#i didn't know kids were so tricky to draw???

[silviaflowers]

On today's episode of Silvi Loves FOP:ANW A LOT, we have my interpretations of my two favorite characters! Except I don't really interpret them super differently from the show so its mostly them in my style

SOME NOTES UNDER THE CUT CUZ THEY'RE A LITTLE LONG!

Hazels colors were really tricky because I kept tweaking the sweater... I unfortunately forgot her iconic two tufts in her hair in my doodles and needed to rectify that immediately. One of said doodles included her friendship bracelets, and they make a return here! She has ones with all her friends! The colors were adapted from one of my friend's drawings :]

Her background also has flower and rock shapes because. Why not. The rocks are obvious the flowers are more of a me-thing.

I have a lot of thoughts and Emotions about Dev, he really is iconic and I want to put his dad into a giant hamster cage. Anyways, as much as I enjoy heterochromia Dev, it isn't a hc I subscribe to as much as strictly colored contacts Dev. I like to think he has green eyes but wears blue contacts to match his dad. Brand loyalty, or something.

He has a mole and a widows peak when i draw him, mostly because I forgot he didn't? And then couldn't stop drawing him that way. I also misinterpreted his shoes as having wings and yknow what I like that interpretation. Something something icarus metaphor. Dev also has his friendship bracelet but I think he threw it away before taking over fairyworld with Irep and. You Know. Angst Ensues. For all intents and purposes Dev is also 10 but I ran out of room to write it

Extra notes uhhh I think it's interesting Hazel's undershirt is white and Devs is black. Obviously their designs are meant to contrast each other, with Hazels vibrance and Devs sleek, brand minimalism, (i attempted to reflect this in their backgrounds) but that's a neat touch i didn't notice until now. Also Devs shoes look like smth out of LEGO Monkie Kid... crossover au don't tempt me

OK! That's all I have for yall take a doodle for sticking around

[snarky-magpie]

My Black family headcanons. Possibly unpopular again, because I draw from canon a lot—look, power to everyone who chooses to disregard completely, but it hurts my OCD brain that grew up with the books. So. Here goes.

Orion and Walburga weren't as physically and magically abusive as the fandom makes them out to be. This is a big one. Possibly my biggest disagreement with fanon. That doesn't mean they were good parents at any rate. No. Just that they weren't physically abusive. Why do I think that? First, Sirius tells Harry many awful things about his family, but he never brings up being tortured, either by regular means or by magic. He does his best to paint his family as monsters and relay the contempt and hate he holds for every member of the Black clan (with a couple of exceptions). If his parents were abusive toward him, he wouldn't have hesitated to use it as further proof of what monsters they were. Second, he was allowed to decorate his room in Gryffindor colors and generally flaunt his differences, which once again suggests that his parents couldn't have punished him too severely for minor transgressions.

Any abuse going on was more likely psychological in nature. Arguably, this causes even more damage in the long run, and unlike physical abuse, it's not always obvious at first glance, or second, or tenth, which makes it particularly tricky to approach. And it's probably also the reason why fic writers choose to depict physical or magical abuse—it's just easier to describe and effective at gaining sympathy for the characters going through it from the readers. I think Orion and Walburga had strict rules for their children (they had to behave as befitted the children of the noble house of Black), and put a lot of pressure on them. Despite not being physically abusive, they would dole out punishment without mercy when the children displeased them. Withdrawing affection, depriving them of their favorite toys or activities, subjecting them to rants about their uselessness and insults, forced isolation, and so on. They were likely rather volatile, prone to going into fits of anger for no reason apart from feeling irritated with her children (Walburga) and cold and detached (Orion). Also, last but not least, they played mind games with the children, pitting one brother against the other. Lifting Sirius up when they wanted to punish Regulus, and vice versa. Which brings me to my next point.

Sirius was the favorite son, until the Sorting at least. Yes, he himself mentioned Regulus was the favorite, "a much better son" according to his parents, but the thing with abusive parents is that they often pit one kid against the other and thrive on their misery. Handsome, brilliant, magically gifted Sirius was everything the Blacks might have wished from their heir. Until, of course, his infamous sorting into Gryffindor, where he was influenced by muggle-borns and, most notably, James Potter, the known blood traitor. From that point onward, Regulus became the preferred child, but rather out of necessity than choice. If we're to believe Harry, Regulus wasn't as handsome as Sirius (and as generally brilliant). We have no clue about his magical prowess or intelligence, although the fact he discovered the truth about Horcruxes points to him being clever. His parents visibly favoring Regulus and repeatedly telling Sirius that 'Regulus was the good son' were not necessarily what they actually thought. More likely, they were their misguided attempts at making Sirius see reason and bringing him back into the fold.

The brothers probably didn't like each other much. I know we all love fics where they love each other and have each other's back, but realistically, I don't think that was the case. Most likely, they stayed out of each other's way, which was easy since they were in different houses. It's not a stretch to assume that Sirius felt embarrassed (and possibly angry) about his Death Eater brother. Likewise, Regulus would feel mortified about a blood-traitor brother. Maybe over time, it would grow into something close to contempt, with his parents and his Death Eater pals whispering in his ear. Similarly, I don't think Sirius would blame himself for leaving Regulus behind or not helping him leave Grimmauld Place. At his core, Sirius is a character with strong morals who believes in personal accountability. So, according to him, Regulus deserved to reap the consequences of his decisions. (That's not saying he didn't mourn his brother or the potential of them mending fences in the future. Who knows, maybe he'd eventually realize neither he nor Regulus were to blame for their strained relationship and that the fault lay with their parents if he didn't die prematurely.)

Sirius would hate Jegulus (and I say this with love as a jegulus shipper). Once again, yes, I love fics where Sirius is a supportive brother and friend. I've even written a few. But in my heart of hearts, I don't think that would be Sirius' go-to reaction. Sibling dynamics can be complicated in the best of cases, with jealousy often playing a significant role. The Black Brothers are not the best of cases, and James belongs to Sirius. He is his best friend, his other half, the cornerstone of his new reality, and, in a way, his moral compass because James helped Sirius renounce his family beliefs. If James did a sudden one-eighty and started dating a person with a completely different worldview, not to mention a person close to Sirius, one belonging to the family James helped him leave, Sirius would see it as a profound betrayal of their friendship. He'd probably also feel disappointed in James and his sudden hypocrisy (because we know he loathed the Dark Arts, so for him to date a Death Eater would be out of character—which is why I love Jegulus, the inherent drama of it) and possessive over his best friend.

If you read the whole thing, I commend you :D Anyway, these are just my thoughts based on canon. Obviously, I'm aware fanfic exists for us to explore different scenarios, and they are fun to write and read. But sometimes (at least for me), it feels like it's too easy to drift too far away from what makes the characters, well, them, during these explorations.

[williammorgan45]

You know what time it? It's Realizin' time!

Here it is! The result of the brain rot of @realizinau art and Alan Wake (I took inspiration by drawing this.The games are so cool) so here we are. It's a bit wonky but I think it's decent. Please ignore the little blue spooch on the suit. I made a boo─boo while painting :/

I'm still thinking about on how to name this guy but I have a little of his backstory on how his role would be in the Realizin' AU.

First he's a wolf if you're wondering.

Alright, now into his story: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before being put into the Bigger Bodies Initiative, he was just a child like any other with a mother and father who loved him and loved them back. But after a tragedy to both parents in a car accident, leaving him as the sole survivor of the crash, he was alone in this narrow dark place.

He was put in normal orphange just with many others parentless but he was different to other kids. Just as the kids where loud, energetic full innocence and some didn't apply to the rules he was the opposite. He was quiet, didn't move alot from his bed, his innocence gone for the result of the crash and allways following orders from the caretakers of the orphange.

Since he didn't talk to the other kids besides to the caretakers to see of he was okay and only respond with a nod, a shake or a short phrase, they began calling him names like 'the silent kid', 'downer', 'the staff's pet' and other names behind his back.

He already got used to this new 'life style' on the orphanage. Wake up, breakfast, gaze outside the window of his room, nap, lunch, more gazing outside again, dinner, sleep, repeat.

He told himself that's going to be his life until he was adopted to a new familly.

...That was the plan before him and others kids where called on the hall as their caretaker was explaning that they were getting 'relocated' to a better orphanage. He didn't understand why tho but if they where getthing relocaded to a better orphanage was probably for the best.

...Right?

Him along with other orphans entered the bus that was meant to transport them to the new orphange. The name on the side of the bus caught his attention before entering. Playtime Co. He knew that name. Tha was the name of the company who sell those toys that appered on TV. His guess was that maybe they are expanding or something.

After that, everything where blur and pieces. How he arrived to Home Sweet Home, meeting the staff, Huggy Wuggy, Kissy Missy, Mommy and Daddy Longlegs along with other toys,doing some sort of test of memory and running, being told that he got adopted, on how he was guided to a room with a bed as they put him on the bed before putting anesthesia and how he became...like he is now.

