#so this comic is kinda following those trains of thoughts

[halfmoth-halfman]

a little small talk, a smile, and baby i was stuck

Pairing: Kyle "Gaz" Garrick x GN!Medic!Reader Word Count: 2.4k Warnings: fluff, medical inaccuracies, bruises, kinda hurt/comfort, gaz's helicopter curse Disclaimer: I do not own modern warfare or any of the modern warfare characters.

When Soap mentions the new medic, Gaz doesn’t think much of it. 

It’s not that he doesn’t care; he’s just too preoccupied thinking about the upcoming mission to give it any real thought. 

That is until Price sends him to retrieve a folder from the infirmary, and he quite literally runs into you. It’s neither of your faults; he’d been walking in just as you were leaving. 

It’s a cosmically comical series of events. 

You stumble back, rushing out apologies when your foot catches on his, and you nearly fall back into the infirmary. Gaz is quick to react, grabbing you by the waist to keep you from falling and pulling you back up to your feet with a strength you don’t expect. 

You’re left staring at the face of this handsome stranger, your hands braced on his chest and his gripping tightly onto your hips. 

A beat of silence as the two of you regard each other before a smile breaks across your face, laughter spilling out of you, and Gaz is immediately taken with you.

Your hands leave his chest, and he loosens his hold on you enough for you to step back and put some space between you. It takes a minute for you to compose yourself, your laughter dying down into tiny giggles. You extend your hand, giving your name and a stunning smile.

“Um, hi,” he smiles back, shaking your hand. “Gaz. Or Kyle. Either works; it’s whatever you prefer. Most people call me Gaz, though...but Kyle’s fine, too!”

A single smile, and you’ve got him stumbling over himself like a teenager. 

He’s thankful you’ve stepped back from him. He doesn’t know what he’d do if you felt the way his heart hammers against his ribcage. 

“Well, it’s nice to meet you, Gaz, and/or Kyle,” you laugh, giving him a teasing wink. 

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, you too.”

“And thanks for the save–” You step around him, his honey-brown gaze following your every step. “–I’ll see you around?”

God, he hopes so.

“Yeah, see you around,” he nods. You give him one last glimpse of that beautiful smile before turning on your heel and disappearing down the hallway. 

Gaz stands outside the infirmary for an extra five minutes, staring in the direction you’d gone, a hopeless smile on his lips.

The doors click open, another medic stepping out and staring curiously at the soldier standing before him.

“Sergeant Garrick?”

Gaz snaps out of his trance.

The folder. Right.

-

Gaz finds every excuse he can to go to the infirmary.

He’s the first to volunteer if Price needs something from one of the medics. He lets Ghost get in a few extra hits during training. He’s even started to look forward to those pesky migraines he gets every few weeks. 

He’s sure the others have started to notice. They don’t say anything, but he’s caught the small, knowing smile on Price’s face every time he returns a few minutes late from the infirmary. 

The other medics are starting to catch on, too, he thinks. They’re always strangely absent whenever he shows up, suddenly busy with something on the other side of the room. 

He can’t find it in himself to care, though. Not when he walks into the infirmary and sees your gorgeous smile as you cheerfully greet him. 

“Price need something again?” you ask, smile dipping in a small frown when Gaz shakes his head. He holds up his hand, showing off his bruised and slightly swollen knuckles. 

“Missed a throw during training,” he sighs, mouth tugging into a sheepish half-smile. “Got any ice?” 

“Sit down.” He sits on the closest chair, watching you shift into doctor mode. You’re a good medic, you take your job seriously no matter how little the injury, and you seem to genuinely care about your patients. It’s one of the things Gaz lov–likes about you. 

You pull up a stool, sitting close enough for your knees to touch as you examine his hand. Your soft, efficient fingers turn his hand this way and that, lightly pressing against the bruises on his knuckles.

“How’s the pain, on a scale of one to ten?”

“Barely a two.”

“Can you make a fist?” 

He does, and you let out a quiet hum. 

“Wiggle your fingers.”

“You want me to pat my head and rub my stomach next?” he jokes, moving his fingers. You pinch his hand, eyes flicking up to give him an annoyed look, but he can see how the corners of your mouth twitch up. 

“Nothing looks broken or sprained,” you explain, sliding away from him to fetch some cream and gauze. “I’ll wrap it, but you should take it easy for a day or two and let the swelling go down. Come back if it doesn’t or if the pain starts to get worse.”

Gaz nods as you sit back down and get to work on his hand. He tries not to shiver at your gentle touch as you treat him, praying you don’t notice the gooseflesh that appears whenever you touch him. 

“Sure thing, Doc.”

He lets you work in silence, content to watch you. 

He wonders if you know your nose scrunches when you’re trying to focus.

“All done,” you say, smiling proudly at him while he examines your handiwork. 

Gaz flexes his hand, the bandages not too tight, and hums in satisfaction. “Not bad, Doc.”

“Not bad?” you scoff, crossing your arms over your chest. He chuckles, a surge of confidence as he meets your eyes with a genuine and thankful smile.

“It’s perfect. You’re the best medic in the entire world. I am eternally grateful.” 

“That’s what I thought.” You both know he’s teasing, but Gaz can see the way you straighten just a little bit more, your smile growing a little bit wider. “Now get back to work, and try to be more careful. For my sake.”

Gaz stands as you begin to clean up.

“If I was careful, you wouldn’t see me as much.” He’s teasing, but you freeze, your back to him as you finish washing your hands.

He hopes he hasn’t overstepped.

“Yeah, you’re right,” you sigh, turning to him with that same beautiful smile. “I’d miss you too much.”

He doesn’t get to reply as you’re called away by another medic, but he's positively beaming for the rest of the day. 

-

Three months.

They’re estimated to be gone for three months, at least.

That’s three months away from base, away from you. After seeing you nearly every day, Gaz isn’t sure he’ll be able to handle being away from you for so long. 

There’s nothing between you two, not officially, anyway. He knows he has no right to worry about you–about being away from you–when he hasn’t even properly asked you out. 

You aren’t his…yet. 

Anyone with a working set of eyes can see how you smile and laugh and flirt whenever you talk to him. He’s noticed how your gaze lingers on him when you think he isn’t looking or how you always find a reason to touch him whenever you’re near. 

He’s at least ninety-six percent sure you'd say yes if he asked you out. He just has to gather the courage and do it before he has to leave.

His nerves get to him every time, and it isn’t until they’re four days out from departure that Soap decides he’s had enough and drags him to your office. 

“Yer not leavin’ until ye ask them to dinner,” Soap huffs, knocking on the door before Gaz can stop him.

“Are you out of your–”

“Hello?” Your door opens a few inches, and you stare curiously at the two sergeants in front of your door.

“Doc!” Soap beams, putting his hands on Gaz’s shoulders to push him toward you. “Gaz has a question for ye!” He gives Gaz a good clap on the back before turning on his heel and leaving.

“Do I want to ask?” You blink at Gaz, one brow raised.

“Probably not,” he sighs. You stare for a moment, eyes bouncing around his face as you take in the small bags beginning under his eyes and tense shoulders.

“You want to come in?” you ask, stepping back to open your door further. Gaz nods, and you allow him into your office, closing the door behind him. 

He sits in one of the chairs in front of your desk, unusually silent. He stares at your desk, something heavy weighing on his mind.

“Everything okay?” you ask softly, taking the seat next to him and placing a gentle hand on his arm.

“We’re leaving in a few days,” he mutters, frown pulling at his handsome face.

You swallow around the knot in your throat, “I know.”

“We’ll be gone for a while.”

“I know.”

“Do you–would you–” Gaz groans, leaning back in the chair and scrubbing his hands down his face. 

Why is this so hard?

“Kyle?”

Gaz sighs, hands falling into his lap as he stares up at the white ceiling of your office. He peers at you through the corner of his eyes, heart aching at the worry and concern on your face. 

“You’ll be here when we get back, yeah?”

“Of course, I’m not going anywhere,” you answer instantly. “Just–” 

You stop yourself, teeth worrying at your bottom lip. Your gaze drops down to your lap, where your fingers twist and fidget with the ends of your sleeves. Gaz straightens in his chair, hands flexing as he debates whether or not to reach out to you.

He doesn’t, frozen to the spot when you look up and meet his gaze with watery eyes. 

“Just promise you’ll come back in one piece.”

He shouldn’t. You both know that. It’s a chance he takes any time he steps off base; there’s no guarantee he’ll come back.

He won't make you a promise he doesn’t know if he can keep. 

Gaz takes your hands in his, squeezing softly, pouring as much assurance as he can into the gesture.

“I’ll do my best.”

You choke out a laugh, a few tears slipping down your cheeks.

“You better.”

-

Gaz wakes up to the heavy smell of disinfectant and the steady beeping of a heart monitor.

It takes a minute for everything to come back to him. He remembers the gunfire, trying to get on the helicopter, Price yelling orders in his ear. They were in the air, and then an impact, and then…

They crashed.

He shifts, his entire body aching, bones groaning in protest. He groans at the pain, trying to swallow down the hurt.

“Gonna undo all their hard work if you keep doing that.” 

Gaz turns his head to the right, finding Price sitting next to him in one of the infirmary chairs. He’s not looking at Gaz, busy filling out paperwork instead. 

“Where’s–”

Price shushes him, nodding his head to Gaz’s other side. Gaz follows, his breath hitching when he finds you curled up in another chair, fully asleep and using a folded jacket as a pillow. 

The heart monitor beeps with the skip of his heart, and Price chuckles quietly.

“Is that your jacket, sir?” Gaz asks, trying not to bring any more attention to the obvious.

“It’s yours. Gave it to them to help calm them down.” Price glances up at him, a knowing smile on his face. “Didn’t think you’d mind.”

Gaz opens his mouth to speak, but you groan softly, shifting in the chair before your eyes blink open. Your brow furrows as your gaze travels up his body and lands on his face, where you finally meet his eyes. 

Gaz watches you process before you’re out of the chair, checking over every inch of him and firing off question after question. 

“It’s okay. I’m alright,” he laughs, ignoring the ache as he lifts his arm to softly press his hand to your cheek. “I’m here, love.”

“You–” Tears stream down your cheeks, and Gaz wipes them away with his thumb. “You absolute bastard! I thought you were–” 

You don’t say it. You can’t say it. 

Instead, you lean forward and bury your face in his neck, careful not to tug on any of the IV chords.

Gaz whispers soft comforts into your ears, lighting kneading at the base of your skull as he lets you cry into his shoulder. Price gives him a look, a silent question if he’s alright. Gaz nods, and Price stands to take his leave and give you two a moment alone.

You cry yourself out, pulling away and furiously wiping at your cheeks. “Don’t ever do that to me again, Kyle.” 

Gaz laughs, soft and affectionate, “I came back in one piece, right?”

“You–” You’re trying to be mad, but he sees the smile you’re trying to bite back. 

“I know, I’m the worst,” he grins. “Promise to make it up to you, though. How’s dinner sound?”

“I think you at least owe me dinner and a movie,” you joke, voice thick with emotion. 

There’s that lovely smile.

“Dinner and a movie. Done.”

“And breakfast.”

“Moving a little fast there, sweetheart.”

You huff, folding your arms over your chest. “You’ve got three months’ worth of dates to make up for.”

“Fair enough.” 

Despite the dull pain that vibrates across his body, Gaz smiles as he traces a hand along your jaw and pulls you forward into a sweet kiss.

-

A soft knock at your office door interrupts your focus on the paperwork spread out over your desk.

“Have you got a minute?” your husband asks, peeking his head in through the door.

“For you? Always,” you grin, happily abandoning your paperwork as Gaz walks in, closing the door behind him. 

You meet him halfway, arms winding around his neck to greet him with a kiss.

“Wanted to stop by before we have to head out,” he murmurs against your lips, pulling you back in for another kiss.

Three years later, and he can’t help but fall in love with you every time he sees you.

“How long will you be gone this time?” you ask, pulling away to settle your head in the crook of his neck.

“A month, maybe two.”

You sigh, warm breath fanning across the skin of his neck. Gaz hums, taking your left hand in his to press a kiss to the ring on your finger. 

“Promise you’ll come back in one piece,” you whisper softly, looking up at him with a teasing smile. Gaz chuckles, turning your hand over to glide his lips over your palm to the pulse in your wrist.

“I’ll do my best.”

[general-cyno]

apparently it's the 15th anniversary of zoro's sacrifice in thriller bark (not sure if manga or anime though) so yknow. time for more zolu of course

one of the many things about zoro and luffy is that despite how their approach to certain situations might differ at times, they're still pretty similar at their core, sometimes to a comical degree (see: their definition of what a hero is back in fish man island arc). and this understanding of how the other works is what leads to moments like jaya,

this little one in water 7/enies lobby,

and follows consistently all the way to wano arc.

and I was thinking the other day about how their childhoods too kinda mirror or parallel each other's in a way that emphasizes (to me, at least) how special zoro's particular protectiveness toward luffy is, and why luffy relying on zoro that way is just as special.

the specifics of their childhood stories are different but both luffy and zoro have a turning point of sorts that's marked with the grief and loss of sabo and kuina, respectively, which leads them to say these:

(I cropped the panels, but luffy's also crying here)

it's important to note zoro and luffy had dreams/aspirations before this, to become the greatest swordsman and luffy's secret thing that we've yet to learn about (that ace, sabo and the crew now know). however, losing kuina and sabo is what prompts them to, on top of that, strive to become stronger for other people's sake. for zoro, it's his way to honor his friend and fulfill their shared dream. for luffy, it's to avoid losing the people he loves.

throughout the story, zoro and luffy end up expressing similar frustration and sentiments due to this. there's zoro innerly chiding himself for being too weak as he trains in the aftermath of arcs like little garden, alabasta and thriller bark, where the crew get stuck in situations in which zoro isn't able to help as he wishes he could (the wax cake, the sea prism stone cell, kuma). there's luffy swearing he won't lose a single member of his crew even if it kills him (the davy back fight) and reproaching himself for not being able to save any of the straw hats in sabaody, with the worst of it right after losing ace in marineford.

