but seeing the two having fun like a normal teenager would just makes me grin.

After The Rain: A dialogue-less comic, so everyone would be able to read this right away. A short comic of the two, but still very cute and wholesome!

The Tropics of Horus: Post!DSOD, Atem has to chase Kisara who lingers around Kaiba’s soul and he needs Yugi’s help to bring Kisara back to afterlife, but he has his own ulterior motive. This manga is so dialogue-heavy and might be hard to dissect especially if you don’t understand JP grammar and context, but the time spent trying to understand the meaning behind every words will be worth it. That much I guarantee. Just... everything about this comic, and how Atem’s “ulterior motive��� connects to our boys’ adventure in canon series are so well planned. You can also purchase the R18 version in a form of the book here (toranoana)

Christmas Day: S0/TOEI puzzleship hint (dark puzzle???). There’s something in store for Yugi in Christmas, but this one might surprise Yugi a lot. It’s not that the prompt of “Atem gets separated from Yugi temporarily” is uncommon, but it is still a sweet one and makes you smile throughout the pages. 

Korean

All titles mentioned here are not free unless mentioned otherwise. Also I don’t understand Korean except being able to read Yugi and Atem’s name, so my story interpretation might be wrong. If you understand Korean, I’d really love for you input! ;_; 

You can check out on how to buy comics from postype here

Yugi’s 2020 Birthday Anthology: Rain and After End

This is an anthology consisting of four titles, but they share the same (or similar) setting where Atem is reincarnated, but he doesn’t remember his past (or has not yet, depending on how the story portrays it). Some are age-gap (adult!Yugi and high school student!Atem), so you might want to consider that if it’s not your cup of tea.

To Like Someone is to...: Age-gap setting. Mostly tells about how Yugi deals with his feeling as the reincarnated Atem in front of him turns out to have a feeling on him. I like how the story’s conclusion is that Yugi will sort it out slowly while also teasing Atem how he’s “too early” to date Yugi w.

In A Circle: A story about how the two met through an online chess game. Iirc Yugi works in a game company and Atem is sort of a famous e-sports player in this setting. There’s a lot of dialogue in this one and the app sometimes can’t process them very well, but I liked what I can understand from it! not very convincing is it haha i’m sorry i shouldn’t have done this

Familiarity: Age-gap setting, where Yugi becomes Atem’s caretaker. The comic mostly focuses on how Atem notices how kind (or too kind) Yugi is sometimes, but there are times where he feels distant. The plot where Atem gets into a fight with the other kid in his school because the kid mocks Yugi, and how Yugi just... accepts it even when Atem doesn’t want to say his reason of punching the kid is just.... god... I love this kind of age-gap setting like this I guess ;_;

Touchdown: Age-gap setting, but Atem is older in here (university student). The two goes to Atem’s university festival and they think about their own feeling when they got separated. On their way to drop Atem off, he confesses to Yugi, but Yugi is still unsure on his overlapping feeling between the reincarnated Atem and the Atem he knows. Make sure you play Motohiro Hata’s Rain and Aimer’s After Rain during the car scene to make the “rain” mood works even better :”)

Others:

Try For Point: A continuation of Touchdown, where Atem (like, the one from the past) visits Yugi in his dream and helps Yugi in sorting out is his feeling toward his reincarnated self. Atem’s advice is so sweet and there’s one certain line from this comic that I remember very deeply - there’s a part where he says, “If you don’t pull out the card, you won’t know what card it is, right?” to help Yugi clearing out his hesitancy ;w; at this point, I curse myself for not being able to understand Korean

[selfcareparker]

okay fghsgdj yes you can say girl ! my pronouns are she/her :) okay but fr pause, i read this like 3 minutes after you posted it (or at least my notif said 3mins lmao) bUT IM IN BED AND I USUALLY HAVE MY COMPUTER OPEN WITH YOUR RESPONSE SO I MAKE SURE I ADDRESS EVERYTHING AND THEN SEND IN THE ASK ON MY PHONE HDGSJSH anyway, time to get my ass up 😔 but wait i find you so funny like honestly, reading that cracked me all the way up. and i feel the “lol” thing so hard!!!! idk why i do it all the time (i’m tryna stop) but i’ll say something with lol at the beginning and lol at the end... it might be a defense mechanism at this point lol (😔) AND (i need to stop with the uppercase too it’s not funny anymore) I DONT KNOW WHY I LAUGHED SO HARD JDHSK WHEN YOU SAID ALSO AGAIN HAHAHAH LIKE UR HAHHAH also my sleep schedule is not pretty either lmao but i’m homeschooled so i never have to get up for anything? hhdhsis idk but i’m glad you slept!! you need sleep!!

also (pls no i cannot) why did i not know what ykwim meant until i reread this?? like it makes so much sense- anyway! i think it’s so cool that you’re excited for university! idk why but i do lol like you’re getting ready for the future (masters degree and all that) & you’re (maybe) going to england anyway so that’s cool haha (hopefully when you go you can see your relatives 🤞🏾)

the fact that you get happy seeing my asks i- 💓💓

you make me wanna go to London & England so bad urghhhh like i’ve only been out of the country once (to Canada for a family reunion) but it sounds so prettyyyyy & i’m so sorry that cov*d is messing everything up and i hope you can see your relatives soon :(

now to address the whole english speaking/writing: I FIND THAT SO WEIRD DUHSKSJ i don’t know how an english speaking person could say that if you don’t write it 100% grammatically correct.... that it’s wrong? when literally, over here at least, WE’RE SO GRAMMATICALLY INCORRECT HAHHAAH in both the way we talk and write!! and lol you’re welcome,, AND THE PARAGRAPH DID MAKE SENSE HDHSJSH & your rant is fine because... that is actually a bit ??? bc no one writes with 100% grammar lol

OH MY GOSH (see this uppercase thing is addictive) YOU STUDIED LATIN FOR 6 YEARS??? that’s really cool 🥺 the way that you know/speak 3+ languages i- NOT EVEN 3+ LIKE 6+ (german, english, latin, french, serbian, italian, and everything that comes with latin lmao) even if it’s just a tiny bit like wowee. it is really fascinating!!! i had the opportunity to take latin and i... didnt. i took art instead BUT ONLY CUZ MY FRIENDS WERE IN THAT CLASS AND ART LOOKED FUN IM SORRY

PLEASE WHY DO YOU KNOW EVERYONE?? that sounds so fricking cool tell your mom (mum or mama it’s really fine lol) that she sounds awesome. i think Jamaica would be fun either way!! i mean it looks pretty from pictures? i was a baby so i honestly have no recollection hahaha

LMAOO NOT U SAYING THIS IS LONGER THAN SOME OF MY FICS- PLEASE GIRL IM TELLING YOU I VERBALLY LAUGHED HAHAHAHAHAH but yea you really don’t need to apologize i like reading everything you say 🥺 HDKSHS AND UR FINE WE WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT ME BEFORE uhhh hmm uhh lemme think i, well, i saw chaos walking yesterday (big tom holland fan over here) and it was alright.. my mom acted a fool at all the jump scares LMAO but it was funny... since i’m talking about movies (this is hella random i know) but i like shark movies HDKJSSJ my favorite is the meg (it’s so good ohmigosh) and the 47 meters down movies aren’t bad either... i have two younger brothers... iiiii AM IN LOVE WITH MUSIC PHEW anddd i’m homeschooled (i think i mentioned that lol) i think that’s a good amount ahahaha AND IM HUNGRY RN JDHSJ

now. please. let me address the edit. i just want you to know that.. when i talk about your fics and i finish them and everything i’m not looking for more? like obviously if you’re writing i’m gonna read it but you don’t need to feel pressured or anything (idk if you do) to put more fics out lol like they’re great and i’m just sending the praise bc i love the ones that are there :’) but i’m so happy you’re working through your writers block!!! yay so so happy for you!!! and PUHLEASE anything you write is fantastic, i feel the exact same way when i write but girl. you’re fine. it’s gonna be great. (idk if this made any sense but... okay)

(and my cousin calls her mom mama so it’s really okay hahah i even call my mom mama sometimes) (and where you got the number “16 sentences” beats me but i still cracked up) (is this me pretending i had tags? maybe) HAHAHAHA OK BYE ❤️❤️ why did this take me so long to send i have no clue, AND WHY AM I OVERTHINKING EVERYTHING I SAID SHAJSHSJ ANYWAY BYE btw i love us too... like iconic // lovely anon 💓

me reading this:

also the dedication you put into sending me stuff— like with the laptop and phone and ahsksk 🥺🥺🥺

i’ll update you when i’ve started uni btw, i’m getting more and more excited every single day haha but i still have 3 weeks until it starts and even then I’ll obviously have to get used to it and everything, but you’re making me even more excited about it sksjshsg

yeah i wanna go to england too dkshsh let’s be sad together over the fact the we can’t travel eksjsh😔😭 but hopefully the wait will make it even better in the end <33 also i talk to loads of relatives over the phone at least once a week so it’s not too bad for me! but i miss their house 😭lmao

and i knowww snshsh so many native english speakers just make so many mistakes— and obviously i get that some things are slang but some things are simply wrong ajsh, the thing is no one has ever told me that my english is bad (i know it’s not bad anyway, but i’m still insecure) or no one has ever pointed out any mistakes, but yeah it’s mostly just insecurity dkshsg but yes thanks for saying what you said (previously as well as in this ask)😌🥰

Okay now for latin— girlll i don’t blame u for choosing art over latin esp. when all of your friends are doing art as well!! I’d choose art over latin as well lol skshsg but in year 6 we had to choose between latin and french, and at the time i didn’t like french? which was dumb of me and now i wanna learn french ekdhs but i don’t regret choosing latin at all bc if i properly learn french one day then i’ll already know understand loads of stuff (or at least some stuff lol) just thanks to latin 😌😌 but still, art>>>latin skskshshgs

I wanna watch chaos walking too!!! But i don’t get when/where/how it’s out lmao, cinemas are still closed here so i’ll either have to wait or find it somewhere online... il*egally 🥰 i don’t have high expectations at all btw but i like daisy and tom and the dog🥺 so i think i’ll enjoy it

GIRL SHARK FILMS SHARK FOLMS SKSJSHSHS okay so there are a few classics i haven’t watched yet, and also a few new ones that i haven’t seen yet BUT I LOVE SHARK FILMS SO MUCH SKSHSGSGSKK the first like proper shark film i ever watched was the shallows (which i like but my brain is still too small to comprehend what happened at the end (i mean i get it but i just can’t imagine it— idek if you’ve seen the film but skshhs)) and after watching it three times it does get a bit boring (but now whenever i see pictures or videos of big waves i’m just waiting for a shark to show up like come ON SKSJSG

^^^that pic/scene really traumatised me sksjsh but i still like the film

I only watched jaws like a few months ago, and i get that it’s a classic and also that it’s old and they just didn’t have the best.. equipment or special effects or whatever but i mean... look at meg and then look at jaws.... no disrespect to jaws at ALL but the meg is so much cooler. (That one scene on the boat where the shark just JUMPS OUT OF THE WATER AND SKSJSHHSUSJHA i get such a shock every time it’s so good (and the dog aww aksjshssli 🥺🥺🥰 and the boy with the ice cream lmao he’s iconic)

