#they’re all headshots so it’s not that interesting but I’ll start posting more

[bigbarabelly]

I gotta do a shitload of backlog but at some point I’ll get Patreon setup and actual backlog all my art that I can from YE OLD decade ago art from the last blog to this new stuff

[brechtian]

how Does one make a future professionally in theatre, especially after graduation? asking genuinely, looking for advice!

Hello! I’m back home, I don’t have plans today except for filming an audition tape, and I’m ready to answer this question. Let’s get started!

Resumes:

If you went to school for theatre, hopefully your professors taught you to have separate professional, technical, and acting resumes & how to format them correctly, as they’re all weird and different. If they hung you out to dry, dm me, I can send some examples :)

Applications:

Just go for it! Apply for things! You’re particularly going to want to look for the following:

Theatres in your area you could plausibly commute to.

Theatres that offer artist housing (most common in summerstock, but plenty other theatres do it as well)

Theatres in cities where you have connections/potentially a place to crash for a couple months

ALSO. If you’re an actor, do not just audition; apply for technical and administrative positions as well. In this industry, artistic directors often want to cast people they trust, so if you start out as a production (or, in my case, box office + education) intern but want to act in the future, they’re a lot more likely to cast you when the next pool of auditions come around. Also working in other parts of theatre is fun & makes you more well-rounded/hirable!

On that topic, if you’re in or fresh out of college, you’re going to want to keep an eye out for internships and apprenticeships; you’re most likely to get hired for them, and, again, a foot in the door is a foot in the door.

Once hired:

If you get a contract to work at a theatre, have fun, but also use that opportunity to make connections!

This doesn’t just mean with the theatre you’re working at; connect with your interns, actors, directors, creative staff, admin. Theatre is a small world, and a lot of the people who are working in it professionally will have contacts and recommendations for you. Listen to them, and make friends!

Just in case this one isn’t obvious. Reputation is extremely important in this industry. Work hard, be pleasant to be around, and if you’re going to do stupid shit (I did plenty), don’t post it to your public story or loudly tell others about it. Trust me.

Other Notes:

When you work in professional theatre for the first time, you will probably feel really inadequate and embarrassed and like everyone is more prepared than you (at least, I did). Do not let the demons win.

Find your niche. Apply for everything, sure, but everything is a lot! I was interested in Shakespeare, so I went through every registered Shakespeare theatre in America to look at job opportunities + whether they offered artist housing, and it definitely made my cover letter more convincing because I DID actually care about the theatre being made there.

Okay this one may be controversial but. Don’t pay $400 for a headshot that shit is goofy to me. Find a friend with a good camera, wear a solid color and take some nice photos in front of a neutral background. Sorry maybe I’ll invest one day but like literally just does not seem worth it to me especially this early in my career.

Keep an eye out also for theatre-related jobs in other industries. I recently applied for a stagehand position at a music venue since it’s still in the theatre realm but it’s in my city + has decent pay while I work on moving! :)

Don’t make yourself miserable. If you’re working in theatre, you’re doing so because you love it, so it just doesn’t make sense to work in a place or position that you hate. With that said, if the only kind of theatre you want to be doing is acting in Chicago, maybe broaden your horizons lol!

That’s all that is coming to mind right now; if you have any questions or want more specific advice, just let me know :)

[erindrifter]

So. I have finished the first two Uncharted games now. I don’t remember if I made a post about my thoughts on the first game, so I’ll kinda mash the two together.

I like the games! I really do! The story is pretty good and well realized, the characters are interesting to watch (Nolan North kills it as Nathan Drake), the exploration aspect is pretty nice, the climbing mechanics are fun, if a bit primitive by todays’ standards.

HOWEVER.

I don’t like the combat very much. At all. Firstly, Nathan Drake is pretty allergic to bullets, which makes sense. The enemies, however, are pretty resilient. But headhsots will take care of them most of the time. Until, that is, you start getting enemies with helmets on, then it takes two headshots. Until, that is, you start getting enemies with full body armor. Then, it takes four or more.

And that’s if you get headhsots! But, enemies like that only make the game frustrating if they show up in every single enemy encounter. Which they do. They account for about half the enemies by the end of the game. There are also specialty enemies that can absorb a LOT of damage, and have weapons that also deal a LOT of damage. They show up a lot by the end too.

But that’s all fine, if you’re stealthy! Watch out, though, the games don’t have much in the way of stealth mechanics! You won’t ever get far in a combat encounter by using stealth. I tried a section time after time using stealth, and it was supposed to be possible, but I was seen every time. Every. Time.

Again, the games are fun. I do like them. But, I was just getting frustrated by the end, because the game is mainly combat oriented, and I don’t like the combat. As I continue through the series, I’m going to be playing on easy difficulty, because playing on normal made me mad, and I don’t like being mad.

If you want to play the games, and are more casual about playing games, I would recommend the same. They’re good games, I just don’t vibe with the combat.

Also, the first game had a better boss fight. I actually got kinda bored during the second game boss fight.

[southern-god1]

Let’s continue those fucking amazing Southern Avengers vs posts; I feel like The Kingsmen would probably try to stop you guys, especially if/when you take over the UK. Feel like it’d be fun to see you guys fight them. But no supers!

First off, fuck you Yankee, you don’t tell me what to do. A single Southern Avenger could kill all of em with or without superpowers.

But, in the spirit of making it a “fair fight”, I’ll have it be Captain Confederate and The Reaper and Iron Rebel.

It’s clear the Kingsman aren’t to be taken lightly. The church scene makes that clear, plus they’ve got armored suits and bulletproof umbrellas. However, Cap and The Reaper are probably even better shots than the Kingsmen, and Captain Confederate could, at the very least, do exactly what Harry did in the church, and then some, but do it faster and more efficiently, since he’s faster, has better reactions, and is generally “peak human”.

So, Captain Confederate has an edge over any and every Kingsman agent. The Reaper is probably one of the best shots on the planet and is also one of the best spies. He can make himself look quite unassuming despite his impressive figure, and I can easily see him managing to temporarily infiltrate their HQ disguised as an agent or maybe a member of The Statesmen. From there he could either just start shooting them with perfect headshots in quick succession, or let Cap in, or plant bugs and devices for Iron Rebel, who definitely outclasses any Merlin the Kingsman have.

Iron Rebel’s suit is totally impossible for the Kingsman to damage, but to make this fair, he’ll be tech support. Even in that role, he could cripple their communications and tech, and either lock them in (with The Reaper and Cap) or lock them out (locking them out of their armory and stuff).

From there, things would get very very very bloody as the two of them slaughter a bunch of British spies. Cap’s shield is much better than any bulletproof umbrella, and it can be used to decapitate people too! He and The Reaper might get cut or possibly even shot a few times (I mean, the Kingsman aren’t to be underestimated, I’ll at least give them that, since they wouldn’t just stand around and wait to be shot), but I’m 90% sure they can take this with Iron Rebel feeding them intelligence.

Course, if they stupidly attack us first instead, we’ll unleash hell and the “No supers” rule is off. And then the Brits are infinitely more screwed then before!

…although, to be honest, we’d probably prefer to Southernize them! They’re quite good at their jobs and would be extremely useful in Southernizing the UK’s military.

Interesting ask!

[lux-scriptum]

I’ve seen that you and fragmentedink have some characters for htp next gen and I’m wondering if you’d consider posting a (tentative) list of all of the characters and their sheets like parents and partners and genders I’m super interested in hearing more about them from yall be it mood boards and quotes or those pretty headshots but it’s a bit confusing keeping track of it like obvs ideas and characters can change but still thought I’d ask:D I love what yall have goin with htp

Okay, so. We’re gonna go chronologically, first. I’ll put the parents/guardians they live with in  Bold parentheses, pronouns in these things{} itialisized, and full names if necessary in brackets. The timeline gets a little wobbly after the twins (lonan and Mari) tho, and doesn’t get particularly solid until after cliff. Keep in mind, too, that this is all over a good 50-100 years at least. We’re dealing with immortals here!

Eden {she/her/hers} (cam/lev/nik), Brice {she/her/hers} (adopted, Biela/Dacia), Lucas {he/him/his} (bay/nate), Dakota {he/him/his} (ash/celeste), Cruz{he/him/his} (lev/nik/cam), Lei {he/him/his} (idk), Selene {she/her/hers} (Amara/Cin), Xavier {he/him/his} (idk man), Lonan {he/him/his} and Mari {she/her/hers} [Mari’s full name is Maritza] (twins, lev/nik/cam), Blake {she/her/hers} (idk),  Ziva {she/her/hers} (Sazra), Jack {All pronouns} (idk), Vera {she/her/hers} (sorin/cyrus) Nox {he/him/his, they/them/theirs}[nox is his chosen name] and Kris {she/her/hers} (twins, bay/nate), Aidriel {he/him/his} (orphan), Acyn {he/him/his} (Zareth), Dominic{he/him/his} (Ash/Celeste), Zadkiel {he/him/his} (*shrug emoji*), Emrik {he/him/his} (*shrug emoji*), Kane {he/him/his}(Amara/Cin), Cliff[clifford] {he/him/his}(lev/nik/cam), Ethan{they/them/theirs}[Ethan is their chosen name and idek, nor do I want to tbh, their given name] (Amara/Cin), Luca {he/him/his} (sorin/cyrus), Daphne {she/her/hers} (ash/celeste), Alex {she/her/hers}[Alejandra] (cam/lev/nik), Sage {he/him/his} (Sage’s nephew), Sterling {he/him/his} (cam/nik/lev),  Esra {he/him/his/they/them/theirs} (lev/nik/cam), Espen {he/him/his} (a sentry in cams house, named Issac, is his uncle)

 Now.... for the pairings.....

Eden/Brice/Xavier/Jack are eventually all together.

Lucas and Dakota are together

Cruz and Lei are together

As of now, Selene is single, so a fun fact for u, she’s named after cin’s brother’s dead gf, who Cin killed.

Lonan and Acyn are a couple.

Mari, Blake, and Vera end up together.

Nox and Aidriel are a couple.

Ziva and Kris end up a couple.

Dom, Kane, Zad, and Emrik end up together eventually.

Cliff and Luca are a couple, best friends to  s/o’s trope.

Ethan doesn’t have a s/o yet but they’re a weird mix of cameron and amara in personality and i love them.

Daphne and Alex are together.

Sage and sterling are together.

Esra and Espen end up together.

And, as a bonus, Issac and Zareth end up together.

Yes we’ve already started working on the third gen. Yes it’s even more confusing. If you want me to link the moodboards we’ve already made or if you have more questions, let me know! I’m hella excited about the second gen and there’s so much to talk about.

[littlepanduh-writes-365]

Day 44

Title: “Paradigm Shift”

Description: During a gaming session, Sooyoung gives some exciting news that makes Hyejoo think about her life.

Features: Sooyoung X Hyunjin X Olivia Hye, slight Hyewon(Loona)

Word Count: 2,325

Tags: Fluff | College AU

(image from Pinterest)

“Yo, Hyejoo. Wanna join for some Mario Kart tonight?”

“Sorry, Hyun. I’m kinda busy tonight. Maybe another time?”

“Gang Beasts tonight? Sooyoung’s joining, too.”

“I’m not in the mood. Sorry. Maybe another time?”

“Hyejoo. Come join us for some Rainbow Six.”

For once, Hyejoo is interested, but there’s a blank document in front of her and its paired midnight deadline convinced her not to play.

“Sorry, Soo. I have a paper due at midnight. Next time?” The college student genuinely wishes she didn’t procrastinate this bad. 

I know it looks this way, but the three sisters aren’t that distant with each other. After Sooyoung and Hyunjin left for university, they didn’t see each other as often, but still bonded through online gaming.

It all started when they were younger. Sooyoung had granted Hyunjin the responsibility of taking care of her Nintendogs when she went to a summer camp. Usually Hyejoo, too young to play, would sit next to her and sometimes they switched off taking care of the Sharpei they virtually adopted. 

As they grew up, their tastes for video games changed as well. Sooyoung mostly grew out of them, having to take care of her younger siblings and started pursuing dancing. Of course, during college, she wouldn’t hesitate to join in party games, like Just Dance and trivia games. Hyunjin became a sports star, but still played video games. She enjoyed low-stress, life simulation games, but also occasionally played FIFA with her teammates. 

Hyejoo had a funny relationship with extracurricular activities. Growing up, she was always dragged into watching her sisters’ dance recitals or soccer games, so she tended to have low energy. She tried dance and soccer and actually showed potential in both hobbies, but had no interest or motivation in either. By the time she was in high school, she only continued what she enjoyed, which was just playing video games. She specifically enjoyed shooting and battle royale games, but she could play anything. 

As both Sooyoung and Hyunjin transitioned into university and adult life, they tried their best keeping in touch with their youngest sister. When video calls became awkward, Hyunjin brought up the idea of playing Mario Kart online together and talking through Discord. Sooyoung had to go buy herself a Switch and Hyejoo didn’t like the idea of spending more than 30 minutes talking to her sisters, but the experience was a pleasant surprise. The two older siblings couldn’t help enjoying the serotonin boost they would get when hearing competitive Hyejoo screaming and threatening them with embarrassing secrets from the past when Hyunjin threw a Blue Shell or Sooyoung Bullet Bill-ed past her. An hour passed and Hyunjin was ready to log out, but couldn’t resist it when Hyejoo asked, “One more round?” 

The gaming continued when Hyejoo went to university. Even though it wasn’t their style, the three of them would play whatever was popular and multiplayer, whether it be PUBG or Smash. 

Eventually, scheduling time to play with Hyejoo was a little unsuccessful. In her last year of university, she became busy with school and actually became more social. You could catch her playing intramural soccer or at the dance studio. She was even dating someone and worked at a nearby bakery. Hyejoo could’ve made time for her siblings, but replaying the same courses and campaigns for hours wasn’t stimulating enough for her. 

Tonight’s a little different. It’d been nearly 2 months since she spoke to her sisters and Gowon was scolding her to spend time with them. Even though her computer was starting to run slow, she downloaded the new zombie game Sooyoung mentioned and logged onto her Discord account.

