#that sure is a webcomic huh

[thechekhov]

fellas have you ever read a webcomic

[holycorrupt]

you know before I started actually drawing MTE I always had this really grand complex artwork stuck in my head about it and it was really intimidating! Because my current skills is no where close to the things I'm able to dream up in my minds eye...

however now that I'm actually putting the work into it that doesn't matter as much? Idk its a strange feeling, there is panels/pages that I wished looked like in my head sure...but what's actually physically real is slowly shaping up into something I'm really proud of...

and like I am improving there is tangible progress slowly happening

MTE is still young... I'm really excited to see what it'll look at in another 100 pages (speaking of which I'm over a quarter of a way to the first 100 already??? Huh??? how'd that happen so fast?)

[magpiesbones]

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[rabbitindisguise]

Some innocent soul: oh you like [anime title]? :)

Me, trying to sound normal: haha yeah 👍

Also me: *kicking the thousands of reblogs on Tumblr of gifsets and handful of fics I wrote about two characters 69ing under my bed*

[fanvoidkeith]

apparently using bright colors in your art does not make your artstyle "colorful"

[factual-fantasy]

27 Asks! Thank you!! :}}🍬

@drunkardbagels

@stupid-thatsme

Advises to draw move..? I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to be more specific- I'm not sure what you mean <:0

@mindblowingcow

My pinned post states that I've been sick for months and am taking a break from my FNAF AU until further notice. Also I cant reveal anything else in the story-

Whenever anyone talks about the Peso currency, I cant help but immediately picture the little penguin in my head XDD

Update on Bash Buggy, he was donated to a charity of some kind I'm pretty sure <XD He's off to bigger and better things! Other than that I have no memory or developments to his story <:(

XDD I guess it happens to the best of us huh.

Also I hardly remember any of the characters from Slime Rancher.. but I remember liking the player character and her boyfriend/friend(??) from earth :}}

I have my transformers art tagged as "transformers prime" and/or "transformers ocs". You can search for it in my blogs search bar! :0

@gingerbravecookie

Oooo I'll have to look into those cutscenes! :0 Since I don't intend to play the other games <XD

HES A REAL KING TO MEEEEE 😭😭💞💞💞

We both have them googly eyes frfr XDD

(Referencing this video)

I have the video saved to watch later, I haven't gotten around to it yet <XD

@kaiserdarken

Freddy doesn't take Gregory out to trick or treat, and other than some spooky decorations and some special performances.. I cant see the animatronics doing anything else for the spooky season. :0

@pink088 (Images in ask👇👇👇)

THAT WAS YOU ALL ALONG??

:DD Thank you! I'll have to remember to send this out-

(Referencing this post)

Other than Gulp, Gunk and Gorp, the big pink frog in the middle is called the mama frog :))

Also the tiny orange one miiight be named stubby. Since he has a stubby arm. (His arm hole was too narrow to flip him arm right side out so it became a stump💀)

Other than that, I have no other name ideas <XD

@kiki-is-hurt-but-not-anymore

Thank you! Congrats on the 53 followers! :DD

@smol-bean-boi13

XD Thank you so much! :DD And I love the drawing!! :}}

@notmrkillwolf666

I have not :( but perhaps I should look into it! :0

@beryl-shade (Referencing this post)

XD I'd watch your words, Seafoam is a taken man!

(First and second link in question)

Ugh, always a shame to see.. thanks for letting me know <:(

@void-the-bear

ngl, kind'a horrific XDD

@bluescarlet13 (Don't worry, I've kept a duplicate of this ask to potentially draw later! :})

AAAA thank you! :DDD You've been around for quite a bit! And thank you for all the kind words, I really appreciate it!! :}}}

(Don't worry, I've kept a duplicate of this ask to potentially draw later! :})

I don't eat Tacos or Burgers anymore.. but my favorite of the two would be Tacos :) specifically the ones with the cheesy dorito shells!

(Don't worry, I've kept a duplicate of this ask to potentially draw later! :})

Thank you, <:) tbh a lot of the people who made me uncomfortable in the Octonauts fandom where probably kids who wouldn't listen to me/respect my boundaries. Which I mean hey, kids will be kids. But that doesn't make it anymore ok or make me want to rejoin the fandom-

@coinezalot (Don't worry, I've kept a duplicate of this ask to potentially draw later! :})

Currently I've been working on my CookieRun: Kingdom OCS and trying to write lore for them.. I've also been thinking about my Kirby OCs and these other Original OCs of mine :0

In this post and this post you can see my two original OCs I've been working on. Snakes and the unnamed kid. They are two characters that I've been thinking about making my own webcomic about, but their story got kiiinda complicated.. so I've slowed down in developing their story. <:/

Other than making more CRK OCs and more Kirby OCs, I'm not planning much! :0

[modmad]

When incredible artists inexplicably start following me I use it as motivation to send them raving mad fan mail and there's no one I can be as raving mad about as you.

I found TPOH a long time ago and I've followed it weekly through high school, college, being a working adult, and going back to med school. It was one of the first comics I read. When I was a kid, I used to read it with my younger sister and discuss all the little details and puns we could find every week. If I look hard enough I might still be able to find doodles of the characters in my high school notes. I dug through your site and read every little thing I could find on it. I've recommended TPOH to countless people in my life.

Mod, you made me fall in love with webcomics as a medium and what they can do and be. When I wanted to publish my own stories, it's because of webcomics like yours that I chose to make webcomics myself. They showed me the beauty of webcomics as a medium - of getting to read something that came from one person's mind, made for free for anyone who wants to see it. I've continued to keep up with it as I started and finished my first comic, and I'm still keeping up with it as I make my current one. The thing about how long webcomics take to make is that they become part of our mundane lives and weekly schedules as we grow, and TPOH has been part of mine for a long time. Thank you for sharing your writing and art with us. I can't wait to see where you take us next.

