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quitealotofsodapop · 4 months

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Hey Mac, we thought you were dead;

Sequel to this post on Macaque being back in the "Century Stone Egg Au".

After the pregnant Monkey King breaks his shock, he'd run to embrace Macaque, even if he'd just been super close to clawing his eye out (again) and that they're last meeting was a huge fight. He only holds back because he's honestly a little scared/worried how and why Macaque is there. Wukong is immediately trying to apolgise for his violent reaction, but Macaque just laughes out; "Nah, it's my fault. Should've asked first." It's only with the shadow monkeys' breathy, almost *fond* laughter that Wukong realises that Mac is truly there for peace. Mac's interaction with PIF further confirms this.

The reincarnation gang + the dragon couple are super sketched out though. Pigsy is the one to loudly ask "How do you know it's him and not some weird copycat?", mostly cus he's legit worried for Wukong in this moment. Somebody's dead partner don't just show up one day!

Wukong responds with his Gold Vision + its hard to fake the way Mac smells. The gang still refuse to leave the two alone together until they recieve a decent explaination.

The fact that Macaque literally looks like he crawled out of the grave quickly gives everybody a bad feeling, and they def force Mac to sit down and explain how tf he came back to life before he's even allowed smell Wukong.

Macaque: "I may have agreed to do something... kinda stupid in hindsight." Wukong, : "Mac... look at me. What did you do?" Macaque: "...ok don't be mad." Wukong: "I'm preemptively seething." Macaque: "I accepted a deal from the White Bone Spirit." Wukong: "I'M FURIOUS!!!" *starts throwing whatever's closest at Mac* Macaque, dodges a pillow: "Pfff! Calm down, it's not like I'm actually gonna do it! She brought me back to life to release her from a tomb or something and I chucked the key away the second I got back." The whole Room: "..." Wukong: "Mihou... thats the stupidiest thing you could have done!" *summons hair clones to throw stuff at Mac* Macaque, now failing to dodge fruit: "OW! Why are you upset!? We both know nothing good will come of letting that demon free!" PIF: "Mihou, if this Bone Demon was able to bring you back from the dead, then she has the power to track you down and recind her offer." Macaque: "...so you're saying that I have to fufill her deal, or I might get dragged back to Diyu?" Wukong and PIF, at the same time: "YES!!!" Macaque: "Shit." The Whole Room: *covering Red and Mei's ears* "LANGUAGE!!" Tang: "You should work on that before the baby gets here.

Oh you better believe Mac's in the doghouse until they can figure out how to resolve the LBD business deal. PIF calls up her lawyer to go over the exact terms and conditions.

Fire Star: "Ok, I've got good news and bad news." Macaque: "Bad news first." Fire Star: "The Lady Bone Demon's geas is airtight. You will have to open her tomb *slash* free her spirit in order to keep your place in this mortal realm - less you be recalled at a later date for a task of similar value or until she makes you redundant." Pigsy: "Translate for the non-lawyers please." Fire Star: "Either he does it, or she makes him do it, or she just takes his soul." Macaque: "Shit." Wukong & PIF: *glaring daggers at Mac* Macaque: "So what's the good news?" Fire Star, slyly: "Those are the only conditions to the geas. There's a reason you need lawyers for these kind of things nowadays. She didn't stipulate say... where to release her. Or whom would be present to greet her when her tomb opens." Everyone: *shares similar delighted/scheming looks* (*a few hours + a few calls to a worried Nezha later*) Macaque: *unlocks LBD's tomb* LBD: "Freedom! Freedom! Fr-" All of Wukong's allies in the Heavenly Army + Diyu officials:

LBD: "Oh bother."

As the Bone Demon gets carted away for conspiracy to destroy the world, she gets yelled at by all of the Underworld/Diyu officials that now have to deal with the fallout of her actions.

King Yama: "Do you understand how much paperwork I have to do to mark this monkey as alive!? He doesn't have a death date! It's been blotted out! I'll be correcting his files for months!!" Macaque: *high fives Fire Star for the solid lawyer-ing*

As far as Hell/Diyu is concerned, Macaque performed a service and was paid upfront. They don't want the headache of trying to take him back if his mate (someone who's trashed Hell before) wants to keep him.

Wukong is still super-mad at Mac for a variety of reasons, don't get hom wrong. But he's atleast glad in the moment to have his mate back. And glad that LBD is gone for the forseeable future.

#century stone egg au #stone egg talk #pregnancy tw #shadowpeach #sun wukong #liu er mihou #six eared macaque #lmk pif #lmk princess iron fan #lmk pigsy #lmk lbd #lmk s3 spoilers #lmk #lego monkie kid

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retronator · 8 months

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I never played Karateka in the 80s, but as a big fan of Prince of Persia and Jordan Mechner's journals, I was stoked to hear that an interactive documentary about Jordan's prototypical cinematic platformer was in the works by Digital Eclipse.

Released this week, The Making of Karateka on the surface looks like any other game you buy through Steam ($20, Windows-only), GOG, or whichever favorite store or console you prefer (available also for Xbox, PS4/5, Switch). Once the thing loads though, you really get 3 things: a documentary, the original Karateka, and a new remaster.

The documentary part is an audio-visual slideshow retelling Jordan's development story starting with his teenage years pitching his earlier title Deathbounce to the publishing house Brøderbund. It's an interesting look into the iterative process, seen through correspondence letters, journal entries, and many playable builds at various stages of completion. After we reach the eventual rejection of that title, Jordan comes back with a prototype of a visual-narrative experience unseen on home computers. We get to follow Karateka's full life cycle from pre- to post-production, ending with the conception of its sequel (which eventually turned into Prince of Persia). It's a real treasure trove! Fellow pixel artists will appreciate the many graph-paper sketches and interactive overlays of final game sprites compared to rotoscoped outlines and filmed footage. There are also video segments, from a comprehensive breakdown of the music to interviews with other developers reflecting on the impact Jordan's games had on their careers. You'll even encounter a fan letter signed by the one and only "John Romero, Disciple of the Great Jordan and worshipper of the Magnificent Mechner!" (I kid you not, you can't make this stuff up).

Perhaps just as crucial for an interactive documentary like this, you can launch any of the floppy disks in the emulator, trying out various iterations and ports of Karateka.

The emulation is fantastic and lets you fiddle with display settings (monochrome or color display, scanlines, pixel perfect or zoomed) as well as enhance the frame rate. You can even rewind the many deaths you will face if you've never played the game before (like me). If you spend some more time obsessing over the weird artifacts of the Apple II hi-res graphics, you might even go down the rabbit hole of realizing that on the Apple II you didn't really paint colors as much as you used different monochrome dithering patterns that the graphics display would then turn into 4 different hues. A fascinating learning experience if you include some of your own research online!

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Add to this the Commodore 64 and the Atari 8-bit versions to compare how the graphics got adapted across the earlier ports and you have a nice way to relieve the mid-80s with a bit of help from modern emulation (I did beat the C64 version without rewinding though!). I'd love to see more art from the other remakes, especially the 16-bit Atari ST port, but I understand their decision to omit playable versions of those due to the lower quality on the gameplay side of the translations.

This brings us to the final part of the package, the modern remaster. Unlike the 2012 complete reimagining of the game (with 3D graphics and all), Digital Eclipse approached the remake as the ultimate port of the original to an imaginary system along the lines of a 90s VGA PC.

It's well done. Some of the fully-redrawn scenes are a bit overpainted for my taste (I'd prefer a pixel art rendition of the castle than a blurry photographic collage, although there were many games in the 90s that did take this approach), but the in-game graphics are really in style, including the smooth animations that are like one would imagine granted a beefier CPU. It's also a sort of director's cut with previously unseen scenes added, in particular, the battle with the leopard as a clever action-puzzle in the middle. The AI is unfortunately even less challenging than Jordan's implementation. As great as the 6-move fighting system could have been, you yet again resort to simply kicking away opponents as they tirelessly crawl into your range. There isn't even the nuance from the original where you were the one who had to approach some enemies with skilled timing. On the other hand, you now have optional goals and achievements that make the repetitive/easy combat work in your favor (stringing various combos, beating opponents or the level under a time limit …). As the Digital Eclipse president Mike Mika admits at the end of the welcome commentary mode, they didn't manage to achieve their perfect port, but they did come close.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed playing both the original as well as the remake and while the combat system lacks any sort of depth beneath its stunning animations, Karateka is instead a monumental experience for its presentation. Big characters with personality and realistic motion are displayed through cinematic camera cuts and story vignettes (3 years before Ron Gilbert came up with the word "cutscene"). There are details like animating the unfortunate falling off the cliff at the start of the game, or respectfully bowing to the first guard as they bow in return. Jordan's creative work is precious and worth the attention this release gifts it.

I highly recommend The Making of Karateka to all retro gamers and/or game developers for its immersive documentation which provides an experience that goes beyond the usual video documentaries. It's interactive—just like the subject it's talking about—something I want to see more in the future. And if the $20 by any chance seems high to you, consider that the original retailed at $35 (and that was in 1984 dollars).

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#Feature #Gaming #Pixel Art #Digital Eclipse #Jordan Mechner #Platformer #Documentary #cover2 #title3

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aufi-creative-mind · 10 months

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Slightly eldritch Link and Zelda post-totk? Like what effects does draconification have on Zelda when she returns and what effects does link have from the zonai arm?

Could be physical, could be mental, maybe both?

And if you are into linked universe, what does the chain think of this?

..... C:<

Slightly eldritch, you say? WELL...

I don't have a lot for a Post-TotK Zelda... Maybe some leftover scales on parts of her body but that's as far as I can think of.

But for Link, I have PLENTY.

Especially for a Post-TotK LU Wild.

This is gonna be a very long post so please bear with me on this one.

Many of the Post-TotK Wild headcanons I had were made from 2019 onwards, after the BotW2 announcement trailer. And then started to evolve and become more eldritch during the 4 year long waiting and from the breadcrumbs of info the Zelda dev team dropped prior to 2023 release.

(Most of these Post-TotK Wild headcanon have now since been debunked with the official TotK game lore. But I like to come back to them and they are being repurposed in some way with the new official TotK context).

Many of these headcanons were about Wild's creepy glowing green hand. Especially as prior to the game's release, it was never revealed who was the hand's original owner. So I had a dark theory that the Glowing Green Hand was originally the Ancient Hero's and their Hero's Spirit was used as the "Seal" on Ganondorf's corpse. Thus halting the Reincarnation Cycle and why there's a massive 10K year gap between the Ancient Hero of 10K and the Hero of the Wild's incarnations. (This is no longer the case, of course but I sometimes think about it).

So anyway, as for what effects the Zonai Arm may had left behind on Link.

Officially, I had an idea that the Recall ability had enhanced Link's Flurry Rush ability. Particularly the "freeze" game mechanic when Recall is activated, which allowed Link to quickly observe what's in front of him in a split second in real time. And also makes it easier for him to trigger his Flurry Rush when on the ground.

So...basically his time perspective and trigger instincts for his Flurry Rush ability have improved. Especially as I have a headcanon that Link's Flurry Rush is his Champion Ability in BotW.

As for Pre-Totk release / "if Link kept the Zonai Arm abilities" headcanons, I have a couple of ideas that I did experimented with. Especially with the LU Boys.

At the time, I had Post-TotK Wild to not only being older but is also rather cryptic about his TotK adventure with the reasoning that its still too raw for him to tell the rest about what happened (Especially as there was so little info about what happened at the time, other than "a sequel is in development" and "Link gets a glowing arm").

