furryluxurylivings

[foulfeast]

Ohhhh i now remember why i got shy about talking abt ocs

24/7 fear that someone will tell me my ideas are cliche/stupid/bad in some other and it will hurt more bc these are my own creations and not just fun and play

[shaonsim]

Your take on grey characters 😈

An excellent question, and let me preface it with the fact that although I believe that every person is morally grey, I am also of the opinion that there is a difference between a grey person and a grey character. Fiction is always a little on-your-nose with everything, and a character with grey shades will have their complexities highlighted quite strongly, more often than not, as a direct contrast to a 'pure' white, positive character. And by doing that, fiction downplays the grey shades of the character standing on the moral high ground and that's really interesting and totally irrelevant to the answer, but I wrote it in anyway, because it fascinates me and kind of ties in with the stuff I hope to explore in the later parts of this answer, so, just hold on, I guess.

Let me also just point out, that fiction, as it says, is, and always will be, a little detached from reality. While it is true that fiction does not exist in a vacuum, it is a way for us to escape our worldly troubles and perhaps that's why sometimes serious issues get brushed under the carpet to give everyone a happy ending. It's an utopian world. And I bring this up because grey characters receive a lot of acceptance that they might not receive had they been real, flesh and bones, human beings. They also receive a lot of flak for not fitting into the 'good box', because more often than not, grey characters are show leaning towards the good side, as in, their actions directly or indirectly support the protagonists, or, in some cases, they go against the antagonist, thus leaving them on shaky ground. People would cry that they are being whitewashed (which, although it pains me to admit it, they are, but again, fiction is an utopia, even if we are talking about a zombie apocalypse).

Anyway, this too is confusing and I am terribly sorry for this disorganised mess of an answer you have to read through.

Forgive moi?

Okay, let's get back to the topic of grey characters. In the recent few years, I have come to sort 'grey characters' into different categories. So I'll just quickly (ha!) go over that.

GREY CHARACTER™

The characters who are introduced with the grey tag, by the creators themselves (or, in case of literary works, are addressed as grey by the writer(s) once the book is published and people have read it). Their moral ambiguity is their core feature, their whole personality is shaped up around that little nugget of information. The narrative gives them a layered, intriguing character traits (and a lot of snark - like, a lot of it), intricate backstories (and past trauma!!!) that remain hidden behind a facade of casual disinterest in everything that exists on our beautiful Earth, and we get snippets where they are being genuinely affectionate with their people, or where other, minor characters share a cordial, if not a little personal, relationship with them.

^ Another great way is to show them being polite to the staff, drivers and/or salespeople, that makes them likeable.

And it is extremely necessary that they are likeable, because these characters do plenty of questionable things. Some of their actions might even fall under the 'bad' category, where they commit crimes and plan to destroy lives (most of the time the plan fails, or they actively do something to redeem themselves with respect to that particular event, because they are grey characters, not the devil incarnate trope they go for when it comes to the villains and vamps).

Also, this type of a grey character is usually written in with a host of other characters, for whom the character will cross every limit, and a group of characters, with whom our grey character crosses all boundaries. The second group is the intended target, and the creative outlet for writing the morally questionable things that make a character grey™.

Usually, this type of a grey character gets one out of the three kinds of endings outlined below ⬇️

Grey™ but softer

Where they continue to do questionable things, but less frequently, or with less intensity. Nice trope. Moi likey.

Platinum grey, but grey™ if necessary

The go-to if they are the protagonist. I will explain about the 'platinum grey' bit later on, but this is essentially, this character has fulfilled (or abandoned) his course of doing questionable things, but if push came to shove, will not hesitate to destroy some lives. My favourite (♥️)

And the worst kind of ending - whitewashing

There is a difference between accepting the consequences of your actions, repenting for it (or not, both can work, but you have to acknowledge what you did), and justifying it because 'hey, look! I did one good thing in my life, I am pure™, love me!! ' This is my least favourite trope.

((can you guess which ending I have planned for Dhruba?))

TEAM GREY

This type of grey is usually reserved for influential side characters. Influential, in the sense that they contribute to the plot, and have relationship ties that leave a heavy impact on the story. My favourite people. These characters are not given the tag of 'grey', but they move from one camp to another, with their actions and thoughts that move the story forward. They don't switch sides, that's another type. These characters don't change teams because they want to support one side against the other. No, their actions are fueled by their own motivations, and that's what makes them special. They are often overlooked because of Grey ™ characters, but I love them so much.

THE FAKE GREY (AKA DAL BADLUS)

The narrative tries to make us perceive these characters as grey, and in their haste, they make these characters change teams every now and then, and the characters lose all credibility. They differ from 'team grey' in the sense that the reasoning behind them choosing sides is flimsy at best, non-existent at worst. They are inconsistent and ugh, how I hate inconsistencies. What irks me the most is that the narrative doesn't even try to establish them as complex characters (which isn't that hard, humans are complex!!!)

SUPPOSEDLY WHITE BUT OOPS I AM GREY NOW, PLEASE KEEP LOVING ME

I love these characters, if they are executed properly. Tons of potential. The story always reminds us that these characters are supposedly white, but their actions (or reactive action because of the circumstances/events brought on by the grey™) and I love to see them spiral out of control and become complex, layered characters. And if they have comic potential, then I am squealing with joy. Love these people. 

((spoiler alert: this is my Agni))

GREY BECAUSE I STAND IN THE NO MAN'S LAND BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE

Love, love, love them! Love characters who are not inherently evil and who do not engage in criminal activity, but also, they are not pure and white and good™ and they have their fair share of character flaws. They do lots of wrong things, but nothing destructive. All the love ❤️

((spoiler alert: this is my plan with Chandni))

I HAVE TRAVELLED FAR FROM THE GREY ZONE BUT I AM NOT TOTALLY BLACK, BELIEVE ME

Negative characters with plenty of redeeming traits, and a strong (and emotionally manipulative) reason behind their wrongdoings, with their motivation exploited by the antagonists. Can be very interesting if done well, and even the simplest of tracks is better than the plain old everyone is evil unless they are the protagonist (and their supporters). 

((spoiler alert: My rendition of Manju)) 

GREY BECAUSE I HAVE FALLEN FROM MY PEDESTAL FOR GREATNESS AND I AM NO LONGER WHITE ™

Another favourite. Genuinely good characters who do that one wrong thing, but it's pretty big and affects the plot in a bad way and that kind of behavior cannot go unchecked because we need to prove a point. Tons of potential. 

((spoiler alert: My rendition of Kakai)) 

<< are you tired of me screaming about my plans for the Fic Which Must Not Be Named? Sorry, not sorry 😈 >>

THE WORLD COULD NOT HANDLE MY GREATNESS, I AM GREY NOW 

Pure, sweet, soft characters who see the world for what and now they are either a very soft grey (as in their negative side comes out quite often, but it doesn't affect the story all that much) or a very manipulative person. Love this trope! 

