#sometimes even while im answering)

[inkskinned]

probably time for this story i guess but when i was a kid there was a summer that my brother was really into making smoothies and milkshakes. part of this was that we didn't have AC and couldn't afford to run fans all day so it was kind of important to get good at making Cool Down Concoctions.

we also had a patch of mint, and he had two impressionable little sisters who had the attitude of "fuck it, might as well."

at one point, for fun, this 16 year old boy with a dream in his eye and scientific fervor in heart just wanted to see how far one could push the idea of "vanilla mint smoothie". how much vanilla extract and how much mint can go into a blender before it truly is inedible.

the answer is 3 cups of vanilla extract, 1/2 cup milk alternative, and about 50 sprigs (not leaves, whole spring) of mint. add ice and the courage of a child. idk, it was summer and we were bored.

the word i would use to describe the feeling of drinking it would maybe be "violent" or perhaps, like. "triangular." my nose felt pristine. inhaling following the first sip was like trying to sculpt a new face. i was ensconced in a mesh of horror. it was something beyond taste. for years after, i assumed those commercials that said "this is how it feels to chew five gum" were referencing the exact experience of this singular viscous smoothie.

what's worse is that we knew our mother would hate that we wasted so much vanilla extract. so we had to make it worth it. we had to actually finish the drink. it wasn't "wasting" it if we actually drank it, right? we huddled around outside in the blistering sun, gagging and passing around a single green potion, shivering with disgust. each sip was transcendent, but in a sort of non-euclidean way. i think this is where i lost my binary gender. it eroded certain parts of me in an acidic gut ecology collapse.

here's the thing about love and trust: the next day my brother made a different shake, and i drank it without complaint. it's been like 15 years. he's now a genuinely skilled cook. sometimes one of the three of us will fuck up in the kitchen or find something horrible or make a terrible smoothie mistake and then we pass it to each other, single potion bottle, and we say try it it's delicious. it always smells disgusting. and then, cerimonious, we drink it together. because that's what family does.

[lucabyte]

So does anybody else ever think about how Loop felt the need to demonstrate that the party's deaths wouldn't have any effect on the loops. I know I do but that's besides the point. Anyway I don't think Loop actually needs to bathe, they just like to feel included.

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

How do the girls get along

Pretty great actually!

Jenny and Kim are very good/close friends, since they met relatively early compared to others (they actually met each other first out of everyone, then others at one point and another) and had a shared adventure sometime after the ends of their respective shows (wink wonk).

But, their first meeting was not actually very um, positive. There was some conflict, but after it was resolved both of them gained a very solid friend for life!

Jenny, was glad to meet someone else (beside Brad) who treated her like a person/normal teenager (instead of an 8th wonder of the world or a freaky robot) and not to mention she got a fellow superheroine girl friend! After Misty, she kind of missed having someone like that to kick butt with (considering that like, 70% of her friends are dudes) or just hang out.

Kim was fascinated by Jenny, not because she is a robot (tho she does think its pretty cool) but because it kind of gave her a contrast to her own life in a weird way? Like, Kim was a normal teenager who got into superheroing on accident and just went with it, while Jenny was created with a goal of being Earth's defender but rebeled to have some sort of normal life. And now they both live those weird semi-normal lives, that led them to meeting each other.

Jun is around 5-6 years their junior and while they met each other much later on, when Jun was a little older (like not 11-12 age of the show), she still kind of looked up to them and both Jenny and Kim felt an instant kinship with the girl.

Before she met Jenny and Kim, Jun only knew a couple other guys as fellow heroes/magical protectors (guess who ;D lol), and while she had plenty of female role models (Ama/Jasmine being the most prominent) and friends, she kind of enjoyed meeting some cool older superheroines to bond with! It also helped that despite the age difference, both Jenny and Kim never looked down at her when it came to superheroing/fighting, but respected her abilities and expertise (considering that Jun was practically an apprentice to her Ama since at least 8-9ish of age, when her powers first awakened, she has a lot of experience).

They both are kind of like cool older cousins to her, who travel a lot for their work and come visit to hang out often and tell/share stories about their adventures. Their and her lines of work while similar, also run in completely different circles (human/interplanetary vs magical/supernatural), so its always a treat to hear about the things they do.

(And yes sometimes she feels jealous about the fact that both of them get to travel all over the world, and despite the developments, more often than not she has to stay town locked and limit her excursions to magical realms.)

