#that + deadlines + general adjustment will be A Lot

[gothyanki]

Kind of getting to the point where I feel like I might have the bandwidth to chatter about my OCs again soon. It’s nice!

[deoidesign]

How I save time on backgrounds as a full-time webcomic artist

Hi! I make webcomics for a living, and I have to be able to draw a panel extremely fast to keep up with my deadlines. I draw about 50 panels a week, which gives me about 45 minutes per panel if I want any semblance of a healthy work-life balance.

Most webtoon artists save time on backgrounds by using 3d models, which works for them and is great! but personally I hate working in 3d... I went to school for it for a year and hated it so much I completely changed career paths and vowed never to do it again! So, this is how I save time without using any 3d, for those of you out there who don't like it either!

This tactic has also saved me money (3d models are expensive) and it has helped me converting my comic from scroll format into page format for print, because I have much more art to work with than what's actually in the panels. (I'll touch on this later)

So, first, I make my backgrounds huge. my default starting size is 10,000 x 10,000 pixels. My panels are 2,500 pixels wide, so my backgrounds are 4x that, minimum. Because of this, I make them less detailed than I could or that you might expect so it doesn't look weird against my character art when I shrink portions of it down.

I personally find it much easier to add in detail than to make "removing" details look natural at smaller sizes, but you might have different preferences than I do.

I also make sure to keep all of my elements on separate layers so that I can easily remove or replace them, I can move them to simulate different camera angles more easily, and it's simple to adjust the lighting to imply different times of day.

Then I can go ahead and copy/paste them into my episodes. I move the background around until it feels like it's properly fitting how I want.

Once I've done that in every panel, I'll go back through the episode and clean up anything that looks weird, and add in solid blacks (for my art style) Here's a quick before and after of what that looks like!

This makes 90% of my backgrounds take me just a few hours. This is my tactic when I'm working in an environment that an entire scene, or multiple scenes, will take place.

But many panels will inevitably have a location that's used exactly once, and it would waste time and effort to draw a massive background for those. So in 10% of cases, I just draw the single panel background in the episode. I save all of these, just in case I can re-use it later (this happens more often with outdoor locations, but I save them all nonetheless!)

I generally have to draw about 2 big backgrounds per episode, and 3-5 single-panel backgrounds per episode! At the beginning of an arc/book the number is higher, but as the series is continuing and I'm building up an asset library of indoor and outdoor elements to re-use for the book, the number generally goes down and I save more time.

My series involves time travel and mysteries, so there's a lot of new locations in it and we're constantly moving around. If I were working on a series that was more consistent in this aspect, this process would save me even more time!

Like I said earlier, this also saves me a lot of pain and gives me a lot more options as I'm converting from scroll format to print format!

panels that look like this in scroll format...

can look like this in print!

because I drew the background like this, so I didn't need to go through the additional effort to add in the extra detail to expand it outwards at all.

Anyways, I hope this helps someone! As always if it doesn't help, just go ahead and disregard. This is what I do and what works for me, and I feel like I only ever see time-saving tips for comics that involve 3d models and workflows, which don't work for me at all! I know there's more people like me out there, so this is for you!

Enjoy!

Also obligatory "my webcomic" if you want to see this in action or check it out!

[ijjstlostthegame]

FINALLY DID THE DTIYS (draw this in your style) CHALLENGE DRAWING!

A brief explanation for what a dtiys is: DTIYS or draw this in your style is an art challenge where a person posts a specific drawing and people redraw that drawing with their own style and adjustments! I decided to do this because I reached 500 followers and it would mean a lot to me if some of you joined :3

Rules:

You can adjust the Color pallet however you please!

You can add adjustments to the drawing so long as you keep the general look

Please do not add anything inappropriate to this such as nsfw or slurs

There’s no deadline

Please please please PLEASE do tag me if you participate I would LOVE to see your work

Anyways that’s all! Again it would mean the world to me if anyone decided to participate, like I’ll be over the moon

(Yes that’s rock zombies JD and Viva from the grey JD AU!)

[sepublic]

This might be an unpopular opinion but while I do consider S2 a pretty big improvement over the first season, and just a new bold step for The Owl House —S2 really helps it stand out from other kids shows in general— I also love S1 for its own thing??? It was a simpler, happier time; When Luz, Eda, and King were still figuring each other out. When it was relaxing slice of life and quieter adventures. There was just something peaceful about it, the stakes weren’t as high so the characters could breathe and have fun.

The antics were silly and we learned at a nice pace, the protagonists were just living their life and the main conflict hadn’t become so front and center yet, Luz hadn’t begun her spiral into depression and Eda didn’t have to worry about adjusting to a loss of magic; It was the original status quo, when everyone could believe it was just about being family and learning magic, there was no impending deadline or end of the world. Luz coming out to Camila might not have been so tumultuous, and it was the biggest problem in her life. I miss that, it helps that S1 aired during a simpler time of my life as well! S1 has its own tone from S2 and contains a lot of softer yet vital character development that’s overlooked, and the pilot episode storyboards just hammer in this fact for me.

[sailorstar9]

When Dealing With An Unreasonable Contractor...

F/N was the third generation of a sweets shop; the Raku-ame was once a Japanese-style sweets shop under her grandfather. However, after F/N's father graduated from the famous culinary institute in Portland, the Raku-ame became a store that made both Japanese and Western-style confectionery. The shop had many regular customers because it offered original branding and full-order packaging.

“I want 20 boxes of doriyaki with our logo.” a long-time customer placed their order.

“I want 30 boxes of assorted Western sweets for year-end gifts.” a middle-aged housewife ordered.

“Thank you very much for your patronage.” F/N bade the customers farewell after each sale.

The business was thriving, with orders constantly coming in.

As the third heir to Raku-ame, F/N was put in charge of the storefront; the clients loved her as a surrogate granddaughter.

But, there was one company that was a pain: Wide Wedding. It's the largest wedding hall in the prefecture, taking orders for wedding cakes and sweets, as well as pastries that were served at the cafe nearly every day. The Raku-ame was also asked to make sweets to serve at the dessert buffet during the reception.

F/N had known Wide Wedding since her father's generation; the person-in-charge in the beginning was mild-mannered and soft-spoken, generally a good person who took Raku-ame's convenience into consideration. But, after the predecessor retired, things started to go wrong. Ikeda, who was newly put in charge, was a man who looked down on the Raku-ame workers, calling them 'subcontractors'. Ikeda, who was the son of the director, had been acting arrogantly and F/N and her father father did not have a good impression on him. Since Ikeda was put in charge of business dealings, it made things difficult as he would often demand a lot of unreasonable things.

“I received an order to put an original branding on a drawstring.” Ikeda slammed a piece of paper with a design on it onto the Raku-ame's front counter. “Use this design.”

“This is for next next week's wedding, right?” F/N gave the wall calendar a quick glance. “It might be a little difficult...”

“You're a subcontractor and you're talking back?” Ikeda fumed.

