#quite sure i made a post like this a while back but i will expand

[pigswithwings]

i think we have a lot of media about houses that are alive and hate You Specifically for making it this way. what about houses that love you too much

[wisteriaphobia]

Alright time to come out, not out of the closet, but I am Nat (Or Lilnatx) . I wanted to come here and share my story or fairy tales if you don't like me. I was a part of “clique 1”

Not to use my age like a pokemon card but I am 15, and I don't care what you have to say to me personally but I'm sick and tired of my name being dragged through the mud and being used as a scapegoat. But I have lots of pent up anger that I didn't have the privilege of saying.

April 3rd was the day I was banned from nevermore, with no proof. Like at all, I'm still bamboozled and scratching my head like a monkey on what was actually on me and my friends. We were accused of “shit talking” and I have yet to see the shit that we have allegedly talked about.

And honestly? Even if I did shit talk people, why… in a conversation about a predator … does that matter? I'm exhausted with how Red always fights with teenagers (like me) and other friends of mine. It's so despicable that the minions might just leave Gru for her instead. I was in gym class when I got banned and honestly? I would rather get banned 10 more times than do another plank for 2 minutes while seeing my P.E teacher's bald head.

My crimes that I did publicly (in the screenshot that red posted) is me being.. not fucking involved? Right before I got banned I was staying away from people that I previously did not enjoy and in fact I tried my best to not interact with them directly. At one point I had many members blocked on my discord because I was tired of being the villain.

Yet here I am in the year of our lord July of 2024 and people are still referring to my friends as “nats clique” like I said earlier im 15, quince. I have little power over my friends' actions , especially if they're an adult. I can barely get Laci to join me on Minecraft let alone make her collaborate on some high tech scheme, what is this shit? Oceans 11?

I find it petty that red refers to my friends as a “clique” we're a friend group, and the definition of a clique requires a group that's hard to get into. The server (until now) was open, you could pull up to Jinx's profile like a McDonald's drive through and get an invite. Our friend group was constantly expanding and if you personally felt like you were scared to talk to us, I'm sorry that you never experienced the poop closet jokes.

Red being paranoid about what a bunch of teenagers were maybe saying behind her back to deflect about crimson is quite irresponsible I do say so myself. So please Red! With a cherry on top! Show me what I did to you. What sin have I committed on your ego that should banish me to hell. Because I sure as hell don't know what I've done, (and you can quote this) you probably don't know what I've done either, because you made it all up.

Unfortunately I have no screenshots to give, because my phone storage is ass. But you can hit up any of the members of my clique for proof regarding my innocence. I promise I'm not an evil bitch who wants to ban you (not evil not evil no I'm the least evil person I know)

I'm sorry if this response upsets you, but if a 15 year old girl who ships who chicks bothers you so much. Imagine how I feel, imagine now so many people who once looked up to you feel. Everyone in your post looked up to you once as a role model, and have had panic attacks and stress because (allegedly) you harmed them with your cruel words. You can think it's your fault or not that's not my problem.. but for someone who wants evidence and proof 24/7 you sure like to not give out proof of anyone else.

P.S if you were anyone who gave red evidence of my wrong doings, can I see them? Cause I don't know what I have done.

P.P.S I'm not a man, and I write fanfiction of lesbian vampires.

P.P.P.S this is so not sigma that I gotta make this response

[sepublic]

OWL HOUSE ANIMATED TEST LEAKED?!!?!

ALL RIGHT SO THE ORIGINAL ANIMATED TEST GOT LEAKED?! This is an animated test btw, a proof-of-concept of what TOH could look like, according to the person who posted this; The actual pilot still eludes us!

What we get and hear are more or less what we've already glimpsed and could guess at, just expanded a bit more; Luz wants to learn magic, Eda is skeptical, that sort of thing. What's interesting is that Luz claims King told HER he once knew magic, but based on how the final story went, this was probably one of his made-up delusions. He also has a lot more repressed, built-up anger from being coddled and patronized, which would've been interesting to see...

I wonder if that trait ended up transferring over to Proto Willow; Or rather, Paulina! I heard someone suggest the spelling is Polina since it's Slavic and TOH is based on Slavic myth, but for now, let's keep it simple. Paulina would def start off the same way as our Willow; Not doing well in magic, and messing up (this time on Luz herself, hilariously), but I presume the idea for her to shift to plant magic as her true calling was still there. Not only do we see this in earlier concept art, but a later bit with one of Paulina's plants harassing Luz. And she still has the issue of glowing green magic that she can't quite control...

We get Prince William, who shows up when Luz mentions the most 'powerful wizards', more on him later. It's generally speculated and agreed that William is a prototypical version of Hunter, so I find it neat that Paulina's name changed to Willow, as William became Hunter...

There's a glimpse of the Owl House's original design, as seen in the first proof-of-concept poster released back when the show was announced in 2018, with Eda's shop built into the front of the building! The tower doesn't have a roof, and the giant eye window blinks, which was carried over to the first episode's ending. We have some Spencer Wan concept animations he released a while back, but fully colored and animated... A Luz Doppelgänger seems to have always been an idea, so I guess the creepy puppet is Proto Vee?

THIS! We have what I suspect to be a prototype version of Emperor Belos, possibly when he was advisor to Emperor Pupa? I'm not sure, but the context, the blue eyes in darkness, the mask... Their location in what seems to be a cathedral, plus the resemblance to this concept art for Belos?

This is Proto-Belos. Him taking Eda away in what resembles a cathedral seems to indicate that his Christian extremist-leanings were a thing as early as this animated pitch, and what's more...

In the stained-glass window behind Luz, we see a portrait of Sir William, complete with that wavy-styled sword that resembles the knife Philip killed Caleb with! This raises so many questions... Is the Sir William we see here the real deal? Was he deposed and put into a slumber by Belos, the way Pupa would've been? And William is the true ruler of the isles?

Would William have been Belos' brother, his Caleb, hence the round human ears? Why does he look so young, was he de-aged, or is he a clone, a Grimwalker that was abandoned for not being sufficient, and/or discovered in an 'incubation' stage when Luz slapped him awake? I presume this concept of Hunter, who is actually referred to by this name, came later down the line;

Overall, very fascinating stuff! A better glimpse into the development of Willow, Belos, and Hunter(?) as well as an older idea for King's personality, and of course a better look at the original Owl House design shown in 2018! Brief yet wonderful and to the point, we've seen most of the stuff from this pitch as silent clips or images, but I'm glad to have it as part of a cohesive narrative this time! May we one day find the actual pilot itself...!

[tteokdoroki]

𑊡˚+₊🍼✦ — first loves + bkg.

૮ ͈>◡< ͈ა warnings — fluff + sfw, fem + black-coded!reader, post war, implied bnha spoilers, hints of ptsd/panic attacks, first loves, loverboy bkg, idk what this is guys they’re just kids in love and i wrote this listening to the new(ish) 5sos album bye.

they say you never really get over your first love, katsuki bakugou can attest to that.

in the summer after his eighteen birthday, his parents take him on one last family vacation before he breaks into the hero industry. they go abroad, somewhere far away from the trail of heartbreak left in japan— it’d been a hard year. he’d lost a lot. bakugou’s vision shakes a little in his grey-pinkish eye, his skin is bumpy with scars over his eyes and under his shirts. he’s a little more afraid to go in public in fear of being recognised.

so, katsuki takes that venture abroad. where no one knows who he is and what he’s been through.

katsuki’s parents like to explore, they drag him under a sun that’s a little foreign and not like japan’s across a strange city to try new foods that expand his horizons and makes his tastebuds a little happier. they force him to take photos in front of old bridges and historic monuments— though his dad snaps a nice one of bakugou walking through the bustling streets, a backwards baseball cap resting on his nest of hair.

on the last night, they have dinner at a beachside restaurant— bakugou excuses himself when the noises get a little too much and remind him of a time where nearly he lost his life. he stumbles out, down the steps and along the vast stretch of sand looking for the space to breathe along the waterfront. waves crash hard against the shore like the anxiety attacking his brain and katsuki has to crouch down to get a hold of himself before the world tilts too far and he falls off the invisible edge.

“are you okay?”

when he looks up, red eyes narrowly avoiding the glare of the sunset— he sees a girl. her skin looks like it’s been kissed by the solar system, beautiful brown tone glowing under the golden night— accompanied brown doe eyes boring deep into his own, reading his soul as if it were only made up of the constellations beginning to dot themselves in the sky. she has these braids he’s never quite seen before but they frame the roundness of her cheeks perfectly and…he’s never felt love before, aside from the kind you have for friends and family and bakugou doesn’t believe in fate. everything happening for a reason and shit.

because that would mean what happened to him…well, it would mean he deserved it.

but in this moment, the moment this girl offers him her hand and crouches down to see if he’s okay. he feels it. love, filling the blood that pumps through his beating heart. slowly, tenderly, his calloused and marred hand takes her own— the girl making a small noise of content as they sit together, bottoms wet from the sand.

they stay there, together for a while. katsuki and this strange girl he’s only just met— listening to the seagulls call for one another just metres above their heads accompanied by the waves that roll along the shoreline as if they were made to be together. it calms him down, and sure enough bakugou’s chest stops it’s heaving and the scary noises in his head back off for the minute. his mother screams his name in the distance and the girl looks over the blonde’s shoulder with her lips in a pout and brows furrowed— quizzical as if she’s putting together pieces of a puzzle.

“oh, you probably didn’t understand me earlier, right?” she speaks suddenly yet hesitantly, her voice filling his ears like cotton, in broken japanese instead of the fluent english from earlier. “a-are you okay?”

bakugou hums shyly, cheeks flashing red. “‘m fine now. couldn’t breathe before.”

“i’m glad—“ she starts to reply but bakugou’s mother has always been persistent and irritating especially at the worst times— yelling his name again. the pair’s shoulders rise like cats on the prowl and the girl let’s out the cutest laugh he’s ever heard in his life. “i think your mum’s calling, katsuki.”

“s-shut up!” bakugou scrambles to his feet just as the girl does, brushing the sand from her warm skin.

