#but i still need to doodle them a bunch in order to get a feel on how to draw them

[tinycheesecakedetective]

...I'm baaaack.

I mean, I made one post about Swap!PV and then got distracted for months, so I wouldn't really call this a comeback. The moment I did come back though, apparently a bunch of lore just fell from the sky! Beast Yeast is upon us and all of a sudden I remember making an alt. version of this goober.

Turns out there were a few things I wasn't satisfied with in the first one, so here I am with my Swap!Vanilla 2.0 human edition! Even after all this time I still don't have a name for him. There's more white in his design, he has four horns instead of two and they form a crown on his head(that might be a bit hard to see), he also has a halo, his staff changed drastically, and he lost his soul gem. Instead he has two new smaller gems on his "ribcage".

This time around I tried to invoke more death themes, hence the ribcage, more wrappings, the halo, and the burn marks from, y'know, being re-baked and essentially reborn. The halo also makes for a nice double meaning, showing his somewhat good intentions behind the violence and spreading chaos gig.

Speaking of intentions, I maybe or maybe not have mentioned the only swaps happening in this proposed AU are between PV and WL and [possibly] Black Raisin and Red Velvet. I say maybe because if I checked, all the writing would disappear and I would have to start over again. However, I have wondered if those two swapped, how would PV handled the kingdoms? Would it be the same as DE or would the fates of each kingdom end up being swapped as well? It's something I definitely need to think on and develop.

Anyways, ramble break, here's a few doodles I did for Swap!PV!

Yeah, I had a lot of fun doing this. SO! A few changes not mentioned prior. Eyes! There are more eyes, especially on his coat. I took a bit of inspiration from a certain blue jester and his realm of nightmares. It also plays nicely with the whole "truth revealed" theme. Why not give the holder of the light of truth a bunch of opened eyes to represent his awakening? Also they looked good and his cape-coat was too plain without it.

Fun Head Canons: He's always floating, even when he's relaxing his feet never touch the floor. This PV still has a lily garden, it's just hidden away because while he still misses WL despite everything, he refuses to show weakness in front of others. His coat can take the shape of angel wings when angry and multiple eyes can appear when furious or in distress. Speaking of eyes, the ones on his coat glow. Those gems on him are pieces of moonstone that got corrupted after saving him.

As for the story behind him, I had to make a few adjustments. For one, DE and WL are two halves of the same whole, and the only reason either of them exists is thanks to precautions taken by Elder Faerie. Which means Pure Vanilla somehow has to get the stuff from Lily, who came to Beast Yeast without saying much of anything to anyone beforehand. Secondly, it means the Pure Vanilla Kingdom can't be the last kingdom explored. Pre Beast Yeast, the order in which the kingdoms would be explored would change, where White Lily's area would be explored first instead and the Vanilla Kingdom would be last. I'll address the second issue on a different post related to White Lily, but first things first. Fair warning, I wrote quite a bit.

~~~

After forming the seal, White Lily falls ill due to the immense amount of power used. She's not used to using so much of her soul gem, much less creating a seal to lock away ancient evils. Seeing her faltering state, Elder Faerie takes her away to his palace to help her recover. During her time in the palace, White Lily becomes distressed because not only does she feel like she's being a burden, but she won't be able to continue her research on how cookies were made. That was the whole point of coming here, after all. She left her friends and home behind to find the truth and ended up sick and bed ridden instead. The least she could do to redeem herself was to find the truth.

Racked with guilt and regret, she asks Elder Faerie for two favors; she wishes to know the secret behind cookies' creation, and she requests a pen and paper to write with. Before long, White Lily gains a messenger(Silverbell) who gives her books from the library to read, and a way to reach the one other person she understands. Someone who should've known where she was most of all. Pure Vanilla Cookie.

From there the two keep exchanging letters as White Lily brushes up on fae and beast lore. But eventually White Lily would learn about the Night of the Witches in a similar enough way to canon, i.e. finding the book about it. While she's recovered enough, she's still not well enough to go, and Elder Faerie isn't risking her well being and safety for a banquet. She's devastated that her questions may never be answered. If only she could go, if only there was some way to witness it while being in the Fairy Kingdom. And then... she realizes something. Perhaps there is a way for her to know after all...

White Lily, in the discomfort of her hospital bed, writes a letter to Pure Vanilla and asks him to go to the Witch's Banquet in her place. She knows that this is a huge ask, and he has every reason to refuse the favor, but it would mean the world to her if he did. Elder Faerie hears about this and is rightfully worried, telling her about the dangers, and any cookie that goes doesn't come back the same, if at all. He sends his own letter to Pure Vanilla to warn him of the dangers that lie ahead. A few more letters come in from WL apologizing for her request, saying it was out of line and inappropriate. "What a selfish request," she thinks, "after leaving him in the dark for so long, I have the nerve to ask him for anything at all?"

However, despite everything, he eventually decides to go. He knows that this means everything to her, and a part of Pure Vanilla secretly wondered about it as well. White Lily searched heaven and earth to find the truth so she could help others. Why would he keep avoiding it for so long? If he knew the truth as well, perhaps he could use these secrets to help the people of Earthbread alongside her. Maybe now he would finally understand White Lily more.

He wrote a letter addressed to both WL and EF about his final decision. White Lily is surprised at his decision, and is eternally grateful, while Elder Faerie is more resigned and concerned, knowing that he won't be able to change his mind but still wanting to help. He asks her to help write her next letter, and the two send a package to Pure Vanilla. Inside was another letter with the faint smell of lilies, as well as a map to the location of the banquet and a moonstone from Elder Faerie as a show of goodwill and for protection. He in turn sends what would become his final letter to her, unbeknownst to the two reading. He expresses his gratefulness to both WL and EF and declares his determination to find answers both for her and for the sake of everyone, stating, "Let me be your hope when you have none, and you my guiding light in shadows..."

Pure Vanilla proceeds to head to the Witch's Banquet, discovers the bitter truth, and in his attempts to save the other cookies falls into the ultimate dough. The fleeting scent of lilies is the last thing he grasps in his final moments, and the faint glow of a moonstone ensures his survival. His soul gem shatters under the weight of the truth and is scattered across the world, longing to be made whole once again.

~~~

Well! I think I have said everything I can say about him for now. I'm sure I can come up with more things later, but if you read this far, thanks for reading! I did not know I was going to say this much, so yeah. Next post is for White Lily specifically, I hope. I'm also taking suggestions for ideas about the other kingdoms and ways this could go, so if you have anything to suggest, let me know. Y'all have a good evening!

[cogmented]

how do you come up with your designs for mcyt’s? theyre so creative and cool so i thought id ask

THANK YOU AND THANK YOU FOR THE QUESTION

now entering yap city tihs will be a long post

my steps are basically

voice

personality

og look of minecraft skin/branding

player movement

other ppls fanart (if any)

things that happened/cultural associations

i start with a bunch of random sketches to get the feel of the person.. that's why so many of my early posts were doodle pages. to me, character design is more based on what the person is like rather than what they look like. i think a lot of people do that

I do this with all of the above and shape language, but in bigger art pieces outside of lineups i also use color and perspective (as in youll see more of someone like spepticle in large, sweeping scenes while someone like zam in closed, heavily perspective-based ones) to indicate personality. ill change designs when suited for this too (spoke with or without a gas mask, vi with or without a mouth, etc etc)

my first iteration of lifesteal designs heavily relied on the look of the skins and were gradually tweaked over time. my most prominent example of this is my spoke design, so i'll use him at least once in the examples for continuous comparison.

i watch a couple of each person's videos first, understand their voice, personality, and what they do, then focus on them in other people's videos too to get a full story, their movement, and what others think of them (helps with personality and things we might not see). streams are the most helpful because they're less biased and you see so much more of their antics. huge stream fan.

i get into the how after this

this process doesnt go in order for some designs and others have a more prominent focus on particular parts of the process that override or effect other parts

Voice

starting off with not spoke here's a problem i encountered when designing wemmbu

I based him a lot off of spoke and ashswag due to not knowing much about him besides the fact that he schemes (spoke&ash-esque) and he doesn't move his character around too much when talking (ash behavior). he didn't match the left one because his voice doesn't have the dramatic, flamboyant fratboy flair that spoke has, so I shifted it to be more friendly yet still dangerous with curved square shapes rather than triangles. i made his scheming, diabolical nature more evident through his clothing that's pretty jester-like and sharp, but with a smoother middle that spoke doesn't have (and to match his eyes).

voice also impacts character height. i dont know how to describe this. mapicc and zam are similar heights because their voices are similar, same goes for parrot and vortex, but leo and vitalasy are close to the same height (due to vitalasy's huge fuckass ears) despite having wildly different voices, with leo's bold text voice and vitalasy's higher-pitched jumbled kinda speech they still take up the same "amount of space" in conversation. they stand out. and even though spoke's voice also stands out an incredible amount he is still only slightly taller than average. this is where personality overrides voice in my designs.

Personality

spoke is sharp in every sense of the word, but is also able to mold himself around to get what he needs.

my first attempt at him was pretty lackluster. i didn't know much of him at the time, only his wither video, and thus understood him mainly through his association with parrot. he seemed a lot more evil and more serious at first glance. like woah! fully fledged mouth and nose?! not anymore.

i cover certain expressive parts to also depict more of their personality in some abstract, holistic way. after watching streams and whatnot, spoke doesnt actually speak (excluding his random sounds and yips or whatever he does) too terribly much, except when the spotlight is on him or he's trying to get something. so, i tweaked his design to encompass that when i understood him better.

i take away his arms to allow his hands to stand out more (character movement thing, he moves around a lot when no one is paying attention to him, punches the air when ..not talking but making a point ig. he's a big fan of hovering menacingly), i give him a slinky-like outside skeletal structure to both capture his affinity for withers (i made him a wither thing because of the wither sounds in his video.. and the withers in general) and to give him the feeling of more freedom with his movement.

i also just really like gas masks so. basically, spoke is someone that hides away until he chooses to stand out. thank lord heaven he looks like some shadow creature.

later on i gave him more magenta highlights, especially in the wormhole era because 1. magenta wasnt heavily included in his rainbow look, making it stand out on his whole being, and 2. because magenta is really really cool and people should use it more.

og minecraft skin/branding

hi spokeis here. this will be quick because his branding is so heavy. lightning, rainbow, black. boom. character. withers and white eyes? easy. causes a lot of anarchy? again, lightning and withers.

planetlord on the other hand is someone i greatly differed from the og skin and branding. i saw the design in a vision idk. i shift his colors all the time in different pieces but i use more of his pfp colors now because there's too many purples in this world. his branding, personality, and voice all connect very well. a bit misleading, he's a bit of a weasel.

Movement

i never used to look into movement, but pvp styles and conversational movement of lifesteal is intriguing. unfortunately it was only something i started paying attention to during the end of s4 because vitalasy's movement was so interesting. he's a big fan of getting in people's faces.

ill be real, i didn't really notice spoke a lot during things because he was almost always never alone, and when he was it is always at a distance or you knew he had people to back him up.

spoke's movement isn't actually too abnormal. he's goal oriented and tends to always be doing something, and when he does he finds the most efficient way possible. pretty basic. his design choices are based mainly on voice and personality.

someone like mapicc on the other hand has very particular movement. he spins around people when fighting and gets right up in their face (in nethpot pvp mostly), so i made his clothing tighter to the skin with looser parts to accentuate that movement: practical clothing for close combat battles. it was also noticed (by the lord) that he tends to look straight forward instead of the slightly down that most players do.

zam fights differently, but i made him with the og branding (he's princezam) and what he does in mind. his body language in my art is more indicative of his personality.