“Nice of you to finally join us, Hyejoo.” Sooyoung naturally scolds her first. 

“I know. I thought you were going to abandon us.” Hyunjin spoke in a higher tone and it made Hyejoo cringe. 

“Stop being fucking dramatic, Soo. I’m busy with school.”

Hyunjin scoffs. “You’re busy dating your Minecraft girlfriend. I see you online.”

Hyejoo scowls. She turns around, making sure said girlfriend wasn’t in the room. “She’s my real girlfriend, too, you know?”

Sooyoung just chuckles. “I’ll see it when I believe it. When are you introducing her to mom and dad?”

“I don’t know. Maybe during the next holiday?”

“Can you bring some snacks from your work?” Hyunjin shoves herself in front of the camera, as if trying to corner her little sister. 

“Hyun, that’s not important.”

“What's more important than bread?”

“Kim Jiwoo. That’s what’s more important than bread.”

Hyejoo pinches the bridge of her nose. This was why she didn’t like talking to her sisters for more than 30 minutes. 

“As if, Sooyoung. Jeon Heejin is more superior than Jiwoo, but bread is always on top.”

“You say that now, once you get married, you’re going to change your minds.”

There are two gunshots. 

“Hye! Why’d you shoot us?! We’re on the same team?”

“Can you two simps shut up? I just sacrificed 6 gigabytes of space to play this game with you two.”

To Hyejoo’s surprise, Hyunjin’s avatar punches her character and Sooyoung takes her out with a headshot. Hyejoo’s about to seek revenge until Sooyoung starts talking again. 

“Yah. I’ve seen your Instagram story posts. Once you two get together, you’re gonna be whipped for her, too. It’s in the Ha genetics.”

“For fucks sake, I am dating Gowon! And why would anyone be proud of being whipped?” Hyejoo starts shooting at her sisters but they run away from the lobby before starting a campaign. 

It always starts with small talk. It usually consists of their jobs, what they’re doing on the weekends, and each other’s girlfriends. Hyejoo liked hearing from her sisters, but she couldn’t help but feel a little pathetic hearing about their numerous plans while she just wanted to get through school. Conversations like this is where they found out that Sooyoung became a manager at a well known dance school. The last time they talked, Hyunjin was talking about taking Heejin to Disneyland. Hyejoo was slightly jealous because she wants to spoil Gowon, too, but with the minimum wage she’s earning, she can only afford the new gaming mouse Gowon wanted. 

Like always, she’ll just listen. Listen and shoot. Maybe she’ll learn a new lesson from the mistakes her sisters laugh about, but she’s too busying carrying the team for the most part. 

The three have just finished a round when Hyunjin asks for a break so she can eat. Hyejoo checks her phone to see a few texts from Gowon. 

Sooyoung opens a conversation. “Hey guys, I need to tell you something.” 

“Go right ahead,” Hyejoo says before chugging some water. Hyunjin just hums before biting into some pasta that Heejin brought in about 15 minutes ago. 

“I haven’t told mom and dad, yet because we’re still thinking about it,” Sooyoung takes a deep breath, “Jiwoo and I want to try for a kid.”

Hyejoo stops looking at her phone. She stares at Sooyoung through the screen. “Oh damn. Really?”

Sooyoung offers a smile. Hyejoo can’t help but soften up at the honey dripping out of her sister’s eyes. “Yeah. She keeps talking about how cute her students are so I brought up the conversation. We’re gonna start going to fertilization clinics and adoption centers to see our options. I don’t think anything’s going to happen in the coming year or two, but I just wanted to let you guys know.” She sighs. “I’m kinda excited actually.”

“Congrats, unnie!” Hyunjin lets out a chuckle. “The idea of a little Jiwoo running around and doing taekwondo flips sounds adorable.”

Sooyoung whines. “What about a little Th-ooyoungie dancing in the living room?”

“Don’t ever use that fucking voice again.” Hyejoo grimaces in disgust. 

Hyunjin didn’t spare a pause for disagreement. “I second that.” Sooyoung never used aegyo so it was slightly unbearable hearing that. 

“Whatever.” Sooyoung sighs. “It’s just— it’s kinda surreal thinking about having a kid.”

Hyejoo also agrees. Maybe it’s because she’s looking forward to building her career or the fact that she doesn’t know where to begin in taking care of a kid that the idea of her own children seems foreign. She’s thought about adopting a dog, but a human being?

Hyunjin asks Sooyoung about the logistics, like the future of their current jobs and who would carry the child if they decided to not adopt. 

Hyejoo listens, but her mind gets clouded thinking about a little Sooyoung or Jiwoo running around and giggling and maybe even playing with a little controller. Hyunjin will compete to be the favorite aunt, but she’ll share with Heejin. She knows Gowon will be a better aunt than her, but she still wants to be a part of that kid’s life. Even though she wasn’t the most active, she wants to take that future kid to the park and kick a ball around and teach them pranks. 

The idea warmed Hyejoo’s heart. 

For a second, Hyejoo zones back into the conversation. Sooyoung eggs Hyunjin about finishing dental school so she can start her own family, too. 

Then it hits Hyejoo. 

It’ll still be in the far future, but maybe she needs to grow up a little more. There’s going to be little Sooyoung and soon enough there will be a little Hyunjin. 

Hyejoo needs to stop cursing. Maybe she needs to go home more and keep her parents company. She���ll learn how to cook something besides instant ramen and fried rice. 

Things are going to be different. They’re all growing up. Sooyoung’s moving up positions. Hyunjin is going to finish dental school. Hyejoo was going to graduate soon. 

Hyejoo was more than used to being away from her family during the school year, but then it hits her. 

The two neighboring rooms back home were going to be empty. Her two sisters are eventually going to stop coming home for holidays. 

The three of them are not going to play video games.

It’ll no longer be just the three of them. 

Hyejoo let’s that sink in a little. The days of shooting zombies and racing around Nintendo tracks and visiting each other’s islands will significantly lesson.

The maknae suddenly feels guilty of declining all those game requests. Although all reasons were valid, she feels like she should’ve made more time for her sisters.

She hears Hyunjin whining at something Sooyoung said. Hyejoo flinches a smile, remembering how fifteen years ago, they were bullying each other at the playground.

Some things didn’t change. 

And maybe some things still won’t change.

The future is uncertain and maybe she shouldn’t think too much about it.  

At least she has the present. She can still play with her sisters now. She can play with them next week, next month. 

“Hye? Are you okay? You’ve been pretty quiet.” 

Hyejoo tried to think of a snarky comeback, but couldn't think of anything. Surprisingly, her ego doesn’t get to her and just comes clean. “Yeah. I’m just thinking about a little Sooyoung. It’s kinda cute actually. Congrats, Soo.”

Her two older sisters just stare at her through the camera. “Wow. It must be late. Hyejoo’s being nice. Let’s just do one more round and call it a night.”

Hyejoo scoffs. She wants to curse, but holds herself back. 

-

“You guys down for a few rounds of Smash?”

“Sounds good. Is Hye joining?”

Hyejoo puts down her phone. “Gowonnie.” She nudges the girl next to her. They were watching a variety show together while snuggling. 

Gowon just hums, a little engrossed in the show. 

“I’m gonna go play with my sisters. Is that okay?”

Her girlfriend just smiles and rolls her eyes. “Why do you even ask? You know I’m going to say yes.”

Hyejoo doesn’t want to admit that she just wants to be chummy. “If you had plans in mind, I was just going to reschedule.” 

Gowon just shrugs. “I mean I’m craving fried chicken, but that’s not worth rescheduling.” She then shoves Hyejoo off of her. “Go.”

The younger one grumbles, but makes her way to their gaming room. 

As she turns on the light, she admires the room they have created. On one side, her girlfriend has a pastel setup. It contrasts her black black setup. 

An idea finally sparks in her head. She walks back outside and peaks back into their small living room. 

“Gowonnie, do you want to join us?”

--

“Are you really her girlfriend?”

“Of course she’s my girlfriend. She wouldn’t have been playing with us for the past hour if we’re not dating.” Hyejoo puts her head on Gowon’s shoulder. Hyunjin and Sooyoung are entertained by their little sister’s webcam showing an abandoned chair while Gowon’s webcam showed Hyejoo being soft and protective of a bright and rather crunchy lady.

“She’s not paying you with credits or diamonds or something?”

Gowon giggles. “That sounds like a better bargain.” She turns to her girlfriend and pats her head. “I’m tired of carrying you. Starting next month, I’m expecting 2,000 Battle Points or I’m going to stop doing your laundry.”

Hyunjin chokes on her water. Sooyoung’s jaw dropped. 

Hyejoo pouts. “Park Chaewon.”

“Wow. I like her already. I think mom will like her, too.”

“How did you meet such a nice person, Hye? She’s pretty, too. I didn’t know you had it in you.”

Gowon smiles. “Thank you. It’s nice to know Hyejoo’s siblings are nice.” She turns to Hyejoo. “You should learn something from your sisters. Forget it. I’m upping the payment to 4,000 Battle Points.”

Hyejoo pouts and gives a quick peck on Gowon’s cheek. “Can I pay you with love instead?”

Hyunjin gags. “I don’t know if I’ll get used to this.”

“She got that from you, Hyun. Don’t deny it.” Sooyoung scolds her younger sister.

“You’ve been dating, Jiwoo-unnie longer! She got that from you!”

Gowon giggles. Hyejoo can’t help, but admire her girlfriend. She pleased how well things were coming along. 

--

Socials: Twitter | Curious Cat

[shadowofthelamp]

Can I get a basic run down of each of your au’s? It’s really hard to keep track and I wanna understand what people are talking about

*cracks knuckles* Alright, let’s do this. I’ll probably just link this in my sidebar at this point, because these are getting built up pretty rapidfire and if you aren’t on tumblr as much as I am you’re pretty liable to miss something.

Now with tag links, going chronologically so you can catch up if you want to! Some of them have a lot of posts, though, just as a warning.

-Time AU: The original. Twix is accidentally sent back in time- why is still a bit fuzzy but I think it involves the Voot malfunctioning when a time machine is installed. She runs into Dib when rummaging around in the basement lab in his house for parts, and lets it slip that she’s his daughter from the future. Her skin is just not-green enough to slip past his radar, and a DNA text confirms that she is in fact related to him, but her lips are sealed about who her other parent is. 

She needs to break into Zim’s base to get the necessary tools to finish fixing the Voot to go back home, and Dib assumes she wants to expose Zim like she does, so she has to keep on his good side to get what she needs. It’s weird to say the least, seeing her parents fighting and Dib as a kid- especially since Zim looks basically the same.

After she finally fixes the Voot, it starts jumping through alternate dimensions before she finally makes it home, and she meets several alternate versions of herself. 

The tag needs to be cleaned up on this one- it was the first au and has scattered posts of the others still in it but it’s going to take a while to edit down to the individual ones, fair warning.

-Tallest AU: Zim is “co-Tallest” with Tak, and Dib is a rebel fighter trying to take down the empire- sort of a bounty hunter on the side too. Twix is created during a fight when Zim tries to rip Dib’s throat out with his teeth, as you do. Zim is yanked out of public view while pregnant- can’t let the Empire know one of the Tallests has a defect that allows him to reproduce naturally. When he comes back, Twix is declared an experiment of his to create an heir with alien DNA to help her be taller, stronger, and more resilient. She’s kind of a spoiled brat in this one, and has absolutely no idea who Dib is. 

When she’s about 12, Dib as a bounty hunter was enlisted to kidnap her in an attempt to rile up Zim and get rid of his heir in one fell swoops, having no idea that she’s his daughter. Eventually, that’s discovered, and she slowly learns what life is like for everyone who isn’t her, while Dib learns to be a parent and care for her instead of having to just rely on himself all the time. Things are pretty tense at first, though.

Eventually, after Zim gets her back, she’s injured during a fight and Zim and Dib make a reluctant truce while she heals, eventually becoming sort of ‘rivals with benefits’- Zim won’t kill him if he’s captured, and Dib won’t take headshots. Dib also gets a collar so he can walk around the Massive without somebody sniping his head off, although he’s very grumpy about this.

Eventually, Dib manages to convince Zim that he’s nothing more than a mascot for the empire, there to blow shit up to show their power. (Tak is the real leader, Zim doesn’t really have the power he thinks he does, and Tak was brought in as co-Tallest to do most of the real ruling and give an air of competence, with the Control Brains doing the rest.) This takes ages, and involves Zim being so deep in denial he literally shoots Dib in the leg to get him to shut up, but it needles at him until he accepts it. Needless to say, pisses him off. They run off together, something Tak’s actually pretty happy about because she figures he’ll just die without the protection being a Tallest gives him. Twix comes with them, and start causing problems for the Empire wherever they can.

Dib gets a robot arm at one point, we haven’t 100% decided on how, and they end up having a second kid, a boy named Kit. (Kit Kat. Thank the discord for that one.)

-WLOD AU: Based on the alternate future in Dib’s Wonderful Life of Doom. Dib is the villain in this one- Twix was made when Zim attempted to escape captivity and bit Dib in the process. She’s kind of a nervous, timid wreck, and Zim is incredibly protective of her. She doesn’t see the world outside of the lab until main!Twix stumbles across this world and helps break her and Zim out, bringing them to her reality and asking Membrane to help her ‘cousins’. They end up settled somewhere else. (She ends up good friends with Moth!Twix.)

The running joke with this one is if the other Dibs meet this guy they just beat the crap out of him.

When Twix eventually dies of health complications from being experimented on, Zim pretty much snaps. He goes back to his home dimension and burns down everything even remotely related to Earth and Dib and ends up conquering the Empire, his grief giving him laser focus and allowing him to work past his defects. He goes on pretty much on a multi-decade rampage, twice as ruthless as anyone else and blowing up planets with ease. One day, though, while he’s with the ground troops he sees a scared child who was orphaned by his attacks and sort of snaps back to himself. He ends up adopting them, and several others in an attempt to atone for himself. He trains them up, fully expecting one of them to end up killing him when they find out he was the one that orphaned them, but when they find out about Twix they tend to just leave over killing him.