“We'd need a special mould for the branding and it'll take at least a week for that specific mould to be made by a craftsman.” F/N argued.

“Then, why don't you just get on with it?” Ikeda fired back. “I asked you to do it, now you guys adjust it and make it work. Don't think just because you're cute I'd cut you any slack. I should warn you, my client is a well-known blogger. So, if you offend them, you'd never know what they might write on their blogs. My company's creditability is at stake. Make sure you brand it with this design. If you don't do as you're told, I'll cancel the contract. If we cut you off, it would be a huge blow to your business, wouldn't it? Then do it.”

Left with no choice, F/N's father had to ask the craftsman to make the mould on a super-express basis, managing to the delivery date.

After that, Ikeda continued to impose even more reckless demands.

“I'm going to ask for additional gifts.” Ikeda returned to Raku-ame once again.

“How many?” F/N asked, taking out a notepad.

“A hundred.” Ikeda replied. “They said they wanted to distribute them to clients who will not be attending. Get on with it.”

“When is the delivery date?” F/N asked.

“It's a weekend wedding, so two days.” Ikeda answered. “If you refuse, I'll ask another sweet shop to do it for me. I won't use your place from now on, if you're okay with it...”

“I understand.” F/N sighed. “We will make it on time.”

F/N's father and the other employees were angry, but knew that if they lost the contract with Wide Wedding,their sales will drop dramatically. So, they persevered and worked overtime and managed to meet the delivery deadline.

“If you can do it, don't say it's impossible from the beginning.” Ikeda scoffed at the delivery person.

After that, Ikeda kept asking for a change of the wedding cake's design at no additional costs, saying 'The customer's request has changed'. He even started to interfere with the ingredients, insisting 'Keep the price the same, but use better ingredients'.

As expected, F/N and her father were running out of patience; no matter how big the client was, there were boundaries that must be kept. After a family meeting, it was decided that they should renegotiate their contract with Wide Weddings.

“The weekend gifts; they were all cancelled.” Ikeda informed one day before the wedding, shrugging. “A client had a falling out. The wedding was cancelled.”

“We've already finished the products and there's only the wrapping left.” F/N protested. “If you cancel at this point, we'll have to charge you a cancellation fee.”

“Who cares about that?” Ikeda snorted. “I'm also in a rush because of a sudden cancellation, so don't bother me anymore.”

“That's not going to happen.” F/N stood her ground. “The cancellation fee is written in the contract. You get the cancellation fee from the customer. You can at least pay us the cancellation fee from there.”

“Shut up.” Ikeda barked. “I'm on the edge of my seat because of a disgusting customer. I've placed many orders from you. Stop making a big deal out of one cancellation. If you keep talking back to me, all future transactions are off the table. Now cancel the order.”

“I understand.” F/N gave Ikeda a calm smile. “If you insist that much, we have no choice. We cannot do business with anyone who does not pay the cancellation fee. We will not do any business with you in the future.”

“Do you know what you are saying?” Ikeda was puzzled. “If that's what you want, fine. I'll report your rudeness to my superiors and all business with you is off the table. You're going to pay for this. It's too late for regrets.” he spat out and left.

F/N knew Ikeda probably blew the whistle to either his boss or his father, saying that Raku-ame was to blame for everything. That month ended Raku-ame's contract with Wide Wedding and the reason F/N and her family wasn't panicking was because...

“You look stressed.” Chigiri entered the Raku-ame, bringing the Blue Lock contenders along with him.

“Hyoma...” F/N blinked at the redhead's surprise visit.

“Ikeda giving you trouble?” Chigiri guessed.

“What was your first clue?” F/N sighed.

“Take a break.” Chigiri planted a quick kiss on F/N's fringe. “I'll take over from here.”

“Say, F/N.” Mikage Reo addressed the Raku-ame heiress after everyone's purchases were packaged. “Chigiri mentioned your shop is the most reputable, long-established sweets shop in Kagoshima and the Mikage Corporation is looking to expand into Kagoshima. We intend to build a wedding hall here, therefore we're making the first move and inviting you as a full-time staff member.”

“Let me call my father out.” F/N retreated back and got her father out.

And with that, Reo made his pitch to F/N's father, with F/N's father handling the final contract signing weeks later.

[askagamedev]

At what stage of the developing process of a game mocap is recorded? How much time does it usually take? And in case of expansions/DLCs are actors called again or they record this content together with the content for the main game?

Motion/Performance capture usually happens fairly early during development, because animators need time to take the captured data and turn it into actual performances. Despite what some actors might suggest, there's a huge amount of work, skill, and artistry necessary in order to convert a recorded motion and turn it into a performance that reads well from the viewer's perspective. Here's an example:

The raw motion capture looks rather generic but it isn't immediately clear exactly what is happening from a first viewing. The edited animation reads a lot better - the motions are more exaggerated, the struggles of the victim are a lot more readable, the attacker's stab is more pronounced, and so on - the entire action is clearer, more readable, and even a bit faster than the raw mocap. Much of what animators do during production is this performance capture cleanup and modification/adjustment.

We usually try to schedule performance capture sessions as early as we can because they involve aligning many separate schedules - the capture studio, the actors, and the developers who need to oversee all of the action. Usually we aim for around the end of pre-production, but it all depends on the availability of the studio, the actors, and the developers. The performance capture session is usually fairly quick - it usually takes a week or less to capture all of the necessary movements - but expensive because of the scheduling, number of people, equipment, and traveling involved. It normally costs tens of thousands of dollars per hour to pay for all of the time, equipment, and labor for all of the people involved, and everyone has a busy schedule - actors have other jobs lined up, the capture studio has other customers hoping to do their own recording sessions, and the developers have a whole game to build.

Because of the difficulty in scheduling and expense of recording, the art and animation team must put together a move list of all the actions they need to capture before the recording session. They can modify, update, and change the list up until the deadline, but it's pencils down once the session begins. Reshoots are extremely expensive for all of those reasons - aligning the schedules of the recording studio, all of the needed actors, and the developer representatives can be a nightmare in terms of scheduling. For DLC/expansion content, we usually try to reuse as many assets as we can, and schedule any new recording sessions as soon as we get the green light.

[Join us on Discord] and/or [Support us on Patreon]

Got a burning question you want answered?

Short questions: Ask a Game Dev on Twitter

Long questions: Ask a Game Dev on Tumblr

Frequent Questions: The FAQ

[dunefandomhub]

Writer and Artist Sign-Ups Open - May 1st

(This year we are allowing Writers to find an artist prior to registration and have their concept pre-claimed. If this is the case then you will both sign up as normal but message the mod team to inform us of the partnership so we can make a note of it. Your work will not be listed during the claims period and once claims have been finished you will be added to the final teams ups list and confirmed via email and posting on discord server.)

