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mister-qi · 1 month

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Mr. Qi Friendship and Romance Mod: 4/19 Progress Update

It's a working title, I'm trying to come up with something less wordy that still will pop up in Nexus searches.

I wanted to be able to track my progress, mainly for myself, but if you're curious, this is the state of the mod right now:

Writing:

Heart Events - the 2 heart event is fully written (with blocking directions), and the 6, 8, and 10 heart events are outlined. The 4 heart cutscene currently has me a bit stumped; I have ideas, but nothing concrete yet. I definitely now understand why Sam's 4 heart cutscene is him dropping an egg. 14 hearts is on the back-burner as a little treat to myself once I get further into things.

Generic Daily Dialogues - about 1/3 done, probably the highest priority for writing. I'm leaving his vanilla casino dialogue as the two heart dialogue, and the vanilla Walnut Room dialogue as his four heart dialogue, with a few small changes. And, since it's me, I have more marriage dialogue written than anything else...

Day-Specific Dialogues - very few written, lower priority. Hoping to have a lot of these made eventually, and I have plenty of ideas, but they aren't necessary for the core of the mod so they're on the back-burner for now.

Gift Dialogues - all 5 generic gift response dialogues are written, with an additional 22 dialogue lines for specific items/groups of items. I'm also up to around item 530 in figuring out what item corresponds to which dialogue/whether or not he likes it. Certain item groups, like cooked food, still need more lines, however. This is definitely something that should be low priority, but also something I'm really enjoying working on. Some personal favorites so far are-

[if given a fish (hated)]: "Eugh, it's all slimy..."

[if given a legendary fish (disliked)]: "If you must give me one of the rarest fish in the valley, can you at least wrap it so I don't have to touch it with my bare hands?"

And I think that's pretty funny.

Art

Portraits - 3 new portraits finished: "deep frown" "glint" and "glasses-less". I'll probably be messing with "glasses-less" for a looong while; it's first shown at a dramatic moment so it needs to look good. Blushing portraits are next on the docket.

Here's "glint" btw, with a background thrown on so I can have a custom icon. You know I gotta make him do the anime glasses thing a few times.

Sprites - no progress yet. Walk cycle is up next after I finish the blushing portraits. Did you know he doesn't have a walk cycle at all? [1.6 spoilers] in the cheated Summit cutscene where he attacks(?) you, he literally just slides at you very fast. Anyways, I may also change his map sprite a bit as well, since it was drawn to match his old portrait and doesn't actually have the same color scheme as his sprites. Note to self: is it possible to make the sparkles on his outfit prismatic?

Maps - no progress yet. The 6 heart and 10 heart cutscenes both require custom maps, with the 6 heart one being a fully custom asset. 10 heart recycles some existing assets but will still need some custom stuff done as well.

Misc Sprites - in my head, there's a dream version of the 8 heart cutscene that has so, so many unique sprites. Like an incredible amount of stuff. I think it'll kick ass, but also that sequence could be done with a few lines of text. So, for now, it's low priority. But maybe in a few months I'll put out a request for help.

Implementation

Not totally sure how to split this into sections yet, as I'm very much still in the preliminary stages so far. To say that I'm feeling overwhelmed is an understatement; documentation on the wiki swings wildly between "an asset is a file in a video game" and "this is an advanced tutorial. Read these 4 other pages first before continuing."

I've started using Ms. Coriel's NPC Creator which has been good for setting up the basic file structure, but ultimately doesn't cover some of the more complex stuff I want to do. EDIT: Turns out it's completely outdated for 1.6! Had to throw out a bit of work, but I still learned from it so it's fiiine.

I think setting up his "schedule" will be a challenge, in that I don't actually want him to have a real schedule like most NPCs. Not to pull back the curtain too much here, but I want him to "exist" in both the Casino and the Walnut Room simultaneously, which is to say, he does not exist in two places at once in the narrative, just in the code. This will change after marriage, however.

My next goal is to set up placeholder cutscenes for each of the heart events, and then to implement the generic daily dialogues once those are finished.

Final Notes

God, this will be a work in progress for a while, but I'm enjoying it! Definitely enjoying the writing more than anything else, but hey, that's how it be. I've got around 70 lines of dialogue written, a bit of art done, and I've started learning how to actually get stuff in game. I've always been more of a designer than a coder, but it's getting there!

ADDITIONALLY I've decided that if I abandon this project for more than 8 months, anyone is welcome to request my work so far and use it for their own mod. If this blog hasn't posted in a long while, feel free to send me an ask or message! I may say no, however.

Ultimately, I want this mod to exist in some fashion. While there is an existing one, I have a pretty different take on the character and I want to share it with you all! Every line of dialogue, every heart event, every little detail needs to share something interesting about a character and their world. Yet, Mr. Qi is a mysterious guy, and I think some things should be left up to player interpretation. And I think it's crucial to be able to match his tone and voice to the vanilla game, while also expanding on his characterization. It's a fun challenge to write, and I hope the finished product, uh, well I hope it gets finished mostly, but I think it'll be pretty good.

Thanks for reading all this. This is largely just a stream of consciousness for myself, but I hope it's...interesting, or something?

#MrQiFAR #mister qi #mr qi #sdv modding #rambles

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genericpuff · 9 months

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Let me preface this: I'm an architecture major

I used to be a big LO fan but obviously fell out of love of it like a lot of us did, and I know LO uses SketchUp for backgrounds. That is not an issue I have with the comic or any comic, I want artists to have an easier time in any way they can. I was always under the impression Rachel imported the models into Photoshop and drew over them like you can see in the early episodes with the sketchy lines. Well, school just started recently for me and I now have access to SketchUp for my coursework, and I made a few discoveries: 1. Photoshop cannot read SketchUp files, and while you can import them into Clip Studio through some configuring, they can be finicky and will lose parts in the importing process, so they are best used into the original SketchUp program to export as PNGs. 2. Many of the models Rachel uses are incredibly easy to find, especially if you put "modern", "luxury", or "classy" before the main part of the search. Many of the houses and rooms for example are first page results. 3. The biggest discovery: You know how we all assumed Rachel was hand-drawing all the lines over the SketchUp models and how she gave up the longer LO went on? Well, it's actually worse. It turns out SketchUp has a thing called "Styles" in it, which means you can mess with the lines and look of the model, such as making it look more like a blueprint or playing with the colors. Well, they have a lot of styles on SketchUp known as "sketchy lines", which are the exact ones Rachel used early in the comic to fit with her style, and it takes a literal click of a button to do. All she would do is pose the model, click the sketchy line style, and export the PNG. That's it. So, yeah, Rachel is so checked out of the comic that she can't even bother to click a single button to make the models fit into the comic's style anymore. Use that information however you like.

Ouhhh sorry OP, I'm about to like, undo all the work you just put into that ask. We've already known about the 3D background problem for a long while now.

First off, it's more likely LO doesn't use SketchUp but actually Acon3D, which is a website that offers 3D models both for free and at cost, which are actually compatible with software like Clip Studio. As soon as you open it up you'll likely see a lot of very familiar backgrounds that are often used in romances, isekais, and period pieces. It's literally the go-to spot for Webtoon Originals creators. Like, to the point that I wouldn't be surprised if Naver was partnered with them because of how many of their creators use it.

Second, there's plenty of up-to-date evidence to support the fact that Rachel doesn't exclusively stick to one software, sometimes she's drawing in Photoshop, sometimes she's drawing in Clip Studio Paint, sometimes she's drawing in Procreate. She's undoubtedly using Clip Studio for her paneling, speech bubbles, and backgrounds, as there are built in tools to utilize and convert 3D materials into lineart, among other features that are recognizable as coming from CSP because they're not available in PS or Procreate.

Third, yes, she just uses filters to turn her backgrounds into lineart, this has been apparent since S1. The only backgrounds she's ever 'hand drawn' were the ones involving lots of nature and even those are mostly just Photoshop brushes stamped on.

Like I realize I'm probably bursting your bubble here and I apologize for that lmao but these buildings were never hand-drawn, this is not new information (￣﹏￣；) I appreciate you mentioning your own experiences with it as you're learning it though, I find once you start to learn the process yourself you really start to notice what others are doing. Even I've gone through that over the past couple years as I started to use 3D models and more advanced tools specifically for drawing webtoons.

I will mention btw, there's nothing wrong with using 3D models for your character drawing and backgrounds. The only time it tends to get frustrating is when you're reading a comic that isn't making any attempts to blend the background in with the art style.

Like, The Kiss Bet probably uses 3D models to help with perspective and laying out scenes quickly without second-guessing, but you can tell they still hand-draw over the models because they look natural and like they belong to the comic's stylization. The characters don't look out of place sitting in a living room and the living room doesn't look distracting.

But then you get stuff like Lore Olympus, Let's Play, and Midnight Poppy Land, and it becomes a bit more obvious they're not giving a shit about backgrounds lmao

I get it, WT's deadlines are cutthroat as fuck, but if it's getting to the point that you have an entire team behind you and you're literally just copy pasting video game models from Phantom Hourglass, then it's probably time to re-focus your priorities a bit. There are comics with as few as 1-2 assistants (and even in some cases no assistants at all!!) pulling off backgrounds better than this, even when they're taking shortcuts.

(Nevermore and City of Blank)

But a lot of that does come down to how WT manages its expectations as well as support for their creators. The deadlines and requirements WT puts their creators under are insane and awful in the long-term, and they're not acting with the amount of professionalism they ought to be for a platform that's trying to breakout as a major publisher here in the West. I feel like it comes down to WT loosening the choke chain around their creators, but also creating a standardized level of quality to ensure it's not suffering for the sake of quantity. The traditional literature industry has real editors and stages of quality control for a reason, whereas WT is more interested in just throwing as many series at the wall and dumping all their stock into the ones that stick.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #webtoons critical #antiloreolympus #anti lore olympus #ama #ask me anything #anon ama #anon ask me anything

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turntableart · 3 months

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okay hi, this character yes this on, is so far called yellow.rom and he is heavily inspired by kinitopet

I LOVE THAT GAME GO PLAY IT GO PLAY IT RIGHT NOW

ehem anyways :] yellow is my take on that

what you need to know before hand is that yellow is a character I've already made and used for a good chunk of time he's actually an fan made Addison from DELTARUNE and in this lil universe he's in, he's in a computer that belongs to a human version of a pink ad called click, they're human name is clark, go to bright goats page to learn about him I love they're stuff sweet Jesus you have no idea, I have no idea how to link people shit bush help

Anyways!

