#i started this draft in like December 2023

[sansxreaderbraindump]

"CROSSBONES AND HIS INFAMOUS NEMESIS, DEVIL SIDE!!"

(i want goofy villian reader so i wrote headcanons for it. i got this idea during ht san stream. Goofy readeer) also spoilers on ts underswap tho. if you dont wanna get spoiled (like milk), go watch someone play the full demo or play it yourself on gamejolt. YOUR OWN COOL VILLIAN NAME: DEVIL SIDE Real boring name: [name] ^ From time to time, you always change your villain name like "DEMON HARE, CHAOS BRINGER AND DESTRUCTIVE FUNNER and other cool villainous names you came up with" but you usually just stay with devil side to make it easy on your skeleton nemesis. How you got to this phase of your life: Back in the days, you used to work for Count Koffin-K. cooking up ideas for him, feeding jeremy, joined them on their random schemes, and did the dishes when the boogiemen didn't. Yet, you grown tired and wanted to do villain skits on your own. It was heartbreaking for Koffin-K and his boogiemen to set you off on your own like a parent sending off their child to collage. For one thing, Larry and Harry cried so hard they accidentally made a stream that Woshua struggled cleaning up but managed too victoriously :D. * It been a w-wicked time with y-you..I DONT WANNA LET YOU GO BUD WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! * I-IM W-WITH LA-LARRY I DONT WANNA LET GO EITHER WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-AHHHHHHHHH! LARRY, YOU IDIOT YOU'RE CRUSHING US! "A-as how h-heartwretching and painful this is, like really p-painful! LARRY FOR THE QUEEN'S SAKE COULD YOU STOP CRUSHING US TO DEATH!" As well as the boogiemen crying for you, Koffin-K didn't want you to see him shed a tear. he attempts to hide it away but you see right through him. In contrast, You comforted him and reassured him that on weekends you and him can collab on doing evil schemes together and visit the boss and the gang on the weekends. "aww boss didn't know you would cry for me." * WELL OF COURSE! HOW COULD I NOT WEEP FOR YOUR DEPARTURE! *sniff* *sniff* "aww gonna miss you too boss. but its not like I'm gonna be gone forever. we can Collab on doing evil stuff like ding dong ditch and I'll come visit you on the weekends." * ...Can you still do the dishes. "..there will be some setbacks." ALTER EGO SANS INTERACTION One day when you first met sans (his true form), you were done finishing up some traps and "kidnapping" a random monster who found for crossbones to save (with consent from the hostage. you will take full responsibility if they were to be hurt) You were ready to throw in a brick with an note for crossbones to find until you saw sans (crossbones) and mistaken him for crossbones. "NOW I HAVE YOU IN MY SIGHT CRO-!" "umm sorry but is that you crossbones?" *think again sweetheart. AH HAH! I KNEW IT! YOU AIN'T CROSSBONES, YOUR JUST A FAN "WHO LOOKS JUST LIKE HIM BUT DIFFERENT" (d-did you just call me sweetheart?) - he flirts with you on the daily basis, just to mess with you. its very fun. *also, the telescope costed 257 G. "WAIT WHAT, YOU SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME-" *but for you, it has a discount off 100%. "..." (you ran away, blushing and grumbling while you're at it) *heh, cute.

YOU AND CROSSBONES - Crossbones thinks you're cute and a dork. A cute dork! - First time you guys met was at the costume party. You were planning to create your costume but procrastinated all month and didn't manage to finish it up in time. In shame, you just taped a piece of paper that said "pretend that I have the best costume you ever seen!" to your chest and hang out in the corner, enviously staring at the other people's cool costume. You could just go home but there was free food so you stayed there, eating all the cheese crackers. You thought you could not talk to anyone but you thought wrong. The comedic skeleton came up to you, reading the paper and said "that is the best costume I ever seen." the second meeting was when koffin-k toilet papered all 4 houses with the boogiemen including you. Then crossbones came in, saving the day. In a glance, He recognized you and you recognized him. What a twist a long time stanger turned out to be a villain full of mischief. You were captured with koffin-k but you land out a hand to help your boss escape in a quick sweep. You threw him like a frisbee out of the trenches of a shack. He escaped with your help and yelled out very loudly "I WILL COME BACK FOR YOU WITH BACKUP" while spinning in the wind. so there you were, alone with crossbones in the punishment shack. * nice villain costume by the way. Best costume I ever seen. "you still remember that?" Some interactions I came up, enjoy!

"YOU'LL NEVER DEFEAT ME CROSSBONES FOR I HAVE A PLAN F IN MY SLEEVES" *ok *quick gooey question, what do you want for dinner? "...Pizza." (papyrus in the distant): SANS STOP MAKING DINNER DATES WITH THE ENEMY!! - also if you and crossbones were married 👀, you and him would do enemies to lovers domestic role playing. "WAIT YOU, MY NEMESIS WANT ME TO TAKE ME OUT ON A DATE!!?!? *we are married, you dork. "sans pleaseee, just play along :(" *alr alr if it makes you happy." - Dark side love nicknames for crossbone MY RIVIAL, MY NEMESIS, THE BONES WHO FOILS MY EVIL PLANS, THE BONELY ONE TO STEAL MY SOUL, sans♥ - crossbones love nicknames for dark side dork, cute dork.

- One time when you got grumpy with crossbones because you planned more to show but got captured by him too early. In attempt to get you stop being all pouty, crossbones held you bridal style carry while you were tied up, but that didn't work instead you gave him something even much worse. The silent treatment, But that didn't last for long, he gave a smooch on your cheek to stop you being all grumpy with him. *aw don't turn into the grumpy side [name]. "mmm >:(" *even worse, the silent side. *well good thing I know how to bring them back. *mwah❤ "...FINE FINE YOU WON!" *Welp off to the punishment shack we go.

Extras - i named them devil side because y'know in undertale/deltarune we are the angel (that is what I believe). so I called them the opposite like "ahahaha i am devil side" but inside they are an angel in heart. - also i thought of devil side (you) to be like a character that belongs in this world. I think it was clever, cuz its swap over you the player is now devil side and you belong in this world well a version of you that is...

[therentyoupay]

Hii kris can you give us a teeny tine spoiler for More thank you know finale 🤣? I just really can't wait for you to post the final chapter 😭😭

a TEENY TINY ONE?? i'm not sure i can 🤣🤣🤣🤣 but here's what i CAN say:

calli had the original vision for all of mtyk from the very beginning of everything (premise, ending, final scene), which was inspired from a single "what if...?" scenario from our list on our brainstorming google doc from like summer 2023; calli had always had One Very Specific Moment mind for the ending-ending of the whole mtyk series... however, in the end, we didn't actually end up using That Specific Moment in the story (kris ended up changing it to SLIGHTLY MORE ANGST because we both like to suffer)

on that note, kris ended up adding like 15k words after That (Revised) Specific Moment oops sorry not sorry

pretty sure we've mentioned this before, but before any of the Heroes' Journey arc was imagined for the project (i.e., the bulk of act iii), calli had literally just written in the google doc: 'kris add jelsa adventure stuff here!' under "act III" header, and then a series of our whatsapp audio messages and brainstorming chats spawned all of parts i-vii oops 😂

kris LITERALLY wrote most of the entire mtyk story (parts i-vi) in the span of literally like two and a half weeks near the end of summer, and then together we relentlessly fine-tuned/proofread/edited/beta'd each part, week by week as we posted each to ao3; the whole time, we left the final part (part vii) unwritten until part vi was being written, to make sure we had the full scope of jack and elsa's journeys before writing any of the final scenes

once part vi was posted on ao3, kris started writing and fine-tuning vii in earnest; calli literally beta'd the whole "finished" final chapter and then kris had a stroke of inspiration like two or three weeks later and wrote 12-15k more words and calli had to beta the whole thing all over again 🤣

part vii is WRITTEN, and is BETA'd, and is FINISHED, and exists on ao3 as a DRAFT, complete with full author notes and end notes! as soon as the final part of the youtube series is finished, the final chapter shall be posted simultaneously and we shall click that little "Post" button 💕 all that's left is the youtube video! but kris and calli are in final year of PhD program/the first year of med school, respectively, and we are LOCKED INto career responsibilities this month, so we are hopeful for an ✨(early??? mid????) December final-chapter release✨

GO SHARE SOME LOVE WITH CALLI, who is literally, i repeat, TRAINING TO BECOME A DOCTOR AND IS VERY BUSY AND AMAZING 🤣

(A CHRISTMAS TREAT PERCHANCE???)

the final chapter is 19,111 words 👀

LOVE YOUUUU THANK YOU NONNY 💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

[theroseiswithoutawherefor]

Well, first of all, I have to thank @yridenergyridenergy for selling me the ticket! It was literally the best experience I had throughout the year; I really, really, sincerely appreciate it.

