#alt version of the previous comic

[crocodiller]

Never not dragging him for the tent situation.

[simsenshi]

senshi reshade 4.0 PATREON/FREE ALT DOWNLOAD/SFS

Hi everyone! I'm back with another version of my reshade preset! This is pretty much a super toned-down version of my previous presets, with only one version that should work perfectly in cas and in regular gameplay! There are toggles to disable/enable certain effects: - f9 disables comic/outline effect - f10 disables mxao/shadows - f11 enables adof/blur (I only use adof when taking screenshots in game, it should automatically be off when the preset is launched; otherwise, it will blur your game and cause lag) You can watch a tutorial on how to download this preset here! (This was for my previous preset but it should work the exact same way) FIXES FOR COMMON ISSUES WITH THE PRESET: If the outline effect isn't working - make sure you have edge smoothing disabled in the sims graphics settings. If the preset looks dark - make sure that the RESHADE_DEPTH_INPUT_IS_REVERSED is set to 0 in the global preprocessor defenitions on the reshade menu. If you have any questions please comment them down below and I'll try and awnser them asap for you! <;3 (THIS FILE IS COMPLETELY SAFE, IT MAY TELL YOUR COMPUTER THAT IT COULD BE HARMFUL BUT IT'S NOT!)

[plavigmaz]

When both of you are in the trailer… 😘🥰

The context is that the comic was made long ago before the new trailer dropped. And they were kissing because they weren’t in a previous trailer. Anyway, the IseHasch ship is still going strong and the shenanigans continue with @abri-chan 🙈

Alt. version below:

[gascon-en-exil]

Fire Emblem Heroes and the Great Male-Presenting Nipple Hunt

Last year I put out a post criticizing the paltry state of male fanservice in Fire Emblem Heroes by contrasting it against technically-SFW artwork in a variety of explicit gay dating sims. Very little has changed since then, bar one notable exception -

Eikþyrnir, a.k.a. Deer Daddy, just won Choose Your Legends. Not only that, but he got more votes than any other character in the event. I don't go there, but I hear that this has apparently made some people over on Reddit angry in a comically hypocritical way, because at least unlike Baldr also winning this year or Gullveig doing so back in 2023 Eik already exists as a character in FEH with two playable versions and the mild suggestion of a personality. Reddit, presumably, is angry because he has the audacity to be horny while male:

Now I could find a dozen or more sexier interpretations of a deer/elk/moose man out there, because I occasionally move in furry-adjacent online kink circles, but as far as FEH is concerned this guy is water in a desert - and those of us who wish this game would even pretend to be more equal opportunity with its fanservice have been parched.

That said...the man's got no nipples.

Nipples on their own are hardly the be-all, end-all of male fanservice, as I demonstrated in that previous post. However, I find that they're a useful signifier for the way that Fire Emblem and indeed most mainstream animated media prefer to handle the subject of partial male nudity. There's no shortage of muscular, bare-chested men in this game, but as is so often the case those characters are designed not to be eroticized in the same way that virtually every female character is in one way or another, but rather to be aspirational power fantasies for straight men.

Nipples disrupt that fantasy, both visually and psychologically. They call to mind how women's nipples are usually considered obscene and thus censored, like what happened with mythic Loki last year on YouTube. More concerningly for the heteronormative male gaze, nipples are erogenous zones for some men and so connote both vulnerability as well as the knowledge that male characters can be sex objects to certain audiences. The long and short of it is that male nipples can make straight men uncomfortable and are thus often censored by way of excluding them from art where they should logically appear, anatomical accuracy be damned.

In the wake of Deer Daddy's win I set out to survey men's nipples of FEH, because I'm aware that there are at least a few of them. This took several hours of scrolling through hundreds of pieces of Heroes art, including attack and damaged poses since FEH is infamous for giving female characters strategically-placed ripped clothing in the latter. I even looked at all the available resplendent art, though that proved to be a waste of time as there's not a nipple to be found in any of those updated designs. Note that a subjective element to this was unavoidable; as straightforward as this all might sound, you'd be surprised how often it can hard to distinguish what might be a visible nipple from shading or muscle contour. By the end of scanning artwork of over 500 different units I was almost beginning to imagine nipples where none existed!

Needless to say, there will be a lot of images in this post, but as they're all guys from FEH they can only get so racy. Prepared to be disappointed.

Generally speaking, bare-chested men in FEH come in two flavors: characters who were shirtless in their original artwork, and summer alts. Those swimsuit banners are filled to the brim with conspicuously nipple-free men, though Magvel may take the cake solely on account of how many summer alts FE8 has gotten over the years.

Of that set the faint discoloration on Joshua's right pec just above the strap might be a nipple, but that's as good as it gets.

Fódlan fares marginally better here. There's the suggestion of nipples in Dedue's art as well as in Lorenz's attack pose (ignore his infamous Ken doll crotch) and Sylvain's damaged art. Neither of the house leaders have anything going on, though.

Awakening also has a few summer alts with what might be nipples.

The fact that neither Ike nor any of the male laguz have swimsuit alts after eight years and sixteen summer banners might as well be Exhibit A for how IS doesn't understand how to make use of the male fanservice fodder it's got. Ike's not likely to get one this year either, not when he just got a desert alt...but with that said there may be a bit of nipple on that alt's damaged art, just under the rip.

While we're talking possible ripped nip slips try saying that three times fast, there's a handful of others that at least approach that territory, like brave Dimitri, Jeralt, and also Hubert for some reason. Osian wins this category though, with that slightly darkened and prominent bump on his right pec that I'm going to liberally accept as a nipple.

Then there are characters who ordinarily go about bare-chested, although they're just as likely to be lacking in nipples which makes me sad. These could have been so much hornier!

Although to the artists' credits, some characters are missing nipples in their base versions only to (maybe?) gain them in alts, like Hawkeye and Linus.

