#it started as a sketch I did back in august

[skysingerart]

Cursed Relics 2023 - Overgrown Portal

One of the prompts from this year's art challenge!

[gayandvibin]

2023 redraw of this… thing! I missed these guys so bad but it was lovely to see people drawing them over artfight! I may actually get some short comics of them done in the near future 👉👈

Third image is a throwback to the very original from… 2018? 2019? I drew it for pride season, so their outfits were coloured according to their flags. Tbh I fully see Eli wearing every colour in the rainbow and Theo’s is basically his colour palette anyway

This is the 2020 version (the last time I drew this :O!)

This is the 2020 version (the last time I drew this :O!)

I miss these gays so bad

[godhasforsnakenme]

let it be known that I completed my journal today, like I wrote on the last available page for it

holy shit

[yeehawpim]

How was it like to start off as a comic creator for you? (First year)

I think I made comics for about a year when I was 12? I did a lot of them and all my characters looked like that guy but with different hair and shirt designs. 😂Also all my panels legit followed the lines like that. I just wanted to play with a story and didn't bother much with making it look good. There was no sketching lol

I still did art before I started doing comics again last year in August— I went to art school and edited some videos and such. But it was pretty rare that I did anything that wasn't compulsory.

I've posted pretty much everything since I've started making stuff again, and it's been really fun getting back into it. It was really weird going from, "laying out comics is wizardry I can't hope to achieve" to "oh storyboarding class taught me some stuff and I've actually read a billion manga so I have some confidence in this" 🤣

[random-imaginess]

i’m obsessed with ur work rn omg :o can you please write a shayne x reader fic where it’s their first halloween together and they’re just indulging in all the mushy couple activities? like matching costumes, scary movies, pumpkin carving, sweater sharing, all the sweet cozy fall vibes? thanks so much! <3

Hi!! Thank you so much for sending in a request, and I appreciate your comments so much! I’m sorry it took a little bit to get posted. (Tumblr is being a pain and not letting me post things directly from my computer so I have to jump through hoops just to get these to post, it’s so frustrating!) I really hope this meets your expectations. There were so many ways I wanted to start this and so many options of what to focus on, I couldn’t decide! I do plan on posting another version of this that will capture more of a cozy couple-y vibe! And it will be longer! But I hope you like this as well!

Not to be dramatic or anything, but Halloween was THE best time of the year, and to say that you were excited to finally be able to start decorating for it would be an understatement. If you had it your way, and technically you could have, you’d keep your place decorated in a spooky aesthetic all year round! Or at least fall themed, though either option would be equally valid. This year particularly, though, you were even more excited because you were able to spend it with your boyfriend, Shayne. You and him had been friends for a little short of a decade so it wasn’t even close to being the first year you two did something together, but this year was different because you were a C O U P L E and it just hit different.

Practically since after the 4th of July you were in plot mode, having a serious conversation with him about what you were doing for Halloween. It was important to know what you were going to dress up as, and it was vital to get ahead of it so you had time to get on the same page about what you were doing. Costume parties were going to be starting soon, and you had to be ready! You had both talked about options; going as a salt and pepper shaker, Mario and Princess Peach, Morticia and Gomez Addams, or more cliché, Barbie and Ken (though Shayne would most definitely be an Allan)!

“We should go as a cat burglar!” You exclaimed out of nowhere, startling Shayne a bit as he adjusted a leaf garland he was hanging up. “What?” He chuckled. “For a matching costume idea. We could go as a cat burglar! I’d be a cat and you a burglar and together we would be a cat burglar!” You raised your brows, enthusiasm sketched all over your face like it was the most brilliant idea. “Say cat burglar again, I don’t think you said it enough times,” he teased playfully. “That would be pretty funny, though.” “Or OOOH!! Pennywise and Georgie! Wouldn’t matter who would be who!” Shayne just laughed, watching you go back to placing plastic pumpkins on the mantle above the fireplace.

“I think the best part of this costume planning is going to be watching you get all excited about what idea to go with,” he laughed again. Shayne’s ideas were more subtle, which was great too. You didn’t normally go crazy about the dressing up aspect of it, but this year you wanted to do something special since you had someone to plan this sort of thing with. And you appreciated him being such a trooper about it! “It feels weird getting this amped up about costumes because normally I would prefer to just stay in and have horror movie marathons, which you can expect we’ll be doing because you can’t not do that during the spooky season.” “Yes, of course. Though technically spooky season isn’t until October..” “That’s up for debate,” you retorted quickly, getting another laugh out of him.

“Spooky season should always happen directly after the 4th, just like they do it with Christmas after Thanksgiving. But TECHNICALLY, spooky season gets started August 1st because that’s when all the fun things start, like horror nights and spooky conventions.” You let out an excited squeal as you hyped yourself up all over again. “So many fun things are starting!!”

After finishing up the decorations, your placed mostly decked out with fall themed items; apple cider and pumpkin spice scented candles and black cats and garlands everywhere, you were very pleased with how it all turned out. Standing next to Shayne, you wrapped your arms around his waist and marveled at both of your work for a few moments. “It looks like a Spirit Halloween store threw up in here.” “I know, don’t you love it?” You grinned. Shayne wrapped his arms around your shoulders and squeezed, giving you a long hug before breaking it.

Thinking about what the next couple months were going to bring brought you so much joy. You were anxiously awaiting for the colder weather to kick in so you both could snuggle up on the couch with hot drinks and a crackling fire while you watched scary movies. You were excited for when you could carve pumpkins, make halloween goodies together, experiment with spooky themed bread because you knew Shayne would enjoy the hell out of that! There was so much to look forward to and you couldn’t wait to share this all with him.

[ravenbronze]

Happy One Year!

I know I’ve come to the fandom suuuuper late but I just wanted to give a shout-out to this little game that’s has me in a chokehold since August (how all of you have coped for a whole year is beyond me, bravo)

It’s inspired me to start drawing again, I’ve honestly been having so much fun and I can’t wait to see what hopefully the next year brings!!

It’s also brought me back to tumblr and it’s the first time I’ve properly interacted with the platform (I used to just be a lil ol lurker back in the day) but I’m really enjoying being more involved and trying to be a bit more chatty rather than just creeping in the background lol

Also to everyone creating content, in whatever form it may be, thank you for occupying my brain over the last six months, I literally don’t get anything productive done anymore, all I read is fanfiction now and I absolutely love it 😂

Also a big big big thank you to everyone that’s shown a bit of love towards my drawings, it honestly means so much 🥺

Anyway, here’s a very very quick sketch I did of Seb purely to stick onto the end of this so it isn’t just me waffling on

[kirarisoul]

predictions — quackity

first fic kinda scared 🤪

cw: angst, family problems, sad 😔

not proofread

skater!quackity x fem!reader

summary: after moving cities, you meet a very awkward, closed off guy. you eventually break through his walls, however, it seems to be written in your fate that you two could never be.

Spades represent challenging tasks or events coming in the future.

Hearts represent feelings, family, home, love, and relationships.

august 17th

moving somewhere new is always scary. leaving all you friends and family and home behind for a new place, a decision you didn’t have any say in. your parents said it was best to move here, but there wasn’t even any reason to move. you were doing fine in school, had a few good, loyal friends, and you were happy. however, being a child means nobody listens to what you have to say and you must adapt very quickly. good thing you were 17 and could do what you wanted after your 18th birthday, move back home and go to college.

but, for now, you were here. in your dads car, finally getting closer to your new house after hours in the car. you wondered what your room would be like, what your new school would be like, if you would make any friends. you definitely don’t have the same confidence you did when you were six, talking to everyone in your class and making friends. i guess you somehow knew you would be making lifelong friends, ones that you would grow old with and live on the same street as forever. you started to sketch what you think the house looks like in your sketchbook, and what you hope your room would look like.

“look, [name]. we’re gonna get there soon. why don’t you take those headphones out and look around.” your dad looks through the rearview mirror to look at you.

you yank your headphones out. he knows your mad but just won’t leave you alone. you tune out your dad talking to your mom and look out the window for the first time in three hours, the last thing you saw was a bunch of cows out on a field.

…

this place is a fucking dump. it sucks. everything sucks. now you really want to go home. your parents just had to pick the worst place for you to move. your neighbours front lawns were full of junk, like they were hoarders or something.

the car stops and you feel your dad get out and open the trunk. you open your door to greet your new home. you can work with this. it’s not the ugliest thing in the world. you walk inside and hear something about the moving van coming in a few hours. your room was alright, very empty but the window has a nice view of the sunset.

“[name], after dinner i want you going straight to bed. you start at your new school tomorrow.” your mom sternly said.

“alright” you say. “don’t know why i’m starting school on a thursday, but ok” you mumbled.

