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that-ari-blogger · 1 year ago

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Critical Role's Previous Cameraman

I put up a post the other day about critical role's new animated introduction and I couldn't help but notice a sudden spike in the analytical stuff that I don't really understand. A more tech orientated friend of mine informed me that this was a good thing, actually. So, I thought I might capitalise on that and examine the previous campaign's opening sequence through the same lens and do some more analysis.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD

One notable thing about this song is when it starts. Exactly eleven seconds in. That's eleven seconds of wait before the final payoff. You catch glimpses of what's happening above, but nothing else.

And that is a key theme of this campaign. The unseen. The Mighty Nein was a party characterised by trauma, and a lot of the time, you don't see that, you only see glimpses. A flash of a fight they told you about, and the sensation of drowning.

But then we meet Fjord.

He's falling, and I'd like to point out the direction in which he is falling. You will notice the scars on his back, signifying he was probably in the process of running away, or was betrayed by someone, and he is falling towards those scars. Backwards. There is also a neat thing of falling away from the light, into the darkness, into the unknown. THis is someone out of control, leaning into the pain. And what is it that sees that?

There is a reason Uk'otoa's design looks so much like a leach. The creature is a parasite, it doesn't find someone strong to break down, it found someone weak, and at its mercy, and brought him under its control. What this shot does is highlight that creature's opportunistic nature, but it also associates it very clearly with the visual of that eye.

And it's that eye that carries through. When Fjord washes up on the beach, when he is finally safe, he carries with him a little piece of Uk'otoa, a little piece of that trauma.

It's also notable of that it is an eye. It's obvious, but it colours his vision, and changes how he views the world. Its effects aren't physical, but mental.

Beaureguard Lionet is a fighter. Not in the sense of class, because she isn't but in the sense of personality. Beau is a fighter in the sense that her first reaction to any problem is to punch it.

This transition is a wipe transition, but its important because of what it uses. It uses the opportunity to show off the uniforms of Beau's attackers, because otherwise the shadows of the rest of the shot make them hard to make out. These are wearing the same robes as her. Whoever they are, they are part of a team of some kind with her, they are people she should be able to trust, but look at how much damage they have done to her. Look at how heavily she is breathing. And look at what Beau does in response.

She fights back. This is how the animation gets across this character. She isn't complex, she doesn't need a great explanation, she doesn't have different sides to her, she just hits things until they stop being a problem.

I will also point out her eyes again. They are blue, not an unnatural eye colour, but they are the same blue as her robes, and the robes of those who are attacking her. Once again, the has warped the vision of its recipient, and in this case, it's creating a cycle of violence as all she knows how to do, is hit things.

We don't see Nott The Brave for a while in this animatic. We instead see, once again, the eyes. But I also want to point out that this was made before we knew about Veth. So we were just seeing the scared goblin.

This is as close as we get in this scene, and its Nott actively hiding from the light. The warmth scares her, and for good reason, its the same heat that we see emanating from her eyes. Once again, the trauma that has contaminated a character's vision is changing their reactions to the world.

And with that, I would like to talk about Jester, and I would like to do that in context.

The term "foil" in the context of a character was actually popularised by William Shakespear, who handily explained the metaphor for us.

"And like bright metal on a sullen ground, My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly and attract more eyes Than that which hath no foil to set it off."

Put in English, I shine brighter when you have something to compare me to. And this is what a foil character is, a character who brings about elements in other characters that can easily be missed, or who shows off by contrast their personalities.

Jester is one of the two characters in the Mighty Nein who is not a child of trauma, and her introduction shows that. She reacts to her life by laughing, and contrast that with everyone else. Fjord reaches for a sword, the item of his trauma; Beau tries to fight her trauma despite that approach clearly not working; and Nott hides from it, unable to reach out for help.

And it is notable that the first time we see an adult Jester, she looks normal (if a bit over cheerful), then is immediately contrasted with the rest of the Nein.

This not only shows just how different her demeanour is from the rest of the crew, but it shows her effect on them. She makes them all smile. Jester and Caduceus are very much support characters in the truest sense of the word. They support others. Jester shows genuine kindness towards everybody else, and it reflects onto them.

This shot is neat but not too special. Its a tracking shot on the hat of all things, because thats what important here, and it shows the traveling dynamic of the group. It's a tiny bit of tension in an otherwise calm scene, so the camera is steady, but speeds up slightly to match the movement of the object, then comes to a stop when it is caught. There is very little stress, but there is a sense of comradery.

Similarly, this shot establishes some stakes with a rising pan to show the scale of the threat and to show some more information, but it is hardly a monster, so the camera isn't really in a hurry.

Enter Caleb Widogast, born in fire. I don't think they could write a more thematic entrance if they tried. An abrupt cut shows the night, then it is entirely consumed by fire, only to reveal Caleb.

There is no motion here. The camera is stock still. This is the exact same thing with Ashton and FCG in the Bell's Hells. Caleb is disassociating from the heat in front of him, and there is a fascinating reason behind that. Caleb has two characters that need to be introduced to better understand him, the man, and Bren, the boy.

The flames consume the screen again, and then part to show a boy, staring at the screen, in horror. This is what you need to know about this character, this is a character forged in flames, born from the Ashes. Bren is dead, Caleb Widogast remains.

And this shot, with Caleb, Astrid and Eadwulf silhouetted against the fire, shows what kind of trauma we are talking about, and what effect it has. This is guilt, and in contrast with the rest of his party, this guilt is paralysing.

Yasha, however, is introduced in a calm way, in contrast to everything around her. The camera shows you a woman, meditating, and then pans backwards to reveal this:

This is a woman surrounded by bloodshed, who has made a concerted effort to look away from it, and to look to the Storm Lord for guidance. This is a woman looking for healing, in comparison to everyone else, but that looking doesn't change the fact that that trauma is still there.

The next few scenes are cool, but don't really add anything to this analysis and I only have a few more images I can show here, so I'm going to skip to Taliesin's characters.

Caduceus has two introductions. One is this shot, which is a cool action shot of him casting an epic spell and vanquishing a crowd of enemies. But instead of the incredibly animated (in the sense of exaggerated poses) nature of his companions, Caduceus clay is calm and collected. He is unquestionably the anchor of the group, and where Jester contrasts them emotionally, Caduceus does so on a philosophical level. Caduceus is a gardener of fungus.

Mushrooms and other fungi are recyclers, they grow on dead trees and creatures and give a forest new life. They clear out the debris and make way for new things to take hold. That's what Caduceus does for the Nein, he helps them get through their trauma so that Jester can help them improve and become better.

Caduceus's actual introduction is muted, and there's a point to that. He's not trying to be the main character, you don't need to understand his family life to understand him. You need to understand that can stand in a graveyard and see the light, that he is at peace with what has gone before him and helps people to get past it, and that his entire mission, to regrow the grove, isn't to bring back what is lost, but to help regrow something new in its place instead of the blight that lingers there.

Mollymauk is introduced as a weapon transformed into a grave. That is what this transition is and I think that's really important. Mollymauk is, very clearly, a repurposed soul. He isn't the first person to inhabit that shell, and he isn't the last. I also want to point out how this character is represented here, not with a heroic memory, but with a quiet moment or remenicing on times gone by. He is a shadow that haunts the Nein.

This is by far the simplest shot in the entire video, and that's because it isn't telling you anything. You bring your own emotions to the table here, you bring the memories to the grave, that's how grieving works.

Once again, there is more to this video, but I'm only allowed to put 30 images in a single post. So I leave you with a quote from Niel Gaiman.

"Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten."

DnD likewise, and all TTRPGs for that matter, are powerful because in them, with a little bit of help from friends, any monster, no matter how personal, can be defeated.

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musicalmoritz · 2 months ago

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I saw your post about giving tbhk characters songs and I noticed a bunch of them were musical theater and they fit so fucking well??

Like waving through a window for Sousuke and dead mom for Kou?? Unlikely lovers?? Music of the night??? Your mind omg.

I was wondering if you had more musical theater to tbhk characters stuff because id definitely like to hear them lol. It's totally fine if you don't have more, in case not, you could give more non musical stuff.

I’ve been behind on my asks so I’m trying to get caught up and this seems like the best one to start with, musicals have been rotting my brain since the eighth grade. I’m gonna be honest, I don’t remember every song I listed in the original post so I apologize if some of these are repeats!!