((Deepti is a soft grey character, but that's more because she is bitter and she points that bitterness towards herself. Meghna, on the other hand, flits in and out of this trope))

TOO COOL TO BE WHITE, TOO SANE TO BE DARK 

All the snark! Brutally honest, mature, logical people who are cool™ and who do lovely, manipulative stuff. We stan! 

(( Ranja from my ff, not Ranjabati the warrior princess)) 

PLATINUM GREY (AKA SELF-DESTRUCTIVE ™) 

The protagonist, often used as narrative foil to the Grey™ or vice versa. They are portrayed as good and pure™ but have plenty of grey character traits that either get glossed over or are shoved into the cupboard to highlight the differences between the grey character and the protagonist. They also have serious self destructive tendencies where they ruin their lives on purpose and this is often complemented by a generous helping of saviour complex. Like, all the love for these characters. They are supposed to be white, but aren't, but they do shine bright, even if their flaws are sharp and in your face, like a cloudy sky that is a terribly cold, sharp white. I choose to use the word platinum because that's what comes to my mind when I try to visualise their place in the shade card of life, the color of a platinum band. This is my favourite trope when it comes to protagonists. Love them. ♥️

((Tara, Prabha, and Meghna - PLATINUM BABES))

Now that we have covered the type of grey characters in fiction (my brain is fried and I might have missed some, sorry! Feel free to reblog with your additions!!), let me tell you how much I love grey characters. I would choose them every time, as opposed to characters who can be neatly sorted into the black and white categories.

Every. Time.

We need more grey characters in fiction, especially the soft greys and the team grey ones. And we need to appreciate grey characters for how amazing they are!!!

In conclusion, I love grey characters (but you already know that, don't you? Come on Babe, you have known me long enough, you know how crazily excited I get about grey characters) and I need more of them ♥️♥️♥️

[ stuff for my 100th celebration ]

[manifestoonmoralmanlove]

Long Exposure

OKAY I WROTE WAY TOO MUCH ON THIS BUT I GOT BIT BY THE RANT-BUG!

Also this came up much later than I intended because I realized I was being overly bitter and therefore rewrote a huge amount of this.

First and foremost I would just like to give a little disclaimer:

This is by far NOT the worst comic I’ve ever read and if you like it kudos to you.  Keep supporting it if you love it but ranting about how wrong I am is not going to change my mind.  I would also like to say that if you agree with me that this is not a great webcomic, do not harass the fans or the creator.  Write your own rant and we can bitch in the disque comments like the bitter fujo-bros we are.

SO HERE GOES!

Oh good god, this is a very frustrating level of comic for me.  It’s bad on several levels but it’s coherent and panders and rides clichés JUST ENOUGH to have a huge fanbase.  

Basically the author made a belligerent teenage meat-head, wanted them to bang a dude, any dude, and sketched the comic while Stranger things was on in the background so oops paranormal bullshit shows up once every 50 pages but has no bearing on anything ever.

So the story is as follows:

Mitch is a violent piece of shit but tragic past so it’s cool.  Jonas…has a dick so that’s good enough, therefore the two have to bang. Jonas’ step dad disapproves because homophobia.  There is also another bully in school for no plot relevant reason.  Things play out like stereotypical high school trash drama. (And I will admit my bias I’m really sick of high school trash dramas)

Look at this joke of a jealousy plot line! Where the woman is physically present in the comic for like 1 page, get slut-shamed, Jonas’ interest in her is so transparently thin it’s laughable it was even included, and this is pretty much forgotten about after seme has his token jealousy-induced pout.

Also we have, “NO FOSTER DADDY, I LOOOOOOVE HIM! IGNORE HOW 1 WEEK AGO I SHIT MYSELF AT THE THOUGHT HE’D COME BACK TO SCHOOL TO TORMENT ME! BUT OH NO TURNS OUT YOU’RE A PHYSICALLY ABUSIVE, HOMOPHOBIC 1-D VILLAIN LIKE ALL FOSTER DADS!”

They also get ridiculous over powered paranormal abilities which maybe part of a plot? Doesn’t look likely so far.

So let’s now do a deeper dive on this business:

Paranormal elements aka what paranormal elements?

The paranormal elements are a joke.  They got them day after they fell into a puddle by a mysterious facility.  Neither of them makes much of an attempt to hide their powers.  In fact nobody seems to really give a shit that they’ve got these life ending powers with no negative side effects from getting magical scientific water on their pants.  Writing Pro-Tip: We aren’t going to think it’s surprising or cool if nobody else reacts that way in the comic.

Mitch’s OVER power is telekinesis that can lift cars.  Jonas can make a shield or kinda slash at stuff with his but most of the time his powers are just glowing ribbons of energy to highlight how he’s being tsundere or a romantic moment.  The evil facility they got it from is now following them around and…out to get them? I guess? The lead characters care about this SO LITTLE, that it’s not until 200+ pages or so later, that Jonas googles what the facility was. (He made some random post on what looks like Reddit before this google search but again 2 panels, explains nothing.)  Not only did they wait that long the big reveal is that it’s called GAMMA HARDY HAR VERY ORIGINAL and that people have gone missing by it which we pretty much already know.   But the ad on Jonas’ phone is bigger and conveys more information than this essential plot information. 

WE GET IT! YOU DON’T CARE ABOUT THIS PLOT THREAD! WHY IS IT HERE!?

The cars are following them around but not enough effort is put in to make this even feel like it’s that weird no less scary or tense.  I think this is best summed up in the scene where Jonas reveals his powers to his sister. He spends about 1 page and a half talking about the powers and she reacts as if he got a bruise that looks a bit like a dog. There is one page where he explains he’s being stalked by these people which she has a slightly stronger reaction to, and then the next 3 pages which finish up the scene where they talk about Jonas having a crush on Mitch.  Which his sister reacts MUCH stronger too but like forgets she’s upset by it really fast and leaves off with a, “Guys are only after one thing!”  Which should be a joke cause HAHA YANNO Jonas is a man himself but no such luck. That’s treated like, “Poor little ukey, don’t give up your chastity to the first seme who bullies you.”  Way to make this comic feel as if it’s a queer love story and not some sad spank fodder for the lowest common denominator.  Oh wait damn, are we supposed to be scared of some shadow organization!? I don’t know how I got distracted from that.

It would be hilarious if this was some kinda parody. That a teenager is more worried about his crush feelings than the fact he may get abducted, tortured, and horribly killed by a bunch of murder scientists.  Pity it’s not!

Speaking of which…

Pace and focus problems aka I WANT THEM TO KISS! I JUST WANT THEM TO KISS! FUCK THE REST OF THE STORY! KISSY KISS KISS!!!!

One of the major problems in this story is that it only cares about building up Mitch and Jonas’ blooming relationship so everything else is pretty much forgotten and the pace suffers heavily from it because it’s so obvious the artist CANNOT WAIT until the two bang and it feels very rushed and juvenile for it.  It’s hard to go 2 pages in without some barely veiled hint that BOY OH BOY Mitch has the hots for Jonas.  There is no suspense that the two may not end up together because the author is so obnoxiously chomping on the bit for it.  And like listen, I get it, comics are a very time and energy intensive medium, and you’re doing it because of how much you just love the notion of these two together. It feels like such a drag to spend hours working on just some bullshit transition page when all you want to do is to draw them snuggling. I get the impulse, but you GOTTA rein it in if you want the story to have tension and be believable.

