#is there a current arc?? i dont fucking know

[motherforthefamicom]

ohh i can feel a category five autism event on the horizon

[thekingofchungus]

Lowkey crying and screaming why the fuck arent i a big hairy soft tummied man

[constantvariations]

Yknow, sometimes I wonder if the anti rwde crowd knows what Doylist Analysis even is

You have so many takes about how Adam was always an abuser because of this scene, or Ironwood was always evil because of that foreshadowing, or etc etc etc, but these people fail to consider what these things mean in the broader scope of narrative and authorial intent

What does Adam being an abusive partner bring to the themes of racism and methods of resistance, if any at all? Does Ironwood’s fall from grace challenge our protagonists in any meaningful way or is it a cheap scapegoat for the writers who still have no idea what to do with Salem?

Once you start dissecting the show, it's very easy to see the methods and ideology behind its creation. That's the beauty of badly written media - its tracks are much easier to follow and trace back to the roots

And the roots of this show just happen to be ill conceived at best and downright malicious at worst. It's not personal towards the writers or characters or whatever to notice these things, it's just... how it is

[ftcoye]

complaining about the plot taking center stage in ftcoye is very funny to me

[laikahh]

the endogame conspiracy.....

[arolesbianism]

I've been passively watching an isat playthrough while twiddling my thumbs in my current oni save as I wait for my new power systems to be done and hey guys. I think one of these bitches is aromantic. Why did no one tell me one of these bitches is aromantic I would have played the game myself if I knew that

[waywardsalt]

post-ph rn feels like that image of a horse drawing thats half impeccable and half scribble with how im whittling down the first bit with the possession recovery and the basic group dynamic and most of the early/foundational stuff and anything beyond that is a big uuuhhhhhh

[tiredsmashbros]

SMG34: LIPBITE COMIC WIP UPDATE

oh boy... i know a bunch of folks are hyped for this comic... and boy oh boy are ya'll's prayers going to be heard... kind of... butt for the celebration milestone, and granted majority are from this comic, i thought it was best to give EVERYTHING that i have currently.

starting off STRONG with what you freaks most want: the completed pages. andddd yep that's it that all that i have done LMAO. i've been fixated on my own smg4 oc: tsb, and during the end of my summer was unfortunately fucked over by some personal issues that fortunately got resolved last minute good grief the anxiety prevented me from drawing the gays sigh... aNYWAYS LINEART WIPS!!!!

here are linearts i have completed / in the progress of!! want to aim like i did in the past by finishing up lineart first, and then speed through with color + minor rendering. the reason i have a few colored is to test out what it would look polished and my god... i have improved A LOT. THESE GAY PEOPLE GIVE POWER I AM NOT KIDDING BELIEVE ME IM NOT CRAY- anyways onto wip pages!

jumpscare: tsb stickman sketches. oh yeah. this is how i sketch and i blame sensei eiichiro oda /j. and in case anyone is unable to understand it {i don't blame u LMAO}, smg4 wakes up from the dream and is startled to see mario by his bed. they have a short convo before mario leaves, and we get a job to smg4 in the bathroom trying to put up a brave face. until the moment he leaves he's stunned due to seeing smg3 at his front door. will i elaborate more on specifics or unwritten dialogue? NOPE! gotta keep secrets to make it even more enjoyable at the end!!

currently at 13 sketched pages total, but this is probably gonna be reaching towards 20-ish pages, surpassing part two, but it will depend on how i come up with how to end it. additionally to confirm there will be a PART FOUR / chapter 3, to end this story. my goal is to have it done before i finish my senior year, or at least during the summer after i graduate bc good lord who knows whats gonna happen.

and lastly, before i end this crazy update, SCRAPPED PAGESSS!!!!!