TW: Brief mention of suicide ideation for one of the songs/characters

• Idk how much you’d count this one as a musical song but Once Upon A Dream from Sleeping Beauty makes me think of Mitsukou/Soukou (especially in the context of the new timeline)

• I have to apply Dentist! from Little Shop Of Horrors to every sadist character so it’s going to Teru, maybe he can do that if he ever smartens up and quits exorcism (I would give it to Kou but Teru is like. wayyyy more upfront abt his sadism lol)

• Tango: Maureen from Rent except every character in TBHK besides Mitsuba and Mei is lowkey bisexual so there are so many ways it could go. Hanako and Aoi about Nene. Teru and Aoi about Akane. Mitsuba and Nene about Kou. The possibilities are endless

• Popular from Wicked with Aoi and Nene…because yk we always see Aoi giving Nene popular girl advice. I am aware her character goes deeper than that I’m just being silly

• Love Me For What I Am from In Trousers with Nene but just for the “I met a man in a can” line. She did, in fact, meet her boyfriend in a bathroom

• Helpless from Hamilton with AoiAoi and then Satisfied with Terukane. I think I’ve seen an animatic for this but there are a lot of Hamilton animatics for different fandoms so I could be mistaken

• Alyssa Greene from The Prom with Aoi

• And on that note, The Lady’s Improving with Yako or Sumire (Sumire bcuz you can add in Hakubo for the romantic context). Quite honestly I love The Prom sm, it’s very overhated imo bcuz the songs are all bangers

• Portrait Of A Girl from Bare: A Pop Opera with Aoi and Akane before their development

• More with Bare because I love queer musicals, Role Of A Lifetime with Mitsuba in the context of Mitsukou. They can’t be together forever and Mitsuba knows that so he’s confused on what Kou wants…see the vision

• Seventeen from Heathers with HanaNene but bonus points if it’s Picture Perfect Amanene when they tried to run away together

• There’s A Fine, Fine Line from Avenue Q with Nene…possibly after Nakahara rejected her

• I feel like the concept of She Used To Be Mine from Waitress could be applicable to so many female characters because context aside, it has major theme of going from girlhood to womanhood + overcoming a lot of trauma, so it’s hard for me to nail down just one. Perhaps yorishiro Sumire? Could also apply to Nene

• You Gotta Die Sometime from Falsettos with Mei (my sister and I quote the opening line to each other every time one of us is sick…but also oof this song hurts me)

• This one is a bit nonsensical but I like to imagine The Worst Pies In London with Teru and Akane since yk Teru is terrible at cooking. Or with Ghost Hotel Kou and Nene (not in a ship way tho)

• The Ballad Of Jane Doe from Ride the Cyclone loosely makes me think of Katakuri bcuz of the whole deal with the kannagi losing their memories

• In the Same Boat from the Lightning Thief demo with any of the trios tbh, mainly the Broadcasting Crew because Sakuhiko fit the Percabeth dynamic so well and Tsukasa as Grover is just yes (in the context of this song specifically lol). For the others tho it would be Terukane as Percabeth and Aoi as Grover, then HanaKou as Percabeth and Nene as Grover…or HanaNene as Percabeth and Kou as Grover. Another one with lots of options

• Red And Black from Les Misérables with Teru and Akane bcuz of the whole Enjolras caring abt war and Marius being all head-in-the-clouds about Cosette…very Akane coded in general

• Meet the Plastics from Mean Girls with Teru as Regina, Akane as Gretchen, and Aoi as Karen

• On that same note, WORLD BURN WITH TERU. HEAR ME OUT.

• I want to bring up Spring Awakening just to bring up Spring Awakening tbh so Don’t Do Sadness/Blue Wind with Aoi and Akane (?) or Teru maybe. Tbh I’m struggling on who could do Ilse’s part but Aoi fits Moritz (my boyyyyy) very well with how she wants to “go somewhere far away” aka take her own life due to the pressure she’s under. Could also be with Mitsuba or Amane as Moritz but NOT Kou because we all know Kou isn’t actively suicidal right?? We’re all on the same page abt that?? Good

• I could also picture Those You’ve Known with Kou and his dead ghost friends at the end of the manga. Specifically Hanako as Moritz and Nene as Wendla but you could substitute either of them for Mitsuba if you want

• I feel like Wait For It from Hamilton could fit Tsuchigomori

• No Me Diga from In the Heights makes me think of Aoi and Nene and their rumors. Bonus points if Akane is the one Nene teases Aoi about with the “just wanted to see what you’d say” part

• Mister Cellophane from Chicago with Mitsuba

• Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again from Phantom Of The Opera with Teru mourning his mom…we don’t really get to see him talk abt her in canon so it’s a cool concept

• More with Teru, I’m Not That Girl from Wicked. I’m thinking within the context of TeruAoi but feel free to apply it to Terukane

• When He Sees Me from Waitress with AoiAoi or Mitsukou…Aoi and Mitsuba singing ofc

• I’m Breaking Down with Aoi during the Confession Tree chapter when Akane started dating Lemon

Okay I’m capping myself off there, hope you liked this!! And thank you for the ask :)

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rileyclaw · 2 years ago

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Hii! First off i just want to I'm such a big fan of your art and animatics! Your art is just so expressive and unique its addicting to look at 💞💞

I was wondering if you could go over how your process or tutorial in making an animatic? Whenever I try to start to make one, I get jumbled up and end up ditching it lol

I'm sorry if you get this question a lot 😭

So sorry it took me so long to answer this- I was in a Busy time (diseaseridden with covid and being punched by finals) when I got the ask and wanted to answer it with some stuff Im using for my next TOH animatic!!

I'll say one thing first: I get jumbled up and ditch so many animatics. For every one animatic I release, there are three to five more I have that have NEVER seen the light of day (yet). And that's okay!! It's fun just to make them for me, and I hope it is for you too!! Animatics are scary because if you're working on it alone, it can be really hard to be your own cheerleader to keep up the mojo to keep going. So that makes it really special when there is that project that makes it to the finish line- cuz you can look at it and go "holy crap I made this. holy crap i MADE that look how SICK that is dude!! all that work and look at the turnout!!"

The following stuffh is just my personal process and is by no means representative of a professional animation pipeline, but this works for me as a Lonely Artist! It all begins with the idea - whether it's a song, or just a story you wanna tell. In the case of the one I'm gonna demo here with , I wanted to animate Hunter's first day as Del's apprentice!

The first thing I did was write a script. Not fancy or AO3-quality, but enough that I understand the pacing and the visuals of each shot. I usually just put this in a doc or put it in a script format, if I feel fancy.

Then, I take that script and find music that I think would fit for it- and remix it (if needed) to fit the pacing/mood/etc! This is what this new animatic looked like before I began ANY artwork- this is a me thing because I'm super inspired by audio as opposed to visuals first. But you might be different- this is just how I like working personally!

Then begins the research! I find references for characters, background layouts, and create a style guide for the animatic that tells me how thick lines will be for characters, backgrounds, if there'll be tons of value or no. I make a turnaround for each character so I can refer to them because Im gonna be drawing them over and over a LOT and want to be consistent! Luckily TOH has no shortage of references, so I based my work off them.

THEN, I can begin drawing. I'm a little,,, (a lot) ADHD and may not always do this process, but if you're new to animatics or daunted by the task at hand, make beat boards of the entire project.

This is just a page of rough thumbnails that get your visual idea down - look how rough and quick these are!! I try not to spend over a minute on each beat board if I dont have to, unless it's a particularly complex shot.

When it gets to the stage where you're ready to begin the actual scenes, I personally tend to do backgrounds first because I like to set characters into backgrounds - and for every animatic, I have the Awkward Blue Sketch Stage which is basically my beat boards timed out as an animatic.

I used Storyboard Pro for this (Toonboom, not free ): icky), but the process can be replicated across most art platforms in whichever way you feel most comfy with! This is so I can time the drawings before I devote time cleaning them up-- which can make for some Pretty Funny looking little guys but theyre important!! trust!!

Once a big sequence of shots is cleaned up (I usually do 40-60 second chunks at a time), I export the .mov and send it to my editing program (which in this case is still Premiere Pro) - and then repeat this process again and again until.. it's done??

Here's like a TL;DR list of basically everything I said summed up:

• Make a loose script or bulletin of the idea! Do your research!

• Depending on what kind of animatic you're making, time it to music!

• Make a beat board of very loose gestures for your shots, and time them - then move on to refinement & cleanup!

• Combine all shots, refine music cues and timings, add any last needed VFX, and export!

There's no secret recipe or anything, it's just learning a pipeline that best suits you, whether it is for something professional or something you want to make for fun because you just love to make!!

#riley talks #long post #SORRY ITS LONG but i couldnt just put a bulletin list like “this is the ONLY method that works” bc thats not true!!!#everyone works diferently especially artists #and this is just my specific method of working #im very fortunate to have programs that make animatic-making a little easier #so i hope whoever wishes to make one in the future finds something that works well for them!! i have a blast making storyboards/animatics!!#text post #ask #tutorial #idk how to tag this lol

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trayzen-the-infinite · 1 year ago

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Winter King thoughts

I’ve been thinking of Winter King for a while trying to organize my thoughts. I think Winter King is tragic in a new way. The Crown does more than turn you into a knock off of Urgence Evergreen, with every mind that wears the crown their consciousness is stored in its memory which stacks with every new person which inevitably created the insanity we know now. Ice King at some point managed to get rid of the Insanity and put it somewhere else. Simon was more than likely already insane when he did that and when he came to his senses and realized what he did, he did his best to ignore it and shrug it off. Simon is very good at rationalizing his actions to himself and he’d rather die than be Ice King, so he decided to play ignorant to his misdeeds. At the same time he’s still wearing the crown and his attitude is far more charming and charismatic than Simon himself which leads me to believe that while he’s not insane anymore he’s still not Simon either. Evergreen was a selfish man who much like Simon is good at convincing himself of his own actions and likely it’s a case that Winter King still has all the collective personalities stored in the crown minus the insanity. He’s still a cursed man, it’s just not as apparent. To cope with everything he’s done and refuses to confront he created a kingdom of lies around himself. He made a clone of Marcy to keep him company, he surrounded himself with his own creations who all loved him, he doesn’t try to hurt anyone and just lives in his picture perfect world to hide from a much more terrible reality.

I saw an animatic on YouTube using a fan song called “I’m Sane” and I highly recommend it because it fits winter king perfectly and I just want to share a few lines that work so well for him “I wonder night and day what it’d be like, if all we made could spring to life. Grant it a brain? That’d be crazy. Slay the obtained? How could you blame me? Impending doom, seek no freedom. Don’t interfere with the rhythm. Endure the pain! Preventing me from going insane” and “it’s not bad, I swear. If you close your eyes it’s not there”

Ignorance is bliss as they say and he’d rather be ignorant to everything, because the alternative is to go insane. Winter King is a good result for Simon while Ice King is his hell. It’s a hard choice and even if it’s because of willful ignorance Winter King is far happier than Ice King or Simon. If he wasn’t accidentally killed, I wonder if Winter King would have tried to fix thing eventually and repair everything he broke. He’s absolutely more in his right mind to consider stuff like that.

