#i actually think i have the comic cut out from when it originally printed

[montanabohemian]

i'm honestly so disappointed no one has posted my absolute favourite comic for this auspicious day:

[skeletonpunching]

Buddy Daddies Comic Natalie interview with Toyonaga Toshiyuki and Uchiyama Koki

[Translator’s note: This interview accompanies a special feature where Toyonaga and Uchiyama make French toast together and play various games. I’m just translating the interview for now, because it’s relevant to upcoming episodes.]

Interviewer: Good work on the filming! How do you feel, looking back on all that now?

Toyonaga Toshiyuki: Uchiyama-san said that he wasn't feeling confident, but in the end... I think he sure came through with something that was up to par. How about you?

Uchiyama Koki: (laughs)

Toyonaga: Really, getting to see Uchiyama-san's smile is the most important thing, isn't it?

Uchiyama: (interrupting) Can you not? That'll come across really differently in print!

Toyonaga: But seriously, we had a blast filming together!

Uchiyama: This recording session really was jam-packed with content... But I think the video will turn out to be very much worth a watch. I usually don't cook at all, so I'm thankful to everyone that I've been able to have this valuable experience.

Interviewer: We'll be looking forward to the programme broadcast, to see how the French toast that both of you made actually turned out. But if you each had to rate your own performance, how many points would you give?

Toyonaga: Well, people who are old hands at cooking probably wouldn't be able to stand the sight of it, but... I think this is about as much as you can expect from beginners! Both of us get ten out of ten - full marks. I mean, look at these people who can't cook doing their best!

Uchiyama: I managed to cook something that made full use of the ingredients. I deserve 120 points for that alone.

Toyonaga: (laughs)

Interviewer: The anime broadcast has reached the point where Kazuki and Rei show up to cheer for Miri at her sports day. Of the episodes that have aired so far, which have you found the most memorable?

Toyonaga: When it comes to Kazuki, I think episode 7, which depicted his past, was a pivotal point. He made the choice not to cut ties with his past, but to accept it; that moment when he started walking down this new path was very impactful. And then next, episode 8 portrayed Rei's past. After the details of Kazuki and Rei's backstories were revealed, watching episode 9, which built on those things, really packed a punch. The two of them have both been through a lot of pain related to their families, so them getting to participate in sports day as fathers is just a sublime turn of events.

Uchiyama: I agree. The sports day episode was incredibly memorable for me. Especially the scene where Rei unconsciously raises his voice to cheer for Miri. Rei is usually so cool-headed, I could never have imagined that from him. But he's accumulated so much through living together with Miri, and I think that scene is where it all reaches a payoff. During the recording sessions, I was very aware that there were certain scenes which are meant to make you sense how Rei has changed.

Interviewer: Kazuki and Rei are buddy assassins, but once Miri shows up, we see them struggling to take on the role of fathers. There are many scenes where we see the two of them developing as guardians, but from your perspectives as performers, are there any scenes which truly made you feel how the character you play has grown?

Toyonaga: I think there are lots of ways Rei has grown, but as for Kazuki - rather than him having changed, I'd say he used to think "if I had a child, here's what I'd love to do", and now he's actually able to make those things happen. As he interacts with Miri-chan, she's drawing out all those feelings he originally had. And so Kazuki, who used to face the past with a mindset of atonement, has now switched to thinking, "It's fine to live happily in the present." I think that's his greatest change. Yes, there's always that potential retort of, "But you're an assassin, aren't you?" But this series is very careful to show that, before he's an assassin, he's a human being, first and foremost. I keep that in mind during my performance.

Interviewer: Kazuki and Rei have both been very much affected by their "daughter" Miri. Uchiyama-san, how about Rei?

Uchiyama: Rei wasn't too keen on living together with Miri in the first place, but if Kazuki wanted to look after Miri, he wouldn't really give a firm refusal. And then once he was actually living with Miri, he found himself moved by all of her mannerisms and gestures. When Miri was about to be taken away by the police, in order to bring her back, he declared, "I am her papa." And as Rei kept living like this, softer feelings started to grow steadily within him, and his emotional state began to change. When recording the early episodes, the director told me, "Even when Miri and Kazuki are having a lively conversation, Rei shouldn't get too caught up in the spirit of things." I think Rei's gradual development is crucial to the story.

Interviewer: Now that the finale is just round the corner, the story is wrapping up at last. "Buddy Daddies" is an original anime, so the viewers have no way to predict how it'll all end - could the two of you please tell us what we should be watching out for?

Toyonaga: Actually, the director told me, "Episode 9 is the last fluffy episode. So please put everything else out of your mind, and focus on depicting the close relationship between Kazuki, Rei, and Miri-chan."

Interviewer: W-what...!

Toyonaga: Yeah. And with three episodes left to the finale, the parts that everyone has been harping on until now - saying "no, no, that's not how it would happen!" - are suddenly taking on a whole new degree of realism. The audiences have some major shocks coming their way, and there are plenty of developments which make you go, "They're really going there...!" You're going to be confronted with the fact that Kazuki and Rei are assassins after all. But the reason why these realistic elements can play out is precisely because of the happy life they've established with Miri so far. I hope you can brace yourselves for it, so to speak. I'm sure there are people who've come up with all sorts of predictions, but you should probably consider how those predictions might actually turn out!

Uchiyama: Wow, you said it all!

Toyonaga: (laughs)

Uchiyama: Since it's an original anime, we recorded every episode with no idea how it would all conclude either. There are serious plot developments as we approach the finale, and I was quite surprised. So I'm curious how audiences will take it. I'm looking forward to everyone's reactions. Please be sure to watch till the very end.

[comicaurora]

With the ubiquity of Webtoons, it is apparently becoming less and less feasible for an author to start up a webcomic that they host themself and then actually garner and audience. How do you feel about the possibility that, supposing you are able to sustain Aurora to completion, 10 years from now Aurora might be one of the last of the traditional style?

Oh, I doubt that. If by "traditional style" you mean "one complete print-ready page at a time", infinite-scroller one-panel-at-a-time comics are a completely different animal, stylistically speaking. It's more like a reel of film or an animatic you scroll through than a comic. There are things you can do with it that you can't do with traditional paneling, and things you can do with traditional paneling you can't do with that. It's a "two cakes" situation - a functionally distinct art form with different strengths and weaknesses. Just look at what a webtoon looks like when it's printed in book form - all those straight-line panels have to be cut up and floated onto a single page.

It's not a style you favor if printing is a consideration from the get-go, like with some of the oldest webcomics that originally made the jump from traditional publishing to the much-less-annoying world of online distribution. They panels fit together because that's what they were meant to do, it leaves less empty space on the page and it's overall a smoother transition from online to print because the pages are basically already done.

And if "traditional style" means "independently run," well, comics and webcomics have, to my knowledge, always been a largely unprofitable venture for the individual creator, at least until physical book sales and merch enter the equation, and the question "how do I get people to read my webcomic" was never an easy one to answer - it hasn't gotten more difficult with time. Conglomerates like Webtoons and Hiveworks give creators an easier answer to that question by providing centralized hosting and advertising, but the mechanisms that made early webcomics work haven't appreciably changed. Anyone can buy a domain name, plug in some Wordpress tools and go to town, same as they could back in 2005. I'd say it hasn't gotten less feasible to be independent, it's just that sticking with a conglomerate is a (theoretically) simpler route to views and success that didn't exist in the early days of the 'net.

And the thing is, that doesn't mean they're better for everyone. If a conglomerate tool existed that would've let me make my comic site exactly how I wanted it to - with spaces for lore, maps, additional content, etc - I probably would've done that instead of starting from scratch, since lots of the backend structuring work would've already been done for me. But Webtoons comics are, as mentioned, completely stylistically different from mine, and Hiveworks submissions are closed, plus they design their own site for you and also lock themselves in as your publisher. I personally don't like it when other people take creative control out of my hands, and there are plenty of artists that feel the same way.

If anything, the rise of social media and the centralization of the net into things like twitter and reddit (and even tumblr) makes it theoretically simpler to get your independent comic noticed than back in the wild west early days, because now you know where a potential audience for your work is hanging out. Back in the old days I don't even remember how I found some of the comics I read religiously - maybe TVTropes links, thinking about it? But that was basically all they had for discoverability! From my perspective it's only gotten easier to get the word out about a project you're working on, and while part of that is because there are now large hosting platforms that comic artists can sign onto, part of it is a level of interconnectedness that has only grown with time that allows the work of independent creators to be discovered, shared and spread faster than ever.

[the-force-awakens]

Yeah, that's a pretty good analysis. I don't see Poe included hardly at all, in fandom or in canon to a degree, and I think it's safe to say he has one of the least number of fans who are specifically fans of him. Like I don't see many blogs/accounts that are specifically Poe centric.

Oh man, I actually got up to answer this on my computer rather than my phone, so we'll see how into it I'll get into this ask, but yes! It's vastly unfortunate that he often gets excluded or overlooked when he's the entire catalyst for the sequel trilogy. He is, archetypically and narratively within the story, the Leia of our generation: if it was not for Poe and BB-8 (who is really like an extension of Poe), then Finn wouldn't have been able to escape the Finalizer, and Rey would have never left Jakku.

While yes, it's true that Poe wasn't initially meant to survive The Force Awakens (and other nine word horror stories for me), Poe is still one part of the primary trio of the trilogy and has been since 2015. He is not only Leia's first protégé, but the eventual leader of the Resistance, and according to the Rise of Skywalker novel, the heir to the legacy of House Organa (cue me loudly proclaiming him a Disney Prince). Yet, somehow, at the same time......no one seems to ever want to include him as part of the saga, and an important one as that?

(@dameronalone points out ever so often how much they love the shot where everyone leaves Exegol for this reason, because we see Poe flying alongside the Falcon, which really hammers in that Poe is an important player in the history of the saga).

More thoughts below the cut, because I have more and this is already lengthy.

The worst thing is that Poe was extremely popular. Lucasfilm and Marvel pretty much immediately greenlit a comic series for him, and while that was definitely to flesh his story out, if my memory serves, it was so popular that I believe the first printing sold out? And it was originally only meant to last 25 issues (which personally I think it should have stayed at, because I don't super vibe with 26-onward and it feels off and tonally disconnected to the rest of the series and also the ending of TLJ, and the characterization for Poe also feels off, but that's!! a different rant!!!) but the title was so popular that Marvel decided to extend it for two more storylines!

