#finishing more old sketches now that I have a better idea of what she looks like!

[chiropteracupola]

A girl about town.

[darlingdaisyfarm]

feeling pretty low today, so i’m turning to these two old men for a little comfort

nsfw under the cut, fem!reader

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ Stan likes to call you:

sweetheart, honeybun, doll face and on occasion baby girl. when he’s feeling extra bold? princess — always with that unmistakable smirk

calls you “my good luck charm" if you help him out in the Shack, especially when he’s trying to swindle a tourist and you flash a pretty smile.

✦ “c’mere, darlin’. can’t let a fine gal like you walk around without her prince.”

✦ “ah, y’know, you’re the only reason I don’t go completely nuts in this crazy town. sometimes, doll, I think yer my only sane thought all day.” said so casually as if it’s not gonna hit you right in the heart

✦ if you get hurt (even the tiniest scratch), he’s going into dad mode: “who do I gotta knock some sense into, huh?” even if you’ll tell him it was just a clumsy accident, he’ll grumble, “well, now I’m the one hurt. bein’ all worried like that. you’re killin’ me, kid.” 

˚ ༘♡ ⋆｡˚ Ford likes to call you:

“dearest” when he’s feeling soft, sweetheart, darling, honey, baby

he’ll whisper “love” against your temple when he thinks you’re drifting to sleep, his voice quiet and reverent like it’s sacred to him

starlight – Ford’s been out in those other dimensions, faced down monsters and madness, but he says he’s never found anything so bright, so grounding. “c’mere, starlight, I’m not finished admiring you.”

༄ “don’t laugh, but. . . I’d chase you across universes, even if it took me another thirty years. no dimension is worth exploring without you by my side.”

༄ if you’re reading one of his journals, Ford’ll slide up behind you, his hands on your shoulders as he murmurs, “curious, are we? so, what do you think of my work?”

༄ he’s not a show-off, not by any means, but catch him fixing up a machine? he’ll lift his gaze to you, smiling. “I could teach you, you know. but you’d have to be a very attentive student.”

༄ oh, if Ford wrote about you in his journal, you know it’d be scrawled between notes on trans-dimensional theories and arcane symbols, the ink smudged in places where he hesitated, where his pen hovered just so before he let himself write the truth

“Strange anomalies detected….. not in the temporal or metaphysical sense, but in a far more personal dimension. Subject exhibits an inexplicable gravitational pull, distinct from any gravitational force I've previously documented. When I observe her, I feel an uncharacteristic deviation in my thought patterns, an accelerated heartbeat not caused by heightened blood pressure or adrenaline, but by… attraction. Confounding. She’s somehow eclipsing the most rational parts of my mind.”

And, because Ford’s words can’t capture the whole of it, there’d be tiny sketches of you, like half-finished thoughts.

nsfw

what Stan says during sex:

“Damn, honey, you’re makin’ an old man feel young again. Don’t stop.”

“You’re makin’ me wanna be a better man, but not right now, baby, not right now.”  

“Mmm, there it is— yeahh, keep doin’ that. . . feels so good, darlin’, you got no idea.”

“Makin’ all these pretty noises, huh? Lemme hear ‘em, baby. Don’t hold back on me.”

“You’re somethin’ else, y’know that? I’m gonna be thinkin’ ‘bout that pussy all week.”  

“Fuckin’ hell, don’t know if I’m gonna last much longer with you doin’ that.”  

“Look at ya, so needy for me, beggin’ to be filled. You got me so riled up, I can barely think— ah, f-fuck. . .”

 Ford:

“Ohh— sweetheart, you feel even better than I imagined, i’ve waited for this.”  

“I need you so much it scares me.”  

“You’re brilliant, utterly captivating. . . yesyesyes, keep moving like that, please.”  

“Tell me exactly what you want, darlin, I need to hear you say it.”  

“I never thought I’d feel this way again; you’ve woken something in me.”  

“God, I can’t— can’t believe you’re letting me have you. I need you so much, it hurts.”

“Mmm, god, yes. . . yes, you’re mine, all mine. . . can’t believe I get to have you like this.”

“O-oh god, you feel so tight around me, sweetheart, I can’t-can’t hold back!”

“Please, oh, please— just, just like that, don’t stop, keep. . . keep going. . .”

“I can’t help myself; I need you. I want to feel you around me.”

“You’re so fucking beautiful when you’re like this. I can’t take my eyes off you.”

“Oh gosh, I need you to take me deeper. Please, baby.”

“Tell me how good it feels; I want to hear it.”

“You feel incredible. I could stay buried inside you forever.”

[lynaferns]

The Forest On The Other Side

Chapter 1: I want to go home.

Ver. [ENGLISH / SPANISH]

EDIT: This fic is now on AO3

A girl gets lost in the forest and finds a misterious gate in the middle of nowhere. At the other side she meets a... very peculiar individual who seems to only want to befriend her and play. Everything seems fine. Until night falls and someone else joins to play...

Again, I appreciate feedback about the english adaptation. English is not my first lenguage and I still mess up sometimes.

This is in some way a more "joyful" story than BIOMáquina, still with its dark themes. I wrote this a year ago. By this I mean I forced myself to get it written down and ended up hating it and burning myself out. A couple of weeks ago I decided to reread it and I though it was pretty ok actually, so I edited it a bit to make it flow better. It used to be written more as a script for the comic I wanted to draw buuuut that didn't happen (cough stressed myself out cough forced myself cough don't force yourself to make content out of a hobby, a hobby is supposed to be for your own fun). I'm not completely satisfied with the final draft but I think is good enough for my first ever fic written.

I originally planned to make it a Y/N thing but that didn't last long. But I keeped the original idea of the first person POV. The Y/N stories I've read has always some narrator telling you what you do insert you in the story. I thought of making the MC the narrator, this way the reader can insert themselves like it's their story or they can read it as if someone else is telling them a story. This is also a bit limiting, since the narration is also the MCs thought process and sometimes I may skip details MC couldn't have seen.

AU, Magical forest, DCA centered, Sun fnaf, Moon fnaf, Elves Sun & Moon, OC, Selfinsert, Character & OC, platonic, friendship, slowburn (kind of), Moon is agresive at first, Moon is also a bit of a gremlin, Protective Sun (I think), OC is a potty mouth, Female Main Character, First person, Angst.

The first post where I showed this AU and my first sketches ideas.

Tumblr archive with all of the art, ideas and anwsered asks.

Youtube Playlist which I'm pretty proud of how it turned out :] It's in a specific order but you can put it on mix.

Note: even though I try to keep things light some things may be triggering for some readers.

CW: Anxiety, Suicide ideation, Implied death, Choking, Non sexual abuse.

Wordcount: 9,700 (It's not rounded, that's literally the number Word tells me it's at lol)

Welp.

Here we are again, in the old village house (yey...). Well, 'I am', my family won't arrive to settle in for another week. They brought me here beforehand a few days ago for organizational reasons. They took a quick look inside before they left to see the state of the house, if it needed any repairs and such, and they headed back to the city. While they finish preparing everything, I take care of the house and text them messages about anything that may be needed for when they return.

We haven't been here in years, the house needs some repairs, and I'm sorry for the spiders, but it could use a deep cleaning. We can't do a deep cleaning but I have been cleaning what I can these last few days, at least so that it looks decent... at first glance.

Well, it's not like anyone is coming to visit.

It's a quiet town, until the kids from the town next door come to make a racket with their bikes. They play in our field, scare away the cats and throw cans around. They are assholes.

Anyways, the people in the village are nice. The adults I mean, the kids I used to play with, I don't get along with them anymore. Some of them aren't kids anymore, we have grown up and are going down different paths. But those who are still kids... they're still interested in the only older kid in the town who listened to them and let them do whatever they wanted, to a certain extent.

I don't want them to come looking for me to go out and play. I've been avoiding them by saying that I'm busy cleaning the house and getting it ready for when my family arrives, but I feel like interacting with them less and less. That's why I'm going out to the woods behind the house to get lost for a while, as always. The kids don't go near the forest so they won't bother me there.

There is an area for tourism and hiking but not many people come, some police cars border the forest from time to time but they never go inside. The reports of missing people in this forest have been coming in for decades, only some lost children have returned but there is no trace of any of the adults who disappeared along with the rest of the children. The areas marked with signs are safe but you can't go out of bounds unless you want to disappear with those people.

And I, who right now am alone and with no one to notice my absence if I go missing, am going to head straight to the forest. Don't you think, I don't want to disappear, I just don't like people and I usually go into the forest but I don't go too far away. As long as I see my house in the distance, I know how to return.

I grab my bag with my sketchbook and pencil case, in case I feel like drawing (probably won't) and step out to the back porch. The outer sliding metal door that protects the inner one is rusty and difficult to open. It would be better to oil it but I don't know when it will be done, considering that the broken railing has had a wooden board tied to it for years. I already sent my mother a message talking about it.

I enter the forest and start walking around. It's hot, of course, it's early summer, but it's quite noticeable after being in the cool inside the brick and stone house. That's the good thing about coming here in summer, the houses are made to stay cold inside and it's great, sometimes I even need to wear a jacket. But outside I'm dying, the trees don't provide enough shade. In fact, some trees are missing. I used to have my routes memorized but time has passed and some paths have changed, some have disappeared and others have formed. I admit that it makes me a little sad... I began to walk absorbed in my thoughts not paying attention to where I was going.

I'm walking away, I should go back. I'm not going to draw anything here anyway, and it's hotter outside than inside so I'm gonna to turn around-

I hear screams and laughter in the distance, the sound of the voices produces me an immediate disgust. It's those kids from the next door village. They must have come to 'investigate' about the disappearances or maybe they don't care and they just came to be idiots-

They're getting closer.

I don't want them to see me. God. Don't let them see me. Anyone but them. They're getting closser. Don't let them see me. I can't go back home now. They're cutting me off. Of all the people who could have found me. It had to be them. No, please. Don't let them see me. I have to go further into the forest, I can't let them see me. They're getting closer. Don't let them see me. I want to leave. I want to leave. I'm getting too far. I want to leave. I don't see my house. I want to leave. I don't see the village. I want to leave. I don't see the kids.

...

...

...

Where am I?

Fuck.

Where am I?

I want to leave.

I want to leave.

I want to leave.

I want to leave.

…

—

Now I'm wandering through the forest. I don't want to go back. I want to get out of here. Even though I'm walking in a straight line I feel like I'm going around in circles, and I'm not going to get out of here now. Great. I'm lost. Now what? People who get lost in this forest don't return, no one has returned except for some children.

...

I'm going to disappear.

...

For now I keep walking until something happens. Maybe there's an animal that kills people who get lost, or maybe it's a group of kidnappers, or maybe I should stop giving myself anxiety and focus on getting out of here. Maybe if I find a field or road, or even the tourist area, I'll be able to get out of here and return bordering the fores-

...

There is... colorful graffitis on the trees. Someone has painted eyes, hands, stars and more on the bark of the trees...

What's this?

I don't know where I've come to, I didn't know this was here, in the middle of nowhere in the forest. The trees have red leaves like in autumn even though summer has just started... The first thing I thought was 'climate change's fault' but there is something that stands out in the middle of this entire flat area and it is disturbing me.

In the center there is a kind of circular gate made of stones supported by roots.

Okay, maybe it doesn't sound aaaaas disturbing as, I don't know, a totem with a human figure being impaled or something, but it's giving me a bad vibe. What is this place? Who built a stone arch in the middle of everything and why?

A bird appears flying from behind me and goes through the gate, but nothing comes out on the other side... wait what? how? The bird has crossed the gate, and disappeared behind the stone arch? ...I had to imagine it, it's not possible that that happened. I approach the arch but not before picking up a rock from the ground and throwing it to the other side of the gate.

It's still there.

…

For some reason the thought of going through the gate makes me uncomfortable, so I go around it.

...

...And the rock? It's not there.

I go back and look from inside the portal.

The rock is there.

...

I look from outside. The rock is not there. I repeat this multiple times. Rock. No rock. Rock. No rock. Rock. No rock... What?

Alright, this is weird, this is VERY weird.

Even though it is clear that this isn't normal, I have to go back, pick up a fallen branch from the ground and pass it through the portal. This time I don't throw it, I've grabbed a branch long enough to see it peek out from the other side of the arch.

...

Welp.

I should be seeing not only the branch, but also my hand sticking out of the side, but I'M NOT SEEING IT. OKAY. OK. ALRIGHT. IT'S CONFIRMED. THIS IS WEIRD.

I'm asleep, right? Or unconscious. I must have passed out from exhaustion from endlessly wandering through the woods and I'm delirious or something. No, wait, it can't be, in my dreams I'm not this aware of what's around me. Where am I?

