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Description
This thing has been in the works for, like, three years. Which is sad. ... I've just been too lazy to finish it.

I HOPE THIS IS PROOF THAT I AM NOT DEAD. Nor have I stopped caring about In Short Supply.

And if you don't know what I'm talking about: [link] It's about what you'd guess from the above. Though I should emphasize that this fic is what happens when a writer goes "I don't like mpreg, can I write it in a way that actually makes sense?" Desperate measures have been taking to keep the cast IC and the world properly weird.

Also, whoever it is who made a page for ISS on TVTropes, you're kind of my hero.

Comments on each picture! Because... why not?! They're all tl;dr but that's half the fun!

1. I draw a lot of characters, but Zim is the only one who regularly yells back at me as I'm drawing. He usually wishes to inform me that my pitifully inferior arty-skills are nowhere NEAR amazing enough to capture the GREATNESS that is ZIM! Either that, or he's informing me that I am nowhere near up to the task of writing ISS and then telling me to go write it anyway. Usually both at the same time. I'm not sure why I tend to write Zim shouting at me from my doodles when I don't do the same with many other characters, it might just be because I enjoy writing his dialogue so much. Zim's a thrill to write.

2. This is not actually how the scene will go when Red finds out. (I hope the fact he finds out doesn't surprise anybody. Because, c'mon, eventually Red's gonna find out.) But it COULD have gone that way. On a completely different note, I colored this meme by directly ripping the official character colors from Nickelodeon-website Invader Zim clip art when possible, or, when that wasn't available, from screenshots. (Nick had art for Purple but not Red, oddly enough.) I tell you that so I can say I was surprised to realize that, in canon, Red's eyes are a slightly different color from his armor. Odd, considering that Purple's eyes and armor are a perfect match. Fortunately, I've already got a justification for this! ... I'm just not sharing it yet.

3. There are two chronological errors in this picture! Get one or both and you might win a prize. (And it might not be adhesive medical strips!) Incidentally, the Tallest uniform is HARD to draw accurately, so I'm proud when I manage to even come close. This one and question 2 are cases of "come close."

4. I don't know why I gave Purple's voice a curly font. Speaking of Purple's voice (and going totally off-topic), does anyone here watch the show The Penguins of Madagascar? In one episode, there's a poison frog voiced by Kevin McDonald (Purple's voice actor) and he's hilarious. Hearing that frog is like hearing what Purple would be if he were more intelligent, bitter, and actively malevolent (instead of, y'know, casually malevolent. The way Irkens usually are). Kevin McDonald might be my favorite voice actor; he doesn't have a wide vocal range, but I enjoy the perma-falsetto every time I hear it. The poison frog's episode is called "Untouchable," I recommend it. (Along with the rest of The Penguins of Madagascar, it's surprisingly good.)

5. This would be one of the later pregancies, after they've figured out how to not kill Zim. My goal was "silly looking." Fun fact: Dib's trench coat now has a hood. Thus, he no longer needs to carry around an umbrella. This doubles the amount of hands he has free when it's raining! Making it twice as easy to do battle with Zim!! On the other hand, when it's raining, Zim's nowhere around to do battle with anyway. So much for that. Fun fact 2: Their heights are totally disproportionate here. Pre-extension, Zim should be significantly shorter than Dib, and post-extension, he should be significantly taller. There's no point in ISS where they're the same height. But you know what? Who cares!

6. They're sitting on an invisible couch. High-tech. Probably Vortian. (Someday, I need to put up a GOOD picture of what Purple looks like out of his armor.) The picture I almost went with for this question was post-dance cuddles. Probably right before Purple woke up and remembered to kick Zim out. If I'd gone with that one, you'd all get to find out what Irken genitalia looks like. But now, I guess you'll have to wonder forever.

7. This isn't the first Splayd I've ever drawn, but it might be the first time I've drawn him "right": eyes that are Zim-colored eyes but Purple-shaped, and a head shape and skin color roughly in between the two. The other good picture I've done of him has him looking too much like Zim. Back then I intended for his eye shape to be halfway between Zim-oval and Purple-rectangle, but I like him this way better. At some point in the future I'll either post that version of Splayd or else redo it and post it. For now, though, that portrait of Splayd would be a major spoiler. So it won't be going up for a while.

