#Ptah's inbox

[erinptah]

thoughts on any moon knight characters blipping or not?

Sure, I might have a few of those...

Marc and company weren't, although Marc included "being Blipped" in Steven's fake backstory. Made it way easier to get him the museum job: "no work history, home address, or personal documentation for the past five years? Completely normal, most of our applicants have that, sign here and you can start Monday"

Steven is genuinely surprised to find out they weren't Blipped

Jake knew, but is privately surprised to find out the Blip lasted five whole years

The "Official Marvel Timeline Book" puts Marc's discharge from the military as so recent that it happened during the Blip. I don't buy it. Every military in the world would've been desperate for warm bodies at that point, they wouldn't have kicked him out the first time he had a fugue state

Meeting Khonshu, on the other hand, I can believe happening mid-Blip

If Layla met Marc mid-Blip, obviously she wasn't gone. If she met him before, she still didn't go, because there's no way they could've gotten through the arguments of Season 1 without it coming up. ("Did you meet someone else while I was gone, and that's why you're trying to get rid of me? Are you even happy I came back?")

Elias and Wendy weren't, because either of their (apparent) deaths would've given Marc the same breakdown he had after Wendy's (actual) death, and exposed Steven to the whole Moon Knighting thing years earlier

(The reason Wendy died so soon after the end of the Blip was, the sight of "half of all children in the universe died, and they just came back, but my dead child is still gone" sent her into a self-destructive tailspin)

Harrow was. His cult of Ammitology was already well-established pre-Blip, so it struggled through the five years without him. When he came back, he told everyone it was thanks to Ammit's power, and membership skyrocketed

Duchamp could go either way. I really like the idea of him, Marc, and Layla spending those years doing MK missions as a well-practiced team...but it's also fun to think about him showing up on Marc's doorstep after five years and saying "hi, apparently I've been dead and all my other contacts have moved on, are we still friends?"

And that's kinda everyone! If you're adapting other MK comicverse characters to the MCU, it could go either way, depending on what works best for the story you're telling.

[leifandthorn]

Stopped reading the story for a few months cuz the story arc was stressing me out- really thought Kale was going to attack Thorn for 'thinking the truth'. I am pleasantly surprised by how far Kale has come with not falling for it for that long instead.

Heh, judging by the comments, you weren't the only one who was nervous!

It's really satisfying as a writer to put a character through that kind of growth. Where there's a test or a challenge they would've failed in earlier installments, and it's easy to see from the outside how they should pass it, but you're in suspense about whether they've grown enough that they can pass it.

[erinptah]

Steven: A+

Marc: needs a few more points in Oblivious

Jake: we're making up most of his characterization anyway, this variant works fine

Wade: A+ when he's in "making an educated wish" mode, but the chart really needs a whole new axis to encompass his "explains completely-true things in terms that are completely incomprehensible to everyone around him"

[erinptah-admin]

I've aired your Republic of Heaven Community Radio series since I first discovered it several years ago, but I'd never actually finished His Dark Materials, so I knew I was missing a lot. I just started rereading it again after finally reading all of HDM, and I'm understanding so much more of how your worldbuilding builds on and meshes with it! It's like rereading something as an adult that you'd last read as a child and noticing way more of the background plot. It's very exciting.

Very cool to hear, thank you! <3

[comicteaparty]

May 20th-May 26th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from May 20th, 2020 to May 26th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following  question:

How do you personally keep track of everything you read?

carcarchu

for western webcomics i Don't unless i read them on tapas or webtoons where it saves my place. otherwise if it's something i really love i'll leave it in a tab indefinitely saving my spot. for eastern webomics i religiously update my reading history on anilist or MU

Eilidh (Lady Changeling)

I uh

Don't

Capitania do Azar

I keep RSS feeds on things I absolutely must not forget and also keeping up with people's twitters

tho twitter is a very unstable way to get update notifications because things get lost real fast

but RSS never really failed me

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Bookmarks. If a comic goes onto my reading list, it goes into my bookmarks. I used to do RSS but that habit died with google reader.