CONTENT WARNING : NSFW SKETCHES !!!! PLEASE LOOK AWAY IF YOU ARE A MINOR OR DON'T LIKE THIS TYPE OF STUFF!!!

oh boy... dont draw comics while sleep-deprived at 6am... idek what i was even aiming with this ngl other than just for fun, but i scrapped it due to not being what i had in mind for the story. if it doesn't serve a purpose or narrative, its bye bye YEAH BYE BYE THIS IS THE CLOSEST NSFW UR GONNA GET FROM ME HAHAHAHAHA- i say that despite writing a nsfw jojo wattpad smh im only confident doing it in words good lord. btw not watermarking these bc i gen don't care since they're legit scrapped {left top part was kept and completed} so idk what to do with these. im just throwing it and walkin away

now to end with this update, i can hear your question, "when will this be done?" and to answer that question: i'm not entirely sure due to my heavy focus on my smg4 oc: tsb, but my best chance is postponing my oc lore a bit and complete this before november UOIYGJDSIUHJKDWSXYUGHJKCS but we shall have too see...

if you want to join the ping list comment on this post LMAO [click]

ignore below if you're not from the tsb birthday partydddjdhdhdjd

...

...

...

thurs: smg34 is canon in the tsb universe / au. though most of their encounters are platonic or best-friendy-way, they eventually express their feelings to one another and start dating 3/4’s way of the tsb storyline arc. tsb is a supporter of his friend's relationship and admires and takes inspiration from their relationship heavily to input his future love life. yearning to be in a similar position... to learn what is to really love someone... or what it's truly like to be loved...

[craske]

HI

UH

I AM VERY CURIOUS ON WHAT THE HELL IS SHADOW MILK'S BEHAVIOUR AND INTERACTION WITH THE ANCIENTS AFTER GETTING HIS SOUL JAM STOLEN

DOES HE TRIES TO LIKE, GET IT BACK OR SOMETHING?

ALSO LOVE SO MUCH HOW YOU DRAW HIMM

HI THANK YOU SM IM HAPPY YOU LIKE IT 🥺

yapfest incoming

the interactions are very uh. complicated. as you can probably imagine. considering thats the fucking Beast that not only was tormenting Pure Vanilla and White Lily but also killed Elder Fairy and devastated the Faerie kingdom. so things are a little, itty bitty slightly tense between him and literally everyone

if they could theyd leave him there for dead but thatd be really irresponsible so what else was there to do than to apprehend the still big (literally) threat. for quite a while tho he is just trying to adjust to not being this all powerful force (meaning hes being a miserable wet thing with a very bad migraine) (dont worry it doesnt stop him from brewing plots)

bc a very large portion of his powers is gone, he isnt really that dangerous anymore (but also he isnt neutralized). and since all of this is a speculation because we currently have No Idea what will happen in the future of the Beast Yeast arc, i like to believe the beast yeast expeditions retreated back to Crispia and Shadow Milk is being held as a prisoner. under constant supervision of couse, cant have the clown start doing his clownery again

since im a biiig sucker for antagonists turned begrudging ally (or an actual ally as time goes on), he turns out to be a good source of intel, plus provides some surprisingly important insight. yeah they all hate eachother and hold massive grudges (esp in case of the two doomed lovebirds) but they have a common enemy. and shadow milk wants his powers back.

but.... wouldnt it be funny if the lack of overwhelming almost limitless power had an effect on his (and by that extent, other beasts) mind? if that force didnt push and pull and mold and break down and put it back together? and maybe something started to change, or in fact revert?

well who knows! imagine that happening lol

[brrypiiix]

The Cellmates

They have a ton more info already ready( 2 arcs, 3 big events and fully written lore) but simple introduction (they are criminals with more darker themes to them so please be aware)

Extra Info

Funkenstein - funk troll

Phaser - funk troll

Cinder - pop troll

Current - techno troll

Maverick - rock troll

Funkenstein will 100% kill you

Cinder will 100% kill you

Maverick is 70% likely to kill you

Phaser and Current the only ones who dont aim to kill unless special occasion

• Maverick was arrested like a week or two after the second movie, and was one of the leading causes for the royals to get together and come up with a solution about the major major criminals in each of their tribe