47 metres down, wow, i liked that film too. (i’ve only watched the original/first one i think) i mean that is such a fucking nightmare scenario like ALSJDHSNEMSKDJSHSJSKWBALSODUEWBSLDKHDJSNSKSKSHSGEBWKAISGSHEKEKSKLDJDJDHDHSHAGGA (that’s the best way i can express my feelings about that scenario lmao)

oh and i’ve recently been watching more horror films but i don’t know if they’re for me... I like the thrill and whatever but i just end up being scared for my life when i have to go to the bathroom at night or when i’m trying to sleep bc suddenly my mind is flooded with all the scary shit from the films 💀💀💀

and music i mean... you know those people who just don’t listen to music? WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM???? i honestly like all genres especially in the last year, i am IN LOVE with Nicki Minaj + Megan andddd Stormzy and i like Harry Styles but i prefer his first solo album (and obviously one direction has bangers i have a throwback 1D session at least once a month), I also love MGK especially his new stuff and otherwise i mostly listen to german artists lmao. So who do you like?💖 (WHY DO I FEEL LIKE YOURE GONNA SAY SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SKAHAGUS IF YOU LISTEN TO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MUSIC DONT JUDGE ME AJSHDJS) (i know you’re not gonna judge me but)

++ @ the thing you said about writing, don’t worry, i don’t feel pressured at all!!! (not by you and not by anybody else.. except myself sometimes lol) and i’m just very happy that you liked my fics 🥰🥰🥰 and if i start telling people that i’m writing a fic then sometimes it puts a bit of (healthy) pressure on me. like yes sometimes it really is writer’s block, but sometimes i really am just lazy ddkshhd so now that i’ve told you i’m writing a fic i might get my ass up quicker than i would if i hadn’t told anyone 😌😌😌

[yutaya]

Iron Fist Rewatch 1x05: Under Leaf Pluck Lotus

I like this shot. The way the women are shown reflected in the wall first. Also lol quintessential synchronized female power strut

Why wait until you’re IN the office to move your wedding ring?? Or to unbutton your shirt? Well, that one I can understand - let all the people who see you heading INTO the office see the shirt still buttoned up. The ring, though - unless the POINT is to be seen moving it? Imply that you’re open to cheating or something? Ugh.

This is so sketchy.

Danny’s employees be like: “Having? My voice heard? At work? Having? My opinion? Be valued? My? Contribution? Being? Acknowledged? Personally??? ??? ??? What is happening????? ??????” And then it’s the “the worthy leader’s people love and are completely loyal to them” trope (aka one of my greatest weaknesses) forever. <3

Lmao Joy you’re cold.

“Is that heroin? You bring drugs into my office?” *Laughing/sobbing*

Ward just staring blankly while Danny name drops a bunch of triad stuff like Ward is supposed to know what that is. Danny: “...It’s a criminal syndicate.” Ward: *heavy sigh*

Danny, continuing: “So I was talking to the criminals with the hatchets and asked them for intel. They sent me a box, which was clearly a message!” Ward: “You 👏 sound 👏 in 👏 sane. 👏” Danny: “No, look, the proof is that the symbol on this heroin looks like the undying dragon that made me a living weapon!”

Lol “Harold said so himself” no faster way to turn Ward off a plan, sorry Danny

Danny. How do you manage to make half your conversations sound sketchy as hell?

Joy: *brings up the Hatchet men and Red Hook right after Danny was telling Ward about it in relation to the Hand* Ward: *alarm bells ringing because HAS DANNY BEEN TELLING JOY ALL THE THINGS WE SPECIFICALLY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TELL JOY?* Joy: Anyway, about Dad’s cancer... Ward: Oh, ok then.

Siiiiiiigh this conversation where Ward reassures Joy that she’s a good person making the right decision when she feels bad about doing something but does it anyway - to protect their own company and personal interests - and adds on a load of “also you don’t really feel guilty because you think this is wrong, you just feel sad because you’re remembering Dad, don’t mix it up”

Colleen to Claire, Iron Fist 1x05: “Oh what was that? Come on, hit me.” Colleen to Misty, Luke Cage 2x03: *hitting directly on Misty’s stump while Misty yells at her to stop* “You came to me. I’m not easy. You don’t like that?”

Claire: “I guess I got tired of people doing things for me all the time.” Claire was a helpful nurse in Daredevil, and a friend with medical knowledge in Luke Cage - Iron Fist is where she says “I am tired of being reactionary”

LOL Danny’s cute little smile when he comes in to see Colleen doing her normal thing, training a student, just - it’s so loving and adorable even though they BARELY KNOW EACH OTHER YET

Claire just giving Colleen knowing looks ahahahaha

This scene is SO CUTE Jessica and Finn do such a great job playing all the body language and speech cadences like two teenagers with crushes on each other

DANNY ordering takeout for a talk with someone without even checking to see if they’re free first is SO PRESUMPTUOUS what if she wasn’t free (which she WASN’T) or didn’t want to talk or had already eaten/already had meal plans?

I’m literally laughing out loud hahahaha takeout hahahaha

Claire is laughing at them too. This fumbling “date?” conversation is too adorable I can’t

LMAO Claire knows EXACTLY how much she is third wheeling them right now but she doesn’t care because Damn that food looks good. Girl knows what she wants. (Also a little bit of female solidarity helping to buffer when your friend has literally said “no” to the guy - but in this particular case it’s SO OBVIOUS that Colleen likes him back that I read she’s leaning more towards the ‘it’s just to make sure but also that food looks REALLY good’ - then again, especially with all the things Claire has seen there really is no such thing as ‘too cautious’... let’s go with the way she hints is an opening and when Colleen leaps on the opportunity for Claire to stay it becomes ‘yep, I’m definitely doing this, Colleen doesn’t want to be alone with the dude: confirmed’)

Ward is looking at the problem as what it is: a set-up, and they don’t fall for traps. Joy goes “Remember that I am better at public perception than you - there are more factors here to consider than what everyone involved in this particular case knows. I’M thinking long term about potential future ramifications.”

“He’s in a completely different world, Joy.” “He lives in ours, now.”

That awkward moment when you’re already digging in and someone starts praying

The way Danny just goes shutters down mode when Claire starts probing about how harsh life in the monastery was

Colleen, brainwaving to Claire: ‘YOU BITCH DON’T LEAVE ME HERE’ Claire, brainwaving right back: ‘”Vow of chastity.” I’m good. You’re on your own, girl.’ She does do one last check in to make sure Colleen really isn’t worried though which I appreciate.

Danny. You lovable buffoon. You think Ward’s problem is that he doesn’t believe you? And that if he did believe this was happening he would of course immediately take action to shut it down? Colleen to Ward, sometime in the future: “Danny has Always had way more faith in you than you deserve.” ToT

Colleen: “Ok soooo I’m still not seeing the part where you had to come tell me this? Am I just your favorite sounding board or...?” Danny: “Well, I want you to come stakeout and possibly getting killed WITH me, of course.” Colleen: “Wait, is this a date?” Danny: “What? No! I mean. Unless you want it to be?” Colleen: “No!” Danny: “No. No, uh, definitely, uh, not a date. Heh.” Colleen: “Good.” Danny: “Good.” *both nod*

Of course the argument that gets to Colleen is how this will endanger her students.

DANNY trying to convince someone to do something and then when they hesitate dropping “by the way I’m your new landlord” on them is SKETCHY you foolish foolish boy. How do you manage to come across so sketchy all the time?!

Ward: *cheerfully throwing Danny under the bus* Joy: *warning Look* Ward: *sighhhhhh you ruin all my fun Joy*

Joy: *radiating ‘just wait til we’re alone’ vibes at Ward* “:) I will back up my brother wholeheartedly because we are a united front and I refuse to let the board see any cracks to even try and exploit :)” *’JUST YOU WAIT WARD YOUR ASS IS GRASS’*

Ahahaha “Ward has always led our company to greatness with his mad genius” when Ward knows most of those decisions were actually Harold I’m cry

Danny. That’s Colleen’s private property Danny. It’s very presumptuous to order takeout, buy her building, and start playing with her katana, Danny.

Martial art style teasing rivalry culture I love it

They’re too cute

AI YA

“suck on that, Dad�� Ward be like “yeah i went against everything smart that Joy and board were arguing for me to do just to make your precious company look bad DAD whatchu gonna do, huh? gonna send me more vaguely threatening text messages about how not a single moment in my life is private from you, huh, DAD? fuck you”

Danny: “it’s just nice, having someone to count on.” Colleen: “You have the Meachums.” Danny: *remains silent* IT’S SO DAMNING ahahaha Colleen has so many reasons to hate the Meachums hahahaha

Danny: “I don’t even know what I’m doing or saying until it’s taken the wrong way,” Well, I’m glad you realize that, Danny. You’ve seen how many times in the last TWO EPISODES ALONE people have recoiled slightly and gone “woah, woah, what are you doing?” Oh buddy.

Danny: “Ok, look, this stakeout is dangerous, but it’s not ILLEGAL. Technically, I own that pier, so it’s not trespassing or anything.” Radovan: “No hospitals! I’m a wanted man in several countries.”

High Ward T_T and the two different conversations Ward and Joy are having right now T_T and the way Joy doesn’t have the information to even begin to know what Ward is talking about but how she can FEEL that it’s BAD and - T___T

High Ward with his walls down cuddling Joy’s arm and saying “you stood by me” and Joy scared as hell but not hesitating on “we’re family,” as her explanation T________T

“The Hand.” - Danny knew this was The Hand going in. Claire is freaking out because SHE LEFT HELL’S KITCHEN TO GET AWAY FROM THE HAND FUCK THAT HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO HER? Colleen is freaking out for an entirely different reason. :(

“The Hand is everywhere.” Cut from Claire and Danny to a new shot of Colleen looking on in the background.

Claire: “This is not something a rich kid from the Upper West Side can just ‘handle’, ok? This is a job that requires someone with special.... skills.” Ahahahaa poor Claire how DOES this keep happening to her?

Danny, with utmost conviction: “I am the ONLY one who can defeat them.” Claire: *long, defeated sigh. How many freaking times has she heard this before and how many times will she hear it again?*

Colleen: “This is my choice.” Danny hears: “because it’s the right thing to do and I care about the people of this city especially my kids who are highly likely to be effected and also I maybe care about you too.” Colleen means: “because this is the Bad Hand that is sullying my family’s good name and I will not let that stand. I will work together with my family and we will defeat this.”

Gao: “’His hands’. Are you sure it wasn’t his fist?” Guard: “Ummmmm what’s the difference”

CULTS ARE SO SCARY HE REALLY JUST KNELT THERE AAAAAH

[erekiosuncreativeideas]

Hey! Just wanted to say you and several other talented folks in the Hat in Time fandom inspired me to take another crack at digital art. I didn't really care for it when I tried it about a decade ago, but went out and bought a tablet to try again! You've probably been asked this before, but which art program do you use/recommend? And do you have any simple tips for a beginner? Thanks, and hope you are well!

Hello ! Aaaah I’m glad it helped you !! I hope you’ll keep your inspiration up ! As for which software I’m using, surprisingly, this is the first time someone asks me this I think ? x) In any case, I use Clip Studio Paint for drawing (very useful for its 3D models and its workshop) and this website for texturing my drawings.

As for simple tips for beginners, hum... Let me put that under a “read more” as it's very, very long.

So yeah. Well, I’m not really a good example.

