#so I'm using that for a new wip and also revisiting old wips

[dontcrywrite]

so it's been about a year since I actually posted something and things have changed a LOT since then (notably I graduated college lmao) so look out for some new and improved wip intros bc not only has a kingdom betrayed evolved quite a bit, but I've also created a new wip that I'm excited about as well :))

[poolseason]

[NINJAGELION AU]

i've had this Ninjago x Evangelion/Mecha crossover au brewing in my head for years now, felt like revisiting it

Long post under the cut: Backstories, design notes and character lore

Mechs:

Unit-01 (WIP) : Lloyd's mech, supposed to resemble an Oni. It's primarily a dark purple with glowing green panels and orange accents, with 2 horn like antannae. It's 4 eyes are actually an LCD display. Unit-01's color scheme the same as from the source material, bc purple green and gold are plot relevant colors for Lloyd specifically. The weapons this unit uses are short-swords, plasma blasters, and it's bare fists(lol). This mech is prone to going berserk a lot, possibly due to it's pilot's mental instability.

(In NGE, the mech's are possessed by a spirit of their parents or loved ones, I'm indecisive on if Garmadon is the ghost in Lloyd's mech or Misako. Last time I was thinking about this au, Misako was possessing it, but i'm sort of leaning towards Garmadon again. idk idk.....)

Unit-02 (WIP): Built to resemble a samurai with dragon like elements that glow red. This mech is built for but land and undersea combat, making it the most versatile machine on the force. It's equipped with a retractable sword and an acid blaster. It's possessed by a former scientist named Nyad.

Pilots (and Cole):

Cole is a captain, (looking to be promoted to major) and is the head of the New Ninjago City base's combat division. He sort of a silly dude and while he takes his job really seriously, he's also prone to unprofessionalism. He personally oversees the pilots training and coaches them during fights. When Commander Garmadon and Assistant Head Wu refuse to take Lloyd in when he arrives at NNC, Cole decides to take the kid in himself and be the parental figure he doesn't have. Cole's got a complicated relationship with his own family, especially after his mother died saving him the Second Impact 20 years ago, now he vows to destroy all the darkness monsters that are invading.

Zane is sort of a mysterious guy. He's an artifical lifeform created specifically to pilot any mech but he usually fights in the prototype, Unit-00. Unit-01 doesn't seem to like him, and never responds to him. His suit is mostly grayscale, white armor, and light blue accents. His neural interface comes with a visor to help him see better. His primary relationships are Cole, Dr Pixal Borg, who is his personal doctor and (almost) confidant, Wu, who he has a father-son esque relationship with, and Lloyd his first true friend. He doesn't see much value in himself because he can always be replaced with a different copy, but his time with his friends starts to teach him otherwise

Nya and her supervising officer Kai are from Ignacia and joined the NINJA-go battle mech program through their connection with their parents, who were officers of the organization. But after a terrible accident following the Second Impact, they were left orphaned. Kai was too old to qualify as a pilot, but Nya was the perfect candidate. She began training at age 13, and became the strongest fighter on the force. Now at nineteen, the darkness monsters are now attacking and she (and her brother) are transferred to the New Ninjago City base, which seems to be the epicenter of the attacks, and now the the former solo-flyer has to learn to be a part of a team. She's a bit arrogant and prickly and a kindhearted friend to the other pilots, and she's got a bit of a crush on Junior Technician Jay Walker. Nya's suit design is definitely the most personalized primarily blue with grey, and darker blue and red accents with white armor, actually she ended looking a little like D.Va lol.

Lloyd, is the youngest pilot on the team now, but he's still a minor so he has to deal with the joys of school alongside his new life as a mech fighter. Having been unexpectedly summoned to Ninjago City by his estranged Uncle Wu and pressured into fighting the invading monster, Lloyd is apprehensive about his new double life, but this responsibility bestowed on him now means he now has friends and people who care about him, a far cry from the abusive boarding school he was abandoned at. Lloyd's a moody kid, with some anger issues and unresolved trauma at something terrible he witnessed when he was a young child, but he's also an empathetic kid who's willing to help everyone he meets. Lloyd has a sibling like rivalry with Nya, big brother(teetering on fatherly) relationship with Cole and Kai, a crush on the girl from school who punched him Akita, and really strained relationship with his parents and uncle. Beyond that he has a friendship with his mysterious colleague Zane that he doesn't really understand. Lloyd's suit is the most simple of the pilot suits, mostly green with white armor and gold accents. He didn't really think too much about it, other than asking Jay to make it green. His neural interface is also pretty simple, since he has an bizarrely high natural sync rate with his mech, which resemble little horns.

MISC Lore:

The second impact was an event where humanity fucked around and found out on the Dark Island and and entity called the Overlord awakened from hibernation, causing a near apocalypse that left Ninjago in an eternal heatwave. 20 years later these dragon-like monsters have started attacking trying to get to something being held deep below Ninjago City (source dragon? FSM as a dragon? firstbourne?? some kind of Dragon is under the base)

Zane promised Lloyd that he'll bring snowy winters back for him, and even though Lloyd thinks that was a rare moment of cheesiness from his friend, little did he know that Zane was going to cause an Ice Age during the climax.

Only people born after the second impact are viable candidates to pilot the NINJA mechs. When Kai learned of this he was furious that he couldn't be the one to avenge his family, and had to watch his sister fight and train instead. But in spite of his anger he made it a personal mission to get power in the organization and uncover the conspiracy behind the Second Impact and the attacking monsters.

Unit-00 is a prototype mech and isn't equipped for most combat scenarios, so Zane is primarily a long-range fighter and sniper. Zane might be replaceable to the force but Unit-00 isn't. Unit-00 was originally designed by Dr. Julien, but the man went mad and under mysterious circumstances, he was found dead inside it's entry plug alongside Zane's original iteration, Echo. After that incident, testing began on it, the original test pilot was a 24 year old, Morro, who was personally recruited by Wu, but the synchronization failed and disaster struck again, ending with Unit-00 going berserk, and another casualty. A similar incident happened with Zane, and later Lloyd, though they survive. Wu just needs to learn that Unit-00 really hates new pilots, and Zane is the only successful pilot for it.

Unit-01 is also a very testy machine, it only likes Lloyd, and goes berserk if it feels that Lloyd is in danger. Otherwise it doesn't respond to anyone else.

Cole and Kai might have hooked up in grad school, no one really knows for certain.

Pixal is the second Borg to join the organization, her father Cyrus Borg was one of the original researchers, and the person who designed the Geofront system that allowed the inhabited buildings in New Ninjago City to safely go underground and become a fortress on the surface. Pixal is more interested in the actual NINJA mechs and combat division research more than the civilian safety r&d, and she becomes the Head Scientist by the time the story begins.

Pixal the second in command to Cole, and her assistant is 23 year old genius Jay Walker, fresh out of an engineering degree and landed himself in the most insane secret government organization. Skylor and Dareth are the two other lead technicians. But Dareth's not too amazing at his job, admittedly.

The NINJA mechs aren't just machines,, they're enormous building sized cyborgs, and are actually alive creatures being held under armor. Unit-00 and 02 are cloned only from the dragon held under the Ninjago City base, but Unit-01 is cloned from the Overlord and the Dragon, making it a hybrid.

Throughout the story Cole and Kai begin to uncover a conspiracy orchestrated by the Commander and (reluctant accomplice Wu) and a mysterious council, with plans to destroy to world and rewrite reality, and for some reason Zane and Lloyd are at the center of it.

[lavenderarts]

Revamp: Monthly Subs and Reward Art!

Hi everyone! After a long hiatus on this due to inconsistent health, I'm back and feeling better than ever, and I'd like to re-institute my monthly subscription service for art rewards. These will be active on my Ko-fi starting on August 1st! Read on to hear about the changes from my old system and details of what you'll get for subscribing, but if you don't care about any of that and just want to see the rewards page, here it is:

Please share this and consider tossing a couple bucks a month my way to help me support myself and my dog! Details below the cut!

