#phob answers stuff

[phobalic]

is this us

[morgana-ren]

Btw to answer the question what Ilya looks like that some of you have been asking, he looks pretty much exactly like this in his fully human form. Since I don't draw as much anymore, this is pretty much as close as I can get to exactly what he looks like and it's pretty uncanny.

Artist credit goes to Phobs. Their stuff is incredible, really, and their Mongol series is a personal favorite because I am obsessed with Mongolia. Batu was a huge inspiration for Ilya's aesthetics.

[kyluxtrashpit]

Okay so I’ve been unable to stop thinking about the crossover since the last issue and there’s several things I just can’t seem to wrap my head around, so I’m writing a ramble that is basically me just trying to figure it out. This is kind of a review but more of just me dumping all my thoughts just so they’re not bouncing around in my head anymore lmao. I can’t really talk to many people about it because I don’t want to rain on the parade of people who loved it, but I also liked a lot of things and don’t want to just listen to someone bash it completely so rambling to myself on tumblr is how we go. Though, if you DO want to discuss any of this with me, PLEASE send me an ask or a dm or reply or whatever, because I would love to so much omg

I’m gonna start with the things I loved, then go into things that I didn’t like as much or concern me, then into the questions I have and the stuff I didn’t understand. I know there’s still the epilogue to come, which may wrap all of this up (please, please wrap all of this up lmao) and maybe some of these questions aren’t supposed to have answers yet, but I have to get it out somewhere cause I literally had trouble sleeping last night because of this lmao. And if you do have answers to some of these questions, PLEASE reach out to me and answer them because I am just. So perplexed. I’ve read IG and I feel like I still only understood maybe 30% of what actually happened so skskdjs

I don’t think this leans either negatively or positively in terms of my overall opinion, but if you’re hard on the “I love it, it’s flawless” or “I hate it, it has no redeeming features”, then you’ll probably disagree with like half of this either way so. Don’t get mad at me, these are just my opinions and you’re completely free to disagree with some or all of it

(under a cut cause this is more than 3 THOUSAND FUCKING WORDS somehow, what the hell, send help. Also spoilers galore for the Plague Doctor and Igor Grom series’)

What I loved

So first off, THE ART!!! I’ve always loved phobs’ art but goddamn, seeing the evolution is just something else. Every panel is downright gorgeous. It was such a treat to get an entire arc from phobs, truly a blessed event. All of it is just *chef’s kiss*

Secondly, the serovolk feels 🥺. They really hit so hard. Oleg being ready to go get Sergey right now immediately even though he’s still injured himself, then Sergey literally falling into his arms when he gets home all bloody and hurt. Guuuuh my feels 😭. I adored it. And the little hints, like Poet saying how ‘your loved ones don’t turn away from you’ and then the panel showing Sergey is just. So good. That really filled my heart

Another thing is that, if you were on twitter when the crossover was first announced, you’ll probably know one of the heaviest criticisms basically boiled down to ‘why do we need Igor and Sergey to fight again, we’re done with this, they’re done with this, why do that’ and I admit to being on that team. So I was really glad to see they didn’t, and also I enjoyed that they basically had the same reaction to being shoved together again lmao. They’re done with each other and neither have any interest in that. So I appreciated that solution to it, it felt really natural and needed

I also appreciated Igor’s character in general. If you’ve read the entirety of both MG and IG, plus any of MIG, you know he has some absolutely beautiful moments, and some that are uhhhh… very bland lmao. He’s a character that I don’t really gravitate towards personally, at least in the comics, but he has his moments. IG itself is a mixed bag for me, but I adored the Loci Method. I love the moments when he uses his words, when he’s more focused on protecting others than going after the villain, and overall the calm, compassionate, less punchy version of himself. This didn’t feel like a regression from IG, like many say MIG is. I really liked it. He’s grown, and this shows it well, in terms of how he handled everything and everyone he encountered

Chrysalis was also very intriguing to me. I really did not expect him to show up on the more heroic side, as I remember him being arguably the most violent of the Rubenstein trio in IG, but I will say it does make me breathe easier to know team Plague Doctor probably won’t have to fight him now lmao. I’m also really intrigued as to what’s going on with him and Poet (more on Poet in the questions section later) and Fireguy like. So Fireguy and Chrysalis are just buddies? And Poet is their unruly friend they have to go reign in now and again cause he’s the only one of the three still into murder? I haven’t the foggiest what’s going on there, but I am intensely curious. Also the like… sad lovey eyes Poet and Chrysalis were making at each other at the end there??? I know people ship them but wow what is happening lmfao

