#gods I started writing this bc of a ‘how to write text bubbles in comics’ post

[lazaruspiss]

right. finally reading Knight Terrors: Nightwing #2. not done yet but i wouldn't recommend anyone else reads it. i held onto a shred of hope (mostly because it's been a while since i've seen nightwing content that didnt involve tom taylor) but it was worse than i could've predicted. one of those if you give half a damn about barbara or just care about the portrayal of disabled people in general its fucking infuriating type things. #1 sort of set up a whodunit mystery, dick is in for murder but the details aren't clear (because yknow. nightmare world). It was decent.

Adding a cut because there was a lot of hurt from this one. emotional discussion of ableism ahead.

#2 has all the pitfalls of Nightwing (2016) kicked up to 11 and condensed into a single comic. Barbara starts to turn into a robot monster. Her text bubbles resemble the ones that were used for her when she was oracle. it pretty explicitly shows her as being broken. I had to stop and write this to get it out of my system because i just got to a point where dick quite literally fixes her. if this is supposed to be a metaphor for their relationship. right. i need to stop for a bit because this treatment of disability is just legitimately triggering.

I have 13 pages left, I just want this over with so that I can be done with it and put it out of my mind.

WHAT SHE FEARS MOST. ORACLE. HER LIFE AS A DISABLED WOMAN. The ENTIRE point of her arc as oracle was her coming to terms and becoming even more confident with her diasability than she was without. And DC keeps saying that's wrong. That it was wrong for her to be happy like that. That it was wrong for her to not need fixing. Fuck. "too reliant on computers" don't play fucking dumb with me. This is about oracle. This is making her success as oracle a BAD thing. It pisses me off and upsets me to the point of tears.

batman, circus, fire, zucco, hurting others. dick's fears. who gives a shit at this point. obligatory "we made the female characters strong so we aren't misogynistic even though we didn't give them any personality or agency outside of punching". the people posting about how its good bc batgirls kick ass in it are fucking delusional they got like two cheap panels. the chemistry between scarecrow and oracle was worlds better than dick and babs. probably bc theyre both men. god forbid a guy put care into how a female character is written instead of just making her world revolve around the male lead.

[shego1142]

You know what I’m tired of in media right now? Like, as an autistic person?

That whole “tell me about the thing you like” bit where the (usually autistic coded) person starts to infodump

And the text gets like incomprehensible, too big, too close together, going by too fast or even outright turns into “blah blah blah” over and over again

Or they begin to talk about what they like and they start talking a lot, getting excited, and then the audio just

Drones out, to show that the person they’re talking to isn’t listening, isn’t interested

Or the “wow I wish I hadn’t asked” interruption thing

There’s a lot of examples of this in most media forms…

And it is a clever writing trick, one I’ve probably used before too,

where you don’t know about the thing you’re character is interested in

so you just make it “annoying” for them to actually talk about it 

so you don’t have to research anything, instead you just have people be too annoyed to listen. Too annoyed to care.

But I’d love to see a character actually get to talk about their special interests.

I’d love to come away from a comic or a show or a fic and actually have learned new information from a passionate source.

I’d love to see characters have actual interest in the niche thing the autistic coded character has to say, and to respond with “wow that’s so cool, thank you for telling us about that!”

Or to ask deep meaningful questions about the topic.

I’d love to see what an impact it makes on the characters, the autistic coded (or even canon autistic bc one can dream) person finally feeling listened to, validated, and the other characters, getting closer to their friend, understanding them better…

And what’s more, I’d love to have something to show to someone and say

“This! This is how you react to infodumping! This is how to be a good friend to an autistic person!”

I still have trouble infodumping to people… years and years after I was told that I was “too annoying” “too much” years after I was told “I just drone you out” “you talk too much” “I wish I could put you on mute”

I have a wonderful and accepting friend group of mostly autistic people now, and I have trouble infodumping even to them at times…

I’ll speed up, abbreviate, not include the parts I want to include. Make it shorter, less, make it something more “suitable”

Thankfully my friends are great and will be like “tell me more 👀” and I’ll remember I’m safe with them

That they’re never going to tell me I’ve talked about something too much, they’re never going to call me annoying.

