#I WILL DRAW THIS BLORBO IF IT IS THE LAST THING I DO

[drekasal]

Okay but Blue really is a flipping enigma, cause I’ve been staring at his design trying to figure out what a grown up version of him would be.

His head seems simple enough—I already have a few ideas—but his body is throwing for a loop cause on the one hand, he reminds me of a seal pup. On the other hand, he has fish-fins as opposed to paddles like Red, and I don’t know how I wanna build on that. I could probably look at mudskippers, but the thing is that they kind pull themselves forward. Blue flat out walks on them.

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

some misc Barn & Wally doodles from the past week or so <3 i heart them

[umblrspectrum]

go read Memento Nori and Like the Stars and What Friends Are For and just generally all of Ad Astra Per Aspera by LadyDaybreaker on ao3

[autisticaradiamegido]

day 129

so was anybody going to tell me @adorkastock had their own random pose generator now or was i just supposed to find that out on my own

[obscuritian]

i love cj!evelin they're so gender

[gncrezan]

tiny comic for the tiny friendship these two are starting to have :)

[tizeline]

Well. Every tmnt artist has to turn them into humans eventually, I suppose.

Sorry for not posting a ton lately, I have been................. playing fire emblem three houses.............. busy............ Also I've been feeling a little burned out on art, admitedly. Don't worry, it's very much temporary! Last month was just pretty high tempo for me, expecially with the Cell Talk comic, so I just needed to take a short break from drawing to also play fire emblem but I'm getting back into an art-mood now! I decided to draw humanified turtles as a bit of a warm up basically, I've been wanting to do it for quite some time so it was just a fun little thing for me :]

Anyway, some thoughts about the designs-

A lot of people draw Leo as blonde, and I was fully intending to draw him blonde as well, but then I just wanted to see what he'd look like with brown hair instead and I just.... liked that a bit more, so he's a brunette now. Also he has dimples because of course he has dimples. And Mikey has freckles because OF COURSE he has freckles! And Donnie ALSO has freckles because he's my blorbo and I give all my blorbos freckles cuz they're neat. All of them have pretty small eyebrows except for Donnie because he fills them in with makeup. I thought for a while of how I would translate Leo's facial markings into his human design, and I ended up settling for birthmarks (also some red eyeliner cuz his face needs a bit of red on it)

[palipunk]

RE the blorbo with watermelons thing: I cannot stop you if you want to draw your fictional faves with kuffiyehs or watermelons or Palestinian flags but i think you should ask yourselves the questions of *why* you’re doing it, *how* can you help Palestine that’s not fanart (like ex Greg Heffley with a Palestinian flag and no donation links or info is not helping you’re just farming likes off of genocide), and ways the spaces you may be in are bigoted to Palestinians. Like there is no reason I should be seeing the last of us fanart with kuffiyehs. There is no reason you should be drawing Palestinian flags but hold no criticism towards the people who make your tv shows, books, games, movies, etc. who are pro Israel. There is no reason why you have the watermelon in your bio but refuse to hold people around you accountable for being Zionists. That is the last I will say on the matter

[ettawritesnstudies]

Etta's Guide to Writeblr (March 2023)

So you fled here from Twitter/TikTok... Where to start?

Welcome to Writeblr! Pull up a chair, open those documents, and pour yourself a cup of your favorite tea, coffee, or cocoa. The first thing you'll want to do is start following other writers. Check out this post for recommendations! Search through the notes to find hundreds more. Since I made that post, a bunch of people mentioned they're lurking and still trying to figure out tumblr, so I thought I'd make this post to help people get settled.

How to set up your blog

Make your blog name something not resembling a pornbot - it can be whatever you want, anything fun goes, just not [name###]. If you include "writer" or "author" somewhere in the url it makes it easier to spot writeblrs at a glance but it's not a requirement

Change your profile to something that's not the default, Make sure you have a blog title, and add a little description in your blog header if you feel like it!

