#I Waited for This Commission Since November

[sanctus-ingenium]

we need to talk about Inprnt.com

Following a really good post with more screenshots and evidence by @dynasoar5 i'm going to talk about my own experiences with @inprnt and why I am about to put my shop on indefinite hiatus from Monday the 14th of August.

First of all I'll say that since starting my print shop last year it has been a significant help to me financially - I was able to not worry about affording car insurance or motor tax (together commonly over a thousand euro) when I bought my first car, for example. I am immeasurably grateful to anyone who chose to buy one and I treasure all the pictures I've been sent of my prints hanging up on people's walls. Right now they are displayed in a real (if small) art exhibition in my home town.

(top right print is not from inprnt though)

They're great prints. Never had any complaints about them. But here's what's going on behind the scenes.

Earlier this year, around March or April, Inprnt sales started increasing in regularity. I'd made as much as $600 a week during previous sales when I made proper promo posts here, but with this increase in regularity, I felt that I couldn't make promo posts every single week. And then one day, I'm not sure when tbh, the sale just never ended. It just didn't stop having that "Ending soon! 15% off your order" banner at the top of the site. Right now it says "Final Hours: $5 Worldwide shipping and save up to 35% off your order!" and not even for a second do I believe in this final hours bullshit. It's been 'final hours' for weeks now. Months, even.

Why is this a problem? Well, how tf am I meant to make a promo post for a sale that is always "ending soon!!" and then never ends. One week it'll say "this weekend only!!" and then when the weekend is over, the sale banner just changes its wording and the sale doesn't end. I can't promo this, it makes me look like a liar and a skeevy salesman by association! It makes the site look like it's 1 week from crashing and burning, and the site owners are just scrabbling to suck as much money from artists as possible before they drown.

And they are sucking money from us. To peel back the curtain, Inprnt money can only be transferred to my paypal account 30 days after the sale is made, just in case the order is cancelled and refunded. This means I used to make one withdrawal every couple of months, when there was enough build-up of money to make it worthwhile. It also forbids withdrawing any sum under $50 btw. I would make a withdrawal request and then, after a 10 business day wait, it would reach my Paypal account.

Not anymore! The past few withdrawals have taken over a month to complete. They are straight up keeping my earnings from me for longer the agreed period. This was my last fulfilled withdrawal:

Note the date.

Almost two months.

And here is the latest withdrawal request that still has not been fulfilled.

It's coming up on 1 month and if the pattern continues, it could literally be November or December by the time I fully clear all sales.

So what's going to happen to my print shop? Because my art is currently being exhibited with a QR code linking to the shop, I can't close the shop this week. Instead I will close it on Monday the 14th of August, next week. That means that on the 14th of September, I can withdraw all of the remaining money without having any left over. My account balance will go to 0 and stay there. Although I'll de-list my prints I will leave my account there, because at the end of the day I don't want to leave Inprnt. It still offers the best artist margins and as I'm now unemployed after graduating, the additional support is such a load off my mind. So this is a chance to wait and see - if they improve their services, I'll happily re-open.

It's a big deal to me because selling prints is sort of my ideal life as an artist. I never had the attention span or self-discipline for commission work and I found that it left me creatively stagnant. I always want to try new things, new concepts and ideas, and being able to think "yeah, people will like this as a print" while I experiment is honestly very reassuring. And I know that in going on hiatus, it'll break a lot of "buy a print" links in my circulating posts. Oh well lmao. If you want to buy a print right now - go ahead, it might be your last opportunity. Another way to support me would be to check out my ko-fi for once-off donations or some nice sketchbooks/comics/book samples you can buy, or subscribing to my Patreon.

As of right now, Inprnt owes me $381 (the unfulfilled request submitted above for $186.60 and my current standing balance of $194.80 which takes 30 days from each transaction to clear).

[aigoos]

Obikin Onsen Art

Since November, I've been on this Japanese Obikin art kick. First, it was the hanami art. Next was the yukata art. Then came the samurai art. Lastly was the Japanese school boys art.

A week or two ago, I had the idea that I needed them at a Japanese-style onsen (aka outdoor hot springs). So I contacted the wonderful @kana7o for another commission and shared with her my vision.

Oh. Em. Eff. Gee. Holy fucking hell. My vision came alive and it's way better than what I'd expected. ASDJKFJASDJAKJDAS!!!!!

I was going to wait and share this on Valentine's Day, but EFF THAT. THIS AMAZINGNESS NEEDS TO BE SHARED NOW.