(and man do I have thoughts about bon turning into zoro, out of all the straw hats, back in impel down.)

anyway. as to why all of this is meaningful - when zoro agrees to join luffy, he mentions that his goal to become the greatest swordsman is all he has. yet as the straw hats go from journey to journey, and with a certain emphasis in luffy, you can see how zoro's view slowly shifts. he's now driving himself to become strong to protect them as well, to the point he's willing to set aside his ambition and offer his own head in exchange for luffy's, if it means he can ensure luffy's life and safety. that's huge. as mihawk inwardly points out, zoro has something, someone he values even more than his ambitions and pride. and it's through his adventures with luffy and the crew that he becomes closer to achieving that initial dream of his.

whenever people wonder why zoro's as loyal as he is to luffy, aside from all the reasons why luffy as a character has earned that loyalty through his actions, I also remember that one line koushiro said to zoro in a flashback: "the pinnacle of swordsmanship is the power to protect what one wishes to protect and cut what one wishes to cut. a blade that injures all that it touches isn't really a sword." while sure, it works in the context of later power ups like haki, imo it perfectly captures zoro's character growth too and what luffy's given him. the current zoro isn't lost or directionless with only one purpose in mind or to live for, bounty hunting as a means to survive. he has a home to return to, people to cherish, to protect and keep getting stronger for, people who nurture him in turn. kuina's death is something zoro couldn't have prevented, and losing people in accidents like those is something that could happen again, but still within the limits of what's preventable - zoro can protect his friends now.

as for luffy... zoro kinda steals the spotlight when it comes to grand gestures of loyalty/devotion and being the MC of the story means luffy fights for different people (both crew and non crew), carrying their wishes and hopes as if they were his own. he gets help and learns from others as well and all members of the crew are important for luffy to achieve his dream one way or the other, but the way he relies on zoro specifically is so subtly meaningful to me. we don't get as much insight on luffy's inner thoughts, still, we do have context.

for someone like luffy, who is at his innermost genuinely terrified of being alone and losing the people he loves, the fact that he trusts zoro to protect and keep everyone safe (even luffy himself) is so good. as shown above, luffy vowed to become strong in the first place to ensure he'd never go through loss like sabo's again and this vow is all the more renewed after ace's death. luffy has to be strong for everyone but... the fact that he can trust zoro to follow his lead even when others might not understand his reasons to do x or y, that he's so unwavering in his faith that zoro will protect the others when luffy can't, entrusting the people he cares about to zoro, whom luffy also cherishes - it's all pretty special. everyone in the crew has their strengths and zoro may not be the only fighter, but all of them, including sanji, fall under his protection whenever it's needed.

it's not only about raw strength though. zoro's also there to set luffy straight and remind him of what's important when the circumstances arise, like in water 7 or punk hazard. and even when they don't necessarily agree, like wrt vivi's situation after the reverie in marijoa, luffy knows when zoro's right and acquiesces (albeit grumbling a little) because, once again, he's also aware that zoro wouldn't just risk everyone's safety. luffy listens to him. and their reunion in wano too, luffy's sheer happiness at the sight of him again, is a very clear example of how much luffy adores zoro even beyond all that.

although luffy isn't aware of what happened in thriller bark (that we know of), zoro's actions are proof of why luffy trusts, has faith in, and relies on zoro as much as he does and why it's so important for luffy to have him by his side, considering how afraid he is of being unable to keep his loved ones safe. this is more on a speculative note, but I can imagine how comforting that must be for luffy - to not shoulder that on his own.

happy anniversary!

[maiko-san]

TADC x Robotic Jester! Reader (Part 2)

Part 1

Since part 1 doing so well, I'll be making part 2

ft. Jax, Gangle

You're not really sure how time really works in the digital circus, but who cares anyway? You just live your own life here without worrying about anything especially your human past.

You're at The Tent, practicing your skill on a tricycle while juggling lit torches in your hands and on a tightrope.

Ragatha had gone to her room to rest while Kinger is in his pillow fort, probably thinking about his insect collection.

You were too focus juggling the torches and not noticing a pair of scissors cutting the rope. The last thing you hear was a 'snap' and then you fall on the ground quite comically ( in cartoony way ) followed by a laughter. You let out a groan and shakes your head, you couldn't help but growl as turn your head to face the culprit.

It was the newcomer, Jax.

JAX

Number 1 pain the as#&! in the entire circus. You don't like him one bit ever since he first appeared.

He loves tormenting others and saying "I love to see something funny happen to people" follow that stupid grin of his.

"Hahahaha! Look how funny you look when you fall, you look so stupid!" he laughed. Your teeth clenched together. "It's not funny....rabbit" you said, standing up and dusting your clothes.

Sometimes you have the urge to throw him into the void but Caine somehow can hear your thoughts and tell you not to or he will confiscate all of your items and give you a timeout.

"It would be more funny if you were to set on fire— oh wait, you already are!" Jax grins, you stare at him in disbelief. You take a whiff and you swore you smell something burning, your tail kinda feels hot for some reason.

You turn your head to see that the tip of your tail is on fire.

Let's just say, Jax loves tormenting you the most. You remind him of those cartoon characters in tv shows!

Some of his pranks can be overboard and there are times it causes you to become malfunction all thanks to his pranks especially when he pours water into your joint circuits, causing your limbs to twist uncontrollably.

He doesn't care that he hurts someone (or even cares about their feelings). Knowing that Caine could fix/solves everything with a snap of his fingers.

Jax is straight up a bunny from hell.

None of the others like Jax including you.

You just don't know what his problem is but if he ever dares to hurt your friends with his silly pranks, you won't hesitate to throw him into the void.

You roll your eyes and sigh, with him around the area making you lose interest in training. So, you decide to leave and go back to your room or go to Ragatha's.

After a few days had passed, a new human had appeared in the circus.

Gangle

A ribbon with a mask? She's an odd one.

The very first moment she arrived, she was nervous and scared.

Caine was about to give her a name until Jax decided to name her himself.

"How about Gangle? They do move so 'graceful' " he said with a proud grin on his face, you look at him in disbelief. Seriously? That just mean! ( Gangle means moves ungracefully ). Before you could protest about the name, Caine just agreed with the suggestion he have given.

"Well! Gangle, welcome to your new home!" Caine smiles.

For the first few days, Gangle did really well actually. You notice that she has two masks with her, that is her comedy mask and tragedy mask.

Gangle is very light since she was made out of ribbons, if you run past her the poor girl gets knocked down by the wind and breaks her mask at the same time.

You did it once and you feel guilty for doing so.

So you remind yourself to always be careful whenever you're around her.

Gangle really appreciates how you are so careful and gentle around her, unlike Jax who pushes her on purpose whenever he feels like it.

Every time she breaks her comedy mask, you would offer to fix it for her but she softly declines.

"Wah!" again, Jax tripped her over when she walks past him. Her comedy mask falls off her tragic mask and smashes on the floor, "My...my comedy mask" Gangle sobs as she holds up a piece of her shattered mask.

She sighs to herself and picks up the mask piece by the piece, she stops when a hand hovers her.

She looks up to see Ragatha, Kinger and you. You couldn't help but let out a scoff, glaring at the rabbit "Seriously, Jax? Again." you glare at the purple rabbit. "Pfft. What? Not my fault that she doesn't see it coming~" he said, closing his eyes as he shrugs off what he has just done.

Gangle and Ragatha could see that you're on your last straw. Your limbs extend and wrap themselves around the rabbit, causing Jax to blink in surprise.

The next thing, Jax was thrown out of the tent. There was a Jax shaped hole left on the roof of the tent, indicating he was thrown high up.

Gangle didn't expect for you to do it, she was shocked. She appreciates that you stood up for her but at the same time, feeling that she's a burden.

You assure her that it wasn't a problem and tell her if Jax ever bothers her again with his silly pranks, don't be afraid to tell you :D.

A/N :

State in the wiki, Jax gets to choose his own name when he first arrive and he also chooses Gangle's name too.

If you're thinking that "Jax is too mean!' that's what he is, he's just a straight up a-hole and a sociopath(?).

[skitskatdacat63]

Happy Birthday to Seb, and Seb only.

+ some explanations

I realized as I was making this, some of the little stuff probably only makes sense to me, and maybe people who have been following me for a while atp. So I wanted to explain some of the little details I included cause I really love them!!

First of all, I wanted to incude my original sketch for this(from like 5 hours ago lmfao), bcs I find it sooooo cute. Look at him!! Little guy!

I. Fernando's Gift

This is of course a reference to the Fernando teddy bear, but more specifically to the vettonso comic with the bear I drew a while ago. As you can see from my sketch, this is the first gift I came up, which I'm pretty happy about!! It's always so cute to me no matter its form. Though...I don't think teddy bears existed yet in the early 1700s, but Fernando found a way, okay? I like to think Fernando is all gruff in the beginning, but gives Seb this or something similar and remarks "to keep you company when I'm back in Spain," and then he has to pretend he has food poisoning rather than living with having said something so sappy.

II. Mark's Gift

I don't think this is really a reference to any specific post of mine. Dog!Mark is just an important Mark characterization in general, but especially in boy king au where he is really reduced to the status of dog by virtue of his upbringing and vocation. He definitely plays this off as wanting Seb to get another hunting dog(something he advocates for often. Seb knows it's entirely self motivated but loves to humor him bcs its cute to see how much he loves dogs. Well Seb loves dogs too, one dog in particular-)

III. Jenson's Gift

AAAAHHHH I'm so proud of this one bcs of how many leves there are to it!! I couldn't for the life of me think of what Jense would gift him but then I remembered I characterize him as horse obsessed(read: ye olde carfucker.) So this is basically the ye olde version of him getting Seb ultra detailed minatures of his cars. HOWEVER this is also a callback to one of my favorite posts I've ever made, back when I translated Seb's car names into Latin. So it was fun to actually get to canonize that in a way. ALSO! BTW! Those horses are specifically Lipizzans, which are a very iconic horse breed in the Habsburg Empire and Vienna specifically. A horse breed sought after by the Habsburgs for both war but also riding schools, and they still remain as the breed of horse trained in Vienna's Spanish Riding School today. The emperor Seb is based on comissioned the school's main riding hall, and his portrait still hangs above where the riders enter. So I thought that was a fun little easter egg to include!

Also the characterization in this is so funny. I guess I'd consider them a polycule, like they're a unit and all have interesting relationships between each other. But one of the main focuses is the kinda love triangle between sebmarknando. Like Mark and Fernando constantly fighting for Seb'cs undivided affection and attention. But as per usual, Jenson, who is on the sidelines, swoops in effortlessly with the most perfect gift ever. I feel like he understands and gets along with Seb the best out of the three, but just doesn't want to deal with such a complicated thing so he's satisfied being a bit distant(he secretly takes a lot of joy one-upping the other two. It's impossible to not crave your ruler's attention, no?)

[fxckn-sxck-fr]

You're literally so fucking disgusting (said with absolute joy).

Anyways, which of your silly little comic book yandere men are into petplay? And are they puppy-owner-coded or kitty-owner-coded?

𝐘𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐂 𝐁𝐎𝐎𝐊 𝐌𝐄𝐍 𝐕𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐔𝐒: 𝐏𝐔𝐏𝐏𝐘-𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐑 𝐊𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐘-𝐎𝐖𝐍𝐄𝐑…

!!! GN reader, petplay, can be translated as romantic or platonic, but the innuendos are 100% intended, collars, leashes, mentions of punishments, slight manipulation, drugging, I channeled my inner pet for this.

*Pulls out my 3 hour long slideshow* I’M SO GLAD YOU ASKED, ANON.

First off, all of them are into pet play if I have a say in it. You will never catch me obsessing over a character I either can’t see collaring me or wearing a collar for me. So, really, this question boils down to if they’re a dog or cat person, LMAOOOOO.

Second, they all could go either way, honestly. These are just my personal thoughts on what they might gravitate towards. If you’re a certified puppy, don’t you worry, cuz the kitty enjoyers will love you the same, and visa versa.

Now let’s get started.

Bruce Wayne: I ALREADY CAN’T FUCKING CHOOSE, FUCK. My first instinct was to gravitate towards kitty-owner, but then I thought about his need to have some sort of physical tie to you (cuz he totally keeps you chained or handcuffed to him, DON’T FUCKING QUESTION ME), so he might be a puppy-owner for the sake of keeping you on a leash. Either way, you’re totally his little lap pet while he works in his office. Petting you gives him the strength he needs to finish all his paperwork. Also, everything you own is bedazzled to hell and back, from collars to toys. He likes to spoil his beloved little pet, okay?!

Clark Kent: I’m gonna go with puppy-owner. He might carry you around like a cat, but that’s only because carries dogs around like cats, too (that’s what happens when you have super-strength; everything is just so carry-able). Absolutely talks to you in that babying voice every dog-owner uses. “Who’s a good pup? Who’s a good pup?? You are!! That’s right, you are!! Aww, look at you!!” It might be annoying, but you better get used to it if you don’t wanna be locked in your uncomfortable cage while he’s gone. He knows you hate it, which is why he hates it, but it’s the only way to get you to behave!! Be his good pup, won’t you?

Dick Grayson: Very much leaning towards puppy owner. He’s all for training you into his loyal pup who follows him everywhere. Also lowkey talks down on you cuz you’re just a cute, dumb puppy!! You don’t need to be thinking big human thoughts!! Let your loving master take care of everything, okay? Ah, ah, ah! Silly, pup! You’re not supposed to speak! Now get back on your hands and knees… puppies don’t walk like people do, remember? Or does he have to get a little mean to remind you? You don’t want that, do you? Yeah, didn’t think so. Now sit… good job!! Why don’t we give you a treat, hm~?

Hal Jordan: Another one that can go either way. Honestly, though? The more I think about it, the more I’m digging kitty-owner Hal. There are so many ways this could go that it makes my head hurt. Is he a condescending owner? “Poor little kitty… got something to say? Hm? What’s the matter? Cat got your tongue?” Or a soft owner? “Such a pretty little kitty… did you miss me while I was away? Yeah? I’m so sorry, sweetie.” What about one of those cat-dads that started out as we-are-not-getting-a-cat and ended up getting totally attached? “What do YOU want? Huh? Whatcha up to, pusscat? AYE!! Get off of the couch!! Come on, you know better.” The possibilities are endless.

Jaime Reyes: You know, it’s kinda weird. I see him as a certified puppy by default, yet as an owner? He’s kitty-adjacent. You’re just the cutest kitty-cat ever, he can’t help but keep you as one!! Definitely gets one of those bell collars (with a cute bow on it!!) for you. It helps ease his anxiety whenever he hears it jingle. Better be a cuddly kitty, cuz he canNOT keep his hands off of you. Poor guy’s always on the verge of a panic attack at the thought of you running away. It’s a common occurrence for him to pull you into his lap, eyes shining with unshod tears as he quietly asks, “you’ll never leave me, right?” If you don’t want to sit there awkwardly while he hyperventilates, I suggest you be kind and nuzzle into him.

