OMG Zine, Please! #1: #AfterCollege

Check, Please! started with a boy named Eric Bittle, a vlog channel, pies that materialized out of nowhere, and a play like no college hockey team has ever seen before—falling to fetal right on the ice at the thought of contact.

And somehow, that all turned into a thriving community of artists, authors, fans ranging from chill to downright feral, hockey butt enthusiasts, and more amazing people than one can count on a baker's dozen of hands.

Check, Please! told the story of Eric Bittle from Day One on the men's hockey team at Samwell University through to a triumphant graduation.

And we here at Zine, Please! were dying to know...what happened after?!?! And a lot of y'all had ideas. So. Many. Ideas.

So, after months of dedicated work from our admin team and our contributors, Zine, Please: #AfterCollege is officially here!

All of us are so thankful for the support and excitement all of you have shown, and we hope that you all love this zine just as much as we do. A special thank you to our contributors, this zine would be nothing without your wonderful art and fics!

Now come see all the chaos that ensues #AFTERCOLLEGE!!!

–Zine, Please! Admin Team

🥧🏒 Read OMGZP #1 here 🏒🥧

Everyone is Here!

The piece I did for @omgzineplease’s first issue of their Check, Please! fanzine! 🏒🥅🥧

Check it out if you haven’t already! Lot of cool stuff in there!

Sneak peek of my piece for @omgzineplease (which will be out on June 5th!) 🎤

Here's a sneak peek at my art piece for the second issue of @omgzineplease Dropping Friday, February 9!

Some sneak peaks for @omgzineplease 😊❤

I read all of @omgzineplease last night, and if you're a part of the check please fandom, you should too! the writing and art in there is breathtaking, and it made me smile like a stupid idiot the whole time I was reading. kudos to all of the fan artists and writers and extra kudos to the coaches/mods! can't wait for the next one, and, who knows, maybe I'll contribute :)

OMG Zine Please sneak peak

“I suppose you were destined to be a Falconer,” says Bob, smiling more broadly than Jack. Then, in a softer voice, he adds, “Eric’s right about you wearing blue. He’s right about a lot of things.” 

Jack nods, still looking off into the distance. “He really is. I’m so lucky.” 

“I’m so glad you two found each other.” 

“I’m glad you gave me that push to go say goodbye to him when I graduated!” Jack replies, focusing back on his father. 

“You would have figured it out.”

“Maybe,” says Jack. “But I don’t know that for sure. You gave me the push I needed to realize why I was feeling so sad about leaving, and what I really wanted.” 

“Wait,” says Bob, “you hadn’t even figured out your feelings until I told you to go say goodbye?”

@omgzineplease

🎨 my preview for @omgzineplease~!!

the FREE zine will be released soon with the full artwork plus a TON of amazing other fanart and fic!

please look forward to it \o/

promos of my piece for @omgzineplease - shitty & lardo celebrating têt 🎊

me trying to staying fixated on Batfamily so I can finish my writings instead of falling back into my middle school obsession with Nalu:

Helloooo Internet Land!

First off, we wish to reiterate thank you so much for your patience as this second annual project went from a concept, to an official prompt, and ultimately developed into the beautiful zine that you'll see before you. Of course it wasn't without hiccups, but we got through it.

For the contributors, it goes without saying that this wouldn't have become a reality without your skill and vision creating great pieces of art and prose. And a hearty appreciation to the admins, who put this all together.

And ultimately, to the readers, your enthusiasm keeps the momentum for this project going.

Zine, Please! Vol. 2: #SWAWESOMEGREETINGS drops tomorrow, February 20, 2024 at 4PM PST!

We hope you enjoy!

--- Mod FFR

hello, would you like some super zoomed in, mega crunchy munchy sneak peeks of my piece for the Check, Please! zine being put together by the lovely folks over at @omgzineplease ?

time sure does fly, because I didn’t realize that it’s coming out TOMORROW. JUNE 5TH. WHAT?

(these pics are so ridiculous oh my god— this is not the energy of the final piece i swear 😅💦)

The first issue's theme is "after college," and it’ll be available, for any and everyone, as a free pdf once it’s published!

Be sure to check it out! Everyone’s been working hard; zine staff, and authors, and artists alike! There’s gonna be a ton of awesome content in there! Can’t wait to see what everybody’s cooked (baked?) up! 🥧🏒🥅

Cinnamon Snail

An @omgzineplease fic preview (Zine releases for free June 5th)...

Ships: Eric "Bitty" Bittle/Jack Zimmerman, Larissa "Lardo" Duan/Shitty Knight

Rating: G

Summary:

It's ten years since graduation. While looking after Lardo and Shitty's new bundle of joy, Jack starts to wonder what the rest of his life with Bitty might look like.