Soeda Ippei is often cited as the one FEH artist that consistently delivers on male fanservice, and while he has come through with some of the best the game has to offer as we'll see at the end he's also guilty of the occasional nipple-less design. Notable among these is autumn Dorcas, who fails my criteria here but who is otherwise a much better take on a mildly horny bull guy than Askr who's just a disappointment no matter how you look at him.

Seriously, show the design on the right to anyone even passingly familiar with the work of gay furries/monsterfuckers to give them a good laugh. Why is the bull a borderline twunk?!

But anyway, since I'm reaching the image limit on this post it's time for me to hand out the top prizes for FEH's Most Prominent Male Nipples! As well as an honorable mention...

I'm not exaggerating when I say that this may be the single raciest piece of art of a male character in FEH. Hot springs Ryoma gets his towel blown off in his damaged pose, leaving him in nothing but an open loincloth. His chest might be the usual flat slab of muscle, but that's closer to flashing some dick than I'd ever have expected of this game.

But onto the nipple-based winners:

Starting with one by Ippei, Darros has at least one visibly-defined areola in all of his poses.

Mustafa has both nipples clearly visible in his attack and damaged art. I seriously have never thought twice about this guy before now and I've never seen this brought up, so his art stunned me when I saw it. Even more amazingly, this isn't an Ippei piece but rather was done by Toshiyuki Kusakihara, the art director of Awakening.

Still, the grand prize has to go to Ippei.

Fargus doesn't merely have nipples; he has chest hair, which I'm pretty sure makes him the only character in all of FEH with any visible hair below the neck (not counting tails on any of the furry shapeshifters, before someone brings those up). He also lacks the standard muscle definition and instead has what looks to be an actual gut. How did IS ever approve this?

Well...it probably helps that Fargus is an NPC from a pre-Awakening game who got released via a Grand Hero Battle so no one's spending orbs on him anyway.

That's the unfortunate reality of all these top picks. They're all minor characters, with two of them not even playable in their own games, and as far as I'm aware none of them are exactly premium units in FEH. They're low-value characters, and likely not ones most players are likely to take note of unlike the lords and similarly popular units, so they get to be horny in a way that's unconventional for this game.

I don't seriously expect Eik's CYL win to change much of anything when it comes to male fanservice; as I suggested at the top, his design relative to what it could have been is actually quite safe for any but the most insecure of straight men. I just hope that 3/4ths of the winners coming from FEH doesn't send IS the message that they can continue cranking out low-effort fanservice OCs instead of working on the next mainline game. Those may now only exist to subsidize the roster of the mobile gacha...but that would still be highly disappointing.

[bazzys-omori-box]

I'm running out of funny things to say anyway for the 5000 time omori.exe spoilers 🥰🥰 (this will probably not be the last time I say that)

Mama there a girl behind you 😰

This is the piece I was talking about in the last post it just took a little longer than expected.... Made it as good as I could for you guys !!! All I've done so far for omori.exe are doodle pages and one slightly janky color challenge so I tried real hard on this one 🙏 I especially like puzzy in this one!! He has a very cute little face and I love him lots 💕 I thought it would be cool to tweak little aspects of his design so that instead of looking exactly like Basil, he would look more like a previous version or like something like Shattered Omori- just different enough to be off putting. So now he has the collared shirt that I think HS Basil has in the lineup, and suspenders instead of overalls- both because suspenders look a lot like overalls, and as a callback to Rowan!! He also has pointier hair and eyes than I usually give HS Basil, more like how I draw RW Basil. Less happy with Exori because side profiles are still something I struggle with and tend to change every time I draw them, but he still gets the point across!!! Rip bro something is certainly off with him 😔

Extras:

As a little bonus I did an alt version of puzzy with the color combo my lovely friend Fishy drew him with!!! A lovely light green with dark purple/blue lineart and accents 🥰 I absolutely adore the color palette Fishy has like the best grasp on color theory of anyone I've seen ever if you guys somehow don't follow him already you absolutely should !!!!!! His Omori comics are the best 🙏🙏

[bisexualbaker]

Crochet Patterns for Palestine

Making a new post for this; I'll still accept donation receipts from all organizations linked on the previous version of this post, but my focus has shifted and/or concentrated somewhat.

[Alt]

This crochet pattern is for small cats, of a good size to make into keychains, magnets, or even hair clips! There are six PDF versions available:

- US stitch names in 12 point Atkinson Hyperlegible - US stitch names in 22 point Atkinson Hyperlegible - US stitch names in 22 point Comic Sans

- UK stitch names in 12 point Atkinson Hyperlegible - UK stitch names in 22 point Atkinson Hyperlegible - UK stitch names in 22 point Comic Sans

Between those six options, that should cover most pattern accessibility needs. If you need something else, though, let me know! I’m prepared to offer a .doc or similar file on an individual basis if you need a screenreader to access crochet patterns, and have a sheet I can use to translate things to German stitch terms (though more in-depth instructions would still be in English). The pattern is worked primarily in (US) single crochet/(UK) double crochet, with the ears in (US) double crochet/(UK) treble crochet popcorn stitches, and is bundled with similar file options of a popcorn stitch tutorial PDF (no stitch names used).

“Socchan,” you say, “These cats are super cute! And you said that this pattern is for charity? How does that work exactly?”

I’m glad you asked! Simply donate a minimum of $3 or close-enough local equivalent to a related charity, then take a screencap of your receipt/proof of donation. Block out any information that could doxx you; it’s nice if you trust me, but it’s not impossible that my email could get hacked, and I want you to be safe! Finally, email the altered screencap to socchan (at) protonmail (dot) com.

Once I get and check the screencap, I will email you back with a password-locked zipped folder of all six files, as well as the password. I will do my best to respond to all emails within two days of receiving them. Please be respectful of both my work and this donation incentive and don't upload the patterns elsewhere!

