Cat Yesterday at 5:03 PM
hi, welcome to the lalo hunt q&a! first of all, let me introduce our special guest, lalo hunt themself. they wrote a few routes for friendsim, including the tagora, tyzias, galekh and wanshi routes, and also helped co-write the friendsim epilogue! they were part of the team who helped out with the homestuck epilogue, and their scene with roxy tackling gender resonated with a lot of us. i’m going to explain how this q&a is going to work. you may have noticed that slowmode is at 10 minutes here. first, i’m going to be asking lalo a few select questions we got through twitter. after that, we’ll be open to questions from you guys! but please be patient and don’t interrupt until we say that we’re taking questions from con goers. you only get 1 message per 10 minutes so please think carefully before you send something.
lalo, please feel free to introduce yourself!
Lalo Yesterday at 5:05 PM
hello! I’m not a cool high tech streamer, but hopefully this ama style thing is entertaining! Im excited to be a part of this thing c:
and i love to ramble about things so hell yeah
Cat Yesterday at 5:05 PM
amas are always exciting tho! this is direct access to pick at someone’s brain
Lalo Yesterday at 5:06 PM
pick away, skull is open
Cat Yesterday at 5:06 PM
hahaha okay
this one’s from wren
“What’s a piece of writing advice you received that’s been infinitely helpful to you once it stuck?”
Lalo Yesterday at 5:06 PM
ooh
i have heard a lot of great writing advice that i do not follow. so i think the best things i can think of are like—find what tricks work for you and use them?
nd you won’t figure out what works unless you try. Practice however you want.
For me, having friends hold me accountable is what works. Doing timed word sprints with friends gets me going. Also, read a lot. Sometimes this backfires because i now can’t read a book without my inner editor coming out, but it’s fun in a way, too.
this feels like a cop-out but like. har har practice
i LOVE going back and reading things i wrote 10, 5, 2 years ago, too
some of it is real bad! worth it to see growth
Cat Yesterday at 5:08 PM
i think that’s really solid advice. i get so caught up in doing it “the right way” i end up not writing much, myself. and i’m allergic to old things haha
Lalo Yesterday at 5:09 PM
yeah a lot of people can’t deal with reading old things they wrote, so that works for me, but not everyone
Cat Yesterday at 5:09 PM
i find that’s always the hardest thing, to find what works for you for sure. but thank you for that!
the next question is from rhedrick
“What inspired your writing about law school?”
Lalo Yesterday at 5:10 PM
hahaha oh man. well so the characters were designed by the core hiveswap team, so when i joined, they had a skeleton of personality already, including the teal/law thing
I’m not a law scholar so i had to look things up, and when i was assigned tyzias, i was initially like “NO i don’t want to do another lawyer!!”
and then aysha was like “well i can write her if you don’t want to?”
but then i thought about tyzias for half a second and realized i was in love
so i said no thank you i will do more lawyers, give me all the lawyers thanks!!
very glad i did
CatYesterday at 5:13 PM
hahaha honestly i’m surprised by that. i had assumed you at least dabbled a little, i thought both tagora and tyzias routes were very well handled.
Lalo Yesterday at 5:13 PM
i mean i’ve watched some law and order, so.
that’s the basics, right?
Cat Yesterday at 5:13 PM
hahaha yes
Lalo Yesterday at 5:13 PM
i just like to do research so it worked out, but haha i’m glad it felt authentic
Cat Yesterday at 5:14 PM
it did! this next question is by rhederick too, kind of related. “What’s the coolest bit of legal history you know of?”
( in other words, what’s the law and order episode that stuck with you the most?)
Lalo Yesterday at 5:14 PM
oh god….
i’m not well versed enough for that one lmao
i remember some law about it being illegal to hitch your crocodile to a post in some state…?
is that cool?
Cat Yesterday at 5:16 PM
i,
hm.
sounds extremely floridian.
Lalo Yesterday at 5:16 PM
that’s my best guess
Cat Yesterday at 5:16 PM
next question is by anonymous
“How did you end up writing Tyzias as the best character in all of the extended hs universe? (In all seriousness though, what were your biggest inspirations for her character?)”
Lalo Yesterday at 5:16 PM
haha oh this one i do have plenty of thoughts about
my inner fears, i guess? I wrote her during a time when the awful things happening in the world (specifically involving my hatred for my government) were really weighing on me. i was getting overwhelmed by the constant barrage of awful news, and everything felt really bleak.