The story starts off with Jonas being deeply afraid of Mitch, and Mitch doesn’t exactly live it down. However by the end of the 1st day Jonas is unabashedly leading Mitch into a restricted part of the woods in the dead of night cause…..SCIENCE PROJECT???????  The science project is pretty much a SHRUG WHATEVER, IF IT GETS THEM TO INTERACT!  Even with this partnered science project in place there are like 80 reasons why Jonas would avoid this particular scenario since yanno it does sound pretty damn dangerous to do this with a guy he’s pretty sure wants to beat the tar out of him. What changes about Jonas’ perception of Mitch here? Well Mitch insults him a bunch and kinda sorta help him hide. And by hide, I mean pulls him to his strong chest for them sweet sexual tensions.  So really nothing should change from this interaction but...

From then on, Jonas just does whatever Mitch says and not under threat. Doesn’t matter that he was quite recently scared of and hates Mitch and he’s done nothing to really dissuade Jonas’ fears. This happens because he’s a puppet destined to fuck Mitch so he’s not allowed to make it even slightly difficult for them to bond….if you want to call it that.  Basically they’re bonding is Mitch being rude to Jonas and pressures him into breaking the law and despite yanno all the terrorizing Mitch has been doing, suddenly this is like sensual foreplay to him. 

The fact that Mitch and Jonas both get powers and are being stalked for it so they work together to figure it out would’ve been a good way to push them together.  Problem is when they get together they just like bond and flirt as if nothing really happened and don’t do jack shit to find out who’s behind all this.  Honestly neither of them seem very concerned.

Sure the 1st kiss doesn’t happen until page 200, but we started this couple off in a really deep hole.  If the two had met on neutral terms or had been friends I could probably see this bonding working and the pace as reasonable.  However that is definitely not the case here.  This is compounded by the fact that this couple is just poorly written, uninteresting, and fails to ~update~ the same shitty bully/victim BL narrative.

Relationship aka I can see where you’re coming from but try harder next time.

I will confess that my cup of tea is not the bully/nerd dynamic due to it’s typically exploitative nature. So I am coming into this bias.  This story does have a much less problematic, if stills stereotypical, take on it.  Nerd does one nice thing to the bully, bully is now obsessed with him, and years later torments the nerd cause that’s how bullys express affection.  The nerd just KINDA GIVES IN CAUSE IT’S EXCITING I GUESS?! At least in this version I can more readily see where Jonas would find these shenanigans as genuine, non-traumatic excitement.  Mitch introduces him to BREAKING LAWS! WOO!  Instead of the typical BL introduces him to UNWANTED SEX!  NOT WOO!

However I still feel as if it’s a bit of a stretch for both of them.  It makes more sense for Mitch to pursue a fellow bully who treats him half decently.  Mitch is bitter toward people whom he perceives as having a better life than him, and yet at the same time (perhaps this is me over-analyzing) should view himself as beneath these other people because he was called shit all his life so he doesn’t want to taint anybody else either.  So Jonas as a target of affection seems pushing it because his (initial view) of Jonas would lend Mitch to distancing himself out of anger at society and at himself.

As for Jonas? He seems more annoyed than charmed by many of Mitch’s antics. Also it seems like quite a big jump, not just realizing you’re attracted to the same gender but the individual you’re attracted to is...to put it nicely not exactly the most socially acceptable suitor. Jonas does openly say, “Yeah I’m not happy I’ve got this crush” but that’s pretty much as conflicted as he gets.  He doesn’t have to have a big GOSH AM I GAY OR NOT internal conflict but I feel as if it would be poor characterization if he doesn’t have an internal conflict about GOSH MY CRUSH IS ON AN EMOTIONALLY VOLATILE GOON! THAT MAY NOT BE THE BEST DOWN THE LINE!

I will say the fact that both Mitch and Jonas having less than stellar male father figures in their life could’ve been a much MUCH better way for the two of them to bond together.  However at the moment it seems more incidental than something the two of them have really talked out.  It wasn’t something like,

“I have a crappy dad!”

“Oh my gosh me too! It really sucks.  I wish I had somebody to give me guidance from a male perspective in this wild world that is teenage hood.  I don’t feel as if I can trust what I was original taught.” 

“Gosh me too!”

Instead the conversations feel more like two totally separate exposition dumps rather than something they have in common.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I can see the potential here but it just doesn’t make the grade.

Characters aka please believe the worst human being in this story is actually the best one.

You know that 1-d villain in every after school special?  That’s our seme!

Mitch is a textbook bully who physically harasses everybody he can which includes teachers and totally innocent peers.  Out of I would say the 4/5 people he’s shown to expressly pick on in school, only one of them is shown in text to be a bad guy.  And it’s absurd how, despite only being back in high school for like what a week, that he hasn’t already been suspended or expelled already.  Why?

Mitch is shown to pick on and threaten fellow innocent students who think about telling on him for the harassment they suffered. Mitch (on his 1st day back) threatens a teacher with violence, and just what…3 pages ago steals the same teacher’s keys.  This teacher has been shown as a good person and the only authority figure that is shown expressing concern for Jonas.  We also see him and his buddies kicking the snot out of somebody on the first day he’s back. A fight that’s 4 people vs. 1.

So Mitch isn’t some kinda modern day high school Samurai, who only beats on those who deserve it and fights fairly.  He’s just a piss-drinker.

Yet he hasn’t gotten punished for any of the above behavior and I haven’t even mentioned some of the worst things he’s done.  The worst one on school grounds was putting a knife to another bully’s throat.  That’s right, he brought a weapon to school, and threatened to kill another peer while on school grounds.  But? No punishment!  Simply having a weapon, even if not used against somebody, is more than enough for expulsion in the majority of American schools.  The kicker here being, there were witnesses, there is no reason why the person he threatened wouldn’t report it (in fact he seems the type to report tripping on someone’s foot as harassment), and due to Mitch’s reputation there would be no reason for anybody to disbelieve it either.

Mitch has a tragic past and comes from poverty.  I can kinda see how his law-breaking violent behavior is just how he was inadvertently taught to act from his shitty brother and step-father and he has a lot of anger in regards to abandonment.  The problem being here his bad behavior is not treated as bad.  It’s treated as 1 part hilarious, 1 part that other guy deserved it for doing something much less severe, and 1 part BAD BOYS ARE JUST SO HOT HNNNNNGH!  And I’m not saying this to shame anybody into bad boys, but Mitch genuinely treats a lot of helpless people real shitty but it’s framed as...well... those 3 things above.  What I’d like to see is Jonas confronts Mitch about how he treats the majority of his peers, and maybe Mitch realizes it’s not okay to frighten people on whims and confront WHY he does it.  But I will say I’m not exactly banking on that future since Jonas will just nod along to everything Mitch does with the only notable exception being stopping him from KILLING HIS FOSTER DAD!