Make a pinned post introducing yourself (pls don't use your real name or any IDing information for privacy's sake, this isn't facebook), a short summary of your WIPs, and links if you have an author's website/newsletter/ao3/etc. You can check my pinned post for an example

Make intro posts for each WIP! You can spruce these up with graphics (canva and unsplash are both great free resources to make edits/moodboards), excerpts, lists of tropes, character intros, etc. Link to the WIP intro in your pinned post so it's easy to find! You can update these as often as needed

If you want to make character intros, go wild. If you can't draw, piccrew is a great option. Just start talking about your WIP!

Come up with a tagging system to keep your blog organized. I recommend individual wip tags or at least one for your original writing in general so it's easy to search for your work on your blog

Keep track of Taglists for your WIPs. Whenever you post a new thing about your story, tag the people who asked to be notified to make sure they see it! Only tag people who ask to join the taglist, but it's a good way to keep track of interest. It's normal to have multiple taglists for each story+ one general writing taglist.

How to make writer friends

Reblog their work and add nice comments, either in the tags, comments, or the reblog itself People notice regulars in their notes and appreciate the attention. I promise it's not weird to compliment a total stranger

If that's too intimidating, community events are your friend!

Weekly Ask Games: These are weekly events that are loosely themed where writers send each other asks about their WIPs! The most common are Storyteller Saturday (about the writing process), Blorbsday (aka Blorbo Thursday about characters), and Worldbuilding Wednesday (about the setting of your story). If you answer these late, nobody really cares, but it's a fun way to receive prompts and learn more about other people's stories.

Ask Games/Memes: These are posts with lists of questions you can reblog from other people, sometimes themed or listed with emojis. It's common courtesy to send an ask from the list to the person you reblog it from, then people can send you questions as well, so you can talk about your stories! You can search for dozens of them

Tag games: There's a ton of different types of tag games, but basically someone @s you with a challenge/question, you reblog with your answer, and then @ a bunch of other people to continue the chain. Some common ones are Heads Up 7s Up (share the last 7 lines of your WIP), Last Line Tag (share the last line you wrote), and Find the Words (ctrl+f the given words in your doc and share the results, then give new words).

Formal events: These are community wide participation challenges organized by certain blogs! @writeblrsummerfest is every July?? August? I think? It's run by @abalonetea a few years strong, and there are daily prompts and ask games! @inklings-challenge is a month-long short story entry for Christian writeblrs. I think there was a valentines event in February. @moon-and-seraph is hosting a pitch week soon! Since these are more organized, it's very easy to find similar blogs and support!

Misc. Notes on using Tumblr

Follow the tags #writeblr and #writeblr community to find other writers, as well as other tags that interest you like #fantasy for example

If you want to bookmark a post to read later, you can like it and/or save it to your drafts

The queue/schedule function is very useful if you want to space out posts or have a backlog to keep your blog running when you get busy. This is good for the community because it gives older posts a chance to be rediscovered! You can change the posting frequency in the settings.

REBLOG YOUR OWN STUFF. People aren't always on at the same times and so it's the best way to account for people with different schedules and timezones. If you're worried about being annoying, you can tag those #self reblog or something similar and other people can filter the tag, but otherwise it's a welcomed and accepted practice.

If your excerpt is pretty long, put it under a cut. On desktop you can do this by selecting the squiggly button on the far right when you make a new paragraph, on mobile type :readmore: then hit enter.

It's polite to add descriptions to images and videos for visually or auditory impaired people. If you don't know how to write descriptions, here's a good resource

In your dashboard settings, it's best to shut off the options "Best Stuff First" and "Based on your Likes". These function as the website algorithm and suppresses the blogs you actually follow, which defeats the purpose of the site, letting the dash be in reverse chronological order. Also turn off Tumblr Live because it's malware as far as anyone's concerned.

