#someday i'll finish my drawings. not today. but someday

[crj-200]

did i ever show you guys the absolutely insane way i checked to see if the shoes i bought would work with a bridesmaid dress. because somehow drawing my sona was easier than just trying the outfit on

[palskippah]

Hi!

When the girls see either Mario or Peach they get very excited. If Nettarina was awake, she'd be excited too and urging Peach to hurry up. Also, imagine that 'babies!' like the one Mario says in the Mario and Luigi game with their babies selves sjsj

Also, Mario's that kind of parent that says they'll get the baby to sleep but falls asleep himself first. Peach always comes back to check on them and sees him and Nettarina (who can fall asleep anywhere) deeply asleep while Mariella's somewhere in the bed playing with his cap or babbling to herself (then she gets overtired from not sleeping and cries a lot, so Mario and Peach have to apply all the tricks to get her to fall asleep).

Also also, the socks they're using were crocheted by Peach [and she handed them as a gift to Mario on their baby shower- and she learned to crotchet just to make them clothes :'''v Anyways, I have a post for that too askjdasjd during that same baby shower, the babies get so much stuff from Peach that is unwrapped by Mario. He finds it kinda funny bc not only Peach's the expecting mom too, but she had been showing him all the stuff she has been doing for the baby shower (like showing how the little socks are turning out, or the toys she bought), and yet she wrapped everything for him to open]

[dbdonryo]

have you guys played the new game about the girl with a pink dress and a bow in her hair

[heartfullofleeches]

Letters from You

Yan T.V Show Cast + Clown Reader Snippet

-

Tap....Tap...Knock.....Tap...Tap...Knock

Hm, usually that always does the trick. The strangled hics and sobs beyond the other side of the door depress any chance of your playful banter getting through to the poor jester. On brighter days, she'd hear the secret knock you two came up with together and dry her tears enough to finish things off. Whatever got her upset today was really dragging her down....

"She's been like that all morning, Sunny...." Gus chimes in. The clown has been worried sick about his sibling as presented by the stormy clouds replacing the smiling suns beneath their eyelids. "Not even Holly has been able to get through to her... You're our last hope, Sun..."

"I'll try my best." Pressing your ear to the door, you strike your knuckles against the door - careful not to cause the jester more duress. "Melan? It's Sunday, do you want to talk? We'll leave you alone if you need space, but we all just want to make sure you're okay...."

Through whimpers and sobs, a small, quivering voice bleeds through.

"M...my letter.... I can't go anywhere without my letter! They promised.... They promised to write to me everyday...."

Oh, no... Placing your hand on your pants pocket, your fingers trace out the rectangular shape within the fold. How could you forget something so important to her?

You pull the crumpled envelope from your pocket, smoothing out its corners as you speak up. "Melan! I have that letter from your penpal. Handyman must've given it to me by mistake. I'll read it out loud for you, got it?"

You open the letter up as the sniffling stops almost entirely.

"Dear Melan,

Hey there, Melan! How's my favorite jester doing today? I got the drawings you sent with your last letter. I'll hang them up in my room soon as I have the chance. Ice cream is one my favorite desserts too. Maybe we can have some together someday. If not, have an extra bowl in my honor!

Are you taking care of yourself and your siblings? How's your practice going? I heard you can juggle two pins without dropping them now, I'm so proud of you! You're getting better and better everyday - that's why you're my favorite jester.

Lots of love, your dear penpal - Y/n."

The room on the other side of the door goes dead quiet.

"Melan?...."

A creak in the floorboards - followed by another. They continue until -click- the door unlocks.

"Th... thank you, Sunday... I'll be out in a minute. I'm sorry for worrying you...."

[blue-arts-stuff]

Finally finish. I got a lot on my plate so I decided to finish up this artwork today. Enjoy bucktommy nation <[°□●]>!!!!

Sorry I couldn't draw more details cause it's so much you can zoom in on my phone. I love to try painting art with my fingers again someday.

Fyi: I used IbisPaintX for mostly all of my artworks.

Just some BuckTommy cosplaying as Mshenko aka [ John Shepard and Kaidan Alenko ], my absoulute favourite video game relationship.

I'll do Mshenko in BuckTommy 9-1-1 outfits later on if I have time. Till then! Enjoy!

[asoiaf-essays-collector]

I'll ... just leave my favourite asoiaf pairing here.

Lord and lady Stark of Winterfell.

Here comes some personal remarks:

I've been making this art for 12 hours straight. It's the middle of the night and my right hand hurts like hell but that's okay. Because you know what? It's my first finished art since...gosh, I don't even remember. Not some doodle, not some floating head with simple colouring and not a half-done sketch which I promised myself I would finish someday later and now it's been 2 years. No - this picture could be better, of course, you can tell probably I've cut some slack in the very end (I literally forced myself to draw for last couple of hours) but it is finished. I'm kinda proud of myself.

Today I've learned that:

a brush that you really like and is perfect for backgrounds and greens is most likely not fit to do clothes and hair and skin

to draw a bunch of roses in the hair is stupid idea, it doesn't look very good

I have no idea how to draw an old burn and what colour it is.

I should probably get some sleep, thank you very much!

[nohoperadio]

My favourite author is Iris Murdoch.

