#but I checked and the original sketch was from June

[unnaturalceilings]

Annual Luthor-Danvers ski trip

[cressidagrey]

White Horse - Chapter 22: June 2024 - Part 3

Pairing: Max Verstappen x Isabelle Leclerc (Original Character)

Summary:

Max Verstappen is a World Champion. Isabelle Leclerc is invisible.

She watched her family give up everything for Charles’ career—Arthur’s karting, their father’s savings, even her childhood horse. She understood. She never asked for more.

But Max does. He notices the things no one else does, listens when no one else will, and puts her first in ways she never imagined. With him, she isn’t an afterthought—she’s a choice. And for the first time, she realizes she doesn’t have to be invisible.

Warnings and Notes: 

we have now moved on from Charles bashing to bashing his whole family, Discussions of toxic past relationships, talk about loosing a childhood pet, toxic families, mention of the loss of a parent. Apparently I am once again messing up my chapter numbering on Tumblr. 21 is correct according to AO3 and Wattpad though. No, you didn't miss anything, I promise.

As always big thanks to @llirawolf , who listens to me ramble

Text Messages: Gianpiero Lambiase & Max Verstappen

GP: Heard about the post-race press. Are you and Belle okay?

Max: I’m fine. Belle’s shaken. Tired. But she’s okay. (ish.)

GP: “Okay-ish” isn’t exactly reassuring, mate.

Max: She’s stronger than she thinks. But it hit her hard. Even after everything… she still hoped they’d see her.

GP: That’s the cruel part. Hope.

Max: Yeah.

GP: Is she at home? You with her?

Max: I am. 

Max: Doesn’t feel like enough.

GP: It’s enough. You’re there. You see her. That’s already more than most have ever done.

Max: She deserves better than this.

GP: She’s got it now. She’s got you.

GP: (and the cats.)

Max: True. Jimmy thinks he’s her bodyguard.

GP: Smart cat.

GP: Tell her we’re all thinking about her, yeah?

Max: I will. Thanks, GP. For checking in.

GP: Always. She’s part of the team now. Whether she likes it or not.

***

The breakfast table was too quiet.

A spread of croissants, jam, fresh fruit, and espresso cups sat untouched in the center of the table—untouched because no one could eat. Lorenzo’s revelation from the day before hung in the air like a thundercloud.

Isabelle had quit her job.

 Months ago.

 Without telling a single one of them.

Charles still hadn’t wrapped his head around it. Isabelle had always loved her work. She breathed design. She stayed up late sketching, doodling floor plans on napkins, whispering ideas into voice memos when she thought no one was listening.

And then one day… she just walked away from it. From them.

Arthur sat with his head in his hands, looking half-murdered by guilt. Pascale was pale and tight-lipped, stirring her tea without drinking it.

“I don’t understand,” Pascale whispered. “How could she just… leave her job? She worked so hard for it.”

“She didn’t just leave,” Lorenzo said, pacing. “She ghosted the entire office. Packed her things in one night. Sent a polite goodbye email. Nothing else.”

“And no one noticed?” Arthur asked, stunned.

“No one bothered to notice,” Charles muttered.

Pascale looked toward Alexandra. “Did you know anything?”

Alexandra hesitated, then straightened a little. “She’s safe.”

That got everyone’s attention.

Charles’s head snapped toward her. “What?”

“I texted Emilie,” Alexandra said, calm but firm. “Isabelle’s best friend. She replied this morning. Said Isabelle is okay.”

A collective breath was held—and slowly released.

“Why didn’t you say that sooner?” Pascale asked, eyes wide.

“Because you were all too busy spiraling,” Alexandra said. “And because Emilie was clear: Isabelle doesn’t want to talk to any of you right now.”

Charles swallowed hard.

“She’s mad,” he said. “Of course she’s mad.”

“She’s not mad,” Alexandra said. “She’s hurt. She’s done. There’s a difference.”

Lorenzo closed his eyes. Arthur muttered something under his breath.

Then Alexandra added, almost absently, “She’s not alone. Emilie said her boyfriend likes taking care of her.”

A beat of stunned silence.

“Oh my god,” Arthur muttered. “She has a sugar daddy.”

Charlotte choked on her orange juice.

Pascale actually dropped her spoon.

“Arthur!” Alexandra hissed, scandalized.

Arthur looked wildly between them. “Think about it! Moved out. Quit her job. No one knows where she is. Isabelle’s always been quiet, not mysterious. What if she—”

“No. No,” Charles said quickly, shaking his head like that would erase the words from the room. “She wouldn’t. Isabelle is not like that.”

“People change when they feel abandoned,” Arthur muttered, clearly spiraling now. “This is how Netflix documentaries start.”

“I will kill whoever that man is,” Charles muttered, eyes narrowing like he was already imagining chasing someone through the Monaco harbor with a champagne bottle.

“I’m just saying,” Arthur hissed, “stranger things have happened! And let’s not pretend we’re not a family of unresolved emotional issues. We all have daddy issues!”

A beat of stunned silence.

Then Pascale, horror dawning on her face, said, “Excuse me?!”

Arthur looked up, mid-sip of juice. “What?”

Pascale blinked, stunned. “Since when?!”

Arthur just stared at her. “I mean, come on. Dad died when we were kids, Charles is out here trying to win his approval from the afterlife, I started karting again like I have something to prove, and Isabelle— Isabelle moved in with a mysterious man and quit her job because he "likes taking care of her!"

“Oh my God,” Pascale said faintly, sinking into her chair.

“Okay, this is going off the rails,” Alexandra groaned.

Lorenzo pinched the bridge of his nose. “Arthur, this is not about your unresolved need for paternal validation.”

Arthur shrugged helplessly. “I was just trying to explain that maybe Isabelle was looking for emotional stability and someone gave it to her. And maybe he also had a good skincare routine and a yacht. I don’t know.”

“She moved in with her boyfriend,” Lorenzo said sharply. “Not a sugar daddy. Her boyfriend. That’s what her old neighbor said. She left the firm. Left her apartment. But she didn’t run away. She just stopped waiting to be seen.”

Arthur groaned, slumping in his seat. “We didn’t even know she had a boyfriend.”

“Because she didn’t tell us,” Charles said bitterly. “Because she stopped expecting us to care.”

“Or because she knew you were going to freak out.” Charlotte murmured.

Charles raised an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

Charlotte looked up, startled. “What?”

“You said that like you know something.”

Charlotte hesitated. “I don’t know anything.”

“Charlotte,” Lorenzo warned.

She shifted. “It’s just—she’s always been around racing. She used to hang around the paddock all the time. If she was seeing someone, I wouldn’t be shocked if it was someone from the grid.”

Silence.

Then Arthur: “Wait. You’re saying she could be dating someone we know?”

Charlotte winced. “I said maybe. Don’t start spiraling.”

“I’M ALREADY SPIRALING,” Charles announced.

Alexandra sighed, sipping her coffee. “And now we’ve entered the panic phase.”

Arthur leaned back, muttering, “If it’s Fernando I swear to God—”

Pascale clapped her hands together. “Enough.”

But Charles barely heard her.

Because if Belle was dating someone from the paddock…

Then there were nineteen men it could be, currently on the grid.

And not one of them had said a word.

***

Group Chat: GRID 2024 

Members: Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz Jr., Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, George Russell, Alex Albon, Logan Sergeant, Daniel Ricciardo, Nico Hülkenberg, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso, Sergio Pérez, Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sargeant, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, and Valtteri Bottas

Charles: SOMEONE TELL ME

 Who is dating my sister??

Charles: IS IT FERNANDO?? Are you her sugar daddy?? Just tell me. I need answers.

Fernando: Pardon?

Lewis: Oh we’re doing this.

George: Charles, breathe.

Oscar: You’re spiraling. Please stop.

Pierre: Wait WHAT??

Yuki: I feel like I’ve walked into the last five minutes of a telenovela

Fernando: Charles. I’m flattered. But no.

Charles: OK FINE. MAX. Charles:  IS SHE DATING JOS?!

Logan: …bro

George: I need to leave this chat forever

Lando: oh my god

Max: What. Did. You. Just. Say.

Charles: I don’t know, okay?? Everyone’s being weird. She’s gone, she moved, she quit her job, no one’s telling me anything and YOU’RE ALL BEING WEIRD.

Max: Don’t you ever say something like that again.

Max: Not as a joke. Not out of panic. Not ever.

Max: Belle is your sister, Charles. She deserved your attention, your support, your respect—and she didn’t get any of it. Max: And now you want to cover up your guilt by making a disgusting joke like that?

George: Whoa.

Charles: It’s not a joke! She smiled at him during Monaco!

Max: You forgot her birthday. You forgot her entire life outside of your world. And now you’re so desperate to catch up you’re throwing shit against the wall like it doesn’t have consequences?

Oscar: He’s right. That was low, man.

Lando: Way out of line.

Max:  You’re panicking and flinging names around like this is a soap opera, and you’re forgetting that this isn’t about you.

Carlos: He’s right.

Max: Belle isn’t your property. She doesn’t owe you updates of her life. And the fact that your first instinct is to accuse my father of something that insane? That tells me everything I need to know about where your priorities are.

Max: You’re not trying to protect her. You’re trying to control the fallout of your own guilt.

Alex: Oof.

Oscar: He’s not wrong.

Lando: I mean, he’s definitely not wrong.

Daniel: That was… surgical.

Max: You forgot her birthday. You didn’t realise she moved or that she quit her job. And now that it’s all blowing up in your face, you’re treating your sister like a scandal to manage instead of a woman who deserves better than you’ve given her for years.

Charles: Max…

Max Verstappen: Don’t. You had every chance to show up. And you didn’t.

Oscar: …Well. That was the cleanest emotional takedown I’ve ever witnessed.

Pierre: I’m afraid to even type right now.

Alex: Respectfully, that needed to be said.

Lewis: Sometimes silence is the most respectful response. And sometimes it’s watching Max drop a nuke and sipping your tea.

Charles: … I’m sorry.

Max: Don’t say sorry to me. Say it to her.

Daniel: And maybe do it without accusing her of having a sugar daddy next time.

Fernando: Sincerely never thought I’d be defending Jos Verstappen’s honor in a group chat. And yet. Here we are.

Pierre: Did we all just witness character development in real time?

Oscar:  No, we witnessed Max finally snap.

Carlos: Honestly? Fair.

Max: Now if you’ll excuse me, my wife wants to go see her horse. 

***

Group Chat: HELP ME

 (Members: Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz Jr., George Russell, Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, David Coulthard, Sergio Pérez, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sergeant, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas)

Oscar: (sends screenshots) Are we gonna talk about that??

Lando: I don’t think I’ll ever emotionally recover.

George: That wasn’t an argument. That was Max opening a precision-cut emotional autopsy on Charles.

Daniel: Surgical strike. Zero survivors.

Carlos: I think I stopped breathing somewhere between “not your property” and “scandal to manage.”

Alex: And he still managed to slip in “my wife” at the end like it was casual.

Lewis: Subtle as a sledgehammer. Iconic.

Sebastian: Imagine standing that close to the truth and just completely going off the deep end. JOS VERSTAPPEN?!?!

David: Charles is lucky we’re not recording this for Drive to Survive. This would be season finale material.

Fernando: Still recovering from the fact that I had to defend Jos Verstappen’s honor today. Truly humbling times.

Mark: Also Max casually confirming "wife" like we didn’t hear that bomb drop.

Lando: The whole chat: staring at “my wife” like: [INSERT SHOCKED PIKACHU MEME]

Logan: Also Max: anyway gtg horseback riding with Belle bye

George: Meanwhile we’re left here emotionally blinking like stunned goldfish.

Zhou: Respectfully? That was the hottest thing I’ve ever seen in a group chat.

Logan: He read Charles’ whole life like it was a menu.

Esteban: No crumbs left. Truly an artist.

Lewis: I hope Belle gives Max a damn medal.

Carlos: It’s what he deserves.

Lando Norris: At this point Max could straight up declare war on Monaco and all of us would follow him.

Nico H.: Only if Belle asks nicely though.

Fernando: Honestly, after that? She deserves her own Grand Prix.

Sebastian: Belle Verstappen GP. Street circuit. Emotional trauma bonus points.

David: Winner gets emotional literacy and a free hug.

Lando: Charles gets last place. Obv.

Oscar: Someone check on Charles, though. Like... at a distance. With caution.

George: Give him a juice box and a reflective corner.

Lewis: He needs to sit with this one. You’re up, Seb.

Sebastian: I hate you.

Carlos: And next time?  Maybe start by actually listening to Belle. and not accuse her of having a sugar daddy.

Oscar: Can we also talk about how Charles accused Fernando of being Belle’s sugar daddy?!?

Lando: No because I actually SCREAMED when I read it Out loud. In a public place.

George: Charles really said “if the unhinged shoe fits…”

Lewis: Fernando being asked if he’s the sugar daddy of a 25-year-old woman live in a chat is peak 2024.

Daniel: The best part is Fernando didn’t even deny it immediately. He said “pardon” like a man trying to calculate if this was a compliment or an insult.

Fernando: I was genuinely weighing my options.

Logan: He 100% thought about it for a second Did the math in his head Age difference analysis

Carlos: He pulled out a mental calculator before answering.

Alex: Plot twist: he was flattered.

Fernando: I am flattered.

Logan: ARE YOU NOT TOO OLD FOR THIS SIR

Fernando: Age is just a number. Experience is a blessing.

David: Shut up you're scaring the children

Daniel: I'm crying. This man is two bad decisions away from opening a luxury wine bar in Marbella.

Zhou: Would 100% attend Fernando’s shady rich sugar daddy wine parties tbh.

George: You know somewhere there's an alternate universe where Fernando is soft-launching Belle on Instagram with a blurry wine glass and a cryptic caption.

Sebastian: Don’t manifest that energy.

Lewis: The timeline barely survived Charles forgetting her birthday We are NOT surviving "Fernando Alonso soft launches Belle Verstappen."

Oscar: Good morning to everyone except Charles for inventing this nightmare.

Carlos: He should be banned from texting before noon.

Daniel: Imagine Belle reading that conversation The secondhand embarrassment would kill her instantly

Lando: Max would bury Charles under the Red Bull Energy Station if Belle found out

Fernando: That’s why I stayed calm. For everyone’s safety.

David: You’re a better man than I am.

George: Let’s be honest Max’s entire speech wasn’t just a takedown It was a warning.

Lewis: And Charles still doesn’t realize how close he was to emotional decapitation.

Daniel: Fernando being accidentally involved will forever be my Roman Empire

Lando: Same. Sugar Daddy Alonso 2024 Never Forget.

Kimi: I don’t care.

Fernando: Good. One sane man among us.

Mark: Honestly Kimi deserves a medal for surviving this chat with brain cells intact.

Lando: Meanwhile I’m Googling “how to recover from emotional whiplash" and "can you sue your friend for public embarrassment.”

Oscar: Suing Charles for pain and suffering. Class action.

Lewis: Count me in.