Other people's fanart

shoutout the community, a notable amount of ideas were from the mid-late 2022 lifesteal community.

dog leowook and leather jacket mapicc were from gen, jackalope rek from aoi i think, "croptop" jacket spoke from saints-blade, snail terrain from navy-leader, tv ashswag from kish, sock puppet red definitely from someone i dont remember, 4 armed squiddo from seri, and old cartoon jaron was from bucket

Things that happened/istarted talking about cultural inspirations

spoke and his connection to godhood influenced his redesign greatly. this section affects what the character wears most of the time.

i give both spoke and vitalasy painted palms (alta) due to their connection with godhood and destruction, with spoke in particular reminding me a lot of Kali Ma, thus i gave him a skirt (due to nppp too). vitalasy's clothing is based on Indonesian cultural clothing. wemmbu's also takes inspiration from Indonesian and Bhutan cultural clothing.

indigenous cultures inspired some designs too (i do a lot of ethnographic anthropology work with some of the tribes i base the clothing off of), with woogie having Yupik and Inuit inspiration. polar bear = cold climate in my head. and leo has Haida and Yunnan (minority Chinese providence, not a tribe) inspiration.

bacon's... not bacon strip design's clothing was based on Bangladeshi clothing (im Bangladeshi, i also added alpona patterns to ash's design), nomadic cultures, and some german pilgrim thing?? idk not my best design. i specifically looked for nomadic inspiration because of his willingness to flee at any moment lol. i didnt do this for rek despite his fleeing reputation because i dont watch rek content too much and he already had hybrid traits that took care of that presentation.

poafa's design is a goat because of the medusa trials where he was used as a scapegoat. makes sense i think. his horns are from past associations with jepex that infected mapicc as well (devil trio s1). zam's design is very much from s3 empire and s4 castle.

planet's design changed slightly, mostly rounder shapes, but also the number of "spikes" on his scarf, now stuck at three because of 3ht.. and easier to draw than five. minutetech has a bow instead of a bowtie from jumper due to s5 happenings. the gem on his crown has wemmbu's highlights from his gem's main color.

roshambo's design was also heavily influenced by medusa where i gave him a snake body. in my art that depicts before medusa events he doesn't have the snake body, and same goes with before s4 spoke where i draw him with full pants. in some sketches ive depicted mapicc with a muzzle only after the destruction of s4 spawn due to quix's mapicc dog influence shoutout.

mapicc and ro have matching things that persist seasons (mapicc periwinkle collar, ro red painted ring finger... head finger?), as did subz and vitalasy with matching shoulder pads (beginning of s4 subz had a bandana and vitalasy had a bell that traded between them through artworks of mine) Vitalasy also gained sun and moon earrings. mid and 4c have matching hoods/cloaks ^_^ marriage or something.

hope this made sense and covered everything you could have ever wanted forever... feel free to ask me questions i love explaining processes

[piedpiperart]

Phantom in Gotham 4

Chapter 3

Danny wasn't sure if he had told Red Hood too much or not last night. Did he need to know about the ghost zone? Probably not, but Danny knew what it felt like to not have anyone guide him on the development of his ghost powers. Danny felt a sort of bond with the Hood. They were similar in the way that they'd sort of come back to life with a bunch of unexplained changes with no idea about the whole ghost community they were now a part of. Though, Danny guessed Red Hood wasn’t really a part of it anymore, but still. Stuff like that can be hard to adjust from, and having someone talk them through it is helpful.

How long had the Red Hood been living with contaminated ectoplasm? Danny thought, shuddering. He at least hoped the guy would feel a bit better now that the rage was gone. Even Danny had trouble controlling the Ring of Rage, he wasn't sure how a regular human could deal with that kind of anger on a normal basis. A thought came to him about how Red Hood killed a bunch of criminals in the news he’d seen a while ago, and then it kind of made sense. 

Danny sighed, laying his head down on his desk for a nap. He'd snuck into the school early to take a nap at his desk before classes started, like he usually did. It was better than sleeping in the pizzaria for sure, even if he didn't have anything comfy to lay on. At least he never got cold, he thought.

Danny was a little glad he was able to talk to Red Hood about the GIW, considering the guy was more of an anti-hero and less likely to follow the government's orders. He hoped the guy might be able to investigate a bit, or help him in case Danny ever got captured by Agent K or his parents. Again. Danny wasn't so sure anything would come of it, but he figured someone with ectoplasm contamination should at least be aware of it in case he put himself on the GIW's radar. Danny shivered at the thought, pulling out his homework instead to focus on something other than experiments on his ghost friends and himself.

By the time people started shuffling into their seats, Danny was doodling designs for ghost gear. Like the Specter Detector, he wanted to reverse it to hide a ghost's signature instead. He and Ellie would be able to hide from the GIW and any ghost-weapons that relied on those kinds of sensors. Since he was in Gotham, the GIW's scanners back in Amity wouldn't reach him. Probably. He'd be out of their range, or at least he hoped so, for the time being. If he went back to Amity, having a way to hide his ectoplasmic signature would come in handy.

Danny perked up from what he was designing when Tim practically fell into the seat next to him, nearly spilling his coffee. "Dude, you okay?"

"Long night,"Tim grumbled, rubbing his eye. He looked over at Danny with poorly concealed concern. "You okay?"

"Yep!" Danny beamed back at him, yet Tim could tell his eyes were full of something like anxious nerves and a bit of hope and fear about his interactions with Red Hood last night. "I'm more worried about you, did you even get any sleep last night?"

"Few hours,"Tim said, sipping his coffee. "Was just working on a project. Oh." Tim stopped, looking at Danny with tired eyes. "What's that you're working on?"

Danny blinked, looking down at his notebook. "Oh, nothing important. Just designing an invention I was thinking of."

Tim made grabby hands for his notebook and Danny stifled a laugh but handed it over. Nothing on it specifically mentioned ghosts, so he figured it wouldn't arouse any kind of suspicion. "This is pretty advanced." Tim said, scanning over the blueprints. He squinted at Danny. "Why the interest in hiding energy signatures?"

"U-uh,"Danny stammered, "My... parents, are inventors. Just sort of picked up a few things from them. It was just an idea I had." Danny waved off, and accepted the notebook back from Tim.

"Really? What sort of stuff were your parent's working on?"Tim asked, genuinely curious.

"They made pretty much everything,"Danny breathed out a laugh, "Like, from electrified nets to toasters that shoot lasers for home defense kind of things, so they weren’t taken seriously very often.”

"Huh,"Tim thought, sipping his coffee in thought.”What are they working on now?”

“I’m not really sure, I don’t live with them anymore.” Danny said, turning back to his desk. He rubbed at his chest absentmindedly, feeling phantom pains from the scars his parents gave him. Tim narrowed his eyes at the answer, but figured he just didn't want to talk about it. He stared into his cup of coffee, thinking absently of how many hours of sleep he got the night before and if that was affecting his ability to communicate. He had the sudden urge to bring up ghosts but pushed that down.  

“I don’t live with my parents anymore either,”Tim offered, and Danny gave him a sympathetic smile. 

“Adopted? I heard a little bit about the Waynes, but I didn’t want to pry,”Danny asked. “My friend Tucker is obsessed with Wayne Tech.” And he was pretty sure Sam had kept track of their environmental progress, but he didn’t know much about that since she usually just ended up talking about Poison Ivy. 

“Yeah,”Tim inclined his head. He thought about what Dick had told him about Danny and fought to keep a frown off his face. “What about you? Who do you live with now?”

“Uh, just me right now,” Danny winced, rubbing the back of his neck. “My sister helped me get an apartment around here to stay in while I go to school.”

Tim frowned. He’d forgotten about Danny’s two sisters. One was in college, and the other one seemed younger. Was she still staying with Danny’s parents? Why was Danny lying about the apartment? “Oh yeah? Why’d you choose Gotham Prep?”

This made Danny light up.”I wasn’t really paying attention when my sister explained it to me, but I can see now why she wanted me to go here. The astrology and science programs are the best- way better than back home. My old school was a lot smaller and underfunded, but we only had one class of twenty or less per grade. Gotham Prep is just- huge.”

“What school did you go to before?” Tim pressed. He could look into a school without using the batcomputer. 

To Tim’s dismay, Danny waved him off. “You wouldn’t have heard of it. Small town, you know? We didn’t even have to wear uniforms.” Danny added, tugging at the collar of his own with a wince. 

“You’ll get used to it,”Tim laughed. Or so he thought. Tim was used to it, but as far as he could tell Jason never liked the uniforms. Dick maybe, but still. 

“I hope not,”Danny grumbled, making Tim smile. “So what’d you choose for the chemistry project? I have to say, physics and mechanics are more my expertise.”

“Yeah, I finished it this morning,”Tim said absently. He was running through their conversation and making notes on the potential red flags. Knowing Danny, there had to be a reason why he was practically homeless yet attended a private school. Not to mention what his sisters were up to. Tim had a suspicion that his older sister was involved a lot more than the parents were. “I chose kryptonium.”

“Huh,” Danny nodded, resting his chin on his hand. “I chose Aluminum. It’s good for a lot of mechanical engineering.” Danny let out a breath, mumbling,”And since ectoranuim hasn’t been discovered by the whole world yet,” under his breath. 

Tim squinted,”What?”

“Nothin, just lamenting the lack of knowledge we have for other possible elements in different realms or on different planets,”Danny explained, then started a rant to cover up anything about ectoranium.”Like Kryptonium, basically. Who knows what other things are out in space. There could be a bazillion undiscovered elements out there.”

“I’m pretty sure the Justice League is responsible for at least 8 new elements,”Tim nodded. Not mentioning the ones they kept under wraps from the general public. 

“Yeah, but you never know what the government is hiding,”Danny scowled. He looked like he genuinely disliked the government, which, Tim could agree they weren’t great on the best of days. Especially since he found out about the anti-ecto-acts that affected Jason and Phantom. 

“Woah, what do you have against the government?” Tim laughed. Danny only scowled more. 

“I think they get away with too much. Easily corrupted. You know, the usual,” Danny scoffed. “Not like I’m a conspiracy theorist, but still.”

‘What, you think they have some sort of Area 51?” Tim asked. Of course, Tim knew exactly what was in Area 51, but he wasn’t going to say anything. 

“Maybe not, but something like it, sure.” Danny said, taking a breath. He turned to face Tim with what looked like false cheer. “Why, don’t you believe in cryptids? I mean, if aliens exist, why not?”

“Like ghosts and stuff?” Tim smiled. “Yeah, I believe in ghosts. We should go to a haunted house sometime.”

“Wha- you believe in ghosts?” Danny laughed. Tim smiled softly at the sound. He couldn’t remember the last time Danny had laughed. It was nice. 

“You don’t?” Tim raised an eyebrow at him, amused. 

“Yeah no. Bigfoot’s probably real though,”Danny nodded. Tim couldn’t help but notice the way Danny’s bangs fell in front of his eyes, and had the urge to brush them away himself. He had a sudden flashback to Dick’s sly smile when mentioning Danny and felt heat on his cheeks.  “My goal in life is to meet Mothman.”

“I thought your goal in life was to go to space,”Tim shook his head fondly, trying to dislodge the sudden gay thoughts that overtook his mind for a moment. Maybe he needed more sleep, he thought.

“Okay, my goals are to go to space and meet mothman,” Danny relented. He glanced at Tim with a glint in his eye before adding,”You think I’ll find Mothman in space?”

“Wh- no, why would Mothman be in space? Wasn’t he seen in the middle of the US?”

“Maybe Mothman is from space. Might be more of him out there. I could be the one to finally bring him home, where he belongs.”

“Danny no.”

“Are you saying I shouldn’t launch Mothman into space?”

“I wouldn’t trust you to be launching anything into space, much less a person.”

chapter 5

[nomsfaultau]

thank you so much for writing mandatory family reunion. i just reread it for the eighth time. i think im going to dedicate my life to life to reading your other sbi fics until you update again. also; do you have any tips for committing to fics and not leaving them half-finished?

ahhhh that’s so sweet glad you enjoyed! As for writing fics, having it be your special interest really helps. But for more general advice on finishing:

-Don’t stick to just one story. Which seems counter intuitive! But inevitably you’re going to hit a snag in one story. So instead of stopping writing at all, switch projects. Writing involves a whole bunch of thinking, and stuff needs time to percolate in the back of your head. But having a small project to work on in the mean time keeps you engaged in the writing process, gives you practice, makes you feel like you’re making progress, and allows time to work out the other story. I personally have 1-2 main projects, Fault and MFR, and then rotate a couple back burner stories that I work on whenever I get inspiration and fully expect to have very slow progress and possibly never finish. Short stories, one shots, hell even just writing little one off scenes that don’t go anywhere. It’s a way to keep writing fun and thus you’re more likely to continue working on the stuff you’re trying to complete. Don’t feel bad if there’s breaks between working on your main project. Writing involves a lot of thinking and it takes time to do that.

-Devoting time to do that thinking also significantly helps. When you’re falling asleep can be a good time to rotate stories in your head. Could also be if you’re walking from place to place, or brushing your teeth, or other little gaps in the day. Even if you’re not physically writing, it’s still part of the process and can make it easier when you actually sit down to write because you know what scene you’re most excited to work on. Also, talking over your story idea with a friend is a great way to stay motivated if you can get over the mortifying ordeal of being known. You can bounce ideas off them, and other people’s investment in a project can be a great motivator to finish. Like legit a single ao3 comment once stopped me from my plan to abandon a fic. Reminding yourself why you (and other people) like the story makes it easier to want to continue.

-Keeping a rough outline of what you envision for the story can give you a road map to how close to done you are and where to go next. Just like you can hop between projects, I find jumping around the plot time line to write what scene I’m most interested in atm keeps me going instead of writing everything in order. Though, all writers have different degrees of plot planning, so that depends on your style.

-Art! I’m an artist, and while writing definitely fuels what I draw, I find doodling cool scenes I want to write really inspires me to keep going. This sorta falls under the same category of continuing to think about the story and motivating you to finish. -I found keeping a writing journal has improved how I view my writing. Basically, I’ll jot down a bullet point list of scenes worked on that week/month. Writing is a very slow process, so seeing a timeline of actual progression on a story makes it feel like I’m actually getting more out of my head and onto paper. I also jot down what ideas for scenes I came up with since that’s also part of writing, and might include a chill no stakes writing goal for that period, like work on X or Y project, or a particular scene. Sometimes my goal is just ‘write at least one sentence’. I give it lots of leeway, and accept that the muse may just be somewhere else that week. And if the goal isn’t met, no sweat! Life can get busy at times and it’s more important that you aren’t beating yourself up if it’s been awhile since you last touched a project. Forcing yourself to write a scene that isn’t ready won’t result in a good scene or an happy writer. Switch projects, give yourself time to think about it, take care of yourself, etc.

