RobinHarper

Heart Guardians Part 20 - Panels 139-164

Originally Dave was simply not going to believe Tabitha about reality being changed, but after writing their dialogue, there were enough inconsistencies from the change that it made more sense for Dave to believe Tabby.

That said, given how in real life people in the live in different realities these days, I probably could have found a way to write this where no matter the evidence Tabby presents to Dave, Dave finds a way to rationalize it (or gets angry and refuses to discuss it further).

Being Fiona 346

Uh oh.

Being Fiona 345

And this strip is in color once again! Hopefully I'll have time to go back and color the other strips soon.

Heart Guardians Part 20 - Panels 113-139

I included the final panel from last week's update to improve the flow of the conversation.

Also, it looks like Tobi has a new name!

Being Fiona 344

Felix actually might have a decent excuse here.

Liam's Journey 669-689

Originally, Cyrus was going to put an enchanted ring on Otto to keep her from fight back, but then I figured Cyrus threatening Amelia might be enough to keep Otto in line.

Being Fiona 343

Lisa asks Fiona a question Felix isn't prepared for.

I'm hoping to have this current batch of black and white strips colored sometime soon, just not sure when.

Anyhow, while Felix could possibly give Lisa his own number, it would probably be safer for Fiona to have her own number.

Heart Guardians Part 20 - Panels 89-113

So Toby's girl form actually first made her first appearance in this extra-stuff post way back in 2022! https://www.patreon.com/posts/bonus-images-65944630

Being Fiona 342

Edit: Now in color!

Fiona's Earth Elemental is a remnant from a early story idea...

Fiona's Earth Elemental is a remnant from a early story idea that got scrapped after Fiona 'breaking up' with Craig was introduced into the story.

Being Fiona 341

Technically, Lisa should be 'waking up' at the same time as Fiona, but that over-complicated the dialogue...

Technically, Lisa should be 'waking up' at the same time as Fiona, but that over-complicated the dialogue, so I'm just going to hand-wave her waking up later without an explanation of what real Lisa would have experienced while her avatar was unconscious. (A loading screen perhaps?)

Anyhow, sorry about the super-late incomplete update!

I moved last Friday and it was a lot more chaotic than I expected. Not only was there the complication of moving with a baby involved, but our new place, of course, came completely un-baby-proofed!

That said, our new place is great, but full of boxes to be unboxed, and missing things waiting to be found, but luckily I have some time off work get our new place organized.

But I think for the next week or two, I'll be uploading Being Fiona in black & white, and then hopefully finding some time later to color in these strips.

Heart Guardians Part 20 - Panels 66-88

Anna has strong feelings about a particular wizard.

Being Fiona 340

Edit: Now in color!

Life got in the way this week and I ran out of time to color these panels. Some fun awaits for Fiona and Lisa!

Life got in the way this week and I ran out of time to color these panels.

Some fun awaits for Fiona and Lisa!

Liam's Journey 649-668

Uh oh, what does Cyrus have planned?

Being Fiona 339

So in my original outline, Lisa had in fact read up every detail about this quest, and had brought the party on this quest with the specific intention to do this quest in a particular way that would get them a secret ending to the quest and reward them with a super unique item/boon.

Problem was, when I started writing this, it felt like every panel was going to be Lisa telling the rest of the party what was going to happen next, and that didn't seem very interesting.

I suppose I could have done it as a montage, but instead I decided to have the entire party go into the quest mostly blind.

Heart Guardians Part 20 - Panels 43-66

Anna walking in on Toby and Dave was one of the very first scenes I had floating around in my head when I decided that Anna was going to be Toby's Mom.

Being Fiona Red 338

And here's the red version! I had considered removing her corset for this part of the night, but decided to leave it on in the end.

Being Fiona 338

Hey, it's everyone's Lost Desert Game Avatars again! It's been quite a while since we last say Craig and Felix playing this game, and even longer since I drew Sophie's character!

Extras - Liam's Journey - Sylas

I'm going to delay this week's update for Liam's Journey so that I can make change where instead of Cyrus simply talking, I'm instead going to have him narrate over images of Sylas.

Although it appears Sylas needs a new name, Sylvie perhaps?