“you should go! i’ll see you around, kay?”

she’s gone before he can even blink, as if she were never there. the only way he truly knows that the girl was real is all thanks to his mother— mitsuki pestering him with questions about the girl all the way back to the restaurant. who was she? did you know her? are you okay? they all go through one ear and come out of the other. all bakugou can think about from then is how she thought she would see him again.

which wouldn’t happen, since he was leaving tomorrow.

for the next ten years, memories of the girl with honeyed brown skin and darling chocolate eyes haunt katsuki’s every waking moment. he tried everything in his power to forget her, his first love— even if they moments they shared together were brief, they’re all he thinks about when the world gets a little too ugly and a little too heavy to sit on his shoulders.

no one had ever been that gentle with him, treated him so kindly at first sight— after seeing all of him, scarred and all. no one has ever compared to her since.

that is until the warm tones of your voice echo through the dynamight agency one day— your japanese a little stronger than it was almost a decade ago when it changed the trajectory of katsuki bakugou’s life.

“h-hi, i’m here for the assistant role for um…dynamight?” you say, still shy and hesitant, still quiet and cute.

and only the heavens know how thankful katsuki is for not forgetting his first love— for remembering the way you talk, the way your eyes shimmer as he rounds the corner and reveals himself to you. taller than you remember, older and wiser than in your head— but still your first love too.

“you’re okay!” you squeak upon his reveal, clutching your bag in one shaky hand— voice wobbling as if you’d been worried about bakugou this entire time.

the blonde nods simply, trying to remember what it was he said to you all those years ago when you’d first asked him that.

“‘m fine, feel like i can breathe again.”

[factual-fantasy]

27 ASKS!! AAA THANK YOU!! :DDD

Good question! :0 The Glamrocks would be quite creeped out. And actually, so would the sister location gang!

What I had in mind for my circus gang was that their face plates are not meant to move around to make them look more life like. They have the face plates for easy repair, replacement, cosmetic changes, and easy access to the endoskeleton if needed. When the animatronic is active, the faceplates are locked up tight and are not meant to open while the animatronic is active. Again, its just for easy repair and replacements.

So since the animatronics are not meant to move their plates, if one of them looked in a mirror and their face plates moved or opened.? They'd freak out! That's not meant to open! I must be broken! And they'd run to an employee for help <XD

NOOOO NOT THE BEAM ATTACK--

Maybe! :0 I haven't thought that part of the story through but I wouldn't be against that idea!

Funny how you say that when recently Browns headlights went out. Yeah he really does need glasses XDD

(He's fixed now btw don't worry👍)

She wasn't intended to have much of a role in the AU, considering Mario and Luigi are the only humans in the mushroom kingdoms dimension..

Maybe she could have been a childhood friend that they knew? Maybe she was their next door neighbor? Or perhaps a customer of theirs? What ever role she had in their lives back on Earth, it wasn't meant to be significant enough to remember/miss her..

@thebranflakescereal

The sister location gang? Prooobaly Circus Baby, with Funtime Freddy as a close second.

The Glamrock gang? Probably the daycare attendant XDD

@neo-metalscottic (Post in question)

AAAA THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :DD I'm so glad you liked my designs! And I'm also glad that my more mellow "go with the flow" vibe for Freddy was seen! That's what I was aiming for! :DD

As for the map bot question, yes! The beloved map bot is alive and well <XDD He's not a threat to Gregory currently and he thankfully doesn't bother the main cast much. He just hangs around until he sees someone in need of a map! XD

@ghfhgkfngjvfnvmfkf

Hmm,, good question. I think if Funtime Freddy was decommissioned but they kept the Bon's around?.. They wouldn't put the bons with Circus Baby or Ballora becuase they'd be out of place. Ballora and the reenas are humanoid. They're pretty, delicate, and are ballerinas. Circus Baby, Ennard and the Bidybabs are all humanoid as well and clown themed. With specific color palettes and a clown performance.

What they'd probably do is put them with Funtime Foxy and just expand his act to accommodate for the extra people. They'd make Foxy a magician/ringmaster and somehow incorporate the Bons into his act. Since him, Chica and the Bons are all animals it would fit better.

You can just put it in a paint program and white out all the characters like I did. :0

I did keep some of Jevil's powers from the game yeah. :0 But I've altered almost all of them in some way-

In the Grillby fight he's seen "teleporting" to avoid Grillby's attacks. I believe I saw a gif of Jevil teleporting and there looked to be a motion blur effect..? So I interpreted that as he doesn't necessarily disappear and reappear...? More he just moves incredibly fast.

He miiight be able to turn into the scythe.? But I've mostly just interpreted that as he is able to summon a scythe to his hands when ever he may need it. I haven't made use of the cloning ability because, well, I didn't know he could do that- <XDD I'll definitely have to add that though!

For Goner kid I'm not too sure.. my version has her as Monster kids little sister. And I've seen a lot of interpretations of MK having fire breathing powers. Maybe she has fire related powers too..? Either way, it'll take a long time for her to remember the powers she has, and even longer to learn how to control them. So as it stands right now she's pretty defenseless..

Spamton is supposed to have most/all of the powers that original Spamton does in the game. But his attacks are kind'a.. broken. Spamton's physical injuries leaked down into his very soul and cracked it. So all of his attacks are messed up. I'd have to do some research on what his attacks actually are, and then make them broken if he ever tries to use them.

Like for example, 2/3 projectiles he summons will fly off in the wrong direction. Any weapons that he summons will have bent handles and break easy.. stuff like that :(

I've heard about that power, but as far as I know Mario and Luigi just kind'a.. have that power naturally.? While in my AU, all the bros power come exclusively from powerups. If there was a Firebrand mushroom and a thunderhand flower? Sure! But if its something they can just do without any powerup assistance, then it wont fit into my AU.. :/

(Video in question)

XDD I can see that happening to Shellington and Kwazii

With DJ, Sun and Moon? Its very possible XDD

I think they'd get a long great! My version of Funtime Freddy is toned down a bit compared to canon Funtime <XD No crazy, "HEY BAWN BAWN!!"

(Post in question)

Yes! Even though he has nothing to do with sister location (as far as I can remember--) I've still thought about adding him in some kind of cryptic way.. 👀

@clockworkthenightbard

Thank you so much!! :DD

@khoiazo

AKASNSWNDEO TRAUMATIZED XDDD

Nope! They're all very colorful and sparkly, but they are not intended to be Glamrocks. :}

@minnesotamedic186

Yoooo that's a good idea! I'll have to at least do something with the Electrobab XD

@milk-powrit (Post in question)

Thank you!! :DD I cant fully retrace my thought process- But I believe I wanted to make the Minireenas not scary. So I gave them cute faces and dresses. But I thought that having all these tiny little doll girls running around might feel a bit creepy to little kids..

So I thought hey! What if I slap some wings on them and make them fly around like fairies?? And to make them even less scary, I can make them look like familiar bugs that kids like! Lady bug, butterfly, bumble bee, dragon fly... and then I thiiiink I designed Ballora after.? Or maybe Ballora being based on a butterfly was what first inspired me.?

Either way- Ballora is based on a Blue Morpho butterfly! Very pretty :}}

@bunny-coffee

Sorry, I don't take requests! But that's not a bad idea.. 🤔 Maybe someday XD

@astrokea

Awe, thank you!! :DD I'm glad you like what I make!! :}}

@beryl-shade

Jevil and Seam do not reveal their injuries to anyone unless they absolutely have to. And when they do, yeah its only to each other..

Like for example; if Seams eye socket started to hurt and it needed to be looked at/tended to. Seam would only feel comfortable having it tended to by Jevil. But the whole time he'd still be incredibly uncomfortable and would cover it back up as soon as he could..

I'm not sure if I've answered this ask before and forgot to delete it, or if its an old ask that got buried and I never answered it at all-- either way!--

Yeah, Jevil would be pretty spooked by his original counterpart. Because original Jevil is clearly insane.. But he'd also feel kind'a bad for his original.. he's still trapped in a cell..

Seam is definitely envious of his original. He thinks his original got off easy. He doesn't even have shackles. And his stitched mouth doesn't seem to bother him..

My Goner kid arguably has it better than the original. Considering the original is still lost in the void somewhere..

And I intended for Grillby to encounter another version of him. Maybe not the original, but at least another version. He saw his other self with his daughter.. it was really hard for him..

@luna-purple454 @elegysonnet (Post in question)

Sorry for the late reply you three! I was intending to draw a comic for this but I never got around to it.. haha,, <:D ..anyways-

What ends up happening is Papyrus offers to help. Seam is scared out of his mind but he ends up taking Papyrus' offer.

Papyrus picks up Jevil and helps Seam stand up. They make their way out of the dying forest, stepping over fallen trees and branches. All the while Papyrus is talking to Seam. "What's your name? Where are you from?" Seam tells him their names but that's about all he can manage to say through his trembling..

All the while they're walking something just.. feels really off. Why are all the trees and grass dead? Why is it so warm around here? Seam is sure he's seen this place before in other AUs. Isn't there supposed to be snow on the ground?

Eventually they make their way into snowdin. Seam was so stressed that he didn't really take the time to scan his surroundings. Although he did notice that they were walking through snow now. They get to Papyrus' house and walk inside.

The house is lit by candles, and all the lights are off. Seam and Jevil are put on the couch, Papyrus goes into the kitchen to make some soup for them to eat.

This when things takes a horrifying turn. While anxiously waiting for Jevil to wake up, Seam looks out the window..

The snow outside isn't like a blanket of snow. Rather its gathered in big piles. The big lumps of wispy snow cover the ground in front of the houses, but don't go into the forest and it isn't on any of the trees..

And then he notices.. there's children's shoes and coats buried in the.. "snow"..

Seam is a darkener, so he does not turn to dust when he dies. But he knows that AU's that have a snowdin town in it.. the monster's there turn to dust when they die.

There are mountains of bodies outside. What happened here? Who killed all those people? Thats why there's no power to the house isn't it? That's why its so warm, that's why all the trees are dead. The people who man the core are all dead. Everyone in this AU is dead, everything is dead. But who killed them? What happened?

..Did Papyrus....?

Horror washes over Seam. It was Papyrus wasn't it. He killed all those people. And now Seam is in Papyrus' house. He doesn't have the strength to get up, he cant run- he cant escape-

Its in that moment of pure dread.. that Jevil started to stir, and Papyrus walked back in..

[cripplecharacters]

Hello there! I love this blog, thank you for making it! I’ve had this fantasy novel in the back of my head for ages, and am actually considering sitting down and writing it out since I’m taking a break from studying. I’ve always imagined the main character as having a facial difference, specifically a split lip (and very visible given the medical technology of the world), though I’ve considered some sort of facial paralysis instead. I read your post on characters with facial difference, and none of those shitty tropes seem to apply, thank god. But as I am not physically disabled I really wanted to avoid anything harmful in my writing that could sneak in from subconscious bias I probably have.

