#Theres also marco

[wildtornado-o]

Forgot to add her alt outfit oops lol kept the masked woman colour scheme since i think its pretty

[moonpaw]

thinking about how spoiled i got with reading bnha fics because there was a million and one fics over any au i could think of and now im suffering because i wanna read a million and one fics over one piece but there’s just. not as many

[mhizzberry]

some protesting sylvanian families/calico critters that @antihibikase and I saw at the music festival/protest fair yesterday.

[odysseys-blood]

i think one of my favorite things abt aitsf and aini is how they never treat the ai's like theyre expendable. they arent just computers to the detectives they're partners that they trust with their lives and are basically familial with. it changes a little by aini with how ai can no longer share thoughts/read minds of their detectives but before that aiba and date were two halves of a whole but still two separate entities that respected and cared deeply about each other. they were best friends and when aiba had to self destruct date truly thought he lost one of the most important people to him. in aini tama would do anything to make sure the secret of why ryuki betrayed bibi never got out, even if that meant sensitive information about the hb case never got sent back to hq and archived. tama being kidnapped and the threat of her being erased (murdered) was so real that he probably really could have killed anyone to make sure he got her back (thankfully bibi didnt die but....still. it was a very real possibility). the way aiba and mizuki click so well and bicker but care so much about each other. its just all so sweet

[incorrectstarvs]

Happy 5 year svtfoe finale anniversary!!!

Here’s my starco/svtfoe playlist I made back in 2020!! It’s 19 hours long bc I’m clearly insane /hj

Here’s some lyrics I felt really resonated with Starco (mostly in order of the playlist)

My first day on Earth, I fell into your eyes. Look at how our galaxies collide / You and I will be fine, we belong together // I don't know where we're going, but I'd like to be by your side // And as the world comes to an end, I'll be here to hold your hand. Cause you're my king and I'm your lionheart // Were lying in the streets, staring at the stars. Everything we need, is everything we are //

(More under the cut!)

Tell me the story of how we met, not that I'll ever let you forget // Make a spark, break the dark, find a light with me // And I've moved further than I thought I could, but I missed you more than I thought I would // There is something different about you and I, and I feel like I have known you my whole life // To be where you are, but even closer to you, you seem so very far // Take my hand, I'll teach you to dance, I'll spin you around, won't let you fall down // And I know it's hard to tell, but I think I really like you // And yeah it's true that I'm a little bit intense, right. But can you blame me when you keep me on the fence, like // Life is not the things that we do, it's who we're doing them with // I can't help but love you, even though I try not to // But always know that you'll be safe, I'll be here throughout your days // And when I am feeling small, you get me through it all, Just like we were kids, just like we were kids again // Love, I think we got time to make mistakes, bitter and the sweetness, I just love the taste // You know I talk too much, honey come put your lips on mine and shut me up // Since I've been walking solo, dreaming you were back home // Can't be on my own without you, I'm a little bit lost without you // You've got it all, you lost your mind in the sound. There's so much more, you can reclaim your crown // I don't need the stars in the night, I found my treasure. All I need is you by my side, so shine forever // Dear soulmate, do you think of me? 'Cause I do. Do you have green eyes or are they brown like mine? / Maybe I already know you and love you, but we'll fall in love some day // Why do you have to be so cute? It's impossible to ignore you. Must you make me laugh so much? It's bad enough we get along so well // When your arms are around me, I'd swear that I'm holding the sun // One glance and the avalanche drops, one look and my heartbeat stops // Put your hand in mine, you know that I want to be with you all the time // You gave me something to believe in, we were the best of friends // You caught me when I was falling down, picked me up when I was on the ground / I thought I was lost but now I'm found, it's you I wanna be around // Travel light and see the world right, you'll never know if you never go //All we do is mess around, but I know that it's love we found // All I wanna be, all I ever wanna be is somebody to you // Well you've got a funny way, of hanging around // Even when we're breaking, I'll be loving you // Confess I loved you, just thinking of you, I know I've loved you from the start // And I will make sure to keep my distance, say I love you when you're not listening // I didn't wanna believe my feelings for you, I didn't wanna believe that I could lose you // You take the darkest days and fill them up with light // I got all I need when I got you and I // Wherever you take me, it's clear I will go. Your love's the one love that I need to know // Can I take you to a moment where the fields are painted gold? And the trees are filled with memories of the feelings never told? // I'll hate the goodbye, but I won't forget the good times // I'll find my way to you, though I'll admit it may take me some time // Well, tell her that I miss our little talks // What if we could risk everything we had, and just let our walls cave in? // Like a force to be reckoned with, a mighty ocean or a gentle kiss. I will love you with every single thing I have.