Being Fiona Red 337

And here's a Red version of the strip! In the last panel of the previous strip, Hugo was playing with the latch on Jess' bra, but I don't think I made it very clear that was what he was doing.

Being Fiona 337

Back in high school there was a girl I liked, and she was the only one in high school who ever said yes to go out on a date. But I wasn't sure if I liked her as much as some of the other girls I was crushing on.

And she had a guy friend, a guy she hung out with a lot at school, and he seemed like a nice cool guy who would definitely make a better boyfriend for her than I. So I stopped pursuing her, so that she could be with the guy she was clearly meant to be with.

Years later I found out that he was gay. And in hindsight, it probably should not have been surprising that he was.

Moral of the story for Jess: don't assume you know who is the best match for a person, let them choose.

Heart Guardians Part 20 - Panels 20-42

Anna setting her magic warning system to not be tripped when magic related to her own is used in the house is related to why back in Idealized she didn't detect Robin using magic at the house.

Being Fiona 336

Jess likes Craig and Hugo, Craig likes Lisa, Lisa is single, and Felix doesn't know who he likes yet. And I'm hoping to make it even more complicated!

Extras - The Big Day - Spoilers

Being Fiona Spoilers for the events of Saturday below

I’ve just storyboarded the strip where Fiona’s game character finally gets the dress she was shown wearing in strip 176, and I’m only a few more away before I reach the morning of “the big day” of Saturday where the story will go into more detail about Fiona’s in person meeting with Lisa beyond those two strips that showed their meeting way back in 177 & 178.

So, here is what I currently have in mind for that day, although as I write each character’s dialogue, the characters will often take things in other directions.

The day will start with Felix waking up at around 8 or 9, eating breakfast, and messaging Jess. Jess will invite Felix to join a private Sense Stream so that they can plan their morning.

Felix joins her stream to find Jess jogging home from the gym. Jess arrives back at her condo, and they maybe discuss whether Jess should jump in the shower and wash off her gym sweat (would Fiona being a smelly slob help sell her low self-esteem?).

They decide on the shower, Felix doesn’t notice Hugo still sleeping in Jess’ bed as they walk to the bathroom. They jump in the shower, Hugo wakes up, and decides to join Jess in the shower, not knowing she is streaming with Felix. Hilarity ensues.

(If they were to decide not to shower, Jess’ messy bedsheets hide Hugo’s presence while Jess is changing her clothes in her bedroom. Hugo, naked, embraces Jess from behind in attempt to resume the fun from the night before. Hilarity ensues).

After things settle down, Felix and Jess start discussing their plans with Hugo. Jess is now dressed in Fiona’s hoodie and sweatpants. Jess decides to skip her make-up but as she goes to finish up her hair, Hugo suggests that she not blow dry her hair and leave it messy. He then offers to take ‘Fiona’ out for the morning to get some more practice being Fiona and to help her pick up an old used phone with a “pay as you go plan” so that Fiona as a phone number.

Leaving Lucy at home, Hugo summons a taxi and he and ‘Fiona’ go out shopping. Hugo bombards Fiona with questions about her past, “where did you grow up,” “what did you do last summer,” “do you have any siblings,” “what shows do you like?”

They discuss how Fiona will tell Lisa that she is ‘moving away.’ What the reason will be, where she is going (preferably a similar time zone, but somewhere far enough away that she can’t come back to visit). They decide to settle on a location after determining if Lisa is from Seattle, or if she is from out of state.

Hugo buys a used phone for Fiona, saying that’s it’s a gift and costs him next to nothing.

They talk about how Fiona will make purchases (such as buying coffee) when hanging out with Lisa. She might just tap with her fake phone (attached to Felix’s credit/debit card) or pay cash when her phone can’t be used.

Then, after discovering that Fiona is big into the fantasy genre, Hugo brings Fiona to a comics & games shop and starts ‘nerding’ out with her about boardgames, figures, and games.

Hugo buys Fiona something from the store, a statue or figurine, a rulebook, possibly a piece of  elf-ear jewellery (in the strip where Lisa and Fiona meet, you can’t see Fiona’s ears, so Fiona could be wearing this when meeting Lisa).