Yellow was completed in 1999 and managed to get on Clarks computer a little later, he popped up in Clarks emails with a year free trial and theyve been stuck together like glue! They are besties and stuff I love them, before that tho yellow was sat in an old computer at the studio that made him, he was cancelled a week prior to his release so when he caught on that he wouldn't be able to literally be friends with everyone on earth he leaked his own files :3 by request of his creator Thomas Greterson who disappeared later that night, that's when he fell into the spam mail box on Clarks computer :]

thank you to bush for doing rps with me so I can get his story down they love him just as much as me it makes me so happy, they also love Thomas, they love how wet cat he is and how bbg he is

Now what can yellow do as an ai assistant? Well he can do surprisingly a lot! He can do the basics like interact with you personally but he can like uh talk? He uses a tts so you can give him your name and he'll say it!!! What tts does he use uh... I haven't decided yet he's only a few days old give me a break, he can interact with you and tabs he can manipulate stuff and activate stuff like your mic or camera if you let him

He can block you from seeing certain things since he was made for a younger democratic, so no ao3 no corn hub no stuff like that... Unless you turn child mode off which is quite hard to do, you need to actually prove to him that your allowed to use that stuff

yes he can read what you search for and he can see what your looking at you dirty sinner

He can judge you. He will judge you. He is programmed to be your best friend :] and is semi self aware, he's self aware enough to feel panic when technology starts to advance and he's worried he'll become obsolete, he doesn't Clark is a smarty, He's also an anti virus, his way of getting rid of viruses is... Interesting

no were not talking about how he's illegally a virus to he doesn't like to talk about it

Hes actually 3D! Or 2.5D I'm not sure what you call it, I plan on making him a 3d model but that'll take time, But he can spin he is an orb and a pyramid with s t i c k s we love him :3 he also has a text box cause he's nice like that, he adds faces into them like :] :3 :D ya know? He kinda has to when he don't have a mouth, his form can be altered if he let's you, he let's Clark edit it cause they're besties :] so often times yellow is littered with stickers and little additions that Clark as drawn on Microsoft paint, sometimes he draws a mouth on yellow :] speaking of mouths, yellow can edit himself as well in a less permanent way, what he does is open a paint tab and he draws his own features such as mouths and eyes and stuff even though he does have a lot of animations already built in but sometimes he just needs a little change up

So far that's all for yellow :] heres a lil about Thomas his creator! Thomas Greterson is the human name for yellow, cause when he's an Addison hes called turnon. G. Addison :] and in this world he's in his late 30s and has been working on yellow for years, he has two kids Clara and evan with his wife Cathryn, when he quit on the day of yellows cancelation he called his wife and was met with the voice of a man he didn't know, turns out she had been cheating on him for the whole of they're marage and most of they're relationship, you see when yellow would be released there was big talk of him being a company success and Thomas would've gotton a big pay out which is the reason Cathy was with him, hearing that he wouldn't get it just made her file for devoice right they're on the phone since I guess her affair was found out, Thomas hung up the phone and walked to a bar and while later he was stumbling back home and was hit by a truck, he didn't survive and now is currently in the hands of the goddess of light

who is the god version of my friend bush, she adores this sad overworked man I am not joking I also have a god form as well as another friend of mine who isn't on here so I won't give em a name well his character is called add-on who is also in this world as a teacher Clark and him don't get along

Anyway so far that's all I've go :3 I hoped enjoy my little read! I enjoyed writing it and I can't wait to write more when I ad more to this hehee *ad* more hehehe

BY THE WAY PLEASE LET ME TALK ABOUT MY AD OC I LOVE HIM SO MUCH I WANT TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT HIM SO PLEASE ASK ME QUESTIONS I SWEAR I WILL GO FERAL I WANT TO SPREAD THE YELLOW AGENDA PLEASE PLEASE ASK ME ABOUT MY OCS I'M BEGGING

#ditgital art #kinitopet #oc lore #frutiger aero #my friend loves yellows human form so much you have no idea #deltarune addisons #deltarune #addison oc #yes im adding those tags i didn't care >:]#bush help me how do i tag people im to new to this bloody site #bush help me #oc art #my ocs #let me talk about my ocs please im begging you

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jenovahh · 2 months

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He had sauntered into her sleeping quarters, still unused to the unusual warmth of Gridania compared to the unforgiving cold of Garlemald. She was surprised to see him-- clearly not expecting visitors at this hour: let alone him.

Her annoyed pout was almost adorable, if not for the nearly transparent shift she wore when she opened her door to him. Without even waiting for her invitation he waltzed right in, ignoring the way she grumbled about spoiled princes under her breath.

The room is a mixture of greens and browns, just as he would expect of her. It is a lovely room, yet quaint for someone of her standing. The curtains are drawn, letting in moonlight, casting her earthen skin in a heavenly glow as she glides past him.

"You are late."

He's gotten used to her strange way of speaking. How her admonishment sounds like she's genuinely angry with him yet a simple observation. Her timid, feeble nature had irritated him at first, causing him to view her as nothing but means to an end.

But they have spent time together, whether he liked it or not. It would many moons still before their arranged marriage was finalized, yet for the sake of appearances, they were made to be in each other's presence.

However, this is the first time they have been alone in private.

Leaning against a stone wall, he takes note of how she gazes up at him unafraid. It was like a glimpse through the crack of her carefully crafted mask; the one she made to be the perfect princess, the perfect daughter.

He wanted to break it.

"So I am." he replies, waiting to see how she responds. Her wide nose scrunches her whole face in distaste, before smoothing back into something far more neutral.

"I would appreciate if you would leave then. As you can see," she coughs, clearly more embarrassed than she lets on, "...I have already readied myself for bed."

His mouth quirks at that. "Will you make me?"

She frowns at him then, clearly annoyed, but unwilling to pull off the mask. "I cannot make my future husband do anything." she huffs, turning on her bare heel to go sit on the settee behind her.

He tuts at her defensiveness, but he's not willing to give up yet. He's put in too much work to call it quits so soon.

He doesn't answer her as he pushes off the wall to move further into her suite, taking note of the blooming tree in the corner. It is clearly touched by her magic, blooming vibrantly as if it were outside. His eyebrows raise slightly to see just how many tomes she had stashed in her room.

"I'm surprised."

Silence hangs in the air before she finally takes the bait. "About what, exactly?" she asks, clearly exasperated.

Picking up a tome, his glance over the title. Lord of the Revel: A History of the God of the Kojin. It was fairly thick, and when he flipped through a few pages, scanning quickly over the contents, it was clear the text was rather advanced. "That your parents allowed you to have books."

Her eyebrows furrowed further at that. "Just what do you mean?"

He smirks, knowing he was close to getting his wish. "Come now, don't play coy. You've said yourself the King and Queen have sheltered you your entire life." Clapping the tome shut, he returns it to its proper place. "Why even bother educating their little songbird?"

He could see her fists ball into tight knots, her eyes glisten with unshed tears. Time to go in for the kill. "Or perhaps, that was their way to make amends. Since they won't let you out of their gilded cage, you could at least imagine what it would be like to be out of it."

He doesn't even bother dodging the pillow she chucks at him with a frustrated roar, her feline growl reverberating through her chest. "How dare you! You speak against the King and Queen,"

"Your King and Queen, might I add--"

She screams again, throwing the second pillow. "You are insufferable!" she cries, hot tears streaming down her cheeks. He wants to taste them.

"And what will you do about it?" he presses, circling the table to stand over her.

She avoids his eyes then, and he knows she's working to put that mask back in place. "Please leave. I want to sleep."

An excuse, easily recognized. "There are more entertaining things we can do aside from sleep." He begins to pull his gloves off, which snaps her attention back to him. Her eyes are wide with panic.

"W-What are you doing?" she stammers, looking for an escape but he's already bent down to take her hand in his, quickly pulling her into him. She's truly so small next to his height, yet that stirs his lust all the more. How strange that this powerless woman would bring this out of him.

"Testing a theory." he replies, moving to sit down on the settee. Like most things in this palace it is too small for him, but it will have to do. It will at least hold their combined weight as he spreads his legs wide enough for her to fit between them so he can spread her own. She protests the entire time he hikes her shift up past her hips revealing a rather racy undergarment underneath.

His eyes trail up her body after his discovery to meet her eyes, which are clearly looking elsewhere in shame. "A rather vulgar garment for the Eorzean princess, don't you think?" he asks, hooking his finger in the band and snapping it against her skin, causing her to yelp. "Unless...it's for me?"

He hears her mumble under her breath, but it's too quiet for him to hear. Huffing out a laugh, he pulls her down to sit between his thighs, crowding his torso around her to show just how different they are. "Speak up, A'yana."

A shiver races down her spine as his low voice purrs right into her furry ear. "I m-made it myself."

He raises an eyebrow at that, taking another look at the garment. Of course a princess would have tailored garments, yet with a second glance it is clear that it was made by hand. "Did you now...?" he chuckles, one of his hands ghosting across her stomach. "And where did the repressed princess learn how to make such garments?" His other hand begins to slither between her thighs, coaxing them open.

Her ears begin to flatten against her head, her eyes focused on the hand between her legs. "I-In a book."

He chuckles at that, pressing a kiss to the bare skin of her neck. She still smelled of the milk and oats of her bath. "How interesting...would I be correct to assume you hide your more...indecent literature from the prying eyes of your parents?"

She nods, breath stuttering as her attention remains fixed on his hand, his fingers threading through the thin strips of her underwear. Following her gaze, he can feel the heat of her center as he slides his hand lower, finally pulling the garment aside. "Tell me, A'yana," he rumbles, bringing his finger back up to his mouth, slicking them a bit first. "Is there anything else you wish to recreate?"

His other hand grazes across her chest before finally settling on a breast, taking the globe in one hand, testing its weight. The one testing her core glides through the slick there, surprised at how wet she already is. Virginal indeed.

"You must tell me, A'yana." he urges, unsure himself why he wants to hear it from her lips. His gaze is trained on her face, wanting to see what expressions she'll make. "There is no shame here. After all, we are to be wed are we not?"

She's biting down harshly on her lip, nodding roughly as her hips writhe for a pleasure they've yet to experience. "T-Touch me," she finally gets out, clinging onto him.

"Good girl." he begins to pet her in earnest, fixated on every noise, every movement he pulls from her as his fingers play with her clit, play with her entrance. He wonders if she's ever touched herself or if that too was repressed. It was not uncommon for noble women to be denied sexual liberation in favor of supposed purity, treated like breeding stock to be sold to the highest bidder.

By the time the night is over, she will be begging for his touch. He can't wait to see the King and Queen during their next meeting, knowing he'll have ruined their little bargaining chip far before the marriage.

Her juices coat his fingers readily, his fingers reaching deep within her body, seeking the spot that will have her crying his name. The closer he pushes her, the more magic fills the room, her markings faintly glowing as she bucks in his hold. Devoid of magic himself, even her can feel her power beneath his armor, on his skin. He's torn between watching how the plants in the room almost glow just like her, how the the flames of the lamps burn brighter, but do not catch fire. Such raw power, such magic, it is beautiful.

And she is beautiful because of it.

Her first orgasm doesn't take long, her hands holding onto him for dear life. He watches patiently as she goes slack in his hold, almost boneless as she catches her breath. As she calms down, so too does the magic in the room, leaving him feeling bereft with its loss.

He wants to know it again.

He samples her juices, tastes her power on his tongue, and it might be the most damning thing he's ever done. If he were to look back to find the point of no return--

It would be here.

