#and work our way up to actual art of the characters lol

[astra-knights]

first heartless fanart lets goooo!! i might make a part two lol it was really fun!!

pfp images are by @abd-illustrates bc im lazy lol and original meme below cut in case others wanna do it!!

[the-owl-tree]

The final acts of Fallen Stars, an AU where Firestar gets the shit kicked out of him and is forced to flee the Clans with Sandstorm and Graystripe. Figured I'd just messily write out the frantic ramblings in my master doc once and for all lol

Very quick overviews ahead, just plot rather than details:

The story would've been split between three key povs and their respective groups: Firestar (graystripe, princess, and sandstorm), Cinderpelt (longtail and tawnypaw), and Cloudtail (brightheart, mistyfoot, stormpaw, and feathertail (stonefur would not live here) and each covering a different plot:

Firestar: The BloodClan plot (obviously).

Cinderpelt: Eyes into TigerClan when ThunderClan is eventually absorbed.

Cloudtail: Escaping TigerClan and our eyes into WindClan.

skipping a lot of the little details, this is just plot overview time

Firestar's Journey (The A Plot)

You can read act 1, the intermission, and act 2 here! I really enjoyed running the blog, but ultimately it was a story that involved way more work than an art and ask blog could get in a timely manner, especially while I was working and doing school.

Anyways, Act 2 ends with Princess being caught up and promising to take them to Vivi, who we learn is Violet - Barley's sister! Violet is essentially the exposition dump character for giving the reader insight into how BloodClan has changed for this AU.

They are not family hating Godless heathens, they are a functioning if rough society within the city that promises cats protection in exchange for payment (material, food, land, etc.). Violet and Barley left because they couldn't pay for the protection and Violet warns them that Firestar and his group will most likely be turned away if they offer nothing in exchange for help.

The group opts to make the journey anyways with Violet leading them to the city to meet Scourge.

Here we introduce more AU and lore elements with Firestar receiving strange cryptic dreams from passed loved ones, warning him of the Sun Star and seeing a massive cat made of dark storm clouds.

They make it to BloodClan and a lot of time is spent establishing BloodClan, their ways of life, some of the key cats in it like Bone, Brick, and Fury, and giving Firestar and co a chance to see life outside of the Clans.

They spend a few days there because Firestar keeps trying to appeal to Scourge through the lens of the Clans, citing honor and glory of battle and yada yada before eventually he realizes he needs to speak to Scourge on his terms.

I want a detail where Princess actually intervenes when Firestar accidentally offends them, showing she's got some knowledge of BloodClan etiquette.

Firestar eventually strikes a deal, promising materials and other goods in exchange for their help.

Scourge and Firestar have bonding time as Firestar starts recognizing how much of himself he had rejected to assimilate. Cue development here yada yada.

Firestar dreams of two brothers locked in battle, one who's face is obscured by storm and the other who's face is blindingly bright.

Cinderpelt's Clan (Plot B)

Cinderpelt is our view into ThunderClan who is reeling after Firestar's thorough thrashing. She and Whitestorm are acting as the defacto leaders with Whitestorm trying to corral the panicked Clan.

She would note how heavy it's been raining since the duel and also establish that ThunderClan is divided into three groups:

Waiting for the return of Firestar: Whitestorm (tentatively), Cinderpelt, Brackenfur, Frostfur, Brightheart Whitestorm hurry up and get your lives squad: Mousefur, Dustpelt, Goldenflower, Thornpaw, Smallear, One-Eye Undecided: Longtail, Bramblepaw, Fernpaw, Ashpaw, Willowpelt, Speckletail, Dappletail "Oh god what did i just witness": Tawnypaw

The Clan is split if the storm is because of Tigerstar killing Firestar or Firestar running from a duel.

Brightheart and Cloudtail have gone missing and Cinderpelt wonders if the two went to find Firestar, Sandstorm, and Graystripe.

During this period, Tigerstar and his lackies have been pressuring them to make the decision to join TigerClan and using their numbers to slowly dwindle ThunderClan territory as they struggle.

This is where I needed to plan more but eventually Whitestorm goes to talk it out with Tigerstar and uuuuhh dies! He gets got. Cinderpelt finds his body with his throat torn and Tigerstar tells a story of a fox, Runningnose wondering if its an omen as Whitestorm died similarly to how Firestar's throat was torn out (weak but you get what I'm going for, right?)

Eventually ThunderClan does get assimilated and we learn that Brightheart and Cloudtail were rounded up and imprisoned along with Mistyfoot, Stonefur, Featherpaw, and Stormfur.

I think this is the weakest plot line as I hadn't fudged the details entirely before starting. which is a very bad idea don't do that.

But essentially ThunderClan is outnumbered and a few members are actually into what Tigestar has to offer, Thornclaw in particular.

Very fuzzy here, just some build up for the execution. Stonefur still dies and Tigerstar calls upon Thornclaw to finish off Cloudtail, Brightheart intervenes but the two are outnumbered as Blackfoot and Darkstripe move to separate them.

Very fuzzy here but I want Brackenfur to intervene and he and Thornclaw die via mutually delivered wounds.

The prisoners escape!

At some point there would be the reveal that Tigerstar and Leopardstar had been working together for a while with the reveal that Leopardstar had poisoned Crookedstar to claim leadership. I had an idea of Brackenpaw being the one to see this in a flashback but too scared to speak up, hence why he wanted to intervene now in guilt for not saying anything before. But eh, weak.

Bramblepaw also grows closer to his father during this, setting up why he returns to train with him in TNP. Tawnypaw is waaaayy to freaked by seeing what her father did to even consider it lol

This whole section is weak and I'm not too attached to it? Too jumbled, needed more time to bake. It reeks of first draft.

The rest of this story would be Cinderpelt and Longtail working to gain allies within the captured Clans of TigerClan and turning the tide from within.

Cloudtail's Escape (Plot C)

The shortest of the stories. The prisoners escape and eventually head to the moors where WindClan takes them in.

We learn that Tallstar is critically wounded and hasn't woken up, Mudclaw has been assuming control along with the help of Onewhisker.

General chill time before wuh-oh the scheduled TigerClan attack.

Prisoners are forced to escape and make their way to the barn where Barley tells them of BloodClan, though says he can't promise they'll help them.

Cloudtail and co go where they eventually meet Sasha, who has escaped the forest as well. She guides them to BloodClan where Cloudtail and Firestar's group reunite.

The Big Battle

So by this time Firestar has established allies with BloodClan, Cinderpelt and Longtail are turning the tides in TigerClan, and Cloudtail's caught Firestar up to speed on what's going on.

They aim for the next gathering to strike.

Firestar has another dream...this one less cryptic.

This would've been set up before, obviously, but Firestar would remember the story told to him by Bluestar of an angry spirit made of storm clouds. The reason that fighting was forbidden was because the spirit was summoned by violence at fourtrees, because in the past it had tried to destroy the Clans there. It was the Sky Star that destroyed the spirit and preserved the Clans for moons to come, now watching them with his eye in the sky to ensure the Clans lived on for generations.

In his dream he meets the massive spirit of storm who slowly shrinks and shrinks until he is face to face with a cat much like him: Gray Wing the Fool, a cat who thought he could stop the growing violence of the Clans and became the Dark Forest itself as punishment.

Firestar realizes the cat he saw stealing the moon that gathering was Gray Wing and the two talk. Firestar sees a cat who wanted to fight for peace and lost tremendously, with a warped legacy that painted him as a villain eternally throughout Clan history.

Gray Wing warns him that if Firestar continues down this path, swerving from the Clan's culture of violence and honor in battle, that the stars will not look kindly on him and his generations again.

Firestar, having gone through The Journey and seeing the impact the raids on the cats of the twolegplace had on BloodClan, the way his nephew was nearly executed, but also the way the Clan cats and BloodClan have begun to get along, already knows his answer.

cue artsy foreshadowing to the trial, to lives of difficulty,

Gray Wing nods, promising him that even if the stars aren't with him, there are the spirits of cats all around him that will aid in his fight for change. Cue the appearance of cats who fought and died to try and change things: Ryewhisker and Cloudberry, Morningstar, the rebels that fought with Gray Wing, yada yada.

Firestar wakes up, feeling heavier than before but knowing he made the right choice.

Battle time.

BloodClan ambushes TigerClan, shifting the battle in their favor immediately. The TigerClan rebels turn against their Clanmates immediately, with Longtail and Cinderpelt spearheading the heel turn.

Firestar and Tigerstar meet in battle once again, the moon clear in the sky. It's an echo of their first battle, but Firestar has changed, stronger and now knowing this isn't a battle he has to face alone.

As Tigerstar rears back to strike, Cloudtail and Brightheart pull him back and Firestar crouches to give Scourge a leaping start, sending the small cat into the air and giving him the opportunity to slice Tigerstar's belly open, killing the scarred tabby in the same spectacular fashion as he did in the books.

Battle aftermath, Firestar reaffirming his deal with Scourge, the Clans returning to their own four homes. Princess is invited to come to ThunderClan but she says no, wishing them well.

Epilogue that shows the Clans getting along more, Firestar still struggles with managing his pain from the severe injuries he sustained at the gathering, but is surrounded by loved ones.

Corny sunset ending here.

Looking over it now, Fallen Stars was half-baked and probably wasn't going to make it off the ground anyways. I remember wishing I had kept it as an open project akin to Better Bones, but what's done is done! It's an AU I'm still very fond of and still like to think on, even if looking at my notes, it's clear I hadn't done the planning to fully commit.

Story wise...it's messy, very messy, hence the note about lack of planning. I think sitting down and doing a few more drafts would've benefited it, you can tell I had a lot of ideas and very little focus. I knew I wanted the story to be about change, I just wanted to do waaaayy too much with many characters and many different plotlines. It was ambitious for a first project but it was a fun one to work on anyways.

I still would love to talk about it, make up ideas and think it over, it's not one I want to trash in the bin just yet. Also, Wait For Me from Hadestown was my go to inspiration song for working on it, so the big theater cheese vibes all make sense.

Thanks for reading and thanks to everyone who supported the original blog!

[ayel-goetia]

❌HELLBORNS❌

---Helluva Boss AU---

"Hey you! Yes, YOU, average, ordinary citizen of hell! Are you tired of your boss treating you like a constant walking piece of shit? Has your wife cheated on you for the fifth time this week? Your neighbor's hellhound won't stop defecating in your garden? Well, stop crying and complaining about your existence like a little whore in this pit of hopelessness and eternal suffering and call HELLBORNS now! We will take care of all your ills once and for all in the quickest or most tortuous way possible, it's up to you!

HELLBORNS is a company of assassins specialized in different branches of the art of murder, everyone here is a certified professional, we are legally qualified to practice this profession and we are not accepting contracts from sinners in a secret and illegal way to murder people on earth. We guarantee safe and quality work while respecting 100% the law exercised in hell.

What are you waiting for? Call HELLBORNS today and let the people who were born to do it take care of your problems forever!

Once the murder is done, there are no refunds. We are not responsible if one of our specialized assassins kills a client."

—Black Swan Company.

✨ Hey guys!✨

Well, I finally did it, I brought this AU!

One day I thought about how it would be if I swapped the roles of IMP with the "antagonists" (Verosika is still one?)

But not only that, I also wanted to give it a few differences from the original so that it would have something new and different and not just a simple swap.

So...

⭕What's HELLBORNS?