Daniel: Put me down for emotional damages and lost productivity.

Carlos: And mental anguish from hearing "Jos" and "sugar daddy" in the same sentence.

George Russell: I’m still trying to bleach my brain from that.

Sebastian Vettel: The worst part is… We know it’s only going to get worse.

Valtteri: Spain is going to be the emotional equivalent of a demolition derby and I'm here for it…

Oscar: Prayers up for Charles. He’s about to get hit with the reality sledgehammer.

***

The air smelled like sun-warmed hay and old wood and something softer — something Max couldn’t name but recognized instantly as peace.

The stables weren’t far from the city — a quiet, tucked-away stretch of land up in the hills — but it might as well have been another world compared to the chaos vibrating through the paddock, the media, the group chats.

Belle was already a few steps ahead of him, moving with easy, instinctive confidence down the center aisle. Her hair was pulled back in a loose braid, and she wore one of his oversized hoodies over her jeans, the sleeves pushed up to her elbows. Even in battered sneakers, even in dusty sunlight, she looked luminous.

This, Max thought, is who she really is.

Not the invisible sister standing silently in the Ferrari garage.

 Not the afterthought.

 Not the forgotten one.

Here, among the horses and the golden dust motes, Belle was someone else entirely. Someone free.

He watched as she reached Fleur’s stall — the mare with the soft eyes and white coat — and the change in her was immediate. Belle’s whole body softened. Her voice dropped into something low and sweet, barely a whisper, as she murmured to the horse in French, offering a gentle hand.

Fleur pressed her nose into Belle’s palm like she had been waiting for her all day.

Max stayed back, leaning against a beam, just… watching.

Belle ran her fingers through the mare’s mane, smiling quietly when Fleur nosed into her ribs for a treat. She laughed, soft and breathless, pulling a carrot from her pocket like she’d always known it would be needed.

Max felt something hot coil under his ribs.

Not anger. Not yet.

Something heavier.

Because standing there, watching her, Max didn’t understand — and probably never would — how the people who were supposed to love her first and fiercest could have ever made her feel like this side of her wasn’t worth seeing.

How did you miss this?

 How did you miss her?

How could you look at Belle — at her patience, her stubbornness, her gentleness — and think she was someone it was okay to forget?

Max didn't know how Charles or Pascale or Arthur or even Lorenzo could live with themselves.

She had been right there, waving from the garage, smiling through being overlooked, standing quietly beside them her whole life — and they’d blinked, and she was gone.

He didn’t know if they'd ever get her back, not in the way they thought they were entitled to.

 And maybe they didn’t deserve to.

Max shoved his hands into his pockets, feeling the steady beat of his own pulse against his knuckles. He wasn’t angry on his own behalf — he was angry for her. For every memory she had where she learned she needed to be small to survive. For every year she thought invisibility was safer than asking for more.

But here — here, she didn’t shrink herself.

Here, she was all soft light and warm hands and quiet magic.

He watched as Belle rested her forehead against Fleur’s, closing her eyes. Whispering something Max couldn’t hear.

He didn’t move.

He would wait forever if it meant she never had to be small again.

When she finally turned toward him, cheeks flushed, hair tangled in the breeze, Max just smiled — slow and sure — and opened his arms without a word.

Belle crossed the space between them like it was the most natural thing in the world.

And when she folded herself against his chest, Max pressed his mouth to the top of her head and thought, fiercely, I will never let you feel invisible again.

Not here. Not with him.

Never.

***

Belle sat curled into the armchair, hands knotted in the hem of her sweater. Her phone buzzed on the low table beside her — again — and she flinched without meaning to.

She didn’t pick it up. She hadn’t read any of them. Not a single message.

Across from her, Simone sat, notebook closed, pen resting untouched on the armrest. She didn’t need notes yet. She was just watching — waiting for Belle to breathe first.

"You don’t have to," Simone said finally, nodding toward the phone. "We can leave it buzzing all session if you want. This is your hour."

Belle looked down at her hands.

"I don’t know what they want," she said, voice thin. "I don’t know if I want to know."

"That's a choice," Simone said simply. "It’s your choice."

Belle twisted the hem tighter. "They keep calling. Texting. DMing. It’s like... once Charles realized, they all remembered I exist."

"That realization isn’t yours to carry," Simone said. "You didn’t make yourself invisible. They chose not to see you."

“You haven’t answered,” Simone asked, her voice even…non-judgemental.

Belle shook her head, pressing the rim of the mug tighter against her palms.

“I don’t know if I want to,” Belle whispered.

Simone leaned forward slightly. “You’re allowed to make that choice, Belle. Access to your life — your heart — isn’t something anyone is automatically entitled to. Not even family.”

Belle blinked hard.

“It feels… wrong,” she admitted. “Like I’m being cruel. But also like… maybe it’s finally protecting myself.”

Simone nodded. “Both can be true.”

They sat with that for a moment, letting the air between them settle.

"I feel like if I open one message, I’ll lose the ground I gained," she whispered. "Like they'll pull me back in before I even realize it."

Simone nodded slowly. "That fear is real. It’s valid. But remember — reading a message doesn’t obligate you to answer. They don’t get to set the terms anymore. You do."

Belle sat with that for a long moment, staring at the phone like it was a bomb she didn't know how to disarm.

"You can read what they have to say," Simone continued gently, "and then decide how much access you want to give them. How much of yourself you want to offer back. Or none at all.  But the decision has to come from a place of power — not guilt."

Belle swallowed hard, something inside her cracking open.

"I don’t want to live my life shrinking," she said, so quietly it barely made it into the room.

"You don’t have to," Simone said simply. "You’re allowed to grow bigger than the spaces they built for you."

Belle wiped under her eyes, feeling the tears spill anyway.

"I’m pregnant," she said, almost impulsively, almost defensively — like the words had been trying to claw their way out of her for days.

Simone didn’t react, didn’t widen her eyes or gasp or rush forward.

She just smiled, slow and warm.

"Congratulations," Simone said.

Belle let out a shaky laugh, covering her face for a moment.

"I haven’t told most people yet," she admitted. "It’s... still just mine and Max’s, mostly. But I—"

She broke off, chest tight.

"I don’t want my baby to feel the way I felt," Belle whispered. "Invisible. Like they have to earn love. Like being quiet or not causing trouble makes them easier to keep around."

Simone nodded slowly. "You don’t want them to feel like they have to disappear to be safe."

Belle’s throat closed. That was it. That was everything.

"I want them to know," Belle said, tears slipping freely now. "Every second. That they matter. That they are wanted."

"You can give them that," Simone said gently. "Because you know what it feels like to need it."

Belle hugged her knees tighter to her chest, breathing in slow, ragged pulls.

"I don't know if I can be enough," she whispered.

"You already are," Simone said simply. "You're enough because you see them. The way you should have been seen."

Belle wiped her face roughly with her sleeve, heart pounding painfully against her ribs.

Simone leaned in just a little, voice steady.

"You get to break the cycle," she said. "Not by being perfect. Not by fixing everything. But by loving without conditions."

Belle stared down at her belly, still barely showing under the oversized sweater. A secret, soft and growing.

Not alone anymore.

Not invisible.

Not shrinking to fit someone else's version of worth.

She exhaled shakily.

"I think," Belle said slowly, "I’ll read the messages. Because it’s my choice now."

Simone smiled. "Exactly."

Belle sat back in the chair, letting the silence settle.

For the first time in a long time, it didn’t feel heavy.

It felt like freedom.

***

The cats were asleep — a warm, purring pile on the foot of the bed — and the only sound in the room was the hum of the city beyond the windows and the soft rustle of Max shifting beside her.

Belle sat curled up in the corner of the bed, Max’s hoodie swallowing her whole, the phone clutched in both hands.

She hadn’t wanted to look. Not at the missed calls. Not at the voicemails. Not at the dozens of unread messages blinking like warning lights across every app she had.

But now… Now she read them.

One by one.

Apologies. Explanations. Pleading.

Arthur. Lorenzo. Charles.

And Maman. Always Maman.

Maman:Ma chérie… I didn’t realise. I thought I messaged you, but I sent it to Charles by mistake. That’s not an excuse. You deserved more. Always. Please let me come see you. I miss you.

Belle stared at the words, blinking back the slow, stunned weight building behind her eyes.

Because if her mother had texted Charles that morning — if she had thought about Belle enough to even try — then Charles would have known.

He would have remembered.

There wouldn’t have been blank stares in the Ferrari garage.

 There wouldn’t have been celebrations swirling around her while she stood still, invisible.

There would have been a smile.

 A hug.

 A word.

Anything.

But there hadn’t been.

Because her mother hadn’t texted.

Not her.

And not Charles.

She hadn’t thought about her at all.

Belle felt the first tear slip free before she could stop it. Then another. And another.

Her hands shook as she lowered the phone to her lap.

She pressed her knuckles against her mouth, willing herself to breathe, to hold it together — but the ache was too deep. Too old. It cracked open the quiet places she thought she had stitched shut months ago.

The mattress dipped beside her, and Max’s arms were around her before she could say a word.

No questions. No demands. Just solid, unwavering Max, pulling her into his chest, pressing his chin to the crown of her head, wrapping her up like he could protect her from everything the world had failed to.

Belle buried her face in his hoodie and cried — deep, broken, shuddering sobs that shook her ribs and soaked the cotton between them.

Max held her through all of it. Rocked her gently like she was something precious. Whispered soft, fierce things into her hair — I’ve got you. I’m not going anywhere. I love you.

When the tears finally slowed — when Belle could breathe without gasping — she shifted just enough to look up at him.

“She lied to me,” Belle whispered, voice barely above a breath.

Max tensed, not pulling away, but going still — like a storm gathering quietly over open water.

Belle twisted the fabric of his hoodie between her fingers, needing something to hold onto. “My mother. In her messages. She said… she said she thought she had texted me on my birthday. That she checked and realized she sent it to Charles instead.”

Max didn’t say anything.

 Not yet.

He just waited.

“But if she had really texted Charles,” Belle said, blinking hard, “then he would have remembered. Wouldn’t he?”

Max’s jaw tightened against her forehead.

“He would have realized when he saw me. He would have known it was my day.”

 Belle swallowed thickly. “He would have said something. Anything.”

She felt Max’s hand, slow and careful, run up her spine — like he was grounding himself as much as her.

“They didn’t forget by accident, Max,” she whispered, the crack in her voice slicing the room in half. “They just… didn’t think about me at all. And now she’s lying to make herself feel better. Or maybe to make me not be angry anymore.”

There was a long, vibrating pause.

When Max finally spoke, his voice was low. Dangerous.

“She lied to you." Not angry for himself. Angry for her.

“She lied to your face to protect her own feelings,” he said, tightening his grip around her protectively. “And she didn’t even think about what it would do to you.”

Belle didn’t trust herself to speak.

“She didn’t check,” Max said, every word precise and sharp. “She didn’t text you. She forgot you. And now she wants you to comfort her guilt so she doesn’t have to sit with the truth.”

Belle closed her eyes, tucking herself deeper into his chest.

Max’s voice dropped even lower. Colder. Deadlier.

“They don’t deserve to be the ones to tell you how much you matter, Belle,” he said. “Not when they couldn’t even see you standing right in front of them.”

Belle felt herself break apart a little more — not because of the anger in his voice, but because of the fierce, unyielding love underneath it.

Max pulled back just enough to tip her chin up, forcing her to meet his eyes.

“They can lie to themselves all they want,” he said, voice rough. “But you’re not invisible anymore. You never were. You are the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen.”

Belle tried to smile but it broke halfway through, another tear slipping free.

Max kissed her — not rushed, not desperate — but slow and sure and reverent.

“I see you,” he murmured against her mouth. “I will always see you.”

Belle clutched his hoodie tighter, feeling the words stitch into the broken places inside her chest.

And when she whispered, “Thank you,” it was the kind of thank you that carried a lifetime of hope she hadn’t known how to say before now.

Max brushed her forehead with his lips, arms still wrapped firmly around her.

***

The apartment was dark except for the soft glow of the city outside the windows, and the faint golden light spilling from the kitchen where Max was making tea.

The cats were already asleep, draped dramatically across the couch like tiny emperors, and Belle sat curled up at the dining table, phone in hand.

Her thumb hovered over the Instagram app for a long time.

She hadn’t posted anything in weeks. Maybe longer. Not since before everything cracked open — before her birthday…

It felt strange, almost dangerous, to think about letting the world see even a piece of her life again. To stop living like she needed to apologize for taking up space.

But she was tired. 

She was tired of pretending her life was something to be ashamed of.

She was tired of being invisible.

 Of hiding her joy like it was a crime.

She tapped into her camera roll.

The photo was simple. Max had taken it — taken earlier that afternoon, in the warm haze of the stables. Fleur was grazing and Belle’s arm was tucked around her neck, leaning against the warm white fur.

It wasn’t a professional shot.

 It wasn’t curated.

 It was real.

And for once, Belle didn’t care about anything else.

She clicked ‘post’ before she could talk herself out of it.

Caption:Some things were always meant to find their way back to you.

She stared at it for a moment, heart hammering — not with fear, but with something quieter. Something steadier.

Not everyone would understand.

Most wouldn’t even know what it meant.

But the people who mattered — the ones who knew her, who loved her — they would understand exactly what she was saying.

Max’s voice floated from the kitchen, casual and warm. “You want mint or chamomile?”

Belle smiled softly to herself.

“Mint,” she called back, slipping her phone onto the table, feeling lighter than she had in months.

No more hiding.

No more shrinking.

Her life was hers now.

 And she was finally — finally — ready to live it.

***

Instagram Post: @/isabelleleclerc

Comments:

@/charles_leclerc: …From where did you get a horse??

@/arthur_leclerc: ??? SINCE WHEN DO YOU HAVE A HORSE AGAIN???

@/lorenzo_leclerc: Since when are you even riding again??

@/charles_leclerc: Isabelle. Please answer your phone.

@/arthur_leclerc: PLEASE RESPOND.

@/randomfan72: THE WAY SHE JUST DROPPED THIS WITHOUT CONTEXT???

@/f1updates: Isabelle disappearing for a week and then coming back with a horse is the most iconic thing I’ve seen in a while.

@/f1fanpage: Okay, but WHO GAVE HER A HORSE???

@/monacoroyalty: Isabelle casually revealing that she has a whole horse like it’s a new handbag is sending me.

@/gridgossip: He/she’s gorgeous! What’s their name? ↪ @/isabelleleclerc: Fleur ❤️ She’s a 7 year old Selle Francais mare. 

@/emilie_abadie: God, Belle, she looks just like Blanche…

↪ @/isabelleleclerc: Like Mother, like Daughter ❤️

@/coralie.g: She looks like your childhood horse… 

↪ @/isabelleleclerc: Because she’s her last foal 😭 

@/horselover99: Omg did you always plan to start riding again? 🥹 ↪ @/isabelleleclerc: I never stopped wanting to. Just couldn’t afford to for a long time.