As promised, this is my repo of the gig in Wakayama. To be honest, I’m really a bad recorder as I can only recall the sensation or vibe in general and forget the details every time. Am I the only one?? Anyway, I guess my drawings may not be precise at all and it would be more like a summary of the year.

And this repo will be focusing on Kaoru, Toshiya and Kyo. I’m sorry but I stood on the left in both times.

Kaoru

It’s so strange that I can easily feel my love for him grows with time and what a coincidence! I visited them twice this year and I was right in front of him every time. I always assumed that I would be in front of Toshiya when I checked the hall map in December, but no! It was Kaoru again! It kinda shocked me the time I located my seat and noticed his microphone stand was there, just about 2 meters away.

I think probably it has been known by all of you, the show started with a semi-transparent screen showing some AI-generated footage(sorry, I hate this part). It covered most of the setting but just revealed some shadows. I could only see Kaoru, his side profile, priest-alike gown and silver hair. He looked so focused and indifferent and so good-looking…my hands are still sweating as I recall it now.

That was my first time listening to Rinkaku on-site. I got caught up in emotion when you could easily compare themselves in reality and their sketches in the video. You could see how much they have changed and it also just reminded me a lot of moments, staying at home and staring them on the screen. The real vs the virtual.

Also, at the beginning from the distance, I could only see some sort of marks on his chin that looked pretty much like piercings? It turned out to be his makeup; so brilliant.

Kyo

I didn’t see Kyo that much this time, but I feel he is that kind of vocal that you would fall in love with once you’ve actually seen him in the venue. He looked so nostalgic to me this time, maybe bc of the ghost face makeup or the fact that I have seen him too much this year. I also went to HK for sukekiyo this year.

The gig of sukekiyo was more emotional, floating and spacey (and less aggressive, obviously). Kyo’s dedication was so contagious. Although he looked a little bit nervous at the beginning of the Day1, forgetting the lyrics now and then lol.

It is interesting to see the similarities and differences between Diru and Sukekiyo, like looking at different reflections of the same mirror.  

Btw probably he is the most inspiring Diru member to me I guess. Idk why drawing kyo always begins with a pretty satisfying draft then it becomes a big challenge to my expertise and patience ahhhh. But yeah, I can improve a lot after finishing it. So, kyo, thx? lol

Toshiya

I’m not quite a fan of his white outfit that day(the one worn in the pic of their tweet on 16th Dec). Actually I even failed to recognize him the first, waistcoat and palazzo trouser are ok but definitely not the most stunning look of him. It seems that his style is becoming more gender-neutral this year, with hair dyed brown, pearl jewelries and feminine makeup.

But I still quite enjoyed his performance, his body language was so beautiful (ugh! It’s such a shame that I can’t recreate it)and he was the first one going to the left terrace and saying hi to everyone. Toshiya is always the sweetest person in Diru to me.

I prefer his encore look more and he took off the shirt and threw it to the gift right in front of him

（and a random sketch）

That’s it! I could have drawn more but, sorry I’m a perfectionist, these pics really took me some time, but I may keep going if I have spare time.

And I’m not used to talking so much on the Internet, it is embarrassing somehow.  

The year of 2023 has treated me rly good, I hope it would be the same for all of you and Diru members, see you next year.

[toasttt11]

ow

December 9, 2023

Cameron looked up just as she saw a player on the other team coming at her and she was smashed into the board but that wasn’t what hurt, it was the large other player that smashed her tiny hand with his knee against the boards.

Cameron immediately felt something crack and knew something was wrong as she leaned against the board holding her dominant hand to her chest, “Ow.” Cameron quietly whimpered biting her lip from letting any tears fall not wanting that to be caught on camera.

Fraser froze as he watched everything in front of him before quickly snapping out and hurrying over to her and pushing the other player away from Cameron and towards their team so they could make sure he stayed away from Cameron.

Fraser wrapped his arm around her shoulder hoping it might help her a little as he watched the trainer rush across the ice and towards them, “Your okay.” Fraser whispered softly rubbing her shoulder softly.

Fraser grabbed onto her hand gently as the trainer started looking at her injured hand and he frowned seeing the uneasy look on the trainers face and knew it wasn’t good.

It did not help the hand she injured is her dominant hand, an injury is something you never want but for Cameron this is her draft year so an injury is a lot worse right now.

Cameron gave Fraser a reassuring nod as she skated over to the bench, there was only a few minutes left of the period.

Cameron was guided to the trainer room and immediately they looked at her hand and could see the swelling and bruising starting and they knew she would must likely need to get to the hospital, they took a an x-ray and saw multiple breaks and fractures in her hand.

The trainers helped Cameron get dressed into comfortable clothes just as Fraser was dressed after the game and knocking on the door.

“How bad?” Fraser questioned in concern the second he walked into the room and straight over to Cameron.

“I have to go to the hospital, they found a few breaks and fractures.” Cameron quietly told him, she knew she needed to call her dad.

“Let’s go then.” Fraser nodded determinedly and stepped out of the way so she could get off the exam table.

“You don’t have to-“ Cameron tried to protest even though she knew it would be easier if Fraser came with her.

“I want to.” Fraser sternly reassured her and she nodded reluctantly and stood up as she gingerly held her hand to her body trying to not groan at how much pain she was feeling.

Fraser wrapped an arm around Cameron’s shoulder as they walked out, he guided her making sure no one accidentally brushed against her, he led them to his car and they luckily carpooled for the game that day.

He opened the passenger seat and put a tentative hand on waist as he helped her into the car and he grabbed the seat belt pulling it across her and clicking it shut, he shut the door and walked around the car hopping into the drivers seat starting the drive to the closet hospital.

Fraser drove them and stayed silent as Cameron called her dad to let him know about her injury as she saw all the worried texts from him as Sidney was watching his daughter’s game.

Sidney promised he would be there in a few hours as he is going to head right now to the airport and luckily he didn’t have any games for three days but it’s not like he wouldn’t miss a game for Cameron especially with her hurt.

Fraser could tell Cameron was in a lot of pain and was trying to stay strong but he had no doubt it was a lot of pain.

They finally pulled up to the hospital and he immediately parked and hopped out of the car rushing to open the passenger door and helping Cameron out of the car.

Cameron was brought into a room and the doctors did another round of x-rays and it was determined she needed surgery immediately especially with how delicate hands are and how many of the bones in her hand was broken.

Cameron was given a room and she changed into a gown getting in the bed, she was biting her lip nervously, she has never had surgery before and by the time her dad gets here she will be done with the surgery.

“Hey.” Fraser spoke softly gently grabbing her non injured hand and squeezing it softly, he could tell she was nervous, “I’ll be here the whole time okay.” Fraser gently reassured the girl who he fell in love with at first sight.

“Ok.” Cameron nodded and took a deep breath trying to relax and focus on the fact Fraser is holding her hand rather than her upcoming surgery.

Fraser gently caressed her knuckles with his thumb watching as she slowly relax little by little.

The nurse came in to grab Cameron to take her to her surgery and Fraser could not follow her.

“You are going to do great Cam and before you know it you’ll be awake and it will over with and your Dad will be here.” Fraser softly whispered to her and Cameron slowly nodded sending him a small smile, Fraser leaned down and pressed a delicate kiss to her forehead and squeezed her hand once more before stepping back and watching her get rolled away.

Fraser headed to the surgical waiting area and he sat down looking at his feet not moving for a very long time until he heard someone rushing and Cameron’s name being said.

Fraser looked up and saw a frazzled Sidney Crosby at the counter, he took a deep breath as stood up walking over, “Mr. Crosby.” Fraser called out softly.

Sidney turned around at sound of his voice and hoped for once it was not a fan he was to stressed with Cameron to deal with anyone.

