#i have plans to go back and redraw some of the early chapters

[fleetways]

Doing chapter illustrations for mdlhea has been such a rewarding experience bc i can really see just how far my art has come. Especially for pieces that have similar composition (the most recent chapter 28 art and the chapter 4 art come to mind immediately). Some chapters i get more inspired to make a crazy complex piece than others which are more quick thumbnails, but considering I started publishing right around the time i started using procreate for the first time its been a neat little timeline to see my progression.

[lostcauses-noregrets]

Hello Lost!!

It’s been a while since I’ve been into EruRi or AoT in general, so I was hoping if you could help me catch up??

I’ve seen images of a new volume/chapter with Levi and a grown Falco and Gabi, but idk if this is going to be a new volume/epilogue or whatnot, and tbh I thought Yams was completely done with AoT when it finished back in??? 2020 I think??

Also, fuck em erwin haters, they need a real hobby. It’s been a couple years since I’ve been active with Eruri but I know the feel

Hello Anon! Welcome back to the fandom. So the new chapter is part of Shingeki FLY, a project announced in October that comprises an art book, a redraw of the final chapter of the manga, and a new chapter titled "Bad Boy", about the childhood of a "certain character".

Needless to say, this announcement caused HUGE speculation that the new chapter would be about Levi. In a Crunchyroll interview in January 2023 Isayama had previously said that he had no plans to create a new manga, but he did have some ideas for Levi's back story.

Can we expect additional backstories for characters such as Hange and the original members of Squad Levi? Isayama: Regarding Levi, I actually have something in my mind, but at the same time, I don’t know if I will be able to write that or not.

The release of the cover has all but confirmed that the new chapter will be about Levi and some fans have speculated that it will be set after the end of the manga and will feature Levi telling Gabi and Falco about his childhood or early years.

A smaller group of fans me included are desperately hoping that the new chapter might finally explain the mystery of why Levi appears in Erwin's father's classroom, but that's very much wishful thinking though 😅

Either way, we won't have to wait too long to find out, the first four pages will be released tomorrow night.

[cerise-moon]

im curious abt how you interpret eden and the creation sisters, considering we hardly know of those four at all! (by the way i really loved your contributions towards spacea and tiempas redesigns, that art looks really nice :D). what are their personalities like?

First of all thank u qvq

I really like designing,,, and for fun facts the original concept designs were actually just redraws of fanart I did for them like a couple years back. At first anyway jhbsjbhsbjhsj

---

Eden first, since they're rather simple.

In the Timebreak rp scene? There's a severe Lack of Kieran and Clear (we've had players of them before but they've disappeared or gone inactive/haven't been involved in the main au.)

How it goes is; they've managed to 'recreate' well- at least an Eden lookalike. Data and such wise, this Eden basically has to start from scratch with collection, save for whatever was still in the system. "Memories" for them are limited. Save for a friend's OC whom is also a MysFigure.

They're very friendly, in an unnerving way. They have such a peppy and happy attitude to the point where some can say it feels unnatural. Pokemon especially with good intiuition; (ex. Delpha), can see through this facade.

Until they can 'recreate' their partners, they're basically forced to solo-handle a lot of the MF main story stuff. Very charismatic, very good at manipulation.

Their disguise is as a Professor at Axis High, in which they use their position to monitor the students and alumni that are league leaders + have secure access to the Axis High Labs and Platinum component.

... The Puppet Master thing in this AU seems very complicated and probably would have its own post if anything jbhsjbhsbhjsbj.

They prefer to get literally any work or situation done with any means But fighting. The more compliant the person they need is, the easier it is. The less risk taken, the better.

(Sylveon, Lucario-Mega, Leavanny*, Blacephalon, Crobat, Silvally-???)

---

Now the Creation Sisters--- WELL. A lot of their (Spacea and Tiempa's) stuff is referenced from canon events, of course. But I also took a bite out of the Wispy Ruins Chest Quest + Lost Castle Lore and used THAT in a bunch of stuff.

Griselda is still a worm, just as in canon. That much is fair lol. Unlike her sisters, she can't really turn "human" again yet, but I do have a human design for her (based off her ingame sprites.)

The key difference here is that she is still PRESENT with Geara past Valor-- in her own way anyways. She's still doing whatever the fuck she wants. But this makes things... hm. Fun I suppose. She purposely interferes with stuff Spacea and Tiempa try to do-- mostly out of spite. She does a lot of things out of Spite, actually. Like adopting a new family because her old ones poisoned her. Normal Thursday, you know.

Speaking of that, she has her own Pokemon team... even though she's one herself. Her Mega is a Gengar, which is the evolved form of the Gastly from the Wispy Ruins Chest Quest, whom is her daughter who was turned into a Pokemon as punishment.

( GMega Gengar, Mimikyu, [GIRATINA], Beheeyem-Crest, Dusknoir-Crest, Spiritomb-Crest, Dragapult (LAUNCH THE CHILDREN.))

So yeah. She's still very snappy, even towards those she "seems" more compassionate about. On the Geara part, you're best bet is asking Geara's mun for that side of the story <3

... Now considering this place is called TIMEbreak, Tiempa has her hands full with Many things. The Stormchasers are certainly still a thing, and oh boy is shit going to go down later. We're still in like, late Chapter 9, or early Chapter 10 time wise I think. Their time will come soon.

Yeah, Spacea still exists too. Same vein of stuff. Those two pretty much have the same personalities as ingame, except now they're more pissed off with how much stuff has been going off the rails.

Tiempa is the quiet mean one. Spacea is the loud mean one. What more can I say without spoiling PLANS

(Chat they still don't know Jenner is alive again-)

[superflatpsyche]

How to Make Comics

Hello! I definitely meant to answer this question earlier, but I knew it’d end up being a really long post, so I wanted to be able to sit down and answer this properly.

First off, I’d decide what kind of comic I want to create. Will it be a huge epic? A gag-a-day comedy? Will it ever be printed?

With digital comics, you could give each page a different-sized layout or even animations if you wanted to! These are all things that are hard to translate into a physical book. You also wouldn’t need to worry about things like page bleed. Or color choices - in my experience, digital art prints way darker than you’d expect.

The stories I have planned and am currently working on are graphic novels, so I don’t have much advice when it comes to newspaper-styled weeklies. But, if this is the kind of stuff you want to make, then my tips might help!

My starting point for making comics was having some character designs lying around that I wanted to use for something. Some people come up with the story first, but for me, it was the characters. If that’s your style, then concept art is a good way to plan out the “feel” of your comic:

IMO it’s very easy to fall into the trap of drawing concept sketches forever, so at some point, you will need to move on to outlining the plot of your comic and writing your first draft. All first drafts suck, so once you’ve reached the end, you’ll immediately have to go back and edit things as needed.

Some resources I used to figure out how writing works are Wired For Story by Lisa Cron, as well as Jim Butcher’s Livejournal posts.

Comics invariably take a long time to make unless you choose a super-simple art style, so I included things like camera angles and other details in my script, to remind myself how to draw a particular scene when I finally reached it. Here’s the script version of a page I finished and posted a while back:

Scripting your entire comic this early on means that you won’t be investing huge amounts of time into making any changes to the story. Rewriting is much faster than redrawing.

The next big step is sketching thumbnails of how your comic pages will look. Ideally, you’ll want to have finalized sketches of every single page before going any further, but you could do one chapter at a time, depending on your workflow. Here’s what that looks like:

At this stage, I’m mostly focusing on page layout, panel shapes, and speech bubble placement. It’s also a helpful tool to see where your double-page spreads can go (this is when two pages of a physical book are used to create a single, double-wide comic page).

And now comes the fun stuff: deciding what size your comic should be. I didn’t want to think about this at all, so I just grabbed this template from online:

And also this template for double-page spreads:

And these are the sizes I draw Control Freak at, with a resolution of 350 DPI (the minimum recommended resolution for printing is 300 DPI).

Thanks to these templates and the groundwork laid down in the last steps, I can now actually start making the comic! Here’s how I use the template - note that all of the speech bubbles are placed in the “live area”, where they won’t be cut off during printing.

And here’s the finished page:

Now repeat for as long as it takes to finish your comic!

I personally recommend picking a very manageable art style, as comics take ridiculously large amounts of time to make (I have learned Many Things about this from working on Control Freak), but you do you!

Hope this helps you make whatever comics your heart desires ^^

[weirdestbooks]

Secret States Chapter 1

A Normal Beginning

America's POV I rubbed my eyes as I began waking up. I had finally gotten enough free time, without my insomnia keeping me up, so I was able to get an hour of sleep. That's not a lot, but way more than I normally gets.

"I can't believe I actually slept." I muttered to myself as I pulled myself out of bed, holding my chest where pains remained due to COVID and the capital riot. I looked around my room, which was pretty empty. I had a desk that was covered in paperwork, along with my laptop. Next to it was a printer. The desk and printer sat between two bookshelves, which were filled with books, non-fiction and fiction alike.

There was a couch next to the bookshelves, underneath a window that looked outside.My bed was opposite of my desk. It was plain, with blue covers and red sheets. I had a bedside table with a lamp, and a picture of me with my kids.

Unlike what most other countries thought of him, I could be and was mature. I love my kids, all sixty-two of them. My states and territories, along with DC, NASA, NATO, Liberia, Palau, Marshall Islands and Micronesia. I even considered Philippines and Cuba to be family, even though I wasn't sure they, especially Cuba, returned those feelings. I would tell them, but I didn't want to make things awkward between us.

I got out of bed and walked towards the bathroom. I looked at myself in the mirror, seeing my Stars and Stripes, along with my black eyes. My black eyes were very odd. No other country had them, only the organizations, although I wasn't technically a country myself. The United States of America was called the Union for a reason.

I didn't always have my black eyes though. They looked like any other country's eyes until the large waves of immigrants that changed America from having one culture, to having so many, I can't claim a nationwide culture.

Even though both my father, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union are also technically unions as well, they didn't have the black eyes I do, which lead me to believe black eyes were a sign of having no or many cultures, as opposed to a main one.

This theory was only further cemented when New York developed black eyes as well. Although, he was pretty sure Soviet had one black eye, which was the reason for his eyepatch.

I got myself ready for another day of mind numbingly boring meetings with the rest of the world. I hated how other countries always liked blaming me for things or just making fun of me. I know my country had done horrible things and I hate myself for being unable to stop the government from doing them, but the other countries didn't need to bring it up.

At least my family stood up for me, along with my friends, like Germany and Japan, although how Japan could be friends with me after what I did to her mother was a question I could never find the answer to.

I shook the pessimistic thoughts out of my head, muttering "No pienses así América. Estas tratando de compesarlo. Deja de culparte cuando las cosas van mal." (Don't think that way America. You're trying to make up for it. Stop blaming yourself when things go wrong.)

I opened the door to my room, before almost being barreled down by American Samoa and Hawaii. American Samoa and Hawaii were dressed very similarly, with t-shirts and shorts, although Hawaii wore a lei. Hawaii's flag had a Union Jack in the upper left hand corner, with blue, red and white stripes. American Samoa's flag was dark blue, with a white triangle that had a red outline coming from the right corners. In the triangle was a bald eagle holding a war club and a fly whisk.

"Faʻamalie Tama.  O aʻu ma Hawaii sa na o le taumafai lava e faʻatumu le isi vaega o atumotu o le Pasefika e faʻamalosi ai atumotu Caribbean." (Sorry Dad. Me and Hawaii were just trying to get the rest of the Pacific islands to prank the Caribbean islands.) American Samoa said. Due to not having an official language, I was able to understand and speak all languages spoken within my borders. This wasn't a small amount, with approximately 350 languages spoken in the US. I loved this however, as it allowed my children, especially my adopted ones to speak their first language, or just whatever one they preferred.

"Mai hopohopo makuakāne, e hōʻoia wau ʻaʻole e ʻeha kekahi!" (Don't worry father, i'll make sure no one gets hurt!) Hawaii stated as she grabbed American Samoa by the arm pulling her brother towards Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands room. I smiled at my kid's antics as he walked towards the stairs. As I walked downstairs I bumped into another person, causing them to drop their papers.

"Sorry D." I said as I helped the district gather up her papers. The District of Columbia, or Washington DC, was wearing a pencil skirt with a button up dress shirt. Her flag was white, with two red lines though the center and three red stars at the top.

"It's okay Dad." She responded, smiling, "I'm glad you finally got some sleep though. You know I can help you if you get overwhelmed. I am the capital after all."

"You do enough as it is. You're also up early. Are you heading to the capitol building to try and convince Congress to grant you statehood?" I questioned, handing DC back her papers which consisted of plans on how they could redraw the capital to allow for Washington DC to become a state.

"Yeah. I'm upset that Trump prevented it from happening, but hopefully with a new president I can get closer to achieving statehood. I'm going to head out now. Vermont's making breakfast. Love you Dad, goodbye!" DC said as she walked out the front door.

"Love you too" I responded before sticking my head in the kitchen.

"Bonjour Vermont" I said as I looked at the nation-turned state. Vermont was wearing a green and blue plaid shirt along with jeans and worn out boots. His flag was blue with a coat of arms in it, the central image being a pine tree.

"Bonjour Papa" Vermont said as he took another couple of pancakes off the griddle. "Je prépare des crêpes pour tout le monde, alors ne vous inquiétez pas pour la cuisine.  C'est une journée de repos pour vous." (I'm making pancakes for everyone, so don't worry about cooking. It is a rest day for you.).

"Merci Vermont." I said as I walked into the dining room, being met with the faces of NATO, New York and Delaware.

"Hey guys. Did you get any sleep York?" I asked them as I sat down.

"Like your one to talk Dad. And I did." New York said as he sipped a pot of coffee. New York was wearing a suit and had a blue flag with his coat of arms on it.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure York gets some sleep before he collapses." Delaware said. Delaware was dressed in a shirt and jeans. His flag was a colonial blue, with a yellow sideways triangle with his coat of arms on it. The flag also showed the date he ratified the Constitution, December 7, 1787.

"I was founded by twelve countries, why's this the family that I have to be a part of?" NATO asked. NATO was wearing a suit, as he also had to participate in meetings with other countries. His flag was blue with a compass rose, with four lines coming out of the four cardinal directions.

"Really?"

"Come on NATO, you know you love us."

I laughed at my kids' protests to NATO's comment as Vermont came out with the pancakes.

"Foods ready. Where's everyone else?" Vermont asked and he put a plates of pancakes on the table.

"Sleeping." Delaware said.

"Del, we're Americans, we don't sleep for this long." Vermont said, crossing his arms.

"The South are messing around in the backyard, but surprisingly, the West is still asleep. I think the Midwest is doing something with the crops. The four corners are doing something. NASA on the phone with Navajo talking about names for that Mars mission he has." NATO said as he began to eat his pancakes.

"How do you know what everyone's doing?" New York asked.

"I don't. I have no idea what the territories, Mid-Atlantic's, Hawaii or Alaska are doing." NATO responded.

"Sam and Hawaii are trying to convince the Pacific islands to help them prank the Caribbean islands." I said, thinking back to the conversation I  had with the two islands earlier that morning.

"Are the former territories going to be involved?" Delaware asked.

"That I don't know. I'll let you know if any of them tell me something about it" I said. As I said that, an alarm on my phone went off.

"Time to go?" NATO asked.

"Yep. Del, you and the Thirteen are in charge, along with Vermont. Alaska has been having nightmares again, so help him with that if you need to." I said as I got up from the table.

"Got it." New York said as he took another large sip of his coffee.

"Á bientôt!" (See you soon) Vermont said.

————————————————————————

Canada's POV (BTW, I am not describing the flags of any countries that are well known, only the states because they aren't as well known) I sat down next to my brother Australia as I walked into the meeting room.

"Hey, have you seen Ame recently?" I asked Australia.

"No, but 2020 was crazy for everyone, he's probably just dealing with COVID stuff. UN did cancel all in-person meetings in 2020 because of COVID. Thank god for the vaccine." Australia said, rubbing a hand on a burn scar.

"Mes fils!" (My sons!) I heard my mother announce from behind me. I looked over to see my father, UK; my younger brother, New Zealand; my uncle, Ireland; and my mother, France.

"Bonjour Maman. Comment ça va?" (Hello Mom. How are you?) I said. Maman smiled.

"Très bien. Avez-vous vu Ame?" (Very good. Have you seen Ame?) She asked.

"Non." Canada replied.

"What are you talking about? I heard Ame's name, but I don't know French." New Zealand cut in.

"Sorry Kiwi." Maman said.

"I heard my name. Are we talking about me?" I heard America's voice from behind me.

"Ame!" Australia said. I turned around to see my brother, who had his hands in his pockets. He had his sunglasses on and had a slight smile on his face.

"Hello America." Père said.

"What up Pops? How's everyone been?" America asked, sitting down next to Australia.

"COVID's been tough. I'm glad for the vaccine though." Père answered as he and Maman sat down.

"Thank god for the vaccine is definitely on everyone's mind." Maman said. UN then walked into the room followed by NATO, ASEAN, EU and AU.

"Hello everyone. I am hoping to continue our meetings for now, but if there are any complications involving COVID we will head back to online meetings." UN stated. "We will begin with the countries most affected by COVID. First up will be the United States of America, followed by the Federative Republic of Brazil and the Republic of India."

————————————————————————

The meeting was incredibly boring, just everyone talking about their cases and vaccinations, the same thing we've been doing since COVID started. After the meeting, I walked out with my family as they discussed random topics.

"Man I wish Uncle Scotland, Uncle England, Uncle Wales and Uncle North could attend these meetings. Then we could really have a family reunion." New Zealand said.

"Your Uncles would make a mess out of the meeting. Nothing would get done." Père stated.

"So we should definitely let them come. It would make it more fun!" America said.

"Yeah Britain, let our brothers come. They would definitely add spice to the boring meetings." Uncle Ireland said, draping an arm around Père's shoulders. America and Uncle Ireland always loved joking around trying to get a rise out of Père. I think it stems from their independence, but they are still close regardless.

"We should try and get together, we are vaccinated and we can wear masks if anyone gets truly worried about it." Australia suggested.

"Let's. I need to see someone other than myself. Maybe tomorrow?" I asked. Everyone gave nods of agreement, aside from America.

"America?" Maman asked, questioning his lack of a decision. America bit his lip.

"I'll have to check, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to." He said, but still seemed conflicted. I was worried about my brother. He had a lot of COVID cases and seemed to be a lot more tired than usual. But if something bad was happening, surely America would tell someone.

"America, can I speak to you alone?" A voice behind us asked. I turned around to see a country with a flag very similar to America's, but instead of the fifty stars there was one big one.

"Sure thing Liberia. I'll be right back, guys" America said, walking over to Liberia.

"I didn't know Liberia and America were friends." Père commented.

"Ame's friends with everyone." Australia said. He then paused and continued, "Well not with North Korea or Iran or Russia-Okay maybe he's not friends with everyone, but he has a lot of friends."