So last time I was offering art rewards, it gradually became unsustainable for a number of reasons, chief among them the fact that I was basically offering severely discounted full commissions of all styles, and it was exhausting to fulfill in addition to regular commission work. I just couldn't keep up and got overwhelmed. So to help prevent that this time around, here are the changes I'm implementing:

I'll have a single reward type: single character busts! These are easy to crank out in an hour or less, so I can keep up with demand better. I'll reserve the right to decide between lined/lineless flats and papercrafts as I see fit to keep them interesting and fun for me, but if it's your birthday month or your yearly sub anniversary, you can choose the style and get a little something extra! For examples of what a bust looks like, please check out my recent ArtFight submissions :)

I'm going to do my level best to institute a hard 3-week turnaround rate for all regular commissions, and save the final week of each month for giving these rewards full priority along with onboarding new batches of clients for the following month's commissions.

I'm moving my subscription service over to Ko-fi, where anyone can give between $2-9 a month as a very generous tip and get access to my Discord server, or give $10+ for monthly bust rewards, early access to adoptables, and more! You can choose to give more than $10, but no other rewards exist for higher tier subs, it's up to whatever you feel is appropriate! Ko-fi has both Stripe and PayPal integration, which should be easier on the subscriber end, and it allows me to use PostyBirb to post across multiple sites at once, which makes it much easier to post early-access WIPs and finished work than it was on my old subscription service. It also automatically handles Discord onboarding and role assignment, yay!

I'm on the hunt for a simple Discord bot that can post a single repeating message on the first of every month with a link to a Google form for everyone to submit their requests, so that I don't have to ask for them manually. (If anyone knows of such a bot or is capable of making one, please get in touch!)

Previously I offered a whole suite of other rewards in addition to the monthly art -- things like subscriber-only request streams, early claims on adoptables, and even physical merch, which were not sustainable for me. Going forward, early adoptable claims for a discount will still be available as a reward, and I may occasionally do request streams, but on a less formally-scheduled basis and only as I have the free time to do so. I am not able to offer physical prints/stickers at this time; I might revisit the option in the future, but I need to know more before I try it again! I'll also be continuing to offer a subscriber discount on all commissions that will stack with other sales and discounts, along with the ability to skip the waitlist and jump directly into the work queue.

So to recap, if you subscribe to me, here's everything you get:

For $2-$9 USD: Discord server access with a special role, and my thanks for your generous support!

For $10+ USD: Discord server access with a special role, 24 hour early adoptable access with the ability to claim for a discounted price, a bust of a single character each month, first looks at finished artwork and WIPs/timelapses, commission discounts, and potentially more down the line.

My Discord is open to anyone, and all members can freely chat, post art, attend/host art streams, and answer polls regarding prompts for adoptable designs and more. You just get some nice bonuses for subscribing! While these subscription tiers are available, one-time tips and donations of any amount are still an option for commission clients or anyone else who just wants to show some love.

I hope this all makes sense and sounds enticing; I really love seeing people's OCs and getting to bring them to life and put my own little touch on them, and I'm very excited to start giving something back to all of you out there whose support means so very much to me, and without whom I could never do what I do. Thank you so much for checking out the Ko-fi! As a reminder, reward eligibility begins on August 1st! The tiers are active on Ko-fi now, but if you subscribe before August you won't be rewarded for the month of July, so keep that in mind.

[a-land-lacking-sleep]

Sam's Massive WIP Update 2025 (or rather, what to hopefully expect)

I didn't get a lot posted last year to AO3 or Tumblr, and I want to try and fix that this year. In that vein, I wanted to share a bunch of WIPs that I plan to post (and will hopefully actually post)! Each will have a little blurb to it, as well as level of focus (* to ***) that I want to apply to it.

These fics are primarily for Submas and Pokemon Legends Arceus, though there are a few Gen 5 focuses and an essay about Gen 5. ... Maybe also a few other fandoms, we'll see! Most of these are also the starts of chapters, with a few outlines as well.

Electric Trains Are The Future Chapter 22 *** (PLA/Submas)

I've already started Ch. 22 of Electric Trains! An Akari-focused chapter, we'll see her process having to leave Hisui behind!

A New Home Chapter 2 *** (PLA)

I haven't forgotten about Kamado and the formation of Jubilife Village! I want to try and get this chapter out soon, to coincide with the anniversary of Pokemon Legends Arceus, and the plan is to use it to establish the Diamond Clan's relationship with the Galaxy Team.

Self-Loathing is One Hell of a Drug ** (PLA)

I've shown this to several friends on Discord over the last year, this one is actually half written already! A Volo-centric fic, this takes place around the time of Chapters 21 and 22 of Electric Trains are the Future. One half deals with "The Two Selves Shall Meet" to disastrous results, and the other closure for a certain immortal.

Charting Course ** (PLA/Submas)

This is the Ingo version of A New Home essentially, telling his early time with the Pearl Clan, and his journey to become Warden of Sneasler. I'm also using this time to flesh out Old Shiki, the previous Warden, and Jun, the next Warden, who were both mentioned or shown in Chapter 21 of Electric Trains.

HELP! AU * (PLA)

I'm not writing the full title for this. This is purely an outline at this time, so it's the least likely to be written this year, but I really want to do it oh my god. It'd be so fun, so if you have questions about the AU or want to see it, please please pester me about it!

Thoughts About N and the Original Dragon *** (BW)

Did you know I still regularly get notifications from this post about twice a week? I'm still working on the follow-up, I just need to get my head together for more analysis and research.

Disappearing Act ** (BW/PLA)

A three-part fic, focusing on Hikari, Ingo, and Elesa disappearing from their times and regions and appearing in Hisui. Specifically, the lead ups, disappearances, and aftermaths. I've been slowly working on this since 2023, and may wait to focus on this until Electric Trains finishes.

Devil May Care * (DMC)

A Dante/Lady fic that explores their relationship through the years, following release order (not chronological). Very much not the focus, but something I want to do once the DMC bug revisits.

[sirenspells]

WIPs and abandoned projects (March 2021-December 2023)

Info on each one (as well as what the songs/audio sources are):

The song playing in the intro and outro is Dianthus Nardiformis from the Dreaming Mary OST.

19: March 2021. Okay so this one's not actually a work in progress. I made this on my 19th birthday, the joke being that the singer just says 19 then it ends. I think I thought it was kinda dumb so I didn't end up actually posting it. Also features a sona I had before Cress that I never really got attached to, so she was barely used. Song is 19 by Old 97's.

Lonely Holiday: July 2021. This has the honor of being the first OMORI mv I ever attempted. I started this on a whim while bored out of my mind dogsitting for a couple weeks, and I kinda just lost interest in it. Dunno if I'll go back to it. Song is Lonely Holiday by Old 97's.

Numb: July 2021. Another one I started while dogsitting, and another one I kinda just lost interest in, but I absolutely want to revisit it someday because it's an idea I've had for a while and still really want to do. Song is Numb (Linkin Park Cover) by Robyn Adele Anderson.

The Artist: December 2021. I stopped working on this one because doing everything manually frame-by-frame got really annoying and I started to hate working on it. I dunno why I did the zoom in manually but it looks bad, lol. The entire MV would have been just this verse of the song because I thought it really fit Basil and Omori. Tbh I still like how this looks and I may come back to it. Song is The Artist by The Hush Sound.

Higher: February 2022. It's the animation meme. I actually posted this wip a while ago but I'm still gonna include it here for completion's sake. This was really just storyboard practice, so I don't have much of an interest in completing it beyond this. It's Omori Strikers AU (my omori x persona 5 crossover au) and it's basically about Omori's identity issues due to being Sunny's Shadow. The quality's really bad on this one, for some reason iMovie refused to export it in a higher quality than this, I don't know why. Song is High by SIVIK.

