#iggy's ink

[igotthisaccountunderduress]

Should I write a bio? Should I not? Idk, but I’m doing it, so take that, anxiety.

Hi!! *waves enthusiastically* Nice to meet you! You can call me Rose, Rosie, or Iggy. OR Iggy Rose, which my very cool big sister @sardonic-sprite came up with.

Me in ten seconds: Christian. Canadian. Feminist. Loves fictional characters. Former homeschooler. Current university student. Music enjoyer. Occasionally writes things. Perpetually tired and on Tumblr. Loves making new friends. Has anxiety about making new friends.

I’m on ao3 as intimidated_but_here_anyway

more under the cut cuz i decided this was annoyingly long

I would list all of my fandoms but there’s too many and I don’t remember them all, so here’s a couple major ones:

Books: Batfamily, Six of Crows, Septimus Heap, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Hunger Games

TV Shows: Doctor Who, Miraculous Ladybug, The Flash, Friends

Movies: Tangled, Moana, Charlie’s Angels (2019), The Greatest Showman, Cruella, Promising Young Woman

Podcasts: Sneak Attack!, The Titans of All’Terra, The Incomparable Gameshow

Music: Against the Current, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Paramore, Simple Plan

And here’s some Batfam ao3 authour recommendations because these guys are amazing: lulu_rythmea, TheTinyTitan, sardonic_sprite, destiny919

I think that’s it for now. Please don’t be afraid to say hi!

P.S. Tags!! Because organization is a thing I do:

#peer-reviewed or #peer reviewed have been shared with my kid brother and passed the vibe check

#rosie’s replies and #iggy asks are asks (hi!)

#iggy implies is ✨me✨ talking and stuff

#the one and only tay swift is quality Taylor Swift content

#iggy invents is wallpapers and fics and stuff that I created

#iggy's ink is my writing

[igotthisaccountunderduress]

I’ve been trying to find love

my whole life, I think

I thought I knew what it was

Love was structure and safety

It was

I’ll pick you up from choir practice and

I made you supper and

I’ll tuck you into bed at night and

I always have time to talk to you

If that’s love

then what do you do

when all that love stops?

Somewhere in between

walking to ballet class and

making myself supper and

falling asleep in an empty house and

sitting alone at lunch

I find love again

They cheer me on

and laugh at my jokes

they say I’m brilliant

even when I don’t believe it myself

and I don’t know why

but they want to get to know me

I’ve been trying to find love

and I think I found it this time

Love is

"this made me think of you" and

"you remembered?" "of course I did!" and

"are you free? I want to spend time with you" and

"I would fight somebody for you, just say when"

Love is reading in the park

and laughing till we cry at the beach

and cuddling on the couch

and staying up too late just to spend a little more time together

Love isn’t a feeling

It isn’t a promise

It’s the here and now

it’s the sound of your laughter and the way you make me smile

it’s the little things you do that make me feel whole

what does it mean to be in love?

that has always been a question

i could never quite answer.

what is love?

is it the warmth of a touch,

or the ache of absence,

a dance of joy and sorrow?

is it the spark of new beginnings,

or the comfort found in shared silence?

will i find love?

a question which swirls like smoke,

always hovering outside my reach,

eluding me still.

"veils of yearning."

d.b.a

"if you have to ask yourself, the answer is probably no."

[vlad-wakinyan]

Best friends 💔🐕💨

[summerlimeismethebrony]

@sullystar I finally did the thing!!

[wdxw1ak]

День 5.

᠌ ᠌ ᠌᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ ᠌ 🦇 Путешествие.

[sardonic-sprite]

I was the kid who went back over

Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books.

I always wanted to know everything,

Test everything,

Pick the story I liked best for myself.

But the older I get,

The less time I have to flip back through pages,

And the less inclined I am to do so, anyway.

Sometimes I'm just too pleased

With the page I'm on now -

What could compare?

I want the next adventure.

Sometimes it doesn't really matter.

I'd end up on this page again anyway,

Because the ripple decision

Caused no tidal wave.

But there's those tear-stained, vomit-stained pages

Too, I dare not read again.

