#AND i'm slowly getting out of a year-long reading funk so i don't want to get bogged down just because i feel like i HAVE TO read sth

[lakeglitter]

i really want to go to this local book club but so far, i have struggled getting through the (two) books they planned to discuss. it's not even that they're bad books, i just severely don't vibe with the style or am very uninterested in the subject matter

[mysticsparklewings]

Mystic's Museletter - Long Time, No Type!

This blog entry was originally posted to Ko-fi and DeviantArt and may also be read in full in either of those places.

Hey there Sparklers; It's been a while, hasn't it? 😅

So I suppose I should start with an apology, because I am sincerely sorry that it's been almost a year now since I was doing my regular "Monthly Museletter/Round-Up" Posts [on dA & Ko-fi, doing them here on Tumblr is entirely new], and it's also been a few months now since I was posting art...really at all, let alone regularly.

And because of that, if it wasn't already obvious, this isn't even going to be quite like my former "regular" long-form posts. It's going to be long, which itself isn't unusual, but because of how much there is to cover, I'm going to try and divide this all up into mostly self-contained sections, and have a list of those sections (marked by headers of the same title) beneath this paragraph so you can jump/scroll around and read "the interesting bits" at your leisure:

Overview of Where I've Been

DeviantArt's Changes

Other Things I've Been Doing - Part 1: Ohuhu Again! - Part 2: Social Sites & Dolls - Part 3: Everything Else

Peeks At Actual Art Things I've Done

Wrap Up

Overview of Where I've Been

So what happened? Well, the Monthly blog posts were just a victim of my executive dysfunction—I got in my head about how long they usually take to put together and when I'd miss one or put it off too long, naturally that would mean the next one would take even longer to catch up and it just spiraled downward from there.

Clearly, if I want to continue with those going forward, I need to make some changes to how they work so I can actually do them. At the moment though I don't have any concrete plans, but I have some general ideas that relate more to the next section.

Okay, but what about Artwork? I was on a pretty good roll there, especially with Winx Art, and then...Crickets.

This one I can't even fully explain myself. At first, I know I was largely bogged down by the fact that I just kept missing self-imposed deadlines to have certain pieces finished by, and my motivation to post art was majorly crippled by some Changes DeviantArt Made, but I feel like those two reasons alone don't cover everything.

My personal life has also been a bit of a roller coaster these past few months, but that is somewhat "normal" for me, so I don't feel right blaming it on that, either.

My best guess is those things combined with my usual Post-Inktober Funk™ and made a kind of "Seasonal Burnout," sort of like Seasonal Depression (as is fairly common for a lot of people to experience around the holidays and winter months). I've had plenty of creative ideas and was even able to do some other creative things I'll touch on more in a bit, but the motivation to actually draw was just...not there.

The other reason I chalk this up as "Seasonal" is because as the weather has finally, slowly started to warm up, I have noticed some internal changes with myself...Nothing major has happened yet, but I feel more squarely pointed back in a "Drawing Direction," if that makes any sense.

I think the last piece of the puzzle to get me at least sort of back on track is related to those Changes I mentioned DeviantArt made. So let's talk a bit about that...

DeviantArt's Changes

Towards the end of October—Naturally, my busiest month!—All of a sudden, I could no longer edit Deviation descriptions directly in Sta.sh, which I'm sure some of you Sparklers are familiar with.

This matters because I found writing & editing descriptions in Sta.sh much more convenient than typing them directly on the Submission Page. Mostly for formatting reasons, but also as a hangover from many years ago when I lost a a few descriptions that were written only on the Submission Page, which didn't (doesn't?) auto-save consistently like Sta.sh did.

So. That wasn't good, but I figured out that I could still edit existing Text documents that I had in Sta.sh, so I took to writing the descriptions in an old one of those and would copy & paste it into the final Art description later. But eventually, that method stopped working too. (I think around mid-November, but I'm not 100% sure.)

