#old but these are the most fun to draw because the whole page is usually a collab with my bro and mom

[kiss-dumbbunnies]

2024 / 7 / 20

[sukinapan]

honestly would be pretty interested in hearing about all of them, if thats alright

it's no problem o( ❛ᴗ❛ )o i like talking about this

for context, apart from making personal art i'm also an artist and character designer at Smarto Club, so I don't know if these count as OCs but i have posted art of them here: Haco from >Bubblegum Galaxy and Teacup from >Teacup.

you can check the steam pages on those games for more info if u like. i love all my characters but i don't usually make personal art of these two since i already do it as my job.

my newest Smarto Club character is a bit different since she's more in the style of what i'm doing personally so i want to make more art of her soon. her name is Abigail:

she's a kid who likes reading about bugs and catching them but she never hurts them : ) this is a short game in early development but it's about catching creatures called angels. it's got horrorish vibes but i don't think the end result will be full-out horror, since it's also kinda silly...

then there's Peklo, it's a game for which i created the whole concept and story but the plan is to develop it as a studio at Smarto Club. i wrote more context for it on this post, but for the characters, they're my favorites to make art about at the moment. the main ones are Kiku (the cat) and Mi (the bunny):

i recently created these human forms of them for fun but i'm not sure whether i'll establish them as canon or not... they're trapped in limbo/hell so there's space for them to have a past human form. they don't remember their lives but Kiku feels a deep sense of regret about things unkown to her and wants to break out of Peklo. Mi feels trapped in an eternal sadness, she longs to see the ocean, she can always hear it but has never been able to reach it.

the antagonist in Peklo is a frog entity called Guppy but i haven't really shown him outside of his froggy logo

i also have OCs from my smaller games. there's Hlina that i created specifically for >this game that was commissioned to me for a zine. i don't have any plans to use her again for now but i might make more art of her in the future for fun. she's part of a strange dream realm and is hostile to the player:

there's iro from the >game with the same name who's my oldest game OC. i created that bitsy game for her story but she existed previously in my art degree final project, it was a version of the same story but just a section of it. it's a dream of mine to create a full-fledged 3D game for her some day.

she's a bit of a defective space exploration robot, sent to explore planetoid Iridium-3 in search of human contact. it's set in a future where humanity has dispersed among the whole galaxy so lots of groups have lost contact with each other.

my latest game OC is Michtat, a wizard cat that i created just for this silly zine.

lasty, there’s the characters from my comic that I’m working on, called The most distant planet. the main characters are Victor and Mitya, two 9 year olds whose families end up living together.

i'd say these are the dearest characters to me of all. i don't post as much of them because they're mostly in the shape of comic pages and it doesn't spark as much interest as my games. i love drawing them though.

they’re both little weirdos who isolate themselves and don’t fit in much with other children, so the friendship they develop is very special to them. they have almost opposite personalities where Victor (darker hair) is very shy and dorky but also very sweet to everyone, while Mitya mostly gives 0 fucks about what anyone thinks or says, he blurts out whatever he’s thinking and just wants to run around wild.

the story is mostly slice of life-ish but there’s also a science fiction element ^-^ Victor is obsessed with things like ghosts, aliens, etc but Mitya thinks it’s all just dumb tales.

another important character is Alyosha, Mitya’s 17-18yo brother. he doesn’t know how to talk or relate to his little brother and is kinda weirded out by him. they where very close when they were younger, but when Mitya was 2 he had an accident that Alyosha feels guilty about, and has been somehow different ever since.

he still worries about his little brother and how isolated he is, though. at the beginning of the story the two of them live alone with their grandma who does love them but has kind of a cold and distant personality. 

Alyosha was the type of kid to be considered “gifted” but now feels completely burnt out and had to repeat a grade at school. he felt so humiliated by this he eventually stopped going entirely, so he now works part time and just studies at home. he cut contact with his old classmates but he still has 2 best friends from the last few months he spent at school in the grade below, Manon and Min Na. they’re the kind of friends who just show up unannounced at his house and job, and are very involved with his family’s life.

i’ve also included Min Jie in some art, she’s Min Na’s younger cousin and comes into the story later:

i should have like character sheets and stuff for all of these OCs but i’m the kind to just jump head first into drawing/modeling lol, that's why i included all these finished illustrations.

i really wanna publish this comic, i’ve been working on it for a long time and i’m currently waiting for the results of a public funding application here in my country to decide what i'll do next.

hope this could be of interest (^人^) thanks for the ask!

[sharpbutsoft]

So I know you do digital art, but The Hanged fireMan looks like a watercolor. Do you work with watercolors as well, or is it the program you use?

(please brag about your art process, basically)

Yeah! So I do all my (fan)art in everyone’s favourite innuendo of an art program, Procreate. (Specifically on a 2019 ipad pro with a 1st gen Apple Pencil, both of which I would tentatively recommend if you can get them 2nd hand for less than 200euro like I did)

I did a lot of painting as a teenager, and still paint often to this day. Though I mostly worked in acrylics, I have been known to use watercolours (like, when I was in college I bought a little 3euro paint set and would use the inside of cardboard cereal boxes as diy watercolour paper and paint wild little Irish landscapes… and Winter Soldier fan art, sometimes. 2017 was a different world)

So in summary - I ‘paint’ digitally using some very traditional techniques I picked up over the years, and I kinda prefer digital art now, which I will elaborate on below the cut as I detail how I created The Hanged fireMan…

I’ll start with my favourite digital art ‘cheat’ which is that I use So Many Layers. Like seriously, pretty much every new colour goes on its own layer because I am a control freak and love being able to tweak them all as needed. So for this relatively simplistic piece, I’ve still got something like 20 layers all together.

I’m also usually better at grouping layers but in this one I gave up at some point and it felt dishonest to group them nicely before showing you guys lol

So yeah layers is my biggest hack, but the other is using specific texture brushes

I spent a while playing around with various brushes before finding this Tarraleah one which has just the most delicious watercolour-y texture and a really fun edge to it (and it’s got pressure sensitivity, so I can really control the amount of colour I want to put down on the page)

This background was painted entirely with the 1 brush & colour, and I think it turned out pretty cool. For this particular piece I did have a reference on screen to work off for the most part, but those clouded were just painted with my heart

Next (or maybe before, it’s a while sinceI drew this and sometimes I mix it up) is the lines, which are always done with my best friend, the Procreate Pencil!! I love her, she’s so fuzzy and textured and also if you tilt the tip on the pencil you get a broader line (like with a real pencil) which is just the coolest thing!

When it comes to lines I just sort of go for bigger shapes 1st and details later, and basically always with some kind of reference. I also use a very old & well known trick of putting the most detail into the object of most importance, and leaving the background more loose and vibey

Artists will tell you that this is to draw focus with details. Artists are lying. It’s cause we got lazy after drawing he fun part & phoned the rest of it in lol (I know this because I am an artist)

Also I love this pencil because I don’t have very steady hands and I actually cannot draw straight/smooth lines to save my life! If you’ve ever seen anything resembling a smooth line in something I’ve drawn, it is almost certainly a whole bunch of lines over each other and then erased at the edges to make it look neater

But who needs straight lines when sketchy sketch lines are so fun!

Next is flat colours (the 3layers in the middle with check marks beside them)

I used the same colours as the background, which you can tell from where they completely blend together right down the bottom, and what I genuinely do is use the Tarraleah brush to generally block out he shape, and then go back in with an eraser and smooth out the lines

Why do I do this? …good question

Next is one of my favourite parts, which is adding the lights! Procreate has some really fun -glowy- layer effects - my favourite is probably Add (A) though Colour Burn (CB) is great too for its vibrancy.

Also those 2 layer 11s are there because I duplicated one and then used the ‘Gaussian Blur’ feature to ‘fuzzify’ it (yes, that’s the technical term) It’s a pretty quick and easy way to add a more diffused light effect around something. (I did the same for the yellow reflective strips on the turnouts too!)

Last step now! So full disclosure - I absolutely traced that writing from a photo of a tarot card lol. I actually always trace writing, as, much like drawing straight lines, I’m bad at handwriting on a screen

I also stumbled upon the Exclusion (E) effect by accident - Originally it was going to be a plain cream boarder like a traditional tarot card had, but I wasn’t fully happy with it, so I just flipped through a few layer effects and as soon as I got to this one, I knew it was the right choice

I love the dreamy contrast of the pinks and purples to the dark navy and grey & how it makes everything looks kinda unreal and outer-spacey

And yeah that’s about it! Everything else comes from my 15+ years of Practical Art Knowledge but these are the specifics of how I utilise it digitally!