I also want to mention how blown away I was at your recent update?? This vaguely threatening, possibly right and helpful, possibly not, figure that has been following our protagonist this whole time being anxiety when this whole time I had been assuming it was one of the characters/citizens of this world. It makes so much sense in retrospect.

oh gosh I hope you don't mind me replying to this on speaker bc I wanna keep it ;v; this is just so mindblowing, that someone has been from highschool to adult life reading my comic?! wow. boy. golly. time sure is a thing huh anyway GLAD I MADE YOU FEEL THINGS and I hope I can keep plodding along and somehow get to the end :D

anyway uhhh 'bout that last thing... there's still more to learn! more to learn about that butterfly oh boy yes

[lloydfrontera]

sometimes i think i'm being too harsh on the webcomic and that maybe it's better than i give it credit for. but then i reread it and nope i am totally in the right and i will never forgive some of the choices being made

anyway.

why did they change julian's letter to lloyd. what purpose did that have.

look at this

doesn't seem so bad right? nice little letter julian being a sweetheart to his parents, even asking after his brother, nothing out of the ordinary

EXCEPT. THEY COMPLETELY CHANGED THE PURPOSE OF THE LETTER.

to star with it the letter was supposed to be for lloyd! not for arcos and marbella!! it was julian writing to his hyung just after graduating!! like!!

To Lloyd, I graduated, and I got fairly good grades. It's all thanks to you. I was able to give my all. And I realized a lot of things the last time I met you after a long while. It was all possible because of you. Thank you. See you soon. Julian, your young brother who wants to be your pride.

∧ this is the letter julian sent lloyd. do you see the difference. do you see how much feeling and sentiment they cut off on the webcomic??

julian isn't trying to prove to his parents that he can be as dependable as lloyd. he wants to make his brother proud!! he's thankful for what lloyd did for him!! he outright tells him it's thanks to him that he was able to graduate with good grades at all!!

he doesn't even mention that he graduated second of his class, arcos is the one that has to tell lloyd about it. and lloyd is genuinely surprised and awed by it! it's!! a cute scene!!!

just. here i'm really not making it justice

Lloyd carefully studied the letter. He was proud of every black word written on the white paper. It was only a few lines, but he swelled with happiness nonetheless. A part of him ven felt an immense sense of contentment. Before he knew it, he had read over the letter five times already. Graduation, huh. Lloyd, too, wanted to graduate. He wanted to graduate, pass the exam, and land a job. But he was forced into this world before he saw the fruit of his efforts. Though he couldn't deny that the knowledge he had acquired in his world helped him a lot, a corner of his heart was occupied with a pang of sorrow for being unable to finish his degree. Well, I know it's not like a diploma will feed me, but still. [...] But still, I wanted to get a diploma. Lloyd still felt regretful that he couldn't get one when he had put in great effort to get one. He occasionally ponded on the matter. And now, here came the news of Julian performing beyond any expectations of him and giving the credit to Lloyd. The boy even added a pleasing remark that he wished to become a proud young brother to Lloyd. Lloyd felt grateful and content as he read those words. His heart swelled with pride as though he was the one who had graduated. That rascal. I'm going to give him a noggie on his chestnut like head. Lloyd carefully folded the letter thinking to make sure it wouldn't get crumpled. Then he carefully put it in his inner pocked. Later, even when he continued to have his meal and enjoyed reuniting with the count and countess, he had his hand placed on the middle of his chest. And as though the letter was responding to him inside, it rustled. Lloyd swelled with gratitude and joy once again every time it happened. The entire time he couldn't erase the smile off his face.

lloyd is!! so fucking proud of julian!! he feels so happy he could be the reason julian gets to graduate!! to do the thing he wanted so bad but was unable to!! and julian responds in kind by thanking him and telling him he's the reason he could do it!! lloyd is so proud and happy it almost feels like he got to graduate himself!!

the care with which he puts the letter away!! worrying about it getting wrinkled!! unconsciously touching it and getting happy all over again!!

do you get why i'm so upset this scene was completely rewritten and stripped of all the care and love it had in the novel. do you get it. i want to bite someone.

[fastcardotmp3]

🎊 december bookshelf 🎊

november recs | recs tag

Happy (almost) New Year! Here are some bits of brilliance I'm closing out the year in reading, and here's to everything that you guys have made this year. I'm so grateful to exist in a space with so much talent and so many big hearts willing to share in it, and I can't wait to read what you have cooked up for 2024 🥂 love, dot

🎊 INCENDIUM by @stargazersteddie- I have always been and will always be a weird dragon kid at heart and this fic was tailor made for the weird dragon kids of the world LIKE! dragon shapeshifter eddie is SUCH a concept and then to add dragon hunter steve to the mix? to add a genuinely intriguing corrupted corporation claiming to help people? to add ronance espionage and secrets in the woods and-? you know? a treat of a journey really and truly.

🎊 captain's log webcomic by @rogue-alien - That sweet spot where beautiful, perfectly representative art meets a brilliant premise in which Dustin finds a bunch of old "Captain's Log" tapes Eddie recorded before he died and things develop from there. Truly makes my day every time I see this has updated with a new page and as a comic book lover I'm fully enamored with everything about this

🎊 if you wanted, you could do no harm by @eskawrites - I'm a lover of a road trip story in which everything becomes clear because the scenery has changed and this is SUCH a beautiful depiction of that. getting to live inside Nancy's head as she goes from knowing she has to get out of Hawkins but not necessarily why to finding this sense of peace within herself and the things she both can control (kissing the girl who made sure she wasn't alone for the journey) and can't control (the big unknowable that is life) was a delight and a joy <3

🎊 mark it on the starmap with an x by @cheatghost - the Eddie POV "show me the place (where he inserted the blade)" sequel/ companion piece of my DREAMS. I love an Eddie character study with my whole heart and the way lou explores him in this particular circumstance, being blocked off from the joy he built for himself and leaning on Wayne and almost being forced into adapting without getting a say in the matter? Brilliant, immaculate, perfect, HELP ME.

🎊 max the bloody handed by @hellsfireclub - KAS!MAX!!! Beautiful Lucas POV as things fall into disarray, as his sense of something's wrong gets proven right, and with such a cool and eerie tone the whole way through. also Lucas with a crossbow which you KNOW is everything To Me.

🎊 this time of the year by @gothbat99 - robin HEARS nancy even when nancy isn't saying anything aloud and robin KNOWS that nancy needs a moment to let her brain go quiet and just be and I'm beside myself!! sweet and warm and tinged with the inevitable grief of the holiday season what if I cry huh?

🎊 The Future is the Same (but i have to try) by @fragilecapric0rnn - such an intriguing world built in so few words but the thing that has me on the FLOOR is the nancy and steve reckless grieving power duo of it all LIKE. designed for me specifically perhaps??? the characterization, the looming danger of every choice they make, the impulsive nature of it all!!! brilliant!