Sidney narrowed his eyes and immediately knew who called his voice, his daughter’s crush.

“Mr. Minten.” Sidney nodded his head.

“Just Fraser please. Did they tell you about Cam.” Fraser questioned gently noticing how Sidney has some of the same quirks as Cameron when she is anxious.

Sidney nodded his head as the nurse had just informed him everything, he knew his daughter would not be playing for awhile especially with the fact she hurt her shooting hand, selfish Sidney didn’t hate the idea of her not playing because she would be home for a bit.

“Good.” Fraser nodded and before he could say anything else a doctor walked of doors and into the waiting room.

“Family of Cameron.” The doctor called out and Sidney started walking and noticed Fraser staying put and gestures for Fraser to come too, Sidney may not personally know the boy but his daughter likes and trusts him and that is important to Sidney, Also Fraser stayed the whole time with Cameron something Sidney couldn’t be there for.

“Mr. Crosby.” The doctor nodded, “Good news is the survey went very well, the not so great news is we had to a few more screws that we originally planned so we will have to monitor that as she heals to see if she will be able to keep all of them in permanently or some may need to be removed.” 
Sidney let out a sight, the news could’ve of been a lot worse.

“Thank you.” Sidney thanked the Doctor shaking his hand, “What would the recovery time be?” Sidney questioned.

“With how much she broke in her hand the recovery time will be a bit longer than a normal hand break, roughly around two months.”

Sidney nodded but felt pain that his daughter would be gone for so long during her season.

“And is she free to travel on plane?” Sidney questioned again, he planned to take her home as soon as possible.

“She will be, and we can coordinate rehabs and appointments for where she is going.” The doctor told him.

“Thank you.” Sidney smiled grateful and shook the doctor’s hand once more before a nurse told Sidney and Fraser they could go to her room as she was brought back and should be waking up soon.

Sidney grabbed his bag and followed Fraser as they walked through the hallway towards Cameron’s room.

“Thank you Fraser.” Sidney spoke up after quite a bit of silence, “For being there for my daughter today and all of the other days since she has met you.”

“Oh of course Mr. Crosby.” Fraser started talking but was politely cut off by Sidney.

“Just Sidney.” Sidney nodded, he knew how important Fraser is to Cameron and knew he needed to be kind with him.

“Of course Sidney.” Fraser smiled softly as they reached her door and they walked in seeing her still sleeping.

Sidney let out a long sight of relief seeing his daughter and dropped his bag walking over to her and gently kissed her forhead and brushed her hair out of her face.

Fraser walked around to the other side of her bed and gently grabbed onto her hand.

Fraser and Sidney stayed in silence for a good hour before Cameron’s eyes started to fluttered open.

“Hey CamBug.” Sidney softly whispered smiling down at her.

“Dad.” Cameron breathed out in relief feeling her shoulders loosen having her dad with her now.

“How are you? Are you in pain? Should i get the nurse?” Sidney started frantically asking looking exactly like a very protective father.

Fraser smiled softly as he watched the two, he knew Cameron has a very close bond with her father especially as it has just always been them but seeing them it was very sweet to watch.

“Dad. I’m okay. We can call the nurse in a bit.” Cameron softly cut off her father from asking more questions.

Sidney nodded letting out a breath.

Cameron seemed to just realize her hand was being held and turned seeing Fraser standing there, “Fras.” Cameron softly smiled feeling very touched that he was still here.

“Hi Cam.” Fraser softly replied back squeezing her hand.

“You stayed?” Cameron questioned in disbelief but the smile on her face was very olease something neither Sidney or Fraser missed.

“You were here.” Fraser simply answered back making Cameron’s face soften in complete fondness for the boy.

Sidney nodded slowly, any reservations he may of had about Fraser were gone then. He saw immediately how Fraser looked at his daughter like she was the stars in his skyline and Sidney knew Fraser was perfect for his daughter.

[seonghwanotes]

new years eve | jeong yunho

pairing: yunho x reader

genre: fluff

word count: 953

a/n: this was originally a collab but i completed the ending bc the writer i collabed with had closed her acc so yeah, this had me thinking for a lil bit. ALSO THE GIF 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 im getting bias wrecked big time, i cannot imagine being yunhonotes 😭 (21 Aug 2021)

a/n: as i write this, it is 28th sept 2023 😭 had this in my drafts for a while, did not proofread at all so will just post this up for now x

It was finally the most awaited week of the whole year, Christmas week. It was a family tradition for everyone to start preparing for Christmas when December came by but this year round, you were away from your family and you were spending it with Yunho and his friends. Considering that everyone was busy with their own schedules and you finally got a break till New Years, you began your preparation a little later than usual.

But as usual, Christmas went by in a blink of an eye. Right after you had taken down the Christmas tree all by yourself, you let out a loud sigh, feeling a little sad. It certainly felt a little different since it was something you’d do together with your family members but it didn’t feel as lonely since you were with your loving boyfriend.

You grabbed your phone off the couch and took a picture of the now dismantled tree, sending it to Yunho who was at practice with the boys. Not even a second passed, he had seen your message and immediately called you.

“Oh, hello?”

“Y/N, how can you take down the tree without me helping you out? It must have been hard, especially with the upper part of the tree.” He scolded you, making you chuckle.

“Yunho, it’s fine. I was gonna do it by today anyway and I was free after you left so I just got it done. You would be home later anyway. I used a chair in case you were wondering.” You replied back, earning a sigh from him. You didn’t need to be next to him to see his pout and know that he was upset for not helping you out.

You waited for a bit as you sat down, grabbing your gifts you got for Yunho along with the gift wrapper. You set your call on speaker mode and put your phone down. You could only hear some of the boys whispering to each other but it wasn’t too audible since the background music was blocking their voices out.

“Okay, okay. I’m sorry I didn’t wait till you came home but tomorrow’s New Years eve! You know I don’t like keeping the tree up for longer than 3 days. Anyway, I’m going to the supermarket soon to get some stuff for our dinner tomorrow.” You told him, still not getting a response back. “Should I get champagne too?”

You and Yunho spent a homely Christmas together as everyone was with their family except for the two of you. It was not much but work has definitely made your lives much more busier, causing you two to not get presents for each other in time that you were doing it pretty late. Not that it mattered to you at this age but you felt bad for not carrying out a simple task.

You started wrapping your presents, occasionally glancing at your phone to see if he was about to end the call since he wasn’t answering you back. There was some light bickering among the boys but you couldn’t hear what they were talking about. “Jeong Yunho, If you wanted to help me out so badly, do me a favour and ask the boys what they would want for gifts or I’m wrapping vegetables for all 8 of you.”

Your threat seemed to slightly work as you heard Mingi chime at the other side of the call, “Ya, I don’t want vegetables this year. You better ask her for her size or I’m asking her myself!”

Size? Your size for what? You were about to voice out but Yunho cut you to it. “Well, that sounds fine. Go ahead, baby.”

“So you want me to get vegetables for them?” You questioned, earning a yell from Jongho.

“Y/N! Don’t listen to hyung! Get us what you feel like getting us except vegetables… what? Oh, no mint chocolate for Hongjoong hyung and Seonghwa hyung. We love you!” He yelled, making you laugh. These boys were enough to make you feel like you were at home.

“Not sure why I’m on speaker mode but okay.” You answered back, hearing someone getting a hard smack. You were about to end the call but stopped when Yunho called out. “Baby, wait! One more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Your hand is almost the same as San’s right?” The question almost came out as a whisper, Yunho knowing you would get agitated at that question since your hands were the size of a child compared to his delicate giant ones.

“You know the answer already. Why are you even asking this? Are you getting me a bracelet from Pandora or what?” You asked him, sealing the gift wrapper with a ribbon on top for Yunho’s gift, which was a Rolex watch and matching rings that you’ve been eyeing for a while now.

A silence was heard initially, then a voice followed along. “Yeah, would rose gold do?”

Your cheeks flushed, “Ah, um, yeah. See you later then. Tell the boys to be early tomorrow. Oh, I’ll get 3 bottles of champagne then, okay?”

“Okay, sure thing. Yes, 3 is fine. I love you.” Yunho replied, sending a kiss through the call.

“Love you too.” You responded and ended the call.