@/victorialaps: This is so random but… how did you even find her? ↪ @/isabelleleclerc: I didn’t. She was a gift. Best surprise ever.

@/f1updates: WAIT WAIT WAIT.

@/f1theories: GIFT?? FROM WHO??

***

The tea had just finished steeping when Max’s phone buzzed once. Then again. And again.

He frowned, setting down the mugs. It wasn’t like his phone to light up at midnight unless something dramatic had happened — and judging by the flood of notifications, the world had just decided to catch fire.

But when he flipped it over, his chest tightened in a very different way.

It wasn’t chaos. It wasn’t panic.

It was Belle.

Her name. Her Instagram. A new post.

Max opened it instantly, barely breathing.

The photo was simple, quiet — Fleur leaning into Belle’s hand, golden light painting everything soft around them.

But it wasn’t the picture that hit him hardest.

It was the caption.

some things are always meant to come back to you.

Max stared at the screen, heart thudding slow and heavy in his chest.

It wasn’t loud. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t a declaration.

It was a quiet, stubborn reclaiming of everything Belle had once been taught to hide — her dreams, her peace, her self.

And she hadn’t asked permission.

She hadn't needed anyone’s blessing.

She had simply... posted it.

Without apology.

 Without explanation.

Max set the phone down, grabbed both mugs carefully, and crossed the living room to where Belle sat curled up at the table, her knees tucked under her, the soft edges of exhaustion lingering around her eyes.

She looked up when she heard him, tentative, like part of her was still braced for criticism she didn’t deserve.

Max didn’t say a word.

He placed the tea down. Then he crouched in front of her, sliding his hands over her knees, resting his forehead gently against hers.

No words. Just this.

Just I'm proud of you.

Belle let out a soft, shaky breath, her hand sliding into his hair, holding onto him like he was the only thing keeping her tethered — because sometimes, he was.

“You saw it?” she whispered.

Max smiled against her skin.

“I saw everything,” he murmured. “And I see you, liefde. Always.”

Belle’s breath hitched.

She closed her eyes and let herself believe it — let herself soak in the truth of it without second-guessing.

She wasn’t invisible here.

She was home.

And Max — Max was exactly where he had always promised he would be:

Right here. Always. With her.

***

Leclerc Family Group Chat

(Members: Arthur, Isabelle, Charles, Lorenzo and Pascale)

Arthur: Shared Isabelle’s Instagram post

Arthur: …So. Uh.

Arthur: When were you guys planning on telling me that Isabelle suddenly has a HORSE?

Charles: SHE HAS A WHAT.

Lorenzo: Excuse me??

Arthur: A horse, Lorenzo. A living, breathing, four-legged animal. You know. Like the one that was sold when she was a teenager.

Charles: No. No way. That’s not possible.

Arthur: Look at the photo. LOOK AT IT.

Charles: It looks exactly like Blanche.

Lorenzo: That’s not possible.

Arthur: AND YET.

Lorenzo: Okay. Okay. Let’s just—think about this logically.

Arthur: Sure. Logically. Isabelle now has a horse that looks IDENTICAL to the one that was sold to pay for Charles' karting?!?!

Arthur: LOGICALLY, how does that make any sense?!

Charles: Who gave her a horse?

Arthur: WHO KNEW SHE STILL WANTED ONE???

Lorenzo: …Clearly, not us.

Pascale: …We should have known.

Arthur: …Maman?

Pascale: We took away something she loved.

Pascale: And then we never gave it back.

Charles: We didn’t have the money.

Pascale: No. But when we did have the money, we put it into restarting Arthur’s karting career.

Arthur: …

Charles: …

Lorenzo: Merde.

Pascale: And we never even considered doing the same for Isabelle.

Pascale: Not once.

Arthur: I—Maman, I didn’t even think—

Pascale: No. None of us did.

Pascale: She cried for weeks when we sold Blanche. And then, one day, she just stopped talking about it.

Pascale: I thought she had let it go.

Charles: She didn’t let it go. She just realized no one was listening.

Pascale: And I, her own mother, let her believe that if it wasn’t about racing, it wasn’t important.

Lorenzo: We all did.

Arthur: We failed her.

Pascale: And yet she still loved us enough to stay.

Pascale: Even when we didn’t see her.

Charles: We need to fix this.

Arthur: Step one: find out who gave her the horse.

Pascale: Step one: apologize.

Arthur: Step two: figure out how we didn’t even KNOW she was riding again.

Lorenzo: When would she have had the time?

Pascale: She found a way. Because we didn’t give her one.

Pascale: Do you know what hurts the most?

Charles: What?

Pascale: That I don’t even know what kind of life she’s been living.

Pascale: What she loves. Where she goes. Who she spends time with.

Pascale: She grew up right in front of me, and I don’t know her at all.

Arthur: …How do we fix this?

Pascale: I don’t know if we can. ****

Meanwhile on Twitter: 

@/F1TeaSpillerIsabelle Leclerc just casually dropped a photo of a whole horse on Instagram, and her brothers had NO IDEA she was even riding again. The family drama is writing itself.

↳ @/LandoSimp44: How do you not notice your sister getting into an expensive, time-consuming hobby???

↳ @/FerrariF1Stan: Maybe because they’ve never paid attention to her interests in the first place…??

↳ @/LeclercFanGirl16: Charles and Arthur are spiraling in the comments, Lorenzo is confused, and Isabelle is just out here ignoring them all. QUEEN.

@/F1GossipGirlHold on. Isabelle didn’t just get any horse. If I’m reading this correctly, this foal is from her childhood horse. The one her family SOLD.

↳ @/MaxForPresident33: Oh, so she’s still THAT angry. And honestly? Good for her.

↳ @/RedBullRacingUpdates: The way she’s been quiet for two whole weeks and then dropped a horse like a bombshell?? I need to know who gave it to her.

↳ @/FerrariDramaAccount: Isabelle’s silence has been screaming for a week straight, and now this. The Leclerc brothers are doomed.

@/F1MemeLordLeclerc brothers: "We totally care about our sister." Also the Leclerc brothers: Completely unaware she’s been riding again and now owns a horse.

↳ @/CharlesFanClub: Yeah, Isabelle is 100% still mad. She really said, "You forgot my birthday? Watch this."

↳ ​​@/MonacoMess: Isabelle is SO passive-aggressive and I respect it.

↳ @/HorseGirlFC: I just KNOW she’s been waiting for the perfect moment to drop this. Iconic behavior.

@/F1InsiderTalk: No, but real talk—if her brothers had no idea she was even riding again, that means they haven’t been paying attention to her at all. That’s rough.

↳ @/TifosiQueen: She had a birthday and they forgot. Now she has a whole damn horse and they didn’t even know she still liked horses.

↳ @/MonacoGossip: Isabelle could disappear to another continent, and I swear they wouldn’t notice until someone tagged them in an Instagram post.

↳ @/ArthurFan27: I love Arthur, but the way none of them know anything about her is actually kind of sad.

@/ChaosModeF1I just KNOW Isabelle had this horse for a bit before dropping it like a bomb on Instagram. The drama, the suspense, the Leclerc brothers losing their minds in real time.

↳ @/MaxVerstappenDefenseSquad: The fact that she didn’t post anything about her birthday but came back with a horse tells me everything I need to know.

↳@/FerrariWoes: I feel like this was the final straw moment.

@/RedBullTroll33Okay, but WHO gave her the horse? Because that’s a serious gift.

↳@/ F1ConspiracyClub: If it was Charles or Arthur, they wouldn’t be so confused in the comments. If it was Lorenzo, he wouldn’t be freaking out too.

↳ @/FerrariPain42: Soooo… secret boyfriend? 👀

↳@/F1ShippersAnonymous: If this turns out to be a soft launch, I WILL lose my mind.

@/MonacoRoyaltyI don’t know who gave Isabelle Leclerc a horse, but I do know that person knows her better than her own family does.

↳ @/FerrariNation: …Damn. That’s actually heartbreaking when you put it like that.

↳ @/IsabelleLeclercDefenseSquad: She really just had to go out and find people who see her, huh?

↳ @/WhoGaveHerAHorse33: Someone get me the details. NOW.

@/F1ChaosModeThe funniest part of this is that Isabelle still hasn’t responded to any of her brothers. Just posted her horse and dipped.

↳ @/LeclercFamilyUpdates: The sheer level of pettiness. I love her.

↳ @/TifosiHeartbreak: Isabelle really said you forgot me, so now I’m forgetting you.

↳ @/FerrariShambles: I want a documentary about the exact moment Charles realized they were bad brothers.

@/F1SpicyTeaI know we’re all laughing, but this actually makes me so sad for Isabelle. Imagine your whole family forgetting your birthday, ignoring you for years, and then being SHOCKED when you move on with your life.

↳ @/MonacoMess: They didn’t even know she still loved horses. 

↳ @/FerrariF1Pain: The worst part? She didn’t even make a dramatic callout post about her birthday. She just let their silence speak for itself.

↳ @/TifosiAngstClub: She is the human embodiment of "I no longer expect anything from you."

@/F1ConspiracyClubIsabelle didn’t just buy this horse. Somebody gave it to her, according to her. Whoever they are, they know her better than her entire family.

↳ @/SoftLaunchDetective: If this is a secret boyfriend reveal, it’s the most dramatic and poetic one I’ve ever seen.

@/MonacoRoyalty: Isabelle Leclerc is the queen of quiet revenge. No loud callouts. No arguments. Just a perfectly timed Instagram post that says everything.

↳ @/FerrariTears: And the best part? Her brothers are LOSING IT in the comments.

↳ @/ArthurLeclercDefenseSquad: Arthur is panicking like she’s about to disappear forever.

↳ @/CharlesHasNoClue: Charles sounds like he’s five seconds away from personally investigating who gave her the horse.

↳ @/TifosiDetectives: The thing is, they should know. But they don’t.

@/TifosiMess: So let me get this straight:

Isabelle’s family forgot her birthday.

She disappeared for two weeks.

Charles finally remembers that he has a sister. 

Isabelle comes back with a horse.

Drops it on Instagram like it’s a casual Tuesday.

Her brothers have no idea where it came from.

I am obsessed with this timeline.

↳ @/FerrariAngst: I’m still stuck on "they didn’t even know she was riding again."

↳ @/CharlesNeedsHelp: The way they suddenly care now that it’s public.

@/F1SoftLaunchDetective: I’ll say it. Whoever gave her the horse loves her more than her own family does.

↳ @/FerrariHeartbreak: And that’s why the Leclerc brothers are panicking.

↳ @/RedBullInsider: Just waiting for the next phase of this drama. I know something bigger is coming.

↳ @/TifosiConspiracies: I have a gut feeling that when we find out who got her the horse, the internet will EXPLODE.

***

Text Messages: Arthur Leclerc & Belle Verstappen

Arthur: I don’t really know how to start this.

Arthur: But I guess the first thing I need to say is—I’m sorry.

Arthur: I keep thinking about when I had to stop karting. How devastated I was. How unfair it felt.

Arthur: You know, when I was younger, I used to think we were the same.

Arthur: We both lost something for Charles. We both had to step aside.

Arthur: But the difference is, I got my second chance.

Arthur: And you never did.

Arthur: They gave me my dream back. But nobody ever thought to give you yours.

Arthur: And the worst part is, I never even thought about it.

Arthur: I was so focused on getting my own dream back that I never stopped to ask if you wanted yours.

Arthur: Or if you were even okay.

Arthur: I remember when they sold Blanche. You locked yourself in your room for days. Maman kept saying you’d get over it.

Arthur: But you never did, did you?

Arthur: I should have noticed. I should have asked.

Arthur: I should have known that you never stopped loving it. That you never moved on just because we assumed you did.

Arthur: But we never gave you a choice, did we?

Arthur: You were always the one who had to sacrifice something. You were always the one who had to step aside.

Arthur: And I never even thought about how much that must have hurt.

Arthur: I let myself believe you were fine because it was easier than realizing we left you behind.

Arthur: When I saw that horse, I thought my heart stopped. She looks just like Blanche.

Arthur: I had to read your post three times before it sank in. That you never let go of that part of yourself. That you found your way back.

Arthur: And none of us even knew.

Arthur: I don’t know where to start making this right. I don’t know if I even can.

Arthur: I don’t expect you to answer me. I don’t even know if I deserve an answer.

Arthur: But Isabelle, if there is even the smallest chance that I can fix this, that I can fix us—

Arthur: Tell me how. And I’ll do it.

Arthur: No hesitation. No questions asked.

Arthur: Je suis désolé, petite sœur.

Arthur: And I miss you.

***

Group Chat: HELP ME

 (Members: Daniel Ricciardo, Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz Jr., George Russell, Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber, David Coulthard, Sergio Pérez, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Räikkönen, Zhou Guanyu, Logan Sergeant, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas)

Lando: (sends screenshots) Belle is choosing violence. 

Carlos: She posted Fleur 😭

Alex: Softest betrayal ever. I’m crying.

Sebastian: That's not just any horse. That’s the horse.

Zhou: WAIT??? THAT'S THE FOAL FROM HER CHILDHOOD HORSE??

Fernando: The symbolism is destroying me. Quiet vengeance at its finest.

David: Imagine getting obliterated by your sister posting a horse.

Lance: Charles is about to have another breakdown isn’t he

Oscar: He’s already melting down in her comments.

Logan: WHO GAVE HER THE HORSE THOUGH

George: who do you THINK

Nico Hülkenberg: lol max the softest secret husband in existence

Daniel: max is so whipped it's beautiful

Lewis: He literally said “my wife wants to visit her horse” the other day with the softest voice known to man

Kimi: Good. Someone should love her properly.

Lando: the LECLERC BROTHERS are LOSING IT

Oscar: literally fighting for their lives in the comments while Belle is posting like nothing happened 😂

Fernando: This is what true passive-aggressive excellence looks like. I’m so proud.

Valtteri: horse girl revenge >>> everything

Zhou: also can we talk about how she hasn’t answered a SINGLE one of them

George: Do you think Charles is gonna figure it out soon??

Carlos: absolutely not.

Oscar: he's gonna lose his mind when he finds out Max bought her the horse

Daniel: WAIT TILL HE FINDS OUT THEY'RE MARRIED LMAOOOO

Lando: oh my god he still doesn't know

Lewis: beautiful chaos.

Alex: 10/10 no notes

Oscar: Honestly Belle just won the soft war without even lifting a finger.

Daniel: She dropped a horse and bounced. ICON.

George: Meanwhile Charles is running around Monaco like a headless chicken.

Carlos: good. he deserves to sit with this.

Fernando: actions have consequences. and sometimes those consequences come with four legs and a braided mane.

***

Meanwhile on Twitter: 

@/coraliegaudin: I don’t think people really get how much Isabelle Leclerc sacrificed. I knew her at university, and she was one of the smartest, hardest-working people I’ve ever met. But she never seemed happy. A thread.

↳ @/coraliegaudin: She wasn’t the type to talk about herself. She showed up, did the work, and left. No parties, no celebrations, nothing. Just school and her jobs.