Of course, this has now changed and I am still thinking about what new experiences and abilities from TotK would Wild bring to the LU Family. Though the one definite change from the original Post-TotK headcanon is that... Wild is now 7 years older than he was in BotW. So he's now 125 years old.

Before the Zonai Arm's Abilities were revealed, I had an idea that the Glowing Arm had three abilities - dubbed "Farore's Blessings" - Wrath (rage/survival power up), Breath (ability to see spirits/soul leaking) and Spirits (animal spirits and where the Farore's Spirits originated from).

Some of these ideas may be repurposed with the official TotK ideas.

I have also done a handful of stories that explores the Farore's Blessing abilities with the LU family in the past. Including Puppet Twilight AND Fierce Deity. Especially the Fierce Deity one which was originally an early live writing story that I spotenously created in the LU main server back in 2019.

Here's the sketches I made based on that.

(Original posts: Original 2019 sketch [left], 2020 Redrawing [right])

(Original post: Dialogue Exchange comic)

I have plenty more in store! Many old Pre-TotK-release headcanons and new TotK ones that are slowly brewing in the back of my mind. But this is how much I can post for now.

Enjoy! :D

#answered #but like seriously though i had to edit this one post 5 times because it kept deleting all of the pics i wanted to attached...#linkeduniverse #linked universe #tears of the kingdom #totk #botw2 #breath of the wild 2 #lu wild #lu time #totk spoilers #tears of the kingdom spoilers

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atamascolily · 6 months

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There's a game I play as a writer that I call "Story Problems" -- I'll stop an episode or a movie halfway to three-quarters of the way through and try to sketch the ending I think the writers have in mind based on what I've seen thus far. Obviously, this is much easier with self-contained mysteries and ten-minute one-shot children's cartoons than extended dramas, but through regular practice, I've learned to pay attention to all the clues dropped in the exposition and how seemingly unrelated details are woven together into a coherent narrative whole.

Some people use the term "Chekhov's gun" for these hints, but I prefer "set-up and payoff". No matter what you call them, writing is essentially a sleight-of-hand performance, where the writer tell the audience exactly what they're going to do while simultaneously distracting them so that they're too busy focusing on other things to notice until the big reveal.

All this is a roundabout way of saying I've spent a lot of time thinking about the "story problem" represented by Walpurgis no Kaiten and how it might unfold.

First and most importantly, why bring Walpurgisnacht back in the first place? What role can a seemingly defeated witch (however mysterious) have in PMMM going forward? What are we, the audience, missing that would allow us to make sense of this? What in her story remains incomplete or unaddressed?

I sympathize with those who wanted Walpurgisnacht's nature to remain a mystery, but I think that ship sailed the moment SHAFT decided to bring her back for the sequel. If indeed Walpurgisnacht is returning--and why name the movie after her if she isn't?--then she must be somehow connected in some way to the main cast beyond her role in the original series as the Final Boss, or else why even bother?

(Seriously, if SHAFT wanted Walpurgisnacht's presence to be a surprise, they could have titled the movie literally ANYTHING else, but they didn't. That was a deliberate choice on their part, so I not only assume that Walpurgisnacht must be important somehow--central, even--but the big twist is not THAT she returns, but HOW and WHY.)

Cut to several years of radio silence after the initial announcement, giving me plenty of time to think. One night in the fall of 2022, the following conversation played out in my head unprompted:

Brain: Hahahaha, you know what, I bet they're really going with the whole 'Homura is Walpurgisnacht' twist after all! "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace", and all that. Plus, can you imagine how angry this will make people on Reddit? Me: Okay, but why are you telling me this NOW?

Brain:

Me: crying You sick son of a bitch.

To be fair, improbable plot summaries have something of a history in this franchise--if I were to travel back to 2012 and tell people that Homura becomes a witch and traps everyone in her labyrinth and then turns into the Devil, I don't think many people would have believed THAT either until it played out in front of them. But this one was particularly disheartening because the "Homura is Walpurgisnacht" theory*--which was initially popular when the series was released--was seemingly discredited in Rebellion with the appearance of Homura's witch Homulilly. To say otherwise was going to be one hell of a hard sell for a lot of people.

(*I know, I know, I know, Walpurgisnacht is a composite super-witch made of multiple entities, but I need a shorthand way of describing it, even if it's not as technically accurate, so bear with me here.)

But even though my assertion seemed counterintuitive on the surface, I was convinced that it would eventually prove to be the case for several reasons:

1) Another game I like to play as a writer is called "The Worst Thing That Could Possibly Happen" (alternate title: "Put That Character In A Situation"). Essentially, I try to imagine what would hurt/challenge the characters the most for maximum drama or effect, and then I make it happen. Based on Homura's history and her relationship with Walpurgisnacht, what would be the worst thing that could possibly happen re: Walpurgisnacht's return?

Well, given how much Homura has invested in protecting Madoka from this witch--from reliving the same month hundreds of times over to becoming the self-proclaimed embodiment of evil just to make a world where Madoka could be happy--the worst thing that could happen to Homura would be that she discovers that everything she's done, all that she's fought and sacrificed for, has led directly to the one thing she's been trying to prevent this whole time: the (re?)creation of Walpurgisnacht herself.

In other words, this tweet:

I mentioned my theory to someone recently, and their response (paraphrased) was that they felt the original series had already covered this particular form of dramatic irony and they hoped WnK would go in a different direction. Fair enough, but this is a series that thrives on revisiting the same scenes from different angles, to the point of a shot-for-shot remake of Madoka with her family at the beginning of Rebellion to mirror the original series! So just because they've done similar things before doesn't mean it's necessarily off the table in the future--to me, that makes it even more likely, actually. And frankly, I think some amount of revisiting the past was inevitable the moment SHAFT decided they were bringing Walpurgisnacht back in the first place.

Given PMMM's obsession with cycles and repetition, I'd go one step further and make it worse: not only are Homura's actions what bring Walpurgisnacht back, these same actions are what lead to all the Walpurgisnachts in the past, so that Homura created the very monster who killed Madoka and caused Homura herself to become a magical girl in the first place. Essentially, Homura becomes her own ancestor in a massive time loop/bootstrap paradox with no beginning and no end (or at least, that's how it seems at first--I doubt that's where the story TRULY ends, though it would make for one hell of a cliffhanger).

It would be bad enough if Homura directly or indirectly created Walpurgisnacht AND created a time loop, but you know what would make the situation EVEN WORSE? What if the enemy that Homura had been fighting for so long wasn't some other external force outside of her, but her own SELF-- if Homura not only created her own enemy, but also WAS that enemy, too, becoming the thing she feared and hated the most? I've talked in my previous posts about how PMMM excels at making the metaphorical literal, as well as its proclivity for turning characters into their opposites, so this would be a logical next step in that direction.

Given that Gen Urobuchi's nickname is "the Urobutcher", I think it's safe to say he knows how to make characters suffer. Thus, I'd be deeply surprised if he doesn't play the same game that I do--and if so, he might draw similar conclusions to the ones I've outlined above.

2) A major twist in every installment thus far has been that Homura is not who or what we think she is--first a time traveler, then a witch, then the Devil. If this pattern continues, what new revelations would surprise us about Homura? In order for the story to continue, it's likely that she must grow and change beyond her Devil persona--what might that look like? A transformation into the massive super-witch that was her enemy would certainly answer both questions and then some, although it may not be the answer people want.

(If nothing else, Homura will likely have at least one new outfit in Walpurgis no Kaiten so that SHAFT can sell the merchandise, lol.)

3) Not only do Homura's actions drive the plot of PMMM, the franchise is deeply concerned with her emotional life, and she is the center around which everything revolves (although this is not always immediately apparent due to the way each installment is structured). Thus, it's likely that Homura's relationship with Walpurgisnacht is both central to the plot and deeply personal--and what could be more personal than this?

4) In a show with excellent visual design, where every detail is selected with care, and usually means something (even if that meaning is not immediately apparent), there are far too many visual and narrative parallels between Homura and Walpurgisnacht to be a coincidence. Having the two be connected in this fashion would explain all of this in a concise and satisfying manner.

5) One of the things I admire about PMMM from a storytelling perspective is how efficient it is--every character and detail has a purpose, and nothing is wasted. Having Homura be/become Walpurgisnacht is not the ONLY way to establish a connection between them, but it is undeniably the simplest and the most efficient from a purely technical angle, as it only involves one character the audience already knows and cares about vs. adding an entirely new entity to the mix.

That was my answer to the story problem of "What is Walpurgis no Kaiten about?" in late 2022, based solely on the limited information available to me (i.e.m the title of the movie + everything that has come before). But while it seemed abundantly clear to me--almost inevitable--that Homura would somehow become Walpurgisnacht, I didn't have a good explanation for HOW this might come about beyond "timey-wimey reality-bending and/or multiverse shenanigans"--which, while adequate for my purposes, was not enough evidence to convince others of my argument, and so I let the matter rest.

Then the key visual dropped in September 2023, and I burst out laughing the instant I saw the second Homura, because I knew how SHAFT was going to solve the problem that had stumped me: one Homura would create/become Walpurgisnacht and the other would attempt to stop her (and probably fail, at least at first).

Homura is such a complex and multi-faceted character, I think it's a bit simplistic to say that one of the pair will be purely good and the other evil. Suffice to say there will be one Homura that we're rooting for (the one with ribbons) and one that we're probably not rooting for (the one with the headband) and leave it at that for now.

I'll freely admit that I still don't fully understand the mechanics of how and why there are two Homuras or how Walpurgisnacht arises from the actions of one or both of them, but I don't need to: everything we need to know is contained within the framing of that key visual. Homura will be the source of all her problems in this movie; that's all that matters. Everything else is details--delicious, to be sure, and I look forward to analyzing them in great detail, but the core (heh) conflict of the movie is already apparent.

Of course, you could make the argument that my original gut feeling was wrong because the second Homura doesn't "count" as Homura. To me, that's semantic hair-splitting--for my purposes, if she looks like Homura and is voiced by Chiwa Saito and retains all of Homura's powers, abilities, and associated symbolism, then she IS Homura in all the way that really matter, but I'm sure people can and will disagree with me on that. In the end, when it comes to PMMM, it's Homura all the way down--and I think Walpurgis no Kaiten will make that literal before the end.

(not gonna lie, the idea that all the Clara Dolls turn into Homuras too, so that Walpurgisnacht is made up of nothing but Homuras is pretty delicious--but so is the idea of the doppelganger Homura somehow hijacking or corrupting the Law of Cycles, which we know is full of witches, and turning it to her own ends. Or both, both is good, too!)

I know a lot of people hate the "Homura is Walpurgisnacht" theory, but I think it keeps popping up for a reason, and will continue to do so until Walpurgis no Kaiten finally gives us sufficient information to either make it canon or lay it to rest for good. Personally, I love the idea--as a quick browse through my "#vein of gold" tag will attest, I love when characters are forced to confront their shadow selves, their dark sides, and their doubles; I love when the call is coming from inside the house. For me, Homura becoming Walpurgisnacht wouldn't be cliche or boring, it would be a plot twist that would explain everything we've seen to date while simultaneously re-framing it, making it a Greek tragedy of incredible proportions. And a lot of people hated the whole "Homura becomes the Devil" twist when Rebellion came out, so why should Walpurgis no Kaiten be any different in this regard?

One of the things that I love about this franchise is that it's never been afraid to go big and bold and cosmic while simultaneously remaining deeply personal--and solidifying the connections between Homura and Walpurgisnacht would be all of those things at once and then some. I don't know why this particular idea has captured me, or why I feel so strongly about it, but in the end, I don't have any inside information, just an intuition that refuses to let go.