RebelVampire

A mix of memory and Archive Binge (https://archivebinge.com/). Although these days probably more the former just because I have so little time for any reading I only do in bulk to the point I'll usually remember where I left off since I fortunately have a pretty good memory once I read a few pages. That being said, I have been considering switching to RSS feeds just for convenience, but time has really gotten in the way of me doing that as well. XD

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

...Poorly

Unless I get an email notification about it, or see an update on Twitter, I usually forget about the comic for a while. But the good news is, when I do remember, there are often many new pages to come back to. Like a mini binge!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I'm really bad at it, which is why I typically read comics on host sites like Webtoon, Tapas, etc. (Sorry all you personal website peeps!) I make very rare exceptions, because it's just too difficult for me to keep track of all the websites and all the new pages. The only other way that I can keep track is if I'm in the Discord server for a particular comic. If personal sites had easy to find email subscription buttons or something though, I'd probably be able to keep track better.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Mailing list for "finished this chapter!" emails sounds reasonable. So you only get it every chapter.

Though for people who do longer chapters, maybe "finished this scene" emails might be a better option.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I don't mind page by page updates, but I might be one of the few that does a pretty good job of remembering what happened every page. But yeah! Email updates would so help me since I my email alerts my phone, so I can check important stuff (and comics) right away if I want to.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I personally wouldn't want email for every new page for every comic I follow

I also don't mind page by page updates, but for email, it's different.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I usually just keep the tab open for them on my Chrome....but most of the comics I read are from tapas/webtoons. However.....getting email updates would honestly flood my inbox, so I probably wouldn't want that

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I mean, my inbox is already flooded with BS, lol. If you've ever bought something online or made an account anywhere, your inbox will be flooded, so it's really a minor inconvenience for me.

Also, you wouldn't be required to get email updates if you don't want them, but the option would be nice

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Email for "every comic you follow that updated today" could work, like if a site like archivebinge could work that out.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Oh that would be lovely

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

Honestly i like that idea too!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean I guess we already have something close -- just bookmark AB and go there

But an email feature would definitely simplify it for many folks

DanitheCarutor

Oh man, I use public hosting sites, Discord and Twitter, which isn't the best for stand-alone site comics. Every so often I bookmark a comic I plan on reading, but then I always totally forget about it. There are a couple comics I remember every blue moon like Sister Claire or that comic about a Mexican Catholic kid trading his soul to summon a demon, or something, but then I end up forgetting where I left off... <_<' I heard using an RSS feed is good, but I'm pretty particular about stuff being in my inbox, if I get emails for a bunch of comics I'll probably just get annoyed. Lol

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Oh, yeah, that Archive Binge email idea is great or even like, what updated this week instead of just today. I also use bookmarks. And also I just have a million comics to start open in tabs. I do now have the Webtoon app so I can follow a handful of comics that don't have they're own site, but my preference is definitely for homesites. Maybe I'm just an old lady in that respect TuT I also usually read in little binges, but I also follow creators on Twitter/Instagram so I can see when those page updates post. I'll be honest, I don't really understand how RSS works X') I assume it somehow pings you when a site updates, but the mechanics of it I just don't know. But I definitely do have an RSS feed enabled on my site because I know some people use it.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

RSS just works like any website where you subscribe to accounts and read a feed with the updates -- Twitter, Tumblr, blogs, whatever. Except that it isn't limited to a specific website, it's universal. You get one RSS-reading app and it can subscribe to any feed from anywhere.

Mine combines a couple different blogs, comics, podcasts, new fics posted in AO3 tags, and at least one Deviantart gallery. (Back in the day I put a couple of tumblrs on it, before I took the plunge and signed up with tumblr...)

Although for webcomics I use a combination of Archive Binge and ComicRocket. (If one of them isn't getting the updates for a specific comic, I follow it on the other one.)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I agree with LadyLazuli, if it wasn't for my Webtoon, Tappytoons & Tapas comic apps, it's hard to keep track elsewhere. I also rely on comic related discord channels or I watch for banners to show up to remind me to check out the comic series. Likewise, I want to get some sort of fun memo pad reminder to 'check up this series'. Another good source I love is Webcomic Library https://tagpacker.com/user/webcomic.library Luma did a great job categorizing them so it's easy to find titles with genres I'm interested in(edited)

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

yesss Webcomic Library!! they're so great

[astrangeghost]

putting EVIL and FUCKED UP things IN your inbox

Ptah

[erinptah]

Getting the feeling that you're conflating "their prose isn't as high-quality as their drawings" with "they're not putting enough time/effort into their prose."