(If you wish to sign up as a beta reader or a pinch hitter you can do so on the discord server after sign-ups open)

Writer Sign Ups Close - May 14th

Mandatory Writer Check In and Summary Deadline - May 31st - June 6th

(Authors must submit the provisional title, rating, summary, key tags and archive warnings)

Artist Sign Up Closes- June 6th

Deadline for Writers to drop out - June 6th

Fic Claims Open - June 7th - June 13th

(We may open another round if the event requires it)

Team Matches Announced - June 15th

Mandatory Teams Check In - June 28th - July 4th

(Check-In is to see if everyone is being in contact with everyone and if adjustments need to be made)

Deadline for Artists to drop out - July 4th

Promotional Sneak Peaks Submitted - Aug 2nd, 3rd and 4th

(Info about this will be posted in the discord server only)

Sneak Peaks go live on tumblr - Aug 9th - 15th

Informal Check In and AO3 Collection goes Live - Aug 16th - Sept 6th

(This year we are using a hidden collection, can be added to anytime while open but works will not be shown/visible until the reveal date. Works to do not need to be complete but cannot be updated until after the reveal)

AO3 Collection reveal date - Sept 7th

Rules.

Writers must complete a minimum of 2500 words by September

Artists much complete 1 piece of artwork by September

All participants must be 18+

No AI allowed

All works must focus around the world of Dune

More detailed info can be found below

GENERAL FAQ

Join the Dune Fandom Events Discord!

Discord Invite

Lots of good information and resources to help you with this event, as well as information on other events which I run.

What is the Dune Mini Bang?

This event is a celebration of the love of everything Dune!

We welcome collaborative works based on any facet of the Dune Universe; Movies, books, tabletop game, evething! With no restrictions on dynamics, themes or ratings so long as everything is appropriately tagged.

Must be 18+ to participate.

Where can I post my fics/art?

We will be setting up a hidden collection on AO3 with works being revealed all at once on Sept 7th. You do not *have* to post to the collection but it is highly recommended so your work can be included with the rest of the group. Once the works have been revealed on AO3 you are welcome to post them wherever else you would like!

For posting on other social media platforms, such as tumblr or twitter, please tag duneminibang2024 and on tumblr we can be tagged @dunefandomhub

What if I have issues or concerns with my artist/author?

Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to be the case with you, please email or contact the mods on Discord and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun!

If you have not heard from your author/artist by the wnd of the Teams Ch3ck In please inform a mod so we can match you up with someone else.

Extensions?

The AO3 collection will be closed once it has been revealed on September 7th. Works do not need to be marked as completed when adding to the collection or by the reveal date but you must submit at least the first 2500 words to be included in this years event.

You can still post your work after this point but it will not be included as part of the collection.

Can I drop out?

While we have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, we understand that real life can unfortunately get in the way! The best time to drop out is to inform us during one of the check ins, by the date indicated in the timeline.

Remember that the stories do not need to be 100% completed by the reveal date, they just have to hit the minimum word count of 2500 and art needs to meet a reasonable level of completion which is negotiable.

Is it possible to be banned?

Yes it is. The following events will result in being removed from the event and a one event ban on next year;

Lying about your age in order to gain access to the 18+ content

Hate on another participant for their ship/character/content - we are allowing ALL content for the mini bang.

Hate on another participant for any reason really

Failure to meet the event requirements

Writer FAQ

Artist FAQ

I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here or in the Writer/Artist FAQ.

Email: duneminibang@gmail.com

OR

Discord Invite

[henriiiii-1001]

general update

its been over a month since i like. ig "left" tumblr? i havent been active here at all and only checked it for any notifs. despite the weird gore rbs i got like. two days ago, ive actually been doing p okay. im mentally preparing to go back to college next week (just to my apartment tho, classes dont start until the 26th), and ive actually been drawing a bit more! mostly for art collabs i joined, but i still think theyre p cool!! i hope to post them here once those deadlines come up bc i wanna show you guys, esp to those who dont follow my insta.

i'll most likely come back to tumblr when i upload those drawings though. it'll give me enough time to adjust back to college by the time that day comes. ive also been thinking a LOT abt like. oc lore, specifically for ug. i will also open my askbox up again by that time in case you guys wanna ask questions or just check in (ofc ur not forced to do so, do so if you want).

i also need to update my pjsk stats post. i need to rb it again so y'all can see if ur interested

uuhhh that's it for now. see you on the flipside! (or on instagram. or discord. either one LMAO)

[faeriegirl]

Please read before contacting me for a commission, thank you so much!

Busts:

sketch: $10

lineart: $20

lineart + color: $30

add 50% for each additional character

-Examples for bust art

Half-Body:

sketch: $15

lineart: $25

lineart + color: $50

add 50% for each additional character

-Examples of waist-up art

Full-Body:

sketch: $20

lineart: $45

lineart + color: $75

add 50% for each additional character

-Examples of full body art

Character sheets and illustrations:

Basic character sheets with front and back view with color palette start at $140, but prices will go up depending on various items, such as additional character images or other items added to the sheet.

Illustrations will start at a base price of $100 but will be adjusted according to detail required and time needed to complete the image.

These works generally take a lot of time and effort on my part, so please allow adequate deadlines if requesting one of these items. I work a full time job and so my illustrations tend to take a lot of my free time, so please be patient and always ask questions if you ever have any concerns.

-Examples of character sheets

-Examples of illustrations

$30 full body chibis! (price is per character)

-Examples of full body chibis

Body Pillows - body pillow designs will be priced at 75$ per illustration (that means 150$ total for a 2-sided body pillow)

-Examples of body pillow designs

15% DISCOUNT ON SPECIFIC ART INCLUDING:

Limbus Company

Madoka Magica

OMORI

My OCs <3

Genshin Impact

Sketch Commissions/Requests - Sketch comms are rewards for any amount of ko-fi donations or patreon subscribers! Any donation or sub is entitled to request a sketch, so please feel free to message me if you decide to support in one of these ways!

I will draw:

OCs

Fanart

Ship art

Animals + mythical creatures + pokemon etc

Anthro / furry (i have less experience with them but i’m completely open to making art of it)

Landscape, scenery (prices will need to be discussed)

NSFW - you must be 18 or older to commission these however!

In most of my drawings I'll usually put in a simple background of some kind, unless directed otherwise. References are always appreciated and if there is something specific you want feel free to tell me so! Any and all references or details are highly appreciated.

If you have something in particular you’d like me to draw that isn’t discussed in this post, please feel free to ask and i’ll be glad to clarify price ranges and so on.

I'm also happy to design characters, create an adoptable, or make icons if it is of interest! Prices can be discussed with me further if you’d like this.

Some other notes:

I will need the fee for paypal included in the final payment!

I will not draw or provide any content until I’m paid in full!

I will accept partial payment ONLY if the artwork costs $100 or more. In this case, I will accept half of the payment up front, and the remainder must be received BEFORE I complete any finalized art or provide ANY files beyond sketch/lineart.

When I am commissioned, I will be in regular contact and update with progress images, to discuss satisfaction with the artwork and if changes are necessary. Please keep in mind that if excessive changes are requested, I will also request additional payment. I tend to follow the three strike rule, after the third edit, I will request additional funds for my time.

