#my plan is to make some comics about these things where they are originally sucked into a portal or something

[tanoraqui]

Dungeon Meshi Liveblog: In Which Chilchuck Begrudgingly Has Feelings for his Coworkers, and Kabru Has...Something. He Sure Has Something Going On Over There.

Before we continue, I feel I should clarify 2 things:

I've been trying, ish, to avoid spoilers for this comic, but I've watched through the Golden Country episode and more importantly I'm so bad at not reading spoiler-y but interesting- and insightful-looking analysis. So, much of this commentary isn't wholly original and any particularly genius theories of future events are likely made with actual foreknowledge.

When I said on the first post that I was starting the comic because "I need to know what happens", what I specifically meant was "I need to know how the Laios-Kabru dynamic ends up, and the general geopolitical situation, so I can accurately daydream what sort of tariffs they'll set in the kingdom of which Laios is definitely not going to be the one managing the political, economic, or social minutia." Tariffs are going to be important, okay. They're a key way a nation-state interacts with other nation-states, especially one with rare materials to trade, powerful neighbors who want them, and the natural barrier of an ocean. Truly, every fantasy series ever should be required to have an epilogue or many an additional book/season/etc of a The West Wing-style depiction of day-to-day governance of whatever resulted from the story's climactic finale.

Okay, back to the liveblog.

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Inch resting. The manga characters, having met the Mad Mage, keep using she/her pronouns for them, where in the anime they used he/him. I assume one of these is just, like, wrong - some translation choice was made before truth was revealed later in the course of publication?

But it makes SENSE that the characters wouldn't necessarily know, at this point! The Mage's appearance is pretty gender-neutral, especially as an elf, an notably gender-ambiguous race. So the characters in the manga picked one guess and stuck with it, and the characters is the very slightly alternate timeline of the anime picked another and stuck with that!

Now: having used they/them throughout this musing and previously he/him because a) the show and b) that's what I saw in fandom, I think I'll switch to referring to the Mage with she/her pronouns now. Because A) that's how the thing I'm reading apparently will be doing it, and B) they still call her "Lord of the Dungeon", which is obviously the greatest gender option of all.

...however, the manga does keep saying "lunatic magician" rather than "Mad Mage" (caps mine), which is a TOTAL failing in drama. Always alliterate, preferably archaically.

.

Orc woman: Ugh, this halffoot sucks. I'll tolerate his company only as a favor to the vegetable guy.

Orc woman after listening to Chilchuck complain about his coworkers for an hour: Nvm, this halffoot is a worthy and loyal friend of the vegetable seller, and I guess those other guys too. He's just emotionally constipated about it.

.

Laios just has these soft little fond smiles sometimes and I? want to hug him?

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MY MAN IS BACK!! Kabru wink count: 1 this chapter, 4 total [updated as I read]

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Corpse Retriever: If you don't report us for trying to get you guys killed so we could collect a retrieval fee, we'll let you kill those two of our guys who are already unconscious and collect that fee yourselves. We'll just take 30% of it, for not telling on you.

Kabru, internally: Hm. Well, I'm not king of this dungeon yet, but nonetheless I feel comfortable passing and executing a just judgement upon you for your many known, presumed and planned crimes. Emphasis on 'executing.'

Kabru aloud: I accept!

Kabru: [starts killing them with a classic faint, wide-eyed smile]

What a guy. He's even holding that knife so well. Look, next he's analyzing social trends and acting ruthlessly to adjust them toward the direction of the greater good!

What a guy. Truly this is a "so my type that it's embarrassing" situation.

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I can't efficiently crop panels to show all this, but favorite parallels in these chapters full of parallels:

Kabru's breakdown of the Touden party is like Laios eagerly explaining and analyzing the behavior and anatomy of monsters (including, though we don't know it yet, calculations for killing them - though we DO see him saying that humans are easy to kill because he knows all the physical weak points!)

The references throughout these two chapters, by Kabru and his party, to the interconnected socioeconomic dynamics of the island and dungeon - the corrupted system fails to check corpse retrievers, the Island Lord as an annoying but necessary bulwark against the Elves, the dungeon growing hungrier as fewer adventurers go down because there's less money and more risk - are so so so like Senshi and Laiois discussing the dungeon biome's ecosystem and food pyramid.

The whole vibe of the party re: their respective weirdo tallman leaders. We watched Team Laios develop this, recently crowned with Chilchuck's near-tearful argument to turn back for a rest, which means we can recognize it when we're dropped into it with Team Kabru: that "this guy is SUCH a goddamn weirdo, but I already followed him into some level of hell, so I'm obviously not turning back now." Kabru's party does think he's weird - "You remember so much about other people that it's creepy." "Why are you enjoying this?" But they're also pitching in on the speculation like Team Touden all hel cook monsters. Compare:

Also!! Something something predisposed beliefs and presumptions of others... This party is so eager to assume the worst of our party, even though our party objectively saved them from perma-death twice, once from ghosts and once from being eaten by fishmen. Chichuck is greedy and bossy, Senshi smells so...notably...that he's judged to be sketchy af... Kabru is trying his best with what info he has, he knows it's not enough to pass a judgement and he wants more, but it's very...uncomfortable? To see this sort of discussion of people we know are great, when we're so used to watching monsters be killed with exquisite understanding and respect.

...I'll chew on that angle of theme more later. Man, you know how, say, what makes the musical Hamilton so good is at its heart it's just like 5-10 leitmotifs that interweave to create every single song? Dungeon Meshi is like that. Hmm a Dungeon Meshical...

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"Yeah, yeah, we've all heard your weekly lecture about how someone responsible and sociopolitically conscious needs to take the dungeon and the throne or everyone in this region is doomed. None of us can wait to see you flip off the Island Lord to his face. Eat your rations, buddy."

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JUST THE CUTEST, INNOCENTEST, POLITEST, HELPFULEST (WITH NO ULTERIOR MOTIVATIONS WHATSOEVER) YOUNG MAN!! LOOK AT HIS BIG BLUE EYES AND EAGER LITTLE SMILE!

[3 seconds earlier:

I'm obsessed. In the spirit of this comic: I want to eat him with a spoon. I want to take small divots out of him and lick each one carefully off the spoon, luxuriously exploring and enjoying the complex texture and flavor. Like he's a really good pudding. And then I want to see if, if he and Laios kiss, do they both explode in antimatter.

[simplyender]

You previously mentioned that Johnathon probably had a less than ideal childhood. If you are still in the mood for headcanons, would you mind sharing your thoughts on his upbringing/childhood/adolscence? The good, the bad, whatever comes to your mind. Thank you! (I wonder if he was still roommates with Quentin Beck in the movieverse)

Thank you so much for asking!!!! Sorry about taking so long to respond, work has been exhausting for me, and I really want to give my best answer, hence why I stew over asks quite a bit, lol

ANYWAY,

• Apparently, The Spot from the comics is originally from Spokane. Yeah, I'll incorporate that one in to my personal beliefs.

• He reads to me as having come from an upper-middle-ish class family.

• Only child, but his parents were frequently busy with their jobs, and when they were around, they didn't exactly have or bother to make the time for him.

• Pretty judgemental parents in general.

• Despite that, he still spent a fair amount of time trying to prove himself worthy of their attention, a difficult task with...Mixed results, mostly leaning towards failure.

• One of my friends was once like "There was definitely a time where he wanted to show them something he made and got snapped at for bothering them.", and yeah I totally agree with that.

• Over time he became more reclusive, spent more time in his room than anywhere else. He preferred reading, learning to code, and working on his own little projects over socializing, something he wasn't all too skilled at. It wasn't like there was much to socialize with at home, anyways, considering he would either be ignored or treated like a nuisance a solid 90% of the time.

• This was a double edged sword, though, since he'd also been yelled at for "being in his room all the time" a few times.

• Was used as a scapegoat quite often.

• After a certain point he moved on to trying to get his validation through other means. High grades, impressive science projects, plans to become a scientist and making the biggest damn breakthrough ever seen, do something that will change the world forever. Because then nobody could ignore him or treat him like he's less if he managed that.

• But obviously they're not the worst in his mind because they helped pay for college, so,,,,,,

edit: actually thought about this some more and he probably got a scholarship. oops lol idk high academics.

