#my color pencils are like. 5+ years old.

[layraket]

traditional art jumpscare

doodled the little guy in math class and tried to color it yessss sorry for the photo quality I don't have the best phone

[pedge-page]

Imagine baby Sarah getting paint all over the house and marker all over the walls and paint stains of her foot prints everywhere and reader gets emotional about the “art” and tries to convince Joel to keep the mess

Joel Dealing with Sarah - Art

- - - -

Joel never realized just how much damage and unsupervised 2 year old year old can do in 5 minutes. He was used to an immobile Sarah, whether that be needing carried everyone or just seeing how far she can crawl. But when she grew new able bodied lightening legs? It was a new level of parenting he didn’t fully think through.

 Art and colors were all the rage at this age. He has so many squiggly, scratched out, vomitous “art” pieces hanging on the fridge. And it didn’t matter what you wanted her to draw. her uncoordinated hands could only stab and streak across paper. And thus, Yellow streak was Spoon, blue streak was mom, and stabbed holes were Dad.

He had grabbed something very quickly in the kitchen before coming back to supervise the kid who was coloring with her fist and an upside down crayon on a very large sheet of paper. Only now, she was nowhere to be found. There were crayons and pencils and paper scattered all over the floor, but no baby. 

More horrifically, he did notice the box with all her art supplies was left opened, and the vacant spot that held her child-safe paint tubes were missing.

“Oh Shit.”

He’s checking behind the couch and then back into the kitchen in case he didn’t notice maybe she had followed her in there.

“Sarah,” he announces cautiously, but his voice echoes in the house.

He contines into the entry way when the first clue emerges: a bitty pink paint foot print.

“Oh Shit. Sarah!”

He runs up stairs, following the ever growing number of painted footprints left in her trail, and then splotches on the newly painted walls, fingers and smudged handprints like a multicolored serial killer following its injured victim up the stairs. 

“Shitshitshit,” he mumbles, putting his thumb to his tongue and trying to blotch it out quick. The paint was pretty damn un-eraseable with saliva alone.

“SARAH,” he booms more angrily. Nice daddy was on his way out, damned be your soft Mommy reaction.

The girl was getting spanked.

Finally rounding the corner to the master bedroom, he sees the little monster happily squiggling on his walls and she dances side to side. Her hair and face and clothes and skin were covered in paint, as if rolling her whole body along ever possible surface.

Hands on his hips, puffing steam through his ears, he opens his mouth.

The front door clicks open, and both Joel and Sarah’s ears perk up as your familiar footsteps enter the home.

“Oh my god!” You shout, undoubtedly noticing the horrendous streaks of paint all over your walls.

Sarah gets to her feet and barrels past Joel, hoping to see her Momma because FUCK this boring guy.

He smirks, knowing you’re gonna throw a fit. That THIS time Sarah and her behavior won’t slide, and you’ll take the fury out on her.

“Did you make art baby!” You shout excitedly as you finally see her waddle towards you. She coos giddily as you scoop her up. 

Joel frowns and makes his way to you. “Excuse me??”

“Oh hi Daddy.” You wave him off casually with a barely-kiss to the cheek. “Aww honey you got paint all over your hair little bean.” You kiss her forehead, all wrapped up in your arms and hanging off your hip. “Show momma what you made.”

You put her down and the two of you make your way past a very bewildered and near exploding Joel.

On your knees, Sarah directs you to her “artwork” all over the walls like an art gallery. She goes on with her gibberish words and you listen as intently as if it were English. 

He clears his throat. 

“Hmm?”

“I’m spanking her, right?”

You narrow your brows. “What?”

“Are you kidding me? What do you mean ‘what’.” He gestures to the destroyed walls. “I gotta repaint the whole house!”

“WHAT! Why would you do that???? We’re keeping it like this.”

He’s so ready to dunk you in time out too. 

“Joel its art—“

“This aint art—it’s a god damn mess! All over the walls? Baby, she can’t just do this.”

“But its her self expression, its probably one of the few ways we can try to understand her beauty— she could be a picasso when she grows up--"

“ITS SCRIBBLES. And she’s got it out for me,” he narrows his eyes to Sarah, scowling. “If you won’t let me discipline her—“

“She’s two--“

“Then at least let me make this house right.”

You cross your arms over your chest. Sarah looks up and does the same, minicking the disappointment on your face. 

“You never let us do anything fun,” you pout. “Always destroying things that make us happy.”

“Don’t you start on that,” he growls with a pointed finger. “She painted the walls, and she’s not allowed to do that.”

“If I painted the walls, would you tell me I can’t?”

He’s very tempted to say yes because you’d make a mess, but prevents the words from leaving his mouth. “No…”

Dignified, you announce: “Then I say my baby can paint the walls the way she wants.” 

He lets out a long, defeated sigh. “Staircase. Starcaise is only place she can have paint. I’m painting over everything else.”

You think it through, but nod. “Fine. And We will make it beautiful.”

He closes his eyes ask you and mini-boss version of you Sarah make your way, baby finger in your hand, out of the bedroom.

He lies down face forward in bed, and bites down on the pillow to muffle his shout.

-

The next day is Saturday. He had a project in the morning that helped distract him from the mess of his own home.

When he walks in, he’s immediately greeted with your bear hug.

He smiles and kisses your forehead. You’re covered in streaks of paint, some of which clearly wiped on your hair and lips without you realizing. 

“Keeping busy I see?” He chuckles.

“I think it’s coming along.”

True to your word, he’s impressed with the transformation. Once a plain beige, then a hodgepodge of paint, you had gone over and added creative detailing to the colors and mishap that Sarah had splotched over and made a unique design of flowers, suns, meadows and rivers, free flowing patterns and shapes that felt full of life and artistic workmanship, making the whole thing look intentional.

He wraps his arm around your shoulders and admires the work. “You really know how to save that kid, don’t you?”

You nuzzle your face into his sweaty chest.

‘Speaking of, where is…?”

You widen your eyes and look around, forgetting that Sarah had abandoned her post of watching you. 

“Oh SHIT!” You shout, running down towards the living room.

Sarah had somehow gotten a fresh coating of paint all over the new dress you bought, and her poor victim today was helpless Spoon, who stares at you remorsefully. She is sitting quite obediently as Sarah splotches her little pink handprints on the dog’s head and back.

“Ankles weights,” Joel says plainly, observing with a little nod at the scene as you go to yell at Sarah about painting the damn dog. “How about baby ankle weights?”

"Order them now," you seethe, grabbing her hand and Spoon's collar and stomping off the the bath tub to get them clean.

Joel rolls his lips in circle motion, trying not to smile to himself.

- - - -

Taglist

@harriedandharassed @lola8888673 @its-nebuleuse @zliteraturehoe @merz-8 @joeldjarin @pascalscoffin @pedroshotwifey @ghostslillady @innerpersonunknown @missladym1981 @mrsoharaxx @survivingandenduring @milla-frenchy @cockykookiee @fairytale07 @daddy-din @pedropascalsbbg @spookyxsam @somehopeatlast @millercontracting @pedrostories @mishala005 @theoraekenslover @animez96 @not-a-unique-snowflake-blog @puduvallee @cassiecasluciluce @loohoop @himboelover @callsignwidow

[verdantlights]

Blood of the Gods

Hey chat meet Ichor!!!! The.... 5th ALNST oc..... he's in season 41!

heres the kitttyyyyyyyy

- He/they, AMAB

- Human... (?)

- 5'6" and 130 lbs in American

- Owner is Abnoma

- Brand is across the front of his neck (as shown above)

Trivia!

He's mute, but can he make chirping sounds and can purr.

Despite this, he is still relatively sociable and enjoys being in the presence of others.