A breeze begins to pass through the gate. It's getting stronger but not enough to push me. The leaves rise from the ground and float towards the portal, none slipping outside, all entering through the stone arch. Suddenly the breeze that had become wind stops. The leaves fall to the ground.

...

I look back for a moment, as if there was something behind me that could help me make a decision. Grabbing with both hands my bag strap I look back at the portal again. Okay. Alright. This is possibly the death of me. I'm going to cross. I'm going to go to the other side. I'm just one step away from crossing. I wrinkle my face and narrow my eyes before taking the last step.

...

Nothing has happened. Everything seems the same. However, I know it's not the same... Or at least it doesn't feel the same!

Well, I've already crossed. I'm gonna... keep walking, I guess, even though this is scaring me and I don't know if I'll know how to go back. For now I'm moving forward. The red leaves have disappeared several meters ago. It's starting to look like a normal forest, except for the multicolored drawings and handprints that I keep seeing on the trees. In fact, it seems like the trees are taller with every step I take. So high that I can barely see the top. I almost tripped while looking up. Whether this is the same forest I come from, I no longer know.

This was a bad idea. I just hope to find something that'll help me know where I am, a sign or the road if possible.

*cling*

...?

I hit something with my foot. There is a ball attached to a small chain on the ground. Oh, no, wait. *cling diring ding* It's a rusty bell, I think. It doesn't have the typical cross-shaped hole or slot, rather it has several holes in a pattern. It looks like it can be opened.

There's nothing inside.

?

There's nothing? But I could have sworn it had rang. I close it again and shake it.

*...*

Nothing.

I'm going to put it in the bag, it's totally a good idea. I'll think about it later, for now I'm moving on.

—

I've been walking for a while now and throughout this time I had a constant chill on the back of my neck, as if someone had their eyes on me.

*din dirring* I hear a soft tinkling in the distance.

Okay, I'm not alone, awesome, what do I do now? Do I say hi and risk the potential danger finding me? Do I ignore the sound of bells and keep moving? It's very possible that whatever made that sound is watching me right now...

“Hello?” Still nervous, I try to say hello looking around “...” “Is someone there? H-hello?”

“-HEEEEELLO!”

“AAAAAH-!” I cover my mouth with my hands as I turn to look at what the hell has greeted me back. I take a few steps back while I look at the figure of earthy and sunny tones who responded, he seems as surprised as I am, I think (with the scream I made, normal), at least it looks like he's surprised. He wears a two toned wooden mask... it looks like a sun, with a crescent moon on its right... It gives the impression of two faces merged into one... Damn, he is tall, he's almost doubles my size. He appears to have two skin tones dividing him in half, his right side being the lighter and the left darker, especially the arm, which also has a light-colored tattoo of lines representing a sun symbol that covers from the shoulder to the pectoral and to the middle of the bicep. The right arm is covered by a long fingerless glove that reaches to the shoulder and is tied around the chest. He's wearing baggy pants with leaves coming out of the waist and legs, some... cloth boots? with a long toe bending sharply and curving in a geometric swirl with a bell at the tips, a bag hangs from the waistband of his pants and falls below his hips. His chest and neck are tied by ropes decorated with hanging stones, metals and crystals, he wears a pendant that ends in a carved symbol of a crescent moon with rays. Some of the 'sunrays' on his mask have ropes tied between them holding them in place and some metal dangling. Some red ribbons along with bells hang from his wrists.

“um... Helloooooo.” He greets again, this time he lowers his tone of voice. I manage to react, I turn around and walk away. “¡ah- eh- Wait!” Nope, I'm not going to wait and see what he does with me, I'm leaving. “He-! Hey!” Nope. I quicken my pace and try to get lost among the trees, changing direction every time he appears in my vision angle. “Human? Human-! FRIEND. Can I call you friend?!” Nope, nope, nopnop, nop, nop, nope. “Friend! Hey!” God, no, god, god, no, why are you following me? “Look, I know what you're trying to look for...! And believe me, you're not going to find it~!” How are you still following me? Where do you come from? “Hey! Listen! Why don't we do something else besides running in circles!?” Noooooooooo... “There are TONS of other activities we could do! Like... HOLY MOLY, look at this stick! Do you like sticks!?” Leave me aloneee... “You aren't looking at it! Okay, alright, you don't like sticks, erm... what might be of interest to you...” If I don't look at it it doesn't exist. “Could you help me a little here?” I want to leave... “Look, no matter how much you wander around, you won't find the portal-!”

“STOP—! STOP FOLLOWING ME! LEAVE ME ALONE!” The sudden scream startles him again, making him jump in place. He stands completely still looking at me. I'm leaving before he gets angry.

“B-but I- ...okay.” I thought I heard him say before I left him behind.

It seems that this time he's not following me, finally... Although I'm not calm, he could still be following me and simply not be in sight. Anyway, I think I'm coming back? I hope I am. I want to find that portal as soon as possible and go back to the house- what the fu-? “WHY?”

He's there. Right where I left him. Sitting on a rock. Waiting. “...! I haven't moved from the spot!”

“Yeah- but- WHY?”

“Because I knew you were going to come back here!”

“...What?”

“Is what I was trying to tell you! You can't leave! No matter how hard you try to find the portal, it won't appear before you!” The Sunman exclaimed.

“…” I'm just about to turn around. In fact, I'm already turning around.

“N-No, wait! Please don't go!” I stop in my track and look back at him. He gets off the rock he was sitting on but remains squatting, almost at my height, a little below. I move back, keeping my distance. He puts his hands up. “Look, I'm not doing anything! I won't chase you! Just- ...don't go.”

“…”

“L-look, listen, there's no way it's going to show up! Well, not to you at least. But even if you find it back, it won't work! It only works when it wants to work.”

“...” Let's imagine that I trust what he says “Ok... and when does it want to be working?”

“...” “No idea!”

“...”

“...”

I'm about to collapse on the spot. At least he doesn't seem hostile, for now. “...” “Okay... Good... Great...” “...” “FanTAS-tic.”

“...” “You don't seem like it.”

*ಠ_ಠ* I could only look to the side in frustration in response to that. I looked back at him with concern showing on my face and grabbing the strap of my bag with both hands. “And... what... do you plan to do with me?”

He took his hand to the chin of his mask and with the other he held his elbow in a comical thoughtful pose. “MmmmnnDUN know! What do you plan to do?” He asked so nonchalantly. He ended up sitting on the ground crossing his legs. “You have a good while until the portal opens again...!”

“...”

“...”

“...”

He started swaying. The silence has become uncomfortable for a while now, but I can't organize myself on what to say, and I don't know if I trust him. I don't even know if he's human, although something tells me he's not.

“You could wait here.” He suggested, breaking me out of my thoughts. “Or anywhere else, if you want. I would recommend somewhere high like the treetops (for no particular reason)! If you're going to wait... But wouldn't that be really boring?” There was something in his tone of voice... “Being there... at the top of a tree... waiting... alone... with no friends to hang out with (can I call you a friend?). Aaall on your own until the portal opens again.” He looks aside for a moment “...” And back at me again. “With no one to be with you.” He repeats the head motion “...” “alone...” Wow... I wonder what he's implying, ahem. “Wouldn't you want to have someone...? ...Someone...keeping you company?” Yeah, yeah...

“...” I guess... “I-I guess I wouldn't want to be alon-?”

He rises to his knees. “That's what I thought! Do you want me to accompany you? Only if you want! But can I?” He clasped his hands together as if asking a favor.

“um...”

“Can I?Can I?Can I?Can I?Can I?Can I?Can I?” He approaches, dragging his knees on the ground.

I'm starting to miss personal space. “Okay! Okay, alright...”

“REALLY?” He started hopping and jumping around me. “OH, ohoho hO! Great! Oh, there are TONS of things we could do! Like... Like...!” He moves faster, doing bigger and bigger flips and jumps, it almost seems that he is very light, as if the breeze of air lifted him. “We could paint and decorate trees! Or we can also paint on rocks! Or paint leaves! Or paint us! Oh! We can tell stories! I'm very good at making shadows and puppets.” He moves from place to place with each sentence he says. “We can also play something!” It's moving so fast all I can see is the wind and the leaves it stirs up as it moves. “Anything! Whatever you want!” Finally he stopped in front of me half crouched. “What do ya say?! Hmm! Friend!?”

“Don't... call me like that.” Makes me feel awkward.

“Oh...why not-? Oh true, true! How silly, I don't know your name! What do you call yourself, potential friend?”

“...”

“...” “Aren't... you gonna tell me your name?”

I twist the bag strap “Depends...” I must say I'm a little skeptical about this. “Are there any consequences for telling you my name?”

“...Consequences...?”

“Like... I don't know... Mmm-by telling you my name I become your possession and cannot regain my freedom until... certain conditions are met...”

“...”

“...”

“Why- how-? Where did you get that from!?” It did sound a bit stupid when I said it out loud.

“I dunno- that's what they say in old children's stories about elves and fairies!” I just hope the embarrassment isn't showing on my face.

“Really?” I could feel his deadpan expression behind the mask.

I shrugged.

“...” “Okay... Oh, what if I tell you my name first? Will you tell me yours? It's only fair, I'm Sun!”

“...”

“Can I know your name now?” He asked expectantly.

“...How do I know you're not trying to trick me?”

“...” I must be driving him crazy with this “The only thing I can do with your name is treasure it in my memory.” He put his hands together as if he was carefully holding something and brought them to the forehead of the mask. I gave him a distrustful look. It doesn't seem like it made him desist “Please?”

I grip at my worn out bag strap “...” “ Fern...” I ended up murmuring.

“Hmm? Fern? OH, I like it!” “Sounds like FRIEND.” He emphasized the last word by making a gesture like jazz hands, leaning to the side and moving his head closer to me.

“Yeah... I think you are missing a couple of letters.”

He straightened his posture again. “Nope, I don't think so!”

“You're still not my friend.”

“Oooowwwwwnnnnnggghhh” He lowers his head dramatically until it practically touches the ground “nnnnnnngggghh, alright!” And cartwheels to stand up again “So... what will it be?”

“Hm?”

He straightened his posture and puts his arms on his hips “We have plenty of time, ya? What do you wanna to do?”

“I don't know, what do you want to do-?” Bad mistake.

“Come with me!”

“aaAAAAA-!” Before I knew it, he had grabbed my arm and I was being dragged through the woods. We visited several places and he offered me an activity to do in each of them.

—

Sun took me to a place where the trees were full of colorful paint “We practice painting on the trees here!” He said.

“Ah.” That explains the crossed out lines and the repeated imperfect shapes. By the look of it is also where he tests the quality of the paint.

“Do you want us to paint something!?”

“Not really...”

“Oh, would you prefer it to be on a rock?”

“Nah.”

“...And in star leaves-?”

“I don't want to paint, Sun.”

“Oh... Well, I can show you more places!”

“OkayyEEEEEE-” And I'm being dragged away again.

—

He brought me to another area of the forest, the ground here seemed more leveled. Not a single tree was straight, all of them were twisted and even seemed to be hollow. “How about playing something!? Like hide and seek-! No, wait, I can’t let you out of my sight.” He mumbled at the end “And chase?! We can climb a tree and see who reaches the top first! We have a place full of vines and it's perfect for swinging- and jumping from one tree to another-!”

“I don't... really want to move a lot…” With the way he runs without getting tired and me, who doesn't exercise... he would let me dead.

“Oh... well, theeen-”

—

We arrived at a place full of vegetation and humidity. Sun seemed quite excited... “This place is full of insects! We can look for cool bugs!”

“Mmmmmnoooo... I don't want to.” I had to tell him, trying to show as little disinterest as I could.

“You don't like them?” He sounded a little disappointed hearing my reaction.

“No, I do like them, some of them, but I don't like to touch them.” And I'm terrified of them flying into my face.

“Oh, well, it's okay!” He said brushing it off and we moved on to the next stop.

—

“I know that bird!” He stopped us on the way to point at a robin high up on a branch.

“ah.” I said as I removed leaves from my hair and clothes, and checked that I still had my glasses.

“He's a little rascal!”

“...” I think the bird is making us the equivalent of 'mooning'.

—

“Look fish-! Oh, they're gone…” The noise must have scared them away “We can go find more places to look at them if you want!”

“...” “...no, pass...”

“…”

—

“Look at this stick!” Sun had suddenly sprinted past me, picked up something from the ground, and came back just as fast, showing me the stick as if it were a sword.

“oh.” It's a cool stick, must admit it.

“Do you want to look for more sticks!?”

“No...”

“oh...” He looked at the ground in disappointment.

“Why would we go looking for sticks? There are all over the ground.” Specifically, in this area the ground was all sticks. We are literally just stepping on sticks right now. I don't see the ground.

“Variety!” Sun said pointing at the ground with both hands. A branch is heard falling in the distance.