I started drawing by copying drawings in “how to draw” books, then official arts and fanarts. I kept them for myself at the time, but I still have them in a folder, in a closet of my room. I mean, copying does help, as it helps you to get used to proportions, to basic movements with your pencils/pen, to a base in anatomy... Of course, they’re still copies of someone else’s drawings, so it’s best not to share them online. Copying is more a training process (at least, to me). Here’s what I used to do (so yeah, those are copies for the first two, then one of my tries at “”inventing”” new characters by changing their clothes and hair, though still using very simple poses). I was 11 years old at the time (I’m 23 now).

Once you start being more comfortable without something to copy... Don’t feel bad about using references. And for that, let me find two versions of a drawing I made about one of my old OCs back in 2017 (I was 19 at the time). Keep in mind that there is only a month of difference between the two following drawings (yes the date is in European format, as I’m French)

So... YEAH. Using references (and in that case, a 3D model in CSP) is very, VERY USEFUL. It’s not cheating. Saying that using references and digital tools to get a better drawing is cheating is, for me, the same as saying it’s cheating to use a car to go to work instead of walking there. We have tools, we have a looot of options, so let’s use them.

Another advice is to draw as much as you can. I know, you hear this one ALL THE TIME. But you don’t have to draw BEAUTIFUL drawings all the time. Even doodling helps you to improve. Like, okay, this is not something you should do in class like I did back when I was in college, but I used to doodle A LOOOOT in my notebooks. And... Well... Those aren’t very “good” compared to my finished drawings, sure, but they do help you to develop your style, to develop your drawing speed, and most importantly, it teaches you not to ALWAYS try to get a beautiful drawing in the end. Sometimes, doodling can be more useful than spending hours on a single drawing, especially when you’re not inspired. Some of my doodles are even better than some of my old finished drawings. Like...

They’re not perfect, but they did help me to get more spontaneous when drawing Hat Kid and Snatcher in my more elaborated drawings. So yeah, doodle as much as possible (just... Not in class like I did ahahaha, that probably contributed to me dropping out of school dkishqd).

Another advice would be to give yourself some slack, and I’m speaking from experience. I used to be so strict with myself, thinking that whatever I had to produce had to perfect (writing or drawing) otherwise it was no use to continue it. Drawing for myself (meaning, drawings that weren’t meant to be posted, drawings “for fun”) were out of the question because they “would have no use”. So yeah, I spent years trying to draw based of what I thought people wanted from me, and not what I wanted to draw. I don’t think I even knew what I wanted to draw sincerely at the time, to be completely honest. One example I can give about this was when I tried to do the 2018 inktober : I only managed to do 5 drawings, because I was trying MUCH TOO HARD to do something I could find beautiful. I had to take a few days to finish a single drawing, so I already felt like I wasn’t doing the challenge properly, since while I did draw everyday at the beginning, it was less drawings than expected. Eventually, I became sick and I had to stop drawing for a few days. When I felt better, I had lost all motivation to continue the challenge. Wanna see how overcomplicated those drawings were ? Here are a few :

Let me tell you that joining the AHIT fandom helped me IMMENSELY, because I did my best at drawing as much as I could, I tried as much as possible to be satisfied of my drawings, even if they didn’t reach my expectations. And you know what ? I improved so, so, SO much in only ten months. Although, it wasn’t entirely done by motivation (ha, I wish). This coincided when I started taking antidepressants, and more precisely when they started to work on my mental health. So yeah, mental health really was a problem that prevented me from drawing, so sometimes, some exterior help is needed when it’s necessary. Here are my first two drawings of the year (well, they’re from December 31th 2019, but HUSH)...

Compared to my most recent ones (made for my ongoing RPs, and these drawings are perhaps the first ones I've done for fun in my entire life, I am not exaggerating) :

So yeah. Taking care of your mental health if you need it is one of the most important points, if not THE most important one. I know it helped me A LOT, and I, who used to draw perhaps 10 to 15 drawings A YEAR... Made more than 130 drawings this year in only 10 months. Your well being always, ALWAYS has to come first, and trust me, it’ll help your productivity and thus help you to improve as you’ll probably draw more. But then again, this is only my personal experience on the subject.

Don’t be afraid to try new things (like recently, I’m trying to colour my sketches and I feel like it looks better than my lineless drawings), don’t be afraid to try new tools, don’t be afraid to ask for help, don’t be afraid to look at tutorials, don’t be afraid to use references, and most of all, don’t be afraid of not being productive.

Sometimes you really, REALLY need a break, and this comes from a person who had a writing and artistic artblock (meaning, hiatus in all my ongoing projects and the inability to start new ones) for two years before becoming productive again. As you can see, it really helped me.

I hope it wasn’t too boring to read and I hope my advice will help you. Obviously, I’m not a drawing expert, I’m just doing what feels nice and good to me, but my methods might not work for everyone. Each person has their own way to function and if you haven’t found yours, it’s okay, it’ll come with time and experience as you try new things. Don’t be afraid of doodling or making ““bad”“ drawings, because it’s still a very good experience. It’s better than doing nothing.

Anyway... Hope it helped, and thank you for following me, my art and fanfictions, it really means so much to me !!

[blaperile]

Homestuck^2 - Reactions Chapter 2 “Clown Logistics” (Pages 57 - 95)

Time for the "Clown Logistics"!

...There's nothing I can think of but a hypothetical department within Jane's ship. So, a chapter from Jane's perspective is my only theory right now!

I mean, seeing as Gamzee’s (presumably) dead I assume this won’t be a direct focus on him.

If we do focus on Jane now, it's interesting how the B2 Kids are getting the majority of the focus so far in Homestuck^2.

And Roxy, who had, especially in the later parts of Homestuck, the majority of screentime has so far not appeared yet.

Very, very interesting indeed.

Anyway, let's read on.

Page 57:

NOPE, SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY. But still related to fucking Gamzee of course.

WE'VE GOT OFFICIAL ART FOR VRISKA MARYAM-LALONDE NOW :O

Oh man.

I'd been forming some mental images on what Vriska Maryam-Lalonde and Tavros Crocker would look like. But to be honest, my creativity wasn't that good so I'd been mostly imagining a near exact copy of Vriska, and a humanized version of Tavros. :P

Meanwhile, for Harry Anderson I'm imagining something like John/Jake with a hair style more like Roxy.

But no, just look at her!!!

She's like a gothic Vriska! Oh man, makes complete sense, considering how Rose and Kanaya like to dress themselves. I can't believe I hadn't thought of that actually.

And it's minutes in the past, which explains why she's not with Tavros currently.

Maybe that means we'll see him too in a little bit? :O

Anyway, Vriska Serket's looking surprisingly okay, considering how earlier she was seemingly bleeding to death, based on the narration. :P

Pffff, Vriska's being classic Vriska already. Stealing stuff and giving herself advantages at the cost of others.

Though to be honest, John's probably not missing that phone right now.

Page 58:

Yikes, yeah, Gamzee sure got a rough beating there.

I like that they decided to depict the scars from Nepeta's claws here!

Oh boy, does this mean Vriska Serket's going to stop being (Vriska)? Indication she's gonna become relevant again? :P

Then what is she going to call Vriska Maryam-Lalonde? Is this going to be based on a suggestion from the readers?

Is it going to be anything like her real name? Or is it going to be a different spider-related name?

...I'll laugh if she decides to name her Aranea. xD

Page 59:

Vrissy! :O

I like the sound of it! It sounds enough like Vriska, and is also 6 letters. And it rolls well enough of the tongue.

Anyway, oh god, Vrissy's gonna call upon Tavros Crocker isn't she? :/

To involve him in this criminal matter... yeah, sounds like something a kismesis might do. :P

I wonder if Tavros is gonna get a nickname. Perhaps not, seeing as there isn't a second Tavros around right now (unless Gcatavrosprite finally shows up again).

Also, since when does Vriska have an eyepatch? I mean, I knew Karkat has an eyepatch now, but I had no idea Vriska also had one.

I like how she drew an 8 on it to make it resemble an 8-ball though.

Page 60:

Ahahaha, Vrissy's immediately sold on the new nickname.

Is she gonna insist that everyone uses that name from now on? Including her parents?

I wonder what kind of car Tavros will be coming with. Will it look like Dad's car?

Oh boy, what is Vriska's reaction going to be to the existence of a Tavros here. xD

Let's hope she doesn't tear into Tavros like he's... ahum, Tavros.

Page 61:

Hehe, perfection! Slightly calmer than I'd have expected her to be, but still.

And uh, is Tavros really gonna get a kick out of this? I mean, he didn't like Gamzee very much of course, but I'd think he'd be a bit too much of a nice person to really uh, enjoy this?

God I'm so curious to see what he'll look like...

Page 62:

There he is already!

A hovercar! Can't say I was expecting that, hehe.

Page 63:

There he is!!!!! :D

Oh man, he looks like a perfect mix between Jane and Jake. Jane's glasses, Jake's hair and bowtie. And the buck teeth of course! :B

It's so cool to finally see what Vrissy and Tavros look like. After all this time that we only had dialog and no images, hehe.

Page 64:

Ahahahaha, mood whiplash! Yup, that's truly an Egbert/English/Nitram reborn. xD

That's exactly how I imagined him reacting to this.

Page 65:

Ha, alright. He really doesn't mind Gamzee's dead.

Page 66:

N'awww. It's pretty heartwarming that the badass Serkets allow Tavros to have this little emotional moment instead of ripping into him.

Page 69:

Hehe, return of the Scribble Mode-like art style!

Oh boy, Tavros is removing his sweater. I wonder what he looks like underneath that! Is there gonna be any symbol popping up here? :P

Page 70:

Ooooh, suspenders! Instantly makes me think of Caliborn and Doc Scratch... errr, not really the best people to be thinking of here I guess. xD

I wonder if this is truly the last we'll see of Gamzee.

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he's somehow only "almost" dead and will suddenly start honking again from within the trunk.

Page 71:

HOLY SHIT HARRY ANDERSON EGBERT OUT OF NOWHERE

Wow... man, for a second I didn't realize it was him! To be honest, I first thought it was a girl.

But then I noticed the hair style, the eyes... that's so Roxy-like. Combined with the buck teeth and the blue scarf, that sold it. Just like how Roxy likes to wear scarfs.

Oh man, I love the designs of these characters.

Page 72:

OH DEAR GOD, HE'S A TOTAL COOLKID.

OH MAN

He talks so much like Roxy, I love it.

Pfffahahaha, he doesn't believe a WORD Vrissy is saying. His face is going to be PRICELESS when he sees that she's telling the truth.

Page 75:

Ahahaha, yes, Harry Anderson doesn't believe it at all.

...So that's what Alternian schools were like then. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. xD

I'm starting to think that perhaps they're just gonna bring Gamzee's body to the rebel camp, and that this way the news somehow reaches Jane that Tavros is with the rebels. Just not in the way she's thinking. :P

Oh boy, I hope that if they do go there they meet Karkat and Meenah. I want to see Vriska's face when she meets this badass leader Karkat.

And god I'm dying to find out what he looks like now.

Page 76:

Hehehe, I didn't immediately notice the spades in Vrissy's eyes.

Also, that sounds totally like a Jakey thing to say: "Righto".

It IS starting to look like abundantChewtoys pointed out to me that their relationship is relatively calm, despite being kismesises. Maybe it's somewhat like between John and Terezi!

Page 79:

A honk? Tavros heard a honk?

Oh man... is it really gonna turn out there's still a little bit of life left in him?

But yeah... there's no way this is gonna end well. SOMEONE's going to spot them carrying a body, right?

