theromanticscrooge

[theromanticscrooge]

Episode 22 of Orb: On the Movements of the Earth broke me. It's been several hours but goddamn, it's hitting. It's hitting really, really hard. My heart's broken. I'm bawling my eyes out right now.

...and this is probably my favorite anime ever.

[theromanticscrooge]

....I totally missed that PV casually suggested playing out something akin to a gray goo scenario.

One of my favorite episodes of Gargoyles follows Xanatos' wife Fox and her mom running experiments with gray goo, said gray goo escaping, and using spiritual/supernatural means to stop it.

I would've loved to see O.K. K.O. take a crack at world-destroying nanites. Its 3:00 in the morning and this is scratching some kind of existential dread itch for me. Shadowy almost destroying the universe is one thing, but what if Mr. Smug Bastard followed that up with a stunt like the famous gray goo? What are this man's ethics and standards? I kinda headcanon that he bluffs more often than not. He has fucked up stuff ready to go like the goo clones but he's more likely to opt for Team Rocket grunt antics or something that can easily be stopped. Boxman is even stronger insurance of him actually reigning in his worse impulses.

Let's say he's actually working on being less of a world-ending threat. But he doesn't properly store/dispose of some gray goo. The result is that he HAS to team up with the Plaza or even former POINT teammates to contain it. I already have a Cosma fanfic on standby after my upcoming round of O.K. K.O. vids, but I'm selling myself on this. I'm thinking that Venomous, Dr. Grayman, Dendy, and K.O. are the highlight characters.

I've gotten a request for a more direct followup on Elevator Pitch, especially the K.O. and Venomous scene. Might as well do it here!

[theromanticscrooge]

After checking out the Ryusui special, I had very mixed feelings about his character.

I’ve seen spoilers about him being a very proud, open bisexual man that wants a piece of everybody. He gets extra points for shutting down Magma’s shitty comments about Nikki being unattractive, too. Yaaas king, go off! Nikki is gorgeous. I really like how Ryusui’s preferences tie so well into the “I desire everything” part of his personality, too. It’s just really fucking fun.

But then there’s how staunchly capitalist this man is. As soon as he’s introduced to the blank canvas of the Stone World, he immediately claims the most valuable resource to this developing village (oil). The only way to access the oil is with his express permission and through channels/distribution he decides on; but ultimately, it belongs to Ryusui.

The village and people have been operating as a small-scale socialist co-op just fine. One of the biggest highlights of this series for me was how much emphasis was placed on “science levels the playing field for everybody.” Senku was the ringleader, but everybody chipped in and helped realize his visions with their strength, craftsmanship, willingness to learn, etc. Everybody had an equal spot; everybody benefitted from scientific efforts and technology. Capitalism is a major shift from the established dynamic. The special did a pretty crap job setting up why the villagers moved to this new model so quickly. Everybody just adopted this new system, and paper currency, with no wider discussion or debate.

I guess everybody would fall in line because they trust Senku and Ryusui pretty much had Senku and Gen’s enthusiastic endorsement? I don’t know. I want so many things from Dr. Stone that the series isn’t interested in entertaining or exploring.

What I want is Tsukasa’s return and a detailed debate about Marxism vs capitalism between him and Ryusui. There’s so much potential for the philosophical and practical discussion about whether or not capitalism would be a good fit for the village, what can/should be implemented or not, etc. I need to do a lot more research to really chime in on this topic in a more meaningful way. For now, I just wanted to ramble. I like Ryusui, but I don’t like how unchecked his capitalism is. I think he needs Tsukasa to keep him in check.

[theromanticscrooge]

Shit...I might end up giving Dr. Stone a second chance. I stumbled across one of the S4 openings and I'm REALLY digging the jazzy feel of the music.

Plus, the art featured has Dr. Xeno and Stanley! I'm in my mad scientist appreciation era right now. Xeno has a pompadour, wears a trench coat, and wears fucking finger claws. I've been hesitant about Dr. Stone after Ryusui showed up (I wrote a short thing on Ryusui awhile back on a different blog), but a clash between wannabe theater kid mad scientist Senku and his cartoon mad scientist mentor....