• Current was arrested three weeks after the second movie. Hertz group got to cocky and thought that Vibe City was perfect to make a bunch of money selling drugs there and thought it’d be easy so they were fast to try it

• Phaser at 18 was arrested a month after the second movie

• Funkenstein maybe was arrested by the end of the first month

• Cinder was arrested a couple months after the third movie

Funkenstein - High class surgeon and professor thats always secretly been fucked up and good at hiding what he’s been doing until authorities finally found out

Maverick - Brutal, highly well known hitman, one of the earliest caught and caused the royals to make a big decision of where to throw the really fucked up criminals

Current - Drug addict who was in a little drug dealing gang lead by his boyfriend Hertz, until their first major attempt to sneak drugs into Funk City and Current was left behind during their escape through the sewers/under parts of the city

Phaser - Extremely high level hacker and inventor. So much so that after he was arrested the Funk military took his inventions to use for themselves. He was caught due to a very certain altercation between him and his ex who so happened to be Darnell, prince of Funk. It caused an accident and Phaser to be arrested and thats how they found out all of his majorly fucked up crimes

Cinder - Boyband crazed fan gone wrong.

Also the cellmates lore has 2 arcs and 3 major events:

The Meeting Arc

The Great Escape

The Mansion Arc

The Sirens Tear

Last one is a surprise

-

Bonus Info on some of the Cellmates. I’ll cover more later

Extra info on Funkenstein - He has a little brother named Willie who died at the age of like 5-6 due to sickness When Funkenstein was just 12-13. He was the only one Funkenstein felt a sense of love and care for. Funkenstein’s dad also was majorly horrible and enforced Funkenstein’s behavior to be more formal bc he came from a rich family. He’s also a monster compared to other trolls. Trolls are normally 6 inches, Phaser is 6 1/2 and Funkenstein is 7 inches. He’s also able to break shit like nothing. Also him being a high class surgeon makes it to where he knows how to kill someone instantly and does it with no expression no remorse. When he was arrested he hasnt experimented on anyone since except for a few exceptions. But beforehand whenever he’d experiment on someone he’d just turn the radio onto some old asf tunes, sometimes whistle along maybe, and just go about it at his own pace unbothered by the victims antics.

Extra Phaser info - Bro jams out to songs even on heists and his ass always gets in trouble. Maverick and him have the type of relationship where Phaser says or does some stupid shit and Maverick either beats his ass, punches him down or tries to. Phaser can also moonwalk. I need that to be known. Phaser also is a fucking king at cooking, but thats only because his parents heavily neglected him as a child so much so that he had to learn how to cook on his own. And yet Phaser’s favorite food is pizza and he’ll drag the others to the nearest pizza arcade to get some

Extra info on Current - Extremely co-dependent, weakness is gemstones or anything shiny, you get secondhand embarrassment from him because sometimes he’s just out of it and runs into things like a trashcan or a wall and sometimes knocks himself out with that. He’s also venomous

[showtoonzfan]

Just want to preface this by saying i love ur analysis sm- u put my exact thoughts into words when i cant verbalise whats wrong with a particular writing decision 🥲🥲

Anyway, smth ive noticed is how... little time vivzie actually spends on writing or characterizing or fleshing out her characters.

Which has to be the weirdest thing so far bc every writer and artist ive met agree that its the best part of making an oc! Its so fun to think of backstories and tie that into their current personality and generally just figuring out random details to get to know your characters!

Like, my ocs are my best friends, i know everything abt them from their trauma and childhoods, to their favourite food and music.

But time and time again she proves that her characters are at best acquaintances... the fandom fleshes out the characters so well and with so much love and care and thought that vivzie herself cant do and its just sad.