On the other hand, Vriska's always got irons in the fire, maybe now she's gonna get a clown in the fire. :B

Page 80:

Ahahaha, that's gonna make some noise and draw attention, isn't it?

Page 81:

Pffff, these guys. I love this little group of dorks.

Page 83:

Oh god, they better watch out for that smoke detector or whatever it is, or that's gonna set off a REAL alarm now.

Pages 84 - 85:

YUP, called it that they were going to bump into that.

I didn't think it was a sprinkler though, but close enough. :P

So what are they going to do now? Drop the body and run for cover?

If people find Gamzee, that's definitely going to hit the headlines though.

Page 86:

Ahahahaha, return of the Bluh! God it's been so long.

Yeah... they're busted. What are they gonna do now? Are Vriska and Vrissy going to pretend that Tavros is their hostage or something?

...I just realized we're nearing page 88, hahahaha.

Oh man, I just love Vriska in this chapter. These are just so much more sillier events than we're normally used to seeing her in. xD

Page 87:

Oh man, I didn't think we'd see actual dialog for these people!

It's interesting how they all have FIVE letters in their name. Not 4 like the human kids, nor 6 like the Troll kids, but 5.

I love how they talk like teenagers on social media.

Page 89:

Oooooh, I like how their eyes light up in the dark!

Pfff, yup, Vriska's really enjoying herself out here. Looks like she won't mind THAT much that she can't go back to the action in the Furthest Ring. :P

Also, uh, I don't think they'll just be able to get away when school's out. I bet they're probably going to call the police or something?

Page 90:

Ahahaha, so THAT'S why Jane thought the rebels had captured Tavros. She just refuses to accept the alternative.

That's really just her problem. It's always been.

She can just be SO convinced that she's right about something, she just won't believe she's wrong. Until she sees it with her own eyes.

Maybe that's going to be the best solution to all these problems she has been causing? That all the negative things get SMACKED into her face so she finally realizes what she's been doing wrong?

Page 91:

HOLY SHIT. NOW THIS TRULY IS THE HOMESTUCK AGAIN OF ALL THOSE YEARS AGO.

Linking back to scenes/conversations that happened earlier, hahahaha!

Page 92:

Just look at this smooth bastard. xD

Looks like the face of someone who still believes he's being pranked. Does he think Vrissy set off the fire alarm on purpose, just to get him out of class?

Page 93:

Oh boy, he's looking at his phone. Is he gonna see the same image as Jane on social media now?

Pages 94 - 95:

PERFECTION. THAT FACE. I LOVE IT. THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO SAY ON THE MATTER. XD

His last face reminds me a bit of Pickle Inspector.

Perfect end to a hilarious chapter!

God I love Homestuck^2.

[moonlightreal]

Let’s watch in Italian!

Let’s watch some Winx Club in Italian!  I know no Italian but I can comment on the visuals and guess at what they’re saying.  And I’m super impatient for more Winx and not in the mood to type my fanfic or sew more right now.

There will be real episode summaries/reactions when the English episodes come out.

Hit raiplay to watch along—at the moment season 8 has episodes 16-21 though that may change at any time.

19 La Torre Oltre le Nuvole

Italian theme song! My favorite theme is the first but season 4 and 6 are other favorites. Season 8s is fun too, not as forgettable as some.

Flying!  Cowboy flying!  Even Stella seems to be having fun by now.  I like Bloom’s hat, it has mismatched wings on it.

The girls fly down towards some islands… and there’s Diaspro running up to Bloom! Neither is thrilled to see the other.  I wish I knew what they said, I think Disa is giving a sob story-- I would expect it to be a sob story about herself but… no!  Points to Diaspro, she’s told them that Sky is in danger.  And there he is, running from the black unicorn who keeps zapping him with fire!

Sky trips and falls!  His doom approaches!

I think the Winx direct their steeds to fly down and help sky, but they won’t. They’re scared of the black unicorn.  Aisha says they should transform and fly down themselves but Flora has a better idea.  She talks to the trees… it doesn’t work, too much negative energy.

Poor Sky dodges some more zaps.

Bloom’s unicorn dives down, it’s trailing rainbow colored sparkles.  Then the other winx unicorns get brave enough, they kind of circle the black one trailing rainbows.  I think this is unicorn positivifying magic! Heroic music plays!  Bloom uses her bond with her unicorn, I think, and they glow all sparkly.  All the winx unicorns fly in formation making a rainbow in the sky.  Sparkles fall on the black unicorn and he lights up all rainbowy before returning to his usual color.  He’s saved!

The girls land, and Bloom makes sure Sky is ok.  Tecna snaps her fingers and fixes Sky’s suit, love that.

Aisha goes to say hello to the black unicorn, but even rescued he’s a little standoffish.  Here come the unilumens and I think they’re telling the story of the black unicorn.  I think he has a tragic past.

Diaspro joins the party and shuts Bloom down when she tries to talk, then says some Diaspro-ish things to Sky.  Flora hides her face in her hat.  Ooooh, I bet Diaspro just referenced how long she and Sky have been out unchaperoned.  Bloom’s pissed.  Diaspro snarks back.  Sky is embarassed, yeah I bet you are Sky you let her lead you all over the magic dimension.

The black unicorn suddenly advances on Diaspro, who backs away in terror.  then—it licks her face and crouches down to let her mount!  I wish I knew what Diaspro and the lumens were saying, but it seems this unicorn has chosen Diaspro!  She mounts and they fly away.  Diaspro calls something back—but is it, “I’m turning over a new leaf, I’m gonna spend time with creatures who want to be around me!” or is it, “Now I’ve got unicorn power, I’ll win Sky’s heart in season nine!”  Which is it?  I don’t know!  Will she still have a unicorn friend next time she comes to bring the couple drama to our show?  Sadly, probably not, but it would be way cooler if she did!

Stella’s just glad that’s over.

Bloom gives Sky a stare.  The two of them go, ‘hmmf!’ and look away from each other.  I groan.

Flora tries to distract from all this and get everybody back on track for the mission and the rest of the Winx get on board, though Stella says something dumb first.

Sky and Bloom argue.  

Just dump him Bloom, a guy who doesn’t have the backbone to avoid the ex he hates is about as bad as one who actually still likes the ex.

We escape from that and go flying some more!

The Trix watch from the ground.  They chat a bit then go flying after the Winx.

Flying.  Bloom and Sky argue.  he’s flying with his suit wings, not sharing a unicorn.

Magic barrier ahead!  The unicorns light their horns up in a cool visual effect and the barrier opens.  Everyone flies through.

They emerge in what looks like the same place except up ahead is a floating island with a horn-shaped tower.  So I guess they went to a different part of Monocerous.  A purple light shines from a window at the top of the tower.

Instead of just flying there, the unicorns drop the girls off at the bottom of the tower.  ‘Cause you gotta dungeon crawl, you can’t just start at the final room! The girls thank them, and the unicorns fly away.

And then the skies grow stormy!  Sky and Stella have to jump back from a lightning strike.

And there’s our new favorite Trix!  With the other two.

Cosmix time!  The ops I love more in Italian but the transformation songs I don’t care about the language as much.  Except Sirenix, because Sirenix.

Aisha makes a BIG morphix bubble around the Winx, but Darcy takes her out pretty quick so I guess she overreached herself.

Battle battle fighting fighting, we’ll get the prime star first…

Icy does the smart thing and flies towards the top of the tower.  Sky confronts her and Icy… slaps him with a giant ice cube!  Ahahaha!

Bloom sees her sweetie flying through the air stuck to a giant ice cube… but Sky uses his suit and unsticks himself.  He and Icy grab for the prime star!  They’ve both grabbed it!  Purple light explodes out of the tower!

Bloom’s flying up to help when she gets whooshed into the purple and the she’s in this… rainbowy iridescent space?  The background looks like the glittery cosplay fabric I buy for twenty bucks a yard, but only if I have a really good coupon.

In this magic-space Sky is flying, dodging spears of ice.  Icy has some good minimal magic gestures too, she’s summoning big ice stalagmites with just a flick of her finger.  I guess the animators haven’t seen Frozen. Sky is trapped.  Bloom is upset!

Oh no, Bloom can either help Sky or go after the prime star, which will she choose? She looks back and forth.  Sky, to his credit, is trying to escape for himself.  He tells Bloom to go after the prime star.

Cool epic fight music!  Bloom summons her fire dragon, we see it grow out of her hand.  She sends the dragon after Icy while she grabs the prime star. Sky does something with his suit and he lights up and busts out of the ice prison.  Hooray!  In Italian i think Sky did the “yelling the name of your attack” thing when he lights up his suit.

The star case appears and the star tells them something, I presume about how they got the star because they trusted each other.

Icy comes back for more… but the Winx are ready.  Flora blows away all three Trix with a petal storm.  We’re blasting off again!

The girls congratulate themselves.

Their unicorns and the unilumens fly by overhead, and Twinkle flies down to join them.

Now would be a good time for… a concert!  With only Sky as the audience.  Twinkle briefly sits on Sky’s head, which is adorable, then she sits in his arms.  I love that, I always felt there wasn’t enough sitting on each other when the girls had their pixies, you know?  It seems like the kind of bond that would lead to snuggling, like with kittens.

The girls sing, the unicorns fly overhead, Sky nods in time to the music, then he and Bloom have a romantic moment.

Next time: Winxboards!  Mielle!  A giant… pokemon?

20 Il cuore verde di Lynphea

Green Heart of Lynphea, I can understand that just from being Latin-based languages.

Alfea!  Grizelda is giving a lecture in some place with really big plants.  isn’t there a greenhouse that’s like, a portal to another realm with giant plants?  Grizelda conjures a book with old-style botanical drawings of plants inside and an oak leaf on the cover.  The page it opens to has a blue flower and a pomegranate.  

I want to hear more even if I can’t understand it, but the camera follows Flora to an area with normal-sized flowers.

Grizelda lectures. Aisha follows Flora.  Flora’s checking out a bush with buds on it. Aisha magics the buds—but instead of blooming, they stick out their tongues at her!  Hah!  Grizelda comes over and tells Aisha off for using random magic, I assume.

Bloom has a great idea.  Is it a concert?  Every idea Bloom has this season is a concert.

Tecna touches a flower and it slaps her hand with a little vine.  Flora explains… something to Tec.

Stella sings a line to a flower, then talks in a slow hypnotic voice as she tries some magic.  The flower spits water at her.

Grizelda gives them a lecture about not upsetting the plant life.

Star case!  We’re going to Lynphea!  Flora’s happy she’ll get to see her sister.

Valtor’s asteroid!  We’re going to Lynphea!  Stormy lords it over her sisters that she found the prime star.  Darcy has to get between her and Icy.  Valtor opens a portal, but Darcy hangs back after her sisters go through, giving Valtor a significant look.  Hmm.

Winxboarding!  They land at Flora’s house and there’s Mielle!  She’s wearing the outfit from season 6 but looks like the age from season 3.  I mean, art style yeah, but I’d say she really has de-aged.  She comes up about to flora’s waist.  We’ll see if she transforms.

She’s still as fiesty as ever, she says she’s coming along and calls a giant ladybug.  Flora tells her to stay home where it’s safe, like Flora always does.  Bloom backs Flora up; the Trix are dangerous!  The star case appears and its compass points the way, so the Winx summon their boards and fly off.  Mielle follows on her ladybug, because she’s Mielle.  This is exactly what happened in season 7, isn’t it? Mielle follows and rescues them?  Flora should just let her come along!