Ultimately, I suspect whether you like this theory or not comes down to whether you think the primary conflict of Madoka Magica is external (characters battling an enemy outside of themselves) or internal (characters battling an enemy within). My gut feeling is that Walpurgis no Kaiten will be an internal battle playing out on an external stage, essentially making this a "both/and" situation, and it will revisit many elements of both the original series and Rebellion while simultaneously breaking new ground.

It may well be that Urobuchi and SHAFT have a different answer to this particular story problem than the one I've outlined here--but if so, I can't see it. In the end, all I can do is imagine the story that I would write based on the clues I've been given, which may or may not be the same as the one they are planning. We'll find out if there's any truth at all to my intuitions or if I'm barking up the wrong tree when the movie finally comes out.

And hey, if I'm going to be wrong, I'd rather go out with a wild and crazy idea than playing it safe with some half-assed guessing. If I can't be right, I might as well be INTERESTING. And there's always fanfic to fall back on if the movie ends up going in a radically different direction and I still feel strongly about this by then.

#puella magi madoka magica #pmmm analysis #walpurgisnacht rising #walpurgis no kaiten #madoka magica

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aristidetwain · 7 months

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Jenny and the Gang: An Interview With Joe Macaré & Nelson Evergreen

Today, October 24th, 2023, marks the 21st anniversary of Name’s Not Down, commonly regarded as the first completed Jenny Everywhere comic story. The work of Joe Macaré and Nelson Evergreen, it was formally released into the public domain on Jenny Everywhere Day last year alongside its sequel, Damn Fine Hostile Takeover, at my own instigation.

Having managed to track down both of these highly esteemed creators — long since departed from the Jenny Everywhere community — it was then my duty and my very great pleasure to conduct the first-ever joint Jenny-centric interview of two of the honoured few who shaped the character in her infancy.

Goggles on! Shift to Interviewspace in three… two… one…

How would you introduce yourselves to Jenny Everywhere readers?

Joe: My name is Joe Macaré (he/him), and I was raised in the Midlands (UK) and now live in the Midwest (US). I work in fundraising and communications, currently for a LGBT+ rights advocacy organization.

Nelson: I’m Neil Evans, a Welsh illustrator and comic artist occasionally going by the pseudonym Nelson Evergreen. I moved back to my hometown of Wrexham, North Wales in 2017, after twenty merry years in Brighton on the south coast of England. Illustration work this year includes a version of George Orwell’s 1984 (Oxford University Press), an anthology of weird — and often terrifying — Christmas folklore from around the globe (Cider Mill Press) and a 72 page graphic novel detailing the life of Mamie Phipps Clarke, the psychologist and activist whose research with her husband Kenneth was key to the abolition of racial segregation in US schools (Magination Press). Between jobs I’m busy with various ongoing personal labours of love, a couple of which are, after years of agonisingly glacial/troubled development, tantalisingly close to shareable. You can find me at neil-evans.net!

How did you originally learn about Jenny, and what led to your creating full comics starring the character? If those are different questions, what did you/do you like about the character — was it the open-source nature of the project? The appeal of Jenny herself as a protagonist? Something else?

J: I was active on the Barbelith message board from 2000-200something; closer to the truth to say that around the time Jenny Everywhere was created I was deeply, deeply enmeshed on that forum and in that community. It was my first internet “home” and so it’s probably accurate to say that I was initially drawn to the character because it was a Barbelith creative project and therefore something I wanted to be a part of. But also, when Steven “Moriarty” Wintle drew that first sketch, it definitely popped. Jenny, especially with the paragraph description attached, seemed like someone I knew, or someone I would like to know. An idealized avatar in some ways, but a plausible person in others.

N: I found Barbelith not long after I began “boxsetting” The Invisibles (very belatedly, it was close to the end of the comic’s run), and got quite addicted to the forum. It was a good place. I’d been messing about making music in bands for a few years, neglecting the illustration/comic side of things, and wanted to get back into drawing… and Barbelith happened to have lots of folk who were very good with words. So I posted a few pieces of work and asked if anyone had any comic scripts they wanted drawn, and I’m guessing Moriarty/Steven’s Jenny thread must have appeared at around that time or very shortly after..? Joe and I had certainly already touched on the idea of working together, so when Jenny appeared I think we just took it as read that that was “the one”. With Jenny, the initial appeal for me was the very unique nature of her potential: the dozens/hundreds/thousands of different ways the character could go, depending on who’s working with her. Also, I’m generally quite content in my own company - god knows, you have to be when you’re illustrating comics - but I loved the online hubbub around her at that time. There was something really… *cosy* about knowing others were working on their own versions of this character. So that was another huge part of the appeal, that sense of community.

Even though the multiversal gimmick is one of the first things people hear about Jenny, neither Name's Not Down nor Damn Fine Hostile Takeover make any direct reference to it. Was this a conscious choice, and if so, what motivated it?

J: For my part it was a conscious choice and it had a lot to do with the kind of comics I was reading at the time and being influenced by. At the time, complicated continuities and parallel universes seemed like slightly embarrassing excesses that characterized Marvel/DC superhero comics. They were prog rock, and were being challenged by a new wave of what Oni Press called “real mainstream” indie comics. Punchy, punky, often black & white, and very self-consciously influenced more by movies, TV, and music than by superhero comics. You could put fantastical elements in there but nothing that demanded a long explanation. Now, not only did the idea of making comics without multiverses become the mainstream, so that they were more like movies and TV, turn out to be onto a losing proposition and *the exact opposite of what happened,* for better or worse, but half the star writers and comics “thinkers” of the time later turned out to be predatory creeps. Whoops! But at the time, this was the cultural scene that shaped what I wanted to write. A comic you wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen reading at the zine fair or dance party. Of course, goody nerd that I’ve always been, I couldn’t help but include Smallville references, so any attempt to be consciously cool was always somewhat doomed.

Were there any interesting, non-obvious inspirations or references baked into these stories, that you'd like to share?

J: Oh god, sometimes I think those scripts were nothing *but* references and it’s quite possible I’ve forgotten some of them now. I mean I’d be very embarrassed by all the Smallville references were it not for the fact that I remember that in the UK, the show was aired in the Sunday morning block which made it perfect hangover television. Clea was named after Clea Duvall. Bradley was named the somewhat obscure 2000 AD character. I think the most obscure influence/reference is having the character Lex, who considers himself a charmer, always introduce himself by saying “Greetings!” That’s a reference to eldest son Joey in the late 1980s BBC comedy series, Bread. That one was probably only noticed by other British people my age who grew up relating greatly to a show about a working class family with an absent father who constantly worried about money. The television I watched as a kid also led to me choosing Apollo Coffee as the name of the Starbucks stand-in, Starbuck and Apollo being a reference to the original Battlestar Galactica (the reboot had not yet come along!). “Damn Fine Hostile Takeover” is obviously extremely far from a serious piece of political polemic, but I do remember consciously wanting to introduce at least a small flavor of agitprop, compared to “Name’s Not Down” which is mostly just a power fantasy about beating up needlessly aggressive doormen to get into a club. The early political “analysis” I had at the time, which didn’t go much beyond big corporate chains being bad and small local independent coffee shops being good, was obviously influenced by stuff like Naomi Klein’s No Logo. And a sort of bastardized pop culture version of that, that had showed up in things like Grant Morrison’s Marvel Boy. Oh, and a misunderstood El-P lyric. Speaking of Morrison, as befits a character created on Barbelith, that approach of “shove in references to everything you’re inspired by, watching, reading, or listening to at the particular moment you’re writing the comic” was very much inspired by Morrison in general and The Invisibles in particular. Although the Morrison comic I was most trying to emulate, at least in “Name’s Not Down” was Kill Your Boyfriend. But also, the whole reason I set those comics in a thinly fictionalized version of Brighton is because at the time, I was living in London and knew a bunch of people in Brighton (again, many of them through Barbelith, or adjacent to people I’d met via that place). They all seemed very impressive and cool to me at the time: people who put on club nights (It Came From The Sea), wrote about music (Careless Talk Costs Lives / Plan B), or on whom I just had a really big crush. I would take the train down to Brighton many weekends and it loomed large in my imagination. Although there’s no evidence of this on Google, I did not invent calling it “Right-On”: that’s another thing I stole or borrowed and can’t remember from whom or where.

How detailed were the scripts/how much freedom was there on the art end of things? Did you start from a synopsis, or a script, or a storyboard? Are there any notable ways in which the finished works differed from the original outline?

N: I can’t refer to them because I lost my copies in a hard drive calamity a couple of years later, but I remember being struck by how full of gusto and enthusiasm Joe’s scripts were. They really got me fired up to draw. The stage directions had the same infectious energy as the dialogue. I get some quite perfunctory scripts in my line of work — and that’s fine — but I do appreciate the ones that go above and beyond. I think I’m right in recalling the scripts as being very precise..? Joe had a very clear idea of the pacing, and how the story and gags would flow from panel to panel. The dialogue was all there from the start. I remember reading through and immediately getting a clear mental picture of how it was all going to look. It was very tightly scripted but not in a way that felt restrictive, it was very free and easy to illustrate. And it gave me plenty of leeway to come up with hordes of characters/creatures in those big ensemble panels.

J: I no longer have the scripts so I’m going from memory, but: I wrote pretty detailed scripts but I definitely had panels or entire pages where I encouraged Nelson Evergreen to cut loose and add whatever details and weird characters sprang to his mind. This is as good a place as any to state that I got phenomenally lucky when Nelson agreed to collaborate. Of all the artists who were kicking around Barbelith at the time and who were at all interested in the project, he was perhaps the most talented and I certainly can’t imagine anyone else who would have drawn those comics as well, or that they would have been received as warmly had they been drawn by anyone else.

A mysterious bald man makes conspicuous cameos in both of your long-form Jenny comics. What's the significance of this character? Some of us in the Jenny Everywhere Discord suggested he might have been meant to be Grant Morrison themself, owing to the focus of the forum on which Jenny originally appeared; short of that, we have no idea…

N: I *think* he was my addition, but again, without having the scripts to hand, my memory may be playing tricks on me. I mean, he *looks* like the sort of thing I’d have thrown in! I’ve always enjoyed the sight of one lone person looking utterly severe/unimpressed in the midst of general merriment, and I’m guessing I improvised MBM in one panel, he made me laugh, so I put him in another, and then another. Dave, the keyboard player in my band at the time, had that exact t-shirt, with the “Guides” logo, which he wore all the bloody time, and that must have seemed to me like the perfect outfit. So yeah, just a silly little running visual thing I threw in off the cuff to amuse myself really. Looking back at if from a distance, he *does* look quite significant, doesn’t he? Sorry! I feel like a right troll.

You've stated in the past that you included the Jenny Nowhere cliffhanger in Damn Fine Hostile Takeover without a conscious plan for what that story might be about — but did you ever have any plans for further Jenny stories that didn't materialise? If so, what were they about? And if you had to write the Nowhere story, what might it be like?

