#I wanted to look at some fanart from a specific artist of a specific character.

[amplexadversary]

I hate twitter so fucking much.

[doodlingwren]

It's 2024 can we please stop saying it's normal to trace or copying an entire drawing and pretending it's 100% your work? Just bc you changed the character or added clothes on a base you found on pinterest it doesn't mean you created original art

[prince-geo]

literally pleased with almost all of the new atla trailer except as per usual, Zuko's scar, idk why studios are so scared to commit to the intensity of the thing, its supposed to be shocking and obvious and textured and the first thing you see... that's the point, Zuko is supposed to struggle with feeling like it defines and brands him before finally coming to the point in his journey where he defines it.

Hollywood/big studios are known to hesitate or straight up avoid properly and honestly and unapologetically showing people with disfigurements/disabilities/facial differences etc. with the realism they deserve. Which is a shame in general for representation and humanization but ESPECIALLY in this case as its minimization actively harms it's narrative purpose as well

I promise making the scar more intense (shrivel up the ear a bit, make it intrude in his hairline, make his eye in a permanent squint due to nerve damage, for god sake REMOVE THE EYEBROW IT WAS BURNED OFF) will not make Zuko "ugly", (the actor is incapable of looking ugly and also the implication that scars make people too unappealing? yikes) but will actually do the character and his journey justice, not to mention really show Ozai's brutality, another essential narrative tool. Especially when he's bald like hello??? It should be even more stark and intense when he doesn't have hair to distract from it and cover his ear!!!

When transitioning from 2D to live action, of course some visuals are up for interpretation but that usually involved ADDING detail because the constraints of having to stay on modeling frame to frame is gone, not minimizing, removing or airbrushing. Doing Zuko's scar right to me is absolutely essential and I'm disappointed they seem just as as scared to go there as I thought they might. It doesn't have to be gory, if you've ever seen burn victims in real life or in pictures or even cosplayers/artists who are skilled in realistic burn makeup you'd know its possible to balance realism with humanity. It's possible especially with their resources to avoid the "scary Halloween makeup" route while not holding back on the brutality of the original injury.

Budget is definitely not an issue, or "scaring the kids" considering this remake is likely aiming to go a lil darker in tone than the cartoon (which was already super dark with its target audience of nickelodeon 7 year olds so no excuses) Audiences SHOULD be unsettled and upset when they see him but not because he's hard/disturbing to look at but because we are human and do not want to imagine someone doing that to a child.

It's a deliberate choice out of the all too common fear/hesitation to allow someone who is destined to eventually become a protagonist and is meant to be sympathized with to be "too ugly" while this hesitation is very rarely applied to straight up villains (again we come back to media's historic villainization of facial deformity). It's a trend that's always ticked me off in fanart too. The boy's face was melted, for gods sake. Zuko was always portrayed as an attractive boy in the cartoon (fire nation girls fawn over him) even with the intensity of his scar which is something I've always admired! People exist with scars similar to Zuko's in real life, and should not only be permitted to be represented as good guys and/or as attractive when their scars are toned down to be "palatable"

Like I said there's more that I loved than didn't love about the trailer, that can be a whole essay on it's own but I needed to get this very specific vent off my chest because it missed the mark so hard and stands out like a sore thumb in comparison to all the other visuals that hit the nail on the head to me

[jonnywaistcoat]

Hi Jonny, if you don't mind I have a question about the TMA TTRPG! So I noticed that on the player's guide there's this guy, who my friends and I assumed is probably Jon. If it is him, is this a canon design, or more like some of the non-canon stuff that's in the merch?

So, I hope you don't mind if i use this ask to go a bit off on one. I'm not specifically dragging you (I'm actualy glad you asked, as I've thinking about posting on the topic), but all the discussion around the RPG art and how "official" or "canon" it might be is, to my mind, slightly silly.

First up, is it "official" art? I mean, yeah, its art for the officially licenced Magnus Archives RPG. This means Monte Cook Games have commissioned someone to do a beatiful illustration broadly based on some aspect, episode or character from the podcast and it goes in the book. But that's kinda all it means. "Official" is a legal distinction, not an artistic one. The fact that it's in an official product doesn't make it any less one artist's cool interpretation of a character that has only been vaguely described in audio.

Second, is it Jonathan Sims the Archivist? I mean, it's probably based on the idea of him, but it's certainly not set in stone. When we were first discussing art with MCG, we advised that character pictures be more vibes-based and not explicitly tied to specific people (ie. a portrait inspired by Tim wouldn't be captioned "This is Tim" and wouldn't be placed opposite a profile for Tim Stoker, archival assistant.) This was mainly because we wanted the artists to have plenty of freedom to interpret and not feel too tied down by the need to know everything about the podcast. But, to be frank, it was also because we know that there are a few fans out there that are kinda Not Chill about what they've personally decided these characters look like and can get a bit defensive over depictions that differ.

It strikes me as particularly strange to be having this discussion about art that's for a roleplying game book. Something that's explicitly and solely designed to give you the ability to play in your version of the Magnus universe. The idea that this is the thing where we'd for some reason try to immutably establish unchangable appearances for these characters would be pretty funny if some folks weren't taking it so seriously. Similarly ridiculous is the idea we could reasonably have said to MCG "We'd love for you to make a huge beautiful RPG book of our setting... Just make sure you don't depict any of the iconic characters or events from it!"

But... is it "canon"? Now, to my mind, this highlights a real weakness in a lot of fandom thinking around "canon", which is that it generally has no idea what to do with adaptations. All adaptation is interpretation, and relies on taking a work and letting new creatives (and sometimes the same ones) have a different take on it. Are the appearances of the Fellowship of the Ring in the LOTR movies "canon"? How much, if at all, does that matter? Neil Gaiman's book Neverwhere was originaly a 90s BBC series made with a budget of 50 pence; is anyone who makes fanart of Mr Croup that doesn't look like the actor Hywel Bennet breaking canon? What about the novel that describes the character differently? Or the officially licenced Neverwhere comic where he looks like neither of them? Which is his "canon appearance"?

Canon is an inherently messy concept, and while it is useful for a creative team trying to keep continuity and consistency within a creative work, for thinking about anything beyond that it tends to be more hinderance than help.

Anyway, all this is to say that the above picture and all the others in the RPG are exactly as canon as every other picture you've ever seen of the Archivist.

[ohnoitstbskyen]

Hi Skyen, hope you're well! I'm seeking some advice and since you used to work doing mainly art commissions I figured asking you was worth a shot.

I'm a furry artist and I'm looking into doing commission work as a side gig while I finish animation college, and hopefully acquire enough experience/clients/notoriety to turn it into a full time job once I graduate.

Do you have any advice for someone literally just starting out with fresh accounts and zero following? Especially when it comes to reaching people and getting your first clients, and anything that one should take into account when working with NSFW specifically. Also advice for pricing your work is always useful 😅

No need to answer obvs but I'd appreciate your viewpoint if you want to share!

Got 2 asks on this exact subject so I'll write up what advice I can. One big caveat: I haven't worked as a commission artist for like half a decade at this point, and this job has a tendency to change fast, do not take anything I say as gospel. This is advice from a limited perspective, be critical of what I say and trust your peers and the people you are in community with before you trust me.

building audience

Step one is getting people to notice the artwork you create. Literally nothing else can happen until you have eyeballs on your work, and the most consistent and reliable way to make that happen is fanart. Ideally you'd want to produce fanart in a fandom you are personally engaged with and passionate about and familiar with, and which also has a sizeable community whose attention can help you build recognition and a base of followers.

This isn't always possible, and there's many a working artist who creates work for fandoms not out of deep personal connection, but because the fandom is large and relevant and a good way to capture the goodwill of algorithms and content feeds.

This approach has some downsides. For one, genuine fans can usually tell when someone's engagement with Their Thing is shallow, and for another it can be deeply creatively exhausting to chase the algorithm. I don't recommend this approach, but it is a valid means of building a business.

Another important consideration, especially when you are early in your career, is that volume tends to trump quality. Every artist will eventually learn that their shitty joke-doodle they sh*t out in ten minutes on a whim will get a billion reposts, and their complex personal work that took eight weeks to finish gets 2 likes from their closest mutuals and a comment from a bot saying "wow!"

In the age of the algorithm, what machines and for you pages value is a consistent, high-volume of output that generates user engagement. You will generally get further, faster, by producing a lot of work than you will producing great work. Again, this can be rough on your mental state, and a fast way to burn the fuck out, so please be careful and mind your health before all else.

The best way to build something that will last is to build your audience in communities and around fandoms and themes and ideas you genuinely care about and enjoy exploring and interacting with. Being your authentic self and creating work from your authentic interest is generally both healthier and long-term better for your career than trend-chasing. Treat trend-chasing and volume > quality output as tools in your toolbox, as creative and business decisions you can make to achieve a specific purpose, never ever EVER let them become the center of your praxis or your philosophy. Never ever EVER allow the Numbers™ to be your source of validation and accomplishment.

building business

Ok, so you've got eyes on your work. You've got some followers. How the hell do you get them to commission you?

Well, again, by demonstrating a capacity to create kinds of art for which there is demand. In the furry community, there's brisk trade in things like ref sheets and character design, for example. For most fandoms, ship art is a product which tends to be in demand. Being able to do really good expression sheets is a marketable skill. Being able to create compelling and clear emotes for streamers and creators is a marketable skill.

Showing the capacity to work in a wide range of styles is valuable. Showing the capacity to work in a wide range of genres is valuable. If you can do both comedy and romance your appeal expands. If you can do shonen-like action and angst as well, it expands again.

Equally, being incredibly good at a specific niche is valuable as well. Focusing hard on an under-served niche of work can give you a lot of opportunities to be the Go To person for that specific kind of thing.

Perhaps the hardest part of all of this is marketing yourself. Not only showing that you have the skills, but actively informing your audience that you are available, eager and willing to practise your skill for a fee. You have to sell yourself. It sucks, but you have to do it. You have to advertise what you can do, and you have to suffer the rejection and annoyance that comes along with doing that.

You have to ask people to commission you. You have to raise your hand and demand attention. It's not fun, but it's business.

Walking the line between self-promotion and being a person is hard. I can't help you that much with it, it's a very personal balance to find. Stay in touch with your soul, but kill the part that cringes at yourself.

Ultimately, you best marketing asset is your portfolio. Every time you do work, show it off. Repost it, retweet it, spread it around. If someone is happy with what you've made for them, do your best to make sure that other people see that happiness. Ask your clients (politely) to tag you when they share your work.

Oh, and for the love of god, sign everything you create, slap watermarks on anything that's likely to get reposted, and make it impossible for someone not to find your business email on your profile.

building network

If you're a commission artist, you are in community with other commission artists. You share interests, you share experiences, you share needs.

Practise solidarity. Absolutely seek out professional peers to help your business, but equally seek out opportunities to help them with theirs. If someone comes to you for art and you don't have commission slots open, point them at a colleague who you know can do the work too. Gas up your peers and spread their work.

Be a symbiote, not a parasite. Respect the craft of your peers, and don't chase celebrities and big names in the hope of coasting on their coattails. It will fail.

smut

If you're a working artist, at some point you have to reckon with smut and r34.

These genres are excellent sources of income, and fertile ground to build a business and network of customers. BUT. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking that they are "the easy way" or a shortcut. Do not ever make the mistake of thinking you can simply offer to draw tiddies and rake in the cash.

