#fuck FUCK man this webcomic (question mark)

[baldrickwhethers]

Posting here to mark down the day that I've finished 20020: The Future of College Football!!!!!!1! !1!!! :D

i will never emotionally recover

[gofancyninjaworld]

OPM Manga Chapter 149 Review: Ambush

Story:  The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves

Operation Sundew, that ad hoc plan of the cadres to simply kill the heroes by virtue of outlasting them, is well underway.  It looks to be reaching its inevitable conclusion with Homeless Emperor joining the fray to give Golden Sperm a hand.  Vomited Fuhrer Ugly is considered surplus to their requirements - the hobo thrashes him soundly and the monster crawls off in search of tastier prey, like Bang. 

Golden Sperm has a lot of fun knocking Darkshine around, first mocking the guy, then punching his lights out.  Speaking of lights, Homeless Emperor showers the swordsmen with fireballs, not caring that Iaian and Spring Mustachio appear to be able to deflect them with their swords. They can’t attack him and eventually, they’ll be too tired to move.  He can wait.

The remaining unfused Black Sperms are also busy.  A detachment of ten thousand watch over Vomited Fuhrer Ugly, determined to ensure the monster can’t feed and so dries up and dies.  They get a little interrupted by Metal Bat’s arrival.  Next time just answer the hero’s question.   Another lot have been busy wearing down Tatsumaki and Genos and eventually they overcome them.

While that’s going on, we get a scene of Child Emperor sending a desperate text message to Metal Knight, reviewing the situation and reflecting that he’s unlikely to survive this.  He pleads with Metal Knight to come through for the heroes, if not as the hero Metal Knight, then as the man Dr Bofoi.  Fortunately, he’s not left to suffocate in his little prison.  Puri Puri shows up as an only semi-welcome savior.  But saved’s saved so phew!

Up above ground, we see that the Black Sperms have won and have surrounded Genos as he tries to drag Tatsumaki to some semblance of safety...with his teeth.  As they close round and mock him, they hear a ‘BA-DUM, BA-DUM, BA-DUM’ sound resonating through the darkness and look up to see...

...King!   King has finally made a stand and even as we know that his heart thuds so loudly from pure terror,  he does cut a most impressive figure, which is a great place to leave off on.

Here to save the day... probably. Possibly. Actually why is this happening to him again? He doesn’t know what he’s going to do. But he looks good doing it!

Meta below the cut

Meta: The Chickens Aren’t Roosting Yet, But They Are Circling

(bonus points to someone who points out that chickens don’t fly well enough to circle anything)

What’s the good of a strong spirit if the body can’t keep up?

That question from Bakuma keeps coming back.  This chapter apposes two characters to show us just what the difference is.  Relatively lightly injured (surprisingly, his wounds look to be skin-deep after all) is Superalloy Darkshine.  It has got to hurt. However the way he has completely collapsed into a snivelling mess is difficult to read.  As a person who built himself up by comparing himself to others, the sight of Golden Sperm’s shininess and musclature seems to have provoked one of the worst breakdowns we’ve seen on One-Punch Man.

It’s so bad that Golden Sperm’s taunts just have the air of truth bombs rather than mere disparagement.  Telling him that he has no business to call himself an S-Class hero if even light injury is enough to make him cry and want to run away is just the truth.

nothing about this panel is okay to me

Superalloy is a nice guy but going into heroism to feel good about yourself is entirely the wrong way to approach it.  And the veneer has come off, literally.

And on the other side, with a spirit that far exceeds his body’s capacity to contain it, we have Genos.  Fighting with everything he has, even repurposing his torn-off arms to fight independently alongside him.  Even without a hope of success, Genos isn’t quitting. Watching him drag the broken, bleeding Tatsumaki by his teeth, one can’t help but admire his grit; as long as there’s anything he can do, he’s doing it.  I was a little surprised at the fact that he kept both his promises to Fubuki -- first, not to use his full power lest he overheat again and second, to be there for Tatsumaki no matter what.  But I shouldn’t have been surprirsed -- keeping his promises is core to Genos. He’d be breaking faith with himself if he reneged on one.

It’s an ugly situation all round, but there’s no comparison as to who is the better hero here.

I just clocked the gouge marks in the rock by Tatsumaki... damn, Genos has dragged her quite a ways. Painful.

Fuck masters, I guess

OPM looks to have declared open season on masters.  Choose: do you want your master/mentor/teacher/benefactor to die horribly, or do you want them to be fine but not be able to stand the sight of you?

Just sticking with the manga, over on one side, we have Atomic Samurai and Spring Mustachio bewailing over Option 1.  Over on the other side of the battlefield, Bang and Garou are slugging it out over Option 2.

And down in a hole, over one text message. Heck over one screen, we see that something went badly wrong in the previously close relationship that existed between Dr Bofoi and his one-time assistant who would become the hero Child Emperor.   To think that their last text conversation were Bofoi asking Child Emperor to bring junk food along with him... a year ago.   Just like that, that hit me in the feels.  As well as piquing my curiosity as to what went wrong at that fateful last visit that reduced the two to talking only professionally.

this has to be one of the top ten saddest panels in the series, made sadder by our knowledge that Bofoi will almost certainly leave it on read.

Speaking of student-teacher relationships yet to be exploded, we’re due to see what’s between Psykos and Fubuki within this particular story.  Whether it has much to do with the webcomic, I don’t care. Just gimme! 

The best defense may be a good offense, but a good bluff is the next best thing.

I am so glad that King made a positive decision in the manga to bluff as long as he could in the faith that Saitama will eventually appear.  I did like the accidental version of the face off he had in the webcomic.  I am very curious to see what happens when he does so deliberately.

Moving on

We still don’t know what’s happened to Zombieman and Amai Mask, but it all looks like the promised grand synthesis of all these disparate struggles is going to be delivered on.

[jenniferisacommonname]

Bonus Level Unlocked

This week marks the release of Jason Schreier’s Press Reset, an incredibly well-researched book on catastrophic business failure in the gaming industry. Jason’s a good dude, and there’s an excerpt here if you want to check it out. Sadly, game companies going belly-up is such a common occurrence that he couldn’t possibly include them all, and one of the stories left out due to space constraints is one that I happen to be personally familiar with. So, I figured I’d tell it here.

I began working at Acclaim Studios Austin as a sound designer in January of 2000. It was a tumultuous period for the company, including a recent rebranding from their former studio name, “Iguana Entertainment,” and a related, ongoing lawsuit from the ex-founder of Iguana. There were a fair number of ghosts hanging around—the creative director’s license plate read IGUANA, which he never changed, and one of the meeting rooms held a large, empty terrarium—but the studio had actually been owned on paper by Acclaim since 1995, and I didn’t notice any conflicting loyalties. Everyone acted as if we always had been, and always would be, Acclaim employees.

Over the next few years I worked on a respectable array of triple-A titles, including Quarterback Club 2002, Turok: Evolution, and All-Star Baseball 2002 through 2005. (Should it be “All-Stars Baseball,” like attorneys general? Or perhaps a term of venery, like “a zodiac of All-Star Baseball.”) At any rate, it was a fun place to work, and a platformer of hijinks ensued.

But let’s skip to the cutscene. The truth is that none of us in the trenches suspected the end was near until it was absolutely imminent. Yes, Turok: Evolution and Vexx had underperformed, especially when stacked against the cost of development, but games flop in the retail market all the time. And, yes, Showdown: Legends of Wrestling had been hustled out the door before it was ready for reasons no one would explain, and the New York studio’s release of a BMX game featuring unlockable live-action stripper footage had been an incredibly weird marketing ploy for what should have been a straightforward racing title. (Other desperate gimmicks around this time included a £6,000 prize for UK parents who would name their baby “Turok,” an offer to pay off speeding tickets to promote Burnout 2 that quickly proved illegal, and an attempt to buy advertising space on actual tombstones for a Shadow Man sequel.)

But the baseball franchise was an annual moneymaker, and our studio had teams well into development on two major new licenses, 100 Bullets and The Red Star. Enthusiasm was on the upswing. Perhaps I should have paid closer attention when voice actors started calling me to complain that they hadn’t been paid, but at the time it seemed more like a bureaucratic failure than an actual money shortage—and frankly, it was a little naïve of them to expect net-30 in the first place. Industry standard was, like, net-90 at best. So I was told.

Then one Friday afternoon, a few department managers got word that we’d kind of maybe been skipping out on the building lease for let’s-not-admit-how-many months. By Monday morning, everyone’s key cards had been deactivated.

It's a little odd to arrive at work and find a hundred-plus people milling around outside—even odder, I suppose, if your company is not the one being evicted. Acclaim folks mostly just rolled their eyes and debated whether to cut our losses and head to lunch now, while employees of other companies would look dumbfounded and fearful before being encouraged to push their way through the crowd and demonstrate their still-valid key card to the security guard. Finally, the General Manager (hired only a few months earlier, and with a hefty relocation bonus to accommodate his houseboat) announced that we should go home for the day and await news. Several of our coworkers were veterans of the layoff process—like I said, game companies go under a lot—and one of them had already created a Yahoo group to communicate with each other on the assumption that we’d lose access to our work email. A whisper of “get on the VPN and download while you can” rippled through the crowd.

But the real shift in tone came after someone asked about a quick trip inside for personal items, and the answer was a hard, universal “no.” We may have been too busy or ignorant to glance up at any wall-writing, but the building management had not been: they were anticipating a full bankruptcy of the entire company. In that situation, all creditors have equal standing to divide up a company's assets in lengthy court battles, and most get a fraction of what they’re owed. But if the landlords had seized our office contents in lieu of rent before the bankruptcy was declared, they reasoned, then a judge might rule that they had gotten to the treasure chest first, and could lay claim to everything inside as separate from the upcoming asset liquidation.

Ultimately, their gambit failed, but the ruling took a month to settle. In the meantime, knick knacks gathered dust, delivered packages piled up, food rotted on desks, and fish tanks became graveyards. Despite raucous protest from every angle—the office pets alone generated numerous threats of animal cruelty charges—only one employee managed to get in during this time, and only under police escort. He was a British citizen on a work visa, and his paperwork happened to be sitting on his desk, due to expire. Without it, he was facing literal deportation. Fortunately, a uniformed officer took his side (or perhaps just pre-responded to what was clearly a misdemeanor assault in ovo,) and after some tense discussion, the building manager relented, on the condition that the employee touch absolutely nothing beyond the paperwork in question. The forms could go, but the photos of his children would remain.

It’s also a little odd, by the way, to arrive at the unemployment office and find every plastic chair occupied by someone you know. Even odder, I suppose, if you’re actually a former employee of Acclaim Studios Salt Lake, which had shut down only a month or two earlier, and you just uprooted your wife and kids to a whole new city on the assurance that you were one of the lucky ones who got to stay employed. Some of them hadn’t even finished unpacking.

Eventually, we were allowed to enter the old office building one at a time and box up our things under the watchful eye of a court appointee, but by then our list of grievances made the landlords’ ploy seem almost quaint by comparison (except for the animals, which remains un-fucking-forgivable.) We had learned, for example, that in the weeks prior to the bankruptcy, our primary lender had made an offer of $15 million—enough to keep us solvent through our next batch of releases, two of which had already exited playtesting and were ready to be burned and shipped. The only catch was that the head of the board, company founder Greg Fischbach, would have to step down. This was apparently too much of an insult for him to stomach, and he decided that he'd rather see everything burn to the ground. The loan was refused.

Other “way worse than we thought” details included gratuitous self-dealing to vendors owned by board members, the disappearance of expensive art from the New York offices just before closure, and the theft of our last two paychecks. For UK employees, it was even more appalling: Acclaim had, for who knows how long, been withdrawing money from UK paychecks for their government-required pension funds, but never actually putting the money into the retirement accounts. They had stolen tens of thousands of dollars directly from each worker.

Though I generally reside somewhere between mellow and complete doormat on the emotional spectrum, I did get riled enough to send out one bitter email—not to anyone in corporate, but to the creators of a popular webcomic called Penny Arcade, who, in the wake of Acclaim’s bankruptcy announcement, published a milquetoast jibe about Midway’s upcoming Area 51. I told Jerry (a.k.a. “Tycho”) that I was frankly disappointed in their lack of cruelty, and aired as much dirty laundry as I was privy to at the time.