Yeah, you guys are probably gonna see Dr. Stone stuff popping up between O.K. K.O. and Sims 2. I've been thinking about writing a piece on Orb: On the Movements of the Earth too (no. 1 anime for me right now), but I want to hold off until the first season wraps up. I'm still processing my thoughts there.

[theromanticscrooge]

Does anyone ship Dynamite Watkins and Carla?

They have a fun dynamic and interesting chemistry. I'd love to see followup where they hit it off and hang out outside of the commentators' booth. What does it look like when either one is off camera or in a more low-key, casual setting? Dynamite seems like she's 'on' all the time, but I'd argue her one-off episode requires her to keep up the TV persona despite the switch from newscaster to one-off indie investigative journalist stint. I don't know. She might be really chill and low energy otherwise. Carla comes across as living in her own world and generally pleasant, but very enthusiastic and ready to go at the drop of a hat. Her energy is kind of a soundboard; she brings whatever enthusiasm and go-getter energy her potential collaborator needs.

I also really want a crackship complement to Cupid and Joe Cuppa and I further love the idea of these four as a weird friend group that go on double dates sometimes. When I loop back around to my Joe Cuppa fic, I'm going for it.

You guys are lucky I don't have any direct means to make anything in this cartoon or fictional universe canon. Because if I did, we'd have canon Cupid/Joe Cuppa. In short, I'm sold on the idea of these two as an unexpected friendship or romance.

Unrelated to my shipping bullshit, I want to take a crack at the "Let's Fight to the End" tournament arc at some point. Talking about specific shonen tropes, especially stuff like power levels or the classic tournament arc, is a bit out of my wheelhouse. I'm probably going to reference someone like Totally Not Mark or anime-heavy commentators for what ideas or concepts I think are getting some kind of hat tip or homage. I've only touched on the big character beats there so far. I know Shadowy Venomous and T.K.O. are the huge cornerstone of this show's themes and story.

Personally, I keep coming back to "Dark Plaza" and the surrounding stories for that since that's more interesting to me. Honestly...I consider the Foxtail story line something that'd be a fantastic end cap to any other hero-centric story or plot line. Shadowy works as the big finale because family and friendship are bigger themes than complicated morality and politics around heroes and villains in O.K. K.O. I'm more likely to put together a video on Chip Damage before anything else related to Shadowy or T.K.O. specifically because I'm more interested in what Dark Plaza was trying to tackle (This shit is why I'm invested in Invincible).

Since this is a ramble session anyway, I have dropped hints at wanting to explore more about POINT in my fan fics. I don't expect everyone to read everything I've put out there and want to try to keep things fairly self-contained. But my references or hints at the POINT 'old guard' are absolutely my attempt to build up to something. If I'm gonna keep writing fics, I'm interested in adding something substantial and new as much as just fluff or exploring character stuff I would have liked to see.

[theromanticscrooge]

My dad has been a computer programmer for 20+ years. I grew up listening to rants about the 'superiority' of Windows as an OS because it was corporate-backed and proprietary. Supposedly, proprietary means there's a stronger series of checks and balances for how the OS works because everyone working on it is getting paid vs the more community driven and volunteer based foundation behind open source (a.k.a. Linux). Dad has installed Linux on my grandpa's computer for casual use. He sees the utility of it. I think he's relaxed the hard line stance he had on it when I was younger, but I digress. He bought into Windows' propaganda. The exact propaganda that led to Windows as the default, ubiquitous OS on just about everyone's PC until more recently.

My partner (pretty much my wife but without official paperwork) is an active coder and HUGE proponent of open source everything. They convinced me to switch to Linux after Windows' stunt of force updating and killing computers running anything less than the then current version 10. My partner shared some of their experiences with the early horror show Linux was. They navigate everything computer related through a freaking terminal. Thankfully, modern Linux has user friendly versions like Mint or Ubuntu. Games run more smoothly on Linux. Updates are user driven and optional. There's actually more eyeballs on tech issues with most Linux OS and related programs as well as needed bug fixes than Windows sees because of corporate mandated nonsense.