HELLBORNS is an alternate universe where the roles are reversed, now, Striker will take the place of Blitzø, Chaz will take the place of Moxxie, Verosika will take the place of Millie and finally, Vortex will take the place of Loona.

However, they don't completely take the role of the original. For example: Vortex wasn't adopted by Striker as Loona was by Blitzø.

Characters like Stolas and Stella, for example, do not swap roles, they remain the same. Only the characters mentioned at the beginning (and those involved in their backgrounds) have the swap.

⭕What's the diference?

Many things, actually! For example, they are no longer an independent company that works only killing humans! Now, they work for someone, they also do murders in hell and on earth, and they don't use the book, thanks to the Asmodeus crystal that Verosika possesses.

⭕Is there a difference in relationships?

Of course! In fact, only two of the HELLBORNS group have any relationship beyond coworkers during the beginning, and it's family.

Regarding ships, this AU is already a Straz (StrikerxChaz) AU, so this will be the main ship. The Stoliz will still be present, as well as M&M or practically any relationship already canonized in the series...

Of course, I will take the liberties of developing them in a different way ;-)

(Image without the final details.)

•Characters•

These are the first designs, and I'll admit I made them at a time where I didn't think I would take it any further, so they are redrawn over the official images lol, sorry...

Here they are drawn one hundred percent by me, and also with the designs that I consider the final ones!

Yes, I know, I forgot to add Vortex, but I haven't done it yet... Because I was a bit tired and lazy haha.

Well, that's all for now, I'll probably keep uploading content about this alternate universe. I hope you liked it and found it interesting!

✨See you later and have a spectacular day!✨

[sansaorgana]

I’m not quite sure if your requests are open or not so if they aren’t just ignore this!♥️ but if they are, hi!!! I was wondering if you could do an Austin Butler/Buck Cleven x Reader who plays hard to get with him. She is like head nurse or something, a badass who was trained by her daddy in the arts of war, like I’m talking knowing how to throw hand grenades, shooting rifles or knowing how to work a plane despite her role in modern day 1940s society. I don’t like reading abt Y/N being naive yk?

hello! 💕 this story takes place when the boys are still in the USA and training. I believe I've read somewhere they actually spent two years in Texas so... the Reader is a girl from Texas and a daughter of one of the badass Colonels at the base who is training Buck and others. she is also a head nurse at that base (I assume they also had sickbays even though those were training bases...? I literally know nothing about the military lmao). I hope she will be strong enough for you 😌 I personally don't find every sweet and more period-accurate female character to be weak or naive but it was still nice to write a different type of character for once 😅

I might post less frequently in the upcoming days because I am catching up with my uni work finally after a few weeks of abandoning it to write fics lol

my inbox is open for blurb/short fic requests for major cleven 🤗

Bucky laughed at the sight of his friend going inside the sickbay after a training flight. He was going there for the fifth time this week and it was all because his friend had a crush on the head nurse, young (Y/N) (Y/L/N).

Miss (Y/L/N) was a daughter of Colonel (Y/L/N) – the Colonel (Y/L/N) – the scariest and the roughest man around. He had a scar right across his face and he was known for being so strong he could rip the tree out of the ground with his bare hands… or so the legend said.

His daughter was just like her father. She was feminine of course in her nurse’s apron and her hair done up neatly so it wouldn’t interrupt her work. Her hands were soft and her lips covered with red lipstick. But she was a tough girl who didn’t mind swearing a little and scolding all the boys at the base for their irresponsible behaviour. She probably didn’t know that they all acted this way just so they could get to the sickbay and be treated by her.

At least that was the case for Buck.

She sighed at the sight of him and rolled her eyes as she approached him when he entered the room.

“Major Cleven… Again?” She raised her eyebrows at him and he blushed. “What is it this time?”

“I am… I am dizzy,” he made up a pathetic lie and she huffed at that as she pointed at the chair for him to sit down on.

“I will give you something for that but if you keep having troubles of this sort, I’m gonna tell my daddy to not send you to Europe, you know?” She teased and he swallowed thickly at that comment.

“Please, don’t, Miss (Y/L/N),” he pleaded, his eyes carefully following her every movement as she looked at him with a smirk.

“Well, we don’t want weak pilots like you to defend our country, do we?” She teased.

“It’s not because of flying… It’s… I don’t know, it’s something else,” Buck hated himself for the way he acted around her. She was so intimidating but so tempting at the same time. The fragile part of his masculinity was simply scared of her but his other, brave side wanted to be around her all the time. And he was very well aware how many other men wanted her, too. But his feelings were real. It had very little to do with desire. He was serious about her.

She approached him and handed him a pill and a glass of water. He swallowed it and she squinted her eyes at him.

“I swear to God, you boys are the worst bunch I’ve ever dealt with,” she shook her head. “I hope in Europe I will handle real men,” she rolled her eyes.

“You’re going to Europe, too?” Buck asked as he widened his eyes.

“Of course, Major. It brings me no pleasure to be here and help buffoons like you,” she chuckled. “I signed up already and my daddy wants me to be assigned to the 100th.”

“That’s where I will go, too,” Buck’s eyes sparkled as he realised that she wouldn’t get rid of him so easily.

“Oh God…” (Y/N) sighed. “I hope you’ll be long gone by the time I get there.”

“I hope not,” he blurted out and she froze for a second before laughing.

“Oh, you’re cute, Major,” she admitted before walking away to deal with the next man entering the sickbay, coming up with some fake injury just to feel her hands examining him and hear her mocking tone scolding him for his irresponsibility.

You liked Bucky Egan because he was funny and he didn’t care about you. He could have any woman he wanted so he wasn’t showing off when you were around – or playing a victim like so many “injured” Majors, Captains and Lieutenants. You were growing sick of all of them, coming to you with every single papercut and making puppy eyes at you.

You were having a beer with Bucky behind one of the buildings in the evening. Consuming alcohol was forbidden but who would fire you? You were a daughter of the roughest Colonel in that base. And Bucky was under your protection – and one of the best pilots around.

“Alright, but if you had to go out with any of them, who would that be?” Bucky asked, teasingly.

“For fuck’s sake, John,” you rolled your eyes and leaned your head back to rest it on the wall. “It would be you.”

“But I don’t want you,” he laughed.

“You…,” you hissed at him and you both giggled. “That’s why I would go out with you.”

“Oh, you like the ones who don’t want you?”

“No, I like real men,” you told him. “Like my daddy is.”

“You know that my best friend is madly in love with you, right?” Bucky pushed your arm playfully.

“Curt Biddick?” You asked. God, that one was insufferable.

“Yeah, him too. But I mean the other one.”

“Buck Cleven?” You asked as you felt your cheeks heating up for some mysterious reason.

“Yeah, that one,” Bucky nodded. “He’s a good guy and a hell of a pilot. He’s tough, too, just in a different way.”

“Yeah, he’s cute, bless his heart,” you admitted.

“So, you’d go out with him?” Bucky raised his eyebrow at you.

“Stop playing matchmaker, it’s not gonna happen. I ain’t dating any man from this base,” you took a sip of your beer as you shook your head.

“Why not, though? You don’t want to marry a man like your daddy? I thought you wanted to,” Bucky asked.

“Y’all would be scared of a gal like me, let me tell you,” you giggled. “I can shoot a rifle and throw a grenade. My daddy wanted a son, you see. But my momma gave him only girls so he raised us like boys,” you told him. “All that discipline, I ain’t joking, Bucky,” you pushed him because he was laughing. “We had to get up at 5am, make our bed, do morning gymnastics,” you teased.

“Really?” His face became more serious.

“Nah,” you shook your head. “Only sometimes. But he took the whole business of teaching us self-defence very seriously. I remember asking him, where the hell would I even get a grenade from in case some boy was following me home, daddy? And he said: easy, sugar, they’re in my drawer next to the gun,” you laughed and so did Bucky.

“You know what I think?” Bucky put his bottle of beer down and shot you an odd glance you did not like at all.

“What, Egan?”

“You’re gonna get angry when I tell you.”

“Just tell me,” you rolled your eyes.

“I think you need a man who’s gonna see a woman in you. Like yeah, we all know you’re tough and shit. And all these boys want to be around you because you’re like a mother that they have left back home in the way you scold them and take care of them. But I think you just need someone to see a woman in you. Has anyone ever…?”

“You asshole,” you indeed got angry. You didn’t want him to be right and react in such a predictable way but you did.

You stood up and went back to the building to go to sleep, leaving Bucky Egan without a word.

You didn’t know what Bucky had said to Buck but Major Cleven hadn’t visited the sickbay in a week now and you hated to admit but you missed it. In fact, you were the most excited when it was him coming inside with some adorable injury or illness. There was something about him that was making you swoon even though you would never ever admit that. 

On that weekend most boys had a night out and you stayed inside the sickbay to deal with the paperwork. One of the head nurse’s duties sadly required filling some papers, too.

After a while, you heard a light knocking upon the front door and you sighed before standing up and opening them, shocked to see Major Cleven.

“Major?” You asked. “What is it again? The mysterious dizziness has had its comeback?”

“N-no,” he shook his head.

“Why aren’t you out with all the boys?”

“I didn’t want to go,” he admitted and you squinted your eyes at him.

“So you decided to catch me in an empty room instead? I have a gun here and I know how to use it,” you threatened although it was hard to believe that a man like Major Cleven would ever hurt any woman.

“I wanted to ask you if you’d go out on a walk with me, Miss (Y/L/N),” he widened his eyes at your threats. “It’s a warm and nice night.”

“Ugh, fine,” you shrugged your arms and grabbed a cardigan to put over your nurse’s outfit. He waited for you outside nervously with his hands in his pockets.

“I don’t want to be a bother, we don’t have to…” Buck told you as you were locking the door behind you.

“You’re lucky, Major, I needed a distraction from the papers,” you told him and joined him.

“Yeah, the paperwork. I don’t like it either,” he looked down and you two began to walk slowly towards the gates leading out of the base.

“And who does?” You chuckled and looked at him as you bit on your lip. He was adorable; something about him was making you feel protective. But on the other hand you knew from your father he was one of the best pilots and he was a man of honour. Your father was usually rolling his eyes at the mention of most men at the base. But never about Major Cleven. Your father rarely respected the young and new ones but something about that Major was making your daddy go easy on him.

“I wanted to apologise, actually,” Buck told you when you two finally left the base and began to walk alongside its fence.

“Hm? About what?” You asked.

“Bothering you five times a week with made up dizziness or papercuts,” he laughed nervously.

“And what made you apologise? You’re not the only one who’s been doing that, Major, but you’re surely the first actually saying he’s sorry,” you raised an eyebrow.

“Bucky told me it’s annoying you and that it’s not really a way to get to you,” he admitted as he looked up at your face.

“Why the hell would you want to get to me? You’re a sweet man,” you snorted at him. In the dim light of the moon and the base’s lights from afar you could see him blushing.

“What does it have to do with it, Miss (Y/L/N)?” Buck asked.

“I’m not sweet, Major Cleven. A guy like you… You should be out there in town with them boys and look for a sweet little naive doll for yourself,” you teased him. But deep down it hurt you that it was true – you were raised for a tough girl but sometimes… Sometimes you wished you were softer.

“You think so low of me, Miss?” He only shook his head with a nervous chuckle. “That type of woman you’ve mentioned… They’re nice and kind, I don’t mind them, they’re sweet, yeah. And they make good wives to lots of men but you… You’re the first one who actually impressed me,” he confessed.

You went silent for a moment. You liked that he wasn’t complimenting you while saying mean things about others.