#adventure time #winter king #simon petrikov #ice king #adventure time fionna #fiona and cake #fionna and cake #adventure time theory #princess bubblegum #candy queen

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artistnerd24 · 9 months ago

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(TLDR: I’m depressed that Jaiden is gone and now it feels like a huge chunk of my enjoyment of the server is gone. I completely respect ccJaiden’s decision to leave and am happy that the stream where I found her playing Qsmp led me to find such an amazing fandom and such a talented creator who I want to still watch in the future (seriously though, I would not have found her incredible animations if it wasn’t for that stream). I will probably be taking a hiatus from Qsmp though because now such a huge part of my experience is now gone and I realized how I’ve been prioritizing this over real life which has been damaging my mental health. I don’t know if I will return to the fandom or not (I probably will because I am way too addicted but it depends what life shows) but if I don’t, thank you Qsmp for allowing me to be part of such a great experience :D)

… just heard the news that ccJaiden is leaving the project and that qJaiden is dead…

I hope that ccJaiden feels better, I know how overwhelming Qsmp can get and I respect her choice to leave very much…

But… is it okay if I just feel very depressed now? Jaiden is who got me into QSMP, she has been my main for months and I loved her and her content and was planning to make so many animatic, arts, and fics about her (in fact she was one of my biggest driving motivators for it). She was truly such an amazing character. I loved her lore, I loved her personality, I loved Bubbleduo, I loved the Jaidens, I loved the idea of her and Empanada meeting… I just loved her character… she and her streams helped me feel better a lot… it’s the main reason why I’m still in the fandom… but now… with her gone I actually just feel like a huge chunk of my love for it has been ripped out, and I’m just sad. I’m sad that we lost her and everything that could have been in qJaiden’s future…

But hey! If it weren’t for me discovering her through a Qsmp stream that was recommended to me, I probably wouldn’t have become a fan of ccJaiden’s animations and probably wouldn’t even know about such an amazing creator! I’m happy that ccJaiden was able to be apart of this server and that now she will be able to do more stuff that she loves and doesn’t overwhelm her.

But as for me… I might take a hiatus from Qsmp for a bit…

If you look at my posts you probably knew how much I love Jaiden’s character and how she is probably my favorite thing about the server besides Gegg but he’s gone too…

There is a part of me begging me to not leave this fandom. I’m still in love with so many other characters’ stories like Tina, Tubbo, Phil, Bagi, etc.. But there has been so many times that situations and other events also just overwhelmed me and made me detached from real life and now with one of the main strings keeping me attached to the server gone… I don’t know if I want to still stay or not, so I think a hiatus would be good for me to just think things through.

Qsmp is truly such an amazing experience and like Jaiden said, Quackity has done so much and made something so very cool, but I think I just need some time away from it. Get back to real life again you know? I will probably be back, I’m way too addicted to these Minecraft cubitos leave, but in case I don’t… it’s been amazing to meet you guys and thank you for letting me be apart of this experience, it was incredible :)

#qsmp jaiden #qsmp #goodbye jaiden 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

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fivenightsatfreddysfanfiction · 4 months ago

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Thanks for the Memories

Jeremy draws on various memories when Gregory and Cassie ask for help with their school reports, and a visit by Alex sets off far darker and more painful ones, all revolving around one man; Mike Schmidt.

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The bell over the door jingled, catching Jeremy’s attention as he looked up from the small endoskeleton he was assembling to see who had walked into the shop. “Oh, hey, Mike,” he greeted with a grin, seeing the older man step carefully around a table covered in scrap parts and plush animatronic casings. The dubious look on Mike’s face at the miniature versions of the Fazband was par for the course; neither of them expected to be able to make the toys without Fazbear Entertainment coming for their heads, but considering the legal debacle the company was in over Mike being the Bite victim and Jeremy’s father being cleared of allegations of being a murder accomplice, maybe they were letting it slide to avoid more trouble.

Fine by Jeremy, he’d use his father’s software to do some good in the world and protect kids via the Securi-Toys. Balance out the crap Fazbear Entertainment did to cover up those kids’ murders.

“It’s weird to be around tiny Fazfucks,” Mike remarked dryly, picking up a fuzzy head for a Freddy toy and squinting at it suspiciously, “Feels like they’re gonna come to life and come for my kneecaps or some shit.”

“Well, they’re not. I’m the one making them, so they’re more defense than ‘I’m gonna stuff you in a Christmas stocking at midnight’,” Jeremy replied with a chuckle. He reached out to pat his computer affectionately, “Papa’s software will finally get to do what he intended it to do; keep kids safe from harm.”

Mike took another look around at the collection of parts and equipment, eyes squinting as he took time to process what he was seeing, likely just now realizing that Jeremy had quite a lot of stuff for his new workshop that he couldn’t have been able to afford by himself. He set the Freddy head down, a scowl on his face that Jeremy could tell came from confusion and frustration with that confusion. His new medication to help with managing the lingering effects of his head injury was a lot less effective compared to having the 5th Child’s spirit guide his thoughts and give internal reminders.

But Faith was gone now, passing on in the effort spent to keep Mike alive from the second bite a possessed Foxy gave him, so now the two of them had to continue living without her to rely on for help and support. Probably for the best that Mike and Jeremy had no plans to go near a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place location for the rest of their lives, if they could help it. The Home Location was locked down, fully taken over by the spirits of the children still bound there and his papa’s ghost looking over the place to ensure they got to ‘play’ freely within its boundary.

“Where’d this stuff come from anyway?” Mike finally asked, poking at an animatronic eye and watching it roll around in its tray.

“Papa’s family contacted me after the stuff with us and Fazbear Entertainment hit the news,” Jeremy replied. He still didn’t know how to feel about that; anger that they had stayed distant for so long after disowning his father, irritation that they only chose now to reach out, after his father was long dead and his name had been smeared and it took Jeremy’s efforts to clear it, a strange gratitude that they reached out at all, that somebody wanted him. Most of all was just frustration that they could have cleared things up sooner, faster, if they hadn’t turned away from his father’s plight and ignored the early signs of spousal abuse his mother inflicted on him and then turned to inflicting on Jeremy once his father was dead.

But then, Jeremy would have never met Mike, wouldn’t have the Dad he yearned to have as a kid and the loving family home he’d always hoped for. So many conflicting feelings.

“They sent me all this stuff when I told them I was planning to make little animatronic toys with Papa’s software as a business and then offered to be a supplier of parts on a family discount.” Jeremy waved his hand over all the equipment and boxes of metal. He shrugged. “Guess this was their way of saying ‘Sorry for ignoring you and your papa for your entire lives’. Kind of a lame apology but at least it saves me the trouble of buying all this myself at full price. I can spend my money on going to school for engineering instead, get a better handle on how all this stuff goes together.”

“Back to school for you, huh?” Mike remarked with a proud smile, “Yeah, that’s a good use of the bribe money that fuckwad company gave you to settle out of court. Using mine to finally pay for the wedding Doll deserves to have for putting up with me.” Jeremy lit up at the news, his smile stretching his cheeks in excitement.

“That’s awesome! You guys are getting married at last! This is the best ending ever!” he exclaimed, jumping up from his chair to hug Mike, snuggling into the older man’s embrace.

“Yeah, and we have you to thank for that, too,” Mike told him in quiet joy, “You looking for answers to questions I didn’t even think to ask or knew was there, savin’ me from the bullshit that happened that night. We’re gonna have a good life from now on, you, me, and Doll. Make some good memories that’ll last us both.”

That was the happiest Jeremy felt in a long time, beaten out only by the joy they all shared when Mike’s daughter Faith was born.

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Present Day-

The bell over the door jingled, catching Jeremy’s attention as he looked up from the small endoskeleton he was assembling to see who had walked into the shop. “Oh, hey, Gregory,” he greeted with a grin and glanced over to the girl that walked in with him, “and you brought a friend! That’s a first.” He snickered at the pout Gregory shot him in return.

“Come on, Mr. Fitzgerald, you’re gonna make me sound lame!” the boy complained while the newcomer looked around at everything in awe. “This is Cassie,” Gregory introduced his friend and Jeremy greeted her with a nod, “We’re doing reports on technology innovators for school and Cassie’s doing hers on Afton Robotics. Her dad used to work for them as a technician so she’s really interested in their A.I. and stuff.”

“Huh, I thought you’d do that one yourself,” Jeremy commented, eyebrows raising in surprise. The boy had been primed to be an Afton engineer, a perfect host body for William Afton, based on what Ven and Damien had figured out and what Vanessa had told them happened under the Pizzaplex.

“Nah, the whole class expected me to write about Afton Robotics, but I don’t want to get seen poking in their official stuff,” Gregory grumbled, arms folding over his chest. Probably to avoid being put in a position to get disappeared again. Jeremy sighed; seemed like Fazbear Entertainment hadn’t stopped with the weird cover-ups. Not with how many people kept disappearing in town over the years.

“So then what are you doing here?” he asked in confusion before blinking at Gregory’s phrasing. ‘Official’ resources. “You want Cassie to have access to our data on Afton Robotics?” he asked warily, narrowing his eyes at Gregory nodding and Cassie giving him a puzzled look.

“Why do you have something like that? Isn’t your family’s company a competitor to Afton Robotics?” she questioned.

“It’s complicated,” Jeremy told her and rubbed his head, a long sigh drawing out of him as he thought over how to explain things. “I don’t know. Our database is seriously out of date, and we only have it to try and figure out what happened in the past to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.” He gave Gregory a meaningful glare, “Clearly we didn’t get enough relevant information to prevent a repeat of Circus Baby and the Eggs Benedict A.I. situation.”

Gregory scowled briefly before shrugging it off, his expression turning more uncaring of his experience. Cassie blinked in surprise, “Circus Baby? From Circus Baby’s Pizza and Parties? Gregory said you’re the one who built her.”

