#two out of four need to be mixed. one of those two is having art made for it rn im just taking a thousand fuckig years

[cakesdown]

im literally so happy with my current cover wips.... it’s ninezero city over here

[genericpuff]

The Extended Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Finale Premiere

Alright, so I had mentioned leading up to the release of the newest LO episode that my feelings regarding LO returning were pretty "meh". Not hyped, but not completely back of mind either. Just sort of a weird calm before the storm type feeling that could go either way.

I'm glad I got to have that moment of calmness because good god, this episode was an absolute shitshow. And honestly, I'm not surprised, for several reasons:

Rachel has never been good at maintaining a buffer, even back at the start of the series she only ever had 2-3 episodes ready ahead of her schedule which is NOT an ideal buffer for an originals series.

Rachel has never been good at writing, she's very "draw first write later" and has stated as such in interviews that when she gets 'stuck' on what she's writing, she'll just start drawing and fit the pieces in later.

Four months is NOT enough time to both rest, attend massive conventions, and work on improving a project while also getting buffer episodes ready.

Because of the FP episodes remaining locked over the hiatus, technically Rachel only needed to have ONE episode ready upon return for the newest FP release, not multiple like she'd usually need like in the past during the S2 midseason hiatus or the season finale episodes which would unlock those FP releases like normal - so for all we know, she could have drawn this episode literally last week, especially when the promo material was so last minute. Frankly I think it was REALLY stupid for whoever it was who decided to keep these FP episodes locked (whether it was her or WT, it was more likely WT) but you can read all I have to say about that in my review of the midseason finale episodes.

All that's to say, no, there was never any guarantee Rachel was going to somehow "turn around" the ride we're currently on. I know that many of the critics were hoping for that to happen, but with the circumstances of the hiatus mixed with Rachel's bad habits of putting her best efforts into the procrastination projects that aren't her actual comic (ex. the few original pieces and LO sketches she put out during the hiatus) it just wasn't in the cards. This is where the comic is at and this is where it will remain until it's over.

I want to also point something out about this episode that was... really glaring to me.

As with all of these hiatus returns, LO got priority advertising in the first two banner slots and push notifications AND a popup ad within the app. This is unsurprising, Webtoons is still trying to milk this thing for what it's worth.

I know a lot of people are gonna focus on the art, or the fact that WT is continuing to shill LO, but I wanna point out the part that WT implemented specifically - "NEW SEASON".

This is literally just false. At best I'd like to think some intern just messed up and thought this was a new season, but it's literally not, the episode designation still says "S3". Note that the creators only design the banner art, the actual labels on top are put there by Webtoons.

But at worst, this feels like blatant lying to continue to hide the fact that LO is ending. Mind you, Rachel and Webtoons have still not put out official posts stating that this is the final arc. There is NOTHING from either of them to communicate to the audience that the comic is ending next year. It feels like they're trying to avoid the topic altogether out of fear of losing the fanbase they still have, rather than hyping up the comic's end for those who have stuck around to see how it all wraps up. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, considering they're now trying to funnel the fanbase into Penguin/Inklore with new marketing deals and the whole Rachel Smythe Presents thing. They're trying to make this seem like the beginning of something "new" when it's really just a quiet shifting of management (Penguin House).

But all that aside, let's actually get into the episode. It's one episode after 4 months, which is not standard for LO's hiatuses, typically FP episodes release on schedule (meaning free readers start hiatuses 3 weeks after FP readers do), the only time this has been an exception has been with the 2 week breaks because the whole point of those was to build a buffer (which you can't do if you're going ahead and releasing the FP episodes anyways). For extended hiatuses like these, usually free readers still get their FP episodes, but that wasn't the case here. That means Rachel technically only needed one episode ready for the comic's return, and it shows. It really fucking shows.

FROM HERE ON OUT THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS REGARDING EPISODE 254. DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED !!!

As per tradition, we get a title that means nothing at all. It just says what we already know.

Our collective husband Zeus is dying, no thanks to the poison cupcake fed to him by Apollo. For those who don't remember, Apollo had tricked Zeus into eating the cupcake by making him believe it was from Hebe. We are fully aware that it was Apollo who poisoned him. Remember that for later in this review.

Right off the bat we're off to a hilarious start, both with a cryptid appearance from Apollo in the background (lmao) who is, for some reason, ALREADY returning to the scene of the crime he just committed because... who knows at this point. Apollo and Psyche know it was Apollo at this point, I might add, but I have no clue why Apollo is actually returning to the scene of the crime when he has no idea Eros and Psyche know.

Moving on from that, can we talk about this hilarious dialogue?

"We have to call a doctor! Let's call Asclepius!"

"No, we can't trust him! Gosh darn it, why are we only bothering to think of ONE doctor in this universe where we've seen more than one doctor?? Guess Zeus is just gonna die! What a horribly contrived situation this is!"

And that's literally how I can best describe most of this episode. Contrived. There is a LOT of manufactured drama in this that makes ZERO sense even on a surface level.

And what do you mean exactly, Eros? "What a terrible system!" Is this supposed to be a joke? Lampshading? We've seen Persephone go to the gynecologist. There are non-god doctors who tend to gods all the time here.

Eros just doesn't seem to be that pressed over this, he sounds like Ned Flanders and that's NOT a good way to open up a scene like this... let alone an episode people have been waiting four months for.

Anyways, after a few pointless reaction panels (again remember I have to cut a lot of what I show here for Tumblr image limitations but I promise you, I'm keeping as much important stuff as I can in this, there's just THAT MUCH filler at this point), Eros and Psyche confront Apollo and he is... good god.

There is... so much to unpack here.

First of all, remember those theories about how Rachel was clearly trying to write Apollo as this "secret twist villain" the whole time but it doesn't work because Apollo is simultaneously written as both a 'conniving villain' and a massive dumbass at the same time?

Well, I finally have a more appropriate term for him. He's your average red pill redditor - someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else when really all he does is sit on reddit all day using big words incorrectly in arguments he gets himself into with a bunch of equally-air-headed dumbasses.

"You can't possibly understand the nuances of the Olympian political system," Apollo said proudly, a man who had, ironically and obliviously, run for president in a monarchy. The union of kettle and pot is eternal.

He's the Slappable Jerk but instead of it being a painfully hilarious impression, it's just painful and hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

this is so stupid because it's 1.) Eros pointing out how obvious Apollo's plan was, despite Apollo acting smart two seconds ago with a goddess who, mind you, has been a goddess for ten years, and 2.) patricide isn't even intrinsically linked to politics, there's nothing 'political' about a guy trying to kill his dad except in, idk, a monarchy, which again, Apollo has spent ten years trying to rise to power in as a president which is a completely different form of government.

If I wanted to be really granular with this, I'd like to think Apollo is making some kind of point about the critics who call out LO's whack as fuck political system (especially in the trial arc) - as if he's saying "well you're just a stupid reader and this is fantasy where you don't understand exactly what political system we're using, so shut the fuck up you stupid twig" - but I don't think it's meant to be that deep. I think it's just Rachel trying to write a smart character and then failing at it because she, herself, is not a smart writer. And I'm really inclined to believe that more than the theory about this being some kind of meta-narrative about the critics because this entire plotline is contrived and stupid down to its core.

I did not cut anything out here, that's the pacing. Leto literally just appears out of nowhere and uh oh spaghettio's, she has Kassandra! Remember Leto? The character we were led to believe was truly "pulling the strings" until she disappeared from the story completely after she realized that Apollo and Persephone weren't a thing, even going so far as to call out her own son for being a fucking dumbass? Well, she's back and once again she's being involved as some kind of "double agent" in this whole thing, even though we literally haven't seen her since halfway through S2.

"Mm yes, you're so stupid, falling into my trap! Even though you had no reason to remember Kassandra anyways because she's literally a mortal woman you just met and you yourself have committed acts of violence against mortals without a shred of care! I'm so smart! My plan is all coming together!"

We've never seen Apollo do anything except cry and poop his pants, the closest he got to being "powerful" was his attempts to murder Daphne (who he seems to have forgotten about in this "master plan" of his) but ultimately he's literally just a piss ant baby and there's no reason to believe that he could somehow outmatch the God of Love who can literally manipulate people's emotions and states of mind with his arrows. But yeah sure go off, you're so powerful and smart.

The worst part is, I can't even buy this as the narrative trying to be like "see how manipulative and conniving he is?" because it's just silly. We've SEEN this man cry with his victim complex, we've seen him say and do the DUMBEST things that don't lend to any amount of "intelligence" he may have, it comes across less as him being "smart the whole time" and more as him trying to sound smart but ultimately sounding incredibly stupid. And I can't even immerse myself into it and buy that maybe that's the point, because it doesn't feel like the point, it just feels like inconsistent writing, he doesn't feel like a 'threat', he's just monologuing.

Bad art and Apollo literally just repeating what Leto already implied so this is a waste of the audience's time.

This is the funniest panel in the whole episode because I can't tell if Apollo is supposed to be in the background (for some reason, despite him literally being in front of Eros and Psyche two seconds ago) or if he's in the foreground and just REALLY small for some reason. This is so off-putting. And of course, it's just Apollo explaining what we're ALREADY SEEING ONSCREEN.

You see, in addition to this episode being contrived, it also talks down to its audience a LOT by explaining exactly what we're seeing onscreen. It's like Rachel saw the criticisms about her not including enough to depict what's actually going on in her head and so she thought the solution was to spoon feed information over pictures that are already doing the job of explaining what's going on. Rachel really doesn't know how to write and even when she tries to implement changes that reflect criticisms that have been made of her writing, she somehow makes things worse because she completely misses the point of what those criticisms are trying to get across.

Anyways, without even trying to resist (for some reason) Eros and Psyche get sentenced to horny jail.

They're now trapped in a basement that Leto somehow has in her home. How do we know that?

HAHAHA FUNNY LAMPSHADING SO FUNNNYYYYYYY

Leto claims that they shouldn't try to escape because the dungeon is "enchanted", but she doesn't even bother to explain what that means. So they literally don't bother trying. They don't try to call her bluff, they don't try to teleport out of there, they literally just go "well shoot", shrug their shoulders, and accept their fate. Just like with the whole "we can't trust the only doctor we bothered to think of" situation, Eros and Psyche are turning out to be some of the stupidest, lowest-effort characters in this comic who literally can't be bothered to try because that would require too much brain power.

Notice how much time we've spent on this and we haven't gotten back to where the cliffhanger of the last episode left off? Well buckle up because there's still more to cover.

So it turns out Hebe was still inside with her dad, in FULL VIEW of what was going on through glass which is somehow COMPLETELY soundproof, and when Apollo steps inside, she just has no idea what happened. She never bothered to even look outside to see what was going on with Eros and Psyche, she's just been sitting on the floor staring at Zeus' dead face for what was likely several minutes, unless Rachel is seriously trying to convince us that conversation and hostage negotiation from earlier only took 2 seconds. The timeline is such a mess at this point that characters basically freeze in place as soon as they're not the focus of the scene.

Apollo rushes inside, acting shocked over the situation, and when Hebe asks where Eros and Psyche are (again, she could have just looked out the window at any time), he's just like "dur idk they just left lol" which Hebe just... buys, I guess.

That's just Persephone but yellow. She's even missing her beauty mark.

See how Apollo put his hand on Zeus' chest/shoulder by the way?

Apparently, despite Mr. Smarter Than Everyone Else trying to pretend it wasn't him, he's able to discern that Zeus is dying from a toxic and rare poison just from touching him. He doesn't even really seem to use his powers, he just touches him and goes "welp he's dead i guess lol don't bother asking me how I know that".