🎊 crash by @cheatghost (yes, again! sue me!) - i say 'designed for me specifically' a lot but this time it's actually TRUE and let me tell you!!! the psychic damage incurred was IMMENSE!! the nancy character study of all time, the cyclical/non-linear journey through grief and catharsis and hope and acceptance of my dreams, i'm never going to stop thinking about this fic you HAVE to read it, it's imperative To Me okay? okay. okay okay.

PS. don't forget to tip your writer in kudos and comments if you read and enjoy these! it's talking to each other about the works we create that makes this fandom world go round 💖

[the-mountain-flower]

APPARENTLY I never posted this on Tumblr, whoops

CW: blood, non-graphic depiction of serious injury, self-destructive behavior & semi-makeshift medical procedure

“I didn’t ask for your help, I don’t need it!”

“Yes, you do!”

Falst gets badly injured, and Dainix tries his best to get him to accept the help he needs.

“Are you going to use the ‘tactics’ card every time I get injured?”

“If I have to, yes.”

Falst groaned, but resigned himself to his fate. This wasn’t the first time Dainix had practically forced him to accept medical help, and given their luck, it probably wouldn’t be the last.

Dainix set him to lie down on a relatively flat, softer patch of land, and knelt in front of him. Falst held back a wince, as the shift in position caused the shrapnel still embedded in his side to move, and his ankle twinged painfully when it touched the ground. He moved his arms to try and bring himself to an upright position, but a firm hand from Dainix caused him to stop.

“Don’t you dare, you have to save your strength. Plus, it’ll make it harder to treat the wound.”

Falst scoffed. Under normal circumstances, he could've pushed him away with relative ease. “I just need to get this thing out and I’ll be fine, nothing too serious.”

Dainix didn’t dignify that with a response, just shot Falst a serious look before taking out the first aid supplies he had on him. Then he pulled back the fabric of Falst’s shirt, where the largest piece of shrapnel had pierced the skin, and cursed outloud when he saw how bad it was.

“Told you,” Falst said, “not so great if the weapon’s still in.”

In the ferin’s side was a large piece of sharp grey metal, and based on Dainix’s initial look at the wound during the fight compared to now, and the shape of the closed area, most of the metal was still inside the body. The wound was almost entirely closed over, so only a portion of the offending material was visible. In the attempt, skin had grown over the edges, uneven where the shrapnel impeded the process.

“I don’t suppose there’s a way to get this out without further cutting, huh?” Dainix asked reluctantly, but already reaching for his knife, knowing he couldn’t risk leaving it in much longer. Thanks to his father’s preparation, he had all the necessities and knew how to use them, and he knew well how to not let anxiety get the better of him in serious situations. Still, a fast-healing condition like Falst’s was something he hadn’t exactly accounted for back home, and he tried his best to make sure his worry didn’t show too much.

“Not really,” Falst responded, “unless you know something that I don’t.”

“And, I'm sorry, but I’m going to have to clean the wound-”

“Ugh! Please tell me you don’t mean that awful stuff you used last time.”

“Unfortunately. Brace your senses” Falst had detested the kitridine back in the caves, but he himself said that he couldn’t heal infection quickly. Dainix used a milder disinfectant to cover the blade of his knife. It wasn’t meant to be used this way, but it was their best option at the time. Then he took the vial of horrible-smelling liquid and prepared it onto its cloth. “You’re going to be okay, right?”

“Just get it over with. I won’t-” Falst paused, then turned his gaze away from the ignan. “I won’t scratch you this time.”

“Alright, remember to breathe.” Dainix took a deep breath himself, one hand prepped with the knife, and antiseptic in the other. “Three,” he started so that Falst could know when the action was coming, ���two, one.”

Dainix quickly sliced open the skin over the shrapnel, then discarded the knife so he could extract the metal, which he tossed far away from either of them. Blood speckled the ground in its wake. The instant that was done, he pressed the cloth with the kitridine onto the wound.

During the first part, Falst just barely held back a shout of pain, instead practically hissing through gritted teeth. Once the cloth covered the wound and the kitridine made contact, he nearly screamed like the last time. The world around him blurred, and he could barely hear Dainix’s reassurances over the harsh sound of the antiseptic on flesh, and the searing feeling that accompanied it. His claws raked the ground in front of him and beside Dainix, dirt overturning grass faster than the blood was leaving his body (which wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, thanks to the damned pressure the ignan was applying).

“Breathe in, breathe out.” Dainix reminded.

“Fuck you.” Falst spat. He was going to regret that later, but he couldn’t focus on anything right now.

“I know, I know.” Dainix tried not to take offense, knowing that Falst was in pain. Despite the thrashing, he kept the cloth firmly over the wound, using both hands to do so. “I’ve got you, it’s going to be okay.”

A moment later, the worst of the effects had passed. Falst was breathing heavily, the ground in front of him completely torn apart, but he was hurting significantly less than before.

One hand still applying pressure to the wound, Dainix brought out a roll of bandages.

“Don’t need that,” Falst muttered, “It’ll close fast, remember?”

“We still want to prevent as much blood loss as possible, and this’ll make it less likely to reopen before it’s fully healed.”

Dainix finished up the bandaging process. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

Aside from my pride? Falst thought bitterly. “Not really. Mostly some scratches that are already gone or weren't that deep in the first place.” He shrugged, lifting himself to sit upright again.

This time Dainix didn’t protest, though he wanted to- he knew Falst was too stubborn for it to make much of a difference. He tried to help steady him, but Falst pushed him away.

Dainix gave his friend a concerned look. He had gotten to know Falst pretty well in the time they'd spent together, and had gotten good at discerning when he was holding something back. “That's all?” he asked, hoping the ferin would open up about how bad it really was.

Falst gritted his teeth. He didn't want to admit it, but…

“Fine, I might've gotten an ankle injury from when it got hit earlier, but it's not a big deal.”

“Let me see.” Dainix insisted. Without waiting for a response, he moved to examine the joint in question. “Which one- oh, never mind.” He saw it almost immediately: Falst's right ankle was extremely swollen and bruised.

While Dainix was examining it to know exactly what got injured, Falst had to bite the inside of his mouth to prevent any audible reactions to the feeling. Thankfully Dainix looked to be paying full attention to the ankle, so he wouldn’t see his flinching.

