How To Draw Batman..

Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyy

UH OH! Pokémon TV is shutting down! It would be a shame if some guy on Tumblr shared a link to every season of AniPoke from Indigo Leauge to the last batch of episodes with Ash in it along with some movies, that would be a shame!

When Eldritch & Divinity Meet (WE&DM) working title

Master post for additional story segments to my little DPxSPN ficlet inspired by vibe-howies’ amazing comic (see link to original).

Part 1, Encounter (DP)(original ficlet, inspiration post)

Part 1.5, Encounter (SPN)

Part 2, Immediate Aftermath (DP)

Part 2.5, Immediate Aftermath (SPN)

*Trigger warnings and word counts listed on individual posts. Feel free to point out missing warnings!

*Special thanks to my beta @ladyquestion for all their help (especially with the SPN elements)!

*Corrections & constructive criticism always welcome!

Dawn Rising - Prologue

TRIGGER WARNINGS:

Memory loss, blood, death, deletion, angst, amnesia, body alternation, kidnapping mention, threatening, violence, bullying, torture, control, possession, tragic backstories.

Age rating: 13+

Sitting in the big empty classroom, he stared out into the water. It was calm and the sunlight hit it at just the right spot. Rainbows of colors reflected off the surface. It seemed so.... Beautiful.

He sighed, watching the other 5 kids in his class battle each other in the soft green grass below. All of them we having a great time. He sat alone.

The world seemed so bright and colorful. But for him... it could've been better. Like everywhere but his life was so beautiful.

That's when he heard Mallow's excited blabber.

"This is the Pokemon school!" She pointed. "That's Lana, she loves to fish. She's really nice, chill, awesome person. That's Lillie. She's extremely rich. Like- Rich-rich. But she's very scared of touching pokemon."

He watched her drag a boy around. Black hair and a hat. She didn't give him much time to respond or react in her excitement.

"That's Sophocles. He's really really smart with technology. And that's Kiawe. He's 16. The oldest. He's really strong. And can be very..... Passionate." She guiding the boy up the stairs. "This is our classroom."

Suddenly faced to face with Mallow and some other boy he never met, he pretended to be busy.

"And that's Helios. He... doesn't talk much." She laughed nervously. "He only really talks to Lillie. But none of us know why. Even Lillie herself. But he's a nice person."

"Hey, Helios." The black haired boy walked up to him. "I'm Ash. From Pallet Town." A pikachu rode on his shoulder.

". . ." He just stared at the boy.

"He won't respond to you, Ash." Mallow tried to get the boy to leave Helios alone.

"I'm home, professor." Helios called out.

Professor Kukui peaked his head out. "Welcome back."

The next morning hit Helios with rays of light to his face. Despite being blinded by the light, he went to the kitchen to fix himself some food.

"Hi." Ash sat there, smiling.

Something within Helios became annoyed by his reappearance.

"Professor Kukui said i could stay here."

". . ."

His eyebrow twitched.

Great. Now he had to deal with a blabbermouth that wouldn't leave him alone.

"Do you live here too? Why are you here with Professor Kukui? How old are you? Tell me about yourself. What's your favorite color? Do you have any pokemon? Hey, where'd you get that Z-ring? Oh! I got my Z-ring from this pokemon. Professor Kukui said he was called Tapu Koko."

Helios deadpanned in silence through it all. Until he heard the island guardian's name.

"Tapu Koko gave you a Z-ring?"

"You spoke! Yeah, he gave me the Z-ring. Hey, you've got some cool hair. Your eyes are cool! Why do you have those marks on your face? You seem cool"

From eating....

"I've been on some very cool adventures. Do you want to hear about them? I've been traveling with Pikachu. He's my partner. It started off with me oversleeping..."

... To sleeping ....

"... And we got attacked by sparrows ..."

... To walking to school ...

"... And we met Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, AND Giratina ..."

... To the supermarket ....

"... And then Team Galactic had their big plans ..."

... To training ...

"... And then i got kicked out of the first Kalos gym I went to ..."

... He wouldn't shut up ...

"... And then this whole bond phenomenon thing happened ..."

... No matter what ...

"... And then after fighting Alain, Team Flare attacked and we had to fight him and we got kidnapped at some point ..."

"Oh my god for the love of god please shut up and leave me alone!" Helios hissed.

Ash however, seemed persistent on making Helios his friend.

"Battle me."

"Wha?!" Helios quirked an eyebrow.

"I want to get to know you. 1v1 fight. Using your Z-move!" He exclaimed excitedly.

"If I battle you, will you shut up." Helios hissed, desperate for some peace and silence.

"Yep."