#final fantasy xiv #zenos #ffxiv #zenyana #my writings

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nanistar · 1 year

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do you think we could get a sneak peak of saltburn's clan production? like the scripts or the sketches? (of pages already posted of course) i really like seeing how different people approach the comic making process

sure thing!

so i usually post the next 2 sketches on my patreon for the $1+ tiers on tuesday or wednesday, so they get an advanced little view of it before hand. so the ones here are all gonna be older pages.

my entire script and notes i keep in one long google doc. and i send myself feverish notes on discord to be copy/pasta'd into the doc later. i also have a rough estimation of my progress in the story and how much longer i have per chapters, since im trying to keep it to about 30-36 per chapter. i don;t want to spend longer than 2 years on this comic (though im not gonna speedrun it or anything if it ends up going long, im just hoping it stays shorter lol).

i don't script things line-by-line or like a stageplay. i tried doing it early on but i found i made too many deviations depending on how i placed panels and looking back at the script was really annoying.

earliest script i have^

i tend to do dialogue on the fly when actually sketching out the pages, because i know what i'm looking for, so unless i have the specific dialogue that i want to remember to add, i don't write any of that down. although sometimes i get on a roll writing and dialogue flows, so i write it down and change it as needed. i have scenes in my head rather than pages, and i translate those notes later when i need to work on that scene. i very rarely get actual page ideas in my head, but i will say today's update with saltburn flying thru the air and recalling some memories i;ve had in my head for months, along with the one where salt sees the angel i had planned for a while. (i'd LOVE to be able to get a ton of pages sketched at once so i can not worry about it, but the nature of the way that i work is that i just can't think in that much detail far ahead of me. so i can only really do 2 at a time)

^so it tends to look more like this, fast back and forth dialogue to get my point across that i will make fit their voices later on. also i don't use linebreaks or anything just because im lazy so my notes are a fuckin disaster

my god.

as for the actual drawing of the pages, i literally just do it i dont know how to explain it. i sketch things as fast and loose as possible , i try not to have the same size boxes next to each other unless i'm showing the passage of time or a very minor detail change between panels. large panels for establishing shots. ect. sometimes if needed i will do a secondary sketch to figure stuff out, like i needed to do a bunch when working out the first few coyote drawings since ive never drawn dogs in action before. but usually i just whip it out

nightmarish.

this one is still my favorite, and despite looking much better than my normal sketches i did whip it out like normal (i just looked at refs for the other critters so it looks nicer lol)

additionally, i do every single page in the chapter on the same canvas because i love it when procreate crashes. i do all my panel boxes, and any "weird" shaped speech bubbles by hand. i only have one layer for flats, one for BGs, merge them together and do one overlay layer. if i need some extra definition i will add an additional shading layer but i dont like to. once im done with all the art i merge every layer together, send the page to myself on discord, and open it up on my 'puter and do the remaining text and normal speech bubbles in clip studio.

oh yeah people sometimes ask why i do 2 pages instead of one per update, or just do a bunch and upload it less often and the answer is because i don't want to be working on this comic for a very long time, and 2 pages gets me thru faster. if i spend too long working on a scene it starts getting boring for me and im more likely to cheese it which i dont like doing, but if i do two at once i can get stuff done faster. additionally, i cant just do a bunch and upload them all at once because i like the feedback, and it's better for readers to have consistent updates. i have the deadly autism/adhd combo, and my life is literally scheduled week by week and i have to stay consistent or i will die.

but yeah. my process is nightmarish and fast (despite spending like 4-8 hours per page) and loose and crazy but it works for me and keeps me engaged.

#nyask #sbc #thanks for asking i love to talk about my process tbh #when i look back on it im always shocked like what the fuck am i doing here #mine

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stranger-nightmare · 2 years

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𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 // 𝐮𝐩𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬

ALL WORKS ON HOLD WHILST I COMPLETE KINKTOBER 2022

hello lovelies! I’ve decided to make a page with all my upcoming projects / my works in progress so you guys can check in at any time and see what will be coming up in the future! I’m also hoping this will help hold me a bit more accountable and motivate me to get them done.

angst = ❤︎ || fluff = ✿︎ || smut = ⚠︎︎ || dark themes = ☾

anything crossed out has been put on hold / put to the backburner

upcoming headcanons:

Steve Harrington - nsfw alphabet ⚠︎︎

Jonathan Byers - nsfw alphabet ⚠︎︎

Billy Hargrove - nsfw alphabet ⚠︎︎

Henry Creel - nsfw alphabet ⚠︎︎

Nancy Wheeler - nsfw alphabet ⚠︎︎

upcoming oneshots:

I Think I Might Love You… - Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw x F!Reader, Jake ‘Hangman’ Seresin x F!Reader

you have a fwb situation going on with both Bradley and Jake; it’s supposed to be just sex, no feelings, and yet… you’re in love Bradley and Jake’s in love with you…

Sins of the Flesh - Morpheus / Dream x F!Reader ❤︎⚠︎︎

striking a bargain with the lord of dreams; wealth and immortality in exchange for a few ‘favours’…

Conjugal Visitation - Jimmy Keene x F!Reader ❤︎⚠︎︎

your first time having a conjugal visit with your boyfriend Jimmy since he was arrested.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun - Eddie Munson x GN!Reader ✿︎

having a beauty / pamper sleepover with the girls when your boyfriend Eddie comes crashing through the window to visit you; he ends up joining in on the pampering.

Moth to a Flame - Eddie Munson x F!Reader x Steve Harrington ❤︎⚠︎︎ (likely to be multiple parts, probably 2 or 3)

you’re dating Steve ‘the king’ Harrington, you’ hang around with all the ‘cool kids’, your life is perfect, right? except you can’t quite help your heart straying in a different direction, straying towards that metalhead you’ve been friends with since childhood… you love Steve, but you can’t help where your heart truly lies. you’re drawn to Eddie, like a moth to a flame…

A Good Heart - Eddie Munson x F!Reader ✿︎

a heavy make out session with Eddie is interrupted when Max comes in asking for Eddie to make a repair on her bike. seeing Eddie be so good with her, and seeing his hands work their magic on the bike, has you feelings many things.

Back In Time - Eddie Munson x F!Reader ⚠︎

(technically) a part two of ‘A Good Heart’. Eddie helping Max with her bike has taken you right up to your curfew, meaning it’s time for you to go home. but Eddie convinces you you still have more than enough time to have some fun…

DISCLAIMER: these are not listed in order of release. honestly they will be released as and when I get round to finishing them. I, of course, appreciate excitement and enthusiasm but I kindly ask that you don’t repeatedly ask ‘when will x be released’, thank you. furthermore, I reserve the right to change my mind about any of these upcoming works at any time; please do not send me hate just because I ended up not posting something that I did have listed on here. sometimes us writers have an idea but it never comes to fruition, that is just how it goes sometimes. thank you in advance.

this was inspired by @inklore <3

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corpupine · 1 year

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A Long-Awaited Update

I’ve been putting off writing this update for a while now. Not because I’m suffering or struggling at all—life is actually really good! It’s had some truly awful, crappy stuff mixed in, but for the most part my life is very happy. The reason I’ve been putting this off is that I really don’t know where to start. Most of you will have noticed that I stopped posting updates of NemaTale on here sometime last year. There are a couple of reasons for that that I want to explain, then I want to move on to life updates and what’s coming next for NemaTale.

First: Why did I stop posting on Deviantart?

There’s no special reason or controversy here. I post on three sites: Deviantart, Tumblr, and Tapas. Both Tumblr and Tapas offer a scheduling system so that posts can be queued in advance. I was able to schedule posts on those two sites, but Deviantart doesn’t have that function, so each time there was an update I had to go in and manually enter all the information. As my life got more and more hectic (which will be explained a little bit more in the life updates section), I found that I was forgetting to update on Deviantart. I kept on putting it off, figuring I’d get around to it eventually. But uh, whoops—the end of Chapter 4 has been posted everywhere but on Deviantart! I’ll get those last pages up and running soon, but I wanted to offer some sort of explanation before I did so.

(As a side note: I haven't been keeping up with updating the links between pages on Tumblr, for a similar reason. I'll hopefully get those up and going soon so you guys can read the comic more easily on here.)

Second: What’s going on with Corpupine?

So much, you guys. Soooo much, and most of it is—like I said—truly wonderful. I haven’t been posting updates about my life hardly at all, and I want to maintain privacy, but here’s a few fun things I wanted to tell you about:

-Got a big girl job working for a local publishing company (I’m an editor by day and I love it, but it’s very time and energy consuming)

-Helped my wonderful husband self publish a book (that I edited, naturally)

-Moved to a different city

-Finally, finally finished a draft for a novel I’ve been tinkering with for 9 years

Oh, and also, this:

Yes, in what may be the best (accidentally) kept secret ever, I’m a few months away from giving birth to a baby girl. That has been the main reason for my absence online as my husband and I have been preparing for her arrival. This baby has been very much something we have hoped for, and it took longer than we expected to get this far, so we are very happy. We are over the moon excited, a little freaked out, and ready to snuggle her sooo good.

So with that bombshell dropped, let’s talk a little bit more about the stuff you’re all really here for.

What’s next for NemaTale?

Months before I got pregnant, I had already finished Chapter 5. The script for chapter 6 is about 50% written—the broad strokes are there, I just need to nail down the dialogue. Then I started my big-girl job, and life started to get a little out of control. I was incredibly busy all the time with my job, and helping my husband with his book, and I really wanted to start using any free time just to rest and recuperate. I think that was the best choice for me; too much on my plate would have probably led me to have a nervous breakdown, haha. As it is, I’m doing well emotionally, but . . . I haven’t drawn anything since about June of last year. So we’ve got Chapter 5, totally finished and just waiting to be queued up; chapter 6, partially written; aaaaand then a big black void in front of me. (Why does that word feel so . . . familiar?) That should be scary to me, but it’s not. I’ve accomplished a lot, even if I haven’t progressed on the comic. I’m proud of myself and how far I’ve come. But what does that mean for you guys?

Here's the lowdown: I’m giving birth soon. I’m not going to be able to commit to any sort of comic goals in the near future. I’m not even sure what the future of NemaTale looks like, but I do know this: I still love this story. I don’t want to stop creating it, but now’s not the right time for me to be focusing on that. Sometimes life just gets too full to do everything on the list. I just can’t keep this at the top of my list for now.

Chapter 5 is, as I’ve said, completely ready to go (except for the chapter cover, which I haven’t made yet.) So I’m going to put this choice out to you guys. What do you want? Do you want me to go ahead and post chapter 5 over the next few months and then I’ll just see you all when I see you, somewhere down the line? Or do you want me to wait to post chapter 5 until there is also a chapter 6 officially on the way? That could take many, many months, so be aware of that.

I love the interactions I have with all of you. I’d love to keep having them, even if I won’t be able to post new stuff beyond chapter 5 for a while. But I really am okay doing whatever you guys think is best with regards to posting chapter 5. Just let me know in the comments below.

All right, I think that’s everything. I appreciate your patience with me in all this. In the past year, so much has happened. My husband and I have gone on adventures. I turned twenty-five and I’m finally starting to feel more comfortable in my own skin. I tragically lost one dear relative and for a while we thought we were going to lose another one—which, miraculously, we haven’t. Spring is here, and there’s a little girl kicking me in the ribs as I write this. Life is good.

#random nematale update #uhhh...surprise?#tbh i'm not sure how people are going to take this #but i just wanted to get an update out there #i'm happy and thriving and well #just...very busy #<3 you all

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frostfairysteve · 7 months

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any ideas what i should do at my activity tomorrow

since the exhibition is currently ongoing, i can do whatever i want (within reason) so the past few weeks i've

filled in a colouring page (wip)

gotten a headstart on promptober by writing down ideas (but i don't want to plan too far in advance and the next thing will be the triple threat au)

worked on a kny oc

drawn an oc from. like. 2011. because my partner asked about my ocs and now i want to update them

i have like an actual art project that i started before the summer, but i haven't felt like working on it xd

#i'm asking because i haven't done a lot related to stranger things recently #turns out that when your special interest is worldbuilding you jump around a lot lol

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kumeko · 1 year

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A/N: For the @theclotizine! I wanted to sink into that longing taking place after Cloud leaves for SOLDIER and before he returns in Crisis Core.