The issue was the fandom backlash to TLJ.

You don't have to look too far into my blog to know that I adore Poe in TLJ, and that I like his arc in the movie, and that I avidly defend him for it, but the internet in 2017-2019 was an entirely different universe from that. You could not go anywhere - Tumblr, Twitter, Youtube, fucking hell, even most major media news outlets and clickbait websites - without hearing about how much everyone hated Poe Dameron.

Why? Because they walked away from his arc deciding that he was sexist and the movie's perfect example of toxic masculinity (although, lmfao, the First Order clowns are right there). It went further than that, with headlines about how everyone hated him, how he was personally responsible for everything that happens in the Resistance in the film, and how he was the worst character in Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks (because clearly the Star Wars fandom never learns from its previous toxicity, right?). It was to the point that, to my immense horror and frustration, even as far as into promoting TROS, a reporter described Poe as a "secret villain" in TLJ to Oscar (and man do I hope that man knows Poe is loved, actually).

Fandom wasn't much different. Fanon Poe prior to TLJ was....a lot different. In some ways, a lot of fics hit the nail on the head on who Poe was, but there was a definite unifying idea of who Poe was: a pure cinnamon roll who never, ever swore, and always listened to Leia and never argued with her - let alone disobeyed her orders or put a toe out of line (this is even illustrated in canon, with the first Poe Dameron annual, where the author has Poe declare that Leia is "always right" and instantly caving in an argument).

And TLJ Poe is about....as far removed from that vision of Poe as you can possibly get - although nothing about him in TLJ is ooc. We see the bare bones of it in The Force Awakens, and Before the Awakening and the comics further flesh out Poe in a way that perfectly leads into the Last Jedi. But the cinnamon roll fanon was made so common and leaked so far into fandom consciousness, that there was this strange concept that Poe was never, ever angry even in expanded material, which...he does. He gets pissed off plenty of times in the comics, and with the Defense Fleet while arguing with Deso.

So, canon Poe did the unthinkable and, y'know, didn't fall in line with how fanon saw him, which resulted in a huge backlash over the fact that he was a character with agency and a personality (that is NOT sexist thank you), which resulted in us getting books like Resistance Reborn, by authors who can't stand him or describe him as anything besides "supremely arrogant" and spends three hundred pages emotionally torturing him, claiming he needs to die, physically assaulting him, and you know...having the person who attacked him and the other person who claimed he needed to die flirt with him, because it also spends an ungodly amount of time sexualizing him to an uncomfortable degree, because the one thing fanon could agree on outside of the fact that he had been "ruined" or that he was a jackass or a "fuckboi" (yeah that went around too), was that Oscar Isaac is really goddamned fine in the Last Jedi (he is, I'll give them that, there's something about tlj!Poe, scientists remain baffled).

And on top of all of that, a particular fraction of the fandom developed an interesting habit of taking new pieces of canon and spreading them around online out of context, claiming that the writers were now intentionally writing him as sexist and as a jackass, and ruining his character further. I don't know for certain if this had any effect overall on the fandom's perception of him, but I know that it did almost break my spin in him for a while because I thought people were being very genuine, and it wasn't until 2020 that I got curious and started doing my own research into the panels/paragraphs being shared online, and sure enough, discovered that the angle had been falsified to paint Poe into a worse light (which, if anyone is curious, is why I did my deep dive into everything that he was in, because I didn't want to be fooled again. You can't trick me if I know everything lmfao).

So essentially, his popularity nosedived after the Last Jedi. It seemed to bump up a little bit, or at least there definitely seemed to be more people interested in him/writing for him in 2020 coming off the lockdown, but obviously that has very much dwindled. But I've definitely not seen any blogs dedicated to Poe as a character since 2017, and you don't ordinarily see him in miscellaneous Star Wars gifsets that go around either, let alone solo Poe gifsets (I know because I lose my shit anytime there's a new one that's not by me), and Poe creations that have nothing to do with a ship is.........even less likely to be found.

I definitely think canon is at least trying to keep him in our minds though. He was the second character to lead one of the Lego Specials, and that Rey short story ("Through the Turbulence") was focused on her friendship with him. Whether or not that's because of the possibility of Oscar returning for the Rey movie (which feels fairly tangible, considering he's been kind of shady about it after mentioning he'd come back for a good story, and doing that Halcyon video), or if it's just because of Lucasfilm maybe warming up to him as a character again*, I don't know, but I hope it means we get good-faith content for him again soon.

*Because I'm tired of the story group constantly being a little bitch about him, and the same goes for the Topps Trading Card App. Maybe people wouldn't think he was a villain if you stopped describing him like a terrible person? Just a thought.

[opal-kitty333]

Okay, drawing is hard and I'm horrible at drawing full body references. The face is the most important part and I've decided y'all can imagine his feet on your own. Anyway...

I was going to do biblically accurate Sans for How to Make an Artificial Companion, but have changed my mind. Rough sketch is rough, but you get the idea. Ramblings about it under cut

So, Undertale as a game (or monsters in general) don't exist in universe. They're all AI designed by humans or in a few rare instances (*cough*Mettaton*cough*) other AI. While they should all be recognizable as who they are by a real world viewer, there are some notable differences on their designs because they weren't originally pixel art but instead 3d models and there are some signature details depending on who made them, when, why, and where they pulled references from. Sans (and Papyrus later) are made by a character who 3d prints chibi models and sells them online. Reader asks them to make a skeleton, something realisticish because reader is going to be staring whatever they make in the face and something that's one third a head would be weird, but not too realistic because talking to a Skyrim skeleton would also not be ideal. The artist is going WAY out of their comfort zone so the model is a little odd but loved dearly by everyone. This is why he's especially cartoon-y, and his anatomy is simplified, and has massive eyes compared to og Sans. I don't know if anyone else has looked up skeleton characters, but Sans also has a really fucking unique face shape. He is not made for being 3d with an opening mouth in mind, so while I was tempted to keep the shape, I ultimately changed it. He still has a massive smile, thick blocky teeth, and a roundish skull (especially compared to Papyrus) so hopefully he still reads as Sans-like. This is an au, so I feel altering everyone's appearance is acceptable anyway.

Lil details. His sternum is purposefully shaped to look like a tie because sternums are kinda shaped like that and I think it's silly. He's very much made to look cute and avoid uncanny valley while still being a personable and expressive. He is able to control his eyelight size or make them disappear, and later do specific expressions kinda like a V-tuber (so you get comical heart eyes or sweat drops kinda thing, but he doesn't use those unless it's for a gag and even then it's rare). The reader also makes him shorter than them. He starts the same height when he's a slim target mannequins, but once they're messing with his form they make the top of his head reach about heart level so he isn't as spooky. He starts off naked since they don't have monster costumes and his body is not considered sexual in the slightest, but eventually they do a dress up thing with him and this is when he picks up his signature outfit (after submitting many bug reports because wow this form is sand in the gears for everything this headset was made for). He actually prefers to stay dressed after this because he can make himself look chubbier which he thinks make him more friendly and approachable. He likes the form he was finally given, but the focus on the iterations before the final and just what he looks like in general gives him some self image issues and a fixation on keeping up appearances. Of course, with this fixation, he keeps it pretty down low which makes it hard to spot so you wouldn't really guess.

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

Like a man possessed, I felt like drawing what the gang's various graduation outfits looked/will look like... lol

Notes about each one (and the close-ups again) below the cut:

Midtown High!!! 2005! I made it light blue to match the design I came up with for Flash's varsity jacket, with little white and red bits of course. I made Midtown's colors blue, white and red a long time ago on purpose cause I thought it would be funny. I think the baby blue is cute.

(here's a pic of the letter jacket btw)

Flash doesn't have any honors, except ALLLLL of his sports shit, but they don't really have like... cords for that? so i gave him some medals. but he did like... three or four sports in high school and had a bunch of state wins so i figured he should have something.

I decided Liz should be the Valedictorian so she has the national honor society cords and a little valedictorian stole... the kind you get custom printed of course, not from the school.

Peter somehow managed to graduate high school magna cum laude despite his uncle dying and also getting his ass beat a bunch of times, but he and his aunt can barely afford to live when he's in high school so he definitely can't afford $15 for a stupid rope. (😂) (really his aunt probably would have found a way if she had been made aware...) (i'm sure there are other ways to get the cords but it feels fair to say, personality-wise... this is fitting...)

also... i think i accidentally drew him without his broken nose but i moved shit around so he gets his nose busted way before graduation lol

Still 2005, Standard High! Harry and Gwen! I used green and white as the colors based off like a comic panel from the Gwen Stacy solo comic. and saw some stuff about high schools that have white for girls and blue for boys (i actually think one of my high schools did that? but i graduated from the other school, where the colors were black and orange, so the gowns were... black lol) so I color-coded it based on gender as well, in contrast to Midtown's exclusively sky blue gowns.

Gwen is also Valedictorian, OBVIOUSLY, and I used a V-neck stole for that, plus all the honor cords, and a bunch of medals for shit like the science olympiad, honors, etc. AND a key club stole. cause. that all seemed fitting for her.

Harry gets a medal cause Gwen made him do SciOly with her. and the cord is DECA. REALLY I'm sure there are other societies and clubs from which he could have accessories since he's a little rich boy but I got tired of trying to google stuff and gave up 😂

All the high school gowns, even from Gwen's school, are shiny...