• Saw the 1933 Invisible man at a young age and absolutely loved it, he spent a short period of time trying to figure out how to make himself invisible, and kind of wished that dr. Jack Griffin was his real dad and that also maybe he'd kill his parents, healthy and not worrying thoughts from a probably 8 year old. It's been around 25+ years since then, but he'd still get seriously embarrassed if somebody brought up his old attempts.

• Had a massive growth spurt in his early teenage years, which automatically put a target on his back for even more bullying.

• Started experimenting with his fashion and putting some more work in to his appearance close to the end of high school. Still sucked at keeping up with haircuts and remembering to shave, though.

• Was probably at his peak in college, honestly. Nicest place he's been in. Least bullying he's experienced. He even made a friend or two!

• IMO he was totally roommates with Quentin in this universe too, they were on different tracks, but all in all, they got along pretty well! John was happy to help him with with whatever he was working on, although, John mostly kept his personal stuff to himself (still appreciated the extra hand with carrying things...), or at least tried to. Whether he was listened to or not is another matter entirely. When they collaborated, they were a real dream team. Unfortunately, they kinda fell out of contact after college, so it was a pretty big surprise to John when Mysterio got caught and it was released that his old college roommate had become a supervillain.

....Which only further entrench him in the "I'm meant to be Spider-Man's nemesis" mindset, by the way.

[dowhatteverer]

This was originally going to be a really angry post where I talked about bad faith criticisms of htfasj and vagued about the veiled entitlement of people who mock my story and went in-depth into debunking some criticisms of me that made me particularly upset with their contradiction and horrible implications. Then I wrote this last part and I realized that it was much more important than getting back at people who upset me. So I decided to delete all that and focus on this.

If you're in the Genloss fandom, particularly in relation to TSE, you've probably heard about or read "How to Fail at Ship Jumping" and seen the fandom's aftermath.

I've heard that some people have changed their headcanons to not align with mine and some are afraid to make their own AUs because of what happened with htfasj, and that really sucks.

Honestly, I think that htfasj showed that his fandom has underlying issues and my story is being made an example out of. People feel that Ranboo is too talked about and are frustrated that the side characters don't get more love. People are sick of every other fanfiction just being an escape AU instead of something unique. While at the same time showing that a portion of this fandom thinks they're superior for not liking popular things (the irony of them following streamers with thousands of fans across the globe apparently lost on them) As angry as I am that fast is being made into bloodsports for kids who feel they are entitled to my time and attention, (and make no mistake, that is exactly what my vocal critics are mad about) it's not exactly going against the grain where it matters. It's probably controversial as it is because it's so inoffensive.

I'm planning on soft-quitting Tumblr. After breaking my phone and not being able to check the app for two weeks I realized that I was in a healthier headspace without it. I'm not deleting my accounts because my comic still has people who love it and I don't want people to lose it. But I don't enjoy being in the Genloss fandom anymore because now I constantly fear that there are people who hate me for just having fun or people who like me who are being excluded from parts of the fandom because of my controversy.

So before I leave, I want to say something.

If How to Fail at Ship Jumping frustrates you, make your own version of it that you like better. Or make a completely unique AU that holds all of the things that you love! I don't want the comic that I made because Ranboo's story inspired me to be the "arbiter of Genloss fandom's destruction" I want it to inspire people the way it inspired me to finally get started on my own webcomic.

Be it out of spite or out of love, I want htfasj to make you make something for this fandom that you love and that other people love. I want you to do something fun and unique that makes you happy and scream with joy! I want you to have a subsection of the Genloss fanbase obsessing over your versions of the characters and asking you a million little questions in your ask box and on Discord! I made htfasj because I wanted to do something fun for myself that others could participate in. I don't want to ruin other people's opportunity to do that.

I'll hop back in to squeal about The Founder's Cut next Saturday, but that's probably the most Genloss stuff you'll get from me for a while. I just hope that this fandom will be in a better state by then and we can all have fun talking about this horror series and making it our own with our fan fiction and fan art and AUs like we should have been.

Also publicly hating on other people's fanfictions and Fan art for the sake of complaining instead of trying to help the creator improve is considered bad fandom etiquette, even popular ones. I don't care if you don't @ me, you're still the one being rude.

[puffpawstries]

Hanichi questions for you!

- Are they dating/how did they start dating?

-What's their favorite things about each other?

-What is something they admire/are envious of about each other?

I love these two so much you don't understand

- Are they dating/how did they start dating? so to this question as of now they are dating in the lore! There was a friendship arc at first after their first meeting in a back alley (original I know👍) near the Library that Honno works+lives at! But how they started dating is the funny part cause I did plan to draw a comic of some kind/doodle page for it cause of my friend and I lore of how it happens is real funny (to me and him at least) so I'll give out small context info for now! 1- Honnos, after a bit of being friends with Ichimatsu, gain three new friends that aren't good for her who were making them worse, and Ichimatsu slowly became aware of it, realizing they're making Honno worse and more reclusive, and even pulling away from him and sabotaging their friendship, which he tries to be selfless, which leads to an argument. (P.S Honno is no longer friends with those three) 2- But after the argument, Honno finally cuts ties with the bad friends, cutting those three out of their lives, and goes to find Ichimatsu to apologize and make things right. (with ESP kittys help to find Ichi cause they didn't know where he lived) 3- Ichimatsu hid the fact that he had brothers and is a sextuplet from Honno for months during their friendship (you all should know why he'd do that) and tried to push them away more by denying any closer feelings he had for her. 4- The brothers somehow help push a confession out of these two??? (mostly Osomatsu calling Ichimatsu out on his lies.) Is it quite a way to confess your feelings to each other that leads you to dating??? (Their both losers and crazy.)

-What's their favorite things about each other?

Ichimatsu favorite thing about Honno: Their height (He likes being picked up and dangled like a cat) But seriously, he loves how she shows him a lot of affection/love, because Honno is a very clingy and PDA person. Honno doesn't hide expressing their passion and affection to Ichimatsu, wanting him to know that he is loved. Honno favorite thing about Ichimatsu: In Honno's words, they would say everything. cliché, but her reasoning is that Ichimatsu was the first person in their life to make her feel not alone in a long time and has helped her out a lot. No matter what people may think of Ichimatsu, he is the healthiest person they actually ever had in their life.

3. -What is something they admire/are envious of about each other?

Ichimatsu is envious of Honnos empathy and optimism The ability to see the bright side of things and not fall into themself despite everything being against her, especially given Honnos background and relationship with her parents Ichimatsu is envious of the fact that despite basically having everything handed to him, he turned out to be a piece of shit while Honno (from his perspective!) essentially came out a wiser person Despite their gullibility.

Honno is envious of Ichimatsu's self-awareness, despite Ichimatsu's stupid shit of being gloomy, he is like still a neet and is like 'I'm a piece of shit idgaf.' Their envious of Ichimatsu being able to not care.

Honno also envious of Ichimatsu confidence

tapping my temple when I know the Honno angst and lore (i also suck at explaining so plz thank my friend Kevin ( @chocowhomps ) for helping me here!

[dysfunctional-doodle]

now i WOULD go rest after the whole ypi business HOWEVER. is there any way to convince you to watch it because OH MY GODDDDDDDD THIS IS MY FAVOURITE SERIES EVER!!!!!!!!!!! it’s certainly not the best written tmnt series out there (ESPECIALLY with the romance…. shudders)

HOWEVERRRRRRR there are a lot of awesome things about it i really like….. i think one thing i like the most about this iteration (besides the very obvious obsession about sunset duo) is THE VOICEACTING. in a tmnt voiceacting teirlist i would put almost every rise character in s tier and yet STILL, despite the fact i put donnie in b, 2012 IS MY FAVOURITE VOICE ACTED SERIES. the original ask includes the giant navy battleship line and. yeah. sean astin’s delivery makes it a kajillion times funnier to me. IDK MAN THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT SPLINTER’S VOICE THAT IS SO SATISFYING TO ME. AND THE WAY SHINIGAMI LAUGHS???????????????? HRGHHHHH

also a big fan of the dynamics between the turtles…… the absolute brothers of all time. sobs (again it’s very obvious which duo is my favourite hfhdbsjbsdj)

also this might be a slightlyyyy controversial take but mikey’s adhd is written really really REALLY well in my opinion. like ok donnie said he hasn’t matured since age six and infantilisation is a big problem with neurodivergent people HOWEVER. a big part of mikey’s character is that he doesn’t like being underestimated and wants to prove he is capable but also. as a person with adhd. YEAH I TOO FEEL LIKE THE PERSON IN MY BRAIN IS A SMALL CHILD. the reason i peaked in primary school is because, back then, i was only slightly less mature than my peers. now as i’m in secondary school i realise i am like a TWO YEAR OLD compared to these people. when i was in s1 i would call myself the twelve year old toddler because that was essentially how mature i felt i was. SO THE STRUGGLE IS REAL. maybe there are times he feels slightly stereotypical but hey, everyone has their stereotype moments, right??? (as cliche as it is i feel like everyone has had a “hey, look, squirrel!” moment in their life). yeah i just relate to 2012 mikey on a spiritual level. like every time he’s on screen he does something and i think WOW. that is LITERALLY me (which is why i’m surprised that one poll i have more people think i’m like sonic than mikey?? but i’m not complaining, sonic is super cool)

the 3d animation is cool (the increase in skill is very obvious as you progress further through the series) and the fight scenes are just. MWAH. SO satisfying.