HOMG. HOMFG. This is so fucking beautiful. The gorgeous background took my breath away. Look at the snow-covered trees, the mountains, the steamy water -- AHHHHHHHHHHH! And then the boys themselves!!!! Such a tender moment between the two -- almost makes me feel like a peeping Tom, haha! But ahhhhh! This is absolutely gorgeous! @kana7o, you have truly outdone yourself! Thank you for always humouring my crazy art ideas that you bring to life!

ETA: Here's an up-close image of the two beauties!

[wigglebox]

🎃Suptober Announcement! 🎃

First, some housekeeping: Commissions are closed from now until November due to the Suptober challenge!

This year for Suptober, I will be making all of the line art I do for the prompts available at the end of the month as printable coloring pages! There will also be some other art not seen here as well as just some normal floral backgrounds to color as well.

So there will likely be 35+ drawings you’ll be able to print if you want to color. I am still researching into how to print them all into a book, but that’ll be more expensive and is a side quest right now.

All of the drawings will be safe for work so you and your families and kids can color if you want as well!

Most of the drawings will be Dean and Cas related. Without knowing the prompts, I’m unsure the percentage, however going off of 2022 Suptober, most will be Destiel themed.

I’ll make another announcement when the files are ready and where you’ll be able to go to get them! They won’t be free, but they aren’t going to break the bank either since it won’t be a physical book [yet].

I’m so excited for this year’s Suptober and I can’t wait to see what everyone else does with the challenge as well!

🎃🍂🧡

[serahlink]

🚨 EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS OPEN🚨 tw // homeless / some med talk but not much

Reblogs are greatly appreciated!!

Making a new post to hopefully get some work for my family and I so we have somewhere to stay for tonight, since work has been very slow lately. I'm Link, and I'm a 22-year old artist, and my family and I (me + my father and younger sibling) have been homeless since November 2021. It's a long story. TL;DR version is at the same time, while I was living with a friend and my dad + younger sibling was on the road (he drove a van at the time) he had gotten into a diabetic coma and was fired by his job. Being fired meant he or my sibling didn't exactly have a home to go back to, as our relatives on both sides refused to help. At the same time, I was going to have to find someplace else since my friends grandmother was entering the late stages of her life and they had to transfer her to the nursery, meaning there was a lot of things his family had to take care of and I couldn't be there. They allowed my father, sibling and I to stay there for two weeks to give us time to find someplace else.

While I was there, I'd been doing commissions to help their family out with food, and since it was either the streets or living under a roof; I told my friend to take us to a nearby motel since we had enough for a day, and we could figure things out from there. So since then, I've been keeping us here by doing commissions ever since. Either of us haven't been able to obtain a job yet due to how hard it is for us to get our documents to get an id (we dont have a car at the moment, and saving money for the room and food is already tough as is), but recently we think we might be able to get my father's ID so he can work, were waiting on his lung condition to recover fully and get money saved up for the documents and all that before we apply to get them. So hope isn't fully lost for us, we just need to take care of some things for a while longer until then.

Recently, things have gotten worse again. We were paying weekly thanks to the help from my followers and commissions I was getting, but when we weren't able to pay for another, we went back to paying daily again. And immediately we were set back. For the past few days, we haven't been able to pay for one let alone food. We were able to pay most of it to at least stay here, thanks to the kindness of the staff, but they called us earlier to tell us if we couldn't pay everything tonight, then we'd have to leave. We owe 120 by 11pm tonight, and I thought maybe making a new post might help us since posting on my other socials hasn't done much for us lately.

My commissions are open, and if you're interested in helping us out via a commission you can contact me through my Tumblr dms since it's the easiest way to get to me. But if you can't help financially, which I totally understand, I know the economy is tough on all of us right now, please don't feel bad or anything. Reblogs also help us a ton, and it always means a lot to us.

For the commission info itself, I have it all packed into this link right here, along with examples of my art and prices. I draw mainly fantasy pertaining to the Dragon Age Series and although I know little to nothing about Baulders Gate, I have done some art of tavs before! I also do DnD work as well, so I'm used to drawing pretty unique characters. I'll also put some examples I have below. If you want something outside of that, I'm sure I can provide, just let me know upon your request! And I think that's all. Much love to you and thank you for reading, I hope you have a wonderful day/night :)

[amity206]

Commissions Open - Sparrow and Moth Packs!

With the Sparrow and Moth Packs ($9.99 USD each) becoming available on November 27, I’m opening commissions for them as I would like them very much :)

For each one, I’ll draw a full body skykid for you (spirits, elders, and non-sky characters are also an option).

