#like okay so i have a subscription to comics that i pick up at this store

[thorinlandscaping]

love to stress myself out over stupid things and then go to bed

[gh0stofstarman]

A Ramble about X-Men

I’m a pretty big Marvel comics fan. I’ve had a Marvel Unlimited Subscription since the pandemic and I’ve pretty much run the gamut of heroes. Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America, Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel, Squirrel Girl, Fantastic Four, Peter Parker Spider-Man, Spider-Gwen, Miles Morales Spider-Man, Spider-Girl, Quasar, Thor, Eternals, Hawkeye, Howard the Duck, What if?, Deadpool, I could go on forever. And I can pick a run for each of these characters that I specifically clicked with a certain author and the themes they chose.

Except X-Men.

Which is ironic, because I love the X-Men shows, the characters, their major themes, their designs, their movies. Heck it’s not like I haven’t read most of Claremont’s run and beyond.

But I’ve never had a run that actually fully clicked with me, and I kinda wanted to ramble about why. No idea if this will be a series or whatever.

Chris Claremont

Admittedly I’ve never really been one to seek out every single spinoff of a series so most of my experience with the “golden age” of X-Men is with the mainline Uncanny X-Men rather than stuff like the New Mutants. I know it’s sacrilege in some circles not to go in full chronological order with the spinoff series bouncing between but I’m just not that way.

Anyways while Jack Kirby and Stan Lee created the blueprint for what would define X-Men on a fundamental level, Chris Claremont would be the author who made the heroes popular. Storm, Colossus, Wolverine, Jean Grey, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Banshee … Sunfire, Thunderbird … okay not all of them stuck. But Claremont would write iconic stories that are beloved and I love as well such as the OG Giant Size X-Men comic, Proteus, Days of Future Past, God Loves, Man Kills, and the Dark Phoenix Saga. Stuff that truly gets to the heart of the X-Men fighting against discrimination and hate, proving they deserve a chance to live as they want.

Then that should settle it! I like Chris Claremont, then! These are the most iconic storylines that means I love the most iconic incarnation of the X-Men.

Not really.

Chris Claremont founded a lot of good ideas that would be the springboard used by other authors in years to come. But it’s not as though his stint was as brief as Lee/Kirby or Roy Thomas.

16 years.

And most of what I mentioned is spread far across the first 8.

So what about the bits in-between?

Well, if I had to describe the majority of Claremont’s writing as X-Men outside of these storylines is that it’s kinda a roulette wheel.

This was back in the day where you had to have some bonkers concepts to hook the reader in. Vampires, sci-fi tech, aliens, gods, demons, etc. And most of the time Chris chose a random one to analyze the X-Men under and reevaluate how they can be used for the X-Men’s explicit purpose of fighting against discrimination and promoting equality and diversity.

Which often leads to those aforementioned storylines where they build on this very well. X-Men vs Televangelism does go out into creating weird devices to mind control people but it’s all in service to the team’s message. The bad future the sentinels create in Days of Future Past can easily be seen as a dystopian future where discrimination is normalized.

However sometimes Chris can’t help himself and adds more layers of insanity to the plot, to the point the message kinda gets lost in the mix.

Here’s an example.

X-Men go mysteriously missing, only for Beast to find them working at a circus freak show. Interesting. Leads back to the idea of them being demoralized and treated as freaks rather than real people.

Beast does some snooping around, finding that Magneto is the mastermind behind this. Perhaps he’s trying to humiliate the X-Men and get them to give up their hope for equality seeing how humanity makes fun of them while also getting revenge because he’s the bad guy.

They fight Magneto but are bested in combat. It’s then revealed that Magneto, after being turned into a baby in a previous comic did want revenge, so he took the X-Men to his Antarctic base to … mentally regress them into babies and torture them with a nanny bot.

Huh?

And I’d be lying if I said this sort of weird progression isn’t a repeating theme.

X-Men go to space to fight aliens; makes sense because all the other heroes were fighting aliens so they gotta prove they’re on the level. Alien fighting leads into them meeting Xenomorph-like aliens that slowly transform the X-Men into them; drama is created. X-Men escape but still are transforming, so Storm befriends a space whale and then becomes one to cure everyone; buh?!?!

Like I feel like some of these stories increase the insanity progressively but they go a little step too far. Sometimes it’s just out of nowhere like when demons kidnap the X-Men even though they were never hinted before to care about them, and somehow age up Magik to an adult. Or just Storm becomes a vampire suddenly even though last issue there was nothing even slightly referencing vampires.

It’s kind of a curse because X-Men is constantly trying to get bigger and bigger under Claremont but sometimes you’d prefer it just to take it slow and get back to the more straight forward connections to fighting oppression and discrimination.

Ironically it causes me to appreciate the more mundane moments that aren’t trying to be huge plot twists one on top of each other. Stuff like Kitty Pryde and Storm hanging out, going to Japan and getting to know Wolverine better, Nightcrawler trying to socialize more, and just Beast’s witty banter.

But even that can be a little fumbled at times because well,

Chris Claremont is a straight white guy.

And there’s nothing wrong with that at all. But you can tell he has hang-ups trying to write about race or women because he doesn’t really have those experiences. Therefore, sometimes when he tries to write soliloquies and romances (which is pretty common), sometimes it can fall flat because of his perspective.

There is a lot of romance and relationship drama in X-Men, which is understandable and needed for the narrative. But so much becomes either bland, unintentionally problematic, or just too brief to make any true impact.

I’d say the biggest exception is Jean/Cyclops because they’ve been established for years and it’s very clear they care about each other. However, Jean dies in Dark Phoenix (at least that was the intent of the time) so a lot of the time the series bounces between other couples.

He later meets and then marries Madelyne Pryor, who is noted to look nearly identical to Jean. However that just makes things awkward as Madelyne often plays the role of “Not-Jean.” It at least has an interesting through line of him working through his grief, but little time is actually given for Madelyne’s own agency to break out of “Not-Jean,” which makes it really awkward when it’s revealed she’s a clone of Jean and Jean was alive all this time. So … what was the point?

Charles Xavier has so many love interests but often times he comes off as a jerk. Moira MacTaggart, Liliandra … even at one point Jean herself but everyone buries this for good reason. He comes off as very manipulative both to his partner and the X-Men. Charles is very unsympathetic to Moira’s predicament in raising Proteus. Liliandra he’s willing to bend over backwards for even if it means that he’s breaking his own morals in the process. And we don’t talk about Jean. However this would mostly be used by other authors to analyze how good of a leader Charles is, and more of his flaws. Meanwhile, Chris Claremont normalizes his behavior and rarely calls him out on it.

Colossus and Kitty Pryde.

What can I say about them? Colossus is an adult, Kitty Pryde is still a kid. It’s gross, but Chris wants you to really know they love each other more than a brother-and-sister relationship would. And they even point out it’s creepy, yet they still do it anyways.

Wolverine is entirely a whole other can of worms that I could write about separately.

Ironically some of the relationships that aren’t confirmed because of the times but are implied like Mystique and Destiny or Storm and Stevie are actually a lot better and written with much more nuance. However again nothing is confirmed and could be left to interpretation such as with Storm and Stevie. After all they do try to pair up these characters in straight couples … problematically but still.

Ultimately I feel like Claremont does have a lot of good ideas but the execution of them is where the ball is dropped. I would never call his run bad but I’ve never really felt compelled to return to it. I can’t deny the impact it’s made by any measure. However, returning to the originals just makes you wonder, how did some of this lead to Claremont’s X-Men being held up as an absolute gold standard comic?

I don’t know this was a long rant and I dunno if I’ll do it again. If you liked this let me know

[roguestorm]

How To Start Reading Marvel Comics

Okay, so let's say you're a fan of the Marvel movies or games or you just saw Spider-Verse and you want to know how to start reading comics. Hi, welcome! This is one method of getting into comics; it is not the only one. We're going to be heavily relying on digital comics for this one, so if you prefer reading on paper, this might not be for you.

Step One: Pick a Character

This should be easy! Pick a character whose comics you want to read. It doesn't have to be your favorite character of all time; it just needs to be a character you're interested in getting to know a little better. A character is going to work better for this particular method than a team will, although there are plenty of team reading guides if you really want them.

Let's say, for the sake of example, that you just watched the Moon Knight Disney+ series and you want to read some stuff about Moon Knight.

Step Two: Find a Reading List

The very technically advanced way to do this is to Google "[Character] Reading List" or "[Character] Recommended Reading." For Moon Knight, Marvel has an official one that pops up right away.

The official ones are good places to start, but IMO, the best ones are usually from tumblr or Reddit. Comic fans can be very intense, but we also know more about the material than anyone, including Marvel. :) Here's one for Moon Knight.)

Step Three: Understanding the Reading List

Comic names are formatted one of two ways. You might see someone say Moon Knight (vol 7) or Moon Knight (2014). These refer to the same series of comics. They mean that the title of the series is Moon Knight, that it is the 7th series published under that title, and that it started publication in 2014. Moon Knight (vol 1) is Moon Knight (1980), because it's the first run of comics called Moon Knight and it started publication in 1980.

So, how do you know? That's where the wiki comes in. marvel.fandom.com is my best friend. So, when you type "Moon Knight vol 7" into the search bar, it brings up this page. See how it says (2014-2015) at the top? That's how you know that Moon Knight (vol 7) is Moon Knight (2014).

Step Four: Accessing Comics

Now we have to get the comics. We have a number of options:

For digital comics:

Buying digital comics. You can do this on Amazon or Marvel.com. However, this gets expensive real fast - for example, Moon Knight (1980) has 38 issues, and each of those costs $1.99. That's almost $80, just for volume 1.

Marvel Unlimited subscription. This is not a bad deal TBH. It's $10 a month, and they have quite an extensive catalogue. The only problem is that the site takes forever to load and is not easily searchable. Usually, I'll type into Google the name of the exact comic I want to access (e.g. "Moon Knight (1980) #1") and then click on the marvel.com link that comes up.

Piracy. This is the easiest and cheapest option, and thus the most popular. I'm not going to link any sites, but ask a friend or Google and you'll find one easily enough.

Physical comics are also an option, but they are more complicated. Groups of issues are collected in trade paperback collections, but finding which collections contain which issues can be a bit more of a hassle. And then buying those collections can get pricey very quickly.

If you like physical comics and have a public library card, I'd recommend checking out what they have on their shelves. On a Marvel comic, you want to look at the back cover, usually in the lower right-hand corner, and it will tell you which issues are in the comic (e.g. "Collects Moon Knight (2014) #1-6"). You might find some things that were on your reading list, or you might find some comics you'd never have read otherwise. A lot of public libraries (at least in the US) have a larger comic book collection than you'd expect.

Step Five: Have Fun and Be Yourself!

The most important thing to remember is that you are supposed to be having fun. There might be some frustration if you're not used to reading visual media (I know I wasn't), but it should overall be fun. If a comic feels like a slog, you don't have to read it! Maybe you and the person who made the reading list just have different taste. Try a different comic. Try a different character.

Also, remember that it's okay to be confused. You might be jumping around a little bit and so you might not know everything that's going on. This is kind of the perpetual state of reading comics. If you want to double-check the wiki or ask your friendly neighborhood comics blogger, that's totally fine.