Remy LeBeau: 100% kitty-owner. Expects you to greet him at the door when he comes home. “Y’miss me, minou? Yeah… Gambit missed you, too. C’mere.” Whether you like to admit it or not, he gives the best scratchies. He’ll have you lay against his chest for hours, softly petting your head as he listens to your rhythmic breathing. Absolutely sits you on the counter while he cooks so he can feed you small morsels as a little treat!! Every chef has to have an adorable sous-chef, no? Oh my god, he is just so soft that it makes my heart melt. You’re his precious little kitty and he’ll never let you forget it!! Just don’t be up to any trouble, okay? He may be gentle, but he also knows how to punish naughty kitties.

Scott Summers: Puppy-owner puppy-owner puppy-owner pupPY-OWNER— you bet your ass he’s training you to be the perfect little puppy. When he’s through with you, you’re gonna be the most obedient pup around. Don’t get me wrong, he’s actually a very soft and sweet master!! Gives you tummy rubs, praises, and even treats (when you’re good). However, when it comes to obedience, he’s absolutely the no-nonsense type. Do not test him; the literal leash he has on you is short for a reason. Disciplinary Scott is a very scary Scott, so I’d suggest you start acting right if you don’t want to get the cruelest punishment ever. “That’s right. Be a good little pup for me. You know what happens to bad puppies. Behave.”

Tim Drake: Have you met him? Kitty-owner for sure. He wants a lazy kitty that’ll sleep in his lap whenever he works (read: he wants to drug you so you’re constantly lethargic and can’t run away from him). Be prepared to be a weighted blanket, cuz he loves when you lay on top of him. Whenever you wake up, he’ll always be the first thing you see. “Good morning, Kitty! Sleep well? C’mon, it’s breakfast time!” Does NOT let you do anything for yourself (not like you’ve got the energy to, anyway). He loves to take care of his cute little kitty!! Also, has about 3,000 photos of you on his phone so he can look at them when he’s away. He just misses you, okay? You’re all he thinks about on patrol!!

Wally West: The puppy-owner thoughts won. He wants a happy little pup to pounce on him anytime he comes home!! Oh… you don’t wanna do that? Well, it’s okay!! He’s very good at training disobedient mutts. A quick word of warning, you do not want to trigger his stern mode. He’ll dish out the most cruel and devious punishments, all with the “I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed” attitude. Soft and sweet owner Wally is where it’s at. Loves to make you do tricks and give you treats afterwards!! He can get a little condescending and tease you, but it’s all done out of love! Unless you’ve been bad. Then it’s completely intended to be malicious. But you would never be a bad pup for him, right? He loves so much and spoils you rotten, why would you ever be bad? Come one, now!! Walkies time!! If you don’t tug on the leash, he’ll give you a big reward!!

[doctorofmagic]

BLOOD HUNT PREDICTIONS (and spoilers!)

Okay, I see everyone is struggling to keep it cool because of what just happened today in Blood Hunt #1. But honestly I'm very excited to put the pieces together (also very HYPED!!!). So here are my thoughts (and my friend Red's, thank you, my darling) on what we gathered so far through clues, covers and solicitations.

Obviously, spoilers.

Well, first thing I'd like to establish is that people will probably feel lost if they haven't read the last Blade volume. Thankfully, yours truly did! Which means I can provide some context:

Just recently, Blade released an ancient evil called the Adana by accident. To make it up for this mistake (which would lead to the end of the world, basically), he had to embrace his full vampiric powers by drinking Dracula's blood (they're in a kinda complicated relationship right now, not friends nor enemies but necessary allies). That also meant that he was corrupted by its evil.

Plus, as I said it many times, Blade has a deep respect for Stephen because of the Montesi Formula, which resulted in the extinction of all vampires. Yes, Stephen did it once, and I'll get back to it because I think it's REALLY important.

Since we established that Blade might be corrupted, let's move on to the next topic.

Is Stephen dead?

My best guess is "not really".

In Blood Hunt, we see that T'Challa sacrificed himself to protect Cap America Sam and the rest of the Avengers who survived the first strike. But is T'Challa gone? Luckily, I follow Farid Karami on twitter and he posted a few inks he did for Black Panther: Blood Hunt. And guess what? That's right, we'll about to have vampire!T'Challa!

Besides, we all know that the next Doctor Strange issue will feature Wong and vampire!Stephen. What we didn't know was how Stephen would fit in the plot, but thanks to the variant cover I posted last week, we do now: he'll be guiding his allies via his astral form.

Now, how can the Sorcerer Supreme deal with the vampiric threat? It was shown that Stephen and Clea are looking for the Montesi Formula again.

For those who don't know, the Montesi Formula is a spell from the Darkhold that can wipe every single vampire off the face of the Earth. Stephen already used this spell once when he fought Dracula (and Blade was there, hence the respect he holds for Stephen). Unfortunately for them, Wanda has just recently absorbed the Darkhold within her body as a way to gain autonomy from Chthon (as seen in Darkhold: Alpha and Omega). Besides, Wanda was captured by the Bloodcoven, which means she can't do much right now. In addition, as hinted by Blade himself, she won't use the Montesi Formula, mostly because the character can't be involved in another kind of genocide (thanks, Bendis). And that leads us to the next topic.

Who could do it? The very one character who would overcome morals on behalf of his people, the same one who already appeared in the first issue: Doctor Doom. And if we think about it, he has two advantages already: 1) he's second in line to be the Sorcerer Supreme, and 2) as already established, he'd do anything to protect his planet and, most importantly, Latverians.

It's also important to reiterate that an astral form is not as powerful as the body+soul. With Stephen's strength limited, it's not that crazy to imagine that he could pass the mantle to Victor for a limited period while they find the spell. "Why not Clea?" I don't know. It's already established that managing the power of two sorcerers supreme is extremely hard and draining. Could be another reason as well. I'm just trying to find a coherent train of thought through this variant cover here:

Still, we're left with a very important dilemma. We have nice vampire allies in current comics: Brielle (Blade's daughter) and Soldier and Reese from the Midnight Mission (Moon Knight), the three of them being characters to be featured in the tie-ins. Well, not to mention Stephen and T'Challa, and maybe some more to be turned in the next issues. This is why I don't think the Montesi Formula will happen. Jed won't kill THE Black Panther, let's be real. So what's next?

We're expecting a plot twist at some point, and Blade will have an important role here. He's set to have another solo title this year, probably following the consequences of his actions. But there's a high chance someone else is involved. Let's check this panel once more:

Atlantean rituals.... Where did we hear about it before? That's right, Sorcerer Supreme #11!

During the old age, Varnae become ruler of the vampires and was brought back by Marie Laveau in modern age, fighting Doctors Strange and Voodoo. His last appearance traces back to Blade when he and his friends confronted him. Frank Drake sacrificed himself in an explosion to kill Varnae, and that's the last time we hear about him.

But see how the pieces come together? Blade, Stephen and Varnae. It makes sense that things would center around these three. And this is why I'm very excited. It's not a surprise that I love Blade and Stephen's relationship, and all these elements would make a wonderful drama, one that I'm really looking forward to!

Overall, I'm not worried about status quo or anything like that. I know things will work out in time, and seeing so many of my favorite characters involved in an event written by McKay only makes it better!

And that's it! Feel free to add your thoughts on this post! And see you all next week with Doctor Strange #15! 👀

[fortemelody]

I'm bored so imma send an ask but what are your Amy Rose headcanons?

HI HELLO IM SORRY THIS IS SO LATE!! i didn’t know how to answer it and then i got busy and then i forgot but i’m here now!

and tbh i still don’t entirely know how to answer it becus im not someone who makes headcannons very often. i usually just see some on my feed and be like “oh yeah that’s so them” and then immediately forget about it LMAO but i do have a couple even tho they are a bit basic and so i’ll try to describe those few in as great detail as possible

knuckles and amy are sibling 100%. they have that dynamic for sure! they train together and they tease each other. amy’s in the small demographic of few people he trusts too. many have also pointed out that they look similar and some people hc her as part echidna which im not really opposed to either

amy and shadow are definitely besties. whenever sonic is too stubborn to do “girly” things such as try on makeup for example, shadow would do that with her instead. he doesn’t care about his public image unlike sonic. music is something that brings them together too, seeing as we already know that they’re both swifties and went to hot honey! and she was the one who brought him back to his senses in the ending of SA2 (which btw im praying that the third movie has that scene aughdkftk). shadow has a clear soft spot for her that can only be brought out by amy. i feel like the next follow up question would be if i ship them and the answer is…not really?! i think it would be a situation where maybe amy is a bit touchy at times without realizing it and shadow blushes, or shadow does stuff to make sonic jealous (to clarify them hanging out in general is purely becus shadow wants to -not just an act so he can get back at sonic- but i think it would be funny if he would take the opportunity to brag about it when sonic gets on his nerves). i do not think either of them would actually date tho even with these one off situations and they are way better as platonic besties fr ong ‼️

this one is a bit random but i’ve always thought of amy being like… a starbucks addicted girly (in the world of mobius- not irl where they could possibly be funding a genocide 😭). and it’s kinda an ironic thing in my mind. yes, she’s the least ordinary girl you could get: wields a giant hammer, incredibly strong, is hyperfixated on and can use tarot cards as weapons, and has an indescribable intuition. however, calling back to the events of SA1, she really is just a normal hedgehog at the end of the day trying to lead a normal life. she had to learn all of these attributes, she wasn’t really born with an ability like the rest of team sonic. she also lived in an apartment for part of sonic x (i think?? haven’t watched the full series and i don’t remember everything) and actually liked it. so i think she would really enjoy simple more earth like customs. i think she honestly might be embarrassed of this fact too, seeing as she’s come all this way in her life just to resort to her old ways of living.

(…okay i’m gonna be honest that last one was a bit of a stretch and it originated from me and my friend calling her a basic white girl at one point as a joke LMAO but then i thought more about it and it kinda made sense once i put it into context)

the last one is a concept i kinda stole from a comic i saw a long time ago (i have no idea of the username- but if someone does lemme know). it was the idea that sonic started liking amy once she had started to move on, how the “chasing” kinda switched roles, and after she dialed down her “fangirling”. how sonic now wants her to be obsessed after she’s made so much progress in being her own person. i kinda wrote a fanfic based off of this and expanded upon my interpretation of it through amy’s POV. although i never posted it, i think the words i chose still capture it well so i’m just gonna copy and paste that:

“When Amy started to slowly change her childish and obnoxious mannerisms towards Sonic, he immediately felt more comfortable around her, and even started subtly reciprocating his feelings to her. Amy was obviously maturing no doubt about it, but she felt as if she had lost a part of herself in doing so. That side of her that would boldly protect and proclaim her love to him. That side to her that wouldn’t stop until she got her way. That side of her that was, as Jewel stated “…constantly following him”. She felt as if she had given up so much of her personality just to feel less incomplete, to have that soulmate she always dreamed about. On top of that, Sonic loved to come and go as he pleases. She knows that he was always going to be the adventuring type, but she wish more often that he would make an effort to chat or to invite her to tag along. Chaos knows when she tries to plan anything with him, she’s too paranoid for her own good, wondering if he’ll instantly interpret it as a date and chicken out.”

-different scene-

“Amy was surely blushing before, but nothing could’ve prepared her for that statement. She felt her heart beating, no, throbbing out of control. She looked like a full on tomato now. It’s always been her dream to dance with Sonic, but in the past he always ran away, so she gave up after several attempts. But this was the “new” her. He liked the “new” her, apparently enough to dance with him.”

(ik a lot of this doesn’t make sense without more context but uhhh this is getting too long already so if you wanna know details just DM me ig 💀)

and if it wasn’t obvious already- i take a lot of what is said in the twitter takeovers, tailstube, and idw comics to heart becus i think they have the most genuine and interesting versions of these characters and tell us about small details that we wouldn’t otherwise know. i not only make this info my hcs but also like to expand upon them and use them in my evidence- so that’s what most of the things i said above are referencing.

sooo yeah i think that’s all i got. sorry i guess a lot of these were more about dynamics of character interactions rather than amy herself… i hope that’s okay! tysm anon this was a lotta fun to answer and i hope to get more of these types of questions!!

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments - episodes 27-30 author notes

You can find similar breakdown posts on older episodes in my pinned!

I make these notes as I work on an episode, however, people have been so attentive and observant with their comments that I started a tag fragments feedback where we dive even deeper into themes and interactions in the comic. These comments are a blessing, often pointing out things that my own brain doesn't register.

Obligatory ShB spoiler warning.

Episode 27 begins with a chat about the original weapons that are merely a stylish-looking convenience for them ic and for me ooc, so that I don't have to draw them lugging their weapons around.

Essentia's just a name for Vivi's spear, not like the whole concept. I introduced it around the beginning of the ShB arc. Alisaie's weapons have no name yet, there's a possibility to do something cute referring to twins.. I shall think of it :3c

Look at this child being all smug for having been able to help recreating something previously thought unique, and, um, flirting.. In her own way.....

Vivi be like, sigh, "ah, back on her bs already... Better indulge her while she's still in a nice mood".

Alisaie's left arm's stronger than both Vivi's. As a dragoon he doesn't only use magic to amplify his jumps, if it works on legs, why not extend it to arms as well? Not unlike what monks do, minus the actual physical training. Basically he cheats with magic in real fights. A casual friendly duel isn't worth expending aether, so he only relies on his actual strength :'>

He also can't do friendly duels because his Echo only telegraphs hostile attacks. A friend would stop before his blade cuts him, so Vivi's kinda blind, only relying on his own average skill. A legendary hero that's no fun to spar with if you're remotely competent.

..Which has no negative effect on Exarch's fanboyism.

Several people said they look forward to said sparring session, and I felt like I failed them because I had no plans to follow through with this. Then I thought some more.. Do we mean every little thing we say or think? Sometimes it's just distracted nonsense. If every action and word were hooks/setups for the story, it'd feel artificial. This's just my opinion, but some scenes have to have idle chatter and musings for realism.

Vivi and Alphi look like door-to-door salesmen, yet the Chais are buying multiples of whatever they sell.

This's a looooooongg post, under the cut we go~

A random thing that thematically belongs here, but didn't make it in the comic: Vivi ended up being more freaked out by Eulmore than Amh Araeng.

