#listen… I don’t do fanart often… so take that for what it means

[chaichai-draws]

Sometimes a family is a put out Earth Kingdom Captain and his three teenaged bullies

Go Team Steam! I’m running out of chapters in @lovelyelbowleech ‘s fic War Crimes…

[fellshish]

Weird question, maybe?

What do you think you would recommend when you feel depression (and you're under treatment and all that), to love drawing art and writing again? I mean, there are some videos that inspire you or stuff like that? I have read your fic and recs and would love to be back into writing and all that 💕

Thank you for trusting me with such a vulnerable question. I applaud your choice to be in therapy, and i’m going to assume you’ve asked your therapist for helpful steps in this, too? If not, that could be a good idea since they know your personal circumstances.

I’m not a therapist. Please keep that in mind. But i too have struggled with long absences from creating, so i can give you some insights in how i came back from that.

An important thing is practicing kindness to myself. Of course, that’s far from easy. But if i don’t create? I forgive myself. If i was going to write and i didn’t? Well it’s a hobby, not a job, and i should only do it if it’s (mostly) fun. No matter how many days i haven’t written — it’s ok. That’s what i repeat to myself: it’s ok, and you will write when you want to.

Your mind might be too clouded with depression right now to create. That’s ok — it needs all the energy for healing from that. You’re doing that, and that’s already amazing.

Here’s what i also give myself permission for: to do things badly. To suck ass. To write horribly. As long as i’m having fun, who cares. If i wish to share my writing in the future i can always edit it. Whip it into shape. But at first, in the process? I am writing for me, and it’s allowed to be terrible. Again, i am not being paid, this is my creative outlet, i am doing this for fun.

You ask what inspires me. I’ve thought about it and, well, a lot does. I mostly get ideas (or solutions for ideas that are stuck) when i am doing other things, like doing dishes, or going on walks, or cleaning, or showering. That’s when suddenly something locks into place in my brain that’s been turning around without me even knowing.

And what inspires me to create (again), is other art. Reading books or graphic novels. Reading a funny or heartbreaking fic. Admiring fanart. But also going to a museum, a local drag show, a concert, … watching other artists extract joy from doing what they do. I get inspired by films, often too about artists, like dead poets society. Or i’ve started writing poetry again after reading a destiel au about a poet trying to find inspiration again after a long absence and struggling with self confidence. Fandom specific: rewatching the thing you want to create for, helps.

Reading about writing and listening to podcasts about writing, especially where writers talk about their insecurities, has also been helpful. Bird By Bird by Anne Lamott i found interesting. How to fail often has writer guests and is specifically about how failings and imposter syndrome have been part of even the most successful people’s careers. The writer files and The writers panel are interesting podcasts on writing as well.

I think my advice to you would be, take small steps. Forgive yourself every time along the way. Make a list of things that you love reading about and think of a way to put that in a blender for a story that will excite you. Allow yourself to write a bad first draft. To draw something imperfect. Fuck all the rules.

And start with short periods of creating. It’s a marathon not a sprint. Art is you, so you, it’s your self expression and though it might change over the years, it’s always yours. You can’t lose it. It’s still in there.

I hope this helped. Best of luck.

[thesmpisonfire]

So I know a lot of people will probably disagree with this but I was watching forever yesterday and listened to him talk about viewer reactions to lore etc and I completely agree with him about how ccs need to be allowed to make their character villains if they want and I 1000% agree, let the cc do what they want with THEIR characters. but him being so focused on the negativity of Twitter and how if people don’t stop being negative on Twitter etc the series won’t last long and as sad as it is to admit it will literally never get better on there so ccs need to stop basing how they feel about the SMP on people on twitters opinions. Again I don’t mean this in a mean away against forever but people being dickeheads on Twitter are not going to change because he decided to talk to his chat during a live stream. Take ccs like quackity and Foolish who have both reminded their chats it’s roleplay do not be fucking idiots like once or twice and then just did their thing uncaring of Twitter and people whining. Foolish literally arrested Pac and Mike and then took a job that was offered by the federation and the hate on Twitter was insane but he just doesn’t check Twitter so he didn’t care and quackity created an entire villain character that tried to blow up the everyone including the eggs and again yeah people were being ridiculous on Twitter but he just ignored it and did his thing and had fun. I just think if ccs are going to enjoy their time on the server they have to know that Twitter will not change, it’s awful and people SHOULD know not to behave like that but that’s just how that site has always been and I think basing your enjoyment and predicting the longevity of the server based on that is silly and is honestly just setting yourself up for failure

Cellbit and Felps are well used to twt being dicks since the Ordem Paranormal fandom when theres an active season happening is fucking TERRIBLE and completely impossible to actually navigate, so from those 2 they know how to manoeuvre it

Mike was always like "fuck all of you, I'm doing my own think" ever since I've watched him as a kid, and never was afraid to set his foot down and be clear that no chatter or tweet would make him change

Pac and Forever tho? They're new to this. Pac is way mellow and cares for the fanbase so he's always lurking and also hates to have serious talks about these topics so it often reaches boiling point for him to speak up. And Forever had an explosion in his fanbase and ever since the start was under attack, and as a fellow ADHDer I know how RSD gives you the need to constantly know what people talk about you and how badly it affects you. It's why Forever speaks a lot about twt, since he's always using it and lurking to know what's happening

I agree with you, they should stop using it, but at the same time some of them are still getting a hand on it to find out exactly how to do it since they love to see the fanart and what the community is cheering about

[pocketsizedquasar]

gonna continue this thread here just because that post is getting very long haha

@puns-and-podcasts

first - no need to apologize ! i just replied bc i saw the question and wanted to answer it. but to the rest of your questions:

But I’m also aware from conversations I’ve had with Black friends for example, that they do want to just see more casual rep and it’s better to have characters at least be allowed to be diverse rather than having the whole fandom just default to seeing people as white and having that be the default standard fanart setting ™. 

definitely agree with this as well! casual rep is good and in general, imo describing the characters’ race is better than Not describing it (this is true for white characters too -- if you describe everyone’s race But the white characters then it can read as though whiteness is being treated as default). having diverse, intentional casual rep is a good thing and i definitely don’t mean to take away from teh importance of that, especially when the alternative is everyone being written “aracially” and thus being generally thought of as white-as-default.

(rest under a cut bc. asdlkfjasdjf i talk a lot)

but I can also see people saying ‘well it’s too complicated to do it well I might get in trouble’ and just not doing it at all. Just using that as an excuse to never have people of colour in their work. And I’m aware that I’m probably going to get it wrong sometimes, and I do think larger creators do have more responsibility to get it right because they have the resources to hire sensitive readers and to pay people to do research etc.

i think generally this is the right attitude. it’s important to acknowledge that as a white creator you are probably going to get something wrong at some point, and that’s okay -- that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try anyways. sometimes you are going to overstep or misstep, and that’s not a reason to just Never try to include things. n yeah, i do think the more resources you have (ie financial, collaborators etc) the more ability you have to do things like hire sensitivity readers etc., but there’s still a lot you can do even as a single person team to consume media by POC, or listen to when we talk about how to write us authentically/respectfully. i’m going to bring up a pretty large resource just in case you may not have heard of them already, so i’m sorry if you have, but i definitely recommend checking out the Tumblr page Writing With Color; they’re full of masterposts and resources and a very extensive backlog of people asking specific questions re: race and diversity in writing, so throwing them out there!

I guess I wanted to understand whether you think it would be better if people didn’t headcanon characters as people of colour or like, that there needs to be more intentional discussion about it, or that it’s better if it’s included textually and as part of the media?

I definitely don’t want to tell people that they can’t headcanon white or “aracial” characters as POC. I do that all the time! i just want people to be intentional about when they do so, and to think about what their specific headcanons are and why they’re having that headcanon. ie are you just making Jon a generic, racially ambiguous brown person because you see everyone drawing him as brown? that’s probably not good.

I also think that highlighting characters of color where they Do exist canonically in the media is important as well. fandoms/etc often have a problem of like...ignoring canon characters of color (this also happens to female characters, disabled characters etc but that’s another topic) in favor of white or white-written counterparts, even when the characters of color are written well/have engaging and interesting arcs or backstories/etc.

Because I can also see the value of not specifying things like race and appearance in an audio medium and allowing people to imagine and project themselves onto the characters more freely

in my opinion, and other ppl may be inclined to disagree with me, i think any value there might be in not specifying race is overshadowed by the harms of aracial writing. oartially because if you don’t specify a character’s race, 99% of the time, people are going to assume they’re white, because whiteness is considered a default. but also because “aracial” doesn’t really exist.

because what does it mean to write a character without a race? most of the main cast of TMA -- Jon, Tim, Martin, Sasha, Georgie, Melanie etc-- never have their race specified in the canon. but does that actually mean they don’t have a race?

what about martin’s repeated surprise when he learns about police corruption? what about tim’s insistence that the solution to jon’s paranoia is institutionalizing him? what about tim and sasha’s conversation regarding the sexism in how sasha wasn’t promoted to Head Archivist, and how sexism is brought up as the only potential limiting factor in her lack of promotion -- and not other forms of oppression? what about georgie’s attitude of not wanting to engage with the oppressive system and backing out of it? melanie’s thoughts on exporting the problems of “our” world into some invisible “other” world? etc etc etc

these attitudes aren’t inherently white in the sense that only white people could have them...but they are very white. all of these characters have countless examples of little things, comments and attitudes and behaviors, that add up so that the characters read as extremely white. the characters are all voiced by white VAs. in certain cases -- like with sasha, like with georgie’s comments about being judged for her class/accent -- we are actually effectively told to infer that these characters aren’t experiecing oppression on the basis of race.

so all of these characters who are written “without” race being specified...are effectively written as white. due to both conscious and unconscious decisions and attitudes implanted on them by a white writer.

but who does get their race described? we know salesa is samoan immediately, we know annabelle is Black immediately, even random side characters mentioned in passing have race specified...unless they’re white (with few exceptions). which leads to the awkward situation that whiteness is default, and we should assume the characters are white unless otherwise specified.

so what this “not specifying race” behavior really leaves us with is a bunch of “aracial” characters who are very white-coded. it says “the default, non-racialized experience is the white experience.” the experience that everyone can supposedly relate to or project on or imagine their own realities onto is a white experience. there is no such thing as a person without race. but because white ppl and creators often don’t see their own whiteness, whiteness as an experience and identity gets de-racialized and universalized, branding other experiences as, well, “other.”

Am I going to say that you should Always all the time in every case specify your character’s race? maybe not; i’m sure there are exceptions. I’m sure there’s examples places where race-blank writing works. but i will say that in my opinion, the vast majority of the time, it is better to Name your characters’ experiences. whiteness-as-default is pervasive, and until it isn’t, i don’t think aracial writing can really work on a broader scale.