[slttygeto]

am I the only one who has a list of characters that I want to have as my siblings? because my list is looooong

[robocops-a-christ-allegory]

entering that era of my comic where Marco is covered by Luci’s whole body every panel because hes the drummer

goodbye

[relative-dimension]

“The Wall of Lies”

Season 1, episode 17 - 4th March 1964

[id: screenshot of the intro to the Map Men youtube series. The title is written in the centre of the screen over a map showing part of Asia, and subtitled “with Jay Foreman and/or Mark Cooper-Jones.” The poorly cropped floating heads of Jay and Mark are on either side of the title, looking mildly uncomfortable. /end id]

The main crime that this episode in particular commits is that, by his own admission, this is where John Lucarotti started running out of ideas. It just about manages to coast by on the established subplots, with some development of the character dynamics and apparently pulling from some of Marco Polo’s anecdotes in his writings.

Is it an entertaining watch: 4/5, yeah, I feel like it’s pretty fun.

Does the production hold up: 2/5, I criticised the cave set before, and there’s not anything new that looks much better to counteract that. The cliffhanger is also one of the worst of the show so far, especially with the recon where you can’t even really see what’s happening.

Does it use its time well: 3/5, as mentioned, Lucarotti was running out of ideas, but I personally think that a lack of action means that the character dynamics continue on their trajectories in a more natural way than having some external factor cause every single development. It’s not that good, but it’s not nothing.

Are the characters consistent and well-used: 4/5, yes! Dr Who’s meddling, Ping-Cho’s shifting loyalties and relationship with Susan, Ian and Barbar slightly miss out on having anything to do but still!

Is there anything actually going on under the surface: 3/5, as mentioned, the developing character dynamics probably fall into this category. Apart from that, idk.

Does it avoid being a bit dodge with its politics: 2/5, I would like to take this point to mention just how cartoonishly evil the Mongol bandits are. I am aware they’re just playing into the trope and this is a children’s show, but having the non-white evil bandits gambling to choose who gets to kill Barbara is a bit much. And also, once more, everyone’s in yellowface.

Overall Score - 18/30

[xamaxenta]

Hmm Womb tattoo

Succubus ace sent to seduce and corrupt father marco

He hadn’t expected that the good priest to bend him over the altar. Or the feathers to burst into life around the blondes face.

Ace whispers as the fake father of the cloth, traces his womb tattoo. Eyes going nearly black. His tattoo glows under the touch of the ancient being.

“Did you know.” Marco whispers, he’s all the way in barely moving and ace almost sobs. “I used to be known as a fertility god.”

He moves ace like a ragdoll, “truth is I haven’t ever tried to breed anyone.” He says conversationally, like his knot isn’t just on the edge of pressing into aces cervix.

Ace moans like a wanton whore and marco laughs not unkindly. “Tell me Pretty thing, would you like to be the first?”

Something cum drunk ace staggering back home with a bulging tummy.

ALSO I JUST GOT THE NOTIFICATION FOR THIS??? Hootin hollering???