[stubbornjerk]

why i tagged my aurinko crime family uquiz with april fools

or: why i have done so many things in so little time

not that any of you needed to know or anything, i just wanted this information out there in case i want to remember how ridiculous my first year of quarantine has been.

so, as of time of writing, it is april the 3rd (gmt +8, i live in the philippines so screw you). i have some homework due, i am a bit hungry and sleep deprived, and i am caught up with season 3 of penumbra.

and this information is significant, specifically that last part, because when i met @northisnotup​​ at the early aughts of my obsession with penumbra in early may/late april, i had not even listened to man in glass yet.

i was planning on listening to all of season 3 when it had finished releasing its finale, since that had been my plan with all of the ongoing audio dramas i’d listened to thus far. and it took north several weeks to convince me to listen to man in glass (both parts).

and then i listened to tools of rust (both parts) in october (due in part bc of a proposition i had going with north, wherein she had to finish her fic for me before i listened to the next episode so uh, if y’all loved this fic, you’re welcome). and since MIG, i had already entered a server with north (Trans Nureyev Agenda, TNA for short) and made several other friends and a romantic relationship. you have to understand that that was six entire months.

but i was still not caught up to season 3.

while on my 2-week hiatus between chapter 5 and chapter 6 of halcyon days & solstice nights around september, i dared myself to redraw all 8 of my illustrations from my first multi-chapter junoverse fic bridges to burn and finish writing the 6th chapter of hdsn as well.

it took me three weeks but i did it, and i listened to shadows on the ship in early october, which resulted to the conception, production, and publication of reverse au’s first chapter, vespa ilkay and the case of the murderous mask.

i did the sensible thing afterwards and dared my partner-in-crime jeannette @entropyre​​ that if we finished TNA livereads for reverse au’s TFN (now called railbird’s gamble), i’ll listen to ultrabots (both parts). i also dared them to reach a certain amount in her current project to make me listen to heart of it all. both propositions happened in late november.

and i did listen to ultrabots! february 10th, to be specific. year 2021.

by then, i had already been somewhat infamous in the TNA server for being the one person at fault for having to force everyone to spoilerblock their takes on newer episodes. and i understood the frustration! but more importantly, it was annoying to me whenever anyone would smugly pronounce you’ll see when i was theorizing at my own pace.

and you know what happened?

[image is a screenshot of this tweet

“wouldnt it just be the TNA server's biggest scam if i actually caught up to s3 pre-finale and i just... didn't say“ (dated 31 Jan 2021)]

well.

and thus began my planning.

at february 12, two days since listening to ultrabots, i listened to both episodes of heart of it all. then the next day, to the first part of what lies beyond, then the next to the second part.

on the 14th, i told my partner, sameer that i was caught up. but only him and jeannette knew at this time.

and all three of us kept quiet until after the public release of the finale came out. i listened an hour after them when the patreon release came out, at 3am, while my father was eating his breakfast before work.

the morning of march 18th, filipino time, i told some friends in a personal server about how i’d been caught up for about a month already.

the aurinko crime family uquiz, to tie this all back in, was made on march 21st.

and, on midnight april 1st, i finally told everyone. north, the TNA server, and my mutuals on twitter who did not know at the time.

[sebthesnipe]

Pencils

A prompt that myself and @gilby-the-geek-girl​ decided to do a ‘write this in your style’ involving Logicality roommates and Ticonderoga #2 Pencils

You can read her’s here.

Also check out her main AU that its based in on AO3 here.

If you’re interested here are some links to my work as well:

The Collection (My Oneshots)

My Dearest Procyon (My Multi-Chapter Magical!AU)

Other works by me

Now! Lets get this party started!!!!

Logan gave a small curse as another one of his pencils broke inside his cheap sharpener. He tilted the small plastic container to get a better look inside. Sure enough, a large piece of lead was stuck inside the small cone, pressing against the razor’s edge. He wouldn’t be able to resharpen his pencil until it was removed.

As he took the small pencil sharpener apart, he couldn’t help but let his mind wander. Perhaps, he could rearrange his budget to allow him to purchase some better writing utensils. Patton had already convinced him to spend some extra money on the ‘B2p’s. He had been right about them. The pens were 89% recycled water bottles, which was good for the environment, and they wrote very smoothly, which helped ease the pain that writing caused.

Carpal tunnel syndrome was far more unpleasant that Logan had expected it to be. Of course, he hadn’t expected to enjoy the tingling or numbness, but the sheer amount of pain it caused was staggering. The simple act of holding a pen longer than half an hour was something he could no longer do without the help of an anti inflammatory. His all night note taking sessions were now cut by more than half, and that was on a good night with a decent writing implement.

Surgery was possible, but it would pull him out of school for far too long, and cost more than he was willing to spend without the proper insurance. He was far too close to graduation and couldn’t afford the recovery time, mentally or financially. At least, not yet. For now, he would bide his time and push onwards towards his end goal.

He sighed as he pressed his pencil into the cleared sharpener and twisted. For now, he would make due. The pens Patton had recommended were more than satisfactory, but he only had a small budget for his supplies.

He removed the pencil and examined the now sharpened tip. The graphite was uneven, but pointed enough for his note taking, though the wood around it was rough and almost fuzz-like. It would smudge the graphite’s markings if he wasn’t careful. Luckily he was accustomed to such cheap craftsmanship and could make due with what he had.

He set the sharpener aside and took stock at the desk before him. Everything had its place. His box of untouched pencils sat perfectly parallel above his notebook, directly right of his lamp. His three subject college ruled spiral was open to a half written page, marked with a small blue tab indicating that it was on the topic of Mathematics (specifically Number Theory). Behind the blue tab, a number of tabs could be seen, neatly lined along the pages, each representing a different course. To the right of his spiral lay five sharpie brand highlights, each a different color, placed in a perfectly straight line. Every color had its purpose, just as every tab of his notebook did.

Logan could not compromise when it came to certain tools. He needed a brand of highlighter that would not bleed through his textbook pages or smudge his notes whether he wrote in pen or pencil. He needed pens that were a bit more pricey so as to ensure a smooth glide without bleeding or ink transfers. He needed index cards made of a decent caliber to avoid damage or creases. All of these things were important. Far more important than the way a pencil sharpened, or turned fuzzy or smudged when he tried to erase it.

There was no more room in the budget for any pencils better than the ones that he had and that was that. He would just have to live with the way the graphite would snap when he tried to underline something. He would have to deal with the way the lead would fall out of the faux wood, or the lines seemed muted unless he put more force behind it, which made his hands hurt even worse. It was all a sacrifice he must be willing to make. He couldn’t afford better.

He couldn’t help another small growl as he made a mistake on his graph and moved to erase it, the cheap eraser ripping through the paper. He stared at the spot for a long moment, willing himself to just leave it. It was just a small hole. He could work around it. He didn’t need to redo the entire page.

It was just a hole…

A tiny inconsequential hole…

Miniscule… infinitesimal….

UGH! Logan ripped the page from the spiral, crinkling it in his hands before tossing it into the bin next to him. Everything had its place! Everything was meant to be somewhere and a hole was not meant to be in the middle of his notes!

He pinched the bridge of his nose trying to push away the headache he could feel coming on just as his phone’s alarm began to sound. It seemed more time had passed than he had expected. Logan pushed to his feet, producing his phone and swiping away the alarm as he moved to pack up and head to his first class of the day.

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Logan pushed open the door to their shared dorm, dark locks falling into his eyes as they dripped water onto the mat beneath his feet. He was silent as he kicked the door shut and began to shed his outer layers.

It was late. Far later than it should have been. Logan did not like when things didn’t go according to schedule. His second class ran long, which meant he was late to lunch, which didn’t give him the sufficient amount of time to go to the library as he had planned without skipping his meal. Which made him feel a bit lethargic during his third and fourth class, causing him to forget his bag, which had him missing his train. Which meant he had to wait forty-five minutes for the next one. Then the rain started, which was not in the forecast; which meant Logan’s ten minute walk home had him soaked through completely.

It had not been a good day.

He took stock of the small apartment. Patton must have already gone to bed. The poor man had four a.m. classes. Most culinary students started earlier than the rest of the students. It was no wonder the man was so early to bed. Well, ever since Logan provided him with the optimal schedule for his ideal personal time to study/class ratio that is. It seemed to be working out for him, though Logan didn’t get to see him much anymore, which was surprisingly disappointing. The man was far too chipper, but he certainly knew how to make Logan smile.

Logan headed for his room and the attached bathroom, dropping his bag next to his desk and trying not to drip too much on the carpet. He needed to get out of his sodding clothes before he caught a cold.

Fifteen minutes, a hot shower and some dry clean clothes later and Logan felt like a new man. He checked the time. There were still a few hours before bed. It wasn’t as much as he had hoped, but he could still manage some studying.

He moved to his desk, pulling out his chair and sinking down, thankful the day was beginning to wind down. He pulled his bag closer and dug out his spiral, opening it to the page he had been working on earlier that morning and laying it out neatly exactly where it belonged. He reached for his pencil and…

He froze. His usual box of 12ct #2b cheap off-brand pencils were buried. His heart skipped a beat as he stared at what lay atop them. He couldn’t believe it. Atop those horrid, demonic, sorry-excuse for pencils lay a box of 24ct Dixon Ticonderoga premium wood #2 pencils with latex free erasers.

Logan took a moment to calm his excited heart. Before he knew it, he was reaching out with a shaky hand, collecting the box for examination. The clear plastic had been unopened, each stick perfectly preserved within the transparent packaging. Logan turned the object over in his hands, admiring its beauty as he caught sight of thick black words scrawled in sharpie on the back.

‘To Logan, From Patton. I saw these and thought of you. So, I bought them. It just felt ‘WRITE’! XD’

Logan couldn’t help but give a snort at the joke before fumbling to open the box. It almost felt like Christmas had come early as he pulled one of the pencils from its place among the others and set the box aside. He took a moment to examine the utensil in all its glory before reaching for his sharpener.

He inserted the blunted wood and twisted. Once. Twice. Thrice. He heard the sound of the graphite against metal and pulled the pencil out, bringing it to eye level for inspection.

The sharply pointed lead was smooth and crackless, forming a seamless cone with the sleek pale wood that surrounded it. It had glided so perfectly against the razor’s edge and now stood regal and polished before him. It was perhaps one of the most stunning sights he had ever laid his eyes on.

His chest tightened as his smile widened, moving to redraw the graph he had damaged earlier. He drew the lead across the paper gently, the line coming out smooth and dark. Just as it should be. He flipped the pencil in one quick and fluid motion and erased a small portion, the graphite coming off cleanly and without much force. It was satisfying and rejuvenating.

How could he have ever thought a day like this could be bad?! He had everything he ever wanted! Warm clothes, a perfectly tempered room, his desk organized exactly as it should be, and a friend who cared enough to-

Realization hit, ‘The World’s Best Pencil’ falling from his fingers and clattering to his desk (without so much as chipping the perfectly pointed tip) as he brought his hand to cover his mouth in shock.

His heart pounded against his ribs almost painfully. His other hand tangled in his still damp locks. This couldn’t be happening. He wasn’t prone to emotional outbursts. Everything he did was purposefully calculated and scheduled. How could he… He wasn’t…. This wasn’t possible…. But the evidence was building against him.

Logan Sanders was falling in love with his best friend.

Taglist:

@nightashes

[comicteaparty]

May 23rd-May 29th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from May 23rd, 2020 to May 29th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

If someone came to you for advice about starting their first comic, what would you tell them?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

The biggest hurdle I see beginner comic creators (including myself) struggling with is the fear to begin because they "aren't good enough yet." I would tell them to just start. The best way to learn how to make comics is to make comics. You can always go back and fix old pages. Or you don't even have to. The improvement throughout your work can be encouraging. So I say, just begin.(edited)

carcarchu

know your ending before you begin! so many webcomics start and then have no idea how to continue. at least have some kind of idea of the direction you want to go to and at least a basic outline before you begin. you can always change things but going in without a roadmap is a recipe for disaster

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I would tell them to consider a few things: your desired scope, your current skill levels, and how likely you are to still love the project months or years later. I didn’t start with a small scope, so I can’t tell people to keep it simple no matter what, but it absolutely helps. Doing a short 6-10 page comic as your first thing will totally tell you if this is something you like, or totally hate. Assessing your own skill level is hard, but I try and encourage people to practice anatomy and perspective and other skills before diving right into creating a massive world. I’d encourage them to practice some writing as well. But even the act of creating a comic can help with all that. So, YMMV! And you gotta love what you’re drawing! I didn’t feel comfortable creating a story until my late 20s because I felt I hadn’t settled on something I’d be indefinitely passionate about. My likes and dislikes were still changing so much. If you can look at your idea and pretty confidently say you want to draw this stuff over and over again for years... that’s a very good sign

eliushi [a winged tale]

I find my advice will vary depending on what their vision is for their comic! For instance, if it’s a short form, I would recommend looking at different styles and experimental storytelling to find ways to best explore their work. For a long form I would advise as y’all have done so as well: start and keep going to improve. Have an ending in mind. Know the basics of character/plot and storytelling; essentially if you know the rules then you are more easily able to break them in an informed way. Most importantly is to have fun drawing, have fun with friends, have fun sharing your work

I guess sort of as a follow up... did you all receive any advice before starting your comic?

carcarchu

i didn't ask anyone in particular but the advice i read before starting mirrored what has been said so far

the advice about just starting and not being afraid is probably what helped the most

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I was told to make my first comic shorter... but with the caveat that if I absolutely could not, it was okay to try a long-form one from the get-go

carcarchu

another thing that i often tell people looking to start is that comic making is actually a gigantic time sink and requires a LOT of discipline. a lot of people i talk to really don't realize how much of a time investment it is. i don't want to dissuade anyone by telling them this but it's important to realize

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I agree with lazuli! Right now I'm actually feeling more motivation for my long comic than my short story.( I will absolutely finish both though)(edited)

carcarchu

x2 agree with claire, i've realized i'm not good at short stories

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I've been asked this question before, about first comics. I always say the most important thing is to draw what you like, for yourself.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Short stories are hard! I’m often jealous of all the marvelous one-shot comics on twitter, telling an affecting story in such little time. I often wonder if my own stuff will ever be half as successful in the emotions department. Short stuff is easier to digest but requires a ton of skill to craft well.(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Absolutely. Two of my favorite comics are 3 pages and 5 pages long and years later I am still thinking about them.

I think it takes even more skill to craft a compelling story, world, and characters in only a few pages

It is witchcraft, I swear

carcarchu

there was a beautiful short story i read about a cat before, i'll see if i can find it and share it in recs

eliushi [a winged tale]

I think a lot about the unfinished comics! even though they aren’t finished, they still stay with me. Ultimately if you draw comics, it will touch people and people will remember

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I've always wanted to do a short story like that but am not a good enough writer yet unfortunately

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

Also agree with @Eightfish (Puppeteer) - you must make something for yourself. You can try and tailor it to certain audiences, but don’t stray too much from your own sensibilities. Make a comic that speaks to your soul, and people will feel it.

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

Pick something you love, you‘ll spent a lot of time on it.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

If you don't love it, who will?

chalcara [Nyx+Nyssa]

And short stories are their own medium with their own rules, needs and patterns; they‘re not interchangable with longform and the otherway round.

That‘s what annoys me about the „start with 8-page shorts!“ advice. It‘ll teach you how to do shorts, not how to do long form. And I‘ve seen so many treating shorts as a stepping stone to „proper“ long-form comics, and that format deserves better.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I do see the merit in that though. There are a lot of unfinished long comics. If you have a good short story, might as well make it first. For me though, they are way harder than long stories.

I did give myself the option to end puppeteer after about 80 pages though

Luckily I fell in love with making it and won't be doing that now

But it was an option

Capitania do Azar

Yeah I'm gonna have to repeat the points already stated. Everytime I get the chance to give advice to a starter, I do focus on the discipline aspect. Webcomics (any comic actually) does take a lot of work and if you wanna make it in the long run you gotta know your pace and you gotta know where you wanna go so you can make the best use of your time

You don't need to have super solid plans but it's good if you know how much time it takes you to make one, five or twenty pages, so you can get organised

And at least in my experience being organised is one of the most important aspects

That, and liking what you do but also allowing it to change because things take time and you will change too

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

^^^I can't reiterate this last point enough

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

For sure cap! I spent a lot of time experimenting with art style before starting and I think choosing a simpler but still nice looking (to me) style has been vital for me being as consistent with my comic as I have

Having a schedule was really important to me starting out

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I think I would have said..... MAKE SURE YOU DRAW IN ADVANCE BEFORE POSTING.

I've made this mistake, and I know many people have made this mistake, but it's really easy to get stressed and demotivated when you realize that you might not be drawing as fast as you want...particularly if you're starting out.

So make sure you have buffers so that you can post those updates as consistently as you can.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I'd say for my past self that make sure you have.... at least almost everything ironed out for your story first if you want to make a long form comic as your first try because trust me if you don't, you'll end up redrawing the first chapter twice lmao. knowing how it begins and ends, knowing your drawing speed and also recognizing if you're just either motivated to work on it or you're doing it despite motivation. Because those are like the main factors that affect burn out and if you don't watch out, you'll get fucked over from it. have a good sense of your self in terms of your work ethic, and your writing. Art will be supplement for that writing but you're pretty good at least understanding the basics you should be aight Also if you don't feel doing your long story first, you can always make a short story to test waters. but if ya like me and rather just jump making a long ass comic first, go for it lmao

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

I think the biggest advice I'd give would be is to accept what you've already done, kinda related to the "you're good enough to start" advice. A lot of webcomics stall out in the "gotta redraw this to be Good Enough" phase, and it's easy to get caught up in the cycle of redrawing early pages (especially once you get a few years into a comic), but learning to sit back and appreciate early pages for the stage you were when you drew them is important!

also something I don't hear creators talk a lot about, is having a support group. Getting positive responses from strangers from the internet is a rush, but it's not always going to happen, and relying on it isn't a great idea mental health wise. Having a group of friends you can bounce ideas off of and that can support you in your story helps make the lonely art of making comics a little less lonely. I wish I had known about this group sooner because it seems like a really great resource of creators coming together and being supportive!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh yeah that last point especially

like honestly if I didn't met other webcomic creators I probably wouldn't be working in webcomics tbh

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

It's so nice to have outside perspective both for art advice/critique stuff, but also just the general "hey guys drawing pages amiright"

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah lmao

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

plus if/when you ever meet up with people at conventions, it's always so nice!

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Yeah, I would second that. Starting out I had a really hard time knowing how to take praise from my real world friends who are into my comic. It felt like maybe it wasn't real praise and they only like it because they liked me. But honestly the longer I make comics the more I just want my friends to like them and the less I care about what an internet stranger might think X'D Also, I watched the video on new creator tips that Joichi post in #writing_n_misc_resources last night before bed and those tips are super solid. I think folks have already hit on all of them but writing something you really like and is for you first and foremost and being being prepared for a lot of work are super important. Also, get that buffer!

kayotics

I think this was touched on already but having an idea you’re really passionate about, especially for a long form comic, is kind of essential to keep you going. You gotta keep up momentum for years, not just a few weeks. The thing that helped me, personally, was building my comic in a way that let me end it after the first story, but also let me continue if I liked it. My first chapter was definitely like a pilot for a tv show. If I didn’t want to continue, I’d just stop. But I ended up writing the second chapter before I knew it so I guess it worked out

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I don't have too much new things to add but I agree that webcomics, is a lonesome job on your own. But once I started hanging around this discord, sharing frustrations, comic compliments. The support made a big difference, no longer having to shout in the abyss of Twitter to be heard. I know when you first start out, it's overwhelming. There's so many platforms, do I do color or grayscale? (as it felt that way for me.) The best is to begin small baby steps, write scripts. Draw thumbnails, talk about it with people you trust. Generate ideas and put them on paper. Something I learn, is finding a good group community who raise you up, than put your works down(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Seconding/thirding/etcing about support. Other than that, I really don't have a single advice that I could give to someone starting out. Because it would need to be tailored to their situation. Someone who's in my exact same situation back when I started my first webcomic? They don't need ANY advice honestly. They just need to do it (which they will anyway) and learn from the experience.