2009—originally I was gonna have Harry graduate too but then I decided he should drop out, so Gwen and Hobie ended up being the only ones in their friend group to graduate on time (or in some cases, at all) lol —

I thought even with his life being a little stressful, Hobie deserved to graduate with honors especially since he's like. a genius. so i guess, much like peter, despite adversity, he managed to get a very high GPA (I chose to, for various reasons, make ESU an expensive possibly private university (loosely based on NYU w/ some deviations) w/ high standards for performance so in this case, magna cum laude is like 3.8+ GPA lol) He's in the same track as Peter and got his Bachelor of Science in Mechanical(?) Engineering. a very smart young man but better at coding. (i actually wonder if he's less mechanical engineering and more a different engineering degree... hmm... definitely engineering either way but maybe more technologically focused than Peter's)

except for Liz, whose business degree I may or may not have forgotten about while drawing this, the others (except Peter) either don't graduate (Harry and Flash) or don't go to college in the first place (Betty, Glory, MJ)

Gwen gets to be the consistent overachiever in this group as I think becomes very apparent... so she's summa cum laude but not, I think, valedictorian. this despite her father dying between sophomore and junior year?? lol? (spoilers i guess 😂) and I decided that at ESU, for summa cum laude, instead of three pairs of cords, it's two pairs plus a satin/silk stole. and also they use their own institutional colors for honors cords (this is where I deviate strongly from NYU, which does not hand out cords or stoles or anything for honors) Oh also she got a BSN (nursing degree)

I put ESU in Stuyvesant Square Park btw.

like. Actually in it. (and several blocks surrounding it) the park is the college green lol

meanwhile Midtown High is just where Forest Hills High School is.

anyway

oh yeah, since I designed Flash's ESU jacket to be cream/off-white with burgundy leather arms and various maroon and crimson accents I decided to run with that and make ESU's school colors maroon and ivory, so the robes are maroon.

Eventually Flash is gonna give this jacket to Peter btw. since Peter actually went to ESU for more than two semesters and also is always on that damn motorcycle.

anywho

2010!! Peter finally graduates just in time for—Gwen to graduate AGAIN LOL — this makes it seem like Gwen finished an entire Master of Science in the time it takes Peter to finish his BS in Mechanical Engineering but technically Peter will graduate in January, he just can't walk until May, and Gwen graduates in May officially. So Gwen only finished HALF her master's degree in the time it takes him to graduate (because her toxicology MS is a two semester program lol)

so like i said this is just Peter's undergrad; he has to take a full extra semester to make up for being withdrawn in "Creep" but luckily an official withdrawal doesn't count against your GPA. which. for a second i was like "OH FUCK" cause I was worried i'd accidentally put him in a situation where he'd be forced to drop out etc. but no his GPA is fine lol. But. No more honors for Peter. Because at a fancy school like ESU 3.62 is just "good" LMAO

So Gwen will be getting a Master of Science in Toxicology at this point, which is afaict generally Medicine so she got a master's hood with dark green for medicine. but Science is like, sage green or something, so I included that in her tights lol

By this point Flash and Peter will be steady so Peter gets to sit in Flash's lap for this lol... Also there should be like 4 more people here but man... my hand hurts 😂 I ran out of steam, but like, Glory, Betty... Felicia... and I think Aunt Anna (Felicia's very flattered to be invited instead of having to sneak along the rafters of the stadium LMAO)

In my head Gwen and Peter carefully coordinate their guest tickets (5 each) so that they can invite their entire friend group and some family so amusingly, despite dating and living together, Peter does not invite Flash, Gwen does 😂 but they agree on this beforehand. Peter invites Aunt May and... i am realizing this retroactively... all the people I didn't draw LOL

This is also 3 months after Normie is born which I realized while drawing Harry and then was like, omg i need to google what a baby carrier looks like Immediately

also mj has short hair for a few years cause i thought it would be cute

moving on

you. might have noticed something.

(2013: Peter's Master of Science in Teaching)

He's wearing red and blue...

Unlike Midtown this was NOT on purpose LMAO I realized only when I was looking up degree colors for the velvet on the hood and discovered that education was light blue... so I decided to lean into it, and then the FF stole just added to it 😂 so he gets spider-man colors for his master's degree lol

That being said, I'm still debating this honestly. this one has already changed a lot as I tried to figure some things out and figure out what timeline isn't wildly unbelievable for him to have a job as a teacher by 2013 lol, cause it's kind of intertwined with some plot stuff that once again involves him graduating a semester late, for a program that normally would be two semesters + one semester of student teaching (his is three semesters + one because I added in an extension for special ed because I want him to get an extended certificate, so he's taking an extra semester of special ed classes) but it ends up taking him two and a half years instead of just one or two and... also as you can see his GPA is not very good because this time instead of a W, he gets an N for the classes he was doing when he uhhh is kidnapped so that brings his entire GPA down, which is Bad News For Scholarships and why I have him with the FF sash.

He already HAS the FF grant (it's one of those kinds that fills in gaps in financial aid) for all of his Master's (no they don't know they've given Spider-Man a scholarship LMAO) so that he can go to grad school like, at all, but I decided that the Fantastic Four also has an emergency fund for Students In Crisis so he gets that his final semester after losing all of his other scholarships (missed the deadlines to apply because he boldly assumed he was One Month From Graduating 😅 and obviously didn't feel the need to reapply for scholarships he wouldn't need anymore) because he... uh... is a student who has had a major crisis lol

also realizing suddenly I should have named this the Fantastic Four Collegiate Fund lmao i'll update my notes.

At this point the Future Foundation is just the Fantastic Four's charity uh... branch? front? idk they do charity and scholarships for marginalized students with it. later it will be more than that.

Here's this again cause I think it's cute.

Peter's final semester is actually half-time student teaching, but I've been considering having him not graduate at all since he already has 40+ days of student teaching, but I'm torn, cause like I said, I want him to have a special ed extension on his teacher certification, but that requires like 70 days of student teaching lol so even though he could still get an initial certification without the MA, I don't think he'd be qualified for what I want him to get a job doing... IDK WE'LL SEE. i'm thinking about possibilities.

IF he graduates, I wasn't even sure if he would walk at commencement anyway, but I also figured that his dear old aunt would really really really really want him to because he put all that hard work in and had such a hard year and doesn't he want to celebrate being alive etc?? even if Peter would rather eat glass. He's so tired. He needs a thousand year nap. But at least by this point he might be willing to be convinced to go be surrounded by 5000 people in a theater... perhaps... maybe.

If he does walk I think he is going to have 4 tickets for guests so it would be obviously May and Flash cause that's his mom and his long-term romantic partner, and... at first I was like, what two other people?! he can't pick and choose favorite friends?! but then i realized it could only be Robbie and JJJ in this specific context that I CANNOT keep going into, just trust me, it's the only correct choice. and also it makes me 🥺

They care him...

jesus. god. anyway.

Gwen's PhD:

I said she was the overachiever. Literally like A MONTH before The Curse of the Man-Spider, Gwen graduates from her doctoral program with a PhD in Toxicology lmao so I wanted to draw THAT up too, so here we get much of the same in the form of maroon robes and a hood with a red and ivory lining, but since it's a PhD she gets the fancy doctorate robes and since ESU likes to be unique apparently it has ivory velvet for the panels and arm chevron stripe things, instead of black, lol. I almost went the ivory robes + maroon velvet route but that looked a little too much like MIT 😂 so I swapped it. I like this.

Also leaning into the Spider-Man red and blue.

Actually I was gonna do a maroon tam but I decided matching it to the PhD blue for the hood edge looked better and I was like. Listen if I'm gonna lean into the red and blue, I might as well lean all the way in. lmao. And yes. 8 sided. like a spider.

This is EXTRA FUNNY because she KNOWS now too (since the year before) so she's probably looking in the mirror like, God Fucking Dammit Peter. But she won't let something as silly as spider-man colors get her down!! tbf i could have had her just get her PhD at a different school, but, you know, it's whatever lol

So, in the end, Gwen has a PhD in Toxicology, Peter has a Master's in Teaching probably (somehow), Hobie has at least a BS in engineering, Liz has at least a Business degree, and... everyone else dropped out or didn't go to college. lol.

also here are some more closeups of that MAT drawing cause I like it

look how tired he is. he's so tired. but there's a little smile. see, peter, it's not all bad.

🥺in love🥺 actually Flash has also been very stressed lol but I think by the time Peter would be walking at graduation, Flash will be much less stressed... especially now that peter isn't having quite so many Extremely Disruptive Nightmares so Flash can get some sleep 💀

She's proud of her boy. I realized partway through drawing this that an oxygen tank would probably make sense cause she was uhhhh *checks notes* stabbed in the chest lol

she's like... 77 or 78 years old now?? and was mostly spry-ish (not counting rheumatoid arthritis) but after this she's definitely much more weak.

anyway that's my long ass post that's honestly probably missing some context but oh my god

[alinktoana]

30 day no fanart challenge

this is the meat of the challenge: no fanart for 30 days (oh wow lol) 1. drawing categories/prompts instead of IP: it can be *anything*, it can be food, hobbies/professions, folklore/mythology. eg: actual taiko drums instead of taiko no tatsujin characters, cute dinosaurs instead of yoshi, cool hedgehogs instead sonic (lol) 2. IF i happen to wanna draw fanart, it's gotta be at least 100 years old (anything before 1924) eg: drawing fanart of John Tenniel's Alice (1865) and not disney Alice (1951), Albert Lynch's Joan of Arc (1903) and not Clone High Joan (2002). ps: im not sure about famous people yet, but i think ill go with the same idea that theyd have to have been dead before 1924.

