#on their standards it could work too and also Doc but that’s pretty much it

[diari0deglierrori]

Also I had to defend the honor of Italian shows today u_u

[on-the-clear-blue]

The idea warms are hitting extremely hard today, so outside of my usual DPxDC I give you, Spider-Man in Gotham...Not MCU Peter edition!

Give me a Peter Parker that is 18 going on onto 19, he has been Spider-Man for like, 5 almost 6 years, getting his bite very early, and dealing with all the things that happen to him younger.

And give me a Year One Batman. Who is still trying to figure out what the hell he is doing, and toting along a 9 year old Robin

Peter, falling out of a portal, and doing his standard check of surroundings, spotting Batman staring at him in clunky armor and a brightly colored child: Waves slowly

Bruce, who heard some freaky shit was happening with a cult near by and went to investigate: blinking at the blue and red being that got summoned

Dickie, who is trying (and failing) to do the Bat glare: still waves back.

And like, just the idea of this 19 year old Spider-Man taking a much older vigilante under his wing, teaching him the ins and outs of it all.

Like..

Bruce, Storming through a bag guys base gets suddenly pulled back by a web to his cape.

Peter, giving him a "bitch you dumb" look under his mask: Traps! LOOK FOR TRAPS?? AND LOOK UP? PEOPLE HID THINGS UP?

Bonus, Spider-Man bending himself into a human pretzels and Dick "I have no bones" Grayson is gleefully testing to see if he could do it too.

Jump cut, years later, Peter beats emotional intelligence into Bruce with Dick.

All the Bat kids grow up with Uncle Peter, (either Peter can't get back or has been told specifically that he can't by a higher being or something) and like...

Peter is the only one that catches Tiny Tim following them during patrol, he shows him all the places to get the best angles, even poses a few times for him.

Either is there when Jason dies and saves him, or is there mourning with Bruce

(Gotham lives in fear of the memory, Batman at his most brutal and Black Suit Spider-Man)

Teaches Jason how to control his pit rage after he comes back, what is Spider-Man if not control?

Stephanie is his bestie in puns and white girl music tastes.

Tim finds a partner in constantly staying up far to late as well as someone who likes to invent,( because I hc that Peter has pretty much worked with every scientist in New York, cus like since this is a blend of canons, he has worked with the Lizard, Doc Oct, Reed Richards, the only one he said no to an internship was Stark)

Duke gets a meta mentor that can help him with his powers, Spidey has been on more than one team with someone that had some form of light powers.

Plus I think Spider-man is Gothams daytime hero before Signal joins him, they are the daytime duo

Cass is his favorite (don't tell anyone because they already know) she can see him and he can see her in a spider sense, they do the point meme whenever they sense each other.

Little stabby Damian finds out that this person with his father has been trained by many an assassin (Wade, Daredevil, Natasha, Shield in general)

And Wade...Deadpool pops up occasionally, even he doesn't understand why or how lBruce gets a strange feeling he should punch the Flash in the face the next time he sees him)

Bruce having to deal with Deadpool is terrible for him and I sadly love it.

(Also on the point of Black suit spidey in Gotham...ESPECIALLY after Jason is murdered? Oh Peter is killing the Joker, or his arm privileges forfeit. I feel like Peter would try not to kill him but wouldn't try too hard.)

Spider-man being a founding members of the Justice League, them having to deal with Peter crawling on the ceiling, and scuttering through air vents!

Peter making Parker Industries, pointing inventions from other heros/villains from his world, he isn't above pettiness, and that's how the DC world gets some of Reed Richard's old designs he gave to Peter "Because they are practically useless" they arnt they save millions of lives. Not to mention Arc Reactors, Peter grinned the whole time claiming it was his idea.

Hope you enjoy my ADHD rambling brought to you be sleep deprivation

[spacecowboy6780]

HII !!! LOVED YOUR ART ♡

do your csm ocs have lore? i'd love to read it ! (not me trying to make fanart no how would you think that nooooo of course nooooott)

HAADJKFMKLGD THANK YOUUU SO MUCH 😭😭 i dont know if i really have any good lore yet... im pretty bad at making that typa stuff i kinda just draw things lol

Orion!!

(i draw him a little differently each time dw abt it)

his pants are like- loose at the bottom so not tight fit :)) and he has like black combat boots i guess he's a whole sucker for black and white clothing hehe..

has a tongue piercing and a piercing on his right ear

he has a contract with the fox devil

likes the color white

does mma, anything to do with shooting things, and fishing

barem's right hand man (just a person to do his dirty work lol)

he's wasian, white mom (died during his birth), japanese dad (hates him for his mom's death and makes him try twice as hard because of it)

from a rich family who owns a [blank] company (i haven't decided what yet, i feel like a gun company would work but that's kinda ironic cuz yk)

he was a good child! always trying to meet his father's standards so he could do well, he wanted to be the best because he wanted his father's "love" (it wasn't really love. his father was emotionally manipulative and abusive and only gave him "love" whenever he did something in his favor or good. when he didn't he would tell him how much of a disgrace he is. only to treat him nicely again when he did something good.)

a social bird, made friend easily all throughout his school years, a popular and friendly person. he started to realize he could do whatever during his highschool years, because of his status as the sole heir to his father's company so he started to become more rebellious, going out more, skipping classes, getting drunk, but he always brought back straight A's. he became a rowdy asshole genius typa guy

closeted homo up to college years, he started really embracing his gay then. during highschool and middle school he would date women but he didn't really feel anything for them and would usually break up with them after a few months. he would make up the sweetest and most heartbreaking reasons why and they would forgive him, when in reality he really didn't care about them

his dad was suffering from heart issues as he got older, and as orion got older he grew to hate his dad, he slowly poisoned him with arsenic which led to him having a heart attack and dying!! one day he accidentally put too much arsenic into his food but he was like yknow what it's okay and then made sure to keep the maids away from his slowly decaying father, put him to bed early and tada he had a heart attack

he got away with it cause a) he’s the sole heir to the company and b) if he went to court? 💰💥💰💥💰💥

he met barem at the chainsaw church!! he was curious about it, flyers and all over town so he went to check it out. he got a tour from one of the church members before bumping into him. it was kind of a physical attraction at first, he just wanted to get into his pants. so he got a tour from barem, saying he didn't remember any of it (playing dumb blond stereotype lol). but after talking to him he was like hey wait this guy is also kind of cool and an eye opener (idk what he would've said i'll figure something out) and then he started to reeeeally take a liking to barem. he started to appear more around the chainsaw church, mostly around barem and talk to him a lot but he wouldn't join it. he didn't want to marry a woman. barem asked why he would come to the csm church if he didn't want to join it. orion was blunt and was like to see you ofc. barem was like ???.

sooner or later orion became his right hand man (i'll explain more on how later), or more of a person to just do a lot of his dirty work because he was so willing to do it. he's also willing to pay for all of barem's expenses. lol sugar daddy

ok i think im done for now but ill make like- a better doc for him i think he's like the first kind of fleshed out oc i've made in a while haha!

[acertainmoshke]

Happy STS! What are your go-to/preferred writing tools? Favorite pen types, notebooks, keyboards, etc, but it doesn't have to be limited to just those things. Writing programs, favorite reference books, thesauruses, dictionaries, TTS software, whiteboards, corkboards, flash cards, encyclopedias, anything goes!

Nooooooooooo Nopal you don't know what you've done! How could you know I have an actual special interest in this??

So I am obsessed with notebooks but also REALLY picky about them. My handwriting is teeny so I don't like big lines, and I think it looks neater and prettier with smaller lines anyway. The covers can have a cool pattern or be plain if it's a nice color and high-quality enough. I do occasionally make exceptions; my current journal is fairly cheap with large lines, but it's a rare older Batman one in my favorite color with bat-tech designs on all the pages and a light-up bat signal on the color, so it was worth it. My newly discovered favorite notebook aspect is ones that are designed so the pages lay flat and it's easier to write. Oh, and I LOATHE spiral notebooks. The big school-style ones are ok for random notes or anything unimportant, but the smaller little ones that are normal book size are absolutely worthless. The spirals always come undone before I'm done with them.

I'm also picky about writing utensils. I keep a journal strictly in pen so it can't fade and I can't get embarrassed and erase it. I write stories strictly in pencil because I WILL need to erase and try out lines. But, although I'm using one currently for my big-lined Batman journal, in general I can't stand large ballpoints. By which I mean 0.7, which is pretty standard. 0.5 is ok, but I much prefer the rarer smaller pens. I used to have a Japanese friend who I would get to send me 0.35 pens because they are normal there but expensive over here. In pencils anything under 0.5 is impractical, but I like the fancy mechanical pencils with a nice grip and a dent that lets you dig out the eraser even after it's erased down. My current one is teal.