Giant flowers! Winxboarding!  A walled garden!  that’s where we’re going!

Flora tells them something worrying about the garden… maybe like how you have to be in tune with nature, which the girls certainly were not back at Alfea.

Then there is some singing.  Even more random than the rest of the singing, because we can’t see who is doing it!

It’s these weird flower people.  They are very weird.

They open the gate into the garden, but before the Winx can run through it grows back closed again.  Flora realizes it’s the dance the flower people did that made the gate open.  Stella magics the girls into these adorable flower ballerina dresses.  Stella’s is the best I think, she’s got orange and yellow that go well together.  Musa has good colors too, the others are a bit too pastel for my taste.

Time to dance!  the girls leap around—en pointe, which normal people cannot just do, you have to train your muscles like a long time.  That’s about the limit of my knowledge of ballet: that it’s a serious physical discipline you have to practice every day.  As they leap about the girls’ skirts twirl independently, so this episode must be to sell a doll line with twirling skirts.  They dance around, leap in the air, dance on giant flowers.  I like the idea that the twirling skirts make them float, that could be a fragment of an idea about clothes that give you powers.  Like Mai’s bracelets in Mai-hime, they float out from her arms and she can fly with them.  The visual is neat.

It works!  The gate opens!  The Trix arrive just a minute too late, the Winx have gone through.

Darcy summons an illusion of the dancing Winx to make the gate open.  Go Darcy, that is smart!  Also how did she do that?  I guess they were watching the Winx dance and recreated what she saw.

The inside of this place I’ve been calling a walled garden is really neat.  it’s big, it has many levels and a bridge… it reminds me of a Starcastle!  That’s what it looks like.  It also looks like a wedding cake with several tiers.  On top is a very important heart grown with vines.  that’s where the prime star will be!  There are stairs and paths through the different gardens to get there.

The star case appears and disappears.  The flower people, who I think are called lillin, come to guide the winx to the top.

Up one set of stairs!  The lillin give the Winx seeds which sprout when they put them down.

Next garden! Lillin raking very small gardens and… aloe leaves with giggling faces?  That was weird.

The girls reach the heart at the top!  they’re basically walking on tiptoe even while wearing ballet flats.  The heart has a door in it and Bloom is sure this is where we’ll find the prime star.

Back with Mielle, she’s caught up with the Trix!  She hides behind a bush and listens to them plot.  How’d Mielle get in here?

The Winx now walking flat-footed approach the heart when the ground rumbles and up sprouts a… radish pokemon.  If there were a pokemon based on a radish, this would be it.  This is not the radish spirit in Spirited Away.  It looks friendly at first, then roars at the Winx.

Aisha is keen to try violence but Flora tries talking first.  She gets nowhere. Mielle comes running up then and she and Flora say a few words.

Cosmix time!  We’ll try violence after all!

Flora and Mielle argue, Mielle runs off crying.

Winx vs. radish!

The Trix see Mielle run past and Darcy realizes they can use her as a hostage to get the prime star.  She knows Mielle’s name and that she’s Flora’s sister, which is creepy to me.  Mielle gets zapped with Darcy-magic.

Winx vs radish! Bloom does her dragon, which goes right through the critter, which then falls to the ground as an actual radish.  That fight ended fast!

But here’s Icy and Stormy!  As they face the Winx, flora hears Mielle’s voice calling for help.  She abandons the Winx to save her sister.  Flora searches and finds Mielle passed out under a tree.  She says she was attacked by Darcy.

I’m pretty sure this IS Darcy, but Flora heals her sister’s injured leg while the Winx fight the other two.  Flora picks up Mielle and they fly up to the heart.  The rest are still fighting and I think Mielle says Flora should get the prime star while they’re distracted.  This is solid logic and Flora goes into the heart.  

It’s a very leafy room with the prime star floating in its hamster ball in the center. Mielle hops out of Flora’s arms and runs to it—and grabs it and turns into Darcy.  And laughs and flies off.

So Darcy can change her weight when she uses an illusion; Flora was carrying her and the real Darcy would weigh the same as Flora.

The real Mielle wakes up in the forest.  She’s fine, and mad.

The Trix make a clean getaway with the prime star!

Mielle runs up and hugs Flora.  

Next scene the girls are back in their space clothes sitting on the front steps of Flora’s house.  Flora has guilt over being tricked.  Mielle I think says it’s her fault for following, but Flora says something that makes it all right and they smile and laugh.  Mielle conjures a rose that sparkles with magic.

I do kinda like that Mielle didn’t rescue them, so it wasn’t exactly the same plot as last season.  But i wish She’d gotten to get a little revenge on Darcy!

Then we’re back at Alfea and the flowers  from the beginning of the episode have bloomed.  Flora casts a spell and sparkles come spiraling up from them.  She’s wearing the flower that Mielle gave her in her hair, so I guess sisterly love gave her the magic of nature.

Next time: Melody! Musa’s dad!  Riven!  Darcy getting up to more stuff!  Dance Dance Revolution!  Some very strange outfits!

[starglasszodiac]

SGZ Anniversary - Cassie and the Comic

The big one, the origin story!!!! And honestly one of my favourite memories to look back on. :’D I’ll be talking about both the idea itself and the evolution of Cassie’s character in what is a BEHEMOTH of a text post, so here we go!

While July 19th, 2015 is the official origin day of SGZ, it started a bit prior to that. I have this story already somewhat explained on the blog’s FAQ page, but I might as well reiterate it here:

SGZ started as an idea in the summer of 2015 after my buddy Laura showed me two webcomics: Paranatural by Zack Morrison, and Vibe by Dan Ciurczak (two comics I highly recommend, please go read them!). I loved how vibrant and beautiful their artwork was despite how different their stories were, and how wonderful the writing and humour was. My two biggest creative passions have always been visual art and writing, but ironically this was what really flicked the switch in my head to actually try comics, the literal combination of the two. Why I didn’t start sooner will forever be a mystery to me, but I suppose a lack of exposure to comics as a kid had something to do with it. Better late than never, right?

The specific launch day of July 19th is an homage to not only the creation of the idea but of the main protagonist, Cassie. After thinking “hey, I could do this!” I started wondering what I should make a comic about. While working at my retail job (on the slowest day in existence), I began to make a list of things that I liked or wanted to write a story about, and stars / astrology was one of them. I had always loved that aspect of mythology, and my affection for stars is a mystery to no one.

I worked at what was effectively a Blockbuster clone in my hometown (RIP Cherry Hill Video) and we had scrap pieces of paper that we made from old movie facings, so the first ever notes and doodles for this series exist on these scraps. I’ve still got quite a few of them, but they got a bit scattered when I moved for college. I’m hoping the rest are at my house somewhere.

I got the idea of a girl with a star in her eye, and called it the Starglass. And, well, the idea went from there! I started researching all of the zodiac signs and symbols, and drew the first (digital) drawing of Cassie when I got back home that day. Which, looked like this:

Seeing this again is not only weird and oddly nostalgic but it’s a testament to where my artistic sensibilities were prior to going to animation school. The idea for SGZ happened mere months before I was thrown into that 3-year fray of insanity so the evolution is pretty odd in places, especially how my knowledge of shape language, anatomy, etc. evolved and how my style adapted to that. I had almost NEVER drawn humans prior to going to college, so a lot of the art for this series deals with my inability to do so at the start. ^^’ The awkward phase, if you will. And as such, it is the first story idea I had that primarily focused on humans.

Looking back on it, Cassie’s character in terms of personality was pretty different than what it is now, but from a visual standpoint there’s (surprisingly) a lot that stayed. The basic idea of her hair stayed, right down to the double ponytail and orange clasps. Her freckles, eye colour and general face shape too, even if that ended up modified after solidifying her character later.

Her main colour was always red, in fact after making the headshot I remember having NO IDEA what to do for the rest of her body, so it just ended up being RED. Then I added the blue for the contrast, but I still wasn’t happy with it at the time (a perhaps subconscious origin for her blue pants though, lol). I also find amusement in the fact that my current concept for her mother Nora has her wearing blue flats much like these.

Based on the notes I have and what I remember, Cassie was older at this point (like 15 or 16 probably) and seemed to be a lot more sarcastic (this is a norm for a lot of my characters, trust me). xD Some of the first character interactions I ever wrote largely involved Cassie being sassy to one of the signs, back when a few of them were being over dramatic (looking at you SCORPIO). I cackled reading those interactions again now that my characters have changed so much. They’re not well written at all but they still let me look back to that time with fondness. :’D

What is also interesting is the progression of her name, or the fact that she didn’t have one right at the start. My earliest notes have simply Starglass or SG whenever I wrote dialogue. I started trying to think of a name, and contrary to popular belief, settling on Cassie actually had nothing to do with Cassiopeia. Though I do really enjoy the irony of that. xD It started with Cass, which could be short for either Cassandra or Cassidy, and I ended up going with Cassidy. I then changed it to Cassie, as I find the -ie suffix makes it a lot cuter. I am biased though, my name ends with it too, aha. There is a note that spells it as Cassi and for the life of me I cannot determine if that was a typo or not, but when I write fast I miss letters sometimes. The nickname of “Star” was one the table for a while too, and now that Star VS exists it’s even funnier. I specifically recall my mother telling me that she was going to suggest Star on the Facebook post I had made for the art at the time, but thought maybe it was too obvious. She was right, though this idea lives on in the nicknames that the signs end up giving Cassie later on, my favourite being “Little Star”.

While development for the story and characters started right away, it got a much welcomed jumpstart at the beginning of my second year at animation school. We were given a character design project that would span the entire year, and would require a story concept to complete all of the assignments. We were told this fact in first year to give us time to prepare over the summer, and I had just pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment that day, but upon hearing this news I was not tired at all. Character design was already my favourite class, but this put it over the top. That beautiful feeling of inspiration that hits you is the BEST and in that moment nothing else mattered. Not even my fatigue, which I promptly dealt with the next day.

I used this as an opportunity to spend time developing the designs and story progression of all the characters, while getting marks for it at the same time! This is largely the reason I was able to launch the comic a few months after completing that year of school, as it ended up giving me full-sized references, colour schemes, and a much better idea of the story as a whole. Based on when my school years took place, I can actually track the progression of the characters pretty well through the artistic skill upgrade I was getting too.

The progression is pretty wild honestly, especially between 2015 and 2016:

(oh god these are so old help me) 

(these aren’t all of them either but I did my best jdhkfhsjkfhskjf)

From 2016 onwards I had the basic idea of her, so her colours stayed more or less the same once I actually added them. Cassie’s hair was one of the things that required a lot more iterations. I had her general idea down for a while, but when it came to making the character pack of her for my character design class, I remember having to sit down and actually figure out how her hair would work, structurally and otherwise, for that High Quality Refinement™ that was required of the project. Her older drawings had the part in her hair be in the middle, and that posed the problem of covering her eyes too much. If she was a more reserved character in any way this could have worked, but nah. I knew from the beginning she was going to be an outwardly eccentric child, one I wish I could have been when I was growing up.

Now for anyone that knows me as both a huge nerd and an artist, when it comes to fantasy stuff I LOVE armour. Absolutely love it. You see it everywhere in the things I make both inside and outside of SGZ, and I adore making themed costumes based on that (see my Feather Knights series for the most extreme example of this ever, ahahaha). So, it stands to reason that I would do the same for Cassie at some point, and I did! 