Succubus Ace is always living rent free in my horny little brain and that he was sent to corrupt the good father but HES AN ANCIENT GOD OF FERTILITY RRRRR

Moving Ace about like a fucktoy a doll for his own pleasure as he pleases does he change size? 👀👀👀 does he enhance all his… breeding qualities when he touches Ace’s womb and the tattoo ?

Ace unable to do anything but take his cock and the knot thereafter which he does so beautifully because he was made for this the cock is stuffing him all the way up into his lungs and theres still the knot forcing its way into his tender little cervix!!!!

Cum drunk succubus Ace staggering out of his altar and church leaving a gooey trail behind he will be back Marco will have made sure of that :3c

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

i just finished my first full read through recently! something thats really stuck with me is the bit near the end post timeskip where they mention getting into a vehicle and tobias morphs human, theres no way his human morph is able to age right? it threw me because they simply didnt adress it but the mental image of this ratty 13 year old surrounded by almost adults really drove home how depressing tobias' ending was for me and i was wondering if its ever been discussed in the fandom or by ka

I've always thought that, due to Ellimist Shenanigans, Tobias's human morph ages normally. The only real piece of evidence for that is the fact that he can pass as a college student in MM3, which would be easier for an (apparently) 15-year-old than a 13-year-old, especially given when puberty tends to start for a lot of boys. That scene in MM3 also mentions his hair is long enough that he stands out among 1930s guys, whereas in #1 Jake mentions Tobias having "straggly blond hair" that's shorter than Marco's, which to me suggests that Tobias's hair is growing in his human morph as well.

So: Tobias isn't supposed to have that human morph at all, since you can't acquire yourself. He isn't even supposed to be able to morph after nothliting. Therefore, I think it makes some sense that his already-impossible human form ages like a human.

[opbackgrounds]

You didn't really answer my qustion though. What can you name that should be edited out? For example: which warlord do you cut out? Which arc they brought do you feel is unneeded and should be taken out? I promise I'm not being mean or snarky, it's just I've heard the 'too many randoms' all over, but nobody can actualy point to an actual character they find should be cut out so it kinda sound like 'just make it better'. And unless wiki is wrong, Tama is Koruzumi, not Kozumi - the fact you mixed it up kinda shows it didn't really matter, though I would argue it is important from narrative perspective of showing Koruzumi were not 'evil by blood' despite all names one being villains. Also: Zoro's lineage was also released trough SBS and I don't see people break up about it? Again, I'm just honestly curious about what you think.

my point is not invalidated because I misremembered a name, and Zoro’s lineage is another thing that either should have been in the manga or not been a thing at all. If Oda wasn’t going to do anything with it, he should have kept the connection between he and Wano be through Kuina. The Zoro lookalike characters during Yamato’s flashback only set up expectation in the audience that wasn’t followed through with. I understand that Zoro doesn’t give a fuck, but if that’s the case then don’t make it a thing in the first place.

But to answer your question let’s look just at Wano. The Nine Scabbards should have been reduced down to a more reasonable number. I love them both dearly, but you could easily combine Dogstorm and Cat Viper into one character. Raizo doesn’t do much after Zou, so replace him there with someone else—I’d say Izo, since that’s the character who could have used some time with the main cast to make their ridiculous death more impactful. You could say after Marineford they were trying to get back to Wano and stumbled upon Momo and the rest while traveling. Shinobu can handle being the main ninja character, and no Raizo means you don’t have to have earlobe guy so now there’s no meaningless 25 chapter fight.

With Izo reintroduced thusly, there’s no reason for Marco to show up at all. In fact, he has a built-in reason for not showing up by protecting Whitebeard’s homeland. This will require some rewriting of the arc, but imo he ended up taking away too much valuable hype from more important characters to really justify his presence, so get him out of there.

It was clear Oda was having a hard time finding a purpose for Drake, and Hawkins, and Apoo. Of those three, you could easily get rid of Apoo and not lose anything. Have a quick flashback of him dying epically in the Kidd Pirate Alliance battle against Kaido. It would have been a better showing than he gave in the arc itself.