…

Cloud stared at the blank sheet. In the morning light, it shone brightly, its pristineness mocking him. It had been weeks since he’d bought the simple stationary set, a soft creamy letterhead that was utterly too expensive for his purposes. Yet the envelopes were a warm red, the same colour as Tifa’s eyes, and even now he found his own drawn to them. It almost made up for the fact that he didn’t have any pictures of her to carry around.

The only issue was that he hadn’t sent even a single letter in those weeks. His hand clenched the pen tightly, trembling as he tried to find the right words to scrawl across the page. The only ones he’d found were the address.

Biting his cheek, he tried again.

Dear Tifa—no, that sounded too intimate, too personal. They’d had only a few stolen conversations, a single night under the stars, and he wasn’t even sure if she thought of him as a friend, let alone something more.

Tifa,

How are you? I’m

He paused once more, not sure what to write after that. Doing great? That’d be a lie. Cloud couldn’t even claim that he was fine. He just was. His days were spent going through the motions: eating, training, running grunt errands. His nights were filled with the utter realization that he was never going to advance, that becoming a hero and returning home to her awed smile was just a pipe dream.

I’m not a SOLDIER. I can’t save you. I can’t save anyone. I can’t do anything. I’m no one. I’m nothing.

Unable to stop himself, the words just flowed out. His fears, his failures, the stark realization that he’d never be able to keep his promise. Somehow, it was worse to see it on paper, to see the black ink in the sunlight. Somehow, it was a relief to admit it, even if only to himself.

Maybe her father had been right to keep Tifa away from him all those years ago. There was nothing he could offer her. Not even this simple letter.

“Hey!”

A knock on the door jerked him out of his thoughts, back to the inn room he was staying in. Looking over his shoulder, Cloud quickly covered his letter with his hand as he spotted his squadron leader standing at the door. “Y-yes?”

“Time to go,” the man answered curtly. He didn’t bother to wait for a response before turning on his heel and moving on to the next grunt.

“Yes…” Cloud glanced at the paper one last time.

I’m nothing.

He crumpled the paper before packing up.

-x-

The stars were bright tonight. Tifa paused as she walked along the mountain path home, leaning back slightly to admire the view. Keeping a hand on her hat, she smiled. The stars were bright every night, if she were honest, but tonight they felt especially shiny. Maybe it was because it was an almost moonless night, with a few of its cold rays escaping the slim crescent shape. Or maybe it was because there was no one else on the road home, the rest of her village already tucked safely inside their homes.

Or, most likely, this was all her boredom talking. Tifa glanced over her shoulder to the mountains she guided strangers through. When she’d picked the job, she’d thought it was her first step out into the world. An easy way to meet new people and learn about distant places before she headed out herself.

Instead, it was a repetitive chore. Every day she parroted the same words, answered the same questions. The only break from the monotony was her martial arts practice, and even that was starting to get old.

Tifa stretched her hand above her, trying to grasp the just out of reach stars. “What am I doing?”

Her sensei would say that she was being impatient, that she was still young and there was more than enough time to explore the world. Her father would tell her to stop thinking such silly thoughts, to stay in this safe little town tucked in the middle of nowhere.

I’ll go.

Her breath caught for a moment, her hand closing involuntarily at the memory. For a second, she was sitting next to a boy who looked at her as though she were the sun and moon, his body so close that she could feel the heat radiating off him. He’d listened as she confessed her dreams, not even batting an eye before declaring he would leave too.

That he’d save her, if she ever needed it.

Tifa had almost forgotten that night, that promise. That boy who had stepped out into the world first, never to return. It was only on nights like this, when she was alone with her thoughts, did she let herself touch that memory.

Her lips parted, and she breathed, “Hey, Cloud.”

Somewhere across the world, she wondered if he heard her. If his ears perked a little, if his heart ached faintly from a memory he’d long abandoned.

“You know, the town hasn’t changed much since you’d left. It’s still quiet and sleepy. A little too safe and boring, though I guess that isn’t the worst.” She chuckled wryly. “I can guess why you haven’t come back. It’s more interesting out there, isn’t it? I wouldn’t come back either.”

She stared at the stars now. “Hey, are you seeing this too? Are the stars the same where you are?”

Just looking at them made Tifa feel restless. An impatience ran through her bones, an eagerness to just get up and do something. What, she didn’t know. It was more than just leaving her home. It was like she was holding her breath, waiting for something to start, for something to end.

“You know, sometimes I wonder if the reason you’re not coming back is that you’re waiting for me out there, but…that’s not right, is it?” Tifa lowered her fisted hand to her chest.

It was a letter she could never write. A letter she could never send. She’d composed these words a thousand times in her head and they all ended with the same question:

Do you miss me?

And even the boy in her mind shook his head, giving her a rejection that she didn’t want to hear. She opened her hand and it was empty. Of course it was, she couldn’t grab the stars, not here, not anywhere. Staring at her palm, Tifa’s shoulders sank. “What am I doing?” she asked herself again.

Tifa pulled her hat lower on her head and started walking home once more. In all the ways that mattered, she was a coward.

No wonder he had disappeared without a second thought.

#cloti #cloud strife #tifa lockhart #ff7 #ffvii #fanfic

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mediaevalmusereads · 1 day

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Sufficiently Advanced Magic. By Andrew Rowe. 2017.

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

Genre: fantasy

Series: Arcane Ascension #1

Summary: Five years ago, Corin Cadence’s brother entered the Serpent Spire — a colossal tower with ever-shifting rooms, traps, and monsters. Those who survive the spire’s trials return home with an attunement: a mark granting the bearer magical powers. According to legend, those few who reach the top of the tower will be granted a boon by the spire’s goddess.

He never returned.

Now, it’s Corin’s turn. He’s headed to the top floor, on a mission to meet the goddess.

If he can survive the trials, Corin will earn an attunement, but that won’t be sufficient to survive the dangers on the upper levels. For that, he’s going to need training, allies, and a lot of ingenuity.

The journey won’t be easy, but Corin won’t stop until he gets his brother back.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: violence

OVERVIEW: This was my book club's pick for May 2024. It hadn't been on my radar, and I might have picked it up on my own, since I'm a fantasy reader. Overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, some aspects of the worldbuilding are interesting. On the other, the plot felt overstuffed and overwritten, leaving very little room for character work. I'm thus rating it 2.5 or 3 stars because while I was frequently frustrated, I wasn't entirely disinterested.

WRITING: Rowe's prose is rather straightforward and clean; it flows just fine and describes everything with plain, unadorned language. It also moves quickly, so it's not particularly hard to get through. The only real gripe I have here is that he seems to repeat variations of "I'll have to look that up later" - proof that the book as a whole has a lot going on.

However, on a macro level, I do think that Rowe overdoes it. He doesn't exactly leave any room for readers to infer anything, so as a reader, I felt like I was being spoon-fed. Rowe also leans heavily on telling over showing, which works fine in some areas (like moments of action) but in others, feels rather tedious. The overall pace thus feels uneven; action scenes go by quickly, which is appropriate, but some other things feel too short or too drawn out.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows Corin Cadence, a nobleman's son who is determined to find his missing older brother. In Corin's world, people enter a structure known as the Serpent Spire, a mystical structure filled with "trials" organized by one of their goddesses. If you survive the "lower level" trials (called "Judgment"), you get an Attunement - basically, a magical ability. Corin's brother disappeared attempting these trials. Later, after some training, you can return and try to make it to the top of the Spire, and if you survive, you can ask the goddess directly for a boon. Corin aims to master his Attunement enough to get to the top of the Spire to ask for his brother back.

The most frustrating thing about this book is that it crams too much into one novel. The description given about Corin and the trials only takes up 80 pages (or less), so the majority of the plot is not about the Judgment, but about everything that happens after: namely, Corin refining his powers at University. At University, the energy and the pace significantly slows down to make room for some infodumping, and Corin's problems compound until they become a long chain of steps that must be accomplished before Corin can return to finding his bother: he has to make friends, protect himself from assassins, find the spy, get money to buy supplies, not fail his classes, etc etc. Most of this was frustrating because it put so much emotional distance between Corin and his main goal; I no longer felt like it was a pressing issue. It also meant that some plot points were introduced then forgotten for hundreds of pages. On a macro level, I personally felt like there wasn't a well-defined plot stucture, and the overstuffing meant there wasn't time to fully explore things like character development.

Despite a lot of infodumping, there were a number of things about the worldbuilding that, to me, didn't quite make sense. For example, when Corin goes to University, we learn that it's run something like a military prep school. We also learn that there are students from other nations at that school, which baffled me - if certain nations are in conflict with one another, why would they train their students together? It would be like international students attending Westpoint (which happens, but those students are carefully selected by the government). Moreover, people have to pay to get a shot at Judgment, so most people with Attunements are nobles. How does the military/nation benefit from that system, especially if Attunements are rare and class (according to Corin) seems to be unimportant? Mostly what frustrated me about the worldbuilding was that I had very little sense of the actual world; I didn't know much about how countries related to one another or what Corin's country was like (until we get a lecture from a tracher 400 pages in), and though I don't think all books need extensive international relations details, for this book, I think they were needed because so much emphasis was put on military might. In the end, I didn't really care about the stakes in the world because they didn't seem important to Corin (even if he says so, he also doesn't seem nationalistic and doesn't really worship the military in his internal though processes) and didn't really threaten any of his goals.

Basically, what this book felt like was a more complex version of Harry Potter: a magic school with "houses" competing for points while also learning magic (that is more complex) and avoiding death. Granted, there are significant differences; I don't mean to suggest that Rowe is ripping off Rowling. What I am saying is that this book, despite its summary, is primarily about magic school, and I don't think it particularly brings anything unique to the table. If anything, I think it would work better as a pulp serial rather than a novel; some parts have a magic-problem-of-the-week feel that lends itself well to episodic storytelling, but as a single, unified whole, it was difficult to connect to.

Supporting characters varied for me. Sera, Corin's half-sister, was probably the best because Corin interacts with her the most on a human level. Patrick, Corin's childhood friend, also felt like a solid ally, though I wish more time was spent unpacking their past.

CHARACTERS: Corin, our protagonist and POV character, is hard to care about because he doesn't have much personality. He seems to care about his brother (but only sometimes), he seems clever (but only sometimes), he prefers to be alone (until it's useful to have allies) - it just didn't feel like I got to know him or was invited to experience things with him. Most of his feelings are told to us rather than shown, and we're privy to a lot more about his thoughts about magical engineering than his feelings about his friends or his family. He's also a little frustrating because he seems completely dismissive of class barriers that have real effects on other people, and he seems to have the privilege of just not needing to care about them. However, I do think his anxiety about using his mental mana was well done; it was a significant mental barrier, and I think there's plenty of room for Rowe to explore this as the series continues.

There were a number of side characters that seemed to be used for something important but then would disappear for dozens of pages. Two of these are Jin, a mysterious student, and Marissa, a student from a low class family. Neither character is present enough for them to feel like part of Corin's life at University, and when interactions do happen, they come on suddenly. I wish Rowe had integrated them more solidly into the friend group as opposed to having Corin, Sera, and Patrick as a core trio.

TL;DR: Sufficiently Advanced Magic will probably appeal to those who like to understand the nitty gritty of how a magic system works, but may disappoint those who prioritize plot and character development. Though a lot of the worldbuilding is interesting, there was just too much crammed into one story and it wasn't helped by being led by a lackluster protagonist.

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ninthnocturne · 2 years

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Tagged by: stole it

Tagging: whoever wants to.