Dainix grew more and more concerned the longer he examined the injury. For as much as his dad had taught him, this was a little outside his regular wheelhouse. What concerned him the most, was how non-reactive Falst seemed to be.

“How does it feel?” Dainix broke the silence to ask, looking up to gauge Falst’s reaction.

“What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. Does it hurt a lot, and anywhere specific?”

Falst shrugged. Dainix sighed. Gods, getting this guy to open up was like pulling teeth.

He went back to trying to identify what exactly was wrong- almost certain something had happened to the bone or connective tissue, probably both.

“OW!”

Dainix quickly pulled back his hand when Falst cried out. Falst immediately regretted letting it happen, but the questioning had distracted him from biting it back.

“It’s fine” He tried to wave away Dainix’s concern. “Don’t worry.”

Dainix wasn’t buying it. Falst wasn’t being truthful about his symptoms, and that could only cause more harm if he didn’t open up about it.

“Falst, be honest with me. How badly does it hurt?”

“This is pointless.” Falst pushed Dainix away, trying get up. He was hindered by the wound, and the minute he tried to put weight on the injured limb he nearly crumpled to the ground. Dainix caught him before he fell, trying to get his friend to sit back down.

“Caliban help me,” Dainix muttered under his breath, then said out loud, “Falst, you are not putting weight on this, and if you’re not careful-”

“I can wait until we get back to the others. I’ll be fine.”

“And what if it gets worse before then? Or we encounter something else and you can’t defend yourself because you were too stubborn to accept help?”

Dainix stopped and took a deep, calming breath. He moved one arm so it was supporting Falst, and placed the other on his shoulder, so he could more clearly see his friend’s face.

“Look,” Dainix said, “this isn’t like the caves by Zuurith. As far as we know, our survival doesn’t depend on you being awake and able to fight. That doesn’t mean you can keep going when you need to rest.”

“I can. You seem to be forgetting that I heal fast. I can take it.” Falst’s voice rose in a defensive tone.

“You’re not invincible!” Dainix’s own voice rose in turn. “There are some things you can’t just walk off, in this case literally! I’m almost certain you broke or tore something, but I can’t tell because you won’t be honest with me about how bad it really is!”

“I didn’t ask for your help, I don’t need it!”

“Yes, you do! If I hadn’t noticed it, how long would it have taken until that wound in your side closed with the metal in it? Or if you tried to take it out yourself, how long until you died of blood loss, or an infection?”

Dainix’s voice caught, and Falst noticed for the first time that Dainix almost looked… scared.

“How long until this attitude gets you permanently injured in a way that was easily preventable if you’d just asked for help?! How long until it gets you KILLED?!”

Dainix stopped, finally realizing his eyes were beginning to well with tears, and he was gripping Falst’s shoulder like he was the ferin’s only lifeline.

Falst let himself slump back to the ground, forcing Dainix to let go. He sat next to him, not letting himself meet his friend’s gaze.

“I’m sorry,” Dainix said, “I shouldn’t have shouted like that.”

“Don’t be.”

A moment of silence passed, then Falst asked something in an uncharacteristically soft tone.

“Why do you care?”

This caught Dainix off-guard. “What?”

“It shouldn’t matter to you whether or not I get hurt. So why does it matter?”

Dainix laughed sadly. “You’re really not used to having friends.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Look,” Dainix said gently, “if it had been any of the others that were hurt, would you have done anything to make sure they were okay? Wouldn’t you try to make sure they didn’t get hurt in the first place?”

“Of course!” Falst insisted.

“Well, it goes both ways. I care about whether or not you get hurt, because I care about you.”

“But I can take-”

“I know you can. But so can Kendal, and Tess has natural armor, and Alinua and Erin are skilled life mages. Would you be okay with them doing what you’re doing right now? Do you value them by their usefulness or ability to take damage for others?”

“...No.”

“Then you shouldn’t treat yourself that way. Please, don’t put yourself through more pain just because you feel like you have to. Let me help you get better.”

A few moments of awkward silence later, Falst sighed. He supposed Dainix wouldn’t relent until he let him help. And… maybe he had a point.

“Fine.”

Dainix gave him a gentle hug, careful to not aggravate the wound in Falst’s side. “Thank you.”

Falst didn’t push him away, He found himself content to let it happen, and was maybe a little disappointed when he pulled back.

Dainix went back to inspecting the ankle. “How does it feel, really?”

Falst pursed his lips, then answered, “Awful. It’s hard to move on purpose, any kind of pressure makes it hurt more- like a bruise- and, I think it’s gotten worse since it happened.”

A few moments of questioning and examination later, Dainix deduced that Falst had probably fractured a bone, and torn a ligament.

“Neither are completely broken, but with both of those in the same place it’ll take a while to heal without magical help. Have you ever torn a ligament before, especially this one?”

Falst was reluctant to admit it, but, “I don’t know. What’s a ligament?”

“They’re what connects the bones together.”

“Oh, then I don’t think so.”

Dainix nodded. That was good, even if it meant not knowing how long it’d take to heal on its own. He brought out a new roll of bandages.

“I thought you said it wasn’t completely broken? And the skin’s intact.”

Dainix held up the roll for Falst to see more clearly. “These are compression bandages, different kind than I used earlier. It’ll help with the swelling.”

“Oh.”

This time, Falst didn’t bother to hide his reaction. When Dainix applied the bandages, he let himself tell him just how much he disliked it.

Soon, Falst was well enough that Dainix could help him up, and the two made their way to where they and their friends had agreed to meet up.

When they made it, Alinua, Kendal, Tess, and Erin were already there. Erin was making camp with stone magic, Tess and Alinua were getting a campfire started, and Kendal was keeping watch.

From his position, Kendal was the first to see the remaining members of their party arriving. He called back to the others, “They’re back-” but stopped when he saw Falst’s blood-stained shirt and bandages, and wrapped ankle. “What happened?!”

“I’ll explain later.” Dainix said. While Alinua rushed up to meet them, he gave Falst a serious look.

Falst sighed. “Help me out?” he asked Alinua.

“Like you needed to ask.” The cloud elf’s hands were already glowing green, and as soon as she was close enough she began to command the soul energy around to help him out.

Falst looked up at Dainix as if to say, See? It’s fine.

Dainix smiled. It was a good start.