“Surely you can find a comedic gem hidden somewhere in all of this!” I wrote. “Our inevitable mocking on PA has been a small light at the end of a very dark, very long tunnel. Please at least allow us the dignity of having a smile on our faces while we wait in line for food stamps.”

Two days later, a suitably grim comic did appear, implying the existence of a new release from Acclaim whose objective was to run your game company into the ground. In the accompanying news post, Tycho wrote:

“We couldn’t let the Acclaim bankruptcy go without comment, though we initially let it slide thinking about the ordinary gamers who lost their jobs there. They don’t have anything to do with Acclaim’s malevolent Public Relations mongrels, and it wasn’t they who hatched the Titty Bike genre either. Then, we remembered that we have absolutely zero social conscience and love to say mean things.”

Another odd experience, by the way, is digging up a 16-year-old complaint to a webcomic creator for nostalgic reference when you offer that same creator a promotional copy of the gaming memoir you just co-wrote with Sid Meier. Even odder, I suppose, to realize that the original non-Acclaim comic had been about Area 51, which you actually were hired to work on yourself soon after the Acclaim debacle.*

As is often the case in complex bankruptcies, the asset liquidation took another six years to fully stagger its way through court—but in 2010, we did, surprisingly, get the ancient paychecks we were owed, plus an extra $1,700-ish for the company’s apparent violation of the WARN Act. By then, I had two kids and a very different life, for which the money was admittedly helpful. Sadly, Acclaim’s implosion probably isn’t even the most egregious one on record. Our sins were, to my knowledge, all money-related, and at least no one was ever sexually assaulted in our office building. Again, to my knowledge. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure we remain the only historical incident of corporate pet murder. The iguana got out just in time.

*Area 51’s main character was voiced by David Duchovny, and he actually got paid—which was lucky for him, because three years later, Midway also declared bankruptcy.

[mandaloriandy]

Fic Writer Interview

I suppose I should... actually get around to doing this.

I was tagged by @maderilien, @stormwarnings, and @willowcrowned! (that’s what I get for putting off doing this, I get ganged up on.) (I’m just joking, I am very touched that you all thought of me)

How many works do you have on AO3?

49

What's your total AO3 word count?

339,898

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

oh fuck there's so many. uhhhh 32 apparently. big yikes. I'm just gonna copy-paste the list over, that'll be easiest. A lot of these are overlaps but alas such is life

1. Star Wars - All Media Types (24) 2. Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (18) 3. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types (7) 4. TOLKIEN J. R. R. - Works & Related Fandoms (4) 5. Homestuck (4) 6. Doctor Who & Related Fandoms (3) 7. Avatar: Legend of Korra (3) 8. Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (3) 9. Marvel Cinematic Universe (2) 10. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV) (2) 11. The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types (2) 12. Doctor Who (2) 13. Ender Series - Orson Scott Card (1) 14. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) (1) 15. Iron Man (Movies) (1) 16. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (1) 17. Original Work (1) 18. Sherlock (TV) (1) 19. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) (1) 20. Big Hero 6 (2014) (1) 21. Emelan - Tamora Pierce (1) 22. The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien (1) 23. Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga (1) 24. The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien (1) 25. Captain America (Movies) (1) 26. Paranatural (Webcomic) (1) 27. Torchwood (1) 28. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica (1) 29. Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types (1) 30. Star Wars: Rebels (1) 31. Doctor Who (2005) (1) 32. The Hobbit - All Media Types (1)

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

To nobody's surprise, my top 5 fics by kudos are (in order) the first 5 parts to the Jedi Shmi AU.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Oof. I used to. But I ended up spiralling pretty badly uhhhh a couple years ago and had to stop. I feel like I should reply to comments, especially those wonderful long ones, but even though I do this whole writing thing, I always have a really hard time, like, knowing what to say to them? Like "akjsdfk;jf thank you" always feels inadequate, but writing a well thought-out reply takes a stupidly large amount of brainpower, and I'll leave them marked as unread if I want to reply to them and then they just accumulate in my inbox and I end up spiralling again, since it just continues to exist as a mental load of something I have to do and the avoidance just gets bigger and bigger the longer I put it off and–

look, I just get into my own head too much about it. I respond to questions, usually. I love all the comments but I can't let myself overthink it, and the easiest way to do that is to not let myself reply.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

I guess Obi-Wan’s Terrible Horrible No-Good Very Bad Life doesn’t count because it... doesn’t have an ending yet? and I don’t know how angsty that ending is going to be. Even Composing Hallelujah doesn’t count because it ends happier than in canon, even though it’s... y’know, not exactly happy-ending.

Do you write crossovers? If so what is the craziest one you've written?

Hahaha I don't do crossovers often, but I have done them, and the craziest one I've actually written is probably my Sailor Moon/Puella Magi Madoka Magica fic. It’s especially crazy because I’ve only seen a few episodes of sailor moon lol

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

lmao YEP

There's this one, like Ender's Game/Doctor Who fic I wrote and posted on FFN back in middle school. And it got a ton of hate, as far as I can tell mostly from the same person, talking about like, how bad and non-canonical and whatever it was. And when I migrated over to AO3, I reposted it there too. This was in like 2012. The migration, at least, the fic was written in... idk, 2010?

And then. In 20-fucking-19.

I got a comment saying "Terrible. Makes zero sense. It’s like the author threw canon out the window and took a shit on it." like lmao what??????

(for reference: https://archiveofourown.org/works/361723?show_comments=true#comments and https://www.fanfiction.net/r/7621672/)

(like what the actual fuck was this person on)

Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Not any that I've been brave enough to post. And… also… nothing that I've actually written more than a few paragraphs on… I keep chickening out. I did recently make a deal with a friend, though, so… we'll see. If I do, it’s probably going to be quite dark, because that’s the kind of smut I like to read.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I sincerely hope not.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yes!! See how the blackbird walks into russian and just recently In all your wanderings into french!!!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I've tried. It's never gone… especially well? I don't think any of them ever actually ended up complete, they all just petered out after a while.

What's your all time favorite ship?

I don't really have an "all-time favorite" anything, let alone a ship. I'm a horrible multishipper and I'm going to cause problems on purpose

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

Sigh. Probably my intricate, 30-something-k unpublished Silmarillion Helcaraxë fic. It has so many moving pieces. I know where most of them end up but it's going to take so much effort to get there

What are your writing strengths?

writing

What are your writing weaknesses?

writing

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Hm. Given that I mostly write fic for SF/F, I don't run into the "real life languages" problem a lot. I end up working with conlangs of various complexity, for the most part, and for those… I'll sprinkle in a word or two if it makes sense, especially swear words and stuff. But for most of those conlangs, grammar is… less well-determined than vocabulary, so I almost never do phrases, let alone full sentences. I'll just put it in italics (if the POV character understands it) or say "and they said something unintelligible in [x language]" or the like.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

I think………. let me check the dates on this. I think the actual first fanfiction I wrote was sometime in fifth or sixth grade, for this "Zenda" book series I read?? Either that or Harry Potter.

What's your favorite fic you've written?

A big shout-out goes to The Lichtenberg Figure, which I can’t believe is the only Tamora Pierce fanwork I’ve published, but for my favorite... it's gotta be Messenger. Like, looking back, there is a bunch about it that I am very not happy with, and a lot of things I think didn't come across the way I wanted, and things I would not write the same way now, years down the line, as I have very differently balanced understandings of… well, a lot of these same characters. But, fuck, I just can't let go of Mandalorian!Beru.

No pressure tags!! @apaladinagain @determamfidd @faeymouse @lumateranlibrarian (apologies if you’ve already done this one and I haven’t seen it!)

[moonloredraws]

What tyepes and how elves do you have in your homebrew d&d??! Like the worldbuilding is huge, and hope I don't bother you by asking.

I don’t mind the questions, honestly! But be ready for an INCREDIBLY long read because I love elves and I might as well go into detail with them, and most of the information and brain thoughts can be found under the read more!

Anyway, I have 3 different realms. Manala, which is my Homebrew D&D world, The “It’s an Odd Kind of Fairytale Universe” which... is my webcomic’s universe (I still haven’t named the realm OTL) and Ozarathan, which is the Elf Only Universe. 

Manala is the one I’ll focus on since you asked D&D homebrew but I’ll touch on the other two as well. Ozarathan’s elf types are a mix between the Manala and IAOKOFT elves but with SOME differences.

Now... onto my D&D elves!

Manala has 10 types of elves. Here, we have 9 pictured, and those are the actual playable races. I’ll get to the last ones once I’ve explained these ones!

Manala has 2 categories of elves. True Elves and False Elves. False Elves are Wood Elves and Sea Elves, the rest are all True Elves. The reason for this categorization is that Wood Elves came to be when Eladrin mixed with Amali (beastfolk, essentially kemonomimi) and Sea Elves came to be when Eladrin mixed with Triton. They have plenty of elven blood, but they’re removed enough that they have their own cultures and are not as afflicted by The Hunt as True Elves are.

The Hunt is something all True Elves suffer from and it’s an innate bloodthirst. Elves on Manala are incredibly unhinged, especially Eladrin and Shadar Kai, who were the first Elves to be created onto Manala, and Shadar Kai especially just tend to start eating prey while it’s still alive. The others at least have the decency to kill the thing before starting to eat it. Most elves enjoy raw meat, and if it’s still warm from the hunt that’s even better.  

That being said, High Elves (so Sun Elves, Moon Elves and Drow) try to move away from being so overcome by the Hunt that they immerse themselves into practising the arts, and most modern High Elves don’t even experience the Hunt anymore... unless they actually go out to hunt. Which they don’t, because they either raise livestock or assign certain individuals to hunt so that not everyone turns into chaotic bloodthirsty morons. Sea Elves have no remnants of The Hunt, and Wood Elves experience it in a completely different way. They don’t revel in the kill, they revel in the hunt itself and a hunting party can spend weeks away from home tracking down some kind of behemoth, running it ragged until it dies from stress. 

True Elves also have mostly matriarchal societies, and most men dress in very revealing ways. Piercings and Tattoos are common across all True Elves, and preference of Fabric depends on region and subrace, with High Elves and Eladrin enjoying silken and loose flowing fabrics that move well, and Shadar Kai preferring leathers and wool to fight away the harsh cold of the Shadowfell.

Now... onto more specific explanations of the races!

Shadar Kai. Shadar Kai are one of the two Original Races of Elves. They were created alongside Eladrin, and at first were put into the Material Plane before the Creators decided to split the Material plane into 3, which resulted in the creation of the Shadowfell and Feywilds. Shadar Kai are definitely the most unpredictable of the elves, The Hunt is incredibly strong in them, and as such they get very distracted by that need to go out and kill some poor beast. Because of this, the Shadowfell is relatively safe where Elven societies exist, pretty much anything that’s deemed a danger is ripped apart. Their Shadowfell sister-race, the Shadow Orcs, keep them at an arm’s distance, but even if there’s surface bickering, but the two races are very close and if a larger enemy comes, the two team up and their combined forces easily dispatch any dangers.

Shadar Kai are the largest of all the elves. Stronger, more ferocious, and definitely way more extreme. Their society employs very Art Deco styles, unlike the other Elves who prefer the more fluid Art Nouveau looking styles. Shadar Kai have tons of piercings, and as they come of age, they get large geometric tattoos that cover their entire bodies to separate the youngins from adults. Shadar Kai do not have very colourful natural colours. Their eyecolour ranges from all tones from white to black, and occasionally very pale colours of any kind. Their Sclera tends to range from grey to black. Skintones range from black to white, and this is true for their hair too. The exception is with Ghost Shadar Kai, who are born pure white except for their sclera, and the result is a very jarring humanoid. They have feathery growths adorning their skin, mostly on the face, but down the back, on the shoulders and neck, as well as forearms is also common.

Up next are the Eladrin, who are really crazy and obviously very very horny because they ended up creating the false elves all on their own. They’re native to the Feywild, but very often travel to the Material Plane, so Eladrin are much more common than Shadar Kai. Like their Shadowfell counterparts, they have growths as well, but it ranges wildly from individual to individual, and even their season. 