As a bonus, if you take your donation up to at least $5 (or close-enough local equivalent), I’ll throw in an additional link and password for a very cute little flower pattern!

[Alt]

“That sounds pretty easy,” you go on to say, “but where should I donate? There are so many options to choose from!”

No problem! Check out Operation Olive Branch: A spreadsheet collecting lots and lots of links to fundraisers in Palestine.

Too much information to sort through? Here are some good general options:

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund - Focuses on medical aid to children in Palestine Medical Aid for Palestine - “[H]elp MAP respond to the ongoing emergency in Gaza, as well as provide medical supplies, support healthcare services and deliver long term development to healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.” MAP reportedly has a team on the ground in Gaza, providing critical medical aid. Anera - Providing food, hygiene kits, and medical care in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Palestine Red Crescent - More medical support in Palestine; the rest of the webpage is in Arabic, so be prepared if you want to click around at all. Basically the Palestinian Red Cross. Crips for eSims for Gaza - This organization is raising money to buy eSims in bulk, to help Palestinians in Gaza to communicate with the outside world. Help Gaza Children - Organized in part by Tumblrite @fairuzfan, Help Gaza Children provides food and toys to children in Gaza, feeding bodies and hearts.

"Socchan," you say, "I heard about this other person who is offering something else in exchange for proof of donation to Palestine-related charities. If I make a donation to get a drawing of a dragon, or some neat music, or a book of international vegan recipes, or something else I've found, is it okay if I also use that same donation or purchase to get a crochet pattern or two?"

Absolutely! What matters to me is that the people of Palestine get the aid they need. One of the reasons I made my minimum donation request so low is because I know that money is tight for a lot of people right now; even small donations are still very welcome to many of these organizations, and I understand if you need to make your money stretch as far as it can.

Thank you so much for reading this far! Please consider boosting this post, so it can reach more crocheters and crocheter-adjascent people.

[cryptovalid]

The politics of Operation Zero Tolerance

If you've followed X-men '97, you know that's it's more than competently executed nostalgia-bait. It's a deconstruction of the original ideological framework of the X-men. I'll be riffing off of the way that Operation Zero Tolerance mirrors real world alt-right ideology and where the show might lead this theme. Spoilers ahead up to episode 8. It's a long one.

So the reflections of the January 6th insurrection, Great Replacement conspiracy and stochastic terrorism are pretty spot on. But what do the Prime candidates actually believe?

Mutants are constantly referred to as 'the next step in human evolution'. This frightens some non-mutants, who see themselves being replaced. Their solution is to subjugate mutants.

I want to focus on some of the ways this doesn't make sense first.

1. Evolution doesn't have well defined 'next steps': every new generation is slightly different from the previous, so that over time new traits will emerge and become common, and others will become less widespread. In the comics, this is not why mutants exist: the are the result of alien tampering with human dna: the Celestials implanted the X-gene in some humans. So 'mutants' are demonstrably just a strain of humanity, and the main reason humans have mutant babies is that their own genes are getting expressed in a new way.

2. No amount of control or violence can stop this. The rate at which mutants appear isn't even dependent on their own reproductive success since most mutants have human parents.

We don't know why more and more mutants are being born now, but OZT will not stop this. It's not even their goal. When they say human being are being 'replaced', they actually mean replaced as the ruling class of the planet. Bastion's 'utopia' doesn't have less mutants being born, just used as slave labor.

This really puts the anxiety of OZT into focus: they want to maintain privilege. They aren't really being 'replaced', any more than older generations are always 'replaced' by younger generations. They are primarily afraid that mutants will render them obsolete in the labor market. But if mutants can be forced to do unpaid labor for their benefit, that doesn't threaten them.

The way this parallels the rhetoric of the alt right is striking. Obviously, the reasons why jobs are moving overseas are different: colonized populations are more exploitable by capital. But the fears are the same: my children are different from me, and if I'm not valued for my labor, I will become poor. Like OZT, the alt right also chooses to enact violence even though it won't solve either of these issues. the MAGA-crowd threatens non-conformity and asserts its dominance to maintain its relative privilege over other groups. This is why it's all culture war stuff. The alt right isn't interested in striking to improve conditions for workers, it will attack immigrants and minorities they perceive as competition. Never the bosses that make the hiring decisions. It's scapegoating.

Even child and slave labor are on the table. Because again, this 'economic anxiety' isn't triggered by other people doing the work, just by other people getting money, care and respect that they feel they are owed.

It's not the solution that matters to OZT or the alt right: it's the catharsis of violence and control. It's interesting that OZT actually has a better point: mutants are inherently better at some jobs, some mutants ARE inherently dangerous. Their anxiety is way more warranted.

And I think that is what makes OZT hit so hard as an allegory: it is a steel man version of every bigot's rhetoric, and it is horrifying.

Where might the show take this theme? I don't think the show will end with the X-men fighting Magneto, as that would undermine the show's thematic support for his ideals. Magneto might be defeated, but that will not be the finale. I think the institutional support for OZT will be the closing statement.

The events of episode 8 will be blamed on the X-men. There's just too many ways that a sleeper that Wolverine cut to ribbons can be spun and Bastion has stated multiple times that he understands the optics of martyring mutants. In my opinion this explains how the primes failed to kill a single X-man, even though Trask could take down the whole team.

This twist will (I think) be used to set up the Avengers as the final threat: the X-men try to reason with Magneto, the Avengers attack him, and maybe Xavier erases Magneto's memory as a prelude to Onslaught.

Onslaught can then lead into Heroes Reborn; when Onslaught threatens to kill the Avengers and Fantastic Four, Franklin Richards creates a parallel universe, where they live out their lives in blissfull ignorance of mutants. I believe this could explain why the MCU does not have mutants: it's the Heroes Reborn Universe (The FF could live in a separate universe).