[turigirl]

Could you tell us either abt ur ocs or your f/os? :-)

hi anon i love you

my ocs that ive been thinking about most lately have been those under the tag "fine & mellow" :o) theyre a 60s girl band! ive read a lot about the dynamics of popular bands, specifically in this time period, and i think the love-hate relationship that usually results is really interesting.

i think if i ever illustrated it in some way (art or writing or etc) id want it to be a comic. maybe a webcomic, maybe a physical comic. im not super sure on that.

id want to include things like interviews, magazine covers, album covers, photos of them, etc, played as from a real band (as real as a picture of furries can be). i have a list of album names and song ideas for each one (some being existing songs to pretend are theirs, some being "original" songs. meaning i made it up)

the band is founded in 1959 by dominique dalmatian, who is the main character. she's reserved- not shy necessarily but cautious of every new person she meets. she has bpd (projectionn of my symptomsss) and depression that creeps in slowly and immobilizes her. and she plays bass! she has a strong work ethic and will push her feelings (and others') aside to finish her work, in this case being f&m's albums.

fine & mellow is the name of the band, by the way, to be clear. it's named after a jazz standard and slowly becomes more and more ironic.

there are other guitarists before, of course, but the most important one is laura labradoodle. she's peppy and brings a lighter tone to their music as well as a more romantic light. shes a brilliant songwriter, despite it being really just a hobby. shes a full time photographer when they recruit her. when she joins in 1962, the band as a whole changes. she and dom write songs together, becoming closer and closer. that relationship and how it bends and breaks is especially what i would focus on. there's something so heartbreaking about getting so close, hearing a part of the others soul, only for something to backfire and send the band into a downward spiral.

clears my throat. so anyway, the drummer is named lolly lamb, and she stays from the beginning (until she's pushed out by jackie, who you'll hear about in a sec). she adores 40s and 50s fashion and has a seemingly instinctual sense of beat. drumming for f&m started out as a favor for her friend and ended up becoming so much more for her, and the rest of them.

in early 1964, after a couple months of no creative breaks, laura brings in... a hairdresser. her name is jackie jackrabbit, and she stares at the other two like they've grown new heads. but she's laura's friend, and they know the moment she sings with them that they've got something special. jackie is a little snobby and a little blunt, but manages to fit in fairly well. she can't play an instrument, but her singing ability more than makes up for it, and laura hands her a tambourine a few months later.

they release an album in july, and it seems to be the domino piece slowly falling into place. after months of arguing with jackie, lolly leaves the band.

they hire a session drummer, LAYLA, but she quickly becomes their permanent drummer for their next albums. layla (stylized in all caps) is the stage name of susie sloth-bear, a drummer who first got famous as a model. but she was good, playing as a session drummer across the states.

but the making of their next album with layla is FULL of arguments, and they go on a 5 month hiatus. the hiatus gave them the new material they were looking for, but they struggled to work together in making them. most of the songs on the next album would be mainly played by one individual member. only layla collaborated with the other three. the damage was done, and their 1967 album, fittingly titled "kill the lights," would be their last.

so that was kinda long, huh? i still don't have everything set in stone, but here's a summary probably way longer than you expected. they also all have refs! which are on my toyhouse (link). i would upload them here, and someday i might get around to it, but i dont have the energy to write ids for all of em. so. ill leave it at all this. if anyone has any questions, though, id be happy to answer :o) im still workin out the kinks!

[canmom]

Animation Night 151: Modest and Immodest Short Films

Ahoy my friends! The hour is late, but not so late that we can’t watch a few films...

So. Lackadaisy huh.

I feel like you need to be in a somewhat specific age bracket of internet old to feel like that’s immensely significant. You need to be a webcomics bitch, basically. But from quite a specific era: the decade or so window between when webcomics looked like newspaper comics, and before the present era of webtoons. The Webcomics Review narrativises it as people who went to art school arriving on the scene in the mid-2000s, and that seems accurate enough. And of that crop, Lackadaisy Cats was certainly one of the biggest!

The concept is pretty straightforward. It’s a Prohibition-era crime drama set at a speakeasy that’s seen better days... and also everyone is an anthropomorphic cat. It was the beginning of the furry boom (Digger was a contemporary). But mostly... Tracy J. Butler could really fucking draw. You could say things like: clean, expressive designs with a lot of texture and depth and strong composition. (Not surprisingly, she’d worked in animation before drawing the comic.)

And compared to other comics whose selling point was the art such as The Meek and Dresden Codak, it also updated (if I’m remembering right) fairly consistently. It had archetypal characters, a very clearly defined aesthetic, and, compared to many webcomics of its era, a clear, accessible story. In short it read like a pro comic.

So it was natural for it to pick up steam.

Now, at some point I kind of stopped keeping up with most of the webcomics I read back then. Sure, some of them stopped updating, but others kept on going, sustained on merch and later, Patreon type sites. In that time, the standard of art in the scene went way up, the number of comics became so huge that there was no longer really a ‘shared context’ of webcomic readers, and manga scans and webtoons arrived in force. It is now almost impossible to build a new following with a webcomic, but you can do pretty well for yourself if you got in at the start.

Well, in the last few years a new phenomenon has developed out of that whole webcomic scene: the crowdfunded independent animated film. I wrote about this a bit back on Animation Night 117, with the biggest example being Vivziepop‘s works like Hazbin Hotel. In 2000, Lackadaisy joined in, running a kickstarter for an art book and maybe a short film if it did well. You can guess the rest of that story.

These films sit at an odd scale between ‘independent’ and ‘studio’. If you look at the credits of Lackadaisy, you’ll see a small army of animators and cleanup artists to exceed most TV productions (apparently the staff number in the 170s in total). The calls they put out for animators were demanding. And the lavish effort certainly shows! The makers of Lackadaisy set their sights on full animation, on-model, cleaned up and with an ambitious drawing count. Every scene is full of movement and acting. (There’s actually an interesting stylistic choice where construction lines are left in the final composite on many scenes.)

But in many other ways it was very unlike a studio production. One of the animators who worked on the short, Manu Mercurial, has put out a little making-of retrospective, which is pretty light on detail, but still gives some info. Since the production took place during the pandemic, it was completely organised over Discord, with animators posting WIPs and receiving feedback in full view of everyone else, and a director receptive to animators adding their own spins to shots. This apparently led to an atmosphere of friendly competition that was beneficial to the film as a whole.