[techslander]

The Bad Batch: pet cat headcanons

yes I’m aware tookas are the SW universe equivalent to cats, no I don’t care because cats are my favorite animal and I think the batch should have some.

Hunter: Tabby

Hunter isn’t the biggest cat or animal guy. The fur gets his allergies kicking, and he’s too busy to attend to a little animal 24/7, which is why an orange tabby is perfect for him. Tabby cats do whatever the fuck they want so most of the day Hunter can do what he needs to do while his cat runs around the ship and bothers his brothers. He can be found, on occasion, cuddling with said cat in his bunk (usually with a blanket covering his nose so he doesn’t start sneezing).

Tech: Siamese

Tech was the last of his brothers who they’d guess to like having a pet around, and he didn’t even think he did, until he got his cat. Siamese cats have a lot of energy and are very talkative, so while Tech works on repairs or personal projects, he usually has his kitty nearby so he has someone to explain what he’s doing to. And yes, the cat does respond with chirps and meows, and they develop a means of “conversation” that echo through the ship. Sometimes his cat will walk over his work table and he’ll half-heartedly shoo it off, but it usually wins and ends up napping on his datapad.

Wrecker: Maine Coon

Giant cat for a giant guy. Maine coons are one of the largest cat breeds, getting up to 20 lb. They’re energetic, playful, and pretty much as close as you can get to a dog in a cat. Wrecker is always playing with his cat, using spare parts to play fetch and letting it climb on top of him whenever it wants to. They have knocked over machinery and shelves on more than one occasion, and wrecker tried teaching it some tricks at one point (cats are still cats and it wasn’t very successful).

Crosshair: White cat ??

No specifics on the kind of cat, every piece of fanart with crosshair and a white kitty has a special place in my heart. He barely acknowledges the cat and will refuse to admit it’s his but the little kitty sleeps on his neck, on his shoulder, and on top of his head when he’s in his bunk and he never once attempts to make it leave. When he’s alone, it takes a solid 2 minutes before he’s baby-talking the cat and petting it in between cleaning his rifle. His brothers have a silent agreement to never question him about it because if they did, he would only show it affection even less in front of them. He’s a total cat guy and loves having a quiet little buddy with him.

Echo: Calico

Echo loves calico cats!! His cat is missing a leg, which is why the second he saw it on the streets of Ord Mantell, he took it in immediately. He’ll often speak to it like a fellow soldier, which his brothers find hilarious, but the cat does in fact listen and will sometimes choose to abide. The cat loves sleeping on his lap while he works, and Echo has found that petting it is very calming, especially when he has panic attacks. The kitty seems to know instinctively when he needs a friend by his side, and will often find him before he even realizes he’s anxious.

[whyismangososour]

I’m gonna just let out this one last rant real quick before I just block JKR from my tags forever and hopefully never have to speak about this again. Because I’ve been holding in these feelings ever since I made this blog last year and it’s all just coming out in a fit of reblog rage after destroying my mental health for so long. Plus I know I’m just speaking into the void. I just- I need to get these feelings out.

Harry Potter was both the first fandom I was ever in and the first time I fell in love with storytelling. It’s also one of those special pieces of art that kept me alive when I was in the thick of my depression, being bullied relentlessly, and didn’t realize I was queer (with both my sexuality and gender). While I don’t want to spend money on Joanne anymore, she’s not going to fucking stop me from engaging with this story. I have my hand me down copies of the books my parents gave me when I was seven. I have my old merch I got as a gift when I was 12. I have my daydreams and my fanart and A Very Potter Musical and Wizard Rock. I’m not going to buy her dumb wizard game or watch her stupid HBO show. But I’m not going to let Joanne take away this thing I love without a fight. Without Harry Potter, I wouldn’t even be here alive, let alone on Tumblr. And I know I’m not the only one.

To bully people relentlessly for holding onto and reclaiming whatever parts of this story they can that, often, was there for them when no one else was, not only is lacking any nuance and critical thinking, but also is incredibly cruel and is clearly a projection onto others. Plus it’s so clearly driving a complete wedge between people, both in the LGBTQ+ community and those who are just allies. I know I’ve never felt more isolated than I have since Joanne started her tirade and brought on people’s clumsy boycotts.

And listen, I get it. I get it if you’re one of the victims of this systemic abuse Joanne’s caused and you just want to lash out. You want to do anything to stop her. So, you immediately block and shut down anyone who so much as mentions their Hogwarts house in their bio. Because, to you, supporting this story is supporting bigotry which is supporting these hate crimes and legislation. I get it. You don’t have to engage with people who still enjoy Harry Potter. But the depressing fact is that yelling at them to overcorrect and boycott everything that Joanne has touched, not only doesn’t get rid of the problem, but it actively makes it worse. When you are telling people to stop engaging at all with Harry Potter, you are basically telling them that what Joanne is doing is their fault. It’s basically a guilt trip and it’s only going to drive them away from the right advocacy or force them into it unwillingly (and if you’re forcing someone into advocacy then that isn’t real advocacy).

And the thing is, Joanne knows this. That’s why she claims so adamantly that people who enjoy her work are supporting her. She knows it’s driving a wedge between us and therefore distracting us from the actual, visceral harm she is contributing towards. She actively encourages it because it’s taking some of the blame away from her for a change. Meanwhile, there are god knows how many trans people actively dying everyday and fighting over a slightly outdated children’s book series from the 2000s isn’t going to change that.

It doesn’t mean you have to enjoy it or engage with it at all. Really, that’s up to personal choice. But what it does mean is that each of us has the responsibility to be there for each other no matter what. And it also means we have the responsibility to stay as educated as much as possible. This doesn’t mean erasing the books from our cultural history (another thing that makes it worse). Nor does it mean obsessively doom scrolling about every hate crime committed against the queer community. No, it means befriending different people, talking to those with different experiences, donating money when you can, reading up on trans and queer history, and goddamn it, maybe it even means writing queer Harry Potter fanfiction. Just as long as you don’t forget who the real enemy is because it’s not each other. It’s the people in power that Joanne forgot she clumsily advocated against in her dumb books. The type of person she has now turned into. Don’t you ever forget it.

[fluffypotatey]

hi, i'm late for the wip thing (grr busy, unfortunately) but can u tell about the 11 to 20, please? 🥹

hooooo boy you sure you wanna open that can of worms, deary 👀

i mean, I’m totally sharing just…it’s gonna take some time 😅

*coughs* sO

11. Yassifying Chick Flicks: Neither the First Nor the Last

happy pride 💅

As the title says, nothing about this story is hetero it is all homo. it’s a trope subversion on le old teen high school Chick Flicks. literally, the character’s initials tells you what their roles are (MC = main character, LI =love interest, RH = red herring, TBF = toxic best friend)

Can be interpreted as a character study on teen girls and internalized misogyny tho and i fully intend to expand on it.

12. Sunglasses Quiz

ok so this is just a cute little story of these two girlfriends who are trying to buy sunglasses, and you know how some have it where you take a quiz?

yeah, so these girlies are trying to take the quiz and end up getting……ahem, distracted 👀

anyway, the little description i write for this was “i was feeling sappy so i wrote some sappy queer love” so 🏳️‍🌈 happy pride🏳️‍🌈

“As a renowned researcher yourself,” Laura exclaimed, ignoring Pen’s comment, “it is shameful”— Pen rolled her eyes— “you, who have published many scholarly works into the world, should know better!”

Pen would have definitely shoved her girlfriend. She definitely would have if it were not for that sweet, “innocent” smile on Laura’s face. That’s what she tells herself anyway.

13. Witch boy

Repeating myself -> “LISTEN: i know this one also complete when you go to Ao3, but that's just because the 3rd part is being fucking slOW, so i said "fuck it ends nice at ch2 anyway," but i do want to add more. but yeah, to summarize: fic was inspired by a Halloween fanart i saw and i just ran with it.”

basically, it’s a modern au of bbc’s merlin but there seems to be magic leaking into “our” world every Halloween. and our lovely band of misfits (Merlin, Arthur, Gwen, Morgana, Lancelot, Gwaine, Elyan, Percival, and Leon) have taken it upon themselves to put a stop to it every Halloween. Also, slow burn romance between Merlin and Arthur bc i can never help myself. the 3rd installment is still in the works T^T but I do want to complete this one day. but yeah, here’s a snippet:

14:27 HighPriestessofthemStilletos: ARTHUR ANSWER YOUR FUCKING PHONE L'Oréal Hair: oop arthur’s in trouble!!!HoodieReigns: oh good so he’s not just doing this to me AngelQueen: He didn't even pick-up when you called? HighPriestessofthemStilletos: @HighKing_Wart I WILL BLOW UP YOUR PHONE HighPriestessofthemStilletos: DON’T TEST ME HoodieReigns: it seems he did not, in fact, pick-up when she called gwen

14. Emrys Shrine

this one is essentially a continuation of the Shrine of Emrys fic I wrote months ago but it is still in the works. Here we have Percival’s pov of the aftermath of the fic

Percival often wondered if Merlin was like him. Someone who had lived in the Druid camps as a child, but then he heard Arthur tell the tale of Merlin’s home Ealdor and his kind-hearted mother. He even met her sometime after Arthur had secured his throne from Morgana once again, and she had explained how the village has been her home since birth, how she spent her days living in it, how she had raised her darling boy in this place before he left for Camelot.

15. Lucky’s Timeline @ Beacon Hills

SUPER, SUper self indulgent fic where i insert my OCs, Lucy and Nick, into the teen wolf universe and how they interact with it. for example:

“But this is Coach’s car,” McCall said with a frown. “Is it?” Nick replied nonchalantly as he twirled the keys in his free hand, unlocking the car doors.

16. THE everchanging STORYLINE

ahaha…. so i named it that bc i’ve been writing this one for 2 years and almost every month i would change the plot. which meant i needed to reorganize the chapter list and where which scene went 🙄 (i am my own bane) this still happens and it’s been 3 years now T^T

anyway, this wip is my dc/batfam wip, aka the origins of Lucy and Nick lol. plot’s a nonchronological mystery with switching pics to outsider, minor characters, and Nick

17. Lucy Elliot: She Be Descending

literally just the previous but if Lucy was adopted by an abusive douchebag (douchebag being Thomas Elliot) and if she had a corruption arc (ngl i like corruption arc Lucy more she’s unhinged). assassin instead of vigilante and self-made leader of underground elites who “run” Gotham (killed the previous one and he was so impressed by her underhanded moves he placed her in his will instead of his son lmao)

anyway, snippet of Lucy and her (future ex) husband:

“Why darling”— she let out a scandalized gasp— “do you really think I would stray from you?” He merely gazed at her, eyes blank and cold. Lucy stared back, not one to be challenged. She knew he was just riling her up. Not that she was surprised in the slightest of his behavior. Lucy knew this was because of his alleged rivalry with a dear friend of hers. A dear friend whose father was the host of this gala. The gala said dear friend was said to be attending. “I would never doubt a woman who gave me a solemn vow.”