But oh nooo remember that note from before? Well gasp Apollo's gonna use it to frame Hebe! In front of no one else at all!

Hebe of course says she didn't write it, but Apollo continues to try and frame her anyways, even though, again, there's no one else present here, and so it effectively just becomes the most absurd form of gaslighting I've ever seen.

Again, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE HERE IN THE SCENE. He's just trying to claim she did it to absolutely no one at all, in the hopes of... what exactly? That she'll just take the fall for something she knows she didn't do? That she'll somehow be convinced? It's not like Hebe has the same thing going on as Persephone where she has a 'wrathful dark side' he could pin it on, this is just a criminal who just robbed a building pointing at the first person they see and yelling "YOU DID IT!"

All I'm saying is that Apollo would be really bad at Among Us. He'd be the type of player to kill someone, hit the report button, then claim yellow did it which, even if he DID convince the rest of the team, would still get kicked anyways as soon as yellow was proven through the eject to not be the imp and everyone would go "okay cool so yellow wasn't the imp, that means obviously it's purple self-reporting." It's a trick that doesn't even work anymore because of how old it is. Hebe isn't a child here, she's an 18 year old woman who should be fully capable of raising an eyebrow and wondering why Apollo is this quick to accuse her - almost like he's trying to hide the fact that he did it.

But Hebe can't catch onto this, just like Eros and Psyche, she has to act stupid for the sake of the plot.

At first I thought maybe Rachel was trying to do some "whodunit" scenario, but that doesn't work here because we already know who did it. And while there are stories that exist like that that pull it off (ex. Knives Out) the problem with trying to do this the way Rachel did is that the person being framed has to have this thing called motive. The reason why Knives Out and Glass Onion work so well is because the person who was murdered (or conspired against) is someone who is being targeted by multiple people who could all be the murderer. It's quite literally called out in Glass Onion as a form of smart lampshading. "It's like putting a loaded gun on the table, and turning off the lights."

But it doesn't work here because Hebe does not have motive. If you're going to attempt to frame a murder on someone, it has to be someone who would have reasonable motive to commit that murder, even if they didn't actually commit it.

And who among Zeus' children has motive?

What about the war-mongering bloodthirsty god of war who has been regularly sentenced to time in the Mortal Realm to fight in wars in which he's been regularly injured?

What about the chaos-seeking wrathful goddess who would do it to get revenge on the parental figure who cast her aside, or even just for the fun of saying she did it?

Why try and pin it on Hebe, the doting daughter of Zeus who's only had a collective of maybe 20 panels in the entire comic?

But then I realized... it's not Knives Out, it's the fucking Lion King.

Which is just as contrived - if not more - than the assumption this was gonna be some attempt to frame Hebe. It's not. He's literally just trying to keep her from assuming it was him. He could have just as easily played dumb without calling attention to the note but he intentionally went out of his way to try and be Scar from The Lion King , while completely missing the point of why that scene worked in the original movie.

Scar wasn't trying to 'frame' Simba for Mufasa's murder. He was trying to hide the murder, while also attempting to get the only heir to the throne out of the picture, so he passed the guilt of the death onto Simba - a child who, unlike Hebe, wouldn't have the ability to rationalize or realize his uncle his a scumbag - who then ran away from home because he was too terrified to face his family for what happened, assuming that it was all his fault when it wasn't.

That's not how this is panning out here. Hebe is the now 18 year old daughter of Zeus, and not one of his only children. She doesn't even fit into the whole "sons overthrowing their fathers" prophecy like Aries would. Apollo is literally just being a big idiot here by saying "well I'm gonna give you a headstart to run away, because if you stay, I might hurt you" (which btw, should be MORE of a smoking gun that Apollo did it??)

And again, it's all so contrived so that the plot can move forward. "Well I'm going to frame you for this murder, but y'know, you should just leave, I'm not gonna try and press it further lmao"

Again, Apollo is a fucking idiot here, because he just attempted to frame someone who has NO MOTIVE to harm Zeus, to absolutely NO ONE at all who would side with him, only to let her go which would leave her to question why Apollo would try to accuse and harm her in the first place before considering other options. And through ALL this he claims he's the smart one, which I can't even be bothered to "love to hate" because it's written so poorly.

And really it all comes down to how everyone else behaves in relation to Apollo that makes it so stupid and unbelievable. Apollo, you're not smart just because all the characters around you are intentionally being written to be as stupid and non-confrontation as possible. If you can only write a smart villain by making everyone else stupid, you haven't written a smart villain, you've written a dumbass whose victory only happens due to contrived plot convenience. It's not even done well like in Glass Onion, it's just bad writing, full stop.

And who does he call to report this emergency? The satyr police? His son the doctor?

No.

The media. Literally just "hello, the media?? I need your best journalist here stat!"

I need you to understand, even if he were calling a tabloid magazine like The Weekly Nark, you don't just... call a journalist to report a murder. These are not the actions of someone who's trying to absolve himself of guilt, these are the actions of a complete dumbass trying to get news coverage of his trophy kill who would be better off just playing dumb instead of trying to play smart. Even Walter White wasn't this fucking stupid despite all the times he fell on his own sword, Apollo is literally just instigating suspicion towards himself for no reason at all. He's self-reporting so hard and worst of all, you can't even take any of this seriously because of how corny it is. There's no dramatic tension, no stakes, it's just a bunch of characters performing in a really bad stage play and reducing every conflict to "well I guess Zeus is just dead now because no one's bothering to make an effort to stop Apollo or ask questions lmao"

It's truly the epitome of "this plot wouldn't exist if characters would just talk to each other."

But finally, FINALLY we mention the thing this episode is named after, the transition point to Persephone.

Just like with the midseason finale episode, there's a lot to cover here, so I'm gonna get more into it in a part two post.

That said, you can see already this is the messiest, most contrived bullshit to ever wind up in LO. It's trying so hard to be smart and it just comes across as a bunch of toddlers in the world's worst stage play rendition of Clue. None of what was done here was in any way dramatic or tense, it's just a bunch of characters infodumping shit we already know, trying to set up new plot threads that don't make any sense, and allowing one another to get away with what they're doing because they don't bother to even try.

It's completely manufactured, contrived nonsense. It's not "smart", it's not "so dumb it's brilliant", it's just dumb.

[chaosduckies]

Friends In Small Places (Chapter 1)

The size shifter story is finally here! This is more of a slightly sad piece, even though this first chapter isn’t really all that gloomy and monochrome, I actually have this entire plot line planned out and everything, and whew is the ending going to be something.

But I hope you enjoy! (this chapter is mainly just for introductions so I’m sorry if there really isn’t anything interesting TwT)

Word Count: 4.2k

CW: Depression, major anxiety, slight gore warning? (Though nothing actually happens)

1-Liam

Today the main hall was bustling with people crowding the board that had all of the activities and clubs posted on. Most of the time people didn’t care all too much about it, only the people who were actually in those clubs, but today was different for some reason. Fitting in between the seemingly hundreds of people, I saw what the commotion was all about. The psychology classes were all being called to a meeting at four. Which was when most classes ended, but still. It’s rare that this school ever calls meetings. It just so happens that I was taking psychology though. 

I sighed, moving back on the free sidewalk get to the library. A friend was waiting for me to help her study for a test she had in just a few hours. I thought I might as well help seeing that I’ve already taken the course. I used to think that college was extremely strict from how my old high school teachers described it, but in reality it’s not that hard when you just take the time to study and take a few practice tests the day before one. It was just two-and-a-half years before I major in psychology and become a therapist. Well, that was my dream anyways. In this world, it was a lot harder given that most therapists get assigned to a size shifter. That was something I didn’t want to do. Well, maybe if it was one who could only shrink, but that’s maybe it. It freaks me out knowing that there are some shifters who could be as tall as a small skyscraper, and some even bigger. A shiver ran down my spine even thinking about it. But that won’t happen. 

Among the few people sitting at the quiet tables lines with pencils, a few pieces of notebook paper, and a lamp that barely even worked, there was a girl waving her arms around aimlessly trying to gain my attention. I laughed softly before walking and sitting down next to her. It seemed she had been here for hours with how she kept her space. Papers spewed all across with scribbled down notes that was barely even legible, colored pens in a mixed mess with her other writing supplies. It made you wonder how she had even made it to college. 

“I see you’ve been hard at work, Rhya.” I set my slightly heavy bag down and started attempting to clean up the vast sums of paper all over the desk and try to keep her notes in order. 

“Yeah well, not everyone can be all neat and tidy as you are.” She lightly elbowed me before grabbing the stack of papers in my hand and shoving them in a folder. I guess she was going to re-do them after all. Either that or she didn’t need them. Despite this being primarily a nursing and health school, Rhya was in the art department. Of course she had to take the core classes along with her own elective, but she plans on becoming a graphic designer. 

“It’s not my fault I know how to study and you don’t.” I joked around, watching her pull out her computer and grab a few empty pages on notebook paper and her calculus book. 

“And it’s not my fault you don’t know how to have any fun.” She stuck her tongue out playfully before pulling up a practice test. 

“Hey I know how to have fun, just not when I know I have better things to worry about.” She solved the first problem right, pumping her fist up in the air as she wrote down the question and highlighted everything she needed to do. I’m also guessing she planned to study whatever notes she was making. 

“I guess you have a point. How’s that psychology major coming along?” She had asked, writing down the problem and attempting to solve it. I sighed, pointing to the number she was missing, “You square root that,” Rhya groaned, “It’s going good. We have some kind of weird meeting later today though.” 

“Oh? Do you know what about?” Rhya asked, but I could tell she was hiding something from me. She knew something. 

“No. Do you?” I skeptically looked at her, earning a side eye right back as she had paused her writing for a moment. 

“Would you believe me if I said no?” She grumbled, I shook my head, a slight smile forming on my face. She knew I would win this argument. 

“Okay well, this might not be true, but I heard that a few psychology students were chosen to have a training. Like, the real deal kind of thing. Size shifter and all. That the ones chosen were supposed to act like one of those special therapists.” My heart nearly skipped a beat at the news. Where did she even hear this from in the first place? There’s no way that’s even real. 

“You’re kidding, right?” I laughed nervously. Even if it was true, I doubt they’d choose a sophomore. I’ve only really had a few practices and I still have a couple more years until I become the real deal. 

“Would I lie to you?” She turned to me, a worried look on her face. Did she think I would have to go through with that? I sincerely doubt it. There was no way they’d put me on whatever list they have going on. Maybe my upperclassman though. They could choose Chelsey, she was really good with everyone and a senior. They’d most likely choose her. Maybe even Ryan since he was really experienced. Actually, he was a size shifter himself, but he’s so good at controlling his emotions that he doesn’t even need to worry about accidentally shooting up a couple feet. 

“Ah, it doesn’t matter. I doubt they choose someone with barely any experience. Don't’ worry about it.” I smiled, pointing back to Rhya’s computer to tell her that she needed to get to studying and stop worrying about me. Seriously, she really needed to study otherwise she was going to fail. I can almost guarantee that she’ll be crying to me later when she fails her test. Not my fault she doesn’t study. 