Mercurial is full of praise for the film’s director Fable Siegel, who seems to have been the major organising force behind making this be an impressive, finished short film instead of just a bunch of artists hanging out in Discord. At least going off IMDB credits,  Siegel seems to have come to The Industry by way of participating in ‘Reanimated’ collabs on Youtube, before getting jobs on Hazbin and also Pendleton Ward’s experimental post-Adventure Time series The Midnight Gospel. (Right now their Twitter is a huge wall of Lackadaisy process shots if you’re curious.) Here’s an interview (by Toon Boom, so one of the questions is blatantly slanted to sell Toon Boom, but the rest is pretty interesting.)

The short film is presented as a pilot, and that is indeed how it plays out: a tour of all the major characters and dynamics of the comic/show, with a car chase, a set piece battle in a quarry, and a final wind down scene in the speakeasy itself which sets up the broader plot. It’s unquestionably very well executed. I’m certain it’s going to get a good few million views in the next few days alone, and maybe it will lead to a series. (Will it surpass Hazbin?). It’s got electro-swing, of course. SungWon Cho (ProzD) is in it, of course.

All the same... I wish it was weirder. Like something about Lackadaisy always feels like it’s playing it safe. It’s fun, it’s goofy, it’s charming... and that’s where it stops! For all that the creators like to talk about how we’re on the cusp of adult animation really taking off in America, the moonshine, and strangely ineffective guns, don’t really change the tone from the more mainstream animation. Bah humbug, etc.

Still, it’s unquestionably an extremely impressive work of animation and a sign of the way things are changing. I expect with all the animation studios laying off staff left right and centre, we’ll start to see a lot more like this.

That’s our first act! For our second...

Ian Hubert returns! I wrote briefly about him back on Animation Night 78. Hubert’s thing is compositing human actors into elaborate cyberpunk environments using Blender; his channel is full of ingenious tricks for creating impressive looking shots and effects with minimal geometry. What makes it work is Hubert’s eye for lighting and composition, knowing just where to place detail to sell a shot and what’s unnecessary for the camera.

The first episode of Dynamo Dream - which we’ll rewatch! - introduced us to a plant selling girl in some sorta cyberpunk megacity. After inadvertently saving out the weird cyborg landlord that runs her apartment, she gets a favour, which she calls on to contact her faraway boyfriend using a kind of missile launched phone terminal I guess? He invites her to come out and join him, but weird shit starts happening on the train. I haven’t watched this yet but I’m sure it’s going to deliver some fascinating visuals.

And then...

Modest Heroes is a collection of three short films by Studio Ponoc, a studio which spun out of Studio Ghibli. In the mid 2000s, the period that Ghibli could enjoy an exceptional state of employing lot of full-time salaried staff (instead of per project freelancers) was coming to an end. In 2014 it seemed they were on the verge of shutting down altogether. Yoshiaki Nishimura, lead producer of many of Ghibli’s films in the 2000s era (Howl - When Marnie Was There), left the studio in 2015, bringing in a bunch of ex-Ghibli animators under a new studio called Ponoc.

Their first film, Mary and the Witch’s Flower, apparently found it hard to define an identity beyond the shadow of Miyazaki (I haven’t seen it!), but things got a lot more exciting with their second. Modest Heroes is a collection of three short films, showing off a variety of ingenious approaches to animation. (It was originally planned to be four, but then Isao Takahata went and died while planning the segment on the theme of ‘death’... oof.) The writers of Animation Obsessive are big fans, and they’ve written two detailed, enthusiastic articles on two of the shorts in the collection.

Invisible, directed Akihiko Yamashita, is a take on the invisible man concept. Since the invisible man is, well, you know..., his entire existence must be communicated through interactions with objects and clothes. Yamashita hoped to communicate feelings and interior life. His invisibility is a metaphor for social invisibility, and thus it comes combined with other metaphors, such as weightlessness.

The idea came from Nishimura, who thought it was a worthy subject for an ‘animation genius’ such as Yamashita. Nishimura wanted the film to bring a kind of inventiveness that he felt was missing from the overly conservative contemporary anime. Yamashita, after leaving Ghibli, attempted to get by in the regular anime industry and found it unbearably strained. He returned to the fold to work on Boro the Caterpillar with Miyazaki, and this convinced him to follow Yamashita over to Ponoc.

The result is something gorgeous, with its emotional drama playing out against grimy desaturated backgrounds that are perhaps closer to something like Tekkonkinkreet than the Ghibli nature scene. Yamashita named quite a specific palate of inspirations...

As reference, Yamashita drew from Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men and Gravity, the films of Alejandro González Iñ��rritu and the manga of Junji Ito, among others. They contributed to the dark, unusual vibe and look of Invisible.

I’ve been wanting to watch this film for ages, here’s our chance!

Alongside that comes Yoshiyuki Momose’s film Samurai Egg (here’s the aniobsessive link again). Momose, the ‘right-hand man’ of Takahata, was one of the guys he leaned on to actually draw the storyboards of films like Grave of the Fireflies.

In contrast to the elaborate visual metaphor of Invisible, Samurai Egg is a very grounded film about a kid with a severe egg allergy. Takahata is famed as a realist, although a different sort than people like Okiura and Inoue who bring incredibly meticulous detail and well-observed acting to sci-fi scenarios. Certainly, Takahata would make films about ghosts and mythology, but he’d also make films like Only Yesterday that are much quieter, everyday dramas.

Despite sharing the everyday focus of, this film veers away from it into more expressionistic techniques, bringing in softer pencil effects to the anime cels, as well as techniques like 3DCG-rotoscoping. There’s a dance scene where Shinji Hashimoto gets to go nuts with shapes a la Ryan Woodward.

Momose took some pains to avoid being too sentimental with it; AniObsessive quote Nishimura in Animation Magazine:

When you make a film about a parent and a child, it’s easy to fall into the trap of showing a “heartwarming” relationship, and creating a cheap-feeling structure. We wanted to avoid that.

The film is pre-recorded - like Grave of the Fireflies, actually. (It’s the norm in the West, but rare in anime.) There’s some interesting linguistic nuance there:

It was necessary because Oko’s role called for something special. In a detail that’s lost on foreigners, Shun’s mom uses the Kishiwada dialect, which “sounds harsh, but you can feel the love behind it,” Momose said. It’s a cruder, shorter form of Japanese. They used it partly to fit more information into Samurai Egg’s 16-minute runtime, and partly to reveal the relationship she has with Shun. He’s a Tokyo kid — he speaks differently.