So how to put a button on OZT? I don't think that they will end as a political force (these ideas will remain relevant in the fiction as in the real world). I think the show will obviously set up a fight with Bastion, but the ideological refutation will have to come from Mrs. Da Costa. She is the poster child of an apathetic liberal, who will only support mutants in fashionable ways. If she ends the series giving up her social status to save her son, perhaps even dying, it will thematically reinforce the need for allies to be traitors of their own privilege.

This ties in with my final speculation. This is a weird one and a reach. We have not seen Roberto Da Costa's father. We also don't know where Bastion's father is (who is essentially Nimrod). Is it possible that they are half-brothers? Emmanuel Da Costa is a prominent anti-mutant member of the Hellfire Club, and it's strange he hasn't shown up yet. Honestly, this could possibly explain why Roberto is so light-skinned. Which I do not want to make excuses for otherwise.

[diverging-tides]

Heylin’s Fall

Part 7

AND HERE WE ARE-THE REVEAL OF HUNTERS MONKEY FORM

He’s only a halfling, so he doesn’t have fur or anything (aside from the tail) but he DOES have a snout, longer hair, and FOUR EARS (from his dad :))

If you pay attention to previous parts of Tiger’s Eye, I’ve been foreshadowing this for a while

Hunter is completely unaware he has this form-he only changes when he’s filled with hate or supremely pissed off

Anyway, Wuya’s dead (physically), and while I planned initially to have her death visibly drawn into the comic-it was too gruesome and would require skill in drawing gore

Like, the blow that killed Wuya smashed her skull into her brain and obliterated half her face kind of gruesome-Hunter legitimately traumatized her

Alt. Version of the reveal panel under the cut-Jacks a bit of a freak lol

He’s totally into the new look-and this tracks, considering his history with male crushes

[windamp]

let's rate red hood costumes

if i forgot smth lo siento. just let me know, there are so many of these and i am one creature

this is just for fun btw. nothing serious here! <3

now these are all comic canon red hoods (except maybe two? we'll get to them). no alt universes. maybe one day.

now on to the costumes

Hush Jason. Maybe not technically Red Hood but like. c'mon. close enough

i'm giving the rating 6/10

I know the trench coat was probably more for mr. hush himself, but i enjoy it. i'm also a filthy pouch lover so they do get points. also in red! cute. the boots are also neat. the negatives are that ugly robin dress/tunic thing. kinda silly. still it was good for giving bruce a spook.

2. the classic. the og. red hood utrh version!

9/10, easy. the casual outfit paired with the sleek red helmet. *mwuah* wonderful! nothing bad to say. it's recognizable. comfortable. stylish. great job all around

3. titans tower. ah.

-10/10. i would give props for running around in the scalies BUT THE UGLY ASS YELLOW TIGHTS. disgusting. bare his legs to the world you cowards. i'm mad. this could get at least 7/10 for sheer moxy if it weren't for those hideous target brand pantyhose

4. brothers in blood.

he's literally just copying dick, but being unhinged as hell about it.

5.5/10. he looks good. who doesn't in nightwing's fit? though he is copying, he does get points for obsessive weirdness of it all.

bonus?

???/10 i don't know how i feel. i've never known how i feel about this.

5. final crisis

i think he had a helmet in this arc and it broke but dont quote me!!!! pay me to read final crisis again if you have an issue.

he spends most of his time in jeans + leather jacket + just the domino

this is probably the most boring but i give it a 10/10 my boring ass loves it. no dressups just a guy in a shitty little mask. clapping. bravo. there's something ~thematic~ bout it

6. final crisis pt 2

1/10 i hate the red robin suit i hate it i hate it. we finally got tim out of the damn thing even though it came at too high a cost (he's trapped in robin purgatory). it does look okay in wfa, but usually in dc reg comics it looks like ass.

regardless jason looks bad in it too. very sweet of murdery bruce to give it to him but ugh. at least could've given him some ears on that mask. then it couldve been bumped a point

7. batman

the first time jason decided to wear a muzzle. hm.

6/10. there's nothing wrong with it. it's just a bit generically 'what would gun batman look like'. the face part is my favorite, with the weird grater muzzle, pointy ears, and red glowing eyes. it's fun

8. batman&robin

i need to get my first thought out. the little symbol on his chest reminds me of homestuck. i can't really unsee it. i know like theres no connection. but it looks like it could belong on a homestuck human

anyway. 3.5/10. he was willing to try something totally new, so i'm giving points. i enjoy the white. is the red hood goofy af? yes. yes it is. iconic, though? sometimes the upper black part is drawn lower, i've noticed. it doesn't change much for me.

i like the thigh highs going on here. the red guns are sexy!. he looks bad but there are good things here!!!

there is this version, which ditches the thigh highs, gives back the classic helmet, removes the cape for a jacket, and adds belts.

6/10 i think it fixes a lot about the prev costume, though it's really just like they threw utrh's costume and his previous batman&robin costume in the blender lmfao

wow flashpoint. father todd is not a red hood, so we progress.

9. nu52

an update on the og look. i do like the contrasting brown jacket, the prominant thigh straps. sometimes his helmet is drawn suctioned to his face so -2 for any of that cause it's so weird

8/10 not a bad update to the classic.

10. red hood/arsenal

i dont remember when he changed into this actually. in my head it's rh/a but i could be wrong.

i see no one talking about this abomination. his new fit? yah. this one? no?

4/10 the bottom of this is fine. i HATE the jacket. sorry it's just. ugly. his arm bands are also clunky. the matching between arsenal and red hood is nice though. so it didnt get too low. roy pulls it off better :(

11. wingman

hm. i didnt read this. this makes me not want too akdsfhsl

0/10. ugly. looks like a villain in some scifi thing in the 90s. like power rangers. sentai villain looking ass. boring grey, ugly lines and shapes, the goofiest helmet on earth......

ig willis is burdened with this curse now

12. 3 jokers (dubiously canon. i dont consider it so but since dc left it in the air we add it)

he has a helmet for a bit. this one is interesting bc i could actually see it as a futhering of his costume had he lived. sans helmet ofc. it's hard bc i don't not like this, i just feel it doesnt fit his aesthetic in the present day. 5/10. if jason had lived and not become red hood id rank it higher but then we wouldnt be here, would we?

