cMissa is an artist that a rich guy (cPhil) took a liking to and started sponsoring-au.

Missa can play guitar good and draw good and all he has to do is show up sometimes, play a little tune and paint a little picture and Phil will give him food and armour and upgraded backpacks.

wait, you have kirby fanfics?! where can i find them??

aaahh none of them are public, so there's nowhere to find them sorry!

they are more like random scenes or explorations or one-shots written out of order than anything start-to-finish that i could ever post.

but that is one of the reasons i have such clear and thorough answers for questions about awtdy or characterisation/headcanons in particular. i've spent a long time with the story and characters and there's over 150k words in the document my gf and i share 😅

it might not be start-to-finish but it is fundamentally "complete" as a narrative. that's also one of the reasons i don't take suggestions for plot points or anything like that; the plot is already scripted. we already know how everything goes! i do love seeing when folks theorize about it though!

a lot of the comics i draw are 1:1 scenes from the writing, so you're still kinda seeing it? maybe i'll release some tiny little snippets one day, but i'll probably never post any of it in full

Crumpled Up Pages: Old Captain Underpants WIPs #1-4

The First Epic Movie turned 5 earlier this month, and I dug through some old folders to write this post about it. In the process, I found some fanfic ideas I’d written down, fleshed out a little, and then forgot about for years. So while hyperfixation still has its grip on me (and while there’s still some extra activity in the tag), I figured I’d finally set these dust bunnies free!

A few ground rules before this deep dive descends:

When I say “fleshed out a little,” I’m putting major emphasis on the “little.” Some of these docs contain detailed notes and snippets of dialogue, but others are just a title and a vague one-sentence summary. I’ll be transparent about what each one contains, and try to fill in the bigger gaps by memory.

If you were around for the CU Fandom Renaissance of 2017, some of the ideas here might sound familiar, ‘cus I refitted them into fanart and headcanon dumps that actually got posted. I’ll link to those where they’re relevant.

These were all written and abandoned months before a CU show was even announced, so there’s no Epic Tales content or characters in here. Sorry if you were expecting any!

I’m splitting this into two posts cus it was getting and taking too long. This first part will cover the 4 simplest, fluffiest WIPs; the second one will tackle the 6 sadder, more character-heavy ones. And with character-heavy stuff comes spoilers for the movie and books — especially the books. If you haven’t read all 12, you’re probably wondering why anyone would care about Captain Underpants spoilers. First off, your loss; second off, BEWARE!

And finally: if you write fanfiction and feel inspired to use any of these ideas? You have my permission to do so! Seriously, steal anything here and put your own spin on them! I don’t care much for credit, but if these old things help fuel someone else’s creativity, I’d love to know!

That’s enough prep, probably. Plug your nose!

WIP #1: Inspiration

It can come from even the worst of places. ...And people, in this case. [Book!Verse, pre-Book 1.]

This document contains a long script, but no context; I can remember the gist though, so I’ll insert that in-between dialogue. Basically it’s third grade, and George and Harold are in detention again. They cheat to fill up the blackboards like usual, but they’re too bummed out to start a comic afterwards. George sits around stewing in his frustration while Harold angry-scribbles Mr. Krupp yelling.

“...Why does he hate us so much, George?”

“I dunno. Maybe ‘cause he can’t handle our coolness? …Nice drawing, by the way.”

“Thanks. …It’s making me sad just lookin’ at it, though.”

“Yeah, me too. …I wonder what he’d look like if he smiled.”

“...?”

“...I mean, like, a real smile, not an I’ve-got-you-now smile.”

“Oh. Hmmm…”

Harold erases Krupp’s wide yelling mouth and draws a goofy smile in its place.

“Aw, man, now it’s just creepy.”

“Darn.”

The boys keep editing the drawing until it stops being creepy and starts being funny. George erases Krupp’s toupee, remembering the time they stole it and the teachers couldn’t take him seriously without it. Harold draws one of his office curtains around his neck, adding more color and kinetic energy. Soon they’re struggling not to laugh out loud, but they manage to calm down… until George gets an idea that takes the sketch from great to legendary.

“Waitwaitwaitwaitwait. Remember what my pop said about Superman yesterday?”

“That he looks like… DUDE. Duuuuuude.”

Harold redraws Krupp’s entire lower body so he’s only wearing underwear. Then with a flourish, he adds the finishing touch – two dots on his chest – and they both lose it. All their laughter finally prompts the real Krupp to check on them, and predictably, he rips up the drawing. It upsets the boys in the moment, but they’re still in much higher spirits than before, and brainstorm a new comic about their new creation as they skateboard home.

“You think we should make his origin issue first?”

“Naw, let’s get right to the action! His outfit’s already the perfect hook – finally, a superhero who actually does fly around in his underwear!”

“Yeah, and he could fight with Wedgie Power!”

God, rediscovering this gave me the most uncontrollable grin. From the date it was last opened, I think this fic was meant for September 1st, 2017 (Book 1’s 20th anniversary), and I gave up after missing it. For shame, 2017!me. For shame.

——————————————————————————————————

WIP #2: Untitled Boomer One-shot

Harold won’t admit it, but he’d slay a dragon for his little sister. [Book!Verse but only cus this scene was deleted and is thus dubiously canon]

This doc’s nothing but notes, so I’ll paraphrase the plot: Ms. Hutchins takes Heidi and Harold to Boomer the Purple Dragon: Live! Harold was gonna stay with the Beards but they cancelled last minute, and he’s grumpy about it the whole time. When the show ends, kids gather in front of the stage to meet Boomer; Ms. Hutchins suddenly gets an important call, and makes Harold walk Heidi up there. 

But the dragon’s mascot suit is big up close for a 6-year-old, and Heidi gets so scared she starts crying. She’s rooted to the spot and waves her arms in panic, but “Boomer” thinks she wants a hug and waddles closer and closer... until Harold kicks him in the groin. Their mom understandably grounds him for it, but Heidi is grateful and calls him her hero :)

This one was based on the classic “kid hits mascot in the weak spot” genre of AFV, but also on an early memory of mine! My sister and I loved Arthur as babies, so our mom took us to see this thing. The characters suddenly being real (and huge) was so upsetting that we scream-cried until she took us home early. (Speaking of Arthur, it’s a shame Heidi’s never really done anything in canon, I can see her having big DW energy.)

——————————————————————————————————

WIP #3: When Worlds Collide

It was less “love at first sight” and more “love at first squawk.” [Book!Verse, Book 7.]

A quick refresher: George told Harold to take Crackers back to dinosaur times, but he left her in the treehouse with Sulu instead. Later in the book, they’re shown snuggling in their sleep 🥺🥺 Anyway, this fic was about what they got up to in between! It’s actually the most complete of the lot, but only because it’s so short and simple.

It opens with Harold introducing them to each other, leaving out some treats for them (hamster food for Sulu, crackers for Crackers), then telling them to play nice until he comes back. They do not. Crackers pulls a Thunderclap the moment Harold leaves, Sulu karate-chops her throat until she spits him out, and they wreck half the treehouse in the ensuing chase.

Eventually they settle for standing in opposite corners and hissing at each other. Then Sulu… *squints* …records Crackers’ hisses with his bionic ears and plays them back so they can communicate? …Yeah, okay, why not. The outline ends after this sudden development; I’m guessing they talk things out and start to catch feels, before settling in to sleep. Anyway here’s the few sentences I actually wrote out:

Harold opened the door, Sulu got on the floor, and in walked the curious dinosaur.

[…] As predator and prey faced off, a little boy and his mother happened to be walking down Vine Street. “Mommy,” said the little boy, “I can hear a bionic hamster and a pterodactyl fighting in that treehouse!”

“Oh, please,” his mother scoffed. “How do you even know what that would sound like?”

The boy considered pointing out the CHOMPs, SQUEAKs, and SQUAAAWKs emanating from the tree in big blocky letters, but decided it wasn’t quite worth the trouble.

The doc ends with a reminder to not refer to Crackers with any pronouns until the two pets can understand each other. Also I was gonna title this after a Tony Orlando and Dawn song as foreshadowing, but I couldn’t choose one, so instead I went with this Spongebob song lol.

——————————————————————————————————

WIP #4: Untitled Tommy One-shot

The school’s been near bully-free ever since Treehouse Comix Inc. was formed. Tommy reflects on this from the safety of his locker. [Movie!Verse with a hint of Book 9. CW: discussion of bullying.]

A Kid I Never Named knocks on Tommy’s locker and offers to trade Pilkeymon. They have to be sneaky, because it’s the 90′s and they have to slip a Link Cable through the locker vents without being spotted.

As they trade, the other kid asks Tommy why he hides all the time. He explains that it’s a habit from when Kipper Krupp terrorized the halls. But Kipper left four years ago, and the legend of Wedgie Magee has kept other bullies at bay ever since; the other kid points this out and asks why he still hides. This led into “a somber discussion on adverse school experiences and the long-lasting coping mechanisms they cause” (exact words from the doc). Unfortunately 2017!me never wrote any dialogue, and I’m mad at her for that.

Trivia drop! I used the Pilkeymon joke a few times at @treehouseblogsinc, but it’s way older than that, and also not mine: Pilkey.com used to have a coloring game named Pilkeymon’s Paintbox. It even had art of Dav’s old spiky-haired avatar with Pikachu ears! There’s no trace of it on the Internet anymore, but I swear I’m not making this up.

I left a note here to add that Tommy has glow-in-the-dark stickers in his locker, which ended up in this headcanon dump. There’s also a list of last names I came up with for him but never chose between: Chambers, Lakatos (which I shared once here), and Lockenspiel. Right now I’m leaning towards the last one, it rolls nicely off the tongue.

——————————————————————————————————

That’s it for now! Not gonna lie, I’m still nervous about posting the other 6 WIPs. Most of them deal with Book 12, and all the tough subjects that that entails. But hey, I made this bed, and by God am I gonna lie in it. Thanks for reading so far!

The comics class I'm auditing is doing a comic of Little Red Riding Hood (the very old public domain version I think it's Grimm, but not sure). The class assignment for the week is to come up with 3 genres and the instructor is going to pick the genre and then the students have to tell the story in about 12 pages. (They also have to do full character turnarounds for each genre for each character. That is so fucking intense. I'd fail this class if I was actually taking it an not just observing. There is no pass/fail for the class. I'd still fail.)

So, I don't want to do that. Not interested in Little Red Riding Hood, but I have to come up with a story if I'm going to make my own comic to follow along.

Do you see where this is heading?

As I was digging through past fanfics and fanarts I found an AU story I wrote in 2014 or so based around the cut dialogue that had been datamined from the original swtor launch.

I haven't played the latest swtor stuff. I played through kotfe/kotet and barely remember it (and since my favorite companion had not returned for a storyline that should have included him I'm still kind of meh about Valkorian in general. Like I have opinions, but I don't even remember enough about it to know if they're valid or I'm just salty) I know Scourge and Kira returned and I did all that content to see the new romances and get a little snippet about what happened with them, but it was too short for me to want to write about it.

ANYWAY, about that AU fic that I never posted. From all appearances I had played around with making it into a comic, but never even got into the scripting stage. I think maybe that's why I never posted the text anywhere?

I didn't actually remember the fic when I read it, I only know I had planned a comic because I have an empty scrivner file with the fic name and the word comic at the end.

The story itself is 6,000 words long which is SUPER short for me so I can see that I was trying to reign it in to make it doable within what remains of my lifetime.

(Sad side note: I usually abandoned comics projects because I estimated the time it would take to make them and came out with several years. I would have finished at least 3 full fanfic comics by now if I had just stuck with it so yeah. Time: it passes. I need to stop giving up on everything.)

SO yeah. Making a comic about Remi and Scourge. Completely AU. Nothing that happens after the main JK story happens at all. No makeb/revan/ziost/kotfe/kotet/etc. because the story was written before any of those things even happened.

My recent Scourge drawing was a panel test. :D

We do this, not because it was easy, but because we thought it would be easy.

That's the first act. Did I mention the text is only 6000 words? Clocking in at 22 pages the first act is the shortest text wise (1600 words). So... heh heh ehhhhh. Wish me luck?

Interview with Eve Golden Woods!

Many of you know who is Eve is. She's a writer and artist, a part of Dreamfeel studios whose beautiful game If Found won Best LGBTQ Narrative and Best LGBTQ Indie game at the first ever Gayming Awards presented by EA games. I am really excited I had the chance to ask Eve some questions about herself, her time at Lovestruck and her creative process.