I will do my absolute best to get the content to you as quickly as possible!! I am not the type to leave a task unfinished!

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via DMs on shiningcelebi, faeriegirl, or on my twitter @plutopri

if you want my email, please ask and I will provide!

I currently have 3 slots open for commissions! If I manage to fill them up I’ll close them until I’m finished with all of them<3

My paypal is paypal.me/ZoeStabile, please send all payments there unless using kofi

You may not use any art I create to train AI programs of any kind, or use them for NFT’s or any other items of the sort.

If you wish to use my art for commercial projects, please let me know beforehand because our contract will have to change to accommodate this.

I do reserve the right to refuse a commission if need be. Partial refunds will be considered for those wishing to cancel if I’m partway through a commission.

Please contact me with any questions or concerns! I’ll adjust this page or make a new page if and when it is necessary! Thank you for your time!

[machiroads]

Machi's 2023 Year In Review

'23 was a bit of a wild one. A toast to the last twelve months (both in fandom and IRL) under the cut.

Fic

Here's what went out the door in '23:

Naruhata Noir

I started posting NN in December '22, about a month after finishing 9L. At one point last year I joked about finishing the entire thing in the week between Christmas and New years. Evidently, this did not happen for a variety of reasons:

A) A series of events occurring in my personal life that do not merit further detail that I will herein refer to as "the conga line of nonsense". That kicked off during last year's holiday season and bled into like...May. Which leads directly into:

B) Tears of the Kingdom came out. And;

C) A general loss of motivation in the project.

During the aforementioned Conga Line of Nonsense, I had a goal of finishing before TotK came out, but I only managed to cobble together another 4 chapters between January and May. After somehow managing weekly to biweekly chapters for 9L, NN was much more sporadic, and at one point I had people asking me if I was still alive. Which. sucked, since I generally strive to be a somewhat reliable person.

Once the TotK hyperfixation hit, I managed maaaaaaybe another 2 chapters before I finally got bored of grinding monsters to upgrade outfits. I did manage to meet the third self-imposed deadline of finishing before going to Japan for 2 weeks, so at least that's one W.

In addition to the distractions of Life, NN was more challenging to write for a few main reasons:

Aizawa is not the narrator. Look, I'm mature enough to acknowledge that he is Blorbo From My Shows, and everything I write wants to revolve around him. Taking a step back from that and trying to get into another character's head after spending 8 solid months on 9L was an adjustment. It took me a bit of time to find Shinsou's voice.

Most of the relationship dynamics in this fic are non-canonical, and pulled directly out of my ass. Shinsou's relationships with the Hottas are central to the back half of the fic, and his relationship with Mirko also becomes prominent at times. NONE OF THESE CHARACTERS HAVE EVER INTERACTED IN REAL LIFE I'M JUST SMASHING DOLLS TOGETHER LIKE I DID AS A 7 YEAR OLD.

Trying to parallel something I already wrote several months ago is hard. I wanted NN to make sense on its own, but also follow the relevant bits from 9L. This was next to impossible to accomplish without sounding clunky. Almost from the very beginning of the fic, the outsider's perspective of Aizawa's first steps, I felt the urge to change the dialogue because the story that I wanted to tell from Shinsou's perspective was different from the one I wanted to tell from Aizawa's perspective. I locked myself into that rigidity for a while, until I finally decided just to say fuck it at the end and modify the 9L dialogue slightly because the story had taken on a life of its own.

Erasermic took a major backseat in this one, but I still needed to scratch the itch, and I think that's why I ended up writing 2 emic one shots in between chapters.

I don't think a direct parallel spin-off is something I would try writing again, and the fic was probably a lot longer than it needed to be, but at the end of the day, I'm satisfied with the way it turned out, and I'm happy I was actually able to finish it this year.

Here's a collage of my inspo for Aizawa's apartment cobbled together from google maps and japanese real estate websites.

Being No One, Going Nowhere

The first of the 3 one shots that I put out this year, and a proof of concept that I can slap together 3k in a day and a half fever dream and call it a fic.

This one in particular was instigated by one of @o0fyuu0o's tweets that refused to leave me alone. And maybe also the two broken arms story from reddit, but you know, like, less incesty.

Mic was extremely pathetic in this one, which is immensely fun to write. Just a pathetic little meow meow. Sopping wet cat of a man.

College AU was fun to write, emboldened in part by @kyurilin's fic Stray. After being married to canon-verse for both 9L and NN, this was an exercise in just making shit up, and also living vicariously through the memories of the house I lived in for the better part of 2 years as an undergrad. I graduated 7 years ago and it is still crystallized in my memory.

A Tumultuous Sea, You and Me

I've been nursing a healthy crush on Pirate!Aizawa (or Paizawa, as the kids on JP Twit call him) since the Volume 35 character page came out in June '22. Paizawa even killed a 2 year long art block, that's how powerful he is. (Look!)

I do not remember what exactly spurned this one on, but it also got written in the span of about 2 days. I think I reread The Art of Drowning at some point this year, but I do not remember if it was during the writing frenzy, or sometime before it.

Aizawa gets to hold the meow meow card again in this one. His 2 sentence rivalry with Vlad is one of the best things I've ever written.

Of the 2 days I spent writing this, I probably spent 75% of that researching pirate ships. I used almost none of it, and have forgotten almost all of it by this point.

I feel like everyone that dips their toes into the realm of merpeople has a different interpretation on it, but I wanted to spend approximately 0 minutes on worldbuilding, so it's just kind of a chill coexistence between the pirates and the mermaids in this one lol. People were intrigued by said "worldbuilding" however and wanted more, but I think I've scratched the mer-pirate itch for now haha.

1966 Ford Nutstang GT350 Shelby

@kyurilin made a tumblr post that misspelled "mustang" as "nustang" and I skim-read it and saw "nutstang" and was like "you know what would be a terribad nickname for the car? Nutstang." At which point I immediately informed her, which led down the rabbit hole of a very loose RP (as it often does) and I decided YOU KNOW WHAT? I SHOULD JUST TURN THIS INTO A CRACK FIC.

At which point I had to sort of construct a loose plot around the entire bonkers concept. Nemuri held a key role in the pseudo-RP, but I ended up wanting to keep the fic tight and her role was mostly cut. But rest assured she is there in spirit, though, judging.

The plush nutsack is just a bastardization of a kangaroo ballsack coinpurse I saw in a Crap Souvenirs From Around The World calendar I had many years back that has imprinted on my memory. At no point did I seek out visual reference for it, and neither should you. It is up to the reader's imagination.

On the topic of bastardizations, the reappearing nutsack plotline is borrowed from the drawfee gnome saga.

Mic yelling GOOD MORNING and Aizawa banging his head on the underside of his desk is S tier slapstick.

PEOPLE MADE ART????

Some wonderful listeners readers are still making art for 9L, and we have been blessed with two beautiful new pieces this year:

Mic and Eri's selfie, from @kaleidoscopedrawsjpg

The Only One Bed scene, from @guiltyfixations

@obsessed-dragon also drew the photo of Shinsou holding Miso from Naruhata Noir, and Black Spider Eyes drew Aizawa dangling out the window from Tumultuous Sea.