TEN Q’S:

1. When are you usually online?

I’m usually around most of the time if I’m not sleeping or on the rare grocery run now and again. But I am a single mother of two disabled kids so sometimes I might be slow to respond.

2. What verses are you involved in outside of this page?

Quite a few on discord, I rp a lot more actively over there. So if you ever want to like make our own server to continue a rp at a faster pace hit me up for my discord.

3. What is your biggest RP pet peeve?

Force shipping is probably my only real big pet peeve. Like Myde gels with just about anyone and I have no issues shipping with just about anyone he meets. But there are a few ships that have been pushed on me in the past. One in particular that is very popular in the KH fandom that I just don’t like. It would have to be the right person behind the wheel for me to even want to try that particular pairing.

4. Are you drawn to specific types of muses?

Not really but I do love when people put a lot of thought into their portrayal and really own the character as their own. I’ve put a shit ton of work into Myde over the 12+ years I’ve been rping him so I always appreciate seeing that dedication in others.

5. Are there recurring themes in your writing that people might not notice?

Not sure actually. Maybe that I prefer angst to fluff might be hard to pick up on sometimes since Myde is such a dad sometimes.

6. What are your favorite RP trends?

Not really picky with this.

7. What is your process for starting a new story with someone?

Depends if we want it to be structured I do love to plot stuff out somewhat in advance but I’m more than happy to just wing it and see where things go.

8. How do you feel about duplicates?

I love interacting with other Demyx muses. (hell Myde has dated one or two of them lol) Its always welcome and always a lot of fun to rp with other versions.

9. How long have you been involved in roleplaying?

Since Aol came on a floppy disk.

10. Is there a muse or verse you wish you could write in, but haven’t?

not really...but I guess I’d say I miss rping FF12 stuff that is a fun universe to play in.

#mun memes

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kradeelav · 11 months

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how 2 sell zines online, by krad

i had some sick ass ascii art in the header but tumblr borked it oh no

Introduction

this is not a guide on “how to make a handmade zine”, as there’s plenty of fantastic (free!) tutorials on it - such as this, this and this. This is also not a guide of choosing a specific printer for indie creative work or work meant for the convention circuit, as that would likely go out of date quickly.

What this is:

documentation on how I personally print & sell zines on a small scale painlessly, within the US.

documentation with specific tips for kink, controversial, & NSFW artists who face additional and unique payment barriers versus “vanilla” creatives. for example, my specific process does not show my real name to the customer, further blunting any impact a harassment campaign would make.

useful tips on how to sell physical merch on itch.io since it’s not exactly advertised and requires some set-up.

This is not the only way, either, mind; but I’ve done this for a while and like sharing resources. The long-term mirror of this post is on dreamwidth.org. You may repost on sites other than tumblr, but I would encourage you to credit me & link back to the dreamwidth link. (thanks!)

Without further ado ...

Make a Zine

I know this feels like ‘draw a circle, then draw the rest of the f*king owl’, but I have faith in you. There’s some links above that talk to this.

A seamless pre-order process from start to finish can take 1-4 months, depending on the size/complexity of the project, whether you’ve done this before and have set up the backbone, and other factors. Pace yourself! Ultimately this isn’t about the money. I probably just about break even; to me, selling zines is simply a back-up in case if the world wide web goes to shit, and my art would have one last legacy in the physical world.

Prep, Pre-press, & Printing

Three months in advance of your project, I’d start cold-emailing a few printers, if you’re not wanting the hassle of printing off of your mom’s your printer, or your work/library printer. There’s advantages of printing it at home (cheaper, easier to do small quantity runs from 1-25), but when you start hitting 25-50+ zines per run, it may be worthwhile to offload that work.

The biggest reason to cold-email a commercial printer ahead of time is to ask for a paper sample. I’m not going to put the name of my commercial printer of choice here for safety reasons (if you know me on DW, my email, or discord handle, and/or are another kink art creator, you’re welcome to reach out privately for it). That said, any company worth their salt are going to be happy to send you a paper sample for a minor fee, if you inquire for it. Other topics I’d inquire about when cold-emailing printers is:

if they print NSFW (if you need it). Be specific! Are you creating/printing naziexploitation? eroguro? lolisho? Some will only require that you put R18 on the cover. Some will decline. Some don’t care if it’s drawn, only no photography. It’s not personal. A good printer will ask to see an example spread of your content -- send them a screenshot if they ask. Most printers have a higher tolerance for R18 than you think, though I personally find that US based printers tend to be more flexible with creative work than Canadian or Asia printers. You save a buttload on shipping/border hassle if you’re also within the US. (Border police tend to be more picky about “obscene content” than domestic. I know a friend whose zines got seized at the border for perfectly legal work that was posted on Ao3, so it does happen in this day and age.)

Asking for a quote for your imagined product is a good idea, even if the page count or size changes. at worst, you still get a sense of how much it’s going to be for a standard size, and can compare prices like apples to apples.

Minimum/Maximum print runs, if the info is not on their store.

Basic communication. There’s a lot of fantastic printers over in Asia that can run circles around the US/Canadian ones. Moderate english proficiency is not a yellow flag, as long as it doesn’t impact actual quality; but if it does, that can be a problem. Do they reply promptly (within 3 working days)? Are they generally helpful, or rude/ghost you? Is their website easy to navigate and provide resources?

As mentioned, being sent paper samples is lovely so you know what you’re getting into with future projects. When you say ‘I want a cover with 80lb gloss’, you can touch and feel that in your home.

If they do proofs. (ALWAYS ask for proofs). What to look for in proofs: streaky/puddly inks, mis-aligned colors, white borders if your book is full-bleed, pixelated images (maybe you accidentally sent them the low resolution file ... I’ve done this ....), pages that are in the wrong order. Typos! Regardless if it’s an error on your side or their side, this is the stage to correct it.

Contact around 2-5 companies, and pick your favorite regarding price, quality, and convenience.

Creating the Store

Two months out, I’d start looking at stores. There’s a lot of online storefronts out there, with an extensive list of pros/cons that could fill up a whole post. Below is a list of reasons why I ultimately chose itch.io for my specific use-case over the likes of etsy, gumroad, paypal’s online store, and others.

fees (pro): itch.io has some of the most flexible and low-cost fees in the game re: online storefronts. i’m not going to get into it as their FAQ. is a better place for this, but it’s a considerable difference.

convenience & aesthetics (pro): their creator + work pages give you a ton of customization, and it’s pretty easy to post your works on there.

analytics & visibility (pro): most online stores will give you a similar level of analytics as well as being searchable on their internal platform. itch.io is more well known for indie games, and not zines per se, but there’s a rapidly growing selection of zine artists selling their stuff on there given these advantages, and the venn diagram of people buying indie games and zines are ... really similar.

privacy (pro): itch.io has an unique system where they’ll ask you to go through a tax interview before you sell stuff, to verify you are who you are. While the tax prep requires more up-front work, in exchange, not having your real or dead name show up in transactions is huge from a privacy/safety standpoint, if you’re selling semi-controversial artwork.

they’ll allow nsfw ... with caveats. I’ve had kink artist friends kicked off of etsy and gumroad multiple times purely due to the storefronts caving in from harassment campaigns. while I haven’t seen personal friends kicked off from itch.io, however, in the last year they have been starting to move away from an unofficial ‘any and all fictional nsfw welcome’ policy to a murkier one. It’s not what I’d call an immediate red flag, but it does give me serious concerns for the longevity of the platform. For 90% of creative sellers, you’re probably fine, but if you have online stalkers and are used to dealing with these niche issues of stores being yanked down ... yeah. (to that case, I’ve tentatively never heard of anyone being pulled off from ecwid? Haven’t used it but it’s my first backup choice.)

physical merch on itch.io specifically ...

As mentioned above, itch.io was built specifically for indie games; this whole feature of being able to sell physical merch is an extra. It’s a nice one though.

The tl;dr is you have to make “rewards” required, via their refinery toolset (basically an extra free plug-in). Just follow the instructions on that page, you’ll know you did it right when your project page looks like this:

(Go to Dashboard > $your_comic > (more) > rewards)

Make sure that required bit is checked. Below to the bottom-right, you’ll see a space to add an address form, which makes it easy to input addresses even internationally. I would highly encourage you to either test a purchase yourself, or have a friend test it, before going live for your first time.

Pre-Order Process

After you’ve selected your store, i would create 1-3 promotional pieces. These can be as simple as a literal screenshot of a cover or some internal artwork to go along with the basic description of your zines. Don’t write an essay, but cover the basics - how much is it? How would you describe it to the cashier at your grocery store? Is it NSFW or have specific content warnings? What would be its Ao3 tags? Here’s an example of one of mine:

Once when you’ve posted the description to your itch.io page and mocked up a social media post or two .... announce it!

... (good luck!) ...

While you’re waiting for orders to (hopefully) roll in, now’s the time I’d create an excel spreadsheet of your orders that lives on your desktop. Things to have on your spreadsheet:

how many/which zines they ordered, if you have more than one type

date the zine is ordered

email (to contact when the zines are sent, and/or if they forgot to put their address)

(real) name to put on the address

the address

special notes (are they a frequent customer that leaving a little thank-you note for might be worthwhile? special international instructions? did they require another zine sent if it got lost in the mail?)

date that you personally, sent the zines out to (also useful to know if it gets lost)

The date when pre-orders close is when you need to put in the actual print order to your printer of choice. Expect 2-4 weeks turnaround time including proofs.

Generally I order (amount of pre orders)+5 or +10, because you may want to pass some to friends, keep one or two, or there might be a straggler or two who want to buy it after the fact. Don’t do +100 like i did my first time, you’ll be trying to get rid of those for years. :P

Mailing

While you’re waiting on stuff to get sent to you...

the usps store is a pretty basic place to get stamps. :v ur gonna need a lot; and this will be probably your biggest expense other than the print order.

envelopes.com was recommended to me ages ago for all kinds of envelope sizes. I started off sending most of my early zines with a 5x7in envelope that only needed one stamp domestically in the US; just recently brought a size up to be able to send slim (but larger) doujinshi/comics.

Privacy tip: I don’t put my return address on zines going out. The USPS doesn’t particularly like it, and they’re very clear that if it gets lost, it’s not going to be returned. but again, the privacy trade-off of that versus just losing one zine has been extremely worth it. (Out of hand-mailing 100+ zines I think I know of only one customer that I had to re-send a zine to).

Anyway, once when you get your box of printed zines, stamps, and envelopes, it’s time to hand-address them with your info from the spreadsheet. There’s no real skill to this part of the process as much as turning on your favorite music and being careful to address things correctly. I’ll often do these in batches of 10 to reduce errors.

The day before I mail out a batch of ten, I’ll send a short e-mail to the recipients. Generally in the email I’ll mention it’s being sent out, and if it hasn’t arrived within a month, reply back to me and I’ll re-send another. (This covers my ass in case if the system breaks down somewhere, and gives them a specific date to work off on.)

Then, the best part: mailing them out, and marking it as fulfilled in itch.io!

Recap

make the zine & get a printer on hand.

make the itch.io page with the details, where they can click 'buy'

make a pre-order post that said something like 'PRE ORDERS OPEN for x zine, closes on y date (within a month or so). printing and shipping will take 1-2 months.

(hopefully watch orders roll in).

count 'em up when the timeline closes, and send that order to the printer. (plus maybe 5 or so, since there's always a straggler or two).

have printed, and then once you get it, ship 'em out.