[thegreatyin]

Your posts about Fallen London are slowly tempting me into playing it- do you have any tips to start or is it best to play it completely blind?

i have a few tips and tricks! mind you im far from a veteran and i basically got my hand held by tumblr for most of the game so take everything with a grain of salt. you can and should do whatever you want always. i don't personally play it blind, but you may get more enjoyment out of it if you do, and that's awesome and im super happy for you. this is what i can say from experience:

take your time with it. this is like. the numero uno fallen london tip. it's not a game where you rush to the end in a week. it's a game where you do 10-minute-intervals of a marathon to the end in maybe a few months if you know what you're doing. spending money on action refills usually isn't worth it when you can just mosey on through neathly life one storylet at a time. a vast majority of the game's content is completely free to everyone, and while the monthly subscription options are pretty neat and let you play some exclusive story stuff (that can be pretty fire- cricket anyone basically defined the scoundrel's entire character) none of it is required and 99% of the time you aren't missing out on anything by just taking your time and exploring the neath at your own pace.

you need to raise all of your skills eventually! this is, uh. something im horribly guilty of not following myself. you can (and probably should) pick at least two stats to focus on for your character (most of the time these will be your main ambition stats, aka the closest thing FL has to a main story questline) but eventually you Will be expected to have them all at around the 100 range, minimum. for certain Super Late-game Story Content, watchful 200 is mandatory to start it, so if you have trouble choosing i'd recommend leveling that bad boy first. don't neglect your other stats though!!! don't be like me. don't be like my poor poor neglected shadowy and dangerous. it's too late for me. save yourself.

friends are fun and free and you are legally mandated to exploit them for fun and profit. okay you really aren't mandated to exploit your FL friends list but you totally should anyway just for goofy sillies. to be less jokey about it, while fallen london is primarily a single-player gaming experience, the playerbase is super friendly and super open to helping each other out (especially new players!). go on reddit, ask around on tumblr, get yourself a few buddies and use them as resources to gain items and stats and menace reduction i mean. valued companions that im sure you will treasure forever and definitely not backstab to publish that inflammatory newspaper article you've been cooking up.

on a very loosely similar note, the fallen london wiki is your best friend. yes, we're following stardew rules with this one. this is the kind of game best optimally played with a wiki article or three open in the neighboring tabs so you can follow along and know what is what. there's tons of guides on basically every part of FL, and it's no shame at all to reach out to either it or the wider community if you get stuck or feel lost at something.

if an in-game storylet has bold text, it will never lie to you! except for when it does. but that's very very very rare. you can always trust the bold text. it is always your friend. i prommy. which brings us neatly into our next bulletpoint,

seeking the name is ill-advised because it's the only storyline that can permanently brick your account at its conclusion. don't worry, the ease at which you can avoid this is practically comical, and the game will Always give you multiple chances to opt-out if you somehow accidentally start it anyway. most people make a dedicated alt character entirely for the purpose of sacrificing them to the well of doom. unless you're playing with your eyes closed for multiple months straight, you'll never run into SMEN without deliberately chasing it, and if you somehow get to that point honestly man just ignore this entire bulletpoint and see how far the rabbithole goes. go on. it's friendly :)

batfucking is always the right answer to any problem ever

echoes/the game's standard currency should always be thought of as a method of gaining items rather than a strict hoard of video game dollars. money-making can be super difficult in the earlygame, but it gets exponentially easier as you go further on. you shouldn't be afraid to sell anything you don't need, though personally i'd recommend keeping an "insurance stock" of the most basic items just in case. this includes rostygold, moon-pearls, honey droplets, etc. by-and-large, these are the easiest items to get in a pinch, and it usually isn't worth buying them from the bazaar when you can otherwise get them naturally through other methods around london. once you've got a good lodgings setup and feel decently familiar with the earlygame zones and their options, you should aim to have at minimum 1,000 of these bad boys on hand at any given time, then feel free to sell any excess you make for some quick cash in a pinch.

menaces aren't as bad as you may think, but be wary of specifically suspicion! the four main menace qualities you'll encounter in the earlygame are nightmares, wounds, scandal, and suspicion. when one of these menace stacks reach 8, you'll automatically be trapped in a unique location corresponding to whatever menace you raised too high and will have to spend time working your way out. some (nightmares and wounds) tend to fly-by rather quickly, while others (scandal and suspicion) tend to take a bit longer to get out of. none of these mean the end of your playthrough or your character, and some quests even require you to visit certain menace-exclusive locations! there are tons of items and ways to reduce menaces and keep yourself out of Situations such as these, but suspicion in particular is probably the only menace you should avoid maxing At All Costs. when your suspicion gets too high and you get sent to its special menace zone too often, you build up a criminal record that makes it harder to reduce suspicion in the future. fortunately, suspicion is the only menace with this gimmick, and before this record gets too high it's just as easy to keep row as the rest of the lot. TLDR, death from wounds is easy to escape from, but avoiding the strongarm of the law is substantially more annoying and inconvenient.

or you could be like tumblr user @with-bells-upon, who's apparently avoided death at all costs and apparently hasn't died once in the entire several months they've been playing. i don't even know how they've gotten this far without doing that. it's kind of impressive, kind of funny. especially since their ambition is one the few requiring you to die to proceed. this isn't a piece of advice i just wanted to affectionately call them out because what the heck

speaking of ambitions, pick the ambition that's right for you! ambitions are the biggest overarching questline in the game, and their requirements and rewards span the entire neath and occasionally even beyond. all four ambitions are meant to be started early and last well into the mid and late game. outside of a certain special situation regarding the light fingers ambition (the only ambition that explicitly lies to you in-game when describing its premise) you can't change your ambition without spending money, so choose carefully and choose well. they're all (mostly) equally rewarding and equally fulfilling adventures that will define your player character and your journey through the neath. there's tons of advice and spoiler-free summaries of each ambition online, so i won't cover it all here. just do your research (or don't, if you prefer) and follow your heart. maybe playing the world's most high-stake poker game ever speaks to you. maybe you want to commit a murder. maybe you want to commit a murder in the name of justice and/or revenge. maybe you just want a really really big really really shiny rock. all can be found in the neath, and all shall (eventually) be well.

if you buy 400 lucky weasels you get a special achievement. i don't need to say more.

make up a guy. this is another legal mandate if you're a fallen london player. you have to make up your own little sicko victorian london guy and roleplay them while you play. trust me. it's fun. it's free. they're going to haunt you forever. the scoundrel got a nickname like 4 months ago and ever since my mind has never known peace.

and probably most important of all, fallen london might not be the game for you, and that's okay. it includes a lot of reading. and grinding. and i do mean a lot of reading and grinding. particularly the latter, which tends to throw people off the most out of anything. it's a very niche game for a very niche audience and getting into it can be an acquired taste at the best of times. but when you do get into it, it's some Really good writing and Really in-depth worldbuilding and the most fun you'll ever have imagining sicko victorian guys running around building train stations and railway tracks directly to hell. take your time, have fun, and most important of all, always look to love.

anyway yeah that's my fallen london tips and tricks list isn't it really short and comprehendible

[stranger-who-writes-fiction]

So, a bit of Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow news. Apparently as part of DC finally getting on the Marvel Infinite Comics train, i.e., introducing digitally exclusive vertical scroll comics on their subscription service, titles such as Batman: Hush, All-Star Superman, and the aforementioned Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow will be reformatted to launch as webtoon-style offerings on DC GO.

Further musings under a read more because IDK how long I'll ramble about this. XD

On the one hand, I guess this makes...some kind of sense, from a brand synergy standpoint. The titles they've picked to launch alongside the new originals are all connected to upcoming film projects (All-Star has been cited by James Gunn as an influence on the new Superman movie, and obviously WoT is being adapted as a film. Less sure about Batman: Hush, but I'm sure there's some sort of Batman project in development, this is DC/Warner Bros after all.)

So. presumably, these picks are going to bring the titles to a new audience that maybe doesn't read comics as like. Physical books. Okay. Sure. They wanna get that younger webtoons demographic. Okay.

BUUUUUT.

DC already has some Webtoon exclusive comics actually on Webtoon, a free service that requires very little effort/buy-in from younger readers. You can pay for content on the app/site, but you don't have to.

DC GO is being bundled into the DC Comics subscription service which is like. 75 USD annually for their basic tier, 120 USD annually for their fancy plan. It's 8 dollars monthly, I guess, which I suppose is fairly competitive...(but it's still twice the cost of paid manga app options.)

I guess what I'm saying is: I'm curious if this is going to work well, the way they've set it up. You can already read/buy the titles relaunching on the subscription service as-is, without the vertical reformatting. As for the originals titles...there's already some negative buzz around the Nightwing comic in particular, so I can't imagine that these are designed with your average adult comic fan in mind. Which is not a bad thing, mind you! But again, like...you have the Webtoon deal. Why are you not putting your new Webtoon style offerings on Webtoon?

(Answer probably has something to do with having to share the profits, honestly.)

(OR, possibly, they are realizing that popularity on Webtoon does not translate directly into physical comic sales so they'd prefer to get the money where they can i.e. digital subscription service cost.)

ANYWAYS. To bring it back to Supergirl; I guess I'm glad that a Supergirl book is part of a set of launch titles, and I'm kind of curious to see how they'll chop up the art to fit the vertical scroll. Like...how are you gonna turn the double page spread of Kara riding Comet into something that will fit the dimensions of a mobile phone without severely compromising either the text or the image??? We'll have to see, I suppose!

(...Okay one last nitpick if you're going to make Nightwing an underwear model in your fanfic-y webtoon it might behoove you to make the underwear actually look good which, based on the preview images, they have not. They have not done that. XD)

(...also Birds of Prey just did the whole 'DC characters go undercover as underwear models' thing now that I think about it. An...interesting...trend...? XD)

[pico-digital-studios]

👋 ^_^

So, since I can ask you any questions, here’s mine! ^^

Who is your favourite & least favourite character from:

Cartoon

Anime

Video Game

Comic/Manga

Etc

And why? ^^

OMT!Mina: Looks like we got our first question! Considering how obscure our stories seem to be compared to most, I'm honestly quite surprised.

CU!Sonic: Okay, let's see... @btnfstudios asks "Who is your favourite & least favourite character from cartoons, anime, video games, comics, etc., and why?"

OMT!Tails: Since there weren't any tags, I thought we'd take the question first to start things off. Sorry in advance that Antho, Brian and Devy couldn't be here for the question. They had some errands to attend to.

Nitro: That's fine. At least Smol Devy managed to get here!

Smol Devy: Hewwo! ^v^

OMT!Tails: Well, as it happens, aside from me idolising Benjamin, my favourite video game character's gotta be Alex Kidd. I really admire the effort he goes to to ensure his dad's safe from harm.

Nitro: Man, I really admire him for being able to do that, even when I couldn't...

OMT!Tails: (comfortingly) Solidarity, buddy.

Nitro: Anyway, if I was to pick between cartoon characters, I'd say I really admire Fluttershy's gentle and all-loving nature, even in the midst of danger. Trust me, you don't wanna be on the wrong end of her bad temper if she gets into one.

D-Sides Mighty: You know, I really dig Spider-Punk and his refusal to abide by society's perceptions and ideals. Reminds me of how my dimension's refusing to stick to a consistent "canon".

BK!Amy: If it's from my favourite anime, I've gotta go with Tohru Honda. I really enjoyed seeing her know that all bad things have to come to an end someday as well.

CR!Sonia: I don't really see much appeal in the cartoon characters that are solely girly and not much else.

CU!Sonia: Ditto. It's why I admire tomboy female characters from cartoons like Lana Loud, who's less enamoured with dresses and prefers activities the guys get up to like skateboarding.

Nitro: Heh, I remember she looks up to Ronnie-Anne a lot back home.

CU!Sonia: Wait, you used to live in the same town she did?

Nitro: Long story. I'll tell you later, if you'd like.

CU!Sonia: Of course!

CU!Sonic: You know, if a character in any of those media is in a healthy relationship with their loved ones, that's all I need to like for them. That, and good character development, of course.

Mr. Needlemouse: Favourite cartoon character? I am a cartoon character! (smug) What more needs to be said about me?

CR!Sonic: To be fair, you did end up on the list of "Top Worst-Behaved Cartoon Characters" recently.

Mr. NM: That again?! Remind me what I did again?

CR!Sonic: Well, blowing stuff up for the heck of it, you and Beeman being as bad as each other, hello?

EX!Alice: You know, I've really found an admiration for Blue Beetle, in a way. Seeing Batman go out of his way to see if he has what it takes to be a hero is such an honour not a lot of people get to experience.

OMT!Mina: I'd say Sam Sharp's my favourite. Rock and roll!

CR!Sonic: My personal favourite game character to this day? It's gotta be Mario! Dude's just saving the day just outta the goodness of his heart, you know?

Mini Sonic: Hmm, let's see... I'll opt for Green Lantern. I mean, come on! He can build anything just with that ring of his!

Wacky: You know, I've found Tintin to be quite the intrepid adventurer in his comics and film, especially when alongside his dog, Snowy.

Hog: What about Cuphead? Does he count?

Wacky: Well, he started as a video game, not a cartoon, though the similarities are there. Plus, he got his own TV show!

Hog: Cool! Where can I see it?

Wacky: Let's see... Ah, bummer. It's behind a Netflix subscription.

Hog: Hmph! If only there was a way to pirate that so I could watch it.

Nitro: I'm sure Lucia will figure out a way later.

Nine: My favourite in anime's definitely that guy from Fist of the North Star. I mean, he's almost unstoppable with those rapid-fire punches and hitting weak points. Omae wa mou shindeiru!