He has no physical issue with speaking, him being mute is trauma related.

He does keep a notepad and a pencil on him if need be, but he also knows sign language!

His brand is on his throat as kinda symbolism for him being mute.

His tail and ears are very expressive and also very sensitive! He enjoys pets and physical affection, if he is not okay with something,,, he will bite and/or scratch you.

He has claws. He bites. (If you push him to)

He likes to play with bugs in the garden, he likes the little crawlies on his skin.

Big fan of mantises

He has had 2 owners, the first one is where he got his trauma from.

This is the first oc that I will be releasing ... big lore as we get closer to season 41. Either that, or through character interactions.

He was found in a dumpster by his first owner.... erm... when he was a kit (like maybe 4-5? years old?)

He is participating in ALNST season 41... :)

He takes care of his tail very well and is generally well groomed. As much as he likes playing in the grass and with bugs, he still enjoys taking care of himself.

His eyes stay covered as much as possible, he is not blind, but people say his eyes are very... bright and slightly eerie. He also is a bit sensitive to bright lights, so his eyes staying covered is nice.

His eyes are how he got his name! vv

Ichor is the blood of the gods, and his eyes were like flowing, liquid gold that sparkled constantly. However, no matter how you look at his eyes, they always seem lifeless or like there's no light in them.

Downturned eyes, he doesn't have traditionally cat-like pointed eyes.

His natural hair color is white, his first owner permanently dyed it pink with some weird alien tech. (Ichor is still mad about it, he misses his white coat)

anyways, HERES ICHOR!!!!! my lovely little kitty!!!

fun fact: he was originally an oc for Fields of Mistria, but i kinda recycled him cause i thought itd be silly and originally, like i said, he was supposed to be a joke/crack oc but then i locked in and actually got ideas for him as a character and boom now he is an alnst stage oc

tags pspspspsp come see @aakaneeee @rockwgooglyeyes @yunoftheclouds @waterydream @bluemoonscape @sotogalmo @alien-til-i-stage @nottoonedin no pressure to respond i just thought some of you would wanna see my fluffy catboy

[franki-lew-yo]

Still unemployed

Sorry as always for the open rant you all witnessed two nights back from me. I'm genuinely very stressed about money. In summer and fall 2023 my concern was just trying to make myself noticed somehow, bit-by-bit through social media and gaining a substantial following just to better myself as an artist.

Now, I need any income I've got just to afford my rent and utilities.

To put it into perspective (besides the Ko-fi produced Shelby-fund, which was successfully breached and will be used this coming week on her vet bill) my ssi income's been reduced to 530$ a month while my rent is 760$. My old job supplied at least 300$+ but I don't have any of that coming in now. The stimulus money I was given as a parting gift instead of a final paycheck can't be withdrawn from or transferred to my main bank. I have at least 140$ left on that stimulus just for other expenses like busfair, art supplies, dog and home care.

I'm INCREDIBLY grateful to have my EBT card covering my groceries, my jobcoaches assisting with printing out cardstock for any (eventual) upcoming events or cons and getting me a buspass discount, and of course the backers to my Shelby fund to cover that for the year (much love to Brandon, Misty and Cheatsy on Ko-fi). I will be receiving unemployment soon, though still not enough to cover my rent and utility cost.

But, I need to pay for services on Upwork, Linked In and Vograce, for sensitivity readers and animators and shipping costs for any physical Etsy merchandise, possible venue space for real-life events, professional art prints, computer and tablet maitanance, and that's not even getting to possibly subscribing to sites such as instagram or Facebook. I still have a lot to save up for and do WITHOUT being unemployed.

As a reminder, I need to take commissions especially at this time, both 'quick' ones and more complex pieces.

5$ USD for Sketches (traditional or digital) 

15$-20$ USD for Inked, flat colored art without backgrounds

30$ USD for complete pictures

3$ USD = specific medium (completely digital, colored pencil, ink/watercolors, chalk)

5$ USD = extra characters 

5$ USD = shading/lighting 

10$ USD = Physical shipping of the drawing if it’s traditional

This is also a reminder to please assist and support me however you can via my Ko-Fi, Etsy shop, Redbubble shop and my Patreon.

Thank you, everyone.

[frankiesmileshow]

Hi! I'm a new fan of your work and I'm interested in starting pixel art. I would love your advice! Could you recommend some tips for a beginner like me? Tks!

Advice for getting into pixel art:

1- Use a program meant for pixel art like Aseprite (the one I use now, about 30 USD$) or Graphicsgale (the one I used before, its free) , not a general-use image editor or a digital painting program.

You dont need a tablet to do pixel art, I only draw with a 10$ optical mouse, but if youre already used to drawing with a tablet, then go ahead; many people draw pixel art with those.

2- Start small. Think NES and the like, where there aren't many pixels or colors to work with.

Take screenshots or sprite sheets from NES games or Sega Genesis games (find these on https://www.spriters-resource.com/ ) , and edit them, or try adding things to them using the same colors already in the image.

I used to run a little weekly activity on my live stream where we took screenshots from old NES games and modified them for fun. The appeal is that it gives you a limited set of colors and a bunch of examples of how to use them, so it helps you learn to make color choices.

3- If you don't already draw by hand or digitally, start drawing. Get into the habit of sketching and drawing.

Try to do it every day if you can, even if its not a lot of time, and even if youre not very good. Maybe get a drawing pad and carry it around with you if you can, so you can doodle in it whenever you have time.

The skill you will develop drawing on paper will help you grow much faster as a pixel artist.

This is because sketching on paper is very fast, you can sketch ten different things in a few minutes with a pencil. But pixel art, when you are starting out, is very slow. This also makes it slow to learn, unfortunately. So getting into pencil drawing or digital painting will help speed things up.

I got a drawing pad in college and used to draw in the bus, two 30 minute rides every day for a few years really helped me improve.

4- Join a community of pixel artists, that can be motivating to get into art, they might have events and things that could give you prompts to draw and feedback.

5- Be careful about posture when drawing, you can mess up your arm and your back after a few years of furious clicking while leaning forward or slouching. Learn to move your whole arm from the elbow instead of moving just your wrist.

Good luck!

[just-ghaleon]

NEW ASK GAME: Tell me to finish one of my 105 Lunar clipstudio and paint tool sai drawing WIPs

Send me an ask or reply in the comments! :3c (plz&thnx, I need the prodding to actually FINISH stuff ;;u;;)

You can also pester me for more Queer Lunar Theory and Headcanons at the same time, if you want! <3

WIP Queue List (TY <3):

@musicalmeowsandcandiedlemons wants to see ghalliebutt.clip :3c - FINISHED! Posted! :3c

ghaleons ankle monitor.clip is whispering dark secrets to @zombiemollusk >:3 - DONE! Posted!!

@fyeahlunar wants to see ALL ^^;;;;;;; (yeah me too, i'm tryinggg) narrowing it down:

lunar strip poker (lunar uno is a companion piece ;3) - It's done!! Now posted!!!

luna meets ghaleon - Old Art Redraw project, considering attack angle...

lemia comforts ghaleon - Refining sketch...

ghaleon being soft series - ehehehe, so these files are completely blank XD Sometimes I just make files with titles of what I'd like to draw while I'm waiting for poses to come to mind.. ^^; I did a quick rough sketch in each one!! One step closer to done, lol!

dead xenobia reaction - Sketch done! Now coloring and inking...

eb dyne prank - Thumbnails done! Refining layout...

blue star eclipse - Finished! Posted!!

a new journey - Refining sketch...

a new perspective -Refining sketch...

jb cast 5 years later series - These files were completely blank lol, have pasted the old pencil sketches into corresponding files, and started sketches for the ones I never had pencil sketches for!

mewthemew on my discord wants me to finish proto ghaleon.clip! - Sketch already complete, need to start dropping in colors...