I don't need to find the next page of that story.

I already know how it would end.

We would drown, drown, drown.

I wish I was your floor length, navy blue velvet curtains -

The first thing you touch in the morning, letting in the day be it blue or grey.

Or your coffee pot, you fill me up, flick the button, and refuse to let me out of your sight

Until you're able to carry some of me around in your cup.

I would like you to think of me as your bookshelf,

Wobbly old thing, under all the weight of stories you'll one day read,

Unwavering as I hold onto every hopeful page.

But I find myself as your favorite pillow -

Tear stained and misshapen.

You always wonder why no cover seems to fit.

Beaten - holding your screams, your pleas, your dreams.

I have been with you forever,

From being tucked in by your mother

To your first kiss with the door open,

As you stood in your childhood bedroom for the last time and grew up, moved out.

That home now sold.

You buy a new pillow every handful of years

But they cannot replace how I have been molded your whole life,

To be a perfect fit.

Tagged by @the-hollow-quiet (some time ago but I did not forget!)

Created originally by @wordrummager to describe what piece of the home you identify with.

@coffeexxcigarettes @ivaspinoza @yakultstan @sfsolstice @walkthruthewords @brb-on-a-quest

[steelsponge]

Mario drawing a day challenge 12/31.

Iggy Koopa (plus Lemmy asking him only one of his most burning questions).

[aboutl0ve]

[igotthisaccountunderduress]

oh. oh that line just instantly calmed me i love it. Fluffy epilogues are the best.

I have been writing nothing brilliant lately but I have been writing 16yo-me-style miraculous fics which has been so fun and healing, so here's the last line from that:

Marinette was surprised. She had never known Hawkmoth to be a man of few words. He preferred monologuing like a comic book villain.

Open tag!

Last Line Game

Rules: in a new post, show the last line you wrote (or drew) and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you like).

Tagged by @nocturne-side-blog and @flutefemme ! Thank you both!

This is from my belated Zelink Week fic WIP that I hope to post eventually:

"Along the way, bandits stole Mikau's guitar."

And since I was tagged twice, here's another last line from the former Zelink Week WIP that I set aside for later:

People echoed the same phrases time and again, stuck in a loop.

I'll go with the one that was actually the last line I wrote, so here's seven people (I figure some of you might still be writing): @aurathian @mistresslrigtar @mailrebel @glassheadcanon @brb-on-a-side-quest @afaroffsong @leiladebees

[rustbeltjessie]

Heard Iggy and the Stooges, donned a black leather jacket and an electric guitar. Became a street cheetah, the family’s black sheep. I can’t know if he was queer like me. I don’t know anything.

—Jessie Lynn McMains, from “The Runaway Son of a Nuclear A-Bomb” (Tupelo Press 30/30, Day 21)

Each day’s poems can be found here. My fundraising page for the month is here.

[shayziekai]

Heh!~

Based off the iconic face Anya makes from "Spy X Family"

[cocoa-rococo]

Koopaling Headcanons: Ludwig

Larry | Morton | Wendy | Iggy | Roy | Lemmy | Ludwig

The composer of chaos and everyone's favorite general, Ludwig! What a guy.

Naturally left-handed, but trained himself to be ambidextrous

He's disturbingly good at discerning people's motives, personalities, and past. He claims it's simple logic, but no one really knows how he does it.

Whenever Bowser’s in a pissy mood or feels agitated, Ludwig sometimes gets called in to play something soft and relaxing to calm him down.

There's rumors floating around the army that he was originally a Paratroop General who sold his wings in exchange for arcane powers in a magical bargain with Kamek. He's yet to confirm or deny this. (It’s not true, but he likes to keep his recruits on their toes).

Partially deaf in his left ear, and uses a hearing aid to assist him. Fluent in sign language, as well.

Has a baritone voice, very rich and darkly colored. He can hit high notes with relative ease, but can't hold them as long as he can with his lower notes.

His singing is enchanted. It's something he was born with, and he's gotten very good at controlling it. He does forget sometimes, and before he knows it, his humming down the street has attracted a plethora of birds.

