#thought the original needed some.. pizzazz

[jjezko]

fan-made book cover for john green's everything is tuberculosis

⭐original edit

[cocoabats]

I have been SPIRALLING going around looking for community zines to read, and a majority of the zines I have downloaded and read has a certain bat in the credits,,,🫵

I'm enamored by your composition and colors, and I'm even more enamored by some of the zines you've helped in layout design! I've been scrolling through your asks if anyone has asked about how you do your layout design, and I've realized I won't have the time to scroll before getting swamped by life again LOL

So...May I ask how you do it? They're all so clean yet so uniquely fitting to theme of the zine, and I've been thinking about what your thought process is whenever you do them

Love your works a lot, truly🫶

-🌠💋

Tehehe I do love taking part in zines and community projects, don't have as much time for it recently as I'd like but every once in a while a really cool new one will pop up I will drop everything for :DD

And thank you for the compliments! I do love working on zine layouts, it's such an unsung part of zine creation but it can be just as fun as drawing or writing.

All of the zines I've done layouts for so far I've also was the head graphic designer so I got to design all the branding for it. That way layout is just an extension of the work I'm doing when I sit down and pick how we'd like the overall zine to look.

The rest under the cut since I can never shut up.

The unique aspect of the layout compared to the other work tho is that you are ultimately making a scaffolding for every other contributor, the layout is supposed to bring attention to the important elements. Doesn't mean you can't have fun with it, especially when the topic of the zine suits a fancier approach (like Scarbook taking inspiration from various artbooks and how they lay out art), but ultimately what's important for me is whether the piece on a page (be it writing or art) is able to look best it can for what we need. Writing needs to be easy to read, art needs to be able to shine, authors should be easy to see (we love good crediting in this house).

So for instance lets go back to when I was designing HGCZ. We established the dark blue background with white frame when I was designing spotlights and I felt like a darker background color in that instance made the writing visually closer to the comics vs having a white background.

When it came to credits, comic and cover artists knew how much space I'd need more or less so I was able to include all the people who worked on any given piece. Single illustrations on the other hand had more or less one placement for credits for the sake of readers being able to locate it quicker (Scarbook does something similar even tho the size of the art changes so drastically). Then came the trigger warnings, making them into little icons was my idea on how to make them easily readable, fit the comic book aesthetic and ultimately to be able to warn people on whats ahead of them since HGCZ ended up being pretty heavy.

For font choices, body font needed to be readable first and foremost. Since we had some very long fics, any funkier font would get tiring on the eyes FAST so a simple sans serif was a way to go. I usually go back and forth based on the general look and theme of the zines whether sans serif or serif would work better. For headers meanwhile I was able to go a little bit more fun and I could have very well went for a more stereotypical comic book font choice since it was supposed to be mainly used for titles (the fact that it ended up being the secondary font was kinda just because it worked so well). Thing is if you look at the Hotguy logo, be it the original one, the HGCZ one or the new one I redesigned (fun fact, that one was fully hand made, I didn't use any fonts in it), they're all very sharp, pointy and blocky. Makes sense to make the header font be a reflection of those design principles while keeping in mind to not go too serious, we are talking about a superhero called Hotguy.

Finally for a little pizzazz I used HG colors all over the zine since they were so easily recognizable and tied everything together so nicely, while a sprinkle of CG colors let me stretch my wings (ha) a little more which came super handy when designing timeline graphics for Ghost Issues. Also the little pop of red and pinks help to not make the layout color palette too stale.

That was way more yapping than I thought I had in me but hey I hope this is at least a lil bit interesting to you. I do always love to talk about my thought process (there's some asks in my askbox that have been waiting for me to get to them as well, certain designs just need more talk time than I currently have ack).

Also a good place to say that I'll be talking some of my process next week during Twitchcon alongside some amazing artists in the community and my good good friends :}

[wooahaeruby]

Blood Stained Hands Ending Author's Notes

Main Masterlist | BSH Masterlist

CONTAINS BSH SPOILERS!

You know, I never thought I'd ever actually finish Blood Stained Hands. But, I need to start from the beginning of how BSH came to be.

My friend, Nic, or @doahaesunshine if you will, had made one joke. The joke you ask? "Tristen, I dare you to write a Mafia Jeonghan x Reader. I bet you won't."

And I took that personally as you could tell.