Congratulations on the two Gayming Awards (Best LGBTQ Narrative, Best LGBTQ Indie Game) for "If Found" from your game studio, Dreamfeel. What was the inspiration behind making the game?

If Found... was a game that emerged out of a collaboration between Llaura McGee, the founder of Dreamfeel, and artist Liadh Young. Liadh's background is as a comic artist, and so when they started working together Llaura had the idea of showing off Liadh's art by making a diary game, and using an erasing mechanic she had previously developed to let the player move through the diary in a fun way. By the time I came on board at the start of 2019, the game had already been in development for a while, so in some ways my work on that game was similar to the work I did for Voltage, because it was taking existing characters and concepts and writing a lot of scripts for them. Unlike Voltage, though, my work for Dreamfeel was a lot more collaborative and I had a lot more creative input. I really enjoy taking something and helping to make it the best version of itself that it can possibly be, but I was also really happy that I got to reflect a lot of my own experiences in If Found. Llaura and I both grew up on the west coast of Ireland, and although If Found... isn't autobiographical for either of us, it was definitely really meaningful to be able to tell a story that reflected our own experiences of growing up as queer teens in a similar kind of environment. Since the game came out we've had fans reach out to us and tell us that they also connected to the experiences of the main characters, and as far as I'm concerned, that makes me feel like I achieved everything I wanted to.

You are a writer and a visual artist. Does one come easier to you than the other?

I used to think of art and writing as talents, and I always felt like my art was at a very mediocre level (that's probably still true, lol). So when I was younger I focused a lot more on writing. It was only later that I started genuinely trying to improve as an artist, but when I did, I think I had a much healthier mindset, and approached it as a skill I could learn with patience and effort. Because of that, even though I still have a lot more confidence in my writing, I find art more fun and relaxing, and I don't stress about it as much.

Did you always know you would follow a creative path?

Kind of? Both my parents are artists, and I grew up surrounded by artists and writers, so it was something that was always very familiar and accessible to me. On the other hand, I didn't exactly have a clear idea of how to make it into a career, or what kind of work would be involved. But there's never been a point in my life where I wasn't doing something creative, even if it was only writing fanfiction.

What did your path to working professionally as a writer/artist look like?

I did a creative writing masters in college, but after that I spent years teaching English as a second language. That was really fun and I got to live abroad, but it was so busy and tiring that I didn't have time to do any writing outside of the occasional fanfic. I only started to take art seriously again when I became interested in games and comics as ways of telling stories. I did some critical writing, which led me to speak at a few local events and get involved in zine fairs. That was how I met Llaura, the director and lead of the Dreamfeel studio, and it's also what gave me the confidence to start applying for actual writing jobs.

Is there any work of art, visual or written, that you look to for inspiration?

So many! I try to read and watch as widely as I can, although there are touchstones I always return to, like the works of Ursula Le Guin and Terry Pratchett. Right now I feel very passionate about the actual play podcast Friends at the Table, which manages to combine really thoughtful worldbuilding and storytelling with cool, fun characters and great action scenes. I'm also reading a book called The Memory Police by Youko Ogawa, which has extremely beautiful prose.

Do you have a favorite piece of your own art, whether it is something you’ve drawn, a screenshot of something you’ve written or something else?

My favourite piece of art is usually whatever I finished most recently (I think that's true for a lot of people). Especially with visual art, once a bit of time has gone by you look back on it and start to notice all your mistakes, which is very annoying. But actually I do still really like the first piece of Fiona fanart I did last year. I managed to use some effects to give it a kind of nineties anime quality that I find really fun, and I think it conveys an emotion pretty effectively. That's always one of the hardest things to predict with visual art, whether the different parts will come together to create the exact mood you're looking for.

I also really like the compass I did for Bycatch. Krissy (@xekstrin) was the one who suggested filling it with fingernails, which was such a good, gross idea! As soon as I heard that I knew it was perfect and that I had to try and draw it.

Many people who read this blog know you as a writer for Lovestruck. When you look back on your time there, what stands out in your mind?

Lovestruck was very important to me when I first started because it was my first ongoing, regular, paid writing work. It gave me a lot of confidence and helped me to get into the habit of writing consistently and rapidly, which is a really useful skill to have. I know I was right to leave when I did, though, because I am just brimming with energy to work on my own projects, and channeling that power into something that you can't control will always end up disappointing you. Also, I made a ton of incredible friends, through Lovestruck itself but then even more so through VOW (@vowtogether), and that is more than worth all the difficult parts.

Is there any character that you would have liked a crack at writing?

Oh gosh, what a fun question! There are so many, but one I do sometimes think about is Axia, just because I know there are a bunch of fans who want her route, and because I had fun writing her as a villain in Zain's route. I can see in my head the shadow of a storyline that takes place after Zain's route is over, where she's in prison and trying to understand how she lost the battle with Zain and MC. I think there's, like, a gap there, where you could see her downfall forcing her to reconsider her assumptions about power, and that could build into a very interesting redemption story. But maybe it's for the best I never got to do that, because I would have wanted full creative control over it, and also I think the story in my head is very different to the sexy, in control, menacing version of Axia that her fans enjoy.

Do you have any upcoming projects you can talk about?

Most of my current work is under NDA, but I will say that I'm doing something very exciting with other VOW members that we should be able to talk about soon(ish). Maybe I can even give a little teaser... It's not a game, but it is something you can read, and my part involves cakes, swamps, and a museum.

Do you have a favorite quote or song lyric?

It's a big long, but there's a section from The Dispossessed by Ursula le Guin that has stayed with me ever since I read it:

"For we each of us deserve everything, every luxury that was ever piled in the tombs of the dead kings, and we each of us deserve nothing, not a mouthful of bread in hunger. Have we not eaten while another starved? Will you punish us for that? Will you reward us for the virtue of starving while others ate? No man earns punishment, no man earns reward. Free your mind of the idea of deserving, the idea of earning, and you will begin to be able to think."

It's such a profoundly radical way of imagining the world, so different to everything I was raised with, but whenever I think about it I feel like I can see something very beautiful and powerful that I hope to come closer to understanding some day.

And of course, "Solidarity forever, the union makes us strong."

I was a big fan of the show Inside the Actor’s Studio. Host James Lipton asked every single guest the same 10 concluding questions. I’ve picked 3 of them:

-What is your favorite word?

My favourite word: for sound, I like words you can really roll around on your tongue. Chthonic, alabaster, insinuation. For meaning, I think simple words that encapsulate big concepts have a kind of power to them. We use them so often we forget how big they are, how much weight they really have, but they give us the space to imagine new possibilities. Love. Freedom. Revolution.

-What is your least favorite word?

I've heard that "moist" is a lot of people's least favourite word but it doesn't actually bother me. My least favourite word is probably one where I feel like the sound doesn't match the meaning. One of the Irish words for rain is báisteach, which I feel has a much weightier and more onomatopoeic sound than rain. Rain is just very flat and uninteresting.

-What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

Oh, so many! I love history, and I think being a historian/archaeologist would be fascinating. Or something that had a physical component to it, like being a potter or a carpenter. I don't think I'd be any good, but I'd love to take the time to learn.

What would be your advice to anyone who wants to pursue a creative career?

All the work you do matters. Even the failed experiments, the things you hate when they're finished. It all helps to make you better. Also, creative career paths are often really unexpected, so chase any opportunity that seems remotely interesting. Don't work for free for anyone who can afford to pay, but work for yourself and put it somewhere. On a blog, twitter, whatever. You'd be amazed how many people get noticed and get offered opportunities because of something they made in their spare time. You'll probably have to work another job for a long time, so don't be hard on yourself if you're too tired to devote much energy to creative work. Try to make art consistently, but don't feel like that has to mean every day. Don't chase after celebrities. Make friends with your peers.

FANFIC: periphery demographic

Summary: “I dunno, I was kinda hoping we’d appeal to a more cooler demographic.”

(Or, the one where they realize that aspects of Krupp can influence Captain Underpants.)

A/N: AKA: The one where I play Calvinball on the canon because I don’t even know or remember most of it, anyway. This is just a bunch of disjointed drabbles, all of which are set before filler arc. Like, way before it. What can I say, chronology is my enemy.

Puns are hard. Writing in Captain’s POV is also hard. Both of these things are in this fic because I got Lost In The Sauce.

Captain is still, his body hunched over and ready to attack. The strings of the Hurly-Gurdy groan as mechanical limbs tries-- and fails to reach the boys.

George and Harold hold onto each other still, despite being out of its clutches. The spiked wheel had come too close for comfort, and the music’s effect still lingered, still made them sick.

The titanic robo-instrument rises and then falls for the last time. Captain is unmoving.

Harold wipes his bleary eyes. “C-- Captain Underpants? Are you--”

And then he turns around.

Sure, there was a certain awareness that Captain Underpants and Krupp were the same person. But most of the time, it was something they don’t think about-- even if they shared the same face, the same body, they held themselves up different, their voice was different, and a smile and a lack of cheap toupee worked wonders for the illusion.

But that was a pretty huge but, pun notwithstanding.

The snarl is familiar and wrong. Harold had never seen his eyes so angry, let alone drew them like that ever. Words, George surmised, wouldn’t do it justice.

In that moment, they remember that he’s also Krupp, and instinctively step back.

And just like that, the illusion is back. The hero’s shoulders loosen. His mouth relaxes and pinches back into a concerned frown. The ire that was pointed at the villain that nearly made the both of them the subject of an Ultra Violent Flip-O-Rama-- and them, in that brief moment-- is doused.

“Sidekicks?” Captain’s voice is small. He’s just as horrified.

“Yeah?” Harold ventured.

“Haha, you were... real intense there for a second,” George added, in what he hoped sounded like a light, joking tone. “Like-- grrr!”

Harold picks up the lead and makes an exaggerated version of the same expression that had them terrified a moment before. George does the same, before laughing.

Captain gives a laugh, but they’ve been at this pranking and making people laugh game for too long and know the difference between the real article and a fake, but they keep their mouth shut about it.

Sun showers were an uncommon occurrence in Piqua during this time of the year, but it did conveniently wash away the remains of the Moo-rauding Cow Pies.

“Whoa, that was so cool!” George whooped. “I’d sure hate to be the guy to have missed the whole fight.”

Harold raised a fist in celebration. “Heck yeah!” he cheered. “Good thinking on writing something up on Captain knowing how to hogtie stuff.”

The other boy’s face fell flat. “What?”

“You know, you writing the comic script before--” he stopped as he finally noticed his expression. “-- aaaand you didn’t, did you?”

George tilted his head. “I thought you drew something and Krupp confiscated it, or something!”

“Well, if you didn’t write about it--”

“-- And you didn’t draw it…”

The boys gave a worried glance to each other, before their collective gaze shifted to Krupp. He took the curtain cape off and pulled it over his shoulders in an attempt to hide himself better. And failed. And almost tripped due to his effort. At the sound of a familiar pair of giggles, he remembered that he wasn’t alone.

“What?” he snapped, face red as a beet.

“Uh, we were just wondering when you taught Captain Underpants to wrangle a cow?”

Krupp raised a brow. “What, you think I have time to teach that numbskull? Or care to?”

“Well, he couldn’t’ve learned it outta nowhere!”

“A mutated cow’s still a cow,” he huffed. “Didn’t one of your idiotic issues say he was raised on a farm?” 

“Yeah, the Origin Issue did,” George said.

“The one you ripped up,” Harold chimed in, crossing his arms. “Which we haven’t redone yet.” 

“But that still wouldn’t explain Captain’s sudden cow-wrangling skills.”

There was a moment of silence as the gears turned in the principal’s brain. His face twisted into confusion, and then to horror as he eyed the knots on the ropes that once housed the mutated cows. His gaze flicked down to his own hands as if they were entirely foreign to him.

To be fair, a few moments ago, they weren’t even controlled by him. Except, they kind of were? That was his handiwork, right down to the small fumble his mother would often scold him for. And then he remembered where he was and who he was, and immediately clenched his fists. He gave the boys a dismissive look as he tried to pull the cape over the rest of him.

“It was an educated guess,” he tried to justify, but none of them were convinced-- least of all him.

It was all just muscle memory. Nothing more. He wasn’t dealing with this, not now. Definitely not today, and definitely not here.