(Preview under the cut)

“En kop kaffe og en kanelsnegl, tak,” Shitty said as clearly as he could, hoping his American accent didn’t mangle his Danish. The café he’d taken Lardo to was in the center of Copenhagen, and he was getting by on the smattering of Danish he’d picked up from a month of language app study.

While watching Danish crime dramas during late-night feeds with Timmy, he'd become acutely aware of how one part of Denmark pronounced words varied vastly from the other side of the country. In some ways, it made trying to learn Danish through an app a hit-and-miss exercise.

“Am I right that the translation of ‘kanelsnegl’ is literally ‘cinnamon snail’?” Lardo asked as they finished ordering. They were both having the same, though Lardo would be doctoring her coffee with ample spoons of sugar once it arrived.

“You would be,” Shitty replied with a smile. It was twelve hours and counting since they’d landed in Denmark and as he waited for his cinnamon roll and coffee, Shitty tried to ignore the worry attempting to crawl up the back of his spine.

The trip marked their first prolonged absence from Timmy since he’d been born nine months ago. And Timmy was the first anything that Shitty found he couldn’t be completely chill about. I guess that’s what it means to be a parent, Shitty thought as the coffee bean grinder in the corner kicked into gear. Constantly worrying and hoping for the best.

“How do you think Bitty and Jack are doing?” Lardo asked, pushing back her long black hair. The undercut was fresh and only two days old. It wasn’t that Lardo was vain, Shitty had found in their marriage, it was that she liked meeting her preferred sense of style as closely as possible at all times.

Shitty flashed back to a week prior when pureed carrot and sweet potato had become spattered over the suit jacket he had returned home wearing that day.

“I’m sure they’re doing fine.” Shitty looked at his watch and estimated it was just coming up to four in the morning back in Rhode Island. He tried not to think about the jet lag that was still waiting to hit him.

OMG Zine Please Preview!

I'm excited for the first issue of @omgzineplease on June 5! Until then, here's a snippet from my fic:

---

Justin had thought he was prepared for his first night float rotation at the hospital. 

His first few nights had been deceptively bearable. Stressful and exhausting, to be sure. He’d felt like he was constantly running from unit to unit, putting out fires. But at least they were fires he’d known how to manage. 

But last night — last night had confirmed every fear that Justin had about not just night float but his medical abilities. Justin had ruminated on it the entire train ride home from work, as well as on the short walk from the T station to his house.

“Hey, babe!” Adam greeted him at the door, travel mug in hand and messenger bag slung over his shoulder. By the look of things, Justin must have gotten home just as his husband was heading out to work.

Justin must have had his emotions written all over his face as usual. Adam took one look at him and then dropped his bag, set his travel mug on their hall storage shelf, and took Justin’s face in his hands. “Hey. Babe. What’s wrong?”

Justin shook his head. “Nothing. Just a bad night. I don’t want to make you late for work.”

“It’s clearly not nothing,” Adam argued. “I can see that you’re shaken. And don’t worry about my work; I’m taking a personal day.” He dropped his right hand from Justin’s face, pulled his phone out of his pants pocket and rapidly texted one-handed.

“I don’t want you to miss work because of me,” Justin protested.

“Too late,” Adam replied. “I already texted my boss that I have to take the day off for a family emergency.” His phone pinged and he held it up for Justin. “See? She just replied ‘OK.’ It’s settled.” Adam took Justin’s hand and gently led him into their living room. “Now, what’s going on?”

Omg, I just wanted to say I ADORE your characterization of Al and Vox! I don't even have the words to express how much I love reading your stuff, especially the Anon responses you post on here. The behind the scenes thoughts are literally my food, lifesource, its so good when people not only write characters IN CHARACTER, but also include stuff about their analysis/understanding of the character too.. I'm literally obsessed with breaking down characters and yk, cracking their chrome domes open to see how they work (which admittedly, I am not the best at <_< but I love reading them). Just wanted to say how much I love your writing. I had maybe 2 questions, please don't feel pressured to answer them :>

What in your mind (in reference to the 66.6 fics) would motivate Alastor to let Val get close to him in the first place? Or was that more you picking these two characters up by the scruff of their necks and plopping them into a hypothetical scenario to explore their character and write some fun intimate thingsTM?

