Yasssss posting this earlier cus I have reunion dinner later with the family. Managed to finish my OCs festive piece for this Lunar New Year & Valentines!! WAAAA (cus I don't have the mana to do two pieces so I combined two festives together.)
I'm so happy with this piece cus I've never drawn a full blown piece in years and it turned out how I visualised it. Screamssss Happy Lunar New Year to peeps who celebrate it!
OC on table: Starshine
OC being fed: Teardrops
If ur interested to learn more pop by my dedicated ig account jus for them ✨
hi again!! can u make a lil AU fanfic where it takes place at the time after branch sees floyd in the diamond prison, and they feel very sad and miss each other after branch leaves, so they end up singing "teardrops on my guitar" by taylor swift about each other with a few lyric changes such as one to be "i laugh cause it's just so funny" and the name "drew" in the song is replaced with "branch" and "floyd"? oh, and the girl in the song can be referencing to poppy too. if you're busy with another fanfic, i understand! thank you <33
Hi! I finished this - and I apologize in advance if some of the changed lyrics are cringe 😅😬
Teardrops (a Trolls fanfic)
Despite Branch’s physical presence within the caterbus - his girlfriend by his side and Tiny Diamond at the wheel - it was his mind that was a grand distance away.
The situation couldn’t exactly be helped - he’d known this from the start. There wasn’t much he could do without the Family Harmony breaking the diamond imprisonment. And the plan hadn’t been thought of much aside from actually infiltrating the Rage Dome and reaching Floyd. This little fact had made itself obvious when they’d arrived and done little more than have a brief reunion.
But just because it had been brief didn’t mean that it hadn’t been meaningful. No, in fact, it very much was.
And the fact that it was is what brought the blue Troll to his troubled state. He couldn’t forget the way his brother’s face lit when he saw him, nor the warmth that blossomed within his own chest for his own joy at seeing him too. And Branch was very much delighted when Floyd had realized that he was a man and not a baby anymore, unlike their older brothers’ beliefs. But he supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Floyd was the bro who had always known him best. Which is why he’d known that Branch would remain in grave danger should he have stayed behind.
Still though, hardly a minute’s time for a reunion was certainly not enough to make up for the twenty-plus years absence, and he missed him dearly.
So, as Tiny Diamond maneuvered Rhonda throughout the hallways of the Rage Dome and Poppy comforted the still teary-eyed Crimp, Branch comforted himself in the manner that Floyd had told him of years prior: by singing.
“Floyd looks at me, I fake a smile so he won't see
That I want and I'm needing everything that we should be…”
__________________________________________
Naturally, Floyd missed Branch as well. He’d sang to himself quietly plenty of times before within the diamond imprisonment.
And so, tuning out his other brothers’ argumentative words, and Velvet and Veneer’s excited chatter as they made their way to the racecar that would bring them to the Rage Dome’s red carpet, he lamented a tune.
“I'll bet she's beautiful, that girl he talks about
And she's got everything that I have to live without…”
He hadn’t caught Branch’s companion’s name, but with the assumption that his little bro was now a man, the pink-haired Troll who’d come to assist in the rescue was likely his brother’s girlfriend. He wouldn’t know of how they’d met, but he did know that she probably had been by Branch’s side far longer than himself. A tinge of jealousy pricked at him - envy for the time she had gotten to know him as he was now - but Floyd cast it away to sing some more.
“Branch talks to me, and we find that we’re still so chummy
And I’m glad to see that he’s all I ever thought he’d be…”
Time had passed, it was true, but the magenta-haired Troll was delighted to find that Branch was still elated to see him. His brother was truly grown now, and it was something that filled Floyd with great pride.
__________________________________________
Branch, on the other hand, wished he could say the same for Floyd’s condition. His older brother was looking quite sickly within the imprisonment, oddly transparent and hair streaked with white.
“He said I had to go, but it just isn’t right,
I wonder if he knows I thought of him for many nights…”
He’d told his brother he wasn’t leaving without him, and yet he did. While it was apparent that there were no better options in the rush of the moment, it still wasn’t sitting well with Branch. Emotion poured into the last verse of his song as a result.
“He's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar
The only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star
He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do…”
When Branch was finished, letting the last notes linger off into the air, he slumped his shoulders and sighed. The song helped him feel a little better, but he wouldn’t feel true relief until he knew his brother was freed. He felt a hand pat him on his back, and looked up to see Poppy. She flashed him a gentle smile of reassurance, and he reciprocated along with a small nod, focusing back on the mission and what they had to do next. He wasn’t sure exactly what was going to happen, but somehow and in some way he would ensure that Floyd - and the rest of their brothers that had been wrongly captured - would come out of this fix safe and sound.
TTL au Mikey, Raph, and Donnie from cabin 11 are here with some charms for craft week!!
@tmnt-fandom-family-reunion
Raph selects a red charm with a star on it. "These are lovely! Raph loves them."
Leo laughs a little, selecting a blue crescent moon charm. "Yeah, not bad at all!"