Oh and there’s a not-so-subtle hint that Mitch maybe bulimic? But there’s literally 1 page of it and there hasn’t been a peep before or since? WHY IS IT THERE? ….my friend you can’t just throw mental illness on the table and forget about it.

I will say I was pleasantly surprised that Mitch treats Jonas with more respect and less abuse than a lot of bully semes do, and yet at the same time it doesn’t feel as if Mitch is behaving out of character around Jonas, rather that he just has a soft spot for him. But Mitch is still kinda a douche to Jonas to be honest.  While Mitch doesn’t hit Jonas but he takes glee in making Jonas feel unsafe and is just flat out rude to him in many other instances.  So while not abusive, it’s not enough for me to bridge a gap into giving a shit about him.

Have you ever seen a cardboard cutout?  That’s our uke!

I’m all about freckles, nerds, and pudgy characters in BL so you’d think this would be a slam dunk. Unfortunately there’s little to talk about when it comes to him.  He suffers from uke-doll syndrome and just does what it’ll take to get to that sex scene and nothing else.  There are MENTIONS of things he likes but like that’s all they are mentions.  Like someone refers to him as a band kid.  Do we even know what instrument he plays? NOPE! At one point Jonas liking to do photography is brought up, there is even some kind of implication that he feels bad he doesn’t photograph anymore.  However this is powered through in 3 panels and we can barely tell what Jonas even took pictures of to begin with.  If done properly we’d get a panel of what kind of photos he took.  If he used labor intensive techniques, took pictures of animals/people/scenery, a deceased family member, a specific place with meaning, or if he took pictures of a place he used to live.  There is a lot of subtle character building that can be done there but instead we get 1 awkward shrug because we gotta transition into the non-existent romantic tension.

I will mention one scene which could potentially be very interesting character building but TO BE HONEST I think I read it in a more interesting way than the creator intended. In a recent page a character brings up how Mitch is a nutcase and Jonas gets really defensive screaming that the whole school just DOESN’T UNDERSTAND HIM!  Which I think the author intended to be just that. 

However, if you factor in, just the previous night Mitch NEARLY MURDERS Jonas’ foster father and would have if Jonas hadn’t stopped him, there could be more to it.  Despite how much he hates his foster father, he doesn’t want him killed.  Jonas could be feeling really doubtful about having a crush on Mitch.  While there is a good side to Mitch he STILL IS REALLY UNHINGED AND DANGEROUS like everybody says.  So he becomes defensive when this is questioned, because he’s been worried about it himself.

But welp it’s most likely just U DON’T UNDERSTAND WHAT A PRECIOUS SOUL THIS VIOLENT BAG OF DICKS IS ON THE INSIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!  Speaking of foster daddy…

Antagonists aka a homophobic puppet show put on by somebody who’s convinced saying the word fag is worse than stabbing someone to death.

The antagonists include a strict foster dad who’s concerned about his adopted son hanging out with somebody who’s been to juvie for trying to kill someone, does drugs, trespasses, causes massive property damage, brings knives to school, oh yeah and almost violently murdered the dad personally. WHAT AN ASSHOLE!  Haha just kidding!  Just kidding about him distrusting Mitch for being a violent criminal, he does do all of the above in the text of the story. The real reason why he hates Mitch is because he’s a filthy gay that’s turning Jonas into a filthy gay too.  Which like sure….have the foster dad character be a homophobe but like it makes negative sense why he would knee-jerk into being worried exclusively about gayness cause…

1.)    Daddy issues is a cop and Mitch is a legit criminal that is where they should OBVIOUSLY be at odds

2.)    Jonas appears to be bisexual but before Mitch he’s only expressed interest in women. So his dad logically should not be paranoid at this point that he raised some filthy gay, because there’s no history of it and he does not obviously present as such.

3.)    Mitch ALSO does not obviously present as gay.  He seems to be out to his friends (and only recently), but doesn’t appear to be out to the whole school and even if he was out to the whole school it would a stretch for random cop dad to know about it.

So the real reason that adopted dad knee-jerks into being worried about gayness is because it makes him more of an evil, bad, no-good 1-D villain.  This on some level makes sense, because it’s easier to hate somebody for mistrusting the gays rather than somebody mistrusting someone who is..haha well….untrustworthy.  Problem being the rest of the story acts as if Mitch is a hero for destroying cars, and trying to kill people, so it’s a moot fucking point anyway.

In between the homophobic jargon Foster Father expresses fear that Mitch is a bad influence. Probably for the gayness but the negative influence is pretty true in the text. Jonas trespasses, skips school, causes property damage, and does drugs because Mitch tells him to.  Sure he has a choice in the matter but he had none of these inclinations before and I think it’s likely might never have done this if Mitch hadn’t open the door as WIDE AS THESE PLOT HOLES.  So again, it’s hard to see him as the 1-D antagonist he’s painted because WELP the fears of him picking up bad behavior are technically true.

The other antagonist (who really is not necessary to this story at all) is Neil.  Who I’m guessing was put in to make Mitch look better but no joke he’s worse than Mitch because he’s verbally instead of physically abusive. That’s not true the real reason why he seems like a bad person and Mitch isn’t is because Neil comes from a family with money and uses slurs.  (Which to be honest I wouldn’t picture Mitch being ABOVE if he was pissed.)  Mitch does objectively MUCH WORSE SHIT that he GETS AWAY WITH and Neil makes a few homophobic and fatphobic comments, get humiliated in public, threatened with a knife, and has his car seriously damaged if not totaled.   Also Neil apparently forgets that his car was annihilated because when he sees the people he thinks are responsible he just goes back into making fat jokes.  The worst Neil does is punch somebody after getting kneed in the dick. The worst Mitch has done is seriously attempt to kill 2 people.

So like, that’s an obvious choice right?

Say something nice Faps:

Okay the art is nice. It has a good style, good character design, and it’s consistent. Sometimes backgrounds disappear for no reason but it’s not hugely jarring.  The colored powers are a cheap kinda trick but the use of them in water for that scene was genuinely very pretty.  However I will say as cool as the style is, it’s not really suited for the material.  Like the violence looks semi-comedic when that doesn’t appear to be the intention.  Also the fact that the characters don’t have lips make the almost and DO kiss scenes look just kinda…how to put it stupid?  Like it becomes readily apparent this style is tooney and not sensual/romantic at all cause flapping those two flat lines over each other is really unappealing and silly in my opinion.

Also I do appreciate how our male leads are not the conventionally attractive types.  In particular, I give big kudos out to Jonas being on the pudgier side, even if he’s not majorly, so the artist doesn’t GLOSS OVER that fact about him.

TL;DR

The reason why this story is popular is trying to be a less problematic version of the fetishy bully/victim romances you see in a lot of BL manga.  The big problems being a story hyper focused on the flaccid romance which gives it a poor pace and makes anything else, even plot relevant info, feel like a joke. Even when the story is progressing as it should it uses some big time cliches and doesn’t put in the energy for it work.  The characterization is better but leaves Jonas looking hollow and glamorizes the violent actions of a bully.