Feo "privacy breach" Ul :> They greet each other so casually that it's clear, this's far from being the first time.

One of my personal fav panels so far. People loved the "crystal mystel" so much but I can't take credit for that! My brain's full of soup that's a mix of everything canon and my own generous additions, but I THINK one of the pixies calls him that ingame, sometime post 5.0.

You probably didn't know that you needed more Exarch and Feo Ul interactions till now, I've got you covered. Their scenes will take time to trickle in, but they EXIST and go back as far as their first meeting.

Exactly what happened.

One more episode where Vivi doesn't utter a word, but it doesn't feel like that.

Tank!Exarch fanclub, +1 member. Vivi's pleasantly surprised by the sudden shift in Exarch's demeanor. He genuinely admires him here. "Lead me anywhere daddy".

Ready for a guild wars 1 (one!) joke? No? I'm making it anyway. Lyna casts gaze of contempt (effect: removes enchantments on target foe)

She's such a good daughter with great intuition. She feels uneasy about this way before Vivi feels anything at all. He just looks. Perceives. He has eyes, dammit! And Exarch has those stupid sexy sandals and shiny crystal arm and stylish flowy robes and he's generally kinda cool? It's official, it has begun: Vivi's attracted to Exarch here.

Zooming in super close to bring your attention to his thigh gap <w<

A closeup for the hell of it C: His eyes have a natural faint glow that's just there, it doesn't mean anything, like, genuinely.

Vivi tries to appease Lyna. He has no idea why she keeps glaring at him, probably still not trusting a stranger. He uses his charm as a casual manipulation. Unfortunately, Lyna falls for it. For now.

As per msq, Exarch's kneeling, not collapsing (although that would've been just as fitting tbh). While still not trusting him too much, Vivi slowly begins to respect a reputable ruler and a skilled fighter, and WHY IS HE KNEELING MY LORD GET UP?! Vivi hates being treated like some sort of a messiah. That pushes him further inside the box of being a mythical figure, and denies his humanity.

Normal colors and lighting!! For one episode....

The scene on the left isn't meant to feel cozy and inviting, while the right one is. Sickly, cold, washed out colors vs darker and warmer ones. I'm putting a lot of thought into this, just wanted to celebrate it a lil C:

Episodes 28-29 show Vivi and Exarch's ways of handling unexpected personal hostility. Vivi casually whips out a V and a silly grin, while Exarch.....

He tried, okay?!

A thing on their positioning in this scene that I didn't plan consciously, it just happened: Exarch's framed by the Crystarium, appearing more aligned with it, while the elf pile's surrounded by an idyllic natural frame. Something something about the greenery meaning life, and Exarch looking a bit out of place here.

This's our first, but not last encounter of an imagination theater :>

The dragons are goofy on purpose. Well, sort of. I can count on one hand the amount of times I drew non-humanoid creatures, and the tone here doesn't demand anything super serious from me. Also it makes sense in-character, Exarch probably never saw a dragon up close.

Take a good look at this lil shit. I indulged in illustrating his badass moment before pointing the "camera" away for a while. We're heading into the Il Mheg arc that lasts for months and has no cats ;w;

Vivi's iconic Protagonist Grin >:D

Also, Ryne. Just to keep your expectations grounded: while I personally like her, she has no relevance in this story, and very little screentime. I'm currently having Eden raid brainworms, might write a scene or two related to that, but we're talking many years into the future. Until then, she doesn't do much.

ShB cast's diverse and extremely fun to explore, but if I went on tangents the comic would literally never progress. Gotta be honest, I'm already terrified that some readers might drift away before reaching the wolgraha part of this wolgraha comic. I don't wanna rush OR dilute the main plot too much, if that makes sense. Also, just like in real life, you probably don't form perfect connections with every member of your social circle, some people grow closer than others. Vivi has next to no connection to Minfilia/Ryne, he also stays away from little girls after one of those ended up becoming his lifelong problem *snorts and points at Alisaie*

Desires, and feasting on them? A dungeon meshi nod? More likely than you think.

Feo Ul, sprawled out on his chest like that, visually resembles a burning heart.

Emet antithesis :3c

Imagine loving your pet so much that you let him do this. Feo Ul isn't moved by the physical act AND the joking accusation.

While seemingly slacking for a dozen episodes, Vivi formed bonds with Feo Ul and Ardbert, and thus secured the future of the two stars. Now he has friends that aren't his coworkers first and foremost, that he genuinely wants to fight for. This's what makes him tick as a hero: a quiet plea of a friend, not even asking him directly, a stark contrast to being dragged around and cried at for help. If Vivi's introduction to an entity (person/group of people) is "they suffer, they need help", he shrugs it off. Everyone suffers and needs help, he can't split into thousands of vivis to please them all.

He's only truly motivated to help, or empathizes with those who he gets to know through other means. Take Ardbert, his strange behavior on the Source, then reintroduction that's confusion and companionable snark, but not wailing for help. And Feo Ul, they hang out with him just because, they're safe.

He may not run off to fight the local Lightwarden this instant, but when he gets around to it, he's earnest for a change.

This's all I have for now, thanks for reading!!

[lampochkaart]

DRV3 Exlibrium AU introduction

Exlibrium (Экслибриум) is an urban fantasy comic book series published by Bubble Comics about the adventures of a young girl named Lilia Romanova who accidentally becomes part of the Order of Book Sorcerers (official translated name is Bookwizards but it sounded kinda funny so i call them Book Sorcerers).

The comics are great. They’re written very well, the characters are all cool and interesting and the art styles (there are several artists working on the series, and they switch from time to time) are simply amaising. But keep in mind that those comics can get pretty dark at times (and contain horror elements).

I really like this series (actually I like a lot of Bubble comic series) and recently I got an idea for a DRV3 AU. This AU doesn’t really follow the plot of the series, but the world building and lore are cool, so I thought it might be cool to expore the situations that DRV3 cast might find themselves in.

While technically I could explore the possibility that they are all fictional characters and what might happen to them then, I prefer to just leave them as Book Sorcerers fighting with runaway characters.

Now, I’m gonna expain about the main information about this AU. Obviously there will be some spoilers for the comic.

(Most of this part was taken from the wiki page)

The duty of the Order is to protect the boundaries between the real world and the world of fiction. Their main task is to catch literary characters who have escaped from their books and who are causing damage to the real world due to mutations of their body, caused by their presence in our objective reality.

The Order of Book Sorcerers owns Libraries, which are used as headquarters, as well as training places for new mages. Every Library has its administrator, who is similar to the school principal, and tutors. All Libraries obey the council of the Order, called the Circle. The Circle includes four people and an equal number of senior Shadows of the Library (a special kind, more intelligent and powerful than their smaller colleagues). Together, the participants of the Circle solve global problems of the Libraries crisis.

Every ordinary person can become a Book Sorcerer, after being infected by literary ink from awoken books. However, a person affected by the ink begins to attract the attention of "mad" books that spit out everything they have inside into the real world. The infected person must go through initiation in the House of Bones, which is an astral place, where shadow-like creatures live.

(Picture from the comic)

If the shadows take over, the ink absorbs the person and they become a Shadow of the Library, a little phantom creature, serving the Book Sorcerers. In that case they will be forgotten by anyone who ever knew them before transformation (except Book Sorcerers).

Shadows of the Library

If the person takes over, then they gain the ability to control the ink inside of them. During the initiation, the ink color is also being defined, which affects the supernatural abilities that Book Sorcerer obtains.

Going through the House of Bones

There are ten colors in total: red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, gray, black, and white (the last two are called "monochrome colors" and are special and extremely rare) and their shades. With the help of the first 8 colors, Book Sorcerers can influence the subjective reality of books in various ways, while black and white let their owners control our reality, opening up perspectives to limitless possibilities (the abilities of both can only be used together with the opposite color, which means that two sorcerers are required to activate them; they can't be used separately).

Warm spectrum: Attack

Cold spectrum: Defence, influencing the battlefield

It is technically possible to go through the House of Bones several times to get other colors, but this is rarely done because it is very risky (and going through the House is a rather nasty and painful process overall).

Persons color represented by Exlibrium — something like a magical tattoo that appears where the ink has settled after infection — after successfully going through the House of Bones. Exlibriums are used to seal the books.

(I decided to use their former high school emblems as Exlibriums)

Colors often connected to personality. All colors have their element and their power.

(I tried my best to get more information, but a lot of what is written below are just my observations and guesses based on what I saw in comics)

Colors

Red — fire. Attack (fire and explosions). Traits: Hot-tempered, passionate

Orange — sand(?). Attack (high durability low mobility, can be used as defence). Traits: ?

Yellow — light. Attack (glow, destructive rays of light). Traits: Anxious, nervous

Green — plants(?). Defence (healing, buffing abilities). Traits: Calm, collected

Cyan — air. Defence (speed, flight). Traits: Energetic??

Blue — water. Defence (capture, invisibility, disguise). Traits: Calm, kind?

Purple — ? Neither attack nor defence (is inbetween cold and warm spectrum). Abilities: freezing creatures and objects in time, stopping time. Also some kind of conceptual (?) magic like being able to share damage between two people. Traits: ?

Only members of one family are allowed to have purple ink.

There were also characters with turquoise and pink ink. Probably those are variations of cyan and red (?) respecively. Turquoise ink allowes to create portal doors.

Monochrome

Owning monochrome colors are prohibited, all owners are killed.

Grey — stone. Defence (kinda like orange but even more defence and durability and not a lot of damage). Can be reluctanlty allowed but owners are under constant pressure

White — absolute light. Creation and destruction (only with black)

Black — absolute darkness. Creation and destruction (only with white)

Characters

Kaede Akamatsu — Purple (from family). Control (time manipulation, support) Exlibrium: chest

Shuichi Saihara — Yellow. Attack (light bullets) Exlibrium: right arm

Maki Harukawa — Red. Attack (crossbow) Exlibrium: shoulders

Kaito Momota — Red. Attack (fire, exposions) Exlibrium: fists

Kokichi Ouma — Purple* Control (time manipulation, support) Exlibrium: back

Gonta Gokuhara — Yellow. Attack (swarms of insects) Exlibrium: hands and arms

Ryoma Hoshi — Cyan. Defence (speed) Exlibrium: legs

Kirumi Tojo — Green. Defence (healing, buffing abilities) Exlibrium: throat

Tsumugi Shirogane — Blue. Defence (invisibility, disguise) Exlibrium: left eye

Rantaro Amami — Blue. Defence (lasso, some expedition equipment?) Exlibrium: chest

Korekiyo Shinguji — Green? Defence (healing, buffing abilities) Exlibrium: neck

Angie Yonaga — Orange. Attack (divine punishment, sculptures as shields or weapons?) Exlibrium: Belly

Tenko Chabashira — Cyan. Defence (flight?) Exlibrium: back

Himiko Yumeno — Orange. Attack (magic cards) Exlibrium: legs

Miu Iruma — Yellow. Attack (bombs+electrohammers or laser guns?) Exlibrium: Belly

K1-B0 — Character assigned to the library

*owns illegaly. Officially owns a different color

Red: Kaito, Maki

Orange: Himiko, Angie?

Yellow: Shuichi, Gonta, Miu

Green: Kirumi, Korekiyo?

Cyan: Ryoma, Tenko

Blue: Shirogane, Rantaro?

Purple: Kaede, Kokichi*

And now more clear explaination from me about what exactly Book Sorcerers do.

Every once in a while some characters from books may regain consciousness and try to leave the book. By doing this, they make the book "mad". Because if the book’s plot doesn’t go the way it’s supposted to, more characters start going insane and the book will “spit them out” into reality in hopes that they will bring back the escaped characters. When characters (and the books, since they’re directly connected) go insane, they start mutating. Usually it starts like appearance of extra eyes and limbs, but can deform bodies even more. In the most severe cases all characters can even be combined into one deformed mass. With each cycle the plot can’t go the way it’s supposted to, the book and the characters are getting more and more crazy. The shorter the book, the faster this happens.

Character going crazy

In order to stop that Book Sorcerers have to “feed” the characters to the book and then seal that book with their Exlibrium. After this characters can’t run away from their book (until they somehow gain consciousness and escape again), and when the book cycle starts again, they forget everything about what happened and go back to following the plot. If a character dies (not according to the plot of the book) Book Sorcerers have to rewrite them again using their own ink (+ remaining ink of the character), which is very draining and require a lot of energy. If a book can’t be saved, it may have to be destroyed, but this is very bad so it can’t be done unless it’s REALLY necessary.

Books go insane not only when they’re missing something important, but also when something foreign gets inside them (like a character from different book or even Sorcerers themselves if they are not careful).

Normal people don’t see unusual looking characters and powers of Book Sorcerers because of a phenomenon called “false blindness”. It prevents people from going insane every time they encounter something that doesn’t fit into their idea of normal reality. Therefore, unless they are exposed to magical things for a long time or interact with them directly, they will not be able to see anything like that, even if it’s right in front of them.

It’s also important to note that fictional magic, both from characters and from the Sorcerers, can’t affect the material world and regular people. But it can affect everything influenced by ink (namely books, characters and sorcerers themselves).

Every library has an assigned character that belongs to the library administrator or just someone who is in charge of supervising the initiation. This character “awakens” the ink that the person has been infected with to start the initiation process. It’s a rather painful but necessary procedure. During this, the infected person is firmly fixated in the chair, because while consciousness is in the House of Bones, the body can behave unpredictably, and the chair prevents the person from hurting themselves or others (or at least it is meant to).

In this AU, the administrator of their library is Makoto, and Kiibo is a character he wrote, but Naegi is away so for now Hajime looks after the library.

Most of the time, Book Sorcerers use their ink’s “basic” abilities, but in some situations it’s not enough. In that case they can use glyphs (for example, healing and buffing abilities require making glyphs). The problem is that this is difficult to do in the heat of battle. So more often they prepare some most frequently used glyphs beforehand and carry them with them.

There are also special pens that are used for more powerful magic. Without them Sorcerers still have powers but they are a slightly weaker and more limited.

I’m not going to involve monochrome sorcerers in events of this AU because it’s a really complex topic and I don't want to go into it here. This AU is mainly just for the shenanigans of DRV3 cast. There’s gonna be enough drama and angst even without monochromes.

I think that’s all, at least for now. I also tried to avoid spoilers in my explaination, but I might later explain some things a bit more. If you have any questions about this AU (about characters, about mechanics, about AU in general, etc.), feel free to ask! I already have some things I wanna expain and draw, so I will definetly show more of this AU.