Eladrin can be pretty much any colour, and often have skin markings. They’re a colourful bunch. Eladrin men tend to be VERY ostentatious, and the less actually properly covering their skin, the better. But don’t let the bright colours, horniness and smaller size distract you, because the Eladrin are only marginally better than Shadar Kai when it comes to dealing with the Hunt. They’re a bunch of party animals but will definitely rip your throat out if they feel threatened.

Surface High Elves are the best at taking care of their Hunt instinct, and actually have it so under wraps that they have extensive cities filled with so much art of all kind that they make other races forget that Elves are actually nuts. Surface High Elves developed after certain clans of Eladrins began losing their connections to the Feywild after spending extensive amounts of time on the Material Plane.

(Elerath isn’t a Sun Elf but he presents himself as such)

The men dress a LITTLE more sensibly, but the sheer variety of High Elf fashion can lead to some... weird clothing choices. Surface High Elves don’t have the jewel tone range of their Eladrin cousins, but still come in all kinds of skintones, hair colours and eye colours. They do not have any growths of any kind, and actually have super soft skin! (poking elf cheeks is super satisfying) The main difference between Sun and Moon Elves is mostly their colour schemes and sleep cycles. Sun Elves are diurnal, Moon elves are nocturnal.

Drow developed from an offshoot of Surface High Elves when they travelled into the Underdark to protect the Surface from Aberrations that had started migrating to the surface and causing chaos. Unlike canon Drow, Drow on Manala are not as bad with their overwhelming misandry and the whole “treating men like garbage” thing doesn’t exist. They’re still strongly matriarchal, and men are held to a different standard, but in a completely different way. Drow men are THE most beautiful group of elves in the entire world, and most high ranking ladies have harems of handsome men who they protect with such overwhelming ferocity that it almost rivals that of Shadar Kai. So I guess Drow men still get the short end of the stick but hey, at least they get pampered?? (But if you’re a handsome man, your chances of getting out into the world is... almost nil)

The Drow are zealous worshipers of The Spider, the Archfey of Weaving, Protection and Good Fortune, and due to this, they work in tandem with various Drider, who in this setting are natural Fey creatures, not drow dudes who fucked up a weird and complicated ritual. (Can you tell that I hate canon Drow culture? Because I really do. Drow have such great potential so here I am, turning things on its head)

Drow skintones range from white to charcoal, and sometimes have a slight purple tone. Eye colours tend to be jewel tones, but yellows, oranges and greens are very uncommon. Hair ranges from white to black, but can also be bright purple.  The exception is with ghost drow, who are pure white. Even their pupils are difficult to distinguish from their iris so they look super jarring.

Wood Elves are a fun bunch. They don’t mingle with other elves as much, not do they associate with Amali much, but they have good relations with both. Most Wood Elf cities are hidden from the world at large since they tend to just keep to themselves and protect nature from other races, and to protect the other races from whatever lurks in the forest. 

They have ears with extra lobes attached, and many also have fur on the tips and the back of the ears. Some individuals even have furry manes that run down their spines! Their colours are basically any shade of brown you can imagine. They span the entire human gamut, also include greys, and sometimes are a little too yellow or red toned to be completely right. They also sometimes have stripes or spots on their skins!

Then there’s the Sea Elves! Unlike other elves, Sea Elves are not mammalian. They lack breasts, and their young can eat fish pretty much as soon as they’re born. Sea Elf Babies are born very small, but more developed and take a while longer to get to their adult sizes since Sea Elves are quite large when it comes to elves. They have patches of scales on their skin, and gills. They can breathe both above and underwater, and most large Sea Elf societies are underwater, built into cliffs by the coast

Any colour a fish is, they can be. As such, Sea Elves are seen as very striking individuals if they come from more tropical seas, and they become very sought after courtesans.

Elves in general are really horny. Unlike most media where elves are seen as aloof and standoffish and holier-than-thou because of their beauty and long lifespans, on Manala, ALL elf subraces are pretty easy to seduce. They enjoy the attention, and as a result, the entire realm is filled with half-elves of ALL kinds of mixtures. Also, gender is so fluid in elven society. An Elf picks how they present themselves and because of the ease at which magic is available, they can sculpt their bodies to fit how they wish to be seen. Elves said Trans Rights.

Now... there’s one type of elf I didn’t touch on, and those are the Aetherians. The Aetherians don’t play much of a role on Manala because they’ve actually left. Aetherians are essentially Space Elves and they have WEIRD crazy powers. They’re the creators of the realm, but after they deemed their newest project complete enough, they left. Well. Most of them did. Two of them remain in the Realm but I’m not going to reveal their identities.

Aetherians are HUGE. They’re like. 9-10 feet tall, and have geometric grooves in their skin that glow. They also have floating crowns of shards above their heads. They’re a mystery, and were involved in the creation of the world, but aside from that almost nothing is known of them.

So uhhh yeah. Those are my D&D elves.

I’ll add a little bonus section of the Ozarathan Elves here as well because that’s fun:

I haven’t finished drawing the lineup so the anatomy is whack on some of these here’s a general idea of their sizes??

(Also in IAOKOFT) The Solarians – slightly scorched skin, tanned, warm grey/brownish sclera, live in high mountains, art deco style, very isolationist.

(Also in IAOKOFT) The Umbrals - Reskinned Manala Shadar Kai and Ghost Shadar Kai, cousins to Umbrals, very similar aesthetics

The Vokorians- Reskinned Manala Wood Elves. They have the same fluffy ears but also have tails.

The Hush-Hush – Reskinned Manala Drow and Ghost Drow, but also have tails.

The Maritimians- Scaled Skin in parts, fins and gills, often have tails. Freshwater and Saltwater varieties exist.

(Also in IAOKOFT) The Zephyrians- Elves with small wings. Often have feathering on their bodies, and also have feathered tails. Live in moving cities that get moved by the wind. Nomadic.

(Also in IAOKOFT) The Uzarians- High Elves, the most typical elves.

(Also in IAOKOFT) The Duneriders- Desert elves. Grey sclera, dark skin, have marks, offshoot of Solarians, but have rounded highly mobile ears.

[readingwebcomics]

Analyzing Questionable Content: Pages 101-150

While I’m all for body positivity Dora, that’s kind of public nudity. Most cities tend to frown on that. Although this IS your personal business you’re doing this in… I wonder what the law for that is? Like, do you have to pay for a permit to allow public nudity in a location you own? Or do city laws take precedent?

…I’m thinking about this too much, let’s move on.

Hey, it’s Raven again! Hi, Raven! And you thought I was kidding when I said the no-name character who showed up for all of one comic would come back as a regular character. This is part of the reason why I enjoy Jeph’s style – he can, and does, very easily take bit players he made for a single gag or to fulfill one role and flesh them out if he thinks they can serve a purpose or if they entertain him enough. The most famous example of this will be roughly 2900 comics from now so… holy shit, I just realized Bubbles is 1000 comics old! That’s crazy awesome!

Right. Sorry, some of you might not understand a word of what I just typed. Nevermind, moving right along.

Here we see the beginnings of Dora’s next character arc, if you’d like to call it that. I do have some questions about this as far as the in-universe time-scale goes, but I’ll touch on that later. Faye also invites Dora along to hang with her and Marten to indoctrinate her to the Hipster Lifestyle™ to serve two purposes: First, that their relationship as a boss and employee is relaxed enough that they’re comfortable doing this, telling us a lot about the way these two work together and the way this coffee shop is run without saying a lot. Second, this serves as the perfect in for Jeph to incorporate Dora into the main cast. From this point forward, Dora becomes a main secondary character, arguably a main character in her own right. The fact that she takes on a much more prominent role in this next batch of 50 comics and skyrockets to fourth-most frequent character is proof enough of that on its own, but we’ll touch on all that when we get to the data analysis at the end of this post.

Back with Marten, Steve is encouraging him to apologize to Faye. He offers a… novel solution to keep Marten from being the center of attention.

Seriously, the sheer, raw confidence on this guy alone is attractive as hell. And I’m only mildly ashamed to admit that to myself!

I hope you understand why I don’t need to explain why I should, nay, must provide this panel without any other context.

Same deal with this one.

And this comic puts me into hysterics every time I read it. I swear, this isn’t going to devolve into me just posting comics and saying “this is funny” or whatever. I just really, really like this progression of events right here. I wish we could see more of this Marten more often in modern QC – able to read a room quick enough to defuse the situation with absurdity or dry wit. It reminds us that, despite all evidence to the contrary, the boy does have a spine somewhere in that body.

And as immediate contrast, we jump here. This? This isn’t funny. This makes me not like Faye. This is actual abuse. And I know I talked about in the last post how including Faye retaliating against Marten physically and actually showing it happen in the comic rather than implying it with backfilling is the better method of storytelling but… Maybe it’s because she created a visible bruise, maybe it’s because of how candid she is about it, maybe it’s because of my own personal fucked-up past relationships (which admittedly never got physical but still), but this feels infinitely different than the Faye Jeph is trying to set up. He’ll have to do a damn good job in later comics to win me back to thinking Faye’s a likable character again.

Also Dora is definitely a woman of her word. I hope the coffee shop was empty right then. Actually, I hope it’s been a slow day from the point Faye started chasing her around with a dildo. Otherwise news might travel for all of the wrong reasons.

Faye tries to invite Dora over for festivities both as a friendly gesture because she expects her boss doesn’t get out much and because she wants to drag her from the dark abyss of Goth into the light of Hipster, only for her to turn the invitation down.

Not that it’s going to deter Faye, of course. Also, QC is in wide screen now. I have NO idea how that’s going to be represented on Tumblr considering how narrow my current theme at the time of writing is. Maybe I’ll change it, I dunno, I’m shit with this sort of thing. If you’re reading this and the page doesn’tlook like some faux notebook shit, I pulled myself together and fixed things. Go me.

Dora is being incredibly chill with this whole situation. Personally I’d be a hell of a lot more pissed. Although this does provide us with further insight to Faye’s character – someone who sees her next step, bulrushes her way towards it and has zero plans where to go after that until she arrives at her destination. She is aggressive and decisive, but to a fault as she doesn’t ever seem to really plan ahead. I’d say this makes her the perfect foil to Marten as someone who plans obsessively but never has the spine to go forward with anything but… Marten doesn’t really do much future-planning himself. He obsesses over little things and gets stuck in his own head, but he never really seems to look any further than maybe next week. Hm… I want all of us to keep this in mind for an offhand comment like, 500 or 600 comics from now. Trust me, it’ll make sense when we get to it.

And yet despite Faye’s self-assurance and aggressive nature, here she shows an outright refusal to accept or face the reality of the developing relationship between herself and Marten. Not just being coy, not just dancing around the issue, but straight-up not allowing herself to even consider what’s going down. Maybe I’m reading too much into this little exchange due to what I already know about her character, but this is an extremely unhealthy trait that speaks a lot to Faye’s character that she doesn’t want the world to see. We’ll be touching on this later.

I mostly like this comic for Marten and Pintsize’s reactions on the last panel. Marten makes a good straight man, and it’s not often we see Pintsize share that role either.

Faye you’re really not helping your case right now. Although it is interesting how hard Faye is showcases how into him Dora is, considering she has her own feelings for him and I highly doubt she’d be 100% cool with the two of them going off to make out.

So here we establish Anthro PCs relationships with humans – namely, they’re basically glorified pets. Pets that have human-level sapience. Don’t worry, Jeph comes to understand the unfortunate implications of this as well, and he goes on to change this in future comics. And by “change this” I mean “completely re-incorporate how AI works in this universe and establish QC as a near-future sci-fi setting.” But that’s not going to be for quite some time. For now, despite my poking fun at the horrific implications here, Jeph’s doing a good job taking the “funny robot sidekick” that’s supposed to be in every webcomic and creating proper lore behind it, making it feel like it belongs in this world rather than be used as a comic relief character and only a comic relief character.

Granted the Anthro PCs as a collective are going to be used as just comic relief right now but, y’know. Baby steps.

As said before, the fact that these guys are all fully sapient creatures makes the implications of this downright horrific. Also, that’s Ell. I have no idea if he ever comes back – I don’t remember him coming back at all – but I’m marking him down in the character statistics because he’s named.