—

“That's a deer!” He pointed at the deer passing nearby. The deer stopped to look at us.

“Yeah, I see.”

“We call 'em Adoquín!”

“...Why is it called Adoquí-?”

*THUMP!*

“…”

The deer smacked itself against a tree when trying to run away. It stands still for a minute, processing the hit, looks at a side and then the other, then runs off again but this time avoiding the tree.

Another *thump!* is heard in the distance.

“...” Alright.

—

“Do you wannaaaa look for pine cones? There will be some fallen around here. Oh! We can also look for mushrooms!”

I keep saying no to everything he suggests and it doesn't look like he's going to run out of ideas to pass the time. In fact, he's very insistent that we do something. I guess at some point I'll have to say yes to something. “...” “...okay...”

“Hmm?! Okay? Okay to what?” His exaggerated surprise offends me but I don't blame him.

“To... I don't know, pine cones?”

“...You don't look very convinced.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“OKAY! On the hunt for pine cones then!” I startle a little at the sudden shout. He makes a pose pointing in a direction, as if he were leading an expedition.

He takes me through the forest looking for pine cones. We aren't finding many, especially me who's not paying any interest. He tries encouraging me to put more effort into it but I keep looking at my boots.

We passed near a shingle river. I find a pebble at my feet and bend down to pick it up and take a better look. It's like a bluish gray, it has some reddish lines in the shape of waves, it feels good to the touch.

I hear the soft tinkling of a bell and feel a shadow fall beside me. “You like pebbles?” Sun is crouched next to me with his arms full of pine cones.

“…” I nod.

We go down to the river and spend some time collecting pebbles with curious shapes or small details of colors, lines, spots, etc. He comes over to show me one every time he finds weird shapes.

“…”

*rin* This time he's hunched over resting his hands on his knees. “You look… a little down.”

“…”

“Hey... we can do something else if you're tired of the pebbles.”

“...” I drop the pebbles I was looking at on the ground.

“...” He turns his gaze from me to the sky. It hasn't gotten late enough to be getting dark, but it's been a while between the walks we've taken (dragging me from here to there), looking for pine cones and then pebbles in the river. He looks back at me. “Oh, I know! Can I take you to one last place? A better place than the ones I've shown you!”

“…” I got up from the ground and waited for him to start leading to follow him.

We enter the increasingly thick forest. The trees are taller and bigger, in fact, I start to see platforms and bridges lying between the trees, I even see small shanties in them.

“Wait here!” He takes a run and jumps onto one of the trees with bridges. He takes three steps running up the tree, with a jump he pushes himself off and climbs with agility until he reaches the platform and climbs on it. “Just a moment!” It can't be seen from here but I can faintly hear some squeaks. I have no idea of what he's doin-

*rush*

“........eh?”

A rope.

A rope has fallen. At the level of my head.

“.......”

What?

…

He said he knew a better place.

No. It can't be this.

“Is it at a good height?! Can you reach it?!” He says...

It can't be.

A better place.

He can't be referring to this.

A better place.

A better place. A better place. A better place. A better place.

“Can you put your foot in?!”

“..........” For some reason what he said throws me off. “WAT-?”

“Can you put your foot in the loop and hold on to the rope so I can pull you up!?”

“..............”

“You can't climb trees, can you?! ...or you can?"

… “...” Oh “....It's...It's too high!”

“Okay!” Squeaks are heard and the rope descends to the ground.

I put my foot into the rope as he told me and hold on to it. “O-okay...!”

“Are you ready!?”

“Yes!”

“Okay!”

He begins to pull up the rope (which doesn't tighten around my foot as it supports my weight) and helps me up to the platform. (That's what it was for, obviously, what else would he want? I'm such an...) “Come on!” He says cheerfully, as always, and takes me over the bridges. “You seem tense... Don't tell me you're afraid of heights!”

“S-something like that... it's nothing.” He tilts his head at that but he says nothing. I have an unpleasant sensation in my throat.

We arrived at a high place with a view of waterfalls, I can't see above the trees. We sat on one of the bridges, resting our arms on the rope that serves as a railing and letting our legs hang off the bridge. I've thought about taking out the sketchbook to draw... but I don't really feel like it right now, so I just quietly observe the landscape. It is a better place, yeah.

…

I feel watched. I turn to look at him ...Of course he was looking at me. I don't even know whether to say something or keep quiet. ...I decide... not to say anything and look to the front.

“You... aren't very talkative, huh.”

“…”

“Not that it's a bad thing! Many people who have come here weren't very talkative at first either.” More people...

“...” “I have… nothing to talk about.” I don't want to talk.

“...” “Well, I do.”

“…”

“If it's okay with you, of course.” He laughed. Although something tells me that he is going to talk anyway.

“…”

“...” “What brings you to the forest?”

“...” Really? “I got lost.”

“Yeah, I already know!” He says between laughs “But what made you get lost?”

“...” “There was a group of kids I didn't want to get close to and I decided to go into the woods to lose them.” He makes a 'hum' sound and looks at me expectantly waiting for me to continue “And... I ended up getting myself lost...”

“...” “Only that?”

“...” “Well, yeah.” What do you mean 'oNlY tHaT'?

“...Mmm...” He places his hand on the chin of the mask.

“...” “What?”

“Nothing!” “...” “You know? You're the first human to visit the forest in a loooong time. For several cycles now…”

“Cycles?”

“Mhm” He nods.

“...What are cycles?”

Sun points to the sky “The turns that the Moon makes in the sky!” He emphasizes by rotating his arm in the air. It's pointing right at the Moon that's visible in the sky.

“Oh...” He uses the lunar cycles to know what day he's in, makes sense. “...” “So no one has been here in a while.”

“That's what I said! Well no, but yes!”

“A-and so the humans who came are still here? Have they been here all this time?”

“Yeah...! Well, no!” He paused. “They're gone!”

“What do you mean they're-?” He didn't let me finish the question.

“They are gone! They 'left'!” It sounded like he had given this answer many times already.

“What do you mean they left-?”

“They 'left'!”

“...” “...You mean...they disappear-?”

“Nope!” “...” “Something like that!” “…” “Mmmore or less…” He hesitated between one answer and another.

It seemed worthless to ask about the missing people. “...okay.” “Can I ask you-?”

“You can ask me anything!” A hint of nervousness escaped his tone.

“...okay. What is this forest?”

“My home! And the home of many other animals.”

“...” “Alright, and... how many are you...? How many of you live here? I mean. You have taken me everywhere and we haven't seen anyone of your…” I make a pointing gesture, spinning my hand around in the air. He can't be human, it doesn't look like he is. “...” “Honestly, I don't know what you are.”

“...” “There's only me... And someone else!” He looks away, as if trying to hide something.

“Oh... and who's that someone?”

“Oh! N-no, don't worry! He’s… just a friend… But it’s not important that you meet him or anything!” He brushes it off making a gesture with his hand. “Uh-um- How about we talk about you!? huh? What things do you like? Earlier, since you said no to everything, I thought you didn't like ANYTHING!” He continued talking without letting me respond. “I didn't know what to do if I ran out of ideas. I started to worry! But at least you're not one of those who spend all day shouting and threatening with a weapon in hand, ahaha...” He let out a nervous laugh.

“Um-”

“Well, you ran away screaming, yes.” He began to gesticulate widely as he complained “Like everyone-! No, not like everyone, some don't run, but those who, apart from running and screaming, attack you...! I mean...!” Something tells me he wasn't going to shut up and I was already half listening. “First they throw rocks at my head, then they insult me and run away. And I have to run after them because I can't just leave a human running around alone! No! I can't! Not in this forest! Anything could happen to them! But they never let me warn them!” He sounded tired. “And when I get them to stop running away from me, they throw things at me again and yell before demanding me to tell them where are they and how to get out of here, and when I explain it, they yell at me even more and accuse me of lying!” He turns to look at me with his hands pointing to his chest. “What reason would I have to lie?!” I don't know if he hasn't noticed or if he's ignoring the deapan I responded with. “UGH! I don't know what to do with those! But anyhow... I'm so glad we found something to do in the end!

“eh?” I snap out of my thoughts. It seems that now he is directing the conversation to me.

“The pebbles!” He sits turning his body towards me, leaving one single leg hanging from the bridge and the other resting on it. He takes out of his pocket some of the pebbles that he had been collecting with me. “I don't know why I assumed you wouldn't want to look for rocks. Maybe because you didn't want to paint them before... You left them back in the river in the end tho, I thought you would keep some.”

“Ah... I don't know. I didn't think I could take them with me.”

“You can keep some of mine!”

“No, it's okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“You suuuuure??” He insist.

“Yeees.”

He puts a pebble very close to my face “Suuuuuuuure?” Each 'u' sounding higher than the last.

“...” I push the pebble away from my face “Yeeeees.”

“mmmh... Okay! But I hope you don't regret it later when you don't have a cool rock like these and think 'Oh man, I could have a cool rock right now!'.” After a bad impression of me, he keeps the rocks in his pants. “So... Besides pebbles, what else do you like? Mm? I haven't been able to deduce much from today.”

“Don't know.”

“What do you mean you don't know!? Oh! Is it a secret?” He approaches and starts to whisper, putting his hands to the mask's mouth “I won't tell anyone, promise.”

“No. I don't know.” I looked to the side. “I can't think of anything... so suddenly.”

“ooow...” He slumps a little over the railing, looking sad.

“…” I hesitate whether to say something or not “...Drawing...”

“Mmm?!” He no longer seems sad.

“And listening to music, I guess.” “It's... all I do... most of the time.”

“Really!? Oh! I also like drawing! And music! But is that really all you do all day? Don't you do other kinds of things? Like reading! Or writting. Don't you go out for a walk or play with your friends?” I wrinkle my face at that last bit and he tilts his head in confusion.

“I don't go out.” “I have comics, but I rarely read.”

“Comics?”

“Um... They are stories but instead of narrating what happens there are drawings and only what the characters say is written.”

“...It's a book with drawings?”

“Yeah, but with a lot of drawings on each page, from start to finish.”

“WOAH.” He sounded perplexed. “That's drawing A LOT.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“Ahh, I'd love to see what they look like.” He rested his arm on the railing to hold his head in his hand “Too bad I can't…”

“I didn't bring them anyway.”

“Do you normally carry them around?”

“No, it's just that I didn't bring them to the village with me, I left them at home.”

“...” “Oh!” It seems that something has clicked on him. “You are not from the village.”

“No, I'm from a more urban area. My family used to come to the village every year in the summer, but we stopped coming. Now it seems that we are trying to get back into the habit.” I sighed.

“Why did you stop coming?”

“...That's personal.”

“Oh... okay.” He let a minute of awkward silence pass. “Hey, I can bring some books that I have at home! I think you might be interes-!” He looks away from me to the sunset behind us, the sun is almost gone. “-ted...” I look at the sunset too and then at him with confusion. “...” “...oh...oh-OH, Oh-no!” He stands up abruptly causing the bridge to shake slightly. What could have he seen? “We have to move!” He extends a hand to help me up. “We have to start moving!”

I get up in a hurry on my own, ignoring his hand. “O-okay, to where?”

“Come, run!” Once again he grabs me by the arm and leads me over the bridges between the trees until we reach a tree hut. It's small and dark, it looks like a small shelter. He opens the door and enters “You'll spend the night here, stay inside, do not go out, try to hide well and don't open the windows or doors, okay? Here, there are some blankets. I'll come back later.”

“Wait wait wait! What? What do you mean you'll come back later? What's happening? Why do I have to hide-!?”

“Sssh-ssh-sh” He grabs me and covers my hand with his, his left hand resting on the back of my right hand. He begins to speak in a calmer tone, with a voice that I had not heard him use until now. “It's okay, nothing happens. I have to go, I'll come back, but I can't stay now. You hide, try to rest, I'll be back, I promise.”

“...” I take my hand away from his. “Okay.” “I'll stay, but don't take too long.” Please, I don't want to be here alone.

“Yes. I'll be back.” He affirmed one last time. I watch him run away and disappear among the trees and undergrowth. I enter the small shelter to inspect it.

*TAP TAP TAP* *PLOK* *TAP TAP FOOSSSH! *

…? A noise comes from behind me. I turn around and there's a pebble on the floor.

…

Okay.

I take out my phones flashlight to see better inside the house. There are what appear to be some trunks, small cabinets, and a trapdoor in the floor, It seems that there are corners and blind spots for the windows where the little moonlight that enters through the cracks cannot reach. It's freezing cold and I haven't brought my jacket. I leave the bag on the floor against the wall, I cover myself with the blanket and curl up in a ball in the most hidden corner I can find. I'm tired, I want to sleep, but I can't close my eyes.

…

—

It's been a few hours now.

…

I can't sleep, I simply can't.

…

It doesn't look like he's coming back.

