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pyjamaart · 2 months

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A looming presence... (A piece of fan art for Episode 11 of the Christmas Comeback Crisis)

Read more for an essay on all the memes and references ;)

So here it is. Finally. Only one month too late: This piece of CCC fan art I've worked on since the episode came out.

Sorry for the delay, but I just started at my new job this week and it's been a little stressful, so I didn't have much time to work on this. But now it's finally here!!! I gotta say, the hardest part by far was the background, lol. I didn't mean for it to escalate that much. At the end I was honestly running out of memes to draw.

I bet we can all agree that episode 11 of the Christmas Comeback Crisis was so worth the wait, right???? My god. Peak entertainment. I still can't believe I'm getting all this awesome lore and music for free, feels kinda criminal.

I'm so invested in this story, it's unreal. I can't wait to see how it will end. I can already tell it's gonna be pretty emotional. (And not to alarm anyone, but I have a slight feeling that the Voice is not gonna make it out of this story arc alive. I mean, after everything he's done, it's safe to say that he kinda deserves it. Of course I really don't want him to die, cause that would mean…….. Woodman would also have to die??? Otherwise the Voice will just keep coming back again and again because Woodman is keeping his memory alive…….. Oh man wait a moment….. I don't even want to think about that. Forget I said anything about this.)

Anyway, let's talk about this piece of art for a moment.

In the foreground, we have our brave protagonists. I really really like how Nozomi turned out, so I decided to make her my new icon from now on. Don't get me wrong, I love my old icon, but it's kinda zoomed out and you can't really make out any details when it's really small. So Nozomi it is. Meta Knights sword was shockingly difficult to draw, especially because I had to figure out how to draw it when he's holding it at an angle like that. Otherwise, drawing him was actually one of the easiest things about this whole thing. His design is really just two circles with some arms and armor. Figuring out how the circle tool in Gimp works has never felt this good. (Kinda crazy I can just draw him like this now, considering how obsessed with him I was when I was about 12-13 years old. Back then you had to download official renders of your favorite characters onto your computer, then print them out and hang them on your walls all around your room. Yeah I've always been like this.) Drawing Santa was really fun too, just his right hand was a little difficult. But that's just because I still can't draw hands in general. Maybe I should practice drawing hands more. (Naaaaaah I'm just kidding, I'll never do that.) Now that I'm looking at him again, he's also longingly staring at President Haltmann in the background. Doomed yaoi fr.

Speaking of the background, let's talk about that next. There's obviously the title-giving "looming presence" the Voice. I had his hands completely in the background at first, but I thought it looked cooler when they were hanging threateningly around Santa's shoulders. (You may ask yourself, 'man these hands look kinda alright for my usual hand drawing standards', and that is because I traced over pictures of my own hands. I love "cheating" at art.) I also gave him his stupid little bow tie and the colored buttons on his suit sleeves. Not only is that kinda my trademark for drawing him at this point, it's also supposed to show, that under all the threats and the evil villain persona, he's just kind of a loser. A real (male equivalent of a) girlfailure. That's why I made sure that half of the things shown in the background are there to make fun of him a little. I love the Voice dearly, but that's just what felt right.

And now let's get to the actual main course of this essay. I probably spent half the time working on this on the freaking background. I'm just gonna start in the top left corner and then go down each column and explain what each of these mean or what they reference. (Since there are some quite obscure ones in there.)

Let's start with the two ponies in the very top left. They're actually ponysonas of Nozomi Tojo (left) and Takane Shijou (right). Nozomi is an earth pony and has a tarot card as her cutie mark, specifically the ace of cups. Takane on the other hand is a unicorn and has some musical notes as her cutie mark, which you can't really see. I don't know enough about the Idolmaster to think of something more meaningful for her, sorry. ;)

Under that are Susie Haltmann and her father, President Haltmann. They were (after Woodman) the first characters I wanted to draw into the background. Susie has this black bar covering her face, since she was never really there to begin with. The whole story line with her father wanting to bring her back was actually so freaking sad. And when the Voice killed him in episode 11 and that image of Susie flashed on screen as the last thing he saw before he died….. Oof……… That's also why I drew that cursor looming next to her "window" about to click on the closing button. Haltmann himself is also the only character in the background to actually leave his little window, wanting to reach his daughter. He's also glaring at the Voice for causing him all of this grief and anger in the first place with his false promises.