SLOTS:

Sparrow Appreciation Pack (CLOSED)

Moth Appreciation Pack (CLOSED)

PROCESS:

You message me letting me know what you want, and I’ll tell you what kinds of reference photos I’ll need to do the art.

Exchange QR codes! This can be skipped if we’re already Sky buddies.

We discuss what kind of pose you’d like your character in, and I’ll sketch out some potential poses to show you.

Since there’s a 3-day waiting period before gifting IAPs is an option, during those days I’ll send you progress shots with the option to change anything you don’t like.

You will receive the final art piece once the IAP has been received. Throughout the waiting period, I may also send you little random doodles of your skykid. Please stop trying to pay me for the random doodles. Please.

As usual, I won’t do anything NSFW, hateful, or ridiculously complex. DM me if you have any questions or are interested! Earlier is better because I’m honestly just really excited about these packs lol 😶

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

I'm posting this now because I'm impatient and also because I just got that commission done by jerribbit (go look at it and admire it 🥰) which is based off of the same thumbnail as this drawing (lol) 'cause I had one of those moments like, "wait this concept is too good for me to not also draw this picture," so even though I paid someone else to draw it, I decided to also draw it. But expanded upon.

anyway it's AU-related and I plan to actually put this in a post with some other images later but I have to like, draw the other images first...

these are both Kaine as he looks in Houston in windowverse; left in mid-october or thereabouts and right in mid-november ish. 2015. he's 26/27/28/6 years old depending on how you start counting. (lol) (he's 27 and a half)

originally, I was gonna put his costume underneath, but I ended up deciding to bare his neck, just for the like... cohesion of the image as a whole.

closeups/details under the cut:

left pic is Kaine in mid-October ish as mentioned, mid-to-late really... he ran out of medication and he's not doing so hot. some breakthrough spots as his immune system kicks back into gear.

some of those spots (the little ones) are just from picking at his skin though.

then he gets eaten by werewolves.

also shaves his head. the white pupil is a cataract he's had for a few years at this point. a combo of meds + physical trauma when he was a few years younger.

also it turns out shaving a character's face and making his cheeks rounder really shaves off the years.

he may be going through some shit and adjusting to new medications and so on and so forth but at least he's eating enough ❤️

stop chewing your lips dude. anyway i spent at least an hour on coloring his scars in the second pic lmao, i just enjoy that. Like, lighting? no. texturing? yes. it's just a bunch of overlapping marks of cain. mark of cains. handprints :) a la Spider-Man: Redemption.

opposite side obviously.

some red hairs in his scraggly little beard :p

his voice is fried, for the record. that scar is right over his voice box. it's like five years old though, so it's well-healed.

and then it gets even more fried, probably. this relatively fresh extremely gnarly scar is from getting his throat ripped out by a werewolf lol.

He died! Then he got better. Obv being eaten by werewolves is directly lifted from his Scarlet Spider solo, though not everything is identical.

i had to bullshit the way it looks also cause idk about you but it seems like asking for trouble to try and google, like, "scars from wolf mauling" or something. lmao.

in the windowverse setting, the Other heals injuries but existing scars stay put, and in this case the life-threatening injuries he sustained made new scars rather than healing away to smooth skin, on account of, hey, he got torn limb from limb by werewolves! not exactly a papercut, you know???

admire his hair. the only reason it's not one big fluff is because of his expensive hair products.

oh yeah blue pullover hoodie because that's what Ben has :)

and the charcoal gray hoodie is a $345 Derek Rose hoodie he got from Saks after Aracely decided that she liked his blue hoodie and it's hers now.

oh right as far as his age goes—

this pic is, as mentioned, how he looks in fall 2015.

he was ''born'' on 4/1/2009 (so if you must be literal he's 6 years old)

he reached 22 the day after Peter's 22nd birthday (10/31/2009) (so he's 28)

but his 22nd birthday wasn't until 4/1/2010 (so he's 27)

according to the birth certificate wally gets made for him in this au he was born on 4/1/1989 (so he's legally 26)

He usually counts from his observed 22nd birthday in 2010 so generally he would consider himself 27 at this point. as long as he can remember his fake birth year it doesn't matter if he forgets what age he's ''supposed'' to be and since he was born in 2009 technically that makes 1989 much easier to remember.

also aracely was born in 1999 in this universe so this makes her both 10 years older than and 10 years younger than him :) which was another factor in why i picked 1989