One gift wrapped and there was more to go. You sighed, pushing them away for awhile and opened your laptop to surf the internet, making a list on what to buy for the boys, wanting it to be meaningful as well. Even if Christmas wasn’t as joyful as you wanted it to be, New Years was going to be the most memorable holiday you had in a while and you couldn’t wait for it to arrive.

[joycew-art]

Someone asked what my process was to make the Rickbot comic, so I thought I'd make a separate post to show it. The process was kinda all over the place and spread over many months from December 2022 up till June 2023, so I'll try my best to make it understandable. And if you have any questions feel free to ask them!

The idea

So it all started with the idea of; What if Rickbot came back? And then the idea immediately made me think of two things;

How would Rickbot react?

Why is he brought back?

Which ended up with these two scenarios in my mind;

A. Rickbot awakens and he's not happy B. Rick tells the reason he's activated again

These were the very first scenes that started it all.

So then the question became, how do I go from point A to point B?

I would take moments from the show as reference for how they would act in these scenarios. And I'd take inspiration from manga and other comics of how I wanted the dialogue to flow and what the comic layouts would look like. In this case I knew a lot of dialogue would be involved cause these guys talk a lot! But I also didn't want the panels to feel too crowded and rushed so I limited myself to the amount of dialogue per panel.

Right now I'm writing it down like it was very planned, but for me this was often a very subconscious thing I did. I just thought up scenarios while I was taking walks or daydreaming in the shower etc. And sometimes these very specific moments would pop up that I would write down or draw out later.

I would make mini thumbnails of how I wanted the pages to go and write the dialogue next to it. At this point I'm mainly thinking of what I want characters to say and how I want the story to flow. Sometimes I make multiple versions of the same scenario to see how it flows better.

At times I even only write down dialogue and then make the thumbnails for them later. I have a tiny a6 sketchbook for little thumbnails and ideas like this. These were often moments were I didn't know where I wanted to take the comic yet, so I would separate the two to keep it more organized for myself.

As you might have noticed, not everything is the same in the final comic. I always fine-tune or change stuff up as I go. Sometimes things don't flow as well as I thought they did or some dialogue feels awkward or unnecessary.

Sketching

Once all the pages were planned and I have a good idea of how the story would go I opened a new Clip Studio Paint file and used the comic feature to set that up.

I would then copy the thumbnails I made in the page files and exported a thumbnail draft of the whole comic and 'read' through it to see how it flowed.

After I was satisfied I finally started sketching the pages.

Most of the pages stayed the same from the thumbnail, aside from some poses or expressions here and there. But I would also change up stuff I wasn't satisfied with.

For example, initially the Prime panel looked like the left one, but I didn't like how the pose flowed with the text balloons. There was a lot of empty space as well. So I decided to redo it to the one on the right.

Even now for the final version I'm thinking of resizing Rick a bit more. These kind of changes just happen throughout the process.

The backgrounds

I knew the comic would only take place in the garage, so to save myself a lot of time I decided to make it in 3d.

First I decided to sketch out the four walls of the garage as planes;

Then I imported those in Blender. I did some simple 3d modeling to get the basic shapes for the counters and the cabinet et voila! 3d sketch version of the garage!

I know this is a very watered down explanation, but trying to explain how I did it would take a whole new tutorial. And there are many other ones out there that explain it much better than I could. I was lucky that I already have some Blender experience cause of past works I've done for school and stuff.

But if you got the time to delve into it I would recommend it! For this here you only need to know the basics. Also Blender is free to download :)

This has saved me a lotttt of time drawing the same backgrounds over and over again!

Cover

Lastly I did the cover. That one has also gone through multiple versions. I had a vague idea of what I wanted, but I wasn't happy with the execution so I redrew that one as well.

So that's the whole process so far. I do I wanna continue the comic once I got the energy to work on it again. Gonna do some test pages first to see what kind of rendering I wanna go for. Not sure if'll be in black and white, color or a combo...we'll see.

I hope this helps! And if you have any questions don't be afraid to ask them.

[steamberrystudio]

05/11/2023

Hey everyone! Time for the bi-weekly tumblr update for Steamberry stuffs!

I feel like I have missed a few tumblr updates. I went back and the last one I can find is *dated* August 24 - but was actually posted on September 24th. LoL

I had one dated from October but it looks like I may have never actually posted it. That seems about right for how things have been going for me.

It's been rough. Like...really rough. I'm going to assume that the September 24th post was my last tumblr update. I have been updating on Patreon and even updated on Itchio, so there have been updates. Just apparently not here.

(below, you'll mostly find information on WSC but there is a quick update on GS remnants as well!)

Summary

Have written all but Yren's route *through* chapter 9

Numerous new BGs

Ramble

So the last time I posted it looks like I was just starting Chapter 8 in When Stars Collide. I am currently wrapping up the final scenes of chapter 9.

My word count in the September update was 373,000 and it is currently 413,000. I am just shy of 90% of the way towards my final word count goal.

I am about halfway through writing Yren's chapter 9 content (about 8000 words of content total and I've got nearly 4000 of that written). Once I have that bit written, I will be done with Chapter 9 for all characters.

I've gotten new art since my last post but honestly I'm not sure at this point how many. Looking back at my emails, it looks like I've probably gotten 3 new complete BGs + 1 BG sketch since my last update here on Tumblr.

I have updated all the CGs with the new background art as well - the introductory CGs in the current snapshot, of course, use the old backgrounds and the new conference room looks completely different and has different chairs. So I had to go back to those CGs and re-do the chairs. That is done but I haven't actually coded the new BGs yet. I have, however, updated the artwork.

That's basically the major stuff for now with WSC.

Gilded Shadows

Working on the lore book. The art book is complete but I decided to hold off releasing it until the lore book is done so I can release them together. Lore book is taking a while as there is a lot of content to format and I'm adding to it as I go.

It is nearing 100 pages already and...yeah. There's a fair bit more. So it's gonna be big.

Screenshots:

None this time....I don't think.

Upcoming Weeks:

Basically the same old stuff. I will be writing for WSC. I am currently trying to hit a goal of at least 6500 words a week so I can complete the draft by the end of December.

So far I have been able to do that although some weeks I barely managed. It's, as I said, been rough.

I'm continuing to work on the GS lore book. Most of the stuff is at least collected in one place right now, so I just have to format, organise, and add any commentary.

But I've changed computers at least twice since starting this game and some things I remember writing and am now struggling to find. So...that's fun.

Anyway I will try to make sure I post here every two weeks going forward instead of writing up a draft of the post and apparently never showing anyone. 💪

[vidreview]

some thoughts on Action Button Reviews

[originally posted december 22nd 2023]

ANONYMOUS ASK: Not a recommendation because I know you've already seen it, but I remember you (this being like a year ago) calling Tim Rogers' action button reviews boku no natsuyasami something along the lines of "a triumphant demonstration of what's possible in the video essay medium". I was wondering if you could elaborate, provided it hasn't been too long. I recognise I'm blasting you from the past here lol. It was one of the few hours-long video essays that I didn't mind sitting through, though I'm still not sure it quite justifies its length. Tim's delivery helps significantly there, in a way that reminds me of Caleb Gamman's casual/improvised-feeling but thoroughly scripted shtick.

oh i still think Tim Rogers is hands down the best in the biz. i've watched the Action Button reviews multiple times, i've got a davinci resolve project with all his videos in, studied them under a microscope and taken lots of notes. i think his work absolutely does justify the length, because rather than trying to say Everything There Is To Say about a game, he instead focuses on digging into the game's relationship with his own hyperspecific subjectivity. i don't know how else to describe the Action Button reviews except as literary media criticism, using incredibly in-depth analysis as a jumping off point for discussing how these games shape us and the culture, the role they occupy at various stages of our life, and how who we are at any given moment is just as important to our opinion of a game as the game itself. sooner or later i want to do a full-on VIDREV on his stuff, probably in video essay form, but consider this a first draft overview of why i find his work so special.

there's little things. despite the length of his videos, he never fails to get to The Point (his term for the thesis statement) within five minutes of starting the essay proper. he is a talented and quick-witted tour guide, funny and clever and philosophically ponderous all at once. his work is clearly designed to reward multiple viewings, yet never fails to feel complete on a first watch. he writes with a precision of language that'll knock your socks off if you let it, especially if you're willing to go with him on his seemingly non sequitur tangents. but it goes a lot deeper than that.