Then there's…. ahem, "Hot robots in your area". With drawings of a random unnamed robot and Mettaton from Undertale. Which the Voice has apparently bookmarked. This is just a head canon, but I like to think he has a thing for robots, lol. ;)

Oh and on the left next to that on the very first column is Simpleflips' logo. Shoutouts to Simpleflips indeed.

Onto the next column. At the very top is Haruka Amami (also from the Idolmaster), who played a pretty huge role in the CCC, especially in the latest episode. That moment at the very end where she saved Grand Dad from certain death was just fantastic. Absolutely goated scene. She's kinda pressing her face against the window she's trapped in. I hope you can even see that from far away, haha.

Under that is one of the more obscure references. It's from a King for Another Day video, specifically one titled "The Hobart Hootenanny - SiIvaGunner: King for Another Day". It's a slideshow made of beautiful Hobart pictures. One that struck me personally the most was a little family picture of Hobart and the rapper Eminem, who was also a contestant in the KfAD tournament, looking lovingly over their son sitting in a cradle. Eminem is seen saying "Our son is beutiful". A truly touching photograph indeed. In that same slideshow is also another scene of Hobart together with the Voice, but we'll talk about that one later.

The next one is a reference to the CCC side story "I wanna thank me" and shows a pie chart with the election results that were discussed in that episode. Under the pie chart itself is a little box containing all the different parties and showing their respective percentages. On the left is a poster for the "Poké Poké Literature Party", showing Monika's head with the words "Just vote Monika" at the top of the poster. The words (and Misha.) are scribbled on the bottom, lest we forget that she's not running this party alone. This side story was first featured in the Christmas Comeback Crisis Watchalong in 2020, which was actually the first time I watched the CCC in its entirety. It all went downhill from there. ;)

Then there's the Voice's… thing? Object? Weird apparatus where no one really knows what it does or what its purpose is? Every time we see the Voice sitting in his office, this thing is sitting on his desk right next to him. There's been loads of jokes about its purpose. They've all been made before. I'm not going to repeat them. Only the Voice himself truly knows what this thing does. Probably. Could just be a decorative piece of art.

Then we have something veeeery self indulgent on the next column. It's Aquaman from Megaman 8 (With a not so subtle skull right next to him). You should all know by now that I'm the founding father of the Aquawood ship. And I also have the head canon that Woodman and the Voice are very divorced. Interpret into this whatever you want.

Next to Aquaman is the internets' favorite panel from the web comic Tails Gets Trolled. I fucking love that comic. If you haven't read it in its entirety, I highly recommend doing it. (Though be warned that it contains some pretty heavy topics, many many slurs and a plethora of gore.) Okay, maybe I don't recommend reading it. (Just read it with all of that in mind.)

Under that is a personal favorite joke of mine. It's supposed to be Spotify, with a playlist open that I created some time ago. I called it "Die Pizza Playlist" (Remember that die in German is just "the") which I always listen to when I'm baking my own pizza. Highlights include "Pizza" by Antilopen Gang, "Pizza Heroes" by Lemon Demon (You can actually see the album art for Spirit Phone on the left of the playlist.), "Pizza Pizza Pizza" from the Ratatouille musical and so on and so on. The first song in the playlist is obviously "We like pizza" by the Pizza kids, which is even playing in the image. On the side are two more music artists, at the bottom is the image for the Veggie Tales soundtrack, which also featured a song called "Pizza Angel". And over that is Mitski. I just feel like the Voice would listen to her music. Do not question me on this.

The audience laughs at the funny 7.

On the Voice's left shoulder sits a single green bean. It's flashing you a cheeky grin and a peace sign. While I didn't intend for this to happen, I accidentally referenced my own Woodman birthday gallery art from two years ago, where the bean also sits atop the Voice's shoulder. I know that next to "Yankin'", the bean is one of the most hated memes on SiIva, but I think he's just a silly little guy! :D

Let's head on over to the next column. Seems like the Voice has an incoming call from one of his guards, but he's ignoring it as he has more important things to do, like hovering intimidatingly over Santa Claus.

Next to that window on the right are the Voice's messages. I almost wrote "messanges". That would have been embarrassing, thank god I caught that in time. This is also (yet again) a little self indulgent, since the Voice apparently has the last message he sent Woodman pinned to the very top of his messenger app. His big triangular head is blocking most of it, but since I'm the artist, I can tell you exactly what it says: "Please call me back", which was sent on February 1st 2023, the day "The Disappearance of Woodman" was released. Yeah, I'm still very upset, how could you tell? :( Under that is a message to his trusty pizza guy asking for a pizza with extra cheese.