I don't think I have favourites in any other category, it feels like a bit of an artificial concept usually, but it would be silly to deny this one. I was halfway through my first Murdoch novel (at age 20 or so) when I felt certain I was going to have to read them all (there are 26). My feeling was that I would have stayed true to that even if every other book she wrote had been terrible. I'm sure that's not true, but I say it to illustrate that she inspired a deep and irrational loyalty in me very early on that hasn't waned over time. I've been reading between one and three of her books per year since I started, deliberately spreading them out so as not to deplete a valuable resource too soon, although presumably I'll just start rereading them at the same rate after I've finished. I've read 21 out of 26 so far.

Maybe someday I'll have something to say on here about what draws me to her books so strongly. Not right now though. What I want to say today is that I usually like her opening lines very much, she often starts with some very punchy compact moment that feels weirdly complete already even as it clearly stands in need of unpacking, if that makes sense to anyone else. This post is going to be simply a compilation of some good ones. Let's say 10 of the best, in no particular order.

I'm defining "opening lines" as not literally just the first sentence but enough to cover the first self-contained "moment" of the book, which is a bit of a judgment call for sure but you can be confident I've judged correctly in every case. For The Philosopher's Pupil (but no others) I've blatantly cheated by entirely skipping a sort of prologue chapter because I think the opening of the next chapter is both more opening-like and more compelling, I acknowledge that this is illegitimate but you'll just have to deal with it. Okay here goes.

---

The Unicorn

'How far away is it?'

'Fifteen miles.'

'Is there a bus?'

'There is not.'

'Is there a taxi or a car I can hire in the village?'

'There is not.'

'Then how am I to get there?'

'You might hire a horse hereabouts,' someone suggested after a silence.

---

An Accidental Man

'Gracie darling, will you marry me?'

'Yes.'

'What?'

---

The Bell

Dora Greenfield left her husband because she was afraid of him. She decided six months later to return to him for the same reason.

---

The Philosopher's Pupil

I am the narrator: a discreet and self-effacing narrator. This book is not about me.

---

Bruno's Dream

Bruno was waking up. The room seemed to be dark. He held his breath, testing the quality of the darkness, wondering if it was night or day, morning or afternoon. If it was night that was bad and might be terrible. Afternoon could be terrible too if he woke up too early. The drama of sleeping and waking had become preoccupying and fearful now that consciousness itself could be so heavy a burden.

---

The Sacred and Profane Love Machine

The boy was there again this morning, and the dogs were not barking.

---

A Fairly Honourable Defeat

'Julius King.'

'You speak his name as if you were meditating upon it.'

'I am meditating upon it.'

'He's not a saint.'

'He's not a saint. And yet—'

---

The Message to the Planet

'Of course we have to do with two madmen now, not with one.'

'You mean Marcus is mad too?'

'No, he means Patrick is mad too.'

---

The Red and the Green

Ten more glorious days without horses!

---

The Sea, The Sea

The sea which lies before me as I write glows rather than sparkles in the bland May sunshine. With the tide turning, it leans quietly against the land, almost unflecked by ripples or by foam. Near the horizon it is a luxurious purple, spotted with regular lines of emerald green. At the horizon it is indigo. Near to the shore, where my view is framed by rising heaps of humpy yellow rock, there is a band of lighter green, icy and pure, less radiant, opaque however, not transparent. We are in the north, and the bright sunshine cannot penetrate the sea. Where the gentle water taps the rocks there is still a surface skin of colour. The cloudless sky is very pale at the indigo horizon which it lightly pencils in with silver. Its blue gains towards the zenith and vibrates there. But the sky looks cold, even the sun looks cold.

I had written the above, destined to be the opening paragraph of my memoirs, when something happened which was so extraordinary and so horrible that I cannot bring myself to describe it even now after an interval of time and although a possible, though not totally reassuring, explanation has occurred to me. Perhaps I shall feel calmer and more clear-headed after yet another interval.

[goron-king-darunia]

Eggtober 29th 2023

"Tell Me More": Korean Egg Bread or Gyeran-ppang

(Clip Studio Paint, Gouache Brush, Gouache Blender, Overlay adjustment layers to get the crispy brown bits to look right. 16 colors? 45 ish minutes.)

Egg 2 for today. You get the 3rd egg I did tomorrow. Gonna queue it.

So yeah, didn't know humans already invented the perfect food. Bread with an egg on top. What more can I say? I've seen a couple recipes suggest additions like sausage, bacon, or cheese. The main bread recipe seems to be a sweet vanilla flavor, so I guess this just tastes like the best savory-sweet brekkie combo? I want to try it so bad.

But alas, I'm stuck drawing it until I clean up enough space to make some at home. We have a marble slab counter specifically for bread baking and bread pans and everything, I just never have space because our kitchen is chaos. But maybe someday~

I wonder how @lady-quen's breadbugs will go about tackling this treat?

Smacking the @ for @quezify again. Imagine me aggressively dinging a service bell, but not in a demanding way. More in a "Finish line! You can do it! Almost there!" way!

SPEED PAINT TIME!

There is a brief stage where, admittedly, the egg white looks like that danish cheese filling instead of egg white (to put it very politely) so yes, I do see it. But shush, it quickly looks like egg and then delicious so don't @ me. XD

Speaking of which I cleaned up that meme image I made about Eggtober 1st 2023. I'll slap that under a cut just in case I need it...