This was a lot of fun to write out, and I hope that if you’ve made it all the way here, it was fun to read too!

[coolfireguy73]

I love your art style so much! If it's not weird to say, I aspire for my art to be like yours someday :)

Two questions:

1. The way you add different element to your traditional drawings (Different paper, colours, or materials is amazing. I'd love to hear about that process if you're willing to share

2. For the cryptid AU, it seems like everyone kept some remnants of their weaponry/knowledge. You've talked abt Engie purposefully not using his buildings, so I'm curious about what might have happened to the Medigun/s

Thank you for indulging my curiosity, I hope your day is good :)

First off: sorry to reply so late !!!

I wanted to reply to your question properly and take my time to share my process, so I waited until I had time to do so.

Anyway:

First question

I've filled up a lot of sketch books over the years and on of the problems I had was the emptiness of the pages.

I used to draw very small and like... one drawing per page.

I always loved how scrapbook looked, but was never able to fully integrate it in my sketch books (I'm still working on it)

Until I saw what David Armsby sketch books looked like. I mean, they aren't really sketch books but they included drawings and they looked so good ! They made me realize I could totally do something like that !

I started really trying to implement scrapbooking things in my sketch books one or two years ago. And I really should have stared sooner.

So, how do I go about it.

1. Colored paper

Usually when I start a new page I just draw what I have in mind. Then I'll glue pieces of colored paper in some of the empty spaces to draw on top of. Like this page for exemple:

I first drew Old medic in the center, then glued the two red papers and drew on top of them. Doesn't really matter what drawing will go on top of which paper. The whole point of this is to make the page seem more full and busy.

There are two other ways I use colored paper. One, I draw directly on the colored paper, then glue it in my sketch book, or I cut it depending on the size of the drawings:

And two, I already know what I will draw and I want to use colored paper to add to it, for exemple those Medic faces:

Then, you can use all of those on the same page:

Note, you can use all kind of paper, all colors, texture, motif, etc... You can also glue colored paper on top of different colored paper, go nuts, I'd recommend looking at scrapbooks for inspiration. Or any core and aesthetics you like really.

Also, I haven't used then yet but I bought thoes:

These are just craft packs I found for cheap. They provide really cool paper I can use in the future. I also have a pack of normal colored paper.

2. Hate space

Try to fill the page as much as possible.

I've learned to hate every small inch of blank space on each page, if there is any I will try to find a small drawing to make or a doodle or glue more paper etc...

And if I don't find anything I'll come back to it later.

I'm still struggling with this part 😅 

3. Stickers and tape

Another thing that can help you fill your sketchbook are stickers and colored tape.

If you don't have any idea of what to put to fill a hole it's very easy to just stick a sticker there.

The tape, I use for places a piece of paper would be to big (I usually write the date on it)

All in all, Just put whatever you want. You can add glitter, glue seashells and flowers and leafs, or candy wrapper even, the choice is your's really.

You should be proud and happy about your sketch book. It's yours, have fun with it !

Second question

I'll be easier to replie to this one 😅 

Most of the weapons were left at the base, like Sasha and, yes, Medic's medigun.

But that's normal, Medic was sent to a mental hospital, I don't think they would let him bring his medigun. Same for Heavy, he just went to get back medic, he didn't really need Sasha.

Sniper and Demoman still have their weapons because they were already quite affected when they left and already acted somewhat aggressively so, naturally, they brought their weapons whit them.

Hope this answers your questions, and again, sorry to reply this late 😅 

[pointy-kitty]

Real talk I'm so glad they're making Neopets fun again and accessible for maybe the first time ever

If anyone out there is complaining that it's too easy I'd just like to paint you a mental portrait from 20 years ago when I was 9. I was obsessed with Neopets. It was all I drew and how I spent most of my free time. I had many dream pets but way up there were a Draik of any kind and a baby Lupe. I never got either of them. Because to get enough points for either you had to somehow get several million neopoints, usually playing the stock market (you know, how 9 year olds do), because just playing games made you maybe 5k a day. Or save up enough for the lab ray and just pray you would happen to randomly get what you wanted. And if you couldn't do that, you had to make "applications" to adopt other people's pets by coding a whole web page with original art and writing to show that you "deserved" them. And if you weren't fluent in CSS (you know how 9 year olds are) or didn't have adequate tools or skill for digital art, you definitely didn't deserve that pet. In fact, the site was actively hostile to people who didn't know how to do things.

SO, here you have a virtual pet site generally aimed at kids where the only objective of the site, getting pets you like, was so impossible that my lil 9 year old ass was painstakingly trying to learn how to code and doing my best to draw a baby Lupe in MS Paint just so I could have a cute puppy in my game, and I never even got a response back from the owner. You know they were laughing at how bad it looked.

If your kids game forces kids to open themselves up to ridicule and rejection just to do the one simple point of the game, IT SUCKS

And here I am at 29 having played casually for a week, I already have a Draik egg and I'm maybe a third of the way to affording a baby paint brush. I'm finally going to have my dream pets like 9 year old me fucking deserved! ONLY TOOK ME 20 YEARS LMAO

This feels not unlike watching the Eye of Sauron crumble at the end of Return of the King

[meanhare]

very specific distractions

because things like "read, draw, walk" are kinda not hepful for me personally (what to read? what to draw? where walk?). also if you have no friends you can do all these alone bc i also have no friends. warning: some of them are kinda edgy

learn about sodas over the world and make a list of 10 (or more) sodas you want to try the most

draw your fav character in decora, scene, patched crustpunk or any other clothes/style that are long and/or hard to draw

learn armenian, georgian, katakana or any other unfamiliar alphabet/writing system

find in library and read any book about antarctica

watch bela tarr's satantango

find hungarian bands that play your fav music genre

google and read about twonosed dog breeds

go outside and take pics of your fav 10 buildings in your city

take some money and buy more pants and/or socks (theres always not enough of them +you dont have to try on them and then cry in change room)

depict your ideal room in details

create an alien/fantastic animal/breed, draw it and describe its habital, height, weight, color, natural enemies, diseases it prone to, how common are mutations like albinism or polydactylia etc

write n details whole 5 pages of how you feel like. if you feel bad, write how awful is everything, how you want (or dont want)it to end, how shitty is your mood. if you feel nothing, write how you are not feeling, how empty and desolated it feels.

learn how to make an origami of your fav animal

burn some trash

create a secret blog. it may be for something you like, for writing honest opinions, for pretending that you are cishet christian gymbro, anything. take time to made out a good name and url and find a good pfp

learn few songs on other languages

try every tea you can find. sometimes theres boxes of assorted teabags with different tastes, its good for trying different kinds

do some jigsaw puzzles. theres many online jigsaw sites

(re)watch or read an interview of your fav obscure music band

find even obscurer music band

learn about some east asian holidays and plan to celebrate some of them

draw your recent dream in mspaint

switch language on you tumblr/phone/computer to one you dont know (but only if you familiar with your device enough and know how to change it back for if necessary)

find some longass 100question ask game and answer every question (no need to post it, you can do it in your head or write it down in a notebook)

make picrews of yourself, ideal you, your friend, your imaginary friend, pet, musician or character

learn how to swear on every language

go to any poll blog and vote

duolingo. yes

if you dont have mustache and beard, draw it on your face and maybe take some selfies with it for fun

watch that movie someone somewhere once recommended you but you still didnt watched somewhy

write or draw something very unsetting what would probably get you termed instantly if you post it online

brush your hair, your dog/cats hair, your toy ponys hair, anything brushable

read the whole wikipedia page about any subculture you find interesting

get some stickers and stick them anywhere in your room

write lists of favs (fav drinks, bands, dog breeds, movies etc)

read modern ukrainian writers. sergiy zhadan, irena karpa, yurij andrukhowych (idk if i wrote their name in english correctly) also make music, check it out

search for your local bands (the easiest way is to search your city tag in bandcamp)

then search for your local concerts. go to your local concerts of your local bands. most of them are cheap

get a blindbox toy. idc if youre adult. its fun. maybe get a kinder surprise egg if you can (a chocolate egg is usually 110-120kcal)

watch some good old bloody slasher or japanese horror movie

get a notebook with a locker and make a fucking anadiary. make it sappy or overdramatic or heroinchicy or 80rockstary. doesnt matter

google about arsons in your hometown and look at cool fire pics

[thephloxbayou]

The shit with tumblr the last few days has me thinking again about where i post my art (always thinking about this, this isnt a tumblr doomsday post).