(Also ngl when Chrysalis first burst in my first thought somehow was it was Danila, cause grey hoodie with the hood up + superhuman strength but you know XD)

Things I didn’t like as much

I’m honestly not sure whether to put this in the questions section or here, but I think it’s more critical, so I’ll start by saying that, from day 1, I was on the team of ‘okay but what is the purpose of this’. And while that changed for a lot of people with this last issue, and that’s great, it didn’t change for me. It did clearly introduce new characters, which is all well and good and I knew would happen eventually (though, who is going to get slotted into PD vs MIG vs maybe another series remains unclear), but otherwise… I’m not really sure how it serves the narrative and moves either the plot or the character arcs in any direction?

For Igor, I think it had more of an effect. Much as he already seemed to have decided he was done with Sergey and Plague Doctor and all of it before the encounter, he did have that moment afterwards where he says “he didn’t seem crazy to me anymore”. And that… while I think he was already at that point before where he’d really let go of all that, I think he now knows it for sure himself. Which is something he learned that served his personal development and character arc. However, much as this was a crossover, it is only listed in the PD section, not the MIG section so… it’s kind of odd to me that Igor got more out of this emotionally than Sergey did lmao. Especially when it is a fairly minor development for him

Sergey, however… I don’t really see what he learned? He learned that Oleg took Rubenstein, yes, and that is sure to come up later, but I’m going to talk more about that in the ‘questions I have’ section. But that’s a piece of information, not something that has a real strong effect on his character. He also says that Oleg was right about that he shouldn’t have gone out, which is true but… again, he already learned a lesson about carefulness with Altan. I don’t think that’s a big character change moment either, especially because we know he was influenced to go and likely wouldn’t have solely of his own volition. So how can he be learning a lesson about going, when he didn’t actually make the choice to go of his own free will anyway?

Encountering Igor didn’t seem to affect Sergey at all, so that really didn’t do anything. And that makes sense, as considering the outcome of their previous 2 meetings, Sergey had a much stronger effect on Igor than the other way around. Poet just gave him information. The whole situation really just led to him getting mildly injured and saying again ‘okay, yes, I need to be more careful’ (even though this really wasn’t his fault cause he was influenced to go). And that’s it? That’s the entire effect on who, really, is the main protagonist of this arc? Idk, that feels weak to me. Like Sergey wasn’t much affected by this other than some minor injuries, so why did he even need to be there at all, in terms of the narrative, except to torture Igor by existing and have something he needs to talk to Oleg about later? I don’t understand that

(And maybe the purpose will become clear later, but right now I just don’t understand why this needed to happen at all, narratively speaking. It’s just odd, as the first arc was so good at setting things up and closing them perfectly, while this only seems to set things up for new characters, not for the existing ones)

…okay, I lied, there’s one other thing that did change for Sergey, and this is the thing that is making me very, very worried about the future: everyone now knows he’s alive. And this, this was really what made me very unsure about this crossover from the start. Much as the second issue confirmed Igor had no interest in chasing Sergey himself now, this issue pretty much confirmed my worst fear. If only Igor knew he was there, k, whatever, he’ll tell Max and Banu (who will surely show up again as investigating PD), but they have no proof. That could even be a plot point, them trying to convince everyone Sergey’s alive and not being believed. That could be fun. But. All the hostages saw him. Poet said his full name in front of everyone. Basically the entire world now knows Sergey Razumovsky is alive

“But,” you say, “KTP, that was surely inevitable, why are you upset about this?” Because, whether it was inevitable or not (and I truly don’t think it was), this means it’s not just Max and Banu knowing/suspecting he’s alive, or the Dagbaev’s having some personal beef with him. This is the entire world. This is FSB, Interpol, those white arrow people, and who the fuck else knows. Like. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here by worrying about something that won’t happen for 30-40 issues, but how am I to believe Sergey and Oleg will get to have a happy ending now that they’re internationally wanted criminals again? Keep in mind, Sergey is a very prolific serial killer in both Russia and Italy, and they’re both terrorists as well. A handful of people knowing or suspecting Sergey is alive without proof is one thing, but now everyone knows. Which means they’re pretty much fucked