I'm especially happy to see fellow Sims 2 players switching to Linux to get away from graphic glitches like the infamous pink soup! Yes! You guys get to experience what I've enjoyed for the past two years because I have a tech savvy partner so knowledgeable about this shit and willing to help me get my precious game up and running.

Its just so damn funny to me. I can point at OS preference to highlight some of the worldview and philosophy differences between my dad and my partner.

That's...a big part of why I was so hellbent on writing tech illiterate Professor Venomous or even play with ideas like 'Boxman uses an open-source OS for all of his tech.' It's an excuse to poke fun at some of this shit as an average tech user who's lived with different garden varieties of computer nerd most of my life. Plus, it fits when the actual cartoon went out of its way to make a pro-coding and pro-open source episode with "Dendy's Power."

[theromanticscrooge]

Challenging Burnout

One of my favorite advice columns to scroll through is Ask a Manager. Alison Green gives very empathetic, helpful, and as accurate career-related advice as she can whether its a mundane, just entering the workforce question or something stupidly absurd and weird. If she doesn't have relevant expertise or experience, she regularly pulls in other blog writers, authors, or whomever else that can give the info needed.

A few months ago, Alison shared a piece on how she dealt with burnout by taking on more, but very different work from writing and working on her blog. She started volunteer work making much-needed medical equipment for cats! The key element she points out: This new activity involved using part of her brain for something very new and different from the source of her burnout. It was personally meaningful to her and relevant to cats; another very important part of her life.

Alison's situation absolutely confused me until Dr. Ana, a psychologist that makes opinion pieces and general advice about psychology on YouTube, shared about her very similar experience with burnout. Here, she outlined how she approached and reorganized her very busy schedule and cluttered, chaotic life. In a nutshell, she started dedicating a specialized two hour block every morning towards working on one of her novels. By starting the day with an activity she was really excited about, it helped revitalize her and started the day in a more satisfying way. She lays it out as a potential technique for structuring the day based more on individual wants and how someone functions vs just 'this needs done.'

I lost 5 years of my life, potential career development, and spending time pursuing anything enriching or spiritually meaningful to a mix of burnout and depression. At the time, I was so desperate to be seen as a normal, functioning adult that could juggle a weird schedule and make an unconventional job work. I wanted to feel validated so badly that any kind of work took priority over whatever disengaging, introspection, therapy, and healing I actually needed. I left both YouTube and the workforce entirely thinking that escaping from the source of stress entirely was the best solution. Instead, I stayed away from both efforts long enough that I felt like there was an invisible wall in my way.

Any time I took on a new job or even tried writing something close to what my old YouTube scripts looked like, it was like walking through thick quicksand and sinking so deep I couldn't climb back out. I still made art and eked out nerdy thoughts or rambles on something every once in awhile. But it'd slowed down to feeling motivated enough to write something once every three months vs something once a week or every two weeks. It took years to start recovering enough that I can hold a part-time job now and finally reached a point where I can somewhat confidently make videos again.

What's scary is that I've recently noticed warning signs of burning out again. At least this time I have a better idea as to what the root cause is and how to better address things than last time. Also, I decided to try and figure out what my equivalent to Alison's or Dr. Ana's approach looks like. I've been looking at the wilder ideas on my list of things I want to try but never felt confident enough to or reluctant about for whatever reason.

So far, I've researched, work shopped, and made a video about the cowplant from The Sims 2. Sims 2 is one of my longest-running interests and easily eclipses my interest in O.K. K.O. or cartoons period. It's been 15+ years since I attempted recording or doing anything close to Sims 2 machinima. I felt like there were already enough people covering Sims 2 and mining every possible inch of lore that I didn't have anything unique to offer. But then I couldn't find the video I was looking for and wanted, so I made it myself. The game footage is shaky and janky but this was so far out of my comfort zone from videos I've made so far that it helped me pivot and re-evaluate what my videos could look like. They don't have to be just essays playing armchair psychologist or tropes identifier. I can and should talk about weird topics like the cowplant too.