Silly thing, but Jun absolutely adores Jenny, for one simple fact that she can travel to space just like that (she and Danny, fellow astronaut/space fans, share that, despite the fact that Danny kinda can travel to space just like that too.)

[sunfloralchaos]

Man it's weird to continuously grieve yourself, your own health, your ability to do things,

It's heartbreaking to go through the comics I've made about it

Im so increasingly desperate and hopeless, I need help badly but I also know there's no point because I have never once been given genuine help from a fucking doctor

The older I get and the longer I've dealt with this the more upset I am that the only "help" I have ever been offered is antidepressants, anxiety meds and telling me to get a different job or to listen to diet podcasts. I've waited over a year for an appointment to be told to be mindful about my nervous system malfunctioning

I have so many more problems than currently on paper because I know I don't have it in me anymore to do that fight again for things I know I won't get help for

[lightbulb-warning]

i used to freehand comics all the time as a child and since the part i liked was the drawing part i would just draw panel after panel because i didn't want to stop drawing to think about icky icky words, plus the story TOTALLY still made perfect sense! to me! and noone else, but 'whoooo caaaaares omgggg its not like comics and sequantial art are a communicative meeediummmm lmaoooooo'. i spent my entire childhood telling myself stuff like "oh pfft I know this story by heart- ill SIMPLY remember the dialogue and write it later" ...and. I can't help but admire baby maiora's (call that a minora ba tm tsk) fucking audacity? hubris? confident wrongness? kid couldn't even remember to finish the comics in the first place? INCREDIBLE levels of unearned self assurance, wish that were me, genuinely- what an icon!!! anyway i think i have forever cursed myself

[icewindandboringhorror]

"We can get through this by working together, reach out to your friends, community is all we have, a social network will be your security in the world, now is the time to lean on others!"

I do agree, and it's scientifically sound (pretty sure there is data about how people with better social networks live longer and etc) but also....augh..... what about the severe social issues, difficulty to leave the house, physical issues which lead to like zero socialization energy a majority of the time, etc. etc. Social support can be a replacement for structural support, but.. I guess I just wish it didn't have to be. Community is extremely difficult to build, even moreso if you're someone who has issues with social cues or group conversations or even just being around others in the first place. And blah, nuance, of course I'm just complaining or maybe being too negative or maybe misunderstanding, but, I hardly have the energy to brush my hair once every 2 months.. how am I supposed to maintain a wide social network and be active in a Community and Join Groups lol... sometimes it kind of feels like "er.. well if thats my only option then...... ruh roh". It's overwhelming

[meirimerens]

I would love to listen to your podcast (if you wanna have one) about anything, but something about languages intrigues me. Please, tell me more : )

had to think for a second about what this was about I'm guessing it's my Nopony In This Country Is Pronouncing Przewalski Correctly and now listen..... I have no more to tell you because the like. Concept of languages and within that phonology (the study of the patterns of sounds in a language and across languages) is so wide you wouldn't have enough of a life to say everything about it. Unless you got one thing in mind. But I'm Flattered. Idk if I'd be much of a podcast guy I love visual stimuli. shan't lie I've had for months the idea to do a. Franco-Cantabrian Archeological iceberg... with shit like....... Fontainebleau "water breaking" carving... the Réseau Clastres Only Know Depiction Of [Animal]..... stuff of the sort. but oh well. FLATTERED.... maybe one day. Podcast ideas anyone.

[ask-mark-stuff]

I once left 23+ asks in this box and I haven’t seen them all

Sorry kids! Me and Mark are a little busy with our lessons and activities sometimes, so we don't really get to answer everything quickly!

Yeah..we love every ask though! :}

[stinkrascal]

pick 8 pictures from pinterest for standstill!! (a moodboard)

heyyy so im actually really awful at moodboards but i do save pictures of things that inspire standstill so heres some of those! sorry they arent like aesthetically cohesive. standstill talks about a lot of different themes all neatly tied together w the thin thread of a romance plot so sometimes it's hard to describe those in a way that feels coherent, even in picture form. hopefully u get the idea though 👍

[yappingmil]

Mmm having another like venting in my head but knowing the second im done venting im gonna be like you didnt mean that tho moment

