#devilrose text

[devilrose]

Mewtwo, the science abomination not willed by love or god, whose first thought was understanding it should have never been born - and every year the fandom reunites to celebrate its birthday, the only Pokémon with a canon birthday, as if to echo back: you are with us, and you belong to this world :)

[devilrose]

Curry the kitty

I've told this story to some friends already and it's only fair to tell it again to everybody - also so you know why I've been hard to find lately. And since apparently I'm too good at suspense for my own good, as one friend told me in near-tears - don't worry! It's a happy story!

One night, @ritabuuk and I were playing Quake 2 when we heard insistent meowing outside. There is a cat colony around here, so we didn't think much of it for a while. We thought more about it when the meowing didn't cease for two whole hours, and sounded decidedly desperate.

At about 4 am, we ventured out to find the source of the meowing. In a bucket next to an empty house we found a screaming kitten, attempting to claw up the too-tall walls of the bucket. Next to the screaming kitten there was its sibling, who unfortunately had already been dead for a while.

Given the situation (and the near-freezing temperatures), we decided to pick up the screaming kitten and see what could be done. The poor thing still had its eyes closed and the umbilical cord even. We rewarmed it and fed it the best we could. We constantly checked if the mother came back, but nothing. At this point our mission was to make it survive until the morning, even though neither of us had any experience in keeping cats, let alone tiny kittens. Failing that, our mission would be to at least let it die while warm, and not in a bucket screaming in the cold.

The tiny tiny kitten made it to the morning and we were able to bring it to a vet, who told us that

the kitten was max two days old, and, as we would learn later, possibly actually only a few hours old

the kitten was in good health, all considered. Quite strong.

We weren't given any options for any experts to surrender it to, but we were given a crash course and some materials for how to feed it and care for it in the meanwhile that we would find someone with a suitable nanny cat.

The following days were hectic. On top of needing to feed this kitten every two hours, I also had a minor surgery. When I got up from the operating table I literally ran back home to take care of the kitten, which I don't think is usual recovery procedure. At least there were two of us to take shifts, but we still had no experience in taking care of this kitten, so every moment we worried that it would die.

Yet the kitten ate copiously and was fine.

Although we still couldn't find anyone with a nanny cat or anyone able to take it off our hands at this stage. It'd have to be us raising it. I begrudged that quite a lot, because, hey, I just didn't want this kitten to die bad, I didn't want to turn around my whole life for it...

Anyway, we put together supplies for it. My mother also built a fluffy pillow and a plush mommy for the kitten's comfort; the kitten does adore the fluffy pillow, though it mostly likes to poop on the plush mommy. Well. Anything helps...

In time, the kitten grew to the size of a potato and opened its eyes. It also immediately proceeded to get an eye infection and a cold, which led us all to realize that it probably never received any milk from its mother, hence the lack of immunities, and that's why we realized it was even younger than we knew. We were all fooled by how lively and large it was even at birth, but it seems like it's just a combination of being a boy cat (large), a ginger cat (usually large), and just a potato in general (large potato).

My sister suggested to name it Curry. I objected in the beginning, but, okay, it is exactly the color of curry powder. And the white is like the rice. And it is certainly a spicy and powerful cat. Curry it is then. Curry the kitty. I tend to call it Curry Potato. When @ritabuuk scolds it, she calls it Tim like the actor. Full name Timothy Curry Potato. Besides, if you left it to me, I may have named it Quake 2, the game it interrupted, and nobody would have been happy about that.

It is a very cute kitten. Cute to the point of looking like an animatronic that is trying too hard to look cute.

And here I am with my cool image completely shattered:

Curry is now 26 days old, I believe. He has already has many teeth with which he bites a lot, though he doesn't yet fully understand meat. In spite of its difficult beginnings, he is surprisingly friendly, and isn't afraid of anything. He hesitates about exploring dark spots in the room, but eventually goes there and investigates them fully (ah! one of us!). He loves shoes and especially my beach sandals, which he requests to ride like a spaceship. He can enjoy that until he can, as he continues exceeding the expected size for his age every day, and so we suspect he will eventually grow to the size of a small puma.

Even though it wasn't our original intention, it looks like we'll be keeping Curry after all. I know that cats choose their people, and I fully expected that one of the colony cats would one day wander in our house and decide to stay, but I did not expect it would go like this. And even like this, I thought this kitten would like us just because we feed him, but even when he's fed and content he comes towards us for attention and purrs. Or I look inside the house and he immediately gives me the greeting head bonk. Dammit. I'm not the kind of person who gets attached, but he's attached to me, and I don't really know how to handle this...

Alright, okay. Curry the kitty can stay. Hello Curry the kitty. Let's go on adventures across the room.

[devilrose]

A few people have told me that the hand-lettering in my comic The Gifts of Darkness, though impressive, is difficult to read.

So I wonder if, going forwards, I should let go of the hand-lettering and use a more readable font. I'd have to edit the entire comic backwards, all 26 chapters of it, but I would do it if I knew that I'd be removing an obstacle towards people reading it.

Please weigh in whether you read my comic or not, and please answer truthfully and brutally:

Which do you like better?

How it is (#1)

How it would be (#2)

Not a significant difference to justify all that work

Other (tell me in the replies)

Voting ended onJun 20

Thank you!

[devilrose]

Lately every email is like

New features coming for you! We've added new AI crap-ass features to this software that you've been using with no complaints for the last 15 years! Please understand that this is so that we can blow the cocks of our shareholders. You may opt out of these features by hehehe hahaha

and

We're so sad to see you go :( What did we do :( We just don't get it :(

[devilrose]

Whenever I return to work on comics after a pause, at first I tend to be like: eehh why do I even do this? it's so much work. maybe I should have only focused on writing

then once I'm there doing it: I LOVE MAKING COMICS. I LOVE MAKING COMICS SO MUCH. Storytelling becomes composition. Words become motion and time. The tiniest "he smiled" in the writing becomes a picture in which that smile is the only one drawn in that particular way ever. And it's the first time every time! Every page is a different and amazing process, even ten years of comic in!

I do wish people would read my comics more, and even more I wish people would tell me about my comics, but I'll be honest: I love the process of making comics so much that I keep doing it no matter if people read them. They're mine. Nobody can take them away from me.

[devilrose]

Damn, I just saw a content warning for "self-indulgent". Yeah sure, warn that you had fun, just in case Skeletor is there and he only wants to read fanfiction made with loathing

[devilrose]

Recently, @ritabuuk and I have pirated a plant from cuttings from a feral bush. In English you call it the four o'clock flower, because the flowers open in the afternoon, after four. In Italian we call it the bella di notte, the night beauty, because it... opens for the evening. No subtext, it's meant to be exactly as naughty as it seems.

This bit of information aside, my latest hobby is finding new and worse ways to translate the meaning of the Italian word to @ritabuuk in English, such as:

Slut Flower

Fuckflower

Slutplant

The Night Slut

Purple Slutty

The Whoreflower

...which illustrates why localization is generally superior to translation.

[devilrose]

I wish there could be a visual arts equivalent of when in a song the voice breaks...