As for the third film...

Kanini & Kanino takes us underwater for a pair of kids who live on a coral reef. Alas, I don’t have a detailed article on the making-of and influences on this one, but I can tell you that the director Hiromasa Yonebayishi, aka Maro, is behind it - best known as the director of The Secret World of Arriety, When Marnie Was There, and Ponoc’s first film Mary and the Witch’s Flower. Notably the dialogue for this short is all in ‘crab language’ - are these kids anthro crabs? In fact, yes, it would appear they are anthropomorphic crabs. Sick. Whether they will attend a rave I can’t say, but the internet reliably informs me that is the primary activity of crabs, so probably.

I think that’s enough to be going with! Apologies it’s so late - I had to spend most of today reinventing Canabalt. But I succeeded, so I think I’ve gotten a lot better at this whole game dev thing. Let’s go enjoy some short films!

Animation Night will be going live now at twitch.tv/canmom, films to begin in maybe 15 minutes.

[reddeliciousauce]

✈ - an eye-opening memory

Your name is DAVE STRIDER, and you are SEVEN years old.

It's another day. Funnily enough, it's one of the few where you aren't constantly getting your ass handed to you in the Houston heat.

Dirk usually took these opportunities to scrounge up food for the house. That was always pretty cool of him. He seemed way better at being a self-sufficient coolguy than you. You suspect he shares his bounty with you to shove it in your face. Well, one day, YOU'LL be the cooler of the two.

As for you, you know what they say. Or rather, what you say solely to yourself for whatever reason: your room's your sanctuary. Basically all that you can take care of, you can do in your room, so there's not even a reason to come out half the time. Unless, of course, you're interested in testing your FRANKLY SHIT ability to not set off traps and get smothered with PLUSH ASS. You'll save that for when you have to piss, thank you very much.

Days like these are for feeding crows, making tunes, and updating your LATE GRANDPA'S WEBCOMIC.

Sweet Bro And Hella Jeff. Truly the greatest inheritance of your short life. The moment you turned six, your BRO shoved you in front of Dirk's computer and schooled you on your legacy of irony and post-surrealism. You enjoyed the movies and web series you were spoonfed by both of your bros growing up, so you were more than happy to take the metaphorical hammer of Thor—or in this case, CAR of DUNKASS—to carry on the single best series ever created.

You pored over the ancient texts, artifacted the shittiest of jpegs, smelted the dankest of panels. Basically, if your grandfather was GOD, you're JESUS FUNKING CHRIST.

You started posting pages a few months after your task was given. And so you've worked, for nearly two years now, at that.

It's something you're pretty proud of, all things considered. It's fun to have something to connect you with your departed g-pa. You wonder if he would be proud if he took a peek at it now. The internet sure has gone nuts over it, so you're basically a natural, right?

Rule one of Striderdom: don't get distracted.

You clearly forgot it. Headphones on, dappling your MSPaint canvas while jamming to some tunes. You basically left yourself wide open.

Doesn't stop you from startling when your door, which you thought you locked, is suddenly as gaping as the asscheeks of a certain jar freak.

You shove your headphones down to your shoulders, face-to-face with Lil' Cal, hanging off your Bro's shoulder. He's right next to you.

You nearly expect a call to arms, but your eyes flick to what he's got. Bunch of letters and packages.

Your mouth asks what all this shit's for. He says it's for you.

Oh. Oh, shit. For real? What the fuck?

Your excitement was too obvious. Lil' Cal's jaw unhinges, clacking about in a silent laugh. Euch.

And just like that, they're both gone. As quick as they came.

...huh!

You fidget a bit with the mail on your desk. YOUR mail. You never got mail before... time to take a look.

Fanmail. SBaHJ fanmail? Yes, SBaHJ fanmail!

Fanart, little trinkets, even a Geromy plush that you don't hate all that much, honestly.

Letters suggesting new strips. Calls for another movie. Compliments on the new work!

Though no bounty is without its curses. Parts of this selection are obviously hate mail.

'New shit sucks. Just kill em off at this point.' Weird.

'Never reading this again! Hella Jeff's favorite color is obviously red, not purple. You clearly don't know what you're doing.' Wait, seriously?

'If the stairs come back I'm killing myself' Huh?!

'We should totally meet up! I'm eight years old too!' One year off! Kind of weird!

'Why haven't you made a statement for or agaibst the Alternian Empire like legitimately you disgust me.' Oh come on...

...wait, is that his address?

You stare at this blatant display of parasociality and, frankly, don't know how to feel. You don't think your lungs are working right.

The price of fame is steep indeed...

[the-mspfa-200-favourites-project]

heinoustuck

Ah…did you really think it would be as easy as reviewing Heinoustuck once? No…just like any good horror movie villain, it’s hard to kill Heinoustuck. It will never die. And it hath returned once again, to grace us with it’s presence before inevitably being put into a slumber for 100000 years, give or take…but it will return, mark my words…

Also I see we’re going with the MEGALOVANIA/Kant’s Principles of right and Right on this title, huh? Gonna have to MAKE ME put in all lower case for the title, are we? Whatever, I can deal. And the deal with this webcomic is, it’s a continuation of Heinoustuck, and that should tell you right then and there that we have OFFICIALLY crossed the threshold for Homestuck Fandom stuff to be NOSTALGIC AGAIN!!!!!!!! YAY?

Hmmm…it was just regular old heinoustuck, the same good ol’ quality that I had come to expect, and then I got hit with the “r” slur. It’s being spoken by Karkat, but still…kinda not happy about that. This is what, 2019? And I don’t even know if the author knows that that’s not acceptable in 2019. Heck, it wasn’t even acceptable in 2009, if we want to get down to brass tax about this (is that even an expression?). Anyways, usage of that word always sours the mood, is what I’m saying. Also, what sours the mood is clearly a panel from CANWC, which is…a bit of a red flag if I’m being perfectly honest with you. And…there’s another usage of the r slur. Yeah…this one, unlike the original, isn’t that good or interesting? I would not recommend it.

And with that, I’m sure we’ve seen the last of this concept. For real. The last. Of this concept. It’ll never return…I’m sure of it. :3

[brendleellipsis]

hawooga I'm sure you'd totally love the comic. uhhh untitled1: a somedreamerscomix comic I mean it's pretty cool huh

SHIT. FUCK i really do gotta get around to reading your webcomic, it has entirely slipped my mind and now i Feel Bad

[joyfuladorable]

do u have any peni hcs? 👀

also i love ur peni content where she plays a more prominent role :)

Aww, thanks! I can get Very Attached to characters who I feel needed More from the Narrative, lol.