also SOME of the romance is pretty ok! raph and mona lisa are great. also arguably raph and casey (but we’re not ready for that conversation i think).

i have a full disc set of all five seasons that included a list of all the episodes and whenever i finished an episode i REALLYYYY REALLY enjoyed i would highlight the name in pink sharpie… here are all the episodes i marked :3 (i might need to rewatch some of these)

the pulveriser

cockroach terminator

parasitica

the good, the bad, and casey jones

plan 10

a foot too big (i’m actually not too sure about this one right now, might need to rewatch it)

journey to the center of mikey’s mind

revenge of the triceratons (this one is only half highlighted for some reason)

bat in the belfry

tokka vs the world

requiem (sobs. sobs so so hard.)

end times

when worlds collide: part 2 (i think this one is where the giant navy battleship line comes from)

it’s ok if you don’t want to watch it or you’re not able to watch it but if you can and you don’t end up liking it THAT’S OK I TOTALLY GET IT THERE ARE A LOT OF PARTS THAT SUCK

erm anyways that was my strange ramble. sorry for invading your ask box 👍🏼

(oh yeah, the comics are pretty cool too)

(guess who michalina’s favourite character + duo is challenge (impossible))

Ok I will say oddly enough I’ve read the comics for 2012. Weird, but I pirated found them and enjoyed reading them, they were fun.

I have watched a few episodes - I did like the speed demon episode (I love the dynamic of 2012 donnie and Casey mirroring the 90s movies even down the name insulting scene where they are going through the alphabet) and I like parasitica a lot. I have watched others like journey to centre of Mikey’s mind, Buried Secrets, and the usagi episodes, and also the final episodes of the Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (? I cannot remember the name, but the one with the insect guy as the villain who’s name I can’t spell and can’t be bothered to Google lol), that one where Donnie becomes dumb, the vampire ones, but that’s it.

What puts me off is the romance and the (in my opinion) partial butchered character Donnie has due to it. He’s genuinely creepy and it makes watching it uncomfortable and wildly out of character compared to what I’m used to. I’ve never been a fan of romance, and I expect ally despise the whole “main character has a crush on someone else but is so nerdy they don’t know how to approach them” trope. The whole love triangle and the poorly written “love at first sight” which most the romances in the show are just put me off completely. I genuinely have tried other episodes but I cringe every time the Donnie/April romance happens. It’s a shame because when they let Donnie move on from April or not be simping after her I really like his slightly sarcastic, blunt yet sensitive nature.

I’ve heard they kind of throw away the romance at season 3 but it’s having to watch this until then tbh. Maybe one day I will give it a go if people really say it’s worth the suffering of my least favourite trope. You seem to like it a lot so maybe :)

[spaceorphan18]

I just need to get some feeling things off my chest - because it's in my thoughts and I feel like I'm stuck unless I express it - you know?

Anyway, I'm putting it all under a cut because A) It's XMen 97 speculation and might be spoilery? there are no spoilers but I don't want to run anyone else's fun, B) I'll be talking about Beau DeMayo, and C) lord help me, I'm bringing up Rogneto

Okay - I want to talk about this first. I read this last night and it made me throw up in my mouth a little. And my ultimate first reaction was that I was glad he was fired.

Honestly, I've been worried that we're headed on an AoA direction for a while now, and even though I actually am fine with the AoA comics, I just do not want it here. The thing, though, is that AoA was always meant to be undone - so if he had had his way and this was Season 3 out of 5, the idea of that doesn't bother me so much.

Granted (logically) - the fact that he's outright saying this when he's been so cryptic about everything else means that it wasn't ever on the table. Still - the guy is just a hardcore Magneto fan. I wouldn't be surprised if the (one) reason the triangle thing even happened is that he does/did like the idea of Rogneto.

Ultimately, to each their own - ship what you like. But doesn't mean I would enjoy that scenario.

x

Then there's this.

There's another post where he talks about using a Star Trek Next Gen episode for homework. And it's one where they're stuck in a time loop.

And it had me thinking that Rogue will get a chance to go back in time and at least tell Remy how she feels. She'll get some closure. Which is -- good for her, and I want her to not be in pain anymore.

But kinda sucks, because closure is closure, you know? And maybe dead is dead?

x

It's so funny because emotionally - my senses tell me that Gambit's story really is done. And that just makes me so sad to think about. They really did the thing and the door is closed and what next, we all move on and be happy? *sigh*

But then there's the logical part of me that kicks in. The one who has been to dark places with fandoms (and even this one) before. The one who knows that even Jean and Morph have been dead before and have come back. The one who knows that every time a comic book writer ends their tenure on a book there's always something the next writer will inevitably retcon.

There's no way - with all the experiences I've had with these mediums that Gambit stays dead. It's still a comic book world. And dead is dead just doesn't happen.

x

Also, in the while I'm thinking about it category -

Last week ole Beau teased a 'I can feel you' hint. I really think this was referring to when Rogue wakes up from her coma. She was dreaming that she could feel Remy. I'm kind of surprised I haven't seen that speculation though.

x

So, idk - I try not to spend a whole lot of time on Twitter, and this guy is ultimately fired and doesn't control direction on the show. And there's still the comics where everything is actually going pretty well. So. I really should be normal about a cartoon.

OOff.

x

ETA: I forgot I was going to mention the Grant Morrison influence.

If you pick up any trade of Morrison's run, he shares his outline of his original plans for New X-Men, and one of them was that he'd kill off Gambit to further Rogue's story. Now - Marvel was like, nope, Claremont wants to use them, so Morrison was denied. (And thank god, Claremont's XTreme run had some of the best Rogue/Gambit stuff in years.)

But I can't help but think that DeMayo may have been playing a little from that playbook. New X-Men has definitely been an influence on the show - from E is for Extinction to the psychic affair between Scott/Jean/Maddie. It wouldn't put it past me that the original Morrison outline that mentions killing Gambit off wasn't a least a little bit of an influence.

[fractualized]

Honestly the start of this year sucks for me, but this comic was an excellent distraction as usual.

Spoilers for The Man Who Stopped Laughing #4 below, as well as, if you can believe it, mpreg!

Joker's escape from the hospital is aborted when the cops arrive to respond to the bomb threat that was only meant to get him medical care. Whoopsie! He retreats back inside and finds a room to hide in.

Joker's already killed the doctor who helped him, so I’m not gonna lie, I’m a tad concerned about where this is going.

But let's take a brief moment for Jason deciding this cop car will make the ideal distraction.

I really need to read more with Jason.

Anyway, my concerns about the kids soften when Joker is just disturbingly endearing toward them:

The kids, who all have terminal illnesses, are all too young to recognize Joker, or maybe it's more that the adults around them are unlikely to bring him up.

Their reaction to his humor is, uh, mixed.

But he does good shadow puppets!

And then there's a wallbreak moment, where Joker references the different backer stories that we've seen so far (including this issue's).

Except that's not what the kids are reading.

Makes me wonder if this is just getting back to classic Joker breaking the fourth wall, or if the backer stories all come from Joker’s mind...

Anyway, the kids like him enough that they don't snitch when a cop shows up.

And unlike the poor doctor last issue, Joker leaves the kids as safe as he found them, with bonus advice!

I mean, he kills a cop soon after for a disguise, but it's more interesting when Joker isn't, you know, indiscriminately murdering absolutely everyone he comes across, because he's just that cRaZy to think murder’s all jokes, oh ho ho.