*creek*

…?

*rin*

*tap tap, creek*

Sun?

“S-...” I pause before saying a word, I have the feeling I shouldn't speak. I remain silent and wait.

*tap, tap, tap, creeeeeek, tap*

*rin dirrin*

If it were Sun he would have already let me know it is him. That or he's playing a prank on me which isn't funny, but I'd better stay silent. From the shadow I look at the windows. I notice movement through the cracks, something has just passed through the wall next to me.

*dirriring dirring*

I cover myself more with the blanket, back against the wall, I stay as still as I can, I leave a gap between the blankets and the floor to see. A red glow sneaks through the cracks in the window and scans the room.

…

The glow is gone.

*tap, tap, rin, tap, dirring, tap, tap*

It's on the roof.

…

*tap, tap, tap...*

It moves again.

*rin *

…

It sounded on the other side of the wall.

…

…

“nghehe...”

It laughed. Why did it laugh? Whatever is on the other side of the wall just let out a laugh that made the hairs on the back of my neck and all over my back rise.

…

Oh no.

Oh no no no no no no no no.

I have to move. I have to get out of here. I can't stay here.

*creeek*

It came from the door. It's trying to get in.

*rin*

The trapdoor.

*rin dirring*

Where was the trapdoor?

*creek creeeek*

I crawl across the floor making the minimum noise, carefully feeling the floor, looking for the edge of the door.

*tap tap ring dirring*

…!

I found it. I open it carefully. It's too high. I'm at a very high altitude, I don't know if I'll be able to go down.

*rin, creeek...*

…

Fuck it. I slip through the gap quietly, closing it slowly, but that doesn't stop the door from creaking. I cling to the bark of the tree-

…

I left my bag. If it comes in and see it it'll know for sure that I have been there-

…

It doesn't matter now. I have to focus on getting down from the tree without killing myself. My fingers hurt and I can't put my foot down properly because of the soles of my boots. I feel like I'm going to slip at any moment. Somehow I make it to the ground. Still attached to the tree, I look up at the house. I don't see it-

…

A shadow appears from behind the tree. I press myself against the tree and hold my breath. It's looking for something. When he doesn't seem to look I move to a nearby tree, he moves to another tree, I move to the next, and the next, and the next. We continue like this until I start to get further and further away from him. When I think I've lost him I start running. I hide behind a tree to catch my breath.

…

I slowly peek out from behind the tree.

*rin*

…

It sounded above me.

…

I don't look up, I run.

“nnghehee...” He laughs.

He gives me a few seconds advantage before coming after me. The chase begins.

I run forward as much as I can, I hear his footsteps behind me but I don't look back, there's no time for that. I hear him laughing like a madman as he moves from left to right, from one tree to another, crawling on the ground, trying to confuse me, waiting for me to make the slightest mistake to catch me.

“Ah-” I trip. As soon as I fall to the ground I get up, ripping my stockings and scraping my knees, falling again, my nerves not letting me stand up.

“Nnhehehhehe...” Asshole. He has stopped running, he approaches by walking. I try to keep as much distance as my hands and legs allow me to move. I search desperately with my hand for something on the ground to throw. Finally my hand finds something.

I throw a rock at him “AGH!”

The rock passes by him, flying one or two meters away from him. He hasn't even moved, he didn't move a single muscle to avoid it, he just watches me still from where he is. I hear the nearby *pof* of the rock falling to the ground.

“...”

“...”

…

I get up and run. He grabs my leg and I fall to the ground again. He won't let me get up, every time I try he throws me to the ground. I struggle, I kick, but I don't break free from his grip. He never stops laughing, he is enjoying this. He drags me closer to him, no matter how much I twists, he doesn't let go. “ACKH-!...Hhhh-hh...-hh-h...” He grabs me by the neck, red pupils stared at me, I'm looking straight into his crescent moon mask (or waning, I don't know. Do you think I care right now?). He raises his free hand and his veins begin to glow a platinum color that extends to his fingertips. The hand approaches my face, I don't know what it's going to do to me, I'm scared, I don't want to look. I close my eyes, cover my face with my hands. I wait.

…

…

…?

Nothing's happening. It stopped. Why?

“Mun, nïe.” I hear Sun's voice. I open my hands a little to see what's going on. Indeed, it is Sun, several meters away from us... He looks exhausted. The one with the moon mask stares at him for a moment, until he decides to look at me again while bringing his glowing veiny hand closer. “¡Mun!” The Moonman looks at Sun again “Fehreh.” He seems to speak another language, I don't understand what he says.

“...” “Nïe” For the first time I hear him say something else besides laughing. Even though I can't understand him.

“Fïer pehgïer.” Sun responds.

“...” Moonman remains silent again.

“Bïelïe óubseh góuh...” Sun continues.

“Móu txehb móunsuvïe.” The Moon responds.

“Lïe bóu ¿Sóundïe mïesugïeb fehreh nïe txehtehrlïe?”

…

The air feels tense. Probably because of the hand grabbing my neck.

“¿Zkaóu fuóunbehb txehtóur tkaehnvïe nïe bóueh mehb zkaóu ïesreh rehuh óunsóurrehveh óun leh suóurreh?” Longest sentence I've heard him say so far.

“...” “Fïer óubseh góuh.” “...” “Vóuyehmóu óuntehrdehrmóu vóu óulleh” Sun takes a step forward “Nïe suóunóu fïer zkaóu ehtehkehr ehbu” Another step forward “Nïe sóunóumïeb fïer zkaóu txehtóurlóub... óubsïe” Another step “Óullïeb bïelïe óubsehn... fóurvuvïeb.”

“...” There's no response from the moon man.

“Behkehb tïemïe óub óubïe.”

“...”

…

The hand that grabbed my neck now grabs my shirt and yanks it. I grab his wrist as he pulls me to my feet and drags me to Sun, making me stumble. He throws me against him. Sun catches me before I fall over.

“Ska óubpkaóurhïe óub óun gehnïe.” The moon says something as he walks past. Sun puts a hand on his shoulder before letting him go, there's a pause between the two. The Moonman disappears into the trees. Wind and leaves are heard passing by.

…

He's gone. I feel dizzy. I fall down.

—

…

…

…

A faint light begins to seep through the cracks, illuminating enough to wake me up and make me open my eyes, I look around. I see my bag propped against the wall. I'm at the shelter where Sun left me.

…

My body aches, I have a hard time keeping my eyes open, it feels like I've been sleeping on the hard floor. No, wait, there are some blankets underneath me... It's still too hard to sleep well, either that or as I said, it shouldn't help me at all that everything hurts. After a while of staring at the ceiling I try to sit up. I emphasize trying. With every slight effort a pained moan escapes me.

“Oof...” Hurts.

*creek, tap tap tap tap*

Those wood creaks bring back bad memories from last night (which by the way, I'm alive, wow, I just realized), I can't help but cringe at every noise, I hear footsteps approaching, I try to move but the stinging pain prevents me from it.

*creek... *

The door opens.

Triangular shapes appear through the door followed by orange earth tones. “…Oh…!” “Early bird!” Thank god it's Sun and not the other one, or something worse “I didn't expect you up this early!” He says laughingly.

“ah?”

“How are you feeling?” He walks in. When he sets foot inside I lean back, towards the wall. “...” I don't really know why I did that. Sun stands at the door showing confusion with his usual head tilt. “...Arrr...re you okay, Fern?”

“...” I became tense suddenly. I really don't know still if I can trust him? He hasn't done anything to me yet but that doesn't mean that I can trust him. I don't know if he plans to do something with me like whatever that other one, the moon one, was going to do last night. “...ehh...hhh...h...” I can't get a word out, I'm afraid to ask.

“Mm?”

“...” I don't know what to say to him. My eyes go somewhere else.

…

He enters further into the house, ignoring that I keep my distance from him, leaves a bag he was carrying on the floor and begins to open the windows, letting in the little light of the dawn that is just beginning. He kneels on the floor in front of me with the bag. “Are you hungry?” He opens the bag and takes out an apple “Do you like apples?”

“...”

“No?”

“...”

“Um... I also brought berries... (It's what I had on hand coming here) There are... different types, you can choose” He brings the bag closer to me. I move further away. “uhhh...”

“...” I want to leave.

“You don't like them either...?”

“...” I don't want to eat. I want to leave.

“...”

“*snif... *”

“u-um...!”

“...*snif* *sob*...” I started crying out of nowhere.

“Ahhh...! D-do- don't cry! Ah-I-Um- Ca-can go find other things you might like-!”

I felt ashamed for crying and I put my hands to my face trying to wipe away the tears, but they wouldn't stop coming. “*hic, sniff, snif *” I looked away in an attempt to cover my face. I ended up looking at the floor, letting my hair act as a curtain.

“I can go in a moment!” Sun was already getting up.

“...w-want to leave...” I managed to get a murmur out.

“...W-what? Um...”

“...” *hic, hic *

“O-okay, um... If you aren't hungry... -we can do something else- uh- we can go look for rocks like yesterday in the river!”

“...” I don't want to do anything “...want to leave...”

“O-or we can do something else! Ah-bah-b-b-b- W-won't you like to go draw??! Somewhere, some landscape?! Wherever you want! We can draw together! If you prefer we can look for animals instead of landscapes!”

“...leave...want to...go... *hic, snif *”

“¡D-don't n- uh! ¡L-let's... um- let's not- uh!” He no longer knew how to order his words “H-hey, ¿Why don't we go to-?” He extends his hand towards my arm.

“I want to go home...”

He stops before touching me and removes his hand. “...” “...home?” There is a pause. He remains silent and unmoving. He finally speaks “Do you want…?” His tone became more serious.

“...”

“...to... go see the portal?” I look up slightly, I can't see through the tears and the fogged lenses of my glasses.

“...” I nod my head.

—

…

We didn't walk far until the red began to become visible. He brought me back to the portal. The same plain of red leaves and stone arch in the center of it all, as yesterday.

…

Sun has been quiet the entire time.

He advances towards the portal and stands facing it. He turns. “Come.” He extends his hand towards me. “You can pass through.”

“...”

I advance towards the portal. I stop before crossing. If it doesn't take me back home, what do I do? I don't want to stay.

A breeze begins to come out of the portal. The breeze turns to wind, the leaves rise, they pass through us. It's the same thing that happened yesterday when I went to cross. I turn to face Sun. Motionless, he looks back at me, the leaves pause in the air for a second as if time has stopped, the wind changes. From where the wind and leaves came now they come in, they push me towards the portal. I finally cross it.

…

Am I in the forest I know? I turn to look at Sun who stayed behind in the portal. “...Sun?” He's not there. I look around. He's not here. I've already crossed the portal, he must have left.

I notice a sudden draft pass by me. It's soft, like someone walking past you. I turn towards the forest, I have to start moving, I don't want to be here another minute.

...The air current that I noticed has lifted some leaves, they reach the trees, between them the wind does something strange, it forms a transparent silhouette. It looks like Sun, I can barely see him but I could swear it's him. The wind figure raises its hand and makes a gesture, it wants me to follow it. When I approach it turns around and walks into the forest, leaving a trail of leaves behind it. I follow the trail of the air current. Sometimes it stops to look at me, making sure I'm still following it. The red-leafed trees and the paintings disappear from view the farther we go. We crossed the forest until we arrived at the entrance of the town, near my house. There is no one on the street. If I walked into the house and pretended nothing had happened, officially no one would have noticed my absence.

I'm not one hundred percent sure if the wind figure that guided me is Sun or not, but I should at least thank him for bringing me back.

…

The air current has dissipated before I turn around. I look around, there's no one.

…

…

…

I enter the house, go up to my room and throw the bag on the floor. I go to the bathroom to wash. …I feel something strange in my hands but I couldn't say what. Doesn't matter. I change my clothes and get into bed, the tiredness of the previous night makes my body succumb immediately and I fall asleep instantly.

—

…

…

…

“ah...!” I wake up with my lungs begging for air. I need a moment to calm my breathing. I look at the clock without lifting my head from the pillow.

…

It is 12 midday. I rub my eyes and from my eyes I move to my face. I'm still tired. My body still aches. I stare at the ceiling.

…

My bag. I reach out to pick it up from the floor, making strange positions so as not to get out of bed.

I open it and search in the pockets. The bell. I put the bell to my ear. “...” I shake it.

*rin, diring diring*

“...”

I open it.

…

It's empty.

[thestarfishinjootsoffice]

slashers x child!reader who likes to take apart their toys to make little inventions/new toys

*dies* I didn't add Billy and stu because I'm so tired and have no inspiration

Slashers x child! Reader who rips other toys to built new ones.

Michael

You probably got old dolls from a few decades ago from Judith's old toys she had when she was a child or his.

Michael didn't care that much that you were destroying the toys until he saw you either only ripped a limb or a head.