CR!Manik: I'm... gonna pretend I don't know what that means. Dad has really been getting me and Sonia into Wind in the Willows, one of those older British stop-motion cartoons. I particularly find Mr. Toad really hilarious to watch, haha! Poop-poop! The poetry of motion! What about you, Smol Devy?

Smol Devy: Me really likes Ana and Kat! They awesome ninja fwiends!

Trip: Hehe! Glad you're getting on well with them, little guy. I haven't seen a lot of that media before meeting my Team Sonic, but there's something I found appealing about Gromit, Wallace's dog; he's often the one to save the day when all those inventions Wallace makes either go awry or are vandalised by villains.

OMT!Tails: He really is an admirable character, even if he doesn't talk. And there you have it! Thanks for the question, Brendan!

Footnote

Nitro: Pst! I just wanted to throw in my part for the second half of that question for you, Brendan. For the "least favourite character" concerning cartoons for me, under the Looney Tunes lot, that title's absolutely going to Pepé Le Pew. His whole schtick is absolutely inappropriate by today's standards, and I'm glad I haven't seen him around Toontopia. As Vincent Alexander once put it, "If there's any moral to the cartoons, it's that if you act like Pepé, you stink." Well, thanks for the question, dude!

[timberlakefan96]

Apologies in advance for long rant

So I’ve been on a superhero comic kick for a little while now and I got curious about where comic books are in the Space Year 2024 and I gotta ask what the hell is going on over there? I might be preaching to the choir here. I don’t know. I haven’t been in this fandom for a very long time. I don’t know where the conversation is. I’m just airing my own personal grievances on the subject. But I don’t understand how the progenitors of the single biggest movement in media in the last 20 years have been failing so absolutely thoroughly on their core product. To a point where it’s legitimately incredible. A feat of its own.

I haven’t touched a comic book in about a decade and a half at this point. I read them a lot in my teens and early 20s and the last comic book that I picked up and read with intent to continue was during DC‘s new 52 lineup back in 2011. I did not continue reading there. So it’s been long enough, I am functionally a brand new reader, right. I asked a friend who would been reading comics this whole time what he thought and he pointed me to marvel’s new ultimate lineup, which, much like the original Ultimate comics that I loved, is supposed to be a fresh start for familiar characters, each one of them having a new twist. Which sounds perfect to me!

Ultimate Spider-Man, which has only been running for about three issues at this point for example, has the elevator pitch of “what if Spider-Man got bitten as a 35-year-old family man instead of a gangly teenager?” which sounds incredible, and I needed to read that right away.

So, okay, I know what I want, how do I obtain this comic? My first thought, as I imagine most anyone’s first thought in the year 2024 would be is: “there’s gonna be an app right?” And the answer to that question is yes but no. There is an app and it does have, for a monthly subscription, “a selection” of comics, but the new stuff doesn’t arrive until after a significant delay. Like, three months. Strikes me is wrongheaded, but not particularly surprising. So plan B was still in the mindset of reading these today: Find a local comic store. Luckily, I live in a part of the United States that is very dense with nerds. There’s half a dozen comic shops near enough that I can just pop in, so I do! None of them had the comics I wanted in stock. Turns out almost none of them order more comics than they absolutely have to, because comics floppies, in an ironic twist, are actually a terrible investment for comic shops. Unless the distributor is twisting their arm, they only order as many copies of a given comic as they have preorders for. They were all very excited and welcoming, and I will be going back, but they were entirely unequipped to handle some rando like me barging into their store for a specific comic. Okay so plan C is “Can I get them delivered?” and the answer to that is yes, but not directly. Which, Dear Marvel Comics; you’re a company that pumps out monthly publications, how do you not have a subscription service? How does that happen? So you can’t just read these comics online, you can’t order them straight from the source, and you can’t just buy them in stores. At least not without great effort and pain. Or piracy. Cannot overstate the pervasive force that was the temptation to hoist the flag through this entire process.

Eventually, I did find these comics and I buy them. Just found a place online and ordered them. Not my original plan, but hyperfixations are what they are.

After actually reading these things, I got three distinct and immediate impressions. First: The comic is good! For the most part! It’s well written and well drawn. They do make good on the promise of the conceit and I probably am going to keep reading it. In fact, I might dip in a little further and go for their ultimate X-Men line which is going in a wild new direction that intrigues me! But here’s the second thing. I bought three (3) comics. At five (!!) dollars apiece. So I ended up spending $15 before taxes and shipping. Basically a month subscription to whatever streaming service I want, and all for what, 50 pages of content? That’s insane, right? Like I can’t be the only one to think that? I just don’t understand what rationale they’re using to sell these things. I don’t understand where they think the value proposition is here, when, again, for the price of only a few issues, I could get access to hundreds of hours of content on virtually any platform I want. For the cost of these three comics, I could buy a month of Disney+ and watch every single Marvel movie. It’s just not a fair comparison, and I really don’t understand why they think this is okay.

And then putting value propositions to the side for the moment, thing three is: This comic, which again I want to emphasize is good, was pitched to me as a completely fresh start free of any baggage that might turn away a prospective reader, much like the original Ultimates line. In issue one we learn that’s not the case. I’ll keep this as free from spoilers as possible, but we learn that the entire universe, and reason for this Peter Parker’s existence is because of a decision a character made in another universe from a decade ago. And if you wanna know all about that, you have to read a separate comic series. Which feels like exactly the wrong creative decision to make here. And, like, I get it, This is Marvel things are gonna tie back together, that’s just what these stories do, but you can’t sell me a fresh start with a new version of a new character and then, in issue one, tell me that pretense is false. If you want to tie it in later, as a big stakes-raising twist, be my guest, but to bring in this whole Multiverse thing in issue one just smacks of no confidence in your product. Like you don’t trust the basic conceit of your story to sell itself. Which you should be able to do! Hell, it sold me! I guarantee if I told someone this story was about a character who died in a big multi-comic event a decade ago but came back and made his own universe, most people’s eyes are going to gloss over. But if I said “Spider-Man but he’s 35 and happily married *before* he becomes Spider-man”, that’s gonna turn some heads! But I digress.

In the end, I’m not an active member of this community, I’m just an outside observer who poked my head into comic books for the first time in a very long time, and I’m just baffled. Almost everything wrong here has been solved a decade ago or more. Again, I’m sure I’m saying nothing new, and if you’re reading comics and find no relation to my plight, then go with god. I just needed to vent frustration. I don’t understand how comic books are even still a thing, when they’re this hard to get, and this hard to parse. Get your shit together, guys.

[awkward-gay-bro]

Just A Prank

“Hey guys, I’ve got something pretty funny in store for you today! Andrew aka LAHFW is staying the week at my place while his gets fumigated. We all know how much he loves pranks and magic...and I found a website dedicated to both!” Stuart walked over to his cupboard and pulled out a bottle. “The website is called ‘Presto’ and they guarantee to deliver. I ordered this bottle of ‘Presto: Hair-B-Gone’ and swapped it out for Andrew’s body wash. This should be great!”

“What the hell?!” The sounds of running water in the bathroom came to a halting stop. “Dude what the hell?!” Andrew swung the bathroom door open, glaring at Stuart. He no loner had any hair below his eyes, his body now smoother than the day he was born.”

Still looking at the camera, Stuart chuckled, “Don’t worry, man! It’s just a prank.”

************************************************************

“Alright guys, Stuart got me pretty bad in that last video. But I found his little website and made an order of mine. He swapped my body wash, so I swapped his!” Andrew lifted two bottles into view, one was the bottle of liquid that had removed all his hair. “This is what he used, so I figured I’d have to do him one better. This bottle is called ‘Double Bubble Bath’ it’s supposed to have some pretty cheeky side effects.”

The shower turned off and the bathroom door slammed loudly. The sounds of dresser doors repeatedly opening and slamming closed came from Stuart’s room and Andrew burst out laughing. “Having some troubles in there bud?”

“I think you know I am!” Stuart yelled back. “I can’t find anything that fits!’

Ten minutes passed, with just the sounds of Stuart grunting in pain as Andrew laughed hysterically. Then suddenly, the door to Stuart’s room opened. 

“Very funny.” Stuart was standing there in a pair of gym shortest that looked three sizes too small. “These shorts were the only thing I could fit in.” 

“I don’t think the camera can see why, why don’t you give us a little twirl?” Stuart followed suit, slowly doing a 360. His rear end had tripled in size, looking comically big on his otherwise fit frame. The fabric was pulled so tight across his cheeks you could tell he couldn’t find any underwear that still fit.

“I’m going to have to get a whole new wardrobe until this wears off. You know this means war.”

“It’s just a prank, right?”

************************************************************

“So Andrew took these pranks to a whole new lever, so I really had to step up my game. Lucky for me, I found the perfect thing on ‘Presto’ to knock him down a peg.” As Stuart backed away from the camera, his massive new rear end knocked over the chair behind him. “Oh, sorry guys, this thing still hasn’t gone down.” He leaned down to pick up the chair, unintentionally showing off his bouncing cheeks in the tightest pair of khakis he could fit into. The pants split straight down the middle, showing his underwear to the camera as the video cut away. 

The video cut back, and Stuart was now wearing a tight pair of running leggings. “We’re about to go for a run and I slipped something special from ‘Presto’ into his shoes. They’re called ‘Any Flats Soles.’ The description online said they’ll make any pair of shoes into the perfect flats, guaranteed to help you look shorter in any outfit.” Turning his face away from the camera, Stuart yelled, “You almost ready for our run?”

“Yeah, I just can’t find my running shoes. Have you seen them?” Andrew said from off camera. 

“They’re in the hall by the backdoor!” Stuart grabbed the camera and took it with him as he walked to the hall to watch his prank unfurl. He got there just in time to see Andrew tying his laces. 

“Why do you have the camera, what did you do?” But Andrew’s question was quickly answered as he dropped inch by inch, step by step. By the time he’d walked over to Stuart he was now craning his head to make eye contact with the man he’d previously had to look down at. 

“Oh gosh, you’re not even eye level with my shoulders now!” Stuart stuck out his hand and tousled Andrew’s hair. “We better get going! With those short legs this run is going to be way longer.”

Andrew lifted his shirt up, which was hanging to his knees, “I don’t think I’m going to make it very far unless I change.”

“Sucks when you have to buy new clothes,” Stuart turned to his side, showing off his gargantuan mounds in the tight leggings, “You’re probably going to have to check out the children’s section little guy. Don’t worry, it’s just a prank.”

************************************************************

“So you guys know Stuart and I are in a little bit of a prank war right now, and I definitely got the short end of the stick thanks to his latest video. He’s been calling me little ever since, so I have a little surprise of my own for him.” Andrew lifted up a tank top that looked massive next to his shrunken frame. “This is Stuart’s muscle tank he usually wears to work out. I swapped it out with a very special tank-top I got from ‘Presto.’ Shout out to ‘Presto,’ guys. They caught wind of our feud and actually sent this one free of charge!”

Andrew climbed down off of the stepping stool he’d placed in front of the camera. With his whole body in frame it was clearly visible he was wearing women’s work out sweats, the only ones that would fit right on his new proportions. “You might be noticing the wardrobe, Stuart offered to pick me up some clothes. I’m gonna go grab Stuart, hopefully we don’t miss the show.” Walking away from the camera it became visible the word “Sexy” written in glittery gold was stretched across Andrew’s perky little bubble.

“I’m heading out to my work-out, what do you need to show me,” Stuart said as they walked back into the view of the camera. 

“This should only take a second. Oh, the tag is still on your tank, let me get that for you!”

Andrew reached up and pulled the tag off Stuart’s top. “What I’ve had this tank for yea-” The second the tag left his tank Stuart’s body deflated like a balloon letting the air out. Every muscle on his body shrunk down until he was supply smooth all over. The only thing part of his body that didn’t shrink was the ghetto booty that jutted out from his now stick thin body. 

“What did you put on my tank-top?”

“That’s not your muscle tank, I swapped it out for a ‘Presto Muscle-less Tank’.”

“Dude. I just got new clothes.”

“It’s just a prank.”

************************************************************

“Okay, after our latest pranks both Andrew and I needed new clothes.  So I went out on another wardrobe run. That gave me the perfect opportunity for my next prank. He’s getting dressed now, so...let’s go see the results!”