///

the floor in this house is oddly comfy, you think to yourself. but you can’t sleep, your heart is racing thinking about starting at a new school tomorrow. you’ve seen new kids at your old school be all alone and never understand how they can handle it, and now you’re the new kid. you can only pray it goes well.

you turn over to look at your phone.

[00:36]

you should really get to sleep.

///

you jog down the stairs to see furniture that wasn’t there yesterday, guess your parents were busy making it look nice last night.

“hey, eat up and get going. don’t wanna be late on your first day!”

“‘kay.”

still mad.

///

you walk out and breathe in the air. it’s warm and humid. you pull out your phone so you can open your google maps to get you to school.

dead.

clearly you didn’t remember that the electricity on the second floor just didn’t work and your phone didn’t charge. great. how the hell were you going to get to school now.

you then had the great idea of looking for someone who looks like a student and asking them if they go to your school. maybe make a friend aswell.

you see a boy leave the house opposite yours and turn left down the street. he had a hat and a hoodie on, with the hood up. in this heat? what a weirdo. but it looks like your family is just surrounded by elderly people living out their retirement on this street, so you doubt you would be seeing another teenager apart from him. and you were getting late.

so you crossed the street to catch up with him.

“hey! excuse me!” you yelled after him.

the boy turned around with a confused look on his face and looked around as if there was anyone else you could be taking to.

“uhh… hi?” he said quietly, with the same look on his face.

“yeah, hi, uh, do you go to [school]?”

“uh, yeah, why?”

“me too! well it’s my first day, and my phone is dead so i don’t know how to get there and i was wondering if you cou-“

“you’re new?” he cut you off.

“…yeah. anyways, can i walk with you?”

“why are you starting school on a thursday?”

why does he care? can you walk with him or not??

“i dunno, but it’s getting late so can i walk with you or..?”

“i mean if you want.”

“ok, thank you.”

and so you started walking. the silence between the two of you was so awkward you wanted to die.

“so, uh, what’s your name?”

“alex.”

“nice..”

…

was he gonna ask your name? has he ever talked with another human before?

“my name is [name].”

“ok.”

ok? OK?

“is that the school there?” you point to a building that’s about 4 stories coming up ahead of you two.

“no, it’s just got a bunch of kids outside it for no reason.”

what the fuck is this guys problem. you’ve just met him and he’s acting like this. no wonder he’s walking all alone.

///

after getting your schedule from the front desk, you make your way to your first class. you sit down in a chair near the front and set down your bag. you really, really, hope that the teacher doesn’t make a whole speech about the new kid in class.

“so, as you guys might’ve noticed,�� the teacher starts. “there’s a new face here!”

of course he did.

he comes over to your desk and gestures for you to stand up. “wanna introduce yourself, [name]?”

“uh, sure.” you stand.

“uhm, my name is [name] and i moved here yesterday from-“

“you’re starting school on a thursday?” some kid says from the corner of the class.

“….yes.”

///

finally, the first day was over. apart from the fact that you sat alone at lunch and had to make an introduction in every single class, it wasn’t horrible.

now to get home….

which way was it again?

have you seriously forgotten? it was only like 6 hours ago.

suddenly, you see a familiar hoodie in the distance, walking.

it’s alex. i’ll just go walk with him again.

you jog up beside him.

“hi, alex.”

he turns his head and looks at you while he keeps walking.

“hello?”

“uh, this is kinda embarrassing but i don’t know how to get home either, can i walk with you again?”

he sighs. “sure, i guess.”

“cool.”

you weren’t gonna talk this time, since clearly he doesn’t want to.

…

this is even more awkward than the walk to school.

“so,” you start. “how was your day?”

he turns again and looks at you weirdly. “uh, fine?”

“good…”

you won’t tell him about your day, he doesn’t seem to care very much anyways.

///

you figured out how to get to school in your own for friday, so you didn’t have to go through that whole thing with alex again. it’s the weekend now and while you scroll through your friends stories, seeing them all having fun hanging out, you’re alone in your room, lying on your bed, doing absolutely nothing. you know, cause you’ve got no friends.

you get up to go get another popsicle from downstairs, i think everyone eats a lot when they’re bored out of their mind. you pass by the window in your room and see alex outside of his home across the street. you stop and look, for some reason he’s just so intriguing to you. and kinda cute.

wait a minute.

am i really thinking this about that weirdo who doesn’t talk, wears hoodies in the summer, and walks all alone? i must be really bored.

he’s out there with a skateboard in his hand, and he looks like he’s waiting for someone. his hair isn’t hidden behind a beanie like usual, it’s under a baseball cap. he’s still wearing a hoodie, but with shorts instead of longer pants this time. wow, his legs are nice too. and his eyes. and face.

suddenly, he looks up at your window and locks eyes with you. you immediately drop down to the floor and crawl the rest of the way to the kitchen. could you have handled that any weirder?

///

monday came fast, and once again you were leaving the house for school. you didn’t see alex again during the weekend, and probably for a good reason, cause if he remembers that window situation, it’s over for you. God, why did you do that?

you hear a door shutting from across the street, and you can feel a pair of eyes on you. you turn slightly to see and there alex is, looking right at you, again. you whip your head back around and start walking faster.

///

you get home fast enough to avoid seeing alex again and reach for the door handle. it doesn’t work. you try it again. and again. and again. then you remember, your mom went back to work today, and didn’t leave the door unlocked like usual. you didn’t have a key either. now you’re stranded outside your house, for about another three hours until your mom gets home. you sit on your porch steps and start the waiting.

until, you see a shadow above you and you look up. it’s… alex? wow, the last person you wanted to see right now.

“hey.” he says.

“hi…”

he looks around then shoves his hands in his pockets and sighs.

“my mom said i should ask you if you wanna come in, so you’re not waiting out here.”

you look past him and see a woman in the doorway of his house, smiling at you and waving.

“uh, i’m alright.”

“just come, she’s not gonna give up, she’s been wanting to meet you guys since you moved in. also, you shouldn’t wait outside in the sun.”

“ok, i guess.”

you follow him to his house and walk in after greeting his mom. it’s a nice place, better looking on the inside than the outside. his lawn is probably the nicest on the street. after all, you see his mother outside gardening all the time.

“hi, honey, you’re [name] right?, i talked to your mom today, and she told me to make sure you’re not waiting outside until she comes home.”

“oh, thank you.”

“it’s no problem! you can sit in the living room while your waiting and i’ll get you something to eat oh- actually, alex, take her up to your room.

“mom i-“ he says frustrated and then stops himself. “fine. follow me”

you go up to his room and look around. it’s small, the same size as your room, but it’s nice. it’s very…. alex. the walls are blue, there are posters up on the wall of tyler, the creator and kanye west. there are a couple skateboards around, each with a different colour and size and shape.

“just sit wherever, im gonna play.” he points to his console and sits on the floor after turning it on. you sit next to him cause sitting on some strangers bed is weird. as he scrolls through the games, one catches your attention, mario kart.

“oh, you have mario kart?”

“yeah.” he scrolls right past it and clicks on something then gta’s loading screen pops up on the tv. you guess you were too subtle with telling him you like mario kart. you nod and turn away, pulling out your phone and mindlessly scrolling.

you hear him sigh and close down gta. “do you wanna play mario kart?” he asks.

“oh, uh, sure.”

he hands you a controller and you two pick out your characters, shy guy and princess peach.

“princess peach? really?” he questions you.

“she’s the best. i always win with her.”

“it’s very basic.”

“watch me win, then start talking.”

he laughs. “alright, but just so you know, i’ve never been beat in mario kart.”

“me neither.” you’re getting pretty competitive with him.

you both play for the three hours and get more and more comfortable with each other. you think you could even be friends with him. his mom opens the door and calls your name.

“your moms home, honey.”

“oh,” you start getting up and grabbing your school bag. “ thanks for having me, ma’am. and thanks, alex.”

“it’s no problem” he says, looking away.

///

walking home from school is probably the best part of your day. your headphones are in, your alone, looking at the scenery. it’s fun. you even close your eyes and take in the air as you walk. it’s so peaceful. until you feel someone walking next to you. you open your eyes and see alex, walking with you.

“hi.” he says, looking forward.

“hey.” you say, a little confused.

you two continue walking in silence, but it doesn’t feel as awkward anymore.

“hey, you have a few hours til your mom gets home, right?”

“yeah, why?”

“well, if you were just gonna come over again, i was gonna go to the skatepark today.”

“oh, it’s fine, i’ll just walk around the block or something.”

“no, like, i was wondering if you wanna go with me?”

was he asking you out?

“just, to kill time, y’know?”

“uh, sure, that’ll be fun i think.” you smile at him.

at the skatepark, you sit at the edge of the bowl, watching him skate.

“you’re really good!” you say.

“huh? nah, i’m not really.” he laughs.

“no, you are! well, to me atleast.”

he smiles and turns away to keep skating and doing tricks.

after about an hour of just watching him and talking, he asks you something.