This… actually has some interesting implications. Marten mentions needing Steve’s help with a date “the other day.” Does that mean he and Faye have known each other for an extremely short period of time? I highly doubt it, we’ve seen a number of times the time has moved from day to night, and the comic itself certainly implies at least a few weeks have passed. So unless by “the other day” Marten means “a month ago” then Marten has been dating women on the side while Faye’s been staying with him. That… seems extremely out of character for him considering the circumstances we’ve seen established in the comic thus far. Considering nothing else really comes from it and the fact if Marten was dating anyone on the side it would definitely be Dora, I’m going to go on the assumption Jeph simply made a mistake here and meant to say Marten was seeing someone a month or a few months back.

She’s cut off by Pintsize’s destructive laser that he’s using to assert himself as King among the Anthro PCs, don’t worry about it. What we should focus on instead is… well, this second panel here. On paper, this is really good. We’re getting some insight to Faye’s character here, the cracks in her mask are showing. We’re addressing the issue of her assaulting her friend and roommate, what she thinks about it, her current mindset and addressing that this is an actual problem. She’s openly apologizing, sincere in her conviction and clearly wants to fix things.

The problem with this is of course the fact that this is rushed as fuck.

Part of this, of course, has to be the fact that Jeph’s comic by nature is married to the structure of a four-panel comic. We have to set up Faye’s conversation, allow her to continue, but due to narrative convenience she needs to be cut off before she can finish what she’s saying. So the laser cuts her off and after the panel of action, we follow-up and end with the punchline of Pintsize having been made King among the Anthro PCs. And I get it – interrupt Faye before she can finish so you can keep the romantic ambiguity of “boys whom I…” Classic RomCom stuff. Problem is, this isn’t the time or place to do it. Keeping to the structure traps them into a situation where unfortunately Faye doesn’t have the breathing room to stretch this out and make it feel natural. This feels contrived from every angle and every sense of the word.

Easy way to fix this: Have this conversation take place while they’re walking home. Establish she feels bad, have her bounce off Marten and have this conversation naturally. Then either you can have Pintsize cut her off at the end there or maybe even she stops herself when she realizes she’s saying too much. There are ways to make this feel natural. This isn’t natural. Still, credit where it’s due, they’re at least touching on this topic here. Part of me wonders if Jeph had, like, a mental map of where he wanted Faye’s character to go but because he writes these page-by-page it ended up stumbling along and falling flat. A written outline of events can, and does, REALLY help in situations like this.

Then again I’m giving writing advice to a version of someone who existed fifteen years ago. I’m sure he’s got this all down himself nowadays, right?

Payoff to the previous comic.

Not only does this crack me up every time I read it, it also shows that Faye and Marten have gotten onto the same wavelength of humor. They’re also comfortable enough with each other that they can imply for a moment sexual favors before completely derailing the implication with the absurd. This is a far-cry from when Faye was trying to burn Marten with her mind back when Pintsize merely implied the two of them share a bed with each other.

Granted, it does kind of fly in the face of Faye’s reaction back at the LANPark. Still, good moment.

Speaking of Faye’s character…

Here we have Faye’s explanation for why she hides her southern accent. Makes sense.

And here, her explanation as to why she doesn’t use contractions… I’ve already said my piece on why I feel this makes zero sense, let’s move on.

And here we properly draw attention to Faye’s scar and establish the fact that her scar is a sore spot for her… was that a pun? It felt like a pun. Anyway, more and more it’s becoming clear that despite her outgoing nature, Faye has a LOT she keeps close to her chest.

Okay now I know that one was a pun, I’m sorry.

Point being, there’s a lot to Faye’s character we haven’t found out yet, plenty yet to explore in future comics. And I’d also like to point out, this? This is an extremely natural way to establish things about Faye, right here. This feels like something that would actually come up in a conversation rather than planted there for the sake of the audience, and I appreciate that. That said, this in conjunction with the last few moments makes this feel more like it’s time for Jeph to introduce and explain aspects of Faye’s character all at once, which deters a little bit from the natural feeling of this moment in particular. Or maybe I’m just being pedantic, I dunno. In a bubble, this comic works.

And here we get a flash of the personality we’ll see in Raven in the future. Just a spark though, the flame hasn’t risen up quite yet. Also a little detail about Dora that… again, doesn’t quite make sense given the timescale Jeph has established. I’ll touch on it later in this post when we find out exactly how old Dora is.

This… is an aspect of Marten’s personality that we never really touch on. Actually, this kind of goes toe-in-toe with his interest in Final Fantasy. Is Marten a fantasy buff? Does he enjoy escapist literature and media? Would he be super into Game of Thrones when it comes out as a series? These are questions that… unfortunately, don’t really get answered. I don’t know, I feel like these aspects of who Marten is ends up getting forgotten on the cutting room floor later on in the comic. Maybe they were only included as an off-handed joke, maybe Marten just developed as a character differently than what Jeph originally envisioned him as. Either way, these are parts of him that I think would be wonderful to bring back, especially with his current job and relationship in present-day coics.

Again, like a LOT of things I’m bringing up, we’ll get to that later.

In case you forgot that Faye is genuinely interested in Marten, a reminder and an assertion: She isn’t just interested in the skinny boy. She’s got it bad for him.

But, like a lot of things involving her personal life and feelings, she openly refutes them – not just to Dora but to herself.

Having gone out to give Dora a new look and indoctrinate her into the Cult of Hipster, Dora McPalerThanWhiteBread ends up sunburnt. Marten’s home, he has the lotion, we all know where this is going.

Heaven holds a place for those who pray… I wanted to follow this up with a clip of Sonic from Tails’ story in Sonic Adventure saying “hey hey hey” but surprisingly enough, that particular soundbite isn’t available anywhere. There are plenty of Let’s Plays that poke fun at it, but nothing with that line in particular.

Anyway, let’s talk about time frames. Dora said she got into the whole goth and coven stuff in High School and only now gotten bored of it. She’s 26. Let’s be EXTRA generous and assume she got into it in Senior Year, and she graduated at 18. That’s eight years this has been her life style, almost a third of her life. This wasn’t a phase, this was a genuine life style choice. Either Jeph got the timing wrong, or this is genuinely an identity crisis on Dora’s part because seriously, when something’s been a part of your life for so long I don’t blame you for not knowing where to go from there. I’m just surprised it took 8+ years for her to get sick of it. Then again, maybe that’s normal. I dunno, you can tell me if that’s a normal human thing. I’m literally autistic so I genuinely don’t know.

Setup… and also begging the question why you would give a libido to an AI, or how one would develop it naturally seeing as robots are incapable of sexual reproduction.

I haven’t really mentioned it until now, but Dora’s like aggressively bi. I can dig it. Guys and gals are both pretty in their own ways.

Ignore the lack of color for a second, Jeph wrote up this comic when he had like zero time and couldn’t color it in before he uploaded. Again, we have the HINT of something that Faye’s on the cusp of admitting that says more about her character only to be cut off once again. This feels a bit more natural than the situation at the LANPark. Still contrived by nature of Jeph introducing a conflict to purposefully cut her off, but an understandable narrative contrivance.

Also, remember when I mentioned the joke about the government level laser would come back as an actual plot point? Did you think I was joking? No, here we have Agent Turing (I can’t tell if that’s clever or if I should roll my eyes at this) here to take Pintsize in, dismantle him and take the dangerous laser back.

Faye takes it well.

Can you guess what consequences she suffers from assaulting a government agent? I’ll give you a hint – it’s about the same as the consequences she suffered from burning down an apartment.

Payoff.

And finally, we round off this batch of comics with Faye’s expert lying skills to fool Agent Turing…

Ah yes. The ever-deadly Space Owls. Not nearly as scary as Space Bears, though! They’re horrifying!

…not buying it? Yeah neither did my professors back in college.

As per usual, let’s compare a panel from the first and last comics in the batch to see how Jeph’s art style has improved.

It looks like he’s trying to get the proportions more… realistic? They’ve moved from “cartoons” to “cartoon versions of actual people” and it’s… eh, alright I guess? Personally I’m more of a fan of the more cartoon-ish style in the beginning of this batch, but beauty and eyes of beholders and all.

So overall, what did I think of this batch of comics? Personally, I think the humor is improving dramatically, this batch had the most comics that had me laughing aloud so far. And bringing Dora further into the limelight was a smart move on Jeph’s part – she’s just so likable, I want to see more of her. But as for the inter-personal conflicts… eh? It feels weaker than last batch. More is happening, progress is being made, but it feels… contrived. Artificial. It was the worst in the LANPark, but because that drew my eye I kept seeing every other piece of exposition as just that – exposition. Maybe I’m biased, I’ll fully admit that. I’ll also admit that the bit about Faye’s chest-scar was a well done piece of exposition without feeling like exposition.

I’ve said exposition way too much now, let’s move onto the stats (and for the record, Scarlet Manuka on the QC forums was kind enough to remind me that the name of Dora’s cat is Miéville, so while we haven’t been introduced to that name yet I’ll be using that in my stats from this point forward because it’s better than “Dora’s Cat”).

Faye: 47/50 – 94%

Marten: 41/50 – 82%

Dora: 31/50 – 62%

Pintsize: 18/50 – 36%

Turing: 3/50 – 6%

Steve: 2/50 – 4%

Raven: 2/50 – 4%

Ell: 1/50 – 2%

Grand Total:

Marten: 132/150 – 88%

Faye: 130/150 – 86.7%

Pintsize: 45/150 – 30%

Dora: 39/150 – 26%

Steve: 16/150 – 10.7%

Sara: 7/150 – 4.7%

Raven: 3/150 – 2%

Turing: 3/150 – 2%

Jim: 2/150 – 1.3%

Scott: 2/150 – 1.3%

Miéville: 1/150 – 0.7%

Ell: 1/150 – 0.7%

Faye is climbing up the ranks and getting closer to perfectly equal screentime with Marten across the whole series. Speaking of Faye, in this batch she pulled into first as the character in the most comics, the first time she’s been in more than Marten since the beginning. And Dora’s been in so many this last batch, she jumped up to fourth-most reoccurring character juuust behind Pintsize.

I’ll catch you next week for the epic conclusion to the Pintsize laser saga! And yet more insight on Faye’s past – hope you like ice cream! See you then.

[blossommirage]

I found random questions so I’m gonna answer them all haha im bored

1. Do you ever doubt the existence of others than you?

Most people

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you?

Probably 4? It’s not panic attacks but i get tense

3. The person you would never want to meet?

My gf’s ex

4. What is your favorite word?

Buffalo

5. If you were a type of tree, what would you be?

A gay one

6. When you looked in the mirror this morning what was the first thing you thought?

i gotta pee

7. What shirt are you wearing?

some shirt jean gave me with a webcomic on it

8. What do you label yourself as?

lesbiab

9. Bright room or dark room?

bright

10. What were you doing at midnight last night?

watching dunkey with my girlfriend

11. Favorite age you’ve been so far?

this one’s okay

12. Who told you they loved you last?

girlfriend

13. Your worst enemy?

ptsd

14. What is your current desktop picture?

Highway Blossoms

15. Do you like someone?

my girlfriend

16. The last song you listened to?

Some Utada song idr what

17. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?

my first boyfriend

18. Who would you really like to just punch in the face?

my girlfriend’s ex because other than abuse her she also sounds like the shittiest human

19. If anyone could be your slave for a day, who would it be and what would they have to do?

no thats creepy and weird, all i’d want is for my gf to eat me out all day and she already does that

20. What is your best physical attribute? (showing said attribute is optional)

I have a beauty mark next to my lip its ok

21. If you were the opposite sex for one day, what would you look like and what would you do?

probably have panic attacks

22. Do you have a secret talent? If yes, what is it?

i’m secretly a cat pretending to be a person

23. What is one unique thing you’re afraid of?

Statue of Liberty. I don’t know either.

24. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your disposal.

uhhhh meatball sub

25. You just found $100! How are you going to spend it?

fate go and love live money, also a vibrator

26. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, but you have to leave immediately. Where are you going to go?

I guess like philly and back since that would take the least time

27. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. “Be brand-specific” it says. Man! What are you gonna say about that? Even if you don’t drink booze there’s something you can figure out… so what’s it gonna be?

Jack Daniels, my mom likes it and I don’t drink

28. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?

u have to be a queer lady to live here this is the new amazon GET THE FUCK IN

29. What is your favorite expletive?

heckie

30. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don’t worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what’s the one thing you’re going to save from that blazing inferno?

