#if i had the time or motivation id make this a comic or something

[jacenotjason]

Okay, I've seen the Au you talked about with @crossover-enthusiast about Gadreel and Moloch banished to earth and I wanted to say...

Wonderful idea.

The idea of the two trying to interact with humans in the least suspicious way but failing miserably is fantastic.

For example, if a human tries to flirt with them.

Human: Did it hurt?

Moloch: What?

Human: When you fell from heaven ;)

Moloch:

Moloch: HOW DID YOU KNOW?!?

---------

Human: Did it hurt?

Gadreel: Mh?

Human: When you fell from heaven ;)

Gadreel: Yes.

Human:

Gadreel: It was the worst agony of my entire existence.

HEHEHEHaheaa

i love it a lot its so fun, theyre like panty and stocking but with even less morality

they didnt really ffffffall from anywhere since they werent angels they were just. thrown. get out. HEHEHa

[triglycercule]

if dust takes off his hood and scarf then nobody can recognize him. he has literally no permanent traits that make him recognizable (which actually kinds upsets me because,,,,, there is no physical representation of his character development from sans to dust BUT EAAHHHH whatever,,, we cope with it.) but in like a silly goofy comedic way. it's like perry the playapus ans dr doofenshirmst (incorrect spelling but only by societies standards)

dust with hood down and no scarf

killer: a sans?

he puts on the scarf

horror: a GENOCIDE sans???

the hood goes up

killer: DUST SANS AKA MURDER SANS AKA DUSTTALE SANS FROM HIT AU DUSTTALE?????

horror's skull breaks a second time on the other side from sheer shock

[dandelion-roots]

your husband's scary, xie li- um, i mean, dianxia *nervous laughter*

[id in alt]

[lbibliophile-sw]

Corrie Guard Appreciation Week 2024 - Masterpost

For the inaugural @corrieweek, I ended up focusing less on the prompts and more using it as an excuse to drop all my outstanding Fox/CG WIPs (including all the ones for the concurrent Whumptober).

This resulted in 17 fills over four days, with 4,685 words plus one comic and one craft.

I made it a goal to focus more on non-Fox characters, with Thorn, Thire and Stone featuring alongside him in at least one fic each. I also completed my first Fox/Bail fic (sort of, only pre-relationship so far) and finally debuted my CG OC, Clarry!

All in all, I had a lot of fun, and hope it runs again next year ❤️

10.10 day: huggable Commander Fox plushie - see full photo album

Fills

Day 1: Eldritch

Hermit-crab Shells (AO3) | drabble | Coruscant Guard Coruscant might not be the front line, but Guards still die, still leave their brothers with just memories and empty armour. Except… it’s not so empty; Something moves in. The Guard do what they can to support their newest recruits.

Day 3: "You shouldn't be here"

First-time Reunion (AO3) | ficlet: 600w | CG OC & 212th/501st OCs Clarry - once CT-9845 now CT-3937 - has never met these troopers before, but she knows exactly who they are. CT-3936 and CT-3939. Keys and Flick. CT-3937’s batchmates. This is just another one of countless awkward reunions, as GAR troopers finally come to check on their Guard batchmates only to find that the numbers they are looking for no longer belong to the person they left behind.

Loyalty (AO3) | ficlet: 400w | Fox & Thorn & Palpatine Palpatine is a practical man; given the choice between a mindless tool and a semi-willing accomplice, he'll choose the one he can properly motivate. Thorn doesn't quite understand what is going on, but he knows that it is hurting Fox, and he will do anything to protect his brother. Oh, and the Republic, of course.

Proof of ID (AO3) | ficlet: 710w | Fox & Thire & Thorn He knows they all technically have the same face, but why don't Fox's Commanders recognise his? They are all too tired for this.

Rearguard (AO3) | ficlet: 180w | Thire & Stone & Fox Sometimes, Thire hates the other Commanders for the way that they look at him as the youngest – treating him as a khi’vod to be protected when he is only their junior by a month and a delayed promotion. Sometimes, he loves them for it. The Guard prepare to abandon Coruascant.

Day 5: Fix-it

A New General (AO3) | ficlet: 215w | Fox & others It was inevitable that Fox would be elected as the clone's representative in the Senate. His new collegues - no longer his superiors - very quickly get very nervous.

Lightning on Coruscant (AO3) | double drabble & comic | Fox & Cody Fox tells the truth, Cody is an overachiever, and Palpatine pays the price.

The Two Corries (AO3) | filk/poem | CG OCs (ft. Hound) Chancellor Palpatine is dead. The Coruscant Guard are well used to disposing of bodies. Nobody else has a clue.

Day 6: Force-sensitive clones

Hypothermia of the Soul (AO3) | ficlet: 210w | Fox It takes a few weeks for Fox to truly notice, but Coruscant is cold. It shouldn’t be, yet a chill has crept its way in to settle against his bones, refusing to be banished.

Day 6 (NSFW): Testing New Equipment

Naming Conventions (AO3) | drabble | Palpatine & Fox Diversity win! The person mind controlling you uses your chosen name!

Day 7: Fox Day

Chain of Command (AO3) | drabble | Fox & Palpatine Fox is the Guards' Commander. When one of his subordinates makes a mistake, he takes responsibility, he takes the punishment.

Close (AO3) | drabble | Fox & Wolffe & Cody It’s rare that Fox is able to take missions off-planet, let alone for a joint a campaign with multiple of his batchmates. It is a bittersweet opportunity.

Fox's List (AO3) | drabble | Fox Fox has a List. His list is a ledger, his list is a countdown.

(Not) Standard Issue (AO3) | drabble | Fox Fox’s office isn’t much to look at. Standard issue desk, standard issue chair, standard issue datapads, standard issue Clone Commander… and a couch?

Reaching and Finding (AO3) | ficlet: 260w | Fox & unidentified CG Eventually, the war ends; not with an Order, but with a tentative truce and heavily-negotiated treaty. It takes a year and a half for the news to reach the planet where Fox was stranded. It takes longer for any of the newly freed clones to follow, but when that moment comes Fox recognises them.

Soundscape (AO3) | fanfic: 1130w | Fox & Bail (pre-Fox/Bail/Breha) Fox can't sleep. Bail helps find a solution. And a small piece of Alderaan is brought to life in the middle of Coruscant.

[mylambandmartyr]

when you have the time and energy id be very interested to hear why you dislike the punisher (2017)......... because i also dislike it but can never put into words why or even point to a reason. its always "frank's vibes are off" or "the general vibes are off" or "its painfully unfunny" or "it just annoys me". if you have anything more specific or analytical id love to hear it

Where to even start…

Ok. I'm going to be focusing on just the first season where it’s at it’s "best" to be generous, because all of the most egregious issues get so much worse in the second season so it barely counts in my mind.

It’s got all of the trademark Marvel Problems. The cringe dialogue, the convoluted plots, the nationalist propaganda, the aggressive heterosexuality, sacrificing an interesting story in favor of an American-dream-Apple-pie-and-motherhood ass-plot… etc. etc…

I’ll split this up into a miscellaneous laundry list of complaints for structure, so this doesn’t end up turning into a rambling essay.

• Incoherent messaging/Bad politics

First off, It’s US military propaganda, but we all know that. That impacts its ability to tell an authentic, thoughtful story. Propaganda is always full of contradictions and exceptions to its own rules, which exacerbates problems that already riddle corporate media.

The most glaring problem I think most Marvel properties have is lack of a cohesive message and themes. Daredevil suffers from a similar issue, which is as much of a "too many cooks in the kitchen" problem (too many contradicting ideas) for what they wanted as it is with the producers being spineless hacks who were unable to decide what they wanted their story to be.

They wanted to have their cake and eat it too, in a lot of respects. They wanted to tell a story about trauma, vengeance and the brutality of war but they also wanted a All-American Badass Gun Guy to get young people interested in enlisting, so it constantly jettisons back and forth in tone and makes for shitty television.

• Stupid Plot

The conspiracy-thriller plot feels off-base for a Punisher story, and is jarring if you saw season 2 of Daredevil. It doesn’t even feel like it takes place in the same universe (none of it feels cohesive, which as stated is a running problem)

The series begins with Frank "finishing" his mission to eliminate everyone involved with the murders of his family and symbolically burning his Punisher vest. This is beyond stupid for a variety of reasons. From a continuity perspective, a storytelling perspective, a character motivation perspective… it just doesn’t make sense. This means the writers have to scramble to come up with a new conflict, which is absurd to me when they could’ve just… had him keep going.