"Eevee, let'a get this over with." He tossed a pokeball in the air.

Helios didn't try too hard to win. He cast his Z-move and called it a day.

"Hey! You can't just call that a battle." He chased after Helios.

"Yeah, well, you got your battle."

And then Ash went back to yapping the next morning.

"For the love of Arceus." He muttered.

"... Professor Kukui told me a bit about you. Why do you have a z-crystal in you? How do you have a z-move in you? Can you use z-moves? Were you born with it? Do your z-moves become stronger? How did--"

"I don't know." Helios spat. "I don't know anything about it. I just woke up in a cave with it. That's all I know. I'm trying to figure out how it happened. There. Now please be quiet."

"Why did you tell him about the z-crystal?!" Helios nearly shouted.

Professor Kukui stayed calm. "He asked to know more about you and it... slipped. But don't worry, I didn't say anything more. I'm sorry about it."

"He won't shut up. And he won't leave me alone." Helios sighed. "Please tell him to stay away from me. I can't have a moment of peace around here."

"I think he might be good for you. You need at least some human interaction. And you can't say you talk with me. You need some human interaction with kids closer to your age."

"He's annoying."

"He's also trying really hard to become your friend."

"I have some friends. I have pokemon and I have Gladion. I don't need any other friends, alright?"

"Gladion can't be the only person you hang out with. That's not healthy."

"But at least he knows when to be quiet." Helios grumbled. "I'm going to loose my ears by the time Ash is done talking to me."

"Aww, c'mon. Try to talk with him. At least try to become friends with him. Who knows. He might one of your closest friends. He's also going to be staying a while, so it's better for you two to be friends."

"Fine. I'll try. But I can't guarantee anything.

The Robiniad, Issue 1

next

The title page for Issue 1 of The Robiniad, a batman fancomic I'm drawing. Issues will probably be fairly short stories all set in the same continuity. Pick and choose canon, set in a time where everyone is alive (so after Spyral and Damian's resurrection), and Jason is edging closer to them, but not everyone in the family is that close to each other yet. In terms of superhero identities: Dick is Nightwing, based in Bludhaven, and in Gotham, Damian is Robin, Steph is Spoiler, Tim is Red Robin, Cass is Black Bat, Jason is the Red Hood, Duke is the Signal, and Babs is Oracle. Panels will be uploaded weekly for this issue.

Also, disclaimer: I am generally of the opinion (to borrow a quote from Red of Overly Sarcastic Productions) that "Can you imagine your Batman comforting a scared child? If yes, congratulations, that’s a genuine Batman! If no, you haven’t written Batman, you’ve just written Punisher in a funny hat." So I'm leaving out a lot of the more baffling depictions of batman over the years--and this comic will definitely be much more on the "Bruce Wayne is a good parent" side of things, even if he does struggle with communication.

(I didn't know about the "We are Robin" movement when I started this, and didn't count Duke as having been Robin, although I probably will, at least somewhat, in future issues)

~Katie

Heroes of Millennium (HoM) AU

Act 1: What was left behind. - Part 1 (page 1-5) -here- -> Part 2

Summer 2024 Anime Overview: DEAD DEAD DEMONS DEDEDEDE DESTRUCTION

A giant mothership is hovering over Tokyo. The aliens haven’t done anything or even made themselves known yet, but Japan and America are already trying to blow that UFO up, and show off who has the best weapons, causing many civilian casualties along the way. While all this happens, two girls are just casually living their lives. But are they as normal as they appear?

One thing I want to say is if you watch this anime and care about being intensely spoiled, do not watch "episode 0" until you've finished episode 16. It actually slots chronologically between episode 16 and 17, and that's where the episode took place in the manga, so I have no idea why they did that. Fortunately I had someone to warn me about that, so I will be that someone for you.

Dead Dead Demons DeDeDeDe Destruction or De x 8 as I will be calling it, can be really tough show to watch—not because it’s bad, it’s very good, but because of how depressing and visceral it is at times, and how devastatingly accurate it is to the shitshow of our world. This tends to be balanced a bit by the touching friendships (and possibly? More?) of the very likeable cast of teenagers…but you also feel a huge sense of dread about their safety as things ramp up and their stories deepen.

The anime goes hard on criticizing the military industrial complex, Japan’s government, America’s government, xenophobia, treatment of immigrants, rich people, and conspiracy theorists. All things I also hate, so that’s great. What hurts is how you could easily see the events happening—waging war on the aliens despite no provocation, people using an app to to hunt down and slaughter them...

It shows how even some of the protestors of the genocide use their movement to cover their own selfish motivations, meanwhile countries taking the situation as an opportunity to vie for power and dominance, rich government officials lie to their people and abandon them…obviously there's a lot of commentary here on how we dehumanize immigrants and minorities and enable genocides for capitalism and political power.