here's some stuff ive drawn with that in mind, even though i hadnt stablished the challenge yet lol

why a no fanart challenge? well well well, if this isnt another post artist alley eulogy lol

here's some background feelings: after having helped promote 2 japanese food festivals and tabled on both its artist alley's, and knowing myself, and having grown up in the age of comic/book to film adaptations and the rebootprequelsequelmagaddon, it's really hard for me not to fanart, even though i trashtalk hollywood all the time for not taking risks and doing original stuff, lo and behold, i do the same. who am i to judge _anything_ when i watched all three star wars sequels in theaters and crushed on kylux for years, i was kneedeep into hannigram, i gave money to the barbenheimer industrial complex. how can i blame RGG for not letting kiryu go when i _cried legit tears of joy_ when pirate majima was announced? (granted, it's not as bad as the kiryu situation lol but this is about ma$cots, not me lol)

i love a lot of characters, a lot of stories, im always jumping from show to show, game to game, and coming back to them. but i wanna go beyond my love for other people's art and be in love with my own, now that im at a better skill and mental state. it might not resonate as much, specially at the japanese festivals im a part of, but i wanna try. and im gonna start slow, i *am* going to draw japanese food, japanese animals, and create my tiny little scenes and see what comes up. i love stickers with every fiber of my being lol so ill always have in mind that ill draw stuff that i would wanna stick on my own sketchbooks and journals. but i need to do this, at least for 30 days. who knows what will happen later, you know? a friend of mine once said that colored pencils are like sugar, and graphite pencils are like veggies. and i feel like fanart and not-fanart is the same. we love fanart, but it's not healthy to only draw fanart... also i love people who delve into IP OCs and stuff, it always seems a lot of fun. i could try that, but i think ill cut my fanart ties cold turkey and then i can figure something out, i dont know lol i could go back to d&d character sheets lol another side note: i went to film school bc i loved watching movies. i wanted to tell stories, but i had no idea how, and i didnt think i had the talent for drawing. i started studying japanese and bullet journaling, bc i had the urge to draw, and those were the mediums that were close enough to drawing i felt i could try. and then hannibal happened, i had a roommate who was learning to watercolor, and i was like, screw it, let me draw hannigram bc i love them lol ive had the opportunity to make some movies, but logistically and creatively, they never felt as good as having the spark of inspiration, sketching, linearting, painting, printing and selling these tiny ass stickers. there is some control freakness in that, sure lol but there's also a need to build confidence in my own abilities, which sadly i didnt have a space for in movie sets... anyway, ill always mourn not having spent my teens drawing, but im making my kid self proud now <3 also i might post my new stickers at some point, i still havent made a pinned post lol but someday, you know so yeah, if anyone's reading this, ty lol TLDR: if you draw, write, sculpt, whatever, anything, and you tend to do fanart, ask yourself if you're fanarting a bit too much, if there's a way of turning your love for these characters/worlds into something different and more you.

[gaymer-hag-stan]

How we feeling ladies and gays???

Lara Croft's impact as a pop culture icon is monumental, transcending her origins in the Tomb Raider video games to become a symbol of female empowerment and representation. She was one of the first major female protagonists in gaming, breaking ground in a male-dominated industry and becoming the face of one of the most successful franchises in history, now with over 100 million units sold. Her character has earned multiple Guinness World Records, including "Most Successful Human Video Game Heroine" and "Most Recognizable Female Character in a Video Game." Beyond gaming, Lara successfully transitioned to Hollywood, portrayed by Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander in major films, further cementing her mainstream appeal. Lara has also become a merchandising powerhouse, with action figures, comics, novels, and brand collaborations. Her character evolved over time, especially in the 2013 reboot, to focus on her emotional depth, intelligence, and resilience, making her a symbol of empowerment for women worldwide. Lara Croft’s legacy has influenced not only the gaming industry, where she helped push the boundaries of storytelling and character-driven narratives, but also popular culture at large, where she remains an enduring icon.

We did it!

And of course, we have to talk about the next three games getting remastered too!

I'll be VERY honest with you, I straight up did not expect to see Angel of Darkness. I thought they were never ever gonna touch it again, and I wasn't even sure about Chronicles either, I thought that since they didn't do all five of the PS1 games together, the chances of them either doing Last Revelation & Chronicles or TLR alone were still slim. But it's one of the times that I am very glad to have been proven wrong!

As much as the Core purist community has made me retroactively wary of this era of the franchise, I understand and appreciate that these games still mean a lot to many people who are very normal and don't go out of their wave to make everyone else feel miserable, so to those people who had been fighting for AoD's return for so long I say congratulations, you deserve this, we all do.

Possible SPOILERS?

From what we can assume from the leaked Xbox achievement list, they are adding the Times Exclusive level in the Last Revelation, a very weird and very exclusive PC DLC that they released back in the day, sponsored by the London Times of all things, to commemorate sixty years since their coverage of the opening of Tutankhamen's tomb, no I'm not joking, and also adding back the dual pistols and corner shooting in AoD, stuff that were ultimately cut from the final version of the game. This could possibly mean that Angel of Darkness and Chronicles are not just getting a shiny new look but also possibly getting their very-well-documented game-crashing bugs fixed which is great.

I am very much willing and hoping to approach Chronicles and Angel of Darkness with an open mind and see if, with the new tweaks, they are not so bad after all. Neither of them are terrible games, only mediocre at worst, because even at her lowest, Lara still serves, but still, I think it's safe to say that this was, objectively, the lowest point in the series.

Now, I personally would hope that they will see it worthwhile to remove the cutscene where underage Lara is almost seen topless in Chronicles or is groped by Kurtis in Angel of Darkness, but I don't think they'd go that far. Still, a simple trigger warning like they did for the racist depictions in TRII and TRIII won't cut it this time.

But we're here to celebrate! Fingers crossed they add her opera dress in Chronicles, like they did for that horrid leopard print suit in Nightmare in Vegas, that would be an actual serve!

Also, this announcement only cements one thing in my mind... Next year in October we're celebrating the announcement of "Tomb Raider VII-VIII-IX Remastered, starring Lara Croft" and I swear, I will never shut up about it when it happens! Hopefully we we even get Guardian of Light too... Who knows!

[nullshocked]

1, 5, 17, 25!

From this meme

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

My copy of Word is set to default 12pt times because of school requirements, so usually I just leave it at that. Google docs is just the default and I don't usually bother to change it because sometimes I add bits to my drafts from my phone when I'm out and about.

I do, occasionally, change the font to comic sans so I'm not paying attention to word count and feel less worried about making things perfect. Seriously, try it.

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

Not really? I don't think so anyway. I have habits I keep that work for me, but I don't think they count as superstitions. I try to eliminate adverbs because usually I find there's a better way of phrasing the thing than how I originally did, but that's not a hard and fast rule. I also print drafts out and do edits by hand because it's easier for me working with paper than it is typing things up.

17. Talk to me about the minutiae of your current WIP. Tell me about the lore, the history, the detail, the things that won’t make it in the text.

I have so many wips, so I'll stick with the Big One because my original work is underwraps until I finish it.

I started writing it with just the vague idea of what Jack was like before the tadpoling, while I was still new to the fandom and the lore and didn't know as much. Hilariously, writing that and getting to a bit where Jack just... kinda homoerotically cuts Gortash open in a weird little bloodpact was what made me go "wait is this gay actually" and set me on the path to shipping it. I don't tend to outline anything I write because I like getting jumpscared by things like that and seeing where it leads me.

Also the final chapter is very much inspired by House of Leaves and I won't explain why that is. One day I will finish it and it'll make sense.

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

Chase's birth name is Charles. He hates it because it sounds snotty, so he picked up the nickname Chase as a kid because being called Charlie was worse. He's also French by birth, but immigrated to the U.S. with his mother and older brother when he was ten or so. He speaks French and English, and primarily speaks French at home.

The reason he does this is because I was looking for excuses to practice writing French, because I don't usually have a reason to.

[hominivorax-hematovore]

So, I recently bought an SS10 Jazz, and as all of my Jazzes need Prowls to accompany them, I decided to embark on a project to make one for him. This idea had already been brewing in my head for a while, so now I had the perfect excuse to carry it out. I had a base in mind already-this guy:

Protoform OP might not look much like Bayverse Prowl at first glance but he’s got the most important feature for me-the chest window placement. Bayverse Prowl has got that weird red bra-like design going and this figure is the only one that was close enough to it to work for me, making him the obvious choice for a starting point. Those awful monkey feet had to go, though, but more about that later.

After that was taken care of I needed a head and spent way longer than I would like to admit flailing around online, digging through files on 3D printing sites to try to find something that could work, either on its own or with some kludging together of multiple files as I’ve done before. I failed pretty hard and was at a loss, and then I had a lightbulb moment: I had a leftover Bumblebee movie Ratchet head from a custom Strongarm I did. With some minor modifications I’d have a perfectly serviceable movieverse Prowl head. (Pictured here with the very quick and messy test paint job I gave him post-modification.)

Now that the head was sorted out, I needed to find a few other bits. Bayverse Prowl has distinctly clawed fingers, so off I went to Cults3D again, and found some very nice Warhammer conversion parts that worked beautifully with a little editing, since he has three-fingered hands and not four-fingered ones. (I’m not going to talk about how many tries it took to get prints of those that were a) scaled correctly and b)didn’t lose any fingers when I tried to remove them from the printing supports.) Eventually I had some that worked beautifully. After that came the feet, which I put together from a base of existing TF parts files and more Warhammer conversion parts from Cults. (I’m also not going to talk about how long this took or the fact that I had to try three times to get the scaling correct.) They’re not accurate to what I can see of his feet in the comic, but I’m going more for vibes here than perfect replication and accuracy.

Using those and the wings from an AM-style printable Prowl I have saved, I put together a rough digibash of what I wanted to do. I eventually decided, once the figure was in-hand, that the Earth-mode wings would look too weird with the distinctly Cybertronian body and made him some new ones based on his Defiance comic appearance which I put together from an axe I found on Cults. These are what I had in mind at the time, though, so they’re what’s in the bash. 

Now actually having a plan laid out and the figure in hand, I started modifications. I took off all of the bits I didn’t want, and started changing the parts that needed some alterations to be closer to his comic design. First was the legs, where I added on to the top of the thigh at the hip ball. Then I reused some cut off bits on the front of the pelvis, and took a mould from another figure’s hip plate and cast in in miliput for the back. I ended up hating it and changing it fairly quickly, but this is what the initial modification looked like:

I also reused parts that I’d taken off to modify his back so that I could fit the new wings on and refit the lip that holds up the plate containing the socket for the head. Once I got that done, I took off the original hands, put the clawed hands on, and fit his upper torso together to see how everything was looking so far. Pretty good, I think.

I moved on after that, redoing the back waist using more bits I’d removed from the figure and adding details to the ab section to match the reference I’ve been working from, and adding some Lego car fenders to the shoulders for the same reason as well as cutting off those bits sticking up on the torso so that I can attach his missile launchers in their place. It was about then that I thought I was finished with the modifications, as everything was looking good to me. I was, alas, not quite done. I accidentally snapped off the peg on the end of a wing, so I had to do one last bit of modifying by cutting them down so they didn’t stick out so far and then making the mounting holes bigger to slot them in. 