• General Characterization

You’re entirely correct in that Frank’s character just feels off. Like I said earlier, going into the Punisher fresh off of Daredevil season 2 is jarring, even before I knew anything about the character from the comics. There’s a sense that there’s something missing with Frank’s motivations and it definitely has a lot to do with the aforementioned stupid Government conspiracy A-plot in season 1.

Imo, Jon Bernthal, despite everything, plays Frank pretty well considering the material he’s been given, but there’s still something off. @cabfarewell says that it’s because he plays him too much like a cop, which I think is true. There’s just air of… Bootlicker throughout the whole show that undercuts the fact that Frank, at his core, is a character who gets fucked over by his government, which is vaguely gestured at but never satisfyingly addressed.

• Sexism

It goes without saying that Marvel is dogshit at female characters and the Punisher is no exception.

It’s tragic because Karen Page, Dinah Madani, Sarah and Leo Lieberman (and to some extent Maria) all have potential but are woefully underutilized. It’s very clear that the writers are using stock archetypes as a crutch (Potential Love interest, "Virtuous" Cop, Mother, Daughter, Dead Wife etc…) and never expand on them more, because clearly they do not see them as people, but like I said, this is par for the course for Marvel, nobody’s surprised.

• The Liebermans

Then there’s my beloved Micro.

I adore Micro as a character for a variety of reasons and I think Ebon Moss-Bacharach plays him fantastically, BUT it has to be said that he embodies a lot of antisemitic stereotypes.

The narrative aggressively pushes the audience to view him as an unathletic, cowardly effete intellectual who’s reluctant to get his hands dirty. He’s scheming and not entirely trustworthy, he’s simultaneously hypersexual and impotent. Literally the only way they could’ve made it worse is if they made him a cheapskate with deep-seated mommy issues.

It’s kind of bizarre because there are things David does that directly contradict the stereotypes, he’s clearly very capable, and not a coward, but Frank and other characters insist that they’re true. It’s just bad writing.

They kind of half-ass a suggestion of a character arc, but it ultimately ends with a restoration of the status quo which MAKES NO SENSE for David as a character.

Sarah’s an even worse case, not even getting an arc and barely changing as a result.

Like I said earlier, Sarah is neglected by the narrative which makes a lot of the things she does not entirely make sense taking into account how a real person might respond in her situation. Sarah and her kids are more plot devices than people, which is disappointing, because I feel like giving her more character would have enriched the story a lot. She’s positioned as a mirror to Frank, being also recently widowed and coping poorly, and like most things in this show this is never addressed fully.

[amazing-spider-man-book-club]

The Amazing Spider-Man #6

Published: November 1963

Containing: "Face to Face with...The Lizard!"

Introducing: Curtis Connors/The Lizard, Martha Connors, Billy Connors

Synopsis: Peter is sent down to Florida to get some photos on a mysterious figure, The Lizard, who is terrorizing the everglades, but soon must discover a way to help this new villain become human again.

Read alongside us here:

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Amazing-Spider-Man-1963/Issue-6?id=4028

@frankendykes-monster: There's something so humorous to me about naming a villain "The Lizard" after already having one named "The Chameleon". The off-brand model even if they share nothing in common. I had to look up when it was discovered that dinosaurs are more closely related to birds than reptiles but no luck unlike last issue's forcing me to look up how spiders communicate.

The introduction of The Lizard rings like a horror film, the setting in Florida couldn't help but make me think of The Alligator People (1959). Virtually all the tropes like the monster staking a claim in hostile territory and scientific mishaps and an ancient castle ooze charm, it's only the near ending when The Lizard wants to create more reptilian humanoids that you're forcibly reminded that this is a supervillain we're dealing with.

I have to wonder if The Lizard was originally intended to be a one-and-done given the character never returns during Ditko's time on the title but Curt Conners does. Much like Mysterio returning to his first costume, it's something that's only established as an ongoing threat when John Romita takes over. I have to say the character's design is probably the first Ditko one that's something of an acquired taste, had he worn a purple coat and had black eyes with white pupils like on the cover, it would have been more cohesive and threatening, though I'm not a giant fan of more animalistic subsequent designs decades down the line. This issue's title page is another all-time favorite of mine for how much it reads as a three-dimensional space. Ditko occasionally goes all-out, though at the same time I feel like we see way more of Spider-Man sans webbing in this issue (whenever the character is far enough away from the camera that drawing them would be too much of a hassle. Blah.)

I have to wonder what people reading this for the first time have to make of Liz Allen and Betty Brant being Peter's love interests, because if it wasn't a full-time thing last issue, it certainly is now. Betty's appearances in the live-action Spider-Man films have more or less been cameos, is what I'm saying. Given Liz's newfound interest in Spider-Man I think it's quaint if disappointing that it isn't until Civil War, over 40 years after this, that she discovers it's Peter under the mask alongside the rest of the world. Womp womp.

Probably the most realistic thing about this issue is Jameson accidentally starting a tabloid frenzy wherein he demands Spider-Man go down to Florida to fight The Lizard. It's ridiculous but plausible enough that I could see people actually read papers and developing a strong opinion on the matter.

@duel1971 : This issue may be my favorite so far. The story takes Peter out of NYC and down to Florida on J Jonah Jameson’s dime to get pictures of the Lizard. This leads to Peter and Jameson being traveling partners, a concept I would happily read a full-length story about but which is only touched upon briefly here.

Curtis Connors has one of the most well-realized supervillain origins we’ve seen yet in ASM. The tragic nature of the character feels iconic: the loss of an arm motivates him to recklessly experiment on himself and leads to a complete physical transformation that renders him a threat to his beloved family and, as the issue draws on, civilization itself. (Or at least Florida.) In addition, lizards being a natural predator of spiders makes the Lizard’s ability to physically outmaneuver and outmatch Spider-Man feel ordained by nature.

Some parts of the story feel a little clunky – in particular, I’m not sure what a serum that turned a man into a lizard would do to actual lizards. The story doesn’t seem to have a firm idea either, but apparently it would be very bad. I appreciated the attempt to raise the stakes, but found Curtis’s alienation from and eventual reconciliation with his family to be much more compelling.

[asktheovertaken]

(ID: A digital drawing of Twiglog, a character that is a log with multiple holes all over them, each hole either having nothing inside or an arm or a eye. In this drawing they have two arms potruding from two different wholes, both held up infront of them. They have three visible eyes, all having an expression that seems happy. Their is text meant to be their dialogue next to them saying: Hello, my friends! I’m Crim, runner of asktheovertaken and mysteriousmothball. I have a little to talk about regarding my creations, so please stick around if your interested! End ID)

(ID: There is a second image that is another drawing of Twiglog, this time off to the side of the screen, facing away from the viewer. There are some holes visible on their back, but no eyes show. They look off into the distance with only one hand raised, saying: First things first, despite my absence I haven’t left the community.(you might’ve seen me lurking!) I don’t have any plans to! I will confirm Asktheovertaken and M M are discontinued. I have no ideas for what to do with them and no motivations. Text ends there, with three small sketches of: Mothball the Ninjask Electrike hybrid from Mysterious Mothball, then Mags the Magnemite and Vau the Vaporeon from Ask the overtaken. End ID)

(ID: Another drawing of Twiglog, this time of them hunched over a desk, fretting over a piece of paper while holding a pencil in one of their four arms protruding out of some of the various holes on their log body. They have one visible eye, out in the very front of their body. They have a worried expression. Theres dialouge above them reading: I also want to confirm I do have a few projects in the works! I never really stopped making stuff relating to pokeask, I’ve just never felt like I had enough plot or enough things sorted out or some other worry to make another blog. I’ve also had trouble drawing, specially in comic style or something consistently. This problem has diminished quire a bit though! The text ends there. End ID)

(ID: Another image showing a drawing of Twiglog. In this one, they are on display in a large format, making only the top half and a bit of the side of their body visible. They have one arm out, giving a thumbs up. They have three eyes poking out of some of the holes on the front of their body, all showing the same happy expression. Text above them reads: I hope to release something this year! I have alot to get done for that to happen, but I’m confident I can do it. End of text and ID)

-

Hello everyone! Its been awhile, I just wanted to make this to share my plans for the future when it comes to pokeask. I also wanted to say if you have any questions(just in general or about this specifically) feel free to ask me. Also, Twiglog(character shown here) is my fakemon pokesona.

I figured I should give an update before I officially get back into poke ask-ing, so that its not so much of a random occurrence. And also because I’ve already been doing a little in the community and I want to make it surefire knowledge I’m sticking around lol.

Thanks for reading!