(Reply or send an Ask to Queue a WIP! <3)

Misc Requests Queue (Always feel free to send me random Lunar drawing requests! They feed meee, and give me a good excuse to do more drawing memes if I'm in the mood for 'em):

Luna and Lucia for @fyeahlunar - It's finished!!

Continuing Lunar Queer Theory episodes for @zekedms - Episode 2 in progress!

Kyle and Jess hanging out in dresses for @tiphares - Sketched!

Lunar Zine Progress:

Made a project blog! (but it's uncustomized at the moment.) @lunarzine

Need to decide on deadlines...

And a page minimum...

And the physical size of the zine...

So I can make margin templates...

Need to install Scribus and find some tutorials... (Hopefully it's not too drastically different from InDesign.)

Need to research setting up a Google form for submissions...

And when most of that is done, I'll be ready to call for submissions!

[johankasas]

I’m sorry if it was already asked by someone, but what materials do you use for your traditional art?

Heya!!

Okay this will be a bit of a longer reply since over the years I do art I've accumulated a lot of tools, but I'll try to write it in a "digestible" way under the cut.

1. Sketchbooks

I am an easy woman, I like sketchbooks that have a lot of pages, can handle multiple tools and doesn't cost me a fortune. So far the winner in this is Canson XL for mixed media.

2. Sketching

For my sketching and pencil doodles I use mechanical pencils in size 0.5 and 0.3 with HB lead, it's the easiest one to erase and it doesn't smudge, not any preference in a brand, just don't really use the light plastic ones since they tend to creak.

For erasing I use a combination of kneadable eraser and tombow mono eraser for more precise things.

3. Lining

tombow fudenosuke!!!!! Best marker ever, doesn't smudge under water nor alcohol markers and has flexible nib.

If you're not a fan of the flexible nib, my other go to are either liners from Uni-pin or microns

4. Coloring

For my marker pieces like this one :

I use the cheapest off-brand alcohol markers I bought in a big set on AliExpress. They're great for personal work but not that much if you're planning to display it anywhere, the color gets immediately eaten by sun

For my watercolor pieces like this

I now use white nights watercolors :]

The set of 36 to be exact and some random brushes I also accumulated over the years.

Before investing in white nights I used watercolors from Koh-i-noor, that looked like this :

And are much cheaper (in Czechia, dunno the prices out of the country)

For white highlights I use Sakura gelly roll pens. I tested out different brands too and these do their job the best.

5. Scrapbooking/ collage backgrounds

For backgrounds like this:

I accumulated over some time a lot of scrapbooking papers and stickers either from action or AliExpress, but also sometimes I use cut outs from magazines I get for free.

For precise cutting I use a precision craft knife, but before that I just used a box cutter knife, just don't press too hard.

Also a very good thing to get is a light pad, again AliExpress is your friend in this, and tbh before moving to the light pad, I used to shine my phone camera under the paper.

Makes the cutting muuuuuch easier.

And last but not the least

6. Taking photos of your art/ scanning

Phone camera + Snapseed is god tier combo for me, there are so many tutorials on YouTube how to edit the photos into full crispy quality.

But between my friend group it's well known that I am not very good at taking photos, so I scan most of my things.

Just a disclaimer that a good scanner is a very expensive thing ... But if you're willing to go through some loops, you can get a very neat CCD scanner from second hand for very cheap, sadly most of the time the cheap ones are very old and it took a lot of prayers and IT friend to set that thing up :DDD

So that's all I can think of right now, don't forget I got all these things over the years, and still I tend to draw or doodle with pretty cheap low quality things, since I believe that art can be made with everything... The more professional tools just tend to make things easier, but still it's better to test it out a bit before fully jumping into buying big expensive sets.

I wish a lot of luck with creating and don't be scared to experiment :3

[celestemagnoliathewriter]

The Red Pencil

A not-quite-microfic written for @thethreebroomsticksficfest A Very Harry Birthday mini event! Happy birthday Harry!

Harry steps into his Year 5 classroom, tucking his too-large, dingy white shirt into his equally oversized grey trousers. His glasses slide down the bridge of his nose and he pushes them back, looking up at the colorful calendar next to the blackboard. 

“Move!” Harry is knocked to the floor by Piers Polkiss, Dudley’s rat-faced friend. Harry deflates; he expected a Dudley-free classroom, as Aunt Petunia demanded her Ickle Diddykins be placed with Mrs Croft, the sought-after Cedar class teacher. Harry is in the Holly class with Miss Turner, a new teacher, who doesn’t notice one of her pupils is rubbing his scraped elbow. 

Harry stands, only to be pushed against the wall by another one of Dudley’s friends, Gordon, who laughs and finds a seat next to Piers. 

“Is everything all right?” asks a wispy voice. Miss Turner fiddles with her big, beaded necklace and blinks down at Harry. He peers around her, where Piers and Gordon are eyeing him threateningly. 

He won’t say a word.

“Yes, Miss Turner,” Harry replies dully. “I slipped when I was looking at the . . .”

“Calendar?”

Harry nods and turns to face the grid, noticing his name printed in one of the squares.

“Why is my name here?” he asks, pointing to the square. His Year 4 teacher always put his name on the blackboard if he misbehaved; Aunt Petunia would lock him in the cupboard all night.

Miss Turner frowns. “Your birthday isn’t on the 31st?”

Harry glances at the calendar once more. He finds Piers’s name in the square reserved for 28 July. An American film about dinosaurs was released that day; Dudley and Piers went to the cinema for it. They returned to taunt Harry, saying that an animated orphan was far better than a real one.

Swallowing the memory, he counts the squares. If Miss Turner’s calendar is correct, his ninth birthday was only three days later. 

“I didn’t know I had a birthday.” 

“Everyone has a birthday,” Miss Turner says, confused. “Did you forget?”

Other boys and girls are watching them, falling silent. Harry feels his cheeks grow hot. He knew he had to have a birthday, but Aunt Petunia told him she didn’t know when it was, which is why he couldn’t have a birthday party or presents. 

“I forgot,” he lies, as Piers and Gordon snicker at each other. Miss Turner shrugs and nudges him toward an open seat near the front. 

The school bell rings only a few moments later, sparing Harry from further embarrassment. He keeps his gaze on the date shown in the grid, memorizing it so he won’t forget. 31 July 1980 is my birthday, he thinks repeatedly, wondering what that day was like for his parents. He knows they died when he was already over a year old.

Had his birthday been celebrated once, when they were alive? 

“Harry Potter!”

Harry blinks up at Miss Turner. She holds out a red pencil, topped with a star-shaped eraser, wrapped with a golden ribbon. It has a card attached to it, with “Happy Birthday!” printed in big, bold letters.

“Here you are,” Miss Turner says, handing him the pencil. “We’re celebrating everyone who had birthdays in July and August.” She moves onto the next student, Gemma Rollins, whose birthday was two weeks before the start of term. Harry holds the pencil gingerly, the only birthday gift he’s received (that he knows of). He chooses not to write with it. It’s special, just for him, something Dudley can’t take away. 

But Piers can take it away, and by lunch, it’s no longer in Harry’s possession. By the end of the day, Gordon snaps it in half and tears the star-shaped eraser in two. The card is in shreds, carried off by the wind. 

Harry knows better than to complain. Now that he knows his birthday, he can tell Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. He won’t get much for his birthday, if Christmas is anything to go by, but something is better than nothing.

It’s much later that day, after Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon have heard about Dudley’s marvelous first day of school, that Harry brings up his discovery. He’s done washing the dishes and finds Aunt Petunia in the garden, trimming the hydrangeas. 