It's work and graft same as literally any other form of labor, it's challenging on both a technical and creative level, and the audience can sense if you're looking down on them. If you approach this from a position of shame, of "eugh, I'm debasing myself by doing this for rent money," it will not work, and you will lose standing and respect in the eyes of every peer whose support you need to succeed.

Just as in all other forms of creativity, if you treat the audience as morons who will slurp up whatever slop you serve them, then you will attract clientele that agrees with you, and you will deserve the misery they will inflict upon you.

If you are going to work in smut, establish your boundaries and enforce them. Know that good clients will feel safer and more comfortable with an artist who clearly states their red lines and earnest interests than they will with someone who tries to attract more clients by pretending to be open to work that they are actually uncomfortable with.

Never, ever, EVER let a client push you to create work you are not comfortable creating. It scars your soul in both the short and long term.

Also, when working with this kind of content, know the rules of payment processors and know how to hide the nature of your business from them. PayPal should never, EVER know the details of the content you sell with their service. Frankly, neither should your bank, most likely.

Look to your peers for advice and best practises about this. And be meticulous about your bookkeeping.

money

I want to tell you to charge at least minimum wage for your time. I want to tell you to charge substantially more than that, because your labor is specialized and highly skilled.

But the economic reality of commission work is that there is a crushing downwards pressure on the labor price of art, which has only been made more devastating by the rise of generative AI, and especially when you are a young artist just starting out, you're going to find yourself in a position where charging even minimum wage for your time will turn away a huge proportion of your potential customers.

Again, your portfolio will be the greatest argument for the value of your work, but you have to build that portfolio first, and very often that means doing a f*kton of work for not remotely enough pay until the pressure of demand finally works in your favor.

I don't condone or justify this state of affairs. It is horrid and I hate it, but I don't know how to fix it either.

Making a living from content creation of any kind requires you to get lucky, on top of working obscene hours and foregoing rest and vacations. It's not a safe or sensible plan for a career or paying your bills.

My sensible advice is to get a "normal" job you can survive doing, and do your creative work on the side, and resign yourself to the possibility that the creative work may never actually pay your bills.

And that is soul-crushing, but I cannot stomach pretending that hard work and gumption will guarantee anyone a decent living if they just try hard enough.

There are people who are better at every aspect of my work than I am, and they struggle harder and work for longer, and they will never see half the success I have, because I happened to get lucky, and they happened not to. It's wretched.

I'm not telling you not to chase your dreams. I'm telling you to do it with your eyes open, and with compassion for yourself first before all else.

All of this to say: I can't tell you what to charge for your work. It depends on everything from your competition to your niche to your genre to your community to your economic situation. You have to figure it out on your own.

All I can tell you is never forget that your work is worth more than the market will let you charge, and to raise your prices as soon and as much as you can. Try to reach at least minimum wage for your time as fast as possible.

in conclusion

Again, I haven't been a commission artist full time for a long time, please do not take any of this as gospel. Listen to your peers before you listen to me.

But trust me about the solidarity. It will save you when all else fails.

[bibluebutterfly]

Okay so I’m taking a risk here by talking about StaticMoth (as some fans will come at your throat if it’s mentioned), but let’s do it since I discovered something interesting.

The main thing being, I noticed that throughout these last few months, there has been a steady rise in StaticMoth fanart (which would make sense as StaticMoth has gotten a lot more shippers since the Instas were confirmed as noncanon), with Viv herself liking the more comedic/wholesome pieces.

Then upon closer inspection (aka, seeing one specific artist pop up constantly and finally deciding to check her profile), I realized that the Animation Director for Hazbin and Helluva has a LOT of their own StaticMoth fanart, with Viv even sometimes commenting on it.

So I’m now beginning to suspect that StaticMoth will NOT be as abusive as we were initially led to believe.

Check it out

(Smiles is the animation director for Hazbin and Joel is Val’s VA, just to be clear) that, and if you check this account you’ll see that they are all a BIG VoxVal fans, and Smiles also mentions how she worked with them a LOT in the show.

Now call me crazy, but I don’t think this woman, or any of them would ship StaticMoth as hard as they do if one was abusive and the other wanted to get away from them. And since the art that Viv likes is actually really sweet at times, I think that StaticMoth will actually be a functional couple.

I mean they also get a playmat and the only couples who get playmats are the canon functional/going to be functional couples (ie. Chaggie, Stolitz, M&M, and Fizzarozzie)

Also while I’m at it I may as well mention that they WERE included in her Valentines post. And in that gif, we have Vox is smiling evily at Val while he isn’t looking. That doesn’t really scream “abuse!!” to me.

Ironically, the last time I saw behavior like this from the team (Viv liking fan art, animators and storyboard artists making their own cute fan art, playmats before canon, etc), it was about Fizzarozzie, and they turned out to be the healthiest couple on the show.

Coincidence? I think not. (Art below is done by Hunter B, a storyboard revisionist and Vivziepop herself)

Now don’t get me wrong, I DONT think that they will be in any way healthy, but I don’t think it will be abusive. Or if it turns out Val does hit Vox to the point of breaking his screen, I think Vox will in return rip his arm out. If they’re abusive, it will be on both ends.

And since Vox has been appearing more in trailers and promos than Val, I think he will be the bigger, more prominent character. And it has been confirmed by many that Vox will very much be as bad as Val. He’s the most powerful the the Vees, and is clearly the head of the group. At the very least, I highly, HIGHLY doubt he will be the uwu babygirl that some fans think.

I think StaticMoth will have a “evil couple” vibe where they probably aren’t head over heels, (their one true loves will almost definitely be money and themselves), but they have a blast bringing other people down together. They will be equally awful, we’ll hate them, but we will LOVE to hate them.

Or I’m dead wrong, and this post will age like milk.

[kozachenko]

Don't really have much to post again aside from some more sketching that I've done recently, this time of Reimu and Marisa, mainly because I just need a starting point as to how I would go about drawing them in my style (which is why the poses are so boring lol).

Artist's Notes;

So I mentioned in the last post how I've been wanting to experiment with how I wanted to draw Reimu, and I then got an idea for Marisa. So I wanted to try and contrast the two of them with each other via their shape language and body types. For scale I also put some numbers on the side just as a visualizing aid so I can imagine them easier. I wanted to make Reimu very tall and lanky and Marisa to be short and rounder. Also, this provides some interesting contrast in their shape language, and Marisa ends up being more round and Reimu ends up feeling more sharp.

I think what I'm most worried about is mainly that I don't 100% know if these two drawings still...feel like Reimu and Marisa. MMaybe because I made so many changes to both of them, but I feel like it's mostly in their faces. I kept the little personal touches that would add when I would draw them in the past (i.e. Reimu's tiny eyebrows and Marisa's freckles) but I dunno, maybe it's in the eyes? Like, Marisa's bigger eyes and eyebrows are definitley ideas that I want to play with in the future, but Reimu.... I dunno, I like the idea of her face shape in this drawing specifically, and I defnitely feel like I got closer to the monilid eye look I was trying to achieve in my previous attempt at drawing her eyes, but something still feels off with her.

When I drew Marisa, I really wanted to explore some other ideas for her body type, mainly in contrast to Reimu, so I wanted to give her a fuller figure and make her shorter than Reimu. I do feel like her eyes could be a bit sharper as eyes look maybe a little too innocent for Marisa, but I do still want to use these eyes I drew for her as a springboard for later attempts. I made some adjustments to her dress so that they would look good on the body type I gave her. I also need to draw shoes more because those boots....I just, I don't even know, I probably just need to draw that specific body type more wearing those types of boots or find references because I am not happy with how they turned out. Out of the two of them, Marisa was definitely my favourite to draw. I really enjoying drawing different body types when I get the chance to, and I feel like it's important to try your best to expand your variety when it comes to drawing the human body, I'm glad that I'm comfortable with drawing different body types. I do still have a long ways to go with this as I just need to do it more often and still need to do this but with different body shapes and weights and how to combine those two aspects to create unique body types and silhouettes. Also, please feel free to give me any critiques to how these two designs turned out, I remember that I drew Reimu when it was late at night and spent the entire day on Marisa so I defnitely feel like there's some things to critque here.

I'll be honest... I don't really like how Reimu turned out too much. Not to say it's a bad drawing, but I dunno. I think I just need to draw Reimu more, but she's honestly the hardest character to translate into my style. The thing is, I have an idea for her in my head but I just have a hard time putting it to paper. It's not like I've never drawn her before, in fact, aside from the height I really like how she looked in this piece of fanart (why tf did I make her so short in that piece) I did a while back despite the fact that I've imrpoved on my faces a lot since then (again, I do want to try my lineless style again, I just need to find the chance to do so), maybe because that was the drawing that provided me with some of my ideas on how to draw Reimu in my style? I do think I'm definitely in the rut of the "not knowing how to draw a character's face in your style" phase that I'm sure many fan-artists go through, so with enough drawings I'll get through it eventually, just gotta suffer through several more hours of trial and error though so yipeeeeeeee... As for things I do like, Reimu's hair turned out nicely. I did my usual technique for drawing Reimu's hair and then pasted the lineart layer underneath the main lineart layer and changed the colour to give it some extra pizzaz, and I do like how Reimu and Marisa contrast each other a lot. I just need to find a way to make them feel more like themselves while still taking liberties with their designs in my style.

Even if these are just sketches and me laying the groundwork for how I want to draw these two in the future, I still want to improve how I draw them a lot (also I don't like how much these two look like teenagers, I see both of them as being in their late 20s-early 30s and it just doesn't read like that and I definitely need to do more studies in the future to get them right in my style).

[chewytoothmeats]

That’s Director Wadsworth to you.

Another doodle that got away from me a little, this time featuring Annabelle Wadsworth of @thebrightsessions ! I got to and finished the AM Archives after taking a break when I finished the original series, and it's bazonkers seeing the jump in quality with all that excellent Foley and music supporting the already-stellar vocal performances of the cast.

I always adored Wadsworth as a villain (Alex Marshall-Brown, you are so good at making this woman ooze into a scene) but the AM Archives surprised me by striking the difficult balance of making her truly three-dimensional without revising anything about her, or retroactively positioning her as correct.

Notes on why I made some choices after the cut, if that kind of thing interests you!

I'm a big fan of makeup and costuming informing character and compositions in art, and in this case I wanted to make something that is, I think, fun and reflective of Wadsworth's character while not actually resembling how I believe she'd actually dress and present herself in canon. (This is not a woman who I think would actually wear purple eyeliner and a berry lip to work.)

That said, I did choose the costuming for a reason! The makeup is an obvious nod to purple-as-royalty, and the choice of a dark lip specifically is there to make her look severe, precise, and in-control. Her outfit is of course largely a black void of negative space, but it's also largely inspired by the cuts and iconography of Chanel; black and white, "conservative" (by modern standards) cuts, tweed, and camellias. It's the kind of look that signifies outrageous wealth and power without being ostentatious; Wadsworth really cultivates a kind of soft-spoken, smug affect of self-assured superiority that I think is a good fit for Chanel, lol.

In the background we've got the specter of Helen, her waves attempting to intersect again with the frequencies of Wadsworth's heart and failing; they are lost to each other now, forever. During initial sketches Helen was presented in a much more overtly sinister light, but I nixed it in favor of keeping her more as an indistinct figure on the periphery of Ellie's perception. I think the central compelling tragedy of these two shitty (affectionate) women is the degree to which they were twisted and made cruel by the immensity of institutional violence, and so framing Helen more creepily would sort of... defeat that?

