#kind of a wip but the actual image you're seeing is done

[kiunlo]

one of the panels that's gonna be in the comic. just got it done and i couldn't help but share. still only just started on the comic so uhh don't expect the whole thing for at least a very long while LMAO

[pxrtalchopped]

So Shell Feed

one : ✧ prologue

a various! rise tmnt / reader fanfiction. [with textfic and lit!]

Kendra asks you to test out an app for her. Turns out, that app was not hers to let you test. And now you've stumbled into the groupchat of four vigilante, mutant turtles and consequently, their lives.

But seeing as you had just gotten out of a toxic friend group, you were luckily in dire need of a new one! So fun, how these things turn out for the better.

Posting on ao3, wattpad, and now tumblr! I hope the image formatting works omg! Enjoy!

___________________________________

Your first day of Junior Year - yippee - and you started it like any other:

Getting work done, which consisted of the same icebreaker papers like any other classroom, doodling random scribbles in your sketchbook till the clock hit next hour, and passing between hours by blasting sped up tiktok songs through your earbuds because fuck talking to people irl.

Don't get me wrong, you weren't an outcast or anything. Sure, you had interests the popular kids might not have been into (take your embarassing and reawakened FnaF phase last year-) but you were widely liked, if not, then not necessarily disliked, by most of the people in your classes.

This was kind of a given, as you've had school with a good handful of these kids in your previous years.

Take Kendra and her little crew, for example. Kendra, Jeremy and Jase had been found in almost every tech class you took as a kid. (Ez school credits you just worked off instruction books) And ignoring their incessant bickerings amoungst eachother, or the ocassional cocky and narcissisticly snide remarks they'd give you if you asked them for help - they actually quite liked you.

Liked you is a nice way of saying you were an easy target for spreading havoc that wouldn't be traced back to them.

Did you know this? No. But that wasn't your fault, you're just a little optimistic about their underlying evilness that they're surprisingly so good at hiding from faculty.

"Hey, ___!" she would coo at you, "our club is entering an app contest, and we need some people to test it out. Can't make any reviews ourselves since they'd call us out on bias, ya' know?"

- All this to say, you weren't at all suspicious when Kendra walked up to you [Jace in tow and Jeremy nowhere to be seen] with a pleasant smirk amoung her bright blue lips, and a cheery tone to boot.

-: ✧ :-　　

She put an arm around your shoulder. Her silk jacket was really cold and she smelled like mint, a scent you found common in her clubroom. Maybe it was her signature that she threw across the room every day.

In front of you, she pulled her free hand out with her phone to showcase the club's aforementioned "app".

It seemed to look exceedingly similar to Funstagram.

"Uhh.."

"Don't mention what it looks like, this is just a wip - references were needed for beta," she spoke fast and mumbled, similar to the last three seconds of a commercial as if to help you ignore the blatant copyright.

"Basically what we need you to do is make an account, converse with the... other volunteers we asked, and in about a month or so let me know how it goes!" While talking, she meagerly scrolls through the app, showing you all the functions and controls.

Then, she sends the app's downloadable apk to your phone and explains that your help would be compensated.

You weren't interested until that last part, so you hurriedly downloaded it before the next period started and got to fuckin' work.

Now, when you typed "themaincharacter" as your username you weren't necessarily thinking anything cocky, you just thought you were being funny and a little cute. No one should give it a second thought, right? You'd be fine.

You needed a profile picture.

Fucking perfect.

And now you just had to look at the explo- oh what the fuck?

Okay... randomly added to a gc immediately after creating an account. That's chill.

You felt bad for BootyyyShaker9000. Dude looked like he was about to have an aneurysm.

Or.. I guess typed like it. Yknow.

Okay, so they're kind of funny. But you're still insanely confused and they're responding exponentially fast - you're about to get a headache.

Still, you were curious about them. You want to be cautious and polite, so better not tease them in case they're trigger happy with the kick button.

....You're kind of stupid.

Oh, okay, they're much chiller than you thought! And also just as stupid as you!

Not that you didn't register their names by now, but at least you're getting somewhere with your confusion. You're still a little guilty for the purple one.

... purple guy?!!!?!? DID YOU GET SUCKED INTO FNAF?!?!

The teacher was looking at you, so you decided to put your phone away for the rest of the class.

You could feel your phone vibrate with about 20 more messages before the bell rang.

Okay, sweet. If being accepted into a group of weird nerds online [who had just literally doxxed you] wasn't enough to leave you on edge, the blackmailing threat of some unknown stranger definitely set you in a sturry.

You had a handful of guesses as to who 'April' was. You knew about three April's personally from your school but none seem the type to talk to guys of this... energy. You made a note to be extra cautious tomorrow; already planning your inconspicuous oversized hoodie and baggy sweats to wear tomorrow.

You'll look like a major red flag or depressed college student buttttt at least you'll be harder to spot in a crowd!

You turned your phone off as you headed out the doors of the school. The battery was getting pretty low anyway. Your guess? Kendra totally gave your phone some virus to get dirt or probably destroy the group of guys you'd just become friends with.

You only had a few hours left before the day ended but it was most likely going to be filled with chores and applications to a part time job now that summer's over - so your schedule was pretty low on free time.

Not to mention now you have to wake up early for your second day of school. Early hours was not something you missed in July.

...All this to say, knowing the person you are, you couldn't risk hopping back in the group chat for the rest of the night. You'd hopped on your phone last year and it would take you till 4 AM before you actually went to bed only to wake up two hours later to get dressed for school.

Oh, you missed summer. Oh, you missed lonely, miserable and depressing summer so so bad.

-: ✧ :-　　

Word count: Around 1.1k, not counting the texts.