“d’you wanna try?”

“what- skating?”

“yeah, i can teach you.”

“i dunno..”

“it’ll be fun! and safe, i promise.”

“fine, i guess.”

he holds out his hand to help you get into the bowl, and you grab it.

“so basically, what you do is you stand on it with two feet, then push off.”

“ok…” you try and you move, but don’t get far.

“that was great!” he says, encouraging you.

“it really wasn’t.”

“for a total beginner it’s great.”

he helped you learn how to turn and do some simple tricks.

“this one is kinda hard for a beginner, but i think you’ve got it.”

you watch him demonstrate it then you try. you push off with one foot and bend your knees, just like he did, to do the trick. he’s jogging along with you on the skateboard, making sure you don’t fall. you jump up slightly to do the trick but it doesn’t work, and you stumble when you land back on the skateboard. you feel yourself tripping, and prepare for the impact by closing your eyes, but it never comes.

instead you feel hands on your waist, pulling you up, helping you stand. you open your eyes and alex is looking at you, and asking “you okay?” with a worried expression. but all you can think about are his hands. their placement, how they felt on your body.

you snap back into reality. “i’m fine.”

“maybe we should stop now..”

“good idea.”

you two lay on the grass near the skatepark, talking.

“i’m just mad at my dad really,” you say. “he made us move here, and he’s always on me about my grades. it’s like he’s always mad. he’s always yelling and stuff. my mom says he’s just stressed about work but that’s not my fault.”

“i get it. my dad isn’t the best either. he’s not mean but he’s very strict. we’re not like father and son, he’s more like my boss. he’s always talking about how i’ll follow in his footsteps and own his business, but i don’t wanna.” alex says.

“what do you wanna do?”

“ok, promise you won’t laugh.”

“i won’t.”

“a streamer.”

“like a twitch streamer?”

“yeah, i already have a youtube channel that’s doing pretty well, and i want to do streaming too. i wanna make people happy with my content. i also wanna move to LA. that’s where all the streamers live.”

“woah. you really planned it all out. i wanna go to art school, i love drawing.”

“really? can i see some?

“yeah sure!” you pull out your sketchbook from your bag

///

december 28th

as your friendship developed, and you crush on alex developed, you became happier and more content with your move. you found other friends but you always walk home with alex. and you go to the skatepark all the time. you’re pretty good at skating now.

for his birthday, you decided to go to a carnival. you went on rides together and ate food, the night was coming to an end when you saw something near the back of the carnival.

“look, fortune telling! let’s go!”

“you know it’s all fake right, it’s a scam.”

“just come.” you drag him to the tent and walk in.

it’s just a spinning wheel with four symbols on it.

spade.

heart.

club.

diamond.

whatever, it’s only a dollar. you give the tired teenager working the tent two dollars for yourself and spin the wheel twice.

your first spin was the heart.

your second spin was the spade.

“huh, i wonder what they mean.”

“look it up online, it’s like 11, we should get home.” alex says, while urging you out the tent.

///

august 17th

it’s officially been a year since you moved here, and you are completely at peace with the situation now. you made new friends, and you always had alex there with you, especially during hard times with your family and home.

you’re sitting at the desk in your room, studying, when you suddenly get a notification on your phone. it’s alex.

alex

hey can u come outside for a sec

you

why lol

alex

just come pls

you grab your jacket and slip your shoes on. you walk outside and breathe in the cool, summer, night air. you see alex a little bit down the street from your house. you speed up to reach him faster.

“hey,” you smile at him, with rosy cheeks due to the nippy air. he doesn’t think you could ever look better. “what’s up?”

“i have to tell you something.”

your smile falters. “what is it, alex?”

“i’m leaving..” he paused.

“what, sorry, where? when? what are you talking about? why?” you bombard him with questions, he can’t just drop this bomb on you with no explanation.

“LA.”

“oh” you’ve known it was his dream for a while now. “that’s great, alex! i’m so happy for you! when are you going?”

“tomorrow.”

“oh.. so soon? why didn’t you tell me before?”

“it was last minute, one of my friends over there found an apartment for me, and i was gonna go to college soon anyways, so i applied for one in LA. sorry i didn’t tell you but it would’ve upset you and i-“

“alex, it’s fine. it’s what you’ve always wanted. i’m glad you’re getting to do this finally.” you smile at him reassuringly.

“thanks.” he smiles back. “i wanted to ask you though.”

“what?”

“come with me.”

“what?!”

“come to LA with me. i’ve been putting off telling you and i wasn’t going to but i can’t go without saying this. [name], i have liked you since that day you asked to walk to school with me. i’ve loved you since you let me teach you to skate. i can’t go without you.”

“alex..”

“we can get away from your dad and my dad and this whole city together. i have everything ready-“

“alex.”

“i’ve got an apartment, and there’s an art school nearby that you can go to. we can live together and you can go to school and i’ll stream an-“

“alex!” you say sternly this time. he looks at you for the first time since he started his ramble. you’re crying, why are you crying? he thinks.

“i-i can’t.”

“what..?”

“i can’t go with you alex.” you look at him with wide eyes like you’re also surprised at what you’re saying.

“what do you mean? we can get away from all of this! from our parents, from this town, from this street!”

“i can’t leave my family, alex.”

“[name], what? i thought you would’ve wanted thi-“

“why would i want this alex?! why are you doing this?! you cant make me choose between my life here and with you! it’s not fair!”

“i-i don’t-“

“just go alex.”

“what?”

“just go. i don’t think we can do this.”

“but-“

“go.” your voice breaks.

he whimpers and takes a few steps back.

“i’m sorry [name]…” his eyes are wide with shock. this isn’t how it’s supposed to go. you’re supposed to be going to LA with him. you two were supposed to be together.

“i love you, [name]” alex starts walking.

“i love you too.” you whisper, hoping he heard.

you turn on you heel and walk into the distance.

you make it to the skatepark where you have millions of memories with alex. you sit there a couple hours. just thinking.

when you get home your parents are there, waiting.

“[name], where were you? i told you to study, where did you go?”

you’re too exhausted to talk. you walk past them and go to your room. you couldn’t even cry anymore.

and so, the heart and the spade came at you together.

august 17th has been the worst day of your life two years in a row.

end.

////

ommgggg how was it, i hope it wasn’t too long or boring. this is my first fic on this account hope you guys like it 😛 sorry if q was a little ooc

[liminalmemories21]

2023 Writing Round Up!

tagged by @jesuisici33. Thank you!

Writing Round-Up: Share what you wrote this year! It can be works you posted to Ao3, Wattpad, Tumblr, or anywhere else! You can share everything you wrote or just the ones your most excited about.

Fewer stories this year, but they were all mostly much longer. I genuinely cannot believe that Knave 2 was this year, it feels like so long ago, but apparently was just February. I also can't believe I wrote it in two months. I think maybe Knave 3 kicked my ass so much I forgot that Knave 2 wasn't longer ago.

February

The Knave of Hearts . . . he said he'd steal no more (February 25, 2023 | 60,161 words | Rated E | Tarlos | White Collar AU)

Do you know where Tyler was the night of the 10th?"

"TK," he repeats stubbornly.

Mattheson looks up. "What?"

"His name is TK. Nobody calls him Tyler except his mother.”

Mattheson makes an ostentatious show of noting the correction in the file, although it hasn’t made a difference the last seven times Carlos has said it. "So, the night of the 10th, do you know where Mr. Strand was?"

June

We Were in Screaming Color (June 25, 2023 | 66,639 words | Rated E | Tarlos | Season 4 Interstitials)

All the conversations we didn't see in Season 4

July

The square root of sixty nine (July 6, 2023 | 11,630 words | Rated E | Tarlos)

5 times TK asked for consent + 1 time Carlos did

August

A Secret is a Strange Thing - Owen, Gwyn, Enzo (August 5, 2023 | 5,793 words | Rated T | Tarlos adjacent)

character studies - six kinds of secrets each person kept

October

to be at home in fragments (October 9, 2023 | 3,488 words | Rated G | Tarlos)

collection of tumblr prompts

November

The Knave of Hearts . . . brought back the tarts (November 17, 2023 | 65,951 words | Rated E | Tarlos | White Collar AU)

It starts so innocuously that it’s hard to pinpoint, even in hindsight. But he thinks that maybe it was his father’s birthday, sitting on the porch waiting to digest lunch before they embark on cake. TK is sketching a line of Steinlen style cats to march along the walls of Marisol’s bedroom. [ . . .]

His father laughs at the two of them. “That reminds me actually, a friend of yours stopped by to visit me the other day." TK freezes in reaching for his ice tea, and Carlos’s father arches an eyebrow. "Tulson. Agent Tulson stopped by my office. Who did you think I meant?”

TK exhales and picks up his glass. “The mind boggles. What did Matt want?”