18. Mob Boss Lucy, Basically

remember what i wrote for 17? now let’s shift it to the right again! it’s me taking plot from 16 & 17 and trying to give Nick and Lucy an original story. Lucy still becomes a self-made mob boss but there’s no Gotham, no vigilantes.

the story here is that Lucy and Nick are building their power whilst evading the law and destroying any evidence that would lead to them bc their being hunted by a detective (who’s also Lucy’s childhood friend) and a private investigator

19. Dandelions

explained here

20. not really a sequel but it happens after

so this one is a continuation/sequel to 16. Lucy and Nick are happily married and adopted a really sweet kid (Caleb) but— oh no! horrible mercenaries attack Lucy and Caleb on their walk to the park! It leaves Lucy in critical condition and caused a magical outburst from Caleb and— whoops, there’s now a rift in time and space 🤷🏻‍♀️

i don’t really have much written and it’s self indulgent anyway so yeah

AND THERE YOU GO 🎉 phew that took me a bit but it was fun talking about them so thanks for the ask @thiamsxbitch 💕💕💕💕💕

[3nigm4art]

MI6 Cafe Creators Tag Game

(Thank you for tagging me, @spiritofcamelot!)

We’d love for people to keep getting to know each other after this year’s 007 Fest, so we’re starting this tag game!

Rules: Answer the questions, then tag 3 new people to complete this. Also, tag the person who tagged you and @mi6-cafe so we can reblog your response.

Note that when we say ‘fanwork’ in the questions below, that could mean a fanfic, gif, fanart, headcanon, cosplay, crocheted work---any kind of fancreation counts!

1. What work of yours challenged you when you were creating it?  

To some degree, everything I did has presented itself as challenging, one way or another. Mostly because a) I refuse to turn in sub-par work, and b) everything I knew was going to be easy had to be made more difficult by adding some challenge to it.

For example, I challenged myself to write “The Q With The Dragon Tattwo” within 24 hours. No one told me to do it, but I churned out the 2,710 words anyway.

And everything becomes challenging when you are stupid and ambitious. “No one has done that before? WELL, I’M GONNA DO IT.”

Which often results in dumb ideas being turned into even dumber things. Like “The Bidding” fanvid.

“Don’t do anything I would do, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” -Tony Stark

2. What is a fanwork you’ve seen which gave you a new headcanon about a character?    

Honestly, I don’t really headcanon things. Even if I do, I don’t follow them.

My headcanons are not necessarily inspired by fanworks, but more often than not they are just random crap that floats in my mind. (I mean, have you seen my headcanons?)

3. Is there a fanwork that you really want to make, but you haven’t started yet?

There are so many.

There’s a long fic, currently titled “Everywhere at The End of Time”, and the reason why it’s not completed is that it’s the fic that’s not supposed to fuck up. I’d rather take my sweet time about it than rush it and produce a product I am not satisfied with.

I wanted to make this paper theatre thing with Q in Q-branch during Skyfall. That project is currently in limbo. Not that it’s not started, but rather I have come to the conclusion that I can’t do it with my current abilities.

As well as other smaller things, let’s see... Pathologist AU, mage! Q and knight! Bond and other secret projects.

4. What fanwork of yours surprised you, and how? 

“If You Have The Time, Would You Come by And See me?” was one that got increasingly complicated as time went on.

It was inspired by a song called 漠河舞廳 by 柳爽. And the story behind that song was that was an old man who stood in front of what used to be a nightclub. It caught on fire one night in 1980 and his wife died in the fire.

“如果有時間 你會來看一看我吧” was the first line of the song, meaning “if you have the time, would you come by and see me”. And the song expresses survivor’s guilt of the man, and how time has been unforgiving to him, living alone all these years.

Yeah...It’s a hell of a song.

It was surprising because the giffing process was FUCKING HARD. I had to compress it again and again and IT WAS STILL OVER 9MB LIKE WTF.

But ultimately I am pleased with the results.

5. What themes/styles/subjects are common across many of your fanworks? 

Q, blue and sad shit

6. What other fandoms do you create for, if any?

I used to do stuff for Evangelion and Trigun before Bond completely took over.

I did some stuff for The Batman when it came out.

Just did some stuff for The Sandman too.

But believe me, my interests are much, much broader than this. 

7. Is there an artist that you like to listen to while you create? Or one whose work always inspires you?

Again, there are so many.

Legit, if I have a mood and tone I’m aiming for a piece, I have a playlist of 5-8 songs on it. So I’m not gonna rec them all because it would be impossible. And I listen to anything and everything.

FINE FINE I’LL REC STUFF

King Gnu and Radwimps are two of my favourite Japanese bands. King Gnu’s “Chameleon” and “Prayer X” are great. Radwimps’s “Picnic” is one I often find myself mindlessly singing to.

Recently got into Saint Motel, Muse, Mother Mother, The Strokes, Mitski and others.

If we are talking about art... It’s also a long ass list of Twitter handles .

Chinese artists: Amuiiart, RDJlock, Chain_HN, woyaoCharlie, fromchive, sayhanawork, RuiRiell

Japanese artists: akagawa_sagan, rui4444, fyfyfy1000, 2964_KO, shokuen, sotanami, asmk_gengaten, toboso_official

Others: Kilgaaaaaara, _haga_nom, sundayjorge, KimJungGiUS, zcb1346, _elibaum, viv_tanner, davaja, chipkidd, TotinoTedesco

And many, many more. You can check by looking at who I’m following.

8. Share a fanwork that you’ve found yourself thinking about weeks after reading/seeing it.

I’m gonna share the one that I have consistently been thinking about for years.

Andddd... I can’t find it. I think the post is gone.

Welp I’ll just have to share another one

This is a Victorian AU 00Q fan art, but the title was “Skyfall Revisited”, a clear reference to Brideshead Revisited.

It’s just really good.

9. Finally, share where you post your works! 

Twitter: 3NIGM4_4RT

AO3: 3NIGM4

Youtube: 3NIGM4

So I’ll tag: @emiliasilverova @bluebellofbakerstreet @silverbrume

[somehowmags]

I want context. What do you mean with fantasy racism toward Enderman Quackity(? I honestly don’t know what you’re talking about and now I’m curious

ok so im going to give the most through explanation i can here, please feel free to ask more if you are confused on something or if you want to know more: so fantasy racism is when a work will have a non human race, (for example, the taugel from fire emblem awakening, who are a race of wererabbits), but then will apply in universe discrimination against that race (the taugel people were victims of a genocide, with panne and later her son yarne being the last remaining taugel that we know of). in my experience fantasy racism is very rarely written well. many of the people who write it have a fundamental misunderstanding of how racism works and why it happens, and in some cases when the writer is white, have never experienced racism themselves. in dsmp fanworks, fantasy racism is most often carried out against characters like ranboo, who is canonically a enderman hybrid, or characters like techno or fundy, who are popularly headcanon'd to be shapeshifters or part animal or just anthro characters. it is important to note that all of these characters are played by white men. my problems are these: 1.) the character who is most often shown to be fantasy racist is quackity. this is not present in the source material, and is entirely an invention of fanworks, and is furthermore in bad taste considering he is one of the few people of color on the server. while yes, quackity and the butcher's army are the ones who created the propaganda that referred to techno as a pig, this is not fantasy racism. rather, this is an act of political dehumanization. however, because techno is commonly headcanon'd as a shapeshifter or a piglin or a hybrid, fanworks tend to interpret this as a racist act. i do not think i have to explain why showing a mexican man being "racist" against a white man is inherently problematic. these works go further then that, however, by showing quackity being fantasy racist against ranboo, to the point of violence against him. this has no canon basis. it is done solely to write whump fic for ranboo where quackity hurts him and then tubbo or whoever comforts him. again. ranboo is white. quackity is not. it is fucked up to show one of the few people of color on the smp as a violent, angry bigot, when there is no canonical basis for it. it is purposeful misinterpretation of his character, and it is frankly racist as fuck to apply that dynamic to again, a person of color and two white men. 2.) this is used for whump fics for white characters. whump fics written by white writers, because this fandom and many other fandoms are majorly white. it makes me angry that the pain i go through every day, the pain every person of color goes through, is being used as whump material for a character played by people who will never go through the pain and the hurt of racism, who will never be effected by racism, who will never even have to think about racism if they don't want to. by white writers, for white fans. it is alienating being a person of color in fandom, this fandom especially. the only desi streamer i have ever seen is skeppy. i have never seen a muslim streamer other then myself. this fandom continually sidelines and ignores other nonwhite characters. ponk's lore is referred to as "semi lore". ive never seen eryn on his own in fanart. he is only ever referred to in connection with tommy. tina is ignored constantly. quackity is the only poc streamer on the server who's given an ounce of respect, and yet his character is still misinterpreted like this because white writers want angst for their fave white boys. it fucking hurts. the abundance of fantasy racism works in this fandom only adds to this hurt. and when this is called out, people rarely listen. fandom is hostile to people of color and has been since it first started. what i want people to take away from this is to stop creating these works. stop consuming them. start listening to people of color when they say they are uncomfortable. start putting in the work to undo your own racism.

[streaming-yn]

(☁️)

HIIII it's 3 am and i'm trying to sleep but brain went brr with ideas n shit and oh well- thing is ; i was wondering if i could make my first request? (smth simple if u want to, no need to be very long or anything + pls don't rush nd take ur time AND don't feel pressured to actually do my request :] ! ) maybe smth ab faceless art streamer! y/n [they/them]?? (if u could add that the reader is like an indie game dev or works for smth like that u'd be sosososososo cool omg) with maybe quackity, tommy, dream, ranboo, niki and/or jack?? idk brain did the storming and its all messy hsdnshhfjsjz (btw! i know it's a lot of CCs so feel free to remove some or do the ones ur only comfy with !!! take care nd stay safe !!! luv ya <3 (/p))

AS SOMEONE WHO LIKES TO GAME DESIGN, CHARACTER, AND PLOT DESIGN YOU BET I CAN MAKE THE READER AND INDIE GAME DEV (and aaaa ty for adding jack!!! I think he's really neat and not enough people acknowledge him :))!!)