13. batman's gift

i debated putting this, but it's different enough from the nu52 vers

very fun. body armor all over. i like the red arm guards here unlike w/ the prev one that had these (less bulky ?). i like the leg stripes.

it doesn't really do much to change his look, but there are differences

7/10

14. task force z

it's like the above but more just body-armored. really all he's done is remove the jacket and get shoulder pads. 6/10. the negative point is for the lost jacket :(

bonus

7/10 i did say if he ditched the tights i'd rank it higher (twas all a dream through lmao)

15. current

controversial of me, but i think. i think it's fine.

now i do agree his little hoodie is.........well it's not that great. my least favorite part tbh.

the new brown pants nicely contrast, though i have seen this costume with grey pants too?

here we are. The red bandages are fun, i think if they were white i'd hate 'em but the red is interesting. i also like when bits of them are sticking out. idk. cute detail.

i like the muzzle mask as well. that with the hood has given us delightful in shadow!jason where only his eyes glow out. i also like when artists put his white hair tuft out. adorable. probably not what he's going for but that's what the creature no face look is for

really the hoodie is the one thing i'm ??? on. it looks silly in a bad way. there are ways to keep a red hood while giving a better jacket/vest. future state's was much nicer.

7.5/10

this wasn't in the ratings but i do prefer any weapon beyond the crowbar sigh. it starts showing up through a lot of them so i decided to just not do anything about the score.

[ripupupu]

Alright so, time to be self-indulgent :>

Lil (actually, it's pretty long) introduction of her below the cut! :3

At first I created Rinoka as self insert and to be shipped with Reigen, AND THEN in an alt universe, an age-swap AU I made, she was to be Mob's master in the place of Reigen(no shipping here; and Reigen became Mob's disciple years later).

In the later she was a psychic, with the ability to read people's mind -- their memories, to be specific((I have some ideas with Takenaka too, like she became somewhat a mentor to him as people with similar struggle but unlike Mob he didn't work for her)). She can 'borrow' other's psychic ability to some degree, the better her understanding(by reading their memories) of said ability, the better her copy was. Oh yeah, she founded her version of Spirits and Such Agency, that she inherited to Mob after her death.

She's similar to Reigen in term of fighting loneliness while being somewhat stubborn and self-reliant. However, the difference between her and Reigen was that she's blunt, and even when she often keep things to herself, she'd rather tell the truth instead of lying.

Rinoka also has a different ideology. She's -- well, maybe less compassionate. She disliked running away and would rather faced everything head-on. In my AU version of Season 2 Episode 15 where Mob was asked to exorcised that one family of spirits(yeah Rinoka would ask Mob to follow her exorcising stuff to train him), she ended up actually exorcised the spirits instead of Mob, shaken him.

All in all, while she might not be best person to Mob's life, they brought the best on each other. Mob taught her compassion and kindness, on the other hand Rinoka made him understood about himself through her brutal honesty.

NOW as I was figuring out the principal behind her ability, I came across a realization that her ability... Feels like a cross-over between Shimazaki and Takenaka. Maybe more closer to Shimazaki's prediction ability.

Shimazaki can 'read' other people's(or objects) movements to the degree he can analyzes/predicts what would be their next actions.

Rinoka can 'read' other people's(and through certain objects) memories to the degree she can analyzes how their abilities work and copy them.

So I was like. Hey, what if... they're... related...?

ANd her we are. New fanfic. New AU. This AU is based on canon almost completely -- it's simply figuring out of what's happening in the background, where the show didn't show us. Like, aren't you curious of what's Shimazaki been doing after the World-Domination Arc? Why would Minegishi joined Claw so young(hey! my previous comic :>)? What have been happening at Claw, how did they do their experiments? The Government is aware of espers and psychics -- like in the manga one of the Prime Minister bodyguard was an esper. So is the Government aware of Mob(and the other esper kids) and is watching them??

Yyeah so MP100 has been on my mind, being my hyperfixation... I'm rotating them like a rotisserie chicken.

Hope ya'll will enjoy my future shenanigans :)

[cherryrockpops]

░▒▓█ Then and Now █▓▒░

For my OC - Nicolas B

Where to start... honestly I didn't jump on Cyberpunk until a year after it's release, and it wasn't until my 3rd run that I actually invested time into my character's design and backstory. I won't be sharing pictures of those previous two, but just to give you a taste of my humor, they were gag characters; Corpo Bill Nye the Cyber Guy, and then Streetkid Avril LaV.

Nicolas, my Nomad baby, is my first true OC in Night City. I gave him the alias/last name "B" mainly because it was the closest sounding letter to "V". However it also tied in well in being ex-Bakker. He's based off of no one in particular and grew naturally as a character the longer I played and interacted with the fandom. (OC QnA mainly) Back then, I was way too nervous to try mods and only stuck to vanilla PM, taking shots at every turn I could in the story without any ReShader or High Res programs. Below is one of my favorites from back then.

During the development of his lore, I wrote his story to specifically revolve around 2023 and planned for him to die in the bombing while helping Johnny. However, due to some people who didn't like this idea, and from my desire to have my OC hang out with other OC's/V's, I chose to design a much older version. Nicolas '77

From there, I finally got into using mods etc, and changed my story around where I would have 3 Nicky designs in total. Streetkid teenager Nicky for 2013, a city Nomad Nick for 2023, and a Dark Corpo styled Nicolas for 2077. I didn't plan for all version to utilize each lifepath, but it did. I will point out though that Nicolas is more Nomad than anything.