As of right now, you cannot edit any text of any kind in Sta.sh anymore. You either handle it directly (on the Submission Page for Artwork, or using dA's on-site text editor for written work), or you don't bother.

Now, I'll wholeheartedly agree that on paper this doesn't sound like a big deal. And it really probably shouldn't be. But nevertheless, to cut an overly long explanation short: It is/was for me. It felt like one of the last few threads tying me here, to DeviantArt, snapped.

Again, to cut an overly long explanation short, emotionally, that really hurt. I have more or less been mourning the loss of the DeviantArt I first joined back in 2011 as a result. ����

And to cut one more explanation short: I've been thinking for a while now that it might be in my best interest to start up a more proper dedicated blog for my long art descriptions, and this blow to the way I write said descriptions on dA really solidifies that. I still have to figure out exactly where said blog will be—possibly here on Tumblr* which is why I'm posting this here now—but I have pretty much made up my mind that it does need to exist, one way or another.

(*I'd stick it over on Ko-fi, but as it currently stands Ko-fi doesn't have great organization or archive functions for older blog posts; If it's not recent it's difficult to find, and that just won't work with the blog-ish flow I know I'd need, among other small issues with Ko-fi's formatting.)

With all that said...I don't really want to say there's still a bit of light at the end of the tunnel for dA because that doesn't really feel accurate, but that's the closest expression I have.

Very recently, DeviantArt announced a new overhaul coming to the Submission Page, and while I have extremely mixed feelings about it (because I strongly suspect this is exactly why Sta.sh has been crippled)...I don't hate it. There are things I like about it, I'm mainly just bitter and fearful about Sta.sh's future.

But I also haven't fully put this "Studio" thing to the test yet—That requires actually submitting art. So, perhaps there is yet more hope than I think...

Other Things I've Been Doing

To that end, you're probably wondering about those "other creative things" I've been able to do I mentioned earlier, and also if there is any "proper" artwork to show for these past couple of months.

I'll go ahead and spoil that yes, even though there isn't much of it, I do have some "proper" artwork things I can show you, but I think (as this section title implies) it'll be better to address those other creative things I've been doing first.

Part 1: Ohuhu Again!

Probably the most interesting to you Sparklers will be the revelation that I'm in very early stages of working on a kind of "Buying Guide" for the Ohuhu Honolulu Markers.

I'm sure some of you Sparklers are familiar with my Ohuhu Chart and the unofficial "ongoing saga" of keeping that thing up-to-date. Some newer Sparkles may also have originally heard of the chart and/or me from the Ohuhu SubReddit, because I've spent quite a bit of time over there helping people figure out the best way to get all 363 of the Honolulu colors...since unfortunately, Ohuhu has made that process kind of confusing. 😅

Very similar to my chart sorting out confusion over how many colors there are in the first place, I want to make some kind of fixed resource I can point people to that would hopefully help clear up a lot of that said confusion.

I don't want to get to specific on the details of the "final" guide at this point since it is so early; Rather I want to just tell you Sparklers the actual work I've been doing to make it happen, and that all boils down primarily to three things:

Collecting and Organizing some text-based information (mostly in the form of Spreadsheets), and I was already doing a fair bit of this before I decided to even attempt making a Buying Guide

Fixing up my marker storage. I keep my Honolulus in their original bags for space-related reasons, but I've been meaning to make dividers for the bags to make everything more stable, and Spare-Cartoonist6276's Honeycomb method was the final push to do that I needed to actually do it. The only real downside has been that it just takes a while to construct each honeycomb section (and I'm not even bothering with the pretty color-matching cardstock). Fortunately, at time of writing I only have 2 sections left to go out of the original 11!