I swear guys, my eggs accidentally looking suggestive is not on purpose even if that would be incredibly funny. But hey, 3 people saying a thing made me draw my ancient video game blorbo and the silly Chopper meme, so there's that. XD (The meme is free to use with credit, by the way.)

If you haven't seen the reason for the meme, here it is.

[faffreux]

can you tell us about when you fell in love with fawful? :)

Yep. In fact, I'll write a whole mini essay for you so I can add it to the FAQ section of my website coming up shortly LMAO (SINCE I NEED TO FULLY ANSWER THIS QUESTION FOR THERE ANYWAY, RIGHT???) CLICK UNDER THE READ MORE TO SEE IT BECAUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE THE LONGEST THING I'VE EVER POSTED HERE, LMAO.

To preface, I have been a fan of the M&L games going back to the early-mid 2000s when I was a kid. I had no involvement with fandom or anything of the sort back then but I used to hop on my mom's bulky computer and look up fanart and other related content as early as 2004/5 and as a result, ended up captivated by the characters long before I knew who they actually were. (As a result of this, I have the names and art styles of various old M&L fandom creators permanently ingrained in my head and often wonder where they are today since a good deal of them vanished..!) It wasn't until 2006 that I got my first handheld console (DS Lite) and of course, what did I do? Immediately begged my mom to order me a used GBA copy of Superstar Saga. 

When I finally had the game in my hands it was like coming home to a colorful world that I'd been captivated by for so long but never gotten the chance to actually explore until now. The characters felt like old friends and the Beanbean Kingdom as a location felt familiar and comforting to me. (As a side note, Popple quickly became my favorite. Shocker, right?)

I used to sketch various beans in my notebooks as well as on printer paper we had lying around the house. Long story short, I finished Superstar Saga and then a few years later in 2010 I picked up Bowser’s Inside Story and THAT’S WHEN THINGS SHIFTED–

BIS brought Fawful and his personality to life in a way that captivated my imagination like nothing else had prior. He quickly overtook Popple as my favorite character from then on forward… and that’s where it ends! Or.. is it?

Nah, that’s where it gets funky. Life got a little chaotic after that and not only did I stop playing video games altogether for many years, but I also almost completely gave up on art - the one thing I was most passionate about above all and thought I would make a career out of someday. A series of depressing events caused me to lose all hope and motivation for anything I created and the spark I’d kept inside of me for so long all but died out as a result.

We’re going to timeskip again, this time to late 2019. I’d just moved away from home permanently for the first time and had been getting settled in and no matter what I did to make my new apartment a cozy place it always felt like something was missing. My mind would keep wandering to the fact that I never made art anymore despite it having been such a key part of my life when I was younger. I so desperately wanted to change this and over the next few months the frustration only kept growing until on January 1st, 2020, I sat down in the living room with a pencil and paper in my hand and shut my eyes tightly before saying under my breath:

“I do not care what it is, I don’t care how it comes. Just please… PLEASE send me something to bring my art back. Anything… anything at all. I don’t care what I draw, I just want to be drawing again.” And with that, I placed the lead onto the paper and began to sketch…

And from there… a familiar face appeared!

(Now I could ramble to you about how much I do NOT like this drawing and how off model it is from how Fawful actually looks… but I’ll forgive myself since I hadn’t touched the M&L games in over a decade at this point and had forgotten most of Fawful’s character. And yet?? Here he was.)

How else can I explain it except that in that moment it felt like the pencil in my hand had suddenly become one of these:

A joy that I hadn’t felt in SO long suddenly filled my entire being and without wasting another second, I immediately went online and ordered both Superstar Saga and Bowser’s Inside Story to replay again. In the time waiting for the games to arrive I had started drawing daily again - sketching out various old characters of mine with dozens of doodles of the bean man stacked in between them all.

There he was… always smiling, always happy to see me, and oftentimes with his arms outstretched as if to give an encouraging hug. When the games arrived I worked through them quicker than I ever had prior - finishing up Superstar Saga in less than a week and subsequently moving onto Bowser’s Inside Story with a LOT of excitement built up for it. 

It was my first day playing and I was having the time of my life! The way Fawful looked in his little grey cloak with that enormous, charming grin of his as he bamboozled Bowser into eating the Vaccuum Shroom had me giggling with joy while words repeated in my brain over and over of: “I need to draw this later, I NEED to draw this later!!!” I WAS EXCITED ABOUT ART AGAIN… AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. I was practically hopping in my seat from the happiness I felt in my heart and chest every time Fawful appeared at this point!

This was how it felt until the moment I arrived at the Fawful Theatre and watched as he began dancing on the stage floor. THIS time.. something different came over me. If you’ve felt it before, then you’ll know what I mean when I say that it was like my entire body turned warm all at once, like some sort of flame had been lit inside. I’d never felt it for anything or anyone prior to then, and that's partly why it hit me as hard as it did. I was practically sweating.

Heck, I was so absorbed in my feelings that I had forgotten there was anyone else in the room with me! That is.. Until my roommate at the time spoke up: 

Her: Are you alright? Me: Uhhh… yeah, why? Her: You’re red as a beet. Are you sure you’re okay?

By this time I had realized what was really going on so I reassured her I was fine, grabbed my 3DS, and ran to my room to finish the playthrough on my own so I wouldn’t embarrass myself any further, hahaha.