Also fairly decent at mimicking bird calls. Iggy is dying to learn his secret.

Likes reading mystery novels and detective stories, but spaces them out so he doesn’t read the chapters all at once. He also uses Morton as a soundboard for theories in each chapter, and relishes the feeling of being smart if he solves it before the end.

One of the most magically powerful out of his siblings. He’s fairly decent at a little bit of everything, but his siblings are stronger with their specialization. His best field is in Evocation.

While piano is his preferred instrument, he plays several: violin, cello, pump organ, pipe organ, guitar, flute, clarinet, harp, harpsichord, and ocarina.

He’s an ugly crier and hates it, which is why he tries not to do it often.

Fond of gardenias and wisteria flowers.

One of his favorite down-time, out-and-about activities is going antiquing. He’s found a nice gramophone, a few records, and some furniture pieces for his room by doing so.

Likes having a physical, paper to-do list. It makes him feel productive and organized as he checks things off.

He and Wendy have ‘Bitch Lunch' together, where they basically talk shit about their coworkers, spill tea about their friends, and gossip the whole time.

You can actually tell how long he's been composing by how dark his hands are with ink smudges. You can also tell how bad of a mood he’s in.

Loves the smell of coffee and vanilla, but leans more towards being a tea person. He's got an excellent palate for both, however.

Larry is persistently trying to introduce him to the keytar. Ludwig is persistently refusing to go near it.

Very much a morning person. He wakes up earlier than most of his siblings and likes having his hot drink and reading alone to enjoy the quiet hours before the rest of his family wakes up.

The ultimate master of time management. He gets kinda tetchy when others don’t respect deadlines or appointments dates, and heaven help you if you intrude on his scheduled self-care hours.

He snorts when he laughs really hard, and is terribly embarrassed by it, so he tries to reign it in when he can. Anyone who can do it who isn't a sibling is a special person, indeed.

He likes tall places, especially the views. Great for a bit of peace from his siblings and inspiration for his music.

When his siblings are annoying him, he likes bombarding them with music puns. He is well aware he's being an ass and does not care.

Leaned more towards science as a kid, but discovered the piano when he was twelve, and creating music felt right in a way that making little inventions never did. He never looked back, and he’s a lot happier for it, too.

Keeps a little pocket notebook on him for writing things down, and he's pretty dutiful about marking things in. It's a common gift his sibling get him on the holidays.

He doesn't have as much of a sweet tooth, but toffee — especially with almonds or coffee in it — is his weakness. His siblings have learned he can be bribed to look the other way if they have enough.

Also a fan of very dark chocolate, and his favorite pastry is a freshly-warm coffee cake.

He's pretty alright at art, especially with acrylic paint and sketchier mediums like charcoal and conté, he just doesn't like how dirty his hands get afterwards. He's got a side business doing murals.

Favorite fruits are cherries and plums, but he also won’t turn down anything with blackberry in it.

Likes watching regency romance dramas in his alone time, but loves dragging the shit out of reality TV shows with Wendy.

He also loves watching those foreign films with subtitles, very artful with a lot of emotion in them, especially if he's feeling spiteful and his little siblings are annoying, because "No, Luds, I don't want to read a film after two hours of paperwork!"

Has a small collection of model ships in bottles. He keeps them on a high, high shelf in his room, given his work environment. Ship kits are another common gift to him.

Looks at memes like an old man; both hands, squinting eyes, mouth slightly open. The others think this is hilarious.

[worldruins]

Meet the Remnant, my "slugcat" oc. Because I have no sense of moderation, it has an entire campaign loosely mocked up in my head- I don't have the modding ability or time to make anything of it but I enjoy thinking about it! The two iterators on the sheet are the central npcs of the campaign.

Remnant is larger, more aquatic, and faster on all fours than a slugcat. It struggles to use the same tools, carries items in its mouth, and can eat batnip and bubble weed. And, though it doesn’t know it, it is one of the last four of its kind left.