Every time a piece of art drops on my dash, or I see my fic being recommended to other people, my brain does a lil short circuit and I have to go get up and walk around for a bit. I'm not sure words can express how much it means to me that people have enjoyed my writing enough to recommend it to other people, or sit down and create something of their own based off of it. It's humbling, and I'm truly grateful for every kind word or "sketch I should have maybe spent a little longer on" hahaha

Stats!

Look, I'm an engineer. I can't resist the thrall of Microsoft Excel. So here's A Chart.

I value Bookmarks the highest of all the stats that AO3 spits out. Views are pointless (skewed higher in the context of multi-chap fics). Kudos are an indicator of how many people read and liked enough to leave a kudos, but bookmarks are my indicator of how many people liked it enough to keep it around to read again, or recommend to others.

The bookmark-to-kudos ratio is (in my unscientific opinion) a measure of how many people loved the work vs how many people just liked it.

From the chart above, we can propose the following conclusions:

9L is still, far and away, the most popular, and most well-loved thing I've ever written. I'm fine with that.

The Nutstang fic was a certified cult classic, with a bookmark-to-kudos ratio of almost 0.3, second to only 9L.

NN is at a respectable ratio of 0.24 (middle of the pack), but in terms of number of kudos, is not that far ahead the mer-pirate fic. NN was not tagged as erasermic, so I do think this checks out in terms of sheer exposure.

Still Cooking:

FFXII AU

I started this one in March during the conga line of personal life nonsense. I somehow lured in Robbirdthe8th and @o0fyuu0o and @obsessed-dragon and got a solid month of drafting done before I was like "maybe I should work on NN again" and then it sat dormant until like. October.

It's up to almost 30k across 3 partially written chapters already, and I outlined 9 chapters. It is almost certainly overambitious, and I will almost certainly run into the same motivation issue I had with NN because it's a rooftop 4 fic and not just erasermic, and it has a demographic of approximately four people as an AU of a game that came out in uh........2006.

I thought I'd get at least some of it out in '23 but I'm taking it easy and just writing when inspiration strikes at the moment.

Fortuneteller AU

I started this one maybe a week-ish ago, in my quest for a pitch for the erasermic zine (surprise! they haven't made official announcements yet, but I'll be in it. this is an easter egg for those of you who made it this far). It's going to end up far too long for the 3k word limit for that, so I'm just co-opting it for another one-shot. Taisho era urban fantasy dabbling in some Violet Evergarden/FMA-esque post-war themes. Mic with pince nez. Aizawa in hakama. Gratuitous amateur tarot. It has gripped me by the throat.

More from the Nine Lives Extended Universe (canon-willing)

I've got 3 more spin-offs to 9L simmering, just waiting for canon to figure out its business. These are:

When The Battle's Lost and Won

A final battle post-mortem in 4 parts (if 3baka all make it out alive that is). Every few chapters of canon that come out, something gets added or tossed. Extremely fluid at this point, but there are some good quality blurbs and bullet points in there.

Kintsugi

The erasermic epilogue to 9L, from Mic's perspective. An exploration of their relationship beyond the final battle, with an overarching theme that I've borrowed from a Dorktown documentary on former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Dave Stieb: Not at all, and then all at once.

This one's just pure body worship, punctuated by an extremely casual marriage proposal. A lot of people still comment on 9L like "THIS CAN'T BE IT, WHERE'S THE REST OF IT?", so I hope this will satisfy those looking for some closure from a relatively open ending.

The Way of the Househero

With the impending graduation of the hell class, and a body that doesn't quite move the way it used to, Aizawa has a bit of an existential crisis and semi-retires so he can be a full-time parent to Eri while figuring out what's next for him. Mostly slice of life. No real plot to this one yet, mostly just vignettes. Aizawa finally gets cats of his own, makes mom friends, and becomes more of a knife slut (only its in the kitchen now instead of on the streets).

IRL

Painting

Every room in my home is painted some sort of bland pastel, and this year we managed to purge pastels from four rooms: my home office, our living room / dining room, and our bedroom. I am enormously pleased with how each of these have turned out.

Gardening

We moved to this house in January '22, and last year was mostly seeing what came up in the garden. This year we cleared out a lot of the decorative shrubs in our backyard (turns out you can hock shrubs on facebook marketplace), and planted a veggie garden. The extent of my gardening experience prior to this year was mowing the lawn as a teenager, so this year was a continuous learning experience, and likely will be for many more years to come.

We had some big wins (potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cherries, squash, dear god the squash), and some losses (apples that were infested with tent caterpillars, arugula that bolted, and lettuce that got eaten by bunnies to name a few).

In addition to veggies, we also did a lot of general cleanup around the rest of the yard, including clearing out some invasive species and thinning out some partially dead shrubs. We mostly let the yard do its own thing last year, and the previous owner of our home died about 6 months before we moved in, so it was probably neglected for a while. I cut out a blackberry cane that was as long as our driveway. I bought a wood chipper and a compost aerator and am learning the art and science of turning yard trash into yard treasure. (I have not peed on my compost pile yet, as recommended by /r/composting. Maybe some day.)

I also adopted a clipping from my sister-in-law's monstera, which has done quite well (except for the parts my cat has taken a mild interest in nibbling on from time to time)

Travel

Probably too much travel this year ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

3 Weddings (4 if you count the one in December '22 that's included in the Conga Line of Nonsense). Got covid at 2 of them. Invited to a fifth next year. Wishing everyone of marriageable age I know IRL a very elope

Trips for work to Winnipeg and Calgary (to which I have never been before, but are both underwhelming). Also got to fly on a floatplane for the first time, which is noisy, but the views are unbeatable

I turned 30 this year, and after the Conga Line of Nonsense, I said fuck it, we're going back to Japan for my birthday. 2 weeks, 8 cities. L: Shimanami Kaido cycle (still somehow 30 degrees in September x full sun x forgot sunscreen x 80km = pain) (my husband has proofread this and insists that this is not an L but agree to disagree) W: Hokkaido (beautiful scenery, incredible food, not 30 degrees in September lmao)

Anyways

If you made it this far, thanks for reading, and thanks for your love in '23. I hope to provide you with more of the same nonsense in '24. Let me know if you want a spinoff cats + gardening + DIY blog, since that's just my life now. Happy new year 🍾

[kitkatt0430]

6, 13, 28, 31, 46, 51, 63, 68, 73, 77 and 88 for the fanfic ask game!!

6.) do you have any kind of consistent writing schedule or just hoping for the best?

Absolutely hoping for the best. Trying to enforce a writing schedule always just frustrated me when I failed to meet it, which made writing into more of a chore that had to be completed. By letting myself write when the mood strikes me, I might wind up going days between writing, but I feel better about what gets written because it'll feel right in a way that something I forced myself to write for a self imposed deadline generally won't.