“Aunt Petunia?”

“Have you broken something?” she says, snipping a stem with a scowl. 

“I found out when my birthday is.” He pushes his glasses up his nose, wishing they fit his face better. “The 31st of July. My teacher, Miss Turner, has a calendar with our birthdays on it.”

Aunt Petunia flinches. “It must be correct.”

“If I know my birthday now, can I get pre—”

“Only good, well-behaved boys get presents,” she snaps, twisting the head of a hydrangea clean off its stem. “Father Christmas doesn’t bring presents to naughty children. Why would naughty boys and girls get presents for their birthdays?” 

Harry almost tells her he did get a birthday gift, a pencil, but Piers took it away. “Yes, Aunt Petunia,” he says miserably.

“Go to your cupboard. You’re going to get filthy if you stay out here.” 

He shuffles away, avoiding Dudley’s chocolatey smirk and Uncle Vernon’s glare, and throws himself on the thin mattress in the cupboard. He feels something jabbing his side and hopes it’s not a mouse. Turning over, Harry sees the golden ribbon. The red pencil is on his bed, whole and untouched, with its star-shaped eraser and attached card.

With a grin, Harry stores the gift in an empty shoebox at the foot of his bed. He falls asleep, dreaming of flying, a gentle, tinkling laugh, and warm, hazel eyes crinkled with joy. 

...

*The Land Before Time (1988) really was released on 28 July 1989 in the UK.

[thoroughlyhaunted]

hi friends,

i want to tell you about my friend marah. she, her sister, and her parents have successfully evacuated to egypt, but her brother and grandmother are still in gaza. she's waiting for the border crossing to reopen, but won't have the funds to allow her brother and grandma to cross.

she hasn't heard from her brother in a few days and is feeling really defeated. anything you can spare to help lift her spirits would mean a lot to us.

donation commission info under the cut!!

in exchange for any donations, i'd be happy to do a quick colored pencil doodle of anything you want, to the best of my ability. i can also do digital headshot doodles like the second image starting at $5+!!

i can be contacted here, or vampyre_bytes on discord and instagram. thank you for considering helping <3

[alicefromwhichplanet]

My new work! In this fiction I made my first attempt to create my OCs. They’re actually sparklings to be more specific:

Jinglestorm— Blitzwing and Bumblebee’s daughter, an orange jet, blue optics

Skystrophe— Megatron and Optimus’s son, a black truck, red optics (a bit inspired by Scourge)

Clobber— Strika and Lugnut’s daughter, a ground unit (like tfc Clobber) but in Strika’s color, red optics

This story is an AU of tfa/ my tfa fiction Heroic Nonsense. The three main characters, as members of a new patch of sparklings born after the Great War, also children of decepticon veterans/ autobot-decepticon parents, are going to blaze a trail to building a new world where autobots and decepticons are peacefully united, while exploring and healing scars left by the old warring world.

Follow their adventures! This will be a story about: trauma after war and how the gap between two race/fractions can be healed after war ended; the growth story of three children with complex identities.

Excerpt:

“Then why don’t you tell us about the beginning year of the Great War?” The old professor just can’t let her go. This time she isn’t sure. Her optics wander to her friends— Clobber sitting front right of her, is now staring at the window as well, her mouth agape in a daydream, her biggest optic half-shut, her history tablet almost shut down from power off. Slag! Her optics again wander to the back row. Skystrophe is there giving her a silent condemning look. His book is neatly opened to the page in use but he is clearly not going to give her the answer, and probably does not agree with her behavior of distracting in history class. Skystrophe loves history class, like his famous sire Optimus. Sometimes he is just insufferable.

Looking at Skystrophe’s silent condemning red optics, Jinglestorm is suddenly hit by an idea. She looks back at the professor and says with confidence:

“The Great War began about 5 million years ago. When the decepticon leader Megatron decided to start a riot.”

The classroom falls completely silent. Skystrophe suddenly looks down, pretending to be intrigued by his pencil. Alpha Trion frowns at the young bot, slightly nods and then shakes his helm, looking both satisfied and disappointed at her answer.

“Yes, that was written in textbooks before the war ended. But today, with the united government formed, and a peace treaty being reached permanently between autobots and decepticons— (his mouth corner twitches as he says that) today we say the Great War began when the former autobot government refused to pay decepticon miners full salary at year 917.”

He walks back to his podium with a slightly upset look, while muttering more comments. “The current government believes there are blames on both sides of the Great War, and they required us to be neutral about this part of history teaching. In the past we teach about the dangers decepticon riots posed to our society, but now they say the former autobot government was maintaining an unequal system on Cybertron as well.”

Jinglestorm nods attentively. “Yes. My carrier said…”

“Your carrier, Blitzwing, right?” Alpha Trion’s blue optics narrow as he looks into Jinglestorm’s optics. The girl shrinks a little at the coldness in them.

“You may sit down, Trainee Jinglestorm. ”

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

I don't know if you've ever been asked this question, but I was wondering:

Did you learn to draw somewhere, or were you self-taught? Maybe you have some tips or hints for beginners? What was your favourite thing about drawing?

Sorry if this ask is too personal, but I really like your drawing style and wanted to ask some advice :D Have a good day! 🌸

it's a mix of both, really! i grew up loving art from the very beginning, like. im talking about making teletubbies fanarts and asking my dad to make me learn to draw characters from w.i.t.c.h. and tomb raider fandsndfs, according to my parents i had a pencil in my hands before i even started talking -- and that's what led me to actually learn to draw "properly", first in a art-centered high school (that. did less than good to me tbf but it was a matter of 90% of the art-related teachers being garbage) and the comics academy in torino where i think i started to truly "understand" what i wanted from my art style

if i may give some advices other than the good ol' "keep practicing and try to at least doodle something once a day", i could go with:

don't compare yourself to other artists negatively, especially those younger than you. it's probably the hardest part, but you need to "force yourself" to be positive. if you find yourself thinking "this 14 years old draws better eyes than me", go with "i love how they draw eyes, let's see if i can learn from it"

copy copy copy copyyyyy!!!!! copy from references, copy from photos, copy from comics, copy from movies. of course don't plagiarize people and then present that stuff as your own, but try to make a pose yours and learn to take pictures of your own hands, feet, face or ask people to pose if you can't find the right position

your art will look like shit to you, a LOT of times, but know that at one point you're going to quit. if you don't like what you're drawing, either quit there or restart, don't try to "fix" it because you'll just end up noticing more and more issues with it - issues that, most of the times, aren't even issues to begin with. letting go of perfectionism is very difficult, but at some point you'll have to do that--

and about perfectionism, a VERY good exercise we did in comics school was being forced to "draw fast". this isn't me telling you you NEED to draw as quick as possible, but it's an exercise that forces you to learn quickly where certain body parts go, to prioritize specific details rather than others. we had a model, and at first we had to sit there for an hour drawing her, then the hour became 30 minutes, then 10, then 5, and at the end 1. it took us a few lessons to do that, but at the end the super sketchy 1 minute copy went from ???? to a stylized human figure!!!

learn to draw realistic anatomy, and then make it your own style.

for the love of god learn prespective it's a bore it's a chore but as soon as you learn that everything becomes SO much easier

for shading, just. put a point in the canvas where the light source is and go from there!! if the light is on the right, the shades will be on the left

if you're coloring, play with the shades' colors. a good idea is to use the opposite color you use for the lights - if the light is yellow, the shades look great in purples, for example just don't use pure black unless you wanna go for a more dark/noir aesthetic oh my god

professional comic artists retrace a lot of their backgrounds. i'm js. use this as you wish :)

learn to draw different body shapes!!!! like getting out of the anime phase of "fat people are just like thin people but with a huge belly" can be difficult, but it's very satisfying

go out of your comfort zone. if you have problems drawing horses, spend a few days learning to draw horses. take some pics and try to understand them.