i just don't think anyone else is putting nearly as much time, effort, and thought into the moment to moment particulate matter of his video essays than Tim Rogers. there are a ton of little mistakes that quite a few essayists make as a result of only doing one or two complete editing passes, or otherwise not sitting down and watching their video start to finish at multiple points in post-production. things like bad audio mixing, cut-off breaths and sounds that ought to be removed, stray frames from footage creating accidental jump cuts, flubbed line deliveries, misaligned overlay elements, sloppy compositing, the list goes on. it's no great sin to make these mistakes, mind-- no one's being commissioned, most essayists aren't professional editors, there's no quality control or review board or institutional best practices. it's the difference between giving the kitchen a quick once over with a rag and getting on your hands and knees to scrub every stain with a toothbrush. most people don't have the time it takes to do the latter, aren't getting paid enough, and the returns on putting the effort in are impossible to measure and therefore, practically speaking, nonexistent.

but as someone who tries to put that kind of work in (not always successfully), i can always tell when another essayist has done the same. longform video essays in aggregate tend to be messy, under-structured, rambling; they often arise out of an essayist's desire to say everything they could possibly say on a subject. not only is this an impossible task, it makes for a pretty dull viewing experience to boot. what i find so impressive about Tim Rogers' work is that despite their length, his videos are relentlessly structured. the attention to fine details in the moment-to-moment edit across the whole runtime is astonishing; that the script itself is so internally integrated never fails to make me furious (with professional envy). he always has a lot to say, not all of which is strictly speaking essential to the analysis, but nothing ever feels so indulgent that it drags the rest of the essay down in my estimation. he often repeats information, but he does so very strategically and in a way that's meant to help the viewer follow a thread from start to finish. i also think his presentation style goes a long way towards hiding how much effort he puts in, how relentlessly curated these things actually are in spite of their length. he's talked extensively about how much he cuts from these videos (most prominently is story 5 from the Cyberpunk 2077 review, which went from over an hour in length at first draft to, eventually, just over a minute), how he watches them back over and over and constantly makes fine adjustments. that work won't be apparent to everyone watching, but it's exceedingly apparent to me.

and then there's the cherry on top of it all, which is the fact that the Action Button reviews are constructed as being part of "seasons" that have a planned thematic throughline. taken as a whole, season 1 is a completely unique work of literary metacritical nonfiction, a series of six reviews (Final Fantasy VII Remake -> The Last of Us -> DOOM -> Pac-Man -> Tokimeki Memorial -> Cyberpunk 2077) that use specific games to talk about trends in game design, trends in gamer culture, the history of games development, all through an astonishingly earnest and open autobiographical document of Tim Rogers' own professional and personal life, which is given particular weight by his astonishing capacity for near perfect recall from early childhood. they are the clear result of a life spent thinking about and writing about and talking about games in between all the rest of his life, neither of which was ever truly separate. i know i'm throwing around a lot of superlatives here, but i really do adore these essays. i think a lot of folks doing longform games reviews try to achieve a sort of technical objectivity, limiting the scope of their analysis to strictly what's in the game (and often only that which involves numbers, leaving any narrative or thematic components to a brief aside at the very end). the Action Button method should fall into that category, and yet Rogers himself uses its technical objectivity as an anchor around which flows an endless and unquantifiable ocean of subjectivity, where game mechanics and thematic elements mix forever. each subsequent review drops a new anchor, and thus begins to compose a map whose purpose is as much a matter of self-reflection as it is pure education or analysis.

but i really do think it's with the first (and so far only) episode of season 2, his review of Boku no Natsuyasumi, that you can really see the cunning of what he's been up to all along. i often find myself thinking about his reflections on returning to Kansas ("it took me back to a place i had never never been"), on why people rewatch movies and replay games ("our memory only records the cold parts"), on the futility of trying to recapture the past ("places don't remember us"), on the screaming terror of our own looming mortality ("meanwhile our shattering animals"). i just know those quotes off the top of my head, man, that's how deep in it i am. the Boku no Natsuyasumi review is a masterpiece, and the ways it breaks from the style and approach of season 1's reviews only strengthens the choices he made in season 1, because suddenly we realize that they were choices. that's the artfulness of this series, in my opinion: it starts as, seemingly, a relatively bog-standard "i'm going to review some video games and make some jokes and tell some stories along the way" type joint, but slowly reveals to you essay by essay just how little of this project was automatic, unconsidered, arbitrary, and that its aims were never so miniscule as "tell you why a video game is good". there are themes running throughout the entire series, repeated phrases and ideas, theories of mind and play that build in the subtext, accruing like memories, subtly building mass until you look back and realize that what seemed like a random selection of topics was, in truth, premeditated with a conspiracist's attention to detail.

and yet despite all this high-minded gobbledygook, these videos are relentlessly watchable and entertaining. i don't always agree with his takes (i was particularly frustrated that his exploration of "every cyberpunk game" omitted the flood of relevant titles that came the indie sphere over the last decade, like Cloudpunk and Read Only Memories), but they're not the kinds of disagreements that would make me sour on his work overall, and anyway the experience is so much more valuable than something as rote and immaterial as an opinion. there's so much more i could say (and inevitably will say, someday), but there you go, that's a rough gloss on what i like about the Action Button reviews.

[earthstellar]

Image Comics has dropped their solicits for December 2023, and it looks like Duke #1 is where the Transformers/GI Joe crossover is gonna start really kicking off for the Energon Universe.

I know the general reception to the crossover at the end of ROTB was pretty rough, so it's interesting that they're getting the ball rolling in a GI Joe mini-series.

Personally, my dad was drafted into two wars against his will and suffered greatly for it, so I never had any interest in GI Joe because my dad vehemently hated that shit, as he felt it glorified war to children and that this is morally unacceptable. (He preferred the depiction of Army life of that era in MASH, which he said was at least more honest and aimed at adults.)

I also had classmates who ended up joining the military who had been big fans of GI Joe, two of whom were killed in Afghanistan. I know GI Joe wasn't the only factor involved in their decisions, but it certainly does not make me inclined to like the franchise.

My mother lost her first husband in Vietnam. He had also been drafted against his will. (I strongly dislike the GI Joe Vietnam era material in particular, for perhaps obvious reasons.)

So, I admit my general dislike of the concept of GI Joe as a franchise is at least partly based in my own trauma (and that of my family) relating to the US Army.

I've never been a GI Joe person and never will be (on moral and trauma based grounds), so I fully admit I am not well versed on the lore of that universe, and as such, it's hard for me to make any guesses at what Duke #1 might bring.

But what interests me is that on certain forums and other social media, I've seen very limited audience hype about this crossover in general, especially from the Transformers crowd.

After the extremely progressive writing and fresh visual style and designs of the IDW Transformers storylines which appealed to a lot of people across several age ranges and generations of fans, it feels weird (to me at least) to suddenly have a more old school style crossover with what is essentially a US military propaganda franchise-- At a time when the sociopolitical zeitgeist is that "going traditional" is often associated with "going backwards".

All art is political, and so on.

But I do wonder if what seems to be a lack of audience hype is partially due to the fact that not a lot of Transformers fans (at least, not many under the age of 40 based on what I'm seeing around the internet at the moment) seem to be all that into GI Joe.

A lot of young people are not exactly in love with US military fantasies, and the last Transformers comic series with IDW was a big hit with younger/teen readers-- A lot of that audience might be lost, here.

(And vice-versa from what I can tell, although I'm not in any GI Joe fan spaces so I'm not sure what the mood might be in that community in regards to the Transformers element of this crossover.)

All that having been said, the Energon Universe is only just getting started, and who knows what the comics will actually contain!

I do like G1, so I like the designs for the Transformers as drawn in this run this far.

And who knows, maybe they'll do something new with GI Joe for this. I'm aware that in at least one of the cartoons, they were essentially on the run from the military instead of working for it, which is an interesting twist. Perhaps something similar might happen here, with some Joes siding with the Autobots instead?

It's not fair to judge before a comic is even released, so I'm just thinking out loud here in regards to the crossover concept in general.

I'd be interested to hear what anyone else thinks:

Will you be checking out Duke #1 as a Transformers fan interested in the crossover?