Which is why I wish I could love this because everyone’s like ‘oh, look, such a beautiful happy ending for serovolk, together again, of course they will always have that’ but… honestly, I can’t even really enjoy that page at the end because now I fear it’s all temporary and that we’re all going to have our hearts broken in the worst possible way. How can they ever have peace now that it’s not just a couple of people looking for them, but the whole goddamn world? How can they ever have lasting happiness? How can they end this story alive and not inside a jail cell? I never doubted before that they would get a happy ending, cause they have to, they’re the fan favourites but now… I really, really don’t want this comic to end with them dead. I’m literally tearing up a little as I type this just thinking about it. And I’m now really, really worried it will happen

(God, someone please tell me serovolk will be alive and together and not in jail at the end of this comic. If they won’t be, I would genuinely rather stop reading right now and give up and find something else than have my heart broken like that again. I can’t do it again, okay)

(And, again, if the epilogue confirms that somehow not /everyone/ knows and they’re only suspected and they won’t have every law enforcement agency out there banging on doors trying to find them for the rest of the series, then I take all of this back and will shut up forever lmao. I don’t think this is likely to happen, because it feels too impossible, but please, I would really, really want that)

Also, as a last note, I’m not sure if this is a criticism per se, but I do find it funny that Sergey got his ass kicked so hard by like one random cultist when he was able to take out like 15 trained mercenaries in that warehouse considering he started with nothing but a charge cord and a sharp necklace lmao. But you know, maybe the lack of Oleg being in danger didn’t give him enough adrenaline sdklskdslks

Things I’m confused about

Now, onto things I have questions about. Some of these may be read as criticism, but I don’t consider them such. These are things I didn’t understand and am confused about, some of which may be answered in the epilogue or a future issue, or some of which could be things I’m just too dumb to see the obvious answer to lmao

So first off, Poet. Like all of Poet. I have read IG, in fact I read most of it twice to refresh my memory. And while I understood Poet’s deal in the first bit he was in, to be fair, the second bit with the plastic surgery was very confusing for me as well lmao like. Why was he going along with that? What did he get out of it? What was his motivation? But anyway, whatever, this isn’t about IG, this is about the crossover

But my questions remain kind of the same here. What was Poet actually trying to do there? Goal 1: get Igor to the museum and he needs the cultists to capture people as bait. K, cool, got that. Goal 2: bring Sergey there to ask about Rubenstein. K, cool, got that. Goal 3: put Sergey and Igor in the same room to… have a very awkward little chat? Okay, now you’ve lost me

Like Poet straight up says if he wanted them to kill each other, he’d just make that happen with the hypnosis. Cool, so that’s not what he wanted. He wants them to talk. To what end though? To make them uncomfortable? Why? And isn’t there a better way to do that? And it does seem like he’s going to kill them after, but like. Wouldn’t it be more fun to make them kill each other if you want them dead anyway? If I were him, I would’ve controlled Sergey and used him to attack Igor, cause Igor doesn’t like to kill people but also this is /Sergey/, so mmm conflicted. But he didn’t want to do that. So what did he want? Was it just like… to gloat? Make them talk cause he can? He didn’t even seem upset that they didn’t have much to say, he only got mad when they redirected the conversation at him. I don’t get it. I have no idea why Poet did literally any of this when the things that are clear he wanted had much easier solutions

Rubenstein info? Lure Sergey, ask him, when he says he doesn’t know, mind control him back to the apartment and ask Oleg. When Oleg refuses, have Sergey put a knife to his own neck and Oleg will spill it all. Kill Igor? Well, do exactly what he did but without Sergey there and then boom, kill him in whatever fashion you prefer. Easy peasy

Anyway, if you can tell me what Poet’s goal actually was, I’d love to hear it, because I don’t have the foggiest lmfao. And considering the entire crossover was incited by him doing all this for reasons, I’d probably enjoy it more if I knew what those reasons were. And right now, I have no idea, and neither did the like half dozen people in the server I’m in where I asked this lmao

(I also find it curious that so much of the fandom criticizes Lera, saying she doesn’t have clear motives, when she very much does, meanwhile Poet’s are completely inscrutable here yet everyone loves him. Really makes you think, hm)