He felt...weird to say the least but he quickly got used being taller and getting used to his new body. A few bumps here and there but he got used to it. Faster than the others. The Doctor thinks to himself.

And before he know it, he got a brand new suit (he allways wanted to wear one when he was older.It made him feel...important.) and got a new... 'job' as the new guard of Playcare and Home Sweet Home. At day he would help some of the staff carry important papers so he was given a mesanger bag to carry those paper more easier and organize smaller toys for the kids and making sure the wasn't something a miss or any complications among the staff and the children. And by the night, he would roam Playcare and Home Sweet home hall's with his trusty flashlight to make sure there wasn't any stray kid or someone suspicious was around.

He took extra careful in the night because he read in a book once that the dark can by tricky and dangerous. But what caught his attention more was one sentance in particular.

"Trust no one in the dark."

After that, he took his night patrols very seriously, with careful steps and eyes all open for anything. Something tells him there something off but rapidly dissmiss the thought.

Sometimes when doing the day shift, some of the kids would run to him and would either drag him to play with them, show him drawings of him or hug him out of nowhere. He would stay still with no idea what to do or react. Thankfully, some of the staff or caretakers would save him from that embarassment and he would fix tie and continue with his duties for today.

Just like before he is still silent with a neutral looks almost all the time. Responding with a nod, shake or short answer to long questions. He would been doing this for 5 years. Making him 15 years old if his math is correct.

None of the staff, the caretakers or even the children have see him smile. Not even once. Always on focus on the task. Some even says he's more of a robot than someone alive.

It would take a miracle to even make him smile.

...Maybe that miracle could be in the form of 8 new Critters know as The Smilling Critters.

Only time will tell...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And that's that! (Jesus, that was long.) Anyway, if you read till the end, thanks! 'preaciated! Hoped i could have entertaied you a little. Again, thank to @realizinau for inpriring me to make this little thing and maybe i will do more. But for the mean time...What's the time? Playtime...

[animation-is-my-jam]

helloo! I really love your art style it's so pretty and love the tobecky content <33

I wanted to ask, which episode that involves tobecky is your favorite?

OHH GOSH THANK YOU!! AHH MEANS a lot. (^.^)＼(^_^)／❤️ (bites wall) and thx for the ask!

And what WG episode with Tobecky is my favorite? Hmm...toughie. There's some episodes, obviously, that have Tobey in them, but I don't consider Tobecky moments immediately (example: Field Day Fun with Robo-Tobey).

If I were to ever choose my top ones and narrow it down, though, it would go (no order just naming):

-Department Store Tobey

-Trustworthy Tobey

-It's your party and I cry if I want to

-By Jove, you've wrecked my robot

-Have you seen the remote

-Guess Who's coming to Thanksgiving Dinner

-The Robot problem

And to narrow it down... Okay damn it's tough again. Because I love their banter in By Jove and the hint that he's been getting a crush on Becky, but they have more sillier softer moments in season 1 episodes like Department and Seen The Remote. But Robot Problem has them actually team up, and it's the first episode where I started to ship them. BUT--Its My Party has them actually get ice cream after years of build-up and Tobey coming to his senses moments. And of course, Thanksgiving Dinner with them actually smiling at each other for one, HOWEVER, Trustworthy Tobey with being his last focus episode where he's strictly not being the worst and maybe turning reasoble along with it being Becky and Tobey conflict and not him and Wordgirl (PLUS THE NOTE UGHH)--

(Explodes) Ya see why this is tricky.

But for the sake of answering this....I'll go with right now...AHHH, it's gonna go to Trustworthy Tobey. It's what I'm feeling right now. Mostly cause... I remember when I did my Wordgirl re-watch in late 2017 that got me into the fandom again and started this years long hyperfixation. I was dreading the last Tobey episode/last Tobecky moments we'll get. You see, I liked the season 7 and 8 Tobey episodes, but man, ever since season 1, it's been hard trying to justify this kid when he gets washed like every episode and so I was like "plss be good" or at least give me hope for his character cause I didn't want him to regress. And what do you know...hope! Sure, he's still an immature jerk that's still in character, but at least he wasn't extreme or not immediately dismissive. He actually kept up being truthful and Becky learned something, not to mention he doesn't get scott-free either and this time the most he does is just unleash a malfunctioning robot to a library and not like destroy buildings or attempt to kill people.

Plus, I find it extremely interesting the dialog and moments he has with Becky as Becky and not Wordgirl. Because call me silly but to me peak Tobecky is when he interacts with Becky as herself and not just Wordgirl--the ship name isn't Wordbey after all. Plus again the note YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH THAT SCREWED WITH ME WHEN I SAW IT. Because another factor to why I hold up this episode so highly...even though Robot Problem/Have you seen the Remote is what got me to officially ship them...this episode is what inspired me to make a lot of my Wordgirl and Tobecky content. Cause it filled my imagination in what their relationship and Tobey's character could go next and there was no new Tobey episode to contradict it tehe. It drove me to read fanfiction. Start drawing on my dingy phone with FlipaClip. Start drabbles that I never posted. Interact with others. It...kinda drove me crazy? Like it legit didn't make me okay, but hey it's why I consider it personally my favorite.

[stevesbipanic]

Yaaayy I'm so happy for you for reaching 5k B!! I wanna bake you a cake and send it to you <3

May I request nr 23 for the celebratory prompt? And it's your story so please pick whatever vibe you wanna go with (I guess you'll probably wanna do angst so feel free to make it angsty as long as it ends in happy teeth rotting fluff so I won't cry too much plz 🙃)

Thank you, Anna! For now, I will enjoy this delicious virtual cake 🎂

23. Buying a House

Home had always been a tricky thing for Eddie, good kids had homes, kids with parents that loved them. Eddie didn't have a home, he had a house, sometimes a trailer, for a few months it was just a car, there was that bad weekend it was a curb and that time it was his dad's scary friend's couch, no home though.

When he showed up on his uncle's doorstep, his uncle had told him to "make himself at home", Eddie didn't know how to do that. Eddie kept waiting for him to be sent back, for his uncle to get sick of another mouth to feed, to get sick of sleeping on the pullout and take back his bedroom. A few months later on his tenth birthday, his uncle took him shopping claiming his bedroom needed to feel more Eddie. That night as he fell asleep looking at his new posters and the slightly worn secondhand books the room felt a little more like what he imagined home felt like.

Steve hated the word home. Home was what his parents would call out when they bothered to come home to get clothes under the guise that they were here to see him. His house wasn't a home. Steve wasn't as stupid as Tommy and the other kids thought he was. He knew homes weren't supposed to feel cold no matter the time of day or year. Homes weren't supposed to echo with a single pair of footsteps. Home was for a kid with a family, and Steve didn't have one of those.

Steve got to feel at home in fleeting moments as he got older. He got to pretend he had a home at the Wheeler's with Nancy. He got to pretend his house wasn't always empty when the kids would spend weekends running around its halls and splashing in the pool. He got to feel a little warmer in his bed when his best friend who always felt the closest he ever got to a home slept in his bed to ward off nightmares. He got to feel home settle deep within his heart when Eddie would give him the soft smile reserved just for him across the room.

After months of scrimping and saving, two lost boys got to hold the keys that would unlock their home for them. Home was now the flowers Steve had planted with El on the front porch. Home was the framed drawings of the party Will made that littered the hallway walls. Home was the basketball hoop Steve had set up on the driveway to practice with Lucas. Home was the photo album on the shelf filled with pictures of their family that Jonathan had made them. Home was the collection of books that Nancy had salvaged from Eddie's trailer. Home was the guest room that quickly became Robin's room. Home was the box of parts that Dustin kept next to the TV. Home was the recipe book that Argyle swore by on their kitchen counter. Home was the skateboard that often rested by their front door when Max needed a night to breathe. Home was the double choc chip icecream in their freezer solely reserved for Erica. Home was the quilt on their couch that Joyce had made them. Home was the couch that Mike had cried on when he asked Steve how he knew he liked boys. Home was the barbeque that Hopper would grill at in the summertime as the kids splashed in the blowup pool.

Most importantly home was the other boy in their arms every night. Home was the twin heartbeats and soft breaths that reminded them they were alive. Home was early mornings and late nights and cloudy days and heatwaves. Home was dancing in the living room and falling asleep watching movies.

Home was Eddie and Home was Steve.