If you want a gay delinquent with a heart of gold story read Mr.Mini-Mart, Rutta and Kodama, Blue Sky Complex, and the Hydra series.

[flyingvgroupca]

A $5,000 Link Building Strategy: How Real Estate Companies and Realtors Should Generate More Clients and Referrals

If you could invest $5,000 in backlinks to secure increased rankings for your real estate website, what would you do? Would you risk, buying as many links as possible from as many sources as you can find, in an attempt to quickly rank in Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines? Or, would you rather, partner with a link building team, and work out a scalable strategy to attract trust-worthy, ‘white-hat’ links, reaping the benefits for months and years to come?

What is link building you may ask?

The story of link building traces back to Adam and Eve. There are some subtle connotations you ought to know about, which we’ll reveal in a minute. But first, let me tell you what link building is not. Link building is not a magic wand that instantly transforms you into a traffic-generating ninja. It is not the holy grail to mediocre content. It is not a push-button tool that sends hundreds of visitors to your website overnight. It is not a content marketing hack. It is not a cold email outreach template that you blast to 100’s of random leads, then sit back and wait for them to do business with you. It is not a quick SEO ranking formula. Just ask around. More often than not, you’ll hear that most real estate marketers and agencies erroneously believe these to be proven methods. Usually, they realize the contrary to be true, only after squandering $5,000. When it comes to link building for Google rankings, no budget in the world will solve your lack of organic traffic, clients, and referrals.

So what’s the alternative you ask?

You need an expert SEO team by your side, to help: Run a professional audit of your website, and then Create a custom link building strategy for your real estate website. The question is: will you be able to trust an SEO agency with your $5,000 budget? Should you pay a general SEO firm to handle your link building campaign, or should you employ a team who is highly specialized and experienced in real estate website ranking and link building? Unfortunately, Adam and Eve learned the hard way whom to TRUST. The ancient story of managing the Garden of Heaven, teaches us some vital modern SEO lessons that we can apply to our websites and businesses. This power couple lost everything they had, in a split second, such as: A one-on-one, direct relationship with the almighty God. And access to everything the Heavenly realm offered them, free of charge.  The Bible reveals that our spiritual mother and father conducted what the SEO experts refer to as ‘black hat’ experiments. As you recall, the enemy, also known as Satan, used ‘link-bait’ to engage Eve in a high stakes conversation, which ultimately changed the direction of human destiny.

I’ll explain this statement in a second.

For now, understand this: For most website owners and marketing newbies, the first SEO encounter starts off with a bad experience. They get lured into believing the various ‘link building’ scams out there, and mistakenly place their trust in the empty lies promising ‘get fast rankings’ touted by the so-called ‘SEO experts’. Stop! You don’t have to tolerate their drivel anymore. Once you know the truth, the truth will set you free! What I mean is simple: test-drive the reputation of an expert, before paying for their service. Here’s what you need to do: Engage those SEO teams with an extensive proven track record in helping businesses like yours generate consistent traffic and rankings via ethical link building. Ask them to perform an SEO audit for your real estate website, and share the findings with you. If you like what you see, and your gut instinct tells you that this team is the perfect fit, then ask about pricing.  Try to negotiate a smaller contract in the beginning. Maybe $1,000 or $1,500 would be enough to ensure you get a feel for their service, and see results before fully embracing their proposed strategy. I call this the ACM Method, also known as Authentic Conversational Marketing, a trust-building approach that does not pressure you into buying anything when you search for an SEO partner for your real estate business. Some important points to consider: Genuine link building starts with a ‘white-hat’ link building pro performing competitive SEO intelligence, and keyword research. Most teams are aware of this, but do not apply it correctly. Therefore, you should always double check their actual website rankings and client testimonials. Back in Heaven, everything was strategically mapped out in advance, and “link-bait” was fundamental. The fallen angel, Satan, didn’t approach our ancestors directly. He used a serpent as his furtive ally to execute his cunning plan.  The goal was to captivate Eve’s attention, while she was away from Adam  bewitching her and engaging her imagination (the right brain), inspiring her curiosity about the forbidden fruit. It all started with an ‘innocent’ question: ‘God said, you shall not eat from every tree of the garden?’  A strange, insidious counter idea was rapidly planted in her mind… with a single goal: To question God’s authority, and to ignore the only demand he made of man. ‘And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God said, you shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest ye die.’ Eve’s faith in God was battled-tested, for the first time. At least, that’s what the narrative tells us. Eve’s guard is down when confronted with this surreptitious proposal, therefore, she is swiftly mired in the swamp of lies. ‘And the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die. For God knows that the day you eat, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.’ Again, Satan starts to construct his arguments on the earlier, completely false premise. This reminds me of when these 'SEO experts' claim top rankings for lower than industry standard fees. Consequently, many succumb to the offer, since it seems like such an irresistible bargain. Today, Satan still claims that God is unfair, and wants to prevent humans from accessing “God-like” status and achievement. Some SEO ‘experts’ construct a similar lie when leading you to believe that you can get a certain amount of links in a specific amount of days for a minimal investment. Long story short, Eve got sidetracked, and was influenced to trust in the ‘father of all lies’ instead of the Creator himself. She was systematically indoctrinated… to look at the fruit in a “new,” distorted way, ultimately touching and consuming it. 'And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit, and did eat, and gave it to her husband with her; and he did eat.’ Both fell into the trap, designating the entire human race to either eternal life or eternal damnation. Oops.

How is this universal mega event applicable in today’s SEO and link building shaddy industry?

First, you have to understand this: SEO and link building is a skill that can be learned. Just like communication. Once you master it, you can mesmerize your audience and lure them to your real estate website, turning them into raving clients and referrals, just like Netflix is doing with their consumers. Your content has one goal: to produce loyal clients and referrals. Otherwise, your precious time, money and energy spent on content marketing are all in vain. I’d say link building it’s more of a soft skill than a hard skill since it requires more creativity and imagination than technical SEO know-how per se.  In my experience, there are two types of real estate companies. One company, let’s call it A, creates its own exceptional content and then waits for links to come in. The second company, let’s call it B, publishes fabulous content, provided by or featuring third party sources, and is proactive in link building. Company A makes two major mistakes: #1 - Creating Its Own Content  This method presents significant drawbacks. First, you have to invest a considerable amount of time on these 5 common, yet time-consuming, and energy-draining tasks: Research Writing Editing Rewriting Proofreading It can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 10 hours to produce a single article or blog post, depending on the content length and research. Plus, let’s consider the time required for proper graphics creation and content uploading. This may take up to 60 minutes per post. You may need multiple posts per week to generate enough demand. It is imperative that this content is highly-engaging to transform prospects into clients, right? If you’ve systematized your business in such a way as to involve your team or allow VAs to handle content research, creation, and publishing, then it’s a significant improvement to your approach. You’re left with more time to handle other priorities and challenges within your company, while an SEO expert team takes care of ‘content marketing’ via the Authentic Conversational Marketing approach I have mentioned earlier. Still, other real estate companies take advantage of a different approach, which is more sustainable and profitable, and important for you to use in your business as well. #2 - Build it, and they’ll come Sitting back and waiting to receive back-links and brand mentions from industry leaders, as well as targeted bloggers and social media pros who have access to your desired audience, is not going to drive much traffic or attention to your real estate website and content. It is essential for you to be proactive and highly-strategic in your approach, or not much will happen. Company B does two things right: #1 - It publishes content created in-house, in combination with expert interviews, and crowdsourced articles (by non-competitive, third party, ‘authority’ sources) Example: 25 Real Estate Agents Share Their Best Tips & Advice For First-Time Home Buyers The result…? Here’s the number of shares and backlinks (captured via Ahrefs)