There Is one element in my story that I realize might be getting into some dodgy territory, and that’s regarding her relationship with her disfigurement. Like I said, I am not physically disabled, but I do have some experience being “non-normative” visibly (I’m trans), and invisibly (mental illness). I’ve been kind of using this story as a way to explore the experience of being “non normative”, both visibly and invisibly through a fantasy world, and though I think all minorities often have comparable experiences and should stand together, I should of course be very careful not to completely override the real experience of disabled people with my own angst. The fact is that in the story and world I’ve built, ableism *is* very present, and part of her arc was becoming confident in herself in spite of the society around her, helped by the many other disabled characters she knows. She’s got lots of personality and the main plot isn’t really about her facial difference, but she starts out very self conscious of it, and sometimes even projects this onto those around her.

I’d love to hear your thoughts - is this a plot that I can write with sensitivity, or should I rethink this?

Hi!

First of all, nice to see a character with a congenital facial difference! :-)

I think when it comes to her relationship with her cleft lip/paralysis, this post could be useful for you. While "societal ableism" can be a reason for being insecure about one's disability, if you want to write about it more in-depth, you need to expand on that as well. What exactly is there that made her feel that way? What happened that started her self-acceptance journey? etc.

In the greater context of the story, I would look at not making her the most miserable one. If the story surrounds the topic of looking "non-normative" then just make sure you show a wide spectrum of what that can be outside of just facial differences. Though there is nothing inherently wrong with writing a story about the experiences of someone with a facial difference, that's clearly not what you're going for - and speaking about this:

I would also look out for her being the main character - if her experience is the main one of the story, and the story is about looking different, I'm not sure how feasible it is to not make it into a story about having a facial difference. It's not that it can't be done, but I'm quite curious on how you plan for it to play out, assuming that the goal is neither to ignore her disability nor to make it a big piece of it. Perhaps making her into a side character and having the main character someone with experience closer to your own would be simply easier. This would also help with not "overriding the real experience of disabled people with [your] own angst". Especially considering the part where she seems to be projecting her internalized ableism on others - that's a very sensitive topic even among disabled people, and it does feel rather strange to read about here. If you had to rethink one thing, it would probably be this one. I'd keep that kind of characterization for something you have personal experience with. It'd be very easily to make a mistake here and either send a message you aren't trying to, or just make her plain unlikable (and if that's the goal, then why the one character with FD, etc?).

I do enjoy that she gains confidence by being around other disabled people. If possible, make sure that there is someone with a visible disability and/or a facial difference, simply because that would make the most sense. Someone that she can actually relate to; see them being proud, happy, etc.

I hope this helps! Good luck with your story

mod Sasza

[tymime]

Public Domain cartoon characters from the Golden Age of Animation (and beyond)

Revised and expanded version of this post: https://tymime.tumblr.com/post/648495121557585920/instead-of-whining-about-mickey-mouse-not-falling

While Mickey entering the public domain is exciting and all, I do think a lot of people are overlooking the many other animated characters that are available to use in their creative works. This list isn't entirely exhaustive, but it does highlight some of the most interesting and/or appealing characters, as well as ones that have the potential to be so.

Koko the Clown

One of the oldest cartoon stars from the Fleischer studio, almost all of Koko's silent-era cartoons are PD, and have been for quite some time. A handful of his appearances alongside Betty Boop are also PD.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Oswald's PD status has been greatly overshadowed by his fellow Disney star Mickey, but I believe that he deserves more recognition. All of the shorts produced by the Disney studio are PD as of this year, and let's face it, those are the only ones most people care about. Pegleg Pete's bear design is also PD.

Keep in mind that the blue shorts that Oswald wears in Epic Mickey and elsewhere are likely copyrighted, so I recommend steering clear of that.

I'm also not entirely sure you can use the name "Ortensia" for his cat girlfriend, since that name first appeared in Epic Mickey also. She was called "Kitty" back in the day, among other things.

All of Van Beuren Studio's cartoons

The Van Beuren Studio was active during the rubberhose era, and their cartoons, especially the earlier ones, are like a cruder, possibly even more bizarre cousin to Fleischer and Disney. They went bust in the late 1930s, and no one renewed the copyright later on, so the entirety of their output is PD.

Their most notable characters include Tom and Jerry, a pair of average Joes who always get into strange adventures. They shouldn't be confused with MGM's Tom and Jerry, and in fact they were called Dick and Larry when their shorts were rereleased for the home-movie market in the 1940s.

Also notable is Waffles and Don, who are basically just animal versions of Tom and Jerry. You might consider these two as a better alternative, just to avoid confusion.

There's also Cubby Bear, a pretty blatant Mickey Mouse clone, but unique enough that I don't think anybody’s going to confuse the two nowadays.

In the previous post, I mentioned a rumor that Disney threatened legal action over the character, but I can't find the source for that now. I may have been thinking of Milton Mouse, who was so extremely similar to Mickey that they actually did sue the studo for copyright infringement. So maybe don't try selling any Milton merchandise...

Finally, there's Molly Moo-Cow, who appeared in several Rainbow Parade cartoons in the mid-to-late 1930s. Molly is arguably not the most interesting character, but I have a fondness for her since we grew up with one of her shorts on a VHS tape.

Toby the Pup

Another very obscure character, about half of his cartoons are lost media. The little that does survive is hard to find online, but I think his design has appeal.

Dr. XXX

Disney's The Mad Doctor was never renewed for reasons unknown, though some speculate that the studio thought that the cartoon was too scary and decided to let it go. Fortunately for us, that means that this iconic character is now in the people's hands.

Goopy Geer

Goopy appeared in the three Merrie Melodies cartoons alongside his unnamed girlfriend. Despite his name and appearance being similar to Disney's Goofy, he actually made his debut about a month before (Goofy was named Dippy Dawg at the time anyway, so it was undoubtedly a coincidence).

Claude Hopper

Claude appeared in a single Looney Tunes cartoon in 1943 called Hop and Go, alongside a pair of Scottish rabbits who antagonize him. The cartoon ends with a very unfortunate depiction of Tokyo being blown up (World War II was still going on at the time), so it's no surprise that Warner Bros. decided not to renew this one. Despite that, he has a very appealing design (imo), so I think he has potential. (Also, he's voiced by Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Goofy!)

Private Snafu and Mr. Hook

Snafu and Hook were created for the US government, so according to the law are automatically public domain. The shorts were made to be shown to members of the US army and navy respectively, in order to teach them valuable lessons for fighting in WWII, but are nevertheless hilarious cartoons- animated by the Looney Tunes team with scripts by Ted Geisel- aka Dr. Seuss!

The Dover Boys

Also of note are the ComiColor cartoons from the Iwerks studio, Rainbow Parade from Van Beuren, and most of the Color Classics by Fleischer. These don't have any especially memorable characters in them, but I thought I ought to mention them.

Yes, Tom, Dick and Larry, Dora Standpipe and the villainous Dan Backslide are all public domain. A bunch of YouTube Poops were created after this fact was discovered by the internet a few years ago.

How Warner Bros. could ever let this one get away I'll never know. Their loss is our gain, I suppose.

Caveats and other concerns

Krazy Kat

Felix the Cat

All of the strips up to 1928 are definitely fair game. According to the Public Domain Superheroes wiki however, the entirety of the strip's run is PD. I'm not sure if it that's true, but the Fantagraphics collections don't credit any newspaper syndicate, so it seems likely. (Apparently the copyright status of newspaper comics are a whole can of worms on its own...)

At any rate, the strip's cast was pretty well set in stone by 1928, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. A large number of animated shorts starring Krazy are also PD, but those were pretty much in name only.

Flip the Frog

Felix was pretty much the first cartoon superstar, and almost all of his Golden Age appearances are PD now. Keep in mind that this does not include elements from the 1950s cartoon like his magic bag, or from The Twisted Tales of Felix, as amazing as that series is.

The character's name and appeance are still trademarked by NBC Universal however, so you might be able to use him in a minor role, but not much else.

I'm uncertain about this one. According to most sources Flip is PD, but according to the Thunderbean Blu-ray collection he's copyrighted by the Film Preservation Archives, whatever that means. Additionally, Flip himself is supposedly trademarked by Leslie Iwerks, Ub Iwerks’ granddaughter, though no one seems to be able to confirm that. I don't know how the trademark hasn't lapsed yet, considering that Flip hasn't appeared on any official merchandise or anything in decades.

Bosko and Honey

I believe there's nothing stopping anyone from using Bosko's classic design (later appearances at MGM and in Tiny Toons are still copyrighted), but the character himself is a bit problematic, considering that it's all but stated outright that he's a blackface caricature. Use with caution.

Foxy and Roxy

Noveltoons

Like Goopy Geer, Foxy appeared in three Merrie Melodies cartoons. Roxy's name originates from an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures however, so keep that in mind. Though I'm not sure what else you would call her (or if Warner Bros. would even care). Supposedly her original name was "Fluffy", but I can't find a source for this.

Like Bosko and Honey, later appearances in Tiny Toons are still copyrighted.

Noveltoons was a series produced by Famous Studios, the successor to the Fleischer studio. The characters include Baby Huey, Herman the mouse, Blackie the sheep, Little Audrey, and of course, Casper the Friendly Ghost. Only a small handful of the shorts are PD though, and Casper is trademarked, so one's options are limited.

Ginger Nutt (and rest of the Animaland cast)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

This one I'm not entirely sure about either, but Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus has long been a staple of grey-market tapes and DVDs, so I'm just going to assume all of the Animaland cartoons are also PD. Considering that the series wasn't very sucessful, and is very obscure nowadays, it seems pretty likely.

If anyone has any insight on this, let me know.

Calvin and the Colonel

Now here's an interesting case. An all-time classic Christmas special, and yet large parts of it are PD because they accidentally put the wrong date on the copyright notice. Instead of the Roman numerals MCMLXIV (1964), it reads MCLXIV (1164), and according to the law at the time, that meant that the film immediately went into public domain.

Of course, Rudolph himself is still copyrighted, and will be until 2035 when the original book falls into the public domain. Even then he's likely to still be trademarked. Not to mention the songs featured in the '64 film will be copyrighted for a long time afterward.