Curate your experience, block the trolls, and be nice

Update for March 2024

How to shut off AI Scraping on your blog

Go to settings and find the Visibility tab

Scroll down to the tag that says "Prevent Third-Party Sharing"

Turn that knob over so that Automattic can't steal your work for their language training model databases >_<

The other settings will just hide your blog from search engines so they're useful for hiding from nosy parents or other Tumblr users but if you're trying to build an author platform you can leave them off.

Again, welcome to the community! I hope you have a ton of fun!

[patriciavetinari]

The first step you as a thin person can do to start combatting fatphobia, both internal and external, even before listening to fat people and their stories, is start noticing it. Just work on yourself and play I Spy until you notice it.

Look around the streets of your city. Look at people, look at their bodies and sizes. Then look at everything else.

Look at the ads that exclusively show thin people selling everything - even things that have nothing to do with thinness. Toothpaste. Garden supplies. Jewelry.

Look at your social media feed. Are there fat people there? Do artists that you follow ever draw fat people? Are blorbos on your tumblr dashboard ever fat characters? Are your own ocs ever fat? Are comedians you watch on youtube fat? Do they make fat jokes?

Look at the seats in the bus you take to work. Ask yourself: Why are they this size? Look at the clothing sizes in the thrift store or regular store you go to for your socks and underwear. How big is the biggest basic t-shirt they offer? What about a basic blazer that one could wear to a job interview? Have you ever been to a plus size section? Does your store have one? What are the prices like there? Is the selection same as in 'regular' section?

Are you feeling extra curious? Open up a search engine, type in 'weight limit furniture' and click on a couple of top results. Just read. Ask one question: Why?

Why are there no fat people selling you toothpaste? This is not to endorse the amount of advertisement we are bombarded with, but it is representative of our current culture, however mad that makes you. Why is it only thin people are ever portrayed in any creation - be it something valuable like cinema or some forgettable trash like the latest cleaning supplies advert with an annoying jingle?

Why are fat people not in the art you view? Why are they not in your social media feed? Why are they not enjoying the same clothing and furniture options? Why?

And then, if you have fat friends, go and talk to them. If you don't have fat friends, ask yourself why you don't. Count the amount of fat people you see on streets every day versus the amount of fat people you see in any other medium. Recall the last time you saw a fat character in art AND that character was a positive one and treated with respect.

This is all before you get to know about medical fatphobia, struggle to build relationships both straight and/or queer. This is all before you go into statistics about employement and housing discrimination. That's before you read about 7 year old children on 500 calorie diets.

Just look around and for fucks sake, start noticing things.

[the-pigeon]

omg its the blorbo? from the show?

fun notes under readmore :D

any time i do a lineup of characters i also limit myself to one human because i have more fun doing that. and for life series martyn was My Guy. just a regular ass dude. and for hermitcraft it was also gem. and then gem joined life series. so now i have two Regular Guys. so thats fun

anyway quick fire notes

grian scarlet macaw obviously and no eyes. because his skin

scar's white hair from his red last life skin. so hot. also the blue things are bc vex

mumbo doesnt have a mouth. when he talks his moustache just moves up and down

impulse demon and skizz angel because yay besties. skizz is also enderman because its fun to draw and thats most of what i care about when i draw lol

tango my skrunkly ass guy

etho is Not any sort of arctic fox. promise. nothing fluffy about him

bdubs is. posessed by a glare.

martyn has two copper rings tied to his necklace bc him and mumbo were married in last life and im never letting it go

ren dog. puppy

scar, bigb and pearl all have one of grian's feathers. tango has one of jimmys and scott has one but he hides it

pleeeasaase if you have any questions about my deissn ask me because i would Love to ramble on and on about them

[falloutkeiji]

4 times eddie calls you sweetheart + 1 time he actually means it

words: 1.7k

characters: eddie munson x gn! reader

warnings: mentions of drug use (weed), light drinking, cursing, use of the nickname “sweetheart,” implied panic attack, the tiniest bit of angst

notes: this is my first fic pls be gentle w/ me. this is a play on the fic trend from a while ago that was like 4 + 1 things. anyway. hope u enjoy my blorbo writing

pt. 2

✰ the first time ✰

the smell of weed, tobacco, and incense hit your nose as you crossed the threshold into eddie’s room.

he plopped himself on his bed with a grin and flipped his black lunchbox open with a flourish.