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

https://tenor.com/view/doit-gif-5247874

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

(Again, I'm talking about a hypothetical person who's exactly like Younger Me. Not every beginner will "do it anyway.")

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I corrected my definition, as I found out what the topic was about! I thought from everyone's comment, they felt like talking about internal feelings about community spirit.(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

I think that "just do it!!" Attitude is probably what I'll echo, it's what I'd have needed to hear and what I think there's probably the biggest hangup on. I think everyone tries to wait til they're ready, and it's like "you are gonna learn so much so fast and never stop learning once you start making your comic" so just, start learning now! Make changes later. You can't fix something that doesn't exist yet!

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

One thing I often think about is when artists completely relaunch their comics once they become a bit more intermediate in skill level. They've improved so much during the creation process that they feel a need to go back and totally start over. I've even run into some comics where they... almost seem in a constant state of relaunch I often wonder about how to encourage new artists to move forward instead of reiterating existing stuff. Or is the reiteration not necessarily a bad thing?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean I guess it's not a bad thing if they're still having fun? Sometimes they're still having a blast; other times it's a form of torturous perfectionism.

Sometimes it's a bit of both, even

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah, I always frame it as "unless you are rewriting, don't redraw."

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I have seen a redrawn comic go well only once

Deo101 [Millennium]

Cause if it's just to fix your art but nothing is really fundamentally changing, then you'll get stuck in a loop I think

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

and that comic kept updating latest pages while redrawing the first ones

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah I've seen people do that. Where it's not a rebooot that basically stays the same, just a revamp of old stuff.

I could see myself doing that eventually tbh.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

The guy had very messy art in the beginning. Not bad art, he just didn't put much effort into it. The comic just evolved into something way bigger and more professional than he'd expected so he went and made the first pages professional looking as well

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yup Cause conics make your art improve so fast, every 50 pages you'll feel like your first one has sooo much wrong with it! So you can't get stuck just remaking pages

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Deo I don't think your first pages are any impediment to new readers. I have noticed a ton of art evolution though :0

Deo101 [Millennium]

Unless, yeah, you are rewriting and need the content on the pages to be different.

Yeah they might not be impeding but they're uglyyyyy

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I didn't notice your art changing much while reading your comic but then i went back to the first page and, woah.

big difference

Deo101 [Millennium]

It would be smth like way off in the future though if I did do it. It's not currently in my plans

I'd rather make new pages and new comics

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

has anyone ever commented on your art evolution?

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah my art has changed uhhh a lot LOL I think maybe a couple times? I don't have a good memory

mariah (rainy day dreams)

I think it's probably different for everyone. Personally, I don't think really believe in going back and redoing stuff, but I also say that as someone who just spent the last year redrawing most of my first five chapters. For me, Ive always wanted to print my comic, and I felt a lot of self-created pressure to have my first book look really good. Because it's going to be new readers first introduction to the series and if I don't feel 100% proud of it, sell it to other people was going to be impossible. I kind of just felt embarrassed by my old art and writing(some of it was like 8 years old and hadn't aged well). And also if I was going to use up resources to print something, then it should be the best version of that thing. But on the other hand, redoing the old stuff has also made me really sad that I haven't been able to move forward with new chapters. I definitely second Deo. And I also think you have to know where to draw the line. Like "ok, I'm going to redraw this once and then not again" or "I'm going to redraw up to X point and call it good. I think can be a really easy perfectionist trap and time sink if you aren't careful.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

it is also hard to get your existing audience to follow the same story twice

OH, webtoons features are rebooted comics oftentimes

I guess that counts as going well!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, since getting featured by Webtoons is kinda like going print; it's a form of getting Published

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah. For this other comic I've not launched yet, I've redrawn the intro 4 times. The intro onky takes like, 20 hours absolute max (latest) but I still find myself looking at it and thinking.. I could have been making new stuff :/ BUT! I did rewrite it every time so it did need to change. I should have just waited to start it til I could commit more so there wasn't a year between each intro

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

But since webtoons features update so fast I don't really mind following the same story again. Lone is already almost to where the canvas version was

Deo101 [Millennium]

And yeah wt features need to reboot for a lotta reasons, there's also probably a lot of times like. At least lengthening updates to fit the requirements

They're not necessarily redrawing it, too. They just have to post from the beginning which totally makes sense

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I'm giving myself a mantra, don't redraw, don't look back. Just move on with what you got. There's chapters I want to cover. It's just years ago, I had constant panic that the story's theme was going to change as it went, so I 'must' change the first chapter to suit the general overview of the story. But it resulted in me burning out and being self destructive to my work. I'm going to take better care of myself(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

i think most redraw significantly though

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah I mean, wouldn't u?

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I'd have to! My whole story is only like. 20 webtoons updates?

Deo101 [Millennium]

Truuu

If that, 40 panels.. a page is like usually around 5

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

agreed on redraw hell. tried it and I didn't like it at all lmaO

I'm kinda glad I have a good footing on my current comic and I don't want to redraw it at all unless it's adapted for something else. still like

work what you have, if you can orz

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Don't look back" is hard when you feel like the first X pages are dragging all the future pages down with them. I agree that you need to draw a line (no pun intended), set some criteria

The thing Eightfish mentioned -- not so bad that it'd deter new readers -- is a very useful criterion IMO

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

if you must, i wonder if redrawing the first scene would be okay?

Just as a taste of what's to come for new readers

Deo101 [Millennium]

Do you think they would notice the difference in quality and question that?

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

rip maybe

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I've read a long webcomic where only the first chapter was redrawn, and when I got to the second chapter and saw an immediate drop in quality, I knew what exactly happened XD

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah, but you're a creator! Readers don't have the same background to necessarily be able to assume that

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Just put in a note saying that it's art evolution

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

As someone who redrew their first scene for a lot a reasons, I will say that I personally think it's worth it.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Also same, I've seen it and knew exactly what happened

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, it was mentioned in the notes, but I didn't read the notes at first because I knew the archive was huge, and I wanted to Get Through It

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

if i were to do that, i'd put a note in the page itself

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That sounds like a good idea

Deo101 [Millennium]

What were your reasons for redrawing crona?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I'm not Crona but I redid a big chunk of my chapter 1 for writing reasons. (This was in addition to a whole reboot done prior.) The writing was... not 'this screams terrible writing' kind of bad. But it was extremely misleading/ unclear on what the overall story was going to be

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

dang tbh I did kinda redraw some panels to make the dialogue flow better. But I also tried my best to match up the quality of the pages drawn the time so it doesn't look jarring.

kinda what keii said but just minimizing the effects of shockkkk

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I think this is one of the reasons why i don't want to do a comic that goes on for more than a couple years (well, for now that is. Maybe that'll change as i improve)

Deo101 [Millennium]

I redrew one intro 4 times, cause I kept rewriting the whole story.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

after that I was like "don't touch Ch. 1 again" lmao(edited)

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

1. Several panels didn't properly show what was happening in the scene. 2. Rewrote some of the dialogue 3. My art had improved so much that even if I hadn't redrawn it, the next scene would look very different. 4. I wasn't super far along, so I thought it would be good to give this another go, knowing much more about paneling, page-layout, and pacing.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

do you think there's a chance you'd eventually redraw wotp as it is now?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Hell no(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

lol then i think it's fine that you redrew!

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Even if I go back and clean some things up later for print, I'm not completely redrawing anything about WotP anymore

I finally got it to a point where I'm happyish with the way it looks

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I've never totally started over, but I did a ton of drawing edits (and a few writing edits!) on my first chapter before releasing it to the public. The previous version of the chapter does look far less polished. But even then, I really only completely redrew 1 or 2 panels. The rest was just liquifying wonky faces and whatnot. Still, once it got printed, I basically locked the artwork. With how long new pages take, I really don't have time to look back much anymore which is its own kind of blessing!

In that way, I'm very glad I kept it private for a while. I wasn't confident with my skills yet - and I wanted some wiggle room. It's part of the reason I encourage people to at least have some sort of foundation, so that the jump in improvement isn't so... startling

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

I actually kind of love to be startled by art evolution

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah I could see myself editing wonky faces and things like that more than I can see myself redrawing! My pages only take me like 2 hours and I still wouldn't redraw, can't imagine what your timeframe would look like...

But not in your own work, crona?

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

It happened with a lovely comic called Wind Rose, and it is so inspiring

I wouldn't say I don't like it in my work

More that I was completely changing art styles too

Deo101 [Millennium]

I see

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I think starting a comic is a good way to get those foundational skills though, lazuli

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

Even if you didn't post it online, you did start

Which I think is enough

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

one of the biggest examples of art style shift I've seen

Comic is still doing really well though!

I don't think anyone minded the art evolution at all

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

@Eightfish (Puppeteer) Yeah, that's my dilemma! I've seen a couple very new comic artists burn out quickly, or say that they're relaunching because of their own unhappiness. And part of me wants to tell them to slow down - they don't need to post anything, just use it as a training ground.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Of course, if you yourself hate your old art you're probably more important(edited)

hm

It's still nice to have your story read though

even if just by a few friends

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I haven't read through it, but I know this is another good example...

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

another one!

This was intentional though, to convey a change in setting

It's kind of fun to look at these comparisons(edited)

I think most readers would feel the same

carcarchu

my most inspiring art evolution is from zero point idol chapter 1

chapter 90

the artist also got better at panelling too. also not only did the art change but the genre completely did too. it started out as a comedy romance then slowly became a drama romance

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Looks like you switched the images around?

carcarchu

oh it's in the right order on my side

the more bishounen looking one should be the newer one

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Oh! I think the more colorful one looks much better actually?

But perhaps the author chose a different style to draw more quickly?

carcarchu

uh i think the opposite

the newer art looks objectively better

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

okay i'm gonna look it up maybe I will think differently if i see a bunch of panels in context

looking it up it is definitely clear that the author is putting much more effort into later updates.

Though skimming it I still sort of prefer the style of the earlier pages?

carcarchu

i have never heard someone say that before

people usually complain they got gipped in the first chapter lol

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Can't say anything about the paneling or anything like that because I just skimmed it

Well, I like the style of the things in the first pages that they tried harder on

There are a lot of like, chibi or messy panels there

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I'm looking up the titles for these screencaps you guys presented!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

The first one I shared is A Matter of Life and Death!

The second is YU+ME Dream (highly recommend)(edited)

mariah (rainy day dreams)

Seconded, YUME is very good and it's complete!

kayotics

I think there’s a lot of good reasons to restart or redraw past pages, but there’s a lot of people who DO get trapped in the constant iterative state of restarting/redrawing their comic, and then they don’t get anywhere with it

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

It's hard to come up with any consistent advice because people have different goals starting their comic. Like, some people just wanna do a comic to get better at art, or because they have a bunch of OCs that they want to do something with. And to those people... like, just have fun with it. Now, if you have a full story in mind, and your goal is to complete it in a timely manner that isn't overwhelming (without sacrificing on quality), this is the advice I give: 1) Plan out your story. You don't need to do a full script or whatever, but do try to have at least an outline, with an estimate of how many pages each part will be. 2) Spend a typical month (like, a month that you also have other work to do) drawing the first few pages of your comic. Don't post them yet. Count the number of pages you drew. The number you post per month should be less than that. e.g. if you drew 6 pages in that month, you should post 1 page each week. That way, you can have a bit of leeway to build a buffer without burning out. 3) Look back at that outline. How many pages did you plan it out to be? And how often are you planning on posting each page? Let's see... carry the two... this comic's gonna take HOW many years to complete?! 4) If you're comfortable with the task ahead of you, continue on to step 5. Otherwise, cut some stuff from your outline and repeat step 3. 5) Have fun with it! You might change your mind on future plot points, and that's ok! Just... try to do so in a way that doesn't create more work for yourself.

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

My advice is to just get started. I see so many people caught up in the idea that you need to perfect your art skills before starting a comic and then they just never start working on it

Your art is never going to be "perfect" and its better to have a tangible comic than a perfect one

I don't mean that in a discouraging way I just mean like no one can really achieve perfection and it's better to just create things

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I like snuffysam's advice because I have noticed there are different kinds of approach to webcomics. Some do it for fun and practice like I do nowadays. While others have a big long form series they are deeply passionate about but to start it seem overwhelming. Everyone's advice is pretty great! (edited)

DanitheCarutor

Fff I don't feel like I'm really qualified to give advice to people. I don't take art and comics seriously enough to follow most rules, so I would just be a bad influence if anything. Lol (Also everyone else has already said what I would.) I guess the one thing I would tell someone on the fence about starting their comic is to do it when you're ready. Like, I wanted to start doing comics when I was 15 but I wasn't quite mentally ready yet? I was used to doing illustrations so I couldn't stick with doing anything longer than 1 page, throughout the years I experimented with doing 1-2 pages of random scenes in stories I wanted to do, it wasn't until I hit my 20s when I was like "Okay, I want to do this!" In a way I didn't totally get into comic mode until my current project, since I was still feeling things out with the previous ones. Kinda went on a tangent there. Lol But yeah, comics are a huge commitment, I don't think it's super good to push yourself into starting if you're not mentally ready yet. Give yourself some time, do some casual stuff to prepare for the comic you really want to do in the meantime (brainstorming, concept art, character studies, etc.), or don't think about it at all if that's how you do things, then when you really get that itch go for it.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

My advice won't be anything that hasn't been touched on in this chat (so many good vibes ;_;) but I do wanna say that if I had any advice for someone to get into comics, it's to do it for yourself as the main priority. Webcomic popularity has been on the rise very quickly in this past decade, with copious amounts of creators trying their hand at their One Story, competition, exposure, and pressure are sure to set in with this wild ride that is comic making. So what do you do to combat that? How do you stay above water, make sure you have fun, or avoid turning this into what seems like never ending homework? You make your goal you. Whether You want to improve, whether You want to explore characters, or whether You just want to experiment- such a large project (let's be real, there's no easy way to do comics!) should be handled with that initial fire you had when you wanted to start the project, when you felt inspired to lay those panels down and tell that story. Don't compare your journey to others, don't feel that pressure to always Be Something.(edited)

Comics are a medium, just like film, canvas, or Video games for that matter, they have their own process and steps. Find what works for you and enjoy the ride, because it could easily turn into a long one!

eliushi [a winged tale]

I love it Krispy! You gotta do what you love

I’m just curious. What are your personal goals that keeps you going for the comic if you don’t mind sharing?

(And for anyone to answer too!)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I get what you mean and 100% agree with you. But I wanna bring up a caviat -- some people use the whole "do it for yourself" thing to shut down creators who are doing it for themselves, but also want some recognition. It's not their main priority, but it is a thing they want and it's okay to want it. I guess that goes back to the other advice about getting support. Find support, find people who won't make you feel guilty for simply wanting some recognition. People who will understand and support your goals.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

told myself that I won't let my self to lay my soul to rest till I'm done with the projects I have

so lmao that's somethin that drives me contracted to keep living till everything I do is finished lmao(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

One of my friends got told she wasn't a Real Writer simply because she wanted a readership. That kinda disrespect is not okay

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh dang

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

oh that is a whole different level from what i'm saying for sure

first off those people can go away lol

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeeeah

Again, not what you were saying, just... how SOME people twist the advice

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

and secondly, if you're not doing your work for yourself, you can easily fall into pleasing others and drown in Trying to Stay relevant, burning your creative drive too (i mean, if you can make ur comic and do that , good on you woah) but i've seen multiple comic artists crash and burn for the sole purpose of doing the comic in competition with others, convincing themselves that 'other styles' are crap bc their own work doesnt match up (gosh that was a rough one) and all in all, them just becoming so bitter with their work! THOUGH! this essentially applies to all creative fields and not just comics! And those entitled ppl who do that suffer from jealousy and nothing else. I cannot stand for those types who tear others down when faced with their own insecurity

and creators have every right to ask for help too. y'all deserve that recognition for the hard work you do, sometimes however, that isn't always available to them

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yea

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

(which is why we gotta lift eachother up!)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

You bring up a good topic that's very relevant to my struggles. It can be very difficult to know: is it okay to disregard this criticism. Am I allowed to do that? Am I allowed to like this thing about my work that people are pointing out as the bad part? Or does that make me a.... bad creator. Unprofessional, bratty, whatever. I'm not even talking about picking a fight/ getting verbally defensive. Just, silently disagreeing. I WANT to say the answer is yes, we are free to have our own opinion about our work. But dang if it isn't hard to feel guilty for doing it.

eliushi [a winged tale]

I think any trailblazers and pioneers feel this sort of sentiment.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

That sounds about right

I don't really think of myself as a pioneer, but it is still something I feel in my bones

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

I guess that’s the beauty of a self-run webcomic. You are the boss. Your viewership can give you critique, but you can choose what to listen to. You’re not beholden to a higher power (producer, director, patron, etc) to change things no matter what. It’s your project to run, and oftentimes only YOU know where it’s going, and you know how that criticism would change things.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

ya lmao. idk like I don't see a lot of stories that run in conflict of towards what I'm doing so it's kinda nervewracking when you're like "oh god am I setting a good example or what? Should I be worried when I just want to create and share a story?"

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

If you can be proud of the story as-is, I think there’s power in that, and it comes through in the work. A confident comic is a lovely thing.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

That makes me really sad that you have these struggles Kei. Your work is a project of love. Love for the things that inspire you, love for the way to tell your story, and love for that process. You are allowed to proud and tell the world about it, you are allowed to embrace the success that you gain from your work. We as comic makers do SO MUCH WORK and wear SO MANY HATS to make this mainly free to read story available, and that should be celebrated. SO YES, you CAN and you MUST choose what you want to take from others comments, their feedback, reactions, etc- but in the end, it's still about what YOU wanted to make of this work, bc in the end, you are the wheel that keeps this whole thing spinning

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I dunno about confident, but I can say my comic is an honest one. Even if I don't feel confident, I still don't let outside criticisms change what I do.

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

webcomic creators aren't given the space they need to grow a lot of times too-- we're essentially producing work that easily requires a small studio to create- there's gonna be ups and downs to the process. But you have to keep in mind for your own sanity that this is still your work and your vision. If you want to explore options of improving then you should be in control of that. (we all know how i feel about crits from randos too XD!)

eliushi [a winged tale]

Agree so much Krispy. I think everyone’s goals and visions for their project are valid and if they sustain your project, then that’s a success in itself

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

agreed!

eliushi [a winged tale]

Often I see this tip and pass on to other writers that when they write their story it’s important to think of a logline or something central that is the heart of the story. I put that as my first page so every time I open my document I see it. I think it’s the same for webcomics. Find the heart of your story — why you want to write it and remind yourself of that. I find it’s helpful to keep me going

FeatherNotes(Krispy)

omg eli....i love that!!!

sierrabravo (Hans Vogel is Dead)

wow that is really great advice eliushi!! I'd love to steal that if you don't mind?

eliushi [a winged tale]

Please do!! It’s a gift!!

take ittt

Miranda

these are all such great suggestions. You people are a fountain of wisdom.