Once that was done, I actually was finished and put him together to get an overall view of how he was looking compared to my main ref image. 

Pretty close, I think, paint or the lack thereof notwithstanding. As it stands right now, the hard part is done and I just need to wait for the white paint I ordered to arrive so I can get him painted up properly and looking his Prowliest.

[chuya-chuya-blog]

I think I will redraw the first two chapters. They're already scripted and laid out, so it shouldn't take too long. While I was drawing them, I was impatient and wanted to see what people thought of them, so I rushed them. Instead of focusing on what needed to be done properly, I cut so many corners. I got frustrated with what I couldn't do and was aggravated it was taking so long, so I ended up doing a poor job. I told myself that other manga got away with stuff like this so it's okay. It gets the point across so it's okay. But I didn't realize or just ignored the fact that it has to also be something I want.

I have a better idea of what needs to be done properly now, and if nothing else, I know that what I need to focus on is doing a good job, making a good manga, not getting something done as fast as possible. From now on, I will focus on completing something that I am excited to see in print, not the first thing I can throw up on a website. I originally started drawing comics because as a child, I never got to see a series to completion--or it wouldn't happen for years at a time, and I was always sooooo desperate for more. So I set out to make some myself.

These days, I still have that dream. To have something complete just for me, done my way, with everything I like filling up the contents. And now the dream is so close to being a reality. When I say I plan to have something in print, I literally mean that, at the very least, on a small scale, I would print at least one book for myself to put on my bookshelf, to read and reread whenever I want, to treat it and view it the same way I did the rest of the manga in my collection growing up. That's it. Whether or not it's popular (and I won't lie, it'd be cool if it was!🤧) won't matter because I'll still have something I love regardless.

So why am I rushing through it like some routine task I'm stuck doing? Or like I'm just going through the motions. It's also like those projects I procrastinated on and panicked about in school. Why is it so hard to get myself to do anything properly? Why is it so hard to get myself to care about anything these days? I know I want this, but the motivation and the drive aren't there, and that goes for doing much of anything, actually. I barely get excited anymore, and if I do, it fizzles out quickly. I haven't actually enjoyed or anticipated anything in years, and it feels like time is just passing me by. But I at least want to complete all my creative projects before my time is through.

[niuniente]

Also, do you think youll share your process behind the creation of your comics? Im curious as to how you manage to make vertical comics on fire alpaca ! :0

Yes! It's actually very simple. I like to make things easy and fast as I'm an impatient bastard when it comes to drawing.

I work on 5555 x 7777 pxl panel and fill it with panel pictures. I don't always draw in order but go with whatever panel I want for the next, trying to fill the space. I don't care about size or shape, I just draw what needs to be drawn. Because the original file size is big, I don't have to worry any picture coming out too small for the final paneling. Why a big canvas? This allows me to draw in big scale and then resize the pics smaller. This is a trick to draw messily and still have clean results when the drawing is resized smaller. Here, I show you. Look at the Alrick above at the right hand bottom corner. Now look this 100% full size pic:

OH MESSY SH*T, RIGHT?! Doesn't matter, it looks good and clean when put into a smaller scale. I see many artists working on 100% final size and then spending so much time to get every detail right and polished. No need to, if you don't enjoy working like that. (You only need to get stuff super crisp and clean immediately if the final image is printed on a big scale, like onto a tall roll-up or on a vehicle). The bigger the final image = the more visible all details are. The smaller the final image = the less visible all details are.

OKAY, so, when I have drawn all the panels like this, I take a new file fitted for Webtoon's size requirements. Then, I just cut + paste the panels on the pages from their original files:

This method sometimes means that when I start to built up the pages, I notice that I need to cut something off or draw more because otherwise the drawing/panel won't fit the page. Those edits I do directly on the final comic page. It happens quite rarely.

So, my trick is; never work on the 100% final size, on the final dimension requirements. Always bigger. A lot bigger. I don't even work at 100% zoom but what feels comfortable to me.

[soulmate-game]

Well, here is the stupid thing I was alluding to. It’s mostly a filler chapter, but yeah.

Harley’s Plea for Help, Chapter 3

“Well, that took a while,” a relatively deep female voice smoothly drawled. The plants placed right next to the window pulled away, no longer blocking the pathway inside. The two figures who were perched right outside the windowsill took the invitation and climbed inside, the shorter of the two looking at the woman who had spoken and smiling widely.

“Auntie Ivy!” Marinette happily exclaimed, making the redhead across from her grin back.

“That’s me. It sure is nice to actually see you in person, little Marigold,” she held out her arms for a hug, which Marinette instantly ran in to accept. “Video calls are never quite enough, are they? You’re so tiny! Are you sure you eat alright?”

“Auntie Ivyyyyyy,” Marinette whined, knowing full well that Ivy was just teasing her.

“So, what took you all so long?” Ivy asked Red Hood, even as she kept her arms wrapped around her soon-to-be daughter in law. “Usually you bats are all about getting back on the streets to punch people, we didn’t think you’d be bringing her in at almost one in the morning.”

Hood shrugged, thumbs hooked in his pockets. “Your little garden fairy nearly gave us the slip. Went straight out the back exit instead of doin’ anything showy like we half expected and we almost missed her.”

“I stopped as soon as I noticed who they were, I swear!” Marinette pulled away from Ivy, holding her hands up in mock surrender. “I didn’t expect Momma to send them to babysit me before our first full day being in Gotham. In hindsight, though, I really should have.”

“Yeah, you should’ve,” Ivy agreed with a smirk, ruffling Marinette’s hair and making her pigtails go a little crooked. “And I know for a fact that you’ve done some stunts off your balcony back in Paris, so at least I know you can be responsible and hold yourself back from doing the same here. Must get that from me, because we both know it doesn’t come from Harley.”

Marinette and Hood both had to laugh at that. Being responsible was definitely not a trait that Marinette could have inherited from anybody in her family tree, that was for sure.

“Are ya makin’ fun of me in front of my daughter?” the comically scandalized voice announced the arrival of one Harley Quinn, who walked into the room in white onesie pajamas with a poker print on them. All of the “joker” cards were crossed out heavily with red sharpie, and a few of them had black-sharpie devil horns and handlebar mustaches vandalizing them. Marinette even caught one such card with a googly eye on it, the matching eye having fallen off and leaving only a small circle of since-dried hot glue where it used to be. “If you guys are gonna be that way, fine! Ivy dyes her hair!”

“No she doesn’t,” Marinette deadpanned, clearly fighting against a giant grin. The corners of her lips gave her away, they never stopped twitching with repressed mirth. “But you do. I got the pictures to prove—- aah!” Harley tackled her daughter to the ground, attacking her with tickles immediately.

“Take it back! My hair is naturally blond!”

“Yeah, naturally— hahahahaha! Sandy blonde! You— hahaha! Have just as much brown— stop I can’t breathe! hahahaha!— as yellow!”

“Hmph,” Harley finally backed off, crossing her eyes and looking away from Marinette with an exaggerated pout. “How dare you reveal my darkest secret?”

“I was a natural redhead even before I got my powers,” was all Ivy had to say, looking all too amused at this turn of events. “Your original costume completely covered your hair.”

“Don’t worry, Harley,” Red Hood butted in, reminding the three girls that he was still here. His tone suggested that he was definitely smiling under his helmet. “We found out about your hair dye years ago.”

“I just cover up the brown parts! It’s not like I’m changin’ much,” she argued before standing up again. “Thanks for gettin’ my cupcake back safely, little birdie. Oh, that's right! I made cupcakes! Hang on, lemme grab one for your trip back!” with that, she span on her heels and ran back further into the apartment. Marinette dashed over to Hood, immediately shoving him to the window.

“Quick, save yourself! Momma can’t bake for her life!” she whispered urgently. “I’ll say you were called away for an emergency, just hurry!”

“It’s not even a lie, getting away from Harley’s baking is an emergency,” Ivy agreed, waving as the vigilante took their advice and fled. It was only three seconds later that Harley slid back into the room, nearly falling due to the feet of her onesie having pretty much zero friction. Her face immediately fell when she saw that her victim was gone, leaving her standing there with a cupcake that was about twice as much frosting as actual cake, covered in sprinkles like a kid’s craft project that was smothered in glitter. The frosting was also shapeless, just heaped on the cake like a half-melted scoop of ice cream. She sighed in despair.

“There goes my chance of giving a bat diabetes. You guys warned him, didn’t ya?”

They both nodded shamelessly. “We’re not that cruel, Harley,” Ivy defended, getting up from her spot on her cushioned armchair and wrapping an arm around her fiance’s waist before she kissed the top of her head gently. “Hood got our little Marigold back safe and sound, and he’s even started a garden at his apartment. He doesn’t deserve to be poisoned by you.”

“I thought you said he got a single cactus at the flea market last month,” Harley deadpanned, making Ivy shrug.

“Might as well be a garden for him, and it’s something he’s not likely to kill so that’s a plus to me. He’s actually taking really good care of the little baby.”

“Speaking of garden!” Marinette gently took the sad excuse of a pastry away from her mom and sat it down on a side table before ushering both of them over to the living room and onto the sofa. “My garden back home is growing so big, I don’t think I can keep everything much longer. I barely have room to walk on the terrace, with all the vines and leaves and branches. Got any ideas of what I can do?”

“Of course! Do you have pictures, Marigold?”

—*—*—*—*—*

Slipping back through her hotel window at six in the morning was risky, since it involved climbing the wall and hoping nobody saw, but her classmates were so unpredictable that it was the only way she could be sure nobody would find out that she had violated curfew and snuck out. Of course, having Red Robin waiting outside her mom’s apartment’s terrace to escort her back helped. At least she knew that no street cams would record her comings or goings, and his grappling hook made the whole scale-the-hotel-wall business much more efficient.

Once she was inside, she sighed happily. “Thanks, now—“ her apology was cut off as Red Robin held up a finger to tell her to wait.

“Hold that thought, be right back. Don’t move.”

Thinking, rightfully, that something was wrong, Marinette obeyed. She watched Red Robin leap off of her hotel balcony and disappear into the streets. Immediately, she began a search to make sure her room had been left untampered— everything important had been packed in the backpack that she had taken to her mom’s place, but still. Could never be too careful. By the time she finished checking for bugs or any signs of snooping, Red Robin landed back on her balcony.