Here’s another one 44 Realtors Tips On Selling And Buying A Home At The Same Time

This strategy, if performed right, creates a ‘wildfire’ brand exposure effect for your content, substantially increasing the number of likes, shares, comments, and more importantly, back-links to this type of content. In time, this combined effort produces consistent organic visitors, and higher web page rankings.

Who said link building for free targeted traffic was a zero cost technique and a working scheme to produce fast results?

However, what I’ve shared above is only the tip of the iceberg. Let me explain what I mean. For example, you shouldn’t publish expert roundups just to get backlinks. Think beyond this selfish vision. You’re creating this popular form of content primarily with your audience in mind, and secondly, to help build trust with the experts, for future beneficial relationships, and mutual growth. You’ll be rewarded with rankings and visitors as an afterthought. Does this make sense? I’d say, publishing expert content gives you more time and freedom to focus on your business instead of spending countless frustrating hours trying to figure out how to make your content go ‘viral.’ #2 - It promotes the content on a vast scale Crowd sourced blog posts created by real estate bloggers and agencies make one major mistake. They think that once their expert roundup goes live, traffic will melt their website servers. In most cases, the majority of these link building campaigns fall short, and is prevented from taking off due to two main reasons: The initial intention of the website owner or SEO team was to get traffic, shares and links, instead of considering their audience and producing insightful content set to spread rapidly due to its fascinating nature. That’s why some deceitful experts are featured in ‘experts roundups.’ Their responses are mainly based on theory and guessing rather than on hands-on experience.  This is also the reason why poorly conceived questions are asked ad nauseum. Finally, this is why these blog posts aren’t usually optimized for SEO and ranking purposes. There’s no active outreach involved once a post goes live. In this case, some outreach is done, but it is executed incorrectly. This means that the focus is on obtaining a share or backlink request, instead of providing value for the experts involved. One expert roundup created with 50 business coaches received a 35% backlink placement response, which is unheard of in the industry. They’ve managed to provide enough value during the entire process, so that a significant number of experts have linked to the final blog post from their websites.

Authentic Conversational Marketing Strategy, that is covered here, is something you may want to implement in your link building campaign. If you do it right, it works without fail! If you’re interested in finding out more about a custom SEO link building strategy for quality link building results, then don’t hesitate to get in touch with FlyingVGroup, and request a free website SEO audit. You may see surprising results within 12 months when your traffic and rankings are propelled through the roof! Thank you so much for reading A $5,000 Link Building Strategy: How Real Estate Companies and Realtors Should Generate More Clients and Referrals. We really appreciate it! If you have any questions about our article, or can suggest any other topics you think we should explore, feel free to let us know. Be sure to sign-up for our newsletter to receive monthly emails on all of the latest trends and happenings in the digital marketing space. You will also receive our FREE E-Book with the Amazing Marketing Tools for Powerful Business Growth. Sign-up below! Also, if you received some value out of this article, please share with your friends or colleagues, or leave a comment/question below. We really appreciate you reading our blog and every share/comment means the world to us and allows us to continue producing valuable tools to help you grow your business! Share this PostAbout the Author

Robb Fahrion Facebook Twitter Google+Robb Fahrion is the Co-Founder and a Partner of Flying V Group. He is passionate about helping businesses grow using the power of the internet. Robb graduated from Chapman University in Orange, CA and currently resides in Costa Mesa, CA. Robb enjoys writing about digital marketing, helping his clients turn their dreams into reality, and is a HUGE Mike Trout fan. The Best Strategy to Increase Traffic and Leads to Your Real Estate Website without Any Referrals, Facebook or Paid AdsNovember 25, 2019What NEVER to Publish on a Real Estate Company Site or BlogNovember 19, 2019Real Estate SEO Tools Exposed: SEMrush vs Ahrefs vs MozPro Review (2019)November 11, 2019

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[comicteaparty]

November 16th, 2017 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on November 16th, 2017, from 5PM - 7PM PST.  The chat focused on Ovum by Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”).

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

Good day everyone~! This week’s Comic Tea Party is now officially beginning. Today we are discussing Ovum by Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”)~! (https://tapas.io/series/Ovum) For those new to CTP, discussions about the comic are freeform, so please feel free to bring up whatever you wish. However, every 30 minutes I will be dropping in a discussion question to help those who would like a prompt. These questions are totally OPTIONAL to answer so pay them no mind if you wish~! Remember, constructive criticism is allowed, but the primary focus here is to have fun and appreciate the amazing comics that the community makes~! Each chat a top comment will be picked and featured on an ad for this chat, so let’s have a great discussion~!

With that said, let us begin with this first question~!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

snuffysam

The first scene. It really sets up the dark/mysterious tone of the story.

RebelVampire

yes i do like how quickly the comic jumps into its tone. especially the closeup of nancy's shaking hands. i think that speaks volumes for her nervousness and the dread that were supposed to feel going through the story

Superjustin of Time and Space

Hello there~

Hope you guys all enjoy the CTP

RebelVampire

greetings~!

Superjustin of Time and Space

Just thought I'd pop in~

snuffysam

hi

Fluffybirb

hello, I'm Vanja Bajohr, one of the people doing the comic

snuffysam

Hi!

Fluffybirb

I'll just sit in the corner and answer questions

Superjustin of Time and Space

What inspired you to go for the creepy aesthetics?

RebelVampire

hey @Fluffybirb thanks for coming

Fluffybirb

well, I don't wanna spoil anything because some people complained about the hint dropping, but the story is basically a lovecraftian story

Superjustin of Time and Space

Ooh~

snuffysam

yeah i really like the "otherworldly horror" aspect to it

Superjustin of Time and Space

Those are always fun

RebelVampire

yeah the lovercraftian influences i think come in pretty loud and clear. i think it nailed the specific tone.

Superjustin of Time and Space

especially when you've seen so many and you knows what creeps you out, so you make a whole world based on the things you fear

Fluffybirb

The Schilderich and me are huge fans of his creepy tone (whilest we see a lot of problems with his racist tropes, so we try to avoid this and be highly aware of it)

Superjustin of Time and Space

Oh XD

Good to know you're fans at least!