[whiteboardartstudios]

[Image ID: This is a tall drawing of Eth and Gendaen from the Mysta's Terrarian Quest Tumblr Webcomic. The top half of the image shows Eth sitting alone on the edge of the Fountain of Purity in the crimtained Green Citadel, his head in his hands and surrounded by glowing golden leaves. The atmosphere is dark and gloomy, and red light shines down from the top right of the image. The bottom half of the image is upside down, like a reflection of the top half. The bottom half shows Eth and Gendaen discussing one of Gendaen's blueprints on the edge of the same fountain, except the Green Citadel had not been crimtained yet. The atmosphere would be bright and happy, if not for the dark vignette effect and messy scribbles on the outer edges of the image. Gendaen's eyes are blacked out with a scribbled rectangle. The two halves of the image are separated by a glowing white line. End ID] fanart for @mtqcomic!

I've been trying to draw something for this comic for like forever but I keep messing up TwT

This took forever to make but I'm pretty happy with it! It's not perfect but I had a lot of fun making it so I'm gonna count that as a win :D (I think Tumblr might've ate the image quality a little though...)

Here's a version without the vignette and messy scribble effects because I also really like this one!

[Image ID: This is a tall drawing of Eth and Gendaen from the Mysta's Terrarian Quest Tumblr Webcomic. The top half of the image shows Eth sitting alone on the edge of the Fountain of Purity in the crimtained Green Citadel, his head in his hands and surrounded by glowing golden leaves. The atmosphere is dark and gloomy, and red light shines down from the top right of the image. The bottom half of the image is upside down, like a reflection of the top half. The bottom half shows Eth and Gendaen discussing one of Gendaen's blueprints on the edge of the same fountain, except the Green Citadel had not been crimtained yet. The atmosphere is bright and happy, and light yellow sunlight is shining from the bottom right of the image, where the top right would be if the image was flipped the right way up. The mountains in the background are blue and green and birds are flying in the distance. The two halves of the image are separated by a glowing white line. End ID]

Anyways here's an obligatory long post warning plus spoilers for the comic because I'm gonna go on a LOOOOOONG rant about this comic >:) *rubs hands evilly*

SO

COMIC

I've been wanting to talk about this comic for like a LONG time now but I've been saving it for when I finally posted a piece of fanart to go along with it. Now that I finished the art though, I'm free to yeet all of my brain thoughts onto a tumblr post!!!!!

Okay, first thing, LORE. LORE LORE LORE LORE LORE LORE LORE (sorry I like lore haha)

There's so many cool things going on here! You've got the whole thing with the Crimson obviously (plus the other evils but they haven't really appeared all that much yet aside from the Corruption), but then there's also the Order-Dryad thingy and the whole thing with prophecies and Destiny and of course the whole Gendaen mystery.

Speaking of Gendaen, he's a really interesting character! He hasn't appeared all that much, but he's one of the main sources of motivation for Eth! I have a few – well, more like one big convoluted and probably incorrect one – theories on what happened to him, but I wanna talk about everything else first :)

Mysta! I like how resourceful she is, and how she uses all sorts of weapons in combat! You never know when she's going pick up a random lampost or something and bonk someone over the head with it ^^ That said, I'm really curious about the whole thing about the "powerful soul". So far Mysta has done some pretty incredible things with soul magic, and it's logical to assume that they'll get more insane later on in the comic. I wonder if it will play an important part in finding Gendaen? Since she was able to sense the "undetectable watcher" who I assume is Zaïl on page 205, there is the (although rather unlikely) possibility that one day she'll get strong enough to sense wherever the heck Gendaen went.

Also, Zaïl is cool :D They seem to be sent by Yele to keep an eye on Mysta? Most likely to update her on Mysta's progress, probably. Anyways, they're cool, I love their color scheme (and design in general), and I can't wait to see them show up again later in the comic :)

Yele! She's really cool, and her beef with the Order is very interesting to read about! Also, page 173 was hilarious lol *rainbow sparkles and confetti rain down from the sky* More on her later in my conspiracy theory hehe

Eth. Eth. This guyTM. I saved him for last because WOAH there is a lot to say about Eth (plus this is where I start talking about my conspiracy theory lol). First, epic special agent war commander guide. Amazing, 100/100 idea, I love it :D Though the comment on him being "equal parts ally and enemy" is very intriguing... According to his character sheet, he's unnervingly loyal to the Order of Learning, which is a very interesting trait to single out, as it seems like it's a core part of his character. Soooo conspiracy theory time! Finally! (I've held onto this for so long oh my goodness it's probably incorrect but it's very fun to think about >:) )

So I think the Order of Learning might be evil.

*vine boom*

Okay okay okay I'm gonna explain I promise, but like, a super-powerful government organization that also controls knowledge? That's a little suspicious not gonna lie. Very Suspicious. *amogus music plays*

Maybe it's just because the Sumeru Akademiya just happened in Genshin Impact when I made this theory (yeah I like genshin please don't judge) but I feel like I don't really trust the Order? Like it's hard to explain. So you know how so far all the lore documents are canonically stuff from the Order's archive? Well one of the most important things I learned from social studies class is how to analyze sources for reliability (teachers are you proud of me) and right now I see a bunch of different sources from ONE perspective which may very well be biased, especially after what Yele told us about the "accidental" Dryad genocide which I think might not be completely accidental? Like, how convenient is it that you just "accidentally" committed genocide on the species meant to guide the Heroes of Terraria and then just conveniently replaced them with your own Guides? Like, they didn't even apologize for it either! Something fishy is going on here cmon. Maybe they want to be able to control how the future of Terraria turns out through the Heroes? IDK just something to think about I guess.

Going off of that, it may be possible that the Crimson isn't entirely evil evil. Like obviously it's bad to humans and eating away at the purity and whatnot but so far we've met several Crimson demons and only Malvox seem to be outright malicious; the other ones feel like they're just doing their jobs (especially the Imperator guy – give xem a break XD). Nelun Soma'o even had a whole conversation with us (AND answered our questions!!!! Eth take some notes please) before he officially challenged Mysta to a duel(?) If anything, they feel kind of like half mentor half rivals testing Mysta's strength than evil world-conquering warlords. Like yknow how in Pokemon you battle with people to grow stronger? Kind of like that. An antagonist but not necessarily a villain. They're just trying to exist, yknow? I do wonder what their perspective on all of this is... what's their half of the story?

Speaking of Nelun Soma'o, that lore bomb he dropped about Gendaen is really interesting (and also what started this convoluted conspiracy theory in the first place haha). So yknow how on page 229 he said that the Crimson didn't do anything to Gendaen? Well, so far he's been pretty friendly all things considered, and we don't really have any reason to distrust him, as he pointed out. Just the fact that he's leading the Crimson, and he said that "each of us fights to help someone", which is very very interesting for someone the Order deems to be evil evil. So that got me thinking, if the Crimson wasn't involved in Gendaen's disappearance, who else could? The Corruption is nearly nonexistent, the Hallow is still sealed away, the Gloome has long since been neutralized, and it's certainly not the Dryads since they're still recovering from "accidental" genocide. Oh wait, there's a super-powerful government organization that controls all knowledge who could conveniently kidnap Gendaen and just not tell Eth about it! Oh wow! I do wonder if this means we'll have to bust Malvox out of nonexistence prison though, since it seems to be the only one that might be able to tell us what happened to Gendaen since if the Order did it they're definitely not going to help us find him. Maybe Gendaen found out some terrible secret about the Order or he was starting to doubt them so they decided to take him out of the equation. Eth is not having a good time though, someone please go and give him a hug :(

Speaking of Eth, as I said earlier, his unnerving loyalty to the Order and his idolization of them seems to be a core part of his character. If the Order is indeed evil in this hypothetical scenario, it's possible for Eth to be a mislead protagonist like Zuko from ATLA. His heart is in the right place but he's helping the wrong people kinda thing. Additionally, this might mean that we'll eventually get a separation arc where Mysta does something not in accordance with the Order's will or something, and Eth's loyalty to the Order wins against his loyalty to Mysta and he becomes an antagonist. Yele could even step in as a mentor so that Mysta gets both Order guidance and traditional Dryad guidance! And then Eth somehow finds out what happened to Gendaen (Zaïl maybe? Subterfuge and cool spy stuff), maybe we get a dramatic emotional reveal scene where he is shocked and then starts to question everything the Order has ever told him, and then he either finds some way to contact Mysta or just rescues Gendaen by himself and rejoins Mysta, now fully against the Order. Plus we can get a cool reunion scene, both with Eth and Gendaen and Eth and Mysta! Yele would definitely distrust him at first, because what if this is a ruse from the Order and Eth is like double-agent-ing or something but then she sees Gendaen and goes "oh wait he's serious about this isn't he"

I'm probably wrong about all this (it's my first time making a theory out of anything plus this is super convoluted and there's a high chance that I'm connecting dots that doesn't exist), but it's still very fun to think about! I might've missed some stuff since I've been thinking about this for a very long time so I probably forgot to add some things, but either way I'm very excited to see where the comic goes! :D

Great comic, if you haven't read it go read it, it's very very good and I like it a lot :) *insert a bunch of sparkles here*

[charmanderxerneas]

gahhh i love sonic so much. what are yalls hopes and dreams for the third sonic movie? some of mine are unrealistic but here goes (from most to least realistic in my mind lol)

-i don’t want them to shy away from shadow’s backstory with maria, i hope they tackle it well and show that like. “hey the government fuckin murdered this little girl who was basically like a sister to him” because its so important to the themes of his story. I don’t want them to sugarcoat it or water it down. in fact: itd be cool to look at those themes with gun in the next movie: pointing out how the military can be evil at times!

