Posted 1 year, 5 months ago
(Edited 2 months, 20 days ago)
by
bulgariansumo
Hello, I'm Bulgariansumo! I'm in the process of writing and illustrating for two stories that have been bouncing around in my head for 9 years or so. It's honest work, but I do need to promote if I want anyone else to see them. The most natural way to do this for me is to do an advertisement, update, and commentary thread. There'll also be memes here too.
My writing PG for the most part, so most general content warnings don't apply except for emotional abuse here and there. I'll tag that if it comes up and any ones readers want me to. Just hit me up with what you need me to tag, and I'll do so.
Without further ado, here's my stories!
What to Expect
Bad press calls for desperate measures. For the Interstellar Forces, sending a small crew to Neptune was the bet they were willing to make - at the risk of losing the little respect they have left (and maybe some lives).
A roll of dice and a lack of options led to the selection of the Celestion-5’s crew, a collection of inexperienced astronauts ranging from space-loving dreamers to cynics only in it for the money.
It’s them against the universe, and their odds are a gamble at best. Learning how to live together can only help. Though with the crew’s pervasive personal problems, that might be the real journey.
That's the official synopsis. A more casual description of the vibe I'm trying to go for with this is something like All Saints Street or Bugsnax if you're familiar with those. Something that's overall lighthearted, but the more you go on, the more you realize these characters have issues they need to work out. That plus government incompetence. In space!
Episodes - The covers are clickable!
Arc 1: Moon (13/14 Episodes Completed)
Current Episode: Adventures in Spacepunk (3/22 chapters complete)
Reviews - Here's what strangers have to say about it!*
"It truly is a little slice of heaven (space maybe?). For those of you that have comfort shows that you find yourself returning to over and over again, Galactiquest has a similar vibe. [...] If you’re looking for something that has heart, a chill vibe, and is ready to throw a great cast into ridiculous situations, give it a read!" -- [x]
"Take Galactiquest as a saturday morning cartoon. It's not perfect but the characters are funny and everything feels relaxing and comfy. Some parts are really worth the follow." -- [x]
"This kind of story isn't usually in my wheelhouse, I admit, but I find it's nice to slow down every once in a while and take in the scenery. That's what Galactiquestdoes: it follows some very lovable characters as they begin their intrepid voyage into space." -- [x]
"I was absolutely invested and in love with your characters, plot, story, and artwork. It made it less of a book and more of an experience. [...] This is a story that I want to reach millions of reads and votes and everything!" -- (This one's a DM, so I can't really link it, but it really makes me smile.)
Not into sci-fi? No problem! I have another series set in this universe's version of the 80s. It's about a boyband fighting for the little bit of clout they can get in the island where they live.
And here's where I'd put my official Hinimato stories... if I had any! But do be looking out for it. I should start working on it as soon as I get done with The Confession.
If you want to support my stories on other websites, I post on Wattpad, Royal Road, and Tapas. Stop by and say hi!
I finally finished all of the illustrations for Bon Voyage, Celestion-5. I should've made them years ago, but I'm glad I didn't, because they wouldn't have turned out so good. Here's some of my favorites, not counting the character intros.
I honestly didn't know what I was doing with the mirror effect, but I like how the sun glare came out.
RIP Mia. I like how Emil's grimace came out. He wasn't originally supposed to be in this picture.
Emil don't do that!! This entire scene is so funny to me. Image going into your first day at work, and your boss nearly sets himself on fire. I'm glad I thought to give everyone else chibi proportions and faces and also having Emil and the rest at opposing angles.
I just love the colors here...
I didn't have to draw Leon's entire body for this, but I did. I had fun selecting his lineart and color layers and just moving him around.
Bon Voyage, Celestion-5 has been officially prettied up!! I think I took out all of the typos, and I added a little extra dialogue in the final chapter. There's a little more more tweaking I could do, but I think it's about as good as it's gonna get. Editing across the four different sites I posted to + my original copy was a bit of a pain. Hopefully, it's a compelling start!
I also added some more dialogue to the final chapter of Life in Orbit to foreshadow stuff in a later episode.
It's probably silly, but I was a little worried that Aiden's coming out as nonbinary would seem out of nowhere for some readers. So in Life in Orbit, I added a conversation where Aiden voices some frustrations with gender. I also thought it would be a good time to reference that he didn't really 'get it' when Jun first came out to him but has sense had a change of heart.
Aiden never really understood why gender mattered to people so much. However, it never really impacted his life that much since he was never hindered from doing things he wanted to because of his perceived gender and personality combination.
Aiden prides himself on knowing his enemy, so to speak. He likes knowing how unfair things are so he can fight against them to the point where he can barely imagine his ideal world, but that's for a different analysis.
The fact that Jun is the one that ends up putting into perspective how gender stereotypes are used to manipulate people is a huge blow to Aiden's ego in regards to that. But it also puts words to some of the feelings he's had over the years, and that he doesn't really care about having a gender.