I like deviantart and have a lot of old stuff there. However my mom has access to that page and i dont know how often she visits. I know she shows it to other people.

Im in my 30s and my mom is abusive. We no longer talk. But i feel restricted on DA because a lot of my art is personal, but i cant speak openly about it because i know she is reading it. I have DID and I use it to inspire my art/process things/vent/etc. But i cant mention any of that because it is so stigmatized, she could very much still hurt me with that knowledge. Some of the art i straight up cant post because it's so blatant and i cant frame it as "my OCs" which is my usual cover.

However i dont want to make a new profile for two reasons. The history behind it, the drawings that blew up big, and that fact that even if i move my name is still attached to everything. My drawings are all signed.

I tried tumblr for a long time for posting art but it just doesnt work. There is no interaction with those posts. Usually nada. And that doesnt work for me because I do commissions, the rare time i get them it brings in the most money, and my art posts need interaction to get commissions. DA does that for me. Tumblr doesnt.

The midjourney thing is scary but its only part of it combined with all that. I want somewhere to post my art and get it spread, but i also want somewhere to interact without the security concerns. Im tired of starting up new accounts to post in 20 different places. Its not fun. Its not worth the time and effort for so little interaction.

I tried fediverse instances, its so twitter like and i hate the layout in that sense and even when i put in true effort instances would get blocked from others or shut down due to infighting and im just tired

I want somewhere i can interact with people like i do here. But i also want somewhere i can safely post my art and be myself about it that actually gets some notice. I know it has nothing to do with my skill level.

Idk. I hope anyone with the same struggles has some advice. Ive tried so much new stuff to have it fall apart or never gain traction. (Hell i wrote up whole tutorials on hubzilla to help people get invested)

[himawariness]

Case File: Poe - Devlog 1: Planning, Concept, and Art Style!

I posted my first devlog for Case File: Poe on my site, but I’ll post it here too! It's about the art planning and concept progress so far :)

It's a little long but keep reading below to read more! 

Whenever I come up with an idea for a new game or comic, I usually always like to start with the characters first. However, for Case File: Poe, the premise came to me first while I was working on my previous game, Dolchio. With the rough plot in mind, I sketched out some character designs and realized that I didn’t like them or feel attached to them at all lol.

So I thought I'd use some old character designs and find a way to stick them into this new game! So that’s how three of the four main cast members were added to the game (Poe, Rokio, and Morg). With the characters decided, I could move on to writing and conceptualizing how the game would look and play; Without the characters and loose plot, it’s really difficult for me to write or do anything else.

Now that the characters are out of the way, it’s time to write! Which I’m gonna talk about in another devlog because writing this story is my poor little brain work harder than it ever has in years…!! I thought Hansel had a complicated story, but this one is a whole different beast and I’m honestly having some trouble staying organized. But I’m hoping it’ll pay off in the end! No worries though, I’d say the writing is about 70% complete as of posting this devlog, and I started back in February 2022! :] Here’s a blurry image of one of the many several writing/outlining/planning pages I’ve done hehe (blurred for no spoilers!)

Moving on, now I could start drawing. I don’t like drawing until I have a good chunk of the writing done because I don’t want to have wasted some time drawing something and then end up scrapping it if I decide to change the game around later. I originally had planned for Case File: Poe to be a top-down RPG, like Hansel or other standard RPG make games. So I drew a few character sprites for the game and played around with different styles. But I wanted the game window size to be larger, and forcing full screen on the game would make it look weird if I used small pixel art. So I tried making bigger sprites, or even upscaling them. Long story short, I had to scrap the RPG style and go for something else.

I knew that because of the nature of the game, a strict sidescroller like the style of Dolchio wouldn’t work the best because I want the player to be able to explore the map. While the sidescrolling style would allow for some exploration, it was more suited for Dolchio’s linear storytelling where exploration wasn’t as integral to beating the game. That’s not the case for this game, as it is about a mystery. Exploring and gathering evidence is the most important part! So I had to go all the way back to the drawing board and play some other games to find some inspiration. And so I did find some gameplay inspiration from games such as Ace Attorney, Professor Layton, Shin Megami Tensei, Danganronpa, Your Turn to Die, Virtue’s Last Reward, and 13 Sentinels.

With RPG Maker MV’s clicking/Mouse support, I figured out what I had to do! Like a clicking adventure game, I was going to have to make a game where the player can explore the whole environment by directly interacting with it and its characters. With that in mind, I started creating concept art and sketching out some of the art for the game!

So with plot, gameplay ideas, characters, and concepts are out of the way for now, I could move on to thinking about the general art aesthetic that I’d like: I want Case File: Poe to look good. Like, really REALLY good and I’m afraid that my art skills aren’t at that level yet. I don’t it to look or feel like an RPG maker game. So why not just use another game engine?? I’ve made some stuff using Game Maker Studio and I’m confident with it and I could use that but… I like using RPG maker!! It’s fun hehe >:]

Regarding the art, it just means that I have to practice some more and actually take my time on it. Seriously, I usually don’t have the patience to take my time drawing and so I like to rush and finish all my pieces under an hour. It’s a bad habit, I know!! Which is why I’m forcing myself to sit down and not rush through the art, and to make myself polish the artwork as much as I can! And so, yesterday I completed a cutscene CG test where I took all of the time I needed to get an idea of how much time I would need to set aside for the art of the game. This CG took me a little over 3 hours instead.

And I’m definitely happy with the way it came out!! Yes! The game is coming together in my head! Next, I have to figure out the interface, world map, other graphic design stuff but I’ll leave those for later. My priority now is to finish writing the game and start the script. After that, I can go ham on the art and theeennnn start the programming!

I know this was a long read, but thanks for reading through it! Hopefully I can get these devlogs up regularly that way I can make myself consistently work on the game. :]

[dennydraws]

Good Morning and happy Mon- wait it's Tuesday!

Argh, I got lost in time again! It's another week and back to the grind! Why weekends can't be longer...

Whew, youtubing is getting slightly easier! But now I struggle with the phone camera. I keep trying different settings and at the end the weird wiggle still persists. But for now I just want to get more comfy with the drawing process while recording cause that alone can be a little uncomfy hehe I guess it's the whole selfconcious that you are being recorded XD but with that said, I ran out of energy to record a voice over last weekend while fighting a terrible migraine on Sunday. I thought to leave it for the next weekend instead of pushing myself but if I get burst of energy earlier, I will post it through the week :D

Comic work! Thank you for following "The Snake, The Firebrand and The King of All" !! ... that title sure is a mouthful, huh xD; The next chapter will be a bit late, likely next monday? I did outline it, I had to start sketching the pages on Sunday but I felt so incredibly tired, I spent most of the day just sleeping. I think work fatigue piled on me once more. We have a lot of holidays in February and of course a lot of graphics for those. I've been coming home with nothing but brain fog, static noise and desire to sleep forever. u_u;; But at least chapter 11 is fully sketched and I quite liked the flow of it! It is a bit more complex but maybe I can line art it little by little through the week rather than all at once in the weekend. I'll see! I'm pass the mid point and into the fluff now! +o+ I didn't think I'd go this far for something I didn't incredibly prepared for!

I've been playing Fire Emblem Heroes on the side... while waiting for other games to come out this year - looking at Eiyuden 👀! I will likely drop off the earth till I finish it, when it comes out, hehe ! :D But yes! FE! I'm long time fan though I hadn't played anything after Awakening, so more of a fan of the old ones? I couldn't invest the time and energy to pick 3 Houses purely because there was no golden ending of everyone lives and is happy - I'm too old for that sad shite, okay? u_u;;; Fates... we don't talk about Fates and Engage felt like the vtuber nation attacked. I couldn't get pass the character designs so I never touched it. The mobile game is fun and I just mainly picked it so I could grab some faves and pamper them! Lucky for me my faves have like no alts and were easy to pick :D;;; ...so I guess my taste is that bad, huh 8D;; It's ok Gangrel, I still think you are the best Trash King!

But yes~ I'm swamped at work, my hands are giving in, I can't wait for the weather to get warmer and I can't wait for Eiyuden to come out! \o/ Until then, I try to survive xD;; but don't we all? Apologies for not posting much...or anything lately. Work has just been soul crushing crunch as usual when several big holidays come in 1 month.

In any case ~ Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have great rest of the week! \o/!!