13.) talk about a writing experience that has pleasantly surprised you.

Since I've been porting over my co-written fic for FF8, I think I'll talk about that some.

Honestly I think I expected co-writing to be a lot harder than it was and I lucked out a lot with Emcey as a co-writer in that our writing just really flowed well together and adjusting our scenes to fit together after writing them was generally a fun process and not a frustrating one. While at the time I was interested in co-writing more with her and we talked a lot right up until the end about doing so as if the plans were in stone, I think I'm ultimately glad we didn't even.

In retrospect, I picked up on a lot of her habits and opinions on the characters because hers were the stronger opinions of the two of us at the time. So while the experience was overall a good one, I don't think I'd have found my own voice as a writer as strongly as I have if we'd continued co-writing.

28.) handwritten notes or typed notes?

Typed notes, though I'd like to get back into handwritten notes more.

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

I haven't done a whole lot with Jerrie Rathaway, but every time I include her in a fic it's really great. She's a good balance for her brother and I wish there was more in the comics about her for me to dig into for when I create my own versions of her for fanfics.

46.) what time are you the most productive when it comes to writing?

Usually in the evenings, after work, but afternoons on non work days are pretty good writing times too. Or a thirty minute break on a work day can be surprisingly productive if I've got something in my head that won't quiet until it's been written down.

51.) share the synopsis of a story you work on that you haven’t published yet

Iris has had an unrequited crush on her best friend, Barry, for years. But he's never seen her the same way. These days they're a solid investigative team with her as a detective for the CCPD and him as the in house CSI for the department. But Barry's interest in a barista working at CC Jitters threatens their status quo and just as Iris is planing to finally confess her feelings, Barry gets kidnapped and Iris' only lead is that surprisingly cute barista, Eddie Thawne, who thinks that the kidnappers mistook Barry for Eddie and that the whole thing has something to do with his missing Uncle Eobard.

... I've got, like, two or three pages of this written and I no longer remember where it's going, but I'm going to get a full plot re-imagined for it at some point because the initial premise is still a good one. (but if someone else wants to write a fic based off the summary, feel free...)

63.) what’s the best insult you’ve read in a fic?

... I know I've read some real zingers, but honestly none are coming to mind at the moment. *sigh* Sorry.

68.) how long will you spend on a story or scene before you give up?

I'll usually try for a few hours before putting it aside and then I'll keep coming back to it on and off to try and figure out what's going wrong. Sometimes the scene is right, but I'm not in the right brainspace. Sometimes the scene is wrong, but I needed time and distance to admit it. Sometimes I never do figure out what the problem is and so it sits in the WiP folder until the apocalypse happens.

73.) how do you visualize scenes? do you see it like a movie in your head, or do the words just flow?

I'm much more of a 'words just flow' type then a 'visualizes movie' type. Sometimes it is the movie in my head, though. It's just not usually that way.

77.) how do you write kissing scenes?

Like smushing two barbies together and hoping their mouths actually meet. lol ;)

Jokes aside, I go into it with the approach that a kiss is gonna happen, so how do they get there? Sometimes that means stepping backwards from the kiss and sometimes it means finding point a before the kiss and stepping them forward from there. It's as much about the intimate gestures that draw the characters in towards each other - towards the kiss - as it is about the kiss itself.

88.) if you could have another author write your wip for you (bc we all dream of this occasionally), who would it be?

@fezwearingjellybananas definitely for a Flash WiP

[team-heavenly]

Drumroll‚ please! 🥁

It’s been some time, and I managed to slip on my promised deadline once again (thank you for your patience)... But finally‚ we return to the story of Teresa and Andrea in our Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky Randomizer!

A few items of note before we get started (and yeah sorry this is overly detailed and lengthy because idk what it means to be concise, just scroll down if you're not interested):

Please be aware: updates to Team Heavenly’s story will not be as frequent as they were during main. I now work a full-time job in a field where my schedule is somewhat contingent on unanticipated emergencies. And in general‚ I’m just a very busy adult! So I unfortunately can’t give you an exact (or even rough) timeline of when posts will be released— It basically comes down to whenever I have the time to do it. But rest assured‚ the entirety of this tale will be told… eventually!

I’ve gotten my hands on a newer tablet since last year, so my camera quality is much better now! …However. While snapping pics for this post‚ a seemingly unavoidable digital blue glare persisted‚ no matter how I adjusted my screen brightness. When I subsequently ran these photos through the auto function‚ they didn’t really… improve? So I had to do a lot of manual tweaking… Anyway‚ all of that to say if one shot doesn’t look visually consistent with another, it’s because each image got edited a little bit differently.

I will link multiple posts for a single "chapter" (see last bullet) in the same manner as before, with preceding and succeeding parts linked at the beginning and end, respectively. I’ll also update the table of contents in the pinned post for continued ease of navigation.

Also, please note... last year, my older iPad somehow managed to circumvent any sort of (consistent) image limit. But that is not the case this time! There is a strict hard limit of 30 images per post. It's therefore likely that post-game chapters will have more parts than the main-story chapters ever did. (Though whether that actually equates to a "lengthier" chapter is up for debate.)

As the post-game content does not get separated into official chapters‚ I will be partitioning the story based on subject matter! For example, this first act will focus on the guild’s graduation exam, the next will include Sky Peak, and so on. I also intend to use a random number generator to select chapter names from this list. (I mean, c’mon, that's part of the fun of a randomizer!) But for the sake of clarity, I will be including the actual subject matter after the chosen title in (parentheses). Thus‚ this first unofficial post-game chapter is known as…

Chapter 21: Would you like to eat moss?

(AKA: The Guild’s Graduation Exam)

As a result of Teresa and Andrea’s heroic actions… The destruction of time was stopped and peace returned to the world of Pokémon. They went back to Totodile’s Guild and fell back into their daily routine of vigorous training.

One morning‚ several months later…

Pineco: “:/ Hey hey, why can Teresa and Andrea take the graduation exam before we do? We’ve been around a lot longer…”

Tropius: “…They literally saved the world and have proven themselves to be worthy many times over. Also skill issue lol.”

Don’t feel bad for Pineco though; he’s not the only one getting roasted.

Lol rip.

Anyway‚ Andrea asks the very sensible question of what exactly this exam entails…

Dark Chasm? Evil MANSION?!

Are you— are you sending us back to the future‚ Totodile?! WTF??

Oh! That’s easy enough though. I mean‚ compared to scaling a collapsing tower while Time itself crumbled at our feet? Pshaw! This will be a cakewalk!

...You know, this is really the first thing that should have tipped me off as a kid 🤦‍♀️

🤨 How convenient.

Okay, so he's not gonna be any help, unfortunately. Looks like we're going in blind. (Haha unintentional pun...unless?)

But for real, anything that makes Mewtwo cry out in fear and run away is a force to be reckoned with indeed.

As we enter Nautical Cottage to begin our preparations, we run into our stand-ins for Teddiursa and Ursaring! After a quick chat, Horsea reveals they are also headed to the Dark Chasm...