So, originally, BSH was supposed to be only a Jeonghan x Reader. Cheol and Joshua were no where to be seen, but as I started to develop the plot points and how things naturally evolved, they were added. I used to use what I called my 'little back book', and I write down so many things, which turned into the BSH you know today. There was a lot of my editor, Mel ( @pinkskiddo ), yelling at me day in and day out. I have made them cry (which...i'm not 100% sorry for).

I want to take Mel and Nic for being my lovely editors and friends. I honestly don't think BSH would have ever been finished without them! They helped me a lot and have supported me through all the crazy, fucked up ideas that came up while writing this story. Seriously could not have done this without them <3

On March 26, 2023, I opened a Google Doc and started writing while I was taking college classes lmao (and sometimes writing in class, shhh). BSH....she ended up breaking two full Doc files, like, I couldn't write anymore without the entire doc lagging. BSH ended up spanning 3 google docs, 5 front to back college rule notebooks (things I write by hand then transferred to digital), the little back book, and my sanity. In total, the page count on normal letter sized pages for the docs is 827. EIGHT HUNDRED TWENTY-SEVEN FUCKING PAGES. We've broken over 390k words too. Dear god. I don't even want to know what it would be if i changed it to A5.

And yes, Blood Stained Hands ended on a Jackson Wang joke. It's been in the making since, like, chapter 16, at the OG gala scene. I'm not even joking about that. I'm not sure which of us said it, but it happened.

Is it obvious I watched the entirety of Criminal Minds while I write this story? Yeah? Cool.

One of the major things that came out of this story was that I wanted it to be kinda fucked up. I wrote literally torture. I spent way too much time on looking up injuries, burns, how injuries heal, physiological affects, etc. I don't half ass things when it comes to writing. I joked that my FBI agent was concerned. And like, I have To You out on my page and it is so vastly different in terms of how I've written. To You was sweet and fluffy while BSH was just pain, suffering, torment, anguish.

I made Mouse one of the most unreliable characters I think I could every make. She makes reckless, stupid decisions. I wanted readers to get mad at her, but still love her for who she was. Mouse did things for a reason, and she never wanted to hurt those around her but hyper-independence doesn't help.

I've never been a fan of stories where everything is always alright. I want pizzazz to my stories, I want this deep view of certain things. It's how Mouse ended up in a coma, tortured, mentally unwell. It's how Mouse ends up killing Monsta X. It's how the leaders were blown up. I would honestly talk for a while about how certain things came to be in this story, but I've be rambling for way too long. There were many talks between Mel, Nic, and I about how things would go within the story, which spiraled from there. This story truly was a labor of love that I don't think I can fully beat because of the time and effect that went into it.

AND JUST SO WE ARE CLEAR, I LOVE MONSTA X, THEY WERE MY FIRST KPOP GROUP, SHOUT OUT TO 'BEAUTIFUL' FOR GETTING ME INTO THIS HELL. I JUST NEEDED A VILLAIN.

There were also some scenes that never made it in the main story that I might put as Extras, but I also have other Extras ideas. I know I do wanna write some back stories, especially Minghao's and Jun's. Or even early SVT days. There's a lot of thoughts in my brain haha.

Favorite parts

For myself, I'd have to say the scene where Mouse was in the coma. I wanted to have this...internal crisis where Mouse has two choices and she needed to pick one. But I also didn't want it to be so terribly painful because I've just submitted everyone to...all that torture lmao. Mouse sees her parents, but she also gets to pick something for herself, to go back to the family she found and loved.

Mel's: "Oh shit mmmmm im split between the box scene and the last monologue before she kills Kihyun and her shooting him multiple times, both are great scenes. The box scene is also great because its her justifiable breakdown after so much torture and I like how that ends with her accepting her fate and finding comfort in hallucinating the guys cause it shows how much she has gained them as a family. The monologue and the shooting is great writing and also I love that it shows her development and self realization in the monologue followed by how she is strong but still human because she refuses to stop shooting until shes out of bullets and knows he is dead."

Nic's: "i like when mouse confronts that one asshole in ruby and very blatantly threatens him (as she should)"

If anyone has any questions, please don't be afraid to put them below! Thank you for all the support and love you've had to BSH, it means the world to me that someone enjoys the stories I have created and will be creating! The next story is already in the works <3

[exh0rdurr]

Regarding the V-Dub question from earlier: I'll throw my two cents sure why not.