Anyway, finally, Joker can escape!

This made me lol

Joker does the "put down your gun or I'll kill the hostages" thing so he can lock everyone in a closet, during which he establishes that he believes he's the original Joker (BUT IS HE, ROSENBERG?).

And calls Jason out for stealing his old moniker. lol But once again, Joker does not kill people he could easily kill.

I'm not going to linger on if Joker actually has a plan for Jason. I'm going to linger on what happens right before Joker escapes. He ducks into the room of an old woman.

And he keeps talking to her like this for a few more panels. You're waiting for some kind of joke. Then the police break in and we see:

She's dead, but there's an unexpected implication that before he escaped, Joker helped her pass on, even giving her the photo of her and her late husband. There's a lot to unpack there!

And then we have the B-story. You know. So far in this run I feel like I get what the B-stories are getting at. This one... less so!

Joker is in a confrontation with Zatanna, another setup where he's trying to woo the female lead and she is just not having it.

This made me laugh because I know how I interpret "rail" for Joker. Heyooooo

I enjoyed the third palindrome here too.

Zatanna is not interested in a family, and puts this spell on Joker.

"No one else will ever have your baby!"

And since this is the wacky story, the magic interprets that as Joker being the only one to have his baby.

Joker finally sees a DC doctor, Doctor Phosphorus, and there's another gag about distinguishing between DC characters when we find that Joker apparently swallowed way too much mud during the fight.

Joker asks for someone to kill the mudbaby. I'm not sure if it's supposed to actually be Clayface or just like Clayface, but again I think the main story meta moment is referring to this.

But then he changes his mind when the mudbaby turns into a little clone of himself, which he then brings back to Zatanna.

(This is giving me flashbacks to a terrifying Stephen Colbert magazine picture.)

And so... yeah, I am not sure how to interpret this one, especially given how Joker even in this story itself is not fond of clones, though we did just see him as kind of kid-neutral in the main story. He's always been narcissistic, though, and that follows through here. Hmmm... Maybe future stories will shed more light on this one for me.

[grandpa-cephalopods]

Well it was a good finalfest this one, I'm glad team grandpas won this time. It's like an echo of the original Past vs Future, lol.

Unprofreshional Splat 3 nagging incoming, but first, I'll link my other stuff for anyone that stumbles on this blog.

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Main Blog: @thegoldendoorknob

Twitter: Petitemask

Deviantart: Chibilightsage

OC Comic: Wishway

Comic Askblog: @wishwaycrew

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First off- unfinished plotlines.

Had plans to elaborate more on Salmonid lore. In this verse, the apocalypse was partially mass natural destruction, and part zombie apocalypse via the Salmonids. Jones was originally a regular salmonid that was tested in a research lab before escaping and starting the whole death-of-humanity thing.

Also, there was a surviving human moonbase where the rich and famous lived. They gradually replaced parts of their bodies with mechanical parts to live longer than usual, but it took an expected toll on their sanity. That's what I was going to connect the Side Order plot to, initially.

T going evil for a bit bc of the aforementioned Jones thing.

I have a very write-as-I-go mentality with ask blogs so I could go to and from these kinds of ideas, but those were some of the core ones.

-

Ok long rant time sorry

So I've ran 2 other ask blogs in the past, and I came to recognize one of the things that can keep me in a fandom for over 7 years like Splatoon is engaging with the game itself. It's one thing to just scroll through the wiki pages 10 times over, but actually playing the games is what gives them so much staying power. Not only does it let me theorize about all the loose ends stated in the plot, but I can consider the fun and technicalities of how the gameplay can tie-in with the plot.

If I didn't play the games, I wouldn't be coming up with ideas like the Respawn March, Ink Eggs, Cuttlefish making zapfish doll batteries on repeat levels, the tentacle amps in Octavio's arena being another Octoweapon, human reanimation, moon colonies...

All of that wouldn't happen if I just read the wiki and called it a day. And that's why it kind of pains me to say Splatoon 3 just.. didn't give me any lasting material to work with. I did like deep cut (especially Frye) but they showed up like.. a whopping 2 times in the actual story, and there's no real lasting impression they make outside of their idol career or supplementary material.

-And that wouldn't be too big of a deal, because the opener of Splatoon 2 ALSO sucked, and gave us table scraps for plot, but I was still able to engage with the story because the new salmon run mode was fun to play, and I still had a little breathing room with the new players before the meta scene REALLY kicked in with X-rank.

I'm not even going to get started with X-rank, or it's little brother S-rank's introduction in 1, but during my time playing I definitely got hit by the hard shift from casual to pro gameplay between these games. Splat 3 was a game that felt like it was made with the purest intention to please pro gamers, but in doing that, it really alienated any casual players from sticking around.

I have a difficult relationship with the shift in meta, because I started with Splat1 back in 2015. Splat1 was extremely defensive, and almost completely dominated by chargers, rollers, and sloshers. You'll never guess what my 3 favorite weapons were in that title I ended up spending.. I think upwards of 5 months figuring out how to play the splat charger, because I ran a Cap'n blog, and Cap'n was a historic bamboozler main. What kind of blog would I be if I didn't at least try to learn grandpa's main? Lol.

So then comes Splat2, and because of all the heckling they were getting over the hyperdefensive gameplay, they decided to shift to a hyperoffensive meta instead. Heaven forbid we got another Moray Towers or triggerfish, so they started to crack down on the level design to make it harder to lock a game down for 3 minutes with one really good charger.

So, my matches got spawncamped by blasters and shooters instead ♡

Because of that, it kind of hurt to come from being a skilled A+ rank charger at the time back into a B- level nobody who sullies their characters. But my friends were still able to play Splat2, and wanted to play splat 2, so it wasn't that hard to deal with.

Splatoon 3, however, no one wanted to play. Within almost 3 months of it's release, my mutuals were already done with it, and if I wanted to engage with it at all, I'd have to play it through solo matches. So I was already running on fumes, and then the main plot involved characters I never played, and plot that only really benefitted human lore. So, this blog's activity continued to stagnate until I couldn't find it in me to let it spiral into my human plot any further.

But it's ok sage, they reassured, because Splat2 plot also sucked, but OE pulled it out of the ashes! Just wait an entire year, and we'll show you how good this dlc is going to be!

Nope! More characters that you don't play and an average story!

I don't have a lot of hope for my relationship with a 4th game, because 2 and 3 gave me a general idea of where they want to go with the series now. I've just fallen too far behind from 2015 sage to 2024 sage that I know that the gameplay is no longer made for players like me. It's made for official tournaments and promotional material, and nintendo is going to make that bank because it's the logical choice. 3 Regulars will probably have it easiest, there.

Realistically, the easiest way for me to return to the series is if they made the map terrain "fun" again, or at least fixed the matchmaking to better pair people with similar skilled rooms (I'll wait those 20 minutes if I can be put in the right room, dammit!). But for now.. I'm sorry to return to the original character hermit shell I lived in, but the lack of community outside of my 4 mutuals isn't strong enough to keep me here when the gameplay can't.

So.. I'm glad Splat3's grand festival ended this on a bang, because I can say nice things about that. It finally gave me a fully positive impression, it just took the end of the game's lifetime to get here. I feel a little bad at the lack of an OE reference outside of Acht, but that more or less confirms to me Tartar is probably pretty dead in canon.

At least BOTH GRANDPAS MADE IT TO THE STANDS! I've had to eat crumbs for years and they reward me with a slice of toast. Maybe 4 could give all of us grandpa fans the balanced breakfast they crave, who knows.

-

So I'll be on hiatus for a bit, y'all can send asks at your leisure and if the fandom bug gets me again, there's a chance I could probably answer 'em in the future if splatoon 4 actually slaps. I just wanted to lay these motivation problems out so there isn't any will-they won't-they confusion that I've gotten from many other abandoned or deleted blogs.

[bee-and-the-slimes]

2024! (owo)/

First of all, Happy New Year. 🎉 *pfooot*

Second of all, thank you for still flooding my inbox with questions, lol, I'm glad I'm still on your mind, despite having slowed down considerably over the last year. I'm trying to pick and choose the best of them to continue and my "I need to park my butt and work on X" list keeps getting bigger, so thank you to those who have been patient. It's hard to keep up when you have so many ideas percolating and have to juggle a job, a house, hobbies (soooo many hobbies), and friends and family. Here's hoping 2024 can keep me going. Trust me, Bee loves your attention.