*seen (sorry).

Also, at the risk of beating a dead Horsea (aHA! TWO FOR TWO ON THE PUNS!), y'all go play WHERE? *gets hit immediately by a Snipe Shot*

Andrea immediately suspects something is sus. Unfortunately, this is the smartest she's ever gonna get about it.

Anyway, it's been a hot minute, so I go to check my storage and evaluate what I have to work with...

BRUH?? I do NOT remember picking this up omg 😳

So my plan is to equip this for the exam, right? But then I totally forgot to do that 😅

Also I don't have a picture for this but I was able to buy 3 Poké from the Finnkecleon shop for free lol

✅Mission: set ✅Destination: arrived ✅Chance of success: 💯😎🎆

Oh my god, this really is the future of darkness!! I guess our efforts to save the world weren't enough, damn 😓

🎶I'm starting with the man in the mirror I'm asking him to change his ways🎶

A couple of Gummis later, Teresa learns the Lava Evader IQ Skill! Neat!

Me when Ivysaur used Fly:

Believe it or not, this actually almost killed Andrea at 96 damage. But the stairs were nearby and I wasn't too worried about it until...

Go figure, amirite?

Then Andrea reminded me of the awesome power of Blizzard and we knocked out everyone except Combusken and the Kabuto on the first turn <3 And she got right back up again in no time with the Fast Healer skill!

Does anyone remember that one time when I had the foolish idea to forget Quick Attack in favor of Helping Hand? Yeah, not one of my smartest moves. But I managed to find a TM in this dungeon that does the same thing as Quick Attack but better!

Here's the info for Quick Attack:

And here's the info for Mach Punch:

Higher power and hit ratio? Yes please! (Yes, I'm aware both are only one star stronger. But hey, every bit counts.)

I teeechnically have enough room for three more images, but this feels like a natural transition point so click here to advance to Part 2!

[shadowsong26x]

Hey friendo! Asking you the weird writer questions : 1,5, and 23 ❤️❤️

All right, cool <3

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

Generally the default. Although I had one program where the default switched from Arial to Calibri at some point during a transition from an old laptop to a new one, so I would switch it back for the things I used that program for? Basically, if I'm starting out in a new program I'll use whatever the default is, but then I Don't Like Change, lol.

5. Do you have any writing superstitions? What are they and why are they 100% true?

Hm. I don't know that I do, exactly? I'm trying to think if there's anything I would call a superstition. I guess like I said above, once I'm used to things being set up a certain way, I don't like change, maybe that would count? I remember at one point I wrote a solid chunk of a like 100k-word fic on these little notepads I stole from the supply cabinet at work. When I switched jobs, the supply cabinet didn't have notepads in the same size/shape/style and it became Significantly Harder to write things out longhand? (I did eventually adjust, lol, but it was a Process. And I don't do it nearly as often as I used to. ...it also helps that I work remotely...part of writing things out longhand was that it was Much subtler/easier to hide a bunch of scribbles on a notepad than an extra window on my computer...lol)

...yeah, so if that counts, that would be it? But I don't really have like...rituals, or needing to be in a specific space/have things set up a specific way. Sometimes I listen to music, sometimes I don't. Sometimes I'll set like a 10-minute timer to get myself going, sometimes I don't bother. Other than some vague 'the stars are not in position for this tribute' stuff when I sit down to write and the words Will Not Come but there's no consistent way to fix that other than Deadline Panic. Soooooo yeah.

23. Describe the physical environment in which you write. Be as detailed as possible. Tell me what’s around you as you work. Paint me a picture.

Ahahaha, I should read what the next question is before I answer the last one lol. Wasn't that a thing for like tests in high school, too? "Read the whole thing before you start answering questions?"

...anyway.

Like I said, I don't have a super consistent place? The three most common would be probably my work desk, which is a long light-brown rectangle, probably two feet by six feet? I have a desk lamp (I usually don't bother with the overhead light), a little platform/lapdesk in the same wood that I usually put my work computer on, and a little bowl for candy, and a handful of soda bottles that need to go out with next week's recycling. If I'm writing there, my work computer gets shoved over to the left, right next to the lamp, so I can keep an eye on emails/etc./bounce back and forth between tasks. My personal computer goes on the right, and I pull up whichever writing program is the correct one for what I'm working on.

If I'm writing at home, it's one of two places. First is in my chair in the living room. Which is a chair and a half, and grey. I have an old Amazon shipping box I use as a lapdesk, so I'll have my laptop in my lap. Sometimes my roommate will be watching something on TV while I'm doing this, or I'll be checking in and out of conversations. Or sometimes we're just doing parallel play.

The second is--I have a loft bed, and underneath it I have several bookshelves and a very cheap twin bed. That's where I'm usually hanging out on tumblr/just chilling if I want to be in a Private Space. There's a pink blanket, a black husband chair/armchair pillow and then a regular pillow. I have a lapdesk I got for like $10 at Best Buy a million years ago and I shift position a lot.

Ask me a writing question!

[emi-nova-music]

—*♪,» WELCOME ONE AND ALL ——•°.

hiii! i’m a 19yo college kid making magic however i can! i’m non-binary (they/nova pronouns), queer, neurodivergent, and i adore my strangely specific process and unique set of influences that lead to some cool ass shit! when i’m not jamming, i’m drawing, designing characters, building websites, and playing games 🫶 don’t hesitate to reach out

my main blog is @emerystellar as a general hub for all my creative stuff, and my crazy tumblr hermit spam all goes on @andromeda-absurdity !

—*♪,» LINKS ——•°.

Spotify || Bandcamp || Youtube || Apple Music

music carrd !! — main website !!

—*♪,» GENRE/INFLUENCES ——•°.

i’m pretty broad and experimental so it’s hard to narrow myself down, but i’d say i fall somewhere between jangle pop, psychedelic rock, shoegaze, and indie jazz! some of my biggest influences are louie zong, mild high club, miracle musical, buried beds, vince guaraldi, toby fox, koji kondo, the avalanches, and temporex :]

for extra reference, here’s my giant playlist of all the music i listen to, and a really big list of weirdly specific genres i like! you can also ask me about influences/inspirations for certain songs, associations you make, Anything, i’d love to hear and conversate about it!

—*♪,» RIGHTS AND USAGE ——•°.

feel free to use my music in any personal projects, youtube videos, animations, character playlists, anything, as long as you do two things:

1. credit me however applicable (link to the song, my website/bandcamp, just listing the song title and artist name, etc)

2. show me what you made!! i absolutely ADORE interacting with the creative works others make and i wanna see what ways you use my creations!! 🩵

the only other thing of note is that if you want to remix/make a cover of my song, keep it non-monetary (i.e. keep it to soundcloud and/or youtube)!

addendum that i’m not great at transcription but if you need stems of any songs/sheet music/garageband soundfont titles, etc, i’ll do my very very best to provide!

i’m very very open to collabs, but i am extremely bad with deadlines “- forcing inspiration never really works for me, but if you’re okay with my weird process and want to hmu, please do so!!