[project-sekai-facts]

thinking about it stresses me out and i can't explain it well but making the world link events take up an entire event slot instead of it running alongside a different event is such a horrible idea imo, especially if it takes this month's lim banner entirely. and i think it's impossible considering vbs's one is in january and there's the new years fes anyways? unless they make new years perm again like in 2021 but it's going to be so fucking annoying and predictable for any fan that's been waiting for a lim for a while, especially vsers because it basically confirms that the devs STILL aren't treating them like the actual characters and putting them in events with the ocs (let alone having to wait until AUGUST for more fucking lims, yea like we need another fucking one-year gap /s). its genuinely irritating for me if they end up deciding that and not making next event lim. plus it makes the next event from now only six days considering this gacha ends October 31st, and with the event gap, the event has to end November 5th or 6th. and this wl event lasts 12 days and no event has lasted either of those lengths in jp (not to mention the weird fucking chapter-by-chapter thing going on?). sorry for acting angry but i really am disappointed if this ends up being the case without any fucking warning it makes no sense!

yeah the WL event just feels like it needs some work. obviously this is the first one so there's gonna be some problems here and there but this feels like it's pretty messily put together, even for a first run. i understand it taking an event slot because otherwise you'd have to tier two separate events at the same time and that'd just be difficult, but just the sheer amount of time it takes up is too much. maybe shorten the chapters to 2 days from 3, 12 days is too long. it's just gonna be really draining and a pain in the ass to tier, plus it makes the event before it really short. like seriously, 7 days for the MMJ event? i mean the current event is only 8 but normally cheerful carnivals last about 10 because of the format. i mean MMJ wouldn't perform as well as a N25 banner anyway so maybe they're just throwing the 7 day event on them for testing purposes.

since VBS is directly after new year colofes+lims I'm guessing WL lims don't count as actual lims. maybe they don't have hairstyles, i mean they said about MR2 unlocking special cut-ins, so maybe they do that instead of hairstyles. i wonder if they'll be like a bday card where they have their own rarity or something because if the game is willing to run them directly after a fes banner they can't be all that rare? maybe they reappear on future WL events like how all fes cards are on every colofes banner.

i get the feeling that the WL event won't have a specific character focus. they didn't announce a song other than the 3rd anniversary campaign one, so unless they're deciding to count that as Kanade's 4th comm then it doesn't look like this has a specific focus. well, apparently each part of the event/story is focused on a different character so that makes sense I guess. also the 3rd anni campaign commissions are meant to release monthly, and these events are getting dragged out until well past when all unit will've gotten their comm.

i think a lot of adjustments are gonna have to be made to the event starting from the VBS one. like the whole thing feels messy right now. and maybe it's because they haven't really told us a whole lot about how it works still, but there's obvious problems from the get-go like the duration and the amount of gacha cards on top of the fact they're now rerunning 3 lim gachas at a time. how badly does this game want our money they earn way more than any other idol game on the market.

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Hey there I just wanted to check, with another writing delay does that mean to release is postponed/delayed again? I noticed you didn't actually mention that this could be a factor that would delay the game, but so far it seems to be the biggest factor delaying its release. I'm not sure why you haven't mentioning that when you speak about delays and have been focusing on the art as the thing delaying the release. But it's clear from your weekly updates that the writing for the first route is still not done.

I'm a backer of the KS and it's clear from previous questions you've answered here that I'm not the only one concerned about the lack of writing progress being made for Made Marion. But my biggest concern is your lack of acknowledgment that that is the biggest delaying factor at this point. I really didn't want to write this message, but it's been almost 2 and half years since the KS and I think your backers and pre-order buyers deserve some clarity around the actual delivery time of this game.

Hiya! Nope, there is no further delay to Robin's route due to writing at this point. (Bolded for TL:DR, the rest is ramblings.) Robin's route is still on schedule to release in early November. I'm being more granular with my exact writing progress in our Tuesday updates precisely so that I can provide the transparency that was requested. So you'll hear about my good weeks and my bad weeks, but please don't worry too much if I have a bad one.

The project's writing and coding are the things I can personally control. I had a rough week last week and ending 4a isn't quite done yet, but it's close enough that I know I can still deliver on time. I have re-chunked out my time so that I will complete ending 4a in smaller writing chunks alongside coding Chapter 3, which is actually how I do my most productive work.

When I didn't include writing as a possible delay factor for Robin's early November release, it wasn't because I'm not acknowledging that writing has been a major delay factor (I dedicated an entire KS update to that this summer). It's because I was personally pledging that my chunk of the project will be done in time for the November release.

For the project overall, the writing and art completion are about equal in terms of delay factors right now. I am still waiting on the full completion of three vital sprites needed for Robin's route and several character sprites that have smaller parts in Robin's route but are important on later routes still need to be done. Our cut-in art is behind schedule as well. Once the sprite art is fully finished and our lead artist only has to worry about CGs (and doing the KS wallpapers), the writing will indeed be the biggest factor in terms of when things come out (cut-ins are more flexible since only a few are vital). But right now, all of us except the fabulous Sandra (background artist) are in the same boat.