Little Sunbeam: February 2022. This MV would have centered on the omari au, and beyond this it'd switch to Mari's pov and take on different palettes. Doing that text effect made working on this very annoying and would make my art program lag a lot so I lost interest in working on it. I might revisit this one, though I'd have to rework the original idea I had now that my perception on the common omari au has changed lol. Song is Little Sunbeam by Eleisha Eagle.

Nightmarish: April 2022. This MV would technically be a remake of one I made in 2020. Same song, same color palette, but with a completely new media. Part of wanting to work on this is wanting to spread Dreaming Mary propaganda cause I love it and I think people who like OMORI will like Dreaming Mary as well. Also I love this song. I definitely wanna go back to this one at some point. Song is Nightmarish from the Dreaming Mary OST.

Keep You Safe: July 2022. Like Higher I also posted this wip before but will still include it here. I absolutely want to go back to this one someday because I still really like the idea I have for it. Fun fact, for those who remember this piece, that was based on this MV, but it's not like you can tell based on what's shown here. Song is Keep You Safe by The Crane Wives.

Four Walls: August 2022. Amnesiac Omori MV, what would have been his youtube introduction if I hadn't stopped working on it and then made When Am I Gonna Lose You. I think I kinda just lost interest in this one, though I wanna go back to it at some point I think. Song is Four Walls (The Ballad of Perry Smith) by Bastille.

Someone Gets Hurt: January 2023. Amnesiac omori again babey!! Animatic that would have taken place after he regains his memories, where he's basically really angry and lashes out at Sunny and Stranger. Might revisit this one. Song is Someone Gets Hurt (Reprise) from the Mean Girls musical.

Uhh some shitpost: February 2023. Silly thing, it's a shame I stopped working on it before it actually got to the main funny part. I dunno if I'll go back to this one. Audio from @/tylergaca on twitter.

Jealous: March 2023. Animation meme. It would've been about Sunny and Mari in my pmd au and the leadup to the incident. It took me a while to get that second shot right and I still really don't like it. Do wanna revisit this one cause I love angst surrounding these two so much I love them in pmd au GRAHHH. Song is Jealous by Eyedress (slowed down).

Stranger lipsync test: May 2023. This was way too difficult as a lipsync test so I gave up on it, though I still like the animation for it. Also this is a pretty good contender for headcanon voice for Stranger I'll be real. Audio is from Persona 5 Royal.

Propaganda: August 2023. Amnesiac omori au storyboard that I do actually wanna make into a completed thing. This is very spoilery so my master plan is to not explain what's happening. Muah hah hah >:3c. Also once again iMovie exported this in a really bad quality for some reason. Song is Propaganda by Kill J.

Alter's Rant: December 2023. One more amnesiac omori animatic for the road. Once again it's really spoilery but it's basically Alter and Omori's final confrontation. I have more done than what's shown here but I wanna keep it a surprise for when I finish it, which should hopefully be soon >:3c. Also this one also got hit by iMovie's low quality curse. Song is Eva's Rant from Bring It On The Musical.

[mareenavee]

Snippets Someday

Howdy again :> I was tagged by @dirty-bosmer to share more snippets. I'm also mid ground-up edit and even during the course of this, I can see the level ups so I'm happy to share. Picking a favorite chapter is HARD though, I must say. While I'm in it, it's hard to see what makes a chapter a favorite, but during the editing process, sometimes certain turns of phrase really make me proud of my past self and my last three braincells :> I think this should be normalized. Our writing is good and worthy and we are all doing our best.

Tagging the most esteemed: @paraparadigm, @changelingsandothernonsense, @thana-topsy, @polypolymorph, @thequeenofthewinter, @snippetsrus, @rhiannon1199, @oblivions-dawn, @airiat, @the-storytellers-seer, @archangelsunited, @inquisition-dragonborn, @saltymaplesyrup, @friend-of-giants, @gilgamish, @tallmatcha, @miraakulous-cloud-district, @kookaburra1701, @rainpebble3 and HONESTLY anyone else who wants to play this game! Tag me back so I can read more snippets!!

Rules:

Rules: Revisit an old fic (or earlier chapters of your current WIP) and share a snip from: * Your first chapter * Your favorite chapter * Your most challenging chapter Alternatively, if you don't write longfic, feel free to share your one-shots. Provide as much or as little commentary as you want.

Under the cut for snips from The World on Our Shoulders!

First Chapter: Chapter 1 - Prologue (Ah. The drama. Laid out like a picnic. Immediately. Without holding anything back.)

It had been months now, time inching ever closer to a year away. The last letter she wrote home to him was before the most recent complication to their situation. It had been filled with lies, of course, as most of her correspondence had been for some time now. He wrote all the time, even when he had no word from her. Though he was always reaching, even in the distance, as far away as she could keep him, it had become so easy to ignore his hands. She stooped with just a small bit of discomfort and picked up the soft shirt she had been drying in the sun. She had already wrapped her chest, and packed away her lighter armor for travel which had been scrubbed clean. Next to her bag, a crumpled letter, smoothed over many times, lay taunting her to read it again. The ink was smeared in places, perhaps written hastily and folded before it had a chance to dry. He hadn’t bothered to use the good parchment this time, either. She looked over the correspondence once again, searching and not finding anything of interest or note. There was nothing between these lines. That was part of the problem. He commented once again on the last letter she sent, and then begged her to come home. She had burned a thousand of these. Maybe not that many, but enough. And she never answered the persistent question: when? Because the answer, after a time, had become never. And Nyenna wasn’t sure how to phrase that nicely. There likely wasn’t a way.

Favorite Older Chapter: Chapter 8 - Haunted by the Ghost of You (I have a couple more new favorites but this did mention older chapters. I enjoy the ache of these doomed ships so here we are.)

Athis was exhausted. The weight of his thoughts, his worries, his sadness had him crumbling. Once, he could have turned to her and she’d take it all away. One kiss, one glance, and he would be okay again. She was his home, his shelter, his safety. He thought he’d given her that, too, but like with everything else, her path had taken this from her as well. Nowhere felt like home, once again, for either of them. That emptiness was tearing into his soul at this point. It had been just like before he even made it to Skyrim. Nothingness. Hopelessness. He couldn’t help inviting it in. There was nobody else in here, anyway. He had tried to push the bad memories away from him all this time, but in the void, they crept back in. Reminded him of all his terror, ceaseless in their torment. He sighed and leaned his forehead against his arms as he curled in on himself. “I can’t do this by myself, love. I really need you here,” he whispered to the ghost of the girl he remembered, singing in the kitchen with autumn eyes full of love and hope. She didn’t answer. Couldn’t. Wouldn’t. She was gone, and Athis knew no matter when Nyenna next came home, that girl in his memories would never, ever return.

Challenging Older Chapter: Chapter 12 - What Am I Capable Of? (Arguments, arguments, arguments. Hard to get into the headspace of.)

“I choose what I do with my life,” he insisted, trying hard and failing to keep the bitterness out of his voice. “You don’t get to tell me who and what I am capable of saving, even if you are this legendary hero.” And he knew they were fighting words. He knew because lately, especially, things being wrested out of her control caused so much pain and confusion. It was a sore point, an argument waiting to happen no matter who was on the other end. She did level her gaze on him again, and this time he could see a malice behind it, even if it did not belong entirely to her. “So you would have me relive this fear every battle? You would distract me from what I’m supposed to do just because you think I need to be saved?” she said, words icy. And he didn’t mean that, no. He knew she was deflecting. Trying to cover up her uncertainty, her hesitancy. The fact that she didn’t believe in herself, not even a whit, even when he knew she should. “Is that how you see me, Nyenna? A distraction?” he asked, eyebrows furrowed. It hurt to dig like this, but they were her words. Could she not hear how absurd this all sounded? She exhaled through her nose. Crossed her arms over her chest. Looked away. “There were minutes in our last fight where I couldn’t be sure if you were alive or dead,” she said after a moment, shoulders sagging under the weight of the revelation. “It was like I was back at the border, watching Eris be cut down, taken from me forever, and all I could do was keep running. I had to leave him behind – couldn’t help even if I knew the magic then. And the ghost of that decision has stayed with me. It is unceasing, relentless fear, Athis. I can’t just make it go away. It’s always on my mind. What could happen to you is always on my mind.” She didn’t exactly answer the question, nor did she apologize for her turn of phrase. But this was the heart of it. Fear. Something he could understand. He peeled one of her hands away from herself and held it in his.