It's very bleak, and there were a lot of episode that had me just feeling sad, especially comparing it to current events. But there's also this interesting focus on normal people trying to live their lives during this alien "invasion", and the kids who still go through the dramas and upsets of everyday life. And especially the “I’d burn down the world for you” intense emotional relationship between Kadode and Ouran, the two teen girl leads.

Ouran is the main lead, and she’s a chuuni beyond chuuni, acting wacky and cheerful and spouting nonsense-- except if you pay attention, she's saying some pretty valid things—critiques of capitalism, war, government surveillance—but then following it up with something wild like “and that’s why I should rule the world”. You get the sense she’s cloaking an awareness of how shit the world is in humor, and as the show goes on and as her surprisingly intense and weird backstory unfolds, it becomes clear why that is.

The relationship between Ouran and Kadode is the center of everything--their bond IS the show. It's that kind of ride-or-die, I'd-kill-for-you, I'll-be-by-your-side-even-if-the-whole-world-is-against-you, in-every-life-i'd-find-you-and-love-you, soul-bonded, fiery devotion and love. They are the most important person in each other's lives, full stop. It's those kind of relationships that are so transcendent it goes beyond simple definitions of romantic and platonic. In other words, my kind of shit exactly.

But, as far as romance goes, Ouran, at least, is definitely queer and the depths of her determination to keep Kadode safe in a world that wants to destroy her girl that would make Homura Madoka Magica blush. (Kadode is more ambiguous, but she’s definitely soul bonded with Ouran. And honestly should just date Ouran because god she needs to be rescued).

There’s also a gentle empathy for marginalized people underneath all the horror—the girls befriend an alien trying to survive in the guise of a human, and it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that the first person our alien tells absolutely everything to is the gnc/potentially trans person of the group, Makoto (To be specific, they seem to still be figuring out their identity, but they definitely present feminine and specifically came to Tokyo because their small town wouldn’t be okay with how they like to dress). The way Makoto immediately shields their alien friend from others when they make the reveal that they saying “Don’t let them see, it’s not safe” and how it’s followed up by the alien reassuring Makoto that their friends will be okay with it if they take their wig off to swim...it makes the metaphor extremely clear, and it’s always nice when a series can explore marginalized characters both textually and metaphorically.

Through the kids, we get kernels of hope in this story, a reassurance there are kinder people in this world, and a hope that kindness will endure.

As depressing as the story can be, what it has to say is important and it doesn’t hold back in making you see what it’s going for—from the “Cool Japan” logo flashing right before the  Japanese government gives a weapons demonstration that will later kill citizens and destroy innocents...

...to the Trump-alike American President (and let me tell you it’s startling to be watching a show in Japanese and suddenly Donald Trump impression in perfect English) *(had to use the manga here because Crunchyroll didn't close-caption this part :/)

Then there's the American tourists, who were clearly va’d by someone really good at English, potentially a native speaker, and it’s incredibly funny how much of their dialogue has “fuck” in it and seeing the subtitles skip over that. Also much of their dialogue is treating the devastated Japan as a tourist attraction and saying how funny it all is to them. Logan Paul has entered the chat.

De x 8 very clearly hates America and recognizes it as a blood thirsty colonial power, which is correct, but the show is just as hard on it’s own country, saying the Japanese government would happily get back on the colonizing horse if they had an excuse, and many citizwns would mindlessly support them.

A small thing I appreciate is far from the usual anime aesthetic where everyone is blandly cute, the anime gives a ton of people ridiculously cartoony features that make everyone distinct—and being goofy looking is not meant to indicate a character is stupid or ugly—Makoto’s a super sympathetic character with giant cartoon buck teeth and one character that’s even pointed out as pretty has like, a pig snout nose. (It also makes it so the character noted as being drop dead gorgeous...actually is, instead of coming off as just as conventionally attractive as the rest)

Soooo a lot of good stuff going into this story. Let’s talk about some caveats.

There’s a continuing storyline between Kadode and her adult teacher, who takes her to his place to have sex with her. When he does, she ends up ditching him because of her feels for Ouran (gay) and I thought that would be the end of it, but nooope he’s a groomer, they pick up dating again when she’s in college, literally months after the previous encounter. The dude is presented as a scumbag, he cheats on his girlfriend, he seems generally apathetic, his clear discomfort with Kadode calling him “sensei” shows that he knows what he’s doing is wrong …and ultimately the relationship is shown to be unfulfilling, with Kadode directly stating so and acknowledging he’s just advantage. That doesn’t stop it from being uncomfortable though, especially since it’s confirmed he and Kadode have sex eventually (offscreen, thank god) and honestly, I felt it dragged on way too long. The first encounter pretty much demonstrated everything we needed to know about the whole thing in my view.

