purplecreationwasteland

[ryokawa]

Man,, I bought an iwaoi zine a couple weeks ago and got a product with a mistake in it. Emailed the people, they emailed back, and when I confirmed everything they just didn’t get back to me. It’s been weeks now. Idk what to do cuz production is probably over but I paid good money for my zine :(

[lesbianstarlightglimmer]

Miss Marie…

[seiishindraws]

Hey seiishin, I'm a beginner artist and i was hoping you could give a full tutorial on how you color?

hello! this is a bit of a hard question to answer since i dont think giving a tutorial of how i colour without learning any foundational colour concepts first would be very beneficial, so i'll try to give you some basic tips on picking colours instead since this is a very VERY expansive topic and im simply not the kind of person that can pass on that knowledge very well especially since im not the best at it lol

when im picking colours for my drawings, i try my best to "unify" the colour pallet so that it seems more cohesive, this tip from ggdg sums it up pretty well i think

other than that, i usually try to pick colours that generally look good together based on different colour harmony concepts, like these!

i'll try and show you an example with something i'm working on right now. you'll notice i didn't colour pick tinkaton's colours from its art and went for a warmer pink and saturated the blues of the hammer a little.

you'll also notice the canvases i draw on are NEVER pure white. this isnt to say pure white is something that can never be used but white is a colour that usually influenced by surrounding colours, so pure white in most pallets just wont look right. so its not usually a colour i would use as a backdrop if youre trying to pick good colours for your art. but again, there's always exceptions and this isnt a hard rule. here's pure white compared to the colour my canvases usually start with

another thing i should touch on briefly is colour relativity and the importance of value and saturation.

value is SUPER SUPER important for making sure all the colours in your art stand out from each other and read clearly. as you can see here, most of the values here stand apart from each other, and i can see that i probably need to adjust the darkness of the light blue in comparison to the pink hair tips, though the lineart separates them well enough already i think. this is also a good way tocheck you havent made any dark skinned characters too light. values are important guys!

hot tip: put a layer of pure black on top of your art and set that layer to "colour" and BOOM! you can see the values of your art in grayscale.

and i'll also briefly touch on colour relativity. because we percieve colours relative to each other, we usually read a colour as something its not when its surrounded by certain other colours. let's take a look at my background drawings in the cover i did for the shuichi saihara zine:

though i only used a bunch of different purples, when all of them are perceived in relation to each other, a warmer purple can look like blonde hair amongst all the other purples!

as for the brushes i use while colouring, i like textured brushes! i bought these so i cant share them for free but im sure there are many free alternatives out there

anyway, sorry if this isnt exactly what you wanted, but there are TONS of people out there that have worded this better than i ever could, i would suggest looking up some youtube vids on colour theory, but i hope these little tips are useful enough!

[sheikzine]

Happy Sheik Day! 🩷

mod yams speaking here! this will be our final post on the account, unless unforeseen circumstances arise. i just wanted to personally thank everyone who was with me on this journey over the last year

as some of you may know, this was my first time modding a zine, let alone being the head mod of one. there were a lot of things i needed to figure out along the way, and in all honesty, im just grateful this project was a success

every mod was invaluable, but i wanted to personally thank our writing mod kellen for being the Spreadsheet Master (in his words) and for putting up with my nagging. get yourself a man like kellen who is organized to a fault and can work a spreadsheet like nobodys business

to the contributors, i wanted to thank you all for giving this zine a shot. whilst smaller in scale (and thus less likely to fail), our mod team was otherwise inexperienced. yet you all valiantly took on the task and cooperated with us until the very end. im thankful to each and every one of you for putting in your all and for being patient with us during the production time. if you ever need any help, please feel free to reach out to me! ive got your back

to those who bought the zine: thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for supporting the project. whether you were there from the start, or found out about it on the last day, your support made it possible for us to donate to a good cause, one that especially means a lot to me. while the contributors were the ones who voted on the charity to donate to, i cant deny that my fingers were crossed, hoping wed donate to a trans organization. sheik was, and is, a huge part of me embracing my own gender identity, and im so glad we could give back to that cause

and with that, this chapter is closed. if youve read this far, thank you once again. this whole message was full of sap, but my feelings are genuine. i couldnt have done this without each and every one of you!

while sheik lurks in the shadows, his soul burns brighter than the sun. may you all carry that same passion with you throughout your own personal journeys. with love, mod yams 🍠💖

[howgalling]

Hey everyone!! Personal update under the readmore. Prefacing this- this isn’t meant to be negative, and I’m not asking for financial support, just informing you all of a life change!

Also thank you so much to everyone who came to my stall this weekend, I had a lovely time meeting all of you!! :DDD

it always makes my heart warm when someone says something like ‘oh! I recognise your art from insta/tumblr!’ ^^ thank you so much for your support!!

Getting to meet friends and even make new friends, meet my favourite artists ever, it’s been a wonderful weekend, I’m very excited for next year. :) when I first came to TFNATION in 2022, I didn’t know anyone there at all! Yet just walking up to people and getting to know them has found me a lovely group of people to befriend, and I’m so happy I found the courage to do so!! :) thank you all!!

I’ve had a big news, not positive but expected!

my families financial situation is about to change massively, we are going to be moving house and downsizing everything! likely this year! It has been a long time coming, situations change after all.

I feel I have been able to live an amazing lifestyle for a very long time, it makes sense that it would not always be this way! ^^

Anyway, why I’m telling you this, I was going to open commissions, but I’m going to be spending the next couple of weeks working on getting our house ready for sale, it’s going to be very complicated and require a lot of physical labour as I live on farmland and it needs fixing up, haha, we have a lot to sort through!

I was actually going to be opening up a dog grooming business here, but it looks like we will be moving to the other side of the country (cheaper!) so it’s going to be a bit of an overall reset. I’m actually quite, I’m not sure, excited? It’s something we’ve been aware of for a while, and I’ve been working really hard on my overall perspective on life. After my autism diagnosis last year, I was able to re-contextualise a lot in my past that was giving me grief. (some of you may have seen the occasional loss of composure on here HAHAHAHA) im doing much better, in fact I think this is going to be my new stage of life!!! I’m going to be tagging along with my family of course, but I think getting the news after this lovely weekend was the best possible time to receive it haha!