Deo101 [Millennium]

I wrote in the header of my documents, "everything bad that happens in the story is because of me, and everything good happens because of them." Basically to remind myself not to do any sort of ex machina or whatever. And also put my tagline. It definitely helps!

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think it's a good guideline -- the "pure luck can only be the bad kind" thing. But my bro brought up the Walking Dead (I think? either that or some other really well known zombie thing?) as an example of going too far in that direction. He said the characters take a turn, open a door, etc. and the zombies just come pouring out like an unholy explosive diarrhea all of sudden, to a point where he was like "lol?" He said it was like the universe was setting it up against the characters, and he couldn't take it seriously. He's played/watched lots of zombie stuff so he's no stranger to jump scares or zombies appearing in hordes, but that one was still too much for him.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

wh lmao about that spoiler part like

Deo101 [Millennium]

Oh yeah no, too much of anything is bad.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah like, I can see that kind of extreme bad luck being used in farce comedy

Deo101 [Millennium]

Ahaha yeah

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I wonder what a story would be like in the opposite direction where everything bad that happens to them is because of them and everything good that happens to them is because of the writer

Deo101 [Millennium]

Everything Goes Bad Man A horrible superhero trying to do his best

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

A comedy! Could also make it a Shakespearean tragedy

Deo101 [Millennium]

Horror could make it work too

I was meaning my thing more like uhh, make them earn their good things and success kinda thing

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Depressing drama about a person who tries to succeed in life but fails at every turn

Nah I got it deo

Just throwing out hypotheticals

Deo101 [Millennium]

I would hate to watch or read any of these horrible things btw

But it's fun to hypothesize

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I think for like, most stories, your direction is much more engaging

I don't want to watch someone fail over and over

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

There's also that trope where everything goes bad despite their effort, and then Luck just drops success on the character's lap, leaving them feeling empty

Deo101 [Millennium]

Me either LOL coming out of stories like that is always like 0_0 well nkw I'm just depressed

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

But I think something like watamote, a comedy about a socially inept girl, might be an example of what I said that a lot of people like. I haven't watched it though so I'm not sure

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, I don't know that specific one, but there are cases where people feel comforted by reading about tough luck in that "I'm not the only one" way. Certainly not everyone's cup of tea, though.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Oh

Grave of the Fireflies

That movie seemed more like a message about war though. It seemed like it was trying to say something

I think I could enjoy a depressing story like that if it was nonfiction or historical fiction

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It was sorta semi-autobiographical (not 100% but inspired by his own experience)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Something that feels real

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

yeah, grave of the fireflies WAS based off of the author's experiences

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I personally am okay with depressing fiction if it feels real

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Same

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Doesn't have to be based on true events

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

his sister and him were taken in by the aunt and they were actually left that way the sister died of starvation (edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Hey, spoiler tag that!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

whoops mbad

Deo101 [Millennium]

I'm one of those who is 100% not... I can be okay with and love depressing stories after having seen it and then getting time away from it, but watching or reading them is a horrible experience for me

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

My Sweet Orange Tree is thought to be at least sort of based on the author's own experience, and I think that adds something to the book. (Can't confirm because the author's dead.) But even if it were pure fiction, it would remain a lovely, compelling book.

@Deo101 [Millennium] Nothing is for everyone!

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I remember feeling really depressed for the rest of the day after watching grave of the fireflies

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Not everything bad that happens to them was their own fault, but Grave of the Fireflies was sort of a story about pride though. A boy who refused to suck it up and apologize to his aunt, resulting in his and his sister's deaths. I think that did make the story more powerful

hubris and all that

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

so I can definitely relate to only watching short bursts of depressing stuff

Deo101 [Millennium]

I honestly try to avoid them entirely, not even short bursts tbh

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

correct! however, a lot of viewers also blamed the aunt for not keeping them. Apparently the real life aunt felt a lot of remorse for being indirectly responsible for their deaths, and her daughter was angry at her. However, the aunt was also feeling depression from her husband who recently died

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I read them rarely, but I feel like they make me more? Grounded? I liked the way Man's Search for Meaning (Holocaust survivor's book) changed the way I thought of the world

Deo101 [Millennium]

I'm just hyperempathetic and they really hurt me

Not like I'm like "I wanna be ignorant" or anything

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I think that one scene with the farmer telling him to suck up his pride was highlighting that he could have been taken back in but refused to even try

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

@Deo101 [Millennium] 100% Valid!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Yeah. Entertainment is supposed to be fun or meaningful and if it's not then don't read it

Although, I do really believe we should learn about these topics in school at least

You have to be exposed to them somewhat

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah I just don't like the kind of idea that gritty depressing stuff is more realistic, I understand learning about history and hardships but it's not something I like to think of as like "the truth jusy is that the world is terrible" it makes me feel very alone because I work very hard to see the world nit like that.

Miranda

Re: the extreme bad luck/I cause all the bad stuff for my characters I saw a tip that said coincidences can happen to get your characters into trouble, but not to get them out of trouble, and I thought that was an excellent way of putting that. (sorry to plop that in the midst of the most recent discussion)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

TBH as someone who has lived in Eccentric Relatives' House under not so great circumstances, I didn't even get any hint of "the boy should've sucked up" from Grave of Fireflies. My experience may have been worse than the boy's in his aunt's house though, and maybe my bias led me to see his experience as being just as unfair as mine. In any case it's been years since I watched it, so maybe I'm forgetting some key details.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I think "realistic" means a mix of good and bad

My favorite nonfiction books contain a lot of cruelty, but also very good people

Reading about people's good work and outlooks despite tragedies really got to me

Or like, perseverance

Perseverance as a theme really, really hits me

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah I like perseverance but I hate stories that are hopeless or treat hope as naiive

It makes me angry tbh

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oof same yeah

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

the aunt was still feeding them though, and allowing them to stay. If he had left his sister at home and tried to get a job like his cousins did, I think it is implied that they would have survived.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I do like my dark themes but lmao i dont want to go to wreckless cruelty. there's an art with that(edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Endless pessimism is as unrealistic as endless optimism(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I feel like there's hopeless stories and there's stories that treat hope as naive. The former is like, yeah sure, not everyone's cup of tea, but the latter is like "if this isn't your cup of tea, then you're dumb" which is

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah I don't mind dark themes it's just that sort of grittiness, humanity is inherently evil, hope gets you nothing kind of stories that I hate

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Btw. My favorite nonfiction books: Man's Search for Meaning The Gift of Fear The Gift of Pain (no relation to the gift of fear) All showcase a lot of cruelty and suffering but all are still very hopeful

I know it's unlikely you guys will read them but

They're good and I still reccoemend them highly

They are books that changed the way i think

They are also all written by people who have gone through and seen terrible things and yet made it their life's work to help others

I just can't reccomend them enough

But I will stop talking about it now

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

for me, uhhh it's from famial experiences mostly

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Do you think your stories err on the side of optimism or pessimism?

@ everyone

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

since most of my family suffered from the vietnam war, a lot of stuff they told me were fist hand accounts of war and cruetlty

like from my mom, my dad, my aunties and uncles

even like the older members of my communties so that stuff is still fresh lmao

Deo101 [Millennium]

Optimism. I want to say neither but I know nearly no one would read it and say it's realistic

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Oh, I've had similar stories. My great grandmother had her whole family except her killed by a Japanese bomb and my family, despite traveling a lot, has still never visited Japan out of respect to her

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but since they already living better lives I see that the darkness in those times have at least kick started them out to their kind of propserity or still striving towards

so I see myself as a realist lmao

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

I think my stories usually go a bit more on the pessimistic side I’m afraid. People have remarked that my more emotional scenes can be surprisingly dark, so I’m trying to introduce some more heartwarming scenes

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't wanna say "err on the side of".... I do bittersweet and slightly LEAN towards the bitter more often than not! But I think this particular aspect may be partly up to the readers to gauge.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I think my story is realistic to me. The worst my characters experience is similar to mine, and the best is also similar to mine. But I have no idea if my own life has had more good or more bad than the "average person"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

"Sometimes life super sucks in ways you have little to no control over, but you can still be there for each other, and that really, really counts" <--- is this too bitter or just right? That's up to each reader to answer, I think.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Hey you said optimism or pessimism you gotta pick

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

like there is hope and optimism but that is meaningless without the critical side of things. and I want to depict those sides in life.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Optimism

But I'm optimistic

Deo101 [Millennium]

Keiiii that's the way I write too and I think it's optimistic

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

My life has shown me that I can escape bad things so I don't think optimism is unrealistic though

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

You can't fix life but you can give love

Deo101 [Millennium]

Exactly

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i guess for my stories they kinda like what keii said like there's good side of things but lmao I somehow add some painful elements that they have to endure in order to have those good times(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

personallly I think stories work if you give people hope

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Eh, not every story is meant to give hope

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Yeah

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

but it's a good goal

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

like as long as you give people a semblance of hope, even if you throw some depressing stuff.....it can work. Oh, I meant as a bittersweet story

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

But I think not giving hope is unrealistic

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

lmao I guess I'm a target since the last story i write

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Though perhaps I only think that because I haven't experienced true tragedy(edited)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it was just bleak in a hopeful light

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It depends, like I can imagine a short story that hyperfocuses on something extremely depressing.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Y'know what I have actually hopeless things in my life and I have 0 interest in reading a story that's hopeless

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

ye and that's fair

Deo101 [Millennium]

And even though I have hopeless experiences I don't think my life overall is hopeless

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

i wonder if people actively look for stories that focus on not having hope because i know many people read these stories as a way to escape their lives

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I agree on that. idk. for me writing stories that lead to an end that really don't work with both parties... could be just my morbid curosity in just seeing how things won't work out as planned for both persons.

could be like a philosophical thing maybe? or giving a different perspective of some sorts?

like "things are the same but given with the option you gave me, I can't go through with that"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I can relate to curiosity being a motivation for exploring dark stories. It's why I check out horror stories -- horror stories (games especially) show the MC in an extremely "wrong" situation at the beginning, and I check them out to find out the presumably equally extreme "why" for that wrongness. I don't think I could write stories like that myself, though.

Psychological horror specifically

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah, horror has been uh ingraned in my life to this point. and I like writing stories with that kind of edge in mind, more of the psycholgial aspects than horror.

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Do you guys think some people search for morbid stories like these to not only satisfy their curiousity....but also to make themselves feel better about their own lives?

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I don't particularly care to find out why Mr. Chainsaw is going around killing everyone in a splatter/slasher horror, for instance X'D

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it's a possibility tbh.

sometimes I do that but I also had experienced simalar kinds of sorts that seeing those works i'm like "dang not alone in these wack feels"

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I guess it depends on each person?

"Gee, at least I don't have any literal demons coming after my eyeballs" is not very comforting to me, personally

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

i mean lmao

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Sometimes sad stories do make me feel more thankful for my own peaceful life but I don't seek them out for that reason

Deo101 [Millennium]

Imagine if ur disabled and that's the narrative used to make other people feel better about their lives

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

DX

Deo101 [Millennium]

Off topic but that's why disabled people hate "inspiration porn"

It's something that's really hard to explain cause "do you not want to inspire people" is really hard to answer

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah, those kinds of stories I really don't like at all.

Deo101 [Millennium]

So I wanted to jump on the opportunity to explain even though it's really off topic sorry

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

No, don't be sorry. "Life sucks but hey, at least you're not me!" is not something anyone should have to put up with

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it's understandable tho!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

To be honest I do seek out stories about disability because I find it fascinating how people adapt to mental and physical changes. I find ingenuity very interesting?

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I guess I look at it more towards like how some relationships with people don't work, and also the diaconomy between individuals interest me. Not for those kinds of stories but I've seen elements of that appear in some works i read in the past

Deo101 [Millennium]

I also seek out stories about disabilities, but only hopeful ones not like "my life is ruined and this is my driving motivation, to not be like this"

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

One of the books I recommended was by a doctor who spent his life working with people with leprosy and the workarounds for missing limbs and sensation he and his patients would come up with was just so fascinating to me to read

It's something that's really hard to explain cause "do you not want to inspire people" is really hard to answer

@Deo101 [Millennium] I think I understand you but just curious- how do you respond to that?(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

It's usually like "I want to inspire people to be like me because they're proud of what I can do" but they're always like "I'm proud of what you can do in spite of-" and it's like. Idk just a deep sigh

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

oh yeah rip

i had that happened to me before like "Dang you do did this and you're from some a family that suffered so much--"

"uh huh please focus on the work not my life thanks lmao"

Deo101 [Millennium]

Like don't hold me to a different, lower standard. Don't pity me

Yeah exactly

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Hm it's sort of true but also if someone said "I'm proud of what you can do despite not having a dad" I'd be like fuck yoooouuuu

Deo101 [Millennium]

Like there's other things please

It's like, pity. It's not actually inspiration I think

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

I'm proud of what you can do in spite of not having a brain

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

pity has left the building

like sure, yeah let's go with that but there's other experiences other than my background and my identity the brought out this work too. that's how we can get some unique voices into the field.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

so yeah, I can understand rip people saying fustrating things like that. maybe they don't have a better way of phrasing it. orz

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

At the very least it's better than the opposite side

"your experiences were not that bad" angle

Deo101 [Millennium]

I get that a lot also

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

and sadly I too experienced that angle LMAO

Deo101 [Millennium]

LMAO tuyetnhi same hat

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

no one wins

hurrah

most of it came about because of my mixed idenity like I don't get hit by the usual racism my viet friends experienced

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

This is overall a very small thing but I casually mentioned I was attracted to women to a long time friend yesterday and she went full on "thank you so much for coming out to me this doesn't change my opinion of you I love you you're a great friend" And then the conversation got hella stilted and awkward after that and AG I Hate that

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

but er.... I have seen people look at me and was like "mixed baby? that's hot"

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Wtfff

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

"please no."

it's wack like u put me in a scale where that scale is already wack to begin with

it don't make sense lmao

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

wait what the fuck

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

People are like why TF are u using a cane you're young and I tell them I have a condition and they're like, what does it do and I say the symptoms and they're like :/ I get those too :/

Freak out and tell them to get tested right away

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

also i really get annoyed when I see people just.......treat people with personality disorders like we're all psychos and tell others

hey at least you're not like these psychos

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Oh the telling others bit(edited)

Nooooo

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

like my experience isn't that universal but it's already terible enough knowing that if you have mixed ethncities then you're treated as an "exotic creature" and i'm like "I'll shoot you down"

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Mann luckily I grew up in a place where that doesn't really happen

I hope

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Oh my god i'm glad i live in a really diverse city and yeah deo....they do

we get labelled "troubled people" particularly if we're female in the mental health sector

a LOT of psychiatrists push us around and they use it as code for "difficult"

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

rip I live where 80% the folks here are mostly er homogenous white folk

and they ask me these questions that I know boil me blood

I'm too poor for cali man

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

oooooof I feel that tuyetnhi i went to a really white uni town for my alma mater

i got called a tall chink by a frat boy there

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

yeah I experienced that shit durring uni

it sucks

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

yoooo you can also come to toronto if you can't go to cali ;3

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

I can travel to toronto but lmao maybe next year

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

maybe ;A;;

also @Eightfish (Puppeteer) wait what do you mean by your question? is it pertaining to personality disorders or to the race questions?

......yeah people tend to treat you better if they don't know you have a personality disorder

LMAO I MEAN TRUE, that's pretty obvious XD

because people think that personality disorders are untreatable. And I would like people to be more informed about them

Heck, a lot of people don't even know about BPD. So I'd rather that people stay informed about it, even if it means that I might suffer for it.

What if there's another person with BPD who needed help but the people around them didn't know? And I don't think it's fair to keep it hidden when it can easily damage relationships.

Deo101 [Millennium]

And also, "why don't you just hide that part of yourself if people treat you badly for how you are?" Is hardly ever a healthy way of dealing with things

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

better be informed than being ignorant

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

Yeah...I've actually considered just...putting a joke warning label on myself lmao

(but thank you guys for understanding <3)

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

negatively changed? rip

ohhh nooo

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

yeah.....it's kinda like.....just because you have these negative experiences, you try not to let it stop you

because there's ALWAYS a chance that you'll meet people who understand

........I actually told a good friend that I had bpd and she started ghosting me. She was scared of me and thought i was...."weird"

and scary.

She was scared that i was gonna go psycho.

but I think it's important to know that not everyone is going to be an asshole.

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

it really is

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

i had a psychiatrist tell me that i probably lost friends....because i was a bitch ;A;

after formally diagnosing me with bpd

yeah and i had one psychiatrist just....diagnost me with anxiety disorder and he wouldn't listen to me just gave me a survey to fill out

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

makes them feel like they're 2d?

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

yeah and they are usually very complex and have very VERY varied pasts doesn't help that the media paints us as monsters in horror movies a lot

you see sociopathy and antisocial disorder in the news a lot and then they see people with bpd and they're like

LOOK! YANDERES!

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

ooooffff

that's not even part of the DSM lmaO

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

screams every time i see an article about how to "save yourself from someone with BPD"

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

speaking from my experiences as a former psyche major

like that can't be determined solely just by those factors alone

cormidbity is a factor too

oh my godddd

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

I get that a lot

also yeah psychiatrists..........they need to keep themselves updated man

they put a lot of blanket terms for people with pds because it's easier or maybe because psychiatrists are simply not equipped to deal with people with pds?

i mean look how many psychiatrists i've met or heard fuck it up with bpd

and that's one of THE EASIEST pds to rehabilitate

imagine rehabilitating someone with narcissism or sociopathy

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

APD

is the proper term lmao

or ASPD

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

also eightfish....nope. it's a really long LONG road to rehabilitation. Some take years.

but it's kinda...a relief to be diagnosed OH WHOOPS

mbad

OH MY GOD THE TRANSGENDER THING

coughs in victorian times exCUSE me

hugs

Tuyetnhi (Only In Your Dreams!)

rip this is from my understanding but if the condition of the disorder is either: a combination of bringing harm to yourself, restricting yourself from your routines, harm to others, or sense of losing control of your daily life then they will mostly likely dianoise. though that's what I

I've known years ago rip. idk if they hold up those standards today

or changed things from it

it really bites when you're seeking help and the folks that supposed to help you say like "but you're normally functioning so I see no problem ya u free to go"

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

"if we can't see it you're not injured so get the fuck back to work"

psychiatrists who just brush you off because it doesn't fit THEIR narrative piss you off

like you're going to them for help....and they categorize you as they see fit

and when you try to go against them they label you as "difficult"

eliushi [a winged tale]

Hey friends, good discussions here but just wondering if it’s best in #general as this will be archived? Just want you all to be safe

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

ah okay! Thank you Eli

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Oof wait archived?