-AMY! Wtf I can’t believe we haven’t gotten her yet considering she is the main girl character. I hope that they write her well too instead of just making her entire personality “girl who likes sonic” id prefer it if they didnt lean into that please it can be uncomfortable 😭

-Since we’re getting shadow i’d LOVE to see the rest of team dark: rouge and omega!

-remember those weird bird guys who had conflict with robotnik at the beginning of the second movie? I’d like to know what their dealio is. In my wildest dreams its some bizarre reference to the babylon rouges since they were three bird guys but i know im kidding myself with that: but regardless i wanna know what theyre about! who they are, motives, ect. I know they kinda showed a little in the comics but yeah.

-Idk if he would fit into the probably shadow central story in the next movie but um. I think metal sonic would be sick af but probably wont happen

-silver or blaze would be cool for a 4th movie or something but I don’t see them being shown at all in the next movie

and if you know me you saw this coming even tho it will likely never happen:

-They’re making a tv show specifically about movie knuckles. and. i was thinking: you know which team is associated with knuckles since in the classic 1995 game they were introduced alongside him and i would fuckfing kill to see th- yeah the chaotix. you probably expected that reading a post from the guy who made a 40 minute essay about them and concluded it with “i am starving for content of them i want them to be in more things”. but: for real they could be so funny interacting with knuckles imagine the contrast with how serious he is in the movie im not gonna fucking kid myself by mentioning mighty

[daredevilexchange]

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What’s your fannish ID? Udekai! Friends call me Stu. Stu came from the first OC I ever had- which was essentially just a blue scribble with a bowler hat.

What types of fanworks do you create? I've done mostly art throughout my whole campaign, but fic has become a bigger and bigger thing over the years. I've always been good with literature, and when I was a kid, I wanted to be a writer. The only reason art got so big was because it's easier to doodle on the margins of your schoolwork than brainstorm a story. That turned into dabbling in animation; I only have the energy for a couple of those a year, but I feel like I've gotten pretty good at it!

What are your favourite types of fanworks, when you’re not creating? Nothing- and I mean nothing- beats a good AMV. Fics are a close second, but something about seeing something move in time with the beat of a good song is just beautiful.

What do you like in particular about this fandom? I definitely should have watched Daredevil sooner. I've been keeping up with the MCU since the first avenger and my cousin said "watch Daredevil." I said I love angst and my cousin said "please watch Daredevil. I started kickboxing as a means to cope with stress, and my cousin fell to his knees and begged me to watch Daredevil. I didn't actually watch it until I was reading Deadpool fics after reading all his comics, and found Team Red. I was enamored immediately. I came for the show and stayed for the people. So far, everyone I've met is an absolute peach. Everyone's extremely accepting, mature, and communicative. I'm partial to Mattfoggy as a ship, with some dabbling in Kastle. Best friends to lovers has always been my favorite trope, followed closely by hurt/comfort, so there's no wonder why that one spoke to me.

Do you like participating in fan events? I do! I didn't use to, because deadlines intimidate me, but that is a great motivator to actually. Yknow. Finish things, which I can have a little bit of trouble with. They've been teaching me to be okay with publishing things that I haven't had the chance to pick apart and overthink. I'm also making way more than I would be without somebody offering ideas and schedules to work on. I've never done a con, nor do I really see myself doing one in the future, just because I get so flustered when fawn over my work.

What about your creating process? It's a different story every time! I live in a kind of chaotic environment that I have very little control over, so I tend to opt for headphones to keep out noisy distractions. Sometimes, though, even that's a little much to work around, and I have to go find somewhere quiet. My process with fics would make every literature teacher I've ever met weep. There's a fic I have right now that's 250k words, and the planning document reads like I just scrawled it on the walls of my living room. It helps with writer's block sometimes to just type out a stream of consciousness, all of the "uhms" and "no that doesn't make sense" included. As for inspiration, half the time I start out with a single scene in my head and build around it. That goes for fics, animations, and art. I like to get heavy with parallels between canon and whatever I'm doing, and by the end, I can almost guarantee me brain's a massive cobweb of ideas. I find being comfortable is also really important. And I mean physically comfortable. I steal the computer chair to write at the kitchen table for its back support, because when I create, I do it for literally days on end. I try not to begrudge myself the 20 minute scrolling breaks; pressure to work on something always has a way of taking away the enjoyment, and by extension, my ability to actually think creatively. And coffee. Lots and lots of coffee.

Do you interact a lot with other fans? I do! I've always been in a lot of discords, but now almost half of them are Daredevil related. I've got my beloved mutuals on Tumblr, and all these people who participate in events. I'm not exactly wanting for company, but anyone who knows me can vouch that I'm a little bit of a social butterfly.

Is there any particular piece you'd like to showcase for this post? That 250k fic I mentioned earlier: Incarnate. I mention it because it's my pride and joy and because I need to finish it.

Do you have other fandoms you'd like to talk about? I tend to do one fandom at a time. They take up my entire headspace. No vacancy.

Where can your fanworks be found? I can be found at Udekai on Ao3 and Tumblr! https://archiveofourown.org/users/Udekai/works I only post fics on Ao3, but you can find art of mine under #my art!

Thank you, @udekai !

banner by @context-is-for-kingpins !

[illustratorintheprocess]

WEEK 23: Card Cutting & Monday Group Session

Let's start by appreciating the clean cut cards. All dry and shaped up they feel amazing and expensive in my hands. The hope is that they are interesting to touch and memorable in design so that they won't be thrown out as easily as some flimsy, cheap alternative. And if someone does throw one of these away I think they'd feel at least a little bit bad about it. I'll probably bring them with me to networking events and job interviews to be able to give people a little something to remember me by and make it easy to find my work + get a feel for what my style looks like.

Scott did an amazing job in cutting the cards with care and great attention to detail. As per Tony's request I left some behind for the technicians to use for teaching future generations of students. So if any prospect UAL, LCC students read this - you might see these again if you're trying to litho print some business cards yourself, haha!

*definitely DM me if you do see them irl though! That'd be CRAZY!!*

Now to the Monday Group Session. I have a love-hate relationship with them for a number of reasons but first, let's look at my attendance: Before the Spring Break I attended 4 or 5 Monday sessions (to be honest I lost track but I wasn't there for all of them):

-I'm pretty sure I was there for the FMP official brief but at that time I was still working on my EC dissertation submission so it's a haze and I had no time to think about the FMP at that point yet.

-On the 16th of January a few of us were waiting in the usual room only to get an email by our year leader 30 minutes into when our session should have started saying the following:

Everyone who was waiting in D305 left after we saw that email, myself included but as it turns out later a substitute tutor apparently came to get us but we were gone at that point. Very odd how that all went. I think we should have been contacted sooner and actually been made aware that there was a substitute tutor in the email they sent out. Kind of annoying cuz I have a 1.5h journey (one-way) to uni and that day I wasted the travel expenses basically. But oh well, scheduling errors happen. [I was also using a temp pass at the time cuz it was right when I had lost my student ID]

-There was one time I attended and the session was with our regular tutor, where we shared our FMP ideas in small groups and gave feedback to each other. At that point I was sharing my idea-mind map with the group and making up my mind about whether or not I should make my projects on Cryptids.

-The next session was with VJ instead of our usual tutor. At that point I was playing with the idea of making a comic book for the FMP in which the Cryptids were everyday-people in our society. Remember the idea of Mothman as a window cleaner? That was also when VJ told me better not to try out smth new for the big project and rather to stick to something familiar - print making in my case.

- The last Monday session I attended before the Spring Break was with our year leader, substituting for our usual tutor, and at that point I had pretty much figured out what I wanted to make for the FMP:

- a Cryptozoology Zine including 2 cheesy quizzes(Digitally Printed)

- Cryptid Posters A3 or A2 (Digitally printed)

- Criptid T-shirts (Screen Printing on fabric)

Our year leader liked the idea, which was great and I felt motivated.