And, legitimately, don’t be afraid to abandon a piece. Maybe you’ll come back to it, maybe you won’t. It can feel disheartening to feel like you can’t seem to finish a project, but unfinished pieces also do a lot for you: they hone your craft, allow you a creative outlet, give you scenes that could potentially be reworked for later pieces, and most importantly were hopefully fun to write! Story crafting is a hobby that should bring you joy, not frustration and shame.

Like, I have stories that will never see the light of day and are just so I can have fun and poke it with a stick occasionally. I’m 100% confident in saying that every author will have tenfold the number of unfinished wips compared to complete works. That’s just part of the creative process: exploring different worlds to find the one you want to write.

Perhaps a fic might never get finished, but in the wise words of Technoblade: “if you enjoy it, it’s not time wasted, no?”

(Now, I think he was talking about murdering people, but the point still stands.)

[adapembroke]

Psyche in the Underworld: Asteroid Psyche Conjunct Pluto

When we tell mythological stories, we always speak in the past tense, as if the story is something that already happened. We know that myths aren’t true. They aren’t describing events from the past, but we’re used to hearing stories about things that happened before, so when we tell mythological stories, we place them in before, too.

There is a sense in which this is necessary. If you’ve ever read a story written in the present tense, you know how wrong it feels. We seem to be equipped with a visceral sense that it’s impossible to live an event and tell the tale about it at the same time.

But the comfort we feel with the past tense telling of myths hides an uncomfortable truth: Myths are not stories from before. They exist outside of time in the “always now,” or the Timeless Country, as I call it in my book The Gods of Time Are Dead.

We are creatures of time. We can understand the concept of no-time, but we can’t experience a timeless way of being any more than a 2D doodle creature is capable of experiencing a sphere. The closest we can get to understanding timelessness is a cycle, events that play over and over like an endlessly repeating playlist. Play the cycle fast enough, and the events kind of blur together, but everything still happens in a sequence, so we never really escape chronological time.

That endless playlist of mythological stories is one of the things that astrology models through the movements of the planets. As Venus, the Mesopotamian goddess Inanna goes to the underworld and returns endlessly. The sun of the Egyptians is born and dies and reborn again. The Greek goddess Persephone cycles between her lives as the Maiden Goddess of Flowers and the Queen of the Dead.

Psyche’s Descent Into the Underworld

One of the cyclical stories you can watch unfolding in the sky is the myth of Cupid and Psyche. There are asteroids for both of the lead characters, and we can watch them dance. Separating and returning. Bonding, betrayal, redemption. Repeat. I talk in depth about the astrology of Cupid and Psyche in my course on their asteroids.

As I am writing this, asteroid Psyche is about to (re)enact one of the pivotal moments of her story. In astrological terms, she is meeting with Pluto the Lord of the Underworld, and she is beginning the infamous descent into the land of the dead.

She has been separated from her lover Cupid, and she is doing all of these dangerous and seemingly pointless tasks for his mother Venus, trying to win him back. She’s been given a task that has to be the last because there can’t be anything more impossible: She has been ordered to go to the underworld to retrieve beauty ointment from the Queen of the Underworld herself. No one goes to the underworld and returns (except all the gods and heroes who break the rules “just this once”), so this will definitely be the end of Psyche.

Going to the underworld and returning successfully requires following a particular set of rules. Psyche’s task requires her to have a single-minded focus on her mission. She encounters a bunch of people along the way who need her help, and she cannot help them. She needs to be ruthlessly selfish, or she will fail.

Pluto as the Face of Evil

One of Pluto’s functions is to represent the face of evil for a particular time. As Pluto cycles through the signs, it shows us different ways the human soul can become corrupted. As I write this, Psyche is beginning her descent to the underworld just as Pluto is moving into Aquarius, showing us a new face of evil.

Asteroid Psyche Conjunct Pluto Dates

March 19, 2024 - 1 Aquarius 39’

April 17, 2029 - 10 Aquarius 19’

September 5, 2029 - 8 Aquarius 29’ (Retrograde)

October 6, 2029 - 8 Aquarius 05’

May 29, 2034 - 18 Aquarius 08’

July 24, 2034 - 17 Aquarius 28’ (Retrograde)

November 13, 2034 - 16 Aquarius 00’

December 5, 2039 - 23 Aquarius 34’

December 22, 2044 - 00 Pisces 46’

Since Pluto went into Capricorn in 2008, we have been getting a crash course in the evils of individual ambition at the expense of society. We have experienced the mortgage crisis and financial crash of 2008, the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street, the childish temper tantrums of billionaires and a defeated American president, and strongman-driven invasions with sickening civilian casualty counts.

By this time, we should know that greed is not good, and individuals who put their own desires before the needs of others create (and usually become) monsters.

And yet, there is evil at the other end of the spectrum, too. The masses can swallow the rights and needs of the individual in reigns of terror, red scares, and Kafka-esque nightmares. Each sign is a reaction to the excesses of the previous sign. This face of the evil of the masses is what we are beginning to see with Pluto in Aquarius. This is the territory we will be traveling through for the next 20 years, and this is the underworld that Psyche will be traveling to whenever she meets with Pluto.

It feels significant to me that it is in the first few moments of this new Pluto in Aquarius chapter that “just a girl” Psyche goes down to the underworld on her selfish quest, deaf to the cries of the masses. Psyche descends on the very last day of winter in the northern hemisphere, and she will begin her return from the underworld accompanied by Persephone, the two of them bringing spring along with them.

Pluto Conjunct Psyche: Hero or Villain?

In an article for The Living Hearth, I talked about Aries season as the season of the hero. The hero’s quest is fundamentally selfish, but their selfishness is redeemed by the gift they bring back from the underworld for the community.

Heroes and villains are shadows of each other. Both act selfishly, usually because they feel they must. The only difference between them is that the hero ultimately brings life, and the villain brings death.

We cannot live life and tell the story of it at the same time. We live in the present and only understand the role we play in our life stories when those stories are past, when we reach the unknowable future, and it is revealed what our descent to the underworld has done.

This is the real (hidden) reason why it takes so much courage to be a hero: You have to face your shadow, confront the truth of your motives, and descend to the underworld without knowing what you will find there or if you will be able to look yourself in the mirror when you return.

It’s so much easier to stay home and never risk anything at all.

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[julien5-malfunction]

25082024

Jeez i'm on and off in here aren't i?

I dunno, i just have an urge to talk about my obsessions, i suppose.

I think i want a bunch of piercings now, i don't know why? I took the septum piercing a few weeks back, and having it is sensory hell. I can feel it is there, i keep licking it (because i can reach my tounge up to the tip of my nose) and moving it around with my upper lip. It's pretty distracting. I'm pretty damn sure if i get lip piercings or any other ones near the mouth, i'll be constantly chewing on them. At first i had the stance on oral piercings, that i would never get them due to being concerned for my gums and teeth, but then i learned that there is this thing called 'vertical labret' that doesn't go inside the mouth, only trough the lip. And now i want two... damned.

The other thing is tattoo fever. I'm a person who; A. (to the doom of my 'project') doesn't have that much concern about the sterility of my environment, as long as things don't feel sticky. And; B. owns all the necessary/basic supplies for tattooing oneself.

The issue arises when, i've been to the best of my abilities trying to avoid 🔪 myself, since i've been struggling with that lately, and it has manifested itself in the urge to drip melting candle was onto my arms (which, in my opinion is a legit alternative, it kinda hurts, forces you to calm the 🦆 down in order you don't burn the house down, yet leaves no permanent damage. -at least so far.) and well. 'inkless tattoos'. Or as in clear ink, the stuff used for making gray wash or something. I've been using that. It leaves a mark, like bloodlining, but blacking out, with the blood. "blood out?" nah. It leaves a scar, i have a large one on my leg, in the shape of a fish bone, that i did back in the uhhh... i think around christmas. Let's say 8 months ago and you can still see it if you know where to look and look hard enough. I don't know if it'll be any diffirent on my hand, see, my leftie has been abused more than any other body part and seems so have a thicker skin from all the " s c r a t c h e s ". It doesn't even feel pain from the candle thing as much as the right hand. My right hand is a real virgin in comparison, i mean like, i had to stop bc i couln't take it all where as the left hand can take at least 3 times as much wax and not feel burned at all?

Yeah so... the urge is real.

I feel like, if i'm going to seriously consider myself a tattoo artist at some point, i'll most likely *will have to* sacrafice a limb or two, some area of skin to the craft...

I had this idea: if i just doodle my leftie full of stuff and then black it out at the end? Do a trippy ass treeline hipster thing at the top? I was cleaning my supplies (and i use the same needles and cups over and over since i'm only tattooing fruits and silicone with them, it doesn't need to be new everytime) and got ink on myself, then had a brilliant idea of smearing it all over myself. And idk man, i kinda liked how that looked? Definetly not the whole arm, but from the wrist to the elbow? I liked it. hell. I just know i'll miss seeing my vein if i back out over it. My left arm vein has to be one of my favourite bodyparts i have.

[audiovisualrecall]

Okay, just a list in no particular order of things I'd like to do, be it today or another day-

Shower (today)

Website - design of art website (i have a plan drawn and written out but certain design choices will need to be made and all acted upon), photograph art, go thru files of art both digital and photos and sort/organize/make folders for those to be used for website, deciding whether to pay for a domain now or later, etc. (Big task I will need to tackle in pieces and in short bursts so I don't get bored/overwhelmed/burned out on it)

Painting - working on the unicorn piece or another wip, and/or starting a new piece

Art, other - sketching on paper or digitally, doodling tony or stevetony, doing life study sketching from references (for x amt of time), etc. Something where the goal is to either have fun in the leisurely sense, or to work on skills/practice.

Call driving school - besides being super belated on scheduling lessons, my certificate of finishing the 5 hr class is now expired and idk if I need to take it again and if so do I have to pay for the class again? I do still want to set up the lessons I paid for tho bc that's still good to go regardless of the certificate.

Call dentist's office to schedule appointment. Have to write down all my weekdays off for the next couple weeks to be able to do this without going 'uhhh let me check'..

Finish my rewatch of Push -I'm about halfway thru maybe further than that. (today probably)

Continue organizing stuff in my room - may potentially require buying additional storage containers but not sure yet.

Do something outside on a nice day (like today)- take a walk, go to the park, draw outside, something outdoors.

Take Edison to the vet - he needs an annual checkup and probably boosters, and I'd like some advice on getting him to lose weight. Need to call and make an appointment. Need to know days off for next few wks to plan.

Go thru and toss out old dried bouquets that have been sitting in vases for uhh a month now. Hard to do bc the cat will hear the sound and come running over to try to eat anything that falls which makes it really complicated and difficult to take care of bc I don't want to drop anything and have him eat it and get sick. (The best I could do is take them into the bathroom with a trash bag and dust pan and close the door I guess?)

Job hunting - just casually mostly, I want to see what's out there that is interesting to me and that I could do (and would presumably offer benefits, if I were to go for them) so I don't feel like staying at my current job is the ONLY option (especially once I need employer provided health insurance, rn I'm covered by the YA29 program via my mom's employment w the city/state)

Start planting! - need to buy potting/starting soil, and find or buy a tray to start seedlings in, and I'd like to try the soil cube method so some way to make the 1x1 cubes and the following sizes possibly as well. Need to germinate some seeds like pepper seeds, and find out if there's a method for some other seeds or not. I'd like to start both veggie and flower seeds to be able to transplant outside around mother's day. At which pt we will need to buy some bags of soil/amendments for the garden out back and on the side probably.

Plant the propagated branch(es) - I brought home pussywillow branches from work and put them in water in a clear vase and they grew roots and stems with leaves???? To successfully plant out any of them I will have to stay on top of watering at first which is hard for me. Also the trees get a little big (not huge, but small tree sized and we already have a bunch of trees) so we won't have room for all of them, so I have to see if any neighbors would be interested in a branch or two.

Buy a hydrangea plant from work to try to prop branches from (can't successfully cut a branch at work and get it home without it dying along the way, probably, and the potted ones usually die quickly indoors or out eventually and our soil is too hard and full of roots to easily plant tbe whole thing, but props are just. A single branch and it'll make its own root system etc.) Also involves a LOT of watering once in the ground to live, and to thrive when summer hits as well.

Bookbinding- need to pick a story and do the typesetting/reformatting in order to be able to print and bind a fic. Could make a sketchbook also but idk if I have good paper for it rn.

Come up with solutions for organizational problems around the house, whether it means designing something or buying or finding something we have to use to improve things. No one else wants to brainstorm with me so this one is tough. Also extends to organizing my stuff.

Set up a space to make art in. This is difficult bc I don't like being upstairs when home alone, and unfortunately upstairs has the only space I'd have to make into a studio, but it has to be a guest room also.