In what way?

eliushi [a winged tale]

Check pins(edited)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

OH GOD

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

Ahh

I'm deleting every message lol

Cronaj (Whispers of the Past)

(And this convo is off topic)

shadowhood (SunnyxRain)

will do man

Deo101 [Millennium]

already on it

I just deleted everything to about 1 cause I think thats where we went off topic

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Oh shit yeah this is creator babble

I will delete messages as well

[peeterparkr]

Clear|4|t.h.

Chapter 4: Waves.

pairing: surfer!tom x reader fake dating au

word count: 5.6k 

warnings: swearing, Katy Perry

summary: Waves in all kinds of ways.  

series masterlist

previous chapter

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special thanks to @whatmakesmehappyy for editing, you rock the world seriously love you! 

Comments and reblogs are appreciated! Please tell me what you think! 

A kiss on the cheek had been their goodbye, they knew Paddy and y/n’s mother were watching. But it had been more than just a goodbye,  they had sealed the deal.

They’d be seeing each other again the very next day; y/n would pick up her car and then they’d go and discuss the rules. Their homework was to write their own rules. Complicated, absolutely, but it would help them both set some boundaries.

She had arrived earlier and avoided her mum’s questions with a ‘it was good, I’m tired.’

y/n wasn’t planning on sleeping that night, everything was so overwhelming. Let alone the fact that relationships were already hard, a fake relationship wasn’t something to be messed around with. It wasn’t going to be simple but somehow she knew it was going to work. Y/N thought about the pros and cons of the situation. The pros far outweighed the cons so far. The biggest perk: She’d be free.

She had gone straight to the basement, not forgetting to pick up the shells Tom had given her before. She ran with excitement and some of the shells fell from the bag and onto the stairs. She looked up for a notebook and a pen and then sat on the floor, waiting for some rules to come to her mind.

She scribbled down the first rule; they had already agreed on it: No kissing. She scratched it. Tom had made a point, they weren’t in high school anymore, so the kissing was important for the relationship.

“Nobody can know?” y/n asked to herself. “Restricted PDA. Yes, that’s going in.”

She couldn’t come up with anything really. She stopped writing and instead started doodling on the paper. She was meticulously drawing the outline of a figure, a face which was undeniably Tom’s. There was something about his features that were so unbelievably attractive, not that she wanted to admit it, of course, but she kept trying to figure out a way to draw him. It was so hard, she felt like something was preventing her from getting his stupid face right. Her frown was accompanied by her tongue poking out from her lips. She didn’t know why she couldn’t get him even remotely right, she kept erasing it and redrawing.

She stopped when she had a realization: she was drawing. It didn’t matter who or why, she was drawing. She quickly grabbed the paint before any inspiration could leave, she picked up the brush and submerged it into the blue paint. She had no idea what she was painting but she just let the brush go. It was once again an extension of her own hand.  She was deep in thought about the beach. She thought about the beautiful blue of the water and the shells that Tom had given her. The brush was painting her memories from the day.  

Time was consuming her.

“Y/N.”

She was drawn back into reality. Y/N dropped the brush without even realizing it as she turned around to see her sister who had a conflicted but happy gaze.

“Hi.” Y/n knew what kind of conversation was coming, and she wasn’t just ready to have it. “How did you get here? Who opened your cage?”

“You-” Joanne stopped mid-sentence as she stared at the now blue wall. “You’re painting.”

“I just made it blue,” y/n coughed as she picked up the brush and cleaned up the floor it had stained. “Like I do with everything else.”

Joanne smiled as she watched y/n walk over to the sink to wash the brush.

“How was your date?” Y/n asked Joanne trying to sound the least condescending she could.

“It was actually perfect but that was expected,” Joanne smirked as she walked over. “Now, please, care to explain yourself, Missy?”

Y/n cleared her throat before picking up her stuff. “I have no idea what you mean.”

“C’mon y/n!” Joanne chirped as both sisters were climbing up the stairs to go to their room. “We saw you! I mean he picked you up, I saw you on the Ferris Wheel and I even saw him with his arm around you. He kissed your cheek!”

Y/n laughed as they got into their room. “Wow, seems like your date was super fun, so fun that you were even spying on me,” y/n sassed.

“I’m sorry, but I thought you said you didn’t want to give him a chance,” Joanne reminded her, as they were starting to get ready for bed.

“I lied,” y/n pursed her lips as she tried to suppress a laugh. “He’s actually really nice, and fun.”

“I’m glad. You can finally get laid,” Joanne giggled. Y/n scowled and blushed as she threw a pillow at her sister.

“Shut up, it’s nothing like that!” Y/n defended herself. “I’m just giving him a chance.”

Y/n walked after Joanne to brush her teeth beside her sister and elbowed her just a little. Joanne had the biggest smirk.

“Did he kiss you?” Joanne asked.

Y/n shook her head and pushed her. “Fhirth dathe,” y/n attempted to say around the toothbrush.

“When are you seeing him again?” Joanne insisted. Y/n spat in the sink.

“Why is it important? Focus on your own dating life,” y/n snickered and started to remove her makeup. Joanne was out of y/n’s sight, so she tried to take a glance of her. She had her notebook.

“Oh what’ve got here?” Joanne gushed opening it up. “Oooh, you’ve drawn him.”

Y/n’s eyes widened as she rushed over to snatch it back. “This is none of your business.”

“What does the restricted PDA mean?” Joanne frowned. “You’re already setting rules for your relationship?”

“Ah, please, Jo don’t let your mind wander,” y/n rolled her eyes. “It’s far too small to be out by itself.”

Joanne didn’t answer and rather laughed it off while flicking her pinky at her. “Whatever you say, y/n.”

“If you’ll excuse me, I have to sleep,” y/n gently hit her sister with her notebook, making her laugh.

“Dream of Tommy boy.”

-

Tom hadn’t slept that night. His mind was going too quickly, he was scared. He was having second thoughts about this. He didn’t know how it could turn out. He feared himself. He liked y/n, that was the statement. His official statement.

He didn’t know if it was another way to con himself into thinking he could get any girl he pleased, so he continued with the path he had been so sure of building around him, always with the reputation of a player. It had bothered him just slightly, but at the same time he liked the challenge. Not now, of course, he wasn’t looking out for any type of summer fling, so this would work out.

He just needed the summer for himself, he needed time to think about the future. The future was scary, at least Tom’s was. He needed a little time to escape as well, y/n and him weren’t that different.

His head was everywhere but where it needed to be. He was thinking about the rules, but if it were for him, they didn’t need rules.  

He knew it could be a recipe for disaster, though. Y/n seemed to be the perfect ingredient for things to go wrong, because he hadn’t quite cracked her shell, yet.  

At the moment, he was just trying to fix her damn car, and it wasn’t working out for him. He’d been at work since early that day, and he needed to be up early the next day, too. He needed to sleep.  He could only focus on the rules. Why did they have to make things so difficult?

Tom had a secret.  A big secret, at that. He realized it didn’t really matter, he had already lied to her. He had actually fallen in love, once. He was someone who cared too deep, even if he didn’t want to admit it.

How the hell was he supposed to pretend to be dating y/n when he clearly felt something for Lex?

Lex was an addiction. It hurt but she still had him wrapped around her finger. She was, in all matters, his weakness. He didn’t want that anymore.

Tom didn’t want to disappoint y/n. He didn’t want things to go wrong, he wanted to be there a 100% for her, not because of her, but for him. He had to get away from Lex, he had to stop himself from getting tangled into her web.

Y/n would help with that. If anything he had kept himself from sleeping because he was fantasizing about a good relationship. This was his chance to have a taste of a good relationship, even if it was a hoax, he could make it as perfect as possible. It was like a free trial.

But he couldn’t think of anything that would be a good rule. So he set some rules for himself;  he was blocking Lex out of his life. He didn’t need her.

He leaned against the car as the sweat was covering his forehead, his hair curling up. He had just under an hour until he saw her again.

Harrison walked over to him, towel on his back. He worked at the workshop too, but he didn’t take as many shifts as Tom did. He didn’t exactly need them.

“How did you tame the beast?” Asked Harrison as he approached Tom who just gave him a side smirk. He examined the car. “Ah, goold ol’ James’ car?”

“Yeah.” Tom said as he pulled a cart over to go back under the car.

“You’re just going to ignore my first question?” Haz laughed.

“Pass me the pliers, please,” Tom said, sliding back.

Harrison grasped onto the pliers and shook them in the air. “Answer.”

“It was just a date,” Tom shrugged. “May I have the pliers now, please?”

“Jo told me she’s a hard nut to crack,” Harrison shrugged.

“Well,” Tom sighed as he rubbed his face. He was covered in oil. “She is, it’s just… “ Tom bit his lip, they really had to set a story.  “We had kind of a moment when I went to pick the car up, she’s James’ granddaughter, you already knew that. We started talking and then we went out for lunch. But then we saw Lex, it kind of ruined the moment. I came back to apologise with some seashells and she agreed to go on a date with me and I think we’re going somewhere with this.”

Harrison hesitantly handed over the pliers, not pleased with the answer. “Joanne told me she didn’t like you.”

“She doesn’t.” Tom winked at Harrison sliding back. “It’s...complicated.”

“Huh, what about Lex?” Haz asked.

“I think this is good,” Tom said getting out from under the car and patting the bonnet.  He stood and walked over to the front of the car. Swiping the towel from around Haz’s neck he began to clean himself. “I just need to check down the carburettor and we’re all set.”

“Thomas.”

Tom didn’t answer, he was just adjusting the air mix, ignoring any possible further conversation. “Where’s the….screwdriver!” Tom was mostly answering to himself as he picked it up.

“Tom.”

“Look, I just… I just need to get away from Lex,” Tom admitted, looking up at his friend. “I need to move on, I just can’t believe I’m still stuck in all of her bullshit.”

“And you think a rebound is going to help you?” Harrison questioned him. “You’re playing with something dangerous here, Tom, you’ll end up hurting her, or you.”

“Well, that’s all my business, innit?” Tom frowned as he continued to screw down some nuts and bolts.

“Don’t trick yourself, Tom,” Haz warned him.

“It’s not a secret I’m terrible with relationships,” Tom defended himself. “Maybe I just want to work it out this time.”

Harrison didn’t push it. They stayed quiet, for a while as they both continued working. Or as quiet as they could be, asking each other for tools or help.

Haz went completely quiet as their friend, or as they were supposed to call him right now, boss walked in. They refused to call Jared a friend, however.  He supported them both economically, if they ever needed it or simply by the fact he had given them both a job, after all, even if that supporting came with the price of sleeping with their girlfriends.

“Hey,” Jared greeted them, he had a coffee in his hand. “Man, I just woke up.”

“It’s noon,” Harrison pointed out.

“It was a busy night,” Jared shrugged with a smirk. “Important things getting done.”

Tom flinched but kept focused on the car. “Ah, who was it?”

“I’m afraid that’s information you don’t wanna know, Tommy,” Jared laughed.

“So, Lex,” Tom acknowledged looking over. “It’s okay, we broke up a while ago, you’re free to shag her whenever you want.”

Jared smirked. “That’s the plan.”

Harrison stared between them both. Tom coughed as he closed the bonnet. “Haz had a date,” Tom said trying to talk out the tension.

“Ah, yeah, with that girl, Jannet?” Jared grinned and nudged Haz. “How was she?”

“Joanne,” Harrison corrected. “The date was fine, only a date, mate.”

Neither Tom nor Harrison knew why they kept hanging out with Jared. Except of course, he took care of a lot of their stuff. Jared’s parents basically owned the whole town so it was good not to mess up with him. They had their good moments, Jared could support them whenever they needed help, but of course, he could come out sometimes as a bit of an asshole.

Tom wasn’t paying attention to the conversation Harrison and Jared were having, he was focused on the time, ticking until he was going to see her. In any moment she’d be walking down an aisle expectant of the Jeep. Tom realized what he was the most scared of, it probably wasn’t even Alexa.J ared was the problem. If he managed to even charm her, Tom knew he was doomed. Jared knew his way around women, they flocked to him without him even trying. Tom realized that y/n was a way of telling Jared he got her first, that was a way of saying it. Tom was always the backup plan for every girl that Jared couldn’t get. It always came to ‘Jared didn’t like me so I’m taking you instead’. For the first time, he wasn’t the backup plan. Not that he was even a plan to start with.

Tom ignored the conversation before getting into the car to test out if it was going to start up, it was no surprise it did. “Fantastic,” he said to himself.

“So get back to work you guys, or is it your lunch yet? I don’t know…” Jared yawned as he turned around to see y/n walking into the place. “Oooh, interesting, I’m leaving you, gentlemen.” Before anyone could stop him, Jared had already made his way towards y/n.

Tom could read Harrison’s fear as his best friend turned to him. Tom was equally as scared, or not scared, but disillusioned. He knew this could blow up so easily.

To both of their surprise, y/n hadn’t even flinched when Jared had come over and her expression had remained cold. She offered him a polite smile before making her way to Tom. Her pace was decided and powerful.

Haz watched her as she walked over to her car. She looked at Tom hesitantly but kissed his cheek and then rested her arm against his shoulder; an embarrassed Harrison blushed and tried to focus on everything else but y/n and Tom.

“So, how’s this baby going?” Asked y/n.

Tom blinked, but quickly snapped back into reality. “You mean the car or me?” He smirked at her, and she rolled her eyes with a smile.

“Whatever you wish to answer,” She sentenced as she turned to Haz. “Hello… Harrison, right? Might as well learn your name if you’re gonna date my sister.”

“Yes, Harrison,” He smiled. “You’re y/n.”

“Yep, but probs my sister referred to me as Imbecile, but I don’t answer to that name, so don’t call me that,” y/n joked. “So, is this ready?”

Tom was biting his lip as he saw Jared watching him, Jared gave him a thumbs and a smirk, accompanied by an obscene gesture. Tom rolled his eyes and faked a laugh, but then turned back to y/n. “Hm?” He glanced at her, while she just clenched her jaw. “Ah, yes, yes, ready.”

“Alright then,” she let him go. “Well, I’ll just go pay for this and then I guess I’ll see you later, right?”

Tom nodded. “Right.” She had already turned around but Tom had grabbed her hand, pulling her close to him, knowing that both Jared and Harrison were watching. His arms found his way around her waist, she was blushing as she cleared her throat. Tom just stared down at her lips. “You could stay for lunch.”

She smirked, raising an eyebrow as she chuckled. “One step at a time, wonder boy.”

Tom smiled but kissed her cheek anyway, her blushing didn’t cease but she just cleared her throat and then she was off to pay and Tom drove her car to the delivery section. She just returned to pick up her keys, and to ruffle Tom’s hair.

“You’re all covered in dirt,” she told him. He winked at her.

“Bye.”

“See you, wonder boy.” Those had been her last words before she had driven off. Wonder boy, that was quite a nickname.

Harrison didn’t ask and neither did Jared, so Tom took his break.

“Did they buy it?” That’s how her text read.

“Totally.” Tom texted.

The hours were the longest. Tom was sure this day’s shift couldn’t have been any longer, and he was also sure that it had probably been about 13 months until his shift finished. That wasn’t an exaggeration.

He went straight to his home, took a shower, and then got his surfboard on the back of the truck. He hesitated but then went to his room and picked up his guitar. It could come in handy.

He was going to see her at the blue valley and he didn’t know why he was so nervous about this. He was sweating like a sinner in church.

He arrived an hour earlier than stipulated, and just stared at the wheel. He took a deep breath before getting all his stuff out. He left the guitar on the sand and then rushed to the blue waves that were expecting him.

For a second he hesitated but it wasn’t long until he was paddling out. He sat a few meters away from the beach to absorb the sun’s warmth. He smiled before plunging into the water, surfboard and everything.

He then found himself surfing through the waves as they circled around him, covering him in the magnificent blue. The wind was helping him skim through them as the wind hit his face.  He felt free, in those moments he felt free. He was zigzagging to outrun the breaker that would in any moment swell and eat him up.

He hadn’t realized that he wasn’t alone, the blue ocean had overwhelmed his thoughts that he didn’t even notice the figure on the beach.

Y/n had arrived early, just a few minutes after Tom. She had giggled at the thought that both of them had thought about having a time of their own before their talk. Besides, to her mum and sister, she was out on a date. He was there and so technically she hadn’t lied.

She was sitting by a shadow, with a sketchbook on her lap as she was delicately sketching some faces and some waves. She stared at the guitar on the sand and frowned, but then she watched Tom. He looked as inspired as she had once been, the way he was surfing showed how much he cared for it. She could see his passion and the love he had for surfing.

Y/n wished she could have such a passion for something again. She once did, and it was coming back, but she was sure it was never going to be the same.

She watched him for a while, it was hypnotizing to see him. There was a way in which he was circling around the water. His hair was flying, and he looked inviting, he was chasing the trill.

Y/n stood up and snapped out of her trance, she walked over to the shore so he could get a glimpse of her. Finally, he caught her eye as she stood on the shore.  

“I’m sorry,” he said as he got out, surfboard beneath his arms. “Got kinda lost,” he apologized. “How long have you been here?”

“Actually, like an hour. It was nice to have the time to myself, guess you had the same idea,” y/n said. “So, no worries, but we better start with this.”

Tom nodded as he stood his surfboard and ran for his guitar.

“You’re gonna serenade me?” Y/n asked, amused, as they both sat on the sand.

Tom laughed as he tickled some notes. “Huh, no, just needed to make this less awkward, thought some background music would help.”

“It’s a shame,” she laughed. “Now, uh-” She didn’t continue as he was starting to play it. “Is there anything you can’t do, wonder boy?”

Tom snickered as he turned to her, just fidgeting with the strings.  “Now, what are the rules?”

“I well, I scratched the no kissing rule,” Y/n started.

“So you do wanna get a taste?” Tom wiggled his brows, earning a glare from her.

“Give it time,” Y/n warned him. “Look, it’s a different fake relationship, you see? Because we’re just starting to date, so there’s no need to get all touchy yet.”

“Okay, so let’s make that rule number one, baby steps,” Tom agreed.

“Besides, I think the pre-kiss is even more romantic,” Y/n said.

“The pre-kiss?” Tom frowned.

“Everything that leads to the kiss,” y/n said. “Ah, you wouldn’t know, bet you just kiss them.”

“Ah, I don’t, you’re wrong, but we’ll see,” Tom snickered. “I’ll end up doing that pre-kiss, it’ll be so damn good..”

“Of course you will,” Y/n rolled her eyes laughing.

“But then I won’t kiss you and I’ll leave you there begging for a kiss,” Tom warned her, poking her shoulder.

“Doubt it,” Y/n wrinkled her nose.

“I’m a bigger fan of the aftertaste,” Tom winked at her, she ignored him.  “Alright, what else?”

“Well, my sister asked how I magically liked you and I couldn’t give her an answer.”

“So, let’s make up a story, but truly, darling I’m irresistible,” Tom joked, y/n gently punched him. “Alright, alright, well I told Haz we had a moment.”

“A moment?” Y/N laughed. “What does that even mean?”

“I don’t know, we can borrow one from a movie, or a book,” Tom suggested. “I’ve been thinking about it, and I just want people to think this is perfect.”