Writing is a skill like any other -- you get better by doing a lot of it, over a long period of time. If the switch from "fully-drawn comic" to "prose narrative" is actually a switch from "the artistic format I've been honing and practicing for years" to "an artistic format I'm just trying out for the first time," then yeah, it makes sense that the quality would slip.

If Stephen King decided his next book was going to switch from "the written novel format he's been perfecting for the past 50 years" to "his very first attempt at drawing a comic," I bet you'd notice a quality slip there too!

It's not about a lack of care or respect for the medium. It's just about being earlier in the learning curve.

i am going to criticize the practisce that many webcomic authors do of turning their fully illustrated comics into text with a few drawings here and there.

a lot of this is me being salty that my favourite comics changed medium in a way i personally didnt like but i think i have a leg to stand on here.

there is something that is perhaps a little bit dismissive about the assumption they make when they do this. every time it happens is done with the idea that "drawing comic pages is too hard and takes too much work, simply writing text is faster and easier" as a way to save on time and effort.

problem with this is that they are assuming writing is easy.

writing is actually hard, writing well, the kind of writing that is worth reading, the kind of writing that is actually artful and not just serviceable amateur descriptions of scenes, takes a lot of thought and a lot of effort. writing done well can very well take just as much time as drawing a good comic page. but people dont realize this because when you see a bad drawing the fact that is bad is immediatly apparent, whereas any page filled with text looks more or less the same as any other, regardless of its contents.

so its a little demeaning to the craft of writing this idea many artists have that its actually a time-saving method of conveying a story. because if its done well it certainly isnt.

[idi-the-noof]

For october

So there are lots of cool month challenges out there like inktober. I'm not that great at drawing but I do enjoy writing.

So to that end this month I will be posting a daily hymn, litany,prayer, poem or heka dedicated to a certain god, my ancestors, deified ancestors such as Imhotep or a Pharoah or other great person from the history of Kemet.

Feel free to suggest a deity or ancestor/king in my inbox.

I am trying to go for no repeats, but synchratized form (Sekhmet-mut, Ptah-Sokar-Wesir) will be counted as seperate entries. A duplicate would be like 2 Aset entries. (Reserving the right to do doubles if the gods move me though!)

Anyone else can participate in this.

use the tag Devtober which is what I'll be tagging them as!

[krovscastlerpg]

It’s Tuesday and here are two new inbox games for you!

To participate in the inbox games, simply reblog this post or post a link to your character’s inbox. Afterwards send as many asks to other players as you like, anon or not.

Inbox Game 1: ✨ Mythology Based Questions ✨

Bragi: Do you like poetry/Have a favorite poem?

Ares: What do you fight for?

Thor: Are you afraid of thunder?

Demeter: Do you have a green thumb?

Frigg: Would you like to be married sometime down the road or would you rather stay unmarried?

Lofn: Have you ever had a bad relationship?

Nemesis: Have you ever crossed a line for the sake of revenge?

Forseti: What is Justice to you?

Geb: What’s your favorite thing about the Earth?

Var: Do you keep your promises?

Idun: How important is youth to you?

Ra: Do you prefer night or day?

Ptah: Would you describe yourself as a creative person?

Baldr: What’s your greatest weakness?

Hades: Would you rather die before all your loved ones, or after all of them?

Nut: Do you like to stargaze?

Dionysus: What kind of alcohol, if any, do you prefer?

Thanatos: Do you fear/have you ever feared dying?

Apollo: Do you have a favorite music?

Hephaestus: Are you good at making things?

Kuk: Are you afraid of the dark?

Tyche: Are you a lucky person, or unlucky person?

Zeus: Do you like flying?