I know there is at least one Monday session right before the Spring Break that I missed because of my stomach issue, that had me going to a walk-in clinic, as mentioned in previous posts. And I think another Monday session might have been cancelled because of the OXO exhibit or smth.

I don't have a 100% attendance rate but when I show up, I'm participating and enjoying talking about my work with the tutors.

Now let me tell you why I have a love-hate relationship with Monday sessions: On one hand I love seeing and hearing about everyone else's projects and work because it's really motivating to hear other people who love the same stuff you do talk about what they are doing and how and why. On the other hand, there have been times where the amazing work of everyone around me left me feeling like a damn failure. I think it's a double edged sword. Because you are rooting for your peers and boosting each others inspiration but at the same time they are your future competitors and if you don't thing you're measuring up, you're left feeling like garbage. So there have been times where I nervous cried on the way home or on a quick bathroom break because I was feeling like my work was waste.

Secondly I love talking about my projects but I know I am slow to find a grip and get started (especially in case of EC submissions, other projects deadlines are cutting into new projects beginning and you're starting out on a delay). So when I talk about my projects I am excited but also super anxious, thinking I should have done more, I have nothing to show and everyone is judging me and it can get all very overwhelming. With the Cryptid project especially I have run into issues of people in my group and tutors not really knowing the topic and I can explain what Cryptids are and bring examples like Nessi and Bigfoot, which most people recognize, but it's still unfamiliar territory and so the feedback sometimes reflects the unfamiliarity of the others with the topic. Thats fine. It just adds to my insecurities of - oooh maybe this is a bad idea.

My third point is the PDFs and briefs we are being presented on some Mondays. Because I'm a terribly anxious bean I am always on moodle, looking around and re-reading briefs so by the time we are being briefed in person I most likely have read the document like twice before. So during the briefing I am doing work on my ipad or smth and that can make me look quite unapproachable, which brings me to my 4th point: I can seem like a dick. Because I am anxious about the quality of my own work compared to others, intimidated by everyone's amazing work and selfconscious about being behind, I'm usually quiet until asked to speak. I don't think I come across as very likeable in class because I keep to myself and am nervous. But I like helping people with questions in the group chat and giving and getting feedback in group rounds is great. I just never really found a friends group in my course.

Now, why am I going about such a rant on Mondays?

This Monday I felt really overwhelmed by the amount of work that has yet to be done for the FMP and I emailed my tutor that I'd rather just return home after my appointment with Print Finishing (cutting and picking up my cards) so I can work for the rest of the day rather than stay for the group session between 2-6pm.

My tutor said she hasn't seen me in a while and I should come to the session so we could catch up. I mean I'm not NOT going if she tells me I should. So I went.

My appointment for the cards was at 2 so I came to the session about 40minutes late but it was alright because the brief that was going on was about PDFs and slides I had found on Moodle and read over the Spring break already. Then there was a 10min break and our tutor went around talking to everyone. I sat kind of secluded so it took her a little while to get to me, which made me nervous on one hand because I was freaking out about the work I needed to do but on the other hand it gave me some down time to sketch and I enjoyed that very much actually.

When it was my turn with our tutor she opened the conversation saying she hadn't seen me since before Christmas break and that she knew nothing about my project, which threw me off because I remembered clearly the session where I was narrowing down my ideas and I explained Cryptids to her. As I mentioned Cryptids she remembered the session and agreed I had seen her once since. Maybe I was overthinking it but I felt put on the spot and low-key called out for not attending more. I was however at meetings with other tutors and made an effort to attend at least once more, the day we got that email and all went home because after a 30minute wait still no one had come to get us (this is not meant to be salty, it was a scheduling mistake I'm sure, but I made the effort to show up that day and I want to note that). Also the doctors appointment on a Monday right before Spring break was annoying but I'm glad I went there instead of to uni in pain.

Anyway, I don't want to linger any longer on my attendance.

I told her my project idea, showed her my business cards and told her about the matching tissue paper i had printed. They aren't exactly final outcomes that fall under the Viable Practice brief but they are part of it and she agreed that i should mention them in connection to the Viable Practice chapter in my final PDF. We discussed how much space each of us would have at the end of year exhibit (max 2 x A2 sizes on a wall OR smth to put on a table) and I a bit sad I wouldn't be able to show off both, my Cryptozoology zine AND a few posters. Most likely it'll be have to be a singular Cryptid poster and one of the Quizzes only. This brings me to our next talking point, the quizzes. She liked the idea of them but we had a quick back and forth about whether or not it should be one or 2 quizzes. I am heart-set on 2 separate quizzes but because we didn't quite agree I will whip up 3 options (2 separate and 1 full one) for her to review next Monday. My concern is that if i make one tree-diagramm quizz for 8 cryptid-outcomes the writing would be too small on an A5 sized page. She said I could have the quizz fold out but that would complicate the whole Zine layout and finishing process and with the lack of time I really don't want to overcomplicate things. She liked the idea of the screen printed t-shirts and agreed that if I couldn't print them in time, I could make online mock-ups to put in my submission PDF instead. - Glad to have that solution work, otherwise it'd mean more stress!! Regarding the posters I came up with the idea of adding descriptive arrows, which would describe their features, to the creature Illustrations so that they'd be a bit different to the zine illustrations. Now to the illustrations themselves I told her I hadn't decided on a color palette yet and she gave me the homework of finishing at least 2 Cryptid illustrations and in 3 different palettes each so next week we could decide on one combo. She asked for a zine mock-up and i told her i had made one for each, the research zine and Cryptid zine already but hadn't brought them in that day. I had however layout sketches on my iPad but I didnt end up showing them because our conversation drifted off to the research zine and it turns out I misunderstood that a bit. The focus was more on the resaerch methodology we used than the fruits of our research. A different approach than what I was going for with my mock-up. I was focusing on the research outcome, not HOW I WAS DOING THE RESEARCH. A shift of focus and I had understood what was asked of me. Still I think the research zine is the scariest part of all the FMP.

To conclude my homework for next week is:

- 2 Cryptid illustrations in 3 different color palettes each

- Write 3 Quizzes

- Don't forget to bring the Zine Mock-ups

+ I want to make a list of different research methodologies I used so I can check with my tutor if it's enough for the research zine.

As panicked as a I was about this Monday session, it was helpful. The start was a bit rocky because I felt kind of put on the spot and and indirectly accused of not attending enough, which added to my anxiety in that moment but we had a productive discussion and I'm glad my tutor took the time to go over everything with me. I like talking to her and the other tutors, even if it's scary sometimes.

[verdantglow]

that makes so much sense actually. i also am making some aus (unrelated) and am wanting to seperate them into little ficlets/art pieces/comics of the pieces that motivate me before even touching on an overarching story but also god is it difficult for me. if thats what works for you as well id definitely say treat it like that (also i would LOVE to see any animatics you do for this)

i personally am mostly watching the hermits doing their hermit crafting (currently watching 18 hermits simultaneously the hyperfixation is b a d) and a couple SOS members, though i plan to watch more of the creators. I've really only seen up to double life (all through grians pov), and i havent even finished that. in my defence, the "its for your secret soulmate" line utterly and completely destroyed me and i have NOT recovered since (i stopped watching his hermitcraft videos after that too until the start of s10).

i have made the resolution to go watch other povs but i need to finish his first rip.

ANYWAY BACK TO THE AU

How often do you think the vflarp games effect their out of game relationships? like obviously it led to them becoming friends and desert duo becoming "moirails" but like. Did double life cause a rift between grian and scar? has rendog being absent from the games had any significance on anything? (i havent watched further so i cant really give too many other examples). Do the winners get anything other than the satisfaction that they alone won?

absolute behemoth of an ask my bad

Yeah! There’s just something so appealing about being able to just jump around & do mini projects that go together rather than one huge one. I’m hoping it’ll hold off the burn out I inevitably get for my AUs. **stares off into the distance thinking about all my mega fics that only ever got three chapters** I get it being hard to break it down though! I hope you’re able to land at a place where you can create as easily & painlessly as possible. ^^

I feel you on the hyperfixation lol. I was doing that hermitblr survey that’s going around & realized that I watch every episode of a third of the server, & some to most episodes of another third. & there’s a handful in the final third that I’ve been meaning to watch, but haven’t gotten to because I’m so busy watching everyone else & thinking about fanworks. This season is just slamming all the good brain chemical buttons!