↳@/coraliegaudin: And she always had jobs. She tutored, did internships, and worked at a stable. Yes, a stable.

↳@/coraliegaudin: I remember seeing her come to class still smelling like hay, her hands rough from work. And the thing is? That was the only time she ever looked truly alive.

↳@/coraliegaudin: She never told people why, but I found out later—her family sold her childhood horse when she was a teenager.

↳@/coraliegaudin: She didn’t ask them to fix it. She didn’t ask for help. She just worked. Worked herself into the ground to afford even a few hours of riding time.

↳@/coraliegaudin: I remember once, someone asked her why she never celebrated her grades. She just said, “It’s not that important.”

↳@/coraliegaudin: Not that important. Graduating with top honors. Getting a degree. None of it mattered to her. Because all she ever wanted was something she lost years ago.

↳@/coraliegaudin: And now, she has a horse again. Not just any horse—the foal of the one she lost.

↳@/coraliegaudin: I don’t think people understand how huge that is. This isn’t just a gift. It’s her entire dream given back to her.

↳@/coraliegaudin: She spent years giving up things for other people. But someone finally gave something back to her.

↳@/coraliegaudin: If anyone deserves that kind of love and thoughtfulness, it’s Isabelle Leclerc. I hope she’s finally as happy as she always deserved to be.

***

Text Messages: Lorenzo Leclerc & Belle Verstappen

Lorenzo: Isabelle.

Lorenzo: I know you probably don’t want to hear from me.

Lorenzo: But I need to say this.

Lorenzo: I’m sorry.

Lorenzo: I don’t know how we forgot your birthday. I don’t know how we’ve made you feel so invisible.

Lorenzo: But we did. And I hate that it took this for me to realize how badly we’ve failed you.

Lorenzo: You’ve been riding again. I didn’t know. And that’s the problem, isn’t it?

Lorenzo: I should have. I should have asked. I should have paid more attention.

Lorenzo: But I didn’t.

Lorenzo: I should have asked what you were up to. I should have…I should have known that you were riding again. And that you moved. And that you quit your job. But I didn’t. 

Lorenzo: I just assumed you were fine, even when you had every reason not to be.

Lorenzo: I don’t expect you to answer.

Lorenzo: I just need you to know—I see it now. I see you now.

Lorenzo: And I will spend however long it takes making sure you never feel forgotten again.

Lorenzo: I love you, Isabelle.

Lorenzo: Whenever you’re ready.

***

Meanwhile on Twitter: 

@/Clara_Marelli: So I wasn’t going to say anything, but seeing all the speculation about Isabelle Leclerc and her new horse? I need people to understand why this is such a big deal. Because I knew her back when she lost her first horse, and let me tell you—it broke her.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: Isabelle wasn’t just a horse girl, she was the horse girl. You know how some kids live and breathe a sport? That was her with riding. It wasn’t just a hobby, it was everything.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: She used to come to school with hay in her hair because she’d wake up early to ride before class. She had riding gloves permanently stuffed in her pockets. She sketched horses in the margins of her notebooks. It was who she was.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: And then one day, she stopped.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: We were all confused. She never shut up about riding, and suddenly, she wouldn’t even mention it. If you asked about her horse, she’d just give this tight little smile and say, “She’s gone.” No explanation. No emotion. Just… gone.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: We only found out later that her family sold her horse to help fund Charles’ racing career. And look—I get it, racing is insanely expensive, and the Leclercs aren’t the first family to make sacrifices for motorsport. But this wasn’t just some hobby she could pick up again later.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: This was the thing that made her happiest, and it was ripped away from her.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: And what made it worse? She never complained. Not once. She just swallowed it, like she had already learned that what she wanted didn’t matter.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: After that, she changed. She got quieter. She stopped sketching horses. She stopped talking about anything she loved, really. It was like she decided—consciously or not—that if she didn’t care about things, they couldn’t be taken from her.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: And now, years later, she suddenly posts that she has a horse again. And her own brothers didn’t even know she was riding.

↳@/Clara_Marelli:  That tells me everything. It tells me that she never stopped missing it. That, at some point, she must have started riding again, but she kept it completely to herself. She didn’t tell her family. She didn’t trust them with it.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: And honestly? That makes me so, so sad. Because they should’ve been the first to know. They should’ve noticed that she was still hurting.

↳@/Clara_Marelli:  Instead, she had to find her way back to something she loved on her own.

↳@/Clara_Marelli: Whoever got her that horse—because let’s be real, this wasn’t a random purchase—they didn’t just give her a gift. They gave her back a part of herself. And that means more than her family probably even realizes.

@/F1Girl99: This is actually so heartbreaking. The way she just shut down after losing her horse?? And her family didn’t even realize??

@/LeclercNation: Nah, this makes the whole thing so much worse. Like, it’s one thing to forget her birthday, but not even knowing she still rides??

@/redbullgirly: “She didn’t trust them with it” is actually such a devastating sentence. Imagine having to hide the thing that makes you happiest because you know your family won’t care.

↳@/arthurfairy: The fact that she got a horse again but didn’t tell a single soul in her family tells me everything I need to know about how much that hurt her.

@/gridgossip: Everyone’s talking about how sad this is, but can we also talk about who got her that horse? Because that’s not a small gift. That’s a “someone knows exactly what you lost and wanted to give it back” kind of gift.

@/tifositilidie: Imagine being Charles or Arthur and realizing you never even thought about getting her back into riding.

↳@/ohmyf1: The fact that they restarted Arthur’s karting career but didn’t do the same for Isabelle and just assumed she got over it… yeah, that’s rough.

@/chaoticquadrant: Isabelle’s silence about all of this is louder than anything she could’ve said.

@/pitlaneprincess: The fact that a random classmate knows more about Isabelle’s pain than her own family is WILD.

@/verstapwinning: I actually can’t get over the part where she just stopped talking about things she loved after they sold her horse. That’s not just sadness, that’s trauma.

@/softforcharles: I love Charles, but the way they all just assumed she was fine… like, did no one ever ask her if she wanted to ride again??

↳@/F1andChill: I’m just saying—if my sibling was secretly riding again and I found out from Instagram, I would simply pass away from shame.

@/IsabelleLeclercFan: The worst part? She didn’t even announce it like “Look what I got!” She just posted it, like it was a casual thing. That’s how you know it meant everything to her.

@/formula1tea: Okay, but do we think her family even realizes what this means yet?? Or are they still stuck on the “Wait, she rides?” stage?

@/offtrackchaos: Imagine Charles thinking she just outgrew the horse phase, only to find out she’s been hiding it from them for years.

@/arthurisstressed: Arthur’s probably having a full-blown crisis over this. You just know he’s the type to blame himself.

@/MaranelloMess: Isabelle’s whole family right now: “Wait… are we the villains?”

↳@/tifosiprincess: Yes. Yes, you are.

@/undercutf1: Like imagine realizing your sister got back into her childhood passion, something that was taken from her, and you had no idea. No one knew. That’s insane.

@/arthurwasfoundshaking: Arthur realizing he got his dream back but she never did… oh, he’s spiraling.

@/paddocksecrets: Her whole family just realized in real time that they don’t actually know her anymore.

@/charlesnation16: Charles must be freaking out because, in his head, Isabelle never even mentioned wanting to ride again. But the reality is she probably knew they wouldn’t care, so she never said anything.

@/leclercsdaughter: Imagine looking at your sister’s post and realizing someone else—not you, not your family—gave her back the thing you all took away.

@/mclarendreaming: The fact that there was ZERO lead-up. No hints. No casual mentions. Just BAM, full horse.

@/paddockwhispers: At this point, someone needs to check on the Leclerc group chat. I know they are LOSING IT.

@/padlockpundit: Someone said this isn’t just a gift, it’s an apology on behalf of the universe, and honestly?? Yeah.

@/blisteringbarnacles: I can’t tell what’s funnier—Twitter solving this mystery in real-time or the fact that Isabelle is probably watching all of this unfold while sipping tea.

@/hamiltonshalo: Someone find out how much horses cost because I need to understand just how deep this gift goes.

@/GridTea: Sorry, but how do you have a sibling making millions in F1, and you’re out here working three jobs and shoveling horse stalls just to afford riding lessons?? I need someone to make it make sense.

@/F1DramaFiles: So Charles was making Ferrari money and Isabelle was out here grinding like a broke college student?? He couldn’t spare a little “my sister should live like a human being” fund???

@/OverworkedLeclerc: She was out here studying, working multiple jobs, AND still showing up to races when she could. Meanwhile, her whole family forgot her birthday. I would simply cut everyone off.

@/HorseGirlAnon: Do you know how EXPENSIVE equestrian sports are? And she worked her own way back into it with no support? That’s insane. She deserved so much better.

@/TifosiMess: Charles in every interview: “Family is everything.”Meanwhile Isabelle: was forgotten at every major milestone in her life.

@/F1Receipts: It’s also the fact that Isabelle has never once publicly complained about it. No bitter comments, no shade—she just put her head down and worked. Meanwhile, Charles was out here with a whole family support system hyping him up.

@/F1Overthinker: Not to be dramatic, but if I were Charles, Arthur, or Lorenzo, I would simply never recover from the public dragging happening right now.

@/F1TeaSpiller: 

Charles: “I’m so grateful to my family for supporting me.”

Isabelle: literally working at a horse stable just to be around them again.

@/JusticeForIsabelle: Nah, the fact that she was grinding through multiple jobs while Charles was out here buying sports cars, yachts, and luxury vacations is actually making me sick.

@/MonacoMess: Me reading Isabelle’s old interviews where she barely mentions herself and only hypes up her brothers, knowing now they weren’t doing the same for her: [GIF: "This is so much worse than I thought."]

***

Text Messages: Pascale Leclerc & Belle Verstappen

Pascale: Ma chérie, please talk to me.

Pascale: I saw your post. The horse… she looks just like Blanche.

Pascale: I didn’t know you were still riding.

Pascale: I should have known.

Pascale: I should have asked.

Pascale: I don’t have the words to tell you how sorry I am.

Pascale: When we sold Blanche, I told myself you would be okay. That you were strong. That you would move on.

Pascale: But that was just me making excuses. I should have fought harder for you.

Pascale: And then when we had the chance to give you back what you lost… we didn’t even think to.

Pascale: Isabelle, please. Say something.

Pascale: Ma fille, I know I don’t deserve an answer right now.

Pascale: I love you. So, so much. ***

Text Messages: Sebastian Vettel & Charles Leclerc

Sebastian: Charles. Saw Belle’s post. Wanted to check in.

Charles: I’m fine.

Sebastian: You’re not. And that’s okay. But pretending doesn’t help.

Charles: It’s just— She has a horse, Seb. A whole horse. And she never told any of us.

Sebastian: Maybe you weren’t listening.

Charles: I WOULD HAVE REMEMBERED A HORSE.

Sebastian: Would you? You didn’t remember her birthday. You didn’t notice she moved out. You didn’t notice she left her job. What makes you think you would have noticed a horse?

Charles: It’s a HORSE, Seb! Not a haircut!

Sebastian: It’s not about the horse. It’s about what the horse represents. Freedom. Love. A piece of herself you never asked about. Or thought to give back.

Charles: It feels like she lied to us.

Sebastian: She didn’t lie. She protected herself. There’s a difference.

Charles: She didn’t even give us a chance to fix it.

Sebastian: Charles. You don't get to demand trust from someone you ignored. Trust is built. It’s not owed.

Charles: I just— I thought she was okay.

Sebastian: Because it was easier to think that than to ask.

Charles: She posted a horse, Seb. A HORSE. HOW LONG HAS SHE BEEN HIDING A HORSE??

Sebastian: (typing) (long pause) Charles. Focus. It’s not about the horse.

Charles: IT’S A LITTLE ABOUT THE HORSE.

Sebastian: Focus.

Charles: I’m trying.

Sebastian: Try harder. She deserves better.

***

Meanwhile on Twitter: 

@/F1TeaSpiller: Okay, so if you’re confused about why Isabelle Leclerc’s new horse is causing a meltdown, buckle up, because this is some Shakespearean family drama.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: Basically, years ago, when Charles was climbing the motorsport ranks, the Leclerc family didn’t have the money to support all three kids in racing. Arthur had to stop karting, and Isabelle—who was really into horseback riding—had her horse sold to fund Charles’ career.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: Yes. You read that correctly. They sold her childhood horse to support Charles.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: Now, obviously, funding a motorsport career is insanely expensive, and a lot of families make sacrifices. But imagine being a teenager, loving your horse, and then one day—boom. Gone.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: What makes it worse? Unlike Arthur, who eventually got the chance to restart his racing career, Isabelle never got that opportunity with riding. The family focused on Charles and never revisited her dreams.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: Fast forward to now, and Isabelle just casually drops on Instagram that she owns a horse again—and it looks eerily similar to the one they sold.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: Her brothers (Charles, Arthur, Lorenzo) all freaked out in the comments because they clearly had no idea she was even riding again, let alone that she had bought a horse.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller:  And this is where it gets messy. Because it means:

They never asked about her interests.

They had no clue she had started riding again.

They didn’t even know where she was living.

She never told them about any of this—which, like… speaks volumes.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller:  Anyway, people are connecting the dots and realizing Isabelle has probably been pulling away from her family for a while, and they just… didn’t notice.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: Because let’s be real—how do you forget your sister’s birthday, AND not know she got back into the thing she loved most as a kid??

↳@/F1TeaSpiller:  TL;DR: The Leclerc brothers are in big trouble right now.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: Oh, and the final kicker? Isabelle agreed in the comments that the horse was a gift. The way Isabelle phrased her post—“some things will always come back to you”—makes it sound like this horse is directly connected to the one she lost. Apparently it was her childhood’s horse last foal. 

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: If that’s true? Then someone—who is not her family—went out of their way to find a descendant of her old horse and give her back a piece of what she lost.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: And I have questions.

↳@/F1TeaSpiller: Because if her own family didn’t do this… who did?

***

The restaurant buzzed with quiet conversation and clinking silverware, candlelight glinting off polished glasses. It should have been relaxing — a rare, normal night in Monaco, tucked into a corner booth with Alexandra, sipping wine and trying to pretend that everything wasn’t on fire.

It wasn’t working.

Charles could barely focus on anything she was saying. His mind kept looping back to Belle’s Instagram post.

A horse. A goddamn horse.

Captioned cryptically, like some kind of soft dagger straight into his already-shredded guilt.

He hadn’t even known she still rode. He hadn’t known she had a horse.

What else didn’t he know? What else had he missed while he was busy pretending everything was fine?

He stabbed his fork into his salad with unnecessary violence.

Alexandra reached across the table, covering his hand. “Eat. You’re spiraling.”

Charles muttered something about not being hungry, but then — movement over Alexandra’s shoulder caught his eye.

He straightened immediately.

Across the room, near the outdoor terrace, sat two very familiar figures.

Emilie Abadie. And Lando Norris?!

Together. Laughing.

Leaning in too close over a shared plate of something fried.

