Between the Lines

The official blog for Between The Lines, a massive, in-progress Pokémon AU about high school marching band.

[marchnado]

You are never going to believe this, but a year ago today (Jan 29) was technically the date of conception for this project LMAO... I was just screwing around on twitter snowballing some marching band AU ideas with my Pals and drew This. This is kinda the image that gave Pent the idea of... expanding upon it. With a oneshot. It’s hilarious because after we started actually growing this into an actual thing, we went through so much worldbuilding and changes that this image... is completely noncanon. Rip!

The biggest reason is that Sidney doesn’t even attend Mauville Tech, which is the setting of this fic lmao. Later Sidney.

So while BTL really has like... three different birthdays (conception of the AU, conception for the project in February, and official release in October, haha), it’s still super cool to think that this little doodle I did a year ago today actually turned into something so huge and personally meaningful to us both? Kind of incredible!

Anyway, I know it’s been a real long time since Chapter 1 was uploaded, but as Pent said in an earlier post, we’re back on track, working on Chapter 2 every day! If you missed it and the lil sketchy draft preview you can check it out riiiiight here! Wanna reread Chapter 1 to refresh, relax, reward yourself after a long week? Get in here, it’s free.

Thanks for standing by so patiently! We’ve got so much in store for you. Stay tuned!

[marchnado]

WHERE IS CHAPTER 2??!?!!

DON’T WORRY!!!!!!! <3 <3 We’re working hard on it every day!!! We knew from the very early stages of outlining that chapter 2 was going to be a huge challenge for various reasons that I won’t spoil!! ;0

And by huge, WE MEAN IN A LITERAL SENSE. IT’S GONE ROGUE!!!!!!!!!! Currently 27 pages long, ~7,300 words, with a few unfinished scenes; IT’S RIDICULOUSLY MASSIVE AND ONLY GOING TO GET BIGGER AAAAAAAAAAAA

The most logical solution would be to split this rogue draft into more chapters…… RIGHT???? HOWEVER……. we are going for a Very Specific Effect in this chapter (and in the band camp chapters in general!!), so it’s probably going to stay the gigantic monster we’ve come to love!!

HERE’S A LIL SNEAK PEAK…………… What are these kids Up To…..?!??! STAY TUNED <3 <3 ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!!!!!!!!! <3 <3

[marchnado]

WHERE IS CHAPTER 2??!?!!

DON’T WORRY!!!!!!! <3 <3 We’re working hard on it every day!!! We knew from the very early stages of outlining that chapter 2 was going to be a huge challenge for various reasons that I won’t spoil!! ;0

And by huge, WE MEAN IN A LITERAL SENSE. IT’S GONE ROGUE!!!!!!!!!! Currently 27 pages long, ~7,300 words, with a few unfinished scenes; IT’S RIDICULOUSLY MASSIVE AND ONLY GOING TO GET BIGGER AAAAAAAAAAAA

The most logical solution would be to split this rogue draft into more chapters...... RIGHT???? HOWEVER....... we are going for a Very Specific Effect in this chapter (and in the band camp chapters in general!!), so it’s probably going to stay the gigantic monster we’ve come to love!!

HERE’S A LIL SNEAK PEAK............... What are these kids Up To.....?!??! STAY TUNED <3 <3 ONCE AGAIN, THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!!!!!!!!! <3 <3

[marchnado]

BTL IS NOW READABLE ON MOBILE DEVICES!!

You may have noticed that there were some minor edits to chapter 1! (AO3 alerts you about that kind of stuff, I think!!!!) FEAR NOT, nothing in the story has been changed; I just did a few tweaks:

The illustrations have been re-sized to 100% width, meaning that they will look nice on ALL devices and screen resolutions!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT’S ABOUT TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

All other images used in the fic have been changed to a width percentage as well!

FOLLOWING SUIT, the OMINOUS, HARSH MOBILE WARNING at the very beginning of the fic has been reworded to sound less terrifying!!! (We love you mobile users!!! REALLY!!)

Remember that weird image transcript div box at the very end of the fic that looked terrible on mobile??? IT’S GONE, TOO!! BYE-BYE!!! The transcript is now in plain text! It looks worse, but it’s way more practical!!!

This makes the transcript readable on AO3 skins other than the default, too! Also, having creator work skins turned off for BTL won’t make the transcript look terrible anymore. Now, the only thing that will change when you turn off scripts is the Courier New font in Wallace’s Facedex message.

UP NEXT ON OUR VERY LOW PRIORITY TO DO LIST: Make the divider transparent so that it doesn’t look bad on the AO3 low contrast skin (because right now it looks YIKES)!!! (Also, possibly fixing the Japanese in Windows 10???? It looks terrible; I’M SORRY if it’s not just on my end!!! orz)

We’re trying to make BTL as accessible as possible, so I hope you enjoy these little tweaks!!!! If you have any suggestions or concerns, SLAM THEM IN THAT ASK BOX!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3

[marchnado]

McStatus Update: FLINT EDITION

I was doing a little Fast Paced BTL writing session and COMPLETELY BLANKED on Flint’s name for some reason LAUGHS......... SO I LITERALLY............ GOOGLED.................

