#although i ended up drawing very mainstream stuff anyways :(

[eunuchboy]

pencil sketches of my oc

[greenandhazy]

ppl in the Trobed discord asked if I had more future headcanons for Rickie and Leon (Troy and Abed’s kids from my Nadir-Barnes Canon verse) when they grow up and I was THRILLED because idk if I’m going to write more in that verse (writing too far into the future makes me wary for some reason? like how can I just pretend I have ANY concept of what the 2030s will be like) but YES I HAVE THOUGHTS:

Rickie grows up to be a confident, outgoing person, the life of the party and everyone’s  de facto big brother, although he does struggle a bit more with those early traumas and is more self-conscious about identity issues, so that confidence is the result of intermittent therapy and mindfulness

Such as, for example, morning prayer with Abed, which leads to him expressing more of an interest in Islam--sometime in late elementary/early middle school he transfers to a mainstream school that’s close enough for him to walk to a nearby after school program, and eventually formally converts. (Leon doesn’t feel the need for that and Abed doesn’t feel the need to push.) so yeah, another trilingual in the family heyyyyy.

Neither of the kids are fluent in Polish, although they hear it occasionally from Abed around the home.

He likes to dance as a hobby, although not so much modern--he likes jazz and hip-hop, things that are more high-energy. He and Troy have a LOT of spontaneous dance parties around the house. But starting in middle school, spoken word poetry and rap become his real big things and he eventually goes on to have a music career--think early Childish Gambino, Chance the Rapper vibes. (Leon achieves minor TikTok stardom for his ASL covers at one point.) He likes to run them by Troy first, and Troy and Abed are the ultimate hype men.

Abed is always really careful to seek out opportunities to connect with both kids, and they’re both written into Voyage of the Starship Legacy in some way... but it’s Leon’s. He thinks of it like a personal bedtime story that happens to have been made into a feature film, and it’s his comfort rewatch. In general he’s more of a fan of Abed’s stuff because he likes the meta aspects, and while Rickie enjoys them too, that’s not really his style as much, you know?

(I mentioned in one of the fics, Rickie is Abed’s ego-shrinker. If people find out Rickie and Leon are Abed’s kids they’ll be like “omg that’s so cool!” and Leon will be like “haha yeah” awkwardly and Rickie will say “cool? lol right, it’s the nerdiest thing about me.”)

Subsequently, Leon is always really excited when Troy suggests they go sailing. Rickie is enthusiastic in theory but usually gets bored once they’re out on the open sea, so this becomes Troy and Leon’s Thing, especially as he gets older and is less easily entertained by funny voices and faces. He just finds the open ocean very soothing and, yknow, parallels between sailing and space exploration or whatever. He really loves hearing Troy’s stories about his trip.

He’s more of a shy person, especially around people his own age--definitely not an entertainer the way the rest of the family is, and has a bit of a dryer sense of humor. One of his hobbies growing up is drawing, and there’s a running joke in the extended (found) family that someday Abed is going to produce an animated film illustrated by Leon modeled on Troy’s dance troupe with a soundtrack by Rickie. Cut to Leon’s sophomore year of college, when he announces that....... his major is astrophysics and he has a summer internship at NASA

(you can’t prove I was rewatching The Martian when I came up with this) (I just love the idea of Abed’s kids being just as phenomenally successful but one in in a Very different way, also I think the study group’s reaction would be very funny for some reason) (come on guys, he’s been very into space for a long time, this shouldn’t be a surprise, right?

Sometime around middle school, Leon starts not only not putting his hearing aids in, but leaving them at home when he goes out. Troy and Abed always prefer he have them as a backup, and a very common dad joke in their household is “You’d lose your ears if they weren’t attached to your head--oh, wait.” Eventually he admits that yeah, he’s “forgetting” them on purpose, partly because he’s getting tired of Questions and Looks, partly as an act of defiance because he dislikes the expectation that he wants to hear all the time, partly because it makes him feel Some Kind of Way that he doesn’t actually need them--that between his family, his school, his community, and even the cashier at the bodega across the street who taught himself a few signs, he really can get plenty of social interaction and communication just using ASL and he likes that feeling. (Troy is especially touched by that, given that he does not have Abed’s gift for languages and learning ASL took more effort for him.)

They both really enjoy traveling. The family makes semi-regular trips to Arizona and wherever Annie ends up with the FBI, but spend the most time in Colorado--especially in the summers. Gobi is still grumpy but spoils the kids rotten, and they like being the cool older cousins of Jeff and Britta’s kid. the Bennett boys are a little older but Rick and Leon are always trying to convince them to get into Shenanigans, and when they do, they reach a whole new level of shenanigans. Shirley is Tired.

They come back from Colorado with more complimentary Greendale merch than you could ever imagine. the Dean knows they’re not going to go there but..... he can try. Rickie gets his first taste of alcohol from Britta. Leon goes to Annie for girl advice when he gets his first crush because he figures his dads are way too gay to be helpful. Jeff takes them out to play paintball all the time (in like... actual, legit paintball--fields? idek what they’re called) and regales them with tales of Greendale paintball, which they had been 100% sure their dads were exaggerating until Jeff stepped in. They think Chang is putting on a hilarious act for like their entire childhoods and are solely responsible for portions of Chang’s “I Never Die” song becoming a meme among LA schoolchildren.

oh and I don’t have, like, faceclaims for them or anything but I picture Rickie wearing lots of bright colors and being ultimately like an inch or two shorter than his little brother, which offends him deeply, and Leon tends to wear his hair a little longer, like..... Power Rangers-era Eka Darville.

ANYWAY those are the things that have been milling around in my head the last couple of weeks. I have very strong feelings about this children I made up <3 <3 <3

[arecomicsevengood]

TOP TEN OLDER MAINSTREAM COMICS I READ THIS YEAR

I kept track of all the comics I read this year, and not all of them were new. I have no idea who this will help or benefit but at least the circumstances of me only listing the completely arbitrary older work I read for the first time this year will deter anyone from arguing with me. However, for the sake of possibly being contentious, let me mention two comics that fall outside the top ten, because they’re bad:

Trencher by Keith Giffen. David King did a comic strip about Keith Giffen’s art style on this book in issue 2 of But Is It... Comic Aht that everybody loved, and made me be like, ok, I’ll check it out. But it’s basically just a retread of Lobo in terms of its tone and approach, but without Simon Bisley. I don’t really know why anyone wouldn’t think Bisley is the better cartoonist. Also, those comics are terrible. Thumbs down.

The Green Lantern by Grant Morrison, Liam Sharp, and Steve Oliff. I bought the first year of these comics for a dollar each off a dude doing a sidewalk sale. Found them sort of incoherent? I haven’t liked a new Grant Morrison comic in ages, with All-Star Superman being really the only outlier since like We3. This is clearly modeled off of European comics like Druillet or something, and would maybe benefit from being printed larger, I really dislike the modeled color too. But also it’s just aggressively fast-paced, with issues ending in ways that feel like cliffhangers but aren’t, and no real characters of interest.

As for the top ten list itself, for those who’ve looked at my Letterboxd page, slots 10-8 are approximately “3 stars,” 7-4 are 3 1/2 stars, slots 3 and 2 are 4 stars, with number one being a 4 1/2 star comic. The comics I’m listing on my “Best Of The Year” list that’ll run at the Comics Journal alongside a bunch of people are all 4 1/2 or 5 star comics. This is INSANELY NERDY and pedantic to note, and I eschew star ratings half the time anyway, because assignations of numeric value to art are absurd except within the specific framework of how strong a recommendation is, and on Letterboxd I feel like I’m speaking to a very small and self-selecting group of people whose tastes I generally know. (And I generally would not recommend joining Letterboxd to people!) But what I mean by all of this is just that there is a whole world of work I value more than this stuff, and I’ll recommend the truly outstanding shit to interested readers in good time.

10. Justice Society Of America by Len Strazewski and Mike Parobeck. Did some quarantine regressing and bought these comics, a few of which were some of the first comics I ever read, but I didn’t read the whole thing regularly as a kid. Parobeck’s a fun cartoonist, this stuff is readable. It’s faintly generic/baseline competent but there’s a cheap and readable quality to this stuff that modern comics lack. Interestingly, the letters column is made up of old people who remember the characters and feel like it’s marketed towards them, and since that wasn’t profitable, when the book was canceled, Parobeck went over to drawing The Batman Adventures, which was actively marketed towards kids. It’s funny that him and Ty Templeton were basically viewed as “normal” mainline DC Comics for a few years there and then became relegated to this specific subset of cartooning language, which everyone likes and thought was good but didn’t fit inside the corporate self-image, which has basically no aesthetic values.

9. The Shadow 18 & 19 by Andy Helfer and Kyle Baker. I’d been grabbing issues of this run of comics for years and am only now finishing it. Kyle Baker’s art is swell but Helfer writes a demanding script, these are slow reads that cause the eye to glaze over a bit.

8. The Jam 3-8 by Bernie Mireault. I made a post where I suggested Mireault’s The Jam might be one of the better Slave Labor comics. Probably not true but what I ended up getting are some colored reprints Tundra did, and some black and white issues published by Dark Horse after that. Mireault’s art style is kinda like Roger Langridge. After these, he did a crossover with Mike Allred’s Madman and then did a series of backups in those comics, it makes sense to group them together, along with Jay Stephens’ Atomic City Tales and Paul Grist’s Jack Staff, or Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, as this stream that runs parallel to Image Comics but is basically better, a little more readable, but still feeling closer to something commercial in intention as opposed to self-expression. Although it also IS self-expression, just the expression of a self that has internalized a lot of tropes and interests in superhero comics. If you have also read a lot of superhero comics, but also a lot of alternative comics, stuff like this basically reads like nothing. It’s comfort food on the same level of mashed potatoes: I love it when it’s well-done but there’s also a passable version that can be made when depressed and uninspired. But drawing like Roger Langridge is definitely not bad!

7. WildC.A.T.S by Alan Moore, Travis Charest, et al. I wrote a post about these comics a few months ago, but let me reiterate the salient points: There’s two collections, the first one is much better than the second, and the first is incredibly dumbed-down in its nineties Image Comics style but also feels like the best version of that possible, when Charest is doing art. Also, these collections are out of print now, a friend of mine pointed out maybe they can’t be reprinted because they involve characters owned by Todd McFarlane but Wildstorm is owned wholly by DC now.

6. Haywire by Michael Fleischer and Vince Giarrano. I made a post about this comic when I first read a few issues right around the time Michael Fleischer died a few years ago, but didn’t read all of it then. This feels way more deliberately structured than most action comics, with its limited cast and lack of ties to any broader universe, but it’s also dumb and sleazy and fast moving, and feels related to what were the popular movies of the day, splitting its influences evenly between erotic thrillers about yuppies and Stallone-starring action movies. The erotic thriller element is mostly just “a villain in bondage gear” which is sort of standard superhero comics bullshit but it’s also a little bit deeper than that. The first three issues, inked by Kyle Baker, look the best.

5. Dick Tracy by John Moore and Kyle Baker. These look even better! A little unclear which John Moore this is? There’s John Francis Moore, who worked with Howard Chaykin and was scripting TV around this time, but there’s another dude who was a cartoonist who did a miniseries for Piranha Press and then moved on to doing work for Disney on Darkwing Duck comics. Anyway, Kyle Baker colors these, they’re energetically cartooned, each issue is like 64 pages, with every page being close to a strip or scene in a movie. I’m impressed by them, and there’s a nice bulk that makes them a nice thing to keep a kid busy. (For the record, my favorite Kyle Baker solo comic is probably You Are Here.)

4. Chronos by John Francis Moore and Paul Guinan. I was moving on from DC comics by the late nineties, but Grant Morrison’s JLA was surely a positive influence on everyone, especially compared to the vibe there in the subsequent two decades. These are well-crafted. There’s a little stretch where it uses the whole “time-traveling protagonist” thing to do a run of issues which stand alone but fall in sequence too and it’s pretty smooth and smart. The art is strong enough to carry it, the sort of cartoony faces with detailed backgrounds it’s widely agreed works perfectly, but that you rarely see in mainstream comics. The coloring is done digitally, but not over-modeled enough to ruin it.

3. Martha Washington by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons. A few miniseries, all of which sort of get weaker as they go, but all in one book it doesn’t feel like it’s becoming trash as it goes or anything. When Miller dumbed down his storytelling in the nineties it really was because he thought it made for better comics, the tension between his interest in manga and Gibbons’ British-comics classicism feels productive. I do kind of feel like the early computer coloring ruins this a little bit.

2. Xombi by John Rozum and JJ Birch. Got a handful of these on paper, read scans of the rest. This is pretty solid stuff, not really transcendent ever, but feels well-crafted on a month-in, month-out level. I read a handful of other Milestone comics, and a lot of them suffered from being so beholden to deadlines that there are fill-in issues constantly. This is the rare one that had the same creators for the entirety of its run. There was a revival with Frazer Irving art a decade ago but I prefer JJ Birch’s black line art with Noelle Giddings’ watercolors seen here. They’re doing an early Vertigo style “weirdness” but with a fun and goofy sense of humor about itself. I haven’t read Clive Barker but this feels pretty influenced by that as well. (The Deathwish miniseries is of roughly comparable quality. I read scans of the rest of that after I made my little post and, yeah, it does actually feel very personal for a genre work, and the JH Williams art with painted color is great.)

1. Tom Strong by Alan Moore, Chris Sprouse, etc. I got bored reading these as a teen but getting them all for cheap and reading them in a go was a pretty satisfying experience. It’s partly a speed-run through Moore’s coverage of the concept of a comic book multiverse seen in his Supreme run, minus the riffing on Mort Weisinger Superman comics, instead adding in a running theme of rehabilitating antagonists whose goals are different but aren’t necessarily evil. It’s more than just Moore in an optimistic or nostalgic mode, it also feels like he’s explaining his leftist morality to an audience that has internalized conflicts being resolved by violence as the genre standard.

[treya-barton]

If you're taking requests, what about fluff prompt 2 (sharing earbuds) w/ Souyo?

It was quiet on the train. It was still early morning and there weren’t many passengers that had gotten on at Inaba; as the day progressed more and more passengers would get on at other stops the closer they got to Tokyo until it would get quite crowded right toward the end.  But for now it was still and peaceful with most passengers looking at their phones or taking a nap in their seats.  Yu was pretty used to the trip, having gone back and forth a few times to see his friends and family in Inaba, but it was still relatively new for Yosuke who had only made the trip once to visit during Golden Week and again in order to take his college entrance exams.  He was staring out the window at the landscape as it sped by, arms crossed with his headphones resting on his neck instead of over his ears, but Yu could faintly hear the music playing and knew Yosuke was listening but trying to remain available in case he wanted to chat.  

Yu appreciated the gesture for while he understood Yosuke’s need for the headphones and how they helped reduce his anxiety, it also caused Yosuke to become closed off whenever he put them on.  That would often leave Yu feeling left out or like he couldn’t always reach Yosuke, which if he was honest with himself often bothered him although he would never admit it. He knew the thought would make Yosuke feel guilty and he didn’t want that.

A sudden idea popped into his head and Yu reached into his bag before pulling out some earbuds.  He rolled one of the buds between his fingers while contemplating his options for a moment.  Music was something very personal for Yosuke; Yu got the impression that outside of his parents, Yosuke had never really shared his passion with other people until he started sharing it with him.  He had obviously talked about idol groups with his old friends from the city, but his musical taste was pretty wide and sometimes eclectic and when he had finally shared some of the artists he liked with Yu after he had shown interest in Yosuke’s passion he had been pretty shy about it.  It touched Yu that Yosuke was willing to share something that meant so much to him and allow him into his world a little bit, and he wanted to bridge that gap to Yosuke’s world even more now that they would be rooming together at college.

There was a local indie band that Yu had discovered quite by accident his third year that reminded him a lot of some of the stuff that Yosuke liked.  Yu had never really been that interested in music growing up, but after hearing it so much at the Hanamura’s he found himself paying attention more once he returned to the city.  The band’s music had reminded him so much of his partner that he had started to become a fan of theirs – honestly, it was the first time he could remember being a fan of any group.  He had purchased a digital copy of the album they had out and saved it to his phone, and he suddenly felt the urge to share it with Yosuke and see what he thought. He had been meaning to do so, but he hadn’t really had a chance to since he had been busy during his visit to Inaba, and they hadn’t gotten a lot of time alone together during their last break before college.  Now seemed like a perfect time to bring it up.  Yu was a bit nervous and suddenly felt unsure of Yosuke’s reaction; he was about to disrupt something very personal to him, and Yu wasn’t quite sure if he would like the band even if it was similar to other stuff he listened to. But he still felt the need to give it a try.

Yu plugged the earbuds into his phone and pulled up his favorite song on the album, one that sounded upbeat but in actuality had melancholy lyrics about a relationship falling apart due to the couple being long distance.  It had felt too close to home to Yu even if the distance hadn’t lessened the bond between him and his friends.  Yu had still felt lonely, and he had been able to identify with the singer’s feelings of longing that he portrayed through the song.  “Yosuke?” Yu asked, catching his partner’s attention and causing him to finally tear his eyes away from the countryside as it rolled by.  Yosuke turned his head and looked curiously at the earbud that Yu was offering him.