[cryingforhyo]

i guess it's safe to say that I'm one of your old readers in this fandom. 😅 I've been a reader since you drop Push and Pull out on that holiday night.

I read most of your fics too. there's only one or two fic that I haven't read in the past year because life is a bit hectic now.

this is not a subtle request btw, but I'm curious if you have a 'verse focused about coming-out or realizing one's sexual orientation. I don't exactly remember every detail but, iirc, most of your fics' characters have implied sexuality which are lesbians.

It will be cool to know how you guys write about the experiences of coming out from your time period. ( I don't mean to make you feel so old 😭 but I know you two are in your 30s and are wiser and more experienced than we are (early 20s) ) I remember reading a post that it was really a different social scene compared to now.

maybe I'm also curious how you two became friends, then roommates *cough* *coughhhhh* and then wives because tbh I'm surrounded by hetero couples irl that reading about you two fascinates me.

I'm sorry for this ramble. feel free to ignore it too if it's borderline invasive. and sorry if you'll see this on a Monday morning

first off, thank you dear reader for being with us for so long! time surely flies when you're having fun, because wdym push & pull is approaching its 3rd anniversary??? creating for this fandom has been such a joint delight for the both of us, and we're just happy to share the journey with friends like you :) take your time re the new fics, esp if they're wips! we're working on them relatively slower, because life has also been hella hectic hereabouts.

onto your second query: i think this question is very interesting, actually! to address it head on, for this particular fandom i don't think i've written a 'verse where the specific challenge for any of the characters is coming to terms with their sexuality. i quite like living in this fantasy world where people are simply as-is-where-is lesbians haha. for example in our childhood best friends to lovers stories, when someone realizes their attraction, the realization is not so much about falling in love with another woman, but about falling in love with this specific person.

this way, it's the characters' shared context and history that makes their dynamic compelling, instead of the much more global milieu of lgbt relationships existing alongside all these issues and history, etc. which i also think are interesting stories to tell! but for purposes of this fandom in particular, which i think exists in a sociopolitical context that is beyond my expertise--i leave those stories to better-positioned storytellers :) in the true spirit of creating in this era, i do not want to get anything so egregiously wrong it will detract from the reader's experience.

but seriously, i have been obsessed about writing coming out/ coming of age stories for the longest time, mostly for my original work, which are set locally with local OCs. they were all i wrote about back in the day, so i guess for fanfic i figured i could instead try all the other tropes that weren't so close to real life, where coming out can be fraught and complicated. it's for the same reason that i don't write compulsory heterosexuality (comphet) or i avoid writing men as third parties in general... i've already spent a significant chunk of my writing life writing /that/ story, or at least that’s how it felt like.

but you make a good point! i'd love to try revisiting that coming out/coming of age trope and give it some aged-up flavor. let's see about that :)

on a personal note, many times when i look at today's digital landscape, I often go, thank god [this or that] did not exist just yet back in the day [or at least not in this manner] when i was figuring my shit out, because oh boy. the clout i could have chased and cancellations i could have booked haha.

suffice it to say i'm happy the digital footprints of past egregious mistakes are now buried with the deaths of old platforms. we were very lucky to have lived and loved and lost in an age where the internet could still afford some measure of forgetting.

(i know there's probably no going back to that kind of landscape, but i hope it's not too late for us to be a little kinder to each other, and definitely more forgiving of ~youth and elderly~, given how fast information cycles around these days and how wide the age range of users concurrently using the same digital spaces right now can be. it's NUTS.)

that said, c would like to clarify she is still in her twenties! hahaha. i confirm this. i also confirm that you're right to say i (k) am already out of my twenties haha.

we actually became friends through fandom! we met on tumblr lmao because that's where you met other wlw back in the day (idk if that's still where people are, istg i would not survive the current dating landscape either!) so i would not be exaggerating when i say fandom brought us together, and we're still cycling through fandoms together, having been to various ones in the past handful of years. that said we look forward to more fandoms to add to our list lol.

thanks for this ask - it's actually the PERFECT thing to see on a monday morning, in fact. hope your week goes well!

[feraltuxedo]

WIP Wednesday Friday: revisiting an old fic.

There are several WIPs I'm working on at the moment, but the one that's been demanding all my attention is something I never thought I'd write: a sequel for my very first fic Never Have I Ever (Been Myself).

Like I'm sure many fic writers' first work, this story has a special place in my heart. It's the thing that motivated me to write, and the story that probably spent the longest time in my head before I actually made the effort to put it into words.

But it's also so clearly a first story. The pacing is clumsy, the plotting very simple, and the prose... actually, I quite like the prose. But were I to write the same fic today, it would likely read very differently.

Never Have I Ever features many of the themes and tropes I return to over and over again in later fics: it's a human rock musician/actor AU playing with age gap and wealth gap dynamics. It's deeply mired in British culture and British pop culture. It's a bit of fluff, a bit of angst, and a guaranteed happy ending.

And, weirdly, I wanted to return to it. So what I've been working on is a long-ish one shot that has BAFTA-winning actor Aziraphale Fell attend his very first rock music festival in order to surprise guitarist Crowley.

Anyway, here's a snippet of pure fluff:

‘Can’t believe you’re actually sleeping in a tent,’ Crowley said, as he lowered himself onto the fleece blanket he’d spread out to cover the crinkly polyester lining. ‘I’ve been reliably informed that’s the thing to do at events such as this.’ Crowley threw his head back in laughter and lifted himself up on his elbows, stretched out like a mermaid on a rock. ‘Have you ever been to a festival before?’ ‘Of course I have!’ ‘Glyndebourne doesn’t count. Nor do the Proms.’ ‘Ah. No, in that case.’ ‘Couldn’t you have booked a hotel room in Shrewsbury or something?’ ‘I could have.’ Crowley didn’t ask why he hadn’t. Ever since they’d met, Aziraphale had been desperate for new experiences. And oh, how he’d indulged him, with an enthusiasm and passion Aziraphale had never possessed, not even when he’d been in his thirties himself. He slipped his wellies off his feet and crouched down next to Crowley. The ground was hard underneath his knees and elbows, despite the fleece blanket, and he let himself be wrapped up in the pointy angles of Crowley’s body instead, which, paradoxically were all the more soothing. ‘You were marvellous on stage, you know that?’ ‘You’ve mentioned it a few times, but it never hurts to hear again.’ ‘You were. Even the people who had no idea who you were were singing along by the end.’ ‘And you?’ ‘I always sing along, you know that.’ ‘Wish I’d seen you.’ ‘I’m glad you didn’t. I meant to surprise you, and I managed, despite the best efforts of your villainous security person.’ ‘Torben’s awesome. D’you know he can open a beer bottle with his eye socket?’ ‘I’m not at all surprised to hear that.’ ‘This is by far the biggest festival we’ve played, like, ever. The last one had us sleeping in tents.’ ‘You’re not sleeping in tents here?’ ‘Oh no, we’re staying in this caravan thing, which is pretty nice. Comfortable. Got to share a bed with Ana but that’s fine. They call it a trailer, though.’ Aziraphale laughed softly into the scintillating warmth of Crowley’s neckline. ‘I’m aware of trailers, my dear. Quite familiar with them, in fact.’ ‘Alright, Mr Hollywood Big Name Film Star.’ Aziraphale sighed and snuggled deeper into Crowley’s arms. He smelled lovely, like herbal shampoo and the cigarette he’d surreptitiously smoked on the walk to the tent. The chatter of people outside merged with the deep rumble of Crowley’s breathing, and the quiet beating of his heart against his chest. And as if this symphony of comfort couldn’t get more perfect, it began to rain. Gentle drops, irregular and insistent, drumming down on the tent above. It was frightfully romantic.

