#from one artist to another

[writer-and-artist27]

Tumblr Story: Reformed Bully

Note: For @dollya-robinprotector. Since you’re going through a rough patch, I thought some fluff would work in easing the stress.

Very light FGO/Passing Days-DOL crossover and all. Based heavily off this one ask and this comic that led me to meeting you, Dollya. :) Written as thanks for talking with me and bonding over the FGO gnomes.

Was listening to YOASOBI’s Idol when writing this. And Dr. Stone’s One Small Step.

Now if y’all excuse me, I need to sleep. More hematopathology work tomorrow.

--------------------------

By the time Vy had noticed the door show up in her room, she wasn’t surprised anymore. It even decided to appear once she had finished packing up the latest batch of magic peanut butter cookies for the Servants, but compared to the previous door, this one had—

“A silver handle…?” Unlike all of Chaldea’s sliding doors and the previous magic entrance that led to another Master’s world, this door looked almost ordinary, its white oak furnishings and matching pale silver doorknob making it look like it came out of a Home Depot. Even when compared to the white walls of her room in Novum Chaldea, the newest entryway looked… mundane. In spite of its faint glowing too.

Vy considered. Glancing down at her bags of cookies, one in particular stood out to Vy’s eye. It was a bit lopsided from including some of the bigger cookies of the batch, not to mention the rather crooked purple ribbon bow, but it was… it was apparently glowing the same faint yellow as the new door.

With one last look at the door, Vy felt herself smile wryly. “I guess… if this is glowing too… might as well try and take a chance as long as I’m not gone for too long, right? Just have to wear the right Mystic Code…”

--------------------------

“Nngh…”

“…Oh dear,” Vy said for herself when stepping through the magic door. What waited beyond it was a grassy hill, a single tree overlooking what looked like a farm, and a single man lying in the grass, asleep with—with actual tears in his eyes. It wasn’t a stretch to believe he was suffering from a nightmare in spite of the warm atmosphere around him, but add in the light thrashing and the sweat beading his forehead, Vy knew she couldn’t leave him be. 

The blond fringe of hair hiding one side of his face away from view was the last nail in the metaphorical coffin. If his hair was ginger-colored instead of blonde, then—

I want to help this person just like I help Robin. 

It was why Vy kept the one bag of cookies from Chaldea nestled close to the chest of her Decisive Battle uniform, slowly getting to her knees and reaching out with one gloved hand.

“Sir,” she whispered softly, patting his shoulder as gently as she could. Her ponytail could be pushed over her shoulder later. Right now, someone was suffering, and— “Sir, please wake up. You’re having a nightmare.”

“N-Ngh—” The man groaned, nearly slapping her hand if not for Vy moving it out of the way just in time. “Lya—! Lya, I’m s—!”

“Sir,” Vy spoke more firmly, worry leaking into her voice before she realized it as her fingers reached up to pinch at his cheek. Sitting down on her knees, she said, “It’s alright — it’s over. It’s time for you to come back to reality now.”

The blond man got up with a start once her pinching registered, blue eyes wide with shock and tears once his spine made an audible crack from sitting up so abruptly. Vy immediately took her hand back, schooling her panic as best as she could once he looked at her past the haze in his blue eyes. “Lya—!” he blinked. “You’re… you’re not Lya.” His brow furrowed almost immediately, a glare settling in his eyes as he took her in. “Who are you, where did you come from, and when did you get to this farm?”

Typical, Vy thought. Outwardly, she did her best to smile placatingly, shrugging her shoulders. “Good morning to you too, good sir. I’m Vy — consider me a passerby who came through a magic door and saw someone crying in their sleep and therefore couldn’t leave them alone,” she said, pointing at her own eyes past her glasses to gesture to her newly awake companion. The “magic door” part of her statement wasn’t a complete lie, but it was enough to wipe some of the apprehension off of his face. “I’ve had experience with waking up with tears in my eyes, see.”

“…Oh.” And as soon as he said it, the man raised one calloused hand to wipe at his face, the tattooed wristband on his knuckles shining a darker shade of black with the droplets sticking to his skin with the motion. “…Did I look that much like shit?”

“Not as bad as someone who’s had the life literally burned out of them, no.” Vy said immediately, the image of the many victims of Camelot Gawain's Excalibur Galatine coming to the forefront of her mind before she pushed the thought away. That sight was just plain disgusting. “It could’ve been worse.” 