“Perfect,” y/n repeated before letting out a cackle. “Why?”

“Just imagine the possibilities, we can fool the world into thinking we are the perfect couple, be the envy of them all,” Tom continued. “It’s easier, just an act.”

“Fine then,” y/n agreed. “But how in this world are we going to make them believe that?”

“First, let’s be seen together, there’s a party this Friday, Jared’s house, you’re coming with me, then you have to be at the surfing competition cheering for me, clearly, uh, at least one public date a week, all the cheesy stuff.”

“Alright, sounds good, but let’s keep the PDA to the minimum,” Y/n added. “And you know we might as well know when the other’s gonna escape so we can-”

“Right, right,” Tom chuckled. “We don’t want to supposedly be with each other while we’re definitely on other places.”

“I think the most important thing is just… Let it flow, you know? We did an okay job today, despite your little act,” y/n side eyed him.

“Sorry, felt intimidated, and I’m just that way, I’m full of surprises, darling,” Tom clicked his tongue. Y/n rolled her eyes.

“So, what was our moment?” Y/n asked.

“We stared deeply into each other’s eyes and realized our profound love for each other,” Tom yelled as he played the guitar louder. Y/n glared at him. “Or not, we can say we just talked on our way back to the shop.”

“Better.”

“Then we will have to have a story as to how you fell in love with me, y’know? The exact moment you realized it,” Tom sassed.

“I’m gonna fall in love?” Y/n snickered, opening up her notebook. “We’ll see where this goes, wonder boy.”

“Ah, there it is, is that gonna be my pet name?” Tom grinned.

“Catchy, isn’t it?” Y/n smiled, looking down at her notebook.

“I’ll stick with a classic, love sounds convenient,” Tom mumbled and then tried to look over. “You’re good.”

Y/n cleared her throat. “So any other rule?”

“I’ll woo you.”

“Who even uses that word anymore?” Y/n laughed.

“I do,” Tom chuckled. “I’ll serenade you and everything.”

“So what we want to portray is basically a rom-com summer love classic?” Y/n giggled. “Oh, god.”

“Yes, a summer love,” Tom agreed. “Well, then we can make it even more romantic, too bad we don’t know anything about romance.”

Y/n blew her cheeks and ran a hand through her hair. He was right, she definitely wasn’t the kind to be all touchy or cheesy, she hated that. But it was good, somehow.

Tom started to play some notes.

“I think we will make it work,” y/n declared watching him as a familiar song was being played by Tom.

“‘Course, we just have to pretend to like each other, sure you can do that?” Tom teased, y/n rolled her eyes. “It’s the simple things, you know?”

“Right, right, but the problem here, let’s just not forget it’s not real,” Y/n conceited.

“Your own reminder, I won’t forget it, darling.” He continued to play the song, now louder. Y/n realized he was playing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

“I love that song,” y/n commented.

“Oh, so I’ll add that to my notes,” Tom grinned as he started to sing. His voice was melodic. She sang too, quietly harmonizing..

He continued with another song, one which y/n didn’t recognize, so she just watched him with a smile, carefully admiring him. “You truly are a work of art, aren’t you?”

Tom chuckled turning over. “Stunning?”

“Misunderstood.”

Tom scoffed and shrugged. “I guess.”

He kept singing, they were watching the ocean as y/n hugged her knees.

It was so, so peaceful and almost magical to be able to be together, yet alone, without being bothered.

Tom stopped singing and stood up. “So, that’s it for today?”

“Hm?” Y/n shook her head, missing his voice. “Oh, yeah.”

Tom shrugged and then stretched. He helped her stand up. ”Or.”

“Or?” Y/n frowned.

“We could have a romantic walk by the beach,” Tom offered with a smirk as they were walking to the parked cars.

“Don’t even think about it,” y/n rolled her eyes.

“I didn’t mean here,” Tom cleared up, chuckling. “But now I see where we stand.”

Y/n chuckled and turned around. “Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

“I’ll see you there.” Tom winked as he got his stuff into the trunk.

“Care to give me a ride?” Y/n followed after, Tom frowned realizing there was no Jeep in sight. “Yes, I walked.”

“Huh, should I?” Tom leaned against the car, caressing his chin.

She chuckled, and nudged him gently. “Please?”

“Mmh, what would I be getting from that?” Tom chuckled.

“We’re supposedly dating, dumbass,” Y/n laughed. “It’d make sense if we arrived together.”

“Dumbass sounds like a more suitable pet name than wonder boy, and I’ll be calling you imbecile, sounds pretty.” Tom chuckled, opening the door for her. “After you, miss.”

Y/n stuck her tongue out. “Thanks, dumbass.”

“Welcome, imbecile.”

They both hopped into the car, and she kept staring at him, he was singing along to the songs on the radio. “What?” He asked.

“Nothing, your singing voice is pretty,” Y/n shrugged looking back to the road.

“Was that a compliment?” Tom asked, surprised.

“Yeah, there’s not many of those coming,” y/n warned him. “Don’t let it get to your head.”

Tom chuckled and he glanced over. “I heard you sing too,” Tom mentioned. “Really pretty voice.”

Y/n shook her head, blushing. “I wouldn’t say that.”

“Well, I would. Do you play any instruments?” Tom glanced over. “Besides your voice.”

“No, but I’ve always wanted to play the guitar,” she confessed watching him. He was such a dumb distraction, but somehow one that she wouldn’t mind thinking about.

“I could show you,” Tom offered. “It’s not that hard.”

“Tell that to my clumsy fingers,” y/n laughed.

“C’mon, you can’t be that clumsy, you draw,” Tom pointed out.

“So? There’s no correlation with that,” y/n defended herself. She looked at him. “But Maybe you’re right, how difficult can it be if you play it?”

“And we are back to the no compliments,” Tom chuckled. “I’ll take it as one, though,” Tom grinned as a Katy Perry song started to play.

“The one that got away,” y/n mumbled.

Tom looked over and turned the volume up. “Classic.”

She started to sing along to the song that meant a lot to her, but of course, Tom didn’t have to know that.

“In another life, I would make you stay,” Her singing was getting louder and Tom beamed.

Tom sang louder with her, purposely missing the key, yelling off- pitch, and forgetting some of the lyrics, causing y/n to laugh.

Eventually, they were both messing around with the song, getting out of pitch and making the most inhumane noises.

“Okay, besides that, you really do have a pretty voice,” He admitted.

“What do you mean? I really nailed that last note,” she giggled.

“I meant it, y/n,” Tom grinned.

“And that’ll be a secret you’re going to keep,” y/n warned him. “But thanks.”

“Any more secrets I should keep?” Tom glanced over, licking his lips.

She grinned and shrugged. Tom continued singing and she was just listening to him.

They arrived at the beach and hesitated on what to do because there were some people who could spread the rumour. That would help them. Tom was sure they would see some of Lex’ friends. They were always hanging out at the beach, according to Tom.

“Ah, there they are, her evil followers,” Tom said pointing at two girls that were speaking to some boys. “Ready to act?”

“Bring it on.”

They weren’t talking, really, just walking beside the shore, just as the sun was setting. Y/n grinned as they walked over to the water, letting the foam cover their feet. Y/n grinned as she looked down at the sand, she wanted to capture that moment to paint it later.

But the magic was ruined.

Tom had splashed some water at her. She looked up indignantly and he was laughing. “What the hell?”

He shrugged as he was walking deeper into the water. “Whoops.”

She followed after him, trying to splash him a bit more. But he managed to pick her up and spin her into the water, laughing and playing and splashing her more. They were having fun.

They continued to splash and play around, Tom was unbelievably touchy, they were both soaking wet, but it didn’t matter, it was fun. Tom turned to see the two girls, and he realized it was working. Their flirting with other guys had ceased and their eyes were glued on them. Tom smirked as he spun y/n around one last time.

He let her go, laughing, and sunk to the sand. Y/n stood back and tried to find him in the water, eventually, Tom jumped out and wrapped his arms around from behind.

She nudged him, and she discreetly looked over. “Too much don’t you think?”

“No, they know me,” Tom assured her.

“So, I’m not the first one?” Y/n laughed. “Of course not,” y/n turned around to see the girls, “Think they’re buying it?”

“Absolutely,” Tom grinned.

“I’m freezing,” She mumbled.

“Want me closer?”

“No,” y/n chuckled. “But we’re putting up a show, so it won’t matter.”

“Shh.” Tom kissed her cheek. It seemed like it was so easy to pretend, it didn’t even cost them. They were natural.

They stayed quiet watching the sunset, as the water was hugging them, as if it was made just for the two of them, because they didn’t realize when the other two girls had left because the two souls were too in love with the sunset and the waves, that their surrounding suddenly went quiet. It didn’t matter, it didn’t matter if it was just pretending, because at that moment, for the two of them, it was real.

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[faunusrights]

OFFAL HUNT REMASTER LIVEBLOG // CHAPTER 9

oh goody!

well this is it. the Date Chapter. the chapter, in which, the Date happens. lowkey im so fucking hype for this stupid goddamn chapter AAAAAAAAAAAA this is when the sexy got kicked up about seven notches and i know its gonna be a fucking twenty from here on out so LETS GO LESBIANS LETS GO

“Is this your date, Ms. Fall?” he asked.

Cinder didn’t look away from Glynda. “Mhm.”

STRAIGHT OUT OF THE GODDAMN GATE WE DIDN’T EVEN HAVE A SECOND TO EVEN GATHER OURSELVES JUST STRAIGHT UP HUH!!!!!!!!! ‘is this your date’ im legally dead

What the fuck.

already im fucking THRIVING im so glad this chapter’s mood got encapsulated within the first ten seconds and im definitely gonna have to re-read this chapter for the full unannotated experience OOOOOOOOOH MY GOD IM SO READY

Glynda’s thoughts ricocheted inside her head like coins left in a dryer. A part of her couldn’t understand what was happening and disengaged. The rest of her, grasping for purchase in all this, reasoned that going with Cinder was better than staying here confused, alone, and utterly displaced.

glynda ‘i aint ever had a gf before’ goodwitch at her PEAK right here. like GOD shes gone from ‘cinder’s trying to murder me’ to ‘cinder just plopped me right into a date’ like CINDER. CINDER YR CHANGING GEARS SO FAST. YOU DIDNT EVEN SEND FLOWERS OR ANYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

is it because shes a u-haul lesbian or

Higher, Glynda realized the dress itself was backless, revealing the black tattoo she’d seen so often before, perfectly centered between sharp shoulder blades.

this gay energy is BONKERS, quite frankly??????? where did cinder get her dress from? why does she have it? did she buy it just for this fuckery? or will she pull the ‘i just had a this lil number laying around’ line????????? does she wanna seduce glynda to death?????? was this PLANNED OR DID SHE JUST DECIDE SHE WANTED A DATE AND WTH LIFE REALLY IS SHORT ON REMNANT THESE DAYS?????????? cinder fall please explain your workings to the class

maybe Glynda wasn’t the only one who’d become adept at reading her opponent.

👏 when 👏 will 👏 they 👏 kiss 👏 already 👏👏👏👏

me: this is a slowburn also me: if u assholes dont give me this in the next ten seconds-

“Unarmed? As if you could be so helpless.”

cinder’s style of flirting is just. commentating on a person’s deadliness. that’s IT it’s the only TRICK SHE HAS and its working, is the thing,

im reading the description of the table and remembering the shitpost and oh my god i have to draw this???? hell IS real!!!!!! COULDNT YALL JUST TOSS EM IN A PLAIN BOX,

Cinder eyed her from her bastion of dark cushions,

cinder, ass-deep in cushions: this is peak cuddle territory come and join me

Cinder, for her part, seemed delighted Glynda had noticed. Touching the pendant more gently than Glynda might have ever thought her capable of, Cinder said,  “Yours? You didn’t seem to mind parting with it.”

im still deeply enjoying this powermove the novelty NEVER wears off (and at risk of light spoilers i do enjoy its place in this story 👀)

Cinder let the necklace drop, settling against the swell of her bust once more,

/lightly coughs 👀👀👀

im losing my MIND at how gay this bit is i physically cannot HANDLE IT and if they even describe the meal once im gonna pop off cause i am. SO HUNGRY RN. AAAAAAAAAAAA

Cinder indicated a dish of lamb and vegetables, served on a bed of rice and drizzled in some sort of sauce.

SRY THIS ISNT GAY BUT OH MY GOD IM SO HUNGRY I WANNA E A T I T THAT SOUNDS SO GOOD UGHGHGHGHGHGH WHY DID THIS CHAPTER HAVE TO BE TODAY OF ALL THE DAYS,

Glynda cleared her throat, working out: “The Grimm.”

like. GOD WE KNOW GLYNDA IS JUST SO FUNCTIONALLY BAD AT CONVERSATION BUT OF ALL THE THINGS glynda please just. just. stop thinking abt her sexy tattoos for a fifth of a second,

“You can control them.” A sedate blink. For all the world, Glynda might have just commented on the weather.

which is a faux pas for a date!!!!!!!!!!! at least tell her the DRESS IS SEXY WE ALL KNO WHATS WHAT YR THINKIN ABT

Glancing down as though it were being pointed out to her for the first time, Cinder shrugged and adjusted the end of the glove a little higher on her bicep. “And?” 

a quick aside im enjoying how like... visually expressive cinder is in this remaster! i can see her facial expressions and her motions really clearly in my mind’s eye which is a fun little boon if only because i have to redraw this nonsense hjsgdfjhfksgd but cinder’s got a Good Face this time around! A QUALITY FACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You should know by now, there’s something about you that’s simply irresistible to Grimm.”

HERE COMES THE PLOT (and a single surviving line so far... this one sentence has survived all the world could throw at it... we stan)

Cinder straightened, and Glynda saw that this was what she’d been waiting for.

“It isn’t every day the great Glynda Goodwitch kneels before her adversary, is it?”

HELLO??????????????????????????? WHATS THIS WORDING????????? honestly tho for a second i thought she meant like. quite literally and i thought id missed some PROPER SHIT RIGHT THERE BUT YEAH WTH!!!!!!! C I N D E R

“You cheated. You can’t beat me on your own.”

yes glynda we gathered that yr a top

“Really, Glynda? Poison?” she sneered, something like offense simmering in her expression. “After all this?”

looks at the camera

anyway,

god im literally losing grasp of words to say because theres such a charged mood in this scene............. theyre brushing fingers............ trading jabs.......... im slurpin it up babey!!!!!!!! this rly is the BEST remaster of this whole scene it DESERVES this wordcount!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Beat you,” Cinder corrected. “And call it a point of pride.”

yes cinder we gathered yr a brat,

this dynamic is why this fic is so fuckign good when will winter have a swift return to add even more fuckery to this wild ride

Then, with a heavy-lidded look, Cinder found Glynda’s hand between them, the touch so sudden and daring that Glynda flinched. The fabric of those gloves was smooth against Glynda’s flesh, and for all that cruelty had marked every other instance of contact between them, Cinder was surprisingly gentle.

whomp there go my nuts

WHAT IS THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHO MADE THE EXECUTIVE CHOICE TO ADD THIS LINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO???????????? im losing my BRAINCELLS

What she wasn’t ready for was for Cinder to guide her hand to her own throat and hold it there.

THERE IS IT THERE’S THE KINK IT’S BEEN SPOTTED

oh my GOD what even IS THIS WHO ADDED THIS SECTION WHO ALLOWED THIS TO COME TO P A S S WHAT THE FUCK EVEN IS RN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO????????? HEWWO??????????

Now… Now Cinder interested her.

tbh how can i liveblog this? what commentary can i POSSIBLY add that we arent already all THINKING. we just launched into a level of hell so deep that lucifers gonna have to pull some goddamn tricks to follow us down here!!!!!!!!!! WHAT IS THIS SCENE! THIS MOMENT! IM SCREAMING

Glynda mirrored the expression back at him, and finally, he coughed, not making strong eye contact with either of them. He set their plate before them and hurried out without so much as a check-in.

i just KNEW that was gonna happen JHGDSFGJHKSDF he was gonna walk in on SMTHNG but i didnt think itd be CINDER’S CHOKING KINK,

okay i took a break and ate my weight in roast chicken and we’re back babey

Almost nervously, her fingers carded through her own dark hair, and there, among the locks, Glynda spotted a glimpse of something white, structured and ridged.

AND I AM INSTANTLY KNOCKED BACK UPON MY ASS 👈W👈H😨A👈T👈

It was easier to ignore the rest of it—whatever it was.

glynda you are a fool and a moron im withering into DUST

On no level had she expected those to be Glynda’s words.

then what... did she expect... well probably -- and rightly so -- ‘bitch WHAT ARE THOSE’ TBH

wait sorry i have to jump back because i forgot customary fingerguns on the most brazen bit of Shit yet:

Cinder was occupying herself with something else: the head of a dragon, perched over the door and staring down at the two of them with red, glossy eyes.

👈👈👈😎👈👈👈

okay BACK TO THE FIC

Fangs snapped together around the word.

aka back to me horni

/chanting TEETH! TEETH! TE

okay but the reason i doubled back to catch that fingergun is because we’re getting ass-deep into plot now!!!!!!!!!!! WITCHES AND DRAGONS BABEY......... HERE’S WHAT OFFAL HUNT IS ALL ABT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i cant rly drop more fingerguns than that because any astute reader will start realising the dots im shouting abt and honestly half the fun of this fic is the ride so >:3c

“Funny. I was sure he would have told you.”

that blow was so low i think cinder hit the concrete with that one

oh god theyre gonna get to the bit and i-

“Is that what all of this has been about? You called me here to remind me that I'm autistic?”

/SCREAMS

The words were delivered firmly, calmly, but Cinder’s response was the opposite, sudden upheaval seizing her. Her expression opened in something akin to panic. “Wh—no? What? No! That's not what I—”

/SCREAMS

oh my GOD CINDER YOU HAVE FUCKED UP LEGENDARILY!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GOD SHE WAS FELL ASS-FIRST ONTO A LANDMINE OH MY GOD

offal hunt v1 cinder: im totally in control and im playing glynda every step of the way

offal hunt v2 cinder: OH JESUS OH FUCK OH NO THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT-

Cinder seemed genuinely stressed now, speaking quicker as though trying to bury the last sixty seconds.

i knew this remaster would have sections that would blow me away but this bit really took the fcuking cake DGHSJFSJHFDG holy SHIT this is AMAZING

It was difficult to tell in the low light, but if Glynda wasn't mistaken, there was a bright flush of embarrassment coloring Cinder’s cheeks.

this is SUCH prime content hey remember in one of the early liveblogs that cinder would descend into full dork? WELL THE DESCENT CAME EARLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! /pops bottles

“Cinder.” There was a very real line of threat in Glynda’s tone. “Don’t.”

oh this whole scene just keeps getting better i am LOVING this dynamic now!!!!!!! before it was all pretty one-sided so having the conversation rock back and forth is 👌👌👌

That Witch soul of yours—it was designed to void out everything but the prey before you. To be numb to all human emotion. To focus on the hunt and nothing else.

finally the fruit of 50% of my fingerguns COMES TO LIGHT!!!!!!!!!!! PLOT PLOT PLOT

“This is bullshit.” Jabbing an accusing finger at Cinder, Glynda said, “You’re a liar. You’re a criminal!”

i LOVE glyndas pottymouth in this its such a good like... change from her being strict and formal and teachery and now shes full on gremlin huntress hell YES BABY!!!!!!!!!! GO OFF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“There’s all kinds of things I bet he never told you.” Cinder continued. “Did you know he was close to your predecessor? The Witch who came before you—they were inseparable.”