“Wanted to ask if I’d heard any rumors about a new art thief nosing around town for targets.”

Think It Over, Think It Under (November 30, 2023 | 12,864 words | Rated T | Tarlos adjacent)

6 conversations TK had with his sisters-in-law + 1 conversation Carlos had with his sisters

December

Once Upon a Bus coming soon - the bus driver AU

tagging @ladytessa74, @chicgeekgirl89, @chaotictarlos, @strandnreyes, @paperstorm, @rmd-writes, @louis-ii-reyes-strand, @reyesstrand, and @welcometololaland

[daneecastle]

Forgiveness

As we know, Aziraphale prides himself on the ability to forgive.

So what does that mean? Why bring it up?

We have probably already seen enough posts about his final forgiveness on the final scene at the end of season 2.

.... after this intense and desperate confession of Crowley's love for Aziraphale, why would he fall to saying that? Why would he be so stupid to ruin everything with a phrase that Crowley is so sensitive to ....

He was sensitive to how he was himself. He asked questions and was punished for it. He was sent to the pits ....

He did, and will never admit it to anyone but God herself, that he wanted forgiveness but not from anyone but her. (Now note, that didn't mean he wanted to return to heaven. Heaven and God to him were two separate things.) He felt like he was unforgivable because the one that mattered had abandoned him.

......

So when sweet Aziraphale kept saying it...

I bet his feeling "unforgivable" weighed heavy on him. Something you'd think Aziraphale would know about him.

But.... that scene was a series of mistakes for them. Crowley's first mistake was reacting with a kiss. A very intimate action and quite possibly Aziraphale's first one. Their first kiss, period.

So how did Aziraphale act? With the bases of his being, the soul thing he prided on about being good at.

And he ruined the phrase by using it incorrectly.

He did realise it after a long period of confusion and fantastic micro expression changes done by Michael Sheen. So the elevator ride was even more heartbreaking cause he knew that he now had to make it up to Crowley by doing the one thing he pushed for that Crowley didn't like in the beginning.

Going back up to heaven to make changes.

Yes, he is a dumb-dumb. But he truly does love Crowley....

I can't even express how hard of a final scene this was. I could go on and on with a screen full of text about every detail of that interaction, starting with the Meta-jerk's entrance with the coffee. To Aziraphale and Crowley going their separate ways.

But I won't.

Instead, during my busy start to August of 2023, I'm going to work on a visual story of expressions, emotions, connections, and possible thoughts they might be going through when it involves eachother through out their adventure of discovery on Earth.

I'm not sure what to call it yet or if I'm even going to get any satisfaction from it. Especially since I've experienced this situation before and had an unsatisfying result.

But I'm going to try anyways.

.... yes, it's 1:05am here, and I got maybe 3 hours of sleep, maybe less. I don't know what time I fell asleep but I'm guessing 9pm and I woke at midnight .... hopefully, I can get this fixed later today with my doctors appointment.

I'm going to go to planning this project, and I'll be posting very rough sketches for the next couple of weeks. As well as my digital painting of the kiss image I drew. Thanks for reading.

[itscruiseelroy]

Annaugust: Day 1

Heyo! I'm gonna be sharing a fun fact about Annalynn every day throughout all of August! Hopefully I can get a sketch to go with each day as well!

To start with: if you're already familiar with the game from Steam or the Nintendo Switch, the game did not actually start out as a 2021 release title! I initially made it back in 2016 for a game making competition, all in the span of two weeks. This version of the game is much more primitive - there's only one level that loops endlessly, the controls are more stiff, and the enemy AI is a bit awkward, but it laid the groundwork pretty well for what would become the game you can play today!

The character designs themselves have changed a lot over the years as well; I don't have exact dates for these but I'd date them around February-May 2016.

Despite how old these designs are (especially Anna's), it's still fun to come back to them and try out something different every now and then! I always felt thought experiments like these where you'd stick with only the older versions of designs were interesting. That's all for this first day's fun fact, bit of a long one! I'll link tomorrow's fact in this post once it goes live.

[writingdotcoffee]

New in Writing Analytics: The Draft Library

I haven't posted much recently, and this is why. I've been working on a massive new feature for Writing Analytics. It took way longer than I expected, but it's ready now. And I'm so happy with how it turned out.

Previously, the app only had a chronological list of all your writing sessions. This works fine when you work on a single project, mostly first drafting. However, when you write a lot of stuff, it's easy to lose track of what you did when.

The thing is, people write a lot of stuff in WA. This feature was badly needed for a long time — my first sketches date back to August 2022. I'm glad I didn't build it back then because the idea wasn't fully formed yet. I found the right solution a few months ago and started working on it.

Introducing the Draft Library

One great thing about the library is that it's pretty self-explanatory. It's where your projects and drafts live. Projects behave like folders. You can drag them around to rearrange them. Click on a project to see the drafts inside.

When you open a draft, you'll see its text and some basic stats. Figures like the word count and how much time you spent working on it across all your writing sessions.

Creating new sessions has also changed. I broke the form down into a few steps. It's now way easier to select a project and join a challenge.

This brings me to my favourite new feature: colour coding! You could always set colours for projects, but this is mainly to distinguish them on your dashboard.

Now, you can colour-code drafts in the library as well. Make published drafts green and drafts that still need work red?

Or, when working on a more complex story, you could colour-code different chapters based on the PoV characters or track interweaving threads of the narrative. The possibilities there are endless!

If you'd like to give this a go, you can sign up here (it's free for two weeks).

Coming Up Next

I'm always working on new features for the app. Right now, I'm updating the version history. Every time you create a session, Writing Analytics makes a copy of your draft. You can go back in time and see all the previous versions.

I'm also working on an export feature to the docx format so you can move your work to Google Docs and send it to your editor when you finish drafting.

[superbecky]

Meet Aislinn - Soriel Fanchild

>Please do not re-post or use my work in any way without my permission! Re-blogging is ok. Thanks!<

(CHARACTER INFO BELOW!)

My "first" art post of the year! Honestly, this kind of art is something I always shied away from making, at least regarding posting it online… but, I guess here we are! Nothing wrong with going into the new year trying out something new. Allow me to introduce to you, Aislinn! She is my attempt at an Undertale fankid for Toriel x Sans (because yes, Soriel is amazing and I love it so much).

The concept of this character actually dates back years ago as a little collaboration between me and a family member. I never was planning to make her known about, but during Soriel Week 2023 (so back in August), I decided why not? Thus, I started updating her design and did a sketch. However, during that time Soriel Week 2023 was ending and I got too busy until I eventually forgot about this kiddo. That is, until a few days ago when I got inspired by that same family member and decided “you know what, sure let’s just do this for fun”! So yeah, here she is!

I did have fun drawing/designing her, but I also think it is a little bit tricky when creating fan characters because, at least for me, I want them to feel like a natural inclusion to the world they are supposed to be from. I think overall I did good though at this goal!

Anyways, if you are interested in hearing more about her character, the family/story dynamics, and my design process, then keep on reading! Otherwise, I think she turned out cute and this was a fun little project to work on! I wouldn’t be opposed to drawing her again or even with other family members, but I think it will ultimately depend on if people would want to see that. Oh, and if you have any questions about her you want to ask that I don’t have answered below, then feel free to ask me! C:

🤍💙💜🤍💙💜 So… if you are reading this, then you are wanting to learn more, yeah? Well, buckle up because boy do I have a lot to share! Does Aislinn exist within an AU/alternate timeline? Well, I feel it would be more appropriate to consider her inclusion as being part of an alternative timeline because it’s more so my head canons/my take on a possibility of what could happen after the events of a pacifist timeline if Toriel and Sans end up together. Like, there isn’t anything drastically changed to what we know from canon other than me throwing some head canons into a pacifist timeline, so it feels incorrect to me to call it an AU. Do I have a name then for this alternate timeline? I guess if anything, you could consider her inclusion as a follow up to the stories/events told in my other Undertale alternative timeline, Scrapbooktale. Why the name Aislinn? Why not use a font for her name? Well, technically if you google “Aislinn font”, there is a font that I think fits her pretty well. But basically, Aislinn’s name means “dream or vision”, which I felt tied back to things in Undertale like “hopes and dreams” (Asriel) and just how like I feel that with monster kind being freed, they are able to pursue their dreams. Toriel and Sans are both shown to be very family-oriented, so why wouldn’t a possible dream of theirs be to extend their family? That’s where my inspiration came from. Her nicknames are Linn and Linny. Does she speak using a font like Sans and Papyrus?  Nope. More information regarding your design process for her?