Back in early December, I fell down a rabbit hole watching Nerdforge videos and fell in love with what big, detailed, and complicated masterpieces Martina and her husband put together. Especially the sprawling landscapes or diorama scenes for Warhammer miniatures. I've also been watching a wide variety of doll customizers and keeping tabs on my friend @enlightenedrobot's attempts to bring their characters to life through felt, plush, and paper dolls.

While I don't have a massive budget to work with and amateur hour skills in sculpting, they all inspired me to try and make something anyway. I found a sturdy Ikea dollhouse at Goodwill and a little dollhouse with peg dolls set from Michael's. I've slowly been tearing up cardboard, cutting craft popsicle sticks, and using ungodly amounts of hot glue on two different in-progress dollhouse renovations. I didn't originally plan on sharing these, but I'll share them in their crusty, awkward glory in hopes it might inspire someone else to try that absurd thing they want to regardless of skill gap and budget. There's a way to make it happen anyway and I think its worth scaling back and figuring out what is realistically possible in whatever set of circumstances you have.

My most recent attempt at challenging burnout is writing what I considered a 'forbidden' fanfic for a long time. My friend @rhazberriquartz and their partner both have fully designed and illustrated self-insert characters that they actively illustrate and format to plug into whatever fictional world or story they're currently interested in. At the moment, Rhazberri's character Rosie lives in a custom world catty-corner between Transformers: Earthspark and pulling in elements from her other favorite Transformers series. She's a mechanic that became Megatron's partner in both the Earthspark bracelet sense and otherwise. I'm not well-versed with Transformers but I enjoy my friend's art and world building. I also like looking at and following others' fan characters or stories and watching how they incorporate their little gremlin into everything whether it's just shipping fodder or a character with a rich backstory that operates as if they were always an organic part of the world. (Fandom is probably why I lean towards open source and stronger emphasis on community owned and operated things at large.)

(Note: The left picture is my hero self-insert from around 2009. The right version is the most recent/current version).

I used to write big multi-part fanfics following self inserts and fan characters all the time in high school. That was what started most of my interactions with fandom, when I felt the most connected with what community someone can find there, and I had fun. I used to have so much fun with this stuff and lost track of it somewhere in the past 14 years or so. So, I took another crack at writing that kind of fic off and on since July. My most recent attempt fully integrates my self-insert character with what world-building or concepts I've set. This was what I was missing. Its one thing to write my big character analysis pieces but I really want the part where I add my own little piece too. I don't think I have the technical skill, expertise, or connections to ever work on something like the official thing, but this lights up part of my brain in such a way that I'm making it anyway. I like it. It feels satisfying to me. Its boosted my mood. Its made getting up in the morning more exciting in a way similar to how Dr. Ana described her success with working on her novel.

Link to my current ongoing fics on A03:

https://archiveofourown.org/series/4251421

If you think writing self-insert fics or making miniatures might help you like it has me, go for it! That said, there isn't an exact blueprint for what will help an individual person with something like burnout. I'm not done wrestling with my own case either. This is more sharing what I've been trying to do and found nuggets of success with. Honestly, I think the biggest change has been letting myself show the dorkier, awkward parts of me. I shut down partly because I was trying to hide or escape from parts of me I don't think other people would like. No. Its been healthier to embrace and express the dorkier side, regardless of the consequences attached.

[theromanticscrooge]

Thanks to everyone who voted! This is gonna be fun. C:

[theromanticscrooge]

So, this is a very rambly, more off the cuff video sharing some of my attempts at making O.K. K.O. fan comics...

[theromanticscrooge]

It's here!! This is pretty much a contrived situation to play with how Dendy and Venomous might play off of each other.

Synopsis: Venomous' computer is out of commission because of a forced Porthole Version 11 update. Fink can't help troubleshoot and Boxman is off limits for…reasons. So it's up to Dendy the tech wizard to figure something out.

A03:

DeviantArt:

[theromanticscrooge]

My pinned post is in hopes of signal boosting my friend's gofundme for their spouse. Please share around and if you can, consider donating to help them.

[theromanticscrooge]

Forgive any typos. But this isn't something I thought I'd have to do. I guess first I start on an update with this situation here. We figured out how to get the house into our name. It'll take about 7 months. My aunt went above and beyond to make it happen. I'm grateful for that. But, there has been another brick thrown at us. @jeweltonejules is my spouse.