And of course there’s a ton of potentially triggering content in a story like this—from genocide to suicide to child murder to almost anything you can think of. Also like, one character has a sister complex, but on the milder side for anime. One where it’s conceivably platonic, and it’s not like he goes after her boyfriend Yuri Forger style, so it doesn’t bother me too much. There's also a good dose of fatphobia. And finally moment where a woman reveals she has ADHD (which I've never actually heard anyone say in anime so I actually got a little excited the more fool me) and then is almost immediately shown to be faking it.

The ending…is another big sticking point for me. It feels disconnected from the rest of the series, mainly focusing on a character we barely know and likely don’t care about and spending very little time with the characters we do, presenting an interesting status quo and immediately abandoning it, and while earlier episodes of the series presented "actions have consequences and we gotta live with them" as a major theme, it was suddenly like, actually they don’t!

The ultimate ending, again, hinges on a decision from a character we don’t care about and honestly feels like a deus ex machina. It felt almost like the author really wanted a happier ending but knew that wasn’t in line with the story he’s told so far, so he just tacked it on. Or maybe it was an editorial mandate, who knows. I think the most satisfying way to see watch episode 1-16 as its own pretty satisfying complete story (which works really well), and then treat episodes 0 and 17 as their own separate thing, a potential additional ending but not the definitive one. At least that’s what I did.

Overall, De x 8 is a show with a lot to say and it gives you plenty to chew on. While it is often depressing, it is very rewarding. The unbreakable bond between two messy girls, as well as the moments of ordinary joy and small human/alien journeys are the core of the show, and what makes it shine. I definitely encourage you to give it a watch. It's being really slept on, and it shouldn't be.

Crossroads Emmet Masterpost 🚸🌌

no set au story or timeline really, just the "Emmet looking for Ingo" prerequisite and my love for Ultra Beasts and road signs

Crossroads Emmet Tag

Concept art/Alternate Outfit Art / Outfit details / Hood detail

Batteries for Stowaway part 1 / Batteries for Stowaway part 2 / Poke Stowaway / Miserable Joltik icons / Shamrock Shake for Emmet / hhhhbhbhbhbfjhbhgbhb animation

Emmet asks for your Fishing License

Stowaway learned Rain Dance 

Gaster Escape Attempt #17

Road Sign Weaponry

Look Both Ways / Watchog Lore

this is just art of Emmet blushing

A whole lot of detours (commission)

Crossing the Ultra Jungle Stowaway Again

Crossing the Ultra Plant Cover Art / Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6 soon Height Chart / Happy Holidays!

Gasturday Cameo

Catboy Wednesday Cameo

(updated march 8)

Stickers AU Master Post

Please subscribe to this post to be updated when new parts of this series come out, as the tag list is getting out of hand and posts with long tag lists seem to be getting shadow banned.

As always, direct linking on the mobile app takes out the readmore cuts. If you would like to read without spoiling the surprise stickers, please click my blog name after using the link to go to the original post.

Parts 1-5 (long post)

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Part 10

*claps hands together* So I'm awake super early. I'm only up right now because I absolutely have to tell the world about the dream I had. I'm having one of those "oh my god, I'm going to go fucking insane if I don't tell someone" moments.

I had a dream that the Goro spin-off game was happening, and that I played a demo of it.

It was about an older Goro becoming a Dexter style anti-hero serial killer who only killed other serial killers and corrupt politicians and shit. The gameplay came from him investigating his targets with his detective cover to confirm they were guilty of the crimes, to make sure he wasn't killing people who were innocent.

It played kinda like GTA? With an open sandbox world and you could tackle cases in any order (but the demo only let you start one). I remember walking around the city as Goro with a long beige tenchcoat on. The style of the city still looked like P5, with bright colors and it being lively. At one point, you go into a corner shop and buy snacks. Goro was actually investigating the shopkeep, and went in as a customer as a ploy to watch him.

For some reason there was a candybar with Joker's face and Arsène on it, and I was so hype to read the flavor text about why it was there and how it even existed, only to be disappointed that it was the only piece of text that wasn't translated from Japanese.

It ended up being a front for selling illegal firearms, and Goro used his ability to make people have mental breakdowns to have the guy go insane and kill himself.

It was wild and I kinda want it to happen tbh. I wouldn't expect a series aimed at teenagers to ever get THAT edgy. But damn...imagine a game like that where you play as a PI that serial kills killers? That'd be dope.