#I still can't believe this is happening.

[lesbxdyke]

I could think of no better way to share the news than this!

So when I was 17, my cat went missing and I'd given up hope of ever seeing him again.

Until on Monday, 27th of May, 2024, my friend sent me a FB post asking 'isn't that your mother?' about the person named on the microchip.

Here he is! 16 years old, and found safe, twelve whole years after he went missing!

Yesterday (Tuesday the 28th of May, 2024) I went to the rescue that had him, and I reclaimed my boy, renaming him Artie! (He'd originally been called 'Cat' because my mother and I couldn't decide on a name)

He's home safe with me now, currently inhabiting my bathroom and purring up a storm every time someone goes in there!

I'll be doing slow introductions between him and my current cat to give them the best possible chance of living in harmony!

Here's some pictures of Artie once we let him out of the carrier:

[floccinaucinihilipilificationa]

[remcadll]

Wow crazy how it’s been two months since mha ended. what the hell was that btw

[jojo-schmo]

No way.

NO WAY!!!!!!!!

YOU are the original artist!!! That's INCREDIBLE!!! You found this!! I am so so happy!! I finally get to tell you this directly!

Oh my gosh I remember really looking up to you and your art growing up! Your drawings (and this one in particular) had a really positive and nice influence on me in the beginning of my venture into fanart and the Kirby community as a whole! I gush about this in my original tags of this post but I might as well just share the story here with some additions:

"But Jojo," you ask. "That seems a little ridiculous. Don’t you think saying this drawing changed your life is a little much?"

No. NO. IT IS THE TRUTH. Let me tell you. It's around 2008. Little baby middle schooler Jojo had just gotten Squeak Squad. The first Kirby game I ever owned. My introduction into the entire franchise as a whole. And I loved it even tho there was a lot I didn’t understand. Like who any of these characters were, or why copy abilities existed. I had zero knowledge of the lore so far. But Meta Knight completely intrigued me. what was this blue sword wielding little Kirby dude doing here?? He was so cool and could shoot lightning and make tornados, but he had pretty white eyes and pink cheeks under that mask?? I’d replay his boss fight over and over again just to get that glimpse at his face. and I’d sit and wonder what it all meant. plus the boss fight was hard!!! it cost me to beat it at the time but I’d still do it over and over to see his face for that millisecond.

AFTER LIKE A YEAR OF THIS it occurred to me that there was a Kirby wiki online. My folks were finally letting me spend more time on the old clunky family laptop, so I went to his wiki page and found all the pictures of his face from the games so far. And my budding middle school fangirl mind ATE THIS UP. (Mind you, this is years before we saw him in 3D for the first time! The most detailed picture was probably from like Kirby no Kirakira Kizzu (which was a Japan-exclusive release until literally 2023!) 

I needed more!! So I promptly looked up that one fateful google search……… the one that changed me. meta. knight. maskless.

I was bombarded with the cutest, loveliest drawings of this master swordsman with a precious face. This drawing was always towards the top of the results!! It's the most memorable one for me! Plus, idk if you've seen any of them. But people would include this drawing in those "maskless Meta Knight art compilation" videos on Youtube that I would watch a lot, so it kept popping up in my life for a bit afterwards haha

I stared at this drawing and came to the conclusion that I had to see even more. When canon wasn't enough, people could just.... CREATE their own?! INCREDIBLE!! So I searched for more and found an entire community of Kirby fanart, writings, discussions.... I never knew such an expansive community could exist about something I liked! What can I say? It was the late 2000s. I don't think most kids spent a lot of time on the internet for non-school related purposes those days. At least I didn't.