Now... Let's start with a timeline.

Beginning of September, both my spouse and I caught Covid. Once recovered we noticed my spouse had a swollen lymphnode. We decided to tell their PCP about it at the next appointment if it never went away,

November 2024 Jules saw their PCP who noticed the lymphnode was massive and got an ultrasound scheduled.

December 2024 The ultrasound was done. It revealed the growth to be a tumor. A large one with blood vessels. A biopsy was scheduled.

January 2025 Jules went to the biopsy appointment. The Doctor noted it was so large and in such a bad spot that they decide to schedule surgery then and there out of an abundance of caution.

February 13th the surgery was done and not one, but two lymphnode tumors were removed and sent to biopsy.

February 19th Jules is called in to go over the results from the biopsy and check on the wound in their neck. They are diagnosed with Metastatic Squamous Cell carcinoma. A cancer that came from somewhere else in the body. But it at best is stage 2 at worst stage 3.

We are currently awaiting a call from the ENT Specialist at Vanderbilt because they believe the cancer is in that area.

This diagnosis has completely devastated us and our families. We are aware of how costly chemo and radiation can be and the risks it holds.

We already live paycheck to paycheck and are hoping to raise money to help us pay for treatment and pay off any debt we possibly can. The less debt we have the more money we have to go towards treatment as well. Especially if Jules loses their job. Donations will go into savings first and foremost.

Donate HERE if you want to see updates consistently and watch a meter go up.

Otherways to Donate here! if not for what's to come I'd offer commissions. But, I will be taking as much overtime as I can at work.

And of course: This is our list of debt. So, you know EXACTLY what money will be going to outside of medical treatment!

$700 in credit card debt (Cards will be retired.)

$1,800 medical debt (Currently)

$8,600 auto debt

$58,000 Mortgage (This includes a loan we got to fix a massive issue.)

We know we are asking for a miracle, but it's all we can do at the moment.

We will be updating as we get more information.

[theromanticscrooge]

Before "Not Quite an Elevator Pitch," I was working on a multi-chapter L.O.S.E. fanfic called "Our Beloved Docktor Frogg."

It'd been years since I worked on any creative writing and I'd recently finished watching back through League of Super Evil for the first time since 2012. I used to write so many one-off fics for both L.O.S.E. and El Tigre when I was in high school! Nostalgia was hitting me and I wondered if I could write something better now than back then.

I've been drawn towards superhero-lite parody or homage style cartoons since I was a kid. Its weird. It started with Mucha Lucha (if that counts) and since then, I've always gravitated more towards something like El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera or Megamind vs the Marvel, DC, or mainstream superhero comics that inspired a lot of this stuff. Even after the MCU or superheroes started blowing up more, I was more a fair weather fan. That's still the case now. I keep tabs on Invincible but man, I even consider that something outside of my wheelhouse or immediate interests.

My original goal was to set "Our Beloved Docktor Frogg" as a bridge between the original series ending and establishing where the L.O.S.E. crew was years later and start a new fanfic series from there. The fic premise was Docktor Frogg considers leaving L.O.S.E. to work for a legit villain instead of his incompetent Saturday morning cartoon boss Voltar. Part of the fic is a ridiculous crossover detail: Frogg gets invited to Boxman and Venomous' wedding. He realizes that he had a big gay crush on his former pen pal Venomous and tries to figure out what to do about that unrequited crush among everything else.

That fic was put on hold around a point when I was going to bring Venomous into the story as a cameo. I started "Elevator Pitch" as a side project to get a feel for how I might write or characterize Venomous....and it ended up becoming a much bigger project than I set out to write. And O.K. K.O. got the running fan fic series instead of L.O.S.E. As well as the video series I've been gradually adding to since August.

I don't know when I'll get back to that particular fic but I definitely want to give it some kind of conclusion eventually. Just for fun, here's part of the opening bit:

“Oh, Docktor Frogg! You got some mail!” Red Menace chirped as he passed over a surprisingly fancy gold embossed envelope.