Multiple x indie game dev!artist!y/n

pairings: quackity, tommy, dream, ranboo, niki, jack manifold (separate) x indie game dev!artist!y/n

pronouns: they/them

other information on the reader:

. faceless

. knows how to code

. artist

. streams them drawing video game characters

. minor

. makes indie / horror games

form: headcanons

genre: platonic, fluff(??)

warnings: horror games / horror mods, ranboo enderwalk lore in his section

abbreviations: y/n -> your name

quackity

okay let's get the obvious out of the way; definitely going to be the type of person that's like "I'm going to play this game first after you're finished" yk? playfully ofc, n playfully fight with anyone who says the same thing (*cough* Wilbur, tommy, dream *cough*)

he probably wouldn't be on your art streams often – he doesn't really enjoy watching people draw, but he would want to see the finished pics

he would happily be on voice chat with you while you're drawing though!! :D

would be proud to answer any questions you have about character / scene / etc designs!!

"quackity!! so for this character – check your dms for a current picture – would red or purple antenna be better? also, two or four antenna?"

"*gasp* you're asking me?? 🥺" /j

"y'know what, nevermind, chat wh-"

"NO WAIT WAIT"

"so what do you think?"

also, if you do end up sending him the finished pics of the art he will hype you tf up !!!!

would try to get you make joke games – not like actually, it's just an ongoing bit between you two!

if you make a game for him – or give him a sneak peek of a game before anyone else he's going to freak out!! and he won't really know what to say bc putting feelings into words is hard

if y'all ever meet up and you're fine w hugs he's gonna give you a huge hug, hoping that makes up for the lack of words to describe how just,, proud of you he is bc he really really is!!

you're not even in your 20s yet and you can make video games, or help with them?? not to mention how creative you are with the characters and story line??? he's amazed by you

might actually cry /pos if you base a character off of him

like let's say a part of a puzzle is to get a rubber duck and place it into a pond to get the next hint or thing you need – only when he plays it on stream, he doesn't know anything about the game, so you're watching and waiting for him to get there

when he does get there – he finds out the duck has a beanie and has a white ring appear around it that flashes to life before fading out after picking it up, signifying it was the right thing to get

at first he doesn't really notice the ring, "oh! that animation is different than normal" he notes, but mainly focuses on the beanie, comparing it to himself before he glances at chat to see them freaking out over the planet duck reference

then he's just talking about it, shocked of course but flattered, and then you type in chat "you helped me a ton with things I couldn't decide during this game, I couldn't not add you! :)" everyone's just :(((( !!! /pos

overall supportive n proud, maybe a bit loud about games in progress, but just a really nice guy in general :)

tommy

he is ABSOLUTELY loud about your games in progress!! if you don't want something said you have to tell that to him before telling him or else he's going to brag about how cool it is the next time he streams

"chat!! chat, y/n is making this new game and they told me that one of the outfits you can collect for the player is going to be based off me!- right!! that sounds pog!!"

if he ever accidentally let's anything slip on stream that he was supposed to say, everyone who's a fan of you is just like "wow! suddenly! I cannot hear anymore!", sometimes they're like that even if it was okay to say

the just like being surprised :)

as for art streams, he'll try his best to tune in but obviously won't be there all the time! he's usually very active in chat too! likes being on call with you while you do art streams if you let him!

he once convinced you to make a texture pack and a shader (meant for both to be active at the same time), the fans loved it and a lot of them use it more often than the original!!

tommy however, not to much, proud of you bc that must've been a ton of work!! but at some time it slipped his mind that you make indie and horror games; I think we all know he doesn't do well with horror games

so you liking horror and such made the textures look more ominous and just make it look like and area you don't want to be in, and the spook goes up even more with the shader!! it's darker than usual, there's unusual fog, the portals look too dangerous now, so on and so forth yk

so,, tommy didn't use the texture pack for long;;

if you ever raid him after you're done streaming and he has a question, he's literally just gonna ask you on stream

"y/n raid? oh! are they still here?" when you confirm you're in chat, he continues "great! okay I had a question about your new game that's going to be available soon and how to download it-"

fans love how casual you guys are about game information, like you had to teach him how to export a game character he made on the website you usually make yours on (it was for a fun stream) and it was just a simple back and forth but everyone's like omg :((( omg them :((

also if you're the type of person to go insane over tiny details in other games, he will absolutely tease you for it

like you can just be going on and on about how this game had a sentence at the start that had a backhanded meaning by the end and he's just gonna call you a nerd (genuinely thinks is cool how much of the small things you notice in games though)

dream

COMPLAINING ABOUT CODING AND HOW HARD IT IS 🤝🤝

and if you took other coding classes hoping that I'd help with video game coding he'd just listen to you talk about it

"I actually took robotics for a while before because the school didn't have any video game coding classes and I was hoping it'd help either way" "oh?" "it,, it didn't help, it's so hard to code robots and considering how fast I caught onto video game code you think it'd be easier to understand the robot code" "yeah, that sounds reasonable" "NOPE,, WHY R THEY SO DIFFERENT I ALMOST FAILED" "D:"

fanartists like those moments, if one of those talks happen expect a bit of fanart of just dream and you chilling while you talk and he listens, the art always gives off comfy vibes n it's just cute :)

offering him to play a semi-rough draft of the demo so that he could see if it's good or what you needed to do to make it more enticing for the player

power duo fr fr o/

people like comparing y'all to hackers sometimes bc y'all know how to code???

you play into the bit with the fans though and honestly it's so fun !!!

fans: omg,, hackers (affectionate),,,

you next time you stream: hacker voice; I'm in

AND THEY GOT SHOCKED??? LIKE THEY FORGOT YOU CAN SEE THE STUFF THEY POST????

wouldn't be able to watch your art streams for long because he would get side tracked, the streams are just too under stimulating for his brain to focus on, but he'd hang around as long as he could though :)

would be glad to be on call with you while you're doing an art stream – though if he has is game sounds on you may occasionally have to repeat a question that was aimed at him

you're also in his streams when you can :)

also, you like sending donations to communicate rather than chat

one stream dream turned off his donos because you wouldn't stop giving him money 💀

being friends with such a popular creator and being a game creator yourself has it's downs as well

nothing thats too hard to deal with – the most common one is actually kinda funny – some people will slide in your dms acting like they're dream and just got locked out of his account, trying to get you to make them a game

like ??? do they think that dream would mssg you over Twitter or insta?? he has your phone number bro ,😭

also!!! when dream plays through new games you made he complements the small things and complements how hard something must've been to code :)

and I'm ngl, he kinda sucks with every game he plays at first but he's a quick learner so dw :)

would be glad to help if you're having a difficult time choosing between things too! except he'll answer right away without any teasing

"dreammm" "y/nnnn" "for this area should I do like shattered stone walls or mossy stone walls like with vines n stuff?" "depends on the vibe you want, shattered stone would give it a dangerous and uneasy undertone and mossy stone would be more of ominous, if that makes sense?" "oh! okay, thank youuu!!"

ofc if you didn't have a specific vibe or couldn't choose which was better he would just give a straight up answer so you didn't stress out trying to choose one \o/

would absolutely like being a guest in a drawing stream, he isn't the best at art or character design but it's fun to see him try

maybe you both plus some friends do a "drawing Minecraft mobs from memory" stream? ,, with that the thing is; his would mostly be relatively accurate if you could understand wtf he was drawing 😭

dream may or may or have some of your art as his phone homescreen, he loves your style so much :(( /pos

ranboo

first off; he's incredibly impressed!! like!!! you made this game?? this playable game, completely from scratch??? how??

also you may or may not have made a small Minecraft mod for him to tryout on stream,, little gift from you to both chat n ranboo 🤲

its literally all based off his lore,, if you get close to obsidian and crying obsidian fallen down from Undertale starts playing, if you splash water on yourself 1) you get hurt 2) your screen blacks out and when it comes back, your in a different place than before, some things art taken, maybe a few extra things are added

and there's a 50% chance that when you go into your "enderwalk" state (the blackout) you blow something up, so there may or may not be an explosion somewhere nearby, you also have a 20% chance of building something small in you enderwalk state :)

he found it so incredibly cool!!! chat was crying while complementing you while ranboo thanked you and complemented you over n over again

he won't shut up about how cool the mod is for several weeks, maybe even a few months, it's just so cool!!

will absolutely use it as a comeback if you let him; "oh? you got first place? well y/n made me a really really cool mod, so who's the actual winner here?"

will absolutely play every single game you come out with – it doesn't matter if it's his style or not – and he thoroughly enjoys all of the games as well

as for art streams, he will absolutely try to tune in every time he can!! active in chat and donos!!

doesn't really like being in art streams – like in call is fine but actually drawing? not really, he just doesn't love drawing in front of a ton of people

but will join an art stream if you ask

will listen to you rant about whatever, even if he doesn't understand it! like will listen to you go on and on about how well a game set up the atmosphere or maybe talking about how difficult coding is, and he'll converse back with you but won't really understand yk?

"ranboo I just played a really cool game do you wanna hear about it?" "yeah yeah- of course!!" "ok so like, the atmosphere was so well put together- like it was a horror game and I didn't even see the monster but the vibe was so well put together that it was still unnerving!!" "that's awesome! how did the atmosphere get set up the best and when you saw the monster, was it scarier?"

yk what I mean? like engages in convo so you don't feel bad about talking so much, plus shows his interest without the constant "hm?" "cool" etc a lot of people do and even though he does talk more than the acknowledgment sounds many people make he also manages to almost never sidetrack you and when he does it's on accident :)

if your way of learning is teaching then he'll gladly be the person you teach it to if you want! most likely won't use the information therefore his brain won't retain it but that's not on you, and the whole reason is so you can learn, not him, so! ^^

will make sure to take care of yourself, and he has a through way of telling if you have or not bc he's known you for long enough to know that even if you try to hide it a little bit of your tired voice shows so he knows if you've been sleeping like you should

also friends with you on discord, where you have your Spotify attached,, you like listening to music while you work on things that aren't sound related and if it's active later than it should be he's going to confront you

overall wholesome mixed in with a little pain bc both of you are like "ah yes, lore <3" and like to see fans cry /lh

niki

I feel like this is expected but if you need to get extra motivation she would probably be your go-to

she hypes you up but like, in a sweet and quiet kinda way, where as everyone else here would probably be relatively loud ;;

honored to be on an art stream if you invite her :')

and would absolutely watch your art streams when she can :D hypes you up in chat

also compliments, tons of compliments!

might call you a prodigy? bc you're so young but can already make games?? and make income off of them?? and do really good art??? and so much more??? like tell me that's not prodigy energy,

if you make a video game character based off her she might cry,, like in a positive way obviously but like at the same time :(( no don't cry!!

