#this... is a redraw of one of my early comics which was a lyrical comic and it was sooo bad

[disastersteps]

Oh, oh, ooh, oohh

[collector1observer]

I just want to write my story

This is about how I came across MordeTwi and how it became one of my obsessions. It's kinda funny to look back to because I never really cared about Regular Show back then and I was one of those people who avoided MLP like it was the plague.

The first time I encountered a redraw of the Airplanes meme was actually in the year 2020, when I was browsing the Comics & Cartoons board of 4chan.

It was a "Barney Bait" thread, this was the thread's thumbnail. I had no strong reaction to this image, nor thought to figure out the context for its creation. I wasn't fully aware about the ship yet at this point, I just assumed this image was a commission and not part of a greater cultural phenomenon. Okay, I'll admit: this was also during the time I was in a phase where I irrationally hate Regular Show and what it stands for (I believe the Simp meme was popular at this point too), and when I looked at this image then, I swear I was like "Heh. Mordecai is being partnered up with some random pony." (I didn't know at the time that Twilight is also a main protagonist like he is lol)

Jump forward to more or less a year later, I was binge watching Jabroni Mike's stream VODs. One video in particular has Frederick Knudsen as a guest, and it was about AI generated images (this was back when Dall-E wasn't a thing yet, I think). One of the prompts was the lyrics of Airplanes, and at some point Fred had to bring up MordeTwi because Mike had no idea what's going on. That one fateful second... Fred shared the original Airplanes drawing (Mike showing it to us thru OBS), and that's when it hit me...

"Hey, this image looks familiar. Hmm... A meme. And it involves Mordecai and MLP..."

I had to pause the video but it only took me seconds to remember that 4chan thread. This was also the first time I learned of the pony's name – Twilight Sparkle. "Ah. I know my search term now, thanks Fred!"

Google: mordecai x twilight sparkle

This was when the Airplanes meme was still just about to blow up into mainstream popularity (re: resurge as a trend big time). Searching MordeTwi during this time was better since you got to see more of the older stuff that wasn't to do with the redraw trend or the Airplanes meme in general. At the same time I was deep diving in this search, I was also looking at my browser history trying to rediscover that 4chan thread to make sure I wasn't going crazy (actually, I had to look it up through an archive, e.g. Desu Archive).

I learned a few things that day:

1, Mordecai x Twilight Sparkle was a thing for a long time

2, the ship itself did not stem from the original meme image – which there's a trend over it – but alot of people don't seem to know that

3, there was a trend back in 2020 to "redraw MordeTwi"

4, there was an ongoing trend to make content related to: A, the ship, or B, the meme based on the ship.

There's just something about this pairing, it just... stuck to my head. Like, it's some kind of cosmic horror – they're bound together one way or another, their pairing is inevitable, and your mind just won't quiet about it. But there's something else I learned about MordeTwi in those early times: the original shippers of this pairing were kind of the underdogs. This was a full on fanbase too, I must add, with a fan club. Just a few days in for their existence and they were already getting hate sent their way; they were misunderstood – though granted, they didn't have a FAQ section to clear things up, until two years after their club was founded.

Suffice it to say: learning about this ship – how its' fans/creators got treated over time, and how it was perceived overall... that got me rooting for MordeTwi. It's a pity that MordeTwi is mostly seen these as "that fake ship/joke pairing that a nine-year-old made up out of nowhere".

[vsnotresponding]

🖊️+ Lyric (it’s been a while 🥺)

Absolutely will not be normal about this. I refuse.

🖊️+ Karma (workaholic train wreck I <3 you)

🖊️+ Sher (dunno if u can tell but I’m a sucker for manipulative characters. I’m just mmm the tension. Explain to me why you being so problematic plz and thank u)

🖊️+ Ira (my queen. Protect ur people girlie)

🖊️+ garavan (did I spell that right??? I wanna know more)

thanks for the ask <3 also long ass post 1k worth of stuff + art

at least i had the decency of sending multiple asks so tumblr wouldn't break with your answers /j

LYRIC

you are right it's been so long, but because i'm actively working on púlsar i don't talk much about UP even tho i do draw them

okay so, for lyric im sharing his literal origin story, as well as some facts about the man and some drawings i like of him.

first some facts:

he's pan and a flirt

in the college au he needs glasses to read

his flower is lycoris radiata (got it from this video, minute 3:35)

origin story:

so i had been toying with the concept of a character named lyric which lived through multiple déjà vus. and he died too. one day (on a plane to ireland with school) i drew this guy:

