So I have just finished reading all the fanfics, kudos to all of them too!! The ones who stuck in my mind were (in no particular order):

"How to woo a holy man" by MnM_ov_doom (tardif following dismas's advice to approach damian, so funny and endearing)

"Ballads of the Lost Souls" by Leenu_Heath (a different type of poem for each hero, so creative!)

"Trinkets" by asimawv (loved the timeloop premise and that. ENDING. </3)

"Puppet Master" by Carpe_Natem (a tragic closer look on the Butcher's Circus Ringmaster and her decaying state of mind)

"Heaven of stone" by wyrd_eater (delicious pain and torture like only she knows how to do it)

I won't say much else to not spoil those who haven't read it yet, but do yourself a favor and pick it up to read it if you haven't already!

Also, if I have to choose one(1) favorite thing from the bundle, it will have to be the little maid jester sticker. It is so tiny and adorable, I mean, look at it!! I can never stick it. Nice job @aloetech!

[Also, totally unrelated to the DD or the zine, but if you want to, do pay attention to the books I used as a stand for the zine, I totally recommend them as well!]

The blue book is "Roadside Picnic" ("Piquenique na Estrada" in Portuguese), a Russian sci-fi novel about a setting in which aliens briefly visited the Earth but left without interacting with humanity, and the story of the book is centered around a stalker-- a man whose job is to go into the zones the aliens visited to grab and sell the odd artifacts they have left behind. (This book inspired the STALKER game series, if that sounded familiar!)

The pile behind the zine are all the volumes of "Dungeon Meshi" (or "Delicious in Dungeon"), a fantasy/comedy manga in which in order to survive and descend the dungeon to obtain their goals, the party must make delicious meals out of the dungeon monsters like walking mushrooms, slimes and even dragons. It is SO creative and funny, with such great world building and solid characters!!

Hi! Do you know how to make the battle animations go faster on DD2? I've watched gameplay in which it looks like people have a mod like the ones in DD1 that make the game faster, but I can't find any. I already have the speedwagon one, but battles are so painfully slow...

Are you sure the gameplay isn’t just edited and sped up? I haven’t seen any mods that were able to make the animations go faster yet, though then again, I’ve just looked into the DD2 Nexus Mods stuff. Keep your eyes open there, I’m sure if someone finds a way to make this work they will share a mod there! 

For the contest they required some process shots, so I wrote this down really quick since I finished him on the deadline day! Such hurry meant this couldn’t possibly convey the true chaos that was making this plushie. I don’t have a lot of experience making anything tridimensional (look at the first attempt of a boot at fig. 1 for god’s sake), so everything was a struggle.

In retrospect, I really should not have used that cloth for the coat, because it was so shredery on the edges it made working on that scale a nightmare–but it was the closest I had to dismas coat color! I had to use only the materials I already had, since I didn’t want to leave my apartment mid pandemic to buy a darker gray felt, or one of a tone that matched dismas beautiful olive skin. The cloth I used for his skin was finicky as well, since it was actually some sort of fluffy fleece, except I used it on the reverse side. It worked out great in the end, though attaching the ears and nose proved a bit of a challenge!

I’m insanely proud of the little flintlock, its barrel is even hollow! I’m so happy that I hoarded some little metal bag clips throughout all my life, I used them as a trigger and such. Also used a golden metal clip for the belt. I’m satisfied I managed to make it fit on Dismas little glove–I’ve put some wire on his finger so it can bend around the trigger. His arms are articulated too (at least in one direction: up and down). Little details nobody except me cared about lol

The little shortsword also made me proud, I’ve made that by putting some double sided tape on a little cardboard cutout, then I wrapped it all around with some silver colored thread. Then I made the handle out of felt, and attached a flowery silver bead as the huh… pommel thingy? Best part is that it not only fits in his right hand (like in game!) but it also fits on the little holster I’ve put on his little belt. They are functional, they slide in and out if I want to!

The whole mechanic of him having his head attached directly to his legs were a problem I could only figure out on the last days. Here’s how it went: I attached the first layer of scarf around the head, then I had Dild’s belt (not Dismas’ belt as shown above) attached to the edge of the scarf. I’ve sewn Reynauld’s tunic thing on top of the legs (which were sturdy logs of rolled up cloth), then sewn that under the scarf and belt, directly underneath Dismas fat head. It was janky as hell, but it worked wonders since his legs ended up a bit articulated! To finish it off, I put that second layer of the neckerchief on top of the edge between the bandanna and the belt, and then attached the functional pockets (that he uses for absolutely nothing, the nerve of him). I feared he would look like a giant round head on top of two sticks, but it didn’t look like that at all in the end! I was so relieved.

(Look! You have a wrinkle, Dismas! You sly silver fox!)

His legs were troublesome to make as well, I had difficulty with the boot shape, but I think I managed to make it look good. I’ve sewn the boot around the leg rolls, and put brown rice inside it’s boot as a fill and weight. He can stand on his own as a result, plus it’s a good use for this brown rice I bought while dieting and ate exactly once. Not sure what to do with the rest of it now though…

Anyhow, I could go on forever on how many problems I had with this little guy, but overall I’m very glad with the results! I only wish I had the time to finish his coat better, I thought the ragged ends would fit Dismas ruggedness (plus I didn’t want to deal with the shredery nightmare cloth again), and on the bottom I think it looks fine enough, but it just ended up looking a bit unfinished on the lapels in comparison to the sleeves. Oh well.

It would have gone 100% smoother had I not procrastinated so much, but eh. I love him regardless. Thank you for reading this far, I hope you liked Dildismas as well! :’)