Follow for more unsolicited analyses of my OCs' relationship to gender.
Chapter 3 of The Confession is officially up! Here's the pictures for it. This episode's a little heavier than usual, so it was nice to work on a more lighthearted chapter like this one. There's still some character-important stuff and hinting around here, though.
Just for fun, here's a full view of Lorenzo's camera panel. I've been wanting to draw it for a long time. Luckily, there's exactly 16 rooms on the ship (not counting the ones that wouldn't have cameras like the captains' bathroom.)
Row 1: Captains' Quarters, Observation Dock, Meeting Room, Air Lock/Stairway
Row 2: Gym, Generator Room, Storage Room, Kitchen
Row 3: Hallway, Room 1, Room 2, Infirmary
Row 4: Bathroom 1, Bathroom 2, Incinerator Room, Loading Dock (I just found out that it's supposed to be called a dock and not a deck)
As you might notice, there's a few things hidden from view by the characters. You can see Leon slouched on his bed while talking to Aiden, and Mia reading her book in the next room over. You can also see the kitchen table (which I'm glad is hidden,) but Roxie is sitting there. Jun was also supposed to be there beside her, and I did draw their hair, but I guess I hit undo to do something else and never went back to re-add it. There's also the mail ship in the loading dock. I don't really know what it's supposed to look like other than sort of round. Most of these rooms, I've drawn before. I think the infirmary and Mia/Roxie/Jun's room are the only ones I've never fully drawn.
According to Hemingway, the entirety of Galactiquest is at about a 2nd grade reading level. Easy reading!
I should probably mention that in creative writing, it's generally good to have it be a grade school reading level. How often do most people read college-level academic papers for fun?
I'm like 3 months late, but it's so weird that Leon is canonically 19 at this point. He's spent like 9-ish years being 18 in my heart. They grow up so slow fast.
I found a bunch of tumblr posts to go with Galactiquest characters today. I also found out that the Toyhouse image captioner is a lot shorter than I thought, so I'm going to transcribe them outside if that's cool. Captions are under the spoiler.
[Image 1: Post by tumblr user storm-of-feathers that says "oh teehee I'm in a silly goofy mood (I am hanging on by a f-cking thread)". A picture of Emil winking is beside it.]
[Image 2: Post by tumblr user noorskitchen that says "Everybody doesn't deserve to see your personality. Let them think you dry. Who cares?" Beside it is a picture of an annoyed-looking Mia.]
[Image 3: Posts by tumblr user sawasawako. The first one says "characters who have an unwavering sense of duty my beloved." The second says "stop stop it's going to turn into a flaw!"]
[Image 4 and 5: Two edits of a post by tumblr user discotec. It is an image of a person standing alone at a party captioned "me perpetually failing to connect with the people around me." In one edit, Lorenzo's face is pasted over the person's head, and in the other edit, it is Mia.]
[Image 6: Post by tumblr user segamascot of a gauge captioned ":3 Level Today." The sections of the gauge are labeled from Low-Moderate to Catastrophic, with the dial being on Catastrophic. Pictures of Roxie doing the :3 face are pasted around it.]
[Image 7: Post by tumblr user 970317980622 that says "'Woaah look at the moon' Me literally every night no matter what phase the moon is." A picture of Leon looking up in surprise is beside it.]
[Image 8: Post by tumblr user androgyne-angel that says "y'all ever think about planets?? stars?? they're out there being big RIGHT NOW" A picture of Leon smiling with his eyes sparkling is beside it.]
[Image 9: Exchange between two tumblr users. User random-ferret says "I read that capsaicin makes your mouth feel like it's burning because it increases your nerve sensitivity to heat, and menthol works by doing the same thing to cold. So if I eat a habenero pepper and then chew a bunch of breath mints they'll each other out and I'll be fine" A picture of a smiling Emil is beside it. The next post from random-ferret says "Hey guess what hellfire tastes like" It is accompanied by a picture of a frazzled Emil. A response from tumblr user nudibranchparty says "Fun fact! The nerve endings for "ouch too hot" and "ouch too cold" are different! Which means that they can both be activated at once, without cancelling out. Rip OP. Next to it is a picture of Roxie in her doctor's uniform.]
I made this picture for a banner contest on Tapas! ...What? No, I didn't make it while the contest was still active. But I made it! Maybe I'll find some use for this.
Also, here's a retro-fied version for fun! I made it using this tutorial!
Okay, so yesterday, I compiled all of my voice claims for the Galactiquest into a little video, a little slideshow, if you will. And now I get to share it here! Some characters' voices come off better through singing (+that's just usually how I find character voices anyway) so I also included snippets of songs along with the talking samples. Unfortunately, some of the talking samples get cut short because of this. I didn't want the video to be too long. Characters are ordered by appearance in the story.