Andrew walked out of his room, wearing a pair of women’s jeggings. “Real funny man, did you throw out all my underwear? This was the only thing I could find.” He rolled down his waistband just enough to show off the top off a metallic pink thong. “I’d rather wear my baggy old boxers then this.”

“Well I had to be sure you’d put them on, things feeling roomier?”

“What does that mean? Oh no, what are these supposed to do?” Andrew fled down the hall to examine himself off screen. 

“That was a pack of shrinky-dink thongs! You can probably guess at what those do.” Stuart laughed hysterically as Andrew shouted from off screen. 

“That’s way too far!”

“It’s just a prank!”

************************************************************

“Well, for some reason youtube demonetized both of us, so here we are on onlyfans. Get your mind out of the gutter, though! We are still all about the pranks. But this new prank I’ve got is definitely going to be worth the subscription.” Andrew pulled up what looked a normal bottle of baby powder. Before he could explain what it was, Stuart snuck up from behind him. 

“What are you doing?” Andrew yelled out. But Stuart wrestled him to the grown. Even without his muscles, he still outweighed Andrew at his diminutive new size. Stuart pinned Andrew to the ground and pulled out the ‘Muscle-less Tank’. Stuart maneuvered so he was sitting against Andrew’s chest shoving the tank over the smaller man’s head.  Andrew struggled to no avail. As soon as Stuart pulled both of his hands through the armholes the tank did its thing. Andrew’s muscles faded away almost instantly, but Stuart wasn’t done. He pulled out the bottle of ‘Double Bubble Bath’ and poured it onto the quickly thinning man. 

As soon as Stuart stood up, Andrew jumped to his feet and ran to his room. His ever expanding ass swaying as he ran. When he emerged from his room he dived straight for Stuart’s feet, shoving the ‘Any Flats Soles’ into his shoes. Even if though he could just get the tip of the soles in, they worked their magic. Stuart quickly started to shrink down until him and Andrew were on even footing. When they were looking eye to eye, Andrew tried to yank down Stuart’s slacks, but they were caught on his massive posterior. Andrew quickly changed gears and shoved the ‘Shrinky-Dink Thong’ into the pouch of Stuart’s underwear. With how strained his slacks were, the new adjustments to Stuart’s manhood were on full display, even though his clothes were now baggy everywhere else.

Stuart’s body hair started to fall out every below his eyebrows. “When did you?”

“I filled the pouch of the thong!”

Stuart tackled Andrew to the ground as Andrew’s phone started to ring. The phone fell out of his pocket as the two fell to the ground, sliding across the floor the momentum swiped to answer. 

“Hey Andrew, it’s Danny! I’m excited for our video today, I’m about five minutes away. Are you there? I can’t hear you. Sorry I must have bad service. Either way, see ya soon dude.”

As they were rolling around on the ground Andrew remembered the most recent prank he was going to pull. He jumped up to grab the powder and the label ‘Gay-by Powder’ became visible to the camera. Before he could get it opened Stuart tackled him to the ground and wrestled the bottle out of his hands. They continued rolling around on the ground, each wrestling the bottle out of the other’s hand before either could get it open. 

Danny knocked on the front door but no one answered. He’d known Andrew long enough though to feel comfortable letting himself in. But what he saw inside wasn’t the Anderw he knew. Instead, he saw two slim yet thicc men rolling around on the floor, fighting over something he couldn’t make out. When the two guys flipped positions, and he could see their faces, he was taken aback that it was Andrew and Stuart wrestling on the ground. 

“What the hell happened to you two?” 

Stuart was startled by the sudden shock of being caught in this compromising position, and Andrew took full advantage, grabbing the bottle. He couldn’t get the bottle to open with his dainty new hands, so he put his whole body into it. The force of it finally opening shot the powder all over the room, coating all three men. 

As the powder cleared, the two little twinks writhing on the ground had climbed to their feet. Danny was no longer looking down on the men with shock, but with lust. The twinks first locked eyes with each other before turning their cute faces up to the young jock standing between them. Danny took charge of the situation and ripped the slacks pants off both the other men. He pulled the little twinks into his arm as his pats began to tent. 

“I don’t know what this is,” Danny grabbed each of the twinks by their jiggling cheeks, “but I think I’m going to have a handful with the two of you.” He leaned down and planted a kiss on Stuart’s rosy lips, as he slipped a finger into Andrew’s crevice. Pulling his face away, he whispered, “Not that I’m complaining, but what’s going on?”

“It’s just a prank,” Andrew said between moans. “Good thing we’re on only fans.” Andrew sat the empty container on the desk by the camera, and the label came clearly into focus. “Warning: Do not mix Presto Products. Mixing products may permanently extend the effects.”

[giuliadrawsstuff]

Hi Giulia! I hope you're doing okay! I just wanna say that you have a very solid art style--I can definitely distinguish it whenever it appears on my dashboard. Do you have artists or references that influence your very own art? I guess I just wanna ask, what's your artistic process? Thanks and take care!

Hi RK! Aww thanks you're so kind 💜💜 it really means a lot 💜

Mmm I think my greatest influence was Disney, the cartoons obviously but also some Italian comics, in particular W.I.T.C.H. (five highschool girls that obtain superpowers and can communicate with the four elements) and Topolino (various stories of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and all their friends) and I used to copy every possible drawing available hahha All the various issues are drawn by different artists, so I got to see a lot of variety of styles and pick the ones I preferred or better even pick the bits of each I liked and make them mine. Topolino in particular has multiple stories in a single issue and comes out weekly, so I had lots and lots of material to look at. I had my subscription until 2 years ago honestly hahah but I stopped for lack of shelves in my room 😂

And then during university so like 4/5 years ago I bought some video tutorials by Disney artist Aaron Blaise (he's the director of Brother Bear but he worked on Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King and other movies) and those really were a booster because I got to study anatomy and character design and drawing lots of animals. I still buy his stuff whenever he adds something interesting, he's an excellent teacher. And I get to watch them all the times I want so I can review weak spots or more difficult points.

As for the drawing process, well first I try and find a pose, I collect everything available that inspires me from stars Instagram posts or tweets, to drawings of other artists (obviously if the pose I finally make is identical to the original I add the reference to the post) to movie GIFs on Tumblr or official art. Oh and Pinterest too, that’s a goldmine, but I always end up finding new stuff that distracts me and not what I was originally looking for haha

Then I sketch on paper or on Photoshop depending on the mood and time, lately I can't even watch a movie in peace because my hands itch because I need to draw. So in this case I use paper.

Like these new ones look what a mess they are and very unfinished. It mostly to just jot down the idea so I don't forget it.

And since I always make a mess of it, Photoshop is a blessing. I allows me to change stuff how many times I want, for ex if the head is too big I can select it and make it smaller, it allows me to flip the drawing which is one of the most useful things ever because watching your drawing mirrored makes all the horrors pop up, I've lost count of how many wrong eyes or super long arms I had to correct. Plus I can work on different layers so I usually have one layer for the head (even 2 or 3 like for Hange because they have bangs and ponytail that are tough and glasses) then one torso, two for the arms and so on. I only merge all layers into one lineart when I'm sure it's good to go.

And then I add flat colours and logos and stuff if needed (like the wings of freedom patches or blood).

Like this is flat colours (I know you know Bojack from your Diane profile pic, which I've always loved from the first moment I saw it btw 💜 I love that show). This one stays like this because Bojack has a very simple line and pretty much no shadows unless needed. But otherwise I always add them.

But before making the shadows I tend to decide a background if needed or if I hadn't already one in mind. And the shadows colour tends to pair with the BG, but the general one is brownish (I use the same colour I use for Levi's bags under his eyes 😂 but set it to multiply so it gets darker but you can still see what's beneath).

Like this below.

I don't do many backgrounds by hand, i made one for my Secret Santa but usually I use photos or pictures (AOT is perfect for example because being a cartoon it fits with my style, with real photos I have to be more careful because it might collide instead of becoming part of the drawing) unless there's an object in real interaction with the characters.

For example this one below. The tree on which they sit was already in the frame (that's actually what gave me the idea of putting them on the branches) I tried using it like that but there was too much difference so I drew the tree myself. The rest is the real shot but blurred. Helps focusing on the characters.

Puff I think I'm done hahha sorry it came out longer that expected 😂😂 I hope the drawings make it less boring hahhaha

Anyway thanks for asking 💜💜 and if you have suggestions be sure to drop them by 💜

[doublerainebow]

Artist Resources (Part 1?)

This is basically just going to be a bunch of resources I have found to be useful. I can’t say that I’ve used all of them, but I’m sure they’re all worth checking out.

I’m also gonna try to put a detailed description for most of the links so you have a better idea of what you’re getting. I apologize in advance if some of them are redundant lol

(I put “Part 1″ if in the case I make another one)

~Links to Tutorials, Tips, Resources, etc~

Another Resource List -- Leads to another Tumblr post. Apparently, the post isn’t mobile-friendly, so it’s suggested to view this on Tumblr browser. Has a bunch of other links. I’ve checked out a few of them (mainly the copyright stuff lol), and it seems that some of the links may be a bit outdated. Still, it doesn’t hurt to check out the links.

Arms and Legs -- Leads to another Tumblr post. A handy tutorial on elbow and knee placement.

Art & Game Dev -- This leads to my personal playlist of a bunch of YouTube videos. Has a bunch of tutorials and interesting videos that I’ve collected over the course of a few years lol.

Blamblot -- A website that contains resources and tutorials on comic lettering. This is primarily in reference to western comics, but it doesn’t help to take a looksie.

Commission Calculator -- Leads to another Tumblr post. Helps artists to stop selling themselves short.

Comparing Heights (hikaku-sitatter) -- A height comparer for centimeters.

Comparing Heights -- A height comparer for feet and inches.

Mouth Shapes and Lip-Syncing -- Leads to another Tumblr post. Useful for... drawing mouth shapes.

Reference Angle -- Useful for when you’re trying to map out a face from an odd angle.

Soft Proofing for Printing -- Leads to another Tumblr post. Helps when you’re trying to make prints of your artwork.

Textures -- A website full of different and mostly free textures. While this website is made for 3D texturing, it can also be useful for 2D drawings. Signing up gives you 15 free credits everyday, and you can use those credits to download some textures for free.

The Models Resource -- A website of models ripped from a wide array of games.

The Spriters Resource -- A website of sprites ripped from a wide array of games.

The Textures Resource -- A websites of textures ripped from a wide array of games. 

~Links to Stock Images~

Please check out whatever policies they may have for their images before using them!

(not sure if any of them are active anymore as I followed some of these accounts a long time ago when I used to be more active on Deviant Art lol)

adorkastock (formerly senshistock)

anatoref -- Leads to another Tumblr post. Has a bunch of hand photo references

charligal-stock

HumanAnatomy4Artist -- Does contain nudity

null-entity

PhelanDavion

RobynRose

~Links to Other Artists~

Akihito Yoshitomi -- Yoshitomi is a mangaka who has tutorials on manga making. He also has an insightful series in which he drafts and draws a 30-page manga in 18 days. Remember that every artist works differently and his process may be different from another’s.

Drawfee -- Drawfee is an improv drawing show of four artists: Nathan Yaffe, Jacob Andrews, Julia Lepetit, and Karina Farek. While they don’t have tutorials in a sense, their videos explain the different processes they go through as they draw. They also occasionally provide tips, tricks, and resources in their videos. They do have another channel and a Twitch channel where they host drawing classes in addition to other fun shenanigans.

EtheringtonBrothers -- Has a bunch of useful and eye-catching tutorials called “How to Think When You Draw”.

Mark Crilley -- Mark is a comic artist, specializing in manga, who has a bunch of tutorials about anatomy, perspective, comic making, and other things.

Miyuli -- Miyuli is an artist who posts tutorials on their Twitter. Their tutorials range from anatomy to clothing to other things. They even have a few books of art tips. Currently (as of the time of posting this), their 2018 version is free for download, so I highly recommend you download that. Some tips may be outdated, but they should still be helpful.

Whyt Manga (Twitter/YouTube) -- Odunze is a comic artist, specializing in manga, that has a bunch of tutorials on manga making and drawing characters of color.

~Links to Free Programs~

Blender -- A free 3D program if you’re into 3D modeling and such. I also personally haven’t used Blender (I use Maya lol), but I know it’s a respectable program.

Krita -- A free painting program if you can’t afford Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint. I personally haven’t used Krita, but I have recommended it to a few friends and they have positive reviews about it.