He then came and saw you with a toy he never saw before when he recognised some parts and realised you built a new toy out of different toys.

He'll admire it like how he'll admire his "art works" after killing someone. The more weirder and creepier the more he'll like it. although he'll like any kind of invention you make.

When you ran out of toys he broke in a toy shop once and got as many as he could and gave them to you.

You got a whole shelf of your little inventions and he stares at it whenever you're gone and he has nothing to do.

Sinclair brothers

They got you either old toys of theirs (I hv no idea if they had toys as children) or toys around the town.

Bo was like 'why??' when you took apart your toys parts but when he saw you building a new one he thought 'wait that's kinda cool actually' he thinks of it like repairing or building a car so when he actually is repairing a car he'd like it if you were also building something so that you can both look like father and daughter doing similar things. When you finished a piece and showed it to him he probably petted your head and said "good job", what he really wanted to say was 'oh my god, oh my god holy shit it's beautiful you built something in so proud of you'. Got one or two of yours as a gift to him and he keeps it extra safe.

Vincent was ecstatic when you showed him your new toy and told him your little hobby, now you both can make art! He could be painting or wax sculpturing and you could be building with him. He's so proud of you whenever you managed to fully make a toy he howls a bit in delight and gives you two thumbs up and he probably sketches your toys because he thinks they're so interesting. He'll be a bit sad when he sees his childhood toys broken though he thinks your new ones are totally worth it. He sometimes likes you watch you do your thing and helps you if you can't figure out what to make.

Lester was also whying when he saw you taking apart the toys, did you hate it that much? But he went wowing when he saw what you were actually doing and totally watches you make your new toys. He will say so many praises when you finish it, will talk about it to his brothers and bo acts annoyed but he secretly wants to hear all about it too. Wants to learn how to build too, it gets boring having nothing to do driving around all day you know. except when tourists are here but scratch that the twins will sometimes find you both together on Lester's trunk on a challenge to see who can build faster and better, its a tie everytime. Jonesy would be there to watch you two (everyone's watching) if you run out of toys then he'll bring you abandoned cheaper ones.

Hannibal

I think it all started when he brought you expensive nice ones and you took one look at it and then ripped it. He almost choked on air when he saw that.

"y/n.. Why did you do that if you didn't like it you could've just told me..."

When you told him about your intentions he replied with,

"I wish you could've told me that sooner, I could've brought cheaper ones." he pinches the bridge of his nose.

And he did. And he watches with great interest on how your little invention will turn out and smiles and praises you when you show him your art piece. Also like Michael he had shelf/shelves full of your works. Informs Will about this too this is how it goes.

_________________________________________

Will, Will look what y/n made.

Hannibal it's 2 am.

_________________________________________

He's a happy little cat when you talk to him about your toys and he's just glad he adopted you. Like Vincent you both can do your little art things.

[ribbononline]

Oh yeah! Since I have no clue if/when I'm ever finishing these and I've had them laying around for forever by now- here's the adult IT metaverse outfits I've made! They're all based on their ultimate personas and the concept of heros! Since these were made for an aged up p4 cast, these aren't quite what I'd put their during p4 time selves in- some changing more then others- but if you wanna follow me into design details, that'll all be under the cut!

First off to get em out of the way- Teddie is very largely the same as his p4 time metaverse outfit I made for him back here . The design is still meant to be inspired by magical girls, but the biggest change is that while the old one was meant to look like a magical girl protagonists outfit, this one I tried to lean a bit more into the older/more experienced cast member of the magical girl group type design. Overall a pretty minor change (and I will admit, largely because I'm still incredibly happy with that old design) but it felt fitting!

Chie and Yukiko were, as always when I work on them, designed to match. Their masks specifically mirror eachother with the opposites sides sticking out, and they both have a golden dragon pattern on their clothes as a reference to the twin dragons move! Chie was... honestly one where I had to sacrifice my goals a bit. Like mentioned before, these were meant specifically for an aged up cast. And while p4 era Chie I would absolutely imagine in a kung fu Chung-Li type outfit, we know what a more mature version of her action hero dreams look like; the police! And I.... really did not want to put her in a cop outfit, Ill be real. Instead I just tried focusing on making the outfit look more mature. Also tried to combine a practical and strong look with a more feminine aesthetic, since she struggles pretty badly with her femininity in p4 and I like to think she'd grow more comfortable with her own brand of it over time!

Yukiko is perhaps one of the most drastic one for changes compared to her younger self- if you asked me to design a p4 era outfit for her, it would look nothing like this, hah. Anyways, she's definitely inspired by onna-musha! Compared to Tomoe who was a full on commander of an army going out there, for Yukiko the idea was more the women taking up arms to protect their home when the battle comes their way. Fully having embraced the role she has as the next owner of the Amagi Inn and the responsibility and want to protect it, it's meant to be somewhat of an outing of that!

Fun fact: She has two color schemes! Because uhh I did not know what to go for at all. Her ultimate persona is like a single solid color and I kind of panicked and just ended up winging the colorscheme. One is more red since, y'know, thats her color! The other is more white gold to match her actual persona better. Included at the end of this post for the curious

Rise was based on a greek goddess- though not any particular one, moreso how they're commonly depicteed in art and old statues. Pretty, holy, someone you'd go to for advice and help (someone just out of reach from the general public) It just felt like a good combination of something she'd like to be seen as and percieved as as well. She gets two outfits- for scan and fight mode! Kouzeon has no canon fight mode, thats just for Himiko, but man it exists in my heart. The transistion between the two is literally just her throwing off the long overskirt, hah.

How does her mask work? Excellent question. The p5 idea of having it there when vibing but gone when the persona is out feels a little awkward when her persona's whole thing is putting a visor over her face. Quite frankly I have no idea. Sorry folks. Have all concept sketches for the outfits I've done as compensation with a bonus Noot in there that I never continued on and finished.

[quibbs126]

I know you've done this before but can you please maybe make a darkwhip kid, but with the basis that Whipped comes from the Millenial Tree family?

I finally finished her, this lady is Whipped Ganache Cookie

Fun fact, Whipped Ganache was one of the first fankid names I came up with when I first made my list, which was a little before I opened up requests, I just didn’t get requests for darkwhip nor did I have ideas like I did for pureraisin and darklico, but then I finally ended up getting this request, so I could use it

So basically ganache is like this chocolate sauce or icing or filling, it has a lot of uses, and whipped ganache is this whipped version with more cream than chocolate. I picked it because it seemed like whipped cream but chocolate, perfect for darkwhip

The thought occurs to me that maybe chocolate mousse could have worked too (mainly due to my roommate saying whipped ganache reminded her of it), but I like Whipped Ganache. And I can save it for later (but not the other darkwhip kid, and I don’t need a third one)

Whipped ganache:

So this is technically my second time drawing her, with my first attempt only getting as far as the hair sketch. I couldn’t figure out what to do for her outfit, so I just left her for some months until yesterday

But I had a good idea of what to do for the hair (even if I changed it somewhat)

But let’s get to the outfit. Yet again, I didn’t really know what to give her, other than she probably wears dresses. I put her in a hanbok since I was like “I dunno, that’s an outfit she could wear”. And sure it looks fine, but I wasn’t really sure it fit her, specifically with the request of her having some relation to Millennial Tree Cookie, but you know, no one gave me a goddamn answer when I asked (well other than my friend who said keep the hanbok, but she also said she was biased so) so I just had to stick with the hanbok. I’m still not sure it works to be honest. I mean, if she’s going for a formal event/festival in the Dark Cacao Kingdom, sure, but I’m not sure it works as her default. Maybe if I can come up with something better I can make a new design with that, but for now, this is what I have

I’m also not sure about her outfit colors to be honest. I wanted her to have pinks, but I also wanted her to have browns (and also that purple I got that looked neat), and I’m not sure I found the best balance in the end. But I asked my friend and she said “look good” so I kept it

I like the mountain pattern on her hanbok, I got that straight from Dark Choco’s costume

Sorry, I don’t have much to say. I came up with the hair months ago and don’t really remember all the logic other than it being long sort of like Millie and having pearls because Whipped Cream, and I have more complaints about the outfit because I don’t think it fits. But I like everything else about her aside from her outfit

Anyways, character time

So I think I came up with some ideas for her back in July when we were coming back from England, though I soon went on to work on Vanilla Lily/Witch Hazel (and fun fact, I haven’t looked back at those notes until right now as I’m writing this)

So first thing about Whipped Ganache (that I probably should have mentioned in the design section), she is very tall. She isn’t necessarily wide, but she is tall, taller than either of her parents. I just wanted to mention that

But anyways one of her main things is that she has healing magic, which is what she’s supposed to be doing with the flower in the sketch (wasn’t sure how to give off the glowing effect though). But also, while her magic is healing, it’s deadly towards things of dark magic, like what healing magic does to undead things in old games (actually as far as I’m aware that’s only FF7)

I’m remembering now, I think one thing I envisioned with her is her summoning a giant ass laser like what Millennial Tree does in his Skill, and when she fires it, her allies caught in it would be healed while her enemies (presumably made of dark magic) would be harmed

Whipped Ganache is generally a very serene and kind person, has the patience of a saint. I’m not sure she has a breaking point, she probably does but I haven’t thought much on it. She’s very attuned to nature as well, maybe not to the point of being a tree hugger, but enough that she doesn’t like blatant exploitation of it. Also she’d survive very easily by herself in the wild

Another thing about her is that she plays a harp. Not a lyre like what Carol or Lilybell uses, but a full giant harp. I got that from listening to Millennial Tree Cookie’s theme

Anyways, I think that’s about it for her. But also just a note, she’s not the only darkwhip kid I plan to make, it’s just that she doesn’t necessarily follow the same rule of being related to Millennial Tree. I mean she and Whipped Ganache live in the same timeline, they’re sisters, but she doesn’t have much that makes that trait noticeable, so she’ll get her own thing

But yeah, I hope you enjoyed Whipped Ganache

[bluegekk0]

I love how you draw Hornet and her design. It's fluffy and it looks like she is tired. Anyways I was wondering if there was a time where Hornet would have had more than 2 pairs of arms. I feel like out of all of the family she would be the one with multiple arms as both her parents have it.

Since I am on the topic, what other designs have you tried? I know when you were revealing Asta and Milo you said they were somewhat reminiscent of Leaks designs.

She's always had just two arms, actually. While it makes sense for her to have at least 4, perhaps Herrah only actually has 2 arms while the rest of her limbs are legs. Kind of like a spider centaur, maybe. I don't have a design for her yet, so this is just me thinking out loud. If not, then maybe Hornet just got really unlucky in the limbs department and somehow only got 2 arms.

As for other design iterations... Hm. Well, there were her previous cloak designs. At the very beginning of the AU she had a canon-esque cloak with some additional details. Then I designed new clothes for her, a sweater-like undershirt with a red cape-like cloak on top. In the AU canon, her old cloak got destroyed and then what was left of it was reused for a more fancy eyepatch for Holly.

But I ended up changing the design of that new cloak, the new undershirt is mode medieval-esque and the cloak is dark blue. I like this color combination better and I do think she would dress in more muted colors to fit the style of Dirtmouth better. It helps her blend in but it's also a subtle sign of her finally acknowledging her role in the community. She's no longer a lone wolf like before, she's part of the townsfolk now. It's a pretty big step for her, and I think having her clothes reflect that is a pretty neat detail.

Her actual body didn't really change much, mostly because I've never actually drawn it prior to the most recent reference. Her headshape got some changes, it's a lot more round now, and her eyes are more noticeably brown with big dark pupils. I never really experimented with her design very much so the clothes are the only thing that was worth mentioning.

And yes, Milo in particular was super close to an early Lewk design. Asta not so much, though being Milo's twin sister means that she does share some similarities with that old concept.

Here's the super old sketch and Milo for comparison. As you can see, it's a veeery similar idea. The main difference is the lack of fluff, but Grimm was a lot less fluffy back then so the old baby design reflected that. Oh and FPK didn't have eyebrows. So the baby didn't have them either. Funniest thing is, I didn't even intend to call back to that design, I finished drawing Milo and only then made the connection. Nothing is ever truly lost it seems.

[averseunhinged]

it's wip wednesday! hooray. my actual ongoing wip are all kind of at a point of almost doneness where i should stop sharing snippets from them, so here is a thing from the archives. no idea when i might finish this, because of all the other things.

technically, it's a soulmates au, but doesn't really get into all that until like ten pages later.

The young woman who opened the door was none of the three he expected.

"Hi," she said hesitantly, elongating the word. "Can I help you?"

"The answer to your question is entirely dependent on whether you're planning on using that," Elijah pointedly looked down at the crossbow held nonchalantly in her hand.

"Oh!" she yelped and easily swung the heavy weapon up behind her back. "That's nothing. It's...a prop! Made of Styrofoam. My friend's a drama major. No big deal."