I don't know, I didn't actually spend very much time on this - as you can probably tell - but I quite liked making it! Composition is currently my weakest point as an artist imo, and I think this one's composition is actually pretty solid.

(Those in the know clocked this right away, I'm sure, but I tried to work in a way inspired by Dragon Age Inquisition's tarot cards since they're famously VERY tightly, beautifully composed.)

(sidebar, on top of a sidebar, rest assured that I did see the very kind tags left by Lauren on the last piece of bright sessions fanart I did and it made my day)

[dcufans4palestine]

What you need to know about DCU Commissions For Palestine

DCU Commissions for Palestine is a fan-led event to raise money for Palestinian causes. Creators in the DCU fandom can volunteer to offer commissions in exchange for donations. All creators interested in offering fanworks (including fanart and fanfic) for any part of the DCU fandom are welcome to join! Creators will have complete control over what they offer.

How it works:

Creators will have the opportunity to sign up here between July 1 and July 15. By signing up, creators agree to offer DCU commissions in exchange for donations. Before July 20, creators will be expected to create commissions sheets explaining what they will offer. These commissions sheets should be limited to DCU fanworks, but there are no limitations other than that. All comics, ships, characters, crossovers, etc. are welcome! We will provide examples for any creators unsure what a commission sheet should look like.

Commission sheets will go live on July 20. Creators will post their sheets on their own accounts, but all offerings will be compiled in a masterpost on the @dcufans4palestine page and shared via reblogs. Donors will be able to search through tags to find offerings based on types of work, specific characters, ships, etc.

Commissions will be live from July 20-August 10. If creators have a maximum amount of slots they are willing to accept and those slots are filled before August 10, they are welcome to close their commissions early. Donors will donate directly to charity and then send proof of their donations to us, and then creators can get started on the commission! More info about donating will be available closer to July 20.

On August 17, posting will begin. This is not a deadline for when works must be completed, but this is when our account will begin sharing completed works. The week of August 17 will be a celebration of everyone’s hard work! Throughout the week, we will spotlight specific creators, fandoms, etc. Depending on the size and success of the event, there may be some additional surprises in store ;)

If you wish to get involved, follow this account and join our discord!

Additional info under the cut!

FAQ:

How much will commissions cost?

That is totally up to the creators. We will provide price suggestions for any authors or artists who are unsure how to price their offerings, but these will only be suggestions. Creators will also get to choose if they have just one price options or price tiers.

Is NSFW art/writing allowed?

Yes, but only if the creator explicitly states that they are willing to accept NSFW commissions and donors who want NSFW work must be 18+.

What types of work are allowed?

We expect that most commissions will be for digital fanart and fanfiction, but any type of DCU fanworks are allowed! If you wish to donate a physical item for the event (merch, comics, physical fanart, etc.) please contact us directly!

If I want to be a creator, is there a minimum amount of work I need to be willing to offer?

Nope! All we ask is that creators be upfront about their offerings. If you only are willing to take up to three commissions, state in your commission sheet that there are only three slots. We also ask that creators contact the account once their commissions are closed so that we can share that information.

Where will donations go?

We have a carrd with plenty of donation options, all supporting the people of Gaza. Creators can specify in their commission sheet if they would like donations to go to a specific cause. Otherwise, donors can donate to any of the fundraisers in our carrd or any other vetted fundraiser or charity supporting Palestinians.

[rennybu]

finished veilguard finally 💆 if you have a pc with parts from 2017 and no ssd, know you did not struggle through the load errors and preset character bugs alone

some thoughts for closure (mostly negative from a place of love)

Despite the preceding 3 games all looking, sounding, and feeling different gameplay-wise, as someone who picked up the series in 2016 and played them back to back, i felt like they all shared the same scope and the same enjoyment of the setting and had stories that engaged with that setting in a way that was eager to keep exploring it. All 3 games had hook moments for me, either in a major plot development or a presentation gimmick that made me want to continue and made my character feel unique to my player experience. Veilguard never hooked me and broke my immersion constantly. I kept feeling like the script was reluctant or embarrassed to be taking place in The Dragon Age Setting. Which sucks because I like it there and want to play in it. It felt stripped down and very removed from the world of the last 3 games. And I mean. like everyone, I’ve been following the development hell, reading dev responses, the ama, looking at the scrapped joplin art concepts. I can see the shape of what it might have been but it’s too big a gap for me to want to play in and do any headcanon fic-writing work on my own. I had a few ideas early on but the game overall left me feeling burnt out on trying to… bridge the gap on my lack of immersion. My enjoyment shouldn’t have to hinge solely on headcanons. For the previous games, the foundations were strong enough that headcanons were an extra sauce on top of what we were given. I really didn’t feel like a mover in this story.

A lot of ppl have better articulated more precise complaints and I don’t have it in me to sit in deep contemplation and type up a full review 😭 everything I enjoyed about the game, there wasn’t enough of. It’s like I can see the rough idea of Rook being a foil to Solas, but I did not Feel It in the gameplay or the writing or the interactions and the options given to me to play. The regret prison was cool, but i wish it had the depth to consider Rook’s faction, their exile, their ever becoming Rook at all. I wish the team had had time to sit and invent more Thedas-specific, setting-informed gender terminology. I wish I wish I wish!

I think most of my enjoyment now is derived from seeing others’ ocs and designs within the setting. Wardens hawkes inquisitors rooks yay. I think I will need a very long break before I make any new fanart myself (impossible to say for sure) but I don’t like. Hate it now. And I love what the series has done for my past artistic improvement and inspiration/influence. The games are important to me and I’m just disappointed ahgkskgkd

Love dragon age. Going to stare at my screenshots folder for the entire series and not say another word

[hoeneymilktea]

deciphered ✧ tooru oikawa chapter 5 | rescuing sly fox

Your cousin, Hajime Iwaizumi—whom you haven't seen in a long time, invited you to support him at the largest street racing event in Tokyo. He told you he was a part of the Seijoh Brawlers, one of the notorious top five gangs affiliated with the underground street racing scene. Once he introduced you to his leader, Tooru Oikawa, a.k.a. Cypher—your interest piqued, curiously wanting to understand the true meaning behind his alleged nickname.

✧ pairing — tooru oikawa / afab reader ✧ genre — erotica/smut, action romance, crime romance, dark romance (absolutely no dv/sa), psychological thriller, crime/detective mystery ✧ rating — very explicit, 18+ mdni ✧ chapter word count — 7.9k ✧ content warnings — violence, street racing, references to drugs, explicit sexual content, heavy angst. see below break for chapter specific warnings ↴

author's note — This fanfic is inspired by the beautiful and amazing fanart of Street Racer AU Tooru Oikawa. Artist is @aikk00. disclaimer — I do not condone the romanticization of the yakuza or the reality of gang life as I intended not to portray that kind of interpretation, nor promote the activity of illegal street racing. Do not seek out these types of experiences as this work is just a piece of fiction. Please remember to read at your own risk.

renegade nights ⇠ rescuing sly fox ⇢ shower thoughts

✧ chapter specific content warnings: heavy violence, murder, blood, guns, minor character death(s), mentions of kidnapping and ransom

"I have to go right now, I have important business to do with DK."

"Now?" You panicked as he dropped the news on you so quickly.

"Yeah, I'm sorry." He pitied, stroking the sides of your thighs with his thumb. "I'm having Leia take you back to my condo."

You watched both Kuroo and Oikawa roll out of the parking lot, the sound of their engines roaring through the street. Kuroo led in front while Oikawa followed closely behind, their red tail lights disappearing into a corner as they furthered their distance from Haiba Ramen.

Two Hours Prior — Cypher & DK

Oikawa grabbed the handheld radio transmitter from his glove compartment and flipped the switch on with his thumb. A static noise erupting from the device before it connected, granting him access to Kuroo's radio. "DK, you there?"

"Copy, Cypher." Kuroo's deep voice rattled through the small voice box.

"Follow you?" Oikawa asked as he pressed the small button on the side of the radio. He watched the bright red Nissan 350Z turn a sharp corner, entering into the Shuto Expressway.

"Roger." Kuroo's responded before he ended the line with a beep from the speaker. Oikawa saw him stick his right hand out of his window, two fingers motioning forward onto the road ahead.

While dropping his handheld radio transmitter on the passenger seat, Oikawa gripped the top of his steering wheel and curled his fingers around the edge of the leather. He glanced down at the middle console for a second, realizing you had left one of your personal belongings in his car. It was a small lip balm, securely tucked inside one of his cupholders.

His mind began to flood with the thought of you and your safety, wishing the double date between all four of you earlier should not have ended so abruptly, but unfortunately some situations took priority over others. To Oikawa, this was one of those situations.

When Kuroo called him over to talk back at Haiba Ramen, Oikawa thought it was going to be another fight on the streets as it was common between them both to settle disputes out. Though, once he saw the same despondent and worrisome look Kuroo rarely gave unless things were out of hand, he knew exactly what was to come.

Kuroo showed a picture of Shinsuke Kita—a.k.a. Sly Fox, tied up in a wooden chair that was rotten all over, handcuffed to the bars behind with his mouth gagged from a green bandana around his face. It was taken and sent by members of the Nohebi clan, a rival yakuza group to the Sakanosita clan that had a personal vendetta against Kuroo, Oikawa and Kita.

Underneath the picture was an accompanied text of Kita's address—the abandoned warehouse that previously belonged to the Sakanoshita family. It once housed all illegal trades and businesses, but now has been left abandoned after the head boss of the Sakanoshita clan passed away.

"Around the corner, in a few. Wait for my call." His handled radio beeped again with the sound of Kuroo's voice.

In the distance was the infamous Sakanoshita warehouse, situated on the brink of the Tokyo Freight Terminal, disguised as several shipping containers stacked together for privacy with a titanium roof. Unless you were working directly under the Sakanoshita clan, most employees in the pier never knew it was a hotspot destination for storing and transporting their contraband to different locations around Japan.

The Sakanoshita family had every political institution wrapped around their finger, and the Tokyo Police Department was no exception. Every illegal business and trade operated on the Tokyo Freight Terminal, as it was also the place Oikawa and Kuroo met for the first time while dealing.

Thinking back to that treacherous memory and his previous dangerously impulsive actions, Oikawa clenched his teeth and tried his best to bury it in the back of his mind. It was best that way, he assumed. He didn't want it to cloud his current judgement, but he found it difficult to withhold the trauma from resurfacing.

He watched Kuroo and his 350Z roll up on the outside of the warehouse and stop right in front of the entrance. The headlights of his car flashed directly on Kita's black Nissan Silvia parked on the side, his bumper scraped up and dented with a broken window on the passenger side door.

Oikawa grabbed the walkie talkie and pressed his thumb against the side button. "DK, slowly. Try your best to not make too much noise going in."

"Roger, Cypher."

Oikawa threw the small radio back onto the passenger seat again, hearing a beep as it plopped down. He placed his right hand on the top of the steering wheel and his left hand on the gear shift, switching it to first. He followed Kuroo as he parked right next to Kita's Silvia, making sure the low rumble of his car was the quietest he could possibly make it.

He watched Kuroo turn off the ignition and flicker his headlights shut. Oikawa did the same, clicking the keys backwards and completely turning off his engine. Once he dimmed his headlights, he turned to Kuroo on his right, waiting for a signal.