“You’re a real gentleman, Cleven,” you pointed out. “And so smooth. You’d be a sensation if you stayed here in Texas.”

“Would I?” He stopped his walk and so did you as he turned around to face you better.

“Yeah. But if you stayed here, you’d soon realise there are more gals like me ‘round here. And I’d lose all the charm,” you teased.

“Then maybe I’d finally leave you alone, which I assume is your wish.”

“Oh, far from that,” you risked as you raised your eyebrows, waiting for his next move.

He hesitated for a while and then he smiled smugly and joined his lips with yours in a sweet but passionate kiss that took your breath away.

Bucky had been right – it was nice to be treated like a woman.

“Will your daddy shoot me for that?” Major Cleven asked with a chuckle after finally breaking the kiss.

“It’s not him you should be worried about. I can shoot, too, Major, and my daddy wouldn’t get rid of the best pilot,” you teased.

“But you would?” He grabbed your chin gently.

“The best pilot? Surely. But would I get rid of Major Cleven? Never,” you chuckled. “God, I’ve missed your made up migraines,” you confessed.

“I can fake more of them,” he smirked.

“Yes, please,” you chuckled and leaned in to kiss him again. “But let’s keep it a secret for now.”

“Why?”

“Because if my daddy finds out about us, he’ll make sure we won’t be sent to the same base in Europe and we don’t want that, do we…?” You looked up at him, your heart pounding so fast in your chest as it had never done before for any man.

“Oh, no, no, we don’t want that at all,” Major Cleven bopped you on the nose. “Who will deal with my headaches there otherwise?”

MASTERLIST || BUCK MASTERLIST

[linksfunroadtrip]

Link's Fun Commentary - Prologue!

+ sailor design commentary. link's fun extra

Twilight Field, War of Eras...

Sailor starting in Hyrule Warriors and being dropped immediately into Shepherd's era is actually the second pitch for the beginning of the comic, the very First pitch being the first two pages of chapter 1.

More than anything we just wanted to get it done, but we didn't really know what we were doing . We cobbled together a custom font and got right to it. My Fun Facts: All the grass is the same image reused over and over except for when it isn't . Literally all of the smoke was just repeated/moved around. We didn't even really know how to use gradients effectively...

... Which can be seen in these next two panels. LOL.

The work split on this batch set a precedent for sure. @islandlobster took up lining and flat colors, and had the Hard Job of harmonizing our styles, processes, and experiments. Do you see a lot of small, long-form comics with grainy, textured line-art? Maybe no? Well we found out why.

These panels also feature the Only Two Triforces we remembered to draw !!! Oh My God!!!

As much as we struggled, things moved pretty quick from the get-go. Since the prologue is only a handful of pages we didn't really run into the issues we would with chapter 1, especially regarding our complete and utter lack of script. This went straight from thumbnailing to the final result!! (NOT A SUSTAINABLE WAY TO DO A GROUP PROJECT...!)

I wanted to mention though that when I wrote the line above, I wasn't sure if this was how you would spell it for like . a Soldier Troop or a Performance Troupe. Which I just looked up now and found out I Absolutely got them mixed up. so umm. Sorry. Sailor is not in the circus yet.

Cia was just defeated in the main campaign! I felt like such a smart cookie for this one.

She doesn't even know she wont be going home yet‼️ laughing and pointing ‼️

It was an Early idea that Sailor would conveniently miss the time portal transporting the field (with her in it!) back to its era. This was supposed to be a reoccurring bit, but we didn't commit to it too hard going forward, so who's to say if that'll be realized.

The pirate charm plays a big role in the prologue. A little funny because we were absolutely sick to death of drawing it by the end, as well as the fact that it is there in lieu of her red-gem necklace that we forgot to draw. it is Welcome and Unfortunate that it doesn't work anymore, especially because having the chance to name drop like this was very indulgent.

The era of twilight ! Including the locations and times was in the original sketches, but when we found out that our inexperience with backgrounds wasn't lending itself to establishing Where we were, it came in handy. We Agonized over placing the castle and argued* for like a week about how forested the area should be. Luckily we use noclip now, so things have improved as we've moved into chapter 2 :]

Either way, hopefully it wasn't too confusing, and as we introduce new characters the picture will be clearer. We've talked a little bit about returning to the prologue to spiff it up a bit, but we feel we aren't far enough into the comic to make it worthwhile.

and now over to Pea with the weather:

my name is pea islandlobster and you can't tell that it's me because we are writing on the same post but trust okay 🤞 I am here to talk about SAILOR!!!

Sailor has been my baby brainchild before LFRT was even a blip in our minds eye (my proof) and it has been a beautiful indulgence for me to both put her in AND have her be the first Link we meet. YAY!

I have two designs for her, for which I have helpfully made a diagram just for you..! Labeled and everything..!

A: pheww my big one that I have been sitting on forever. Sailor's necklace was constructed over the course of her adventure, initially only having her red gem (given to her by King Daphnes, from his own crown). Four pearls were later added, parting gifts from Oshus and the three spirits. Also intended to mirror the three Goddess pearls from Wind Waker..! and an extra yellow one i guess. triforce? idk

B: Sailor's chipped tooth is a funny one that I will have to make a small comic about at some point. It's not even anything from her adventure. A couple years before WW, Aryll was pretty upset about losing her first tooth, and in typical Link fashion she thought the best way of comforting her was to ALSO lose a tooth. Grandma was not happy.

C: Most Links have a triforce mark, and each one we are giving a reason towards ^.^ Sailor's mark is entirely scar tissue, specifically it is hypertrophic. She held her triforce for only a few days and got it (maybe quite literally) ripped from her by Ganondorf, so take that as you will. Tetra and her are matching yayyy..!

D: Giving her hero outfit it's own section so I can tuck it out of the way lol. A modified version of her original hero outfit, courtesy of shipmate Nudge (guy in the top left). She was a little upset over having to alter Grandma's hard work, but she preserved it where she could. Like her seashell belt! ^_^

E: SIDEBURNS! Not present in the prologue because it has been a recent development but I figured it was worth bringing up. During WoE, as she grows her hair, her sideburns resemble little lobster claws. Cute! In LFRT as grown out as it is, I thought making them swirly as a reference to pretty much every cloud/wind effect used in WW lol.

From a combination of outgrowing stuff and missing home, Sailor was christened with Lobster Shirt 2.0 as we know and love today. Who made it for her? I dunnooo..... let's sit and think about this one.

Phewww. This was a long one - and no doubt the next will be longer - but this is all for now! Feel free to send any questions you might have ^.^ Thank you for all the support! Chapter 2 part 2 soon!

[croded]

Hopefully Mostly Accurate Translation of the Link Click Art Book Interview with Director Li Haoling

thank you very much to @yingdu-lover for the initial post+tag and also the interview!!

I made a chinese transcript of the entire interview and goddamn it was 4 Google doc pages long 😭this is going to be a long post but let's go :)

Blue text=interviewer, white text=Director Li (small text=little translator notes. don't worry they won't pop up too often :))

About the production team and production process

Q1. The main production team of Link Click is an internationalised lineup, can you introduce the members of the team and their usual responsibilities to the readers?

---About Link Click's main production team's structure, I am the screenwriter and director, the executive director is (Zhang) Yuxia, his position is equivalent to the assistant director. Our work distribution is I mainly work on content creation and overall control; he leans more towards communicating, interacting and executing the created content. The members in the country (China) also include Studio LAN, who have overall control of the production process. Their work includes Chief Producer, original design, mid-term character modeling et cetera. Besides, there are also our colleagues in the Japanese branch taking part in and leading the post-production work.

As for the pre-production process of the show, INPLICK-laoshi* from Korea was in charge of the character design. She is a very well-known illustrator. On the art aspect, since we have previous cooperation experience with Shinkai Makoto-laoshi's* team, the process was quite enjoyable, and we established a long-term cooperation relationship, so this time we also invited Tanji Takumi-laoshi* to help with the art supervision and design; whereas Tenmon-laoshi* is in charge of the music. This is roughly our team configuration.

*In the original interview, Director Li added -老师 to the ends of the names of these other creators. Much like Japanese's sensei, this is used as an honorific, used to indicate respect. I don't think there's an English equivalent for these honorifics, so I kept them in rough Pinyin 🥹 I'll keep it like this for the rest of the translation too

Just now you said the assistant director was Yuxia-laoshi, is this the same person as Yu Xia from episode 2, "Secret Recipe"?

Correct. Actually there are a lot of character names in the show that are the same as our friends at work. But in the real world, Lin Zhen and Yu Xia are two guys. They're college classmates.

*Director Li says 工作里的小伙伴 in the part that says "friends at work", and 小伙伴 directly translates to "little partner", so it's like a bit cuter? lol :') also noodle lesbian name lore?!?!

Q2. Sounds like the team atmosphere is quite relaxed, can you further introduce how the usual work atmosphere is? And how is the state/condition when communicating with overseas teams?

---Because Link Click is an original donghua, so there is a higher freedom in the creating process. Like the part with using the names of work friends as character names, I also think it is more relaxed this way, and more meaningful. As for communicating with overseas teams, because we have a greater experience in cooperating with overseas teams, the process is quite smooth. For example, we have had several indirect cooperations with Tanji-laoshi from the Shinkai Makoto team. At the time, we mentioned that we wanted to do some new challenges and content, and they were willing to take part in it, they also thought it was something new and were very interested. The more novel it is, the more enthusiasm they have to give it a try.

Q3. Going back to Link Click, what was your (Director Li's) original intent during the creation of Link Click?

---At first it was because I saw a photo one time, that time I thought the people in the photo were particularly happy, but the person looking at the photo was not that happy. At that time I felt that photos were quite a unique thing, through a piece of paper, it connects two different worlds, different states of yourself. Because of this feeling, I got the idea of using photos as a base for a story's script, and then from there, I thought about if I could go back to a certain scene or time in a photo, what kind of feeling would I have. I took the thoughts I had while trying to figure out this kind of feeling and expanded them further, and it slowly formed into Link Click's overall story.

Q4. The impression that photos give us is mostly warm, so how come you thought of using a theme that carried some suspense to fill in each episodic story?

---If we're talking about only setting an ability that can enter photos, I imagine there definitely isn't a shortage of similar themes, so I wanted to include an even more interesting setting.

Take the point of entering a photo to change the past and save the future for example, there are actually many ways to travel through. When setting the plot, my first thought was to separate/disassemble this ability. The more imperfect the ability, the more it can create changes and plot conflicts. Like how we see that even though Cheng Xiaoshi can enter photos, but he doesn't know what will happen in the photo, so him inside the photo will become an unstable factor; whereas Lu Guang is outside the photo, he can see what is about to happen in the photo, but he has no way of completely controlling Cheng Xiaoshi's actions. Both of their abilities are imperfect, so they must cooperate to sufficiently utilize each other's effect. I expanded the later plot based on this point.

Additionally, about returning to the last through photos, that itself already carries many elements of suspense. Everyone probably has had this experience before: you're all smiling when the photo is taken, but the you at the time might not actually feel like smiling, deep inside. In that photo, everyone looks very happy on the surface, but maybe there are different thoughts in everyone's hearts. It's actually quite interesting. To me, this is also a kind of suspense - what's the real meaning behind the photo?

So a conflict between appearances and the inside?

That's right. What's truly beneath those appearances, the process to unearth this in itself will carry suspense, I suppose this is also a main point that I abided by when I designed the story to go towards suspense. This is one of the reasons. Another point is that there are very few donghuas in the country (China) that use a suspense theme, I wanted to try to break through, and do a fresh theme.