In the days, weeks, and months following that moment I became dedicated to drawing the best art of Fawful I could possibly create! What started as a challenge to myself to ‘give back’ to the person who’d given me back the ability to create again turned into someone I genuinely could not stop drawing for how much fun I was having doing it. The desire to make better and better art in order to honor him drove me to improve at a speed I never had prior, and soon thereafter I created Jolligig as a way for me to be in this colorful world with him and to express the deepening affection I was feeling for him with every day that passed by.

By some miracle, my prayer had been answered and here it was in the form of a grinning lima bean.

[End of Part 1. Interested in the rest? Yes… there’s more, I’m sorry. Please let me know in the comments. This took a while to write so I thought splitting it up would be best if folks are interested, LOL.]

[dairyeri]

🎉14/14🎉

And so my dears, I congratulate all of us on the solemn completion of the prologue! 🥳

💖A huge Thank You to each of you for supporting me on this difficult path, it's really important for me 💖💖💖💖💖

What I achieved today, I consider a huge victory on my creative path, as it was my first experience creating something large scale. And there's more to come✨

Earlier, I mentioned that I had the idea for the comic itself about a year ago.

However, its development began only in June of this year. It's just that at some point I decided to finally pull myself together and finally started striving for my dreams and motivate others to not give up by my example 💖

When I started, I ran like crazy, not even knowing exactly how many pages there would be, as I started storyboarding only in the middle of the prologue 😅

This story I have been drawing for three months, almost every day, has changed a lot of things in my life from the distancing from a once loved one, to a complete rethinking of my limits and possibilities...maybe someday I'll tell you about it on YouTube.

As for the release of the next chapter, the first page will be out on September 17. And I want to take a couple of weeks to catch up on the backlog of material, so posts may or may not come out less frequently during that time (I apologize for that in advance), and hopefully I will finish some things I hope you'll hear about soon💖

And speaking of the chapters themselves, they promise to be pretty massive ( hopefully I'll have time to draw them out🥲 )

The first storyboard already comes out almost twice as big as the prologue, and the second almost four times as big, and moreover, will consist of two parts, the first of which is already ready in draft.

Again, everything can change, but the most important thing is that I will not give up so easily, don't even hope ✨✨✨✨✨ I'm with you for a long time💖💖💖💖

[gunophilia]

Hello, before I get too far into it, I'm just going to give my main point right away:

I get it.

Writing is hard. Art in general is hard, but in my experience, finding the motivation to continue a story is one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life. Trying to find the words to explain it is difficult, ironically, how do you really explain the overwhelming want to do only to loss all motivation the second you actually try? It's not that I don't want to write, I absolutely do, and I have all these stories and plots and ideas inside my head but the second I try and put pen to paper it feels impossible.

I guess I'll compare it to something else, albeit in a similar field. When I was younger, I loved to dry. Every moment of freetime I got in elementary school was dedicated to doodling all over my worksheets and notebook paper. And I was terrible at it, absolutely horrendous, but the best part was that I didn't care. I liked drawing, it never mattered to me how good it was. Until someday it did, and I realized that my skill level didn't match my standards, so I stopped. And every time afterward, when I would draw, no matter if it was a doodle in the corner or I tried to sit down and focus, I always gave up because it felt pointless. I'd lost my motivation, and so I gave up for years and I felt disappointed in myself. The same sort of thing happened with writing, one day I realized I wasn't happy with what I was doing because it felt armature.

At some point, about almost a year ago, I decided completely out of the blue that I wanted to try drawing again, so I bought a tablet to make sure I had to commit and couldn't give up like all the other times, I had a sit down with myself, and I asked this question:

What do I want out of my art?

And the answer was simple, to just enjoy doing it. So that was my goal, not to get better, but to just rediscover the joy thay drawing brought me. It definitely took a while, until I was able to look at other pieces of artwork and see things I liked and wanted to do myself rather than to compare myself to them. After a while I was drawing for myself, just to have fun, and I didn't care if it was good or skillful, all that was important was that I liked it and that was enough.

I still struggle with writing, I have a storyline that I want to follow but it's still just so hard to find the motivation, and I've decided that yes, one day it is going to happen, but it doesn't need to be today, so even just writing a silly little side story or even just a couple sentences of notes is enough for now, because it's still something.

Anyways this got away from me and I think the message for lost, so I guess I'll just put it plainly here, art is hard, and even if you love doing it that sometimes actually doing it seems impossible, especially if you feel like it's something you have to do over wanting to do it.

Sorry for the essay, but I'm feeling sappy tonight and a post of yours reminded me of my own journey.

I hope this was helpful, and if not, then I'm so sorry and please feel absolutely free to ignore this.

Have a good one, and I hope writing is something you can enjoy doing just for the sake of doing it. <3

are you me from an alternate universe? (jk) your story is very similar to what I've been going through. sometimes I get a spark of inspiration, but that by itself is not enough to get me to actually sit down and do the work. I sit down, realize how much time/effort will need to be put in, and give up before I start. it really sucks. i feel like i cant/shouldn't work on anything unless it can be finished in one sitting.

[colum-nina]

'deathbed' — oneshot feat. nina and yuki

synopsis; "don't stay awake for too long, don't go to bed... i'll make a cup of coffee for your head, it'll get you up and going out of bed... 𝅘𝅥𝅮"

taglist; @ayumi-darling

bina's note; all characters featured and mentioned in this oneshot are all characters from my game i've been working on w/ babu <33, also nina and yuki's interaction here is not romantic but bittersweetly platonic

Dozens and dozens of lit candles silently flickered in the lonely greenhouse sitting just outside of town. The scent of lilies were undoubtedly recognizable, Yuki knew who lived here — it was that prominent.

