Metie Fluff

@metiee asked: also who wants to go to shaymin village

Malachi: Neither! At least, nothing that you can use as a blanket statement for the whole species. As for visiting, that sounds kinda neat.

Eilwyn: I dunno... They have a whole village where if you wanna kiss someone who isn't a Shaymin, you gotta move out. Sounds kinda messed up to me...

Malachi: Well yeah, but that's to preserve their culture! And they can still fall in love with who they want to, there's just some ceremonies that non-Shaymins can't participate in.

Dielle: ... I think I'm with Eilwyn on this one. You can't really control who you fall in love with. What if a Shaymin fell in love with a tourist? They just get kicked out? And what if their kid ends up being a Shaymin? Do they just miss out on that part of their identity forever?

Malachi: Well if they have a Shaymin child, the kid can migrate back and join the village!

Dielle: And then the kid has to choose between having a Shaymin partner or getting ripped away from that culture again...?

Yohann: Not a crime, but that's gonna be one heavy meal. If you know what I mean.

Rune: ... What?

Yohann: You know. Like the currency. Explaining the joke kinda ruins its punch.

Rune: It's not a very good joke if you have to explain it.

@metiee asked: *I forgot to add that I don't want my favorites like fletchlings or togetics from becoming chicken nugget 😭

Rune: Wait, what?! Nobody's out here eating other people, that's insane!

Rune: W-Who said anything about kissing, anyway??

I know that they can change the gender easly but the design don t change then much i belive but if they design would change there would be a lot more changes in details abaut them

// they would look the same because their personalities, hobbies, and self expression would be the same regardless of gender B)

I can however offer you other swaps, such as this species swap

and this swap that turns them into ponies

... And that, finally, is the end of the chapter! What a doozy, huh? Explorers was really set on stuffing quite the dungeon gauntlet in this chapter, and I almost considered forgoing my goal to keep chapter breaks consistent(ish) with the game and add a split when the team actually began the expedition. It's kinda fun having a huge dumpy chapter though, can't wait to do it again in chapter 10. Also, a big shoutout to ShuSquirrel for sponsoring one of OBT's Monster House Marathons this year! This chapter would've gone on until November without your support, and I know I for one am very happy to have the support to work on my dream project without worrying about bills for a month!

As per usual, OBT will be going on its planned hiatus while I prep for the next chapter! OBT will be returning September 26th- a month long break instead of my usual 2 week break because this chapter was quite large, and I need a little time to decompress and get my buffer back. And maybe give my hand a break, I actually injured it during this last 20 page stretch to the point that many backgrounds were done with a mouse on my non-dominant hand lmao (it's mostly healed now, so worry not)

In the meantime, a new special episode is updating on Patreon for $5+ tiers, featuring a certain Nidorina hosting a definitely-not-D&D campaign! Like all special episodes of course, it'll be releasing publicly as well at a later date. I'll also be adding onto OBT's buffer during this break, with $5+ patrons seeing up to 10 updates ahead of schedule and $15+ patrons getting to see all pages as they're completed! Not able to support monetarily but still want fun content? OBT's ask blog is still updating during the comic's hiatus. Head on over there if you want to find out what Eilwyn's mouth water tastes like.

Any tips for making side stories beetwen main story for comic making

I am trying to make a script for a comic that i will try to make after i finish learning how to draw got inspired to finally try making one after reading yours

// for getting the creative juice: I personally save side stories for content that I think is interesting but not necessary to move the main plot along. some things are trimmed out from chapter outlines and expanded upon in their own story, others I just kinda started thinking about and went "oh that'd be fun to write about". I cannot express enough that optional side stories should not be necessary to understand your main comic- if you refer to a side story in the comic, make sure that context for the side story is given (otherwise it's not a side story, and should just be part of the main story!)

I also use side stories as an exercise in various things. for Dielle's Wish I wanted practice writing a child character, for the upcoming Dungeons & Damages I wanted to practice making a scene full of talking heads still look visually interesting, and a future special episode gave me practice in writing a character I struggle with!

for executing the story: a good rule of thumb for comic-making is to release pages at a slower pace than you make them so you can naturally accrue a buffer. part of the reason I was able to slap out Dielle's Wish in less than a month was because at the time I had 40 pages of buffer in OBT's main story, so I was able to take a month off from the main story to work on it. this is also just helpful if you're working on a comic in general, it can keep the ball rolling and prevent unexpected hiatuses (I actually injured my hand a few weeks ago and have been living off of buffer while it heals)

and finally, keep your side stories short! I like to try and keep mine under 50 pages on average (similar to chapters), it's a good way to tighten up your script and also makes sure your short little project doesn't become its own behemoth.

Sandy: Shaymins aren't evil, sir or ma'am! They actually migrate across the region every year, and we have a festival when they visit. I think their flowers are really pretty, hehe. And did you know they can change forms? That's how they can fly!

Marie: They're really fun to fight. When they first come in their flying form, that's when it's the best. I hope there's an evil shaymin one year. I wanna defeat them in a battle.

Rune: Uh... Thanks.

Dielle: Aw, it's totally true!

Rune: Maelstrom should chuck me at Malachi's head and see how he likes it.

Malachi: Yeah! They seem like they're pretty good friends!

Inigo: Yeah. "Good friends".

How did you come up with the core personalities of rune and malachi?

// I guess it just kinda happened that way! To begin with I already like a grouch/bubbly dynamic (so much so I realized I accidentally made the same dynamic, just switched, for a secret original project I'm working on, haha). I think it allows for some fun banter when one character can speak their mind freely while the other is able to let those comments bounce straight off of them. Though as a result, it does appear to some readers that Rune is genuinely bullying Malachi... I promise that's not the intent! She'll know when to reel it in if she strikes a nerve.

There were definitely growing pains in creating this dynamic, though! For that I point to the preboot of On Borrowed Time, where Rune and the then-called Kodali frequently got in fights due to their dynamic, and it really wasn't very fun to write and I don't imagine it was fun to read, either. In that iteration of the comic, I wanted to make Rune into a genuinely bad person- and the comic would have ended with her dying. Hence the "on borrowed time" phrase used for the title!

Meanwhile, Kodali (who later magical girl transformed into Malachi in the reboot) was experiencing a sort of dependent relationship on this iteration of Rune, and was subjecting himself to get hurt by her over and over and over again. Maybe if I had some more self-awareness at the time I could have spun the story into one about toxic relationships? But experiencing many of those myself at the time, I didn't recognize this is what I was accidentally writing. So these iterations of the characters never found their way out of this cycle, and just kept repeating it without any reflection. Which uh, sounds really depressing when I put it that way! But it's part of the comic's history, so it's worth mentioning.

Modern Rune and Malachi takes this dynamic and resets it back to zero- after all, if we're gonna be stuck with this duo for the majority of the story, and if I want a generally happier tone, they should probably get along a lot better! So taking them back to their roots, Malachi still looks to Rune for an (initially) one-sided relationship... But instead of taking the route of manipulating him, she instead deflects obvious issues regarding his attachment towards her and tries to set the pace for how quickly they get to know each other. Of course, she's not fully aware this is what she's doing, and she definitely needed practice on her delivery.

But when he finally slowed down to form a genuine connection with her rather than just jumping to conclusion after conclusion, she was much more willing to open up to him.

Inigo: Well, a Snom is roughly the size of one of my feet. I think you can guess.

Dielle: You would crush a tiny pokemon to death?!

Inigo: No, I just said it to be funny! Sheesh!

Inigo: But if someone is crazy enough to steal a Time Gear, they probably won't go through with the rehab programs. And I wouldn't be surprised if they're sly enough that they'd escape prison.