Wadjet: How far would you go to protect someone you cared about?

Aphrodite: Fond memory of a past or current relationship?

Poseidon: Happiest memory with water?

Loki: Best trick you’ve ever played on someone?

Inbox Game 2: 🌹 Luxury asks 🌹

Bubble Bath: Do you have any routines before bedtime? Like skin care, etc. what are they?

Champagne: What topic could you talk about for hours?

Crushed Velvet: Have you ever used your charm to get something you want?

Diamonds: How do you feel about excessively spending money?

Faux Fur: Describe your wardrobe.

Glitter: Describe someone special to you.

Gold: Describe what you would call the most perfect meal.

Jazz: Name a song that resonates with you and your emotions. Explain the reason why.

Lace: What is something in your life completely different from last year?

Lingerie: Do you consider yourself a promiscuous person?

Lipstick: Do you enjoy talking to strangers?

Pearls: What's something about your personality that surprises others?

Penthouse: What would you consider your dream home? Describe it.

Perfume: If you could make your own signature fragrance, what would it smell like?

Robe: How do you prepare for an evening alone with a loved one/date?

Roses: If it had to be winter, autumn, spring or summer for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

Satin: What is your most favorite article of clothing?

Sheet Mask: What's your favorite lazy activity?

Silk: Do you have more inner or outer beauty?

Silver: Do you have any obscure hobbies? What are they?

Sparkling Water: What are your top three songs for the summer?

Wine: What kind of drunk are you (happy/affectionate, angry, sad, fun/wild)? If you don't drink, what kind do you think you WOULD be?

[erinptah]

Y'know, if Marc's Moon Knight suit is the Orthodox version that hasn't changed in thousands of years, then there's definitely a universe where people think that Moon Knight has just been the same immortal guy since ancient Egypt.

Why is Moon Knight randomly a woman in some eras? Well once you get a few centuries old being the same gender all the time gets boring.

Of course this assumption has been supported by Moon Knight's past because they had all the past Moon Knight's knowledge downloaded into their brain so pretending to be the same person is actually pretty easy.

Unfortunately, this time around Steven got all the academic knowledge and Jake got all of the combat muscle memory, so Marc is forced to start working with his alters way earlier because Khonshu got tired of telling him shit that he is supposed to know innately.

It's not like Khonshu's armor is particularly revealing or figure-enhancing! I bet people just default-assume the person underneath is a man.

Or, if they figure out a certain Moon Knight is a woman, they assume "ah, this immortal has been a woman this whole time, it's just that other observers didn't notice."

Having different alters inherent different parts of the PreviousMoonKnightKnowledge.zip data dump could be a cool narrative excuse to get Marc and the others to work together.

That said...Khonshu sure seems to get entertainment value out of watching Marc suffer. So maybe he would just sit back and watch to see how it played out.

[erinptah]

Not sure about the last line I wrote from scratch, but this is from a chapter I revised/expanded today, so it's the last line I rewrote:

"You can -- if you like -- if you're not sick of seeing our faces yet -- crash in our guest room for the recovery," offers Steven. "Only fair to let us take care of you for a bit, right? Now you've been taking care of us since we were eight."

Any followers who want to do this, consider yourselves tagged!

Last Line Challenge

RULES: in a new post, give the last line you wrote or drew…then tag that many people (or as many as you’d like!)

Tagged by @kybercrystals94!

Okay well technically my last line is in the fic I'm about to publish so I went to my other open WIP to grab this for you:-

Crosshair’s mercurial moods had kept Hunter on his toes since they were cadets. More than once he had cut himself on Crosshair’s sharp edges, misjudging his mood and how quickly it turned; that was just how he was, and Hunter had learned to deal with it.

No pressure tags for the Summer of Bad Batch crew! @lifblogs @indigofyrebird @samcurrentlywriting @waywardsou2 @stardustloki @dib-dab-art-attack @99aceace and anyone else who wants to play!