Finish painting the upstairs bathroom - (also possibly adding the chair rail steph planned, and possibly spray-painting the radiator outside) includes touching up some patchy spots, and figuring out a solution for the area where the previous paint peeled up from the older paint, without having to re-do ALL of the 'white' paint in the room (which is actually a very light blue and idk if we have the color anywhere in the house and also it'd be a pain in the ass to redo bc light fixtures are in the way). May mean just extending the dark blue down or just... priming over that area and then covering it with the planned chair rail...

Taking some sort of classes on business/bookkeeping/accounting/tax/related stuff to help with small business thing since my etsy is making more $ than it used to and it'd be nice to b able to understand more, regardless of if I go further w/ it at all, it'd make things easier and less overwhelming/stressful. Also my grandfather was a tax attorney and accountant so it'd be kinda...nice.

Yard sale!!! We have a lot of stuff we already know we don't need and a fun way to get it out of the house would be tp hold a yard sale (over a couple weekends maybe)! We already went through a lot of stuff and boxed stuff up and made decisions abt other stuff. It'll help a ton with having the house not feel so cluttered and frustrating especially for ma. I do want to double check and go back thru some stuff to make sure tho. Anyway anything that doesn't sell in the yard sale can be donated instead, and we can add some books to the little free library box we know of.

Buying the og pokemon Gameboy games bc I stupidly sold them to a friend for next to nothing bc I wasn't playing them and she wanted them and idk I'm weak. Now I gotta buy them from somewhere again so my nephew can play them maybe and also bc it was dumb to get rid of them!!! I still have pokemon yellow tho. Uh so that's, red, blue, silver, gold, and crystal. I think that's it...

Buying a new bag, like my larger red one but uhhh better bc it's got some annoying issues I didn't know abt when I bought it. I love my small bag, tbh, but I realized the larger one can fit a BOOK without being too heavy so now I want to use a larger bag xD but it's not a Now thing I guess.

Learn how to fricking budget and track spending etc!!! I have a haphazard method rn that won't work for me long term which amounts to going oh I don't need that but i want it but no. and then giving in another time, and spending too much. And then repeat.

Work on my comic/story

Work on steph's book illustrations!

Get a gift for ma for upcoming bday!!

And plan something for ma's Bday with others!!!

Hair color - I want to make the baking soda+hydrogen peroxide paste to lighten part of my hair and then get overtone in rosegold/pink and apply it to successfully get some pink in my hair :) I actually rlly liked how the bubblegum pink/rose gold wig looked on me but I don't want to dye my hair permanently or have to use harsher lighteners. Issue is I don't have the color in the house yet so have to buy it. And both lightening and color have to sit in my hair for at least an hour. And presumably color needs to go on hair that has not just been cleaned bc the oils probably help retain the pigment or something. (I Could today do the lightening part, tho? Maybe?)

Make list of things I want/want to buy to give to parental units as a way for them to choose what to get me for a belated bday gift if they so choose to do so. Includes art supplies such as a new cutting mat with more visible gridlines bc I have a hard time w the one I have; bookcloth in diff colors for projects; bookbinding glue; maybe bookboard?, new sketchbook?... also includes roller skates bc <3

Wish bro in law a happy bday tomorrow, already made a gift for him so that's all set ^^

Bake! I want to try a bunch of recipes, including brownie bark, water challah, chive pancakes, and homemade cheezits, but also other stuff I've made before like sugar cookies (cookie press ones and rollout kinds and ones dipped in tempered chocolate mmmm and strawberry ones), muffins, etc.

Improve my recipe book's design, have to figure this one out. I want to be able to remove and add recipes, have it not be too big/bulky, look nice, and function well. Current album style wasn't made right (by me, first attempt at the method) and isn't really working but that may be I need to add larger posts but then it will be large and bulky anyway.... also I don't want to have to rewrite every recipe bc it's tiring and boring and tedious and also I transpose things. But I often rewrite bits of the recipes to make them easier to follow. Maybe I should use a typewriter on cards... 😅

Buy new flowers from work - can only do once I get rid of the old ones.

Actually follow thru on planning to do something with friends from work. Idk what the issue is, I like the idea of hanging out w them, and the activity in mind (pottery painting), but then it's like it has to be after work hours on Wednesday or Thursday, but since I don't drive I'll be getting home super late so I don't want to do it on a day where I have work the next day.... so that makes it harder. Blugh.

Get some specific pieces of clothing... going shopping results in spending an hour trying stuff on, being disappointed by the things I liked most not fitting, buying too much stuff/spending too much anyway, then finding out later I don't rlly like some of what I bought anyway, rinse and repeat. Also I forget to bring items I want to return every time. Buying online is easier and harder as well bc I can't try stuff on before buying. Sigh.

Updating etsy stuff? A bit.

Acquiring my dream bike / a bike. Lightweight/aluminum, specific style of upright handlebars, bike with fenders and rear rack, step thru but not stupid looking I just can't do the non step thru bc I'm short. dream bike is momentum I need street step thru (2018?) in glossy cherry red 😍😭

Figure out ways to make my room feel my age. I love it and hate it simultaneously and that sucks.

Uhhhh probably more I can't think of rn.

[vals-von-valentine]

Has this been done yet

Tw/blood

[uncpanda]

The Ties that Bind: Two Years

News: In other news I’m working on the Foyett Arch, and possibly working on Hotch and Reader finally getting together. 

AN: I have gotten some great recommendations from people for this story of what people would like to see! And I am loving them!!!! This one goes out to the anon who suggested a heart to heart between Spencer and the reader. I think there will honestly be several of them throughout the series, but this is certainly a big one.

Master List

“It’s big.” 

You can’t help the smile that comes to your lips. Despite being a certified genius, Spencer is still only eleven years old. Big things and new experiences still terrify him, and starting high school while being a foot shorter than everyone else is a terrifyingly new and big experience. 

You shift the bag on your back, and then fuss with Spencer’s. It’s new. You’d managed to squirrel away a little money this month while doing the bills. You’d had just enough left over to buy Spencer the Star Trek backpack of his dreams and a new pair of shoes. The money from your job had covered the school supplies for both of you, and few new clothes from the local thrift shop. 

You look down at him, “You ready?” 

He nods, and grips the straps of his backpack, “Ready.” the determined glint in his eye is enough to give you hope. To be completely honest Spencer doesn’t need to be in high school. He’s tested out of every class, but he can’t go to college just yet. He has to wait for you to graduate first. And he had insisted he’d rather be in the high school where there’s a chance of an academic challenge, then in the elementary school where there’s no chance. 

The fact that it’s hard for him to make friends also plays a role in it. You know that, but you don’t say anything. When you step inside the building and the number of people increase, Spencer reaches out and grasps the hem of your shirt. He’s in most of your classes with you, despite the guidance counselor’s protests. And the principal, well he’d been excited about the prestige Spencer would bring to the school with his test grades and college acceptance letters. He’d been willing to bend over backwards to accommodate your brother. If things go well this semester, next semester he’ll take classes by himself. 

People greet you and call out your name. You’re quick to wave and ignore the odd looks when they see Spencer trailing after you like a baby duck. Only a few friends have met him, usually when you went to pick him up from school. None of them have ever been to the house though, and you intend to keep things that way. 

English is up first, and you lead the way to the room instead of finding your friends and socializing. You know Spencer is memorizing every step to the class, and he’ll feel better once he’s out of the crowd. The classroom is mostly empty and you settle in one of the middle seats while Spencer takes the one next to you. 

You watch in amusement as he takes out all his new supplies and sets them up in a neat and calculated order before folding his hands in his lap and turning to smile at you. “Do you think we’ll start talking about the summer reading right away?” 

“No. We have a few days of introductions, and class rules, and a bunch of stuff we already know but still need to go over.” 

He slumps a bit, sighs, and mumbles, “Stupid rules.” 

More people file in, all of them give Spencer weird looks, but it’s Bryan Lee who finally asks, “Why is there a kid in our class?” 

You don’t look up from the doodle you’re scrawling on the cover of your notebook, “He’s my brother. He’s super smart, and elementary school was boring him. So here he is.” You look up, “Problem?” 

Bryan holds his hands up in a mock surrender, “Nope. Just curious.” 

He steps in front of Spencer’s desk and crouches down, “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Bryan. Most people call me Bry. Your sister is the exception.” 

Spencer studies him for a minute before saying, “She doesn’t like nicknames. Not sure why, but she doesn’t.” 

Bryan smiles, “Well. It was nice to meet you Spencer.” Bryan sends you a wink, before going to take his seat. 

Spencer turns to look at you, but he doesn’t say anything. Your brother takes notes on everything. His pencil never stops moving and you’re worried his hand is going to freeze in a grip hold. He doesn’t ask a lot of questions, and you’re proud of him. You’d had a long talk about drawing attention to himself, and how answering every questions and asking a bunch of questions probably wasn’t the best idea. You’re glad he took it seriously. 

Two years. You only need to make it two years before you can take real custody of Spencer and get the hell out of Nevada. You’ll graduate early and have yourself emancipated by then. 

Lunch is spent with your friends. They make room for Spencer at the table and largely ignore him. Your brother is fine with that. He has a book on the Russian language with him and it’s the size of a cinder block. You not really sure if it’s learning a language or not. He memorizes words, speech patterns, and the forms of words and then just speaks it out like he normally would. His accents are atrocious. But he can already read books in Greek, you figure Russian is just another tool for that. 

You listen to your friends describe their summers; the places they went and the things they did. You had spent most of your summer coaxing your mother out of her paranoia. She was convinced the government was listening in through a device in the TV. She had broken it, and then slipped away for a few days.

When she had returned, you’d gotten her back on her meds, and she had gone back to work. She was now focused on some new path for her lectures and creating a new syllabus from scratch. She was safe, that was what mattered, but you knew things were getting worse. Two years. You just needed two years. 

Your last class of the day, is the only one you don’t share with Spencer. For you it’s a creative writing class, for him . . . it’s gym. You reluctantly, very reluctantly leave him outside the boys’ dressing room. Spencer had been too small for the school’s gym uniform and had been forced to bring play clothes from home. 

Your mind is on him for the majority of class. Sports have never been Spencer’s strong suit, and you know how mean high schoolers can be. You bolt out of class when it’s done, and make it to the boys locker room right as everyone is leaving. Spencer is one of the last ones out, with Bryan guiding him by the shoulder. 

You surge forward and examine him for bruises or cuts or tears. You find none. Your eyes move towards Bryan, “How’d it go?” 

Bryan shrugs, “Some freshman gave him a hard time. I set them straight. And he struck out at baseball.” 

Spencer scowls, “I hate gym.” 

“So noted.” You stand and give Bryan a small smile, “Thanks for looking out for him.” 

He shrugs, “I’ve got two younger sisters. It’s one thing if I give them a hard time, but no one else gets to do it. I figure it’s the same for you two.” 

Spencer’s brow furrows, “No. My sister is my best friend.” 

Bryan’s eyes flicker to you, “It’s true.” 

He smiles, “Well that’s good to know. I’ll see you two around. Spencer, remember to wait for me outside the locker room tomorrow, okay.” 

Your brother nods and Bryan’s gone a second later. 

Spencer looks up at you, and the two of you start walking, “He likes you, you know.” 

“I know.” 

  “He like likes you though. I think he may want to kiss you.” the sound of disgust in your brother’s voice makes  you laugh. 

“I know, but how do you know?” 

“He asked a bunch of questions about you and mentioned all of his sports accolades. I doubt he’s a life long partner but he might be suitable for a high school love interest.” 

“I don’t have time for a love interest. I have my job at the library, I have you, and I have a mother who is . . .special.” 

“She’s schizophrenic. You can say it. I’ve looked it up.” 

You let out a breath of air, “She’s getting worse Spencer.” There’s no use hiding it, the kid is too perceptive to hide it. And you refuse to lie to him. 

“Two years, right?” 

You nod. Two years and you’ll have your degree and you can apply to a college in California and Spencer can go to Cal Tech. The school had offered him a full scholarship including living arrangements for the two of you and a monthly allowance. You just had to last two years. You’d already lasted sixteen, you could handle two more. You had to. 

[belphies-cuhm-sluht]

OK my apologies if requests r closed but if not;

I just maybe possibly most likely sprained my wrist, and i was wondering if u could write some hc's for the demon brothers taking care of mc after they had an accident and hurt their dominant hand (bc i would like comfort ty very much i rlly appreciate it/gen)

Brothers Caring For GN!MC Who Sprained Their Wrist (Headcanons)

A/N : Oh god, sprains are so annoying, so I really hope your wrist feels better soon, anon <3

Lucifer

He’ll definitely help take care of you, but not in like… a babying type of way. More so, if you need his help, he’ll be there in the blink of an eye, but he doesn’t want to hover… unless you want him to hover… He can do that too.

Since it is your dominant hand, he can’t imagine not being able to use his dominant hand, so he’ll definitely help you with writing or texting.

He’ll make sure that you’re following doctor’s orders though because he wants your wrist to heal quickly so you won’t be in pain anymore.

Mammon

He’s very worried. Whether you come in with a splint, a cast, or the bandage that keeps you from moving your wrist too much… He’s panicking, and he has so many questions. What happened? Who did it? Where are they? Are you okay?