“Her physical forms, yeah,” Jeremy admitted, leaning back in his chair and looking over the scattering of parts and tools in the workshop, “Her first body was originally from Afton Robotics, but her A.I. was stolen from another family.”

“Bold accusation,” Cassie pointed out flatly. Jeremy shrugged.

“We have proof, but that proof will cause a lot more pain and trouble to a lot more people than it’s worth. So the best that happened was a good copy of the A.I. was stolen back, which had a ton of Afton Robotics data attached to it that we kept, Fazbear Entertainment kept the master copy, and their feud stays in the shadows as long as no one else gets dragged into the mess,” he replied carefully. “I built Circus Baby’s current self for the rescued A.I. and that’s who you see in Meera’s pizzeria. Fazbear Entertainment doesn’t bother me about it because of an old settlement between them and me about my papa.”

“The guy in the museum who looks like you?” Gregory asked, his eyes wide, “You had beef with Fazbear Entertainment cuz of him?”

“Huh, didn’t know the family put Papa’s picture back up there,” Jeremy remarked in an unimpressed tone, “Nice of them to do after so many years of pretending he and I didn’t exist. Guess that was also part of the apology gift of all this stuff they sent me for the business back when I was younger.” He frowned a bit, studying Cassie carefully before glancing back over at Gregory. “I can print out some stuff from the files, but I gotta make sure it’s safe stuff. Think you two can spare some time to wait around for that?”

Gregory looked uncertain for a bit there, and Jeremy felt a little bad about reminding the kid that his database wasn’t public knowledge for good reason. But what was contained in the copy of Afton files he stored in the workshop was less about the surface level stuff on the animatronics as entertainment and more about William Afton’s research on Remnant and how to get more of it and what it could do for creating A.I. and extending human life. Stuff that no child should see.

Stuff that Gregory shouldn’t have had first hand knowledge of but it couldn’t be helped since he and his mother were unfortunate victims of Elizabeth Afton’s attempts to resurrect her daughter and William.

Jeremy would have to carefully sift through what he had and pick out anything that looked like it was just about animatronic coding and hope there wasn’t anything mentioned that could lead down a rabbit hole Cassie could get lost in. Maybe he’d be lucky and find some new angles on the current mystery of what went on in the Pizzaplex during this search.

“Grandma knows where I am, so I can take my time,” Cassie chimed in, looking for a chair to sit in and settle down for writing, “Dunno why you guys are so weird about some files but I guess it has something to do with legal stuff.”

Gregory shrugged listlessly and Jeremy just sighed and turned to his computer, setting up a search in the database for a sample of files based on some keywords. With that done, he turned back to Gregory. “My ‘beef’ with Fazbear Entertainment was because of Papa, Jeremy Jonathan Fitzgerald Sr.,” he replied to the boy’s earlier question, “He was accused of something he didn’t do and died before he could clear his name. I finished the investigation myself, found the proof that he was innocent that had been hidden because of the cover-ups done to the Missing Children Incident they did, and to keep me and my proof out of court, Fazbear Entertainment publicly declared my father innocent of wrongdoing after their own ‘investigation’ and gave me a hell of a settlement check as an ‘apology’ for taking that long to clear his name.”

“Yeah, sounds about right for that Afton lady to do,” Gregory grumbled, “They did the same thing for Vanessa and Sydney to make us ‘go away’.” Jeremy gave him a wry grin. It did seem like a repeat situation, though likely it was because of Vanessa bearing the name ‘Afton’ and the company scrambling to not piss off their owner, and Meera had stormed into their office in a fury over the condition of her ‘cousin’ Sydney, which set off the earlier secret unofficial agreement to keep peace between the Enfuego Family and Fazbear Entertainment.

Not like Meera was going to honor her side anyway, blood feuds didn’t end until a whole bloodline was wiped out, but Jeremy hoped to be far away from that fallout when it happened.

Gregory’s eyes flicked to Jeremy’s computer screen as an image flashed by in the database search, and his expression twitched. Jeremy glanced over to see what he had reacted to and smiled a bit at the images of the Guards scrolling through at a set speed. The keywords had been about animatronics, so it might have pulled up the files on the various guards who matched certain generations of animatronics. He pointed at the screen. “You saw me in there? I was the night watch for the ‘new’ Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place at the home location, when the Toy Fazband was built and sent over and ended up getting Papa’s software uploaded when they connected to the network.”

“You were a security guard?” Gregory questioned dubiously.

“How did you think I was doing my investigation? I got hired there to save up for a place of my own and also look for the clues and evidence I needed to clear Papa’s name,” Jeremy replied with a chuckle, “That’s where I met my best friend, who then became my dad.” He reached out to grab a framed photo from his desk and held it out to the boy. “That’s him,” he pointed out, “Mike Schmidt, best dad a lonely teen with PTSD could ask for.”

Gregory took the framed photo from him and studied it in silence, leaving Jeremy to turn back to his database search and clean up the results. There were a few files that seemed safe enough to share, mostly early blueprints for the Funtime animatronics and planning discussions for the types of personalities their A.I. would have programmed. He sent those to the printer and flagged the rest of the search for later reading himself.

“Did your headache come back? Here, you’re lucky I always keep some medicine on me for you these days,” Cassie said suddenly. Jeremy spun in his chair to blink at Gregory gripping his head with a grimace, the photo held close to his chest in a hug to keep from dropping it. The girl had hopped out of her chair, unzipping her pouch to take out a bottle of basic headache medication, sorting out a couple of pills to hold out to Gregory. While he threw both of them into his mouth, she also grabbed a bottle of water out of her backpack to hand to him as well. “Maybe it’s something to do with stress? My dad used to get headaches after coming home from work and he blamed stress.”

“Y-yeah, probably that,” Gregory muttered between sips of water. He handed the photo back to Jeremy with a weak smile. “He seems.. nice.”

“He looked nice in that photo cuz that was when I got accepted to the college I wanted to go to,” Jeremy replied with a laugh, “If you asked anyone else, Mike was a jerk on the best of days and an asshole with a mean streak on the worst days. Then again, most people didn’t know that part of the reason he was perpetually pissed off was because of having to survive six hours a night for five nights a week against killer robots.”

“Can’t relate,” Gregory snarked dryly before looking over at the printer buzzing, papers sliding out into the tray, “Oh, hey, stuff’s done.” Jeremy gestured at him to go ahead and the boy took the papers, handing them over to Cassie. “Here ya go, hope that’s enough for a decent report,” he told her. She flashed him a smile in thanks, taking the stack and immediately turning to read them, an excited gleam in her eyes.

“So if you’re not doing a report on Afton Robotics, which company did you pick?” Jeremy asked Gregory in mild interest. With a nervous laugh, the kid just rubbed the back of his neck and gave a one-shoulder shrug.

“I went with Fitzgerald Defense and Security. Figured it’d be easy to do if I ask you about it,” Gregory admitted and widened his eyes, poking his fingertips together, “Could you help me, Mr. Fitzgerald?” He then immediately flinched, one hand rising up to press to his forehead, “Ow! What the fuck.. stupid headache.. when’s that damn medicine gonna kick in?!”

“I’ll help when you feel better. Go sit,” Jeremy told him with a wry grin. He was a little touched that the kid wanted to write about his father’s family company, but he wasn’t sure how much help he’d actually be. His father didn’t really say much to anyone about Fitzgerald Defense and Security, didn’t keep a lot of notes in regards to it, just small references and names in regards to the maintenance and creation of the first set of Toy Animatronics. Jeremy turned back to the database, frowning at a few mentions of his father’s name in the Afton files.

It was a little frightening to have learned just how close his father came to catching Elizabeth Afton’s attention for looking too hard and too intently at the springlock mechanisms of those early hybrid animatronics. If he’d been at that sister location when the failures happened.. well, that would explain a lot about his father’s behavior at the home location afterwards and why Damien was so violently aggressive towards any iteration of Springtrap. Might actually have been a good thing that he went back to the home location immediately to decommission Spring Bonnie and Fredbear; Elizabeth seemed to target software-leaning engineers and programmers for host bodies for her father-in-law if Gregory’s affinity for Afton software and animatronic hardware was any indicator.

He dismissed the files with a soft sigh, trying to push thoughts of his father out of mind as he turned his gaze towards the photo of himself and Mike. His relationship with his father was complicated, doubly so when first interacting with Damien after their mutual realization; lots of arguing, lots of crying, lots of apologies, lots of explanations, excuses, accusations, and regrets, enough to have any therapist who could work with them rolling in counseling fees. By now, Jeremy had settled into a kind of equilibrium with his memories of his father and his life now with the man’s soul existing within his reincarnation. He could work with Damien and sometimes he’d end up working alongside Jonathan, in those few instances where he was Awake to help him and Damien get through some difficult troubleshooting in the workshop.

“So when will I get to see you again, Dad?” Jeremy mumbled, reaching out to tap his fingertip to the photo, “Or did you lose out on reincarnation by giving up Six? Would that happen to me when it’s time I give back Seven?” Because Seven was like Six, born from Jeremy’s feelings of hope for living and desire to heal his wounded past and family, and given the direction to protect by Damien, and so the created spirit endlessly kept Jeremy’s body healing, extending his life and slowing his aging. Jeremy didn’t want to live forever, but he also didn’t want to miss his chance to possibly find Mike again.

If his Papa got his soul messed with and exposed to enough Remnant to be reincarnated, then surely Mike would get the same chance. Years of working at Freddy’s, surrounded by so much Remnant, actually being possessed for nearly his whole life up until they both left Freddy’s employment, if anyone deserved to be reincarnated it was him. But did giving up Six change that? Supernatural stuff was way beyond his knowledge.

