#this piece is from mermay but i still like it a lot

[kaiotisk]

au: dragonborn adventurer meets strange fish man that won’t stop flirting

[starboundpix]

day three ✧ beachcombing

inspired by the mermay prompt list @/muzzlemouths made!

"Come here," hisses the mer, midnight blue tail thrashing, tossing up a splash of seawater that never makes it anywhere close to you.

You don't spare Moon a glance, eyes focused on the sand and seaweed beneath your feet as you search for hidden treasures. "No, thank you, today is a stay dry day for me," you tell him, crouching down as something glints under the early morning sunlight. Lifting up a tangle of seaweed, you pick up a piece of light yellow sea glass, edges rounded out by the beating of waves and sand over time. As you hold it up to the light to admire how the sun makes it seem to glow from within, you say, "You don't have to stay and watch me, y'know? I'm just looking for pretty shells and glass. Besides, isn't it past your bedtime? Go to sleep, old man."

There's another splash, louder than the waves, and the accompanying snarled, "Brat," tugs your lips into a smile.

The next hour or so passes relatively peacefully as you continue across the beach, finding sea glass and intact shells, gently adding them to the growing collection forming in your bag. You can feel Moon's gaze on you all the while, red eyes squinting against the sun but still observing you from his location further in the ocean.

When the sun starts to get unbearably hot, you decide that you've done enough beachcombing for the day and move toward the end of the beach where the sand meets the rockier part of shore and the cliffs looming above provide some shade. You settle on the rocks, cooling your feet in the ocean, and pull out your water bottle.

As you drink, a splash of water signifies the emergence of Moon. He pulls himself out of the water enough for his upper body to rest on the rocks, propping his head up on his hands. He flicks his tail, sprinkling droplets of water onto your legs.

"Hey!" you protest, but there's no real heat in your voice.

Moon snickers and does it again. "Slowpoke."

Rolling your eyes, you start to dig through your bag to pull out the things you had collected from the beach in a mini show-and-tell that you always do, starting with the yellow sea glass you found first. "I like this one a lot," you tell Moon, placing it onto his palm, "because it glows when you put it up to the sun. It's also a very nice shade of yellow."

"Like Sunny," he says as he holds the sea glass up to the sky between two clawed fingers, squinting when it catches the light.

You squirm. "Well, yes, like Sun, I suppose." You hadn't thought about it when you first found the glass, but its particular shade matches that of a certain yellow mer's tail.

"Anyway," you say, quickly placing the next item—this one a small clamshell—onto Moon's hand. You explain what you like about it and why you decided to keep it, and he studies both you and the shell. He's a patient listener as you ramble about your findings for the day. By the time you reach the last item in your collection, his hands are full of your little shells and glass and pretty rocks. He cradles them carefully, the webbing between his fingers helping to make sure he does not drop a single one of your newfound treasures.

"This last one is another piece of sea glass, but look at how round it is!" You hold it up so Moon can see, rolling the near-perfect sphere between your fingers. "I don't think I've ever found such a nicely rounded one before. And look at its color, it's such a nice shade of blue. These dark blue ones aren't as common as the light blue ones."

Moon looks at the sea glass, takes in the deep blue color, and a wide grin stretches across his face. He tilts his head to the side, red eyes fixated on your face, and says, "You like dark blue, hm?" His tail lifts out of the water, sunlight showing the iridescent sheen on his scales, midnight blue fins flicking a bit more water on your lap before settling back into the ocean.

You stare. Your mouth opens, then shuts. Your face is hot, cheeks burning, but surely that is from the heat, surely.

It takes a few more seconds for your brain to properly function again and you pull your arm back toward yourself, stuffing the sea glass back into your bag. "I'll have you know that blue is my favorite color. I've always liked blue things and– don't let any of this get to your head!"

He laughs, a sound that warms you from the inside out. Moon carefully tilts his hands, spreading your trinkets onto the empty space beside you. "Stay," he demands, then pushes backward off the rocks in a beautiful arch and disappears into the ocean.

You're left speechless again, only able to stare at where the mer had just been.

Eventually, you start to pick up your little treasures and return them to your bag. Knowing that Moon probably would not tell you to stay if he would be gone for too long, you drink some more of your water and pull out a snack you had prepared for your beach activities today.

Soon enough, the blue mer reappears, pulling himself back onto the rocks with ease.

"Welcome back," you say. "Do you want to share why you disappeared after– after being so rude to me like this?"

Moon snickers. "Not rude. But I share this." He brings one of his hands up toward you, waiting for you to open your hand before he places whatever he was holding onto your palm. His claws scrape the slightest bit over your skin as he finally pulls back, sending a tingle up your arm.

Your eyes widen as you take in the shell that rests in your hand. “Moon, this is such a large shell!” It nearly covers your entire hand. The surface of it is rather rough, a mix of greys and browns with hints of green. Seven indents curve close to the outer edge of the shell.

You look up from the shell at the mer who gave it to you. “I’ve never seen something like this before! Thanks, Moon.”

The discontent on Moon’s face surprises you.

“No thanks, yet. Look at this.” He flips the shell over, so the curved inside is revealed to you.

“Oh,” you whisper. Although the inside of the shell is dark, deep blues shimmer under the light of the sun. Layers of lighter purples and silver thread through the ever changing blues. The colors are lovely and deep, reminding you of Moon himself. “It’s just like your tail. It’s gorgeous, I love these colors. Thank you for showing me this.” You look at the mer who has been intently studying your face the entire time. Stretching out your hand, you offer the shell back to him.

Moon shakes his head, an expression on his face that you can’t quite place, yet it makes you give him a sweet smile. His hand curls over your own, closing your fingers around the shell. “Keep. It’s yours.”

Your smile grows. “Really? Thank you, Moon! It’s my favorite shell now. I’ll take good care of it.”

“Good.”

A moment passes where his gaze holds your own.

Then a wave crashes into the rocks and water drenches your legs and shorts, startling you with the coldness of it.

You scramble to your feet, hand clenched around the gift from Moon. “I can’t believe it,” you whine, “Today was supposed to be a stay dry day.”

“Come swim,” Moon suggests, with a grin of sharp teeth.

Rolling your eyes, you pick up your bag, carefully adding your newest shell to your collection. “Nice try, Moon. I should head home to put this new beautiful shell I got on display. And you’re probably tired, old man.”

“Not old, brat!”

With a laugh, you hurry away from the edge of the rocks to avoid the incoming splash from Moon. “I’ll see you soon!” you shout, throwing a wave over your shoulder as you leave the mer.

Moon watches you go until you disappear, before diving under the waves. He can’t wait to see the look on Sun's face when he hears about you accepting Moon's shell.

note: the shell Moon gave Reader is actually a blackfoot paua shell! they are sooo gorgeous, i definitely recommend looking them up c:

mermay 2024 masterlist

[crescencestudio]

๋࣭⭑ Devlog #41 | 5.28.24 ๋࣭⭑

It's hot girl (/gender neutral) summer season

HAPPY MAY!!