[leifandthorn]

It's March 19 and I wanted you to know that I See the fourth wall in the current comic page. We are all Marula. Fascinating commentary!

live Whump Fan reaction shot

[erinptah]

I'm in the mood to reread Cover of Knight, but I wanted to make sure I read everything in order so I was like "Hey, I'll make a checklist in my notes app" and it, uh,

It's pretty long

It is! Feels pretty good to see it all laid out like this =D

(Double-check the position of Meeting the Team 1, though! I didn't include the bonus-art updates in my "moon-silvered, lunatic, cratered" chapter numbering, but AO3 does.)

[leifandthorn]

The key word here is “not seen in heartswords.”

If a blade represents a very rare/extreme personality type, it’s totally possible that none of the wielders in the entire course of history have made it through a heartsword training program. (For comparison, bone-saw-wielders are rare enough that the number on record can be counted on one hand.)

Also, some personalities are predisposed not to make it. Think about Pascentia, who has a rare type (longsword) because she’s such a driven overachiever -- well, what about a person whose core trait is that they’re a lazy underachiever? If that was the personality correlated with a heart-machete, then you’d never see one because the wielders never get around to drawing them.

As for the long blades...that’s just part of the magic.

Common Sword types 

[erinptah]

really loving your 'all the headmates together' art of the Beaubiers and the Knights. Is there any chance you have drawn/would draw Madisynn's system? Our system has become very attached to them between their Reveals and Kang timeline appearances and we're always excited when they show up

I hadn't drawn the whole team before, but I have now!

List of intros under the readmore, clockwise from top center:

Keighley with a Y and an E-I-G-H (but they're not where you think): body age, fairy warrior. The protector who took point on fighting demons when they got trapped in a hell dimension. Got a poleaxe from the Kamar-Taj armory.

Ambyrlynn with two N's and two Y's: body age, full-on Disney mermaid. Probably does a lot of singing.

Ebony (yes it's from where you think): teenager, fictive human (probably). Social protector who's not allowed to use the poleaxe until she practices more. The bat is her cool goth sidekick.

Madisynn with two N's and a Y (but it's not where you think): slightly younger than the body, human. Long-time host of the system. Besties and TV-watching buddies with Wong.

Maddie or possibly Maddeigh (they're not sure, since she can't spell): child, human. Once she's been introduced to Wong, sometimes they watch a kids' show together.

Breidenn with two N's and an E-I: Madisynn's twin, same age and species. Social protector. He has blue hair and pronouns and he's proud of them.

Tesseract or possibly Tessyracte: ageless, enhanced human. Specific to a Variant of the system that was mind-wiped to become a TVA agent. After their memories were restored, Agent Tess stayed as part of the team.

[erinptah]

👋 hello

I've been following the CoK series for forever now, and my reread had me wondering something.

In the fics, Marc and Steven are primarily associated with the colors white and blue, respectively. This makes a lot of sense considering the clothes they wear in the duat. What made you choose the purple/pink situation for Jake? (As opposed to say, red, the color of his sarcophagus in the show? Or black, the main color he wears?)

I do feel like it fits him pretty well, but I'd like to know your thought process surrounding the colors.

(loving the current Deadpool series btw!)

Hello, and excellent question!

It's inspired by the MacKay run of the comics (starting in 2021, and he's still writing Moon Knight today, though it's cycled through 3 separate titles by now).

Comics Marc is keeping up An Image where he always wears "all white" or "white-and-black." Steven tends toward blues and greens (and his headspace domain is a neutral-toned office).

Jake...it's hard to tell what the actual colors are, because his headspace domain is a bar where everything is saturated with red/pink/purple neon lighting:

One more sample (not the original dialogue, it's my edit):

And this is my favorite take on comics Jake! Irreverent, sleazy but in a fun way, deeply protective and caring, dirtbag-with-a-heart-of-gold.

We've basically only seen MCU Jake in "dealing with an active deadly threat" mode. If/when we get a Season 2, and the writers have a chance to fill in what he's like the rest of the time, I hope they take some cues from MacKay Jake.

(It also ties in nicely with the Duat sarcophagus. Dark/dull red is for when Jake is trapped and threatened. Give the guy a chance to relax and have fun, and it brightens up to a nice hot pink.)