He heard a sigh from further inside the room and the approach of bare feet in sandals. A slim, pale hand appeared from behind the door and opened it wider.

"Well, you tried," Caroline Forbes said with an exhausted tilt to her inflection. "Points for thinking fast and coming up with a solid, truth-based lie. Would've been better to avoid flashing medieval weaponry around in the hallway in the first place, but you did stick the landing." She focused her attention back on him. "I thought that sounded like a Mikaelson. Hello, Elijah."

"Miss Forbes."

"Well, at least you know each other. I'm Ivy," the other girl cheerfully introduced herself and held out her hand for him to shake.

"Did you not learn your lesson the last time?" Caroline pushed Ivy's hand down and scooted the other girl back into the room. "Don't try to make friends with supposed friends of friends who turn up out of nowhere!"

"I'm already dead, what else could happen?"

"You could always be more dead, or about a trillion other awful things. Do you want to get shot in the head? I've been shot in the head. It sucks. There. The benefit of my experience. No need to do your own research."

"I give you my word no harm will come to your," Elijah paused and then questioned, "sireling?"

"Adopted. Her sire's an idiot, but he's an idiot I inherited, and unfortunately, I'm attached to him now." She sighed and looked over her shoulder. At what, he wasn't sure. "Okay, I'm kind of on a time crunch, so you should come in. No," she commanded, pointing one stern finger at him, "shenanigans. I will be super upset if you do any heart-ripping."

Elijah solemnly traced an X on his chest and said, with gravity, "Cross my heart and hope to die."

"Oh great. More hilarious jokes." Caroline stepped back and waved him in. "You all have the worst sense of humor. Like it's seriously terrible."

Whitmore was one of the oldest universities in the American South, and a wealthy one at that. Judging by its size and appointments, Caroline's dormitory room looked as though it had originally been a common room. There was typical evidence of young women--cosmetics and jewelry, warring perfumes, several brassieres hanging over the back of a chair--but there were also stacks of old, rough-bound books and an open train case smelling strongly of a witch's tools of the trade. Spread across one of the single beds and the surrounding floor area was an incongruous array of weapons.

The other girl, Ivy, was on the floor, peering at a rectangular, carved box. "Stilettos of Suffering?" she read from the small, engraved plate on it, confused.

"Not shoes, obviously, and not cute. They're like icepick knives with a curse attached, so don't open it. Witches," Caroline shook her head and sketched out an exasperated gesture. "They say we're nasty pieces of work, but I've never wanted to liquify someone's internal organs with a single poke."

With all his family had gone through over the past year, Elijah had to agree. "Vampires do tend to be a bit more direct."

"So," Caroline said cheerfully, taking the stilettos away from Ivy and placing them back in an old footlocker with respectful precision, "I don't know what you need, but Elena had a psychotic break on witch LSD and made the incredibly constructive decision to have her memory erased and Bonnie's dead. Sort of. Maybe." She toed off her sandals next to one of the clear beds and shook a pair of black trousers out of their precise, folded square. "It's complicated. Damon's unavailable, plus he sucks, and Stefan just won the award for biggest jerk ever, and he didn’t even have his humanity off this time. Oh, and there's this stupid Traveler barrier around Mystic Falls. You stop being a vampire and then die the way you died if you cross it. So, probably don't do that. Or do, if you want to. I don't know what's in your life right now. That's between you and Jesus." She squinted at him and tilted her head. "Or maybe Thor, I guess? Because Vikings."

Elijah hummed. "I'm not in correspondence with either one, and my to do list has far too many items left undone, at present, for a suicide attempt."

"You and me both, buddy."

"And as fascinatingly convoluted as that sounds," he began, placidly watching as she tugged on snug jeans under her pretty, pink sundress, bouncing a little bit from their tight fit, "I've already located my quarry."

She froze at his congenial tone, slowly removing her hands from underneath her dress, where she had finished fastening her jeans, and looked at him in quick-dawning denial.

"Oh no," Caroline insisted, shaking her head, her thick ponytail and the late summer humidity ringlets framing her face bouncing from the force of it. "No, no, no. I have my own idiot to rescue from his poor decision-making skills. I don't have time to get sucked back into your idiot's bad choices."

"From what I understand, Miss Forbes, my idiot just so happens to be your idiot as well, and perhaps even more in need of rescue."

[boredwritergirl]

Day 17 - The Starving Artist part 2

This is Part 2 of Day 5's entry, The Starving Artist

The Starving Artist Part 2

Eloise sat outside the hostel, finishing another bottle of red. Crouched down in the slums of her once beautiful city, she stared at the now empty bottle. 

‘How many of these did I drink today?’ She asked herself, lost in thought. It had been far from the first time that she had asked herself this. While Wine might not have the highest alcoholic content in it, Eloise found herself more and more as she struggled to live in the Nazi occupied city of Paris.

The door beside her opened and the nurse, Céline stepped out, an unlit cigarette in her hand. She looked down at Eloise as she took out her zippo and started a flame, holding it out to the densely wrapped tobacco between her lips. She blew out a puff of smoke before finally asking. “What are you still doing here?”

Eloise sighed. She couldn’t really look at her directly, so she settled for the light reflection of her onto the clear wine bottle, the candle light in between them providing the view on this dreary night. “How long has she been in there?”

Céline asked, “Whom?” in a flat tone, struggling to keep herself too invested.

Elosie said, “The old woman, The one I sketched. How long was she in there?”

Céline shrugged, “Maybe five years, or ten or however many. She was there before I got here.”

“You know she actually woke up this time? I couldn’t believe that.”

“Yes, right. You mentioned that before. The first time she had been fully conscious since I arrived. What of it?” Céline asked as she took a deep inhale, thoroughly enjoying the sensation of the smoke building up and being expelled from her body.

“She knew so little of the world. She seemed so… Happy. Like she knew that her son was going to come for her one day. I don’t know how anyone can believe such things at a time like this.” Eloise sniffled, her eyes covered by a thick layer of water just waiting to escape her eyelids.

Céline rolled her eyes, looking up at the dark sky above before finally looking down at Eloise and doing a half assed attempt to disguise her sigh as blowing more smoke. “It’s easy to have hope when you’re living a good life. Things weren't always so bad and things might get better, but it’ll never get the same as it used to be. Who’s to say if hope is truly dead or not? That’s for the next generation to decide, long after this war is over and done with.”

“I think I had hope once…” Eloise said. “I used to be naive and wide eyed. I left my family farm to come here. I painted the serene landscapes as I traveled, and what did it get me? I always wanted to move to Paris and become an artist… I guess I got my wish…” Some of the tears finally let loose as they began to traverse down her cheek, dangling and slowly dripping off her chin. “I… I asked for this life. I had no idea how bad things were going to get. Just how quickly France would fall in this war. What if it never gets better? Could I seriously live with myself like this? Just rotting on the streets?”

Céline sat down beside Eloise, telling her, “Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. We can’t focus on such thoughts when people haven’t given up yet. That’s why your mission is important at all. Couriers like you keep the resistance talking, especially when we fear those pigs might be onto us. As long as there’s people willing to fight, the struggle isn’t completely hopeless… just mostly hopeless.”

Eloise wiped her face, “Wow, you’re really not good at being uplifting, are you?”

Céline let out a laugh, the closest thing to a smile Eloise ever saw on that face. “No, I’m not. I don’t know much about any of that freudian junk. But what I do know is how to numb the pain.

Céline passed her cigarette over to Eloise, who gladly accepted it, taking a deep puff of smoke.

[asirensrage]

important questions: what's the oc for? And also I want to hear everything about them even if I know nothing about the fandom.

Aw man, I didn't post that to get encouraged hahahah I don't actually know a lot about her, mainly because I haven't finished or caught up with the anime/manga yet. BUT who says I'll let that stop me. (I'm kidding...sort of.)

It's for Tokyo Revengers. I'm sure by now you (and everyone else) is well aware of how much I adore the trope/concept of "character arriving into another time/world" and isn't this fandom perfect for it (considering the main character time travels to his past self).

Anyway, the idea started in one scene where when he's like 14/15 and outside his house, he's watching these Mikey and Draken argue with each other and they start breaking his stuff as they throw it at each other and I just thought, "wouldn't it be funny if you had someone show up and be like "what are you doing?" and it turned out to be his sister, but as far as he knows, he doesn't have a sister??? so who is she?" (ngl, I explained this so much better to @emerald-valkyrie and I forgot to save it loll)

I don't know if you know the anime, so, you have the main character Takemichi, who somehow travels back and forth to 12 years in the past and is trying to save his old girlfriend from dying in the future from gang activity, but as he does so, he gets more and more involved with the gang and people in it. He becomes determined (where I'm at now) that the best way to save her is to take over the gang himself.

Now, add in his sister (my oc) Takara. She's a year older, generally unimpressed with the fact that she's there. She's aware that she didn't have a younger brother and had an entirely separate life before. The two of them admit the truth about each other (aka time travelling vs sudden addition to the world) and Takara basically offers to help Takemichi. Even though she woke up as his sister, she still somehow has memories of being his sister (those memories slowly come to Takemichi the longer she's there). No one else is aware that she doesn't really belong.

While Takemichi is well known for being a crybaby, Takara is less emotional. I think I might give her these traits I listed when I was playing around with the concept of what makes a problematic character problematic:

Negative traits: aggressive, manipulative, resentful, morbid/pessimistic, selfish, impulsive, antisocial  Positive ones: loyal, adaptable, adventurous, resourceful, intelligent, observant, playful, charming, 

I'm not sure yet what her role will be. I have a feeling in her attempts to help her brother she's going to find herself in a fair amount of trouble (especially because of who her brother is and his ambitions).

"The problem with having a brother who’s involved is that there’s no way to keep herself separate. Not really. She’ll always be a tool for leverage against him if he gains the power he wants and as many friends as Takemichi finds himself every time he returns, he has just as many enemies."

I have a couple scenes written that wouldn't leave my head but nothing really planned out. Like I have a bit of an idea of who her romantic interests are, but I'm also not certain and I think there is probably a difference of who she might be interested in vs who's interested in her. I think it would be interesting to mainly do it from her pov, especially to show the sharp contrast in Takemichi from when he's his usual 15years old self and when he's inhabited by his future self who's trying to save people.

Oh! I also have a sketch I did of her when I was trying to figure out what she'd look like related to him. Well, a couple but I'll show one.

if you can't tell, she's pissed. especially at being grabbed like that hahaha

Thanks for asking!! Even if it didn't fully make sense lol. I might be in the middle of creating a playlist for her but I also need to nail down what her personality is going to be like. (and if she has any skills....)

[televinita]

Companions...as companions

(or, “things that have been in my drafts since early 2020″)

Back in December, I got overwhelmed by feelings and wrote a random little concept sketch re-imagining The (Tenth) Doctor as a regular human and the companions as various pets, summarizing each one's place in his life ("Donna is a dog he reluctantly fostered for a friend, still reeling from the loss of Rose. She's bigger, older, a bit more stubborn and independent, but he finds himself fond of her anyway. Until she gets adopted, and he has to let her go (enter Martha). A year later she's back in need of a home, and this time he doesn't hesitate.”) I also got sassy about the ending, because it wasn’t THAT serious. "And then Rose comes back, dirty and footsore but HOME, and he lives his best life with his 3 best girls forever and ever, the end.”

Last night I reread it and suddenly went, "What if I cleaned up the writing and made this a real fic," and now I'm a thousand words deep and it's getting elaborate. Nine is standing in for this doctor’s father (wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey), because he had Rose first. I'm also trying to decide if I should stick with the idea of Martha being a cat because Independence (her dynamic is just so different from how R&D pledged their lifelong devotion to traveling with him, and he treated her differently too), or if making her the only non-dog Others her too much and I should just make her a super-smart and elegant breed. But on the bright side, since Ten is a goddamn neverending tragedy and the original version saw me tack on a "SAD ALTERNATE END" section just to stab myself in the face (“At the end of a series of short-lived fosters there's Wilf, sweet old elderly Wilf who looks like Donna, and is there by his side when the cancer finishes wearing him down, too young by half, at 40"), now he gets a full life and the Companion Farewell Tour becomes a shameless Titanic-style/Rainbow Bridge escort of dogs from days past. ...which ALSO makes me cry, but for better reasons.

(And there at the end of time is Rose, younger than he’s ever seen her, crossing over with him when everything goes dark and light at once.)

[docholligay]

As a Children’s Story for Children: Wolfwalkers

Age I was told midge should be: 7ish

Quick review: Not unenjoyable, but ultimately a bit more bland and Irish Ferngully than I was wanting and looking for. I think I expected too much of it, honestly. Not bad, though! Loved the art style.