Still, this means that anyone is free to use all the other characters, including Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, King Moonracer, Clarice, and all the Misfit Toys. It's a wonder no one seems to have taken advantage of this. And of course Santa and his reindeer have been PD for ages, especially Santa since he comes from folklore- and you can't copyright folklore.

This cartoon is based on and stars a lot of the same voice cast as the old-time radio show Amos and Andy, which, while not overtly racist, featured white actors pretending to be black. The cartoon obviously has animals instead, but still, tread carefully. Someone is bound to point out the characters' history.

Hoppity Hooper

Another one I'm not sure about. The Public Domain Superheroes wiki has characters from this show among its articles, but I wasn't able to confirm if it really was PD. It was created by Jay Ward, the same studio who made Rocky & Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle, but was also a huge flop for some reason, so that may be the reason why they let the copyright expire. Again, I'm not sure, but no one seems to care that the entire series is on YouTube, so who knows?

...Well, there you have it. Lots of obscure and forgotten toons waiting to be rediscovered and reused! If anyone has any more info or corrections, leave me a comment. I'd love some clarification on some of these.

[kurenai-works]

Hello everyone, today is my 29th birthday.

With that in mind, I figured it would be the best time to talk about this, so I'm proud to present to all of you 東方雷秘儀 ～ Strike in the Holy Apex, my very first Touhou Project fangame!

The game's story will be centered around a mysterious thunderstorm that's raiding the entirety of Gensokyo, so it's up to a group of heroines to investigate the situation and save the day.

As some of you may know, around November of last year, GameMaker has become free to use for everyone, which prompted me to take the opportunity to create an engine that looks roughly similar to ZUN's original Touhou Project games. I showcased it in greater detail on YouTube sometime around late February and I was very pleased by the generally positive feedback it got.

Taking that into account, I continued to expand the work I've done and it has grown a lot during the past four months; menus function properly, game settings can be modified, controller support has been added, several gameplay tweaks have been implemented, and so on. There's still a number of things that need to be ironed out by the time I'm writing this post, but considering the progress I have done on it so far, I have faith that a trial version for the game will be ready for release soon. This has to be the biggest project I've worked on... by a country mile. Speaking of the trial version's release date, that will be disclosed at the very end of this post.

GameMaker being free to use has given me a joy I genuinely can't describe, and I bet my inner child would’ve been happy too by hearing those news. After all, I've had experiences with GameMaker for well over 15 years, basically almost half of my entire life!

So, what should you expect by the time the trial version is released? First things first, it'll obviously consist of only three stages.

Secondly, you'll be able to play this adventure as the usual duo; Reimu and Marisa. More playable characters will be available in the full version.

Thirdly, the game's main mechanic. It's called the Brave Gauge, and it has functionality almost similar to the Season Gauge found in Touhou 16: Hidden Star in Four Seasons. It's not the most original idea I've had, but for the record, and coming back to my familiarity with GameMaker ever since my teenage years, this system was taken from a very old draft which dates all the way back to 2014, while making some adjustments to it. Here's a little bit of proof:

I'm going a bit off tangent here, but seeing these filenames kinda makes me feel embarrassed. The game has "Ascii" on the name because all of the graphics in there were made using ASCII characters, which was done during a time when my artistic talents were non-existent, so they looked quite messy and overall made the game have a goofy aura to it, haha.

And lastly, considering that I'd like this game to be played by a wider demographic, it's gonna be available in three different languages: English, Spanish (my native language, hooray!) and Japanese. These can be selected anytime via the options menu.

I don't know any people who are fluent in Japanese, and the few friends that I have don't seem to know much about the language either, so that translation is gonna be handled 100% by myself using tools like DeepL. I know that translating all the stuff in one go can lead to heavily mistranslated results, so I'll be making sure to convert my game's text as meticulously as I can. If there's anyone out there who understands Japanese fluently and is willing to translate the text for me, please hit me up because that'd be really appreciated. In case that happens, I won't be able to reward the translation financially, but I will be adding your name to my game's end credits.

So yeah, I don't have much else to say. The game's trial version will be available on Itch.io this August 30th.

The game has a long way ahead from being completed, so anticipating a release date for the full version is not feasible, at the moment. Regardless, I'll make sure to update on that once I have made abundant progress on it.

Both versions of the game will be released as pay-what-you-want. In simpler words, they'll be available free of charge with the optional choice of depositing a sum, in case you're feeling generous. After all, not to brag, but it goes without saying that I'm handling every detail in the game; not just the programming, but also the art, music and writing. While I have used some code libraries to facilitate the inclusion of certain aspects in my game, most of the heavy lifting is carried out by me, so it'd be really appreciated to have some compensation for the work I have been doing for almost half a year. It's not by any means mandatory, so it's fine if you can't for whatever reason, hahaha.

Anyway, I hope you look forward to this game of mine as much as I do! See you then!!

[faroreskiss]

Unnatural Coincidences / Part 1

Parts 1 2 3 4 Epilogue

You have been in Hyrule for a while now, and some things just cannot stay hidden anymore.

General Info & Warnings: -This will be a four part story for now, with the last part (3&4) being the most explicit. There is a potential to expand the non-explicit parts, if there is interest. -If you are under 18, please do not read this. You have been warned. -Italic words like this mean the words in "your language", as they are speaking Hylian with each other. -Feel free to comment, if you think instead of (Y/N) this story should be written from first or second person POV (or it should be an OC) Pairing: Zelda x Fem!Reader x Link

It was another one of those early mornings, (y/n) has been hiking the mountains with Link before work, taking the scenery in. They stopped by the lake, and looked at how the sun sparkled on top of the water. This was simply unreal.

That’s because it wasn’t. At least, not from her point of view.

Around 3 years ago, she has somehow ended up in post-calamity BotW world, with most of her knowledge from our own world intact. It wasn’t that long that she came across Link and Zelda, who are living together but are not together (though one could absolutely feel the vibes there). Everybody has their own room in that house.

It is another story for another time, but those three are quite close now. She is now working together with Zelda & Purah, researching the history of Hyrule all the way back to Creation, publishing papers together and recording the knowledge. Link is technically still a knight, though the castle’s renovations are not quite there yet after the fight with Ganon.

“Heh, never seen a lake before? You seem quite amazed.”

Link didn’t speak that much unprompted, but when he did it always had a flavor. She chuckled, she absolutely had a crush on him but thought it was unfair. She had a crush on a fictional character, who absolutely had feelings for Zelda. It probably didn’t count, no? Not like she can’t enjoy a bit of harmless flirting every now and then either way.

“It just looks so beautiful, I’m also kind of tired after a 10 km hike up here. Not everybody has your stamina wheels and strong… bottom muscles, Mr. Hero.” she made a gesture, but did not stare, at his ass.

He did not register it at first.

“My bottom wha-… You creep!” he laughed.

Link and Zelda got used to the way she was talking. When they first met, they didn’t even understand a word she said, literally. She didn’t speak any Hylian, them being who they are (and Zelda also having scientific curiosity), they taught her Hylian, and with a little bit of help from the Great Fairies, enhanced her learning abilities to speed up the process. It was quite obvious for them that she had an idea about the world they live in, and more.

They know that (y/n) is from another ‘dimension’ (not that hard to believe for them I suppose, with all the magic and science simply existing together in this realm). They were the ones who found her in the Temple of Time, but the part that she knows them from a video game series, has not been discussed… yet. She wasn’t actively trying to hide it either though. So there was still trust between them.

She is thinking of breaking it to them at some point. There hasn’t been a big quest of “sending her back”, though she is sure Zelda has her own agenda, and Link is probably in on it. Good thing about them, they don’t pry if they feel like they are making you uncomfortable. They probably also do feel that you are hiding something from them, though.

“Aaaah, I’m just SO looking forward to this evening though!” she said while getting up and stretching.

“Wine and Lon Lon cheese at the cottage? Of course.” Link also got up and started filling his water pouch. “And having Purah create a game on the Slate. Can’t wait to try it!*”

Oh how cute he was trying to pronounce unfamiliar words.

“That, and how you and Zelda are going to act with each other after some booze gets into your system.”

(Y/N) giggled and Link was kind of red on top of his pointy ears. There must have been something off however, as what she said made Link stop for a second and looked seriously at her face, as if she… looked hurt.

“Something on my face?”

“(y/n)…”

“It’s OK, Link. I’m not blind. I can see how you look at her.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Nothing is that complicated, silly. If I were on the top of the Central Hyrule Tower, I could still see it from there without the scope. Still don’t get why you don’t tell her. So I’m hoping some wine would help. Or should I tell her?”

Meanwhile she started walking back down the path. The path was extremely steep.

“No!” he snapped and held her arm firmly to stop her. She has NEVER seen him snap before. Nobody did. He was the embodiment of self control. 

She was quite startled, so while yanking her arm off from Link’s grasp, she ended up tripping backwards on the slope. Link ended up catching her right on time to protect her head, but they rolled up a little bit down on the path, till they hit a tree to stop them. Thank Farore.

Now Link was on top of her, staring right into her eyes, intensely. It was… uncomfortably close. His knee was actually kind of between her thighs. If only it moved a bit more up... Oh Hylia, she was supposed to think of survival, but all she could think of was how the current situation could be something completely different right now.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“N-no I don’t think so. Are you…”

“I’m fine.”

They were both already breathing heavily from the fall. (Y/n) more so, she didn’t have the personal fitness level he had. Why did it feel as if they were getting even closer? Was this breathing certainly from all the rolling?

“Hey…” she spoke softly.

“Sorry, I kind of snapped.” He was still not moving from where he was, and the stare was still not broken. She knew she was supposed to say something, move or wiggle around. She felt so selfish. Link and Zelda belonged together. She shouldn’t get in between them. What if it affects the future of Hyrule or something? But again, not like there is a rule that they end up together anyway…

“It’s OK, Link. But what’s going on?”

“You mean that I am dense, but so are you.” he seemed serious. Oh Goddesses, why was he still on top of her?

“What?”

“You are right. I do have feelings for Zelda.”

It felt like a bucket of cold water trickling down from her head to her heart. She knew this, but it was never said out loud. Maybe a part of her did want to have something with him. But this, this felt like even that bridge was burned. Pandora’s box was opened. Her eyes started to water.

“News flash.”

“What?”

“Nothing, some dirt got into my eyes..” she broke the stare and looked at the side.

“(y/n), look at me.” he moved her head gently back to the center. She wasn’t able to speak. She didn’t know what to say. How can she ever explain it to him?