“I need to find my clothes before the weather gets worse.” He spun on his heel and marched into the underbrush, trying to ignore the cold and what he hoped was mud that was clinging to his feet. And--

He had almost forgotten. “And boys?--”

“Detention,” George finished with a wave of his hand. “We know.”

“After school,” Harold added.

“And--” Frustration flared across his face. He refused to not be the last word on this one. “And, during lunch break. For the next two days.”

Captain Underpants woke up in the gloom of his counterpart’s living room. 

And as usual, came the bout of uncomfortable tingling that wracked his body. Yeesh, if his counterpart insisted on wearing clothes, could he at least wear something that didn’t feel like he was wearing poison ivy but a bajillion times worse?

The only source of light was the television flickering across him. Images of people singing and dancing, and most importantly snapping flew across the screen.

Was he... was he watching this? Or was it just a case of channel surfing and being at the wrong channel at the wrong time? Either way, he didn’t really care for it. After a few minutes of fumbling out of his counterpart’s clothes and even more minutes fumbling with the remote, he finally reached the cartoon channel. One of them, anyway. 

Well, right now it wasn’t really the cartoon channel. 

Most’a the stuff at the early night block is sitcom stuff, he recalled one of them saying before making a mock-retching noise.

Instead of bright cartoons, there was a colorful living room where a family was sitting around. One of the children entered, clearly hiding a new pet in his bag and lying-- for the greater good for that poor creature, his mind added helpfully-- with the family none the wiser.

Maybe it was because he didn’t have much of a childhood-- but he did, didn’t he? He had a loving set of dolphin parents dads parents mother family, he settled on, since that word hurt his head the least. Seeing the people on screen talk and get into avoidable happenstance and fight, but still make up by episode’s end was strangely comforting. 

The hero knew it wasn’t real-- his counterpart scolded him about it, at least, scolded as best he could on a tiny square of paper after recording it on some Important VCR-- but, hey, apparently he wasn’t real either, so what did it matter?

(By the time Krupp comes back to, he’s in his bathroom staring at his own bloodshot eyes near midnight on a school night.)

Thomas no Shinzou Comic (abandoned project)

 Hey everyone, I have a confession to make!

A few years ago, when I was younger and had just finished reading Thomas no Shinzou (The Heart of Thomas), I was so inspired by the manga that I decided to draw a comic.

I wrote the script and started to draw, at the time I had more free time and was determined to complete the project, but time passed and I ended up forgetting.

So today, a few years later, I found a folder with the drawings and the script, and I'll show you!

Just a little warning: My art style has changed a lot since I started drawing this comic, at the time I tried to imitate Hagio Moto’s art style, but it didn't work out very well. The story itself looks like a silly shoujo and is not something I would write today.

You may be cringe because of my drawings and the cliché story, so this is a warning...

 So, let’s begin! Under the cut because It’s long.

This is the cover, I'm a little embarrassed to show it, but here it is.

 The title of the comic is “Thomas no Shinzou - Erich’s First Date” . I wrote everything in Portuguese, but I’ll translate for you.

In my version of the story, Thomas did not die and never revealed what he felt to Juli, they remained best friends. Erich arrives at school and gets along very well with Oskar and Thomas, but not with Juli. 

 The synopsis is: Oskar invites Erich to go to a festival in Berlin, he accepts but gets nervous, since it is his first date with Oskar. The best cupids Juli and Thomas are ready for help, but while trying to help the couple, Thomas ends up revealing his true feelings to Juli.

 I know, It’s a silly plot, but it was the best I could do at that time.

 Ok, so here we have the first page:

Summing up what happens on the first page, Erich will tell Thomas that Oskar has invited him to go to a festival and that he is nervous because he thinks that Oskar sees him as more than a friend. Thomas explains to him that he has a date, and Erich is shocked.

Let’s go to the next page!

Erich explains that he never had a date, especially with a boy, and Thomas says that he and Juli are going to help him. Erich says that Juli probably won't want to help because he is busy studying, but Thomas calms him down by saying that he can take care of it and that they should go and choose an outfit for Erich.

I only managed to draw these two pages and one more page that showed a special moment between Juli and Thomas, where they went back to school holding each other's hands.

This page was colored to represent that it was a special moment, the other special page would be when Oskar would confess to Erich and they would watch the sunset on the bridge that passes over the train (if you read the manga, you know which one bridge i'm talking about).

Anyway, many things would happen if I managed to finish drawing everything. This story is clingy, dramatic, poorly written and the drawings are not so good, but I had fun doing it at the time.

Maybe when I finish my Kaze to Ki no Uta fanfic, I can rewrite it in fanfic form and improve the script (I will have to improve a lot, because I managed to make Thomas look like a silly anime girl).

It was a fun experience to draw this comic, I remember fondly how excited I was and how I struggled to draw exactly like Moto Hagio.  So, maybe this post will serve to motivate you, to show that you don't draw that bad and that you can do a better job than mine. I had to draw badly to learn and improve, and I keep this comic as a good memory.

Finally, here are two drawings I made of Juli and Thomas. I drew they just to practice and imitate Moto Hagio’s art style, these images are not included in the story

I hope you liked this post and thank you for reading it! Sorry for the crappy images.

1/4/8/9/13/14/19! Split them up if it gets too long i just like bullying you

Munday stuff! | Always accepting

XDD It’s okayyyy I like your bullying! But obviously u dun know me yet x3 I don’t run at the sight of long posts. Buckle up everyone! We’re going for a ride!

1. What little things do you do special when writing your muse(s) that you wonder if anyone has noticed?

I really like this question, and yet it makes me genuinely wonder... One thing I do but which might not be apparent for people who only know me from one blog, is that I try (try being the keyword here) to change the tone of the writing to match the character. I can’t do much about my general style when it comes to descriptions, it just always comes back, but even then, I use different words depending on the muse even when outside of speech. I’d say that’s pretty subtle though, and maybe I’m the only one who can even notice that but that’s something I pay attention to haha!

Another small thing I like to do, despite writing in a mostly omniscient way, is keep strictly to the character’s pov, even if it means delivering skewed information sometimes. Again I don’t always do that, but sometimes it’s especially relevant and it makes me smile to myself.

I also like separating clearly the speech’s style from the description style, even if I like modifying descriptions a bit to fit the character, I avoid using accents of the specific way the character might be talking. That’s something you’ve maybe noticed in how I write Serik, he’s got specific turns of phrase that I pay special attention to.

One last thing is dropping hints to my character’s past or backstory that explain a current action. Just one line or two. Taken on its own it doesn’t seem much. It might even seem like it’s just a passing thought from the muse, or a reflection of the ‘narrator’ but then hopefully the full info comes out later in RP, or it’s explained OOCly and suddenly the scene can be read on a different level, however small. I like that, even if it’s not all that much, but at the very least I find it satisfying.

4. Has your muse ever gotten very emotional and ‘taken over’ for a reply in a way you didn’t expect?

Always. All the f-ing time! And honestly? That’s how I like my RP the best. Even when the muse isn’t emotional, I try to act as a channel for the character and to avoid guiding things as much as I can. Some muses are easier and louder than others (Serik is one such muse), but that’s what I try to tend towards, even if the action I’m getting from the muse might not seem IC or like it comes from nowhere. In my experience, there’s usually an explanation to that kind of intuition, even if we don’t see it yet. And stifling this tends to smother the muses for me. I prefer relying on the raw intuitive reactions I can get from the muse.

I know everyone is different but that’s what works for me. For me it’s not like I’m watching the character in the room with me or in a mindscape, but more like they’re behind me and I’m the channel and filter in a way. It’s a matter of getting into the right mindset to more or less disappear from the picture. There’s always a bit of leeway at least for reactions but usually they’re very clear to me when the muse is loud.

So when the muse gets very emotional, you can be sure they steer things their way even more. It’s led to really interesting plot-twists over the years. Some that even completely broke the plotting we’d done with the other mun. And I live for those moments. But it’s also part of why I’m increasingly wary of doing RP out of chronological order. I enjoy it immensely, don’t get me wrong, but I just know the muse will do a bad at some point. Something we didn’t expect and derail the RPs set later in time.

Okay... Okay I give XD The rest under the readmore because it’s long!

8. What are other formats you’ve written creatively in (poetry, prose, script, etc)?

I feel a bit bad but... None, really. I’ve done some poetry for school but that hardly counts. And some dabbling in “““““Fanfics”““““ with massive quotation marks because I was so young and I didn’t even have an outline of anything beyond what I was writing in the moment XD Nor did I really publish anything (and what little I might have is now lost somewhere in the depths of the internet, tho for the better really).

I don’t know if it can be called creative writing because it’s mostly drawing but... One thing I did a lot before diving properly into the RP scene on tumblr (my RP was purely in private with my best friend using pictochat before that), was make fancomics. That was my main creative outlet before RP took over. I would have full storylines scripts outlined -- I still have a bunch of them -- even if I never finished drawing a single of those comics. One of them (one of my biggest endeavours, really) is on my personal blog. It didn’t go too far but sometimes I miss doing those.

9. Do you like writing and building up background or NPC characters to your muse?

Answered [here]! :D

Short answer is yesssss, but only really when it’s for OCs and not as much for canon characters.

13. Do you like making promos?

I like the idea of making promos, but it’s a bit the same for me as graphic design. I like the idea of it, but I don’t think I’m good at that at all. I enjoy drawing art for fellow muns that I appreciate, sometimes even art that kind of dual-promotes both blogs, but actual promos? Nah. I really admire people who can, but I’m not cut out for making them.

14. Are you a big fan of AUs?

-Eyes Serik’s verses (still under-construction) page-

...

-Eyes other muses’ Verses pages-

>___>

-Sweats profusely-

Yes. The answer is yes.

19. Explain something on your blog that has a metaphorical/symbolical meaning or is a reference to something else (URL, a tag, blog title, etc)

Hmmm. I’m going to go with something extremely obscure. This blog’s URL used to be “ThatRunawayGuy” simply because that was a big part of then-Sail’s backstory before I reworked this character from the ground up. When I did though, it didn’t really fit as much at all anymore, so I had to find something else. But the ‘that’ in ThatRudeEngineer is a direct reference to the original URL.

Another very trivial thing I can explain that doesn’t even show is the tag I use for memes. “Dash Games”. It’s a common tag, nothing original. But I have a sort of inside joke with myself every time I write it down. Each time, I want to complete it as “Dash games will make you crash” but it’s too long and I didn’t want the possible confusion with a computer crash so I never used that. But just the idea of Serik playing games on his plane’s dashboard and nearly crashing because of that makes me smile every time.

That Time I Named an Invader Zim Background Character and Everyone Thought it was Canon: The Story of Ixane

Like a lot of others it seems, the premiere of Enter the Florpus has recently made me think back to my first stay in the Invader Zim fandom many years ago. For me it was between 2006 and 2007, and I was 14-15 at the time. IZ was and still is a very special cartoon to me, not only for how it influenced me creatively but also the fact being a part of its fandom was my first really positive experience in a fan community. And I wanna talk about that experience because it... lead to something very interesting. Something that only could’ve happened in the now bygone days of the early internet where reliable sources were harder to find and misinformation was much more common, but somehow, has lasted until today. 

This is how Ixane, a silent extra that appears only in the episode “Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars,” got her name.

So first off, you might be wondering “Who the heck is Ixane?” As I mentioned, she only appears as a background character in the 21st episode of the original series, titled “Backseat Drivers from Beyond the Stars” which I’ll abbreviate for the rest of this post as just Backseat Drivers. She’s a member of The Resisty, a resistance group against the Irken Empire who also only appear in that episode, although they were planned to become more significant recurring characters later down the line before the show was cancelled.