Paint Tool SAI -- Okay, this one isn’t free, but it’s a significantly cheaper painting program where you don’t have to pay a subscription. It’s 5,500JPY (~50 USD). I’m not sure how well it still works on modern computers (the last update was 2016), but I still use it here and there because I love the pen tool feature it has, and it still works like a charm for me.

~General Tips From Raine~

Raine admits that she’s guilty of not following her own advice, but Raine hopes that the tips that she does know will be beneficial to someone who will follow them. She’s also going to keep all her tips under the cut so as to not make this post a huge wall of text (even though it technically already is lol)

Also, if you have some resources, tutorials, tips yourself, please feel free to send them to me and maybe I’ll make a part 2 to this post!

ALWAYS LOOK FOR REFERENCE. This should really go without saying. You can’t draw from life if you refuse to observe life itself.

If you can’t find the exact thing you need, MAKE YOUR OWN REFERENCE. Time and time again, I can’t find something exactly that I need. So instead, what I do is that I take pictures of my own reference. Sometimes I even grab a friend and take pictures of them doing whatever it is I need.

Have a mirror handy when you’re drawing. Sometimes what you need is actually right there in front of you.

Having trouble drawing something? Do some studies. Take the time to understand what it is you’re drawing. I can’t remember the exact story, but I heard that the people who were working on Tarzan were having a hard time drawing his hands. So, what they did was spend a few hours looking at hands to try and understand how they work.

IT’S OKAY TO STUDY THE ART OF OTHER ARTISTS. Just as we look to the old masters as a reference, it’s definitely okay to look at modern-day artists for reference. Just don’t go copying exactly everything that they do, or worse, trace what they do. Just don’t do it... at all.

Not every line needs to be realized. The viewer of your work will automatically connect the dots.

DO NOT TRASH YOUR OLD DRAWINGS. Please, never ever do this. Your old drawings have value to them, even if they look terrible to you. Old drawings may hold ideas for things you could do for the future. They also serve as a way to see how far you’ve come as an artist.

GETTING BETTER AT DRAWING TAKES TIME AND EFFORT. You’re not gonna get better overnight. It’ll take months, or even years, to feel like you’re a competent artist, and even then, you’ll still have room for improvement.

DON’T LOOK DOWN ON YOURSELF IF YOU’RE TAKING A LONG TIME TO GET BETTER. It’ll be better for your mental health in the long run.

Alternatively, DON'T LOOK DOWN ON OTHER ARTISTS EITHER, ESPECIALLY TO MAKE YOURSELF FEEL BETTER. You know the struggles it took for you to get where you are, so don’t go putting down other people when you’ve been in their shoes once.

KEEP DRAWING. If you’re not making an effort to get better, then you’re not going to be better. I get that it’s hard to find the inspiration to draw (I’m very guilty of this), but just keep trying. It doesn’t have to be big or spectacular. You don’t even have to post it if you’re the type who likes to post their art stuff.

Try to find references from real-life. It’ll help you better understand form, lighting, shadows, etc., especially if you’re going for a more realistic kind of art style. Otherwise, finding reference from things like cartoons, anime, comics, etc. are just as good.

Try new things. Try new art mediums. Try a different art style. Switch up the way you do things. Maybe you’ll hate it, maybe you’ll like it. Who knows if you don’t try.

Watch time-lapses (or speed draws/speed paints) of other artists!

Pinterest and Google are your friends if you need tutorials or references or whatever.

If you’re offering commissions, DO NOT WORK UNDER YOUR LOCAL MINIMUM WAGE. You are literally devaluing the work you actually put into a piece.

I like to think I’m an aficionado of Photoshop, so feel free to ask me questions on how to achieve something! I’ve used Photoshop for about 11 years now and know my way around the program. On another note, I do recommend setting custom keyboard shortcuts in Photoshop because the default shortcuts are terrible (in my opinion), and because having custom shortcuts increases the speed of your workflow.

Because I’ve been seeing this a lot lately in Twitter, you’re never too old to start in art. Art is just one of those things that anyone can pick up at any age because the only thing you really need to get good in art is time, diligence, and patience.

Try not to post hi-res images of your artwork to prevent art stealers from selling your artwork in high resolution.

Always, always, always add your signature and watermark on your artwork. I like to add my signatures and watermarks in places that’ll be hard to erase or crop out. I’ve also seen people add their signatures and watermarks in creative ways (ex. on a character’s shirt). You need to protect your work in an era where people will just blatantly steal it and make profit off your work.

Tag List

@reality-is-often-disappointing

[b0wieblue]

So tw// for hospitalization, medical treatment, etc, but this is a lighthearted post I promise ahhh

So like, this is probably more funny to me and me alone, but when MTMTE was originally running I was in and out of the hospital a lot and most of the time I was on an IV drip full of painkillers and fluids so I was high off my ass most of the time.

My mum was an angel and during my lengthier stays would go to the comic shop where I had my subscription box and pick up the issues so I could read them at the hospital. Well...being high and reading about my favs was...an interesting mix.

Some convos I can vaguely remember:

Mum: You have to promise not to start screaming about Cyclonus and Tailgate or I’m not bringing you the next issue, okay? We don’t need a repeat of last time.

Me: *in tears* o-okay

•••

Nurse: *trying to comfort me as I’m sobbing* It’s okay, lovie, let’s get you back to sleep-

Me: BUT MEGATRON!!! *continues crying for another hour before I just crash*

•••

Doctor: *trying to ease my mind before a treatment and make conversation spots my comic book stack* Oh cool! You like Transformers? Who’s your favourite?

Me: Oh!! Well, I really love Megatron the most- *continues to ramble on for over an hour before they finally got me to be quiet and into the treatment room*

•••

Me: *is sleeping*

Mum: *moves ever so slightly to get up from her chair*

Me: *shoots up out of bed in a panic* THEY GOT HIM!!! THEY GOT GETAWAY!!!

Mum: *nearly falls over in surprise and watches in horror as I fall back asleep just as quickly as I woke up*

•••

There are...more of these that I know only secondhand through my mum and siblings retellings but uh yeah, don’t cry over Transformers when you’re sick kids!!

[ardenttheories]

ardent, I have a real rough question to ask you. is it worth it to read hs^2? Ive been avoiding reading it because I didnt want to ruin what I loved about homestuck, but seeing the amount of art and interaction makes me feel like I'm missing out. I know it's not going to be good, but do I still take the risk? are there homestuck fanprojects you'd suggest instead?

An anon asked:  Hi, may I ask what is your opinion of fan creation inspired from Homestuck? I'm not the biggest fan of where homestuck is heading but was wondering on your opinions of fan comics. I'm leaning towards reading them over Homestuck2 because of some of the writing that Hussie and his team of writers have produced in Homestuck2 feels off and a bit weird for Homestuck. (Ps. Have a lovely day.)

I forgot to answer the anon when I first got it, but since both mention fanvantures, I’ll combine the two!

I would absolutely not recommend reading HS^2, personally. There’s just a lot wrong with it that I genuinely don’t like and am deeply uncomfortable with. Futanari Jade making Rose cheat on Kanaya to have a baby she then completely abandoned is really just the tip of the iceberg, from what I’ve read and seen; there’s also just an outright lack of care for triggers (the warnings for which were taken off chapter by chapter, so you’ve got no idea what you’re going into anymore) and so much bullshit around facts from Homestuck not being taken into consideration during writing (for instance, Rose tells Terezi about the Exiles despite Terezi being the one who told Dave about them back in Act 5).

It’s uncomfortable, sloggish, uncaring, actively written to ruin Homestuck for fans, and overall just unpleasant to read. Not only is it a bad continuation, it’s just bad fiction in general. Some of this of course is exacerbated by the writers themselves, which is another reason I refuse to read it; I do not want to support them in any capacity. 

I wouldn’t say you’re missing out. There’s some genuinely interesting things in HS^2, but a lot of it is overshadowed by how bad it is. That’s why I stopped reading, personally. You could always give it a go, see what you think and if you can handle it or if it appeals to you - because it’s different for everyone! Some people genuinely like it, and that’s okay, too - but I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you read the Epilogues just fine, you should be okay? But if they were rough for you to read, I’d definitely say HS^2 will be worse. You can still enjoy the content on the peripheral, though; for instance, acejams/sarcasmprodigy draws some HS^2 bits, but only really the designs that she likes. Consuming fan content while avoiding the comic itself is no issue, as far as I can tell.

That said, I’d 100% recommend reading fanventures. There’s a lot of benefits to them, actually!

Firstly, since they’re made by fans doing it for free, there’s a lot of love that goes into them. You know that what you’re getting is going to some degree be a homage to Homestuck, and that even if it’s an AU or divergent somehow, it’s still going to be loyal to characters you love. 

There’s a lot less - and I mean a lot less - bullshittery in fanventures than HS^2 proper. It’s done for fun, for love! It’s going to connect with you, as a fan, a little more, because it’s literally written by fans for fans; by people who know what the fandom wants because they’re actively part of it. 

Also, the writers don’t want to ruin the characters, so that’s an incredible bonus.

That said, here are a few fanventures I’d recommend:

SOULSTUCK: A fanventure that takes place in the Soul Eater universe, following Roxy and Dirk as they work towards getting that sweet, sweet final Witch soul to become a proper duo. I haven’t read too much of it, but the art is beautiful, the writing is well in character, and it’s also pretty faithful to the original Soul Eater while staying uniquely Homestuck, too.

Guidestuck: A pretty wellknown fanventure that started up again recently, following a kidswap universe where the kids’ initial sprite prototypings (the Harlequin doll, Jaspers, Bec, and Cal) are the kids (Cal Strider, Bec Harley, Quinn Egbert, Jaspers Lalonde), and our kids are their associated items (John’s a plush toy; Bro and Dave are dolls; Jade is a puppy; Rose is a cat). Also features a very unique look at what Alternia would be like if the lusii were the sapient species, and the trolls the symbiotic one.

TLCstuck: Double Death of the Author: A fairly interesting redo of Homestuck, taking control of the narrative a little after Game Over - so, essentially completely changing the story of Homestuck partway through Act 6. There’s a FAQ to give you more information - on how it’s written, how it’s changed, and how it works overall. 

Note for TLCstuck, though; it’s very explicitly ship-neutral. This means that although characters’ sexualities remain the same, no actual shipping generally happens in the comic. It also, since it continues from Game Over, doesn’t have a lot of the content that occurred in the Retcon timeline - including DaveKat and Davepeta (alongside the other combosprites). Keep this in mind on whether or not you want to read it, but I think it’s still a good read regardless.

Act 8: Might be one you’ve seen in the tags before! Unsurprisingly, it picks up after Act 7, and works a little like TLCstuck in that it changes the narrative from that point on. Just before the kids can go through the door to Earth C, the white door explodes. It’s animated beautifully, drawn amazingly well, and is well written! If you want to continue Homestuck’s story with the Retcon changes, this would be best for you to read. 

Well, that, or...

Act Omega: Like Act 8, it picks up after Act 7, only this time before they can claim their reward, a foe we’ve seen before appears to take the win from their grasp. It’s incredibly well animated and drawn from what I’ve seen so far, with an amazing initial fight sequence. It’s well written, and even from a cursory read-through, they reintroduce most of the main characters (including the Alpha trolls) for a second try at characterisation. Pretty nifty!

Homestuck: Subscript: I know significantly less about this one, except that there is some gorgeous art and design in it. It’s an interesting take compared to the others, since it actually happens on Earth C - so it’s more of a HS^2 replacement than anything else I’ve shown so far. It’s also incredibly different, though, and takes a little more a of a Candy route in so far as it focuses a lot more on relationships. It depends on your tastes!

Karkat goes to a Convention: Everything I know about this comes from a friend talking about it. It’s entirely satirical, I think, and a bit of a pisstake more than anything else? It’s quite literally what it says; actual Homestuck Karkat ends up at a normal, everyday convention. From what I understand it does get more detailed and involved as it goes on, but it’s also good for laughs. 

Abodebound: A webcomic a friend of mine wrote! It’s a completely original fanventure, essentially a fansession. There’s music and animation, as well as Homestuck-eqsue writing and original comedy, and some really sweet videos. I’ve never read it all the way through (life’s a bitch like that) but it’s what inspired me to create my own fanventure, and for something completely original but with the same feel as Homestuck, it’s pretty spot-on. 