[mushroomjar]

hey whats the deal w diana and calliope

[ID: Scribbly drawing of a person looking up at the viewer with big puppy eyes, smiling. End ID]

KICKING MY LEGS AND GIGGLING OMGGGG OKAY OKAY

You're right, what IS the deal with them? KSKSKSS Okay I'll tell you a bit about them, but like always, under a read more, because I always get embarrassed talking about my OCs here lol

Btw I'm in the middle of writing my response and I have to say omfg I feel so embarrassed pleeeease don't be mean I will cry

I guess I'll just start by showing what they look like, which I made in a Picrew, like always (if anyone wants the link to the Picrew let me know, I use this one all the time lol)

So this is Diana (she's actually supposed to have light blonde hair, not white, I'm a bit lazy to change the photo rn but yeah):

[Image Description: A cartoonish Picrew of a white woman with long white hair and blue eyes sat down in an alley, smiling. She wears a white frilly button-up under a white apron dress, white shoes, and has a rosary tied around her wrist. There's a knife sitting next to her. End Image Description]

And this is Calliope:

[Image Description: A cartoonish Picrew of a white woman with a dark brown mullet and dark brown eyes sat down in an alley, frowning. She wears a black shirt with a dark red skull, black pants, white socks and black converse shoes. There's a kitchen knife sitting next to her. End Image Description]

I'm probably gonna skip a lot of details in this (but if you want more details you can always DM me), but the gist of it is Cal and Diana had been dating for a very short amount of time (think 2-4 months), and one day while in Diana's house, Calliope finds out that Diana eats people, and she gets freaked out, and Diana tries to explain herself because she does it out of love, but Calliope just leaves, and she doesn't do the "call the police" thing (though she does almost do it) but she just spends a couple of days without talking to Diana and just thinking by herself, and she realizes after a while that she's not just thinking "holy shit she's insane" but she's also thinking "I want to see her again, I need to see her again", and it's this mix of thoughts "she's insane what's wrong with her I love her we need to still be together but why she's EATING PEOPLE-"

Anyway a couple days later Calliope goes back to Diana's house, and when Diana opens the door for her Cal's just like "Show me," and Diana's like "Show you what?" And Cal's like "Show me how you do it. Eat" (those aren't the exact words but it's just to give you an idea of what happens)

And so she does that, she lets Calliope in and she takes a part from one of the bodies she has and she cooks it and eats it and Calliope's watching her do all of that, and while a part of her's still like "what the fuck am I doing she's insaneee", what she's finding is more of... it's not as bad as she imagined it would be. Gruesome, sure, but not as much as she feared. And she realizes not just that she doesn't mind, but also that... she kind of gets it. There's something about how Diana does everything that makes her believe her when she says that she does this out of love. So after the wonderful dinner they have a basically sort of Q&A where Calliope lets Diana speak, explain herself, and she listens, and once they're done Calliope says she's gonna think about this for a couple more days, and leaves, and then she does come back some days later and says that she's still very much in love with Diana and that she wants to be with her and support her in all her ways of showing love

So that's basically like the first chapter in their story, as you can tell I skipped out on some details, mainly because there's some stuff about it that I might change, like I said this is all still a huuge WIP, but that's basically the start of their relationship. Btw they're both insane, Calliope later starts killing people, but I don't think I'm gonna tell you about that in detail because all of the scenes I had for that are even bigger WIPs than what I just told you and I'll probably have to re-write all of them anyway, just know their dynamic later turns into "Calliope kills people and Diana eats them"

But at the heart of the story is just... fucked up messed up ways of love, I'd say, both because of Diana's cannibalism being fundamented on it being a way for her to show love in the deepest most profound manner she can think of, and Calliope later becoming fully devoted to doing everything just for Diana (she starts killing people to keep Diana safe, at least in her eyes). That's something that I always want to emphasize on whenever I'm talking about them to my friends or something, they're not "oohh they're delusional so that's why they're together," like yeah they are fucked up, but they truly are both in love with each other in the deepest way you can think of, like the story would not happen the way it does if they weren't in love with each other. This, too, is yuri

Also in case you're wondering if Diana's going to eat Calliope at some point too, I still don't know but for now, taking into account how willing Calliope is to be eaten and how willing Diana is to eat the people she loves, the answer is a "probably." At the very least Calliope is willing to sacrifice a couple fingers to sate her girlfriend's needs (she's willing to sacrifice a lot more but Diana might feel bad about that so she's cool with settling for some fingers. At least for a while)

Aaaaannnnnd yeah, that's about all I can think of, I am pouring my heart out to you and I hope you will take it in gentle hands like a wounded animal, because that's how I feel after typing Calliope and Diana's story for the fourth time in my life. A wounded animal.

Also no I've never watched Hannibal

[akamintyt]

HELLO, FOLKS!

Commissions are open.

Don't ask for NSFW or overly suggestive art; I don't do that on request, and actually feel very uncomfortable drawing sexual nudity.

I asked my aunt for places she thought might be good for advertisement since Twitter sucks at promoting that, so I'm here-

Also posted this on TikTok due to her suggestion, and to no surprise, there's already two toxic fuckers in the comments, but it's kind of hilarious to see [ especially because one of them made me laugh with an insult I've never seen before- ]

Anyways...

Pricing is below in sheets, but for now, some terms.

- Do not use my art for AI purposes of any kind

- Do not trace, recolour, or repost my art [ the commissioner is allowed to repost so long as they give direct credit via a name- or link-drop ]

- Do not use art commissioned by another individual as a PFP, profile banner, etc. unless given direct permission by the commissioner

- Do not use my art for commercial purposes

- When commissioning, provide a reference for the character. Moodboards, "similar images" from searches, and AI-generated ref sheets will not be accepted. If you have art of the character, but no reference sheet, that works just fine; the same goes for low-quality doodles, or images made with things such as Gacha Studio type games, Picrew, or other character creators - those are all fine.

- When commissioning, please specify exactly what you want. This meaning:

*What tier [ Lineart Only, 1-3 Accent Colours, Full Colour (Flat), or Shaded ]

*How much of the character(s) (is/are) visible [ Headshot, Bustshot, or Fullbody ]

*Style [ Regular, Clockwork City (my WIP project), or Stylized Sonic ]

*Character Count [ 1-3 ]

*Specific Pose(s) or Outfit(s) [ Send a reference of the pose or outfit, as well, if needed ]

NOW, onto the pricing. And some examples on the sheets. I'm probably provide more examples below that-

Right, so that's done.

Onto adding more examples-

There's this. This was pretty recent. I draw tridents a bit differently currently, but this was also my first time trying to figure them out art-wise, and I like it-

Also, the mushroom pin is cool... At least, I think so; I would wear it cuz it's neat-

There's also this. I got bored, so I doodled my interpretation of my own Minecraft skin that I made for when I play on Java edition. I think it's cool. It was fun to make.

This is still a WIP, but I'm also drawing my favourite Hermits... You can see evidence of the different Trident in there; also, swords n' stuff. And hands. Ignore the fact that the one on the far right is still a silhouette; I was trying something different this time to get the anatomy right on all 7-

But yeah, my commissions are open, and if you're interested, you can DM me cuz I'm a broke bitch-

I use CashApp for anything to do with money because PayPal is shitty towards artists, though; hope that's not a hindrance-

[rainypebble07]

i hope you're feeling better now but i just saw your post from the other day and i sure do have Things to put in your askbox so

hello hi tell me about your writing process ! and i mean literally any part of it, literally any Thing, i'm just kind of curious because i really love what you write and my wips generally stay unfinished no matter how much i like the idea so i'm also kinda just curious how you manage to Get It Done yk?

no pressure at all i was just wondering

(Dude, I wrote too much. Sorry. i love to speak. I was excited I got an ask)

Hi! Yes! I'm feeling a little better now, still kinda sick, but so it goes. And that's so sweet of you! I'm glad you like my writing!