Hope you're all doing well <3 We're already getting into summer, which is a little crazy to me. The year is flying by! Before I get into what we actually did this month, it wouldn't be a May devlog without our annual Mermay celebration!

Look at those locks. His Ariel/Rapunzel era fr

Since I already had updated Mermay pieces for the Alaris LIs, I decided to do one for our beloved Van this year ^^ Hope you all like it!

For writing this month, I spent a lot of it catching up on Etza edits. Being totally transparent, I wasn't Completely Happy with their route when their draft was finished. But now that I've started the editing process with Wudgey, I'm really excited to see how their route is shaping up!!! We've been fleshing a lot of little interactions out with their route, and I can already see Etza's character really starting to shine with these edits ^^

I've also been chipping away at Kuna'a's route! While it's nowhere near finished, I'm hopeful that this upcoming month will be the month of Kuna'a now that I don't have a bunch of releases I'm trying to balance. His route is also one of the ones whose outline is more fleshed out (Druk and Etza I would say were the least fleshed out, which might be why they also took a bit longer). So I'd love to see Kuna'a's first draft complete/almost complete by the next devlog!

This month, I had to dust off my art skills tbh LMFAOIJSDF. It's been.... a WHILE since I've made CGs since I've been in the writing and coding dungeon for so long. So most of this month's art updates are me getting tilted from redrawing an ugly sketch over and over.

I DID manage to get the Van Mermay piece out. And I also was able to sketch out Kayn's Tragic End CG; that leaves only one CG that has to be sketched out! Currently, six of their CGs are finished, two need to be rendered, and one needs to be drawn still.

And since Kayn's CGs are mostly done, I've started drawing Fenir's. I was actually able to finish one because I basically Locked In when I made it, so here is a sneak peek!

Kisses his little pink nose

You might notice there's not toooo many updates on this month's devlog. The reason for that is because this month, I spent a lot of it recovering both mentally and physically. April shenanigans and those back-to-back releases took a lot out of me, and after going full speed basically since this year started, I learned I REALLY needed a break. That coupled with the concussion I got made it so that most of this month was focused on recovering and then getting back into the groove of things.

Another thing I tried to focus on this month was finding a balance in my workflow. Going into this month, I felt like I was on the verge of a mental breakdown almost every day, in large part because I have a lot of big things I'm trying to accomplish this year. Between finishing my dissertation, Alaris, and a personal big event that I have to plan, I have a lot on my plate this year, and it's made it easy to get overwhelmed as the months pass by. So I wanted to find a balance between all three that didn't make me feel like I was also falling into insanity. After talking to beloved Wudgey of @herotome fame, I've started adopting a schedule that gives me enough structure and flexibility to feel like I'm making progress without going crazy and getting lost in the sauce.

While it's still early in the process, I'm really happy with the balance I've hit, and I'm feeling much more like myself now compared to a month ago!

I caught up on quite a few things in my backlog this month, which made me happy ^^ I always like to learn from and support other devs, so finally being able to return to that helped with the recovery process <3

I don't have any actual fanart pieces, but there are a couple of games I'd like to highlight!

First of all, of course I must talk about our hot girl (/gender neutral) summer cross-promo. If you haven't checked out these games, I can't recommend them enough!!

Links to each game can be found on the Alaris Game page under the magic and mystery otome section!

Specifically, Save the Villainess, The Good People, and Thorn for the Villain are amazing games if you're into thriller/political games layered with mystery

The Silent Kingdom (which I played recently and is AMAZING) and Dual Chroma (Otojam 2023 ALLY) have added mechanics of RPG for exciting action-adventure fantasy stories

Lost in Limbo, Obscura, and Snow White Ashes are BEAUTIFUL dark fantasy games. I've played all three of these and they have some of the most beautiful writing and visuals... BIG FAN OF ALL OF THEM.

Mask Beyond Lies and Sigh of the Abyss have that epic fantasy adventure appeal to them, in a way that I think is similar to Alaris! And Pearlglow Cafe (another Otojam 2023 ALLY) is a very lighthearted and charming game for those of you who like the comfy vibe that most of my stories have!!

Some other games that I played are Favor (@favorvn) by beloved @concreteparasite which is SOOOOO stylish. If you've played Binary Star Hero by Connie, you can expect that same stylish, dark, sultry vibe from Favor. If you haven't checked out either of those games by Connie, I can't recommend them enough, especially if you like yanderes. There is so much aesthetic and atmosphere to them!

I also played Where Winter Crows Go by @prikarin who is a VERY talented developer (and one I'm sure many are familiar with). I had a lot of fun romancing Crowe and both the MC and him have such strong personalities, it was so fun seeing their dynamic!!!! The CGs were also made by anta, who is the dev behind Thorn for the Villain, and they're BEAUTIFULLLLL. Each one has so much style and rly has a professional look to them. Can't recommend enough if you haven't played already ((heads up that it is another yandere game for those who can't do yandere!))

Okay I've yapped enough. If you've made it this far, you are god's strongest soldier LFMASLDIFJ. See you all next month with hopefully some exciting progress!

[thecoffeelorian]

Hello again, everyone...and welcome back to another Fandom Friday.

The purpose of these entries, if you have not yet heard it, is to bring more visibility to art and stories that might otherwise go unnoticed on the Tumblr timeline, as well as to help the creators of such fanworks achieve more followers in the process.

As of the first day of this month, it is also officially MERMAY, so until June rolls around, you just might be seeing a lot more ocean-themed creations around here, with my dashboard being no exception.

And so, on that particular note, here are my picks of the week!

GENERAL STAR WARS

Star Wars Fanart--By @thepatchycat :

Star Wars Fanart--By @s-pirth-lemonade:

THE PREQUELS

The Prequels Fanart--By @friskynotebook:

THE CLONE WARS

The Clone Wars Fanart--By @mandalorianbrainweasel:

The Clone Wars Fanart--By @0vvl404:

THE BAD BATCH

The Bad Batch Fanfiction--By @reader6898:

The Bad Batch Fanfiction--By @the-bi-space-ace:

JEDI FALLEN ORDER

Jedi: Fallen Order Fanart--By @ziemniorrysuje:

THE ASCENDANCY TRILOGY

The Ascendancy Fanart--By @gia-batmm-crickle22:

THE SEQUELS

The Sequels Fanart--By @daalphawolfe13:

In conclusion, as part of my mission to poke around the Star Wars fandom and, on Friday every week, highlight those artists and writers who might otherwise go unnoticed…I hope you will check out the links I have included for yourselves and like, comment on, and reblog them, as well as also giving the artists and writers a few more followers to their Tumblr pages.

Please also like and reblog this latest installment so that these links can be spread around to as many other fans as possible, just in case not all of them can tune in at the same time.