Not even mentioning the hundreds of retcons and how characters will just change personality randomly or act out of character which results in the work feeling like a fanfic of itself. (Ironic considering some fanfics have better and more consistent characterisation)

It feels like shes making it up as she goes, instead of having an actual plan. Just shoving random ideas she likes or picks up from the much more creative fandom into the 2 shows without actually stopping and thinking abt the consequences or implications.

Theres so many decisions shes made that irk me so bad... the ideas individually have potential but they either dont fit the show or have to make huge retcons and result in the plot not making any sense.

Also, ngl but she has the worst case of tell dont show ive ever seen my god 😭😭 like... you realise you have to show things instead of just fucking singing it or having a character say it??? Or is that another thing that the fandom has to do so they can convince themselves that the show has good characters??

Atp idk how to salvage the show... i keep finding more and more plotholes and unless i literally turn my brain off and only focus on haha funny dick joke or pwetty colors, these questions keep popping into my head making it a painful unenjoyable experience.

Again, if the fandom has to justify your bad nonsensical hypocritical worldbuilding then you failed. Massively.

Anyway im very sleepy rn just wanted to rant a bit bc im a writer and artist myself and it pisses me off how someone gets their show on the air and still doesnt care abt putting in effort into their plot or characters beyond aesthetics and random ideas that dont go well together...

You’re speaking facts! And it’s honestly like..kinda funny too that people who have their own OC’s can flesh them out and deep dive into their arcs/backstories ect, yet a professional showrunner who’s had these characters for YEARS can’t even give the majority of her characters flaws or quirks, or even consistency, same goes for Helluva Boss.

Viv is a really good example at letting inspired writers know what not to do when making a story and characters so at least they have that lol.

[comradeboyhalo]

(not maintagging this because it comes out more aggressive than it means to be. this is just an unserious rant.)

first of all, i do think qsmp as a whole has been kinder to cc!bad. the qsmp’s more dnd-like format is more inclusive in general, there’s net 0 creators who constantly swear at him, and the fandom does treat him better (the bar is low though). i’m more than grateful for that. 

that being said. i dislike how everyone acts like cc!bad was bullied into a corner on the dsmp. yes, a chunk of creators and fans only saw him as a “language” joke, thats an unfortunate fact. but i see a lot of people ignore the fact that cc!bad saw this, and in response created a whole fucking storyline that was designed to allow everyone to join in on it. 

bad, ant, and sam created the egg arc because they disliked the current political storylines and wanted to experiment with scifi-horror. this was after the badlands were formed, and after they realized that they were locked out of a lot of l’manberg conflicts. they didn’t sit around waiting for lore to be handed to them, they created it themselves. to act as though bad didn’t have the chance to create a complex character on the dsmp, or that every cc didnt take him seriously, is devaluing his work. the ccs involved in the egg arc did see c!bad as a threat. they respected his work, they participated in his lore. and there were a lot of them! you just maybe just didn't watch them.

if YOUR streamer only saw bad as a “language” joke, whatever. if YOUR side of the damp fandom never paid attention to egg lore, thats fine. but dont act like every cc did, or that the egg arc didn’t have a following. its true that it was very underrated, but cc!bad is also not this helpless baby who needs his hand held to create an engaging character. he saw he was the largest streamer among the egg arc ccs, and used that platform to bring everyone else up. he put in the fucking work, and it’s not his fault that people still refuse to acknowledge it.  

i see ex-dsmp fans praise the qsmp fandom for respecting bad, and then turn around and beg him to not reference egg lore. the same people who love karmaland, ordem paranormal, and 2b2t references are telling bad that he can’t reference his story, that he put work in. why? for dislike of streamers who weren’t even involved in it? you cant be happy bad is seen as his own person, then turn around and boil his dsmp work down to bigger streamers you dislike.

again, i don’t blame people for not watching the egg arc. i don’t think anyone should be forced to watch every storyline, or keep up with every cc. i don’t know. it’s just frustrating i guess? me and other egg arc fans were creating content, character analyses, and lore masterposts all to hype up c!bad and it’s not our fault yall ignored it and are just now seeing bad’s a good roleplayer! idk! i know everyone’s trying to be nice, i love everyone who’s new to bad’s content, i dont want to gatekeep at all. but your dsmp experiences are not universal. the way your streamers treated bad was not the way everyone treated bad. 