Prompt List

[lambhouse]

art block & burnout (and how i deal with it)

so i've been kind of Going Thru It lately, but then again who hasn't? life's kind of been an ongoing shitslide these past few years. and i can't say it's only now starting to catch up to me, because that would be a bald faced lie, but i think i've finally reached the point where i realize that for real, no cap, or whatever the kids say these days, change starts with me.

what does that mean, you ask? and what does it have to do with burnout and drawing?

well, i've been at my lowest for two years and counting now. i've had bouts of creativity and whole entire weeks of being productive and drawing like a machine and just generally being high on life, but those were just spikes of activity on an otherwise flat line. and i've been flatlining for months now. i know i'm due for a high at some point (it's how these things go), but this time i decided to get ahead of it and start building up some good habits so that when the next low hits, it won't be as hard.

this, at its core, isn't anything new or revolutionary and i can't say the tips/advice i have are universally applicable, but they will hopefully give you an idea of where to start, or at least give you a different perspective on how to go about applying any of the general art advice you see out there.

so without further ado, here is how i did this:

i started a new sketchbook last month. that, in and of itself, isn't a big deal; the big deal is that i kept up with it for a month straight. tomorrow is the actual 1-month anniversary (lol) of my daily drawing habit.

that's not particularly impressive either, not even for me. i've had periods where i drew regularly -- not 7 days a week regularly, but 3-4 days in a row every week and i kept that going for weeks. but i wasn't going through burnout at the time, and that's what makes this such an important milestone for me.

how i started:

it was rough, lol. looking back at this now i can see it's not a terrible first drawing but i remember how fucking stressed i was the entire time. my hands were shaking, i kept erasing and redrawing, i added color thinking it would make it look better, i even tried drawing from reference (the DRDs and the very faint flower in the corner) but i didn't have enough patience to really look at my references. overall it was a miserable experience.

but something good did come out of it, because i realized two things:

i was too mentally drained to draw from imagination, and

drawing in pencil hindered me more than it helped

now, drawing from imagination was what i always wanted to do and i could do it well enough and consistently enough when i was feeling good. but the whole reason i decided to build a habit like this was so i wouldn't have to depend on the whims of my brain chemistry anymore.

so drawing from reference it was. good thing i already had a pinterest board full of portrait references. i added about a hundred more to it that first night, just to have more variety, and that was enough to get me excited for the next drawing session.

now, the pencil thing. that's a bit tricky to explain and i can't promise it'll work for you as well as it did for me, but i think it's worth a shot.

the way it works for me is, the pencil is too easy a tool to use. even if you make a mistake, you've got an eraser and a million do-overs (or as many as your paper holds up to). so if i draw and erase and redraw the same line over and over again, at some point that starts to mean that there's something wrong with me, that i'm a shit artist, and what's the fucking point of doing it if i've basically got all the training wheels i need and i still can't draw this fucking eye right, or the mouth still looks weird, or the face is wonky. if the paper's good and the pencil lead is good quality and the eraser does its job well and still the drawing looks like shit, well, who's to blame for that? me.

i knew from the start that this was where i was headed if i decided to draw in pencil. even the very first sketches i did were in colored pencil, which is a step up in difficulty from regular graphite (they can be erased, but not completely). but obviously that didn't work as i had hoped, so more drastic measures were required.

so i decided to just rawdog it. i ditched the pencils entirely and took my tombow pens out of retirement. i only had five and two of them were different shades of pink, so not a lot of room to play with colors-as-values, but i made do. the three figures that look like they were drawn in pencil were actually drawn with the grey pen.

now this may seem counterintuitive. if erasing and redrawing stresses me out so much, how does drawing directly in pen make it better? isn't that just more stress?

yes and no, but mostly no. the way i rationalized it is, i can't make a perfect pen drawing even at my absolute best. there's just no way. but i can eventually arrive at a perfect pencil drawing, through a lot of trial and error and frustration, so why not take all of that out of the equation? frustration never helped me get better, it was just a creative sinkhole. so why not get rid of it? turn the possibility of failure into a certainty and work with or around that new certainty.

cut out the middleman, so to speak.

and it fucking worked.

-- for full disclosure, i've drawn in pen before. i started on a whim a few years ago and found it pretty liberating, so i kept doing it.

these are some of the first sketches i did in pen. they're pretty good, but as you can see from the date at the bottom, these were from before the Great Calamity of 2020 happened and everything went to shit. --

back to the thing.

so drawing in pen worked wonders to loosen me up and keep me going with the challenge -- or the building of a new habit. it certainly helped that i was also drawing portraits from reference and didn't have to think about poses, or features, or expressions -- they were all already there for me to draw.

not having to think about any of that also meant i had more energy to put into other things, like shading and coloring and how to simplify and stylize complex forms.

(i also got some poscas and four new watercolor makers. they weren't necessary for the process, but they were a nice treat.)

so i kept drawing. two days turned into three, into five, until i had a full week of daily drawings under my belt.

i hit a snag on day 8. (no pictures because (1) its fucking embarrassing, and (2) it's an oc design for a thing i'm still cooking and it's in the earliest of stages where the characters don't even have names.) i have a pretty good idea why day 8 was such a miss: i got overconfident. day 7 was a draw from your imagination day and it went well enough i thought i could do it again the next day. lol nope.

so i went back to my reference board for the next couple of days, but i had gotten a taste of true freedom (drawing from imagination -- and in pencil!) and i wasn't feeling the portraits anymore.

the next couple of days after that were rough (again -- no pictures bc uncooked oc's) but all the drawing from reference i did the week before had done me good. i had the willpower to keep going despite being unhappy with my drawings. they weren't bad drawings per se, but i was using my newly-found oc-drawing muscles and there were bound to be some growing pains. i was also drawing in pencil but by that point i had gotten used to making mistakes so i wasn't stressed about having to erase over and over.

(i don't think i actually erased all that much, tbh. i was instead using a blending stump to mask the wobbly lines.)

day 15. i didn't set out to draw one page a day but that's what ended up happening so i just went with it. i also only had an hour or two to draw and that's how much i was able to get done in that amount of time. slow and steady wins the race, i guess?

day 19 was i think the first time i drew in pen from imagination in a long time. i was also watching some vtuber drama nonsense on youtube and it got me thinking about making my own vtuber model. idek what a vtuber is or does but the process of making a model from scratch sounds interesting. (its also very time-consuming, i hear.)

anyway.

actual cooked oc's this time + a page of raziel drawn from memory to celebrate the news of the soul reaver prequel graphic novel that's in the making. (apparently dave rapoza is gonna do the cover art for it??)

and this is now turning into an art diary, but you get the gist. i kept going.

and going.

and going.

even when it wasn't fun. even when i didnt' feel like it. and maybe i havent built the habit all the way through yet, but the more i kept going the more i noticed how the "i don't feel like it" feeling became less and less intense.

it hasn't gone away completely. its 10pm now as i'm writing this and i know i have to open up my sketchbook and draw and tbh i don't really feel like it, but it's less that i'm drained and more like "but what if i fuck up a perfectly good page?"

and i know how to deal with that. i pick up a pen and fuck it up on purpose, and then i look at what i have and start problem-solving.

because that's what gets me through it.

not having a clear, concrete problem to tackle is what kept me stuck in limbo for so long, it's what's at the core of my burnout. you'd think creating more problems on purpose would make the burnout worse, but it got me out of the black hole of indecision and anxiety. because if it's something that i made, it's something i can unmake. it's something i can fix.

so i'm fucking fixing it, one step at a time.

[kissorkill16]

Friendship In Raven Brooks: A Hello Neighbor Fanfic

By JJ

Summary: They all just wanted to live their lives, and then they met each other and became the bestest friend group you'll ever see.

Chapter 2

That night, Nicky laid awake in bed. He wasn't tired, but he decided to just go to bed anyway, since his parents were already going to sleep.

It was difficult for him to sleep.

One reason was because of his grandmother, he remembered her always taking him places far away from home and would make him walk back by himself.

It was because he had a tendency to go places he wasn't allowed to go, especially late at night. Often, he'd be asleep while doing it.

She'd always say to him, "You stop that wandering. Or one day, you won't make it home."

But he didn't really sleepwalk as much anymore. Every night, he'd lock his door and barricade the window so he couldn't escape.

But he didn't think it was because of that, maybe he just didn't have any reason to go anywhere, or maybe because he just didn't want to go anywhere. So he just stayed in bed.

Tired of the insomnia, he got up and decided to try and do something.

He took up one of the boxes he didn't unpack and took out his lockpick set. He had bought it from some kid back at one of their old towns, so he thought he could try to have some fun with it.

Locks were his new project. More specifically, lockpicking. He liked how it felt when you took one of the metal rods and jiggled it around the inside of the lock.

He talked to his mom about it, even though he didn't really feel like she'd understand. She was more into stuff you could see under a microscope.

"I think you're amazing, Nicky.", she said to him, then he tilted his head up to meet her stern gaze. "Just use your powers for good."

That's what she said with everything else Nicky was interested in, and Nicky didn't really mind it, it was just a friendly reminder that even the smartest people could make dumb decisions.

He took out the lockpick set, and then he dug around for some locks and finally found one. This one was a little tricky, he had been trying to bust it open for a while now, and he thought that it would be a great way to pass some time while he still suffered insomnia.

He stuck the metal rod inside the hole and started jiggling it around.

Meanwhile, across the street, Aaron was also suffering from a little bit of insomnia.