What do you think of the dynamic of Vox and Al vs something like Lucifer and Al? Personally I've noticed that something Alastor craves, behind the mask of his static smiling persona, is attention. He's (at least how I saw it) usually peeved when people don't care about his absence, and seems especially bothered by the King of Hell refusing to really acknowledge him, so he goes out of his way to push Lucifers buttons (like calling himself a father figure to Charlie, IN FRONT OF HER ACTUAL FATHER LOL) whereas with Vox, Vox is literally CONSTANTLY thinking about Alastor. Man literally interrupted his regular TV program to do a segment about how much he totally didn't at ALL care about Alastors dissapearance or the fact that he returned (suree buddy). So Alastor can have more fun with him and annoy him by ignoring and messing with him on purpose.

ty if you do respond to this, sorry if it was hard to understand, sometimes I forget how to put the thoughts in my brain into coherent words!

Ahhhh, thank you very much, anon! I'm especially happy that you're enjoying my commentary on Tumblr, haha - I spent a while on Twitter because that's where all the fandom zines I was in were being hosted, but nothing beats Tumblr for giving me a nigh-unlimited word count and a captive audience for my rambling! >:D <3 I'm back to cocooning myself on the OG hell site.

Thank you for this ask, it really brightened my day! :D

As for your questions:

1. I'm assuming that was a typo and that you mean Vox (but in case you did mean Val: that was just a funny accident of him walking by the room! Alastor wasn't paying enough attention until it was too late), and to that I say:

I think Alastor allows Vox to take a go at him in canon because he finds Vox's obsession with him to be entertaining, but also because Alastor is kind of a narcissist and that same obsession massively feeds his ego, especially in a political climate that otherwise forgot about Alastor. Vox's whole "Who gives a shit about Alastor coming back?! Haha, now let me have a public meltdown and short out power to the whole city about it! Oh, fuck, why is he back, though?? Can we send a spy in to find out??" is exactly the reaction that Alastor wants every time he mentions his mysterious absence and gets brushed off.

At the same time, Alastor doesn't seem to register Vox as a sincere and genuine threat. He's a big enough fish in the Pride Ring pond that his obsession with Alastor is gratifying, but Alastor's self-absorption also doesn't really allow him to treat Vox as a threat tier above "annoying in a funny way, and also television is stupid." (Perhaps this will change in season 2... :eyes: (or perhaps Alastor will get Even Worse) (please god let him get even worse))

So those two things in combination make Vox the perfect candidate for Alastor to experiment with while maintaining his ego and not feeling particularly threatened. Despite Vox's Safeword 101 talk, Alastor would never put stock into that system with Vox unless he was certain that he himself would be able to back up a 'no' with overwhelming force. Him even considering safewords in the Live On Air! series is less for his own sake and more a politesse he offers on Vox's request to warn Vox to slow the fuck down before Alastor tries to put his insides on the outside.

2. And in direct contrast, we have Lucifer...

... Who Alastor obviously actually cares quite a bit about, because he's a whole nother power tier from both Vox and Alastor, and furthermore and possibly even more importantly, a credible threat to Alastor's relationships and standing in the hotel. I think a lot of discussion I see about Alastor prodding Lucifer seems to talk about how quickly he got annoyed about Lucifer's comments, but that misses the fact that he was pissed off before Lucifer even showed up. He got pissy the moment he saw the welcome sign, actually! And I wager that he was narratively absent for the scene where Charlie actually calls Lucifer because he would have done his best to manipulate her out of doing so had be been there.

And given that the two clearly haven't met before (though obviously Alastor knows of Lucifer - and hates that the inverse isn't true, hah), it's not 100% clear exactly why he's immediately so annoyed, but in my personal view of things and barring something like "he's projecting onto Lucifer because his contract is with Lilith," I think that what we know of Alastor's personality points most strongly to "he liked being the hotel's benefactor and sees it as His Project, and doesn't like the idea that Charlie called daddy for something that she thought mysterious, powerful Alastor couldn't handle." He distracts a lot with obviously-goading comments about practically being Charlie's dad in his duet with Lucifer, but underneath that he puts a lot of emphasis on the work he's done for the hotel and the fact that he's been supporting Charlie and the hotel from the start, so why the fuck is this deadbeat asshole suddenly turning up?!

Tl;dr: Charlie missed her insight roll on Alastor's personal investments and he's sooooo offended - and taking it out on Lucifer!

I think one of my favorite things about both Lucifer and Alastor is that they both sooo obviously belong in the Pride Ring, hahaha.

*Sees you updated to have Boulder x Graham in the ship tag.

In that case, could you please doodle something regarding fluff with BoulGram please? At your own pace, of course.

(Hope you’re doing okay, Windy!)

YAS Glad you checked because I need to give myself more excuses to draw them orz and more because this is the first time I actually draw them the mini faces and vehicle mode from the zine don't count

THEM! taking a power nap together before resuming work x)

I took my time too because OMG Boulder's arms are quite tricky to move around! That btw if you have tips on how to draw him I'll be happy to know

Thank you! 🐿