But seeing that in media would be refreshing.

[gryphsdeadbones]

hey from one nd person to another the comic where fm gordon says a slur seems kind of in poor taste. ik ur not intentionally making light of it and tht occurring in fm should be criticized but while you dont make it out to be a good thing making jokes about it and calling him a "slurboy" is kind of questionable? it makes it seem more like a plotpoint and angst rather than the creator of fm genuinely fucking up in the past (and having moved on from it)! i think exploring fm coming to terms with being nd is a good idea but this isnt the best way to do it. if you want me to explain my point more lmk if/when u post this and i will! someone already made a post abt it but it was kinda strongly worded and i wanted to approach you more calmly because i genuinely dont want to call you out or start drama or anything ;-;

first off thank you for being civil and patient with me i appreciate this ask a lot- also this got long- im not in a flying rage or anything when i bold or emphasis text, i just needed it also for my own readability and since im not the best at wording- hopefully this hellsite works and my response is under the cut

i would like to know how is it in poor taste when freemind explicitly gets clocked at the very end for saying it. the entire point of the comic was to show that saying the r slur has existed in his source and is bad

im not sure how much more direct i can get, with the disclaimer/warning list growing longer and longer and out there for a huge sign that says “this au can get dark as fuck and these subject matters are treated seriously/not something to mess around with.” Like yes, there are some jokes in the asks and other comics, but that specific comic is not supposed to be “haha thats funny”. it has a serious tone using a rough sketch style bc i was super tired and wanted to vent

was it just the direct reference to it that just made people uncomfortable? because thats 100% understandable, and i made sure i tagged it appropriately (although admittedly, a little bit late since i thought the filter would catch at least the main thing)

i think what some people somehow got from it is “exploring sensitive content = endorsing said content” which! that is not the intent! i absolutely do not want people saying that word! I don’t want people thinking that is any way okay for this character to say

its more of a damned if i do address it, damned if i dont.

if it never comes up, people are gonna assume that ‘oh this character says slurs and is shit, surely the creator or fan-creator MUST be okay with it and woobifies freemind and absolves him of any mistakes’ or something like that. no. this asshole has an arc and i want to do it right. its serious and i think it shouldn’t be shoved under the rug

and people just. dont want to read for context for whatever reason. theyll start watching it and get taken aback by the slur and start blaming me ‘hey you never warned for this’ when very early on i keep mentioning over and over ‘you dont have to watch it if you dont want to! This has slurs and 2000s internet brand humor/style’ You really dont, I’m not forcing you to watch it- Literally all you need to know is either canon half life or hl/vrai. thats it. fm mostly follows hl1 with very slight changes.

so i had to make something that:

1. warns people who arent aware and dont want to go through my asks or about/warning pages (for whatever reason) and just want to see the art

2. also NOT downplay freemind’s canon assholery. listen, i kinda despise writing mean and cruel characters, theyre hard to do, and a lot of people get shit for doing it wrong or people going “character = author”

i’ve also considered leaving the bubbles blank, but then people could fill it with whatever they want, then blame me for being vague. or they’d fill it in with a different kind of slur that freemind has never used, even if he MIGHT be the type to do that. I needed to explicitly mention that it is ableist slur. There are shitty racist and other problematic jokes, but never those kinds of extreme racial slurs to my knowledge.

Although I do see your point that maybe joking about it outside of the serious stuff might not be the best route. The slurboy jokes are getting stale, and I will try a better way to remind people.

The thing that gets to me is that it feels people are more than ready to defend either Ross Scott or Gordon Freeman the fictonal character himself. I don’t??? really care for Ross Scott, so I don’t know if he’s ever brought it up specifically. I’m not really calling him out or cancelling him. Idc for some white man’s feelings, im only bringing the timeframe of That era and reworking it to fit in This current era.