[spiritsflame]

I haven't seen any fic from you in the last few years and was wonder if you still write? I just revisited "Once More With Feeling" for my annual reread. To me, it is the Perfect Story and I was once again hit in the face with how amazingly talented you are.

Hello! Thank you!!

The short answer is that yes, I do still write (though it really has been awhile). I don't have any fandoms I'm big in right now, so I'm looking for something new to fall in love with, but I've also been revisiting old WIPs and seeing if I can pick them up again.

The slightly longer answer is that I got really, really sick a few years ago, and recovery has been long and slow. It's meant that I just haven't had the energy for things I used to love, like writing. I only recently started being back on Tumblr regularly again.

But while it has been slow, it has also been steady. I've had the energy to care about things again, and the itch to write has been simmering under my skin for weeks, waiting for the right idea. I keep pulling up old stories, picking up the threads where I left off and finding where to start again.

Thank you so much for reaching out and letting me know how much you liked Once More With Feeling; it honestly feels like a sign that it's time to write again, and that when I do, I won't just be shouting into a void. I can't say how much this meant to me!

[griseldabanks]

Hmm, nobody sent any asks in....

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

In one of my Hank & Connor pieces I wrote for Let Me Count the Ways, I did something I've always secretly wanted to do, and actually censored profanity beyond skirting around it with things like "he cursed" or whatever XD Because it was a dialogue-only fic, I couldn't do that, but I also couldn't think of a way to have Hank not swear, because he was really angry in that scene. So I gave Connor a profanity filter :P I don't know if I'll have occasion to do so again, because it's a very specific situation, but I'd love to try something like that again. Much more creative than writing someone swearing up a blue streak.

2. How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)

If you count the things I've written for Tumblr, I think the number would be 19.

3. What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer?

Unfortunately, I've realized I'm not quite as good at taking constructive criticism as I've always tried to be. Especially not at night when I'm tired. But at least that also goes hand-in-hand with more maturity (I think), as I remind myself to take a step back and try not to take things so personally late at night, and maybe revisit them in the morning.

4. What piece of media inspired you the most?

I guess it depends on what exactly you mean by "inspired." If you're talking direct inspiration, then I'll have to gesture vaguely to the Captain America movies as usual, because watching those and listening to their soundtracks are always what I use to really get me going for my main WIP and remind me why I'm doing this.

But for just general inspiration that makes me want to be creative and write from the heart...I think I might actually say TMNT: Mutant Mayhem. It was just so well done, so unique, so full of heart and laughter and realism (which is especially surprising, considering it's about mutant turtles! XD). It's just popping with life and color and heart, and I want to create something with that much love poured into it.

5. What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

Captain America/MCU, Detroit: Become Human, FMA, Harry Potter, Jak and Daxter, LotR, No.6, Sherlock, and Star Wars

6. What ship(s) captured your heart?

STARON STARON STARON ALWAYS AND FOREVER STARON <3 Also Sam Wilson and the OC I created for him :3

7. What character(s) captured your heart?

Steve and Bucky as always <3 Also my darling OC Jake; I'm so proud of you, my son! T^T Ed and Al, Frodo and Sam, John and Sherlock, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, and the new additions of Hank and Connor, will always hold my heart even though I don't spend as much time with them.

8. Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year?

Quite a few, actually! Courtesy of my Let Me Count the Ways ask game, I've now written my first fics for LotR (crazy, right?), Detroit: Become Human, Jak and Daxter, and No.6. It's also crazy that this year marks the first time I've ever written my favorite Star Wars character, Obi-Wan, even though I picked him as my favorite when I was eight years old @_@

9. What fic meant the most to you to write?

My Captain America fic Take Me In. It's my main WIP right now, and I actually finished the first draft this year! I've been working on this baby for five years, so this is EVERYTHING to me :')

10. What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

TMI definitely gave me the most joy to write, but a lot of the time, it wasn't exactly fun :/ Maybe the happiest I felt was when I wrote the Obi-Wan & Qui-Gon piece for Let Me Count the Ways, because it flowed so easily and so well, even it was (bizarrely) the first time I ever wrote them. And I got to make them tell each other straight out that they love each other, hehehe :P

11. What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

TMI, obviously. It's not quite done or ready to post yet, but it's sitting there on my hard drive in a mostly complete form, sitting proudly as the longest thing I've ever written in my life...and maybe the best thing too? I can't wait to share this with the world! <3

12. What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

I'm realizing most of these questions can be answered with TMI ^^' It has been very difficult to write, especially when I get into technical matters where I don't really know what I'm doing, even after all my research. I've also dealt with some massive burnout that makes writing feel like pulling teeth sometimes. But! I did finish it! I need to look back on this achievement every time the writing isn't flowing, to remind myself that if I could do that, I can do anything.

13. What fic was the easiest to write?

Hmm...probably one of my MCU prompts for Let Me Count the Ways. I'm so used to writing the FoxholeBros by this point, I have a pretty good idea of what they'll do or say in any given situation. Either that, or the Ed & Hughes Let Me Count the Ways one, because I could whip both characters out of my back pocket super easily.

14. What were your shortest and longest fics this year?

Pretty sure my dialogue-only Hank & Connor fic for Let Me Count the Ways was the shortest, at 610 words. The longest...heehee...TMI, at 386,363 words >:D

15. Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023

Here, have the one new fic I posted to AO3 this year, the most recent chapter of my FMA genderbender, The Other Side of the Coin. This chapter depicts the first meeting of Roy Mustang and the Elric sisters, as he tries to recruit two young girls to join the military and try to get their bodies back. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Hawkeye has a conversation with Winston Rockbell.

16. What were you go-to writing songs?

I have various playlists for whatever fandom I'm writing - usually the soundtrack, and depending on how much of a blorbo I'm writing, I might also have a playlist of songs specific to that character too. My go-to song for inspiring me to write TMI in particular is "Everything" by Lifehouse.

17. What were your go-to writing snacks?

I don't normally snack while writing, but anymore I almost can't write without a cup of tea.

18. What was the hardest fic to title?

Um...how about everything I've written for Let Me Count the Ways? ^^' I still haven't decided for sure what I'm going to do with titles once I get around to posting them on AO3.

19. Share your favorite opening line

"It was a beautiful April morning when Rose Gamgee's life changed forever."

From Rosie Runs to Rivendell, which I posted an early version of here but nowhere else yet.

20. Share your favorite ending line

"Bucky turned to share a smile with him, and Steve could see that all was quiet on the Western front."

From TMI...a;ldkgjsd;klfjdsklgfsdkflj I'm so glad I could make this line work :')

21. Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Hnnnnnnggggg if I try to pick something from TMI, we'll be here all day, so I'm just going to take that off the table. Please assume my real answer is something from that whopper. Instead, have this line I'm stupidly proud of from my first Hank & Connor fic:

“And the half-naked androids pole-dancing right in front of you had nothing to do with it.”