[nofuturecomic]

Chapter 8 behind the scenes!!

As usual there will be spoilers for chapter 8 of No Future.

To be honest, I didn't think this was going to turn into a thing I would do, but uh... here we are I guess. Anyway I've been enjoying myself while slowly going through my old chapters (very slowly... because I keep stopping to type stuff) but as long as I'm not annoying anyone it should be ok. At least... I hope I'm not annoying anyone...

Anyway, I remember this cover kind of being a pain in the butt to draw, mostly because this is not a character I draw very often in the comics. It came out a little weird for me and I don't like it as much as my others, but it still works.

Hehehe...

Sorry... I don't have much else to say about this page. I just like how it turned out.

Andrew is not ok.

Visual jokes like this are always a lot of fun, but I have to be careful when adding them because of the nature of how I release my pages. Some don't people like getting an update notification for a page and then not getting anything to read cause a visual joke took up the whole page, and they are very vocal about it and will harass me about it.

This is something I learned when working on the webcomic I had before I started working on No Future, when I released pages without words, even if there was a lot happening, some readers would feel cheated over not having something to read. I would get comments and pm calling it a lazy update (even though it usually took longer to draw because the storytelling all needed to be done with visuals) and that I should release another page to make up for it. (my previous comic project updated much slower, from 3 pages a week, 2 pages a week, to 1 page a week as my health continued to deteriorate from drawing it)

I try not to have a repeat of that kind of harassment, so I try not to have too many comic pages without text, or too many pages that are 1 - 2 panels, as those were the ones most likely to get me complaints about me being lazy or accusations of cutting corners like I did with my previous comic projects.

From this point Abaddon talks a little about the situation with the gods (since Hannah aske), and how many are dead from the wars that had happened in their realm, more notably, she mentions all but 3 of Osiris and Bast line were killed, including their origin god, which makes them what is considered to be a dying race of gods, because without their origin god, no more gods can be created.

Andrew is a little traumatized by everything, though mostly with Abaddon's appearance and realization that she is now living there, Hannah not so much so, as this is all really neat for her.

Friendship get!

I like this scene, it's one of the few moments that Era and Andrew generally kind of bond. It doesn't come easy for these two at all, they just don't have chemistry that results in scenes like this very often.

I also like like this set of pages in this chapter, I just really liked how the imagery turned out, plus I remember enjoying drawing these pages, maybe some of that is because I like drawing rocks?? Who knows, I like how they turned out and I liked working on them.

Aeon also kind of gets the fact that he might have been an evil human in his previous life before being recrafted as a god dropped on him. Good job Osiris, you unintentionally started Aeon's personal subplot / existential crisis.

And we've reached the end of the chapter, this one has a lot of scenes that I remember fondly. Though there are also a lot of panels that are not ideal in quality. I think that is because this was the chapter that I started changing the way that I drew the eyes somewhere in the middle of it, so the extra amount of work that change caused me might have made my joints aggravated until it got more used to the increased work demand.

I remember in particular the last panel of Aeon, I was having a frustrating time trying to draw it because it was just not working out, but eventually had to stop working on it and move on because my arthritis was starting to act from from working on it for too long.

[hilltopsunset]

Scarlet/Violet’s Poor Performance Overshadows Bigger Problems

Preface – What follows is not a proclamation arguing that no one should have fun with the new Pokémon games. People are allowed to enjoy what they enjoy. That sentiment can coexist alongside the fact that the game deserves a heavy amount of criticism. Criticism is not synonymous with hate. Often times, we criticize what we love most, because we want more for it/them, we want to see something/someone succeed, so we offer criticism as an opportunity for growth and improvement. If your initial reaction to criticism of something/someone you love is anger, it may be helpful to take a few deep breaths, consider the intentions of the criticism, and try as objectively as possible to examine whether there is any merit to the criticism before attempting to shut it down.

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone who is mostly OK, but doesn’t put in much effort? Sometimes they’ll do something special to remind you they care, but usually sacrifice other aspects of the relationship along the way? And you've loved them so long it's hard to acknowledge the faults, and even harder to let go?

That’s Pokémon.

We are now at the end of the first weekend following Scarlet and Violet’s (S/V) release date, and what a weekend it was. Anecdotes about the horrendous performance alongside galleries of glitches have flooded the internet over the past few days, highlighting example after example of poorly optimized gameplay and occasional game-breaking bugs. The situation has gotten so severe that many players are requesting refunds for spending money on a triple-A official release that seems more like an alpha or beta version of the game. While the jury is out on exactly who is to blame (Gamefreak? Nintendo? The Switch hardware?), the answer to that question is a moot point—the fact remains that the game was released in this state despite similarly ambitious titles releasing on the same hardware with little to no problems at all, and now players are experiencing the consequences.

The biggest problem with the hype around performance issues is this: performance issues aren’t the game’s biggest problems. I definitely think they are the most egregious problems, and probably the most universally obvious ones, so maybe it’s good that these issues occurred so that the Pokémon community can start more seriously considering the criticisms players have been vocal about for years. I myself wrote a piece following the release of Sword/Shield (Sw/Sh) discussing my disappointment in the game and the franchise as a whole, followed by another blog post offering suggestions on ways to breathe new life into the games while still maintaining the charm and allure of its predecessors.

Yet the games continue to demonstrate apathy toward innovation and improvement in a way unprecedented for the highest-grossing franchise ever. Even if the performance of the game was immaculate, running at 60fps 100% of the time with no visual glitching anywhere to be seen, I have identified a collection of recurring and new issues that I’m grouping under the single umbrella of “immersion” issues. Textures are still reminiscent of N64 era resolutions, the game’s animations are still extremely low-quality, and Pokémon are still just roaming around aimlessly with no purpose or sense of belonging in the world. They even reverted the out-of-battle catching mechanic that made Legends: Arceus (L:A) feel so fluid and improved over the old “fight-and-catch” method, and have made a number of new poorly executed additions specific to the new games.

But why does immersion matter? Similar to how a book draws readers into a story, videogames should draw players into the gameplay. When reading a good book, people often forget they are even reading, mindlessly turning pages while completely engrossed in the pleasure, excitement, fear, or romance created by the words on the pages. Video games have the ability to offer a similar experience. Now, imagine you’re reading a book and encounter an entire page where each letter is a different color, and there is a random image behind all the letters with even more clashing colors on it. Or maybe you turn the page and suddenly the book slams shut, forcing you to remember what page you were on and relocating it. This would be distracting to the reader, and likely would disengage them from the story. Similarly, the aforementioned issues with the Pokémon games often pull players away from the immersion of the gameplay and create a dissatisfying experience.

Many of us remember the infamous tree from Sw/Sh. When it was first shown in a preview for the then-upcoming games, fans were understandably concerned. Many voiced a hope that the textures would be improved before the official release of the game. We’ve now seen similar or worse textures in 3 games since—Sw/Sh, L:A, and now S/V. Textures are often so bad that they are difficult to look away from. Just like the example of the colorful page in a book, the poor textures draw attention away from the game itself and ruin any immersion players may have been feeling up to that point.

Image: Giant human hands strike the enemy Pokemon.

Similarly, it is extremely distracting to see massive white-gloved human hands suddenly appear out of thin air to strike enemy or friendly Pokémon when using moves like Arm Thrust or Double Slap. There is no justifiable reason for this anymore at this point. The human hands and feet served their purpose within the 2D games due to graphical limitations, and were forgivable on the 3D handheld games due to limitations once again. But now they are just a slap in the face to players. Pokémon should be allowed to use their physical bodies to physically strike other Pokémon during battles. To be honest, it’s embarrassing that these artifacts from bygone generations continue to plague modern-day Pokémon games.

And then there’s the issue of Pokémon themselves popping into existence out of thin air as you approach them. This issue was present in Sw/Sh and L:A and doesn’t seem to have been adequately dealt with for S/V. When Pokémon do show up from a distance, it is often at an extreme lack of framerate, sometimes dropping to what looks like probably 3 or 4 fps. Framerates in S/V are constantly hit or miss from the few streams and examples I’ve seen floating around. The very first stream I went into showed a classroom full of children kicking their feet and swaying their heads at a solid 4 frames per second.