[veilk]

one time i tried that "mentally ask yourself if anyone else is in there" thing & i didn't get a Direct response but the song stuck in my head (which i Do Not control) would change and the new repeating lyric would function as a response to whatever question i asked. so that was kind of fucked up & i don't know if i'm supposed to do anything about it. it just kinda sounds ridiculous to say "there are entities in my head attempting to communicate with me via song lyrics"... i realize now i don't actually have a specific question i just wanted to tell someone about this sorry

THAT'S. HOW IT GOES SOMETIMES... yeah i have no idea what's up with that either brains are weird

[futureassassin]

im so excited to go to therapy for the first time ever on thursday! shes gonna be like well whats your problem nd im gonna be like "well. y'see. there are bugs in my legs and the only way to get them out is through stabbing. lol. lmao even." and shes gonna be all "woah! youre crazy insane! i am going to kill you now." and ill just be "ok. lol." and then i die. badly.

[killjoy-prince]

Ray's After Ending is so funny because for a good chunk of it, most of the RFA members are knocked out by V's sleeping gas (Saeran is immune, Saeyoung isn't present bc he was kidnapped by his agency under his father's orders and MC wakes up in like an hour) but the game has a call feature where you can call the characters and it would be a waste if you couldn't use it bc the characters were unavailable so instead they have other people pick up the call (Jumin's driver picks up Jumin's phone, Jumin's father picks up Zen's phone, Yoosung's friends and mom pick up Yoosung's phone and Jaehee's coworkers pick up Jaehee's phone) and we do get to learn about the characters from outsider's point of view but it's so funny to me that these people are visiting their loved ones and suddenly the phone rings and they decide to just. answer it. and start talking to this stranger they've never met

[keepinventory]

maintaining eye contact is one of the most unnecessary social rules ever made. who decided we should all look at eachothers wetballs

[cathalbravecog]

wait hold on frostbite is (part) cog??? did I hear that right?

if so can I throw a pie at them will they be fine

frostbite isn't part cog - they ARE a cog. they were built to look like a toon to be like a spy toon (by brian, actually) but things went wrong and they rebelled and now do goofy things while having to like.. PRETEND to be a normal toon or like - not let others know they're actually just a cog when around other toons (that aren't a part of their club)

but with other cogs they usually care about this less, but they gotta trust em more before they 'drop hints'. though they are stupid and reckless as hell and probably a lot of toons know they're a cog but Don't Care.

anyways! they have two types of hp! their normal cog hp and their toon laff! once they go sad and are damaged in that state the cog damage they take starts to show and actually does something. but also, even at full laff when attacked with heavy gags it will still do notable damage. but like, fruit pies and such might not do much. think of it as cartoon logic - the amount of damage they take depends on the situation or whether or not it's funny. also they're almost always overcharged as this thing lowkey has an oil addiction

like...its mORE COMPLICATED THAN THIS and has MORE THOUGHT IN IT but i dont feel like over explaining rn.

ANYWAYS TO ACTUALLY ANSWER YOUR QUESTION: a pie, yeah they will be fine. just annoyed and take like a tiny bit of damage that goes unnoticed probably. hey fun fact they tend to violently act out. Run.

[jihnari]

hi!!! i just wanted to tell you that i just finished reading your qab series and oh my god!!!!! (warning for rambling ahead)

i love so much about this series its amazing in so many differebt ways like the format??? exquisite. delightful. the way how everythibg is laid out it just looks so???? cool?? especially like the tumblr section in one of the newest chapters.

also also also i just love the way how you show all the views everyone has inside the story because its so realistic!! the way how theres so many conflicting views but also people misunderstanding what each source says yet also completely overreactionary responses its just so good!!! god im so insane about it

anyway sorry for the very rambly ask i just really loved everything youve done with qab!!!!

hello!!! if you started qab recently then you probably never saw the old format, and... good, lol. im glad the current formatting is reading well!

ive been a lurker for most of my internet career and i think internet culture and internet group dynamics are suuuper interesting. it's the sort of thing id go into sociology for and then write lots of papers on, except ew... writing papers... so instead i think ive just been channeling all of that energy into qab. i also feel like a lot of authors don't bother supporting multiple conflicting povs? and that's their choice and i get it, it isn't easy, but i think it's such a waste to not show why/how people come into conflict with each other. that's like most interesting part!!

thanks for the ask!!! hopefully someday soon ill find the spare time to finish those last two chapters