Just thought some of you may be interested. I was going to jump into new art topics, but as I am a little stressed, I will likely be returning to humanformers designs.

It is very comforting art topic to work on for me, and I was asked at the con for a potential volume two to the humanformers collection zine I created for the transformers convention!

It sold very well, and I was delighted by the reactions to them :) Simon furman bought a copy after visiting my table, he really liked them 😭😭💖💖 we met last year at a different con, before I had ever tabled and got the chance to have a really nice chat at an artist dinner (I wasn’t tabling at the con, my friend was ^^) He’s a lovely person :)

I may be changing the format a little, I have been so excited to learn that people have been using my designs for cosplay ideas!! So I was thinking I could do a detailed breakdown of the outfits for the characters too, to give people a clearer idea of what goes into the look!!!

[wanlittlehusk]

Hii. Do u have current or favorite zine recs?

yes!!! in general my taste skews towards pop-culture based stuff and fanzines, risographed zines, and attempts to translate the digital-ephemeral to the physical realm. some stuff i've been digging lately:

liz yerby is kinda the GOAT right now to me; sir, is this love? makes me BANANAS

caro cash is an evil genius whose work is intimidatingly brilliant and spot-on...probably the biggest Young Name in zines at the moment?

sam szabo's Enlightened Transsexual Comix (now a book from Silver Sprocket!) are so funny, insane making, and made with a lack of cis legibility that's super refreshing

queer materials has totally broken open my ideas of what zines could be; dossiers of archival material that make you feel like a kid solving a mystery

julia eff's zines were the first i ever bought, and they're really the gold standard of classic, punky, angry genderful pop culture zines

[indierpgnewsletter]

Itch Roundup for August and September 2023

Welcome to the bimonthly round-up of interesting games released on itch.io. Like every edition of these, this one is also jam-packed with the creativity, joy, and weirdness of the itch design scene.

Hark! Says the Frog Magus: An ENNie-nominated, system-agnostic dungeon delve born out of love & fascination with all things amphibian, gets a new version which looks wonderful. (Diwata ng Manila, Dinoberry Press)

Bracknell Horror, Roseville Beach Zine 3: I recently checked out Moonlight on Roseville Beach and it’s a really interesting Psi-Run hack for running very pulpy, very queer mysteries with a cosmic horror angle. I think if you like Brindlewood Bay, you’ll also really like this game. (R Rook Sutdios)

This Mortal Coil: This is setting/hack for Liminal Horror with a weird sci-fi bent. You’re “a space traveler-turned-necromancer on a quest to achieve eternal life by constructing a magical device known and… mastering the forces of the Negaverse”. Seems like a really lush production. (David Garrett)

Dolly, We bought A Dream House: Barbie-inspired game of building a dream house. Think a map-drawing game but way more pink! This can be played be solo or with friends. (Plotbunny Games, also available in German)

Bxllet Clip, The Pinxp Issue: Celebrating the third anniversary of the very punchy, very metal gunslinger game BXLLET, a big zine with expanded content for the game, including a whole new hack by Adira Slattery about girls with demon guns. Most indie games don’t ever get long-term support so this is really cool to see. (Wheels within Wheels Publishing)

Eleventh Beast: A solo monster-hunting trifold game with a very slick design and heaps of grungy Victorian vibes. Exeunt Press, publisher of the Ennie-nominated Exclusion Zone Botanist, do very good work.

Esper Kids: A free one page Lasers & Feelings hack of middle schoolers with psychic powers, inspired by Mob Psycho. Also, someone’s first game, yay! (Robyn, Bitbirdy)

Hiss, A Village Doomed: A creepy town, a pressure cooked scenario, dungeons, NPCs. This is a horror-themed, 30 page module with some great design, meant for an OSR style game. (Idle Cartulary).

Coffee & Chaos: This is a coffee shop game where you bring your characters from your main game (D&D?) to play a one session of low stakes alternate universe shenanigans. (CobblePath Games)

Adventures in Purva City: This is an alternate setting for teenage superhero game Masks. It’s a far-future Mumbai/Bombay and comes out of a huge West Marches style Masks game that I never got to play but have heard lots about. Very cool! (Illicit Peanuts)

-------

My usual disclaimer that I haven’t read or played these games. Usually, I have only seen their store page. But they look cool and sound interesting and they might be something you want to buy. Or you might give the creator a follow on itch. Go wild!

This was originally published in the Indie RPG Newsletter.

[griffther]

girlfriend, boyfriend

Closing her eyes, Steve let herself just bask in it for a moment. The feeling of her boyfriend’s hand in hers, his skin-warmed rings pressing into the slots between her fingers, his music playing quietly through the tape deck in the corner. Steve was going to miss this, but she was glad she had it while she did.

(ao3 link or keep reading under the cut)

Steve was going to vomit. Right there in the middle of the Munson driveway, she was going to have a panic attack and throw up.  

It shouldn’t be that scary, is the thing. Steve knew without a shadow of a doubt that Eddie would be accepting. He was probably the single person in Steve’s entire life – barring maybe Robin – that she knew for sure would not react badly. He’d probably smile and hold her hand and say that he’s proud of her. It would be so sweet that she’d have to try not to cry. 

She knew this – unequivocally – because Eddie was the only reason she ever even figured it out in the first place. Sitting on Eddie’s cluttered bedroom floor looking through his frankly ridiculous queer zine collection he kept in a box under his bed, she’d found it. Mixed in with all the others, there was one that stood out.  

It had described what it meant to be trans.  

It had used all kinds of words and described so many things she’d never known about: hormones and names and surgeries. It was a little bit terrifying, honestly. Mostly though, it just felt relieving. It just clicked in her head, a gentle oh, this is what I’ve been feeling. Everything just suddenly made so much more sense. 

She’d even talked to Eddie about it. Not the part about her connecting to it, but she’d asked him questions and talked with him about what was in the zine. He’d clarified things she didn’t understand and expanded on topics too short to be fully encapsulated in a small pamphlet zine he’d bought in Indy.  

That’s why she knew so firmly that Eddie would not think any less of her for what she was about to tell him. She heard him talking about it explicitly just a few weeks ago, she knew he was supportive. 