[who are you? I like you btw 25.02.19] [molt decent 25.04.19]

and i went "oh he's cool i like him". then, like two months later i was drawing ely and i got a revelation:

"lyric & ely belong 2 the same story. ely is the one thing that's different at his new life" which is INSANE of my brain to think about because ely is a character from 2017 i drew ONCE. and now here we are

and then i drew him for the first time, and then in a scene with ely <;3 (and then killing a monster but im not showing it because i didn't know how to draw profiles and it shows)

*trying very hard not to cringe at old art*

and here's some lyrics that i like:

redraw of the og lyric and ely scene // redraw of the redraw // lyric screaming at ely// I like his hair here // redraw of the og lyric fighting lost souls

college au lyric dabbing wearing a behold a pan shirt // first page of a sketchbook// tiny lyric from the afterlife comic look at him so tiny // lyric from a series of drawings I made with my OCs and their flags

where is your rider scene (inspired by the song by the oh hellos)

tiny lyric and akira from the comic based on the song Elsa's song from the amazing devil

and also the most gorgeous man i'll ever draw (from a piece called bring him back) for you to be very normal about (im very normal about this drawing of lyric sooooo normal):

KARMA

i find it hard to say things about karma because with his pov we learn most of the relevant stuff. so you are getting fun facts and a sad fact

first the fun:

in the modern aus he's legally blind. round golden rimmed glasses.

his plushy (you'll meet him in today's chapter i believe) is called jhai

his name comes from me hearing someone call their dog karma and going "oh that can be a name cool im using it" (the other dog was called kraken)

he's the character that has gone through the most extreme character design change of the bunch (mainly because everyone else didn't exist). but he was more of a black sheep of the family cool dude that could use guns (yes there were guns in púlsar early stages idk either). his hair was also auburn. and then idk what happened but i changed it to the mess he's now. very glad i did i love him

and now the sad. check tags for tw because oof:

so, my man is very depressed. his mom's death hit him hard and it was all in general a terrible time for him (also it was around his bday. this was totally unintentional i swear)

on the early days and in spite of the promise he made, he climbed onto his windowsill and thought about jumping. everything was just too much. fortunately, someone knocked on his door and scared him, he slipped backwards and fell to the floor. he hasn't told this to anyone and doesn't intend to, but even if that's two months before púlsar, that's basically the mental state he starts with

and stealing your phrase, spoiler for flavor: he doesn't end púlsar much better

SHER

i can't tell you much. but what i CAN do is show you some baby sher and karma being cute together so you are extra sad about today's púlsar chapter:

"baaaa" "will you stop pulling my hair?" // "mom look he's walking" (chasing a bird) & it's cut but it says "he's so tiny" // sher teaching karma how to read

sher being told he has to leave his mom's home "do i really need to leave?" and it's cut but it says "you need to learn to be a prince with your dad" // sher at the palace // sher and karma's plushy lions

also as a fun(?) fact, he was very close to his uncle (his mother's younger brother). he was a big support for him when he moved to the palace away from his mom, and acted as a shield (or as much as he could) between him and his father. the uncle's name is Ádil.

he was married to Orga (one of the members of the council, arranged marriage), and died shortly after karma moved to the palace (sher was around 16 by then, and for reference, he's 23 now). sher suspects that his uncle's death wasn't fully natural, but he still has to be nice to orga because she's powerful.

ádil was one of the few people in the council that openly opposed the shahin. go figures i wonder what happened there.

IRA

so i already answered an ask for her here, basically a love letter to her character i love her so much.

so you get old ira sketches being happy and free (and chaotic):

GARAVAN GARVAN

you did in fact not write that properly, but that's actually great because it gives a segue into a fun fact about him!

i affectionately call him gman and mostly all my notes refer to him as that. also, once my phone autocorrected his name to garbanzo (chick pea). bean (a nickname for a character from púlsar gen 2) calls him that (ira did totally not correct her when she started doing it because she thought it was 1. funny and 2. that it would annoy garvan). also! karma sometimes calls him G

as a not so fun fact: he often needs to be the balancing component in the friend group, being silly and making jokes. he doesn't look like it, but he's very caring and does worry a lot about karma (not that karma notices lol).

his mom died in childbirth so it was emhi's mom that took care of him (until she too died shortly after). we don't talk about their father.

he was close with sher when they were younger (sher used to beat him at sparring), bonding over being clear aldamu and what it meant for them (sher taught him things about khithi culture that his mom taught him).

