A DIGITAL ZINE ABOUT GEEK CULTURE BEHIND THE SPOTLIGHTS
CLUB
02
VII MMXXV
soul
Art from the
Metanthropes TTRPG
Legitamine Games
Beneath the scroll, the noise, and the endless flood of content, something real hums quietly. It's the spark behind every brushstroke, riff, and line of code—the human pulse. Art isn’t born in algorithms; it’s made in late nights, small rooms, and stubborn hope. Everyday, every minute, someone out there is still creating with everything they’ve got.
signal
the
in
the
The fall
Story: Spiros Drakatos
Art: Rizky Darko
The wind rushed past her, loud and wild, but instead of drowning her thoughts, it cleared them. The city stretched below in impossible detail. Glass reflected the city lights like frozen stars, cold surfaces catching the world in brief, distorted echoes. Everything had slowed. Time no longer moved like it used to. It stretched, almost paused, held its breath for her.
She was falling, and no one would know if she had slipped, jumped, or if someone had pushed her. It didn't matter anyway. Not anymore.
Suspended in this private void, she caught the scent of distant rain, the faint exhaust of traffic, the murmur of the street far below. Her heart did not panic. It beat steadily, as if pacing itself for something beyond fear.
Thoughts came, not in a rush but in soft waves. Life. She thought of love, and how hard it had been to hold on to. She thought of ambition, and how it kept her moving. She thought of hope, and how it flickered even when everything else had gone quiet. And death. Not the idea of it, but the presence. Close and definite. She had always imagined it as a beginning. Or at least a continuation. A place, maybe. A state. But now, drifting in this frozen descent, she felt the possibility of nothing. Not darkness. Not peace. Just absence.
Then something flashed in her mind. A picture. A drawing from long ago. Color pressed onto paper by a child's hand. A crooked house, a bright sun with a face, a small figure holding a balloon. She remembered bringing it to her dad, full of pride. He had lifted her, told her he loved it, held her so close she thought she would never forget that moment. But she did. Until now.
And that woman who, later, much later, cried in front of one of her paintings. It had been her first show. Small. Almost no one had come. But that woman stood there for a long time. She didn’t say a word. She just looked, and wept, and left.
These moments returned now. Sharp, clear, and real. She had created something out of nothing. She had touched the lives of others. Maybe just for a minute. But she had left her mark, however small and unimportant.
A smile slowly formed on her lips. "Fucking art!" she whispered to the universe. And still, she fell.
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A selected comic page that inspires with its art and storytelling impact.
Hard earned knowledge from creatives around the world.
“I record in my bedroom not to chase lo-fi trends, but because the songs don’t wait for studios, they demand to exist now.”
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Most people won’t see the hours. The notes to self, the rough sketches, the half-finished folders stacked in some forgotten drive. They won’t know what it took to push past self-doubt, or the caffeine-fueled late nights spent getting one single thing just right. And maybe they don’t need to.
There’s a freedom in that. A kind of quiet defiance. When everything around you is optimized for trends and timelines, choosing to follow your own weird, wonderful vision is a radical move. It’s not always glamorous. In fact, it rarely is. But it’s real.
You might be the only one who ever sees that track you laid down. Or that short story you wrote and never published. Or that odd little game mechanic you tested in a corner of Unity just to see if it worked. That’s okay. Making things, even in private, is still worth it. It sharpens the edges of who you are. It reminds you what you're capable of.
Creation doesn't always need a spotlight. Sometimes it just needs space. A moment. A reason to pick up the pen, the mouse, the mic—whatever tool speaks your language. That’s where the magic lives: not in how many eyes land on the final result, but in how it made you feel while you were deep in it, chasing something true.
So keep making stuff. Even if no one’s watching. Even if it never goes live. The act itself matters. And somewhere, someone else is out there too, doing the same thing, tapping into something that can't be measured, monetized, or fed to the algorithm.
Call it what you want. Expression, resistance, joy. It’s yours. And it’s enough.
Art from the
Metanthropes TTRPG
Legitamine Games
soul
signal
in
the
the
Kill the algorithm. Keep the art.
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What sparked your passion for writing, and how did you know that storytelling was the path you wanted to follow?I've been writing stories as far back as I can remember. Quite literally since I learned to read, write, and somewhat spell (still working on that). I remember clearly one day when I was about 8 years old, I was sitting in a big comfy chair wrapped up in a blanket because I was sick. I had some paper and pens out and was designing a character. Backstory, goals, look and design, the works. A little robot by the name of "Cable-Chip". I couldn't tell you what happened, because I had done this kind of thing before, but for some reason at that particular moment something really clicked. Something said "this is where I belong." Maybe it was God, maybe it was the mucus. All I know is, when I don’t write, I feel as though a part of me is missing. When I write, I feel complete and whole.