Longer review:

I had such a hard time watching this as a seven year old because, I don’t use my phone when I watch things, which I do recommend because you notice things and gravitate toward, I think, better things, but unfortunately I have just enough grasp of the history of the area to sit there the entire time and go, “Lord Protector? Wait is this guy supposed to actually be Oliver fucking Cromwell? Did they use Lord Protector otherwise? Cromwell was a complete dick to everyone who had exactly one good idea (and it was a great one)  so I would be unsurprised. Is the year right? I feel like it is but now I don’t trust myself.” But not enough grasp of the history to actually resolve that in my mind up until the end when he was being weird and religious while dangling off a cliff and I was like, “Yeah, I’m almost sure that’s supposed to be Oliver Cromwell”*

Love the animation on this one! I would like to broadly see more diversity in styles of animation, and that’s not me particularly hating on other styles (though I do hate the bean mouth big eye rounded thing that’s so fucking popular now, even if I love the show itself) but it feels like you have three choices right now. But this I REALLY liked, and I loved how in some parts you coil.d even see the sketches underlaying the finished character. 

The story is not bad! But it’s VERY common. I mean, this has a different skin on it, and this is not me saying Cromwell’s time in Ireland wasn’t a garbage shitshow nightmare, but this is a very common kids’ story. I used Ferngully, but you see the motif of “person is part of the oppressor and learns to identify with the oppressed” come up over and over again. This is not to say that it is BAD. I am not saying that. But I am saying that Wolfwalkers did not, story wise, blow my mind and break new ground. Pretty much all of it hit the exact story beats I was expecting. 

One thing I did GENUINELY like, was showing that Robyn and her father are also victims of an absoltuely fucking insane government. And that her father could be a dick genuinely because he loves Robyn, and is afraid for her. I loved that it could make her father INTENSELY frustrating while refusing to coindemn him, and I think that is, storywise, its real master stroke. It walks that line REALLY beautifully. 

I laughed at her name literally being Robyn Goodfellow, I know as a kid I would not pick up on that but an amazing touch, especially since we know there’s no way in hell she’s not going to Learn A Vaulable Lesson about the value of the forests and the wolves and all that. 

Interesting to watch it and know that the wolves are going to be wiped out in less than 100 years, too, I’m fairly certain. So in Robyn and Mebh’s lifetime, they’ll basically see their entire pack killed, assuming they aren’t killed themselves. And if Jewlet turned to me and asked, ‘Id be like, “No they did in fact kill every single wolf in Ireland.” 

More than being interested in this story in itself, this movie made me open to the idea of watching Secret of Kells, which I’ve heard is very good but unfortunately was much hyped by one of the most annoying people I’d ever known so I skipped the fuck out of it, and perhaps I am now ready for reconciliation and healing. 

In all: Perfectly acceptable and enjoyable with a neat art style, but ulatimately a very standard kid’s story with an Irish coat of paint. Which could be neat if your kids have a lot of Irish heritage--God knows I would be singing the praises of This Exact Same Story But Jewish Tho as if it were the most remarkable tale on earth--but being have only what is statistically mandated by being a Montana Mutt, that’s not enough for it to be a must see for Jewlet. 

*I broke down and googled it the next morning. Definitely supposed to be Cromwell.

[killemwithkillness]

07/19/2023 | A History of Changes

  I started my book in early 2016.  Sixteen years old, both stupid and brilliant, full of false determination, naivety, and blind positivity that this was it: this would finally be the project I finished.

  Sure, I’d finished things before... when I was a kid.  But I was sixteen, not a kid any longer, in my mind.  I was ready to take on a substantial project.  One with an intricate plotline. (Not too intricate, of course, I wasn’t ready for politics or anything like that.)  One with dark subject matter. (But not too dark, of course, I was a good Christian girl.)  But while I wanted to represent my religion well, I was also suffering a great deal from depression, grief, and massive life changes that were uprooting me and everything I’d ever known.  I was a Christian, yes, but I needed something dark in my life to help me not feel so alone. 

  I had come up with the idea while sketching characters with a friend.  Drawing people and characters was nothing new to me.  But when I drew my MC for the first time, she siezed hold of me.  I needed to know her story.  I needed to tell it.  Book ideas would come and go over the years, just as they had before, but there was never another idea that stuck with me like this burdock of a book.  It was in my veins, and I couldn’t be rid of it.

  In 2017, I lost my childhood home and moved to a trailer in the woods with no wifi, and nothing but time on my hands.  Every single day, I made massive excavations to the story I so dearly loved, always wanting to make it better.  I killed characters, added them, deleted them, gave them traume, then added some more.  I added the dreaded politics.  Not because I wanted to, but because it was the right thing for the story.  Didn��t know political systems well enough?  I’d just have to learn.  Didn’t have a genre?  I’d have to make up a new one.  There was no plothole I couldn’t fill, no writers block I couldn’t jump.  

  Late teen years turned into early adulthood, and as I changed, my book changed with me, always finding a way to associate itself with whatever struggle I was facing.  The subject matter turned even darker, but sharper and more honed on issues that mattered to me.  I brought friends in, started groupchats, took criticism, sought out knowledge on the science of storytelling.  I learned the rules and, better, learned the benefit of breaking them.

  In 2021, the last dregs of my adolescent belief system died as I escaped the Evangelical cult I was raised in, came out as queer, discovered my neurodivergence, and began rebuilding from the ground up.  It took over a year for me to be able to look at my book again.  It was, and still sometimes is, painful to try and connect with anything tied to what now feels like a past life and a dead version of myself. But I believe there is still worth in telling a story I have poured so much of my life into, and every passing year has proven that lived experience is the most valuable tool in a writer’s belt.

  There would be many iterations of my WIP’s name until it finally became what I know it as now: The Wayward Sister, Book 1 of the Kingsburrow Duology (an Adult Political Fantasy Drama). Now more than ever I connect to its’ themes of patriarchal capitolism and religious cultism.  I see it as a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts; that I instinctually included themes when I was young that would later come to be very relevant to my personal life.

  I am 23 now; older and (I hope) wiser.  I spend my days discovering and recovering who I am and what I believe.  My book is no different.  It is going through major changes, but that isn’t a bad thing.  In fact, I’m more excited than ever to finally feel like I have complete control to do with the story what I want, and not what I feel I should do.  I am editing the pages with a new perspective, and I’ll be honest I don’t always like what I find.  But I’m going to change that.  Even if it takes another 8 years.

[tnc-n3cl]

Castlevania Fic snippet

Well, it might be more like a rough draft of a chapter but...

Anywho, I finally watched the Castlevania (2017) anime series (had been sitting on the DVD's for a year now) a couple weeks ago and the Castlevania brainrot set in.

So of course the fic ideas started brewing, based on some old hypothetical game ideas I had. Don't have a title for this particular project yet, but it's spooky season and I also wanted to post this before I explode with the force of a thousand suns.

So here you go! There's some German in here, mostly from Google Translate cause I didn't learn enough with my two semesters in collage. So if anyone happens to know German and has better suggestions to the dialog I'm open to it.

Content warnings: Graphic violence, blood and gore, monster beheading/dismemberment, harsh language (in German), mentions of historical wide scale destruction, brief mention of nudity

Inside of a modern building a man and woman are hanging a large painting, both of them are of European descent.  The woman has long black hair tied in a ponytail and green eyes and is wearing a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and jeans.  The man is similarly dressed, but his shirt is grey.  He has on a pair of black framed glasses and has short cut brown hair.

After a moment they finish their work and the man says, “Du weisst…”

She turns to him and he continues, “…We could have just had the workers do this in the morning.  The exhibition isn’t until 7 PM tomorrow.”

She nods, “Yes, however this is my big debut and I want everything to be perfect.”

Then she pulls the protective sheet off of the painting.  It depicts a scene of absolute carnage, monsters rampaging the streets of Graz, Austria circa 2057 AD attacking people left and right.  Buildings burning in the background, soldiers desperately holding the creatures back.  Her attention focuses on one of the city’s defenders, a pale skinned man with long blond hair wearing a black trench coat of sorts with gold trim and wielding a thin bladed long sword.

She based the painting on what she saw in an old book she found when she worked at the Volkskundemuseum, supposedly it belonged to someone who lived in the city at the time.  Whomever it was must have recently migrated to the country, the text was written in Arabic.  Most of the text was damaged due to the age of the book, and what survived must be from a dialect that has been lost to time due to the difficulties in translating it.

What was translated, along with the sketches in the book, conjured this scene of nightmarish horror.  Beasts from the depths of hell itself rampaging through the city…

“Jana,” the man says, pulling her attention away from her work, “Did you have to pick something so violent?”

She chuckles, “I didn’t know you were so squeamish Oskar.”

The man rolls his eyes in response and she smiles before continuing, “The Horrors of The Cataclysm have been an interest of mine since I was a little girl.”

He scoffs, “And you really believe a bunch of monsters rampaged through the city a thousand years ago?”

She shrugs, “Well something happened.  We’ve found overwhelming evidence that nearly half the city burned.  Not to mention all the ruins scattered across the rest of the world.  The old maps that clearly show the world looked quite different in those days.  Then there’s the horribly mangled skeletons…  And it was 1,071 years ago by the way.”

He rolls his eyes again, “And yet no monster remains have been found.”

She turns to face him, “True, but that doesn’t mean they’re not out there waiting to be discovered.  But I suppose that it could have been natural disasters and/or wars like everyone says.  Still, it makes for a captivating piece, don’t you think?”

“It does,” he turns to her and smiles, “Now then, it’s getting late and we should be going.”

She glances at her wristwatch, it’s 7:00 PM already!  “Damn, she says, we’d better hurry or we’ll lose our reservations!”

The pair hurry towards the exit and grab their coats and lock up as they leave.

Outside, the light of the full moon reflects off of the snow covered ground.  Text on the building reads, “Halle für Kunst Steiermark”

“It’s a beautiful night,” Jana remarks.

“That it is,” the man replies, “We should cut through the Stadtpark, it’ll be quicker.”

“Right,” she agrees and the two head southeast down the sidewalk. 

This part of Graz escaped The Cataclysm a millennium ago relatively unscathed, most of the destruction was contained to the west side of the Mur River.  At the crosswalk, they wait for the traffic light to change, their breath turning to steam in the cold night air.  Once its safe to cross they continue on through the park.

As they approach the Wetterhäuschen, a pre-Cataclysm weather station, a heavy thud attracts their attention.  The two turn to find a man sized, wolf like beast behind them.  A werewolf!  Before either of them can react, the creature charges and knocks Oskar down and rips his throat out.

“Oskar!”  Jana screams in horror on instinct and the beast turns its attention to her!

“Oh Scheiße!”  She manages as she runs away as fast as she can.  She doesn’t get very far before beast jumps on her and pins her to the ground.  It bites her right shoulder and she screams in agony before she passes out.

A figure lands hard on the ground and the beast turns towards it, a man wearing black clothes under a black trench coat with armored shoulder and elbow pads.  He is wielding a large sword with a thick, curved blade in his right hand.  The man’s skin is dark brown, his eyes are yellow, and his long, brown hair is tied in a ponytail.

The werewolf predictably charges him and he grips his blade in both hands, lifts it to shoulder height and points it towards the beast.  As it leaps towards him and prepares to swipe its claws at him, he flawlessly sidesteps its attack and effortlessly swings his sword down on the beast, cleanly severing both its outstretched arm, and its head, from its body.

The werewolf’s corpse hits the ground with a series of thuds and the man shakes the sizzling blood from his blade with a dramatic swing.  The thin layer of silver he coated on his blade has done its job and what’s left of the lycanthrope ignites and slowly reverts to human form as it burns to ash.

Beheading the creature would have been more than enough, but still, one can never be too careful when facing lycanthropes…

The male victim is dead, but what of the woman?  He walks towards her and looks her over, and his yellow eyes lock on the blood on her shoulder.  He leans down and examines it, and sure enough, there’s a bite mark.

“Damn, wasn’t fast enough,” he mutters to himself as he opens his trench coat and reaches for an inside pocket an pulls out a syringe containing a yellow liquid. 

It should prevent her transformation long enough to get her to a Bureau medical center.  Lycanthropy can be treated if one acts fast enough, but once the transformation occurs there’s no going back.  And with the full moon, there’s not much time… He prepares to inject her with the substance–

“Hören Sie sofort auf!”

“Lass das Schwert fallen!”

He looks back to find a pair of meddlesome police officers pointing their handguns at him.  Typical…

He sighs loudly before dropping his sword onto the ground with a loud clang.  Exasperated, he says, “Mein Name ist Alexander Cronqvist.” 

As he slowly stands with his hands above his head he continues, “I am a Senior Special Agent with the United Nations Special Investigations Bureau.  This woman is injured and requires the medical attention I am about to administer.”