I say might bc it's dependant on how she feels that day yk? like she might just have the almost-cry wobble to her voice or she might actually, if that makes sense?

she genuinely loves your art style!! even if it's pointy and kinda creepy she really likes it!!

yk the "awww (name) :(" /pos she does sometimes? 100% does that with you

there are a few compilations of just "aww y/nnn" on YouTube and all the comments on those videos are just crying over y'all /pos

would be happy to help if you're stuck between some options in a game, but would feel kinda bad bc it's your game, you're supposed to be the one choosing the stuff

assure her that it's okay n stuff n she'll be ok tho !

I can't decide if she would play your games or not

bc on one hand she's a huge supporter of you and your work and would like to experience it first hand

but on the other hand she isn't the best with scry games,,

so maybe she'd do both? maybe she'd react on stream to a playthrough, maybe your playthrough? or maybe she would only play some of your games? I haven't decided so up to you I suppose!

jack manifold

genuinely amazed by your talent and will make it quite clear!!

can and will go on tangents about you on stream if someone brings it up

everyone is so :(( <333 /pos bc of it

will play the games you've made as soon as he can

if there are different games that line up in a story he'll make sure to play them in order :)

people also sometimes compare you two to hackers bc you code a ton and he kinda looks like a hacker

difference here is that both of you play into the bit, it's tons of fun!!

listen, I know he doesn't draw much but I am a firm believer that he will doodle his favorite character(s) from your games after he's done playing them

like after he plays a game of yours then expect a small doodle in your texts :)

you compiled a bunch of these doodles into one picture and made it you phone background and he only found out after y'all met irl and it caught the corner of his eye and he registered "oh hey wait that looks familiar"

he found out while recording the vlog n when editing, the editor was like "hey let's leave this in, it'd be funny if the fans knew right?" ,, the fans were crying for two weeks,, /pos

and speaking of drawings; he would like to be on a drawing stream with you, thinks it's be tons of fun!! :D

and he's usually free to call while your streaming and doesn't mind so if you wanna talk to him while drawing just call :)

and he will watch the streams he can make it to!! he may leave a bit early but he stays for the majority of it

if you make a character based off of him he's going to constantly thank you and brag about how cool you are anywhere he can

"hello manifolders, if you haven't done it already go download (game name)! I'm there!" with a ss of his character from the game and he'll reply to the tweet on his alt to talk more about the game and how much he really liked it :)

another that'll help you were you need it! he'll make it into a joke before anything else, but he'll get to the point

taglist (sorry i forgot to do it on the past two): @cvsmixplant // @l0ver0fj0y // @youngstarfishdinosaur

[enderspawn]

hello I'm a critrole and taz enjoyer and I'm looking to get into jrwi but . fanart looks Angsty so I'm Unsure (i know it's hypocrisy coming from a cr fan but .) jsbxjdbchdc I'm completely geniuenly asking - what do you like about jrwi? what's the premise like? You seem to really like the series, so please rant about it 🙏 (only if you want to ofc!)

I absolutely will, I will take any excuse to rant abt jrwi and try to get ppl to watch it BDKABDN

so to cover the basics jrwi, aka Just Roll With It, is a dnd show! featuring Grizzly, Bizly, Condifiction, and Slimecicle. their current main campaign (and the one I post abt most often) is JRWI: Riptide!

there are other campaigns, past and present, such as Prime Defenders (which is Patreon exclusive, with the first 5 episodes released for free this December), Convergence, The Fated Five/The Original Campaign, and more! They’re all also considered JRWI, but I’ve not rlly touched any of them beyond a bit of PD so I won’t probably be talking abt them (they’re here more for comprehensiveness and if you stumble across content labeled jrwi you don’t know, it’s probably one of these!)

Riptide is a pirate-based D&D campaign, following our main crew, comprised of: Chip, the human rogue, who is captain of the crew and the biggest bastard of the sea, Jay Ferin, a human ranger, who acts as the ship’s navigator and is known for her accuracy in shooting (as well as a few secrets or she might be hiding), and Gillion Tidestrider, (Champion of the Undersea, Hero of the Deep), who is a homebrew paladin/sorcerer multi class triton, who is very new to the whole “life above the sea” thing, let alone the whole “humans” thing, but works through it by strictly following his morals and holding honor above all else in pursuit of his destiny.

The campaign ACTUALLY starts with… none of these characters, but instead a prequel oneshot set 10 years before the events of Riptide, which explores the legend of the Blackrose Pirates. You might even recognize some familiar names!

After the Blackrose Oneshot, you can watch through the main campaign here!

To avoid this being a Painfully Long post, the rest will be under a cut

So for 1: Angst shouldn’t be an issue here tbh. It’s very much a TAZ-esqe campaign in tone, with majority being adventurous and funny and light hearted…. Until it absolutely punches you with feels. A lot of it is very character-based storytelling (which I rlly enjoy) but it means your mileage depends on how much you invest yourself in those characters. There’s plenty of bits you can look deeper into for angst or character building, but if you don’t *want to* majority of the time it’s fast paced enough to move on from.

if you’re wondering how competent of pirates they are; they didn’t even have a MAP until abt episode 40ish and have ended adventures giving away money on more than one occasion. They’re bad at it <3

One of the things that IMMEDIATELY drew me to jrwi and made me really enjoy it was the DMing style. I think the first episode of Riptide is, frankly, a masterclass in “will I enjoy how this game is run?”. You will know if you’ll enjoy the show or not by the end of episode 1. They don’t want to big themselves down in rules and play much more by rule of cool over all else. SHOULD [x] work like that? Probably not, but it’s cool, so it does now! It’s all abt keeping up that lighter tone and fast enjoyable pace so things don’t get bogged down. The players are willing to make objectively bad outcomes or choices for their characters (possibly worse than the DM would) just because it would be funny.

They do a LOT to flavor the combat to make it engaging to listen to, which is massive for myself: even in TAZ, I’d tune out when initiative rolled, but they add in a lot of flavor, character, and humor into their combat which keeps it engaging for me.

The DM, Grizzly, is great at working with what the players give him and running with it. Whether that be integrating backstory stuff, to *literally changing an entire planned arc* to be more music based after the players decided they wanted to form a band as a goof (which it originally WASNT apparently, but without knowing that I literally could not tell).

ALSO THEY LITERALLY MADE A WHOLE ASS ORIGINAL SONF FOR THEIR FICTIONAL BAND TO PLAY AND I FEEL LIKE THAT DOESNT GET TOUCHED ON ENOUGH

All the players (though I notice it most with Bizly and Grizzly) are great at playing their characters, but especially VISUALLY. Like physically looking at sight lines or having this noticeable change in posture/gesture when in character vs not. As well as some (imo) stellar voice acting moments, it’s just (chefs kiss). Like… don’t get me wrong here, this ain’t “professional actors/voice actors” level of good, but it’s damn nice for your average Joe dnd podcast and helps incentivize watching on YT (for me).

Another big thing for me is the length: episodes average around and hour and a half or so, making it more accessible for my poor attention span (especially with a midroll you can pause in). I’ve never gotten into Crit Role SPECIFICALLY bc of the length of each episode, but JRWI works well for me.

In the end though, like I said, I love characters and it’s (emotionally) a very character driven story. There’s plenty of fantastic adventures and puzzles and the like for people who care more for plot than characters, but the characters are the reason I come back every time. You start with these basic entertaining people then they start to show other sides of them and gain this depth I fucking LOVE. My personal favorite is Chip, but Gill and Jay are both so intruiging as well with some common themes/issues while also being incredibly different. I’m. Trying not to spoil anything here but I just….. yeah <3

ALSO while it’s patreon exclusive and thus requires 10+ a month to access, they have a series called Just Rolled With It where they talk abt the session they just played (what they liked, what they didn’t, theories, more in depth behind the scenes n character shit, etc). And like… the best part of PLAYING dnd is sitting around w your friends geeking out abt your campaign!! Talkin abt ur personal scrunglys!! and now I can do that parasocially with a podcast!!!

If you want a sample taste, I’ll link down below some spoiler-ish free* animatics of bits I enjoy you can watch to get a feel as well

*they’re bits/encounters from later episodes/arcs than the first few, but shouldn’t be any kind of plot spoiler or a major issue.

https://youtu.be/XANB-fCFUAI

https://youtu.be/9M-qhLlt5oI

https://youtu.be/z8Y3W1kyhaM

https://youtu.be/KpyFjbM4SK0

[sadlysober]

dreammate

Dream x gn!reader Summary: Tommy’s curious to know more about Dream’s personal life and ends up ‘meeting’ his s/o. Warnings: none i think.. lmk if you find any! Just fluff-ish tbh. A/N: hi i uh usually dont write so feedback is more than welcome, feel free to correct me if i made any mistakes! If cc’s are uncomfortable i’ll delete it, but that goes without saying :)

Being a content creator has it’s perks. Such as being able to meet new people, meeting people you admire and enjoyed watching way before you became a streamer yourself. Or the fact that you can just hang out with your friends and the chat and even make some money off of it. You often get invited to hang out with people on Among Us, Rust, Minecraft, you name it. One of the biggest benefits of being a content creator was being a part of the Dream SMP. You were a reacurring character and the chat loved you. Your persona would often show up in fanart, alongside Sapnap’s, George’s, Ranboo’s and the other members. There would often be speculations on you dating one of the guys on the SMP. Funny enough, they never expected it to be Dream.

You had been dating for a month before making it official and are currently nearing the 3 month mark. The two of you decided to keep it quiet for the time being and had only told Sapnap and George.

After a long and fun weekend at his home in Florida, you decided to hang out on his bed, watching some tiktoks or whatnot. Your boyfriend was sitting behind his setup, getting the game started. It wasn’t long until his laughter filled the room. Every couple of minutes he would look over his shoulder to check up on you.

Curiousity got the best of you. What was he laughing about? You opened Twitch, and ofcourse, Clay wasn’t streaming. But Tommy was. You watched as Clay’s character hit Tommy’s, accidentally killing the boy.

“Call child services! Dream has killed a child!” Quackity yelled over VC. Tommy walked back to get his stuff.

“Dream, I am not liking this attitude of yours.” You heard your boyfriend chuckle as he was walking around the map. You looked over at his monitor as Tommy’s character walked into his screen. “Dream, can I ask you something?”

“Tommy, if you want to know where babies-”

“SHUT UP BIG Q I KNOW WHERE BABIES COME FROM.” His high pitched laugh and yelling making you tune your volume down.

“Go ahead Tommy, what do you want to ask?” Clay asked calmy.

“Why I was wondering, I have met Mother Dream and Drista, do you have any more family I can talk to? Can I meet Father Dream?” Tommy was trying really hard to look as serious as possible asking Dream.