Swatching & Attempting to sort every color in a "Proper" Color Order. This is also something I've been meaning to try anyway and how useful it would be became pretty undeniable as I started thinking about how this Buying Guide is going to work. I'm in Stage 1 for this process—As I finish a honeycomb section, I swatch the markers in that section, so when the honeycombs are done, the swatches for colors I actually own will also be done. This is also different from my usual swatching because I made very basic little cards with holes punched in them so hopefully comparing colors and physically arranging them is as easy as possible. This swatching has been a long time coming though and is also taking a little bit longer because...I don't actually own every Honolulu color! I'm missing about 35, all of which belong to the "Pesky 43" that only come in certain sets. And with other expenses and trying to save up for a new website (yep, that Ko‑fi Goal is still active, folks!), I just haven't been able to justify dropping $130+ on yet more markers to fix that problem.

However, after some poking around and discussion in the wider Ohuhu Community, a Reddit User by the name of JayZedHorse very kindly reached out and offered to send me physical swatches of the missing colors! They are en route to me as I type!

There are still many small ways in which this isn't a completely perfect solution, but it is still a very solid step in the right direction and I am eagerly counting down the days until I have those swatches in hand!

So at the moment I have the small goal of being finished with the Honeycombs and my own swatches before the swatches JayZed sent me arrive; That way I should be able to jump pretty straight into the comparisons and start on color arrangement. But, fortunately, even if I can't be finished with the honeycombs by then, it won't be the end of the world. Both things will get done either way, it'll just take a little longer.

But that is about all I have to say about this Buying Guide that I think you Sparklers would be interested in, for now, so on to the next subject...

Part 2: Social Sites & Dolls

I'll start by saying there are two Social Media sites I've been semi-active on and so people that either follow me in those places or frequent the same communities I do will probably already have a few ideas of the other ways I've been flexing my creative muscles lately. [...And Members of the Sparklers' Club Discord Server will also have seen a fair bit of the same posted directly in there!]

As I sort of mentioned with the Ohuhu section above, I've been spending quite a bit of time on Reddit. It's not my favorite place on the internet, but I do like that I've been able to have long-ish form discussions about things over there that I would be pretty hard-pressed to cleanly fit inside of art posts. That's where most of my writing muscles have been getting their exercise.

The other one, and probably a little more interesting to you Sparklers, is BlueSky, one of the half a dozen "Twitter Replacements" that's been floating around.

To be fair, there were points where I thought either Mastodon or Threads were going to be my "Twitter Replacement" of choice, but ultimately neither ended up sticking with me and I'm not really sure why. It's possible the same will eventually be true for BlueSky as well, but so far even without fresh art to post it's been jiving decently enough with me.

I've mostly been posting Doll Photos over there; Literally the month after I lost the will to keep up with the monthly blog posts entirely, my interest in Fashion Dolls was finally renewed after a probably 5-6 year hiatus with one Karla Choupette.

I'll spare you Sparklers the nitty-gritty details (especially since I think I may be able to delve into them more appropriately in the future 😉), but suffice to say after falling in love with Karla and Monster High finally producing dolls I actually like again that I've been having a bit of a "Doll Love Renaissance" and I have taken probably a gross and shocking amount of photos of small plastic ladies over the course of the last year.

I don't know what it is about BlueSky that's made me genuinely want to share over there—It certainly isn't a massive following or massive amounts of engagement—but there is something, and it's pretty nice when previously I had to really talk myself into sharing anything that wasn't directly art-related over on Twitter.

Aside from just letting you Sparklers know I'm active on BlueSky at all, this is also relevant because I've taken to fairly regularly making things for the dolls—Mostly tiny crochet clothes, but a few other accessories too, like a belt I recently made to cover up uneven stitching on one doll's dress. And sometimes I re-paint details on certain dolls as well, but nothing super dramatic like some Doll Customizers do!

I would eventually like to compile photos of all (or at least most) of the things I've made for the dolls and maybe actually post them at least over on Ko-fi, and maybe here on DeviantArt too, since I am pretty proud of a lot of them and I think they'd be mildly interesting to my audience. But there are no concrete plans for that at the moment, just wishful thinking.