None of that answered your question but it was necessary anyway. And this is getting too long so the actual answer is going under a cut.

We'll see how long I can keep it going, but I like to write my stories on paper. Of course, it's not worth starting a nice new notebook if I'm unlikely to finish it and it's impractical if I don't have a clear idea of the basic story, because jumping around out of order is impossible. I like it though because it forces me to slow down and think about each scene; I can't rush the way I do when typing. It also gives me a built-in edit when I copy it up, so by the time I'm editing a full draft it's already technically a second draft. And it's convenient because I can take it to work and write on my breaks, or if I'm waiting in line at the post office, or anywhere I happen to find myself.

I do still write on the computer, of course, for fanfiction or just-for-fun things I'll never finish or stories I'm still figuring out. When I do truly long-form things I like to use work because I hate the way Google docs looks (controversial, I know). But for short things, or worldbuilding, or fanfic, I like to use Notion. I like that I can nest pages within each other endlessly. It makes my autistic organizing brain buzz.

I recently discovered that I enjoy using actual notecards pinned to a corkboard for initial plot planning. I can't always do this, and I make outlines too for more detail, but being able to physically move stuff around in real space helps my brain focus on what is actually important to include.

Thank you sooooo much for giving me a chance to ramble about this!!

[myhatisblue]

lore.

I think Mills would have to do a lot of studying on anatomy. Knowing how everything worked would make altering flesh while maintaining function.

I think that would also make the physical contact thing provide more information that he doesn't actually want. Since he'd be capable of actually processing what he's seeing. At least in terms of knowing something wasn't standard in terms of text book examples. Leading to moral issues of if he should or shouldn't let someone know they need to go see a doc if he realizes it. I don't think he could bring himself to personally intervene in that kinda thing.

It's a flood of information when someone makes contact, all leading to the same realization, that the thing touching him is trapped in a form it doesn't fit. And something pulls at him to just fix the problem. No matter how hard he tries to shake it, it's an instinct he can't escape.

That's why he couldn't really help people who needed it, he's not able to get past the fear of going too far. That once that kinda step is taken there won't be any coming back, he won't be him anymore.

Now I don't think he'd enjoy studying that kinda stuff, but likely after seeing it makes things easier he'd pretty much have to slog through it.

For some reason I think it would be really funny if he knew someone they were pregnant before they did. And how awkward that conversation would be.

[tickly-trashcan]

hello everyone!! still… away LOL but ive been doing a bit of writing in my downtime hehe. i started working on a little backburner project and was wondering… would anyone be willing to help beta read for me?? ive had a few people beta read my fics before, but i always feel bad asking people out of the blue haha so i feel like if i threw it out there more generally then it’d be easier!! if you’re interested i’ll put a little bit of info below the cut! :D

Beta reading is essentially proofreading a fic! A beta reader is more casual than like… an editor! beta readers can check for grammar mistakes and such but its mostly just for if the fic sounds good or not haha at least thats how I understand it. If anyone’s up for beta reading i’m not expecting like… super serious edits with every sentence LOL just maybe a few notes~

The fic i’ve been starting a little bit on is… kind of loose lol there’s not too much plot it’s mostly just delving into some characters. It’s a modern AU ninjago fic (predictable, i know) and is essentially a slice of life fic where the main five all live in an apartment and go about life. Later on, they end up deciding to go on a road trip across Ninjago and thats where a lot of the character exploration comes in! I’m not sure if there’s going to be any shippy stuff in it tbh, mostly found family vibes but that could change depending on how it turns out!

It’s probably going to be a little boring since its so self indulgent but if anyone would be interested in beta reading (even just giving it a skim and saying whether its good or bad LOL) please DM me!! i’m currently working on standard notes since I dont have great access with mobile google docs, but as soon as I’m able I’ll send what I have so far your way! I currently have about… half of chapter 1 done, and so far my outline has about 3 chapters planned, its at about 1.3k so far! I’m expecting it to be a shorter multichapter fic, but if i end up starting to plan more than 10 chapters i will let yall know!! also note if you want to volunteer to beta read you dont have to commit to the whole fic LOL i am a chronic overwriter and love to include stuff that probably doesnt need to be there so it could easily get longer than expected quickly!! okay now ive rambled way too long hehe but if you’re interested pretty please dm me!!! :DDD thank you for reading all of this if you did fbhkdfsnjskd treat yourself to a cookie!

(note i can probably copy paste what i have into a google doc if anyone would like to read like… immediately LOL but it’ll probably be easier to just upload when i get back and when i have a bit more done i’m kind of jumping the gun a bit with asking for a beta reader now hehe im just excited. I should be back on april 8th but i’ll be severely tired and jetlagged so realistically i can probably get a good quality document by april 9th!! just a quick heads up lolol)

[afleetingmuse]

Hi everyone!

To fix a duel ended problem I'm having as a DM, I've made a thing! Lol

The Flaw:

Sometimes if I have a/any new player(s) who wants to try D&D but finds it intimidated or overwhelming. Traditionally, I have a one on one character creation session or a group game 0. All pretty standard stuff and while I don't mind doing this, it can be very time consuming. Especially if I have new players that are just doing a one shot(the ending always has flexibility to morph into a campaign).

The Background:

The last one shot I did was for a my best friend, her husband, her brother and his girlfriend. But because the four of them lived in another city and I was only visiting for a few days I asked them if they'd like to pick their race, class, and background, and I'll fillout their character sheets for them so we can just go over some smaller details and jump right into the game. They all agreed but while I was filling things out and choosing some basic and versatile spells. I realized I'd still have to go over background features, racial abilities or all the things they would have on hand. So I handmade little cards that explained things like dark vision ect. I then went to the dollar store and bought some of those plastic card holders that go in binders. Set it up for them, so that all I had to do was hand them a few of these sheets and everything they needed was easy to read and straight forward(luckily for me others on Reddit had blank spell cards which was a real time saver).

My players loved it, and after a quick explanation of the basic of dice rolling and where to find information they needed we hopped into the game. It was great but very time consuming on my end for a one shot.

The Inspiration:

I have another one shot coming up in a few months and while my sister lives in town(Hi Sister, I technically haven't asked you yet if you wanted to play but Cousin's Husband is really excited) , my cousin and her husband live out of town. So when I showed up to work early today I couldn't find my new campaign notes on my Google Docs. I didn't want to try and remember what I had already wrote down so I started thinking about making some blank cards that I could fill out the information and get started on all the behind the scenes work. When I had the idea to make a printable sheet so that I'll never have to handwrite it out again. It took a few tries to get a basic look that I liked. What would be easiest to print out and not waste paper ect.

The Idea(Couldn't think of another character sheet reference that would work):

And I have this first draft to show for it. Basically I made a few of these sheets in Excel the top three rows are all the same, since they are the three most common Kits. Then the forth row has a different Kit on each page.

I wanted a space where they could erase and change the amount of what they have, like ball-bearings, rope, string, pitons and rations. If they ever get broken, lost, used or cut. Then I added how much the flat rate of price so you wouldn't have to look it up if you wanted to sell it. Finally I added a spot for a base weight incase you ever want to play a game where your strict on your carrying capacity but left it blank so again if something was to happen to your gear you can change it.

I know this has probably been done before I didn't think to look before I got started but regardless tada! Feel free to ask any questions or tell me what you think.

(I also posted this on Reddit, but figured I'd share it here too)

[cerenemuxse]

Initially, I thought Cailitn and Connor were twins or at least the same class.

I'm going through and updating my Docs and Sheets on the characters right now, and I've been considering making them British engines instead of American engines. It just makes much more sense to me as well as helping with the size issue. American engines are typically massive. Take this photo of LMS 6229 Duchess of Hamilton (streamlined) and a BO P-7 class for example.

Source

To clarify, I love Caitlin and Connor as they are! Definitely two of my favorite CGI-only characters from T&F, but I just don't think their basis are correct for this. Think about it.

The Earl is ALL about preservation and to me, it just seems like he'd be more interested in preserving non-streamlined steam engines more than streamlined steam engines. Maybe that's a better reason as to why he chose Caitlin and Connor, but unless he's having them travel all over the United Kingdom, why would they be streamlined. Originally, I assumed they would go to Barrow-in-Furness from Ulfstead Castle with no stops, which is somewhat the case.

And then their size becomes the issue. I'm trying to stick as close as to real-life circumstances as I can, and having them be cut down to size isn't an option I want to default to when it comes to American steam engines working on the North Western Railway. I'm already using the "they were just built different for UK railways" storyline for another character.

So I'm currently considering the following locomotives:

LNER A4s: I know I questioned the streamlining situation but I think it makes more sense for them if I do have them travel the majority of the United Kingdom to collect passengers for Ulfstead Castle. This would be an interesting option because they'd act so differently to Spencer, considering they're privately owned like him.