Writing Process? Oh boy, this is gonna be so disappointing. Most of the stories I've written come to me at random moments and over the course of a few days I'll make up this weird elaborate plot in my head until I get to the point where I'm like 'ok, this need to be a fic'.

I usually use two documents while writing something. I've got a layout (that's where I pull the crazy planning posts from) and the actual story(where I get the out-of-context stuff). I write down everything I want to happen in the layout document and add as much to it as I see fit (this can include really anything from specific conversations I want to really generic plot points) as well as block out chapters and after I'm finished with that, it usually just looks like a weirdly formatted poem or something. I never use spellcheck or anything on that either and I use such casual language, so it always looks like something I wrote while blackout drunk, but I love it nonetheless. Here's the first chapter of "Mike Wheeler's Ultimate Guide to the Undead"'s outline for example:

As you can see, it's a mess, but I love it. And somehow I got the first chapter out of this.

The point of that is pretty much it's an outline, but it's also kind of fun since it's so casual, so I've found it helps to motivate me to write new parts of the story bc I'm engaged by the strange wording I use on the outline. I also use this doc for title planning and other stuff I have to figure out beforehand. For example, I wrote the poem in Shady Business on an outline doc.

I then transfer this over to the story doc in an actual storytelling format. Most of my writing comes out of absolutely nowhere and idk what to say about it. I'll word-vomit for about ten minutes and get a page, look at it, and go 'oh hey, why isn't that horrible?'. I'm also super conversational in my writing, which helps it flow better. I always thought that made my writing hard to read, but a lot of people have actually said they like my writing style so I guess it's not that bad! I just treat it as if I'm telling the story over a cup of coffee. As for representing the character well (because they are real characters), I just try to get into their mindset as much as possible. I don't really have any specific way I do that, though. I recently had to create a fake "Am I the Asshole" post for Mike so I could try to understand his feelings on something better within myself (made it on the outline doc!).

After the initial word vomit of a chapter, I'll go back and read it over, adding or taking away what I see fit and fixing initial spelling mistakes and making sure it reads well. I don't have a beta reader (I wish I did), so I've gotta just assume it's readable and go with it. After the initial fixes, I'll read it over again just to make sure. I only fix all the spelling mistakes by the time I go to publish because I use Grammarly on the Ao3 post thing lol. By that point, it's only like 4 mistakes left anyway (and the stuff Grammarly says is incorrect but I don't care bc it sounds good and I can do what I want).

I also highlight my little outline as I go (usually in green bc byler brainrot, you can see it in the image) and it helps me visualize my progress and keep going!

But, yeah. That's pretty much the entire process and I have no better explanation than it's simply a dumpster fire of improv and weird pieces of moment I have glued together in my brain. It's arts and crafts, at the best, but somehow I pull it together and create a story!

As for motivation, most of it's four things. One, the anticipation of writing scenes I really want to. Two, telling myself I'm gonna get fun comments and reading old comments (I thrive off of positive feedback from poeple). Three, a specialized playlist for the fic. I make playlists for my stories with songs I like that fit the overall vibe and sometimes I get inspiration from them and it gives me new ideas. And four, probably the most important, I just really like writing. It's my favorite things ever to just put words on a page and make a story out of it. It's so fun and so cool and so magical and I love it.

And that's about it. The end. That's my writing process. It doesn't really make much sense, but I guess it works, so it works for me! If you're looking to improve your own completion rate, I mean, maybe try some of it, but it's really a personal preference. You've gotta do tril and error. And I've really gotta work on slowing down anyway because I can totally rush writing a fic and end up making it a lot less than it could have been if I took more time. And If you're not feeling motivated to write, don't force it. Seriously. Things like I suggested totally help me keep up with it, but what I hate more than anything is stuff I wrote when I didn't want to write. It's just... uninspired.

Okay! Thank you so much for asking that! Hopefully this long rant of nonsense (omg like my writing) answered your question! Sorry I wrote an essay!

[queenofbaws]

I need to know about what the be my valentine fic is cause I LOVE the name (insert eyeball emoji that I can't use cause I'm on desktop for once)

oh man, how to describe this one...how about this, i'll just give you the (placeholder) author's note i've included in the doc, and you can make your own judgments based on that ;P THAT goes a little something like: "Sometimes you're just goin' through it and write yourself a little rarepair fluff. As a treat." This one's a oneshot that's moooooooostly done but needs a lot of editing so everything fits together the right way, so...we'll see when it gets posted, ha!

“You ask any of your fellow meatheads?” Beth asked through an immense mouthful of sandwich. “Maybe they’ve heard some hot, steamy goss about who’s got a secret Matt shrine going on in their bedroom lately.”

He snorted a laugh. “Not about to happen.”

“Oh no?”

“Nah. You kidding me? I won’t get past the part where candy’s involved before they swarm me like ants. That’s the only part they’ll care about.”

Raising an eyebrow, Emily pointed out, “It’s the only part we care about.”

“No, it’s really not. You guys also care about the part where you can point and make fun of me for the rest of my life.” He watched as Jess opened her mouth to argue, but after a second or two, she shut it again with a shrug. “Plus, even if you guys tried to take this stuff from me, I think I could hold my own.” Before Mike could start flexing, Matt reached over and forcefully jammed another handful of fries into his mouth. “The guys are a different story. Once, just to prove he could? Daniel picked me up and carried me to the thirty yard line like a baby.”

There was silence. Then, flatly, Emily droned, “Wow. Add that to my ever growing list of mental images I super didn’t need.”

“It was actually kind of impressive! In a way.”

this is where i inform you all, maybe even a little sadly, the rarepair here is NOT matt/daniel, but if you wanna find out who it IS, i guess you'll just have to read when it's posted ;)c

wip meme!

[jokertrap-ran]

(光与夜之恋 Light and Night) Main Story Chapter 1-5: 命运的拐点 Destiny’s Turning Point Translation [3rd Beta Test]

*Light and Night Master-list is under WIP *Spoiler free: Translations will remain under cut *Game is slated for release this summer! (Estimated to be 8/8/21) *Beta Test’s main story tag will be #Dreams of Light and Night

MC: Uh oh, now I can't run.

I stood rooted to my spot, brain blanking out.

??: Why aren't you saying anything? Am I that terrifying?