“What’s up?” he asked, pausing the music on his phone.  The silence made Yu feel even more tense and for a brief moment he considered putting away the earbuds and making up some sort of an excuse instead.  However, Yosuke didn’t give him a chance to change his mind.  “You want me to listen to something?” he asked as he plucked the earbud out of Yu’s hand and fiddled with it until he was able to get it to fit into his ear. He leaned a little closer to Yu so they would be able to share without stretching the cord too taught.  He had perked up and seemed really interested to see what Yu had in store for him.

Yu swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry with anticipation.  “I do,” he replied.  “I discovered a band when I was in Tokyo and I wanted to see what you think about them.”

“You found a band you liked?” Yosuke asked, eyes widening slightly. “I never thought I’d see the day.” In spite of his words, he looked quite enthusiastic and was curiously looking at Yu’s phone, trying to see if he recognized the song or group title.  Yu knew he wouldn’t since the group was only known locally.  Yu had infamously not heard of a single group Yosuke had introduced him to, even the mainstream ones, and he distinctly remembered how shocked Yosuke had been over his lack of musical knowledge.  It had given him a chance to show Yu something entirely new, however, and Yu had enjoyed every minute of it.  It warmed his heart that Yosuke seemed excited at the prospect of Yu getting involved in it on his own.  Yu slid the other earbud into his own ear and finally hit play.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yosuke had never used earbuds before.  They always seemed cheap and he was positive that the sound quality could never compare to his own headphones that he had saved up to buy after working the summer before his family had moved to Inaba.  Besides, headphones had always served as a barrier between him and the rest of the world; when he had them on they not only cancelled noise from the outside world, people knew what he was doing so it helped shut them out when he needed a break or was feeling anxious.  It had especially helped in the Shadow World since music kept him calm and from panicking from the difficulties they faced in there.

Music was usually something very personal to him anyway – one of the few hobbies that he shared with his dad.  Yosuke had been content to keep it to himself until Yu had asked about his album collection one day when he was visiting, and Yosuke had shared it with another person outside of his family for the very first time, shy at first until he realized how little Yu actually knew about music which had caused him to go a little overboard as he shared his passion with him.  Yu hadn’t seemed to mind and in fact, as indicated by the fact he was now wanting to share music he had discovered with Yosuke, he had apparently taken it to heart.

It’s why Yosuke had accepted the earbud without hesitation, even though he had never had someone else share music with him before outside of his dad.  And even though he wasn’t used to the concept of sharing earbuds with someone else since music was usually something he did in solitude.  As he leaned closer to Yu, he couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward since the shared earbuds forced them to be in each other’s personal space more.  While he had often invaded Yu’s personal bubble once they had become friends, there was something oddly intimate about the act of sharing earbuds, and he couldn’t help but feel hyperaware as Yu moved his thumb to press play.  Then, Yosuke’s mind went blank as the music began to play in his ear.

Yosuke had never heard the song before, but something about the music felt familiar to him.  It was a lot like some of the bands he listened to, bands that he knew he had shared with Yu since they were some of his favorites. The music was pretty upbeat which was Yosuke’s preferred style, but as he paid attention to the lyrics he couldn’t help but identify with the difficulties of a long distance relationship and how it tore apart the couple in the song.  It had been hard once Yu had left; it had been like a part of him was missing and things hadn’t felt quite right without him.  Fortunately, their bond had become unbreakable after their experiences together, and neither one of them had let the distance affect their friendship.  In fact, it had only seemed to deepen their resolve to reunite in college so they wouldn’t have to be apart.

As the song continued to play, Yosuke couldn’t help but wonder what had drawn Yu to this particular band and this particular song.  It just felt so much like his own taste, and he suddenly wondered if he had influenced Yu’s taste through sharing his own, or if Yu had felt drawn to them precisely because it reminded him of Yosuke.  He could understand Yu’s draw to this song, figuring it impacted him the same way it was so far to himself.  He also realized how nice it felt to share music with someone this way.  He wouldn’t have been able to with his own headphones, and playing it on his phone’s speaker could have disturbed the other passengers. Somehow the two of them leaning together as they shared earbuds made it feel like they were in their own little world together, similar to when Yosuke closed himself off with his own music but less lonely since he was sharing it instead.  It felt right, and although he had to admit the song would have probably sounded better through his earphones, the act of sharing it with Yu and feeling so close to him made up for it.

Once the song ended, Yosuke turned to look at Yu, his eyes shining in enthusiasm.  “Wow,” he breathed, unsure of what to say at first. Yu seemed tense, which surprised Yosuke, and he racked his brain to try to come up with the words to explain what he had just experienced so he could reassure his partner.  “That song was amazing.  It seems my musical tastes have rubbed off on you.”  He grinned at Yu who seemed to relax at his words.

“I think I like them because they remind me of you,” Yu admitted.  “Listening to them brought me back to afternoons at your house as you introduced me to different bands that you liked, and it helped me on days where I was feeling particularly lonely.”

Yosuke’s heart twisted in pain for a moment, for while it had been hard for him, he knew it had been even more so for Yu who had faced it alone.  Yosuke at least had their friends to keep him company when he needed it.  “Well, you won’t have to worry about that anymore. You’ll be sick of me in no time,” he joked with a wink.

“I will never be sick of you,” Yu replied honestly, and Yosuke’s heart skipped for a moment.  His cheeks flushed at Yu’s honesty, but he did his best to pretend he wasn’t flustered by his comment.

“We’ll see about that. I am curious though as to what kind of music you’d like on your own,” Yosuke said thoughtfully.  “Hopefully we’ll be able to discover that together.”

“I dunno, I liked what you shared with me,” Yu said.  “Maybe we just have compatible tastes?”

Yosuke liked that idea, although he still had a feeling Yu could probably surprise him if he tried hard enough.  He had already surprised him by discovering a band on his own.  “I’d still like to see what else you’ll discover,” he replied.  “You have anymore of their stuff?”

“Yeah, you want to listen to more?” Yu asked, looking excited at the idea.  His face to a normal person would seem impassive, but Yosuke could tell how his eyes seemed to light up at the idea that Yosuke wanted to listen more to this band that had caught his interest.  Yosuke had a feeling it was pretty similar to how he had acted once he realized Yu was sincerely interested in his music.

“Hell yeah!” Yosuke said. Yu grinned at him, the smile that crinkled his eyes almost shut as the corners of his mouth tilted up.  Yu only showed this smile to the ones close to him, and seemed to bring it out most often around Nanako and himself.  Yosuke felt pretty special that he had the ability to bring it out of the normally stoic teen.  Yosuke leaned even closer to Yu as the next song began to play, and he noted that Yu seemed to do the same.  They spent a relaxing afternoon sharing music on the train, and it seemed to somehow bring them even closer together.  Yosuke felt the sudden urge to buy his own pair of earbuds, just for future moments where he would be able to share his passion with his best friend. Ones with better sound quality so Yu would better be able to experience the music as they shared it with one another. He wanted only the best for his partner.

[ckret2]

“You’re so vain” “Give em hell kid” And “I hope you die” I’d love to hear those explanations

Righto! Okay so recap for the people who might have missed it, this is about the radiosnake playlist I mentioned/linked a bit over a week ago, Serpentine & Demonswing. When I posted it I also added an “and if you wanna know why any songs are on the playlist you’re free to ask.” The playlist is a work in progress so some of my answers are gonna be “so here’s the explanation for why it was included but tbh I’m not 100% on keeping it.”

Important things to mention before getting into it: the playlist is build specifically off my headcanons from “Cold Day In Hell,” and so all of the songs act on the assumption that CDIH is “canon.” (tl;dr: they’re exes, because Alastor got scared of emotional intimacy, told Sir Pent he never actually liked him, and ran off after blowing up all his airships.) The first chunk of songs is from Sir Pent’s perspective, the second chunk is from Alastor’s, the third is from them both or about them both, and the last few songs are “I like the vibe but honestly am not sure this fits the playlist.”

Also, y’all are welcome to keep asking me about songs, because this is a lot of fun.

I’m absolutely sure that tumblr is going to delete this read more out of the post but I’m going to put one anyway, maybe it’ll let this one work just to be contrary. If it doesn’t, I apologize for the dash stretcher, that’s just how tumblr do.

So! Explanations:

You’re So Vain (Lyrics)

This one is on the Sir Pentious side, so, although it’s not directly/accurately about Alastor, it is about how Sir Pent sees him in light of their catastrophic breakup.

Verse 1 is less on the nose in its description of Alastor, but you get the impression of someone who is obsessed with how he comes across to other people, and who is far more interested in himself and the image he’s giving off than he is in any of the people he’s trying to impress. A great deal of Alastor’s personality is—or at the very least, comes off as—completely performative. As though to this day he’s still nothing but a radio host performing for a listening audience, even when he’s only talking to one person. The fact that he’s always wearing a fake smile and pointedly providing his own sound effects adds to that impression of a performer who never breaks character.

And the fact that the character in the song is still wholly self-absorbed even when he’s dancing with a partner gives a nice little glimpse into how Sir Pent’s retroactively reinterpreted his last evening with Alastor.

Verse 2 is the stanza that comes closest to completely accurately reflecting what went down between them. First, the alliance between them, the implicit promises that they the were going to conquer Hell and then Heaven as partners in crime—“Well, you said that we made such a pretty pair / And that you would never leave”—and then, the breakup—“But you gave away the things you loved / And one of them was me.” It’s the one line that acknowledges that the character in the song did, indeed, actually love the singer, and wasn’t just performing a role/playing at being in love.

It’s also a line that would ring false to Sir Pentious, because in the aftermath of CDIH, he genuinely doesn’t believe that Alastor ever loved him. He completely buys Alastor’s claim that he was just screwing around with Sir Pent’s emotions for his own entertainment. Words to the effect of “one of [the things you loved] was me” would never come out of Sir Pent’s mouth.

However. Of all the lines in all of the songs in Sir Pent’s portion of the playlist, that one line is the most accurate thing that could be said about Alastor, the blade that would stab into the core of who he is and the role that he played in this story. Because of his vanity—his selfishness, his pride, his obsession with his own independence, his fear of love, his fear of vulnerability, his fear of sharing his life with someone else, etc.—he didn’t just lose what he loved, he did very deliberately and intentionally give it away.

(I’ve always found that line to be the most interesting in the song, for the hint that this vain person did indeed truly feel for someone else, so I’m glad that line fits so well here.)

Verse 3 is just more “what Alastor is like as observed by Sir Pent,” except even more accurately than the first stanza. Constantly running around, constantly moving on from one brief source of entertainment to another (just stuff “threw his support behind the Happy Hotel” somewhere between “gambled on a horse race” and “watched an eclipse”), constantly socializing with dangerous people and people whom he’s going to hurt without caring in the slightest.

Okay so that’s the lyrics.

Making sure the aesthetics/styles/genres of the songs match the character they’re for is one of my high priorities on this fanmix—not to the extent that having the wrong style is an instant dealbreaker, but I’m going to be hesitant to include a song that doesn’t at all match the sound I’m going for. For Sir Pentious, I’m kind of running with two styles.

The first style is “sounds Victorian-ish enough to get a shrug and a nod from anybody who doesn’t actually know/care about Victorian-era music,” so that’s gonna be just about anything orchestral/symphonic that doesn’t clearly fall into a different genre, symphonic metal that sounds symphonic enough to satisfy me, instrumental covers of other songs (string quartets, piano, full orchestra...), things with harpsichords (LISTEN i know that harpsichords are more baroque but they’ve got the right Vibe, you know, they’ve got the Feeling), and things with organ—but like, it’s gotta sound like pipe organ (pipe organ—sounds like a church) and not like Hammond organ (Hammond organ—sounds like a baseball game). Also steampunk, except a lot of “steampunk” genre music sounds swingy/jazzy, so those songs get ruled out because that’s Alastor’s aesthetic. And also, like, actual classical music, but I’m not into a lot of actual classical music, so I don’t think any’s actually made it in yet, lmao.

The second style is based on what the creator herself said about Sir Pent’s music preferences: “Sir Pentious would listen to Blink-182. Pentious would literally listen to stuff like Linkin Park, Green Day, the emo stuff.” So I took "the emo stuff” as “oh okay cool so the stuff I listened to at 15 got it” and ran wild with that. I’ve been most heavily drawing from My Chemical Romance, Panic! At The Disco, and Mindless Self Indulgence to represent that half of Sir Pent’s preferences. (MSI because I feel like that fits an in-your-face and morally jaded villain, P!ATD because their newer stuff fits his flamboyance and exuberance and egotism, and MCR because... because I know them best.) I haven’t yet made much time to carefully comb the discographies of the other bands listed or look into other more traditional emo-associated acts.

Carly Simon’s original “You’re So Vain” matches neither of these styles.

I combed through about 60 different versions of “You’re So Vain” on Spotify looking for ones that meet one of these aesthetics. Like 90% of them were, I’m pretty sure, just various singers adding their vocals directly over a karaoke version of Carly Simon’s original.

In the end, the only one that came close was Marilyn Manson’s cover. He’s a bit outside of the bounds I try to stick in for Sir Pent, but like, okay, he’s industrial metal, but in a particularly goth way, that’s close enough to emo. To my mind, “Sir Pent listens to emo” is like... Sir Pentious’s musical preferences are going to be, 1) counterculture, the kind of stuff that causes conservative Christian moms to go into moral panics, but also 2) mainstream counterculture, the kind of bands that produce huge hits & get featured in major blockbuster movies, but also also 3) slightly dated mainstream counterculture, i.e., at the end of the 2010s he’s listening to the bands that may still be popular but that peaked in the mid 2000s, in keeping with the way he’s trying to keep hip and modern but always seems a little bit behind.

So, in the 2010s, he’s listening to 2000s emo acts. In the 2000s, he was listening to the 1990s’ biggest metal acts (like Marilyn Manson) and possibly grunge acts (things like Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins). In the 1990s, he was listening to the 1980s’ biggest post-punk and new wave acts (like The Cure, Joy Division/New Order, Depeche Mode). Always evolving his stylistic preferences, always trying to keep up, but always a little behind. So that’s how I justify putting Marilyn Manson in lmao.

Although that was the only version of “You’re So Vain” I thought fit well enough, I also found a version by Trash Pour 4, a version by Les Reed Orchestra, and a version by Giant Sand that were all very good. Trash Pour 4 is driving me crazy because I can’t quite figure out what genre they are, I just can’t place them—but they’ve got several other good covers that I’d like to take advantage of at some point.

I also found a song called “You’re So Vain (Christian Dior)” by The Energy Commission that’s not a cover of Carly Simon’s song, just a new song with the same name. I’m lowkey considering including on Alastor’s side of the playlist. It’d serve as a very sharp critique of how image obsessed Sir Pent is, there’s some snappy turns of phrase that seem like they’d appeal to Alastor’s sense of humor (my two favorites are “He went off the deep end ‘cause he’s so shallow” and “He’s got a timepiece on his wrist and it says ‘watch me’”), the fact that it’s a critique specifically of high class materialism fits with the fact that I headcanon Sir Pent as coming from British nobility while Alastor’s ancestry is both racially and socially mixed (including at least one close relative who was a slave, I’m thinking a grandparent but haven’t settled on my headcanons yet), and I love when there are parallels like that in playlists about the relationship between lovers/partners/rivals/siblings/any-combo-of-two-people.

The reason I haven’t added it yet is because, by the end of the song, it’s not just a critique of being a rich shallow image-obsessed douche, but specifically of how that culture ties in to exploitative capitalism that’s wrecking human lives and the world—which, in the context of the characters we’re talking about here, would translate into a criticism of Sir Pentious’s very-imperialist-sounding take-over-the-world villain ambitions. Which isn’t something I think Alastor cares about. He probably should, but like, he just doesn’t. He’s a villain himself. I’m sure he’s got his own morals and standards and hard limits but “take over the world” isn’t on his list of dealbreakers. What’s taking over the world include? Mass murder and subjugation? Yeah, he’s cool with that. So that’s why I’m still on the fence about adding it.

Give ‘Em Hell, Kid (Lyrics)

So remember how I said that My Chemical Romance is one of the bands I’ve drawn from most heavily so far in looking for emo Sir Pent songs? Yeah for about a day there were six different MCR songs sitting in Serpentine & Demonswing as I slowly whittled them down to the ones that I thought fit best. “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” is one of the last three, and actually one that I’m constantly on the verge of cutting.

Lyrically, it’s an Alastor song. There’s mentions of the singer having come from New Orleans (listen... i am a sucker for songs that mention New Orleans, it automatically earns five points on the imaginary “is this an Alastor song?” rubric in my head). The singer is singing about a love interest who’s gone, and he’s making no moves to pursue/reclaim the love interest, wishing them well (“So go on, live your life”), but he’s a wreck and a lesser person without them (“If you were here, I'd never have a fear,” “Well I'm a total wreck and almost every day”), and it’s just getting worse with time, not better (“But I miss you more than I did yesterday”).

The line “Some might say we are made from the sharpest things you say” although directed toward “you,” i.e. the love interest, i.e. Sir Pentious, in my head actually reflects more on the things Alastor said to Sir Pentious: the cruel things he said to Pent—that he’s weak, ineffective, behind the times, a has-been, never going to conquer hell—ended up a self-fulfilling prophecy, because that’s exactly what Alastor’s rampage made happen. Today, as he is now, Sir Pentious is made from the sharpest things Alastor said.