J: The only idea I remember from “The Two Jennys” was that Jenny Nowhere would have made her base of operations the Right-On version of the ruined West Pier (the real world version of which in Brighton is now even more skeletal and not practical for even the most doomer supervillain to use as a hideout). I think it would have culminated in a Quadrophenia-style beach brawl between each Jenny’s followers (Nowhere’s gang all being various black-clad kinds of goths, punks, and techno-nihilists, in contrast to Everywhere’s more brightly colored subcultures). But it’s been long enough now that I can confess that at various points I was working on two or three other ideas for follow-up stories. One was entitled “Dance-Off 2004” (the year kept changing as it got delayed) and the concept speaks for itself. Then there was “You Say Derby! We Say Die!” which was not a reference to the town in the Midlands but rather to my interest in roller derby which peaked circa 2007-2009 or so (and was named after the band You Say Party). But the last time I was kicking an idea around, it was 2012 and I was already thinking about something with a very different tone that was based around the idea of the Jenny Everywhere “gang” reuniting after going their separate ways. Lex now runs a pub and is married (to Lois from the coffee shop) with two kids. Bradley made a fortune designing extremely blasphemous videogames. Clea is an academic in San Francisco. Everyone quit smoking. Those three aforementioned sequels that never got made would appear as flashback panels, a montage of sorts, unfinished comics repurposed as “lost/secret adventures.” The tone for this was once again stolen from a Grant Morrison comic, namely the “zzzzenith.com” one-off sequel to Zenith. Less a sequel, more a bittersweet look back at an era.

If you've kept up with more recent Jenny projects to one degree or another, what are your thoughts on them?

N: I haven’t, but they’re on the ‘to do’ list.

If you had limitless time and budget for it, what would be your “dream” Jenny project?

N: Limitless time and budget…? Oooooh. Multiverse versions of the Right-On gang. Sci-fi stuff, cosmic stuff. Stuff that’s wild to draw. The same snappy feel and flow of the originals, but with extra helpings of the rainy melancholy Joe brought in at the close of Damn Fine Hostile Takeover.

Do you think you'll ever return to the character? How differently would you approach it if you did?

N: Time permitting, absolutely. It was fun.

J: Well, the gap in time since I last toyed with the idea of a nostalgic sequel comic is now longer than the original time period between the first comics and that one. And those years mean that I both feel more distance from my version of the character, and the supporting cast I gave her, but also more unqualified affection. I joked about embarrassment earlier but it’s actually been long enough now that I’ve passed through and out of the period where I found anything about it embarrassing. What I was writing reflects who I was at the time and also maybe a little of where the zeitgeist was: the violence is cartoony, there’s no consequences to it, and there’s what I would call a Bush-era assumption that going out and partying is in itself halfway to being some kind of act of resistance. For me those comics are a memento from a very specific time in my life, and if I wrote something about that particular Jenny Everywhere now, it would definitely be an older, wiser version. As a sober 45 year-old living in Chicago, Illinois, looking back at something I wrote when I was a heavy-drinking Londoner in his early 20s, it’s even more bittersweet and melancholy. Jenny and the gang were supposed to be reminiscent of various friends of my own. Over the course of 20 years, you inevitably lose touch with people. You move far away physically (I relocated to a different continent!), you drift apart. And sometimes you fall out with people, and sometimes people die, both of which have happened to me. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Nila Gupta (rest in power) here, who was a big inspiration for my version of Jenny and for my general idea of a gang of cool anti-corporate people running amok in Right-On. Losing people who used to be part of your life is individually tragic but it’s also the kind of experience you’re a lot more likely to have by the time you’re 45 than when you’re 23. If this answer sounds like it’s turning into a bummer, it shouldn’t entirely, because the flipside to that is you do develop some perspective, some better priorities, some sense of what you’re supposed to be doing with your life.

N: Oh Nila… ❤️ I had no idea your Jenny was inspired by them. That's beautiful.

And that's all, folks! They'll be reading this over, so I want to thank Joe and Neil/Nelson again, both for helping to create a character who still means so much to so many of us, niche though she may be… and for taking the time to bring us these insightful, entertaining, and often moving glimpses into the mental world from which Jenny — at least their Jenny — first sprung.

Happy Jenniversary, and thanks for everything!

#Jenny Everywhere #Interview #Nelson Evergreen #Joe Macaré #Comics #Webcomics #Open-Source

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koolkat9 · 8 months

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Ok. No joke. Never heard or seen A N Y England x Germany ship ever in my life up until now. The way my jaw dropped when I saw your page. (Not in a Bad way tho🤤) BUT PLEASE ELABORATE CUZ I NEED TO KNOW. SO WHY ENGLAND X GERMANY?

We're definitely one of the smaller ships here, but we at least have 200+ fics which is more than some of my other ships have. But anyway...

So I guess I'll start with what first got ME into GerEng. I've shared it before, but I love telling this story! So the year is I think 2018? Yeah 2018. Dreamtalia has just been fully released and the creator and her friend are doing a lp of it. Now this is the first hetagame I got into, and although I've seen the whole story at this point as the whole game had been shared on the creator's channel though part of it was like barebones, only sketched screenshots if even, but I loved the game and this creator and her adlibs were always entertaining. Keep the entertaining adlibs in mind.

So I'm watching the lp and there is a part of the game where your party of characters split up. Ludwig and Arthur, who at this point have been butting heads are paired together and shenanigans ensue. Now, canonically to the game, if I recall correctly, they bond a bit, a foundation for a friendship that is shown a bit in the beta of the sequel. But, the creator and her friend started adlibbing because at one point Ludwig offers his hand to Arthur when they're overcoming some obstacle and them holding h became a running subplot all completely adlibbed. At this point I was a hard Ger//Ita shipper and usually the game would have Ger//Ita undertones, but I started to get invested in the GerEng plot line and I was coming back to the lp every time they post to find out what happened next for the "handholding buddies."

Gosh this is already long and I'm not fully done my story and I still need to talk about my fav parts of the ship...shit...Okay 2019 an alternate small scale sequel releases for Dreamtalia based on the the bad end of the game and the GerEng subplot. This is where I really got into the ship and led me to searching for fics and fanart. Because after Dreamtalia I didn't think of GerEng again. Didn't think I would. But then this sequel came out and it got be hooked. And then I started writing for them and soon replaced Ger//Ita as my OTP.

Okay putting the second half of my favourite things about GerEng under the cut because this is already long.

Okay, first things first. I just find it so appealing that these two stubborn lonely men find each other. They're similar which does cause them to butt heads sometimes, but it also means they understand each other. They've been through similar things, have similar poor coping mechanisms, but through their relationship and trying to prevent the other from isolating and wallowing in guilt, they've started to stop themselves from doing it too.

And it's a mutual thing. Arthur is there for Ludwig following the World Wars as Lud is faced with his anxiety, PTSD, guilt and he's facing this all alone because either his loved ones have been forcibly ripped from him or he pushed them away. Taking a page out of another GerEng creator's book who I'll talk about in the next paragraph, Arthur comes along is like "Here. Music. Also human interaction."

Then once Ludwig gets in a better place, Arthur starts to spiral, faced with his crumbling empire and losing his status as a world super power. He feels he has no purpose now and being an empire made him feel untouchable, without it, he feels vulnerable. But Ludwig is there, basically uses Arthur's own advice against him with some of Lud's own experience.

Now of course there was so much more that went into both of their healing journeys beyond just each other, but their relationship both when it was platonic and romantic was an important stepping stone. And it just makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

Going back to their similarities, it's not all hurt/comfort, doom and gloom. They love to bake. I think they share some similar music interest since their was a period of music exchange between the two countries following ww2. Teethhoarder, an amazing artist and fic writer knows a bit more about this and covers it in their fic Are Friends Electric and also give a good run down on their ask blog. Their stubbornness actually can be beneficial because Ludwig doesn't take Arthur's shit and pushes back. And their bluntness has it's perks too because both of them, especially Ludwig need things told to them straight. And they're both not big into PDA, completely content with just simple handholding.

Then there is the history. Christmas Truce 1914 where German and British troops declared a truce in honour of Christmas and celebrated the holiday together. I as well as many other shippers see this as a jump start to their relationship, the time where they got to know each other as Arthur and Ludwig instead of the British Empire and the German Empire. Then there is the whole music exchange. There is also another historical period that I think contributes to their relationship, but I don't like touching that era when Lud is involved...

Also canon...though not necessaryily with overt romantic undertones like early Ger//Ita or Su//Fin or Fr//Uk or nowadays Ger//Fra, they have their sweet moments in canon like them having tea together. Or sharing rations. Or the Christmas Truce. Or how that one episode where they're all sharing their horror movies and one of the fun fact pop ups say Germany and England work on horror movies together or something. Then there is that one time Arthur is helping Ludwig with his work persumeably. Or the time Art was fretting about Ludwig working in his games. Oh here's that strip:

Also just this is just funny to me, Lud not knowing how to compliment his bf:

Anyway...I think that covers everything...I mean I have so many headcanons, but these are the main things. You ask "why GerEng" you get a whole fucking essay...

#hetalia #hws #hws germany #hws england #gereng #engger #geruk #I should have added citations for shits and giggles #but it's late and i wanted to type this out before i went to bed #even though it won't post until tomorrow

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mxmollusca · 10 months

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Tomorrow I'm releasing my sequel to An Arm and a Leg, called The Sticking Place. If you enjoy dismantling internalized ableism, have a passion for single subject research design, or like Macbeth, then I've got 14k words of anatomically correct, tentacular silliness just for you!

***

He let his eyes drift closed and held a tentacle aloft in anticipation. Stede focused on the cues from his body, and as he waited for Ed, he noticed something curious. In the absence of visual stimuli, his limbs became more active. He could feel them roam, suckers massaging more earnestly, limbs climbing and squeezing and tasting and seeking—seeking more information, more connection—

And then Ed brushed something against the tip of Stede’s limb. It immediately reacted, seizing the small item and squeezing it—

Stede was wracked with a full-bodied shiver as he was overcome with an nearly incapacitating sensation of tang. Every suction cup exploring the item puckered before slowly relaxing once again as the mental twinge transmuted into a sunny sweetness that tingled from the tips of his extremities straight into his core. He passed the small item from one arm to the other; it was oblong, pulpy, and now wet—Stede could feel a liquid dripping down the length of his arm—oh! An orange! It was a segment of orange, he was sure of it!

“Fucking wild,” he heard Ed murmur. “You like that one?”

Stede opened his eyes and, sure enough, Ed appeared transfixed by a new pattern on Stede’s tentacles. He was no longer a vibrant teal but a pearlescent white, a scatter of sapphire specks concentrated along the tops of his arms much like freckles on a cheek brought out by the sun. Ed’s eyes flicked up to meet Stede’s and Stede watched a blush creep up from beneath his beard, and Stede’s blue freckles intensified in turn.

Ed blinked rapidly as if snapping out of some hypnotic state. “You can taste it, can’t you?” he asked, scooting closer with his graphite and notebook. “Tell me everything.”

Stede released the side of the boat with his hands in order to relax back and bob in the water to contemplate his response. He held the orange segment aloft, absently rolling it up and down the length of his arm by passing it from one suction cup to the next. “Gosh, well, does it make sense to say I can taste it everywhere? Normally, if I put an orange in my mouth it would be a very… localized experience. This, though—Ed, I can feel the taste. It’s like my whole body knew it was sour and sweet but is coming to the realization at different times, and my arms—”

“Reacted before you knew what was happening.”

“Precisely!”

Stede brought himself back up to the boat and pulled himself up to meet Ed, holding the segment out for him to take. Instead, Ed’s eyes narrowed in concentration as he leaned in closer to examine Stede’s undulating grasp on the orange, periodically looking down at his notebook to add to his sketch.

Stede felt truly fantastical under Ed’s study, but ached for a more, well, hands-on approach. He swallowed and then cleared his throat, letting the tip of his tendril bring the orange segment closer to Ed—to his mouth. “You aren’t going to let it go to waste, are you?” he asked hopefully. “After all, we’re supposed to be rationing.”