One related thing I do have slightly more concrete plans for though is the release of a Crochet Pattern—I got a little tired of the lack of pants options for the Rainbow High dolls, especially non-skinny ones, so I did some research and muddled together a pattern for some fitted bell-bottoms. I think the pattern itself is pretty much ready-to-go for sharing, but I did want to make one last test pair of the pants first (this will be the third pair in total) just to make sure one of my yarn recommendations works as well as I think it will.

The pattern will 100% be posted in the Ko‑fi Shop when the time comes, I'm just not completely sure if I'll be attempting to post it (or example photos at least) to DeviantArt as well, but...probably. We'll see!

Part 3: Everything Else

There is one more "not proper art" thing I've been slowly chipping away at that I think you Sparklers will find interesting.

...To be fair, there are some other much smaller things that I've shared with the Sparklers' Club on Discord that would also fit in this category, but they're not as interesting and would normally be saved for the "From the Archives" section in a Monthly Round-Up, so I'd feel out of place discussing them here.

Anyway. I've started the maybe-minorly-insane project of maintaining a Wiki for my Winx Club OCs: "The Mystix Dimension."

I've been keeping a running Google Doc with information about said OCs over the past couple of years as I've been doing major redevelopment on them, but I was getting tired of the limited ways to organize everything in that format.

After a lot of research that ultimately ended up going nowhere, I opted for the format I know best. I spent quite a bit of time making pages for my most-used Winx OCs on the Winx Fanon Wiki back in the day, but in the present I wanted the freedom to mess with the Wiki's code to both make it look more like the "official" Winx Club Wiki and also tailor it more to my own specific needs.

The "Mystix Wiki" is still very Under Construction with a lot of stuff missing, but it is slowly but surely getting there and most of the "bones" are in place.

So if you Sparklers are curious about my Winx OCs specifically, you can pop over there and have a look around—Of the information there, there's already a nice sampling that's pretty different from what long-time Sparklers may remember of my OCs from the earlier DeviantArt days when I was posting about them super regularly. 😉

A side effect of the Wiki that I semi-expected though is that it has made me realize how little I've actually drawn of my OCs even though they've been pretty consistently on the back of my mind for months. So I think pretty soon there are going to be more new Winx drawings in the works as I continue to fill out the Wiki. 😆

And speaking of drawings in the works...

Peeks At Actual Art Things I've Done

Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I definitely don't have a lot in the way of Work-In-Progress (WIP) Drawings, but I do have some that I started on before this unintentional hiatus. While I'd normally save some or even most of the WIPs for a Monthly Round-Up instead, given the circumstances I think it only makes sense to go ahead and share them with you Sparklers here and now.

We'll start with a few that should be recognizable as "updates" from the WIP Palooza that I posted back in August:

Firstly, and this will most likely be the next finished piece I actually post, I did finally polish off that sketch of Karla Choupette in the Winx Club art style. (And this is what I meant earlier when I mentioned I might be able to elaborate on my Doll Renaissance feelings later—The description for this piece would be a good place to do that!)

...I'm not showing the completely finished version here because I would like there to be some surprise when it goes public, and also even after all this time I'm still not 100% on the background I chose. So it could still change before the final post.

But Karla herself I'm happy with. I have no idea if I'll ever draw any more Rainbow/Shadow High characters in the Winx Style, but the door is open if I decide I want to.

Next we have...heh, My Winxsona in the Fan Transformation Formalix, better known as "Winxsona Winter Week 7". Incredibly, unbelievably late for "Winxsona Winter" at this point. But nevertheless, I started on the final two pieces for the series and I do want to finish them!

This one isn't fully finished like Karla, but it isn't too far off. It mainly needs shading and a background...And if I had no clue what to do for a background for Karla, then I have like -5 clues what to do for this one. 😅 I'll figure something out, though!

Likewise, I also have the "finished" sketch for "Winxsona WInter Week 8," or: My Winxsona in the Fan Transformation Dimentix.

Mystic Stars and Above on my Ko-fi already saw this WIP back in July, but this is much further along than you Sparklers saw in the WIP Palooza; At that time I had the concept sketch for the outfit and the wings done, and the pose, but I hadn't drawn the outfit on the pose yet.