So going into more details regarding her physical design, her head and part of her neck is completely bone like Sans and her hands are also skeletal. The only thing on her face that has fur is her little floofy eyebrows! The rest of her body is more like Toriels. She wears a big, green headband/bow as I decided that I wanted to give her some sort of visual element that would give the illusion of ears. I knew that I wanted to give her horns, but instead of just giving her horns that look like what Toriel has, I thought it would be cool to give her horns that resemble Sanses Gaster Blasters. Her eyes in shape are more like her moms, but they are just more so glowing pupils like Sans has (or in her case, glowing ring lights). Her eye color has a slight blue tint to it as I was inspired by Toriel’s official Nendroid design, which has blue eyes. One of Aislinn's most treasured items is her gold flower hair clip that was given to her by Frisk. She always keeps it clipped on her favorite headband/bow.

How old is she? How tall is she?

I find it hard to give an exact age for her because how monsters age is a bit… unknown in terms of canon? But if I had to give her some sort of age, Aislinn is 5 years old, and I think Frisk would be roughly 14 years old around this time. As for her height... well she is just a lil kiddo, so of course she is rather short! I imagine when she gets older though, she would be taller than Frisk. What is her personality? Likes and Dislikes?

Aislinn is cautious and sometimes can come off as shy. While she loves her family, their antics definitely freak her out from time to time.

She is very polite thanks mainly to Toriel. Sans tries to loosen her up a bit, but it is something Aislinn just can’t help!

She tends to keep to herself.

She can be very curious and playful, but won’t do anything that she deems unsafe (unless convinced). Because of her age though, she still struggles with understanding sometimes what is actually considered safe and unsafe.

Her favorite color is green, and her favorite food is snail pizza.

Some of her hobbies include playing with her toy trumpet, drawing, reading and hearing stories, and playing/hanging out with Frisk.

She likes puns and jokes. However, she is terrible at making them.

Aislinn dislikes fighting and dangerous situations. She also does not enjoy getting super messy.

Aislinn and Frisk's Relationship

Aislinn idolizes Frisk. Even though she has a hard time understanding them sometimes (especially regarding all the shenanigans Frisk seems to get into) Aislinn still thinks that Frisk is the coolest person in the world. She loves hearing about Frisk’s adventures, especially the ones of their time Underground. Even though Frisk has a hard time understanding kids close to their age or younger, they still enjoy hanging out with Aislinn and sometimes envy her naïve nature. When Aislinn was a baby, though initially excited, Frisk ended up having a hard time of feeling like the "lesser child" since they are adopted and struggle with self worth. Luckily, thanks to Sans and Toriel, Frisk began to learn over time that they are just as loved and cared for as Aislinn. Though sometimes, they may fall back into this mindset. On the other hand, Aislinn sometimes feels like she isn't good enough compared to Frisk. After all, she is the sibling of the human who changed history by freeing monster kind! Aislinn and Frisk really do love each other though at the end of the day. Aislinn and Sanses Relationship

I am someone who head canons that Sans raised Papyrus and later on helped to raise Frisk after marrying Toriel. By the time Aislinn comes into the picture, Sans is a natural at the whole dad thing... or at least, he likes to hope so. For Sans, it definitely helps to have such a cool wife by his side and to have a kid this time around who is a lot more chilled out. Sans finds that raising Aislinn has actually been way easier than raising Papyrus, and especially Frisk mainly due to Aislinn staying out of trouble. That being said, Sans sometimes worries that he is not doing enough with Aislinn considering how much he seems to be keeping an eye on Frisk, because wow that kid is always getting into trouble and next thing he knows he is asking "uh kid, how did you end up flooding the bathroom... again"? He does make an effort though to make sure that Aislinn knows that he cares for her, and he tries to set aside time from all of the commotion around the house just for her. Though Aislinn is terrible at telling joke, Sans will always be proud at her attempt to tell one. Sans is the one who got Aislinn into trying out a musical instrument (her toy trumpet). He also came up with her nicknames Linn and Linny. Sans will call her baby bones, just as he did for Papyrus and still does for Frisk.

Aislinn and Toriel's Relationship

Aislinn really looks up to Toriel with how she presents herself. Graceful, polite, elegant, and sometimes just goofy. While Sans may be stuck watching Frisk all the time from almost doing god knows what, Toriel is the one who makes sure to keep more of an eye on Aislinn. Toriel enjoys teaching Aislinn things throughout the day, such as "72 uses for snails". Aislinn loves it when Toriel reads her stories, even if sometimes she does not understand what the heck is even going on in said story. When it comes to needing emotional support, Aislinn will usually go to Toriel first.

Aislinn's Magic Her magic consists of fire magic that is shaped like bones (so instead of a typical fire ball, it’s a “fire ball” that is bone shaped)! She has no blasters like Sans, nor can she teleport like he does. She can however use dark blue magic (gravity manipulation) like Sans. She can only use this magic to make someone still for a small amount of time. She cannot use this magic to push or move anyone. Aislinn also has the ability to use green (healing) magic, but is not really good at it. The most she can heal is up to 0.5-1hp, but over time as she gets older and learns her magic better, she will be able to heal just as well as Toriel does! At her current age, Aislinn's magic is still pretty weak and she is still learning how to use it properly.

🤍💙💜🤍💙💜

PHEW! Ok, I think that is all the main information I wanted to cover. But yeah, if you have any questions or want to learn more, then please feel free to ask! 💜

[lumidotexe]

some monkey studies I did back in august 2022 for my college art portfolio (didnt get accepted but im honestly relieved) ill start posting ch 5 this weekend dw just trying to stall while i sketch ch 6

[mykatzone]

Answering asks #4

I have been... procrastinating over answering asks in my inbox... just a bit 🥺

I'm really grateful for everyone's patience so I'm finally sitting down to answer all the asks I got! Again tysm ;w;

• Finny art request + Timelapse and brief overview of my art process

My deepest apologies anon! Not only did you send this ask back in July, but I additionally promised you a reply back in August- and it's October now! 😭 I am so sorry for my lateness and am so grateful for your patience!

In any case, you asked for a Finny drawing so I offer a Finny drawing! As well as a timelapse of my art process and brief overview of how I do things since you were interested!!!

I wasn't sure what style you wanted me to draw him in (I have so many styles RIP) so I picked the most difficult one I (sometimes) use! Aka my painterly style!

As for how I draw like this uhh, it's a lot of messing around trying to find the right colors basically!

Also focusing on quick brush strokes that communicate the shape of whatever surface I'm rendering!

I also love casting most of the upper part of the face in shadows. Does it make sense? No. Does it look good? Yes!!

As for my lineart, again- rly depends on the style I'm going for- but I tend to use a more sketchy style of lineart these days.

Like a superrr clean sketch. I think it looks nicer with my rendering style, bc the lines have that sketchy rough quality so it's easier to hide the imperfections bc I can hide under the "well it's supposed to look rough duhh" excuse LOL. Work smart not hard! I always say that.

I hope I'm making sense with my rambles. I've never been the best at explaining my art process bc I myself don't rly get what I'm doing usually. It just kinda comes as a reflex almost?? I've been drawing for so long I just kinda go with the flow at this point.

Anyhow hope it was worth the wait XD enjoy your Finny!!!

• Kuroshitsuji Musical idea suggestions

To refresh everyone's memory (bc I'm so late at answering asks), awhile back @shadowalkingschemer asked if I ever planned to make a Kuroshitsuji musical parody type songs/animations like I did for Umineko, to which I said "probs no bc an actual official Kuroshitsuji musical exists, but it sounds like a rly fun idea tho". ANYHOW- this was the followup ask I got from the same person! So let me finally answer!!!

Oki so I looked up this Beethoven's Last Night thing you mentioned and???? OMG??? It goes hard from the first few minutes I listened to. It's a rock opera I assume? And it's such a bop?? And yes this would be perfect for Kuroshitsuji, it matches that classical sophisticated vibe SO WELL with the general edge of the story (bc duh. it's a recreation of Beethoven's compositions but with epic rock music). God this is so good, thank you for the recommendation I will have to listen to the full album soon bc WOW.

• Nice person in my inbox :D

Thank you so much @eynnwwyjth !! That's such a sweet compliment too ;W; to call my art enchanting AAA ty!!! :>

• Animation advice

Thank you for checking out my YouTube @aeowolfestheater !! It's my primary social media, and I'm glad you fell down the rabbit hole of my many many uploads I posted over the years XD

To answer your question, I don't rly have the best personal advice when it comes to starting out as an animator rly! I kinda... fell into it? XD I started animating (well trying to animate in MS Paint), before I even turned 10, so I didn't really have that traditional learning curve? It was mostly a lot of trial and error, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

(If anyone wants to see how my old animations looked and how they improved over the years, I posted many "Animation Improvement" type videos that showcase my work over the years, so you get the idea of what I'm talking abt!)