——————

The gym was a large space, but our entire class only took up one tiny portion of the bleacher space as our instructor and several other people dressed up in fancy suits were talking on the ground. I sat next to Ryan, who was playing with the green-colored band on his wrist, showing that he was in one of the five classes of size shifters. Purple represented that they could shrink down to an inch or maybe even smaller if their emotions had the better of them. Blue represented that they could shrink too, but not as much as the one’s with a purple wrist. Green represented that they could both shrink and grow, but only to a certain height. Yellow meant that the shifter could grow to be the size of about a small building, or maybe even a little more depending on how they’re feeling. Red was by far the worst one. To me at least. The shifter’s with a red band can grow to heights you could only dream of. Which was why all shifters with a red band were all forced to be with a specialized therapist for only them. Because if they lose control of their emotions, it could end pretty badly.  

“I’m glad you all saw the announcement on the board. I’m a little surprised really.” Mr. Smith shoved his hands in his front pant pockets, taking a look at all of us before his eyes laid on me, smiling warmly. Why? Something was up. 

“These two gentlemen here are the head of the SSU. Also known as the company that helps size shifters in need. Recently, there has been a shortage of individuals that are willing to work with shifters in helping them control themselves. These two are on the look for candidates-in-training to help fill those missing spots.” 

The two men in suits walked to the front, holding out a clipboard. Those had whoever was going to be picked for this. But why this school? There was another college not too far from here. They could choose from them. Unless they were, and the “tiny” shortage was actually a big one. Or… no. They wouldn’t do that, right? It’s the SSU, they’ve literally helped the world become safer for decades. They wouldn’t be doing an experiment, would they? 

“It’s wonderful to see all sixty-two of you young scholars gathered here today. As your professor already said, we are both from the head office at SSU looking for the best of the best to fill in those empty spots, regardless if you do or don’t have any experience.” That last part made a shiver run down my spine. Ryan turned his head to me, patting me on the back. There was no way they’d choose a nobody like me. No way in hell. 

“This list contains twenty of you who will be taking part in this. You will be in charge of taking care of your designated partner until we can find a professional replacement suited well enough to take over. If I call your name, please stay behind after we dismiss everyone.” The tall man smiled, looking down at the clipboard and calling several names. The anxiety pricked my skin like icicle shards, it had almost seemed like the man reading off names was speaking in slow motion. A few deep breaths, and it was back to normal. 

“Ryan Wright.” He smiled while earning several compliments and congratulations from his fellow classmates. 

“Chelsey Torres.” She giggled a few seats away from us. 

“And Liam Rover.” 

My muscles tensed up at the mention of my name. I couldn’t tell if my heart had stopped or if it was just beating horrifyingly fast. I could tell people were trying to praise me, but I couldn’t hear, their appraisal only reaching my ears in a muffled and slow manner. I managed the most sincere smile I could while trying to hide how much I was trembling. Maybe this would be okay? Maybe I’ll be lucky and not be paired up with a shifter who could potentially crush me between two if their fingers if they really wished to. Was the room cold or was it just me? 

“Everyone else may head to their dorms. Thank you for coming.” 

After everyone had filed out of the empty gym, the other shorter man dressed in an identical suit as the taller one started calling out our names all over again, handing them a red folder with presumedly the shifter we’ll be assigned. Was this how it was when you’re actually a professional? You just get assigned to one? You don’t get to know them or anything? 

Once I was handed my folder, I dreaded every single second of opening it. Please let it be easy, please let it be easy, please let it be eas-

Oh. 

It was only a picture of who we were partnered up with and anything that might be worth mentioning about them. Wow was I overreacting. Then again, that didn’t exactly smoothen out the anxiety that was still pricking at my skin. Though, this shifter didn’t seem so bad. If anything, he actually looked pretty nice. The only thing I had noticed was that he was diagnosed with depression. He kind of looked like it too if I were being honest. It seemed hard for him to smile for the picture. Why did I also get the hint that he wasn’t feeling very good either? I guess I’ll find out when we officially meet. 

“Inside you’ll find who your partner will be for the foreseeable future. You’ll still be coming to your classes, which was why we mainly wanted to stick with the upperclassmen, and afterward go back to where we are currently housing your designated shifter. You have three days to pack everything you need and want, and you’ll soon be living off campus. Just think of it was having a roommate that needs constant supervision.” 

Okay, maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. I’m almost entirely confident that this shifter won’t really be a big deal. I mean, he looks about a year or two younger than me. So he just graduated high school? Agh, I have no idea. I’m just jumping to conclusions. But, hopefully they won’t make me handle anything crazy. That I can’t do. 

——————

They were driving me across the city to go meet up with the shifter I’ll be taking care of for however long. For all I know it could be a few days or weeks. I would think someone would want to step up for the job instead of letting students do this, but I guess not. Chelsey and Ryan have texted me a few times that they were getting settled in already while I was still heading over. It was already around thirty minutes just to get across the place, so that means I’ll have to take a bus almost everyday just to make it to my classes. That’s just great, but I’m in no position to complain. I actually tried talking with Professor Smith about it, but he told me that he had no say in the matter at all, which was weird. I doubt he would want his younger students to even take part in this. 

Along the streets were the many, many buildings that both accommodated for humans and their much larger or smaller companions. Although I’ve only ever been around Ryan about twice when he’s giant, it really wasn’t that bad. He can only grow till someone was like the height if his entire hand so it really wasn’t even that bad. Of course it’s still nerve-racking, but I trust him. Plus, we were at a small party with our little friend group. I doubt he could even bring himself to hurt someone. So really I wasn’t too worried. The only other shifter I’ve been around is an old high school friend of mine, but she goes to a different college now. 

Hundred of houses passed by us as we drove into a little neighborhood. What really made me worried was that the driver wasn’t exactly stopping at the normal-sized houses. Where was he going? I watched grimly as some of the huge houses we passed by came to a halt to one on the very end of one of the many streets. This one wasn’t as big as the other one’s down the street, but it wasn’t exactly small either. At least to me. So… I was paired up with a shifter who could only grow. That’s great. Just… great. 

I grabbed my bag and the small suitcase I had brought with me that was just full of my clothes and some stuff for school. Well if I’m supposed to stay here almost all of the time now I have to find something to keep me busy. And apparently from the immense size difference that will be between my new roommate and I. Of course I was terrified! If he really is diagnosed with depression and was a shifter who grew that only made matters worse for me. I hope whoever plans to take over for me does it soon. 

It took me and the driver to reach the doorstep, but eventually the driver gave it a knock. I swear I could hear some mumbling coming from the other side, but I didn’t dwell too much on that. Most.y because the extremely large door started to open slowly, but I saw no one on the other side. Maybe he was shy? 

“Well I may take my leave, though I have been ordered to tell you that a bus comes in the morning at around 6 just down the street from here, and another will take you back here around 5 and 8. Also, if anything goes wrong, to call this number on your phone.” He handed me a folded slip of paper, then took his leave. I shoved the slip in my pocket, hesitantly taking a few steps into the huge house. 

It was neatly cleaned around the place, though I couldn’t really see from my view on the ground. Everything around me was huge. I mean I’ve been to one of the rooms on the bigger side of the campus, but those rooms were smaller. It’s not an entire house filled with furniture. 

As I took a few steps out more, I jumped when the door had lightly closed behind me. My eyes trailed up and up, finding the face of the person I had seen in the picture. His eyes grew wide when I met his gaze, then bit the bottom of his lip before sliding his back against the wall behind him. 

Everything in my body told me to run, but if I did then I would only get scolded for it later. This isn’t even what I wanted to be! I wanted to be a normal therapist that helps regular adults and kids feel better. Not a human who could easily trap me in a fist and just kill me. I would have been fine if they could only shrink, but this was much worse. 

I faced down, taking a few deep breaths that barely even help me in this situation. I had to take care of someone fifty times my own size? How was that even possible? There weren’t even any smaller sized things around this place. Nothing that could help me get around easier either! 

I guess I could attempt to get his name. I mean, nothing could go wrong then, right? Just maybe from a distance… even if he could, at any point in time, just grab me whenever he so wanted. I felt sick just thinking about being held. Wouldn’t I have to be though? I can’t exactly just climb everywhere I want to go. 

“H-hi. Um, I’m Liam.” I forced myself to walk closer, even under his gaze, but I stopped walking closer when he moved himself further in the corner, looking a bit saddened. He probably knew I was scared. Maybe. I hope I’m some-what hiding it well enough. Though, I’ve never really been that good at it. 

“Oh, um, C-Casper. You can call me Cas if you want.” He kept his voice to a very quiet whisper. So he knew that if he talked too loud it would hurt my ears. At least he’s self-aware. Though, I couldn’t help but feel bad. I may be utterly terrified of him, but I mean he hasn’t really given me a reason to be truly scared, yet. 

“Nice to m-meet you, Cas.” I put on my best fake genuine smile. What? Have to find some way to convince him I wasn’t scared. Even if my body was trembling like crazy and my heart threatened to just come right out of my mouth. 

“Y-you too, sir.” His hand slightly twitched, but he just shook his head, giving me a sad look. ‘Sir?’ Why did he call me that? I didn’t dwell on it. Instead, I turned to look at the place, not finding a place to put my stuff. I sighed, hurrying to place it up against the wall opposite of Cas. This would be fine. Yeah, yeah. 

Casper, overall, seemed pretty nice. He had a black, messy hair that complimented his light-brown eyes. He wore a baggy long-sleeve shirt with a pair of jeans I have no idea why he was just wearing jeans in his own house, but it’s whatever he wants to do. Not my place to comment. The only real thing that caught my attention were the light bags in his eyes. Has he been sleeping? 

“Did you want to come here? Like, willingly?” He had asked, slightly leaning a little closer to my spot in the middle of the floor. I admit, it made me a little uneasy, but I don’t think he realized it. It just made it really hard to answer his question when all I could think about was how easily he could kill me right now. He wouldn’t do that, right? He seems so nice. Even if I’m barely two inches to him and I could easily just be crushed or accidentally killed if he wasn’t being too mindful. I shuddered at the thought, but forced my voice to work with me. 

“I-I’m just a student at a college. They just told us we were going to help out shifters, for like, real-world training I guess.” I started speaking a little fast and I could hear my voice slowly get quieter the more Cas seemed to lower his body to me. I felt so small compared to him. It’s overwhelming really, but it’s not like I can just back out. I already asked and they said if I did then I wasn’t cut out to stay in the classes. Seriously, all I wanted was to either be a therapist or a social worker. Not take on these huge responsibilities of making sure an entire living being is doing okay and doesn’t have any malicious intent to just… Aghhhh. 

“Oh. Well, I’m not exactly the best person to be paired up with.” He laughed sadly, holding up his wrist and revealing a red band. A little squeak left my mouth as I stood in place, practically frozen in fear. Why did they pair me up with him? They gave me more than I can handle. There was no way I could do this. I bit the side of my cheek, struggling to keep my composure. 

Cas caught onto my fear, scooting as far away from me as he could while making sure I wouldn’t freak out. Why did he move away? I was going to be fine. I think- But I was okay. Just as long as I keep a certain distance from him for a while. It takes me a long time to adjust to new things, and this might take me a while, but I couldn’t just do nothing. It was obvious to me that Cas was afraid of something, I just couldn’t figure out what just yet. 

“I’m fine, Cas, I promise.” I nervously smiled, hiding how terrified I was. Shifters with a red band can grow to heights you could only dream of. Great. Seriously, what have they done? They think I can handle someone who already looks like he’s struggling to keep himself together just by meeting me? I didn’t really want to find out what would happen if he doesn’t contain his emotions. Was there a person partnered up with him before? I knew I wasn’t going to be getting any answers, but there was no harm in asking them. 