“Mr. Fitzgerald? I’m feeling better now, so could I ask you about your family’s company for my report?” Gregory asked cautiously, pencil and paper in his hands and concerned expression on his face. Jeremy gave him a small smile before shaking himself off, setting his thoughts aside for later. He could almost imagine Mike telling him to wait until after work to mope and his grin grew more genuine.

“Yeah, sure, let’s see how much help I can be,” he replied.

They talked for a while about the kinds of things Fitzgerald Defense and Security worked on, though Jeremy knew more about the line of observation and reporting animatronics than anything else. That was the line that developed based on the Toy Animatronics his father had programmed and the source of the parts he used to build Circus Baby’s forms and the Securi-Toys. Part of him wondered who handled the programming for them now, since Jonathan was the software engineer for the family before his disowning and death.

The scratching of pencils over paper as both kids wrote their reports filled the air, letting Jeremy sit back and relax. It was a slow business day, much of his paperwork had been done already, Damien’s paycheck was already sent out and the few orders for repairs he had were nearly complete so he could afford a little break before finishing them. Despite the melancholy brought about by his usual missing of his dad, he was happy with his life. A little longer, he’ll wait a little longer for any signs of him reincarnating and if he or Damien couldn’t find Mike anywhere then Jeremy would have to accept that his dad got his wish of truly passing on.

True rest sounded like it’d be nice. If it worked out like that, then maybe giving Seven to Damien again wouldn’t be so bad; the spirit worked well with him and Six, a solid team.

The kids exchanged papers to read over the reports and double check their work and Cassie quickly made a face at Gregory’s writing. “Gregory, you can’t turn in a paper that calls Toy Chica ‘Stupid Japanese Bird’!” she scolded, “That’s awful!”

“I’m not the one who made her that way,” Gregory replied with a pout, folding his arms over his chest.

“Y’know, I never understood why Papa programmed that into her,” Jeremy admitted, sheepish expression on his face. “The pervy stuff she kinda learned on her own, though. It was the reason why Mike hated her during my time at the pizzeria. So much weird innuendo.”

“See? Mr. Fitzgerald agrees with me!” Gregory declared smugly. Cassie just gave him an unimpressed look as she slid the paper back across the table.

“Fix it,” she told him and he sighed in complaint but took the paper and began erasing his words.

“Fine, but I still stand by my opinion!”

“Your opinion sucks; you didn’t even know she existed until Mr. Fitzgerald told you about the Toys.”

The kids were amusing. Jeremy hid his quiet laughter behind his hand.

It wasn’t long before Cassie checked her phone and informed him and Gregory that she was being picked up by her grandmother. “Thanks a bunch for the info, Mr. Fitzgerald,” she said with a smile, “It was really cool to learn about the Funtimes. Do you think Funtime Foxy was the starting base for Roxy? Both of them were pretty gung-ho about their show times and making sure people were there to see them.”

“It’s possible. Afton Robotics kept pretty good records on their animatronic programming, even if some of that programming wasn’t exactly theirs to keep. I can still respect archiving old software, even if I don’t like the people doing the archiving,” Jeremy mused and squinted a bit in thought, “I wonder.. it’s been a while since I thought about where the drives holding the backups of the original Fazband went. Router stole copies long ago, but the originals also went missing during the fire sale after Fazbear Frights burned down.”

“You think if Afton Robotics got them they’d remake the old animatronics for the museum?” Cassie asked hopefully, “It’d be really cool to see what Freddy and the others looked like in the old times!” Jeremy laughed again, rueful in sound. ‘Old times’ certainly made him feel a lot older.

The funny part was they did sort of remake the old Fazband, but they had been silent, empty shells of themselves, little more than hunting endos dressed up in suits that mimicked the original Fazband crafted to capture Mike and collect samples of his Remnant. Didn’t work since they didn’t pose the challenge Mike was used to countering, so he kept them at bay easily. All that did was prove that the drives housing the programming for the originals wasn’t in Afton’s hands, so they were still lost.

Gregory didn’t chime in, tapping the eraser end of his pencil against the table top as he gazed distantly off, like he wasn’t quite tuned into the here and now. Lost in his thoughts maybe? Jeremy couldn’t really tell. Every now and then the boy’s eyebrows twitched, eyes narrowing just the smallest bit. It reminded him of when Mike would be processing events after a flurry of them on a night shift, slowly sifting through what information he’d managed to grab and sorting them out to something coherent enough for him. Maybe Gregory was the same way, just with something else affecting his thought processing. Jeremy had seen Damien hand off a few fidget toys to the boy some time back so the tapping pencil was probably his immediate stand-in for one.

He pulled himself out of it in time to walk Cassie to the shop entrance when her grandmother pulled up, waving goodbye as she left and then coming back to sit at the table again, a frown on his face.

“Something on your mind?” Jeremy asked. With Cassie gone, they could both be more open about things in regards to the Aftons and animatronics.

“I dunno. My headache’s not really gone, but it’s not really hurting either,” Gregory replied uncertainly, hand rising to his forehead to rub carefully at his scalp. “Like... it itches inside my head and it’s kinda annoying. What the hell am I supposed to do about that?”

“Mike used to have a problem like that. We figured out a bit late in the game that he could kinda soothe it with a heating pad. Wait here, I think I’ve got one stashed away,” Jeremy replied, getting to his feet and wincing at feeling a tingle around his knees. Whatever creaking or popping was supposed to happen at his age simply didn’t, not with Seven immediately dealing with any minor damages caused by growing older. “Since Cassie’s gone home, how about you? Gonna call Vanessa to pick you up?” he called over his shoulder as he went into the backroom to search for a heating pad or hand warmer.

“I dunno if she’s home right now. She said she was gonna go bargain shopping for suppliers for Radical Eats with Sydney, so maybe Alex will come get me. I can text him and maybe he’ll actually bring those lemon cookies I told him to make,” Gregory said and Jeremy’s eyebrows rose at the words. That sounded super appealing since Faith liked to tease him by making lemon bars for Damien and not letting him have any until after Damien had his fill. His adoptive little sister could be such a pain sometimes but he loved her all the same.

“I didn’t know Router could bake cookies. Figured being an angry hacker was all he could do,” he commented as he fished a small hot water bottle out of his med kit and filled it with hot tap water. He wrapped it in a cloth towel and headed back out to the workshop. “Why did you tell him to make my favorite cookies?” he asked curiously.

Gregory was looking down at his phone, legs idly kicking back and forth as he tapped out his texts rapidly. “Because I was getting bored with him whining about you showing me stuff and I can tell he’s just clinging to this whole idea of being your rival cuz you’re not giving him any attention,” he replied with a roll of his eyes and a huff of exasperation, “So I told him to bribe you into talking to him with a plate of lemon cookies like ages ago but he hasn’t done it yet so I keep poking him about it whenever I get the chance and this is another good chance to do it since I’m making him come here to get me.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Jeremy sighed, shoulders slumping as yet more complicated feelings and memories rose up from the conversation. He really didn’t care for Router, was happier to think of him as just up and gone after making that deal in the weird underground facility, had never really forgiven him for the chaos he caused in Freddy’s that night he and his partner and mercenary gang broke in to steal the Fazbands and ended up temporarily killing Mike. As far as Jeremy was concerned, if he never had to cross paths with the hacker again, he’d pretend there was a god and thank them every day just for that. “I haven’t reached out probably for the same reason he hasn’t tried to contact me,” he added firmly, holding out the wrapped hot water bottle and watching Gregory carefully place it on his head, “We don’t like each other for past and personal reasons, and we’d probably just end up fighting if you put us in the same room for any length of time. It’s safer for both of us and everyone we care about if we just don’t make contact.”

“Uuuugh, you two are so laaaame! And annoying!” Gregory complained loudly, slumping back in his chair with the bottle on his head, “What even did you guys do to each other for this stupid rival thing to start in the first place?!”

“He got my best friend killed the night we ‘met’,” Jeremy told him flatly, a scowl on his face as he folded his arms over his chest.

Gregory blinked a few times, then looked away bashfully. “Oh,” he said quietly before his brow furrowed a little and he looked back up in confusion, “But.. you brought him back.. right?”

Jeremy felt his eye twitch. “That doesn’t make it all better, you know,” he replied and there was something else. Something that didn’t feel right about this, something uncomfortable that he couldn’t pin down. But he’d spent too long at Freddy’s to ignore gut feelings of something not quite right and he could feel himself getting more on edge, eyes glancing around to try and see if he could find the source of his unease.

“Sorry,” Gregory mumbled, a miserable look on his face, “I thought.. Freddy said that he and Knife Lady talked and agreed that they weren’t gonna be friends cuz Freddy did something in his past life that pissed off Knife Lady and she wasn’t gonna forgive him for it but she was okay with him being around us because he was trying to do better in this life. So.. so I thought...”

Jeremy sighed again, feeling his own headache coming on between trying to deal with Gregory and trying to pin down whatever was causing this sense of unease. “You thought if we talked something like that would come up and we’d come to some agreement too,” he guessed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he heard Gregory sniffle a little.

“I just.. I just want Alex to stop being an asshole cuz I like coming here to visit when you’re around,” he whimpered, “And I want you to just give him a chance cuz he’s really trying. He bakes stuff for me and helps me with homework and teaches me about hacking and programming-”

“I get it, I get it, he’s great to you and you want us to get along,” Jeremy cut in because he didn’t want to hear any more. It was so much easier to just think of Router as he remembered him in their first encounter with each other, when they were enemies and things were black and white because he and Mike were the good guys protecting the property and Router and Panther were the bad guys breaking in to steal it and then Mike got killed and Router was forever stamped as evil beyond forgiveness in Jeremy’s eyes.

He was so furious with the man that he had very nearly killed him that night. If it hadn’t been for Faith, for the Fifth Child, he probably would have and destroyed his own hope to save Mike in the process.