And when Pokemon do show up on the field, what are they doing? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Which brings us to the issue of wild Pokémon behaving like automatons rather than real, living creatures. Ever since Pokémon started appearing in the overworld beginning with Let’s Go: Pikachu and Eevee, I have been yearning to see Pokémon behave more like real creatures. This issue has existed within every title since then: hoards of monsters just meandering in bushes and open fields, walking in circles and waiting for players to come battle or catch them. There is no reason so many creatures should just be hanging out in the open, often in groups integrated with other species which one may expect to be more hostile, and the only thing that causes any sort of reaction from them is the player’s existence. Every Pokémon in the wild exist solely for players to battle and/or catch them, and the games make no attempt to hide that purpose or integrate Pokémon more seamlessly into the world.

Image: Pokemon just...standin’...standin’ around...

Alongside better Pokémon integration with the world, making finding/catching Pokémon more meaningful and exciting would do wonders for the games. Players got a sense of this in L:A. Imagine if many of your encounters felt the same way as the first handful of alpha Pokémon you dealt with? Finding strong or rare Pokémon in the world should feel scary, tense, and/or exciting, and battling or catching them should feel challenging and fun. With that being said, I think they should move forward with the out-of-combat catching mechanic from L:A still in place. I don’t think I will ever play a Pokémon game again if that mechanic does not return, as it was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a Pokémon game, despite L:A having plenty of other problems. In fact, finding a way to make battling occur while still being able to control the player character would open up a LOT of opportunity for interesting interactions and gameplay (I’m imagining something like Kingdom Hearts style combat where you can move around while choosing commands for your Pokémon, but this is a big jump and not something I expect).

Besides these recurring issues I’ve had, I know that there is a new problem in S/V of level-scaling—i.e. there is none. I have already seen players charting out best paths to take where you are more likely to encounter challenges within your team’s levels. A simple scaling mechanic would have done well in this game to allow players to choose their own paths while still encountering reasonable challenges all along the way. I’ve also read anecdotal experiences of folks lamenting the lack of interior exploration available in the game with buildings only existing as facades, and some buildings leading only to a store menu. I was watching a streamer play through a part of the game within a school, I believe, and to get from one room to another, the player walked to the doorway and POP! a menu screen asked where the player would like to go. Was modeling an interior so difficult? They couldn’t just let the player explore the building as they like? What is the purpose of requiring a menu to go to a room that is likely just down the hall? Anyway, regarding the stores, I’ve also read that they are exactly the same in each city/town, leaving no reason to make a journey from one location to another for unique goods, which could have been an interesting motivation for players to want to visit new locations.

None of these problems would be solved by the performance issues being resolved; they are inherent parts of S/V that ruin game immersion and bring what could have been an absolutely incredible addition to the franchise down to a barebones minimum, scarcely managing to crawl across the threshold of acceptability even for some of the staunchest supporters of the games. Coming from the most affluent and popular franchise to ever exist, the bare minimum is not good enough, especially when taken in combination with an absolutely atrocious technical and graphical performance on release.

We as players and Pokémon enjoyers need to hold Gamefreak to higher standards and draw the line somewhere if we ever want to see a main-series Pokémon game grow and innovate. If you purchased the game and are having fun with it, I’m genuinely happy for you. If I played it, I’m sure I would have fun, too. However, I want more for the main series, and I can’t bring myself to support Gamefreak financially knowing they are perfectly happy to release a complete mess of a game and call it finished. I will not be purchasing S/V.

[practically-an-x-man]

7, 8, 17, 23, 31, 35, 47, 52, 57, and 70 for the fic writer ask game!

Ooooh thank you so much!!

Ask Game for Fic Writers

7. tell us about the plot of the first fanfic you ever wrote

Technically it was this 5-page-long, super shitty fic in the Terfy Wizard Fandom that I wrote when I was 10 or 11. But we're not gonna talk about that.

My first fanfic that I wrote with the knowledge of it being fanfic, and posted on AO3, was an X-Men fic featuring an OC named Mira Hart. The plot basically just walked through the events of First Class and DOFP with Mira included (and in a semi-tumultuous relationship with Hank McCoy), and I had plans to eventually include Apocalypse, Dark Phoenix, and some original plotlines as well (though that hasn't happened, and I kinda doubt it will. Maybe maybe one of the original ideas but I'm not sure)

Given it was my first fic, I think some of the ideas still do hold up, though the writing does make me cringe a little lol. I think it would be cool to rewrite/revamp it and give Mira the love she really deserves, but on the other hand I have a much more interesting idea to write between Hank and a new OC that I think I'd rather focus on first. Not to say I can't write both eventually, but... Delphi is really fucking cool dude you'd love her.

8. what’s your relationship with constructive criticism and feedback like? do you seek it out? how well do you take it?

Hm... that's a tough one. I'm used to seeking out and receiving feedback thanks to theatre and FX work and all that (though the RSD is brutal sometimes and I hate that), but unsolicited feedback is one of my biggest pet peeves. I can take feedback pretty well when I'm expecting it, but when it comes out of the blue then my brain just will not let go of it and it leaves me feeling insecure and awful.

When it comes to fic writing, I don't usually seek out constructive criticism. I'm posting my fics for free, for fun, and to relax, I don't need people picking them apart (unless it's to point out what they enjoyed!)

17. what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

Answered previously, but I also can never decide lmao

23. how do you deal with writers block?

In the short term, I try to switch to a different task to give my brain a break. I'll walk my dogs, play a video game, practice guitar or draw a couple sketches, whatever I feel like that doesn't require the same type of concentration. It helps unstick the gears a little.

In the longer term, I'll pick up a few new books or reread some old favorites. I call it "recharging my words", it's something I've done since I started writing and it really helps! I do still love to read even when I'm not under writer's block, but making a targeted effort to notice the author's voice and style can sometimes help me get back to my own author's voice.

31. tell us about one of your characters who’s an absolute joy to write

QUINN!!! Holy shit she's SO fun dude you have no idea!! Sometimes writing her is fun because it's cathartic, since some of her experiences with disability, counterculture, and gender are reflections of my own, and sometimes it's just fun because it's fun - she's so sassy and just a total ball of chaos, there's never a dull moment!

35. tell us about a character who’s very different than you who you love a whole lot

All my OCs tend to reflect me in some way or another, even if that's just a single trait or interest of theirs, but I think the one that's the least similar to me is probably Eris. I'm not a violent or angry person in the slightest, and their experiences are vastly different from my own, but he has just such an interesting view on the world and I love her to the ends of the earth.

47. what story are you most proud of?

Oh man... all of them? In their own ways? They each accomplish something a little different, and it's hard to compare them directly.

But if I had to pick one... Heartstrings. I love the dynamic between Jasper and Kyle, I think there's a lot of emotional depth to it, and we're at the point in the story where the plot is starting to pick up a little speed.

52. how many unfinished ideas/stories are you working on at the same time?

Oh man... I think I'm running at 7 simultaneous longfics (Smoke and Mirrors, Catch and Release, Who Waits Forever Anyway?, Heartstrings, Taking Flight, Heart in Your Hands, and Desert Song) at the moment, plus... I don't even know how many separate pieces. Let's see...

Eris (oneshot series, got 3 upcoming ideas)

Nikoletta (oneshot series, got 2 upcoming ideas)

Gia (oneshot series, need to start writing out her main story, no idea how many fics that'll end up being)

2 upcoming ArchAegis oneshots

Vivienne's story (probably a longfic but I need to start writing it)

Spider's story (also probably a longfic, albeit a shorter one, still needs an outline and a full OC bio and everything else)

Plus my writing ideas masterlist has 43 other ideas, in various stages of complexity and readiness, that I haven't even begun to start writing yet

57. what is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were reading it?

HAHA okay

"friends singing to marcel"

Context: mentioned it as a throwaway detail in the new chapter of Heartstrings, I was pretty sure the song was The Lion Sleeps Tonight but was just uncertain enough that I had to check

70. are you very critical of your own writing? how much do you find yourself editing (either during the writing or after the fact)?

I used to be very critical of my own writing, but now as I've gotten more comfortable with my style and voice, I'm a little more comfortable with it. I don't do a ton of editing, honestly: each writing session starts with me rereading what I wrote last time and making some minor tweaks as needed, followed by one more quick scan as I'm in the process of posting the finished piece/chapter, but I don't do a lot of intense editing.

[emachinescat]

A Year in (Book) Review: My 2024 Reading Journey 📚

#15 - Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis

Fantasy / Chronicles of Narnia / 130 pages / published 1951 / Finished Jan. 29 (reread)

One Sentence Review: Another exciting Narnian adventure - though perhaps with a bit more walking than usual - that introduces the Caspian era and tells the beautiful story of an oppressed people - and magic, and life - returning to Narnia, bittersweet from beginning to end.