“Your dreams and your hopeless hair” makes me think of Sir Pent’s wild efforts to conquer hell (and, of course, his ridiculous cobra hood), and “We never wanted it to be this way for all our lives” is a perfect expression of Alastor’s regrets/remorse over what his actions have done to both of their lives, but especially to Sir Pent’s life.

And all the references to violence—murder scenes, firing squads, sharpest things—fit with the fact that both of them chose to live lives soaked in blood.

So it’s a perfect Alastor song. The only problem is, it’s an MCR song, which is sooo far outside of my acceptable genres for him. (I’m not gonna get into Alastor’s genres now bc there are better songs to do that on, just know emo ain’t it.) And not only is it outside of his acceptable genres, it’s in the OTHER character’s acceptable genres, which is very messy. I can vibe with “lovers’ songs borrowing from each other’s aesthetic” a LITTLE bit when it’s used to represent, like, emotional synchronicity or the like (ex: both “Roustabout” and Vernian Process’s “Maple Leaf Rag” are on my “Alastor+Sir Pent style fusion songs” list). But MCR is a big departure from Alastor’s acceptable styles.

Plus, the playlist already has two MCR songs, and do I really need three songs from the same band? Unless there’s a really good reason, I try to avoid having repeats from the same band on one playlist—I feel like a good well-rounded fanmix oughta have a diversity of sources. (With “a really good reason” being something like “I’ve got the playlist divided into five sections detailing five phases of the character’s life and each section is introduced with a different track from the same band” or “I’ve got an instrumental version of the song to kick off the playlist to serve as ‘foreshadowing’ for when the version with lyrics shows up at the most dramatic moment” or something like that.)

If I was going to, like, make it a thing, I could. Justify it like “there’s one MCR song that represents them when they’re together, one MCR song from Sir Pent’s perspective, and one MCR song from Alastor’s perspective, like a little triangle,” but like... if I was going to do that I feel like I’d want to do it with a style that’s either representative of both of them or else independent of both of them, and MCR is so heavily a Sir Pent sound. Basically, having three songs from one band would be okay if it was a band that vibes with the overall tone I’m shooting for in the playlist—but it’s not. So I’m very torn on “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid.”

“El Tango De Roxanne” + “Overture” + “I Hope You Die”

Okay before I can talk about “I Hope You Die” by itself, I kind of have to explain its exact position in the playlist and its relationship with the other two songs I just listed.

While MOST of the playlist is chunked up into the four sections I mentioned earlier (Sir Pent, Alastor, both, undecided), within those sections the songs aren’t really in any particular order. The one exception is the very first three songs on the playlist/the very first three songs in Sir Pent’s section.

These three songs, presented in that order, all as Sir Pent songs, serve as Sir “in war, the side remembered is the side with the most style” Pentious the Super Villain making his big entrance like:

“El Tango De Roxanne” starts slow/quiet, and then (with a couple of brief dips) it gradually builds in volume and pain and intensity, getting faster and more emphatic, switching from mournful longing to nearly-angry anguish, until it ends with a pained scream, steampunkish percussion, howling background singers, and a wailing violin.

And then it pauses, for just a moment.

And then “Overture” hammers you with the most dramatic opening chord you will ever hear on an organ in your life, perfectly matching the energy at the end of “El Tango De Roxanne” and maintaining that level of energy throughout the song.

And then it stops so quickly it’s like someone gasped, holding its breath for a split second—and then some dude yells “You must die! I alone am best!” and the guitars kick in for “I Hope You Die,” leading into a depiction of the most intense, vitriolic, disgusting sort of loathing imaginable.

The build-up from “El Tango De Roxanne” and “Overture” really revs up “I Hope You Die,” the intensity of the organ in “Overture” highlights the intensity of the guitar in “I Hope You Die,” and all together it hypes up what could have been just a dark humor song about hating someone into something that sounds like a very genuine demonstration of hatred.

And taken all together, it makes for a fantastic intro for Sir Pent.

It also serves as a perfect intro to the current state of affairs between him and Alastor—sort of expressing his personal emotional journey on the morning Alastor betrayed him, as his reaction transforms over the course of three songs from grief/despair to fathomless fury.

There’s more I could say individually about “El Tango De Roxanne” and “Overture,” but I won’t, because it’s “I Hope You Die” time.

“I Hope You Die” (Lyrics - warning for a whole stanza dedicated to hoping someone gets raped in prison)

A small handful of the songs in my Hazbin playlists were discovered in and added from existing Hazbin character playlists I found on Spotify before I started making my own. “I Hope You Die” was one of them, found here. Which is why it was added even though it doesn’t fit my strict genre standards, it won me over before I narrowed down the styles I’m working with lmao.

(I feel like “El Tango De Roxanne” was one of those too, but I can’t now find a Spotify playlist containing it that added it before I did. Where did I grab it from? It’s not something I would’ve looked up on my own, something must have inspired me. IDK what though. None of the other songs mentioned in this post were found on other playlists.)

So this song is, obviously, just about how much some dude hates somebody else and wants extremely horrible things to happen to them. It’s sorta... *eyes lyrics uneasily* ... sorta tasteless; but, tasteless in a way that I feel like reflects back on the character singing the song. The feeling I come away from after finishing the song isn’t “the band wants you to think the person they’re singing about deserves this to happen to them,” because it doesn’t even give a reason why the singer hopes this person suffers; but rather, “the band wants you to think that this is the kind of hatred that the character/persona the singer is portraying is capable of, this is the kind of vile stuff that character wants to see done to their enemies, this is representative of the depths of that character’s rage.” Which is why I’m like “yeah... okay, sure, that fits” even though I’m real iffy about the last couple stanzas.

Because for a character who’s in Hell surrounded by people who have stomped on the last dredges of their civility and decency, and a character who’s patterned after a super villain (and, because the series creator dropped the idea that there are heroes/villains in the living world, the only super villain in this setting), and a character who gleefully boasts about being evil, and a character who we know demonstrates very rapid/extreme emotions and expressions of hate/outrage... Yes, I can absolutely see this song as the exact sort of hatred Sir Pentious would level at somebody who’s slighted him. And Alastor blew way the hell past “slighting” him. Alastor, without exaggeration, has ruined his life (afterlife?) and over fifty years later Sir Pent is still unsuccessfully struggling to get back up to the level he was at before he even met Alastor. Right now, Sir Pentious really and truly and deeply despises Alastor.

A song like this—sheer, frothing, unrestrained, vengeful contempt—tells you a whole lot about what kind of emotions Sir Pentious is capable; and it tells you a whole lot about the kind of effect Alastor’s actions have had on him, to inspire this level of reaction from someone who was very close to him for fifteen years and increasingly in love with him for probably a good amount of that time.

Plus, the “You must die! I alone am best!” is such a very, very Sir Pentious sentiment.

So that’s those songs! Again, y’all are free to ask me for my thoughts on more. Yes, most of them will probably be like this, lol.

[murasaki-murasame]

Ao no Flag chapter 50 is out now, along with confirmation that the series will be ending Soon [tm]. Which on the one hand makes me sad, but on the other hand it’s heading towards a perfectly natural conclusion and it’d probably be worse if it got drawn out.

Anyway this has been your monthly reminder that the series is going to start getting official English volume releases in April 2020.

Thoughts on the new chapter under the cut.

There’s a lot to discuss with this chapter [in spite of it technically not covering much], but first I wanna talk more about the fact that we’re officially heading into the climax of the series.

I think we’re a chapter or two into volume 8 now, so I think it’s very likely this will be the final volume, in which case there’d be about five or six chapters left. Sometimes with manga, especially shonen manga, they announce that the series is entering it’s last arc or whatever and then the last arc takes like five years to finish, but I feel like that only really happens with super popular mainstream action type stuff. Usually with smaller series like this, this sort of announcement means we’re genuinely in the home stretch.

At most we might get a ninth volume, but since this is a monthly series, it’d still take like half a year for us to finish volume 8, so that’s probably where it’ll end.

I’m pretty glad that it’s going to end soon instead of drawing itself out, since basically all of the major plot points have been out in the open for a while now and everyone’s been slowly confronting and resolving their personal problems, so the series probably wouldn’t be able to keep going much longer unless they came up with entirely new things to drag it out, which would probably suck.

It’s still kinda sad that this means we probably won’t have time to explore much more with Masumi, but at the very least I’m happy with the amount of focus that all the other main characters have received thus far. And who knows, maybe Masumi watching how Touma is patching things up with his friends might give her the courage to come out to Futaba. Considering how everything with Touma’s been handled, it’d feel kinda depressing and unnecessary if Masumi just continues hiding her feelings right to the very end.

It’s also worth pointing out that the series ending soon probably also means that the crack theory I had [for lack of a better term] of Futaba being trans isn’t gonna happen, but that was never something I was super convinced about anyway.

I think so long as we at least get a scene of Masumi coming out to Futaba then I’ll pretty much be entirely satisfied with the series by the end, so that’d be nice. There’s a lot of small things i could nitpick, and other topics I could want the author to explore, but at the end of the day it’s been a perfectly great series, and I’m being kinda unfair toward it in terms of my expectation since it feels like it’s one of the only Shonen Jump series to tackle these sorts of topics at all and so the desperate part of me wants it to be perfect and to do everything, which is unreasonable. Really I just want there to be a wider variety of manga like this in the shonen demographic, lol.

Also, I still think that it ending with about eight volumes would lend itself perfectly to it getting a 25-ish episode anime adaptation. I think that’d be enough to comfortably adapt the entire thing from start to finish. But it’s still probably a pipe dream to expect a series like this to get an adaptation. At the very least, if it does, I hope they announce it before it ends, but I think the Astra Lost in Space anime only got announced several months after it’s manga ended, so who even knows.

Anyway, onto the actual events of this chapter, it’s basically just the rest of the conversation between Futaba and Touma, but it was incredibly good either way. Even though I continue to agonize over the fact that this series is monthly, lol.

I know I said this before but it’s still just so funny to me that Touma and Futaba WANT to get angry and argue with each other because they’ve got a lot of pent up feelings they dunno how to express, but they just keep circling back to being nice to each other and talking about their feelings and emotionally supporting each other.

Even at this point I still don’t know if I’m just getting my hopes up about how I’m getting more and more vibes of Taichi being bi, but this chapter in particular seems to really lay it on thick, lol. I mean, it’s just Futaba’s interpretation of Taichi’s feelings, and we’ve pretty pointedly not been getting a look into Taichi’s actual thoughts for ages now, but she was definitely trying to tell Touma that she thinks Taichi is grappling with the idea of Touma as a potential boyfriend.

I still feel like one way or another Taichi and Futaba are gonna continue dating by the end of the series, but it’d be really interesting if this does actually lead to an acknowledgement of Taichi also having feelings for Touma. Which would make everything way more complicated and depressing all around.

In a weird way I think it might actually make the inevitability of Touma being left single sting even more if Taichi does actually have feelings for Touma, since then it becomes a matter of Touma having ‘missed out on’ an actual potential relationship, instead of it having been a pipe dream right from the start.

I should probably stop being surprised by the stuff this series touches upon in spite of it being a shonen manga, and all the baggage and tropes that comes with, but seeing Futaba reply to Touma’s ‘it’s not like I can be his girlfriend or anything’ by going ‘and I can’t be his boyfriend, either’ was pretty hard-hitting. It at least makes me hope even more that they’re actually setting up for Taichi being bi.

One way or another they’ve been spending what feels like a really long time intentionally keeping us out of Taichi’s head, so with the series ending soon I hope that comes to a head soon. We really need some sort of proper face to face conversation with him and Touma where they actually hash out their feelings.

Kensuke’s still on my shit list and that probably won’t ever change, but I can’t really bring myself to feel disappointed or anything about how things are wrapping up between him and Touma. For one thing I don’t think that sort of scene in this chapter with them was ever gonna be the time or place for anything more deep or serious than the conversation we got, but even then, given what Kensuke’s like, him going ‘everyone in love grosses me out’ is something that I can at least somewhat accept as his way of trying to say that he’s not trying to single Touma out.

I still think he’s a shithead though and I’m side-eyeing all the online comments i’m seeing that are like ‘I’m glad the author isn’t demonizing Kensuke for not accepting Touma’s sexuality’, lol. Y’all are on thin fucking ice.

Anyway, with how this chapter ended, and the confirmation of the series ending soon, I’m really excited to see what happens next. The monthly wait is going to get even more agonizing now.

In general the main two things I want are 1: Masumi coming out to Futaba, and 2: Touma and Taichi having an actual conversation about their feelings. So long as we get that, I could take or leave anything else. Although it’d also be nice to see Touma come out to his family. But still.

[jawnjendes]

i could use something good | shawn mendes

university au, shawn x goth gf

AN: this is their First Date and its nearly 4k words and i gave myself emotions so and a bitch is TIREDT so TAKE THIS BLEASE n let me know what u think pls i need it

!!!!also!!!! should i give this bitch a name? should the goth gf be called something other than goth gf??? let me know if u have any name suggestions!

!!!ANOTHER also!!!! i made a playlist!!! its a fuck ton of whiplash! i spent 3 days on it!! enjoy!!

masterlist | series playlist

“If I didn’t know you,” said Stella, who was at my bedroom doorway, “I wouldn’t think you were going on a date with a guy like Shawn Mendes.”

She wasn’t wrong. I was decked out in a long black button up, ripped black jeans, and black Vans. However, I had the decency to keep my makeup colorful. Who doesn’t love bright red eyeshadow, thick wings, and a nude lip? Besides, all black clothing and bright eyeshadow was all I had for the moment. These days, I barely found time for washing my clothes or makeup brushes. My glamorous office job and homework was getting quite demanding. I was surprised I found time to see Shawn on the weekend.

I say that as if I wasn’t putting off psych homework. The last time I did this was for some fuckboy who didn’t care about my grades… or me at all. How did I know it was going to be different this time? Usually, I can tell when someone wants to hook up and leave it at that, but I have spoken to Shawn as many times as I can count on one hand, and I couldn’t detect any of that. Must be a good actor. Maybe he’s done this before.

“Maybe I’ve lost my mind,” I said, more to myself than to Stella.

She heard and responded anyway. “Losing your mind is staying in bed for a whole twenty four hours. You’re getting back into the swing of things, so even if this date goes bad, the interaction is good for you. This is normal for our age.”

Again, she’s not wrong. My antidepressant prescription was finally refilled, so the fog in my head was starting to clear up. It was just way too easy to slip back into isolation. My self destructive tendencies were just being done out of habit at this point.

“When was the last time you went on a date?” Stella asked.

I blew out a sigh and thought about it as I applied lip gloss over my nude lipstick. I was hardly the type to go on an actual date. “Shit, I don’t know. Before college, I think.”

“So you were seventeen?”

“No! I started college late. I was probably eighteen, almost nineteen.”

“That’s still about three years.”

“Well, chances are neither of us are really taking this thing seriously,” I said, putting my lip products into my purse. “He didn’t ask me on a date. He just wanted to hang out.”

Stella clicked her tongue and folded her arms. “So you’re just gonna go get laid?”

“No. I’m past that part of life.”

“So it’s a date.”

“No.”

She was more confused than I was by the time Shawn had texted me. He asked to come up to the dorm, so I gave him the floor and number. According to Stella, I was either definitely getting laid or my man friend was a real gentlemen. I wasn’t sure which one I was more nervous about.

“Should I answer the door?” Stella asked, bouncing on her feet. “So I can tell him that you’re almost ready, and then you can make a dramatic entrance, and he’ll be like ‘you look… wow.’ Y’know the way guys do!” She said all of that very fast.

“And then I say ‘you don’t look too bad yourself,’” I said, amused. “What universe is this?”

We both laughed, but then we were cut off by a knock on the door. Stella looked at my with a grin so wide her dimples came out. I tried to match her enthusiasm.

“I’ll get it,” she said, turning on her heel towards the front door.

“No, I will!” I snapped, suddenly frantic. I pushed past her to answer the door.

“No, you have to make your dramatic entrance!”

“I don’t have to!”

We bickered as we got closer to the door. Mind you, it was five steps from my bedroom. I pretty much slapped Stella’s hand out of the way as she reached for the doorknob, and I knocked her out of the way with my hip. At the last second, she stood behind the door as I opened it.

I smiled wide at Shawn, who had been waiting for thirty seconds too long. He was in a white button up, black skinny jeans, and black boots. Tall and handsome as ever. It’s always the handsome ones that’ll get you. What are the chances I was falling into another fuckboy trap?

He returned the smile, probably acting like he didn’t hear me tackle my roommate. “Hey, you ready?”

I nodded like a lovesick puppy. This was quite unlike me, if you don’t think about the times I was easily swayed by various guys who gave zero fucks. Oh god, am I easy?

Stella was hopping like a bunny from behind the door. I shot her one last glance before stepping out of the dorm and into the hallway.

No one was around to see or feel the awkward air of me walking next to Shawn. It was obvious that we were… into each other? But it was still, for lack of a better phrase, the first date and I was unbelievably aware of that. Just by appearance alone, Shawn and I didn’t look like people who would typically hang out with each other.

Shawn walked with a type of confidence I could only dream to have. People noticed him, people wanted to be friends with him. There was just something about him that draws you in, and it drew in my broody ass.

I walked with my shoulders hunched, my hood up, and my head down. I tried not to be noticed, and I was pretty sure it worked. Strangers in class who tried to talk to me were always caught off guard by my black lipstick and dark eyeliner, like it’s never been done before. I was a little unapproachable, and I didn’t intend for it to be that way.