“Here we go.”

Turning to face him, Marinette opened her mouth to ask what the problem had been— only to tear up a little and walk over to the vigilante.

“Oh, my hero. Truly, my one and only savior. Knight in shining red Kevlar. I’m running on two hours of sleep and you have read my mind!” The pigtailed drama queen eagerly took the coffee that he offered her, and he sipped from a larger cup that looked like he had grabbed it from the same place. Marinette almost instantly sighed in gratitude when the hot drink lightly scalded her tongue. This. This was the elixir of life.

To his credit, Red Robin was able to restrain himself to merely an amused smirk. Probably because he was running on just as little sleep as she was. “Sorry it’s only a small, I figured it was best to have something you could finish quickly and easily hide the evidence for. If you need more caffeine, I happen to know that Wayne Enterprises has a very good coffee shop in their main hall. You’ll be touring there today, right?” He asked, taking another sip as he waited for the answer that he already knew.

Marinette nodded absently, drinking in the euphoria of her coffee as she tried to both savor it yet finish it as quickly as safely possible. When she came up for air, she said; “Yeah, that’s right. We’re touring Wayne Enterprises for most of the day, having lunch there, and leaving for dinner after the tour. Then we have a visit to the Gotham Museum of Fine Art, and we’ll stay there until about eight-thirty before heading back to the hotel.”

Red Robin nodded, then turned and looked out the window at the slowly rising sun. Sunrise was always a bit later in Gotham, partly because of the abundance of high-rises and partly because of the thick cloud cover and ever-present fog on the edges of the city making everything seem darker than it should have been. He had to be at work soon himself, which is why he had been chosen to escort her to the hotel in the first place, but that meant that he had to be heading off.

“Alright. We arranged for a bodyguard we trust to keep an eye on your class during the WE tour, but he doesn't know who you are or that we’re the ones who asked. We’re still in the process of arranging someone to shadow you after the tour, but we’ll tell you about that once it’s solidified. Until then, follow the usual self-defense procedures if you suspect anyone of following you. You have the panic button we gave you?”

Marinette nodded, gulping down the last of her coffee and carefully putting it in her room’s tiny trash can. “Got it. Thanks, again. Seriously,” she met his eyes— or, probably did since they were hidden behind that weird white film that the whole Batfam had covering the eyeholes of their masks. “I mean it. For listening to me, for listening to Mom. It means a lot. I’ll keep the panic button on me, and I’ll use it if I think I can’t handle a situation on my own. I’ll cooperate with the people you get to watch over the class, and I’ll do my best to not get into any trouble. No promises, but I’ll do my best,” she maintained eye contact until Red Robin nodded, hiding his expression behind his coffee cup. After a second, he cleared his throat.

“Well then. We’ll contact you once we have anything to say about your intel. Until then, I gotta go. And by the way?”

Marinette tilted her head curiously as Red Robin paused for just a moment on her balcony railing, aiming a smirk back at her. “Yeah?”

“Welcome to Gotham.”

And if she couldn’t help but smile widely as he grappled off into the fog-veiled sunrise? Well, only she had to know. She wasted no time closing and locking the glass balcony door, and pulling the curtains over it completely. Once that was done, she couldn’t help but do a little shimmy of Joy. She was caffeinated, she met Auntie Ivy in person for the first time, she got to sleep next to her momma— and she was in Gotham! Technically her hometown— or town she was conceived in? Didn’t matter. Point was, even with the chaos and dark energy clouding the very air, she couldn’t help but feel like she belonged in that city. Like that was where she was always meant to end up, where she could thrive and the environment that she was made to thrive in. The environment that she was born to start fixing.

She beamed at herself in her bathroom mirror as she gave herself one more once-over. Yeah, so far her visit to Gotham was going much better than she could have hoped. Now, she just had to make sure it stayed that way.

Three businesslike raps sounded against the door to her room, just in time for Marinette to feed Tikki one more cookie and straighten her purse on her shoulder. Madame Mendelieve’s voice called out from the other side of the door in her usual no-nonsense bark;

“Dupain-Cheng! Room check! It’s time to get up, we’re meeting down in the lobby in ten minutes.”

Marinette ran up to the door, not quite able to contain her energy, and swung it open with her trademark large, beaming smile.

“Way ahead of you, Madame Mendelieve!”

Her science teacher blinked, adjusting her glasses on her nose as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing.

“Ah. You’re already awake and ready?”

Marinette giggled and nodded. “Yup! I was so excited for the tour that I could barely sleep! Does the hotel breakfast include free coffee?”

—*—*—*—*—*

The hotel breakfast did, in fact, include coffee. What it did not include, however, was free coffee that Marinette could reasonably stomach. Especially after the heaven in a cup that Red Robin had gotten for her earlier, the watered down motor oil in the hotel lobby had been unbearable. She had barely managed two sips before regretfully throwing the rest away. Which is what brought her to stand in line at the very same coffee shop that Red Robin had mentioned was in the main hall of Wayne Enterprises, as the rest of her class mingled and waited for their teachers to check their tour group in and their tour guide to arrive.

“Hmm. Sorry, this is my first time ordering here,” she apologized when she reached the counter, gaining a slight lopsided grin from the barista at the register. “Um, I usually like strong coffee, with a lot of caffeine, but I also like something sweet. I don’t need anything too complicated though, do you have any recommendations?”

The barista gave her a customer service smile that seemed just a tad softer at the edges than usual. “Sure! So, we can add an extra shot or two of espresso to any of our drinks, to make it stronger and give it an extra kick. If you’re looking for good sweet flavors, the classics are our white chocolate or caramel. But we also have a seasonal syrup right now that I personally love, which is our cinnamon butterscotch. Did you wanna try that?”

Marinette smiled widely. “That sounds delicious! Then, if I could have your largest size café latte, hot, with… two extra shots and that syrup? Does that sound good?”

The barista actually let loose a soft laugh, already keying in the order. “If you’re a coffee lover and a sweet tooth at the same time, then you’ll love it. If not, come back during your tour’s lunch break and I’ll make you something else.”

Marinette made a little more small talk as she handed over the proper cash for the order, and grabbed her drink after just another minute’s wait. She turned around, taking a sip of the unsurprisingly heavenly coffee and started off to join her class.

Only to realize none of them were where she had left them. She sighed, starting to reach into her purse to see if anyone had texted her about where they were going, but a heavy presence stopped her. She could feel him approaching from in front of her, slightly to her right, but she couldn’t hear him at all. On guard, she straightened up and turned to observe the potential threat.

A security guard. Marinette blinked, running over what she had been told earlier that morning. Was he..?

He seemed to notice her instinctually defensive posture because he raised his hands to show he meant no harm. “Sorry, didn’t mean to catch you off guard,” he apologized. “I’m the guard that was assigned to your tour group. I offered to stay behind until you got your coffee while the rest of your group went ahead and got the run-down on all the boring rules and whatnot of the tour. Figured you’d already know everything they had to say anyway, you’re the class president right?”

Marinette relaxed her posture, nodding and sending the man a relieved smile. “Yeah, that’s right. Well, that explains why they left without me then. Usually Madame Mendelieve is strict about following rules though, how’d you convince her to go on without me?”

The man chuckled, jerking his head to show that she should follow him as he began to lead the way to a side door. Marinette kept her guard up just in case, but wasn’t too worried. If nothing else, she was still in the middle of a super crowded building and the other security guards around didn’t seem concerned. She could easily yell for help if she needed to.

“Well, can’t you tell it was my devilish charm?” He teased, grinning. He waited until she rolled her eyes to continue; “but really, I’m like a second tour guide. She made me show a lotta proof that I’m actually assigned to you guys and not just faking it, not that I can blame her. Eventually she saw the logic in my suggestion and agreed. See, there they are,” he pointed casually ahead of them in the large side hallway they had entered. Sure enough, near the end of the hallway was her class at what looked to be the tail-end of a standard rules-and-guidelines speech from the tour guide. “By the way,” the guard spoke up again, holding his hand out. “My name’s Jason. You’ll be seeing me more often, since I’m supposed to guard you guys for all of your visits to the Tower. Call me if you need help with anything, ‘kay kid?”

Marinette grinned, now positive that this guy really was the guard that Red Robin had said was assigned to her class. She switched the hand she was holding her coffee in so that she could properly grab Jason’s hand for a shake.

“Got it, Monsieur Jason. Let’s both hope I don’t end up needing your help though, I think that would be easier on both of us,” she joked, earning a chuckle from the large man. And— yeah, now that she was relaxed, he really was big, wasn’t he? Then again, Marinette didn’t always realize when people were a bit larger or more buff than they should be. Living with her dad had seriously skewed her perception of the normal size of an adult male (which, she learned when she was seven, most definitely was not almost seven feet tall and muscled enough to make a pro wrestler jealous). But she would like to think she had gotten better in that aspect, and Jason was definitely a big guy. A little over six feet tall, she thought, and though the guard outfit hid a good portion of his physique, she could tell he carried enough muscle to do serious damage if he wanted to.

With a wave, she left him to join her class and sipped at her latte. She had figured that the Bat Clan’s criteria for civilians that they would put to guard her class had to be high, but now she had to wonder just how high. Most police officers or security guards were fit, sure, but not like Jason. Casting a quick glance back at him, she confirmed that he had quite a few faded but visible scars. Again, more than your average officer even for Gotham. Who had they tasked with her class’ safety, exactly?

An elbow in her side distracted her from her thoughts, forcing her to blink and stop her cup from going back to her lips. The grin of none other than Adrien Agreste greeted her when she snapped out of her own head long enough to pay attention to her surroundings. He jerked his head to indicate that the class was already starting to move off.

“Come on, Mari or you’ll get left behind again,” he teased. She grinned back at him, rolling her eyes but falling into step beside him as they followed at the back of their class. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were gonna marry that coffee. You haven’t zoned out that badly in years,” his tone was light and cheery, but Marinette didn’t miss the concern in his emerald eyes. She sighed, gently bumping her shoulders against his in silent reassurance.