Oikawa didn't mind that Kuroo took the lead—he usually did when all three of them went on operations and discreet jobs for the Sakanoshita family. Even when Mr. Sakanoshita died, all three of them remained partners for all underground deals and businesses. Despite the street racing gang rivalry façade they put on with one another, nonetheless they knew when business meant business in all kinds of its forms and they all worked well with it.

Kuroo stepped out of his vehicle and closed his door quietly before Oikawa followed suit and placed his keys in the back pocket of his jeans. He leaned over and opened the glove compartment again and took out his gunmetal pistol, quickly loading the magazine with the accompanied bullets. He loaded each bullet individually with precision—his eyes narrowed and his eyebrows pinched as he focused carefully.

Once Oikawa pushed the magazine back into the pistol and cocked the slider, he looked to the left again—your little lip balm resting in the cupholder. Oikawa sighed and reached over to grab it before inspecting the tiny thing, including the labels and the flavor—basically anything he could read that could distract him just for a moment.

He uncapped it and brought it to his mouth with a smile, swiping it across his bottom lip. Oikawa knew that using your lip balm would have made you upset, but he wanted one last reminder of you that brought peace to his mind—knowing after this was all over he would be with you again, wrapped safely in his arms.

He quickly placed it in the back pocket of his jeans before grasping the door handle and swinging his car door open, stepping one foot at a time on the wet asphalt riddled with moss and ocean salt.

Oikawa flinched, knowing his expensive sneakers were to be defiled by the filth of the ocean scum and the oxidized copper embedded in the asphalt, including the scuffs and blood splattered on that he was expecting later as well.

He gently closed his car door and locked the RX-7, making sure only the locks clicked without the beep. Oikawa could feel the cool spring air breeze against his skin as he was left in his white t-shirt, remembering he let you keep his bomber jacket. He glanced over at Kuroo leaning on the edge of his car, hands placed in his red cargo pants while looking down at his shoes.

"What d'ya need that for?" Kuroo asked after he glanced up, his eyes pointing in the direction of Oikawa placing the pistol on his hip, straddled between his jeans and his white t-shirt.

"You never know." Oikawa replied in a monotonous voice, knowing that Kuroo knew exactly why he had the pistol beside him.

"Cypher, we're not trying to kill anyone here, we're only here to negotiate." Kuroo crossed his arms as he stared at Oikawa. "We could face serious consequences if this gets out of hand."

He didn't respond immediately as he walked past Kuroo, his eyes fixated on the entrance of the warehouse. Without turning his head back, Oikawa scoffed, shaking his head slightly. "You trust people too easily."

Kuroo followed closely behind with a switchblade in his hand, ready for anything. Oikawa questioned why he didn't keep a gun on him in case of emergencies as Kuroo knew better than to bring a knife to a gunfight. Nonetheless, he was right—if the situation becomes out of hand, consequences are to be faced in the future.

Once reaching the entrance of the warehouse, they pressed their backs up against the cold titanium exterior of the shipping containers, sneakily peeping their heads into the void of the room. Kuroo looked in first, placing a lone finger up to his lips as he commanded Oikawa to be quiet.

The atmosphere grew heavier as it became harder for them to breathe. Oikawa cocked the pistol, placing both of his hands on the handle, one finger resting on the right side of the trigger.

Kuroo had his switchblade ready before he walked in discreetly, Oikawa following closely behind. The first thing they noticed was the eminently dark interior of the warehouse with empty boxes, unused oil barrels and blood stained plastic tables pushed to the sides of the walls. Yet, what caught their attention was the single lightbulb slightly swinging above Kita's unconscious body tied to a rotten oakwood chair.

Kuroo instantaneously rushed to his side as Oikawa pointed his gun around the warehouse, one eye closed as he tried his hardest to look out for any of the Nohebi clan members hiding in the dark.

"Sly Fox," Kuroo whispered as he tapped on Kita's cheeks a few times to wake him up. "Sly, it's me, DK."

Kita's face was bruised and beaten—his lip split open and swollen to the touch while scratches and lacerations scattered his face. He was bleeding from his forehead as dried blood scattered his left eyelid, a black eye resting on his right. His hands were tied behind the rotten bars of the wooden oak chair, his fingers broken and bleeding as his frail wrists were slit with the rough rope tied around them.

Kuroo placed his hand on the back of Kita's damp hair, the ends of his locks dripping of sweat, blood and grime. His whole head flung back, his lips parted as Kuroo tried to wipe the fresh blood off his lips with his thumb.

Oikawa lowered his gun down to help Kita, holding him still as Kuroo pulled out his switchblade to untie his hands. He looked down at Kita again, his infamous Inarizaki Bois hoodie slashed open across his chest, exposing a large wound on his torso. His snake tattoo poked out from his chest, the eyes of the animal crossed out with two puncture wounds.

"Hold Sly Fox still while I untie his hands." Kuroo commanded before crouching behind the oakwood chair. Oikawa placed his hands behind Kita's head, holding him up.

"Sly, hang in there." He comforted, looking straight at Kita's desolate and pitiful expression as he laid unconscious. Kuroo flipped open the blade and quickly sawed the bondage around his wrists, cutting open the knot as the ends of the rope frayed.

Oikawa hovered his hand over Kita's mouth to make sure he was still breathing while Kuroo cut the last of the knots, freeing his wrists. They both flung Kita's arms up and around Kuroo's shoulders, positioning his body behind his back as he carried him off the chair.

Kita released a guttural sound in the back of his throat as his eyes fluttered open, slowly drifting out of unconsciousness. Oikawa patted his cheek several times, looking at his face resting behind Kuroo's shoulder.

"Sly, you okay?" Oikawa asked, peering down at Kita as he mumbled incoherently.

"Mmhmm... t-t-ta..." Kita mumbled as his mouth drooled on Kuroo's shoulder.

"Sly," Oikawa placed his left hand on his knee while he waved his right hand over Kita's eyes.

"Trap," he whispered, his eyes shot wide open as his expressionless face transformed into a panicked frown. Kita's hazel eyes shifted to the left as his breath hitched, his lips quivering against the cold air.

"It's a trap!"

"What is he talking—"

Boom.

Oikawa had been cut off by a loud gust of gunshots echoing throughout the air, shooting in all directions of the warehouse. Both Oikawa and Kuroo instantly dropped down to the floor, placing their hands over their heads to protect their ears.

Kuroo winced as Kita crushed over his figure, the weight of Kita's body pushing down onto his lungs. His cough was overshadowed by the rounds of gunfire shooting throughout the air. He glanced at Oikawa, begging for his help as Kita fell unconscious again.

Oikawa noticed Kita's gun holstered around his calf, sticking out from the bottom of his black jeans. He shuffled on the ground, pulling his body up by his forearms before he scrunched back the hem of his jeans on Kita's left leg. He reached his hand up and grabbed the gun from the strap, pulling out a clean and sleek all-black pistol.

Kita's gun was heavy and loaded with his moniker initials "S.F." engraved in the front. Oikawa pushed it across the floor with his leg and watched it spin on the concrete floor, letting Kuroo grab the handle as he quickly placed it in between his black tank top and red cargo pants.

"Give me your blade, now!" Oikawa loudly whispered, placing his hand out in front of Kuroo's face. He obliged and twirled the switchblade from his hand on the concrete towards Oikawa's direction. Before he grabbed the handle and locked the blade back, Oikawa shoved it into his back pocket and placed his hands back onto his head.

The gunshots stopped for a moment before Oikawa noticed seven men step out of the darkness behind a stack of shipment boxes in the corner of the warehouse. They all wore dark green suits and black shades—a wretched aura wafting from their crooked smirks.

The one in the middle stepped up forward and removed his black sunglasses, slicking back his dark hair to reveal his thin, snake-like eyes. Oikawa couldn't believe it, he was so sure he'd never see him again—

"Tooru Oikawa. Tetsurou Kuroo. You fuckers."

Oikawa furrowed his eyebrows as he looked up to see Suguru Daishou of the yakuza Nohebi clan—a.k.a. Fangs —hovering above him, hissing under his breath while placing his hands in his pockets. At the snap of his fingers, two of the men beside Daishou instantly rushed to Oikawa, Kuroo and Kita on the floor.

"Fangs, you son of a bitch—fuck!" Oikawa groaned as one of the men stomped directly on his back, digging the bottom of his heel against the crook of his lumbar, firmly placing all of his weight on Oikawa's body beneath him. He closed his eyes and winced when the man tied his hands together with rough-textured rope, deliberately scratching the fabric against his wrists.

He looked over at Kuroo, who was already restrained by one of the other men—his hands tied behind his back with the exact same rope. Kita laid unconscious on the floor beside him, his cheek pressed against the concrete with his limbs twisted in multiple directions.

"After all these years, I've finally caught you both." Daishou slowly made his way over to Oikawa struggling underneath the yakuza henchman's grip on his body. He looked down at Oikawa, giving an ominous smirk before kicking him straight in the face. "You thought you guys could get away with what you fucking did?"

The tip of Daishou's shoe slammed against the edge of Oikawa's jaw, dislodging a joint on the left side of his mandible. Oikawa closed his eyes and groaned, ejecting bloodied phlegm from his mouth.

"Fuck," he muttered to himself before coughing profusely, struggling underneath Daishou's grip before looking up at him grin from ear to ear.

"You both make me sick. After what you guys did to Mika, you both deserve more than death itself." Daishou kicked Oikawa in the jaw again, instantly satisfied by the wails of anguish underneath his foot.

"What the fuck are you talking about?!" Kuroo coughed as the yakuza henchman stepped further on his back, digging his heel deeper against his spine.

"My Mika, you fucking killed her."

"Sorry sweetheart, but I don't know who the fuck you're talking about." Kuroo sarcastically retorted before the yakuza henchman stomped his other foot on his head, smashing his cheek against the filthy concrete floor. Kuroo let out a disdained low grunt, instantly shutting his mouth closed.

"Maybe this will jog your memory, you piece of shit." Daishou pulled his own pistol out from his waist, aiming it towards Kuroo.

"Wait! Wait! Hold the fuck on! I legitimately don't know what the fuck you're talking about! Who the fuck is Mika?!" Kuroo squirmed underneath the yakuza henchman's grip, who had already drawn his own gun at Kuroo's head.

Oikawa gulped hard as his eyes widened, knowing who and what exactly happened to Daishou's beloved girlfriend, Mika Yamaka.

He could remember it like it just happened yesterday. Somehow, just like every other memory he tried to suppress, it became buried in the back of his mind until it was mentioned once again—only to infiltrate every crevice of his brain and trigger an intense traumatic reminder of who Oikawa was in his past.

Leia's father, Mr. Sakanoshita, secretly called Oikawa over for a meeting. He thought it was another transporting job as all of the work he had done under Mr. Sakanoshita were small side operations transporting the large shipments of whatever latest contraband he purchased and imported at that time. Yet, this particular job was very, very different from the usual.

Once Oikawa sat down, he realized he was the only one in the meeting beside Mr. Sakanoshita himself. Usually Kuroo, Kita and Leia sat in as well, as the four of them would go on transportation operations frequently together . Unfortunately for Oikawa, that meeting was not one of those jobs.

Regarding how much of a terrible man Mr. Sakanoshita was—he had the idea of ransoming his rival yakuza clan in Tokyo, the Nohebi, out of billions of yen. He asked Oikawa to kidnap Mika Yamaka, the girlfriend of the Nohebi clan's leader, Suguru Daishou.