LMS Coronation Class: This is could work either way because I'm also considering the possibility that the journeys had to be stopped at Barrow-in-Furness when dieselisation happened and the last of the steam engines were withdrawn from service. At that point, streamlining is unnecessary so the casings are removed.

LMS Princess Royal Class: If I decide not to go the streamlined route or I want to make one of them a different class.

These were chosen for multiple reasons, those being:

I would like to keep the single survivors as they are, like Blue Peter, Tornado, Flying Scotsman, and Duke of Gloucester, which they will be joined by Hengist, a BR Standard 6. This already knocks off the LNER Gresley A3s, LNER Peppercorn A1s, LNER Peppercorn A2s, BR Standard 8, and BR Standard 6.

Go for a class that isn't made up of one example, such as the single BR Standard Class 8, Duke of Gloucester, and GWR 111, The Great Bear.

Cannot be classes that have already been used, keeping that heavy diverse of classes on the Island of Sodor and character roster in general. This knocks off the SR Merchant Navies, as well as the SR Battle of Britians and West Countries, and the LMS Royal Scots, rebuilt and unrebuilt for all three.

Not to use any recent classes, specifically BR. This crosses off the BR Standard 7.

Drop classes that wouldn't have survived by at least the 1950s. This crosses out the LNER Raven A2s and GWR 111.

The 4-8-4 configuration is a definte "No." It was considered to be too much by the LNER when the Hush Hush was released into traffic. Even though it was rebuilt with the body of a A4, it still retained its wheel configuration. It just seems too much for the NWR, considering its size. Its slightly bigger than the Furness Railway from what I've gathered. (If not, they're about the same size.)

These are the engines from the UK that I have listed so far, so I have still have more classes to sift through. The American steam engines are already a "No," due to their massive size. I have the following that could be really good candidates, because I'm pretty damn sure the Earl would love to preserve/operate a foreign engine. It just screams like something he would do. However, this list contain streamliners.

New South Wales C38 class: This one because they look similar to the Hudsons. Like the LMS Coronations, their casings can be removed to unveil the nonstreamlined version. Built in the 1940s.

Source: Wikipedia

Iraqi State Railways PC class: Similar design to the streamlined LMS Coronations with the valenced similar to those of the LNER Gresley A4s. Purely streamlined. I haven't found a photo where its not streamlined. Built in the 1940s. Only international option I've chosen that doesn't have any survivors to this day.

Source

DRB Class 01.10: Another streamlined engine that can have its casings removed. Built in the 1930s.

Source: Wikipedia

"But wait a minute, you just said this about the streamliners-" yeah I did but here's the thing. Connor and Caitlin are KNOWN AS streamliners. They're known to be different to the other engines and extremely fast. I would like to keep that as the first thing you know about them. They're ✨ streamlined ✨.

But then here comes another issue (this is post is so damn long- wut 😭)

I want to make "Best Engine Ever" canon to EoSR but I can't think I can pull off how dangerous it becomes since all of the examples I've mentioned have front buffers and they don't really have skirts, excluding the Iraqi State Railways PC class.

With all of this taken into consideration, I'm definitely leaning towards the New South Wales C38 as Connor's basis, just because the front reminds me of his T&F basis. They're green which is closer to the teal/blue Conor is originally in. As for Caitlyn, I'm somewhat considering the Iraqi State Railways PC class. It's a very good candidate, in my opinion, but the paintwork is what's throwing it off. I don't want to end up with two green engines, though it looks like the PCs used a mint green.

I'm just not entirely convined by the UK steam engines, though technically the Iraqi State Railways PC engine is English since this basis was built in England.

These classes were built mostly before BR era (C38s: January 1943 - November 1949 & PCs: 1940), they look smaller than the American engines and about the same size as the UK built engines, and they have visual aspects that remind me of their original basis from Thomas and Friends. Neither class only has a sole survivor. The Iraqi State Railway PCs having no surivors while the New South Wales C38s have four survivors. Neither class is made up of one example or been used as a basis for another character. Both classes survived past the 1950s and early-1960s, with the lastest withdrawal being that of a C38 in 1970.

So this is my overly-complicated and probably unnecessary analysis/research for Connor and Caitlin's new basis because I'm weird and want to stick as close to the real-world as much as I can. I wrote this within the span of two days because i was doing research as I was writing this so consider this post as a bunch of notes (which is part of the reason why I kept contradicting myself when it came to streamlining 🤡).

[eldritchships]

Thoughts on Earthspark!Flatline (spoilers for the most recent episodes)

Follows the standard version to begin with, except that part has to be set in the past, as the war’s over in the present. Flatline has cut ties with both Autobots and Decepticons, as he doesn’t want anything more to do with their conflict.

Being a former member of the 'Cons, GHOST has Flatline on something of a parole/house arrest. Flatline is allowed to live in a cosy, out of the way (and bot-sized) laboratory-slash-summer-home, but he probably has to give GHOST something in return in order to keep his freedom. Most likely, this is either his occasional services as a Cybertronian medic, or the manufacturing of bot-compatible medicine - thus far, we don't know who's been patching Optimus and Crew up after their battles, and having a Doc-Bot on hand would make it easier for the humans

(Note: Tarantulas mentioned that GHOST either imprisons or indentures 'Cons, so there's enough precedent for me that one of their prisoners could be contracted)

Flatline’s much happier in his current living situation, for the most part left alone in peace and able to work. It's not a perfect arrangement, but it's better than living in a cell. I also think he's on a tighter leash than he believes, and Croft is fine to use Flatline for her own benefit until there's adequate opportunity to eliminate him.

Flatline wasn't at the battle for the Allspark, or at least was fighting further away from the space bridge. So he was told and currently still thinks Shockwave died in the battle! Nobody has told him the truth yet! (At first Megs wanted to avoid further confrontation, but the half-truth went on for so long that at this point, it feels like it's been too long to come clean)

Dealing with Shockwave's 'death' was messy and Flatline was just as angry as to be expected. 15 years of no war, and presumably finally being convinced to work on his personal issues, have done a lot to heal those wounds, but they're definitely not gone. Especially if he were to find out he was lied to.

More divorced energy than other versions

Flatline has probably been inside the GHOST base when they needed greater repairs on one of the 'Bots (which means there's set-up for potential future drama)

ES!Flatline is more combat trained, a result of how long his service lasted before the war ended

Overall, he's doing pretty alright! It's not perfect, but it's the closest he's felt in a long time to his pre-war self. He's happy.

I would like for him to meet the Maltos at some point, although I don't know how that would happen. Maybe they go on a hike in the woods and find Flatline's place, idk, that could be fun. Flatline isn't a kid person and he's a bit of a bad influence, but I think he could handle not being terrible to them

Physical design notes:

There's a seemingly 'out of place' stripe around his thigh, which is actually painted over his Decepticon symbol (there's no GHOST symbol on his person either)

Flatline's syringe is a mix of the Prime and Gen 1/TFA versions - he's missing the middle finger on his right hand, and the harpoon-like blade is embedded in his wrist/forearm (the pointy bit takes the space of where his middle finger would be. Kind of an Assassin's Creed situation)

Has a similar facemask to his TFA version

I'll probably stay with the helicopter alt mode, although there's more options to potentially choose from if I look at other alt modes he's had (i.e. plane, scorpion).

[cartoonistcoop]

ShortBox Comics Member Interview: Diansakhu Banton-Perry

Throughout the month of October, the Cartoonist Cooperative will be sharing interviews with members of the Co-op who have a new comic available at the ShortBox Comics Fair 2024! 

NOTE: The Cartoonist Cooperative is not affiliated, associated, authorized, endorsed by, or in any way formally connected with ShortBox.  

Today’s spotlight is Diansakhu Banton-Perry and their new comic for ShortBox, Bug In My System

We’d love it if you could introduce yourself and tell us about your background in comics.

Diansakhu Banton-Perry: Hi, my name is Diansakhu Banton-Perry. I’m a character designer, illustrator and comic artist! I graduated from VCU in 2019, and my experience in college is where I had a real start with making comics. I joined a comic anthology club, where I made short comics and edited other students’ comics, and took as many comic classes as I could till graduation!

Tell us more about your new comic?

DB: This comic is called Bug In My System and it is a short sci-fi story about a highschool girl and her crush! It’s about 25 pages, and in black and white. It has a bit of uneasy energy to it, but sharing more would probably spoil it! 

Tell us about your creative process; how did you develop this comic and what are the steps you took to bring it to the final stage?

