MICRO BIHON’s (REVISED)

POST ROUND 3 NUT CLARITY THOTS

My last thread was super poorly worded so I’m going to shoot for the descriptive stars again and gather my thoughts about crab 3 here. With added details. Hora yo!

THE BEGINNING:

As with people here know, my first proper introduction to this tournament is courtesy of Ame, we call her Nelly or Nova and we go back years ago and I consider her, to this day, one of my dearest internet friends. The reason for my invitation in this tournament was because Ame knows first hand that I could handle 4chan and its humor and my brother is there to help me navigate. Should be smooth sailing from there but I was apprehensive at first. I don’t know if I could dedicate 3 months for a tournament but ultimately decided to join.

DYLAN THE 6-YEAR-OLD FORGOTTEN OC, REBORN:

As with my Newgrounds friends know, Dylan is perhaps my eldest internet OC. He was a bit of the leftover concept I had back when I was college. I was perusing for a nice OC to enter and I was stumped because my options are all underaged characters, I wouldn’t want to risk it. There, Dylan reared his handsome head to me, he is an OC with a broken story that doesn’t work…. But he is legal so….

The problem with Dylan is his story is a bit of a jumbled mess, he is a contract familiar who uses his powers to help his “client” and define his world. What a vague story in it. One day, I went to call with my Newgrounds friends to hopefully iron out his story. There, I kid you not, we made magic. He is now a tragic hero figure, a real lonely mortal ascended into godhood who’s job is now to seek rightful wielders of the mementos. All falls into line beautifully, his new story fits how his bedroom eyes portray loneliness and apprehension while still being a lowkey strong figure. I’d admit, I was one of those people who got in without getting through the filter story, facing Kevin. But in my intro comic, I just made it so that Kevin is a messenger and the two quickly befriended each other. Very in character for a hero like Dylan, no? Seems Rock is also happy Kevin is being treated well too.

TEAM ODYSSEY SETS SAIL:

I’m so stoked to say the least, when the teams are being announced. This is my first OC Tourney and I was ready to give my all. When the team was announced, I mustered all the courage to create that comradery I was hoping I will get. I immediately brainstormed team names, our setting, and our lore. The air ship fairing, swashbuckling team or animal adventurers is such a novel and lovely idea. I even had the joke where Dylan is literally the crew’s Powder Monkey. Our lovely captain, Sahxyel aka Frankie, was battling sickness back then so I gladly stepped in to do some marketing materials like our intro art, something that a marketer like me is more than happy to do! We settled on “TEAM ODYSSEY”, befitting of our adventurous theme. All set to sail, my head is held high, little did I know like the Odyssey, it would end in a tragedy….

G, WHAT IS THIS SHIT? (PRE-ROUND 1)

Pre Round 1 and we are immediately hit with a lore dump. What is this? Centuria? I asked Ame about this and she said it wasn’t as confusing as last year’s round 1. I spent the whole afternoon trying to read everything till I realized: this is just a descriptor of the setting. I was ready to pull an apa and “What the fuck, ignore!” it but I can’t lest I get DQed. I just focused on the theme I was given: Raiding a Tomb.

I am not surprised I got paired with Kav. He is a fellow front-paging artist from Newgrounds with a monkey OC too. But I’m gonna be honest, for what he is saying that I’m pro, I think I’m even more intimidated at him more that he was to me! Remember, I’m new and suspicious enough to think he is gonna pull a fast one on me! I geared up and set my sights in defeating this veteran, I already have the manga aesthetic in mind, even if I am scared of Kav’s colorful artstyle.

ROUND 1 – RAID A TOMB!

Dylan vs Cyrus

You know, it is waaaaaay harder to write a heroic character more than it is to write a morally gray character convincingly, let alone writing a villain! I consulted Ame for suggestions and she said my main weapon against this veteran is Dylan’s lore and personality himself. If I can’t razzle dazzle them with aesthetic, I’ll make sure to get them with sheer positive energy. I got to work and written the story in a way that it feels like the two primates are in a brotherly relationship. That’s where I realized Dylan’s strength lies: He ELEVATES his match more than himself. It was a novel idea to make Cyrus wield the giant diamond sword and it had that feel of an early 2000s anime RPG that I adored.