Have any of you been interested in GI Joe previously?

If you're an IDW Transformers fan, are you interested in the Energon Universe?

Any other thoughts on the crossover, any conjecture or hopes for the direction of this run?

I want to give the Energon Universe a chance, but as I mentioned, I do have some difficulty attempting to get into GI Joe in general.

That having been said, I guess we'll have to wait and see what they do with this crossover.

[arlertdarling]

tldr: i’m cancelling my follower event and moving blogs to @junovie. i’m officially back from my ‘break’ but i can’t promise i’ll be frequently active (at least not as much as i used to be), much less that i’ll be writing/posting new works regularly.

i look forward to catching up with you all !! thank you for your support and understanding <3

full original post under the cut

hello!

you may or may not have noticed that i’ve been quite inactive for the last few months or so.

i’m sorry to everyone who has reached out to me in that time — i’m not ignoring you, i’ve just been logged out of this account and staying away from tumblr in general. i plan on getting back to you all privately and individually, but if you could read this post, just so you have an idea of what’s going on, i would really appreciate it! :)

anyway, i have two announcements to make regarding my blog — not bad, but definitely important changes! i’ve been meaning to make them for a while, but only just found the time and courage to go through with them.

there’s also a more in-depth (albeit rambly) explanation to why and where i’ve been gone after the announcements. it’s a little long, so there’s no pressure to read it all if you don’t want to.

my first announcement is that i’m cancelling my 100+ follower event.

...but you probably all saw that one coming lol

i absolutely intended to complete all the requests regardless of how long it took, but it’s been over 7 months now and i no longer see myself ever getting around to them at this point. i feel awful about it, especially because i was so excited about the event and milestone itself, but i just don’t have the motivation to write the rest anymore.

to be transparent, the main thing that affected and eventually halted my work flow entirely is this weird subconscious self-disciplinary rule i had where i was ‘not allowed’ to write anything until i’d finished my old projects. this isn’t an actual rule obviously, but it prevented me from writing new ideas or enjoying writing on this blog/for tumblr as a whole for months. every time i got inspired to write something, i’d remember that i have these obligatory requests to complete first, that it would be selfish and unfair to ‘ignore’ or not prioritise them, that people will be mad at me for not doing so etc, etc.

i’ve luckily stopped thinking this way now, but that’s why i’ve made this decision. i should write for myself and my enjoyment, first and foremost. it shouldn’t be an obligation. it’s not a commission or contractual assignment, it’s a silly online milestone event that i made and can just as easily discontinue should i want to — so that’s what i’ve chosen to do.

thank you to everyone who participated and/or supported the event, it means a lot to me still, and i’m sorry to those whose requests i didn’t manage to write. even with how much time has passed, i still feel shame and embarrassment about how this all turned out, so your acceptance and understanding would be really appreciated.

my next announcement is that i’m moving blogs.

i’m moving to a new account where i have an interaction/personal main blog (@junovie) and my current nsfw writing sideblog. i might make a new sfw one for my other writing shenanigans, but i haven’t made up my mind about that one yet.

it’s nothing serious, i mostly just want a fresh start. this blog has gotten disorganised and messy, and while some people don’t mind or even like it that way, personally i need structure and organisation in order to stay sane, so my plan is to move to a new blog. as for this blog — i might delete it permanently in the future, but for now, i just intend to archive it.

with the announcements out of the way, i just have a few more things i want to talk about.

i’m currently writing this part of the post in march of 2024, but i’ve been considering these changes since around december of 2023, and started drafting this post in january.

in that time, i’ve been mostly logged out of this account (aside from when i would come to add to this post) and keeping tumblr at arm’s length in general for... no reason in particular really? i know many people have had at least one bad experience or two during their time on tumblr, which may have led to them needing a break, but i’ve honestly been lucky enough to never have encountered anything severe personally.

for the most part, i’ve just been focused on my education. i’m at a stage in my life where i have important decisions to be making, paths and passions i want to be pursuing, responsibilities i need to be taking care of... and in comparison, my time for writing on tumblr has dwindled.

on the other hand, this ‘break’ of sorts, away from tumblr, has helped me realise just how much of my time i had been spending on what is really just another silly little social media app on my silly little phone. that’s not to say the people i’ve met and the feelings i’ve experienced aren’t good, valuable or a part of my life, or that the support i’ve received and joy i’ve shared don’t have worth in the bigger picture, because they are, they do, and i’m grateful for them all!! but in retrospect, there were, and are, more important things in my life that require my time, energy and attention [over writing] and that i should have been prioritising sooner. that’s on me for getting essentially addicted and becoming neglectful, and that’s why i needed to step back like i have.

in some ways, i feel a little guilty, because i feel like, i don’t know... like my sudden ‘hiatus’ should have been as a result of some big, crazy life event, or depression or something. and it kind of was [the latter], at the start, but the truth is it’s the opposite now? like, i’ve just been happier these days... but i don’t think it has anything to do with my break from tumblr, at least not in the sense that it makes me unhappy, or the absence of it improves my mental health or whatever. just in the sense that the time i would have spent scrolling or writing, i’ve now been spending doing other hobbies that make me happy, making connections with real life people, reflecting on and learning to love life and myself. i’m far from being where i want to be and i’m definitely still figuring things out, but i feel like i’m better at dividing my time now, and more capable of being on tumblr without it consuming my life force and every waking thought.

so, i’m going to come back, but i’m making no promises that i’ll be frequently active (at least not as much as i used to be), much less that i’ll be writing/posting new works regularly, especially not requests. i’m here just to have fun, be silly, bond with people over stories and fictional characters — and whatever else i may want in the future — but i never want it to feel like a chore or burden again.

even though i feel bad for basically ghosting everyone in my inbox and being inexplicably MIA for like, 3 months, i don’t regret taking this break. i just hope everyone will understand and respect my decisions and the changes to come.

friends/mutuals are welcome to message me if you’re curious about details or concerned or whatever else, but i’ve probably said enough here to answer any questions lol. i look forward to coming back and catching up with you all.

see you guys soon <3

[clonexreaderbingo]

Hi!! I’m so excited for this, and I hope people are too!!

How to Sign Up: 

Reblog this post to the blog you want to participate with (while likes are appreciated, a reblog makes it easier for me to keep track of everything) and follow @clonexreaderbingo

Fill out the sign up form linked at the bottom of this post

Within a week after you sign up, you’ll receive a bingo card from this blog via dm. i’m hoping to get the first crop of cards out for y’all who sign up within a few days

Post your fills whenever you want, and tag this blog so I can reblog them. Please also use the tag #CFB2023. 

If you are posting to AO3, please post your work to the collection

At the end of the event, you will put together a post of all your works for this event so I can create a big list of all the creators and reblog your masterlists. i suggest that you start a draft early and add to it as you go so you’re not scrambling to find all your works before the post is due

more important info under the cut!!

What's on a Bingo Card?

you'll get to choose the general genre of prompts you want on your card, or you can get a "challenge card," which only comes in 3x3. a challenge card is actually two cards, and here's how it works:

you'll receive one card with 9 clone names on it, and one card with 9 one word prompts on it. you're still writing the same amount of fics (9), but you'll be doing one clone prompt and a one word prompt per fic.

if you don't want a challenge card, you can select the types of prompts you want on a bingo card and you'll get those. the choices are: dialogue snippets, one word prompts, clone names, and other star wars specific prompts (like “jedi” or “life day” or “obi wan kenobi”)

Other Info:

word minimum is 300 words per fill, and fics over 400 words must include a "read more" link for me to reblog.

Please tag all warnings properly and place NSFW content under a cut (or I will not reblog it).

content no-no’s and more information can be found on the rules post and the faq

Somewhere before your fic, clearly state which square you are filling from your card AND what the relationship in the fic is so I can tag it accordingly.

Please remember to tag this blog in your stuff! it’s a long event, so i’m can’t really stalk people’s blogs every day to catch all the posts

if you are only posting on ao3 and you don’t crosspost to tumblr, you can either post an announcement with a link to your fic that i would reblog, or you can send this blog an ask with all the necessary information and a link to your fic on ao3.