“Don’t.” (y/n) somehow managed to weakly get it out from her mouth. He stopped. The stare didn’t. He was staring into her soul. Trying to get some words out. Could it be that he…?

“But (y/n), I also…” he started. This, this was getting unbearable. For both of them it seemed. Still, she didn’t let him finish the sentence. So what, not like ZeLink was ever totally canon anyway? This is Legend of Zelda, everybody has their interpretation, right? But.. He was so close, his eyes were piercing through her (e/c) ones. Her hair was touching the grass, his leg between hers felt even closer to her center. She could swear, maybe it touched a little bit. She noticed his face was also red. No, it must be wind and cold. She was getting lost in her thoughts. She was going to take the gamble that Link was trying to say something good. At least, she could at least experience this in her life here. This selfish moment, she wanted for herself.

“Ah, fuck it!”

She pulled him into a kiss. Link did not even flinch at first.

...and then he started kissing her back.

She put her hands in his head, gently moving her fingers through his hair. His leg finally, albeit involuntarily, moved up, his knee brushing right between her legs. A silent yet soft moan escaped her. She could feel his smirk through the kiss. She took advantage and rolled him on his back, ending on top of him, using one of her hands on the tree behind them for balance at first. He pulled her in close once again and started kissing her neck and coming back to her lips. His hands were slowly circling her back. Still keeping it safe, what a gentleman. A gentleman with a bulge directly growing under her very lady-like parts. For her to feel.

This was also the wake-up call for her. She broke the kiss and looked at him. They were both panting. She finally crossed her legs to get off of him and quickly got up. They couldn’t look at each other in the eye. Link also got up.

“We… we should go.” she said, looking over the path down, pretending to fix her cloak.

“Y-yeah. You need to go to the lab, right?”

“Yes.”

They started walking down the path.

She was feeling quite conflicted, but damn, it felt so good. She wanted more. HE wanted more. Alas, there was sincerely no time. They had to talk about this later.

[harlivycentral]

I wanna talk about Harley & Ivy's dynamic in Conner and Palmiotti's iconic Harley Quinn run, why I love it so much, and why I'm hopeful that the new Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn series will pick up and expand on that legacy. Let's start with the two times we see Harley & Ivy kiss in the Conner and Palmiotti run.

I believe these are the only two times we see Harley & Ivy really kiss each other in Conner & Palmiotti's run (aside from the infamously edited kiss when Ivy throws Harley a surprise party). But there's something incredibly sweet to me in the fact that there's a recurrent theme of Ivy & Harley kissing each other to save each other.

The first kiss is from Harley Quinn Annual (2013) #1, where Ivy has been brainwashed, and Harley's first instinct to bring Ivy back to herself is to kiss her. The next kiss is from Harley Quinn (2016) #29, when Harley's been dosed by Scarecrow's fear gas during a mayoral debate (remember when Harley was running for mayor?), and Ivy leaps onstage to give Harley the antidote via a kiss. When either of them have been overcome by mind-altering substances, most of their selves and their autonomy stripped away, the other knows that a reminder of their relationship and what they mean to each other will bring them. They each instinctually recognize that their relationship with one another is a foundational and safe one that reminds each of them of who their authentic self is.

These kisses just encapsulates what I love about Conner and Palmiotti's run, which is that, even when DC wouldn't ever quite let them make Harlivy canon, they still managed to write Harley & Ivy as clearly such a grounding, safe force in one another's lives. Ivy isn't in every issue of their run, but she tends to turn up whenever Harley is going through something major. Every other character just seems to go along with Harley's hijinks, viewing her as indestructible (probably because Harley tends to think of and present herself that way). But then Ivy shows up, asking Harley when the last time she ate was, taking her out to dinner and a movie and checking in that she's not overtaxing herself, like we see in Harley Quinn (2016) #16 (below) or making sure she's emotionally prepared to face Joker when she has to break into Arkham in Harley Quinn (2013) #25.

But the thing is, it's not just Ivy taking care of Harley that we see in the series. Harley also takes care of Ivy, cajoling her into much-needed vacations like the spa day we see them take in Harley Quinn (2016) #1, which Harley puts together as a thank you for Ivy helping her out at the end of her New 52 series.

It's clear that they appreciate and trust one another, and each of them is always trying to make sure the other is getting the rest and care they need. The few times we see Harley really and truly relax in this series, it's usually with Ivy. It's no coincidence that Conner and Palmiotti chose to end their last Harley comic with Ivy & Harley finally together on a much-talked about and much-needed vacation.

They wanted to leave the character on a good note, and what better way than with Ivy? Harley and Ivy's relationship was the heart of the run, and Conner and Palmiotti's ending solidifies that. (Then there is the tagged on Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey series, which gives Harley another ending that I love so much it will have to get its whole own post another time. Needless to say, Ivy is also a crucial part of that ending as well.)

However, while Conner made it clear on twitter (and in the writing) that she and Palmiotti were intentionally writing Harley and Ivy's relationship as romantic, this was before DC would allow it to be canon (although the subtext is very much there). Which may explain, at least in part, why Harley asks Ivy to move in with her multiple times throughout the series, only for Ivy to rebuff her every time.

Which, of course, brings us to the new ongoing Poison Ivy series and the soon-to-be-released first issue of Howard's Harley Quinn run. In the new Poison Ivy series, we're once again seeing Harley asking Ivy, if not to move in with her, to come back to Gotham to be with her. In a reversal, we now have Ivy living in Seattle while Harley is in Gotham (whereas Conner and Palmiotti had Harley living in Brooklyn with Ivy back in Gotham).

It's the same conflict we've had before--Ivy not sure she can move in with Harley--but we get the the argument in a new context, one in which Ivy refers to Harley as the woman she loves, where she kisses Harley with no pretext needed and talks about how much she loves spending time in bed with her, where the relationship is clearly romantic and the conflict thus no longer feels manufactured to keep them apart. I think Conner and Palmiotti did a wonderful job writing Harley and Ivy's dynamic, given the editorial constraints they were working with, and the return to the conflict in the recent Poison Ivy series doesn't read to me as stasis but as an opportunity to more fully explore and resolve the emotions underlying Ivy's reluctance to move in with Harley in the past.

In both Conner and Palmiotti's run and Poison Ivy's current solo series, Harley is a respite for Ivy, and that scares her. Ivy's afraid to lean too fully into the safety and comfort of her relationship with Harley because she's worried what it will mean for her work, for her quest to protect and avenge the environment. Now that current creative teams are able to fully acknowledge the depth of feeling between Harley and Ivy, and no longer have to keep their relationship boxed in as not-quite-romantic, I'm hopeful that this re-exploration of Ivy's feelings about moving in with Harley will get a different resolution than they did in Conner and Palmiotti's run.

Conner and Palmiotti were able to write Harley and Ivy as a very healthy couple, where they both took care of and supported each other. When we saw them navigating fears about how their relationship might affect their work, it never broke them apart. Harley and Ivy are now canonically both gay and survivors of abuse at the hands of men. It's incredibly special to get to see gay women who are survivors of abuse in a healthy relationship with one another, one where they're equals who support each other. Conner and Palmiotti laid the groundwork of this dynamic, and I'm hopeful that we'll see it meaningfully expanded on in the near future.

[archandshri]

9th feb '24 - [arch] characters, interactions and emotion - making a mini webcomic

Gahhhh Shri this has been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks!!!! Hope you are doing well :)) First of all, WOW! You have a lot of goals, and I’m sure you’ll get them done! I’ve worked a lot on my graphic design during the process of making Winter Wellbeing. If you wanna see a blog post dedicated just to that, I can do so! It would be cool to compare notes on the approaches we take for graphic layouts. If you wanna share your knowledge of camera skills when you build that up that would be awesome 😭😭

It’s been a tough few weeks, art wise. I have been reflecting on my process, motivations to create, the ego and all the baggage that’s lumped into the creative process for me. It turns out there’s a lot. I took some space from my illustration practise (literally for a weekend!) and began to realise how dysfunctional it is. I’ve been writing a lot about that so there may be a larger piece of writing coming about that at some point (no promises!!)

But for now, let's talk about little successes!

I’ve been playing with some characters for a while but I’d hit a bit of a block with the plot. I realised the expectation of having a finished project of high quality soon is unrealistic, and an unhealthy expectation to put on myself. I rarely give myself time to play with concepts for a long time and let the characters, plot and interactions evolve naturally. Maybe this in part came from sticking to the short university module turnaround. I noticed that that short turnaround was causing a lot of block, so I have decided to bench it as a comic for now and focus on using it as a playground - falling in love with the characters, creating stories and drawing them for fun. Maybe years down the line I’ll make them into a comic - we shall see! 

I *tried* to do hourly comics day this year and it didn’t quite work for me. I think I made 3 comics? And then got distracted with a bigger project that ended up taking a week or so to complete. Let’s have a look at it, shall we?

[you can find the full version here]

First of all, it’s based on an unfinished fanfiction I started a couple of months ago, which was mostly bad, but there was one nice scene that I liked and wanted to expand on. I started by having a look at the script I wrote and thumbnailing on the iPad. I’m away from home at the mo and usually would prefer to do most of my artwork traditionally, but because I don’t have access to a scanner, the whole process was digital this time. A lot of the pages got scrapped because the dialogue wasn’t necessary, and I’m not drawing pages that aren’t necessary.

some more development screenshots

I thought a lot about posing during the process, acting the scenes out in my mind and sometimes physically, really understanding the emotions of the characters, why they’re saying what they’re saying, their tone and how to convey that though their body language and expression (i find grian really annoying normally [affectionate] but I want this grian to step on me).

Pearl was hard with this because she’s quite erratic and unpredictable in this series, so I wanted her to switch from raw explodey anger to playful jabs at Grian. I’m hoping this comes across as somewhat insane, rather than tonally off and inconsistent. I did super enjoy drawing her and her explosive nature though, especially in comparison to Grian’s coldness.

I played with levels and monotone colour too - I’m not working with multiple colours much at the moment so I’m able to focus on things like values composition, characters and backgrounds. My skills limit the kind of stories I can tell currently, so I’m working to improve those foundations. Maybe when I’m back in the riso studio I can play with colours a little more.

Colours - despite the simple pallete it gets a bit nerdy here.I stuck to specific flat percentages for most of it - Pearl’s hair and Grians jumper are 60%, Grian’s hair and Pearl’s cloak are 20%. Then I added a 14% layer for shadows, using a ahrd blend eraser tool for highlights, making the images quite dark. I fill a layer with texture from Forystr’s riso brush for procreate, and turn it into a 40% opacity colour dodge layer. This gives it some much needed texture and makes the lighting feel low and nighttimecore. It also pushes the values to look really nice - I tend to be too scared to push them by myself.