Q5. Link Click is in the form of an episodic show, with every episode having a different story, what is your original intent when picking stories? What is your starting point?

---Some stories were already thought out, but actually every story was not "picked out", but instead expanded from several angles. For example, the story of "Farewell" (s1e5 T_T) first had a narrative inspiration: everyone says going back to the past is to change the future, but if you went back to the past and made changes, only to find out in the end that nothing had changed in the future after all? I will assume this situation: it changed, and yet it didn't. As long as there is this hypothetical, there will be a lot of plot conflicts. The emotional level will also be very high. I think this is a plot core for having something interesting happening, and the story "Farewell" sprouted from this point.

Let's take another example of the special episode, "Marrying by Contesting". It originated from a story I read before. At that time there was a news report, saying that in a certain place, a girl was banned from something by her family*** and gave up her whole life. After reading, it left a deep impression on me, something like this actually happened, so I used it as a main theme to create. And the episode about kidnapping, "Aunt May" as well, I hope that through this donghua I can not only show entertaining content, but also embody some social value.

***GUYS IM SO SORRY for this part, the word was NOT eligible in the picture of the interview log 😭the closest (and only) thing I could think of when I saw that blob of pixels was the word 锠, but the phrase 禁锠 had no meaning. I looked it up. Nothing. 禁 means ban, so the general meaning of the sentence is that the girl's family banned her from something and she gave up on her life. I don't know what they banned her from 😭 so sorry once again

Q6. From the OP and ED, we can see that Link Click's art style is quite intense, how did you think of using this kind of style to make a donghua?

---About the style of the OP and the ED, the earliest intention was to create a sense of trendiness. I invited many teams to work together with, like INPLICK-laoshi, her art style can give people the impression of trendiness. Aside from characterization, the backgrounds were also considered to be stylised a bit, and not just done in a realistic style, because a realistic style will make it look heavy and serious. I hope that the backgrounds can be made to have more personality, more tactile, with a more artistic effect, so I discussed it with Tanji-laoshi and the artistic design done with this target in mind had a stronger drawing sense.

Q7. In the episode "Marrying by Contesting", a quote by Edward Weston appeared, and we understand by communicating with the team that there is a quote in the beginning of every episode, what is the purpose of this setting?

---Because we're making a theme based on photos, so I hoped to take the quotes of world-famous photographers and pick appropriate quotes for each episode, it's mainly an expression of form.

When I saw that line I felt quite moved, I was touched.

Yes, we had this intention. The intentions of animators making animations are the same, people who like the content often have this kind of empathy, we all hope to unearth the differentness of the world through our content. Just like how war photographers are willing to give their lives to document reality, to be able to capture that moment in time with your own life, that spirit is quite a great thing.

Q8. We heard that the donghua had been accepting fans' commissions since it began airing, and the donghua also showed everyone's submissions and story collections, like the Time Photo Studio really exists, can you talk about the purpose of this setting?

---This was the first thing we thought of. We could really open a Time Photo Studio and find real-life stories, restore them, help people complete their commissions. I think this is rather romantic. We have also been doing this continuously, collecting everyone's stories, be it in the mini-theatre series (it's The Daily Life in Lightime chibi series!) or in the later plot, we'll show them in future parts. The saying of "breaking the fourth wall" might be a little cliché, but it does indeed have the feeling of breaking "the fourth wall".

About the characters and the setting

Q9. This question may have been asked quite a few times on other occasions, how did you (Director Li) decide on using a double male protagonist setting like with Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang?

---As I mentioned earlier, I wanted the powers of the protagonists to be imperfect. The abilities must be split into two halves and be distributed to two separate people. This is the first point. Secondly, we had discussed at the time, if it were a male-and-female setting, putting the two characters together will have one problem: should we give them a romantic storyline or not? Later on we found that this problem was too complicated/troublesome, and couldn't be resolved well no matter how we tried to do it, and there were things to consider in every aspect of the matter. So in the end, we ended up with the double male protagonist setting that we have now.

Regarding Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang's personalities, I mentioned it earlier as well: Cheng Xiaoshi is an unstable factor, since he can enter the photos but doesn't know what will happen next, whereas Lu Guang is a stable factor. The two of them must partner up and complement each other, then only can they utilize their abilities perfectly.

Q10. About this female character Qiao Ling, how did you (Director Li) adjust the character relationship between them and the interaction atmosphere?

---The audience has always cared a lot about Qiao Ling. Although she doesn't get much screen time, her existence is still very important. To express the kinship* between two boys, this isn't much of a problem, but to make these two boys open their hearts to each other is not as easy. I want to set a link that allows there to be emotional communication between the boys, such as Lu Guang wanting to know how Cheng Xiaoshi sees "me" (Lu Guang), Cheng Xiaoshi wants to know how Lu Guang sees "me" (Cheng Xiaoshi), how is Cheng Xiaoshi's thoughts towards "me" (Lu Guang), how is Lu Guang's thoughts towards "me" (Cheng Xiaoshi), all these thoughts can be converted and conveyed through Qiao Ling.

*(sorry in advance for the long tl note) this "kinship" might be more of a "tacit understanding", which is 默契 in Chinese. I don't think there's an English equivalent that sounds as good, so basically 默契is where people work together so well they don't even need to talk to each other to do something together. Think something like maybe you and your best friend turn around to high five each other at the same time without looking, or when you do the same action (e.g. tilting your head a certain way, saying something, closing a book etc.) at the exact same time in the exact same way. That's 默契 :) in cxs and lg terms, it's them passing the ball around to each other flawlessly and dogwalking the rest of the court without even really looking at each other or communicating verbally. They just do, and they work together seamlessly without even trying. 默契 babyy

Is it equivalent to Qiao Ling between them balancing their views towards each other, balancing the relationship between the two of them?

It isn't balancing their relationship, but rather she is a path for their communication. The communication I mean is core communication between hearts.

Is it the more sentimental/emotional part?

Yes, for example episode 10, where Cheng Xiaoshi possessed Xu Shanshan and listened to Qiao Ling talk about how Lu Guang saw him at the time. This kind of trope can only be conveyed and converted very well through her.

Q11. Among all the characters, who do you (Director Li) like the most?

---This is like asking which of your children is your favourite, it's kind of difficult to choose. You ask which one I like, I can only say I like them all; but saying I like them all, this answer seems kind of boring. I'll be honest, I still like them all, they each have their special characteristics.

Then let's talk about the points of the three main characters that shine/stand out.

Cheng Xiaoshi is righteous, and he's very genuine. He's a very naïve person, and naivety is commendable. In the current society, naivety is becoming increasingly scarce.

Lu Guang is calm, knowledgeable, and very smart and mysterious. He's a rather perfect male image.

Qiao Ling cannot simply be said to just be a "girl next door", instead she has more of a big sister image, and can hold the trio. While she has a rational, strong side, she also has a very soft side, the future plots will also bring out these virtues of hers.

Q13. You (Director Li) seem to have a soft spot for the word "light"(光), what meaning does the word "light" represent? Outside of the donghua, what does this "light" repose?

---"Light" is a symbolic hope, or maybe energy, giving people an uplifting feeling. Personally as a practitioner of animation, the reason I chose such a difficult job was because this job could bring people some direction and light. I also think I'm a little delusional* when it comes to this aspect, the people watching animations usually aren't very old, planting a little bit of light in the hearts of children, I think this is the lovable part of animation and the value of its existence. So at the time I kept bringing up "light", including many characters' names have something to do with light, the theme is also related to light, it all comes from this kind of thoughts.

*he says 中二. which is basically chuuni, for chuunibyou (中二病) and is usually known as "delusional disease" or "8th grade syndrome" but the gist of it (though I think yall know what chuunibyou is 😭) is that he's calling himself delusional here lmaoo

Q13. During the process of creating Link Click, what were the parts where you felt the happiest?

---The happiest part is still the good overall creating atmosphere. The creation of Link Click began in 2019, at that time I had the rare chance of creating without much concern, purely creating for the sake of creating. So Link Click getting everyone's approval in the end is partially because that time the conditions for creating were good.

Q14. Can you reveal some details about Season 2, some details that everyone wants to know.

---Season 2 is mainly suspense. The storyline of pursuing the culprit was a very large tension/cliffhanger in Season 1, Season 2 will definitely go through this tension/cliffhanger till the end. I saw a lot of viewers wish to keep some things from Season 1, such as the episodic stories, and some portrayals of real-life stories. So I'm also thinking of a way to satisfy the condition of Season 2 being suspenseful and following a main storyline while also adding these elements into it.

Will it be more angsty* than season 1?

As the audience, are your expectations wishing for it to be "angsty*" or not "angsty*"?

It's hard to say, this mentality is quite dilemmatic.

Personally, I think a lot of Season 1's content was real-life things, so its "angst*" is an "angst that hits close to home*", akin to the regrets in real life. But in Season 2, since it has a storyline of pursuing the culprit, so some parts with emotional concentration will be different from Season 1, the feeling of "angst that hits close to home*" will be weaker.

*(hoo boy this will be a long one) so the words they are using here are Chinese internet language/slang: 刀, which means knife/blade, is used to mean something that makes your heart hurt when you read it. Yknow, like cxs dying! Chen Bin falling! Chen Bin's wife walking down the funeral hall in her wedding dress! S1e5 in general! That kinda stuff. That's 刀. It makes you cry, it makes you hurt, it makes you sad. So I ended up using "angst" with the definition of the fanfic term here since that was the closest thing with that meaning. With the "angst that hits close to home" part, he used "贴肉刀" which directly translates to "knife that sticks to meat" and like... basically it's blade that cuts you deep (emotionally) because it's something you've experienced? something like that? the closest thing I could think of was "hits close to home" :') sorry this particular section is so confusing. its like 50% chinese slang

Q15. One last question, say something to the readers that are eagerly awaiting Season 2, increase the anticipation.

---Just like the creating process I mentioned earlier, I wish to be able to tell a beautiful story in a quiet, peaceful condition. I also hope the viewers can be more calm when treating/regarding this work, whether everyone likes it or dislikes it, I accept it all, but sometimes the feelings of the audience becomes a form of pressure on the work. The original intent of this work was to present it in a quiet, good condition, so I still hope that in the future, everyone can maintain a level head towards Link Click.

Thank you, Director Li. Thanks for all your hard work.

-interview end-

that's the end of this VERY long post! :'D translating is kinda fun ngl

I tried my best to keep it as accurate as possible, forgive me if there are any mistakes :') (especially the "girl was banned from something by her family" one... ooh. I am on my knees apologising for that one I am cringing at myself)

and also sorry for the longass translator notes in the middle of some segments... I hope it didn't disrupt your reading too much 🥹

[klm-zoflorr]

Agnes Montague, the villain Phoenix :33

I used a stained glass filter on this one, looove how it looks. Also here are a few versions without as much editing so you can see the details.

Agnes is one of my favorites in this AU. And in general too I guess lol. So I made her entirely too overpowered! She's obviously based off Dark Phoenix/Jean Grey/The Phoenix from Xmen. Without as much of the hero-turned-villain vibes Jean has, Agnes can be nice but she's mostly a wrong-doer.

I'd probably say she's the most powerful super-human in the 'verse, or at least where the story takes place. Her and Magnus are buddy-buddies because. Um. I just want them to be.