Now the man was looking at her with a completely new face. “Burned?”

She smiled and offered the bag of cookies in her arms to him instead. “Yep. I’ve seen worse than someone crying in their sleep, so you have nothing to worry about,” she answered in regards to his unspoken question, shaking her head. “Enough of debating the ‘worse’ in looks. Would you like some cookies? I have a bag right here for you.”

“…Cookies?” The man wasn’t staring daggers at her at least, but he still looked wary. “You made them?”

“With just peanut butter, eggs, and sugar, yes. They’re supposed to be ‘magic.’” Vy felt herself smile a bit wider once she could see the curiosity start to dawn on the man’s face. She offered the bag to him again, lopsided purple ribbon bow and all. “Don’t worry, I didn’t poison them and I taste-tested them beforehand. It just looked like you needed something sweet to work off the nightmare, sir.”

The man glanced at her, then at the bag in her hands, and back at her. “You… You don’t even know me,” he slowly choked out, a large drop of a tear forming in the corner of his visible eye as the blue of his iris widened to reflect her image. “You only just… you only just stumble on me, and you just—” 

Vy wasn’t sure whether to smile or just wait. She decided to opt for both while adding in an extra shrug of her shoulders. 

“I…” The man choked again, shaking his head while scrubbing at his face with his hand again. The tattoos — he had more on his other hand and even his neck — all of them looking like shackles to match his voice coming out vulnerable and raw-sounding once he said, “I hurt the woman I love. I hurt more than just her. I-I’m still scared I could hurt the family she gave me. So then, why would you—”

“What’s wrong,” Vy said quietly to cut off the self-deprecating rant, “with wanting to help someone, then?”

The man fell silent, the tear in his eye slowly growing big enough to streak his cheek as it then fell to the grass between them.

With a bit of mustered courage — from Mash, from Artoria, from Achilles, from Robin — Vy smiled a bit wider as she reached over with her left hand — glove, lotus-shaped Command Seals and all — to wipe at the man’s exposed cheek. “Hurt is just gonna happen, sir. That’s just how life is,” she said in a softer voice, ignoring the wetness starting to spread out against the fingertips of her glove as she rubbed his cheekbone as gently as she could. As Da Vinci might’ve done in her place, as the Eternal Genius. As Dr. Roman might’ve done in her place, as a medical professional — as a living human from King Solomon’s remains. “And even if I don’t know what happened to hurt you so much, what matters now is how you move forward in the face of all of it. And if you’re waking up like this, crying and worrying about how to treat the person you love even after you hurt her, I’d like to think you’re walking in the right direction.”

The man half-snorted, half-sniffled, but he didn’t slap her hand away. Instead, he weakly leaned into her palm, his other hand coming up to weakly grasp at the bag of cookies sitting between them. “…Huh.” A weak laugh leaves his lips, blue eyes teary still as he closed them for a shaky inhale of breath. “Guess I’m more fucked up than I thought, listening to a stranger and taking fucking peanut butter cookies from them.”

“I’m not a stranger when I previously said my name, sir, not to mention I offered the cookies in the first place,” Vy said plainly, but she still smiled at him. It was the least she could do. “And really — we’re all struggling in life. Might as well start somewhere. So.” She pushed the cookies into his shaking palm, forcing as much cheer into her voice as possible. “My name is Vy. What is yours, sir?”

The smile he gives her in that moment makes her think, Robin, again. Even with the ear piercings and the tattoos, his face looks bright for the first time ever in the sunlight peeking past the tree hanging over them and the farm sitting far away. “…Whitney. It’s… it’s Whitney.”

“Well then!” Vy hummed, making sure to pat his wet cheek a few more times for good measure before lowering her left hand to take his in a squeeze. “It’s nice to meet you, Whitney! Hurt and all! I have some time on my hands being a passerby, so why don’t we chat for a bit? Hopefully get the tears out of you too!” 

Because when barely anyone outside of Mash and the Servants — Robin especially — reached out when she woke up crying, the least Vy could do was make sure no one else could have a repeat experience.

[anotherdescentintomadness]

Happy Debut Anniversary, Xiao Zhan!