I tried a few different colour layers to get a *vibe* but settled on a low percentage riso blue in a colour layer. All layers besides the riso blue are in a riso black, colour picked from a riso colour pallete. I learnt these tools - using percentages to get good values - from working with risograph. I really recommend having a look at these techniques and doing some monotone work. It's really improved by character designs, page layouts and compositions.

That's all from me today, though I have had MANY other thoughts over the past two weeks about creating, but perhaps we'll dive into them another time. If you (or anyone else) has any questions, hit me up with a reblog or an ask and I will get right to it. Lovely to hear from you! Hope your art is going great too :)) Arch :)

[being-of-rain]

I wasn’t really a big fan of The Giggle by the time I finished watching it, and I liked it less the more that I thought about it. Which is a real shame, because I think it was full of a lot of great ideas that were squandered with poor execution. I didn’t really want to just post pages of negativity, so I’ll quickly skim through a list of things I think could’ve been done better, and maybe I’ll expand on some of them later or if I’m asked about them. Still, this is your warning for negativity.

The whole 'screens are evil and making everyone think they're right' felt so shallow and cheap, especially because it was set up as the main obstacle and then largely ignored. A lot of the characters at UNIT really didn't do much (I totally forgot about The Vlinx after my first watchthrough) but I think that didn't bother me much while watching because I was used to Chibnall regularly ignoring characters like that. It was nice to see Mel again, but she didn’t really serve much purpose.

RTD’s take on the Toymaker is quite similar to his take on the Master, which was sometimes fun and sometimes annoying (specifically the German accent, which lost its appeal pretty quickly for me). But he felt pretty hollow and full of wasted potential beyond that, feeling like he was there just to give the episode a villain. Although speaking of the Master, his brief inclusion was hilarious and an easy way to write him back into the show later, nicely done.

The last third of the episode had some many intriguing and potentially awesome ideas behind it. The new Doctor turning up partway through a story? Cool! The Doctor defeating his final villain alongside the next star of the show? Fun! The Doctor getting self-care and words of wisdom from his next self? So heartwarming! One Doctor retiring to be happy while his next incarnation travels off to continue the adventures? A fun use of the show's format!

But for me these ideas just didn’t work or didn’t fulfill their potential, and it’s mostly because there’s no narrative justification for them. No cause and effect. There’s no given reason for the Doctor to bigenerate, it just happens. There’s no particular reason that it was the Doctors rather than the Toymaker who won the game of catch to save the world, it just happens. Without any narrative reason the third act feels so unsatisfying, like spectacle for the sake of spectacle, and (I don’t say this lightly) incredibly lazily written.

That lack of story reason also undermines the ending, clearly the thing RTD was most interested in, by making it feel unearned. Like a first draft script that worked backwards to make it happen. The retirement ending itself I have mixed feelings about, which I’m not sure I can fully articulate. One thing I love to see is that RTD can actually do a genuinely happy ending rather than making every ending a tragedy. But said happy ending feels a little too ‘married-with-kids-and-a-white-picket-fence’ to me – though obviously I can’t stress enough how relieved I am that romance didn’t factor into it. It just felt like it wasn’t set up well enough. I’d probably like it a lot more if they made clear if Tennant’s Doctor was going to turn into Gatwa’s Doctor or if they’re just separate people now. It was sweet of RTD to try and bring a conclusion to the ‘Doctor is traumatised’ thing that he introduced to the show 18 years ago, but he did it poorly. At least it offers interesting new possibilities for the show going forward!

With all that said, in the end The Giggle felt to me like RTD retreading some of his biggest flaws as a writer, and throwing in a few borrowed from other showrunners for good measure. It was a disappointment both because of the good ideas just below the surface, and because it came after a very fun first episode and an incredible follow-up.

But like I said, I’m excited to see what the show does next! I saw talk that there’ll be lots of mythical and unnatural creatures turn up due to the Doctor’s salt thing, which is super cool. And obviously I’m excited for more Gatwa! I haven’t really felt a lot of reason to be excited about Ruby yet, but as always I’m ready to fall in love with the new companion quickly!

[guardiangeologist]

Luigi's Uncharacteristically Large and also maybe Haunted House (3DS Edition): A Highly Professional Review

The entire time I've had this blog, I haven't really been sure what to use it for. I've settled on spewing my unscripted thoughts on whatever Game of the Week I've played most recently because, quite frankly, where else are they gonna go? I love my girlfriend, but these words are destined for a wider platform. I must expand my horizons. So here I am, talking about cartoon ghosts and green vacuum-wielding Italian men on the internet.

Now, let me tell you, this green man and his stupid house have been in control of my entire brain like some fucked up Italian Ratatouille for at least 10 years. I was a Luigi's Mansion Kid. What do I mean by that? I mean I roleplayed Luigi's Mansion on the school playground when I was in the 3rd grade. With the other Luigi's Mansion Kids. So it's safe to say I have some experience when it comes to this game. At times, he goes dormant. He waits patiently for another hyperfixation to pass. However, just when I least expect it, he returns from the grave (almost like a ghost?) to stage a military occupation of my frontal lobe to last the next few months.

So, there's my history. I ended up finally picking up the 3DS version of this game just before the eShop shut down (rest in piss) for shits and giggles, and only just got around to playing it this week while laying in bed with a migraine. (maybe not the smartest decision?) I mean, to start with, why was this game released for the 3DS? It came out in October 2018, at which point we were already an entire year post-Switch. I mean, I guess it would be fine, but it's just so obvious that being on the 3DS holds this game back in so many different areas (which I will get to, be patient!) and it's seriously a tragedy it hasn't been ported to Switch yet. Why put together such an amazing remake, and then bottleneck it with lackluster hardware and release it on a nearly out of service console?

In terms of positive changes? LOADS of QoL stuff. I might even go as far as to call this the definitive version of the game in spite of the few drawbacks it does present. Some examples include:

Re-fighting portrait ghosts: NO MORE RESETS!!! (Ok still some resets for speedy spirits because there's no way in hell I'm staying in the blackout for longer than I have to but that's just part of The Experience)

You can go back to the Lab from the Mansion by exiting through the front door. Finally, Luigi has learned how to open doors!

The tougher post-game Hidden Mansion, originally exclusive to the PAL version, has finally been made available to us worthless money-grubbing Americans! (Minus the disorienting flipped rooms, which I found pretty disappointing but some people will probably celebrate.) You can even get platinum ghost portraits from the Hidden Mansion which I have yet to obtain all of because jesus christ it is not easy to defeat a ghost with 150 health in a single attempt.

And now, the ghostly elephant in the room: co-op. I did try it, with my little brother as my Gooigi guinea pig. It's...I mean...honestly, it's not great. If you want to play LM1 with a friend, I can honestly recommend a ROM hack of the GameCube original more than I can recommend Nintendo's official multiplayer, which is pretty lame. For one, nothing is scaled up difficulty-wise to account for the extra player, so most battles in the game become trivial with the addition of a second experienced player (not my little brother.) But secondly, and most importantly:

the LAG.

DEAR GOD THE LAG.

I can testify that our internet is fine. The internet is not the issue, and even if it were, it shouldn't take any more bandwidth to play this game than it takes for two 3DS systems that are within 3 feet of each other and 10 feet from a router to communicate with each other. Yet, the game did not once run at full speed on either screen the entire time we played. Additionally, my brother complained several times that he couldn't even move his character. Luigi's Mansion with two players SHOULD be a chaotic mess, but adding the piddly framerate on top of it makes the game nearly unplayable.

That being said, the co-op is a disappointment, but it was never necessary for the game to be a satisfying package overall, it's better than having nothing. Though, as is typical, the work of fans definitely triumphs over Nintendo's official product in this department.

Oh, and they still didn't fix the oversight which causes you to lose the second gold diamond if you die after collecting it because the game prompts you to save while it's still on the ground... No A-Rank for me, I guess.

Mm, yes, the controls, yeah, those exist. This is one of those spots where I feel this game could have easily benefitted from just being developed for the Switch. Instead of forcing a dual-stick game onto a dying handheld with a single circle pad, maybe we could've, like, released it for the dual-stick console/handheld that was already out and had a perfectly established user base? They tried to substitute the c-stick with the gray alien nipple- or uhh..."circle pad pro"...that comes pre-installed on the New Nintendo 3DS, but it does not work well. The nub just isn't responsive enough to substitute for an entire stick, and if you want it to be a real circle pad, you have to buy an external attachment. Not to mention the nub isn't even available on every 3DS model! So like, yeah, I understand they made an honest attempt to work around the controller issues, but a better workaround would've been to just...not curse this game to irrelevancy by trapping it on a dying console.

All of that said, I spent all week playing this game, so they did something right. Curse my brain worms.

11/10 will buy this game and its sequels again every time Nintendo re-releases them.

[historicallyaccuratecheese]

So...I have an update I'd like to give on my big tma analysis posts.

As I'm sure anyone who's been following them have noticed, these posts have been on hiatus for quite a while now, and...there's quite a few reasons for that, which I'd like to finally share. I'll go into more detail below the cut, but...it is for these reasons that I have ultimately decided to quit putting these posts out in their current form. I'm not going to stop sharing my thoughts, feelings and analysis on tma alltogether, far from it, but...I am going to drastically change the way I share those thoughts, feelings and analysis with others. Here's why.

Also, I’m going to make this my new pinned post, so here’s a link to the old one containing all of my previous tma analysis posts.

I want to start off by saying that...overall, writing these posts over the past seven months or so has been a wonderful experience, seriously. With massive hyperfixations like this, it can usually be hard to properly express everything I think about them, especially given how I usually have very little people to talk to about my interests in the first place. But writing these posts...has honestly kind of fixed that. I've been able to say almost everything I want to about this amazing work of fiction, document my experience listening to it for the first time, and meet some really kind people who are into the same thing as me, and are always offering lovely support for my writing. It's one of the most emotionally validating experiences I've ever had, and I cannot stress how grateful I am to everyone's who's offered me support and encouragement. However, while I have no intention of throwing this all away...the way I've decided to write these posts has admittedly led to a number of not so great things for my life and psychological state, and I would rather do away with those.

