slothcraftin

BEHIND THE SCENES #19 - MAY 2022 WEEK 2

Added 2022-05-31 22:16:06 +0000 UTC

hey ya'll!!! we're back again, for another epic behind the scenes post!!! >B3c

random sidenote, i fuckin love those little :3 faces.... im sure you can tell, lol

anyways, yeah, lets just get into it!!! there's a lot to talk about this week!!!! most of it is eve focused, but i also have some interesting lore on how penny and chellsea were originally conceptualized!!!!!

so, i think the most important thing this week was that we finally saw some of eve's internal struggle, which i've been thinking about for SO dang long without having a way to share it... she HAS been slowly freaking out more and more in all the situations where penny was upset or scared about something, but this is the first time we've really gotten to hear it right from her mouth, and get some backstory on why she feels so strongly about penny!! even though in reality they barely know eachother...

this is kind of a detour, but isn't it really weird that it's only been a week in the story??? i've really been doing this for a year and a half and only gotten through a week LMAO--i think that's kind of commonplace for a slice of life romance story like this, though... things go slow if you don't skip over days!!!! life has a lot of stuff in it, y'know!!!

that aside though, i'm REALLY happy to finally get to share some of eve's thoughts and feelings--she's a really fun character to write, but it's definitely easy for someone with the kind of bravado and forwardness she has to seem shallow if you can't see into their mind at all.

i gotta say though, as far as writing goes, that monologue was one of the hardest things i've ever had to write in this story--i think making those sorts of one person self-chats is definitely my weakest point writing wise... it's just SO hard to make it sound natural!!! XP!!! most people who talk to themselves in their head (raises hand, i do this) do it in a more jumbled and fragmented sort of way, cause they already know all the facts of their situation--but to do it in a story without it being garbage, you have to explain a lot more, and make it cohesive for the reader, while also not having it sound like a boring infodump, which is just. SO hard for me for some reason......

i much prefer doing dialogue between characters, or longer flashbacks to share these kinda things, tbh--i just find it much easier and more natural feeling. but it just didn't make sense to do that here, cause getting bogged down by a big flashback sequence right at the end of this already gargantuan episode is the last thing i wanna do, lol--remember when episodes were like, three parts long? yeah, me neither.... >w>''

i actually DID come up with a flashback while writing and editing this whole thing though, specifically between eve and that new character Kam who got mentioned in one line of her monologue...it's something i'm super excited to show in a later episode (probably episode ten?? so, two from now) but it was a little too much to put in right now... that really reaffirmed for me though that dialogue and flashbacks are the best way for me to go on these things, cause that shit just like. appeared in my head and i immediately loved it, whereas the monologue took me a good few days to get right, and even then i wasn't super happy with it. it's a good lesson for me on what i do best though!!!! never gonna complain about that, hehe!!! >:3c

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[this panel was hell for me to line... look at those HANDS in the sketch, oh my GOD. WHAT WAS I THINKING DHBDBHFG. if you ever see a wonky hand in this story (they happen often, don't they...) it's because i never fucking learned to draw hands properly... i was SO bored by studying anatomy that i just kinda. gave up eventually and said fuck it we ball lmao--same goes for muscles, which is why those ALSO took me a dang millennia to draw.... so much of it really is just guesswork until it looks good...

its still fun to do though, and i think it came out looking pretty good, so who cares!! heh!!! B)]

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speaking of Kam though... let's talk about him!!!!

so, there's a lot of stuff i wanna say about this guy... most of it is spoilers though, so i can't share a lot of it just yet... we'll definitely be hearing more about him in the coming episodes though, and finding out how he's connected to eve!!

what i CAN say right now though, is that he's very important to her past, and coming to terms with the things that happened between them will be an important part of eve's development!! so, we'll defo be seeing lots more of him, in far more than just name!!

speaking of seeing him in more than just name, i can also show you all what he looks like!! it's actually a design i'm reusing from back when i did a Q&A about a year ago--it was supposed to be a gender swapped eve, but i liked it so much i wanted to find a way to use it in the story somehow!! that also might give you a little hint as to his relation to eve...