So, her powers, right. She can control and

produce fire, lots of it. She can fly. The wings only appear when she wants them to btw. I think she has some form of telekinesis, sure why not plus I don't have a lot of people like that in the verse (and I'm quickly running out of canon characters anyways loool). I don't think I'll give her too many psychic powers? Maybe just some ability to block psychic attacks. Oh well nevermind lets just make her cooler let's say she can attack people psychically, as in not quite read their thoughts (even if I think she could grasp on some of the things you're thinking while she's there) but like, cause intense pain to her victim and maybe even kill them by hitting them with her mind.

Her hands are more like talons or claws, with tough nails and strong, too. She can rip someone's face off or hold herself up with them.

The nature of her powers make them somewhat incontrollable and ill-suited for precision work or limiting damage/casualties.

Despite all of that, Agnes is very tired and looks as such. Her abnormal body warmth makes her sleep poorly and not very much, if she isn't setting the room on fire or throwing objects around when she's having nightmares. She holds off from getting intoxicated in any way because she might level off the whole island if she did.

And the cherry on the cake... She can ressurect herself. AND others. Let the holy cleansing fire engulf you and be reborn anew with your sins scrubbed clean yadda yadda you know the deal. It resets people to a younger age and cures any ailment they have, so that's a rather extreme form of healing too if you will.

Naturally, with that sort of powers the Cult Of The Lightless Flame (named like that because Agnes hoggs all the light) treats her as a goddess. Which isn't that far from the truth actually.

Suffice to say in the story she is not the big bad our heroes have to take down because that would be straight-up impossible.

Design notes and misc:

-I usually imagine her with dark hair, but for this AU she really just had to be a redhead I feel.

-Yes, in the art she doesn't have feet but that's just because I got lazy.

-She wears practical gloves, a guilded shiny supersuit, impractical shoulder pads and a white flowy skirt and shoulder sash that both get set on fire very frequently. This is meant to evoke how she mostly doesn't care or need to be dressing appropriately for fighting, she's too powerful to need to.

-She doesn't carry anything on herself either, no pockets no bags no nothing, she has goons for that. She's just there to look impressive and deus ex machina everyone's asses to the ground if they get too annoying.

-She's lived a long life, done a lot, was in the military at some point which influenced a lot of how she thinks. Again, she CAN be unfrivolous and practical, she just doesn't want to and has to remain a symbol. She can shoot a gun pretty well.

-Her "crown" (it's a paper crown) is something children that admired her gave her. She's very very careful not to burn it, but can't wear it everywhere either

-She's not much of a strategizer or a long-term planner unlike Magnus, she just doesn't see the point in that and she already has everything she could ever want. She could have the potential to rule the city instead of having everyone vaguely follow her lead, but she's just not much of a tyrant.

Oh, yeah, and Jude. Jude Perry is Agnes' right hand woman and closest friend, her villain name is Lampadarius and she can make anything that isn't organic matter melt/heat up (like those cans in MAG012: First Aid). One of her favorite tricks is heating up her gloves and burning people like that. It pisses her off when you call her Agnes' guard dog. She's been ressurected a few times by the Phoenix, so been around for a while too.

[jojo-schmo]

I’m looking into making my own Kirbysona. I was wondering if you have any tips??

you don’t have to answer! Also I love your art and your AU is awesome :)

Hello! Thank you so much for the kind words! <3 I'd be happy to share some of my thought process behind creating my bubble-blowing baby, Ripple Fairy Kirbysona! I will always cheer on the existence of more Kirbysonas! :D

I had a Kirbysona in childhood that was just a little puffball, like Kirby- and she looked like this :D I loved the Star Rod, the Beam Kirby hat was my favorite, I just finished playing Kirby 64 so I added some Crystal Shards to the hat, and I slapped on my favorite colors. Bam! I'd draw her in the margins of my notebooks, interacting with other Kirby characters in little stories I'd write... Great fun!

But now as an adult posting my work online, I wanted something that felt more like "me," as opposed to an OC that felt like someone else. A direct extension of myself to interact with the characters I love, as well as characters and sonas of other creators in our Kirby corner over here! Like a gaming avatar! But in a series with so many different species and characters, where to start?!

Step 1: THERE ARE NO RULES. BE CRINGE AND BE FREE!!

The important thing is to have fun! You can choose to confine yourself to the rules of the Kirby universe, or just make something up! The important part is that a sona represents you!

These are the thoughts that went through my head, but it's not the only way to make a sona! If you follow what your heart is saying and not what you think others want to see, you'll find a design that feels like you!

Step 2: Ask some basic questions to establish a design direction.

These are the questions I asked myself during the creation process, but your questions can be different! This is just how I set up my rough plan of creation.

Sonas don't need to look like you or be named after you irl if you don't want! But in order to feel like "me," I decided on something that shared a lot of my actual physical traits. For me personally, if the sona didn't look a lot like me, I would always have a disconnect with it. I also settled on the name "Jojo" quickly because that's my actual nickname, part of my username, and I respond quickly to it.

From there, answering the other design questions I had came quickly after that!

Step 3: Settle on a species.

I went with a Ripple Star Fairy in the end because 1) They're adorable and I love their cute wings, hair ribbons/accessories, 2) They're shown as adults, which is perfect because I am one lol, 3) Look human enough for me to relate to while still having a lot of freedom to make up powers, lore, and design traits, and 4) Ripple Fairies deserve some love hahaha

Side note: if you can't decide on a species, throw the rules out the window! Be a shapeshifter. Or have multiple forms for no reason. Be a combination penguin/puffball knight/human/waddle dee born from the cosmos!! Refer to step 1, there are no rules! Hit your sona with a Waddle Dee beam whenever you want!!

Step 4: Design yourself, superstar!!

I brainstormed with a page of sketches and tried a bunch of different variations of a Ripple Fairy with different hairstyles and outfits, (I need to find that sketch page) but I eventually settled on these concepts!

I wear braids almost every day, so I added that. Ripple Fairies in canon all have cute hair accessories, so I made sure to tie off the braid with a little ribbon!

Also my hair in real life does this "devil horn thing" that is one of my favorite things about myself. Like I have these baby hairs on the sides of my head that love to curl upwards on their own, so I kept the "devil horn" silhouette with the braid's bangs :D

ALSO, I LOVE BOW TIES. SO MUCH. I love shirts, dresses, anything with a bow on the collar. So I added that.

I have this black coat with a sailor-like collar IRL that I love. I feel SUPER DUPER AWESOME when I wear it, so I added the collar with the bow tie.

I added buttons, a stripe along the bottom of the dress and sleeves, and gauntlets because a lot of canon Ripple Fairies have them. My college marching band uniform also had big gauntlets that I felt really cool wearing, so I shaped mine like that! And clothes with scalloped hems are my favorites, so I added one as a unique twist to my dress!

Now for the fun magic stuff. I wanted my powers to be connected to bubbles because I just think bubbles are neat!!! Simple as that haha.

So how am I going to blow bubbles, then? I'll need a bubble wand! How about a weapon that can change forms to be pocket-sized and functional, AND a super cool staff? Because I think staffs are SICK. I'd carry one around all the time if I could.

I got a little sentimental with my design too, borrowing some elements from my childhood Kirbysona like the Star Rod, stripes, ribbons, and diamond shapes. It's one of my favorite details because I like paying homage to the baby Jojo I once was as often as I can.

I added a little bit of red to the IRL brown color that my hair and eyes are (added more red to my eyes because I always felt like my brown eyes were boring lol). I finished off the theme with my favorite color blue, a little bit of yellow to complement, and BAM! There I am, Gary! There I am!!

Jojo The Schmo was born! She is me, and I am her, haha. Everything about the design has aspects that mean something special to me. I wanted to keep things unique and fun, but simple enough to draw over and over, while still representing me. And that's why I love my sona so so much!!

Hope this could provide some helpful insight! Go forth and create your unique and wonderful sonas!! When you're done we should all have a picnic together in Dreamland. <3

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  merry_magpie! @sevenmerrymagpies has 52 fics in the Stranger Things fandom and 16 of them are in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by @sevenmerrymagpies:

Lust, Love, and Other Side Effects

Electric Twist

Coming Out

Translucent Hearts

Winter Solstice

"Meri's one of those authors who writes delightfully fun, weird stories with distinct character voices. Meri also incorporates really thoughtful and interesting topics, especially around science and technology, and I feel like there's always a neat little tidbit to learn in every new piece of writing. Meri's also so so good at engaging with the community - liking and commenting, sharing art and other fic, and just being an all-round delightful person. "-- anonymous

They also had this to say: "All of Meri's Steddie stories don't slack on the other characters and so much of the other non-Steddie writing on their AO3 is worth a read!" - anonymous

Below the cut, merry_magpie answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

When season one came out, I fell in love with Steve Harrington. His character's shift from heel to hero is character catnip to me. I had no time to get into a new fandom, so I decided, very pointedly, not to join. I kept that promise to myself through seasons two and three, even after the platonic Stobin bathroom scene! I held out until season four. During Eddie's scene with Chrissy, I fell for another asshole with a heart of gold. The RV scene cinched the ship for me.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

I read different tropes in different fandoms and ships. For the Steddie fandom I love enemies-to-lovers, x fell first but y fell harder, canon divergent AUs, and emotional hurt/comfort.

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

For Steddie specifically, I write a bunch of “what if” scenarios, those canon divergent AUs. What if they started dating after season two? What if Steve was a werewolf? I also tend to write softer stories; even when the story could be very dark, I write with a light and comedic tone.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

what weather they shall have is not ours to rule by misprinting is a story that’s stuck with me for months. I think I’ve reread it three or four times. It takes a classic fannish trope, the D/s AU, and complicates it in a way that turns a trope I approach with trepidation into something that is simultaneously a fantastic character exploration and a shockingly tender love story despite the darker subject matter. It also has one of the best uses of an unreliable narrator I’ve encountered in a long time. Steve’s POV in the early chapters makes the reader believe certain dark truths about this universe. As he comes to understand and heal from his trauma, the reader learns how wrong Steve was and how much kinder this world is than we first believed. It also has a fantastic, original Upside Down related story that hovers in the background for the first three chapters and then rears up and takes over in the best way in the final chapter.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

Hurt/Comfort and Soulmates. I love h/c fics but I don’t tend to write them. I have a hard time hurting characters. It’s something I need to practice, lol. I love soulmate stories (especially ones that complicate the trope), and I’ve barely written anything for it and nothing Steddie.

What is your writing process like?

Usually, something sparks a premise. What if Steve was actually a robot? What if Eddie unsuccessfully blackmailed Steve? Sometimes, the premise stays a premise, but sometimes, there's a complete story to write. If there’s actually a story there, I plot out the beats and write a rough draft. Often, this process is very fancy, using Scrivener and a beat sheet (I really like the one from Romancing the Beat), and occasionally it's just a few bullet points. Lust, Love, and Other Side Effects began as a half-page of bullet points, while Translucent Hearts was plotted in Scrivener after I brain-dumped the first chapter from the monster's POV. Drafting is a slog, and I try to finish it quickly, but it allows me to get to my favorite part of writing - editing. I feel like that’s when my ideas finally come to life.

Do you have any writing quirks?

I frequently have to listen to one song on repeat when drafting or editing a specific scene. Usually, I'll be listening to a larger playlist but then one song hits me out of nowhere as THE SONG I have to listen to while writing the scene. This doesn’t mean the song fits the mood of the scene. During the Valentine’s Day “not a date” sex scene in Love, Lust, and Other Side Effects, I listened to Billy Ocean’s “When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going” until I finished drafting the scene. I was very aware of how ridiculous the song was the entire time I was writing, but when I tried to stop, the words stopped. It was my sixth most listened to song on my Spotify Wrapped last year, lol!