I resisted the urge to nod in the heat of the moment, knowing that it wouldn’t do me any good to provoke him now. I lightly shook my head in response.

MC: ...I didn't see anything earlier.

??: Then why are you trying to escape?

His voice was calm and composed, much unlike my shaky one.

However, that soon changed. His voice took on a commanding tone, frigid and icy.

??: Turn around. Let's have a talk.

I recalled that in movies, no good ever came out of having seen the villain’s face. I shook my head once more.

??: Must I make you?

Following a chuckle, the hand removed itself from the door and hovered close to my face. His hand was so close that I could feel the chill radiating off his fingers.

There was a faintly discernible scent of black cedarwood handing in the air. My instincts screamed danger.

My heart jumped, for fear that he’d take things a step further. I abruptly whipped around to face him.

❖☆———————————★❖

A man was standing in front of me within arm’s reach, looking down at me with a playful expression on his face. His eyes were sharp, with something wild and dangerous flickering within its depths.

??: Now that's more like it.

He backed away a little, using his other hand to dangle the earring before my eyes,

❖☆———————————★❖

??: Did you lose this?

I frantically shook my head like how one would shake a rattle. Suddenly, I realized that something wasn’t quite right here. Why did he ask me if I’d lost it?

Is he testing me?

I tried my hardest to remain calm, holding tightly onto the phone I’d hidden behind my back as I felt around for the emergency call button.

??: ……

Who would have thought that he’d actually lean down, clasping onto my hand with a start. He slightly raised his eyes, fixing me with a calm look.

??: And what do you think you're doing?

MC: Nothing.

??: You suspect that I'm the one who stole it, yes?

MC: ……

??: Then how about you take a guess? What do you think will happen if you get in the way of my business?

I could tell that he was evidently trying to egg me on. I was already a nervous wreck from being completely seen through by him, and since he’d already caught me red-handed in the act, there wasn’t much sense in trying to hide it anymore.

MC: This earring was something an acquaintance of mine lost. My brooch has also gone missing.

MC: And I saw you in the corridor right before things started going missing!

The man raised his chin after a few seconds of silence, releasing his hold on me.

??: Give me your hand.

I didn't know what he intended to do with it, but neither did I have the courage to ask, so all I could do was to stick a hand out just like he asked.

He placed the earrings onto my awaiting palm and jabbed his finger behind him.

??: Take that and follow me.

I held onto the ruby earrings, stunned. The thought of running away and making my escape flashed to the forefront of my mind when I saw that he’d already proceeded a couple of steps forward.

The man turned back to look at me coldly, as if he was issuing a silent order to follow.

❖☆———————————★❖

With no other choice, all I could do was to hold tightly onto the earrings and follow him to the corner of the roof.

❖☆———————————★❖

There was a wooden box there, not the jewellery box or the apple box kind that were frequently used in the competition, but an old cube that had been hollowed out in the middle with a couple of scratches at the sides.

He pointed to the box, gesturing for me to look within.

Cautiously peeking into it, I saw a layer of hay spread out on the bottom of the box. It appears to be what looked like a bird's nest, with two bluish-purple feathers nestled within.

And the centre of this "nest" was filled with earrings, hairpins, rings… Heck, these were all the accessories we lost!

❖☆———————————★❖

MC: What are they all doing here!?

I whipped around to look at him in shock, forgetting my fear.

??: The thief hid it here. I found it.

??: Weren't you missing a brooch? Have fun looking.

Is he for real? Is he not making this up on the fly…? Does this mean that he's… really not the thief?

Almost as if he'd read my thoughts, the man shrugged his shoulders and stepped a couple of steps away, turning his gaze up towards the night sky. I remained wary as I bent down and sifted through the pile until I found my missing brooch. I gave it a thorough check.

❖☆———————————★❖

MC: Thank god. It's still in one piece…

??: Found it?

MC: Yeah.

The man moved away from the wall he had been leaning on, straightening up as he headed towards me. The heavy clouds finally moved away, revealing the moonlight that filtered down, illuminating his features.

He wore a look of indifference, his lips pressed into a thin line. He even had a great well-defined jawline.

❖☆———————————★❖

Suddenly, a memory flashed across my mind— The contestant that stood atop the highest point of the podium took off his helmet, looking towards the crowd below the stage.

Something clicked as the figure in front of me started associating itself with the image that An'an had once showed me. I widened my eyes incredulously.

❖☆———————————★❖

MC: No way! You're… Osborn!?

He stiffened for a while before his expression returned to his usual aloof one.

Osborn: You know of me? Looks like word of my name really travels.

...It's really him!?

I only found myself puzzled even more despite having gotten undeniable affirmation from him. I just couldn’t connect the idea that the well-known racer was actually the same guy suspiciously sneaking about on the rooftop at night with our lost items.

A multitude of questions filled my mind.

MC: How did you find them here? Even the police couldn't.

Osborn: Well, those two feathers there.

MC: This is…

Osborn: Feathers of a Purplite Bird. They like to gather shiny things and bring them back to their nest.

I suddenly recalled that I'd seen these exact same feathers inside my jewelry box. So… I was actually the one who'd misunderstood his intentions?

The realization hit me hard, followed by a bout of embarrassment. I wanted to say something to explain myself out of this awkward situation, but Osborn only smiled lightly at me.

The wind blew leisurely past the roof, bringing refreshing coolness along with it.

☆Light Choice: Trust him (Didn't select)

★Night Choice: Still feels a little sceptical 

MC: But it's so late now. What are you doing here? Besides, how did you know that we lost stuff?

Osborn: For someone so cowardly, you sure do have a load of questions.

Osborn: I'm no different from you. I'm still here because I'm looking for something I lost during rehearsals.

Osborn inclined his head, taking out a bracelet from his pocket.

It was a silver bracelet with a nameplate on it. It shook slightly as Osborn held it up,

The nameplate had a twin serpentine motif on the front, with some English words and numbers engraved at the back.

❖☆———————————★❖

I couldn’t help but to feel as if something was off about it, but there was no real need for me to be delving deeper into it. It was more important to focus on the upcoming competition.

MC: So, what do we do about the rest of the stuff?

Osborn: I've already informed the police, so the rest of the missing items should be returned in due time after they're done wrapping things up.

MC: Great. Then, seeing as how the issue has already been settled… I guess I'll better be going now.

I nodded to him before making a speedy escape towards the exit. However, the weight nestled in my palm reminded me of something that I’d overlooked. After giving it some thought, I halted and turned back around.

Osborn: What now? Can't bear to leave?

MC: I should put this brooch back. Else, the numbers won’t quite tally when the police do a count.