Also Oleg not telling Sergey about Rubenstein is weird. Really weird. People have said it’s not, but it’s really freaking weird. Cause these two are pretty much always together, which means Oleg said he was doing something else when he did it. Or did it while actually being there to do something else. And then didn’t tell Sergey for… reasons? My suspicion is that Rubenstein said something Oleg didn’t like and doesn’t want Sergey to hear, so he just omitted the whole thing, but I do hope we find out for sure soon. I’m almost positive this question will be answered lmao, but it still bothers me

And, although I’m sure this will be answered too, I’m curious who is going to end up being who’s problem. Will the cultists show up in PD or MIG? Tbh I’d prefer MIG, I think they’d fit the vibes better, but who knows. And the Rubenstein trio? Well, they were previously Igor’s problem, but they could be Sergey’s now too (and, by extension, Oleg’s and Lera’s), or maybe they’re getting their own series? I have no clue. Max and Banu are clearly going to stick around. So we’ll see how all that goes

I feel like I had more questions when I started typing this lmao, but I think the big ones really are Poet’s motivations and then the purpose question, which I put in the criticism section. I also feel like… Idk, after the first arc, I felt I had a very clear picture of the kinds of things that would come up later and what this series would look like and what it would largely be about. But now? I feel like I know nothing. And that scares me a little, because when I can’t predict how a story will go, then how can I know it’ll end okay? I think that’s what really gets me. Is now I have doubts I didn’t before. So. I do hope the epilogue clears a lot of this up, or maybe when the issue after that comes out, it’ll just forget 90% of this happened lmao as sometimes happens. Idk, I guess we shall see

And, like I said at the top, if you actually read all this (or if you didn’t cause it’s stupidly fucking long lmao but are seeing this paragraph anyway), then please, please feel free to reach out and chat with me about any of it. Cause I would LOVE to talk to someone about some of these feelings and I really don’t have anyone right now cause most of my friends really liked it and I don’t want to upset them, or they have the same questions I do with no answers. Anyway, that’s my ramble, hopefully this will leave my brain and I can relax in peace now lmfao

[saltymongoose]

Since u accept Halloween related request (right?) Can we have Audi,Phob,Jeb and Tricky with powerful vampire player headcanons like the one with the main 4 ?

Hello Anon! All requests are closed at the moment, including Halloween-related ones. My mention of it in the original post stated that I might open them, meaning I have yet to make a decision on whether to do that. It was more a note showing that I was considering doing it than an outright confirmation, but if I do decide to go ahead with that, I'll make news of it public. I'm sorry for any confusion, my wording probably could've been better in that original post haha. 😅

However, I do actually have a few requests in my inbox from before they closed that ask for more characters with the Vampire!Reader, including Audi, Phobos, Jeb, and Tricky. Collectively, you should get exactly what you're asking for here, even if it's not this request that I answer directly. So don't worry about not seeing this happen. ;D And thanks for the request too ofc; I'm glad you like the Vampire!Reader stuff enough to want more (cause I loved writing it lol). <3

(Oh, also: I'll still be answering "spooky" themed requests even after Halloween, so if anyone has anything else they want to see with this theme, they could theoretically send it in whenever requests are opened again. Just an fyi I guess haha.)

[mx-mituna]

💀 h¿ th¿s ¿s my blog

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🐍 DN¿ AT ALL: prosh¿tters, dsmp fans, zebruh codakk fans (ew.), aspec or mspec-phob¿c, 18+ or nsfw blogs (the body ¿s a m¿nor.), ant¿-moga¿ b¿tches, ant¿-typ¿ng qu¿rk b¿tches, anyone who part¿c¿pates ¿n cr¿nge culture, ant¿-endos

🥓 BYF: ¿ reblog gore, cann¿bal¿sm & s¿m¿lar but ¿ always tag ¿t. ¿ have a typ¿ng qu¿rk, ¿ cant help ¿t, but ¿ w¿ll gladly translate ¿f needed. also ¿ll be reblogg¿ng a lot of h¿veswap/homestuck stuff so steer clear ¿f you dont l¿ke that.

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💙 vents

[motherhenna]

Just ignore this if it’s been asked before, but how did you come up with your art style? It’s very unique and I’ve never seen anything else like it.

Thanks a lot! For me, it’s just been amassing a huge portfolio of artists I really love, and incorporating things about their work that I like into my stuff, slowly but surely making it my own. For example, I started doing the really flushed noses w the white spot of highlight on the tip mostly because of the artist phobs--they don’t do that as much anymore, but they did a lot of tutorials back in the early 2010s that really helped me as a young artist. 