More about the campaign below VVV

BONUS: Remnant obviously resembles a slugcat, and they are sort of a slugcat ancestor! The genomes of the pipe slugs slugcats evolved from had remnant DNA as well as the simple tool-worm base that ancients used for many creatures. The blueprints were present in the modified organisms, and over several generations and mutations began to express themselves once more. Anyway…

To start, the Remnant is living with their family in an idyllic natural landscape much like survivor and monk at the beginning of their campaigns. The incident kickstarting their journey would be them wandering off from their kin and- gameplay starts here- getting lured off by something interesting, before the wall closes quickly behind them and the player realizes they have been trapped. They find themselves in a crate lined with wet plant matter, which gets shaken and turned around for a bit before settling down. It continues with a gentler rattling and remnant is clearly being taken somewhere, but the game acts like you're in a den and, once you've eaten the food set out for you in there, you sleep.

You are woken when the train carrying you crashes. You are able to escape and wind up in a light drizzle. Numerous overseers, some purple and others seafoam green, follow you around. The artificial, dilapidated surroundings are alien to the remnant.

During the first cycle an overseer will direct you to the nearest den, but you don’t have a rain timer until the first time you hibernate. You’ve never experienced rain like this before, after all.

The fact is that the remnant and their family are primal fauna, from the old world before bioengineering and iterators. They have spent their whole lives in a carefully controlled environment, maintained at first by ancients and then the systems the ancients left behind. The mass ascension happened, and nobody really knew what to do with these creatures- depending on the species, animals in captivity were generally released to fend for themselves or set for years of being maintained by machines scheduled in advanced, automated to care for them.

Remnant is taken when the iterator Ink Stained Palms orders a specimen of one relatively hardy species to study and potentially have the rest delivered to their regions. Something goes wrong- their delivery is sabotaged by their semi-active former senior, Calls To Stony Skies. And out Remnant goes into an alien land, with each of the two rival iterators trying to lure or force it to go to them.

This generally takes the form of projections like Iggy uses to get the slugcats to Moon, though it’s two different kinds of overseer guiding you in opposite directions at the same time. There may also be introduced environmental hazards- some of the chases in Little Nightmares come to mind- to corral you toward wherever the iterator causing it wants you to go.

ISP was the one who was getting the remnant delivered to her facility. They’re a bioengineer interested in long-term ecosystem restoration. It’s come to believe there’s a natural ‘balance’ to the world that could, in time, let living things leave the cycle of their own accord if it was realigned properly.

CTSS is in a condition not unlike spearmaster moon, though his decline has been steadier and over a longer period of time. They’ve been replaced by another iterator as group senior, and derailed your journey in the hopes of using a rare animal as collateral to get ISP’s help. Watching the remnant’s struggle to survive, however, he ends up very attached to it and can’t bring himself to kill it as he originally planned to.

Though they might want to, CTSS can’t save the remnant from a more insidious fate. The air, the soil, the water itself is toxic to you, whose kind has lived countless generations shielded from the heavy metal byproducts of industry and the artificial metabolisms of those great boxes in the sky. Ascension is an option, but so is going to ISP, whose body itself possesses a complex with artificial environments much like the one you began in. It can’t protect the remnant fully, but it can offer them a longer life. There are multiple endings to the campaign, based on the order you visit the iterators in.

If you read all this thank you so much and feel free to send questions!! About my little guys.

[that1sprig]

All my artfight 2024 attacks (part 2)

Elowen (Shinx), Conny (Piplup), Yuna (Minccino), Micah (Meowstic), and Amilios belong to @ocaroon, @shadepiplup10, @ayrtyo, @celespurr, and @fujii-draws

Nightmare and Sorren Laurier belong to @hiroshotreplica and @grapeee3

Pippen and Twigs both belong to @r04sty

Aria Bright and Escargot belong to @grapeee3 and @ocaroon

And finally, Iggy belongs to @shyblacksheep

I had a lot of fun this year experimenting with different shading and inking techniques as well as backgrounds! I’m very proud of how the last two came out. I’m just glad I made a decent amount of attacks this year since I only made 5 in 2023. I’m looking forward to next year so I can (unofficially) revenge the people I didn’t get to.