Best advice I can give to any animator right now is probably the boring advice I personally never took (hence why it took so long for me to get where I am now). Learm the fundementals (the principles of animation, the ins and outs of the animation program you're using, general art skills are also a bonus depending of what you wanna animate). I think it's also important when you are first starting out to focus less on making your animations smooth and clean and more on learning how to capture movement itself (that's the point of animation after all!). Learn how things move depending on material, speed, physics etc. and how to communicate that in animation. I think just observing life helps a lot. References are your friend (video references are probs the best). Ofc clean and smooth animation is great as well, but that comes after you learn the basics I think. Stay on model the best you can while animating any shot (ofc unless you are doing squash and stretch or experimental animation). It makes it look less janky. Uhh I can't think of much else right now (bc again I never rly learned animation the normal way haha), so I will link my two animation tutorials here! They are abt Clip Studio Paint EX though, idk how helpful they are if you don't have that program :'0!

• Tumblr mutual reunion!

Omg hi @rissynicole and so sorry for the late reply!! As this post has shown so far I am extremely slow at replying to the asks I recieve in my inbox! Anyhow it is me! Katrinci! I got back on Tumblr in 2022 (has it already been over a year??)! Sadly someone else took my old username (an innactive empty blog too... I'm so mad), so I got a new username heyooo. I hope you've been well!! I'm doing better then I have in gosh, years I feel like XD. Mostly bc I'm finally out of school and finally focusing on stuff I wanna be doing (art career stuff and irl stuff!) But yeah I hope you've been well too!!! Feel free to reply or shoot me another ask if you feel like, I'll do my best to reply on time this time! (I'm so so sorry for being so late!!) Anyhow YIPPIE!

• Where to watch my silly Umineko Musical parody

It's here! I privated it on my main channel bc I thought it was too goofy/self-indulgent even for me (also it wasn't doing well and y'know how YouTube is with channels that underperform T_T), so I moved it to my secondary channel! It has both the song you are referencing and the other song I did! Enjoy :>

• What Croatian stereotype is Katzone?

Well every region in Croatia has its own stereotype, I'm from Dalmatia, and we are stereotyped as loud. So I def fit that one! And also I fit the "cura iz umjetničke" (girl from art school) stereotype quite well. I went to an art highschool and I'm gay, autistic, slightly mentally ill and look vaguely alt (literally I don't btw, but ppl see a buzzcut and it blows their minds, like "woah that's so alternative and quirky", not knowing I only have a buzzcut so I can't pull my hair smh (trichotillomania, look it up for more info)). Though I don't smoke weed so mby I am a bit subversive and not like other art girls.

• Kat sexuality confirmed??

Oki so what @xxparanoidvampirexx is referencing here is when I posted a poll asking my followers to guess my sexuality.

These were the results!

I have been democratically declared a lesbian by popular vote. This is probably true. Listen I'm like 95% certain I'm a lesbian but you never know. My autism makes it hard for me to figure out any sense of my identity bc I often mirror ppl around me (and most of my friends are lesbians or sapphic women in sapphic relationships), you get me? We can never know. My sexuality is currently a Schrodinger's cat situation I'm afraid.

ANYHOW, to answer LMAO- I mean fair assumption. I do mostly post about women on my blog (Saldy... I got back into Adventure Time recently and my blorbo there... is a *shivers* man. I saw someone on Twitter today as that fictional middle aged men are to lesbians what Taylor Swift is is to gay men. And like. Yeah.)

• Nice person in my inbox #2 + "What's your favorite Ciel outfit?"

First of thank you so much anon for the kind words!!! I'm rly happy to hear my art makes you gayer (the only correct compliment ever). Jokes aside, but fr this is super sweet :'D thank you!!!

To answer your question, I had to go skim through this video by @/nullbutler to refresh my memory on what outfits Ciel wears throughout the anime/manga/official art.

Here's the video if you wanna watch it!

Anyhow, my personal fave fits of his are extremely basic. While I do love Ouji fashion, I dislike seeing him in most of the oufits Yana puts him in. Like yes they look lovely, slay extremely hard and fit the visual aesthetic of Black Butler perfectly- but every time I see him in these frilly oufits I'm like "this is not reflective of his personality in any way, he would not wear this on his own, it's pure camp". Don't get me wrong- I love camp, and this anime/manga is as camp as you get. So while I love the more campy frilly oufits he wears aesthetically (and those are way prettier), I perfer when he's in stuff like this:

Like yes, these outfits are objectively less interesting and pretty- but I see stuff like this and I'm like yeah that's him. If Sebastian dropped dead and couldn't pick out his clothes anymore, this is what he would wear on his own accord methinks.

• STOP MAKING ME FEEL OLD 😭

Here's my live reaction of reading your ask @porfiriea :

What do you mean?? You were 6?? I doubt you watched my 2014 MS Paint animation era, I assume you found my channel during 2016-2017 at earliest (my Undertale and Yan Sim animation era). I refuse to believe you were born in the 2010s. Nuh-uh. No. Not happening. Fake news.

Jokes aside, but it's always cool to see ppl be like "oh I watched your stuff b4, I didn't know this Tumblr user was you!" It's a strange feeling!! Makes me feel like I did leave a mark on the animation side of YouTube. Feels nice! :'D but also old. And I'm only 20!! How will I feel when I'm 30 or 40?? Will I just turn to dust on the spot??

• Grelle's gender masterpost update

I'm so sorry anon, but I completely lost interest in this topic T_T! Plus even if I ended up making a masterpost, it wouldn't be fully accurate (or at least- I wouldn't be able to verify its authenticity completely), as I don't speak Japanese. So I would have to go off of Google translate and translations by English speaking fans who understand Japanese. And I don't wanna talk too much abt Japanese queer culture either. Even though I did a ton of research, I'm not Japanese and I never went to Japan! So I'd rather not risk spreading any potential misinfo. Sorry to let you down ;;!

• Another YouTube viewer spotted me in the wild!

Omg you spotted me!! In the wild!! That animation was crazyy, bc I made it rly fast and rly didn't expect it to do well. But I remember it did super well during the first day (got 100k views on the first day it was wild), and while I love that old video, I'm like. Rly? That one blew up?? Out of all my other ones?? I mean the idea was creative! But I feel I half assed it a little, I barely animated anything for it outside the headbop tweening and blinking animation XD. Mby I'm being too harsh on 14 year old Kat here. Nahh I'm not, I felt the same when I posted it innitially as well. But hey I still love that vid. Love the style I drew in at the time, I was still using a mouse for everything back then. Love the colors too! Mby I should remake it one of these days. Mby!!!

If anyone wants to watch the animation @gentle-starlight is refering to:

• Umineko time

@anawkwardlady This is the universal Umineko fandom experience I'm afraid. Being sad over Beato and wishing she was vibing (after you learn abt... the horrors...) XD

• ???

I'm so very concerned and do not know what this means or what this is refering to. I'm afraid O_O @hononyan what does this mean...

• What happened to my old Tumblr blog

It's completely ok to ask anon! In truth, I have this rly bad habit where I delete social media accounts when I'm having a bad mental health moment. It's always an impulsive decision I end up regretting. I deleted my old Tumblr in early 2021 I'm pretty sure, and I'm still so sad about it. I wish I didn't delete it. I had that blog since 2015 and now it's gone like poof. I can't get it back and I'm always emo abt it.

I might make like, an archive or something of my old art one day. I mean I still have most of it saved on my computer, but it would be nice to have all of it in one place publically again (it's always good to have stuff backed up somewhere)! Adding that to my to-do list XD

Oh and the worst part? I can't use my old username on Tumblr (Katrinci). Someone else took it. A BLANK EMPTY BLOG. I'm so mad. I'm soooooo mad give it back to meeee.

• THE END!

And with that I have answered all the asks I had in my inbox! Well, all the questions and stuff, I still have other stuff in my inbox like art requests but I'll get to that some other time if I feel like doing any of those! In any case, tysm for being patient everyone! Ik it took me very long to reply but I hope my responses were worth it! I wish all of you a nice day! My hand hurts from typing owie.

[mrschwartz]

Alex Turner for OOR Magazine (October 2022)

Conducted in August 20th 2022 by Willem Bemboom

Alex in the sun on a terrace. Leather jacket, classic shades, a big head of hair in desperate need of a handful of Brylcreem. He almost looks like a time-traveller, someone from another dimension, unmoved by the sounds of the city in the distance and the swelling lunch crowd around us.

He talks slowly and dragging, as if the battery is almost flat.  His pauses in thought are numerous and stretched out, sometimes to determine what he DOES want to say, more often to think about what he does NOT want to say. Apparently he is so used to intelligent or difficult questions, that the easy ones throw him off. What are you listening to? What has changed? What do you think yourself is the most beautiful lyric? Endless silences, you can almost hear the brain cracking. But they are by no means painful. The lesson taken from previous interviews - and in fact the essence of Arctic Monkeys: just let Alex Turner meditate, that's where eventually the best things come from.