No, there was a completely different reason that Steve was on the verge of a panic attack in Eddie Munson’s driveway.  

Eddie wasn’t going to break up with her because she was a trans woman, he was going to break up with her because Eddie doesn’t date women at all. Everyone knew about it, Eddie loved men. It was one of his defining personality traits. Eddie Munson, certified Boy-Lover.  

So yeah, maybe Steve was a little bit anxious. After years of pining, they’d only finally started dating less than a year ago. She loved him and now she was going to lose him all because she had to go and realize she was a girl. Fucking typical. 

— 

Fifteen minutes later, Steve was sitting on Eddie’s bed trying not to vibrate out of her own skin. It took all of her willpower not to blurt it out the second he had opened the front door, word vomiting like she had become possessed by Robin’s spirit. “I’m trans and you’re gay and I love you but I don’t think you’ll love me anymore and I need to get to your bathroom right now before I throw up on the front stairs.”  

She hadn’t though, she’d been able to hold it in – both the words and the vomit . She had smiled – knows it must have looked more like the grimace it truly was by the look Eddie had given her – and deflected concerned questions as they made their way to Eddie’s bedroom. 

It’ll be fine. It’s okay that Eddie won’t love you anymore, you’ll still be friends and he’ll still support you.   

Her knee bounced.  

She tried not to think about if she’d be able to survive having to go back to just being friends again. If she’d be able to pretend that she didn’t still love him. 

It’ll be fine.  

Eddie was still standing by the door, hand pressed into the wood from where he’d closed it behind her only a minute ago. Things didn’t tend to get awkward between them frequently, the product of three years of friendship and pushing a year of dating making them almost impervious to awkward silences. But in that moment, Steve felt awkward.  

“So,” Eddie cut in, “are you going to explain why you look like you’re about to crawl out of your own skin or am I just supposed to start guessing?” 

“Uh-” 

“Because I will. I’m very good at endlessly thinking up increasingly ridiculous situations, you know. It’s why I’m such a good DM.” 

It was actually hard to stop the smile she felt pulling at the corners of her mouth. Despite everything, Eddie never failed to make her feel better, even if that probably wasn’t his intention. Even if they were both feeling awkward and uncomfortable, she could always count on him to still be himself. To fill the void with his nervous ramblings that always made her chest feel warm with affection.  

“No, Eddie, it’s fine. I’ll tell you. I just- I’m just nervous, that’s all.” 

He looked at her from across the bedroom then, making eye contact for the first time since her knees had practically given out as she’d collapsed to sit on his bed. Steve wasn’t the best at reading emotions most of the time, but she knew Eddie Munson like the back of her hand. And in that moment, she could tell he was almost as nervous as she was.  

She actually felt pretty guilty about that. She didn’t mean to make him anxious as well, she just couldn’t stop her own anxiety from leaking out.  

With a sigh, she patted the bed next to her. “Come here, big boy. At least come hold my hand while I spill my guts.” 

Steve’s words had the intended effect, the tension in the air immediately began to dissipate as Eddie visibly relaxed. He folded himself into the bed next to her, limbs bent into odd angles as he rested his chin on his knee, one hand clutched at his own ankle while the other reached out to gently take Steve’s hand. She felt his calloused fingertips begin pressing soft rhythms into her knuckles and she had to hold back a sob at the thought that she might never get to feel that again after tonight.  

Closing her eyes, Steve let herself just bask in it for a moment. The feeling of her boyfriend’s hand in hers, his skin-warmed rings pressing into the slots between her fingers, his music playing quietly through the tape deck in the corner. Steve was going to miss this, but she was glad she had it while she did.  

“Okay, you remember a few weeks ago when you were showing me all of your zines?” She let her eyes open slightly as she turned her head to see him nodding gently at her. “Well, I-” Her breath caught in her throat. For all she had thought about this moment for over two weeks now, she still had no clue how to say this part.  

Steve felt Eddie squeeze her hand and offer her a small reassuring smile. “It’s okay, I promise. No matter what it is, it’ll be okay.” 

The sincerity in his voice almost made her words catch again, but they came pouring out of her too quickly to stop this time. 

“The zine about being trans made me realize that I’m a woman.”  

It felt like time stood still for a moment afterwards. Steve felt the knot that had been sitting in her esophagus for weeks begin to loosen slightly. It was terrifying of course, but it also felt so incredibly freeing to say those words out loud. I’m a woman. It made her flush slightly, with pride instead of the embarrassment that she’d expected.  

Slowly, she raised her eyes up to meet Eddie. He was flushed too, color high on his cheeks as he absolutely beamed at her.  

“That’s amazing, sweetheart. I’m so happy for you.” 

God, Steve was going to cry. She had known that she didn’t need to be worried about this part, had told herself over and over that he wouldn’t be upset. That didn’t mean it didn’t feel nice to hear those words though, and it didn’t mean she wasn’t still terrified for what would come next. 

Eddie looked so soft in that moment. Hair pulled up into a ponytail high on his head, strands falling out to frame his face. He was wearing one of Steve’s old t-shirts from the swim team and worn black sweatpants. He looked so soft and Steve loved him so much. She loved him and he wasn’t going to love her anymore. Eddie loved men, something he now knew that Steve was not.  

“I’m sorry.” 

It came out as just a whisper, a confession released into the space between them. Steve watched multiple emotions flicker across Eddie’s face before landing on confusion. 

“Sorry? Baby, you have nothing to be sorry for, you know that.”  

Steve was shaking her head before he had even finished. 

“No, I do though. I tried so hard to ignore it because I know you’ll have to break up with me now that I’m not a man, but I felt like I was lying by not telling you and we had always promised not to lie to each other and I just -” 

Her voice cut off abruptly as the ball formed in her throat again, even tighter than before. Steve’s eyes had cut away to the wall at some point and she couldn’t get herself to look back at Eddie again. This was going to be a lot easier to get out without looking at him, even if she felt a little bad about it. She took a shaky breath and pushed on before Eddie had the chance to say anything. 

“I know you only like boys. You talk about it all the time, Eddie, how much you’re attracted to men. How much you’re attracted to me as a man. If you only love men and I’m not a man, then you won’t be able to love me. It’s that simple. And I’m just so fucking sorry that I ruined this. That it’s my fault.” 