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[he]

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as well as Kam, there's also some other characters important to some of the main four that we haven't met yet!! penny doesn't really have any close family or friends other than chellsea and the people she's met in college, but chellsea and ava on the other hand have quite a few!! two of them actually show up on the cover page of the story, namely the two in the back behind them!!

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[these two!!]

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we'll be meeting both of these guys as well (well, one is a girl, but u know what i mean) in episode nine, and kam in episode ten--i have both of those episodes pretty much all planned out at this point, and after that, we'll be on to season two!! things are gonna get really fuckin crazy soon..... i'm super excited!! >:3ccc

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[just some... Interesting sketches from the past two weeks DNJDNF. im something of an artist myself you know....]

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and finally... the last thing i wanted to talk about was penny's fainting, and where it comes from!! as well as some more general backstory on how she came to be!!!

so, i'm sure you know that most people don't randomly faint when they're flustered... at least, i hope you know that.... if that's normal to you, you should probably go to the hospital!!

penny doesn't have a disease though--actually, she has a very different reason for why it happens to her!! and while i can't talk about it story-wise, cause it would be a massive spoiler weirdly enough, i CAN talk about where it came from as a trait for my characters to have!!

so, writing proper stories like this, where i'm the one controlling everyone and everything, is something i'm still rather intermediate to!! i'd say i've only been doing it seriously for around two and a half years or so--probably closer to two, but i dabbled in some shitty fanfiction a little bit before that.... thank god that never saw the light of day, DNFNJG

what i DO have a lot of experience in though, is roleplay!!! specifically, minecraft roleplay!!!! it was something i started doing in like, 2010 to 2011, mostly cause i wanted to be an edgy anime boy after watching SAO, lmao--i was a 10 year old, okay!!! dont judge me !!!!

i eventually got bored of anime boys though, and tried playing a girl, and was like. wait a minute. this is epic. and eventually i landed on a character who was basically just Me but a girl... and then i was hooked!! even though it took me another like, five years after that to realise i was trans....

okay, but, what does this have to do with penny's fainting, you may ask!!! very good question, hypothetical reader!!! well, that character who was basically just a self insert gender swap, actually had that same trait!!! it was one of her most defining characteristics, actually--she would just like. randomly pass out all the time, lol!

that character stayed with me in various iterations for a LONG time, becoming a sort of like... mascot, almost? almost every main character i wrote for things ended up with a piece of her in their personalities!! so, when i started this story, that trait just sort of got superimposed onto penny, cause my main characters pretty much all trace back to that girl!!

so, while the reasons in the story are different from what they were all the way back then, penny's fainting runs all the way back to a character i made when i was twelve!! that's really weird to think about, but also kinda neat, hehe!! B)

OH, and before i forget!! another thing about that character, is that her name was Chelle!! and i'm sure you've seen by now if you're all caught up with the story, that chase's girl name is Chellsea--which, eventually, will be shortened to Chelle by her pals!! her post-transition appearance is also taken from the original chelle, who had long blonde hair and big round glasses--so, in the end, i guess i sort of split her in two, and they ended up becoming penny and chellsea, personality and appearancewise respectively!!

i tried to find some semi-decent art of original chelle to show you, and i didn't find Exactly that, but i did find some art of the most recent itteration of her outside of gacha girl, which i made for a pokemon mc roleplay server called toro league a few years ago!! her name was changed to luanne in that rp, cause she was meant to be the kid of someone, and they had already named the kid in the rp--but this is her, nonetheless!! she was a sort of like, beach witch here, i think?? and also wore stupid fake dog ears and sunglasses, lol--i'm sure you can see what those ideas went into.....

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[penny and chellsea origins....]

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okay though... i think that's all i had to say for this week, yo!! >:3c!! to leave you off with a little something extra, i'll show you guys some isolated backgrounds from the past two weeks that i haven't shown yet!!

other than that though, i just wanted to say thank you once again for all your support, and i love you guys so much!!!! see you next week for another post!! :DD!!

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