“O-Okay,” He whispered, getting in a more comfortable sitting position, “Are you sure though? I don’t mind giving you an hour or two to get used to… everything.” He looked away for a second, and I could tell something was on his mind. Along with the constant moving away every time I had tried to walk closer, or when he knew I was scared of him, I would think to say that he’s scared of himself. Or, at least hurting other people. It makes sense actually. I’ve heard stories that a lot of shifters realize that they can really hurt people and just try their hardest not to interact with people smaller than themselves. It’s like they collapse on themselves since they don’t want to hurt anyone. I guess Cas and I weren’t so different. 

“Okay, look, it’s obvious that you’re more afraid of yourself than I am of you,” Cas’s eyes widened, “How about we both try to help each other out? I’ll keep trying if you do.” I held out my hand without thinking. A compromise between the two of us. I know we both met like five minutes ago, but I’m pretty sharp for people my age with little experience. But, honestly, maybe this wasn’t so bad. I think all that Cas wanted was the relief that he won’t hurt people. Or something like that. 

“You’d go through with all that? I’m not exactly mentally stable.” I could tell that he was worried, but I just nodded my head, a genuine smile on my face that I hoped he could see. 

He eyed my hand for a while, and I still hadn’t realized what was wrong until he lightly pinched my hand between the tip of his pointer and thumb, barely even lifting it up and down for my own sake. Oh he has no idea how scared I was right now, but he didn’t have to know that. Just a little more pressure and he could just yank my arm right off-I shook that thought away. Don’t think about that right now. It would be okay. Just as long as I get an idea of what to do when he does eventually lose control or something. I had zero idea. I think the thought that stuck in the back of my mind was making me more worried than anything really. I’m just a stress toy for him. But I’ll just have to get over my fear. There was no way I would let this stop me from graduating. Not in a million years.

——————

Sorry for a slightly boring chapter! I did a LOT of world building for this one, and had to map out almost every single interaction through the course of the entire story plot. There also wasn’t much g/t but again, it’s just an introduction chapter. (I’m doing what I love and no one can stop me hehehe-)

But I hope you enjoyed reading! I promise the second chapter will have a much, much better g/t interaction. (Oh trust me it will >:3) I hope you all have a great day/night!

[marvels-meme]

Canon worldbuilding lore on the MCU Kree to help you with your fanfic

They rule over multiple planets. Hala is the capital.

Hala's star is called Pama

In the comics there are around five known planets in Hala's system - it's unclear if Hala is 4th or 5th planet because it's been confused with another planet, Turunal.

Hala is located in the Larger Magellanic Cloud

Hala had oceans and forests (rip to those tho lol)

Leader of the Empire is called the "Supremor"

The Supreme Intelligence was basically god

The collective is one idea of the afterlife — if your brain is worthy it joins the Supreme Intelligences database when you die.

The spiritual afterlife is called the Etherplex or something idk

Their technology is somewhat water based (need more info on this)

Architecture is heavy on metal and stone and is very geometric. Buildings are detailed but there generally isn't too much furniture.

Cyan and purplish lights for a big chunk of Hala, golden lights for the Supreme Intelligence.

No hanging paintings... If you want art you have to hire someone to paint your wall lol

Starforce generally have one room apartments, I couldn't see a kitchen in them.

Stuff like wardrobes, book shelves, cupboards and drawers are more likely to be inserted into the wall to save space.

Like Carol literally lived in a single room with a bed, nightstand and a hexagonal cup. The ideal female living space.

They have hexagonal cups (I just thought that was cute)

The military is a big deal! Other respectable careers involve teaching, medicine, typically intelligent jobs that give something to society.

Kids are trained from a young age in the military. They're called "recruits". There's a deleted scene of Yon-Rogg teaching some.

The military hierarchy is likely Supremor > Accuser > Starforce > Kree Army > Non Kree Army > War slaves.

The Accusers aren't just extra bad military. They uphold the law, make arrests, hold trials, decide punishments, etc. I'd imagine that this is typically done for more important criminals or prisoners of war. That's why Dar-Benn holds an Accuser hammer as Supremor — she's upholding the law.

Kree Law is vaguely structured around the Tablets of Koth — they aren't definitive but they are the main basis.

Questioning your leaders is technically illegal

The worst crime of all is being "un-Kree".

Kree supremacy is big. In the comics it's illegal for Kree to have children with other species. They will tolerate other races if they’re feeling nice about it, but ultimately the Kree come first. This is important in the context of Carol's relationship with Yon-Rogg.

There's racism of blue Kree > non blue Kree in the comics but it doesn't appear to be present in the MCU. Keep it in mind though.

The Kree originally evolved to have blue skin because of low oxygen levels on Hala. Non blue kree came later as a result of mixing with other species. Since making babies with another species has been illegality for probably millenia, non blue Kree are now just another skin tone of the species.

Sexism isn't a thing. Yon-Rogg isn't sexist to Carol he's being racist too her lol

There are groups of noble families with some quite strict rules about battle. If a noble is cornered in battle with no way out they have to drink the special suicide juice or else they are shamed.

The suicide juice is called Odium, which means hate in Latin. If you sip it you go crazy with rage, get super strength and start trying to fight everything until it makes your heart explode

In the comics the Kree have double that of human organs — ie two hearts, four lungs. Brain is probably an exception. They have stronger bones and heavier muscle mass.

Kree blood has healing properties strong enough to bring a species with simple DNA (like humans) back from the dead but it's super duper painful and like 7/8 of the people that have received it have been given some kind of amnesia afterwards

Carol was one of those humans lol rip queen

Apparently the amnesia thing isn't even hard to do? In Agents of Shield a Kree had a tiny little hammer and he'd slap people with it and they'd loose their memories (I doubt that Carol was slapped with a tiny hammer but you never know this might help you)

Propaganda art - there are some gorgeous statues and murals in the Captain Marvel concept art.

Fashion is generally dark. Black, grey and brown for most people. It's not too complicated. White appears to be for underclothes/sleeping wear.

Well it's not too complicated unless you are the Supremor. Remember, Dar-Benn is succeeding the position from their idea of god. She's dressed to the tens and stands out the most from literally everyone. Her stuff is more detailed and metallic and she's wearing a lot more jewellery.

Also notice how Dar-Benn changes outfits literally every ten minutes. I need Marvel to stop killing all the cunty villains because I deserved to study her entire wardrobe thank you very much

A few Kree women (including Carol) have the style of one side being braided and the other let down.

The Kree are encouraged to experiment with as many genders as possible

So technically Carol Danvers lesbian sex canon

Some people grow babies in big tanks. Why? To make them strong or something idk. Carol's comic half sister was born in a big tank bc they wanted her to be strong asf to serve as an Accuser

Swear words — I only know da'st. No idea what it means

They don't have a word for candy </3

Normal space currency is called credits. Kree currency is called kreedits. If that's not the funniest fucking thing ever I don't know what is.

Kree names are "your name-family name". Eg Yon-Roggs given name is Yon, but his surname is Rogg. His daughters name is Una-Rogg.

You generally don't separate the name. Yon-Roggs name isn't Yon, it's Yon-Rogg. Obviously there's exceptions, but that's the general naming rule. It wouldn't be outright wrong to call him Yon, it would just be uncommon and slightly weird.

The Kree have beef with every species ever. They had multiple wars with the Asgardians and the Xandarians.

I've probably missed something lol

Anyways: Arab.org daily click to help Palestine 🍉

[pumpkinstrawbrew]

🆃🅷🅴 🆆🅸⨢.🅲🅷🅸🅽🅶 🅷△🆄🆁.

>>> the grim adventures of jon n' jack. feat batman n' spiderman. <<<

...

it was only a matter of time, before i would have made another crossover with those two. i can't deny, that they are very 1:1 for me, when it comes to comics supervillains. so why not to mix one awesome n' beloved thing with another? esp since funny enough, they do have quite a few similar plot-points. well, the halloween themed costume aside. i mean it goes as far as jack once having the bat-themed boyfriend pal, which reminds me of someone else, i know.

anyho'...

i've tried to make my notes more or less readable here, but they still might be a bit scattered. i attempted to keep them as short as possible, but i just cannot talk 'small'.

1. the first art is low-key based on underdeveloped AU, that i have about the early comic scarecrow n' modern jack meeting n' hitting it off serial killiar style. considering, that both of them possess killing methods, which have a noticable tradmark to it, i imagine that they will leave one hell of a mess behind, while traveling across the country. in that timeline, batman is dead. n' jack's shitty foster dad was killed off earlier on. neither of them knows what to do with themselves, since the people who they had *twisted* emotional conection with are gone. without any direction, they meet in the middle, n' decide that they can as well team-up n' try to make being a villain fun again. jon might experiment on their victims *or torture them if its his ex bullies* n' then give them to jack, who would scoop their brains out and put candle inside their skull. n' uh yeah, he literally did it in the comic. i was honestly surpised that marvel come up with smth that creepy. it really sounds more alined with dc, if anything. but either way, here they are. two *grieving* psychos going downtown. they will make one another so much worse, i imagine. n' they will totally kill that npc dude btw.

2. dark magic n' the drip. or jon n' jack at their corniest. like, jonathan looks like he watched too much the nightmare before christmas n' jack dress up like count dracula for no reason. it's so random-ish n' cheesy. but with this being said, i love both of those designs, n' think, that they really suit the vibe of comic issues in which they were featured. jack always came off as a he-witch to me, but it was nice to see it being played on in a different way. n' then, crane really rocks his own outfit as well. i totally need to draw him in it more often, haha. they dress up for a halloween party for real this time. n' well, i added batman n' spiderman into the mix here, bc i kinda wish that they got to fight / interact with those versions of jon n' jack. it would have been fun for a few reasons. also this can be technically counted as shipping art, but can be viewed as your typical gloating bad guy n' helpless hero thing too. n' to clear any possible questions, i only create stuff with adult peter parker. like cartoon era/late early comics, 20 smth one. i love my spiderman being of age, where he can legally mingle with his villains, not be detained at school lol.

3. the classic four from the timeline, when the comic plots were a bit more ligthearted. aka during the times, when the deadly mercenary n' crazy scientist were robbing banks, instead of harming *torturing* people. i love dark stuff, but there is charm to how 'simple' the scarecrow's and jack's goals once were. n' i love how the scarecrow used to do the lil, dorky dances. it really suits him. n' since at least 2 or maybe, most of jack o' lanterns are southernish in their roots like jon, i had an idea of them having a country dance *in the middle of graveyard* kinda just makes sense to me, haha. batman and spiderman merely happen to find them like that. n' well, it's kinda awkward. esp bc they technically don't do anything bad. i also imagine spiderman being like 'oh, so you have one of those too'. which is mostly a ref to how both the scarecrow n' jack were called 'the reject from land of oz' by other characters. they can rejoice here.

4. the develish & undead duo!! my friend once told me to try n' watch older superhero cartoons, and at first i was like 'welp, they prob be hella boring'. but then i caved in, n' watched a couple of superfriends episodes. as result, i fell in love with their scarecrow's desingh! it was unexpected tbh. usually, i prefer jon's older, classic scarecrow look. so no straw hair, less features exposed, just a hat n' a sack on his head, but their version of him actually did it for me. i find their crane both creepy n' cute. n' i also read on wiki, that he might be undead. so that bit interested me as well. non-human jonathan crane, what a concept! him returning from the grave just to be a menace to batman. n' to accompany him, there is an undead jack o' lantern from the ghost rider comic. his corpse literally got possessed by satan. anyways, both of them raised army of zombies. both of them undead n' prob won't ever get out of their spooky suits, since i don't think that they can. n' funny enough, jack's hometown was called sleepy hollows, if i remember correctly. so they can haunt people there, make it into a truly cursed land.