I placed the brooch back into the box and was just about to leave when my fingers accidentally brushed against the blueish-purple feathers. Suddenly, I was hit by an inexplicable wave of grief.

It was as if all my senses had dulled in a moment, All I heard was an odd, yet clear birdsong that made itself known to my ears, sad, forlorn, and speaking of immeasurable grief.

I hurriedly retracted my hand, suddenly feeling my senses revert to normal as I returned back to my body. Everything returned to normal, making what I’d just experienced seem naught but a brief trance of sorts.

MC: Do you hear something?

Osborn: Hear what?

He looked at me questioningly, seemingly not having heard the same thing I had.

MC: …Nothing. It must just be my imagination then.

I hesitantly made my way towards the door, mulling over the peculiar experience I just had while I opened the door. However, the door didn’t budge.

A chuckle sounded in my ears, carried along by the wind.

Osborn gave it a hard tug. It swung open with a loud clang.

Looks like the bolt had just gotten stuck.

Osborn: Looks like you're not only lacking in the courage department, but strength as well.

Osborn: You're welcome.

He looked me straight in the eye, a hint of a mirth flickering across his eyes.

MC: I've yet to even thank you…

Osborn: Oh? Come on then, I'm waiting.

MC: Thank. You. Very. Much.

I’d long since lost the fear I’d felt earlier. I met his gaze, biting out every word of thanks.

His attention had been starting to wander, his eyes moving elsewhere. However, he whipped back around upon hearing that, raising an eyebrow in question. I ignored him, dashing right downstairs.

It was only until the girl’s figure had disappeared down the stairs that Osborn shut the door to the roof.

A purple-coloured bird appeared under the covers of the night sky, letting out a shrill cry as it hovered mid-air.

It fluttered its wings, it’s entire body exuding inky black mist that seemed to devour everything in sight.

Osborn: Great to see you here. Now that spares me the trouble of having to go looking for you.

He raised a hand, deep blue flames erupting from his fingertips.

❖☆————— ⊹ Dreams of Light & Night⊹ —————★❖

Previous Part: (Chapter 1-3) | Next Part: (Chapter 1-7)

[youarestellarverse]

WIP Wednesday - HIOB chapter 17 - intercrural

Because of the hiatus, doing things a little differently this time! I dunno how long it will take me— I do know I'm about 2k in and ordinarily I'd be almost done & entering revisions— so this is everything I have so far & much longer than usual.

I'm so mad about this you guys don't even know please take care of your joints the way I failed to take care of mine this slow autocomplete with 1 finger thing is TORTURE 😫

Content warnings for references to homophobic/ableist bullying and domestic violence.

This is the worst part.

You have to wake him up, Percy tells himself as he plays with Jason's hair, wishing for the kajillionth time that he could put the image on paper. Maybe he'll get Rachel to give him some lessons. 

All he wants to do is lie here forever, watching Jason sleep. He understands that corny Aerosmith ballad now, on a level he never has before. And I'm wondering what you're dreaming, wondering if it's me you're seeing.

He'll have to cover it. He hasn't uploaded anything to his channel in a while— not that he maintains any kind of schedule anyway. Of course, then he has to take care of borrowing equipment and picking out a space and sweet-talking someone into holding a camera for him, and either find an arrangement he can actually play or make one up. 

He keeps forgetting to replace the string he snapped in September when he was stress-playing his guitar through his brief and unsuccessful attempt at higher education. Maybe Thalia will lend him hers, although it's possible she'll put him in a headlock just for asking. She's had it since before she even met Annabeth, and it was how she kept Annabeth fed when they were living on the street with Luke. She can get a little— well, resource-guarding, for lack of a better term, but Percy doesn't blame her after everything she's been through. She had to be to survive. 

Maybe a keyboard is better anyway. He's pretty sure Will has one— if he doesn't, his dad certainly does, and would probably let Percy use it in exchange for some of his mother's cookies. He charged the same price for Percy's voice lessons through middle and high school.

Having a plan makes it a little less painful to gently shake Jason into consciousness. 

"Mm." Blue eyes squint sleepily up at Percy, then over at the clock. Jason groans and buries his face in the pillow. "I don't want to get up. Give me a reason to." 

"So your stepmother doesn't 'check in' with you six times tomorrow about staying focused on your priorities?" 

Jason lifts his head with a tired smile, but it's a comfortable drowsiness rather than his usual exhausted burnout. 

"That works." He kisses Percy's cheek, beard tickling against his skin, and reluctantly pushes up out of bed. "I wonder if she'd believe me if I told her I study and sleep better here. My grades should mostly back it up." 

"Probably, but I feel like she'd just helpfully call up student housing and get them to move you to a single." 

"Yeah, I think you're right." Jason reaches for his shirt, draped over his chair, and bashes his good leg against his desk. "Ow. Holy crap, I'm blind."

"Sit down before you walk into a wall and give yourself a concussion." Percy barely suppresses his laughter as he pushes to his feet. "I'll get your glasses." 

"Yes, sir," Jason replies innocently, dropping onto the chair. His bare chest disappears behind heather gray.

The t-shirt is from the same pack that Percy got the purple one from. They're soft, cozy cotton, though Percy's is stained now. It's not even eleven yet, so he just pulls it off and walks to the door naked. 

He grins to himself when Jason wolf-whistles at him. 

The glasses are on the coffee table, back in its usual position now that the TV stand is dry. They're new— Jason accidentally crushed his last pair by forgetting to put them in their case before he tossed them in his backpack— and the thick charcoal horn-rims look unfairly hot on him. Percy picks them up by the bridge, careful not to smudge the lenses as he brings them back into the bedroom. 

Jason's sitting right where Percy left him, sketching something that looks like it might be from a few hours ago. He looks up with a smile and sets his pencil down. 

"Thank you." He takes his glasses and puts them on, blinking a few times to reorient himself. "Can you leave and come back in again, so I can actually see you rather than a flesh-colored blob?" 

Fuck. Percy laughs, warmed from the inside, and turns around to obey. He walks slowly, to give Jason ample viewing time. 

"You really are a sucker for imagery, aren't you?" 

"And how," Jason replies from behind him, gravelly.

Percy leaves the room, his hair standing on end— he'll have to get that waxing done soon; the thought makes him shudder, stirring— and comes back again. 

He pauses at the entrance. Jason's hungry eyes, now raptor-focused, hold him in place. 

"You look like a blond Clark Kent." Percy leans against the doorframe. "Able to leap from jock-hot to nerd-hot in a single bound."  

Jason goes pink, the corner of his mouth lifting as he flips to a blank page.

"With your hand up and your leg bent like that, you look a little like a piece by Cellini." 