An additional thank you goes to @djarrex for making the divider I used earlier in this post, but still want to give credit for.

And finally, so that I do not forget…thank you to my friends, thank you to this fandom, good morning, and good luck.

No-Pressure Tag List: @gun-roswell @callsign-denmark @theosb0rnway @melymigo @saphiranishimurashan

@ilovemedia @brownielocks69 @here-comes-the-moose @skellymom @lilithastar

@ankossss @sharpasanaro @serinzatravel-blog @yeehawgeek @ray-rook

@algo-o-nada @rott1ngbra1n @smw-on-kamino @cinnamonsugar-pretzel @snap-my-kneecaps

@vaderkin-is-a-lightning-rod @maxims-multifandom-corner and anybody else who might be on the lookout for new and interesting works around the fandom.

[yandere-sins]

Happy Mermay!!!

YAY!!!!!! It's finally back :3

There won't be any new stuff I'm afraid, as I'll just try to get my story from last year finished and then maybe add some sprinkles here and there ♥ Next year we can make something new!

You'll probably see me reblog some pieces here and there from last year for refreshing the memory, and then next week I'll post the new chapters! Thank you all for understanding ♥

I'll try to make Mermay-inspired polls for this month as well! I hope you guys enjoy them :D

I also hope you guys don't mind, but I started putting some of your requests together. The backlog that has built while I wasn't writing regularly is absolutely massive and although I deleted some requests that would not inspire me no matter what, I still have a lot of similar but not quite the same requests. I'll do my best to combine them to give them all justice!

I'd love to do them on their own but I know if I write one, I'll probably block myself for the other because they'd end up going in the same direction. I'd also like to free up my asks for new ones and my own stuff that you guys are waiting for patiently. So I hope you can understand if the requests I fulfill aren't exactly what you guys asked for, and enjoy them regardless ♥

So much for the upcoming organisation, lol. Thanks for reading!

[tetsunabouquet]

KNB Mermaid Headcanons

A/N: My fanfic entry for Mermay! My inbox is suffering from a KNB draught, so feel free to send me requests!

-Momoi is very knowledgable about he sea and humans alike, and she is not above flustering human men with her beautiful looks and fishing for information from her adoring fans. -Speaking of adoring fans, there's one merman extremely friendly to human women and very much desired. Kise. The moment girls on the beach catch a glimpse of his golden tail, they flock to the water in the hopes of getting a conversation with he legendary adonis of the sea. -Aomine adores hunting for small species of fish and crabs and learning about them. He keeps the ones he's too weak to kill as pets (which let's face it, are a lot. Aomine only really kills his catches if he's really hungry). -Akashi is feared even by the sharks. -Speaking of sharks, Murasakibara often preys on their leftovers. -Also, Haizaki has gotten into a fight with a shark once. He still has the scar on his bicep to prove it. He had almost won, but thankfully Aomine and Kuroko came to the rescue just when the battle started going into the shark's favor. -Midorima often scavenges sunken ships for any items and has a secret cave where he keeps all of them, as well as an ever growing collection of pearls as he believes they are the essence of the sea and will bring him luck. -Takao knows where the cave is however, and he often takes one of Midorima's items for fun, waiting for how long it will take Midorima to notice one of his precious items is missing. Takao alway gves them back. -Kuroko loves playing with seahorses and dolphins, he thinks they are absolutely adorable. -I imagine Kagami to be scared of dolpins in this AU, which everyone else thinks is hilarious. -Which makes things even worse when Kuroko adopts a baby dolphin that thinks Kuroko is his momma. Kagami hides behind the nearest rock whenever Kuroko approaches him with his 'son'. -Akashi also has a marine companion, an octopus that usually just clings to his back with her many tentacles. She's quite protective of him and is really his guard 'dog' in tentacle form. -Kotaro loves it when he gets to play with her, she's such an intelligent animal that he just loves teaching her tricks. -Everyone lives in the same section of the mermaid kingdom and grew up together as baby merfolk. -Hanamiya often smuggles pieces of coral to sell to humans who are in turn selling it to the black market much to everyone's annoyance s they like the coral reef. Akashi has been devising a plan to prohibit him for good, and everyone is hoping that he won't traumatize Hanamiya for life. -Kiyoshi is buddies with almost every marine animal near the vacancy of the mermaid kingdom. He loves playing around with everyone, even the eels. He's just so friendly, and all the animals in the ocean love him for it.

[lnbeep-art]

Goes from boy time to gal time, instantaneously. More of Aquarium!AU because Mermay has really taken off in my brain this year, apparently, smh. How long will it be before I write some small story to go along with things? Only time will tell.

All the pearls in the world don’t shine as pretty as Ougi and Mii feel the other looks to them.

I’m thinking Mii’s home in the Aquarium is tied to the indoor beaches that the dome offers, because she would enjoy being up on the surface with people. She’s just peeking out of the water and watching the others because she’s still shy to approach even in her own home. But Ougi makes her come out of her shell, both literally and figuratively.

Meanwhile, Ougi may or may not have gotten a job at the Aquarium in order to meet Mii properly after noticing her on the indoor beach level. 😂

I’ll ramble about the Aquarium™️ dome as I’m thinking about it—there’s different tiers to the Aquarium! Mii would frequent the top floor because that’s where the beaches would be, whereas the lower floors are less interactive and more just a window in the deep waters where all the mysteries of the undersea world live, with occasional drive-bys from the huge or scarier-looking merfolk (i.e Whale/Kraken-sized, angler-esque). The aquarium has a lot of floors; not sure how many just yet, which is true to the unknown of the ocean floor’s depths tbh LMAO. Certain floors are off-limits from any visitors because they would be floors that contain “rooms” for the merfolk, caves where they’d have their living chambers and their own “Atlantis” community of sorts.

It’s post-apocalyptic, but scientific technology is advanced and more futuristic to a degree. Since there’s no longer safe water outside of this dome, people who want to swim and visit beaches would have to go to this facility. It still functions like a usual aquarium in other areas/floors, so they can still see feral fish and what not, and the merfolk in particular choose whether they want to socialize or protect their solitary peace. When the merfolk are on any interactive or viewing level of the Aquarium, they’re considered on-duty employees during work hours! It’s like a mix of a cultural center, recreational center, and learning/research place. Definitely need to think about giving them a mini uniform too, or some accessory piece to display that. 🤔 Money doesn’t matter to them, their currency is in the form of building materials (dilapidated houses from the outside, wrecked ships) or precious stones.

Another brief synopsis of this particular AU here: https://www.tumblr.com/lnbeep-art/717240700925853696/what-time-is-it-mermay-time-with-the. Ougi is also bf’s character!

[blinddreams24]

Glass

A Mermay Prompt

Masterlist

Prev / Next

You were shaking. A lot.

The excess magic from that candy was flooding your system and you couldn’t sleep. And there was a lot of excess.