While I'm a surface-level fan of the 'sauce, I don't know THAT much about V-Dub. I can say, he has evolved over time from being a parody/jab at the old dudebro gamers who would play Call of Duty (CoD) to still being a CoD player but with a little more pizzazz -- like you said, added autonomy and was/is involved with aliens in more ways than one. I'd like to add that alter egos can be second versions of oneself, a clone of one, the opposite side of a personality, or a counterpart (Merriam-Webster). V-Dub's whole schtick is to be the opposite of what Vinny is, a version of Vin if he was in a different time and place -- and also delved into drugs, specifically weed or the ol' Mary Jane. Yes, it's Vinny with a black baseball cap, his headset, and aviator shades at the end of the day, but somehow V as a character/alter ego is given more depth, personal thoughts, and a chance to be himself... even if it still means being stuck as a "clone" and looking like the person he claims to despise.

uhhhh haha why are we delving into serious analysis of a fictional character played by a streamer hahahaha that's stupid and lame- did you know that the first trope in the TV Tropes section for V-Dub is Ambiguously Bi? yeah /hj (that's real btw not a joke 🤨) okay cool

you know when i made my original post i didnt expect people to actually give a fuck . these paragraphs have been so fun to respond to (it gives me variety in my normal monotonous life ...)

anywho ,.... im responding

"While I'm a surface-level fan of the 'sauce"

these intros make me laugh, is sauce like a surname now ??

"I can say, he has evolved over time from being a parody/jab at the old dudebro gamers who would play Call of Duty (CoD) to still being a CoD player but with a little more pizzazz"

i actually had no idea dudebro was an adjective , i never really heard of it used in this context but it does actually make sense to use . i just called him an HPD sufferer but dudebro is new word added to my personal vocabulary !

anyway . seeing vdub streams evolve over time and seeing him become an independent character rather than a "persona" character (does that make sense ?) is very cute...

"V-Dub's whole schtick is to be the opposite of what Vinny is, a version of Vin if he was in a different time and place"

i wonder if there is an alternate universe where v-dub has an alter ego named "vinny" ... hm ...

"but somehow V as a character/alter ego is given more depth, personal thoughts, and a chance to be himself..."

well i guess after a while , vdub got monotonous and boring to play up for laughs that vinny at some point decided that he needed something to keep him interested in continuing to character ...

"did you know that the first trope in the TV Tropes section for V-Dub is Ambiguously Bi?"

you know that gives me a chance to talk about why his wife has a prostate pounder ... and he says "not right now" . hm .... i knew there wasnt exactly something straight about that guy .... and also him saying "hostess with the mostes" saying the fem version of "host" as if he couldnt have just said the alternative phrase "host with the most" to be aligned with his male gender .... hm .......

ANYWAY . thank you for your paragraph floralnicenerd on tumblr dot com. i will leave you with that food for thought !!

[thesagesjournal]

[Log-in Story] Something Old, Something New

Appearing Characters: Shino, Arthur, Murr

Shino: Next, a pinch of tempest salt…

Arthur: And lastly, a drop of morning dew found on a sunny day and chant away.

Arthur: <Pernoctant Nixzo>!

Shino: Nice, it lit up!

Arthur: Great job!

Shino: …And now what? What exactly is this crystal for? Is it supposed to be a gift, or?

Murr: Oho, and what do we have here? If my eyes don’t deceive me, that’s an Amulet Crystal for the Gift of Something!

Arthur: Murr!

Shino: If you know about it, then it really must be an old custom like it says in this book.

Murr: Well, it’s one of the must-haves according to the rhyme! Every line begins with “something” and describes a component of the gift, hence the name!

Murr: It’s said that if one were to receive an Amulet Crystal from a wizard, an Ancient Chain from a scholar…

Murr: A Chalky Flower Bud from a human, and Rainbow Cloud Raindrops from a spirit, good things will befall them!

Shino: So just this crystal isn’t enough?

Arthur: Perhaps the effect is stronger if you have all four, but on its own, I think this makes for a good enough gift.

Murr: The whole thing originated as a charm to grant happiness and protection, so the more, the better! We~ll, who are you giving this to, Arthur?