And I hate to break it to people: Gordon Freeman is a blank slate character, you can project whatever the hell you want on him as long as it’s not freakshit illegal garbage. The machinimas (fm, hl/vrai) do have SOME characterization that I want to nail down. It fucking sucks when characters are ooc, and I’m trying not to do that, even if it means sacrificing some comfort. But still mostly staying in my comfort zone if that makes sense

Now about the callout that I do not want to engage with the op directly:

Honestly im very surprised the comic was called out when i just. thought my stuff is relatively tame on exploring the bad shit canon freemind does. ive seen him in fancontent where they really dont hold back and its still played off as ‘kinda funny’ tone.

I really don’t know if people just want any reason to hate me for whatever reason. That’s fine I guess, I can’t please everyone and they dont have to like me.

But like. isn’t it so much easier for the op of that to block me and the post and move on. Why kick up such a fuss. I can see that thinly veiled death threat of a vague. That’s pretty fucked up- Like holy fucking god, you do not have to like my stuff. I’m not holding you at knifepoint to like my stuff. I’ve specifically made two different tags (one general au, one specific au) if anyone wants to blacklist it for their own reasons I do not need to know. I don’t want to know.

You’re allowed to be uncomfortable. You’re allowed to unfollow/blacklist/block.

However you just don’t go ranting about it for something you horribly misinterpreted. If it bothers you so badly, literally just. drop me a message to clarify. thats it. or save yourself the time and block me.

I’ve blocked the op for both our sakes, but if anyone wants to send this post to them, then thats fine. I don’t want anything to do with them.

I don’t want to link the post and blow it up. I just want shit clarified, dropped and we can move the fuck on with our lives. 

If you’re reading this and don’t know what the post is, please don’t bother. I do not want people going after the op with threats, please keep it civil, I’d prefer if you don’t engage with the post at all on my behalf.

Despite this huge wall of text, I do not want this to be a big deal, so please don’t ask me about the details.

_

As for anon, feel free to dm me either on here or. Maybe on discord if you’d still like to suggest or have something more cleared up. I’m still willing to hear any kind of feedback, and i want to thank you again for being reasonable about this

[krakenator]

Chapter 11 aka “Welcome to Chili’s”

SPOILERS are sprinkled around extremely liberally for The Property of Hate

Masterpost here

Oh damn alright that answers my earlier question of “what will cause RGB to make like a cuttlefish”. He can fiddle with his colors at any time, but he’ll fritz and settle on colors after power surges as well

And he DODGES the black button question. Look at that anxious cane fiddling!

White knob handles color, black knob brightness, he’s just shown that the white panel opens to adjust brightness/saturation/color… is the black button just plain off?

“I lose you I leave you” is such a damned lie lmao

Let’s see what kind of Stuff people trade here!

Moments manifest as clocks, har-har

I’m in love with the borzoi vender bc I love borzois they’re such ridiculously ethereal dogs

Don’t like your current eye? Trade it for a better eye!

or you dont care about eyes, just revenge-feelings

Kisses of varying flavors, all shaped like X’s

STOP RIGHT THERE crimincal scum. RGB stole a farewell kiss (HAR HAR). But seriously, does the Market have law enforcement for this kind of thing?

I’m sorry but my shit fandom brain see’s discussion about trading body parts and my mind immediately goes to Skulduggery “lost his original skull when sleeping and replaced it by winning another one in a poker game” Pleasant

Incidentally ALSO a story about a standoffish dapper non-human taking a young girl on Adventures

uh oh

Lmao he ends up dropping his cane in panic

I love the movement in this panel. RGB just scooping her up with one arm

Goodbye New Suit we barely knew ye

RGB’s able to fine tune his pallet extremely specifically for just 3 sliders

This might be my favorite interaction in the entire damn comic

CAREFUL RGB YOUR ATTACHMENT IS SHOWING

I love how RGB decided “you know what i like what that quick camouflage did for my trousers, I’m going to coordinate my upper half to match it”

Interesting visual and sound effect- we saw a character swap out heads earlier without that CRACK. Considering Assok’s had trouble twice now with static cling to RGB’s face, is this an electric spark of sorts?