And that’s just off the top of my head. I haven’t done any rereading of Wano since that chapters were released. If someone went over the arc more carefully there would be more (like, does Carrot really need to be there? Do any of the other Zou characters?) I really think you could get the Scabbards down to 5 characters if you tried, but I’d have to figure out how that would fit with the rest of the story.

My problem with One Piece isn’t the number of arcs, it’s that the arcs themselves are too long. Enies Lobby was epic in scale and had a lot of different factions to account for, but it didn’t take three years to get through. Theres going to be some ballooning in size as the crew has gotten bigger, but even that could be worked around. Have more tag team fights like on Thriller Bark, for example, so the enemy crews don’t have to have so many people. Reduce the roll of side characters and give their feats to the Straw Hats who haven’t gotten enough love after the time skip. There’s lots of things Oda could have done, but he hasn’t.

[moonshynecybin]

Hi, if its convenient can you put me a link to all Bezz vrimes of haterism on Marc. Is he really that insane to go on record like a drunken man

omg i would love to... those videos are so literally iconic and all of this is so funny to me... SO um. like marc absolutely had a hand in crashing bez out really early at valencia 2023, but it didnt get on the broadcast bc the fucking TITLE FIGHT was happening and stuff. like there were other priorities. HOWEVERRRR this reallyyyyy pisses bez off. like a lot. so he fucking shows up to honda hospitality to demand justice or something, maybe get an apology or explanation. i have no idea what he thought would happen tbh, because marc had ALSO crashed out of that race (jorge martin doing stupid shit) and it was his LAST RACE WITH HONDA. so marc is CRYING all over the place and trying to achieve emotional catharsis about closing a major chapter of his life and then bez (A FUCKING VALE CRONY??) shows up and starts literally maybe yelling at him. which i imagine did not impress marc. so he refuses to talk to him! or turns him away idk but SOMETHIN happens that pisses bez off even moreeeee so he goes into his post race briefing just absolutely spitting mad in like. a puffer jacket with a beer literally in his hand. messy.

so he starts YAPPING. calls marc the dirtiest rider in motogp and says marc only got away with it bc hes MARC MARQUEZ and there was a conspiracy from the stewards and the broadcast (um. buddy.) and its makes a bunch of headlines bc vr46/marquez flavored beef keeps the lights on around here. marc says to the media i dont wanna even talk about that person. NEXT. so it goes.

but its not even over! because later that day bez gets WAYY drunker (TOASTED.) and posts up to the ducati garage to celebrate with the championship win with pecco whereupon he steals a microphone from skyitalia and goes around bothering people and dropping little digs at marc the wholeeeee time it is VERY funny. hes like pecco hello how are you today congratulations i WILL beat you next year. did anyone know that marquez made me crash. now lets talk to your GRANDMA ! like its awesome. i watch it when i get sad and imagine the PR guy was locked in a closet somewhere screaming. theres a vid with excellent translation here. homie is on the MOON.

anyways he saw marc on track at testing was a lil annoyed but then he walked most of this back like three days later (i DO think some stories got published saying they physically FOUGHT and there were some made up quotes that were obvs crazy, but i also think my man marco got a taste of the vale/marc media divorce vortex and went runningggggg) which is. also so funny. "i dont care what people think" (cares sooosossoso much)

[justaz]

lance who always wanted to be a fighter pilot would NEVER be a farmer and we can throw hands if you disagree. anyways au time. allurance happens or doesn’t happen doesn’t matter but they aren’t together now. allura is queen of new altea with her advisor coran and close “friend” romelle. shiro is retired on earth w his husband adam. pidge also stays on earth and works with her parents on advancing earth’s technology. when they make breakthroughs, they relay it to matt when he pops by earth and then he takes it up into space to the rebellion who spreads it to planets that are behind on the galactic scale. hunk travels planet to planet with his moms and they connects all these different cultures and essentially does what he does in canon.