He ends up dying near her grave of illness/old age.

-Human AU: This one’s gotten revamped. The old one is after the line, to explain the old fanart in that tag. (I… never really liked this one as much as the others because it didn’t feel Zim-like to me and Dib was barely a presence- and he was barely himself too.)

Honestly this one is still a bit of a joke, but Zim’s got a more mad-scientist edge to him, primarily with strange toys, furbies in particular. He makes lots of them and their house is overrun- Twix has no idea it isn’t normal. He enjoys making people squirm with his creations and ends up having a bit of a rivalry with Swap Zim.

______

Old version: Zim and Dib were both sort of academic rivals at school, but ended up paired together for a science pair project and became friends. They’re roommates at college and begin dating, and Twix just comes from a regular old broken condom, oops. Zim was kind of a party animal but cuts back for her sake. His water actually breaks during an important exam but he insists on finishing it, despite Dib’s blood pressure going up about 500%. Zim’s a Bio major, I haven’t really settled on Dib yet. Zim ends up working at Membrane Labs, though. 

Zim’s also a big fan of musical theater, and gets roped into subbing in as Billy Flynn on the campus production of Chicago while four months pregnant. Gir is his younger brother and currently in high school.

-Irken AU: This one’s set a bit earlier in the timeline, when Zim was still working at the labs for military research. (See the canceled episode The Trial.) He met Dib there, and at one point they ended up locked in for a whole weekend on accident. At one point they got into a fight, one thing led to another, and Zim ended up pregnant. He only found out when he started getting sick and went to the hospital. The problem? That’s a defect that hasn’t happened in a long time- he’s whisked to the Control Brains, labeled defective in both mind and body, and sent off to Foodcourtia so no one has to deal with him.

When Dib finds out, he steals a ship and goes to rescue him. Zim is completely miserable, exhausted, overworked, and all around pissed this is happening. He lashes out at Dib for doing this to him before completely collapsing since his body hasn’t gotten a chance to rest in too long, and his instincts tell him that Dib is safe because he’s the other parent. Gir is a malfunctioning food service drone that snuck aboard the ship. They have to figure out what’s going on because this kind of thing hasn’t happened in centuries.

Dib was initially only interested in studying Zim because of the rarity of natural-born smeets, but as time goes on they end up getting closer, especially because Zim gets clingy as time goes on. There are two endings to this one- either they keep wandering around space, or they end up on Earth since it’s uncharted and no one will bug them there. Twix comes from an egg and has three siblings (possibly more) in this one!

-Pilot AU: Related to the Time AU- while jumping around, she gets stuck in the pilot universe. She very much doesn’t like it, especially since Dib starts stalking her instead. When he finds out she’s his daughter, he gets even more obsessive about how and why she came back, and she has to escape him to keep going home.

-Adoption AU: This is the angstfest one kicked off by a particular anon- Zim has a miscarriage, but at some point afterwards when Twix is jumping through the multiverse, she runs into them. After realizing what happened, she finds a version of herself that lost both of her parents and brings her to meet the ones that never had her, and they’re all happy.

-Zimvoid AU: Twix lands in the Zimvoid from the few most recent comics. Not a lot of plot to this one, it’s just fun to imagine. The Zims meeting after Twix is born is under PZA Au, and the Dibs meeting is ‘Meet me in the dibpit’ which is the best tag out of all of these lmao

-Species Swap AU: Dib is, similar to in the irken au, there to study local flora and find uses for them. Gaz is the invader, sent here for her catastrophic body count on every other mission she’s had. She finds out Earth has good games and is just ‘eh, whatever’ and basically puts the mission on hold, letting Dib start stalking the one human that truly interests him- Zim. He’s almost irken-like, and clearly incredibly intelligent- and destructive!

I made a whole plot explanation for this one here.

Dib is actually the one to have her in this au. It’s also a running joke and I’m heavily considering making it canon that this Zim is the one that actually succeeds in taking over the world.

-Mothman AU: Dib is an actual mothman, and so is his family. Variation on this one: One has irken Zim, one has human Zim. Other Dibs find this version of Dib hot. Twix is raised in the woods and her only real friends are her parents, Gir, and Tulip. (Keef’s adopted daughter.)

In the irken au, Zim is actually accepted relatively fast by Membrane who thinks he’s just a strange, stunted moth. After having Twix he ends up growing wings and neck fluff because mothmen are actually a very distant cousin of irkens that diverged millions of years ago, and carrying Dib’s kid kickstarted the process. He also dies for like two minutes because giving birth to an egg a third of your size really sucks. (He’s fine, once Dib got him to the recharging chamber he woke back up when his Pak reactivated him, he was just really low on charge after a birth lasting like two days.)

In the human au, he’s not so lucky- Dib has to keep his relationship a secret, and Membrane only finds out when he sees Zim, already pregnant. Dib gets into a big fight with him because humans killed his mom and Membrane is pissed he’d get into a relationship with one. Things do end up working out eventually, once Twix is born Membrane is fascinated by her, but tensions are still pretty high for a while. Earlier in this version, Zim actually found out he was pregnant when he gets accidentally shot by someone who was aiming at Dib and had to go to the hospital and they took a pregnancy test before doing the x-ray. (In all aus where Zim is human, including swap, he’s a trans guy, and this one is set in the 1970′s/80′s. He ran away to live in the woods for a reason.)

-SU AU: Steven Universe AU! This one’s covering most of the plot of Steven Universe up to this point, so it got long. Link here. (For the aesthetic, think more Gravity Falls and late over early SU: Deep woods and dark colors.)

-Capture AU: A sort of flip of the WLOD au. Zim wins and keeps Dib prisoner, although he enjoys riling him up so Dib is much more of a firecracker than WLOD Zim is. Zim gets the itching feeling he’s missing something and uses a blood sample from Dib to get himself pregnant, but he realizes he can’t raise the kid alone without killing her (and plays it off as making Dib help with something he’s made it clear he hates) so he lets Dib out but on a very tight leash. This one is definitely on the darker end.

-Scandal AU: Zim is Tallest, Dib is an irken scientist. They ‘grew up’ together but Zim shot up and forgot about Dib because- well, his memory’s canonically pretty garbage and besides he often misremembers things anyway. Dib is hauled in front of him for causing problems at the labs like letting the specimens free because he hates his coworkers, and they just kept shoving him at successively more important people because he managed to keep slipping away before being fully punished and it ends up getting all the way to the Tallest.

Dib gets pissy at Zim because he’s expecting to get thrown out the airlock or whatever, before realizing just how terrible of an idea that is and that Zim could do something a lot worse. Mostly he’s just mad that Zim left him behind, but Zim, who only has faint inklings of Dib being familiar, decides to keep him around on basically a whim.

Things evolve from there, with Zim doting over his new ‘toy’ who treats him like an equal (which he didn’t realize he wanted, because duh, he’s the Tallest, why would he want to be anything other than shallowly worshipped?) while Dib has to walk the VERY careful tightrope of staying alive by not pissing Zim off while also not rolling over completely and betraying himself. (And that might lose Zim’s interest as well.) Things get even messier when oops, there’s eggs now.

-Treasure Planet AU: What it says on the tin, an au based off the movie Treasure Planet! Plot summary here, AU mostly belongs to @64bit-trash and @yeehawimscared.

-Dibbrane AU: Dib turns out to be a much better clone of his father and doesn’t realize that Zim is an alien. Zim ends up getting attatched to him because he takes him seriously as a fellow scientist and genuinely enjoys his company, and eventually they get married- all without Dib finding out what he really is. Twix ends up more like show-Dib, determined to prove to the world that there’s a world hidden underneath their own, and Zim ends up her ‘alien rival’ in order to train her. She doesn’t realize she’s half-alien… yet. Fuller synopsis here.

-Amnesia AU: Zim was a personal pet project of Tallest Miyuki’s, and treated him as a son, planning to raise him to succeed her, taking down the heightarchy in the process. She ends up assassinated by Red and Purple in an attempt to get enough power to laze around for the rest of their lives, and Zim is blamed for it. A lot of irkens are bitter and jealous for the attention he got, especially for someone so short, so it’s easy enough to do. 

While imprisoned, he tore up his Pak in an attempt to get rid of the grief and trauma of seeing his mother dead and ended up more defective, having mostly forgotten who he was before. The timeline ‘syncs up’ with iz show canon. He crashes OID2 and gets sent to Earth, and over the years enters a relationship with Dib and gets pregnant. When that’s discovered, he gets pulled back and his memory is wiped again, and when the baby is born, she’s taken away to see if they can shape her into a soldier.

Zim is used for more tests and Skoodge tries to help him, and ‘Brid’ is shuffled between career tracts before being sent out with the soldiers while still 11- practically a smeet. She meets Dib, who’s been looking for both Zim and his lost child. She promises to take him to Zim, but is going to try and bring him as a new species of alien to her superiors to get brownie points because she’s treated kind of like shit by the other trainees for being such a freak. (She always wears a helmet to cover her nose and hair.)

Eventually their paths cross as they get arrested and thrown into a cell near Zim’s, but Zim doesn’t realize he’s even got a daughter, much less this one, so there’s a while to figure things out.

All this time, Miyuki uploaded herself before her death into a side control brain that only Skoodge knows, and they stumble across her, and she helps fill in the gaps.

Aaaaaand I’ll go back and add more to this post if we get more, if I forgot one feel free to tell me.

[peachymess]

If attack on titan was in the Harry Potter universe, what subject do you think the veterans would have been teaching at Hogwarts (like all the veterans including Nile, Hannes, pyxis and such) and what houses would 104 been in? It’s okay if you don’t like au’s like that then you don’t have to reply, hope you have a good day :) !

Hi, anon! Finally, I’ll be answering your Harry Potter AU ask! I knowit’s been ages and ages – I’m really sorry about that. To pay you back for thelong wait, I’ve done headshots of the entire 104 plus some of the vets for thisAU. Please accept my apology-drawings, haha. Art posts for vets here, and 104 here.

For the vets, I assigned each of them one of the HP subjects, and I’m reallyhappy with where they ended up. I can see them all in these positions, and Ihope you can too; if you’d like a deeper explanation as to why some of themended up with what they did, just shoot me an ask about the specific charactersin question and I’ll be happy to explain.

 Erwin (Slytherin): Defence against the dark arts 

Levi(Hufflepuff): Potions

Hanji(Ravenclaw): Transfiguration

Moblit(Hufflepuff): Muggle studies

Mike(Gyrffindor): Herbology

Nanaba(Gryffindor): Flight class

Nile(Ravenclaw): History of Magic

Pyxis(Slytherin): Astonomy

Hannes(Hufflepuff): Groundskeeper

Petra(Hufflepuff): Divination

Oluo(Slytherin): Charms

Eld(Gryffindor): Arithmancy

Gunther(Gryffindor): Apparition lessons

Ness(Hufflepuff): Care of Magical creatures

Now, forthe houses, and where to put everyone: I have to talk about how I view the HPhouses first… 

To start off, I’m not the biggest fan of dividing young, impressionable kidsinto groups based on personal traits to begin with. I feel like it’s likely toshape – and restrict – how the kids view themselves and the people around them.I feel like someone who’s more like, say, a Ravenclaw, at eleven years old,might develop into more of a Gryffindor during their years of schooling (atwhich case, it would be inappropriate for their development, to put them intothe house they not yet fit into, just like moving them mid-school would be). Notto mention it can restrict what social interactions they allow themselves; onegroup villainizing another, or avoiding befriending those they won’t share acommon room with, etc. Even more, I feel like saying people are EITHER brave ORsmart OR driven OR loyal, is doing the complexity of personalities a massivedisservice. If I had a dollar for every person who’ve ever told me they areboth one house and another, or a little bit of all, I’d be… well, richer than Iam now. So. My point is, I’m not a fan of saying someone is one thing, as it can sound likeI’m saying they’re NOT the other three things – which simply isn’t true. HarryPotter houses is something a lot of people have a lot of emotional investmentin. As such, I’m sure some of you will disagree with where I personally see theSNK characters. That’s ok. For most of these, I struggled to settle on onehouse, and I’d probably be swayed to change my mind on many of them, ifpresented with the right arguments. However, I have set some guidelines formyself, and I’ve landed on something, following these:

I’veseparated the HP houses into two categories: action-driven (active) houses andREaction-driven (passive) houses: Slytherin and Ravenclaw are action-driven:while Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are REaction-driven.

Beingaction-driven, in this context, means you actively seek out something. ForSlytherins, this is a personal goal. Be it a wish to become the most powerfulwizard alive, the richest, or for your moral compass to be universallyacknowledged and followed. If your path is dictated by where you want to endup, your path is unfolding through the actions you take to get there. This isSlytherin. Ravenclaws, similarly, are first and foremost seekers of truth andknowledge. They spend their time actively improving their insight into whateverfield they find most worthwhile; their path is created from the steps they taketo improve on this knowledge.

Being REaction-driven,on the other hand – in this context – means that you are mainly passive,waiting for something to occurs that requires you to react; you respond to anenvironment, rather than cause an environment to occur. For Gryffindor, whosemain trait is their unwavering drive to withstand and overcome even thescariest, most personally endangering obstacles, this means they’ll REact tosaid obstacles by tackling them head-on, because it is the right thing to do(even when it’s also the hardest thing to do). Hufflepuffs, similarly, willrespond to an environment by letting their loyalty tell them how they shouldrespond, when situations occur.