It wasn't until a year later that I finally started to settle on his canon story. Through RP and continuously detailing him out, a dark horse came along and Silver B was born. He is more AU specific than actual canon, but I still want to include him in this post. In this AU, he loses and arm to an assassination attempt and ends up getting a chrome left arm. I also used it as an excuse to play with more mods ^w^

Now it's 2 years later (coming up on 3) and I've continued my VP journey. Ranging from memes, photoshoots, abstract and comic panels. I also still do Digital 2D Fanart, but it's more spaced out in comparison. The one below is my only fanart to myself of Nicky, aiming for the body form I truly see him in along with the cleaned up hairstyle.

So wrapping it all up, this is his canon summarized.

Arrived in NC in 2012

Became a Roadie for Samurai before they signed on with a label

Worked as a Techie Merc/Thief until 2023

Designed and built the bomb for Johnny's Arasaka Tower Raid

Disappeared off-grid for 50 years due to the loss he (believed) he caused

Returned to the surface when he hears whispers of Silverhand and the Relic, along with news of Kerry's attempted suicide.

Reconciles with Johnny and the rest of the band members before choosing to go off with Alt in cyberspace.

In other OC's universes, I've also given Nick an "NPC" role. He randomly spawns in various bars and alleyways in NC, offering to craft you items based on the scrap you provide him. In the event that you are low on scrap, you can buy weapons and tech outright, but he would charge additional along with taking more than just a day to get it done. I've played around with the idea of making him his own romance route, but I've yet to flesh that out.

Anyways, if you read until the end, thank you so much for taking the time. I don't often have the chance to talk about Nicky in detail, but it was a lot a fun revisiting how far I've come with him and my VP.

[taiblogcomics]

We're Off to See the Wizard

Hey there, disqualifications. All right, I'm on the final thing in our stack! And we're gonna end the same way we started: with a FiM alt universe fic.

Here's the cover:

Yeah, remember way back when we did "Little Fillies" #1? And I was wondering if they'd do other Classics Reimagined titles? Well, here's one for you! And at least this time, I'm roughly familiar with The Wizard of Oz. Like, I've never read the original books, but I've at least seen the 1939 film a couple times. I know the basic plot from parody and reference and pop culture. I know enough to know the ruby slippers are movie only, and they were silver in the book! Anyways, a pretty nice cover for this. Same artstyle as the "Little Fillies" story as well. This one might grab a few more eyes, at least~

I think we'll do the same thing I did in the Little Fillies review, where I name the character as the original work, then parenthetically refer to the MLP character playing them. So obviously, our depressed farmgirl is Dorothy Gale (Applejack). She lives with Uncle Henry (Big Macintosh) and Auntie Em (initially Rarity, but when she's way into playing Big Mac's wife, they swap her for Granny Smith. They also change the role from wife to mother). While they're making changes, Dorothy demands to be switched into overalls. So much for the iconic gingham~

So, before long, a tornado comes a-spinnin' into the story. Auntie Em! It's a twister! Starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton! She chases her dog, Toto (Winona), into the bedroom. This keeps her from enterting the storm cellar instead. And she's gonna wish she'd been in there, because the tornado doesn't just destroy the house, it lifts the whole thing spinning and spinning into another dimension! One with brighter colours! The main comic so far has been in muted, sepia-like colours (not outright monochrome), but springs to "full" colour at this point.

When everything's stopped spinning, Dorothy (just assume this is followed by "and Toto" every time, unless I specify) takes a peek out into this wide new world. She's greeted, not by munchkins, but by Breezies, which is one of the only times they've ever appeared in comics. They're super-enthused to meet a new princess, Dorothy having crushed the previous one. Dorothy tells them that both these facts are wrong, only to be swiftly corrected with the shot of Nightmare Moon's legs sticking out from under the house, silver horseshoes in the air.

Who should enter now but the Good Princess of the North (Celestia). Dorothy objects to the lazy find-replace of "witch" for "princess", but Glinda or Celestia or whoever plows on ahead anyway. She introduces the concepts of one princess per cardinal direction, two good and two wicked, and the Unicorn of Odd (title drop!) who might be even more powerful. Dorothy is about to make a feminist comment, but is interrupted by Nightmare Moon's dissolving. The silver horseshoes are now relinquished, and Celestia forces them on Dorothy to keep the plot moving.

This version does mention the Deadly Desert surrounding the Land of Odd on all sides, which is why she can't immediately go home to Kansas. It's a bit distressing, but Celestia suggests heading east to the Emerald City where the Unicorn lives. And of course, the easiest way to get there? Follow the yellow brick road, of course. The Breezies agree to accompany her to the edge of their territory, and to Dorothy's relief, only the book is in the public domain. Thus, they don't have the rights to use any of the songs~

Finally, just as Dorothy is beginning to tire of the fawning reverence of the Breezies, they reach the end of their lands and part ways. They soon come all up ons a cornfield, and Toto begins to bark. Dorothy's worried for a minute, but it turns out to be just a scarecrow. To her shock, though, the Scarecrow (Pinkie Pie) begins to talk. She's very glad to have somepony new to talk to, since it's all been birds before now. She's just terrible at scaring the crows, to her utter shame. She's just too good at making friends! See how she's made a new one just today~!

Dorothy uses her farm-found applebucking skills to knock the Scarecrow off her perch, freeing the straw-stuffed mare to move around and travel. And travel she does! She decides to accompany Dorothy on her journey, in the hopes of getting a brain from the Unicorn. She's happy enough with a head stuffed with straw, but what she really wants is to plan parties. Can't do that without a brain! And the comic ends as the pair set off, with Scarecrow also needing to be reminded they don't have the rights to the songs. But it's a comic book, so they won't be able to tell if she hums it instead~

Well, this seems like a lot of fun so far. Let's be honest, The Wizard of Oz is a lot more of an exciting and interesting story than Little Women. I'm sorry, but it's true. It'll appeal to your demographic a lot more, too. The roles seem pretty tailor-made for this, and Applejack is a natural snarker. So the asides and fourth wall breaks (there's a whole page of Celestia and Luna I left out to keep up the flow and to allow you to find the jokes on your own as you read) fit more naturally here. They got better at it here, with "Little Fillies" being their testing ground. I look forward to more of this, but alas, this is the only issue I have so far! Just like last time, we'll have to wait until I get a new shipment to finish the series~

Next week, though... Well, I have a few ideas I wanna explore. They'll tide us over in the meantime~

[just-an-enby-lemon]

This post is an apology to Tom King.