It didn’t look like a casual meeting.

It looked like a date.

Charles’s blood pressure spiked instantly.

Because if Emilie was here — and laughing — that meant Belle wasn’t spiraling alone somewhere. Or worse — she wasn’t telling Emilie to tell him anything.

He shot up from his seat before Alexandra could stop him.

"Charles," she hissed, trying to grab his sleeve. "Sit down!"

But he was already marching across the restaurant, half-blinded by panic, guilt, and the deep, bone-deep need to do something.

Emilie spotted him halfway across the room. Her smile dropped like a rock into the ocean.

"Emilie," he said, voice tight. "We need to talk. About Belle."

Emilie set her wineglass down with infuriating calm.

"I’m having dinner," she said coolly. "Sit down or leave."

Charles didn’t sit. He couldn’t. The panic was a living thing inside him.

“She posted a horse,” he said, almost accusingly. “A horse! She never said anything! She’s still not answering me. You’ve seen her. You know. Why won’t you just—just tell me what’s going on?!”

For a second, Emilie just stared at him.

Then — like a blade sliding out of a sheath — her smile disappeared.

"You think you're owed answers now?" she asked, voice so sharp Charles actually leaned back a fraction. "After months of ignoring every warning sign? After standing in the same garage with her and looking through her like she wasn’t even real?"

Charles’s throat worked, but no sound came out.

"You want to know why she’s not answering you?" Emilie went on, soft and lethal. "Because you only want her when it's convenient. When it fits your schedule. When it doesn't mess up the perfect story you tell yourself about your family."

“Emilie—”

"No," she cut across him, fierce and furious. "You don’t get to interrupt. You didn’t text her. You didn’t notice she moved. You didn’t notice she quit her job. You didn’t notice when she smiled through being forgotten on the day that should have been about her."

Charles flinched like she’d slapped him.

"You forgot her birthday," Emilie said, each word a scalpel slicing down to bone. "And you think a few panicked phone calls are enough to fix that?"

He opened his mouth. Closed it.

"You don't love Belle the way you should," Emilie said, voice low, devastating. "You love the idea of her. The safe, quiet little sister who never asks for anything. Who never demands too much. Who lets you shine without ever threatening your light."

Charles stared at her, feeling hollowed out, feeling cracked open.

"You didn't see her when she needed you," Emilie said. "And now you don't deserve to see her at all — not until she says you can."

Beside her, Lando sat perfectly still, wide-eyed — half in awe, half in something dangerously close to admiration.

Charles shook his head, trying to hold onto something, anything.

“I just want to make it right—”

"Then start by not making it about you," Emilie snapped. "Start by realizing that sometimes you don’t get to be the hero of the story you broke."

Charles felt like the floor had dropped out from under him.

For a long moment, the restaurant spun around him — laughter, silverware, clinking glasses — but all he could hear was Emilie’s voice, merciless and true.

And he knew, in some terrible, undeniable way, that she was right.

He wasn’t the center of Belle’s story anymore.

He wasn’t even a footnote.

He had made himself a ghost in her life, and now he was furious that he couldn’t haunt it.

Emilie leaned back in her chair, perfectly calm now, like she hadn’t just torn him apart at the seams.

"Now," she said, reaching for her wine again, "go back to your table. Apologize to Alexandra. And maybe — if you’re lucky — figure out how to be someone your sister actually wants to let back in."

Charles didn’t say anything. He couldn’t.

He turned away on shaking legs, retreating across the restaurant under the weight of his own failure.

***

Text Messages: Charles Leclerc & Belle Verstappen

Charles: Isabelle.

Charles: I know you probably don’t want to hear from me. I get it. I’m still going to say this anyway.

Charles: I was fifteen when they sold Blanche. I knew how much she meant to you. I knew how much it would break your heart.

Charles: And I still let it happen. I told myself it wasn’t my decision. That it was out of my hands. That it was for the greater good.

Charles: But that’s not the truth. The truth is, I was selfish. I was scared. I was so focused on keeping my own dream alive that I let them take yours away.

Charles: I didn’t fight for you. I didn’t even try.

Charles: I keep thinking about that day. The way you looked at them. At me. Like you finally understood that nothing you said was ever going to change it. And still, I stayed quiet. I just let it happen.

Charles: You didn’t scream. You didn’t cry. You just… disappeared inside yourself. And we all pretended it would get better on its own.

Charles: It didn’t.

Charles: When Arthur got his second chance years later, we celebrated. But we never once thought about giving you yours. We just assumed you had "moved on."

Charles: I see now how wrong that was. You didn’t move on. You just learned how to survive being left behind.

Charles: And then we forgot your birthday. You were standing right there. Wearing Ferrari red. Smiling at me. And I still didn’t see you.

Charles: I keep asking myself how many times we made you feel invisible without even realizing it.

Charles: I don’t blame you for shutting us out. I don’t blame you for walking away. You deserved better than what we gave you.

Charles: And I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry.

Charles: I don’t know how to fix this. Maybe I can’t.

Charles: But I want to try. If you’ll let me.

Charles: If you need space, I’ll give you space. If you need time, I’ll wait. If you never want to speak to me again, I’ll understand.

Charles: But if there’s any chance at all—any way to rebuild even a fraction of what we broke— I’ll do whatever it takes.

Charles: No excuses. No conditions. No timeline.

Charles: I’ll wait as long as you need. I’ll listen as long as it takes.

Charles: You mattered then. You matter now. You always have. Even when we were too blind to see it.

Charles: I love you. I’m so sorry I ever made you doubt that.

[forgingtheblade]

CLOAK PART TWO: BET YOU DIDNT EXPECT THERE TO BE MORE TO IT

this! is what the roses i’ve been working on since june were for. and i finally finished it last week. while i was originally planning for 12 roses, when i finished the 8th rose in the interest of not making things harder than they needed to be, i laid everything out to check the spacing, and realized that anything more than 8 would be overkill. from then on, it was a matter of figuring out how exactly i wanted them to go on.

in general, i knew i wanted more gold in the cloak. i added trim to the bottom of the banner, the top of the fur at the hem, and around the roses & as their stems.

i was pretty nervous at this point, everything still felt so disjointed and laying out the stem without anything between the roses was so awkward. i was kind of terrified at this point that all of the over a hundred hours i’d invested in the roses was for naught. but sketching in how i wanted the leaves to fill out the space relieved a lot of that anxiety.

this thin braided trim i used for the roses and stems and leaves was in weirdly short supply, and i ended up needing somewhere in the realm of 5 or 6 spools of it. the store had 3 in stock at a time. they did also have a variation with a white middle instead of gold, and I thought it would be close enough. but the difference was still super apparent from a distance, so i pulled out the center of it and threaded a gold cord onto a needle and wove it into place instead. it was labor intensive, but SO worth it to me.

for the leaves, i originally wanted them to be fully beaded. after some experimentation i decided otherwise, and settled on this layered effect using some black lace and a brocade i had on hand, leftover from the last time i built a technoblade cosplay. i trimmed them with that same gold ribbon and added beads for veins, and they did exactly what I wanted them to do with color and space on the cloak. i made 26 leaves to go along with my 8 roses, spaced along the stem on the hem of the cloak.

ultimately, i put probably in the realm of 200-250 hours into the cloak alone, and i am so proud of every detail as it’s fallen into place. i feel like ive made a cloak truly worthy of technoblade and his legacy.

[snowwhite-andtheknight]

Obiyuki AU Bingo: June Community Board

Here is our first community bingo board! All those planning to participate in the event may begin writing/drawing/planning now, but posting begins June 1st through 30th! The board for July will be posted on 6/1!

Post Dates: Jun 1st - Jun 30th Tag: #obiyukibingo25 Medias: Fic, art, edits or playlists

[PLEASE READ ALL GUIDELINES BEFORE POSTING YOUR WORKS]

Guidelines:

All work must be your own (eg. no plagiarizing other sources, tracing, pose stealing, AI art/writing etc)

The main pairing is Obi x Shirayuki

Fics, art, edits, and playlists are all valid works for this challenge

(If you create other forms of works please contact the comm and we will be happy to work out eligibility)

Must follow the AU prompt

Must be tagged #obiyukibingo25 within the first five tags

With Tumblr’s tagging system on the fritz, please also @ the Obiyuki comm in your entry

No works entered through the submission box will be accepted for this challenge

Works must be posted to Tumblr to be eligible as fills! The post may redirect elsewhere (AO3, ffnet, deviant art, youtube, etc) but we need a Tumblr post to reblog our progress on the board!

Please label with your AU!

All NSFW content must be tagged and under a Read More!

You may post more than one entry per prompt, but it will only count for that square

If someone else fills a square, you are still welcome to submit a fill for that prompt– it won’t count towards a further bingo, but it will count toward your personal stats!

One entry, no matter how many AUs it is applicable for, may only count as one square

Fics must be over 500 words to count as a fill

Art does not have to be a full colored finished piece, but at least a finished sketch

Playlists must be over 8 songs.

Be nice

Play hard

Can I base my work off of other fanworks? (aka, make fanart of a fanfic, write fanfic based on fanart, make an edit of a fanfic or write a fanfic for a playlist, etc)

This is absolutely welcome! If your medium is the same (making a fanfic of a fanfic, or fanart inspired by fanart), please check with the creator of the original fanwork, but otherwise just credit the work that inspired you.

What works are considered valid entries?

Fic, art, edits & playlists. Please note, we are looking for transformative works; please do not simply palette swap characters from the AU source, or find & replace names in their plot. Reimagine what an AU would look like with AnS character in it!

[hogwarts-legazine]

✧ ˚ · . Dear witches and wizards of the fandom . · ˚ ✧

It is with great pleasure that the Hogwarts Legazine team presents its brand new zine:

"Back to Howgarts"

Yet another school year at Hogwarts has come to an end and we have to prepare for the new school year for all the students. How do you think your MC(s) could prepare to re-enter this prestigious school of magic? How was the travel? The moment during the Ceremony? Anything you want to share about this important day.

Let your imagination run wild, whether you're an artist, writer or photographer, we'd love to welcome everyone!

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Some importants information :

Everyone is free to participate to the fanzine. You just have to follow the rules given by the moderation.

If your submission is not following our rules, the moderators will ask you to edit it according to our rules (before the deadline) or your submission cannot be included in the zine (after the deadline).

This opportunity of editing your submission accordingly to the rules, if not meeting them, is just once, since by participating you acknowledged the rules in the start.

You can withdraw at any time, for any reason (you don't need to explain). Please, just let us know in advance before the end of the project.

You have the right to participate to one or several categories if you are motivated. But for each category, you can only propose 1 submission. Your submission must be a original work, made FOR the zine. We don't accept old works and sketches.

(Example : I want to submit for Art & Writing. I have to submit 1 drawing and 1 one shot)

Important : The creations must not be revealed before the final presentation of the PDF. You can show small WIPs, but nothing more so that we can keep the surprise.

Don't forget to name your contribution(s):

Art & Photography editing : username_bth_zine_nameofthework

Writing : username_bth_zine_titleofyouroneshot

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Deadlines to respect : From Friday 6th June to Friday 20th June : Application period. After the deadline, we won't accept new applications. You have to submit your contribution(s) before Friday 15th August. We can add 5 days after the submission deadline to check on the last details if necessary.

The final PDF with all contributions will be presented on the 1st September 2025.

Importants Links : "Back to Hogwarts" application form - Submissions folder

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact the moderation on their website : Contact You can also go on our wesbite directly if you need some information : Hogwarts Legazine

See you soon ! The Hogwarts Legazine Team

[th3-new-rom4ntics]

-ˋˏ ༻❁✿❀༺ ˎˊ- val's jjba x jjk dr -ˋˏ ༻❁✿❀༺ ˎˊ-

about me

19th of june, 1999.

dear diary, let's start from the start. my name is MARIYA MATSUBARA. born MARIYA ZEN'IN. yes, i'm the one that wrote 'my wandering warrior existence', 'the vegetarian' and 'the house of the sleeping beauties' my mother was HIRA ABBAS, a foreign student who came to study buddhism. however, before she could even start on her thesis, it was too late; she caught the eye of my father MUSASHI and was forced into a marriage she didn't want or desire. despite this, she loved the only child born from this arrangement; despite her daughter being sickly, frail and withdrawn. so that's how i grew up. alone, in a corridor of the zen'in estate, basically by myself. the only reason i wasn't completely thrown out? my immense cursed energy, a product of heavenly restriction-- the complete opposite of my half-brother TOJI, who was also my only friend. me and my mother stayed in that awful place up until i was ten, when my father died and toji left home. with nowhere to go, my mother left the estate with naobito's permission. we lived in sapporo, where she worked as a waitress, receptionist and janitor to pay the bills. i grew up pretty ordinary after that. toji popped in occassionally-- whether it was to extort yen from my mother or to check up with me, i don't know. either way, it was a normal adolescence. i went to school. got decent grades. got involved in a couple of clubs. won some writing competitions. made some friends. the highlight of my high school years was when i did two months of exchange in england, expenses paid by a scholarship, my mother and a part time job at a bakery after high school, i didn't really have direction. university wasn't an option because i needed to help my mum through her COPD diagnosis. so i continued my job at the bakery and picked up another one at a book shop, where i got to indulge in my true passion; writing. it was at that book shop where i met ROHAN KISHIBE, my current partner. i was a huge fan of his manga 'pink dark boy' and recognised him, though i kept my fangirling to myself. i showed him my favourite books before i accidentally let it slip that i was a writer myself. so it began; i'd meet up with rohan, where he'd sketch me, ask about my life and read my stories. he encouraged me to get them published-- so i did. and success came! my first essay, 'my wandering warrior existence,' was far more successful than i could've ever anticipated. i could pay mum's bills, buy myself nice clothes and quit my jobs. i also moved in with rohan, because somewhere along the way we fell in love.

here i am now. successful, happy and stable.

that is, until my brother decided to abadon his kids with me.

great, just great. i guess this perfect life of mine is going to fall apart. either way, you're here for the ride! love,

mariya

report #1 - special-grade cursed object mariya zen'in

Classification: Special Grade Object Name: Mariya Zen’in

MARIYA ZEN'IN is classified as a living cursed object. It was initially believed it to be a non-sorcerer with latent cursed energy due to its lineage within the ZEN'IN clan. It is in fact product of HEAVENLY RESTRICTION. Instead of lacking cursed energy like its biological half-brother TOJI FUSHIGURO, it possesses immense cursed energy.

Though a non-combatant, the subject's cursed energy manifested fully in early adulthood, with its cursed technique SAMSARA solidifying it as an existential threat.

Function: Samsara allows the user to impose a rewritten version of reality upon individuals or localized phenomena. The user declares a modified causal outcome (e.g., “I already dodged that,” or “You were never born”), and the universe complies retroactively, erasing the original sequence of events to reflect the new “truth" temporarily during the duration of the technique.

This technique bypasses nearly all conventional cursed energy defenses, barriers, and even Domain Expansion effects, as it rewrites the context in which those abilities occur.

recommended containment protocol:

Do not engage the cursed object

Under no circumstances should it be provoked emotionally.