The Dimentix wings are also ready for coloring (and the Mystic Stars & Above saw this one already too), but they won't be colored until after I get the flat colors down for the outfit/main image so I have a better idea of what colors should go where:

Again, no clue for the background on the finished Dimentix piece, but push-come-to-shove, I can skip a proper background and just recreate the..."wallpaper" effects that were used for the original Dimentix images made by FlorainBloom back in the day.

That leaves us with the two final WIPs I have to share, but for my Winx-loving Sparklers, I think they'll be the most exciting...

Yes, over a year later, I'm picking up the "series" that technically began with Light that Burns the Sky! 😁

Originally, I wasn't sure "Dark Enchantix" (or, my preferred name that I way overthought: "Incantix") would even be a series, but the response to Bloom and Stella was so positive [the Time Lapse has over 20,000 views on YouTube!!] and I did enjoy the concept so much...Yeah, it only feels right to give the rest of the Winx the same treatment. 😄

​As you can see, I've managed to come pretty far. Tecna and Flora have most of their shading done, so next for them is getting their wings in order, then the background (and I plan to use basically the same background that Bloom and Stella got for everyone, so that shouldn't take too much work). And Layla and Musa are pretty far along too...However, I have gone back and forth a bit on Layla's blues and Musa's golds/yellows.

Once again, I'll spare you the nitty-gritty for now, but was one of the challenges for my "Incantix Vision" from the beginning and is the smaller part of why these two drawings have been delayed so much. [...Y'know aside from the other things we talked about at the beginning of this journal.]

The other thing is that I lost my mojo for these two pieces specifically because I had hoped I'd get them finished by the end of the year to submit to a Winx Club fan project, and clearly that didn't happen. (I did go ahead and submit Bloom & Stella since they were finished, though!)

However, that fan project recently re-opened submissions through the end of May this year, so naturally I'm feeling a bit of an itch to see if I get can them both finished by then, even if it's just the still images and the Time Lapses (which only make sense to make since the first one did so well) have to wait a bit longer.

...Considering it's nearly the end of April now and I'd like to get at least 1-2 other things posted before I jump back into Incantix, and all the other circumstances, I obviously have my doubts about whether or not that will happen. But, who knows, maybe telling you Sparklers about it at this stage will be the extra encouragement I need.

At the very least, you Sparklers now know those finished pieces are coming eventually even if it isn't in May, and that was the main point in sharing the WIPs anyhow.

Wrap Up

​So. Now you Sparklers know where the heck I've been and some of what I've been up to in my time away.

I really didn't mean to more or less up and disappear and I am not happy that I have so little to show for my absence...But there's no time machine to go back and un-do it all, so for better or worse it is what it is.

I am, however, writing this blog post in the hopes that it'll be the "permission" I need to give myself to at least attempt to get back into an art posting rhythm.

As I touched on in the previous section, I do have a vague plan for my next finished piece to post, but it felt kind of wrong to just randomly go back to posting art like the past 4-5 months didn't happen with no explanation, especially over on Ko-fi. So here we are.

And...Beyond that, I really don't know how to end this. It feels a bit cheap to leave on my previous usual blog post send-off when this one is so different in nature...But I also don't consider myself as very good at ending these things in the first place. 😅

I should say though before I go—I really, sincerely do appreciate you Sparklers that have stuck by me in one way or another while I went radio silent. Every like, comment, whatever—I've still seen them all while I was away, and those are the little things that keep bringing me back when I do hit rough patches like this. Knowing that at the end of the day the art things I do matter to someone out there. It means more than I can put into words. So thank you, Sparklers, for just being there.

​Hopefully, it won't be too much longer before I can share some new things with you Sparklers to make it really worth your while. But, until then, as always...