Favorite Quotes

"I have often despaired; but something always happens to start me hoping again."

*

Wouldn't it be dreadful if some day in our own world, at home, men started going wild inside, like the animals here, and still looked like men, so that you never know which were which?"

*

"But because they have quarreled with the trees they are afraid of the woods. And because they are afraid of the woods they imagine they are full of ghosts."

*

"'Aslan,' said Lucy, 'you're bigger.'

'That is because you are older, little one,' answered he.

'Not because you are?'

'I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.'"

*

EDMUND: That's the worst of girls. They never carry a map in their heads.

LUCY: That's because our heads have something inside them.

My rating: 4/5

A Few More Thoughts (Spoilers)

It's a fun book with a lot of wonderful allegory, and a refreshing dip back in the world of Narnia for the reader - and the four children. There is, however, a lot more "transitional" time than I remembered. They spend over half the book making their way to Aslan's How - to Caspian - before the action truly begins.

It struck me now more than ever - perhaps because I am reading these out of order this time and read The Last Battle already - but the seeds are already being sown for Susan to draw away from Narnia soon. I also love how Aslan is depicted once again - his love, justice, and mercy are so beautifully encapsulated here.

Though our lives and the world as a whole can and will change, Jesus remains the same. Though this book takes place centuries after the last ones, though Narnia has been taken over by invaders and most of the Old Narnians are lost or in hiding, Aslan is unchanging and still the just, loving champion of his people.

[sineala]

How would you say fandom culture has changed over the years? What are some differences you notice between older and younger fandom folks?

I’ve been thinking for a while about how to answer this, and I’m not sure I have a really good answer, but I’m going to try.

I’ve been in fandom since approximately 1995. Maybe 1994. At that point, the world wide web was a relatively new part of the internet, and the fandoms I was in had most of their activity on privately-hosted mailing lists (predating eGroups/OneList/Yahoo Groups) and on Usenet newsgroups, with fiction beginning to be available on websites as part of either fandom-specific or pairing-specific archives as well as authors’ individual pages. Fanfiction.net did not yet exist. LiveJournal did not exist. AO3 definitely did not exist. If you wanted real-time chat, there was IRC. I was coming in basically at the tail end of zine fandom; zines were no longer the only way of distributing fanfiction, as fandom started to move online. So I have a selection of zines from 90s-era Western media fandoms but even by then zines weren’t where I was doing most of my reading.

I think in terms of generally “what it was like to be in fandom,” the big-picture stuff hasn’t changed. Fandom still produces creative fanwork and likes to, y’know, get together and talk about fandom. Also, almost every fight or complaint that fandom has about something is a thing that has been going on for actual years. People complain that, say, the kudos button is ruining comment culture because back in the LJ days the only way you could comment on a story was, well, by leaving an actual comment, or sending an email on a mailing list, and this might mean that people who would have otherwise commented have left a kudos instead. But back in the LJ and mailing list days, people were complaining that commenting was going downhill since the days of zines, when in order to comment on a story you had to write a real paper letter and mail it and because you had to do that, the quality of feedback was so much better than you got nowadays because people could just dash off a quick email or comment. You get the idea. Top/bottom wars are not new either. Pairing wars are not new. If you’ve been in fandom a while, you will pretty much have seen all the fights already. I think one thing that is new, though, is the fandom awareness of things like privilege and intersectionality and various -isms, as well as things like “providing warnings might be nice” (do you know how much unwarned deathfic I have read? a lot!) and I sure won’t say we’re perfect at any of this now, but I think fandom is trying way way more about all that stuff than it used to.

There are some fights we actually don’t have anymore, as far as I can tell. I feel like it’s been years since I’ve seen the “real person fiction is wrong” battle, but also I don’t hang out in a whole lot of RPF fandoms, so it’s possible that’s still going and I just don’t see it.

There also used to be a recurring debate about whether gay relationships that were canonical were slash or not. When slash started, obviously this wasn’t a question because there weren’t canonical gay relationships in fandoms, period. But as gay characters began to appear in media, people started to wonder “does slash mean all same-sex relationships, or does slash mean only non-canonical same-sex relationships?” Now, you may be reading this and think that sounds like an incredibly weird thing to get hung up on, but that’s because what appears to have happened is that the term “ship” (originally from X-Files Mulder/Scully fandom) has, as far as I can tell, come up and eaten most of the rest of the terminology. Now people will just say, “oh, I ship that.” For any pairing, gay or not, canonical or not. Fandom seems to have decided that for the most part it no longer actually needs a term specific to same-sex relationships as a genre.

Similarly, there are a few genres of fic that we used to have also pretty much don’t exist anymore. There are also plenty of genres that are well-entrenched now that are also extremely recent -- A/B/O comes to mind. But there are some kinds of fic we don’t write a lot of now. Like, I haven’t seen smarm in years! I also haven’t seen We’re Not Gay We Just Love Each Other in a while. There was also a particular style of slash writing where you’d basically have to explain, in detail, what made you think that these particular characters could be anything other than straight. You’d have to motivate this decision. You’d have to look at their canonical heterosexual relationships and come up with a way to explain why all those had happened in order to reconcile how this one guy could have romantic feelings for another guy. When had he figured out he wasn’t straight? Who might he have been with before? How does he interact with people in ways that make you think he’s not straight? That kind of thing. You had to, essentially, show your work. And these days a lot of fanfic is just like, “Okay, Captain America is bisexual, let’s go!” It’s... different.

Fandom also used to skew older, is my sense. A lot older. I don’t know, actually, if it really was older, but I get the sense now that there are some younger people who are surprised that adults are still in fandom. I have seen people saying these days that they think they’re too old for fanfiction because they are not in middle school anymore. And I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that the barriers to access fandom are a lot lower than they used to be. You used to basically have to be an adult with disposable income (or know an adult with disposable income who was willing to help you out; but even then if you were reading explicit fiction you also had to swear you were 18+, usually by sending in an age statement to whoever you were buying the zine from or to the mods of the list you wanted to join, so a lot of fandom was very much age-gated). Internet access was not widely available. Even if you had internet access, you maybe didn’t have your own email address, so you couldn’t sign up for mailing lists; free email providers didn’t exist. If you wanted to buy zines, you had to have money to buy them. If you wanted to go to cons, you had to be able to afford the cost of the con, travel to the con, et cetera. If you wanted to have a website you had to know HTML. Social media did not exist. You want to draw art? Guess what, you’re probably drawing it on paper! You might be able to upload a picture to your website if you have a digital camera or a scanner, but both of those things are expensive, and also a lot of people don’t have the capability or the money to download pictures from the internet (some people have data caps with overage charges, and some people have text-only connections!), so they won’t get to see it. Maybe you can sell your piece at a con! You want to make a fanvid? We called them songvids, but, anyway, you know how you’re doing that? You’re going to hook two VCRs together and smash the play and record buttons very fast! If you want anyone else to watch them, you are either making them a tape personally and mailing it to them or bringing your vids to a convention. Maybe you can digitize them and upload them, but it’s going to take people hours to download them!

(Every three hours my ISP would kick me off the internet and I’d have to dial in again. If it was a busy time of day, it might take me 20 or 30 minutes to get a connection again. And that was assuming no one else in the house needed to use the phone line. Imagine if your modem went out every three hours now.)

And now, for the cost of my internet connection, I can read pretty much whatever fanfiction I want, whenever I want it. I can see all the fanart I want! I can watch vids! Podfic exists now! Fanmixes exist! Gifsets and moodboards exist! If I want to write fic I can write it with programs that are completely free, and as soon as I post it everyone in the entire world can read it. If I want to draw or make vids that may require some additional investment, but I may also be able to do it with things I already have. Do you have any idea how good we all have it?

There are a couple of kinds of fan activity that don’t seem to exist anymore, though, and I miss them. I know that roleplaying still goes on, but I feel like these days most people who do real-time text roleplay have switched to things like Discord. I know that in the LJ days, RP communities were popular. But I really miss MU*s (MUDs, MUSHes, MOOs, MUXes..), which were servers for real-time text-based RP with a bunch of... hmm... features to aid RP. There were virtual rooms with text descriptions, and objects in virtual rooms with descriptions, and your character had a description, and they could interact with the objects as well as with other characters, and you could program things to change descriptions or emit various kinds of text or take you to different rooms, and so on. Just to, y’know, enhance the atmosphere. It was fun and it was where I learned to RP and I’m sad they’re pretty much gone now.