Using theseguidelines, I’ve ended up placing the characters like this:

Eren(Slytherin): Let’s start this off by getting one thing straight: being aSlytherin and being driven by a personal goal, does not have to be a bad thing!By placing Eren in Slytherin, I am in no way saying he’s a bad guy or that Idon’t support him. No. Eren is here, because, after thinking about it, I can’tdeny that his drive, is an intense, active personal goal of making things rightin the world. Sure, his goal of making the world titan-free (and seeing thefree world later), has taken him down a dangerous path that requires him to bebrave – but he’s not driven by bravery as much as an idea that he just “has todo this, danger level being whatever it is”, for his goal to be reached. He’snot wrestling his fears as much as he is wrestling the danger of not winningwhat needs to be won to advance towards his goal. Lucky for us, his personalgoal, is to give all of us the justice and freedom that is our birthright. Eren’sstrength, is his relentless strength to pursue this freedom.Armin(Gryffindor): I’ve got two names for you to suck on: Hermione and Neville.These characters have taught us that there is no such thing as being “toointelligent” or “too scared” to have the brave heart of a lion. Armin is veryintelligent, and he’s also very human in the face of danger. He also has a dreamto explore (which could make you advocate for Ravenclaw), but more thananything, his dream remains a backseat driver to his rising to the occasionsthat occur; saving humanity before pursuing his own dream. He uses hisintelligence to very skullfully aid in the brave battles he end up in. His maindrive, is wrestling his personal demons, and rising to the occasions. He’sbrave – so incredibly brave – and he’s a Gryffindor.Mikasa(Hufflepuff): A friend of mine said “anywhere but Hufflepuff” when we talkedabout Mikasa. But I beg to differ. Mikasa is strong, and she’s proud. But she’sloyalty bound most of all. She has amazing skills that take her far in battles– but they are not the product of her facing her fears and being brave, butrather the product of her being willing to give it her all to defend what she’semotionally bound to. She’s peak Hufflepuff, because she’s got the skills toback up what she’s loyal to. Honestly, I’d say EMA are all the peaks of theirhouses. Jean(Gryffindor): I’d got Slytherin, had it not been for the fact that once hispersonal desires had to face off against the world’s need for him to rise to adifferent standard, he answered. Jean puts on a good “bad guy slytherin”persona, but his actions say something else. He’s very human, and he’s a slowgrower (as I’ve talked about before), but he DOES grow – and it’s in responseto the world’s need for him to, not for his own personal goals and gains. He’sa Gryffindor.Marco(Ravenclaw): To be honest, we just need someone in Ravenclaw at this point. Ibased this off of Isayama’s HS AU; Marco and Armin are both smart guys, butwhile Armin is shown to be a geek (more devoted to his interests outside ofschool; not being defined by his cleverness), Marco is a “nerd”; school smart –defined by his intellect. I’d say this is better shown in the AU than in canon,but then again, Marco didn’t have much time to blossom. That’s why I’ve chosento go with the context Isa has given us, and say he’s someone who strives toalways be better, learn more, gain knowledge – be it how to fight better, howto strategize more, or how to read situations.Sasha(Hufflepuff): Sasha very nearly ended up as a Gryffindor for me. I held backpartially because I love the idea of her and Connie being Huff-buds. And atfirst I felt like I was cheating; after all, the ways she saved that child andtook out a titan on foot, is still one of the most amazing moments of thisstory for me. Like if you cry every time… But I had to take a step back andremind myself that Hufflepuff is not BELOW Gryffindor. Hufflepuff is not alower tier than any of the other houses. It’s supposed to be your main note.And for Sasha, what we see her do most of, is being a very quirky, goofy, funnygirl who enjoys the simple things (good times with friends, food, etc.). To me,that’s a Hufflepuff. She’s sweet, and she’s fierce. Precisely like a Huff who’sthrown into a world where her loyalty is called upon a lot.Connie(Hufflepuff): He’s in the same boat as Sasha; he’s brave in the face of danger,and he’s the Lion’s heart worthy, but more than that he’s a simple guy who’soften shown to fit snugly into the simpler times-life. Who said Hufflepuffscan’t also be brave when they’re called upon by something or someone they careabout?Reiner(Gryffindor): To be honest, I’m the least sure about the BRA trio. Partiallyfor the sake of mirroring the EMA trio, I decided to put them all in differenthouses. But also, I partially wanted to emphasis that they all have differentpersonalities. Lumping them all into Slytherin and calling it a day, woulddoing them and their individual causes a big disservice. And at the end of theday, while Reiner was the left-over after I placed Annie and Bert, I do thinkReiner’s struggles warrant recognition in the Gryffindor way. After all, nobodyworked harder to get a spot amongst the shifters than him, he took on the roleas Marcel 2.0 after BRA were thoroughly lost, he kept going even after theintense mental struggles he suffered from that point onward, he genuinely triedto be just be best tm  - even though he’sstruggled to find out what IS the best. I’d say he’s got a drive to mimic aSlytherin, but on the other hand, he became very passive inside the walls, oncehe found a comfortable place to play pretend, so I’d say he’s more a re-actor.Annie(Slytherin): Since the beginning, we’ve seen that Annie does not put much stockin loyalty for the sake of loyalty. Sure, she can stick to a side/idea once shedecides on it, but how she decides on it, is driven by her own interest. Shejust wants to be ok, and to have a better life for herself. She’s not exactlyshooting for the stars with this goal, but it’s her final compass none theless. Again, she’s not bad; wanting to wathc out for yourself is not inherentlyevil – it just is what it is.Bertolt (Hufflepuff): Bertolt is loyal to the side he’s picked, preciselybecause it’s what he’s decided to stick with. Loyalty for the sake of loyalty.He says he’s not sure what’s the right thing anymore, but he sticks with Marleybecause that was his entry point. He’s also – while powerful – more of areactor; doing the work he knows he has to do, once it’s possible or asked ofhim. He’s a Hufflepuff to me.Ymir(Slytherin): Ymir’s selfishness is a front she puts on. It’s aself-preservation mechanism that kicks in, understandably, after everythingthat’s happened to her. She’s not a Slytherin because of this. She’s aSlytherin, because at the end of the day, she’s made the choice to follow thatfront’s example, and put herself first for once. Perhaps she’s a convertedGryffindor. All I know is, she’s chosen to put herself and her interest(s)first, and she’s actively sought out these benefits – Slytherin by fomula – butthe more I think about it, the more I want to replace her in Gryffindor.Historia(Slytherin): Historia may appear to be a selfless, brave Gryffindor, and sure,she’s in dangerous situations, like everyone else in 104 – but she’s therebecause that’s her goal. Her personal goal is to appear selfless. To me, herentire arc was about accepting and beginning to love and blossom as herSlytherin self. A Gryffindor wouldn’t say they didn’t care if someone was indanger in their stead (Armin standing in for her), nor would a Gryffindor telltitan Ymir to tear down the tower to save herself, dooming three other people (Connie,Bertolt, Reiner) to death in the process. Historia is not a selfless personfirst and foremost – and while I personally don’t appreciate her, I’m not goingto say she’s in Slytherin for being selfish. No; she’s there because her drivehas been facing inwards, and that’s ok. She’s had little choice but TO have herown back. And she was a child, and can thus not really be blamed for ending uptrying to tend to herself in a harmful way (attempting to die in a heroic wayfor how that will appear outward). But she is, in the end, a character drivenby self-preservation and (the search for) self-acceptance. And that puts her inSlytherin for me.

… And that’sit, anon. I hope you found this interesting and/or entertaining. I put quite abit of effort into this, and I hope something positive will come from it ^^

[gasgiant]

this is embarrassing so im on anon but as someone who is also currently obsessed with tf2 despite never playing it. what are your opinions on those guys. i am very interested

NICE this is content i love to see!! Sorry if you dont see this post it’s probably been sitting in my inbox for a week, but i’ll tag it, so who knows?

This will mostly be about character in the comics, but I’ll throw in who i like to play as well

Scout: he gives off annoying little sibling energy. very entertaining and funny, he talks non-stop in the comics. his daddy issues go deep and it’s probably good that he doesn’t know HOW deep. Before most matches start i pick scout and run around the map, hitting as many people with the fish as I can. 6/10 cool boy

Pyro: baby. I do wish they had more of a personality besides “obsessed with fire and doesn’t live in reality”, but pyrovision is a very fun concept and makes this guy both loveable and TERRIFYING. Pyro is my second most played, because who doesn’t love not aiming and causing extreme carnage? 7/10 chaotic being

Soldier: OK HONESTLY? MY FAVORITE CHARACTER FROM THE COMICS. this poor, lead poisoned, brain dead, psychopath. only blood lust and patriotism consume the mind of this man, but there really isnt much space up there anyway. his stupidity and knack for pissing off literally anyone is fantastic. also, he ends up dating heavy’s sister zhanna and they have a FANTASTIC dynamic (ok, she actually might be my favorite but soldier is close). I don’t play him that much, but rocket jumping is hella fun. 10/10 GOOD HUSTLE, SOLDIER!

Demoman: Underappiciated and under utilized in fan content! I think he has one of the best origin stories. He’s realatively sane for TF2 mercs, and would probably be all the way there if it wasnt for his nasty drinking habit. There’s also a comic where a soldier and demoman on opposite teams become friends and that is such a good one. Valve definitely could have done better on having more characters who aren’t white, but im glad we at least got Tavish! I suck at demoman but i’m trying to play him more to get better. Kinda surprising since junkrat was my 2nd most played in overwatch. 8/10 "Oh, they're goin' ta have to glue you back together...IN HELL!"

Heavy: Due to his appearance in the telltale poker night game, this guy probably has the most complete characterization. Somewhere between a gentle giant and crazy russian, he’s a family man with a doctorate in russian literature and a strong attachment to Sascha, his favorite gun. He doesn’t say much, but he usually says the right thing. God bless him for putting up with the rest of the team, because if he didn’t, they’d all be goners. Heavy playstyle just isnt fun for me so i rarely pick him. 8/10 Legendary Comrade

Engineer: I feel like we hear the least about this dude’s personality in the comics. He’s a genius engineer in a family of genius engineers. His grandfather created a life extending machine (thats kinda important to the comics) that he later upgraded. Dude literally has 12 Phds. I enjoy his general laid-back texan demeanor. I feel like he’d be really fun at parties for some reason. I’ve been playing engineer way more recently and a lot of his voice lines are sarcastic and a bit goofy. 7/10 texas sized yee haw.

Sniper: someone give this man a fucking break. please. my god. the most mentally there of the team, doesn’t seem absorbed with killing, but does enjoy the challange and competition of sniping. has a bit of an identity crisis (in the form of his superman-esque origin story) which is quickly resolved. probably would be the most pleasant of these guys to meet in real life. i only play sniper on the 2 Fort map and I have never gotten a headshot. ever. 6/10 great shot, mate.

Medic: MY MAN LUDWIG! My favorite character before reading the comics. I’d say he’s a fucked up doctor, but thats only the half of it. He isnt even a doctor anymore (its hard to keep a medical license after removing someone’s entire skeleton). For a dude who stole all of his friend’s souls and literally outsmarted devil... he’s not THAT bad. I mean, sure he abandoned his team to fight against them just so he could commit more atrocities against nature. Sure, he only has an evil smile and demented laugh. But uh... he is... nice to his doves? Yeah ok nevermind I cant really defend this guy. Being a little evil is... kinda sexy though (look up medic cosmetic “The Burly Beast”). In game, my medigun is named “Press E To Send Me To Therapy”. E is the call for medic button. I am a medic main and I am so, so tired. 10/10 “ZHAT was doctor assisted homocide!”

Spy: french asshole. seems pretencious and unattached but he really isnt. actions speak louder than words spy, and even if you had to tell scout you were his father disguised as tom jones, at least you did it. if i play spy i get overly excited at backstabbing someone because i suck at it. 6/10 oui oui effle tower baguette i love making fun of the french

not sure if this is what you wanted anon but i had fun typing these! if you ever get steam, here’s a link to my profile https://s.team/p/kpv-bvtv/JPDMQRWV tf2 is basically the only game I play on steam so I’ll probably be doing that 😎

[jaapiidoqqyt-blog]

An Introduction! 

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My name’s Zacharie (zach for short), I’m a 19 year old freelance Artist starting out new n’ Has absolutely no idea what they’re doing! I decided to get out into more platforms since deviantart is now dead. Above is Some art of mine to Start my profile out! I will refrain myself to reblogging too much and sticking to posting myself but for anything too gay, I might hit that reblog button OOPS!

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I don’t plan to go to college for a couple years, I volunteer for my dad mostly since he’s paying the bills, I really want to start playing guitar and keyboard! I have extremely bad anxiety so If people are in the house with me I can’t do anything that I want to do that requires a certain amount of noise like playing a guitar, which is why I’m Saving up to move out of my family’s and into my own place, I’ll need to get a following going so I can keep my bills sable but I have time. 

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Now for my Commissions, If anyone is Interested; I have them Open and all will go into my savings or advertisements to get my business going, Please note Commissions will take up to a week or two weeks, I draw slow and really like to go into details, sometimes things get delayed or pushed back or many more reasons why you haven’t gotten it in a week, after 2 weeks of silence (<- Including my Trello), Send me a message for a Wip, Sketch or any Progress and I’ll gladly hand you some or explain delays if any are present! 

Here’s all the Links of mine;

Commission Site here (temporarily) - Bussiness site

Trello (updated daily) - To do list

Business gmail - vbethanylegere@gmail.com

~Social Media~

Twitter  |  Youtube  |  Deviantart  |  Instagram  |  Toyhouse

[dysphoric-affect]

A Hero In Most Worlds, A Survivor In All

I’ve made it through the boring scenery where I live to arrive at my dead-end job. It’s time for the daily routine of repetitive, meaningless work, which I’ll still try my hardest to excel at out of an arguably misplaced sense of pride in my work. This is the little reward that I can hope for, as I watch most of the rest of the crew given breaks, raises and promotions I’m never privy to for some reason. There’s no sense of accomplishment and no sense of respect for what I’ve done to be found here...