5. the last one was kinda spontaneous on my part. the other day, i was looking at what kind of action figures the scarecrow n' jack have. saw one, where jon was looking kinda strange, all black n' yellow. which is how i find out that he *apparently* got yellow lantern powers in newer comics, even if it was like for 10 seconds or smth. i didn't read the issue itself, but i found the idea kinda fun, n' his design was decent enough for me to get interested n' wonder what i can do with it. then, a bit later, i saw that jack had a venom-funko figure. i don't think, that he was ever canonically venomized in any of the actual comic issues, but once again, the mere idea of it happening was enough for me to consider doing smth with it. i mean, a venom-like tongue, but its made out of fire? dang. that's kinda cool. so yeah. the yellow lantern scarecrow n' symbiote jack o' lantern being the double trouble. if they weren't enough of a mean goblin-man before, now they surely will be.

[nellandvoid]

"it is unseen" or whatever the cool kids are saying nowadays

hello everyone sorry for the lack of art my brain isn't cranking it out as fast as it was previously but here have this silley lore + silvia-mabel bonding mini-comic (fyi people who make comics have all my respect this was SO FUCKING HARD for NO REASON and you all make it so easy god bless y'all) as compensation <3 (also yes silley is the silvia stan ship name don't look at me like that)

anyway i wonder why the reason for her divorce is so fuzzy to her... and why that's the part of her divorce that's so fuzzy... hmmmmmm... also mabel is so excited cause silvia is one of those people who doesn't reveal anything about herself unless she absolutely HAS to, so to mabel, her openly offering this up means that silvia trusts her and they've become level 4 besties

making this was very "unstoppable force (all of my lore drops needing to be comics/long-form info drops) vs immoveable object (i have Never done long-form art before nor have i ever finished a long-form project)" for me so while this may be more common (and hopefully look a lot neater in the future those with experience making long-form art stuff please gimme tips peace and love) they will not be as. often. and i will try to figure out how to do short-form lore dumps too lol

transcript below the cut in case any of the font is wonky!

PANEL ONE

Silvia: Ok, that's the sixth time you've sighed in ten minutes. Come on, out with it.

Mabel: It's just... boys, you know?

Silvia: Oh do I.

Mabel: This was supposed to be my chance for magical summer romance, but so far it's just been a summer of stupid magical creeps. And I know it's only been a few weeks, but what if the rest of the summer is like this?

PANEL TWO

Mabel: I'm just tired of boys being stupid, I guess. I dunno.

Mabel: Were boys this stupid when you moved here?

PANEL THREE

Silvia: Boys have always been this stupid, honey. And to be honest, boys that grow up here tend to be stupider than most. I'm one of the lucky ones...

Silvia: ...since the guy I married moved here after he finished growing up.

PANEL FOUR

Mabel: MARRIED?!

Silvia: Do you want me to braid your hair or not?

Mabel: Who cares about my hair? This is way more important!

Silvia: It's really not that big of a deal--

Mabel: Yes it is! You're married! To someone in town! Who is it, tell me everything.

Silvia: I was married. We're not... together. Like that. Anymore.

PANEL FIVE

Mabel: Oh gosh, that's so sad. I'm sorry.

Silvia: Eh, it's been years since we split. The two of us are still good friends, so no harm no foul.

Mabel: So then what happened? Or wait, sorry, I shouldn't ask--

Silvia: It's fine, honey. To be honest...

PANEL SIX

Silvia: ...I think it was a buildup of a lot of things. Small lies and secrets that didn't mix well with big tempers.

Mabel: You think?

Silvia: Yeah. To be honest, I never really thought about the 'why' much after it happened. It's all kinda fuzzy, but...

PANEL SEVEN

Silvia: I don't really remember what the final straw was for me.

PANEL EIGHT

Silvia: I just got tired of not trusting him, and of him not trusting me.

[aprilblossomgirl]

We Are - a mid-term break.

(written just right before episode 9)

We Are, to me, is such a nice depiction of a university slice-of-life romcoms that actually live up to the very core of university life, a quite fluffy one, but still. Sixteen episodes? That's a sixteen-week semester for you. Well, to be precise, fourteen weeks courses, one week of midterm, and one week of finals. I'm sure the actual episodes didn't really go by the actual semester weeks (episode 7 shown that they were just transitioned into a new semester, but still on the same academic year). Anyway. You get the concept.

Note: If this show is not up to your alley, please just scroll through, I'm not putting this under a 'read more' :)

The first thing that I love is that the show took its portrayal of university life pretty seriously. Note that, I mean seriously by heart. You may want to question the accuracy of some elements and that's fair enough, but may I say they didn't deter my enjoyment of the show. Any elements they thought of adding, they did it right, so far at least.

Like, I know it's the right slice-of-life drama with university setting with all those assignments, deadlines (with actual deadline talks and stress), pin-up sessions (if you went to art/architecture school, you'll get it), grading, consulting with the professors, painting studio, clay workshop, architecture model making, art exhibition setup, group works, volunteer camp, cross-faculty activity, football, drinking nights, group lunch or lunch date at faculty's canteen, 'hanging out' on campus or nearby cafe or bar, and some more other things that I might miss.

Second: I really ADORE the friend groups and their friendship dynamics!!! I feel like this is the actual heart and soul of the show. Sure, honestly, I might have decided to start this show mostly because of Winny Satang (well, you know me), yet here I am, falling in love with the whole gang and by extension, the whole cast. It really surprised me how well they worked with the friendship side of this show. Everything just falls and blends naturally with the story. Understandably, with such big cast with numbers of main, side and supporting characters, I should expect there would be some proportion on their highlight. But (and I hope I am not too biased here) so far, I can say that the highlights are still within the range of proportional to the story.

And... I guess this is attributed to the line of actors, which you cannot say they're new to the field, that the chemistry among the characters just happened so organically, which is such a pleasant to see. I'm still amazed that I could see the Peem-Q-Tan-Chain-Pun's group (with special bond between Q-Peem) happens alongside Phum-Beer-Mick-Tan's group. (Bless you Tan for bridging the two. And later, Pun-Mick instant bonding.) And then insert Toey-Matt duo, and now we have a complete chaotic mix. Oh, but also remember we have Tan-Fang-Phum, Phum-Peem-Toey, and Q-Peem-Fai among them. Well, not all are exactly friendship links, but, talking about groups dynamics, we just cannot ignore the trios. Okay now, don't make me write my (love) notes for each individual character.

And finally: the love lines! I cannot and do not plan to write a lengthy description on how I love having all the four (going five?) different pairs. But I will just say I adore how each of their love lines intertwined very well with the friendship dynamics that happened along the way. The story of each pairs doesn't feel forced blending with how each group, to which they are bonded with, creates their stories. The friendship and the romance here are not two sides of the same coin, but rather are two layers of pictures, each with certain opacity that allows them to overlay perfectly creating a whole new complete picture. Not that anything others haven't said but I just need to say it in my own way, nonetheless.

That said, in short: long live slice-of-life romcoms!

We Are, by this mid-term, is truly a work of hearts (I still wanna cry if I think about the refilming part) and I cannot wait for the finals (please don't come too fast, though). As much as I need the show to finish strong, I need it more to finish warmly.

Second half of the show, I am ready! <3 <3 <3

*Note: Taking the academic terms more seriously, I knew by both logic and heart the second half of the 'semester' could either go better or go wrong and in no way I could predict which will happen but I do wish with my whole heart for the first. However, regardless of how it eventually goes, it won't erase the wonderful first half that I've had this far.

[maleyanderecafe]

My Angelic Husband is actually a Devil in Disguise (Webcomic)

Created by: HaeMyang / Hiella / WOONGIN THINKBIG / Nyamm(Art)

Genre: Fantasy/Romance

I have mixed feelings about this webcomic- mostly because I absolutely adore the concept of a damsel yandere, one that uses their incompetence or feigned uselessness to get close to their love interest, however, I'm not sure I really like how this webcomic does it. Don't get me wrong, there are some good moments within it, but it's not particularly how I would write a damsel yandere. As of writing this, there are about 40 chapters out.

The story starts with Seita about to graduate from the college before her family attempts to sell her to get married. Her family would often gamble and treat her badly, trying to sell her to pay off the debt. She is then invited by Miere Lunaria, one of Seita's classmates. Miere wants to have someone who can manage his accounting and assets as he himself is too incompetent to do so. He proposes a contract marriage so that she can work under him, and in exchange, would pay off the debt for Seita's family so she doesn't need to worry. The contract would terminate under a four years allowing Seita to live her life. Not really able to go back to her family, Seita accepts and the two get contract married. The two of them have to pretend to be like a loved couple, going on dates and living together as to maintain Miere's reputation as a duke and of course, sleeping in the same bed together. After some cute moments while Miere and Seita working on their garden together, Miere travels to the prince. Unfortunately, this leads to a bunch of bandits attacking them on their travels, leading Miere to die. Seita has to attend his funeral but continues her duties taking care of Miere's assets. Miere returns after three years as we learn that he's not dead, but rather was working with the prince to get rid of said bandits. He's able to reconcile with Seita after all these years and despite this, Seita still accepts him and forgives him for what he did. During her years of being alone, she worked hard to continue her work, and befriended a local merchant named Roynus whom she works with closely, and who Roynus gains a crush on. After Miere comes back, Roynus basically tries to pull her away, stating that she only was with Miere for a month, yet Seita still retains loyalty to her husband. We find out also that Miere is actually quite competent in most things from basically Seita's work to actually assassination, but feigns ignorance as a way to get by Seita's side, as he feels she will simply leave him if she finds out that he can basically do all that he can this entire time. He uses his servants to watch over Seita even while he was gone for the three years and slowly wins her over in lovey dovey ways. Miere also keeps an eye on Roynus, being extremely jealous over the fact that he was by Seita's side those years that he was gone and that he is pining for her, attempting to find skeletons in his closet to out him. After a weird side plot about burning pillows so that Miere can sleep without a divider and be with Seita, we get to see how Miere fell for her in the first place. While at the academy, he would watch her from the treetops studying, seeing how studious she was. After noticing that she enjoyed some flowers on the road, he ended up taking up gardening, and despite the fact that he actually quite dislikes gardening, Miere still did it to maintain a connection to Seita. The last couple of chapters revolve around Miere buying an expensive piece of jewelry for Seita disguising it as something cheap, Roynus's return in winning Seita's heart and the introduction to the vice-master of the assassin group, Bianca.