"I like the beads," Mikey says, selecting an orange flower charm. "Where'd you find them? Do you think they're still around?"
Donnie grabs a purple teardrop, looking at it carefully. "The people here really like giving stuff away."
"Anyways, thank you!" Mikey says, excitedly shaking the charm since he couldn't run with it to show Tello and Casey Jr.
~
Tello looks over the set of charms, deciding on a purple teardrop charm. "This one suits me fine. Thank you."
Casey takes a bit longer. The charms were beautiful, every single one of them. But he wasn't sure which one was the right one to pick. Which one was perfect for him. Especially since each of them were colored after the turtles. In the end, he selects a sun charm, and while he struggled between the colors for a second, he inevitably chooses purple.
I enjoy my family reunion (all the descendants of my paternal grandparents) in the summer very much. There is a little tension due to the fact that one branch is Evangelical Baptists, in fact one of my cousins is a pastor*, another branch consists of very staunch Methodists (there's another pastor there, retired) and then an assortment of. The rest of us. Not truly relevant to my story, but I'm Setting the Tone.
When my cousin S was about 40, her thin, active, 40ish husband had a completely unexpected stroke and died within days. She continued raising their daughters and was very brave and pragmatic about it. It was quite a long time before she ever met anyone else to be interested in, but eventually she remarried and brought her new husband to the reunion. He is very jolly and laid-back, works as a trucker, and everyone likes him.
The thing is, though. He has two teardrop tattoos at the corner of his left eye. I have never asked. He has never mentioned it. But, damn. I would like to know.
.* A pastor so severe that he will get in spats with his own Baptist siblings about who is the most best correctest Baptist. Which, uh.
Song Review: Norah Jones with Anoushka Shankar - “Traces of You” (Norah Jones is Playing Along)
Ten years after releasing “Traces of You,” Norah Jones and Anoushka Shankar reconvened in a studio to play it again.
The sisters - their father is Ravi Shankar - re-recorded the track for the “Norah Jones is Playing Along” podcast. And though piano and sitar may seem like strange companions, Jones’ earthy notes and Shankar’s ethereal accents make for a warm blanket of sound as Jones sings:
Traces of you linger like a teardrop/fresh upon the air/play me like a rain cloud
All family reunions should be so harmonious.
Grade card: Norah Jones with Anoushka Shankar - “Traces of You” (Norah Jones is Playing Along) - B+
No cause why did saw and cloudy have to get eliminated?????? They were so good! :(
I love all of the bfdia callbacks! They make me so happy! Also the teardrop family reunion callback! So good!
I think my overall favorite thing about this episode is just how absolutely unhinged puffball is! I hope she continues to get more unhinged as the series progesses! I'm obsessed with violent puffball!
From small family Thanksgivings to large family Thanksgivings to Second Thanksgivings, Thanksgiving Day landed in the midst of our lives in different ways. Those ways defined the experience, of course. They defined such meaning as the day tries to embody.
And let's be honest.
Such meaning as we derive from Thanksgiving does depend on our yearly experience of it regardless of its historic and traditional roots.
Bummer.
😕
The ways in which we experienced Thanksgiving weren't limited to what I described these last days, by the way. You see on a number of occasions we celebrated Thanksgiving as a community.
The first experience like that was with dear friends who invited a number of different families to share the Thanksgiving meal together. To share Thanksgiving together. It's an experience that seems like it would be a large family Thanksgiving but in actual practice is something quite different. These were different relationships from family relationships. With some of the families, these were closer relationships on a daily basis. With some of these families we had a more vivid history of experience together. The age spread of kids was different with many of them knowing each other from younger ages without necessarily growing up together... and some kids were still really quite young. There were musicians in the mix. The discussions ranged in different ways. If I had to put my finger on it, I'd say the topics of conversation were more varied than you'd usually find among family. Which makes sense.
So.
Our first community Thanksgiving was a large Thanksgiving experience based on friendships.
Our second community Thanksgiving experience happened while we were in southern California visiting family. Kimmer's cousin, his son, and the three of us were invited by her aunt and uncle to share the Thanksgiving meal with them.
Now, Kimmer's aunt and uncle didn't live in a house. They lived in a fifth-wheel camper set into its own space in a camper community.
Camper community?
Sure. Think of it like a neighborhood of large camper vehicles you could move if you had to... but you don't. They exist like houses. The owners exist as a community of neighbors, elderly of course, arranged around a bona fide community center. A place of gathering for different purposes. And, in this case, the place in which everyone would come together to celebrate Thanksgiving.
That was the Thanksgiving meal to which we were invited by Kimmer's aunt and uncle.
A community of neighbors Thanksgiving.
For that reason alone the experience was different and felt different. In some ways it reminded me of the lunches that would take place after service at the church in which we grew up. That elderly vibe, you know? Only, as we were adults ourselves, we could actually have conversations with them. Get to know them as they got to know us.
So yeah. An experience of strangers, as well. Fellow human beings with longer histories than ourselves. In some ways, more connected to the history and tradition of Thanksgiving.