(i have so Many Thought about emhi garvan and sher as young teens in the palace, you have no idea, there's some clues sprinkled around púlsar about it but that's all you are officially getting)

man that was long

[waveridden]

Today is @blaseballzinejam reveal day! I'll be making and reblogging individual posts about zines and my pieces for them, but I wanted to make a round-up of all of the places you can find my work in the zine jam.

Solo zines:

last words of a shooting star, a Lenny Marijuana lyric comic about Season 24

Blaseball According to My Friends (Who Don't Know Blaseball), which is exactly what it sounds like

Collaborative zines I ran:

REALITY FLICKERS, centered on different interpretations of feedback

The Good Old Days, focusing on Season 1 and early canon

one minute to midnight, an exquisite corpse 12x100 about the Dale in s24

THE END, a 24-hour speed-jam zine focused on s24, co-run with @leonstamatis

The list of zines that I contributed writing, art, and other pieces to is under the readmore.

Zines I contributed to:

Salmon and Snake, an AU where s24 ended with the timeline being reset and shuffled

Lights Camera Action, making movie posters for fics and giving them reviews

Spellbooks and Strikeouts, a Dungeons & Dragons themed zine

title not found, about players who don't technically exist in the main timeline

Forecast Jazz, an album cover redraw zine

Radio Immateria, a zine of annotated playlists (with thanks to @queen-eevee for the playlist help)

Downpour, an exquisite corpse 12x100 about Knight and Percy

Letters from the Rumour Mill, about new lore takes on random characters

Forecast, about the s10 Forecast decrees

The Open Road, about players travelling

Tales from the Short Circuits, a collation of Short Circuits team lore

To the Hall and Back, about marriage and other long-term partnerships

Fusion Weather, about the effects of combined weather types

The Yourplace Ourfolks, a fanteam zine (with thanks to @panneshirley for letting me borrow his fanteam) (jules it wouldn't let me @ your main but it let me do the sideblog so here we are)

WIP Amnesty, a zine for WIPs and unfinished pieces

[deitiesofduat]

DEITIES Updates 5/7/17

Heyyyy everyone~ It's been a while since one of these update, hasn't it... oTL

I've been meaning to write a proper update for the DEITIES blog this month, and while I had mentioned some of what I've been up to in this last ask reply, I'll try to expand on the more relevant topics here!

Most information will be under the cut, but TL;DR this update will cover the (almost) end of my semi-hiatus; progress with the main and prelude stories of DEITIES; plans for Worldbuilding June 2017; the upcoming Patreon for DEITIES and my other artwork; and other updates and plans for DEITIES Project and the blog.

END OF SEMI-HIATUS (N-not yet, but soon…)

As the post regarding the semi-hiatus had mentioned, I hadn't planned to end it any earlier than the end of May / beginning of June. And with all that's been happening the past few months, I think it'll be best for me to stick to that initial estimate. Once I finish the bulk of my obligations this month it'll be a little easier to breath and return focus to my artwork and DEITIES progress, and with keeping the blog a bit more active.

Having said that, I'll admit that taking this hiatus was probably a good call. I've missed updating the blog, but it helped that I took time away from it without fretting over staying active. I was able to revisit other personal artwork and interests, had time to handle some personal struggles, and have been making some necessary (but positive??) adjustments to different areas of my life, both online and offline.

While I'm still figuring things out, I'm feeling more at ease and I'm in a better place than I had been 3 months ago. And I thank everyone for being patient and bearing with my MIA-ness during this time.

As for DEITIES, my motivation to continue working on it hasn't diminished; in fact I'm feeling more energized to work on sharing updates with it soon. But I have been using time to reflect on how to keep everyone updated and engaged with the project, while simultaneously focusing on creating the comic for the main story -- both of which I enjoy, but also each take a lot of time and attention as an independent creator. Which bring me to the following updates:

MAIN STORY + PRELUDE PROGRESS

Even tho I hadn't had much art to share on the blog during the semi-hiatus, I did keep to my goal of making significant progress on  drafting the story for DEITIES, albeit not in the way I expected. Before the hiatus, I was at about the halfway point with the main story, and when I went back to revisit it, I realized I needed to adjust my approach. So I spent some time re-formatting my longer synopses into more digestible outlines -- something that seems more intuitive in hindsight, but that I had never really learned or practiced, before.

While doing so, I was able to make a few changes to the storyline and even figured out how to fix a few roadblocks / potential plot holes I was stumped on -- at least, so far. I even managed to draft out the ending chapters of the story -- which would be SUPER EXCITING if I still didn't need to work my way thru the remainder of the middle so the plot makes sense o)----< But at this point, I can say that the story's draft is about… 3/4th done?? And if I can keep up my momentum I can hopefully finish it this summer, if not sooner.