Frogg nodded and took the parcel. He was relieved Voltar was out doing who-knows-what since the little gremlin would insist on getting first look at the mail just because of how shiny it was. He muttered a few choice words under his breath as he carefully opened said envelope, imagining Voltar scoffing, rolling his eyes, and whining that he never got anything good.

Honestly, Frogg was expecting spam about a credit card for the ‘elite’ supervillain or glossy, unbelievable photos of equipment he’d never be able to afford (or steal) in a million years. Instead, it was a wedding invite. And as soon as he saw the name and picture attached, his heart dropped a little.

There was the beaming and lovestruck face of Professor Venomous holding hands with a shorter man that had teal, swooped hair on one side of his head and one red cybernetic eye. The mystery beau looked great in a powder blue tuxedo, his smile almost hidden behind a big matching tie and a sea of ruffles. Frogg glanced at the letterhead again: “….formally invited to the wedding of Professor Venomous and Lord Boxman.”

Frogg sniffed and closed the letter. Years ago, he found Professor Venomous on a mad scientist forum. His specialization was crafting bio-mass attachments and creating artificial life. He was Frogg’s dream lab partner; a scientist whose demented imagination matched his talent, zeal, and determination to create bigger, worse, and deadlier things. A few of Frogg’s better organic monsters over the years, the ones that lived longer than five minutes, owed their existence to Venomous’ equations and thorough notes.

When Venomous first shared pictures of what he looked like, it awoke something in Docktor Frogg. The man was as gorgeous as he was brilliant. He had a purple complexion that he carefully matched with turtlenecks in the same color family. His dark hair was glossy and combed back into a flattering wing shape. And he wore eyeliner.

Venomous had a touch of Goth aesthetic and Frogg’s heart always skipped a beat around Goth girls with tastefully put-together black outfits and make-up that made her look like the Grim Reaper’s next willing target. That applied to Goth guys too. It also better explained what Frogg previously chocked up as just “admiration” for the icon Rock Gothington.

It hit Frogg like an unpleasant satellite from the heavens above: He’d been crushing on his long-time online friend Professor Venomous. He’d held onto a slim hope, the slimmest most gossamer thread of hope, that Venomous might reach out one day, ask to be partners, and sweep him away from his dreaded day-to-day as a minion for a Saturday morning cartoon flop. Someone else beat Frogg to the goal he hadn’t realized he had.

Boxman. Frogg blew out a breath. Lord Boxman.

If Venomous had fallen for him, he probably had some blueprints or research worth raiding. At the very least, Frogg might find a devious new idea for a pet project and maybe even a new villain penpal. It’d help buffer his ennui if he had just one more person to talk to that knew what real evil was instead of continuing to insist that playing Ding Dong Ditch on their neighbor Steve was the height of villainy.

“What’d you get, Docktor Frogg?” Red Menace asked with a friendly grin.

“Junk mail.” Frogg deliberately looked away from Red’s face as he tucked the invitation into the inner pocket of his lab coat. “Just junk.”

“Why did you discretely put it away in your coat then?” Red raised an accusatory finger and eyebrow. “That’s the pocket you put important documents in."

--

Link to what I do have for this fic here:

[theromanticscrooge]

The last time I was this attached to and invested in a fictional character was in 2010 when Alejandro was introduced in Total Drama World Tour. At the time, I thought I was just really down bad. No, Alejandro was the tip of the iceberg for cracking my trans egg. I started figuring out I wanted to be a charming, charismatic pretty boy in 2014. His slimy brand of charisma is very out of my wheelhouse, but I like to think I could achieve a charming dork kind of charisma someday. I'm still stupidly attached to Alejandro now and consider Aleheather my all-time OTP.

Besides fictional characters, I had what I thought was a huge, dumb crush on a guy in my bigger friend group during college in the early 2010s. He was an unashamed dork that gladly and confidently shared his geeky interests and came to school wearing cat ears or a lab coat. In retrospect, I wanted to be closer to him and simultaneously felt intimidated because he was exactly what I didn't know I wanted to be like.