“so…” he starts, drawing out the vowels way longer than he needs to. “what can i do for ya on this fine day?” he says in a faux professional voice.

the smirk on his face is playful, and he waves his hands in front of the dingy lunchbox as if he’s showing it off.

you play along with his bit, standing up straighter and pretending to be in deep thought. “i’ll take your finest product, sir. the best herbs you have on the market,” you reply.

eddie throws his head back with a raucous laugh, his hair falling behind his shoulders with the motion. you watch as his eyes squint shut and his mouth falls open as he shakes with the laughter. you really didn’t think what you said was all that funny, but the thought fades away as you watch him laugh unabashedly.

as his laughter dies down into small snorts, he grabs a small baggie of prerolled joints.

you stare at the bag in his hand, not making any motion to grab it. “what’s this? this isn’t what i’ve gotten from you the last like, 4 times.”

eddie’s grin grows on one side, and he waves the bag back and forth in the space between you two. “oh, you know. just wanted to make things easier, since you can’t roll for shit, sweetheart.”

it’s obvious he’s just trying to irritate you, but the knowledge doesn’t stop the flush from rising up your neck. you snatch the bag from him, muttering “asshole” under your breath, but you’re secretly thankful he went through the work of rolling your weed for you.

✰ the second time ✰

“welcome to music and more!”

eddie’s bored voice echoes through the empty store. he’s bent over the counter at the front, hair falling in front of his face as he writes quickly in a notebook.

it’s evident that he only heard the bell ring at your entrance and hasn’t seen you come in, so you stroll quietly up to the counter.

standing directly in front of him now, you can see his eyelashes fan over his cheekbones as he doodles characters for his next campaign. the action is so endearing that you want to scream and cry, but you watch him silently for a minute before clearing your throat.

“ahem, sir. i would like to speak to the manager.”

eddie’s head shoots up, a look of annoyance quickly fading into relief when he sees that it’s you standing there. “oh, thank fucking god. you scared the shit out of me there for a second.”

“whatcha drawing, munson? something nerdy, i presume?”

he glares at you before snatching his notebook away. “anyway,” he shouts, fixing the store lanyard that hangs around his neck. “why are you here?” he says suspiciously.

you gasp at him, hand against your chest in offense. “so rude, eddie. so rude. how dare you speak to a paying customer like that? i should have you fired for this.”

he grins at you, leaning up against the counter before replying. “i think you’re actually here because you can’t resist my epic salesman charisma, sweetheart.”

the flush returns to your face at that stupid fucking pet name, and you reach over the counter to punch him in the arm.

the conversation is dropped when, in typical eddie fashion, he collapses in a fit of dramatics onto the floor.

✰ the third time ✰

the awakening truly happens the third time he calls you sweetheart.

you’re packed into a dingy bar, surrounded by your small group of tipsy friends and a larger group of older, drunker men.

you’re stuck at a sticky barstool, waiting for the person you came for to get their ass on the stage. but, as is to be expected, the man of the hour is late.

30 minutes past their listed starting time, eddie and his band strut onto the stage.

for the next 30 minutes, your jaw is on the (beer-covered) floor.

you’d seen eddie practice before, had seen him singing and playing in his room and had even seen him practice with the rest of corroded coffin, but this was different.

eddie was up on that stage, hair teased up and eyes lined in black. his energy was electric as he played his guitar and banged his head to the song that you were, frankly, not even listening to.

the entire set passed in a daze, and you barely snapped out of it when eddie came bounding up to you after the show.

he was all giddy with excitement, bouncing on the balls of his feet. his hair was all over the place, and his eyeliner was smudged due to sweat, but you thought he had never looked prettier.

his excited grin turned teasing when he saw your awestruck expression. “seems like you enjoyed the show, sweetheart.”

if your face burned up, it could be blamed on the alcohol.

