Max's journal

shelbycragg:

neo-kosmos:

NEOKOSMOS is the story of human children who are being raised on a space station as part of an alien experiment, after an extinction event that ended all life on the planet Earth. Only allowed to speak to each other via text and screens, and only given access to human culture from an archive of Wikipedia, the kids deal with loneliness, fraught teenage feelings, and the challenges of being raised by a race of cold and calculating lizard aliens with unclear motives. If this weren’t enough, their entire world is flipped upside down when the space station is attacked by a band of menacing space pirates.

In 2015, NEOKOSMOS began its life as an an experimental science fiction webcomic. Our goal was to create a story that read more like an animated film than a comic — each frame of the story was illustrated, with an emphasis on expression, acting, and dialog. Updates included animated gifs, original music by James Roach and Toby Fox, and breathtaking animation by Adrienne Garcia. You can read this version of the story for free right now at neo-kosmos.com !

The webcomic version of NEOKOSMOS ran for 2 years before it was discontinued due to time constraints. While it wasn’t clear to us when we first began NEOKOSMOS, the universe and stories that we wanted to explore ended up too expansive for every frame of the story to be drawn out like a movie. Instead of scrapping the project entirely, we thought long and hard about how to best convey the story that had become so important to us. Eventually, we decided on a solution: revisiting NEOKOSMOS as a fully illustrated series of YA novels. 

Since we are both artists as well as writers, we want to create a product that reflects both sides of our creativity. We are going to be experimenting with format and visual storytelling throughout the prose-driven novels, creating what we hope will be a unique and engaging reading experience for everyone!

Our final goal for the NEOKOSMOS series is to create a trilogy of science fiction novels for a young adult audience with a strong focus on neurodiversity and LGBTQ+ themes. With your support, we can make this goal a reality! 

However, you don’t have to wait for too long to read the full story! One thing we really liked about having a webcomic was the serial and interactive nature of posting a story as it is worked on – and we are continuing that tradition right here on Patreon! $10 Patrons can follow along with the story as it is written, with new chapters being released EVERY WEEK! If you were a reader of the webcomic and you want to catch up with all the new developments, this is the the tier for you. We are already well past the point where the webcomic left off. Come see what you’re missing!

 SUPPORT NEOKOSMOS ON PATREON TODAY!

Can’t commit to a monthly pledge in this economy? We totally get it. If you still want to support us, we have a ko-fi page where you can make a one-time donation! 

Thank you!

Hey guys, not to be all THIS IS MY LIFE’S WORK, but this is pretty much my life’s work right now! This project means so much to me and we are relying on the support of our followers to get by as I finish it up!

(via ask-maxie-boy)

fuwafuwarifuwafuwaru:

If you’re familiar with fighting games, you’ve likely heard of BlazBlue. The series is known for it’s fantastic looking 2D sprite work and innovative system mechanics. Part of the reason BlazBlue has stuck around for as long as it has (it’s been 10 years!!) is because of the memorable cast of characters. They all have their own reason to be involved in the story and everybody is somebody’s favorite. My favorite of them all is Mai Natsume who originally debuted in the spin off manga Remix Heart.

I’m not here to summarize the entire events of the manga. Partially because it’s wonderful and would recommend you read it on your own! But also because the focus here is on why I like Mai as a character rather than the actual content of the story. But I should start off by saying I’m far from an experienced writer so please forgive me for how I may come off. It’s not often I do things like this. So anyway let’s get to it.

Mai Natusme was originally born as a male (pictured above). Her original name was Mai Hazuki and she was supposed to be the male heir to the Hazuki family. In the Hazuki family library, she came into contact with a Grimoire called the No-Name Grimoire. In the BlazBlue universe, a Grimoire is not a book but a magical item. There’s many of them and they’re each capable of doing different things. This Grimoire transformed Mai’s male body into to a female body. The shock and embarrassment of that happening caused her to run away from home and change her name. She was ashamed of what her family would think of their son becoming a woman, especially her very strict father. Now with no place to call home, she enrolls in the NOL Military Academy under her new name. It’s pretty much a boarding school where the students are taught to wield magic. You wouldn’t be very far off saying it’s anime Hogwarts.

At the academy, Mai quickly finds a group of girls she fits in with and becomes close friends with. They are united with the goal of finding the Azure Grimoire and using it to cure Mai’s “super taste.” (It’s essentially something that just makes it so most food actually tastes really gross to her) But at this point Mai, is still secretly hoping that she’ll also be able to use the Azure Grimoire to become a male again and return to her family. She’s still dreadfully afraid that her father would never be able to accept her as female and has nightmares about it. 