Firstly, it's no secret to anyone who's been reading these that they have been getting progressively longer and longer, to the point where my previous post on the final 10 episodes of Season 2 was the length of a goddamn novel. But...as much as I've tried to deny it, that ever expanding length has been making it more and more of a slog to write these. Like...the currently work-in-progress post on the first 10 episodes of Season 3, which isn't even halfway done, is already at roughly 60k words, and...I feel like that's a bit too much. And the thing is...I absolutely love tma, truly, but...listening to it has basically become a chore due to the monumental task I've put upon myself, and...I don't want it to feel like that. I want listening to tma to be something I can do for fun, and this...isn't always fun.

The feeling I get when I complete a part of the post on a certain episode, or read a lovingly made reply is still one of the best feelings I've ever had, but...I really want to go back to being able to listen to tma as a leisurely and pleasurable way of spending my time, rather than a duty I'm obliged to. I want to be able to catch up and get the chance to listen to The Magnus Protocol alongside the rest of the fandom as new episodes come out, a goal that is becoming more and more unrealistic as time goes on given the amount of time it takes me to write about an episode, let alone mentally unpack it with how much is happening.

It...might not come as much of a suprise that as of now, the most recent episode of tma I have listened to is MAG 85: Upon the Stair. An absolutely brilliant episode that I loved for its amazing storytelling and use of The Spiral, but...also one where it feels like an impossible task to write something coherent about. I spent literal weeks trying to write something that I felt expressed my thoughts on this episode in a clear way, but...I just couldn't do it, and it became harder and harder to write the more I put it off. I haven't even felt like I’m able to listen to the podcast I'm writing about in the first place ever since, all because I've been trying to jump over this very mentally taxing hurdle. Now, I assure you that I am not canning this entire project simply because of one intentionally impossible to comprehend episode. If I wanted to, I could very well just...skip writing about the episode and then continue onwards. But...I mention this because ultimately, the episode highlighted a lot of problems with my way of putting these out for me. It made me reach a point where I could no longer deny the fact that...writing these posts was not something I was doing for fun anymore. Not because of the quality of the show or because of pressure being put on me from others, far from it. Let me be perfectly clear when I say that tma is just as good as it has always been, if not the best it's ever been, and all of you have been nothing but extremely polite and ridiculously patient any time I've mentioned my struggles with writing. Rather...I think that by chaining myself to a responsibility I created, I have made this task less fun for myself, and...I don't think I can make it fun again without heavily changing the way that I approach it. This is all a very long-winded way of saying that...I want to enjoy myself. I want to get back to listening to tma for fun, I want to at the very least be able to listen to the final season of tmagp for the first time alongside other people, and...I just want to feel a bit more free.

However, it's not just my self-destructive behavior that's making it harder for me to write these. As I've mentioned before, it's quite frequent that I'm prevented from writing these...simply due to general life circumstances, some more negative than others. Right now, I'm...at a point in my life where I'm figuring a lot of things out, both in terms of how I feel about myself and in terms of how I'm going to approach life going forward. . You see, if I'm being completely honest, the reason I've been able to write posts these long in the first place is because...well, for one thing it's my autism and likely ADHD that I'm trying to get diagnosed and medicated for, the latter of which is...one of quite a few big stressful things that have been going on these past couple of months. But that aside...I've been a mostly shut-indoors person with a lot of free time on their hands, both of which are gradually waning over time. Right now, I'm trying to get out in the world a bit more, make some new friends and try some new things, and the preparation I'm doing for my exams is getting more and more serious and time-consuming by the day, and...hopefully, if I can get through these exams, I'll be able to leave the currently online-only school I'm at and finally get back out into the open world. ...Ok that got personal real quick, but my point it...there's a lot going on in life for me, and as much as I really do cherish all of this writing and rambling about this thing I really like...even I can realize that there's a point where the line is drawn, and I have to set my priorities straight. Right now, I'm discovering my place in the world, moving on to the next part of my life, even trying out some new hobbies when I get the chance, and...that might just mean I have to put these posts to the side.

Overall...I really do hate to do this. Like...a lot. I understand that this is probably pretty disappointing, especially after nearly two months of complete radio silence, and believe me, it's disappointing to me as well. I...felt really confident that I would be able to do this for...what will one day become 290 episodes of Magpod. But...I think I've needed to realize for a while now that...the way I'm writing these posts isn't doing me many favors. With how full my plate is going to become over the course of the next year or so, and with how I've been feeling about this whole project...I think I have to unfortunately give it a premature death.

....Well...not exactly. ...Come on, you didn't REALLY think I was going to put my spooky podcast hyperfixation in the garbage like that, did you? No way. Not a chance in hell. As I've said, listening to this podcast and being able to talk about it with all of these amazing people is one of the best things to ever happen to me, and I am not about to throw that experience to the wayside just like that. I still want to find a way to post all my thoughts and theories on this lovely work of art, and talk about it with other people, just...maybe in a way that's not nearly as much of an expense of my time and energy. Because, like...as cathartic as it is to gaze upon my 80,000 word long wall of text, it...really doesn't give me much more than an ego boost and bragging rights, and...those are not nearly as valuable to me as all of the stuff I just mentioned. Hell, I don't think the overall format of my posts is necessary to get my points across...at all. Like, yeah, I think it has a pretty nice structure, but...I don't think I need to re-itterate myself nearly as much as I do, and...be honest, are the recaps of episodes REALLY all that needed? Because...like...I know that they can be helpful to anyone reading them who hasn't listened to tma in a while, but...sorry if this is blunt, but if you REALLY can't remember some miscellaneous detail I mention...honestly just google it. Like...I swear I am not going to try and gaslight you in my tma analysis posts, unless it's in a funny Michael-core way. Basically, all of this is a...fittingly long-winded way of saying that I'm still going to be posting my thoughts on tma, just...in a different form. Here's the plan.

Rather than release super comprehensive gigantic essays every ten episodes, I think I'm going to just opt to release short little...collections of bullet points, which will put out my thoughts, feelings and theories on the episode I just listened to (most of the time anyways, if I for whatever reason don't have the time to make one then I'll just put my thoughts alongside the post for the next episode), albeit in a much more informal, insane brainrot, freaking out all over the place sort of way. ...Ok, that's hyperbole, I'll still try my best to sound coherent. It might not be nearly as structured as my previous way of writing this, but it'll be way easier for me to write and much less time-consuming, while still hopefully managing to get everything I want to say out there for other people to see. Hell, doing it like this might make it so that it's easier for others to digest, and might display thoughts that are even fresher in my mind as well.

And...even then, I still want to put out the occasional big essay post here and there. Probably not as big as something like my last Season 2 post, but...just a lot more of a structured and well thought out script if you catch my drift. These won't be coming out on any sort of clear and discernable schedule mind you, just...whenever I both feel like it and have the time to write it. If there's an episode, character or concept that I feel really deserves a deep dive, or a big grandiose theory that I want to explain in great detail, then...that'll get its own dedicated post. I already know that I want to make a big post all about Michael whenever his character finally gets some more explanation, along with a post detailing my overall thoughts and feelings on the podcast both after I finish MAG 200 and for when The Magnus Protocol finishes, probably some retrospective stuff much later down the line, and likely a bunch of other stuff that hasn't even crossed my mind yet. Rest assured that...I am not stopping any time soon. I still want to use this blog to talk about this podcast in some way, shape or form as I make my way through it, I just...might need to change my method of doing so into something that's...a little bit nicer to myself. And hey, if you have any suggestions as to how I continue this going forward, please let me know. If anyone wants to see what I had initially planned for my first post on Season 3, that's still in my drafts and I'd be more than willing to post it, even if it feels a little bit anticlimactic. I just hope that the people who have enjoyed hearing my thoughts will be willing to stick around, even if I express those thoughts a little bit differently. :) ...And before anyone says it I am more than aware of the irony of writing an essay about why I refuse to write essays.

Well...thanks to everyone who read this. I hope that everyone's ok with my decision here. Ultimately, there is a part of me that will miss the feeling of being able to marvel at posts so big that I made, but...at the end of the day, if I can find a way to finally feel unconstrained by self-inflicted tasks every day without guilt, and make greater progress in my social, personal and academic life, AND still be able to share my thoughts on tma with others despite all of that, then...I think the essay format is a sacrifice I'm (mostly) willing to make. Maybe doing this might also allow me to share other creations of mine on this hellsite if people are at all interested. I'm trying to get better at drawing and would love to post some art for both tma and other hyperfixations when I'm feeling more confident, and maybe write things for other topics as well. ...I don't know how many people who follow me are familiar with Hollow Knight lore, but I've been replaying the game for a Steel Soul run after a good while of not having touched it, and...let's just say that I have made some interesting discoveries that I haven't seen anyone else talk about before. But...that's a topic for another time. Anyways, I'd just like to put out some special thanks to some of the biggest supporters of this whole project, even if it's earlier than I expected to do so.

@b100k, for introducing me to tma in the first place and being an overall great friend who always lets me incoherently ramble about an episode immediately after I finish it.

Both @theguiltinessisyours and @spookygiantturtleshoe-blog for always having left lovely replies on my posts ever since they discovered them

And finally, anyone who has taken the time to read, like, reblog or reply to even one of these posts at any point in time. As corny as it sounds, all of you really do make my day a little bit brighter every time I see one of you :)

Well...that's all from me. Once again, thanks so much for reading, and...I hope you'll enjoy whatever I make next.