“So before we go,” Shawn said, “you got any allergies or dietary restrictions I should know about? ‘Cause we’re gonna go eat.”

Okay… doesn’t seem like a hook up situation. I was also surprised he had the decency to ask. The only reason why my face felt hot was because I actually had an answer.

“You ready? ‘Cause it’s a decent sized list,” I told him. Then, I named all the restaurants I couldn’t eat at because I’ve gotten sick from the food. “Also, I can’t have anything spicy, or anything that’s super processed and dripping with grease.”

I didn’t love explaining this to people, but it was necessary. I prefer not being sick, especially on a date. It’s a long story.

“Alright, coffee it is,” Shawn concluded.

We ended up going to the place he and Camila performed at a couple weeks ago. It was much less crowded in broad daylight. Shawn ordered some passion fruit whatever, and I stuck with jasmine tea. I insisted on paying for myself, but nah, I was invited here or whatever.

“Where do you wanna sit?” Shawn asked when we had our drinks.

I wordlessly went for the table at the far corner of the shop. The place was quite small, so we weren’t exactly away from everyone else. From here, I could see the entrance, and the string of customers that would come and go. The bathrooms were also right next to where we sat, so I could make an impromptu escape if needed.

“Away from the sun, eh?” Shawn joked. “As expected.”

If this date was going to consist of goth jokes I swear-

“So how’s your day goin’?” I asked, keeping a smile on my face.

“The usual. I worked, went to class.”

I nodded, playing with my steaming to-go cup. “You said you work at a flower shop, right? What’s that like?”

“Oh, I love it.” Shawn sat up in his seat. “I love the different types of flowers we got. There’s one, a chaenomeles, or a flowering quince - beautiful, one of my favorites.”

The way he talked about being surrounded by pretty plants four times a week was entrancing. He was really into it. He went into detail about arranging flowers down to the vase they went in. He knew his stuff and he loved every bit of it. Damn it, he’s passionate. I like passion in a guy. Damn it.

“So you do the arrangements and you deliver them?” I asked. Listen, I wanted to know more about him and for him to know less about me.

“Pretty much. Although, I’ve been delivering to a lot of funerals lately. That’s probably more your neck of the woods, right?” He smirked.

I scoffed. “Oh yeah, the girl who wears all black must love attending funerals, huh?” I sat back and sipped my tea. “It’s quite the opposite actually, even though I’ll admit, I look like I love death and dying.”

Shawn tilted his head, curious. “Is that not what being a goth is?”

“I wouldn’t know ‘cause I’m not a goth.” A smile almost grew on my face, but I stayed neutral.

Silence fell between us, and I looked down at my cup. I could feel Shawn’s brown eyes on me, and one glance at his face showed me a charming, boyish smile. He knew I knew something, and he was quietly coaxing it out of me.

And it worked.

“Okay, fine!” I said, scooting forward and placing my elbows on the table. “Goths are merely aware of how short and fragile human life is. We-” I cleared my throat, “They acknowledge and accept the fact that we’re all going to mcfreaking die one day.”

Shawn nodded. “Okay, I see. So they’re not afraid of dying?”

“Depends on the person,” I replied. “They’re incredibly aware of the dark side of things - obviously. But they know of the light too. Light and dark, life and death. But anyone can have that mindset, really. So I would say being goth is finding beauty in the dark.”

“So what makes you not one of them?”

I thought for a moment. Yeah, I was fascinated by things that deviated the mainstream. I thought about death more than I’d like to admit. I wore skulls and black lace and dark makeup, but that shouldn’t be a reason to put me in a box. I knew I wasn’t going to stay like this forever. I just never labeled myself as what others labeled me as.

“I forgot where the beauty was,” I finally answered.

That made Shawn smile. He finally got a sliver of what I just might come with. He didn’t say anything either, he just sank into the moment, and it felt like he wanted me to be there with him.

My eyes went around the coffee shop, trying to find a way to change the topic. More people were starting to enter the vicinity. It was getting less chill and more hectic. Then I looked at the table top. We both had our hands around our cups. I found Shawn’s bird tattoo on his hand, something that made him just a little more attractive.

“So what does your tattoo mean?” I asked.

His response had me floored. “Which one? I’ve got five of them.”

Damn it.

“I guess all of them,” I replied, a smile creeping up on my face.

All five of his tattoos were special and deep. Each one gave me more reasons to not ghost him after this was over. Shawn really loved this city. He really loved his family. He loved his mother so much.

“You really love music, huh?” I mused, looking at the beautiful guitar tattoo on his forearm.

“More than anything,” he replied.

“More than flowers?”

“A hundred percent. Playing music is all I want to do for the rest of my life.”

Tell me why that made me genuinely smile. Tell me why that was so goddamn attractive.

I asked him what his favorite songs were to play, and he had a list of sweet love songs I had listened to at a different point in time. He loved writing songs about love, and he revealed he hasn’t been in a proper serious relationship before. Neither had I. Shawn was a year younger than me, so his reasoning was from just that, being young.

Part of me wished that was also my reason.

After talking to Shawn for over an hour, we fell into a silence much less awkward than when we were walking out of my dorm building. I was stuck wondering how a soft, sunshine-y boy like him could find interest in a stone cold storm like me. I wondered, but I didn’t want to tap out just yet.

Once the coffee shop was too crowded, we went out to the street. This part of downtown was still unfamiliar, but I didn’t mind this time. I was talking to a cute boy. A soft boy. This wasn’t a normal occurrence for me.

“What are you thinking about?” Shawn asked me as we strolled down the street.

I was staring at the ground. I really didn’t know what to say. We spent the last hour sharing our thoughts and whatnot, why does he need more? I merely shrugged.

“Alright, well I have another question,” he said. “What made you agree to this date?”

Oh fuck it is date.

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “But after spending some time with you, I can say… you’re… charming? And, kind?” I chuckled. “I don’t really talk about things like that so explicitly.”

He looked at me for a second. “Okay, well I do. I asked Stella about you after I saw you at my set. All I’ve wanted to do is to get to know you. You’re just really cool, and really mysterious. It’s kinda drawing me in.”

This had to be a trap somehow. Shawn couldn’t possibly have genuine interest in me. He was all softness and joy, and I was all stormy and bitter. This couldn’t be real.

“I… awesome,” I mumbled, trying to hide my giddiness. Yeah, I was in disbelief, but how often is a guy like that so upfront about his feelings? That is, if he wasn’t lying about any of this.

“You haven’t told me enough about you, honey,” he said.

I glanced at him, placing my hands in my sweater pockets. So he noticed my questioning. “Well, you kinda got it figured out. I’m a girl who likes wearing black.”

“That’s it, eh? Come on, don’t be shy.”

Shyness wasn’t what I would have called it.

“What do you wanna know?” I asked sheepishly.

“Hmm… something crazy that’s happened to you.”

Honestly, it’s just as bad as the word, “everything.” But at least I had something to think about. The craziest thing I did was move countries at the age of nineteen, but it was only crazy in the eyes of my relatives, which was a lot of people. Does that count?

“I got my wisdom teeth out when I was seventeen,” I said casually. “That’s about as crazy as I get. When I was hopped up on drugs, I was telling my mom a tale of a chosen hero who on adventures all over the kingdom.”

Shawn chuckled. “Really?”

“Yeah. My mom recorded it, because she got really into it. She thought I was gonna be the next JK Rowling or something. But when I watched it back, I realized I was just talking about the Legend of Zelda series.”

“Insane. You’re insane.”

We walked a lap around the block, talking about nothing, and then we got back to Shawn’s car. I felt a thrill in my bones I couldn’t explain. I was trying to keep a cheesy grin off my face. I had to keep up my composed exterior.

“So have you been having fun?” Shawn asked when we were inside the vehicle.

“Definitely,” I replied simply.

He looked at me with a smile, and then he was pressing buttons on the radio. “Connect your phone. I wanna hear what you’re listening to.”

I quickly opened the Spotify app and changed the song I was last listening to. Why? It was one of Shawn’s songs. It was too soon for him to know that I was growing fond of his music. Instead, I chose a fairly popular Halsey song, and it played on the speakers.

“Oh, nice,” Shawn said, and he was singing along in seconds.

It got less nice as I listened to the lyrics. This song reminded me of a harder time. That’s probably why I didn’t listen to it for so long.

“You know I’m the one who put you up there

I don’t know why”

Cool way to finish a first date.

I stared out the window and stayed quiet, letting this dumb song swallow me whole. Flashbacks hit me before I could try to stop them. Backseat of my car. Weeks of silence. Feelings like you’re underwater. It made my insides go cold.

“You really get into it, eh?” Shawn asked halfway through the song.

The sound of his voice startled me, but I didn’t jump. I blinked a few times, coming back to present day. I’m in another man’s car. We’re in a different time period.

“Yeah,” I said. “A good song can alter my mood so quickly, I wonder if it’s normal.”

“Oh, I know the feeling. But I also think it has to do with the memories associated with the song.”

Once Halsey finished her song, a slow rock tune played. It was far less triggering, and it had a mile long title.

“She’s the Prettiest Girl at the Party and She Can Prove It with a Solid Right Hook,” I read off my phone. “That’s a banger.”

The following conversation about music helped ground me again. I knew Shawn was passionate about it, but music is the real love of his life. He was looking at the road as he drove, but he had a sparkle in his eyes that shone through the dark. Sometimes he was the flower delivery guy and the singer at a wedding. Sometimes he was the guy who played guitar at a house party.

Shawn was that guy.

We listened to several more of my favorite songs, most of which were symphonic metal. Some of them were lyrically dark, the type that compelled people to do that head tilt and ask “are you okay?” in that voice. Shawn just asked if I wanted to rethink not calling myself a goth, to which I played a Little Mix song to put that shit to rest.

“Oh, Woman Like Me?” he said, surprised. “Didn’t see that one coming.”

“There are many sides of me, my dear,” I told him. We were getting closer to campus, which meant the date was almost over. “You’ve only seen one.”

“Hopefully you’ll let me see more.” He pulled into the parking lot and stopped in an empty space in front of the main building. “So what level am I on now?”

I was shocked he remembered that. But if we’re being real here…

“Two.”

He chuckled. “Two, eh?”

“Yup.”

He hummed. He was looking at me again, and now I was looking at him. His eyes were still sparkling in that stupid cute way, and it was getting me weak.

“This might be the first time you’ve made direct eye contact with me,” he said softly.

“It’s because you’re cute and it confuses me,” I admitted, maintaining the eye contact. There, boy, another little sliver of my feelings.

That stupid charming smile appeared on Shawn’s stupid cute face. He quirked his eyebrows once and licked his lips. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from his mouth… This is bad.

“Well, you’re beautiful and it doesn’t confuse me at all,” he said, his voice getting low. You know, that voice that tells you something is going to happen. “In fact, it’s made things more clear.”

I felt myself getting even weaker. My heart was pounding, not just in my chest, but in my ears and my legs and the bottom of my feet. My stomach was turning over in a way that I wasn’t used to. My body was gravitating towards Shawn before my brain could process it.

“I really like your eyeshadow,” he said softly, doing the same motion.

“Thanks,” I breathed out.

Our faces were an inch apart. I got an intoxicating whiff of his cologne. I was teetering on the edge of just diving headfirst, but I had to be strong.

“I don’t kiss on the first date.”

We stayed in that position for a second. Shawn was the one to lean back first.

“Okay, that’s okay. I understand,” he said. He wasn’t smiling anymore.

It was easy to tell my rejection got to him. I didn’t want to leave knowing he was disappointed. I didn’t want him to think that I didn’t like him. I had been more aloof than I’d like to admit on this entire date, so maybe he was getting the wrong idea.

“So we should go on another date,” I told him, touching his arm, “and maybe I’ll kiss you then.” I smiled hopefully.

That was what he needed to perk up again. “Yeah, definitely. I’m looking forward to it.”

I nodded. “Okay. Alright. I’ll text you, or something. I’m gonna awkwardly leave now.”

He chuckled. “Alright. Goodnight.”

“Night.”

I had my purse and my phone on me, and I placed my hand on the door handle. But I stayed in that position for a minute. It was long enough to be weird. Was I really going to leave knowing that we really wanted to kiss each other?

“Ah, fuck it,” I said with a shrug, and then I was turning back to Shawn.

I would have hoisted myself over the center console if he didn’t meet me halfway. Shawn leaned in as quickly as I did, and his lips were pressing onto mine. It was much softer than I had anticipated, and I only realized it when Shawn placed a hand on the side of my face, gently cupping my chin.

My hand went around his wrist as we gently broke apart. It was only a split second of breathing time before I pulled him in for another. I softly took his bottom lip into my mouth, resisting the urge to just pounce on him completely.

Shawn moved his hand to the back of my neck, trying to pull me closer. Tongues and teeth began to clash, and it only made me grab onto his clean button up. Would it be a bad idea to spend some time in the backseat? We were practically leaning over the center console, moving back and forth like one was going to top the other.

But again… I had to be strong.

We broke apart, panting. My fingers stroked his cheek, and his hand found its way into my hair. I felt his quick breathing on my upper lip, and it only made me want to kiss him again.

“I have to go,” I told him.

But he leaned in again, kissing me once more. “Alright.”

“Alright,” I repeated breathlessly. Then I kissed him again, only for both of us to laugh softly.

“So what level am I at now?” Shawn asked with a cheeky grin.

I returned the smile. “Two and a half.”

“Oh, really? I’d say I’m at level four.”

“Nope. Two and a half. But it’s like I said, we’ll go on another date and see what happens.”

[comicteaparty]

January 29th-February 4th, 2020 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from January 29th, 2020 to February 4th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

Which genre is your favorite for webcomics and which is your least favorite? Why is that?

carcarchu

Romance is without a doubt my favourite genre although i do have a particular soft spot for historical series too (and if it combines the 2 that's a dream come true ). as for my least favourite i guess sci-fi, i'm really not a fan of having to remember a ton of world building details and the backstories of some sci-fi series feel like reading a textbook sometimes. also comedy can be really hit or miss for me if the sense of humour used in the comic doesn't do it for me

Capitania do Azar

Honestly I'll read petty much anything if I'm having fun, not necessarily a genre-related issue. I think nice, interesting stories can be crafted in any genres. That being said, fantasy is usually not my jam and I really like Sci-fi

Kabocha

When it comes to webcomics, I'll read a lot of stuff! But I think Fantasy and Drama have a soft spot in my heart for some reason! I really enjoy it when a creator seems to be having fun (or is aware) of how hammy their drama can be -- and fantasy can be chock full of it! (And as an aside, I love the heck outta romance when done well! A lot of webcomics that classify themselves as romances tend to be more Drama than Romance, mostly bc they don't follow the genre conventions of romance, and instead stick to a more dramatic-oriented plot structure... it's intriguing.) Anyway! I think my least favorite these days is slice of life and gaming comics. A lot of it gets really weird and overwrought and I just... I dunno, there's gotta be a draw. Gaming comics just aren't very fun to read, esp as I've gotten older. A lot of it feels like "hey here's this pop culture reference this small-ish in group gets! how funny! hahaha" or punching down, and... I dunno, I don't have a lot of time to keep on top of memes for games I don't/can't play.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I love fantasy and sci-fi, mostly because I'm a world-building nut. I want to get lost in a new place when I read. This also extends towards historical comics, but those are pretty rare. I won't lie though, I definitely fact-check historical comics when I read them, because I want to know how much I can trust the accuracy of the setting. I also tend to enjoy romance if done well, and especially when blended with other genres. IMO, romances can be kinda samey by themselves, so there needs to be some other plot outside of the characters' relationship for me to stay invested. As for least favorite genres... Definitely comedy and slice-of-life. As someone who regularly watches stand-up, I don't typically find comedy comics very funny most of the time, especially relatable gag-a-day types. As for slice-of-life, it often seems... boring to me. I mean, I might just be mentally unable to process the nuances or something, but what actually happens in slice-of-lifes? That being said, there are always exceptions to these preferences, because I have been completely turned off from certain fantasy comics, for example, and there are definitely comedies that I have enjoyed thoroughly. In the end, all that really matters is if a specific comic suits my tastes/quality expectations, genre tossed aside

Ash🦀

When it comes to webcomics, animal stories and fantasy are definitely my favorites. I like getting lost in a world, I don’t want to stay in my own if I’m trying to escape. Oh, also, and actually being able to read emotions. On animals, because the style and emotion often have to be pushed so much, it’s way easier on me to be able to parse expressions on an animal than a human. Might just be my autistic brain tho /shrug Also, sci fi, heavy dose of “sci” in there. If I feel like I’m learning something it makes it so much more fun. My least favorite genres are romance and historical. To be honest, I find historical pieces rely so much on the politics and the talking and the human nuance I don’t much understand in the first place that I end up getting bored or confused or both. And romance is... well, my mom constantly had hallmark movies on, so I’ve kind of grown to hate the romance genre as a whole tbh. If it’s a side piece in a fantasy, fine, okay. Too often they’re unbelievable and the couple just doesn’t have any chemistry, and I just end up not buying it, so I’d like to yeet it to the side as much as possible in most cases. Now, there are some that are exceptions, here, but they are few and far between. Somehow, LGBTA+ romance just blows past this hangup, however. I dunno, it’s easier for me to care then, it feels newer, and... well, frankly, a good deal of the time they’re written better, I dunno. So, they’re the exception to the rule.