“My family isn’t here right now.” Dream stated, looking at you with a sneaky grin on his face.

“Oh, alright then, do you- do you like being alone Dream?” You can’t help but chuckle at Tommy always ending his scenteces with ‘Dream’, making it sound so personal and serious.

“I don’t mind being alone, but I’m actually not alone right now, Tommy.” Your eyes focus on the man sitting behind his setup, Tommy jumping around on the monitor behind him. “Baby, would you like to talk to Tommy?” Clay asked, looking at you.

“Dream, who did you call baby? Is there a uhh Drartner ... no uh a dreammate?” Tommy stared into his camera and his chat was going wild.

Dream laughs as he signs for you to come over. He mutes himself from the VC. “Are you sure about this?” You ask him, walking over to where he’s sitting. “I am, are you?” You nodded. He moves the chair back a bit and motions for you to sit down on his lap.

“Alright Tommy, here’s my uhh, Dreammate, be nice to them.” You had put your phone down to still be able to see Tommy’s stream. He looked so impatient, yelling to his chat. 

“Wait, WAIT- guys wait.” He quickly typed into the game chat for the other players online to join your VC for some ‘action’.

Clay mutes himself again. “So Tommy is ordering some of the guys to join the VC, it’s just Tubbo, Ranboo, Callahan and Quackity, so no worries.” He hands you the headphones and you adjust them, being able to hear Tommy loud and clear.

“Alright Tommy, what’s up?” Ranboo asked, walking up to the two of you.

“DREAM, Dream can they hear me? Ranboo, Dream is introducing us to his Dreammate.” You type into the game chat that you can hear him.

“What’s a Dreammate?” Tubbo asks, joining your little group.

“Well, appearantly Dream has been keeping a secret from us-” You softly giggle.

“What’s he saying?” Your boyfriend asks, wrapping his arms around your waste.

“Hello? Hello? Are you there, Dream’s Dreammate?” Tommy’s character hits Clay’s, so you take the mouse and hit his back.

“Well hello there, Tommy.” You see the boy’s expression change from confusion to a somewhat dissapointed face.

“Oh hello, Y/N, it’s been a while” He continues hitting you and you run away from him “I actually thought Dream was gonna introduce me to his Dreammate. You got me there, real funny.” Clay put in the earbuds connected to your phone so he could listen to what Tommy was saying. “Who would want to date Dream anyways- oh, well chat, alright alright so you ALL want to -” The boy sighs, being way too hyper for the conversation.

“Tommy, I-I am dating Dream.”

“No, the prank wasn’t funny, Y/N. Dream has failed you, I expected better from him.” The bitterness in his voice is truly impressive.

“Stop killing me Tommy!” It’s your turn to thaunt him, getting out your sword and running after him.

“I think they’re serious Tommy, congrats you two!” Ranboo says, helping you kill Tommy.

“Does that mean you’ll be coming back to the SMP, Y/N? We never finished that thing we were working on.“ Tubbo asks ever so sweetly. “Thanks Ranboo and yes ofcourse Tubbo, I’ll be joining soon.”

<Callahan> poor fundy

Dream’s famous kettle laugh echoed through the room when he read the messege. “Dream, can you hear me, Dream?” Tommy asks, being able to hear Clay laugh on VC.

“Yes Tommy I can hear you.” He says, burrying his face in your neck.

“I- I have a question.” It fell silent for a bit. “WHY” Tears start rolling over your cheeks from laughter.

Once Dream catches his breath he finally comments. “Tommy you love women right?” You face your boyfriend, who is trying to keep a straight face.

Tommy looks straight in the camera. “What a dumb question, all I talk about is my love for women. Do you ever listen to me, Dream? It’s almost like you’re my boyfriend.” He made a disgusted face before cracking up again.

“Oh god” You whisper as you shake your head. Clay presses a kiss on your neck. “Well Tommy, I feel the same way about Y/N.” An ‘aw’ left your mouth before Tommy made a barfing sound.

“So are you gonna marry them?” Tommy truly does feel like an annoying brother sometimes. Your eyes scan the chat while Clay does the talking. A couple of shipnames and questions pop up between all the emotes.

“I don’t know yet, Tommy. Maybe someday.” He said, hugging you a little thighter. You softly press a kiss on his forehead.

“Alright, cringe. I have no further questions.” Tommy states. “I’m gonna go back to building my tower. Goodbye.”

“Bye Tommy.” Clay said as he left the game. “Nice talking to you!” You added, taking the headphones off. “That wasn’t half as bad huh?”

Ah, yet again the Dream SMP is trending.

[mewberii]

Streamer!Scaramouche AU

i feel like he’d be one of the biggest streamers on his platform- probably one of those that everyone has heard of even if they’re not into watching livestreams and all

but between those who do know who he is, they either love him or hate him. no in-between

it’s kind of understandable because his attitude is not suited/can be handled by anyone

he’s brutally honest even when his opinion may be seen as rude (to him he’s just saying the truth so he doesn’t mind if people get offended)

of course he doesn’t try to be rude on purpose but i mean it as in he’ll say what he thinks

imagine he’s playing a game and he doesn’t like a certain mechanic, or he isn’t enjoying the story;

he won’t say the game is bad but he’ll openly say he doesn’t like it/it’s not for him. it makes him seem strict but tbh he’s not that hard to please and even when he complains about one or two things he still enjoys the game

he usually gives every game a chance even when from what he’s seen it doesn’t sound like a game he’ll like. if he turns out to be right he just won’t play it again and if he’s wrong he’s a little too prideful to admit he spoke a little too fast but in the end he will admit the game is good or he’s having fun

probably the kind that just knows so much about all games and all the creators and all the game-making engines and is up to date with every single news of everything video-game + streaming-related,,, how does he do it, i don’t know,,,,

and also since he’s so popular he probably gets packages from game developers with limited edition stuff or merch from different games soooo often

and he placed the ones from his favorite games in his setup room and it looks INCREDIBLE he has so much stuff

he did a room tour stream once talking about all he has, where he got everything, from his monitor to every complement of his computer and like,,,,, the cost of his setup,,,,,,, some people already know they’ll never be able to afford that in their entire life

and he already had a great setup before he even became big as a streamer so people can already guess he’s fairly rich 

also i feel like he would have started his career as a streamer without using a facecam and even like that, he already managed to get very popular because of his professional commentary of game dynamics/playability + you can tell that he’s passionate about this and also he’s very funny without even trying??

he says some stuff so casually that he doesn’t realise how funny it is

probs showed his face after he hit a very important milestone

he never considered showing his face that important but he understood why people would want to see his reactions when playing games (even tho he warned them he’s not the most expressive/dramatique person in the world and they know by now) and would want to put a face to the person who entertains them so much with his streams

and when he does show his face people go absolutely cRAZY BECAUSE he is crazy good looking (if you don’t think he’s good looking i’m sorry for your eyesight. jk i’m sorry in general i just really love him)

some people who didn’t watch his streams will even check them out because of that but literally if you come for the visuals only you won’t stay for long because as i said not anyone can handle his personality

if he sees people being superficial about him too much instead of paying attention to what’s happening in the stream, he will immediately turn the subs mode on in the chat (if he didn’t have it on already)

being rude, being disrespectful/saying discriminating stuff or anything of that sort won’t be tolerated and anyone who does it will be banned instantly

without even interrupting what he was saying before he saw the comment, he’ll just type the ban to whoever said that and go on

and his mods do the exact same. they are just as strict as him

if it ever got too much of course he wouldn’t be afraid to speak up about it and tell his chat to stop that behaviour or else, as they should already know, he won’t be afraid of banning them even if they’ve been subscribed for months or years

ANYWAYS

why do i feel like he has a super organised chat— as in instead of spamming 5 emotes per comment they all send just one and it looks so tidy and perfect

literally other streamers would be jealous of how not-messy his chat is even when he has thousands and thousands and thousands of viewers all the time

also i have this idea that maybe any of his fans would have designed him as a genshin character (which would be the design of the scaramouche we know (?))

and the little pop-ups (i don’t know the name in english rIP) thingies that show up to notify when someone subscribed or donated would be lil chibi art of that design

it’d be really cool

and since i also doodled what a stream of his could look like (i’ll show it in the future when i’m done!!) i thought that way it’d be more recognisable that the streamer is scaramouche

99% of the people who have seen him irl found him too intimidating to go ask him for a picture or tell him anything

he’s not a huge fan of taking pictures anyway + is more on the introverted/reserved side but he wouldn’t mind if someone went up to him (if he’s not busy with something) to tell him something or say they enjoy his streams

i feel like in a couple occasions he would have played a game with some subscribers and he’d like to tease them speaking with his usual tone and face (in case they’re watching the stream as they talk) so they think he’s serious

“did you watch my 12 hour stream the other day?”  -scaramouche

“ah,,,, i-” -the sub

“think well of what you’re going to answer.” -scaramouche

“i-i couldn’t watch the whole thing,,,” -the sub

“ah, is that so…?” -scaramouche 

he’ll pretend to sound disappointed but at one point he just can’t help but smirk and hold in a chuckle before telling them he’s not serious

(he literally doesn’t know how the hell he survived that stream himself because he isn’t one to stream for that long)

i feel like deep inside people who know him would know he wouldn’t say such things seriously/wouldn’t be disappointed in anyone for not watching every single minute of his streams or not even all his streams

but he says all that so seriously that it’s,,, intimidating and they’re lowkey like “god but what if he’s not joking-”

he’d play games with the other streamers sometimes but i feel like most of the type he’d play more single-player games

it’d be so funny if he plays among us with others and for example one of those others it’s childe

both of them would always be suspecting of the other first/bickering, especially scaramouche

and if one game turns out they’re both the impostors… people would know right away

like, if any of them tried to defend the other, everyone else would be like “!?! what is this? scaramouche and childe defending each other? scary”

they’d vote one of them (maybe scaramouche) out because they started guessing + saying proof of how both of them could be the impostors (but the biggest proof is them not coming for each other’s throats sNKJFNGKJS)

scaramouche would have to resist the urge to S C R E A M

needless to say he doesn’t like when he has to be impostor with childe

and unfortunately for him, fate makes it happen considerably often

i feel like at least one time scaramouche would kill next to childe and then report it and literally blame childe

and childe would be like ?!?!?!?!?? WHAT- NO- (struggles bc his brain instinct is to say ‘it was you!’ but they’re both the impostors??? how-)

and then they’d eject childe,,, and then people wouldn’t suspect of scaramouche for most of the game because ? why would he- blame his partner---

well he did it with no regrets and at the end when they all found out they found it very funny (except for childe, but even he ended up laughing in the end because what a mean strategy sjkfhdsgkj)

i have this feeling that even though they bicker so much and for any strangers it’d seem like they hate each other, when scaramouche does play online games, many times it’d be with childe?