If you’re posting on AO3, please post to the collection linked above. If you don’t know how to do that, I can post a guide with pictures. 

event schedule:

↠ may 4, 2023: sign ups open

↠ may 6, 2023: cards start to go out

↠ june 23, 2023: sign ups close

↠ december 31, 2023: end of event/masterlists due

Sign Up Link

[burningdarkfire]

blood moon (author's notes)

Putting this post on my resume as proof that I am committed to seeing things through to the fucking end. It might be 2024 now but here is a finished author's note for blood moon!!

It's been long enough that the below is more of a retrospective than what we usually think of as an author's note. Some of it dates back to two or three years ago, a lot of it doesn't. With the goal of finishing these notes, I recently reread the fic in its entirety, twice, and I still very much enjoyed it. That's all I can really ever ask of a fic, so I'm happy 💕

Writing Timeline

Blood Moon was a fascinating writing problem. I always knew it was going to be a long fic, longer than I usually wrote, and I also knew that I was bad at finishing long fics. I started writing in November 2021 with the promise to myself that even if I didn't finish it, I would eventually share whatever I had. I initially planned to upload chapters without editing because I suspected that it would bog me down in a lot of small details … and I was entirely correct! So here is the 18 month journey of the fic, in monthly word counts, from start to finish:

November 2021: 18723 

December 2021: (no work)

January 2022: 3591

February 2022: 2872 (finished the shadowgast oneshot, outlined the rest of the fic)

March 2022: 4353 (this is when i first thought "the ending was in sight" LOL)

April 2022: 3667 (i made the decision to edit/rewrite some chapters—at this point i had already written up to fjord meeting back up with the m9 after getting the third eye)

May 2022: 1163 

June 2022: 2028 (this was my initial estimate/deadline for finishing)

July 2022: (no work)

August 2022: (no work)

September 2022: 3371 (i copied over my existing work—up to fjord and astrid's conversation—and started a major edit/second draft)

October 2022: 1228 

November 2022: 2278 (posted the first chapter to ao3)

December 2022: 2144 

January 2023: 1876 (finished my second draft and sent to beta for edits)

February 2023: 126 (finished edits! left some very minor points to polish)

March 2023: 17

April 2023: (finished posting!)

Blood Moon Universe

Blood Moon is an original universe of mine that dates back to 2011. It has all the cliché vampires vs. werewolves vibes that I will shamelessly admit I have never grown out of. We didn't get to see a lot of it in the fic, but it's a very fertile, flexible environment—this is the fourth story I've set in this world, and even though they've all been vastly different from each other, the shell concepts have always served me well. Unsurprisingly, one makes original worlds that are conducive to the themes and motifs that one likes to write about.

Caleb and Fjord live in a dark age, where the last war between the vampires and werewolves decimated both populations so severely that the world is simply emptier than it used to be. Molly and Yasha raid abandoned manors, Caleb lives on ceded vamp territory where the wolves are also absent. Caduceus is alone in the Clay family home except for his temporary companions. Everyone is busy with their own survival, and there's no way for the scarce, scattered populations of the northern forests to repel the Shades on their own.

It was a big decision to write a story about two humans in this world, but Fjord and Caleb have always been underdog stories struggling with established powers. It's hard to imagine them any other way.

Canon-Related Concepts

One of my favourite arcs of Campaign 2 is the pirates arc, because the characters are asking themselves such deliciously heavy questions about their place in the world following Molly's death. I wanted to explore those facets of these characters. 

I've also always found it so interesting that Travis said Fjord would have left to find the third orb if the Wildmother hadn't come through for him. 

Caleb seeks an impossible magic for selfish aims, but he does it because he loves his parents. Fjord would make a deal with the devil for power, but he does it because he equates power with agency, and he wants the ability to protect himself and others. Caleb had a taste of that power, but it soured when he used it for the wrong reasons. Fjord is tasting it now, and can't imagine ever letting it go.

Related Works

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley 

The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

The initial pitch of Blood Moon explicitly referred to Caleb as a "Frankensteinien" character. Pervasive in that book is the desire for a domestic life, in which love, happiness, and security are enclosed. Frankenstein loses his mother, and then loses everything else as a consequence of the actions of his grief and uncertainty. What if Caleb's desire to undo what he did to his parents outweighed everything else?

Blood Moon borrows heavily from the magic in The Raven Tower, where one can literally speak something into existence. The idea of a world where "if you say something, it must become true, or you die trying" is extremely evocative and has stayed with me. It was a beautiful way to explore how grief can change the world.

If I can be honest here for a moment, I actually no longer remember why I have The Magicians listed as an inspiration for the fic. I started Blood Moon 3+ years ago and read The Magicians shortly afterwards, and I've since forgotten everything about that book except for what it made me feel: a despair that was hard to look in the eye.

Themes

These are phrased like high school essay questions because I couldn't think of a better way to present them. These are some of the questions that I asked myself while writing:

"With great power comes great responsibility …" Perhaps the defining question of the entire story. How is the question of duty explored in the fic? What do different characters feel responsible for and how do those responsibilities compete? How would each character answer the question "What do we owe to one another?"

Magic is intention. In this world, anybody can do magic. How is the magical presented in relation to the mundane? How much agency do the characters have? What kinds of choices do different characters make? How much does magic change their perception of the world? 

The knowing is part of the price. Caleb and Fjord are both characters who don't know who they are or don't fully understand what made them. Initially, Fjord is resistant to the idea of learning more about his teacher at all. Vulnerability, he understands, is something that can only be given when you have power. What role do alter egos and second identities and our strange other selves play in this fic?

Life and death are the greatest changes of all. Caleb is determined to bring back his parents at any cost. Fjord is determined to live at any cost. Both of our lead characters have other forces calling for their dues. How are death and grief explored in this fic? How about ideas of rebirth and change? 

I am nothing like I was. I cannot teach you; I cannot protect you. The story of Blood Moon is the story of what happens when Fjord goes looking for a teacher. In fact, many of the primary relationships in this fic are a mentorship or potential mentorship between a teacher and a student. What role does learning and teaching play in interpersonal relationships? How do different characters challenge these categories?

Home is where the heart is. The residences of several prominent magicians feature heavily in the fic as their seats of power. What role does "home" play in Caleb and Fjord's lives? How do they imagine, think of, and build their homes? What happens when someone's home is destroyed or otherwise absent? 

Return. What is Fjord's relationship with the sea?

Misc. Notes

The enduring image of the fic that still lives rent free in my head is the burning house. Caleb's childhood house goes up in flames -> Isharnai's house goes up in flames -> the manor goes up in flames, and each time the axis of the world shifts just a little bit.

If you read and enjoyed the fic, please know that you have my eternal thanks. It means a lot to me.

And of course:

[luke-hughes43]

connor bedard!!!

hughes little sister and the first pick of the nhl 22 draft she went (you can pick) and maybe she met connor during game when they were young kids and they stayed friends and started dating when they were 16 only their family and friend know wanting to keep it private from the media. they are really excited when they are going to play each other for the first time and they haven’t see each other in a while so after the game (whoever’s is the home game) they go to one of their apartment and just spend the whole night talking catching up in perosn and cuddling up together and maybe a slight sad goodbye when one of them have to leave in the morning

oooo ok I love this!

so hughes little sister is born in like July of 04 and goes 1st to the Wild which she's excited about especially because she'll have familiar faces in brock faber and matt boldy.

I say that her and Connor met during the 2022 world juniors, a month after the draft and they like run into each other in the hotel or something and he is just blown away by her.

he starts the conversation by congratulating her on the draft. and they exchange numbers and start texting frequently. even though hughes little sister was drafted 1st overall, she decided to still go to college for at least a year at umich like Quinn and Luke.

that made her able to play in another world juniors. she made the team in 2023 just like Connor did. with texting and calling often over the last 4 months, Connor finally decided to ask her on a date during world juniors.

she said yes and they both snuck away from their teams to go on this date. the date went well and Connor asked her to be his girlfriend a few nights later after sneaking away again for a second date.

they decide to keep it just to themselves for a bit given the media attention on both of them. after a few months, they decide to tell their family and a select few closest friends.

and maybe after dev camp that summer, hughes little sister decides to sign her elc with minnesota and makes the team out of camp. and like no one outside her family or Connor's family besides like 3 or 4 people really know about her and Connor and so she struggles for the first few weeks in the league.

lots of late night phone calls between her and Connor just trying to talk each other through everything and through their struggles. they don't get to see each other until December because of their schedule but when the Blackhawks visit the wild, both of them are so excited to finally see each other.

even though the Blackhawks lost, Connor doesn't care. he just wants to see his girl. after the game, he tells his coach that he has a friend in the city and that he's gonna go visit her but will be back in time to leave the next morning and his coach is ok with it.

he immediately gets to hughes little sister's apartment as fast as he can, and they just cuddle in bed for the rest of the night. it's a very soft and fluffy night between the two just cuddling and talking about everything and anything that's happened since they last saw each other despite talking everyday. lots of soft and meaningful kisses shared between the two of them as well.

the next morning is sad because they know they have to say goodbye. it's not a forever goodbye it's more of a see you later but it's still sad because they know won't see each other for another 2 months. they stay in bed for as long as possible and delay Connor leaving for as long as possible.