There was a particular focus on a helmet for a while too, whole plot points in fact! This helmet was, story wise, a long-standing plot point that proved difficult to change once the focus shifted. The initial idea was that the helmet belonged to Cassie’s science teacher (who is still a minor character in this as of now) and he gave it to her knowing its significance to the Starglass, thus establishing a sort of connection between Cassie’s normal life on Earth and the supernatural shenanigans that happen on the Astral Plane. The night she brings it home, she discovers that this little friend laid dormant inside:

This is Flicker. A character I’ve actually never revealed to anyone prior to now but hey, why not? The idea of Cassie having a spirit companion certainly didn’t come out of left field for me, but I wasn’t entirely sure how this character would appear, or what dynamic they would have with Cassie. I didn’t have pets bigger than a hamster growing up, so the idea of Cassie having a potential dog or cat companion would be new territory based on my own experiences. 

Flicker, as they are right now, acts as a sort of sensor for spirits that are roaming loose on Earth, and alerts Cassie to them... even if she’s not always up for a spirit hunt. They do have a backstory associated with how they appear and what their purpose is in the overall context of the world, but that isn’t revealed until much later in the story. For now Flicker is a cute little friend that cannot say much, but is devoted to protecting things, especially the Starglass. Luckily they still made the cut when it came to the helmet idea, and you should be meeting them officially pretty soon in the comic! :D

While the initial problem was getting any sort of cohesive look to the helmet or any other armour in terms of concept, I found as the story developed along with Cassie’s design, both her hair and her star sweater ended up being her two most “iconic” qualities aside from her eye, and using armour would have covered that up. 

On top of that, Cassie didn’t really end up being the type of character that would use armour, as one might expect from a character that has to fight and defend things a lot. She’s one to do things a little differently, and both her and the signs discover that, well, different works! It wasn’t a matter of her physical strength for the majority of the problems she faces, but rather strength of heart, and that’s a very personal note for me to touch on with this character. As such, nothing about an armour concept ever came out of the sketch phase:

It still makes for really interesting ideas though, so I’m sure I can work these into something else I’m working on. :’D Knowing myself, I’ll find a way. (The wings are VERY Cardcaptors though lol)

What did stay, however, were her swords:

She had at least one sword at the very beginning of this concept, but it eventually evolved into two. I find it interesting that sun, moon and star symbols were always present, regardless of what iteration these swords went through. Their official names are the Sun Star and Moon Star Swords respectively. Aside from the few doodles here and there for the zodiac weapons, this was the first appearance of any kind of fantasy weapon in SGZ. I can confirm that Cassie and the signs were going to have weapons from the get-go though, this IS something I made after all. xD

I think I also need to mention the main influences for this series, as the love for those things is very evident in my work, from the visuals to the storytelling and everything in between. Aside from my general interest in fantasy topics such as mythology and astrology, here’s a list including (but not limited to) the series that inspired the making of SGZ:

Kirby, Steven Universe, Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra, Cardcaptor Sakura / Cardcaptors, Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, and pretty much any other show I’ve watched about surviving school while going on crazy adventures. That stuff may be cliche now but I’ll be damned if I don’t love it still.

I grew up with some of these and the rest are new, but they’re all near and dear to my heart for many reasons. I’m happy that I can put that love into something I’ve made, and share that story with the world. 

I know I’ve got a lot more ranting about this story to do in general and the comic is still going, but I want to say some special thanks to some of SGZ’s biggest supporters: 

Laura, Eleanor, and my classmates and teachers at Seneca College. This comic wouldn’t exist without you. <3

I’ll be honest, working on this series got me through some of the toughest years of my life so far, and this was one of the first times where something I made actually came to fruition in some way, and had a genuine development period that I can look back on. I’ve grown a lot as both a person and an artist since then, and doing this look back in time really solidified that for me. I have a cast of characters that I love, and now I get to tell their story. So if you’ve stayed till the end in this gigantic post, thank you. I don’t know where this story will lead me, but with any luck it’ll be somewhere in the stars. Thanks for reading, friends. <3

[resbang-bookclub]

AMA Transcript: bouquet garni

Next up, @skadventuretime, @guacamoletrash and @jamesfalt (Souly on Discord) stopped by to chat about their Resbang, bouquet garni! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: Madi, how did you come up with everyone's characters, like Harvar being a gaming streamer and Tsu and Liz being farmers etc. etc. because I thought those were all really unique and interesting!

madi: Ahaha let's see, I started planning this back last... May? and talking with the beta crew, as one does. And naturally marsh [ @marshofsleep ] , enabler that she is, just put it out there.

madi: And I was just playing a bunch of overwatch at the time and thought he'd be a good gamer nerd, and also I had decided to make this Extra self-indulgent, so I was like “my city now”. I basically poured all of my friend feels into [Harvar] and Anya in particular. The past couple years have been rougher for me, but I've had some really spectacular friends, and I decided Maka and Soul needed them, too.

Q: The part with the sword and stuff, I just…

madi: OH THAT ahahahaha. Okay yeah that was end of Resbang crunch time and me being extra 'fuck it.'

madi: That was what the team thought about that.

Q: Artist-chans, what programs do you use and how does your arting process go? And how is guac so good at playlisting??

Souly: I use paint tool SAI :0 I might still have some of my progress pics, lemme look.

guac: Lol. I don't think I'm super good at it but I do enjoy music a lot and like to make playlists so maybe that's it!

Souly: Yeah here we go. Mid lining.

I did it a lil differently than I normally do. I normally line everything and then do flats but I was actually super behind bc of life stuff so I just started doing flats per character after their lines were done. This is a sample of what the layers look like:

madi: Man how do u keep track of ur layers? Or is it like, a sixth sense?

Souly: I go off of the little layer previews and hope the layer has what I'm looking for.

madi: LOL that sounds like me.

Souly: I also like... tend to set up layers for characters a specific way so I can normally find those?

guac: BRUH THAT'S SO MANY LAYERS.

Q: Did you have a favorite character to write? 8)

madi: I just love writing Star being balls to the walls ridiculous. The saxophone thing came about because I saw this video and was like oh my god it's Black Star in the flesh: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMyqasy2Lco . But I also really liked writing Maka being sort of the one with issues, too.

Q: Which character in your fic did you most identify with? And was it purposeful or accidental?

madi: Iiiiiiii'd have to say I identified with [Maka] the most this fic, for once. Usually it's soul, but I ended up pouring a lot of myself into her, and it was both purposeful and accidental how it all worked out.

Q: I’m surprised, because there were a lot of things I noticed about Soul that I know are you-things!

madi: Yeah!!! I definitely can't help that with him, they both got a lot of me.

Q: I know you said this fic was super personal and self-indulgent so was it generally pretty easy to write because of that, or did you have trouble?

madi: Hmmmm yeah I definitely had some trouble. About 20k in, I sort of lost the emotional thread of it, and whined a lot to Bones [ @adulterclavis ] about what I could do to fix it, and it turned out that I just needed to talk to someone about it to find where I wanted to go again, and then it got easier. I still struggled for sure not having a traditional Big Antagonist plotline thing, it was more personal and then Maka's mom… Bones let me cry in her inbox about writing.

Q: What brought about your characterization of Mama Albarn (who i still hate btw >: ((( )?

madi: You are not the only one...

guac: I'm always ready to fight her.

madi: Okay so, basically Mama Albarn came about just from how I used to (and still sometimes do) talk to myself. It's that internalized idea you always have to be perfect, and if you aren't given everything you've been given and have, then you're weak and a fuckup and how dare you not be the best? DEFINITELY a toxic mindset, and Bad. And this fic was sort of exorcising that, a little. This was an external abusive deal, but you can absolutely develop abusive thought patterns towards yourself, and you can also free yourself from them, like Maka was ultimately able to.

Q: Was there a scene in particular you really enjoyed?

madi: I heckin’ loved the butt lamp scene. It honestly kept me going, knowing I'd be able to write that monstrosity. And also drunk Kid, who marsh aptly named Five Drink Amy. AND THEN GUAC skl;dfkld. So there was this, right, and then guac

madi: Which linked to THIS PIC:

madi: And we all could not stop laughing.

Q: What was the hardest part to write?

madi: I got stuck at the end of chapter 3, and I ultimately added another section on to it to make it work, but I think deciding how I wanted to transition from her debauched night out into a Soul POV chapter given what I wanted each person to sort of be faced with was probably the hardest thing for me. This whole deal was largely driven by me groping in the dark at what felt right.

Q: PS I loved the debauched night out. And Patty's drinks.

madi: I loved patty in this!! Bones wanted to marry her, so I know it Worked Out. She was another fun one to write, as were her drinks ahaha.

Q: What was your favorite thing about this Resbang in particular?

madi: Oh jeez, hm. I think my favorite thing was doing a better job fleshing out the side characters in Harv and Anya and Kid and Star. That was something I regret not doing better in my older work, so I'm happy I got to try my hand at giving people other than Soul/Maka some personality.

guac: They became such a cute little chosen family.

Q: Why a food-themed story specifically? What about that appealed to you? (For everyone!)

madi: (Apeeled).

Souly: I fucking love SoMa. [And] the cooking aspect really drew me in... idk why but I've always had a thing for those kinds of things with anime I'm into?

guac: My current relationship started with them teaching me how to cook real food cause I used to eat like a garbage can, so I was like ‘welp this is gonna be hella cute, count me in.’

madi: Omg, I didn't know that, that's ADORABLE.

guac: Shhhhh. I don't talk about my feelings very much. But yeah. I was like ‘a SoMa AU about my life!!!’

Souly: Honestly yeah same, I feel like I also like... connected with Maka about being poor and just buying shit to eat.

madi: Let's see, I had a prompt sitting in my inbox FOREVER that was like 'I’m obsessed with a food blogger who writes about cheap ways to be gourmet in your 20s and I flirt with them over comments but they never post pictures of their face and ALSO there’s a really cute grocery bagger at the store down the street who teases me and always asks to join me for dinner and I definitely want to say yes AU' that I was initially gonna go with, and originally it was a little closer to this deal. My first blush ideas for this sort of had the drama in not knowing who was whom, and the big reveal being the climax, or something like Maka thinking Soul was taken because she thought he was involved with the comment girl and then that whole drama. But then I thought that that sorta thing had been done before, and I wanted this to be less about the drama of the reveal and more about the process of them growing closer, I guess. And I also looooooove cooking and baking, so that definitely bled through.

Q: I thought it was a neat shake up how you didn’t make the reveal the crux of the whole thing.

madi: Ahahaha yeah, I definitely thought about it, but ultimately wanted this to be less 'gasp, it's YOU!' because the reader knows, and if I wanted to make the reader invested, I'd have to keep them apart and do the kinda drama I wasn't feeling for this fic. The insta bit came about because I spend some time looking at food pics before I go to sleep, and that provided a lot of insp for that section. Half of my degree is in nutrition, so I like to see the recipes people come up with, and also roll my eyes at some of the bougie stuff, because insta is definitely a Platform for that, depending on where you end up haha. Also like, I definitely took some things I've experienced flat out and added them in, like Harv shoving Maka electrolyte packets. Last year when I was deep in the sad pit, my diet was terrible, and I knew it, but I wasn't doing much about it. And then one day I was talking to Bones and my leg muscle kept spasming, and she was like dude when was the last time you've gotten minerals and I was like .....oh. So she sent me a link for those packets to hold me over on days I wasn’t getting them from my diet ahaha. Bones is also where some of Kid came from, and bits of Anya.