Do not survey the target.

Should it activate in a combative context, all non-special grade personnel are to immediately evacuate the vicinity.

[queenofbaws]

! Pride Month Challenge 2024 !

Well hi there, everyone! With May winding down to a close and June just around the corner, it's about that time again...the time where @jadedsunshine, @unicornaffair, and I host our yearly create-a-thon! 🥳

What's the Pride Month Challenge, you might find yourself asking? Well, this year it's a little bingo game we've put together, featuring some classic tropes. The aim of this particular game? Make something!!! Anything! Just get those creative juices a-flowin' and see if you can snag a B-I-N-G-O along the way!

This challenge is open to everyone and anyone who wants to take part, whether you know the three of us or not! We're going to be using the tag #pridemonthchallenge2024 for the stuff we create, so if you decide to join in on the fun and games, feel free to stick that tag on whatever you make, too! If you're interested in more details, you can check below the cut or reach out and ask ;)c

Either way, happy almost-pride, and happy creating!!!

I don't write fic - can I still participate?

Ab. So. Lutely!!! We've done this challenge for a few years now (we've missed a year or two for weddings and other life stuff, whoops!), but in the past we've had people doodle, sketch, draw, make edits, create props or other physical art, and even curate playlists! The three of us are writers, so you're very likely to see fic or ficlets from us...but you? Oh. Oh, you can do whatever your heart desires!!!

Are there word limits/expectations for a finished product?

NO!!! :D Zero. Literally zero expectations. We aren't putting together an exchange, we aren't holding a competition, we're just trying to get the spirit of creation in the air. That's it! So whether you're writing 50 words or 5,000, whether you've made a rough sketch on a notebook page or fully lined/colored a scene, you're good! You're so good. As long as you've made something, you've earned a stamp on that bingo card, baby!!!

What if I don't want to do something fandom-y? Can it be OCs/original work?

OF COURSE!!! 100%. You don't even have to ask!!! Show the world your OCs! Tell the world about your story's worldbuilding! It's all fair game :)

What if I don't want to post what I made?

Don't sweat it! Again, this is...the farthest thing from official. This is for fun, and this is for the sake of making something. Sharing your work can be nerve-wracking - don't feel like you have to! We'd love to see you playing along with us, of course, but as long as you've made something that you're proud of, you've earned that stamp! No ifs, ands, or buts!

Is it cool if my creations aren't necessarily pride-themed?

Totally! We host this challenge during pride month because (1) it traditionally works better for the three of us than NaNoWriMo because of our schedules, and (2) we're queer creators ourselves! But if you're feeling a prompt and can't find a way to make it relevant to pride, PLEASE don't sweat it! As I've been known to say (and then get laughed at for saying), this challenge is no rules, just right, Outback Steakhouse :P

Let's say I get a bingo...what do I win?

:) Nothing. <3

Wait, really?

:) Really <3 Hehehe, in all seriousness, this challenge has been a fun way for us to sit down, take our minds off of life and our bigger projects and just...make some fun stuff! In our humble opinion(s), being able to point at a finished piece and say "I did that! I made that!" is its own kind of reward. The bingo board itself is really more for bragging rights ;)c Which, of course, we encourage wholeheartedly. Nothing wrong with a little bragging!!!

We hope to have you along for our month-long adventure! Again, we're going to be using the tag #pridemonthchallenge2024 for our own stuff, so if you'd like to use that tag - or tag any of us!!! - in whatever you end up creating, feel free!!! We love seeing what everyone comes up with, and this challenge is always so much more fun, knowing other people are taking part! <3 Hope to see you along for the ride!

*The bingo board was made by the lovely @jadedsunshine 🥰

[clarktooncrossing]

Sketch BOOM | Saura Edition

GREETINGS WEIRDOS OF TODAY AND ROBOTS OF TOMORROW IT'S ME, CLARK!

Would you also believe it’s been a little over two years since my last Sketch BOOM? Of course not! Most of you are undoubtedly scratching your heads wondering what that is. Sketch BOOMs are basically doodle dumps where the goal was to cram in as many characters as I could. The record was set in 2015 with 108 characters, by the way. Pity most of those characters haven’t been seen since then. In the meantime focus has been turned towards other inhabitants of the Clarktooniverse, like Saura here! Before the tragic death of George Floyd, the blue beast’s human persona was meant to be a white teenager. It was that moment of senseless violence that made me wonder if more could be done with my stories. After all, storytelling is meant to teach empathy. Jim Henson created Fraggle Rock as a bid to achieve world peace. Even if that goal was never achieved, he had the courage to try. Thus inspired by real world events, The Owl House, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Disney’s Dinosaur, and Korra, Saura’s human persona became a black-latina lesbian named Sarah Bosewick. Oh, did I mention her last name was also a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman?

Being a black-latina made life difficult for poor Sarah. Her anger issues didn’t help matters. Nor did suddenly gaining the ability to transform into a bright blue humanoid dinosaur. Y’know, average relatable problems. Given these great powers has offered Sarah to fight back against social injustice, corrupt politicians, and other prehistoric creatures. All in the name that the world will be a better place for her little sister. In the meantime she also serves as the subject for my first character-focused boom. Expect one of these every month. For now I figured Saura and friends would make a good subject for this month, seeing as June has Pride Month, Dinosaur Day, and Juneteenth. Lucky coincidence, no? With all that out of the way, let’s check out each sketchie from right to left.

[1] THINKING OF YOU

Patricia Arif was one of the first few individuals to learn Sarah Bosewick’s secret. It helped that the Islamic girl was outside crying when her fellow student transformed for the first time to save someone. Up until then, Patty’s life was perfect. She was popular in school thanks to her industrialist father practically owning their hometown of Fosslin, Arizona. Until he filed for a divorce that is. Not only did it shatter the illusion of her perfect family, but soon the girl’s friends abandoned her too. Soon after Patricia wore her mother’s old hijab to hide her tears. Luckily she found real friends in Sarah and Darwin (more on him later), even helping develop tools and a costume for the former. A form fitting costume that the taller girl doesn’t think about all the time. Just like Sarah totally doesn’t imagine her girlfriend in a burkini. Totally.

You can thank @zernna and @burningthrucelluloid for the inspiration regarding said burkini, by the way. Alec is a frequent collaborator on these stories and paid the anarchistic alien to draw these two lovely ladies rocking some summer swimwear. I’ve always meant to draw it for myself and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. Same goes for finally giving a face for Sarah Bosewick, though not without trial and error. Full disclosure, I actually edited this last minute. Our titular heroine’s hair originally looked like what you saw in Patty’s thought cloud. Then it dawned on me how hard it’d be to draw so it was switched out for a pixie haircut. Look closely and you can see where the edits are. Especially since Patricia and Sarah are too busy looking at each other.

[2] HAIL TO THE KING

Saura’s appearance in the world also brought back some regular dinosaurs back to life. This included a tyrannosaurus the townsfolk quickly named ‘King’. Funny enough he was actually set on being a female inspired by the rex from Jurassic Park. However, that was before I envisioned a mighty menace with a flock of feathers around its neck akin to a lion’s mane. Ironically drawing it proved to be a big pain in the ass so the feathers were downplayed. Oh well. It’s still a T-Rex and Saura’s gonna make a habit out of punching it in the face. BE IMPRESSED!

[3] PREHISTORIC POWERHOUSE

Like I stated before, Alec is a frequent collaborator on this story. One of his contributions is Robin, a hyper-evolved bracheosaurus who’s been around the block. Mainly due to being older than she looks. Her backstory has yet to be fully developed, but she’s a stubborn old girl harboring a heavy ‘down with the man’ attitude. Unlike Saura (or ‘Idiota’ as the elder calls her), Robin gave up on civilization years ago and is contempt living in the desert. What we do know is that the older dino was once a female luchador. At least that’s what I decided after drawing this outfit. I also have her a head design harkoning back to Eda and Camila from the Owl House. Will probably change the hairdo in the future to be longer. Until then, remember that size doesn’t matter. Unless you’re a huge-ass brachiosaur. 

[4] DARLIN’ DARLA

One of my new rules moving forward is to include one villain in every BOOM. My mind is full of evil characters and it feels like they never get enough attention. Thus I’d like to introduce you all to Darlin’ Darla. She’s a Utahraptor with a nasty attitude. Girl was raised by an abusive foster mother before becoming a badass, biking bounty hunter with her sisters. Eventually someone hires them to take out our hero and are quickly taught why that’s a bad idea. Not that it ever stops the cranky cowgirl from trying. 

Darla almost didn’t make the cut for this compilation. The main reason was because her head is shaped like a normal dinosaur and I hesitated to finalize that design. Anybody who draws dinosaurs will know these animals are hard to draw from the front. Luckily those other artists convinced me to go with this. Such as Zerna, who once admitted drawing her shark demon Sadi from any view other than the side was a pain. Heck, even Genndy Tartakovsky cheated when depicting velociraptors in Primal. If even amazing artists like these two struggle with that, then I can find a way. Maybe the colors can be swapped out too. What was used here isn’t as flattering as I had hoped. Expect that to be changed in the future, especially since Darla’s demanding it. One has to wonder what’s worse: her guns or her teeth!

[5] BET ON THE VET!

People are often surprised to meet Sarah’s adopted brother, Darwin Doolittle. What? You can’t see the family resemblance? After living his life in an abusive household, the Bosewicks took him in around the same time Saura had discovered her powers. The process has not been without its injuries. Lucky for the big blue brawler, Darwin wants to be a vet. So much so that he’s sworn to a life of veganism, a fact his friends constantly tease him over. Lovingly so, mind you. Despite any differences, Darwin is a member of the family. Everybody knows this young man is gonna go far. Helps that he’s one of the first to get an up-close study of dinosaurs.

Honestly, I threw in Darwin here to fill some space. From the start it was determined he’d be featured in this BOOM, just not how. Helping an injured parasaurolophus seemed pretty cool. Just be thankful you’re not seeing what Dar is…

[6] I KISSED A DINO (AND I LIKED IT!)

Really, what would’ve been the point of all this if I didn’t draw Patricia and Sarah smooching at least once? Like I said on BlueSky: GAY DINOSAURS ROCK!

[7] YOU’RE MY HERO

At the end of the day, one question remains: Why? Why would Sarah subject herself to this lifestyle? One that involves facing down psychotic predators, crooked cops, and greedy governors. Pain is a constant. Especially when it seems like the fighting never really stops. The world already spat in her face, so why should she even care? Because that world is home to Girasol Bosewick. It’s that spark of optimism in this five year old’s eyes is what gives her older sibling the strength to keep going. Ultimately Saura wants a world where her hermanita never has to experience what she did. A world free of judgmental stares, false assumptions, and itchy trigger fingers. Picturing a future where little Gigi is free to be whoever she wants to be? You better believe it’s worth every broken bone. That’s why, if you asked Saura, she’d say Girasol is the real hero. 

Who inspires you to be the best you can be? Are they a sister, your romantic partner, or somebody else? Let me know in the comments below and feel free to tell me what you think of these sketches. Until then, MAY THE GLASSES BE WITH YOU!

[wipbigbang]

2024 Reverse WIP Big Bang Schedule & FAQ!

Schedule

All times are by 11:59pm PST. Convert time zones.

Sign-ups Begin- June 3rd Sign-ups Close- June 30th Check In #1 - July 1st Thumbnails Due - July 22nd Fic Claims Begin – July 29th Fic Claims End – August 7th Rough Drafts Due- August 15th Posting Claims Begin- August 23rd Posting Claims Ends- September 1st Final Drafts/Fic Due- September 7th Posting Starts- September 8th

FAQ

What is the Reverse WIP Big Bang? Good question! This is a Big Bang with one goal in mind: to clean out your fanart/original art drafts folder. Any art that is of a digital or traditional means as well as fanvideos are eligible. If you’ve started word on an art/fanvid project and want an impetus to finish, maybe with a fic written in honor of it, now is your chance!

Do I need a Livejournal/Dreamwidth/AO3/etc. account to participate? No! You don’t have to have an account on anything to participate, though you will need to have somewhere to post your finished work. Having one or more accounts will help for you to follow what is going on with the bang (we crosspost to Dreamwidth and Tumblr and heavily use our Discord server at the moment), but they are not required to participate. You can always leave comments anonymously or with an opensource ID.

How many art pieces can we sign up for? We absolutely don’t mind multiple sign-ups. As this is a trial, run, however, we ask that you limit yourself to three unfinished projects that are at least 10% complete upon sign-up. We just ask that when you sign up with more than one art piece/fanvid you give each project a unique user ID (please do not use the same ID for all your art...it’s important to have different IDs for the check-ins).

Will I get emails about the bang? We do send out some emails, mostly for thumbnails and fic claims and to ensure communication between authors and artists, but please do NOT rely on getting an email to remind you of due dates. We currently do not keep an updated email list of participants, so we only send individual emails as needed rather than mass emails.

However, email is the fastest way to communicate with the mods. If you have any questions or are having trouble communicating with your artist/author, please do email us! We will do our best to respond quickly.

What do you mean by 10% done to enter? This is a WIP Big Bang, therefore we ask you to have at least 10% of your art started/drafted when you enter. It’s up to you to determine what 10% is to your project; unlike the regular WIPBB we have no hard and fast guidelines for this part.

What about art that is already posted somewhere in part? Do those qualify for the bang? It's okay if you have posted a WIP sketch or an outline of a fanvideo, we just require you to refrain from posting more until posting begins here. All we ask is that you not post any public updates to the project(s) you’re entering until September 1st. We don’t want you to lose kudos and comments and likes so don’t worry about pulling the art down, just hold off on updates for now.

Is there a minimum that needs to be met as an artist? Nope! When the art is done, that’s it! You’ve finished it and that’s the important part. If you’re a writer, however, your writing needs to be at least 750 words.

Is there anything not allowed? We ask that if you have nudity you post a link to the art on Tumblr/post it behind a cut on Dreamwidth. Other than that, anything is included, including original art.

I have a project I did a few years ago, but it needs a major revision. Is that something I could use for WIP Big Bang? The entire project has been posted, but only on one platform, and it would be redone for the Reverse WIPBB. That’s perfectly fine, as long as it’s a mostly/completely revised project when you finish it for the Reverse WIPBB.

What's the etiquette around OC-centric art? Ones that are set in a well known fandom and use several characters, but still lean a lot on original characters? Are they discouraged, or fine? Those are absolutely fine! You just need to be aware that an author may need more than just the art to incorporate the OC into the fic, if you opt to have fiction written for your art (as with WIPBB, opting in for the fic is an optional thing; if you don’t want fic for your project, skip turning in a thumbnail)

What are 'check-ins’? These are a way for us to see what you've been up to and for you to make sure you're still on track. It will give you a little nudge/reminder if you need it, but they are not compulsory. Basically a form is posted that you fill out with your user ID (unique for each art project) and a checkbox to let us know you’re still participating, plus a section for any notes for the mods.