Kabocha

Hard agree on the LGBTA+ romance -- but also other marginalized groups tend to be more thoughtful in romance and tropes they use! While there's a general sort of... uh, set of expectations as far as plot and the happily-ever-after/happy-for-now ending, it's honestly really just sort of nice to see creators be mindful about what they're making, and write stuff that isn't just the same sort of nonsense that gets marketed in the mainstream. ...Now this is making me think about how much I would love to see Courtney Milan or Alyssa Cole's works translated into comics... If they could do Pride and Prejudice, someone pls give me A Princess in Theory (Sorry, I'm... a little bit of an aficionado for the genre, particularly in romance novels)

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I was never able to get into ANY romance until I started reading some LGBTQ+ ones. I never liked the genre before then, but I think it was just because I couldn’t identify with / care about all the cishet couple represented. Once I was reading a romance I actually could connect with, it was completely different. It’s still not a genre I like to read very often because it’s so trope-heavy, though.

keii4ii

I feel like romance gets pigeonholed into a specific (and admittedly prevalent/highly visible) type, kinda like how "fantasy" was pigeonholed as Tolkienish fantasy for years and years until recently.

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

As for what genres I do like, definitely fantasy. I especially like dark stories with lots of nuance, twisty plots, and some surreality. I like both high and urban fantasy, though as I get older, I lean more towards the latter. There’s someone really fascinating to me about mixing modern tech with magic and the supernatural. My least favourite (apart from most romance) is probably newspaper-style webcomics. I’m just not into that into punchline-a-strip or art art that has a Saturday-morning-cartoon feel. Not that it’s bad in any way, and I actually do have a few exceptions of comics in that style that I DO like, but it’s just not really my thing. I also can’t really get into political comics or war stories.

@keii4ii Yeah, it definitely does! And it becomes frustrating to try and find Something Different within the genre when the vast majority of it is using the same tropes and set up. I think that’s also why I’ve started leaning more towards urban fantasy as I’ve aged because a lot of high fantasy was becoming ‘more of the same’.

(says someone who creates a Tolkein-esque high fantasy comic )

keii4ii

You can still tell great stories within those prevalent types. Just gotta be mindful about choosing tropes/archetypes because they work for the story, as opposed to just going with them mindlessly. But that's not really extra work; that mindfulness is important no matter what kind of a story you're writing, IMO!

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I also say I don’t get into punchline-a-strip comedy and yet have TWO comics in that genre, so I’m kind of a hypocrite.

Oh yes, definitely! I do try to avoid or even subvert some of those very common tropes, though I’m sure I don’t always succeed! Some tropes can be very effective, just not when every story feels like you’ve read this a hundred times before with minor variation.

Kabocha

Honestly, that's one of the great things about self pub and webcomics -- you can get SO many more unique voices without the gatekeepers that traditionally held genres and markets back. Like, y'all might not have heard, but back years and years ago, Borders had someone working there at the corporate level that helped stock genre fiction -- but basically segregated POC authors from the genres that they were actually writing in. Which was a load of crap. (And that's not even getting into issues with queer media and fiction being stocked in stores or even published.) So basically in stores you'd see for a while, kind of the samey sort of stuff that you find in genre fiction -- and I think webcomics helps kind of... break out of those same sorts of expectations for various genres? It's kind of nice on the whole.

FeatheryJustice

Favourite genre of comics: Comedy and Action. If I could find Jackie Chan action and humour combo in a comic I would love the hell out of it. Least favourite: Slice of Life of the drama variety and romance variety. I dont mind if it is slice of life with action or slice of life informative because I am reading for more. If it is a romance between just two high schoolers doing nothing then I get bored. If it is two high schoolers in a slice of life but it focuses on them working on an animation together giving us animation information I would be okay with that.

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Lol, as someone who makes a fantasy series that plays with the amnesia trope like it went out of style (spoilers, it did), I totally agree that fantasy and romance can be very tropey.

kzuich

I like comedy and slice-of-life. Occasionally I like drama, but only if it's mixed with comedy. Or black comedy. (Seeing a recurring theme here? xD)

Or drama. With comedy sprinkled in.

I don't know why but I've always felt webcomics were really great for comedy. Some of the funniest stuff I've read was a webcomic. Dunno why. Least favorite genre? I don't really have one. I'll read anything but those are the genres I actually -like-.

DanitheCarutor

I'll read just about anything. I love stuff with some kind of surrealistic or abstract quality to it, like Weaker Sides (https://www.weakersides.com/), Seluda (https://tapas.io/series/seluda) and Hookteeth (https://hookteethcomic.com/). I also really enjoy stuff that is sad, or deals with heavy themes due to the feeling of catharsis they give me. Sun Rising (https://tapas.io/series/Sun-Rising), Rescue Me (https://tapas.io/series/Rescue-Me) and The Dogs on the Railroad (https://tapas.io/series/The-Dogs-on-the-Railroad) come to mind. It's nice to experience difficult emotions in a controlled environment. If I had to be genre specific I would have to say my favorite is the very elusive horror genre. Love me some spoopy shit and pretty much everything else that comes with it, no matter how cheesy it gets! It sucks that horror is so hard to find in webcomics, at least for me.

Least favorite genres? Gag-a-day, slice of life and romance. I have a lot of trouble getting into comedy comics that aren't story driven, so I don't usually read gag-a-days or autobios. I will read the latter two since most of the time they're good things to read when you don't want to turn your brain off for a bit, but all three genres are honestly really boring for me. When it comes to character centric stuff I really want something like a deep character study, although I haven't had luck finding stuff like that. Romance specifically, I have a hate/I don't mind relationship with. Romantic intimacy has always been super gross to me, I hate seeing people kissing on each other in movies due to an issue with how nasty the human mouth is, and the sound makes me sick to my stomach. With comics it's easier to digest, the characters are just drawings so I don't mind seeing them get all buckwild, but it's still not my most favorite. There are occasions where I can't even read a comic due to genre vs. setting. For example (and I'm am not saying this comic is bad, I mean it has over 100k subs) A Matter of Life and Death (https://tapas.io/series/A-Matter-of-Life-and-Death). I really love the art in this comic, the setting, some of the characters and the little bits of lore I saw. But it's a slice of life-esque romantic type of comic, so the world building for this extremely creative looking setting is kinda put on the back burner for intimate scenes between the MCs. Again, this doesn't make it bad. I personally turned out not to be the target demographic because I wanted 'A' and the creator wanted 'B'. Maybe I'll give this one another glance someday to see where the story has gone, I admittedly haven't read it in a couple years so the story might have developed.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

My fave is anything that deals in heavy lore-- most that fit the bill are usually fictional like fantasy and sci-fi, but there are always exceptions that play with some good world building outside those genres! I love to read comics that i can get lost in and want to almost research the world created-- as long as that element is balanced in a story, im usually up for anything! That being said however, my least favourite is the gag strips and strictly comedy. I haven't yet found any that have really made me read page after page since my first looksee with comedy comics (sassy creed and that super smash bros one come to mind so quite a while ago) but I'm sure if i was more diligent in searching through the genre I could find something for myself!

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I love history and sci-fi. I have a hard time getting into fiction and I like stories with a firm connection to something real in the world

kayotics

I’m a fan of fantasy stories, and I like romance sometimes as well. I don’t mind gag-a-day strips but I don’t really follow any, mostly since I’m looking for a little more meat in my story. Despite how much crossover sci-fi and fantasy have, I’m not big into sci-fi. If a story engages me in that genre, I’ll still read it, but it’s not a genre I search through. I also don’t read war comics. I have a hard no on superheroes as well, I’m just tired of them.

renieplayerone

I love anything thats a mix of SciFi and history or some other genre (its why i love blade runner, scifi film noir). Weaving history into scifi is a challenge but man does it make for really cool aesthetics and moral questions

RebelVampire

My favorite genre for webcomics is probably a tie between fantasy and sci-fi. Not only do I just personally love world-building heavy material, but I also just think webcomics is a medium well-suited to them. I kind of don't feel things like live action do those genres justice. However, webcomics have a lot of artistic freedom so art style, differing art effects, etc. can all come into play to create awe, whimsy, and a bunch of other emotions that just capture a feeling of wonder that I expect from those generes. As for least favorite genre, definitely serialized comedy - which by this I mean comics that have a story along with the comedy. For me I just...don't find a lot of them funny. A lot of the humor is a bit too trope-y for my liking or imitating comedy without really understanding why the comedy worked in the original source. So for me the jokes just rarely land even if I can appreciate the effort that went into the comics. That being said, there's always exceptions. Like http://sgkdr.webcomic.ws/ is a comic I would've initially passed just based on genre, but when i read it the humor was/is actually really smart and really creative. Just the same, there's plenty of fantasy and sci-fi comics I don't like, though this usually comes down to story execution even if I think the art is pretty to look at.

BadSprite

My favorite genres for comics are action, comedy, drama and slice of life. I'm particularly a fan of slice of life stories that take place in some fantastical world, because the nuances of the setting makes the mundane so much more interesting. Also action comedies are my jam. One of my faves being: http://paranatural.net/. I personally love how comedy is integrated into action scenes to capture the frantic nature of the situations. My least favorite genre are probably romance, it's not that I have anything against it. I just feel like there's an oversaturation of them and there's very few that brings something new to the table. Most of them feel too same-y for me.

eli [a winged tale]

It really depends on my mood~ my bookmarks are all over the place. If I really enjoy the art and the characters, I usually stay for the story. My usual go-to is fantasy, sci-fi or slice of life! I recently got into romance but I’m a bit choosey about it. I definitely echo @Kabocha ‘s statement about exploring different voices and subversion of tropes. Always eager to read tighter storylines and those that take risks in diversity. Least favourite same as @FeatherNotes(Krispy) really! Sometimes it’s funny (love strange planet) but I won’t be binging it

MJ Massey

My favorite genres of comics are fantasy, action/adventure, and romance. Especially if all three are together in one delicious package. I'll read pretty much anything but it's gotta be well paced and well written to keep me coming back

Javi

My favorite genres are action, comedy, fantasy, sci-fi, slice of life and adventure. Also anything with animal characters in it I'm already invested in it but that's just my furry brain talking (edited)

AntiBunny

I would say a broad term of adventure. Be it scifi, fantasy, road trip, or superntural I love a good adventure comic full of interesting characters and locations.

[sugar-petals]

This is kind of an out of nowhere statement but one of my biggest pet peeves is when people think that an idol having confidence on stage automatically makes them a dom. Like Taeyong is one of the most obvious subs I know of, I mean, he literally said that he wants a partner that takes charge in the relationship and asks to be scolded. Yet people still go "But he has such a big stage presence he must be a daddy dom!!" Confidence does not equal sexual dominance.

Yes. I call that “the Kai effect” which has also haunted BTS ever since 😅 Now, in all seriousness… I do get why submissive fans search for something to draw clues from. Something arousing that matches their own preference. Stage confidence being the first thing that might catch their eye, and it is crafted for that very purpose to show a certain artistic image to present and sell the music. So fans deduce from that, it is convenient, it is satisfying, it is addicting. Even if what you see are the choreographer’s ideas and results of strict training that molds male idols into a designated archetype regardless of how they feel about it personally. Mind you: BTS have a lot of authentic dom dances due to Hobi’s (!) physical signature, no chance in denying that 😄 In either case: What sub fans try to pick up on there. It’s the entertainment value and portrayal of it. Just like us doms enjoy when BTS/NCT/Monsta X etc don the harness that a stylist chose vice versa, you get the point. It goes both ways right there, everyone gets their kinky concepts to enjoy. So there’s that. Switches get twice the fun, you lucky bastards. Also: Genius marketing by bighit.

As you say, it only gets an issue if the guy clearly is quite different from what fans and company desire him to be and maybe has a hard time being heard and taken seriously. Taeyong being the classic case where sub fans don’t want to bother with his shy geek tendencies (Whiplash is a gem). It’s more important that he’s going beast mode in the center for say Cherry Bomb. The guy could tweet ‘henlo it’s ty i 💗noonas who choke me’, some could still say nope, lies, he can spit in my mouth. Fans make the biggest deal out of it and might even invalidate his preference since they want to focus on what they believe is dominant about him. Which is legit in some ways, they like Taeyong. Being submissive, I mean of course they wish he was some hardcore dom to match them, they ignore everything else. If it is to his detriment or not is another complicated and hard knock debate that dom fans like us are equally not exempt from. 

As for dom!idol/sub!fans, KPop wants to forge that attraction: If it works that way, then the stage performance will cater to it. Taeyong will get briefed to glare into the camera like he owns it. So how to stop the fans anyways, the company profits since they fabricate that hype. It is part of their plan. Which yep, can make dom fans frustrated, I know. But we’re not entitled to get our subby material, I have to remind myself daily. Genuinely celebrating the sub concepts is how we get more of it, give and take after all. 

Finally: Taeyong being a confident performer separate from dom-sub stuff. Good for him! The guy is great, talented, can portray the artistic vision. And one handsome as fuck man, damn, but I digress. I only hope that the vastness of submissive fans won’t make him tweak the way he is, as in, to the point of discomfort and dissatisfaction. That he draws the same connection and starts to believe idol image is default dominance. It’s his decision regardless, and obviously we’re biased wanting to keep enjoying his shy tendencies 🤓 As far as I know he’s a safe bank in either case given how open he is about the kind of partner he wants, and we as dommes shouldn’t bother too much with reasonable sub fans minding their business, another memo to us there, it’s about enjoying the genre after all and keeping the broader perspective. 

Now for the hard candy. The part where I feel stronger annoyance is the rather persistent daddy kink buzz word trend. I’ve talked about it, we’ve seen the debate resurface over and over. Where everyone — including minors… — thinks they suddenly are deep into BDSM without realizing what a daddy dom does or what it takes to be one. Glorifying abusive male behavior back and forth. Often not entirely their fault but the whole bandwagon’s. We pick up language from peers to find approval or sexual understanding and buy into what mainstream media outlets are trying to get us into (sometimes to the benefit of predators — so take care and question things). It’s a social orientation and learning process in the end. But you gotta think twice what that Daddy Dom guy wants and why he’s so culturally inevitable. 

If someone is aware of what your general daddy dom or sugar daddy is all about, what drives them, that it’s not all there is, how they go about their business, what a healthy manifestation of one is, that appeal they can savor. Just learn your stuff and vice versa, leave us dommes and idols saying they like submissive things coexisting peacefully no matter how niche it is; don’t go up to groups at fansigns with kink stuff no matter what it is, try to get TXT members into your dom daddy imagination, those kinds of things. Although I do believe they’ll realize themselves sooner or later that D/s is nothing to be treated laxly after all. That idols will create their private lives how they enjoy it regardless of the whole world yelling ‘daddy, daddy’ at them from all sides for personal satisfaction. I think we should trust performers with how they go about it beyond performing and broadcasting a certain sexual style, as we say in Germany ‘it’s their beer to brew’. 

[robalchemy]

Introduction

Where to begin??? Well first off, I'm Rob. Hi.

Okay, now that we've gotten THAT out of the way - The reason I'm sitting here attempting to write a blog post when I barely know how to write or how blogs work is this - I've been having a series of profound experiences lately which I've been told by several people to write about. Okay first off, I'm an artist of many disciplines, but a creative writer is NOT one of them; Or at least not until about 5 minutes ago. So please bear with me as my goal is to simply ARTICULATE these experiences, rather than win the Nobel Prize in Writing Much Goodly. (It’s a thing, look it up!)

So a quick little bit about me - I'm your pretty basic guy for the most part. At the time of this post, I'm in my 30's, I'm a family man with a day job and my passion in life is all things creative - Music, painting, drawing, digital design, animation, voice acting, scripting - You name it, I've probably at least TRIED it! So that's me on the surface at first glance, just to keep it brief and hopefully paint a very basic picture of the kind of dude you're hearing from right now - Although I feel like that's not even really so important as simply the experiences that I will be describing.

Before I even establish a CONTEXT here, I also would like to make my motives very clear - I'm not trying to convince anyone of my perspective or views. I'm NOT trying to "convert" anyone, or convince them that my experiences are true and theirs are false - Never in a million years. We're SUPPOSED to have unique perspectives and shifting personal truths because exploration is how we grow. The reason I'm starting this blog and describing my various "experiences" are because I know I'm not alone in this. I know millions of people every day have similar experiences, realizations and personal truths. People like us are even often on YouTube describing these experiences and personal growth through them. I KNOW I'm not the only one!!!

However, I don't have anyone in my life who's ALREADY been through these experiences. So I don't have anyone to really talk to about these things that already understands. I don't have anyone to give me guidance and help me discern & interpret these experiences. So if nothing else, my intention is to share my experiences as a beacon of sorts to others who are in a similar boat. People like us are becoming more and more common every day, but our experiences are often rejected in the mainstream, but we've GOTTA start talking about this stuff sooner or later, right? Finally, it's my hope that anyone who resonates with my experiences can feel that THEY'RE not alone in it, and that we're not crazy. Probably. (Fingers crossed!) And maybe we might even be able to figure out how to support each other and get through these processes together.