Q: Where did you get your recipes? I want a cookbook based on this fic p...please.

modi: Okay okay let me find some of the recipes that inspired things:

https://showmetheyummy.com/crockpot-mexican-chicken-recipe/ https://www.instagram.com/p/BfWNxv9HuHg/?hl=en&taken-by=thefeedfeed.

[Bones] was also the steak recipe insp!

madi: The kitchn, thefeedfeed, showmetheyummy, minimalistbaker were all feeds that I was inspired by, and then I just improv’d from there, because I have cooked all or most of the things I described in there. AND IT'S WHERE MAKA'S CUPCAKE GAZING CAME FROM. LOOK AT THE GLORIOUS MOUNTAIN OF ICING https://www.instagram.com/p/BaRGvjGDBpr/?hl=en&taken-by=thescranline

Q: Did you feel like your writing has changed at all during writing this?

madi: Yeah, for sure! I thought that this year I got better at characterizing people, adding some personality to them that was a little more nuanced than I'd done before. I think I absorbed some of Bones's longer sentence style, which I personally tend to like even though I am still getting a handle on it, and I think I got better at describing things in general. Next step is being better with plot and tightening up the language a little more >:) Most of the changes, I think, were sentence style and how I handled dialogue, which is usually harder for me.

Q: Artists: did you learn any new techniques that you plan to practice or improve on any you've been trying to learn?

Souly: Oh yeah, I learned doing flats as I go with lines actually speeds up the process slightly... I practiced a different lighting technique that I never did end up going with but I kinda figured out what I need to do to make it work. It sadly just didn't work with how I set up this pic.

madi: Oooo nice, linework is Intimidating but you made it look easy.

guac: I am just glad to force myself to make stuff. Glad to be here. Thought my drawing of bodies got better (thanks Black Star).

madi: Y'all don't understand the sound I made when I saw guac drew the apron.

Souly: That Blackstar pic is my fave.

Q: WHAT'S NEXT, everybody? ;D

madi: >;) well, I have a secret project that I thought of last year that I am not yet sure will be a Resbang or a chaptered dealio, so I want to pick at that. Then I have a chaptered Star vs the Forces of Evil fic I need to update, and I owe Pip [ @paperypiper ] like two or three Noragami fluff pieces, and SILLY’S BDAY SMUT. Which will proabbly be like a whole year late but whatever I’m sorry, I will try to make it extra spicy.

Souly: I'm signing up for a few zines! I'm currently waiting for them to open apps but I'm looking at an Enstars zine, FMA tarot project, and some YOI zines. I was also recently in the Soul Eater reversal zine that just closed preorders the other day so I'm waiting to be able to post my piece :0

guac: I'm arting for the BNHA big bang and mostly consumed by school. Who knows what will happen next! There's a little pop punk lyrics + anime project I'm working on so maybe I'll show it to the world someday soon. We will see.

madi: OH YEAH I’m writing for that bang too! AND GUAC GOT ME AS AN ARTIST. It's the ultimate resonance.

[isolaween]

Costumes Under the Spotlight! (Part 2)

At the stage, a lone figure clad in red stood up. It wasn’t hard noticing it after the host so kindly announced her presence like that. A bright smile stamped her face, just as flashy as her outfit. It might not show actual skin, as the original one would, but the one wearing it was proud of her confectionary abilities.

“Ummmm, what a big audience you’ve brought us tonight, Riiche~.” Maya spoke in a sultry tone. Not her usual by any means, but hey. What’s the fan of cosplaying if you don’t immerse yourself into your character either. “Pleased to meet you, humans, demons and all other species present here. I’m Gaap, one of the 72 Great Demons of Hell and your host for the costume contest tonight. Let’s see if any of those brave enough to face public scrutinization by their outfits have half of the capability a demon like me would have to pull them through, ufufufu~.” (Ummmm, I hope I don’t end up offending anyone by speaking like this…) “Now, before we start, let me explain how things will work. At the entrance, some of the Pokémon you met must have handed you a sheet containing several names and numbers, correct? Like this one.” She raises one such sheet up high and lets it be projected at the screen behind her. “If any of you missed this, just inform them and they shall complete their service adequately. Or so should they hope…” (I’m sorry, my babies!!) “This is the voting sheet. Each of you has the right to vote only once, and you must provide your name when voting to assure so. For each presented costume, you must rate them from 0 to 5, 5 being those you like the most. After you’ve rated all of them, you must submit your sheet into this box right here.” Maya shows a container decorated in a style similar to her dress. “You can submit your votes until exactly midnight. After that, we’ll take the time to count them, so that we can announce the grand winner at the end. Don’t you dare to fall asleep until then!” She knocks the floor with her heels, making quite the impact. “The winner shall be granted the biggest gift a mortal could ever wish for: a witch’s wish! Ufufu, I wonder what sort of twisted desires your dark hearts are hoping to be granted tonight. I hope you have the clothes to match them!!”

The crowd salutes the ‘demon’, who gives it time to do so. Once they’re done, she looks at the voting sheet once again. “But enough of this. Let’s get to the truly hot and exciting part of the formalities. DJ!” She snaps her fingers loudly. “You know the drill. Let’s show off… our daring contestants!” The spotlights began to dance, chasing among the crowd those that 'Gaap’ announced. Their visage would be displayed for everyone to see, for that’s what a costume contest is all about: image!

“Our first contestant is actually one of the many artists that will grace our night with their talent. A not very traditional vampire look, huh? Hopefully that won’t offend the sensibilities of the actual vampires in our audience, ummm~. With you, GAKUPO KAMUI (@utatteru)!!!”

(Art by Gakupo-mun)

“Next we have… aaaaaw, how sweet! Children can be very considerate and willing to impress their friends, no? And in a place like Hive City, such homages make perfect motifs for Halloween. Dressed as an alien friend, we have STEVEN UNIVERSE (@firstgemboy)!!!”

(Art by @/skidar)

“Following that, we have what seems to be a doctor. Also a remark about it being the worst father in the world, although I can’t confirm that without evidence. And antimatter arms? Sheesh, I’m a demon, not a scientist! Don’t ask me to dwell on science. Anyhow, here is PHI (@radicalroot)!!!”

(Art by Phi-mun)

“Hooo, looks like we have some sort of witch for our next candidate! Wonder if she has a Lady title like Lady Beatrice over there. Lambdadelta is her name? Hah, it’d be pretty amusing if she were in our audience. In the meantime, let’s salute SAYU YAMAMOTO (@macabreexeunt)!!!

(Art by Sayu-mun)

“Gosh, a magician’s outfit? Aaaaah, Trucy would love seeing this! …I mean, *cough* Quite impressive for a human seeking to become equal to a witch in power. Let’s see if you can enchant your way to victory, huh? Hope you all enjoy… I’m not reading this whole name out loud, so MAGILOU (@thewitchmagilou)!!!”

(Official art)

“A god eater? Heh, can’t imagine a cute one like you going out devouring almighty beings like that, but then again this city is known from breaking deceitful perceptions like that. Just be careful with that prop, alright? May you all admire the craft of EDNA (@normincarenaqueen)!!!”

(Official art)

“One more of tonight’s idols this time and what a style! Vampire Gakupo should keep an eye behind his ear, for you never know when this gruff vampire hunter will put a stake on his heart. Oh? Is it supposed to be a clean cut anime version of this? Well, you know what you want. EICHI TENSHOUIN, everybody (@10showin)!!!”

(Offical photo)

“Now we have the first half of another matching duo, once again by idols. There’re sure a lot of you in this contest, I must say. An ‘steampunk doll’ is not something you see everyday, so points for creativity there. Hope you like the hard work of MIKA KAGEHIRA (@smilingidoll)!!!”

(Official art)

“And here’s the second half! I must say, people who like one will probably like the other. Unless the butterfly wing ends up being a make it or break it deal for them, which might help with the untie process. I’m certainly curious to see the results~. Before you all, SHU ITSUKI (@raisanutau)!!!”

(Official art)

“I must say that I’m surprised that no women have brought princess costumes so far. To think that our first one of that cathegory would be from a boy. He sure brings forth all the qualities fit for one, however, so perhaps they just saw that they didn’t stand a chance! Please make space for Your Highness RIKU NANASE (@idolish7center)!!!”

(Official art)

“Next - hoh, what an interesting style. Steven Stone is a rather familiar name. It reminds me of a character from a Pokémon game i’ve played, Roland Rock. Hope you have the hardness of a rock to stand this challenge, boy! All salute KNIGHT UNRYUUJI (@cloudwhiteknight)!!!”

(Edit of official art)

“Another vampire, although I must say the dragon friend is an interesting touch. Such a shame that you didn’t come as a cowboy, vampire, though! Even more so that your friend there didn’t submit their costume themself, for we don’t accept two people for the same submission. Hope you’ll enjoy the work of TASUKU RYUUENJI (@tasukusenpai)!!!”

(Official art)

“Now this one should be familiar to everyone. An idol that has stolen everyone’s hearts throughout the past 10 years, with a mix of appeal and talent never seen before. Her choice for the contest is an outfit that I’ll admit not to know, but I’m sure some of you do. One that needs no further introduction, MIKU HATSUNE (@cv01android)!!!”

(Art by Sour暄)

“Wow, now THIS guy understands about fashion! I completely agree with you, my fellow fashionista, anything is worth having this demonic glamour. If someone is fashionable, I’d be able to go through all sorts of crazy adventures with them… but only if they’re hot!! Here is the Pumpkin Witch, KING KNIGHT (@gildedusurper) !!!”

(Art by KK-mun)

“The next contestant has a… much more natural look, I could say. And even considerate enough to add flowers for a better smell? If I didn’t know better, I’d have long thrown a pokéball at you, my darling, ahahaha! Ah, but I jest. Each individual in this city has different skill levels that should be respected. And hopefully admired! Please admire ORI (@saviourofnibel) !!!”

(Art by Ori-mun)

“Hoo, what a beautifully stylish outfit this is! A simple enough design that showcases its true splendor in the form of cobweb patterns under the spotlight. Just like a true circus artist! And complimenting web gloves, how interesting. It’s truly wonderful seeing people use their natural talents the most like this. Ladies and gentlemen, applauses for MUFFET (@actuallymuffet) !!!”

(Art by Mumpkins (Deviantart))

“My my, this one is pretty creative, I must say! Using your own body as a prop is not something most people would be comfortable with, but you seem to have pulled it off with a T! And that modern internet aesthetic will sure gain you a couple points from the meme loving citizens, ahahaha!! Anyway, here is STAR PLATINUM (@wildberryoras) !!!”

[Aside from pixelated plastic he fashioned to look like a censor bar covering his eyes, all he’s wearing is two pepsi logos covering his unmentionables both in back and front. It’s the three piece cardboard display he constructed that are the main attraction. One side sits upon the floor while the others act as walls, a window into the world he pained into it. Neon pink and black checkerboard tile stretch into the turquoise horizon. The landscape lay nearly barren except for an oasis not far away. At the edge of a pool sit palm trees, VHS tapes propped against a pedestal, on which sits a television. Vaporwave is playing on it thanks to a phone acting as the screen, tapped there from behind. Star Platinum takes position on the display and poses like classical sculpture to tie it all together.]

(Description by SP-mun)

“…….Are you kidding me? Look, there’re ways to make use of memetic aesthetics and this is not really… *sigh*. Please, you’re a skeleton. You could have probably done a better job just by submitting yourself! Ahhh, but I digress. Everybody, enjoy the trumpet tunes of W.D. GASTER (@scirephysica) !!!”