22. Share an excerpt from your favorite scene

I'm gonna have to veto TMI again for this, for the same reason. Besides, all my favorite scenes from TMI are chock-full of spoilers I don't want to give away, so yeah. Here, why don't we go with this moment from my Obi-Wan & Qui-Gon fic I'm quite fond of:

Qui-Gon was almost at the door by the time Obi-Wan realized he was leaving. Apparently, he'd said what he'd come here to say. “Master, wait!” Obi-Wan sprang to his feet. Pausing with his hand on the door, Qui-Gon looked over his shoulder. Nervously, Obi-Wan swallowed hard. He'd never said this to anyone, but when he instinctively reached out to the Force, it rang with the chimes of a hundred golden bells in his heart, and he knew it was the right thing to say. “I love you too, Qui-Gon. I always have. Even then.” Even when he was angry and hurt. Even when they were shouting at each other. Even when Qui-Gon left him on a war-torn planet. Even when their connection in the Force frayed and snapped, and it seemed pointless to hope they could regain even a fraction of what they'd once had.

23. Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out?

I hemmed and hawed over this question for a long time before I remembered this paragraph from my Nezumi & Shion fic:

When Shion draped a blanket over him and tucked it gently around him, Nezumi never saw it coming. For a moment, he lay there, eyes closed, unmoving. But he couldn't ignore the soft scent of the worn fabric. A smell that reminded him of a stormy night. Laughter. A warm hand in his. Inexplicable, unbelievable, bewildering...acceptance.

The main problem with it stemmed from me writing a whole scene and forgetting what the dialogue prompt was, and then I had to go back and include it somewhere. So it took some work to make sure this paragraph went from being the end to transitioning into the bit of dialogue that started this whole thing -_-

24. What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

Ooof, this is a little spoilery, but it's the main one that's coming to mind. Suffice to say, originally I wrote a suicide attempt in one of my fics. Only after writing the whole scene, which had been planned from the beginning, did I realize I actually didn't want the scene to be about suicide at all. That had always been the plan, and it would make sense, but suddenly it became clear that much more interesting character development could come about otherwise.

25. What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.)

I use OpenOffice for all of my story writing.

26. If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Hands down, writing the last scene of TMI and then showing it to my betas ^_^

27. Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

After finishing TMI, I spent two weeks on vacation with my betas, and we got a cake to celebrate! ^_^

28. How did you recharge between fics?

I've been taking a break from any sort of scheduled or pressured writing since finishing TMI. We're getting close to the end of two months off, and I can see that it was exactly what I needed, because I was seriously burnt out. Hopefully I'll be ready to get back to work in another week and a half or so.

29. If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

*sniffle* I'd like to thank my besties, @rainintheevening and @sergeanttomycaptain, for having my back this whole year and encouraging me through to the end of the biggest writing project I've ever undertaken. I couldn't have done it without you!

30. What’s something that you want to write in 2024?

The actual end of TMI lol Well, I definitely want to write more Let Me Count the Ways. There will need to be something FMA to write for FMA Day. And I really hope I can start posting TMI and work on writing Take Me Beyond, its companion fic. I should probably also think about poking at some of my older fics I've been neglecting for too long.

fic writer asks

What’s something new that you tried in a fic this year? How did it turn out and would you do it again?

How many fics did you work on this year? (They don’t have to be finished or published!)

What’s something you learned about yourself as a writer?

What piece of media inspired you the most?

What fandom(s) did you write for this year?

What ship(s) captured your heart?

What character(s) captured your heart?

Did you write for a new fandom or ship this year?

What fic meant the most to you to write?

What fic made you feel the happiest to work on?

What fic was the most satisfying to finish writing?

What fic was the most difficult to write? Did you finish it?

What fic was the easiest to write?

What were your shortest and longest fics this year?

Rec a fic you wrote or posted in 2023

What were you go-to writing songs?

What were your go-to writing snacks?

What was the hardest fic to title?

Share your favorite opening line

Share your favorite ending line

Share your favorite piece of dialogue

Share an excerpt from your favorite scene

Share the final version of a sentence or paragraph you struggled with. What about it was challenging? Are you happy with how it turned out?

What's something that surprised you while you were working on a fic? Did it change the story?

What did you use to write? (e.g. writing programs, paper & pen, etc.)

If you had to choose one, what was THE most satisfying writing moment of your year?

Did you do anything special to celebrate finishing a fic?

How did you recharge between fics?

If this were an awards show, who would you thank?

What’s something that you want to write in 2024?

[nhasablogg]

The end (again)

Update: Inactive as of December 1st 2024.

If you've ever commissioned a fic, I urge you to save it somewhere because I probably will delete this blog one day in the future, if I realize it will be for the better (I guess the same goes for if you enjoy a fic and would like to be able to revisit it - but please don't share it anywhere else).

First of all I want to thank you all for following and engaging with me ever since I returned to this space. It's been, mostly, great. I've written some things I'm really proud of, and for that reason I'm reluctant to delete this blog like I did the last.

I think it's been obvious I've not been enjoying myself in a long time, except for the occasional few days when it's been fun to write and interact with people. Throughout this whole year I've been trying to convince myself that I can use this blog only when I want to and feel inspired to, and while it sometimes works it very often just leaves me frustrated as I try to make this space fun for myself again. I'm gonna try not to be too longwinded about this as I have the habit of being, so long story short, I'm going to leave this blog.

I won't be deleting anything, but I'll also not be using this blog anymore. I was debating just disappearing without saying anything, but I think that's rude when some of you have been so very kind. The one and only exception will be if I feel really inspired and write something I love and would like to share specifically on here (or maybe I'll just post them on AO3 if I feel like it). Since I won't feel pressured to use this blog I'm sure that experience will be authentic and beautiful and rare. I want to focus on writing outside of this space, as I keep putting my energy here and not where I'd like it to be. There are lots of things going on in my life right now and I'd like to try to regain some control by using my free time intentionally in order to become the version of myself I'm striving toward. This blog is, unfortunately, not part of that version.

I still have a few prompts I want to fill, and a few WIPs I want to finish/post anyway, so I'm not disappearing just yet. When I say disappear, I'm not sure if I mean that I won't ever be logged in. I'm not entirely sure yet how I'm going to go about it, if I'm going to answer messages or turn asks off or what. I think, in the long run, asks will be turned off just so that I won't feel the urge to log in for the off chance someone has given me some attention. That's why I deleted the old blog, to keep myself from having one foot in there still.

I want to thank you for the lovely lovely time being back here. It's not been perfect, but that's not what I'm deciding to take with me this time. I want to remember writing Criminal Minds fics and Stranger Things fics and Red White and Royal Blue fics and Heartstopper fics, and how lovely you were about those fics. Revisiting fandoms and finding new ones and completing tickletober and having plans and ambitions for projects (even though I didn't always follow through, it's always nice having ambitions). I don't regret deleting the old blog and I don't regret creating this one. I think I probably needed to return, on my own terms, just like I'm now leaving on my own terms. I don't think I did that last time.

I keep rewriting this and looking at it and wondering if I will regret posting it. If posting it will somehow flip the switch and I will find so much joy here again and look like a fool. And if that happens, so be it. But I need to post this. I can't keep procrastinating. I have, in a way, been working up the nerve to say goodbye for the past year.

N over and out

[djpain619]

WIP WEDNESDAY

Totengrad's Resident Dwarf Brewmaster Takes to the Field

One completed character, some works in progress, and some new/repurposed projects I've lined up on the docket.

Anker Brüggards / Jörgan Brüggardson is Ready for the Old World. I finally bit the bullet and tried painting the beer in the viewing port hole of his Keg. The final result is not perfect, but I find it satisfactory. I also painted the gages and meters on the keg.

Made a little progress on the Shield Bearers, but not much. I also revisited the Dwarf Runners for the Aleniheim Angel Shares.

All I really did was paint thir little belts black. I'm gonna keep adding little details to make them look better, and the Shield Bearers will be painted to match with them.

