STAB2 Round 05 - 11 [COMPLETE]

VS Goooo see her round here!



... whew...

... so... here we are!
Some six and a half months after starting, this chapter in Rika and Mathew's respective stories comes to an end. I *think* I've tied up the loose ends, save perhaps one-- Mathew and his 'ranger' disguise. If I could do this over again I might touch more on that but in the end, it didn't wind up being terribly relevant. -shrug-

Anyway, onward! Mat's discovered his reason for following Rika to Holon, but things didn't really turn out. He's not accustomed to losing... Odds are, he's still one pretty confused guy, but he won't stay idle long. Never does. As for Rika, treatment is on the way and she's made a few friends. Oh! And maybe she'll be talking to Vera about some of her designing, eh? Who knows~

BONUS: [link] This is the song that pretty much prompted the Rika/Mat theme and my entering this tournament in the first place. Without this remix, this comic might not exist (:

Entering this tournament, I had a few goals in mind (but you can skip forward to the thank yous if this is tl;dr )--

-Keep it simple! In past OCTs, my ideas were a bit... out there. And also extremely scattered, and hardly concrete. While at least some of STAB here has for me been 'going with the flow' (for example, the necklace being returned here is totally not because I forgot to draw it during round three...), I had already planned what each round would potentially include from the start. I had direction.
-Work in some backgrounds! I think I've done this. Perhaps not as much as I might've liked (I believe I may have abused gradients a tad more than I should've) but I think I've improved some in confidence when it comes to dealing with settings. We're not quite chums yet, but it seems more a possibility than it did at the start
-Characterization! My stories BY FAR tend to be more character-driven than plot or action-based, which doesn't work out great if characterization is weak. Hopefully you'll have learned a bit about Rika~ (My focus was more on her than on Mathew, by the by.)
-Complete a story. My aim was to finish this, whether through the tournament itself or via spectator entries. Probably it would have resembled the intermission a lot more as a whole if it would have gone to spectator rounds, but... well, anyway, the goal was to get it done, and now... it's done! I didn't really have a complete story on this scale... 'til now~
-Make some new friends. I think I've done this. At the least, I've met a slew of wonderful people through it <3
I made a few via Roar but didn't get as socially involved in PCBC. I'm glad I (sorta) rectified that this time around.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm missing a few but that was about the gist. Stuff like improving action is a given, trying out different perspectives, improving line confidence, etc. Moving on!


THANK YOU!!!
To my opponents, hosts, fellow competitors, and anyone who's read any part of my story <3 And, of course, THANK YOU to those of you who've stuck it through with me til the end <33

A big thank you goes also to my sister and to this dude for being awesome sounding boards and good sources of inspiration and motivation to keep on trekking. And thank you to my mother for not murdering me/booting me out :d NO MORE COMIC OCTS FOR A LONG TIME/(if ever), I PROMISE.

I... think that's about it!

Any crits/thoughts/comments welcome, let me know what you thought <3 I know it's far from perfect but it was a hella good learning experience, that's for sure. 45 pages (most of em tower-height) later, holy wow!



-^{Key, out!}


05-01. [link]
05-02. [link]
05-03. [link]
05-04. [link]
05-05. [link]
05-06. [link]
05-07. [link]
05-08. [link]
05-09. [link]
05-10. [link]
05-11. [link]

Audition. [link]
Round 01. [link]
Round 02. [link]
Round 03. [link]
Round 04. [link]