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Posting when I’m done!

Which fic are you most proud of?

Two stories stand out, although I'm shockingly happy with most of my writing in this fandom. This is probably the first fandom where that's true. The first story I'm really proud of is Translucent Hearts because I had a weird idea and embraced it. I have a tendency to self-edit my ideas before they ever get to paper, and with this story, I said, "fuck it, it's monster porn! Don't chicken out!" And I didn't. I kept the weird stuff in the story. That helped me write Electric Twist and go to weirder places in some of the stories I'm currently writing. The second one is my first story in the fandom: Future Hazy Try Again. It's a gen fic, Eddie-centric, but the series is eventually Steddie. That story got me out of a ten-year writing slump!

How did you get the idea for Winter Solstice?

It was November, and I was tempted to write a Christmas fic, but as I was brainstorming Christmas tropes, I realized I never saw any Winter Solstice ones. I brainstormed some tropes/themes like: bonfires, snowed-in, romantic magic, queer desire, friends to lovers, candlelight, and sharing traditions that fit the ship and the season. Then, I tried to work as many of those into the story as possible.

When writing Coming Out, what was something you didn’t expect?

The problem with Coming Out was that it was the beginning of the Steddie 'ship in the Stobin Werewolf series and a pivotal character moment for Steve, BUT Steve was still not talking, and I had already decided that while Steve was silent, all stories would be from Robin's POV. This left me in a quandary. How could I focus on Steve and Steddie without de-centering Robin in a series about platonic Stobin and in a story told from her POV? The solution was to create additional background for Robin - her first crush and her queer awakening. Robin, as a queer girl in the 70s and early 80s, would have felt alone and alienated by that realization. Coming out to Steve in canon helped because she had support and acceptance for the first time. I thought it would be even more healing for her to be there for Steve as he wrestled with his coming out. That change allowed me to write a story centered on Robin coming to terms with her own sexuality and reflecting the care and acceptance she received from Steve back to Steve as he comes out to her.

What inspired Translucent Hearts?

I was literally inspired by the D&D movie. I was watching it with my partner and their sweetie. When the movie got to the maze scene with the Gelatinous Cube, I thought it was a D&D monster that never gets used in Stranger Things fics. That night, I couldn't sleep because I was so inspired by the idea of the monster in The Upside Down. I compulsively plotted the story and basically wrote the first chapter in my head. I also realized somewhere in that fever dream of a sleepless night that every monstrous "power" the Cube referenced in the first chapter would be explored by Steve in the story and used in a sex scene. I got up the next day and wrote out everything I could remember - both plot beats and the first chapter.

What was your favorite part to write from Translucent Hearts?

My favorite part of Translucent Hearts was the second chapter, where Steve learns how different he is after his run-in with the Gelatinous Cube. The chapter's tone was fun to explore because it veers between body horror and slapstick comedy. In the end, despite his horror at the changes in his body, he's way more concerned with being a threat to his friends. I love leaning into Steve's compassion for his found family. I cracked myself up writing the moment Steve saves Eddie by quasi-erotically suffocating him and then the Stobin reunion scene where Robin runs through Steve. Not only did writing that chapter help me develop the tone for the rest of the story, it also gave me the confidence and trust in myself to go as silly and over the top as I wanted with this story premise.

How do/did you feel writing Electric Twist?

Electric Twist was fun and silly from beginning to end. I wanted to roll around in this weird version of Steve and the Harrington family I created because I love them so much. My favorite discovery here was how into having a robot boyfriend Eddie was.

What was the most difficult part of writing Lust, Love, and Other Side Effects?

Revisions! As I explained in my author notes to the story, I dreamed the story and wrote the major plot beats down the next day. I wrote the rough in less than a month after signing up for the Steddie Big Bang - I don’t think I’ve ever written that fast. The speed had drawbacks, and the rough draft needed a ton of revision work. I usually enjoy editing - but this story required me to trust my process more than usual. Ultimately, I think the entire story had four narrative-level (whole story) editing passes before I even got to the chapter-level editing.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

The line is from one of my recent stories, New Traditions. In it, Hopper is Steve's father figure and tells Steve about the kind of man he thinks Steve is. The kind of man that will protect the people and communities he loves and build the spaces for them to be safe. "'You don't stop here. You start here. One safe cabin in the woods. Then maybe a trailer and a cabin. You add a house. You start a network. You find other cities. You find other people.' Hopper clapped him on the back. 'You'll do it because you want it. You want it for yourself and for others. That's the kind of man you are, Harrington.'" Not only is it a great moment in their relationship, but as I wrote it, I realized this would be a lynchpin moment for Steve as I finish the series.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

I'm participating in this year's Stobin Month, and I will have a handful of stories out in March to celebrate. In more Steddie-focused news, I'm also working on the final installment of the Werewolf Stobin series, which features Steddie, Stobin, and Rovickie as they road trip across the Midwest looking for cryptids and running into trouble.

Thank you to our author, @sevenmerrymagpies, and our nominator! See more of merry_magpie's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[nabi-unveiled]

Pick Nine: Characters I Dream About

While doing the recent tag game, I mentioned that my "dream about" list would be very different from my favorite character list. @dramalove247 and myself decided we needed that list in our lives too. I noticed @thisautistic had went for it with their version of that list so why not. If you decide you want to do it, go for it! Tag me so I can see your list. Pretty please 🥺.

Note: We decided to NOT restrict ourselves to BL characters.

Since "type" is going to become abundantly clear on this list, I'm not really posting this as a guessing game. 😅

There are a few things I need to fess up to before diving into my list:

Confession #1: Many, many people in dramaland are objectively works of art with fantastic bodies. However, most do nothing for me. It's like looking at a beautiful stained glass window. I'm definitely, 100% NOT ace so make of that what you will.

Confession #2: I know I should be attracted to our cinnamon roll and puppy characters. People like Muenfah in Your Sky are the total package as people.

But....I'm not. With the exception of maybe Shao Peng (See Your Love), I find cinnamon roll characters to be adorable but not particularly attractive (in fiction). I KNOW the reason why. Feel free to guess that if you want. Lol.

Now that the confessions are out of the way, let's go over the rules I set myself. There was NO way I could narrow down this list without giving myself some guidelines.

Rule #1: I had to be attracted to/dream about the CHARACTER not just the actor. So no matter how delicious I'm finding Jae-min in Secret Relationships currently, he's out. I recognize that attraction is actually to the actor NOT the character. It's like my eternal crush on Park Seonghwa (Ateez) 🥵. This criteria removed about 80% of my candidates. Lol.

Rule #2: However, I do need to find the actor attractive. It's a "dream about" list after all. This is pretty much the flip of Rule #1. Remember my confession? There's a lot of beautiful people in the world that I'm just NOT attracted to for reasons unbeknownst to me. There are a lot of shows that I adore with characters I love that meet a lot of my sexual preferences with amazing NC scenes that I don't actually find attractive. Segasaki from My Personal Weatherman is probably the best example of this. That show is my comfort watch. As a character, I absolutely love everything about him. I will defend that man against ALL of the haters. I'm INVESTED in their romance. The NC scenes are 🥵. He's probably the closest to my husband's physique on this list. On paper, he 1000% SHOULD make this list, but...he doesn't.(@dramalove247 this is where my first emotional crisis occurred while making this list).

Rule #3: It had to be about more than the NC scenes or at least more than a single scene. Otherwise, that meant I was dreaming about "the scene" or swooning over a line of dialogue rather than the character.

So no matter how swoon worthy I find a good whisper or lines like Xiao Yuan's in Unknown...

or how much the NC scene(s) in Together With Me rocked my world...

The characters don't make the list. I WILL rewatch those scenes more times than I care to admit, but it's not about the character. (Note: Xiao Yun DID almost make this list. It's just the best example I have of hot "dialogue").

Rule #4: I had to think of the character on my own without any prompting. So no going through other lists or looking up things. I recognized that this would open up the door to recency bias, but I was ok with that. It is a current "dream about" list after all.

So what's left after those rules.....still WAY TOO MANY. 🫢 But choices were made. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time.

So here's the list...

Character #1: Sebastian Valmont (Cruel Intentions - 1999)

I've dreamt about Sebastian since I was 15. I watched this movie at a sleepover, tricked my grandmother into letting me buy the movie, watched it WAY too many times in the following weeks, and then threw the movie away when I became overcome with guilt and too scared about my parents finding it. "Colorblind" by Counting Crows will ALWAYS take me back to this movie. It'd be an entire essay requiring a lot of personal exposition to fully explain WHY this character is important to me, but he is THE singular most important character on this list.

Character #2: Cha Chi-soo (Flower Boy Ramen Shop- 2011)

I didn't find a great GIF for him so screenshots it is.

And most importantly...

This is the second most important character on this list. I don't even have to rewatch it to know this show has not stood up to the test of time (although now I want to). It was questionable when I first watched it in 2012. I was already married with a kid, but I learned A LOT about myself from this character. My life has never been the same. That's not an exaggeration. For those that watched this show - I'm a shallow pan. I boil fast and hot. I've spent most of my life keeping a lid on it.

From here on out, there's really no order of importance. I'm not really going to expound on each one. I'm figuring most people will notice a fairly obvious trend.

Character #3: Sian (Every You, Every Me)

The fact that Every You, Every Me has the same actors throughout makes it VERY easy for me to figure out that it's the character that I'm attracted to here. Honestly, this is probably the character that's closest to my ideal.

Because I appreciate his style as well. Unfortunately, most of my stylish characters didn't make the cut. I love them, and I'm attracted to them. But they don't play the games I need for them to enter dream territory. Sian does though. Honestly, I need more characters like him in dramaland. (This was mental crisis #2. Where are my Seonghwa's of dramaland?)

Character #4: Miw (Three Will Be Free)

I've never been with a woman. That doesn't mean much in my world though. My tally of men to women is 1 - 0. Truth is - I loved Three Will Be Free and it wasn't because of the men.

Character #5: Johan (Fourever You)

The hardest part of this decision was which GIF to use. I didn't find what I really wanted, but I gave myself a time limit. This was my second choice. Johan is the reason I watched this show. End stop.

Character #6: Win (Until We Meet Again/Between Us)

Another one where the hardest part of the decision was which GIF to use since I didn't find the GIF I wanted fast enough. I'm sure it exists. Anyways - I love a brat tamer. Win is my ultimate in that category.

Character #7: Mahasamut (Love Sea)

Mut won the MAME wars since I only allowed myself one MAME character on the list. I have a love/hate relationship with these shows, but that's an entirely different post. There is a LOT I dislike about Love Sea, but Mut was great (Meena is also an adorable wingman). I'll fully admit that there are several MAME characters that could have ended up on this list if I didn't restrict myself. Yes, I am fully aware of what that says about me.

Character #8: Ritsu (End of the World With You)

Ritsu is the definition of a red flag. He's not even one I can excuse his red flags. I can't even pretend he's good for Masumi. Outside of the premise of this show, everyone should run FAR from him. But as I've said before - if the world was ending, I'd have no qualms.