Fluffybirb

Well being a fan to us basically means being critical of the source at least

Superjustin of Time and Space

Yea

Fluffybirb

but I'm glad we got the tone right ^__^

RebelVampire

just wanna make a quick note about spoilers, dont feel pressured to answer anything you dont want to. youre welcome to chime in, but youre also free to just let us theorize like crazy and laugh at our strange connections. but in the same thing youre welcome to spoil what you want. creators choice.

Fluffybirb

thanks, I am very curious about your thoughts and I think I will enjoy your theories so I will drop some basic answers I think

snuffysam

I really like the structure of the story so far. Going back and forth between flashbacks and the present day, and the like.

RebelVampire

yes i think the structure does leave you wanting to come back for more and unveils the mystery at a good pace. i think you get and have to wait for answers at the ideal pace for this time of story

in regards to the fave scene question, i really like the scene where Zachariah has to do some shady bribery to get the stuff he needs to go digging. like going in i expected zachariah to be mostly this upright person but then oop, nope, hes willing to go to shady measures to get stuff. was a really nice, unexpected character detail for me.

snuffysam

It was also a bit of levity given how quickly the bribe was accepted

Fluffybirb

this is why I like working with Schilderich, he brings in his own character interpretations. Sometimes my characters tend to be a bit on the idealistic side, so his ideas round them out nicely and add additional layers, because we see the characters through different eyes

Superjustin of Time and Space

That's cool~

It's always great to have someone else working on a story with ya.

RebelVampire

@snuffy yeah i totally agree there was levity in that moment too. i remember laugh crying that there wasnt even an attempt to hide the corruption

i definitely think the story is well-served if thats the case. i like that the idealism gets smudged a bit but not entirely wiped out.

snuffysam

yeah, the balance really works

the characters feel well done, despite there only being two chapters

Fluffybirb

it was always meant to be a short story so there will only be 4 chapters, currently we are working on the third one

so we figured it would be necessary to establish the characters quickly

snuffysam

ah ok

well you did a good job of it!

RebelVampire

yes i agree. i think things have been handled perfectly so far for a short story.

Superjustin of Time and Space

Do you plan to do some kind of sequel/spinoff/continuation, or will it be officially over after four chapters?

Fluffybirb

well, in fact we do plan to do an indie horror game as a loose continuation of the story

Superjustin of Time and Space

A game!?

snuffysam

woah cool!

Fluffybirb

Schilderich is an indie game dev, I used to be one, but these days I am writing novels

but since Schilderich is currently busy with doing the comic and his current game, we only found time to do some rough concepts

Superjustin of Time and Space

ooohhhhh

Fluffybirb

Hopefully we will find time to work on it in the future

Robert Bennet, the man Nancy is writing letters to, will be one of the main protagonists, and also his extended family

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. At the heart of the story lies the ominous statue that seems to have been the cause of much misery. What is the statue? Who do you think made it and for what purpose? Why does it affect people the way it does (or alternatively, is everything just in their heads and it’s just a normal statue)? What exactly did it have to do with events of the past (and what were the events of the past for that matter)?

Fluffybirb

(ooooh I love this question! I am super curious about your theories!)

snuffysam

my thinking is that some ancient civilization created it? or found it? and then were wiped out by whatever the statue does

RebelVampire

i definitely think were dealing with some ancient civilization. although im hard pressed to believe they were necessarily wiped out by the statue. at least in the sense that oop statue was evil. it couldve been a creepy cult suicide thing. like "haha brother lets us stare at the statue and embrace the glorious darkness of the void that is before us."

snuffysam

i don't think they were blown up or eaten or whatever. just... eldritched to death.

RebelVampire

LOL thats an interesting cause of death XD i dont imagine thatll be on the death certificate

albeit this is assuming they were dead when they were wiped out. nancy mentions something about the eyes show the abyss. maybe the civ was somehow sucked into this abyss where they existed in a dark purgatory for a while

snuffysam

true true

Fluffybirb

I kinda wanna make Schilderich draw a silly comic now with a "death by abyss staring" death certificate

RebelVampire

well at least theyd have all the evidence they need. right there in the death certificate XD

maybe what had happened is that someone in the civ somehow accessed the abyss and their mind mentally degraded until they became of pawn for whatever is in the abyss. so they made the statue and slowly the statue corrupted and everyone came to worship some abyssal creature. so essentially the statues purpose is to corrupt and spread the influence of the abyss.

snuffysam

that could also be it

i definitely think we're dealing with an ancient civilization of some sort.

seeing as that's sort of the area of expertise for archaeologists...

RebelVampire

yeah i think we can concur on that that its an ancient civ. and ancient civs can be creepy and it matches up and i dont think the comic is fibbing about that.

although maybe the abyss isnt a physical place but more a mental state. so in a sense everything is in their heads but the statue is actually causing it. like the point of the statue is to degrade a person's mental state until theyre nothing but a shell of their former self and lost in the darkness of their own non functioning mind

(rip nancy if thats the case)

snuffysam

it's possible it's reversible if that's the case

Fluffybirb

well, Nancy is showing some signs of problems I would say

XD (to put it mildly)

snuffysam

yeah she definitely has her issues. it seems she was repressing them in the years since the incident, but this new stuff is making it come back.

RebelVampire

cant blame her though. id repress looking into the eyes of the abyss.

devil's advocate crazy theory: the original evidence Zachariah was actually a forgery and while the statue was legit buried he was purposefully looking for it but needed that evidence to convince ppl to let him dig.

snuffysam

then how did he find out about it?

RebelVampire

his family or the cult hes apart of. the abyss worshipping cult.

which i have no evidence for obviously. just giving an alternative while i hmmm over what other evidence i have

snuffysam

hey, could be true

RebelVampire

although there is that flashback scene that talks about children. the news conference press one. so im really curious what that has to do with anything

Fluffybirb

I have to admit the children come in a bit late as a theme, the third chapter will bring this back

RebelVampire

QUESTION 3. Regardless of what has happened in the past, it seems to have affected Nancy terribly. Between a book that caused her an ill reaction and Robert Bennett’s letter, she’s under immense mental stress. Why did she react the way she did to the returned book? Why is she so deeply affected by the past’s events? Did the events even happen in the way she perceives they did? Will she be okay or will she mentally deteriorate to a dangerous level?

snuffysam

I'm not sure if the book is directly related to the past, or if it's just something that reminded her

RebelVampire

well if we go back to the children theme (cause i segwayed so amazingly), the book had like a fetus on it or something. so it was probably that image that triggered her more than anything.

going back and skimming, the original relief that we see is like children worshipping a mother figure to. so maybe were dealing with the abyss being some motherly figure trying to reabsorb her children

snuffysam

maybe that's just what the eldritch horror "looked" like.

or both

RebelVampire

could be. but i definitely think the book is about the children thing. it could be some children got eldritched and so she cant bare to see children like that or something.

snuffysam

that could be. do we know how many people were there when the event happened?