[roughdaysandart]

Page done and more girl daddy Mand'alor!Din brainrot

closeups at the end. I wonder what the hell some of yall think is going on becuase alot of these 0-2 pages are jump-cuts to random or sporadic time periods that dont appear to be part of the 'rough day' main fic, so it must look like alot of sidetracking for new people. so, just to reiterate for anyone new to my page, we're working on the preface chapter right now for SG, which introduces her charcater components through alot of visuals and scenarios both from canon and added story arcs. we wont get to the main 'rough day' stuff til chapter 1 (buuuuut first we gotta release prolougue pt 0!).

Didn't expect this environment to turn out so pink, but i adore it! Also am thinking that lineart for the rain might be better than leaving it just white and plain, as it looked a bit undefined from far away.

the rainbow I think is my favorite part. its just so over the top magical and a grossly cliche and i love that.

rain was definatley the biggest hurdle in this page. Its very dificult to hand draw the streaks and make it appear natural, so I ended up pasting a clipart and durplicating and transforming it and resizing it as a base, then altered the raindrop colors etc. I think it turned out fine, definatley a good time to use photos directly. it was nearly impossible to find referance photos for the last frame, so I had to hand place all the raindrops. I'm honsetly still not 100% satisfied with how they turned out, but my eagerness to move on outweights my perfectionism in this particular instance.

aside from the rain, i think the next biggest challendge or hurdle i had to figure out was incorporating the reflections of the building, made of crystal, into objects like SG's skin and the ship. I didint expect it to make such a difference, adding the slight teal streaks, but I think it has something to do with bringing all the background colors onto the chracter/main objects inorder for them to really refelct that they fit in the actual scene and its components/color pallete. Huzzah!

I still think I can do better with the metal. Im still figuring out how severe to make the reflective aspect, as I dont want it to end up looking like glass or water. All in all though, I think Im doing a good enough job where the audience can tell its metal well enough for now.

ahhh you know what i just realized upon re-looking at the storyboard of this frame? I wanted to make her knees pop out of the rightmost frame....ahhhh fuck idk if i wanna take the time to go back and do thattttt ughhhhh. ill see if it makes that big of a 'wow' difference then decide...fuck uGHHH.

Currently getting a foothold in school after finally cutting hours at work, so let's see how things improve-lifewise when I can actually catch a break and have the ✨energy✨ to study.

@the-mandawhor1an

@lastresortacontact

[gold-rhine]

What is your fav genshin world quest? And do you think world quests suffer from not including playable characters in them? Or is it better for them to only have NPCs? Like I know some people have critiqued enkanomiya world quest with "where is Kokomi" since this is basically her place.

i think making blank statements like "world quests suffer from not having playable characters" is reductive and short-sighted. i dont care if characters are playable or not if they are well written and if they work within the quest. in fact, some archon quests suffer from having too much playable characters in them. we absolutely did not need ayaka date in inazuma archon quest. i wrote that post about collei bc i think her conflict fits aranara quests perfectly and current npc in that quest has no character and does nothing, except wake up and get dendro vision for free. its not about whether collei is playable or not.

actually enka is one of my fav world quests. and no, it absolutely did not need kokomi in it. and i rewrote entire inazuma archon quest, giving her actual character development and strategist arc, so i'm speaking from kokomi pr brigade perspective.

when we're talking if character should be in a quest or not, its not about whose place it is bc they like live here. its about what they would bring to this specific quest. what are the themes and POINT of the quest. and what is the development arc is for this character, does it fit this quest, what this character's presence would meaningfully contribute.