Tbf, “it’s for your secret soulmate” hit so fucking hard, I do not blame you an ounce for wanting to take a break after that! When you’re ready, I highly recommend Martyn’s 3rd life, it’s so good! I never quite got the Renchanting/Treebark hubbub as someone who’d only seen Grian’s perspective of that season, but after watching Martyn’s… The drama is just. So. Good. Martyn + Ren is just a combo of theatre kid lore nerds & it honestly slaps. Gem’s Secret Life is damn good as well, just ‘cause she got to be a chaos gremlin & we love to see it.

Oh yes, their VLARPing affects IRL relationships all the time! A lot of early relationships developed due to playing 3rd Life & those relationships continued on to influence who went on which ship once they reached adulthood! Obviously, we’ve got Scar & Griann, but also there’s Scohtt & Jimmie who became auspitices, & Wrehnn & Martyn who stick together & eventually become matesprits. Jimmie & Tangoh hit it off after playing Double Life as soulmates & eventually enter a [matespritship? Moiraillegance? Haven’t decided] as well. & of course, my beloved Boat Boys developed their weird whatevership around the same time. (Joel swears they’re pitch. Eethos never comments on it. The truth is somewhere around them being hate friends who are flushed for each other??? But fuck if you’ll ever get either of them to admit it.)

Things were pretty rocky for Scar & Griann after DL; the whole secret soulmate thing was a case of Griann being mildly annoyed with Scar & thinking he could get back at Scar/make Scar jealous. This blew up in his face ~*~spectacularly~*~ & it took quite a bit for things to heal between them. (Mummbo spent a lot of that time being very confused why the vibes on Scar’s ship were so fucking rancid until he managed to get Griann to fess up.)

There definitely is a plot related reason Wrehnn hasn’t been playing, but I’m holding back on finalizing anything until I get more of the out of game plot mapped out. But yes, that definitely affects/is an effect of things in game!

I think, much like in real life, winning is just for the prestige of it. Like, in this AU, the Life series is just a bunch of games they’re playing for the heck of it. Though this does make me think that I need to decide where these games come from, whether it’s a mass market thing or something Griann threw together or if maybe it came from some other outside influence. Hm…

[johannwolfgangvongoethe]

Further Umineko-ing. Again

episode 1, part 3

whenever battler is unavailable, kumasawa has taken the up the role of exposition and comic relief, which is nice. i like granny characters and id be interested to hear more from her perspective, since she is sly and nosy. being a maid really exposes you to a lot of dirty laundry.

a new plot point came up. i didnt initially take this one seriously bc of how stupid it sounds. apparently there is a SECRET FAMILY TREASURE OF GOLD hidden on the island somewhere. really not a direction i expected but suuuuure. physical 10t of gold somewhere. there is something deeply funny about the headship and possibly the pact with beatrice being tied to a little private family paperchase. fact of the matter is, kinzo is WAY too serious about being chuuni to lie about this. as unrealistic as having 10t of gold just sitting around somewhere is. its an almost cute touch that beatrice is the family's personal boogyman - an entity children get warned about so they dont stray too deep into the forest and stay out after dark. except shes real i GUESS.

well, thats ominous.

maria once again exhibits a scary amount of sincereness towards the topic, which on its own isnt that weird, since shes nine years old. she mentions she wants to grow up to be a witch as well. another thing to put a pin into.

(looks at krauss' hair colour) uh oh sisters

at the same time, the same discussion is happening between kinzos children. since it seems clear krauss has in the past misappropriated his fathers funds, his siblings are - loving as they are -, offering him a way out. they will not investigate further, should he meet the following conditions:

right, hideyoshi is there too. btw.

at this point its perfect to mention that eva's va, ito miki, is doing an amazing job. every word eva says drips with poison. and hideyoshi has a way of being extremely unyielding, while keeping a kind and sincere face and voice. probably explains while george is like that

worringly, krauss just accepts it instantly but remarks hes too poor to pay the 10% in advance. everyone hated that!!!! however, krauss did his homework too. evas husband is plagued by shareholders that want to dispossess him. rudolf somehow got himself in front of court, without the knowledge of his wife nonetheless. no idea what rosas problem is, aside from the fact that her siblings talked her into the contract and she has yet to make it. as it turns out. everyone is neckdeep in trouble and NEEDS MONEY RIGHT NOW!!!! (the game spells this out in caps) except for krauss. funnily enough. he would only need instant money, should he sign the contract.

so there is no upper hand to be gained or control to be had. they are ALL cringe.

(this is where hideyoshi finally cracks. he does not lose his temper but is visibly uncomfortable.)

the contract remains unsigned. also they got spied on. it turns out kinzo also tolerates kanon around him, if its to spy on conversations his children had. needless to say he finds this hilarious and he has other worries anyway. hes trying to resurrect beatrice with black magic fuelled by the risks hes taking in life.

this truly is like world's shittiest family get together over the holidays. except way more money is one the line. but the emotional exhausting and toxicity is very true to life. rich people probably live like this. horrid.

magic in this vn is built up on risks taken and wagers made. the smaller the possibility of success, the better. which is why kinzo encourages the gold hunt in the first place. the more people look for it, the more powerful he becomes. and then he can ??!??!? resurrect beatrice. im just accepting that. necessary plot device to keep moving.

nanjo has the kindest reading on the gold paperchase: kinzo might have put it together to force his children to work together in solving it, thus mending their relationships and becoming a happy peaceful family.

yeeeeeeaaahhhh no................. at least thats not his prime motive. it could still be a side effect though.

the riddle to get there is as follows:

KILLLLLLLL !!!!!!!! REND! MAIM!

so here we are. "my beloved home of old" might already be the island. or maybe its more metaphorical than that. it is currently october 4th in the game and i have read up to the afternoon. that COULD theoretically mean the a "first twilight" could happen soon. if that part of the riddle is already relevant at all. welp lets see

[adrianastrix]

Well, I already talked a bit about Bram & Vlad, but now that DD ended, I can share The Spoilery Things about B&V-verse and link to the fanfics that could spoiler book details to people.

The whole premise of the comic is that despite their families' differences, Abraham van Helsing IV and Vlad Dracula II become fast friends (or, rather, Vlad becomes Bram's friend, Bram becomes Vlad's "person he will kill last in an anger fit"). And then kids descending from the other characters, plus other books start to pop out, like Johnny Seward and Bessie (Karnstein) Báthory.

As time passes, though, it becomes very clear that something is weird. For one, since Van Helsing very explicitly had a mad wife and a dead son, how exactly did he produce descendants?

Something seems awfully suspicious about the Harker Papers and the fact that barely any of them is written by hand (and the ones who are, are really short).

The Big Twist in B&V? Yeah, Van Helsing obviously didn't have any descendants. He gave a copy the "Harker papers" to Bram Stoker with the only stipulation that he should keep a rough outline of the events and preserve as much of the names of the characters as possible in his novel (Stoker follow them much closely than expected in the final draft). But those papers weren't exactly diary transcripts and all. In B&V, the novel "Dracula" is a big collective fanfic that the whole crew of light plus Dracula and Lucy wrote together (some of them might have been sliiightly intoxicated at some points) to cover up the fact that the two vampires ended up very alive, very married and not willing to put up with vampire politics bs. To make things believable, the places they go and things they do in public are not fictional, but the motivation behind most of them were (except Harker going to castle Dracula in the beginning, that part was 100% real - Dracula was just not as murderous as he seemed and was genuinely looking for real state to live peacefully in and not for world domination).

And those married vampires needed to live somewhere no other vampire would look too hard, to have some peace. Dracula, then, got a fake ID as Van Helsing's illegitimate son who ends up recognized by his "father", and there's where Bram actually comes from. He and Vlad are basically cousins, a few generations removed.

The OTHER big twist (this one 100% meta)? Yes, the novel was mostly fanfic. But this fanfic is weirdly prophetic about the major events of the descendants of its writers in the 21st century. The only weird snag is Jonathan's life not directing one of Lucy Harker's brothers, but Vlad's (maybe because Lucy is madly in love with him, and it would be weird for her to marry one of her brothers). And, while Bram looks and acts like a child Van Helsing, let's remember who he actually descends from, and the comic's finale will make much more sense.

OK, now let's me organized the scattered material I have, in case you want to see glimpses of this all playing out.

FANFICS:

I sort of "novelized" the first season of comic strips on those four short stories. Be warned that most of them were written ten years ago and I was barely better at English than Van Helsing. All three are self-contained because I used to distribute the Portuguese originals for free in Brazilian comic cons:

Prologue to B&V: A mother summarizes Dracula to her son as a child's story. The boy is enjoying an internal joke the whole time.

Welcome to Exeter!: After being trapped for way too long in a castle in Transylvania filled with vampires that want him dead and being emotionally damage by all the trauma and neglect, Vlad Dracula II goes to England, where he spends his very first night fighting ghosts with an eccentric smart guy. Or, in other words, 10-years-old Vlad is sent by his absent parents to go bother the Van Helsings for a few years. Their same-age son, Bram, immediately thinks it's the coolest thing ever.