Remember the ringing of her laughter that once radiated in these walls, the lilies would dance so happily that day. Remember when Bina would sleep soundly into the afternoon as Ayumi baked away into the day, she'd awake from such a deep sleep. Remember when the desk where Ayumi once worked her baking magic weren't filled with candles. In hopes that her sorrowful messages would reach her someday somehow, but what hope? What hope is there to hold onto anymore? It's as if everything was ripped away from her.

Nina worked into the night, drawing cutscene after cutscene as she rambled softly to a flickering candle sat idly next to her, decorated with a pink bow and a cutout of a black goo-like monster under it, stained with wax. Maybe if I talked to this candle enough, it would reach her. Wherever she was... Was there even a "she"?

Was there a time when I was truly happy? The lilies were always so silent and limp when it was only Bina in her greenhouse. It was saddening, to say the least — even the Tree of Tranquility looked uneasy and lonely when faced with the lonesome angel's presence.

The lilies appeared bittersweet, happier than the normal wilting sorrow, but still as sad as ever — because the angel wasn't alone today. Albeit asleep, an aloof scientist worked on one of his smaller creations a bit distantly on her greenhouse's daybed in the lonesome angel's daybed not as far from Nina's desk.

The ambience of his mechanical (and scientific!) work in the distance masked with the candles' fire flickering and Bina's drawing pad against her digital pencil were the only ones that were heard. Until an alarm on Nina's phone went off. '12 AM — Break'.

Yuki turned to look at Nina's direction briefly, before turning back to his little creation. The sound of her footsteps waving against the soft grass of her greenhouse echoed silently in the silent greenhouse, accompanied by the ruffling of trees swayed by the evening breeze and Yuki's mechanical ambience.

As she walked to the kitchen and sat idly to make herself a cup of lemon green tea, the nightly winds blew a neatly written note off the coffee maker atop Nina's countertops across a exposed wall made of bricks with a lily's cage-like design holed out. Nina looks down as she catches the note with her two fingers, seeing the pink ribbon as her gaze softens. She reads the lily scented note (which just happens to about every note and paper that Nina keeps), detailing how to make Yuki's favorite coffee and when to make it for him, one of the last things Ayumi left Nina in her greenhouse before she disappeared.

Nina looked behind her to Yuki, working tirelessly on whatever thing he was working on, and back to the note. Stepping out of the kitchen after finishing her tea rather quickly, she could hardly listen to whatever he had to say to her when she sat beside him on the greenhouse daybed. Yuki looked at Nina, and she looked at him in his eyes, cherry red eyes swirled with vanilla seeming to swirl mysteriously with a divine aura, as if she was reading his soul. She could see it in his eyes (and read it from his soul) — that tiredness her sunstorm mentioned in the note blew by the night wind.

"Don't stay awake for too long. It'll mess with your head." The lonesome angel smiled distantly as she spoke to him. Her tone sounded distant and aloof, but as soft-spoken and vaguely sophisticated, similar to how she used to be. "I'll make you a cup of coffee for your head..." Nina stood up before Yuki could say a word, her hand stopping him and she caressed the back of his shoulder comfortingly, "...and I promise one day we'll be fine once more."

Nina stood up with the intention of heading to her kitchen, before turning to him and smiling softly. "I don't know how long I'll stay with you, but we'll be fine in the end. I... can't guarantee that but the hope is there, and if you just trust me and be patient, I'll make it happen for you." She assured him one last time before stretching out her hand to help him up, black mesh gloves ruffled from constant arm movement and white opera gloves (under black mesh gloves) folded down to her wrist, the other wrist on her hip, covered with a high green glove adorned with white vines. Placing his work softly on the ground along with his tools on the soft grass sat under the daybed, Yuki takes Nina's hand and stands up before turning around and dusting off the bed a bit before laying down on the daybed, muttering an apology for ruining her daybed's sheets by burning the cloth with the flying flashes of electricity he used.

The lilies looked so sad today, it wasn't like this when Ayumi and Cal were till around.

Even the lilies attached to the back of Nina's "headpiece" looked like they were about to wilt and drown in their own sorrow at any moment.

His eyes continued to follow the elegant moth lady, his eyes picking up some details that weren't there in the past. Her wing-like mechanism was gone — he always silently respected and commended her in awe for it, sometimes asking how she made her wings-like mechanism when she'd watch him work in the past briefly. Her hair was shorter — the longer part of her hair was gone, and her hair color was more natural-looking. It used to be pure white, platinum silver even, tainted with an ever growing bright cherry red at the very ends. Now it was a more natural vanilla blonde-like color with a duller cherry red at the ends of her short hair. The cherry red gradient taints on her limbs were gone, it was normal and skin-colored, as if it was never there. She used to always have this soft and graceful smile on her lips, recalling to recent events, she hardly ever smiles that happily anymore. It always looks so sad and even a bit forced. Looking at her now, things have changed...

Almost everything they had was gone, and we too have changed.

So much.

It's only us two left.