body proportions are so fun once you realize how so many things are the same. generally speaking, your spread hand is as long as your face, your feet and half the size of your arm; the outer corner of your eye is at the same level of your ear, and the inner corner is perpendicular to your nose and the corner of your mouth; if you leave your arm on your side, your elbow is at the same level of your bellybutton, and your fingers reach halfway your thighs. it's so fun

and yea, i can't stress it enough. it'll take time. art is painful, art is stressful, art can be discouraging. take a step at the time, accept some failures and celebrate any good thing - even the smaller ones. you learned to draw hands today, and you should be proud. i tried to draw a cat for the first time and it looks wonky, but the cat you will draw tomorrow will look better. i believe in you

[themasterpostblog]

Pencil/2D Animation Resources Masterpost

5/10/24:

Hello, I broke into my old account so I could make a little masterpost of resources I come across for learning pencil/2D animation. (Free or affordable classes, places to get tools, videos to give insider insight, etc.) I may not be able to get everything included, so if you think of something, you can reach out and suggest things to add! I will be updating this over time, with notes on when it was last recently updated. And maybe I'll end up giving the old blog a refresh too. I likely won't be making new masterposts outside of this one any time soon, nor updating any old ones. It's been SEVERAL years, and the internet is a different place. I would assume most of the old links are out of date by now, unfortunately. I hope that this list is helpful to you as well, and if I'm incorrect in anything I list, I'm learning too! So please be patient with me and feel free to reach out with a correction. It's not finished yet, but Tumblr deletes my posts before I finish them, so I'm starting with posting the skeleton and slowly updating this)

Find a Community to Learn From!

(recommended groups to lurk/join/make connections and ask questions)

What Tools Do I Need?

PDF Guide to Animation Desks, as written by David Nethry

(next line)

Where Do I Get Tools?

(Places where you can buy art supplies, software, etc)

Cartoon Supplies

(Online seller who carries Ingram Bond paper, lightboxes, storyboard pads, blank cels, etc. See also: Lightfoot LTD, which is identical in every way to Cartoon Supplies and for the life of me I'm not sure the difference, though both are equally recommended along side each other.)

Jet Pens

(Ah... I love window-shopping this site. If you love stationary like I do, you'll be on this site for hours adding things to your cart... and inevitably removing them because it's not feasible to spend hundreds on pens and sticky-note pads.)

Dickblick

(I've found they have good prices on name brands, but I haven't purchased from them yet. Often, I'm too overwhelmed by all the choices.)

Improve Your Art/Learn the Basics!

(anatomy classes, starter tools, etc)

Aaron Blaise (Co-Director of Brother Bear)'s Online Classes

He runs very good deals on the classes occasional, but you can also do a year's access to all classes and keep what you download, which is very useful! They're short, quick lessons, and tend to veer into more "helpful tips" than teaching, from what I've personally noticed, but it's well worth the price if you get them at a good deal!

Inside Look at the Industry -- aka: the Special Features:

(behind the scenes stuff, etc)

Books are more useful than you might think!

(Richard Williams Animator's Survival Toolkit, etc) (check out gently used copies of these books on Thriftbooks for a good deal!)

Nifty Free Resources

(Things like height charts, references, color wheels, blog posts, videos, etc)

What Artists Can Learn From Aladdin's Incredible Color by J. Holt [VIDEO]

(spacing for formatting)

The Art of Color Theory: Guide for Animators, Designers, and Artists (Animator Artist Life)

(space for formatting)

Free software!

GIMP

(A classic, GIMP is an old friend of mine. The first software I downloaded for art, I used to use it almost entirely to create animated GIFs for the Warrior Cat forums. Ah, how time has passed. Nowadays I can't even remember how to animate a GIF on there, but such is life. I still use it to this day for digital art, even having Corel Painter. Before GIMP, I animated the old fashioned way -- MS paint and Windows Movie Maker. With determination, I scripted and animated a handful of Warrior Cat characters frame by frame. Each frame of Hollyleaf or whoever it was blinking was the likely source of death for our old computer, may she rest in peace.)

Storyboarder

(Storyboarder is a free software with which you can use to create professional and clean storyboards. It also provides printable storyboard templates so you can do you work traditionally and re-upload it easily into the software! It also works with Wacom tablets. Check it out! It's actually super cool.)

Pencil 2D

(A free, open source software. Simplistic design, switch between raster and vector, and best of all, again, it's free. I haven't used this one much yet, but I've seen it positively talked about by many! I'll update with more research when I have the chance.)

Krita

(I haven't used this one yet, so I can't speak on it either! But it's going on the list so I can come back and research it later. My poor laptop is not going to handle this many downloads lol.)

OpenToonz

(I also haven't tried this, but see above, haha.)

Blender - Grease Pencil

(Blender is well known for 3D animation, but they added a 2D feature called Grease Pencil as well.)

WriterDuet

(Free for up to 3 projects, very simple, but upgrades to a $10 a month plan, which is... eh, I'll keep my Scrivener for now. I used to write scripts in Microsoft Word or the Notepad on PC back in the day, I don't think I personally need the fancy features.)

Trelby

(A free screenwriting software, very basic and simple, good for beginners.)

Keep an eye out for

(Humblebundle occasionally does software deals -- a good art bundle at a discount can give you an easy start!)

[faffreux]

can you tell us about when you fell in love with fawful? :)

Yep. In fact, I'll write a whole mini essay for you so I can add it to the FAQ section of my website coming up shortly LMAO (SINCE I NEED TO FULLY ANSWER THIS QUESTION FOR THERE ANYWAY, RIGHT???) CLICK UNDER THE READ MORE TO SEE IT BECAUSE THIS IS GOING TO BE THE LONGEST THING I'VE EVER POSTED HERE, LMAO.

To preface, I have been a fan of the M&L games going back to the early-mid 2000s when I was a kid. I had no involvement with fandom or anything of the sort back then but I used to hop on my mom's bulky computer and look up fanart and other related content as early as 2004/5 and as a result, ended up captivated by the characters long before I knew who they actually were. (As a result of this, I have the names and art styles of various old M&L fandom creators permanently ingrained in my head and often wonder where they are today since a good deal of them vanished..!) It wasn't until 2006 that I got my first handheld console (DS Lite) and of course, what did I do? Immediately begged my mom to order me a used GBA copy of Superstar Saga. 

When I finally had the game in my hands it was like coming home to a colorful world that I'd been captivated by for so long but never gotten the chance to actually explore until now. The characters felt like old friends and the Beanbean Kingdom as a location felt familiar and comforting to me. (As a side note, Popple quickly became my favorite. Shocker, right?)

I used to sketch various beans in my notebooks as well as on printer paper we had lying around the house. Long story short, I finished Superstar Saga and then a few years later in 2010 I picked up Bowser’s Inside Story and THAT’S WHEN THINGS SHIFTED–

BIS brought Fawful and his personality to life in a way that captivated my imagination like nothing else had prior. He quickly overtook Popple as my favorite character from then on forward… and that’s where it ends! Or.. is it?

Nah, that’s where it gets funky. Life got a little chaotic after that and not only did I stop playing video games altogether for many years, but I also almost completely gave up on art - the one thing I was most passionate about above all and thought I would make a career out of someday. A series of depressing events caused me to lose all hope and motivation for anything I created and the spark I’d kept inside of me for so long all but died out as a result.

