#paperboy wilbur

[paperboy-pb]

☆ Everyone, meet P.S. 361's 7th grade Special Ed: CLASS 7-C!

The Paperboy kids! At least, the ones you'll be seeing the most: Matthew's class! Together, they're all kind of a hot mess. After all, they're all very different, complex people-- and Special Ed isn't always the happy, safe-haven that it's made out to be!

I can't wait to show off all their shenanigans :]

[orange-ghost]

4c hair practice on Robin & Wilbur. Open to feedback. @paperboy-pb

[allthingspaperboy]

Some of the first pieces of concept art for Paperboy! Meet Matthew’s class, also known as “Nuccio’s Class” or Class 7-441! (June 2021) There’s more people in this story, but let’s start with them! 

- MATTHEW BOSTON is the class art kid, known for being a hard-worker! He is our protagonist and has a number of physical and health issues, although they don’t hinder him on a daily basis. 

- ANDREA BELTRAN is Matthew’s partner-in-crime, the feisty (and dyslexic) tomboy of the bunch. Many say she’s an absolute idiot, but not many really get to know her. 

- AZA KANAAN’s the loud-mouthed leader of the pack, an absolute agent of chaos! The “H” in ADHD is very prominent with this one. 

- LEVI TRAINER is a mean-spirited “popular girl” who manipulates others for the sake of entertainment. Her popularity all comes from a place of fear within the others, especially Matthew, and no one knows what her deal is. 

- Meanwhile her twin brother LINUS TRAINER is a pessimist who’s desperate for validation over all else. While he also has ADHD, he and Aza are very different. 

- AMELIA PIGNALOSA is a soft-hearted and spineless sweetheart. If she does have any diagnoses, she doesn’t know about them; all she knows is that she tends to lag behind the class academically. 

- And then there’s JACK MARINE, the all-star of the bunch... who nobody likes. Despite his stutter, he still manages to be the class bully through getting physical. 

- OLIVER HANES’ is an aspiring social media influencer who already thinks he’s king of the world. His dysgraphia plays a role in his love for technology, which lets him convey things without writing. 

- WILBUR WATTSON’s the top of the class academically, and a pretty chill loner. While the artwork here is too outdated to display it in his design yet, Wilbur’s blind in one eye. 

- RUDY DELAMERCED almost never speaks, but he does sell things like toys and snacks to other kids! While he isn’t exactly deaf, he does wear hearing aids; he just hides them under his hair. (Only one image here depicts this) 

- AARAN MUSA (who got a name-change very recently) is the happy-go-lucky type. His only troubles in life are when his Tourette's decides to interfere with his daily tasks. 

- last but not least we’ve got KARL HO, a very skilled gamer who doesn’t get enough credit for all he’s worth. He’s a loveable big guy who tends to be underestimated on account of his down syndrome. 

[thatrandomartblog]

I had a rough day one day, and I decided to draw Wilbur as a youngun!

Little Paperboy kitter!

[ranty-ramblestein]

(captions~) Nov 16th: I didn’t get any new balloon items before I got bored last night, but Elvis was selling one of the new glasses, and it was the same color as the old browline glasses used in the Fancy Masc Wand-Outfit!  I did replace the old glasses in the end.

Nov 17th: Redd was on the Island, so Isabelle warned the Residents about him!  After that, I read a sweet letter from Del, and changed outfits!

The outfit might look like a bit of a mess, but that’s because it’s a Merchant cleaning up the mess in their place of business!  (Though maybe I should’ve put Croissant’s hair back in that case?) Though I also had the idea of him being an apprentice-merchant, where the thing in his sword scabbard is actually just the Duster, and it’s basically just a prop, but that seemed a bit too complicated.  The hat was almost a robo-antenna though, which would’ve made it more complicated, haha!

pic 1: Elvis was selling four items, and his last one was the new browline glasses! pic 2: I decided to replace the old browline glasses from the Fancy Masc Wand Outfit! (Whenever I get the new, non-patterned paperboy caps, the new dark brown one might also replace the one in this outfit!) pic 3: "Oh?” pic 5: "Oooh, she's warning about Redd!" Croissant realized. pic 6: “Well I only go there to buy his non-art pieces as of late, so I think I’m good!” Croissant chuckled. pic 7: I guess since I only used Wilbur’s Liquidation feature, I get this little line of dialogue! pic 8: "I came here so I could get out of my low point, so I think I'm doing pretty good at paddling," Croissant chuckled. pic 9: He’s a Merchant... but one that’s in the middle of cleaning his store! pic 10: Hence the Duster!

[paperboy-pb]

It's back-to-school season, and PAPERBOY's prologue will be wrapping up soon!

Looks like these 5 didn't exactly get the memo.

[paperboy-pb]

One of the big themes I want to emphasize in PB is disability acceptance.

As "PAPERBOY" progresses, I'm gonna be showing off how much it hurts to live in a world without it-- having people not accept you solely because of conditions you can only help so much is horrible. And we all deserve to be accepted as we are by the people around us.

But at the same time, you shouldn't feel obligated to love every part of your disability either. Self-acceptance doesn't come naturally to everyone. And who knows, maybe your disability really does get in the way sometimes!

Amelia, Aza, Rudy, etc. don't really mind their situations. They're just used to it, and it barely bothers them, if at all. But maybe you're not like them!

Maybe you're like Wilbur & his Blindness, where your disability is taking away things you loved, leaving you to grieve.

Or maybe you're like Linus & his Epilepsy, where you've found a way to make life work for you but still think it's annoying sometimes.

Maybe you're like Karl & his Down Syndrome; it's not something that you can hide, but sometimes, you wish you could. It'd be nice to blend in with everyone else for a second, you know?

Or maybe you're like Matthew & his health conditions, and you've faced a lifetime of abuse for being born that way. And you're having a hard time accepting yourself as a result.

Or maybe you're like me & only recently got diagnosed with something. And you don't know how to handle it.

...

I got 4, if you're wondering. Autism. Asthma. MDD. But a while back, I found out that I've been suffering PTSD, too. And I didn't take it well. Honestly, I'm still not.

I don't know if it ever truly goes away, and I don't want to live with it. I'm not going anywhere, of course. But I've worked hard enough, man, give me a break! Am I supposed to just be okay knowing that I'm gonna keep having flashbacks & nightmares over stupid shit nobody understands? Having a TV in my head that constantly loops home videos I never wanted to see again?

It's not fair. I'm not even 20. I shouldn't have such dark, smudged skin under my eyes.

I revel in being autistic. I've made it work for me, and in my case, I find almost no downsides. And I don't really mind my Asthma anymore. I've had it pretty much my whole life now, & I'm kinda just used to it. Same thing with Depression, although I'm obviously not happy to have that one, either.

With PTSD though, it's newer. I've only had symptoms for a few years, and I've only known what was wrong for one. And I have to worry.

Is something gonna set it off? What do I do when it acts up? I'm interested in someone-- is my PTSD gonna be too much for them to handle? I feel weak, and if anything, I'm mad at me for getting traumatized in the first place!

I know I was a kid & that the trauma was genuinely bad, but... I'm a bit of a New York hard-ass. I'm supposed to be tougher than this, man! I was supposed to come out on top, brush it off & overcome it like I'm the shit.

A life with something as debilitating as PTSD is not what I had in mind. It's like... an injury, almost. You look at the damage and go, "Are you fucking kidding me?!"

And I know I have to learn to accept life with PTSD one day. Because if I don't accept myself, I'm gonna be fighting myself & making it worse as hell. But I don't like how it holds me back in life. Or the toll it's taken on my body. And y'know what, we disabled people can be mad about that shit!

Why shouldn't we?

...

We're allowed to be hurt over it. We're allowed to be angry, annoyed, displeased, or whatever else we feel about it.

Getting back to Paperboy, we already know that Matthew struggles with being a disabled kid because he's been brought up to believe that being so is synonymous with worthlessness & inferiority. Not only that, but it's been a lot of bad people's "excuse" for targeting him. So... he hates it.

And that's okay for now. It's his to think about. Not anybody else's.

But he's not going to stay there, either. Because if you wanna live your life to the fullest, you're gonna need to live *with* disability. Because it is a part of life. Like it or not. And one day, he'll find a way to live with that.

If you notice anybody struggling with internalized ableism, or disability grief, or even just frustration... help them, but don't push them into acceptance too hard, either. It's a process.

Trust the process.