He decided that maybe he should do something to try and tire himself out.

So he took out his collection of charcoal pencils and a couple of pieces of paper, and started thinking about what he could draw.

Then he looked across the street to see some movement in one of the upstairs windows, and he felt like he recognized the person in the window.

It was the boy he met earlier, the one who let him borrow his drill.

He decided to try and get to know this kid a little more. Sure, it was late at night, but maybe that kid was also suffering from insomnia, or maybe he just went to bed later than he did.

So he started scribbling around on a piece of paper.

"Hi.", said the paper.

Aaron went over to the window and pressed the paper against it, along with a flashlight so the boy could read his message.

Nicky was knocking out of his concentration when he saw a light coming from one of the bedroom windows across the street. He took out his binoculars from the box and looked across the street, and he was surprised to see the message.

He lowered his binoculars and waved over to the window.

Then he took out a notepad and a sharpie marker, and he started writing something down.

"Hi."

"What're you doing?"

He took a flashlight from the box and held it over the note he pressed against the window.

A moment passed, then another note was pressed against the window across the street.

It was just a picture of a sunny day.

Nicky smiled, then he wrote something down on another piece of paper and pressed it against the window.

"You're very talented."

Aaron smiled, and Nicky could tell, because a while later, he pressed another note against the window.

"Come over tomorrow."

Nicky nodded, then he watched as Aaron closed his blinds on the window, then he pulled his own shades down.

"Mom was right.", he said aloud, "Me and that boy are going to be friends."

[popculturebuffet]

Thomas the Tank Engine Retrospective: Shining Time Station 4-Pack: All Hail Schemer (Commission for Lachey V)

Hello all you happy schemer's and welcome back to my seemingly bottomless Thomas the Tank Engine Retrospective. This month my mounting workload means we're doubling up as we approach the season finale of sorts for this retrospective, Thomas's first and so far only theatrical film, Thomas and the Magic Railroad.

Before we can do that though, I needed a crash course on a bit of Thomas lore I hadn't touched. So it's my utmost pleasure to introduce, reintroduce or just plane fling at you Shining Time Station. Shining Time Station was the Britt Alcroft companie's way of putting Thomas The Tank Engine in the US at first. While the show was a great kids show and merchandise machine, it had one problem: each ep was 5 minutes at most and while this wasn't a remote problem for the booming home video market, putting it on tv was tricky. While UK tv stations were more than happy to either make 15 minute block of a few episodes or air it between shows, US stations at the time really didn't like carving up their air time like that. Simplier times.

Hence shining time station, a whole ass live action show featuring puppets, live action music videos, and wraparounds. Shining Time follows a bunch of interchangable kids: White BLonde Kid, future Sapphire Erica Luttrel, and other one as they mill around a train station learning life lesssons. Around the station are Stacey(Didi Cohn) , the station's manager, Billy Two-Feathers (Tom Jackson) , who runs the workshop, and Mr. Conductor, the tiny man who lives inside the station. If that sounds jarring it absolutely is as I assumed when I heard about the character he was a regular conductor who simply had magical powers. Still a little weird but like... not as jarring as when you see a Tiny George Carlin. For the record, and I missed this on first watch, the other two adults are aware of him to the point it feels like Mr. C is watching the kids half the time so the other adults can do their jobs. And i'm okay with this as there are so many kids shows where they hide the magic and I assumed this is one. I prefer it that the adults just know, smile along with it and let the tiny magic man help pick up the slack. Mr Conductor was played by Ringo Starr in the first season but since we were only doing a small selction of episodes, Lachey decided

For constancy since a chunk of the cast changes between seasons 1 and 2, and because Season 1 apparently has an ongoing story. So instead George Carlin is our tiny magic man for this special.

Of course there's one other regular in the station who deserved his own section, a man above men. A god above god. A schemer above schemers. The Robbie Rotten of the 90's I present to you HORACE MOTHERFUCKING SCHEMER.

Scheme is a schyster who runs a small Penny arcade over in the corner. WHy he's running an old timey style arcade in the 1980s I don't know but his real passion is various scams of the week, sometimes recurting the kids and eating every inch of scenery while making every minute he's on screen a joy. He's played by Brian O Conner, is somehow not in the movie, and is the best thing that's ever existed. All hail our new god.

Anyways since Shining Time Station is important to the film, we're taking a look at 4 episodes of Lachey's Choice from seasons 2 and 3: Win Loose or Draw, Sweet and Sour, Do I hear and Billy's Party. So join me for train station antics, drawing contests, talking pianos, child explotation, elvis, crooked auctions, and thanksgiving under the cut.

Win Lose or Draw

My first episode.. and going in pretty much blind aside from "this show is a vehicle for Thomas the tank engine". So the werid shit in this series.. caught me off guard as the episode starts with a pretty simple kids show teaching a lesson predicament: the local wise old man from the general store, who I assumed would be more important but is only in one of these 4 episodes, drops off art suplies for a contest and other girl is bummed that Erica Luttrel is better than her at art. We also meet Schemer whose mad the kids are getting paper everywhere and not spending money on his old timey arcade. Is.. is Schemer a time lord? Is he our time lord and savior? This series apparently takes place in the present, but has a penny arcade. Maybe shining times' just really old. Maybe i'm just really old and this series is old even for me, it's only.. four years older than me.

Okay moving past the exestial dread, point is Schemer is great and even off to the side for this one he's a lot of fun.

So Other Girl gets a visit from the Conductor.. who as a refresher is super tiny. Yeah I meant what I said about it being jarring: I had NO idea the Conductor was tiny sized in our world. Once you get used to it it's not that weird: he can travel to other dimensions his size and thus is the size of one of the people in thomas' world, hence how he can tell their stories. Makes sense. But suddenly being ambushed with a tiny george left me asking

Now I get he's just a tiny magic man who lives in the station and watches over these kids alongside the other two main adults and who said adults know exists and are cool with it. And honestly i'd be cool with having George Carlin hang around and despense advice to children too. Who wouldn't. It's like Thomas, it's weird at first but then you just embrace how weird this is and move on.

I do like HOW mr conductor is used. Carlin is clearly having a ball and is a shockingly fantastic children's entertainer, not just good at narrating the thomas segments but at interacting with the child actors and feeling truly like some otherworldly pixie train conductor man. He's really good at this and it's fun to watch.

As for the Thomas segments .. I won't be covering MOST of them again. I didn't skip them as Lachey made the valid point that while I had seen these eps, I hadn't seen them with the george carlin narration. George is really good at the job, easily equiling Michael over in the UK.

It's just.. i've covered these stories. WIth the exception of the one for our final episode today, there's no big diffrence story wise and performance wise Carlin also does the "everyone but Gordon gets about the same voice" thing the other narrators pre baldwin did. Harold also gets an upper class rich person voice

It is nice to get confrmation that Carlin was really good at both jobs, and it was a neat treat.. but there's just nothing really new to add here. The shorts featured are good. There's only one exception, a really weird one, and we're saving that for last. So good shorts as they were before, simply don't have anything new to add for the Carlin Cuts.

So Other Girl asks George Carlin to use his magical powers to help her win the art contest.

What I like though is that the lesson isn't the usual "Oh you shouldn't cheat in competition" aseop. it's a valid one but most kids shows across demographics have done it. Fairly Odd Parents even has it as one of Da Rules.

The real lesson is "it's more fufilling to work hard at something and get better yourself instead of comparing yourself to other people and how good they are". It's a lesson kids really need.. a lesson I honestly needed and maybe I would've kept drawing. You may never be as good as some but doing it is still fun. Just do your art and improvment for you and don't take easy shortcuts. The latter.. is super relevant given the rise of AI and people using it as a shortcut instead of a tool to help them create better work. It becomes about replacing other artists instead of helping artists grow.

Other girl isn't the only one to learn this lesson as one of the jukebox performers learned it. Oh did I mention there' sa jukebox full of magical puppets straight out of pee wee's playhouse who play a song once an episode? Because Lachey sure didn't

So yeah another jarring bit but one I like. I fucking love pee wee's playhouse, so seeing this old style of puppetry again warms my heart. The story is clever too: As a boy the puppet's band leader practiced piano but didn't feel good at it. Turned out the piano didn't and was also alive and thus played the songs for him. Eventually though the boy missed trying himself and the piano concided he was getting better. It's a heartwarming story about not letting sentient insturments play for you that's once again an accidental metaphor for AI somehow.

So she submits her picture instead and unsuprisingly this is what George Carlin hoped would happen. Erica Luttrel wins but they liked something about other girls so she wins a prize.

But enough about children what's SCHEMER been up to: Well he wanted to win, and Billy said his new ink was like magic so he just casually stole it.. only to accidently send a blank picture. We also get a great bit of schemer using a mirror to take a self portrait since no one wanted to draw his face less they summon another schemer into the world. such is the price of such one of a king beauty. Billy chases him and presumibly pummels him, episode over.