so like. what is enka about? its about enjou intrigues, its about lies and gaslighting, about how clever assholes like him can frame the narrative to make you see white as black and black as white and manipulate you into doing what he wants. and to echo this, the deeper, hidden narrative, is about meta players perception of the lore. its about how celestia are actually the invaders who conquered teyvat by force and then pretended to be creators of this world and killed anyone who even learned the truth, like orobashi, despite them having heavenly aethetic. how orobashi went to fight raiden knowing he will die as a part of celestia's punishment, even tho before we were told he wanted to destroy inazuma. and the deepest buried lead was that despite us being told that vishaps are evil dragons attacking humans, mindless brutal animals, they are in fact sentient beings, and in fact, real natives of this world who were invaded and then framed as evil for fighting back. like, before enka i didn't give a fuck about vishaps, but after it i became dragon lore enthusiast for this exact reason

at the core of that quest is how kokomi ancestors sucked horribly, mistreated their own people while presenting themselves as glorious empire, and also did horrible eugenics and warcrimes on vishaps, who they KNEW were sentient beings, because they could learn human language and talk. and they captured children of these sentient beings, grafted corrals into their flesh, kept them in captivity in a deepest cave for decades, just to then slaughter them and take the bloodsoaked corrals off their dead bodies to use it to revitilize watatsumi bare earth. and it was repeated again and again, generations of torture, literally soaking blood of dragon children.

and this all is kinda buried under the narrative of "defeating evil monster dragons to save the island", because this is traditional fantasy narrative and its structured like that to obscure the reality from players without ever lying to them. you have all the facts, but you need to realize that YOU are playing the villain here by yourself. just like enjou manipulating the truth without ever actually lying.

so like. what is kokomi supposed to do here. she can't realize the truth and try to make amends, bc at this point of the overall story players are not supposed to understand that dragons are people who were invaded by celestia. they are not supposed to see vishaps as sympathetic yet, enka is the first major lore drop to give this reveal foundation, but the reveal itself only happens in fountaine with neuvi.

and if kokomi doesn't realize the truth, then she's just being duped by enjou like the traveler, which makes her look stupid, and she does what? stands here and listens to the lore? kills dragons herself? so that after fountaine players could look at neuvi, realize that other vishaps are people like him too and go "wait, was kokomi doing warcrimes against dragons????" like, as of now, she has deniability bc like. she's never been in enka herself, she didn't know she's sending the traveler to kill what is basically dragon kids tortured and raised in captivity, for her its an ancient ritual to save her island. but like if you add her to the quest, it fucking crumbles.

tldr; characters should be in quests if they add something to them and have their own development based on quest events. kokomi should have had better written archon quest, she should not have been in enka. i do hope tho they revisit enka in future and then kokomi is here, bc now after dragon lore recontextualization, she can learn the truth and confront enka's legacy

[bonefall]

former dotc fan here and no seriously my current theory is that the book is so fucked up and weird that some of our brains literally force us to remember it differently just so we dont have to Deal with the memory of that shit

I've talked about it before but like, I watched this video on Ratatouille where the reviewer was baffled by this odd phenomenon. They kept asking people a very direct question;

"Does Ratatouille, the film, say that stealing is ever okay?"

If you've watched the film even slightly critically, you will know that the answer to this question is No. In fact, the film is bizarrely committed to this idea, punishing Remy constantly for taking food that wouldn't even be missed (such as some forgotten bread crumbs in the back room, as a party goes on outside).

Even when he's starving, even after he's done labor, even when Linguini is careless about Remy's needs. He is only allowed to eat unburdened when the humans give him permission.

But over and over, the respondents say, "Yes, the film says stealing is okay sometimes."

And I think about that constantly when the DOTC discussion comes up.

The books fucking hate adoption. They say, over and over and over and over, that your abusive, neglectful, or dead bioparents are innately superior to adopted ones. It treats women as less than men, slaughtering upwards of 7 female characters to serve male arcs. Gray Wing is utterly oblivious, unable to tell that Storm isn't interested in him romantically and incapable of being objective about how demonic his brother is acting.