But this? A child pleading with him to give the guy a chance.. at what exactly? He didn’t want anything to do with Router, but he felt bad that Gregory felt this way about the fact that neither of them liked each other. And yet that wasn’t a good enough reason to just wave away the trauma and anger and pain of that night just so Gregory could have his ideal.

The bell above the door jingled and Jeremy pulled his fingers from his pinching to see who walked in. The young man who was Router’s reincarnation.. great.

The first thing Router did was zero in on Gregory looking gloomy in his chair with a hot water bottle on his head and then look up at Jeremy with a near-murderous glower that Jeremy returned with a glare of his own, sparks of green electricity flickering around his hand, daring him to try anything.

“What did you do to him?” Router growled, stepping closer to Gregory and giving his sparking hand a wary glance. “Did you make him cry?!”

“I didn’t do shit to him,” Jeremy retorted, “He got a headache while working on his homework, hence water bottle.” He folded his arms over his chest again. “Him looking all sad like this is because of you holding this stupid grudge towards me when you’re the one who fucked things up.”

“Me fucking up?!” Router declared in offense, stepping forward in confrontation, “You were never supposed to be at that fucking pizzeria, Fitzgerald! I had your precious daddy tell you to fuck off and you’re the one who showed up and fucked everything for all of us! You fucking got my best friend killed that night and I’m never forgiving you for that!”

“You got my best friend killed that same night, so I’m not forgiving you for that either!” Jeremy yelled, feeling the urge to beat the ego out of the man again.

“But you got him back!” Router shot back furiously, “You brought him back to life somehow! I saw him with you in that bunker! You brought him back but you couldn’t do the same for Panther, you couldn’t do it for my best friend and I hate you for leaving me without him for so long!”

“I wouldn’t have done it even if I knew I could at the start,” Jeremy hissed in contempt, “He deserved to rot in hell for coming after Mike for whatever stupid reason he got into his head and I’m glad he lost all his memories because at least he’s less of a shithead without them while you’re a reincarnated asshole who still didn’t get his best friend back.”

“Stop fighting!” Gregory shrieked, throwing the hot water bottle at Jeremy and hitting him in the stomach with surprising force. He stumbled back in surprise, feeling Seven already working to heal the bruising. “You’re both being fucking jerks! Get some therapy! Or shoot each other with Nerf guns or something, I don’t care! Just stop fighting!”

Silence filled the workshop then, broken only by Gregory still sniffling, now hugging Router’s side tight, and Router’s own breathing shaky in the wake of Jeremy’s last barrage of words. He thought back over what he’d said and winced a little. Okay, that had been a low blow so maybe Gregory was fair in chucking that water bottle at him.

“Let’s go,” Router muttered after a long exhale that Jeremy was pretty sure was meant to steady his voice, “Vanessa and Sydney are bringing takeout again so I told Freddy he doesn’t have to make pizza for dinner before I came to pick you up.”

“I’m sorry,” Gregory mumbled and Router just shook his head, rolling his eyes even as he patted the boy on the back comfortingly.

“Now do you believe me about how Fitzgerald and I have an undying hate for each other?” he asked lightly, almost mockingly, “And how we’ll never get along?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘undying’,” Jeremy corrected mildly, returning the glare Router gave him with a quick shrug, “I do plan to die someday, from old age. Just on my terms.” It wasn’t often he got to be petty so he’d take the chance even if it didn’t really feel as good as he thought it should.

“Why can’t you just talk to each other?” Gregory complained bitterly, “Fucking assholes, both of you.”

“Some things you just can’t get past, so the only thing you can do is just recognize that it’s better to not be around things, or people, that are an issue,” Jeremy replied carefully.

“But you were both there at the Pizzaplex!” Gregory protested, “You were working together there that night to save me and Vanessa and Freddy!”

“We.. we weren’t there for you or her,” Router admitted quietly, a grimace on his face, “We were actually there for Sydney. You three were just kinda a bonus we didn’t expect.” Gregory stared up at him in surprise before swiveling his head over to give the same stare at Jeremy when he spoke up.

“And we weren’t exactly working together. Router ran off to do whatever on his own and I stayed with Damien to do technical support for Circus Baby,” he clarified, shifting uneasily on his feet. That sense of something not right never left, still lingered in the back of his mind and the sooner he got both of them to leave so he could focus on analyzing it, the better. “So, yeah. Not in the same place if we can help it.”

“You guys are assholes,” Gregory repeated stubbornly, hugging Router tighter.

“If I stop bitching every time you want to come here or talk about Fitzgerald, will you stop trying to get us to talk to each other?” Router offered with a sigh. Jeremy noted how the younger man very obviously refused to face or look at him, keeping his eyes on the door to the workshop.

Gregory sniffed, but at least looked like he was considering it. He glanced up at Jeremy while still silent and he almost looked.. disappointed.

For some reason, seeing that expression.. hurt.

Jeremy swallowed, tightening his fingers to clutch at the sleeves of his shirt, and he looked away to evade that disappointed gaze. “You can’t force forgiveness,” he explained quietly, “Not.. not when we’re not ready to try.”

“Not when we’re not willing to try,” Router amended with a huff, glaring at the door.

“..Do you think.. if Mike was around.. he’d try to talk things out with Sydney?” Gregory asked haltingly.

“Dunno. Doubt we’ll ever know,” Jeremy sighed, stepping back to lean against his desk and letting his eyes fall to the framed photo. God, he missed him so, so much. Mike would probably know what to do in this situation, right? Or at least just make it painfully clear where he stood with just a punch to break up the situation entirely. “Panther doesn’t remember Mike and.. and Mike hasn’t appeared in any way, ghost or reincarnation. For all I know, he’d probably flip Panther off and the guy won’t know why Mike would be so pissed.”

“His name’s Sydney, not Panther,” Router bit out, shooting him another glare before refocusing on the door. His eyes looked almost watery. “He doesn’t act like that anymore, doesn’t remember it, so there’s no point giving him his old codename when it doesn’t fit him anymore.”

Jeremy opened his mouth, closed it, then sighed again. “Alright,” he murmured.

“I wanna go home,” Gregory decided listlessly and flashed him a weak smile, “Thanks for the help with my report, Mr. Fitzgerald. See you again soon?”

“Sure, it was no trouble. You’re always welcome to stop by,” Jeremy told him reassuringly and looked up at Router, “And there’s no need to make me any baked goods, even for a bribe.”

“If I did make you anything, I’d have poisoned it first,” Router huffed, folding his arms over his chest. Jeremy smiled thinly back at him, lifting his left hand to show a faint green ‘7’ appearing on the back.

“Would have been neutralized before it did anything to me, but it’s cute you thought to try your dad’s M.O.,” he replied in saccharine tones.

“I said, stop,” Gregory ordered, glaring up at both of them, and Jeremy froze, shoulders hunching up, like he was back on his first week at Freddy’s and Mike had called him ‘Probie’ in that same tone that meant he was getting close to the man’s limit on patience. Router winced, one hand dropping to his arm to grip it tightly near the inner elbow. “Cassie said once that if you can’t be civil, then just shut the fuck up.” He blinked, then squinted one eye in consideration, “Well, okay, she didn’t say it exactly like that but it’s like that.” He started pushing at Router’s back, “Come on! Let’s go! Being pissed off at you two makes me hungry and I wanna know what Vanessa and Sydney brought back for dinner!”

Router shot Jeremy a glare over his shoulder as they headed out the door and Jeremy just threw his middle finger up at him, his face blank of any other expression.

He held the pose until both of them were gone and then allowed himself to let out a long exhale in relief. That was so much stress crammed into a short amount of time. He’d almost prefer another night at Freddy’s in comparison. At least then he could just put on a mask and avoid most encounters. After that whole mess with Router, he half-wished he could just drink the memory away but Mike had cut back heavily on drinking when Doll got pregnant and kept mostly dry from then on so there wasn’t any alcohol within easy reach.

The bell jingled again and Jeremy groaned, facepalming as he hoped it was just a regular customer or something.

“Hey, old man.. eh, what’s with that face?” Damien asked warily as he set down a plastic bag with some takeout cartons inside and Jeremy pulled his hand away to blink at him in surprise.

“Damien? You’re at home by this time, what’s up?” he returned in a confused tone.

“Steph dragged Ven and Meera off to some nightclub to scope it out for fashion ideas, so I caught a bus over since I know you like to work late on the weekend and you tend to forget to feed yourself,” Damien pointed out, unpacking the cartons before pausing with a frown, lifting his right hand to look at the back of it. “Weird, reacting again.”

“Probably because I used some of Seven’s power earlier,” Jeremy sighed, heading over to the door to lock it and flip the sign to ‘Closed’, “Router came by to pick up Gregory and it went about as expected between us.” He took the wooden chopsticks Damien held out to him and sat at the table, nudging aside a small endoskeleton arm to make room for a carton of fried rice.

“Which old man did you inherit that anger issue from, Jonathan or Mike?” the younger man quipped as he peeled the lid off his ramen. He slurped up some noodles with a happy hum before blinking. “Wait, was this in front of the kid? Dude, not cool,” he added with a disapproving scowl, “I chewed out my soul for being a shit father to you, now I gotta chew you out for being a crap role model?”

“I didn’t mean to scare Gregory!” Jeremy protested over his carton of sesame chicken, “Router just brings out the worst in me, and apparently I bring out the worst in him too. Both of us already knew it would be bad to meet and actually interact, but Gregory forced both our hands!”

Damien gave him an ugly look, sneering over his cup of ramen, “Damn, that’s cold. Blaming the kid for both of you having issues that blew up in front of him when you coulda dealt with it way before Gregory even entered the picture. You sure as hell didn’t learn that from Jonathan or Mike.” Jeremy groaned and planted his face in his palm again. “Ah ah, don’t hide from this.” Damien poked at the top of his head with the other end of his chopsticks, tapping his skull just hard enough to get his message across.