Laptop would be the hardest to replace

31. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

MY FIRST BOYFRIEND

32. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit… you can move to anywhere else in the world!

Canada, I guess.

33. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn’t think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?

john entwistle or carrie fisher

34. What was your last dream about?

I was moving back to america from begium again and my laptop got stolen and this dude in the airport fell in love with me but i was just trying to find my computer

35. Are you a good….[insert anything you’d like here]?

I’m an okay musician

36. Have you ever been admitted to the hospital?

Yeah

37. Have you ever built a snowman?

I think so? It never snowed where I grew up but I feel like I did this once.

38. What is the color of your socks?

barefoot, fight me

39. What type of music do you like?

I listen to a lot of genres, mostly jrock or 90′s alternative

40. Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?

sunsets

41. What is your favorite milkshake flavor?

strawberry

42. What football team do you support? (I will answer in terms of American football as well as soccer)

Falcons, I guess. I’m more of a baseball girl.

43. Do you have any scars?

I have one on my stomach from an operation, one on my left index finger from a glass shattering while i was doing dishes

44. What do you want to be when you graduate?

neurotypical

45. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

having PTSD

46. Are you reliable?

probably not?

47. If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be?

do i get better

48. Do you hold grudges?

probably

49. If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature, what new animal would you create?

whatever makes gatomon real

50. What is the most unusual conversation you’ve ever had?

i once mentioned a love live porn comic to someone and they went “oh shit i read that too” it was weird

51. Are you a good liar?

i dont think so

52. How long could you go without talking?

indefinite, i guess

53. What has been you worst haircut/style?

No idea, i don’t think i look good with short hair

54. Have you ever baked your own cake?

yeah, it was rad

55. Can you do any accents other than your own?

noooooooo

56. What do you like on your toast?

i dont realy like toast

57. What is the last thing you drew a picture of?

literally 0 idea

58. What would be you dream car?

good gas mileage

59. Do you sing in the shower? Or do anything unusual in the shower? Explain.

if i’m home alone, which is never

60. Do you believe in aliens?

sure

61. Do you often read your horoscope?

not really ever

62. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet?

q is rad

63. Which is cooler: dinosaurs or dragons?

dragons

64. What do you think about babies?

they’re ok

65. Freebie! Ask anything interesting you can think of.

my favorite key to write in is C# minor

[cavesalamander]

Do you have any queer book recs? Preferably not the kind where it's like a coming out book or a Queer Struggle™?

Thanks for the ask!

Honestly I don’t go seeking out a lot of queer books for just that reason - also because being ace and mostly aro, I tend to go for heavy world building and action/adventure, with romance being mostly incidental, if there at all. Also series that last a while and let me know the characters really well.

I also don’t tend to read books that aren’t already at least somewhat popular, so if you want more indie queer book recs, please go check out https://twitter.com/tatehallaway this badass lady on the twitters. I haven’t read any of her books (yet, entirely because I haven’t read anything longer than a couple thousand words in way too long) but I met her at World Con where she hosted a panel on diversity in fiction. She’s a queer writer and is super approachable and friendly. I’m sure she’d be able to point you in the right direction, if not rec some of her own books!

I also would totally recommend checking out Mark Oshiro who recently wrote and got his own book published!! I’m super excited for him, and I’m gonna buy it at some point. His reviews of books are really entertaining too, and he gets pretty autobiographical during them. His fans often recommend queer books and TV shows to him too - so then you get to watch him cry when he realizes that this character that he fell in love with is SURPRISE GAY and he’s so happy he can’t with the emotions. (He’s also a total sweetheart in person holy crap. I got to talk to him at World Con too.)

There’s also TritonYA, which is a publishing house that is working on publishing queer YA genre fiction. I haven’t read any of the 3 books they posted so far because I don’t have the f o c u s these days, and none of them really caught my interest from the summary.

As for books I’VE read... (Apologies that these are like all from cis straight authors afaik, they’re just the ones who I read/ started reading 10+ years ago when I used to read all the time... and back then there just wasn’t the visibility of queer authors, and I didn’t go searching for particular books. I just don’t read very much anymore aaahhh!)

The Circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce is FANTASTIC. It’s very much romance light - very heavy on the friendship and bonds between the four main characters. But one of the four MCs is lesbian, and there are other queer secondary characters. One of the other girls reads to me as ace/aro too, but that hasn’t been confirmed. (And like 99% of the time my hopes are dashed, but I can see Pierce actually writing an ace character who stays ace.)

Keep in mind that when the series starts they’re like 10, so romance doesn’t come into play until the later books when they’re 16, which is when one of the characters realizes she’s into girls and not boys.

The series is so good too. Pierce’s world building is so good always. She’s like my fuckin idol when it comes to how she does it. The lesbian chara’s character arc about realizing she’s into girls is handled pretty well IMO - the world as a whole isn’t homophobic, so the struggle is mild and mostly self discovery. And the romance is centered around the political struggles happening at the time - is the girl she likes flirting back bc REAL FEELINGS or bc SNEAKY POLITICS!? And SHOULD SHE STAY OR SHOULD SHE GO. Which, given the story as a whole, (and her other writings) this is pretty much in line with how a het romance would be treated.

Trials of Apollo and the Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan are pretty good too. I don’t like Riordan’s worldbuilding like I love Pierce’s, and he’s writing as a cis straight man but his books are still a lot of fun. There’s a gay kid who gets a couple of POV chapters in an earlier series, (Percy Jackson) but he’s got a lot more of The Struggle going on in his story. (Kinda understandable considering he was born in the 30s, but still.)

Trials follows, well, Apollo who is unapollogetically bi because that’s canon greek myth. (Incidentally, one of his kids is dating the Struggle boy from before and they are very cute together, if a fairly background relationship). Apollo is also totally full of himself and hilarious, and his trials are of course gonna be about how he has to eat a big fuckin slice of humble pie because that’s how grecian trials work. Only like one or two books are out so far, but it looks like it’s gonna be a lot of fun!

Magnus Chase is about a guy who dies and gets sent to Valhalla and becomes a demigod basically. In the second book, a third MC is introduced who is genderfluid/bigender, and by the end of it, Magnus is kinda crushing on her so, that’s cool! I’m not sure yet how it’s gonna be played, since Magnus so far seems to be striaght, and sometimes his love interest is a boy... but I have a pretty good feeling it’s going to be addressed.

Riordan’s a cis straight white dude but he’s definitely done his research. Some of the bits come off kinda “here’s my research laid out” but he started his first series with the goal of, “I want my son to see heroes who are like him. Heroes with ADHD and dyslexia.” And now he’s like “I have fans who are poc, and fans who are queer, and I want them to see themselves too.” And his stories are fun. Which is the important part, in my opinion!

Gunnerkrigg Court by Tom Siddell is actually a webcomic, not a novel, but the MC is most likely aro/ace, and her best friend is bi, who currently is in a relationship with another girl - and there’s at least two other queer couples in the story... and strong hints that one of the characters is a trans girl, and another that used to be a female rabbit but is now a male human, gender unknown as of yet. They didn’t seem particularly bothered by the change though.

It’s also a book about robots and magic and birds and ROBOTS and family legacy and friendship and love and R O B O T S!!! Listen it’s just REALLY GOOD OKAY? Please read it. Please please please!!

The Bartimaeus Trilogy by Johnathan Stroud is one of my all time favorite book series, though it’s the least explicitly queer. There’s no romance in it whatsoever, and the human MC reads to me as aro/ace. (The one time he feels something resembling sexual attraction, he realizes almost instantly that something is Wrong and that he was put under a spell. Lmao...) Human MC is also a ginormous fucking shitlord but I love him a lot, and compared to all the other shitlords in the series, he’s actually pretty moral.

Demon MC is also a shitlord, and somehow works as human MC’s moral compass. Also he’s hilarious. And okay, so... when I was younger, I never really read into anything. But demon MC has this boy from his past who he absolutely loves a lot. You can choose to read it whichever way you want, but it’s a very deep and strong love. QP is likely though unintentional hahaa! Very important... I really need to read the prequel book to see more into how the relationship developed...

A girl is introduced as an MC in the second? and third book. She’s Very Good and also not a love interest. Like it’s way easier to read into a romance between the demon and the boy from his past than it is to read into girl MC and boy MC.

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner This one I actually got on rec from the librarian I asked for queer books. It’s an older book, like from the 80s and this one I’m pretty sure the author IDs as bi, so hey that’s at least one rec from a queer author. The book is just set in a fantasy world where sexuality is like WHATEVER! and everyone fights with swords and honor and the MC and everyone else are all total fucking pricks but also bisexual.

It’s the most adult and romancy book out of all of them, but the love scenes aren’t explicit or anything. Definitely a recommended read if you wanna see some earlier rep. The copy of the book I got from the library had a recommendation by GRRM on the cover - one that I think predated his rise to fame. You can definitely see why he’d like it. There’s lots of political drama, affairs, murder, swords, etc.

People die, and I don’t necessarily want to spoil you on if the MC or the MC’s love interest dies unless you want me to (You’re welcome to ask!), but it IS a romance, and it’s not centered around The Struggle at all, and I don’t think it counts as Bury Your Gays if EVERYONE is queer!

So that’s what I have off the top of my head. I only counted MAIN characters in this, none of that “someone was gay once in the background see? representation!!!” crap. And like I said, it’s been a while since I’ve really sat down and read anything in earnest. The Swordspoint book was the only one I found while I was actively looking for queer books, the rest is just happy happenstance!

Let me know if you have any questions, and feel free to reblog!

[uniformbravo]

fffffFuck

im rly inspired to work on webcomic stuff i wanna make a webcomic!! im ready!!! i want to dive into a story and experiment and learn how to best do things as i go i wanna see that Improvement as i get a feel for what the story should be i wanna be a part of the process so bad im ready aaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!

my Big Project, the one i talked about a lot, right; i kind of put it aside for a while but lately i’ve just kind of been in the Mood??? i honestly lost interest for a while kinda, not in the sense that i dropped it entirely, but i was hitting a lot of road blocks and pretty much ended up inadvertently taking a break from it, and in the mean time i watched a lot of shit and i think it was good for me?

because i feel like if i spend too long going hard on one thing i burn out really easily and everything starts to become more forced than passion-driven, and passion is what i want for this shit bc if im not enjoying it then why the hell am i even doing this right

so when i take a break and allow myself to dive into some show/comic/etc that can make me Feel The Good Shit, it inspires me!! it makes me want to create something that i can be equally as passionate about (and hopefully inspire other people too!) and like, it used to be such a frustrating feeling because i was filled with so much Energy and Passion that i had absolutely no idea what to do with, it would just kind of crackle and burn inside like i was going to explode any minute and i had nowhere to direct it and it was super unsatisfying but now!!! 

now i have something to pour all that creative energy into! now whenever i get super inspired by something i start thinking about this project and how i can take the creative influence from the show/comic/whatever and pour it into my own story and it finally feels like i have purpose, in a sense? like, i might not be getting any actual, tangible Ideas to apply to my plot or whatever, but i can take those Feelings and Emotions and think of them within the context of my world, and that can then turn into tangible ideas and idk it’s just really good!!! it’s Good to finally have something to pour this overwhelming inspiration into, and i guess i can only hope that what eventually comes out of all of this can do all of these thoughts and feelings proper justice

right now i feel like i have a lot of vague ideas of what i want the story to be like in general? i don’t mean plot-wise or even in terms of worldbuilding, i just mean like. the technical kind of storytelling elements, if that makes sense? it’s like, i’m writing down all these notes on what i observe to be Good Storytelling and Characterization in the things i like so that maybe i can successfully apply them to my own story down the line, and i guess that’s where some of my current worries stem from? 