I, the Dragonborn, have made it through the expansive and breathtaking vistas of the western plains of Whiterun hold in the province of Skyrim to arrive at the scene of a dragon assaulting a giant’s camp. It’s time to go to work: both of these powerful beings have great rewards if I’m successful. My focus is the dragon though, my sworn enemy; I’m generally content to leave the giants be and am in no hurry to piss it off and bring its large club to bear on my skull. My first arrows find their mark, but the next I try while the giant is lunging for a temporarily groundward dragon ends up finding the giant’s side. Right about this moment the dragon takes to the sky again and the giant turns toward me. Uh-oh. I’m not ready to spar with it up close, so I temporarily beat a retreat. The dragon’s next attack ends up scorching the giant’s mammoth, bringing it to charge out of the giant’s camp and wade into the fray. There’s no avoiding striking the mammoth as well while it and the giant are teaming up on the dragon the next time it lands, so now it’s a four-way clash with loud, defiant roars from the three massive denizens. I seem small in comparison...but my Shout is louder still and my own strength is not to be trifled with. One by one, the dragon falls, then the giant, and finally the mammoth. I loot the giant’s camp and their bodies, the dragon disintegrating and its soul absorbed into mine as I pass it. I stand triumphant on the crest of the hill where we fought. A couple passerby including one of the hold’s guards run up and remark at the feat. “By the gods...the legends are true” one says. There’s much I’ve accomplished here, and much respect it has earned, but I know there is much more I’m capable of still...

Another planned date falls through, and once again I don’t understand. Our conversation had been going great. We had a time worked out to finally meet up and knew where we wanted to go. Everything was fine. Then, a few hours before it’s set to happen, I’m ghosted. I look back on our conversation for clues. Where did I go wrong? But, of course, it’s a fruitless endeavor. Short of talking to them, which isn’t going to happen, it’s impossible to decipher where I went wrong, or if I even really did. It stings more than I feel like it should, but in my defense, this keeps happening. Combined with the times I do meet, but their interest isn’t in more than temporary fun, I find myself left feeling hollow. I know I have good qualities...don’t I? I’m just tired of this...

After my latest successful mission, I, Commander Shepard, have to make an obligatory stop to check on my crew...which certainly includes a particular squadmate I’ve had my eye on for some time now. They’re great in a fight, but I also really dig their personality and I’ve grown to care about them over time as I’ve come to see more of that personality and know what they went through in their past. We’ve exchanged some tense, heated moments up to this point, but things are at a fever pitch now. With some reflection on our time together and how much they trust me, they can’t resist any more. We kiss. They tell me to meet up with them before we head out on our final mission to assault the Collector base. So I do, and they are where they said they’d be, when they said they would. We share a romantic evening together. Even after that evening is over though, we still are standing by each other’s side. To be there for each other emotionally, as well as through any battles that lay ahead. They can count on me to be there, and I can count on them...

It’s another all time low and I can’t take it any more. Nobody cares I’m here, nobody shares my interests, nobody looks up to me, I’m nobody’s priority and nobody will really notice or care when I’m gone. I feel like hanging is the way to go. I don’t like the idea of it being messy. Not that death is ever pretty, but still. I feel like I have more conviction this time because the low isn’t going away. It should have by now, but it won’t. I’ve even tested out what I would use a little. Seems dependable and as far as my feelings go about it, I’m surprisingly at ease with the sensations. Seems just like passing out and I’ve done that before, with the added bonus of never waking up to feeling worthless again. I don’t have a set day in mind or anything, but I’m very close. There’s no hope left, after all. I’ll play a game while I work myself up to it in the meantime...

I am Master Chief. Marines who’ve hunkered down just inside a building front are pinned down by Covenant forces assaulting from the outside. The Marines are as desperate as you can get in their situation. There’s no hope left, after all...but there is. I feel like a sniper rifle is the way to go. I don’t like the idea of it being messy, at least not at this early stage in the fight. I pick off nearly half a dozen before the Covenant knows what hit them. I rain down a couple grenades from my vantage point, killing more and causing those agile or tough enough to survive to scatter. I use this moment to drop down from my vantage point and land with a low thunder, iridescent green armor glinting in the afternoon sunlight. The Marines call out in enthusiasm upon the sight of me. They care I’m here and look up to me. Helping me is now their priority and they will absolutely miss my presence when I’m gone. And they and I share a common interest, in protecting any innocent human life. Their hope restored, they emerge more and lend supporting fire as I bare down on those who would take the hope of others, who would lead to innocent lives ending for no reason. Alien bodies fall from headshots and melee blows and grenade blasts until only I am standing. Me, the consumate survivor. I know it’s not over. There are more battles ahead, more battles than I care to think of that make up this war. But I know that I can survive and I can win, just taking it one battle at a time like this. Maybe I can win the war in the end after all, somehow.

I put the controller up, and go back to another shift at work.

I put the controller up, and start talking to someone new I think is cute and seems nice.

I put the controller up, and I decide to go on living.

Life is often disappointing. One of the great virtues of gaming that so often goes underappreciated is just how much they can help us cope through the forms of escape they provide when real life becomes too much. This isn’t to say that it should replace trying to make a genuine effort to solve those problems in real life, but I think it’s certainly healthy at times for us to be able to get away in the way video games uniquely allow when the solutions to those problems aren’t there at the moment. Maybe solving the problems in a game’s world is a more vicarious satisfaction on the surface, but more deeply it can help us to emotionally find our way forward outside of it, through our own power to manifest our problems into that world’s problems and to see our ability to deal with those problems as a parable for our ability to deal with the real thing. Whatever helps get us to that better place eventually when we are struggling right now is escapism well worth indulging in.

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Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this post, please consider liking, commenting and reblogging, as well as following me. All support is greatly appreciated.

[agentzakura]

LoveFanFest 2019

Ok, so a lot of people asked me what happened at #LFF2019 since I was clearly upset last week. Things have settled down a bit so I figured I’d spend time today making my thread. 

TLDR; ClexaCon is a dream compared to LoveFanFest. LFF needs better communication and customer service. Lack of transparency and asking for money left and right… The queer fandom deserves better than that. Listen to Laura Hollis.

https://lovehollistein.tumblr.com/post/151126971734/you-deserve-better

So first of all, the good stuff. I did like my trip to Barcelona. I got to see a really beautiful city and hang out with friends I’d never met IRL or haven’t seen in a long time. It was a wonderful experience from that aspect. When I first joined the fandom I asked Gabi what the best part of cons was and her answer was meeting other fans. She was absolutely right. While I’m grateful I get to geek out on my faves and have my briefest moments with them, I loved talking to other people in line and getting to know them in person after interacting with them online. 

The actual con was frustrating and disappointing. Before anyone tries to invalidate my experience, please keep it to yourself or DM me. There are far too many people jumping to defend LFF without any context. Things like, “It’s hard to make a con"… "Cons aren’t free”…”It’s just European culture.” Or even “It wasn’t that bad.” Comments like that don’t help at all. I’ve been to big cons before and I’ve volunteered at them. If I had the time, I would start my own convention and almost did. Believe me. I don’t take writing things like this lightly. Also, the heat wave didn’t help anything but to blame behavior on that alone is nonsensical. 

LoveFanFest as a whole was just not organized very well. We received the schedule a few days prior. It was filled with mistakes. They sold a lot of the extras at a discount months earlier and if I had known that things would have conflicted I wouldn’t have bought the things I did. Especially since their attitude is sorry no refunds or exchanges no matter what. 

Day 0 

Registration was a mess and the lines made no sense. 1 line to get your main badge, 1 line for Earpers, 1 line for Creampuffs, the last line for other guests. I immediately regretted the handful of Earper extras I bought. I spent 2 hours in line longer than my other friends because of it. 

The ticketing didn’t make sense. It was confusing figuring out which one was Sat/Sun. They looked nice printed but got collected and thrown away. They’re easily lost and it was a pain to try to get them all with the multiple lines. Why can’t you use Eventbrite digital tickets as they were intended? I heard after the fact that tickets weren’t even checked properly. One person couldn’t switch their ticket, but went up on the other day anyway and they didn’t pay attention to the day on it. Some people were able to 

I also missed the beach clean up my friend organized, so that day was so disappointing. 

Day 1 

Breakfast with the guests was one of the few highlights. I like how it was split into smaller groups. 3 guests max with 10 attendees I think. At ClexaCon is was really hard to hear whatever was saying because all the breakfasts/lunches were at the same time and I felt like I was shouting across the table. In fact, at ClexaCon Natasha had to walk up to people individually to talk to them because she couldn’t hear them. 

I bought more extras for Hollstein. I knew I had more autographs for the things I brought and got more photo ops and selfies. Early in the morning I brought it to the staff’s attention that the Hollstein panel and my Mel and Isabella photo ops overlapped. I’m a Creampuff more than anything, so that was a really big deal for me. I asked if I could swap the tickets instead for the Sunday. Sunday their photo ops occurred when I had nothing else scheduled. In all fairness, the person at the extras register passing out the tickets was really nice. They were really patient with me and assured me everything was fine. I told them about what I wanted to do and they said they couldn’t change the tickets because they were “limited” and may be sold out for the next day. Another staff member assured me that there would be 15 min that doesn’t overlap with the Hollstein panel so I can take my pictures before it. I was just told to tell the volunteer at the ops that I needed to make a panel and skip to the front of the line. The original staff member told me to come back and talk to them if what I was told didn’t work out. I was grateful and hoped I didn’t have to come back… Of course, it wasn’t that simple. 

There was no volunteer at the front of the line. The volunteers I did find had no idea what was going on. The Hollstein panel was about to start so I had to run back upstairs and talk to them again. I was passed onto another staff member. She seemed to be one of the head people. She called over a Spanish speaking volunteer to escort me down and get me to the head of the line and I got them done. I still missed half of the first Hollstein panel because of it though. I ran in behind one of my friends in press who also had the same conflict. Of course, no recording is allowed so who knows when I’ll get to see that footage. 

I don’t understand why photo ops tickets are per person. Maybe I was spoiled at ClexaCon with 4 people max to a photo. I bought an Earper trio to do a BayHaught photo with a friend. This was my first con where I’d meet Mel. We found out that we had to pay for another ticket just for her to join in mine. Which is insane. It literally takes the same amount time to have one more person join. Trios are not cheap. Around €130 for one person for less than 5 seconds to pose?! My friend was nice enough to pay to be in the photo anyway.

  Autographs were ok up to a certain point. I stood in line for Natasha and Elise because I wanted to make sure I got to see them.  I wasn’t looking forward to getting the Earp autographs. Dom's line was crazy and went outside the door and I assume around the lobby. Plus, the trio photos hadn’t printed yet, so I was essentially waiting for that. The reason I bought Dom, Kat, and Mel’s autographs that day is because I had the photo ops. For some reasons, LFF only has one person in charge of the printing and it took forever to get them on the tables. The trio took the longest. When I was done with Natasha's and Elise’s line, I went to Mel’s and waited. Again, most of my friends are Creampuffs so it was basically just me in line waiting. I wanted to see if someone else could get the autograph for me, but that didn’t go well either. I got to the front of Mel’s line with nothing to sign. The trio photos weren’t out yet. I couldn’t swap my autographs for the next day. The one rule LFF was very adamant about regardless of your situation. The poor volunteer had to call one of the staff members over to see what could be done. It was the same woman from last time who had a volunteer take me to the photo ops. I think she said her name was Maria or Michelle or some name that started with an M. I told her the only thing I wanted to get signed was the trio photo and it wasn’t printed yet. She told me that LFF never guaranteed that the photos would be done by the end of the day. Essentially, she was telling me I was SOL. I asked if I could switch my autographs to the next day so I had my photo to be signed. She flat out told me no. That’s when I started to get upset and asked her what I needed to do then. LFF doesn’t give headshots for them to sign. You have to pay extra for those. She told me I needed to get something else signed. The fact that I didn’t have anything else didn’t matter. It was frustrating because at that point I really didn’t care and would be damned if I had to pay any more money because they were inflexible with their tickets. 

That’s when things got really bad. As I was trying to explain why I didn’t want to pay more money for a headshot I didn’t even want just to use these tickets, the staff member told me I needed to stop yelling and being rude or they wouldn’t help me.  There was no yelling. There was me trying to explain my frustration with what they were doing and asking them to come to some sort of compromise. I’ve worked in customer service. I’ve had people cuss me out or try to attack me. What I was doing was not threatening. I get it. You have policies. You can’t bend the rules for everyone. But what really got t o me was she then she proceeded to accuse me of not asking the right questions and projected the blame on me. I can still see her in my face, repeatedly saying, “Well, did you ask? Did you ask?” She didn’t believe me. It was frustrating. It’s not like I’m trying to score free things. I just wanted to get what I paid for.

My friends saved the day by finding the trio photo and M person let me go to the front of the line for all my trouble, but it wasn’t a redeeming experience. Instead of being happy to meet Mel for the first time, Kat, and Dom, I was on edge and could hardly speak. Most of the disagreement happened to the side of Mel’s auto table. Mel was so nice and hilarious. Kat was so nice and understood why I brought my daughter to the M&G at CCUK. Dom and her handlers were really sweet and made sure that people in line had water and a little something to eat. I can say I shared a bowl of chips with Dom now. 😄 But I felt like absolute garbage by the end of it. 

I had two more autographs with Mel for Sunday, but I honestly didn’t want to deal with it anymore.

Day 2

The second day was pretty low key until I thought I left the Mel autograph tickets at the Airbnb. I honestly had no interest to line up in the line that never ends for a second day so I was giving them away. I went to the Airbnb and had a mini breakdown because 1) I couldn’t find the tickets (I found them in my wallet a little later. 2) In trying to hurry, I also left my agenda at home and looked at the schedule. I saw that I had missed the single photo ops for Natasha and Elise. Time to panic again.

I had a Trio Carmilla photo op and a Hollstein duo photo op, so we thought that they would be ok with me doing my singles at the same time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy… I took my trio photo and the staff and the handlers weren’t sure how to handle the situation. At first I was told that I would need to fall back in line and do it after the duo. I was completely fine with this because I had to get a prop I had left down the hall with my friends. Then I was told that I needed to do the solos right that second because the photographer was “on time” and didn’t feel like they wouldn’t have time to do the solos. Not even for the minute or so it would take me to get my prop and get back to them. I was calm about it as they talked amongst themselves, but honestly couldn’t believe that it was happening again. It took longer for them to argue about what to do than it probably would have taken me to get the prop.