As I said, in concept, I should like this manga. I like the way that Miere pretends to be incompetent to get Seita to like him. Seita believes that Miere needs her because he can't really do anything right, not even from just maintaining his assets but also just not putting on his clothes properly. Of course this is all a ploy so that Seita will stay with him, but I... also don't really see the point in it all. Miere could have very easily just had a contract marriage to pull her out of her bad family without having to resort to acting pretty stupid to be honest. Other than the initial ploy of getting her to marry him, he really had no reason to continue acting stupid but lovey dovey in front of her. Honestly, even if Miere had revealed to her right after that he was an assassin, there would still be no way for Seita to leave him and Miere could probably just play into the angelic facade he had anyways instead of this entire thing of incompetence. Plus now that he has gone this far, Seita is likely going to have more trust issues with Miere because he's pretended for so long, which regardless could have been avoided if he had just told the truth. The other thing which I think is pretty obvious as a problem is the sudden time gap of Miere pretty much dying and then coming back after three years. The two of them only really had a month to bond and to be honest, it wasn't really anything that I really saw as especially romantic or deep. He then basically pretends to be dead for three years, leaving Seita a widow essentially only to come back and then beg for forgiveness... to which Seita accepts it?? I mean, I get that Seita basically doesn't know this guy since they literally had a month together, but I think that most people would be at least a little pissed off that they were essentially ditched for three years to do a bunch of work all while thinking that Miere was dead the entire time. It makes way more sense for Seita to ends up with Roynus because as he said, the two have only known each other for a month at that time and Roynus had been by her side for two years. Yes, there was the contract, but like I said, Sieta basically had to do all of his work without the knowledge that her husband was alive, so despite the fact that he was on a mission for so long, still didn't know that he was alive. The assassination thing also doesn't seem to come up a lot since we never really see him actually.... you know, kill anyone. We know he's dangerous, but we're never really shown it other than him threatening a bunch of his servants.

I actually do like Seita as a character but unfortunately I feel like she's pretty underutilized and the plot forces her to make some dumb decisions at times. Seita being a hard worker and having to manage Miere's finances is very interesting and she does manage to do some good work with it, but honestly she could have gone way farther like fund her own school or even just get back at her parents in some way. It feels like they just gave her a bunch of responsibilities and power but she's not really allowed to use any of it- especially when she thought that Miere was dead. She probably could have used the money to help manage the safety of people traveling so that they wouldn't get killed by bandits or something but she doesn't. I get that part of it is because the servants are watching so they wouldn't really let her get away with anything too big, but like...she could have done more and should have done more since that seems like something that she would do. The other big thing I feel like they just did for plot reasons is her falling in love with Miere after one month of interaction, thus allowing her to forgive him for ditching her for three years. I can kind of accept her accepting him ditching for three years because to her this is just a contract marriage, she just wants to leave her family and have enough money to sustain herself, so she doesn't really care about Miere... or at least she shouldn't because again they knew each other for a month, but somehow in that one month of being together, he was able to woo her that much, which is absurd because again, they barely did anything noteworthy together. Afterwards, of course, Miere is far more lovey dovey to make up for the time that they missed together, but it's still very strange that Seita would just accept it without really any anger or disappointment. I also feel like her falling for Miere's more lovey dovey side so quickly is a bit out of character, but that just might be me. She's not aware of Miere's assassin or more devilish side, so I'm curious to see how that will end up in the future.

Okay, we finally end up with Miere and I really want to like this guy because again, I love the damsel yandere on guys, but I just don't understand what he's doing and neither does most of his other servants. I think the logic is that because Seita married him to help him with his incompetence (and to get out of her bad family), he has to continue feigning that kind of personality, but like I said before, if the two are in a contract marriage they cannot divorce until after four years like the contract says, so even if Miere pretty much killed someone in front of Seita, they two wouldn't be able to divorce or else Seita wouldn't be able to escape her family. Even as a damsel yandere, he does very basic things for incompetence like not being able to do any of the actual documentations, not being able to put his shirt on (or something) and not staying on the right side of the bed. I personally think he could have gone further either pretending to be completely innocent and himbo like or just incompetent in terms of clumsy and can't live without Seita type deal, but he doesn't really commit to either of those. He also, again does the really stupid thing of faking his death for three years, which kind of basically only leaves on year for you two to actual fall in love, which you are extremely lucky that Seita even speaks with you afterwards and doesn't just move on with Royus since she thinks that you're dead. Other than that, he also uses his royal money to buy things for Seita and make deals for her, while also trying to find secrets from Royus to try to snuff him out, as well as just use his power to do whatever he can to be with Seita. And that's about it. I guess it's fine, I think the artwork is also a bit stiff in a lot of places but like, there's nothing specifically special or interesting about it.

Overall, I think it's a good concept that's not very well executed. I would have liked it if Miere had an actual strong reason for him to actually pretend to be stupid. And perhaps actually use his assassination skills for something useful instead of just having it be something that he has and basically never uses.

[quinnswritingquill]

The Drug In Me Is You

Jason Todd x AFAB Reader

✩✫✪✬✭✯✮✰✩✫✪✬✭✯✰✩✫✪✬✭✯✮✰

✩✫✪✬✭✯✮✰✩✫✪✬✭✯✰✩✫✪✬✭✯✮✰

CW: Slowburn, Eventual Smut, Eventual Romance, Light? BDSM, Blood Kink, Praise Kink, Degradation Kink, Honestly Kinky in Gen., Reader has female gentile, Use of Y/N but not too much.

AN: This is pretty much of a what if Jason was a sugar daddy turned lover. I also posted this on Ao3 as well.

·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙ ·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚＊·̩̩̥͙ ·̩̩̥͙＊*•̩̩͙✩•̩̩͙*˚*

Not everyone is built to handle the harsh world of Gotham. I mean fuck, I was raised in this hell bent city. I grew up surviving just barely over the poverty line. Lower income childhood meant cheap or in the box food for dinner. It meant thrifted clothes or cheap chain stores having sales and deals. Brands for show. School supplies, book ads, shoes, ect.

Nothing would prepare me for tipping my toe onto the world of rich men and wealthy women. Couldn't afford to attend college, not that it was the most important thing for me. But I needed to live on my own. Support myself. Somehow I managed to land a job as a waitress at a high-end restaurant near the wealthiest part of Gotham City. The hourly pay barely covers my rent. But the tips? Those help cover food, some to cover miscellaneous costs, and a little bit extra for savings incase of other crap. Still surviving. Barely but better.

No need for another job right now. It's been months since I started there. And I even have my own little studio apartment because of the job. Within a month of saving all the money I earned and money I previously saved. It's old and covered floor to ceiling with art pieces. Some older and some fairly more recent. I like looking at them. They bring life to this creepy old building.

Today I scrambled recklessly out of bed once my alarm clock started blasting. Turning it off I glanced at the time. Damn it's only 10 am, I still have about a few hours before my shift. I stretched out my sore muscles and walked to my small kitchen to make brunch. I grab out my lovely yogurt bowl and place it on the table along with the food I'm gonna scarf down. I mix my granola mix with some strawberry yogurt in the bowl. A quick meal before I get dressed for work.

By the time I finished eating, showering, dressing up, and cleaning up it's one o'clock. I check my work outfit just in case. We only had two choices that could be four different outfits at work. White or black button up, black slacks, or a knee length skirt. Obviously with tights tho. I picked a fuzzy off my black button up and straightened the pencil skirt. Finally I put my heels into my bag and slipped on my flats.

The restaurant was busy as usual. Honestly I wished for at least one day for us to be slow. But unfortunately rich people don't exactly give one shit. At least I think so. It's not something I would actually say, well to their faces.

My coworker Allison comes up to me as I swipe a card to finish paying my current table's bill.

" Hey Y/N? I just wanted to let you know I just sat three at table ten. The reservation is for Wayne." She said before patting my shoulder.

I smile, " Yeah okay, thanks Ally."

I go back and hand the receipt and card to my leaving table and head towards table ten. Three gorgeous looking men sit, chatting and laughing like they're not at a five star restaurant but at a diner by a public highschool. Weird beautiful men, but alright. I pull out my spiral notepad, pen in my right hand, ready for them to order.

" Hello there! You must be the Wayne reservation. I am your waitress this evening. My name is Y/N. Are gentlemen ready to order drinks?" I make sure to sweeten my words.

The three men stop talking. One with the shorr, but longer dark hair speaks, " Yes we are. We also know what we would like to order as well."

The man with the red hair and the man dawning the short black hair with a white streak also agree with the other gentleman. I jotted down the orders. I collect their menus and walk over to put in the orders so they get sent to the kitchen.

Once they finished eating, I walked over with the receipt and the card that belonged to the charming man with the long hair. I bid the men good day, leaving with the signed copy receipt. I opened the book to see the receipt and three sets of tips. Two were around a hundred in cash tips. The other was. What the hell? Five hundred dollars in cash?? The entire meal cost less than that! I stare blankly at the money before grabbing it out to place it in my wallet I use for my personal tips of the day.

Fuck it, I take it back. Only some rich people are douchebags. I finish my things up and head out to the back side of the building for a short smoke break before I take my lunch. I pull out my unopened cigarette pack from my bag and hit the bottom of the pack before unwrapping it. I grab out my FUCK OFF labeled lighter from the side pocket. I light it and take a long inhale of smoke.

" Got a light?" A voice asks.

I exhale and nod, " Yeah." And hand my lighter over, still not looking over.

He laughs, " Thanks, sweetheart. Did you like the tip? Thought you deserved more since you had to deal with my brother Dick and our friend Roy. They can be… Loud."

That's when I looked over like a deer in headlights, " Uh.. Ooh that was you? And yeah, thank you for the tip. But you do realize the entire check was less than that right? I'm not complaining, just curious."

He pulls the cigarette out of his mouth before taking a bit to talk, " Yeah, I know that, darling. But I like spoiling hard-working people. Money is money. I also know that this place gets more money than they pay their waiters and waitresses. I know that most of you survive with tips."

"Oh." I manage out.

I can't but stare at the sincere look on his face. His absolutely hot face. God I need to get a fucking grip. He finishes his cigarette and hands me back my lighter. I put the rest of my own cancer stick out as well before shoving my shit back into my bag.

His hands are in his pocket as he smiles at me.

"My name is Jason, by the way, sweetheart. What's yours?" His right hand extends towards me.

I take his hand to shake, " It's Y/N."

We shake hands but before I can pull away he already turned mine over and plants a light kiss on it. I just stared like a god damned weirdo so unsure of what was going on. Letting my hand go he shoves his own back into his pocket.

"Have a good night Y/N." And he walks away.

What the actual fuck is wrong with me? My face is hot and I rush back inside to grab my lunch. I sit in the back of the locker room slash break room. Recounting the events only worsens my reddened face. I shovel my chicken caesar salad trying to refocus myself. Spoiler alert, that didn't fucking work. I look at the clock on the wall. An hour and I'm out of here. I can just forget pretty boy and move on. He's definitely just a flirt. Get over it Y/N.

Even when I got home, I can confidently say I didn't forget Jason. In actuality, all I did was think about him. Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck.

[tbcanary]

Hi! Do you happen to have basic/simple/easy tutorials for editing comic panels to recommend?

i do not actually have one to refer you to, but i’m happy to write some things up! i’m assuming this is just for removing backgrounds and creating icons; if you want a how-to on the way i animate panels, that lives here.

i use photoshop cs6, but the same general principles should work in other editors. also, there are probably easier or faster ways to do the things i do. i like my methods and i’m comfortable with them, but i’d recommend experimenting to find what works best for you.

and... yeah! let's get into it.

step one: finding a panel

i save panels as i’m reading comics. they all live in one PSD file named “panels,” and i make a new one for each run. anything that seems pretty or thematically resonant gets copied and pasted in there. this way, i don’t have to dig through endless comic issues to find a specific image that stuck with me. i usually save the full page just so the edges are clean and everything is included.

let’s go with this page from birds of prey:

step two: cropping

the way i crop the image depends on two things: what i’m hoping to make, and what the image looks like. here, i’m just doing a basic portrait, and helena is taller than she is wide. that makes it easy; let’s crop it so she takes up most of the frame.