Artstyle wise, I kept it black and white. The reason for this is not only it is easier, but I really had Dylan’s story (remEMBER) to be manga aesthetic. A good practice and a good aesthetic, more bang for my buck. I also get to play with screentones, something I wanted to develop in this OC tourney. This is not to say I am beyond terrified of losing to Kav’s colorful artstyle. Not to mention when the deadlines are being discussed, kav is one of those adamant people to not let their opponent to get a mercy! Well too bad for you monkey, I have worked under time pressure so you can’t pull a fast one on me that easy! But I just threw caution to the wind, hoping my brotherly sibling adventure vibe triumphs over…. Bald monkey.

ROUND 1 AFTERMATH:

And…. I was right! Ame was right. For all it is worth, people in 4chan does love a good wholesome story. Of course a lot of people prefer the comedy (You know Dylan can just get his hair back pronto, right Kav?), but that besides the point. One thing I tell the point across is, no matter who you are, by virtue of wielding a “hero” character, I must always treat my opponent’s OC with respect. I want to make people regret not having me as a match, if that makes sense.

I won by a marginal amount and that gave me the confidence to write Dylan properly. I thought he would be a very unwieldy character to use but I was pleasantly surprised. Cyrus is an interesting opponent all things considered, I did my best to present his powers in a logical way, especially that his powers would not logically work on things who don’t have a soul in the first place. This ties nicely on Cyrus experiencing first hand what it likes to be a Memento Wielder and a good introduction to what Dylan is all about. I must say too, I have done a wonderful job staying lowkey about how strong Dylan actually is, something I meant to do.

ODYSSEY: CRACKS STARTING TO SHOW

While we are not the dead last, it was sad to see Odyssey being down there. But the real damage done to the ship was the no-show of Pix and Mr. Chammy. I had high hopes because these two are our resident looney tunes and rounds our crazy crew. To say that you “forgor” are not an excuse. Now we are tainted by the blemish of your horrible bronze, if I had sensed that you would AWOL the team, I would have had the gall to throw you overboard myself! Lucky for you a certain necromantic rabbit doesn’t exist yet, I would have VIOLATED your character so bad.

Despite it, I still have hope. Mishka brought a board a new crew member…. A cat. It’s quite funny how we drew him shirtless always but he is there and I have high hopes again (foreshadowing).

PRE-ROUND 2

I was told repeatedly that this round usually is the most chill. We are going to Japan, a country that I refuse to live despite my numerous family members urging me to go there. I said to myself “This might be easy depends on who I am about to face!”.

My obstacle? Oh I don’t know…. One of the STRONGEST MEMBERS IN THE CURRENT DOMIANTING TEAM NO BIGGIE. Seriously G, what’s with you putting me against these veteran monsters? Luckily for me again, I was pitted with a lovely theme, Shinto Shrine! While I’m a Christian myself, I have fair amount of knowledge about Shrine culture all thanks to my folks at Gunma and Sapporo!

ROUND 2: SHINTO SHRINE

Dylan and Cassidy

(KISS KISS FALL IN LOVE :D)

I specifically armed myself for this challenging fight by, you guessed it! Consuming lots and lots of shojo anime! Noragami! Kamisama Kiss! Ouran! Heck even From Up on Poppy Hill! But my main inspiration for this round is definitely Kamisama Kiss, I even went as far as making Dylan inherit Tomoe’s powers and become a familiar, something that he already kinda is especially with his old lore. Fortunately, Cassidy is such an easy character as she is a blank slate. Polly, for how he is so mysterious, cool, and quiet, had been a lovely match! I had expressed my openness and they were willing to say what direction their story would be too! Seriously! I was blessed to have Polly despite the certain doom it entails (gee thanks Ardi for scaring me half to death!).

Storywise, I knew I had to write the story again focusing on the shrine being a forgotten thing. It ties well with the Ikigai theming because a forgotten shrine loses its power, identity, and most of all: its sense of self. For those who don’t know: Shrines without a Kami on them become despondent an eventually forgotten regardless if it has a guardian or not. This gives my story its much-needed conflict or struggle that our two heroes must face. Not to mention, while Cassidy is near indestructible… physical wise, I had raised Polly such a pressing question: does she fair well with curses and spiritual attacks? I have assessed Cassidy’s weakness by just observing and analyzing. This gives Dylan an upperhand, being not only a familiar able to wield spirit fire, but also be able to give Cassidy that desperate push I assume she would have while faced with a very unfamiliar situation.