keith sort of takes over the blade and (since the war is over) turns it from a hidden rebellion group to a public aid and relief organization. they go planet to planet and help rebuild the worlds as much as they can. lance is on earth with his family but is Torn. he longed to be a fighter pilot since he was a kid, but being in space was almost unbearable bc of how bad he wanted to come home. when keith is visiting earth and talking about his travels to different planets, theres this flash of envy within lance and he comments about it. bada bing bada boom lance is joining keith into space once he leaves (he really has no idea how he gets into these things). he tells his family who are hesitant but ultimately supportive.

lance joins keith with the blade and finds himself greatly enjoying his time back up in space. he isn’t sure why until he mentions that he forgot something back of earth and keith asks if he wants to go back and grab it. lance has a choice now. he can go home if he wished and he can go up in space if he asked. when they were all kidnapped by the blue lion and jumped thru a wormhole, lance hadn’t been expecting staying up in space, away from his family, for years. the last bit of unease in lance settles and he thoroughly enjoys his time with the blade. by the time he’s set to go home, he barely even noticed time passing but he’s glad to be back.

he happens to return right as summer kicks off and he joins his family down in varadero. by the time august rolls around, he’s growing antsy again and staring up at the night sky with longing. his parents join him one night and encourage him to chase his dreams, to make younger him proud. lance says he doesn’t want to be away from his family like last time. they reassure him he won’t and point out how he could come home whenever he wished.

lance now spends end of august to beginning of june in space with keith helping planets, then june to august with his family on earth. its a good balance and makes everyone quite happy. eventually, keith starts to spend a bit more time on earth. he stops by toward the end of july and happens to catch lance’s birthday but that’s definitely purely a coincidence. keith spends a week in the states with shiro and adam then a couple of days with pidge and her family before going back down to cuba to spend the rest of august with lance before they fly back out.

rachel is the first to notice when lance and keith begin to share a bed when he stays. his mother catches them wrestling out in the water and chuckles to herself. veronica watches their hands linger against one another while doing the dishes after a family dinner that keith had attended.

its not long before keith’s time on earth extends until he’s practically following lance’s schedule. it’s not a surprise to anyone when marco walks in on lance and keith making out. he accepts responsibility as he did not knock before entering. his father had instructed them all to do so. thats on him.

[onmyyan]

For some reason a weird dream has now cause me to think about delmont brothers owning a superstore. Probably because i work at the coop and im obsessed with Caspian, but anyhoo....

Caspian is in the bakery, fresh cinnamon swirls, pecan maple plaits, apple crowns, doughnuts, bread... You name it, daily. You'll see him early doors carefully putting it all out in the stand. Making sure there are no pesky fruit flies around to keep everything nice and tidy, the bakery is always spotless, any extras left in the freezers for the next day, all dates carefully placed on too, will help with customers sometimes too, old ladies actually love him, some come in more than once a day if they see he's on a checkout. Pros of this for him is he finishes work at 2pm, meaning he has all afternoon and night to lavish his darling with love.

Gabe is pro shelve stocker, he's always on the store floor. Date checking stock, restocking, takes in the deliveries for later at night as Caspian does the early morning ones, reduces everything that's close to going out of date, he's often found helping the older ladies get things from the top shelves, will happily work late into the night, as waking up early is not his thing at all, plus, lazy morning cuddles with his darling? Sign him the fuck up.