But I want to be careful about how far I go with Hugo and Fiona. I think Jess will recognize that Hugo is, either purposefully or accidentally, is courting the ‘nerd girl,’ but at this stage it should be subtle enough that Felix just thinks that he and Hugo are just ‘guy friend bonding.’

Hugo pulls Fiona into a shop with costume supplies and puts a pair of fake glasses on Fiona’s face.

Not sure if I’ll include this, but I’m tempted to include Hugo playing an Augmented Reality game (similar to Pokemon Go, but not really) where players are spies/hitmen who get points for ‘shooting’ other players. A James Bond sort of game where you get an alert if another player has entered the area, you have to track them down, and then shoot them with your hand in a finger gun gesture. Jess thinks the game is dangerous, she heard about one player running into traffic and getting hit by a car, Hugo pulls Fiona into the game with him anyway.

At some point, Felix mentions he will need time to leave his apartment so that Craig thinks that he is going to meet with Lisa as Felix. Hugo and Jess ask Felix why he wants to keep his plan a secret from Craig. Felix is worried that Craig will be upset with his plan and prefers to ask Craig for forgiveness after the meeting.

Felix would then meet up with Jess and Hugo in person, and then reconnect to the Dreamband in Jess’ apartment?

I think I might have Hugo tell Jess he is going shadow her when Fiona goes to meet Lisa, just in case Lisa isn’t who she says she is.

Fiona and Lisa then hang out at the café, learn more about each other, Fiona tells Lisa she’s moving away, Lisa drags Fiona out for more shopping, and then at the end of the outing, invites Fiona to hang out with her again, after exams, but before Fiona moves away and to bring Craig along next time.

Being Fiona 335

So I forgot that its not this strip but the next one where Jess actually says her crush's name.

Also, when double checking the coloring for her outfit, I realized that I had used a different lace texture in the original version. So when I get some spare time, I'm going to go back and fix her outfit's lace in the previous few strips.

Heart Guardians Part 20 - Panels 1-19

So as hinted with the last update, we are going to take a short break from Mira's broken office to see what Toby/Toni & Dave/Debbie are currently up to.

If you recall from the Idealized Comic, both Dave's ideal woman was straight and had no interest in girls. Like Evan's Heart Guardian form, Heart Guardian Dave maintains his male personality and preferences, so now he can experiment with having a female body without any mental alterations.

Being Fiona 334

Originally I was just going to reuse the panel from strip 173 for the last panel, but then I decided to give that last panel a remaster.

Liam's Journey 642-649

And with that, we are back to the present day! I think its been almost a year since we last saw these characters!

Edit: I've updated the PDF for Liam's Journey here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/70810745

Being Fiona 333

Jess's old social life included a lot of drama.

Edit: fixed Hugo's shirt

Extras - Could be fun *Minor Spoilers*

I was working on some dialogue between Craig and Sophie regarding how the game might force them into a player versus player fight with Fiona and Lisa, and this little piece of dialogue flowed out.

But given that Craig is trying to hook up with Lisa, this feels like Sophie might have accidentally told Craig how to attempt do it!

Combined with my recent idea that Lisa, Craig, and Fiona play a VR romance novel in a similar vein as Siren's Serenade, what if Fiona and Craig trick Lisa into suggesting that they turn it into a competitive romance game! With the male love interest (Craig) being the prize!

Craig and Fiona will have to fake competing, but if it succeeds with Craig hooking up with Lisa, maybe it will be worth it!

Will it work? Who knows! Will it be super weird for Felix? Count on it!

I wanted the next time the gang play Lost Desert too add something more to the story than "this is how Fiona gets that new dress," I think this might be what I was looking for.

Also, what if after Craig finds out that Felix used Jess to pretend to be Fiona, Craig says something like "fine, I can keep this a secret, but in return could you to do this favor for me?"

Heart Guardians Part 19 - Panels 173-195 [Chapter End]

(Edit: Added the chapter PDF here and to the pinned PDFs post)

I’ve sprinkled a few puzzle pieces throughout the comic that hint at how the character in the last panel might indirectly save the day. Does anyone want to propose a few theories for fun?