bc i want to make this big, great Thing that employs all these devices im compiling but the question is whether i’ll be able to actually Do it or if it’ll come out as this big messy Attempt, u know? and it doesn’t help that this is my first Big Project like this, like i’ve never made a comic before, first of all, like that’s the. the Big One (although i am planning to do smaller comic projects first to experiment and figure things out so that maybe i can become familiar with the process before tackling something so huge that i want to be so good)

basically my plan is to.... plan. like, super plan. Plan Everything. that’s my strategy at this point, like. the taking notes on things i like, the practice comics beforehand, all of it is planning in order to help make this project the best that it can be, and i guess my main worry is that despite all the work im putting into this, it still won’t hit the mark

like, im a big perfectionist when it comes to things i care about, and i really care about this project. i really want to make this a good thing. something i’ll probably/definitely have to accept is that it’s not gonna be perfect; parts of it will be messy, parts of it won’t flow like i imagined, parts of it will be really awkward and that’s fine

idk man i mean it’s kind of bizarre to be considering all of this stuff right now when the whole project is still in such an early, vague, misshapen stage like for real i barely know anything abt these characters except that they will probably exist, maybe, and i have a hundred million shifting ideas that all conflict with each other and just literally overall this story is absolutely nothing yet, i still have so much fucking work to do it’s overwhelming

but man

seeing how far other projects have come since their beginnings is really inspiring 

like

it’s ok

it doesn’t all have to be done right now, these things take time (especially if ur a team of one (1), practically speaking) 

i like to think that years down the line, as i continue to work on this project, i’ll look back at myself now and think, “dang, i really had no idea what i was doing and i felt intimidated and overwhelmed and vastly under-equipped, but i’m glad that i kept going despite all of that to get to where i am today, where i definitely have everything figured out probably i mean hopefully like @ future me i’m really trusting you w/ this please”

i mean, idk. i want to make my future self proud? i want to give myself something to be proud of. 

that’s a good goal, i think

[egobangin-tonight]

Hey! If you don't mind, I've got a question I want to ask you. How did you discover/come across game grumps? I've been really curious. Thank you :-)

OH that takes me back omg

Well it started w Mark bc I was rlly into his fnaf series (back in 2015) and thats what kinda got the ball rolling for me to become hella invested in you//tubers lmao I dont know when the 2nd pole dancing video came out, but that was my first time seeing Dan and Arin. And at first i was like who??are these dudes omg?? I didnt DISLIKE them (i rlly liked arin haha), I was just v confused bc Mark rarely did irl videos with other people at the time.

I started looking up all the videos that had other you//tubers featured in them (esp Jack bc oh gosh what a wonderful ray of sunshine) and decided to started looking up their channels. I didnt look up gg bc they literally had one (1) video with him and it wasnt even a game??lmao. It wasnt until Mark made a series of videos while he was camping in the grump space (i think he had renovations at his place i cant remember) that I decided to look them up. The first video i THINK i watched was Super Mario Galaxy??? shit i cant really remember. 

I was watching alot of the sonic playlists, I watched alot of one offs, and I eventually settled for watching the more recent series so I could be caught up and man...MAN what a ridiculous start to gg oh my god I remember that convo so SO vividly. And I remember being SO flustered and giggly bc that was the funniest thing I have ever fucking heard it was so...unusual and chill?? A chill convo between two dudes that accidentally became A Bit Gay™️️ lmao It was so oddly natural the way they talked to each other and I eventually started listening to them on a daily basis alongside Marks videos. I was watching them since September 2015 and I joined the shipgrumps community in November that same year (which is why i wanted to make a blog :3c ) 

And when I got more comfy with their voices/personalities I decided to watch st//eam tr//ain :0 and...I was kinda indifferent w them tbh, it was REALLY hard to tell the two apart, the videos were not as ‘funny’ as gg and alot of the games they played were wEIRD. But they grew on me just like Dan and Arin did and yall know I think all of them are precious now ;u;

Its funny bc I actually KNEW who ego//raptor was, I watched ALOT of his animations. he was a huge inspo for me when i was way younger and hes one of the main ppl that made me decide early on that I wanted to be into animation (or at least try to do my own webcomic). But i had never seen his face before. I didnt even know his name. So for YEARS ( since i was 14!!! and im gonna be 24 this year!!)) he was just this faceless amorphous being w a really nice voice and a fondness of dramatic character faces lmao Like seeing him and matching it up w ego//raptor made me so unbelievably emotional u have no idea holy shit. 

I started drifting away from animations bc I had realized that all of the ppl i liked (on//ey, psychic//pebbles, ALOT more) turned out to be some...bad peeps. And when ego//raptor stopped uploading/producing content, i was afraid I was losing a huge chunk of my inspo there. So i was really relieved to see him doing his OWN channel and running his own company. 

TL;DR: I started watching them in september 2015 bc Mark stayed over at their office for awhile and I was hella into Mark at the time. And hes the reason im watching every single you//tuber today :o

[blin53fanfics]

When I Met You - Why I left..

This is a quick short story of my OC’s of a future webcomic I have been struggling to put all together. Yet, here is a quick story of why Micheal left Sophia at the Alter.

Normalcy, it’s something I’ve never had in my life, but I have it with her. We don’t have a routine, at least I don’t think so, but maybe she does. I lay there on the bed watching her get ready for her marketing class and take note of the curves of her body that is hidden underneath my grey shirt that she seems to take every night. I love this girl and in a few weeks, she will be mine and I her’s. “ Are you going to keep staring at me or are you gonna get up soon,” Soph smirks as she throws her shirt at me to stop my admiring gaze. We’ve been waiting, per her terms to do anything beyond kissing and honestly the wait was killing me. Four years of hand holds, cuddles, make out sessions, and I love you’s. I shouldn’t complain though, just having her speak to me is a feat from when I first met her. 

I was walking to class, late as per usual, and like any college kid I was skateboarding to class when I noticed something in the distance. Of all days, I chose today to not put in my contacts. Before I could stop I was thrown off my board and onto the concrete. Limbs tangled in limbs of a girl in a Wednesday Addams dress and messy bun of curls. “Seriously,” the girl grumbled as she gathered her books and ignored me. “ I’m sorry, here let me help.” I looked down at her disgruntled face. “ You’ve done enough.” I reached for a piece of paper that lay abandoned and glance at it. Her schedule was coated in highlighter marks and chicken scratch notes. I quickly glanced at her classes and noticed she was heading to the same one as me. “Here I think this one is important,” She snatched the paper from my hands,”What’s your name?” She stood up quickly and glanced back down at me. “ Ugh I don't have time for this, I’m late” She started walking in the wrong direction to the Math department. Grabbing my board I stood and yelled, “ Hey Late, I think your class is in the opposite direction!” She paused and looked down at her schedule. “ I can take you there ya know!” With a quick fixing of her ruby glasses the girl stomped past me to the English building without giving me another glance. 

It took me months to crack the girl’s shell and eventually, I did. From partners in English 102 to coworkers at Dina’s Karaoke Bar and Grill. We became inseparable and I was ready for the next step, the forever step. She didn’t agree at first, but for her I would wait a lifetime. 

“ Babe, you getting up or not,” Sophia sat at the edge of my side of the bed and looked at my face. She was fully dressed with a faint amount of makeup on her eyes and lips, which meant kissing her would get on her nerves. I leaned up to peck her lightly on the lips before she drew back quickly. “ Tch, your so annoying. Get up, you have class too.” “ Or we could just skip,” I suggested, annoying her more. If it was one thing I knew she hated, it was skipping class. School was actually her enjoyment in life, besides sewing. “ Fine, I’m getting up,” I pulled her in for another kiss and she backed away making me fall onto the floor. “ Serves you right,” She giggled. As I got dressed I smelt the faint cinnamon aroma from my  tiny kitchen. I guess she was in a rush today. “ Hey, I’m gonna head out. Let me know if your free to grab lunch or dinner tonight ok?” She called as she walked back into my room. “Meeting with the guys today. Maybe dinner?” She nodded and kissed me on the cheek. 

The pub was baron, except for the routier boys in the corner. My friend. “ Ay! Mikey! Bout Time you showed up.” The boys took up a full corner table in the room and were passing around a notepad as slid into a set. “ So we are thinking roadtrip bachelor party, we could go to Dallas or Colorado, for like two nights. The girls can come too but they would be staying somewhere else,” Jaicob said rolling his eyes  as he slid the notepad near me. Out of all my friends, he and Peter were my closest and knew me well enough to know that Sophia probably wouldn’t like this idea. “ Yeah, I’ll check with Soph,” I pulled out my phone and fake texted before looking up deadpanned at the boys, “ Sophia says no.” “ Gosh, your girl is such a pain. It’s your wedding too dude,” Brian committed. He and Sophia have never gotten along, I still don’t know why. “It is but whatever makes her happy, I’m happy with too.” As the boys continued to talk about what else they could do for my bachelor party, the bell to the Pub dinged and in walked my best man, Peter, looking like he had a chip on his shoulder. We had been friends since middle school and he was the only one that knew who I was before coming to this school. “ Yo, Peter, your late.”Brian hollered “ It’s a no go on the travel trip, Whipped here backed out,”Kori nudged my arm. “ I could’ve told you idiots that. I’m pretty sure Soph is not gonna want you anywhere further than 20 miles before your wedding man,” Peter pulled up a chair and sat next to me. “ You sure you want to do this. You sure you ain’t rushing things?” “ What’s that supposed to mean?” “ I mean you’ve only known her for what four years and dated her for like three, is that really enough time.” “Dude!” Jaicob swatted at Peter who ignored him. “ I’m just saying is that enough time for her to really know you,” the way he spoke it silenced the room and the rest of the guys stared at Peter confused. “ Of course, Soph knows who Micheal is, she wouldn’t have said yes otherwise,” Peter ignored Jaicob as he continued to stare me down. Annoyed I stood and gripped Peter’s jacket, “Outside.” The others rushed to stand when I lifted my hands in warning. “ We’re just gonna talk.” Peter stood and made his way out the door. ‘What’s wrong with you, are you trying to expose me?” I grilled him shoving his shoulder.”I’m just speaking the truth. What does she really know about you? Does she know that you use to kill people for a living, that we lived in foreign countries throughout Europe training to be Assassins for the International Bureau. Or does she just know you ...Micheal what? Micheal Martinez, a code name you received five years ago when we took this job. She doesn’t even know your real name.” Peter looked at me dead panned. He was right, she didn’t know me, but I didn’t need her to know these things, to put her life in danger. She was too precious, too fragile to break with something like this. I loved her too much. “ Marriage is about partnership, no secrets, nothing, and you? What? You want to start a marriage based on all lies. Do you know what you are doing?” Peter questioned. “ I told you I quit. I’m not apart of that life anymore, hell, they are sending someone new in a few days to replace me. Why should I tell her? She doesn;t have to be involved in this, so why should she know?” I yelled at him annoyed. He was my best friend, he knew how much Sophia means to me and to tell her the truth could break her. I couldn’t risk losing her. “ What if they come after you anyway?” I glared at Peter as he continued.” Did you ever think of that? They could discover your secrets, go after you anyway, and if one day your not home and she is…” silence lingered between us and my mind went blank. If one day I couldn’t protect her, hold her, see her and she disappears, I would be the one to blame not her but me. I turned and leaned back against the Pub’s glass. Fuck, Peter. He had a point. Marriage was a way I thought I could start over, protect her and me. To live in hiding, but I’m only fooling myself to think that that would be all it takes. The bell to the Pub dinged and Jaicob poked his head out to the two of us. “ You guys good?” he asked. My head hung low as I nodded. Peter slapped my shoulder and looked at me, “C’mon, let’s go plan your bachelor party.” I shoved him and shook my head. I’m suppose to meet Soph for dinner, we’ll finish this later,” I walked away from the Pub and down the street back to the campus housing apartments. Searching the parking lot, I spotted Soph’s car. Looks like she was early for dinner.

Normalcy, something I thought Sophia and I never had. As the days passed coming down to our wedding day we fell into a cycle of classes, work, and planning for after the wedding. And I continued to plan on how I could tell Sophia the truth. She deserves the truth and I wanted to tell her. I needed to tell her but I couldn’t. I didn’t want her to leave me, but maybe that was the better choice. Taking away a chance of hurting her and dying because of me. We didn’t wait ‘til after the wedding, her idea, not mine, but I think that was what did it knowing that I loved her too much to hurt her from a past that was too deep to hide. I battled that night with the consequences of never telling her who I was, but they all ended up in misery. So that morning when the wedding bells chimed and the crowd stood to see the bride, their face would be coated in confusion to see all the groomsmen standing there, the best man with a letter in his hand addressed to you my lovely, Sophia, with an explanation of why I couldn’t do this and took away a choice I thought would protect you.      