Her “controversial views on jurisprudence” bullet point really snagged me, and I wanted to dig into what that would be like on alternia. Which of course I couldn’t help but pull from our reality. I wanted to be able to capture the feeling of helplessness, but also the drive to keep going. I write very slowly so like. I would write for an evening, then go donate to RAICES because i’d worked myself up into despair.
Then the next day I’d write some more and wearily call another senator. It all felt really sisyphean, but cathartic also? Like obviously much larger changes need to happen in the world than those small things, but pissing on a corner of the fire helped me get a foothold on fear. Once you’re not in the despair zone you can be more productive and start thinking about bigger things to do, or mobilizing with other people doing small things so they feel less small together. Writing her route was really brutal, but i loved it a lot and i was really happy that she meant a lot to so many people, and that my writing ended up being some fire pissing, itself, since it helped more people feel up to the task.
also her fashion sense…is the same as mine
Cat Yesterday at 5:19 PM
hahaha
her route was one that resonated with me the hardest. it’s such a miserable feeling that she’s feeling, but boy. it’s become a familiar one. i want to thank you on behalf of every tyzias fan, because wow. you nailed it with her.
Lalo Yesterday at 5:20 PM
;__;
i love her a lot.
Cat Yesterday at 5:20 PM
we all do! she’s one of the most beloved friendsim friends haha
completely changing gears, here’s a question from zen
“does galekh workout or has he never lifted anything heavier than a dictionary, and he’s just Like That?”
Lalo Yesterday at 5:21 PM
hahahahahah
it is my thought that the boy is pure genetic indigo grade A beef
would probably be very bored working out
he’s too busy with his intellectual gains
Cat Yesterday at 5:22 PM
i stand by my 2018 self: the only thing that boy is lifting is wikipedia quotes
Lalo Yesterday at 5:22 PM
cited, of course
Cat Yesterday at 5:22 PM
hahaha
this one’s by zen as well
“Why is Equius so great all the time?”
Lalo Yesterday at 5:23 PM
good god damn that is a great question
i could think about it my whole life and never be done answering it
Cat Yesterday at 5:23 PM
[sweats]
Lalo Yesterday at 5:23 PM
i’ll write a whole essay someday
Cat Yesterday at 5:23 PM
i’ll be waiting for it
and so will zen, i’m sure
this is another anonymous question
“some friendsim writers have said they don’t use classpects when working on their characters, but you tweeted once that you did. can you talk more about your process with that?”
Lalo Yesterday at 5:24 PM
ah yeah!
i like to write to a prompt, and since there was just a little bit of info about these characters, i wanted to use what i had
like galekh for example… indigos being described as not trying to offend people on purpose, but digging in heels when they do informed his character, and prospit/a little impulsive made me want him to make a rash decision, and his sign being called “the hostess” made me want him to be polite, even if it is coming from a place of uptightness rather than pure generosity
and with wanshi and doom
she commiserates with you. you see her experience the concept of death and it weighs on you, but also when she is upset at you for messing with her plan and she cries, it turns into a moment of camaraderie, not just sadness.
Cat Yesterday at 5:25 PM
;_;
oshi sent this one
“wanshi is babey? gotta love her?”
Lalo Yesterday at 5:26 PM
oh god…. you do!!!!
Cat Yesterday at 5:26 PM
i love her!!!!!
Lalo Yesterday at 5:26 PM
she is the one i have the most protective feelings about
i really kinned mspar hard with that one
Cat Yesterday at 5:27 PM
we are all mspar
Lalo Yesterday at 5:27 PM
a lot of the other routes i was dumping pieces of me into the troll, but with her it was all mspar
yeahhhh
would die for her again!
Cat Yesterday at 5:27 PM
it was a very real one for sure, we would all die for her as many times over as needed be
this one’s from @Griever the jojostuck man himself
“What would make Jojostuck better? (You don’t have to know anything about Jojostuck for this question.)”
Lalo Yesterday at 5:28 PM
is there an oldseph parallel?
i need joseph and old joseph both
Cat Yesterday at 5:28 PM
hahhaha
Lalo Yesterday at 5:28 PM
more josephs final answer
Cat Yesterday at 5:28 PM
hahahaha
okay and the final question we have saved, before we open it to the c hat
“So what do you think of the epilogue and friendsim” from anonymous
Lalo Yesterday at 5:30 PM
that’s a big one! friendsim i was involved with from the beginning, so i have more of an attachment to it, whereas the epilogue i was only brought on at the end to work out some edits/add that chapter, so it is less of a creative child. though my part in it does matter to me.
though with both, there is enough in there for people to hopefully take what they want and like from it and ignore the rest if they want, haha
Cat Yesterday at 5:30 PM
hahaha thats the best way to enjoy media tbh
and with that, we’re open for new questions! please think carefully before you send any, you only get one per 10 minutes.