Next we have two of my favorite memes on the SiIvagunner channel (My absolute favorite being "Funny budots", since I never wrote that down anywhere.), one being Frisk Undertale becoming uncanny and the other one being the goat. I don't really know how to describe the goat, but apparently it was crafted by the same artist who made the stoned fox that's also very popular online?? I may just be stupid, but I didn't know about that until I looked up a reference for the goat. Since it often appears alongside Undertale and Deltarune, many have made the assumption that this is what Asriel would look like in real life. That's why Flowey is there next to it with an equal sign. Whoever drew up that calculation wasn't really sure of their work, which is why they drew a question mark right next to it. Between Frisk and the goat is a little Soul, also from Undertale/Deltarune.

Onto the next column, where I'm dropping very subtle hints that a specific character in this image might like pizza. Or might even be a little obsessed with it. On the left is a list with the contact details of three well known pizza chains, on the very top is Sonic the Hedgehog who just recently became a brand ambassador for Totino's and on the bottom right of this section is a flyer for some kind of pizza sale.

The next window contains my favorite joke of any rip on the entire SiIvaGunner Youtube Channel. "Peepoona 5. Let us shart the pants." Just typing this out is making me die of laughter yet again. (The rip in question is "Our Beginning - Persona 5".) But as you all know, I am very into toilet humor. That's why Aquaman is one of my favorite robot masters. And why I'm such a big fan of Youtube Poop. And why I watch Minion fart gun religiously. But enough of that, you get what I'm trying to say. I love funny poop jokes. That's why this is here.

Oh man. This next one is why I wanted to write this very detailed essay in the first place. A reference so obscure, even I can't find its origin anymore. And believe me, I tried. Thankfully, I took a screenshot of the original comment thread this was based on. A user called "The New Guy" commented on a SiIvaGunner rip, something along the lines about how much they enjoyed this specific rip. At the time, the comment had 920 likes, so I'm guessing it must have been a pretty popular video. (The comment should also be about 4 years old now?) Anyway, under that comment, someone asks them what their profile picture was from. They simply answered "wagon", since that was exactly what their profile picture showed. Someone on the SiIvaGunner team must have found this exchange so funny that they commented "wagon" as well. And that's the origin of this joke. If anyone knows which rip this is from pleeeeaaaase tell me. I need to know.

I don't think I need to explain who the next guy is. Just the love of my life. I specifically drew Woodman in his getup from the Nuclear Winter Festival, since that was the last time he appeared on the channel. He's looking kinda concerned in the general direction of the viewer, for obvious reasons. And right under him is his trademarked >:] emoji.

And last but certainly not least, the final column! Now I finally get to talk about this other scene from the Hobart Hootenanny. It shows Hobart and the Voice having a romantic stroll at a beautiful beach, while the sun is slowly setting in the background, making the water shimmer with its breathtaking colors. Okay, the last thing didn't really happen, since it's a shitty MS Paint drawing, but I like to imagine it did. Maybe I should draw a remake of this image one day. Now I'd like to quote the video in question: "A man and Hobart were walking together on the beach. He looked back and saw that in his times of sadness and need, there was only one set of footprints. He asked Hobart why he would leave him in his time of most need. Hobart simply turned to the man and said, VVVVVRRRRR SRRRRR RRRRGGGHHHH--" (Thank you SiIva Wiki for the transcription.) Now I don't think I need to explain why I drew Hobart in a bikini top and fishnets. The question answers itself.

The next image is actually quite easy to explain. It's mm5charge and smol Maki. In another universe, Chargeman and Maki might have been integral to the SiIvaGunner lore. This specific image is just stolen from my piece of fan art called "Megaman 5 Brainrot (featuring Acidman)", which I posted in 2022. I still head canon that Megaman and Love Live take place in the same universe. Just because I think it's funny. And because I want to see funny robot masters interact with the girlies from Love Live. How do I explain this? It's like…. balancing out the world? The robot masters are almost all male (with a few exceptions) and the characters shown in Love Live are all female. How would Thanos say? "Perfectly balanced, as all things should be." Don't question my cool head canons, okay?

After that we have a poster featuring the Jazz Cats! I really really love the little animations that showed their backstory when KfAD2 first came out. I don't know if it's okay for me to say this, but I also really really enjoy the song "But Not You" written (in universe) by Doge and Naxx. The text is veeeeeeery questionable, but man, does it sound good regardless… And shoutouts to wolfman1405 for the heavenly vocals.

On the right of that is a missing poster for Wade L.D.. Nothing much to explain here I guess.