8. These two pictures are random doodles I did and then decided to put in here because, hey, it'd be a shame if Gir and Bob didn't make it into the meme. I've yet to draw a Bob I'm really satisfied with, but this is the closest one. His colors look so washed-out because those are the colors I got from his scenes in "Hobo 13." But I think that that's just the way the episode ended up looking and not the way he's "supposed" to be colored, considering that most other main characters are so vivid in comparison. But the dullness kind of fits his character, so it works out.

9. I love drawing Naruto characters in Invader Zim style. (For those of you who don't watch/read Naruto and thus don't get where the heck the mpreg comes into this picture: the girl in the middle is usually a guy.) So there's this fic idea I've got, see, and it involves a bad idea to revive the Uchiha clan, and Sai secretly being half-Uchiha, and using the Cursed Seal to maintain Sexy no Jutsu for nine months, and Orochimaru's secretly behind it all... I do not intend to actually write it. It's just funny to imagine.

10. And now you know what I look like! (Except I'm more of a "flare jeans" person. But in Zim-land, it's emo pants for everyone!) This answer is only partially true. The real reason I started writing ISS was because conversations with my Muse often go like this:
Muse: Hey hey ckret, what do you think of ___?
ckret: Oh, ___ is a bad idea.
Muse: Why?
ckret: Because I've never seen it done well. It's always so cliche/OOC/weird/stupid/stereotypical/predictable/illogical/whatever-it-is.
Muse: Oh yeah? Well, I dare you to write ___ and make it WORK!
ckret: NOOOOO!
I can never turn a dare down from my muse. In this case, the "___" was "mpreg." In other cases, the "___" can vary from "a really really bad/bizarre pairing idea" to "a super-special enthusiastic popular girl whose parents are canon characters, who has all her parents' powers, and who wants to be the strongest person in the world." It is then my duty to take this plot element and write it in a way I've never seen it done before, so that it doesn't resemble any other stories with the same premise, and so that it doesn't have any of the stuff that made me dislike the stories about "___" to begin with.

11. Apparently he's got a custom uniform, because it doesn't match any other Irken uniforms. Ho-hum. Also, I'm serious about doing a request for anybody who can figure out what's weird about him. Art or fic. Guess I'll give the same offer for question 3. Because, hey. Requests. Can be fun.

Well, that was fun.

The original meme can be found here: [link]
Invader Zim (c) Jhonen Vasquez and other people who aren't me
In Short Supply and art (c) me

Description
This thing has been in the works for, like, three years. Which is sad. ... I've just been too lazy to finish it.

I HOPE THIS IS PROOF THAT I AM NOT DEAD. Nor have I stopped caring about In Short Supply.

And if you don't know what I'm talking about: [link] It's about what you'd guess from the above. Though I should emphasize that this fic is what happens when a writer goes "I don't like mpreg, can I write it in a way that actually makes sense?" Desperate measures have been taking to keep the cast IC and the world properly weird.

Also, whoever it is who made a page for ISS on TVTropes, you're kind of my hero.

Comments on each picture! Because... why not?! They're all tl;dr but that's half the fun!

1. I draw a lot of characters, but Zim is the only one who regularly yells back at me as I'm drawing. He usually wishes to inform me that my pitifully inferior arty-skills are nowhere NEAR amazing enough to capture the GREATNESS that is ZIM! Either that, or he's informing me that I am nowhere near up to the task of writing ISS and then telling me to go write it anyway. Usually both at the same time. I'm not sure why I tend to write Zim shouting at me from my doodles when I don't do the same with many other characters, it might just be because I enjoy writing his dialogue so much. Zim's a thrill to write.

2. This is not actually how the scene will go when Red finds out. (I hope the fact he finds out doesn't surprise anybody. Because, c'mon, eventually Red's gonna find out.) But it COULD have gone that way. On a completely different note, I colored this meme by directly ripping the official character colors from Nickelodeon-website Invader Zim clip art when possible, or, when that wasn't available, from screenshots. (Nick had art for Purple but not Red, oddly enough.) I tell you that so I can say I was surprised to realize that, in canon, Red's eyes are a slightly different color from his armor. Odd, considering that Purple's eyes and armor are a perfect match. Fortunately, I've already got a justification for this! ... I'm just not sharing it yet.

3. There are two chronological errors in this picture! Get one or both and you might win a prize. (And it might not be adhesive medical strips!) Incidentally, the Tallest uniform is HARD to draw accurately, so I'm proud when I manage to even come close. This one and question 2 are cases of "come close."