Conclusion

It’s a lot of work! I don’t blame you if this wall of text made you think twice about the process; it does require multiple day’s worth of work, and a sense of being organized. If you’re forgetful like me, having things written down is critical.

You will make mistakes the first go-around, but it’s not the end of the world as long as you stay professional emotionally, apologize if it’s your screw-up, and make note of how to avoid it in the future. (Hell, I just had an incident where I got cocky and thought I could skip the proof process. Guess what happened?)

All of this is also fantastic for your resume, by the by - all of the above? Is literally project management 101; milk it for what it’s worth if you need to.

Best of luck!

#resource #zine #zines

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duckprintspress · 3 years

Text

Giving Quality, Motivating Feedback

A guest post by @shealynn88!

The new writer in your writing group just sent out their latest story and it’s...not exciting. You know it needs work, but you’re not sure why, or where they should focus.

This is the blog post for you!

Before we get started, it’s important to note that this post isn’t aimed at people doing paid editing work. In the professional world, there are developmental editors, line editors, and copy editors, who all have a different focus. That is not what we’re covering here. Today, we want to help you informally give quality, detailed, encouraging feedback to your fellow writers.

The Unwritten Rules

Everyone seems to have a different understanding of what it means to beta, edit, or give feedback on a piece, so it’s best to be on the same page with your writer before you get started.

Think about what type of work you’re willing and able to do, how much time you have, and how much emotional labor you’re willing to take on. Then talk to your writer about their expectations.

Responsibilities as an editor/beta may include:

Know what the author’s expectation is and don’t overstep. Different people in different stages of writing are looking for, and will need, different types of support. It’s important to know what pieces of the story they want feedback on. If they tell you they don’t want feedback on dialogue, don’t give them feedback on dialogue. Since many terms are ambiguous or misunderstood, it may help you to use the list of story components in the next section to come to an agreement with your writer on what you’ll review.

Don’t offer expertise you don’t have. If your friend needs advice on their horse book and you know nothing about horses, be clear that your read through will not include any horse fact checking. Don’t offer grammar advice if you’re not good at grammar. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give feedback on things you do notice, but don’t misrepresent yourself, and understand your own limits.

Give positive and constructive feedback. It is important for a writer to know when something is working well. Don’t skimp on specific positive feedback — this is how you keep writers motivated. On the other hand, giving constructive feedback indicates where there are issues. Be specific on what you’re seeing and why it’s an issue. It can be hard for someone to improve if they don’t understand what’s wrong.

Be clear about your timing and availability, and provide updates if either changes. Typically, you’ll be doing this for free, as you’re able to fit it in your schedule. But it can be nerve wracking to hand your writing over for feedback and then hear nothing. For everyone’s sanity, keep the writer up to date on your expected timeline and let them know if you’re delayed for some reason. If you cannot complete the project for them, let them know. This could be for any reason — needing to withdraw, whatever the cause, is valid! It could be because working with the writer is tough, you don’t enjoy the story, life got tough, you got tired, etc. All of that is fine; just let them know that you won’t be able to continue working on the project.

Be honest if there are story aspects you can’t be objective about. Nearly all of your feedback is going to be personal opinion. There are some story elements that will evoke strong personal feelings. They can be tropes, styles, specific characterizations, or squicks. In these cases, ask the writer to get another opinion on that particular aspect, or, if you really want to continue, find similar published content to review and see if you can get a better sense of how other writers have handled it.

Don’t get personal. Your feedback should talk about the characters, the narrator, the plotline, the sentence structure, or other aspects of the story. Avoid making ‘you’ statements or judgements, suggested or explicit, in your feedback. Unless you’re looking at grammar or spelling, most of the feedback you’ll have will be your opinion. Don’t present it as fact.

Your expectations of the writer/friend/group member you are working with may include:

Being gracious in accepting feedback. A writer may provide explanations for an issue you noticed or seek to discuss your suggestions. However, if they constantly argue with you, that may be an indicator to step back.

Being responsible for emotional reactions to getting feedback. While getting feedback can be hard on the ego and self esteem, that is something the writer needs to work on themselves. While you can provide reassurance and do emotional labor if you’re comfortable, it is also very reasonable to step back if the writer isn’t ready to do that work.

Making the final choice regarding changes to the work. The writer should have a degree of confidence in accepting or rejecting your feedback based on their own sense of the story. While they may consult you on this, the onus is on them to make changes that preserve the core of the story they want to tell.

Some people aren’t ready for feedback, even though they’re seeking it. You’re not signing up to be a psychologist, a best friend, or an emotional support editor. You can let people know in advance that these are your expectations, or you can just keep them in mind for your own mental health. As stated above, you can always step back from a project, and if writers aren’t able to follow these few guidelines, it might be a good time to do that. (It’s also worth making sure that, as a writer, you’re able to give these things to your beta/editor.)

Specificity is Key

One of the hardest things in editing is pinning down the ‘whys’ of unexciting work, so let’s split the writing into several components and talk about evaluations you can make for each one.

You can also give this list to your writer ahead of time as a checklist, to see which things they want your feedback on.

Generally, your goal is going to be to help people improve incrementally. Each story they write should be better than the previous one, so you don’t need to go through every component for every story you edit. Generally, I wouldn’t suggest more than 3 editing rounds on any single story that isn’t intended for publication. Think of the ‘many pots’ theory — people who are honing their craft will improve more quickly by writing a lot of stories instead of incessantly polishing one.

With this in mind, try addressing issues in the order below, from general to precise. It doesn’t make sense to critique grammar and sentence structure if the plot isn’t solid, and it can be very hard on a writer to get feedback on all these components at once. If a piece is an early or rough draft, try evaluating no more than four components at a time, and give specific feedback on what does and doesn’t work, and why.

High Level Components

Character arc/motivation:

Does each character have a unique voice, or do they all sound the same?

In dialogue, are character voices preserved? Do they make vocabulary and sentence-structure choices that fit with how they’re being portrayed?

Does each character have specific motivations and focuses that are theirs alone?

Does each character move through the plot naturally, or do they seem to be shoehorned/railroaded into situations or decisions for the sake of the plot? Be specific about which character actions work and which don’t. Tell the writer what you see as their motivation/arc and why—and point out specific lines that indicate that motivation to you.

Does each character's motivation seem to come naturally from your knowledge of them?

Are you invested (either positively or negatively) in the characters? If not, why not? Is it that they have nothing in common with you? Do you not understand where they’re coming from? Are they too perfect or too unsympathetic?

Theme:

It’s a good idea to summarize the story and its moral from your point of view and provide that insight to the writer. This can help them understand if the points they were trying to make come through. The theme should tie in closely with the character arcs. If not, provide detailed feedback on where it does and doesn’t tie in.

Plot Structure:

For most issues with plot structure, you can narrow them down to pacing, characterization, logical progression, or unsatisfying resolution. Be specific about the issues you see and, when things are working well, point that out, too.

Is there conflict that interests you? Does it feel real?

Is there a climax? Do you feel drawn into it?

Do the plot points feel like logical steps within the story?

Is the resolution tied to the characters and their growth? Typically this will feel more real and relevant and satisfying than something you could never have seen coming.

Is the end satisfying? If not, is it because you felt the end sooner and the story kept going? Is it because too many threads were left unresolved? Is it just a matter of that last sentence or two being lackluster?

Point Of View:

Is the point of view clear and consistent?

Is the writing style and structure consistent with that point of view? For example, if a writer is working in first person or close third person, the style of the writing should reflect the way the character thinks. This extends to grammar, sentence structure, general vocabulary and profanity outside of the dialogue.

If there is head hopping (where the point of view changes from chapter to chapter or section to section), is it clear in the first few sentences whose point of view you’re now in? Chapter headers can be helpful, but it should be clear using structural, emotional, and stylistic changes that you’re with a new character now.

Are all five senses engaged? Does the character in question interact with their environment in realistic, consistent ways that reflect how people actually interact with the world?

Sometimes the point of view can feel odd if it’s too consistent. Humans don’t typically think logically and linearly all the time, so being in someone’s head may sometimes be contradictory or illogical. If it’s too straightforward, it might not ‘feel’ real.

Be specific about the areas that don’t work and break them down based on the questions above.

Pacing:

Does the story jump around, leaving you confused about what took place when?

Do some scenes move quickly where others drag, and does that make sense within the story?

If pacing isn’t working, often it’s about the level of detail or the sentence structure. Provide detailed feedback about what you care about in a given scene to help a writer focus in.

Setting:

Is the setting clear and specific? Writing with specific place details is typically more rooted, interesting, and unique. If you find the setting vague and/or uninteresting and/or irrelevant, you might suggest replacing vague references — ‘favorite band’, ‘coffee shop on the corner’, ‘the office building’ — with specific names to ground the setting and make it feel more real.

It might also be a lack of specific detail in a scene that provides context beyond the characters themselves. Provide specific suggestions of what you feel like you’re missing. Is it in a specific scene, or throughout the story? Are there scenes that work well within the story, where others feel less grounded? Why?

Low Level Components

Flow/Sentence Structure:

Sentence length and paragraph length should vary. The flow should feel natural.

When finding yourself ‘sticking’ on certain sentences, provide specific feedback on why they aren’t working. Examples are rhythm, vocabulary, subject matter (maybe something is off topic), ‘action’ vs ‘explanation’, passive vs. active voice.

Style/Vocabulary:

Writing style should be consistent with the story — flowery prose works well for mythic or historical pieces and stories that use that type of language are typically slower moving. Quick action and short sentences are a better fit for murder mysteries, suspense, or modern, lighter fiction.

Style should be consistent within the story — it may vary slightly to show how quickly action is happening, but you shouldn’t feel like you’re reading two different stories.

SPAG (Spelling and Grammar):

Consider spelling and grammar in the context of the point of view, style and location of the story (eg, England vs. America vs. Australia).

If a point of view typically uses incorrect grammar, a SPAG check will include making sure that it doesn’t suddenly fall into perfect grammar for a while. In this case, consistency is going to be important to the story feeling authentic.

Word Count Requirements:

If the story has been written for a project, bang, anthology, zine, or other format that involves a required word count minimum or maximum, and the story is significantly over or under the aimed-for word count (30% or more/less), it may not make sense to go through larger edits until the sizing is closer to requirements. But, as a general rule, I’d say word count is one of the last things to worry about.

The best thing we can do for another writer is to keep them writing. Every single person will improve if they keep going. Encouragement is the most important feedback of all.

I hope this has helped you think about how you provide feedback. Let us know if you have other tips or tricks! This works best as a collaborative process where we all can support one another!

#duck prints press #original content #writing advice #guest blogger #guest blogger shea

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missluckycharms · 3 years

Text

What is grief, if not love persevering?

Anon asked: heyyy! i love your writing sm💕 can you write angst please? make it hurt☹

Masterlist.

Summary: in which Harry is a single Dad due to losing his wife five years ago just shortly after their little love was born. Y/N has been there through it all. Harry has a rough night filled with whiskey and tears for his late wife.

A/N: this one is full of Angst and light hearted jokes to not get you too sad … sorry in advance, it’s a real tear jerker. Enjoy!!

Warnings: Angst, mentions of death, talks of alcohol and drug abuse, talks of depression and very low mental health, curse words.

—

Five years.

It’s been five years since the passing of Myla Styles, the woman who granted Harry a wish he always wanted, the woman who loved him beyond all the galaxies and the woman who never saw any wrong in anyone, not even the worst of people, she always used to say “deep down, their heart is just aching” and Harry always admired that about her, she always looked on the positive side of life.