You couldn’t bring yourself to drink coffee and you didn’t have any calming tea. The house had already been swept. Twice. The walls were clean, the windows were washed, the toilet was scrubbed, and you were sitting in your living room, bouncing your knee. Your mind was running at a thousand miles per hour and yet you still couldn’t think. You checked your phone.

It was 2am.

Had you really cleaned everything? Surely you missed something.

Your hands were twitching.

Everything looked polished. You’d even vacuumed the couch.

Your legs hurt.

Everything was dusted and mopped.

Your chest ached.

Maybe you forgot the dishes? Yeah, that was it!

You stood and paced into the kitchen where you opened a cabinet. Yeah, you hadn’t washed these. Reaching in with shaky hands you grabbed a stack of plates.

And dropped them as soon as they left the cabinet.

Shattered glass went everywhere. You immediately reached down to pick up the pieces and lifted everything you could find into the trash. You had more plates, it was fine.

Suddenly you didn’t feel like doing the dishes.

You couldn’t handle it. You had to do something. Or calm yourself down.

Maybe stargazing again?

The car keys found their way into your hands and you were off. It took forever to get there and no time at all. You hurried down the hill to your alcove, which was mostly flooded with the tide, and paced at the waters edge.

In your hurry, you’d forgotten your scuba gear. Not that it was smart to swim after dark but you weren’t smart right now.

The wind howled around you, threatening a storm, and the waves beckoned you forward. Your shoe sank into the cold water.

A familiar deep whistle split the air, making you suddenly aware of how close you were to the water. When you stepped back the whistle stopped.

A bright red orb floated over the water.

You stumbled back, tripped over your own feet, and landed on your butt. “H-H-Hey, b-big guy!” You stuttered and scrambled for your bag. When you couldn’t find it, you realized that in your scramble to get moving you hadn’t brought any food. “I-I d-don’t have f-f-food right n-now, b-buddy! B-But I c-can go g-get some!” You gestured a thumb over your shoulder.

He came out of the water towards you.

Oh stars, you were gonna die. He was gonna kill you.

You turned to run but didn’t even get to your feet before a tentacle wrapped around your leg.

“N-No! P-Please! Sir! I c-c-can get y-you m-more f-f-food! Please!” You gripped the loose rocks and tried to pull yourself away from the mass of muscle.

The whistle started again.

Fear and urgency left you, but you were still very aware of the danger you were in. “S-S-Sir. P-Please. I d-don’t w-w-want to d-die. P-Please.” Your voice was tired and jittery at the same time.

The siren pulled you closer until you were almost against his chest. He made a shushing gesture at you and reached towards you.

You closed your eyes, anticipating the giant’s hand to break your neck or something. You didn’t want to die, but there was nothing you could do.

Your eyes shot back open when he started petting your hair. What was he doing? You looked up at him.

He smiled kindly at you and let his low whistle fade to a stop. “You’re… okay.” He drawled slowly, as if the words were hard for him. “I won’t… hurt.. you.” With that said he turned his attention to your hand.

Still shocked, you followed his gaze. The eerie red light of his eye lit up multiple cuts and bits of glass in your hands.

“O-Oh.” Was all you could say.

He carefully held your hand steady and… started picking the glass out of your hand.

You stared openly, completely uncaring of if it was rude. “Y-Y-You-?”

“Shh.” A huge finger shushed you. “…Working.” He seemed very focused.

He was really picking the glass out of your hand. Just because. Surely that one day wasn’t enough to form a bond with the siren.

Carefully and patiently, he picked each and every piece of glass out of your hands. Your excess magic surged into your hands to heal the cuts once he was finished.

“Done.” He hummed. “Now, I can… give… answers.”

You didn’t hesitate. “W-Why a-are you helping-g m-m-me?”

He gave you a gentle smile. “You… helped… first.”

“I h-h-helped you?”

He nodded.

“H-How?”

“Food. Hungry. Hard to… catch…… normal.. prey.” He grumbled.

You blinked. “Were y-you st-st-starving?”

After a few moments, he nodded.

“Aren’t y-you p-p-part of a p-pod? Don’t your… f-friends h-help y-y-you?”

He shook his head. “Only… Nightmare. But… Boss’s… sleeping. Sleeps long… Very long…”

“C-Cross a-and K-K-Killer d-don’t help y-you?” You were starting to hate this energized stutter.

He looked you in the eyes with a desperation you’d never seen before. He shook his head.

“I-I’m th-the only p-person to h-help you? B-Besides N-Nightm-mare?”

Nod.

“W-Well.” You held out a hand. “I-I’m y/n. I-It’s n-nice to of-f-fficially m-meet you. S-Sorry f-f-for yelling-g a-at you earlier.”

He grabbed and inspected your hand before letting you go. “…Name’s Horror.” He leaned in towards your face as you tried not to lean away. “You have… too much magic…”

You laughed nervously and dry. “Y-Yeah. K-Killer gave m-me a c-c-candy to h-heal this.” You pulled up your sleeve to show him the bite mark.

“Hmm. You… smell like him.”

“I d-don’t know w-w-what to say t-to th-that.”

“Heheheh.” He chuckled at you. “‘S not… bad. Who… bit you?”

Suddenly, the magic decided it wanted to be in your face. “Uhh… K-Killer b-bit me…”

The humor left Horror’s face. “…Oh…….. Then he… healed you?”

“Y-Yeah? E-Earlier? Yest-t-terday? W-When it was b-b-bright. B-But th-the bite d-didn’t heal… S-Something ‘bout i-intent.”

“Hmm.” Horror looked you over again. “…Did he ask you… about being… a siren?”

“B-Being a s-siren?”

He gave you an odd look. “Would you… like to… be a siren? He intended… conversion.”

“He w-what?”

The siren sighed. “The candy. Killer put… intent… to turn you into a… siren. It won’t-.”

“W-What?!?” You looked down at your legs, terrified. You couldn’t just turn into a siren! What if you turned into a siren while at your house?? You’d never make it to the water in time!

“Shh.” Horror put a finger on your mouth. “Let me… finish. It won’t turn you… into a siren. This type… of conversion… is long and… tedious. You have to… accept the change… and have… many doses of magic. The other way…” He frowned. “…is less pleasant.

“You have nothing… to be scared of. Your will can… stop the change… if you want. It takes weeks… if you choose to… convert.”

“O-Oh. So… I-I-I w-won’t turn i-into a s-siren out of n-nowhere?”

He shook his head. “Not enough… magic or consent.”

“W-Why would K-Killer d-d-do th-that?”

Horror shrugged. “Might not have… meant to. His intent’s… unstable. Maybe just meant… to keep you safe… and… unintentionally… wanted you… close.”

“Oh.” He… He wanted to keep you safe?

“……You….. wanna hug?” Horror awkwardly offered.

“I… y-yeah.” You hugged the siren.

Horror curled over your small form. He chuckled. “…Tiny.”

“N-Not you t-too!!”