Oikawa hesitated at first; he hadn't kidnapped someone before on his own, much less an innocent woman. Though, due to his previous affiliation with the yakuza in Osaka, Mr. Sakanoshita looked into Oikawa's time serving as the leader of his own section. He was involved in multiple heists, kidnappings and murders of several men held for ransom instructed by the boss of the Kitagawa Daiichi. This job wouldn't have been new for him, and Mr. Sakanoshita knew that.

He was about to decline his offer before Mr. Sakanoshita shined a bright one-hundred million yen in front of him—all paid and given before he even did the job itself. At the time, Oikawa relied only on his side deals, street racing bets and the Seijoh Brawlers' tune shop for cash, so this new influx of money really sealed the deal for him.

Before accepting Mr. Sakanoshita's offer, Oikawa asked about why he hadn't proposed the job to Kuroo instead as he was loyal and much closer to the Sakanoshita family than he was. In fact, Kuroo was the one to give Oikawa the chance to work underneath the Sakanoshita Clan in the first place when he arrived in Tokyo.

Mr. Sakanoshita had a suspicion that Kuroo had been hiding things behind his back and compromising his loyalty to the clan. Although he knew Kuroo was with Leia, Mr. Sakanoshita believed he was growing "too soft" by dating his daughter. This didn't align well with the ransom, as Kuroo would have pitied Mika because of Leia and her similar position of vulnerability. He also suspected Kuroo had known more about his true intentions than he had hoped.

Mika attended the exact same university as you and Iwaizumi, the University of Tokyo. She was a full time student with easygoing nursing prerequisite classes and a rich yakuza boyfriend. Mika was carefree, reckless and vulnerable—which made her an easy target for ransom. Every weekday, she went to class in a luxurious white Lexus GS 350, a beautiful birthday present from her loving boyfriend, Suguru Daishou himself.

One night, Oikawa rolled up to the University of Tokyo in an old, beater-type 1996 dark green Honda Accord that Mr. Sakanoshita had lent him to use for the ransom. Mr. Sakanoshita provided her exact class schedule, knowing she had night classes specifically on Tuesdays and Thursdays. He scanned across the parking lot for Mika's Lexus GS 350, noticing an open parking spot beside her car.

He executed a plan that worked perfectly—after she finished her classes, he asked Mika to "help" him jump start his car. Oikawa had put on the perfect innocent and helpless act that any naïve girl would fall for. He wore fancy trousers and a button up shirt, slicked back his hair and covered his tattoos with makeup to fool Mika into believing he was a normal business major looking for a jumpstart on his old beater car.

The plan was foolproof—Mika instantly fell for his little act. The minute she arrived at her car and unlocked her door, Oikawa stepped out begging for her help with jumper cables ready in his hands. Much to her demise, she obliged and let Oikawa pop open the hood of her car, connecting the jumper cables to her battery.

Unfortunately for Mika, her lack of attention and car logistics failed to recognize Oikawa taking out her spark plug and pulling a few wires in the engine so her car wouldn't start properly. The minute he "fixed" his car, hers wouldn't work—causing Oikawa to coincidentally offer Mika a ride home. Alas, that would be the last of Mika's public appearances.

It wasn't hard for Oikawa to restrain her in the backseat either. He duct-taped her mouth shut and blindfolded her eyes while tying her entire body in rough-textured rope that grazed against her fragile skin whenever she resisted. Her irritating cries for help annoyed Oikawa to the point he had to pull over behind a remote gas station to keep her quiet.

Oikawa didn't mean to kill her as his intent was to put her to sleep. Yet, while she was in a tight headlock, Oikawa accidentally snapped her neck, severing her spinal cord. One hard twist to her throat and she was gone for good. Mika dropped onto the backseat of the Accord, her lips quivering as she struggled to breathe. Nonetheless, she died from asphyxiation and the fatal drop of her blood pressure.

Her lifeless body laid in the backseat of the shitty run-down Honda Accord as Oikawa looked down at his hands with a panicked and shocked expression; his eyes wide and his lips trembling. He had murdered plenty of men before, his kill count racking up into the double digits.

Yet, accidentally killing Mika was the one that broke him down to the core, as it reminded him exactly why he had left Osaka in the first place. It stayed in his consciousness for years after, suppressed away in the back of his mind.

He drove carefully in the night up the mountain to the Sakanoshita mansion with Mika's dead body resting in the backseat. Oikawa couldn't remember how the rest of the drive went before immediately rushing to Mr. Sakanoshita's office as his breathing hyperventilated, his eyes widening in fear and tears rushing down his cheeks.

Mr. Sakanoshita, being the shitty man he was, didn't mind Oikawa's convicted manslaughter. In actuality, he preferred if she was already dead anyways—it made the process a lot easier for him. He planned to not inform the Nohebi clan of her living status, letting them pay off the five billion yen before handing her body over.

Oikawa remembered Daishou's screams of anguish when one of the Sakanoshita henchmen opened the back door of the beater Honda Accord and kicked out Mika's lifeless body, stiff from the developing rigor mortis. Oikawa drove the car as fast as he could after he pushed her out, speeding away in the night as Daishou collapsed to his knees wailing over Mika in the rearview mirror.

Oikawa was instructed to dump the car in the landfill, dousing the Honda Accord with gasoline and setting the car aflame while getting rid of any evidence tracing back to him. He thought the deed was done and that he would never see Daishou or the Nohebi clan ever again after that. Years passed without anyone ever knowing Oikawa was involved with the death and ransom of Mika Yamaka—not even Kuroo himself.

Oikawa was certain that Daishou couldn't tell it was him in the drivers' seat of the getaway car as he wore a hat, sunglasses and everything he could to cover up his identity when they went to drop off Mika's body. Yet, Daishou still reduced it down to two men he knew worked under the Sakanoshita family: Cypher and DK.

Daishou knew it wasn't Sly Fox because of the way the driver of the car drifted the Honda Accord around a tight corner without fail. Only two men in the whole underground racing scene could drift so swiftly; Tooru Oikawa and Tetsurou Kuroo. That's how he lured them in anyways, targeting Sly Fox first to get to them. A firearms deal was the easiest to do—not every gang member bought drugs but every gang member needed a gun.

The Inarizaki Bois were the only "street-racing formed" gang involved with the trafficking of firearms, drugs and pirated goods—any type of contraband you could think of. The only thing they didn't dapple in was human trafficking, which was a whole other league to itself in Japan. Kita was the best at it, leading all of the members of the Inarizaki Bois to be dealers themselves rather than only him.

Unfortunately it left Kita to become too cocky with a lack of judgment on the kinds of customers that were buying his products. That's how the Nohebi clan captured Kita, luring him into the abandoned Sakanoshita warehouse and catching him off guard—mercilessly beating him while baiting Kuroo and Oikawa to his aid.

"Cypher! What the fuck is Fangs talking about?!" Kuroo screamed at the top of his lungs, his eyes filled with panic as Daishou and his henchmen aimed two pistols at his head.

Oikawa's stomach dropped, unable to speak as Kuroo's head was gunned down onto the filthy concrete. He never told Kuroo about the ransom, even long after the death of Mr. Sakanoshita. It was just one of the few things Oikawa kept from Kuroo and Leia, hoping they never had to find out about it.

"Admit you killed her, fucker." Daishou pulled back the slider and cocked his pistol. "Or perhaps I'll pay a visit to Miss Leia Sakanoshita herself."

"NO!" Kuroo screamed and whimpered against the henchman's grip, trying to pry open the rope around his wrists. "I seriously don't know what you're talking about! I didn't kill anyone!"

Oikawa couldn't let Kuroo take the blame for something he didn't do, much less a job he didn't even know about. He gritted his teeth and closed his eyes, feeling the blood rush to his head as the henchman's heels dug straight beneath his right shoulder blade.

"Stop," Oikawa choked, looking up at Daishou as he lowered his gun at Kuroo. "I killed her. I killed Mika. DK had nothing to do with it."

"You fucking bitch." Daishou swung his right leg violently, kicking Oikawa in the mouth again. He felt the pop of his jaw shift to the right, the pain rushing to the left side of his face. Oikawa let out an anguished wail of pain as he spat out blood onto the concrete floor.

He looked up at Kuroo, watching his face contort into an expression he'd never seen on him before. His eyes looked drained of life and shocked to the bone as his mouth hung open, absolutely speechless over Oikawa's confession. A single tear dropped from his left eye, rolling down his dirty cheek and onto the concrete.

"What...?" Kuroo mouthed before Daishou kicked Oikawa in the jaw again, knocking his head down onto the floor.

"You're fucking dead, Cypher." Daishou stomped on Oikawa's head, the tip of his black shoe repeatedly shoved into his bloody mouth over and over again. He coughed profusely, aimlessly trying to catch his breath. The Nohebi yakuza henchman took his foot off of Oikawa's back, relieving the heavy pressure on his spine.

Daishou crouched down to Oikawa's level, placing the barrel of his gun against his head. He rested his index finger on the trigger, cocking the slider before leaning in closer to his face.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" Kuroo screamed, squirming underneath the Nohebi henchman. His eyes widened to the point they would pop out of his skull, panic and shock overriding his entire body as he watched Daishou press the barrel of his gun further against Oikawa's forehead.

"Isn't it obvious already? Sakanoshita hired Cypher here to kidnap and kill my Mika while he dished me out of five billion yen for her dead body," Daishou choked while his eyes watered, removing the gun away from Oikawa's forehead before he turned to Kuroo with a single tear dropping from his cheek. "Mika is dead because of Sakanoshita."

"Then why are you going after us?! Sakanoshita was the one who planned the whole thing, wasn't it?! He's dead already, so why are you going after Cypher?! It's obvious he was a pawn in Sakanoshita's fucked up game!"

Kuroo screamed in pain, writhing his body back and forth on the concrete underneath the yakuza henchman's grip. Daishou turned around back to Oikawa, wiping away the single tear on his face with the sleeve of his blazer.

"It's not the same. For my own satisfaction, I want Cypher to suffer the same way I did."

Oikawa looked back up at Daishou's tall figure leaning over him. An ominous grin formed on his face again, curling the corners of his mouth as he kicked Oikawa in the jaw. While he coughed up another phlegm of blood onto the concrete, Daishou crouched down and grabbed his face—forcing Oikawa to look at him.

"I saw that you got yourself a girl, Cypher." Daishou maliciously smiled, narrowing his eyes as he chuckled lightly, mentioning your name nonchalantly with a bitter taste lingering on his tongue. "She's very beautiful, just like my Mika. We all saw her in the passenger seat of your car during the race in downtown Tokyo."

"Don't you fucking dare," Oikawa growled through his teeth as he pinched his eyebrows, glaring straight up at Daishou. "I'll fucking kill you."

"Oh? Kill me? I'd like to see you try." Daishou grabbed Oikawa's face again, pinching the bottom of his cheeks with his thumb and index finger. "Perhaps I'll kidnap and tie her up while I slowly drain the humanity out of her lifeless, pretty little body. I'll kill her like you did to my Mika, maybe then you'll know how I felt."

Oikawa gritted his teeth and reached his right hand down into his pocket, feeling the rough handle of Kuroo's switchblade before he clicked the release button open. Luckily for Oikawa, both Daishou and the Nohebi henchman didn't notice him cut through the rope around his wrists as he slipped his right hand out.

Daishou tilted Oikawa's chin up and stared at the blood dripping down from his busted lip with the scuffs of his shoe smothered on his jaw. Before he could say anything, Oikawa smirked at him while furrowing his eyebrows and puckering his lips before spitting blood and saliva straight into Daishou's eyes.