[atla-suki]

sokka’s treatment in lok was astonishing tbh but i’m actually glad he was dead by the time the series started bc toph being a cop??? aang being an awful dad???? they would’ve ruined him and suki’s characters lbr.

as far as any possible kids go idk we didn’t meet suyin till book 4 we barely saw izumi i think they just didn’t want to make the new series be a atla reunion plus lok was only meant to be one season so they were making that shit up as they went along lmao. and back in 2012-14?? they didn’t know themselves what happened to sukka lmao.

sokka and suki are definitely the type to break up bc of long distance but then find their way back to each other a few years later especially as they settle into their roles in life.

while bryke definitely neglect suki and sokka to some capacity also they do have a soft spot for suki after bringing her back. many don’t consider her to be team avatar but they’ve stated they do so idk ! she shows up a lot in the comics which have obv been created post-lok and it’s been said that they’ll utilise it’s plots and characters in shall see in future projects (crane fish town becoming republic city maybe??? where suki currently is working?? and sokka later lives!!)

i’m p sure suki will be in it at some capacity anyway and that there’ll stick with jennie as she’s one of the few asian og va’s. she’s doing a lot of work atm for avatar studios.

also random but i literally found out today that it’s not bryke-confirmed that mai and zuko end up together. it was a comment on a panel by the old comic writer. it’s not technically canon. izumi is the spit of mai anyway but hmm! interesting!!

btw btw suyin’s father was def a sandbending outlaw who toph had a secret relationship with that couldn’t be public bc of her role as police chief x

oo big ask ok let me break this up into different paragraphs …

fist point - one thing i will admit about lok is that it fell short in incorporating the original characters into the new series in an interesting way with enough verisimilitude (realistic-ness) that it didn’t feel like they were just throwing a popular character into an episode for the sake of it. such as the whole ‘aang is a bad dad’ thing because they under-utilised him as a mentor figure to korra and instead focused on his supposed favourite son (i have thoughts on this re. aang NOT being a ‘Bad’ dad but i will make another post on it if u are interested (or have i alr made one? i’ll make another one.))

i have to agree that they would’ve probably done something shitty to sokka or suki if they were included. especially with the entire first season of lok being about bender/non-bender equality… i can just imagine they’d make sokka say something dumb about the equalist movement being 100% Bad instead of him actually supporting some of their completely valid arguments. idk. i’m sad there’s no sukka but at the same time…. quit while ur ahead yk.

second point - sukka long distance relationship is so real ESPECIALLY during their first few years together. i can see them just kinda calling it off because of commitment issues due to their work, etc. but not ever really losing feelings. they’d be endgame tho🥰

i can absolutely see suki being in upcoming projects! especially since she and the other kyoshi warriors expanded their reach across the nations - it would be hard to ignore them completely if we’re assuming they’re including comic canon into the universe. i hope jenny returns!!

third point - yeah! how crazy that maiko as izumi’s parents isn’t canon confirmed… though she’s so clearly mai’s daughter. i wonder if mai’s role will be expanded in upcoming projects / if she’ll be featured more. hmmm.

fourth - would honestly prefer this to the theory sokka is her father lol. it kinda baffles me that TOPH became a cop.. not bc she opposes authority - there’s something different about enforcing it than there is having to follow it. i can see toph in authoritative positions, and she fits them well. but i think it baffles me moreso because why would toph even work as a COP? isn’t that boring as hell for her?? go do something awesome like probending or professional underground fighting (adult blind bandit anyone?? this would make a good fic) or literally just construction idk i feel like toph isn’t a Hard Worker type that would want to be stuck in such a rigid career.

[faotoni]

Fate.

Hi there, uh, this was intended to be a longer story than it is so if anyone likes it and wants me to continue or further expand, let me know :) if I suck, I'll know that too (you won't have to tell me)... I'm not too unfamiliar with that concept unfortunately or I would post more... but, I don't know, I liked this little blurb I wrote, so, here. have it.

Also suck at titles for things.

Fizzarolli only remembered flashes from that night. Like snapshot pictures, followed by the increasing feeling of pain.

Until darkness.

The last real memory he had was Blitz’s face, desperate and lost, staring back at him as Fizz’s arms, legs and horns got burnt away. He felt the hurt, the confusion, the panic; all intermixed with the feelings of death. Dying.

Pain.

The next memory Fizz had after that was waking up to the sound of sawing, cutting and more burning, as the doctors of Sloth worked away at Fizz’s dead limbs. He was awake for all of it. Bandaged up with his mouth taped shut so he wouldn’t scream. Not that he could, his throat feeling as empty as his soul did in that moment. He felt alone. He felt like that hospital room was truly hell, never mind actually living in REAL Hell. It was nothing compared to that moment.

That was all.

Before he woke again.

In that memory, he remembered waking up and trying to reach or something, only to discover his arms were gone. He looked down and saw his legs were gone as well. Along with his entire body in bandages. He tried to cry out, but the emptiness in his throat remained. It suddenly felt cold, as the loneliness came back, taking over every space his limbs should have occupied.

Then nothing again.

Fizz’s memory was shattered after that, bits and pieces remained but nothing that was that important.

Until he was fully conscious.

The first day he had a grasp on his situation was the day he asked to see Blitz, or if he was anywhere in the hospital, if he was ok. It took quite a bit of doing without a voice box or limbs but Fizz managed to concentrate long enough to pen Blitz’s name on a piece of paper with his still bandaged tail. The imps in the room with him, Cash Buckzo who was Blitz’s dad and a few other stand ins for Mammon, who couldn’t be bothered to see if his first clown champion was ok, didn’t want to indulge Fizz’s wish to see his best friend.

It broke his heart.

He didn’t know if Blitz was ok, if anyone else got hurt or even died in the fire… he didn’t know anything.

And then the talking began.

Not right away, but bit by bit, information about the contest, the circus, Blitz… it all started to come out of the mouths of whoever was in Fizz’s room at the time. At first he didn’t believe his best friend could want to hurt him, or even try to kill him; but the more they talked, the more Fizz didn’t know, the more he was forced to believe.

For day after day, Blitz never came.

They told Fizz, Blitz didn’t want to see him.

It broke his heart.

He was truly alone.

The rest of his first months were a blur after that, rage and betrayal slowly building inside of Fizz over the information that was fed to him by the beings that came into his room. It made him want to die.

Then something happened.

Mammon showed up.

He practically broke the door down; waddling to Fizz’s side and gushing over his predicament. Fizz was confused at first, surely Mammon already knew what happened to him, or perhaps he knew but was just too busy to actually go see him. Fizz tried to explain to Mammon he couldn’t talk, using his tail to point several times to his throat trying to indicate the emptiness. It didn’t matter to Mammon though. He was too wrapped up in Fizz being a stump. No arms, no legs… how could you preform? How could I market you, erm, make you better? How? Fizz looked past all the talk that sounded more like he was an object other than a living being because for the first time in a while, this was the only positive conversation he had heard. Everyone prior singing “oh woes me” to him instead of trying to figure out how they could help him. It didn’t matter to Fizz that Mammon didn’t truly care about his well-being. He didn’t see it that way. He refused to. He saw Mammon wanting to help him.

But as excited and happy as Fizz was at the possibility of being saved, his dreams were dashed faster than they were built up. Mammon didn’t know how to help him.

Fizz felt alone again, trying to cling onto the positives of the conversation but they started to fade.

The next strong memory Fizz held was a few days after Mammon came by.

He came by again but this time, with someone else in tow, along with a few doctors and nurses. The special guest was Asmodeus, the King of the Lust Ring. Mammon explained to Fizz that he and Asmodeus had come up with a plan to get Fizz’s limbs back. Fizz felt the excitement come back into his soul, filling his chest and warning his face.

But it was short lived, for the measuring began. Fizz was moved all around and scrutinized by the doctors and nurses, his head bandage removed showing his broken horns for everyone to see. He remembered looking to Asmodeus in near tears, but being shocked by the man’s expression. It wasn’t one of scrutiny or unfeeling, it was of concern, of pain, of sadness. For him.

For Fizz.

Someone felt something for him, as a being.

He couldn’t look away from Asmodeus as the rest of the measuring happened. He was convinced that if he tore his eyes away for a second, when they returned, the face would be gone. The feelings wouldn’t be there. He desperately needed someone to feel for him.

Someone to care about him.

After the flurry of measuring, everyone left the room, but Asmodeus. He stayed, pulling up a chair and introducing himself to Fizz, as well as explaining a little more about the prosthetics they were thinking for Fizz. Mammon and Asmodeus were working on an advanced type of sex doll, with robotic arms and legs that stretched and moved around via a computer chip implanted in the robot. They figured they could do the same to Fizz. They had done some testing and it had worked on the imp they tested it on, they were missing an arm as well. Asmodeus explained to Fizz that they would have to wait until his wounds were fully healed to do the operation. Fizz tried to sign that he understood but had trouble figuring out how, which made Asmodeus chuckle, putting a smile on Fizz’s face.

Asmodeus said Fizz had a nice smile.

The next memory Fizz had was if the next day, surprisingly, Asmodeus made another appearance, bringing in some flowers and soup from his home in Lust, suggesting the soup may help him regain his voice. Asmodeus helped feed it to Fizz, which he was both grateful for and heavily confused. He didn’t quite know why Asmodeus had taken a personal interest in him. Why him? What was so special about him? No one saw it… besides Blitz… but…. No. Asmodeus shouldn’t take a liking to Fizz, he’ll just hate him. Like Blitz did…

Fizz ended up “accidentally” knocking the soup off the table and onto the ground with his tail after a few tastes of it. He really enjoyed the soup but he couldn’t risk losing someone again. Asmodeus couldn’t like him, or take interest in him as a being. No.

But something weird happened. Not anything like what Fizz expected. He didn’t know what he was expecting, maybe a huff, Asmodeus saying something along the lines of Fizz being Mammon’s property and only doing all this to keep him happy or something, but that didn’t happen. Asmodeus got sad and apologized for Fizz knocking the soup over almost immediately. Not only that but he got up quickly and checked to make sure none of the hot soup got on Fizz. He offered to get Fizz something else to eat and cleaned up the mess. It made Fizz feel guilty. He didn’t want to, but he couldn’t trust anyone.

Asmodeus ended up bringing him oatmeal and waffles.

The next few memories were a montage of moments with Asmodeus, who hadn’t given up on befriending Fizz, even after his various tests to see if Asmodeus was being truthful or not. He was, if anything the tests made Asmodeus more present in Fizz’s life. He was in his hospital room every day. He brought gifts every day and told Fizz about himself every day. Each day Fizz wished he could answer back. He tried each day to force his vocal chords to work but to no use. Asmodeus didn’t seem to care. He helped Fizz express himself and sign using his tail. It warmed his heart and he slowly started to accept Asmodeus’s friendship.

The next full memory was when they brought in the prosthetics and Fizz’s ”hopefully” final surgery. Asmodeus was there, and he helped Fizz fall asleep so he wouldn’t feel the pain from what he was about to be put through, using some of his own personal magic. Even before knowing if it would work or not, Fizz was thankful.

After the surgery, Fizz was grateful. It had worked, though there was a lot more recovery to be had. He woke up in his room, this time with Asmodeus by his side, softly humming some song Fizz didn’t know. Asmodeus was happy to see Fizz awake and explained to him that the implants and surgery had worked. Fizz smiled and opened his mouth; trying so hard to push any bit of air through his fried vocal cords.

“thanks.”