Ed’s mouth dropped open slightly as realization dawned, and Stede took the opportunity to press the piece of fruit to Ed’s lips. Ed opened his mouth wider to accept the offering, and before Stede could pull back, Ed wrapped his lips around the tip of his arm and gently sucked.

The sudden intimacy had Stede embracing the entire dinghy like a sea monster of myth until he felt it creak under his grasp. His tentacle stiffened in Ed’s mouth as he felt his tongue tease the ridges of the tiny cups, sucking away the remnants of juice until the only thought left in Stede’s mind was a steady thrum of Ed—Ed—Ed.

#ofmd #our flag means death #blackbonnet #ofmd fanfic #my fanfic #an arm and a leg #the sticking place #kraken!stede #cephalopod

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mumblemoose · 8 months

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So I'm going to post about an ongoing project of mine even though it's probably a bit premature. I call it the Princess Paper Doll project although it involves a fair number of not princesses. It technically started as the Disney Princess Paper Doll project but it stopped being Disney about ten minutes after I conceived the idea. Anyway, it's gonna be a long one so if you're at all curious it's under the cut.

About a decade ago now (I think) my mom bought a set of Disney Princess paper dolls for my niece. This delighted me, first because I had Disney paper dolls as a kid, and second because of a unique feature of this particular set.

See, in this set, all of the princesses were in the same pose. Like so:

And I immediately thought that was pretty cool because they could all wear each other's clothes. I also thought that because they were all posed the same and they could therefore all wear each other's clothes, it would be fairly easy (for a moderately savvy artist) to copy the base and add other characters to the lineup and even if it took longer to make their outfits, they wouldn't have to be naked in their underwear. The Princess and the Frog being the last movie that Disney had released at the time and my niece being from New Orleans and some of her family being kinda grossly racist I decided to begin with Tiana:

However, the more observant among you may notice, as I did not for a while, that they cannot all wear each other's clothes. Tiana here, along with half of the other princesses, is wearing a wide skirt. So none of them can wear anything designed for Jasmine. Also, the set kind of sucks so Aurora up there can't even keep one of her own dresses on, there are just not enough tabs to defy gravity.

So I started over with a new base and tried again.

I worked on that long enough to get most of the bases for the Disney Princesses done, decided I didn't like the pose, I think, and set it aside.

Time for version 3.

I apparently did not get very far with this one. I only made 4 bases this time (Anna, Ariel, Pocahontas, and Mulan). But I made an entire dress for Anna (her coronation gown) and all of the outfits for Mulan. Then I started drawing clothes for Pocahontas and realized that I'd made a terrible mistake. See, Pocahontas, in the sequel, wears a ballgown and full cage crinolin and they weren't going to get along with that hand on the hip. So time to try again.

Version 4 is where I start gaining some consistency. The model here is mostly what I stick with going forward and I made some pretty good progress.

I did eventually scrap this one too, because I was having trouble navigating some of the skirts on the wide stance as evidenced by Charlotte (I do not profess to be a master artist).

So version 5.

You'll note that aside from Chel they are all only in Kida's underwear and that's because I decided fairly quickly into the clothing process that these ladies were too damn skinny. I'm not actually sure why they got so much skinnier from v4 to v5 but it had to go.

Version 6. Actually, I'm going to skip version 6 entirely here. It is identical to version 7 (the current version) except that I decided their busts were a little too big to accommodate everyone (and even the ones it seemed to accommodate looked better with the adjustment). Luckily this is the point where I started using Illustrator for the lineart so it was fairly easy to make the adjustment on the wealth of clothes I had already finished in v6. Anyway, now I've made most of the bases I have planned and at least one outfit for each (except Rapunzel because there is soooo much detail that after I did the rough sketch I was not prepared to do the clean lines). I started experimenting with how to make the different hairstyles work with Belle and Anastasia (why those two? who knows) so they have all of their hairstyles to go with their bases, and Tiana and Pocahontas have all of their clothes (and almost all Tiana's hair, though I haven't fixed it for actual interchangeability when printed).

These do have tabs, by the way, they're just hidden unless I'm running a test print to make sure they work.

Now, full disclosure I mostly traced their heads from screencaps. I am not sufficiently versed in animated women that I can confidently draw all of those faces. I drew the base and I'm drawing the clothes.

Nothing is shaded partly because I'm not great at shading and partly because I've learned the hard way that it sucks to do all the shading and then make a minor adjustment and have to do it all over again.

Also I say Tiana has most of her hair because I want to include her Wreck-It-Wralph 2 hair (you'll note the outfit is there) but I am shit at drawing hair in general and worse at drawing curly hair (you'll note Merrida) and I can't find any 2d art of her with that hairstyle that I can use either to trace or as reference.

Incidentally, as much as possible I am trying to make each piece separate so the aprons come off of the Duke's and Cal's diner dresses for Tiana, Anna, Ariel, and Aurora are wearing a blouse, skirt and corset, so on and so forth. It allows for a lot more mixing and matching and it creates a more 3d effect that's kind of neat.

The full list, in case you can't recognize everyone or read their name on the base is: Anastasia (Anastasia), Anna (Frozen), Ariel (The Little Mermaid), Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Belle (Beauty and the Beast), Charlotte (The Princess and the Frog), Chel (The Road to El Dorado), Cinderella (Cinderella), Elsa (Frozen), Esmeralda (The Hunchback of Notre Dame), Giselle (Enchanted), Jane (Tarzan), Jasmine (Aladdin), Kayley (Quest for Camelot), Kidagakash (Atlantis), Marina (Sinbad), Megara (Hercules), Merrida (Brave), Moana (Moana), Mulan (Mulan), Nani (Lilo & Stitch), Odette (The Swan Princess), Pocahontas (Pocahontas), Rapunzel (Tangled), Snow White (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs), Thumbelina (Thumbelina), and Tiana (The Princess and the Frog).

I'm planning on adding Amalthea (Last Unicorn) at some point. I also keep waffling about Mirriam and Tzipporah (Prince of Egypt) because they are awesome animated women who deserve to be included but also I am not Jewish and I worry it's disrespectful somehow (although Pocahontas is in there so that ship's kinda sailed, hasn't it?). I'll probably try to add Mirabel (Encanto) eventually. I ought to add Nancy (Enchanted), but that's still a big question mark. In the theoretical grand plan I'm going to do the fellas eventually to, though that may be a bit more complicated. I'm also open to suggestions. However, I'm probably gonna try to get more of these ladies finished before I add to the roster.

By the way, do not come on this post to complain about women's body types in animation. This is for fun. I'm having fun with it. I worked really hard to make this work at all. Just don't.

#Moose Mumbling #Moose art #paper dolls #Disney Princess

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hummingbird-games · 11 months

Text

Dev Diaries

June 15, 2023

Y’all it wasn’t (just) my asthma out to make me see the pearly gates...it was COVID ☠️ it zipped through everyone in my household, and unfortunately me and my mom got the full punch to the face. I was already pro-mask + pro-hygienic practices, but now I’m extra pro-mask complete with a death glare directed at all the uncalled for commentary from strangers.

Enough about being sick LOL, I’m making this because I want to talk about games, also sometimes I cope with humor.

Current WIPs

I know y’all sick of my shit (me too), but as far as I’m concerned, Crushed is coming out this summer!! Really!! I will make it happen even if I have to do a few updates post-release, so help me God. I want to move on to other things and I’m so antsy and pitiful looking at a nearly-done-but-not-quite-yet-project 😭

And I know Sundays and Tuesdays have been super light on content recently but I feel like I don’t have enough to share once or twice a week? (And the stuff I do have is too boring 🙂) I’ve been told to reblog older posts but as you see, the only thing I reblogged was the pinned one lol. (I promise to do better with consistency on HBG Project #3)

(ALT text isn’t working for me right now, so below is the concept sketch for Ariel!! Obviously you see her on the key art buuuuut I originally planned to share this with y’all anyway!)

Ariel’s role...evolved during the production of this game, for lack of a better word. When I sought out to tell Corey’s story and decided against a kinetic novel experience, there were certain things I wanted to bring attention to (and certain decisions I wanted to leave in the player’s hands). This discussion will get dangerously close to spoiling the content of the endings SOOO we’ll put a pin in it!!

(The below image is a screenshot with Corey, Florence, and Jacob. The text reads “I kinda forgot she was standing there too...”)

This scene was written and coded with the rest of Corey’s friend group being off screen, but eventually I got sprites for Keegan and Oke. But I can’t help reimaging this scene with either of them and it makes me laugh so hard! That being said, I don’t imagine what you see in the demo will change in the final build buuuut who knows??

Randoms

I hinted waaay back when that I planned work on an HSDJY sequel this year. To my dismay, it’s still in the throwing spaghetti noodles at the wall stage. My ambitious ass lowkey hoped I’d have a finished draft for at least one of the routes by end of the year--because self-made deadlines 🎉, but I’m stuck in outline HELL!!!

That being said... it’s okay to work on other things, I am giving myself permission to work on other things, and I’ve been eyeing game jams. But the low stakes one where I won’t jeopardize my sanity. There’s Yuri Jam, which I participated in last year, and then there’s Once Upon A Time VN Jam WHICH LOOKS LIKE SO MUCH FUN????

I’ve been doing a lot of reading while recuperating (which probably means nothing because I’m always reading??? Unless I’m in a slump. Or playing viddy games. Dude. Don’t get me started on the pitfalls of being a game developer + bookish content creator. Time management?? We broke up) and the beginnings of an idea are starting to gel! I want to make another short project, and I’m curious if I can come up with something that fits the parameters of both jams. Fingers crossedl!!

Conclusion

I...don’t have anything else to add.

But go check out the games and projects I’ve reblogged posts about recently!!

Some are fully released, some are out soon, some have Kickstarters, and/or some are WIPs!!!

(Oh, and I guess check out High School Daze: Junior Year to see my humble beginnings)

- Gemini ✌🏾

#gamedev #game development #updates and rambles #crushed vn #as of writing these tags #I am still sick lol home from work for the week and everything #long post #(no read more because I want y'all to SEE this Ramble City)

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altraviolet · 9 months

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When the Echo Garden is finished, would you ever release all the content or the concept sketches for scenes you cut? And do you have any for Face the Past?

oh my gosh, you have no idea how happy this kind of question makes me 8') that you're so interested in behind the scenes info on my writing, ahhHHH thank you <3

ok ok so when Echo Garden is done, I am planning on uploading the entire thing formatted for ebooks (every kind available in my typesetting software). I was also thinking of doing a second upload:

1. either the entire story + tons of background info and cut scenes, or

2. the background info and cut scenes on their own

I'm not sure which thing people would rather have (can an ebook file get unwieldy?). Also, I'd like to ask all the fan artists for permission to put their art in the collection, as well :)

There are literally hundreds of pages of planning and cut scenes and stuff. It'd take a bit of time to get all that ready, but it would be fun to do :D

Re: Face The Past- thank you for asking! I'm so happy you did. I have tons of cut stuff for that story, as well as a bunch of scenes written for its sequel. I'll put my favorite sequel scene after this cut:

Background for this scene: post Face The Past, Skywarp and Mirage are living together in Iacon. Sheen has been contacted by Prowl and ordered to talk to Mirage- Prowl wants more info on what Mirage knows about the mnemosurgery done to him. Sheen invites Mirage to dinner. He and Skywarp go to the restaurant.

Note that this is rough, unedited writing and there's a scene missing in the middle 😄

An Elegant Dinner

Skywarp warped them to the edge of the square where the restaurant was. The setting sun threw an orange cast over the buildings. Businesses were closing for the day and the nighttime establishments flicked on their neon lights. The metal of the street beneath their feet slowly cooled. Mirage peered across the crowd. “I think that's her.”