Harker's Guest: Bram wants Vlad to meet his neighbours and semi-family, the Harkers. All is well until a stranger without a reflex comes knocking.

Legacies: Danger lurks around since Harker's mysterious guest vanished, so the Exeter Hunters team of vampire hunters give their kids the Legacies, six everyday objects that their ancestors unknowing imbued with a powerful magical protection. But those legacies won't work if the kids don't understand the magic that powered them in the first place.

Those are some side stories from B&V-verse (also standalones):

The call of the Mountains of Madness: William Dyer just want to forget the horrors he met in the unknown depths of the Antarctic, when he receives a visit of some "Captain Maarten van Helsing", who claims to have being there in his dreams and asks Dyer to guide him into a desperate rescue of two aliens in distress. The smart thing would be to turn the young man down, but let's be real, old Bill hasn't been sane enough to be smart in a long while. (This fic is giant, all the others are short stories. This here is a novella, the peak of my fanfic days. Most jokes are riffs on Lovecraft, but there are some Dracula bits too. Be warned.)

Victor Frankenstein's last wish: Richard Walton just wants to deliver some weird letters to the intended recipient and be done with his promise to his dead father. However, Franz Frankenstein is somehow even weirder than he expected.

To look death in the eyes: Every year, in the All Souls's Day (November, 2), Bram's family always go and make a picnic in the scariest place in England, which is… A beautiful countryside? This year, Vlad Dracula and Henry Jekyll find themselves dragged to it.

Bram's Vampire Hunting Handbook: A non-standard fic in the form of Bram's summary of the Van Helsings' Vampire Hunter Handbook, an encyclopedia of everything a vampire hunter needs to know to not die on their job.

(I have it on good authority that you can enjoy the Handbook without ever reading the strips, but if you want maximum context on how Dracula fits on it, read the chapters on The Amsterdam Treaties first for a quick shot of Van Helsing angrily staring at a bunch of vampires and hunters until they act civil, then come back to the beginning.)

COMICS:

Non-spoiler B&V Character Guide

The comic in Tapas

The DeviantArt folder with so so SO much extra content

And the AMA that would include Dracula characters whenever I was re-reading the book.

Here's some gratuitous JonMina, as a treat, if you got all the way down here:

Nina reads Dracula 🦇

November 7th — Epilogue!

Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured.

How eerily relevant to current world events!

It is an added joy to Mina and to me that our boy's birthday is the same day as that on which Quincey Morris died. His mother holds, I know, the secret belief that some of our brave friend's spirit has passed into him. His bundle of names links all our little band of men together; but we call him Quincey.

I love you Quincey Jonathan Abraham Arthur Jack Harker 🥺❤️

When we got home we were talking of the old time—which we could all look back on without despair, for Godalming and Seward are both happily married.

I see it. I see it. We only need to remove one (1) word to make it work. Technically we could even leave it untouched. I see it.

We were struck with the fact, that in all the mass of material of which the record is composed, there is hardly one authentic document; nothing but a mass of typewriting, except the later note-books of Mina and Seward and myself, and Van Helsing's memorandum. We could hardly ask any one, even did we wish to, to accept these as proofs of so wild a story. Van Helsing summed it all up as he said, with our boy on his knee:—

"We want no proofs; we ask none to believe us! This boy will some day know what a brave and gallant woman his mother is. Already he knows her sweetness and loving care; later on he will understand how some men so loved her, that they did dare much for her sake."

Don’t you love it when the Family is Found?

JONATHAN HARKER.

THE END

Dracula Loop™ one final time 🖤🦇

Final thoughts

I LOVED IT!!!!! Which will certainly not come as a surprise to my Tumblr friends. Themes of monstrousness and humanity and love and resilience are my everything. This is one of the stories that will stick with me forever!

Quincey and Renfield remain my favourite characters. Jonmina has me in a chokehold. Van Helsing is such a funny character and was the topic of many debates with my sister. It says a lot that Dracula himself, the title character and overarching menace of the book, pales in comparison to the protagonists — sometimes kindness is more interesting than evil!

See you next year, everyone. For now, I will leave you all on a question:

Fanfic recs please? 🖤🦇

< Prev 🦇

[nn-ee-zz]

wait multimedia art? that's a course I've considered taking 😭 i heard it's very heavy on 3d stuff tho. id love to hear about your experience

Multimedia Art! I studied in University of Fine Arts of Lisbon (or as it's called here; FBAUL) My experience there, alongside everyone in my year, was very unique since the curriculum changed mid course and a good chunk of our final semester was spent in quarantine.

A good summary of my college exp was building the ability to do projects from start to finish. Photography, animation, comics, games, audio and video editing, drawing, etc. Alongside the mandatory classes, I've had optional ones. Mandatory classes didn't required me to do 3D work. You could pick optionals that focuses on it, however. So in my experience, it was not heavy on 3D unless someone seeked it out.

I'm gonna be honest, college was gruesome for me (maybe the daily 3 hours of traveling in 3 different types of transportation sunk me in) but I really cherish the things and experience I got within in.

Here goes advices to have an easier experience in college

Learn from everything

Every class has something to learn from and apply to your work. We had drawing classes in which we had to draw a massive pile of random projects set in the center of the room. I've seen some people question as to WHY we are doing something so random. Who will ever need to draw a pile of random stuff? However, it's not about the pile. In that class I reinforced my skills of composition, scale between elements, how to accurately represent man-made items with the dynamic of an illustration. Enjoy and soak in, even seemingly random assignments can have a purpose.

It was also in that drawing class that I learned one of my fave advices ever. I had discarded a drawing and said that I ruined it when the teacher asked why. He replied ''If it's already ruined, then ruin it further''. That loss of high expectations allowed for more freedom, and the result made was much better than anticipated. It happens A LOT when I do ink art. I ruin things, and in an attempt to fix or 'go with the flow', the result turns out much better than the initial plan.

Note: Model drawing class (censored cuz idk how tumblr would react) and statue drawing. The graphite work I did that year made me so bold with shading, both irl and digitally.

Not your magnum opus

None of the projects that you make need to be done at the highest of your skill. I've ALWAYS said to my classmates that we are there to learn the step-by-steps of projects, and try to make a solid one ourselves. Just a solid one, not a perfect one. That being because I've seen it often that projects would start out hyper-detailed and incredibly worked...only for the deadline to approach, and suddenly things aren't as of quality as they were in the start, and the student feels like a failiure over it, and their motivation sinks, and they likely will never attempt it again outside of college. Don't fall for it! You're there to learn what it takes to create a project, and then attempt it at your highest quality in another context.

My example with this were comics. I made comics, animations, games, photos from start to finish. Were they amazing? No. BUT I now know what is needed to make them at full skill outside of college.

Note: Comic class! First one was made based on a sentence prompt (the dialogue). Second one was a re-draw of Pop Team Epic. Made my teacher say ''shut the f*ck up and die'' out loud hsjdhask, she was so hesitant)

Know your limits (and use them for your advantage)

My biggest advantage in college was making my lack of skill seem like a stylistic choice rather than....lack of skill, haha. A massive example of that was my animation project. I didn't have the time to learn software skills nor the time to polish them into smooth, colorful animation. Knowing that I'm unable to do beautiful animation, I decided to use my low skill for full advantage. Now the colorless characters with shaky linework and animation were an aestethic, rather than a flaw. Settle your goals in clever ways that make you look like you're in control. That will also push you out of your own style and reveal some really interesting results.

Note: I animated a short vocaloid MV (Panda Hero by Gumi, with the english translation by vgperson on youtube) A nod to my advice above aswell; this looks messy but it was made from start to finish, and allowed me to learn what it takes to make a MV. I had planned doing another, outside college, but the idea faded.

A GREATER example of this would be the things that made me most popular online; my character design. We were told to design characters based on chess pieces for our weekly Concept Art assignment. I wanted to do fully rendered, beautiful work, but time and SKILL limitations pushed me to settle for ink AND to shade it in a fitting, inky style. I didn't plan on posting it online, but did out of random impulse and it changed my art career forever.

Remember, one of your biggest limits is also the deadline. Don't leave your work for last minute. Unlike high school, the stress of late college works is much, much worse...

That is all, for now. Thank you so much for reading this far.

As a final note, please take care of your health. College is difficult and strains some more than others. Be kind to yourself and to your work.