The room was quiet around them for a few long moments, the only sounds being Steve’s labored breathing and the music still playing in the background. Steve was staring at the laces on her shoes, desperately trying to hold herself together in front of the man next to her.  

Suddenly, there were fingers at her chin. Eddie gently lifted her head, forcing their eyes to meet. Steve wasn’t sure what she was expecting to see there – anger, sadness, regret – but it certainly wasn’t a smile and something akin to relief.  

“You’re right, Harrington, I do love men. But you’ve got one bit wrong there, sweetheart. I don’t just love men.  I'll be the first to tell you that I certainly tend to find myself attracted to dudes more often than chicks, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself with the right woman every once in a while. And you, my love, are absolutely the right woman. I’m sorry I ever made you think otherwise.” 

Steve was frozen for longer than she cared to admit after hearing those words. She could feel where Eddie had slipped his hand from her chin to cradle her cheek instead, rough fingers rubbing soothing motions into her skin. He didn’t try to keep talking, just let the words hang in the air for Steve to process. She’d spent weeks now convinced that this moment would be the end of their relationship. That Steve would come out and Eddie would have to break her heart. She had absolutely no clue what to do with herself now that she knew that might not happen.  

“So,” her voice broke and she tried to clear her throat before going on. “So you aren’t going to break up with me?” 

Steve hated how pathetic she sounded in that moment. Eddie had just called her “the right woman” and yet there she was still questioning him. Still needing reassurance. 

Eddie lifted his other hand so that he was holding both of Steve’s cheeks, cradling her face in his palms. He made sure she was looking directly at him before he spoke.  

“No, St-“ He cut himself off abruptly and cleared his throat. “No, baby. I’m not going to break up with you. I’ve told you before and I meant it, you’re not getting rid of me. I love you, I love you so much it’s fucking ridiculous. Even if I had never even thought about another woman before in my life, I’d still love you. Nothing’s going to change that, I promise.” 

Steve was crying. It was impossible to stop them at that point, she just had to let the large tears pour down her cheeks and onto Eddie’s hands. She could feel him try to brush them away with the pads of his thumbs, but they were coming too quickly to stop.  

Eddie leaned forward to press their foreheads together, whispering gentle words of love and praise into the spaces between Steve’s choked sobs. I love you, you’re so gorgeous, my sweet girl, I love you so much.  

It felt like every cell in Steve’s entire body was singing. She couldn’t breathe through the overwhelming feelings of relief and adoration coursing through her. God, she loved Eddie so much. She loved him so much it was painful.  

Steve let the anxiety of the last few weeks seep out of her body as she moved slightly to bury her face into Eddie’s shoulder. He let his hands fall from her face to wrap around her instead, one hand going up to card through her hair while the other ran patterns up and down her spine. Steve’s hands were clenched uselessly into the front of Eddie’s shirt, clinging on like her life depended on it. It felt like if she let go, even for a moment, she’d drift away. Would lose this moment like sand between her fingers.  

Steve wasn’t sure how long they sat like that, her face pressed into Eddie’s shoulder as she slowly regained her composure. Eddie had started pressing gentle kisses on the crown of her head as he continued to murmur praise and reassurances into her hair.  

By the time she had the strength to lift her head again, she knew she must have looked like a wreck. Hair in disarray from Eddie’s hands and lips, eyes bloodshot, cheeks red and tear-stained. But from the look Eddie gave her when they made eye contact again, you’d think she must have been the best thing he’d ever seen in his life. It was almost enough to make her start crying again, but she was able to hold it back this time. 

“Sorry, I probably got snot all over your shirt.” Steve’s voice was rough from crying, but she spoke softly enough that it didn’t sound too jarring in the now-quiet room. She didn’t know when the music had cut off, the tape must have ended at some point during her little episode. It was nice though, in a way. Usually, they both hated too much silence, needed to fill the space with something at all times. Now though, now the silence felt safe. It felt like they were sitting in a bubble, just the two of them separated from the outside world. 

Eddie laughed softly, shaking his head at her words. “I don’t care, it’s your shirt anyways.” 

That was true enough, but it didn’t mean that she  didn’t still feel bad for potentially ruining what she knew was one of Eddie’s favorite shirts.  

His eyes were so soft as he looked at her, Steve felt like she could combust. Eddie gently brushed her hair off of her forehead before leaning forward to press a kiss into her skin there.  

“How are you feeling? Better now that you’ve gotten it all out?” 

Steve smiled softly, let the corners of her mouth just barely pull up as she gave him a nod. It was true, she really was feeling better. It was slow, but she was starting to process that this was real . She didn’t have to be scared about this anymore, she could just let herself feel happy and loved by her boyfriend who was not planning on leaving her. 

“Yeah, I- I think I’m feeling okay now. I just got really overwhelmed, but it wasn’t even really in a bad way? I just- I’d spent weeks trying to prepare myself for the worst possible outcome, I hadn’t even let myself consider anything else.” 

They’d turned fully to face one another on the bed at some point, Eddie’s legs folded in front of him while Steve’s knees were pulled up to her chest. She let her chin fall to rest on top of her knees as Eddie’s left hand carded gently through her hair. His other hand dropped to pick up one of her own, letting Steve fall into her practiced routine of fiddling with Eddie’s rings when she got nervous. 

“Do you feel comfortable telling me a little more? We don’t have to talk about it right now if you’re too tired or overwhelmed, but I just had some questions about what you’re comfortable with.” 

Jesus Christ, Eddie must have been on a personal mission to kill Steve before the day way over. Her heart felt too big for her chest, she was sure she would simply combust. She bit her bottom lip in a fruitless attempt to hold back the frankly embarrassingly love-struck smile spreading across her face. 

“Yeah, you can ask me anything, babe. I trust you, I know you’re not trying to be invasive or anything.” 

Eddie sat up a little straighter as he flashed her a smile. He had the same look in his eye as he got when he was planning out a new campaign, like there were so many options that he didn’t even know where to start.  

“Right okay well, uh, first I guess I just want to make sure I’m on the same page as you. Like, you called yourself a woman so I’m guessing you want to go by more feminine terms, but I don’t want to just assume, you know?” 