"Fuck!" He stumbled back, wiping the filth from his eyes before Oikawa stabbed his left thigh with Kuroo's switchblade. His scream echoed into the warehouse as the small knife sunk deeper into his skin, the blood profusely oozing out of the wound because Oikawa struck his femoral artery.

Daishou looked up at Oikawa as he towered above him, the murderous look in his eyes overshadowed his scathed and battered face. His pupils constricted while he muttered a distasteful threat, an intense expression growing on his face as his eyes widened with rage.

"If you ever so lay a finger on her, I'll take my sweet time killing you, much slower than I did with Mika."

He yanked the knife out of Daishou's thigh, his blood coated along the blade. In an instant, the Nohebi henchman grabbed Oikawa from the back, placing him into a choke hold. He flung his body backwards, stabbing the henchman in the neck with the same switchblade. That same henchman released Oikawa and clutched his throat before falling to the ground, bleeding out from his neck.

In the corner of his eye, the rest of the Nohebi henchman tackled him and grabbed each of Oikawa's arms, restraining his movements. The switchblade in his hands dropped to the floor, the clink of the stainless steel echoing on the concrete of the warehouse. The henchman with black hair kicked the switchblade in the opposite direction, furthering its distance from him. Unbeknownst, he kicked it straight to Kuroo's side, to which he rolled over and grabbed it with the tips of his fingers.

Just as much as Kuroo was skilled with drifting, he was even better at handling blades. In one swift motion, he cut the ropes restraining his arms. Once he was free, Kuroo rubbed his wrists together and placed his palms on the concrete, lifting himself up from the ground. The henchman that previously had him restrained instantly charged towards Kuroo, pulling out his gun in the process.

Kuroo quickly reacted and ducked, dodging the bullet aimed at his body while kicking the henchman off his feet with his left leg, knocking the man in the dark green suit straight into the ground. The henchman let out a grunt as his body hit the floor, Kuroo body-slamming on top of him afterwards.

He pressed the blade up to the henchman's neck, the sweat accumulating on his forehead as he looked down at the man with blonde hair. Kuroo looked into his pleading eyes, begging for him to spare his life.

"I apologize, but this is just mere self-defense. You charged at me first." He then sliced his neck, blood dripping from the fresh wound as the henchman's eyes rolled back into his skull.

On the other side of the warehouse, Oikawa elbowed the henchman in the chest to his right, punching him straight in the face as he stumbled back. He lunged straight at the other henchman, pulling out his gun from his waist and shooting him straight in the leg. The man wailed in his ear before Oikawa smashed the handle of his gun in the face of the henchman, knocking out a bloodied tooth or two.

Behind him, Oikawa heard a screech of war coming from the remaining Nohebi members. He turned around and instantly dodged their punches, instead grabbing their leg and pushing them on the ground, punching them in the face repeatedly until he couldn't recognize the man anymore.

Some blood scattered across Oikawa's face as his mouth frowned and his eyes filled with rage and fury. The man below him screamed, his cries overshadowed by the rounds of clips echoing from a few feet away.

Oikawa looked behind him to see Sly Fox's pistol secured tightly in Kuroo's grip as he pointed straight at the dying aforementioned henchman. In an instant, Kuroo shot him in the chest, his body instantly hitting the floor once the round went off.

"I thought you said we shouldn't kill anyone!" Oikawa screamed across the warehouse, extending his arms out in confusion.

"This is just self-defense!" Kuroo yelled back with some humor in his tone while Oikawa shrugged it off and focused his attention to the other henchman lunging at him.

The shouting and loud clip rounds shocked Kita awake, his eyes fluttering open as he scrambled on the floor. While his eyes shot wide open and his breathing became heavy, Kuroo grabbed Kita's torso under his arms and lifted him up off the concrete. Once he got him up off his feet, Kuroo winced and then looked at Oikawa, nodding his head.

With his teeth clenched, Kuroo gave the emergency signal they both agreed upon if the situation went south—their plan B of killing them all off. He carefully dragged Kita behind a tower of barrels, escaping the fight and nursing Kita back to consciousness.

He knew what Oikawa was capable of, and leaving him to fight the henchman all by himself wasn't cowardly—in fact, Kuroo left Oikawa in his element. In all his time knowing him, he had only seen Oikawa truly unhinged twice—when they first met, and then now, facing the yakuza Nohebi clan.

Two henchmen were already dead, the bald one Oikawa stabbed in the neck and the blonde one Kuroo had shot earlier. That meant five men were left—one lying unconscious on the ground, face beaten to a pulp and unable to move; the other three henchmen lunging towards him. That just left Daishou clutching his thigh, trying his hardest to put pressure on his shot wound.

Oikawa took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second, regaining his momentum. His right hand held his gunmetal pistol, his pointer finger resting on the side of the trigger. The second he opened his eyes, he cocked the slider and pointed it directly at one of the three henchmen, shooting him straight in the chest. Once his body was close enough, Oikawa kicked him in the throat, his head twisting to the left as he collapsed onto the concrete.

Whipping around, Oikawa closed his left eye and aimed straight at the other henchman running towards him, aiming directly at his forehead as a bullet lodged straight through his skull. His pupils rolled back, the whites of his eyes completely covering the entirety of his orbital fissure. The henchman hit the floor, his neck snapping under his weight. Oikawa kicked his back, his body rolling over onto his death.

The third henchman stopped in his tracks, his hands up in the air begging for him to spare his life. Through his rage, Oikawa mercilessly shot him three times in the chest—the rounds of bullets echoing into the warehouse as the henchman's body dropped on top of the others.

Oikawa was on a rampage, killing three men instantaneously within a minute of each other. He breathed heavily and watched the smoke come out the top of his pistol, slowly rising up to the ceiling. He turned around, only to make eye contact with Suguru Daishou once again.

Oikawa didn't feel anything inside of him. He couldn't find his humanity, nor his sanity as every ounce of compassion or sympathy for the man pleading beneath him drained out of his body. He didn't see a man avenging the death of his girlfriend—he saw a cowardly, weak excuse of a human being on his knees, tears in his eyes, begging for his pathetic life to be spared.

"Please," Daishou choked, his lips quivering as he dragged his body against the concrete floor. "I'll do whatever you want, I'll give you all my money. Just please spare me."

"Money can't spare your life." 

In that moment, Daishou knew those words would be the last he heard on his final moment on earth. Before his life flashed before his eyes, he looked up at Oikawa pointing the tip of his sleek gunmetal pistol straight at him as he stared into the dark, empty abyss of the barrel. The violent and murderous look in Oikawa's bloodshot eyes sent a cruel, despairing chill down Daishou's spine before his mind went blank, completely disconnecting his consciousness from his body.

Oikawa shot three rounds all within a millisecond of each other, three flashes of bangs lighting up into the warehouse. He watched Daishou's body smash onto the concrete, his lifeless vessel lying in a pool of his dark, viscous red blood. Oikawa looked down at the gunmetal pistol in his hand, his bruised fingers grasping the handle tightly while his knuckles were battered and bleeding.

The warehouse fell silent, only the sound of water dripping from rotten pipes echoed throughout the inside of the large shipment container. It was still dark all except for the single lightbulb swinging over the decaying wooden chair knocked over on the concrete.

The smoke from his gun barrel wisped up to the ceiling, the smell putrid of metal bullets infiltrating the surrounding air around Oikawa. Nothing ran through his mind as the echoes of his heavy breathing filled the sound in his ears.

Kuroo and Kita slowly walk out from behind the barrels, Kita's left arm around Kuroo's shoulder. Kita limped alongside him as he placed his hand on Kuroo's chest for support. They both looked up at Oikawa, his eyes still bloodshot as his chest rose up and down from his staggered deep breaths.

"You're fucking ruthless, Cypher." Kuroo looked up with a small smirk on his face. He let out a hesitated chuckle, not sure if it was an appropriate time to crack a joke.

Murdering was easy for Oikawa. To simply take someone's precious life away from them in a single second, he never even gave it another thought. Most of the time his adrenaline and aggression take over his mindset, causing every single emotion in his brain to shut down. To his defense, most of the people he had killed were criminals with no morality deserving to die, specifically other men.

Though when he killed Mika Yamaka, her death meant something else to him. She wasn't anything like the men he had killed before at all, the only crime she could have committed was just unfortunately being associated with a truly immoral man.

The entire time, through the eyes of a manipulator, he tried his best to portray a side of himself that wouldn't scare you away. He purposely withheld showing the true side to himself—the ruthless, murderous and violent convicted criminal that is Tooru Oikawa.

He admitted that he was a bad person. Back down in Osaka, he was known for being a silent killer as his own clan fiercely feared him and what he was capable of. His reputation got around quickly, spreading far and wide to other yakuza families, not to mess with the Kitagawa Daiichi. Though, sooner or later, that same reputation would be his demise.

He lost his cool, calm and collected demeanor very quickly whenever faced in a life-or-death situation, and only one other person besides the people he killed had ever seen that side to himself: Tetsurou Kuroo.

"You alright?"

Kuroo's question snapped Oikawa awake, his eyes blinking a few times before his vision focused back on Kita. "Yeah, I'm fine. How's Sly Fox?"

"Doing better," Kuroo grabbed Kita's arm and pulled him off his feet again as they both limped closer to Oikawa. Kuroo glanced over to Kita, his eyes still fluttering as he deeply inhaled.

"Pretty sure he was high off his mind before we got here. Smell his breath, dude. Strong ass ganja. I think he's weaning off of it, though."

"I'm fine," Kita whispered, his body slowly standing up on his own. He placed his right foot in front of the other, stabilizing himself to walk. "I can drive, you guys don't have to worry about me."

"You sure?" Oikawa cocked an eyebrow, peering down at Kita struggling to stand up.

"Yeah," Kita exhaled as he placed both of his hands on his knees, catching his breath. He stood up quickly and reached his right hand behind his back, grabbing his keys in the back pocket of his jeans. "When am I ever sober though?"

Kuroo and Oikawa looked at each other and shrugged as Kita stood up on his own. The large slash across his chest scabbed over with his black Inarizaki Bois hoodie defiled and stained with his blood. He sighed and looked up at Kuroo before glancing back to Oikawa.

"Thanks, guys." Through his black eye and the blood and dirt smeared on his face, Kita expressed a lighthearted smile as the left side of his mouth curled up into his cheek. "I probably would have ended up dead like these fuckers if you guys didn't show up."

All three of them looked back at the seven dead bodies of the Nohebi Clan scattered across the concrete of the warehouse, blood pooled and spilled all over the floor.

"We should probably clean this up." Kita suggested, walking towards Daishou as he crouched down and lifted up his lifeless arm, dropping it back down onto his mutilated face—extremely disfigured to the point that you couldn't tell it was Daishou anymore. "Leaving a bunch of dead snakes in a Sakanoshita warehouse is probably bad luck for us. The police are gonna be on our asses again."

In a quick amount of time, the three of them dragged out all of the dead bodies belonging to the members of the Nohebi Clan out onto the Tokyo Freight Terminal, close to the water. Fortunately for them, the tide was aggressive tonight—the Pacific Ocean waves crashing against the pier as each dead body dropped down into the deep, dark abyss of the sea.

Daishou was the last to be dropped in, as Oikawa hauled his surprisingly light body against the pier, his feet dragging along the concrete. Heavy rain began to drop from the sky with small pellets of water collecting on Oikawa's white t-shirt, feeling the cold breeze against his biceps.