The year I lost to long Covid brain fog aside, I will say I regret setting what I now realize was a far too optimistic completion time for the project. I didn't know what I didn't know and didn't have access to a lot of knowledge about how long these projects take.

Now that I have a lot more data points to analyze, I realize that assuming it happens close to the start of development, 4-5 years post-Kickstarter is much more realistic for games of this scope. Because I underestimated so severely and because of my lost year, I'm trying to deliver as much as I can as quickly as possible, which is why I'm putting things out route by route with Early Access.

In the future, I'll be doing things very differently. After Made Marion and its DLC is completed, I'll be taking a good long time to finish most of the writing for my next game before I worry about commissioning art or doing any crowdfunding, if I decide to do crowdfunding. I'll have the cushion to do that after having put out our first game.

In the meantime, what I can pledge is that Made Marion is our top priority; I'm not doing jams or smaller games in the meantime, I'm just making this game.

This will probably be the last ask like this that I answer for a while, as it does ratchet up my anxiety. I will continue to report our progress on a weekly basis in preparation for our November Robin launch!

Edit: For clarity on underestimating completion time.

[nei-ning]

Commissions & Readings

I realized today that my passport, my only ID, is going to expire soon and I need new one ASAP. If I can't get new passport as my ID before the old one expires, I'm screwed! After leaving the application to new passport, it may take even a month before I get it.

I also did some calculations. Because of Verti's passing, I lost my passport money in that. Verti's passing came to come to cost me 72 euros (vet putting him down), cremation + urn + delivery 110 euros = 182 euros in total. Over half of my monthly money for food.

New passport would be 70 euros. And that's why I am reaching to you, my dear followers, since I can't wait in the beginning of November. I would be offering commissions and readings for anyone interested. Cheap ones too.

*****

COMMISSIONS: 5€ for fully colored and shaded bust +1€ for extra character. Simple background +2€

I do: Nsfw, sfw, anthros, OC, OC x original character, original x original, OC x OC, human x turtle, anthro x human, blood, horror, gore, cute stuff, chibies. I don't do: Realistic things, super kinky stuffs (ask me more), machines, Splintercest,

Your commission will be send to you via email! You can contact me via ask or chat :3 PAYMENT VIA PAYPAL ONLY AFTER SEEING THE SKETCH / BEFORE FINISHED WORK!

If you want bigger and more detailed commissions, ask me! I am ALWAYS willing to talk and compromise about the prices. I also can draw an art for you to your fanfic if you prefer that! :3 *****

READINGS: 5€ for 1-2 cards. You can ask anything but try to keep the questions limited to 2 AT MAX! I still think myself as a beginner even that I've done readings to myself, to my sister and few friends for few years now (not super actively) so, please, take only that what resonates with you, leave the rest!

Your order can be sent via email or here via chat! Payment via PayPal after I have received your question / before I send you the answer!

*****

If any of you have any questions about any of this, since I could have forgot something, ASK! :3 Every coin would help me, honestly and truly.

[kikiiswashere]

Y'ALL.

Lookit our bbg Katya. Beautifully painted by @ospreyadderart

Her commissions are open right now, so if you've been waiting to get a piece done consider this your sign!

I commissioned the below piece from her this past November and she is an utter joy to work with. Responsive, professional, timely, collaborative, and (if you couldn't tell) INSANELY talented.

It's been a long time since someone's art has scratched my brain this good. I'm so happy I stumbled across her stuff. And you will be too!

[anabelreinaart]

Hi! How are you? I hope your March is going well so far. It has been a while since I wrote anything, as I have been working on the updated webtoon panels of Blue Tea, among other things. This is a revision of one of them, so as you can see I'm putting all my background knowledge on the table! Let's keep improving our skills. My Cintiq broke randomly because of the blackout on November, it seems it just couldn't take anymore. Right now I'm working with my old, baby one, and the difference in screens is enormous, I'm really not used to this anymore haha Mr. Reina is using all his skills to find me a new one in a decent prize, even bigger than the last while we wait for certain pieces to change in the motherboard, so maybe I could bring some news soon. I feel so fortunate of having a fiancé who I can rely in the complex aspects of tech stuff. I also have been working on several commissions and small projects, and right now I'm learning kanas because maybe, and just maybe, I'll have the opportunity to work for/in Japan! Fingers crossed. Next month I will be in Granada to present portfolio to certain publishing companies. Fingers crossed too~

[scotianostra]

November 28th 1489 saw the birth of Margaret Tudor, the sister of Henry VIII of England.