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Were there moments when the road seemed too difficult? What kept you motivated to continue pursuing your dreams?Absolutely. Difficult times are how we grow, and oftentimes a sign we’re on the right path. “You can’t have light without dark,” as Bob Ross said. As for motivation, I’m a religious sort, even if I keep it to myself. I strongly believe that God gave me a gift that I need to grow, nurture, and care for. And that gift is storytelling. While I do love writing and creating all these new worlds, the motivation comes from wanting to do the job I believe I was given. Whether that’s writing one specific story, several stories, helping someone else write theirs, or even this TTRPG thing I’ve gotten pulled into of late, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I get the job done. The more the world tries to pull me away and beat me down, the more I know I’m on the right track of doing what’s really important. I’m only here for a limited time and I’ve got a job to do, so I can’t afford NOT to work on it.
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What message would you like to share with aspiring creators who are hesitant to follow their own dreams?Whether you’re religious or not, you were given a gift of creativity. It was planted inside of you, and it’s your job to care for it, feed it with knowledge and practice so it can grow and blossom into something wonderful. You also have to protect that gift, because the world will try to smother it. A creative mind is scary to most, because man fears what it does not understand. They will try to take it away from you, tell you not to explore it, tell you you’re not good enough, you won’t make it, it won’t get you anywhere, and all kinds of terrible things. If you listen to them and don’t feed your gift, it will in turn feed off you. You’ll wither and weaken, mentally and physically. And what do you really gain in the end if you ignore your gift? A slightly better salary at a job you may or may not have in a year’s time? My advice would be to feed that creative gremlin inside of you. Let it grow big and strong. Sharpen those skills. Practice. Learn. Make lousy things. Make good things. Make ugly things. Make beautiful things. But most importantly, create.
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How did the idea for Kesshonite Legends: Bashkim come to life, and what was the creative process behind developing its world and characters?Bashkim and Kesshonite Legends were two different things. Bashkim started off as a challenge I gave myself a long time ago. The challenge was to write and post one scene a day of no specific length. The hard part was not being able to go back and change anything. I had no plan for this story, and had to work with whatever I had written previously. The world that eventually became Kesshonite Legends was something I was working on for a whole other story. Funnily enough, I still haven’t written the story that this world was supposed to take place in. Normally when I write a story, my focus is on characters and dialogue, with the world around them being just detailed enough to give you an idea of when and where you are. With this project, I wanted to try really fleshing out an entire world. One thing led to another, and months quickly turned into years. Eventually I realized that this world could house several, if not all, of my stories. That’s when I blew the dust off Bashkim’s story and made him a Kesshonite Legend.
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Can you tell us about the N.U.T.S. TTRPG you’re working on?NUTS is a system that prioritizes storytelling and creativity, not complex dice mechanics and lengthy spell lists. It lets the GM tell the story they want to tell and allows the players to be who they want to be, while giving each just enough mechanical structure to keep things grounded. Mechanically, it’s essentially a small bag of Legos that you can put together the way you want. I don’t tell you how your game should be run. I give you the tools and mechanics to build and run an adventure the way you and your group want. Being “setting agnostic” wasn’t my goal, but instead a byproduct of making tools that gave GMs and players freedom. I’m currently working on some setting-specific modules that take those basic mechanics and refine the skills to work specifically for a certain setting and narrative, but with the basic “NUTS”, you’re free to do whatever you want. I never meant for NUTS to get this far, but here we are.
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What are your future plans and goals as an author and game creator? Are there any upcoming projects you’re excited to explore?I’ll probably be writing novels till the day I die, as I’ve got a long list to work through. As for TTRPGs, NUTS was never supposed to go beyond playing with a few friends, but here I am considering publishing and working on additional modules for it, and I’ve been happy with the results so far. As for other systems, yes, I have a couple I’m experimenting with that will probably be more mechanically involved, but not complicated. The rules will be designed for a specific setting, such as a world where humans have mysteriously vanished and left behind a weird, unstable but magical substance that has changed the animals you play as. I’ve been asked multiple times if I’ll ever make a Kesshonite Legends TTRPG, and while I readily admit it makes a great world for one, I’d like to get some more TTRPG experience under my belt before taking that ginormous plunge, as well as another book or two written. It’d be a large-scale project, and I want to be properly equipped for such an undertaking.
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