Seriously, he was so cool and weird and such a nerd! I haven't felt drawn towards anyone in quite the same way I was with him. It was really frustrating feeling gender envy and not knowing that trans people existed or having the right language or knowledge to really unpack how I was feeling until way later in life. This shit can wreck potential friendships and relationships period. I'm begging you: Let yourself explore gender bullshit. Hopefully you'll get to hang out with the interesting anime nerd instead of getting so lost in your own head you missed out on hanging out with what could have been an awesome friend.

At the moment, I'm stupidly attached to Professor Venomous from O.K. K.O. He's the closest I've found to what really fits what I imagine wanting to look like as a dude. I like his aesthetic, including the chicken butt Sasuke Uchiha hair. I want to look a 1/4 as pretty as this man does. I've played with the idea of trying to cosplay as him at some point; just to see if I could pull off that cool, smarmy bastard vibe he has going (If I do, I'm not sharing pics. Sorry man, I'm staying behind the camera or screen for any of my bullshit here). It's interesting that a year ago, I was fixating on Reigen Arataka from Mob Psycho 100 this way. Reigen's more obnoxious, dorky energy is closer to what I'm actually like, but dammit, I want Venomous' put-together look. Not Reigen's choppy, at home haircut and ill-fitting suit.

I'm a transmasc person that's still trying to figure out who they are. This happens to be part of my process, heh.

[theromanticscrooge]

W.I.P. of my next O.K. K.O. fic which is pretty much: Contrive a situation where PV and Dendy interact featuring a lovesick-for-Boxman Professor Venomous, and blatant anti-Windows OS commentary.

This is set post-canon and I'm probably gonna have the full version ready in the next few days.

“...I didn’t want it to...AGH…” Venomous grumbled while dragging his fingers through his hair and making frustrated gestures at the computer monitor.

The screen was bright blue with a progress bar that stretched across the full length. Progress was at 0.1% with a cheeky, old school smiling emoticon sitting just above the bar. Next to the condescending smile was text reading: Porthole Version 11 Update In-Progress! Please wait.

“I warned you,” Fink said, looking mildly annoyed.

“I have papers I need to grade!” Venomous gritted his teeth and flexed his fingers a few times impatiently. “They’re due Friday.”

Fink raised her brows and watched the bar load one little millimeter further before immediately pulling back. Then the computer made a soft noise that sounded very close to tinkling laughter. For a second, the Professor reeled back and threatened to slam an angry fist through the computer screen. He saw a sad, fearful expression flash across Fink’s face and lowered his hand to his side. For extra reassurance, he shoved his hand in one of his jacket pockets.

“Where did you store the papers?” Fink asked softly.

“The...school portal thing.” He touched the monitor and traced a line down the side of the screen. “I had my login info on a sticky note….”

He trailed off and flushed bright red as he remembered certain events from yesterday afternoon. Boxman was high off of a successful Plaza attack, he dragged Venomous into the office and started brushing, slamming, or removing things from the desk, and he’d tugged at coat and shirt buttons along the way. Caught in the intensity of the moment, Venomous only remembered tongues and flesh.

The sticky note obviously got lost somewhere in the process and probably thrown away when he’d tried to clean everything up as fast as he could before a business meeting with Cosma that same day.

“Boss…” Fink pinched her brows and massaged her forehead. “Two words: password manager.”

“Boxman was supposed to…” He swallowed thickly. “Help me set that up yesterday.”

Fink’s frustrated expression deepened. “You...asked Boxman for help?” She snorted. “Boss, you can’t be in a room together more than two minutes before you go all heart eyes and lovey dovey. Ugh…”

“Yeah…” He sighed dreamily and didn’t stop the silly smile crossing his face.

“BOSS!” Fink snapped her fingers. “Focus. There’s more going on than your Boxbutt romcom…”

“Unfortunately,” he sighed.

“Okay,” Fink took a deep breath and steepled her fingers. “I have other plans today, so I can’t spend all afternoon troubleshooting.”

“Please…” He made a prayer gesture.

“I made plans to go to Saloon Town with Darrell!” Fink picked up a gaudy cowboy hat covered with bedazzled pink gems and a skull lined band. “I’ve been looking forward to this for weeks! No way I’m passing this up.”