I stood there just watching the interaction in disbelief when Natasha came over to me and asked what was going on and I lost it. Not like anger, but just crying out of frustration from the situation. Tears flowing freely as my emotions overwhelmed me.This was supposed to be my solo trip and fun half way across the world and I’m being told yet again, they might not honor the tickets I bought. Natasha assured me it would work out. We ended up doing the photo ops after the Hollstein duo… But two other fans had single photo ops they did after… So I did understand why they made a big fuss out of me doing it. I was done at the point where I just couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t enjoy the last Hollstein panel and closing ceremony was hard to sit through. My only moments of reprieve happened when I found some Creampuffs and hung out in their hotel room for a bit before the closing.

Autographs after the second day were not too bad. I still gave away my autographs to EarpItForward. I had to buy a photo of Mel for them to get signed. I didn’t like my photo ops with Isabella, so I ended up buying her headshot too. I had picked one I saw originally that I really liked, but then I saw someone get another Isabella head shot, which was even better. I asked if I could switch it because I didn’t know that the other con photo was available. Thankfully I did get it, but not without an offhanded comment from M person about how I should have asked before then I would have known. Like why say things like that?

I’m just glad that Natasha and Elise were really sweet and took time with us. Elise is pretty masterful with the selfies. Natasha also made sure we were happy with it before we left too. I had a couple of friends say they were rushed during the last moments, but thankfully I was at least saved from that. I even forgot to do my selfie with Natasha and they let me go back up and take it.

My nightmare continues as I wait to see if I get the rest of the digital print downloads I purchased. There’s some obscure issue where if you don’t click some check box correctly you only download one picture and then you have to contact them to get the rest. I swear the pop up I had asked if it was ok to download multiples and I clicked accept... I still only got one photo. I’m incredibly frustrated because they tweeted that but didn’t include it in any emails with the photos. How is someone who doesn’t have Twitter suppose to know? They also posted all the M&G photos, but haven’t bothered to message me back. 

Honestly, I don’t get how #Clexacapocalypse became a thing. My experience with them far exceeded the miserable experience I had at LoveFanFest. I’d honestly go to Barcelona again to hangout with friends, but things seriously need to change before I even think about that convention again. I wish the people who also had an issue would speak up as well. Nothing will change if no one says anything. Just my 2 cents.

[andrewdburton]

How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics)

What happens when you try to raise money for a cause you care about?

Recently, my wife and I held a fundraiser in NYC. We both come from families of immigrants and we wanted to raise money for families being separated at the border. What we’ve seen has made us feel helpless, outraged, and sad. But we also know that we’re in the enviable position of being able to do something about it.

This was the first time we’ve ever raised money for a fundraiser together and I want to share what we learned (plus all the numbers).

VIDEO: My wife and me explaining why we launched this fundraiser

It turns out I LOVE fundraising. I think it’s because…

It’s a cause I care about

I have friends and readers I can share this with

Thanks to having 40,000 customers, I have no fear of asking for money. Especially from IWT readers who asked for a free ticket to my event, and (1) one had spent $10,000 on my products, (2) another worked at Amazon, and (3) a third was an engineer at VISA. I showed no mercy.

MRW when someone asks for a free ticket to my charity event, but they’ve spent $10,000 on my products

Our fundraising metrics

We raised $12,975, beating our goal of $5,000!! (We donated 100% of that money.)

To raise money, we first asked a few friends in the nonprofit space for their advice. They pointed us to groups we started researching, then we settled on Families Belong Together to donate our funds to.

Our next step was to email friends. We emailed about 50 friends and family, raising $2,450. Some people donated to come to the NYC event we held, while others just donated funds.

Then Cass and I recorded a video explaining why we were raising money and why this is important to us, which I posted on my Instagram feed/stories, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The video got watched about 50,000 times.

That video linked back to our Eventbrite page, which got ~2,000 views and raised ~$9,000.

We held an event in NYC, where we hosted about 35 people in a space donated by https://energi.life/welcome/. Paola from Families Belong Together shared stories about what she’s seen along the border, along with drinks served by Andrew from Crafttender (big thanks to everyone for making this possible!!).

Overall, for our first fundraiser, this was a big success!!

Paola shared her experiences working with Families Belong Together. Some of my friends cried during the presentation.

LESSON #1: Get comfortable with small numbers

Initially, Cass and I set a goal of $50,000. When we went to a few fundraising friends and asked for advice, one of them smiled. “Why don’t you start small?” he gently asked us. Even though it was hard to hear, he was right.

I learned that I had to get comfortable with smaller numbers.

This wasn’t some massive fundraiser where we could leverage crazy press or the entire IWT business (e.g., when IWT raised $300,000 for Pencils of Promise).

After running IWT, where I oversee a team that manages complex lead acquisition, funnels, conversion, and products, I’ve gotten used to big numbers. To give you an example, during the week my wife and I raised $12,975 for this fundraiser, one individual IWT student bought 3 courses equaling $10,388.

So with this fundraiser, it was humbling to start small and be satisfied with small numbers and modest goals. This was my wife and me setting up our first fundraiser together, trying to find a free event space, and trying to send anything we can to support families at the border.

I had to reframe our new goal of “only” $5,000 as a win. When you’re starting something new, it’s hard to remember that starting small is how EVERYONE starts off. This was a great reminder. Most of all, we were just thrilled to be able to contribute to a cause we care about.

LESSON #2: When a friend asks, show up

You might have seen “Ramit’s 10 Money Rules” that I posted a while back. Look closely at #4:

#4: “Never question spending money on books, appetizers, health, or donating to a friend’s charity fundraiser.”

Read about Ramit’s Money Rules 

There’s a reason I always donate to friends’ charity events. When your friend emails you for a fundraiser, they really want your help (in general, people HATE asking for money, so when they do, there’s usually a reason for it).

If you respond and donate quickly, they’ll appreciate it.

And if you donate more than they asked for, they will never forget it.

For example, Sam Gavis-Hughson is a Zero To Launch graduate who helps job candidates prepare for their coding interviews at companies like Google and Facebook. He used our Zero To Launch program to recently run a $50,000 launch. When we posted about our fundraiser, he was one of our first donors and came in big with a $500 donation — that’s more than our requested $100 donation. I will never forget it.

Other friends never donated. Maybe they were busy or missed the email. But I’ll never forget that, either.

Showing up doesn’t just mean spending money. It also means physically showing up when it’s important to your friend.

Over the last couple of weeks, two of my friends have launched books. I went to Nir Eyal’s launch of his book. A few days later, Cass and I went to support Paula Rizzo’s launch of her book. Yes, I’m busy. Yes, it was out of the way. Yes, we showed up.

Showing up for Paula Rizzo’s book launch of Listful Living

When an author launches their book, they’re nervous, they’re excited, and most of all, THEY DESPERATELY WANT YOUR SUPPORT.

SHOW UP!! Show up for birthdays parties, weddings, book launches, and charity events. ALWAYS.

Those are moments in someone’s life that mean so much to them.

Cass and I learned the importance of showing up when we were planning our wedding. After we were married, we made a set of joint rules for attending other people’s weddings:

Always be first on the dance floor

Be the couple that you can seat anywhere because you know we’ll get the table having fun (AKA, don’t be a dud)

Make sure your gifts arrive before the wedding

After going through our first fundraiser, our new rules are:

Always donate to our friends’ fundraisers

Always donate MORE than they ask for (an extra $100 or $200 will always be remembered)

LESSON #3: Deal with critics

Invariably, I had some people who didn’t agree with the cause we were raising money for. I think this stops a lot of people from ever getting started with something like this (or starting a business). What will people think? What will they say? Will my friends get annoyed by me asking them for money?

Whenever you try something new, you’re going to encounter critics. It happened with this fundraiser.

LOL at the critics who decided that instead of donating, they’d leave angry comments on a fundraiser for a good cause.

I typically find that they use 3 strategies:

Telling me they disagree with my cause

Hateful comment: “Send everyone the fuck back” (screenshots below)

Confuse the issue by asking seemingly innocent question (concern trolling): “What about X? Have you considered Y? Are you concerned about Z?”

Here’s how I dealt with them.

First, when they disagree with your cause: I had a woman DM me on Instagram and politely tell me that she doesn’t agree with me politically, but she appreciates that I’m using my platform to support a cause I care about. I totally respect that.

Then there were the #MAGA morons who decided to lob potshots from their anonymous accounts with hateful comments.

Unfortunately for them, this New York Times bestselling author is considerably smarter than the usual empty-headed cretins they deal with at the local parking lot where they spend their Saturday nights.

You can safely ignore twitter commenters whose feeds are filled with hateful posts, whose headshots are cartoon characters wearing a birthday hat, and who seem to share one thing in common: the intellectual aptitude of a gnat. Just move on — they already live in a prison in their own mind.

But beyond anonymous critics, there were the more insidious critics who try to confuse the issue by concern trolling, or asking question after question after question.

Here’s what you must understand: These people will never support your cause, whether it’s a fundraiser or a business or your plan to lose weight. They have no interest in a genuine discussion (if they did, they would engage privately). They’re asking questions because getting others riled up is their entertainment. And, to put it delicately, my successful friends never leave comments like this.

“If it was X, MAYBE I would donate” = “I will never donate”

You can delete or ignore these comments. I intentionally responded to a couple so my followers could see my responses.

If you decide to try something new, remember this: Opinions are cheap. You’ll ALWAYS get people saying, “What about this? What about that? How do where every cent of this $100 is going? If you did X, maybe I would donate.”

Oh, ok. Suddenly, some anonymous guy with an icon of a banana has developed a 14-page quiz on Kantian ethics that you must answer before they donate $100. In reality, they have the moral compass of a cupholder.

Guess what? They’re not your audience.

Actual supporters didn’t demand that I jump through their gauntlet of requirements for one hundred dollars. They wanted to get involved, they clicked DONATE, and they showed up.

It’s fine if not everyone supports your cause (whether it’s a business, a new hobby, or a fundraiser). But I wanted to show you some of the worst critics of all — the ones who try to derail you by questioning you, by concern trolling you, by trying to make you second-guess yourself — so you can see that these people are everywhere.

You want to raise money for your own cause? Great! Do it. My wife and I saw something we wanted to support and we raised over $12,000 to help these families. If you’re more comfortable lobbing hateful comments on social media, then sit down and get the fuck out of my way. I have work to do.

LESSON #4: Use your time and money to live a Rich Life

THIS is a Rich Life — where you use your time and money to help other people.

When something outrages you or inspires you…when something makes you MAD or SAD or THRILLED, that’s an opportunity to lean into it and use your time and money to improve it.

It’s not about needing to have $1,000,000. A tiny amount can change someone’s life.

IWT isn’t simply about earning more money. I show you how to do that in my book, my business courses, and my career courses.

But to be able to use your time and money to help other people…that’s another level.

I want you to see how that you can use money to support the things you care about. Your family, your health, and yes — giving back.

I want to show you that raising money for something you believe in comes in lots of shapes and colors and sizes. It doesn’t mean you have to attend a black-tie gala in Manhattan. I never wrote fundraising checks as a child — but I did do “sewa” (volunteer service) at my local Sikh temple.

I want to show you how to pick a goal, then go after it without anyone or anything getting in your way. Critics? GTFO. What about the perfect financial structu–forget all that! Raise the money and send it.

More than anything, I want you to know that you can define your Rich Life. This is ours. I hope you find yours and lean into it.

How we raised $10,000+ for a charity (actual metrics) is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-we-raised-10000-for-a-charity/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

[rosymaplemoth]

Headshot

Wordcount: 1571 words Pairing: Souda x OC (Yamamoto Keiko) Rating: Explicit Warnings: Annoying boners and jerking off in the bathroom

because it was only a manner of time before I lewded this guy.

If you want more information on Keiko, I’ve put it up on twitter. In fact, I’m mostly posting this here so I can link it on my twitter, oops.

---

It’s cold.

I mean, it makes sense given that it’s January, but it’s still annoying.

Even in a tiny studio apartment that you think would be easy to heat, the cold seeps through the walls and chills the occupants.

The kotatsu is fine well into the evening, but once it’s time to unfurl the futons…

That’s how this whole predicament started.

Sheepish glances when one thought the other wasn’t looking, awkward shifting under the covers, night by night the futons creeping closer and closer together.

Yamamoto Keiko rolls over one night and looks at Souda Manabu. He’s so close that she could brush a stray hair out of his eyes if she reached out.

His eyes flick up from the phone in his hand.

“What’re you staring at? You’re being weird.”

“I wasn’t staring.”

“Buuuuullshit. What, can’t stop thinking about how cool your boyfriend is? Hehe!”

Keiko sighs and rolls onto her back. He was acting childish, but it still made her face heat up.

“I was just thinking about how cold it is.”

“Man, you can’t think about something more interesting?” Souda’s question is punctuated by a victory jingle ringing from his phone. “Woo-hoo, one-shot kill! Hehehehe, I’ve still got it!”

“STILL got it?” Keiko rolls onto her side to face him again. “You make it sound like you haven’t been able to play a lot, Manabu.”  

Souda’s eyebrows furrow as his lips draw thin. “I haven’t! It’s been hard as hell keeping up since I’ve got this job, you know.” He pauses to sniff indignantly. “Plus, you know… I have a girlfriend to take care of now.”

“Oh, poor thing.”

Souda’s tongue hangs out as he laughs impishly. “Hey, my rank’s slipped a lot because of you! So?” His expression grows serious. “How are you going to make it up to me?”

Keiko’s eyes snap open. “Huh?”

Souda keeps on staring, until eventually his frown twitches and he bursts into more obnoxious laughter.

“Man, look at how red your face got! Tch, I was thinking you owed me a gacha pull or two… the hell’s on your mind? Per-vert!”

“I am not! Honestly!” Keiko wraps herself up in her blanket and rolls over so she doesn’t have to see his grin.