—*♪,» GENERAL FAQ ——•°.

• i use garageband on my phone to write most of the time (sometimes bandlab or acoustic instruments, usually various pianos or organs)

• i use distrokid for platform distribution and i seriously recommend it it’s ridiculously easy and super cheap too

• my process is usually pretty linear, starting with a melodic idea and moving from start to finish with the song, then going back and buffing it out making it meatier and tweaking things as i see fit! then i’ll usually adjust the pitch/speed at the end simply bc the analog sound is a lot more pleasing garageband can get a little sterile after listening to it for so long :]

• writing a single song will usually take me anywhere from 2-6 hours depending on the complexity, spanning however many days (i have drafts that have been sitting in my phone for MONTHS bc i’ll often switch between them so none of them get too stale) -> however, some of my live songs work a little differently, seeing as a lot of them (especially on what never left the nebula) are actually almost completely improvised… you'll never guess which ones >:)

• i’ve been playing piano and singing since i was a toddler, but i started formally making music and being serious about it in 2017! i’ve come a long long long way, don’t look for my old soundcloud /hj

—*♪,» THANK YOU!!! ——•°.

if you’ve got any other curiosities or comments please don’t hesitate to send an ask!! i love when ppl engage with my music so please please by all means feel free to :] thank you so much for sticking around this long and have a stellar day!!!

[akaittou]

Happy Calibration to @raeliyah from your no-longer-secret santa, ME! ;D

Choosing from among your characters was really hard - I went through all of them and I may have fallen for each and every one - but I’ve been into generating colour palettes from photograps lately so funnily enough, Khulan only having a black-and-white portrait is what sealed the deal this time. I also may consider her somewhat of a nemesis as a migraine-inducer and thus deserving of recognition, considering I suffer from migraines a lot. It’s a really interesting tell for a lunar to have :D

I may have gone a bit overboartd with the “layered mongolian style” in her clothes, but if there’s one thing I love it’s putting characters in complicated outfits so I hope it’s alright - the palette is generated from a lanscape photo in the Mongolian steppe and felt muted enough to still suit her personality. Plus, I wanted to give her something nice since despite her being a lunar I couldn’t represent her warform this time... dinosaur creatures are the bane of my existence, as much as I adore their aesthetics.

I also have a background-less transparent version, so throw me a message if you’d like it!

(( Also, thank you so much @shiftingpath for the timeline adjustment this go around - I was bedridden for nearly two weeks during the holidays so managing to actually finish this very much needed the later deadline ))

[eomma-jpeg]

Heyyyyfor the writer ask! 20, 32 (not me please I want to hear about other cool writers!!), 58, 66, 73, and 75 for itm have a good one!!!<33333

squid !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

20. Have you noticed any patterns in your fics? Words/expressions that appear a lot, themes, common settings, etc?

I gotta brainstorm this

I used to use the word ‘jarring’ all the time because I say that in real life LOL

I think when it comes to writing and more dynamic themes, i think the main thing i try to emulate in my writing is that you know whats going on in the scene. I want to make sure that the reader knows the layout and how every person is interacting with each other. I try and go back over my writing over and over again to make sure it is understandable

I think a newer theme is emotions ? i focused so much on physical descriptions in my older works that it wasn’t,,,, fun? To read my stuff. So with my newer works i tried to experiment with more complex emotions, especially the physical repercussions of the emotions lol

32. Name three of your favorite fanfic writers.

Squid said i cant say her T-T

SmutWithPlot on FF.net is an author who’s style inspires me SO MUCH. Their description style and flow is something I aspire to have. tension is so good….. (they’re also on ao3)

I’ve said this before but @eilwen is SUCH an incredible writer. No Reason is a fic that I cry whenever i see that its been updated. Their style is so poetic and detailed and i lovelovelove the story and world building its so incredible.

Kuwakun or @tomboyyyaoi here on tumblr has the most beautiful like,,, poetic style of writing… i want to try my hand at poetry style writing one of these days. I have such a literal and straightforward writing style that i would need to practice if I wanted to write the beautiful imagery that they have in their works…. (I sincerely believe they are one of the only people that really understand trimax vashmeryl)

58. What part of the writing process do you enjoy the most? (Brainstorming, outlining, writing, editing, etc)

Hmmmm

I think outlining and editing are tied in my mind. I LOVE creating the story, and that happens when i outline. I see it all in my mind and can normally get it down on the page okay, but the story really comes to life when i outline, and then it is reborn when i edit lol

I love going back over my work and editing. It helps me realize what isn’t flowing well, what words were strange to use, what sentences just make absolutely no sense because my brain was moving so fast that i forgot half of the words lol. But I love editing in general…. Its so fun.

66. How do you deal with writing pressure (ie. pressure to update, negative comments, deadlines, etc.)?

So far i haven’t faced a lot, which has been nice. I think what helps is that I do this because I like to. I love sharing it with people and knowing that others really enjoy the story,,, but its really a selfish act LOL 

If i get negative comments,,, those fly over my head. The positive ones far outweigh the negative ones (although, i havent gotten any ! which is so nice lolol)

Updating and deadlines,,,, i set those myself ? so like,,, if they need to be moved or adjusted i can just do that

And you can too ! please work at your own pace. Don’t feel burdened by those who read or consume your creations, I am certain most if not all are patient and willing to wait however long it takes for you to feel like its good enough to share

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works?

Hmmmmmm im gonna be a brat about this and say I write stuff that flows well. Funfact about lace, this is because I have written so many history papers, and those need to flow well in order to make sense. I go back over my works countless times to make sure everything is coming across well and that the audience knows whats going on. Is it perfect? No. I went back and reread chapter 1 of in the meadow recently and immediately wanted to start fixing lolol (i might do that 👀)

I would say it helps that I know grammar lolol,,,, i try to not put dialogue for different people in the same paragraph or do run on sentences,,, but I am certainly guilty of using the same adjectives over and over or putting too many commas in one sentence lol 

75. What scene in in the meadow took the longest to write? What was difficult about it?

Okay,,, there have been a few parts where i had to pause and take a moment before i actually got my thoughts down

The first was the fight between Milly and Knives about Wolfwood. I had planned that scene so early on,,, but I … i couldn’t figure out each character’s motivation for SO LONG. it took me forever to find why Milly would even put up with him when he was the one to kill WW but also Milly wouldn’t hold a grudge like that and yakjdlkfjsdlj it took so long and i went over it a billion times to fix it and change it ugh

Another one that was sillier was in the latest chapter (28) I was having the hardest time planning out the silly conversation with the sisters. It literally made me stop writing for like a week T-T I couldn’t figure out how to make the conversation flow or how to make Vash seem like a sleaze while not a huge sleaze or for the ladies to tease Meryl UGH

I still don’t think its good but it was the best i could get it

I also avoided writing the final chapter for a minute cuz i didn’t want it to be over,,, then i wrote the whole thing in one day lol (squid knows lol)