Steve nodded absently as she responded, “No, you’re right! I think I’d like all the feminine stuff. Like, pronouns and descriptors and everything, I’d like to try having them all be feminine. I mean, I don’t know for sure I’ll like all of them because I haven’t tried it yet, but the thought of it makes me feel good at least.” 

Eddie smiled warmly as he brought her hand up to his mouth and pressed his lips to her knuckles. There was a gleam in his eye as he looked back up at her. 

“So I get to call you my girlfriend then?” 

Steve felt the blood rush to her cheeks and her breath catch in her throat. My girlfriend. God, she was so fucked.  

“Yeah, yes, please. I’d like that very much.”  

He smirked at her and pressed another kiss into the back of her hand before sitting back up straight again. His face shifted as he took on a more serious tone.  

“Okay, I can definitely do that for you, sweetheart. But that leads to my follow up question: do you want me to call you those things in public? I don’t want to out you or rush you into coming out or anything, so I need to know what you’re comfortable with. Should I only use the correct pronouns in private? Are there certain people that it’s okay in front of and not others?” 

Steve took a deep breathe and let it out slowly, trying to force her shoulders to relax as she did so. She’d thought about this, of course she had. That doesn’t mean she had an easy answer for it though.  

“I mean… I don’t really know yet, I guess? I know that’s a cop-out, but I just don’t know what to expect yet honestly. I want to tell the party, I know that for sure. And as much as I want to believe they’ll all be okay with it eventually, I know that I can’t expect all of them to understand immediately. I’ll probably never be able to be publicly out here in Hawkins either, that’s just not feasible. Maybe if we moved somewhere outside of Indiana, but that’s just- I don’t know. It’s a lot to think about all at once, I guess.” 

Eddie had been gently rubbing his thumb along the lines of her fingers as she spoke. It helped keep her from spiraling too bad, getting consumed by all of the endless possibilities, both positive and negative.  

“Well, first of all, I’ll support you no matter what, St- sweetheart. You know that. I think it’s a good idea to tell the party, and I don’t think anyone will react badly. They all love you. A few of them might be a little confused, sure, but I’ll be there with you to help. You won’t have to do anything on your own.” He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as he flashed her a tight-lipped smile. “As for Hawkins, I’m unfortunately inclined to agree with you. The assholes here probably wouldn’t take too well to it. But we were planning on moving out of this shit hole after the kids graduated anyways. The world is our oyster, babygirl. I’ll take you anywhere you want, I promise.” 

Steve felt her eyes start to mist over again as she pulled him in for kiss. It wasn’t perfect, both of them were smiling too much for it to be much more than their teeth knocking together.  

“ Babygirl, Jesus Christ. I can’t fucking believe you,” Steve muttered against Eddie’s lips.  

He snorted quietly as he pulled away. 

“What, you don’t like it? I think it’s got a certain ring to it. I can switch to big girl if you like that better.”  

He winked at her as she felt her cheeks heat up again. She just rolled her eyes playfully and smiled back.  

“We both know you’re going to come up with a lot more pet names than just those, Munson. Might as well let you get it out of your system.” 

He hummed as he gave her hand a gentle tug.  

“Speaking of names… How are you feeling about yours?” 

At that, she gave a loud groan and flung herself back on the bed dramatically.  

“God, I wish I knew. I mean, I know that I don’t want to keep going by Steve, at least in private and with the party once I tell them. But I don’t even know where to start with trying to pick a new one out and it’s going to be so confusing for everyone to try and switch between names in public versus in private.” She let out another groan, more frustrated this time. “It’s just so complicated.” 

While she had been speaking, Eddie had moved up the bed to settle next to her. His head propped up on one hand while the other wrapped around her waist to draw patterns into the skin where her shirt had ridden up.  

“Well,” he drew the word out as he seemed to think it over. “We can always try out different names here, just the two of us. I can call you whatever you like and you can see how it fits. You know me, I’ll be coming up with a thousand different nicknames for you anyways. I was able to get a good few out of just Steve, imagine what I could do when I have something better to work with.” 

Steve’s eyes lit up at his words. She turned over onto her side and grabbed his face between her hands as she beamed at him. 

“You just gave me an idea! Until I figure out a new permanent name, why don’t we use Stevie? You call me that all the time anyways, it's your favorite nickname for me. And you could even use it in public!” 

A smile spread across Eddie’s face as he leaned forward to press another kiss to her forehead, holding her close as he took a deep breath. Steve knew here was no way he could smell anything more than her hairspray, maybe the sweat that always gathered at her hairline, but he breathed it in like it was the best smell in the world. Her heart ached in her chest as she tried to pull him in even closer.  

“Sounds perfect, Stevie.” 

[trillionstars]

Hi! I just got Dark Moon in the mail and just wanted to gush about it. I've been a fan of ur art and ur ocs for a few years now, and I loved the au and the story. It has the sense of character I always return to ur blog for, Nick and Olive are such interesting, round characters and I was so stoked to see them in vampire world! Sexy, gothic, brooding, funny, and heartfelt at the end. The heartbeat scene got me man.... But the thing that, not surprised me really, but I didn't expect is how clean and sharp the design is on the whole zine!!! The way the panels all fade into the black of the chapter pages and the cover, and the white shapes interrupt the background, and the only other colour is red for the blood, ooooooh it's SO GOOD! The overall design fading into these awesome drawings in ur lovely style ...ugh i love it so much, im so happy i got a physical copy! I think this is my favourite zine ive ever bought! something about how ur art, which i love seeing online, has come to be this gorgeous shiny print book i get to pick up and read and show my friends :) it just makes me so happy, i really hope you're proud of it! It's such an amazing piece! Thank you so much for sharing :) hope u have a great day!

wow, thank you so much for your message... i've been thinking about it all evening! i'm over the moon you enjoyed it.

this was the first book i made keeping in mind how it'd look in print from the beginning... i'm really happy with how the print version specifically came out. both from a design and a writing standpoint with this comic i was trying something new, not feeling confident that it'd land how i wanted to, so i'm delighted to hear you thought so highly of it. 🖤🤍

[haveievermentioned]

sending you back top 5 fic recs and top 5 fics you’re written for the ask game!! :)

Sorry this took so long! I got busy. Top Recs:

"You must fix your heart" series by @screechthemighty as much as I like Valhalla, it didn't come CLOSE to what I want from a post Ragnarok story like these fics do. They are kind of interlinked and honestly, after (Massive GoW ragnarok spoilers) this really helped me with all of that.