I already wrote a little introduction with some extra information about characters. I'll post it tomorrow👀

Tag for this AU is #drv3 exlibr au

[hermit-searching]

TMNTposting Raphael edition (Part 2):

Part one can be found here. I really wanted to talk about my favourite little guy but I didn't feel like I had enough space to get all my thoughts down in the last post. So technically the entirety of part 2 is dedicated to 87 Raphael.

When asked who my favourite version of Raphael is, my answer is always a tie between 03 and 87 Raphael. I'm probably biased because they're the versions of Raph I grew up with, well 90s movies Raph is also in there but I really don't remember enough about the movies besides the Ninja Rap scene and I haven't rewatched it yet. The point being, 03 Raph tickles that itch for "more traditional Raphael" while 87 Raphael...I kinda just vibe with the little guy.

At face value he seems about as much of a traditional 'hot head' Raphael as Rise. Neither of them really fit into the "explosive temper" territory as 03, 12, 07 or the original Mirage comic Raph. He's a silly little dude. He likes playing dress-up, stand up comedy, and acting. Of all the versions of Raphael, he's definitely the most 'kid-like'. He's childish, he'll heckle his buddies for laughs, he even tells Shredder to go suck a lemon in the first episode. He's hilarious! But that type of comedy usually ends up getting him, and the other 87 turtles lets be real, into crossovers that horribly mischaracterize the poor kid.

As much as I loved TMNT 03, Turtles Forever is such a disservice to what TMNT 87 was, and who the 87 turtles are. 2012's second crossover with 87 also follows the TMNT 87 hate train, and it's so frustrating as a fan of most TMNT media. I get that the OG cartoon was super silly and tame compared to the others at face value, but every time someone says this I need to remind them it's 1) a cartoon from the 80s, and 2) lowkey really dark the more you think about it.

Such as:

-every time slavery is brought up and a plot for some other planet

-the entirety of the Red Sky seasons

-the humans of TMNT 87 always threatening to eat and or shoot the turtles because they're mutants

-the whole mutant hate sentiment being an allegory for the civil rights movement

But this is a post about Raphael. He's definitely still a funny little dude. But a lot of his humor stems from sarcasm and his cynicism towards the world. Raphael, is well aware humans are not fans of him or his compadres, and often sides with Donatello whenever he and Leonardo get into arguments about helping the humans. Their human friendship circle pretty much just ends with April and that's a dubious friendship at best since they're more or less a bridge towards her next scoop. None of them are really fans of Irma, Casey rarely appears, and the other human characters in the show are usually trying to turn them into kebabs until Dirk Savage the Mutant Hunter which already kind of says enough for itself.

This poor kid is honestly the bravest little dude. More often than not he'd rather run from a fight, or push Michelangelo into one for him. He's scared a lot, really giving off those youngest sibling vibes that are rare for Raphael. He's such a little scaredy cat that he his voice will sometimes sound like a squeaky toy. If Turtles Forever was correct about anything, it would be that Raphael would absolutely burst into tears meeting his Mirage counterpart.

But despite this all, Raphael is still probably the bravest version of Raphael they've ever created. Even though he'd rather scram, and read comics or watch TV. Despite knowing humans have it out for him, and will never accept him into their society. Even though he knows every time he saves them it will be a thankless job, Raphael will fight until his last breath. Like every other Raphael, he will protect the people and city he loves because that's who he is!

One of my favourite episodes in TMNT history has to be Raphael vs the Volcano because it really shows who 87 Raphael is as a person. There have already been a few posts about it recently who have all been far more coherant than I ever will be but let's do it anyways.

Raphael vs the Volcano:

-Donatello's latest invention, a health machine, malfunctions leading Raphael to believe he's unhealthy

-after panicking in the sewers a little bit, he goes back to the lair, only to overhear Michelangelo and Donatello lamenting over the loss of their dear friend.

-assuming they're talking about him, and that he only has a day to live, Raphael runs off, deciding that despite the fact the world sucks he's going to use his last day to make the world a better place

-he does a bunch of good deeds, increasing in danger, wearing a musketeer costume while the other turtles and April try to catch him

-some botanist is mad that a rich lady is taking credit for his discovery so he decides to eliminate all organic life on earth...not really important for Raphael's character except the fact he catches wind of this and takes this as his last deed before croaking.

-Raphael literally jumps into a live volcano to get the canister of anti-life juice, only escaping seconds before it erupts because the turtles arrive in time.

-the lesson of the day? don't jump into live volcanoes.

There's so much to unpack about this episode, but it'd mostly be reiterating the same things I said earlier about him. With a time limit on his life Raphael, despite the way he's been treated by the world will let go of his cynicism and crankiness to help people if it benefits everyone else. The kid shakes the moment he realizes it's been a huge misunderstanding and he's perfectly fine. Throughout the episode he's even saying things like "yeah too bad this is gonna be my last day". Like...he is CONVINCED he isn't making it to adulthood. If you think about it, it's basically what the other Raphs are as well, without the super explosive tempers. They're all just good-natured kids who have circumstances weighted against them, but they'll do whatever they can for the safety of their friends and family.

Please PLEASE give the 87 TMNT cartoon a chance if you've never seen it before. I promise it's actually good, and it has some extremely funny episodes.

[scarabjewels]

Why I Think Coraline Was NECESSARY To Be Published and Made into a Movie

I watched Coraline so many times, it's my top comfort film, beating Tim Burton Classics, White Chicks, and Jennifer's Body. I watched the trivia videos, theories, and analysis videos of this film, but two video dissections of it did caught my eye: CinemaTherapy's and Karsten Runquist.

I knew about predatory manipulation tactics, but I did not realize how ingrained that concept was in Coraline. I see now that this film SHOULD BE watched by the intended audience: children.

Remember how Coraline would've never been published if it weren't for Neil Gaiman's literary agent's daughter lying to her mom about the book not being scary?

Honestly, she and her mom deserve a lot of credit for making Coraline the cult following for the late millennials and early gen-z's.

Now, here's why I really thought Coraline should be exposed to children, and why made up horrifying tales of scaring children made sense before and even now (honestly, it is needed now more than EVER)

Let's start with the underlying concept of Coraline, explained by Runquist's video: The Coraline Bug Theory

I kinda do not want to sum up everything from this video essay as it is a GREAT watch on its own. But one thing I did get from the video that I clicked in my head regarding the film, the concept of control.

The Beldam, popularly known as The Other Mother, is a manipulative predator. The Other World is the manipulated reality she uses to lure the children in, the bugs and pests are "called upon to do impossible tasks" for her and her own tactics of training her victims into her control. She makes everything attractive that would keep the children and her servants in line so that when she asks for what she wants from them, they don't bat an eye.

The concept of control do not just exist in manipulative settings, even in the emotionally neglectful households.

Mel Jones, Coraline's mother, is the editor of both her and her husband's job, in the first 10 minutes of the film, Mel is revealed to have gotten into a little accident , therefore what looks like a comically large turtleneck to a child is a neck brace. Her family had just moved and is working over time on a deadline. The stress is unimaginable, and while I do think Mel is already a matriarch, keeping her family at bay, the added stress may have made her snarky attitude heightened. She is a ticking time bomb, quite sarcastic, childish, and for lack of better word, bitchy (even by the end).

Though we know Mel is trying her best and her and Coraline are actually quite close, as Coraline feels safe enough to share her stories with her family and is openly expressive with them, Mel embodies an actual mother of a matriarchal family, leading and in charge out of love (doesn't make some of her behavior excusable , though she isn't super controlling at all, she lashes out like an older sister that took over the family when mom is away, but anyone can empathise and sympathise)

Now for Other Mother, she is not exactly Mommy Dearest, or Black Swan Nina's mom, mostly because she is not a mother, at all.

She is a puppeteer, a showman, or a performer. She dazzles the audience with her magic (creating a too perfect textbook giving and loving mother), luring them into a false sense of security. She gives them everything they want, then once she had spoiled them enough, she asks of them a favour, an uncomfortable favour.

This is further dissected in CinemaTherapy's video of Coraline.

Manipulators and predators usually use that kind of tactic, indulging the victims, and then ask them something uncomfortable. The guilt tripping would come into play. Those favours they ask would be a reward for the manipulator and predator for indulging them.

And this is why children should be able to watch this unsettling flick, best with their parents too.

Parents should also be able to detect these, and learn with their child as they watch this.

(I want to delve into even more deeper topics related but I'm afraid it could be too triggering and just writing the paragraphs above is already unsettling me, so I will stop here)

Now, Coraline as the prey looking bug but actually a predator, and while she is not the role model for any kid, she is one person we can all learn from in these types of situations.

While Mel kind of represents a gardener, the one who maintains and keeps everything in check, the Beldam as obviously a spider, manipulating her web to be the suspecting beautiful trap, Coraline's motif is the dragon fly, an insect that is surprisingly aggressive and classified as an apex predator.

What I love about film Coraline is her strong will and absolute individuality. She is just as bitchy as Mel, FOR SURE, and also an independent thinker. She questioned everything about the other world, and while she gave into the glamour of the Other World, she detected danger as soon as the Beldam asked her to sew buttons in her eyes. She may have been lured, but she is smart enough not to fall into manipulation.

I do not remember if it was discussed in the Bug Theory about Coraline's bug motif, I may have read or heard it in another Coraline analysis/theorist video. I distinctly remember her dragonfly symbol to be a big part of why she escaped from the grasp of the Beldam. Unlike Coraline, the previous victims were significantly and successfully manipulated and did not dare question or challenge the Beldam as she gave them a "better life."

The Beldam preys on children with gloomy lives, her victims, the ghost children (in the film), have been theorised to have been taken in these years respectively: 1921 ( The Tall Ghost Girl) ,1936 (The Ghost Boy) , and 1960 (The Sweet Ghost Girl).

( Disclaimer: I am not American nor have extensive knowledge of American History, I am at most an average Google researcher and at best, an overthinker)

So, in the 1920s to 1930s, it was the era of The Great Depression, the "worst economic downturn in history" that resulted in the rise of unemployment and hardships for lower classes. It is easy to see just from that description that life in general was hard, The Tall Ghost Girl mentioned "treasures", may be alluding to desires of wealth, as at that time, it was what everyone needed so much that it crashed the economy.

1939 was the year the second world war erupted. I figured the ghost boy's situation in wanting a better life is pretty understandable. The Ghost Boy mentioned "treats" as the three told about what the other mother lured them with. Rations were provided for children during that time, my guess is that the boy's family must've cut down on how much they can eat, so that they are able to eat the following days ahead, and seeing that the boy is quite scrawny, he must've gone hungry a lot.

Please be warned that race will be lightly discussed in this section. In researching about the 1960s, racial discrimination and segregation are present heavily. The Sweet Ghost Girl was Ms. Lovat's twin, who is confirmed to be of African-American descent as well as her voice actress of the same race, she also stated to have grown up in the Pink Palace , now owning it. She had stated "games to play" as the Beldam's main thing to lure her. The environment and society in the 60s may have only limited her to play inside the house with her twin, or their situation must've not even allowed them to play like normal kids.

The Beldam was given opportunity with those years' depressing circumstances and took full advantage of it, as it resulted in gullible children.

Coraline may have been set around 2007, in that time, the global financial crisis rose, that later led to the Great Recession. Upon researching the cost of a house and an apartment in Oregon in 2007, which is where the film was set in, it was significantly better to rent than own a house in Oregon. However, a possible main reason relating to why they move mustve just because of their work, as I couldn't find much of Potiac, Michigan's economic state in 2007. The Jones parents were writers, and Mel is an editor as well, and just to note, a writer's strike occurred in 2007. I could not get a grasp of how much the income of writers was at this time. What I do know is that strike was the largest sign they weren't paid enough. So, writer's strike and financial crisis? The stress to make ends meet must've been so immense for those two.

What made Coraline different from the previous children , aside from her feisty personality, was because despite hardships going on, being her parents were stressed, neglectful, and struggling to make ends meet, Coraline has a good safe relationship with her parents as well as her environment, despite everything being boring. Nothing imposed as a direct source of a horrible life, her life was just stressful at the moment, like any other 11 year old going through a drastically far move away from home (e.g Riley from Inside Out).

I would really argue Coraline's curiosity is what made the Beldam's tricks work but it was Coraline's common sense, fast thinking and fighting spirit (albeit bitchy, hey her mom is a bitch too) that led to her triumph and escape.

I guess Coraline is one of the aspired final girls of horror films, a smart fighter.

Conclusion:

This modernized dark fairy tale had trained me to look out for people like the Other Mother, I am so glad to be able to take that lesson and ingrained it in my life. I did not exactly understand manipulation, but I knew that I should be more careful around too kind strangers.

Coraline is THE CULT CLASSIC OF ALL TIME, so far. Other than the major moral lesson, it is a great watch for its own, a good thriller: unsettling and just scary.

And remember to actually learn from these kinds of tales, for kids and adults and especially parents out there. Scoff or appreciate, look beyond the veil and behold it's message into you heart and mind.

Please.

[xannador]

I’ve been following the comic as it went from censored to uncensored. I know the timing of the blood censorship thing is unintentional, but I honestly think it adds a lot to the comic experience!

We know that Chai is a bit delusional. When he gets S rank he imagines his scrap guitar as an actual guitar. He blacks out to imagine tutorials in his head. And I highly doubt the training room Peppermint sets up is actually a stage where people cheer his name. Chai’s desire for fame and his self perception influences his perception of the world, kinda like a diet version of Ichiban from Like a Dragon

So going through the comic, despite Chai getting his arm ripped off (which likely would be connected to biological components), injuring his leg and getting stabbed IN THE EYE, we don’t see a drop of blood. It’s shaded black or out of frame, because Chai’s adrenaline is still pumping and he still has a plan for what to do. Keep dodging, keep running, find the perfect opening and lead them away. Outsmart them, show them why you’re the rockstar here

It’s only after he thinks the job is done and he collapses that the first real drop of blood is spilled and showed on frame. He’s out of energy, the exhaustion has caught up and the reality of this situation really sets in. Chai went to Project Armstrong because his arm was lacking in functionality, he knows how severe losing a part of himself is. Yes he had limited visibility while running away, but that was him focusing on the fight and surviving. Now he’s realizing “oh. Oh my god. I just lost my eye for good.”

And with that realization, the delusion is broken. He’s crashed back down to reality. He can’t do those feats anymore this night. In the moment when he sees the blood, that self image of the unstoppable rockstar has shattered. The god is bleeding, he is weak and tired and afraid.