And so, I went feral about a fandom related topic for the very very first time! I lost my MIND. HOW can a character be so cute AND COOL??! All of these characters were cool!! I was a changed child. I consumed the Hoshi no Kaabii anime like it was the only piece of media on earth. (The subbed version because I like Dedede's voice more in that one. These days I accept the anime's flaws and enjoy it for what it is hehe) I drew comics about the characters, but mostly Meta Knight. I made my first kirby oc ever to go on a grand adventure on him (and his mask was conveniently half broken during this story so I could draw his face as much as I wanted to.) I got every game I could possibly own on the DS, Wii, Wii Virtual Console, and so on... (I played Return to Dreamland so much as a kid that when the remake came out last year I remembered where all the energy spheres were on my first try of each stage hahaha!!)

I filled my notebooks with Kirby art to the point my mom was like "Jossie. you REALLY need to branch out. these are just orbs. you should probably draw other stuff too."

And so I kept drawing throughout the rest of my childhood! But Kirby was the biggest catalyst for my growth as an artist! It was the fandom that started it all for me! And now as an adult I'm committing to long projects like the Forgotten Land Roleswap comic that add a lot of meaning and joy to my life to work on! I'm openly sharing my work rather than lurking as I have done until recently.

So yes. YES. TLDR: This drawing did help change my life. When I see it again I feel nostalgic and warm and I'm reminded of the happier moments of my innocent and exciting first venture into the world of fandom.

(And it's also one of the reasons why I insist on drawing Meta with white eyes to this day. It's a detail that is very sentimental to me since his pretty pearly eyes on his original sprites technically kickstarted my introduction into the Kirby fandom community :'D )

THE END!!! And to any artist/writer/creator! Your work makes a difference in people’s lives even if they can't say it to your face!!!!

...Except now I can say this to your face!!! :D

This may come off as a little silly or overly sappy, but I still wanted to tell you. Your work helped contribute to a little "butterfly effect" chain of events in my life years and years ago, haha. And I know lots of other people also look at your art fondly!

I'm quite happy to see you're still drawing and present on the web! A reverse image search on this drawing didn't yield any clues to its origins so thank you for coming forward directly :) Please don't feel obligated to respond, I just am happy for the chance to tell you this. :3

Life did take a nice direction for me, and I genuinely hope things are also well in yours <3

I wish I could tell the original artist that this drawing permanently changed the entire direction of my life in 2009. I want to shake their hand, look them in the eye, and admit I would not be who I am today if this drawing didn’t exist.

[kurikorso]

oh shit look who it is!!

please click him for better quality

[egophiliac]

So how’s ride kamens going for you as I just pulled my self together long enough to read the other half of the current main story

I've been working on catching up on the event stories since they announced the upcoming main story update! (I totally bombed the last few events...they're so fast-paced and I just didn't have time...😭)

and then of course they went and dropped THIS on us today

(you don't understand, I LOVE Tajador and I already love the two blurry frames they've given us of non-silhouetted Kelka, I'm ready to absolutely lose my shit come the announcement/reveal(?) stream on Thursday --)

[phantasticphizza]

I will never be over Dan crying from pure joy and happiness

[books-books-smolderinglooks]

Happy Wilmon Day! 🔥💜

[canyoureallycallthisablog]

The player opening undertale post no mercy route fr

[p0m-p0m]

this was how it ended trust me

[arttsuka]

Some past fiddlestan? (Like Ford just went through the portal. He gone now. Past. Yk?)

The mystery misery yaoi

[lesbiandanhowell]

sharing is caring and norrix said i love you on main (the mclaren social media) so have these norrix pics taken by: me

[almea]

[anewp0tat0]

it doesn't feel real to me fellas. but I don't have time to sit by and chat and unload unfortunately so I'll just drop this and be on my way, cya kind folks very soon ✌️

not professional but I liked how his eye looked goddang it. I knew I was screwing myself but I did it anyway

[egophiliac]

GRIMS COMING!!! You gonna pull for him??👀👀

I'm gonna try, but...

I have mere hours to decide if I want to make one last attempt at Malleus or save a few to try for Grim...and this is all before the new event reveal on the 16th. truly the most difficult choice of our modern times. the gacha is getting its revenge for all of my Lilias.

[screamingcryingnightingale]

So my friend and I watched Good Omens 2