Character #9: Geralt (Witcher)

I had to think about this one for a minute to make sure he qualified. Was it just because I find Henry Cavill attractive? I've admired Henry Cavill since he was a young one in I Capture the Castle. We've grown older together. I appreciate MANY of his characters. But I decided it wasn't just Henry Cavill here. Because a lot of those earlier characters wouldn't make it on this list. Superman can take a hike. But Geralt? Well, I have a daughter named Triss for a reason (even if it was my husband's suggestion). Just saying. (Side note - our daughter was born before this show existed. Another sign that it's the character.)

Honorable Mentions (because we make the rules right?):

Shao Peng [my lift king]

Fadel (the early episodes particularly)

Jae-young (the king of eye contact)

Tang-yi (the finale never happened)

And SO many more.

In any case, the time I allotted myself to make this post is up. I must go pretend to be a responsible adult now.

[aigoos]

Obikin Shrine Journey

Today, I went to work for the last time this year, and I added to my Obikin shrine some new merchs that I received a few days before. This shrine has been my project for all of 2024. What started as a few charms (or danglies, as I call them) and buttons grew into this as I spent the entire year collecting enamel pins, stickers, charms, prints, plushies, buttons, figures, magnets, and photo tiles.

I started off with a much smaller board, but then in the summer, my co-worker and I had to change offices, so I took the larger board in our office (which was good, because I had run out of space), and then even took over the refrigerator and expanded the shrine onto my desk, shelf, cabinet, and wall.

Let's just say I am grateful that my current co-worker and my former co-worker support my obsession. I've never mentioned to them about the actual ship, only stated that they are my favourite characters from Star Wars, and I did do my best to keep the shrine platonic as possible . . . until a gay colleague saw my shrine and said, "It's giving off a homoerotic vibe." LMAO. If he thinks my work shrine is homoerotic, then I wonder what he'd say if he saw the sexy shrine I have at my work home. See below on why that shrine is staying home LOL.

Anyway, I also wanted to mention that @barmadumet's collection is what heavily inspired me to start my own collection. Thanks to her, I finally personalised my workspace that I hadn't bothered to do anything to for three and a half years. This adventure has brought me many joy -- though my bank account says otherwise, ahaha! But seriously, it got me to support many small businesses and artists (50+!!!!), and it allowed me to meet many other like-minded collectors, and they also helped me get some of the pins that are no longer available. Plus, a couple of my friends and colleagues even gifted me some items for my shrine. This adventure has not only brought me happiness, but it has humbled me as so many people have helped me along the way.

Oh, and it has also taught me to just accept that I cannot put things up straight and to know when to just let the crookedness be.

That said, I've compiled a list of all the businesses/artists below with links to their shops and/or social media~ To conclude, I hope 2025 will allow me to fill up that remaining space on the board!

Amanda Baldwin Art Armstrong Outpost A Sirens Pins BBCre8 BCRCustom BlackWandaShop Cedric @cherriielle @christinechangart Designs by Gen Designs by Joe Distant Fantasy Boards EchofromtheMill @faivsz FestiProper FoldItCreations Foundling Mercantile @geekipopstudio @ginalongillustrations Ginshi Hatters Designs Holy Pins Hunter and Convor IchigoTokki Joy Addict Junction Point Workshop @kana7o KJones Crafts LaDecorEU @dinagastuff Lantern Pins Laser Brain Patch Co Liminal Pins MaxxMerch @mouyashii @mushbuzz-do-not-repost Mythmore Mythos Merchant Co @nickytess Odder Than Antiquity Osiripengin PinButlers Inc Pinculture Co Pins of Marvel and Magic PlushiShop PotatoClone RebelArt Design Roobean Art Ruzovy @saeuchelle @saltyseaturtle Shannon Burton Art SnowFoxTrading Co SuppieDoodles Sword and Whetstone These Pencil Shavings Winter Aifu Xanadu Pins

[nerdyfan1]

Meta Aware Meeple Discussion

So recently I saw a comment on a post on here (credit to user illumanart for this btw) that reminded of a thought I’ve actually had for since Meeple’s in game release and I got to hear their voice lines. That I’ve surprisingly don’t think have acknowledged on here till now.

Ok see the comment was on a post on Meeple fanart where they bring up Meeple’s association to reddit. The first one the obvious acknowledgment of the “my subreddit would love this” voice line in game. Yet another thing it made me realize was well Meeple was technically acknowledged as canon before they even was revealed or announced.

That Halloween mini arg thing. Meeple’s reddit account is like the only poster in that r/donttap subreddit. The account literally their name.

Now on its own this is cool but this now combined with how Meeple actually talks in game gives me the impression of something else. Does that mean Meeple is like self aware of our existence? Aka is Meeple aware of the fourth wall and the fact they might not actually be real?

Their voice lines acknowledge things they only know if they knew they in a brawler style online multiplayer game. Like one that is Meeple complaining they were killed by a “bot”, a brawler being broken or them acknowledging “the meta” which in that context would mean like the competitive meta.

And in the comments they made in r/donttap they clearly talking directly to the reader. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to get to that subreddit so Meeple being the only one there posting so interesting. I’m not an active Redditor but I’m pretty sure this is the case if a specific subreddit is private.

At least to me this is heavily implying Meeple specifically knows we like, exist. Outside the game. That Meeple knows they are indeed a videogame character. Which is really cool to me cus it caused me to speculate a bunch of things about this character and how they might feel about this. Now based on what I have to work with I’m gonna assume Meeple is actually not too bothered being a fictional character. Despite how that fact probably freak out most ppl Meeple just seems so content with this. Unlike someone like 8 Bit who definitely came off way more bothered by his situation.

Now this also left me with another thought tho and that is while I don’t think Meeple minds the being a fictional character thing at all given how much a part of their personality is tied to a social media site that Meeple might also be aware of the wider fandom. Like compare even more so to any of the more aware characters in the park. It kind of made me think that Meeple was aware of how the community reacted to them when they were initially revealed in that one brawl talk.

I did low key theorize with a friend the copious amount of redesigns trying to fix Meeple’s character design were seen by Meeple through reddit and it slowly started giving them body dysphoria. You know given I’m also trans and have body dysphoria sometimes I know for certain if I was in this dude’s shoes that definitely would have made me think the same way. That one I wouldn’t take as an attack on any of those artists btw just me like having thoughts from Meeple’s perspective.

Tho yeah it kind of funny to wonder if Meeple uses like other social media and just lurking around reading posts about themselves cus they too self absorbed. I wonder if they’ve seen all the ship art ppl made involving them or the Meeple thirst and had opinions on that lol

[sabertoothwalrus]

Hi!! I hope it's okay to ask, which university are you/were you attending? I want to study animation in university but i have no idea which one to choose, so can you please tell me about yours?👉👈

I go to CSUF! It’s definitely one of the cheapest places to get a degree in animation in California, if not the US.

Only a handful of the California State schools offer animation, and most of the ones that do are 3D only, and I wanted to learn 2D.

SJSU has a good 2D anim program, and they’re the only state school in the bay area that does, BUT last I checked you need something like a 3.9 GPA to get in?????? like HELLO these are animation students. who are you fooling

the other schools I considered were CSULB and CSUN.

CSULB has a strong animation program! They have the guy that literally created the worldwide 24 Hour Animation Challenge. However, they required ONE extra art history class that none of the other CSUs needed, and I didn’t have it, and I wasn’t about to prolong transferring a whole other semester just to take it. (It was prehistoric art history, I think, which I admit sounds cool as fuck)

The reason I chose CSUF, beyond liking their curriculum better than CSUN, was because I heard about the Pencil Mileage Club. It’s the largest student-run animation club in Southern California. I’d argue that networking is almost more important than your actual skill. I’ll admit, the faculty is probably not doing as much for the students as other schools, but PMC more than makes up for it. I’ve made all my friends (and girlfriend teehee) through this club. I was president of my Art Club at my community college, so it was important to me to be part of PMC’s council. I’m now an event coordinator and so I help organize and run events and studio tours and guest speakers! :)) Clubs and extracurriculars look fantastic on resumes, so wherever you go, look into what’s available.

Things I should note: when you start at CSUF, whether as a freshman or through transferring, you will not be an animation major yet. You have to do the portfolio review first, and you can’t have any of the prerequisite classes in-progress when you apply. The portfolio requirement is only a few years old, too, and therefore it’s not nearly as competitive as, say… calarts or sheridan. I often say, students make the program better, not the other way around. the higher the level of students that apply, the higher the overall education quality will need to be to match that. Though this does mean that the higher quality a program is, the more people will be excluded, unfortunately.

CSUF’s aniamtion program itself is…. a little silly. You take storyboarding and character design after doing your short film ? for some reason? The new department head started at the school the same semester I did, and she’s definitely trying to make it better. She held a screening of the production classes’ finished films, and she told me she plans to have the curriculum restructured by 2025 (after I graduate, lol).

I’ll also mention that the art buildings are in the process of getting demolished and rebuilt. The first wave of new buildings won’t be done until the end of this year, and once that’s finished, they’ll tear down the remaining two buildings and start remodeling those. For now, we do a lot of our classes in the modular buildings jdhshfjs 🫡

We also have a mated pair of gay ducks that come every spring. Their names are Pebble and Rock. They are beloved by the art students.

And really, you don’t NEED a degree in animation to get into the industry. There are SO many online resources out there, a lot that are free, that can give you just as good of an education (in fact, several of my professors’ lectures have just been playing youtube videos and pulling up articles). BUT your classmates WILL be your future coworkers. If you’re not establishing relationships with people in some way on your own, you definitely need to make that bigger priority. After all, you won’t be working by yourself when you’re in the industry.

edit: oh I forgot to say that all the california state schools are striking the first week of the semester. so uh. there’s that

[genericpuff]

I don't know the term for creators who became popular outside the traditional steps to "make it" in their profession; then when people started taking their work seriously and giving them criticism, these creators saw it as an attack because they are not used to mentors and studies.

Smythe's professional training is vague at best, being a folklorist. Then there's the creator of the popular hell cartoon that became her own executive producer and director in her 20s (I'm not going to say her name since it tends to attract her rabid fans) and becomes reactive to any kind of criticism on Twitter. Then there's that TikToker Devon Rodriguez, who became popular for sketching people on subways, and when an art critic gave a mild review to his art gallery, Devon unleashed his fans on him.

Like am I seeing a pattern here for artists? And I guess, what do you think we can learn from it.

Ah, so this is a very interesting (and broad) topic that we've touched on in discussions in ULO and other webtoon-related communities. So buckle up, it's time for an ✨essay✨

I think the best way I can sum up my thoughts on this issue is: the vast majority of people who become paid content creators don't seek out a job as content creators, a job in content creation is just something that happens to them.

I say "content creation" because this is something that applies to a lot of other platforms and online mediums as well, such as the examples you included (TikTok, Youtube, Twitch, etc.). And don't get me wrong, it's not like every successful content creator out there didn't work their asses off to get to where they are, but for many... it still involves an element of luck. People don't go to school for it, people don't "apply" to become influencers, and much of it relies entirely on just making stuff until it gets seen and propelled into success.

I think a lot of these issues arise with the creators themselves and how they view their own work. The reality is that many of us artists have been treated as the "rejects" of society, we constantly feel like we're misunderstood and have some deep inner pain that we express through our art, and instead of going to therapy, we come up with OC's. It's a lot more fun and it's a lot cheaper LOL Webcomics naturally wind up being the perfect lightning rod for people who feel that way, where we can pour ourselves into the characters, the world, the narrative, in a way that perfectly mixes our talents for art and our need to express our innermost thoughts and feelings about ourselves and the world around us. So when our art gets criticized or rejected ... it can be hard for a lot of artists to not feel like it's a criticism of the self, a rejection of our identities, an attack on our feelings and experiences, because we've tied so much of ourselves to our work. And this can make that transition very difficult for people who are trying to go pro, because being professional demands separating yourself from your work, at least enough that you can view it objectively, recognize its flaws, seek out pathways to improvement, and not take every bump in the road personally.

