Haven't had the time to do much art lately, but if you still like the Modern AU, you might be interested in the New LoreTM that we came up with on the Discord Server on Thursday!
Scroll down to the bottom of the document to see my Cliff's Notes on the saga of the R.I.N.G. drug, the resulting cop drama, and a modern version of the Scouring of the Shire!
GRILL DAD BEREGOND GRILL DAD BEREGOND GRILL DAD BEREGOND!!
If the hobbits are the Technical Difficulties, then Frodo and Sam have a Matt and Tom-style Park Bench show! And at some point, they’ll have to make a Park Bench Public Apology.
An approximation of Sam’s version of That Face from That Image from That Video is below the cut. You have been warned.
Not SamFro!
A long-awaited redraw of the hobbits as the Technical Difficulties, with the new Modern AU designs!
4, 6, 13 (especially 13; love you for the semicolon tattoo Frodo has)
https://www.tumblr.com/frodo-with-glasses/711440150764355584/group-chat-shenanigans?source=share
Ooh, great choice >:-D Let’s go!
(Read the whole comic here!)
4. What part of this piece was the most difficult to draw?
It's exactly what you might expect: Frodo's left arm (the one holding the phone) in the last panel definitely gave me some trouble. I was trying to find a pose that both a) looked natural and b) made Frodo's tattoo visible; you can actually see how many lines I drew and erased in the zoomed-in picture in this reblog.
I also had to try multiple different positions and designs for the tattoo before I found one that I liked. In a few early attempts, the tattoo actually went down the length of his arm! But in the end, I'm glad I kept it contained to the wrist.
6. What is your favorite part of this piece?
Oh man, it's so hard to pick! I love all of the modern designs, and I think most of the drawings turned out really well. (Pippin looks a bit wonky, but that's just because I'm not used to drawing people who are upside down.) In the end, I think my favorite part is just the slew of "Benadryl Cabbagepatch" names. That was a HYSTERICAL day on the Fig Tree Server, and I love seeing everyone's creativity and crazy senses of humor coming together like this! X-D
13. What Easter eggs/small details are hidden in this drawing?
OKAY *cracks knuckles* lemme give you the whole breakdown here.
Usernames and Avatar Icons
Design Choices
Initial Conversation
I did actually plan the chat in the first panel very carefully! If you look at the time stamps beside the messages, you can see how the conversation picks up speed. It starts with Frodo declining some kind of an activity that night, saying he's busy with something else. Pippin responds, asking what he's doing. Frodo replies and sends photographic evidence, calling Bilbo "Beebo". Sam thinks this is very funny and repeats "Beebo". Frodo, encouraged by Sam thinking this is funny, doubles down the joke with "Beebo Bongos". Then Merry jumps in with "Blorbo Bagpipes". By this point, messages are coming in within the same minute, and then the rest of the chaos unfolds. X-D
Anyway, thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble about this comic! I had a lot of fun drawing it and I'm delighted to share the Deep Lore LOL
[4/28/23]
InvisibleWashboard:
I have a head canon that one of Merry's sons in particular had to be taught to swim early because the kid was OBSESSED with any and all things to do with water. Estella was afraid to ever let him out of her sight for fear he would end up drowned before he could even walk.
meg is me:
Imagine merry desires his kids to be Equestrians and good old Stybba bears many a baby Brandybuck rider To Merry's dismay bby Eomer HATES ponies
InvisibleWashboard:
Eomer is the son that loves the water in my head.
[4/29/23]
Writing Valkyrie:
I was thinking last night, and I'd like to think that surfing was big in Numenor. Elros and his Queen made it a family tradition, and the whole populace really took to it. It died off a bit with the King's Men, deeming it not worth their time, something only the Faithful indulged in. Now adays, it only survives in Dol Amroth.And can be found in AlqualondëIt took Thorongil some time to learn it, but once he did, Prince Imrahil never beat him again.
On the first diplomatic trip the High King makes to Dol Amroth, Imrahil demands arematch. "Lets get barreled, dude!" -Imrahil (probably) "Yeah, dude, lets go shred some waves!" Aragorn (also probably) "Don't forget to reapply your sun balm." -Arwen (definitely)
Rumor has it, that the King is set to take the title of "Surf Champion" from the previous master, Thorongil.
InvisibleWashboard:
Someone who can draw please draw Aragorn as a surfer dude, I am begging.