He waited until the ocean tide pulled back, allowing a perfect opening for him to drop Daishou's body in the deepest part of the pier. Oikawa counted to three before he flung his body over the edge, watching him descend into the dark abyss of the sea.

"Fuck," Kuroo breathed out as he peered down at the dark blue ocean swallow up Daishou's body. He placed his hands on his hips, his tight fitting black tank top ripped and stained with blood. "I still can't stand the sight of dead bodies."

"You get used to it," Oikawa responded, placing his hands in his pockets as he looked down at the ocean crashing against the side of the tall pier. Part of his hair was drenched from the rain, his wet white t-shirt clinging to the top of his shoulders. "But it isn't something to be proud of."

Once all the bodies were dumped, all three of them left the Tokyo Freight Terminal in their cars, roaring their engines into the night—leaving the old Sakanoshita warehouse abandoned once again.

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© hoeneymilktea 2024, I am protected by copyright. I do not give permission to translate or repost my works.

[the-cat-and-the-birdie]

I don't know who needs to hear this, but you should make an OC.

You should make an OC. Specifically a Spider-Sona. Like now. Preferably yesterday. [A MEDIUM-LONG essay about OC's, fanfiction, and how to enrich and better your writing skills in literally every sector. Throughout this essay I reference my two characters Disco-Spider and Inca-Spider as examples of the way OCs can be used.]

_________________________________________

"But no one cares about OCs -"

OKKAYYYY??

IDK about ya'll but fandom is NOT my final destination no siree

I feel like a lot of the time we get so caught up in posting and notes we forget that for many artists and writers on this platform - fanfiction is not the true end goal.

Many of us write and draw fanart for years -

But the fact of the matter is if you want to be an author someday, if you want to be a graphic novelist, an animator, etc, etc - You're going to HAVE to make OCs.

If you want to study English in college or publish books - you're gonna have to write an OC at least once. If not hundreds of times.

If you want to study art - chances are at some point you're gonna have to fill a portfolio with original pieces, including some of OCs.

If you want to do something with your writing, if you want to get better - or make a career out of your art, you HAVE to make OCs at some point.

And this is especially true for fanfiction writers.

You can get very very very good at writing in your specific fandoms, you may have the emotions of the characters on point, and the ability to describe the scenery.

But if you don't know how to create and design a character - if you don't know how to worldbuild, or come up with scenarios without the help of characterai and ChatGPT - you won't be able to write a book.

If you're an artist and you don't know how to draw an original character from scratch, how to match colors, how to draw certain skin tones, certain hair, wheelchairs and mobility aids, how to design a character from looks, to clothing - it's going to be so hard to expand your art outside of fanart. You'll always be beholden to the notes and popularity of your particular fandom.

Do it - even if you've never written or never draw before. Even better.

That's why I CHAMPION Spider-sonas so much. They're basically OCs on easy mode.

Can't write backgrounds yet? Here's a bucket on canon events to pick from? Can't draw faces? Blank mask with eyes.

Hell, if you're really really new about it - just pick a character and make a slightly different variant. Make a Hobie of your own, make a Peter variant. Make a Mary Jane variant. Pick a something you like and turn that into a character.

Can't write? Just fill-in the 'My name is [blank], I was bitten by a [blank]' script that Miles does. Can't draw, just draw out a basic shape of a body and color-out the suit, no fancy pose needed. That still counts!!

Make a self-insert. Make yourself fit into the story, design your suit, write out how you fight crime, how you'd act at the Society, meeting Miguel or Miles.

That's still character design, that's still worldbuilding.

We always hear people say 'Make art for yourself' and yeah that sounds nice - but people also misinterpret it.

Make art for yourself doesn't just mean making art that you personally like.

Making art for yourself also means making art that develops your skills even if no one gives a fuck. It's about making art as practice without the intention of it being 'completed', making OCs that never get used, drawing locations you see or writing a random ass short story then shoving it into your Google Drive forever.

Making art for yourself means making art that invests in yourself.

It means making art that interests you, challenges you, or helps you develop.

And making OC's helps develop your fanfic writing skills.

In may fandoms we begin to fall into these routine 'tropes' between characters and their personalities. This is usually known as the 'fanon' characterization.

Because when you have a set amount of characters and people, there's also a set amount of interactions and relationships between those people.

Writing OCs and having those OCs interact with canon characters allows you to dig deeper into sides of the canon characters we'd never otherwise see.

That's why I wrote Disco-Spider Diane like I do. Often, we see Hobie characterized as the chaotic, rowdy, confident type - which is perfect characterization for him. But in almost all of his interactions - he's the wilder, bolder, extroverted one. I wanted to put him in a situation where for once, he was the calmer one. I wanted to explore more grounded and chill sides of Hobie, one where he's the one grounding the other, and thinking logically - because in canon, we're hinted at a side of Hobie who's way more methodical and slow-paced and willing to stop and wait it out and play it off. And I wanted to see that. I wanted to explore what he'd do if he was faced with someone just as chaotic, who put on a cheeky ironic act - just the same as him.

Because no other characters serve that purpose in canon.

If there are elements of a character or concept you think are interesting but outright ignored by canon and fanon, you can create an OC to explore those parts.

For Disco-Spider: I wanted to explore how someone like a militant Black Panther would handle being Spider-woman, when Spider-people are usually shown as pacifists - what that would look like or how it'd shape her morals based on era, etc. For Inca-Spider: I realized there were so many culture based Spider people like Pavitr and Spider-UK. But none for indigenous communities, and NONE from countries that only existed in other universes. So, I created an indigenous character from Tawanti - a country that's located where Peru would be for us.

You can give a canon character a sibling, to explore how they'd interact with family. Give them a partner that acts totally different than their canon partner, write how that'd change the way they show love.

OC's make your original writing better, AND your fanfiction writing too. They can help you understand canon characters on a deeper level.

And sure, nobody likes your OC. NOW.

But every single character you write about, is someones OC. Every character you write about was once treated that way. Once upon a time, Dean Winchester was just some rando character in the pilot script of a show that hadn't picked up yet. Probably no one gave a fuck until CW picked it up.

The writers had to not only make him and develop him - they had to BELIEVE in him enough to pitch him to a TV show channel to make people care.

That's always the first step. Believing your character's story is worthy enough of being told and presenting it as such.

ESPECIALLY if your OC represents a demographic you don't see represented. Cause yes if there isn't any black women in canon then I'll Thanos this shit and do it myself.

Make OCs.

Write them. Draw them. Even if it's bad. Who the hell cares. Big Mouth is on Netflix with multiple seasons, have you seen that show?? 'Ugly' art is not a crime.

Make piccrews, fill out OCforms or take quiz's as them. Write little blurbs of them hanging with canon characters then post it in the tag.

You don't need a huge Spidersona sheet or a long long fic explaining their backstory. They can just be there.

MAKE OCs.

Make them to explore more in your fanfiction, make them so future you can write that novel or draw or that comic or sell those prints or whatever it is you plan to do.

Make it so your fanfiction AND original writing can grow stronger. It isn't just about notes and content and follows.

Make an OC. Make a Spidersona. Literally you have nothing to lose but your chains.

"Nobody cares-"

Oh they'll care when you pop out with that 6-book publishing deal. They'll care when you're designing big characters for movies. Cause that's how it happens. Watch.

ANYWAYSSSS if you made it this far I hope this inspired you to at least play around with the idea of OCs and Spidersonas in general.

Here's Hobie.

BYE.

If you want to make a sona and are kinda lost on where to start, lemme know!! Because I think they're amazing starting places for those who have never written or drawn before. Or if you have a sona but want to develop them further.

I haven't seen a guide to spidersonas and i wonder if that's something some people might want/need.

Seriously if I can even get one person into writing or drawing I'll be over the goddamn moon.

MAKE OCS PLEASE.

[lacedinweb22]

I’ve been recently seeing an overwhelming amount of fanart representing this white-washed version of Miguel and it feels colorist and racist; can we talk about this? I’ll start -_-

I’ve seen him with light ass skin, a chiseled button nose, like HE IS MEXICAN y’all and throughout the film we see how wide his nose is or how thick his brows are. I know he’s half Irish but LET US HAVE THE FEATURES we’ve been given by the ATSV artists! Look at his nose 🤬🙏

He doesn’t have this thin ass button nose, please. You don’t get to pick and choose which features you want to keep on POC characters! Stop pushing your Eurocentric beauty standards onto the representation we have been given. It’s not even about your own art style, it’s you erasing the beauty and reality of our ethnicity, and showing us that you prefer some false whitified version of us. Of course there are lighter skinned Mexicans and POC but Miguel has been shown to have these specific features that go against Eurocentric beauty standards! I’m so sick of POC in the media being strictly portrayed by lighter skinned, straight thin-nosed, straight hair, etc.!!! There’s room for all of us, and we ALL need/deserve to see ourselves on screen.

Miguel’s character design is so special!!1!1! It reflects this acceptance and progress in media representation of Mexican people! I see him, and I don’t hate my nose as much, and this goes for other POC who see themselves on screen! This representation is so impactful and powerful and by depicting this whitewashed version of him, you’re just erasing the little accurate representation we have. >:(

We can be hot/beautiful/desirable with wide noses, dark skin, thick brows, and all of the other features we’ve been taught to hate about ourselves. Please keep this in mind when drawing/painting/writing about POC characters!!!

Absolutely no hate to any artists. We can all grow and learn from each other!

I wanted to voice this as a Mexican creator because I’m realizing now that some artists truly don’t recognize what they’re doing or the harm they’re causing. It really stings and reinforces insecurities we’ve grown up with and have been trying to heal from when we see people simping-over/preferring this white version of a character who was created and meant to look brown and you know, a person of color, like us.

Let’s appreciate, represent, and support minorities that haven’t nearly been celebrated, seen as the beauty standard, or seen as desirable as white, Eurocentric groups.

I have to fight for my people and I have to fight for my man. Thank you for your time 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩❤️‍🔥🇲🇽

[t0mashek]

Mini character guide for my fellow McSpirk fanartists!

I feel like I finally have a satisfying level of muscle memory down for how I draw each of our guys in a recognizable way! My portrayals of Kirk, Spock and Bones aren't usually drawn with a reference, and they definitely don't look all that realistic, but I figure at least one of you out there might like to have a peak into what I do to try and make them recognizable!

Before I show the specific lines I always like to use, I would like to shoutout all the artists out there with same face syndrome. I had very bad same face syndrome before I started drawing Star Trek fanart, the variety of characters in Star Trek REALLY helped me draw better characterizations of people! BUT, if same face syndrome is something you currently struggle with do NOT let it deter you from posting your beautiful art!

Even when drawn with the same basic face structure like I did here, it's still very easy to tell who's who, just with the use of colors, hairstyles and facial lines!

Now, for anyone who is wanting to pinpoint what I try to keep consistent in my drawings of the boys, I highlighted the lines I find most important in my drawings of each of them. I try to keep my style slightly cartoony, so I like to exaggerate!

The roundness of Jim's face is what I always try to make the most pronounced in all of my art of him. The contrast to the harsher angles of the faces of Spock and McCoy is one of my favorite things to include in my art. He has a button nose in combination with those apple cheeks, they're my favorite thing about Jim to overexaggerate!

McCoy on the other hand? Give him his TRIANGLES. I try to go for a much more square face when drawing Bones, but for the lines and features within his face we love our good old friend the triangle. That man's eyebrows are pointy, and I love to give him his mouth lines. I like to balance out the sharper lines I draw on his face with the round lines of his hair.