Throughout the story Mai begins to realize how much she enjoys being one of the girls. She enjoys being a part of your typical girl talk like discussing crushes and she even develops a crush of her own on a boy named Taro. She’s beginning to look at her change in a positive light. But it isn’t all sunshine all the time. She actually feels a bit guilty for how much she’s enjoying her new life as a woman. Is what she’s doing dishonest? Is she technically lying by presenting herself to everyone as female? Is it right to be happy knowing you’re keeping something from those that trust you?

Now Mai is dealing with more than just her family’s potential rejection over becoming a woman. She’s equally worried her new friends wouldn’t love her anymore if they were to learn about her past as a male.

But like the true friends they are, they still love Mai for who she is no matter what. It doesn’t matter to them what she used to be like. All that matters is the person she is now. Her friends embrace her and their words of love and encouragement give her the strength to finally accept herself. She is able to officially come to the conclusion that she is much happier now as a woman than she ever was as a man. Now that she’s finally discovered what it means to truly be herself, her mind is at peace. She gives up on ever going back to being male and optimistically looks forward to living the rest of her life as the lovely woman she has become.

BlazBlue Remix Heart is an important story of self-discovery that I would recommend to anyone struggling with their identity. It may be a fantastical type of setting and her transition may have been magical, but I think it still accurately mirrors how many people out there feel in real life. If we could all magically change our body to be the opposite sex, we may still have these internal debates with ourselves if what we’ve done is honest. There’s plenty of comedy and action here and it’s all backed up with artwork that ranges from cute and funny to intense fight scenes. There’s some parts that borderline on ecchi content but they aren’t overblown and if that’s not your thing then at worst you’ll just roll your eyes and they’ll be done in a few panels. Most importantly, this story serves as a reminder to be true to yourself. A reminder that the people in your life that won’t accept you for you aren’t worth keeping around and that the people that do accept you can become your life long friends. There will always be people out there that will accept you for who you truly are. Even when you’re at your lowest and loneliest, you are loved by someone out there. Even if you just haven’t met them yet. Never be ashamed of who you are or where you came from.

If you’ve read this far, I’m very thankful to you for sticking with me despite my amateurish writing ability. I was inspired to do this because it’s currently Transgender Awareness Week. I’m hoping that someone out there might come across this and find a new reason to appreciate Mai and Remix Heart. Perhaps I may have even brought this manga to the attention of other transgender people out there could use a little pick me up. Maybe someone that isn’t trans even learned a little bit about some of the internal conflicts that come with being transgender. Mai is a very big inspiration to me and her story is such a bright light on my most dysphoric of days. When she was finally announced as a playable character in BlazBlue Central Fiction, I was beyond excited! I was completely over the moon about it and I must have watched her reveal trailer a hundred times! It’s an amazing feeling to be able to play as a character you really connect with. It really makes you feel good when you win and makes you want to improve when you lose because you want to see your favorite character win! I’ll always pick Mai!

princecarlton:

tittypetes:

abs are cancelled. we all about soft tummies now

(via honeybearbutch-deactivated20200)

vaylinns:

eolithandbone:

hotephoetips:

otaku-sugar:

toastyhat:

foolsdiamond:

toastyhat:

toastyhat:

if your stomach’s sensitive because of anxiety, by all means spread out the food you eat over the course of the day instead of having large meals, just don’t…not eat.  you will go into hypoglycemic shock and that will suck.

By the way, symptoms include:

• Shakiness.
• Nervousness or anxiety.
• Sweating, chills and clamminess.
• Irritability or impatience.
• Confusion, including delirium.
• Rapid/fast heartbeat.
• Lightheadedness or dizziness.
• Hunger and nausea.

(because of the nausea, eating might not feel like the thing to do at first.  I’d suggest drinking a coke or something.)

I’ve dealt with sugar crashes before and I’ve collapsed and whited out.  I’ve had friends do it too.  If you think you’re going into hypoglycemic shock, and if there’s anyone else near by, tell them you think it’s happening, even if you’re not prone or it’s never happened before.  If your’e alone, make your way slowly to the kitchen/wherever you have food/drinks.  The standard rule is to take in 15 oz of a sugary drink (orange juice and soda–not diet–are the best) and wait 15 minutes to see if it’s over, then keep doing that until your sugar is stabilized.  Then you can eat.  If you think you’re about to collapse, especially if you start to feel dizzy, sit down and lay down or lean against something.  Don’t risk injury, it’s better to pass out while you’re laying down than it is to collapse and hurt yourself.

*points at this more educated person*

If you are having trouble eating please keep in mind the BRATY diet.  Bananas, Rice, Apple sauce, Toast, and (sometimes) Yogurt. These foods have been shown to be harder to throw up. By no means should this be the primary diet, but this can assist in the between times when it’s harder to keep things down.

this was really helpful

As someone who has a super nervous stomach this is super useful!!

This is all also extremely good advice in preventing/coping with stomach ulcers FYI

(via ask-maxie-boy)