[goosedawn]

equivalent exchange au update/lore dump

i am still on a hiatus! VERY SORRY

honestly at this point idk if anyones even following this au anymore fhfofhrkenghehfjf but uh. have a lore dump of what concepts i would make if i actually had the motivation to continue making content of it!

i may come back to it at some point, but as its something that followed the dsmp storyline closer than some of my other aus it gets really messy later on, so id rather leave it off here for the time being, im sorry to say :P

if you want a refresher on things before diving in, the masterpost with all current content can be found [here]

(it gets Long under the cut.)

In a very vague comic I drew ages ago, I attempted to hint at/imply that (human) George had begged XD to save (tiny) Dream after an accident in the End which XD had done, shifting reality into a state where Dream was no longer injured. XD accepts the deal, resulting in Dream and George exchanging their sizes. In doing this however, XD also tied its life(?) to Dream's in doing so, taking on his face.

anyway so before i continue from where i left off: some History.

Wilbur calls in a favour with an old friend of his to endorse him in the election, seeing as Quackity now has the support of George. The person in question is of course, Schlatt, who previously used to travel with Wilbur.

-----

i havent even gottEN to the elections. good lord. here we go.

Schlatt sees this as an opportunity to make a deal (to become human), but once he arrives he realises that Wilbur is now a borrower as well, foiling his plans. He goes behind Wilbur's back to make a deal with Quackity.

Through their campaign, Schlatt stays borrower sized, up until the election day, when he swaps sizes with Quackity to fully take in his new empire and to make sure Wilbur knew exactly why he betrayed him.

Sending everyone after Wilbur and Tommy as he banishes them from Manberg, they manage to hide in the borrower tunnels as footsteps thunder outside, Tommy leading Wilbut through them as he tries to find his way to Tubbo.

Quackity in hand, Schlatt brings Tubbo on stage, and Tommy and Wilbur flee after Tubbo is given his new position under Schlatt.

-----

In Pogtopia, Wilbur decides to call Techno as he spirals. Tommy tries to keep him stable but Wilbur is still reeling from the quick succession of events. Shrinking, losing the election... he feels powerless.

When Techno arrives, he aids Wilbur and Tommy in getting back at Manberg, starting a new wave of revolution. Techno refuses any deals that Wilbur attempts to strike with him, citing that he "Never makes deals"

-----

Moving forward, Wilbur is getting ready to set up explosives, his smaller stature making it far easier to sneak the TNT into places he usually wouldnt be able to reach.

Dream catches on and arrives to supply him with more, hoping that by helping Wilbur destroy the country, it will allow him to sweep in and take the remains, ensuring he has control over everything once more. Dream believes that under him, the SMP will prosper once more- its only after Wilbur began his revolution that things started to go south.

During his visit, Dream demonstrates that he is able to shift between a human form and a borrower form, much to the surprise of Tommy. Dream mocks Tommy before leaving.

Tubbo and Tommy meet frequently, discussing Wilburs declining emotional state but are at a loss of what to do. They vow to always have each others backs, as they always have done and always will do. Tubbo's hands are steady under Tommy's feet. as he holds him close.

During one of Wilburs TNT runs, he bumps into Eret while travelling between tunnels outside of Manberg. They apologise to him for betraying him at the button room, but Wilbur brushes it off saying that all is forgiven, and that hes getting used to being this small. It's refreshing, he says. A new perspective on life, if you will.

Eret, still guilty, watches him leave. Something about the way he talked rubs them the wrong way until they realise that Wilbur was heading towards Manberg. They call out after him but he is long gone, sequestered away in the maze of tunnels.

-----

The Red Festival. Absolute chaos during the festivities. Since the election day, Quackity has been borrower sized more often than not, and sits on Schlatts horn or hand as the festival progresses. Wilbur and Tommy sneak in, and Wilbur expresses second thoughts about blowing up Manberg, seeing how much his friends and former citizens are having. He also wonders if it is because he is gone that they are able to have such a good time.

The day goes on, and just as Tubbo starts his speech, Schlatt shifting sizes so that Quackity has the element of surprise to trap Tubbo. Wilbur, stricken by grief that he cannot do anything to help Tubbo, makes sure that Tommy does not run out, fearing that he will be targeted if so. He makes the decision to blow up Manberg.

Techno is brought up on stage, and kills Tubbo, as well as Schlatt and Quackity, who were nearby. He turns his sights onto the people below the podium after. Tommy and Wilbur expose themselves, trying to use the chaos to achieve their respective goals.

The rest of the festival and its aftermath follows similarly to the main plot.

-----

War now on the horizon, Eret is dethroned by Dream, who places George in power. As Eret refuses to stand down, Dream taunts them. Did they really think they had any power here?

The world pitches around them, and they find themselves surrounded by golden walls. Much to his and Georges surprise, they have swapped sizes. Dream picks up the crown (which had not shrunken with Eret) from around them, and crowns George. Eret flees to Pogtopia, once again apologetic to Wilbur. Wilbur, brushes off their apology and they see the true extent of his despair. Hes not very good at hiding his emotions now he has a tail after all.

Eret volunteers to help out in the war effort, aiming to make up for their actions.

-----

November 16th. The day of the war begins with George peacefully building a mushroom house away from the impending war.

The war proceeds similarly to canon. Schlatt, in his human form dies of a heart attack, and Quackity is released from their deal, and the war is won. Quackity however, cannot shift back to a human size.

Wilbur sneaks away to the button room after passing on the role of President to Tubbo. Phil arrives, walking into the button room through the tunnels. He is a winged borrower, and attempts to stop Wilbur.

Chaos erupts below the two, the button room being situated on a hill above the podium.

Wilbur takes this chance to press the button, and Phil wraps his arms around his son, hugging him properly for the first time. Phil's wings are scorched by the explosions. Despairing, Wilbur begs Phil to execute him. He didn't intend to be alive to see the aftermath of his actions. In the remains of the button room, Phil panics and begins to grow, eventually crushing Wilbur in his hands as he accepts Wilbur's request.

Techno spawns withers, fighting the remaining survivors. He notices that as time goes on he seems to be shrinking. He sneaks off, and now, borrower sized as Withers continue to wreak havoc on the rubble, he makes his escape.

This is intended of course, to reveal that Phil and Techno have a deal, and have presumably had it for many years now.

Wilbur returns as a tiny Ghostbur.

-----

As reconstruction efforts begin, Eret is reinstated as King, after George is targeted by various citizens. Dream fears for. George, and thus removes his power, swapping Eret and George back.

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Good Lord theres a Lot that happens betwen this and the next time i thought about stuff for this. There is a big gap that i hadnt figured out yet here. Assume it goes similarly to canon. I took a huge 6 month break from the dsmp and so i never finished planning out this section because its the part im least familiar with.

With exile, Dream is shown to be able to shift sizes once again, using it to manipulate Tommy into trusting him, as well as hurting him.

There is a snippet I wrote of a scenario where Dream tricks a mourning Tubbo into swapping sizes with Tommy, who is not truly dead, which I consider to be canon now rhfkdhekngkfhfk

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Dream's imprisonment happens when he suddenly shrinks down to borrower size after everyone comes through the portal. It is clearly shown that George stays the same, and does not grow.

Dream He is powerless against the now-human-sized Tommy, who deigns not to kill him.

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Later when Tommy visits Dream in prison for "the last time", he enters the prison, and conversation follows as in canon, leading up to the lockdown. Tommy is less worried about Dream being able to hurt him, with Tommy pushing Dream's limits, taunting him. This ends with Dream growing to a human size once more and killing Tommy.

After Tommy's revival, he awakens to Dream being tiny again.

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AND THATS ABOUT IT. Here is some additional information that doesnt fit into a particular part of the timeline!

XD is the one who has a deal with Dream. Not George. In a way, XD actually retconned existence so that Dream and George had always been their respective sizes, and now George is tied to multiple existences/realities.

Foolish is a sizeshifter! He uses totems to shift size, so when he becomes borrower sized, hundreds of thousands of totems appear elsewhere wgfjfhejk,,, mostly he stays Giant sized though.

Bad and Skeppy have a deal! Theirs ties their life forces together, but does not result in size shifting! Bad however CAN sizeshift, and draws on shadows to do so. The smaller he is, the more light he lets off. When he grows, the shadows in the room become more faint, and he grows darker and larger.

Ghostbur is the result of an incomplete deal! Basically the magic in that got a bit messed up after Eret and George got switched up, and he is the result. Revivebur returns human sized once more.

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And thats all I've got!

i don't have many thoughts about newer events in this AU (OR RANBOO. SORRY RANBOO) but feel free to speculate, I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have any about stuff i've missed or about this in general!

even though im probably not going to work on this much/if at all in the future, i still wanted to give this au as close to a ending as possible :P so if you have read this far, thank you so much! SORRY AGAIN.