Maybe Margaret was destined to be Queen of Scotland, she was baptised on November 30th 1489, St Andrews day.

From an early age, Margaret was part of Henry VII’s negotiations for important marriages for his children and her betrothal to James IV of Scotland was made official by a treaty in 1502 even though discussions had been underway since 1496. Part of the delay was the wait for a papal dispensation because James’ great-grandmother was Joan Beaufort, sister of John Beaufort, who was the great-grandfather of Margaret Tudor. That made James IV and Margaret Tudor fourth cousins, which was within the prohibited degree. Patrick Hepburn, the Earl of Bothwell, acted as a proxy for James IV of Scotland for his betrothal to Margaret Tudor at Richmond in January 1502 before the couple was married in person in August 1503.

The Tudor writer Richard Grafton escorted Margaret to Scotland and it’s seems he wasn’t too taken with us, he later wrote….“Then this lady was taken to the town of Edinburgh, and there the day after King James IV in the presence of all his nobility married the said princess, and feasted the English lords, and showed them jousts and other pastimes, very honourably, after the fashion of this rude country. When all things were done and finished according to their commission the earl of Surrey with all the English lords and ladies returned to their country, giving more praise to the manhood than to the good manner and nature of Scotland.”

It’s amazing we survived as a race, let alone as Scots, given the mortality rate, even in cases where the mothers well better off, as in Margaret’s case, she had a horrible time trying to provide James IV with an heir. Her first pregnancy was in 1506 and she gave birth to a son, James, in February 1507 who lived about a year. Margaret next gave birth to a daughter in July 1508 who only survived for a few hours. In 1509, Margaret’s father died and her brother was now Henry VIII, the new king of England. Early in that year Margaret became pregnant once again and gave birth to another son, this one named Arthur, in October. However, this child also died at a young age, only nine months old.

Margaret’s next child was born on April 11, 1512 at Linlithgow and named James. This child, unlike all those before him, lived to adulthood and at little over a year old he was to succeed his father as James V. The Queen became pregnant yet again shortly afterwards and gave birth to another daughter, who died a few hours later.

It was during Margaret’s final pregnancy that James IV and the Flower of Scotland, died on the battlefield at Flodden.

Margaret had thoughts of becoming regent for James V, but it was unheard of for women to rule, so needed a husband, unfortunately for her she chose a man seen by his counterparts as a fool. Her second husband was the powerful Scottish lord Archibald Douglas, 6th Earl of Angus. And so it was that John Stuart, Duke of Albany (a cousin to the king, and next in line to the throne after little Alexander’s death), was invited by the Scottish lords to be Regent. Albany had been living in France with his mother’s relatives and served three French kings - Charles VIII, Louis XII and Francis I. Albany arrived in Scotland in May 1515.

By this time Margaret was pregnant, yes again!. As an English woman among Scots she felt ill at ease and fled to England, James V had by this time been seized from her by the Lords. She gave birth to a daughter, Margaret Douglas in October. Margaret fell very ill after her daughter’s birth and nearly died, her Douglas abandoned his wife about this time and returned to Scotland. Margaret stayed in England for about a year before returning to Scotland under promise of safe conduct in June 1517.

The marriage of Margaret and Angus turned out to be disastrous. While he was in Scotland and she was in England, Angus had taken a mistress and was living off of Margaret’s Scottish revenues. The next few years were terrible for Margaret, with a horrible marriage, no money, no power and very little contact with her son James.

In 1524 Margaret, in alliance with the Earl of Arran, overthrew Albany’s regency and her son was invested with his full royal authority. James V was still only 12, so Margaret was finally able to guide her son’s government, but only for a short time as her husband, Angus took control of the young King. Margaret was finally able to attain an annulment of her marriage to Angus from Pope Clement VII and by the next April she had married her third husband, Henry Stewart, who had previously been her treasurer.

Things got serious for a time when her second hubbie, arranged for the third hubbie to be arrested as no permission had been granted by the Lords for this marriage, it was all resolved by 1528, whe James V was able to rule for himself, being 16. He appointed Henry Stewart as Lord Methven and proclaimed the Douglas’s as traitors, Angus fled to England.

Margaret’s relationship with her son was relatively good, although she pushed for closer relations with England, where James preferred an alliance with France. In this, James won out and was married to Princess Madeleine, daughter of the King of France, in January 1537. Madeleine was a poorly woman and died in July she is buried at Holyrood Abbey.