Okay, so what kind of experiences must I be talking about? For lack of a better term - Spiritual awakening. Ascension. Expansion of consciousness. There's a million labels which ultimately don't matter, but the point is that so many of us have not only opened up to the possibility that there's more to existence than what our human brains perceive - But we're starting to actually figure out and REMEMBER what's beyond the proverbial veil. This is where my experiences have led me at THIS point in time - To a level of consciousness where it's not just HAVING spiritual beliefs, but straight up EXPERIENCING things that as humans, many of us have never experienced before - Or thought we ever could. Things that are bigger than ourselves, and also the ongoing realization that these things are also ourselves. And understanding what all this means to us, and how to integrate it into our practical human existences. This period of expansion has absolutely changed my life and experience here on earth beyond recognition. The idea of the identity that I THOUGHT I was has been absolutely shattered forever. And it's been indescribably profound. Probably the most frustrating part of this whole process is that so much of it is simply beyond words and emphasis, which I find makes it very difficult to articulate sometimes. But I'll try my best! But at the end of the day - It's positive. It's evolution. It's growth. Though I may challenge some people's belief systems, I can assure you that nothing about any of these experiences are dangerous. damaging, misleading or negative in any way. This is an ascension into a level of consciousness where duality doesn't rule our lives, where we lead with our hearts and our minds follow. In this place, love and understanding are governing immutable principles. And the knowledge that no matter who we are or what we do - We're all going to be okay in the end. I promise.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my little attempt to establish context without sounding TOO out there...But this Rabbit Hole’s going to be going REALLY deep in the future. Moving forward, I honestly have no idea how I'm going to be formatting or presenting all this information on Tumblr, so my plan is just to figure it out as I go, as the Universe has clearly directed me to just write this stuff down! I look forward to growing with you.

- Rob

[miltonlicht]

Nakatani Nio & Canno

…So, I create a separate thread for this, as suggested by Nezchan.

Original interview http://blog.livedoor.jp/geek/archives/51522471.html (SITE NOT SAFE FOR WORK)

It was published at the time volume 2 of YagaKimi came out. I apologize for potential inaccuracies in the translation.

(Doc file )

−−−−−−−−−−−

Special conversation between "Yagate Kimi ni Naru"'s Nakatani Nio and "Ano Ko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo"'s Canno.

From the origin of their fixation on yuri to their work ethics, to the works in which they "felt the presence of yuri", the two authors who carry the yuri genre on their shoulders openly talked with us.

−−Today we're having a conversation in which you two can't not participate, so I thank you both for coming while you're so busy. Is this the first time you actually meet?

Nakatani Nio: Since we met a few days ago at Yuri-ten in Ikebukuro, this is actually our second meeting.

Canno: Since Nakatani-san's manga has a very cool craft to it, I expected her to be equally cool. And when we met, well, she was, but she was also a very kind and lovely woman.

NN: Really? What's this all about! (laugh) I actually always bought Canno-san's doujinshis at doujin displays, so of course I've known about her for a while now.

Ca: Same for me, I've been reading Nakatani-san's doujins since before "Yagate Kimi ni Naru" started. I didn't know very well the exact genre of her works, but Melonbooks had a special page attached saying "It's an awesome manga!", so I bought them regardless.

−−So you knew who the other was before you were serialized. What started your interest in Yuri, Canno-san?

Ca: I guess the trigger was reading "Maria-sama ga miteru" (Shūeisha) in high school. I didn't really care much about the genre at first, but after reading it I became hooked on it.

NN: That's the most notorious entry point! What couple did you like the most?

Ca: My favorite character is Yoshino from "Yellow Rose", and I ship her with Rei-chan. Did you read MariMite, Nakatani-san?

NN: Since it's a sort of landmark for Yuri, I read volume 1 for my culture, and I liked it, but I don't have much time to read novels, so I haven't read the rest. For now I'm only reading one small bit at a time.

Ca: Please be sure to read at least to "Rainy Blue".

NN: I don't quite get that "stop at Rainy" phrase that Yuri fans always use...

Ca: Well, don't worry about that, buy them until Rainy Blue.

NN: Alright, I'll read it.

Ca: Have you enjoyed a particular Yuri series lately?

NN: In my last interview, when I said I like "Hibike! Euphonium" (novel by Takarajimasha, anime by Kyōto Animation), I was retorted that it wasn't Yuri. But there were scenes where I did feel a Yuri vibe, so it was fine by me. Of course, Euphonium as a whole can't really be called a Yuri, but to me it counts as long as I can feel it in some parts.

Ca: Yeah, I'm that way too. Take "Precure" (Tōei Animation): I watch it as a goldmine of yuri, and in my favorite series, Doki Doki, there's that girl called Hishikawa Rikka...

NN: Oh yeah, Hishikawa!

Ca: She's the main character Aida Mana's partner, but as Mana builds relationships with other characters, Rikka gets jealous and uneasy. If you watch this as a grade schooler, you can think that it's natural to feel this way towards a friend, but when you watch it as an adult, you totally feel the Yuri!

NN: Ahaha! So you have more fun seeing Yuri in mainstream works than reading actual yuri?

Ca: I feel it has become this way, lately, yes. Before, I read only Yuri-hime Comics and such, works that I fully knew were Yuri, but these times I've started to look for Yuri in works that aren't generally lauded as such.

NN: Did it start when you started to draw "AnoKiss"?

Ca: Hmm, I wonder? Lately I enjoy feeling the Yuri in stuff like the yonkoma in "Kirara" (Houbunsha), but I think I also got tired with overly serious and dark works as I grew older. So more than "AnoKiss", it may just be that I'm getting old (laugh).

NN: Since I've started drawing Yuri manga, I've become more conscious of other Yuri works, but what about you, Canno-san? Has drawing AnoKiss made your Yuri antenna more sensitive?

Ca: Not that much, I would say. Even before my love for Yuri awakened, I liked same-sex romance in general, so outside of that and seeing Yuri in girly anime, my sensitivity is still pretty much the same.

NN: I think I feel the same. So more than Yuri itself, what you really enjoy is shipping, right?

Ca: Yes, I love shipping. There are a lot of people who are both into BL and Yuri, aren't there. (?)

−−Then why do you write Yuri rather than BL?

Ca: I love drawing facial expressions, and if I have to draw very expressive faces, I have more fun with girls. And if I have two girls, that's twice the luck. (laugh) More than romantic love iself, I like ambiguous relationships that are close to love but might be something else. But if I write such relationships with a boy and a girl, everyone ends up naturally assuming that it's love. However, with two girls the feeling is a bit more balanced, I think. I guess it would be the same with two boys, but as I said I have more fun drawing girls, so… (laugh)

NN: It's true that in AnoKiss, the characters never use the words "love" or "romance". Is that deliberate on your part?

Ca: It's not exactly deliberate, but it's a natural result of that feeling, I guess. And you, Nakatani-san, what made you draw girl's love manga?

NN: I thought, "if a cute girl and a cute girl do cute stuff, it'll be hella cute."

Ca: So you're no different from me! (laugh)

NN: Your way of saying it was cooler, though. (laugh)

Ca: But in YagaKimi there's Maki-kun, who's a guy, right? Didn't you want to avoid featuring boys in a Yuri series?

NN: I didn't. In my interview for Dengeki Online, I said that "In a world where there are also men, I want girls to be chosen anyway." [sorry, I'm not quite sure what the original sentence means here > 「男性もいる世界観の中で、あえて女の子を選んだ形で描きたい」 ] But while there are girls that "fall in love specifically with girls", I think there are also girls "whose crush just happens to be a girl". I wanted to also show that side in the characters' personalities and specificities, and I didn't think I could really depict it if men were completely absent. What do you feel about the presence of male characters in YagaKimi's cast, Canno-san?

Ca: Since Maki-kun doesn't directly get involved in love affairs, I haven't really paid much attention to him, regardless of his gender. If he had made an obvious move on Nanami-senpai or Yuu-chan I would probably have thought "hey, he's a guy", but so far there's no indication he's going to approach them or any of the girls.

NN: I see, that's an original way to view it.

Ca: For now, I only think of Maki-kun as un uke, with Doujima-kun as the seme.

NN: Thank you very mu… wait, what? (laugh) In AnoKiss, however, there's not a trace of male presence.

Ca: Yes, right from the start I decided that there would't be any male characters.

NN: Writing the word "yuri" in the title feels like a sort of challenge. Didn't it take courage?

Ca: I thought that it might not reach the potential readers if I didn't say right away "this is Yuri". So I wanted to get that information across. Since the series was gonna focus on "yuri" and "kiss", the best-sounding title I found with those two words was "Ano Ko ni Kiss to Shirayuri wo". How did you decide on the title "Yagate Kimi ni Naru"?

NN: I did put a lot of meaning in the title, but even in the prototypes I chose ones that had a sort of Yuri aura to them. When volume 1 came out, I was very careful to appeal to Yuri lovers, with the cover (two girls gazing at each other) or the the band around the cover.

Ca: But that's not the case of the title.

NN: Indeed, but many yuri fans told me that "One Day, I Will Become You" sounds extremely Yuri. But some also say "I thought it was a story of substitution".

Ca: Like some kind of horror story. "I'll gradually take your place…" (laugh)

NN: Exactly. (laugh) In "AnoKiss", you have one kiss per chapter, huh.

Ca: Yes, my editor told me to include a kissing scene every time. And to create highlight scenes, in a Yuri manga the kissing scenes might be a selling point, they said. (laugh)

NN: I can get that. You think carefully about where the kiss will be, won't you?

Ca: I think the place where a kiss is given is significant, so I don't choose it at random. My editor even keeps an Excel file where they listed who kisses whom and where. Like, in volume 3, "kiss on the foot, indicating submission." (laugh)

NN: A kiss list, now that's interesting! Although, when you say "Excel", it kind of takes the magic away. (laugh)

Ca: But making a list of "character X gives a kiss there in chapter Y" means that by chapter 20 we've almost run out of body parts to kiss. (laugh)

NN: It's important to have some variety in the kisses, I guess. So far, my series has only had 2 kissing scenes, but I still have that voice telling me "this, here, is the highlight!", so I put all my effort onto that point. It's like a fighting game, where you wait for the exact moment when your special attack is sure to hit hard.

−−Nakatani-san, did you already know about AnoKiss when you started to draw YagaKimi?

NN: Well, if you draw yuri manga, AnoKiss has already become hard to ignore, so I read it intensely to help me for my own work. Even leaving that aside, my first impression when opening a volume was "Wow, the author is good!" (laugh)

Ca: No way! Thank you very much. (laugh)

NN: To me, seeing a yuri manga that wasn't shoujo-like was refreshing. Sure, it is love-themed, but in the tight lining and expressions, or in the panel layout, it feels closer to shounen. Since there are a lot of shounen aspects in my own way of drawing, I felt maybe we had some things in common in that regard.

Ca: I never read that many shounen manga growing up, and used to read almost only shoujo manga, but I do think my drawings aren't very shoujo-like, so you opinion confirms that.

NN: To me, that makes it easier to read, actually. So I'm glad there is a yuri series with this kind of style!

Ca: I found the art incredibly good too when I read YagaKimi's first chapter. Then Yuu-chan received a confession from a boy, I wondered how she would react, and what kind of yuri story it would evolve into, I was really excited. After reading the first volume, I was both supporting Nanami-senpai and sympathising with Yuu-chan, who couldn't understand what it was like to be in love. I actually think that if I was into Yuu-chan's shoes, I would be scared of Nanami-senpai. Even though you keep saying "I don't understand", she's constantly pushing in. So reading that and seeing Yuu-chan's acceptance of it, I find her incredibly kind-hearted.

NN: I see. (laugh)

Ca: And yet I'm like "Do your best, Nanami-senpai!", like I'm trying to fan the flames of yuri. (laugh) More specifically, I loved the entire chapter where Nanami-senpai went to Yuu-chan's place! But I guess that's how even a girl feels when she goes to the place of the girl she likes.

NN: I'm glad you say that. (laugh)

Ca: Also, I'm really intrigued by Saeki-senpai. When Nanami-senpai chose Yuu-chan for the election campaign, her friend started to worry that she didn't rely on her, and I love this kind of "complication". (laugh)

NN: Ah, so you do love complications! I actually love Towako from AnoKiss. (laugh) Personally, I sometimes feel I can't write a story without drama, but in a generally quiet and bright story like AnoKiss I was kind of surprised to see a girl like her, who brought problems. I find your way of drawing difficult emotions yet being very clear in the execution really enthralling. [難しい感情を描きつつ、爽やかに仕上げているのが魅力的だと感じます。]

Ca: For AnoKiss, I'm adamant on concluding a given arc within a single volume, or 5 chapters, so I can't create too much complications. So I found it difficult to write volume 3, where Towako appears, with a more dramatic appeal than usual. That's why I love girls in the position of Saeki-senpai… Err, but well, since I said I liked Hishikawa from Doki Doki Precure, I guess that wasn't much of a secret. (laugh)

NN: Indeed. (laugh)

Ca: So yes, I can't wait to see how Saeki-senpai is gonna interact with those two.

NN: I often hear that "Sayaka = Hishikawa", but Hishikawa is voiced by Kotobuki Minako-san, and in the recent PV for Yagate Kimi ni Naru, Kotobuki-san voices Nanami Touko.

Ca: Yes. That's why, when I saw that PV, I was like "It's Kotobuki-san, yaaay!" with a guts pose. (laugh)

−−How did you feel when you heard your characters talk?

NN: Their voices were as I imagined. I didn't picture those voices very clearly until now, but after hearing them in the PV, they are the voices I now hear in my head when working on my storyboards. AnoKiss had some Drama CD's released, what were your impressions?

Ca: From the start, there were characters who talked and others who didn't talk in my head. I was happy that the voices of those who talked inside me could now be heard by the readers. As for those who didn't talk, it felt refreshing, like "so that's what their voices sounded like". I had always imagined Kurosawa Yurine with the voice of Mizuhashi Kaori, so I thought "now everyone can hear it too". Shiramine Ayaka didn't talk in my head, so my feeling was more "Ooh! So that's what you sound like. You're cute, Shiramine." (laugh) The way I picture the characters hasn't changed, but right after the recording I really heard those voices in my head, though now they have quieted down.

Ca: I really think your art is pretty, but do you employ any assistants?

NN: No, I draw all alone.

Ca: You mean you draw everything by yourself, even the backgrounds? That's something…

NN: And you, Canno-san, do you employ assistants?

Ca: I do receive help from friends, occasionally, but normally I work alone. I'm afraid of drawing manga with people I don't know, honestly… Well, you could say I'm just shy. (laugh)

NN: Oh I know how you feel! I'm really shy too… Since I'm not very good a communicating with people, I end up more comfortable with controlling all of my work myself. But I'm aware that it may not be such a good thing when you draw manga.

Ca: That's a very mature comment.

NN: What I'm saying is very childish, though. (laugh) "I can't communicate, so I'm fine by myself!" (laugh)

Ca: Ahaha!

NN: Still, you're pretty impressive yourself. AnoKiss' backgrounds are really filled and polished.

Ca: You could say I'm a bit afraid of the void, so I often try my best to fill the blanks. In your art, however, it's like the blanks are used as an integral component of the picture, and I'm fond of that.

NN: Thank you very much! I have a question about AnoKiss: on the first chapters cover, many characters are drawn, and one of them in the back, Machida Kaoru, already appeared in volume 4. As you are writing an ensemble story, I wonder how far you had planned from the start.

Ca: Kaoru is an exception, actually. I had always planned on introducing her and even imagined the chapter, but she wasn't my top priority either, so she ended up appearing quite late. If the story had ended in 2 or 3 volumes, she wouldn't have appeared, but now we're at volume 4. So, no, I haven't really planned that much ahead. (laugh)

NN: Is that so. Since the gardening club arc and even the astronomy arc flowed so naturally, I thought you had all that in mind from the beginning.

Ca: I pretty much advance at random, but if it feels planned then I'm glad. (laugh)

−−You two have talked quite a lot today. How was it?

NN: As I was one of her fans, I almost feel guilty for talking with her so casually.

Ca: Oh no, I thank you, really. Yagate Kimi ni Naru has a very cool artstyle and you are equally cool, so I was afraid you'd tell me "I don't care about someone who draws such frivolous manga!", but luckily you are a kind person. (laugh)

NN: What do you mean frivolous?! No way! I'm really thankful that I could talk with you today. I could tell you what I liked and what my favorite character was in AnoKiss, so as a fan I feel content… AnoKiss and YagaKimi, despite being both yuri mangas, differ on a lot of aspects, but I was happy to find that I had a lot in common with you, Canno-san. I'll work hard on YagaKimi so that it doesn't lose to AnoKiss, so please be well!

−−Thank you very much for today.

Interview: Kaazu (Kaazu SP)

−−−−−−−−−−−

…So yeah, you can now consider me a NioCanno shipper.

But more seriously, imagine a yuri written by Nakatani and drawn by Canno. That would be something. * o *

(via Lyendith on Dynasty)

Interview #2

[starryoak]

“Hi, I’m ‘Dr.’ Fern, N.D., D.C., Ac.D, D.O*, all completely, totally legitimate medical qualifications across all zones and definitely not fake diploma’s! I’m here to give you what other Doctors won’t give you! Quasi-zonal, semi-medically sound, mildly tested to the bare minimum required by the Zonal Medicouncil, medical help the right way; with Holistic Medicine!”

Fanart for the webcomic Awful Hospital, an amazing comic by Sir Bogathan Leech, otherwise known as @bogleech/Jonathan Wojcik. It’s insane, disturbing, features quite a lot of nausea inducing visuals, but lots of humor and story, as well as some heartwarming and tearjerking moments. It’s extremely good, just…. if you don’t have the stomach for it, you may not like it. But it is very good.