In 2006 I LOVED the Resisty. They were my favorite group of characters in the entire show, probably because I was fascinated by all their potential which sadly didn’t get the chance to be explored before IZ was canceled. What planets did each of them come from? What are each of their individual species like? How did they form into a single resistance group? What were their names, their personalities? Their hopes, dreams and fears?! THEIR FAVORITE DRINKS?!?! I attempted to provide my own answers to some of these not-so-burning-to-anyone-but-myself (or so I thought at the time...) questions by writing a fanfic called “Resisting Authority,” which I published on Fanfiction.net and later DeviantArt. It’s since been taken down on FFN while the DA version is currently in private storage on my old account, so here’s a screenshot just to prove it existed:

(click here for larger image)

Despite being more adult in tone than the show it was based on and rather melodramatic (then again, I was 14, and probably so was everyone else reading it), “Resisting Authority” became really, REALLY popular... at least for a fic that didn’t feature any of the show’s main characters, given it was entirely about the Resisty and told mostly from the perspective of its leader, Captain Lard Nar. Regardless it got a large amount of positive feedback and significant fan art on DeviantArt, most of which is no longer online although there’s still a little bit hanging around - mainly featuring Lyn, an Irken OC from the story who chooses to rebel against the empire and falls in love with Lard Nar, leading to a star crossed lovers conflict.

Because the purpose of the fic was to further explore the Resisty along with the idea of “What if an Irken betrayed their own?” several characters that appeared onscreen for only a couple of seconds in Backseat Drivers were fleshed out considerably in “Resisting Authority,” where they were given names, species names, home planet names, backstories, motivations and personalities. And of these the one who received by far the most development was a feminine, blue-eyed alien in a hooded purple cloak who I decided to name “Ixane.”

Ixane would become one of the most important characters in “Resisting Authority” right behind Lard Nar and Lyn. She is a Xanan from the planet Xana, a race of spiritual mystics. She is initially distrustful of Lyn, despite her actions and claims to be as much of a rebel as the rest of them, due to her hatred for the Irken Empire and how they destroyed her home. She believes Irkens are more like machines than living creatures, their bodies merely being empty shells to carry their PAKs around, making them incapable of genuine emotion. When she discovers Lyn and Lard Nar have been in a secret romantic relationship, she becomes even more hateful towards Lyn both due to jealousy, since she’d been harboring feelings for Lard Nar herself, and her genuine belief that Lyn’s feelings aren’t real, something that will only hurt Lard Nar in the end.

However throughout the course of the story her views are challenged and eventually Lyn manages to prove her wrong by displaying what she can’t deny is anything but legitimate love for Lard Nar and compassion for her allies in the Resisty. Unfortunately Lyn is fatally injured during a battle with a number of Irken soldiers sent to hunt down the rebellion. Now wanting nothing more than happiness for the person she loves, Ixane uses her mystical powers to save Lyn’s life while sacrificing her own in the process.

This character development (both in the meta sense and in the context of the fic itself) plus her selfless heroic sacrifice is what I think made Ixane one of the fic’s breakout characters and caused her to stick in the minds of those who read “Resisting Authority.” They were no longer thinking of her as just some extra, but as this fully developed character complete with an arc that I’d made her into - as the character of Ixane. But it didn’t occur to me just how big of an impact this may have truly had until about 9 years later.

In 2015, the official Invader Zim comic series by Oni Press began publication and I found myself extremely hyped about IZ again for the first time in almost a decade. It was during this time I came across a particular IZ wiki article and section of its TV Tropes page...

(Sources are here and here)

And I thought to myself “Wait... I thought I named her Ixane...?”

Because at this point I seriously couldn’t remember. I hadn’t thought about “Resisting Authority” in years, and with TV Tropes in particular noting that Ixane’s name was given “in the [episode] script” I wondered if I didn’t actually come up with the name. Maybe it was in the script for Backseat Drivers after all so I used it in the fic. Being unable to find said script (the original script as made by the episode’s writers, not a transcript) I couldn’t confirm it, so I mainly shrugged it off and thought more than likely I just had a bad memory. It wouldn’t be on a (still regularly maintained) wiki if it didn’t at least have a high possibility of being canon, right?

Cut to last night, August 2019. Me and all my other friends and fellow nerds who also grew up loving IZ are still buzzing over Enter the Florpus and our childhood/teenage fan content comes up in conversation. I dig up “Resisting Authority” from my old DA storage for perhaps a good laugh and a bit of nostalgia when more of when I first wrote it starts to come back to me. “I know the wikis all say her name was in the script, but I swear I came up with the name Ixane myself,” I thought, wondering if there was any way I could prove it.

Turns out I could. All the proof I needed was in a drawing of the character I posted to DA in January of 2007, which like the fic was still in storage:

(click here for larger image)

“Um...I bet a lot of people who read Resisting Authority got the impression she was an OC. She technically isn't. She is a Resisty character we saw VERY BRIEFLY once or twice in Backseat Drivers and I just elaborated on her for the story. The cloaked girl, yasee. Just look here: [link] “

That link no longer works normally, however putting it into Wayback Machine provides a snapshot taken in September of 2006, which would be around the time “Resisting Authority” was first published on FFN. Scrolling down on that page gives us...

(click here for larger image)

Additionally, opening the image itself reveals the filename “resistycloak.jpg” rather than something like “ixane.jpg” or “resistyixane.jpg”

For those who weren’t in the fandom back then, The Scary Monkey Show was a very well known IZ fansite and its Encyclopedias section was basically a resource for the show’s lore, one considered highly reliable, before things like fan wikis became commonplace. I actually used this site as a reference for the different types of Irken ships and other planets in the IZ universe brought up in the fanfic and so did many other fic writers at the time. If any site on the internet would know a minor or even background IZ character’s name, if it really was in the official episode script, it’d be The Scary Monkey Show. Yet her name is listed as unknown.

So why am I telling you this?

Because as wild as this whole situation is, I’m not a person who likes misinformation. I feel like IZ fans, both young and old, should know Ixane is not actually this character’s canon name as given to her by the writers of the show. That being said...

I see no reason to stop calling her Ixane. That’s just her name now.

Heck, it’d probably be difficult to go back to thinking of her as having no name given how long the name has been used on all these wiki pages and whatnot. And I’m completely fine with receiving absolutely zero credit for actually being the one who came up with the name in the first place, because here’s the thing...

I may have made the name, but it was the fandom that spread it. The IZ community, primarily in my absence too, were the ones who codified, legitimized it. Who added it to those wikis and accepted it as canon all these years. Who believed in it enough to assume it came from the official episode script, from the IZ crew themselves!

Ixane isn’t my name for her. It’s our name for her, as the fans who made Invader Zim the cult classic it is today.

And I want that to be something we all can have and be proud of ❤︎

Companions Getting Caught Writing Fanfics

Written by a guy who can dance better than Star Lord himself, @saintlyguy!

Ada: Accidentally playing one of Ada’s personal holotape journals led to quite the discovery; Ada likes stories. A particular favorite seems to be Frankenstein’s Monster, as evident in her own self insert. Wait, what?

“Forlorn after the death of their lover, the estranged Mr/Mrs. Freeze of the abandoned Vault 111 creates an automaton to care for them and maybe even grow to love.”

ADA WHAT?!

Cait: She’s scrappy and hasn’t exactly had a taste of the good life (albeit the nuclear apocalypse makes that nearly impossible). But that’s probably why she has a soft spot for that radio play on WRVR that came on about that street girl who gets taken in by some gentleman to be educated into some Fair Lady. Cait would often be seen singing and dancing all night about how the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain; singing as if she were the punk taken in by Professor Sole-

“CLOSE THE DOOR! KNOCK NEXT TIME! Did you see anything?”

No Cait. The Sole Survivor definitely didn’t see you singing and dancing then shoving your fan script into your mouth to dispose of the evidence.

Codsworth: He can’t exactly write, but Codsworth can be found daydreaming his fantasy of being a titular sitcom butler. Because he already is living out his dream of serving his Sole Survivor! Accompanying them out in the wastes and tidying them as well as their house is perfect for a bot such as himself. Although he will put those Old World sitcom jokes to use.

“Hey Codsworth, could you make me a sandwich?”

The butler places his master’s head between two slices of bread.

“There, I’ve made you a sandwich.”

Curie: How in the world does a scientist develop a taste for sci-fi? Hanging around MacCready and Kent. If you go through Curie’s notes, you’ll see doodles and short stories of her and her Sole Survivor in many situations where motley romances could blossom. Like there’s one where she’s a hologram assistant to vigilante Sole in the year 2099. Hell there’s even one where she’s a doctor who develops feelings for a cyborg ninja.

Danse: A man who’s situated to the influence of knighthood and chivalry, you would guess right that you’d find some fantasy AUs in his room. One where he’s a paladin (of course); in fact one of five who must venture into the Castle of Lions to find the Legendary Defender. There’s even one where he’s a Templar who falls for runaway mage Sole, the very target he was sent to capture.

Deacon: Ok who gave Deacon those old sitcom holotapes? It’s bad enough that him being a pathological liar makes hime good at telling stories, but it’s worse when he puts his friends in them:

(SING ALONG)

“Here’s the story, of a single parent. who was gearing up to form some sort of crew.”

“There’s an android detective.”

“A robot butler.”

“Even a ghoulish mayor.”

“It’s the story, of a secret agent. One of the greatest to ever walk the wastes.”

“And a reporter.”

“An android doctor.”

“Ad Victorium!”

“So then one day all these people were assembled. To find the child who was stolen from the vault. And this crew was labeled The Companions. That’s how we all became the Fallout Bunch!”

Dogmeat: He can’t write, not that he needs to! His dreams are reality because he has YOU!

Gage: Pirates?! Oh come on! Is it cuz of the eyepatch? Or was it those stories Longfellow told? Well... I guess the idea of being the scourge of the seas does has it’s appeal. For the bootlicker Gage is, it wasn’t surprising that in most of his poorly written stories he was the Sole Survivor’s first mate. What was surprising and even off putting was that one fic where he was the prisoner of a siren and was made to... do things for his freedom.

Hancock: The mayor had always wanted to be in a rock band (he probably is one in another life), to the point of playing air guitar and even writing stories. Whenever Sole tries to see what he’s writing, Hancock lights it on fire and throws it. That’s because Sole was always in his rockstar fantasies; whether as his number one fan or manager. Sole got a peek at his stories when they found Hancock asleep in the middle of writing! And would you look at that, he even started writing a song.

Longfellow: A rugged man in a place like Far Harbor wouldn’t know where to find someone after Hannah. However stories of survivalists and men of the land making city girls swoon did have some appeal to him. His favorite being about a reporter falling for a guy who can commune with animals and survived a crocodile attack. He has written a story or two for fun; often there’s a damsel in distress who needs rescuing from the mediocrity of urban life.

Maxson: “What the hell is this?!” Sole thought to themself as they read Maxson’s fantasy of recruiting girls with cat ears into the Brotherhood, all of which have feelings for their Elder.

“Y’know. Like nya?”

................................

“Arthur. I don’t want your garbage.”

Nick: While Nick wasn’t a detective, he was an adventurer! At least on paper he was. He still had a fedora, but instead of a nightstick, Tomb Raider Nick had a whip! He’d go to exotic places and uncover the secrets of lost civilizations. Often he’d run into the mysterious stranger Sole who’s often after the same treasure as he is. Sometimes he wins, sometimes they win, and sometimes they both win...in bed.

“Nick, what are you typing?”

CTRL Z!

MacCready: You couldn’t have survived Little Lamplight without having some fun. Mac’s escape was comic books and writing his own stories, some of which insert him into The Unstoppables. Mac’s longest fanfic is where he is admitted into UA High School, Unstoppables Academy. There he trains to become ALL MAC, the symbol of peace!

“It’s fine now. Why? BECAUSE I’M HERE!”

The most recent chapter shows All Mac recruiting the anti-hero, Survivor on a mission and on a date.

Piper: She’s a reporter on and off the record. Someone as articulate in writing as Piper uses it as a past time as well. She writes bedtime stories for Nat as well as scribe her daydreams. Lately she’s been writing about a Boston Bugle reporter attempting to get an exclusive with the city’s super powered defender clad in a blue jumpsuit and red cape. Coincidentally this started a bit after she started traveling with the Sole Survivor.

Preston: He’s got a thing for diners. Yes diners. He’s seen many old ads that show the vibrant environment, delicious non irradiated food, and pretty waitresses. You can sometimes see him hanging in the old diners after establishing a perimeters to have a lunch and do paperwork. Wait, paperwork? What the hell is he writing?

“The strapping general sat down awaiting for his favorite waiter/waitress to take his order.

‘Want something sweet?’ They ask.

He responds ‘How about you?’”

Yep. Nope. It’s paperwork, definitely nothing else.

Strong: Sometimes Strong can be found using raider and glowing one blood to draw on the concrete in Sanctuary.

“Hey Strong, what are you drawing?”

“Us.”