✰ the fourth time ✰

you had been avoiding eddie.

it had just become too much.

it was the one too many “sweethearts” that he so casually threw at you, but it was also, like, everything about him.

it was the fact that he was such a nerd and so passionate about his interests that he didn’t care. it was the fact that despite his flair for the dramatics, he was so sweet all the time, especially to you. it was the fact of his beautiful, stupid fucking hair and his pretty, stupid fucking smile and his hot, stupid fucking rings.

it was a wonder that you hadn’t fallen for him already in the years that you two had been friends. but now, you were at a complete loss.

you couldn’t do this to him. you were one of eddie’s only loyal, unconditional friends. you couldn’t put yourself in a place where you were lying to him and expecting more from him than what he could give you.

despite your better judgment and the churning nausea in the pit of your stomach, you grabbed your house phone and dialed a number you’d known by heart for years.

“hi, thank you for calling the munson residence! you kill ‘em, we grill ‘em! this is eddie speaking, how may i be of assistance to you?”

the anxiety you felt couldn’t help the laugh that escaped your throat at eddie’s greeting. it was a running joke for eddie to answer the phone with a different, equally ridiculous greeting each time.

“hi eddie. it’s me,” you speak quietly.

“oh hello! i should’ve recognized your laugh anywhere. to what do i owe the pleasure today, sweetheart?”

there it was again. that stupid fucking nickname. the reason that you had to make this call in the first place. the reason that your heart was racing and you felt bile rising up your throat.

and it wasn’t just the nickname. his casual tone caught you off guard and made you want to hang up the phone and forget this ever happened. you had expected him to be mad at your week-long avoidance, but his tone made it seem like he didn’t notice, or simply didn’t care. how was he still fucking flirting?

after an awkwardly long pause, you remembered that he had asked a question and was definitely still expecting an answer. “um. can we- can i come over?”

✰ + the first time he means it ✰

being in his room makes things like exponentially worse.

you’re surrounded by eddie. his entire soul is bared across the small room, with his band and movie posters, with his band shirts strewn across the room, with his notebooks filled with drawings and lyrics, with his guitar, with him.

“so….” he starts, twirling his hair around his finger and holding it to his face. “what did ya wanna talk about?”

he’s visibly nervous, if the hair twirling and leg shaking is anything to go by. you feel bad for making him nervous, but your own nerves are making it impossible to say what you need to say.

after a good minute of silence, he opens his mouth again. “swee-“

“that,” you cut him off.

he drops his hair, moving his fingers to play with his rings. “what?” he asks, his eyebrows raising up into his bangs in confusion.

“that. that fucking word, eddie. stop calling me that.”

“sweetheart?”

“yes, eddie, fuck.”

he looks at you for a while before speaking. he seems hesitant, not knowing exactly how to react to your outburst. “i’m sorry if i made you uncomfortable. i really am. that was never my intention. i was just messing with you.”

frustrated tears fill your eyes. “that’s the problem, eds. that’s the fucking problem. that you’re just “messing” with me. i don’t want you to just be messing with me. i really, really like you. i didn’t realize it until you started calling me sweetheart and it made me so flustered and i didn’t know why it made me so flustered but it’s because i fucking really like you and i’m sorry and i really didn’t want to ruin our friendship so if you don’t wanna speak to me again that’s fine i just can’t handle it anymore and i just had to tell you. i’m sorry.”

at this point, the tears are fully streaming down your face. your breathing is labored, both from the anxiety and the long-winded rambling. you shut your eyes so hard you see colors because you can’t stand to see eddie’s reaction.

you flinch when you feel a warm pressure wipe away the tears on your cheeks. “breathe for me. in and out, you got it,” he says quietly, gently resting his hand on your shoulder.

it’s after a few minutes of his coaxing that you finally relax. once he feels you stop hyperventilating, he leans back to look at you. “so… if i tell you that i’m not just messing with you, can i start calling you sweetheart again?” despite the casual air of his words, he is back to twirling his hair and avoiding your gaze.

you glare at him half-heartedly. “and what is that supposed to mean?”