The sunglasses meanwhile are being taken on and off every minute. With wide eyes full of wonder Turner turns the casual things lying on the table into a journey of discovery. OOR's old trusted dictaphone for example. 'Reliable stuff', he judges. ‘At worst eats your tape one time, but such a device will not betray you. Two buttons, on, off, record, play. You don't need more options. I want to start working with these things a bit more.”

He weighs the device for a moment, as if he is testing a peach or tomato at the local fruit & veg. A mysterious short laugh follows. Who knows what goes on in that head.

The Car as a record makes an analogous impression, either way in terms of technique and instrumentation.

Right? Texture wise for sure. Old instruments, string arrangements. The ideas are kneaded to songs with human hands. Although this time we also have a Moog.

And the subjects as well seem to come from a different time. Classic Hollywood, faded glory, but also Cold War stuff. In various songs there are spying elements sneaking around.

That’s for sure what I’m doing in the new songs. Think of Gene Hackman in The Conversation, you have to search in circle of people as such.Vague surveillance stuff, listening devices [focuses on the recorder again]. A bit like how this conversation is also being recorded, haha.

Social media seems completely absent, you are far from sketching a contemporary time frame. People talk on the phone together.

Good point. I imagine that phone in Big Ideas like that, on the wall, with a turntable. It is indeed an analog world, there is no apping or anything like that. On the first song on our first record I sing about a phone that is being unlocked [The View From The Afternoon]. You had to press the asterisk key to avoid accidentally turning on your cell phone. We still play that song every night, I’ve now sang it so often that I’m not thinking about those lyrics at all. A few days ago I did have a clear mind and suddenly I realised: gosh, this is not how phones are any more! Back in the days I was more up-to-date with my technological references, on AM there are still text messages and such. That's gone now. I have gone back in time, it seems.

Your previous album took place at the moon. Where - and especially when - is The Car set?

Hm. [long silence] You know what, I really don't have any idea whatsoever. Even for Tranquility Base I now wonder if it all took place at the moon. That sort of thing reveals itself only later, sometimes even a lot later. The music triggers something in me, I build on the atmosphere and the sound, and I just let The Idea run wild - though I refine the lyrics endlessly after they get into shape. But the source? Dunno, that can't be guided or be explained. I did try to steer away a bit more from the sci-fi idiom than on the previous one. Whether it succeeded is question number two. For some reason there’s somehow always science fiction seeping through.

You now refer in several numbers to old movies and showbiz, like the musical Anything Goes, 1930s Broadway, with music by Cole Porter. New fascination?

Hmmm, no. By the way, it is indeed lifted from a movie. Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom begins with the song Anything Goes, from that musical, sung in Chinese. Nice opening, although I’m certainly not the biggest Indiana Jones fan. I suddenly thought about it, so it ended up in that song. That's how it goes with most things. Who knows where it comes from and what it means. It's suddenly there.

Is Sculptures Of Anything Goes a New York song? Apart from the Broadway link you sing about 'city life 09', the period you lived in Brooklyn, and ‘Village coffee mornings, with not long since retired spies’.

As in: written in New York? No, I haven't been to New York in ages. The Village is in there…. I think this is another of those science fiction things. You've been nervously playing around with that empty cassette box for 15 minutes now, and I’m now imagining that it contains City Life 09. I’m fond of the idea there will be a city life cartridge in the future, a simulation that you can board. I’m imagining a full box of those cartridges, from 1929 to 1959 to 1969 to 1979 to 1989 and so on. That’s because I think there should be intervals of ten years to notice a substantial difference in such a huge city. And the 2009 one is missing from that lyric, it's inside the machine because it's used most often. Whether it's also refers to my time in New York… No idea. It's purely a bit of fantasy.

Let’s swap the fantasy for the facts for a little bit: where and when did you start making this record?

Even before the lockdowns, right away after the Tranquility Base tour in South America. In April and May 2019 I wrote the first attempts of new songs, we already recorded some bits in late 2019, but that attempt led to nothing. Only after the lockdowns we came back together again, last summer, in Butley Priory, an old monastery at the coast of Suffolk. No one knew we were there, it was a remote place. It reminded me of our first record, when we went from the madhouse to the countryside for a while as well. We never did that again ever since, until now. Recording a record in England also was a while ago, same counts for a summer album. So there we were again, at the English countryside, as a rrrrock band! [big eyes and a rolling rrrrr] No distractions, like in the city. Extra focus, no prying eyes. All in the same zone. Good morning, you know.

We will come back at that ‘rock band’ part for a bit later. What did a day in Suffolk look like for the rest?

Oh, every morning we got trumpeted out of our beds with a reveille. And a while after a bell was ringing: go to work, lazy bastards! Thereafter a Powerpoint presentation with schedules and tactics. No, just joking, it was the opposite. Very calm and relaxed, everything in our own tempo. These days I find it essential to take the time. That’s because every project has to search and find its own way. As a maker you also have to let a piece of work go its own way. During the summer of 2019 I read a book about movie editing, In The Blink Of An Eye by Walter Murch. Although movie editing is not my discipline, I did get interesting things out of it anyway, there are parallels with how I put together a record these days. Editing usually involves cutting out bad bits. The question that immediately arises: what is a bad bit? Are there bad bits at all? This Sir Murch calls the process of editing the discovery of a path through all the available material. The more you shot, the more possible paths there are. And because I had quite a lot of ideas, more than ever actually, which all wanted to exist, it was extra important to especially follow the feeling. Sometimes I got a direction in mind, and then the piece itself drags you in the opposite direction anyway. It has other ideas. It lives, it is an entity. Let it go. That’s how it went now as well.

You keep on avoiding the meaning of your lyrics. Is the writing of it not a conscious process then?

Hmmm, that always comes last anyway. I am endlessly adjusting and rewriting. When we were working on the music in Suffolk, I hardly sang on top of it. I do believe that at this moment in time I write down what I am experiencing more directly. I'm a bit more open, more honest, apparently inspired by four guys who are just standing together in a room making music.

What do you consider your favourite find on The Car?

Oh… I forgot to bring my cheat sheet. I’ve got a folder with notes, which I planned on bringing with me. But it also feels a little know-it-all and self-conscious to start giving a lecture from my own notes here. My best line… I wouldn’t know! I simply don’t know all the lyrics by heart yet. [long pause] I think ‘Big Ideas’ as a whole is a very accomplished song.

Ah, with the ‘hysterical scenes’ that are reminiscent of a band just breaking through. ‘We had ‘em out of their seats, waving their arms and stomping their feet’ – that’s where the echo of Monkeymania is audible.

Strange times.

Or just The Beatles. ‘Clap your hands and stomp your feet’, is what Lennon sometimes shouted from the stage…

Hm, yeah. No. Here I imagine sort of more like a movie producer giving someone a call. Or something like that.

Big Ideas is full of melancholy – and that counts for more songs in general.

It’s not just in the words, you know. Yes, so that’s how it works for me: the words arise from the feeling the music evokes. The melody supplies the words and ideally they complement each other. In that way, the things it makes you say are indeed not conscious. It purely revolves around what the music allows you to say.

“Over and out, it’s been a thrill”, you sing on Big Ideas. Hello You, Jet Skis On The Moat and Perfect Sense also contain “goodbyes” and “goodnights”. Are you saying goodbye to something?

Yeah, I think that’s fair. That all has to do with where I arrived in life at the moment. I’m 36, the band exists for about twenty years, including the whole run-up. So I’ve been in the band for more than half of my life. You leave things behind, while the clock keeps ticking. People, places, your younger self. Time. Though that’s not necessarily a bad thing, you get new things in return. But it’s human nature to sometimes look back on what has been, what’s behind you. Though I’m pretty good at leaving things behind.

Like loud guitar music for example.

[big eyes] Ha!

The rrrrrrrrock band you just mentioned is not the same as the one from 2006 anymore.

Haha, not on the record, no! But on stage we just keep on rocking, that all co-exists. But you know what’s the funny thing? We could very well still have made a loud guitar record after all. If the music had asked for it, I think I would have obediently followed. When we finished touring in 2019, everything pointed in that direction. Much louder than Tranquility Hotel, in any case. But that started to shift towards a different direction and that’s why we took a break from it at the time. I was afraid I would start forcing things. And sometimes you just have to accept the fact you can’t go back to the riffs from ten years ago. At the end of the tour I knew what kind of songs I wanted to do, with the lights of the stage still in my eyes and the thundering roars of the audience in my ears. Big, loud guitars should have been part of that. That’s what I’m gonna do! I even put on my motorcycle boots to get a hold of that mood. But that didn’t feel right in the end, as said. You’re not that person anymore, your music wants to go in a different direction. Then I can only follow that.

Put the Arctic Monkeys who were recording at the English countryside in 2006 next to the band working at Suffolk last summer. Not to see what has changed, but what hasn’t changed?