She held that same attitude as he held her hand in the hospital room, her fragile and pale body laying on the white bed as she peered up at him, oxygen tube in her nostrils and too many machines to count hooked up to her body, she was a shell of a woman, but she still had a heart of gold, the same hear Harry fell in love with when they were sixteen years of age. He hated seeing her this way, especially when their nearly one week old baby was resting in his other arm, fast asleep as her Mum clung to every bit of life she had left, but not once did her smile fade.

It all happened so fast, one day she was pushing life into the world and eight days later her life was being taken out of this world. There was complications with birth, the doctors and nurses finding undiagnosed ovarian cancer in her ovaries when they had to send her in for an emergency c section. Myla confessed she felt off, her body didn’t feel right, but she knew if something was seriously wrong, she wouldn’t risk the life of her baby getting treatment, she would rather her baby live over her. Doctors and nurses tried their best, trying to refer her to new hospitals to get stronger chemo if she wanted, but Myla refused, she told them to let her go, she was tired and she couldn’t stick around long enough to see if these treatments would work — she knew she was dying but Harry refused to believe it.

The day she left, was the day Harry felt like his whole world stopped, like the curtains were shut and he was left in a dark room with no way out. He promised Myla he would do his best to take care of their love, who they named Honey. He was dealing with the loss, Honey taking his mind off it a little and giving him reasons to pull himself from bed even on the days when he wanted to lay around and wallow in his own darkness — she pulled him out of those days, but two months later it all came crashing down on top of him.

He slipped into a wrong mind set, immediately knowing that Honey had to be taken away from him because he was living in fear he would hurt her, one day he woke up and he looked at her and just cried, he held her and he felt nothing, he didn’t even sympathise with her when she would cry for food, he felt nothing towards Honey and this scared him, terribly. Anne, his Mum took Honey in, letting Harry to relax and blow off some steam and get some help, his and Myla’s family all agreeing and saying he needed help and it wasn’t something to be ashamed about — he just lost his wife, they can’t lose him either.

Harry took the wrong route of clearing his mind and getting help, he found his therapy at the end of a bottle and a line of cocaine. He slipped into an endless spiral of week long benders and debts for drug money along with risking losing his home due to him quitting his high up job at his Fathers Law firm, he completely crashed and burned, he couldn’t live without her, he couldn’t stop his mind racing and the only way for it all to stop, and let him feel numb — was when he was drunk and high, passing out in every room of his home and in his garden, the neighbours finding him sometimes in their yard in a mess. They were the ones who got him help, they called up his family and they all rushed him off in an ambulance to get him sober and conscious again. Here is where he made the decision to sign himself into rehab, accepting the help the hospital offered and a few months later, he was out and clean, he stayed with his Mum until Honey turned one and that was the year Harry found his smile again, found his life and purpose again.

Looking back now, he doesn’t know how he ever made himself believe it was Honeys fault Myla was no longer here, he doesn’t know how he’s even alive because of all the drugs and alcohol he ingested every single night for three months solid, but he knows why everything turned around, it was his Angel looking down on him, guiding him and kicking him in the ass to get up and look after their little love, just like she asked him to do before she left, always look after himself and Honey.

It’s been five years since her passing, Harry is doing better than ever, he started working for his Dad’s company again and now he’s the president of the law firm, alongside his Dad who is the CEO, Harry being second in command and then being the CEO when his Dad retires from the firm. They kept their family home, even if it was just the two of them, they loved the home and it still felt like Myla was living here, her makeup still tucked away in her unused vanity in Harrys bedroom and her favourite paintings still hung up around the home. Harry even hired a nanny, she has been working for him for two years now, she’s even working alongside Harry in his office being his receptionist during the day and she’s Honeys afternoon and night nanny when she’s done in work and Honey is home from school.

Y/N is Honeys nanny, she takes care of the little lady and feeds her daily, even taking her to the playground and to the movies when Honey asked her could she go. She would do anything for Honey and Honey loved her endlessly, she loved the way she would allow her to eat sneaky chocolate bars after dinner every now and then and how she would always play dollies with her, kneeling down on the floor of the den and playing with the small girl until they were both in fits of laughter. Harry also adored Y/N, her passion for her job at the law firm along with her passion for looking after Honey is something he admires, she never once complains about being exhausted even though he can tell when she is, she didn’t have to think twice when Harry offered her the job as Honeys nanny, she knew the little one from her being in the office every now and then, and Honey was instantly drawn to her, the way she was so kind and the way she cared for Honey.

Tonight is a hard night for Harry, it’s Myla’s death anniversary and he’s been having a bad day, his mind racing and his heart breaking all over again, but this time he’s stronger, he’s able to power through until he could be alone and just let his emotions go, have a glass of whiskey and just cry a little flipping through old photo albums — he does this every year on her anniversary. Honey is tucked up in bed and he’s sat alone in the den on the sofa, the photo albums on his lap and his hand clutching a small glass of whiskey as he sips on it flipping through many photos from their wedding and from when they were teens and drunk in love in high school — so many memories can be attached to one person, and Harry knew one day they would be memories, but he didn’t know it would be so soon.

“Honey is fast asleep, left her door cracked open so she can shout if she- Harry? Are you okay?” Y/N stops suddenly, her eyes landing on her boss who was hunched over a photo album on the sofa, curtains drawn and the only light coming from a lamp beside a framed wedding photo of him and Myla on the table by the sofa.

“Yeah, thanks for putting her to sleep” Harry says weakly, not turning around which alarms Y/N, she’s seen him like this last year, she let him be as she was only new to it, but this year she’s determined to sit with him all night if he needs — he needs to have some company.

“That’s you?” She asks sitting next to him, Harry not moving or telling her to leave, he accepts her company as she looks down at the photo his eyes are laid upon — two teenagers at a party.

“Yeah, m’hair was a curly mess” he says with a low laugh, looking over the photo of a seventeen year old version of himself, smiling cheekily clutching a red solo cup and Myla wrapped under his other arm holding him around his waist, both their smiles wide and cheeky and their cheeks flushed pink from the alcohol in their bodies.

“I think it looks cute, pitty it’s not as curly now” she says with a light laugh, watching as his ring clad fingers turn the page, taking a sip from his whiskey as he goes.

“This was our prom, she made me wear a pink fucking bow tie — absolutely hated it” he laughs, the crinkles by his eyes evident as Y/N laughs along, looking down at the curly headed teenager in a black suit, white shirt and a bright pink bow tie, matching Myla’s floor length dress next to him, a shawl over her shoulders matching as the corsage around her wrist match the pink of her dress also.

“She hated that dress a year later, she was packing up for college and I was helping her when she found it, immediately burst out laughing” he says laughing loudly, remembering back at the memory he has, Y/N beside him happy at how joyful he sounds speaking of the memories.

“Oh here we go, Frat boy Harry!” Y/N says with a loud laugh, pointing down at a shirtless twenty year old Harry, backwards cap on his head and “Myla’s Bitch!” Wrote on his stomach in paint, two beer bottles in his hands and Myla on his shoulders cheering with her hands up in a red bikini, matching his swimming trunks and baseball cap.

“Some of the best years of m’life, raging parties and no more curfews, we were two hormonal teens absolutely smitten for one another” he says shaking his head with a laugh, his eyes bright as he flicks them over the photos ranging from Harry dancing, Myla being pushed into the pool by him and Harry passed out with a mustache drawn on him with Myla next to him holding the marker with a bright smile mid laughter.

The book is filled with their college days, to their graduation day from college, their photo in their first apartment, Harry on his first day of work and Myla on hers. They took photos of small things, but at the time they meant the world to them, they were milestones in their lives and they never wanted to forget them. Harry is forever grateful that Myla had an obsession with photography, otherwise he wouldn’t have these to look back on and hopefully show Honey one day what her Mum was like, even if she’s drunk and half naked in some of them at college parties.

Harry and Y/N are in fits of laughter, tears falling from their faces as Harry explains every single memory behind each photo, one photo containing a memory of Myla at her bachelorette party, Harry coming out as a stripper and giving her a lap dance as she slaps his ass and throws money all over her husband — that one will definitely not be shown to Honey. Harry is like a whole different person when he speaks about her, his laugh becomes louder and his eyes become brighter, he even ditched his whiskey after one glass to speak about his late wife, Y/N looking at him with pure amazement and proudness of how far he’s come, how he pulled himself from a hard time and carried on life for the sake of his baby girl. He’s truly inspirational in her eyes.

“It should be easier than this by now, right? Like I shouldn’t be still grieving” he says when their laughs and stories come to a stop, their eyes hooded with sleep and faces hurting from laughing.

“What is grief, if not love persevering? You were both childhood sweethearts, you’ve loved her since you can remember and you always will, she’s your whole world, of course you’ll still grieve her, you still love her, and that’s okay” Y/N blurts out, her words quick as she blabs on while Harry watches her, a smile on his face as she explains and accepts his feelings.

“Never knew you were Shakespeare” is all he says, she rolls her eyes laughing, slapping his bicep a little as he shuts the album, tucking it away in the drawer again before turning his focus back onto Y/N beside him.

“Seriously though, never tell yourself you’ve been grieving for too long, it’s okay to grieve and cry yourself to sleep some nights, I get that, I do. You lost a person who made you who you are, but don’t forget, you still have a little one that will need you to be the person who makes her who she is”

Harry thinks she’s amazing, she’s smart and she’s so empathetic towards everyone and anyone. She has a heart of gold and she will never let anyone explain hers or anyone else’s feelings for them, she always allows people to express who they are, heck, one night she brought Harry to a gym after hours, explaining how her brother is a trainer there and he gave her the keys on the condition that she does his laundry for a month, she let Harry rage out and punch the shit out of a punching bag one night because he was so upset. She cheered him on and he was smiling as he was punching towards the end, she helped him release the emotions that built up and would of lead him back down a dark path.

She’s been an Angel sent from above, he knows Myla sent her to him because of how much they’re alike, Harry knows for sure they were sisters in a past life, their kind hearts and understanding natures alike but they have their differences, Myla was very out spoken and loved to party but Y/N is reserved and would rather stay inside with a hot chocolate and her crosswords while watching TV, but that’s another thing that Harry finds fascinating about her, she’s younger than him by eight years, when he was her age he was partying.

“Thank you Y/N, I needed this tonight” he says with a smile, her own smile on her face as she nods leaning over to rub her hand over his in a comforting manner, the pair looking at one another as they soak in their presences.

“It’s getting late, I should go” she says realising it’s nearly midnight, Harry and her need to be in work tomorrow morning and Harry has to wake up to get his little lady ready for school also. He gets a bit saddened when she says this, he secretly wants to hear more of her own college years and her own prom much like he told her earlier.

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow” he says with a smile, watching as she gathers up her bag and throws it over her shoulder, car keys now in her hand as she smiles at him once more before heading for the den door. She pauses and looks back at him, his eyes meeting hers as they hold contact for a few seconds before she speaks up.