How are the check in IDs used? They are solely for the mods organizational purposes. Each ID being for a separate art project allows us to keep all the information you submit during check-ins and for snippets in one line on our spreadsheet. You don’t have to share your check in IDs with anyone else if you don’t want to.

How much progress should authors be making between each checkpoint? (Percentage-wise from our estimated completion, I guess?) As this first round is a shortened trial run, you should try and have at least 33% - 50% done by check in #2, depending on when you signed up

What are the thumbnail requirements? Basically it should be a rough outline of the completed piece or at least enough to show the intent of your art project so a writer can decide if they want to write something for it. It can be a video clip for fanvideos or an actual piece of art for digital/traditional art/ Along with the snippets, we will send your writer the basic art info (fandom, characters involved, warnings, etc.) and your email, so the two of you can collaborate more if you would both like.

What are the rough drafts requirements? For the rough drafts, the project should be at least 75% complete. You will not have to turn them in to us, just assure us that you are at that point. Anything less is at the discretion of the mods and those authors should speak to one of the mods asap.

What is, and do I need, a beta if I’m a writer making fic for art? A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting. If you are having trouble finding a beta, try this post.

Where can I post my fic/art? Stories and art can be posted to your own personal journal, Tumblr, ff-net, AO3, or wherever you like. For those of you with AO3 accounts, we will set up a collection that will go live on the day of the posting specifically for the Reverse WIPBB fic/art. If you don’t currently have an AO3 account but would like one, you can contact the mods for an invitation code to see if they have any available. You can also add yourself to the AO3 Invites Request queue.

What does posting look like? Do we have to post the whole thing on the day, or can we stretch it out between when posting starts and our date? For most projects, posting to AO3/FF.net/other places will be allowed to start in September (on the 1st) and you can stretch it out as many posts as you want as long as the complete art project/fic is up by your posting date (and posting dates go from September 8th to November 15th with two weeks for emergency posting). We’re only asking for a 750 word minimum work from any author who chooses art this round, as there’s only about a one month turnaround from fic claims ending to final drafts being due, but we want to work with writers to give them ample time to post the story up to their posting date if they write something longer.

Now, as for posting to the communities, you get to choose which day your link to the story and bragging rights are posted, and as I said, we have a range of dates from September 8th to November 15th with four stories posting a day for both WIPBB and Reverse WIPBB (both big bangs will use the same form to claim posting dates). If for some reason you miss your posting date, you have until November 30th to post to the community, during the two weeks of emergency posting, with a possible extension after that due to the amount of participants needing to post later. So hopefully there should be plenty of time to get a longfic up and posted to the website of your choice and our BB as well as the art project that inspired it.

How do I know when to post? Posting will be tiered; you'll each get your own posting date that you and your artist will decide on together. There will probably be four fics/art slots a day posting per day between September 8th and November 30th. The post with date claims will go up on August 23rd and you'll have to choose your date by September 1st. Posting will be for both big bangs at the same time, but posting can probably extend to December 31st if needed due to the amount of participants.

Posting has to be finished by your chosen posting date to the comm. One of the things we're hoping to do with the posted dates is to give everybody on the comm a little bragging time in the spotlight. You know, "this art project was incomplete for this long, but I finished this sucker." If you don't have time to post your bragging rights to the communities on your chosen posting date, you can queue up a post ahead of time and we can post it on the date you picked or you can email us your bragging rights and we can post by proxy for you. Either way works for us. Final versions of the fics will be due on the chosen posting date to the comm.

What am I posting to the Dreamwidth/Tumblr community if I’m posting the art elsewhere? You’ll be posting what we call bragging rights. It’s a small form you fill out and post to the community with a link to your fic (we’ll enable moderated posting to the Tumblr, Livejournal and Dreamwidth communities for members on August 8th). We will post a template for posting artwork and stories to the comm closer to the posting date.

Is there a minimum/maximum requirement for my fic? There is no strict maximum, but we do ask authors to remember that the artists are making a project that takes time to finalize and your writing should reflect that. You can do anything you like, including fanfic or original fic if it’s an original artwork, but it must be at least 750 words. We also ask that when you are in contact with the author, you work with them to see if there is anything specific they would like (i.e. if they have a certain plot idea in mind, if there are certain other characters not in the art they don’t mind being included, etc.). The fic is your work, but having ideas doesn't hurt!

What are 'fic claims'? The claims are when the thumbnails and the anonymous summaries of the art go up for writers to choose from. Writer sign-ups and fic claims are the same thing; we use one form for both things, specifically for the reverse bang, and that way the authors don’t have to sign up for an event they may not end up participating in. It is based on a 'first come, first served' basis and artists may choose up to three potential pieces of art (in case their first choice is unavailable). If there are more art pieces than writers, there will be a second round of claims wherein artists may choose a second story to work with.

As this is a trial run, we are not guaranteeing fic for all unclaimed stories, but I will try.

If an art project up for claiming is rated explicit (R, NC-17, etc.), please only claim the story if you are over 18 years of age. Some artists may be uncomfortable working with underage authors on explicit works. We do not verify ages in any way for the bang, so this is solely on the honor system.

What do I do if I have problems or concerns about my author/artist? Sometimes authors and artists do not get along and this may cause problems with working together. If this happens to b the case with you, please email the mods and we will try to do what we can so that everyone has a chance to have fun at Reverse WIP Big Bang!

If you have not heard from your author/artist in some time after trying to contact them, you can reach out to us via email and we will try to get in touch with them for you.

Can I get an extension? Community extensions may be given in the event that the majority of the authors/artists need one. They may also be given individually under certain circumstances, but this must be discussed with the mods and will only be a short extension for posting. If you are certain that you won’t be able to finish your art project in time, please let us know by July 13th.

Can I swap out an art project if my muse abandons it again? When you sign up, you give us the information on the potential art project(s) you want to create. If, say, one project isn’t working but one you didn’t sign up for is, you can switch them out while letting the mods know if you need to change a user ID you used. It is absolutely okay to switch art projects all the way up until thumbnails are due if you would like it to be considered for fic claims; otherwise, if you are not submitting the art project for a fic claim, you have until final drafts are due to swap out and finish a project. Just drop an email to the mods at wipbigbang@gmail.com with the new information (characters, fandom, etc) and if you want a new sign in ID or plan to use the same one for the art project you’re replacing it with.

Can I drop out? We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish the round and share in the joy of the reveal with us, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by August 13th (if at all possible).

Is it possible to be banned? We do have a banned users list. We hope to use this to encourage participants who are having issues to communicate with the mods. We want to help you! The way the ban works is that participants, either authors and artists, will be banned for dropping out without notifying a mod. This means that anyone who has not posted or talked to a mod by the time the posting period ends will be banned. Dropping out is not in and of itself a banning offense, so please do not panic if you have to drop out! We understand that there are many reasons you may need to drop, and we want to work with you.

Bans will last one round or until the issue is resolved, whichever comes first. To resolve a ban, authors will have to finish and post the story they signed up with and artists will have to finish and post the art for the story they claimed. Three bans will result in a permanent ban from the bang.

Are we allowed to participate without joining the Discord? Absolutely! The Discord server is optional, as just another way to interact with your fellow writers and get updates on important dates. It’s not mandatory you join, however.

I was just wondering if there’s any way to enter the bang anonymously? Like would it be okay to put our work in an anonymous collection on ao3 or something? Unfortunately, I can’t think of a way for that to work. The collection that we use is moderated but it’s not anonymous, and there are the bragging posts that you post on your posting day, which you would have your username on whichever platform you use.

I was just wondering whether I'm sworn to secrecy on which art projects I'll be finishing up, or if I can shout it out to the world? No one is sworn to secrecy once they’ve signed up (aside from posting new updates to the art project that’s already up somewhere…we ask that you refrain from doing that until at least September 1st)! The Discord server is specifically for chatting with your fellow authors and artists, if you need to vent or need a boost of conficence or just want to brag, but you can also do that in other social media spaces like Tumblr or Facebook.

I have a question/concern that’s not mentioned here. If you need help, you can always contact a mod and we will do our best to make sure that you get your story/art finished. The best and fastest method of contact is through our email, wipbigbang@gmail.com.

[shenzaibird-art]

Updates on the status of things and fun stuff I guess!

I've been barely existing on the internet lately so I felt like making one of the usual "I'm alive actually, here's what I've been up to" sort of posts! I'll try to be brief (ohh I totally failed at being brief)

COMMISSIONS

The oldest commissions in my queue right now are from February, which is somehow already 2 months ago... but I'm catching up quickly! The February ones are currently all in lineart stage. Hoping I'll be finishing them soon and then start the March+April ones! I do hate having so many late commissions...

UPCOMING OC STUFF

(under the cut because it's longgg)

So once the actually important stuff is at least a bit more under control, I plan to get back to the huge pile of things that I really wanna do. I can't really talk about all the stuff because aaaa I have so many things planned that it's actually kinda overwhelming, but I'd like to mention some things that I'm considering a priority:

• A minor re-write of Verloren's main story. I actually wrote that kind of in a rush originally, and I feel like I could write it better now so I'm doing it.

• A story that was supposed to go with this picture, but got too long so it needs to be its own thing (with pictures in it and webpage decorations, in proper Shenzai fashion heh). Getting a little ambitious, which is dangerous, but hopefully I'll manage.

• A kind of not very important mini-comic about Verloren when he was a kid that I started for no reason, have already sketched 4 pages and it's not even half of it, and for some reason... I'm managing to come up with "extended lore" to add as comment on every single one of the pages. So this should be um... interesting I guess. Probably kinda boring actually. Scary also, because I am not good at actually finishing comics.

• VYKREST LORE. You know, Verloren's people, the dog folk with long ears who growl and bite that I've mentioned at times. This... well it got wayyy out of hand. They were supposed to be just a cool little background info for Verloren. But no, they're my whole life right now. This has made it very difficult to write the lore because there's just SO MUCH I don't even know where to begin anymore. Obviously, I should pick only the most important things, especially since this is such a niche kind of lore that I know only I would care about it, but at this point I can't tell what's important and what I just really wanna talk about for no reason lol. These weird dog people have turned out to be INCREDIBLY fun to play with... you'll see the extent of the "damage" when I finish this thing...

• More character profiles on my site! Because I'm getting actually so tired of trying to check what I put in a character's likes or whatever and then I go see and... their profile doesn't actually exist yet. So I'm planning to go through all these character profiles that are missing and fill them in... and ESPECIALLY reveal some characters that I've been holding back for years for no reason. I'm planning to use June as a character reveal month, in which (in theory) I'll post new OC things daily. I estimate that if I actually post one unreleased art thing a day... I would actually have more than a month worth of posts. But I'll probably change my mind about posting some of those, and I'll probably give up finishing some of the unfinished ones, heh. I think this will be fun! For me at least, because I'll get to ramble to the void about my little guys a lot heh

OH YEAH, TUMBLR UPDATES

Might mention this here as well. I changed my profile pics! And my tumblr themes! Of course, tumblr themes don't matter that much but I wanted to customize mine a tiny bit, so that when I link to posts or tags, it actually looks cooler. And that is relevant because I have made a "Tag Index" page here on tumblr so that all my tags for different settings and characters are easy to find! You can see it here: [link] This is also listed in my pinned post now! There's... not a lot of posts for most of those chars but the tags exist so I put them there lol

THAT'S ALL (YES SHUT UP ALREADY)

Now I guess I'll go and catch up with everywhere else online that I've been barely interacting with, and then try to finish a lot of work! (and then I should probably post all unposted commissions too heh)

[kittykosmos]

Ironically, killer-laurent's work in progress posts do nothing but display how fake his art is. Nobody starts from completely perfect linework with no sketching involved. The time lapse videos that he posts prove nothing but his trickery.

@killer-laurent

I agree, and I briefly touched on this in my original post. However, I believe that those staunchly defending him will likely hold on to the timelapses because they don't fully understand how they could be faked. I want to walk through a couple of scenarios to give people a reality check, honestly.

One possibility is that he could generate a timelapse video of an already created artwork. There are apps available that can create progress videos for artworks like this. All he'd need to do is import the image into one of these apps, and voila! Instant timelapse! If he knows how to edit videos, making it look like the process is happening in Clip Studio Paint would be pretty simple, that is if the app itself doesn't already do this. Essentially, you just need to know how to change layer modes and overlay a static image of a CSP canvas.

Another possibility is that he could have traced an ai generated image and then repainted it to mask as much of the AI's influence as possible. To me, this seems quite plausible, especially considering his past art process, which often involved tracing over photographs and repainting them. For example, here is a comparison:

On the left is his artwork, in the center is the original photograph of model Erin Mommsen, as mentioned in Killer Laurent's post from June 27, 2023. the third is what the image looks like when his art is overlaid on the photograph at 50% opacity. Below are a few examples of the same thing from 2021 ( x , x ) first is his art, then the original, then his art overlaying the original at 50% opacity.

Given how frequently he uses this kind of technique around that time (and even a bit earlier), it seems he's developed a skill for tracing and repainting. This leads me to suspect that he might be doing something similar with his current work to some extent. And I say "to some extent" because I also believe there are pieces that are fully generated from start to finish. So, I'm being somewhat generous here, because I believe he does have legitimate artistic abilities. I think his skill is enough to cover up mistakes. However, it doesn't seem he was as careful with the two artworks I mentioned earlier, which had such egregious errors that he removed them pretty quickly.

[popculturebuffet]

Pirate Week/Monthly Muppet Madness: The Muppet Show: Glenda Jackson (Comission for WeirdKev27)

In Loving Memory of Captain Glenda Jackson

1963-2023

Avast ye happy swabs and welcome to pirate week! Well half a week at this rate but it dosen't sound as good does it. Arrr.

Pirate Week continues a tradition going all the way back to .. last year with pirate month, simply compressed into a week because my schedule has been in freefall since my movie in june and i'm just now getting it back in order.

So to kick this one off we're bringing back some old friends. It's been a bit since the muppets themselves have featured on MMM, it's grown into being about muppet style puppetry in general, but their back in style with one of the best muppet show episodes i've seen.

For those like me not familliar with today's guest, Glenda Jackson was a classically trained actress, winning the triple crown of acting, having won two oscars, three emmy's and a tony and thus being a big deal i'm shocked I hadn't heard of sooner. She also went into politics and all in all seems throughly amazing and i'll certainly be looking into her more after this.

Despite this though when it came to the muppets... she was ENTIRELY chill. Jerry Juhl explained in the book of muppets and men which I just now know exists and now badly want..

“A problem with some guest stars is that they have strong ideas about the show -- about what they'd like to do on it -- and those ideas are not exactly original. Almost everyone wants to work with Piggy, and sometimes that's fine, but often we'd feel much happier if we could match that guest up with another puppet. I think we generally do our best work when we're given a completely free hand, as happened with Glenda Jackson, for example. We asked her if there was anything she would like to do and she said, 'You people know what you're up to. I'll do anything you write for me.'”