Well, everything has changed. [2 minutes of silence while you can almost hear a movie playing in his head] … except for the countryside and England, haha! I did find it more fun this time though. Maybe because right now we finally know what we’re doing. Yes, that has remained the same. The only reason we now can not make a loud guitar record in all peace and comfort, is because we’re still Arctic Monkeys. Everyone has grown up, the essence of the band has grown with us. The faces are a bit more round, the boys call their children instead of their parents, but the feeling remains the same. Life itself happened – and not in an unpleasant way. It’s all good, everything. Yes, it’s fine.

Why did you have more fun now than back then? Did that 20 year old kid that recorded ‘Whatever People Say I Am…’ not know what he was doing?

Not what happened to him, no. It was a great time, but oh dear, so much stress! Now I’m completely relaxed in everything I do. Looking back at 2006, everything was so… tight! My guitar was hanging just below my chin, the strap was almost pinched around my back. That example alone. I let the guitar nicely hang nowadays. And sometimes I even leave it in its stand. The schedules are looser, the people are looser, the music is looser. Less heavy, not as frenetic and whaaaargh! It’s fitting better in its own skin. Just like ourselves. The jacket is hanging loosely unbuttoned. I’m sitting behind a grand piano in the corner. And still it feels like Arctic Monkeys, because we’re still walking the same path, however strange the path winds. The same timeline and the same principles. The path, following the music, is the constant factor. 15 years ago we followed our instinct as young lads and The Record is what resulted from it. Now we’re still doing that, and this time that record is The Car.

Oh yeah, The Car. What kind of car is it?

Just a car.

Does it stand for anything?

No, it’s standing on a roof. The cover photo was taken by Matthew Helders, our drummer. When I saw that photo a few years ago, I immediately knew it had the potential to be an album cover for the band. There’s not just spies and goodbyes in the lyrics, if you listen closely you can hear a few cars. And after [raises voice] Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino the temptation to call something ‘The Car’ is simply too big. It is what it is.

So just a car.

Yep. And that car on the cover in particular.

Where was the photo taken?

If I’m not mistaken, in Los Angeles.

Ah, Los Angeles. There you’re nothing without a car. What kind do you drive?

I don’t own a car. I’m back in London now and it’s just not practical there. No car…

Where did you used to go on holidays as a kid?

Oh, eh, Eastbourne, on the south shore. With my grandparents on the Dotto Train, one of those tourist carts along the beach. But how did we suddenly end up here?

I wondered about this when I heard The Car, the song. Nicely melancholic, you sing about past holidays, falling asleep at the back seat.

But that doesn’t take place in Eastbourne [rolls his eyes]. But where does it take place, I can hear you think… In a parallel universe full of espionage and science fiction, haha!

Sounds exciting. Have you ever tried writing a script yourself?

No. The kind of stories I tell are mostly… based on the music and the melodical ideas, as I already explained. Those bring forth the story. If I wouldn’t have that, I would struggle. I would like to learn this though, sometime, one day. But I’m not working on it now, it’s a whole different skill to the one I’ve currently got on board. Never say never, we’ll see. But definitely not tomorrow [thinks for a bit, laughs]. Tomorrow’s Pukkelpop. There’s no time for drafting scripts. Although it is a world I would like to roam about, one I’d like to explore. At the Priory I had an old 16mm camera with me, one that fits in the palm of your hand and you have to crank up yourself. Still not even close to Hollywood. But ah well, that’s a hobby.

What music are you listening to yourself at the moment?

[two minutes of silence] I used to be able to always draw a straight line from what I was listening to right to the new record, that’s different now, I think. No more adding this, this, this and this and you’ve got the new Monkeys. It’s not as clear what those things are this time, not even for me.

If you could go to Record Palace at the opposite of Paradiso with 50 euros right now, what would you pick from there?

Oh wow, that place is amazing! I actually should stop by there later. We’ve been so busy fine-tuning the show, this morning I only took a walk in the park for a bit… Lovely morning.

But at the moment you’re listening to…

Oh man… After finishing the record, nothing for a while, for a few months. Now it’s starting up again a bit. Headphones on… listening to things. What do I want to share here right now?

I’ll just write down Nookie by Limp Bizkit.

Oh no. Is that a threat? Alright, in that case do… Nat King Cole! The song ‘Where Did Everybody Go’. Why? That’s why.

At There’d Better Be A Mirrorball you actually sound a bit like Nat King Cole. Coincidence?

Ha, that’s nice! Eh, yes, coincidence. On the other hand: what’s a coincidence?

You sing a lot in falsetto, you croon, sometimes you’re channelling Bowie. Are you still looking for your voice or are you finally coming close?

Always in search of! You look for a manner of singing that guides the music the easiest way. A way that’s in tune with the feeling you wanna convey. That’s the hardest part… no, that’s what you’re aiming for, that connection.

Connection with?

With what you can’t really grasp. And can’t understand. Or can’t express into words. How you as a normal little person can become part of that wonder, the music. There’s a technical component to it, by practicing a lot I can reach a higher pitch or hold a note better. Those are means. The purpose is something bigger though. There’s this great song on Sinatra at the Sands, 'Don’t Worry About Me', that he introduces as one of the best songs ever. In one part of a verse he sings a step-up note, bigger and bigger, that fills all gaps in the notes just to get to the next step. It’s off, but because of that it’s actually perfectly right. It stands out. That’s why I call magic. That’s what it’s about. Getting completely lost in that feeling and getting to a place where everything is right. Even when it’s not right. Even more so when it’s not right. Then you know it’s right.

[rhysiana]

A summer vacation moment for Nozue and Togawa that I originally started as a Yuletide treat, but it was both too short and too overwhelmingly summer-y, so I saved it for now. Posting this specifically on August 7, the day Tanabata is celebrated in Sendai. (Please also imagine a future where Togawa tries out sketching as a new hobby for the accompanying art.)

Technically, this trip had been Togawa’s idea. He had been the one to spot the shinkansen fare deal after Nozue commented casually about a travel segment on the morning news; he had been the one to book the ryokan instead of one of the hotels they always used on business trips so it would feel like a real vacation. But now that they were here, he was really starting to question the wisdom of traveling to Sendai in August. Here in the covered shopping street in the middle of the city, the humid air was barely moving. He could feel sweat trickling down the middle of his back and spared a very brief but longing thought for the air-conditioned office he’d been so eager to escape.

Fortunately, looking at Nozue was serving as a pretty good distraction from his own discomfort. Not that Nozue was probably any less hot than Togawa was, but he was handling it with more style, dressed in a short-sleeved linen shirt he’d ironed before Togawa had woken up that morning and somehow kept unwrinkled the whole day. He’d also managed to procure a cheap fan from somewhere and was using it to lazily stir the air in front of his face, but Togawa could see sweat beading on his neck and had been running an idle fantasy in his mind of kissing it off the hollow of his throat for the past fifteen minutes.

He wiped an annoying (and undoubtedly less attractive) trickle off his own forehead. “Do you think they celebrate Tanabata here a month later than everywhere just to maximize how hot it will be?”

“I think it’s supposed to be something about staying more in line with the historical calendar,” Nozue said almost absently, and then smiled over his shoulder at him. “Look at that one!”

Togawa forced himself to blink away from Nozue’s smile, which as far as he was concerned was the entire point of the trip, and look at the huge paper decoration he was pointing at.

“Very pretty,” he agreed, and held up his phone to take a picture, Nozue in the foreground as the more important subject. If Nozue wanted photos of just the decorations, he could take them himself.

Nozue noticed and looked away, fanning himself a little harder. If he hadn’t already been so flushed from the heat, Togawa suspected he would have been blushing. Togawa hadn’t decided whether he hoped would someday get used to it, or if he’d respond so cutely forever.

“Oh, look,” Nozue said, still a master of deflection when flustered. “There’s going to be fireworks tonight. Do you think we’ll be able to see them from the ryokan, or should we go to,” he squinted at the flyer, glasses left behind in his suitcase as always, “um, this bridge up near the castle ruins?”

Togawa decided not to tease him about clearly figuring that out from the larger symbols on the map rather than the words and considered the question seriously. “There’s aircon back in the room, but if we go to the festival area, there will be yakisoba. And dango.” He glanced at the map again. “And probably reflections off the river.”

“Hmmm, yes, let’s do that.” Nozue leaned a little closer to Togawa in a way he often did now, like he was responding to a personal gravity. (Togawa thrilled at it every time even though he wasn’t sure Nozue really realized he was doing it.) “Why does yakisoba from a festival stall always taste the best?”

Fitting his hand into the small of Nozue’s back, Togawa steered him back into the flow of pedestrians. “I don’t know, but I’m sure the answer is very unhealthy.”

Nozue’s fan was directed at them both now. “I’m sure that’s true. Let’s not find out.”

[Now also in my Petit Fours collection of Old Fashion Cupcake post-canon slice-of-life moments.)