He’s definitely babying you, you’re his human, and he’s going to make sure that you get the very best care he can give you. No matter how annoying it may seem.

Although he doesn’t know much about how to treat a sprained wrist, he’s very good at getting the ice packs, and the pain medicine. He still feels like he’s doing a good job though, and he’s trying his very best.

Leviathan

At first he thought that it was just a joke and your way of getting out of playing video games with him (please don’t get mad at him for thinking that though, it’s just his pessimistic brain talking.)

When he realizes that you really did sprain your wrist he feels really bad for assuming, and he’s going to help wherever and whenever he can. He’ll help you rebandage your wrist if you need help with it, and he’ll probably be really blushy the entire time.

He’s not really the best at caring for other people since he is usually alone, but he’ll do his best to try to care for you because you mean a lot to him.

Satan

He is the #1 caretaker… There's a book about this and he’s read it. He’s going to ask you a bunch of questions, and he’ll probably sound more like a doctor than any doctor you’ve seen.

He’ll really delicately examine your wrist, make sure there’s no swelling and no redness. While your wrist is still healing he’ll hold all the books that you want to read, and he’s kind of taking advantage of this because he gets to spend more time with you.

Dr. Satan knows all the remedies, all the at-home care and treatments for this, and he’s going to show you all of them. He won’t let you be in too much pain for too long.

Asmodeus

He’s got a lot of questions, but the main one is if it hurts, and if it does, how bad? He doesn’t want you in pain, it hurts his heart. He will help you with anything, literally anything.

He hovers, but only because he cares a lot. If you need help in the shower, he’ll offer to help (not in a sexual way, in a “please let me help you” type of way). If your wrist is in one of the bandages, he offers to find nicer ones that’ll match your outfits. Just little ways to brighten up your look on it.

He actually follows the doctor's orders very closely. He also really likes to do little doodles on your hand to keep you smiling throughout the day.

Beelzebub

With all the working out he does and the sports that he plays, he knows what it’s like to have a hurt wrist, although, as a demon, he heals pretty fast and it doesn’t hurt as bad. He definitely knows how to care for a sprained wrist though.

He’s a big proponent of letting your wrist rest, so he will do everything he can to keep you from using that hand at all. He’ll help feed you, and he’ll buy cute little curly straws to put in your cups so that you don’t have to lift them.

Basically, he’s letting both your wrists rest until you’re all better. He doesn’t want you to put extra strain on your other wrist to compensate, so he will do everything for you.

Belphegor

He doesn’t ask many questions because he doesn’t want to pester you about it, he mainly wants to know what it is that he can do to help you heal faster.

He’ll bring you ice packs, and pain medication, he’ll also use all of the pillows on his bed for you to rest your hand on to keep it elevated. He’ll definitely ask you to stay up in the attic with him just so he knows that you’re not straining your wrist or using it too much.

After you’re healed is when he’ll ask all the questions. He really just wants to know if someone did it to you. He waited so he could fully focus on you and get your wrist better first though.

[snowycorpse]

Tate Langdon headcanons

(aka me projecting onto the poor guy)

He is bi/pansexual (doesn't mind either label)

Has internalized homophobia bc of Constance’s bullshit though

Adores fruit, one of the only things he'll gladly eat

Loves being praised

Thrifts all his clothes

He is 100% an artist

Reads constantly (and has great taste)

The library is like his escape room 

It’s quiet and secluded and has so many worlds that he can escape into

Once the internet became bigger he went absolutely wild

With all that knowledge to be consumed at his fingertips, he was enamored 

He's a little too into true crime though

Like he'll get really into one case that will consume him for weeks

You should have seen him when all the Jeffrey Dahmer stuff came to light

He was very much not okay

Kurt Cobain's death was part of the reason he snapped

Gets peeved out by eating sometimes, so he skips meals often

Really emotional pretty much 24/7

Little to no friends

When he was still alive he would try to get out of the house as much as possible because of his mother

He would still be there for Addy when she needed her brother though

He loves cuddling, especially being the little spoon

Please hold him

Constantly longs for more cardigans, he has a problem

Halloween is his favorite holiday

The Nightmare Before Christmas came out a year before he died, he loved it

Probably liked Beetlejuice too

A fan of Tim Burton's aesthetic in general

Ben prescribed him Lexapro so he probably has either anxiety or depression (at least)

Loves new technology, show him Spotify and he'll be the happiest little guy

One of those kids that pretended to be a vampire in 3rd grade

Likes causing discourse on the internet

Maybe a bit of a theater kid (?)

Probably enjoys vandalizing things/spraypaint

Also enjoys shoplifting

Just petty crimes

Almost got arrested several times but always managed to get away until the last time

Despises change

More than likely had a couple romantic partners before Violet, but only got hurt

Would run a successful aesthetic Tumblr blog

Let's be real he would live on Tumblr if he got a device with internet access

Slang confuses the shit out of though, he really is still a 90s kid

Is sad he can't go out to movies after he's dead

Would order a projector online and make his own movie theater in the attic

Invites all the other ghosts up there to join him

Laughs at portrayals of ghosts in movies

Adores slashers though

I feel like he'd love Friday the 13th and Scream specifically

He's an online shopping addict now because I said so

He can't leave the house, it only makes sense

He'd steal the current residents of Murder House's credit cards to pay for it all 

This also causes more discourse among the families, which I honestly think he might find entertaining

Speaking of addictions, he is 100% a caffeine addict

Especially loves green Monster Energy

It gives him heart palpitations but he drinks it anyway 

Back when he was alive, the caffeine addiction eventually spiraled into cocaine and meth 

But we all knew that that’s literally canon

Absolutely gets jittery for no reason, even without being on anything, so the drugs would only heighten that

Self-conscious about how scrawny he is

Definitely owns a jewelry box

Larry probably called him a sissy for owning jewelry once, so he makes a point to wear it every day

Made earrings out of his wisdom teeth

Makes earrings out of anything

He writes poetry and his own songs to get rid of his extra emotions

He carries a composition notebook around with him everywhere for scribbles and doodles 

You never know when inspiration is going to strike

If he for some reason doesn’t have his notebook on him when he gets an idea he will write on napkins, his own skin, shoes, whatever he can find

He seems like the kinda guy to save newspaper clippings, don’t ask me why

He’d keep a bunch of them on his corkboard or pasted into his notebook

Basically “lives” for music when he has nothing else to keep him going

Loves sleep but stays up way too late at the same time

His love language is touch, but he’s also afraid of being touched/is touch-starved

Gets obsessed with random topics and will research them for days

He has a bunch of miscellaneous knowledge because of this

Likes fire/ burning stuff

Fav colors are reds and greens (but absolutely not next to each other)

His fav color scheme is orange and purple/black because it reminds him of Halloween

Buy him presents and he will love you forever

Or just make him something

He didn’t ever have  a lot of people caring about him growing up, so he will  absolutely treasure any gift that is offered to him

He would love playing classic video games like Pong, Tetris, and Pac Man

This doesn’t stop him from enjoying new games too!!

I have a feeling he would be a big fan of Animal Crossing especially

Being friends with cute animals makes him feel less alone

Also seems like he would carry around a battered deck of cards with him everywhere for quick games of Solitaire

He has a wall of entertainment/distraction materials in his room (VHS tapes, CDs (both blank & burned), DVDs, records, books, games)

Fascinated by anatomy, it’s the only science class he ever did well remotely well in 

He was probably one of the “advanced” kids in elementary school, but by the time he hit high school he was too done with people to care that much anymore 

He’s smart, just done with society and conforming to its rules

Probably wanted to grow his hair out at one point, but Constance wouldn’t let him

Speaking of hair, he probably cuts his own

He started having to do that himself in middle school and at first it looked awful

He’s a pro by now though

Loves braiding Addy’s hair for her to help her look like a pretty girl

He’s a great brother, even though he’s the youngest

Mess with his siblings and you mess with him

That’s all for now, but I’ll probably come back and add more later. Please consider adopting any of these headcanons as your own and then telling me so,  as I adore validation. 

I’ve also got headcanons for Kyle in the works, and feel free to request any of your favorite Evan characters as well :) 

Thank you for reading!!!

[corpsentry]

january: an art retrospective

i did some stuff last month (but it’s a lot of stuff and there’s a photodump + some Serious Fucking Reflection, so it’s all below the cut)

so ok, let’s start with this. here are some heads. each head has a red arrow. that red arrow is what i call the red line of the devil. it’s the slope of the face from the side of the eye to the cheekbone and then down towards the chin. up until like 2 weeks ago, i couldn’t draw it. i couldn’t fucking draw it. i would edit over that part of the face over and over again until i was frustrated and tired and i had a raging homosexual headache and it still never looked right. notice that each head is different. notice that each head looks wrong.

at the start of 2021 i finally admitted to myself, as per the image above, that i was deeply, deeply unhappy with my art. what was the problem? i dunno. but i decided i was going to fix it and i was going to do so via another one scribble a day event wherein for every day of january i would find a photo of a human head, and i would draw it.

january 1st, 2021. i was embarrassed to tweet this even on my private account where like 5 friends and a rock would see it. in retrospect, you can also see all of my bad habits emerging like dicks from a hole in the ground. it’s disproportionate. the brows look flat. the eyes are slanting upwards. the entire drawing looks flat, like this isn’t a 3d person but a caricature of one.

january 2nd, 3rd, 4th:

on the 2nd i decided to start a separate thread for doodles and applied learning. here’s the first set of tests

the rest of the week is kind of uneventful so we’re going to skip those. fast forward to january 11th

this one is especially bad. i am acutely aware, suddenly, that i am not changing anything at all. i’m stressed and miserable about it because i’m still trying to see people as people and trying to draw people that look attractive and proportionate and hot. my friend, leny, reminds me that i need to think about faces in terms of planes. i have a moment. my other friend masha sends me some links to anatomy tutorials. i have another moment.

january 11th. applied sketch

january 13th is when i start the troubleshooting process. the link above drives me mad because i’m pretty happy with the face but then i realize that there’s something very fucking wrong with the shape of the head LOL and then i realize that i’ve never had any idea what the proportion of the face to the rest of the skull is so i grit my teeth and i open a new canvas and i

bald studies. it seemed like the right thing to do. can’t draw heads? ok draw some heads. look at some photographs. i traced each photo but tried to stick to straight lines so that i could replicate the shapes more easily. i broke each face down into shapes. i thought about airplanes

i got really excited. i started doing studies, then applied studies, then stylized studies.

sketches. i’m not sure what’s going on (as always) and it’s very rough, but they look different from the sketches i did on january 2nd. that’s a start

january 16th’s daily study. looks more like a person now. juuuuuust a bit

more applied studies

on the 18th i take a break and go stare at some lips because i don’t understand how the fuck they work. again, i focus on shapes, on volume, on the fact that these things exist in 3d. holy fuck lips exist in 3d. holy fuck we are real

january 19th. i’m working on it.

january 22nd. some sketches + a daily study. it has finally occurred to me that heads can tilt up and down and that things look different accordingly. yes i was not aware of this before. yes i have been drawing for over a decade.

january 23rd. by this point after doing my daily sketch i almost always go back and do an applied study which is basically to say i drew a lot of fucking links. this one looks kind of okay. i’m kind of proud

january 25th. links. trying to make sense of everything i’ve learned

26th, 27th, 28th. daily studies

january 1st. january 31st

The End Of The Photo Dump (dab)

ok NOW i get to talk about what i discovered while studying the shit out of human beings

FIRST OF ALL, there is something precious and magical about drawing shit without the explicit knowledge that you’re going to tweet that shit out to 45 people later. it takes the burden of perception off your shoulders and that does something to you, or at least that’s my theory. i told myself i wouldn’t post any of this stuff until the end of the month (if i wanted to post it at all) and kept everything off my public social media accounts and that meant i could draw ugly as hell without worrying about who would point and laugh, which i absolutely fucking did. a lot of these are fucking trainwrecks. most of these are fucking trainwrecks. why do they look like that?? why??? this doesn’t look like the work of someone who’s allegedly been drawing since they were in kindergarten, does it?????

here’s why: because that person took a huge motherfucking swing at everything they’d ever known about art and spent a month building something new in its place. the abstract explanation is that i grew up on shoujo and weird old anime and my understanding of anatomy was unironically kamichama karin and while i love kamichama karin, when kamichama karin is your rule even if you try to break it, you’re going to end up going nowhere. “you have to know the rules to break them”, yeah? well i didn’t know shit. the abstract explanation is i’ve been miserable about my art for a few years now because i saw other people doing things effortlessly which i couldn’t and instead of going back to the basics, i tried to do what they did (not plagiarism, mind you, i mean i literally tried to copy the red line of the devil i mentioned above because i couldn’t even make that happen) and then i fucking failed.

the simple explanation is this. i had to unlearn everything, and relearn it again (like some kind of new renaissance clown, what the fuck is this?)

take this for example. all my life i’ve drawn faces in the order: eyes, nose, mouth, face shape, head. this works for some people, im aware, but it was something central to how i had always drawn, so i decentralized it. i said fuck you to the old me and changed the order up. now i start with the nose, then the eyes, mouth, the chin line, and the sides of the face. now i force myself to think about the human head as a series of parts interacting with each other instead of a bunch of disparate features which i want to look pretty.