After his first wife’s death, James sought another bride from France, this time taking Marie de Guise.

By this same time, Margaret’s own marriage had followed a path similar to her second one when Methven took a mistress and lived off his wife’s money.

On October 18th, 1541, Margaret Tudor died in Methven Castle in Scotland, probably from a stroke. She was buried at the Carthusian Abbey of St. John’s in Perth.

[the-light-finds-its-way]

Mom got out of ICU today, and put into a normal hospital room. My family went to go see her, and as for myself and my siblings, it was basically the first time in 3 weeks that we'd seen her.

She was covered in giant tender bruises from head to toe. Thankfully, only 2 IVs were in versus the original 7, and she was down to one pole that held the bags, while the rest were hooked to the bed. The blood clot in her leg has grown, and is breaking up at last, or so we assume. But mom can't walk because it hurts so bad. She has mesh in her lungs now to prevent the clots from reaching them again, which will kill her if they do. Additionally, she's on oxygen for the time being. And, there's a chance when she comes home, that she'll have to remain on oxygen tanks, and if that's the case then nobody is sure how long. But I've got this awful gut feeling telling me mom will be on the tanks for the rest of her life... I don't know, and have no way of knowing, but that's just what my stupid gut is saying to me. It'll be minimally 3-5 more days before she's released to go home. It could be more, and something inside also tells me it's going to be longer. But mom says she's doing the best she has been since the first surgery 3 weeks ago. Her nurses are really nice, super sweet, and they playfully poked (hehe) at my needle weenie self who had to turn away when they drew blood from her.

My anxiety didn't help when a $86 bill went through on my bank account that's already overdrawn by Gods only know how much... I'll be damned lucky if I make $150 for this paycheck. And an artist I commissioned back in March last year for a November finishing time on a piece, was late and is now almost finished in January. I'll have to pay him the other $175 soon, and I don't know when, and if I'll even have a single dollar to spare by then... There's another draft I have coming, on the 16th, for the retirement fund my father forces me to pay into unless I want to give him $100 for literally no reason, minimally once a month but possibly more, instead of the $75 for the fund once a month. So I go for the fund. And then, I have to somehow pay for my therapy appointment in another 10 days as well. I'm really not sure if I can do all this. I ditched college to work more, and as soon as I did, they cut me down to one day a week for the next 4 weeks, and there are no people I can cover because everyone is scrambling with trying to get more than 25 hours per week. Fuckers. Try living off 8 a week, when you just told the boss you're free all day every day at any time, and they won't even schedule you for 1/3 of what everyone else is working part time, let alone full time.

I'm so scared, so lost... I was hoping to get a ticket to go see Blind Guardian in May, but they're selling fast and I'm not sure when I'll ever have the money, if I will have the money, to get one in time... Not like I've waited 9 years to go see them live for the first time ever... I somehow have to save $32 for a train ticket as well by mid February, to go to the city for something I'd planned 7 months ago. And then, I planned a trip with friends which I may not be able to do if this keeps going downhill with my money... I already have to pay for a con we are going to as well in September. And I'm just... Fucking distraught. I planned my entire year around the fact that I'd be working full time and get more money. And work kicked my ass with a giant fuck you immediately upon me making those plans.

Fuck my life. Give me my healthy mom back, and $1000. Please... I'm fucking desperate and broken...

[itsbenedict]

Last year, rather than pick a new years' resolution, I made over a dozen new years' resolutions and tried to get them all done. I paced myself with the objective of fitting them all into the year, but... ran into an unexpected obstacle where I kind of didn't have an October, November, or December due to my company abruptly getting sold and my life turning into a nonstop living hell. With that in mind... how'd I do?

get star seeker sequel adventure thing up and running and through the first case

Didn't finish this one! I did start it in September, and I was making good progress and probably would've had it done by the end of the year if I'd had three months to work on it.

get datasouls combat toy complete up to the first miniboss combat

Did it! Tutorial section combat toy is playable on the site.

catch up on TFJ recap logs

Didn't do it! There were a lot of them, and I kind of got bottlenecked on one where I wanted to wait for an art commission to come in that got put off for most of the year. I got sixteen of them done, but more sessions than that happened during the year, so overall I'm behind. Womp womp.

become an accredited AWS Certified Solutions Architect and get that raise my boss has been talking about for ages

Ha ha ha ha did it technically. I did get certified, and I did get the raise, but the raise was more a product of aggressive salary negotiation when the company got sold and my boss got fired. Also accomplishing the second part of that one resulted in me losing a quarter of my year to nightmarish IT bullshit. Oops.