Also I’m a bit late on pmd day but I’m working on it :)

[bookwyrminspiration]

KOTLC Graphic Novel: B&N Virtual Event Summary

There are no spoilers

Shannon Messenger was accompanied by Stuart Gibbs, author of Spy School and other series, who asked the questions

Enjoy!

Event's theme was Iggy Celebration--Shannon chose to wear dark blue, as it's secretly her favorite Iggy

It's officially called Dark Blue Iggy in the books, but the actual color nomination from fans was "tardis blue". She couldn't use that for potential legal issues, but she knows it's actually Tardis blue, making it her favorite

Shannon can't take credit for Iggy's changing color

She'd made him pink in book 2, and so a fan at an event asked her what color he'd be in the next book

Shannon asked her what color she wanted him to be. This fan, dressed in head to toe purple, leaned in and very seriously said "Orange." So Iggy was orange

Opened it to fans after that--but sadly never got the name of that one fan to thank her properly ("Whoever you are girl in purple, thank you!")

Book 10 doesn't have an official release date because Shannon's still writing it (as fast as she can!)

Iggy's color options for Book 10 are still undecided as well

Shannon thanks everyone immensely for their patience; "it's my focus! I want to get to them as fast as possible," but she also wants the book to be good and worth the wait

"Naive Shannon thought the later I got into the series the easier the books would be to write. WRONG!"

she has so many planted seeds to keep track of and constantly feels the pressure to one up her previous books

"I kinda wish I'd set the bar a little lower from the beginning"

She can't make a perfect book; there's always going to be someone who doesn't like something

She's reached the point of realizing her plans, and it's a delicate balance. You don't want reveals to feel like they came completely out of left field, but also don't want them to be like "I guessed that six books ago"

Finding the balance between feeling earned and still surprising is a daunting task ahead of her; it's more labor intensive than she thought it'd be

Stuart Gibbs points out that even if it takes a while, Shannon gives us a lot of book per book, so it's worth it

Shannon never intended to write such long books; she used to say every time that the next one she'd get the hang of being concise and it would be shorter, but everyone stopped believing her by book four

Was a graphic novel adaptation ever part of her plans? Secretly yes--she started as an art major and loves seeing illustrated versions of her characters. The highlight of her year is the cover art, and graphic novels are entire books!

It was on her author bucket-list, but she wasn't sure it'd would be possible; some books just don't work as graphic novels and they're expensive for publishers

When she found out she got the adaptation she "did a happy dance I was very grateful no one could see"

How involved were you in this process? Very involved, since her publishers know she has an art background

They let her pick from writers who auditioned--she wasn't sure that was a great idea because she didn't know if she could be objective; "no, I wrote it this way because it needs to be this way!"

Celina "knocked it out of the park" with her audition

For Gabriella, the artist, she was exactly what Shannon was looking for; she wanted a new style--Jason Chan (the cover artist) is incredible, but she wanted the GN to be distinct and more illustrated

She describes the GN as "like Disney meets manga," cartoonish but not

Shannon gave notes on rough drafts, inked pages, and colored versions--she's sure they got sick of her notes by the end of it

She remembers thinking "certain Keefe jokes MUST make it in," but then seeing them in the visual format they realized "huh, this joke isn't funny anymore"

Anything that surprised you about the process? Definitely some of those Keefe jokes not working, but also the fact they had to split it. At first she thought they could work it all into one, but emotion takes longer to convey visually, and they were "robbing the heart out of the book" by trying to fit it in one

Shannon jokes everything she writes ends up longer than they expect

Do you have any idea about part two? It's in the works, but it's a herculean task for the artists, so it all depends on them; "do not blame them at all! this is a daunting, daunting, massive work load"

Shannon owes Gabriella "all the cookies ever"

it's a very tight timeline, so they'll share the release date when they have it, but for now just let the artist do their thing

Was it weird to spend so much time with book 1 again? Forget anything? Want to change anything? There were some sentences she wanted to rewrite--"a book is never done, it's just due"

Thought about adding Gisela in book one, since she wishes she'd introduced her then; she always knew she'd play a huge role, but thought it'd be more clever to not introduce her until she was ready to bring her into play.