ik they aren’t supposed to get along but for the sake of it being a modern au i don’t want bad vibes between any of the characters pls-

and everyone enjoys their dynamic and those streams always get a ton of viewers sjfhdsgkj and i’m sure both their chats would be good friends (most likely one’s fans would also be a fan of the other too)

very very very rarely (because he prefers just playing and talking while playing) he’d do streams where he doesn’t play anything but just talks with the chat, watches videos that they send him, looks at the fanart they make, just talks about games,,,,

it’d be super chill and the perfect streams for people to be doing homework/work/play games/draw or do basically anything while they listen to his stream in the background

he’d also be answering some of people’s questions about him or about his favorite games, or if he’s playing this new game that came out earlier this week,,,

“will you play ‘it takes two’ with childe?” -someone in the chat

“absolutely not. i won’t play a co-op game with him”

not even 5 days later, tweet from childe saying “streaming in 30 minutes! Scaramouche and I will be playing It Takes Two on my ch---”

anyways this will be all!! (for now?) i obviously knew genshin before this but, yesterday i could finally start playing it myself! so i feel like if not now, soon i will also write headcanons of him playing genshin! i don’t take requests but if you guys have any ideas or anything you want to say about this AU, send me an ask!! i’d love to talk about this and about genshin in general!

also, i was very inspired to write this by @baeshijima​ ! so thank you very much to her for her wonderful streamer AUs and if anyone reading this hasn’t read hers already, go check them out!! they’re amazing!!

[genshinobsession]

About the sentience au, i have no idea if u take request/ consider ideas so feel free to ignore

I got some thoughts so i hope u don't mind me ranting here hehe

But here's the thing, if the character somehow got to our world and found out that their life was created by someone for ppl to pass time and entertain themselves, what would be their reaction to the fandom (fics, ships, reader insert stuff, fanart and other fan made stuff), the creator (and them getting profit or being responsible for their suffering and creating them the way they are? Like flaws/ appearance/ personality n that shit), the gatcha, other characters that they knew, and just generally to the whole thing about them being a fictional character from a game in a different world

Thank you for coming to my ted talk <3

Sentience Au

characters included:

Diluc,Kaeya,Zhongli

(More is coming after, I just didn’t want there to be do much scrolling to get to the character you want)

Diluc

“So, what you’re saying is I’m from a video game, and I am a very desired character. And because of this many people draw pictures of me.” He asks, standing with his hand on his chin as he tried to process this.

You nodded and you got your phone and looked up a simple

“Diluc fanart”

And showed him the results.

He was a little put off now knowing that there were so many people watching him at all times. Not only were they were watching him but they liked him enough to draw him.

“Well, they all are very talented, but why is this one titled ‘Daddy Diluc’ with my shirt off?” He asked, and you snatched your phone from a him as quick as possible and closed out of whatever file or photo album he scrolled to.

With a nervous laugh you turned back to him hiding your phone, not wanting to admit to what he had seen.

“How about we look at some fanfics instead.” You suggested, changing tabs on your phone. You showed him the Tumblr thread as he began to scroll.

“And these are-?” He asked as he looked back at you.

“Stories about you and other characters, or somethings you and the person reading. Those are called self inserts.” You explained, he nodded, slightly understanding until he had scrolled to an NSFW story.

“What does NSFW stand for?” He asked, you shot up from your chair and smacked the phone out of his hand as quickly as possible.

“Okay maybe that’s not a good idea either.” You laughed nervously again as Diluc stared at you curiously. As far as he was concerned NSFW was just a couple of meaningless letters thrown together, but your reaction makes him think it was obviously more than that.

“How about I explain it this way. Because you’re a very desired character, many people are attracted to you,” You began. He nodded, understanding.

“myself included,” you mumbled, he didn’t catch it so you cleared your throat and continued.

“Many of them make art of you and other characters together and more often than not it’s because of a ship.”

Right at that moment you completely lost him. He looked at you confused,

“What do boats have anything to do with this?” He asked, his eyebrows were furrowed together as he tried to think of a logical way that a mode of water transport would have anything to do with him and other characters.

“No no, this kind of ship is a pairing of you and another character, like a relationSHIP.”

Diluc nodded in response,

“So wait, people pair me with other characters? Like who?” He asked, you sighed knowing the question was going to come up sooner or later.

“Well-“ you began as you listed off every person he had been shipped with. As you went on Dilucs face began to contort out of confusion and slight disgust.

“Just... don’t ask and we can both forget about it.” You suggested and he nodded in agreement.

“Gladly.”

Kaeya

“Well this is... interesting.” The blue haired man muttered as he had scrolled through the object that he held in his hands.

He had just seen it lying face up on the counter and his curiosity got the better of him.

And he was very surprised by what he saw.

Just, pages and pages and pages of him in different poses with different people, in varying levels of... intensity.

He was very confused at first, unsure of how to respond but as he wen through he realized each post had a red heart underneath it.

What could that possibly mean?

As he scrolled through he eventually got into the works of writing, all with the same ‘Kaeya x reader’ underneath their titles.

Before he could scroll any farther he heard the door creak open as you walked into the room with a warm joyous smile on your face.

Well until you saw Kaeya with your phone.

“Kaeya, why do you have my phone?” You asked, he looked down at the bright object then back at you.

“So that’s what it’s called, well you did just leave it open so I decided to have a look.” He admitted with a shrug.

You quickly snatched it from him and looked at it realizing he had been through all your posts that you had saved under the label ‘Kaeya’.

Your heart pace quickened out of embarrassment,

“How much did you see?” You asked, he chuckled and moved closer to you, he lightly lifted you chin so you’d look at him, he leaned into your ear and whispered,

“You seem to like me in some interesting positions.” He teased, and let go of your face.

You covered your face, not wanting to look at him.

“Oh, don’t be shy now, its quite cute that you like me that much. I find it, oddly endearing.” He admitted, patting your head lightly.

You finally took your head out of your hands as you looked up at him. He smiled at you as he leaned in close to your face yet again.

“Although, you should be more careful about having your ‘phone’ open to such a... suggestive image.” He teased yet again as you backed up from your face and walked out of the room.

You looked down at your phone which screen has been dimmed a bit, as you raised the brightness you saw a picture of Kaeya you definitely would not be able to unsee for a long while.

Zhongli

Zhongli is definitely a fan of stories,

But the stories he found were definitely not the ones he had in mind.

You didn’t know how to explain to Zhongli that he’s from a game and people all over the internet love and adore him, without showing him.

He doesn’t even know what technology is, let alone the fact people use it to create artwork of him.

“Traveler, I apologize if this is a bit odd, but I saw you looking at some paintings of me on your phone item. How do you have so many? Did you make them also yourself? You’re quite talented if so.” He asked, as you looked from him, to your phone, then back up to him.

He was just patiently standing infront of you, waiting for an answer.

You sighed slightly as you put down whatever you were doing and grabbed your phone.

“Oh, I’m sorry, was that not something I was supposed to bring up?” He asked, confused by your reaction.

You shook your head as you patted the spot next to you, gesturing for him to sit down next to him.

“No no, you were going to find out sooner or later.” You said as he politely sat down next to you and faced you, ready to listen to whatever story or explanation you were going to give him.

As you explained he asked a few questions, which you answered as best you could.

After you explained how the world Zhongli came from was not exactly real, he was just a character in a video game, and because of that, many people around the world love him and make things to show their love and appreciation for him.

He nodded, trying to understand,

“Well that’s definitely not what I expected. I’ve always had some sort of following but this, admittedly was not what I expected. So all of these people know about Rex Lapis?” He asked, to which you nodded in response.

“I see, well. There’s not much I can to about it now I suppose.” He said, turning back to you with a slight sigh. All the effort putting into hiding and it was, somewhat for nothing.

Liyue was going to have to learn how to be on their own regardless, so leaving wasn’t going to affect them to much, which was comforting to him.

“Thank you, traveler, for answering my question. I understand it was probably hard to explain this to me but I believe I understand now.” He thanked, you nodded accepting it and smiled at him.

However, your smile faltered when you saw Zhongli so lost in thought. You supposed it was because he basically left behind the only thing he’s every known.

You lightly put your hand on his shoulder, snapping him out of his thoughts.

“Hey, Why don’t we make some tea, I feel like you’d want to try these flavours.” You said, as he looked back over to you, he recognized this as a way to cheer him up and appreciated it.

“That would be wonderful.”

(Next part coming out is ‘they escape Part 2 pocket edition’)

-Birdy

[eponymous-rose]

Return of the Revenge of the Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E108-109 (September 15, 2020)

It’s been six months since the last Speech Machine Upper Luminosity (is that right?), so let’s jump right back in like nothing ever happened!

Tonight’s guests are Laura Bailey and Matt Mercer!

Announcements: Talks will now be biweekly, discussing two episodes at a time! Unfortunately, this means fan question submissions aren’t doable yet, since they’ll often be filming Talks for episodes that haven’t aired yet; questions will come from crew, but fanart and cosplay from earlier episodes will still get awards. Dani Carr’s new official title in the company is Lorekeeper!

Episodes 108-109

Brian asks Matt about the tug-of-war with the Moonweaver’s influence: “how much of that did the Traveler and Jester’s interactions influence him not going back to the Feywild?” Matt: “Okay, well, the Moonweaver isn’t necessarily happy about taking on the images and icons and co-opting elements of her worship, but also isn’t a vindictive deity necessarily.” She has a similar fey history to Artagan, “so I knew this encounter, there would be a punishment involved, at the very least to take Artagan down a few pegs.” He wasn’t going to be actually banished; the Moonweaver just wanted to “scare the shit out of him: You think you’re a trickery god? Welcome to the original trickery god, bitch.” There was a possibility of him just vanishing for a while, if there was no sign of humility; but based on their interactions, it was just enough to show the planetar that maybe this isn’t the same “troll of an Archfey” that the Moonweaver had known. “Maybe this is enough of a lesson.”

Laura thought Artagan was going to be “gone-gone, and Jester was going to be left alone”. She thought there was going to be a Feywild rescue, and Jester would have to try to find a new deity.

Laura’s wi-fi conks out. So does mine. Ah, 2020.

Jester would probably have followed the Moonweaver in an attempt to make amends. Laura mentions that every time she sat down to prep something for Traveler-Con, she realized Jester wouldn’t sit still long enough to plan it.