“Aw, come on, Cake. Your face is so red that you’re probably hotter than the kotatsu!”

Keiko’s ears perk when she hears the ‘AFK’ notification come from his phone.

….

She can feel him staring at her back…

Finally, she hears the covers shift.

“You and I both know how damn cold it is in here. …Come on. Heat us both up, why don’tcha?”

Keiko peeks back over her shoulder. A part of her is tempted to just say ‘nope’ and tease him more for his bad behavior, but…

He actually minimized his game.

“… You aren’t afraid I’ll do something perverted to you?”

“The hell do you think you’re talking to? I could totally take you if you tried anything!”

That confident smile of his is really cute… and he actually bothered to minimize his game…

Still trying to hide her red cheeks, Keiko slips out from under her blanket and darts under the covers on Souda’s futon.

It’s much warmer under there, though Keiko jolts when she remembers that they’re in their sleepwear. Souda usually only wears a game t-shirt and underwear to bed, and she’s reminded very much of that fact when their bare legs touch.

Keiko thinks she catches a glimpse of his blush before he yanks her towards him and turns her around, resting his chin on her head as he takes the role of ‘big spoon’.  

“Come on, Cake… we’re boyfriend and girlfriend, right? This is how we’re supposed to do things… right?”

Keiko sighs as she shifts so her back is against Souda’s torso. She can practically feel his heartbeat drumming against her, and it makes her smile as she closes her eyes.

But she frowns when she feels Manabu move his arm and the telltale ‘beep beep’ of his game restarting.

“Manabu…”

“What? It’s multitasking, babe!”

-----

An hour passes in comfort. Even Souda shuts off his game a little quicker than usual. With Keiko asleep, he quietly leans down and kisses the top of her head. The fragrance of her hair is light and unobtrusive. Souda thinks that something like peach or strawberry would suit her better, but her job’s pretty strict about perfumes and scents.

“Mm…”

Souda freezes when Keiko stirs in her sleep. Not that he was embarrassed or anything, but it’d be a pain if she woke up all of a sudden!

But she just scooches back, shifting comfortably against her boyfriend for warmth.

Shifting… shifting…

…

That rubbing feels good…

She’s warm, too...

Souda’s eyes widen when he feels himself stirring—oh, hell no! No way, God should have more control than this--!

But it’s too late, his dick is standing practically straight up. Souda can hear his own pulse throbbing in his ear drums, mimicked by that idiot thing between his legs that seems to think that NOW is a good time to demand attention.  

He hasn’t been this hard in a long time. He password protected his naughtier mobage games ever since he started dating Keiko, but he still played them when she wasn’t home. It isn’t like he’s been neglecting it or anything, so why is it so damn stiff?!

Souda shifts, trying to move it away from Keiko. He’d be in a hell of a lot of trouble if she woke up being poked in the ass by his stiffy.

Their first time is going to be hella romantic. He’ll lay her down on his futon with her hair streaming out behind her and make love to her until she’s trembling and crying his name like, “Ma—na-buuuu---!!”

Hehe…

…Okay, imagining that REALLY isn’t helping right now.

He closes his eyes and tries to ignore it, but…

Keiko stirs in her sleep again, drawn back against his warmth with a satisfied sigh.

!!

D-Damnit, she feels so soft…

Souda reaches down with trembling fingers and tries to stash his erection away, but it just pops back up.

He shoves it down again.

Boing!

“G-Ghh…”

He can’t stop it.

Shaking his head, Souda quickly rolls over and gets out of the futon, doing his best not to disturb Keiko sleeping next to him.

“Mm… Mana-chan…?”

“Gwuh?!”

She sounds so cute and sleepy, he can’t even be mad at that stupid nickname! But she can’t see him like this--!

Souda quickly pulls the front of his shirt down over his underwear and yells a little too loudly: “G-Gotta pee!” before stumbling into the bathroom.

He hears Keiko sigh and roll over as he shuts the door behind him.

Yeah, yeah that’s all… he just had to get up and go to the bathroom, that’s all.

But as Souda shoves his underwear down, his penis springs up to full attention, revealing his lie.

Damn, it’s really throbbing!

With a muttered curse, Souda gently pokes the pink head protruding from his foreskin.

“Annoying…”

With a grimace he wraps his hand around the shaft, beginning to tug at himself. He feels harder than the barrel of a gun, and that hardness pulses when it finally receives attention.

He closes his eyes and bites his lip to hold back the moan threatening to escape his throat.

Even with fabric separating them, Souda could feel the plushness of Keiko’s body when she pushed herself back against him.

He loosens his grip, thinking about how soft and gentle she’d be rubbing on him.

Precum has already started dribbling from his slit, and Souda rubs the wetness over the tip with his thumb.

Her lips feel great, too, they feel just as soft as the rest of her when they kiss. The thought of them puckering, kissing more than just his lips, roaming down and finally parting to pleasure this throbbing thing—

Souda convulses, his legs trembling as his dick begins to spit out its sticky orgasm.

“Shit!” he groans as he arches his back, watching with a grimace as it lands on the tile above the toilet. He usually doesn’t shoot that far…

“H-Heh… headshot…”

-----

Keiko looks at the bathroom door, unknowingly mimicking her boyfriend by biting her lip.

Souda thought he had held it back, but his pleasured groan reached Keiko’s ears and keeps on repeating in her mind.

More importantly-- and he didn’t even realize he did this— Keiko heard him say her name. No, he moaned it in the middle of his fantasy.

Embarrassed by the smile creeping on her face, Keiko rolls over so she’s facing away from the door.

It’s too late for tonight, but next time, maybe…

Keiko flinches when she hears the door open and Souda trudge back around to the futon.

“Huh? You’re up?”

“Ah, no, just… the bathroom light…”

“Yeah, well, when I get darkvision you’ll be the first one to know, Cake.”

Souda flops into the bed with an exhausted sigh and pulls Keiko to him like she’s a pillow.

When their bodies press against each other, Keiko can feel his softening erection against her leg. He probably doesn’t even realize it.

She smiles a little to herself, allowing her mind to wander.

Finally, she takes a deep breath. “Manabu?”

But he’s breathing deeply, and a contented, sleepy mumble is the only answer she gets.

[starglasszodiac]

SGZ Anniversary - Cassie and the Comic

The big one, the origin story!!!! And honestly one of my favourite memories to look back on. :’D I’ll be talking about both the idea itself and the evolution of Cassie’s character in what is a BEHEMOTH of a text post, so here we go!

While July 19th, 2015 is the official origin day of SGZ, it started a bit prior to that. I have this story already somewhat explained on the blog’s FAQ page, but I might as well reiterate it here:

SGZ started as an idea in the summer of 2015 after my buddy Laura showed me two webcomics: Paranatural by Zack Morrison, and Vibe by Dan Ciurczak (two comics I highly recommend, please go read them!). I loved how vibrant and beautiful their artwork was despite how different their stories were, and how wonderful the writing and humour was. My two biggest creative passions have always been visual art and writing, but ironically this was what really flicked the switch in my head to actually try comics, the literal combination of the two. Why I didn’t start sooner will forever be a mystery to me, but I suppose a lack of exposure to comics as a kid had something to do with it. Better late than never, right?

The specific launch day of July 19th is an homage to not only the creation of the idea but of the main protagonist, Cassie. After thinking “hey, I could do this!” I started wondering what I should make a comic about. While working at my retail job (on the slowest day in existence), I began to make a list of things that I liked or wanted to write a story about, and stars / astrology was one of them. I had always loved that aspect of mythology, and my affection for stars is a mystery to no one.

I worked at what was effectively a Blockbuster clone in my hometown (RIP Cherry Hill Video) and we had scrap pieces of paper that we made from old movie facings, so the first ever notes and doodles for this series exist on these scraps. I’ve still got quite a few of them, but they got a bit scattered when I moved for college. I’m hoping the rest are at my house somewhere.

I got the idea of a girl with a star in her eye, and called it the Starglass. And, well, the idea went from there! I started researching all of the zodiac signs and symbols, and drew the first (digital) drawing of Cassie when I got back home that day. Which, looked like this:

Seeing this again is not only weird and oddly nostalgic but it’s a testament to where my artistic sensibilities were prior to going to animation school. The idea for SGZ happened mere months before I was thrown into that 3-year fray of insanity so the evolution is pretty odd in places, especially how my knowledge of shape language, anatomy, etc. evolved and how my style adapted to that. I had almost NEVER drawn humans prior to going to college, so a lot of the art for this series deals with my inability to do so at the start. ^^’ The awkward phase, if you will. And as such, it is the first story idea I had that primarily focused on humans.

Looking back on it, Cassie’s character in terms of personality was pretty different than what it is now, but from a visual standpoint there’s (surprisingly) a lot that stayed. The basic idea of her hair stayed, right down to the double ponytail and orange clasps. Her freckles, eye colour and general face shape too, even if that ended up modified after solidifying her character later.

Her main colour was always red, in fact after making the headshot I remember having NO IDEA what to do for the rest of her body, so it just ended up being RED. Then I added the blue for the contrast, but I still wasn’t happy with it at the time (a perhaps subconscious origin for her blue pants though, lol). I also find amusement in the fact that my current concept for her mother Nora has her wearing blue flats much like these.

Based on the notes I have and what I remember, Cassie was older at this point (like 15 or 16 probably) and seemed to be a lot more sarcastic (this is a norm for a lot of my characters, trust me). xD Some of the first character interactions I ever wrote largely involved Cassie being sassy to one of the signs, back when a few of them were being over dramatic (looking at you SCORPIO). I cackled reading those interactions again now that my characters have changed so much. They’re not well written at all but they still let me look back to that time with fondness. :’D

What is also interesting is the progression of her name, or the fact that she didn’t have one right at the start. My earliest notes have simply Starglass or SG whenever I wrote dialogue. I started trying to think of a name, and contrary to popular belief, settling on Cassie actually had nothing to do with Cassiopeia. Though I do really enjoy the irony of that. xD It started with Cass, which could be short for either Cassandra or Cassidy, and I ended up going with Cassidy. I then changed it to Cassie, as I find the -ie suffix makes it a lot cuter. I am biased though, my name ends with it too, aha. There is a note that spells it as Cassi and for the life of me I cannot determine if that was a typo or not, but when I write fast I miss letters sometimes. The nickname of “Star” was one the table for a while too, and now that Star VS exists it’s even funnier. I specifically recall my mother telling me that she was going to suggest Star on the Facebook post I had made for the art at the time, but thought maybe it was too obvious. She was right, though this idea lives on in the nicknames that the signs end up giving Cassie later on, my favourite being “Little Star”.

While development for the story and characters started right away, it got a much welcomed jumpstart at the beginning of my second year at animation school. We were given a character design project that would span the entire year, and would require a story concept to complete all of the assignments. We were told this fact in first year to give us time to prepare over the summer, and I had just pulled an all-nighter to finish an assignment that day, but upon hearing this news I was not tired at all. Character design was already my favourite class, but this put it over the top. That beautiful feeling of inspiration that hits you is the BEST and in that moment nothing else mattered. Not even my fatigue, which I promptly dealt with the next day.

I used this as an opportunity to spend time developing the designs and story progression of all the characters, while getting marks for it at the same time! This is largely the reason I was able to launch the comic a few months after completing that year of school, as it ended up giving me full-sized references, colour schemes, and a much better idea of the story as a whole. Based on when my school years took place, I can actually track the progression of the characters pretty well through the artistic skill upgrade I was getting too.

The progression is pretty wild honestly, especially between 2015 and 2016:

(oh god these are so old help me) 

(these aren’t all of them either but I did my best jdhkfhsjkfhskjf)

From 2016 onwards I had the basic idea of her, so her colours stayed more or less the same once I actually added them. Cassie’s hair was one of the things that required a lot more iterations. I had her general idea down for a while, but when it came to making the character pack of her for my character design class, I remember having to sit down and actually figure out how her hair would work, structurally and otherwise, for that High Quality Refinement™ that was required of the project. Her older drawings had the part in her hair be in the middle, and that posed the problem of covering her eyes too much. If she was a more reserved character in any way this could have worked, but nah. I knew from the beginning she was going to be an outwardly eccentric child, one I wish I could have been when I was growing up.

Now for anyone that knows me as both a huge nerd and an artist, when it comes to fantasy stuff I LOVE armour. Absolutely love it. You see it everywhere in the things I make both inside and outside of SGZ, and I adore making themed costumes based on that (see my Feather Knights series for the most extreme example of this ever, ahahaha). So, it stands to reason that I would do the same for Cassie at some point, and I did! 

There was a particular focus on a helmet for a while too, whole plot points in fact! This helmet was, story wise, a long-standing plot point that proved difficult to change once the focus shifted. The initial idea was that the helmet belonged to Cassie’s science teacher (who is still a minor character in this as of now) and he gave it to her knowing its significance to the Starglass, thus establishing a sort of connection between Cassie’s normal life on Earth and the supernatural shenanigans that happen on the Astral Plane. The night she brings it home, she discovers that this little friend laid dormant inside:

This is Flicker. A character I’ve actually never revealed to anyone prior to now but hey, why not? The idea of Cassie having a spirit companion certainly didn’t come out of left field for me, but I wasn’t entirely sure how this character would appear, or what dynamic they would have with Cassie. I didn’t have pets bigger than a hamster growing up, so the idea of Cassie having a potential dog or cat companion would be new territory based on my own experiences. 

Flicker, as they are right now, acts as a sort of sensor for spirits that are roaming loose on Earth, and alerts Cassie to them... even if she’s not always up for a spirit hunt. They do have a backstory associated with how they appear and what their purpose is in the overall context of the world, but that isn’t revealed until much later in the story. For now Flicker is a cute little friend that cannot say much, but is devoted to protecting things, especially the Starglass. Luckily they still made the cut when it came to the helmet idea, and you should be meeting them officially pretty soon in the comic! :D

While the initial problem was getting any sort of cohesive look to the helmet or any other armour in terms of concept, I found as the story developed along with Cassie’s design, both her hair and her star sweater ended up being her two most “iconic” qualities aside from her eye, and using armour would have covered that up. 