They resumed eating together in silence, companionable and comfortable, while waiting for him to pull himself together enough to give an account of what happened. Damien had a good sense of humor but he also had a strong sense of justice and a deep dislike for poor parenting. As many issues as Jeremy had had with his father along with complicated feelings towards the man, he felt just as bad for Damien’s initial turmoil, anger, and hatred that had directed inward at himself because of his father’s soul. Vincent helped a lot with sorting out a lot of their family and reincarnation issues, but something Jeremy didn’t allow him to help with was his issues with Router.

Mainly because he’d never thought he’d see the guy ever again.

“Talking to Gregory brought back some good memories of Papa and Mike,” Jeremy began after a good amount of their dinner was eaten. “It was nice to talk about them, the few good memories I had of Papa, and all the stuff Dad did for and with me.” His mouth thinned, his expression souring. “Then Router showed up and brought up a lot of bad memories.”

“Reconsidered talking with Vincent about it?” Damien asked around an egg roll in his mouth, his words slurred from the food. Jeremy frowned.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he scolded before grimacing, “Wait.. no.. don’t...”

“You’re not my dad,” Damien quipped with a wide smile and gleeful eyes, cackling at his groan as he held the egg roll between his fingers, “How do you keep falling for my dad joke bait? You had two of them!”

“You take way too much enjoyment out of that,” Jeremy told him irritably before returning to his chicken, “And after Gregory’s reaction, I think I should get some help with what I remember of that night. He said Router was trying to be a better person, but my mind won’t let go of the things he said and did that night.”

“Memories can be a pain,” Damien agreed somberly, “but at least we have them. Still, sometimes I’m a little jealous of Gregory, Vanessa, and Sydney. Memories can be heavy; is it lighter to not have them?”

“Memories can keep hurting us years after they’re formed,” Jeremy muttered, poking at his food, “Would it be easier to have them taken away?”

The silence was heavier as they reflected on their words. Eventually, Damien raised his eyes to the older man, sadness that he shared with the soul inside shining through. “Would losing memories of the people we love be worth giving up the painful ones?” he wondered aloud. Jeremy tilted his head, thinking of the shining gold of his Papa before he fell to shadows and inflicted hurt, of the rough friendship with Mike that hardened into strong and stable familial bonds, lasting through the pain and grief and horrors of the night shifts.

“No, I suppose it isn’t,” he finally said quietly, “And I feel so sorry for Router and Sydney now. I can’t imagine how painful it must be.. to face your best friend’s reincarnation and realize they’ve lost their memories of you and your life together.”

It must be.. true agony.

#fnaf fanfiction #fnaf au #fanfiction #parlourverse au #jeremy fitzgerald #fnaf gregory #fnaf cassie #mike schmidt #alex herrera #damien woods

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mrmistopher · 3 months ago

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ART FIGHT SUMMARY 2024, SUCKAHS!

Second year of ArtFight and the first year I went all in on it. As opposed to my 4 attacks from 2023, this year I submitted 13! Before that, though, I gotta share others' attacks against me.

First, of course, is the lovely @pixel-exchange of Team Stardust who somehow managed to pump out *4* banger attacks against me this year! We were in a heated revenge war, which he ultimately beat me at, but I don't mind much, with how awesome his stuff was. I love how each turned out. I think my favorite may have been "Alone on the Moon", featuring my astronaut dog gal, Laika.

Second person to attack was @headphones-lifeform of Team Stardust who made this adorable bust of my Star Trek OC, Nurse Telos! He just looks wonderful, mad shoutouts to them!

Third is from a mutual of mine who actually attacked me in 2023; Croconiles from Stardust! (Twitter/Insta) He drew my skunk OC, Stripes, and she turned out heckin' excellent! Love that eyeshadow and the big nose.

Fourth is this hilarious little piece for my boy Werner by fellow Trekkie, @lyroart of Stardust! Love how goofy and weird his expression here is. Perfect for him with how wacky he is.

And lastly, we got this cute wittle pixel art profile for Laika from RevlisFox on Team Stardust. (CharHub) Looks super cute and I could totally imagine having something like this for a little family chart or the like.

Now, to move onto my attacks, firstly I have my revenge war with Pixel-Exchange. Big fan of how the first 2 looked, but the third was admittedly rushed. Still though, mate has some sweet designs.

Second, I have my attacks against LyRo the goat. Drew some of their Star Trek OCs. Calvin had my favorite design (guess why) but I really enjoyed Ena's personality, so I attacked em both!

Next we have my revenge against Headphones. I really liked this design for Niph in particular (guess why) and I really liked the concept for a cave-dwelling crewmate. Felt weird drawing props for once lol.

Next revenge was for Croconiles, with his silly little OC couple, Darby and Animal. Felt like it'd be fun to draw two characters interacting, and I like how they look in my style. Plus I just love the slight texture on his art.

And, the last of my revenges here is one against RevlisFox with this art of a character whose name I forgot. 😰 SORRY the character page got privated, I gotta wait until it's back up again. In any case, this was my final attack this year, and though a simple one, idk I kinda liked how it turned out.

So, moving away from revenges, here's my plain ol' attacks against artists I like!

First are my attacks against Keiiphobix (YT/Insta) of Team Stardust! No joke, one of my new favorite artists on AF. Just wicked good, man! I drew his lil guy, Maurice (ISTG HE IS THE CUTEST FUCKING THING EVERRRRR) and Joy, who is the just spikiest fella ever <3

Next was Callum by PeculiarPossom (Twitter/Etsy) of Team Seafoam! Just a skinny freaky lil possum drummer boy. I can relate to his struggle of being a drummer with no band lol. Fun fact: I was in Canada when I drew this! Shoutout Quebec

After this is art of le bird boy, Matteo, owned by a YouTuber I watch, RedPanda Master! (YT/DA) I initially fell in love with them for their silly lil WoF shitposts, but I thought Matteo was just adorable, and a must-draw! They have some awesome fantasy designs, but a lotta them were too complex for me, so I naturally settled for the easiest and cutest one.

And finally, we come to the end of this longass megapost and arrive at my attack of @asrielwithans on Team Stardust, and no joke this may be my favorite attack I did. Aside from not really capturing the eeriness of Hollypaw, I love how this turned out. I first saw their Warriors fan content last year and I have been obsessed ever since. That Christmas Kids animation has been on loop in my brain for MONTHS. Their stuff is metal, seriously, Warriors fans and animatic fans, go watch it NOW.

Welp.... that's the end of my exhaustive post of my ArtFight activity this year. I definitely shoulda split this up into several smaller posts and I probably shouldn't have rambled so much in between the art but DAMN IT, I love all these artists and I needed to talk about each of em. Seriously, go follow all of them, go comment on their stuff, go share it around. I'm so thankful for the crazy amount of attention I got this year by those who attacked me, and I hope all the artists who I attacked loved seeing art of their characters. Although SeaFoam may have lost this year, I certainly didn't!

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saveraedae · 4 months ago

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Why TMS (2020) episode 1 is not your most viewed video?

I can think of quite a few reasons,

but overall I'm not really worried about it, because I know there's nothing I can do but make sure episode 2 is the best it can possibly be! :D i really am super excited to show people what I'm working on

(ALSO I AM SO SORRY THIS GOT LONG AND KINDA DEEP FJHJKHF and a little off topic BUT ITS STILL RELATED TO TMS)

This is what I've observed over the years, so may I present to you,

Possible reasons as to why episode 1 isn't a hit / why TMS is so obscure:

Episode 1 is very amateur. I made it when I was still in high school. It has poor sound design, poor scene composition, isn't animated, and I believe the script could've benefited from one last rewrite. Most people who've viewed it, I assume, generally consider it nothing to write home about unless they happened to get invested in the story/characters, went to look at my other work and got interested that way, or were around before Friend Fiction came out. Not to mention, it's animatics, there's no color.

It has no furry characters or fantasy elements. "What could this boring old human show possibly have to offer? Real stuff is too boring!" Furry characters in your project are essentially a cheat sheet to success, you already have the major one-up of the possibility of mass appeal to your project just by including characters that WILL appeal to an already existing large-but-niche community of people. TMS is just goofy looking humans that look incredibly normal, because it's a grounded-in-reality show.

There's nothing exactly like it anywhere out there. At least... not in terms of animated media. There's stuff TMS as a whole is similar to, but in terms of what it all really is, there isn't anything exactly like it. People in entertainment say if you offer something new that people will automatically flock to it, but that couldn't be further from the case. I do believe in some aspects it could have a larger mass appeal if it were to gain more traction, especially with people interested in media with complex and nuanced narratives, foremost-focus on character dynamics over story, but still offer a silly cartoon slice of life vibe, and people who have a strong connection to mental health struggles, especially the more dynamic and complex issues, but I have never been able to draw in many just from doing my own thing. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's always had a VERY small and incredibly niche audience of people that vocally supported it. That is really hella cool that anyone even likes my work. I have noticed however that in terms of the public eye (posts on publicly accessible social media) it's rare to see posts about it from those who like it, those who hate it, or even posts that mention it in the first place lol. Usually it's 1-2 people at a time that'll be super into it, don't have anyone to talk to about it, and they lose interest. (Small fandom struggles, been there, done that.) Nothing really I can do about that though, that's not something I have any control over unless I wanna look like a fool lmao. My goal with last year's Annual October Challenge being 'post on socials and you can win a prize' was to encourage public posting about it so more people can be aware TMS even exists. Obviously I can't force anyone to do anything, but y'all really don't know how tremendously public engagement and ESPECIALLY comments help out small creators. If all we do is upsell ourselves with no one cheering us on / giving their thoughts / backing us up, we just look.... kinda goofy lol.