The Kiss was premeditated! It is not a random thing to do, don’t you know how powerful a kiss of a Kami could be! It could cure curses! Aside from the story, I hope everyone saw how I upped my input for this one, especially with the backgrounds. It is super important for me to depict the background as it’s the hard sell I was bargaining for to have a chance to win against a monster artist like Polly! That and the cute little shoujo esque story I had cooked just for all of you!

ROUND 2 AFTERMATH

Woah, what a ride! I deeply loved the Ghibli esque direction Polly did. The way they drew Dylan is so handsome I can’t keep my eyes off him! I was convinced that I was toast, but again, a twist of fate or was it the kiss? I won by a marginal amount again. Even Polly voted for me. I was touched and felt a bit guilty not returning the vote to them too… I guess I won because my story is more straightforward. Not gonna lie, that page limit screwed me over. If I remember correctly, Spar commented on how stiff my paneling and poses look, which I wholeheartedly agree. I blame the limit for that. For context: The Kissing scene? That was meant to be a spread page. But the limit has made me scrunch everything up in a page! But I thought I did a pretty okay job. A lot to improve on but I am more than happy to play more to improve, thank you Spar!

Also fuck you Kimble, Dylan is not a pagan beast you stupid fuck KYS <3

ODYSSEY: FALLEN

At this point, Odyssey is doing below well. I don’t mind losing so I paid no attention to the fact that we are literally tailing behind. Hey, I also made a shiny new poster and some lovely splash art for all of my team, to raise more moral. But it is where at the end of Round 2 the cracks really started to get noticeable.

First, LOVE has dropped out because of moodle college, I don’t mind this, it is a reasonable reason anyway. But what stings is that we are indeed, short of one team member. And what pissed me more is that G literally forgot about this, meanwhile UV got more extra members?! What gives? During Z’s magical draft, we are eligible to get one member, but somehow Quaint being the cold footed DINGODILE that he is got cold feet and failed to join Odyssey! Ojissey is dead! Not to mention, the cat said he will drop out due to college but decided to… stay? Also, I did not forget the most egregiously big elephant ass in the room:

THE WORST TEAMMATE

I’ve been keeping myself from discussing this, NOTHING, of a member but since its all out now, might as well. This member is prolly the worst I had ever had. You mean to tell me you cannot follow simple rules and be an active liability in our team?! I’ll tell here you right here and right now: I was HOPING you would completely DROP OUT so we can get Oji-san in our team. But no! You stuck like an ugly barnacle in the ship and actively made me and Sahx’s life a living seafaring nightmare. You are a nothing player and your crab is one of the HARDEST crabs that I had the complete DISPLEASURE to draw over and OVER again with its overly designed, fap bait, uselessly detailed bitch horse that it is! Oh I had to go through hoops just to give a reason not to draw your useless horsecrap! UGH!

PRE-ROUND 3

And this is where everything went downhill, fast. Ame’s departure had a profound effect on me. For those who are not in the know, Me and Ame already had prepared a wonderful Round 3 for both of us that we are prepared to rig our hitlist just to achieve that. But c’est la vie, she had to go for personal reasons. But the fire still burns and I was recommended to face with another fellow Newgrounder, perhaps the strongest one if given the chance: Gazer.

What can I say? Gazer is a natural, amazing storyteller. Shitpost or not, she has dropped cinema after cinema despite every thing is against her. The only problem was, I had no idea what to do with Tripp! Well… at first, until we actually went to the call and revealed every single lore bit. That made everything clear: Tripp is a secretly tragic character. I was shocked about the plan: it was to kill Tripp in a beautifully tragic hallucination due to an overdose. Again, on the personal side, it was a reflection on how Gazer was doing mentally. Out of respect, I will not divulge to it. With this blueprint, we set to map what I do the best: the greatest redemption arc of this crab.

ROUND 3 – Battle!