“The white one?”

“Yes, the flier.”

“I thought she was olive green.”

“She was.”

Skywarp studied her. “Looks military. Officer, not soldier,” he said. “Good balance on the wings and either she's got light weapons or they fold away really deep.”

Sheen shifted and they caught Lt. Gen. painted in red on her wings. Military insignia and medals covered her chest and shoulders, dark marks extending down her arms.

“You were right,” said Mirage. “Well, let's go.”

Skywarp took his hand and they walked, casually, towards her.

Sheen picked up on them after a moment, scrutinizing their faces. Her sharpshooter mod rotated as she squinted at Mirage, no doubt mentally rendering his face clear and comparing it to her old memories. She stood with a commanding presence, with squared back shoulders and wings and emanating a sense of cool control. As they neared, she nodded. “Dear one.”

“Blessed one.”

“Sexy one,” said Skywarp, pointing to himself.

Sheen glared at him. Mirage fought back a smile.

“What? I wanted to join in.” Skywarp grinned.

“This is Skywarp,” said Mirage. “He is my beloved companion.”

Sheen's wings flicked as she recognized the meaning behind the word. “A beloved.” She extended her hand to Skywarp. “Greetings.”

“Yo.”

Sheen shot Mirage a look that made him wish he had a camera mod. With just the flash of her blue eyes and the lifting of her wings she expressed, what the fuck are you doing with this boorish dolt?

Mirage smiled graciously. “I must admit, it feels strange to see you unveiled.” The metal half of her face had been polished to a shine. The glass half was clear, save for a ring of black paint around the eye. Mirage knew why- it would prevent the light of her eye from bouncing back and causing blurriness. Mirage noted, with interest, that her tongue and all her teeth were metal. Only the outside of half her face had ever been glass. He idly wondered why he had glass all the way to his intake.

He suddenly realized Sheen must have gone her entire time at the temple with half-blurred vision. How uncomfortable that must have been.

An elegant, golden sharpshooter mod hung over her metal bound eye. It zoomed in and out as she spoke, different lenses flashing within it.

“You, as well,” said Sheen, studying his face. “That is not paint, correct?” The black around her glass bound eye shifted and changed patterns.

“Correct,” said Mirage. Not paint. Polarized glass. So, she went to Flatline, as well... That's probably how she had found out I was in Iacon. “I am glad you are whole.”

A very faint smile. “Thank you. You as well.”

She turned and beaconed them into the restaurant. They went to a private alcove with high ceilings and chairs specifically designed for fliers. There was an opaque barrier at the ready. Sheen placed it around their table. A privacy barrier, no doubt embedded with little probe-blocking devices and wavelength reflectors.

“How are we gonna pay for this?” muttered Skywarp. He reached for one of the small, decorative energon cubes in the middle of the table. They were arranged in a blocky bust of Starscream. Skywarp plucked his right eye out.

Mirage nudged him. Skywarp could've comm'd. But he had wanted Sheen to hear.

She watched him raise the decorative cube to his lips, disdain clear in her field. “Consider it taken care of.”

“Cool.” Skywarp grinned and shoved the little red cube into his mouth. .:I'm happy to let the Autobot military pick up our tab:. he sent to Mirage.

Mirage groaned inwardly and hoped he wouldn't order half the menu. .:You didn't have to make us look impoverished:.

.:Who cares? Do you care what she thinks?:.

Before Mirage could reply, Sheen spoke to him in Old Cybertronian. “Are you really so hard off that your... beloved must eat the decorations? I am surprised to find you in such company, dear one. What have you been up to?”

“Please, speak the modern language,” said Mirage in Neocybex. He gestured to Skywarp. “It's rude to converse in a language not everyone at the table is fluent in.”

“Yeah,” said Skywarp. Specks of energon sprinkled down onto the table.

Sheen wrinkled her nose. “Very well,” she said in Neocybex. “Tell me, dear one, how did you escape the temple?”

“Pff,” said Skywarp. “Dear one. Lady, he has a real name. And so do you. I know it.”

Sheen's eyes flashed. “I shall address him as I see fit.”

A low noise came from Skywarp's chest. Mirage laid a hand on his arm. “Don't worry about it,” he said softly. He reset his vocalizer. “Blessed one, I was the ghost of the great hall.”

Her eyes widened. “You must have achieved your outlier ability while at the temple!” She made a disbelieving sound. “I should have put that together. I heard the Autobots had a spy that could walk invisibly. I never thought it was you.”

Skywarp's wings flicked up. .:How did she not know it was you?? You're the only mech who can go invisible:.

.:She never knew my real name:.

.:Oh:.

“The talent came the night of Praecisius's great abuse,” said Mirage. He was relieved to feel her field immediately darken, her automatic sneer, her anger true and palpable at mention of the priest's name.

“Revolting mech,” she spat. “Had he survived the fire, I would have gone after him myself! Later. When I recovered. I was much weakened by his starvation and abuse when I escaped.” Sheen composed herself. “But it was you who set the fire.”

“Not exactly,” said Mirage. His biolights flickered in a stress pattern. Skywarp dragged his chair closer and laid a comforting hand on his back. “Praecisius attacked me. I dodged. He fell into a pillar which collapsed. The metal was brittle.”

Sheen nodded. “I recall the neglect of the temple.”

“He started the fire. I...” Mirage winced as memories flooded his mind. Skywarp pressed even closer, pushing his field out with loving support. Sheen narrowed her eyes, taking in their interaction. “I did help it along. But their neglect and greed is ultimately to blame.”

“I see.” Sheen settled her wings. “I thought you were in league with him until the night of the abuse.”

“Why?” Mirage shook his head. “How could you possibly think that?”

“You never did anything to help my acolytes.”

Mirage's field flickered with surprise.

“You never lifted a finger for them. You could have ordered a reduction in their labor. You could have learned their tasks for yourself to relieve their burdens. You could have shared your portion with them. Or with me. But you never did.”

Mirage shook his head again. “I didn't know- I honestly didn't know about the starvation until you told me.”

“And then still you did nothing.” Sheen's voice was cold, her field drawn in.

Mirage's field flashed with hurt. Skywarp frowned at Sheen. “Though you did not know it, I crept invisibly among the priests. I found evidence of their lies and treachery.”

“To what end?”

“To-” Mirage paused. “Did no one investigate the temple? Look into the priests' private rooms and find it?”

Sheen shook her head. “They found ledgers in your room.”

Mirage's lines ran cold. “Those were copies. I would never have-”

“I know that,” spat Sheen. “I know you weren't clever enough to scheme. The investigation into the temple was hindered by outside forces numerous times. The Order had a wide reach. I am certain they interfered with the investigation. I never felt closure at its conclusion.”

“I am sorry to hear that.” Mirage swallowed his pride. “And you are right, to a degree. I did not do nothing, but I could have done more.”

“My acolytes suffered.”

“I'm sorry,” said Mirage sadly. “And though I think you will not find this explanation fulfilling, I did not know I had any power to help them. I was treated like an object. I thought I was one. I didn't even have a name.”

“Oh.” Sheen's eyes dulled. “The fog of the Vessel.”

“What?” asked Skywarp.

“The... disconnect. The objectification. The compartmentalization of the self.” Sheen squeezed the sides of her helm. “I had forgotten about that.”

“Yes.”

The two former Windows to Primus's Will looked away from each other, each knowing how the other had felt under the suffocating hand of The Order. Each unsure what to say about it.

A gold and red waiter approached. His eyes widened at the half-eaten Starscream bust in the middle of the table. “I shall take that for you!” he said, sweeping the decoration away. He hurried back with an assortment of energon bricks and took their order. To Mirage's relief, Skywarp only ordered one fifth of the menu. To be fair, Sheen did, as well. Fliers needed their fuel.

“Did you help your acolytes? After you left?” asked Mirage.

Sheen's mouth twisted. “You don't know their names, do you?��

“...no.”

Sheen pointed to her chest and Mirage realized there were words written between the awards and medals crowded there. Names. “Hmph. I named them after the stars. Maia, she was the sweetest, died of starvation shortly after being liberated from the temple. Taygete and Alcyone could not adapt to outside life, and though I demanded otherwise, fled to our sister temple to the north. I tracked them down later, but they too, had died from abuse and neglect. Electra, Asterope, and Celaeno followed me. They joined the Autobots when I joined. They served under me until Celaeno died in battle. His death pierced my spark. I failed him. I could not bear the thought of leading the other two to their deaths. I put the order through for their transfer under another commanding officer. They cried, but I had to send them away. And they did... fall in battle.” She curled her lip at Skywarp. “Decepticon ambush.”

Mirage watched Sheen's wings. She was adept at holding her field in, just like him. She had probably been given the same rude awakening as to the existence of her field and then worked triply hard to hide it away. But her wings shook at the tips. Skywarp watched them, too.

Mirage mentally tallied the names. “And the last...? There were seven.”

“Merope... disappeared.”

Mirage let a bit of hope spring from his field and brush Sheen. “Merope could still be alive!”

She pushed it away. “I suppose. I did not think you were alive.” She pointed to a name on the inside of her left arm: dear one. “But here you are.”

“Yes. Thanks to Skywarp.” Mirage laid his hand on his beloved's arm.

“How did you find yourself in the company of this...” Sheen, though shorter than Skywarp, managed to look down on him, “...mech?”

“He saved me,” said Mirage with a smile. “When I was helpless and afraid and ignorant as to the realities of this world, he gave everything he had to help me.”

“Yup,” said Skywarp, shoving a brick of energon into his mouth. “Lucky him.”

“Lucky me,” said Mirage. “After I escaped the temple I went to the Academy. I presented myself as an outlier and established myself properly. Skywarp helped at every step.”

“Clever.” Sheen eyed him. “Very clever.”

Mirage got the feeling that Sheen's opinion of him had been even lower than he had thought.

“And you, blessed one. I gather you did very well within the military? You were always very... organized.” Strict, he thought. Bitchy and strict. But you cared deeply about those under you and you got done what needed to get done. Which are excellent characteristics for an Autobot commander.

Sheen flicked her wings, the military insignia on them flashing. “Yes. I confessed to the fire, though it was not my fault. They worked that out in the end, anyway. But my aim had been to endear myself to those that had power.”

Mirage had a hard time believing Sheen had managed to endear herself to anyone.

“I worked very hard. As I always have. After I was released for confessing to a crime I did not do, I demanded resources for myself and my acolytes. The higher ups laughed in my face, but they were impressed. My field, to them, was wild. And they could feel the ferocity of my intent.”

Mirage nodded. “Learning of fields was a shock.”

“It was. One of the most difficult parts of assimilating to life outside the temple.” She leaned forward and spoke more softly. “I thought they were all dead, at first. I thought I had died in the fire and was walking a broken afterlife among shells of mechs. Their lips moved and words came out but they had no life to them.”

Mirage nodded again. “I did not think I was dead. But I was very lost, trying to adapt.”

“Did you teach yourself?” Sheen raised an ocular arch.

“Yes. In the presence of a few mechs. Friends.” He nudged Skywarp. “They teased me so. But I managed.”

“Impressive.” Sheen said it like she didn't want to admit it. “We were put through intensive therapy sessions. Grouped with mechs born broken, born wrong. I resented it.” She made a fist. “I was not born broken. Just raised differently. But my face did me no favors there.”

Mirage could only imagine how a starved mech with a wild field and half a 'real' face would look to a pre-war Cybertronian.