I recently re-read Riddler: One Bad Day and it's actually a masterpiece!

There's something truly fantastical about how Riddler's intelect is portrayed almost as a mystical power! The scene where Edward mind tricks all the cops into killing each other by laying on the floor and laughing like a maniac is pure art and I'm truly sorry for previously calling it "stupidly edgy", "the moment the comic lost all chance of salvation", "the final proof male power fantasies are a diservice to the entertaiment industry" and "soo dark is actually hilarious".

I also need to compliment the ambiguousness of if Riddler became who he is because of the abuse he endure or if his dad was abusive BECAUSE Edward was always bad is fantastically creepy and necessary. If your narrative does not have victim blaming as one of the possibilities in your moral debate about the inexistence of redemption and the need for violent cops ... I mean heros who kill the villains because evil will never stop nor change what's even the point?

I'm also sorry for my mean coments over Riddler reveling that he was part of Joker's attack against Barbara Gordon. It is actually a really nice nod to the original, specially in the way it reinforces Barbara's place as an useless plot point without agency that only serves to motivate her father. After all why would anyone ever want Babs to actually matter in an event that changed her life forever? Gordon is pissed. That's what matters.

The RIDDLER hating RIDDLES and using them to protect the world from himself by constantly re-living his trauma because actually the trauma was what stopped him from murdering for a long time and does that mean the story is retconing itself to show he was born evil? Is the BEST plot twist. If all future versions of Edward don't hate his gimmick and his own identity and think dorky people who tell riddles are actually stupid and puzzles are dumb than the comic industry will have to live in shame.

Back to talking about the portral of woman! I'm soo happy that the comic took away the voice from Edward's mother presenting her only by what her job as a sex worker represented to the people around her! Such a feminist take! And the snapy Riddler was justified in being mad that his henchmen sleept with his mother because being a sex worker is dirty actually. Gorgeus.

This comic also has the best teacher characther ever. He is so real for ignoring a kid's cry for help, considering their neurodivergent coded anxiety and dificulties are a case of needing to chill and seing all the most obvious sings of abuse ever as "very unchill kid behavior". And the comic is soo right for portraying this man as sympathetic and good and how if Eddie had stoped being a neurodivergent abused kid for a second and just chilled he would have been fine and never became a muderer. It's a life lession. Abused kids should just stop being anxious over the very real possibility of more abuse and neurodivergent people should just chill and everything will be fine. Doing nothing except blaming the crying desperated child for asking help is the right move!

Also Batman should kill. That's just a fact. Jason Tood has been saying it for years now and he is right. All heros should kill actually. Every comic should be exactaly like a Punisher run writen by an alt-right. Yes even the non-superhero ones. Yes even the manga. Yes even Donald Duck ones.

I could write pages and pages about how this is the perfect comic - bar the art style - but I think this is already a suficient apology for my previous misleading critics.

My next post will be a long explanation of why Batgirl vs Riddler: Prelude to the Wedding is actualy the best feminist comic ever written and Tim Seeley is actualy the only person allowed to represent woman in media ever.

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

NBD just crying over Action Comics 1060 (in a good way but also a sad way because DC is being VERY DUMB and ending PKJ’s run in favor of a Jason Aaron Bizarro filler arc ohhhhhh how I weep bitter tears of frustration)

…Anyways, spoilers!

So 1060 is the penultimate installment of PKJ’s (stellar, spectacular, phenomenal, brilliant, top-tier) run on Action Comics and I just want to applaud him—for a lot of things, really, but in *this* specific case, I wanna stand and cheer because he’s making it EXTREMELY CLEAR that the twins (who are not actually twins) are in fact, Clark’s kids. No question, no ambiguity; Otho calls him papa, Clark refers to her as his daughter, and he’s willing to travel through LITERAL HELL to get her back.

It’s entirely possible that future writers will try to get rid of these kids, but I appreciate that PKJ has made it *very* difficult for them. XD Any retcon they’d come up with would be so messy. (Of course, saying this, I realize that the more depressingly realistic outcome here isn’t that writers actively try to erase them, but rather, will probably sideline/ignore them, trot them out for generic precocious kids stuff every now and then, and wait for the next line-wide reboot to ‘streamline’ Clark aka toss out anything mildly interesting and/or additive to Clark’s corner of the DCU.)

Right. Sorry. Salty tangent. XD

So anyways here’s some panels that tugged on my ‘Aunt Kara’ heartstrings.

‘I know sweetie. I know. It’s so hard, not knowing.’ HOW VERY DARE.

There’s also a really great page wherein Kara gets Osul to calm down by reminding him of a…I think Phaelosian legend? Or possibly Kryptonian, I know she was trying to find stuff for them in a previous issue.

(Went back and it’s actually the House of Ra fable; the House of El’s is ‘Nightwing and Flamebird’, Ra’s is ‘Red Son and Starchild’.)

I love that Lois lets Kara and Osul have that moment, that space; I maintain that while Clark has a better handle on getting what the kids went through on Warworld given that he was there, and Lois obviously has more experience with raising kids that have unique needs thanks to Jon being half alien, but *Kara* is more readily equipped to sympathize with Otho and Osul’s struggles with transitioning to Earth life, based on her current, canon characterization. (Which is, uhhhh…Woman of Tomorrow and alsoooooo…Rebirth? Maybe? WoT is def canon, the recent SG one shot visually referenced Kara’s departure from Argo.) But I digress!