And then he hears Peppermint’s voice

oh wew, I'm a bit overwhelmed by such an in-depth analysis of my comic. Thank you!

We are absolutely on the same wavelength when it comes to Chai being something of a delusional egomaniac (a lovable one a that). I personally always thought that the world of Hi-Fi Rush is so bright, moves like a dance, and everything comes across as a giant party is because we see it all through Chai's eyes. It's his POV. This is Chai's dream!

And in Mostly (h)Armless I kinda just... gradually felt like breaking that dream down. Slowly things stop being funny, the shiny bright world around you fades away, and the music goes quiet. The dream becomes a nightmare.

That and I am a vindictive little shit who feeds on angst, grimdark, and the tears of orphaned children.

[lioa7]

Oh? :D why ARE they here? gimme the explanation *takes out notebook* I'm Listening =] (AND AGGGGHHH I LOVE SERAPHIM! Their story is so interesting and I honestly wanted to see what they were gonna do after they were in the coding area with Gaster)

OH YEAHHHHH

HELL YEAHHHH

EAAAAAbhdhjkdjbk/vdsjbk/cascbjkbjkdv s/

BE aware CUZ THIS might… MIGHT… be a little long…

You asked 4 this, so I’m free of charge. And I tend to lose track of theeee uhhh… words when there is a lot of text…. so I’m going to TRY to keep it understandable... :D

Ok so FIRST!

(these are in no order, just how uh I’m writing about them) THE OG (UNDERTALE) [kinda also no]

SO I’m not going to go on about how great the game that Toby fox made is, because we all know it is! And I feel a bit nervous to try and explain what we all already know, plus I’m not too good with words or meanings… and I’m not sure I’d be able to write just how much I love this silly game.

Uhh… BUT BUT!!!

But I also LOVE LOVE!!!! The stuff people do with the “after” game. What I mean by that is those silly comics or artwork of life on the surface, like I feel like it can be taken to so many places!!! Like character studies or just a mundane routine that they adopt when they move.

AS ASSSS!!!! Like what do the characters think of the new change of scenery? What jobs do they get? DO they struggle with the change? Are people rude to them? Do they still carry a burden??? DO THEY GET PAST THEIR TRAUMA???? Or does it become worse? Do they ever get a happy ending? Are we seeing their journey to getting used to all of it? WHAT THE ABSOLUTE MOTHER FUCKING FUCK IS FLOWEY GOING TO DO?????? SO MANY POSSIBILITIEEES!!!!!  One that I loved a few years back was Growth Spurt by potoo brigham (on Tumblr), where we follow Asriel trough what can be best described as an awkward phase. (tho I haven’t read it in a while)

Or other can be Unexpected guests by undertalethingems (on Tumblr), that APPART FROM THE MAIN STORYLINE BEING THAT THE GASTER BLASTERS NOW GOT A FULL BLOWN BODY it also explores some of the topics I put at the beginning… (mind you, I haven’t read it in a long time so I’m sorry)  (I realized I’m kinda bad at keeping up with comics I like… L)

And I also talked about the art, in general Undertale fanart is just SO beautiful to look at, and that (unsurprisingly) also happens when people draw the monster in the surface, like I dunno… Toriel and Frisk taking a train home when the sun is setting and that stuff…

In general, I just love the ideas it can bring to the table, and how artists can like grab a piece of cannon (or fanon I dunno) and mold it to a story they want to tell with character that they love.

OK NEXT 

The edge (Underfell) 

Kinda short (doesn’t mean I don’t like it, it’s just more simple!)

I loved Underfell when I first came into contact with the fandom, it became my fave au of ALL time (probably because it was… well…edgy lol), and I loved pretty much everything it had to do with the au, if you had a thumbnail on Youtube with Underfell little me would have clicked that mf within the millisecond.

But of course, it was all mostly fanon, as I don’t really think in the 2016 or 2017 canon was too popular?

AT least not on Youtube… 

little story.

I had a phase going on when I was… I dunno, 15? 16 maybe? That I thought everything Undertale related was cringe (As you can see that was just a phase), and I was repelled by it, not sure why but it was what it was.

But many months after (I don’t really remember the specifics) I came back to the fandom, because the 4 u page just kept showing me Undertale and I decided to watch a few videos for the sake of nostalgia… then few months later I created my personal tumblr to see sOME of the art… then I followed a few people… then twitter… and before I knew it I had already jumped into the UNDERTALE bandwagon again.

But one of the AUs that made me stay for sure was Underfell (shocking I know), because I had found Fella/Vic’s (twitter and tumblr) posts and drawings, and I loved all of it. The canon is just so fun to find out about, I love to just scroll down and just read the comics or the pictures.

I really love the characters, just the little differences with the OG cast makes them super COOL.

VERY COOL!!!

I really love sans! He’s actually very very ummm…. He’s unflusterable.

Like, how many pf you knew that Fell sans does own a spike collar, but it’s FOR the pet rock, and how when papyrus found it assumes it was sans’ and was confused but ready to support sans in whatever weird shit he was into.

Like I LOVE THAT… Or or or how papyrus HATES Asgore with all his might, but stands him BECUASE of Undyne.

I gained a full appreciation for canon stuff since then. (fanon is ok!)

Plus, the fact that the au even exist is because someone asked Vic to draw “evil Toriel” just makes it better.

(PLUS PLUS have you seen the designs????? oR THE ALT OUTFITS!! THE ART!!??! They are AH! Just… just… cheff’s kiss) THIRDah

WHAT IN THE ABSOLUTE FUCK (Horrortale + a little story)

Funny thing, I’m not a fan of any type of horror, ironic yeah? 

But surprisingly enough, I enjoy Horrortale enough that I can just go about it with ALMOST no problems. The art is beautifully horrifying in the best ways, Sour Apple studious’ art style does everything right at the time of conveying just how horrifying Aliza’s journey is, like I remember that one animation they posted like a few years back where It’s just an animated screenshot of one of the pages from the comic. BUT MAN did I get scared. In general I think Horrortale conveys everything so well, from the sheer horror that the general story and topics bring, or maybe even the corruption of our favorite characters.

Like we have The Queen Undyne, she went from the hero of the story to a dictator who got corrupted because of gigantic amounts of pressure. Like the KING died, the Queen is nowhere to be seen, the human massacred a lot of monsters (the same human that Undyne considered a friend even), and all hope that the 6 human souls brought is gone, and to make matter worse the CORE has stopped working.

It’s a terrifying experience to go through, I don’t think I would have been able to handle that trauma. And the worst thing is, that Undyne being able to live through that trauma is what made her the person that she became in the present Horrortale. 

Like you would NEVER see Undyne threaten to kill someone for a candy, of course it’s limited food down in the underground, but the Undertale Undyne would have done her best to help others.

Or Papyrus, who is pretty much the only monster who still holds a semblance of a moral, but that doesn’t mean he’s naïve in the context of Horrortale. Papyrus was tricked (in a way) to eat humans, for bad and good intentions. And that messes someone up, because I don’t think he doesn’t know. 

And It’s not just that, every character that we see is just twisted in horrible ways that the situation has pushed them trough.

Horrortale takes a few years after Undertale, Aliza comes like 7 years after (8 now?) the player came and left everything to rot, and consider that monsters have been feeding of the little flesh that they can get, even the snow has become uneatable. Children are dying, magic is just not what it used to be (for fucks sake Grillby is the BEST fucking example of the undergrounds’ situation).

Now you might wonder that even after all that, why do I like Horrortale so much?… When I was a little lad (if I wanted berries and cream, mummy made me do the little lad dance), I was a FNAF fan, and one day I was watching “FNAF FUNNY AND CUTE” video (I distinctly remember one where the animatronics where in a sort of band that was playing a silly tune and the other was that the animatronics jumping into a box, and the foxy one couldn’t get through the box because it was metal) and I was enjoying myself.

Then in a moment of distraction Youtube auto played into another video, not FNAF tho, Undertale. And I DISTICTLY remember it (my memory is very weird, I don’t remember almost nothing but THAT I almost have a photographic memory of), it was a fan made video of the AU Horrortale. It was a fan’s interpretation of what could have happened to sans’ head, how did the situation play. And I believe it was before Sour apple studios released the “past arc” and we knew how exactly did Undyne break sans’ head.

I have researched a bit and it seems it’s called “Horrortale the law” I don’t remember the exact video, but I’m pretty sure it was a dub in my language… I think it was like 7 years ago?

Shortly after, I got into the fandom.

In any case, I was left pretty confused, as I didn’t know who the characters where or anything, but it’s left a bit mark on me. And that’s why my appreciation to Horrortale will always remain strong… even if I can’t really stand horror stories…

Next

Angst, angst for everyone (Gztale) [the point where I can’t put my feelings into words]

Gztale, ah yes, little me’s roman empire. I kid you not, I CONSTANTLY thought of Gztale, I was OBSESSED with it. And sometimes I still do.

Gztale, tarts with our favorite non-cannon buddy, GASTAH. With our favorite non- cannon theory, DADSTAH.  He takes some Determination from the already fallen human souls (I believe they were two at the beginning) and make some pills. And like ANY GOOD SCIENTIST he tests them on his kin. He’s like “take these son, they’ll make you STRONK, like vitamin… but with human essence in them… BUT THAT JUST MEANS IT’LL BE STRONGER!!!

NO DON’T CRY!!!  TO SHOW YOU THEY WORK!!!

I YOUR FATHER, A GROWN ASS MAN, WILL FIGHT YOU (my who knows how old son… maybe 12?) TO SHOW YOU THEY REALLY WORK AND THAT I’M NOT BEING ABUSIVE!!!!”

Fatherly love y’know?

The comic mAINLY focuses on Sans going through, y’know… the usual stuff you feel after your dad experimented on you and physically abused you to see if his experiment worked.

PLUS!!! (I don’t think I saw this anywhere, so take it with a pinch of salt) I believe Gaster also gave pap some of those pills too? AND PAPYRUS WENT TROUGH AN ACCIDENT AND EVERYTHING JUST…. BWAAAAAA!!!!!!!

AND EVERYTHING went TO THE DEEPEST SHIT.

CUZ PAP’S IS ALREADY COOL AS FUCK, GIVE HIM DT!! AND HE’S COOLER!!!

And If you ARE FAMILIAR with Gztale, or at least saw some pics, you know that Papyrus is…kind of an antagonistic force!!!  WHYYY?? People ask in the back. WELL You go and find the comic NOW, It’s very VERY COOL. 

Ok so now, I will admit, I never got to finish the comic for reasons I forgot, but I’m sure one could have been that the guy who was dubbing the chapters stopped for who know what and the second could be because my brain was SRTUGGLING to grasp the plot accordingly.

But of course, I re-read the entire thing just now to do this because my 12 to 13-year-old self’s’ mind is not the best example of a sharp memory, and I tell you I would have loved it SO MUCH.

LIKE… SO MUCH!!! In any case I always loved the…. uhm… essence? I couldn’t really say, just every time I see Gztale I just… :D, y’know?

And I really REALLY wish I could explain why, like I did with the others, but it’s such a raw emotion that I can’t possibly put it into words… Or maybe better? I dunno.

In any case, the creator golzybladedee (tiktok, twitter and Instagram) deleted the comic because they created Gztale in a not to happy time of their life and it brought them distress… BUT NOW if you go to twitter you’ll see that golzyblade has handed over the “ownership” of the AU to Nixensibrat (twitter), so we MIGHT see some uhhh Gztale in the future… 

YEA!!!

YEHI!!!! WOOO

YIPEEE

KILLER QUEEN!!! (killer! Sans)  So this one’s a little obvious, cuz we all love Killer sans. HE’S SUCH a VERSITILE CHARACTER, like I’ve seen comics back to back, where in one killer is a little shit who’s going to do the thing he was SPECIFICALLY told NOT to do, and the other is JUST PAIN, PAIN COATED IN LAYERS OF PAIN.

And I love him for it.  Like, he has so much potential in every spectrum!!!! I personally enjoy when people make him sympathetic. Like yes, he kills people, but not necessarily because he wants to kill people. Does he have a bloodthirst? Yes. Is he interested in giving into the bloodthirst? Not necessarily! like, Killer sans usually kills because Nightmare orders him to do so, if Nightmare hadn’t found him killer would probably stay in his AU rotting away. PLUS, if Dream had been the one to find Killer first, Killer would be as loyal to him as he is with Nightmare!

Killer is so out of it, that the moment a gooey version of him appeared and was like “Be my servant, the pay will be torture” he was like “sir I will now be by your side for no reason at all”. Witch also gives him a bit of (forgot the word I was thinking of, it’s like… SAD). Like ALL OF HIM could be better, HE COULD HAVE A BETTER OUTCOME!!! LIKE HE COULD HAVE ALREADY CAME BACK TO HIS AU????

Like it’s crazy to think about what happened to him, if it weren’t for Nightmare he would probably be in a better state now, probably not being in stage 0 (just sans) But like, better mentally at least. Like Core could have taken him to the OT, and he would have a better time there than alone rotting somewhere in an empty space, where his only company are the usual hallucinations and the NOT so usual people. also, his AU is still there, like it’s a sans-less AU, because once le left the world was left without its greatest source of DT, so naturally the next biggest DT person would have been Flowey. I believe that SOMEHERE in rahafwabas (tumblr) there is something explaining that.  And that Flowey reset the world and that everything’s normal again, except Papyrus is looking for his missing brother.

In general Killer (with everything, including stages and all) IS SUPER INTRESTING. Like I could stay here writing how much I love each stage and all BUT… But…

I’m struggliN as it is with 11 faves. 

…

…

Ok maybe a bit… In any case we all know the second stage, the “I’m sponsored by target” stage, it’s the most common, mainly because Nightmare keeps him in that stage as it is the most manageable while also being the most servant.

Like we’ve seen Nightmare change Killer from stage 1 (the target in heart form) to stage two, BeCAUSE that is the one he likes the most. Even then, stage two isn’t entirely serviceable (is that the word??? Like uh… he takes orders?), sometimes we can see that stage 2 has a little white pupil, that is a sign of “the sans we know”. Stage 1 Is (as I said) the target in shape of a heart (Dunno how to explain better),that is the most chill stage, like is ALMOST sans, but it’s also the more prone to hallucinating stuff. Stage 3 is KILLER GO APE SHIT (which is still great potential for angst, like Killer doesn’t remember when he goes ape shit, and even then, he is pretty tired after that and immediately goes back to two. And he can only tell he went ape shit because of the surroundings, it’s like he wakes up, sees mess and is like “aw shit”) Stage 4 we’ve never seen, but it’s probably APE SHIT multiplied by (imagine funny number). And I love them for that… BEFORE I pass onto the next(s) one(s)… A little smth smth… that liquid is his eye melting. Like you know the amalgamates right? Kinda like that.