(my preferred ratios are 4x6 for smaller panel edits like this; for banners, i usually do 2x1, but if the framing works better as 3x2, I have done that, too. just feel it out. actual pixel sizes depend on the size of the original image.)

step three: removing the background

this part is, I think, the area with the most room for personal preference. we need to erase the background, and there are a LOT of tools to do this. each one varies depending on what the image itself looks like. there’s the magic selection tool, the eraser, or the lasso or magnetic selection tool. 

(i don’t use the lasso or magnet because they’re evil, to me, but they work reasonably well when you have a character on a mostly solid background and art with thick, defined lines. i have no real advice other than that.)

here, we can mix and match some things. i’m going to start by using the magic selection tool to grab all the white or solid colors and remove them with the delete key, like so:

surprise! gone.

after that, for the more finicky areas, i am a perfectionist and i go in and erase pixels using the eraser tool at 4-5px width. i start by outlining the character, like so:

from there, you can use the lasso tool to select all of the remaining background and delete it. i usually hide the white background layer at this step, too. (i'm also going to color the smoke and the man in the foreground black and redraw the crossbow string with the paintbrush tool. this ain't about him.)

you should end up with something like this:

step four: cleaning the linework

this part is mostly using the layer style stroke and the tool refine edge.

so, because of how selection tools and erasers work, there are a bunch of hidden pixels throughout the image you can’t really see. this drives me absolutely bonkers. at this point, i combine all the layers of the paint i've done so far -- everything except for the transparent background. select the layer with the character — Helena — and apply the layer style stroke, set to “outside” at 3px.

those little black dots are what we're after. there aren't too many right now, because this was a fairly clean edit; sometimes, it looks scary and messy, but that’s okay. the layer style has just outlined all those invisible pixels. i go through and erase them — especially in tight places like corners. for example, this pesky area between strands of hair:

(before vs. after)

once you’ve erased all of those pixels and cleaned up the image, you can go back into the stroke layer style.

you’ve done a lot of erasing and feathering and cleaning up, so chances are, the line work is not nearly as crisp as it looked in the original panel. that’s fine! shift the settings to “inside” and 1px, like so:

sometimes it’ll need to be 2-3 px, sometimes it’ll need to be center-aligned, and sometimes you might even decide it looks better outside or without the stroke style at all! this is all personal preference. do whatever you like.

once it's where you want it to be, i like to duplicate the layer -- to save the one without the new outline in case anything goes wonky. then right click the copy of the layer and "rasterize style" to get a flat image with new linework.

your workspace should look something like this:

if it happens to feel like the edges are a little harsh — which happens sometimes! especially when using selection instead of eraser — you can select the whole image and use refine edge. this softens it. you don’t need to do much; i usually do 2-3px of feathering, a couple pixels of smoothing, and some contrast, depending on how it looks. see below:

you'll have three layers now. it gets confusing, so try to keep track of which one is your active layer. you can delete old ones, if you want; i generally don't, just in case.

there isn’t a hard and fast rule for this part. do what you think looks good. and if you want to refine the edge before you add the new linework, that can work! do another stroke layer style after the first round! test things out and find out what you like. most of the time, it depends on the image and your preference.

after all that, this is the helena we now have:

step five: creating a new background!

this part is easy. create a new layer, pick a color you like — i tend to pull from the actual background using an eye dropper tool, or if it’s for a multiple-part edit, I use the swatches i’ve decided on for the color scheme of the whole thing — and paint bucket that thing right on there. this is some of the blue that was behind her originally:

i don’t like flat colors, pretty much ever, because they feel harsh to me. so i go back and add artistic touches and mess around with the filters a lot. sometimes i pull text or accents from other panels and follow the same steps as above to incorporate them into the edit; sometimes, i don’t. no rules just vibes.

in this case, i want it to be pretty simple. so i’ll make a new layer, then fill it in with a gradient tool. i usually make a custom gradient; one side is the color of the background and the other side is either black or white, depending on the vibe I want.

i do an orbital gradient most of the time — circles are your friend — and focus the center on something that I want to draw the eye to. here, i’m going to do helena’s face.

then i mess around with the opacity until it looks the way i want it to. like this:

step six: final steps

congrats! you have an edited panel! you’re perfectly fine to post/share/use it at this point, but there are a couple other things i like to do to give it that final polish:

if you want to jazz up your edits, try messing around with outer glow, or drop shadow. both of those layer styles can add some emphasis to your focal point. (i prefer those be kept at a low opacity, when i use them, which isn’t often.)

i'd also recommend messing around with gradient maps if you want to superimpose a larger silhouette over the background. that would take more room than i have left in this already far too long guide, but it does add something to have it in there.

i dislike having text bubbles in my edits unless i specifically put them there, so i do have a process for removing them, much like the smoke or the man in the foreground. again, we are running long already, so i won't get into that here. my recommendation if you don't want to deal with entirely removing a bubble is to just paint over the text inside with white so you have an empty text box or speech bubble instead. it's simpler, quicker, and honestly the more common practice based on what i've seen.

that being said, if you want to know how i paint over them -- or how to do anything i didn't get into here -- feel free to ask. i don't mind writing these up.

i have a guide on how i size my images here, which walks through the exporting process. it’s not strictly necessary, but i like for my edits to remain consistent in size, so i do usually follow it.

and that’s it! you’re now ready to edit comic panels to your heart’s content. happy cropping and so on, and thanks for asking me. <3

[aboutzatanna]

Zatanna, Wonder Woman and Barry Allen go undercover in this issue of DC Retroactive: JLA- The 70's #1 (2011) and Diana is absolutely terrible at it:

For those who don't know DC Retroactive are untold stories set in past continuities mostly by writers from those eras.

This issue was written by Carey Bates with art by Andy Smith.

(Side note: While Diana being 'bad' at going undercover is just a two page gag, it makes more sense for me that Diana, former 'Goddess of Truth' and wielder of the Lasso of True wouldn't be comfortable with secret identities. I never liked the idea of Diana needing a secret identity. )

The plot of this issue mainly revolves around Adam Strange, who is accidentally transported to Earth Prime following a fight with Kanjar Ro so Barry, Diana, Zatanna and Ollie travel to Earth Prime to rescue him while Hawkman and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) take on the newly empowered Kanjar Ro.

Earth-Prime is basically "our world" where the JLA are all fictional characters and the writers and creators exist on that earth. It's also the world where Superboy Prime originally came from. Since Adam had his mind zapped at a mental institute, the only solution is to find DC editor and Adam Strange super fan Julius Schwartz who can jog Adam's memory.

I'm not really a fan of creators writing themselves or their collegues into the story. It feels very self congratulatory. Especially since WW's lasso could have solved the whole thing. I much prefer how Marvel did it, like an Easter Egg, where Stan and Jack would sometimes appear as themselves in issues of Fantastic Four. But I guess you can look at this issue as Carey's tribute to Schwartz. This issue also came with a reprint of Justice League of America #123 where Carey Bates wrote himself (or rather his Earth Prime counterpart) as the villain of the story.

Adam Strange himself is a character that I have mixed feelings about. He's very much a product of his time but the ordinary guy with a space suit, jetpack and helmet really appeals to the young boy in me who loved the Rocketeer. I don't think anyone has ever quite figured out how to make him relevant today. Tom King tried in his mini but it was the usual trope of 'lets reveal this innocent Silver Age character is actually a horrible person' variety of reinvention.

Anyway, enough rambling, since this is a Zatanna blog, here is a few moments with her that I like:

-The League chilling on the tower, Diana looks like she is oogling at Zee plus Hal being a Pink Floyd fan:

-Zatanna and Barry interactions plus Barry taking a leader ship role:

-This bit about mind wipes:

Knowing how much of a nerd Barry is he probably folded inside when she called him boss.

Also while this was most likely an excuse to bring in Julius Schwartz, Zatanna not tampering with minds is more in character for her during this period especially since the arc with her mom also had a subplot of her being mad that her father played with her mind. Another point deducted from Identity Crisis.

Blink and you miss it panels where the artist is clearly showing off their ability to draw human body in perspective:

And Diana wanting to take a selfie after the League defeats Kanjar Ro:

(also Diana's clearly a history geek, only a history geeks would drop random facts about Incas completely unprompted):

Overall, it's an old school issue. Very much a throwback. Still it's noteable that the writer of this issue didn't do the almost obligatory 'Zee gets gagged or taken out early so other characters can shine' plot. Every one has a role and everyone contributes their fair share to help defeat the villain.

[mcalhenwrites]

Cal's Goals List

I'm trying my best to work hard as I can, despite my disabilities, so I can make a steady living. I work part time around dogs, but I also write books, draw dragons and take sketch commissions, and even sell crocheted items at tables (but I'd love to stop monetizing this and only have it as a hobby - so I can crochet my dragon OCs when it isn't physically hurting to crochet). My goals? One: I need a car to get to work. I work two towns over - will be even further away if I get this second part time job at the same company - and have three people juggling to give me rides. Two: I do need to buy a new laptop, and I'm extraordinarily picky with writing laptops. The one I use now is over 7 years old and still going, but only barely, and she can't support Win 11 so she'll lose support by October of next year. Three: I'd love to help out with more bills that my roommate currently covers for both of us. Four: I want to make enough money to save up for a house. I'm very sad my dog lives with my parents. He is turning 10 in October, and he's a pyr mix. I miss him. I'm rubbing my face against toys before I mail them so he can smell me on them, and I talk to him on speaker phone, but... it's not the same. I miss my baby.

Now, I have a book out for sale, and it won't be the only one. I hope to release some short stories and other novels within the next few months. For now, there is Geckos, Automata!

I have a Patreon and Ko-Fi as well. I have tiers for $1, $3, $5, and $10 to subscribe to on Patreon, plus some higher ones that I don't expect anyone to actually sub to, but admittedly I'm paywalling all my crochet at a high price to show I'm not really interested in monetizing it, but... I will, if it helps me get my dog back. Right now, Ko-Fi only shows a car goal, but I'll switch it to something else once I reach that goal. I'm saving from my part time job each paycheck for a car as well, so that $2500 is just to help, not the total. If you want to help out one time and give me physical gifts, you're free to hit up my wishlist as well. These allow me some comforts, though I ask if I have medical stuff or indie books on that list that are only sold through that site and nowhere else, you focus on those. That benefits other authors or helps with my healthcare. Thank you! :D You can also read some of my writing - original and fanfiction - on AO3! It's free, and you can use it to decide whether or not Geckos, Automata is up your alley. Thank you so much if you buy anything, boost anything, cheer me on, etc. I just need some wins in life. I'm going to keep chugging along, head up as much as I can keep it up. I think my writing and dragon art can be really intriguing for the right audience. I love what I do, and the more I write, the happier I am. But also: I love my dog and he deserves the best. Also, I think my roommate's kitties would love the space, and one of the cats would for sure be happy with more animals to play with. (The other is a bit skittish, but he'd warm up too, I'm pretty confident about that.)

[ottpopfic]

I don't know if y'all know but I work in early childhood education and used to work with a lot of preteens so there's CDS’ “The Program” aka what ‘What Otty Would Do Is She Got to Restructure CAMP Half Blood

Chb ‘the program’

Camper (just little dudes, you have a bunk till you're 18) -> Junior Counselor (13 or one quest, a cabin can have up to three) -> Head Counselor (15 or have done three quests) -> Staff Lead (min 18, a permanent staff position. One for each active cabin plus one for unclaimed ) -> Rest of Staff (staff member with a specific skill or training in an area to run. Ex. The forge, archery, the infirmary, the school teacher, etc) -> Chiron and Mr.D

Important that each staff member runs one (1) thing. Will is head of the Infirmary and only the Infirmary, Harley is Staff Lead of Cabin 9 but Nyssa runs The Forge. You can go to different adults for different training, Conner is Staff Lead for the Unclaimed but he will still teach you lock-picking etc. The only person who has two is Nico because he's head sword-fighting teacher but he also does funerals and underworld rights and education.