get an adjustable standing desk and under-desk elliptical thingy, and otherwise get an ergonomic workstation set up

Kinda did it. I did, technically, get both things, but the elliptical I got turns out isn't rated for standing use, so I couldn't combine them into a standing workflow the way I wanted. Gotta get a new one and actually put this into practice.

fix the light situation in the bathroom

Yeah just had to call an electrician. Did it no problem.

get through The Sekimeiya and really go to town on that mystery until it’s solved

Nope! Again, probably would've managed it if I'd had time, but I put it off till last since I figured it'd be an easy thing I could fit in around the busy holidays, and it turned out there was a lot worse than just the holidays going on at that time.

also finally play Disco Elysium

This one though- did it, that game is fucking phenomenal.

finish TFTBN character portraits

Did it! Proud of how those turned out.

get a beatrice portrait for my poster wall

run some TPIVW games

Didn't do it, mainly because of an awkward social situation with one of the server participants involving my role as a mod on a different server. Still working that one out. It's rough.

badger the condo association landlady until she does something about the junk clogging up that basement storage room i’m supposed to own, and clean unused bulky stuff out of my house

Did it! Mostly. Still need to get rid of this huge elliptical- it's not selling on craigslist for some reason.

clearly this waitlist thing isn’t working out so take some steps to see an actual doctor for the first time in like three years (and maybe get a cancer screening, or do something about that closed sinus)

Did it! Didn't get the cancer screening mainly because my doctor insisted it'd be unnecessary until I was at least 40, which sounds fake but I don't know enough about cancer to dispute it. I tried various nasal sprays for the sinus thing but I'm pretty sure mucus overproduction is not the issue and I'm gonna need to get surgery, which I didn't get yet. But I did see a doctor finally!

get through the remaining 7 WaniKani levels

Did it! Still need to finish off the remainder of the reviews and do a practice pass and get back on the horse with grammar, but I'm pretty happy about that accomplishment.

Overall, despite a weak finish due to factors mainly outside of my control, I think I did pretty well, and I think having the big list meant I had a much more productive 2023 than I would've had otherwise. Probably gonna make this a recurring thing!

[heljay]

Ooh, we’re in danger... ♥

My piece for the YGO Rare Pair Mini-Bang on Twitter! Who’s surprised to see this ship from me. Again. lmfao

Listen I am going to forcibly shove as much of this ship into the GX fandom as I possibly can and No One Can Stop Me

(Also fun fact: I’ve had this done since like. November)

Accompanying AMV (which I made in the interim waiting for the claims to happen) and fic (which was inspired by both) will be linked to when they’re up in a reblog!

- 3 SLOTS OPEN FOR COMMISSIONS, COMM. INFO IN PINNED  

[bellybiologist]

November 2023 Patreon Announcements

I hope everyone had a nice Halloween! I'm doing better. Not quite at 100%, but my battle with my teeth causing me bodily injury is ongoing and never-ending (I believe i got sick cuz a cheek bite got infected. This happens Often™) Besides the tail end, October went very well! I passed my goals by quite a bit thanks to some gracious fans. That said! I will def need to keep the momentum going so I'm not stressing over money. I generally try to take a break month for December, but I'm gonna be real! I'm gonna be working on commissions anyway! so there's really no point to shaving off patreon work. (Plus its been a while since we had a month for christmas/winter holiday themes)

Please let me know if you have any suggestions/requests that would make supporting me on Patreon more appealing! This is mostly directed to those who aren't already patrons, but those already supporting can chime in too! Commissions are playing a huge part in keeping me afloat, but I'm also like 40 orders deep and I'm not confident that's a well I can keep pulling out of for the next 9 months! But!

Commissions are still Open! The wait list is long but until the teeth bills are paid off, I gotta keep 'em going! Single figure commissions, and 2 figure commissions in basic line style are available! November 2023's Poll will be up shortly! and this month's Theme is Thanksgiving Blimp, with the top 3 winners getting single figure fills! More will be explained in the patreon poll.

August 2023's Fill will be going into the access to the past and higher tiers!

November 2021 and 2022's fills will be free to view! As per usual, I'll bulk upload them onto my drive and pixiv, and spread them out over the course of the week on tumblr and discord (only notification of the uploads to the drive will go up on twitter/X site).

A new Reward Request Post will be going up, too! Patrons are free to leave one in there even if you already have one from last month's! You're able to re-requested them if you still want them in the pool for future streams. September's requests will have expired though! So if those haven't been drawn, you will need to re-suggest them. October's will expire when December rolls around.

As always, thanks for the support!