Angry Words by PoH. Actually anything by PoH. They are my best friend and all of their writing is fantastic. They Semi sincerely wrote fics about William Birkin having a love affair with the element fire, they wrote a GORGEOUS fic about Jack and the Little Sister's first Christmas on the surface, and a lot of great Ace Attorney and KH stuff that fill in blanks or are post series. But this is maybe the funniest ones they did (outside of William/Fire which was a sort of parody) where Xigbar gave Roxas and Xion a PS3 and a copy of Bioshock with no context and they learn about Swear words! Like "Communist!" and "Goddess!" It's great.

Dripping Diamonds (between my thighs) by @empresscirque Okay I haven't read it. But Empress is another fantastic friend and this is maybe their most popular piece. I skimmed it a bit and it's written really well. (Just not my ship, and they know that)

The Mallard Family by GreyLiliy as a MASSIVE Darkwing Duck fan I can't emphasize enough how much this completely changed how I thought of his yuppie neighbors, the muddlefoots.

Pearls of Portent by Zophaer Link/Mipha fic where Link wakes up with 7 of Mipha's eggs next to him. Link is mute, everyone is confused, it's really sweet and sad.

Okay, on to mine

As long as you should have lived - a Resident Evil post village story where Chris proposes a legally real but otherwise fake marriage to Mia in order to fulfill his promise to protect Rose. Mia agrees, and things don't go as well as they planned. Chris is a Demiromantic Asexual in here, Mia has loads of trauma to unpack from 7 and 8, and their fake honeymoon keeps running into complications, like Ethan's sister who never bought anything Chris said.

The Jecht/Maleficent series Kingdom Hearts universe, some time shortly after BBS, Maleficent mistimes a teleport and ends up on Destiny Islands, where she runs into Jecht - recently of Radiant Gardens - and falls ill. A combination of exoticism and Florence nightingale leads them to having a one night stand. After THAT it splits into 3 universes. In all of them, Jecht has promised to love her forever. In all of them, How that plays out depends on what happened right after that promise.

Italian Beef Sandwiches and Spaghetti! Introducing Chef Carmy! Look, in 2023, The Bear and Delicious Party Pretty Cure came out. Both stories had people using food to deal with dead family members. I had to smash them together, and I had a LOT of fun doing it. It was written before S2 came out so it's not exactly canon compliant even before the girls show up, but like... I had Yui and Carmy talk about food and dead relatives and Ritchie trying not to swear in front of kids.

You are not alone stand alone story in my Quadratum series, Sora figures out he's Aro Ace after being very confused by the X-files. Aya, Garrett, NieR, and Sora all have great moments, Ash gets introduced and as much as I love Xem, xeir pronouns make me frustrated (but non binary people deserve more non they/them rep) and Garrett also learns something about himself.

Welcome, Curious Friends a zine piece where Sora went to Phantom Manor and woke up looking at a ticket taker skeleton. It's got a mystery, it's got danger, it's got a LOT of catharsis for anyone who has ever wanted to punch (spoiler)

(honorable mention: Xion, the soap opera lover, Lover of the Light, The Secret Diary of Quincey Morris, Mia Goes Shopping, and Tell me it won't hurt.

[20001541]

so I'm going to answer this with the long answer I had typed for this since some wanted to hear it, putting it under read more

oh haha um well it's complicated to say the least

there was a point in time (2021-early 2023) where I was a super hardcore believer, I wrote and read tons of fanfic about it, bought a zine about it, made meta about it, argued with anti dfo who got angry at me in the replies and even joined discord servers about dfo because I was really in love with this theory

but as of late I find myself just not want wanting it at all and actually dislike the thought of it being canon. for numerous reasons I'll get into

first off I feel at this point it'll just be super rushed. maybe if it was done earlier I would've been more warmer towards it as there would actually be time to digest this info. it would be a huge deal with a hero being the son of the number one villain, if it were to be canon I would want a full self reflection from Izuku, more about his mom and her thoughts and feelings about this, flashbacks to inko and afo's first encounter and marriage in its early days, maybe afo trying to isolate Izuku further by releasing this information publicly and turning civilians and some heroes against him. having him and his mom shunned by a lot of people (people calling izuku devils spawn), getting to see his classmates reactions, all mights reaction (!!!). maybe a talk with the vestiges about it and just stuff like that.

but there's no hope of ever getting any of that if it's revealed now. it's the middle of battle and at most I could see Izuku probably being shocked, afo taking advantage of his shock for a brief moment then we move on. which is very :/, feels like it would just be cheap shock value at that point so why even include it when it feels more detrimental than something interesting. maybe he could make it canon and have it not be rushed, but considering how he's treated the other plot points like the ua traitor plot and machia's kind of out of nowhere betrayal in this arc, I'm inclined to believe it would be rushed and messy as well.

I think I'm far more interested in seeing how afo and tomura's struggle plays out and afo's final encounter with yoichi and an exploration of his past and the person that afo is, rather than some last minute revelation that ends up not adding much to the story.

also the fact that izuku never thinks about hisashi once also plays into me being very "what's the point of having this" here. I know him having his memories tampered with is a popular theory but to me sounds like an awkward way to bypass the fact your main character didn't reflect once on something that ended up being extremely important later. I don't see any evidence of that either, at least with tomura he had some hazy recall about his past before everything came back to him with izuku we get nothing at all about hisashi. at least do where he vaguely remembers a tall man with an eerie presence and gentle smile that didn't reach his eyes whose face is obscured in shadow saying he's going on a short business trip and then he never came back after.

the next reason is I don't really like the more popular fanon characterizations of afo in dfo's settings (and the way people try integrating it with canon) not getting into this as I don't want to step on any toes, but this thing particularly has really turned me off from the theory as a whole.