On the pavement, there are two super mutants. One of them is drawn with synth coolant to have blue.

“Strong wishes you were super mutant. Humans are losers.”

Gee thanks Strong.

“Strong is loser too.”

“But together, we take back what we lose!”

Huh, that was actually sweet.

X6-88: This guy knows nothing outside of recapturing synths. Although in the Institute he has seen many old films that the scientists enjoy during their downtime. His favorite being the one where the singer and her bodyguard fall in love. He especially liked the song in that movie. When he was asked to write something for a maintenance test, X6 wrote a story of the bodyguard named X who’s hired to protect Boston’s favorite singer. And from that story, the Institute programmed a synth to sing. Although no one knows what happened to her. When charged with guarding the director’s parent, X6 was asked what he could do. Besides shooting.

“I can write.”

What have you written.

X6 pulled out a binder labeled Work in Progress.

It’s as heavy as a dumbbell.

The Sleep Catcher - deleted scenes

Hi there ~ I’m here because I said I would post the “deleted scenes” of my comic the Sleep Catcher. When I work on a comic, the first thing I do is writing a script to make the storyboarding easier to make (well, it looks like a fanfic here but most of the time there are only dialogues. I just needed to set the atmosphere). When I’m done with the script, I start drawing and realise some scenes are too complicated or too long for me, and then I change or delete them. So I’m going to give you the scripts of some “chapters” I never drew because we all need more kdfd content. Right ?

DELETED SCENE #1 - originally the chapter 2

This time Fudou was wide awake when he heard a muffled noise from Kidou's room again. There has been about one week since the last time, so Fudou only thought the nightmare from the other night was kind of an exception. And now, Kidou was hitting his wall again, keeping him from sleeping: once again, Fudou swore in the silent room, Tobitaka still sleeping soundly on the other bed -which was really unfair. The number eight stood up slowly and headed to Kidou's room again. He entered it without any hesitation this time, got closer to the strategist's bed to grasp his shoulders as he already did a week ago.

But somehow this time Kidou didn't wake up when Fudou shook him softly, calling his name, once, then twice. What was going on? He wondered if Sakuma could help him this time but just as he was going to wake him up, he suddenly felt a violent pain in his ribs. He barely avoided the second kick Kidou was throwing at him and turned back to see his open eyes looking at him with terrible anger and fear: Fudou froze for a little while. Was Kidou a sleepwalker or something? He carefully came closer and grabbed his shoulder before the other boy could attack him again. He only ignored Kidou's incoherent punches and said :

《Kidou, look, I don't want to harm you. It's okay.》

《You... give her back to me - She is everything I have left...》

《Haruna is sleeping. She's okay.》

《You're lying, I-I have to save her -》

《She's safe Kidou. And you're too. Come on, wake up.》

Kidou blinked twice, his face softening a little as he seemed to get a grip on himself. His breath calmed down and the tense in his shoulder left little by little, letting him nearly trembling. He seemed so exhausted it almost made Fudou's heart clench -almost. The dark haired boy sighed.

《Are your alright now ?》

《Fudou... what happened..?》

《You were having a nightmare again.》

As Kidou wasn't answering and was trembling more and more, Fudou sat up on the bed, close to him.

《Wanna talk ?》he asked.

《No... I just need to sleep.》

《You must do something about it... you can't keep going like this.》

Fudou couldn't help but notice that Kidou was bitting his lower lip in a very vulnerable way.

《Have a talk about it. With Sakuma or anyone but just... make it stop.》

《I can't talk about it... it's...-painful.》

《You're an idiot.》

Kidou blinked, nodding slowly like he was totally aware of his stupidity.

《Why... Does it feel... safe when you're around ?》the light-haired boy whispered to himself.

《Heh, you've just realised it ?》Fudou tried to joke but something in his chest was too heavy for him to use a sarcastic tone. Kidou smiled weakly, worry shining in his bright red eyes, and turned to Sakuma, absent-mindedly.

《Sakuma is still sound asleep... At least I am not bothering anyone》and then looking back at the brunette,《well, except you.》

《What was it ? Your dream I mean.》

《People. Taking Haruna away. I think the whole thing with the Mount Magneto and the Hell Army shook me up a bit. It'll stop, eventually.》

《Sure about it ?》

《I can't really do anything about it. But it's good to have you around. Somehow... you're helping me having... clear thoughts.》

《Ha is that so. You're a pretty sensitive guy, you know that Kidou-kun ?》

《Can't help it.》

Fudou shrugged silently, thinking that Kidou's fragility was both a curse and a blessing: somehow, behind his calm face and his goggles, Kidou was the kind of guy who was panicking in a dangerous situation involving his loved ones and then having nightmares about it for weeks. Fudou remembered how he was waking up in the middle of the night when he was little, because of bad dreams. Back then his mother used to take him in her arms to softly rock him until he could fall asleep again. He felt an outburst of affection invading his chest as he looked at Kidou, who was silent, staring at the ceiling. Even if Kidou was trying to look like he knew what he was doing, in fact, there was still a little boy deeply hidden in him, and all those nightmares only were this little boy's fears.

《You should close your eyes if you want to sleep.》Fudou pointed out, pulling Kidou's blanket up to cover him. Kidou seemed to be surprised by his gesture but Fudou ignored it, standing up and walking to the room's door.

《Fudou ?》

《Nh ?》

《If I have bad dreams... can you wake me up again ?》

Fudou shrugged, opening the door with a nonchalant movement.

《Maybe.》

DELETED SCENE #2 - beta of the actual part 3

Fudou was fed up by the team's enthusiasm and all those merry shouts were giving him a headache over time. He decided to leave the refectory before someone starts to cry out of joy and walked alone in the silent corridors, back to the field, for some practice.

《Want to do some passes with me ?》he heard in his back, and he almost smiled when he recognized Kidou's voice.

《You're not reading your postcards ?》

《I didn't receive any.》

《Endou said there was a letter from the Raimon team for everyone. Don't wanna listen to how they believe in you and all their lovely cheerings ?》

《You didn't receive anything ?》

《Heh. Postcards are useless anyway, I'm glad no one sent me those crap.》

《Mh.》

Fudou was partly lying; he was expecting he would receive one from his mother at least, but... She may not even recognize him now. He was not sad (postcards are useless, remember ?) but somehow... hurt. Everybody was reading and enjoying their close friends' or parents' cheerings now and he was the only one with just nothing. It was so frustrating to be a nobody... even for his own mother.

《You're alright ?》Kidou asked softly, getting closer, and Fudou's bad mood only increased more.

《What do you think I am going to say ? "Oh my god, I'm gonna cry because I wanted a postcard from mama too" ? It's stupid, I said this already. Now shut up and help me with my practice.》

Kidou followed him without saying anything, and Fudou was grateful for this : the rest of the team joined them not much later, being totally motivated by the letters they just read, and it made Fudou feel even worst. He stopped practicing slightly earlier than usual and gave everyone shit when they tried to talk to him. He convinced himself he would feel better after a nap, so he walked back to his room and slept a little before dinner.

He woke up when Haruna knocked at his door to inform him the meal was ready, mumbled he was coming and walked to his shut door. He frowned, realising there was something stuck in the doorway, and squatted down to examine the strange paper sheet : it was a postcard, visibly from Liocott Island. He swallowed down, reading what was written at the back of it.

You are not alone, Fudou.

Fudou entered the refectory, looking for Kidou among his teammates; he finally spotted him, sitting down at Hijitaka's table with his food tray. He took a tray too and joined him, sitting down violently next to him.

《Oi oi, be careful, Fudou.》 Hijitaka said, putting an escaping cherry tomato back in his plate.

《I'm not a kid.》Fudou only replied, knowing that Kidou would know what he was talking about. The boy with the cloak shrugged silently, eating his rice without even looking in his direction.《Stop taking pity on me.》

《I really meant what I've written. Just wanted to let you know.》

《Oh yeah ? I don't need you.》

《Fine then.》

《Yeah, fine.》

《... You guys...》sighed Hijitaka.

Fudou started eating, ignoring the defender's reaction, feeling a strange, tickling feeling warm him up from inside his body, filling his heart with a curious satisfaction. Later, he wondered if it was because of the postcard, or because Kidou's knee touched his slightly during the whole meal.

DELETED SCENE #3 - happens after part 2 and before part 3

When Kidou opened his eyes this time, Fudou was already there, leaning on him and softly shaking his shoulders to wake him up. His dream was sticking on his retinas even though he was blinking, and snippets of sadness and fear filled him over and over again as he was feeling tears in the corner of his eyes.

《Haruna again ?》asked Fudou with an impenetrable voice when Kidou straightened a bit, chasing the last reminiscences of his dream.

《Not sure... I guess so.》

《You're crying again.》

《I'm not.》Kidou replied dryly, whipping the corner of his eyes.《I'm tired of this... I just want to sleep one whole night.》

《Tell me what your dream was about.》

《None of your business.》

《You wanted me to wake you up, so now is your chance to talk a bit.》

《I don't want to. It's not... everybody's nightmare ok ? It's too painful, I... I can't even speak about them without...》

... crying. Fudou was staring him with a determined look: Kidou wanted to bury himself against him, wanted to hide behind those truthful arms. He wanted a hug, he needed it so much it was tempting to ask for it. He moistened his lips.

《Close your eyes.》he said, trying to sound confident while he was wondering himself what he was doing. Fudou raised his eyebrows,  but obeyed anyway, closing his green-blue eyes slowly in the dark. Kidou buried his nose in his neck, his lips pressed against his collarbone in a, somehow, timid kiss. He felt Fudou's hand in his hair pretty fast after that and heard something like a sigh.

《Need some love, Kidou ?》Fudou breathed, and there wasn't a hint of mock in his low voice.《Go ahead.》

《I won't force you if you don't want to do it.》

《Please Kidou, it's a hug you're talking about. Just do it and go to bed, I'm tired.》

《Can you come under the blanket just for a minute ?》

Fudou shrugged and lifted the cover to slip next to the other strategist. Kidou swallowed silently and put his arms around Fudou, shyly. They struggled first to find a good position but soon enough, Kidou was closing his eyes, cosily curled up in Fudou's warm hold. It was curious that they were so comfortably laying back in the one-place bed : they should have been lacking space or something, but instead, everything was warmer, calmer, just... better than when Kidou was sleeping alone. He totally forgot about Fudou's arms around his waist, suddenly feeling too drowsy to even warn him he was going to fall asleep.

The last thing he felt was Fudou's regular breath on the edge of his jaw, and then it went all black.

DELETED SCENE #4 - happens before part 5

"This is the stupidest idea ever." Fudou groaned, irritated: of course, it was, what was the coach thinking when he suggested doing an orienteering run in the woods? Of course, they would get lost!

"What should we do ?" Fubuki asked. "The sky is getting dark..."

"We should stay here before getting even more lost. They will find us tomorrow." Kidou supposed, shrugging. "We need to light a fire."

Fudou stared at Kidou and Fubuki while they were starting the fire : the brunette could imagine that Fubuki was used to light them since he was living in Hokkaido, a really cold region. But how came that Kidou was able to do it too ? He only prepared some of their cereal bars for the dinner and leaned against a tree trunk.

"Where did you learn how to light a fire ?" he asked later, when the 14 and the 9 joined him.

"Camping class ! We're camping in the mountains sometimes with school." answered the grey-haired with a nice smile -as always actually. "But I am surprised Kidou knows too."

"Camping too."

"Camping huh ? As if the Kidou family was camping..."

Fudou realised what his answer was implying and stopped it mid-sentence: but... it didn't make sense. How old was Kidou when he lost his parents? Fudou had always thought Kidou became an orphan pretty soon in his life, but what if it wasn't the case ?

"Anyway," he said, avoiding Kidou's glare while starting eating his cereal bar.

Fudou ended up looking at the night sky, hearing Fubuki's calm breath in the silence. He wondered if the others were already gone back to the Inazuma inn or if some of them were still stuck in this stupid forest. Some of the path tags were missing, or they would never have lost their way : Fubuki was used to forest orienteering and Kidou and him were the two genius of the team, how could it be otherwise?

"Fudou, you're sleeping ?" the dark-haired boy suddenly heard. He sighed and turned toward the other midfielder to see his bright red eyes shining in the dark.

"I am."

"Liar. The ground is hard and cold, I can't find sleep..."