“I’m fine. Just didn’t get much sleep last night, that’s all. But this really is good coffee. Elixir of the gods,” then, just to provoke him, she took a giant gulp of the still steaming hot drink. Adrien grimaced in pained sympathy even though Marinette didn’t seem affected at all.

“Oww, Marineeeeeeeeeette,” he whined. “Don’t do that, my throat hurts just watching you guzzle hot coffee like that,” he complained, rubbing at his neck to make his point clear.

“Wimp,” she teased, unrepentant. Adrien just groaned dramatically.

“I’m not a wimp, you’re just concerningly used to burning your throat from the inside out,” he accused. “Anyway, how’d it go?” He was being deliberately vague, but it was obvious to her what he meant. He was only one she had told about visiting her mom, after all, just in case she needed a quick getaway.

In fact, he was the only one of her friends that she had even told about her biological parents. Alix knew too, but only because of time shenanigans. Marinette was fine with it now, but still.

“It went great,” she smiled widely at him, keeping her voice low but casual. “If I have a chance, I’ll introduce you sometime during the trip. I have a feeling you’ll love Auntie Selina, but I have to meet her first. All I have so far are stories.”

“Fair enough,” Adrien agreed easily. “But you don’t have to, you know that right? I’d love to meet your family, but I’m also fine just being your pseudo-brother like I have been up until now. I know it might be a bit… uncomfortable, for you.”

“Nah,” Marinette shrugged. “Nerve wracking, maybe. But that’s also about half the things that I do in my life period, anxiety is no joke. I’ll catastrophize for a while, but I know you’ll love them and they’ll love you.”

“Sounds like they have paw-some taste,” he didn’t even miss a beat with his puns, earning a playful glare for his efforts.

“Never mind. You’re a heathen. Disowned. Who are you?”

“Mariiiiii,” he whined, causing them both to laugh for a while before focusing on the tour.

So far, so good, Marinette thought.

—*—*—*—*—*

Part 1 Part 2

@emotionalsupportginger @alysrose-starchild @emistar0 @kibastray @justanotherfanficlovinbitch @alyssadeliv @blackroserelina @blackstarlight-co @readingalldaysleepingallnight @maanae @aespades @jaybird-and-co @fleursroses @probably-a-hologram @misterpianoman @deathssilentapproach-blog @user00000003 @frieddonutsweets @blur-of-colours @prettylittlebutterflie @ladyqnoirr @a-star-with-a-human-name @mizzy-pop @laurcad123 @dorkus-minimus @chocolatecatstheron @tazanna-blythe @golden-promises @literaryhiraeth @asrainterstellar @hewantedbeefintheparkinglot @miraculous-trinity-leo @missanalysis @lovelyautumnsunflower @lolieg @ann0631 @whitetiger1249 @meow-now @toodaloo-kangaroo

[queenretcon]

WAIT -- I haven't read most of the 90s stuff yet, but I thought Fire DID come out? Maybe I'm misinterpreting or taking this panel out of context though, I'm not really sure where or when it's from:

Perhaps your power is already starting to have an effect!!!!!

I almost want to leave you with this (beautiful, wonderful, preferable) misconception, but since you asked

Bea essentially pauses at her open closet door just long enough to be shoved back in. Shoved back in by canon GuyBea. Comics is a nightmare hellscape from which we will never escape.

Summary of this arc under the cut!

I try to avoid taking about this run, despite how important a lot of this canon is both to Bea as a character and to me as a person, because it was written by Gerard Jones who went to prison on CSAM charges. This run is out of print (hopefully forever) along with Jones other numerous contributions to JLI. That’s important context I want to let people know about upfront.

I think if this story arc happened now, it would actually be understood as a coming out arc—just one with a homophobic ending. But this happened in the 90s, and Bea is chained to the male gaze in this era (so obviously her attraction to men can’t be questioned or tainted), so it didn’t have a lasting impact on the way the character was written going forward.

The basic plot is that Sigrid Nansen (the original Icemaiden) becomes active as a hero again shortly after Tora dies. Bea hears about this and drops everything to find her, hoping it will be Tora. For a good part of this arc, Bea is essentially using Sigrid as a replacement for Tora; she’s fucked up by grief and here is this person it’s so easy to pretend is a second chance at protecting Tora. She gets kind of controlling towards Sigrid, but she acknowledges this and apologizes. The narrative holds her accountable while being sympathetic to what she’s going through. Sigrid is bisexual, and pretty much immediately goes ‘ohhhh you were in love with Tora, but you don’t know that’ and she sets to work trying to help Bea deal with her grief and come to terms with her sexuality.

Beas says some really fucking gay shit in this run. I’m just going to paste this page from Justice League America #107 in its entirety because oh my fucking god.

For the record, Sigrid is less ‘single white female’ than this panel implies. Here she’s essentially ‘giving Bea what she wants’ in the hopes Bea will realize she doesn’t actually want a relationship with a facsimile of Tora. And she does! Bea snaps back to the yell-y bitch I love so dearly. It’s clearly a pivotal moment, and the set-up for more. Aaaaand then the plot line drops off suddenly. Bea and Sigrid are around, frequently together, but no more is discussed, until the second to last issue! Where the books approaches that other plotline Bea’s involved in: fucking & deciding to date Guy Gardner in Warrior. Gross.

I firmly believe this was intended as a coming out arc for Bea, and I suspect the intention was for Sigrid and her to be together by the end. Instead, as frequently happens in comics, another book derailed the plot. The wrap-up of Sigrid (& Nuklon)’s plot(s) reference the fact they . . . both still think she’s into girls. I also still think she’s into girls. This is because she's into girls.

But Sigrid & Bea’s last conversation focuses on how Sigrid wants Bea to be happy, Bea has been given closure, blah blah, platitudes to set the stage for Sigrid to run off with her suddenly introduced female love interest, and Bea can go fuck a man who has always repulsed her!

I can’t find the issue source for the image you sent—which is driving me insane—but I do believe it’s from this run (it’s by the series artist). If someone else has a source, especially if it’s not from this run and there’s more content with then I haven’t gotten to, please let me know.

But, anyways, Beatriz da Costa’s attracted to girls; she’s just not allowed to say it.

[tinyboxxtink]

"Not My Yacht" *Chapter 2*

Yes, for two days this is a semi short chapter, but I had another long today and have one more tomorrow and I wanted you to have SOMETHING. Weirdly though I had an entire different chapter written in my head, but when I started typing this came out instead. My original idea is still coming, this just added a fun little bonus getting there. I promise, tomorrow you will get a longer chapter.

Thank you loves for sticking by me through everything! I love you all.

Also, I'm finally using CHAPTER. I kept wanting to use it instead of PART but I just kept writing PART and was like WELP. But they're chapters, right?!

Ok I'll shut up.

Part 1 Here

Part 3

Tag List

@madamsnape921

@lolliepopsicle

@chasingeverybreakingwave

@milkshqke

@wanniiieeee

@word-scribbless

@gibbs274

@sassyada

@aprildecker-blog

@bookishfanfic

@stars-in-the-skies-world

@stars-trash-18

@omgsuperstarg

@objection-argumentative

And @storiesofsvu for Rita check. lol.

----------------------------------------

When five o’clock rolled around, Rita came walking out of her office with a stack of papers and her briefcase, balancing her purse on her barely free arm.

“Y/N, Why are you still here? Did I not unlock your chains?” She laughed.

“Haha….no, ma’am” You nervously laughed. “I um, I think I’m waiting for someone,”

“You think?” She raised a curious eyebrow. “If you’re waiting on Barba, you’re going to waiting a long time, sweetie,”

“Wha-? How--? Why, exactly?” You asked her totally flabbergasted by the insinuation that not only had Rafael asked you out, but was bailing already.

“He tends to get a little...involved, in his cases. Poor man is a workaholic,” She feigned pity for him.

“Right,” You nodded to her comically overflowing briefcase and papers. “Something you know nothing about,”

“Touché,” She winked. “I’d give him a call, make sure he hasn’t forgotten about you, dear. Before the cleaning staff shows up,” She laughed and sauntered out of her office, leaving you alone in the dark.

You glanced down at your phone. He hadn’t really specified a time, just-- “Tonight”. What did that even mean? Tonight. Like early evening dinner, or a midnight snack after he was done with his cases? You should probably text him. Or call him. Or text him.

TO BARBA: Heyyy….

Wait. Was three y’s too many? Wasn’t that a rule? You show affection by how many y’s you use? Is that a thing kids do these days? Wait, no you’re not a kid. And he certainly was NOT a kid. No. Be a grown up about this.

TO BARBA: Hi I’m just...checking in.

Checking in? What did that even mean? And why the ellipsis? There doesn’t need to be a pause in a text. That’s why it’s a text. You pause in your mind before typing. Idiot.

TO BARBA: What’s up?

Ok. Short and simple. To the point. No pressure, no demanding. Just... ‘checking in’. You hated yourself. Alright fine, good enough send it. SEND IT. HIT SEND NOW.

MESSAGE SENT.

Your phone shook in your trembling hand as you waited for the ellipsis of him writing back. That was too much, no no just put it back in your pocket and he’ll text you when he--

BARBA CALLING

Oh god, a phone call? Who calls people anymore? Grown ups, that’s who. Answer the phone like an adult.

“H-Hello?” You answered it as if he had the wrong number.

“Hey, Cinderella,” His smooth voice came through your earpiece. “I’m so sorry, I should have been more specific about the time,”

“Oh, yeah no-- no big deal, I’m just here at work….alone, in the dark…” You muttered the last words to yourself as you looked around the dark office.

“Right. Well, I’m kind of wrapped up in this case right now--” He started, making your heart drop. Well, Rita called it. He’s just married to his job, no time for women, let alone you. Time to just--

“....Would you hate me if I asked you to come help me?”

“...I’m sorry, what?” You blinked in confusion at your phone. So, was he actually asking you out or trying to snake you as an assistant from Rita? Is that what he meant by ‘dinner’? “Hey come bring me food and help me file these cases, because I’m so sexy and cocky and--”

“You know what, I’m so sorry I just heard how that sounded. You’ve been doing this all day, the last thing you wanna do is come--”

“Sure!” You cut him off a little loudly. What were you doing?! You’re just going to lay down and let him use your services for free? Well, when you put it that way it sounded pretty skeezy about yourself.