SPOILERS BELOW FOR ALL OF AWFUL HOSPITAL, PRETTY MUCH. NOT SPECIFICS, JUST LOTS OF ASSUMPTIONS THAT THE READER IS COMPLETELY CAUGHT UP WITH THE COMIC.

Anyway, this is a drawing of Fern, the protagonist of Awful Hospital.... A Fern, at least. I worked hard to make this look like something that would fit in canon, meaning I went way out of my style, but it works, I hope?... My lines are thicker, but I'm hoping to improve.

Essentially, the beginning of this was when I got to thinking; what if FERN was a Doctor at The Hospital? I know it wouldn't ever happen..at least  I think... But I still wondered; what would she look like? What would she do? What core concept of medicine would it make sense for her to fulfill? All the concepts seemed to be covered. But then I got to thinking even more, and since most (if not all) the Doctors at The Hospital are puns on something, I thought of something. The Doctor is missing a quack homeopath!...

Ok, so yes, homeopathy isn't medicine, but it IS something that (unfortunately) is accredited in some countries, as well as other bullshit ‘medicinal’ treatments, and has many supporters and practitioners and diploma mills... So perhaps the core concept of homeopathy could eventually grow so big that the concept manifests in the hospital?... God, like they NEED any more quackery in that place. But Fern’s name would be a pun, so... I did it. I’m unfortunately bad at Bogleech style zonal lingo, so you’ll have to deal with boring, normal quackery rather than the bizzaro quackery that The Hospital purveys in.

Meet ‘Doctor’ Fern!

‘Doctor’ Fern is possibly the least qualified ‘medical’ professional in The Hospital! Yes, even less qualified than Phage... At least he's guaranteed to eat bacteria. ‘Doctor’ Fern is a practitioner of only the most diluted medicinal concepts, the most scientifically unsound, most expensive snake oil treatments. Her patients recover only through spontaneous remission, although she does have a low fatality rate; her treatments are often at their best, completely ineffective. She dilutes all of her concepts to homeopathic standards, so not even one nano-particle of even an inkling exists when she administers it. At worst, her treatments are poisonous and lead to worsened or even better, NEW symptoms. But she claims she's the only REAL Doctor in the whole Hospital. Nobody else treats the cause, only the SYMPTOMS of the disease. She treats the cause, not the symptom! Her low mortality rate can only be attributed to the absolute ineffectiveness at any real medicine, so she can't unintentionally administer too much homeopathic remedies and cause them to overdose, but her ward is full of patients who have been waiting so many layers to recover that it’s starting to cause a huge ruckus. But she’s certain that SOME kind of treatment will work, but as long as it’s mainstream medicine, they’ll never get better!. ‘Doctor’ Fern’s treatments are chaotic, ever changing, never standardized wrecks, basic misunderstandings of the fundamental nature of medicine and disease itself; somehow even in The Hospital, the conceptual nature of homeopathy and other ‘holistic’ medicine carries over... in other words, even though The Hospital has nonsensical, ever changing functions and cures, the fact that most of ‘Doctor’ Fern’s treatments are bullshit gets carried through, as bullshit is intrinsically woven into the very nature of her medicinal practices. Even the things she performs that qualify as medicine in some cases are usually misapplied, snapping necks when all the patient needed was a quick realignment of their core concepts with their spinal arrangement, acupuncture used for things other than relief of mild pain, trepanation for non-approved purposes, she’s a wonder at failure to medicine.

A no-nonsense nonsense provider, ‘Doctor’ Fern’s personality is similar to her canon counterpart, but warped by The Hospital, obviously assimilated into The Hospital’s jargon completely, ‘Doctor’ Fern is completely understanding of most lingo that all the Hospital Staff know... and deliberately chooses to misapply them. She’s caring, but has even less of an idea of what she’s doing than Phage does, even if The Hospital was at full running capacity, she would be utterly incompetent. As it is, she’s currently CRIMINALLY incompetent. Despite her inability to cure her patients, most of them (generally the ones with less of an idea of medicine) consider her their favorite doctor, which is likely why she’s still alive. Those who go through spontaneous remission end up thanking the good ‘Doctor’ for their recovery, and admittedly, even with her terrible abilities, she genuinely cares for each and every patient she can. 

Her design is complex and very symbolic, which I’m actually quite proud of, even if it is a bit ‘busy’, I worked hard on it! Since each Doctor (Besides our fair Doctor Ichabod Malachi Man) seems based on the very basic or very first treatments of their respective specialties, I looked up the very first herbal medicines, which was apparently using the plant Gingko Bilobo. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but I used the leaves of the tree for ‘Doctor’ Fern’s hair. (also, you always must write Doctor as ‘Doctor’ when referring to her, as her doctorates are all fake or non accredited) She has a Gingko Berry for an earring as well, one that’s a bit old and bruised. She has normal doctors scrubs, but her shirt is emblazoned with an alternative medicinal parody of the Caduceus. I gave her ears for the explicit purpose of demonstrating yet another ‘medical’ treatment; ear stapling. Apparently, according to some, surgical staples in ones ears will help one lose weight. Her teeth are borrowed from Page 711, when she imagined strangling Dr. Phage. This is strictly because it made her creepier to the eye, as it felt... right, to give her a more unsettling visage than our friendly neighborhood Fern. Her gloves are not, in fact, medical gloves or in any way sanitation related or even sanitary, but Reflexology reference mitts. the belief that pressure points on the hands line up to everywhere else on the body (and of course, everyone has a different idea of what connects to where, so ‘Doctor’ Fern changes her mind on what it does every five minutes.) Even though acupuncture can be an effective treatment for some causes, I stuck two needles in her head both for flair and due to the misapplication of acupuncture as a cure rather than relief for pain. She also has a trepanation hole in her head that constantly oozes out something conceptually similar to blood, but likely not actually blood. I don’t know what it is or if I want to KNOW what it is. Her necklace is a piece of ionized jewelry, which does.. some bullshit or something about Qi, Look, I don’t make up this stuff, someone else does. Her feet are covered in Kinoki Foot Pads instead of any proper footwear. Kinoki Foot Pads are pads that turn a dirty black overnight when you wear them, supposedly because they drain out ‘toxins’ from your feet, but really because they’re made with green tea and such that react with sweat and air, but whatever, ‘toxins’.

Anyway, that’s what I think Fern might look like as a ‘Doctor’. Or, at least, passing for a Doctor.

*(N.D is short for a Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine, D.C is short for Doctor of Chiropractic, Ac. D is short for Acupuncture Doctor, and O.D is short for Doctor of Osteopathy)

[lafortis]

Do the first 12 ask things

tell me about your crush!!!!!!!ahh well my crush is a beautiful elegant person whomst I do not deserve but whom accepts this about me and is understanding and wonderful anyway (and draws rly rly fucking well and [I’m lead to believe] is a mean lean vegan chef chopping greens)tell me about your exidk which one to talk abt so I’ll go with list recent. she was pretty cool, she followed me on Twitter and I recognised her from HS then a week or two later she had a mutual friend invite me to a basement party where me n tittles (aka The Good Jordan) got demolished and I think I smoked my first tiny bit of weed, then I made out with her on her basement floor or mattress or smthn (her pajamas were very soft). I sort of talked tittles n nevin into talking me into hitting her up afterwards, got together (while they were still around lmao) and watched a like bo Burnham special and made out or something. She was coming off a breakup, we hung out/talked on n off for a while with her being super inconsistent, dated for a few months (I drove her around a lot), and then it got #messy I guess yikestell me about your dayI woke up, finished my book and had a coffee (which I’m becoming increasingly convinced I should stop), grabbed rob, picked up Reid from work, got food, went home, grabbed Nevin, went to Anthony’s for melee n too watch evo. Jordan (aka The Bad Jordan) and Richard showed up too, it’s aiiiight, we break apart when Anthony has to pick up his gf, we drop Reid off, the crew we came with plus alek whom we get from McDonald’s go to my house to watch the rest n play melee, n then we’re done :D Rob and I go to try to catch a togetic but mine flees :’( now I’m heretell me about your dreamsLiterally my dreams or my aspirations? I think yesterday i dreamed I made day two of evo or some other big tournament and then missed my bracket and got disqualified (believable tbh), and probably also some random sex dream and maybe some other stuff. I’m off my vyvanse rn so i think my dreams r more vivid. As for aspirations… Probably like power honestly. Not like sinisterly, just the concept of decision making power. Like I think I’m smart and could do well and save lives if given the reins of whatever. tell me about your dramaLord… Aight. uhhh the messiest I’ve ever been was the end of the relationship with my last ex and I don’t want to just literally say everything on Tumblr but idk. basically she cheated on me at a house party I wasn’t at and I didn’t find out until after we were on a break/maybe half broken up for something completely random and petty, and after she interrogated me about cheating on her, from one of our close mutual friends. i was miffed, don’t even remember most of it, mostly just got near-black out drunk at a Canada day party, vomited on alek I think, loudly forgave the dude she cheated on me w. also there was some suggestion she cheated on me more than that but also some suggestion she may have lied about that to seem cool???? Idk it was all messy and I didn’t comport myself particularly well either (although I forgive myself I guess given the circumstances)tell me about yourself :-)I’m a 21 year old white guy, a little above average weight, average ish height, pretty stocky and broad shouldered, my head is huge. I’ve dropped out of uni twice. I’m supposedly smart but have trouble putting that to good use. I’m very good at some of the most technical elements of super smash bros melee and am working on the rest. I enjoy history and fantasy and my major if I ever finish it is in international relations. geopolitics is the core of what I find interesting above. Politically I’m probably a democratic socialist. I listen to a lot of mainstream hip hop and not much else tbh (I have a nujabes Spotify mix to relax n study to). I’m on an Effexor XR (for anxiety and depression), an SNRI, and Vyvanse (for ADHD), a stimulant. I have two lovely dogs. I think I’m really self aware but I’m not sure. I have too much arrogance and also too little self esteem. I’m often quite loud, and my brand of humour is like mostly either the like false arrogance/bravado, running jokes into the ground, or wordplay I guess? Or just sarcasm. Idk I make ppl laugh most of the time but I’m not sure I’m actually funny. I think this is enough without getting too much righttell me about something awkward/embarrassingUhhh idk what would be awkward and embarrassing. I had a huge crush on one of my long time friends in early high school. We admitted to each other we were like each others first choice to marry when we were adults. But we started hanging out for a day or two like we were dating and I like literally suffocated her into just immediately pulling the plug because she realised how wack I wastell me about a funny story or somethingUhhhhhhhhhhhh this might be where it really breaks down. I’m not sure I have a funny story. Which is odd, given I just said I thought I was funny. But I couldn’t rly pluck one out of thin air that wasn’t mostly just bullying someone the story was about lmaotell me your favourite band/artist/album/songKendrick Lamar is probably my fav artist rn, Yeah Right by Vince Staples is my fav song probably. The Kendrick feature is insane. (I don’t love Kendrick as much as this response make it sound I just have that album on CD along with damn so it’s been in my head of late)tell me about your favourite memeSearch Toyota previa on my blog to find the post. That is my favourite post. I love that post fuck I have no idea why but fuck. tell me about your favourite ficI don’t rly read fic but I guess my fav was the one I read almost all the way thru, Harry Potter and the methods of Rationality. It was kinda dumb rationalist wank but I’m a rationalist wanker so sue metell me a secret ;)Ohoho there’s a winky face so it better be sexual I guess… Idk what kind of secret there is here. I don’t rly keep those tbh, except for other ppl. Uhh I’ll just choose something rly private? What is there even then hmmmMMMM wait of course I have a good one duh. I was part of an internet secret society :o still am I guess. If u wanted a sexual secret uhhh the secret is in my junk? Women love that shit. Mostly. I was gonna say I’ve made all but one of my partner’s cum but that’s not rly true anymore given I’ve had a few one off hookups under various extenuating circumstances and never got to correct my failures :’( such is life Thank u so much for this and I’m so sorry for all this FUCKING text I’m gonna edit in a read more but I’m sorry mobile users if it doesn’t work I’m so so sorry

[hoopyfrood]

Fry writes an anonymous newspaper comic series about this human from 1999 who wakes up 1000 years in the future, gets a job at his nephews delivery company, and while struggling to adjust to this new life, finds himself falling in love with a robot friend he made along the way. His work gets heralded for its authenticity and honest presentation. It becomes an iconic forward step in the normalizing of human/robot relationships in Earth's phobic society, and the mystery surrounding its (1/2)

(2/2) creator only enhances its positive impact. Of course there are the people who dislike the strip once it comes to mainstream light (since newspapers are such a rare medium in the 31st century it was only by word of mouth that it grew popular, and also the only reason it was ever originally published), but there always are. Years on in Fry’s life, when he and Bender actually are together and later get married, he publishes a compilation of all the strips and reveals himself as the creator.

tee……. oh my god this is a perfect idea though i’m in tears !!

i rambled on below about this because it’s such a sweet and perfect idea bless u ilu

fry working so hard on his art and comics and seeing there’s a space in a local newspaper for a comic series and he’s like yeah!! i bet i can do this!!

and then his head is full of thoughts of what it’ll be about and maybe he should tell bender because he’s actually always supported his comics….. 

and then he looks up from the newspaper to see bender inspecting something in the fridge, and bender looks over and comments on how fry is such an old man reading the newspaper, and fry smiles and knows exactly what to make his comics about 

and he gets excited and nervous and excitedly nervous about his comics being printed and he decided to keep it his secret and wonders if his friends will pick up on who the comics are by…. but only hermes reads the printed paper and sticks to the advice and stock sections, and the others only read the first couple pages of the online version 

(and, even though fry hasn’t really tried to disguise the identities of the comic characters well, his style is simplistic, and he’s changed the names and hair colours and he did give leela’s character two eyes, so he can see why they wouldn’t recognise the stories in the comics even if they did read them)

but then they (ironically) read the articles in the paper about the comics that are in the very same paper, talking about it being a clever idea and a funny yet interesting look into two words colliding, and they start actually checking out the comics page

fry finds it helpful for making a note of fond memories or important thoughts or discoveries he had, and it’s a place for him to explore his feelings for his best friend, and he gets to live out his fantasies by having the main character and his robot best friend get together and live as a couple and giving it a good ending because the fans deserve it and he hopes maybe he does too

and he hasn’t any of the 31st centuries stereotypes or thoughts of robots, he sees them as equal and interesting and complex and especially sees the friendship of a robot as so important, and these open minded views are supported by a lot of pro robot and pro robosexuality groups and fry is so surprised but he’s like ‘wow, hey, i just wanted to publish my drawings and now they’re out there doing good things!’

leela probably picks up on it being fry, even though she’s sure he would’ve said something…. and she’s surprised by how good the drawing quality is…. so she keeps quiet but reads in surprise as she sees the main character talking about his love for his robot best friend

and after a while she just Has to say something because it’s so hard staying quiet when amy, bender and the professor muse on who the creator is and what they’re like and fry wants her to keep it secret as it got more personal than he intended and he’s kinda worried about bender’s reaction now

so leela doesn’t tell the others (although zoidberg has been reading the papers thrown into his dumpster for years and has followed the whole comic and would recognise fry’s style anywhere) and she helps him plan out future comic strips and zoidberg joins them to talk about the impact of the story and how they’re glad fry did this

and fry has never been one searching for lots of fame and glory, so he’s happy having the support of his friends and the knowledge he’s made a difference as he sees people talking about their love for the creator and awarding medals in their honour, it’s cool knowing people want to thank him so much for just being himself 

and then years pass, bender realises fry’s feelings, fry realises bender has felt the same for a long time too, not much changes as they’ve been a married couple living together basically since the day they moved in together anyway, but things are so good and they can get married and there’s so many more robosexual couples around, including gay ones 

and fry sees one of his old comics published for an anniversary of its creation in the paper (which he has even more right to read now that he’s more of an older guy) and laughs to himself and cuts it out and sticks it on the fridge 

and it doesn’t take bender long to be intruiged by this new thing on the fridge and he’s like ‘ohh, i remember everyone talking about these, hey, it reminds me of us, haha, these weren’t so bad, for art’ and fry is like ‘i thought i told you i made those’ and bender gasps and demands to know everything

and it’s totally benders idea to reprint the comics and make them into a book maybe, and they could add in the story of their lives to match and what happened with them, and he’s so enthusiastic about frys work and fry loves it

but he’s like ‘why are you so dedicated to doing this?’ and bender gives him a look as though it’s obvious and is like ‘everyone should know it was my husband who created these and changed the world and is the best person in the universe, duh’

and so finally the creator of the comics is revealed and leela calls him to say she’s proud and always loved how things went just as he’d hoped, and amy smacks him in the arm next time he sees her and is like ‘all this time you never told me it was you! i can’t believe you fry!’ and zoidberg gets a free copy of the new book and is delighted 

but the thing that makes fry happiest of all is that bender has only once mentioned the money they might make from the comic collection, instead all he talks about is fry getting the recognition and support he deserves, and fry needing to be investigated for psychic powers as he predicted them getting married and everything, and how he’s really proud and wants more comics just for him of them doing stuff together

and fry feels like the luckiest person in the universe because doing those comics helped him realise his love for bender and express it through his art and now he can do that every day to his face because he got the happy ending he hoped for 

[captainignatiuspigheart]

Oosh, where has the time gone? It’s hard to figure out whether it’s the weeks or the weekends that go by faster. Either way, they’re going nuts and I’m waaaay behind on my weekly updates. I’ve noted this for the last couple of weeks, sighed, and discovered that it’s now Thursday or something equally ridiculous. And of course, the longer this goes on, the more I have to write and the more impossible it becomes. I guess I’ll have to draw a line under it… This week you’ll only be seeing the things I gave a damn about from the last couple of weeks because otherwise I’ll never finish!