"What did you think ? That you were going to find a cosy canopy bed in the middle of the woods ?"

"Cut it out... Gosh, I'm freezing."

Fudou couldn't help but straighten a bit to look at the strategist: he was curling up on the dusty ground, slightly trembling even though he had his cloak over him like a blanket. Fudou realised the fire had turned into embers and felt the temperature was a little bit chilly. He got closer to Kidou, ignoring his surprised glance as he laid back next to him.

"What are you..."

"Warming up."

"You or me ?"

"Both."

Fudou heard a smile in Kidou's sigh this time and felt his arms around him pretty soon. He blushed, doing the same with his arms, pulling the other boy closer to share some human warmth, sticking his lips on the corner of his cheeks, in a -almost- tender way. He heard Kidou swallowing and bit his lower lip, embarrassed.

"Feeling better ?" he asked, trying to get rid of the strange feeling catching his chest.

"Can you pull me closer ?"

"Wha- We're already really close together, I can't."

"Fudou..?"

"Nh ?"

"I learned how to start a fire with the boy scouts. My adoptive father sent me to some of the scout camps when I was little... I hated it."

"Why ? Sounds fun to go camping with friends."

"They weren't my friends. They bullied me all the time. The day I punched one of them back, he told his parents about it and they came to my adoptive family to tell them. I got expelled from the boy scouts."

"Are you serious ?"

Fudou laughed a little. It was the funniest thing he heard in the day, Kidou being a naughty little kid fighting with other boy-scouts and being expelled for it. Kidou's grip tightened as he was laughing calmly.

"It's both funny and ridiculous you know that ?" Fudou pointed out finally.

"It was a traumatic experience."

"What a drama queen."

"... hey."

"Hn ?"

"Sleeping in your arms is... kinda nice. I'm feeling so calm, I don't have nightmares when you're around."

"Wow... seriously ?"

"Hm hm. I'm glad we're getting along because it feels somehow... safe around you. It's like I know I don't need to worry because no matter what, you will help me protect the ones I love."

"I'm not your sister's bodyguard."

"You protected Haruna against the Hell Army. You saved her. And you saved me."

"I helped you save her. It's different." Kidou gave him a surprised look, so he added: "You don't need me. You need security. I gave you some, and you saved Haruna by yourself."

Kidou didn't reply right away. They both listened to the forest's silence, punctuated with the song of crickets, rustling leaves and wind. The crackling embers were still warming them a little and coloured the night blue woods with red glowing shades. Fudou could feel Kidou's warmth around him, feel his slow breath on his lower lip and chin: he could almost forget he was sleeping on a hard, cold and dirty surface.

"Thank you." Kidou finally said with a soft sigh.

Fudou didn't reply and they fell asleep soon after.

On collaboration

We got an ask from a reader (who wished to remain anon) asking about how collaboration on the comic works for us, so I figured I’d put out some background on how BBB came about.

Del and I have been friends for a few years now.  We met through fandom (The Evil Within), where I became a fan of her art, and she my fanfics.  We have very similar tastes, and right around a year ago started talking about doing a doujin together.  I’d never scripted a comic before, but Del had a lot of experience and helped me adjust from prose to script form.  

While working on that, we saw an ad for the LGBTQA-themed @passionfruitanthology, and talked about shelving the doujin idea for a while to work on an 18 page oneshot for the anthology.  We set out to do something plotty, with romance (since that was the point of the book!) but with some action, to play to both our strengths.  Del is a big fan of vintage and noir, and I had Baccano! on the brain, so we settled on gangsters.  MAGIC gangsters.  Magic STEAMPUNK gangsters.  And once we started brainstorming and writing and drawing, we both got so swept up that we decided to step back from the anthology and make a webcomic series instead.

As for the collaboration aspect itself, the truth is we’ve found working together very easy!  We were both huge fans of each other’s work even before becoming friends, and we’ve been very open with each other from the start about our expectations for the story and the comic itself.  Neither of us are particularly concerned about profit and fame at this point, we just want to share these characters that we created together, and see where it leads.  So far it’s been a thrilling experience, and even if there have been challenges, they weren’t a product of having to work together.

Since this is my first time collaborating like this I don’t have a huge amount of insight as to what makes for a successful partnership vs an unproductive one, but here are some things that apply to us that may be helpful to anyone looking to start their own comic collab:

1. Start low pressure.  Del and I went from maybe a doujin to a one shot to a free-to-read series.  Even with tipping on we’re only making tiny cash and have agreed many times that neither of us is expecting to make it big.  Money and pressure complicate relationships so easily, I suggest that unless you’re both industry professionals that are used to no-strings collab work, start with a small project to test how you work together first.  Once you’ve developed some trust and rapport, maybe then go for more.

2. Be honest and flexible.  True of any relationship, really.  You have to feel like you trust your partner enough to bring up your concerns, knowing they won’t take it personally.  And always be open to receiving critique yourself.  Del and I have been pretty lucky that we have so much in common, we haven’t had any major creative disagreements.  But I know that if I have an issue with a panel structure or an expression or what have you, I can feel comfortable bringing it up.  And she’s certainly kept me honest on continuity!

3. Start fresh if possible.  This is our first time working together, but we’ve both been writing/drawing for a long time, and have a wealth of ideas  and characters.  But with BBB, we started completely fresh, without any bringing any specific characters from our previous work (though naturally some of our favorite archetypes have snuck in).  Jakub and Cheshire didn’t exist until we created them together.  If I had tried to write a comic featuring my existing OCs, I’m sure it would have been much more difficult allowing Del’s art and influence to shape the story.  But it was important to me from the start that whatever project we did together, it was ours, and not a transaction.

4.  Stay ahead of the game.  This approach may not work for every collab, but I have written way more chapters than we’ve gotten to in the art phase yet.  They’re still in flux and could change, but Del says she’s glad we have so much prepared, because it’s allowed us to drop foreshadowy type hints and have specific things to look forward to.  When I write for myself I don’t start until I have an ending in mind, so I wanted to have a whole lot of BBB lined up before we got underway.  I’m sure some artists would find this stifling and maybe feel like I’m resistant to change (really I’m not, I change things as I go all the time), so you need to find the right balance in your own partnership.

Unfortunately I don’t have much advice specifically on how to resolve creative disputes, because our road has been very smooth.  But patience and compromise is definitely key.  Don’t be too attached to certain beats, but don’t allow your voice to be smothered, either. If the idea you’re working on isn’t going smoothly, it could be that it’s simply the wrong idea.  Take stock of the things you *do* agree on and see if you can explore a different theme or setting that’s a better match to what you have in common.  There’s nothing wrong with starting over on stronger footing.

Comics are tough, group projects are tough, together they’re very tough.  Sometimes it’s not meant to happen.  But every story is a puzzle, and if you’re forcing the pieces together, it could be it’s just that you’re trying to complete the wrong picture.

Clumsy metaphors is what got me this writing gig ayyy??

In any case, I don’t know if this is interesting or useful to anyone...!  But between the two of us we stretch from total newb to experienced, so we’re always willing to answer questions or just gab about comics :D

Thank you for following~

WIP Tag

I was tagged by @kira-desomma :) I don’t think I’ve done this one before. And if I have ...? Well, I’m always here to talk about my WIPs, lol. There’s three of them rn!

Songbird

Status: Writing the second draft

Inspiration: The song Dark Woods Circus (and a fanfic I wrote on said song).

Count: The fanfic topped out at around ~47k. The first draft was around ~52k. And the second draft is currently at ~25k, but my target is ~70k.

Genre: Thriller/Suspense. Has some horror elements. Young Adult.

Blurb: Elizabeth Brighton couldn't have known.

When she accepted the flier and an invitation to a mysterious show from the dazzling woman who offered it to her, she didn't know what it would be about or even how much it would cost. She certainly didn't know that it would wind up being a front for an immortal, sadistic witch known only as The Mistress with a penchant for kidnapping unsuspecting women. And she certainly couldn't know that she had been selected as the witch's next victim. Now locked in a birdcage, cursed to grow feathers that slowly suck the life out of her, and forced to sing for an unknowing audience every night, it looks like Elizabeth is helpless and hopeless, doomed to die before she ever gets a chance to turn 18.

But maybe things aren't so hopeless after all. There are things Elizabeth can't explain, things that the Mistress either doesn't know or doesn't care about. Things like the enigmatic words of the fortune teller. The kind but meek contortionist. Thoughts that seem to come from someone else. The strange dreams of another woman's life, of being in love with a beautiful woman named Alice. Will any of these things shed light on the Mistress's plot? And more importantly, will knowing make any difference?

Tag: project: songbird

Background: I probably never would have started on this project if it weren’t for a friend loving the fanfic version of it so fiercely, I thought that it might just be worth fleshing out into a novel.

Reversed Star

Status: Getting ready to publish in October

Inspiration: Saga was a big motivator for us in the early days! But we draw a little inspiration from everywhere. Some of the plot elements (specifically Evangeline’s kidnapping) were actually drawn from an old, unfinished Nano project of mine!

Count: Getting the word count for the scripts isn’t exactly easy ...

Genre: Scifi! And I guess you could classify the age range as New Adult?

Blurb: Everything in the galaxy begins somewhere.

For Evangeline and Icaruss, the story begins on their 21st birthday. That’s when Evangeline Dumont, heiress and only child of famed scientist Roman Dumont, is kidnapped. And that’s when Icaruss, a poor alien/human hybrid, starts having dreams from her point of view. Convinced that he’s the only one who can rescue her, he convinces his twin sister Thara to make him a spaceship. Accompanied by family friend Greta and Fitzy, his robot, he takes off on an epic adventure across the galaxy. But Evangeline, who has no idea he exists, isn’t waiting to be saved. Instead, she’s doing her best to learn more about the mysterious radicals who are holding her hostage, and how to best escape them.

This story follows both Evangeline and Icaruss as their stories bring them closer together. And closer to an intergalactic war that neither of them could have predicted …

(Yikes!! I need to update this blurb.)

Tag: It has a whole separate blog!! (Which you should follow. It posts rad art.)

Background: Kelli and I have been friends since we were 15, and talking about making a comic together for about that long. However, Reversed Star is the first one that looks like it has a chance of actually, well, happening. And a lot of that is because of the lovely people who show support and interest in it, so, thank you!! We started working on it shortly after graduating college, and it has been a great way for us to continue to stretch our creative muscles as we go into our respective careers.

The Fair Folk

Status: To be worked on seriously after 

Inspiration: Tumblr posts about faeries. It also has a little True Blood in there (even though — full disclosure — I’ve only watched a couple episodes), with the whole “alternate-universe-where-people-know-vampires-exist” thing, except replace “vampires” with “faeries, merfolk, werewolves, ghosts, etc.” And vampires actually are extinct XD

Count: Uhh, just a couple thousand words and a metric fuckton of world building.

Genre: Fantasy! With some Adventure elements. It’s New Adult.

Blurb: Massachusetts isn’t exactly known for being welcoming to supernatural beings.

When a young woman in Wylant, Massachusetts named Rose Armont goes missing, however, the Supernatural Bureau of Investigations thinks that the case is in their jurisdiction — or, at least, that’s what resident Katrina Chase finds out from the faerie sent to investigate. And when she sees the mysterious creature that might have taken Rose, she becomes wrapped up in the investigation — and becomes closer to Oren, the faerie sent to work the case, and his world.

As the investigation grows to involve Oren’s sister Meri and Katrina’s werewolf roommate, Renee, it quickly becomes clear that the case is about far more than just Rose or even just Wylant. But how? Why are the girls involved? And what does the witch who lives on the outskirts of Wylant, the one that everyone but Katrina dismisses … What does she know?

Tag: project: the fair folk

Background: The Fair Folk is a super fun project because it has a lot of world-building involved. It also has a pretty neat cast of characters who actually get to go out and do something in lots of settings, which makes me look at it enviously from the mountain of pages of Songbird, where Elizabeth is confined to one area lol.

10 Things about me

Huh, wouldn’t have expected to be tagged by @skribleskrable of all people. But sure, why not? I like me and talking about me, so here are 10 random factoids about me. Hopefully someone other than my two porn bot followers will read this:

1. I literally only got a Tumblr account a few months ago to show my support to artists I like. In turn, I decided to more actively support artists because I started drawing a lot again after going through a dry spell and I realized that people appreciating and commenting on my work really encouraged me to draw more and improve, so I figured I should do the same for other people whose work I feel is worthy of support.