Thirdly, I know I've not been very big on talking about the Me behind the slimes, but I originally set out to keep Bee and co as a separate entity from what I normally do. Partially because I have a terrible potty mouth and a lot of my other works aren't really set up for a PG-13 rating, so I kind of wanted to keep that separate for a bit.

That being said, my New Year's goal basically boils down to "Read more, Write more, Draw more" -- one I hit the ground running toward this week. It may be more Bee, it may be more of my other comics, but if I'm silent here, maybe you might be interested in some of the other stuff I do? I haven't stopped doing, I just haven't been doing it here.

Maverick Hunter: Special Forces - Do you like Reploids? I like Reploids. Like, way too much to be considered normal.

SYSTEM.Reload is an attempt to adapt 20 years of RPs and lore building around my and my friend's characters after events of the Megaman X video games. It's a sequel of sorts to an earlier comic RIPtheSYSTEM, which was a collaboration between me and a friend that we started in 2003 and let fizzle out in 2007. .Reload started out as an Ask Blog that never went anywhere, and I just shrugged and drew 250+ pages of characters doing things under the guise of a plot. I don't pretend to know what I'm doing, I'm just kind of enjoying the ride. It's a lot more rudimentary than my actual ART because comics take time and I'm an impatient woman who will physically explode if I don't get my ideas on paper.

My biggest goal is hoping to finish out Part 2 this year. I have the majority of Part 3 written and Part 4 laid out, but I promised myself I'd hit a 2022 goal to complete Part 2 and failed that pretty miserably.... mostly because I keep going back to smooth out wrinkles instead of just finishing the thing.

I genuinely try to keep it censored for Tumblr, but Delta has the temper of a gangster with the mouth of a drug problem.

My DeviantArt - BUT WAIT, there's more! If you aren't sick of OCs or Reploids or OC Reploids you might like my page of art dump. It's where the rest of my stuff gets tossed that isn't Slimes. I don't really draw fanart that much, so mostly my work of upcoming comic panels and ideas that I haven't gotten to work in SYSTEM.Reload yet, commission work, short stories, plushies, or just RP related stuff that I felt like drawing out.

And everything is related.

Everything.

Right now I'm obsessed with working on a short story novella about a vampire named Alecscander St. John, who sucks (hurr) at being a vampire. Born in 1842, he left Texas in 1864, watched his uncle hang for a murder he didn't commit, and 'died' in 1876. I plan to be very mean to him as he tries to build a life for himself while his ex-wife holds a grudge and his adopted sire makes his life miserable. :3c Because I'm a writer. I write. And I've read too much Dresden Files to see everyone get a happy, boring existence...

So... yeah. Here goes... It's 2024.

Wish me luck.

[asteria-argo]

Answer the questions and tag five fanfiction authors you know!

tagged by the wonderful wonderful @altschmerzes

1. How many fandoms have you written in?

Written in about 15 but I've only published in two. According to ao3 it's five but that's because of the umbrella fandom of DC comics.

2. How many years have you been writing fanfiction?

Since I was around 6 and I'm now 20 so about,,, 14 years

3. Do you read or write more fanfiction?

I read way more than I write, I read a bare minimum of 3 fics a day and I go through really long periods of not writing anything so I for sure read more than I write

4. What is one way you've improved as a writer?

since I started publishing my fics I've gotten a lot better at actually finishing them, but my grammar and tense has also improved A Lot just from practicing even if it's still not the best out there.

5. What's the weirdest topic you researched for a writing project?

I mean it's not that weird but I get very hyperfixated on small details so I did a lot of researching into the different degrees offered at Yale and Harvard in order to decide what degrees I think would be offered at a fictional Ivy League university when I was writing character bios a little while ago.

Also for To All The Better Places I spent a truly inane amount of time researching grassroots U12 girls football teams for a side character so I could name one in the right area that would suit her needs the best.

6. What's your favourite type of comment to receive on your work?

long ones for sure. I love getting long comments especially on my longer fics where people like,, point out things they liked or quote my work as me. Also love those like,, live slug reaction comments you get sometimes where people go paragraph by paragraph telling you their thoughts as they have them in one long comment,

7. What's the most fringe trope/topic you write about?

I have a lot of ambiguous gender feelings a lot of the time, and I also grew up watching a lot of "boy" oriented media that would only have like,, one or two girl characters at best so from a young age I was fascinated with reading like,, canon divergent "always-a-girl" trope fics and I have written a couple of them myself which I think is a bit of an unpopular trope in wider fandom.

8. What is the hardest type of story for you to write?

angst and whump because I really struggle describing physical sensation and angst usually just ends up with me making myself sad and/or sick in the process of writing it if I don't have a happy ending planned and ready to go

9. What is the easiest type?

found family stories are my bread and butter, slice of life, friends just being friends, those kinds of stories

10. Where do you do your writing? What platform? When?

I usually write at home at my desk, since I study online I've got a pretty perfect set up to spend long hours there. If I'm not at home I'm at the library. I use Notion, because it's free, I have personal beef with Word and google docs sucks. It's not technically a writing platform in the sense I use it in but it works fine as one, it also makes it super easy to organise my files and extra notes of fics, on top of my editing and the drafts.

11. What is something you've been too nervous/intimidated to write, but would love to write one day?

I actually recently overcame my big too nervous to write fic. I am,, an asexual virgin but I also really enjoy reading smut. I've wanted to write some for ages, but on account of not knowing how sex works because I've never had it and also my inability to describe physical sensations I've been weary to give it a go in case it's terrible but I finally wrote some not long ago and published it over on ao3

12. What made you choose your username?

Well Asteria is just my name, and then Argo is a combined DC/Greek Mythology references. Argo comes from the Argonauts of The Golden Fleece myth, but it's also the name of the original supergirls home.

I do not know whose already been tagged or whose already done it so I'm just going to go for it and hope for the best @jamtartandsunshine @kvetchinglyneurotic @jamiesfootball @antitheticaally @its-not-easy-being-green-things

[brw]

Could I get a Hank Pym reading list? Please and thank you.

Hello & of course! I've written a few different reading lists in my time but I'll make an updated one for ease of access & such!

Avenger Origins: Ant-Man & the Wasp – a really good origin interpretation with Stephanie Hans on art.

Age of Ultron #10 – you can read the whole event if you want but to be honest Hank isn't actually in it that much except Wolverine stabs him or whatever. It goes through his childhood & background & marks the beginning of what I imagine was a very ambitious plan by Waid but then Remender happened. Still, a formative comic for Hank & one of my all time single issues of anything ever.

Ant-Man: Season One - another origin of Hank, going towards his growth to being Ant-Man. This isn't technically canon I don't think, but it's super interesting as it very clearly & explicitly intends to depict Hank as a mentally ill man & does so fairly well? Plus Bill Foster is there & I love Bill Foster.

Tales to Astonish #27, #35 - #52 – these are Hank's Tales to Astonish issues, you obviously don't have to read every single one but I really enjoy them, they're super serialised so you can read every issue as a stand-alone which makes it incredibly rereadable for me. Hank does keep appearing in those issues up until #70 so you can keep reading but at that point he's having a lot of team ups and ends up only being in like half the issue.

Fantastic Four #16 - #17 – this is more FF based obviously, but I enjoy it and find it cute as a two-parter. Establishes his relationship with the FF & begins my headcanon that he joined ReedSue once as a third.

Thor: the Mighty Avenger #3 – this is set in the Tales to Astonish days & is quite fun! Hank & Janet & Thor get into some shenanigans & it's good going. Samnee who draws really likes Hank & Jan & it shows a lot in this issue. Hank explicably uses his helmet to control a police officer which he has never done before or since, which I think is a cool application & he should do it again.

Marvel Feature #4 - #11 (I think) – this was an attempt at recreating the Tales to Astonish success but kinda failed, but it's cute & I really like it as a weird obscure story. Hank has a hyperintelligent super dog that Janet got him which was fun. It's chaotic and at one point Janet is a mutant wasp who tries to eat Hank don't worry about it. But it is good.