Ricky deals with the managment side, plus he's go to person if a customer gets rude and Manny can't handle it, will happily tell people to get to fuck, you want to speak to a manager huh? Bitch he is the manager. He's the one to call for what stock needs to be delivered, takes inventory, deals with the cash office to make sure the tills have plenty of change, though if he's not in Caspian will make sure the tills have change, just general deals with the boring bit, but he's really good at it, and looks good doing it too

Marcos will happily sit on a till most days, as with his twin, especially watching self checkout zone. The chaos of customer stupidity is just chef kiss, watching the machine constantly scream because the customer is leaning on it, and then watching said customer blame the machine, funny stuff. If there is one thing he loves most though. Its getting to put the little stickers on the reductions so Gabe can put them on the appropriate shelf. Sets himself little personal goals to see how quickly he can reduce it all in price. More of a morning person as he loves spending the night with his darling, also means he can go party at night

Manny is also tills guy, also loves watching the chaos of self checkouts. Absolutely adores arrogant customers, theres nothing he loves more than putting them in their place, its only when he really can't handle it that Ricky will be called down. Will happily chase down theiving customers without a shadow of a doubt, they won't escape without paying what is due, the man works night though, not a morning person by any means, you every worked on a hangover? Its a no go for manny.

The brothers all wear headsets for both convenience sake, and also, if a rat turns up... Well i suppose they'll need to make a bit of space in the warehouse, no other customers will hear them there. Plus, manny and Marcos will gossip about customers while on shift together over the headsets too, both a distaction and entertainment for the other brothers as they work.

Y'all are on fire with these Delmont concepts omfg thank you so so much for sharing lovely

[suffarustuffaru]

What do you think would’ve happened if Heinkel had been the one to fall into a coma instead of Louanna? I just think the potential of that is very juicy because like that completely changes the Astrea family dynamics!

oh i ADORE this idea so much!!! arghhh i love astrea family dynamics so much and i really really like each member - though of course i hope we learn more about louanna soon!!! im so curious about her and everyone in the family BUT her is at least decently fleshed out already!! but yes okay this idea is great and also Everyone in these reddit threads have brainstormed all kinds of ideas for Other Astrea Members Falling Comatose (heinkel, reinhard, theresia, or wilhelm) far far better than i could so if anyone seeing this hasnt seen those i highly recommend reading!! super fun ideas going on <3

but yeah my quick two cents on heinkel specifically going comatose is that, like people have mentioned in those threads that stuff would happen differently. marcos doesnt rejoin the royal guard, reinhard probably doesnt get the dp of mind changing, wilhelm might die to the whale instead since heinkel isnt around to get sent on a suicide mission and wilhelm Would Not Back Down from that, etc etc. or did theresia get sent to kill the whale right away while wilhelm like in canon went to deal with the royal family?? that sort of thing.

i think ultimately we dont 100% know what would happen on the louanna side of things just because. we dont know anything about how she was as a person hah so hard to predict!! but i think things would probablyy turn out a little better given everything i just mentioned. and also the bar for how canon went is super low anyway aljsdfl. but yeah i mean louanna seems like she might cope a little better (i mean. shes Probablyy not the type to fall into alcoholism right haha). or she might Also Cope Badly, depending on how you wanna interpret this. and depending on how louanna turns out to be as a person. and Someone is still gonna die to the whale probably. so things are Not That Great and also heinkel being comatose means he wont be head of the house. louanna in this situation either way would need to take charge - both in the sense that uh, in the end it'll just be her and one of reinhard's grandparents left around, and also in the sense that she is reinhards only parent left now. and also reinhard Might get a bit more pressure to hurry into the royal guard sooner. he'll get compared to his comatose MIA dad im sure :(( esp since heinkel is. frozen in time.

theres Always something chilling about how in canon, long term sleeping beauty syndrome victims are just. Stuck. in time. forever frozen. never aging a single day from the moment they were gone. thats Haunting. thats like living with a ghost thats still there. and in this au itd be heinkel!! heinkel whos still at his prime and hasnt truly had a permanent failure yet (losing his mom to the whale, losing louanna to a coma, etc etc), and of course like canon heinkel, louannas left to pick up the pieces which is always really sad to me :(( she and heinkel were young too when all of this started to go wrong T^T like Still Adults, of course, but still young!! like shes 21 and hes 22 T^TT wild stuff.

also i do agree with people who said that louanna might just wack reinhard over the head for kidnapping felt like that. 1000%.

anyway!!! astrea family drama still goes Wrong i think somehow, in another font, if heinkel or anyone else is the one that gets put into a coma :(( it might be better or worse depending on what happens!! and depending on who gets comatose and who Dies!! but yes i think everything goes a bit wrong either way :(( they can never win T^T but itd shift dynamics around every time which is the fun part!!