A Rare Moment of Self-Reflection

What I should do is to think a little about why I’m now struggling to do this. In part it’s because this exercise was great at the beginning of lockdown, and gave me a focus. Now, of course, I have a fucktonne of work to do and things are sort of ramping up in other areas of life, like occasionally seeing people in the flesh and stuff. A number of things have helped me keep it together for the last 129 days (I think) of working at home: work, obviously, is my primary routine and aiming to go for a cycle ride beforehand really frames my day. Every Thursday for ages (forever? Who knows) I’ve been hosting a virtual pub for our MissImp weekly regulars (and folks from further afield too, which has been amazing) which has filled my regular evening out slot nicely. Then there’s been the fortnightly We Are What We Overcome webcasts, and the quick chats we have on the off weeks. That handful of regular activity has been great.

I try to keep these posts going because of something we talked about in one of our podcasts: if I’m depressed, I can’t remember any good things I’ve ever done, and if I’m all perky and up then I don’t care about remembering what I’ve been doing. Right now I’m mostly pretty chipper, largely a consequence of being busy and having acquired lots of LEGO recently, so this doesn’t feel important in the same way it did a few months ago. That’s a tricky place for me to be in, because despite occasional dips into glum days, I think I’ve been upbeat for a while now. The longer I’m upbeat, the less likely it feels that I’ll go down, or that I’ll worry about crashing. And that’s actually a decent indicator that I’m going to have a bit of a crash. Keeping track is the whole damn point! Must make more time. 

Anyway… what have I been up to? Well, we’ve seen real live humans on both the last Saturdays, partly in attempt to normalise the new normal, or whatever the pre-second wave era is called, and partly because it turns out that folk want to see us, which is very nice and reassuring. Messing about with my sister and nieces at Highfields Park was a rather fun afternoon, as was eating and drinking at Dovecote Lane park last weekend. That bandstand is perfect, other than it’s brutish tarmac flooring. As I have alluded to earlier, I’m also quite busy at work as we race for the print deadlines for October titles, commission more and more artwork and do general bookstuff. It’s ace really, but is certainly filling my days tightly. We’re not likely to see the office for another month, and that’s OK with me.

I’ve been a rather busy LEGO person too, albeit more “busy” in the sense of “buying” than making much. I did join a LUG though, the Brick Central LEGO User Group. I’ve thought about it a lot over the last couple of years, and though I’m not sure how much time I could feasibly put into big displays and conventions, I’m interested in finding out. Also I got neat printed bricks and bits and pieces when I signed up, so I’m happy with that. I took advantage of the LEGO double VIP points last week to pick up a “few” things, from cute little LEGO Dots and baby dinosaurs to the massive Pirates of Barracuda Bay set. It is all very exciting! I’ve got some random builds I need to take some decent photos of and share them too.  

Big Stuff

Little Stuff

Big Stuff

Watching: The Order, season 2

I can’t deny that this is a low-rent Teen Wolf crossed with the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, themselves low-rent versions of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and so many more.  I remembered nothing of the previous season, even when we saw the “last time on this thing”, and would have sworn I’d never seen it at all. Nonetheless, this proved to be effective brain chewing entertainment while eating, in the sense of it noticeably degrading one’s braincells. Daft witch academy with neighboring anti-magic werewolves (who turn out to have previously been the witches’ bodyguard or something), but the wolves have all been tricked into being witches, or something. It doesn’t really matter – the entire show is redeemed by the delightful relationship between the four werewolves, which feels very much like how I felt about my university housemates: loving, occasionally fighty and laced with sarcasm and alcohol. Shame the lady werewolf ended up in hell this season. I’m sure I won’t remember this next time either, but if I can be persuaded to watch season 3 I’m sure I’ll enjoy it. 

Reading: The Kingdom Beyond the Waves by Stephen Hunt

Continuing the really quite wacky steampunk series set in a far-future with multiple species of human (Craynarbians are splendid shelled folk, for example), steammen, and wild action adventure. I have insufficient time to summarise this one, but it covers an Atlantis-alike ancient city in the sky, infernal plots of genius industrialists to take over government, a frightening Borg-like jungle species, savage feral robots, submarine journeys, and so much more. The whole series is an absolute blast and I’m enjoying re-reading them enormously. Get on it.  

Building: LEGO Overwatch Watchpoint: Gibraltar #75975

While I still have almost no idea what Overwatch is (yeah, yeah, I know it’s a game, and my friend Sam has a nice summary on Overwatch here), but I adore the LEGO sets. I’ve had my eye on this one solely because it features a gorilla in a spacesuit. Now that it’s reaching the end of its shelf-life “Watchpoint: Gibraltar” has become more affordable, and on a midnight whim (always the best time to buy LEGO) I ordered…

The minifigs are an utter delight! Check out Pharah (in blue) with that gorgeous gold visor, and Mercy (admittedly with the usual pink-printed-on-black face which never really works that well) with a lovely hair/hat element and lovely printed torso and legs, plus the rather ominous Reaper. I’m guessing he’s the bad guy. The gorilla is apparently named “Winston”. I hadn’t noticed that he’s wearing glasses, but he’s rather charming either way.

The build is pretty straightforward: you make a spaceship, which has a couple of separating sections, and the cool but not very exciting gantry/rocket leaning post thing. The spaceship itself is a satisfyingly sleek affair, with cleverly connected sections and very neat work on making the hatch fit flush. Building it felt like a wonderful flashback to my childhood, making largely flat spaceships that feel a little like this, but much less good.

The whole thing looks very pretty, but is inconveniently tall for anywhere I want to put it…

Watching: Derry Girls, season 2

Just marvelous. I can’t recommend this show enough, and I’m thrilled that there’s a third season on the way. Set in, um, Derry, in the 90s, this teenage sitcom is pretty much perfect. In keeping with non-American TV shows about teenagers, this lot actually look like real teenagers – the scowl game is extraordinary. The relationships and dialogue are brilliant, and you can’t help but love them all a little bit. The parents are savage and equally funny (finding Bill Clinton is a particular joy). The costumes are bang-on 90s-hideous and the soundtrack makes me unusually nostalgic.  My only complaint is that there aren’t enough episodes. Not even close. Apparently Netflix screwed up and released this early, so it’s not available any more. Sorry folks!

Building: LEGO Jurassic World Dr Wu’s Lab: Baby Dinosaur Breakout #75939

Jesus Christ, baby dinosaurs! How was I ever supposed to resist? Reader, I did not. Clearly. 

Like many of the licensed sets, especially the Jurassic World theme, there isn’t a lot to this. That said, the build is drawn out by the usual agony of applying stickers to transparent elements, and my desire to get them mostly straight had me turning on extra lights and teasing them into place with a scalpel. The egg turning machine is pleasing, and although I was complaining about applying the stickers, this is a set where they really do shine. The details in them are lovely, from the laptop screen to all the heads up displays, they’re adorable, and I’ll have to find more uses for them.

The figures are reliably cool, and I really like the LEGO Friends elements such as the baby feeding bottle sneaking into the mainstream LEGO sets.  Dr Wu has the most cunning expression, just like in the movies! But none of this matters – all shall be recycled for parts except for the ADORABLE baby triceratops and even babier ankylosaur. Just so goddamn cute. I couldn’t be happier. 

Watching: What We Do in the Shadows, season 2

A show that completely revels in its own stupidity with enormous commitment, we caned this in a single sitting too. Colin, the energy vampire, continues to be my personal favourite, but they’re all pretty great idiots. I’m delighted that the main storyline has turned out to be Guillermo’s, as he learns of his vampire-hunting past and wonders about his future, killing vampires while still being a dedicated familiar. Wonderful nonsense.

Doing: We Are What We Overcome – Fortnightly Mental Health Check-In

We reflected a little on how life has changed with a whole fortnight of being allowed to go to the pub… And here’s the link for next week’s chat.

Watching: Warrior Nun

This is dreadful. OK, that’s not entirely fair, but it’s definitely mostly fair. This is the story of a bunch of nuns who are warriors (duh), fighting demons and stuff. One of the nuns always has an angel’s halo embedded in their back, which makes them a sin-fighting superhero. When a mission goes badly tits up, the warrior nuns rip the halo out of their dead leader and stick it in a recently dead girl… She comes back to life, no longer paraplegic, but certainly perplexed about why she’s alive, why she has superpowers (kinda), and why she should give a shit about the Catholic church. Sounds fun, right. The trailer looks pretty fun too, and there are about 25 minutes of great stuff spread across the entire show, with some fun fights, laughable CGI demons, the one good character (Shotgun Mary) who appears to be in another, much better, show. But the rest of it is bogged down by impossibly tedious exposition where characters literally open books and read endless passages from them, or an agonisingly dull romance, in which the most exciting bits are them sitting on a ferry. The show almost redeems itself with a final heist episode but by that point it’s so laden with cack that I couldn’t bring myself to care. You may enjoy it though.

Doing: MissImp’s Virtual Drop-In – Roberto Lewis

More great and splendid video content right here, on one of my favourite topics — coming in with nothing! (I mean, favourite because I cannot plan…)

Last Week: The Order, The Kingdom Above the Waves, Warrior Nun, Derry Girls, LEGO Overwatch and Jurassic World, We Are What We Overcome and more… I’m quite behind. #books #tv #LEGO #stuff https://wp.me/pbprdx-8GV Oosh, where has the time gone? It’s hard to figure out whether it’s the weeks or the weekends that go by faster.

[alongtimeagoinablogfarfaraway]

Favorite Albums #10-6

#10- SR3MM by Rae Sremmurd 

So let me start by saying that this was probably my most anticipated album of 2018. Yes I’m serious and if you listen to SremmLife 2 you would understand why and probably would have felt the same way. Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi have established themselves quite simply as SUPERSTARS. Of course within the past year or so everyone has become familiar with Swae less so than Jxmmi. Regardless, the two as Rae Sremmurd are well known to mostly everyone. 

Now, this album was technically a triple disc album where we got the third installment of SremmLife as well as Swae Lee and Slim Jximmi’s debut solo albums. This became the downfall of this release and why it ends up at #10. The duo needed to focus on one collaborative effort but they wanted to give the people something different and new, which I do understand and loved because most people were waiting for Swae’s long awaited Swaecation while I couldn’t wait for Slim Jxmmi’s. 

Brief exaggeration of how I felt in anticipation.

Overall the three mini albums are decent but this is not their best effort. We get hints of the nocturnal party sound that was nearly every song on SremmLife 2 in “Ballin”. Unfortunately Future is on the track and while I don’t mind it too much, that’s definitely what stopped this song from becoming my favorite across all of the three albums. So yes, I am including all three mini albums into this spot. If you like Rae Sremmurd you will enjoy what you hear BUT you will be disappointed. There are many hints of what make them great throughout the 27 tracks but there are just as many counters to that. But let’s be honest, I still fucking love these guys.

I mean...C’MON.

Favorite Song 

Brxnks Truck 

#9- TA13OO by Denzel Curry

Ever since listening to his smash hit LP Imperial I absolutely loved the sound and flow of Denzel. I listened to that thing constantly. The intensity yet precision that he raps with is something to admire. So of course I was waiting for his long awaited debut album, which finally arrived this year. Denzel is something else, that’s really what it comes down to. He continues to make me think that way after this album. It’s an album I need to sit down and listen to more carefully, that much I can already tell you. But from my couple of listens I already knew that this guy wasn’t going anywhere. His tenacity and his style hasn’t changed. While this album was nowhere near my liking that I had for Imperial, it still managed to make me excited for what’s hopefully next to come for this artist.

Curry can go from a hip hop sounding track in “CASH MANIAC/CAZH MAN1AC” to a bat shit crazy Curry staple in “SUMO/Zumo” and I can’t hate it. Here’s the thing with Denzel Curry, he has potential. He’s stayed very under the radar seeing as this was his first major release since Imperial back in 2016. I feel as if there wasn’t too much released by him in that time gap, which I’m either completely wrong about or I’m right and it disappoints me because I would love more music from this guy. Part of it though is that I don’t get the vibe from this wild rapper that he really wants a part of the mainstream life, which is certainly more than fine with me. Main stream success ruined some of my favorite rappers back in the day (Wiz and Tyga). Their music sucks now, I’m sorry. Curry? Not so much and the fact that he’s still a little out of most people’s radar is good. 

Did I mention he’s a little bit crazy and entertaining? I expect his next album to hopefully set the bar for where his career can go. Here’s to really really hoping. 

Favorite Song

SUPER SAIYAN SUPERMAN/ZUPER ZA1YAN ZUPERMAN

#8- Trench by Twenty One Pilots

Yes, I like Twenty One Pilots. I only really started listening to them a couple years back when their song “Blurryface” blew up along with the same titled album Blurryface. Lead vocalist Tyler Joseph will sometimes jump into a fast paced rap or he will sing his lungs out with a quirky voice at times and a very catchy tune at others. Their songs usually transition from one sound to another midway through and your swayed from one emotion to another within the same song and that’s what I tend to love about their music and it’s what I loved yet again about this album. 

Th album starts off with the songs “Jumpsuit” and then “Levitate” which are high octane melodies. This was similar to their previous album which started with “Heavydirtysoul”.I really fell in love with the sound of these artists and was glad that they didn’t sway away from what made them become so well known. I have yet to go back and listen to their early early stuff but what I have listened to in their last two albums has me excited for more albums in the future hopefully. Anyways like I was mentioning, I enjoyed that they didn’t start this album off slow or dis interesting. I’m not saying it’s the most WOAH start to an album at all but it’s enough to keep you listening. Eventually you find yourself halfway through the album without hitting your favorite song of the album yet (well that’s what happened to me). This is probably the first time my list hasn’t been compiled with all rap albums...although I guess Frank Ocean is more hip-hop than rap but oh well. I’m sure most didn’t expect this one but here it lands at #9. 

Favorite Song

Chlorine 

#7-Redemption by Jay Rock

TDE has Kendrick Lamar but they also have Jay Rock. He goes unnoticed sometimes, which is understandable...because Kendrick Lamar. You get it. BUT we shouldn’t sleep on Rock’s third album effort. It has the smash hit “WIN”, which was something new for him and certainly helps his case becoming more popular. What the album also more importantly has is the display of talent that this man has as a rapper. The album starts with the track “The Bloodiest” where we see the theme of a “comeback” and rightfully so the album is titled Redemption after all. This may have not been an album I listened to more than most but I listened to it enough and every time I did I found myself appreciating it more and more. Now I like my fair share of artists who aren’t the best lyrically but I do prefer a good rap album that involves well...rapping. This album stood out in that department and were it not for another album, this probably would’ve taken home the Stay Trippy Award this year. 

Following the album’s first song we get “For What It’s Worth”, which slows things down a bit but to me shows the versatility that Jay Rock has that I hadn’t necessarily spent the time to listen for before. Because after we get another catchy tune in “Knock It Off” we jump into the raw sounding and raw spitting “ES Tales”. There’s a quick intro to this song voiced by Kendrick. Need I say more? When Kendrick introduces a song...you have to make it worth one’s while and oh he does. He talks drugs and how it’s “part of playing cool now it’s time to get rich”, the dream of every American whether they want to admit it or not. Jay Rock is rich but his next album will have to be one that proves he’s rich and perhaps one of the best rappers out there. 

Favorite Song

ES Tales

#6- KOD by J. Cole

With an album cover that certainly draws ones attention with its colorful palette and the image of Cole seemingly representing an old time renaissance artist, it almost seems fitting this time around. I’ve come to expect good things whenever he drops an album and after listening once I remember thinking that, he delivered another god album. Now I wasn’t the biggest fan of 4 Your Eyez Only but it did come towards the end of 2016 and 2016 was a strong year and the album released late that year that stole the show for me was Cudi’s amazing Pain, Passion and Demon Slaying. KOD came out much earlier, 4/20 to be exact. Regardless of when it came out it would have made my top ten. 

J. Cole is definitely one of those artists in my opinion who has his own certain style and sound. It’s smooth, it’s lyrical but he can also break out into a full fledged freestyle. But I think one of my favorite moments of the album was the last song “1985 (Intro to “The Fall Off”)” where he essentially calls out all the young rappers for what they’ve been saying about him and just how they’re behaving in general. Cole is pronouncing himself a true artist and that all these new upcoming rappers need to learn where they stand in the rap game right now. He acknowledges that he understands their attitude at the time though because he was once there and thought it was all about the same things. “I remember I was 18. Money, pussy, parties, I was on the same thing”. He later explains how he wants to paint for them the large picture. Once again...seems to fit in with the renaissance like cover.  

But let’s be honest, Cole still likes that money as shown above from the catchy hit “ATM”. I like Cole and I know not everyone does but he is definitely one of the best out there right now in my opinion. This album probably should be higher in my list but this year was a weird year for me. There were only a few albums I found myself going “God I loved that album” at the end of the year and while this wasn’t one of those I just throughly enjoyed it. 

Favorite Song

1985 (Into to the “Fall Off”)