I'm not friends with any well-respected creators with bigger audiences. I kinda... go it alone? I've never really met anyone with more influence than me that was interested in TMS enough to wanna vocalize it publicly or do any type of collaboration with me. I've met some hella cool people throughout the years but I'm too socially traumatized from years of rejection to further pursue relationships with people lol.

Came from nothing, didn't go to college, and didn't grow up in LA. I don't exactly live in an area that's well-suited for the kind of work I'm doing, I have very very limited resources available within reasonable distance from me. Networking (and even travelling to animation-focused cons) is not something I'm financially able to do unfortunately, Momocon 2025 is a huuuge stretch goal for me that's gonna set me back a lot. And I have certain sentiments about post-high school education for art that determined why I never sought a degree.

That's just what I've observed as my time being a creator. In the end though I don't particularly care if it is ever 'popular.'

Would it be cool? I mean, could be!

Would it help things get done faster? Oh man absolutely. I'd have access to so many more resources and have so many more opportunities. Completely chill just doing everything alone though, even if I'm still trying to complete the full show when I'm like 50 LOL but yeah, more eyes on it would mean more people aware I exist/more people that want to offer to help me make everything come to life and not have it take 10000 years as a solo entrepreneur.

But as I said, if TMS never really gains traction, even after episode 2 (which will serve as a more polished looking, full proof of concept for the rest of the show,) eh, I don't really care. Because I'm making TMS really for me in the end anyway. I like these types of stories, I like these types of character dynamics, and I've always wanted to make it into a full length show.

Firm believer in the 'if you really want something, you WILL find a way to make it happen' mentality! ❤️

Don't believe people who try and sway you away from what you know deep in your heart you want.

#i wasn't gonna answer this at first but i felt my thoughts were interesting enough lol #anon #ask #the mark side #tms #cartoon #indie animation #tagging cause why not #tumblr is my home anyway if anyone has shit to say on here they can get off my lawn

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sakarrie-creates · 11 months ago

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It’s that time of year! Here’s my 2023 art summary! After two years of having to include non-colored pieces, I finally did enough ‘full’ pieces to fill my art summary template! I did have to get a bit creative with the months since I was able to draw a LOT more during the summer, but I’ll take it! Sorry it's a bit blurry. I'm not sure if that's just for the preview or not, but it was a smaller file than normal and since these reflections are 99% for my own interest, I decided it wasn't worth trying to change.

As usual, I got rambly so reflection questions are answered under the cut. The template I used is available here in case anyone else wants to make their own! My fic summary will be coming in a week or so, so stay tuned for the stats and round-up there. :)

What events did you participate in (with art)? Player Appreciation Week, Fandom Trumps Hate, Dear Fellow Traveler (Animatic), Weird People (Editing), SPN Comfortably Queer Zine (dropped), and lots of zine applications for page artist, merch artist, comic artist, and spot artist roles!

What was your biggest challenge this year? While time, like last year, was still a challenge, I think my biggest challenge was a mix of low motivation and an intense perfectionistic mindset. At the start of the year, I got super into TOH and was super hyped about all the zines with apps opening. I really REALLY wanted to get into them and figured I should apply for art too just cause it would increase my overall chances of getting in. After the finale, I did a screenshot redraw that ended up being absolutely fantastic for where my skill level is. I went deeper into rendering than ever before, and somehow it worked for me.

That probably was the start of my unreasonably high expectations, and I got it into my head that maybe if I could make a whole portfolio of artwork at that quality level, I actually stood a chance at getting into a zine as an artist. From then on, I was hardcore crash-coursing perspective, rendering techniques, and generally trying to improve without allowing room for mistakes. While I do think it helped me grow a lot, it burnt me out so I struggled to work on stuff past summary (when all the zine apps were) and even dropped from the SPN Comfortably Queer Zine cause my imposter syndrome was so strong. (Though that was also partially because it was a ‘sign-up and you’re in’ zine, so they never saw my art during the application process and had no way of knowing if I was good enough.

What was something you were surprised by? I’m pretty sure I discovered the perspective tool is CSP this year! CSP has so many tools I’m not aware of (despite watching tons of tutorials and guides), so it wasn’t super surprising but it was nice. I have to say, they’re a serious hassle to work with and require a higher understanding of vanishing points and such than I currently have, but I could see it being very useful for future scene art pieces.

Did you try anything new this year?

Yes! This year I kicked down the door to the merch world and have been collecting and designing throughout the year. Though the designs have mostly just been for zine app portfolio’s, everything has worked out really well for me and I hope to produce charms for my collection as I improve my skills. Where do you think you most improved? Definitely my confidence in rendering! And probably my rendering itself too. I did a ton more pieces with it this year and it’s definitely a favorite part of the art process for me. I think I’ll have a lot more fun with it this year too, since I’m trying to keep it lower pressure, so I can experiment more to find out what brushes and styles I like most. What are you most proud of? I think I’m most proud of how ambitious I was with my zine apps. Though I didn’t get into any for art and it burned me out a fair bit, I did a lot of hard work and made pieces I can be mostly happy with. As for specific pieces, I’m very proud of my animatic clip for the Dear Fellow Traveler MAP (which is what the Belos art from the summary is from). My portion was about 5 seconds with 24 fully colored and shaded frames. A few of those were moving frames too, so the end result is the closest thing to actual animation I’ve done. I also really like the rendering on the Huntlow Epilogue art and generally how the Steve&Matt hug turned out.

How’d this year compare to your 2023 goals? I honestly couldn’t remember what my goals were, but all things considered, I didn’t do too bad! Thankfully past-Sakarrie was wise and made it a bullet list so I can just check things off. Met: -Player Appreciation Week -Add to zine portfolio -Apply to at least one zine as an artist (fine if don’t get accepted) -Keep experimenting with backgrounds and shading -Pull out some old WIPs -Build more consistency of style

The checked off ones I definitely met, so good for me! This was a very zine-focused year, so I way exceeded those goals. The last two I did do, but they’re a bit subjective. Specifically, I think the ‘WIPs’ I was referring to were old sketches, but most of the old WIPs I revisited were already colored and I was either adding rendered or cleaning them up for zine usage. As for style, I’m REALLY bad at telling haha. That said, my characters seem reasonably similar when I draw them, so I’m going to tentatively count it. Kinda: -One fully colored piece per month

I’m gonna give myself a half check on this one. I didn’t have a fully colored piece every month, but I did have over 12 fully rendered pieces in the end, several of which had backgrounds. So while I didn’t meet the letter of the goal, I feel like I met the spirit of it.

Did Not Meet: -Finish Huntlow comic -30 minutes animatic digitalize rough draft -Maybe make some fanart of my favorite fics

These don’t shock me. They’re all personal projects and this was a very external-goal-driven year for me. The Huntlow comic is a big love of mine but it’s definitely ambitious for where my skill is. I’ve got the whole thing messy-sketched and most of it has been clean sketched, but the jump from that to lineart is gonna be hard, and I have no idea what I’d be doing with color since the panels don’t have a background. That said, I do feel like it’s some solid work and I adore the angst vibe of it, so maybe I’ll get it done one day. I could also see myself posting it as a messy lineart comic so that others could enjoy the concept being executed in case it never gets finished.

As for the 30 Minutes animatic, I still 100% intend to complete it eventually. I love the way it fits to the music and I’m so proud of the thumbnails. Even if it never becomes a full animatic, I want to digitize the frames and line it up with music so I can share the concept I see in my mind with others. My brain was somewhat overtaken suddenly by TOH this year, so now that that’s settled and I’m hoping to follow my muse more this year, maybe this will be something I can get excited about again.

The fanart for favorite fics is no surprise since it’s kinda the tack on. With low motivation and projects with deadlines that needed my focus, personal art like this was buried way below other priorities. It’s a nice though for sure though.

Alrighty then, now it’s time for 2024 goals!! Oh goodness, I really don’t know what to expect of myself. I definitely am going to try to allow for more personal projects with lower pressure, but I do still have some goals. Hopefully most can be accomplished without applying big pressure though.

2024 Goals:

-Number One Priority: Create for my and don’t put myself in a place to get crazy burnt out and still have requirements. If I meet this goal, then it’s okay if I don’t meet any of the others. (It would be sad.... But I would still count it as meeting overall goals.) -Participate in Summergen and PAW Week (Art or Fic) -Design Handplates charm as anniversary gift (November) -Design CS Charm -Have a fully usable Zine Portfolio (Currently need more merch samples and rendered pieces with backgrounds) -Apply to new TOH Zines or other loved fandom zines. If I end up getting into any, I can pull back, but since that doesn’t seem likely, I want to get into the habit of always being ready to apply with what I have. -Make an ongoing project list to pin to my tumblr. This applies mostly for fics, but that way people coming to my page can see what fandoms I’m actively creating for and what they can look forward to (as well as have an opening to ask questions if they’re interested). -Post more (at least 10 times throughout the year) and add my best pieces to instagram (8+ pieces by end of year). -Do ONE of the following: 1. 30 minutes digitized so it can be shared with music 2. Open Up Your Eyes fully thumbnail 3. Fanworks for other people’s fics 4. Participate in an extra bang or exchange with art 5. Design and manufacture a pin -Play with different brushes and rendering styles -Draw something from scratch every month, no matter how small -Not exactly art, but I want to have a finalized long-term merch display plan for all my items Overall, how’d the year go? I think I did well! I didn’t meet all my goals and I pushed myself too far, but I learned and improved a LOT this year. All things considered, I made pieces that last year me would be blown away by, so I think that’s an automatic win. I’m pretty uncertain on how this next year will go (even more so than last year, which is surprising since I was changing schools last year), but I’m hoping to enjoy what I do and create art semi-regularly. Here’s to 2024!

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