Sweet and Sour

So stop me if you've heard this one: a corrupt older man approaches a kid (or kids) with a lemonade stand, offers to be their partner, then finds ways to ruin the place while screwing their new partner over.

Yeah my thoughts exactly.. to my shock the Boondocks episdoe "The Block is Hot"... is a clear remake of the Shining Time Station Episode "Sweet and Sour". Or at least conceptually. After the partnership part both take diffrent paths: Ed Wuncler overworks poor jasmine and cons her parents, while Schemer brings in his nephew Schemee, whose just as hammy at half the size , such a great child actor I swear the two have perfect chemistry and he gets Brian O'Connor's manerisims down perfectly, who cuts production costs, lowers quality and generally ruins the place.

Yet weirdly despite the gaps in when they were made, medium and one being aimed at adults and the other at the childrenest of children, they BOTH have valid advice abotu the economy. For the Block Is Hot, it's how Corporations take advantage of people or buisnesses and will work people to death no matter the age to get as much profit as possible while convincing you their not. It's an episode I don't go back to often for a reason as , while incredibly good at this lesson it's VERY hard to watch, especailly since, resliastically, ed gets away with all of it.

In contrast, the kids learn the equally valuable lesson of not putting profits over quality: how people WILL suck up with bad quality stuff in a pinch once.. but will eventually choose something better.. if it's the same price but hey i'm not expecting a show amed at younger kids to be fully honest about how fucked economics are. I'm just impressed an episode from the early 90's packed that in.

BOth have the lesson of "don't quickly make a deal with someone for the wrong reasons'. For Jasmne she simply trusted the wrong person, something hard not to do and that the episode dosen't blame her for. For the kids.. they KNOW Schemer is bad and when he offers a partnership after seeing them sell cookies to a high class lady, their first reaction is

But they take the deal because he offers a lot of money.. and for once Schemer isn't lying: Schemee's methods do improve things. I also love these two together; Schemer is super supportive of his nephew, is proud when Schemee sells cookie sso bad hteir returned so they can sell them again (Sadly a tactic i'm sure has actually been used), and shows the kid genuine pride and affection I wasn't sure he was capable of showing anyone or anything that wasn't acitvely making him money. I mean he's happy to see him BEFORE he starts cutting corners like a shady man in a gloriously tacky suit.

They then learn the hard way they screwed up as not only ar ebilly and didi not impressed with their new lemonade and cookies, but when they try to complain Schmeer outright steals the buisness. Granted most buisnesses can't be stolen with a "no butts" clause, but Scheemer is dealing with small children not the ftc... this time.

My only beef with this episode is that while the lesson is good.. the adults blame the kids fo rbeing conned by schemer. They did screw up a bit as they knew he was trouble when he walked in, but did the deal anyway.. but loosing their buisness.. was him outright conning them. I get them learning a lesson but you still have to remember these are children IN your care you let be around scheemer unsupervised. And all George Carlin did was vaugely advise them the deal was bad and let them vent later. I get George Carlin can't talk to Scheemer as he dosen't know he exists, Lachey clarified that for me, and if he did he'd of course be constantly harassing the poor miniture george carlin or try to capture him to get his pot of gold. And look I know he's not a leprechaun, you know that, but it's fair to assume Schemer dosen't know his ass from his elbow let alone that george carlin isn't a leprechaun.. mostly because WE don't know that George Carlin, in this series, isn't a leprechaun. I checked the series wiki it just says he's 18 inches tall. He could be a leprechaun, a beyonder, a bit sized timelord, we really DON'T know.

Point is they fucked up too, but they do make up for it as they point out the kids still have a fuckton of lemons they got in the buisness divorce and the kids have a creative solution: ther'es so many things they can make with lemons with Stacy's help they make everything but lemonade.. and quickly gain buisness when Schemer is ineveitbly bit in the ass by karma, i.e the ladies lunchone he was catering boycotting him till he closes up and gladly taking the kids buisness. Happy end for all. A really fun episode with a shockingly timeless moral. Good stuff.

Do I hear

Do I Hear is a decent episode, with a far less clear lesson. it doe shave a random ass music video about some kids little brother destroying anything

I did find out from this shining time ocasionally does music videos with stock footage but like everything else int his series it's a lot to take out of context.

Anyways this one has Elvis show up as a jukebox repair man.

Yeah so backing up the Station is closed for the day but the kids decide to stay behind while Mr Conductor apparently can't do more than just.. tell the kids Billy and Stacy probably had a reason to shut it down.

Naturally Schemer is still here and finds a fake nickle in one of his machines and is pissed.. till he realizes he can use it to get his revenge. So it turns out Schemer has a rivarly with the magical jukebox, which is the least suprising thign in these four episodes. Wha'ts hilarous is that in any other series this would just be a fun rivarly with an inanimate object, like Luke Cage and his coffe machine, or Mr. Parker and his boiler.

Here? The puppets in the jukebox hate schemer.. and given what we've seen of him and how he talks shit about their home and them by comparison regularly, you side with the magic jukebox. So when he tries to use the nickel on them.. they fake being broken.

What intrests me is I thought i knew where the episode was going... after Schemer dicks around on top of a jukebox because Brian O Conner is the best. HE calls a repair man , and I assumed the puppets were either going to be outed, the kids or conductor would have to protect them something. But no the kids don't know and the jukebox repairman.. is elvis.

Yeah they got an actor who honestly looks a lot like the king in his younger days, acts like him and is implied to be him. Either Elivs regenerated into a younger body, cloned himself or simply is reborn every time he dies kenny mcormick styles and rapidly ages. All possible possibly all at once. The lore of his series is rife for fan theory. Send me your own Schemer, Mr Conductor and Reborn Elvis fan theories people!

So turns out Elvis knows the magical puppets exist and tells them to play cool. He then gives Schemer a bill for 11 dollars, who naturally reacts like a mature responsible adult paying for something be broke

So he goes with plan B: have an auction. Naturally this being schemer he auctions anything and everything in the place, and the kids realize "shit we acccidently encouraged him" and try to stop this. Thankfully, while they can't reach Billy, Elvis comes back to save the day. At this point i'm at a loss for jokes.

Schemer even accidently blocks Mr Conductors way into his house.. because he lives here now I guess. Like I said you can write your own lore, mine is that it's the exact layout of snoopy's dog house pre fire. Anyways Billy and Stacy put a stop to this nonsense and instead of arresting schemer just.. scare him off. Though hilarously, and predictably his method of hiding is just.. crouching in front of the banister, which has a railing so they can see him and hoping they forget it. THey also lay into the kids.. again.. even though this time all they did was stay behind. The Schemer shit was ENTIRELY him they just accidently gave him an idea.

The puppets play elvis a song, Mr conductor talks to billy and this episode.. was fine. Not great, but it had some godo schemer acting here and there, the moral is just all kinds of confused.. but it's also hard to hate an episode that has a magical elvis and schemer hanging onto a jukebox for dear life so still good stuff.

Billy's Party

Our final episode for this batch, Billy's Party is a thanksgiving episode, as you can tell by PIlgrim Schemer showing his penis size up there. It's not a terrible idea for the setting either: A train station is giong to be super busy and the episode focuses on railroad tradition in thanksgiving instead of The Pilgrims and the various native tribes

Don't get me wrong, i'd ENTIRELY be up for an episode about Billy's heritage, and the fact the show had a native american main character but did nothign steroptical with him is magical. But I did not remotely trust a 90's tv show to do the story of thanksgiving in a way that wasn't either whitewashing it like I got as a kid, or just plain insulting.

So instead they sidestep it, going into what modern thanksgiving means. And who better to tell us about thanksgiving than thomas the tank engine? Now if you read through my sometimes breif sometimes downright insane thomas reviews, you'll know seasons 1-5.. didn't HAVE a thanksgiving episode. That's not really a thing in the UK, so it's not a thing that exists in a british show about trains.

So rather than just.. find an episode that fit the themes of togetherness.. theyt urned one of the christmas episodes into a thanksgiving episode. Which itself isn't a TERRIBLE idea; both are holidays with lots of travel, and the only real crack is there's tons of mail as that's more a christmas thing.. but then the ending has a fucking christmas tree and i'm just like.. guys. I know you couldn't edit it out but why did you pick one specifically with a christmas tree. Christmas isn't after thanksgiving. Don't start that shit with me Thomas the Tnak Engine.

While the thomas part is sloppy.. the rest... is incredibly well handled: the puppets have thanksgiving and invite a turkey over and in a nice subversion of the "oh you brought a turkey don't kill it" type of stories we get a lot, even Brooklyn 99 good as it was wasn't immune to doing one of these and also lampshading how stupid Charles was for bringing a bird to live kill on thanksgiving day to someone elses house so it worked, their just serving veggies. The turkey is a guest and a rad dude.