On top of that, Cassie didn’t really end up being the type of character that would use armour, as one might expect from a character that has to fight and defend things a lot. She’s one to do things a little differently, and both her and the signs discover that, well, different works! It wasn’t a matter of her physical strength for the majority of the problems she faces, but rather strength of heart, and that’s a very personal note for me to touch on with this character. As such, nothing about an armour concept ever came out of the sketch phase:

It still makes for really interesting ideas though, so I’m sure I can work these into something else I’m working on. :’D Knowing myself, I’ll find a way. (The wings are VERY Cardcaptors though lol)

What did stay, however, were her swords:

She had at least one sword at the very beginning of this concept, but it eventually evolved into two. I find it interesting that sun, moon and star symbols were always present, regardless of what iteration these swords went through. Their official names are the Sun Star and Moon Star Swords respectively. Aside from the few doodles here and there for the zodiac weapons, this was the first appearance of any kind of fantasy weapon in SGZ. I can confirm that Cassie and the signs were going to have weapons from the get-go though, this IS something I made after all. xD

I think I also need to mention the main influences for this series, as the love for those things is very evident in my work, from the visuals to the storytelling and everything in between. Aside from my general interest in fantasy topics such as mythology and astrology, here’s a list including (but not limited to) the series that inspired the making of SGZ:

Kirby, Steven Universe, Harry Potter, Avatar: The Last Airbender & The Legend of Korra, Cardcaptor Sakura / Cardcaptors, Kim Possible, Danny Phantom, and pretty much any other show I’ve watched about surviving school while going on crazy adventures. That stuff may be cliche now but I’ll be damned if I don’t love it still.

I grew up with some of these and the rest are new, but they’re all near and dear to my heart for many reasons. I’m happy that I can put that love into something I’ve made, and share that story with the world. 

I know I’ve got a lot more ranting about this story to do in general and the comic is still going, but I want to say some special thanks to some of SGZ’s biggest supporters: 

Laura, Eleanor, and my classmates and teachers at Seneca College. This comic wouldn’t exist without you. <3

I’ll be honest, working on this series got me through some of the toughest years of my life so far, and this was one of the first times where something I made actually came to fruition in some way, and had a genuine development period that I can look back on. I’ve grown a lot as both a person and an artist since then, and doing this look back in time really solidified that for me. I have a cast of characters that I love, and now I get to tell their story. So if you’ve stayed till the end in this gigantic post, thank you. I don’t know where this story will lead me, but with any luck it’ll be somewhere in the stars. Thanks for reading, friends. <3

[ryouverua]

Miu and Co’s Stimulating Virtual Adventures (Part 1)

is this going to be a normal field trip?

WITH KOKICHI OUMA? NO WAY ~ !

insert shuichi groaning

Oh cool we got a whole animated sequence!

I FUCKING KNEW IT

AAAAAAH!

AAAAAAH!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

THEY’RE SO FUCKING CUTE WHAT THE HELL

THIS ISN’T WHAT I EXPECTED AT ALL!!!!

Yeah, seriously! I guess I was expecting sprites similar to Hajime’s from last game, or at least an island setting - this really does look like a murder mystery manor! good god we aren’t on rokkenjima are we

I’M SENDING A STRONGLY-WORDED LETTER TO THOSE IN CHARGE

Aaaaw, it’s played off for laughs but it really is sad for K1-b0 to be constantly disparaging himself like that.

But there is good and bad about the new sprites, which someone who has been incredibly aware and sensitive of the changes in his own body probably clued into immediately...

See now that the audience knows, he can slip and say stuff like this out loud, huh? It... almost makes me wish the scene at the end of the last chapter had taken place at the end of this one. That might just be a pacing thing though...

PUSH HIM DAMN IT

PUSH HIM ON IT SHUICHI I BEG YOU

... DAMN IT HE’S NOT PUSHING HIM.

HA

I just realized, we’re going to see a lot more of people’s emotions thanks to the way the sprites work. I wonder if they directly translate to mood? Does that mean Maki and, hell, Kokichi will be more transparent here?

Omfg the literal first thing Kokichi does to K1-b0 is punch him!!! The robophobia never ends...

Wait, question though - how is it connected to K1-b0? I mean blah blah blah, brainwave technological voodoo etc is connecting all the other kids to the helmets, but what about for K1-b0? How does that work? I... guess it’s better not to think about it too hard? 8′D

Man, Iruma’s a lot cuter here too. Also, seems like a good time to mention I’m totally in love with their little headshots at the bottom left with the little animated dialogue bubbles. The others might not like the sprites, but I like it, Miu! Maybe it’s just different when you’re in a 3rd person POV vs 1st person POV?

I love it when Tsumugi goes off like the total fucking nerd she is.

DAMN WE’RE NOT EVEN ON A TROPICAL ISLAND AND PEOPLE ARE STILL GETTING BURNED

LEAVE K1-B0 ALONE KOKICHI JEEZ

So basically they’re leaving the door open for someone to be killed in here. I figured that would be the case...

Kaito is pretty quick on understanding too which I appreciate, considering how they’ve been playing up his ‘brash dumb’ character type up lately.

You are way too happy about that.

Though it also means that if someone dies in here, we’re not going to see any marks left on the body in the real world or here? That’s not good either!

Yeah, that’s... honestly what I’d like to know. Seriously, wouldn’t Miu have found it when recoding everything if it was in here already? And if she did, why wouldn’t she tell them?

I’m telling you, Tsumugi being a snobby nerd will never get old to me. You know she’s got a N64, Super Nintendo, and maybe even older consoles like Atari and Dreamcast tucked away somewhere!

It’s funny - Kokichi doesn’t reference games nearly as much as Tsumugi, but he’s clearly a gamer too. Makes sense I suppose - I always think of a chessboard when I look at his scarf.

I’m sure this info will come in handy, but not sure how yet. 

THAT WILL DEFINITELY BE IMPORTANT FOR GONTA-RELATED REASONS

NO DAMN IT STOP DEATHFLAGGING HIM BY NEUTRALIZING HIS ADVANTAGES DAMN IT

This... really sounds like they’re setting up the rules for a murder mystery game...

Maki made an interesting note about the game - when you take physical advantage away and talent in general, it’ll completely change how a killing game would potentially go down. But I mean... wouldn’t that just be battle royal-type slaughter? Not that any kind of killing game can be considered ‘elegant’, but I can’t help but wonder why a brutal option like this is available at all..

Also can I just say the remixed music and the cute little noises when they waddle around... I love this. I love this, guys. Also watching Shuichi run is hilarious tbh.

A wild rarepair Kaito x Tsumugi appears???

I’m telling you, we’re going to be seeing more of everyone’s genuine emotions on their face here! Man, I’m really liking this set up already.

Kokichi is desperate to ship Kaito with anyone other than Shuichi so he can have Mr Detective all to himself

I think it means he falls for Kokichi’s verbal bait way too easily. 8′D But hey, Tsumugi doesn’t seem to be against Kaito’s interest! Not... obviously, anyway. just gonna casually that pairing to the question mark pile...

Yeah, that’s a pretty classic Kokichi move and... that’s... also a really bad idea. Maybe this is a good chance for Shuichi to get to know him in the context of the game as opposed to FTEs?

Okay, is it just me or is he trying to piss Kaito off especially right now??

NO GONTA YOU’RE TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD AND THE ABSOLUTE WRONG CHOICE TO WATCH KOKICHI

fml if Kokichi gets Gonta killed which is where I feel like this is going I will be so upset - but I feel like Kokichi won’t do it himself??? Maybe someone attacks Kokichi and Gonta puts himself in harm’s way instead and dies instead? Like, Kokichi is basically turning Gonta into a goon of his, and we all know what happens in movies and games to the henchmen of ‘Supreme Leaders’...

Honestly guys, how soon do we forget? Are we really going to let them go off together like this? The Bug Meet-and-Greet was literally just a week ago! I know a lot has happened since then, but still!

I do like that both Maki (not included) and Kaito caught on that Kokichi pulled that trick on purpose to have Gonta with him - I just wish they followed up!

On the other hand, we could just as easily get Tsumugi murdering Miu lmao. I’m telling you, if Miu shows up dead...

I didn’t need this in here but I kept it because he’s adorable like this

SHIT THAT’S RIGHT THAT’S HOW MY DOG REACTS WHENEVER HE JUMPS IN THE SNOW I-I mean don’t call Kaito a dog, Maki! That’s not very nice even if it is accurate

Man, I’m starting to wonder if Tsumugi is going to kill Miu here for real 8′D

Always a ray of sunshine, our Sweetcheeks. I’m leaning towards them having some sort of incident happen by the end of this, if not an outright murder. They’re talking too much about how the brain and senses experiencing ‘death’ and causing the body to follow suit for them not to do anything with it. I mean, I guess the exception would be if it’s talking about an overall VR experience like the last game!

So the storage room is pretty much empty and the binoculars can only see as far as the line on the map which Miu is going to explain too. Man, the more things get set up, the more convinced I am that someone isn’t going to make it to the end of the chapter...

Next K1-b0 has an interesting bit of dialogue about how there’s nothing beyond the walls of this world, and how it makes him think about the academy walls. Which... again, I think is leaning towards an apocalyptic world/space scenario? It certainly seems that way to me. It’s interesting to have him point it out though, for some reason. 8′D

I’m 99% sure that’s her default setting, but okay.

weird tangents like this is why I love shuichi

It’s like, a legitimate thing to fixate on and worry about and I totally relate to it but at the same time I’m sure he recognizes how ridiculous it sounds in his head

Isn’t that you? 8′D

oMFG WH A T

WHY ARE YOU DOING HIM WRONG LIKE THIS MIU

MAKI NO I THOUGHT YOUR ROASTING DAYS WERE FINALLY BEHIND YOU

HIMIKO I THOUGHT WE WERE BONDING EARLIER

WE WERE BONDING DAMN IT

I’m shocked that the sprite is able to capture the absolute betrayal on it face but somehow, it does

whispers this is getting its own special post

“Look at my glorious self, doing you the favour of allowing you to prostrate yourself in front of all your classmates!”

Miu you’re making a lot of enemies this chapter, including the sub (lol) protagonist. We've already had one first POV murder - do we really want another one?

That’s going to go missing at some point. If the murder happens, maybe the murderer will grab it and hide it or something?

"Oh, I’ve been lurking here for a while! But I needed some time to come up with my best masochist!Shuichi jokes and lines. You’re not going to hear the end of this for a long time, Masoichi Subhara!”

... or that. could be that too.

Hm, so I guess it’s on the other side of the map. It would be one thing of Kokichi is by himself but Gonta is with him and I trust him way farther than I’d be able to throw him and Kokichi for that matter

KAITO NO YOU’RE MAKING THINGS WORSE

OMFG SHUICHI IS JUST A COMPLETE WRECK AFTER WHAT JUST HAPPENED

And you know Kokichi is totally trying to figure out what he missed, and why all the other classmates are giving the two of them weird looks/snickering...

Oh, and now we’re finally getting to the line shown in the map.

Kokichi are you just trying to cash in some Saiouma chips because you realize how much Saimota happened when you were away with Gonta? 8′D 

H-Hey don’t look at me, look at Miu! She started it!

Okay at this point I will be shocked if there isn’t a murder here or some sort of incident causing a murder in the real world.

Also Kokichi you’re way too happy about this...

What are you playing at here man???

And you! Shouldn’t you know where it is since you reprogrammed the whole thing?!?!

Miu and Kokichi are conspiring about something??? Again???

Please don’t fall for it...

..... Yikes. 8′D I-I’ll give it to him because I have a feeling his failing health and the events of last chapter regarding the occult probably have him feeling emasculated.

Yeah, seriously. So Kaito is on the roof, Kokichi is in the salon and... free for all for everything else. Uh, okay....?

IF GONTA FUCKING TURNS UP DEAD KOKICHI I SWEAR I WILL DUEL YOU IN A SHADOW GAME MYSELF duel links has upped my skill somewhat I should be able to hold my own...

Thank goodness for Tsumugi’s odd affinity for Gonta oTL

a) Maybe this is the chance for us to get to know Tsumugi a little better in-game since we’re going to explore the rest of the mansion together

b) Kaito really has no bloody idea how he and Shuichi’s relationship comes off to the rest of their classmates (or maybe he does and he’s a-okay with it)

c) MAKI...... 

oh no

THAT’S.... NOT..... QUITE IT.....

nothing like the sting of figuring out you’re third-wheeling 

This is in no way the game trying to establish groups and/or alibis. Got it.

Left side: Kokichi, Gonta, Kaito, Shuichi, Tsumugi

Right side: Miu, Himiko, Maki, K1-b0. Alright, good to know.

I really don’t need this to be here but the fact that Kaito is so woefully oblivious and also apparently just... completely into Maki as a friend only is  hilarious to me. I mean, maybe the game will push more romantic feelings on his side in the last chapter but he’s just coming off as so gung-ho about their friendship without taking it to the next level - it’s just.... so refreshing...

It’s nice to see Kaede always being in his thoughts outside of general ‘I must do this for Kaede! Inspiration via manpain!’ stuff.

FUCK YES I THINK I’M RIGHT ABOUT THE ESCAPISM SECONDARY THEME we’re finally bringing it up in nearly identical words again! sorry tsumugi things aren’t looking good for you mastermind-wise

With that said, of all people, she dismisses it herself. 8′D Maybe if the game had better graphics engine - would that be good enough for you princess???

DANGANRONPA YOU ARE DANCING ON A KNIFE’S EDGE RIGHT NOW

Man I keep dancing back and forth between the idea of her being a victim this chapter and a killer and I just... can’t... decide on one. Ugh. The only thing that keeps me from thinking she’ll be a victim is having Gonta right there, raising just as many death flags as her. I-I guess we’ll find out shortly anyway...

Meanwhile while I ramble, K1-b0 has Priorities