“See you tomorrow, Harry”

#harry styles #harry styles imagine #harry styles smut #harry styles au #harry styles one shot #harry styles fandom #fan fic author #singledad!harry #dad!harry #anon <3 #anon ask #harry styles angst #harry styles fluff #harry styles prompts #fan fiction #fan fic prompts #fan fic requests

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river-bottom-nightmare · 3 years

Text

an (incomplete) list of things kon can do because lex luthor is his dad that people always forget about:

#1 : math - he's fifteen, and math comes easy to him (unlike a lot of people his age, or at least, his visible age.) a lot of things come easy to him, because when you have all knowledge in the known universe downloaded into your brain, things like advanced math don't bother you very much.

but it bothers his friends, because bart loses interest about three seconds into the assignments, cassie groans anytime "homework" is brought up in general, and tim hates the concept and execution of math so much that he'd rather hide in kon's room where he thinks no one will look for him instead of even cracking open a textbook.

but kon's pretty sure being a hero means you don't need any real world skills, and after his initial hesitation and disagreements, he realized that he genuinely wants these people to like him, to be friends with him. their math homework is easier than a breeze to complete.

#2 : tying a tie the ~fancy~ way - he's nineteen, and his fingers flow through a silk tie like a fish through water. the motions are beyond familiar, he could do them in his sleep. so is the action of pulling on a suit, pressing his collar, arranging his hair into a neat style. he's timothy drake-wayne's date tonight, and he needs to look the part. fortunately, luthor taught him how to look the part a long the ago.

the party itself is,,,,pleasant, he supposes. he spends most of the time as arm candy, tim's pretty little thing as his boyfriend sweet-talked investors and networked. but they both know that the tipsier people are, the easier they let slip secrets to someone they believe won't understand them, and kon gathers a wealth of information by the time he meets up with tim by the appetizer bar right before dinner.

tim tugs him close by his tie and kisses his cheek, then laughs when kon discreetly but disgustedly spits out the pickled salmon cracker toppings.

#3 : educated debating - he's sixteen, and in an argument with tim that's gone so off the rails that kon can't even remember what they were fighting about in the first place. wherever they started, they were here, now, kon on top of a table in an ice cream parlour screaming about how a socialist approach to taxes would boost the lower class, tim on top of a barstool screaming right back about how the middle class are the only ones paying taxes and socialism would only put more weight on their shoulders.

both of them are this close to busting out laughing, and the only reason they haven't been thrown out is because the employee behind the counter is frantically taking notes. kon can see it in tim's eyes, see the way the younger boy didn't expect to hold such a passionate and intense debate with him, didn't expect kon to be capable of it. it's a pleasant surprise, though; that much is evident in tim's barely-hidden grin.

the debate comes to a pause when bart smacks him with a spoon and tells him off for stepping on the speedster's ice cream, and the tiredness with which he collapses back into the booth is a good one.

#4 : efficient + effective workplace supervision - he's twenty, and wondering how in the hell people hadn't murdered the entirety of young justice when it was first founded. bart had graduated to being the flash's full time sidekick, and though he came to visit often, it wasn't the same. gotham was almost always on the verge of imminent disaster these days, and tim was one of the few ropes holding it together. kon missed him like crazy, but his few visits were all the boy could spare. cassie was in charge now, and she was a wonderful leader, but busy, always smoothing over relations between the team and the justice league and civilian offices.

so, somehow, that left kon to be the den mother to all the new younger kids, and somehow, kon was good at it. he knew exactly what to say to get people to listen to his commands, telling them to work on this or work on that, train for this and practice that. he tells them when to get some sleep and let the weight of the day roll off their shoulders, and when to push themselves to raise them higher than they ever thought they could go. unexpectedly, he finds himself liking it.

#5 : the splits

#6 : colour schemes + interior decorating - he's twenty-one, and tim's finally deciding to turn the nest into a home. bart, who had spent the last couple of years bouncing between allen-west-mercury households and was therefore accustomed to a home with a fire of love reaching every corner and every member of the family, was appalled. so was kon, honestly.

the penthouse that tim worked out of was cold and impersonal, sleek lines that angles that matched the limbs and contours of tim's body. but the shadows around tim's eyes had lessed over the past few years, his smile coming to his lips almost as easy as when young justice first learned how to work together. all it took was a little encouragement from cassie, and suddenly, all four of them were involved in a home renovation project.

cassie churned out ikea furniture like it was nothing, the three of them taking a break from their jobs to just watch her as she lifted one of their hardwood bookshelves with one hand. bart bought home goods and essentials from various department stores and ran around, stocking the house with them wherever he felt a saucepan needed to be hung (near the coat hanger) or a candle holder needed to be placed (on the kitchen barstools, because apparently those were decorative anyway).

kon, meanwhile, decorated. he painted rooms and bought curtains and pillows, yes. but he also sorted through every single souvenir and memory the four of them had managed to accumulate over the years, photographs and hacked-off pieces of giant robots and saved movie tickets and broken weapons. he gets his hands on everything he can find, then fills up tim's nest until it's brimming with a cosy warmth made up of the four of them.

still, it's an obnoxiously large penthouse, so there's empty and open space left over even after redecorating. it's tim who takes a breath and works up the courage to tell them, not ask but tell them, that he wanted each of them to have their own bedroom. so bart takes the largest guest room and turns it into an explosion of colour, and cassie spends too much time decorating a room that she won't even live in most of the time. kon conspicuously notes how tim doesn't bother giving kon a room, just dumps kon's backpack on his bed and clears room in his own closet. he does wrap tim in a ttk hug though, from all the way across the room, and drinks in tim's red flush.

#7 : speed reading (no powers) - he's seventeen, and just now realizing how competitive his best friends are. cassie had long since resigned herself to being the judge and the hander-outer-of-prizes (candy from the nearest convenience store) for the speed-reading competition, but tim, kon, and bart were still in the running.

eventually, though, the pressure from holding back his powers grew too strong, and bart slumped against the back of the sofa, mournfully opening his mouth so cassie could drop a candy into it.

and then there were two.

kon thought back to the confrontation that had started this contest in the first place, robin's offhand comment about how he had to be the one to collect the data files from the company office they were infiltrating, because he was the only one who could speed-read and retain information. that had spiraled into an argument, then a challenge, then a competition, with a clear rule not to use any powers.

kon darted his eyes across the page, soaking up every word, the pages like tiny knives on the pads of his fingers as he turned them. he lost track of the page count, just reading and reading and reading until he tried to turn the page and realized there wasn't a next one. he yelled in triumph, reveling in tim's defeated groan, and settled in for cassie's quiz on the contents of the book.

#8 : sophisticated meal and wine palette - he was twenty-two, and discovering that he really, really liked tim's shocked face. they'd been friends for years now, childish hatred turned into playful bantering turned into knowing each other inside out. still, every now and then, kon did something that forced tim's eyebrows high on his head, his eyes widening just the barest bit.

right now, kon was at a dinner party with the words moral support written across his forehead. tim could handle himself remarkably well, but there was tiredness lacing the smaller boy's frame, and kon could practically see the way the tips of his soul were frazzled. so kon let tim lean into his arm and whispered jokes about luna-with-the-big-ugly-purse and martonio-who-can't-do-a-combover into his ear. or, at least, he was.

somehow he'd been drawn into a good natured argument with the man sitting just two seats down from tim and kon. friendly opinions of food had been tossed back and forth, growing more and more heated until kon looked him right in the eye and said he liked prosecco with his prosciutto, internally crowing with satisfaction at their shocked silence and sighing with pity that none of the guests here would ever try that combination out of fear of deviation. once the man had regained his sensibilities, he shot back, saying the sixth course should never serve salmon, instead regaling the fish to the amusebouche or the cheese course. kon snorted and told him fish itself was going out of style, and if he wanted to impress guests at the next dinner party he hosted, he should try serving octopus.

tim's shocked face was a pleasant surprise, but seeing the stunned, controlled blinks of everyone around him as they realized he wasn't just a pretty face was satisfying as well. even more satisfying was when he and tim said their goodbyes; while waiting for the valet, tim pressed up onto the tips of his toes and whispered promisingly in kon's ear, i fucking love your competence.

#9 : manipulating people into hating him to justify his actions - he was eighteen, and he was screaming, crying, tearing his hair out. kon didn't know what he had expected. lingering fondness? grudging acceptance? maybe a small leap for a chance at love?

it didn't matter. clark didn't want anything to do with him. and he was eighteen now, which meant clark didn't need to take care of him anymore, didn't need to pretend to pay attention to him anymore. he'd made it quite clear.

maybe that was why he found himself hesitating before saying no to amanda waller's offer. he forgot about the warnings tim gave him, though, and waller pounced on that hesitation, quicker than a panther. it was easy, it was oh so easy to let himself go with her.

besides, they had a reason to hate him now. he hadn't done anything to clark. he hadn't asked to be made. but clark had wanted nothing to do with him anyway, and didn't that sting. so if people were going to turn him away now, it was going to be for something he did.

he didn't realize how bad he was spiraling, how close he was to stepping off the lighted ledge he'd been balancing on his entire life and tumbling into the darkness below. but cassie had a stronger punch than most grown superheroes, and bart had tenaciousness written into every strand of his ginormous hair, and tim gripped his jaw so hard his fingernails dug into kon's skin and told kon that he was getting his best friend back, no matter what the hell he thought he was worth.

maybe it was madness that made him throw himself forward, still wrapped in the lasso cassie borrowed from diana, practically mauling tim's lips with his own. he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to break down crying after he kissed someone, given past experience, but the three of them, his wonderful, wonderful friends, just hugged him tight, let him fight and shake and sob until all the rage was gone. it was the first time in a long while he'd done something in hopes that someone would look at him with love, not hatred.

#10 : waltzing - he was twenty-three, twenty three and giddy with how much time he had left. conner was with tim drake-wayne publicly now, so expectations were thrust onto him, expecting to be met.

kon tended to have more fun at events than tim ever did. granted, kon didn't have to deal with all of his coworkers drinking too much and exchanging money with secrets faster than drugs and asking tim whether or not his relationship meant he was open for still-young and handsome men who needed just a small escape from their wives. but tim wasn't trying very hard to enjoy himself either.

so kon was completely justified in tugging him towards the center of the room, in a patch of floor sparsely occupied, then pulling him as close as he dared. tim's panicked whisper of what!? was overridden by kon's laughter, but he muffled his sounds for a minute, letting tim hear the quiet music playing in the background (prerecorded and playing on speakers, not live).

understanding broke over tim's face, and he arched into kon's hold as easy as breathing. kon moved one of his hands to grip tim's wrist, and he twirled the two of them effortlessly, breathless at tim's flabbergasted expression. the rhythm was simple, and tim caught on quickly. one two three, one two twist, one two three, one two step, one two three, one two switch, one two three, one two three.

kon couldn't say they danced the night away, because a little while later tim took a break for a drink, then speeches were made, then dinner was served. by then, they were both entirely too tired to dance, longing for just a bed and a soft blanket and each other. but for those few minutes in the middle of a packed yet empty ballroom, kon and tim did lose themselves in the music, just a little bit.

i don't know shit about taxes or socialism. this got way longer than anticipated whoops. i'm tagging this "long post," but if someone asks me to put it under a cut, i'd be happy to

also jesus christ this thing is almost 2.5k words. im uploading it to ao3 later if i'm in the mood

tag list: @woahjaybird @birdy-bat-writes @anothertimdrakestan @subtleappreciation @screennamealreadyused @pricetagofficial @catxsnow @bikoncon @maplumebleue-blog-blog @sundownridg @thatsthewhump @xatanna-troy

#scribbles from the swamp #kon-el #conner kent #superboy #timkon #core four #dc #kon-el headcanon #kon-el fic #conner kent headcanon #conner kent fic #superboy headcanon #superboy fic #timkon headcanon #timkon fic #core four headcanon #core four fic #dc headcanon #dc fic

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