[theangstking]

we decided we wanted to share our lil made up species we've had for a few years, since they're aquatic and it's Mermay!

they are admittedly inspired by Homestuck trolls, in that they all have unique blood color that influences them both socially and physically.

white bloods are much smaller and don't quite live as long, their life span is just a bit shorter than the average human lifespan. they tend to eat things like krill, and have very little bitty fins. they tend to be about 8 inches, to 12 inches, when standing upright.

then, you go through the spectrum of the rainbow, starting with red and working through to purple, and ending with black.

(as a note, a very fitting thing is that I wasn't able to properly fit the black blood on the page. Big Mother Fucker.)

those around greens tend to start to be the size of a human being. purples and blues are the closest to an actual human size, and blacks tend to be a bit bigger - though as they get older, they get much, much bigger. they get about double the size of a human at full size.

as they grow in size as well, going further along the spectrum, they also gain more body fat. I'm not sure how well that came across, we're still learning how to draw humanoid figures! their fins get bigger and more elaborate as well.

they each have white hair, though they also have hints/highlights/accents of their blood color in their hair.

the lower members of the spectrum have a lot less pigment in their bodies, leading to much paler skin tones, being almost white/grey with the reds, and slowly developing a bit more variety as you get further along. green is where you start to see consistent human-like skintones, though they also are still much paler. (and of course, there's tinges of green to their skin, due to their blood color.) whereas in blues, you start to see a lot of variety, blues reaching all but the darkest skin tones, and purples and blacks tending to be much, much darker in general, though some of them can still be a bit paler - it's just less common to see.

they most often use natural materials such as seaweed as their "clothes", and cover up very minimally. their fins being restricted can be extremely uncomfortable. higher bloods do wear more of a variety of actual clothing however! whether from scavenging from humans or stealing, they sometimes get their hands on swimclothes and enjoy wearing those.

green bloods very often take an interest in fashion and arts, and they'll often make a job out of providing or modifying clothing, whether it's what they find from humans, or the natural materials they usually use.

these four pieces are of the example red, orange, yellow, and green bloods we designed!

blue bloods tend to have a lot of scars. they tend to be guards of the purple bloods, who are considered royalty. the higher three blood castes have fangs and claws.

purples put a lot of stock in their appearance. they keep their claws and fins looking pretty, and love to wear what they can find of human swimwear, and they'll often have a green blood adjust their clothes for them.

(this will be continued in a reblog, as I've run out of room for images!)

[pomrania]

For June 2023, I’m planning to do an art event where I’ll be drawing people’s queer D&D (or other gaming system) characters. That means I’ll need people with queer characters who want me to draw those characters. It’s the same thing as I did the last two years; but if you weren’t here for that, I’ll explain it now.

The TLDR is that if you have a queer D&D character (Pathfinder character, GURPS, Monster of the Week, any other gaming system), leave a comment here or send me a message, so I can work out a list of people who might be interested. If you’re not sure if something counts, ask me.

So, the non-TLDR version. There’s an event AdorkaStock has run called “Draw Everything June”, where new poses are put out for each weekday in June. (That worthy is being less active on dA, and currently has plans to host the event on their own site; if it doesn’t work out, then I’d use a different way to get their poses.) The pose is released the night before; I make a post about it, asking who’s interested; the next morning I check the replies, get into contact with someone who was interested in it, and I use that pose to draw their character.

You might notice that this requires me to know what their character looks like. If somebody already has good visual reference for their character, that’s great. If they don’t have reference for their character, then I can work with that; more specifically, work with THEM, to make a reference sheet I can use. And if they don’t really know what their character looks like, I can ALSO work with that, and help them figure out what their character might look like.

I can do all that stuff while working on a picture, but I’d really rather do it ahead of time. (Plus that’ll give me something to do that isn’t my Mermay piece, which is always good.) Thus, why I’m making this post now.

A few things I need to address:

“I don’t want to impose --” This isn’t imposing. This is literally me asking for people to let me draw their characters. Can I make it any more explicit?

“I’m sure you have lots of other characters to draw instead of mine --” Sometimes that happens, but in the past, what’s more often is that I don’t have ANY characters for a pose, and I have to hunt around for anyone who might be able to help, and/or beg.

“You’ve already drawn stuff for me --” And I’m perfectly capable of choosing someone else to draw stuff for, if I decide to, and all else being equal, I’ll generally pick a person who hasn’t gotten art from me before. BUT that’s “all else being equal”; and I’d really much rather have a lot of options to choose from.

“You literally drew my character last year.” Which means that your character will have lower priority (but maybe there’s a pose they’d be perfect for). I’d still like you to leave a note here, because I have a terrible memory for people; I’m not joking when I say that I can’t remember who it was, even if I chatted with you a lot about it. (I have literally forgotten that it was my MOTHER who did certain things; if HER identity can slip my mind, please believe me when I say it’s nothing personal.)

“I have multiple characters.” Awesome; some poses have two or three figures in them, and it’s easier when I just have one person to talk to about it, instead of two different people for two different characters.

“Why don’t you draw your own characters?” Because of how my brain works. Seriously.

“Here’s my character, you can just use them for whatever pose you choose.” That doesn’t work for me.

“I probably won’t be available while you’d be working on a drawing.” Then we’ll just have to work out as much as possible ahead of time; and while I prefer having regular feedback from the person whose character I’m drawing, so long as I know ahead of time that you won’t be around (and thus I won’t worry that you’re ignoring me), I can manage without it.

“But what about --” If you’ve any further questions, just ask them; not only am I not a mind reader, I’m also somewhat tired at the moment, so I prolly forgot to include a bunch of stuff.

[sasukimimochi]

🥥🏝🌤 - My own prompt ❤✨ (for filling some space)

Travelerji/Merxian AU See the first four prompts here.

-

The Taste of Home

Lan Wangji quietly scraped flesh from the coconuts he’d gathered, every now and then glancing out at the sea with a forlorn sigh. It’d been many days now since his supposed ‘bad luck’ began. He decided to stay put for a while, gathering supplies, repairing his ship…cloud watching.

He leaned back against the palm tree he ate under, watching the clouds shift and looking for pictures through the leaves. He could see fish, occasional birds, and other random shapes he couldn’t quite lay his fingers on.

He paused after bringing a piece of coconut to his mouth, the taste bringing memories of something from his childhood. 

His mother used to make dragon’s beard candy, filled with peanuts and coconut, and it was so impossibly sweet but oh how he loved it.

It was such a strenuous task too; he couldn’t help with his smaller arms, and since his father was away a lot of the time, just the three of them did it together- him, his brother, and his mother. It was much too hard for the twins, so really it was all her…but it still felt like they did it together.

He could remember his mother’s laughter, how he acted so aloof and embarrassed with her affections but how much he really looked forward to their time together. His mother brought them so much joy, and then when she never came back, why did his father have to go, too?