4. I don't know why I gave Purple's voice a curly font. Speaking of Purple's voice (and going totally off-topic), does anyone here watch the show The Penguins of Madagascar? In one episode, there's a poison frog voiced by Kevin McDonald (Purple's voice actor) and he's hilarious. Hearing that frog is like hearing what Purple would be if he were more intelligent, bitter, and actively malevolent (instead of, y'know, casually malevolent. The way Irkens usually are). Kevin McDonald might be my favorite voice actor; he doesn't have a wide vocal range, but I enjoy the perma-falsetto every time I hear it. The poison frog's episode is called "Untouchable," I recommend it. (Along with the rest of The Penguins of Madagascar, it's surprisingly good.)

5. This would be one of the later pregancies, after they've figured out how to not kill Zim. My goal was "silly looking." Fun fact: Dib's trench coat now has a hood. Thus, he no longer needs to carry around an umbrella. This doubles the amount of hands he has free when it's raining! Making it twice as easy to do battle with Zim!! On the other hand, when it's raining, Zim's nowhere around to do battle with anyway. So much for that. Fun fact 2: Their heights are totally disproportionate here. Pre-extension, Zim should be significantly shorter than Dib, and post-extension, he should be significantly taller. There's no point in ISS where they're the same height. But you know what? Who cares!

6. They're sitting on an invisible couch. High-tech. Probably Vortian. (Someday, I need to put up a GOOD picture of what Purple looks like out of his armor.) The picture I almost went with for this question was post-dance cuddles. Probably right before Purple woke up and remembered to kick Zim out. If I'd gone with that one, you'd all get to find out what Irken genitalia looks like. But now, I guess you'll have to wonder forever.

7. This isn't the first Splayd I've ever drawn, but it might be the first time I've drawn him "right": eyes that are Zim-colored eyes but Purple-shaped, and a head shape and skin color roughly in between the two. The other good picture I've done of him has him looking too much like Zim. Back then I intended for his eye shape to be halfway between Zim-oval and Purple-rectangle, but I like him this way better. At some point in the future I'll either post that version of Splayd or else redo it and post it. For now, though, that portrait of Splayd would be a major spoiler. So it won't be going up for a while.

8. These two pictures are random doodles I did and then decided to put in here because, hey, it'd be a shame if Gir and Bob didn't make it into the meme. I've yet to draw a Bob I'm really satisfied with, but this is the closest one. His colors look so washed-out because those are the colors I got from his scenes in "Hobo 13." But I think that that's just the way the episode ended up looking and not the way he's "supposed" to be colored, considering that most other main characters are so vivid in comparison. But the dullness kind of fits his character, so it works out.

9. I love drawing Naruto characters in Invader Zim style. (For those of you who don't watch/read Naruto and thus don't get where the heck the mpreg comes into this picture: the girl in the middle is usually a guy.) So there's this fic idea I've got, see, and it involves a bad idea to revive the Uchiha clan, and Sai secretly being half-Uchiha, and using the Cursed Seal to maintain Sexy no Jutsu for nine months, and Orochimaru's secretly behind it all... I do not intend to actually write it. It's just funny to imagine.

10. And now you know what I look like! (Except I'm more of a "flare jeans" person. But in Zim-land, it's emo pants for everyone!) This answer is only partially true. The real reason I started writing ISS was because conversations with my Muse often go like this:
Muse: Hey hey ckret, what do you think of ___?
ckret: Oh, ___ is a bad idea.
Muse: Why?
ckret: Because I've never seen it done well. It's always so cliche/OOC/weird/stupid/stereotypical/predictable/illogical/whatever-it-is.
Muse: Oh yeah? Well, I dare you to write ___ and make it WORK!
ckret: NOOOOO!
I can never turn a dare down from my muse. In this case, the "___" was "mpreg." In other cases, the "___" can vary from "a really really bad/bizarre pairing idea" to "a super-special enthusiastic popular girl whose parents are canon characters, who has all her parents' powers, and who wants to be the strongest person in the world." It is then my duty to take this plot element and write it in a way I've never seen it done before, so that it doesn't resemble any other stories with the same premise, and so that it doesn't have any of the stuff that made me dislike the stories about "___" to begin with.

11. Apparently he's got a custom uniform, because it doesn't match any other Irken uniforms. Ho-hum. Also, I'm serious about doing a request for anybody who can figure out what's weird about him. Art or fic. Guess I'll give the same offer for question 3. Because, hey. Requests. Can be fun.

Well, that was fun.

The original meme can be found here: [link]
Invader Zim (c) Jhonen Vasquez and other people who aren't me
In Short Supply and art (c) me