Now, obviously he has a lot of appearances in Avengers V1 & WCA V2. To be honest I think a lot of stuff evolves over time? So if you want to see the development of his character in Avengers up until he properly departs in #230, just read that continuously. I honestly can't name a lot of issues there where I'd rec for him specifically, because he's sharing space with SO many other characters. He has a little more to do in WCA so here's are some issues, to be honest I can't even remember when he joins but it's fairly soon into the series, his stuff with Ultron starts in #4 - #7 & stuff kinda just happens to Hank including flirting with Tigra until his life falls apart (again) and he attempts suicide in #17. It's an interesting study of him & I think Englehart does it justice. He shows up in that series pretty continuously & starts superheroing again with them & is in almost all of Avengers: West Coast too, so feel free to check that out although don't take what you see of Wanda, Simon & Vision to heart imo.

Marvel Double Feature: Giant-Man or Avengers #379 - #383 – I have never been able to find a scan of this comic online, you might have more luck on the official marvel unlimited app but there is an Ant-Man/Giant-Man: Growing Pains collection comic that brings together a lot of his vital stuff where this series is printed along others. It's honestly insane & I won't lie I got confused at the plot reveal but it's incredibly fun. Hank fucked up a science thing and has to fight big massive bugs and keeps going on these long monologues about how much his life sucks and how much he needs therapy while fighting massive bugs it's so funny. The Kree are there for some reason & Bill Foster is there! A confusing but fun time.

Ant-Man's Big Christmas – a festive comic about Hank & Janet terrorising a young boy's family on Christmas because he sent them a letter. Their dyanmic is so cute here & I like how playful Hank is in it :>

Avengers Academy – Hank is a teacher here looking after a bunch of young up n coming superheroes & I actually really like him in this role. Like he's clearly flawed & doesn't know what he's doing but he also does really resonate with some of those kids. Reptil mentioned him as one of the big heroes in his life so he clearly had an impact. There's a lot of stuff with the kids which is tedious at times if you're not into them but the Hank & Tigra stuff is so sweet.

Avengers: A.I. – this is probably my most formative depiction of Hank in comics. This is the one that establishes his bipolar disorder & is pretty sensitive about how it's depicted? Sam Humphries clearly has a strong vision for this Hank & it's a super refreshing direction IMO. plus he hangs out of Vision & Victor Mancha which is great.

Ant-Man V3 – Al Ewing's 4 issue 60 year anniversary has Hank from Tales to Astonish team up with all subsequent Ant-Men to fight Pymtron, which was fun & cool for the most part!

Don't read anything with Dan Slott or Bendis' names attached IMO, certainly not until you have a super firm understanding of the guy bc these comics he appears in under them are genuinely just so fucking bad.

I'll cap it off here, he appears in other stuff too like Beyond! & Avengers Forever & has a weird arc in Kurt Busiek's Avengers where past Yellowjacket kidnaps Hank but I think Busiek forgot & I can't remember if that ever got resolved? Don't worry about it bascially. But this is some issues I consider formative or otherwise important & major to Hank so I'll keep it here. If you're interested in reading every issue of his ever or something, you can check out the travis-starnes cmro site where he has collected every issue of every character, including Hank's 👍

[noys-boise]

So tell me about beverly

are you sure you're ready for this? are you absolutely sure?

okay so Beverly Switzler otherwise known as my most beloved special girl who i would commit murder for is a character from the 1976 Howard the duck comic series who then appeared alongside I'm pretty sure every iteration of Howard except the mcu unsurprisingly :/ (and maybe some irrelevant side stuff idk). She is narratively integral to the Howard the duck story. This is undebatable, even in the one htd comic where she's not a recurring character she still appears at one point and that's honestly what i see people talk about most when they talk about the 2016 htd run. that's how important she is.

But I should probably start at the beginning. Warning, Howard the duck lore is weird to say the least.

So Bev's first appearance was in the very first issue of Howard's solo comic series (he did appear in Adventure into fear and Giant-sized Man-thing beforehand but that's a story for another day) and she started off strong with being imprisoned by a financial wizard (also known as a cosmic accountant. I'm not making any of this up, he is as over the top as you'd imagine) but Howard found her inside the wizard's tower built out of credit cards of which he was planning to jump off because idk if i mentioned before this duck was very suicidal at this point. Howard doesn't manage to save her though so instead they both get sent to this? alternate universe? i think? where they have to find a gem key or something. And they bond immediately because turns out a human woman and a duck from another world can have a lot more in common than you'd think. I'm not going to elaborate much more on their escape because this post is already going to be way too long but I'll just say they work really well together and Steve Gerber (the writer of htd) saw that and readers saw that and so Beverly stayed in these comics for the rest of the run except for the two times she got written out, more on that later.

She's incredibly tolerant, honestly to a fault like she just let Howard live with him without any conditions forever as if it's nothing, she's generally really positive which contrasts Howard's negativity well and she's just really damn adorable. She also values her agency more than anything which sucks for her because the narrative doesn't treat her very well on that regard, it is strongly implied that her parents tried to shelter her a lot and she's kind of trying to prove her maturity and she refuses to conform to any societal rules. which explains a lot imo.

Now, like i said the narrative doesn't always treat her very well. Largely because this is the 70s and these comics were written by a man (who i have a love-hate parasocial relationship with despite him being very much dead). Wait first i do have to give him one credit on this, even though Bev originally worked as a nude model she was relatively not that sexualized at all. Which good for feminism, bad for my by now very obvious crush on her. Maybe I am kind of guilty too huh. She has been harassed by creeps more than once (she did also defended herself more than once, good for her) she got kidnapped a lot especially early on and i couldn't be writing this without going into the doctor bong arc which does feature some of the most questionable decisions by Gerber. i need to start a new paragraph for this.

So doctor bong (yes that's the name he uses no it's not a drug reference actually i think I've made a post about this once) is considered Howard's arch nemesis. He wears a bell on his head that can paralyze and allegedly even kill people, he makes weird genetically mutated creatures including Fifi the sexy french maid duck who then dies (i don't want to get into it) he has a past in journalism and he just so happens to have had a crush on Beverly since college. And that's a problem because he's very much an incel. He kidnaps Beverly and threatens to kill Howard if she refuses to marry him. So she agrees reluctantly which results in her being out of the story for the majority of the original run and when she does officially return it's after Gerber has left. now the really questionable part is that my beloathed Steve Gerber actually started to imply that Bev might even be enjoying this arranged marriage which not only directly contradicts most of her previous characterization but is also just generally really not believable. I actually don't want to talk about this more right now because it always gets me worked up.

Seriously though as badly as the narrative tends to treat her she's amazing, and without a doubt the second most iconic Howard the duck character after Howard himself. marvel has actually made a few attempts to replace her for some reason but it never worked for them because why would it.

I could go into more detail about her later iterations because contrary to how i tend to act I'm not actually a Gerber purist, I'm kind of neutral on this argument (wait i think i should elaborate on this. a lot of people believe no one can write Howard the duck after Steve Gerber. Which is a statement i only half agree with. I do believe it's never been the same without him, but I do like some of the Howard stuff not written by him. Hell i even enjoy the movie in its way.) but I'm already drawing this post out too much and I'm going on unrelated side rants and i think i should just stop. Oh wait one more thing. She canonically studied theatre. As in original htd run canon. And she did do a play in the 2007 run. I just felt like that should be mentioned because theatre is my religion.

[v-arbellanaris]

Hi! As requested, some (very) random stuff. I am sorry you're having a bad day/week. February can go suck an egg in my humble opinion.

Meta: I was 0 days old when I found out that according to DA lore, there are no dwarven slaves in Tevinter. (because of the importance of the lyrium trade) I was refreshing my memory about Dwarven Ambasadoria and it says so on the wiki but without a source where that comes from. It seems unlikely to me, but ok.

Comic thing (Those who speak) that bothers me mighty: So, in the game, Isabela frees the slaves on the ship she is escorting. Because she agreed to do it without knowing that the cargo were living people. She lets them go. The guy is pissed mighty and that is why she agreed to steal the tome of Koslun in return for him. It's an entire plot! And in the comic... She kills the slaves. What the fuck Bioware.

Character: Varric's necklace has this running joke about Cock-ring necklace Ken. But as much as the makers of the doll didn't have a clue where that fashion came from, maybe Varric too wanted to be flashy! But ended up with a cock ring around his neck?

I was relistening DA2 banter and Varric has a dialogue with Choir boy about Bianca's cocking ring. And I kinda had a thought. What if the necklace is actually a spare part that he kept from the time Bianca made Bianca the crossbow?