Now, for headcanons:

Since Peni works for Oscorp, she Absolutely milks the fact that they Need her to pilot SP//dr to get Things like rare snacks and merchandise and music and trinkets for Spider's terrarium

She was already kind of an Oddball while going to boarding school when her dad was out being SP//dr. The typical parent-influenced child cruelty towards kids with absent parents

She was transferred to a school closer to Oscorp and her Aunt and Uncle upon getting Bit, and she’s kinda known as the “kid with her head in the clouds” and “kid who definitely brings a spider with her to school but as long as her grades are good and it doesn’t bite anyone then whatevers”

There’s a bit of contradictory info in the comics about how secret her identity as SP//dr is, but for the movie-verse I imagine Oscorp tries to keep that info contained since she’d be vulnerable while at school but also More Importantly to avoid a Media Uproar about them having a Child fight deadly foes on the regular

As I’ve said, I’d want Peni and Addy to be Besties before the VE#m Incident. Maybe instead of the ill-timed approach during school that the comics had, Uncle Ben would’ve introduced Addy to Peni as a potential support/partner during missions. Peni would be kinda resistant at first like the comics cuz What Is She without SP//dr and now there’s someone who could potentially Replace Her???? But then maybe they’d bond over music and that’d snowball into friendship as Peni showed Addy the ropes concerning mech piloting and “it’s different since you’ll be bonding with just the AI but I’m sure you’ll be fine!”

The “new” SP//dr design was based off schematics Peni unearthed after being in a bit of a Fugue State post-VE#m Incident. Maybe they were files her father had hidden away.

It's Awkward when Peni starts living with Ben and May. Peni was probably already a bit self-sufficient from living at boarding school, and Ben and May are scientists first, guardians second. That changes, softens, when time passes. I think by the time the VE#m Incident happened, maybe Peni was beginning to see them more like parents

It's kinda curious that Ben wasn't a genetic match for SP//dr. Maybe Peni's dad and him aren't blood-related??

In the comics, Daredevil is sorta like Peni's mentor? Would love to see him in the movie-verse, too, as like a mentor/dorky uncle who keeps giving her stickers with weird/funky imagery cuz he can't see them and thinks it's funny to surprise the both of them upon gifting like "here, kid." "...Uncle Matt, this is a sticker sheet of gold stars saying 'you tried.'" "Oh, huh, well, you're welcome." (She sticks one of these on him when he isn't paying attention)

And ohhhh MAN, I know we didn't see him in ATSV, but there's a Kamen Rider/Super Sentai-inspired Spidey who pilots a huge zord called Leopardon and he and all the other mech/robo Spideys are like a Squad in the comics. Would love to see him and Peni bonding over mechanics!!

Peni Definitely had a hand in building/improving the Go Home Machine with Margo

Something someone said to me on Twitter because of my Trust comic is that Spider probably hangs out with other Spideys while Peni is hyperfocused on her work. And I was like YES she Absolutely has to basically play hide n seek with Spider and go to all her friends to see which one has him

Spider likes being spun around like a yo-yo and has a Lot of fun hanging with Pavitr. Spider has a specific reason for liking each of the Squad, actually, and will go to them depending on his Mood

Spider is Highly Intelligent and can pilot SP//dr independently to help Peni with tasks (in the Spider-Verse Unlimited webcomic he helps Peni with her hardwiring homework)

Peni and Spider's psychic connection happens with feelings instead of words. In the suit, those feelings tend to synch so they're of one mind. With the other Spideys, Spider usually communicates with a Lot of gestures and hopping but will resort to Charlotte's Web and weave words if he needs to

Back to my mention of Spider with a Terrarium. He has multiple: one at Peni's house, one at Oscorp, and one at the Spider Society. None of them follow a specific aesthetic, just whatever Spider and Peni like at any given moment

Peni keeps a container of live insects on her person at all times for Spider. She has absolutely almost opened the container on multiple occasions forgetting it's not one of Her Snacks

In the spirit of Peni's heinous ability to chew bubblegum and eat chips at the same time, she Loves eating things with strong flavors and weird textures

One time she spent a Whole Week grinding levels for an MMO with her tech bud, Margo, and they celebrated their raid boss victory by turning the Go Home room into a massive blanket fort where they were found fast asleep in a pile of pillows surrounded by snacks (oh, shit, I should draw that hold on I'm adding it to my list, lol)

And to close on a somber note, Peni has a small shrine at home for her father, her aunt, and Addy. She always takes a moment with it before leaving the house.

And nooow, here’s some Actual Canon things in the Movie-verse I noticed after watching ITSV Everyday for a Week:

Her psychic link with Spider and SP//dr means she Feels when the mech gets Rough Up

Her eyes glowed red when Spider bit her and I imagine they just Do That whenever she focuses on their Bond

The SP//dr mech probably had its own sentience/AI since it emoted without either of its pilots inside. Remnant of her father, maybe?

Okay also speaking of her father, since he Built that suit that means he was probably a Huge Dork for designing the outer panel to emote like that (or Peni programmed it that way but it’s cuter to think her dad did it, lol)

Also, either her dad was a Small Guy or the pilot’s chair was adjusted to fit Peni after she took over, which MMM means it has to get adjusted every time Peni grows like that’s not a particularly efficient design choice??? Or maybe the hull can just adjust itself depending on the pilot, lol

SP//dr’s joints are Magnetized, which gives it a pretty broad range of movement

Peni was trained in some sort of martial arts, which makes sense if she ever needs to fight while outside the suit and gives SP//dr more versatility during combat if it’s in-built weapons aren’t viable

At the very least, Peni is Bilingual. Her New York probably has a majority mix of English and Japanese speakers

She embossed the Goober with a Spidey Insignia, which she either made on the side while working on the Goober or her universe just Has That, lol. Maybe it’s the insignia they use in Oscorp to label SP//dr-related things

She knew where Aunt May's house was in Miles' universe, so she canonically lives in Queens, too. I wonder if she tried going to Oscorp at all?

Heelies heelies she has Heelies which is so freaking Adorable!!

Wow, this is a lot more than I thought I'd write, lol! Hope you enjoyed! ^w^