👑 Little King 👑 Yesterday at 5:31 PM
hey! Was the decision to make galekh and tagora pitched for each other decided over galora becoming popular in the fandom? Or was it already decided beforehand?
Lalo Yesterday at 5:33 PM
also god i hope y’all have questions bc i’m stupid and though i only had a half hour so i was tearing ass to get through those but we’re only halfway done after all
Cat Yesterday at 5:33 PM
hahahaha it’s okay! don’t sweat it
Lalo Yesterday at 5:33 PM
ok! galora!
creepygodhunter Yesterday at 5:33 PM
Hello! If you could go back in time and have the chance to write a route for any other Friendsim character that you didn’t write a route for, who would it be?
tavros propaganda (chahutiel) Yesterday at 5:34 PM
first of all, thank you for doing this q&a! ive been looking forward to it, your routes are some of my favorites
you said you added part of yourself into the characters you wrote… what parts of yourself did you pour into tagora? are you a luxury few can afford?
fortnite gump Yesterday at 5:35 PM
hello, and thanks for taking our questions! if you had to assign a god tier class to the characters you wrote, what would those classes be?
Lalo Yesterday at 5:36 PM
@👑 Gay For Jay 👑 so in the first draft of tagora route, i had tagora having an altercation with a drone, not a mysterious blueblood. then i decided that was lame and went to pick a troll for it to be. I knew galora was a thing but i wasn’t huge into it (i cared more for tagora/lanque at the time). i just went down the list of trolls to decide who would be the best at making tagora go apeshit. i wanted him to lose control. and i was like “welp. it’s him. it’s galekh.” so i wrote it in like that, and over the course of writing, really fell for the ship I kept it vague, though, bc no one was assigned to galekh at that point, so afterward i was like “hey i intended for this to be galekh and if i write his route i want to make it a canonical relationship.” and then the powers that be gave me the goahead.
Cat Yesterday at 5:37 PM
fated pitch romance…
Griever Yesterday at 5:37 PM
for the record, there is an oldseph parallel. however, it’s the white queen, because she’s on the hermit card of the first set of homestuck tarot. so i think i mostly agree that yeah, jojostuck needs more joseph. so much more joseph. like, rose and john and eridan are hilarious to work with, but i really do need more of that manic old man energy and joseph wildness. so, thank you. i’ll have to keep that in mind!
if you have time to answer my next question, i guess i’ll add in another one: You wrote the Doc Scratch epilogue of the Hiveswap Friendsim, and given that Doc Scratch in Jojostuck is Avdol (and has only suffered through his first death), what things do you keep in mind when writing about said omniscient cue ball man?
Lalo Yesterday at 5:38 PM
@creepygodhunter at the time, the one i wanted to write most was daraya. i really really loved her and i wanted to write her. but then the way cee wrote her was incredible, and it ended up being my favorite route outside my own, so i am very glad i didn’t end up with daraya. I also have a soft spot for fozzer, but geezy killed it, too.
The Doomkitten Yesterday at 5:39 PM
Hey, Tyzias lover on main here. What do you think Tyzias would be like if she was in an environment where a more active stance on her views was necessary and not an extreme detriment to her health?
Lalo Yesterday at 5:40 PM
@tavros propaganda (chahutiel) re: tagora parts of me – lmaooo honestly…yes. I am a luxury. i think tagora got a lot of my self indulgence. like. what i want in a character type (catty, discerning, an asshole, pretty and a gremlin at the same time) not necessarily parts of me.
@fortnite gump re: classes for my characters: this is hard to do without putting them in the game itself, but i liked thinking about sylph or seer of doom wanshi
👑 Little King 👑 Yesterday at 5:42 PM
what did you imagine Tagora’s mantra would be when writing the route?
djpocky @ dave’s mom Yesterday at 5:43 PM
Hi Lalo! I was wondering, what do you think about red Galekh/Mallek? I thought they had great chemistry during Galekh’s route, but alas it was not to be.
tavros propaganda (chahutiel) Yesterday at 5:45 PM
what are your feelings regarding the stelzias relationship?