Nina came back with a cup of his favorite coffee about five minutes later, the smell oh-so familiar, and another cup of lemon green tea for herself. Yuki takes a sip, and as he glances up to look at Nina again, gloves and white lily dress stained with drops of the coffee used in his cup of cofee, the coffee hits his tastebuds and nostalgia kicks in. Memories flashing back to when Ayumi used to make it for him when she noticed he looked so tired, 'How did you get the recipe?'

Nina replied to him, with that soft and bittersweet smile on her lips, "Babu gave me the recipe with detailed steps." She smoothes her white lily dress down under her as she sits down beside him. "I thought I'd make it for you. You looked very tired..." The two spent the night in bittersweet silence, basking in each other's presence. "Remember to sleep later, it's not good for you to stay up for long periods of time... and I do care about you..."

As time passed in bittersweet silence, the sun rose in no time, and the coffee was finished. Nina noticed that, and once Yuki looked at her, she looked at him. She could read his soul, "Do you want more?"

Not even having any time to say anything, Nina stood up and took the cup gently with a soft and caring smile, knowing the answer already. As she walked into the kitchen, he layed back down. So much has changed, is the lonesome angel whose making him his favorite coffee that looks like she's holding onto whatever hope there is left that she can still find happiness the same moth woman that used to teach at that kinetic magic school her sister used to own? The same moth woman who was always so elegant and graceful with every little move and action?

Wait... Speaking (or rather, thinking?) of her sister, where are they?

Curiosity grew the better of him once he returned, asking Nina after she returned with his second cup of coffee, where Meloco and Valedion were.

He could see the angel's wings start to limp, drown in her ocean of sorrow she'd been hiding. Almost all the candles have been put out by the nightly wind, the scent of lilies more prominent than ever, as if to mask her sorrow and distract him from her sadness. He could see her eyes dim in sorrow as she stayed silent. "They're gone, aren't they?" He asked, guessing correctly just by her looks.

"Just like them..."

It made more sense that they've grown closer than before. The daybed was even claimed by him since he came over so much after he found out she was still alive. He thought she was gone too — it was relieving to know that he still had someone left that he was close to. If you can even call it that.

Her greenhouse felt like a second home almost, all his recent experiments were made or first thought of here. Maybe because Ayumi's scent can still be found here very vaguely, even some of Ayumi's more unimportant and most precious belongings were left here. He even pitched the idea of moving his small workshop-laboratory place here or near her greenhouse for "easy access".

"I'm glad I still have you here. It's nice to know I'm not alone after all." Yuki told her softly amidst Nina's silence. Nina nodded and smiled once more, her wings returning to their previous position around her head, Yuki giving Nina a gentle (and to him, embarrassing) headpat. Seeing Ayumi do that certain action when Bina was down, maybe doing it now could calm her down now... and he was right! As silence reigned once more, Nina spoke her thoughts to him, "You know, you remind me a lot of my older brother."

He looked up to her in as he finished his cup of coffee. 'Valedion? I remind you of him?'

"You care for me similar to how he used to care for me. You're like my older brother." Nina laughed softly after she finished, Yuki's lips curling to a barely noticable smile — undetected by Nina and hidden by another sip of coffee.

Of course he'd care for Ayumi's only friend. The last thing he has other than his creations and himself.

He looks forward to seeing Ayumi's smile once he tells her he's been taking care of Bina since her and Cal's absence. He can hear her happy laughter already...

[cata-daily]

:) I asked one of my parents to patreon and they fully supported it because, yk, supporting cc's I love

[At first I was thinking of just yt membering, but my parent thought that patreoning was better because 1. 30% cut vs 8% 2. Youtube and google already get enough money (lol) and 3. More support :>]

Here comes sappiness or something, or something close enough because I probably can't do sappy-

Not sure I can really put into words how.. just.. happy- Cata, his content, his community, have made me the past almost two months I've known about his channel.

I've kind of said this before, but sometimes I was just feeling super down and then watched one of his videos and immediately was in a better mood.

Cata is the only youtuber I've seriously dedicated real time to drawing, and honestly? I think I can owe my current artstyle that I'm starting to really love to Cata, because his content somehow got me to say "I wanna do daily doodles!" and actually follow through.

I hope that someday I'll get around to finishing a longer project heh..

Anyways- as with any character or cc I enjoy, I'm always all for lore, no matter how nonsensical it is, it just makes me happy figuring it out- or not figuring it out and just being completely confused lol. Watching through some of the no-hit series (only today did I get around to watching every no-hit series reveal), aMiT, and CwaCoM was super fun! I'm not sure where I was going with that, uh, just that I like the lore :)

Mmmm yep. Cata content fun, I love it a lot. Makes me very happy :D

So yeah, damn, I do really like your work, Cata c:

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #125

I'm still in a lot of pain today, but it's not quite as bad as it was yesterday. It's still a little hard to breathe, but I'm managing. Hopefully whatever's going on will be over and done with in just a few more days. I've taken some ibuprofen, though, and I'm well-hydrated. So don't worry about me, okay? I'll be just fine. 💖

I made myself a tea this morning. I made a toast-and-jam tea, and as a result of that, I get to show you one of the other ice creams I got! I'll show you the pictures I took…

This tea starts out as a beautiful shade of amber that resolves into a delicious shade of red:

This is the ice cream I put into it while it was still hot:

It's got a pretty drawing of a blackberry plant on the lid:

Here is what it looks like once the lid is taken off:

From there, we can put an amount of it into the tea until it feels correct:

Then once it's all melted, we can stir it up!