[ninjapaste]

dude your art is so GOOD!!! Do you take any classes or have any tips to share? that resource post you reblogged the other day was helpful but i've felt so stuck in my art. I don't know if you have anything u learned that just made something click for u or anything like that?

Tysm anon!!!👍

In terms of your questions, I apologise i advance for the long answer im about to give and possibly things you already know haha:

I guess in terms of what classes i take, Ive gone from GCSE to A level Art and design (Fine art), and both courses have helped me to learn the importance of observation studies.

However, its moreso all the art i practice in my own time that has played the biggest part in my art improvement journey. I adopted art as a big hobby around 2018, and really ever since then I tend to draw/create for myself every day, however big or small it may be.

I guess my first tip would be to indulge in a 'sketchbook' or space to work in freely, it could be any form but the importance is that its personal and can be picked up whenever. I find that having a sketchbook to draw in has really helped with productivity and creating new ideas. I think you can go into a sketchbook space with any mindset and it can work wonders, like for example if you wanted to focus purely on challenging yourself, you can do that! If you just, want to doodle without thinking, go ahead! After all, its a sketchbook for you and nobody else, so go wild!

My next tip would definitely be, when you are feeling stuck in art, to take inspiration from a wide range of different things be it in real life or on the internet, a building or a really cool tree, since I find it defintiely fuels the creation of new ideas/concepts that can provide a path out of that creative rut. I guess to an extent there may always be periods where you have that 'I have no idea what to draw!' Feeling, and thats okay! Sometimes its refreshing that helps the most. But I often see that the solution to being in a rut is usually REFERENCING, wether it be trying to accurately draw the anatomy of an arm or if I just saw a cool design/pose/style on Pinterest and i drew a bunch of wacky characters from it. In fact, I find that places like Pinterest or Resplash are such good resources to hone imagination and generally most art skills by looking at and drawinf from all the cool images (and get some of that inspo!). And if im not using Pinterest, im usually using an art book as reference! (The itsv and splatoon art book helped me so so much lol)

On the topic of REFERENCING, its mega important! Depending on imagination/memory feels pretty good at times but its always beneficial to have image references in your process when you find its good to have them. I woudl always recommend having a reference when drawing poses/expressions/anatomy because the more you use them, the more you learn about how an object like a face muscle, a torso or even light behaves and looks and the easier it is to draw/depict them.

The next tip is uh YOUTUBE, or any account/person who's art inspires you in particular. I found that certain channels like Ethan Becker, Marc Brunet, Marco Bucci and more have helped me the most to gain confidence in drawing and learning how to practice it better. Of course, theres a lot to learn from a plethora of other channels too, even ones that dont specifically promote themselves as teachers! Also, if theres a certain style/art approach or an artist that appeals to you, study it in any way you like! Analyse an artist's work or ask/find out about their personal process (or even watch a speedpaint/art stream)! Sometimes it can be a big inspiration booster and skill boost to do just that (plus the 'artist' could be any piece of media/thing too!! Like a game or something).

Ok ok last paragraph haha, on the topic of your last question. Thinking back, its hard for me to define any specific moment or thing that gave me a 'click' moment. Its more like a process of growth that starts with learning and understanding a new thing, then familiarizing myself with using it successfully/'correctly' by studying and practicing, so that eventually its like muscle memory or easier to use in my work.

Hope this helps!!! If theres anything else you want to ask, dont be afraid to dm or send another ask!!