Lan Wangji sighed and laid his arm over his eyes, blocking out the sun. Well, that’s what he convinced himself it was for, as something salty fell down his cheeks.

Splash!

Lan Wangji startled upright and uncovered his eyes, watching as something blue and black disappeared into the depths of the ocean. What was that? He jumped up, fully intent on running after it at first, but then paused as he saw sand dollars, sea shells, and pearls.

He looked back out to the sea, wondering if he could find the mysterious being, but upon seeing nothing lingering anymore he instead knelt down to see what had been left on the shore. He couldn’t help but continue to cry, but at least now it was in relief.

He knelt in the sand, and one by one collected the gifts on the shore.

Gifts.

They’re gifts. 

Lan Wangji smiled subtly and carefully placed each trinket into his carrying pouch, each little item a priceless treasure. He sniffed and wiped his eyes with the back of his wrist, doing his best to collect himself, although it took some time.

Wei Wuxian smiled tiredly, settling into the sand on the ocean floor to watch the traveler scavenge for his gifts.

Check out other MDZS Projects on my masterpost! ❤

Merji/Travelerji WIP Wangxian Prompt 1 WIP Merxian sketch / Merxian 1 (nudity & wips included) Merxian 2 (sfw) Merxian 3 (B&W) Wangxian Prompt 1 cont. sketch

-

I created these two mermay au's for mermay prompts i'm writing. (check back to the prompt list for updates)

[crystalninjaphoenix]

MerMay 2024 Day Fifteen Things go Belly-Up

Jack was very familiar with the rocks around his lagoon. He was easily able to navigate around them to the place where they all agreed to meet. And it looked like he was the first one who arrived there... or, almost the first. He could see a pair of green eyes glowing in a crack in the side of a tall pillar-shaped rock. Swimming downwards, he called out, “Anti? Are you... hiding?”

“I’ll come out when the rest of you all show up,” Anti muttered.

“Ha.” Jack grinned. “Alright, alright.” His smile then slipped. “Did you find one of those tags I mentioned? If it’s red, it should stand out a lot against your green fins.”

“Nothing red,” Anti said. “But... There’s a tiny... thing. I-I’ll tell you all later. When you’re all here.”

Jack nodded. “Okay. I’ll just float around out here while we wait for the others.”

Slowly, the rest of the group trickled in. Jackie came first, and then Chase and Schneep. Marvin and Jameson were the last to arrive, since they lived the farthest away. “Is this everyone?” Jackie asked, looking around. His eyes narrowed. “Where’s Anti?”

Schneep rolled his eyes. “Don’t sound so angry, Jackie.”

“I’m not angry! I’m just... cautious.”

“He’s here,” Jack said. “Anti? Do you want to come out?”

After a moment, Anti poked his head out of the crack in the rock. The others all stared at him. Chase gave a little, awkward wave. “Hey,” he said. Anti didn’t respond. He just stared.

“Good to see you are alright, Anti.” Schneep smiled. “Jack told you why we were all meeting, yes? Jameson and Marvin sent messages to the rest of us, but I do not know if they did that for you. They said Jack would.”

Anti nodded. “He did.”

“Right. Well, in that case, I did notice something,” Chase said. He dived down and put his tail up in the water. “Look. It’s very small, and it blends into the black part on my tail, but check out one of my fins.” The others took turns crowding around—except Anti, who stayed back. There was a small black dot on Chase’s fin, smaller than a fingerprint. It really did blend in. “It doesn’t bother me like how Jack said his did, but... could that be a tag, too?”

“Hmm... maybe?” Marvin said. “It looks pretty different from Jack’s.”

Anti inched out. “I, uh... found something too.” His tail curled up. Unlike a traditional fish, he had one long fin going down his back and one going down his front, which merged into his tail at the end. He pointed at a spot shortly before the end of his tail. “There’s a... black dot there.”

“Hmm... if you both have one, it is likely that it is indeed some sort of tag like Jack’s,” Schneep said. “How do we get them off?”

“Nothing magic can’t solve!” Marvin took his bag off, setting it on the ocean floor, and reached inside to grab a power stone. “Jameson, what do you think?”

Well, we’ll have to be very careful, Jameson said. Very precise. Perhaps a concentrated beam?

“I was thinking that, too.”

Anti swam backwards into the crack in the rock again. “I’ll just—work on taking it out by myself.”

“They’re not going to hurt you, Anti,” Jack said.

Anti’s eyes flicked around them. His gaze lingered on Chase, on the branching scars on Jameson’s wing, on the scars across Jackie’s face.

“Here, I’ll go first,” Chase said. He turned to Marvin. “Well?”

“Lie down on the ground, that’ll be easier,” Marvin said. Chase did so, lying on his stomach. Marvin and Jameson swam down next to him. “Jameson, do you mind holding his fin flat?” Jameson reached out and did so, flattening Chase’s fin like one would with a piece of paper, Chase staying very still as he did so. The runes on Marvin’s power stone started to glow. He pointed at the small circle, and a bit of seafoam green light darted out, hitting it. “There we are. You can let go, Jameson.”

As soon as Jameson did, Chase swam upwards again. “There we go. See, Anti? Everything’s fine.”

Anti was quiet for a moment. “...show it to me.”

Chase blinked. “Huh?”

“The tag, I think,” Jack said.

“Ohhhh.” Chase looked around, and scooped up the small black circle from the water, where it went floating after Marvin removed it. He swam up close to where Anti was hiding near the rock—

“Do you guys hear that?” Jackie asked.

Everyone stopped where they were. Yes, there was a strange... humming sound. Coming from the surface. They all looked up as a shadow passed overhead—

SPLASH!

“Swim!” Schneep suddenly gasped.

The merms started to scatter, but they weren’t fast enough—not nearly fast enough to avoid the heavy metal links that fell from the sky, through the shallower water, and to the ground, pinning most of them. It was a net. A net made of metal—chains like what boats used for anchors. Heavy iron balls lined the edges, making extra sure to hold it down. “Ow!” Jack shouted. “What?! Metal?!”

“Wh-what the stars is this?!” Jackie cried, trying to wriggle out from underneath it.

“Jameson? Jameson?!” Marvin tried to swim closer to JAmeson, but the net constricted his movements. Meanwhile, Jameson flailed wildly, some panicked whistles escaping his throat.

“H-how did they find us?!” Schneep gasped.

The only ones out of range of the net had been Chase and Anti, close to one of the rocks. Chase immediately swam back over and tried to lift up an edge of the net, but Anti stayed, frozen, for a while. Then he noticed a speck in the water. The black circle that Marvin had taken off Chase’s fin. He swam over and grabbed it, bringing it close to his face to inspect the item. It was very hard to see, but... there were tiny strings coming out of it, and even smaller bits of metal with strange patterns. Anti had seen the same strings and patterns on the inside of other human devices. Was this—was this—some sort of item to track their movements?!