Laura: “If that cult hadn’t been there and she hadn’t seen what a false god could do to people, I don’t think she would have come to the realization that what her and the Traveler were doing was detrimental: oh, we’re fucking over people’s lives, hardcore.” If Artagan hadn’t been on board with picking a different deity, Jester would have stepped down at Traveler Con and she would have exposed the lie.

Matt’s “super happy” because he was purposely making sure he didn’t know what was going to happen at Traveler Con. “Okay, everything around it’s going to be interesting and fleshed out, but as to the actual convention, I have no idea what’s going to happen.” He wanted to balance a complete train wreck with character beats and mini-arcs, and he was satisfied with how that worked out.

Brian asks if Jester ever considered walking away from the Traveler. Laura: “Yeah. It could have progressed to that point. Jester always gave him the benefit of the doubt, and loves him with her entire heart, so if he would have not seen that what they were doing was not acceptable, in his own way, then Jester would have probably walked away. I don’t know if she would have walked away from him, but it would have been a big issue for her. I have no idea what that would have meant for her... my entire character arc.”

How does Jester feel about the Traveler now? “She loves him, but at the same time, she doesn’t adore him without boundaries. She sees a little bit more of who he is, and the worshiping aspect isn’t there anymore. She sees him more like another friend. That’s a complicated relationship for a cleric to have.”

Matt talks about what a fan he is of his players. “I’ve just been enjoying the hell out of this.”

Has Artagan learned his lesson? He’s been living for a long time, and old habits are hard to break. Matt points out that Artagan “is free in a place that he doesn’t have complete domain over, and he’s been humbled a few times. I think he’s definitely learned a series of lessons to some degree. We’ll see how far it sticks and where their relationship goes.”

Brian asks Laura how it’s been to have the spotlight on Jester for a long time. Laura: “It was nerve-wracking. I feel very relieved that it’s on to something else now, but it was so much fun, too. I feel like I kept getting so emotional as her through all this. Having to come to terms with all the things she was going through was crazy. But it felt good.”

Cosplay of the Week: An amazing Yasha by @shiieldmaiden on Twitter, photo by @asheneyed.

Matt: “I took a bath for this.”

Brian notes that Jester found herself caught between her god and the M9. Who would she have chosen if Artagan hadn’t kicked her off? Laura: “Here’s the thing. If Fjord hadn’t jumped on my back, Jester would have gone. But him doing that, I mean, that’s why I froze like I did. I really didn’t know where it was going to go. Thankfully Artie made that choice for me.”

The Vilya reveal’s been waiting since Marisha made Keyleth’s backstory. Brian recalls that the question of what happened to Vilya came up in the campaign 1 recap, and Matt was cagey about it. “When I got the original backstory from Marisha, in my head, I was like, her mother’s probably still alive, just lost to the chaos for reasons that I’ll get to, but I like the idea of an eventual reunion when it made sense.” As they got later in the campaign, Keyleth’s story became about taking on this leadership and stepping into her mother’s footsteps: “I didn’t want to rob her of her journey by bringing her mother into it before it was complete. There wasn’t a beat that felt right for it in the first campaign unless the players actively wanted to go and seek it out.” He knew she was on an island somewhere, and that there was an issue with her memory, but the details were still hazy, and it never came up in the first campaign. “As soon as we got to Rumblecusp as a possible visiting location, I was like, this would probably be the island that Vilya’s at.” He knew the community would pick up on it quickly, but the players would likely be too engrossed in their own story. “Getting to send her home was wonderful, both for an idea of closure, but as a long-waiting gift to Marisha and Keyleth. It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to giving to her.”

On building Vilya’s character: “I wanted to make sure she wasn’t too similar to Keyleth. She couldn’t remember her family, but when she did, it meant everything.”

Brian asks what inspires Jester’s thought process to try and befriend every creature they come across. “Everyone is interesting. Except for Celia, she’s a bitch. If you piss her off, she might just hate you forever, but everybody else she thinks is pretty great. Jester can hold a good grudge.”

Brian asks Matt about the inspiration for Vokodo. “It is a heavily customized version of a Morkoth. I was just intrigued by how they had created this creature that creates this island around it. It has ways of affecting the minds of creatures around it. I didn’t enjoy that the creature was only Medium in size, and I wanted it to be something that was a little bit more changed by its experiences.” He also tied it in with the Astral Sea lore and suggested that it had been changed by its proximity to this volcano, similarly to how Thordak did in the first campaign.

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Traveler Con Jester and Artagan by @callanthee on Twitter

How about the visions of the living city? Laura: “I don’t know what the fuck is going on with that thing. If it true that there’s a Molly connection, the Eyes of Nine, I don’t know. It’s just too much. We have to look into it.” Matt, blandly: “Weird mysteries.”

Who would the Disintegrate spell have hit if it had ricocheted? “Initially, I would have wanted to choose Caleb, like back at himself, because the immediate threat of that ray towards Vokodo, it would have been just right back at him.” But the runner-up would have been Jester because of the threat of the banishment back to the Astral Sea, the one place he didn’t want to go.

Laura could tell from Liam’s gameplay that he hadn’t realized someone was going to perma-die from that. “I thought it was going to be me, because I had been the one to banish him.”

Dani points out that the group would probably have gone after Artagan if Jester had died right before Traveler Con.

Matt highlights Cad’s Divine Intervention as pretty much the only way they could have learned the important information they used to prepare for the fight with Vokodo. He was torn between frustration at not being able to use this boss to its fullest potential... and pride in his players.

Laura is amused at listening to the characters talking about Jester when she’s not there. “It’s fun to hear but not be able to use that at all in your interactions with them.” Laura points out that even her sister who watches the show doesn’t trust the Traveler. Matt mentions that he’s always being very careful with the relationship between the Traveler and Jester, because it could get into rough territory. “There are unhealthy elements of their relationship, very much so. A lot of her story has been about disillusionment.” Laura: “Yeah. Eyes open.” They’ve set up bumpers to make sure they don’t veer into territory the players find uncomfortable. 

“Artagan at the end of campaign one versus Artagan at campaign two are different. He came into this world a purely selfish being of id and impulse. He still has those dark tendencies and can lean down those dark paths. But he went from a purely chaotic, selfish creature to unintentionally beginning to care for people that aren’t him.” Traveler Con definitely left a mark on him. “Aw shit, I let them in.”

Sam starts Facetiming Brian. “How does he know when we’re filming this?! No. I’m not going to do it.”

Matt and Laura are "super excited” for the new landscape of the next part of the journey.

Laura notes that Jester is getting past the point of “needing to put on the mask”, including around her mom. And as that’s happened at Traveler Con, the small breakdowns have been piling up. “That’s what therapy’s like, right?”

On the new goliath shopkeeper (even with the mispronunciations as clues, I got nothing on that spelling), Matt points out that purchasing magical items is tricky because most things were pulled into the war effort. He was trying to figure out how a shopkeeper could build a business in that environment: “with a bunch of really small, shitty enchantments”. As a kid, he loved novelty shops, and took a lot of inspiration from those memories.

So glad everything’s back in business! “As always, don’t forget to love each other. And don’t worry, it’s almost Thursday.”

[meruz]

i havent answered asks in a long time and im probably missing a bunch but i figure better to do some than none at all so

topics addressed: x-men, art school, car seat headrest, heavypaint studies

1) Do you sell stickers or prints?

yes! and i totally have bi flag alfred up as a print... uh ... not stickers because i only have this inprnt store but yes. prints. definitely. right here

2) Are you fine if we do fanart of your jubilee design? 

OFC I AM i mean its already fanart in its own right also i dont own jubilee. if you do any fanart of any of my designs all i ask is that you please message me it when ur done because i want to see...! also sorry im answering this so late u probably dont care to do fanart of it anymore LOL....

3) Have you heard about x-men 97?

yes ofc I’m very excited! Well actually I’ve never been super into the x-men cartoons im rly a comics-only type... but I’m excited that x-men gets more animated stuff and that probably a lot of people will watch it and like the x-men bc of it ^^ furthermore i want marvel to hire me to work on it??? i know people who have freelanced for the show and i had to pretend to be normal and not incredibly jealous that someone else’s grubby hands were touching my favorite comics ip... anyways if any of u know someone who has connections to the show, hook me up LOL.

4)

this was a weird ask

1) is it ok to use your art as a wallpaper for my phone or computer?

the answer to this is literally in my FAQ but also someone asked me about hi-res wallpapers a while ago and i made a bunch downloadable on gumroad for a couple bucks I actually meant to take it down a while ago but i keep forgetting so.... get it before I remember again and take it down for real.

2) I was wondering if you went to an art school and if you think someone can make it in the industry without a degree in art or an associated field?

Yeah, I went to art school. I went to the Rhode Island School of Design because when I applied for colleges in like 2012 it was ranked the #1 fine arts program in the u.s. or something and I wanted to impress my parents and give them something to brag about to other parents. I mean there’s other reasons obviously but I think that was rly the gist of it and I try not to minimize it because the social pressure to “go to a good school” is enormous for a lot of people - certainly was for me! Do I think someone can make it in the [art] industry without a degree in art? YES. ABSOLUTELY. I feel like this might not be common knowledge for students or people outside the industry but I think you can ask almost every working professional artist and they either are or have coworkers who never went to art school. It’s absolutely Not a requirement for a job in the industry, people really only care about 1) your portfolio 2) professionalism I guess but i wouldn’t even really call it professionalism so much as i’d call it “being easy to work with”. I personally have worked with many artists who have come from STEM careers or community college courses etc. there’s of course huge exceptions like for instance if you’re a non-u.s. artist and want to work in the u.s. industry... not having a degree is a career-blocking hurdle for work visa/immigration stuff. But thats just it like at the end of the day an art degree is little more than paperwork.

for what its worth though I did enjoy going to art school a lot and I don’t regret it. Often times I even miss it! I could do without the debt (sizeable even with my scholarship taking the brunt of it) but I don’t consider it a life-ruining decision at the end of the day. 3) do you listen to car seat headrest?

does something about my art give off the vibes of someone who listens to car seat headrest.....?

I think I have one or two csh songs in my spotify likes. but i gotta be honest the only time i was able to listen to Beach Life in Death in full is via the glass beach cover.

4) how long do your heavypaint studies take, and do you do them on the spot in one sitting or work from a photo?

approximately 20-40 minutes! maybe pushing 50 if I’m distracted or stumped but I don’t think any of them have taken a full hour...I feel like i would know if they had. I try to do most of them on location! And if not, I always START on location, take a photo to remember and then finish it later when I’m in a more comfortable place or have more time. I feel like the observations I make in-person are important... they’re what inspire me to paint in the first place! And I only rly have interest in painting my personal experiences for these observational exercises so I try not to work from a photo of a place I haven’t been or a photo I haven’t taken myself.