Maybe it's because these ideas are SO bad that your brain just kinda paves over it. Especially when something else resonates about the property. Your own internal moral system just bowls through it.

Who knows, though. That's just my theory.

[beesmygod]

today is webcomics day. i am bea and i make "A Ghost Story" - part 1: pre-gaming

webcomic day is a yearly celebration of the art form concocted by the screentones podcast team as a way for people to see how the sausage gets made. my webcomic "a ghost story" has been running for over 10 years, and yet i still don't think i can say i am good at making a webcomic. regardless, the comic is getting made because otherwise i become very, very sick in the head. today i would like to share with you the process of making a page of "A Ghost Story" from start to finish. either this demystifies the process or will make you think im so cool and strong for doing this 2x a week. instead of reblogging this one post until it gets very long, i will be posting individual updates that i will then compile and post on my personal website. block the tags now if you HATE comics and want them to EXPLODE.

if you have any questions, even things like "what the fuck are you even talking about" feel free to ask. i want to feel confident in what i make again and i think sometimes interrogation from an outside source is really

---

that said, let's get started. wait just kidding i want a cup of coffee first, hold on.

ok now im ready. i have a big glass of water. i have coffee. i have a headset for the parts of work that don't involve typing words. i can't type words and listen to some streamer babble in my ear at the same time, so it has to be instrumental music or nothing. i just took my meds so they should kick in after about 30 mins. i woke up late today, which is weird and annoying. but maybe i can work late instead.

first off, i need to know where i'm going beyond this one page. if i dont know where im going with something, then i usually create something that sucks that i have to deal with later. hold on my internet died, i have to reset the router. ok, anyway.

what's rattling around in my brain is that not only do i have to deal with maxine's current predicament, i am also dealing with multiple plot elements i need to wrap back around to from the previous chapter. luckily, im about to put maxine down for a nap, which means i can get back to those other elements:

i need to finish the exposition from the three ankou characters for this story arc establishing their motivations as the oppositional force in the story. the "villain" is not these three specifically, but their boss. they need to have a loose understanding of what's going on in order to communicate this to the audience. god this started turning into a huge ass paragraph so i'll just keep it short there.

we've jumped back to before jack's horrible day from the first chapter of this storyline so we have to make our way back toward that and then lapping it, which means wrapping up his various open threads like:

feeding victoria and learning something new about her

finding out alice is a very exceptional employee who is getting many awards

watching valdo call lily while interrupting her during something personal to ask her for help with maxine's situation.

jack meeting with valdo and lily the day after they first met so jack can just tell them straight up that lily has 4 sisters she doesnt know about.

help that girl with her poltergeist problem. remember that. i've had jokes for this rattling in my head for like 4 years. im going insane.

and also the fucking tilberi!!! that has a point its going somewhere!!! there's a larger menace here!!!

other things to set up the climax of this storyline. sexual tensions, hints at larger emotional problems not immediately evident to the reader

lots of moving parts. and i feel like im moving in slow motion to get to them. i can see them all weaving together in my head, its the process of putting that onto paper that's proving difficult.

ok that took an hour starting and stopping. -_- let me write the next part as i keep brainstorming on how to approach this page. taking a "rubber duck" approach to this might help. heres an image from the last page i worked on (i have a 5 page buffer rn so the site does not match the finished pages) to get us semi-situated.

also because images will help people understand what skill level we're working with here. i need to be able to communicate an idea to the audience; if the art also looks good on top of that, then that's just an added bonus. but the ability to communicate my ideas is sometimes hampered by my lack of artistic skill or comics language ineptitude. like those speech bubbles kind of fucking suck but at a certain point you have to just hit print on what you're working on in order to keep your already glacial pace.

webcomics is a tightrope act where you're also spinning 4 plates at once. the trick is to keep the audience from realizing how many actually fall or how wobbly they all are. the act sucks but technically its not a failure.