Spock has the bangs, ears and eyebrows that play a great advantage to us, no other bro serves like Spock. While I love the pointy sideburns on all of the boys, Spocks sideburns help me play into the length of his face. He's got a straighter face and straighter nose compared to his human boyfriends. And while he and Bones both have those handsome mouth lines, you can differentiate the shape of the crease to fit their faces! When I'm drawing McCoy's mouth lines, there's more of an angle, I draw Spock's lines straighter, similar to his face and nose.

I hope this might help some of my fanartist brethren out there! Or at the very least give you a little peak into my art process! If anyone finds this helpful and uses it to draw some art, I'd love to see it! The variety of styles and character potrayals I see in all of the Star Trek fanart I browse on here never fails to warm my heart. These goofy little guys never fail to stand out from one another, no matter how they're drawn, and that is just so special to me.

Live long and draw fanart, little gay people in my computer!!! 💛🩵💙🖖

[reveseke]

Artist reader & characters of Cobra Kai. Nothing but fluff and gen (mentions of (full+partial) nude art, but nothing specific!), no specific genders for the reader.

Threw in the girls & Ant as well, bc i could and I genuinely wanted to. All of them could be perceived as either platonic or romantic.

Reminder that my blog is male, ftm, enby, masc centric and I do not write for fem readers!

Eli, Miguel, Demetri, Robby, Anthony, Moon, Yasmin, Tory & Sam w/ an artist reader!

Just my thoughts nothing more or less. :3 also they get noticeably shorter the further down you go lol.

— Eli; I think he'd find it cool if you were into drawing and sketching (I don't believe he'd have a favorite style, just random sketches of the most random-est of things does it for him to think you're really cool and talented). He'd absolutely loved to get a peak at the sketches, especially if he catches you sketching something. If you dare to show him a sketch of him either post Hawk or before Hawk he'd ask you if he could keep it with the sweetest of smiles. Also graffiti, absolutely would mess around with spray paint with you.

However he would be a bit meaner just for the show during S1-3 specifically with his macho show of I'm a goddamn badass pretender for the girls. He'd just be basically mean for the laughs but swear he'd also be sweet as fuck to you afterwards and making up for his behaviour. (Make him sit for a few hours and be your model, that'll do lol.) [Side note I think Hawk would be the kind of guy to think about partial nude art but never admit it.]

— Miguel; just in general this boy is fucking bashful and amazed for your skill at drawing. He'd love to breeze through your sketchbooks and ask you to draw something for him. Absolutely anything and he'd cherish it, especially if it was something of him or nature-related. I also think he'd love abstract patterns. I also think he appreciates graffiti and murals!

— Demetri; interested for sure, especially if you're into drawing fantasy characters and settings. He's a comic nerd, he'd love to see your take on some of his favored characters from comics. fanart kind of guy imo. Also if you draw him his DnD character he'd love you for eternity. Just saying :3 (I also believe that Dimitri would have artistic talent as well. Thinking about dates where y'all just geek about your interests and draw, create stories etc.) I also think that Dimitri would love to see scenery art.

— Robby; this man cannot take a pen in hand and draw himself at all imo, he seems like he's a bit lost but he'd absolutely adore your drawings. I think he'd be into scenery and a realistic type of art. For some reason I think he'd be the guy who doesn't exactly get art, but gets joy from watching someone else geek out about a specific piece and tell him about it and the history/background around the artwork. (Looking at Mona Lisa rn so hard) [side note on this guy, he'd absolutely at some point ask about nude art in general.]

— Ant; we know this guy plays DnD as well, he'd be interested in your drawings and love silly sketches especially off of characters related to his interests. Somehow thinking Anthony wouldn't get abstractical art if it didn't have fantasy-esque in it. Just video game art, absolutely.

— Moon; Personally love her character sm down to earth (not really, she seems more daydream type) and interested in crystals, chakras and energies! I think she'd be interested in symbolism within art and just be really really interested in spiritual-related artworks. Abstractical patterning that takes inspiration from a culture? Mythology related artworks? She'd absolutely eat them up and I mean gobble it all up, I also see her as someone who'd do art with you.

— Yasmin; she'd love to see what you were sketching especially if it was her, because I think she would let you just draw her up in different outfits even without asking if you could. [Personally also think she'd be interested in nude or revealing art.] She'd be your model without any further questioning, BUT be sure your up for the task to hear her whine about how long it's going to take and just be cheesy with some memes. (Koff Koff the popular french girl line.)

— Tory; now I don't think Tori's much of an art girl either, but she'd love to see your sketchbook like the others and watch you draw. However this doesn't by any means rule out graffiti, she'd be up in a second if spray paints and graffiti was mentioned imo! I also think she'd have an eye for scenery and murals artworks with abstract types of art.

— Sam; she'd love to see your sketches and artworks as well! I think Sam wouldn't inherently be that interested in art, but she'd absolutely let you rattle her ears off talking about art and such. I think she appreciates scenery art a lot and murals.

[drill-teeth-art]

A late night, slight retrospective on the tiny amount of Tumblr fame I've gathered that also might be slightly annoying for my audience to read so feel free to skip it if you want.

I started sharing Transformers fanart on here back in 2022, around October. I had been posting art on here for a while before actually but people really started following me and asking about my work and actually reblogging my stuff when I started posting Transformers fanart in 2022. I was in a really low place then, and I really welcomed the attention. My art was and still is something I take a lot of pride in. It's my own. There's quite a few years of my life where the fact I could still draw was the only thing stopping me from attempting suicide. It's something that has always meant a lot to me, so the attention on one of the only things I really liked about myself was nice. It was nice for a while.

But I've gotta say the slight Tumblr fame (and I do mean slight, I've only got around 3k followers which is a lot of people and more than I ever thought I'd have following me and more than a lot of folks will ever have but not like A Ton Of Fame) has wreaked havoc on my mental health. Which is already pretty rough as is. Suddenly I wasn't just some guy making Transformers fanart while desperately saving up to get out of my parents' house. Suddenly I was some people's FAVORITE Transformers artist. Suddenly I was a role model to people and I had people in my DMs clambering for my attention and I had an audience that would cheer or boo or go awkwardly silent at my every post depending on how much they liked it. And it was Not Good For Me. I had and still do have people all over my inbox, excited about how I drew fat and disabled and trans characters asking me over and over to draw some specific representation that I don't want to draw right away. I had and still have people begging me to draw their favorite Transformers character who I happen to not really care about and not want to draw at all. And I am painfully aware how often people take personal offense to my polite "no I'm not drawing that unless it's a commission" and my not answering their ask because I'm not in the mood. I've had people send in asks asking for a specific drawing and then follow up asks when I don't answer in a timely manner. And it's really uncomfortable! And it's almost more uncomfortable that it feels like a lot of people don't even notice that they're making me uncomfortable.

And I like learning how to draw bodies I've never drawn before. I like looking at a character who I think is meh and being like "well actually how can I make them interesting to me...". But it really felt and still feels like my art was getting away from me, like I was drawing more what people were asking me to make instead of what I wanted to because people would take it so badly when I'd say no. I was getting commissions though and I was saving up money to move out so I ignored that bad feeling of getting distanced from my own craft because I was trying so hard to save money and I was actually making some. And I still wanted the attention. Plenty of people were still kind to me despite everything.

Things got weirder for me after I released my Good Bi Gender comic. Which I do still recommend people read I think it's some of my best work. But that comic became a huge hit. And it made things really complicated for a while. I got anon hate. I was told to kill myself by strangers online more than once while I was already deeply suicidal. Something I thought I stated very clearly in the comic itself, that I didn't want strangers calling me "she" though I did and do let my close trusted people call me "she", was immediately ignored by my regular audience and people reading the comic. I got a lot of "you go girl!" kind of messages in response to my comic, and I didn't say anything at the time but it made me deeply uncomfortable. The comic was partly about how the she/her part of my identity is off limits to strangers. How I don't let just anyone she/her me because I work so hard to have the he/him aspect identity acknowledged at all. And it was like what Tumblr decided for me was to go against my wishes. Was to be like "we'll accept your identity for you!" when that's not what I wanted. I did NOT want to be she/her'd by thousands of strangers at the time. And though I'm grateful to have heard the understanding stories of other folks with nonbinary gender identities in the notes, it was deeply humiliating and invalidating to watch as others decided for me to accept the Girl part of my identity. The opening lines of the comic are explicitly a plea to the reader to listen and understand why they're not allowed to use she/her for me even though I'm opening up about the complexities of my identity.

And like. I don't care anymore if people online she/her me. At least I don't care right now that's why she/her is in my bio right now maybe I'll change that. But at the time it was awful. It was something I asked people not to do. And between that and the constant clambering for my attention from people I didn't want to talk to (because I was severely depressed and wasn't looking to make a ton of new friends) and the alienation from my own work I felt like shit. I felt like garbage. I still do. I hate my art sometimes. I really hate it. And for a while, I considered breaking my own fingers just so people would stop acting so entitled to my art and I would have a reason not to post. And honestly the only thing that stopped me was just trying to get by financially. Just watching my follower count and regular notes steadily trend upward so I could do more commissions so I could move out.

And doing things for the numbers, even for a relatively short time, only made things worse. It sounds a little silly even to me, but I get so stressed out when my posts flop, especially if it's art I was really proud of. I'm struggling to detangle my sense of worth in my art from the online numbers game. And I'm proud of the progress I'm making, but it does really suck and it's really hard. And I really wish I was still the same person back in early 2022 who could say "I don't care about the numbers!" and actually mean it because god I WISH I didn't care about the numbers now. Especially now. I dunno if it's me posting more art people don't wanna see or people leaving Tumblr or a shift in the culture of Tumblr but fewer and fewer people interact with my posts despite my follower count ticking up slowly but surely and it kind of bums me the fuck out. But. I am very proud of myself for still drawing the ocs that I want to draw even if they get less notes every time. And even if I'm slightly frustrated they get less notes every time.

I don't really have a neat bow to tie on my personal story right now. I'm still healing and sometimes I backslide and it's hard and it sucks. I don't want to sound ungrateful or to sound like I'm trying to shoo people off my blog because I'm not. I'm really grateful for the attention and interest and I'm not trying to turn people off my art blog. But it's been a rough few years on here. And don't be surprised if you see me take more and more breaks from this website. I do sincerely hope y'all will stick around and watch me continue to post whatever art and say kind things because I do appreciate that a lot. I'm trying really hard to mend my relationship with my own art. To not be so hard on myself. And for the record I don't want any asks telling me to take breaks when necessary or reminding me to draw for me. I appreciate the sentiment, but I already know all that and I personally don't find it helpful to be reminded of things I already know. But anyway. I hope that I will draw more and more of whatever I want to, even if that means I fade back into obscurity.

If you stuck around to read me reflect on the stresses and occasional humiliation of my small amount of online notoriety, then thank you. I appreciate that. And really I do like people looking at my art on here and sharing it and sending asks about my work. And the person I expect to be responsible for my mental health and how much social media is impacting it is Me first and foremost. But sometimes I think that it's important to remember there's a person behind your favorite art blog. And sometimes when you get swept up in parasocial attachment and hype, you kind of treat that person really fucking weirdly. And no that doesn't make you a bad person or a monster. But it does mean you have to learn to deal with it when someone who you might even idolize is like "back off me you're making me uncomfortable".

Anyway. I shouldn't be up as late as I am. A headache has been keeping me up all night. I'm gonna try to rest though. Goodnight.