As of today, I am no longer making any comics, or working on big, story-related collaborations. This includes @thislandcomic which will remain posted online, but I've had to make the difficult decision to cancel the project altogether.
My health has always been a hinderance in creating stories. I can't sit up and draw for hours on end like I could in the past, and I was getting tired of heightened stress from trying to get any of my projects moving. I would love to hire people to draw my stories (NEVER for free). However, I don't make enough income to offer that.
What else is there to do? This is a struggle I've had for over 15 years. I'm done.
I'm sorry to those who were enjoying the comic. Again, I will leave it posted. I may still post art. Not sure right now. Just mourning for now.
Robin in this universe is an outlaw, and Carmine is The Law, and there's absolutely a Robin Hood thing happening here, but the sheriff isn't a total crook....
Look at what my wife (@funakounasoul) drew for me. This is my trainer OC, Robin, and she is a chaos goblin. She's gotten a slight update in her design since the last time I posted art of her.
Working on a big old project, here's some linework I did for Nemona's starter Pokemon in said project. This particular Sprigatito is, to put it mildly, a little shit.
Carmine and Kieran Roleswap AU: Indigo Disk Edition
A while back I posted this thing, here's the rest of it! Long AU under the cut, there be turtles afoot. No pictures this time, sorry folks!
Right, so, the Indigo Disk. Carmine is still the one who promotes you to Cyrano as an ideal exchange student, because she wants you to show yourself and be crushed. She's changed dramatically in appearance, and the aggressive part of her personality is fully on display. Kieran has been the one running around with Briar in various regions. Carmine has taken over the Blueberry League and is running it with an iron fist. She's also tweaked her team to be thoroughly savage. Maybe Sinistcha in this universe has a third evolution, or her ace is a different Pokemon entirely. Point is, she has basically laid a trap for you. It's not a very good trap, since her whole goal is just to smack you down with witnesses, but it's a trap nonetheless.
So you go to Blueberry Academy, get initiated, then Kieran calls and is excited you're here! But he's also worried about his little sister because she's acting fuckin weird and he hopes you can help... again, Kieran is kinda oblivious to emotional cues and probably doesn't entirely realize Carmine would happily disembowel you right now. Drayton shows himself and invites you to the League Club Room. The scheming bastard is hoping to use your presence to overthrow Carmine as Champion, as in canon. He invites you to the cafeteria to meet with the rest of the E4 and Herself, to discuss you formally joining the BBL*.  Carmine doesn't notice you at first, since she's busy eyeballing Drayton hatefully, but the minute she's aware of your presence she laser locks on you. She knows why you're here. She doesn't even really register the E4 debating whether you should be allowed to join, until Drayton asks for her opinion. She eyeballs him -- she knows he's scheming, but he's also played exactly the card she wanted to come up. Of course she wants you to join. What could be better, in fact? She can pull strings and let you start at the level that lets you challenge the 4. The unusual nature of the situation will draw gossip. The rest of the BBL* will be fascinated. There will be eyes everywhere.
And when you make it to the top, she'll be waiting, ready to cut you down in front of the entire student body.
So you're in.
It's only when he walks in on half the E4 and his sister inducting you into the BBL* that Kieran realizes how bad the situation actually is. He tries to reason with Carmine, only to be dismissed coldly.
For a while, everything proceeds exactly as she wants it to. She knew you could defeat the E4. She knew you would make it to her. She knew you would be across the field from her, and she's worked so hard to be ready for you.
Then, you fight her down to the wire. She pulls out all the stops. You're down to one Pokemon apiece and she has her ace out and Terastallized and she knows she has you.
Your final Pokemon... is Ogerpon. The monster. The martyr. In either case, a symbol of Kitakami, of home.
And for a moment, just a crucial, critical moment, Carmine no longer knows why she's doing this.
Ogerpon Terastallizes her mask, swings her cudgel, and Carmine's ace falls, vanishing into its Pokeball in a flash of light. Ogerpon roars, and Carmine wants to scream, but she can't manage so much as a whimper.
Her trap sprang, and you turned it back to bite her instead. Now it's her that's on her knees, while the student body turns its back.
Of the people who are still able to react, Drayton moves first, and he does so to get a little of his own back at her. He leans down and taunts her, and now, she does scream. You and Kieran both want to help her, but now everyone with a Problem with this event is gathering to air them and getting in your face.
Then the intercom goes off, and you and half the rest of those present are summoned to a classroom, and Briar's discussing a trip into Area Zero -- your second at least! -- and it could not be a worse time. Carmine agrees immediately when Briar mentions Terapagos, and Kieran agrees when she does because he's not sure what she might do in this state, and you agree because among other things, Geeta is gazing at you from across the room and she knows you went down there once already and her expression says I will come down on you like Hell itself if you don't agree to help with this. So you go.
Area Zero is as much a Lost World as ever and you descend, down, down, down to the Lab where you fought for your life not so long ago, and then further because of the weird disk Geeta gave you before you left. You didn't think Area Zero could get weirder, but it does. There are Pokemon down here doing things you have never seen before, and you can't help but wonder if this weird Terastal energy is messing you up too. Meanwhile Carmine's got a strange closed expression you don't trust, though now she's starting to act a little more like the girl from Kitakami and not the BBL* Champion in this unfamiliar place. Kieran is watching her, but he's as off balance as you are down here. Briar is absolutely no help.
Then you're in the deepest spot, and there's a crystal that could be Terapagos, and Carmine comes to life. Surely, if she has a legendary Pokemon of her own, she can finally take you down. Briar eggs her on and Kieran tries to dissuade her.
They wake up the turtle.
The turtle takes a look around and its gaze locks on to you.