2. Around that same time, I also fell deep down the FF8 fandom hole again. Not that I ever really leave it, I just sometimes go back to the surface for some air. I also made a test LP of the French version of the game, pointing out the differences between the French and English versions of the game (at least the ones I remembered) and taking the opportunity to explain why I love and relate to this game so damn much and my analysis of the story and characters.

3. Speaking of FF8, I have written my very first fanfic a few months ago, which you can read here, here or here. Why yes, I WILL use this thing to plug my stuff. In all seriousness though, it’s short (3200 words), light-hearted stuff so please give it a look if you want and have the time. I do have plans for more fanfics but the problem is, most of them are very similar to what I did here and I don’t really want to make similar things in a row.

4. I’m currently in the process of writing an original comic set in a steampunk universe about the adventures of a bounty huntress. I have currently scripted 25 pages and that should be finished soon as I predict the entire thing to be about 30. I honestly have no idea if the story is going to be any good to readers but I just really want to make a complete one.

5. There is no fact N°6.

7. I finally moved out of my parents’ house last year and that’s the best thing that could ever have happened to me. I feel a lot more relaxed and I’m more confident and productive than ever. I also go out more and even watch more movies. I even feel like my relationship with my parents has improved.

8. As you may have guessed from N°2, I am French. I started learning English at age 9 (IIRC) when my parents made me take classes. They were very fun and the teacher was excellent, so I acquired some very strong basics, I loved it when we started learning it in school and I got really good at it. I actually tried to become a professional translator but it didn’t pan out. Heh, maybe I’ll give it another shot in the future.

9. I’ve been taking acting classes for over three years now. Those have really helped me come out of my shell. If you’re socially awkward or anxious and don’t know how to approach other people more easily, I can only recommand taking acting lessons. It’s very cathartic to play someone who isn’t you and therefore do and say stuff you probably wouldn’t yourself and since it's a safe and welcoming environment where everyone feels the same, you have less qualms about opening up and you realise that what you have to say is nowhere near as dumb as you may have thought.

10. I always feel like my posts on forums, Tumblr and similar stuff tend to be too long, which is ironic considering I’m not very talkative in real life. I guess I want to make sure my point is 100% clear and fully developed. It’s probably one of the 4915 reasons why I hate Twitter; by design, this thing actively discourages constructive discussion and replaces it with ready-made, hollow catchphrases.

11. A while ago, I started a thread on a forum I frequent daily asking people to recommend me any movie to watch and I’d watch them all in the order they were recommended then write a short review of it. I did that because I wanted to broaden my cinematic culture by watching stuff I wouldn’t normally watch of my own volition. It worked really well as people got way into it right away and I got dozens of suggestions right off the bat, plus it was a massive success in the sense that, just as I was hoping for, most suggestions were for films I would never have even thought of watching, including some really weird and obscure stuff (but also some classics that I’d never seen). I need to get back to it eventually. Really good way to discover new stuff if you don’t know where to look.

And I guess I’ll tag @ideakureima as she’s pretty much the only person I know on Tumblr that skribleskrable hasn’t already tagged. :P

In defense of fanfiction

I’ve been thinking about fanfiction lately, (really I’ve been thinking that I should really be taking some of this time to write more, but that’s another post) AO3 just had their yearly fundraiser so of course the old discourse over the site and its history was dragged up again and then Sarah had brought it up this morning and well, I have a lot of strong feelings on the subject. Let’s start with a little personal background: I have been reading and writing fanfic since the late 90’s. It started out as something silly my best friend introduced me to and we would sit in her mother’s computer room and giggle over ‘speculative fan fictions’ and participate on months-long roleplay scenarios on chat boards and take turns passing notebooks full of handwritten stories back and forth which were every bit as terrible as you’d think two 14-year-old girls could come up with. Unfortunately, we were in the Vampire Chronicles fandom so we had a front-row seat for the Anne Rice and her lawyer's debacle that will from here on out be referred to as “The Dark Times”. We watched our friends’ work get pulled, our RP sites close down, we feared that we’d get a cease and desist letter, we hid our notebooks and dreamed up our stories exclusively verbally.  I was deeply ashamed of my secret love of fanfic for years. I kept writing, but I kept it secret, I kept reading it but would never admit to it. Fanfiction was something shameful, taboo, some terrible sin akin to watching porn, and not the good socially acceptable kind of porn. But time moved on and fandom moved on and fanfiction started to be more acceptable. I joined Fanfiction.net, I wrote some stuff on Livejournal (although I still kept it set to private). I read A LOT of fanfiction, jumping fandoms, and leaving reviews. People I admired came out as liking and writing fanfiction. Of course, then the purges hit. Strikethrough and the like. I’m not going to get into that here, because that’s a rant all its own. Anyway, those were also some dark days as fandom searched for somewhere to land. I stumbled over Archive of our own a few years ago and I aggressively support them whenever I can because they fight for the fandom. Now I speak out in defense of fanfiction whenever possible. I’ve attended panels at conventions about fanfiction, I support and share posts about it from my favorite authors, I let everyone know that I’m proud of my fanfic (although I still don’t post it, that’s because I tend not to finish things and I don't’ want to get someone excited for something I know I’m going to abandon in a month, not because I’m ashamed.). So let’s talk over some points because Sarah brought up a good point today. Why is fanfiction such a shameful thing in the fandom community, and in the writing community? One of the people on my friends list who I admire and is a professional, published author once rolled their eyes and scoffed when I said that I wanted to go to the fanfiction panel at a convention. Yet, no other facet of fandom is treated this way. I brought this up on Sarah’s post and I’m going to reiterate it here. Fan artists are not scoffed at, people flock to their tables in artist’s alley. Fan-made comics and doujinshi have led to careers writing and drawing comics and scripts for the same series their fanwork was based on. No professional costumer or prop maker sneers at cosplayers, in fact, there are now professional cosplayers. Fans wait in line for hours to watch masquerade skits at conventions. Fan-dubs like Dragonball Z Abridged and Nescaflowne are hugely popular and have led to professional voice acting gigs and production studios. But if an author dares to mention that they got their start in fanfiction? The horror, the outrage, the hate mail. Yet so much of our media could arguably be called fanfiction. Dante’s Inferno? John Milton’s Paradise Lost? The Aeneid? Classics? Yes. Fanfiction? Also yes. Joyce’s Ulysses is just an AU of the Odyssey. Anything written about or based on myths? Anything involving King Arthur? Sherlock Holmes? Shakespear...Oh you can cry adaptation all you want. Let’s face it if it’s written by some old white guy it’s literature and a classic and an innovative reimagining but really it’s just fanfic and it’s everywhere. West Side Story is a fanfic of a fanfic since Shakespeare based Romeo and Juliet off a poem by a similar name. My Fair Lady? Pygmalion AU. Hamilton? Real Person Song Fic! 50 Shades series, Mortal Instruments, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Jean Rhys' Wide Sargasso Sea, hell there are literally hundreds of published Jane Austen fanfictions. John Gardner’s Grendel is a retelling of Beowolf. The Wiz, Wicked and the rest of Gregory Maguire’s books? The Wizard of Oz doesn’t enter public domain until 2035. The Magnificent Seven? Kurosawa called and he wants his seven samurai back, he’d also like to reclaim Yojimbo from A Fist Full of Dollars. Speaking of tv, how about Black Sails? It’s a fanfiction prequel to Treasure Island. Any comic book not written by the original creator. Any book series based on Star Wars, Star Trek, Dungeons and Dragons, World of Warcraft, etc. I could go on all day. So why is it, when so much of our popular culture consists of what basically boils down to fanfiction, that fanfiction is seen as a shameful indulgence, as “cheating”, as trash?Part of it boils down to sex. Read any article that brings up fanfiction and there will invariably be a line where the author distances themself by saying something along the lines of they don’t personally read it, or how slash fic isn’t their thing but to each their own. (Both quotes from some of the sites I pulled the above list from) A lot of people seem to think that fanfiction is just porn, and while yes there is some fanfiction that is porn and some of it is very good, the same can be said for regular fiction as well. People don’t blush and giggle over Lord of the Rings, yet when I say that I’ve read fanfic that’s longer than Tolkien’s trilogy I may as well be talking about how I read Aragorn/Boromir slash fic regardless of what the actual subject matter was.  Yes, there’s sex in fanfiction. A lot of it is gay sex. You can read Lolita in school but Harry Potter fanfic? Gasp, think of the children! Even if that fanfic happens to be about what if Petunia loved Harry like a son instead of pushing him away and neglecting him. There is some really fantastic fan fiction out there. Some of it has sex, some of it doesn't. Some of it deals with queer characters and experiences, some of it doesn’t. There’s nothing inherently wrong with erotica and it’s an entirely separate issue. Not every fanfiction is a 50 Shades-eque erotic rewrite of Twilight, and even if they were, so what?  A lot of fanfiction has to do with wish fulfillment. You want to know what happens next, or what would happen if this had happened instead, or if there was this character. You want to see someone like you in your favorite fandom. I had wanted to adventure with Bilbo when I was a kid. I wanted to go on adventures and fight and ride dinosaurs. These desires don’t go away just because we grow up. I got into roleplay and larp and gaming because I still enjoy make-believe. I write for a lot of the same reasons. Everyone wants to be the main character. Fanfiction gives you that chance. You can write yourself into a story, you can write someone that’s like you, you can write someone that’s nothing like you but what you want to be. So, let’s discuss our old friend Mary Sue. She gets trotted out as an example every time someone brings up fanfiction (or any uppity female character ever). Mary Sue was born in the 60’s. She is an actual character from a Star Trek Original Series fanfiction. Yes, fanfiction existed in the 60’s. Mary Sue was the brightest and prettiest girl to come out of Starfleet, she managed to be in all the right places at the right times to save the ship and capture the heart of Spock. Self insert fics and Mary Sues are at the heart of why we should be terribly ashamed of our fanfiction habit. Except, what was Luke Skywalker if not George Lucas’ self insert Marty Stu? There are countless male characters that are as bad or worse than your typical Mary sue and they are never called out for it. Seanan brought this up in a post once about her character October Daye, her editor had said that the character was too competent, too cool, and that it was unrealistic and she should tone it down. She had him replace the character’s name with “Harry Dresden” and reread the story and suddenly it was fine. There are a great many articles and essays about our friend Mary Sue and I implore you to read some of them. She is not the enemy we make her out to be. Fanfiction, on the rare occasion that it is accepted, is seen as some sort of training wheels, or baby’s first writing. It’s amateurish, it’s juvenile, it’s just not very good. If we are not ashamed of it, then it’s expected that we are only using it as a starting point to hone our writing and move on to professional published works. It’s either that or something terribly self-indulgent that should be kept to ourselves. Some fanfic writers do go on to become “real” writers. Seanan McGuire has always been very open about how her agent first approached her after reading some of her Buffy/Faith fanfiction. Some “real” writers also write fanfiction. Neil Gaiman won a Hugo for his Chronicles of Narnia Fanfic. Ursula Vernon and Mercedes Lackey write fanfiction in their spare time. Some fanfiction writers never become published authors, not everyone wants to. Some are happy to have a dozen 150k fics about their favorite fandom, or maybe just one 500k epic, some, myself included, may only have one short fic posted somewhere. There is nothing that says that you have to use your hobby to turn a profit. (By the way, for reference, War and Peace is 561,304 words, Dune is 187,240 words, you cannot make the argument that fanfic writers don’t put time into their craft when they have more words than Tolstoy under their belt.)Some of the ‘training wheels’ analogy is true. Fanfic is a terrific gateway to writing. It teaches pacing, plot, character development, how to take criticism. If I ever do write something professionally I will not be nearly as afraid of the red pen as I am of bad reviews. Anonymous readers are the most ruthless critics. May the literary gods preserve you from ever having your fanfic read aloud as an example of how terrible and ‘cringy’ fanfiction can be. There is a lot of fanfiction out there that is written by teenage girls, and it reads like it was written by a teenage girl, but the only way to get better at something is to practice. Fanfiction allows budding writers to do that. There are no rules, no one standing at the gates to bar entry, and entire communities of people willing to give advice and commentary. Sometimes it’s less helpful than harmful, but there is something about posting a new fic and waiting for that first ‘like’ or ‘kudos’ or a review. There’s something to be said for instant gratification. I have read a lot of really terrible fanfic. I have slogged through stuff that would make Mary Sue herself cringe. I have read about the ½ vampire, ½ werewolf, ½ fairy long lost princess. I have read grammar that would make your eyes bleed. Not all of it has been confined to fan works. I have read fanwork that has had me convulsing with silent laughter to the point that I wondered if I would die. Dialog that was ten times better than anything I had read in a professional novel. Fanfiction should not be judged by its worst offenders. We don’t hold Dune to the same standard as Twilight. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is not terrible and cringy because 50 Shades of Grey overuses the phrase “Oh my.” There is some absolutely terrible fanfic out there and there is some pretty terrible published fic as well, but we don’t hold that against most novelists, so why do we hold it against fanfiction writers?I guess that brings us to the elephant in the fandom. Sexism. Fanfiction has historically been something written by and for young women and there is nothing more shameful than something liked by a young woman. Boybands? The color pink? Horse Girl books and Sparkly Vampires? Society hates them. We mock them. It is not acceptable to enjoy them. Sound familiar? How many times is something considered cool until a woman decides that she likes it? We as a society hate women and hate the things they enjoy and we hate teenage girls the most. Think of how much people hated selfies and duckface and instagram. How much hate was directed at Britney Spears, One Direction, Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber? Whether it has a basis in something or not, we hate them, we make jokes, we share the memes. We write them off as having no substance, as being stupid, not worth our time. Belittling of teenage girls for their interests and fandoms isn't a new phenomenon. Remember Mary Sue? Not only that, but a lot of fanfiction is gay. Women and gays are still the punchline to a lot of jokes and we can’t ignore that that plays a big part in people’s hatred of fanfiction, even if it’s not on purpose. Fanfiction has always been a bastion for people that couldn’t find stories about them in popular fiction. A lot of mainstream main characters are straight guys. A lot of fanfiction main characters are young women or gay men. Now, I admit that I’m oversimplifying this, and especially in recent years as it is becoming safer for people to come out as other genders and queer and as having mental illness or not being neurotypical, you are seeing more of that reflected in the fanfiction community. I don’t want anyone to think that I am purposefully leaving anyone out of this. The fanfiction community has not always been so great at being inclusive of people of color or transgender, it’s getting better, but I’m not going to stand here and pretend we’ve always been perfect. In the last several years I’ve seen a lot more inclusion. As I said, fanfiction has always been a home to the “Other”, as that expands to include more individuals so too does the community. Fanfics provide us with a place to work through issues and present perspectives that we don’t get to see anywhere else, without having to create an entire world from scratch. It’s accessible to everyone. I’ve spent the better part of an afternoon researching and writing this. I hope that I was at least partially coherent and I got you to at least take a look at why you feel the way you feel about fanfiction. I’m not sure if I exactly got across the points I was trying for, there’s a lot more eloquent, well thought out arguments out there from more knowledgeable people. Check out Seanan McGuire, she’s got a lot to say on the subject.