NEZT

I messed up my painting (Error! Sans………… and Ink! Sans) [we talk a little about ships… JUST… a wee bit] Ok I’m putting these together… it will make sense in a bit… OK SO WHO ELSE SEARCHED FOR INK OR ERROR SANS AND GOT ERRORINK??? OR… LITTERALY ANY AU AND GOT (you guessed it) ERRORINK???? Well, it MIGHT not be a universal experience, but it was for me I suppose. SO for the longest time, I just assumed Error and Ink were just… Errorink (wow I deserve a noble price for that AWESOME WRITING).

In any case… Uh I never really cared for that ship, I mean people can do pretty cool stuff. But still, it was JUST there. But if you remember from the Underfell thingy, I found my appreciation for cannon stories. And this WORKS SO WELL WITH THESE TWO ESPECIFICALLY!!! Like I FUCKING WATCHED A 3 HOUR LONG  VIDEO ON GENO’S AND ERROR’S uhm.. lives? Deaths? UHHH JUST PASTS???!!! And I love it so much, you should check it out… If… if you know spaniSH. 

Español y esas cosas, con la ñ y todo eso.

[Todo detras de Error Sans y Geno Sans (+teoria) by Mat002] Now we complicate ourselves a bit

we now talk about Error: Error sans, much like Killer, Is SUCH a complex character. And he’s kinda doing it my accident??? As CrayonQueen (twitter and Tumblr) has said, Error is a mess, he’s a big man baby! As his name suggests he’s an error (wow), and everyone who has had an error on their computer will know that those fuckers are everything but easy. AAAND that’s what you need to understand Error, he’s unpredictable. In any given situation he’ll act completely different depending on… who knows what??? People usually portray him as this grumpy old man, which it’s not bad! But he’s more of a Grumpy baby, who is mad because you peeled his banana and HE WANTED IT WITH THE SKIN!!!  AND IT WAS THE LAST FUCKING BANANA!!!!

SO NOW HIS DAY IS RUINED!!!! AND YOU DID THIS BECAUSE YOU HATE HIMMMM!!!! AAAAAGHAHGSCAHJCDGJVVDJVDB<VDOIP!!!!!!!!! Y’know?

And I love him for that. Like he’s a cutesy guy sometimes, and sometimes he’s an ass. …manbaby.

Plus, the whole Geno backstory just makes Error’s more (AGAIN THE WORD I FORGOR!!!! But it’s kinda like miserable??? Like LIKE um YOU GET ME???). Because CQ told us that Aftertale had 3 possible endings, Miserable, Bittersweet, Good. We can assume that the one we got in Aftertale was the happy one… 

So that makes Error the miserable one, the worst ending.

And you know it’s just sad… Error is just the result of someone’s worst ending.

DW tho! Some Geno out there still got their happy ending!

And of course we also have Fatal! Error who IS A WHOLE ‘NOTHER THING!!!!

You from the future messed with a you from the past and made an even worse you, kind of scenario.

Now INK:

Ink is a little straight forward, but also no.

Like Ink is all about Creating, but not necessarily in parallel to Error, while also sorta yes. Ink’s backstory goes like this.

He’s from an AU that was never finished, the creator gave up on it. The only one who got any semblance of emotions was (ironically) Ink sans, but of course, he couldn’t bear to be alone. So he erased himself, it provided a HUGE problem for him, as he was emotionless, he had nothing to live for. But the creations, the creators, all of that was what gave him meaning.  And this rings incredibly close to me…

I have it since I was probably 14 or so.

I have an AU… not the silly post-it sans OC with a cool bro OC. I have an AU that was based of of a LOT of stuff in you might see in this long ass post, it started as a sans solo AU (because of course it was), and It evolved with me as I also grew up.

I’ve been working on and off of it for years.

And you might not see it honestly, because I feel so wrong about it, like the story is just bits and pieces I saw in bed just before sleeping. I barely tied those together.  And the designs are… WELL… designing clothes is pretty hard.

And I almost gave up on it…

But I really want to continue, I want to y’know…? And um… Ink’s story kind of put that into perspective for me… …

ANYWAYS!  UM…  it got gloomy… IN ANY CASE! Ink’s story hits very close to home for me, as I explained a few moments before.  But also, I just feel it makes sense for a character like him, I mean… He LIVES for the creations, and not only because he “protects them” and more like… All we (as creators) do is what keeps him alive. Like Ink’s immortal right? Well kinda, he’s almost immortal. The moment the creations stop the paints that give him a perspective into life will also vanish. He might not die entirely, but he’ll just be an empty shell, alone in a white space. So It kinda rings hard for me that he’s literally feeding from our stuff, he’s here because of u and me. And well… APART from that he’s also just an interesting character. Ink is a shell that he himself fills with temporary feelings, this kinda makes him a bit dense in some situations and might act a little out of place. BUT he doesn’t mean wrong!!! I have seen a lot of like “evil” ink, and I feel that the idea can be interesting, but also, I think that a lot of people read “NEUTRAL ink” and assume that must mean he’s just a little mean? 

Maybe unintentionally so, usually it’s portrayed as a thing that’s out of his control but that he’s also not bothered by it and does nothing to change. And I don’t really think he would act like that? Ink is a little forgetful, but he does write stuff to try and remember! Ink struggles to understand situations, but he is trying (I think)!

He likes to play pranks but I don’t think he intends them to be mean! And he’s just a cool character… Plus he’s as much of a fan of AU’s as we are. (in a way, kinda)

And all that good stuff.

And I feel like comyet (tumblr) really did make a memorable silly.

… thanks for making him… 

…

UMMM NEXT IS  AAAAA mirror (Anx! sans) [be aware… this gets a BIT personal]

So this one’s not too much like the others, I mean… I dunno… you get me.

SO this one might be shorter, cuz it goes into me a bit?

Ok…

So in 2022 (I THINK), I was ready for life! Until I wasn’t. so… y’know I went to get help!

I have severe social anxiety.

Yeih.

And it’s stopped me from doing a lot of stuff…

And it wasn’t too peppy. Until I found THIS GUY!!!! I was scrolling through Tumblr and I found hheisa’s account here, and would you look at that… they have a Sans (my personal favorite thing [kinda] since I was a child) with what I have! (kinda, almost!) So he helped me a lot! In a way, this might be cheesy, but I felt pretty alone but… then he’s there and I felt that maybe I wasn’t. and you know, that’s about it.

Hheisa hasn’t posted much of him, but I still love whenever he pops out in my FYP.

Um that’s it.

OH and because of a comic I found out that sucking on ice is pretty good for uh, not good times.

Hheisa I hope you never see this, cuz it’s embarrassing as FUCK.  But thank you… your silly helped me get through some stuff.

…. AND NOW 

A BIT OF A PROBLEM (bitty au) [self-indulgence] So if you’ve been a long time in the fandom you’ve probably seen at least ONE SOMETHING with bitties!!! It is very self-indulgent too, but it doesn’t need to be. Like m pretty sure some of you know Poetax right?

They have a string of comics about UT, UF and US sans’ and papyrus’ with their respective bitties, and as weird as it is to have a miniature version of yourself on your shoulder, they make it work yaknow??? Fucken-Crybaby left the Au for reasons I’m unaware of, but left it open for people to still use the bitties.

ok so! In any case! Bitty bones AU (or I don’t know the official name) is an AU where your favorite characters are miniature versions of themselves!

And these fuckers are tiny! Like stupid tiny. Like you do a “call me” sign and try to make it as big as you can, and that’s about as big as bitties get. this one!

But of course this isn’t a rule, you can make bitties as smol or as big as you want.

And you can adopt them!

With such an interesting prompt the AU got very popular, because you could: Give your favorite AU a mini version of whoever you wanted, you could be self-indulgent and draw yourself (or an OC) with a bitty! It was very cool! Y’know??? It was your tiny silly! There are uh, like BASE bitties, like for example a Sansy bitty is always hungry, seepy, is funny, and lazy. Or like a Fell who is like an angry cat. He will fucking destroy your stuff, is going to bite, is prone to fighting other bitties and stuff!

And there’s also Papyrus bitties and Grilbitties (love that name)!

And there was even a chart of how some bitties reacted to others! But you were allowed to make your own! Let’s say you had an OC of who knows what, and if you wanted to make it a bitty to just play with the idea, you can! Like if you wanted a Toriel bitty  you could make yours! And that’s about it! I hold this AU very dearly, is very cute and even if bitties aren’t as popular as they once were, I still think they are neat.

And the stuff you could do with them! You can just do a homey story with bitties, just hanging out. Very cute story where you (or whoever you want) adopts a bitty and you now have to learn to live together with antics and all that good stuff! Or you can try and make all the stuff of: HOW MORALLY OK IS IT TO HAVE THAT THING??? ARE THEY OK BEING SMOL? HOW ARE THEY MADEE????

And if you are into bitties like I am you’ve probably seen some of these!

Even some mixed I believe?

Ok uhhh next!!!

OH HELL YES!!! I LOVE TOUCANS!!! (Seraphim! Sans)  (GOF FUCKING DAMNIT WE’RE ALMOST AMOST DONE!!!)

Ok so Seraphim sans comes from this cool comic known as “the thought”.

It comes from sans’ thought. “What if one day, the human doesn’t reset? What is one day we just cease to exist?”  So he acts, he attacks the human when they leave the ruins.

He takes the human’s soul, and takes it to Asgore. So they’re going to break the barrier to just have an ending.  But Asgore, doesn’t really want to, he wants to wait, as he has killed so many humans… KIDS for that matter. And he’s afraid, humans were always stronger than monsters, and there are millions of more humans then monsters. But sans is like “Dude, I didn’t just break a promise to just sit around” so he makes a not so thought out decision. He’s going to do it himself.

And of course he turns into… TOUCAN.

And shenanigans happen…

I highly recommend looking for the comic made by tratserenoyreve (on tumblr).  Or look for the comic dub by Starbot Dubs (yes, they are the ones from CPAU too).

I ABSOLUTELY love HOW the author brings this story. Like come ONNNNN!!!!!

Ok so, one of my favorite things is how the characters are portrayed! Like the human souls, they are faceless here, nameless, but they still have that little bit of personality and I love that even when they are literally faceless, they aren’t completely gone! And even so, the story has a bit of a bittersweet ending. BUT FIRST WE TALK ABOUT THE STORY! So after sans does the stupid, everyone’s just… confused and hurt on what to do? The human souls are permanently attached to sans, who didn’t really stop to think about the AFTER. And they want to extract the souls from him. But now here comes the interesting part, they are all there, like Sans can communicate with ALL 8 kids, and he’s not necessarily sure of how to feel? He’d just expected to have unlimited power and that’s it, but the human souls are here to stay. So, papyrus has to take sans home, the King, Undyne, Papyrus and the former Queen decide to keep the broken barrier a secret. Until they can safely get the human souls back, of course. So that means that they’ll have to wait until Alphys has messed with the DT extractor as it wasn’t BUILT for 7 human souls. The days go by, and Alphys has finished it.

Sans gets into the lab and kinda opens up about what he knows to Alphys, why he acted so rushed? Why of everything. And it seems it’s a good start to a new beginning, but things aren’t to well. The DT extractor begins to hurt Sans’ soul, and the kids are freaking out, so Integrity tries to help by teleporting. That of course leads to them getting lost in between the files, the space between. And they find the code to the game, and get exited! That means they can mess with it and make everyone live; they can make Frisk… well Frisk! Instead of a shell we use to play. But they encounter… (drum roll)  OUR FAVORITE SILLY!!!  GASTER!!!!! And of course, he tell them that this is bigger than they could ever imagine, and the fact that they stopped “it’s” game could mean the erasure of the world.

(As in, imagine you are playing Undertale, sans kills you JUST before the ruins and your game is a permanent GAME OVER)

SO shit goes down.

I’m not going to explain the WHOLE thing cuz you HAVE TO read it!

And then Sans and the kids are left with a choice, Reset or continue. Reset means everything goes back to the loop, continuing means the possible end to their world. And It ends in a tie 4 to 4. And it’s all left to Frisk to decide.

They choose both, they ask if they can copy the game and hide it somewhere where the OG copy is the one that’ll continue in the endless loop, the one that is hiding is just them continuing to live.

AND I AAAAARGGGGGGGG!!!jvdhkbjvdsbhdvsj’vds

I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!

I re-watched the comic dub to refresh my memory a bit, and to understand the parts that I didn’t when I was younger (because English bad).

And I cannot express HOW much I loved all of it! It’s a great story with great moments.

And I REALLY REALLY recommend it!

Just love the use of how they manage to at least save ONE COPY of themselves. Like somewhere there’s the other copy going through the loop again and again and again.

And I just can’t begin to explain the feeling that that gives me! Love it with all my heart. Now  WHAT THE ABSOLUTE FUCK!!!! THIS IS EVEN WORSE?!?!?! (Underworld) 

Simple enough.  Not fan of horror, but I found underworld’s designs and fell INLOVE with them.  Not much to say, just that it has the potential of a hundred suns and that is it. LIKE LOOK IT UP AND YOU’LL SEE??? 

Personal favorite is Undyne and Toriel.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok so here’s the kicker, I said they were 11, right?

But I’ve put Error and Ink together… so they count as one, right?  Because I forgot one.  (I actually forgor two but let me have my moment)  SURPRISE (YOU GUESS BEFORE I SAY THE NAME!)  So I’m pretty sure this AU isn’t known as much, as the others.

Like I’m sure there ARE people who like it.

But it’s died down a HOLE lot, the fandom grew and from the AU’s that have managed to survive it, I feel this one’s been left behind. I mean there’s still fanart, but like it’s not popping up like others. The aesthetics are MY ABSOLUTE favorite, because there’s not too much of a change in story.  I mean there IS, and it’s pretty cool. But what sells me is the aesthetics, just the whole vibe!!! And I’m sure that if you like dark fairy vibes, you’ll like this one.

Ya ready???

YA READYYYY?????? I don’t think you are ready!!!!

AAAAAHHHHHH

It’s Masktale.

Did you guess it?