As for hte main part the kids wonder why they should give a shit, and Billy is trying to get to his party with , and i'm just quoting it "the yardees and the hobos". I will refer to them as the train workers and homless persons, this was 1993 after all, but it is fun to see them use the terrible h word so casually.

Turns out Billy has nowhere to go unlike the rest of the cast, but was picked to join the rest of the train people. The origin of said meal is also neat: a long time ago they were nemies, the train people not liking hitching passnegers and the homless persons not liking being kicked off their only transportation and sometimes home. But one day a signal didn't get put up in time to switch tracks so the homless persons in the area all rallied to make sure the train didn't crash, and the two sides made peace, having thanksgiving together every year as their the only two groups whose schedules synch up.

Billy ends up not being able to come as disasters keep popping up: they need a train fixed to meet demand, one of the various guests can't reach her apointment so Billy drives her, and Schemer ends up stuck on a train as part of his scam to make the holiday about giving him stuff. If that sounds underwhleming it is. I expect better and stupider from you scheemer. What a disapointing end.

bIlly is left alone.. only for the natural conculsion of everyone coming back to celebrate, including Schemer whose greatful. It's a genuinely heartwarming ending. Why the kidsa re here I don't know, I assume their parents don't exist. HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY.

This episode wasn't as fun without schedmer at full blast but it's still a REALLY good thanksgiving episode with some intresting ideas, and a fantastic finale.

overally I REALLY loved Shining Time Station, continuting the tradition of any thomas spinoff being better than the source thus far. It's fun, has great performances and I will be coming back here somedya on my own or if lachey wants. or if any of you want feel free to comission it .

Next Time: THE MOVIE THAT ENDED AN EMPIRE.

[recurring-polynya]

Writing Update/Art Update 1.16.2024

Well, I did finish that scene I was fussing about last week, but only on a technicality. The first thing that happened was that I thought of some other scene I wanted to write, and I let myself do that. It's 1800 words of zanpakutou nonsense that is currently slated for late in Chapter 8. I mentioned that I felt like another chapter was creeping its way into my outline, so I just went ahead and rearranged a little. I feel better about the outline, although I'm not sure a second extra chapter won't try to sneak its way in there.

Then what happened was that my friend had a Bake-Off themed birthday party, so I spent several days planning a bake and baking things and being consumed with anxiety and then actually going to the party and then being very, very tired. (In case anyone was curious: Earl Grey roll cake with blood orange curd fill, covered in chocolate ganache, then decorated with Earl Grey whipped cream, candied blood oranges, and raspberry-swirl macarons. It was really good. For the record, the other bakes were on the same level. My friend has some really intense friends 😂)

I went back to The Scene and looked at the outline again, and I realized that I needed to do a POV swap, but I didn't have a scene change. This is tricky business, so what I did was roll back about 1000 words and have Rukia do an exit stage left. That lets Renji take over the narration and Rukia can come back in later. I started the Renji-part but didn't get very far into it, but that was a separate bullet on the outline, so I feel justifying in checking off the Rukia-bullet.

My kids had off yesterday and then it snowed, and they got a snow day today and I am still very tired.

How is the drawing going, P? Well! The second week of prompts was all themed around "packaged food" which was significantly harder to do in a quick and easy way. Then, I mentioned that I wanted to do a Rukia-drawing. I did the sketch and I spent an hour and a half on coloring it. I decided it would look good in pastels, even though I don't know shit about how to use the pastel brushes. In any case, I realized that it was going to take another million hours of work and I simply did not like it enough to put in another million hours of work, so I gave up on it. I can always pick it up again later if I feel like it, but I have too much else to do. So, in other words, I did spend some time drawing on at least five days of last week, which is what my goal was, but I did not have a whole lot to show for it. Like I said last week, I have been posting my daily art to the art club forum, but Wedsday's prompt was "Pickle Jar" and decided to do some Between Tides fanart (by the loosest possible definition of fanart) and show it to you folks instead. This was so frickin' hard, but I really like the way my lil daikon came out!

Anyway, new week, word counter goes back to 0, hopefully this one will be a little more focused and maybe I'll actually be able to make some progress on Chapter 7.

[keydekyie]

Sorry if this was asked already, what inspired you to make TMATB?

ok so... this got a little long. No surprises there lmao.

TL;DR:

I was a messed up bitey little monster kid and I wanted to write a story about a monster and a human who start out as enemies but come to love each other and rescue each other and go on adventures and maybe just maybe change the world. ♥️

long version below:

this led me to go crack open my old sketchbooks from around early 2012 to 2013 to find my first drawings of Kanai, and the drawings of a bunch of sphinxlike monstery creatures I know precluded them, but it doesn't seem like I have those sketchbooks with me. :( I only have a couple here in Georgia, the rest are in my mom's basement in Colorado.

But really inspiration goes back further than that. Ever since I was little I've always been frustrated that the monsters in stories seemed to always be either scary and irredeemably evil, or misunderstood babus who wouldn't hurt a fly, with no in-between. It bothered me because I knew I was kind of a messed up little monster of a kid (in the throes of undiagnosed adhd, having emotional breakdowns, biting people, not having many friends, going to the principle's office a lot, etc) but I didn't want to be bad. I wanted to be good, I wanted to be gentle and nice and make friends and be understood the way the dopey-good monsters in the stories were. But I didn't relate to them. I bit people and dug in the dirt and talked to my cats.

So I'd always wanted a story where the monster was like that: nasty and scary and a little bad, the way any person could be, but ultimately just... a person. A person who craves tenderness and understanding and wants to do the right thing even if they don't really know what that means, but also maybe bites sometimes and digs in the dirt.

And I wanted a story about someone who could relate to and come to love that monster, despite that being the objectively dangerous and difficult thing to do. I wanted a love story, but I didn't want it to be easy, with a magic ending where the monster gets to be human. I wanted the stakes to be high, I wanted the climb to be steep, and I wanted the payoff to be satisfying.

So at the end of high school in 2012 (when I was mostly obsessing over another story of mine called Divergence, which is a whole other enormous can of worms) I was suddenly driven to draw out basically the whole kidnapping scene from book I in comic form:

I can't share the whole thing because it's, like... hideously bad and not canon anymore anyway, but it was the start of the whole thing. Kanai were more troll-like. It wasn't until a year later when I got into a sphinx kick that they turned into bear-sphinxes.

On top of what I said earlier, I just really loved the idea of putting the monster in a tricky ethical predicament, rather than the "hero." Why should the hero always get to be the one faced with moral dilemmas? So I made the monster have to choose: A) eat the human he's befriended and be accepted by society or B) spare the human and be rejected by society. Everything else followed from that. In book II I have Kaelin wrestle with having befriended a man-eating monster, in book III Ruyak is having to come to terms with being a man-eating monster, and in book IV they're going to have to face a world that they've both outgrown, and that doesn't have a place for them anymore.

So that'll be fun.

[fantomette22]

For OCs asks... Isn't it your OC on your icon? Can you tell us more about them?

Ah Lucen Venator ! My beloved hunter <3 (I called my tarnished Lucen too, I might used that name for everyone lol but it's not exactly the same character either hehe ^^)

(drawing made by PaperAcolyte/Chess Albaneze on Instagram by the way. A really nice and sweet person who's making one of the best bloodborne comic to date!)

Alright so lil Lucen really try to be a kind soul but have seen some serious shit in his life (cf scars + last survivor origins initially but I arranged myself so that a lot of origin could actually fit him). What I mean is that he's more a summon helper than an invader XD I put a bit of myself in him. He's probably gonna ascend to become a great one but in the scenario where he would do the "Yharnam sunrise ending" he would ended becoming the next Crow.

He got black hair and silver? eyes. And actually more than just one scar on the face. Oh and I guess they/them is fine too? And If I had a female hunter I would probably have called her Lucen as well so

He's like the only characters with a complex family tree including both OC and really obscure characters from the lore of Bloodborne too. (I finally have an excuse to talk about it let's go !) (of course it's just my imagination and doesn't repose on anything)

Ok so first you have his grandad (that I call Mr Venator or just Venator because I didn't found a name yet) he's a a foreigner who came to Yharnam as a prospector originally and then became an old hunter. (He probably never met his grandson too... probably died way before 😢)

He had a son (Lucen's dad) that accompanied him but he was a child/young teenager when they came at Yharnam. But he hang up around the workshop & with other hunter and that's how he met the brother of his future wife and well, his future wife.

Now Lucen's mother (that's where the family tree get tricky XD) so she's from Yharnam? I think. she's from a servant family of Cain or smt akin too. She was a kid too during the beginning of the hunters and all (like before the hamlet/just after).

BUT she had an older brother/half brother (Lucen's uncle) who's an illegitimate Cainhurst/noble child. Maria took him under her wings and he became an old hunter (probably the youngest too, he was a teen). That GUY stayed a hunter and kinda rejected cainhurst who wanted him to become a knight and he's even the one who took care of the workshop after Gehrman went into the dream. And oh yeah he ended up becoming the beast possessed soul of the workshop...💀 (the freaking drama I know! I need names for everyone too ahhhh)

AND (it's not finished) that hunter is also... vileblood drifter Leo half brother too! (I know I said it was complex) (Leo, who's probably a cousin/relative of Bloody Crow too. Crow's dad is another one of my oc too but that will be for another time lol).