I like the detail that Watcher only speaks in one word sentences

God but that cane is convenient. What I wouldn’t give to have possessions that are impossible to lose

I love RGB quietly, actually checking in with Assok after accidentally knocking them off Hero’s head

And now for something completely different!

WHOLESOME ASSOK HUG

RGB’s starting to poke her towards her epiphany about the Make Believe

As a someone who spent a long time being a short person that’s such short people talk RGB

Dude I skimmed over Dial’s dialogue this page last time because, really. Look at it. So lets actually read this sucker

Oh shit Dial actually mentions the Elastic Valley way before we get there ourselves

He’s got to what now. TOby is there on a JOB? Someone put him here on PURPOSE? I thought he just ended up there and was so surly to every fucking thing and everyone passing by was like “ok u can stay there rudepants”. What’s he on watch for?? Unless it’s far more punishment than it is useful assignment

Bad puns, go to jail

Oh shit does Watcher have another pair of eyes on his wings? Damn! For a guy with 4 eyes he sure is not very helpful at his job later on!!

Hooo does his boss make Dial nervous. Lookit that stutter and devolution to muttering

When Dial says TOby took his eye off things, is he referring to letting RGB+Hero pass by (how would he stop them)? Is it that the wind blew him over and blocked his vision (THAT IS LITERALLY NOT HIS FAULT)?

And what the hell has TOBy done to defy Hate previously? What does he have opinions that Hate/Dial would have him change his mind about?

See you space cowboy…

And because I can’t make up my mind on what to meme here: “mm whatcha saaay”

A thought on Dial’s design… his head says “ON AIR”. Later we know that Hate can listen in on him. D’you figure he ever makes himself “OFF AIR” other than when he sleeps?

Now this little here combined textbox gives me some thoughts…

I haven’t paid attention to the color of character text beyond Hero’s voice getting eroded by sand, but… boxes can be any color and shape, its not uncommon for characters to have separate fonts, but words themselves? Only ever black and white. Now this could be for the sake of no eyestrain against backgrounds, but... consider the dichotomy TPoH is building up over its story

white in this comic is associated with bad things quite often. Lies, [-----], Hate’s realm. The blinding, scorching, destructive light of the unmasked Sun. meanwhile, darkness hides the Market from danger, and nighttime is tied intrinsically with dreaming. in fact, we JUST had an entire chapter dedicated to framing the Dark as good, protective, and aligned with trees and water, other positive entities

For a minute I got all excited because Dial and the Butterfly both have white text, thinking “oh, my god. do all Hate-aligned characters have white text?” this gets jossed pretty hard by Julienne’s white text, as well as Cell and Tailor.

but while THINKING on that, I jumped back to Storytime in chapter 10 and check this out: the moment RGB starts his story, text is suddenly white. Most of it continues to be in white… except for these two sentences

AND CHECK THIS SHIT OUT: THE TEXT COLOR/SCENERY CHANGE COLOR TO THE FIVE COLORS OF RGB’S SCREEN. HOW DID I MISS THAT??

(flips table) WHAT DOES IT ALL MEEEEEEAN

… y’know, the only character to have a white bubble color for their speech is RGB, who speaks in black

He’s both. He’s NEUTRAL.

Considering my talent for creating OCs but chronic deficiency in building coherent and decisive stories for them, they’re all probably wandering this Market and world right now. at the very least most of them have spent a DAMN long time here before becoming realized (im so sorry guys im trying)

The ones that are complete as themselves but their stories are unstarted/uncertain? That’s like. most of them. whoops. maybe this will be the kick in the pants i need

But on a brighter note: Fosters Home for Unfinished OCs

BUT by the rules of this world, RGB doesn’t have a story… yet this is his story.