DB: I think my process is usually pretty standard. I have ideas on Google Docs with different stories in different stages of completion. For this comic, it was an idea I had from a while ago. I always go for sci-fi fantasy stories first, and started to work through it with different comic friends since the summer of last year.  It was pretty developed by the time I started thumbnailing it out. But, as I was writing the script, I realized it was going to be too long (like over 40 pages). I wanted to keep it under 30 pages so that I could keep the pacing how I wanted, not get too carried away with story details (more characters , extra context, stuff like that) and actually physically finish drawing everything on time. So, that part took way longer than I hoped, so I ended up going from thumbs straight to inks! I don’t recommend doing that, but my thumbnails are usually pretty clear so it didn’t hinder my ability to finish the comic, but it did slow down my inking process. By the end I wasn’t able to tone the comic, which stressed me out. But the story and mood came through because of the inking style I used. I needed to not look at my comic for a while after I submitted it. But, nowadays there’s a little less stress when I look at it.

What were some challenges you faced with this comic and how did you overcome them?

DB: My biggest challenges were definitely my time management and the story development! With this comic, I got very stuck on the ‘how did we get here’ part. I knew what the conclusion would be, and the climax, but the beginning was killing me. I wanted adequate time for character development, and I got a bit carried away with how to make that happen without making the comic much longer. In the end I needed to cut out parts of the story, but it took me way too long to get that conclusion. What really helped me sort of balance everything out was talking things out with friends! Critique is crucial! Also sticking to my schedule for each part of the process. I know for the future for making my own stories, that I need to give myself adequate time in the development stage. The less I need to think the better!

Do you have any creative rituals or routines to prepare yourself to make comics?

DB: Most comic artists probably do this too, but I love drawing out my characters first. Sometimes before I even have a story. They are usually the inspiration. If I don’t have character inspo first, then I’ll make a big reference sheet, and sketch out characters from there. For this comic I sketched four or five pages of the main characters so I could get  used to drawing them, and get a good feeling on how they’d interact.

Read the rest of the interview HERE! And dont forget to check out the Shortbox Comics Fair to support these lovely creators!!

[redorich]

to those who carried on

A fic for @petrichormeraki​ and their Hermit!Tommy AU.

-------

The hermits know Tommy as a quiet young man who is very sad and contemplative. The more time they spend with him (against his will, but they know he needs the company) the more they learn of the little details. His favorite block is cobblestone, he likes building towers, and apparently his favorite woman is the Queen. They don’t ask why he wears a smiley mask even though he never seems happy. They don’t ask why he hides important things in his ender chest. They don’t ask why he wears a shattered compass on a chain about his neck.

(Once, he died in lava and lost his absolute mind. He was so upset about the compass that he didn’t even mention the stack and a half of diamond ore he had on him. Xisuma ended up manually rolling back the server just so Tommy could have it back.)

As time goes on, the tremors in Tommy's hands grow lesser. His dull blond hair seems a bit brighter, his bruises fade quicker, he doesn’t look quite so skinny-- he spends his time serenely building, resource gathering instead of running and fighting. He has a sense of humor under all that trauma, which the hermits unfortunately find out after another massive-scale prank war thought to be instigated by Grian actually turns out to be Tommy's fault.

Tommy starts swearing more. Doc gets the stink eye from Stress for this, but Doc insists he’s never once sworn around the young man. (That’s an absolute lie, but it wasn’t anything Tommy hadn’t heard before. Tommy thinks Doc is remarkably unoriginal in his cursing. He does take note of the German ones, though.)

Inviting Tommy to PvP minigames can be touchy, they learn. He likes to fight, but he fights like an animal with nothing to lose. Grian once chanted, “It stays in the pit!” and everyone present had to spend the next five minutes wrangling Tommy’s soul back into his body from wherever it’d floated off to.

Tommy likes to glide with his elytra. He claims he’s never had one before, but he flies like such a natural that a few people have their doubts. On a dark desert night, with dark blue eyes watching the night sky, he confides to Cub that it reminds him of the way his dad used to fly. He hates rockets, though. He does not confide to Cub that it reminds him of what his brother did to his best friend. He says enough that Cub can guess, though.

Scar gets fed up with Tommy’s creeper holes and makes Tommy help him fix them. At first, Tommy has no clue why Scar is breaking out things like coarse dirt and birch leaves and making the ground all fancy, but he’s not afraid of a little hard work and Scar makes it fun. He learns a lot about terraforming that day, and awkwardly comes back a few days later asking if Scar needs any more help terraforming. Tommy still hasn’t built a real base, not by Hermitcraft standards, but the small hill he’s built his dirt hut near now has a very beautiful, if amateurish, waterfall. He doesn’t tell Scar about this, but Scar finds out anyway. Tommy wakes up one morning to find that someone has left a shulker box in his house. Instead of iron-gripped paranoia, he just feels wonder that someone would give him a gift-- to the hermits, a single shulker box is nothing. To Tommy, it’s everything.

The shulker box contains coarse dirt, birch leaves, and a silk touch shovel.

Tommy helps Xisuma mine a giant hole in the ground near bedrock, because he realizes that he’s never thanked the admin for getting him his compass back. Well, that and the fact that instamining with a haste two beacon and an efficiency five pickaxe is a novelty. Xisuma lets him keep the cobble, since everyone knows it’s Tommy’s favorite block, but also insists he keep some of the other blocks like andesite and diorite. He pats Tommy on the head and tells him to talk to Bdubs about building a house some time. Tommy nods. He's taken aback by how tall Xisuma is, completely contrasting his mild nature. He reminds Tommy of Wilbur, on one of his good days before... Before. Not Ghostbur, though-- the admin is much too alive.

Tommy waits too long, so eventually Bdubs comes to him. The man is silly and outrageous, playing everything for laughs and unexpectedly tender. Bdubs plays up how beautiful he thinks Tommy’s hideous dirt shack is, then offers to help him build a house that’s better. For Tommy, building a house means settling down, accepting that this is his home now. Bdubs doesn’t know this. Tommy builds cobblestone dicks while Bdubs tries to lecture him about depth and block variation. Nothing gets done and Bdubs feels like he might have failed, but come next week Bdubs is flying over the area and sees the dicks are gone; so is the dirt house. In its place is a spruce-and-cobble cottage nestled near the tiny waterfall. Off to the side, he’s made a cozy doghouse for his fox, Theo. Bdubs doesn’t know how close that fox came to being named Fundy.

He spars with False, and she very pointedly does not mention how his stances are uniquely suited to a piglin. There’s only one renowned fighter who’s a piglin, after all. It's Tommy’s story to tell, if he ever does, why he’s seen enough of the legendary Technoblade’s fights to pick up on his stances, yet he’s not experienced enough to know that they don’t suit him. Instead, False gives him different stances suited more for tall, skinny people like the two of them. She’s got blond hair and blue eyes just like him. (Not that she’d know. She’s never seen his eyes, hidden behind his mask as they are.) Every now and then, he imagines her as an older sister, and the one time he says so, she smiles. When Tommy’s at home, looking at his own distorted reflection in his waterfall (he’s improved it since he built it), he muses that their eyes aren’t the same, their hair colors are subtly off. It’s close enough, he thinks.

Stress dies from fall damage and Tommy goes out of his way to pick up her stuff, because the hermits do these things out of the kindness of their hearts. The thought never even crosses their minds to steal. It crosses his mind. He doesn’t do it. Stealing from Stress would be like stealing from Niki.

He shows up at Cleo’s base unannounced and demands to see the “cool shit”. He is appropriately enthused by the giant armor-stand-bugs. She tries teaching him her armor stand magic, but it doesn’t really sink in. It’s okay, she assures him, most people don’t have the knack for it. He does, however, learn that buttons make excellent decorations. He also learns how to braid hair, bribed by ice cream. He is terrible at it, to the point where Joe has to come by to help the two untangle her hair so Tommy can start again. Watching the two bicker over capitalism and six million armor stands and a whole host of other inside jokes he doesn’t get, he thinks he’s starting to understand what friendship is supposed to be like. Joe and Cleo don’t see him clutching his compass. He and Tubbo weren’t too far off from this, given their circumstances. Maybe...

Maybe Tubbo can be forgiven.

Tommy makes minigames of his own, ones that don’t just kill you and steal your stuff. He builds things that are pretty instead of just functional, brews potions with Stress and only calls them drugs once (again, upsetting her is like upsetting Niki. Best not done), and sets up chicken bombs above people’s bases instead of just lavacasting them. (As Grian saw the hundreds of chickens slowly raining down upon his mansion, he got such a peculiar look on his face that Tommy feared he’d fucked up. The shorter, stronger (much stronger oh god why is he so strong despite being so small) man nearly crushed Tommy’s lungs in a hug, proclaiming how proud he was of Tommy. Tommy was proud of himself for not accidentally murdering Grian out of reflex. Was this what healing was like?)