“it means that i like you too, dumbass.” despite this brash confession, eddie’s face is flushed with color as he grabs your hand in his. he kisses your palm, and you pretend not to shiver when he whispers “sweetheart” into your skin.

🏷: @pupkou

[attyattlaw]

cross posting yesterday's rambling thread for posterity and because tumblr lets me edit things. anyway this is a sorta long thing and i might add things i forgot to mention in the twt thread

i tend to draw on-model canon because im a coward + just personal preferences. but the way i convert the canon designs into my artstyle is that i take the distinct features oda gives them and then combine it with personal headcanons to complete what should look like a unique human. Starting with Trafalgar Law, who is unfortunately a bland-ass conventionally pretty boy

someone commented a while ago the law hat drawing tutorial i made a while ago didn't make much sense and i realize its bc of the specific way i draw law's face: heart shaped (ba-dum-tss). That meaning, a narrow chin widening into a mild defined jaw, wide cheekbones, and up to his know-it-all brain dome.

given that, the pudgy guitar pick shape of his head i mentioned here should make a lot more sense.

i don't think this design point is unique to me, as most conventional pretty anime boy gets given jaws like this. a lot of law artists tend to veer into this head shape. just how life be sometimes. other points: flat, thick eyebrows is bc im a hairy gal and i need to feel better about myself.

Killer gets to be more interesting, because he shouldn't be considered conventionally attractive. my idea behind killer's is that those individual features is smth he would be insecure with enough to hide himself in a helmet but i draw him with all the love in the world actually. i'd like to think its how kid sees him or yknow, law, bc he's my kin assigned blorbo and maybe you ship lawkill as a guilty pleasure too i mentioned before (and ruined people's days) when i said whenever i draw killer he looks like griffith before i put on his goatee. the upper half of his face is distinctly feminine, with the lower half kinda over compensating. other than that uhh...idk. stan killer

Kidd is the bane of my existence, i feel like i can never draw his face consistently. yet at the same time he's so damn fun to draw everyone gotta try it.

my problem with kidd is that this mf does have eyelids. most kidd painters out there interpret this as him having deep set eyes (think Matt Smith or jeffrey star) . and yeh skill issue on me i should practice that. other notes, i try to make him younger than canon makes him look. he is my babygirl and he deserves to look cuddly. my band au kidd version has the honor of being allowed some chubs. he's just tries to look older and more menacing with edgy makeup. also i try to give him dimples when i can because, well i can.

Rosinante last bc i lost steam after kidd. the thing abt cora is that aside from not having eyebrows, everything is structured with the generic one piece man template. which means i gotta do everything myself doffy is there bc the way to figure out how to draw these two is to give them minor differences from each other, that being doffy gets slightly sharper features. in canon, these two are also rly wide boys (more of an oda style feat tbh) but i make them long. though bigger brained donquixote artists know that of these two brothers, doffy should be the wiry-er built. anyway that's it. in conclusion, i need to draw more girls actually i feel like im becoming misogynistic by osmosis from oda's style and now i draw girls all looking the same too.