also I hate the way some dfo fans treat afo, I remember it being common at one point for people to be like "lol afo is only interesting if dfo is true without it he's just some dumb one dimensional villain". when that's not the case, he has a lot of interesting things going on for him. I just hate how some only see his worth in whether he is izuku's dad or not. not all dfo fans think like this though, I'm not generalizing all of them it's just some do this and it irks me so bad. (and to be honest I used to be like this too, but I've changed)

and I also feel like a lot get too caught up in dfo stuff that they end up neglecting afo's character as a whole and it leads to some poor interpretations of his character and certain scenes because I feel some are trying too hard to find evidence/justification that they miss out on some of the more interesting dimensions of his character. not saying all of them do this, but I've seen enough of this along with other stuff I've said that's made me more :/ towards the theory as of late

another thing is that I guess I've also just grew tired of waiting? some people can only wait for so long before they change their minds on things they've used to love. and as I've said before in my first point too I just don't see the point anymore. I don't think even if it does happen we'll get some super in depth look at it and how it affects izuku and other characters. I was more passionate about it during the time where it seemed like we could get a good look into it, but not I'm more meh as it seems like we won't.

that said I do not have anything against dfo theorists. some of my favorite writers are big dfo proponents, one of my favorite fanfics of all time happens to be a dfo fanfic. I have some au's of my own about it and I enjoy reading others au's and I do enjoy the occasional dfo art piece. a lot of dfo theorists in my experience are really nice too.

I think it's so stupid how angry people get at dfo theorists, how you can't mention it outside your circle without risk of being insulted or jumped on. which I have experienced before in my dfo days (not on here though). at the end of the day it's just a little theory people have come up with, if it comes true then whatever if it doesn't then whatever right? just leave people alone and even if you disagree with them at least be respectful. it would be neat if fans with differing opinions on stuff in the story could come together and have an actual conversation once in a while so both sides could better understand each other, but sadly this is the Internet and disagreements like that usually result in a angry back and forth exchanges filled with insults.

as a whole I'm not interested in the dfo theory anymore to me it's something I would prefer to just remain a fanon thing rather than something that becomes canon. but yeah these days it's just very rare for me to read it, it's not something I seek out and I usually only read it from authors I already trust. but if someone wanted me to read their dfo fic and they were nice about it well I wouldn't be opposed to reading it. I don't mind if someone wants to talk about it with me either. I like talking about afo as a whole even if it's in the realms of a theory I'm not crazy about.

I guess I am grateful to dfo in a way as its what made me really take notice of afo in the first place. It made me look more into scenes that he was in and over time I ended up liking him more than the theory itself and ended up just abandoning the theory as a whole. I don't think I would be as in love with him as I am now if it weren't for dfo making me a take closer look at him. also believe it when they say the dfo theorist to afo simping pipeline is real because it happened to me. if you're keeping this man constantly in your thoughts theres a chance it could happen to you.

overall I don't feel like it's going to be canon anymore? I don't really care for it being canon either. there's too much stuff going on that still needs to be wrapped up and I think dfo wouldn't be able to fit in all of it. the only things I would say make me hesitate about it being true is the fact he said hisashi will be revealed back in 2018 and some of the meanings behind hisashi's name. but generally feeling like there's a 20% chance of it happening seeing where we are as of now. I think past me would've been horrified to hear me say this now because I used to be extremely confident it would happen but things change

anyways you wanted my opinion and there it is, this is just how I feel and you're free to disagree with me as long as you're not rude about it.

[turtlestogetherzine]

i just got my turtles together zine and oh my goodness!!! i feel like im holding gold right now!! thank you everyone who worked so hard to get this beautiful zine out i am so amazed! (this is my first zine i’ve ever bought and i am absolutely blown away by the quality!!!!)

Yaay!! We are SO glad you love it, and we are so honored to be the first zine you have bought! thank you so much for your support! Turtle Power!

[citrus-cactus]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARU SHINKAI!!!!!!!

For #HaruBirthdayWeekend, I'm planning on answering my own prompts, but I also wanted to show off my Appmon merch collection, both official and fan-made!

First off, the official stuff! Appmon manga and soundtrack, plus a Gatchmon plush and Haru’s AppDrive (both were from when I did a Haru cosplay! I don't post pictures of myself online anymore, or I'd share that too ^^:). My most recent acquisitions are the keychain figures of the four main Buddies and Navimon. I kept seeing them at cons and it felt increasingly weird that I hadn’t bought them yet, so I finally did last year :D

Second, fan-made merch! I love it all SO MUCH. I am DETERMINED to put all the pins and charms in an itabag one of these days. Artist breakdown is as follows:

The Yuujin and Offmon doujinshi, pin, and matching Yuujin/Haru charms are by @well-mon [link to their commision page]

The Knight and Yuujin prints and Haru pin (and tiny Rei) are by @vidramon, and she also made me a pin with my own Knight art on it! T^T [link to her shop]

The Gatchmon face pin and the all-AppliDrivers pins were made by @nightglimmer [link to their shop]

The gogglehead standee (with Haru on the bottom!) is by @amaitapi [link to their shop].

The all-Appmon print is by @softkeychains, and was part of the Appmon Perfect World Zine, which was organized by @gatorgumz. The Minerva/Leviathan stickers were also part of that. The zine holds a REALLY special place in my heart, since it was the first zine I ever participated in <3

Thanks for looking!

[muninnhuginn]

1. 8. 10. 17. 20. 24. (wow you can add colours to asks now??)

wow indeed. rainbow in my inbox....

Thanks for the asks! (They relate to this ask meme)

1. What is the first fandom you were ever a part of?

Artemis Fowl. This was back when I was idk 11 or 12 or so iirc? Back in the days where even ff.net seemed too big compared to my little corner

8. Fandom you're a part of that's the most obscure?

Probably Beryl and Sapphire? It's a donghua based on a webcomic series and it basically involves these characters in various different AUs. There's no real connection between each AU so it's not some multiverse deal but it's a really cool vehicle for crossing between different genres and telling different stories where the only connection is the shared characters. The 'default' genre tends to be comedy which makes sense because most of the episodes are fairly short, but some of the longer episodes/arcs can be genuinely heartbreaking. Alas, the English fandom for it is non-existent as is the show's animation budget.