April 25th-May 1st, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble  chat that occurred from April 25th, 2020 to May 1st, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What is your warm-up routine before you write or draw something related to your story?

Page, Rambler Extraordinaire!

Honestly? I don’t have a formal warm-up, but I definitely like to have my fingers all warmed-up and ready for lots of typing! I really need to get in the mindspace for the particular image/idea being portrayed, though.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

1) Seek out music that matches the energy of the page, 2) Draw some circles/spirals/hatchmarks to loosen up, 3) Pick the easiest thing on the page and finish it first to build momentum, 4) Repeat Ad Infinitum

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

-listen to music from my playlist -read some fanfics -watch YouTube videos from my subscription -get some tea -stretch/workout -wear my comfiest clothes

CalimonGraal(Fenauriverse)

i'm also another one that listens to music before doing story stuff. (sometimes either is a favorite song/song i'm obsessed with atm or one that matches the current scene)

Eilidh (Lady Changeling)

I usually reread my comic so far and listen to some music I associate with it to get me in the mindset and excited for it

eli [a winged tale]

I have a warm up character to go to! Usually I try for some gestures before getting right back to the panels. It gets the rustiness out of the way for me!

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Ooh I love your warm ups, Eli!

eli [a winged tale]

Thank you! It’s easier for me to get into a routine when I have something fun to draw first (with zero expectations)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't always need a warm up, but doing panel borders for HoK makes for an excellent warm up. It gets my brain switch gears to comic mode. Music is great, but I only turn it on for important moments (or illustrations outside of comic). There are certain moods that... recur in important moments in my story, and I have playlists for those. e.g. 'sad emotional intimacy'

eli [a winged tale]

I love how music influences our work! I would love to hear all your playlists if you have them easy to share

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

ooooh @eli [a winged tale] i like the motion in your warmups! They're very fluid and nice to look at @keii’ii (Heart of Keol) Keii, I agree with separating playlists for moods! I usually just group them all in my favourites and mentally search for them

DanitheCarutor

Gosh I'm one of the most boring people. Lol I don't have a routine, I don't need one since I'm always in comic mode. Like, all I ever draw is comic pages. I don't have a script or anything that requires writing, so no need for a warm-up for that. I just jump right into it.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Sounds like you live on the edge which is the opposite of boring 8)

eli [a winged tale]

^

DanitheCarutor

I dunno, it would be cool to do warm-up drawing. That would sure help for gesture/color/anatomy practice. I just don't have the time, a page takes about 4 days to finish without outside distractions, so I have to get to work right away.

eli [a winged tale]

If you can jump right in, that’s great! For me otherwise I just stare at the inks and wish it would colour itself

DanitheCarutor

Ffff I'm like that with dynamic shots where the perspective points are off the page, and I have to tape scrap paper to it, and sometimes my ruler isn't long enough. Working in a traditional medium can be such a pain in the ass sometimes. Lol

This panel is a good example.

Top view perspective lines went way off the page, I hate it.

Anyways, that's my complaint for the day.

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

When I draw warm ups. This was of my 'for practice' comic art. I wanted to practice the vertical scroll storytelling. A lady gets her purse string cut, and the thief runs off. Whenever I want to figure out action scenes, I do little character interactions. It helps me learn more about certain character behavior(edited)

eli [a winged tale]

Nice! Practice comics are great!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

yeah it's really good too!

it's also a great way to possibly have new stories/series

kinda like.....brainstorming, but applied

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Thank you Eli, Shadow. I try to combine my knowledge of storyboarding, since vertical scroll sequences, are similar to that in some regards.(edited)

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

I.... Don't do warm up. I just... Start drawing(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

dang Holmea you living the risky life

that's brave

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

I am pretty sure of my skill. Should I warm up?? Could be super to start warm ups! I check my mail, find out how we are doing online with our comic and just begin to draw. I guess since I have done it professionally as a 2d animator, and there is not really time to warm up, that I have learned to just start

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

I do warm ups for everything! though what I define as warmups depend on each creator. For me, it begins with stretches and sketching, ill doodle things i need to get out of my head so i'm not distracted by those ideas- they usually involve studies, certain character interactions, or thumbing out pieces I want to tackle later! I may sure to draw everyday to flex that too, so its also important to be able to relax those creative muscles with some pre-work!

also! my warm ups vary with what medium i work in. if Im working in watercolours, i practice fine pencil work and get my lines as loose as possible. when it's comic (so mainly inking) i do what I described above with character studies and what not

kayotics

I’m really bad at remembering to do warm ups. I should.... actually do them more, but the time I have dedicated to drawing is usually pretty limited

Deo101 [Millennium]

Because I usually finish off whatever I had been working on the day before, warmups for me are kind of the process of starting a new piece. All the sketching and thumbing to get my next idea out work pretty well for warming me up, and then I feel ready to go by the time I'm needing to do things like lines. I also get music going that fits the mood of what I'm working on, like lots of people seem to do! I also need to remember to do stretches more :/ And I usually get myself some kind of drink, tea or something, to keep me company while I work ;)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Sounds like you are pretty busy, Kayotic. Yeah warm ups can be a good practice before diving into a big illustration

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Weirdly I don't think I've ever done warmups for illustrations. Only comic work!

Probably because illustrations, I just do them whenever I feel like it, so my brain is already ready (i.e. I don't start if my brain isn't ready)

whereas comic... I can't just wait for my brain to get ready. I need to keep updating it.

Page, Rambler Extraordinaire!

Pro-tip: if you decide to not do anything and procrastinate, you don't have to warm-up!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

hmm, can't say i've really tried warming up for art before, but i've heard it can really help! What are you guys' art warm up routines?

Deo101 [Millennium]

For me it's just kinda mindless sketching til I hit what it is I wanna be doing

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Make panel borders (not really a routine though, at least I don't think it is)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

When I do watercolor, I usually don't do warm ups unless I'm planning from thumb-> sketch ->color thumbs and figuring out local colors for watercolor then doing my watercolor flats from there

Deo101 [Millennium]

Instead of staring at a blank screen and waiting, making little circles or scribbles or drawing like. Some arms or something til, eventually, my brain thinks we're working and then it's like "ah yes! Here we go!"

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but digitalllyyyyy I shoullddddddddd

my brain when looking at my comic: "aight time to do the thingy lmao"

Deo101 [Millennium]

If I've already got a sketch waiting to go I can jump right in though

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

idk, I should but my time is usually limited so I haven't done a warm up in a while lmao.

now I have the time, I probably would

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

ohh i see

like some quick sketches

i see how that can help- whenever i'm figure drawing or drawing people in a cafe or something my later ones are always better

how is making panel borders a warm up? don't you have to do that anyways?

Deo101 [Millennium]

Lines with intent! Doesn't matter what the purpose is, same kinda thing as drawing a bunch of straight lines in a row or practicing ellipses a bit

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's something I can do with my brain turned off. While I do it, it wakes up the comic-making part of my brain

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh ye

Deo101 [Millennium]

Which I'd encourage doing things like drawing a ton of ellipses or straight lines, it gets your hand into the groove so you can draw stuff right the first time

Do I do it often? No But I do encourage it

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

ah i see keii

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

So for me, the panel borders can function like a warmup without being a "ritual." Kinda like if you're... say... hiking, walking from your parking spot to the trailhead can be a warmup even if it's not a ritual and is necessary anyway

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

ooo that's an interesting way of putting it

... man I really should consider warm ups often. I have been touching my sketchbook less and less so lmao

I do find making small thumbs and coloring them in relaxing for me, not sure that count as a warm up but its something I like doing when planning out watercolor illustrations lol

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Relaxing/chilling/ "reward after a long day" arting is also an interesting topic, though not 100% suitable for this week's question...

I find it interesting how a lot of people seem to like, make cute ship doodles, whereas I uhhh

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

lineart is the easiest for me to do though. I don't have to think much about it

maybe i should like line a page as warm up?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'll drop some examples in art share in a bit

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

ooh please do(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That sounds like a good idea! Worth trying

Feather J. Fern

I actually read in a artist self care comic "Draw Stronger: Self Care of Artist" that you are supposed to stretch and stuff before you art so your body is warmed up for long periods of sitting. Things i draw before getting into main art, the one line challenge where you draw something using one line, gesture drawing warm ups, and always becuase it's something I recently been doing, is drawing a thumbs up on a page that I can erase later or keep in a sketchbook as in like "Good job "(edited)

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I don't have a warm-up routine before I sit down and draw / write comics. Besides making a cup of coffee before I dive right in. (edited)

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I don't follow rules

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

i don't really have any warm up routines. it helps that 3d art is less physically demanding than drawing. during/after my work, i try to look away from the screen and relax my eyes every so often, but i can't think of anything i specifically do before working.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Another dive-right-inner here. I mean, I do loose pencil sketches before putting down lineart, but it's not like a separate warmup drawing before the real one, it's just the start of the real one.

If my brain isn't in "comics mode" and I need to get a page done...I find a nice secluded spot, sit down with the blank sketchbook, and stare at the empty paper until ideas start clicking into place. Unrelated sketches would be a distraction at that point -- same as checking twitter, just one more excuse for my brain to focus on something other than the page.

Used to do the seclusion in local restaurants( whether it's a nice place or just a plastic fast-food table), but obviously that hasn't been an option for a while :/

varethane

My warmup is working eight hours at an unrelated job l-lol

eli [a winged tale]

Haha aw that’s a mood

Miranda

Oh boy do I feel that

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

oh that got real