We’re going to timeskip again, this time to late 2019. I’d just moved away from home permanently for the first time and had been getting settled in and no matter what I did to make my new apartment a cozy place it always felt like something was missing. My mind would keep wandering to the fact that I never made art anymore despite it having been such a key part of my life when I was younger. I so desperately wanted to change this and over the next few months the frustration only kept growing until on January 1st, 2020, I sat down in the living room with a pencil and paper in my hand and shut my eyes tightly before saying under my breath:

“I do not care what it is, I don’t care how it comes. Just please… PLEASE send me something to bring my art back. Anything… anything at all. I don’t care what I draw, I just want to be drawing again.” And with that, I placed the lead onto the paper and began to sketch…

And from there… a familiar face appeared!

(Now I could ramble to you about how much I do NOT like this drawing and how off model it is from how Fawful actually looks… but I’ll forgive myself since I hadn’t touched the M&L games in over a decade at this point and had forgotten most of Fawful’s character. And yet?? Here he was.)

How else can I explain it except that in that moment it felt like the pencil in my hand had suddenly become one of these:

A joy that I hadn’t felt in SO long suddenly filled my entire being and without wasting another second, I immediately went online and ordered both Superstar Saga and Bowser’s Inside Story to replay again. In the time waiting for the games to arrive I had started drawing daily again - sketching out various old characters of mine with dozens of doodles of the bean man stacked in between them all.

There he was… always smiling, always happy to see me, and oftentimes with his arms outstretched as if to give an encouraging hug. When the games arrived I worked through them quicker than I ever had prior - finishing up Superstar Saga in less than a week and subsequently moving onto Bowser’s Inside Story with a LOT of excitement built up for it. 

It was my first day playing and I was having the time of my life! The way Fawful looked in his little grey cloak with that enormous, charming grin of his as he bamboozled Bowser into eating the Vaccuum Shroom had me giggling with joy while words repeated in my brain over and over of: “I need to draw this later, I NEED to draw this later!!!” I WAS EXCITED ABOUT ART AGAIN… AFTER ALL THESE YEARS. I was practically hopping in my seat from the happiness I felt in my heart and chest every time Fawful appeared at this point!

This was how it felt until the moment I arrived at the Fawful Theatre and watched as he began dancing on the stage floor. THIS time.. something different came over me. If you’ve felt it before, then you’ll know what I mean when I say that it was like my entire body turned warm all at once, like some sort of flame had been lit inside. I’d never felt it for anything or anyone prior to then, and that's partly why it hit me as hard as it did. I was practically sweating.

Heck, I was so absorbed in my feelings that I had forgotten there was anyone else in the room with me! That is.. Until my roommate at the time spoke up: 

Her: Are you alright? Me: Uhhh… yeah, why? Her: You’re red as a beet. Are you sure you’re okay?

By this time I had realized what was really going on so I reassured her I was fine, grabbed my 3DS, and ran to my room to finish the playthrough on my own so I wouldn’t embarrass myself any further, hahaha.

In the days, weeks, and months following that moment I became dedicated to drawing the best art of Fawful I could possibly create! What started as a challenge to myself to ‘give back’ to the person who’d given me back the ability to create again turned into someone I genuinely could not stop drawing for how much fun I was having doing it. The desire to make better and better art in order to honor him drove me to improve at a speed I never had prior, and soon thereafter I created Jolligig as a way for me to be in this colorful world with him and to express the deepening affection I was feeling for him with every day that passed by.

By some miracle, my prayer had been answered and here it was in the form of a grinning lima bean.

[End of Part 1. Interested in the rest? Yes… there’s more, I’m sorry. Please let me know in the comments. This took a while to write so I thought splitting it up would be best if folks are interested, LOL.]

[goodlucktai]

since your on a roll maybe a prompt with little sanji and little luffy. Mostly it be nice to see how fast the little monkey wants the blonde boy who can cook to be his friend. 5 year old luffy would see kid sanji and go, " want to be friends?"

x

The Orbit docks at Dawn Island. 

It’s a little farther out of the way than they usually sail, but there were very well-paying guests on board at what would have been the end of the cruise who wanted to be taken all the way to their home of Goa Kingdom. 

Captain Chas strikes up a conversation with the harbormaster, one seasoned sailor to another, and the harbormaster divulges that it might do him well to stay in port. The people of High Town love an excuse to spend their money on a good day, and with an upcoming visit from a Celestial Dragon, they’re even more inclined than usual to flaunt their wealth. Once word gets around that there is a luxury cruise ship at the wharf that offers fine dining and a cocktail lounge, they’ll show up in droves. 

“Make yourself scarce for dinner service,” the head chef warned Sanji very clearly. “These people will take offense as easy as breathing, and I don’t want to lose my best kitchen boy because some middle-aged noblewoman didn’t like the way his uniform was pressed.”

So once all the food was prepped and ready for service, and the staff was taking their last break of the evening before the rush, Sanji was shooed away by the grown-ups and told to entertain himself for the night. He goes easily enough, stopping by the bunkroom to change out of his white service uniform and into secondhand trousers and canvas shirt and boots. 

He doesn’t always get the chance to explore when The Orbit is at port, and he was warned to stay clear of High Town—but Sanji isn’t even looking toward the kingdom walls. He heads in the opposite direction, running down the pier toward the beautiful beach that stretches out of sight around the natural bend of the island. 

The waters are so clear. There are tropical flowers blooming along the coastline that add something fragrant to the sea-salt in the air. A gull cries overhead and Sanji imagines, just for a moment, what it would be like to find All Blue. 

Then he collides with someone hard enough that he goes sprawling backwards.

“Ow!” someone whines from right in front of Sanji. He lifts his head in time to look right into big brown eyes, all watery with hurt, as the little boy he ran into says petulantly, “You made me drop my fish!”

Bewildered, Sanji looks down. Sure enough, there are a handful of huge, colorful fish flopping weakly in the sand between them. They look too big to have fit in the kid’s scrawny arms in the first place.

“Sorry,” he says, for lack of a better thing to say. “The sand will come off easy when you scale them.”

The boy blinks. He rubs the rest of his crocodile tears away, smearing grubby fingers across a pencil-mark scar that curves beneath one of his eyes like a smile.

“Scale them?” he asks curiously. “They already have those.”

“No, you know, de-scale,” Sanji explains. “When you get the skin and scales off to cook them?”

He feels a little too big for his skin under the other child’s undivided inattention. Attention is usually a bad thing. Sanji has always been safer when no one knew he was there. He’s just barely gotten used to his kitchen supervisor hovering at his shoulder, reaching in to guide his hands away from a mistake. 

This boy is smaller than Sanji, though. Most of the people who want to hurt him are bigger. That makes it easier to talk to him.

“We just roast them on the fire and spit out all the yucky stuff!” the boy declares. 

Sanji thinks that’s the worst thing he’s ever heard. “What about the bones?” he says, not sure he’s ready for the answer.

“They’re crunchy but not big enough to choke on or anything.” 

Standing up abruptly, Sanji picks up two of the fish. They’re heavy, someone’s very lucky catch. The younger boy scrambles up, too, face contorted into a scowl and mouth opening around what is probably a very loud protest, but Sanji beats him to it. 

“Let me cook these for you properly,” he says firmly. “I’ll show you what fish is supposed to taste like.”

He watches wonder take over the boy’s face. He’s expressive, bouncing from one feeling to the next like he wouldn’t know the first thing about sitting still—not like the way Sanji’s brothers’ faces would always clutch onto anger or derision or mean-spirited glee for days, the way his father’s face was always chiseled into a displeased frown. 

This kid has cycled through half a dozen emotions in half as many minutes, and now he’s already moving onto something new. He smiles brightly, sand in his hair and tear tracks on his face and a gap in his smile from a missing tooth. 