Assok’s newest position of travel is adorable and im dying

Y’know… Hero and RGB have very different ways of solving things. A little obvious, but- RGB’s solutions are always convoluted, require multiple steps, and are a little ridiculous. Or, he at least FRAMES them as complex. See: Click escape, train escape, entire scheme to find a Hero to right the world. Hero’s far more straightforward but her solutions are also more, like… sensible than RGB’s if that makes sense. If it was just RGB up on the burning heart his plan would have probably involved more "im very intelligent” and pizzaz, while Hero went for the comparatively simple “lets zipline” (versus RGB’s upcoming Click escape clusterfuck)

All of which to say, I got thinking on that with RGB being like “it’s a very complex topic I can’t possibly boil it down to anything smaller” and Hero describing what the Make Believe acts as in one word

So if this worlds objects come from the sea, the sea is connected to other worlds? And it was confirmed early on that ‘stuff’ and ‘thought’ are basically synonyms- these foreign objects can exist in the Make Believe because they’re infused with enough Stuff!

Hero and presumably all of the other Heroes came from outside the Make Believe… they are not unrealized characters, or they didn’t start out as such. To exist here like this, they must then be imbued with enough Stuff/Thought… if we specify Stuff as equivalent to creative thought… by jove! I’ve hit on (another) theory!

Haven’t all past Heroes been artists? Julienne is a dancer, Melody a musician, Dial works radio, Ticker is a craftsman, and Tailor works with textiles. TOby and Assok don’t have anything obvious, but if I was Hate, I’d turn puppeteers into motionless dolls and empty-voiced sock puppets.

oh yeah, and Click. betcha he was a toymaker

I wonder what kind of artist Hero would grow up to be? She clearly draws, we saw her work taped to her bedroom wall

Of note… RGB is also an artist. It looked like that alternate human-self we glimpse later was involved with TV production, or perhaps script writing.

Tfw your ex walks past and doesn’t even hesitate like wow Magnus be a stone cold bitch like that

also like how his speech tail loops around his neck like a noose upon seeing Maggie

ALSO, that conveniently timed mention of hands when giving examples of what makes Stuff valuable in the Market- the nostalgia and undertones of regret are strong in this one

(watches this character die) oh jesus Christ. (looks at list of decommissioned ocs) ... oops

So this is what it looks like when a character dies… what does it look like when one is realized

do you like puns? want some more quality RGB roasting? like clothes shopping? the next chapter is for you

[drxcodormixns]

Tutors and Tutees

Remus Lupin x Reader

Request: hi i love everything you write so much!! could you possibly do something with remus where the reader is super sassy and sarcastic and stuff and she needs a tutor, so remus is assigned to be the tutor and whenever hes trying to help her, her sass just comes out bc shes so embarrassed to need help but remus is always so calm and she secretly thinks remus is cute and everything and just like a cute ending maybe? thank you so much! (sorry this is so long lol)

“Oi! Moony!” The loud noise jolts Remus out of his trancelike state and he turns around irritably.

“What, Prongs? We’re in class, I know the concept of learning is hard for you to grasp, but -”

James flashes him a satisfied, and therefore thoroughly infuriating, smirk. “Don't give me that bullshit, Moony, you know that Pads and I are acing this class.” With the same shit eating grin on his face, he leans forwards slightly, resting his elbows on their shared desk. “And so are you. But you know, mate, you won't be if you keep staring at -”

Remus eyes widen to the size of saucers and he slaps a large hand over James’ still smiling mouth. “Not so loud!” He whispers frantically, glancing around to see if anybody heard, but the only person eyeing the two is Lily Evans, who looks rather disgusted by their behavior. “Are you trying to ruin my chances with…”

He trails off, opting to not finish his sentence, even when James raises his eyebrows at him expectantly. He feels rather than hears James’ lips moving against his hand, muttering the last word he was so reluctant to say out loud. Y/N.

Sighing, Remus snatches his arm away from James and ducks behind his cauldron. “Am I really that obvious?”

James simply shrugs in response, finally directing his attention back to Slughorn, just in time to catch him ending his lecture. “... a 700 word essay on the anti-drowsiness properties of the potions we discussed in class today!”

With a smile and a wave of Slughorn’s hand, chatter in the classroom resumes, the students excited at the prospect of 2 class free days ahead of them. Remus lags behind the rest, his eyes fixed on the back of a certain young witch who approaches Slughorn’s office, a rather nervous expression coloring her features. As she disappears through the doorway, Remus releases a huge breath he didn't realize he was holding. Still taking an extraordinary amount of time to pack up his cauldron, he begins his daily mental routine of cursing himself for being too awkward to make a move.