Writing Valkyrie:
Shaka sign and everything.
From a discussion on 4/28/23
Me:
Modern AU Gamgee family 100% drives one of those massive homeschool family rectangle vans. You know the ones.
InvisibleWashboard:
There is no other option for them, honestly.
Writing Valkyrie:
Not to be confused with kidnapper vans.
Me:
Kidnapper vans have no windows. Homeschool family vans are ALL windows, but all of them are manual, and some of the floor might be missing
Writing Valkyrie:
There's a 'Honk if a kid falls out' sticker on the back.
Me:
Y E S
InvisibleWashboard:
Some of the floor is missing and despite Rosie's best efforts, there are ALWAYS some crumbs in the back row and there's like 5 different water bottles rolling around in there at all times even though she's constantly reminding, "Take your stuff inside."
Bilbo definitely stuck chewed up gum on the bottom of one of the seats once.
Writing Valkyrie:
Merry and Pippin always honk when they are behind 'em.
They tell Sam to just get a school bus.
Me:
Toys have fallen through the holes in the floor and been lost forever. However, one particular toy fell through and yet wasn’t on the road when they went back to check, so nobody knows where it went. Presumably it still lives in the floorboards.
InvisibleWashboard:
Oh, and the window next to Goldi's seat just has stickers. So. Many. Stickers. And Rosie and Sam have given up on trying to get them off.
Afro Sam and Mullet Sam. Idk you can blame the discord for this
Feast your eyes! The Modern AU now has a cheat sheet where all our silly ideas—from the livestream, discord chat, and beyond—can be found in one place!
I compiled this all together because I want to make the AU sort of “open source”, if that makes sense. That means that you guys can both contribute to the AU and use it in your own fan content!
At the moment, I’m the only one who can edit the Google Doc, but if you want to suggest usernames or jokes or lore ideas, feel free! There are several empty slots left in the usernames category, and I know y’all are clever, so I want to see what you can come up with. ;-)
Likewise, if you want to use this AU in your own fics, fanart, etc, please do! The AU doesn’t belong to me; it’s basically just a conglomeration of running jokes held together by duct tape and parody, so it’s yours as much as mine. If it strikes your fancy, go wild!
(Tbh I think I’d pass out on the spot if I saw someone else write fanfic or draw fanart with this AU. Literally it could be a 1K-word one shot of the hobbits texting each other and I’d love you forever. Is this a call to action? Not exactly. But is it a very enthusiastic permit? YES.)
Anyway yeah that’s all I had to say. Have fun, kids. X-P
Welp, with a little bit of teamwork, it looks like all the Easter eggs in this comic have been found! Special shout-out to @nerdy-catfish, @lady-merian, and @heckin-music-dork—you guys have eyes like hawks, as always. :-D
As a reward, here’s some Deep Lore:
This is indeed a tattoo, and it reads “worth f;ghting for”, with a ; symbol in the place of the first i. You might already be familiar with the meaning of semicolons in tattoos: “A semicolon is used when an author could’ve chosen to end their sentence, but chose not to. The author is you, and the sentence is your life.”
This particular one was inspired by something Sam said, one of the many times he visited Frodo in the hospital. Sam said a lot of things back then. Frodo forgot most of it. He was running on too many medications, and too little sleep, and he wasn’t in the right headspace to accept anything new. But deep down, even if he couldn’t access it at the time, a tiny part of his soul was grateful beyond words that Sam had cared enough to say those things at all; and when Frodo came home from the hospital and out of the fog in his mind, this one thing stuck with him.
He decided to get the tattoo done shortly before going back to school. You would’ve thought he’d won a championship or something, his friends were so excited to see him. There was a lot of hugging involved. Sam may or may not have taken one look at his wrist and cried. It was a good day.
Sometimes Frodo doesn’t want the tattoo to show in public, so he uses long sleeves or an exercise band to cover it up. But at home—and around the friends who got him through the darkest part of his life—it’s always out in the open for all to see.
“YOU COULDN’T HAVE TOLD ME THAT EARLIER??”
- Eomer, probably
noticed your tag about not having an imrahil design beyond generic gondor dude. if it helps, I think he’d have a Hawaiian shirt collection in a modern AU
Told you I’d draw it eventually 🤣🤣
By @sinivalkoista on this post:
Heck yeah he would!
More Modern AU! I got bored of not drawing hobbits.