I cannot overstate how much my life has changed since discovering this man’s existence and the existence of his amazing work. Thank you, Xiao Zhan, for sharing your wonderful art with us.

Get Prints Here

[fobnsfwdoodles]

I want to sleep on every piece of fuzz and stuffing that comes out of you..

[mrinvenotit]

Reminder that just because someone's art is "better" (HEAVY emphasis on the quotations) than yours doesn't mean that YOUR art is bad. You might not be where you want to be, but you can't ignore that fact that you've put in effort to be where you currently are and that you're STILL putting in effort to improve. The fact that you're trying says more than your art ever could.

[one-step-at-a-time25]

Thanks for the nice reblog of my art! I appreciate so much!!!! <3

BROO YOUR ART IS SO COOL

I SHOULD BE THANKING YOU FOR MAKING IT

💛💛💛💛💛

[ionomycin]

wild strawberries

[sanctus-ingenium]

fumes

[golyadkin]

I cannot express enough that if your reaction, as a hobby artist, to not getting that many notes on your art is to say "maybe I should just stop doing art altogether" you need to stop posting art to tumblr

not necessarily forever, not even for long, but just stop putting your art on here and start doing it for you again, remember why you enjoyed doing art in the first place and stop relying on the attention of faceless people on the internet for your enjoyment of your hard work

believe me, I get it, nothing crushes the artistic soul quite like labouring for hours on a piece only for it to get like 10 notes, so you need to find your own source of joy in the act of creation and a lot of the time that means making art and not showing it to anybody

[martyryo]

Happy late women's day 😼

[writer-and-artist27]

Tumblr Story: Two Robins

Note: For @dollya-robinprotector. Because the writing urge hit and I wanted to send you something to destress. Also inspired by this comic you made on your other blog.

An informal sequel to “Reformed Bully,” basically. Because when life throws lemons, I make lemonade out of them. While listening to the song titled, My First Friend. 

Stories for friends work like that. :)

-----------------------------

“Another world through a magic door, huh…?” 

Vy couldn’t help but sit up in her place at the guest couch and slowly open her eyes at the sound of Robin’s voice. Even if he wasn’t her Robin, Lya’s Robin looked contemplative while taking off his apron in the now-cleaned kitchen, wiping some peanut butter off his hands with a napkin with a quiet hum. “Considering you were able to find a cookie recipe this easy to make,” he said with a soft laugh, “I probably shouldn’t be surprised at magic doors considering my sweetie’s habit of getting involved with a lot of people.”

“And…” Vy internally cursed herself for her low social battery, forcing her voice out as much as she could for Robin to notice, “who says… that habit is… a bad thing when… she still has… you, Robin?”

The brunette man turned to look at her with wide green eyes, the freckles on his face twitching before he smiles. “…That’s true,” he said in a softer voice, hanging his apron up on a nearby rack before opening the refrigerator and pulling out a water bottle. “But if you’re tired, Vy, you can use the couch to rest. You’re the guest here and you didn’t have to play with the kids.” The smile on his face widens to a grin once he walks over to place the water bottle in Vy’s ungloved hands, sitting down next to her soon after. “Though as one of their dads, I’m really grateful for your help.”

“Whitney looked… tired, y’know?” Her grip is shaky on the bottle cap once Vy twists at it to open the beverage, lifting the whole bottle carefully to drink the cold water inside for some energy. “Baking… cookies for the kids… is something I can do… considering they were curious… and I started it… by giving him some…” And sure, Chaldea didn’t have toddlers in its large roster of Servants (baby Caren notwithstanding — she was a unique case) — but her experience with kids thankfully wasn’t null and void. Plus their reactions to the “magic” of the three-ingredient peanut butter cookies were so so cute. Even recapping the water bottle in her hands after drinking half felt like an effort worth doing as she said, “So I… I wanted to help… besides…”

Robin leans forward to rest his chin against his palms, peering into her face with a curious expression. “Besides…?”

“It’s what…” Vy smiled, doing her best to ignore the urge to cough from how weak her voice felt in her throat. “It’s what… my Robin… would’ve done.”

Robin’s green eyes widened again — reminding Vy of Chaldea, of her Robin — before his brows furrowed against his forehead. “…You said that before,” he said in a quieter voice, one of his hands leaving his face in favor of reaching out towards her. Not nearly enough to touch, but close enough to the point of nearly patting her hair. “What is your Robin like, Vy? You said you saw some of him in Whit, which led you to us.”