“... I agree, Miss Y/L/N, I think a tutor would be most -” Slughorn’s booming voice stops short when both he and Y/N re-enter the room only to find Remus looking like a deer caught in the headlights of oncoming traffic.

“Did you have a concern too, Mr. Lupin?” Slughorn asks, not unkindly at all, and Remus shakes his head frantically in response.

“I - I was just…” he gestures to his still unpacked cauldron lamely and scratches the back of his head awkwardly. “Why do things like this only happen to me?” He thinks, refusing to lift his head and meet Y/N’s eyes.

“This certainly is the perfect turn of fate!” Slughorn says with a hearty chuckle, then turns back to Y/N. “I think Mr. Lupin would be the perfect tutor for you, don't you agree?” Without waiting for a response, Slughorn begins making his way back towards his office with another kind smile towards Remus. “I'm sure it will be beneficial to the both of you!”

Thesound of the office door closing is amplified to the volume of a gunshot in the quiet that follows that pronouncement. Remus slowly raises his head to finally look at Y/N. Their eyes meet, prompting both of them to start blushing furiously.

Remus gulps and opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, Y/N spins around and practically runs towards the classroom door.

“See you at the library,” she mumbles, then disappears, leaving Remus all alone, gaping after her.

With a firm push, Remus watches the ornate library door swing open in front of him. No matter what he does, he can't seem to quell the nerves bubbling up inside of him. Glancing around nervously, he finally spots his tutee, sitting at a table in the farthest corner of the library.

“H-hello,” he stammers, then immediately begins cursing himself for the unsteadiness of his voice. He realizes he needn't have worried, though, because Y/N looks up with an equally nervous smile and moves her books to the side.

“I'm sorry that you got roped into this,” she says. After a lighting fast glance to Remus’ face, she turns her head back to the table to stare at her pile of books, making herself immensely busy with the task of finding her potions text. “I know tutoring isn't all that fun.”

In a rather valiant effort to lessen the tension, Remus grins shakily and bends down to retrieve his own book from his bag. “It's alright - at least I finally get to spend time with you.”

The second those words leave his mouth, Remus stills. Anybody walking by would find the scene quite comical - a frozen boy, hunched over, eyes the size of small moons - but the frozen boy in question would have given anything to take back those words.

“I - I mean - of course, I don't - what I meant was -” Remus pauses for a second before continuing, his voice in a noticeably higher register than usual. “Let’s start, shall we?”

After just half an hour, Remus can already recognize the problem. It's not that Y/N is dumb; on the contrary, she's quite intelligent. But she does tend to get… frustrated when she doesn't immediately grasp a concept, no matter how difficult. And when she gets frustrated, her natural sass emerges.

Not that Remus minds. He actually finds it rather endearing.

“No, see, you have to add the -”

“The larvae after the venom, I know.” Y/N sighs and rubs her head tiredly, gazing down at the book between them. “Let's stop for today - it's almost dinner time anyway, isn't it?”

Glancing down at his watch in surprise, Remus voices his assent and moves to grab his textbook from the table. Before he can, though, Y/N gently places her hand on his wrist, making him stop short.

“I'm sorry for snapping at you so much,” she says, her voice soft. Remus barely hears her words at first, his focus completely on her hand touching his, but her meaning sinks in when he registers the apologetic tone of her voice.

“W-what?”

“Every time you tried to help me, I just - god, I’m a terrible person.”

Remus shifts closer to Y/N, suddenly desperate to make her feel better. “You aren't! Y/N, you're incredibly clever. Don't feel bad - I thought it was cute.”

Y/N snaps her gaze up to meet Remus’ again, only to find him frozen again. “You…”

Remus gulps, making her giggle. “I - what I meant to -”

“I think you're cute too, Remus,” Y/N says, beaming at the boy in front of her. He glances down at the table with a smile, and she suddenly realizes that she never let go of his hand - but she's in no rush to do so.