Yes. It is what healing is like. Tommy knows this because that wound gets ripped open again. Tango shows him how to build the most obnoxious redstone-powered noise machine the two can think of. Tango digs a small pit, and asks Tommy to throw down his axe. Suddenly, Tommy’s in Logstedshire again; it’s not Tango asking, it’s Dream. His hands don’t shake when he tosses his axe into the pit, followed by his sword and his armor. It isn't until he’s placed the TNT down that Tango grabs his wrist and asks him what he’s doing. Tommy’s eyes clear enough that he can see past the blond hair and freckles. Tango isn’t green, he’s red. He's shorter than Dream, and his worried eyes are unhidden. Tommy shudders, then tells Tango everything.

Tango has no pity for Tommy, just understanding and sympathy. He doesn’t push Tommy to talk about it, but when Tommy’s done telling his story, Impulse and Zedaph show up. They all pretend that Tommy’s voice isn’t hoarse, that they all didn’t conveniently happen to look away when Tommy took off his mask just long enough to wipe his eyes. The men bake a cake together, fool around with honey blocks, and don’t talk about it.

Tommy knows very little about redstone, considers himself more of a builder and a fighter than an engineer. Still, Mumbo’s living base is inspiring, and Tommy often hangs around the man’s industrial district just to watch Mumbo work. Mumbo knows that Tommy hasn’t purchased a day pass, but it’s nice having someone around to talk to while he works. It’s not like Tommy is stealing anything. (Tommy totally steals from Mumbo’s industrial district storage system. The man’s farms are so efficient that he doesn’t even notice, so Tommy assumes it’s fine. What Mumbo doesn’t know won’t hurt him.)

Lava still isn’t his favorite thing in the world. He stays far away from it, instead of imagining what it would be like to hurtle towards it. Ren doesn’t really notice this, but he does notice that Tommy doesn’t seem to like his mustafarian base. On a spur-of-the-moment whim, Ren whips up some absurd plotline in which he is a lone weary traveller seeking refuge at Tommy’s base from strange alien overlords. The two have fun together, and the young man cracks more absurd jokes about it than the hermits have ever seen him do. When Ren leaves a week later to return to his own base, Tommy keeps being absurd, if a bit more subdued without someone to play off of. He builds a shrine to the “prime log”, which grows more elaborate each day. Beef and xB pretend to be his acolytes, despite having no clue what a “twitch prime” is.

They can’t see his face, but the smile in his voice is a far cry from the despondency he once wore like a heavy cloak. He is so much more animated and alive, full of motivation. He builds an entire island in three days, and hand-delivers an invitation to each and every hermit for his beach party. Everyone shows up, even those with packed schedules (Iskall) and those with introverted tendencies (Etho). Tommy is nearly moved to tears when they show up in groups of twos and threes, as though he hadn’t expected anyone to come. There aren’t enough chairs for everyone, but there is more than enough cake to go around. Tango brings drinks, Impulse brings meat to barbecue, and Zedaph makes an elaborate jump-powered grill. Keralis brings way too much confetti and several handfuls of cheap, obnoxious party noisemakers. Stress brings Tommy a crown made out of alliums. It shines far less than his brother’s gold crown, and it’ll die in a few days, but he wears it all night and keeps it in his ender chest until it withers away.

He spends five days teaching himself to make flower crowns. Even his best attempt is awful, nowhere near as pretty as the crowns Stress makes, but when he gives it to her, she takes off the one she was wearing and wears his until it falls apart.

He dies fighting a creeper on Grian’s behalf, and doesn’t even panic, because he trusts that however many times he dies, no matter how stupid or ignominious or revolutionary or important, Xisuma will always let him respawn.

He spends a grand total of nine diamonds to buy a single plot of land in the shopping district. He builds a cute little bench facing the sunset, with warmly glowing street lights on either side and a small garden. At the end of the bench he places a jukebox, and buys every single disc that Beef’s music shop sells, including Pigstep. He sits on the bench while Mellohi plays and watches the tiny silhouettes of his friends flying in the evening sky. Tommy looks alone on that bench, even if he seems happy, so sometimes other people stop by to sit with him. Scar declares the bench area a public park, since everyone likes it so much, and refunds Tommy his nine diamonds straight from the throne.

[poetry-protest-pornography]

So, about Nick and Charlie's shoes, Converse & Vans, fashion, and queerness.

Queer fashion and aesthetic is one of the ways that we've always been able to express ourselves, and also signal to other queer people "hey, I'm here, too!".

From dandies who wore specific flowers, to the hanky code, to the ever handy carabiner, there are certain items that tell other queer folks very clearly– and very discreetly – what you're about.

In general, queer fashion is about not conforming to standards and expectations, sometimes in big ways, sometimes in small, day to day ways: Girls in blazers, boys in soft, fuzzy oversized sweaters and tight jeans, and the like. Cuffed jeans also a very big deal, which I was delighted to learn about in college (I rolled my cuffs because I'm short, was very excited I was also telling people I was queer), though I'm less clear on the origins of that particular trend.

Shoes are obviously a big part of fashion, and they're no less important to queer aesthetics.

In college my second time, I was almost a decade older than some of my classmates, and a joke about lesbian shoes landed somewhere over the heads of the 3 other queer people I was talking with.

The shoes I was thinking of were of course black, chunky oxfords; think Doc Martens. The Lesbian Shoes of my time. But these kids didn't have to quietly dress-up to signal their queerness– they didn't understand.

I love that young queer people have less reason to code themselves, but there's no less reason for us all to dress for ourselves, to push boundaries of expectation and wear what makes us feel most comfortable in our own skin. And so, queer fashion thrives.

In regards to Vans and Converse, their place in queer fashion history is so well entrenched, that if you search "Converse Vans gay" you'll get result after result asking "are you a Vans gay/lesbian/bi or a Converse gay/lesbian/bi?" And then people inevitably asking "what about boot gays?".

Interestingly, a lot of queer fashion and culture comes from Black drag culture, but high top shoes are from a distinctly different group: West Coast skater boys.

My theory is that these boys, as a subculture, were also not held to fashion standards of their time/place, and that gave them the freedom to wear things like brightly colored shoes without any pushback.

And us queer folks saw all the pretty colors and thought "Oh, we can work with those!" Because they already existed and were widely available and relatively affordable, you could own multiple pairs in various colors, and subvert your school's sneaker dress code requirement by making it cute and brightly colored and queer! You could wear a simple outfit that wouldn't raise any eyebrows (or put you in danger), and top it off with colorful sneakers that only people who wanted to notice would notice.

Charlie has a whole closet full of different color Converse! That scene was so much! And Nick is steadfast in his black Vans– I would love to see him in a different color next season, though I don't remember if that's a thing in the comics. Vans are generally considered the tougher/more athletic shoe, and they're definitely sturdier than all-canvas Converse, and I love how that plays into their characters as well.

Alice did an incredible job in the comic with the fashion choices she made for Charlie and Nick, and the costume designer on the show did a stellar job translating it onto the screen, Charlie's clothing is very queer coded, even beyond the shoes, and for him is obvious that it's born out of a need for that comfort and finding that space for himself, which is exactly where queer aesthetics came from. That necessity to make yourself comfortable and safe– and then visible to others like you.

Anyway, this was a lot more than I thought I was going to get into, but it was fun to write!

(Honestly, I do find myself kind of shocked that we didn't reinvent the hanky code with skate shoes, though.)

@onefootintheboilinghotlava this is for you

[saltymongoose]

Little question about player and the relationships between humans grunts and employers

Are humans just overall smarter than grunts or is reader just this genius mastermind? How about employers? They did manage to get player into their world, that time in the fanfic about the boys seeing the player for the first time deimos, the TECH guy, complained about how dificult employer technology was, is it actually just a standard PC like the one player uses?

Also about the grunts, can player just make an offhanded comment about some common human knowledge and they just go

"BRO?!?!?!?!???!!?!? WHAT"

Would grunts regarded as really really smart just, be completly floored by what player knows? Maybe as project nexus happend somewhere before madness 5, would they just know some things about the future or possibly change it?

Anyways yeah

Well, according to Krinkels, the only education that really exists in Nevada at the time of Madness is the Sleepwalker Program. However, before the fall (and Sheriff turning on the improbability drive) there must've been some form of education since the grunts from then know how to read/write. Although I'd consider the most common type of education to be the more base-level kind cause scientists with doctorates like Hoff and Jeb seem pretty rare. And this is only applicable to G01s and G02s, which don't make up a lot of the population anyway. Any generations afterward are taught by the Nexus if at all, which means that humans would be smarter than at least 85% of the grunt population by default. Plus I'd imagine human educations are far more varied compared to Nevadans'. The Player themselves would probably be well-versed in all things technical on their end too, specifically when it comes to their own equipment (like for streaming and stuff), which makes them a genius by grunt standards.