Take Care and Sparkle On ✨

~Mystic~

[zacharyleartist69]

Visiting Eddie the Yeti (Part 1)

DK is sitting on one of Swanky's balconies as he looks out at the sea, trailing away from reality. His thoughts started to spiral, his vision grew a bit blurry, and his memories started to play out of his mind. As he looks down at the beach, all he can is himself as a toddler with a younger version of Funky and his mother watching his father surf the waves. He shut his eyes slowly, trying not to shed a tear from the memory until his eyes shot wide open on hearing the door sliding open. He turns his head to look who it is and relaxes once he sees Funky by the door.

"What's up big man" Funky said cheerfully as he walks up to DK. "Eh nothing much, man, just looking at the ocean" DK replied while leaning forward on the railings. Funky stand next to him and hand him a smoothie he was holding "you sure? I can tell that you have something in mind".

DK laughs a bit nervously "What? Nah man I'm not.".

"Is it about dad?" Funky said softly.

DK stay silent as he looks down at the smoothie then slowly drinks it, not making eye contact with Funky.

Funky moves his hand on DK's shoulder then pulls him into a hug. DK sighs softly as he hugs him back "Thanks".

"Anytime" Funky said with a smile, "but this is your third time thinking about him, DK".

"I know but I couldn't help but wonder if he is even alive or dead" DK exclaimed as he put his hand on his cheek. Funky frowns at his brother then scratch his chin to think. "Well... we can think about it with some weed, it usually helps" Funky suggested as he turns his head to look at him.

"Pfft- alright I can hit a smoke or two" DK chuckled.

Funky laughs as he smacks DK's back "That's the spirit man! Let's get inside so that we can get them". DK nodded with a smile and follows Funky inside as he finishes his smoothie.

As the brothers head inside, Swanky looks up from his book and lower his reading glasses "well what are you two up to?". "Just gonna go smoke some weed, that's all" Funky answered as he walks to the stairs. Swanky hums a bit then look at DK "What's the occasion?".

"Oh um... I just wanted to get my mind off of things" DK said as he forced a small smile on his face. Swanky closes his book gently and take his glasses off "Funky, do I have permission to ask your brother something?".

"Permission granted" Funky finger point Swanky with a smile.

Swanky smiles at Funky then look at DK "Lovely, now then what if I tell you that I know someone who can answer your questions of your father's whereabouts?". DK's face lit up a bit at Swanky "Really? Who".

"Why my friend, Eddie" Swanky smiles as he gets up from the couch and goes to the closet to open it, "Eddie is a Yeti who has the ability to look into the past, present, and future thanks to his icy location. Thanks to him, I feel much closer to my family and my ancestors. If you ask him about your father, he will hold the key to the answer you seek".

"Holy shit... Well, what are we waiting for let's go!" DK said excitedly as he looks at Funky and Swanky.

"I don't know, DK, it is a long journey" Funky said as he crosses his arms. "Then we can take the plane, one of yours to be exact since Eddie is located on one of the islands near Antarctica" Swanky suggested. Funky hummed a bit, feeling unease about the idea "Still don't think this is a good idea- I mean don't get me wrong, I want to know what happened to my dad too but if there is something like heavy then I don't want to see it".

"Oh, come on Funks, this is our only chance to know what really happened to our dad" DK said desperately, "Maybe it'll help us find out where he's been all these years".

Funky looks at DK, seeing how desperate he is, then let out a sigh "Alright, I'll go prepare the plane".

"YES!" DK cheered as he throws his arms in the air then brings Funky into a bear hug. Funky chuckles as he hugs him back "go ask Diddy if he wants to come while I get the plane started". "Oh, shit you right, DIDDY!" DK yelled as he runs upstairs to get Diddy.

"I'm going to prepare some coats and scarfs for us, I'll be coming as well" Swanky said with a smile. Funky smiles down at Swanky then pulls him close by the waist "Babe, you know me and DK can handle the cold".

"I know, but I don't want you to get sick for the thousandth time from the cold" Swanky teases a bit as he cups Funky's cheek and plant a gentle kiss on his nose, "Now go". Funky smiles warmly from the kiss then return the affection by kissing Swanky on the lips "Alright I'm going- oh make sure to pack up some snacks, knowing Diddy and DK they will get hungry along the way". Swanky chuckles at Funky, knowing it's true, then disappears to the kitchen to pack up some snacks while Funky goes through the drawers and grab his plane key.