A lot of successful creators are people who just never made that transition. It's led to an abundance of professional creators who know how to film themselves or react to content or, in the case of webcomic artists, write stories about their OC's, but don't know how to actually navigate the industry at a professional level. They don't know how to read and negotiate contracts, they don't know what deals are actually good for them and which ones are better left on the table, they don't know how to manage teams of people, they don't know how to react to the attention, praise, and criticism of their audience - they're just doing what they've always done, but now they're making money doing it.

None of this is to speak ill in any way of the creators who've found success and are still just doing what they've always done for money. None of this is meant to be a slight on the creators who are using webcomics and art as an expression of their deeper selves (I do it myself, it's very cathartic!) because ultimately that's what makes your work your work, the fact that you made it, with all your good parts and bad. Many of these creators are capable of running their platform without any issues because they've learned how to play the game, or because their platform is made up of people just like them so their audience is more like just a social circle.

But many of them still also can't operate on a professional level and those are the ones we often see getting called out and held accountable when they do shit like, I dunno, scamming their audiences for money or making alt accounts to manipulate user reviews or plagiarizing from other people's work or just being really REALLY shitty to their own audience.

Often times these are people who are just doing what they'd normally do as a hobby, became well known for it, and managed to turn it into a living. But they never actually learned how to turn their hobby into a job, and themselves into professionals.

And artists especially are prone to this because, let's face it, a lot of us are just weebs having fun drawing our blorbos, so of course if we get a chance to monetize that, we're gonna! We should! We should want to be paid for our work and time and efforts!

But we also have to remember that it's a different ballgame, especially if you're turning your audience into customers. "I'm just a baby creator doing this for fun" doesn't and shouldn't apply anymore once you start signing contracts, selling your art as products, taking people's money to fund your projects, etc. because now it's not just your art, it's what you're expecting people to pay for so you can eat and pay your bills and live.

As much as our art is often personal and should be cherished as such, you can't expect people to want to pay for it if you're not setting a bar and meeting it, or if you're not treating your audience with any amount of dignity or respect.

I'm not saying you're not entitled to having feelings or still wanting to treat your art as art, but the line between art and products is there for a reason, it's to set people's expectations and ensure that both sides are having those expectations met. Webtoon creators suffer from the same thing that a lot of Youtube creators and other types of content creators suffer from in this transition, and I feel like HBomberGuy summed it up best:

"In current discourse, Youtubers simultaneously present as the forefront of a new medium, creative voices that need to be taken seriously as part of the 'next generation of media' - and also uwu smol beans little babies who shouldn't be taken seriously when they rip someone off and make tens of thousands of dollars doing it."

It's not gatekeeping a medium, it's not telling people they aren't allowed to have feelings or to want to still have that personal connection to their work in spite of the professional level it's achieved, it's simply just expecting people to actually live up to the label of 'professional' that they're using to make money.

And this especially goes for someone like Rachel, who claims to be a 'folklorist' despite all the contrary evidence that says otherwise. This is the same person who copy pasted the first result on Google as her source on a simple word definition:

There's a second part to that HBomberGuy quote that also actually applies to Rachel really well in this discussion, concerning how she labels herself a "folklorist" and how that's affected and influenced the greater discussion surrounding Greek myth:

"But on the opposite end, Youtubers who act like serious documentarians gain a shroud of professionalism which then masks the deeply unprofessional things they do. We just saw that with James. I think [James] partially got away with what he's doing for so long because he acts so professional about it, so people assume, 'there's no way he could just be stealing shit!' so they don't check. And on top of that, a lot of James' videos contain obvious mistakes and made-up facts... but because they're often presented next to well-researched stuff he stole, no one questions it. I've seen James repeat a lie in his videos, and then other people claim it's true, and link his video as the proof. He has helped to solidify misinformation by seeming like he's doing his diligence."

There's always going to be discourse over what's legitimate and what isn't when it comes to Greek myth, there are loads of things we still don't know simply due to the knowledge being lost to time. But there's something to be said about a white New Zealand woman using her self-insert romance comic and platform to build a veneer of professionalism and legitimacy around herself, as if she's the authority on the subject, while simultaneously relying on first result Google searches and citing works that have no real foothold in the way of scholarly or "folklorist" discussion.

All that's to say, you're right, her professional training is vague at best. She's never completed a longform comic prior to LO, she's not doing her due diligence in actually engaging with the media she's trying to "retell" and exposing herself to the voices of those from the culture that's tied to it, and she's not holding herself to any sort of standards when it comes not only to being a professional, but a professional who's been held on a pedestal for all these years. She's still operating the same way she was 5 years ago - drawing and writing whatever pops into her head and sending it to her editor for uploading, with next to no intervention or guidance. Except now it doesn't have the benefit of being new and having "potential", it's getting noticed and called out more now than ever because it's been 5 years of this shit and it's been getting worse on account of her clearly being burnt out (or just giving up/not caring) and the readers can't be sold on "potential" anymore.

And that's all I have to say on that.

[fuckyeahmcrobot5eva]

Yay I love The Sandfleas (Aquabats blasphemy I know) so here's my little appreciation post for them! (It also doubles as some notes for myself for later)

Though their designs seem pretty loose and change fairly often there are some established characters to The Sandfleas. Not all of them have names to go with their designs but the few that do have been labelled above. Both within their art and vs me going through image file names from their old site from the 2000s on the internet archive and adding the names in myself.

The Sandfleas used to have a preview website on Parker Jacobs's website which is sadly now missing, HOWEVER, from what I've found on the internet archive I managed to grab some screenshots.

Lots of mock-up merch that I don't believe ever got to see the light of day. Though it would be funny to see them trying to pawn off Ironcrosses lmao

Most of the funny buttons at the bottom of the site sadly took me to a login screen and I have no idea if it actually functioned at any point or not. Even trying to cheat my way around it didn't work either. How sad!

Who knows what wonderful things could have been behind "Instant Virus" and "Fang's sister"? Mysteries!!! XD

Now Here's some good snips from their 2000s site what made me laugh. True Aquabat haters through and through.

As seen above mentioned in their "shop", The Sandfleas do have CDs! Well, at least one. Apparently from what I've read around at one of The Aquabat's shows apparently The Sandfleas showed up instead and performed and gave out their CDs? - No real proof of this but it's a silly enough thing I read and I think thats funny enough to mention and half believe at least.

The image they had of their album cover on their site was really saturated and crusty but this scan I found over a reupload seems a lot more pleasant on the eyes. Link here to check it out!

In this album four of our favorite Aquabats return as their own enemies to make music.

Mel Sandflea - Parker Jacobs ((Professor Monty Corndog))

Fang Sandflea - Christian Jacobs ((MC Bat Commander))

Breathe Sandflea - Chad Larson ((Crash Mclarson))

Spodie Sandflea - Corey Pollock ((Chainsaw the Prince of Karate))

additionally

Bubba Sandflea - Tyler Jacobs ((The Pigbat))

He is credited to Backup vocals but does not appear in any of the recorded songs. Weird.

Anyway, enjoy some fun little snippets I took

These audio clips come from their CD album Four Songs Four Jerks, specifically from the song "You're Super Duper Dumb and Your Mom is Ugly Too-" Good sound bites of Christian Jacobs if you ask me lol ((Currently offering my kidney and first born to whoever can help me get my dirty hands on their CD))

There also might be other songs other than from that album but I can't really find much online about it. Though Parker Jacobs did post this "Unearthed Sandfleas rarity" to his youtube channel back in 2016. It's also where I got the image and names for some additional Sandfleas. "Lost Tapes" on the album cover definetly seems fitting.

So yeah that's it. There is no real point to this post besides me just wanting to write about these niche little characters that are a part of the big picture of The Aquabats. Feel free to correct me if I got anything wrong, this is just some info I've gathered over a few days and who knows how wrong I can really be. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[melonsharks]

Tell us everything about the parent trap au immediately please please please

to give u an insanely quick rundown with a wip art i have:

aziraphale as elizabeth. wedding dress designer under his pen name A.Z. Fell. (hes an artist as confirmed in s2 and the whole "drawing on napkins" thing elizabeth would do appeals to me immensely)

crowley as nick. owns a vineyard. I NEED HIM TO OWN A VINEYARD SO BAD. shoutout to Old Vines on ao3 for changing me in a fundamental way. he makes wines and he tends to the vines and he is so passionate about it to an abusurdist degree. he yells at his vines when they arent growing right. you already knowwww.

when they meet for the first time, they don’t meet on a boat like in the movie, they actually meet at a wedding party :J crowley was a wine collector, just starting out. he loved offering aziraphale samplings of his most vintage collection out of impulse. (he likes seeing the way aziraphale savors them) (he’s besotted) Wants to own his own vineyard one day. aziraphale, on the other hand, has dreams of becoming a fashion designer of sorts, always drawing ideas on any scraps of paper he can find. his designs are very old fashioned, but thats like… part of the appeal. his work very much reflects who he is, and the people who flock to it understand that.

they enter this kind of… whirlwind relationship, they get married, and then eventually adopt two golden haired blue eyed baby boys. twins. :J warlock and adam.

they break things off because aziraphale leaves... alluding to their recent breakup in season two, the reason he left was because "we both clearly had very different ideas on where our lives were going. so. i packed up and left." (parallel s2 divorce 😋 they don’t know how to talk to each other) (aziraphale throws a book at his head after this argument, like the hairdryer in the movie LOL. it was pride and prejudice. crowley still has it.)

aziraphale leaves with adam. warlock is left with crowley. crowley eventually leaves London because he finds he cant stand being anywhere near Aziraphale (hes just irresistible in that way), and he goes to California where he finally fulfills his dream of owning a vineyard. a nice one on Napa, Northern California.

Aziraphale’s wedding dresses become more and more well known, Adam grows well-adjusted. Same kid you know from the show and book, natural born leader, a good head on his shoulders. (Aziraphale has no idea why Adam is like that, but he is so proud)

Crowley’s vineyard (The Garden Of Eden) grows and grows… Warlock is spoiled rotten, but he does love actually working at the vineyard with Crowley to and he and Crowley have a really good relationship…

Eventually the kids go to a summer camp together in London (i dont know if they . do this in the UK, but suspend your disbelief if you will) Adam meets The Them there, then meets Warlock after a nutty fencing thing, they kind of hate each other at first and the rest is history :J

side characters UM. LOL. idk……. i mean i kind of know but not really? theres just so many possibilities that make the rounds in my head. chessy could be anathema OR nina (ive had people suggest eric too?) and martin could be newt OR maggie (ive also had people suggest muriel????) gestures vaguely.

as for meredith…….erm…………🤷‍♂️ ive had everything under the sun suggested to me and i still……have no idea. LOL. gabriel, lucifer, shaX, FURFUR, THE WIFE FROM THE NON-SPOILER SPOILERS. I DONT KNOW. IT ALL FEELS WRONG. its hard to come up with this role in particular when these gay bitches literally only have eyes for each other. always. forever. u know. i think lucy is like. the classic answer. but idfk.

ask me about . more things if u want. this is consuming my every thought.

anyways the cover im working on for. for something: