#pistolero!Snufkin

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[alwaysmanages]

Still mad (/lh) about not being able to draw @sunburnedsnufkin's Krumple during AF. You're getting your ship art dangit! >8(

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( rope border )

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Having spent from the tail-end of his childhood up until his early adult years in the SouthWest, Snufkin developed a taste for spicy food. He may have forgotten to mention that when preparing lunch for himself and Moomin.

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On the way to Moominvalley

After about like..a year or more? of knowing Snufkin through his yearly travels south (then back north obvs) He agrees to guide Krumpel to Moominvalley. It's a tough trip for the both of them. He doesn't travel with others, even experienced travelers. The peace and solitude is a big part of his life and his self-care and traveling with others disrupts that. It forces him to change his habits, his routes, his schedule and being responsible for another person, even if just implicitly, doesn't appeal to him. Krumpel has grown up in towns and cities their whole life and has never traveled a long distance by foot. They know very little about nature, travel and safety in the wilderness. They have to leave nearly everything they value back in Stenhammar and make a major adjustment not just during the trip, but in Moominvalley. There are little to no comforts to be had in the wild and no real way for Krumpel to just relax and catch up with themself. They both are outside of their comfort zones and the further from Stenhemmar they go, the more tense things get. They can't just cancel and go separate ways. Things get hard for a period but they do reconcile and make it to Moominvalley.

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Every so often I open this up and think about finishing it. He's such a such blorbino.

I had a suspicion that people were confusing Krumpel for Moomin and so I came up with an alternate/different version of Krumpel to remedy that. I hated the idea of people looking at my selfshipping art and thinking it was snufmin. It was like people looking at photos of you and your love and believing it was a photo of your love and somebody else. I'm so attached to Krumpel though. I love Krumpel like they're a part of me (because they are). When I think of Krumpel, I think of the critter that I've *been* drawing. So maybe I"ll just make some adjustments to make it more obvious that Krumpel and Moomin do not look alike and shouldn't be confused. I like this version of Krumpel, they look more like me and I might still use it, but I don't think I'll change Krumpel permanently.

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Shin Snufkin is the seed for my AU Snufkin but my AU Snufkin is bae. He's my sandy, sunburned, calloused, awkward, tobacco stained, cactus abused, chronically dehydrated, stubble faced Pistolero ❤️🥰💕

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{{OKay so Tumblr wasn't processing the post so I copy and pasted it into Google docs then copy pasted from docs to here and I didn't realize it was only HALF OF THE POST. The first half of this is missing now. Fucking Tumblr wtf. Anyway, I rewrote some of it to give context so it's not so random and sudden but yeah. That's what I get for not starting in Docs and transferring to Tumblr after.}} This isn't a fluffy, soft fic. It's a small snippet of life for Snufkin after returning to Moominvalley from the south.

Glass -----------------------------

When Moomin entered the kitchen he found his mother at the sink doing the evening dishes. “Hello, Mamma” he greeted as he took two glasses down from the cabinet. “Hello dear,” she returned without looking up, “How’s Snufkin?” Moomin was quiet as he poured lemonade into the glasses, half focusing on that and half mulling over his words before he spoke them. “He’s-” he began, fully intending to avoid the topic but it occurred to him that she wouldn’t have asked if she didn’t already know. She had spoken with Snufkin earlier that day, almost every day since he got back from the south, and he had maintained a facade of ease and calm, but mothers could always tell when there were secrets afoot. “Different.” he finished a bit quietly.

Moomin stared into the carafe as if embarassed to acknowledge it. When he lifted his gaze to his mother, she had stopped washing the dish and was looking at him with a knit brow.

"I know dear." She said quietly.

"But I don't know why. I want to know why. I want to help him but I can't if I don't know what happened to him."

Moominmamma left the sink, drying her paws on her apron, and she approached Moomin. She took his paws into his and said,

"He will tell you when he's ready. But he might not. What's important is that you're there for him either way. And you know, dear, a lot of things are out of our control. That doesn't mean it's not worth supporting him however we can anyway. Sometimes the best thing we *can* do is just be ready."

"But, what if I can do something and all I need is to know what it is I can help with?"

Moominmama gave his paws a squeeze, her expression became slightly more stern, "He'll let you know if he thinks you can. Until then, let him do things his way."

She let go of his paws and turned to go back to her task but her gaze lingered. Moomin sighed, frustrated, and grabbed the glasses.

Once back out on the veranda, he stood for a second and scanned the face of his friend who was leaned up against a corner post with his arms crossed and his eyes cast to some distant thought above the tree line.

Before when he was looking at nothing in particular, he would have a dreamy, relaxed look on his face. It was as though he were recalling a whimsical dream spun on his own curiosities. Now though, it was as though he were witnessing something troublesome from a distance yet ready to react if need be. Moomin wasn't sure if it was from the sun or something else, but his eyes seemed older, tired and always betraying whatever carefree façade he put on.

He set his own glass down on the table and held the other out to Snufkin. "Mamma made it fresh this morning." Began in as much of an optimistic tone as he could manage.

Snufkins gaze shifted a hair as he broke from his trance then he looked from Moomin to the glass.

"Oh, thank you." was all he said before giving it a disinterested sip.

Moomin shifted a bit uncomfortably and he searched his mind for anything to say. He knew Snufkin wasn't intentionally being distant, but it still made him uncomfortable.

"Snufkin." Moomin began softly. He noticed the way Snufkin's focus lifted to the empty space in front of him and the way his jaw tightened in anticipation for what Moomin was going to say. It made Moomin self conscious knowing that the entire point of what he was going to say was already known to his friend who quietly waited anyway.

"Listen," he continued, "You don't have to tell me anything, but-"

He managed to say before there was a distant boom. Normally it wouldn't have made Moomin so much as blink but Snufkin's reaction made him jump.

He immediately stood straight up, his attention snapped in the direction of the sound and his right hand reflexively swung down to his hip where a pistol had normally been for the past several years. In the process, the glass of lemonade had fallen to the porch and a large, triangular piece burst from it while the drink splashed over Moomins paws.

Of course, there was no pistol. Snufkin had slowly weened himself away from it since returning to the valley but it was always there in his mind.

After a moment, Snufkin realized it was only fireworks and he exhaled in such a way it seemed he was angry with himself. When he opened his eyes he saw Moomin staring back at him with concern and surprise, both paws clutching his glass. They both looked down between their feet at the glass and lemonade pooling around them.

"Moomin, I'm sorry-" Snufkin began as he bent to pick up the glass. "You didn't get cut, did you?"

Moomin knelt as well after he set his glass down and he took the shards out of Snufkins hand. "I'm fine, Snufkin. It's you I'm worried about."

Snufkin quickly averted his gaze and searched the puddle for any more stray pieces of glass which he put into the surviving portion of the drinkware.

"Don't worry about me." He said without looking at the other.

"You always say that." Moomin pointed out as he stood. "You always tell us not to worry about you but how can we not? We all love you, Snufkin. Nobody wants to say anything but we're all worried. You're...not the same anymore and it's a bit scary."

Snufkin stood too and for a moment, Moomin thought he might actually raise his voice back at him, but he didn't. He looked at the broken glass in his hand and muttered. "You have no idea."

Snufkin held the glass out to Moomin, practically shoving it into his paws, and he quickly moved past him and down the steps. As he descended the hill, the fireworks persisted and his hurried walk turned into an urgent sprint.

Moomin could do nothing but watch his dear friend vanish into his tent without so much as turning the lantern on. They had insisted that he stay in Moominhouse, enjoy the comforts of a home now that he was back, and secretly so that he'd also be surrounded by people who could keep an eye on him, but he wouldn't hear it. Moomin now feared he'd move his camp altogether and vanish for who knows how long.

The door opened again and Moominmamma poked out,

"What happened, I heard glass breaking?"

Moomin turned to his mother with paws cradling a mess of glass but no words. She noticed that Snufkin was gone and she looked down the hill at his tent.

"You were right, Mamma."

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I should address this before it gets too far

In my AU, which doesn't have a name yet, if Snufmin is ever brought up, it will only be, at most, hinted at having been a thought to cross their minds before he left but nothing more. Unless I decide that in this AU, they only ever saw each other as brothers.

Maybe they talk about it after Snufkin returns but yeah. They don't hook up.

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Trying to find more songs with these vibes but here's a playlist for Pistolero!Snufkin

https://youtu.be/wZqNUo6y52Q

And

https://youtu.be/S5g3LK0ZFVM

And

https://youtu.be/zYZeF26fO68

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Listen

LISTEN PLZ FOR ONE SECOND

IRL Shin Snufkin

👇👇👇

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Horizon

Edited version with some changes to the shading as well as his tail, which I forgot in a previous version of the submission on some websites. 

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