I’M SORRY FLINT LMAOOOOOOOO (It Worked, Though.......) Flint is SUPER fun to write; I know you guys are going to love BTL Flint as well!!!

You guys are being INCREDIBLY SUPER AWESOME during this long wait!!! <3 <3 Thank you all so much for your continued support!!!!!!!!!!! IT MEANS A LOT TO US BOTH <3 <3 <3

[marchnado]

hi!!! i realyl love this au a++++, and i Hate to be That Guy but when will we see another chapter? i loved the first a lot adn im just hanging to read more!! thank you so much for this au,, i love,,

THANK YOU, WE’RE SO GLAD YOU’RE ENJOYING IT <3 <3

Our lives have been ridiculously hectic since we posted that first chapter, but things are settling down enough for us to continue working hard on the next chapter!! <3 I can’t give a definite date yet, unfortunately! Updates for Between the Lines are going to be infrequent with months of downtime between each update, since we both do not want to stress out over deadlines since this is a passion project we’re doing for fun! \o/ 

SORRY FOR THE BIG WAITS GUYS <3 <3 We want this to be a project we can look back on and be proud of forever, so we’re taking our time to make it SUPER super quality; which unfortunately means slow updates!! 

THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR STICKING AROUND!!! I’M VERY SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT ;;;;u;;;;; <3 <3

[marchnado]

DO YOU GUYS LIKE PIE GRAPHS!!!! I LIKE PIE GRAPH s

This is the diversity spread for the AU kids!!!!!!!!!!!! The transition from pokejapan to modern day California was a little Weird for us so we kept a lot of characters Japanese.......... ones that we didn’t have the heart to justify changing such assssssss Wallace, dESCENDENT OF THE ANCIENT SOOTOPOLITANS aaaand Falkner, idK HE SEEMS HELLA JAPANESE!!!! there’s a lot lmao

STEVEN IS CONTRIBUTING TO LIKE 5 SECTORS OF THIS GRAPH HE’S SOOOOOO MIXED......... MY GOD..........

I KNOW THESE CATEGORIES ARE A HUGE MESS LAUGHS I WAS TRYING TO SHOW HOW NUTS WE WENT WITH THE NEW ETHNICITY ASSIGNMENTS <3 <3 <3

Ethnicity is probably not gonna be explicitly stated in the story for a lot of the characters unless culture becomes a relevant plot point THAT’S jUST THE WAY I ROLL...... however!!!!!!!! If you’re curious about them, Sarar and I are going to make a character fun fact zippy thing page on the blog eventually and we’ll probably listt them there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STAY TUNED <3 <3 <3

[marchnado]

Broken Images!!!!!

HEY GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I noticed this morning that our image host stARTED TO COLLAPSE ON ITSELF I SHOULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING FOR MONTHS BUT I DIDN’t................

So, all the images in BTL were broken!! ;;;u;;;; Sorry about that!!! I just finished transferring over everything to a NEW, MORE RELIABLE and Less Sketchy image host <3 <3 IT’S ALL GOOD NOW!!! CRISIS AVERTED LAUGHS <3 <3 (SPONSOR US IMGUR..............)

CHAPTER 2 IS ON IT’S WAY.............. WE CAN’T THANK YOU GUYS ENOUGH FOR ALL THE SUPPORT YOU’VE GIVEN THIS PROJECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[marchnado]

OUR WORK FOLDER IS ........ wELL SEE FOR YOURSelf

Also, yes bELIEVE IT OR NOT I had to censor a lil spoiler there lmao

STAY TUNED <3 <3 <3

BONUS: we’ve got several

[marchnado]

OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS AMAZING THANK YOU BOTH SO MUCH FOR THE HARD WORK!!!

thank you so much!!! responses like this make it so much more worth it!! 

[marchnado]

This is incredible. Thank you so much! :) *sends hugs through the Internet as thanks*

no, thank you! the positive response has been amazing and we’re so excited to continue to work on and release future chapters :D thanks for your kind words!

[marchnado]

I must say, I LOVE love love this idea. The pictures are beautiful and the writing is brilliant. Congrats to you two, and best of luck for the next chapters! ;D

THANK YOU, WE’RE GLAD YOU LIKE IT!!!! <3 <3 <3 THANK YOU SO MUCH IT MEANS A LOT <3 <3 <3 

[marchnado]

HOLY FUCK THIS IS REALLY COOL

THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 <3

[marchnado]

After his parents' sudden divorce, Steven transfers to Mauville Tech High School, where he tries to fit in with his new peers in the marching band. 

Wallace struggles to maintain his friendships and new role as captain of the color guard in the face of a devastating life change.

We are thrilled to announce Between the Lines, a massive, fully illustrated Pokemon AU focusing on high school marching band by pent and suiraitei​​.

Chapter 1 is now up on AO3! Follow marchnado for updates and more information.

Click here to read Chapter 1!