Now she disagrees with that decision and wishes she'd been there from book one, but decided that "it's not bad the way she did it, but it would've been more elegant" so she didn't change it

Does Gibbs have anything he would change about his book? He says you don't always know which characters will catch on, some some that become important he wishes he spent more time with in the beginning--"if I'd done this in book one, I couldn't done this in book 7!"

Any movie news? Hollywood is so much hurry up and wait, a ladder with thousands of rungs; they got caught at the script stage when the writer's strike happened, and even though the strike ended that doesn't mean the gears start turning again immediately.

the script is the most important thing, especially since KOTLC would be a very expensive movie, so the more solid the foundation the better the chance they have of getting greenlit

Her fingers are crossed; she wants a movie/show, but she wants it to be a good movie/show

Fans often don't realize how much work it is and how out of the author's hands it is

Reader questions! (name spellings are to the best of my ability)

Celiana: what advice do you have for young authors? Focus on writing and enjoying that part of the process before publishing! Publishing is stressful and complicated

Shannon throws the question to Gibbs. He says a lot of the times fans tell them they don't like their writing, it's their first draft. "Well that would be the problem."

Very few people hit it out of the park on their first try. Editing is a super important part of the process!

Shannon writers her books weird (editing intensely as she goes because she's always behind on deadlines, and hopes to go back to normal one day), but before that she'd have 2 or 3 drafts each. Book 1 was draft 20, Exile was draft 3, Everblaze was 2.

Gibbs does about 10 drafts each (though admits his outlines process isn't nearly as rigorous as Shannon's)

Shannon reached a point where she said "I don't think I'm smart enough to do this alone anymore!" Her books are like houses of cards, and she simply doesn't have time for the drafts to fall apart

She and her team frequently painstakingly plan things out--and even then sometimes have to scrap things. Remember that scene we rigorously went through last week? "it's not working! Now what?"

Mary Claire: Was it hard for you to find a publisher? Yes. First she got an agent, as that's important when traditionally publishing. She got her at draft 13--said that while she loved the book and its idea, you could tell this was Shannon's first book.

They went through a few edits and thought draft 15 was the one, but she got LOTS of rejections

her confidence was shaken, and draft 16 turned into a mess

At draft 18 it was sold, and then they went through 2 more versions with an actual editor; "so so much rewriting..."

Gibbs tried to get published as a kid, but was rejected throughout all of his schooling, so "to heck with this! I'm going to Hollywood to write movies"...which was actually pretty similar

he came back to writing 15.5 years ago during the last writers strike--"hey maybe I should try this book thing again"

They don't share their experiences to scare you; it's worth it, but you have to love writing to be an author given how much work and rejection it is

That's why Shannon says to enjoy the writing stage as long as you can; you need to fall in love with writing and with your story and truly believe in it

Were you always reading as a kid? Writing stories? When did you decide to write a book? Shannon was very focused on art as a kid and wanted to be a Disney animator, but her art doesn't work for that; she can't draw what's in her head, she can only copy, which "makes me about as useful as a camera"

She thought she could learn the skill, but couldn't in art classes; she realized she was always going to be frustrated if she kept at it

She'd started college at 16 and now her life plan was falling to pieces, so her mom advised her to take a class for fun

it was a film class, since she thought she'd be able to watch TV for school

she was, but her teacher also encouraged her to go to film school since she could finally bring things out properly on the page how they were in her head

"You have a lot to learn, but I see something in you." "Cool, I'm a film major now. Answered!"

Turns out film is too collaborative for her and she wanted more control; "there's those book things, I guess I could try those."

She doesn't regret the journey

Addie: How do you et the ideas to write? Shannon wishes she had a tree that sprouted money and great ideas, but really ideas are everywhere and it's a matter of paying attention.

You don't need your whole idea all at once--can be small like "I wonder if that hat...wasn't a hat at all!"