(Rest under the cut because this response is super long haha 😅)

As for the Employers, their tech is extremely advanced, but also a lot more complicated than it needs to be. Honestly the machines they use to do stuff regarding you are prototypes and have yet to be streamlined (cause why would the Auditor waste his time improving something that already works when he could be observing you instead?). In terms of how it relates to the Player's PC, it has a couple similarities, but it has an entirely different purpose so they would be far and few in between. The problem with trying to figure out their technology comes from how unknown it is (a lack of other references to use as guides especially) and also because they can be very convoluted in design.

Given the fact that the Player is probably one of the smartest people in Nevada, they could totally just make a normal remark and have grunts freak out from how intelligent they are lmao. Like you know so much about physics, psychology, biology, sociology, just everything that Nevadans are just completely lost on. Even the smarter grunts like Doc would be stunned about what you know. (Atoms? Trigonometry and algebra? Where did you learn all of this??)

Regarding the timeline, the Player would totally know about what happens in the future (at least if they've watched the series 😅) so I can see them trying to change some things. Though that would also depend on how willing they would be to do that (cause change might make things worse too). And there's the other issue of how The Machine™ would react to these changes too, which could be another problem entirely.

[tim-hoe-wan]

Your dad seems to be decent by hollywood standards imo. I work in the industry but in costume design. Most of the top honchos are incredibly annoying because they're basically bffs with the actors and directors now that they think they're above you. If you complain to them regarding an actor's behavior, they'd gaslight you instead. Even the other execs I've met still try to wash their hands saying they had no choice but to keep quiet on abusers.

I agree with you, in the end admire the work but not the person. They're f*cking strangers, the only thing you see about them are the things their publicist allowed you to see. This parasocial relationships are so damn frustrating, cause as shown by the Depp trial, it actually can create horrible consequences. On a smaller scale, I once complained to a friend about this horrible experience I had with a celebrity and they tried to make a million unreasonable excuses because it turns out they were a fan.

It's also why I end up unsubbing from gossip subs or forums, it's very difficult to find any sort of unbiasedness or lack of projection. I can't handle another one of their temper tantrums whenever a celeb they like suddenly is shown to have done anything problematic. I also can't swallow it when there's a clear herd mentality already on celebs. I know you hate discussing them and trust me I'm also tired as someone who isn't a fan, but look at the discussion on Olivia/Jason on that sub. People already have a set idea who is the good and bad person here, but in reality, maybe it's one of those situation we shouldn't even have a discussion yet? There's not really anything solid to go that there is an innocent party in this case. Like you said, in most civil disputes, no one is 100% innocent. It's annoying because at one side you have clear Harry stans who really just want to drag Olivia no matter what. And another hand, you also have most probably Harry stans who want to drag Jason in the mud.

I'll be honest, my case here is both of them are pretty horrible people and I say that as also someone who works in the industry. It's been pretty known that both Jason and Olivia are mutual cheaters. I don't know if it's an open relationship, but it's known they've both cheated even prior to separating. I also don't believe Harry and Olivia are real, but if it is she definitely did an overlap because she deleted ig pics that showed her and Jason were very much together until September at least and contrary to her statement. They were also papped doing couple's counseling in December. She lied about it which really hurts any credibility I can give her. And again she lied about not living with Jason (there's a court doc she filed that's been posted online, showing she lives with Jason when she filed a restraining order against her stalker). She was associated with Weinstein and other horrible men so I can see that she's very opportunistic and a hypocrite to achieve fame. So yeah, I can't easily buy she's an honest person and she definitely thrives on the attention she receives. However, Jason wasn't exactly a loyal man too. I believe he was probably blindsided and got his ego hurt considering they went couple's counseling. I'm also not well-versed in law to have an opinion if he tried to serve her on stage in purpose but I could see it as a possibility. People are too blindsided by his Ted Lasso persona or their own misogyny to see, hey maybe they're both horrible people? Maybe if you step back from your own bias, you can see that it's possible neither are victims and maybe you shouldn't make this a stan war?

I'll actually allow to answer this one since you probably have the most level headed take I've seen.

I completely agree with you, in my opinion both of them are dicks.

My take is that, this really won't blow the way it did if it were not for Harry stans of every calibre. You have those who will try to just drag Olivia no matter what. You also have those whose inherent bias is Harry and everyone around him is good and innocent and they can only be victims. But in reality, this doesn't need to be another one od your discussion points. This is clearly a situation that, if you really care about those kids, you'd try not to put anymore of the situation into the limelight. There's not hardcore factual evidence to suggest one party is more innocent than the other. All I've seen so far is a certain bias due to their parasocial relationship and projections which should not even be there.

Regarding the service of summons, I would tend to believe Jason's side as someone studying the field and have met countless third party servers, there's a big chance how it would be presented is out of his control. He admits to knowing where she was, but we don't know for sure how actively she's been avoiding or out of reach since they've also mentioned trying to serve her at her hotel. It's most ideal to be done discretely, but a lot of process servers try to do it in public since they unfortunately get harassed a lot. Plenty of them also don't care about the situation, they have to catch you and finish the job cause they won't get paid. I mean from the people I've met considering it's not a high paying job and the risk it carries, they don't exactly care about your feelings at times. I mean Jason has a very good pr team behind him. I doubt they would ever advise him to be a dick on main.

Regarding to the mutual cheating, yup I've heard about it too. That kind of relationship is pretty rampant in the industry and a lot of times the affair stays and end on set that's why it never gets out. I also know about the deleted pics and the various pap photos that show Olivia was lying about the timeline. I also know about her lying to tmz since I also have friends there. As I've mentioned before, I have friends with access to Gorkana and can monitor a celeb's activities to show she's been pretty pandering to Harry's fanbase. Her constant pap calling also shows she's very much enjoying the attention, but I don't see how that's a bad thing. Celebrities are attention seekers, some are just better at trying to be discreet with it. But yeah, she's not exactly the most credible person whether as an activist, her morality, or her honesty. So I don't see anyone particularly innocent with either party.

End of day, I think this topic is something that doesn't need a discussion point. It's basically just marriage story made public by two probably equally horrible people and the public shouldn't act like they know what's really happening in private. It's also just impossible to have an unbiased and grounded discussion on this. The Harry stans have already decided which one is innocent and which is not. For some of them it's Olivia, for some it's Jason and seemingly no in between.

I should also state that I lean towards not liking Olivia. That said, I don't want a discussion on that, because while there's legitimate reason not to like her, it's hard to filter through anonymous people those who dislike her out of pure misogyny. I mean she's an irrelevant celebrity but you guys drag her without dragging Harry and Jason as well when they both willingly associate with her? Also the way he knows how horrible his fanbase is and act like he sees nothing, kinda makes me think Harry is equally as horrible as those two. He knows perfectly well it's his fanbase that's being weaponized by either teams to slander the other. Harry once again showing he is the less talented, male version of Taylor Swift.

[ursaminortarot]

I’m really fixated on romance right now for some reason, so here we are with a soulmate reading. I’m of the belief that we don’t just have romantic soulmates but platonic and familial ones as well. However, for this reading, I am choosing to focus solely on romance.

I’m experimenting with a new format. I linked each of the readings to a google doc, this is mostly because they ended up being way longer than I’d anticipated (story of my life). I also thought that it might be more organized to do it this way. I’d appreciate feedback on whether or not I should keep doing it.

Piles to choose from:

Pile 1 - Cobra

Pile 2 - Fish

Pile 3 - Cheetah

Pile 4 - Zebra

Pile 5 - Hawk

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[Decks Used: Modern Witch Tarot, Wild Unknown Tarot, Wild Unknown Animal Spirit oracle, Tarot Cats, standard playing cards, and a homemade oracle deck]

This took me 10-11 hours to do, spread out across 3 days. So, if you can support my shop or donate I’d be grateful. Also, please excuse any grammar/spelling mistakes and small incoherencies, by the time I got around to editing the readings I was kind of over it.

My Shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/UrsaMinorTarot

CashApp: @UrsaMinorTarot

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Pile 1: Cobra

Who They Are:

Queen of Wands, 9 of Wands, 8 of Pentacles, King of Clubs

10 of Cups, 7 of Cups r, Justice r, 5 of Hearts

7 of Cups r, 9 of Pentacles r, 6 of Wands, 9 of Diamonds

Death r, 7 of Wands r, 8 of Wands r, Ace of Spades

The High Priestess, The Fool, The Hanged Man r, Ace of Hearts

Mother of Cups r

Winter+New Love

I’m getting some self-made energy here, they are likely a very hard worker who puts in a lot of time and energy. Their success, while appreciated, makes them feel very alone. There’s a lot of wands energy here, so they are generous with their money and it’s possible that other people take advantage of that. The Mother of Cups reversed reinforces this idea as she brings the message: “you give too much of yourself to others”.