[2hoothoots]

So I was going through your blog (again) and found some of your stuff mentions fsau Raz having ADHD, as somebody with adhd I’m intrigued, may I have some of those headcanons (canons??) related to that? Also, I would give “a penny for your thoughts” but I’m out of pennies, so here’s various images of a drawing of ur blorbo I put next to my animals, note that a rock had to be added in one picture to keep him from flying away (BONUS: his now permanent place with the wifi guardian frog)

NOTHING brings me more joy than seeing physical drawings of these guys, like, out and about. in situations. thank you for this gift, and ALSO for the great ask because it's a perfect chance to ramble

so first of all, canon Raz having ADHD is very real to me. he's constantly fidgeting and moving around, getting distracted by sidequests and scavenger hunt objectives, always talking to himself out loud, gotta write everything down so he remembers it because there's so much to DO!, running away from home because his dad yelled at him one time and now Raz assumes he must hate him forever... i could go on, but i think there's a lot of room for interpretation there!

in my headcanon, he never got diagnosed as a kid. maybe there were some notes about it in his reports each year, sure - but a little hyperactivity and distractability never seemed to slow him down. he excelled in lessons and on missions, and when he was with his family their performances gave him something to focus that energy into. it was only really when he turned 18 and graduated to a full agent that the cracks started to show.

because there's a big difference between the responsibilities you have as a minor, and the responsibilities you have as an 18-year-old living away from home! one who's expected to cook and clean for themselves, and take care of adult life stuff, and also work the 9-to-5 office job he's just graduated into that involves sitting in front of a computer and write reports all day.

short-term, he found he could get himself to power through a deadline with energy drinks and psi-pops (a lot of psi-pops...)

long-term, something had to give. he was working himself to exhaustion, constantly stressed, swinging between days spent staring at his computer screen doing nothing and all-nighters desperately trying to finish his paperwork before the deadline. it just didn't make any sense to him. he'd finally started his job as a Psychonaut, he was living independently like he'd always dreamed, he'd gotten top surgery after planning it for so long. he should have everything he ever wanted. why wasn't he happy?

following a deep post-surgical depression, about a month before his 19th birthday Raz was living out of his car, couch-surfing or sleeping in his office. he got kicked out of his apartment after falling behind on bills and rent. it wasn't that he didn't have the money, it was all just too much for him to stay on top of.

he'd probably have stayed in that misery hole for a lot longer if Frazie hadn't marched into his life and demanded he let her help him move into a new place, or she was telling mom that he was homeless. together, they sorted through all of his possessions from the last place - everything that had been hastily shoved in his car, or tossed in a box in his office, piled in a heap that was giving him anxiety even looking at it.

things do get better for him from there.

when he eventually explains things to Hollis, she gently suggests that he should get a roommate. he ends up moving in with Phoebe, and they become pretty good friends after a couple months! something about having another person around to help do the chores and wash the dishes and share the space helps, even if it takes him a while to admit it.

he gets his ADHD diagnosis, and finding the exact right medication and dose is a journey he's still on years later - but they're a huge help in getting him to actually knuckle down and finish his work on time. and the whole thing ends up being a chance for him to take a step back and really think about what he wants to do with his life. he'd always assumed that being a Psychonaut was his dream, but he'd never really reckoned with what that dream would look like before.

in the end, he sticks with it, but also decides to follow Lili's example in branching out. he applies to study a part-time Bachelor's in Psychology on a remote course, and gets accepted. juggling missions and paperwork and study and relationships (because the whole thing made him realise he also wasn't setting aside any time for himself, and wow, dating is a thing) is a lot - but he manages to figure it out, day by day.

(Lili comes back to the Psychonauts after graduating. she and Raz have both changed a lot over those four years, but on their first mission together they hit it off like a house on fire - and the rest is history!)