Left of that is the Voices shopping list, which lists flour, oil, yeast… Wait a minute…. All of these are ingredients for pizza dough! Guys, I'm beginning to think that this guy might like pizza.

On the very bottom of this column is Mario 7 Grand Dad himself, who has his hostile gaze directed at the Voice. I would be pissed off too if someone kept me locked in a glass tube for 7 years.

The last little window just shows the Vineshroom with the words "fecal funny" written under it.

And with that, it is done. The entire background thoroughly explained. (I may have gone a little overboard this time.)

It's been a while since I posted new art, huh? In the meantime, a lot has happened. As I said before, I started a new job, got a tattoo of Woodman on my leg (best idea I've ever had btw) and I also started watching MLP, which explains the Love Live / Idolmaster ponysonas, lol.

And that's all I wanted to say. I hope that the next piece of art isn't that far off. Jenny out. (I think this might have been the longest essay I've ever written here. I'm so sorry. By which I mean, I'm not sorry at all. I'm not forcing anyone to read this.)

#welp im one month too late #but better late than never #i put my giant ass essay under the read more this time #open with caution its extremely fucking long because i got a little carried away #siivagunner #the voice inside your head #santa claus #nozomi tojo #smol nozomi #meta knight #president haltmann #susie haltmann #thats it im not tagging all of these guys #christmas comeback crisis #if you saw this posted to the wrong blog no you didnt #jumpscaring kirby fans with siivagunner art is my favorite hobby

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tunastime · 1 year

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Let’s Talk About Feelings

(1316 words)

The first thing that Etho finds out is that day and night pass too quickly.

Etho has never been a man running out of time. To his left, currently sharpening the back edge of his diamond axe, is a man who has. Right now, for Etho, the passage of time is not only a visual sensation, it’s a physical one. He feels it in the way his body tires, the way he moves, the way everything takes less time than he’s expecting. Even sitting here, the dull da-dump of his heart is enough to mark the seconds of his life passing. He drinks from his canteen. He swallows. He loops his pickaxe over his head, the weight settling on his back, and stands. Tango’s eyes flick up to him. He doesn’t look as tired as Etho feels.

There is no downtime. There is only time wasted.

“Ready, T?” Etho asks. Tango smiles, a mouth full of sharp teeth, and nods.

“Sure, E,” he says, standing with a sway. “Let’s do it.”

It’s a quick trip down into the mine from the top of the base. The two part system works surprisingly well—there’s a modest looking home on top, ugly, as per usual, and the real stuff happens below. Wheat, sugarcane, two cows, at long last, and the mineshaft down to pools of lava and dark, cool tunnels. Tango follows beside Etho down the two-wide staircase, humming to himself.

“I can’t believe it took us that long to get two cows,” Tango grumbles, glancing back up the staircase. Etho huffs, trying to laugh, but finds that his tiredness just sort of pushes the air from his lungs, rather than do anything important. “Our ranchin’ skills have plummeted, man.”

Etho hums, shaking his head. He can feel a soft heat radiating out from Tango’s shoulder every time it brushes his.

“That’s too bad,” he starts. “Thought we had a rancher on our hands.”

Tango laughs, though it peters into something a little hollow.

“Mm, I wish. Wasn’t me, though. ‘M notorious for gettin’ things killed, you know that.”

Etho knows Tango well enough to place the validity of his sentence. Not even just here, either. Wardens to cows, mob farms to personal, accidental deaths. Etho laughs, finally warbling out a complete one, until Tango knocks into his shoulder. He shoves back. They rebound back and forth for several steps, until Etho nearly loses his footing and Tango clamps a hand around his wrist. He doesn’t let go, though, and Etho drags him along. They stand together at the landing for a moment, a handful of tunnels branching off from the sides. Etho glances down one, tilting his head in the direction of the torchlight. Tango nods. There’s a cave further down that opens up into a ravine, one Etho knows more diamonds have to be in. He can feel it, like an itch under his skin.

Tango’s sentence says something he doesn’t voice out loud, though. Etho tugs on his arm. Tango makes a questioning noise.

“You doin’ alright? Not seein’ him?”

Tango furrows his eyebrows. His features are obscured, half by lack of light, and half as the torchlight warps when they step into the next room, and the cave walls open up. Tango waves the torch around, passing it off to Etho.

“Yeah,” Tango starts. “‘S fine. Hate that Joel’s rubbin’ off on him, but…glad he has someone.”

“Mm,” Etho agrees. “Last time I checked it was Joel and Grian.”