I also don’t think I see a lot of fanfiction awards in fandoms. Wonder where they went.

Going back to the previous point, the barriers to actually consuming the canon you are fannish about are way, way, way lower now. You can pretty much take it for granted that if right now someone tells you about a shiny new fandom, there will be a way to read that book or watch that show or movie right now. Possibly for free! Of course you can watch it! Why wouldn’t you be able to?

This was absolutely, absolutely not the case before. I’m currently in Marvel Comics fandom. If there is a comic I want to read, I can read it right now on the internet. I have subscribed to Marvel Unlimited and I can read pretty much every comic that is older than three months old; the newer ones cost extra money. But I can do it all from the comfort of my own home right now. I was also, actually, in Marvel Comics fandom in the nineties. If I wanted to read a comic, I had to go to a comic book store and hope they had it in stock; if they didn’t, I had to try another store. Not a lot of comics were available in trade paperback and they definitely weren’t readable on the internet. I used to read a lot of Gambit h/c fic set after Uncanny X-Men #350. I never found a copy of UXM #350. I still haven’t! But I did eventually read it on Unlimited.

Being in TV show fandoms also had similar challenges. Was the show you were watching still on the air? No? Then you’d better hope you could find it in reruns, or know someone who had tapes of it that they could copy for you, otherwise you weren’t watching that show. It was, I think, pretty common for people to be in fandoms for shows they hadn’t seen, because they had no way to see the show, but they loved all the fanfic. The Sentinel had a whole lot of fans like that, both because I think it took a while for it to end up in reruns and because overseas distribution was probably poor. So you’d get people who read the fic and wrote fic based on the other fic they’d read, which meant that you got massive, massive amounts of fanon appearing that people just assumed was in the show because it was a weirdly specific detail that appeared in someone’s fic once. Like “Jim and Blair’s apartment has a small water heater” (not actually canonical) or “Blair is a vegetarian” (there’s an episode where his mother visits and IIRC cooks him one of his favorite meals, which is beef tongue).

Like, I was in The Professionals fandom for years. I read all the fic. I hadn’t seen the show. As far as I know, it never aired in the US, and it certainly never had any kind of US VHS or DVD release. I’d seen a couple songvids. I eventually saw a couple episodes in maybe 2003, and that was because my dad special-ordered a commercial VHS tape from the UK and paid someone to convert it from PAL to NTSC. I didn’t get to see the whole show until several years later when I got a region-free DVD player someone in fandom sent me burned copies of the UK DVD releases and then I special-ordered the commercial release of the DVDs from the UK myself. But if I were a new fan and wanted to watch Pros right now? It is on YouTube! For free!

I think also one of the things about fandom that’s not immediately evident to new fans is the way in which it is permanent and/or impermanent. There are probably people whose first fannish experience is on Tumblr or who only read fanfic on FFN and who have no idea what they would do if either site, say, just shut down. But if you’ve been in fandom a while, you’ve been through, say, Discord, Tumblr, Twitter, Pillowfort, Imzy, DW, JournalFen, LJ, GeoCities, IRC, mailing lists. And sure, if Tumblr closed, it would be inconvenient. But fandom would pack up and move somewhere else. You would find it again. It would, eventually, be okay. Similarly, if you’ve been in a lot of fandoms, if you’ve made a lot of friends, drifting through fandoms is like that. You’ll make a friend in 1998 because you were in the same fandom, and then you might go your own ways, and ten years later you might be in another fandom with them again! It happens.

But the flip side of that is that I think a lot of older fans have learned not to trust in the permanence of any particular site. If you like a story, you save it as soon as you read it. If you like a piece of art, you save it. If you like a vid, you save it. Because you don’t know when the site it’s on will be gone for good. I have, like, twenty years of lovingly-curated fanfic. And I feel like people who have only been in fandom since AO3 existed might not understand how much AO3 is a game-changer compared to what we had before. It’s a site where you can put your fic up and you don’t have to worry that the webhost is going out of business, or that the site might delete your work because they don’t allow gay fiction or explicit fiction or fiction written in second person or fiction for fandoms where the creator doesn’t like fanfiction, or whatever. Because all of those things have absolutely happened. But, I mean, I still save pretty much everything I like, even on AO3, just in case.

So, basically, yeah, fandom is a whole lot more accessible than it used to be. I think fandom is pretty much still fandom, but it’s a lot easier to get into, and that has made it way more open to people who wouldn’t have been able to be in fandom before. There is so, so much more now than there ever was before, and I think that’s great.

[outoftheframework]

my proposal for tropes we as a fandom should adopt in all fanworks going forward: Duke Thomas edition

So every fandom has tropes and characterization quirks that have been generally accepted into fanon and, like, maybe? they were originally based on some obscure comic panel from the 80s or something but it doesn’t really matter because we’re all just,,, cool with it? Like for example- in the dc comics fandom, an art piece could show 3 of the bats that look virtually identical except one of them is holding a box of cereal so that one is obviously Dick Grayson. . . Y’know?

Anyway, these things usually come up naturally I guess but I’ve been here a while and it’s finally time to put my foot down. It’s high time for Duke Thomas to be more in fanon than “the sane one.” Because he might be the relatively new guy but he is certainly fears no gods or laws of the land just as much as the other bats, lemme tell ya. 

TL;DR here are character quirks (”canon-based” or otherwise) that we should all really latch onto seriously I’m begging y’all to make at least one of these happen-

Duke “Habitually Jumping Out of Moving Vehicles” Thomas

This one’s actually based in canon y’all; Duke did indeed yeet himself out of the back of a cop car and off of a bridge (in We Are... Robin). Normalize Duke’s wearing knee and elbow pads as Signal because jumping out of a car turns out relatively fine once and then suddenly Batman’s rooftop disappearing act seems mellow compared to the amount of times Gordon has whipped his head around to see a now Signal-less backseat. 

Like, he’s going 60 mph?? And he didn’t even hear the door open?? and tHE DOORS ARE STILL LOCKED??

Imagine this leaking into civilian life and Bruce waking up to a blurry photo of Duke mid-escape from a limousine on the front page of the Gotham Gazette.

(more under cut)

Duke “Puzzles are my Passion” Thomas

Duke is ~canonically~ very skilled at both solving and concocting riddles (as a child during that time where The Riddler just,,, controlled Gotham, he worked non-stop on riddles, trying to make the perfect one). Please y’all- let Duke solve puzzles. Have the other bats ask him for help after 36 hours straight of brooding over some brainteaser that Duke works out within the half-hour. He texts a picture of the solution scribbled out on loose leaf in the margins of his pre-calc homework because this boy shows his work. 

My guy is a word-cross FIEND. A mind-sweeper speed-runner. That guy who mails into the Gazette to correct a solution in the “fun & games” section and also ps that photo is not of me I am simply a polite young man who is much too busy writing into the paper in the year 2021 to jump out of limos-

I also would love to see this integrated into the type of cases he investigates / runs into on his daytime patrol. Like, obviously the criminal activity is going to dramatically differ before and after sundown, but that doesn’t make Duke’s work any easier or less important. It’s a different skillset; he has to work differently. Instead of jumping into fights, halting mob meetings, saving civilians in dark allies, etc. Duke has to sort through all of the moving pieces before they all converge into something catastrophic. 

It’s a known fact that criminal organizations in Gotham make and execute a lot of behind-the-scenes plans during the day specifically not to run into the bats. And Duke knows and monitors this shit all by himself; his work is crucial to logistics and information gathering for the bats as a whole. Now criminals have like, a 2 hour gap between bat-shifts to try and get stuff done. But Duke would 100% set traps on timers or lead them on this pre-set convoluted goose chase  to distract them until the night bats come out and to let himself enjoy the whole thing playing out on the news while he finishes homework that’s due at midnight.

Duke “I Know a Guy” Thomas

So in going off of the basic concept for the “We Are. . . Robin” run in combination to his general likability, Duke has a lot of friends all around Gotham. Okay, sure, he doesn’t have a Super best friend or a Speedster on speed dial, but he does know this guy who details cars up on West 35th and will tell them all about the new mods on Black Mask’s transport vans if they come through the third floor window and bring takeout. 

Bruce and Tim will be waiting for the facial recognition software to identify at least a partial match off of security cam footage when Duke pulls into the cave, takes one look at the screen, and says “Oh, that’s <insert name, address, abridged life story, and known associates here>.” This also brings in the opportunity for Duke to have some sort of perfect recall for faces, voices, names, etc. which I think could be a really cool element for his position as the batfamily member who has a lot more personal interaction with the people of Gotham.