Lots of staff will also take shifts on other locations. If you have infirmary training you will have a shift there. Different people rotate through heading the climbing wall, or being lifeguard on duty. But your main responsibility does not change. Staff also have to do their continuing education hours, Chiron and Mr.D including.

They have a full time, trained, teacher now. He was a high school teacher and they poached him. If you are a year rounder you go to school, and if you finish you get your GED. If another staff person is skilled in something education wise you can apprentice with them, Ex. Alex Vlahos is apprenticing with Will in the healing arts and is getting credits to do it too. With a wider net of safe houses, temples, and adult demigods, when you age out instead of college you can go apprentice at one of those places as well. This isn't just for magic stuff either, you can get craft people certificates for things like plumbing and carpentry. Leo has trained a ton of welders.

There is housing for staff, visiting adult demigods, and kids who have aged out. Two brown stone L-shaped apartment buildings (three stories) angled around a courtyard. There are roommate situations for kids who still need CHB (orphans or ones who attract like crazy) with their own room and a shared common (four to an apartment. Think apartment style dorms.) There are a few ‘air bnb’ style two bedrooms for visitors, and then a mix of three to four bedrooms for long term staff. These are all mixed in, so when you are 19 and living on your own and hurt yourself there's a responsible adult with their two kids right next door to help.

A Head Counselor position hasn't changed much past not having to run other areas of camp. You still have to get your cabin to lunch, you are your cabin's main advocate, you still head things like capture the flag and take part in quest meetings. But you are not ‘the adult in charge’, you have a grown-ass adult to turn to and protect you. In turn a Junior Counselor is someone in training/in the running to be Head Counselor. They help with more day to day cabin wrangling, getting kids to bed etc. You have to be a Junior Counselor to be Head Counselor, this keeps it so no one is responsible for anyone too young or without knowing what they're doing, and establishes a line of succession. No more Wills no more Drews. Head Counselors work with their Staff Lead to appoint Junior Counselors

[sadcatinapartyhat]

Dorcas Meadowes headcanons developed (mostly) in the void

Hey Marauders Tumblr! I'm pretty new here, but I've seen people making lists like this of their headcanons, and as somebody who has never really interacted with fanon, I thought it would be interesting to share some of mine to see how they compare to what other people have come up with. I’ve had these for years, and my inspiration for them was literally just a few pieces of art on Pinterest (so, interestingly, the ways in which my headcanons are most similar to popular fanon tend to be in the characters’ appearances), the canon books, and my own overactive imagination. I'm starting with Dorcas, because from what little I've gathered she, Marlene, and Mary seem to be the characters for whom my interpretations are the most different from what's already out there (although it's fascinating how close they actually are sometimes).

Please do lmk what you think!!! I've put the list below the cut so as not to annoy people who just want to scroll ↓↓↓

First things first: like I said, I developed these before interacting with fanon much, so I am a Gryffindor Dorcas truther (I know a lot of people have her in Slytherin now, sorry 🙃)

“The weird and offputting one” (said with love)

One sibling. A brother, two years older, in Ravenclaw

Intelligent and creative. Would have been in Ravenclaw with her brother, but adamantly refused, as at the age of 11 she found him deeply irritating and could not stand to be in his presence

Very emotionally level. Difficult to excite, difficult to anger, difficult to deeply wound

Fatal flaw: stubbornness

Patronus: tiger 🐯

Acquired something of a reputation for casual meanness throughout her school years (though, importantly, not for cruelty). It wasn’t that she didn’t always think before she spoke; rather, it was that she cared more about what she thought than the feelings of those around her

Fashion-adventurous. As a child, enjoyed bright colours, patterns, and loose cuts; as an adult, enjoyed black, jewel tones, and artfully distressed items (would likely have enjoyed the goth subculture, but alas, ‘twas after her time)

Mastered colour-changing spells in third year so she could match the beads in her braids with her outfit, nail polish, and mood

Along with James and Lily, one of the few amongst her friends to have a happy upbringing

Would have done well in art school (mixed-media sculpture)

Did not dream of labour. Worked occasionally as a professional duellist, and won nearly all of her matches when she did, but devoted most of her time to the Order and her portraiture (which she hoped to one day make a living from, though she was unwilling to sacrifice her abstract, vivid style to satisfy her more traditional customers)

Genuinely confident in herself from an early age, including in her sexuality (asexual biromantic) (because gosh darn it this fandom needs some ace rep)

Figured the ace part out when she kissed her first boyfriend and hated it, but still wanted to know his mind and hold his hand; figured the biromantic part out when Marlene went on a date with her first boyfriend (which, in Marlene’s case, was comphet) and Dorcas also hated it

Confessed her feelings to Marlene straight away when she realised, but only to get it off her chest; never expected her feelings to be returned. Proceeded to date around a bit, and was pleasantly surprised a short while later :)

Had one Muggle grandmother, with whom she was very close. Passed away the summer between Dorcas’s fifth and sixth years (just after Dorcas received an ‘O’ on her Muggle Studies O.W.L.)

Took the maximum four out of five supplemental subjects after second year, mostly because a Ravenclaw bet she wouldn’t

Proposed to Marlene the night of James and Lily’s wedding, privately, in a dark corner of the dance floor after the newlyweds had left

Siouxsie and the Banshees #1 fan. Tragically too busy avenging her recently-murdered fiancée to listen to Juju, although she did hear “Spellbound” once or twice on the radio

Also an enjoyer of the B-52s

Anyway...I think about my version of Dorcas a lot (could you tell lol), and I'm pretty invested in these headcanons because they form the basis of her characterisation in the fanfiction I write, so I probably won't be changing my mind anytime soon, but it's always fun to hear what other people think! Seriously, please let me know :)

[littlemisssquiggles]

LittleMissSquiggles’ Summary of Art 2023

Honestly folks, I don't got much to say about this year. This might just be my shortest art summary to date since I don't have much to comment on this year's events.

2023 was a general mix of highs and lows but overall, not a bad year. You could say that this was the year I was more work-oriented.

I focused more on work especially during the early half of this year, between January and July and therefore didn't spend much time on personal projects; specifically 3D. That being said, I did end up getting back up to my art. Since I've been more focused on 3D for the past two years, I chose this year to get back into my 2D art doing illustrative work since I missed it.

More than that, I took this year to spend some well needed time improving my drawing skills, using tools and techniques from my 3D workflow in an attempt to improve my illustrative work and needless to say, I think it worked out great, even if the end results wasn't much.

---

Some squiggly good accomplishments I achieved in 2023:

Started the year employed and while I had to juggle two job opportunities which had its fair share of ups and downs in more ways than one, at least it allowed me the chance to earn the funds I needed to obtain my new workstation: a Lenovo Ideacentre 5 Gaming PC.

Learned about the almighty power of networking and remote desktops thanks to my contract job which allowed to me to transform my current setup into one that fully connects and maximizes the full use of all the devises in my arsenal. Basically I figured out how to connect my previous laptop to my new PC so now I work with a setup where my laptop acts as a third monitor for my PC while I'm able to access all my files from my laptop from my PC. Ontop of that, I also learnt how to connect my PC to my Ipad Mini, not just for transferring files for art but for also using it as a proxy computer device to remote into my main PC workstation. This may not seem like a big deal to most but for someone who didn't know a thing about most of this stuff up until this year, it makes a huge difference to this squiggle meister.

Gained a new four-legged member to the squiggle meister family household. A playfully mischievous yet adorable Husky-mix pup fittingly named Alaska or the "Wee Las" as I like to call her.

Experimented a lot with my art this year and while I may not have shared all of the fruits of my labour to social media, I have been making quite a few strides. ---- I spent the last couple of years pushing my social media presence and while I have benefitted from it from time to time, I missed out on just taking some time to myself; getting back to indulging in other activities that brought me joy; particularly the ones that involve truly honing my craft.

I hope to maintain this type of vibe moving forward towards the new year.

Even if my social media activity won't be as frequent as previous years, I do hope that those who have been following and supporting me and my work over years still continue to do so, even if it's to simply just check in from time to time.

To conclude my post, as always, I'm wishing everyone all the very, very best in their respective lives and daily endevours for the upcoming new year.

Let see what we got in store for 2024! Happy New Year folks!

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

♦  PREVIOUS ART SUMMARIES  ♦

2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

LittleMissSquiggles (2023)

[remyfire]

You went to a performing arts high school too?! Did you have to audition to get in? I know mine was extremely selective and I was the last one in the art department to secure a seat.

I did and we did! :) I signed up for an audition on a whim because I was applying to two other strictly academic magnet schools on the list anyway. There were supposed to be four girls in my audition group but I was the only one who showed. I think that worked out best for me. I was not a performer at age 14 and I would've been easily overshadowed in a group, but one-on-one with a sweet, kindly older man gave me the confidence to really open up my tone and sing my heart out.

We were unique in that we had only classical choirs, nothing jazzy or poppy. There were four of them, one that focused on all-women pieces from around the 1700s and 1800s, one that focused on songs that required bigger sound ranging more toward the late 1800s, early 1900s, one restricted to 16 singers which focused on madrigals around the 1500s, and one that focused on all-women pieces from the 1200s through to the 1700s—this was the only choir with student instrumentalists in it, which for my two years were a violinist, a cellist, and a flutist. The other choirs were either a cappella or accompanied by our conductor on piano. We could take care of ourselves really well without conducting if needed

I was in all of them over my tenure. In my senior year, I was the only one in both the women's choir with the instrumentalists and the madrigals choir, which I took as an incredibly high compliment given that those were both our most difficult choirs and also because I was a soprano, of which we had an above average amount of across the program. Truly he was not forced to put me in both. The madrigals choir was always such a pleasant challenge to my brain because there were exactly four of us in each part—four sopranos, split into two firsts, which sing the higher soprano line for more complicated pieces, and two seconds, which sing the lower soprano line, for example—so our conductor would test us on song performance and memorization by putting us in groups of four so we were the only one to carry our part and thus all mistakes were on us. Mind you, my professor was brilliant and picky as hell. To choose these groups, he would mix us up on the risers, have us sing a piece of ours on repeat, and he'd move in front of us testing the quality of the sound based on how different voices vibrated closer together, and he'd just gently direct us to move to different spots on the risers one by one as we sang, and only when he was satisfied with how all the groups of four's voices blended together would we be able to test fhdkfds

Anyway, it was a huge time in my life. The academics were difficult and my choral teacher was one of the most brilliant and compassionate professors in the school, almost universally loved and respected by all his students. He taught us how to read music by utilizing solfege—we marked every new piece of sheet music silently using do, re, mi, fa, etc. based on the key signature, and that was it. He didn't play it for us or demonstrate anything. He'd give us our do on a pitch pipe and we all extrapolated our starting notes from that note, and then he counted us in at a slower beat for the first time, and then off we went. He taught us all of our musical scales and how to best utilize our articulators and how to breathe properly. He never treated us like we were too young to be serious vocalists. He expected perfection but was not harsh in his criticism.

If you can't tell, I miss being in a serious choir haha. Thank you for asking me about this!! I had a really lovely time reminiscing ;v; I'm so glad you got to have an experience like that!! God, and one of the last spots too, that's amazing!