Lalo Yesterday at 5:46 PM
@Griever the cue ball man… to me he is a dude that you know doesn’t have your best interests t heart, but that you still feel a piece of you wanting their approval. i experienced this more as a younger person, and it sucks a lot! keeping him creepily polite with the twists of negging…which is too bad for avdol…love that guy…
articulatelyComposed Yesterday at 5:46 PM
What are your thoughts on Tyzias and Tagora’s relationship? Either just as classmates and friends or possibly as a sort of dysfunctional pale relationship?
Lalo Yesterday at 5:47 PM
@The Doomkitten I think tyzias is still at the beginning of her sort of delve into social justice. she still thinks she can take the system down from the inside out, has faith in some of the structures around her. i think she might be more open to even more radical ideas if she were given the chance, or time to think through them
Cat Yesterday at 5:48 PM
please don’t send more questions! we don’t have enough time for more, but thank you all! lalo will try to answer as many as they can before we have to wrap up.
Griever Yesterday at 5:48 PM
thank you very much lalo
Lalo Yesterday at 5:49 PM
@👑 Gay For Jay 👑 re: tagora’s mantra i never came up with one! i thought about it because i was remembering the scene in annie hall (which sucks, woody allen sucks, of course) where jeff goldblum is like “i forgot my mantra” and that is a very funny moment to me. i don’t think tagora would forget his, but…idk it stuck with me while i was writing and ended up in there? theyre both the kind of people who’d have mantras
@djpocky @ dave’s mom re: red galekh/mallek. OHOHO i love them! I absolutely set that scene up for anyone to see the chemistry between them. i like seeing galekh flustered, but also able to open up to someone? i think they have a lot of potential and i love seeing fanwork for them.
@tavros propaganda (chahutiel) re: stelzias: they are so complicated and juicy, story-wise! I love them a lot. it is hard to see tyzias struggle to share a scary piece of herself with someone she loves, and it is hard to see stelsa shy away from dealing with it because she is afraid of the person she loves getting hurt. But…i love it. And conflict aside, i love seeing them comfortable and easy with each other in a routine sort of domestic way. there is a lot of weight to their dynamic. angst and joy.
The Doomkitten Yesterday at 5:54 PM
One more question about Tyzias: how would she adapt if she was forced to take a more traditional, investigation and apprehension focused legislaceration job?
Cat Yesterday at 5:55 PM
doomkitten, i’m not sure lalo will be able to answer that one since we’re running out of time. but i’ll leave that up to them/time itself.
Lalo Yesterday at 5:56 PM
@articulatelyComposed re: pale tyzias/tagora – i think i personally see them in a more platonic class-friend style rivalry, but dysfunctional pale ships are super interesting and fun to dig around in, so i would be interested to see that done! they both are very secretive people, and their sort of exchange of jabs and jokes is a weird safe space theyve created between themselves, so there’s stuff to work with there!
@The Doomkitten yeah that’s what she’s afraid of!
Cat Yesterday at 5:57 PM
okay, i think that’s it for us. we’re out of time.
thank you so much for joining us lalo!
anything else you want to share with the chat?
tavros propaganda (chahutiel)Yesterday at 5:58 PM
tysm for answering our questions!! i hope the rest of your day is lovely 😀
this is not a question, but i just had a thought inspired by this q&a…. Tagora ♠️ galekh ♡ mallek ♠️ lanque ♡ tagora
👑 Little King 👑 Yesterday at 5:58 PM
tysm for answering questions, i hope you have an awesome rest of the day!!! :0
Cat Yesterday at 5:58 PM
@tavros propaganda (chahutiel) does it hurt? to have such a huge brain?
Courtney Yesterday at 5:58 PM
thank you lalo!!
Lalo Yesterday at 5:58 PM
Thank you so much for sending in questions! I know i’m kind of a ghost on twitter sometimes, but i am around and i love homestuck and friendsim and y’all, so this was really fun
fortnite gump Yesterday at 5:58 PM
thanks for the panel!!
Lalo Yesterday at 5:59 PM
and @tavros propaganda (chahutiel) yes that’s almost exactly my concept…just one slight change but i’ll leave that to the imagination lmao
Cat Yesterday at 5:59 PM
thank you all for dropping by!
Creepygodhunter Yesterday at 6:00 PM
Thank you Lalo!
Stuck at Home Con - July 16th, 2022 