or let’s use this zelda from last year. something about this looked wrong last october, the way something about all of my drawings looked wrong, but i couldn’t pinpoint it for hell the way i couldn’t articulate Any of my feelings about the visual arts. now, looking back, here’s what i see. that nose is sticking out far too much given how she’s not really facing very far away from the camera. that ear at the back shouldn’t be there. her forehead is too big. she doesn’t have a forehead. what the fuck is up with the shape of her head?

so apparently reject modernity embrace tradition has its roots in alt-right terminology and i’m not very horny for the alt-right (you understand), but the spirit survives here. you know sometimes you have to admit that you have no idea what the fuck you’re doing and draw people for 31 days. i’ve spent my whole life drawing stylized people and while again there are artists who have no issue with this, i veered off the track of the Good and the Holy and couldn’t get back on. i had no point of reference because i’d never thought about what an actual human being looks like, so i had no way to fix what i knew in my gut looked wrong but wouldn’t come out better.

this was hard. this was like oikawa tooru swallowing his worthless pride and admitting that ushijima wakatoshi had gotten the best of him for the last time in his high school career, but in haikyuu!! by furudate haruichi oikawa tooru fucks off to argentina and then joins the argentinean national team, and you know what, i think i’ve made it to argentina (not the team just the country). as per the golden rule of dont fucking move until you’re at least two thirds of the way through the month, i only started trying to draw Shit shit on like the 22nd or something, but i was happy with that i created. i am happy with what i’ve done. i’ve posted like 2 things this month that involve people with what i now call ~applied Knowledge~~ and they’re, like, not perfect obviously (perfection is an unattainable ideal), but i’m fucking proud of them. i didn’t spend 5 hours hunched over my laptop adjusting the red line of the devil because it’s not a devil’s line anymore. because i finally sorta get how people work. because i sat down and i said ‘we are not going to fuck with this misery shit anymore’ and then i did that. it’s just a line now.

here are 2 collages tracking my painstakingly carved out progress from january 2nd to february 2nd because i’m a slut for collages

and here’s what i’ve done to my art! the same person drew these but also Not Really! you know! for the first time in a year i don’t immediately hate what i’ve drawn. you know what guys? art is fucking fun. zelda’s forehead doesn’t scare me anymore because i know how foreheads fucking work now, and i don’t know everything, and i’m going to keep troubleshooting stuff as i go (i want to draw a skeleton. like a. i want to draw a goddamn skeleton guys) but i’m honestly and genuinely proud of what i’ve done in the span of a month, and i’m also in disbelief. i started this month-long challenge out as a last ditch effort to make peace with my art because i’ve been tired for a long time and i was ready to kick the bucket on drawing people altogether. i didn’t think anything would happen. nothing’s happened for years. i’ve been miserable for years.

this was the caption for january 1st, 2021. i was super, super fucking embarrassed and it looks like super fucking shit, but you know what, i think i did in fact triumph over the bullshit. surprisingly enough, when you put in consistent effort into something, You Will See Results. didn’t see that coming, did you? i know i didn’t.

this isn’t a success story. it’s a happiness story. i never gave a shit damn about the institute of art or whatever, i was just mad at myself because what i saw in my head didn’t match up with what was on the canvas. and now it’s getting better. now i’m calibrating the compass. now drawing not just backgrounds but also people is exciting to me, and i can stick my links in your face and tell you ‘they hot’. i’m going to keep doing that. i’m going to keep going until i drop off the side of the earth and then spiral towards mars like some kind of fairy, and then i’m going to create something beautiful.

thanks for reading. here’s a pr department link for sticking around until the end

[not-xpr-art]

Art Advice #4 - A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Art

Hi all!

This weeks entry into my Art Advice tag, where I offer various advice for artists of any skill level, is about digital art! Now, I am by no means an expert at digital (I’ve been doing it for nearly 8 years at this point and that is almost entirely self taught), but I have picked up a few pointers in that time which will hopefully help anyone just starting out!

(this blogpost is a little over 2000 words long btw)

A Beginner’s Guide to Digital Art 

I know that the world of digital art has changed drastically in the 8 odd years since I started, but I’d still say that some of the options I started out with will be just as good for anyone who’s starting out now! 

As always, I’ll be splitting this into sections to make it easier for you to navigate this post!

Part 1 - Equipment/Hardware 

There are a lot of drawing tablet options on the market at the moment, and I’m not going to pretend that I know anything about half of them lol. But I think for a beginner, don’t worry about going for the most expensive option, even if the reviews are really good or your favourite artist uses it, especially if it is way above your budget! 

An important thing to know is that there are two types of tablet. One is the plug-in kind. These are essentially a pad which you plug into your laptop or computer and draw on that whilst looking at the screen (they basically work the same way as a plug in mouse works). The other kind is the screen variety, which is a lot more like what most of us know as ‘tablets’ nowadays. And you draw directly onto the screen. 

(a plug-in vs on screen tablet, both from Wacom)

Now, as for choosing between these, it is honestly a personal choice. But I’d say if you’re just wanting to try digital and you’re on a budget, a plug-in tablet can be really useful since it gets you used to the mechanics of what digital is like, and they are often significantly cheaper than the screen alternatives. I would say that plug-in tablets are a big learning curve, especially if you’re used to doing traditional stuff, but I do know a lot of professional artists who still use this kind of tablet when doing their work, so if it’s something you can get used to I would definitely consider it! Also, they’re often a lot more portable than some screen tablets! The first one I had was a Huion (a model so old that I can’t even find a link to it now lol), and I also know that Wacom are a well known brand that do some decent plug-in tablet. I’d recommend you do your own research on other brands and options, though!

Screen tablets are often a lot more expensive, but if you’re used to traditional art, they are a lot easier to get a handle of! But I know if you already have something like an iPad, or other general use tablets, then they offer apps that you can use to draw on (as well as things like the Apple pen, or other stylus’). The big difference between using these general tablets and ones specifically designed for drawing is pretty much purely a personal choice. I personally prefer the bigger screen of my XP-Pen tablet, along with a special screen protector that removes the shininess of the tablet screen and makes it feel more like ‘paper’ over when I used a general use tablet it draw. But if you already have an iPad, or something similar, then it’s honestly a really great starting point!

I think it’s important for me to mention that you don’t need fancy equipment to be an artist. The incredible Elicia Donze has revealed countless times how she has very basic equipment but still manages to produce the most stunning artworks! All you really need is some kind of drawing apparatus and a lot of patience lol! Getting good at any kind of art takes a lot of time and effort, but I would definitely say it’s worth it when you’re able to look back at your progress!

Part 2 - Software/Drawing Programs 

Much like with the hardware discussion, choosing which program to use is entirely down to personal preference. I personally have never really liked Photoshop purely because it’s really complicated, but I know so many artists swear by it. 

I think the main aspect to consider when you’re starting out is whether you want to pay for a program. Software like Photoshop, Clip Studio Paint and Procreate are some of the popular ones I hear about a lot of people using, but all require you to purchase or subscribe to them. So if you’re young or on a very tight budget, I’d honestly recommend the free alternative versions of these, such as Krita (Krita is quite a large program, but it has a lot of really awesome features and is very similar to Photoshop!), Gimp (this one is similar to Krita, but has slightly less options, I’d honestly recommend Gimp for anyone who does photo editing though!) or FireAlpaca (this is the one I use, by the way and it’s a pretty simple program, but has a lot of fantastic features and is perfect for how I work!). These don’t have as many features as some of the paid alternatives, but I honestly think all you really need to start digital art is some kind of ‘canvas’ and set of brushes!

Another great free program for beginners I’d recommend is MyPaint, which is great for doodling and just getting used to how digital art feels in comparison to traditional! It also has a bunch of ‘traditional style’ brushes, to make it look like charcoal or watercolour (which I’m sure the paid alternatives have too, but it’s always better when it’s free, I find lol...)

(this is an example of a drawing I did on MyPaint using the ‘charcoal’ effect brush!)

Most of the sites are pretty self explanatory, with sections dedicated to different brushes (I’ll go into the types of brushes later on in this post btw!), adjusting brush size, shape and opacity, a colour wheel, etc. You also have a section dedicated to ‘layers’ (another thing I’ll go into more detail later), and various ‘filters’ and editing options and effects you can add to your work to make it more interesting!

I’d really just recommend playing around with programs until you find your one!

Part 3 - The Pros of Digital Art!

I realise this section should probably earlier in this blog post lol, but I kinda wanted to go into what digital art can achieve in comparison to traditional art, and how beginner artists can utilise this!

I definitely didn’t take advantage of certain aspects of digital art when I first got into it, and they’re things that would have definitely made my life a whole lot easier lol!

Digital art allows you to tweak drawings as you do them. So if you accidentally drew the eye too far to the right, then you can easily move it to the right place. (I usually do this by selecting whichever area is wrong, cutting it out and then pasting it into a new area... And yes, there is probably a better and quick way of doing this but...I haven’t found that way yet lol...). And I honestly think that this has allowed me to look a lot more at a reference image in order to figure out where I’ve gone wrong with a drawing! Whereas with traditional art, I usually spend so long trying to get an eye right, that even if it’s slightly in the wrong place, I don’t want to completely redo that section. Digital allows you to completely rub out sections without leaving indents, which is honestly such a saving grace!

Another pro of digital is the Undo/Ctrl Z function! This means you can easily go back to before you made a major mistake with just a click of Ctrl Z... Though I have to say that this function has honestly ruined traditional art for me... Oh what wouldn’t I give for a real life Ctrl Z... But yeah, this is a great part of digital art and definitely something you will grow to love lol!

Another great thing about digital is that it allows you to flip and turn a canvas as you’re drawing on it. I spent a lot of time trying to turn my tablet around in order to draw certain parts of a piece before I realised you can turn the canvas itself without having to move yourself or your tablet!

Layers are another part of digital that can be super useful, and I have to be honest but I don’t really use them a lot. I know a lot of artists create layers for every section of their artworks (so, one for the linework, one for colouring, a separate one for the background, etc etc...). And there’s something really great about being able to paint without worrying about smudging into a previous section of the painting. This works well for my work since I do a lot of bright backgrounds. I also often create a lot of ‘versions’ of my works, so it’s useful to be able to change the background without affecting the main figure of the piece! (I have to say that I often work in one big layer when I’m doing paintings, just because I like how it feels more like ‘traditional’ art that way, but layers are such a brilliant tool, and definitely something you should play around with!)

The eyedropper tool is another one that is really useful! Although I never colour pick from my reference photos, I know some artists find this useful when they were just starting out (especially if you’re not sure what colour to make shadows or how to mix skin tones, etc etc). The eyedropper basically means you don’t need to mix your colours every time

Part 4 - Just some other things I wish I had known about when I was starting out lol...

This last section is just dedicated to a few things that I would have liked to have known when I was just starting out all those years ago. 

First one is fluffy/textured brushes! 

I spent most of my art life from 2013 until 2016 using ‘round’ brushes which are notoriously hard to blend with, so I’d recommend either downloading some fluffy/textured brushes (DeviantArt was where I got mine from a few years back, but there are probably other places you can get them for free too!) to your program of choice, since most of the programs I’ve used haven’t had fluffy/textured brushes as pre-set. 

I may make another post about how I blend in my artworks if that’s something people would be interested in?

(this is an example of textured brush blending vs round brush blending... I usually opt for round brushes for rougher blending styles and the textured brushes for more smooth and ‘realistic’ blending... for a lot of pieces, though, I use both brushes (the round brushes are good for details!) in the same way that you use different sized brushes for real paintings!)

The next thing I wish I’d discovered earlier is the Brush Stabiliser option. Some programs may do this automatically, but the one I use (FireAlpaca) requires you to manually change the amount of stabilising you have on your brush. This is particularly useful if you want to draw neat lines or straight lines (the stabiliser essentially slows down the ‘ink’ as you’re drawing). I only recently started using the stabiliser, and although I still like having it mostly turned ‘off’ for doing sketchy work, it does make doing line work a lot easier, and also gives pieces a more polished look!  

Next advice is to explore all the options you can in whatever program you use! 

I feel like with certain programs, you can get overwhelmed by choice and you end up just using a few of the functions. But I’d really recommend just playing around with these programs, trying all the filters and editing options to get used to how the program works. You can often find interesting ways to adjust your artworks this way! In a way I’d recommend this way of working more than finding tutorials made by other people... Unless there’s a specific function you want to learn how to do, just having fun with digital art is a major part of it’s appeal to me! 

~

There are probably a lot of other options I could go into, but this is already over 2000 words long, so I’ll leave it here for now lol! (I may do a part 2 though so... keep a look out for that!)

As always, if you have any questions to things I’ve said here, or are just looking for more advice, don’t hesitate to message me!