Speaking of the kids’ struggles…Otho is Going Through It. The stuff with Sister Shadow (AKA Norah Stone AKA evil daughter of an alt universe Bruce and Talia) trying to tempt her to the dark side by preying on her trauma/difficulty adapting to her new home and revealing a future, tyrannical version of herself is some wonderfully juicy character work, both from the perspective of fleshing out Otho AND being additive to Superman’s roster of villains; that’s something I love about PKJ’s approach to world building overall. Yes, he’s revamped some of Superman’s established bad guys (Metallo, Mongul) but he’s also added awesome new foes, like Norah Stone, and Pyrrhos.

I really hope DC lets him do like. A mini series on his original Kryptonian/House of El characters. I would honestly love to read about all these cool new, additive elements, than deal with the Luthor cameo fest over in Superman rn. XD

In conclusion: DC once again shying away from anything interesting and new with Superman in favor of the safe status quo. -_- I mean, I hope I’m wrong. I hope the new ‘Superman Superstars’ opt to build on the solid foundation PKJ has set up. But given what happened with Bendis? Creators’ absolute refusal to incorporate any of the canon he built, because they knew DC would walk it back ASAP? (And the Superman group editor openly admitting that was his number one priority as soon as he GOT THE JOB???) Just shows a complete lack of faith in your creators, and doesn’t really give me too much hope for one of the few remaining titles I look forward to each month.

…but hey, hopefully Marilyn Moonlight will be neat??? XD

(Also LET A WOMAN WRITE A MAIN SUPERMAN BOOK YOU COWARDS.)

[bledf1rst]

hey popping in to make a post about episode 1 of the new season of invincible

it is absolutely soul crushing to ( AGAIN!!!!!!!! ) hear about how our iteration of mark is the exception to being the absolute scum of the universe. a mark that heard the shit his dad had to say and went " that's batshit insane and i'm not gonna let you take over a whole planet for some empire i don't know shit about!!! " the majority of alternate universes, he sides with his dad!!!

and the alt. universe we see in the show, i don't remember seeing in the comics ( it's been a hot minute since i've read and my memory is.. . .. deplorable ) but it gave me SO many questions. like, this version of earth looked so similar to the one we're so used to, and mark OBVIOUSLY had some sort of previous relationship with eve, and i am just absolutely plagued with questions on the differences between our mark's universe and his. was debbie ever in the picture at all? what did omni-man do differently in raising mark that made him agree to conquering earth?

shoutout to the ( multiple iterations of ) the mauler twins for almost murdering the ONLY good-aligned invincible out there!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAA

[doesithavetobeaspider]

Grabbed these a few months ago and just finished them. I was playing games when they released but wasn’t interested in X-men. Despite their age they hold up incredibly well.

I played a lot of Ultimate Alliance on release, and coincidentally played UA2 with a friend on their PS5 recently, but XL1 is the best imo. It was originally planned to be a Final-Fantasy-with-mutants turn based rpg before becoming an arpg because they thought (rightly) fans would be unhappy with the lack of combat, but a lot of the elements remain. Some good like the story, difficulty, and teamwork, and some bad like having to waste talents into letting characters like storm fly, but overall it feels the most polished and tightly packed. (Don’t get me wrong btw, I’d love a turn based rpg with marvel characters, or even a fire emblem one.)

The story pulls from elements all over the X-men mythology from magneto to humans/sentinels to shadow king, and is far beyond the simple “magnetobad please stahp” which still would’ve been fine.

It’s one of the first times I can remember beating a game and immediately restarting, partially because you don’t unlock alt costumes until beating the game, which unlocks them all for everyone. But also some danger room missions can only be picked up once and are out of the way to the point where on my second play through I used a gamefaq guide.

2 is still good, with ridiculously good cinematics, but not as tightly made, and the overhauled menu design made me want to immediately stop playing. They saw people liked collecting danger room discs and comics in XL1 so made 2 a collectathon. The boss fights (which in 1 are rather simple) are bigger in scope with more details and requirements instead of just survive and do damage. 2 is all about apocalypse but again isn’t just rehashing a comic story.

This one has a less interesting roster and (sadly) removes the necessity for teamwork and different character’s powers. There are 3 unlockable characters but the funniest one is Professor X. I was so excited to see how they handled his wheelchair but he’s not in it! He walks regularly. In 1 he could do that in the astral dimension which was a nice touch that made sense, here it’s just weird. Increasing the weird/hilarity factor, one of his talents makes his normal movement speed up to 45% faster than normal. Only character in the game with a talent like this. >.> He’s cool…but it’s an Apocalypse game, and as the story progresses we get Archangel, and prof X is unlocked after basically beating the game, Archangel seems like he would’ve been the PERFECT unlockable. Unlike 1 the alt costumes are unlocked as you progress though phases.

Again right after finishing I replayed it with the newly unlocked hard mode and a new group of characters. Hard mode has the option to let you carry over your previous save’s stats/gear/talents/levels, which sounds cool but the default option is to have everyone start at 45 -which is in line with the hard mode enemies- but unlike 1, unused characters don’t get much of the xp your main 4 do, so while my first playthrough’s group was 50s or 60s, the ones I started with were around 35 and the most of the gear that dropped was level 50+. I stilled rolled through because once you know the game it’s simple.

Overall if you like UA or just want an excuse to play an X-men game, I can’t recommend these enough (the ps2 versions are much cheaper and easier to find). I know they ran into rights issues with remastering and digitally releasing UA 1 and 2, but these shouldn’t have those problems and deserve to be reintroduced to people. There’s no better time than now as they ramp up to releasing mutants in the MCU. I would put these just below TAS in terms of old X-men media (outside comics) that should be made easily obtainable and promoted.