The High Priestess, Fool, and Hanged Man being pulled together makes me think they function in two very different ways. Either, they overthink literally everything to the point of never making a decision, or they just do things very impulsively without a second thought.

They want a big, happy family, whatever that means to them. It could involve having children or just having a lot of pets. However, due to past relationships, they no longer feel as though they could trust anyone enough to live out that dream. 

They feel disillusioned with love, which gives them a lot of conflicting emotions. Because, again, there’s a lot of wands energy, so they’re a very passionate person. Their current belief that love isn’t real is a direct contradiction to who they are at their core. Winter and new love could be taken literally, like you’ll meet and fall in love with them in the winter. Or, if you wanted to look deeper at it, it could mean that you help them get out of this place of being unable to consider love.

How You Can Recognize Them:

8 of Cups r, Son of Wands, 7 of Wands r, King of Diamonds

5 of Pentacles, Father of Cups, 3 of Swords, Jack of Hearts

The Devil r, The Fool, The Devil, 2 of Spades

10 of Pentacles, The High Priestess r, Queen of Hearts

The Hermit, 7 of Pentacles r, 10 of Cups r, 7 of Diamonds

Hanged man, 4 of Cups r, 10 of Diamonds r

“You’re having trouble getting in touch with your emotions”

“You’re not seeing clearly”

Ex

This person has an unmistakable light about them. Being with them is like sitting outside on a nice day soaking up the sun. However, they are still holding on to the past, and this is to their detriment. When you meet them, if you haven’t already, they will be extremely hung up on their ex. They are going to be obsessing over what went wrong and whether or not they can fix it. I can’t tell if they want to fix it to get back together with their ex, because they think it will give them closure, or because they think it will help them avoid making the same mistakes in their next relationship. But, they also don’t actually want to fix anything because that would mean confronting their emotions and they would really rather not. They will likely seem to be existing outside of reality, they are going to be so distracted by this internal conflict that they aren’t going to notice the world around them.  

In all honesty, they will be very difficult for you to recognize. You’ll probably notice them because of their light, but you won’t (and shouldn’t) consider them a potential partner - at least not until they’ve dealt with their issues and moved on. I want to stress that while they are so focused on their past relationship(s), that’s not all they have going on. They are a 3 dimensional human being like the rest of us, but this is just the information I was able to get.

I also want to mention that their family is very important to them, they’re the type of person to call or text each member of their immediate family every day. I also get the impression that you two will be friends for a while before getting into a relationship. 

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Pile 2: Fish

Who They Are:

Queen of Swords, 9 of Wands, 9 of Cups r, The Tower r, Jack of Spades

King of Swords, Daughter of Wands, 3 of Pentacles, 8 of Diamonds

Judgment r, 2 of Cups r, Daughter of Swords r, The Chariot r, 3 of Spades

5 of Pentacles, Temperance, 7 of Wands, Jack of Hearts

The Emperor, 8 of Pentacles, The Magician r, Ace of Wands, 4 of Spades

“I’m sorry”

Best friends 

Between the Emperor and having all of the court cards of the Swords suit, this person has a very powerful presence. They’re almost the kind of person that makes people stop and stare, I say almost because they’re intimidating and people don’t want to be caught staring. Not intimidating in a scary way, they just - and I can’t stress this enough - exude power. They are also very ambitious and highly intelligent. So when they put their mind to something, they will execute it perfectly. Or, at least, they want people to think it was done perfectly. They have a very “everything’s under control” look to them, but they’re barely hanging on by a thread. I feel like one bad day would send them into an existential spiral, because they don’t know who they are if they’re not perfect. 

Nothing’s ever come easily to them and they’ve had to fight their whole life to get the things that they have now. They’ve never had the option of giving up. If they gave up, they were worthless, they were nothing - that’s how they’ve always seen it. I imagine there’s a lot of parental pressure at play here. It’s turned them into a workaholic, there’s no work-life balance to be found. I’m getting the impression that the “I’m sorry” card has to do with this aspect of their life. 

The “best friends” card speaks for itself. With the Jack of Hearts and Daughter of Wands, there’s a playful energy to them. But these are the only cards pointing this out, which tells me that they restrain this part of themself. I think that you being their friend, as well as their partner, will show them that they don’t need to be so serious all the time. This is something buried so deep it’ll need some time and energy to be coaxed out of them.  

This is pretty obvious, but this person’s biggest fear is failure.

How You Can Recognize Them:

Knight of Wands r, 4 of Wands r, 8 of Cups, 9 of Swords

King of Pentacles, The Moon r, 7 of Swords r, Queen of Spades

5 of Pentacles, Mother of Swords, Queen of Wands, 4 of Hearts

Queen of Cups, Daughter of Swords r, Knight of Wands

7 of Cups r, Son of Swords, 4 of Pentacle, 5 of Diamonds

The World r, 9 of Wands r, 8 of Hearts r

You feel as if you aren’t getting the recognition you deserve

Seperation

We’re definitely seeing their more sensitive, playful aspects. However, these are still vastly overpowered by their Swords energy as, once again, all the court cards are out - the Queen’s out twice. Seriously, this person has such powerful energy that it’s the first thing you notice.

I feel like you’ll meet either at work or at school, somewhere where you’re working on a group project together. The people you’re working with aren’t going to take your contributions seriously. But, once they realize you’re right, they’ll claim they were  their ideas all along. The Swords family is very fair-minded, so I think this person’s going to have a problem with that.  

They have this very detached, uninterested persona and once you’ve spent time around your soulmate, you’re going to pick up on the fact that they are deeper than they want people to think they are. When they’re more comfortable with you, which will take some time, you might catch glimpses of them being competitive/hot-headed or they’ll start making jokes around you. If you’re patient enough, they’ll eventually be vulnerable with you.

They have a fear of the unknown and love is foreign to them, so this is definitely a slow-burn. 

In both of these readings I got a wave of pretty interesting energy. It wasn’t anxiety or dizziness, but felt similar to both. I felt like I lost my balance, that’s probably how you'll make this person feel. They have a lot of plans for life and you’re not one of them, so they’ll be thrown for a loop. 

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Pile 3: Cheetah:

Who They Are:

Page of Swords r, Son of Cups, The Hierophant, 9 of Clubs

Page of Wands, Mother of Wands r, Page of Cups r, 4 of Hearts

9 of Cups, The Tower, 2 of Swords, 2 of Cups, Ace of Clubs

Queen of Wands r, The Chariot r, Queen of Pentacles, 4 of Spades

Knight of Pentacles, Ace of Wands, Emperor r,  6 of Clubs

8 of Cups, King of Wands

You can’t help everyone

Over-investment in work

Aries

The first thing that I’m seeing is that this person will probably have some self-esteem issues. It seems to be tied to their abilities more so than appearance.

They have a lot of ideas for projects that they want to work on, but they never seem to start anything, let alone finish. I think this is because they try to be everything to everyone and don’t prioritize themself. They find contentment in the idea that everybody likes them, but this can make them a people pleaser. This can lead to them taking on long hours at work to make their boss happy. It’s also unrealistic because there’s not a person on Earth that’s universally liked. I think this is something they’ll come to realize in their own time.

They may come across as indecisive at times, they aren’t. They always know exactly what they want, but can have a hard time asserting themself. 

There’s a fire that burns bright here, this person has a lot of drive and ambition. This is where that aries energy comes in, they don’t have to have aries placements so please don’t get fixated on that. But, like I said before, they hold themself back by prioritizing other people and neglecting their own needs. They have the potential to be really successful, however they need to start putting themself first. 

This seems like a very sensitive individual, just the thought of doing something under-handed stresses them out. Which is a good thing for other people, because your soulmate’s very charming and could probably talk themself out of anything.

For some reason I get the impression that they have a bit of a sweet tooth.

How You Can Recognize Them:

2 of Swords r, The Empress, Queen of Cups, 3 of Hearts

9 of Pentacles r, Judgment r, The Moon, 10 of Spades

The Fool, Mother of Wands r, Hierophant r, Jack of Diamonds

The Chariot r, The Hermit, 4 of Wands, Joker B&W r

3 of Pentacles, 4 of Wands r, Knight of Wands, 4 of Spades

King of Cups r, The Magician r

You’re having trouble getting in touch with your emotions

September

Think before you speak

Let’s start with the reinforcements of their self-esteem issues, as well as their people pleasing tendencies. It’s exhausting for them, emotionally and physically. They are well and truly holding themself back, and I think that by the time you meet them they’ll be starting to examine these aspects of themself. This will be something they struggle with for a while and there may be a period of time where they withdraw to think things through.  