RebelVampire

nope. the hints we get were there was some sort of grave robbery that nancy and Zachariah were there to witness, Zachariah died possibly from falling into the pit, and she mentions just vaguely "they found the children"

although from the words im not sure whether its implying there was a third party robbing the grave (maybe children even?) or if it was zachariah robbing the grave

snuffysam

i think it's meant to imply zachariah was robbing the grave. i don't think he made it a public thing, so after the incident, the government pretended he didn't have permission

RebelVampire

OH! if that was the case would make sense given were shown the gov is corrupt

Fluffybirb

I had a lot of fun being around but sadly I can't keep my eyes open (it's 3am around here). Thank you for having me and thanks for the talk!

snuffysam

thanks for joining us! and thanks for the comic!

RebelVampire

no prob! thank you for coming~! hopefully should have the archive done not too long after the chat concludes

Fluffybirb

I will definately recommend your talks and read up on the rest of the conversation bye!

RebelVampire

bye and sleep well~!

i do feel like its likely zach was robbing the grave. like it makes the most sense and its why he fell into the pit and it killed him. cause when he found the statue he some sort of void into the abyss in the ground or something. so i assume he fell into that.

snuffysam

maybe they dug a ditch to get the artifact out- and while zach was found dead in the pit, he died before falling in

like, he stared into the abyss and it killed him, and then he fell over

RebelVampire

yeah that could very well be.

although i wonder if he did it on purpose. cause he was shown towards the end of chapter 3 to be pretty willing to go far for his discovery. at least he seemed pretty "aha" to nancy saying that it was probably occult in nature

and to a degree he seems to be mentally degrading in the flashbacks, just not in the same way as nancy

cause his obsession is taking over

snuffysam

there's a chapter 3? it doesn't seem to be up on tapas yet...

RebelVampire

i meant chapter 2

oops XD

had three on the brain i guess

snuffysam

alright phew

yeah i can see that. not sure if it's an affect of the artifact or if he's just like that normally though

RebelVampire

yeah it is hard to say

hmm i wonder if theres a hint in the fact the third title is going to be called "dead less"

cause i feel this lends credibility to the idea that the abyss is less dying, more just going there. albeit im gonna assume its the soul going there but the soul is aware of everything

snuffysam

ooh yeah maybe!

Superjustin of Time and Space

If that becomes the Chapter 3 title I'll be amused

snuffysam

it was already revealed. non mortis (deadless).

RebelVampire

https://tapas.io/episode/469792

yes and it has a lovely creature on the cover too

very lovely

although i wonder if thats one of the children nancy is referring too

what if it was a child from the ancient civ that has been mutated by the abyss

snuffysam

that would be interesting

RebelVampire

which i could understand her mental state then. especially if she assumes its still out there

lurking

waiting

so she too can join the abyss

snuffysam

does the abyss have a goal? or is it just some incomprehensible evil entity?

RebelVampire

i assume incomprehensible albeit evil is debateable. cause thats applying human morality to something we cant begin to understand

snuffysam

true true

RebelVampire

QUESTION 4. All of Nancy’s anxiety in the comic is triggered by Robert Bennett who is writing Nancy to inquire about Zachariah Eliot and the events of the past. What exactly is Robert’s aim in writing her? Is it merely curiosity or is something else sinister at work? What do you think will happen if/when Robert finds out the entire truth?

snuffysam

i think he's going to try and destroy the artifact and/or entity

don't know if he'll succeed, but i think that's his goal

RebelVampire

that could be. i never considered that. tbh, up until it was mentioned that hed be in a game, i was leaning more towards him being kind of evil. like he wanted the statue for his own selfish ends. mostly cause him writing out of the blue seems suspicious. but its possible he is a good guy. just wondering why he waited so long to deal with this

snuffysam

maybe he just recently found out. or he's an evil entity killer and he just hasn't gotten to this one yet.

RebelVampire

was like "the abyss eldritch? well maybe i can fit it in on tuesday....ten years from now."

snuffysam

yup exactly. he might also just be really young. he's been interested in a while, but ten-year-olds don't go around killing eldritch horrors

RebelVampire

yeah albeit i think it mentioned he was zachariah's friend or something. although maybe something of zach's recently came to his attention

like he mysteriously received zach's journal in the mail or something

snuffysam

yeah that was the impression i got

but then the question is, who told him about zachariah?

RebelVampire

good question. maybe thats what the game is about that was mentioned. we learn theres a twofold mystery going on

snuffysam

perhaps his goal has nothing to do with the statue? just figuring out who sent him this info?

Superjustin of Time and Space

Late response but aah okay

RebelVampire

yeah that could be, if we go to that assumption that someone sent him info to prompt him to contact nancy. although i feel like he is after the statue. wait do we know what happened to the statue?

snuffysam

i don't think so. i think the police just left it in the hole?

RebelVampire

what if instead it got sold and robert happened to be the collector who bought it. but he never really looked at it until one day he was like "oh when did i get this." and then he was like "oh no the abyss" so he decided he needed to learn everything he could cause oh no the abyss

snuffysam

lol that could be it.

maybe he's a weird eccentric who's trying to track the statue down just to collect it. not for anything evil. he just likes really creepy things in his house.

RebelVampire

that could be. he must have quite the house then. i feel either way the statue is destined to wind up in his hands. whether that was his goal or not.

snuffysam

or worse, all this investigation is going to lead Nancy to get the statue

RebelVampire

gonna be honest i think nancy is doomed. i assume shes either 1) going to wind up in a mental hospital cause she cant come to terms with the past 2) stare into the statue and go bye-bye or 3) more specifically go to the pit where zach died and also go bye-bye

snuffysam

it could have a happy ending! but yeah probably

RebelVampire

true. i mean i dont think nancy will ever be happy, but she may at least accept what happened and not get triggered by seeing a book.

snuffysam

yeah i don't think the trauma she experienced is exactly curable

RebelVampire

although i wonder who it was that returned the book. cause maybe they returned that book on purpose to dredge up troubles for nancy

snuffysam

if that was just a book with a fetus on the cover, it may have just been an innocuous return? like, it was a book on pregnancy or something

RebelVampire

yeah that could be. hard to say. but it could definite be a moment thats just meant to set the mood

RebelVampire

Unfortunately, the scheduled Comic Tea Party is now complete~! Thank you everyone so much for joining this week’s chat~! That being said, if you would like to continue discussing the comic, we encourage you to do so~! We want to give a big thank you to Fervorcraft (“The Schilderich” and “Vanja Bajohr”), as well, for volunteering Ovum for our reading queue. If you liked the comic, please be sure to support Fervorcraft’s efforts. If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about CTP, please feel free to PM me, or e-mail me at RebelVampire@startfaire.com.

With that said, there will be no Comic Tea Party next week. We’re going to be having a little break for Thanksgiving~! So, enjoy the time off, and we’ll see you the week after on November 30th. If you’d like to get a head start on the next comic, though, November 30th’s Comic Tea Party will be focusing on Heirs of the Veil by Seaquential Arts. I will post a reminder next week as well, so don’t worry if you’d rather just take the week to enjoy the holiday season~! Until then~! Comic: https://tapas.io/series/Heirs-of-the-Veil