#ultimate league

[bigdamnproject]

We’ll carry on…

[cryinginblaseball]

Okay I'm bored and I have tomorrow off so I'm going to post the Ultimate League soundtrack, the playlist I used when I wanted to get into the headspace for writing the story.

I'll drop a couple of tracks at a time rather than do 16 individual posts.

Okay, let's start:

Sidelined, Live at Desert Bus 2021

"I guess I'm used to moving on..."

"Sidelined" is one of my favorite Garages song. It really fits where Oliver is at the beginning of this story: lost, trying to figure things out, dumped into a situation where he'd be better if he was pushed to the side. Plus:

"Am I just another wash up? Am I damned to go out swinging? I can't hear you from the dugout Is there anyone else singing for me?"

That's Oliver so much of the story. (And in the end he gets an answer to that question...)

Brand New Marble Statue, No Risk

Rain is a great songwriter, and part of the reason this is on the playlist is just Vibes. I think I told myself at one point this was Crasher's song, but [shrugs]. Still a jam.

Hoosier Love, MU330

Ultimate League is a story that proudly surrounds itself with its city, St. Louis, and I'd be remiss if I didn't include St. Louis artists and songs, and in this case, St. Louis slang. A hoosier in the St. Louis area means someone who is apologetically rude, crass, without class, the kind of person who'd get drunk and start fights at a little league game. I believe the origin is strike breakers from the 1800s hired people from Indiana to scab. Needless to say, the strikers didn't take kindly to this.

Anyway, I could see a brass band to the Seattle Sounders Soundwave playing this during the march to the match. (A lot of the fan culture in Ultimate League is based on soccer culture.)

[bigdamnproject]

Some quick Trashcat doodles. Been really influenced by Star and her comic @castoff-comic, which you should go check out!

[cryinginblaseball]

2022 recap

2022 is almost over, and I wanted to highlight the blaseball stuff I did this year!

First, my fics:

Hold Tightly, Hold Tightly

Everyone has that one Blaseball player that's their Blorbo. Jasper Coven is mine. I set a lot of his lore, and also contributed a lot to the Talkers' short circuit 2, Valhalifax. I really miss that team, and I really love Jasper. This is how he got the Valhalifax, and how he came to get Kiki Familia as his mentor.

Not The One That's Punishing You

Hobbs Cain talking to Greer Lott after she didn't make the Hall of Fame. I think these two could have been really good friends.

EUGENIA GARBAGE FINDS SOME CAT EARS IN A DUMPSTER AND DECIDES TO MAKE IT EVERYONE'S PROBLEM

This is not the best fic I've written, but it is my favorite. Eugenia running around and getting everyone to be a kitty cat is so much fun. This is also part of my York Silk is a furry agenda.

Drawing Moistly

My zine from the Blaseball Zine Jam, Drawing Moistly is a lot of sketches and doodles and art that didn't necessarily made it out of Orb Corner into the fanworks channel. Lots of Talkers blorbos in this one.

Bigger things:

I had the best lucky falling in with @polkadotpatterson and @mossy-kit and getting to build an amazing world together (and tricking them into being my friends). The Salt is lost short circuit that takes place in a Halifax where all the water has disappeared, leaving a vast salt flat behind, and a coven works in secret to try to bring the water back.

We're really proud of this thing we've made, and we'd love for you to read it. You can find The Salt on AO3 and downloadable on itch.io.

That other thing:

(Thanks to Spuntamatite for helping with the cover)

I finished a book this year, and it's a book that wouldn't have happened without Blaseball. I wanted to give my Blaseball OC, Oliver Trashcat, a story of his own, and what I got out of it is basically a love letter to Blaseball. There's nods to the fan culture, entire goddamn Garages lyrics, Talker arch types, and even a couple of cameos. I'm hosting it on Itch, and also posting it here one chapter at a time. It's pay what you want on Itch, which mean if you want to just download it for free, please do! I love these people and I want to share them with you all.

Thank you all for continuing to be an amazing fandom. I am all love you and I can't wait to see what we do in the new era.

[cryinginblaseball]

Not exactly a fic but I want to hear about ★ for clorkball

I can talk about Clorkball :3

★ what was the scene you most wanted to write in [fic]? what was the hardest scene to write?

The first scene I ever wrote for Ultimate League became the end of the chapter "Playoffs" towards the end of the book. It's a scene I'd mirror earlier in the book, Trashcat running to the wall to try to make a clutch catch, and the darker implications of the results. Even in the beginning, I was making Oliver cry :3c

I think the hardest scene to write was really trying to figure out a reason for [redacted] and [redacted] to switch teams when there was a plot device in the dug out to prevent exactly that sort of thing (you absolutely know the scene). I ended up cutting out what I had and going with something different.

There's also a scene I wanted to get right, where Oliver and [redacted] reconcile with each other. I wanted their conflict to be believable, not for the other person to be a villain. Basically, it was about how different people would handle their situation, and I don't think everyone would feel the same way.

Thanks for the ask, Blestie!

PS -- You can get Ultimate League here!

[bigdamnproject]

Been doodling players from Ultimate League I haven’t drawn out yet.

First, Brick City Hustle’s called up pitcher, Zia Beastly

Cortex Blackhat’s pitcher, Tomboy Lombax

And Chesterfield Flood captain Jo Tuning

Got a whole list of these guys!

Huh, weird that they separated out that way…

[cryinginblaseball]

Zia Beastly :)

Zia! ;-; Hey Kosmo, you need a filler player to take Dash's place in Ultimate League.

Me: What if I accidentally make the most tragic player in Clorkball...?

Zia Beastly was 18 when she was called up. She pitched one game in the Ultimate League, and then she died. When she would think about it later, she would remember how afraid she felt, how Joon-Ho Park had tried to get in front of her to protect her, and how much it didn't matter.

Like, Kiki Familia at least got to fight and kill a god!

[cryinginblaseball]

Ultimate League 39

Back to Part 38 Everyone That's Left As far as celebrations went, it wouldn't be one for the ages, but it was pretty damn good. Th

Everyone That's Left

Sometimes, when Oliver wandered the city, he’d spot the stickers, Thunderbirds logos slapped onto stop signs, The Hustle spray-painted in a bright mural, the Leftovers logo on windows, on bumper stickers. He’d see names on walls, Giggle and Joon-Ho and Lafayette and Dino and Lance and Ali and Fish. Sometimes he’d stop to look them over, and he’d catch someone across the street, or down the sidewalk, looking too. Sometimes they noticed, and when they recognized him, they nodded. Oliver always nodded back. Amylee sent him a picture one day, a photo of the Hangar, all of the Thunderbirds in a mural on the side. Whoever had painted it, put their names there too, Indra and Edgar and Shiny and Gil and Billie and Nigel and Hubert and Rosalyn, and of course, Amylee, her own portrait staring the viewer down. The artist had painted “God Killer” under her. Aston informed Oliver there was a mural of The Leftovers in an alley close to the Civic Center Arena. He kept meaning to go see it.