Here is a Dwarf Witch Hunter that I've had in my gray pile of shame that I will now be painting to use as an Empire Witch Hunter. The Monstrosity in the Right was Originally a Blood Bowl Ogre, but now ive converted him into a Frankenstein's Monster Flesh Golem Preist of Sigmar. I removed the head and replaced it with a Blood Angels Astartes head and filled in the gaps with green stuff. I then stuck some bits on his shoulders to make some tesla coils, a Twin Tailed comett on his fist, and a tome on his hip

I've always hated how the green stuff turned out, so now that I've got some practice with Paper Towel paper mache I intend to make him a hooded cape and Stole/Vestments.

These Blood Bowl players are from an extra sprue I had sitting around. Now I've decided to use them as a Free Company Militia unit comprised of Rabid Blood Bowl Hoolies. Their Ranged attack will be throwing NUFFLE'S BALLS at the enemy.

When im not poor I plan to order a new team to fill out the unit. But 6 is enough for now since as long as they're taken as a detachment for another unit then their minimum unit size is 5 models.

Lastly we have some 40k Sister Repentia that I converted to run as Flagellants.

[fereldanwench]

I'm going to be obnoxious and presumptuous and tell everyone how to live their lives because I feel like the Cyberpunk 2077 fandom* has an endemic problem with this self-imposed expectation to post new ~*content*~ on a regular basis that is just not sustainable for like 95% of us. And as someone who has also, unfortunately, grappled with that anxiety even though I know it's silly, I feel compelled to tell everyone (myself included) to stop doing that to themselves and slow the fuck down.

(*Probably other fandoms, too--I have many, many Thoughts™ on how ~*content creator*~ culture has had detrimental effects on fandom on the whole, but that's a broader topic for another time.)

Participating in fandom is a hobby, not a grind. No one is going to be upset with you for letting your queue run out or missing a themed day. Nobody expects anyone to have multiple original posts on a daily basis. Your friends aren't going to forget you if you need to take a break. There is absolutely no reason to feel guilty or stressed because a real-life obligation has to take priority over a hobby.

Recognize the ebb and flow of your creativity so you don't burn yourself out. Give yourself the time and space to work on long projects and learn new skills, even if that can't come with regular updates. Let yourself be in the moment while you create. Savor your art--Stop asking yourself "What do I post next?" immediately after you finish a project. Take pride and joy in the work you've already made without wondering how you can make your next post even better.

Understand your limitations and accept that others might not have the same limitations you have. Someone who is single and unemployed is going to have more time to dedicate to learning virtual photography than someone with a family and a full-time job. Someone with chronic fatigue is going to have a harder time churning out fic than someone without that condition. Don't compare your output to someone else's. We all have different creative processes, different backgrounds and skills, and different demands on our time and energy.

What works for me to break out of this mindset might not work for everyone, but these are the 3 main things I find helpful to keep me from succumbing to the darkness:

Intentionally break a streak Have you been posting every single Thirsty Thursday for the past 6 months but are having a hard time keeping up currently and feeling stressed about breaking the streak? BREAK IT. Skip one. Even if you have a post, schedule it for the following week. It'll feel wrong at first, but on Friday you'll realize it didn't matter, your friends are still here, and you will no longer be beholden to this inconsequential posting requirement that exists only in your head.

Revisit old posts/drafts/WIPs/outtakes Go through your old stuff! Let yourself enjoy what you made in the past. Reblog it so new friends and followers can see it. Remember what it was like to work on it and the sense of accomplishment when you finished it and what you learned from it. You might even get a bonus and find yourself inspired to revisit an idea or create a new take on it.

It's an obnoxious cliche at this point, but yes: touch grass Online fandom spaces have been a cornerstone of my social and creative circles for over two decades, so I am not by any means suggesting that there is no value in spending a lot of time here. But you absolutely need to take breaks from your devices and reconnect with the physical world or you will go nuts. Go for a walk, spend a day outside with friends or your pets, pick up a tangible craft like coloring books or journaling--Just find something to get you away from your computer and phone.

tl;dr - Creating in fandom should be fun and enjoyable and a reprieve from all of this shit, not an extension of it. There's absolutely no reason to put this burden on yourself to be some superfan posting new work 37 times a week. If you're in the zone and you've got that flow, roll with it, of course, but don't feel like it always has to be like that because it won't be. And that is completely fine.

[sabrinatvband]

Fat Evil Women devlog 1

I'm working on a new comic and I thought it would be good to share some notes on its production. I think this will be the only devlog I share publically for this comic; I'll probably include a start-to-finish log with all of the concept art and layout roughs as a tier bonus when I sell this on itch.io later. But, here's a very generous taste.

This comic is eventually going to be sold as a CBR file on itch, but I'm also doing to try printing it on A3 paper [which will be folded] and making a small batch of physical copies to give away. It will probably be 32 pages long. It's going to be an anthology [with one particularly long story]. In other words, it's going to be a complete comic, like one you might buy in a comic shop, rather than something more "informal" in shape. In the future, I plan on making enough of these to collect them in trade paperback form, perhaps as a print on demand book?

So far I've done a couple of layouts and compiled a ton of notes. Work on this project began with a simple two-page layout for a bimbo sequence.

I did all the pencilling, inking, and coloring in between two and four hours I think. The first panel on the second page uses an old drawing of the bimbo character I'd drawn several months ago.

I then made a sequence using a Goblin Queen character I'd created around a year ago. Here's the sequence and the original illustration I'd done. The second incomplete panel is from an old drawing I started but never finished.

Yes, the Goblin Queen who looks nothing like a goblin is meant to be a reference of sorts to the Goblin King from Labyrinth, if you were wondering. Except my Goblin Queen mostly hangs out with dark elves.

These sequences are only meant to be rough guides for the final drawings, but I put way more efforts into my layouts than I actually need to. After making these two page sequences, I decided to do something a little more ambitious.

I illustrated a woman wearing a shiny black dress, and she reminded me of an old indie porno producer character I'd created a while ago named Demonia [please ignore how terrible the old three part sequence looks; I didn't know how to draw fat women yet].

When I started plotting this sequence out in my notebook, it was only four pages long. But I added a bunch of extra panels in later and brought it up to six pages [The numbers are original panels, and the letters are ones I added in after making the first complete rough layout.]

I made some concept art for characters I'd mentioned in the script that didn't have designs yet, as well as a few locations. I then compiled all of that into a CBR file I can refer to while working on the final art [the blacked out bits in the thumbnails are photo references].

I then started work on another sequence that quickly grew beyond the six pages I was initially planning on doing.

A few years ago, when I first started using my Wacom, I illustrated an androgynous spider creature. Much more recently, I started moving overseas and started designing new characters in my sketchbook that I was planning on making digital pieces with later, and I revisited my spider concept. If you overlay the rough spider drawing from the sketchbook page with the digital WIP below, you'll notice I did a whole bunch of warping and stuff to the individual limbs to make it look better.

This WIP will appear in finished form in the spider comic somewhere; look out for it.

Anyways, I decided this spider would be perfect for a weight gain sequence, and so I started making concept art.

This is just a fraction of the concept art I created. I've done at least 15 pages of work for this comic, and a lot of it is exploratory work. In the beginning, I had basically no idea what the plot of the sequence would be, and designing new characters and illustrating scenarios gave shape to the story.

After making maybe three or four pages of sketches, and writing a list of elements I wanted to be in the story in my notebook, I made this rough synopsis of the plot. I then started working on a CBR file for the spider sequence that includes photo references, sketches, old designs I want to repurpose, scans of my notebook, etc.

Work was slowing down in my notebook, and so eventually I made a text document and started writing down panel-by-panel bullet points. Of course this all needs to be adapted into rough visuals, but I covered a lot of ground with this after building my foundation.

You might be wondering what the point of all this pre-production work is. The problem with comics as a medium is that it's extremely time intensive, and so you have to get all of the iterative stuff done long before you put pencil to bristol board for the first time [assuming you only use bristol board during the very last stage of your process].