Dylan vs Tripp

(Part 1)

I already told every detail me and Gazer did for this crab. I have fully expressed my intent to SAVE Tripp. No dying in the watch of an Ancient Hero. Speaking of Ancient Hero, this is where I revealed just how powerful Dylan is, for comparison, he is one of the crabs that could and can single handedly topple the whole Tredecima gestalt. My regret here is that, G pulled another “God vs Some Ordinary Bloke” with this match. The challenge here is to win without giving a boring landslide win. But the question really is: Would Dylan want that win? No, my intentions here are something different.

I worked on my entry normally, but I had to rewrite it around 4 times. All while still finding time to draw some shitpost (Quirky Soren). Amidst everything, no one knows that my mental is failing.

ODYSSEY: PARADISE LOST

This is the title of my upcoming epilogue comic, a fitting one too. Gotta keep the bittersweet air that I’ve always adored. But this was also the topic of the last poster I made for the team. I’m not gonna lie, I had hope, I had the dream that by some miracle, my team would pull a gold sweep (at least a 5 gold sweep because Im sure as hell Epona wont do shit). What a mistake that was come the first deadline, before the extentions.

2… no shows. We had 2 no shows. What embarrassing showing for us, but especially for me, the team’s hype man. I already voiced my frustration for this so I’ll keep it short. I am honestly beyond pissed and in despair. This made me think that Odyssey was meant to fail all along, all though not true, it seems like it. I would have wished the cat just dropped out to focus on their college. As for BW, I am more concerned. He just up and left without a word. Are they safe? I hope they are.

This is the part where my final rewrite happened. I asked myself: Does my team really deserve Dylan’s gold? Does the team that barely showed me any love back deserve to have Dylan’s victories? Just looking at the stupid horse made me realize that the answer is no. To hell with everything, I’m gonna do something that never corssed my mind: Pull a fast one to my own team. Thankfully, I had just the opponent to give that special gold away.

ROUND 3 – Battle!

Dylan vs Tripp

(Part 2)

This is the worst period of my Crab experience.

I am faced with the tribulation, give up as it doesn’t matter anymore or continue. This ate away at my psyche for a while that I became withdrawn from chatting. Again, my mojo is no where to be seen, people that have been checking up on me started grating to my gears that I almost went off. But I ahd to remind myself: “Do it for the Cinema, Do it for your buddy Tripp”. So I trudged on, march on, soldier on. One by one I noticed that despite the despair, my art had grown tremendously. Panelling action scenes became natural to me, my vision is clear if it ain’t too dark. But what I enjoyed the best is how I drew Ascended Tripp’s design. He looks so, bright, jovial, handsome… a far cry from the stoner dude. I said to myself, this is it…. My ticket to finishing…. My HOPE.

The most prevalent theme of my round 3 is hope, something I have completely lost myself. Seeing Tripp go through a complete wringer… coupled by Gazer’s masterful storytelling, gave me the hope. Gazer did hold the emotional, but I hold the most important part: the payoff. It was beautiful that I legit teared up. The Song of hope, the theme me and Gazer had chosen, permeated in my brain and gave me reprieve. Gazer and Z’s encouragement also gave me the push, what lovely friends those two are. And so, it was complete, the cinema, one that elevates a tragic character to unprecedented levels.

AFTERMATH:

Okay, I wanna apologize for pulling a lie to all of you. It was Gazer’s idea to go for a more emotional and reflective approach. I lied when I said we are basically collabing when we are not. It wasn’t so obvious because our stories are indeed interconnected. In my view the story goes like this:

1. Tripp’s Intro

2. Dylan’s Snippet before the title page

3. Tripp’s Part Where he Realizes he is facing Dylan

4. Dylan and Tripp gun and knife fight all the way to suicide attempt

5. The rest of Gazer’s comic

6. Dylan’s Memento of Wisdom all the way to the End.

You can interpret it however you like, but it is really interconnected. I was pleasantly surprised that Gazer is trouncing me in numbers from the start… up until votes for me started pouring in. Im still glad it is neck to neck, and some people like Ardi, Luigi, Rock, and others had caught on to my intentions. Now for the reason why: I wanted to give Tripp the gold.