(end of my thing)  …

…

…

…

And there’s also Quantumtale because they are cute kids with stupidly strong powers, and Gaster is a cute guy and I love it.

But I haven't researched a ton of the last two sorry.

but im tired sO

(We’re officially done.)

and uh thanks for asking :,)

[halfusek]

Imma be honest with you, before BATDR came out, you literally held this fandom together with bandaids and stick glue. 2019-2022 was basically the dry age of Bendy content

haha thanks i tried my best

i Do enjoy being in a fandom, i've always looked up to the danny phantom phandom a lot cause the vibes there are just fantastic, there's a lot of things going on, people have many interactions with each other, so i wanted to try to introduce that to the batim fandom and i'd like to think that i sorta did

i know that it is a popular opinion to not engage with a large portion of the fandom but instead just grab a few friends and sit in a corner with them but like

engaging with a bigger portion of the fandom every now and then can be SO fun and give people an opportunity to meet other people and idk

fandoms are communities of people just united by liking A Thing so it can be challenging to make a space for many people to get along but i dont recall any super serious only fandom related dramas in batim?? weirdos are in every fandom and you just blast their asses into oblivion with a block button

and there have been cases when i felt kinda bad for blocking someone because that meant i'd exclude them from something i wanted to think of as a fandom-wide event for everyone who would obey it's rules but that's where this outlook on curating your experience into a smaller circle is very much the way to go lol

wait what am i talking about

aha yea 2019-2022 everything fucking DIED here but i was having a blast drawing my comic and also a lot of people who were into the sides of batim i was into mainly (the human characters) stayed around more than everyone else and it was really chill, i've met a lot of people and made many friendships :)

as the fandom was getting smaller there was a noticable drop in the amount of notes batim related posts were getting which is a very big symptom of a fandom dying but i think at some point it sorta stabilized who stayed there after batdr was delayed and delayed

i reblog and tag more than an usual tumblr user (when im active cuz sometimes i can not reblog anything for months because im busy lol) and that didnt start without a reason, it sure is a habit now and i really enjoy doing it, letting people know what i think about their stuff and putting nice things on display for others to see

reblogs are not just crucial for singular artists but also for fandoms as a whole, thats how you keep that train rollin

though here is a sad thing that many many artists dont reblog a lot, or reblog to their sideblogs that arent followed by nearly as many people as their main blogs

and thats like understandable, im the weirdo who puts a whole mess of many posts on my main but i think thats also the most effective way to help other people get traction and i never see this mentioned when people complain that tumblr users dont reblog as much stuff as they like

its even kinda funny to me when people complain about their stuff not getting reblogged when they dont reblog others stuff themselves at all xD though there is a bit of cyanide in that thought heheh

on the other hand reblogging doesnt work on stuff that i could see from other people: the stuff i reblog i get from browsing the bendy and the ink machine tag sorted by new + sometimes when i bored i scroll through my dash and reblog some random things but i follow 2k people so i dont really see any individuals art specifically, just a collection of random posts that i am able to scroll through in a few minutes (and every minute theres a bunch of new posts posted/reblogged by those i follow)

and that can take a long time! if ive been busy for months then scrolling through a few months worth of stuff people around the world made for bendy is so bad even on a beefy computer that it just pushes tumblr to its limits and takes HOURS to reblog and tag for me, and then i might even hit the daily post limit and have to continue tomorrow

but i enjoy doing this, bendy is my fixation after all and i fucking love art and what people can create for this thing that i like i soooooo desire to see it all

and i try to reblog as much as possible, though i dont obviously reblog *everything* from the tag, sometimes i just give a like or i just dont like the thing cuz its not in my liking and thats it

but i did make it a thing that during ink demonth i reblog all entries for the event no matter what my opinion of them is just to give some of that Exposure TM because hey maybe some of my followers Will like it

i dont run a super duper popular blog but there is a bunch of yall there and i think me reblogging something in this fandom at least may give a litol boost to the notes on a post

and its always fun to see peoples reactions that dont expect me to reblog from them but then i do and they freak out a little, i think i love it on the same level as getting comments on my own art :) its super wholesome

man by writing this post im procrastinating on something but fdnjkfdfd

but anyway thank you!! and im glad you think so because i did try to accomplish that :D

[davidmariottecomics]

The Perfect (Editorial or Agent) Match

Hey there, Yogi Bear! 

To start out today's blog, I wanna talk about a kinda fun recent thing. Steve Lieber, who I've mentioned before for having his 12 point portfolio review critique without even looking, asked about the writing review equivalent. Jim Zub took a stab at it and his list is pretty good. And Chip Zdarsky's were also recommendations! And all of these are from Bluesky, so hope you can read 'em all! But, while I liked the other lists, I also had some thoughts. So my 12 critiques are here, which I consider pretty supplemental to Jim's! 

And now that you've taken all this advice and are feeling really comfortable with your script, writer-type, what're you gonna do with it?! 

What Does an Agent do? 

Before I get too far, let me make explicitly clear--I do not have an agent. I've worked with a number of agents. I know lots of creators who have them. But I don't have one myself, so I can only provide so much guidance. Okay, that disclaimer out of the way, what is a literary agent and what do they do? 

It's a lot like other forms of agents you might've heard of. Your agent is a person who supports you and represents your interests in business. They are an advocate on your behalf. This means everything from reading your manuscripts to help refine/sell them to reviewing paperwork for you to making sure you're getting paid what you're worth and more. In the book market, there are certain publishers that will almost exclusively review agented submissions--you need to have someone who has been trained to know what the publisher might want and who has access to contacts there to advocate for your work. The reason for this is often to cut down on submissions that otherwise just have to go unanswered and to preserve some level of privacy for editors. Having an agent might not work for everyone, but if you can find someone who you like working with and can afford, they're going to be a lot of help. Agents can get your work to more potential buyers, help identify where your work will best fit in the marketplace, and, again, generally advocate for you.

But just like publishers and editors, not every agent is looking for every type of story. Specific agents, and even whole agencies, can have niches that they are interested in working in and representing. This is really important when we're talking comics. There are some agents that don't really represent cartoonists because they don't do art representation. There are some agents who only do art representation and might not be the right fit if you also wanna write. There are agents who primarily focus on books for middle grade or young adult readers. There are agents who just plain don't do comics. So how do you find an agent who might be a good fit?

Manuscript Wishlist

Manuscript Wishlist (or MS Wishlist) is *an* option for finding your agent, but it's one that I think can be really helpful. The basic idea of MSWL is that the website version has vetted agents and editors who have submitted profiles explaining what they are looking for in submissions. It's built off of a Twitter system where agents and editors tag posts #MSWL to flag the sort of work they're looking for from writers. One of the things I really like about the site is that in addition to details on what the agents and editors are looking for, and how to go about querying them, a lot of folks also take advantage of the sidebars that include things like lists of "what I like" so you can get an even clearer idea of if your work will mesh well with their interests and if your personalities will mesh well while looking to work together. 

There are a ton of other resources out there for how to write good queries and each agency/agent/publisher/editor is going to have their own submission guidelines that you'll have to look up and follow--so I won't get into those--but this is a way to start seeing who might be interested in building a relationship with you. 

Also, keep an eye on Publishers Marketplace. This is a primary source for what publishing deals are happening. Maybe you want to submit a query to an agent about a talking dog. Might be good to check publishers marketplace to make sure that agent didn't just sell a book about a talking dog. 

MSWL Editors

MSWL also includes editors and for similar reasons. Editors have things they're interested in working on and it helps clarify to agents and to unagented folks what sort of titles they might be interested in acquiring. I *do not* currently have a MSWL set up on my own because I am not currently seeking submissions (sorry), but next time I think I might be, I'm going to be looking into it because I know what sort of stories I like to tell and what I would like to see from other folks. 

Obviously, if you don't have an agent, double-check that the editor you're submitting to accepts unagented submissions. That's hugely important. But especially in comics, only taking agented submissions is uncommon. And if an editor is making clear what they'd like to acquire, you wanna get it in front of them because that is the most direct pipeline to traditional comics publishing. But it's also worthwhile to remember that because of how agents and editors work together, there's a lot of outreach between the two where editors are searching for talent, but only want to reach out, not be reached out to--especially if you're looking to do work on an existing property, rather than an original. 

Now I'm gonna go batten down the hatches and prepare to ride out the rest of the coming storm! 

See ya next time! 

What I enjoyed this week: Blank Check (Podcast), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), Craig of the Creek (Cartoon), Honkai Star Rail (Video game), My Adventures with Superman (Cartoon), The Broken Room by Peter Clines (Book), Crime Scene Kitchen (TV show), Dumbing of Age (Webcomic), Shortpacked (Webcomic--though some of these pop culture strips sure are dated and/or in poor taste!), Solve This Murder (Podcast), Praise Petey (Cartoon), the acoustic Sonic Symphony performance at the Speed Cafe (see below), at time of posting having power and not a lot of rain/hurricane weather, owning (but not having watched yet) the Venture Bros finale movie, getting 3 5-star (the best possible) character pulls in a row in Honkai (but not the character I really wanted, who I only have like 9 days to get now if I can...). 

New Releases this week (8/16/2023): Brynmore #2 (Editor) Godzilla: The War for Humanity #1 (Editor) Sonic the Hedgehog #63 (Editor)

Final Order Cut-Off next week (8/21/2023--last day to get your preorders in): Brynmore #3 (Editor) Godzilla: The War for Humanity #2 (Editor) Sonic the Hedgehog: Amy's 30th Anniversary Special (Editor)

New Releases next week (8/23/2023): Godzilla Monsters & Protectors: All Hail the King TPB (Editor--on the latter half)

Announcements: Becca is at Cartoon-a Palooza in Temecula on 9/15 & 9/16. It's a cool free all-ages little con, so come on out and see them! 

Wanna support me? Consider joining my Patreon! This week, in addition to this blog (but without the Patreon plugs!) and one of my legacy blogs, I shared for the $10 and up members the script (and some extras) for my Beast Wars 2022 Annual story, "Rhinox's A-Maze-ing Adventure". You can only see it there! And I'll have more scripts, pitches, comics, etc going up in the weeks and months to come! Also coming soon, just coordinating with Becca, we'll be releasing a tease of a new comic we're working on together. It'll be on both our Patreons, but if you like art and adult art in particular, definitely don't miss Becca's either! 

Or, you can buy something from my webstore! A lot of what is there is no longer in print and won't be going back to print anytime soon to my knowledge. The stock I have up is pretty much the stock I have. And you can get it signed and personalized and sent to you for a pretty reasonable price which includes shipping.  Alternatively, I still have a few things up on eBay and I'm going to be adding a few more! 

Sorry to be hyping ways to send me money so much recently, but between rising rent and utility and gas costs, not so rising work hours/pay for Becca and I, and us also trying to plan a wedding for a year from now, money's been tight a lot! I know that's the case all around, and if you have been supporting me in any way, it has not gone unnoticed at all! This week, Becca and I checked out a venue that we really like for the ceremony and reception. So, hoping we can make that happen! 

Pic of the Week: I referenced it earlier, but the Sonic Speed Cafe pop-up here in San Diego did a special mini acoustic performance of the Sonic Symphony that's about to be touring the whole world! So we had three musicians in the restaurant playing some Sonic hits! It was a lot of fun! 

[joleneghoul]

Hey I followed to see that DC Disability public essay, so I’m new to this blog. It had me wondering what was your journey of discovering DC and it’s characters and what are your favorite comics, stories and characters?

Hi! Welcome and I'm sorry this blog is kinda my "put everything i think of" train of thought blog. But it's also my only blog lol! Thank you for being interested in the Essay. It's not near done as I'm still taking responses but we will get there. Rest is under cut because i accidentally rambled on.

As far as my journey with DC comics I feel like Dc has just been a part of my life forever- I've grown up in this world where caped stories are pop culture and everywhere and when i was growing up like EVERY cartoon about heroes was about the dc ones (brave and the bold, batman the animated series, justice league)

Actually my first memory I can recall is seeing an episode of justice league on the tv and seeing john stewart green lantern.

Though I wouldnt of called myself a fan really back then because my special interests for most of my life started with Sonic and then Transformers. But in my opinion the base of both of those universes and stories is the same as caped comics so it makes sense I eventually got into them fully.

I don't think I've told the story about how I started actually reading the comics but basically I was homeless at 17 and thats when my love for these comics started. I started reading old batman comics because around then I had met my boyfriend whos special interest was batman so that was my way of both distracting myself and bonding with him.

BUT through batman comics I got introduced to Blue Beetle and Booster Gold and I instantly shifted to reading the Blue beetle comics (sorry to booster i didnt read vol 1 until maybe a year later) specifically the 1986 solo about Ted Kord.

Like I mentioned I was homeless at the time and I hadn't even been diagnosed yet with any of my illnesses I had been suffering from for 5+ years at that time. But within those comics there are two very special stories that cemented my love for these comics and its.

1. Ted has an issue where he goes around the streets of Chicago at night because someone is killing homeless people. In other stories i'd read heroes would maybe briefly talk to the homeless if at all. But instead of that Ted the entire comic sits down with people and speaks to them and gets their stories. I remember reading it and feeling "oh, this is a hero who would actually care to sit down on the sidewalk with me. This is special".

2. There is another story in this run where Ted basically defends the life of this kid who ran away from home and has no immune system and sets out a way to help him. Not the best but I was relating to the kid at the time.

I ended up carrying around an issue relating to Ted in my backpack for most of that time just because it was special to me. Anyways its pretty much history from there I ended up getting into Booster Gold and other heroes as I looked further into these stories and learned more about teams and etc. But Ted Kord will always be special to me, especially since he also has a chronic condition.

As my condition progressed this became one of my outlets for expression and it still is. Through reading I found that a lot more of these heroes were disabled than I had previously thought because NOBODY talked about it. I remember at first not knowing Booster had lost an arm because it just wasn't something I saw mentioned (though back then like. Nobody was posting abt him or ted hardly. you'd be surprised it was like they had a lull in popularity for a bit which makes sense they were not in comics) so I kinda have made it so I talk about these things so they are in peoples minds more. At least a bit.

As far as my Favorite comics go I have to say my favorite comic is Justice Leagues Quarterly 10, but you'd probably want to know the JLI roster before reading it if you dont. JLQ has very fun collections of stories. I try to recc blue beetle 1986 to people too just because it's special to me same for booster gold 1986.

Speaking of essays, here is one I wrote about Booster Gold and his relationship with disability.