Perhaps my favorite Thanksgiving (and it does pain me to say it) was our Death Valley Thanksgiving.
Does a Death Valley Thanksgiving sound absurd to you?
Because it sure sounded absurd to me when it first came up. I really did think this was a joke.
Turns out, though, it wasn't.
This community wasn't family. Although families most certainly were integral to the experience. This community wasn't friends. Although friendships abounded all over the place. This community wasn't neighbors. Because it couldn't be. Not really. At best these were temporary neighbors.
Temporary neighbors?
Yeah.
From tents to trailers to RVs to houses on wheels to custom builds of all kinds both massive and small with at least one outfitted for the Apocalypse. These people adventured here from near and far for this one week each year. In a way, it was like a massive class reunion. It was also a good bit of show 'n tell with genuine curiosity in each other's rigs. Even the teardrop trailers were a hit because those still require a fair amount of engineering.
People would begin populating the camping/parking spaces at the beginning of the week. Some would turn up even the preceding Saturday day or Friday evening. There'd be individual experiences, catching up with old friends, welcoming newbies. A lot of parallel experiences, too. On the Day, however, they would all synchronize their efforts toward the community Thanksgiving meal that we would all enjoy together. Outdoors, of course.
There was a massive amount of food.
And drink.
And dessert.
All of which we enjoyed as day turned to evening and evening turned to night and the multitude of stars blanketing the heavens revealed themselves in a way you can only experience in the middle of nowhere. Far, far from the glow of city lights that normally obscures most of what's up there.
Which turns out to be genuinely breathtaking.
Now, what I just described just is a good chunk of what it's like to experience Thanksgiving in Death Valley.
However.
That's not the whole story.
For example, we rented a Cruise America RV and, on our way to Death Valley, quickly ran into crazy strong cross-winds that relentlessly punched right into the side of our RV. Basically, we were a big sail on wheels and we were being continually shoved to one way or another, either toward the sand and rocks to our right... or the oncoming traffic to our left.
I white knuckled the drive all the way to the mountains right before Death Valley.
It was not fun.
Also, the RV wasn't a powerhouse on the road and, for a while there, driving up the west side of the mountains, it wasn't super clear we'd actually make it to the top of the mountain before descending gracefully into the valley.
Not joking.
It was a sloooow and slower and slowest slog to the top.
We made it, though. Thank God.
The only other downsides I'd attach to our experience were the freezing nights and the reality that we had no way to heat the RV. Not that we knew of. Plus, you couldn't run a generator after 10pm.
Because noise. Right?
So the last night we're there, the temp drops into the twenties. Not even our pile of blankets and sweaters and coats could overcome the profound shivering and fear of frozen body parts that ensued. So we fired up the RV and left. Heat definitely cranked up high as we left the desert behind us.
I think that was before seven in the morning.
Maybe even six.
So what puts this Thanksgiving experience at or near the top of my list of favorite Thanksgivings?
Well, it was the biggest.
Not in terms of number of people even though it was. But in the scope of the experience.
For example, during the day we traveled all around the valley exploring the incredible geology. Badwater Basin, the lowest point in the United States. Devil's Golf Course. Ubehebe Crater. Racetrack Playa. And every night, the darkest night skies in the U.S..
Plus the kids loved all the dunes. 🙂
Plus we loved taking photos everywhere. 😁
Next to experience the epic geology of Death Valley, hanging out with and talking to the different RV owners about their rigs was perfectly fascinating (especially the one built for the Apocalypse). And then just talking to people there, fellow travelers all, about their experiences on the road.
Because we were there for several days, we experienced an Everything Thanksgiving. Small Family. Large Family. We'd all hang out in Kimmer's aunt's and uncle's fifth-wheel camper. We experienced an even more community community experience.
Why community community?
Because we were actually part of this one.
There's just something about fellow travelers, you know? There's something about hanging out with people who're on the road like you. Which is true even when you're on vacation; especially true when you're adventuring the awe-inspiring middle of nowhere from lots of different starting points.
Everyone has stories.
And so we're all instantly part of the same community. We all share the experience to different degrees.
Interestingly (and of course I'm judging this from about a decade's distance), hardship also stamped the experience in a meaningful way.
Stamped?
Yup. With adventure, if you can believe that.
It was an ordeal getting there (by our standards, of course). The overnight cold made it a challenge to keep warm even inside.
We had to want this, I guess is what I'm saying. And we kept wanting it through Thanksgiving because the rest of the experience was so compelling, so worth it.
It's a slight piece of the original pilgrim experience we don't and maybe can't appreciate in the modern day. But, as my friend Ann likes to say, there you go and there you are.
Definitely when you're sitting around a fire at night with family and friends (and newly made friends) talking about the day, talking about the adventure, looking up and marveling marveling marveling at the breathtaking night sky...
You can sense the tiniest connection with other travelers. Not the ones today, though, not the ones yesterday or even the year before but those travelers...