(Edit by Gaster-mun)

“Ah, finally a werewolf! I was starting to think that the vampire lore would dominate tonight’s contest without any sort of opposition. I’m glad to see I was wrong. Especially a pastel colored one, you never see those in media. Definitely an original twist to the concept! Hope you’ll all howl for SUNNY OF THE FOUR HEAVENLY KINGS (@hairbeat) !!!”

(Art by Sunny-mun)

“Ah, what a fancy design this one has. That top hat of yours is your signature, isn’t it? I must say, it gives you a very gentlemanly air. I’ve once met a man who too wore a top hat all the time, and he was the most gentlemanly person I’ve ever met in my long life. But remember - a noble design means nothing if you can’t act the part! I present to you, DIO (@dioleft) !!!”

(Image source)

“And now an alien! Ahhh, what a futuristic looking dress! And those green bobbies on your head are quite charming (although I wonder why they aren’t silver to match the rest of the attire). Also really liked the makeup trick on your eyes - gives them that creepy grey alien feel for sure~. Hope you’ll all be abduted by the charms of MARCELINE ABADEER (@buryyouinmysounds) !!!”

(Image source)

“My my, another vampire? I might have anticipated myself in supposing that the werewolves stood any chance this year. A pretty traditional design this time - the paper teeth are a cute touch, though. Maybe we could say that you’re the Iron Mask Vampire! But I digress. I’m sure you shall be a respectable guest, darling. Please be kind with DRIFTER (@hyper-light) !!!”

(Image source)

“Would you look at this one! Representation for the other ways to celebrate Fall! Yes, for Halloween is but one of the many celebrations around the world this time of the year. I wonder how a Dia de los Muertos would go in Hive City, hmmmm… In any case, let’s all enjoy some sugar skulls with SOMBRA (@transl0cating) !!!”

(Official art)

“Ohhhh, a Frankenstein’s monster! Oh, I-I mean, Junkenstein’s monster. Forgive me for the confusion, miss. I can definitely approve of seeing more muscular women getting into the fun of costume making. It’s no fun if women are reduced to just being super thin and short demure mannequins, am I wrong? Hope you won’t get zapped by ALEKSANDRA ZARYANOVA (@itsonlygame) !!!”

(Art by @/kakimari (twitter))

“Now comes a bunch of matching outfits! First, a couple of cops, ready to arrest anyone disturbing the enjoyment of our citizens here present. Although I must admit, the first one’s design doesn’t really suggest me ‘cop’ that much besides the handcuffs. You sure you didn’t mix up with your roleplay costume~? Hope you enjoy the energy of CROW (@crimsongaze)​ !!!”

(Official art)

“Now the other half of this cop duo! …Oh, it’s you. I must admit, Halloween is indeed the time of the year most fit for one immersed in fantasies and acting plays. Wonder if that makes you the ‘good cop’ to your partner’s ‘bad cop’. Who knows, you might actually obtain a real ‘legend’ this time! Keep your eyes open for YAIBA (@legendoftongueflame) !!!”

(Official art)

“Now, a couple of vampires! The first one isn’t the tradiotional you’d see in old books, however. He seems to have gone with the more modern depiction of them as sexy boyfriends that’s become quite popularized in YA books the past few years. Will that exposed skin of yours sparkle, I wonder~? May the audience swoon with the charm of TITAN (@unichord) !!!”

(Official art)

“Our second vampire in this duo is more akin to the old times fashion, I see. Hah, I can already envision how this story would go. An old vampire finds an attractive young man and turns him into one of his kind to appease his encroaching loneliness that immortality brings. C’mon, it’d sell like bread! In any case, hope you’re as popular as my story would be, ORION (@aurochial) !!!”

(Official art)

“Ah, another freak of science! This time, we face the terror of eeeevil cyborgs, whose only goal in mind is subjugating all organic life to their master’s whims. I must say, I’m truuuuly terrified! That aside, I must say that this costume’s handcrafting is of top quality! I surely hope that it’ll be well seen by our guests. Hope you can survive the onslaught of MILES PROWER (@milesabovemobius) !!!”

(Official art)

“Hoo, I must say that I was quite excited when I saw the name of this costume. And also a bit afraid that our hosts wouldn’t allow it as per the rules, but it seems like we can keep the PG rating. I wonder if this is what a human/dragon hybrid is supposed to look like in YA novels. Ah, I know! I’ll include you in the story I mentioned earlier! With you, TRAVIS TOUCHDOWN (@suplex51) !!!”

[The Sexy Dragon is an Ibuki Mioda original that gives off an aura of sensual power. A “tough-love look,” you could call it.

The top is a sleeveless leather jacket, covered in brilliant green scales. The collar has been torn away, forcing the wearer to show off their collarbones to the world. Jutting down the wearer’s shoulders and spine are a set of dorsal fins, small enough to not be cumbersome while still large enough to give a sort of badass kaiju vibe.

The jean pants share the green color scheme, only with an added layer of crimson red felt underneath. Multiple lacerations to the green ‘skin’ reveal that 'muscle’ layer, which comes to look like the scars of a battle-hardened warrior.]

(Description by Travis-mun)

“Now we have a classical hero to protect us all from the beasts that here stood so far! I must say, you remind me of a certain protagonist from a videogame series that I’ve been playing recently - The Myth of Zolde, ever heard of that one? I’d highly recommend it to the audience! *Coughs* B-But I digress. Beware, evildoers, for you’ll feel the power of BAYONETTA (@txmmxrxwismine) !!!”

(Official art)

“Awwww, this one is totes adorbs, uhum~! I understand that you were forced to participate, darling, but I’d say that the chance of getting a wish for yourself is definitely worth the risk of social embarrassment. Plus, you really think you’re any worse than anyone else here? Trust me, you’ll survive this sting. Wonder if you shall be clawed by the hands - or should I saw mittens - of SASUKE UCHIHA (@tiredsasukeboy) !!!”

(Art by Sasuke-mun)

“Finally, our last contestant! Going for a style derived from tabletop RPGs, how interesting! It’s certainly a shame when we can’t obtain that one needed prop we wanted to encompass our perfect vision, but don’t worry. I’m sure that your design will be appreciated by all present anyway. Very well, let’s clap the hard work of PHILLIP DOWD (@tiireur) !!!”

(Art by Phillip-mun)

“This should conclude the opening. Now, go. Enjoy this witch party to your heart’s content! We shall meet again at the end of it all…” Once Maya said that, the curtains close, indicating the end of festivities’ opening. Have a nice evening, citizens.

[blaperile]

Homestuck^2 - Bonus Story - Diamonds, Dames, and Dads, Part 2 - Reaction

Oh hell yes, I'm HIGHLY looking forward to see what this will be like.

I mean, I'm just so absolutely excited how through these bonus stories we're getting to see Dad, DD and Problem Sleuth again for the first time in forever.

And the last part ended on a really interesting note, where Dad and DD just came into Problem Sleuth's office.

I wonder how long they're going to stay with him. We know that at SOME point they're going to split up at least, when Dad and DD arrive handcuffed to each other at the bar where Jasprospesprite^2 and the others are.

I'm very curious to see what's going to happen here.

Page 15:

Hmm, no Problem Sleuth we can see right now! I guess he just sent them off somewhere then? Or this is already some time later. Or he's just off-screen right now. :P

I absolutely love how DD is smoking in a "NO SMOKING" room. He doesn't give a shit.

"Midnight City. A black hole." Pfff, you ain't seen a black hole yet DD, just take a look at the Furthest Ring. :P

Page 16:

Ahahaha, Dad pointed out the sign to him.

It's great to see that Dad, even though he does smoke pipes himself, knows to respect these kind of rules and wouldn't smoke here himself.

Also, they're in a hotel lobby? What are they doing over here?

Are they getting a room to spend the night in? It didn't seem like THAT much time had passed before they found Jasprospesprite^2 at the bar, right?

So, I guess they're probably meeting someone here? But who?

And yeah, DD's clearly referring here to how he made this city and Dad obviously doesn't know that.

God I love these two together.

Page 17:

Man, he really didn't know what to do with himself and his life after he lost the Midnight Crew.

Looks like DD, and maybe the city as a whole, needed a breath of fresh air like this!

Page 18:

Oh wow, that's a trippy panel. Kind of like seen through the eyes of a fish!

I totally dig how they're experimenting with the art style in this story and in Catnapped.

So if I'm reading this correctly, DD might actually kind of like Dad (but doesn't want to admit it of course), but he doesn't want to get too attached to him after what happened to the rest of the Midnight Crew?

Poor guy. :/

Wait, that last paragraph... So Problem Sleuth gave them a room number here, but it's nothing to do with Jane but something for DD himself?

I wonder what he is up to.

And why did Dad stop the elevator on another floor then?

Page 19:

Ha, alright, so Dad didn't actually stop the elevator here. Just shenanigans going on here. :P

I like how these two wear completely different hats. Though it kind of looks like someone took a bite out of the right guy's hat, hahahaha.

Page 20:

Wait, the ice machine? What is that about?

Page 21:

Pffff. I wonder if maybe the real reason those guys stopped fighting and looked like that at him was because they recognized him to be one of the founders of the city.

Page 22:

Huh, so they took the elevator right to the roof. Are they visiting someone at the penthouse or something?

Page 23:

WHAT THE FUCK??? SPADES SLICK???

HOW....????

I mean... this can't be, right? Spades Slick ended up in an entirely different timeline, and we know everything that happened to him afterwards.

Then I guess DD's hallucinating?? That seems like the most plausible explanation, considering what I said above, and how Dad is only looking at DD and not at anyone else.

Page 24:

What the FUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK?

Someone just appeared behind DD?

Carrying a white gun (which reminds me WAY TOO MUCH of Doc Scratch's gun), what seems to be a long black sleeve, and... incredibly long nails???

WHO THE FUCK IS THIS??

And... what does that mean for the Spades Slick DD was seeing right in front of him?

Page 25:

OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK

IT'S SNOWMAN

IT'S FUCKING SNOWMAN

HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW?

I mean... she's dead! Okay no, that's another timeline.

But... I was kind of getting the feeling here that DD had ended up in a timeline where all the rest of The Midnight Crew and The Felt were gone.

...

Okay to be honest, I guess it makes sense Snowman is still alive in this timeline. I mean, she IS the universe after all. If she dies, the universe dies.

But... what does that mean for this Spades Slick? Is there really another living version of him in this timeline then?

And what about the rest of the Midnight Crew? And The Felt? Are they still around as well?

And then the gun Snowman is carrying here... is that Doc Scratch's gun (the one Slick shot her with in the main timeline)? Or is it supposed to be her own gun we saw in the original Intermission, where it was depicted as being gray?

And just what the HELL is going to happen between this point and when DD and Dad end up at the bar?

Are they going to be locked up somewhere by Snowman, handcuffed to each other, and then escape from there? Do they coincidentally end up at the bar, or did someone tell them to go there?

And why did DD even come here? Did Problem Sleuth find out where Spades Slick was and thus send DD here to this rooftop, or something?

And just what is going to happen with all these people? Are some of them going to be crossing over into Meat Earth, or will DD, Snowman and the rest remain on this version of Alternia?

Holy shit. This raises SO MANY QUESTIONS.

God it's probably going to take so much time before we even get to see the next part of this story. xD