Also, though it’s never been finished, what little exists of Heinoustuck is a delicious treat if you’re into horror. And Prequel -or- Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure is a really good Skyrim comic done in the old Homestuck style. Definitely NOT Homestuck, but it’s got the same art and humour, as well as games and animation - so it’s pretty sweet to look into, if nothing else. 

[antivirus-mh-au]

Antivirus - Chapter 2

TW: None Chapter 1 here Ao3 link If you like this, please leave a like, reblog, or send me an ask! It encourages me so much.

He blew the smoke from his mouth around the cigarette, the morning sun catching all the particles as they floated into the air. Tim drew the J on top of the fresh carton and dropped the pen onto the dashboard. Pulling the cigarette from his mouth, he drew in a deep breath of fresh air, fresh as you could get at a gas station by a highway. Looking around the parking lot, at the people filing in and out, he shook his head and gave a wry smile. Hard not to be in a good mood when you got some decent sleep for once.

Becca and Lukas were okay. Lukas's leg had been taken care of, and the two had set back off for Idaho, back to the families that loved them. Another success case for Timothy Kane. Another group of people adding to the myth of his existence. Seemed like every month there were more of them. The Operator never tired. The sickness never eased. In fact, it only grew worse.

But like hell was he going to start off a good morning with that depressing shit. He'd gotten paid, gotten rest, and he'd found out where the nearest library was with free internet. He was not going to let a rare moment of peace escape him. He'd lost too much for that.

The library wasn't far away from the gas station he'd refilled at. By the time he pulled into the parking lot, it was open, as were the windows on the front of the building. He spoke briefly to the clerk at the front desk, making sure he understood their internet rules and that it was okay for him to bring in his thermos of coffee, before finding a convenient spot by a power outlet. 

His laptop was getting old, it took a while for it to boot up. As Tim waited, he thumbed through a newspaper. Experts predicting a war with China for the third time in as many years, conflict in the Middle East, the royal family in Britain getting roped into some scandal or another. That was why he didn't read the news much, it was always the same. By the time he got to the comics (never his favorite part of the newspaper), his laptop had finished, and Tim traded the two without a second thought.

He could and did check his email on his phone but he was old-fashioned and preferred to use his laptop when he had the chance. Earlier Becca's mother replied to his report about her daughter returning home, a message he'd saved in a special folder he looked at when he felt particularly shitty. 

Another email was waiting for him now, from a 'Meridith Frederickson'. Another client, looking for her son and his missing best friend. He replied to that one, offering to schedule a Zoom meeting later that same day. By now he knew all too well what happened if he wasn't on top of his cases. 

And of course, he had new messages in the spam folder. Tim glanced over the subjects of the emails without opening any of them. Some didn't have any, but most were vaguely threatening, the kind he usually got from trolls and kids. 'Always watching', 'there's no escape', 'how could you', and on and on and on. People thought they could get a rise out of him by acting like totheark, but none of them even came close to what Brian had been all those years ago. 

Tim glanced at the tab next to his email, frowning. There was no sense in trying to put it off, even if he hated doing it. Everything on that site made him feel worse, and today had been a pretty good day. But if he didn't look, he'd regret it later, falling into a rabbit hole of updates that was guaranteed to fuck him over. So he opened YouTube.

The videos were taken down years ago, the channels involved with Marble Hornets wiped from the website. But that didn't mean they were gone, just hidden away on Google Drives and shock sites. What was on YouTube was... the fandom.

It made his skin crawl thinking about it. People from all over the world were obsessed with what he and Jay had been through. He'd seen hundreds of articles about the videos, from five minute listicles to long analysises about the events and the people involved. He'd seen other things, too, things he'd rather not remember. Like the fanart...

Out of everything, though, it was the YouTube community that unsettled him the most. The passionate, wide eyed college kids. The naive high schoolers. The older people, with their backgrounds in criminal science and forensics and cryptids and God knew what else. They picked over the videos and tweets and codes like vultures at a pile of bones. Like it was just a fictional web series, like people he knew and once liked weren't dead. And they spread the disease. It didn't take all of them, leaving the YouTubers alone, but claiming their followers. It made him sick thinking about all the people he couldn't save, the people who had no one left to try and find them, the people who vanished into Rosswood Park and were never seen again. It made him sick, watching these ignorant people talk about his pain as if they were all insects under microscopes.

But if he didn't pay attention, who knew what might happen. The Operator was watching all of them. One slip up was all it took.

He scrolled through both the front page and his subscriptions. The videos were, in the end, all the same. Speculation, discussion, analyzation. Some of them he could watch later. Others needed his attention now.

Tim’s eyes landed on a video, and his heart clenched. The Neophyte was streaming again.

The still image didn’t show much. Neophyte_Calling didn’t put much work into his channel. It was just a shot of what the streams normally showed, pale, unkempt hands poking free from black robes, resting on an old plastic table. That was what he expected to find once he opened the stream.

And he’d be correct, that was what awaited him once he got the courage to click. The hands twitched and clenched and dug at the table. It wasn’t the hands that were special though, it was what the owner of those hands were saying.

“Autumn after firestorm, the nights don’t listen and the butter is on the corn. Ten days or twenty paces of living guts wrapped around an old man’s neck. The water comes up to your waist but you don’t feel the attitude of denial inside the bastard daughter’s heart. Oh, god, eureka, industry was never so smooth…”

Complete nonsense. The ramblings of a man on some kind of drug, or lost to some unknown mental illness. Despite this, the chat flooded with messages. Donations popped up occasionally, attempts to get the Neophyte’s attention. He didn’t notice. He never noticed. He just kept talking. And he would keep talking until the stream ended on its own, or he passed out on the table.

People called him a prophet. Claimed every word he spoke had a double, or even a triple, meaning. They recorded every word he said and discussed them among themselves, coming up with ‘translations’ for his maddening dialogue. And to be fair, they could have a point. Sometimes, what the Neophyte said did seem to foretell events that happened not long after he spoke them. But the god the Neophyte channeled was not one Tim would ever ask someone to worship.

Silence. The man stopped talking, his fidgeting hands resting flat on the table. Dread filled Tim’s body. Speak of the devil, he was doing this again?

The Neophyte spoke again, his voice deeper now. The words came clumsy from his mouth, uncomfortable, heavy, as if he had never spoken before. The emphasis, the tone, it was all wrong. Tim had no trouble understanding them, however.

“You always fight,” It said through the Neophyte’s mouth. “You always resist. You tire, and exhaust, and fall. You continue to fight despite.”

The robes shifted, the head hidden from the camera’s view tilting.

“Tim,” It said. “You are a grain of sand. I am eternal. I am here. I will always be here. You understand. You continue despite.”

On the side of the screen, the chat surged with messages. It raced so quickly, Tim couldn’t have read any of them even if he tried. He didn’t look away from the livestream. 

“Tim,” It said again. “Enough. You have fought hard. You are getting old. That’s enough. It’s time to come home. To us. To all of us.”

The hair stood up on his arms, on the back of Tim’s neck. He shuddered.

“Like hell,” he whispered, and closed the tab.

But even though he closed the livestream, he could swear he heard the Neophyte, the thing puppeting him, whisper in his mind.

“Coward.”

When 2pm rolled around, Tim was back in his van in the library parking lot. Obviously he couldn’t do a Zoom call inside the quiet space, but their internet reached well past the parking lot. He sat on his bed, now folded up like a couch inside the converted van he lived in. His laptop open before him, the program open and ready. Now he just had to wait for her.

Hard to say what this Meredith Fredrickson would expect a private investigator like him to look like, but Tim did his best to look presentable anyway. Hair combed, beard trimmed, leather jacket kept to the side out of her line of sight - leather jackets weren’t worn by authority figures, and that was what he was trying to be right now. Not anyone could do this job, but who’s to say she knew that? If she didn’t like the way he looked, she could try to find someone else to find her son and his friend. And if she did that, by the time she realized only Tim could help her, it would be too late.

Thinking about it that way made him shudder.

Of course, while he was prepared to deal with what she thought he would look like, he wasn’t as ready for what she herself would look like. As the call began, and Meredith’s face came on screen, Tim hesitated. He looked at her closely again. Had he seen this woman before?

“Good afternoon, Mrs. Fredrickson,” He greeted.

The woman shook her head, her curly brown hair tossing around her slim shoulders.

“Meredith is fine,” she said. “I haven’t been called ‘Mrs’ since my husband died. I changed back to my maiden name - my son’s last name will be his, not mine.”

“Of course,” Tim said. Odd information to include, but people tended to ramble when they were nervous.

He looked at her again, at the frown lines developing around her lips, and the worry and pain in her wide-set eyes. Behind her was a normal looking home, a few windows with pale curtains, a kitchen kept clean from what little he saw. Something was nagging at him. What was it?

“Did you fill out the information packet I requested?” He asked.

Meredith nodded.

“Yes.”

The file appeared, Tim half-listening to her as he opened it.

“I know this is a very strange thing to ask from you,” Meredith said. “But circumstances have changed in a way I really didn’t expect. I know it’s hard to believe that after ten years my son could be alive, but I don’t have any other explanation for…”

She trailed off. Tim didn’t look away from the document she’d sent. The names written on the very first line.

Missing People: Jay Merrick and Alex Kralie

Motherfucker, had he been tricked?

Tim shot the woman a sharp glance, examining her expression in seconds. She was not the first person to ask him to track down Jay and Alex, but she was the first he hadn’t screened out before it got this far. Most people were upfront about their intentions, or were obviously trolling, or he otherwise got weird vibes from them. This Meredith had slipped him by, and wasted his time in the process.

“He is my son,” Meredith said. “I’ve included his birth certificate, since I thought you might not believe me.”

“I don’t need it.” A birth certificate? Those weren’t easy to fake, but Tim was no expert on Photoshop either. 

“I would’ve included Alex’s, too,” Meredith continued. “After all the years he and Jay knew each other, you would’ve thought I’d have it too.” She laughed, and there was pain within it. “But his parents died in a car accident about six years back, and…”

“Wait.” Tim refocused. “Alex and Jay knew each other?”

“Since the first year of middle school,” Meredith said with a nod. “I have a lot of photos of them. You know, Jay went through a phase, where he wore all black, and listened to rock music with singers I couldn’t understand. He got a tattoo of one of the bands on his ankle behind my back. I was so angry...”

She laughed again, and her eyes went distant. Tim stared at her, his mind flashing back to all the conversations he’d had with Jay, things that didn’t go into the videos. Being Alex’s childhood friend, since middle school - the phases he went through as a teen - that damn tattoo he was so embarrassed of. None of these were known by the fandom.

Oh god, this woman was the real deal. Even her face, now that he looked at her, was just like Jay’s. The distant look in her eyes as she thought… Jay got that same expression.

“Meredith,” he said, his voice softer, kinder. “Do you know about Marble Hornets?”

“I can’t bring myself to watch them,” she said. Meredith folded her hands together. “But I know what… what was shown on the videos. I know that they are…” She swallowed. “Considered dead by most people. I was one of them.”

His gut twisted. By most people, including her. “But something… changed.”

“Yes.” She took a deep breath, and moved to wipe her eyes. “I got a package in the mail about a week ago. Inside was a flashdrive and a few printed photos. It had been placed in my mailbox - I don’t know who sent it.”

Oh no, Tim thought. Not this again. Please, don’t play this game with people again.

“What were the photos?” He asked, aware of the sound of his own voice more than anything else.

“I’ve included most of them in the document,” Meredith said. “I… I still can’t believe what I’ve seen, but… But they don’t look like they could’ve been faked.”

Dread pressed down on his shoulders. Dread and something else, some kind of energy buzzing through his nerves. Tim looked at the document, scrolled down, and opened the photos.

Some were blurry, taken from a distance and zoomed in before being printed. Some were clear as glass. It took him several seconds to process what he was seeing, what the subjects of the photos were. Tim blinked, looked again, and his pulse quickened.

Alex, standing on a street corner, gray in his hair, exhaustion on his face. Jay in a dark cloth jacket with a hood, looking over his shoulders. Alex, and Jay, Alex, and Jay, in all the photos, in every single one. The clothes were different, the faces aged, but there was no denying what he was seeing, and like Meredith said, no way to fake what he was looking at.

“Oh my god,” Tim mumbled.

Jay and Alex were alive.

[purplesurveys]

1044

survey by a7xbabii 

Do you use e-mail often? I use it for eight hours, five days a week for work, so yes.

Do you hear any animals right now? I’m in a Starbucks inside a mall situated in the middle of a busy highway. It would be very unlikely to hear any animals right now.