If you like panel shows, British humor, immature jokes, and four friends each competing to get a giggle out of each other, you have to watch Citation Needed on Youtube. Pippin is not calm enough to be Chris Joel—and Chris is not dumb enough to be Pippin—but Gary Brannan’s brainiac tomfoolery is 100% Merry, Matt Grey’s “I have a Latin GCSE and yet I can’t words for the life of me” is 100% Sam, and Tom Scott’s role as the calm show host in the midst of all the shenanigans just suits Frodo, so that leaves Pippin to Chris.
All the dialogue here is modified from various episodes which I can’t be bothered to link, LOL
Merry: Never builds anything. Just fights monsters. Has a dirt hut lined wall to wall in chests filled with loot dropped by the monsters he killed. The most he’s ever done with redstone was seeing how many TNT he could set off in a row by pushing one button. Has twelve mob grinders for no reason. Has defeated the Ender Dragon seven times just for fun. His favorite weapon is a Multi-Shot crossbow with fireworks. Has three of them on him at any given time. Never changes the difficulty to Peaceful.
Pippin: Never changes the difficulty off Peaceful. Would die immediately if you took it off Peaceful. Would find some way to get killed in broad daylight the moment you took it off Peaceful. Sucks at combat. Uses cheats.
Sam: Has collected every single plant in the game into one incredible botanical garden. Explores the entire world and fills out maps upon maps just to find the species he’s missing. Eagerly looks forward to updates because “NEW PLANTS I’VE GOTTA FIND THAT AZALEA TREE”. Also collects rare animals like mooshrooms. Has the most beautiful farm imaginable. Surprisingly good at combat even though he rarely does it.
Frodo: Capable of combat if necessary but needs very advance warning. Generally the one who builds the house, because he’s the one who wants an enchanting room. Makes sure everyone is fully equipped with enchanted gear. Collects rare and exotic-sounding items. Has beaten the game once to get the Ender Dragon Egg and never wants to do it again.
Aragorn: Has everything. No, literally, everything. “Hey Aragorn, do you have—” YES HE DOES. His own world has chests filled with stacks of diamond blocks. Rarely returns from a mining expedition without another stack of diamonds. Carries an ender chest filled with shulker boxes filled with nearly every resource imaginable. Has a house FILLED TO THE BRIM with chests upon chests upon chests. Nobody knows how he has the time to collect all this stuff, but the answer is that his job is stressful, so every spare minute he has is spent mindlessly mining or fishing to decompress. Always hides the entrance to his enormous strip-mines in an out-of-the-way place that nobody else can find. Always the most welcome in everyone else’s worlds and servers. Has every achievement in the game and quietly completes the new ones within a week of updates.
Gandalf: Utter completionist. Very uptight about it. Has beaten the game multiple times and expects everyone else to be like him. Has every achievement in the game and updates it religiously. Constantly annoyed by Pippin and berates him for “cheating”. Gets along best with Aragorn in Survival, but has also done massive Creative builds with Gimli.
Gimli: Redstone master. Builds things with redstone that defy physics. Has a youtube channel where he quietly posts video tutorials of his builds and nobody else in the Fellowship finds out about them until later. Has a gorgeous castle built in Survival that’s tastefully decorated with diamond, gold, and emerald blocks. Nobody believes he got those in Survival until he shows them his mile-long strip mines. Also does enormous builds in Creative. Has completely recreated Orthanc on a superflat world and installed redstone mechanisms to flood it. Has built the Death Star with a beacon as a working laser. Has built a realistic Ent that actually walks. Has built EVERYTHING.
Legolas: Doesn’t understand the game. Played once because the others suggested it. He used Creative, built an ugly house out of gold and diamond, and said, “Well, that’s it! I don’t know why the rest of you spend so much time with this.” “Uh…because we actually like it as a challenge?” “Why would you do that?”
Boromir: Plays the game socially. The hobbits introduced him to it, and now he only plays it when they’re around. Always takes the combat role to defend the non-fighters. Enjoys PvP and gets way too into it. Loudly defends Pippin’s use of cheats whenever Gandalf is getting on his case. “He’s just trying to have FUN, Gandalf, let the young hobbit be!” Died once by falling off a cliff.
Modern AU?? Idk. Frodo is a harried college student working on his Master’s of something really difficult. His roommate Sam works in lawn care, and his cousins Merry and Pippin are teenagers and utter menaces to society.