Panic surged through Anti’s heart. He darted up to the surface, breaking into the air. The bright light hurt his eyes but he squinted through it, scanning the area. There was something in the sky! It was the thing making the humming sound! What was that, a flying boat?! Something with wings like a bird. As he watched, it got closer to the water and landed on the surface, sending up sea spray... then began moving towards where they were. And on the side of this flying boat... he saw a familiar logo of a trident circled by fish.

Anti’s eyes widened and he ducked back underwater. The first thing he did was curl his tail up, reaching for the small black circle on his own tail. He grabbed it and yanked, crying out as it unexpectedly hurt. Blood trailed from his fin, but there was no time to stop! He threw the tag as far as he could, then dove down towards Chase, who was still struggling to lift the heavy net. He grabbed him and started pulling him away.

“Wh-what’re you doing?!” Chase shouted. “We can’t leave them!”

“They’re coming!” Anti said. “I-it’s the trident group! W-we have to get out of here!”

“What?! TridentCorp?! Then we really can’t leave them!”

“Chase, you have to get out of here!” Jackie shouted. Nearby, Schneep had gone pale, his tentacles turning anxious green. “Find some way to get us back from the outside!”

“I can’t just let you get captured!” Chase shouted, distressed.

Anti hesitated for a moment—then he wrapped his arms around Chase from behind. Before Chase could do much more than shout “Hey—” he sent a pulse of electricity through the water. Chase slumped, eyelids fluttering. He would be fine. Just knocked out. Anti looked at the merms struggling under the net. “I—I-I’ll—W-we’ll—” Anti struggled to find the right words.

Jack looked at him and nodded. “We know. Now get out of here! Fast!”

Anti nodded back at him. He grabbed Chase, holding him close, and swam wildly away. There was nothing they could do right now. The net was too heavy. They had to get help. That was their only option.

[thegoldenshi-shi]

Hello Shi-Shi! It’s already been two months already and I am dumbfounded at how fast time goes, I swear it was just the start of June yesterday haha. I hope you are doing well!

Not much has happened since I last spoke unfortunately. I had Softball provincials last weekend so that’s exciting! We didn’t win or anything, but we played good and I’m kinda sad it ended so soon. Where I am, we’ve had a lot of rain so lots of my games were cancelled this year, unfortunately.

I’m still learning to driving! I’ve gotten better, definitely, but I still need a bit of guidance and help sometimes, especially when driving through the city. I really enjoy driving; it’s unfortunate that schools ended so now I don’t get to drive to school every morning and drive back, but I love the times that I do get to drive.

I’ve seen your recent artworks and I absolutely love them! I’m sure you’ve seen me pop up every now and then to like your posts. The Bluestreak one, with its beautiful colours and all that, is perhaps my favourite (I may be slightly biased as Bluestreak is one of my favourite TF characters,,) but all the others are wonderful too! Especially the Ratchet one haha, he looks so confused or traumatized. I also love the two grumpy children and the happy baby bug, they are all so beautiful ^^.

And the Mermay drawing of Leona! That one is so gorgeous, he looks so cheeky and the lighting is so well done! All the details, it’s just *chefs kiss*. I didn’t make anything for Mermay this year unfortunately (or maybe I did,, I’m not sure anymore, I’ve been on a drawing roll with a lot of drawings, I’m making a humanformers Jazz/Prowl right now!)

I think after all this text, that’s it haha. Don’t want to make this a whole essay, after all. I hope you have a good day/night, Shi-Shi!

-Meister/Vexian?

Hi there Meister! It's nice to see you again! I saw your message in my inbox and gave a little hop. Time really does fly doesn't it?

I'm sorry to hear that you were rained out for so much of your season. That being said, I think that so long as you had a good time with the games you played, it's a good season.

I didn't drive myself to school until college, so I had a different learning curve than yours. I also didn't enjoy driving just because it takes a while to get from Point A to Point B where I live, but I can say that learning to drive is definitely a slow process. If you like doing it, you'll be driving well and comfortably quickly (a lot faster than I did hehe).

I'm very happy you liked my latest pieces. I've been stuck in an extended rut and have had to fight tooth-and-nail for every picture I draw. But returning to comfort characters (I too have a soft spot for Bluestreak) and putting some of my more ambitious projects on hold has helped a little. Mermay is the only art-event-thingie I actually try to put something out for, and as I said on the Leona picture, I BARELY squeaked him in. Getting art ready for a prompt like Mermay or Inktober for example, can be a challenge so more often than not I'm in the same boat of "didn't make anything for it this year" Kind of like how I always say "I'll make it to the art-fight next time" and never do lol

I'm glad to hear from you and happy that you're doing well Meister, or would you rather I use Vexian now? I wish you good luck on your art pieces and that drawing roll will continue~ Have a wonderful day/night

[foxcort]

2023 AO3 Year-End Fic Review

thank you for tagging me @praetorqueenreyna 💚🤗

What is your AO3 account?

foxcort @ ao3, but im also gonna link my account on squideworld (which has nothing rn but im going to start posting there instead and its got about the same vibe as ao3)

2. How many words did you write total in 2023?

i wrote 10773 words and it was all for acotar!

3. How many fics did you publish in 2023? How many multichapters vs oneshots?

i wrote 6 fics for the entire year (which is surprisingly more than i originally thought!), 5 of which were oneshots and 1 of which was a collection of drabbles. im hoping to start writing at least 1 multichapter in 2024

4. What was your longest fic? Your shortest fic?

my longest was a heart of scales and storms at 2785 words, which was a feylin mermay oneshot and my shortest was spring memories at 714 words, which was the first fic i contributed to this fandom (and one that has a very special place in my heart)

5. What was your most popular fic? Your least popular fic?

comforter was my most popular fic at 447 hits and my least popular was a court of ice and fire at 43 hits, which is completely understandable considering its an oddly specific au and the only chapter i have posted is tamlin-centric, but i still love the idea and hope my muse can come around to contributing more to it this year!

6. What fic didn't perform as well as you thought it would?

hmm maybe a heart of scales and storms? the statistics show that it only got 53 hits, but i still remember the comments i got for that fic and @haniaaaaaaaaaaa drew ✨this✨ beautiful art piece inspired by it! so from the reception the fic garnered it feels like it should have more than 53 hits but honestly i had so much fun writing it and i remember smiling so wide my face hurt for days after bc of the comments/artwork that it didn’t feel like it didn’t perform well (as far as hits go)!

7. What fic performed way better than you thought it would?

oh wildfire at 192 hits (this is a lot for me lol), which was an erisweek entry and the first time i ever attempted writing from his pov. honestly i don’t expect any of my character-centric stuff to take off, so i was pleasantly surprised at how it performed!

8. What was your favorite fic you wrote in 2023?

most probably comforter, more specifically the neslin chapter. i’ve had this super angsty, acosf divergence multichaptered neslin idea in my head for a while now, but i suck at long term fic planning and like most people i want to jump right into writing the interesting parts of it, so the neslin chapter was a scene from that idea and i felt so happy writing it and getting into the mindsets of nesta and tamlin in that au.