[elizabethschoices]

#LoveHacks Book 2, Chapter 2: My Thoughts

We start the chapter off as Sereena, and we’re meeting everyone at The Zone, which is our temporary new bar. Brooke is mother henning Sereena because she is starting school the next day and is drinking the night before. Sereena brushes off Brooke’s concern with a comment on how you don’t use the term ‘school nights’ anymore when you’re in grad school. Then she proceeds to angrily tell Brooke that grad students are made of caffeine and stress, and therefore she should add onto it by giving herself a hangover. I hate Sereena.

Ah hell, Horatio got a job at The Zone. If he feels like this is his future, fine. I feel he’s being over-dramatic about the fire at The Double Tap, but I won’t bring him down. Can you get me drinks for free?

Technically he can, but I don’t think he should. He says he’d get fired, so no free ride for Sereena. Good. Pay your own way, bitch.

Sereena asks Horatio why he’s working at The Zone, and it’s all my fault because I convinced him it was fate that brought him there. MC argues that this isn’t what she mean, especially if he isn’t happy. So Horatio admits he’s unhappy, but basically claims it doesn’t matter because... The universe wants him to be there.

Ohh, the boys arrive, including my Ben!!!

Horatio repeats his practiced line to them and admits that he is contractually bound to say the line to every customer. Cole seems happy as he orders three beers for himself, his bestie, and his ‘golden goose.’

Cole, I don’t know what you want from my man, but stay the hell away. I already hardly like you. We will scrap for him and his innocence. I am not allowing you to use him for whatever project you’ve come up with.

DO NOT TOUCH HIS HAIR ONLY I GET TO TOUCH BEN’S HAIR DAMMIT!

My heart! Ben is such a sweetie. I love him and that he acknowledges his worthiness as a golden goose. :) He’s certainly my golden goose in this otherwise horrible series.

Oh yeah, they’re making a webcomic together. Forgot all about that. Maybe you should have put that in the recap, eh Pixelberry?

I’ll tell them to get a room only because I hope it makes Ben profess his adoration for MC.

Cole gets it! Ben is a sweetheart I must protect, no matter the cost.

Dammit Ben, don’t take the compliment, kiss me and talk about how you’re all mine!

Cole says he’s excited because of the success with the ComicFeed app. He says tens of thousands of people are getting one of Ben’s daily exclusive comic strips. I hope the daily thing doesn’t take too much of a toll on Ben. It’s hard to live up to deadlines like those. I’d hate for us to break up later on in the story because he’s under so much pressure and stress that he doesn’t have time for me, because I’d legit feel sad. And angry. Really angry.

Even Mark downloaded their app, and just so happens to be chuckling at his phone now. He’s relating to Ben’s coffee drinking comic, which can only mean tons of other people are, as Mark is basic as hell and so is most of the world.

I’m proud that Ben is succeeding! His phone rings and he says he’s gotta take the call, so he rushes out. I wonder who it is. It’s obviously important. Is it someone that’ll help boost his career even more?

Mark congratulates Cole on the success, to which Cole merely recommends Mark create his own side project. He says he knows for a fact that Mark’s still got some version of ‘Dopey Cat’ on his phone. Df is Dopey Cat?

A game he made up in college. Sereena is surprised that Mark has the ability to do something fun on a computer, and I’m inclined to agree with her. All in all, Mark has been boring in the time we’ve known him these past two books.

Mark, saying you do ‘cool stuff’ all the time means you do not do cool stuff ever.

Cole makes Mark open up the game and omg.

I don’t even know which one to pick.

Dis one.

Brooke gushes over how cute the cat is. Sereena, for a lack of desire of being stupid because the game is called Dopey Cat why the fuck else would it look derpy, will tell Mark that it’s so cute, she wants to punch him.

MC jokes that Mark had a similar expression on his face during some elctures throughout college, and Horatio is finally the one asking the important question. What’s the gameplay like?

He eats food to save the world. Okie then.

20 diamonds to play a game inside a game? No thanks. I’ll pass.

Cole says Mark should make more levels of the game and put it up on the app store. How do you even make an app, much less put it on the app store? I’ve never really thought about it before, but now I’m curious.

Mark says he’ll give it a try and Brooke is excited for it. Suddenly, a commotion that I suspect is sports related breaks out on the other side of the room.

OH SHIT EVEN BETTER THERE’S A FIGHT THAT WAS PROBABLY OVER SPORTS!

Horatio breaks up the fight and explains to the group that the fighting is normal for the bar. Sereena points out a help wanted sign. I think the fandom should hold up a ‘Most Wanted 2′ sign. Sereena tells Horatio that the torn sign could be the literal sign he’s looking for. His help is no longer wanted at The Zone. He goes off and quits. It’s sad that he is so easy to manipulate.

And, as usual, Sereena is a conceited bitch that is more concerned about alcohol than the fact that her friend is jobless.

We switch to the next day and we’re playing our MC now. Anyone else less-than-happy with the fact that we just kinda dropped Ben? He went out for a phone call and never returned. Who was he on the phone with? Clearly it had to be for a reason, otherwise it’s just bad storytelling and he never should have come to the bar in the first place.

Leah and MC are meeting up for their very first company meeting. Does it have a name? Nope, as that’s the first thing Leah says we should do. She says it should be something chic and refined. Oh fuck me, I have to name it. I’ll just steal my babe’s company name.

Stark Industries.

Only I had to take the space out due to the character limit. Leah accepts the name and then suggests we get our mission statement straight so we don’t turn into another ClickIt.

I think Stark Industries should be about giving a unique perspective.

Fucking A, can I please stop reading about the dehumanization of straight, white males in every piece of literature I read? What happens if a straight, white male happens to enjoy this game, PB? You completely shut them out with that line for merely existing. And for the record, I see far more things against them in the media than anything else.

Please keep politics out of games like these.

The girls start talking about their articles and MC says they should be up and running by the end of the week. Leah is now going to tell us about her sister. Out of all moments to provide a glimpse of at the end of the last chapter, PB, why this one? Takes all the fun out of it. At least cut it before the reveal. Or do something like Ben’s departure from the group as he goes to answer the phone.

Aww, Leah’s sister is adorable!

I don’t really think Andi looks just like Leah, but I’ll pick that one because my MC and Leah barely know each other, so why would she have told me her personal business like that?

She looks just like you!

Leah says she’s got some friends of the family caring for Andi while she gets settled in New York, but they can’t keep her forever. So this business has really gotta work, then, because she needs money not only for herself, but her sister.

It’s about 4 o’clock, and Leah video chats with her sister at about this time. I’m sure we’ll meet Andi another time, plus I don’t want to spend 16 diamonds on this, so on second thought, I think my roommates will be home soon.

We transition to the evening, where we’re making some tea as someone is at the door. Is it Ben? Or maybe Keo for Brooke. Or one of the guys from our gang? Possibilities are endless. Hell, could be Martin or TJ.

IT’S BEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!

We kiss his cheek and let the man inside. He says he’s got big news! What is it, baby? Got some big deal put together? You gonna get super rich and famous?

The people who called Ben were the Venus Corps publishers, and since they had a last-minute cancellation, they invited him to speak at a panel at Hero Con! Aww, my baby is moving up in the world!

Congrats! That’s awesome!!!

He’s getting to speak at the biggest comic entertainment convention in the world! AHHHH I LOVE MY GEEK!!!

They sent him two passes for it, and it’s tis coming weekend. He invites us to go with him! AS A DATE!!!

YAY WE’RE GOING TO HERO CON WITH THE SWEETEST LOVE INTEREST WE’VE ENCOUNTERED YET! FUCK ME I CAN’T WAIT FOR FRIDAY!

Sereena is late for her first class and she bumps into a pretty lady. She’s immediately taken by her. Will this lead to Brooke and Sereena drifting apart because they have new partners?

Isn’t she pretty?!

Until next time!

[readingwebcomics]

Analyzing Questionable Content: Pages 51-100

No Faye, it only looks that way because he’s playing Final Fantasy X-2. Good God, I just realized that Final Fantasy X-2 is someone’s first experience with Final Fantasy. That’s a depressing thought. Although someone starting out the series with Final Fantasy XIII is probably way worse, now that I think about it. At least X-2 had fun.

…huh? Oh right, the comic. You sure you’d rather not listen to me write an essay on Final Fantasy, instead? I have this great point about how Final Fantasy IX has the most emotionally impactful narrative but as a game it only really clicks with long-time players of… no? Okay fine, let’s get back into QC.

The very next comic has Marten getting a tax return check for $1,100, and being the wise adult that he is, decides to spend that money on a new guitar. Tagging along, Faye brings up something that gives us new insight on her character:

And clearly didn’t bore her, considering how much of that information she retained. Here we have yet another example of a shared interest between these two, Marten clearly being into Guitars if he’s invested enough to blow a fat wad of money on it and Faye carrying around quite a bit of information on the instrument herself. I’ve made the point in the last post, but to reiterate – at this point in the comic, it’s clear these two are clicking as far as interests go. They can keep up with each other, can and have provided support for one another, and challenge one another… okay granted that last one isn’t entirely true, it’s clear Faye challenges Marten more than vice-versa, but still. There is a clear, acting relationship dynamic between these two, whether platonic or romantic. The reason why early QC works as well as it does is because these two have clear characters to them and their relationship FEELS real – they feel like people you’d know who’d really be friends – or maybe more than friends. This is Jeph’s character writing at… well I hesitate to call it at its best because to imply he peaked as early as the 53rd comic would be an insult to him as a writer, and I’m not looking to do that here.

I’m looking to do that a little bit later on in this part when we discuss Faye’s “character quirk.”

Before that however, we’re going to get a little bit on insight on Marten:

The story is elaborated on in a future comic, but here we get Marten’s backstory – traveling across the country for a girl, the relationship falling apart and leaving him stuck in this part of the country. This will go on to explain several of his character choices, including Pintsize (although that’s something we’re not going to approach until MUCH later on). It also further elaborates on Marten’s character as a whole: He doesn’t make many active actions as a whole, but when he does, it tends to shift the entire dynamic of how he lives. He decided he wanted to follow this woman across the country, and that action ended up completely upending his life. Could this be part of the reason why Marten is so passive? Does he skew towards this lifestyle because he’s been “trained” to take any kind of affirmative action as an intense, life-changing event?

While I’m not certain myself, and I have a damn good feeling Jeph wasn’t thinking that far ahead when writing Marten’s character, it’s an angle I’m willing to continue exploring as we further our journey down this comic’s history.

This comic was written in 2003. I’m half-tempted to believe Meme culture can be tracked by indie bands now. Wonder if there was any zeitgeist with neo-nazi indie bands ten or fifteen years ago then, if that theory holds true?

…I just made myself really, really sad.

Later on, Pintsize proceeds to eat a cake when he really shouldn’t – again – and we are gifted with… this lovely image.

Okay. I understand Pintsize is an AI, so it makes total sense for him to be able to be uploaded to a PC like this (ignoring for the moment modern commercial hardware can’t possibly support the resources necessary to maintain human-level sapience and ESPECIALLY not in 2003), but this is one of the freakiest fucking things I’ve seen from this comic. Mostly because at the time of writing we’re on comic 4000 and AI as a whole take an entirely different turn in the world of QC around that time, so… this is just kinda surreal to look at.

…We’ll get to AI in regards to QC’s universe later on when it becomes more relevant. Needless to say, it becomes one of the core “themes” of the comic as a whole.

The narrative reason for this turn of events is simple:

Pintsize is now in a new visually appealing model, capable of moving his joints around so he can do more than just stand around and talk!

…also one that has a horrifying government-level laser built into it! Believe it or not, this DOES become a relevant plot-point later and it’s not just for the sake of a gag. This is a great example of Jeph taking a tiny detail he may have originally written in as a joke and building off it to create conflict… although I’ll be getting more into that later on when it actually DOES become relevant.

Pintsize agrees to turn the laser off, and a few comics later Marten and Steve go to the bar to discuss their lives – specifically Marten’s love life.

Further showcasing of Marten’s passive nature and his straight-up lack of confidence.

Say goodbye to Sara everyone – for real this time, I’m fairly certain this is the very last time we ever see her. I could be mistaken, but I highly doubt it. Plus, while we don’t see it in detail we get enough information to gleam Steve as Marten’s exact opposite – charming without being overwhelming, confident without being cocky. Steve is just straight-up a cool dude, and it’s easy to see how he can easily get into relationships while Marten stays there floating along, too scared and/or passive to make the move that comes to Steve naturally.