Here's the family tree so you might understand better. With the simplified version and a more complex version (i'm sorry it's a mess... I might changed it one day...or not)

Anyway in my hc / one of my story all this lil squad : Lucen's parents (with his mom being like 8 months pregnant of him at the time...) his uncle and lil (emo teen young adult) Crow have been basically saved/hid by Gehrman when the church attacked Cainhurst. (I have lots of thoughts about it ! Lucen's uncle and Leo even reconcile in it wow)

Just imagining the following scene make me laugh all the time XD :

Laurence at the workshop : Gehrman what are you doing ??

Gehrman : Me ? Nothing I'm just having tea with some friends. Didn't you tell me you were busy with the mess at Cainhust or smt...

Imagined around the table you have like the doll, 2 anxious/scared future parents (with the dad being hurt because he was almost crucified at Hemwick), Crow (Voron) who's on the point of annihilated Laurence and the hunter (Lucen uncle) holding him back...

After that Lucen's family quit Yharnam. (Except his uncle who stayed/came back. And Crow who might have went with them? but ended up coming back a bit later too. I would never have thought crow would have been linked that much with my hunter... wtf)

Oh and i forgot to mention... when the Moon Presence was beckon... a child was born under the pale moonlight...far away from Yharnam... I let you guess who that was 👀

(I don't have that much bloodborne oc really... ok maybe besides them, the cainhurst ocs (the knight, crow? and a few others (I need names too) and if you don't count the king, Caryll, Dores, dores, gatekeeper, Archi & Paarl + some the corpses we see in game we know like 2 things about I guess the only other legit oc is like Gehrman's dog lmao XD)

Update : By the way it's pronounced LuSSen /LuÇen

[radellama]

10, 14, 16, 22, and 25 for the art asks! :)

10. What’s that one thing that inspired you to make drawing your consistant hobby?

It's hard to say cause I've been drawing since I was a baby, but I definitely know that I loved art classes in school and was glad to have encouraging teachers, and I was glad that my parents were supportive of that for a hobby. I think digital art being consistent for me is when I saved up to get my very first drawing tablet, there was barely anything on the market at that point and they were all super expensive but I saved up for aaaaages and dad helped me... Acquire some adobe programs so I could draw in Photoshop (and edit in premiere!!) And I just thought it was soooo interesting trying to figure out how far I could push the program and how to make drawings look epic cause it was all digital. Once I got over the initial frustration of my art looking crappy cause skill and understanding of the program+tablet was tricky, it was game on. Back then I didn't have internet either so I couldn't look up how to use Photoshop, I just had to play around for HOURS figuring out what to do. Once that Wacom broke for good (but it lasted nearly a decade!) I asked my dad if we could split payment and get me an iPad for my bday, he ended up getting the iPad and pencil and I got all the other accessories. I'm not an apple fan at all but I love the portability and that's helped increase my habit too, cause I can draw in bed or on the couch or at my desk, and it's not as clunky as setting up my laptop and wacom

14. How has your art changed over the years?

God, so much. I don't have any of my REALLY old art from when I was a little kid, but I have some from when I first started digital art. Compared to recent years... Yeah it's a lot 🤠👍

16. What’s the most daunting part of your process? Ex, planning, sketching, lineart, rendering etc

Depends on what I'm working on... For bigger pieces getting the right poses and composition and perspective can be huge, for others it's the rendering and especially picking the right colours. Maybe the most daunting thing for me is making sure everything looks consistent within the piece haha, I've got one that I've been working on and off for over a year so I had to redraw the base sketches to match my style changes lmao

22. When is your prime time to work on your art?

Usually in the evening or at night, when it's easiest to just sit and chill with some music or something on the TV while I draw

25. Based on your recent reference searches, what would the FBI assume about you?

That I like ladies holding guns in their knickers (and they're not even holding the guns correctly) or that I'm a huge homo (I am)

Send art asks from here

[deyisacherry]

Not human - Sun and Y/N drabble

(Inspired by Solar Lunacy's DCA, made by Bamsara, and "We need to talk" from Steven Universe)

"What?!" Sun laughs, like if someone just told him the most hilarious joke of all. "We can't leave! We belong here, you silly!"

"Wh- you- do you think what I said was funny?" You look at him with a confused grin. You were serious, very serious. But, it seems that he didn't take you seriously this time.

Maybe they never do.

"Wh-y of cou-u-urse! Haha-hahaha! Y'all humans are so, so funny!" He keeps laughing, and your hands clench into fists. "Get out of the Daycare, leave the Pizzaplex, and have a normal life! Oh-ho-ho~ That's a good one!"

You don't know why, but that made you exasperate. In another situation you could've laughed with him, and let it go. But you weren't kidding. You suggested him to go out, see the world outside the Mega Pizzaplex with you. People wouldn't be afraid of a sentient robot like him, much less knowing that he was one of the renowned bots created by Fazbear Entertainment.

Dealing with Moon would be tricky, but nothing you couldn't handle. "…Sun, I-"

The laughs continue.

"Could you listen to me? Just think about it and-"

He doesn't stop, and you feel impatience tighten in your throat as you yell at him. "COULD YOU JUST- TALK TO ME FOR A SECOND, LIKE A REAL PERSON?!"

No more voices are heard in the Daycare. The happy, and now uncomfortable melody from the speakers being the only sound that interrupts the dead silence.

Sun stares at you, stunned, you can tell. His beams and faceplate are static, as is his body. "I… We-... we're not a real person."

Your expression falls and becomes one of regret, of painful confusion.

No. They are not a real person.

He, they, have told you thousands of times. They've laughed when you mention how human their emotions or actions can be.

They are not human.

They are robots, with artificial intelligence.

They are robots with a strict programming. And they must stay here.

Even if your contract ends, even if you quit, even if you get fired.

They will never leave this place.

.

.

.

Probably gonna draw it just bc

more angst

[aewrie]

i started rambling in tags there but actually i'll just make a separate post bc i have a lot of thoughts. readmore bc long, cw mentioned csa, harassment, etc

there's a world of difference between minors exploring sexual topics at their own pace in neutral/educational contexts etc, and being unwillingly exposed to sexual topics in ways meant to shock/disturb/harass/groom

i have been a minor in both of these situations. amazingly enough only the instances where my consent/boundaries were ignored ever bothered me, who would have thought!

the first book i read that had a sexually explicit scene was the clan of the cave bear (heavy cw for csa if you plan to read/look it up). i was 13 iirc. i did not know it contained such a scene, but going forward with the series, i quickly realized there would be a lot of sex. i read the whole thing before turning 18.

in general, i was given pretty free reign with the media i engaged with. zero adult supervision with my library habits. i learned what my limits were, i learned to pace myself as needed, i learned to curate my media intake. this was far more useful than someone filtering all my books for 'bad' content with no input from me would have been.

i started drawing/writing sexual things of my own in my preteens or soon after. it got fairly explicit fairly fast. i didn't share any of it with anyone, it was just for me, but i did draw and write these things as a outlet for the thoughts and feelings i was having.

i find this much preferable to what several of my peers were doing, which was having unsafe sex with each other and/or unsafe people. there were a few who were drinking around at 15ish, which means there was/were sketchy adult(s) providing alcohol, and who knows what else. at least one of the girl got pregnant. (worth noting that teen pregnancies are very rare here)

me reading spicy books or secretly drawing sex did not traumatize me. wouldn't be so sure about those former classmates.

also, in the context of that post showing a sign/disclaimer that is at an art gallery, i must mention that this not a one off situation. once i went to an exhibit (on an art school trip) dedicated to selfies. there was a section for nudes/sexual selfies. it was a somewhat separate corner of the exhibit, walled off but with open doorways so you could easily see inside. there was only a simple sign noting that there was sexual content in there, but no one stood there to check who went in. no ids were asked when we arrived to the gallery. all of us minus the teacher were in our late teens; some might have been minors, idk. just. your own call if you went in or skipped that section, that's it.

minors still should steer clear of specifically 18+ spaces/communities and such. it's not safe or educational or anything. a teen secretly & privately looking at something illicit vs engaging in sexual and/or kinky interactions/communities are extremely different. something like a strip club or a kink dungeon is strictly adults only for a reason. online, minors posting heavily suggestive material is extremely not good even if technically not adult content. there's some wiggle room in things appropriate for teens but not younger kids, i know i started sharing occasional mild nsfw art at around 15, but it was specifically in general art communities, not sexual/kink communities. social media makes that distinction tricky if it is there at all.