Are you in a well-lit room? Sure, I’d say this establishment has good lighting. There’s no light directly above me unlike the other seats, but it’s okay in this case as I don’t want other people seeing me take surveys.

Is your trashcan full? The main one we use at home just got full, so the last time I checked this morning my mom was airing it out.

What was the last crunchy thing you consumed? My chicken barbecue sandwich from last night.

Did you view anything disturbing today? Hmm, I guess so? I wanted to entirely redo one part of my embroidery piece since I wasn’t happy with how I did it, so I had to remove the threads and stuff. When they were all gone the template was filled with holes and it looked like one of those trypophobia photos. I’m not personally disturbed by that phenomenon, but I know a lot of people are.

Are there any holiday decorations in your house? Yeah, we’ve had our Christmas tree up since the beginning of November. We also usually put a wreath up our door but idk why my mom didn’t this year.

When was the last time you had a terrible headache? Last night, because I had not eaten all day. 

Have you recently put lotion on your hands? No. I don’t like the feeling of lotion, so I don’t apply it on me a lot, if at all.

Are you hungry? Not so much, actually. I don’t feel too hungry today; I didn’t even finish my breakfast and that’s the only meal I’ve had so far today, and it’s already 4 PM.

Is it rainy where you're at right now? No, it’s quite fair. The sun’s not too strong anymore because of the time, but it’s still very much bright out.

Do you carry a purse? If so, describe what it looks like. I take a wallet with me. It’s pink, made of fake leather, has three main slots inside, and it also has some tiny bite marks on the outer edges from when Cooper was a lot younger.

Is your cell phone on vibrate? For certain notifications only, like texts and Viber.

Is your dishwasher full? We don’t use a dishwasher.

When is the last time you saw someone you like/love. Around a week and a half ago.

Do you like to wear gloves? No, I find them too itchy and I don’t need to wear them anyway.

Is there a body of water near where you live? There’s a creek that passes through my village near the clubhouse area, if that counts.

What are your thoughts on Avenged Sevenfold? No opinion. I never listened to them; though I am reminded of this one mutual I used to have on Tumblr/Twitter. She used to be a wrestling fan and was a part of our main circle, but she gradually shifted her main fandom to Avenged Sevenfold. By the time she cemented her new interest she then went on a huge unfollowing spree of wrestling fans on her feed and she apparently PM’d each person she intended to unfollow, including me. I remember her explaining that she was now in a different fandom and was gonna have to stop following me which I found...kinda extra to be honest lmao because nobody does that, but I appreciate the effort to approach each one of us, I guess.

Are you wearing anything pink right now? Nope, but my wallet is pink and so is my keyboard cover.

Do you like to swim in the ocean? I prefer beaches, but sure.

What is the creepiest bug you've ever saw? Cockroaches.

Do you currently have split ends? I don’t think so.

When is the last time you used the bathroom? Around five hours ago when I took a shower before heading out.

Do you chew on your lip? Almost never.

Are you afraid of needles? For the most part yeah, especially syringes. I’m not afraid of them when I do my embroidery, but that’s the only time I feel comfortable with a needle.

What is the last thing you lost? A pen, I think.

When is the last time you saw a bald person? Five hours ago, when I said bye to my dad.

What car were you last in? [continued from two days ago] My own. I was driving home from the mall.

Do you like Batman? I tried to get into Batman and the whole shebang of comic books when I was a teenager, but I just couldn’t.

Have you ever played tennis? Never have, actually. I’ve always wanted to try.

Can you see a star shape in the room you are in? Probably not in my bedroom.

What are you sitting on? A pillow I’ve placed on my work chair so that it’s more comfortable. My parents got me a basic chair initially meant just for my internship, so it’s not the comfiest of chairs haha. But now that I have a job, a more suitable work chair is probably one of things I’ll have to invest on.

What is the last warm thing you touched? My chest felt itchy just a few seconds ago, so I was able to feel my skin scratching it.

Do you use hand sanitizer? That’s kind of a necessity now, so...

Where do you want to go in life? [continued from...I don’t even remember anymore] I don’t know if I even plan to make it past 30 at this point. I can’t answer this right now.

Are you sweating? No, I’ve been in air-conditioned rooms all day and it feels so damn good.

When is the last time you had to scratch an itch? A few minutes ago when my neck itched.

Are you in any kind of club or group that is trying to save animals? No, but I very much support the cause.

Who is the last blonde you saw? At work today I saw someone who had her hair dyed blonde.

Where were you two hours after you got up, and what were you doing there? I needed to go to the office today because my team and I needed to pack some stuff to seed to certain media. It was the first time I got to visit the place and it was sooooooo homey and pretty :) I wish we can be allowed to work in the office soon; it would be best for my mental health at this point.

Do you wish for world peace? Um, of course.

Have you ever played fetch with a dog? We were able to teach Cooper how to pick up items that we throw but he’s still slowly learning that he actually has to give it back to us, haha.

What is the nearest object that is wood? The table I am typing on is made of wood.

Do you use Netflix? Yes, we have a family subscription.

Does your house have a fireplace? No, we don’t. And I can confidently tell you all other houses in this entire country, and probably the whole of Southeast Asia, don’t.

Do you wake yourself up in the morning, or does someone else? I wake myself up. On important days, I’ll put an alarm on.

What kind of hoodie did you last wear? It was a white hoodie with a UP seal on the left side.

Do you play games on your computer? No, my laptop isn’t equipped for games. I tried downloading Sims 4 when they made it free for a few weeks back in 2018, but my laptop’s fan started whirring like crazy and the battery got drained super fast. The entire period of me booting it up and then deleting it took like, a literal 15 minutes.

What is the last video game that you played? Mario Kart 8 on the Switch. I want to get myself Switch games as gifts, but I’m just so stingy towards myself hahaha.

Have you ever pet a stingray? I’m 50% would like to at least once and 50% I know of what it did to Steve Irwin, and I’m not messing with them.

If you were on vacation, would you ever go to Ireland? It’s not a big item on my bucket list, honestly. I’d love to go to Ireland, but it would probably be a part of a bigger itinerary, like if I decided to take a trip to that part of Europe.

Are you logged into Myspace right now? I haven’t been on there for more than a decade.

Did you have anything bad happen to you today? Yeah, but they’re stuff that happened at work that are a little hard to explain. 

Have you ever been to New York? Nope. I’d love to take a trip there.

Do you use the term "lol" if you don't have anything to say? Not really. I use it in the end of my messages more so that I don’t sound mean.

Should you be sleeping right now instead of taking this survey? Hell no. It’s a Friday night so the last thing I want to be doing is sleeping.

Can you truly say you hate anyone? I don’t think so. I greatly dislike my brother, but I guess I don’t hate him. I find it too strong a word.

Have you ever disected a baby pig in a class at school? Not a piglet, no. We dissected an earthworm, a fish, and eventually a frog.

What brand of dish liquid do you use? A local brand you wouldn’t recognize.

When is the last time you ate a Hershey Kiss? It’s probably been more than a year. It’s not my favorite candy.

Do you ever feel unappreciated? Yes.

Do you currently have any blemishes on your face? No. My pimple finally went away, hallelujah.

Who is the last baby you held? My cousin who is now 13 years old. I’m too anxious to hold babies; I always feel like I’d drop them so I find myself declining even when I have the chance to hold one.

Are you a lover? I guess.

Do you use smileys often in text convos? Yes. Not a lot of people like them but it’s better to sound friendly and approachable than stoic.

Do you have the Google toolbar on your computer? Like...Chrome? I have the program, yeah. It’s my default browser as well.

Do you like Sunkist? I’ve never had it.

Would you ever consider being a cannibal? I mean...I guess only if I was in a life-and-death situation, like if a plane I was in crashed on an island and I was starting to get hungry. I certainly don’t fantasize about cannibalism on any regular day.

Did you forget something important in the past week? I made a few mistakes at work due to me forgetting things, yeah.

Do you like learning new things? Sure.

What color is your toothpaste? White.

Are the floors in your house creaky? Nopes. I don’t think our doors are creaky-level just yet as well.

Do you fear death? I hate the uncertainty of what happens while it’s taking place, and what happens after. But I’ve been wishing for it for a while as well. There’s a difference.

Is your mouth dry? Not right now, no.

Do yoou have any scars from an animal? Yeah I’ve got a few marks and scratches from Cooper. I never run out of them, really.

Did you have fun with this survey? It was okay.

Was it random enough? Sure.

[sanderssidesfanfiction]

If There’s a Place I Could Be - Chapter Thirty Seven

If There’s a Place I Could Be Tag

June 6th, 1986

Remy wasn’t entirely sure what his mother was glaring at the TV for. He was watching it play some boring news station or another, and there were a lot of people shouting, throwing things and picking fights, while rainbows and dozens of flags with different colors flew around in the background. His mother cursed under her breath, but Remy heard her.

Why was she so angry? Usually she didn’t get this mad, even if people were fighting. “They’re clearly wrong, why are they fighting against the truth?” his mother muttered.

Fight against the truth? Remy didn’t know what that was supposed to mean. What did rainbow flags and fighting have anything to do with truth?

  June 11th, 2001

Remy’s first impression of Pride was that it was incredibly overwhelming. Remy’s second impression of Pride was that it was making Emile let loose, something Remy wasn’t sure was even possible until this point. Remy’s third impression of Pride was that it. Was. Awesome. Like, completely off-the-chain awesome.

People were surrounding them on all sides, some with pride flags, others with pins and badges, and some dressed like they were just going out on the town for a day. But all of them were happy, and laughing, and joking, and Remy wasn’t sure he had ever encountered so much positive energy in one place before.

Emile was standing next to him, beaming. He was currently looking around, for what, Remy wasn’t sure. Remy just hung next to him, unsure of where to go. He definitely enjoyed this, but he was so completely out of his element.

“Come on, girl, anywhere you want to go first?” Emile asked with a grin.

Remy’s cheeks dusted pink as he shuffled on his feet. He was wearing more feminine clothing today, his reasoning being that no one at a pride parade would care about whether or not he dressed masculine. He could probably go full drag and no one would bat an eye. But still, Emile calling him “girl” did something to his emotions that he couldn’t describe. “I’ve never been to a pride parade before,” he said. “I don’t know what there is to go to.”

“Okay, fair enough,” Emile said with a grin. “Why don’t we just look around at some of the stalls?”

“Okay,” Remy said, following Emile over.

He was surprised by how much of a social butterfly Emile was being. He was waving and high-fiving anyone in the general vicinity, yelling, “Girl, same!” whenever someone showed off bisexual colors, and generally putting himself out there in a way that Remy had only done anonymously in clubs before. Here, he supposed things were a little anonymous too, but it was still in broad daylight, where people could see them.

Emile walked up to one of the stalls, chirping, “Hi!” to the people on the other side.

Remy looked at the banner on their table and saw it was something for Catholics who were LGBT, and Remy inwardly shook his head fondly, because Emile wasn’t the most devout, but he did occasionally go to Mass. Of course he’d like people who were affirming in his faith. Remy looked around the other stalls curiously as Emile talked. He wasn’t really religious himself; he had too many bad experiences with his family’s church growing up to really put any trust in a higher power. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious about which denominations might be accepting.

Emile took a little pamphlet from one of the people and came over to Remy. “See any churches you like?” he asked.

“Not really religious,” Remy shrugged. “Bad experiences.”

Emile winced. “Yeah, understandable. Should we move further in?”

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Remy agreed.

They walked down the street and Remy looked around. There were a few big name corporations advertising here, but not very many. There were stalls for small book companies, and...he paused. There was one for a queer comics startup! “Emile!” he exclaimed, eyes lighting up. “Comics!”

Emile laughed and followed Remy over to the stall as Remy looked at the different illustrations they had. So many cool superheroes, and then some more realistic-fiction looking stories, and some high fantasy and sci-fi was scattered in there too. “Woah,” he breathed.

“You like comics?” the woman behind the stall asked with a small smile.

“Like is an understatement,” Remy said, eyes never leaving the pictures. “Are you guys selling these?”

“These comics are purely for display,” the woman said. “But we are starting up subscriptions as we’re gaining traction. We’re in a couple comic stores around, where do you live?”

“Uh...” Remy blinked, forcing himself into the present. “Fairview.”

The woman nodded. “We’re in the comics store there, yeah. That’s about as far out as we’ve gotten, though.”

“Hey, if it means I get to read you guys, then it’s fine by me!” Remy exclaimed.