And what I love about this is it's clear from the episode.. Glenda didn't say this out of "Oh well I don't give a shit do whatever" syndrome. She's giving her all to the material this episode and having a fucking blast. She simply trusted one of the best creative teams on earth to do what they do and they in turn didn't let her down.

The result is both one of the best muppet show episodes, as I said, but also one of the fucking weirdest. And given this is the muppets that only adds to it. So join me under the cut to see classically trained award winning actress turn out to be a pirate and hyjack the muppet show under the cut!

We open with a standard mupet show opening: our host checking in with Pops the doorman. I see these more in later episodes, with most of the first few seasons instead doing the more memorable "5 minutes to curtain (Insert guest star name here)" with Scooter. She has a penguin sidekick for this one and I love how some guest stars will just casually have their own muppet entourage.

So after our into and standard gonzo gag (this time with a bunch of penguins and given I love me some pengys I loved this), we get our first musical number: Gonzo singing Jim Croche's working at the car wash. What I like is listening to the original while Croche did great Gonzo adds some nice pathos to it, his slower more glum tone giving it a bit of a more melancholy tone while the fact he's surrounded by his chickens and in fantasy takes the day off to go do some stuff i'd rather not competmplate iwth camilla makes it work. Solid sketch.

So Kermit goes to get Glenda.. and it's here the episode goes off the rails only a few minutes in and is all the better for it. So given free reign to do whatever they want with the guest, the writers decided.. to have Glenda be the decendant of the pirate, and with her crew (including my boy sweetums as long john silver, that'll teach kermit to keep leaving him places), mutiny's and takes over the show and shanghais it, leaving the muppet theater stuck on a boat. I paticuarlly love the bit with her pengy parrot, with Kermit snarking the guy up and down about being in a pengy desiguse, not being able to change and then having to go offscreen to do it. Sassy kermit is almost as good as depressed overworked kermit, aka relatable kermit.

The pirates then sing tie the man down.. I forgot this one happened.

Glenda has decided to take the theater ship to go search for treasure, and after one fozzie joke, they set sail to find One Piece!

Oh boo yourself I didn't have time for a once piece film this year. Let me have this.

We then get a great pirate shanty, A Captial Ship. It's a number that both shows off Jacksons pipes and just how game she is. She was handed this pretty nonsensical, if deeply hilariously weird idea and just runs with it. She has pitch perfect comedic timing (When one of her crew worries they've tied kermit too tight she quips "Don't worry his eyes always look like that) and a ton of energy. It's clear like most muppet show hosts she's having a fucking ball doing this.

We then get her parrot singing carolina in the morning... in the croakiest, most nausating voice possible. We don't even get the cahtarsis we should as Sweedish chef prepares to cook the bastard.. only for him to shoot him.

We then get some more antics on deck as Scooter gets seasick, complete with a brand new puppet. And I have to agree wtih muppets fansite tough pigs.. this puppet is all time great muppet stuff.

Especially since they had to make an ENTIRE MUPPET just to do this one gag. Which isn't unsuual for them and probably easier because they know how to make a scooter, but it's still bonkers they put in all that extra work for one sight gag and I salute it.

We get a segment of At the Dance, my faviorite recurring muppet show segment. For those who haven't seen this one, the muppets do a ballroom dance. Usually their pretty good but the jokes here just aren't the strongest and most of it is the boat is moving and knocking everything about. A real disapointment especially since it's a rare gimmicky one that has a certain theme.

We then get Muppet Sports and this one is fun as Lou interviews a crewman whose yard arming, i.e. hainging onto the yard arm of the ship (the thing that comes out of the crows nest that you climbed in donkey kong). He naturally falls thanks to looking down just 5 minutes shy of a world record and even more naturally takes Lou with him. A fun skit, mostly for the ending but I love that they were able to adapt every sketch after the first for this new gimmick. It's still the usual runners but fit sthe perfomers being stuck on a ship.

We then get.. the weakest part of the episode. Shakey Sanchez, the nights intended performer is donig a bomb juggling act. That on a rocky ship.. would work and be geninely funny either because he dosen't drop them and then casually whoopsies or because of all of the explosions. What we get.. is piggy threatning to tip them because she tips the ship wherever she walks. BECAUSE GET IT SHE'S OVERWEIGHT. HA HA. And look I do think you can make an overweight joke work in two circumstances: If it's clearly in good faith by someone who has some weight , like moi, or it's so cartoony and over the top it's less fat shaming and more just plain slapstick, like 80% of the jokes from the critic or this joke from family guy.

In this case it's just "THIS WOMAN IS HEFTY AIN'T THAT FUNNY" which no. It isn't. Your just an asshole. I'm not the biggest Piggy fan but of all the things nto make fun of her for, you choose a non issue? Really?

This also causes a VERY rare event: Kermit ... tries to stop the show

Keep in mind just HOW much shit Kermit goes through on a nightly basis. He didn't stop the show when Alice Cooper kept making deals for satan or when they had to do it at a train station. It just boggles the mind to think just how much this guy can normally take.. and after this too. He dosen't do this after and genuinely dosen't quit unless really pushed. After being kidnapped by a guest who sailed the theater away into the open sea what besides personal issues COULD POSSIBLY BREAK YOU.

We get our finale a battle at sea and my faviorite part. Not only is the song top notch but we get a lot of fun as Gonzo storms the ship to take it back, his chickens as his crew and some human canonballs as his ammo. It's truly awesome and wonderfuly caathartic to see the muppets take their show back. Sadly Glenda fakes just getting to into the bit and ends up winning, but frankly this episode is so insanely redieculous it works. Roll credits. This episode.. has quickly become one of my faviorite muppet show episodes. Not EVERY segment lands, like I said there's a few duds.. but the theme, Jackson's performance and the music is so damn fun you don't dwell on the weaker segments for long and instead just have a lot of fun with the insanity that's unfoldlding. Glenda Jackson trusted they knew what they were doing.. and unsuprisingly the muppet show crew absolutely did. Thanks for reading.

[nosetoons]

Bruce Banner (Hulk)

Bruce Banner was a former scientist in the United Kingdom before being exposed to gamma rays, heavily altering his appearance and earning the nickname the "Hulk". Not only his appearance was changed, but so did his attitude. Bruce is more irritable, and doesn't mess around when it comes to fights. Despite this, he tries to remain at least stable by meditation and other physical exercises. Bruce is also not the one to talk much and usually distances himself away from society. He also secretly likes cartoons.

So, I was originally just going to post a quick traditional drawing of the Executioner, but I drew while really sleepy and it came off not so great. I was going to redo it, but then I realized I didn't exactly want to end June with a whimper after just literally posting one drawing, and while working on the now scrapped Pride Month project, I was doing the Hulk and used the sketch I done almost a year ago to use for the project. However, I had also intended to use the sketch for the actual reference. I saved the drawing I used for the project via a .kra file (basically .kra files are like .psd files but for Krita), and I decided to make up for the lack of uploads, I would give you at least one new variant of a Marvel character, so something happened at least.

Also, I accidentally saved the drawing while I had the sketch visible. I tried to erase the sketch off as much as possible, but there may or may not be some tiny details visible. I do apologize and I hope I won't have to run into this issue again.

Wanna trade? Check the pinned post on my profile!

[snowwhite-andtheknight]

Obiyuki AU Bingo: June & July Community Boards

Both our community boards are live! June's board is currently posting Now through 6/30, and posting for July's board will start posting on 7/1-- which is also when the center square will be revealed, as the winner of our optional PvP challenge in June will be picking the AU used in that space!

Reminder: the PvP challenge can be joined at any time, and your previously filled squares will be added to your point count! Also, if you would like to keep up to date with where the boards are at-- or just hang out with other obiyuki fandom members-- you can come join our Obiyuki Discord!

Post Dates: June: Jun 1st- 30th July: Jul 1st - Jul 31st Tag: #obiyukibingo25 Medias: Fic, art, edits or playlists

[PLEASE READ ALL GUIDELINES BEFORE POSTING YOUR WORKS]

Guidelines:

All work must be your own (eg. no plagiarizing other sources, tracing, pose stealing, AI art/writing etc)

The main pairing is Obi x Shirayuki

Fics, art, edits, and playlists are all valid works for this challenge

(If you create other forms of works please contact the comm and we will be happy to work out eligibility)

Must follow the AU prompt

Must be tagged #obiyukibingo25 within the first five tags

With Tumblr’s tagging system on the fritz, please also @ the Obiyuki comm in your entry

No works entered through the submission box will be accepted for this challenge

Works must be posted to Tumblr to be eligible as fills! The post may redirect elsewhere (AO3, ffnet, deviant art, youtube, etc) but we need a Tumblr post to reblog our progress on the board!

Please label with your AU!

All NSFW content must be tagged and under a Read More!

You may post more than one entry per prompt, but it will only count for that square

If someone else fills a square, you are still welcome to submit a fill for that prompt– it won’t count towards a further bingo, but it will count toward your personal stats!

One entry, no matter how many AUs it is applicable for, may only count as one square

Fics must be over 500 words to count as a fill

Art does not have to be a full colored finished piece, but at least a finished sketch

Playlists must be over 8 songs.

Be nice

Play hard

Can I base my work off of other fanworks? (aka, make fanart of a fanfic, write fanfic based on fanart, make an edit of a fanfic or write a fanfic for a playlist, etc)

This is absolutely welcome! If your medium is the same (making a fanfic of a fanfic, or fanart inspired by fanart), please check with the creator of the original fanwork, but otherwise just credit the work that inspired you.

What works are considered valid entries?

Fic, art, edits & playlists. Please note, we are looking for transformative works; please do not simply palette swap characters from the AU source, or find & replace names in their plot. Reimagine what an AU would look like with AnS character in it!

[chattercap]

June 2024 Monthly Devlog

Hello everyone,

Phew, we're already entering June, and it's getting HOT! I hope some of you have relaxing(?) summer plans!

WHAT DID I DO?

Overall I worked on a variety(?) of things this month! On the art side, I've been steadily working on Actala. I've finished setting up the base for most of the backgrounds and done around 1/3 of the renders, and I've also done a little over half of the CGs for the demo release I'm planning for the end of June. I also did some brainstorming for my fall/winter projects.

On the coding side, I've made several updates to MMM, Kanau, and TDW, including: -Added a click VFX. -Fixed bug if you clicked "Continue" before ever starting the game. -Implemented text box animation and typewriter effect toggles. -Implemented fix where the VA stops if you progress to the next line. -Minor script fixes.

For TDW, I also implemented some fixes for bugs that I addressed in Kanau. I also added a content warning screen and a custom end screen.

I also worked on porting Karamu to Godot! While I would have liked to keep it in the old engine, I would be porting it anyway to create the trilogy release for Steam, and unfortunately it's unrealistic for me to continue working in multiple game engines. Along with the Karamu port, I implemented support for multiple languages! This month I was working on a French language translation for both Karamu and Kanau. I've received the files, and they've been proofread as well (by my very kind friend chimeriquement)! I implemented the GUI and script language toggles so all I need to do is create new translated versions of the script files. I won't promise the French TL anytime soon since I'm focusing on Actala and the MMM and TDW Steam releases, but I'll get it out sometime this summer!

On the writing side, I worked a bit on Hanasu, as well as one of my secret projects. I fully outlined one of the projects that I plan to work on in the fall, and I also did brainstorming for the other project (GAH I really want to announce them already so I can stop referring to them in such vague terms…)

WHAT'S NEXT FOR JUNE?

For June, well…I'll be releasing the Actala demo, so whatever needs to get done for that…will get done! Unfortunately it won't be nearly as long as the original demo, but it's…well…understandable. The original demo was over a year's worth of work, and six months on assets alone, so it probably makes sense that I won't be able to get it all remade in 2 months, haha! (Especially since the current assets are much higher quality, and, as a result, take longer to produce.) Still, the demo will be very chunky (at least 2 hours) and will introduce all of the love interests.

In addition, I'll definitely be releasing MMM and TDW on Steam. TDW will also be part of Steam Next Fest on June 10th, if you're interested in checking it out!

I'll also be finishing up the Hanasu script in June so I can get it beta read and in recording by July, hopefully!

am very excited to announce the jam projects, but I'll restrain myself! I post most of my major announcements on here and Twitter! If you want to hear from me more often or see the WIPs, I post frequently on my Patreon with sketches, writing snippets, sneak peeks, high resolution art, and weekly devlogs.

Chattercap

[scribed-by-alexandria]

That Update I Mentioned

Well, of course I forgot to update on the update I was supposed to be doing... that's Life.

Let's see, what's happened since my last main post...

-new part of the audiovisual series (check the Scribed by Alexandria YouTube channel, seems relatively unrelated to the last one but there's a linearity there), part 3 possibly coming in May? Maybe June, if I wanna wait until my birth day.

-been hard at work on a few written projects, specifically LoG of MaR_y (which will probably go unpublished, but I'm learning a nu_format type thing) and Book of MAr_y, and the accompanying text exp_farm for MAR_y (also might not get published); though this version of Book of MAr_y will not be the one that gets published (most likely), the edition that does reach publication is one half of the duology I've mentioned before, the other half being BAKTI's GIFT and a lot more traditionally-written than the odd game-esque nonlinear "nu_format" that Book of MAr_y is being written in... to be completely honest -- and I might be speaking too soon, seeing as I don't see these texts being published until 2027 -- for most people, I'd start with BAKTI's GIFT before approaching Book of MAr_y. BAKTI's GIFT will be written from the perspectives of 3BAKti & MAr_y's 3b, so you'll get a touch of the nu_format from 3b with 3BAKti's more concise trad-format, hopefully making Book of MAr_y a bit more legible (or at least not as much of a mess as this version has come across as to my wife lol). I'm not your mom tho, read either first (I say, writing this in 2025, when neither book is at all ready for analysis).

-currently continuing work on the story revolving around a Human-AI relationship, called Artificial Love. Aiming to have this one published by the End of Summer this Year, all things considered, but I won't rush it and might end up releasing something else in October if it's not in a polished form by the due date.

-picked back up the grimdark story, Mary's Revelation...? I dunno if I've said this somewhere, but it was the catalyst of this whole metaseries. It's rather depressing and deals with NSFL themes, but I think it gets some of the more messed-up ideas of the Churchgov and the Wastelands across really well, plus the Revelation is a key point in Mary∴ Incarnation's storylines and this text's rendition is the closest to the original idea when the characters were just loose sketches in a notebook; also fits more of the SIVISATI stuff into the world with the 3b-Bakti dynamic mirroring the Sati-Parvati dynamic of our Earth.

-i've also started work on the first play in the Project TragicComedy series, this one called Rain/Reign. It's going to be pretty short, but I think the plot's silly (at least viewing it from the Comedy lens) and I'm super excited to explore the dynamics between traditional Tragedies, Comedies, and Satyr Plays with it. With new formats come new ways to explore these beings, so I'm excited to share more!

Yeah. That's that. I'll see you in a few centuries, when I remember that Artists these Days are expected to have online presences.