“I wouldn’t want you to miss that.” He smiled. “Have fun, sweetheart.”

Fink snapped again and gave him a warning look. “I don’t trust you. Shannon and Raymond are babysitting Boxbrain. He’s off limits until you fix this computer issue.” She huffed and folded her arms. “And I called in a favor from Brush-head.”

“...K.O. is coming over?” Venomous raised his brows.

“No.” Fink laughed harshly. “He’d find a way to lock you and Boxbutt in a room and ruin everything.”

Venomous idly stroked his chin and started reaching for his phone before Fink smacked his hand and groaned again.

“You’re so hopeless!”

“You’ll understand if you find a partner someday and go through a honeymoon phase,” Venomous said with a sniff and an awkward smile.

“Ugh….you guys are so gross!” Fink grumbled. “I’m happy for you. It’s sweet but it’s gross. Okay, so Brush-head has a really tech savvy friend. She’s on her way over-”

“-I have arrived.” The aforementioned Brush-head friend walked into the office with several fluttery, shuffling steps. Dendy adjusted her beret and walked up to Fink and Venomous with an extended hand and slow blink.

“Hello, I’m Dendy. I’m here to help with your computer and other tech related issues.”

“I’m...Professor Venomous.” He took her hand, gave a firm shake, and scratched the back of his neck. “I’m...K.O.’s...bio dad. And secondary villain nemesis….”

“I’m aware.” Dendy stared blankly at him. “You almost destroyed the entire universe a few months ago.”

“Sorry about that,” Venomous said in a low voice while his irises spun around like pin balls and sweat beaded on his forehead. He started fiddling with the lapels of his coat.

“You’re on casual battling terms with K.O. again. And POINT no longer considers you a world-ending threat.” Dendy lightly adjusted her glasses. “Those are the only parts of consequence to me. So, I have no standing issues with you, Professor.”

“So, everything’s good?” Fink casually flicked her tail.

“Indeed.” Dendy nodded.

“Okay, I’m off!” Fink walked towards the office door and conveniently, Darrell showed up with a horse head on a stick and decked out in full cowboy costume. Said costume was covered in enough rhinestones, glitter, and tassels to match Fink’s garish hat as well as overshadow Darrell’s Lord Cowboy outfit. It wasn’t as nicely put together as the Lord Cowboy one, though. This one hurt Venomous’ eyes if he stared too long and had a very flashy Las Vegas feel.

For a moment, Venomous wondered if he should be concerned about what might be at Saloon Town based on the costumes. Then he remembered that Boxman had taken the kids costume shopping last week. He wanted to up the presentation quality on Plaza attacks since Venomous and Fink had officially returned. Darrell just wanted to show off one of his new outfits!

For a moment, Venomous smiled fondly. Then his thoughts started filling with Boxman. He parked himself in the office chair with a loud thud and wrapped his hands around the arms with an iron grip.

“Porthole is very frustrating,” Dendy said as she tugged off her hack-pack.

“...what?” Venomous blinked and returned to the present moment. Fink and Darrell were gone. The office door had slid shut again.

“I’m not fond of the Porthole operating system.” Dendy pointed at his monitor. “Everyone with a version of Porthole prior to Version 11 is experiencing forced updates like yours. I recently had to troubleshoot systems at Mr. Gar’s Bodega, Strawbaby Coutre, and several other Plaza businesses.”

“Is this update why Boxman was successful yesterday?”

Dendy nodded. “Its also the reason behind Mr. Gar throwing his personal computer into the alleyway dumpster. I had to spend an hour convincing him to dig it back out. Things have been very...frustrating lately.”

[theromanticscrooge]

I'm writing the computer illiterate Professor Venomous fic I've been threatening for awhile now. I don't care if I'm the only one chomping at the bit for this or thinks its an untapped comedy goldmine.

If I only leave one lasting impression on O.K. K.O. fandom history, it's gonna be this, dammit. (We all know my legacy is horribly thirsty for Professor Venomous blog no. 237, though. This man pulls 20 minute video essays and 20k word fics out of me, lol).