Arthur: A certain someone from the castle who’s been taking care of me all these years. They recently got married and will be moving far away because of that.

Arthur: Everyone else at the castle plans to gift them Chalky Flower Buds, and I thought it only right to wish for their happiness as well.

Shino: Collecting all of them sounds like a hassle. Especially the Ancient Chain and Rainbow Cloud Raindrops…

Murr: If ya need Chains, I’ve got some.

Shino: For real?!

Murr: But of course! I am a scholar, aren’t I?

Murr: He~re you go! One for each of ya!

Arthur: Whoa…! They look strikingly… normal at a glance…

Shino: Are you sure these are the real deal? There’s nothing special about them.

Murr: Ya want some pizzazz? I’ve gotcha covered! <Eanul Rambul>!

Arthur: Thank you so much, Murr! All that’s left are the Raindrops.

Murr: Ooh, now I wanna collect ‘em all!

Shino: A tribute from a spirit, huh… Hey, Murr, since you’re so smart, do you know where we can get those?

Murr: I used to! But everything I knew went ‘kablam!’ just like me!

Shino: Why do I even bother…

Arthur: If they’re all part of the same custom, there must be something written about it in this book.

Arthur: Which page was it again…

Shino: …Here. “Can be found in places where blessed rain and sunlight fall, and one can feel the sanctifying presence of spirits…”

Shino: …Like Sherwood Forest?

Murr: Could be! Perhaps you can look for it after the rain’s stopped.

Arthur: Since it’s been raining a lot recently, now would probably be the perfect time to go.

Shino: That forest is basically my backyard. I’ll make sure it feels like a walk in the park.

Arthur & Murr: Nice!

Shino: Now I want to get my hands on this Gift of Something thing too. I’ve also got people I want to make happy.

Arthur: Indeed, I can’t think of a better gift for someone who’s starting a new life.

Murr: Team “Collect the Gift of Something”, full throttle ahead~!

Shino & Arthur: Let’s go!

[shysublimecoffee]

I prefer not to sound harsh, but Miraculous has become a fandom where I find more enjoyment in reading fanfics than watching the show. It feels like there's a lack of effort or an attempt to justify and rearrange elements, often ignoring past seasons and assuming the audience won't notice. The handling of Derision is a notable example, with more astute critics than me delving into their dissatisfaction and the evident retcons.

I didn't anticipate the show going to such lengths as portraying Gabriel as someone deserving of a statue, and it left a sour taste in my mouth to see the hero endorsing it. Adrien/ChatNoir's portrayal has become quite pitiful, with a peculiar shift where Ladybug takes on a significant role in the Agreste Saga despite her absence from that narrative. Ladybug, who isn't even part of the Agreste Saga, is the one delivering heartfelt moments. The decision to sideline Adrien and put him out of commission is disappointing. It's his story yet she the one who has to make it about her. She gets to shine along with a cool costume to boot.

There's a palpable bias from Astruc against Chloe, evident in the show's treatment of her character. Despite her being manipulated by Gabriel Agreste, the narrative blames her for becoming mayor, and the absurdity of the situation is magnified when everyone in the story goes along with it. The inclusion of a scene in Revolution where Chloe is crying is perplexing and frustrating, as it seems to perpetuate the negative and irredeemable image the show consistently paints of her. The added layer of her mother being horrid to her intensifies my annoyance, especially when sympathetic scenes are presented in a seemingly contradictory manner.

I mean you want her to be the worst but yet she has scenes like this? Why not go all the way wtf. Why give her depth only to take it away and then make her be so demonized in s5 and act like she was like this from the start. When she's been a joke

I hate to be critical, but seriously, it's hard to ignore how the Miraculous universe is just dripping with untapped potential. Five seasons in, and the movie outshines the show effortlessly. It makes you wonder about the writers' team and their approach—seems like they're just coasting on low effort for profit, and somehow, it's working, thanks to Miraculous inexplicable popularity.

The show's been beating the monster-of-the-week horse for five long seasons, lacking any creativity in crafting interesting villains. Gabriel, honestly, feels like a starter villain, and if they're going to make him the big bad, can we at least get some villains with a bit more pizzazz? You know craft creative interesting villains? KNDS, Original PPG, Totally Spies they got it so why not Miraculous. It's so damn tiring seeing the same old song and dance with Gabriel 24/7 monologuing to his wife and releasing the akuma I thought Mayura would be important but she's barely there.