The woman laughed and offered him a bookmark. “Here’s a little information on us, and our company name, of course. I hope you like what you read from us.”

“Definitely,” Remy said.

He was still starry-eyed and Emile gently dragged him away from the stall. “They have queer comics, Emile! Like, I know there’s some queer characters in bigger comics, but these stories...they have main characters who aren’t straight! Can you imagine?!”

Emile laughed. “Hopefully one day they’ll have cartoons like that, too. Then maybe I can understand what you’re feeling a little better.”

Remy was almost hyperventilating. “Pride is amazing,” he said. “I love this. Can we come back next year?!”

“We definitely can,” Emile laughed.

They continued to walk, Emile constantly chatting and greeting people still. Remy got a few nods, and he shyly returned them, holding onto Emile’s hand.

“Hey, girl! In the leather jacket!” a voice called from behind them.

Remy turned in surprise as another person who was wearing a full-on dress in light blue, pink, and white walked over. “I really dig your outfit, girl! You look fabulous!”

“Oh! Uh, th-thank you,” Remy stammered out, nowhere near his usual confident self.

“She and her pronouns for me. You?” she asked.

“Uh...” Remy hesitated. Why was he hesitating? What was so hard about this? “He and him, I guess?”

The woman looked him over closely. “It’s okay, girl, we all have to figure ourselves out in our own time. He and him work for you, that’s great, but if you ever want to switch it up, know that you can do that, you know?” she asked.

“Uh...yeah,” Remy said. “I...I don’t think I’m transgender, but uh...I don’t always like being called sir, you know? Sometimes it’s fine, others it’s just...suffocating.”

“Gender roles are suffocating girl, I getcha,” she said, nodding. “Nice to meet you. Tell your cutie of a boyfriend that I like his enthusiasm.”

Remy smiled and nodded, and she moved on. Emile turned to look at him. “Who was that?”

“Don’t know,” Remy said. “But she liked your enthusiasm.”

Emile laughed. “Oh! Well, that’s sweet of her!”

“She also called you a cutie, in case you missed it,” Remy said. “And she’s not wrong.”

Emile laughed, blushing. “Well, I don’t see what either of you see in me, but if enough people say I’m cute, then I guess I’m doomed to be cute forever, huh?”

“Not forever,” Remy said. “And some people might find you hot. I like it when you wear those skinny jeans. Those look really good on you.”

“Remy!” Emile hissed. “That’s not helpful!”

Remy laughed. “Oh, come on, Emile! You know it’s all in good fun!”

“Do I, though?” Emile asked.

“I should hope so,” Remy said. “After all, you’re the one who jokingly called me ‘hot’ first.”

“You can’t prove anything,” Emile said. “Plus, I’m pretty sure you’re the one who thought of me as hot first.”

“Yeah? I thought you were hot the day I dropped out of college and saw you in those skinny jeans for the first time, Emile. I’m not talking serious, I’m talking jokes. Get with the program,” Remy teased.

Emile snorted before clapping a hand over his mouth, shoulders shaking. “That early? Really?” he asked.

Remy shrugged. “What can I say? I know how to make anyone look good.”

“Shut up!” Emile laughed, starting to walk away.

“You know I love you, Emile,” Remy said. “It doesn’t matter whether or not you look hot, because I love you either way.”

“And I, you,” Emile said, kissing Remy’s nose. “Which is why I argue you don’t need that leather jacket everywhere you go.”

“Excuse you, that’s not to make me look hot, that’s part of my aesthetic!” Remy protested.

“Either way it’s unnecessary, Rem,” Emile shrugged.

Remy pouted. “You’re no fun,” he declared.

“Well, I do try,” Emile said. “It’s my mission to make sure you know I’m a stick in the mud, after all.”

“But you’re my stick in the mud,” Remy said.

“Oh, you better believe it. I’m not leaving you for anything in the world!” Emile said.

Remy laughed and his stomach held butterflies. “You mean that?”

Emile paused. “Yeah, of course I do,” he eventually said. “Barring some unfortunate accident, a messy fight, or any more drama from any sides, I don’t see myself leaving you.”

“Like, never?” Remy asked. He didn’t know why he was pressing this issue, but something inside him just wanted to be absolutely certain that Emile was certain.

Emile looked down at the ground, shuffling on his feet before he kissed Remy softly, sweetly, and with so much adoration Remy was practically drowning in it. A few people around them cheered or whistled, but Remy paid them no mind. His only focus was Emile, when he pulled apart, resting his forehead against Remy’s as he murmured, “Like, never. Never ever.”

Remy wasn’t entirely sure how to respond to that, so he blurted, “That’s gay, Emile.”

Emile laughed. “I love you too, Rem. Where do you want to go next?”

“Uh...food place, maybe? I could use a snack, if not lunch,” Remy said with a shrug.

“To the food trucks!” Emile exclaimed, causing Remy to laugh as they walked hand-in-hand.

Emile swung their hands lightly forwards and backwards as they walked, and Remy grinned. Emile, even when somewhat muted and calmer at pride, was still incredibly happy, and bubbly, and alive. He loved it when Emile seemed to come to life in a whole new way that Remy hadn’t seen before.

“What are you thinking about?” Emile lightly teased.

“You,” Remy said honestly. “You’re just...so alive. You’re completely in your element, and you’re so friendly and happy. You’re like a puppy experiencing grass for the first time. And it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“Oh, shut up,” Emile said, blushing. “I just really like Pride.”

“Yeah, I got that,” Remy said, nodding. “I don’t know why, it just seems to be something you’d like.”

Emile laughed and kissed Remy’s cheek. “It’s pretty great to not worry about PDA.”

“True,” Remy agreed, taking half a step towards Emile.

Emile squeezed Remy’s hand. “I’m super glad you came with me.”

“I’m super glad I came with you too,” Remy said. “Because I’m pretty sure Pride wouldn’t be the same without you.”

Emile grinned. “I mean, I’m sure you could have some fun without me...”

“But why would I want to?” Remy asked. “You make Pride fun...or more fun at any rate.”

“You mean that?” Emile asked.

“Of course,” Remy said. “I’m not sure I would want to go at all without you. You just make it...special.”

Emile squeezed Remy’s hand again as they approached the food trucks. “You flatter me,” Emile said.

“I’m speaking the truth,” Remy said. “Don’t sell yourself short, Emile.”

“Come on, what’s so fascinating about me that I make Pride more interesting?”

“You come out of your shell, like, entirely,” Remy said. “I’ve never seen you be so comfortable around a group of certified strangers before.”

“Well, the fact that I know they all at the very least support the fact that you’re gay and I’m bisexual and we’re dating helps,” Emile said simply. “I can go up to people and talk about you without having to just use your name and hope people assume I’m referring to you as a girlfriend.”

Remy sighed. “Yeah, I know you’ve felt weird about me visiting you at work because of that. Most everyone at my jobs know except for the managers, so as long as we don’t do obvious PDA we’re usually in the clear. But not having to worry about that at all is...”

“Freeing?” Emile offered.

“Yeah,” Remy agreed. “It’s definitely freeing.”

Emile grinned. “Aw, Remy, you like me!”

“Shut up!” Remy laughed. “You knew this for literal months!”

“You like me! You like me!” Emile repeated, practically bouncing up and down.

Remy sighed and rolled his eyes, but inside, he was smiling. When they first met, he would never have thought he could have ever made Emile as happy as he was right now, let alone enjoy it. But he was never so happy to be wrong.

[brinaedwards]

Hi, my name is Brina... and I’m a workaholic

As the above title states, my name is Brina and yes, I am a workaholic. I don't think of that as a bad thing since I enjoy the self-motivation and the feeling of accomplishment when I get tasks done. However, my boyfriend thinks that I should focus some of that time getting more hours of sleep, haha. 

I attended Valley Central High school and graduated in 2017. High school was an okay experience, if I wasn’t apart of the band program I feel that I would have disliked it more and would not have an interest in the things I do now. I’m not trying to shit on the school, but I feel that it needed a deep cleanse on administration staffing and just an overall re-look on how to spend the funding. Just saying, I think the asbestos issue should have been handled before the  bleachers and locker rooms. But, not my problem anymore, Thank God. 

When it came to deciding colleges and all that jazz, my high school was zero help in the whole process. Yes, they talked about it but at that age things should be more simplified to understand what needs to be done. I’m 22 and I just finally figured out how to build up my credit score? Like, HELLO, start teaching kids about loans and all the other financial shit that goes into college. Not to mention the absolute lack of help I got when picking my major. I knew I wanted to go into the music or media industry and of course, none of my advisors had a clue what I was talking about. I decided on OCCC for the pricing and that cushion of still figuring out what I wanted to do. I attended SUNY Orange Fall of 2017 as a liberal arts: music emphasis major. Fast forward a year later to find out that they actually have a music program! Got to love the help advisors give you right? More so, the help wrong advisors give you. That following fall I was a full Music: Performing Arts major and loved every second of it. I met amazing, talented people that I am very glad to still be in touch with. When I was on my last semester and was on the edge of graduating I had the moment of “Oh, God.. What the hell am I going to do after this”. I decided I wasn't ready to move on from SUNY Orange, since I had no idea what direction to go. I started looking into another major and that's when I found New Media! I was always interested on how content was made and what went into making a film. I remember my cousin and I used to make these little movie clips with the windows movie maker. We thought we were going to be these big movie-making hot shots at 8/9 years old haha. 

I am grateful that I took my time with school and by the end of this OCCC journey I will be graduating next Fall with two A.A.S degrees and a clear idea of where I want to go.

Aside from anything media related I’ve been on this reading kick. Genres from fantasy, horror and some history. This summer my boyfriend and I got really into reading/collecting comic books! He has way more comics than I do but at least once a week we’re at Middletown Comics seeing what new issues came out! Now with the fall/Halloween season fast approaching I have been planning some great ideas for this year! I know I may catch a lot of eye-rolls/ mini-hate from those not wishing summer to be over but I can’t wait for fall. Besides, halloween is everyday haha. I’ve been looking at Pinterest ideas on how to DIY some awesome decorations. I guess Pinterest is somewhat media related though? Ah well, since I'm back talking about it, I might as well talk about the last movie and TV show I watched. The last movie I watched was actually what had to be watched for COM 105. It was the 1995 movie Kids and uh.. it was definitely something haha. I understood the point of how it related to youth culture but I would not want to watch that movie again. As for the last TV show I watched, was again what I had to be watched for COM 105. It was Euphoria season 1 and that was a really good show. I know I only had to watch the first four episodes but I binged the whole season. The way the story was told was creative, I enjoyed the narrative back a forth style and how each character had their own stories. It made it worth getting a month of HBO Max.  

Being on the topic of last things done, I suppose the next order is the last book/video game played or finished. The last book I finished was A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis. I got that book from Thrill Club. It’s basically a horror/thriller/anything dark and creepy book subscription. I canceled thrill club awhile ago and just now getting into the books I was sent. Anyway back to this book that I read. I found it a little empty. I just wanted more from it, it was very predictable and dry. I wanted more character depth, more suspense and just more of everything. The book is in the corner of my room at this moment because I’m going to donate it, that's how unsatisfying it was to me. But HEY if anyone is interested in a dry thriller let me know! Haha. As for the last video game played it would have to be Assassins Creed Valhalla and that was a few weeks ago. I do love to game but when I’m getting into a project or assignment, more of my focus goes into that rather than a video game. But my goal this semster is to take more time to myself and have self-care days, so Valhalla here I come! 

Going down the “Lasts” list I have to my right here is, the last thing I created. Um, I guess the last thing I created was a make up look, that I will post a pic of at the bottom!  I do have ideas I wish to create such as uploading my podcast and YouTube videos! Im a really big planner so when it comes to things like that I want to have clear, organized agenda. I do have a date that I want things done and released so there’s that! I will probably mention more of my podcast in future posts but for now things are in the works. 

Which now brings us to the last thing of the “Lasts” list. Im sure there is a tongue twister in there somewhere but I don’t have the brain capacity to think of one. My last meal on earth would have to be what I had for dinner last night. I ate cheese ravioli with a side of mozzarella sticks. 

I know this assignment was supposed to be a minimum of 500 words and I believe I exceeded that. I look forward to these blog assignments since I can let my mind go and word things as if I was actually speaking. Well with a post this long I guess it’s safe to say I was ranting. 

To future rants and of course the required MLA formatted references!