She knew she wanted to work with elves, and she knew she wanted to strip the magic from the story in favor of sci-fi/superhero logistics. The rest came bit by bit

Some days she couldn't write fast enough, others it was "oo, what if they wore capes?"

Elizabeth: what do you do when you have writers' block? Shannon doesn't like to call it that because that makes it seem scarier than it is; to her it's just being stuck, and she plays the "what if?" game

What if I got rid of the previous scene? What if they went here instead? What if, what if, what if? Open yourself to new possibilities

Gibbs is a big going for a walk person for when you're stuck. We all get stuck, not just young writers. he also likes hiking--walking but not coming back for a while.

At this point a poll was sent to the audience asking them to choose between 5 pairs. Bolded won with percentage included afterwards

Teleporting or light leaping? (63%). Eternalia or Mysterium? (63%). Bathe a T-Rex or Pet a Verminion? (55%). Telepath or Empath? (62%). Cape or No Cape? (60%)

Shannon's surprised the Keefe fans didn't pull through with the Empath vote

No matter what Shannon writes, someone's going to be unhappy, so she started pulling back on appealing to fans and prioritizes what fits the story

Marissa: Will Iggy ever go back to grey? That's up to the readers! Shannon leaves it completely in our hands, so if we ever nominate and vote for grey, she'll write it.

Shannon thanks everyone for reading and being patient, as she's writing as fast as she can

When a book is released she usually celebrates with a dessert; she ordered a bunch of fall flavor donuts from Krispy Kreme today, so she's not sure if she'll save one for tomorrow or get something new

It's dangerous that she can just push a button and donuts will show up at her house (doordash)

Gibbs and Shannon hope everyone love the graphic novel as much as they do--and stay tuned for part 2!

[southsidestory]

Chapter 3: Model Behavior

“Ian? What are you doing here?”

He pushes his way into the Milkovich house and straight to Mickey’s bedroom. It looks the same as he remembers, apart from a couple new posters on the walls and more dirty clothes on the floor.

Ian digs through Mickey’s side table. Wrinkled porn mags, brass knuckles, a cracked pen that spilled red ink everywhere, a Polaroid of Mickey smashing Iggy’s face into the sidewalk. Junk on junk on junk. Ian rips out the drawers, scattering Mickey’s macho armor across the carpet in pieces.

“Ian! You can’t do this! Mickey will kill you for real this time.”

He turns to Mandy, and a shout sinks down his throat. Fear rings around her as loud as if she screamed it. A terrified girl is hard to stay angry at.

“You owe me,” Ian says. “You lied to your brothers, they kicked Lip’s ass and mine over it, and you never even apologized.”

Mandy crosses her arms over her chest, shoulders hunched. “Yeah, I lied, and I wish I hadn’t, but that doesn’t mean I should let you rip apart Mickey’s room.”

“Leave. If anybody asks afterward, pretend you didn’t run into me at all.”

“You don’t get it! Mickey will—”

“I get it.” Ian points at the brass knuckles. “I know what I’m doing, Mandy. If you feel even a little bit bad about telling everybody I’m a rapist, just go.”

Mandy backs out of the room, shaking her head. “It’s your funeral.”

“Promise to bring flowers, but not carnations. They smell like old people.”

When she smiles, she really is pretty. “I’ll bring, like, roses. Or lilies.”

“Roses and lilies. Works for me.”

“Not like you’d know, since you’ll be dead and all.”

After she leaves, Ian picks up a crumpled ball of notebook paper from the floor. He forces it open and finds exactly what he expects: a page of Mickey’s doodles. A football, a baseball, a woman’s torso with enormous tits.

Predictable, except for the drawing of a boy’s hand with a big palm and long, freckled fingers. It’s familiar right down to the shape of the nail beds. Ian glances between his own right hand and the sketch.

Perfect match.

Read all of Chapter 3 on AO3

Start If You Have a Problem from Chapter 1

***

AN: Maybe Michelangelo Milkovich shouldn't have left that sketch lying around...

As always, ty @bawlbrayker and @hamspamandjamsandwich, the best of betas, for all your support and guidance 💖