Let’s be honest, if there’s someone that suffered a lot in this tournament, Tripp is waaaaay up there. Giving him gold after his redemption arc is such a novel way to cap off his transformation. I might have won but I’d like to think G knew my intentions clear (and not only because he wants a triple tie). It is very in character for Dylan to help others win because his team has no hope left. That’s where the bittersweetness of Dylan’s story lies. It did cap off nicely in the end when it is revealed Brat Pack won.

SUNNY THE DEATH BUNNY

Part of the reason why I was so disappointed with my team is the lack of talking heads and convos. Some are just AWOL, some gave me false hope. Its just me, Frankie, and Mishka who are interacting. We need an extra head to drive more Odyssey lore. That’s when my desire for more conversation and my absolute hatred for no-shows manifested into Death Bunny.

A character meant to troll Z now being used as his own character. I know it annoyed some people but I was pleasantly surprised that people just accepted him as the “Secret Odyssean” and became the boogeyman for no-shows and deserters. He is such a fun character to roleplay with too and he drives a very important part in Odyssey: he became the glue that held together what little team had left because of his innate presence being the “anti no-show”.

I am not kidding when I say Sunny the Death bunny is one of the reasons why I still stay in the crab server, he is fun to write, draw, and larp with. What cathartic feeling I felt when I started drawing Pix and Chammy’s corpses being mangled by this necromantic rodent and now he has domain over the useless bitch horses’ corpse.

DYLAN"S NSFW ESCAPADE

Okay, one of the things I really did not expect is the amount of lewds Dylan received. I know all of you are memeing but is Dylan really that hot? I mean I guess the eyes are perma bedroom eyes and he has a wonderfully built body, but really? Not gonna lie, I might be more flattered than flustered, if I can create hot designs like this, I should make an NSFW account while Im at it!

Other Words:

Frankie-anon:

Despite what negative opinion I have for our team, you were that one ray of hope. I’m glad Frankie survived and I’m glad to be teams with you, I hope you do think Im an invaluably decent team too. Thank you for fully embracing Death Bunny too!

Mishka-anon:

You and Sunny had the perfect dynamic. I hope you acknowledge that LOL.

Z-anon:

What is it that’s not been said yet? You are the BEST!

Tripp-anon:

I’ve said what already needs to be said. I look forward working with you in a collab again <3

Epona-anon:

Fuck off forever, you will know how useful your sorry OCs body is more…. At the hands of the Death Bunny

Mr Pix and Crappy -anon:

Same with Epona.

Ludwig-anon:

Im disappointed, but I can understand. As punishment, I expect more e621 of Ludwig tho.

Cassidy-anon:

You are my idol. I hope I could be as cool as you one day.

Celia-anon:

Despite my love for Celia, Our crabs haven’t really interacted, something I regret. I wish someday we cross paths again in a collab or something.

Lenard-anon:

I strongly believe despite what happened lorewise, Dylan and Lenny are good friends deep inside. Good luck with your endeavors especially in newgrounds, know that you will always have my support.

Dr Stitch-anon:

I don’t know if you haven’t noticed during round 3 but I almost snapped at you and even Cyrus. My apologies, I’ll be cheering for you in crab 4

Kalinka-anon:

Shiny Hunt

Ame:

I miss you, someday I know you will be back and I will have that cinema we have been planning.

FINAL WORDS:

Man, reflecting upon this while I was IV dripped in the hospital gave me lots of things to think. In the end, I did enjoy my time in Crab 3. Seeing the influence, I had with my crab was exhilarating! Although Im not gonna lie it still left a bitter and shameful taste in my mouth that my team is the worst by technicality. I wished I had better teammates, I wish that I had the absolute power to just kick out undesirable people. I wish I had used Death bunny to replace someone instead of relying on another crab to replace a dropout. So many regrets that I am not sure if I want to repeat again. Knowing how crab works, I would prolly be put in another shit team, I can say this now that if I’m put in another Odyssey team, I would spare no souls in humiliating my own team, that is if I return. All I can say is, its not impossible if I return, there’s plenty of time to think about that. Mayhaps I would surprise everyone with a character comic absolutely destroying Florida Man. It’s been fun and frustrating, but I’ll at least stick around. Hope you guys love the icons I drew for all of you (not all of you deserved it tho lol)