How to respond… Vy turned her head to look at her lap, fidgeting with a hem of her skirt from the Chaldean Decisive Battle uniform. Her pockets still had some markers and her whiteboard, so—

“Vy…?” Lya’s Robin paused, a hand hovering close to hers once she put the half-full water bottle to the side and subsequently pulled out her writing set, carefully trying to uncap the nearest marker — pink this time, it seemed — to start scribbling a response.

“Energy… low…” Vy said hastily to fill in the silence, shaking her head. “Gonna have to… write to you… Robin… so excuse me.”

Past the shade of her low ponytail, it thankfully didn’t hide the understanding look that dawned on Robin’s face, his newest smile sympathetic towards her as he nodded. “You’re excused.” 

“Th-Thankie…” With one grateful gulp of air, Vy wrote as quickly yet as neatly as she could, the words coming naturally to the forefront of her mind. My Robin is my hero.

Turning the board over to let Lya’s Robin read the words had his green eyes widen yet again. “Your hero…?”

Forcing energy into her next nod, Vy turned her whiteboard back to write more. I grew up with him, she “said,” doing her best to school the incoming blush on her face with a tiny cough. Whenever I was sad, whenever I needed to get away, he was there. In his green cape, whistling a tune, and hiding one eye away with his hair. Just by being himself and staying with me.

Vy wasn’t surprised to hear Robin chuckle at the word “hair” on her board once she turned the words toward him. “If your Robin has one eye hidden by his hair, I can understand why you reached out to Whit, then.” 

They’re similar in some ways, Whitney and my Robin. Behavior, looks, and voice, aye. Pasts are definitely different. Vy could tell even when having known Whitney for only half of a day. They both were rough around the edges, self-proclaimed “cowards,” easy to cover up their insecurities with lies, but— In the end, Robin inspires me. He makes me feel safe. He helps me keep going. That's why he’s “Big Robin” to me. 

“…Does he now?” Lya’s Robin says softly, glancing at the whiteboard before looking at Vy with a sad look to his green eyes. “Is that what a hero is to you, Vy? Someone who can be big and protect you?”

Not even the fatigue stopped Vy from hearing the longing in Robin’s voice, the lingering regret lacing his words, and she immediately turned her whiteboard back to herself to scribble a response.

I didn’t look up to my Robin just because he was big and protected me. Sure, he’s taller than me, and yes, he’s protected me, but he did more than that. Some of her “o”s looked loopy to her tired eye, but she still pointed them to Lya’s Robin for the man to read, tapping the underlined “more” with a face. Being a hero for someone can just be as simple as making sure there’s a home to come back to. A safe place to tuck away and be fine in someone’s arms. And if you’re worrying about that with Lya and your kids, Robin, I think you don’t have to. 

“...Huh?” The brunette blinks at her response, and Vy smiles, lowering her whiteboard to the lap of her skirt. She knew if she spoke up, she might not be able to do the same for the rest of the day, but—

“You’re… like my Robin too…” Vy eventually croaked, keeping as much cheer as she could once Lya’s Robin gaped at her. Her hands felt a bit like lead had been injected into them, but it didn’t matter. “You both… worry about… doing enough… for the people you love… and I wanna say… you’re okay.”

“Vy…” Robin whispered, his green eyes betraying his experiences and concerns. Living as an orphan, trying to make ends meet under cruel circumstances, hoping Lya could be happy… A soft choking noise made his voice wobble once he said with shimmering wetness characteristic of tears in his eyes, “You really think so?”

Vy knew that her Robin could and would make that exact same face (especially when she pushed herself too hard). It was why she smiled at Lya’s Robin, raising one shaky gloved hand to pat his frozen outstretched one. 

“I… know so. Because… because my Big Robin… taught me small kindnesses… like baking and hugging and helping… matter. So Robin… I think you’re plenty big… for Lya, Whitney, Alex… and your kids too.” A note of longing came out to grace the air between them, a cursory glance at the living room around them confirming to Vy that she was almost envious. “Having a farm like this… being able to safely have a family… not a lot of people can say the same. So… give yourself more credit. You can… be ‘big’ in your own way too. Cooking… and games… and being you.”