“You’re a cook?”

Sanji nods, because that’s what he’s always wanted to be in his heart—but something in him that still shies away  from lying, even after weeks of pretending to be a displaced orphan to the kind people who took him in on The Orbit, makes him add, “Almost. I’m still learning. My name is Sanji.” 

“Sanji! I’m Luffy!” 

Luffy’s hands come up and catch on Sanji’s sleeve, sticky and stubborn, already tugging him in the direction Luffy wants him to go. Sanji has no idea, in that moment, that those hands are never, ever going to let him go. 

(If he did have any idea, he might have prayed again for the first time since mama died, just to say thank you.)

“Come meet my brothers,” Luffy demands, equal parts spoiled and sunny in a way that manages to just be charming. “But just remember, I found you first!” 

[acewithapaintbrush]

I just realized that I have never actually shared the end result of my tattoo. I love it every day a little bit more, least of all because it's actually got some hidden meanings and nods to some important things in my life. It got a bit long (and pretty emotional, oh my) so more under the cut if you wanna know

The colors, rather, the brush strokes in the background. Red, blue, purple and orange. If you know me, you know that I am a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Fan. But that is not a big enough word tbh. The turtles have accompanied me all my life. My first pajama was turtles themed, I wanted to learn to ride a skateboard because of Mikey pretty much all my teen years. But most importantly, and most emotionally for me, I distinctly remember watching a turtles episode from the 1987 cartoon at a friend's house while my mother attended my father's funeral. I don't remember much of that time, only being 5 years old, but I remember crouching behind a sofa and looking over the back of it to watch the turtles have adventures. Maybe that's where it really started, who knows. I just know that these funky guys mean a lot to me for reasons I might not even be able to explain to myself properly. These colors bring me joy, so they had to be there.

And then, the sunflower. I wanted that there because of Mob Psycho 100, an anime that has not just changed the way I look at the world and at myself. I am the protagonist of my own life. My life is my own. If I can change then others can change too. It's easy to want to be easily palatable (is that the word?) for others, to get their approval, to get them to like you. It's taken me some odd 34 years to realize that I only have to be palatable for myself. I have to look in the mirror and see someone that I can get behind, a person worthy of love and friendship and I am worthy of it, everyone is worthy of it no matter who you are, how you look or what you can do. You are worthy already by just being you and even if you aren't quite there yet you are still worthy. We are all worthy of being happy. I am allowed to be silly and cringe and not act like my age. I live my life the way I want.

Because I am the protagonist of my own life and if I don't write the story, who will?

The last one is the crows feather with the green accents. This is a bit of an obscure one. As some of you know, I have written fanfiction for years. It got me through some tough times during high school. Then adult life hit and I stopped. I stopped writing my original stories too. I can't even say why it just felt like a chore, probably because I got so discouraged with my own skills and my own expectations for myself. Then I slowly got back into it, writing a real short one shot for Monkie Kid and realizing that I have missed it quote a lot. And then Encanto came along. This movie that has inspired me so much that it felt like I suddenly couldn't stop writing even if I wanted to.

And then I got the idea for "A place for crows" and the rest is history I guess? The love and encouragement I received where phenomenal. That story made me fall in love with story telling again, it consumed me for pretty much a complete year. And it brought some of the most wonderful people, beloved friends from all over the world, into my life. I am so greatful to this Fandom, to this story, or rather the things this story has brought into my life.

So the feather symbolized my love for writing and just fandom spaces in general, this wonderful microcosmos I can call home.

The brushes and pencil are a given, my love for art and drawing which have also been big factors in rediscovering myself

This text got long, I just typed it down without pausing and I'm not gonna go over it again for spelling or something like that. Take it as it came out of me, with all my love and emotional bloodletting.

Love you all.

[comfort-writing]

Crayons and Cassettes

Chapter 2: Johnny Appleseed and Iron Maiden

You are a kindergarten teacher. Eddie’s daughter, Sage, is in your class. Eddie is trying hard not to get too close.

warnings: shot mention of a previous relationship involving abuse. this fic will be 18+ in later chapters- minors DNI!! no use of y/n. (please let me know if I missed anything)

a/n: sorry for the long break! I was traveling over the holidays but now updates should be more consistent! thank you for all the love on chapter 1! please let me know in the comments or my asks if you’d like to be added to the tag list! :)

word count: 2.5k

Chapter 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12 || 13 || 14 (coming soon!)

Eddie has never really been a crier. He had to toughen up early on; having a drug addict dad and a nonexistent mom, along with becoming the town freak because of his music taste made him develop a thick shell. But, as he’s aged, and as his daughter hit huge milestones, he softened. He allowed himself to cry every once in a while. It was cathartic. He cried when Sage took her first steps. He cried when she colored him a picture of the two of them and Wayne sitting on a picnic blanket under a sun that was purple. He cried when Alice signed over complete custody to him. And now, he was sitting in his old beat up van, crying because she started kindergarten. While his little girl is still little, it’s hard to see them grow so quickly.

Eddie took a moment and wiped his eyes, chuckling at himself, feeling a bit ridiculous for crying at all. He flipped down the visor on his van, sliding open the mirror to check how he looked. His eyes were a little puffy, but it would probably go away in five minutes. He turned on the air conditioning in his car to dry his face, then turned on the radio to try to get his mind off of the subject. He’d see Sage in a few hours. No big deal. After a minute, he pulled his gear shift into drive and started off on his way to work.

Since he graduated high school, Eddie worked in the local Hawkins record store. The owner was someone who actually grew to like him after getting to know him, which was a relief for Eddie. Not many people in this town gave him a chance to even have a job with his reputation, so having a boss that had grown to treat him like family was wonderful. The old man, Mr. Atkinson, had softened a lot to Eddie after he’d had a kid, and even more after the whole custody arrangement with Alice. He’d often let Sage hang out in the back of the shop, giving her a coloring sheet while Eddie finished up his shift. Mr. Atkinson didn’t have a wife or any children, so he’d said that he planned on leaving Eddie the shop once he was gone. Hopefully that would be in a long time from now, but Atkinson was getting older, and he always told Eddie, “Gotta face the reality of it, kid.”

Eddie pulled into his parking spot behind the shop, then went in through the back door. He clocked in, said hello to Mr. Atkinson, and got to work doing inventory.

Around two thirty, Eddie was let out of his job to go pick up Sage. Normally, he’d be going in earlier to be able to leave at this time, but Mr. Atkinson knew today was her first day of school—he’d bought her a sparkly pink pencil to bring with her—so he let Eddie keep his hours short today.

Eddie finished the transaction he was working on, clocked out, waved goodbye to Joe, then walked back out to his van.

He was so excited to hear all about Sage’s day, he was practically vibrating. He wanted to know every detail he could get from her. He drove to the school, then waited in the car line until they released the kids. Because he was there pretty early, he was the 4th car in line. He sat in his van, listening to a mixtape he’d made a year or so ago, but deciding to keep the volume lower than he would have preferred in order to not cause Sage any trouble.

Once the bell rang, you walked your class out to the car line. The children who rode the bus followed another teacher out. You smiled, having the kids line up and following you. Once outside, you had them sit along the wall as you, along with a few other teachers, helped pile kids into their respect cars. You walked up to a van, smiling when you saw Mr. Munson.

Eddie cranked his window down, “Are you just here for Sage or do you have another child as well?” You asked him, unsure if Sage was his only child.

Eddie smiled, “Just Sage. How was her day?” He asked.