The joker in black and white in standard decks is my fool reversed card, but it’s reversed so its the fool reversed reversed. The fool upright, I feel like there could have been a simpler way for my cards to get that message to me. But I also feel like it represents the way your person talks to themself, they make everything just a little bit more complicated than it needs to be. They think in circles, eventually getting to the point but it may take them a while. This may be a contributing factor to their perceived indecisiveness. 

 They want to make a home with you. I get the impression that when talking about it with you, they’ll appear to be cool and collected. Like it’s not a big deal to them. But then they’ll turn around and shout it from the rooftops. It won’t be possible for people to not know you’re together, they’ll just be so loud about it. 

Outside of the need to make everybody like them, they’re a pretty care-free individual. It will be important to them that you have fun together. I think this playfulness is their most defining feature and probably the first thing people notice about them.  

In the first two piles, it looked like they’d be friends for a while before getting into a relationship with their person. That’s not the case here, like I said before, when this person knows, they know. They’re not going to waste time with you.  

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Pile 4: Zebra

Who They Are:

The Fool, The Hanged Man,  Queen of Swords, Ace of Clubs

6 of Swords r, 2 of Wands, The Hanged Man, Ace of Hearts

Ace of Cups, Mother of Pentacles r, 4 of Wands, Jack of Spades,

3 of Swords r, The Magician, 10 of Pentacles, Queen of Cups r, Jack of Diamonds

3 of Cups, The High Priestess, Strength, The Fool r, King of Spades

Soulmate 

Hostile

May

The first thing I’m picking up on is that your soulmate is someone who is very carefree. They also have a lot of romantic energy to them, so they are definitely a hopeless romantic.

The amount of Major Arcana here tells me that this person is likely very spiritually gifted, they might not be consciously aware of this.

This person is kind of a go-getter. Once they decide they want something, nothing’s getting in their way.

There are some conflicting energies here because as happy and carefree as they are, there’s an equal amount of pain and hardship. This is someone who’s faced a lot of hostility, so at first will be fairly guarded. They love the idea of being in love, but have difficulties opening themself up to the reality of love. It’s not all bad, they are making an active effort to heal and not let past heartbreak hold them back.

With the Magician and High Priestess facing each other, this is someone who is likely very in touch with their spirituality. Not only are they able to  trust their intuition, but they also have everything that they need to follow it. Once they have a gut feeling about something, whatever it is, they will trust it more than they’ll trust you, and be right 90% of the time.

 They are very compassionate and probably are used to giving more than they take, which gets them taken advantage of. Part of their growth is going to be finding a balance in this aspect of their life. 

This is someone who values family and most likely wants some kind of family unit, whether that be having children or pets. 

The month of May might be important, it could be when you meet or one of you could be a Taurus or a Gemini.

How You Can Recognize Them:

Ace of Cups, 3 of Pentacles r, 8 of Wands, 2 of Swords

Page of Cups, Justice r, 5 of Cups, 7 of Clubs

King of Pentacles, 10 of Cups, Strength r, 2 of Diamonds

2 of Pentacles r, 9 of Cups r, Queen of Wands, King of Diamonds

Death, The Hierophant, Page of Wands, 9 of Spades 

Sensitive

Peaceful

There’s still time to change your mind.

One of their prominent characteristics is their sensitivity. This doesn’t mean that they’re crybabies, they are just very mindful of everybody's feelings. This paired with what we learned about the painful parts of their past probably makes them a little insecure. This insecurity is only a problem when it comes to relationships. They may come across as very confident and flirty, but as soon as it moves past that they start clamming up and getting nervous. It could be bad enough that they have a hard time believing that you actually want to be with them.

They invest a lot of time into their projects, whether work related or personal. It’s likely that they struggle with finding a work-life balance. This is someone who needs to feel productive at every moment of the day. They keep themself busy so that they don’t need to be alone with their thoughts. This isn’t someone that knows peace. It is something they’d like to experience, but they don’t know how to. They have too many thoughts and can’t quiet their mind, their inner-demons get the best of them at times. This isn’t something they express outwardly though, everyone around them probably sees them as someone who, while busy, is fairly laid back. They need a lot of guidance here so if you’re someone who meditates, this could be something you help them with.

It’ll be easiest for you to recognize them based on their sensitivity and active lifestyle. They will be extremely helpful to their friends and family, and would drop everything to be there if needed. They are also, surprisingly down-to-earth. 

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Pile 5: Hawk

Who They Are:

5 of Cups, Judgment, Queen of Wands, Queen of Spades

Knight of Wands r, 10 of Wands r, 5 of Pentacles r, 3 of Diamonds

7 of Cups r, The Fool r, 10 of Pentacles, King of Spades

2 of Swords r, 9 of Cups, 3 of Cups r, 3 of Spades

The High Priestess r, 3 of Pentacles, Magician r, 9 of Diamonds

“You’re my everything.”

You need to hold yourself to more reasonable standards.

This is someone with a lot of pain, they are overwhelmed and feel defeated. I’m getting the impression that it has to do primarily with work/co-workers. It could be that they put a lot of themself into their work and seem to always get passed up for promotions, or they could have even been recently laid off. They’re very ambitious and intelligent, so if they did get laid off, it would be a big hit to their ego. Alternatively, they could have almost reached a long-standing dream, only for it to fall apart at the last second. 

Your soulmate has a lot of fiery passion that they don’t always know what to do with, so they turn everything into a competition. The thing is, they’re only competing with themself. They’re always trying to be better than they were yesterday, even when it’s unrealistic. 

As passionate as they are, they can be very patient when it comes to getting what they want. They know that not everything can be rushed, even if that’s frustrating to them. They try to avoid making reckless mistakes, but sometimes this can lead to them not making decisions in a timely manner. 

They value family and friends greatly, this could be the most important part of their life to them. They’ll test you to see if you can gain the approval of their loved ones. If you don’t, they may begin to have second thoughts. This is a soulmate though, so you’ll likely be very compatible and win everyone over with relative ease. 

How You Can Recognize Them:

5 of Pentacles, The Moon, 4 of Swords, 5 of Clubs

King of Pentacles, Judgment, 5 of Swords r, King of Wands r, 7 of Diamonds

2 of Swords r, Daughter of Pentacles, 5 of Pentacles r, 3  of Clubs

Temperance r, Son of Wands r, High Priestess r, 7 of Swords r, Jack of Clubs 

6 of Swords r, The Tower r, Page of Pentacles r, 5 of Hearts

You are not seeing clearly

Hesitant

When You meet this person, they will be coming out of a very rough period of their life. They are going to be at the start of their healing journey and they won’t have a lot of time or energy for romance. They’re likely very hard on themself, they don’t want to be seen as weak so they don’t express negative emotions. This is something they have to confront in order to heal.

They are going to be in a complicated headspace, there’s going to be difficulty separating the past from the present, and there’s not a lot of balance between their spiritual and physical lives. They either reject the spiritual to embrace the material world, or neglect their physical well-being and focus solely on their spiritual self. 

You know how some people use their trauma as an excuse to inflict pain on others? This person’s the opposite of that, everything they’ve gone through has made them a patient, compassionate person. This will probably be one of the first things you notice about them, how kind they are. They are also very dependable, they’ve experienced going through hard times alone and don’t want anyone else to feel like they have to. 

Overall, they come across as a very good human being, but there’s an underlying tiredness to them. They might be dealing with a little bit of brain fog, so at times they’re slow to process the world around them.

[sarcasticmothdraws]

(just dropping a bunch of character thoughts to chew on after the shitstorm that will go unmentioned by name because you were totally right about the beetlejuice thing.) Throwback to your ancestor quadrant breakdown last night- my favorite interpretation of the signless (building off of karkat's canon characterization) has always been that he's aquadromantic, since the line (from doc scratch?) about him and the disciple having "a love that transcended the quadrants, whatever that means" is one of the pieces of evidence that gets cited for that interpretation of karkat's character. I go back and forth on whether monoamory (or quad-amory) would ever work for him because I am definitely in the camp that karkat is in too many kinds of love with pretty much everyone he meets but also I think it depends on how he is written. I vibe with your idea that the ancestors were more flexible about romance as a byproduct of their general rebellion and post-scratch kankri's visions (I could write a whole nother essay about how trolls are even more prudish about sexuality and punishing of deviations from their bioessentialist standard than the human society of homestuck's setting, but it initially snesks by the reader because they're busy figuring out the alien system of romance)

Anon you had me at quadrants then you really had me at Signless. I agree that signless is for sure aquadromantic. I think that he could make it fit for him, monoamory, but I don't think he'd be fully... Well, happy feels cruel to say but I think it's true. I don't think he'd be very happy giving his love to one person and one person only.

I 100% agree though that the trolls are very prudish and strict with the quadrants and I am actively encouraging you to write out that essay because I love the quadrants so much and I love hearing peoples interpretations of them.

-Nato