I’m also into the idea of a lot of people knowing/telling stories about Duke. Not to reference the Chuck Norris meme but almost like the Chuck Norris meme lmao. Think about Jason mentioning his brother to someone and she replies, “Duke Thomas? Like that Duke Thomas? The one who swam across the harbor because he said it’d be faster than the subway and it actually was?” These stories have varying levels of truth to them but Duke will never confirm nor deny when he gets random calls from family members yelling “you dID WHAT”

So those are my top three, and the following is a little speed-round of headcanons :)

Duke has a super expressive face. Like when he’s relaxed around family, you can tell exactly what he’s thinking and how he’s feeling by his visual reactions to things

Duke rotates through picking up new and revisiting old hobbies at a pretty rapid pace. Some hobbies include: bullet journaling, origami, viola, cello, synth, conversational basics in multiple languages, up-cycling and embroidering clothes

Duke has a really fucking adorable smile. He can’t help it. He’ll try to grin sarcastically or smug to be annoying but his smile just cannot be anything other than endearing. He also has a very specific booming laugh that’s an absolute treasure to hear, because it’s the most genuinely happy thing ever. 

Duke unironically enjoys Signal by Twice even though the first time he heard it was after Steph had set it as his morning alarm.

So.

Come and get your food, I guess.

Feel free to add on if you’d like! I’d love to see anything you guys write/draw/etc. based on anything from here if you feel compelled to do so!

Stay safe and be well :) 

[obeymeluv]

The Baby Assignment [Lucifer]

I have a list of actual headcanons for demon baby behaviors, but this is not that post.

You and the boys have a baby! (sort of). 

You should’ve never told Diavolo about how high schools used to have practice baby classes.

Note: most of the genders and children come from “The Bros as Dads” post.

Cut me some slack on the names. I didn’t really have them planned, haha.

Lucifer:

Extremely skeptical. This whole assignment depends on you two standing in a summoning circle and--in a flash of light there’s a KID in the middle of the floor.

It’s a GIRL! 

This triggers his demon form on reflex because he’s startled and can’t help but have flashbacks of Lilith. You’re cooing to the little girl and Lucifer feels breathless as he takes in her hair (it’s his) and those big eyes (they’re yours)

His wings flap a few times before pressing close to his body. This has caught the baby’s attention and she’s staring at him with more intelligence than a child should have.

The professor says the child will grow exponentially over the next week or so and she should be able to deliver a report on how competent you are as parents. Their developmental age will be assessed and factored in as part of the grade.

You walk carefully over to Lucifer, eyes shining and a tiny fist in your hand and oh Diavolo, he wants this child to be real right then and there!

The naming doesn’t happen until you’re back at the House of Lamentation with a massive magical trunk that will spawn child necessities. You sit in his study as the baby looks around and points to things. You name them off.

You’re in the middle of walking her over to look at his records and watching her slap things on the shelf, trying to feel them with her fingers, when he gets the idea to name her after one of the human composers he knows (”Marianna.”)

You honestly thought the addition of a literal child would throw Lucifer off but he’s prepared. It’s only then you realize he’s been alive for thousands of years and helped raise the other six people in the house

Enjoy your view of Lucifer wearing a baby sling for the first three days because unless you have a real kid together, this is the only time you’ll see it

The two of you work on a schedule and carve out time to teach the child on top of your other duties. Sometimes you’re hooked up to the sling, sometimes it’s him. He gets a kick out of seeing you tote the kid around and usually catches you tickling her feet.

Diavolo graciously lightens up on Lucifer’s paperwork load (BY A LOT!) in exchange for seeing the child and playing with them

Most of her facial expressions take after Lucifer’s and Diavolo is BEYOND amused

After day 3, Marianna gets distressed seeing Lucifer sit so long, so she’ll toddle you to Lucifer and just points until you do something about it

100% a daddy’s girl and Lucifer has a hard time keeping his pride in check. It’s coming off of him in waves

She says her first words between day 4 and day 5 and Lucifer wants to cry (he does) because the first one is “daddy”

From day 5 on it’s a constant fight to keep her close because the bros want to smother her for being so cute and are bugging her to say their names

Marianna is partial to Satan and Lucifer is secretly glad. Satan acts all smug about it.

She has Lucifer’s insistency for perfection. Mammon was messing with her tea party set up and she bit him for moving her plate in the wrong spot. That was day 6 and she had her pointy baby demon teeth. Marianna got a little whisper scolding that Mammon would’ve died for BECAUSE SHE GETS KISSES WHILE SHE’S GETTING SCOLDED? FOR REAL?! HE GETS STRUNG UPSIDE DOWN!

Marianna hates being fussed over and likes to dress herself. Whatever you or Lucifer fix, she undoes when your back is turned.

One of her favorite hobbies is sitting on Lucifer’s lap and practicing her handwriting. She also likes to brush his feathers. Marianna asks to sleep in them and will try to hide from you in them. The giggles give her away.

By day 7 she has the intelligence of (at least) a 6 year old and has velvety nubs for horns. You learned that demons like to rub their horns against hard surfaces (or loved ones) as scenting and for their growth.

She accidentally scratches you up, not quite understanding you’re human, and goes into an absolute meltdown. She didn’t mean to hurt you.

Goes into a freaking rage when anyone tries to fix you up. Wants to do it herself. This kid is a literal puddle of apologies, please hold her.

She cuddles you for the rest of that day and officially gets her own little desk beside Lucifer on day 8. Marianna pretends to write her own letters but mostly draws. Bugs Lucifer with the random stuff Satan and Levi teaches her but he doesn’t mind.

You’d bring them snacks every now and then and sometimes you’d hear them singing together (ever so quietly). You didn’t know Lucifer could sing. 

Lucifer has woken up with a fist in his face, accidentally been punched in the eye, and has been kicked away at least once since she was big enough to sleep in the bed. She takes after Lucifer in the way that she needs you behind closed doors. Marianna doesn’t sleep unless she can feel both of you next to her. 

Lucifer officially has bragging rights about sleeping with you (even if he won’t pull that). Secretly gets the best sleep of his life. Really starting to feel the parent thing. A kid with you would be nice.

Marianna gets little fluffs for wings on day 9 and they “air box” when she’s angry. She demands back scratches for how dry and itchy the feel and you figure out she purrs like Lucifer.

She doesn’t always prank Lucifer but when she does, she hides his pens and makes him play hide and seek with her to get them back

Marianna likes to help out in the kitchen and loves setting the table. She gets mad if anyone messes with the napkin folds you guys practice. She makes a tiny Lucifer screech when Asmo gets obnoxious with taking pictures for Devilgram and Mammon nearly breaks his chair trying to run out of it. She laughs like you.

Around day 10 she insists on a family day and Lucifer has this sinking feeling in his gut that she knows she won’t be around much longer. Maybe it’s a side effect of the spell. The two of you spend the day running around the Devildom taking lots of pictures. Diavolo crashes a few of those pictures.

She spends day 11 burning the midnight oil with Lucifer. Around 9 PM he’s trying to send her to bed. Marianna just drags a blanket back into his study and snuggles down. He notices all her old pictures and some new ones she’s drawn. “It’s my book,” she tells him.

“Your book?”

“Yep.” she colors in the lines carefully, the finished pages pushed away and much better than her older ones. “It’s for you guys, for when I go away. And for your school.”

On day 12 you bring her back into the class, she’s dressed in similar colors to Lucifer. She wanted to look good for her presentation and she said ‘dad always looks nice’.

Marianna talks through her book, calling back memories of building blocks and playing hide and seek. She’s very proud of the pictures from two days ago. They’re her favorite. She shows off her horns and the “dad roar”.

You and Lucifer walk her to the circle. She stands in it as the spell determines her final age. She’s about 10, pushing the limits for growth as determined by the spell.

“I wasn’t here a long time, but I had fun.” she hands him the book and gives you a much longer hug than Lucifer. You wonder if it’s her way of apologizing for having a favorite even though she was good to both of you. “Maybe I’ll see you again sometime.” she looks up at Lucifer as she hugs him, her chin pressed into his stomach.

“Perhaps.” Lucifer takes on his demon form as the circle starts to glow, flapping one wing at her. She “air boxes” back before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

It’s a quiet, lonely silence. Very cold. There’s a subtle warmth in Lucifer’s embrace as he guides you back to your desk. It was brief, but you see why she likes his hugs.