“After I hid my face away, it became much easier to do what I wanted.”

“Yes. The same for me.”

“I proved my strength and loyalty and when the Autobots militarized I rose in rank.” Her eyes flicked over Skywarp's wings. “I see you wear the Autobrand and your beloved wears its opposite. If you met before the war, what did you do during it?”

Mirage's eyes darkened. “It is a complex and private story. I do not wish to share.”

Sheen studied him. “Very well. It is intriguing. It seems you've lived one of your favorite romantic stories.”

Mirage looked away. “It's not like the stories,” he said. “It hurts. And I am not sure what the ending will be.”

[unwritten scene: DISCUSS SUSPICIOUS END TO EMIROR, WHICH MIRAGE DIDN'T NOTICE BUT SHEEN DID]

(later, at the end of their meal)

Sheen leaned forward, her field exuding a curious urgency and truthfulness. “No matter the situation,” she said, placing her hand beside Mirage's. Not touching it, as she never would have done as the Head Acolyte. “I am grateful for the work you and Flatline did.”

“And Quickmix,” Mirage found himself saying automatically.

“And... oh yes. Him. Yes, I suppose he did not play a non-negligible role.” She shook her head, as if to dislodge unpleasant memories. Mirage found himself doing the same. “Regardless, I am thankful for the pioneering work you did.” She tilted her helm. “I hid my broken face for millions of years beneath a perfect one. Very few knew. But now... now I feel stronger than ever. I do not have to hide. I am liberated in my truest form.”

“That is how I felt when I first painted mine.”

A bit of a smile came to Sheen's face. “I feel I am truly myself. And any who would look upon me with disgust can,” she switched to a Vosnian dialect, “go fuck themselves.”

“Hah!” Skywarp's burst of laughter was too loud. Sheen glanced at him, surprised he knew the language.

“Agreed.” Mirage extended his hand. Sheen hesitated. “We are no longer bound by vows,” he said.

Sheen nodded. “It's frightening how I find myself remembering them so easily and slipping back into the temple's ways in your presence.” She took his hand and shook it firmly. “There. That shall signal the end of The Cult and everything it stood for. As far as I know, we are the last two survivors. We will end it with words.”

Mirage nodded.

“Let us never speak of it again.”