And the artist that helped inspire my habit of “outlining” certain parts of the body (ie the circles around the eyes and knuckles) was definitely Adara Sanchez--she’s a huge influence on how I draw hands and arms, especially, though if you go to her instagram be prepared for a fair amount of NSFW work lol.

So to answer your question, a unique art style is just something that will hopefully happen organically as you grow and develop as a creator. As a young teen on DeviantART, I definitely did my fair share of style stealing and, embarrassingly, even a bit of tracing parts of other artists work, which is something I’m obviously not proud of. But my biggest recommendation is to have a wide variety of inspirations: don’t limit yourself to just one genre or one idol. Then your stuff will just start looking like a poor imitation of theirs. Here’s a little piece I made a few months ago with a list of some of my biggest inspirations: would recommend checking them all out!

[xfreischutz]

Who would you say are your top inspirations when it comes to art? i'm curious to hear

ooh hmm

this is a really difficult question to answer because different artists have drifted in and out of my life and i have trouble remembering them sometimes (or idk if i can really call them an inspiration when i admire their skills but haven’t done anything to learn from them)

i’d say my top two most influential artists are gigidigee and phobs, because i was really into their art during a very formative period of my life. my extracurricular teacher was super influential for different reasons in that he influenced my style to prioritize communication over everything else and other stylistic stuff kind of followed (e.g. convey mood -> lighting, colour usage, etc.)

eta: i also grew up on clamp and other manga/anime stuff so that’s definitely influenced my aesthetic permanently in a cultural sense? like how often western artists start off with cartoony styles and east asian artists start off with anime styles

off the top of my head i think other influential artists (currently) would be jw waterhouse, alphonse mucha, kakimari, qissus, kloysius, and tinysnails // eta: mmcoconut!

recently i’ve been looking at a lot of realistic painting and various jrpg character designs without actually following or looking at artists (just the posts that come across my dash) so that’s also informed my art

[phobalic]

blelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelellelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelelele 😝😛👅🤤😛🤤🤤👅😝👅🤤🤤😝🤤🤤😝😛👅😛👅😝😛😝🤤👅👅👅👅👅👅😝👅🤤😛😛👅😝👅🤤🤤😝👅🤤👅😝😛😛😛😛😛😛

same

[phobalic]

Who is your favorite character design wise and favorite character lore wise? :3

design wise: eden, mayday, capgras, cotard {even though hes a pain to draw}

lore wise: how am i supposed to choose? uh maybe all of the moonlight labs guys

[phobalic]

Hi hello person full of joy, whimsy and talent! This is simply a leetol kibby here to remind you of your amazingaliciousness!! :D

YIPPEE

[phobalic]

what if you wanted to post on tumblr but i slung you around by your ankles like a lasso instead /silly j

[phobalic]

IVE SEEN YOU ON PINTEREST!!!!!! hello

meowdy!!!!! im glad more people are finding out about me on pinterest lol

[phobalic]

Any info about chars associated w/ cotard you’d like to share with the public,,

yeah like two. i'll cover Mori and william below the cut

this is william!!! who cotard works with as cotard is his assistant

funnily enough it was kinda williams fault cotard literally flipping DIED because he just so happened to be tinkering with radiation around cotard {who had no protection sadly as he didn't know william would be doing that stuff} so uh. cotard died of radiation poisoning 🙁 oh also cotard finds william handsome. hes he knows

AND NEXXTTTT

SHITASS MCFUCKFACE!!! i mean Mori Lamorte

hes a death obsessed freak and i love that for him

nobody really knows why however. he skulks the local cemetery.

AS FOR HIS RELATION TO COTARD they're..kinda yaoing it up..if yk yk. heh

the shipname is corpsecot..made up by me

anyways. thats it for now

oh and if anyone was wondering what songs they're inspired by, william is he'll use me for his needle show and mori is..well its kinda obvious but memento mori (the most important thing in the world) :o)

[phobalic]

which one's your fav oc? is there multiple? HAND EM OVER I'm gonna eat your art /silly

i love all of them equally besides this one guy but probably capgras :o3

[phobalic]

Hey soThe link doesn’t work

should be fixed now!

[phobalic]

Wait I recognize you. You’re my tiktok mutual 🫵🫵🫵🫵 i’m moony.theoctarian btw

hai!