And if you like my work on here (art & blog posts) feel free to support me on my Ko-Fi! <3

[kelieah]

surprise (peter parker x stark!reader)

summary: you give peter a gift he would have never expected to receive from you

word count: 2.9k

warnings: angst angst angst, fluff, language

edited: sorry this is super late :(

a/n: hehe, happy bday to the cutest puppy of all! thank you to everyone who helped me come up with ideas for this fic, ily all 3000

masterlist

You and Peter have been dating for almost a year now. You both decided to get together after all the chaos that took place in Europe. You two have been friends for quite a while before that, so the fact that your friendship with Peter flourished into something even better is one of the many reasons why you adore him.

His birthday is tomorrow and you wish to make it as special as it can be. Though you’re not exactly sure how to do that. You know your dad would’ve easily bought something tremendously big and written a cheesy yet short letter with it, and Peter would love it. But if you did the same, it wouldn’t be right. Right?

The night before his birthday, you were in a spiral. You had already planned a surprise party for him at his apartment though that was the least of your worries. You were pacing around your room, unsure if the gifts you’ve been preparing for weeks was enough or if you should add more things. 

Over the years you’ve been friends with him and the months you’ve been dating him, you put together memories and experiences all in a scrapbook. It looked cute and simple on the outside, but once you opened it up, the pages were filled with photos, letters, doodles, and colors. Many references or inside jokes were scattered along the side margins and stickers were put accordingly. You made sure it was perfect, but your gift still felt incomplete to you.

You wanted to be extra. You had to be extra. You remember your mom saying it was something you got from your dad. That man was always one for his dramatics. So you stayed up a bit later than you should’ve, making tiny little paper stars with sweet compliments, affirmations, and advice in them. Then you made as many as you can to fill up a glass jar shaped like R2-D2. 

Though to you, that still wasn’t enough. So you searched and searched and eventually found some vintage Star-Wars comics. Ignoring the fact that they were over a thousand bucks, you bought a dozen or so. His gifts were spread across your bed and you stared at it for what felt like hours.

Is this enough? Is this too much? Will he love it? Will he even like it? Shit.

You remember wanting to sleep and putting it all aside to figure out in the morning. You might’ve forgotten his birthday was the next day with how much you focused on the gifts than the actual date, so you woke up with panic.

You also remembered there was one last thing you wanted to get for Peter but once you glanced at the clock, it was already noon. You overslept.

You feel your heart drop immediately realizing that you weren’t able to text or call Peter a happy birthday or good morning. You assume he must be worried, or hurt or maybe upset? You place your face in your hands and fall into deep thought. Then it hit you, the surprise party is in three hours.

“Morning Friday, read my text messages and voicemails please,” you groggily lean against your bed rest.

“Are you sure, Y/n? You have 243 text messages and 94 voicemails,” Friday informs you. 

Your eyes widen and you shake your head, “Uhm, actually just read the ones from Mom, Peter, Aunt May, and Happy please,” you mutter.

“Understood,” Friday responds, beginning to go through your messages and voicemails, “Mom has messaged you, “Morning honey. Had to go to some meetings. Nanny is leaving at 1, please watch Morgan. I’ll meet you at the party. Could you bring Morgan with you when you go?” Peter has not messaged or called you. Aunt May has messaged you, “Hi dear! I’ve already baked up some cherry pies for the party, when are you going to be over to decorate? By the way, Peter went out and is probably patrolling,” with a smiley face and heart. Happy has messaged you, “Hello, I already ordered the catering, and went over the invite list. Are you up yet?” and he also left the voicemail saying, “Hopefully you’re up by the time you get this. Most of the Avengers are coming, except Thor, the Saviors, no wait, the Guardians of whatever they’re called, and Captain Marvel. I’m sure you could figure out why. Give me a call when you’re up.” Done.”

“Shit,” you whine loudly. You throw yourself out of bed and get to your morning routine. You quickly tidy up your room, take a quick shower, go through your skincare routine and get dressed up. You decided to put on some makeup and wear nicer clothes for once given it’s your boyfriend’s birthday.

You look around your room and inhale deeply, “Just that one last thing,” you remind yourself and walk off. After getting what you need, the nanny informs you that she’s leaving. You walk over to Morgan’s room and knock the door before entering, “Hi princess, you ready for Spider-Man’s birthday?”

She turns around, all dressed up in a pretty floral dress, “Hi sissy, yes! Don’t you mean, your friend boy?” she giggles, running up to you.

You roll your eyes playfully, “You mean boyfriend? Yes, c’mon pretty girl. We’re going to go now.”

An hour or so later, you’re making your way over to Aunt May and Peter’s apartment with Morgan in the backseat. You felt bad for not greeting Peter at all today but you decided to make it a part of the surprise. “He still has a tracker in his suit!?” you burst out in laughter as you stop at a red light.

“Seems like Tony didn’t get rid of it before, I don’t blame him,” Happy mutters. “You got everything right? Morgan, Peter’s gifts, the decorations, and your head?”

“Yes Happy,” you glance into your back seat, checking in on Morgan and seeing the piled clutter. “I feel like Santa Clause with a bunch of gifts and an elf in the backseat,” you chuckle. Morgan gasps and makes a silly expression at you that brings a smile to your face.

“Maybe you are with all the cookies you eat,” he jokes.

“You’re one to talk, anyway where’s Peter now?” you ask as you drive off as soon as the light turns green.

“He’s swinging around, I saw the news. He’s interacting with fans and interviewers, a pretty rare case.”

“True, he must be trying to distract himself. Am I the only one who hasn’t greeted him yet?” you ask, nervously biting on your bottom lip.

“Yep.”

“Shoot, well I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Let’s hope so, I’ll see you and Morgan when you both get here. Gotta help May out with the pies.”

“Sure, the pies,” you tease, causing Happy to roll his eyes and end the call.

You feel your heart stop as Peter suddenly gives you a call. You fight the urge to pick up and shower him in reassurance and love, but ignore for the sake of the surprise. 

Ten to twenty minutes later, you and Morgan arrive at May and Peter’s apartment. You smile and knock on the door, struggling to hold everything in your arms while holding Morgan’s hand.

“Hello hello, you two,” Aunt May opens the door with a bright smile on her face. She lets you in and helps you out, “Took you long enough.”

“Sorry, I overslept. I wasn’t sure if my gifts were enough,” you pout and kiss her cheek. 

“That’s okay. Morgan baby, Happy’s in the kitchen.” May smiles and ruffles Morgan’s hair. Morgan hums and hugs her leg, running off.

“These are all your gifts for him? Sweetheart, it’s his birthday not Christmas,” she giggles. “I’m sure he would love anything you get for him, even if it was a cheap lego set.”

“I know I know, it’s just Peter has been through so much. I feel like he deserves the world,” you say bashfully.

“You’re so cute,” she hums and helps you place the many gifts on a certain table. “Remember, you have been through a lot too.”

“Yes, but today’s his day,” you cross your arms. “Anyway, enough chatter. We should decorate now, everyone’s coming over in an hour right?”

“Yep. I also told Peter to swing around for a while and bring Thai food home at 4. He thinks it’s just going to be him, Happy and I. I told him you have work,” she says, grabbing some decorations.

“Okay, perfect. I feel so bad, I haven’t communicated with him since last morning,” you huff and grab some streamers.

“I’m sure he understands, kid gets busy too,” Happy walks over from the kitchen with Morgan trailing behind him. “Man, are these all your gifts for him?” he glances over at a table filled with only your gifts.

“Y-Yes? Why is that such a bad thing,” you groan.

“It’s not, I think,” he glances at May who gives him a look. He puts his hands up in defense and slowly walks back into the kitchen.

“You’re fine, honey. Also, I love your dress, isn’t that?” she tilts her head.

“Yeah, it’s the dress I was wearing on our first date,” you smile to yourself, glancing down at your cherry red dress. It fit perfectly, not too loose or tight and it had pockets. Something you and Peter were always amused by.

After the three of you finish decorating, the guests begin to arrive. Most of the team showed up and you and Peter’s close friends. You let out a sigh of relief and lean on the fire escape railing, looking out at the city. You glance at your watch, “Almost time.”

“Hey there,” you hear from behind you. You look back and see Happy.

“Hey.”

“You doing alright? Peter’s coming soon,” he says and walks next to you, leaning against the railing.

“I know, I just feel like. I did too much? Too less? I’m not sure, I just wanted this day to be perfect for him especially after last year,” you mutter and glance at Happy with teary eyes.

He smiles sadly and pulls you into a hug, “It’s absolutely perfect. You know, Peter isn’t going to be the only one who’s proud.”

“Who else? You?”

“Well, besides me and a bunch of other people. Your dad,” he murmurs.

You feel your heart tighten and you stifle a cry, stuffing your head into his chest. He sighs and hugs you close, “Thank you.”

“No, thank you. Sometimes I feel like he never left, because everyday I see him in you,” he pulls away, holding your shoulder.

You smile softly and nod, “T-Thank you, Happy really,” you sniffle.

“Of course. You should probably tidy up, your makeup’s running,” he takes a step back.

You laugh half-heartedly, “Alright. Could you tell everyone to get in their places?” you begin to walk towards the apartment.

“Got it,” he nods and follows you back inside.

Your heart was racing, everyone wasn’t sure if he was going to show up at the front door or his room. Happy gives the signal that he’s arrived and everyone goes silent. You feel a slight sense of relief when you hear noises from the front door. If he came through his room, he probably wouldn't be that surprised. 

Peter sighs and holds the bag of Thai food in one hand, opening up the door with a key in the other. His senses have been all over the place today and his heart didn’t feel like it was in the right place. He was beyond worried about you, he didn’t even care that it was his birthday. He just wanted to know if you were okay.

He opens the door, calling out for May. “May, I’m home-”

“Surprise!” Everyone appears out from their spots, greeting Peter with bright smiles and confetti. 

Peter instantly jumps and places a hand over his heart. “G-Guys!? Bruce? Scott? Wait, Ned? MJ!?” he stammers, looking all over the place.

“Happy birthday, Spidey,” you come out of your hiding spot, smiling warmly at him.

“Oh my god, Y/n,” he breathes out and rushes over to you, pulling you into a hug. You let out a gasp as he picks you up and spins you around. He places you down and hugs you closer. He pulls away and glances at your dress then at you, “Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes,” he sighs, kissing your cheek. 

You blush at his comment and fiddle with your dress. “Thank you,” you smile, hoping he notices your outfit.

“Wait, isn’t this the dress from our first date?” he holds some of your dress and glances at you. You grin and nod, he sighs happily and pulls you back into a hug.

Everyone reacts sweetly until Flash, who was surprisingly invited yells out, “Get a room!” Everyone instantly glares at him and he shrivels up, smiling sheepishly.

You roll your eyes and Peter ignores him, peppering your face with kisses. “I thought you were mad at me or something, or hurt, or just forgot about me,” he rambles, holding your face.

“Well, luckily none of those are the cases. I just wanted to surprise you,” you hum.

“You planned all this?” he gapes, glancing around his apartment once again.

“Yes, but I had a lot of help,” you hum.

“Friend boy!” Morgan squeals and rushes over, hugging you and Peter’s legs. “Happy birthday,” she beams.

Peter’s eyes soften and his bends down, “Thank you cutie,” he grins.

She squeals and hugs him, “Can you be my friend boy?”

You gasp dramatically, “Morgan, he’s my friend boy.”

“I don’t know babe, Morgan looks amazing in her little princess dress,” he picks up Morgan, holding her close.

You pout and cross your arms. Morgan bubbles happily and wraps her tiny arms around his neck.

To say Peter was overwhelmed with happiness was an understatement. He felt relief, appreciation, love and support. This whole time he was worrying that he had done something wrong when really nothing was wrong and everyone was just hiding and being quiet for his surprise.

After catching up with some of the Avengers and friends and eating dinner all together, it was time for cake and presents.

You couldn’t express how unbelievably happy and emotional you felt for Peter as he stood in front of his cake as everyone sang Happy Birthday to him. His face was filled with pure joy and you wish that could stay on his face forever, because to you, that’s what he deserves and more.

Not much later present time begins and Peter starts to open up everyone’s gifts. You told him to open yours last. You absolutely adored this boy and your heart swelled up every time he held a genuine smile to his face as he opened his gifts. He got up, thanked and hugged every single person who had got him a gift. You truly are smitten for him.

“Who are all these gifts from?” Peter asks, glancing at the huge piles of gifts left. “I thought I had opened everyone’s except Y/n’s already,” he chuckles. 

“Those are all mine,” you walk over, sitting next to him.

“Oh, flower,” he mutters softly and pouts out his bottom lip. “You didn’t-”

“Ah, please open them and shut your mouth,” you cross your arms. Everyone laughs in amusement at your sass and watches as Peter begins to open up the gifts.

Peter first opens up the comic books and jars filled with little letters, “Oh my god, you didn’t,” he whimpers happily. “This must’ve cost a fortune,” he holds up the comic books.

“What? All I did was write on little pieces of paper and-”

“Babe.”

“I know! I’m joking, on to the next please,” you coo and kiss his cheek. 

He huffs and unravels the next gift, his eyes beginning to glisten with tears. He slowly flips through the pages of the beautiful scrap book you made for him. He comes across a page where it was you, your dad and him in multiple photos. He lets tears slip form his eyes and glances at you with softened eyes, “Y/n,” he mutters.