Also, dunno why but everyone everywhere claims Varric is ENTP type, but when I sat down and checked it turns out he is very much an ENFP. It matters to me for some weird reason.

Also, Isabela/Varric banter is peak aromantic/asexual humor. I believe that Varric is the embodiment of (insert the no throw! dog meme) No sex! Only sexy!

In the comic (the one where they have a Fade trip) Varric in a dream sequence looks more like a human than a dwarf. (the way he is drawn) until he leaves the "vision" and looks like a dwarf again. Is this like? Intentional? Just a weird drawing thing when someone couldn't exactly figure out proportions?

The new comic (if we are speaking of comics and the way dwarfs are being drawn) has some dwarven ladies. People like the new Varric design. (good for them) I am crying over Dwarven ladies being done dirty.

Dark secret: I am low-key planning to ignore Dragon Age 4. People are hyped. I am like? Annoyed? I have my own canon, whole-ass Inquisition re-write. I don't care.

Also, I never played any dragon age game. I pirated it sure. I managed to create a few characters in a creator but never played further than the opening sequence. My laptop would burn to a crisp. It's really that shitty. I literary watched so many yt walkthroughs and read through the wiki. I often forget that is a weird and not-normal way to enjoy video games.

Another secret: I made a Cadash OC, I had them for so many years. And they are central to the plot of my entire personal Dragon Age Universe. The entire plot of Origins. Appear in DA2 events briefly. Then entire Inquisition. It's an overkill how important I made that character. But it's too late now! I wish I had enough willpower to record it somewhere (drawings, writing) just for the sake of it. Yet I am afraid of how weird it is. Funny, no?

Hope you feel a little bit better sometime soon.

I have no puns. I have a funny video in this trying time I sometimes watch to feel better: https://www.tumblr.com/titkoks/644666319075229696/obsessed-with-the-line-if-i-can-continue-to-be-a?source=share

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWER!!!! february does suck!!! march is not looking that much better atm but here's to hoping....

Meta: I was 0 days old when I found out that according to DA lore, there are no dwarven slaves in Tevinter. (because of the importance of the lyrium trade) I was refreshing my memory about Dwarven Ambasadoria and it says so on the wiki but without a source where that comes from. It seems unlikely to me, but ok.

seriously?! i mean i suppose that makes sense but it also doesn't make sense considering y'know. the casteless? wait. what if they (the dwarves from other castes) wouldn't consider that enslavement of their people... that would be really fucked up but on brand for orzammar social politics huh

Comic thing (Those who speak) that bothers me mighty: So, in the game, Isabela frees the slaves on the ship she is escorting. Because she agreed to do it without knowing that the cargo were living people. She lets them go. The guy is pissed mighty and that is why she agreed to steal the tome of Koslun in return for him. It's an entire plot! And in the comic… She kills the slaves. What the fuck Bioware.

i mean, having isabela - a black woman - be a slaver in the worst place is already an extremely questionable writing decision. i also think it was a shit writing decision but the trail of logic seems to be along the lines of like: isabela gets in debt with the felicisima armada -> gets involved in slave trafficking -> gets cornered by the orlesians in the venefication sea -> slaves were killed (to allow the ship to maneuver since it's implied the ship was slow because the cargo holds were too packed) -> isabela vows never to traffic slaves again -> presumably the next time she's asked to do it anyway, she sets the slaves free? which is still not great. bioware's sliding scale of when slavery is or isnt acceptable is really... hm.

In the comic (the one where they have a Fade trip) Varric in a dream sequence looks more like a human than a dwarf. (the way he is drawn) until he leaves the "vision" and looks like a dwarf again. Is this like? Intentional? Just a weird drawing thing when someone couldn't exactly figure out proportions?

this is making me UNWELL. for so many reasons.

The new comic (if we are speaking of comics and the way dwarfs are being drawn) has some dwarven ladies. People like the new Varric design. (good for them) I am crying over Dwarven ladies being done dirty.

YEAH WHY DO THEY LOOK LIKE THAT??? what did they do to evka and harding?!?!?!

Dark secret: I am low-key planning to ignore Dragon Age 4. People are hyped. I am like? Annoyed? I have my own canon, whole-ass Inquisition re-write. I don't care.

yeah i'm checking it out for the vibes but im still digging around in origins and da2 for content so i hope that tells you where MY mind is at

Also, I never played any dragon age game. I pirated it sure. I managed to create a few characters in a creator but never played further than the opening sequence. My laptop would burn to a crisp. It's really that shitty. I literary watched so many yt walkthroughs and read through the wiki. I often forget that is a weird and not-normal way to enjoy video games.

EXCUSE ME MGDFKGJDKSGJKDFGJ this is SO funny you are the ONLY VALID person in the entire fandom and i love you

[worldismyne]

Hope this doesnt come of sounding the wrong way, but have you ever written/drawn an fully original story/world, and if not, do you ever want to, or are you satisfied with just doing fanfics and fanart for the forseable future?

I do have original projects!

I'm currently working on a visual novel called Villain Reform School.

I haven't talked about it much recently, because I don't know when chapter 1 will be fully completed. We're getting really close, but there's still a lot to do. I work full time outside of this and the team I can afford is a lead programmer and my brother on editing.

(I'm the author, artist, audio director, and secondary programmer on it. So there's a lot of hats I've been cycling through.) Having watched games crash under the wieght of doing that and maintaining a media presense, I decided to focus on making it first and promoting it once it's out.

The first pass at the demo is up on itch.io https://worldismyne.itch.io/mccarthy-academy-demo

Here's some current CGs of the lead character Nagen.

You play as a teen super villain that failed to take over the city and has to go to school with all the kids he brainwashed during his master plan and his old squad.

Fanfiction and fanart is a nice creative break for me. The hardest part of a project like this is I have black and white thinking when it comes to progress on it (either it's done or it's not). Where as fics and art I can post in stages and get instant feedback on.

I have an interest in writing original novels, but finding a literary audience is difficult for someone like me, who sucks at networking and works nights. I am working on an original story atm, but I don't have the first chapter finished yet. Right now it's just a for fun thing. (It's going to be about a witch princess/trainee trying to teach a boy how to be a witch just to prove she can. It ends badly.)

Warrior U Fanmade is a project I'm also working on. It is a fancomic, but I have the creator's permission to distribute anything I make with Warrior U so long as I properly credit her. (She's moved onto different projects) It's a fan continuation of the orginal comic, but I tried to write it in a way that anyone jumping in at this point will have an easy time getting into it.

Changeling acts a stand alone fantasy story about Finn meeting the rich family that disowned his mother for using magic.

I have a collaborator who helped a bunch with the first issue, and our physicial copies are set to be available online next week!

I've been working on this at the same time as other fandom stuff so it updates online weekly. I learned a lot from this issue and have gone from just writing and illustrating to figuring out the storyboard and paneling side of things.

Idk if I'd ever want to do an original comic. My love for complicated character designs demands the VN format.

I have a couple VN ideas, but Villain Reform School is the one I wanted to have the most creative control over. It's also a meaty project. Prologue and Chapter 1 are around 90 k together and there's supposed to be 5 in total. Some of the major mechanics I want haven't been 100% ironed out yet. And I need to get player feedback on certain story elements first before I commit to writing another 180k of a playstyle we might have to rework or cut.

[bluejaysandblackbats]

An Oyster's Pearl

Fandom: DC Comics

Summary: Shortly after moving in with Joseph Wilson, Grant Wilson makes friends with a fellow pledge for a fraternity. During this time, Grant grapples with realizations about his childhood trauma, his sexuality, and his relationships with his father and siblings.

Chapters: 2/?

Characters: Grant Wilson, Joseph Wilson, Rose Wilson, Dick Grayson, Slade Wilson, William Randolph Wintergreen, Original Character(s)

Relationships: Grant Wilson/Original Character, DickJoey

Additional Tags: University AU, No Capes AU, Angst, Deaf Joseph Wilson, Fluff and Angst, Romance, Grant Wilson has a Sexuality Crisis, Frat Boy Grant Wilson

Chapter Two: The Nest

I woke up before Joey and opened a jar of pickles. Joey put my name on the top because I liked to drink the brine from the glass. We tried not to share a lot of food for that reason.