As for the prelude -- for those just tuning in, DEITIES has a prelude comic in the works -- a way for me to practice the process of creating a shorter comic before diving into the larger one. Unlike the main story, the prelude's first draft IS more or less completed, but it needs heavy revision, esp with the changes I've made to the main story. It'll get worked on soon tho, and hopefully I can start moving to thumb-nailing, and then page-making, soon!

WORLDBUILDING JUNE 2017

Yep, it's nearly that time of again~ My run from last year's Worldbuilding June was one of my more productive months in 2016 for sharing written and drawn worldbuilding notes for DEITIES verse. I'm hoping I can do it again this year, not only to complete some long-overdue notes, but to also update older notes and complete some missing/placeholder artwork -- even redraw a few of them if I find the drive and time!

For now, I want to complete at least two new sets of written notes -- “Divine Regalia and Weapons,” and “The Was Scepter” --  and all artwork that comes with it, but if I can get to more notes and artwork in that time, I'll do so! It'll depend on how much free time I can afford while I work on another large project in June -- one that I’ve considered for quite some time, but that I've finally decided was worth starting...

UPCOMING PATREON (~JUNE 2017)

Guess I might as well share this too haha >> The idea of starting a Patreon to help support my work on DEITIES has been on my mind for a while, but I wanted to wait until I had the project well established first, and had gathered enough interest. I also wanted to be sure I had the means and time to offer decent incentives to those willing to become a patron, as a thank you for the extra support.

During my hiatus, I had time to revisit the idea, as well as observe other creators launch their campaigns and watch how they managed their patreons. I eventually realized it would be more ideal to start my own patreon campaign sooner rather than later, so I'd have the time to practice and learn the interface. And by supplementing my art with a bit monetary support, I'd be able to more easily prioritize time to work on my general art and DEITIES Project.

For anyone who's concerned about missing out on things because you’re unable to make a pledge at this time, please don't fret! I've never obligated anyone to make donations to DEITIES Project, nor will I require donations to view artwork that I already share. Patreon will simply be a way to allow supporters to enjoy a few extra perks, including but not limited to: early access to viewing my art (and eventually, comic pages from DEITIES); WIPS and progress shots of said artwork; and some visual and written notes for the story that I normally don't post online! There will also be some milestone I'll set that will not only unlock more rewards and tiers, but also allow me to provide more art and content online, for everyone to enjoy!

This pitch is very simplified from the one I'm working on for patreon, but I'll save the details for later this month / beginning of June -- which will be more than likely when the patreon will "soft launch" for the first few months as I restore activity to the blog during Worldbuilding June (meaning, patrons will get to see artwork and notes early as I work on them o)9). Once it goes live, I hope you'll all consider pledging early to help support me and the project, and with spreading the word, which will be greatly appreciated!

OTHER UPDATES 

It's been a while since I've mentioned it on the blog, but the DEITIES Spotify has had some playlists updated with new songs -- though you may have to look thru the tracklists to see which ones they are >> Off the top of my head, Set's Masterlist and the Set & Sobek Masterlist have been updated with some notable tracks, with the other playlists adding new tracks here and there.

I also still have about 3 other playlist in the work, I've just lacked time to makes decent covers for them. That, and one… well actually maybe 2 of the upcoming playlists also veers into nsfw-ish territory (lyrics-wise, not the cover lmaosdjflksdf), so I'll be sure to mark it and mention it as a heads up. But as a comparison, if you can comfortably listen to the two aforementioned playlists above, these next ones should be fine~ Just use headphones--

Meanwhile, updates on the DEITIES Instagram have slowed a bit, as I work on drafting the story and the patreon, but they will resume once I kick myself to draw more pencil sketches in general. Chances are some pencil sketches will be shared on IG after I share the finished artwork on patreon and the blog, but they’ll still remain available for all followers to view.

Annnnnnnnd I think I’ve covered the bulk of things? From now until the end of my hiatus, I’ll continue building the patreon, drafting more of the story, and prepping for Worldbuilding June, as well as making a few tweaks to the blog here and there. As usual, the DEITIES Askbox is still open for any general questions or comments about the blog, characters, or story.

Until then, thanks again to everyone for your interest in this project and your patience with my absence (and with skimming this update haha) -- I can’t wait to return with more progress on DEITIES Project soon!