...I wonder if you would have liked how this turned out. I wish I could give you a mug and see...

I did my therapy homework today. In case you don't know, a good therapist is supposed to give the person seeing them homework to do over the week. Last week, he thought to capitalize on my tendency to write, and he asked me to write a letter to my inner child. And then he asked me to tap into my inner child and write back to myself.

It's generally in my nature to go above and beyond when people ask me to do things, whenever possible. And so I ended up writing three letters instead of just two. I ended up crying a lot during the process, but I came away from the exercise with a changed outlook on a variety of things. You can read what I wrote if you want to; it'll be the post just before this one. But if you're not interested, then that's okay too! 😊

I wonder if some such activity might benefit you. I imagine if you engaged your inner child with compassion, curiosity, and gentleness, it'd probably do you a world of good. I wonder what it would be like for you if you treated your inner child, and yourself generally, in the same tender, kindhearted way you treated the people you cared about, before your fall.

…You can return to that, you know. You can return to that anytime. And you can give your kindness and gentleness to people who are better able to reciprocate. Not everyone is going to treat you like a superhuman afterthought. I promise.

Anyway, in service to a renewed sense of resolve when it comes to caring for myself, I went ahead and got myself some soup and some macaroni and cheese with some yummy steak:

...Related, I think I'm going to try to make for myself the mac-and-cheese that my mother used to make. I am the only one who can make it for myself now, and I think I owe it to myself to figure it out. I will try to make a gluten-free version of it, so that Br can eat it, too. That's easy enough to do with brown rice noodles; it's basically indistinguishable from whole wheat pasta, in terms of its flavor and texture. Maybe I'll try to do that soon. And of course, when I do, you can count on me to walk you through the process so you can do it, too.

I also made it a point to sit for a while and watch one of my favorite cartoons. This one is called The Zeta Project; it came out when I was 11, which was... 23 years ago (wow, what the fuuuuck...). It's a beautiful show about a sentient robot named Zeta who was built to be a weapon, but who is trying to lead a life of peace. The government is trying to capture and reprogram him and put him back to work as a mindless killing machine. He's accompanied by a clever, savvy, and brave young girl named Rosalie. I really hope you'll watch this one someday; Zeta is very gentle and kind, and in a lot of ways, he reminds me a lot of you.

...The show was cancelled before it finished, though. I heard that it was because more girls liked it than the producers were comfortable with, so they pulled it off the air. I really hope they finish it someday. For now, though, the ending has to be left to the imagination. Zeta is beautiful, wonderful, and kind, so I like to imagine a course of events in which he can live in peace with Rosalie and with others who care for him.

...He really does remind me so much of you. I hope you'll look at his story. I think, in particular, you might find the episode called "Remote Control" relatable. You can find it at a place called... something like Watch Cartoons Online Forever? The first part is shortened to "wco", and it ends in ".net". Maybe you can find it...

Anyway. I took a bunch of other pictures for you today. One of them was taken at home because the morning light shining through the window was really nice. And when we visited Br's house today, I saw a great big huge bird-of-prey in the sky. I also took a bunch of pictures of Br's house, and the scenery outside. I thought you might like them. So here they are:

It's hard to take a picture of a moving object in a moving vehicle, but the black speck in the sky is the bird-of-prey I saw. I've seen an unusually large number of these lately. That, and crows. I wonder if the recent solar eclipse still has them kind of thrown for a loop. Hm.

Also, shortly after I did my therapy assignment, J took me out for a walk to decompress, and there was a crow in a tree that we've never seen crows in; our development is generally quite hostile to life (which is VERY unfortunate...), and hostile to crows in particular, because people don't like them (I've never understood why that is...). But he was sitting alone in the tree, making the "I'm with you" call; check out this video, at about the 40 second mark, and you'll hear what I mean:

...I can only imagine that this poor crow must have been very confused.

Here are some pictures of Br's house.

...I seem to have some sort of fixation with taking pictures of things outside of windows today. I'm not really sure why. But it turned out nice, so maybe the "why" doesn't really matter.

Oh!! I almost forgot!! A comet passed over my house last night. It's called the "Pons-Brooks Comet", or "Comet 12P". It only shows up once every 71 years. I wanted to see it, since I won't live long enough to see it again, but it was cloudy last night in the spot where it was supposed to be, so I didn't get to take any pictures. But J went online and found a live video that was tracking its movement; I can show you a screenshot that I took:

...It's not a very good picture, I know. But maybe you'll like it anyway; I don't know how often you get to see comets. Well, maybe you get to see them a lot, since you're over at the Edge of Creation and all, so maybe it's really not all that special to you. But maybe it can be special to you that someone would take the time to show you a picture of one anyway, if you want it to be.

Hey, Sephiroth? I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to stop writing before I end up rambling. Or maybe I rambled a little already, haha...

Please treat yourself nice, okay? I feel determined to treat myself nice, too. So let's do it together, all right? Because why not?

I love you. Stay safe. You'll get another letter tomorrow; just you wait.

Your friend, Lumine

[destinationtoast]

This laughably simple-sounding instruction is misleading. >:(

Despite having successfully done this once before, today I stabbed Tico's ear with a lancet several times this afternoon and never managed to draw the desired droplet of blood for a glucose test. 😭😭😭 I thought I was doing the same stuff as last time, and I watched more instructional videos and rubbed his ears a lot first and used petroleum jelly. But for some reason this time I couldn't get blood.