SRY IM LIKE STRUGGLIN TO COMMENTATE because so much of this like. speaking as an Old-Ass Reader this is like. a LOT! A LOT HAS CHANGED and yet,,,, stayed the same,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, yall kids WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT IT WAS LIKE TO HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL CHAPTER LIKE................ 15 FOR THIS SHIT (but like. chapter 15 was different because this chapter used to be like chapter 7? so now everythings moved along so chapter 15 doesnt sound that impressive but trust me it was a different fic back then)

When they fell away, burnt and ruined, she could see Cinder’s bare arms for the first time. The red lines drawn across her skin sloped down the entire length of her arms, circling her elbows, carved into her wrists. They ended right at her hands, ensuring any long-sleeved garment would hide them. Every covered inch of her was filled like a canvas, like abstract art.

lets pause the fight scene for glynda to be gay!!!!! god im. okay look i said this earlier but im so glad we have more cinder like this tbh. the first version was rly lacking w/ cinder content until late-game when the plot sorta. got itself going? but now we’re eye-deep in this content i LOVE cinder i love this WEIRDO who is a HUGE LOSER and IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Glynda could not dispel the fear that she had been telling the truth.

and after committing Some Amount In Damages, we’re at the end of the chapter!

okay so i really enjoyed this version SO MUCH MORE. everything abt it was polished and worked together so much better and it really needed the space to breathe in its own chapter. its been horny, gay, intense, hilarious, and way more in one chapter and its SO good this really is PEAK offal hunt!!!!!!!!!!!! good job diesel and kc but im still going to murder you both,

[severalsmallbeans]

Unequivocal NEWS!

Thank you to everyone who read and enjoyed this first chapter!!! I die reading the comments and messages and tags, I look forward to it so much!! 

You can read the final part of chapter one HERE if you haven’t already.

I never thought I would ever actually draw out a full chapter of a comic, particularly since I’ve only been drawing in earnest since last August, but it just hit me one day when I was reading Haikyuu!! how much I wanted kagehina to happen during THE FIGHT, so without a huge amount of forethought I started!

Because of that, the early parts are aesthetically disjointed as I was finding a workflow that suited me. Because of this I consider the chapter currently on the internet as PROTOTYPE ONLY.

For now I’m going to take a break from posting Unequivocal, but I will still be working on it! Before chapter 2 comes out a few things need to happen!

1. I’m going to go back to parts 1 and 2 and edit them so they’re black and white, and there are some continuity issues that have been bugging me, which will require a few redraws

2. I’m going to build up a buffer so that I can release on a set schedule, likely once a month. It also means I can release substantial updates of 6-10 pages 

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

I’ll be back with the updated version of Chapter One in a few months, which will then lead straight in to Chapter Two. There are currently about five chapters worth of story line planned out, and I’ll be spending the next few months trying to work out when I’ll finish it all, especially considering I have my thesis project next year.

I won’t be gone completely though! I’ve still got plenty of things to practice, illustrations and AUs planned, and a zine to get on with, and I’m always happy to yell about Kagehina or Kiribaku or deadlines or whatever, so don’t feel weird if you want to message me out of the blue!

Cheers, Beans

[bakathief]

I have drawn doujinshi and comics for 8 years and a lot of times I saw other comics which had stopped after 5 pages or didn‘t even make it past the cover. So I thought and share my experiences and what kept me motivated to draw 650+ comic pages.

Find a style that lets enjoy you drawing

There are many different ways to draw your comic. You can do black and white, black and white with screen tones, colored comic... there are just as many possibilities as with normal art. Find a style that makes working on the comic fun. For example I hated working with screen tones, applying them seperately on the laptop. It took some fun from the experience and made the process slower and less enjoyable for me. So I tried different styles until I found one which I liked and I could picture making tons of panels with without getting tired. Which leads to the next point....

 Don‘t be afraid to try new things

Unless you‘re being paid to draw in a consistent style, don‘t be afraid to try new things. Just like you do with normal art. As I said before, there are just as many styles to comics as there are to normal art so try as many as you want or even create something totally different! Even if you don‘t like the result, you will have gained experience. And that experience will always come back to you!

 Find a chapter length you like

With my current comic I try to keep the chapter length between 12 to 22 pages. Before I had drawn a different comic, which I had adapted from a fanfiction by someone else and I swear, when you‘re at page 40 and the end still isn‘t in sight, you can easily lose your motivation. And I noticed a similar pattern whenever I got to chapters which were over 30 pages long. However, whenever I worked on chapters which were only 12 pages or so, I was done in no time. Not only because of less pages but because I was so much more motivated because the end was SO CLOSE. Which brings me to my next point.

 Storyboards

Not everyone like them but they are very helpful when it comes to planning. They don‘t have to be big and have the finished dialogue etc.. Mine are only 3 x 5 cm per page (Not that smart, actually) and I only add important bits of dialogue. BUT. You know beforehand what your chapter will look like and know that it won‘t continue for forever. Furthermore, you‘ll notice which parts of your story are problematic and need more thinking, which you can ponder about while drawing the earlier pages.

 Don‘t upload every page straight away

When I tell people that I have finished the drawings for the next 50 pages they are usually shocked. THEN they ask why I haven‘t uploaded them yet. There are several reasons. When you work on a page for a while and finished it, I found it frustrating that, once the new page is uploaded, you’re at point zero again and won’t be able to upload anything until you sit down and draw. However, sometimes you also have other things to do, no time for drawing, and you‘ll get stressed because you haven’t uploaded something in two weeks and omg, how do you even live with yourself. My friend then told me that she had already drawn the next ten pages in advance, and WOW, I tried it and the whole process felt so much easier. It’s hard to explain, there are many advantages to drawing some pages in advance but my favorite ones are the following.

You won‘t be at point zero.

You‘ll have a consistent overview of the chapter and plot.

You‘ll have pages on stock in case life gets busy.

 Don‘t invest too much time on every page

I‘m not saying that you shouldn‘t do your best but when you spend too much time on a panel because one thing on the character looks strange, just get over it and move on. Of course you will need more time with detailed backgrounds but when you have to redraw a panel so many times to the point that you‘re not making any progress... just, take the best version and move on. Of course, no artist likes to upload something they are not pleased with but you‘ll lose your motivation when every page it taking too long and you‘re not allowed to move on to another page or panel. Once I got a comment in my very early pages that my comic style seemed messier than my other pictures, and yes, that was true, but if I had spent as much time with one panel as I had with a normal picture then I wouldn‘t have gotten anywhere. Of course I did my best, but at some point you just have to accept that you can‘t make a perfect panel and move on. Thanks to my comic I improved a lot since I had to draw so many, SO MANY panels from different angles and shots, so you will get better, even if not all of your panels look perfect. Everyone starts at some point so don‘t expect too much from yourself and just do your best!

Have somewhat of a schedule, create at your own pace

Not sure if that is so important but it always helped me to have a certain rhythm to which I would update. It reminded me that it’s still going but that I can do it at my own pace. Of course, if you don’t have time then you don’t have time. Don’t push yourself too hard.

 This is all I could come up with at this point, but I hope there were some ideas that might help you in the future! Feel free to add other points if you have any!

[hidewari]

Hide’s Role as the 2nd OEK

Finally finished writing this meta with @glittery-meme-rabbit (’’: She put the idea forward and I mostly expanded on it more than anything else. All calendar images are from @tgcalendar2016.

There has been a lot of speculation concerning Hide’s whereabouts as well has the potential motives behind his apparent involvement in the ghoul world. It’s safe to assume that he may possibly have interests outside of Kaneki, or at least developed some as a result of following Kaneki into the ghoul world. Many have speculated that he may have ties to the Washuu, particularly because of the “yoshi” in his name following the Washuu’s naming patterns (and Yoshitoki being called “Chika” at one point), and after further investigation, there seems to be a lot of solid evidence to back up this claim. However, in this post, we’ll be discussing how Hide’s potential Washuu roots may give him direct ties to the original One Eyed King and what that may mean for his current role in the story and Kaneki’s current aims for revolution.

The Washuu clan are pretty sketchy overall and their goals are questionable, to say the least. Since they’re ghouls, it’s possible that the original One-Eyed King was a Washuu himself and split off from the clan when they rose to power as a result of disagreement about their aims and the methods they used. It’s possible that the original OEK rebelled against the will of the clan and left them to pursue his own goals, which most likely would have been creating coexistence through the eradication of V and the Washuu. However, the Washuu would have prevented his plan from succeeding, landing him where he is now.

If we make the assumption that Hide is a Washuu, then it wouldn't be surprising if it turns out that his goal is similar to the original OEK's, especially if he escaped from the sunlit garden.

Firstly, he appears to have developed a distrust of adults from an early age. We can see evidence of this in the 2016 calendar page for the nineteenth of June which gives us some insight into Hide's perspective on things and shows us that he doesn't seem to have a very positive attitude towards adults as a child.

“It’s times like these when adults needlessly toy with us.”

He sees them as people who toy with children in a similar way that the Washuu toy with the weak, which would explain how he developed this outlook. The Washuu created the CCG to combat ghouls but also created V to shield the eyes of the public from the truth, like how an adult would talk down to a child or make them ignorant of the world around them. Since Hide developed this mindset at a young age, it's safe to assume his relationship with the Washuu and desire to rebel against them originated from this.

Exposing their secret to Marude was one way of doing this, and even living a normal life and aiding Kaneki when he knew he was a ghoul were ways of rebelling against the Washuu's will. Even if Hide doesn't seem to care about ghouls being on the same plane as humans, he's been shown to treat them as equals (e.g. staying friends with Kaneki despite his ghoulification, befriending Ikuma, and holding no malice towards Nishiki.) Even his “sacrifice” for Kaneki could be an example of him being blind to species since he was willing to sacrifice himself regardless.

As Haise, Kaneki earned himself the nickname "King of Fakes", but I think this still applies now. Kaneki has stepped in and assumed the role of King when that role does not rightfully belong to him as a result of his lack of ties to the original OEK. In other words, Kaneki isn't the true heir to the metaphorical throne of the One-Eyed King.

However, if Hide really is a descendant of the original OEK through his ties to the Washuu, and shares the same goals as him, then this would make Hide the true heir.

We've been shown in the past through Arima and Eto how the role of OEK can be shared. As the OEK, Kaneki is still viewing the world through only one eye, which creates a bias (in Kaneki's case, his bias is in favour of ghouls) which means he won't be able to achieve his goal alone. He is only one half of the solution, and until his other half joins him in the role of King (two One Eyed Kings together makes two eyes to view the world through and therefore help them to see the true nature of reality rather than through the lenses of their own biases), he won't be able to achieve his goal of unity between the species.

Also, just as a side thought, considering the fact that Hide was most likely severely injured by Kaneki down in the sewers, it would certainly be interesting if he returned with severe damage to one of his eyes or without it entirely ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That would make for some meaningful symbolism.

There are multiple pieces of evidence which hint at Hide being Kaneki's other half, and therefore the person who should join him as King. Firstly, Kaneki's birthday being on the 20th day of the 12th month, and Hide's being on the 10th day of the 6th month, therefore making his birthday half of Kaneki's. Secondly, the battery day calendar page which marks Kaneki with the number two, and Hide with one (half of two) as well as the fact that this places Hide in the pitcher's position, being the one who plans and strategizes, and the receiver (Kaneki) being the one to actively put those ideas to work.

Hide's role as the witch's servant in their school play also heavily foreshadows this. Eto is the only character who has shown to have been associated with a witch, so we can assume that the witch parallels Eto. Eto was working with Arima as part of the One-Eyed King gig, and Arima was the one who most closely prepared Kaneki for this role. As the witch's servant, Hide would have close ties to the witch, presumably Eto, which may mean that she too is preparing him to take up the role of OEK alongside Kaneki. In fact, the ending of the play has the witch's servant leaving the witch to join his childhood friend, the Prince (Kaneki) and promising to work alongside him. This could possibly be foreshadowing of Hide leaving Eto's side to join Kaneki as the joint OEK.

There's also been a lot of speculation as to whether or not Hide is a half-human, and there appears to be some evidence to support this theory. Without going into too much detail, this line from  the redraw of chapter one of Tokyo Ghoul seems to be the most compelling piece of evidence, and the fact that "ghoul" is in quotation marks implies that Hide is talking about something which is not exactly a ghoul but similar to one (half-human would make sense in this case since they are equal parts ghoul and human aside from the fact that they display mostly human characteristics).

There are a bunch of other metas discussing this subject floating around tumblr so I’m sure they’re not difficult to find but this one by @deimos-the-otaku I think in particular addresses something which other theories haven’t so I’ll throw this one in particular in.

If this theory is true and Hide does turn out to be a half human, then this just strengthens the possibility of him being the second OEK, or perhaps more appropriately, the second half of the OEK. If Hide is a half-human and Kaneki a half-ghoul, this would parallel the previous OEK duo since Arima was a half-human and Eto a half-ghoul. Not to mention, it would be interesting to have the current half-ghoul OEK (Kaneki) trained by the previous half-human OEK (Arima) and the current half-human OEK (Hide) being trained by the previous half-ghoul OEK (Eto). It would also make far more sense for a half-ghoul to lead the unity of the two species with a half-human since they are both equal parts human and ghoul yet display characteristics of one species each. This would make more sense symbolically than Touka, for example, being Kaneki's partner in revolution (since she's a full ghoul) or Hide being his partner if he was human (since he would be a full human) so there would be an imbalance.

Not to mention, Hide’s tarot card (the Magician) is supposed to represent the bridge between the world of humans and the world of spirits (in this case, we can assume that the world of spirits represents the world of ghouls).

This theory by @echo-from-the-void also talks about how meeting with Hide, what Kaneki considers his human side, could aid him in reconnecting with humanity and therefore aiding him in the success of the revolution he’s planning, and what better way to adapt his tactics to suit both sides than to have a second king (the other eye of the One-Eyed King) come from the opposite perspective, that of humans? This would bring Kaneki’s ‘ghoul eye’ and Hide’s ‘human eye’ together, and subsequently, their two perspectives together to see things from both the side of ghouls and humans equally.

Another minor detail I noticed but am not really sure of whether it’s relevant or not is that every time Hide, Kaneki and Touka are drawn together in Ishida’s art, Hide and Kaneki are drawn beside each other while Touka is off to the side. If this does have any relevance, it could point to Touka’s companionship to the One-Eyed King being a red herring. We’re made to think that she’s Kaneki’s Queen, but that’s not what this cause needs; it needs another OEK. I wouldn’t say this is too farfetched since it’s quite similar to what happened with root A; we were given a number of hints which misled us into thinking that Touka was the one Kaneki was holding under the cloth in the promotional art and that the hands in the opening belonged to her, when really, those were all red herrings and it was Hide all along.

(Also note how in the above image, Kaneki seems to be being crowned King with Hide by his side ?)

Also, if the child of Kaneki and Touka dies, which seems extremely likely (check out this theory for evidence/foreshadowing of the child’s death in Ishida’s art and poems), it could be symbolic of their union being incapable of uniting humans and ghouls (since it failed to make a human/ghoul hybrid), further implying that it’s a red herring (chucking @fakeking here since he copyrighted this idea apparently). Then Hide would have to step in as the second OEK to aid the revolution.

It would be even more significant, symbolically, if Touka was never pregnant in the first place, as some have started to speculate (partly because of the little “probably” in her speech bubble when she was giving Kaneki the news), because this would symbolise the fact that their union was a falsehood all along.

All this would also fit nicely on the timeline since the previously mentioned theory would place the child’s death sometime soon, especially now that the Oggai have made it underground, and if we assume that Hide returns in chapter 136 to parallel the original series (and also would mean that the chapter would be released around the time of August 11th, Hide’s cliffhanger page from the TG calendar), it would fit quite well with these events for this to be the time that he breaks off from Eto to take up his spot beside Kaneki.

However this goes, I’m almost 100% certain that Hide’s role in the story has run far deeper than we’ve been shown, and even if he appears as an antagonist, I believe his destiny was always to end up by Kaneki’s side. Everything in the series so far has pointed to that conclusion; all their symbolism together, the fact that Hide’s entire character revolves around Kaneki, the immense sacrifices that Hide has shown to make for his best friend, the way in which Hide has been portrayed as Kaneki’s link to the human world many times before, and last but certainly not least, the conclusion of their school play practically spells it out for us.

Whether the position he takes up is as significant as the joint One Eyed King is still debatable, but it’s definitely one of many possibilities, and I believe he’s definitely needed to play a significant role in the unity of ghouls and humans.

[vanillatwilight17]

A New Beginning (Chapter 7)

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: Thank you for all the awesome reviews I got on the last chapter. Special shout out to kmomof4 for her amazing reviews of the whole story! It's Christmas in July for this chapter! I hope you enjoy and please review to let me know what you think!

Chapter 7: The Most Magical Time of the Year

Christmastime was in the air in Storybrooke, Main and it seemed like everyone was floating around on clouds completely immersed in the holiday spirit. At seven months pregnant Emma was now fairly large in the stomach area and tired very easily and perhaps as much as Killian wanted her to she hadn't let it slow her down any. They had just this morning resolved the issue of when she was going to stop working.

"You said you were going to take some time during Henry's school break to spend with him before the baby comes right?" Killian had asked that morning after they had gotten into the station and were getting their day started.

"Yea…" Emma said wondering where this was going.

"Well I was thinking that maybe you should let that be the start of your maternity leave as well."

"Huh? Did you get into the rum last night while I was sleeping?" Emma asked him. David put down the file folder he was looking over and relaxed back in his chair.

"This is going to be good." He said.

"You stay out of this!" Emma said pointing her finger at him causing David to throw his hands up.

"Well you were going to need to stop work eventually right?"

"Yea but not with two months still to go before the baby is born! What am I supposed to do for two months? Sit home and knit?" Emma asked frustrated at her husband.

"You know how to knit?" Killian asked.

"Figure of speech!" David whispered to his son in law causing Emma to shoot him a death glare.

"Killian, I'm pregnant not sick or handicapped. I'm not going to break so stop treating me like a piece of glass."

"You are my one true love and you are carrying my child! Damn right I'm going to do everything to protect you both now and for always! I know you aren't going to break but you need to slow down a little! As the due date gets closer I think we just need to start planning a little for these things you know?" Killian said.

"Dad!" Emma said turning to David.

"I thought you wanted me to stay out of it?"

"Well now I want you in it. He's saying nice things and making me want to cave." Killian let out his famous pirates grin on that one.

"I think…you two should compromise." David said.

"What a copout answer you are supposed to take my side!" Emma said.

"I had this same argument with your mother around this time when she was pregnant with you and your brother. I agree with both of you. Emma you need to start slowing down a bit, I know you may feel like you can still go one hundred miles per hour but the more this pregnancy progresses your body is going to be more susceptible to stress. You were born a week early because of it. Killian, I understand you completely as I have been in your shoes, with every day you are going to worry abut them more and more but believe me when I say she's not going to break." David said.