After a while, the group huddle up near the plane. Funky and DK throws some small bags in the small compartment while Swanky helps Diddy adjust his scarf. "Hey dad, what's it like over there since you've been there before?" Diddy asked as he looks at Swanky with a smile. Swanky thinks for a bit then smile back at him "Well it is very cold, but it is a gorgeous sight. The island he is living has little food, however, so me and my family have been sending him some fruit and meat for him to eat".

"Wait meat?" DK interrupted.

"Why yes he is a yeti" Swanky answered.

The kongs look at each other and at Swanky. "What it's true" Swanky shrugs at them then gets up on his feet, "Is the plane ready already". Funky slowly nodded his head "Yeah it is". Swanky put on his sunglasses and walk to the plane with his hands on his hips and Diddy following behind.

Funky helps Swanky up in the front seat while DK helps Diddy climb on the back seat of the plane. Funky turns his head to look at DK "You ready?".

DK inhales softly as he looks at Funky then nodded his head with a smile "let's do this!". Funky laughs out loud at DK's determination then put DK in a headlock to ruffle his hair "that's the spirit!". The brothers laugh in joy as they hop on the plane, having Funky in the driver seat.

Funky takes off his sunglasses then puts on his goggles "This is going to be a long journey, y'all. Sit back, relax, put ya seatbelts on, and enjoy the ride". He turns on the engine and starts driving on the trail then lifting up the plane in the air to fly.

Diddy sticks his head out a bit as he looks down at the water, in awe "Wow, I will never get enough of how beautiful the ocean is". He turns his head to look at DK, who is looking out at the ocean. He fiddles with his fingers a bit as he sits there then pat on DK's arm.

DK blinked a bit and look down at Diddy "What's up little buddy?".

"DK, you okay?" Diddy asked, "You are spacing out so much".

"Oh- was I doing that again? My fault little D, I didn't mean to worry you like that" DK pats Diddy's head gently. Diddy snickers at the small head pat then look up at him with a smile "it's fine, DK, don't worry about it".

DK chuckles a bit at Diddy and goes back to looking at the ocean. His smile slowly goes away as he fades out of reality once again. Throughout the trip, all he can hear is voices coming in and out of his ears as his vision blurred up and turn into swirls. He feels like he can't breathe or speak. His feet started to tap on the floor anxiously, his hand twitches on his lap, and his breathe slowly grew rapidly.

"DK...".

DK gasped a bit from the voice. He looks forward to lock eyes with Funky, who is staring at him through the mirror. He exhales softly in relief and adjust himself to sit up, looking around to see that it is now nighttime. Diddy and Swanky are asleep at this time.

"DK... you know you can talk to me" Funky said softly, "I can tell you are nervous about this".

DK bite his lower lip a little then shakes his head "I can't lie to you anymore man... I've been thinking about dad recently and it's messing with my head. I tried to forget all about it with Candy, spending time with grandma, drinking a bit at the bar, but nothing seems to work. I just want to get it over with so that everything can be normal again ya know?".

Funky stayed silent as he listened to DK and started to speak "Yeah I get what you mean... It isn't easy to forget the person that raised you when you were a kid. You and dad are close, really close. I understand you are nervous, but once we figure out the truth you will feel closer to him. To be completely honest with you, I am nervous too".

"You nervous? Ain't no way man" DK exclaimed.

Funky nodded his head "Yup... I don't know what we will discover when we meet this Eddie guy, but fuck it ya know? And whatever happens, we can always let it all out". DK grinned at Funky from his words then let out a soft yawn.

"Get some sleep big guy, it's gonna be a long night" Funky claimed as he opens an energy drink with one hand. DK, not saying a word, leans his back against the seat and closes his eyes to rest.

Funky is right... it is a long journey.

TO BE CONTINUED...