Especially when I know how hard it is to fight for the home you want. When the home I want is still out of reach.

It was why Vy decided not to mention the plight of Humanity back in her world, what with the Foreign God and all of her fucking bullshit, in favor of grabbing a wad of tissues from her other skirt pocket to offer to the man sitting next to her. The tears in Robin’s eyes only grew in size against his lashes, but he was smiling once he took the tissues to wipe at his face. “Th-Thank you,” he choked out after a moment, a few droplets falling to the couch cushions between them as he laughed. “I-I didn’t know I needed to hear that before I heard it.”

Vy smiled, vaguely making out a silhouette of pink starting to emerge from the hallway behind Robin before nodding her head. “Aye. That can… definitely happen… and if you can’t believe it… why don’t you ask your sweetie?”

As if on cue, flowers seem to burst open in the air. “Of course, my gentle songbird!” Lya announces her sudden entrance with a tight hug to Robin from behind, falling to her knees and winding her arms around her husband’s neck enough to make the man squeak. “Vy has the right idea!”

“L-Lya…” Robin sniffles, but he looks happier once she’s in the picture, enough for relief to spread throughout Vy’s chest as she slowly scooted a foot or so away to give the happy couple some space. “I… I really am doing enough for you?”

“Of course you are! You’re my Robin!” Lya pouts when resting her chin atop Robin’s brown hair, shaking her head. “I love you more than anything, sweetie!”

“Sweetie…”

Vy closed her eyes to the sight, already feeling a little awkward if not for the lingering fatigue still in her systems, and thus debated stepping out. It didn’t feel right to say anything with Lya already reassuring her hubby better with lots of hugs and kisses beyond her closed eyelids, so…

“Muu…?”

Her back and legs suddenly weren’t on the couch anymore. Vy slowly blinked, feeling mana carry her up into the air and barely hearing Robin’s surprised “whoa” along the way. Her half-full water bottle, whiteboard and assorted markers were floating up with her, highlighted by — by purple runes? It would certainly explain why the floating was very much gentle, but if runes were here—

The corner of her blurry vision past her glasses let her see a single glimpse of violet and green before toned, muscular arms wrapped themselves around the backs of her shoulders and the undersides of her knees, holding her in a princess carry. “I look away for five minutes,” said a familiar voice above her head, “and then I find you’re pushing yourself again, little sparrow. Past another magical door too.”

“All in… good intentions, Big Robin…!” Vy still didn’t stop her Robin from holding her close enough for their foreheads to touch, a weak giggle leaving her lips once the tip of his nose rubs hers. Mint tickled the insides of her nostrils as she said, “Didn’t use… any mana… and was… able to bake… magic peanut butter cookies…!” 

“Which, little one,” Skadi interrupted with a soft clapping of her hands to dispel her wand into a flash of light (just so that Lya and her hubby wouldn’t notice, maybe?), chuckling while plucking the floating bottle and whiteboard materials out of the air to keep close to her chest for safekeeping. The smile on her delicate features looked wry and exasperated to oddly match the fond sparkle in her red eyes as she went on with, “you could have done that after taking your daily nap. I may be the last goddess of my original world, but what is it with your luck in finding other worlds without fail?”

Vy glanced up at her Robin — Robin Hood, the May King, her Big Robin — and smiled once he gave her a raised eyebrow. “I just… do?”

Robin sighed and bumped his nose with hers again. “…You worry me too much.” 

“I’m… sorry.”

“Don’t apologize for that, little sparrow. Just wander off with me next time.”

A quiet Ahem is what breaks Vy out of the growing warmth and surrounding mana — out of seeing two of her Grailed come through the same door that brought her to Whitney — and turning her head reveals Lya, her Robin, and a faraway Whitney all staring at her with wide eyes. Of course Robin Hood and Scathach-Skadi would stare back.

No one said anything for a good second. The toddlers could’ve woken up, Alex could’ve walked in, and yet no one would speak. That was the kind of stare-off it was.

“…Well,” Lya’s Robin starts first after the sound of a singular water droplet falling echoes from the sink, glancing at Chaldea’s Robin before awkwardly scratching at some of the freckles dotting his nose. “If this green-clothed man is your Big Robin, Vy, I can see why you love him so much. He is tall and has hair that makes me think of Whit.”