Wait. Shit, I may have the hots for Steve. Abort, aboRT, ABOR-

I’m showing this in part to showcase the next point of conflict and also to draw attention to the new style Jeph is trying. He’ll do this throughout the run of QC, trying out brand-new styles to see what fits and what doesn’t. I’ll be including this in my comparison pictures at the very end of this post to give a clearer image of what changes and how he improves… although you can see even in this comic he’s struggling against old habits as Marten’s face in the final panel looks drastically different than in the rest, looking more akin to how he looked in older comics. That’s okay! Habits die hard, it’s worth applauding the fact that Jeph is trying. God knows I can’t draw to save my fucking life, so I’ll always support artists trying new things.

I’m mostly including this panel for two reasons: The fact that Faye’s stuck in the closet right now – if you don’t get why that’s funny, you will in about 3700 comics from now – and the way she’s talking. Do you notice something different about the “feel” of Faye’s dialogue? Keep an eye on it, I’ll try to include more panels of her talking from this point onward.

Anyway, Marten dismantles the previously established conflict by revealing he managed to get Faye’s prescription for her and got her a new pair of glasses.

Mark this as the second time Faye has actually displayed real physical aggression against Marten.

Again, depending on how much you know about AI in QC’s world from future comics this could either be a lot funnier or a hell of a lot less funny. Although… the subject of AI mortality would make for an EXTREMELY interesting plot point in more recent comics. Remind me to touch on that when we get further along.

Again: Pay attention to Faye’s dialogue in this comic, especially in that last panel. You’re noticing it, aren’t you? The fact that she sounds a little… different? Give me a little more time, I promise I’ll touch on it a little later.

Hey, guess what? It’s later!

Faye does not punch Marten whenever she says something nice about him. In fact, she has ever only assaulted Marten twice – both times for completely arbitrary reasons not related to her saying anything to or about Marten. Nor has Faye ever spoken completely without contractions, as you see she’s doing now. Later comics will go on to point out how odd it is that Faye only speaks with contractions when she’s drunk and dips into her southern accent… when we’ve seen in previous comics that she is capable of speaking with contractions and talking like a normal human being. This change has shifted the entire “feel” of every line of Faye’s dialogue, as she no longer “sounds” like the Faye we started the comic with.

These are both examples of a writing mistake that a lot of long-form regular updating writers make, be it fanfiction or daily comics – retcons. If you’re reading this, you most likely know what a retcon is. For the few of you that don’t, a retcon – short for retroactive continuity – is the practice of in later works of an ongoing series introducing a fact that changes what was previously established in previous works. This is most commonly seen in Superhero comics from Marvel and DC, but the kind of retcon I’m talking about is more common on smaller scale works, like fanfiction or unedited novels or ongoing RPs.

See, when the writer realizes they wanted to change up something, introduce a plot element that would require them to go back and change something previously to make it make sense and find that for whatever reason they can’t, they may go ahead and introduce the plot element anyway while assuring the reader that no, of course this element was always included. That’s what’s happening here – Jeph had an idea for a plot element he wants to include, realized he can’t exactly go back to older comics and change them considering it’s a regularly updated webcomic, and so decided to retcon these facts by introducing them like they’ve always been a part of things and assert their truth while continuing on.

Not that I can necessarily blame the man – in a situation like this, realizing there’s an important plot element that you want to work with but can’t due to you leaving it no room in what you’ve previously published, there’s not much else you can do besides either retconning things or accepting you can’t introduce that plot element and just move on. However, there are other ways you can work with this that abide by previously established continuity and lets you introduce a plot element you want to introduce. For example, Faye punching Marten: You could introduce it as something she feels more comfortable doing the longer she’s around him. Have more frequent comics of her following saying something nice up with a punch, let us see her actually assault him more, and draw a correlation between her getting more comfortable around him and her getting more physically aggressive – something Jeph does touch on later, so it is entirely possible to introduce this new dynamic without asserting things have happened that we clearly see haven’t happened.

…as for Faye not speaking in contractions however, that’s just stupid. It’s a gimmick for her character, plain and simple, without adding anything to her as a character. If you want something big to showcase she’s keeping herself restrained, just continue as you were, having her speak in a southern accent when she’s drunk. That works as a fun gag to attach to her character without seeming like a dumb gimmick. And I’m sorry to say… this whole “Faye doesn’t speak in contractions” thing? It’s a dumb gimmick.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that all off my chest, let’s introduce ourselves to the new main character of QC…

This is Dora, the owner of the Coffee Shop that Faye works at. She’s a cool cat and (seemingly) supremely chill. She’s introduced as another secondary character like Steve, but will swiftly become a mainstay character and join what will become a growing ensemble cast.

Also, potential conflict is seeded when it’s revealed she’s totally crushing on Marten.

And if you doubt Faye’s assessment, let’s hear it from the woman in question herself.

Also say hello to Dora’s cat. The cat has a name, I just can’t remember it for the life of me considering the little fella joins Sara on that island eventually. But yeah, Dora DEFINITELY has the hots for Marten, sewing another potential seed for conflict later on – Marten and Faye are certainly in the “will they or won’t they?” phase, and here sits Faye’s own boss with a clear, vested interest in Marten. Will she make a move and push Faye to take action? Time will tell.

Jeph enjoys trolling his audience, and Marten is suffering because of it.

Dora goes on to establish herself in the reader’s minds by having a clear, distinct personality that bounces off Faye’s beautifully. They banter so comfortably with one another it makes it so much fun to read, which goes on to make Dora a more appealing character to the reader. The more she talks, the more you want to see her because she’s such a genuinely charismatic individual… which can further serve to establish her as a very real conflict in the potential Marten and Faye relationship. After all, what’s a greater spanner in the works of this “will they or won’t they?” relationship than a character who will gladly say “Yeah, I will” that the audience likes enough that they are completely on-board with seeing go through?

The most dangerous thing to a romcom relationship is a third wheel that a good portion of the audience prefers over the teased relationship, and that creates good drama.

(Also Sara’s name is spelled wrong but eh it’s not like she’s around to complain anyway)

…that said, Dora goes on to assure Faye that she has no intention of swiping Marten off his feet away from her when it’s clear Faye’s interested in him. Then again… the more Faye insists she’s not interested in him, the more likely it may be that Dora believes her.

True story, I found this concept so funny that in a campaign I ran a few years ago, I actually had one of the players – who was supposed to be stuck as a worker in a dreary 9-to-5 job that he’d desperately want to escape to go onto adventure – be labeled as the Office Bitch. My only regret is that I didn’t print out a real business card for his player. That either would have gotten a laugh from the table or gotten me punched.

This here is Scott, Marten’s boss. He’s a cool dude, but for reasons that will become evident later on we don’t see very much of him. At first, I thought he was going to end up being the future husband of Marten’s father – and if you haven’t read through QC yourself that sentence will probably completely catch you flat-footed – but looking it up later I found that Marten marries a man named Maurice, not Scott. I only thought they were the same person because they’re both blonde and the art style changes so much later on anyone could look like anyone else.

Actually, fun fact: I started reading QC when 2512 was the most recent comic, so before she was introduced I thought Faye and Marigold were the same person because of how drastically the art style changed and I only recognized “curvy white girl with glasses and brown hair”.

Anyway, Scott’s pretty chill and… yeah. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. He’s a chill dude to work for, and that’s probably the only reason Marten hasn’t outright quit his job yet. The worst job in the world can be made tolerable with a good boss, and the best job in the world can be made unbearable with an awful boss.

Further evidence of the lack of contractions hurting the way Faye’s voice comes across than anything else. Seriously, is it just me or does this not sound like Faye? Like, at ALL? I’m open to being told I’m wrong, just… seriously.

Aaaand here we have Steve officially having broken up with Sara. Also, it’s a small thing but like I’ve said, I’ll give Jeph credit where it’s due – that visible wince on Marten’s face is the most expressive any of his characters have been thus far. Good work man, I’m happy to see you improving with your art!

After drinking together, Marten and Faye decide to go to an all-night diner for some drunken late-night pancakes when we get this bit of information from Faye:

That is Faye, if you can figure out which of the two Martens your fist will connect with. But yeah, the fact that Faye speaks in a southern drawl while intoxicated went from a joke to actual character – she’s legitimately from Georgia and that’s her natural way of speaking. Which may raise the question to the reader, why does she repress that voice so much? Don’t worry – they touch on it in later comics. For now though, another round of applause to Jeph for slowly and organically creating new information about his characters.

Faye is clearly not telling the whole story – the lack of eye contact being a key indicator of just that. Still, we’re getting a little bit more information on her, and the fact that she kept her wording vague leaves a lot to still explore in her future. Needless to say… it was a LOT more than just her mother being over-protective that led her to moving up north.

Marten’s just kind of accepted his lot in life by this point. Although when I was first reading through these I honestly thought this was going to be the headbutt-into-crotch moment.

Once again, if you haven’t read through QC yourself that sentence made zero sense to you. I’m kind of giggling at the thought of someone reading that and doing a double-take, actually.

Finally, we have the last comic of this batch, setting up a bit of conflict for our next batch…

Wuh-oh! Marten walked in on Faye changing! One really nice detail is that you can see the scar on Faye’s chest right there in the first panel, which means Jeph had a LOT of Faye’s backstory already planned out while he was drawing this stuff. Which just leaves me to wonder… how far back did he have this planned? When Faye first showed up in the third comic? When he had her start speaking in a southern accent while drunk? When he decided to have her stop speaking in contractions? I’d love to ask him, but I know for a fact he wouldn’t give me the time of day. Oh well, either way: He’s got shit planned out, shit that we won’t see until Comic 500 or so, and that’s always good for a long-form comic like this.

Like last time, let’s do some quick comparisons between the first comic of the batch, the comic where Jeph made a clear and active effort to change the art style, and the last comic of the batch:

It looks like Jeph found a happy medium between the style he was originally going for and the newer style he tried to incorporate, keeping the relative size and position of the characters’ facial features while rounding out everyone’s faces, making things much less angular than previously. The bodies are also beginning to get some real texture to them, looking closer to real human bodies than stick figures with a shirt.

Overall, what did I think about this batch of comics? Well aside from my complaints about Faye’s lack of using contractions and the sloppy way Jeph tried to incorporate that into the narrative, I thought it was better than the first batch! Marten and Faye are getting into a comfortable rhythm with each other, and we’re falling in-line with that rhythm ourselves. We just met a new character who’s going to be a mainstay of the series and in the few comics she’s shown up in, she’s made her presence stick with the reader. Even if I didn’t know how important Dora would become, I’d be saying I’m looking forward to seeing more of her.

You know what time it is now? That’s riiiiiight! Data compilation time!

Between comics 51-100, the following characters’ proportional “screen time” as it were are as follows:

Marten: 46/50 – 92%

Faye: 45/50 – 90%

Pintsize: 12/50 – 24%

Dora: 8/50 – 16%

Steve: 6/50 – 12%

Sara: 2/50 – 4%

Scott: 2/50 – 4%

Dora’s Cat: 1/50 – 2%

And the grand total of each character’s screentime, not including non-canon or guest comics, from most to least time shown:

Marten: 91/100 – 91%

Faye: 83/100 – 83%

Pintsize: 27/100 – 27%

Steve: 14/100 – 14%

Dora: 8/100 – 8%

Sara: 7/100 – 7%

Jim: 2/100 – 2%

Scott: 2/100 – 2%

Raven: 1/100 – 1%

Dora’s Cat: 1/100 – 1%

Yes, I’m counting Dora’s cat among the statistics. I’ll change the name when I learn what the critter’s name actually is. Also, I was reminded that when the Secret Bakery becomes a thing later on in the comic there will be another character named Jim, with this particular construction worker being called Jimbo instead. I’ll change the name properly when he’s called “Jimbo” proper in the comic, don’t worry. I’ll be doing my best to keep this list from getting confusing… it’s in as much my best interest as yours seeing as I want to keep track of everyone properly.

Tune in next week when we see the exciting conclusion of this spicy “Marten happening to walk in on Faye undressing” drama! And Dora flashing someone. See you then.