He continues to be surprisingly tolerant as long as I let him sit in his favorite spot on the sofa and don't try to move him. But he was Not Thrilled after a bunch of pokes, and he had to be given lots of salmon treats and brushing to make up for it. He had completely forgiven me by tonight, though, and I gave him insulin just now without him even seeming to notice. It is still not fun for me, but so much easier than the ear stab. (Which I'll have to try again tomorrow, sigh.)

I also briefly picked him up off my lap and held him in my arms yesterday and today, and he purred and stayed relaxed for several seconds before wriggling free. This is a big step; until recently, picking him up led to immediate thrashing and panicked clawing. But we've been working on it a lot, along with more attempts at towel wrapping him. Someday maybe I'll be able to pick up and carry all my cats -- and even set them down in a carrier -- without wild panic and grievous injuries ensuing.

^ This is shortly after Winter finished licking the petroleum jelly off his ear. Such cuties.

[pbandjesse]

I am sitting in the bathtub at me and James's new house writing my post. I am wearing off of my clothes. I am just watching James finish the tiles on the bathroom floor. We have had another really productive night. And today was a pretty good day.

I just learned that today was the foggiest day in American history. And I am not surprised because it was in fact crazy foggy. It was spooky and I liked that.

I slept okay last night. I continue to have worked dreams. But it wasn't the worst sleep. James woke me up to let me know they were leaving a little early to try and beat the rain. But the rain would still get them. And then they got a flat tired and had to walk the rest of the way. I felt so bad. But they said they were okay and to not worry about them. But all I do is worry about them because I love them so much.

I would struggle this morning too though. I got up and I had an extreme pain in my eye. To the point I couldn't put any makeup on. I just did eye drops and blush. And thankfully the pain would pass halfway to work but Jesus it was not fun.

It was spooky out with the fog and that made the drive interesting. People were going very slow. Which is fair. I still made it to work just about 8.

It was not a very cold day. But all the snow was melting hardcore and so everything was wet and muddy. I had wanted to go for a walk but it was just a little to gross out.

So I worked on some drawing. And I worked on my schedules. And I worked on my programing. And it was just a really good and productive morning.

Everyone else would come in and I got to talk about Disney a bit. I had brought in all of the pins that me and Jess didn't care for and are planning on trading. I tried to find some of them on the forums and found some of them are from Tokyo Disney and Hong Kong. I offered my coworkers some because I have more then I'll ever need and everyone picked one. Including Joe, who put it directly on his jacket. It was a nice day.

I had my lunch but I was still hungry. And apparently I wasn't the only one because by the after noon Elizabeth and Sarah decided to order fancy pizza. So we had fancy pizza in the afternoon and it was honestly really great. We talked about documentaries we liked and true crime and it was just s really nice way to spend the day at work.

I also had a meeting with Alexi about the summer. I don't really feel like I said what I wanted to say. We mostly talked about issues I felt like were present and issues with how arts and crafts and the Early American program were handled. Staffing issues. But it was something and I always enjoy talking to Alexi so it was still nice.

And then it was basically the end of the day. I had had two deliveries and was very excited to meet James at the house to start building things.

The drive out was fine. I listened to music and got a little nostalgic. And pretty soon I was at our new house.

James would be behind me by 10 minutes. But by then I had already said hello to Victoria and Daisy and brought both boxes inside. Including the very heavy box with my new desk in it.

I even was able to end over and roll it and get it upstairs to the bedroom.

James came in right after I got it upstairs. And they were very surprised. I was so happy to see them. They have a little cough but were in good spirits. And would pretty quickly head back to the apartment to get some boxes.

While they were gone I just built and built. I was finishing up the desk as they texted me to let me know they accidently locked themselves out of the apartment. Ugh oh. But thankfully someone was able to let them in and they were back on track. And would be back to me very soon. And by the time they got back here I had finishes the desk! Amazing! I was so proud of myself.

It's a little taller then I thought so someday I may chop the legs down. But it's a beautiful color and I'm excited to have it all set up.

When James got back they muscled everything into the house. And while they were making their trips we were able to meet our neighbor on the other side. George! Seems like a lovely man. A little older then us. But seems friendly. Welcomed us to the neighborhood. I'm glad we have nice people around us.

While James got eveything inside I moved things to their proper rooms. James would trip on the stairs inside but they did not get hurt thankfully.

We would continue to have a productive evening. James would finish installing the kitchen floor. And I would help move the fridge so they could do the underneath part and it honestly looks amazing. We are going to get some floor edging like toy have in a doorway to make the ends look more finished but I think it was such a good choice and James did such a good job.

I would work on putting the brass knobs on the cabinets. I need some different bolts for 3 of them but all the others are replaced now and I love them. And we would get both medicine cabinets installed. With drywall anchors and everything. I'm very proud of all the work we are going even if it's a little exhausting.

James is finishing up with the bathroom tiles now. But we need another box. I accidently only bought 1 when I meant to get two. So we will have that tomorrow.

We will go home soon and get some rest. Tomorrow is another day at work. And then my vacation starts! I am very excited for Disney. I hope it's a really fun trip.

I hope you all have a great night and I hope you sleep well. Take care of yourselves. Goodnight!