“He’s supposed to look like me?” Whitney said in clear disbelief from his place standing a few feet away in the hallway, his crumpled T-shirt and wrinkled sweats making it look like he just helped Alex in putting the toddlers to bed for their daily nap. “He’s green and… glowing.” 

“Excuse me for glowing,” Robin Hood bit out past Vy’s head, and Vy did her best to raise a shaky hand to his chest to pat sympathetically. “Being magical makes me sparkly. Not like a vampire, thank god.” 

“And I’m the goddess, yet can recognize the Twilight joke. Those books were not the best in regards to late-night reading.” Skadi chuckles again, and Vy glances at her just in time to catch the softer look that brushes her features as she bows her head towards the farm denizens still standing in front of them. “Excuse us for the late introductions. My name is Skadi, and the man carrying Vy next to me is our Robin. We just came through the nearest door together to take Vy home.”

“So she does have a home,” Lya muttered, enough to make both Robins and Whitney stare at her. “Was the ‘magic’ in the peanut butter cookies real, then?”

“Who knows?” Robin shrugs, but Vy knows he’s relaxing once he bounces her a little in his arms, just to adjust his grip and let her rest her head against his shoulder. The No Face May King was soft in feel against her ear, enough to be a borderline pillow and nearly make her forget him saying, “Vy — our little sparrow, has a habit of making magic. Still gotta take her back to recharge, though. So thanks for holding onto her until we could show up.” 

Whitney scoffs under his breath, muttering something that Vy can’t hear, but she can see the brunette Robin lightly elbow him just past the No Face May King’s shadow as Chaldea’s Robin turns on his heel to face the door that started this little journey. Compared to its visage from her room, the magical entrance wasn’t glowing as much as before, the silver handle appearing muted to contrast the bright green grass outside and the glowing of the Grailed beside her. But—

Skadi barely gets a chance to say her name before Vy reaches out towards the nearest thing she could reach — that being Robin’s mantle collar, to tug at and eventually gesture back towards the farm denizens. “Let me…” she croaks, “say bye?”

Robin stares at her. Vy stares back. It’s not even that long, but she tries, and after a few seconds, Robin sighs, turning on his heel one more time. “Just this once,” she hears him murmur softly. Skadi opens the door behind him once he does, but it doesn’t matter.

Even with her blurring vision, Vy can still make out the primary colors of Lya’s pink hair, of her Robin’s green eyes, and Whitney’s black tattoos. And with the rest of her strength, Vy raises one shaky gloved hand to wave at them. 

“Bye bye… thankie for the conversations… Whitney… Robin… if the kids ask… I’ll be back… with more cookies for them… and Lya… and Alex…! Soon soon…!” 

Chaldea’s Robin scoffs softly above her head, but he still carefully walks her back into Novum Chaldea through the doorway Skadi kept open for them. And once the door closes behind them and darkness starts to overtake her vision in favor of sleep, Vy can do nothing but lean against her Robin and wonder if Lya’s Robin and Whitney ever waved back.

It was a nice dream to ponder about if they did.

[novembermorgon]

hockey aemond unfortunately he will never leave my mind

[smoosie]

The 'We need to talk' scene

but I've made it into a wet cat short comic

(and it only gets worse for him...)

Bonus secret 5th panel :

(intrusive thoughts so strong they make his brain crash)

[yukennico]

a very silly comic made of simple doodles, i had no idea what i was doing, thanks for the request!

[plasticsandwich]

girls season ↓

secret kitty unlock.........

[collophora]

Found a cool color palette. Might finish it later. (Probably not.)

[aristoteliancomplacency]

I present to you the work of another painter of fish plates. Y’know how you use ‘scare quotes’ for various purposes, including indicating that you’re not actually sure about The Thing?

Well, this guy was so bad at whatever he was painting that we call him…

The ‘tadpole’ painter:

Here’s another example:

This one was sold as part of the Graham Geddes collection at Bonham’s auction house in 2008 for £2,040.

They describe it as ‘three fish including a wrasse with dorsal spines, an angler-fish, the rounded body with multiple black dots, two large round eyes with pupils, an open mouth with teeth bared, and a ray with pointed face, the body with multiple black dots’.

Which like… bold fucking move missing out the fact that they have legs. Though I can’t say I envy whoever had to write the description.