"Fine, how about this? When I come back from time off with Henry I will be strictly on desk duty and then once February rolls around and we are in the home stretch I'll take it on a day to day basis." Emma said.

"Second week of February you go on maternity leave an take the time at home to prepare for the baby." Killian said. The two had a stare down and David found his eyes going back and forth like watching a tennis match.

"Fine." Emma said returning to her work and Killian got up and went over to her and gave her a big hug and kiss on the cheek.

"Thank you love! I love you more than anything you know that?" Killian said.

"I wouldn't push it mister." Emma said.

"Right, then, back to work I go." He said walking back to his desk.

"Killian,"

"Yes?"

"I love you too." Emma said smiling at her husband who returned the gesture.

"Ok there are way too many of us, if we give presents to everybody we are all gonna be in the poorhouse." Regina said as she, Emma, Snow, Zelena, and Belle planned for their big holiday get together one evening at Snow's house.

"Agreed. So how do we want to handle this?" Snow said.

"We could do Secret Santa." Emma said.

"What is Secret Santa?" Zelena asked.

"So typically there is a hat or a bag and everyone who is going to be in the gift exchange puts their name in and you take turns drawing names and whosever name you get you buy a gift for that person. Everyone gets a gift but it saves a you a lot of money." Emma said.

"I love that idea!" Belle said.

"Agreed!" Snow said and the others nodded their heads.

"Ok there are basic rules to it, like you can't get your own name, you can't say who you have because then it's not a secret anymore and once one person says who they have it becomes this domino effect of process of elimination of who has who and the fun is gone."

"I say a fifty dollar limit on the gift. Anyone object?" Regina offered and everyone agreed.

"What about the kids?" Snow asked.

"I say the kids are fair game, I feel like Henry will want to participate though so we can put his name in and let him pick. In immediate family's what you choose to do for actual Christmas Day is up to you. I was planning on getting Killian and my parents something for instance and obviously "Santa" is coming to see Henry." Emma said.

"Aww Henry still believes in Santa?" Belle asked.

"If it's out there, Henry believes in it. I think he knows the truth but I enjoy that he still goes along with it." Emma said.

"Soon you will have another a little one at Christmas and that is the best!" Snow said rubbing her daughter's belly.

"Ok so when we pull names, you can't get yourself, you can't get anyone in your immediate family, and you can't say who you got." Zelena offered as official rules and everyone agreed. They met everyone at Granny's that evening and names were pulled to yield the following results. It was decided that since Red was off with Dorothy in Oz Granny would be invited to their family get together. After several times needing to redraw everyone ended up with a Secret Santa. Everyone also got a good laugh out of people's reactions to who they got.

Emma = Regina "Ok that's not so bad!"

Killian = Granny "Oh bloody hell!"

David = Zelena "This will be…interesting."

Snow = Belle "Oh that's easy!"

Henry = Gold "Probably good I got this one."

Regina = Snow "I would pull that one."

Zelena = Henry "Thank God!"

Belle = David "How exciting!"

Gold = Emma "Why me?"

Granny = Killian "Well this will be cheap and easy, got the perfect present in the back!"

"I give it two days until everyone knows who has who." Granny said.

"What's the fun in that? Everyone keep your secret! We will exchange gifts and have dinner Christmas Eve at my house!" Snow said.

"We're going to be spending the night afterwards as well." Emma said.

"Really?" David asked excitedly.

"Yea, we talked about it a few days ago. That way we can just be there for Christmas morning and stuff." Emma said.

"Do you want me to take you over there after you open your presents?" Regina asked Henry.

"Actually I was just going to stay there with them and then come to your house later, unless that's not ok." Henry asked. Emma silently kicked herself, she should have talked to Regina first before she made these plans.

"Oh…that's fine. Just let me know when you are headed over." Regina said smiling but obviously a bit crushed at not being with her son first thing Christmas morning.

Later that evening Emma sat down in front of Killian who was reading a pregnancy book on the couch.

"Ok so I got Regina." Emma said.

"I think you missed the point of Secret Santa love." Killian said putting down the book.

"No I'm telling you because I need to talk to you about what I want to give her because it involves you too." Emma said as Killian grabbed her feet and started giving her a foot massage.

"Now I'm frightened." He said.

"I wanted to ask her, if it's alright with you that is, to be the baby's godmother." Emma said.

"The irony of the Evil Queen being godmother to Snow White's grandchild is beyond anything imaginable." Killian said.

"I'm aware of that but besides you and my parents she is my best friend." Emma said.

"I feel like there is more to it then that. I saw the face you made when Henry announced his plans for Christmas morning earlier."

"Ever since I came back into his life and the first curse broke Henry has drifted more towards us and while he and Regina have a great relationship I can tell she misses him and the days she had him to herself terribly."

"Henry isn't a child anymore love, he makes his own decision about where he wants to spend his time. Albeit when he started calling me dad I could tell it bothered her a bit." Killian said.

"Now that there is a new baby coming, one that is going to be his sibling none the less I feel like he will gravitate this way more and more. So I want her to have a special role in the baby's life and feel included. She spent so much time shut out from the family…"

"Her own doing…"Killian reminded her.

"Agreed by her own doing but she's done the hardest thing anyone can do, you should know this, she changed. So what do you think?"

"I think…it is a great idea." Killian said smiling. "How do you plan to give it in a gift though?"

"I was thinking something similar to how I told you about little one here," Emma said placing her hand on her stomach.

"Regina doesn't strike me as the pocket watch type." He said laughing.

"I was thinking more like a locket or something." Emma said swatting at his leg.

"Sounds good to me love." Killian said leaning over to kiss his wife on the lips.

Soon enough presents were bought and wrapped and it was Christmas Eve. When Emma and Killian walked into Snow's house that afternoon they found her mother and Granny hard at work in the kitchen.

"Hey Mom! We're here! Need any help?" Emma said as they walked into the kitchen.

"Hi Sweetie!" Her mom yelled back. "No I think we got this covered you just relax. Where is Henry?" Snow asked as Emma walked over to hug her mother.

"He was with Regina last night so I could wrap all his presents so she's bringing him with them. Spoiled turd!" Emma said.

"That's what kids are for!" Granny said and David and Neal came in the kitchen.

"Emmy, Emmy!" Neal said running to his sister as Emma bent down to pick him up.

"Hey buddy!" Emma said giving her brother a hug.

"Is Santa coming tonight?" She asked him.

"Yes!" He said excited. "Baby come?" He asked pointing to her stomach.

"No, baby isn't coming yet, soon though. It's getting hard for me to hold you right now Bud," Emma said and Killian reached over to take him from her.

"Killy!" The little boy said.

"Were you a good little lad this year?" he asked him

"Yes!" Neal answered.

"Good, because Santa only brings toys to good lads!" Killian said.

"I good lad!" Neal announced causing everyone to laugh.

"That's good. David could you help me bring these presents in from the car. We need to stash some down in the basement so this guy and the one coming later don't see them until tomorrow." Killian said.

"Sure thing!" David said.

The evening progressed and people started to arrive and the tree became almost hidden behind all the presents. Dinner was incredible and after everyone had finished eating the kids declared it was time to open presents. They let the kids open their gifts first since they couldn't wait any longer. Soon Robin, Neal, and Gideon had so many new toys they didn't know what to do with themselves.

"And Santa hasn't even come yet!" Belle said looking at how loved all the children were. Henry got gifts from his grandfather and Granny as well but was told he would have to wait until tomorrow for his other gifts. Gold gave Henry an orb that would change color depending on the weather, his mood, moods of other's around him.

"That better be all that thing does Gold." Regina and Emma said not trusting the Dark One.

"I'd never hurt my grandson ladies, don't worry!" Gold said. After the kids opened their presents it was time for Secret Santa. Killian and Granny laughed that they had each other. Killian had gotten Granny a new set of pots and pans as hers were getting old and rusted and she had given him a bottle of rum and a monogramed flask.

"You know me so well Granny." Killian said. David got Zelena tickets to go see Wicked on Broadway and he was surpised to find she loved the idea.

"I've been dying to see how those bastards depict me this time."

"You're actually a good guy, Mom took to me see that play a while back." Henry said and the gifts continued to be exchanged.

"It appears it's my turn." Gold said getting up to grab his gift.

"Mrs. Jones." He said handing the wrapped present to Emma.

"Oh God." Emma said not sure how to feel.

"Relax, it's nothing magical. It's more…sentimental. Something I found lying around my shop that I believe once belonged to you, that I thought you might want for your child." Gold said. Emma unwrapped the box and opened it to find a glass unicorn mobile inside causing Snow to instantly burst into tears.

"Oh Emma that's the mobile from your nursery!" She said. Emma looked down at the gift and felt speechless.

"Gold I don't know what to say…thank you." She said. Perhaps the man really did have a heart in there somewhere after all.

"It seemed only right you should have it." He said as Belle put her arm around him and smiled. The person to give her gift was Emma who reached over and grabbed a small box and handed it to Regina.

"Saved the best for last!" Emma said nervous at Regina's reaction to her gift as she opened the box to reveal a locket.

"Thank you Emma it's beautiful." Regina said.

"Open it." Emma urged. On one side of the locket was a picture of Regina and Henry and underneath inscribed the word 'mother.' On the other side was a picture of the baby from the 3D ultrasound they did with the word 'godmother' inscribed underneath.

"Emma…"Regina said looking from Emma to Killian.

"Regina, you have been a huge pain in the ass but you have also always been there for me when I needed you. You are my best friend and an incredible mother to Henry and it would be our honor if you would be our baby's godmother." Emma said. She barely got the words out before Regina was across the room with her arms wrapped around her.

"Of course! I would love to be the baby's godmother! You have no idea what this means to me. Thank you guys so much!" She said then turning to hug Killian.

At the end of the evening everyone had gone home except Emma, Killian, and Henry. Cookies were put out for Santa and everyone sat down so David could read The Night Before Christmas before everyone went to bed. The next morning there were even more presents than the night before surrounding the tree and Henry and Neal were anxious to get started unwrapping.

"Hold on guys, let me get the camera!" Snow said before they started. Killian had gotten Emma a beautiful necklace with a heart that had two stones in it, an aquamarine for March when Henry was born and an Amethyst for February when their baby would be born. She had gotten him a new ring with the same two stones in it and they laughed at how similar their minds worked. Henry was thrilled when he opened his new Nintendo Switch.

"Thank you guys!" He said running over to hug his parents.

"You're welcome kid!" Emma said hugging him back. "Ok guys hold on, I have a special gift for you!" She said to her parents and she went and grabbed a box. This is something I have been working on for awhile now and I finally got it done!" She said handing them the box.

"It's for both of us?" Snow asked and Emma nodded and Killian put his arm around his wife knowing what the gift was.

"How long before she cries?" He asked.

"Second page max," Emma said and her parents opened the box to find a scrapbook.

"So I don't have a lot of stuff but this is everything I held on to or was given by my foster parents or the system when I aged out." Emma said. It was a scrapbook detailing in pictures, art work, school work, etc. her childhood. Snow didn't even make it to the second page before she was absolutely in tears.

"Emma you have no idea what this means to your father and I to have this. We missed so much with you and now we have a glimpse into your childhood and a chance to have some of those memories back. I promise that we will be here for you from this moment until our last days. You are an incredible mother to Henry and this new baby is going to be so lucky to call you Mommy." Snow said hugging her daughter. Emma looked over to see her father also in tears looking at pictures of his baby girl.

"Come here Daddy," She said and he came over and kissed the top of her head holding her close to him.

"I love you Em," He said.

"I love you too Daddy." She said back.

After they had dropped Henry off at Regina's and carted all their stuff inside Emma and Killian sat down together for a few quiet moments.

"Merry Christmas love," He said to her, kissing her softly.

"Merry Christmas Killian."

"Merry Christmas baby." They both said to her stomach where their hands entwined.

"Next Christmas we will have an almost one year old." Emma said.

"That's hard to even wrap my head around at the moment." Killian said.

"I know I can't even grasp that soon the baby will be here let alone what our lives will look like in a year," Emma said. "I have one more present for you though." She pulled out a small box she had been stashing. Inside was a small ornament for the tree that showed a man, woman, and boy, the woman with a swollen belly and man with his arms around her, that said: Killian, Emma, and Henry on the top then Jones Family Christmas 2017.

"I figured every year we could get a special ornament like this and it could be like a milestone for the year." Emma said.

"I love it Emma. However, you have already given me the greatest gift of all in the form of you, Henry, and this little one right here." Killian said and he leaned in to kiss her one more time and they relaxed on the couch, watching the fire in the fireplace enjoying some of their last few moments together before the baby arrived.

"Merry Christmas to all." Emma said.

"And to all a good night." Killian said back.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed. The baby will be here in either the next chapter or the chapter after that at the latest I haven't totally decided yet. Any guess on boy or girl? Please review and let me know what you think!

[comicteaparty]

December 7th-December 13th, 2019 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from December 7th, 2019 to December 13th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

If you could redo one part of your story, which part would it be and why?

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

I can and do redo parts of my story. I’m working on a redux of the first two chapters of my comic, Dark Wings: Eryl (https://www.flowerlarkstudios.com/art-archive/eryl-redux-archives/ - rated M) right now. I’m doing so for quite a few reasons, some of which are very personal and have to do with my own growth as a person, not just as a creator. It was also to update the writing, partly to update the art, and because I took a three year hiatus a long time ago which created a huge, jarring gap in not the just art and writing, but also the tone and direction of the comic. I also sometimes go back and adjust speech bubbles in old pages to close plot-holes or fix some badly-written dialogue. I feel that if there is any part of my story where redoing sections can improve the entire course of the comic and readers’ enjoyment of it, I will. And if I don’t, I run the risk of losing inspiration for the entire comic because I can’t figure out how to work with an older part of it. Rather than twist my plot into pretzels trying to explain something carelessly written a decade ago in current scenes or allowing plot-holes to open, I go back and fix the bad parts. Reduxes are often seen as taboo by a lot of comic creators. But if looking back genuinely helps me to keep going forward, then I will.(edited)

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

For Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/), it'd be less about rewriting existing things, and more about... adding back in the extra pages/detail/fun-stuff that I originally wrote, but had to cut out to meet a reasonable page count per chapter. With the number of hours a single page takes to paint, I really REALLY have to streamline things, or I'll never finish this damn project Good news is, I think it's helped the pacing in its own way. And I have lots of fluff and fun stuff coming down the line that I think are better suited to the story anyway. So... I guess... in a different world, I'd simplify the art style, so I could just write more? Yeah, that. Let's go with that.(edited)

AntiBunny

We all have things we'd like to redo, but if we kept rebooting we'd never make progress. That said in AntiBunny: The Gritty City Stories http://antibunny.net/ I'd probably have set it in the 1980's instead of present day. It's hard to write mysteries around google and cell phones, or to keep the superscience impressive. Grounding it in a known time period would have been easier.

Eightfish

@LadyLazuli (Phantomarine) I just read through your archive and ohmygod, wow! Your art is so beautiful. The colors! The backgrounds! Every page is like a painting the panels are so well put together. And I love the way you draw the seaghosts all together. I can't imaging how much time that took. And the worldbuilding is fantastic and creative, and the dialogue flows so well, and I'm so invested in your characters (when are we getting back to Phaedra??), and your villains are so fun. Cheth is so fun to see, and such a unique idea, I am so into it.

twothirty

i actually did redo the first half of chapter 1 (http://versecomic.com/) when i came back to it after 2-ish years. I opted for a much slower start to introduce readers to this world where things aren't perfect but people are getting by. Originally i had it start off in the midst of a catastrophe and i just wasn't feeling it. I always ruminate on the pacing of my story, i think the first book moves very fast, and there's some scenes i'd make a few pages longer to just get in some more dialogue...

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

@Eightfish Oh my goodness!! That’s so wonderful and so kind of you to say. It’s my only current story idea, so I’m putting all the effort in that I can muster. Thank you for checking it out! This is the last of the chapters that help flesh out the outside world - we’ll be seeing a lot more of Cheth and Phaedra very soon... for better or for worse. I can’t wait to get back to them and FINALLY tie all the threads together Thank you again!

seetherabbit

The only one that I would do a redo would the first story in Vulperra https://vulperra.com/comic/flash-gauntlet-1/ Apart from giving it a George Lucas (redrawing it with improved graphics aka art skill), I would also add in pages before and after the 10 pages thats out. What I would add is Flash Gauntlet (the main character) tell the tale of him fighting the demon in the story. There's one story that I did a redo on before it got published, which is this one. https://vulperra.com/comic/guardian-of-castle-bogo-1/ What I changed was the climax and the ending. The story is about a bunch of people in a castle that has only one guardian who protects the rest of the citizen from monsters and such. No one else wants to use weapons and the guardian is tired of his work and tries to throw it on Flash Gauntlet. The climax is that Flash Gauntlet convices the others to help the guardian out by making better defences around the castle. In the old version, the citizens learns to wield weapons instead. I didn't like the old version because I felt it was too preachy, and the ending gave me a bleh feeling. There's a couple of things in the story that's being published now, and one future one that I could change, but that's more minor things that I think I don't need to go back to. I'm more of a "let the mistakes be and leave them as a reminder to get gudd" kind of guy. Unless I hate it the story, like the Castle short

Capitania do Azar

Oh I have done so many edits over at https://www.sarilho.net/en/. They're mostly to text (for clarity) and minor edits here and there for continuity or correcting mistakes. Tho more recently I found out than I have the time I shouldn't let it reflect anything less than my best work, so in the latest chapter I've moved pages and panels around to make for a better story flow (even adding pages when I realized I would go over the initial number of pages I planned)

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

Sometimes I think I should have started the story with Victoria's situation at home and her relationship to her mother, since that is pretty important for the plot. But to be fair...not showing this at the beginning created a little bit more intrigue and I guess I'm not far enough into the plot yet to really want to change anything of substance.

sssfrs

I would redo chapter 2 https://tapas.io/episode/1486719 to improve the art and change around some of the dialogue

Ooh there were also some details I forgot to include in the most recent chapter

Deo101

I think I would want to add some pages to slow my pacing down, and also spend a bit longer on backgrounds. I suppose in theory I could add pages in now, but I think I'd rather put that effort into moving forward!

snuffysam

In terms of art - a lot lol, the early art of Super Galaxy Knights http://sgkdr.thecomicseries.com/comics/ is pretty bad. But I'm almost finished redoing all the chapters that were drawn on paper & didn't have shading, so that won't be a problem for much longer. In terms of the writing and pacing and stuff, I'm mostly still good with my earlier work? The one thing I regret is the end of Book 1 Chapter 7 - the part where Cahe straight-up murders three guys. I feel like it doesn't make that much sense for his character, and doesn't even resolve the "we need a rounded out team" thing very well. An ideal redo would change Cahe's ability to make more sense for his character - say, he can put a shield on Pejiba that reflects all damage to her back at her attackers. But making a change like that would make it impossible for Mizuki to use that ability while fighting Zebugu, which would take away one of the major aspects of that fight. At the very least, I'd probably cut out the page where Cahe kills the tank driver :p