Tango squawks.

“Ugh! I just—oh, no…”

Etho frowns a little as they stand in the center of the room.

“What d’you mean, “oh no”?”

“You threatened to kill Joel! I can’t not back you on that.”

“You’re gonna stick yourself in another messy situation, T,” Etho says. He climbs down the lip of another crevasse, sliding part of the way. He offers his hand to Tango, who worms down, bumping into him.

“‘M gonna try not to,” Tango grumbles. Etho can see his tail flicking back and forth. “‘S long as you don’t do somethin’ stupid.”

“Hey, no promises, man.” Etho doffs his pickaxe, placing the torch in the center of the room. Here, it lights up the space, stretching outward with a yellow halo. The places it can’t reach go grey with dark. He turns a slow circle as Tango tracks the ceiling. Nothing yet.

“Speakin’ of people,” Tango starts. Etho feels his limbs go cold, a static electricity pooling in the pit of his stomach.

“Mm…” he starts, but Tango beats him to the punch.

“You talked to him any more?”

Etho shakes his head.

“No, no, I haven’t. There’s not really a point, I think.”

“I mean, you two were partners…” Tango continues. Etho shakes his head.

“We shouldn’t be partners in things like these, it always goes south.”

Tango shrugs.

“Suppose so…” he agrees. Something about his tone suggests that he doesn’t really agree, but he’s giving Etho the chance to explain if he wants to, and the space to stay quiet if it’s more than he’d be willing to share. Etho worries the inside of his cheek. Then, he takes a swing with his pickaxe and breaks into the rockface.

Between the clunk of the pickaxe and the shnk of his armor as he swings, he hears Tango start in the opposite direction, tossing a question over his shoulder.

“You don’t miss him?”

Etho’s stomach folds over itself. Part of him begs to turn and ask his friend what he could possibly mean by that, what it could imply, but the words seem sad. They seem expectant on something. On Etho, maybe, to refute the claim, to prove to Tango that he does, to give Tango the peace of mind, maybe. Maybe Tango’s scared, Etho thinks, of the possibility that Bdubs comes back with vengeance, rather than anything else. Were they not all indirectly both advocates and victims of Bdubs’ death? He realizes, after a moment, that he’s been leaning on his pickaxe, staring at a chunk of iron in the ground. He drops to his knees after a moment, prying the block up.

“Etho?” Tango asks.

Oh. Etho hadn’t said anything, had he?

“No,” Etho says. “Let’s keep digging.”

He thinks he hears Tango sigh. It doesn’t sound frustrated. It just sounds tired.

“Sure thing, E,” Tango says. Etho swings his pickaxe into the rock and watches it crumble at his feet. He isn’t thinking about a night in the middle of nowhere around a soup pot. A night in a fort half built cradling cups in his hands. A life forked over by the man behind him that wasn’t Etho’s to negotiate. A night outside of a base that isn’t is, calling Bdubs’ name like he was forbidden to step inside. A clock in Bdubs’ hands he never made. A happy marriage Etho wasn’t part of.

Part of him thought going home would fix it. It didn’t. He still never saw him. They were better, they weren’t leaving, but there was still a distance. And it doesn’t matter—clearly, it doesn’t, because otherwise Etho would be lamenting about a man who can’t love him in a dangerous place because he has to keep every feeling for himself just in case they get used against him. He can’t even be mad. It’s a trait Bdubs picked up from him.

He isn’t thinking about that, though. He’s thinking about a fireplace in a basement. And he’s thinking about dinner and tea in a half-built base in the jungle. And he’s thinking about a color palette getting commented on. And he’s thinking about anything but the idea that he might just have to kill him this time. He doesn’t have much of a choice, does he?

“I think I found diamond,” Etho says. His voice echoes until Tango hums.

“None for me, yet.”

Etho keeps digging.

There’s no room to talk about feelings.

#limited life smp #limlsmp #limited life fic #limited life spoilers #tangotek #ethoslab #BEAR WITH ME AS I POST TO THE WRONG BLOG BECAUSE I FORGET TO CHANGE TO SIDEBLOG WTF #anyway limited life friday yippeeee (< weakly)#i cannot believe i just did that #if you just saw this no you didnt #anyway etho and tango should just talk i think!!#and no do not speak to me about their episodes im not well #it's fine dw about it sdjkfhksdjfh #been thinking a lot about the day night cycle though... hmmmmmmm #since it is 24 hours. anyway just a thought!!#ethubs is next heehhehehehe #as it should be.. i mean. monolith you already know

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