10. Fandom that you've spent the most money on?

Genuinely not sure of this. I'm not generally big on merch (I do have some fanart prints and zines but they're the exception rather than the rule) so it'd literally be whichever series I've bought the most of its official physical release for. Which off the head I'm not really sure of. Maaaaybe between Discworld and Ace Attorney, though I'm nowhere near sure of this (I think I got some offer or other on the latter and I know a load of the former are second-hand but at the same time there are so many books that-- okay idk)

17. Favorite blog(s) in your favorite fandom?

I don't think I have a fave fandom but I'll list a few blogs:

spiribia. was an utena blog back when I followed with great takes on the show (and specifically anthy). is currently into baru which I have not read but am enjoying getting osmosis'd by.

mira-likes. lots of juicy joy of life meta. or, well, that's what I've been reading.

shimamitsu. as you may guess by the name, has some incredibly solid skip and loafer takes. shima understander.

wondrousmay. manages to pull out a lot of good spy x family meta from the maintag as well as writing some too. the takes in the maintag itself can be very... hit and miss so sometimes I can't bring myself to go diving in there myself ngl

winepresswrath. okay, so not really as much mdzs nowadays but importantly filters out only the best jiang cheng takes (and a lot of fun general meta not even just limited to mdzs but good jiang cheng takes count for a lot, okay)

as you can tell, I have a tiny bias towards meta writers

also, link click fandom has a lot of solid fandom blogs in general but would take too long to narrow that down so

20. All-time favorite fanfic author?

um. I can't pick. I started writing out names then checking bookmarks then checking backlog when I was spamming friends and it's all too much, sorry 🫠

24. Funniest fandom-related story?

I think the line between funniest and most tragic is too thin for me to answer this.

[aclaywrites]

Oh lord yes. I’ve placed a few and answered many more. Back in the day there weren’t many options, and since I didn’t want to play softball, and bars are too late at night for me, I did what I could.

I have to back up a bit, because my first experiences with personal ads weren’t for dates, they were for friends. Back in the 80s in music magazines people wrote in and placed ads looking for pen pals aka people with whom you could write letters and swap mixtapes etc. I answered plenty. The best ones were in Star Hits (the us equivalent of the British Smash Hits) because the people (girls) who read that one were into the best bands— Siouxsie and Bauhaus etc— and you’d end up in the best zine circles etc. I never got one of mine accepted and published in Star Hits, but I did get one in Bop magazine and got letters for over a year from people wanting to be friends. Most of them were from people far away, but one girl was from a different part of okc and we became pen pals then friends in real life and soon I was at her house every weekend and we were caught up in one of those teen girl all consuming affairs (think Heavenly Creatures). It was my first real love and real step into being a lesbian, but it was just a teen fling for her, so after a few years it ended.

Then later in life when I was looking for love once again, I turned to the lesbian personals. Not many in the local paper, and I was always hoping to be somewhere else, so I was always reading the Deneuve mag ads and answering those. Rarely any luck, most of them went unanswered, though there was an occasional bright spot.

I corresponded with one gal in Vermont for about six months (actual pen and paper letters which took days to go back and forth). We progressed to phone calls (expensive long distance phone calls) and it was feeling very nice. We liked the same books, same movies, she said she liked to be the boss in bed. I fell pretty hard and when she invited me to come visit, I bought a greyhound bus ticket and spend three days getting to Burlington , whereupon she introduced me to her boyfriend. Sigh.

When I moved to London, I placed an ad looking for hot girls and/or Buffy fans, but no luck. By then things were moving online and I was out of the loop for a while. It wasn’t until I was divorced and back in the us before I availed myself of personal ads once again, though by now they were called dating app profiles. I never used those to look for love, though. Just a summertime shag when my daughter was away. That was fairly effective until the last time I tried it, when my quest for sex unexpectedly brought me the love of my life, something I never knew existed and which has been nothing but magic ever since. So it goes to show you never can tell.

[netherworldpost]

Good morning and thank you for joining the Saturday Morning Randomly Selected Date to Disclose Progress for Netherworld Post Office

or the SMRSDDPNPO for clarity

ONE: The above image is from Peyroux Dispatch #011. The first order of business is to announce the plans to create a web version of the Dispatch archives is underway and going nicely.

It will of course be free to access, and the PDF will remain free as well. This is not a limited time offer, there are no plans to alter availability.

(This is image is from Peyroux Dispatch issue #006)

TWO: The plans to re-launch the Dispatch in a new format, under a new name, in keeping with the rebranding of Evil Supply Co. -> Netherworld Post Office is going great.

The new version has a tentative name, I'm not prepared to release it at this time.

It is tentatively going to be in color and will probably be zine-sized rather than newspaper due to production necessity.

THREE: I have located a continuously data-stream update system that runs 24/7/365 with (for the purposes of my use) infinite variables.

Do you play an RPG?

Have you ever thought "I wish my character could be a corrupt rogue in charge of a bank that lent money to my fellow players with interest rates that continuously but slightly changed so I could enrich myself at their expense?"

(...am I the only one obsessed with taking characters and adding super mundane things to them...)

OR

"I am creating an orc clan in my game. I need the number of orcs to change, subtly, over the course of the hour we play. And I want the numbers to again subtly change when we re-convene in two weeks for the next game -- in a pattern that is reasonable to belief, but unpredictable.""

Good news!

I'm building a system that will allow you to do this!

I'm working on a "MAKE MATH HAPPEN" spell that will make said data table work.

I legitimately don't know if anyone will use it but I'm hoping people who play RPGs say "holy crap that can help me do..."

The site will be free to use and neat and I'm hoping people will find use with it.

I had the idea many years ago when I hacked a client's phone to ring whenever someone bought or sold goats using public data streams.

Goats were chosen because they are cute, it had nothing to do with the client.

Randomly in meetings the client's phone would just start wildly beeping when a certain threshold of goat sales were made and then turn off when a different threshold of goat-data was achieved.

It showed me the power + hilarity of math-data-chaos.

I ran the experiment for about a week before dismantling it.

It was an amazing week.

They never paid their invoices to me on time and this was my way of dealing with the frustration of having to argue about contractually obligated late fees.

This is devolving into, like, five stories at once so I'm going to adjourn this morning's SMRSDDPNPO presentation

(laugh)