Connor does eventually leave but they both feel a little better since they finally got to see other and just hold one another.

Connor totally gets chirped by the Blackhawks when they see him retuning to the hotel the next morning in his clothes from the night before and slips up a little bit to the guys about a possible girlfriend. and hughes little sister gets a text from brock faber who lives on her floor saying "why did I see Connor bedard leaving your apartment this morning?"

hughes little sister then tells Connor that the cat might be out of the bag to her team bc brock saw him this morning and Connor tells her that he slipped something to he guys so they agree to tell their teammates and that they are keeping it on the down low which they obviously respect.

both of them feel a little better about their teammates knowing since they spend so much time with them nd they don't have to sneak around as much.

[nikethestatue]

I’ve lost a lot of hope and enthusiasm for an announcement for the next ACOTAR book but for everyone (including a small part of me ;)) who is still anxiously awaiting and agonizing over when it will be, Tahereh Mafi just announced a book that is coming out mid-April 2025. ACOFAS was announced November 2017 to release May 2018. Knowing SJM and BB if it’s not announced by December 2024 then yeah it’s probably 2026 but THEORETICALLY books could even be announced January-February to come out within that year. So we’ve got some time before we should start crying!

I have a feeling the book is done and it’s the printing situation that’s delaying it. It just too hard to wrap my mind around the fact she was drafting in September 2023 and then she was still drafting in April 2024 and the book is going to take 3 years from September 2023 to come out. I don’t believe that.

Yeah? Right?

Because if we believe her Sept 2023 'I am writing now' interview, and then a year goes by, and nothing, not even a mention, not a peep, and even if she is still writing in April 2024, for the book to be released in 2026 is just kind of crazy. It would be FIVE years since ACOSF. FIVE. That's crazy.

That's why I am still holding out hope that it will be released in 2025.

Because it's been crazy long! Like, GRR Martin-level long.

[spicyraeman]

ᴏᴄꜱ - ᴛʜᴇɴ & ɴᴏᴡ

Saw a buncha chooms doin this lil trend and remembered that I had an old draft doing this very thing! Spiffied it up with even newer shots of my babes and it really makes me realize how far both me and my OCs have come :]

March 25, 2022 || June 24, 2023

The shot on the left is legit my very first oc shot in cyberpunk. Id taken some landscape shots before this but this was where the blorbo brainrot started. Vons definitely come the farthest in terms of design, from big beefy maelstrom to like.. wet rat white boy energy I guess lol. She still got a long way to go though, probably gonna be working on her forever, she's my favorite little passion project😌

June 2, 2022 || June 2, 2023

Didn't even realize these were exactly a year apart till I checked the dates!

Luis is basically the exact same as when I first made him, just the perfect design from the moment of creation😌He's the OC that really started my VP journey, I made him just to take pretty pictures of and learn the ropes. Glad I finally have the skills to show off his full beauty!

September 12, 2022 || June 14, 2023

Lynk's design is one that feels both entirely different and very much the same to me. Same overall vibe and style, but more refined I suppose. Less scrungly mess of wires and more sleek and sharp borg. Really love their current design now, still wanna make 'em custom tattoos but it gonna be a while till i'm at that modding level!

December 12, 2022 || June 1, 2023

Dallas was a design first backstory second kinda OC. I love her old design, think all the cyberware and makeup are really cool, but as I fleshed her out it just wasn't Dallas. Found myself in a comfy spot with her now though, even ended up making her her own custom complexion!

December 5, 2022 || July 9, 2023

Technically there's an even farther back design I could use for Sunny but it's so different I can't even consider it him. His old design looks so similar yet so very different its kinda weird😅Sunny's design now is probably the one I'm most content with, I might try and add back his arm tattoos but until then he's pretty much perfect.

December 8, 2022 || April 23, 2023

When I first made Midas my main goal was a dark moody playboy, which definitely stayed the same just in a radically different way. His OG personality was a playful and dramatic womanizer which I loved but I needed a straight man in this group of idiots and he had to be it. So instead he became a mysterious and gruff guy that has ladies falling over him whether he likes it or not, also he's a vampire now.

[traegorn]

I need to stop doing this to myself.

(A Rant Where Trae Has Written Too Many Books This Month)

So since most of you started following me because of Witchcraft or podcast stuff, I realize a lot of you don't know how much fiction writing I do.

Primarily what I've published are comics. The big one is UnCONventional (which ran from December of 2009 to December of 2019), but I also did a steampunk comic called The Chronicles of Crosarth (which I put on hiatus in like 2018 intending to come back to... but I haven't, and I make no guarantee that I will even though over 650 of the 800 planned pages are done). Crosarth is... fine? The art isn't great in either of these, but UnCONventional carries itself with the humor.

But that's all old stuff. You may be like "Trae, what have you been producing for the last four years," and the answer is "not a lot." I got major creative block with the pandemic. Peregrine Lake, the "Northwoods Gothic" comic I was supposed to launch in 2020 (which has some characters from UnCONventional in it) didn't materialize when I said it would. What storytelling energy I had went into Stormwood & Associates and The Meatgrinder (my two actual play podcasts), but that was it.

And then 2023 happened, and the juices started flowing again.

Peregrine Lake is moving forward -- but with me just doing the writing. My urge to draw has not returned, but my urge to write has. A friend of mine, Ethan Flanagan, is drawing it, and I've written the first year of comics. It likely won't launch any time soon (the artist I'm working with is busy as hell so we want to get a shit-ton of the comic done before we launch it -- we have like the first month and a half of the comic ready?). But yeah -- it's happening. I hoping for Spring, but we'll see.

The other thing though is that I've started writing, like, novels. I've always had like twenty ideas in my head, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I decided to start with the idea I cared the least about (in case I fucked it up): A queer urban fantasy story.

In the last month and a half I've written complete drafts of two different novels in this setting, and am halfway through another one... and have another one outlined.

I, uh, had some ideas.

If you're asking yourself "Hey Trae -- what the fuck? That's a lot" you need to know a few things that aren't obvious. At one point in college, in 72 hours, I produced over 40 pages of text between three research papers. All were for 300 level courses, and I may have disassociated while writing them because I frankly don't remember most of it. But, like, they were decent papers.

One of those papers is in Google Scholar.

Anyway, yeah. I haven't been sleeping great because I've been obsessively writing, but you might ask "Why didn't you just write one and get it ready to publish?" That's a great question. Because I wrote a book, and when I was 3/4 of the way through it I realized something very important: This book would make a great sequel to a book I haven't written. I've been writing book two in a series where I haven't written book one yet.

Well fuck.

So I finished that draft, and I went and wrote book one. Now that book? That book I'm getting ready to publish. I expect to have it out in January. Part of my editing process involves setting what I think is a completed, good, revised draft down for a couple of weeks and then returning to it with fresh eyes. We're in that waiting period right now.

But I still had a bunch of energy.

So the first thing I did was a revising draft on book two (the one I wrote first), but I finished that. And had more energy. And more stories in this setting kept popping up.

So I started a third book. And I'm halfway through the first draft of that book. But then I realized yesterday... shit, this isn't book three.

This is book four.

I need stuff to happen before we get to this story.

So now I've outlined the actual book three, and am working on literally both of these books at once (I'll take a break for Christmas and then go do a final edit on Book One).

And... I'm just like... why am I like this?

I need to stop myself for a few days and get more sleep.