The two cops look at each other for a moment before the one on the right responds, “Let’s see some identification.”

“We really don’t have time for this,” Alexander replies as he slowly turns to face them, “But since you insist.”

He slowly reaches into his jacket pocket to retrieve his badge and shows it to the two cops.  As they begin to lower their weapons, a sound from behind catches his attention.

“That was fast,” he quips as the woman, now fully transformed into a werewolf, rushes the officers.

Alexander quickly grabs the beast’s left wrist with his right hand and holds her back.  She quickly turns to swipe her other clawed hand at him and he drops the syringe and grabs her wrist.  The cops are lucky that Alexander is one quarter vampire!  No human could ever hope to hold back a raging, freshly turned lycanthrope!  Or any raging lycanthrope really…

She wildly snaps her jaws at his face while he holds her in place in spite of her thrashing about.  Her hot breath blows through his bangs as he quips, “You’re strong for a cub.”

Predictably, the cops begin wildly firing their pistols into the beast’s back and she howls in pain and rage.  Why couldn’t they just run away like last time?  It would have made things so much easier…

“Right then, let’s get this over with!”  Alexander shouts as he kicks the lycanthrope in the abdomen.

As she grunts in pain, he pushes her back, lets go of her wrists, rushes her, and finally lifts her up.  The cops struggle to reload their weapons and Alexander smirks as he tosses the beast at them.

The lycanthrope slams into the cops and knocks them down.  She quickly gets up and growls at him.  He holds out his right hand and summons his enchanted sword to him.  He catches it and grips its black leather wrapped handle tightly.  The beast narrows her eyes at him as he grips the blade in both hands like before and points its tip towards her.

As he prepares himself to end this poor woman’s misery, he muses on the irony of slaying lycanthropes with the Crissaegrim.  Its ornate hilt is happed like a wolf’s head, with the bade emerging from the wolf’s mouth.  Armando Gandolfi’s cheeky little nod to Alexander’s father’s ability to transform into a wolf.  Armando had made this sword nearly 900 years ago for him, but he already attached to his own sword and gifted it to Alexander.  Not to mention he felt a bit put off by wielding something a version of himself in another world used…

Suddenly the beast puts her arms over her head and shakes her head back and forth as if in pain.  Then she begins contorting violently.

He raises an eyebrow as the beast lets go of its head and howls in agony.  His eyes widen as the howls shift into human screams followed by a thud upon the ground.  He lowers his blade and mutters, “Well that’s new.”

It suddenly gets darker and Alexander looks up to see a cloud pass overhead and it begins to snow.  He faces forward and cautiously approaches the woman, now transformed back into a human and unconscious on the ground.  The two cops are also unconscious.  Good, they can’t get in his way now.  Unfortunately, though the gunshots from earlier will likely attract more…

Lycanthropes are unable to revert to human form until years after their initial transformation.  Until then they’re effectively just mindless beasts.  And given that it’s the full moon she should not have changed back.  Even if she hadn’t reverted back before the clouds obscured the moon.  And it takes decades for were-beasts to be able to control their transformations.

Unless one or both of her parents were werewolves of sufficient age to control their form…  But then she should have been able to fend of the beast that attacked her, and wouldn’t have been affected by the bite...

Alexander sheathes his blade into the scabbard at his left hip before reaching into his jacket pocket and taking an ornate pocket watch with a mobius strip design on the top.  He’d rather not use it but he needs more time.

He opens it and channels his magical powers into the relic.  The hands of the clock spin rapidly for a moment and then stop and an energy field envelops the surrounding area and beyond it the falling snow freezes in place.  The ancient stopwatch is one of several relics that can temporarily alter the flow of time.  They’re extremely rare and require great amounts of power to use, but it doesn’t take as long to activate as a time altering spell.  Not that Alexander has mastered any…

The watch begins counting down, he’s bought himself an extra 15 minutes.  He closes the stopwatch and places it in his trouser pocket and takes a blue oval shaped object and his badge out of his jacket pockets before placing the garment over the woman’s body.  He places his badge on his belt and opens the blue object, revealing several shards of magic mirror that coalesce into a transmission mirror.  He traces a circle across it and it opens a portal to the armory at HQ. 

Alexander unhooks his sheathed blade from his belt and sticks it the portal.  The male armorer takes the weapon and places it in the appropriate slot.  There will be fewer questions if he’s only armed with the two pistols holstered at the small of his back than if he’s carrying an enchanted sword almost as long as he is tall…

The portal closes and the transmission mirror returns to its case, which he places in his trouser pocket.  Then he examines the woman, there’s a strange, circular birthmark on her left shoulder.  Well, it’s rather unusual to have a birthmark that’s a perfect circle.  In the center, there appears to be the shape of a claw raised up slightly.  Then there’s the strange symbols on the circumference of the mark.  They appear to be some kind of language, but he’s unfamiliar with it.

Really it looks more like a tattoo…  He remembers seeing the remains of a similar circular birthmark on what remained of her right shoulder after the werewolf attack, but there were no marks like this on it.  He moves her slightly and notices a larger circular birthmark on her back, also with similar patterns.  And a wolf shaped section in the center… 

“Hm, I’ve never seen magic like this before,” he tells himself as he stands up.

He takes his flip phone out of the case on his belt and walks over to the two cops and disarms them.  Then he takes their handcuffs.  He quickly selects the SIB’s Austria Branch’s number and quick dials it and turns on speaker phone as he handcuffs the officers. 

As he finishes, the enchantment on the phone finally cuts through the interference of timeshift field and the call connects, “United Nations Special Investigations Bureau, Austria Branch,” the man on the line says.

“SSA Cronqvist, 7035DS, reporting in, with a code 35,” Alexander says as he takes the call off speaker phone.

“Oh, dear!  Where are you?”

“I’m at the Stadtpark in Graz, by the Wetterhäuschen between Burgring and Glacis.”

“Ah, good, the Styria branch is nearby, they should be with you shortly,” the sound of the operator clacking away at his keyboard can be heard, “How many bodies?”

“One human male and some werewolf ashes.  Two local law enforcement officers interrupted me and will need to get the usual debriefing and NDA.”

The operator chuckles slightly and clacks away at his keyboard.  Alexander grimaces, this is the fifth time this month alone he’s had to deal with meddlers.  He’s sick of Awande’s needling on his lack of stealth… 

He glances at the woman and adds, “Oh, and I’ll also need transport to the local safe house and an arcane specialist.  I subdued a lycanthrope.”

Perplexed, the operator responds, “Wait, so it’s a code 47 then?”

Alexander turns fully towards at the woman as the timeshift field fails and, utterly deadpan, replies, “I don’t think we have a code for this one…”

[cannolicorgi]

2022 Art Recap

 base by @/sabattons on twitter

more under!

My favorite recent character desgins

my outfit designs for my persona

original design for my cat demon oc, Amalthea

wanderer’s troupe outfit for tighnari

my wonderland x teyvat designs so far! I especially love Paimon’s, Scaramouche’s, Kaeya’s, and Venti’s! Honestly just crop off the last line and they’d all be bangers (I don’t hate the last line, it just needs work to be how I envision)

an idol MC character

designs for a manga project

an ocean goddess design for a possible future project (I literally dreamed her and then like 3 weeks later Columbina’s outfit was revealed it was so hard not to scream)

a one off sea monster design!!

Genshin adeptus oc! (the topmost is her most recent changes, though I’m still working on her)

a school/work uniform wip for an old oc

What do I want to improve on?

I want to work harder on my comic ideas! I want to finish my scripts and start drawing right away. I’ve been working on concepts for so long, but haven’t really put my heart into actually getting the hard parts done. I want to work hard so “ Himeko-chan is Haunted by 100,000 spirits  = I . I = “ and possibly even “Aether in Wonderland” will be out during 2023.

I want to spend more time with my ocs. I really do love genshin, but I miss drawing my ocs. Leaving my ocs behind has also left me with less friends, and I want to reconnect with my fellow oc designers and writers. I love my ocs, and as silly as it sounds, those characters have helped me through a lot.

I want to get better at drawing full compositions. I have so many ideas that I feel like I cannot express correctly because my background skills are lacking compared to my character skills. I also want to get better at posing. While I am much better at posing then I am backgrounds, I feel I often do not apply what I know to my for funsies portrait paintings and have a hard time with adding a natural background to my poses.

I want to get better at colors and lighting. I love Yoontrsh’s art so much! Her gradients and color combinations in lighting are so beautiful, and it makes even her sketches look so much better. I think I’m pretty good at this, but I want to be even better!

What am I working on right now?

Sumeru x Caracal oc

A sumeru alchemist oc

Thoma x Amber. I love them so much but I paused this drawing because it was just getting so frustrating. My thumbnail just looks so good but I’m not at all happy with my skin rendering or the entirety of Thoma. It drives me mad

The Balance Between Who I Was Before. I started this the day Scaramouche’s redesign came out, but I got so frustrated with the poses. Which sucks because everything I am happy with is killer!

nothing much to say about this one. I don’t actually think I’ll finish it since it was more about just getting the pose, skin, and hair on paper, which I’ve already accomplished.

a complex Ningguang painting, she exudes so much elegance I always use her as my subject when I want to draw elegant China.

I’ve really been working on my music a lot this December, but I still have so many plans for my visual arts. Haha, I wrote these 2 days ago and I’ve already made so much progress I had to update it.

Thank you for your support. I’m so happy I can share what I love doing with other people, and that I have this space to record my progress and ramble about my art goals.

[anulithots]

Aww thank you so much <3

I don't have any idea how I made faer. I remember crocheting a large ball for faer head (very badly since it was just a base) whilst overheating because... this was not the plan! I was supposed to have a plan before diving into making faer!

(I wanted to make a joint system out of cardboard, but that didn't work, so I used wire instead. For some reason, I made faer arms floppy instead of posable, which works now if I'm going the puppet-like route, but I was so upset about it before, because I needed faer to keep faer arms up sometimes. I tried 'fixing it' by cutting faer back open at 3am and inserting extra wire which... kind of worked? It made some not-noticeable bumps ono faer arms, which I thought were super noticeable and I felt bad every time I looked at faer for a while afterwards because I thought I ruined faer. But alas, it was just me be anxious. And I think it's interesting to see how the creators made something, especially the more 'down portions', hence this anecdote. Thank you for the compliment <3)

And another little story - I used to watch 5-hour long needle felting videos for months on end because I wanted needle felting so bad. I cried on my birthday because I couldn't find it at the craft store, eventually one of my parent's friends got me a kit and I loved it a lot. By then I had already been watching and learning for years, so I made a bunny!

(proceeded to make a bunch of pipe cleaner dinosaurs and birds based off my grandma's old parakeets, they weren't that good tbh ;-;)

And the reason I had started to make Anuli impulsively was because my storytelling started as "making backstory for my crafts". This included a craft vs. toy war, as many yarn dolls I could make (they scared my mom when she would find them in random places) and dragons galore. (My crafting mistakes - like visible glue gun blobs - became their defining characteristics - like scars that they showcase because they are proud of it.) Every single story I ever wrote was about a craft I had made. The Land of the Fallen Fairies started like that, but after a lot of iterations and drawings and sketching, the dolls were very outdated. The previous two iterations didn't have dolls to go with them, and I was being quite perfectionistic about character writing at the time, so I convinced myself that the reason writing was becoming difficult was because I never wrote a story without a doll before. BUT I NEEDED THIS DOLL TO BE PERFECT.

Insert one day where my parents tell us not to use electronics (including my paper tablet that I handwrite everything on) so I needed something fallen fairy related to do otherwise I would explode.

Hence Anuli.

Fae took three months to make! Near the end, when I was coloring faer (I made faer face too light and ran out of that color as I transitioned to a darker shade of brown to better match the color of the tree's bark, so the color on faer palms and scattered around faer limbs is actually a yellow-green color, although it looks similar enough to faer muzzle, thankfully!) my parents were wondering why I was spending so much time on "useless hobbies" and it was a whole day of lecturing. I ended up finishing Anuli in the closet. (Which I think is pretty hilarious, as a lot of the land of the fallen fairies is written after 12pm in the closet.)

y mom was impressed when fae was finished. And to clarify - no one had liked my dolls that much before, said they were too scary. I posted pictures of previous ones on facebook (don't do facebook kids!) before, and all my aunties and grandparents wondered if I was okay. So the fact that you and others like this doll warms my heart. Thank you so much for that!

(Sometimes I like just the photo without any drawing on it the best... I can't take Anuli outside though. What to do.)

But if I change something for Anuli's appearance... faer doll self would have to change toooo....

(The only reason why faer leaves haven't canonically fallen off yet.)

*sigh* but... whump prompts.... alas, they have taken me.

I won't change the doll tho. Just pretend... faer leaves grow back? PRETEND?