It's not even an excuse kids do deserve better entertainment so why should Miraculous lower its standards. Marinette is very weird to me as the protagonist because her lovelife is more focused over everything I gauged her well enough to know about her that the rest of the secondary needs more of a spotlight to be cast on them. I like her but am I the only one who just skips when she starts the whining about Adrien and her plan to again get together it was cute at first now I fast forward to the more interesting part of the episode because it irks me i'm tired okay... what other facet of her character do the writers focus on besides her love life? I hope I don't appear to salt on her but Imma tag it just in case. I think she's in neutral treading to dislike because how can I come back from her gaslighting her boyfriends I'm sorry I can't.

You know what I'm afraid of that if Lila gonna be the next big bad they'll just recycle everything from Gabriel onto her. We'll have the same akumatizations same monster of the week formula only this time it's Lila.

I trust more in the fanfic community to come up with a better substantial plot than Miraculous could ever be. I know romance is a big part but the lore is so damn little it's season 5 are they ever going to expand more in the later seasons lol.

I'm tired from writing this long. Imma go to bed now.

[troutfur]

Oooh, I like how Lion both sorta justifies participating in the assassination because ultimately Holly would surely be a better leader and would benefit.

But ultimately refuses to go through with it because this cat, no matter how much he personally despises him, is someone that his sister holds dear. And it's not for him to take that away from her.

I wonder how this would work logistically between Lion, Hawk, and Shrew. Since Shrew does eventually intervene to kill Hawk?

Maybe Lion prevents Hawk from killing Fire, chasing him off. And Then Shrew is the one to murder him. Because by that point, Hawk is no longer useful in any way and is just a possibility to expose shrews in this. "regroup" with Hawk, then as Hawk has his back turned muttering about how he will avenge his family on Fire no matter what, just slits his throat.

Ooooh, I like that idea a lot actually!

This is mingling AUs a little since omnis vir tigris is not meant to be in continuity with Anima Sola, which is where the idea of Shrewheart double crossing Hawkfrost for the glory originates. But you know what? I'm proud of the idea. Adds some much needed pizzazz to it all.

Po3 and the fire scene are far outside of the scope of what I intend to write, I want to stop right at the fox trap murder. But there also feels like there could be a connection there to the fire scene. Especially since one of the few details I've thought of for post-TNP omnis vir tigris is that Hollyleaf and Jayfeather conspire alongside Leafpool and Squirrelflight to hide her illegal prophecy spawn (now Brambleclaw and Tawnypelt to bring it all to a full circle). Hollyleaf ends up raising them. :)

And I like the idea of Lionblaze finding a way to let Hawkfrost off. Fundamentally his view is still that it was unfair for him and his siblings to be pigeonholed the way they were and that they are kind of justified in lashing out. But they've gone too far.

And yeah, that is exactly the emotion here. He has no right to take his sister's beloved mentor, the rock who has given her stability, the idol she has been constantly measuring herself to. He will put up with him, much as he believes he is unfairly eclipsing her. By StarClan, it's torture but he'll fucking do it.

[jem-and-the-pixel-art]

Jerrica: I wonder if... Hmm... Could Pizzazz be attracted to women? No, no way.

Pizzazz: *takes Jerrica to the club with the most bisexual lighting ever seen on planet earth*

Based on my favorite Jem fanfiction.

Click below if you want to see my (probably boring) ramblings about making this:

So this turned out very differently than I intended.

Originally, I just wanted to make some quick sprites of Jerrica and Pizzazz because I'm OBSESSED with them, especially their dynamic in that fic, so I did that and it didn't take long at all.

And then I needed a background of some kind, so I started with a simple floor and wall. And then I figured I may as well make it look more like a club since that's the setting in the fic, so I added a dance floor. And then it looked weird to have a dance floor with no dancers, so I added those. And then I thought, What if it was...animated?

Oh boy.

I've never really done animation before, but some instinct took over my brain and compelled me to keep adding and adding things to the background until I had...this:

Dance party.

So yeah, I spent about a day on the foreground and about a month on the background. I have no idea why. This is a very weird piece of fan art.

Anyway, I love that fanfiction a lot, and I think about it every day. Bless Jerrizzazz writers (not me though, I'm not gonna bless myself, that would be weird).