"The name sounds vaguely familiar." Swallowing around a dryness in his throat, Percy tries not to move. "But fuck if I can think of what it's attached to." 

"Perseus with the Head of Medusa," Jason tells him, looking adorably pleased with himself. "It's a bronze sculpture in the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, from the mid fifteen-hundreds." 

"I'm just missing Medusa and a sword," Percy finishes, grinning. "I know the one you're talking about. I got into Greek mythology by looking up my name on a library computer. Well, asking a librarian to do it for me, since I couldn't spell it."

"I got into it on a field trip." Jason picks up his pencil again and starts sketching, so Percy stays where he is. "I was fascinated by the marble figures. Part of it was from an artistic standpoint, but some of it I didn't have words for until Piper explained it to me." 

"I remember that feeling." Percy thinks back on his own class trips to the Met— the strange, childish thrill that he can recognize now as the first blooming of his sense of attraction. "And I remember ignoring it, because I knew I was supposed to fixate on the statues of ladies—" 

"—but you felt the same way about the dudes," Jason finishes, with a fond smirk that says he's speaking from shared experience. "So you assumed you didn't think nude statues were hot in general, because there was a difference for everyone but you."

Percy slouches a little against the doorframe. He feels known. 

"I doubt I was actually the only one, but I think we all knew on some level that admitting something like that was a great way to end up scrubbing slurs off your locker every morning." He tries for a smile, but it feels like a grimace. "Not that it helped me any. All I had to do was stick up for the kids everyone thought were gay, and they all decided I was, too." 

"And then it was open season." Jason frowns, that same scared-angry-tired look he gets when he talks about Gabe or Percy's time in military school. He's not sketching anymore. "I never had that happen, but I grew up in San Francisco." 

"You were also the tallest kid in your class until eighth grade." Percy's seen his school photos, that same short haircut and sweet smile as he stood in the back row, half a head above than the kids on either side. "And a star athlete. The bullies didn't touch you because they knew they couldn't take you. I had anger on my side, but I was still shrimpy, which made me an easy target."

Jason shifts into a proud smile. "A mantis shrimp, maybe. I've heard the stories." 

There are plenty of them— memories, in Percy's case, of sneering twelve-year-old classmates taunting him about his gimp boyfriend. He kind of wishes he'd gone with it at least once, just to see the looks on their faces when he said so what if he is? 

It's probably better that he managed to resist that impulse. He usually got the brunt of the bullying because he deliberately threw himself between Grover and their swinging fists— when he wasn't there to take the fallout, it wasn't pretty.

"My one advantage besides the rage was the element of surprise. People didn't expect me to have so much practice fighting losing battles."

"Rage, the element of surprise and loyalty," Jason expands as he pushes up from the chair. Percy isn't sure if he's frowning because of his knee or the subject matter. "There's nothing you wouldn't do to protect your loved ones." 

The air disappears from the room. 

Percy sees his mother's face, hears a voice he's tried for nearly a decade to banish, feels hands around his throat as he kicked wildly and tried to scream his fury past the choking—

"Nothing," he agrees, his voice sounding strange. "No matter how lethally reckless. And it was because I knew I'd lose that I could do so much damage, despite being so scrawny. I wasn't trying to win a brawl with a pack of fourteen year olds twice my size, I was just trying to keep their attention off G-man so he could get away. I got really good at that, after a while."

Jason searches him for a few beats. Then he opens his arms, and Percy steps forward fast enough to trip as he sinks into them. 

"Which is why you have me now," comes the reassurance— which of them it's directed at is debatable. "To protect you from your own idealism." 

"Like how I protect you from your sense of duty," Percy mumbles into Jason's shoulder. "We're both ass at taking care of ourselves, but really stellar at taking care of each other, which works out." 

The tighter he holds on, the more his ghosts fade. Jason's laughter pushes them out for good. 

"I have to go, or I won't be able to make myself leave." 

"I think you should call a cab." Percy forces himself to pull away— Jason doesn't make it any easier, grip tightening as if by reflex. "The idea of you walking back to campus is making me anxious." 

"Didn't we just go over the fact that nobody messes with me?" 

"Humor me."  

Finally, Jason lets go. Only with his hands, though: on some emotional level, he's been holding onto Percy for years. 

"I will if you will. You're tired, too." 

So they arrange for staggered departures. Jason's halfway through booking his when Percy's phone goes off, telling him he has a text from Rachel. 

"'My parents have been nagging me to invite you over for dinner,'" he reads aloud, his face going hot. "Fuck. I haven't taken her on a fake date since your last game. They must think I'm a horrible boyfriend." 

"I highly doubt that." Probably on purpose, maybe to soothe himself a little, Jason smiles warmly. "Maybe you should schedule a few, though. We owe her, and I know you miss planning them anyway."

"I really do," Percy whines, thinking back to all of the adventures he's helmed and the ones he's been forced to let slip by unhad. "I have a whole year's worth saved up for when we're free." 

"You could take her on some test runs," Jason suggests as he packs up his books. "Figure out how long it takes to get from point A to point B, whether the atmosphere works the way you remember…" 

"I'm gonna ask her if she wants to have a slumber party." Percy drafts the text and fires it off. "The last time I got a chance to gush about you, I didn't take it, because I spent the whole time you were in Cambridge freaking out on Grover’s shoulder about failing intro to psych." 

He can see Jason mentally going through his inventory as he looks around the kitchen— backpack, gym bag, wallet, keys, phone. He can also see that it gives Jason a little boost of happiness to think about Percy whispering secrets to his closest companions like a giddy schoolgirl.

"I'd say that makes you overdue for a gossip session, then."

It sucks to split off, like it always does, but Percy's got a text in his pocket telling him Rachel has sundae fixings, and there's no reason for him to stay when Jason's back at school and Thalia's at the shelter until morning. 

@ciaraloves I'm so sorry I forgot again I was supposed to be tagging you in these it flew out of my head pfffft!! 😭

[red-the-dragon-writes]

Today's post is not on the usual "writer blog fare" side. Instead I am going to introduce you to several fun facts about various animals on our planet and then talk about worldbuilding.

1. Lampreys are a kind of "living fossil"- a not-really-so-scientific term for a creature that has lived unchanged for a very long time, so long that we have fossils of them looking the same way they do now. They don't have proper jaws, just a circular sucking mouth with teeth set into it and a tongue designed to strip flesh off of what it touches. They're finless fish, look quite a bit like eels, and have this really alien, uncanny vibe to them.