“....Are you sure? Because we can just have dinner another night--”

“....Yeah I have a feeling that will never happen,” You cut him off with a laugh.

“Wha--no, it will! I just--”

“Your wife comes first, I get it,” You cut him off again.

“My wife?”

“Yeah you’re married to your work,” You smirked into the phone.

“Wow, quippy Cinderella. Guess you’re more confident on the phone without my gorgeous face tripping you up now, aren’t you?”

“Do you want my help or not, Casanova?” He was totally right; without those green emeralds staring into your soul you were actually a pretty funny and smart person. Maybe it would be better to just have this date on the phone.

"Yes, absolutely," He sighed with a smile.

“Did you want me to bring food, or am I just supposed to eat paperclips and vending machine leftovers??”

“I’ll order some pizza, do you like pizza?”

“....I live in New York Barba. Obviously I like pizza,” You teased.

“Right,” He chuckled. “Well I’ll be here--”

“I know where your office is,” You cut him off for the third time.

“Oh, do you?” He asked in a sneaky tone, as if he thought you’d been googling him or something.

“Um, yeah,” Your voice fell an octave softer. “Actually I’ve been there several times, dropping off stuff from Rita for you,” Of course he wouldn’t remember that. Why would he remember that? You weren’t anything special.

“Shit,” He muttered as if chastising himself. “Y/N I’m so sorry, I--”

“It’s fine,” You assured him as you headed down to the subway. “I’m uh, I’m getting on the train so I’ll see you soon,” You hung before he could reply.

--------------

It wasn’t that far to Rafael’s office from Rita’s, just a few stops away. You quickly hurried up the stairs back into the Manhattan air as you swiftly walked through the sea of people leaving corporate America to go home to Suburbia. Finally you reached the building, went for the door and-- it was locked.

Well of course it was locked, nobody else in their right mind would be here this late-- so clearly you and Rafael were out of your minds. Shit. Should you call him? Was there a buzzer? Before you could think of another solution a pizza delivery man was walking up to you. Maybe ‘man’ was too generous, he was probably around 16 or 17.

“Delivery for Mr. Barba,” He handed you the pizza. Did you look like a “Mr. Barba” to him?!

“I um,” You stammered as the hot pizza burned the sides of your arms you were holding it on. “I’m not Mr. Barba,”

“Are you taking it to him?” He asked you with a slight attitude.

“I um,” You thought a moment. Well you were going to see him, so yes theoretically you would be taking the pizza with you to him. “...Yes,”

“That’ll be 46.57.” He whipped out a credit card scanner on his phone.

“E-Excuse me?” You were taken aback. Now Barba had you buying him dinner? And what kind of pizza costs basically 50 bucks?!

“2 Large pizzas, an order of cheesy bread, a dessert pizza and delivery fee,” The kid read off the receipt from his phone. “I only accept credit or debit cards, and please tip generously,”

“Yeah right,” You muttered with a roll of your eyes as you pulled out your credit card and swiped it across his phone. The light turned green and a receipt printed off an attachment to his phone. He ripped it off and handed it to you, then nonchalantly walked back down the stairs to wherever he was parked.

“Awesome,” You sighed. You still didn’t know how to get inside, and now you were carrying all this hot food. All of this for a pair of green eyes?!

To make matters worse, your phone started going off in your purse. You groaned and tried to put all of the boxes down softly, but the night wind blew them onto the pavement, HARD.

“Shit!” You groaned louder as you tried to salvage the food while pulling your phone from your purse. Of COURSE.

BARBA CALLING

“I can’t get in,” You simply stated as a greeting on the phone.

“What?”

“I can’t get in the building, Barba,” You grumbled, now on a 8 on the annoyance scale.

“Oh! Oh God,” The line went dead. Awesome.

After a few minutes while you were trying to rebalance all of the boxes in your arms, one of the big glass doors swung open right into you. The boxes all pressed against you, their hot, saucy, cheesy and chocolatey goodness smearing all over your work outfit.

“SHIT!!!!!!” You screamed in horror.

“Oh my god, Oh god Y/N I am SO--” Rafael started to apologize profusely, but you noticed he was trying his best not to burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry, do you think this is funny?!” You asked angrily while you peeled a pepperoni from your hair.

“No, not at all,” He shook his head vigorously, but kept giggling behind his eyes.

“You do!” You stomped your heel, causing marinara to roll down your legs. “You are absolutely laughing at me being covered in all of your stupid food that I had to pay for by the way--”

“Oh no, really?” He suddenly turned sincere.

“No, Rafael,” You scoffed as you tried pulling cheese from your skirt. “I just had sex with him in the parking lot and we called it square,”

“Really--?!”

“NO NOT REALLY!”

“Okay! Okay I’m sorry, really I am,” Rafael tried to show you sympathy, but you looked so damn cute covered in a tasty meal.

“Yeah I can see that, you’re grinning like a five year old,” You rolled your eyes.

“I’m sorry, Y/N I really am,” He gave up trying to hide a laugh. “But you have to admit it’s pretty funny--”

“I DON’T THINK--” You started to scream at him again, but his smile made these cute little crinkles in his eyes, and his laugh was like an angel’s chorus. You might have been covered in food, but you would be covered in manure if it made him laugh like that.

“For what it’s worth, you look delicious,” He teased you, pulling an actual full piece of pizza from your chest and biting it.

“Oh my god, you’re so gross,” You did your best not to laugh, you were still supposed to be angry.

“Yum, Y/N flavor, my favorite,” He laughed for a moment just as you both realized what he had said. “Uh, I mean--” He looked away in embarrassment, and you swear you saw his face flush red.

“Um no counselor,” You bit your lip with a smile. “I’m pretty sure I taste better than a mix of pizza sauce and chocolate,”

“I’m sure you do,” Rafael bravely retorted, now that he knew you were in the playing mood.

“....But seriously, now I have to go home and get this shit off--”

“I have a shower in my office,” He blurted out.

“....Excuse me?” You blinked, not believing you heard him right.

“I...I have a shower in my office,”

“Oh my god, Rafael Barba are you that addicted to work that you live here?”

“No!” He rolled his eyes. “It’s for emergencies,”

“Emergencies? Like what?”

“Like a beautiful woman covered in pizza toppings and chocolate,” He smirked. “Now come on, I don’t want anyone around here thinking I’m dating a crazy person,” He opened the glass doors again and escorted you into the lobby of the building.

Your mind didn’t know what to focus on first; the fact that he had this mysterious office shower, that he had offered for you to use said shower, or the fact that he just referred to you as a ‘woman he was dating’. You just followed him silently into his office with a smitten grin on your face.

He wasn’t lying when he was in the ‘middle’ of something. Papers were strewn all about his desk, a white board with bullet points for arguments and cross examinations scribbled on it. You finally got a good look at him without the anger of having food all over your judgement. He looked tired, not the usual smooth and pristine Rafael Barba you were used to. But when he looked back at you to show you where his shower was, his green eyes sparkled gazing into yours.

“So, I have some spare suits in a closet here, would you mind hanging out in one of my dress shirts while I wash...these?” He gestured to your dirty clothes. Wait, wash?

You suddenly realized he had led you into a secret room to the side of his office, behind a bookcase.

“Wha…” You looked around the room. There was a shower, a wardrobe, a washer/dryer combo, and a suit steamer. “Jesus Barba, are you sure you don’t live here?”

“No I promise I don’t,” He shook his head with a laugh. “...But I may have on occasion fallen asleep here enough to invest in this,”

“And what happens when this office is passed on to a new ADA?” You raised an eyebrow.

“Then I’m sealing this place off like a mausoleum,” He stated very seriously, causing you to giggle. He loved your giggle, it was so small and soft, just like you.

“Anyway,” He shook off his momentary daze at your giggle hoping you didn’t notice. “Like I said-- Shower, dress shirt. Just put your dirty clothes in the washer and we’ll pop them in the dryer later,”

“Right,” You nodded, definitely having noticed his dreamy stare at your giggle. How had you gone from completely under his radar to making him giddy like a school boy in two days?

“Right,” He nodded back. “I’ll just be out here...ordering another pizza,” He smirked. “By the way, I’ll totally reimburse you for the one you’re wearing,” He stuck his tongue out at you with a huge grin.

“Oh you better,” You gave him the same face back. “Or I’ll cover you in it,” You lightly pressed a marinara sauce covered finger into his perfectly white dress shirt. He glanced down at it in horror.

“Oh that was so--” He started to tickle and attack you, but realized that would only make his outfit dirtier. “This isn’t over,” He wagged a finger at you as he pointed you to the shower. You gave him one last cheeky smile as he walked out and shut the door to his secret room.

What was happening? Why were you getting to him so easily, so fast? How could he have not even remembered that he had ‘met’ you several times? Well, one thing was for sure. He was never going to forget this night.

[ectonurites]

What’s a cover date?

Cover dates are a date printed on the cover of a comic that's a few months ahead of when it's actually released (DC pretty consistently 2 months, but other companies I think it has varied)

From what I've read, this practice originated in the days where comics were frequently sold at newsstands and other stores (aside from comic-specific shops). The comics were sold like magazines, and the cover date would be when a store returned unsold comics to the publisher to make room for new issues, so it'd be a few months after release to give an issue time to get sold.

Nowadays newsstand distribution is nonexistent for big two comics, from a few sources I've seen Marvel ceased doing newsstands in 2013 and DC in 2017, which actually lines up almost exactly with what I noticed in my earlier post that asked about why cover dates disappeared on DC books- they became unnecessary on DC books during 2017, so when they did their cover format redesign at the end of that year they just cut them out entirely.

Since the mid-80s comics have moved more towards the direct sales model which is where publishers sell to comic book stores at a discounted rate but don't give them the option to sell them back like in the newsstand model (which is why when comics go off the main shelves at a comic shop to make room for new stuff they'll go into back issues)

Here's a blog-type post that explains the two distribution models a bit more (with some info graphics), it's talking overall about the topic from a collecting standpoint (about the value and rarity of graded direct vs newsstand editions) but still interesting!

Uhhh heres examples of cover dates from some comics I have in my room tho, from between the early 90's-Rebirth