“Agreed.”

~~~

“So... did she have like, a half of a Primus's Will thing going on? Or... was it the same as yours but half as intense?” Skywarp asked, eating out of Mirage's leftover box. They strolled through the back lanes of Iacon. “Were her patterns like yours?”

“Skywarp,” said Mirage, rubbing the sides of his head. “I don't know. She was demoted when I arrived at the temple.”

“But someone must've brought in the money while you were still growing and training,” said Skywarp.

“That is true.” Mirage thought back. “So help me, you're making me spend precious processor time on The Order.”

Skywarp grinned. “Well, I'm willing to bet ain't no one looked into her half face as deeply and as often as I've looked at your whole one.”

Despite himself, Mirage smiled. “Yes... she was quite aware of the oddity of her situation. I do feel a bit sorry for her. She told me once that she never fit in. I'm not certain she ever had someone.” He squinted. “Or wants someone. We didn't talk often.”

A skittering sound came from above them. Mirage froze, but fought the instinct to turn invisible. He didn't want to blind Skywarp. Skywarp came to a halt a second later.

.:What?:. comm'd Skywarp.

.:Noise. Above us:.

Skywarp looked up. He squinted. He raised a cube to his mouth and bit down. .:I don't see anything:.

.:Me either. Perhaps we should get out of here:.

.:The old fashioned way or the fashionable way?:.

Mirage was already wrapping his arms around his lover. .:Fashionable, darling:.

They disappeared in a flash of light.

and there we are! thanks so much for asking :) <3

#ask #anonymous #face the past

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the-au-collector · 2 months

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Welcome

I'm the AU Collector! Call me Collector, Miss Collector, anything along those lines! My pronouns are she/her and I'm in my twenties. On this blog you can find a lot of Linked Universe, Kingdom Hearts, Tales of the Abyss, and an assortment of other fandoms I might step into for a quick second. As my name suggests, I love AUs! I love making them, talking about them, reading them! I also love OCs! My ask box is open!

Also a little bit of navigation for all of you:

You can find reblogs under their respective fandom tags or #reblog. I also use #collectors thoughts or #collectors madness or #collectors rambles tags for non-fandom posts and some reblogs. Some of my older reblogs aren't as organized, but more recent ones are! My AU masterposts are tagged as #collectors aus. I also have the tag #collectors worldbuidling rambles where I ramble about worldbuilding, both for fictional universes and my own original one.

As for my AUs and fics you can find links to their masterposts and their tags under the cut (will update as I post more AUs):

Linked Universe:

Relinked AU (#relinked AU) : 23 years after Linked Universe, the Links' kids are forced on a journey of their own. The Links are quick to try to find them though. Hopefully this will be a comic, but don't be surprised if it ends up as a fic.

Reconnect the Chain AU (#reconnect the chain AU) : AU of Relinked. 10 years after LU, the Chain reconnects themselves. Good vibes and slice-of-life. Most pre-reunion things will be tagged as both this AU and Relinked depending on everyone's ages in the artwork/writing.

LU College Radio AU (#college radio AU): A mostly slice-of-life AU where the Links are all somehow involved with the radio station at Kakariko University.

Cupcakes for Harmony (#cupcakes for harmony): Legend and Marin had a daughter on Koholint. Currently has 2 parts posted on AO3, aiming for 3 - 4 parts total.

Cost of Courage AU (#cost of courage au #epic AU): A crossover between Epic the Musical and Linked Universe that is yet another LU Links Reunite AU. Each song from the musical inspires a scenario in my head. I won't be doing much with it, though, until the entire musical is released so I can see what I'm working with.

Ultimate Chain AU (#ultimate chain AU): I feel like my AO3 description describes it best: I add way too many Links into Linked Universe because these characters are my dolls and this is my dollhouse. AKA, I decide to add more Links into LU because I can and because I want to see how the Links would interact with heroes like the Hero of the Kingdom, the Ancient Hero, the Hero of Spirits, and Shadow.

Lockwood and Co Fusion: (#lockwood and co fusion): I put the characters of LU into the world of the books and netflix show by Jonathan Stroud, Lockwood and Co. Sketches and fics. As of right now, I'm mostly going to be rewriting scenes from the books but with the LU Links

Other assorted AUs that are not serious (#collectors miscellaneous LU aus) or which have not been posted yet

Kingdom Hearts

I have 2 main fic series for Kingdom Hearts that I hope to share... eventually. Nothing is posted right now though.

Other assorted AUs that are not serious (#collectors miscellaneous KH aus) or which have not been posted yet

Tales of the Abyss

I have 1 main work that I'm brainstorming through at the moment. It's a sequel to Tales of the Abyss. Nothing is posted right now though.

I don't do AUs for Tales of the Abyss.

Original World

OG-verse: I also have an original world I worldbuild for in my spare time. I'll post stuff about it here occasionally. You can find anything about it under #og-verse

#welcome

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pyrrhocorax · 8 months

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4 10 20 35 !

OKAY I know you asked this a bit ago sorry i got busy!!! work!!! turtle took a tiny chunk out of my finger!! the usual! y'know What's a headcanon you need to work out? i am blanking real hard with this but i Guess what i consider to be estonia's true name b/c von bock is von bullshit has been a constant Thought of mine for a long time. sme goes for a lot of nations that have bad canon names or no canon names like what the FUCK would i name them. it takes so much effort for me to decide. How long have you been in the fandom? What's your lore? i've been around a while! i can't date exactly when i started but it was at least sometime in 2008. i Think it was in the late fall of 2007, i've been trying to do the backwards math and i think this makes sense timeline wise, but my memory isn't exactly great. i figured out yesterday i am Pretty sure i was into hetalia before den/nor/ice were released?? which is. wild to me. anyway the story is that i occasionally saw hetalia fanart in passing and i was like. what the fuck is this but i don't care enough to investigate. and then i watched darker than black and was like wow i gotta tell my (now ex-)friend about this new cool anime darker then black b/c i am enjoying it a lot and i think she would too! and then my friend was like "i am going to totally ignore you. watch this thing called hetalia instead. you like other countries and history and languages and shit you should like this it's so funny" and i watched it and i didn't find it as funny as she claimed but i thought the concept itself was utterly Fascinating and i became Obsessed. my initial favs were japan/prussia/estonia initially, all for radically different reasons. i can elaborate on that if prompted it's just more text than i care to put here. then the den/nor/ice dropped and we had some comics with the nordic 5 and i was like oH FUCK these character dynamics between them are So Fun!!! and i have been in Hell every since. this is my third time getting back into hetalia after swearing it off for good and uhhh i think i have just been in denial this entire time that i am stuck here forever. Favorite Hetalia relationship dynamic? Any combination of the Anko Trio without question. they're such an interesting little complicated group. Post a Hetalia sketch or draft you want an excuse to share i am not very good at drawing and draw from the perspective of a more refined 8 year old child or something (positive). but i also don't have anything currently drafted writing wise that feels complete enough either so i am gonna share a dumb doodle i did and also share some upcoming things i plan on doing.

one of the chapters of the SOS sequel is going to be called "The Joy Machine" and i am. very excited about that.

also have a neat NorAus idea i am obsessed with and will probably write soon-ish. once i sleep and think a bunch

#pyrrhocorax fic #pyrrhocorax ask

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fainthedcherry · 3 months

Text

PARAMORE RELEASED THEIR A24 TRIBUTE COVER TODAY. AND I GOT INSPIRED BY THE LYRICS AND THE VISUALIZER.

youtube

IMAGE CREDITS BC VERY OBVIOUSLY THIS IS AN EXPERIMENTAL PIC COLLAGE PIECE PRIMARILY BELOW DESC (I DID NOT TAKE THE COOL PICS OBV.)

OK GIANT CREDIT BLOCK GO (Freepik and pexels my beloved saved my entire college year lmao):

1 OCEAN WAVES

2 OCEAN WAVES AGAIN

3 YES A THIRD OCEAN WAVE

4 VERY COOL DROPLETS

5 FLAME. OO FIRE PRETTYYY /POS

6 BG I CHEATED YOU INTO BELIEVING IS RAIN

The drawing though is made by my acoustic arse /lh

THE LYRICS ARE TAKEN FROM THE VID I LINKED. HAYLEY'S VOICE MY BELOVED AND FOREVER DEAREST ENTIRE BAND /POSPOSPOS. I wanna sing like Hayley so badly, she is such an idol to me, when it comes to vocals and I wish to sing as expressive as her some day 🤧✨💖

WHAT MORE CAN I SAY, OTHER THAN I'VE BEEN EXPERIMENTING WITH SHORT DRAWINGS, THAT TAKE UNDER A DAY TO COMPLETE TO FIGURE OUT SOME THINGS I WANNA DO AS AN ARTIST AND POSSIBLY COMMISSIONS. + These drawings genuinely kinda de-stress so it's been free therapy too, oops. I wanna do more of these vector-style drawings, that are just me taking lyrics and creating these fun collages, of things that inspire me or I like. It's a chill practice and lets my creativity actually do the work for once, instead of my usual need to outdo myself in every drawing and improve lmao. Improvement is cool and all, but dear god did I not realise how hard my need for perfection last year stress and strangle me tf out. I seriously need to re-evaluate the way I approach art as this massive, intimidating medium, when most artists literally draw for fun, and for me it's been like...A Sisyphean task.

If you enjoyed seeing this, I might make a sequel with C'est Comme Ca and w/ Marco in it instead and a red BG,, if I want to, I might turn these into a series, just like those aesthetic icon drawings I made of my 2 boys, started Lotta, and IMMEDIATELY lost that sketch due to my USB's death back in 2022 and lost all motivation for art due to that massive loss /neg

Not sure what else to add here other than my thoughts that I already did!! Other than ofc, the usual, MASSIVE thank you to my friend Hollowed-Hartlocke for introducing me to Paramore back in 2019 <3

Think I'm done rambling now tho!! OH WAIT. I can add, that I had to actually pull out Adobe Illustrator just to add stretched text for aesthetic purposes. Then I got so impatient with the effects panel not showing me the usual layer-effects and me being too lazy to look up, whether InDesign was the one, that had the usual layer effects I use in an Adobe program or not. Btw still mooching off my college acc that shoulda been dead long ago but just isn't??? LMAO I'M STILL GONNA USE IT IF I CAN ALRIGHT.

OH YEAH BTW. This drawing took 3 hours. NO I'M NOT KIDDING. PEOPLE WOULD PROBABLY BE SHOCKED THAT SUCH A LAZY LOOKING PIECE TOOK SO LONG. BUT I GENUINELY AM RATHER SHOOK THAT I TOOK SUCH LITTLE TIME TO CREATE THIS. TBF I threw MOST proportion checks and canvas flips I do out the window, so there's a BIG chance I will hate this, if I flip the canvas xD ANYWAY I RAMBLED LONG ENOUGH I THINK NOW. JUST ENJOY EXPERIMENTAL ART

^Before-bed edit; Yeah his torso's a TAD too much leaning to the left, it's off-center to the rotation of his pelvis to be in fact, but maybe? I'll roll with this mistake. It kinda gives the piece its abstract nature..I kinda like the mistake?? This is the first time in my life I ever tolerated a mistake I did and now declare it on purpose and will probably build one into the next piece as well. Hell, maybe it'll yield an interesting result. Anyway, it's 12PM as I write this, and I have to get up at 4AM for my train soOooo, yeah, gotta sleep ASAP for school.

I have NO clue again what to 100% accurately tag this, so forgive me if the tags are wrong LMAO, I just will believe what I believe it has overlaps w/ within art-genre.

This piece kiiinda gives pop art??? So I'm gonna tag it as such as well, but but might be incorrect. If a pop-art enjoyer wants to correct me, PLEASE DO. I'm going off the definitions of pop-art I learned in high-school. So I could most def be wrong about me adding this tag in particular. How tf do people confidently tag their posts when I doubt almost every tag I add man. Tagging is the worst part of uploading art to me due to how hard it is to label art really, not meant to be in a genre. xD

Def adding Paramore tags tho bc I NEED to know more Paramore fans out there bc we feel like such a tiny community, when they're literally one of the most influential rock bands of the 2000s and 2010s imho AUGH

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chattercap · 4 months

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2024 Roadmap (January Edition!)

As we head into the New Year, here is my to-do list for the first half of the year! Note that if you're interested in the development of Actala, I've included a lengthy writeup regarding that project...and some comments about falling out of love with something that you used to hold dear.

The Deepwater Witch

The script for The Deepwater Witch is 100% complete and finalized, and the only thing left to do is CGs, which have been completely storyboarded. In total I have 10 to do, although I do want to take my time with them.

I won't pinpoint a concrete date for the release as there are a few quality of life features that I would like to include in the full version, such as rollback and save file renaming. However, I expect to release the full version of The Deepwater Witch around February.

And now for the other projects!

Kanau (previously "Tsunagu")

"Kanau" will be the prequel to "Karamu," set 11 years before the events of the previous installment. On his 10th birthday, Rakuo Kumode undergoes his family's initiation ceremony.

Kanau will be a mostly horror game with some romantic elements. Since it is set in the past, it will be kinetic, with switching POV protagonists.

If all goes well, I hope to release it around February/March.

(And, following the release of the prequel, I hope to release the sequel around the summer timeframe. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.)

MINDMINDMIND (previously "The Man Who Follows")

There is a man who watches you. He's been watching you for a long time. He watches, and he whispers.

MINDMINDMIND will be a psychological romance game featuring a creepy, but charming, yandere. There will be two male love interests, optional platonic/romantic endings (for one of them), and a customizable MC. I was tossing around some concept sketches for one of the LIs, Geist, earlier this afternoon.

I hope to release it around the end of March.

And last but not least...

Actala: The Hero's Shadow

This will be a bit long-winded and rambling, so skip to the bottom if you just want to know about the current status of development.

If any of you have been following, Actala was the first game that I released, around February last year. I released the demo for Steam Next Fest. It's my largest project, incorporating 5 different love interests and 6 different routes in an expansive fantasy world.

There are some people who saw Actala, played it, and supported me based on the demo alone, and for that I'm very grateful (your comments live rent-free in my mind). At the time, I was proud of it, and I tried to market it rather aggressively. However, the game didn't gain much traction, and after some bad experiences, I got rather ashamed of looking at it. I thought that it was boring, hideous, and poorly written. "How could I have ever wasted people's time with this trash?" I had once treasured that game preciously, wanting to show it off, and I started wanting to hide it in my closet where it couldn't be seen (I even thought about removing the demo from storefronts).

After that, I started working on other, smaller games. It's easier, working on smaller projects. You don't put as much effort into them, so it doesn't matter as much if they end up not meeting your expectations. (When people tell you to start small, they are correct.) My procrastination ended up being fruitful, at the very least. I think I improved a little bit in every aspect (sprite art, backgrounds, writing, GUI, and coding), and I got faster and more experienced at producing games. At the same time, I mostly put Actala development out of my mind because...I didn't want to think about trying to fix that ugly, broken thing. "I'll fix it when I'm better," I told myself. "I'll come back to it when I'm the best game dev I can be." I told myself that I would go back to it later because that was easier than accepting that I had fallen out of love with something that I had loved so much.

Around the time I was finishing scripting for TDW, I looked through my Actala scripts again to see how different my writing style had become. I was scared. How bad was it? I read it, and I realized something.

I did love it.

I remembered how much time I put into every facet of the characters - their backstories, motivations, goals, dreams, cultural backgrounds, costumes. I remembered how many timelines and lore documents that I made. I remembered how meticulously I planned the themes and messages, incorporating a lot of my own struggles with cultural identity, loss, and self-acceptance into the narrative.

Actala is a project that I care about a lot, and I want it to be perfect, but ultimately it will never be perfect. I just need to try my best with my current skills and hope that they're good enough that people can enjoy the story. So I'm ready to return to Actala's development now. I'm sorry for the delay if anyone has been looking forward to it, and I will do better in the future.

As for the current state of Actala's development, it needs a lot of work. It was originally built in Unity, and it needs to be ported over to Godot. Most of the art from the demo needs to be redrawn, simply because my sprite and background styles are VERY different now. So I'll be working on it in conjunction with my current projects, starting with refining the script, then working on sprites and CGs. I won't guarantee any sort of concrete release date for this simply because of how much work is required, but I hope to release an updated demo (with additional scenes for Rowan, Faye, Hugh, and Sei) in the summer.

Thank you to everyone who looks forward to playing my projects, and thank you again for your patience. I hope to make a lot of games this year!

#general #general-news

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xxmissarichanxx · 4 months

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Introducing ✨XMACX Monthly✨ public posts on ptrn that'll be monthly updates on my original projects! i want non-ptrns to be part of the fun, so cover model polls are open to all! first one drops tmrw on twt/ig/tmblr!

you can read the update on ptrn or here, below the cut!

First month of the New Year and I've got a lot of fun ideas and plans for 2024! Let's dive right in!

XMACX MONTHLY UPDATES AND "COVERS"

First off, I'm introducing XMACX MONTHLY! It'll be a public post that -- ideally -- goes out on the first of every month. It'll include the schedule and plan for the coming month along with a cover image! I really miss drawing monthly character illustrations and I thought it'd be fun to also include non-patrons in polls so here's what I was thinking:

Everyone gets a chance to vote on the cover model for next month's issue, but patrons can vote on the outfit and/or theme for the cover!

For now, the characters I'd like to focus on drawing are my OCs, so the options for cover models will be limited to my OC roster. I have so many! I'd like to shine a light on them some time... And I was thinking, since magazines typically have "cover stories", OC Lore posts can be about the cover model! What are OC Lore posts? This leads me into my next topic...

TIER CHANGES

Here's what I'll be offering for each tier:

Pineapple Slices (3 USD)

Vote in monthly theme/character outfit polls

Digital downloads - wallpaper of the monthly cover model image and/or current visual novel build

Name in credits (must be patron during release month)

WIP/Sketch Dump at the end of each month before socials

Big Juicy Pineapple (5 USD)

All previous rewards PLUS:

OC Lore posts - the "cover story". It might include a character interview or some tidbit about the cover model

Art Process - a video, maybe some thoughts and commentary

NSFW/Spicier/Alternative version of cover model image - you got to vote for their outfit, BUT now you potentially also get to see them with their clothes off LMAO

PROJECT LINE UP

Last year was a pretty busy year for me due to a lot of family stuff, work, and travel. I didn't have as many opportunities as I would have liked to draw my OCs and work on my personal projects. This year, I'll be cutting back on commissions and taking on other projects so I can focus more on my dreams of creating and sharing original stories. Here's the order in which I'd like to work on projects and a lil blurb about each:

Froot Basket: Dark Chocolate Voiced Update

Currently, I'm still working on adding the voiced lines and new artwork to Froot Basket: Dark Chocolate. Tentative release date will be some time in March for the public, some time in February for patrons.

Froot Basket White

The third and last installment of the Furuta Basketball "Froot Basket" series. It will be from Jordan's perspective and will be a direct sequel to Froot Basket Valentine. I'd like this project to be released episodically -- one new route every month or two, 7 routes total. I'm considering making it fully voiced...

Fleeting

My BL scifi horror visual novel! It follows Cadet Masa Takeshiro. It's been a while since I've worked on this project and I'd like to update the demo with everything new I've learned in the last few years. A "face lift" if you will in almost all aspects including writing and UI.

"Kaimana Comic"

It is currently unnamed but in-universe time-wise, it picks up some time after Fleeting. I don't expect to publish the comic at all this year. I'd just like to start thumbnailing it.

Other Projects

I have some other smaller projects like that Dogsitter one I was working on. I'm saving those for when I get frustrated. Those will be my "cool off" projects.

ART GOALS FOR 2024

These are my big big goals this year! If nothing else, at least these please c''':

Release updated FBDC

Begin releasing FBW

Release new Fleeting Demo

Begin thumbnailing Kaimana Comic

JANUARY 2024 SCHEDULE

Okay! That was a lot. Now here's what I have planned for January! I typically like updating every Friday.

January 5 - Character (public) and Outfit (patron) polls drop

January 12 - OC Lore post drops (BJP)

January 19 - Art Process post drops (BJP)

January 26 - New FBDC Voiced Preview! + Current visual novel build update

January 31 - Sketch Dump

Since Kai is like the default model and he's already shirtless, the Cover Story this month will be "What if Kai were a PKMN trainer?" LMAO. Prompted ONLY because I can't unassociate the backwards cap from Ash and his PKMN battles.

Wow. That was a lot. If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading! I'm excited to implement and try all these new stuff out! I hope you'll have fun with it too!

Much Aloha, Ari

#xmacx monthly #vndev #visual novel update #devupdate #original character art #original character #oc art #oc #xmacxart #xmacxoc #kaimana

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