[id: a long, slender bluish-silver lamprey sitting among rocks. It has a long snout, an eye, and then six small perforations in its side arranged at an even interval sitting behind the eye. The environment it is sitting in is very yellow and green in comparison. end id]

[id: an image of a lamprey from below. The snout ends in a round, flat mouth which is studded with teeth in four concentric circles. The teeth are smallest near the outer edge and largest in the middle, and look like very sharp round points. In the center of this ring is another, smaller circle, where the pointed, tooth-like tongue can be seen, as well as a hole for the lamprey to actually ingest food with. Its eye is visible, as are some of the perforations on its side. This one is a more mottled gray than the first one was, and less shiny. end id]

Sea lampreys, which are the kind i've sort of not really kinda researched, are a major pest in the Great Lakes, where they regularly attack fish. They can get up to two feet in length. Despite this, they are not particularly dangerous towards humans.

2. Horseshoe crabs are also "living fossils." They've been around and virtually unchanged for millions of years. They're not true crabs, and are more closely related to chelicerata species, like spiders and scorpions (and many more). There are a lot of cool features of horseshoe crabs, but one of their most extremely cool, to me, is their blood.

I'm not going to post any images of what I consider to be animal cruelty, so you'll have to take me at my word here, but this is a bottle of horseshoe crab blood. If you're sensitive to images of animal cruelty, I don't recommend looking for proof, but if you aren't, there are plenty of images of the blood coming out of the creature for you to verify this with.

E[id: a bottle of slightly frothy, opaque blue liquid. It is sitting in a row with several other bottles of the same material. end id]

I am a sucker for blue blood, I just think it's neat, so that's all I'd need as an excuse to slam some horseshoe-crab-inspired nonsense in my exceptionally gory and fucked up wips, and if you've been reading along with WiB you may have noticed that blue blood does come into play at some point! But that's not all that's neat about horseshoe crab blood. Unfortunately for the horseshoe crabs, but fortunately for us, their blood is literally the only source of an important compound used for detecting the presence of dangerous bacteria in certain pharmaceutical drugs. (Fortunately, there are replacements that will hopefully become more popular in coming years.)

Now that we've gone over all that, onto the worldbuilding!

I worldbuild by Rule of Cool. Let's just get that out of the way. Every so often people will ask me how my worlds get so expansive (not WiB, WiB i made up on the fly by cribbing from fanfic and like... BBC Merlin. Assume very little of this holds true for WiB) and the answer is largely that I take every interest I have ever had in anything and smash it all together and throw it at my wip to see what sticks. and then I just... like... reasonably attempt to figure out what the natural conclusions will be.

So: we have lampreys. We have blue-blooded ancient sea creatures with spectacularly important and valueable blood. We are writing this into a story that takes place on land, somehow.

- The first option, and the one I'm going to talk about most because I did it, is just to rule-of-cool it into a character. (Or a place, or an item, or whatever, but largely I do rule-of-cool on living creatures and think harder about the world around them.) If you've been keeping up with WiB, you may have noticed that (spoilers) Zero Point is some kind of fucked up magician with a lamprey mouth in their hand who shapeshifts and bleeds blue. This is where I got those inspirations from (along with, like, some other stuff. I promise there are no lamprey assassins, but- continuing in the trend of stealing from sea creatures- the bobbin worm is a spectacularly beautiful, spectacularly deadly creature if you're within its weight range. which is like, goldfish size, but. And cuttlefish are known to disguise themselves as other animals, and can change sexes if the male:female ratio where they are isn't ideal.)

So you can take the elements you like, and just kind of slam them together haphazardly, which is what I did with Zero Point. The trick to this kind of worldbuilding is just to avoid looking too closely at it. The magical assassin has a fucked up mouth in their hand? Yeah, okay, that seems kind of fucked up and creepy. What do they do at all times? They hide it under a glove. So the protags Just Straight Up Never Ask. And voila; it never gets explained, and it never has to.

Same with the blue blood. It shows up, it functions as a plot device because only Zero Point has blue blood; it is never explained or even delved into with much detail. And if it were, it would fall apart instantly, because the justification is literally just "i thought it was neat. No, no one else is like that. I don't even know why they are. i just felt like it"

- The second option is to consider the effects of the things that you're working with, and then work off of that.

Let's take Zero Point again. Strip them of their context (weird assassin with magical powers) and just like, consider the fact that this is a creature with blood that regularly retails for over $10,000 USD, is intelligent as fuck, shapeshifts, has a mouth in their hand that may or may not be their actual mouth, and can exist on land so long as they have suitable access to water. What does that mean for our setting? Surely they're not the only person like that; so you have a whole species of people who are sort of but not really amphibious, shapeshift, and maybe have magical powers, who knows. They can't shapeshift their fucked up lamprey mouths, maybe. That seems like a reasonable limit. So their blood is highly valuable- what does that mean for their relations with other people, or their culture? What kind of foods do they eat? How do they create a sense of culture as shapeshifters; is there even a way that they represent themselves in art? How do they interact with the world? Do they have a "true form" or not? Every one of these questions will spawn new questions. If you answer all of them you'll lose your mind, but if you answer at least ten you'll spawn a much more background-heavy world that can help to shape your story much more effectively than trying to just craft a narrative will. Sometimes it works very well for a story. Sometimes it gets you lost in the weeds.

- The third option is to reference something else, and build off that. Again, let's use Zero Point as the example.

In the original story that the WiB ensemble is from, Closerverse, which may have some mentions on this blog but honestly I have no idea, there is a city that I've done quite a bit of worldbuilding on. This city is called Hudson, and one of the major important features of it is that it is partially underground. (This is a reference to the DFZ of Rachel Aaron's Heartstrikers series). Hudson is intentionally run to be the worst, most unpleasant city in the world, and one of its features are its wildly intelligent, dangerous forms of aquatic life. The lowest level of this city is partially submerged, and all of these creatures plague the people who live down there.

Closerverse was also set during a period of early industrialization, and Hudson heavily referenced US history, especially 1900s-1920s labor history. Tenements, pollution, zero protections for workers, et cetera. Hudson is a nasty, miserable place, and everyone who lives there can feel the jaws closing in on them.

Anyway, in Closerverse you got these fucked up massive eel-like creatures (lampreys, but with extra features) that due to some rather significant meddling wound up growing legs and then got really massive and started eating people. They have blue blood, glow in the dark, and make fairly decent eating as long as they aren't eating you. And they're intelligent. Given the whole "mutual eating each other" thing, the eels and the people of Hudson have some pretty major animosity going on.