It was his birthday, and I planned on making a big deal out of it for once. I picked out a cake and everything. But Joey is... Well, he's Joey, and he's got a lot of friends. I didn't expect he'd have time for me on his birthday, but I planned for it anyway. After I ate, I dressed and attempted to sneak out of the apartment. Joey tapped the counter, and I turned to look at him. "Leaving?" Joey asked. I nodded. "Where?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll be back in two hours," I replied. Joey screwed up his face, but he didn't say anything else. "Want anything from the store?"

"Ice cream. Doesn't matter what kind," Joey answered. I nodded and went to the store to pick up his cake and gifts. I think I was more excited about his birthday than he was. I wasn't big on celebrating things and I definitely wasn't much for feelings, but I liked birthdays. Birthdays were the one thing Slade couldn't ruin, no matter how hard he tried, because he was never there. This isn't about Slade, though. It's about Joey and me.

When I got to the store, I moved quickly and efficiently. "I thought you'd be hungover," a voice whispered in my ear in the produce section. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I turned around, and the guy from the party stood there, grinning at me. Ken. "Remember me from last night? I kicked your ass in arm wrestling."

"It wasn't that easy if I remember things correctly... And yeah, I do remember you, Ken," I replied.

If it wasn't apparent already by the big ass smile on his face, Ken said, "It's good to see you in the daylight."

"I've been known to come outside during the daytime," I replied sarcastically. Joey said that was why people thought I was an asshole, but it didn't seem to bother Ken. "Are you pledging Tau Psi?"

"Yeah, actually. I was kind of there for the booze, but then I thought if this guy, Grant, is pledging, it can't be that bad," Ken replied, "What brings you here to this fine establishment in the early morning?"

"Getting some groceries and picking up the cake for my brother's birthday," I answered as I went back to looking at individual carrots.

"Sick... Is he the guy with the curly hair that dragged you home last night?" Ken asked.

"Yeah, we're trying this whole living-together-as-adults thing after I left him with our suck ass parents when we were kids. It's been interesting so far. Lots of boundaries and rules," I replied. I realized I had said too much, so I stopped talking. When I turned around, he rocked back and forth, standing on his toes and then leaning back on his heels.

"So, this birthday makes up for it?" Ken asked.

"No... Birthdays are just a big thing—. What's your interest in me, anyway?" I asked. He chuckled and shrugged.

I walked over to the bakery, and he tagged along. I didn't mind it as much as I pretended to. I actually liked the company, even if he was weird. "I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna get you to hang out with me outside this grocery store," Ken replied.

"Give me your number," I replied as I gave him my phone. I hadn't met a guy so desperate to be my friend, but he seemed okay. He put his number in my phone, and I sent him a text. After that, he just left. I picked up the cake and paid for my groceries before grabbing Joey's presents from my P.O. box.

I told Joey all about Ken and how I saw him at the store, and he had a weird look on his face. "What? Does he sound insane or something?"

"No... I feel like you're missing an integral part of this story," Joey replied. He had a shit-eating grin on his face.

I didn't feel like arguing with him, so I tried to ignore it. "Are you having dinner here or going out with your boyfriend?" I asked.

I didn't like the guy. He'd been going out with my brother and didn't have the common decency to introduce himself. "What's your deal with my boyfriend? He's coming here for dinner tonight because I asked him to... So, be nice," Joey requested.

"Fine, but I don't have to like him if I meet him and he turns out to be an asshole," I replied, "And what's with that face?"

"What face?" Joey asked innocently.

"When you said that shit about me missing the plot. That shit you said just a minute ago," I replied.

"He wants you," Joey teased.

"Ken's not gay... Is he?" I asked. Joey messed up my hair and went back to his room. Why the fuck would he say that? Joey could be such an asshole sometimes, but the truth is... Maybe that's the only way he could be around me.

I snuck the cake out of the bag and put it in the freezer while I thought about what he said. I went to my room, unboxed, and wrapped his gifts. That was the one perk to Joey never helping me put the groceries away. Joey never saw his present or the cake. Once I put his first gift in a new box and wrapped it, I took it to his room and flickered his lights to get his attention. He looked up from his sketchbook and smiled. "Is that for me?" Joey asked.

"No! It's just your birthday, and I thought maybe I should treat myself," I replied. I gave him his gift and stood in the doorway with a smile on my face. "Unwrap it. Come on."

Joey smiled and opened his gift. He pulled his quilt out of the box, and his smile faded. "Come on, it's not like it's ugly. You're always complaining about how cold it is—."

"This is beautiful, Grant," Joey replied.

I relaxed. "Good," I whispered to myself. I sucked at giving gifts, but I knew this one meant something to Joey.

"Thank you," Joey smiled softly.

"It was between that and an electric blanket, but the quilt seemed more personal," I explained. Joey got up and hugged me, and while that might've been a heartwarming moment for any family that had a normal upbringing, it made me painfully uncomfortable. I gently pushed him away and went back to my room. He never took offense when I did it, but I hated how shitty it looked. Rose was much better with the emotional stuff than I was, but then again, she didn't have to grow up as we did. Affection was normal for her.

I'm not saying I'm more messed up than they are or that Rose had a better childhood... I'm just saying this is how I'm messed up.

[butnobodycame627]

okay hi howdy I'm brainfogged as hell right now but let's go also I'm not proofreading this I don't care

Hex is one of my oldest OCs I think, or at least one of my oldest that I still use.

The story that he's a part of is completely different from what it was before. When I was younger I was being real ambitious I guess- I wanted this whole big adventure. It actually changed a couple times at least- I remember one where they were encountering a bunch of fantasy creatures and cryptids for some reason and then one where there's like. Different universes and dimensions? And Hex came from a really shitty dimension but Sera could dimension hop and she saved him idk man there was some shit.

Hex wasn't originally the protagonist either, and since he wasn't the POV character it was supposed to be hard to tell what he was thinking he was gonna be all mysterious edgelord. The protagonists were David and another OC I completely cut named Emma. Also there was this weird thing I did where like- unless he took this potion Abel made he'd go Super Violent Mode and just start sucking the blood out of people left and right idk man it was a thing. So in old art I've sometimes got him drinking something light pink, or there'll be pink potion bottles, that's what that is.

Anyway if you don't know anything about his current story I'm just gonna explain him I love him okay. His story now is nothing crazy it's much more grounded there's no big adventure. He's dating his partner, Abel, and moves in with them. He's trying to figure himself out, figure this relationship out, get used to being around people, etc. That's about it. The POV shifts between characters in this one but I often end up focusing on Hex just because I Like Him :))

I haven't explained the other characters at all in this post here's some basics: Abel is a witch and Hex's partner, Sera is a witch and Abel's sister, David is a normal guy that moves in with them and I think I'm gonna project my chronic illness onto him but idk I haven't written him yet lol. Also David has a cat named Cocoa very cute

Here's David being a loser when he moves in

As you can see in this comic Hex has real bad insomnia he does not sleep enough in the day. Also he's drinking a bloodbag yeah! I remember seeing artwork a while back, I can't remember who it was from or much about it at all, but it had someone standing in front of like- a vending machine full of bloodbags? And my brain latched onto that like- okay what if in this universe, because vampires need blood, it's more available than it would be otherwise- like you can just buy them. Hex isn't stealing those to be clear idk if anyone thought that but lol no

Hex is a seamster, that's been mentioned a few times in this art. I can't remember where that concept originated from, I think I was just thinking like "what if he made that awesome hoodie himself" lol. I do kind of remember where the gardening originated from- that potion I mentioned in the old version of the story needed rose petals to make it so I often associated him with roses and that sort of evolved into him having a rose garden and now he just generally likes gardening.

"Why does he think he's a bad person? Why does he think he's a danger to people around him?" Uhhhh don't worry about it it's a secret (<- has not planned out this story much at all and has just been writing it without thinking) OKAY BUT LOOK even if that never gets fleshed out with a reasoning like it's not true anyway and it's something he has to learn and recover from either way. But I do think it's possible he's hurt someone before, yeah, I just don't know who or how lolll

If you haven't read his story and you want to here's what little I have of it I think it's pretty. Neat. Idk lol. Yay

Here's some super old art of Hex I didn't really change his design much over time because I've always liked his design yippee. Idk what's going on with the rain coming out of the umbrella on that first one idk if there was lore there or I was just being artsy??

actually speaking of if anyone wants to hear me ramble about Hex uh I will

I don't feel like screaming into the void but if this post gets a like or if I get an ask then like 👍 I will talk about him as a little treat