(tho i must admit, seeing what i intended as a sweet tender moment between my ocs to end up in someone's pregnancy fetish collection on deviantart was certainly a lesson to be learned about how people engage with things online. i was weirded out but shrugged it off since the person wasn't otherwise interacting with me or anything & it was ultimately harmless, and i've kept on doing that ever since. highly recommend!)

but. "nsfw spaces for minors"? (yikes) "sfw kink" communities open for minors? (for the love of fuck no)- you mean places designed for grooming. creeps will lie about their ages and motivations.

when and how and why and with whom matters so much when it comes to minors and sexual topics.

also i saw one person in the notes there going on about how you shouldn't tell kids what porn is until they're teens bc porn is traumatizing. fuck off with that

one thing mom did 100% right was explaining that porn is unrealistic make belief for adults that i shouldn't take seriously or try to mimic before i even knew what porn was & only had a rough understanding of sex.

that's how you prevent porn from messing with kid's perception of sex & reduce related trauma. you EDUCATE, and do it BEFORE the exposure happens. if you only teach about sex related things when they become "topical" there's a good change you're already too late. signed, more than one lesson came too late for me. fun things to learn in your-20s, yay

parents/teachers should go forward with the assumption that one way or another, minors will be exposed to sexual things, through their own curiosity, trough harassment/abuse, through peers wanting to shock them/gross them out, by pure chance/on accident, whatever it might be, and give them the tools and spaces to process what weird feelings or upset might come. pretending porn doesn't exist and demonizing sex all but guarantees issues and trauma.

[mr-tony-stark]

Tony seriously didn't know if Clint was joking or not about the art. And his adamance that he was keeping it and that it was special was making his head spin.

Tony had fallen for people in the past. It hadn't exactly gone well, but it had happened. He was still not good at recognizing those feelings. Romantic Love was a little alien to him and until it came up and smacked him in the face he often couldn't figure out the difference between close friends and more than that. For a long long time he'd looked at all the things people did when they were in love and thought it was stupid. Roses and dinner in fancy restaurants and heart shaped candy boxes made his skin crawl, and he assumed that other people did those things because that was how you signaled to someone you wanted to have sex with them.

Then he'd found out that people actually liked them and he started to thing maybe there was something inside him that was broken. The world had changed a lot and over the years Tony had learned words and labels that might fit and did fit and he knew it wasn't broken. It just was what he was. And then he had actually fallen in love with someone and the labels changed a little, but all that romance stuff didn't repel him. It still wasn't something he wanted for himself, but he felt this strong urge to rain it down on the object of his affection, not because he wanted to signal that he wanted sex, but because he wanted to signal that he loved them.

That in between phase though - that was tricky. And if Clint was wanting to hold on to that drawing, and he was here, holding his hand and planning dates...

WERE THEY FALLING FOR EACH OTHER?

Tony couldn't think about that now. He couldn't explore it. He couldn't encourage it. Clint was in early stages of recovery. He was emotional compromised and it was too easy for people in this early phase who were trying to kick a big world consuming habit latched on to anything that might take it's place. Food. Pills. Sex. And yes, sometimes even love - or at least the a twisted perversion on the idea that left them emotionally compromised and far too willing to please.

So Tony would lock it up. He'd try not to overthink it. He would still offer comfort when needed, because he was here to help. And maybe when Clint had a hold of the addiction better - maybe then he'd open up to figure that out.

"You won't want it for long," he said, with a soft laugh and shaking his head. "But do what you gotta do."

He sat back again and toed his shoes off. He took a few bites of his food as he thought. "When I was really little, mom would take me to visit my grandparents and my nona would make orecchiette pasta by hand. Which isn't a pasta machine thing. You get a little ball of the dough and you push it into your palm, so it curls around your thumb. You do that over and over and over and over. They're small so if you're not good at it, it takes forever. But she'd been doing it since she was a kid, so she was a machine. I remember trying to help her and just making these messed up little balls. Then she'd cook it for us. Boil it, and then toss it through a pan with prosciutto and broccoli. I haven't found anyone that makes something even remotely close to that. Not even with store bought orrecchiette. So I guess if I was to say the one thing I would want someone to make me - it'd be that."

He let out a breath and pulled his feet under him. He's thankful that Clint's not arguing. They were going to his first meeting. Tony doubted that he'd talk. That was okay. But he had to go.. "Doors open at five-thirty. It'll start a little after that."

THERE'S A THING ABOUT CLINT AND HIS SENTIMENTALISM.

It didn't care for which the state that he would hold onto things. The fact that he's got a bow sitting in the room here that's been used by Bullseye and killed a kid bothers him greatly. It's been the bow he's used for a long time now. Clint still has the broken than repaired bow that Captain America snapped upon the first day he met the man.

He wants to hold onto the bow for sentiments, but he can't touch something which has been tainted. At least, he will know for a while that this bow has killed a kid. SO KEEPING CHUNKS OF THIS CAST? It's not out of the ordinary, he doesn't keep casts but there's nonsensical lines dashed all over because of a baby and than there is Tony's message. HE CAN'T JUST SAY THAT'S WHY.

So he lies and he jokes. ❝ I bet I could find someone. ❞ ME. ❝ Spray with febreeze, won't stink. ❞ As if that would solve anything, it's still a disgusting cast but he want to hold onto the message a little long now that the finally knows what it means. ❝ Maybe it's this drawing that's special. ❞

Speaking on the cast subject, Clint's hoping ⸺ not expecting to be clear ⸺ for Tony to possibly, hopefully, ignore his plea to skip tonight. He could try to argue that he was still tired, that he wasn't quite feeling right and he was hopeful that he could change out of this cast. Tomorrow would be a better night.

THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN.

This is me, keeping you accountable. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HE ASKED FOR FROM TONY. THIS. HE NEEDED IT. The man to lean forward and Clint does so as well, because it feels odder to be sitting back for hearing any of this. His nostrils flare as Tony tells him that he was going. Cast or no cast, he can't miss the first one. Clint knows that everything that Tony lays out goes directly to his core.

IT'S ALL FACT. If he lets himself slip once, than he'll keep slipping that would be the end of it. Clint wouldn't go to AA if he kept postponing the first one, and than he would find himself starting over or giving up on this; go back to exactly how he was, how he had been. It'd be easier to give into drink, drink, drink.

TONY UTTERLY SHUTS HIM DOWN. His lip about to quiver at each point to argue, but their gazes meet and Clint quiets down before he even speaks. He leans back up, looks away and stews at that. SO WE'RE GOING TO TONIGHT. There's a pit in his stomach, this was what owning it was going to be like and this was going to be a part of him forever now, and he can't turn a blind eye. CAN'T IGNORE IT.

Clint doesn't say anything in responses but HE DOSN'T FIGHT IT. So as far as Tony should be concerned, that's acceptance and agreement that they were going.

I BET SHE MISSES YOU. Clint wonders about that, knows that he has to call her and he's not sure when. He can't wait long; he know that but he wants to not feel the sudden urge to drink, stronger than it had ben the last five days of rehab. THAT PHONE CALL SCARED HIM.

What if she just didn't pick up? At all? HOW COULD HE TAKE IT. ❝ Maybe. ❞

Yet the thought of cooking dinner with her, having their family time like they use to do. It'd be nice. He sure that she wouldn't even mind guests. They talked about it before. Plus it'd be in Tony's kitchen anyways.

❝ You'll have to let me know what you want, what you like, or give me a recipe. I'll cook anything for ya.❞ NOW HE CAN'T PROMISE THE FIRST TRIES OF ANYTHING NEW WOULD BE GOOD.

After a few moments he sighs, sets his empty bowl aside, and opens the recliner to lean back. ❝ So what time? ❞

[worldwright]

Good evening !

I contacted an old friend yesterday, and wow, I really don't know how to answer someone when they asked "how've you been doing ?" five years after the last time I talked to them

Like, I tried to keep it down about my attempt, because that's not really fun to learn about someone, especially if you didn't have any news from them for some months, apparently it's fucking worst when it's been 5 years

It just felt, idk, weird that I didn't say anything to them apart from that my health isn't the best

I contacted them to know if they still had a drawing they did years back when we played Animal Crossing together with another friend, and now they know I tried to kill myself

Also, next thursday will be the 7th month's anniversary. still feels like yesterday somehow...

Have a wonderful morning my friend, gotta eat some chicken and maybe play Minecraft with my friends !

good morning!!

oof yeah that's weird... and there's always that anxiety of like. am I still the kind of person that would be friends with them? are They still the kind of person who would be friends with Me? and that it's ok to be different people than you were, but it's still sad to have grown apart

ANYWAY not saying that happened with you today lmao

I'm actually deeply considering playing a video game for the first time in my life to be able to play cyberpunk 2077. the brain worms are bad

(it's not like I have anything against video games at all, I just never played them as a kid and so I don't have the brain pathways or whatever, so it's really tricky for me to pick it up)

it's honestly homophobic that it's not friday today. can I jyst go see my friendssssss 😭😭😭😭

hope you have a lovely evening, friend!!