“Larb you,” you kiss his cheek. He places the scrapbook aside and pulls you into a hug, kissing your forehead.

“I larb you more,” he sighs. 

“I thought that was our thing,” May pouts, causing everyone to chuckle at her comment.

“It can be our thing too,” Peter teases. “Is that all?” he sniffles, glancing back at you.

“One more thing,” you smile cheekily.

“Oh man,” he sighs, placing his forehead on your shoulder. “I don’t know if I can take it.”

“Morgan,” you look up, running your hands through Peter’s curls. She grins and grabs the last small box, bringing it to Peter.

He looks up and smiles, silently thanking her. “You want to help me open it?” he asks her. She nods and sits on his lap, helping him pull away the ribbon. As they both do so, the box falls and reveals the gift your mom once gifted your dad, then to you. Peter covers his mouth, “No, I can’t-”

“Peter,” you shake your head.

He sniffs once again, tears beginning to stream down his cheeks as he glances at the glass case with your dad’s arc reactor inside. He glances down at the words surrounding the arc reactor, “Proof that Tony Stark has a Heart,” he sobs.

You glance up seeing that your mom smiles sadly, wiping away some tears. “Happy birthday,” you repeat, kissing his cheek.

“Why are you giving this to me?” he stammers, hugging Morgan back as she hugs him close, nuzzling her head into his neck.

“Mom, Morgan and I already have many parts of dad with us. You don’t have as much and we all know how much he meant to you. You really are a part of our family too Peter, and I felt like you deserved this. Now you can see that his heart also belongs with you,” you smile warmly, cupping his cheek and wiping his tears away.

Everyone watches the heart-touching moment unravel, a sad yet understanding smile appearing on their faces. “I love you. I love all of you, and you,” he pokes Morgan’s nose, causing her to giggle.

“We love you too Peter,” everyone chimes in.

“I love you more,” you whisper, kissing his nose.

“I love you 3000,” Morgan pouts, playing with his shirt. You and Peter look at each other with sad smiles.

“I love you 3000 too.”

tagging some mutuals who might be interested! @ariistotles @cosmicholland @petersholland @tonguetiedholland @theamazingtomholland @tombrina @spideyyeet @toms-gf @peterspideysstuff @chloecreatesfictions @mcdwcman @hollandsrecs @the-salty-asian @fallinfortom @hermayone @allegra-writes @waitimcomingtoo @futuremrspcy @dreamofaprilsblog @t-lostinmendes @musicalkeys @icyhollands @beverlyparkerr​ @marvelhoesworld​

[dreaminpeaches]

I just want to make this post for any one who needs to hears this rn; you know what's the coolest thing about Daydreams, they're like your own personal tv network/streaming service with a whole bunch of shows just made for YOU, and the best part is (unlike some tv shows and streaming shows tragically and sadly) they DONT HAVE TO END, they can go on for literal years! Even if your paracosm is very plot centered, just because THAT plot line is finish doesn't mean you can't make a new one, or you have to say goodbye to your paras they're with you forever!

If you like sharing you daydreams with others or posting them online, don't feel bad about it NOT being in order, the human brain is a weird wonderful thing (and we still kind of don't know how it works) and everyone thinks differently (even more for my neuro diverse folks), so don't be discouraged that you just posted the first part of your story, but now you got a really great awesome idea but that only happens waaaayyy later in the story, you can still post about if you're really feeling the vibe. Even if it doesn't make sense to the average bear as long as you know what's going on and you feel good about it, go ahead and info dump on your blog!

It's okay if you have to redo a scene until they're perfect, movie directors and actors in real life know the feel.

And if you're in the middle of writing your daydream (props for you actually taking time to write your daydream, but it's okay if you don't because Daydreaming itself takes alot of mental energy already, so don't feel like you have to) and you want to doodle a scene or make s short comic of a scene you really like, even though you not done writing, that's okay too! Go and do it! You can still give some details you weren't able to convey in your drawing with your writing and vise versa.

Anyways, I just want to remind you that daydreams at the end of the day are going to be enjoyed the most by YOU, it's okay to be your own biggest fan, that kind of self confidence/love is cool (and some never get to experience it). You can be encouraged by others but don't get discouraged by others, Daydreams like these are a special thing that only few really understand, so don't feel bad if some call you "weird" for just being creative.

Dream on~💖✨

[saint-cichol-is-watching]

Sleeping Together (Part Two) // Undateables

Masterlist | Part One

When / How did you move in ?

The first thing Diavolo said after you two started dating (for real) was an order to Barbatos to go and seek for all of your stuff back in your room in the House of Lamentations and bring them all back to the castle and more specifically in his room, or should he say... your room. 

Not truly knowing what had just happened you asked for Diavolo to slow down a second which earned you a very sad look from him as he fainlty asked : “What’s wrong my love don’t you want to move inside the castle with me?”. 

And how could you ever say no to that adorable face. Of course it’s not like you were ever going to say no since the thought of falling asleep inside your man’s arms was more than pleasing to your mind but still Diavolo has very convincing puppy eyes for the Prince of Hell.

Cuddles and Blanket ? How Do you Fall asleep ?

Diavolo is the cuddle monster. He loves being so close to you that you can barely breathe anymore. There is not a night that passes by where he doesn’t hold you close to him for well-deserved cuddles.

In fact he refuses to sleep with you next to him. You have to sleep on his chest, curled almost completely into a ball, as he holds you tight, one of his arms sneaked under your knees, his hand softly cupping your ass while the other arm is wrapped around your back, his hand carressing your stomach. Position that at first wasn’t really comfortable but you grew used to it. 

There are no blankets on your bed, you’re already so close to one another and Diavolo is naturally warm, not to mention that he loves skin-to-skin contact (if you’re okay with it of course) so it’s no wonder that the blanket is completely thrown off the bed before you even have time to realize it was there in the first place.

Who falls asleep first ? Who wakes up first ?

Diavolo normally falls asleep last as he is often working in his study until very late at night. When he comes back into the room he gently lifts you up from the bed careful as to wake you before slipping in it himself and lay you back on his chest.

You wake up first. Since he started dating you Diavolo has found out that Barbatos let him more time before he comes knocking on the door for breakfast and your boyfriend is definitely using this as an advantage to sleep in a bit more. Poor man gets so tired during the day that he is getting all the sleep he can get in the morning. You normally just lay there on his chest doodling something on his chest with your finger until he finally wakes up.

When / How did you move in ?

You wanted to share a bed with your boyfriend at night, you truly did and while Barbatos was not vocally complaining about it you knew for a fact that he was feeling the same as you. But your situation was complicated. He was the Demon’s Lord butler, one of the closest person to him, he swore loyalty and servitude to Diavolo at any hour of the day or the night so you knew that Barbatos couldn’t possibly leave the Castle and it was not like you, a human, could casually come in and lay down your bags in the hall as if it was your new home. 

Thankfully for you two, Diavolo, who knew about your romantic involvment while not actually taking full notice of your actual problem, asked to the both of you why had you not moved into the Demon’s Lord Castle yet. Turns out that the future King would be more than happy to have someone like you to lighten the place a little. A bed was installed as well as some useful door locks for all of his doors leading to other dimensions were installed the same night. 

Cuddles and blanket ? How do you fall asleep ?

Barbatos was never a really tactile man. With him, in public, it was mostly light touches such as a hand on your lower back or a thumb softly rubbing your cheek or a kiss on the back of your hand or at best a peck on the lips when you truly asked for it but it was never big showcase of affection such as hugs, deep passionate kisses etc.

In private it wasn’t much different. Unless you directly ask for them or he realizes that you’re feeling a bit under the weather, in which case he won’t shy away from that affection that you crave, then he won’t truly cuddle. But he’ll give you his hand before you fall asleep every night just will maybe just stroke your face for a bit. 

During the night Barbatos normally sleeps on his back well tucked inside the covers while you sleep close to him on your side facing him a leg out in the fresh while the other is still tucked in. He might have one of his arm oustretched for you lay your head on or he might just give you his hand as usual so you can hold onto it with yours during the night. Either way you’ll get a way to be close to him.

Who falls asleep first ? Who wakes up first ?

Unless he has an important task for Diavolo that he needs to fulfill making come back late, Barbatos normally falls asleep first. Unlike many he spends his entire days working so it’s no wonder that when he comes to bed he falls asleep first.

Unsurprisingly Barbatos is also the first one to wake up as he has duties he needs to attend to before Diavolo wakes up as well. So you normally wake up alone in bed it might feels lonely like that but you know that Barbatos never fails to leave a kiss on your forehead before he goes and he certainly doesn’t forget about leaving you the usual handwritten note on his pillow that says “Good morning my love”.

When / How did you move in ?

When you first started dating a +1000 years old angel you honestly didn’t expect him to ask you to move into the Purgatory Hall with him immediately. Sure Simeon was way bolder than what you imagined an angel would ever be so it wasn’t that weird to think that he had asked you to move in in his room. But even so you thought that maybe Luke would like to have a word to say in this since he seemed to be less “loose” over what an angel should and shouldn’t do. And an angel sharing a room with his human lover, well to the eyes of an immature “ten” years old angel it would certainly be something an angel shouldn’t ever do.

But surprisingly enough Luke seemed pretty adamant to have you leave the House of Lamentations for good and come to live with them. You suspected that he would much rather have you all alone with Simeon than with a bunch of demons which is why he basically held your bags all the way from one house to another while you walked behind him holding hands with your boyfriend, both silently chuckling as your watched the small angel boy running towards the Purgatory Hall.

Cuddles and Blanket ? How Do you Fall asleep ?

Simeon is the best cuddle provider you’ll ever find. While he could and would normally sleep without them he wouldn’t really mind giving some if you asked for them, plus it was not like he didn’t enjoy some soft cuddles with his lover before falling asleep as well.

You normally fall asleep during the said cuddles, well tucked inside your bed sheets. Him mostly on his back, only slightly turning your way as he hold you in his arms and you snuggling in his side, your hand laying on his stomach soflty carressing his bellybutton with your thumb.

Who falls asleep first ? Who wakes up first ?

Both of your sleeping schedules are pretty synchronized since you’re normally the first one to fall asleep but only by a few minutes or so. It’s normally when he doesn’t feel your thumb rubbing the skin of his stomach that he decides it’s time for him to truly settle on his pillow and fall alseep as well.

In the morning you are normally the first one to wake up as well but only by a few seconds as Simeon’s normally stirrs awake as soon as he senses you gazing at his face. 

When / How did you move in ?

The look on the demon brothers’s faces when Solomon arrived at the House of Lamentations to help you gather your stuff and bring it all back to the Purgatory Hall was absolutely priceless in your boyfriend’s mind. The seven demons looked at you with such disbelief as if they could not even process what was happening. 

I mean sure you never said it outward to them that you and Solomon were dating for a bit of time now. But it wasn’t really strange for you to have thought that they had noticed it by now with all the time Solomon actively spent stealing kisses from you in plain sight. After all Diavolo, Barbatos, Simeon and even Luke who were all considerably less close to you than the brothers had it figured out a few days before you actually started going out. But to be true the brothers always seemed kind of oblivious about anything that might connect you to romance without including them in it. Something that Solomon had noticed and had no shame playing around with. 

The brothers tried to stop you from going with the one more than half of them deemed to be nothing but shady. They truly did. Lucifer tried to use his "scary” voice. Levi and Mammon were clinging onto your legs. Asmodeus was trying to smuggle his way into that love affair you had going on. Satan and Belphegor considered murder and Beelzebub just stood there saying he won’t allow it. It all failed. Of course. And you and Solomon were still laughing about it in bed that night.

Cuddles and Blanket ? How Do you Fall asleep ?

Funnily enough Solomon is quite the cuddler. Sure most of the time the two of you are cuddling it ends up with his hand aggressivly tickling your sides until you start crying but still he does like to give you some cuddles in bed.

Finding position to sleep was a bit complicated at first since Solomon likes to work a bit at night and often gets up in the middle of it. So you two had to find a way for him to get up and slip back into bed with really waking you up. Which is why you found peace with the very comfortable yet unoriginal “spooning”. You sleep your back to the door while Solomon sunnugles you from behind until you fall asleep. When he comes back into bed he goes back to where he was earlier that night, passing his arms around your waist waking you up just enough for you to notice he’s here before immediately falling back to sleep.

You’re both blankets hoggers, the difference being you don’t notice when you do it whereas Solomon is totally aware. Sometimes he just decides to steal the blanket just enough for you to stirr awake before faking to sleep. 

So much for trying not to wake you up.

Who falls asleep first ? Who wakes up first ?

Solomon always has a million things to do and he find himself more productive at nightime so it isn’t unusual for him to just get up from bed after you have fallen asleep making sure that he doesn’t wake you up while doing so to work for a few hours. 

Even though he normally falls asleep really late Solomon always seem to wake up a bit before you do. Which leaves him all the time in the world to tease and tickle you awake. You normally open your eyes soon after and before you even have time to realize what is happening to you, Solomon’s lips are on and off your nose for a good morning kiss and he’s off to start his day leaving you in bed to fully wake up.