Most of Zero Point's stuff is really just me referencing the Hudson Eels, because I fucking love those. They're some of my favorite worldbuilding elements ever. But given that no one else in WiB has ever seen a Hudson Eel, let alone seen their blood get dry on things, or whatever, everything about Zero Point is wildly out of context. And that almost makes it better, because the whole deal with them is that they're mysterious and weird, and having them be a mysterious and weird reference to something no one but I know about most likely is like, fun and neat.

There are, of course, other modes of worldbuilding as well, but I typically aim to stick to the first two as much as possible. The cooler you make something, the more possible questions it raises; the more questions something raises, the deeper your world gets.

Although, a word of advice: sometimes animals just do things. Sometimes bodies just have features. Who would invent fingernails? But having them is mighty convenient, isn't it? For that matter, who would come up with a deeply logical and reasoned explanation for eyebrows- but not having those would be very strange, to us. You can get away with doing a lot by just having that be how it is, and not having the characters comment on it.

Also, the more "shaped" a thing should be, the more you'll want to take the second approach. For house design, something intentionally built, you'll want to know why it was built, and what purpose is this and that room, and why is it painted such and such colors. But if you're talking about adding a second moon, like... fuck dude, who needs to know why there's a second moon? Maybe if you have sailors you have to know what it'll do to your oceans, but that's the kind of thing you can kind of just say exists and move on. You'll figure it out; it gets pretty intuitive.

Anyway, happy worldbuilding!

[albatris]

Hi hello I hope you're doing well and getting read to sn00ze soon, STS! Saturday! Yes! Cause you're an artist and a writer, I was wondering how much the two mediums bleed into each other? Does drawing something out help you visualise it better, or do they not really interact much at all?

hello hi hey there and happy storyteller saturday :D thank you for the question!! I hope ur having a cool day B)

and even though you sent this yesterday you telling me to sn00ze is equally applicable today as it is almost every day of the week so................ yep, I’ll be sure to get onto that at some point. you’re probably going to make a >:c face at me for answering this at 3:06am

anyway! this is an interesting question! and a good one! unfortunately it may not have a very interesting answer?

my initial response was gonna be that they don’t really bleed into each other at all, but then........ nah, they kinda do

(and then about halfway through typing this draft I was like But What About Undertow, and my response became “oh yeah they definitely do”, but I’ll get to that in a bit)

but yeah! I think my writing definitely influences my art! both in the sense that I tend to draw mostly story stuff, ‘cause I like my stories and drawing is fun, but also in terms of like....... inspiration! usually I have a pretty good image of stuff in my head already while I’m writing, n sometimes this image will make me go “hell yeah I vibe with this I wanna draw it”, but the art itself generally turns out nothing like what I envision and usually takes a life of its own ‘cause I’ll just end up drawing whatever looks cool hahahaha

so I get some neat experiments and doodles and weirdness in various art pieces that definitely stemmed from story daydreams, but probably aren’t super related to the story itself in the end :P y’all don’t see much of this stuff ‘cause I mostly just post character drawings lmao

(this is bc I’m most confident with character drawings, and I will fistfight Drawing Backgrounds And Scenes in a wendy’s parking lot any day of the week)

but kinda hopping back up for a sec, one example that IS related to the story is like

drawings I’ve done that are centred in ATDAO’s unreality aren’t actually a super good representation of what the unreality is actually like? or I mean. they could be. they can be! but the drawings are centred around very literal concrete representations of glitchy weirdness

whereas in the story itself (at least to start with) there’s much more a focus on the general looming Hey Something Is Horribly Wrong vibes and, like, the unravelling and bleeding together of senses, the way the narration changes (ie the way your own thought processes slowly start becoming completely foreign to you), n just........ glitchy weirdness, but not glitchy weirdness that you can visually represent, glitchy weirdness that is canonically in the category “you can experience this and have no way to process it because a human mind is not equipped to translate it and your senses have no way of taking it in”

n then I bring the body horror in full force but that’s neither here nor there

existential terror and uncanny valley vibes r hard to draw, y’know? so the drawings mostly just wind up as me having fun with the aesthetic hahaha

but yeah, art stuff stems from story daydreams, it’s very rare that story stuff will stem from art daydreams

character drawings were something I started doing just ‘cause I liked my characters and I was vibin, but they ended up being the one exception in that they DO tend to actively inspire the decisions I make in the story itself, unlike my other art

written descriptions of people are a weak point for me, generally I’ll kinda know at least the key aspects of what folks look like, but the descriptions I come up with on page are always frustratingly vague............. n drawing them out helps me fill in the blanks and give my descriptions a bit more life and personality IMO, ‘cause I mean

there’s little things about people’s appearances that are pretty personal, little quirks or habits they have, etc, that I wouldn’t think of in writing, whereas in art they just crop up naturally

and also sometimes I’ll write a description of a character or have an image of them in my head and I’ll be like Yeah This Is Them but then when I draw them my hands will just make their own decisions

and whatever the hands create is Law and Official Canon as far as I’m concerned, I will always trust the hands over my initial plans when it comes to characters, and they have not failed me so far

and now that I’ve gone on a whole spiel about how (outside of helping me pin down character details) creating art isn’t generally something that inspires a lot of story development or daydreams, it’s time for me to completely contradict that because, like I said earlier: Undertow

this is a WIP that came into existence purely from art inspiration! basically I came up with Aster’s design on the fly because someone was like “it’s genderqueer pride day” and I was like Oh Sick Time To Make A New Genderqueer OC

most of the characters in Undertow were drawn and designed long before I had any clue who they were or what their deal was. the entire premise of Aster as a character was born within like two hours from one silly doodle. then I was like “BUT WHAT IF SHE HAD FRIENDS” so I drew some friends, who ended up being Kit and Meg. n their relationships with each other and the kind of story in which they find themselves all just kind of spiralled out from a series of silly doodles and took on a life of their own :P

I think it’s a different scenario since Undertow exists purely as a vessel for shenanigans and self-indulgent nonsense, so I was feeling a lot less pressure to be grounded and serious, I could just throw things around like “amnesiac clairvoyant delivery driver with an illegal magic crime truck” and “necromancer who doesn’t believe in magic who wants to reanimate a t-rex to honour his dead wife” to see what stuck and I had no need to be like “hm, but is that Realistic, though?”

unrestrained summer fun!

it’s easier for me to let myself daydream in relation to art when there’s none of this pressure, which I think is what separates Undertow from my other projects c:

plus Undertow is the one WIP of mine that I’ve always pictured in a kind of episodic comic format, though I lack the skill set or the patience to pull this off hahaha

as such, most of my development for it comes in the form of messing around with the artistic side of things!! as it should be, I think

anyway that’s enough from me I think, thanks for reading, have a fantastic day, hope you see some cool birds (if you do please tell me about them)