[softcitrus2345]

12. Ghost - Amari gets posessed by a cheeky ghost that goes on a feeding frenzy in his body >;3c Ghosts aren't really my thing but I thought I'd still give it a shot, I didn't wanna skip a prompt so here's this scribbled sequence for yall that took me WAY too long to do (I blame the absence of my art braincell this week) I feel like I'm getting a little too ambitious with these prompts but I wanna get my ideas across so it's taking forever 😭 (especially with these last few prompts, where they've been harder for me to come up with-)

But I am DETERMINED to push through and get the prompts done, I owe it to myself and my blorbos (and yall XD)

Even if I have to bleed into next month with the prompts, I'll do it 'cause I have so many good ideas I wanna draw out and share on here TTwTT

[see-arcane]

I figured I should interrupt everyone's dash for some notes on current real life things.

This is a hefty one, so I'm tucking everything below:

A little good news. As of this writing, I’ve sold 74 copies of The Vampyres, in eBook and paperback! That’s 74 more than I thought I would ever sell! Thank you to everyone who picked up a copy or asked your library to grab some. Especially when I know I haven’t been the most stellar self-marketer. I can’t remember the last time I opened the septic tank formerly known as Twitter, so it’s all been down to this little corner here and a skinny appearance in Goodreads. Which means I owe any attention this short and sinister tale has received to you all and plain old word-of-mouth.

That said, thank you x100000 to you and any new readers yet to take a look. (And doubly so for those of you who go out of their way to leave comments and reviews around for me to reread ad infinitum.)

For those not in the know, all the info on The Vampyres can be found here, and all my author odds and ends can be found on my website here.

On a less heartening note…

As I’d already expected, the market for career writers is…rough. Copywriting—and writing in general—is technically a big open field (full of caveat descriptions about having to work with/teach AI programs to eventually swallow your job)! Tons of open positions! Most of which either pay you in pocket change while you’re working full time or expect you to singlehandedly run the entire marketing of a business for slightly more pocket change. Everything else is bloated with contract and/or freelance work*.

*Read: Gig economy schlock trying to pass for an actual job position with payment being a coin toss. I’ve also seen one too many listings on the job boards that are volunteer positions. Plenty of exposure to rake in though, right? Ha. Ha ha.

I’ve still been applying like clockwork, same as the rest of my fellow creators trying to get by in a field that seems to actively punish trying to be a professional in said field, and still no bites further than an interview. I have years of experience and a degree, but everyone’s chasing the same crumbs, so. Yeah. I’ve got to start padding things out.

Reminder that I do have a (barely peddled) Ko-Fi. It’s there for art commissions and chucking a few spare bucks at. Which is an increasingly big ask these days, I know. You can’t scroll two posts down without hitting someone else’s Ko-Fi, Patreon, GoFundMe, Kickstarter, et cetera. We’re drowning in arting starvists here. And although I have been asked before whether I would consider going full Freelance Storywriter on top of selling art, I’m still a little hesitant on it. I do occasionally send out story submissions and have even gotten published a few times, but I get nauseous thinking about:

1) Putting up a paywall on the scribbles that assail me like a baseball bat wielded by an unmerciful Muse. 2) Putting up a ‘Stories for Sale!’ sign only to wind up disappointing prospective buyers because I didn’t do their blorbos justice even after researching X background for the piece. 3) Getting duped into being a nonconsenting ghostwriter and discovering someone else has published my work under their own name.

So, still a bit iffy on that. I’ll chew on it. But what else is left?

Before you click the button!

Stop!

NOT YET!

Before you click, please know that I am being serious about this as something to potentially make 1) something of good quality and 2) earn more money than it loses. Looking around at the merch-making/selling options, there are fees involved with making an account just about anywhere in the online store game, give or take the price tweaking needed for shipping and manufacturing blah blah blah.

With that in mind, please do not automatically hit ‘yes’ because you want to be nice. I appreciate it, but this isn’t the same thing as the Ko-Fi where there’s no real loss in just leaving it up and drawing something once every few months. This will take new designs, another subscription to pay for, more logistics to untangle for quality and pricing and all the rest of the mess. Only hit ‘yes’ if you, personally, genuinely, would like to purchase some nefarious See Arcane wares beyond a book or a digital drawing.