In canon, Kieran has the Ogerpon experience foremost in his mind when Terapagos almost chooses you. Carmine doesn't have that, but she's no less quick to throw her Master Ball and capture it. Letting it reach you would be another win for you, and she cannot have that, not now, not after all this! The Master Ball does its job, and she picks it up with an expression torn between exultation and terror.
Briar then does exactly the wrong thing in a situation that was already bad and pushes her to use the damn turtle so she can study it. She locks eyes with you.
But Terapagos, like many legendary Pokemon, has a mind of his own, and he clearly doesn't care for being woken up and stuffed into a ball. He fights for her, but his power is minimal, and Ogerpon beats him easily. Then Briar suggests Terastallizing, and Carmine floods the little fella with energy, and suddenly a young god is awake... and angry.
At that moment, everyone present learns what happens when someone tries to capture a legendary Pokemon who feels nothing for them. The Master Ball shatters, and Terapagos strikes out at Carmine. She recoils in terror and it could have ended there for her, except that you're there, and your partner 'raidon is faster than any crystal turtle. She looks at you as if she's seeing you for the first time, and maybe, in a way, she kind of is.
If you had a nickel for every time a berserk legendary Pokemon had tried to kill you in Area Zero, you'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice. Now you have to fight the tiny, overwhelmed turtle, and Kieran's down to his Hydrapple, and Carmine has locked up in horror because now she realizes how much of this was her fault and also completely unnecessary. But she finally snaps out of it and comes to your aid, and hot damn if you both don't kick the ass of a legendary turtle.
Then, on the way home, it takes Carmine the entire trip to work up the courage to ask you to start over again. Maybe you could be friends this time, for real.
You tell her "fuck no" and skip off into the sunset holding hands with Kieran and Ogerpon.
Okay no please don't do that. Maybe the thought crosses your mind though, because man she has put you through the wringer...
Oh yeah and like a month later Kieran does the mochi dance
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
I posted my old Fresh Precure fics onto AO3 because I was encouraged to do so. When Nari told me I had more than one, though, I was surprised. I barely even remembered the one until I received that Ask!
Well, I really don't recall these, and I tried not to read them while copying them over (to avoid Regret rearing its ugly head), but if you are itching for some more Fresh/LoveSetsu-ish stories, you can find them here now!
So here are my takes on what some of the ScarVi kiddos will look like as they grow up and go about their careers. Headcanons below, as developed with @kourabiedes in our many ramblings together.
Carmine - I tried the crossed bangs, but she just looked too young with them. I opted for a slightly more mature sideswept bang and an elegantly tied back coiffe for her duties as eventual Caretaker of Mossui Town, and by extension, Kitakami Hall. Koura has a lot more nuanced headcanons for this one, so I'd best let her tell you all about those...
Kieran - Like, his sister, I ditched the fuckass bangs. He is pretty, but unlike his sister, he doesn't really know or flaunt it. Over the course of his friendship with Alanna (who is a Galarian native and former Champion Challenge semi-finalist), he has become quite curious of the region and has decided to take on the challenge for himself. He begins his journey at a familiar dojo...
Penny - So Koura and I both agree that Penn is very Trans coded. So we leaned hard into it and I went hardcore femme with her adult design. We though for a long time about what she'd do career-wise, and it dawned on me very suddenly that she'd be a perfect fit as the new Director for Naruva Academy. She is very professional and put-together in her business life, but is absolutely still a cave gremlin when she gets home with her vee-vees. We also have some very very specific speculation about her parentage that we'll share, but her design elements will be a hint for the very astute among you.
Arven - A chef rarely leaves their hair down when in the kitchen (it is actually against the rules in a professional setting if you don't know lol). Arven has gone for a more practical ponytail, but still keeps his luscious locks. He does gain renown for his efforts in nutrition and cooking, but not in the way that someone like Kofu or Katie does. He is more interested in the health benefits of his meals, and shares some lab space with Alanna when developing and testing new recipes.
Alanna - She is my half of the "Juliana" in this situation. Koura and I have kind of split her into two halves; one for my trainer Alanna and one for her trainer, Robin. Alanna is sharp, competitive, put together, and very social. Robin is much more the "gremlin" archetype. She explores every possible ravine, mountain, and cave. She doesn't really do people. Alanna finds and trains Miraidon, who is the central 'raidon in the story, whilst Robin finds a full-strength Koraidon from the get-go. Alanna eventually becomes a professor of what she dubs True Evolution; as in evolution in the way we know it in the real world. Not only that, but how the crater and Terastal energy affects living forms. This latter subject has been a collaborative effort with long time friend and mentor, Briar. Alanna takes after both of her parents pretty equally. Her mother is my Galar trainer, Blair, and Raihan b/c I like him. He's fun.
We don't need no Florian. Mostly because we just straight up didn't think about it, oops.
Screencaps of Robin and Alanna in our gameplay at BB
I have been so excited for these designs, y'all don't even know. Especially Penny's. Most adult Pennys I've seen continue her cave gremlin motif but I adore the idea that she got more comfortable being femmy as she grew older.
I also insisted Kieran be taller than his sister, because it was really funny. He doesn't notice at first, either. He's dressed for some adventure because he's going on one. Boy deserves a chance to finally take a League championship! (Psst, it's Galar)
Arven is absolutely ripped, have you seen that pack of his??? I love it.
Alanna and my Robin dovetail in this headcanon, taking care of different parts of the whole storyline. Alanna is the one who fights Titans and gets a Champion rank in Paldea, and therefore she looks like and is a fuckin badass!
Carmine, my girl. She's never going to fully come around to tourists in her town, but she'd rather be the one keeping a real close eye on things if there's no other option. And there really is no other option. The adventurers will come, regardless.
Side note because I loved this, check out how Penny and Arven both echo their ace Pokemon in their designs!