[Old comic artists were sometimes drawing upwards of 40 pages a month, and they didn't have time to think things out so thoroughly. But for people who aren't drawing multiple books a month, it's been common to do multiple waves of layouts for decades, and this pre-production stuff has only gotten more common. Which is good; quality > quantity. The video on layouts below is a great overview.]

While I was doing layouts in my notebook for this spider sequence, I started working out a page that ended up not hitting all of the notes it needed to. If I'd been drawing by the seat of my pants, it would've been a big problem, but when you're doing layouts with illustrations only two or three steps above stick figure drawings, re-doing a page is not a hassle.

You might be wondering what my actual workflow is for producing finished art. Once I got very used to the feeling of using an Intuos Wacom, I told myself I was going to draw comics entirely digitally. It made a lot of sense; I could use layers, perspective work is a lot easier digitally, and I can fix mistakes and/or warp things a lot more easily.

Over time, I realized I hated doing everything digitally. There are many things that are better digital, like coloring. I prefer drawing pin-ups digitally. But I really don't like drawing an entire page digitally, and I realized my previous serious comic attempts had all petered out when it was time to start doing the final work in the computer, after the layouts and stuff had already been completed.

Of course, I'd tried making professional quality work without computers before. But it's nearly impossible to do that inside of a sketchbook [although I'd drawn many joke comics in highschool using a sketchbook], and using only bristol board I had problems with things like perspective; I have a lot of respect for older artists who couldn't use any digital tools.

So, I've resolved to buy a scanner and printer. I'm going to make final layouts in my art programs that have skeletons laid out where I want them, perspective grids, panel layouts, etc, and then I'll print them onto bristol board using light blue ink [which doesn't get picked up by a scanner]. I'll then do the final pencilling and inking on bristol board, scan those pages, and do any touch-ups and coloring in the computer.

I forgot to mention that none of these comics have words. Perhaps future issues of Fat Evil Women will have dialogue and stuff, but as a conceptual thing this first issue is basically completely silent. When I was making panel grids digitally to start working on some final layouts, I noticed that, when you don't have any speech bubbles, a traditional six panel grid looks way too square and vertical. So, I've decided to make my spider sequence on a four-tier grid, which shouldn't be a massive change. The entire story uses uniform rows, and so it just means moving stuff back. There are no dramatic page-turn moments that will be compromised by this change.

I might have to alter the Demonia sequence as well, but probably not. Since the height of the panels in the two page sequences are variable, I think I'll leave them exactly as they are.

I was planning on including a giantess sequence in this first issue as well, but if I reach 32 pages without it then I'll have to push it to a later issue. But since I'm moving to four-tier layouts, I might end up with a lot fewer pages than expected.

[lea-andres]

Okay, I can't find the op so I can reblog it again and rant there, but I reblogged a post earlier (it wasn't mine, someone else said it) that stated that Shadow being half alien needs to be used in the Canon more.

And I haven't been able to stop thinking about it

Mainly in regards to the plot bunny I'm developing (it might turn into a WIP later) about Eggman figuring out how to turn Sonic into a Werehog again without splitting the planet apart or awakening Dark Gaia again, and deciding to do the same to Shadow and Silver pretty much just because he's a jerk like that, and also in the context to the Metal Virus Saga.

(Now to be fair, it's extremely possible Ian Flynn tried to do this, and Sega said no. 🙄) They could've pulled the "Shadow's half alien" card to spare Shadow from going down like a chump in the Metal Virus Saga. (I do agree he needed to go down pretty early on though, it really raised the stakes by taking out a powerful ally. He should've also been an extremely dangerous Zombot instead of just like all the others, but that's a rant for another time.)

Like, think about it. Eggman only tested the virus on organic material native to his world. Nothing extraterrestrial was ever tested from what we saw. So he'd have no idea how this thing would react to alien life. Sure, the Wisps seemed to have gotten lucky and be immune to it (considering Whisper was still shooting them at Zombots), but Shadow's half Black Arms, not half Wisp. What if it made him more susceptible to it?

So Shadow still gets infected fighting off Zombots like he did, except he actually tries to run it off when ordered to by literally everyone. It seems to be working at first, but then suddenly, it's not. It mutated too quickly in him, and got to the stage where you couldn't run it off anymore, and he turns almost instantly. Not only is that just terrifying in its own right (imagine Sonic's reaction if he went running with him, figuring out what the game plan was going to be now that they're both infected, only to get a front row seat to the rapid mutation and Shadow instantly turning), that's pretty sinister foreshadowing that running it off is going to stop working for Sonic too.

Back to the Werehogs. Now before anyone yells at me, I don't think Eggman turning Sonic back into a Werehog counts as him revisiting an old plan. No Dark Gaia, no splitting the planet apart, he's just taking an interesting side effect of that plan (I don't think he knew Sonic would turn into a Werehog in Unleashed) and making a new plan with it. Except this time he's dragging Shadow and Silver into it too, because three Werehogs are more fun than one, right? Oh, and by the way, THIS TIME they lose themselves to the transformation, and spend every night destroying stuff and running around like mindless monsters until everyone else figures out how to get them back to normal.

Sonic and Silver would transform as expected (I'm toying with the idea that Silver wouldn't get stretchy arms, but would get something else due to him being telekinetic instead of super speedy. But is a Werehog a Werehog without stretchy arms? We shall see. 🤔), But Shadow's where everything goes horrifically wrong. Yeah, he turns into something you could call a Werehog, but the Black Arms parts of him really present themselves and turn him into something much much worse. Extra eyes, in some places he's got the fur and others he's got the Black Arms skin (giving him an awful mangy look) maybe some tentacles coming out of his back Doc Ock style (but that one fanfic summary broke me, so I might not. I'd hate to be indirectly responsible for another fic like that. 😂)

I've rambled enough. Shadow being half alien needs to be brought up more often. There's just so much potential that's being missed. 😕

[pens-swords-stuff]

Hey there Undine!!! :D I'm currently in the middle of finals (definitely shouldn't be finishing my anthropology paper right now), but somehow I managed to only have tests on thursday and friday so it's been mostly a waiting game.

How have you been, though? Have you been writing anything at all, or has it been more of a focus on the fun thing that is college? :P

Also you better have been getting that good good sleep between your papers!!! Sleep is important!

Hey Morgane!!

Oof good luck on finals. I believe in you, I know that you can get through this!!! I always hated having the exams on the last few days of finals week. It was always stressful to have to wait (and pack to go home) while also definitely not studying.

I've actually been getting a ton of writing done! The ridiculously long WIP that I've been writing with my writing partner reached 750k words recently (no don't worry its not going to get published ever, we're not that crazy), and we also started a new one!

The new WIP is essentially a sequel to an old favorite that never quite manages to get off the ground. We're writing 10 years post-original concept, and it's been a really nice mix of revisiting an old, cherished setting while doing something completely new!!

You'd think that juggling 2 projects at once would make our word count go down for one project but nope. It actually increased, and we've been averaging 5k a day.

During finals, of course 😜

I'm done with all my papers now and I feel pretty good about them so! Super excited to be able to guilt-freely work on those two projects. And who knows? Maybe I'll even get back to my solo projects to have more to talk about on my blog.

For the first time since I was like... 14, I'm actually having a fantastic sleeping pattern! I go to bed at like 10PM, aim to go to sleep by 11PM. Even if I stay up suuuuper late, I'm still generally asleep by 12AM. On the really late nights by 1AM, which rarely happens at this point And even then it's a huge accomplishment because I uses to stay up till 2 or 3.

Am I a boring adult with a boring sleeping schedule now? Yes. Have I been getting sleep though?? ALSO YES

Can't wait to destroy all of that over winter break, and suffer when it's over 💔

Have you been able to decompress by writing or doing something other than school?

Good luck on your finals, and I hope that you're getting good sleep too!!!