“Let me go grab her and I’ll update you in a second!” You called, walking to the kindergarten line and telling Sage her dad was there. She smiled and started to run to the van, but you caught up and slowed her down, taking a moment to explain why running in car line was dangerous. She nodded, then walked with you to Eddie’s van. You opened the door for her, “She did great today! Excellent behavior- she was helpful to others and engaged with the lesson.” You told Eddie with a big smile as you helped Sage buckle her seatbelt, seeing that she was struggling. “I’m sure she has a lot to tell you about though.” You said, closing her door and walking back to the front passenger window.

Eddie smiled, “That’s great. Thank you for being kind to her.” He said.

You raised an eyebrow at that, “Why wouldn’t I be? She’s a great kid.” You smiled. Sage made a silly face at you and you scrunched your nose with a small smile back.

“Well, you must be new in town. But.. yeah. Thanks.”

You were a bit confused as to what he was talking about, but you nodded anyways. “You’re welcome. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow Sage! Tell me what book you read tonight!” You smile, waving the two of them off.

Eddie pulled out of the parking lot, chatting with Sage on his way home, feeling elated that she’d had a great day. She talked his ear off for the entire drive home, on their way into the house, and right up until dinner. That night, Sage got her breakfast for dinner and her favorite ice cream before being tucked into bed. Once she was asleep, Eddie eased out of her bed and slowly walked out of the room, shutting the door behind her as quietly as possible. He felt like the proudest dad in the entire world.

Throughout the next few weeks, Eddie would see you at pick up. You’d always update him on Sage’s progress, and she was doing great. By about the 5th week of school, she was able to write her name without mistakes and knew a lot of her sight words. Throughout your interactions with Eddie, albeit short, he seems to have gotten more comfortable around you. He opened up a little more, making jokes when you’d help Sage into his van. You couldn’t tell for sure, but you thought a few times he flirted with you. You’d always been bad at figuring that stuff out, but you could’ve sworn he had. You’d wanted to talk it through with someone, but you still hadn’t made many friends that weren’t five year olds or other teachers in their sixties.

One Saturday afternoon, you were digging through your box of cassette tapes for your students. You had a few songs that you would sing with them in class- ones that would help them learn their numbers, days of the week, etc. You were looking for your Johnny Appleseed tape. It was an audiobook that included sound effects and songs. You remember your kids loving it at your old school. You had a unit coming up relating to it, but you couldn’t find the tape anywhere.

“God, where is it?” You groaned, frustrated. You swore you packed it in your move. Maybe you’d left it in your old classroom. You sighed, deciding to go to the local record store you’d seen on your way to get groceries the other day to see if they had it, or at least something similar to it. You grabbed your purse, scribbled down the tape name on a notepad, and grabbed your Walkman off of the counter before tossing both items into your bag and heading out the door.

You drove across the small town you’d quickly become acquainted with, enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. It was cool enough to wear jeans, but still warm enough not to need a jacket. You had your hair tied up, so you’d decided to roll the windows down and turn up the music on some local radio station that didn’t play anything by Hanson or Aqua. You pulled up to the store and quickly made your way inside, moving your sunglasses to rest on your head as you looked around the store, scanning quickly to find the cassette section.

You walked over and started looking through the tapes, searching intently for the correct one.

“You know, it’s weird seeing you not completely surrounded by kindergartners.” You heard a voice say behind you. You turned and saw Mr. Munson standing there, holding a small stack of records.

“Ah- hi Mr. Munson.” You smiled up at him, giving a small chuckle, “Yeah, believe it or not, I don’t sleep at the school. I do have a life.” You joked.

That made him laugh, warm and real. “Why did we all think teachers lived at the school when we were little?” He asked, turning around to start organizing the records into the bins on the opposite side of the aisle.

You shrugged, “I’m not sure. I think it’s a rumor the first graders pass down every year.” You responded, going back to your search.

“Whatcha looking for?”

“A Johnny Appleseed tape. I lost the one I had in my move.” You half mumbled, staring intently at the available cassettes.

“I can look it up for you in the Rolodex if you have the name of it.” He offered, which made you turn again.

“Yes, please, that would be very helpful.” You smiled, following him to the front counter. You pulled out the notepad you had, “I’m pretty sure this was the name of it, but anything close to it would be good.”

Eddie nodded and started flipping through the cards, “So.. why did you move to Hawkins? Most people move away from here if they’re as smart as you are.”

You rolled your eyes jokingly, “First of all, Mr. Munson, I’m not some genius- I teach the alphabet and two plus two. And secondly, I think Hawkins has a charm to it. I like small towns- everyone knows everyone and it’s very neighborly.” You smiled, “But, uh, long story short, I moved here to avoid an old relationship. It wasn’t safe back home anymore. Here, I can do what I love and not feel scared to get groceries, you know?”

You paused for a moment, then gave him a worried look, “Sorry if that was an overshare, Mr. Munson.”

“Eddie.”

“Hm?”

“You can just call me Eddie. Mr. Munson is too formal.” He said with a small smile, “And it wasn’t too much. I asked.”

You nodded and he found the right card, “Ah- I think I found it. It’s in the back, so I’ll see if I can find it. Feel free to look around, I might be a minute.”

Eddie disappeared into the back to go look for the tape and you looked around. You had a record player at home still, but you mainly used your Walkman nowadays. You looked through more tapes, seeing a few that looked good. You grabbed the new Iron Maiden album, an older Beatles one you didn’t have yet, and a couple others. You didn’t tend to stay within one music genre- you just listened to anything that made you happy. You started looking through the records as well, finding an old Elvis record.

Eddie walked out of the back with a tape in his hand and he looked over to you, watching you for a moment as you flipped a record around to look at the songs on the back. He couldn’t help but notice how pretty you were. He’d always thought that, but something about seeing you in casual clothes, outside of school, just going about your day made his chest feel tight.

After a second, he called, “I found it.”

You turned around and smiled at him, walking up to the counter, “You, sir, are a life saver.” You sighed with relief, setting down your findings on the counter as he handed you the tape to inspect, “Perfect- this is the exact one I had.” You said, placing it on top of your pile.

“You ready to check out?”

“Yep.” You smiled, “Sage is going to love this tape. I’m sorry if she comes home singing the Johnny Appleseed song.”

“She unfortunately did not inherit my musical ability.” He chuckled, ringing up your items. “Iron Maiden?” He asked, looking up at you with a raised eyebrow.

“I liked the guitar in Maiden England and I haven’t heard this album yet. Also, your musical ability? Do you play an instrument?”

Eddie looked shocked, “You know Iron Maiden.”

“I don’t just listen to Johnny Appleseed all day.” You quipped. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“But you- miss rainbows and sunshine- know about Iron Maiden. This is news.” He said, in awe.

“Eddie, I don’t live at the school, remember?” You laughed, “And I just listen to whatever music makes me feel something—happy, sad, angry— music is a good way to process your feelings. But once again, you have yet to answer my question.”

“Yeah yeah, I was in a band back in the day. Guitar and singing and all that. Had to stop once Sage came around so I could focus on being a good dad, blah blah blah.” He said, waving his hand as he rang up your last tape, “But wow. I mean, I’m shocked. Do I really want my baby girl being taught by a teacher who secretly lives a double life as a rockstar?” He teased.

You groaned, “What’s my total?”

He laughed, “You know I’m just kidding.” He said, breaking the theatrics, “It’ll be 20.57” he said, putting your items in a paper bag. “But we do have a lot to talk about. I don’t know if you can tell by the, ya know, everything about me, but this kind of music is my life. I’d be happy to give you some recommendations.”

You nodded, “That would be nice.” You smiled. He handed you the bag carefully, making sure not to damage any items. “I’ll see you at pickup?” You asked. He nodded and you walked out of the store, offering him a kind wave as you left.

Jesus, she likes Iron Maiden.

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