Voice Claims w/ Singing!
BUT. I also made a video with just the talking samples, where they don't get cut short. I should've made the title text a little different, but meh. Warning, this doesn't have the 5 second buffer between Aiden and the spoiler, but honestly, if you've taken one look at my TH page, you've stumbled across it already, so no worries.
Voice Claims w/o Singing
Down below, I’m gonna ramble and link songs used.
--
Leon (Carlos Toshiki)
Role Used: Carlos as himself? This was from a skit from the opening of a music video. It wasn’t hard for me to find clips of him speaking, but the way he normally talks is too subdued for Leon. This is the closest I could get to him being more animated. I went out of my way to find fitting voice actors for some of the others, but Carlos’s voice has kind of an airy boyishness that’s perfect for Leon.
Role Used: N/A, this is just his voice. It has a pretty boy quality, but it can also have a masculine edge to it (more apparent in the song choice.) I find that perfect for Emil! Very versatile. I’ve always really liked it.
Song Used: 斬光 / Zankou. This is one of the only two songs I could find for this guy, and the only one that sounded close to the speaking voice I used. Prior to deciding on Inada, I almost settled for voice-claiming SquaDus as both Lorenzo and Emil. Inada’s voice in this song reminds me of SquaDus’s in another one, which vindicates me giving Emil the trait of being able to mimic Lorenzo scarily accurately.
–
Mia (Saori Hayami)
Role Used: Yukino Yukinoshita from My Youth Romantic Comedy Is Wrong As I Expected. Fun fact, it’s actually the scene from this gif. It always reminds me of the one tumblr post where the joke is that she’s looking at a crab with a knife. I’d have linked that post instead, but I couldn’t find it.
It was kind of a struggle finding a voice for Mia that was airy, not too high-pitched, and used in roles of more downbeat, guarded characters. This nails all three! It’s also very pretty; I imagine other characters finding Mia’s voice inordinately pleasant, so that’s a plus.
Song Used: AWAKE. I just found out that this was from RWBY.
–
Roxie (Aya Hirano)
Role Used: Haruhi Suzumiya from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. I was first exposed to anime around the time The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Lucky Star were both really popular, with Aya Hirano playing lead roles for both. In my mind, her voice is cemented as the quintessential anime girl voice. It helps that both of the characters mentioned fall perfectly in line with Roxie’s hyperactive, unabashed nerd personality. Monari Wakita was my other choice for Roxie’s voice, but she’s not a voice actor, so it’s hard to find her talking and even harder to find her talking with the energy of Roxie.
Role Used: Pharah from Overwatch. It was hard picking a role for this because Romi Park normally voices either hotheaded/edgy boys or mature women, neither of which fully suit Jun’s personality. I do imagine Jun’s voice can sound more like Park’s take on Pharah when they get serious.
Song Used: ナンセンス文学 / Nonsense Bungaku cover. This is a duet, which is why there’s an awkward cut in the video. I couldn’t find a song of Romi Park’s that uses a voice that would fit Jun, but my years listening to utaite led me to 96Neko, whose voice can get equally as deep and androgynous-sounding.
–
Aiden (Junichi Suwabe)
Role Used: Daiki Aomine from Kuroko no Basket. He sounds just tired and annoyed enough for Aiden, with a nice, gruff voice, too!
Song Used: Self-Righteous. I can barely imagine Aiden singing, but the rest of this song actually sounds pretty fitting for him! It took quite a while to find it, though. Junichi Suwabe has a bunch of roles under his belt and a wide range of voices. I’m kinda impressed at how different he can sound!
–
Angelo (vipTenchou)
Role Used: N/A, though I think he’s reading a character’s lines from a horror game. I’m too lazy and not fluent in Japanese to go back and check. His voice has a shakiness to it that’s fitting for Angelo and androgynous in a higher-pitched way. I’ve only been able to find that trembly quality in Megumi Hayashibara, but she doesn’t voice boys that often, and the ones she does aren’t too close to Angelo’s personality.
--GALACTIQUEST NEW CHAPTER ANNOUNCEMENT-- (I figure I should differentiate these from my random posts)
Chapter 4 of The Confession is (finally) complete! I swear, the more chapters I complete of this story, the more ends up being added. But I'm having fun. The next one should be a real hoot to write, and short, too! I literally came up with the idea for it last week. Anyway, here's the illustrations.
Chapter 5 of The Confession is complete! I finished writing it from start to finish last night. It's a short one. The next two should be longer, though. If anything, the illustration was the hardest part.
I thought of a much better title for the most recent chapter, so I changed it + added a couple lines to tie it together. Fun fact: The original title, Boy in the Box, was based off of the Toshiki Kadomatsu song, Girl in the Box. It's way different from the vibe of the chapter, and I'm pretty sure it's talking about a go-go dancer (which is definitely not what's going on in the story), but it's a jam. You should check it out.