9. What was your favorite fic that somebody else wrote in 2023?

definitely rosemary by @bittermuire (thank god for this survey because in my effort to link the fic i realized ITS BEEN UPDATED!!! and as i read through it, i became even more convinced this was 100% my most favorite fic of 2023 💚) honestly, anything muire writes has me immediately hooked, but its the characterizations of the archeron sisters in particular that are so special to me. especially in rosemary. it also happens to be an october/fall fic, which are bonuses and pluses as far as im concerned. if you love the archeron sisters, give rosemary a read. if you need more convincing, allow me to provide one of my favorite quotes from the fic—

Lucien Vanserra watched her leave, his heart threatening to give out, and cursed himself a thousand times. Then another thousand times. Then, drowning in table salt, dreaming of her hair, thinking of getting himself a few sessions of therapy, he decided he would not, could not possibly, let her go. / rosemary (ch.1) by iriy @ ao3

honorable mention to plus 4 by firenaition @ ao3, because this is a fic i read at least once every month, a fic that i've shown and begged my rl siblings to read and quite possibly my favorite azulaang/atla fic of all time

10. Tag your friends to have them do this year-end fic review as well!!

if you haven’t done it already and you want to, do it! and tag me too, i love reading these!

[eiseryn]

2023 Art Summary

I can't believe 2023 is almost over and it's been a whole year! These past few months have passed by in a blur and so I feel like I'm barely holding on 😭 I had a lot of time to draw in the beginning of last year but considerably less time now...

But overall, I'm really proud of my progress as an artist this year! I had more time to draw than usual so I honed some skills and worked on some things this year! You can tell from the first Lei and the last Lei I drew XD I learned how to use filters XD to blend the character into the background!

You can also see that I started the year with Nova (Feb-Apr) and then it became Lei in my fave pieces after LMAOOO. Seriously, the last 4 months just being Vail and Lei alternates is so funny to me XD. This year was truly the year of Lei. I suspect 2024 will also be the year of Lei with vis novel development XD

Going through the months:

January: First illustration of Lei back when the campaign first started. She was supposed to be a cold b*tch but uh... that did not happen. She turned out to be a soft and sweet girl, which also reflects in my later art of her. I still want to revisit girlboss Lei though cuz the shots she took in the campaign were like 😳😳😳

February: Pink Valentines Nova~ Nova is a blue girl but soft pink Nova hits differently. I think this art was cute and I love all the heart elements I put in! (Like in her eyes~)

March: Bubble tea Nova! This was my business card for the first art market I sold stickers at! <-- artist feat of the year? Otherwise didn't draw much art this month XD I was stressed out about my first art market. SOMEONE AT THE MARKET SAW THIS ART, ASKED IF IT WAS MY VTUBER MODEL, AND THEN TOLD ME I SHOULD BECOME A VTUBER. The best compliment I got about this art XD I will remember it forever.

April: Idol Nova… technically I drew it in May but shhh the sketch was done in April. I did this because I did some bday karaoke and this was the piece I got inspired to make after having so much fun there! Here is where I started learning how to use filters to help blend the character into the background!

May: Mermaid Merrow for Mermay! This is the only Mermay piece I did but it remains one of my top art pieces this year… just all the colours are so gorgeous in this one + the BG I'm proud of! I did not post it on tumblr cuz I started posting on tumblr in Aug... LOL. But anyways it's gorgeous and took me like 2-3 days.

June: Bad art month… it was between this and the Leticia sketch I made. I ended up with this one even though I don't like it as much as the sketch because it was at least a fully rendered piece with a background and everything... I don't like the face in it, but I worked hard on the hands! (One of my weaknesses) so there's that! Sometimes it's the little things you're proud of.

July: I really like this outfit I drew for Lei! It's the one I use for refs for her now XD I'm also particularly proud of this one cuz it's a fullbody and it's hard to draw fullbody pieces... But also I just think her outfit looks really good here! And I love how dead and tired her eyes look XD which is her mood by the time she got this outfit during the campaign.

August: It was really hard to pick for August because I had two really good pieces... (actually 3 it turns out) but I picked this one in the end because I think the artist composition was just really good. There are parts I don't like about it anymore, but the lighting was good! And I'm proud I drew all her friends in this too XD the pieces of her heart -- as this art piece is called.

September: Made a GIF of disappearing Vail! Not my first GIF I've made but I like how it turned out + I'm especially proud of the background XD It's not great but I put some effort into it. I could have worked on his pose a little more... but I don't have many good Sept pieces 😭

October: Spent too much effort on a meme. But really proud of the hand and lighting. Especially drawing the cyberpunk lighting cuz that's hard... Also yeah I think I spent close to an hour sketching the hand/ making the hand look decent XD So of course this piece is the one I choose. I also worked on making the BG look decent... and Vail's backview was hard... man... I spent a long time on this piece XD

November: Yandere Vail 😳😳😳 One of the hottest Vail pieces I've drawn and it's for a mafia AU Vail LMAO. I used a reference for this XD which is why the pose looks good.

December: Most recent piece! Had to finish the year with Lei cuz we started with Lei~ This one is a modern AU Lei so it can't quite compare to Lei's canon cyberpunk universe but still~ You can definitely see improvement in my art! Or so I'd like to think. I used a reference for the pose (kind of) and also used a picture for the BG. I'm going to do that a lot next year LMAO just take pics and use them as BGs XD Work smart not hard, right?

Runner-Ups

They're all from Aug + Dec LOL… my most productive art months this year XD

Aug 2: Flash piece! I didn't post this on tumblr either... but it is my former best boy from the campaign (Former b/c Vail took his place LMAO he's too sketchy now). I used a reference for his pose so it turned out pretty good in my opinion? I also like the lighting I did for him! I forgot his earrings though... and his necklace... oops... I'll fix that for the vis novel (cope) -- I do want this to be a CG you get from the vis novel XD cuz I think it looks good XD

Aug 14: Pink Neon Nights - First Vail x Lei piece 🥺😳🥺😳 I gotta admit the hand looks hella funky for Lei BUTTTT I am in love with Vail's smile here 🥺🥺🥺 His fangs and I like how I designed his hoodie~ Plus I like the pink neon lighting from the bar they're at~

Dec 21: Nova's birthday piece~ I hadn't drawn a full illustration for her since August so this piece turned out super good. For some reason her hair became more and more grey as the years passed in the way I drew her XD She's supposed to have white hair with grey tips (oxidation???) But UHMMM I think it's hard to do highlights on white hair so I've been making her hair more and more grey as time passes XD but her hair is white, guys.

Dec 22: Lei's Happy Holidays Card - TBH I don't like how her face turned out here, BUT I like her pose and the way I did her clothing folds XD and I put effort into the BG so there's lots of other elements on this piece I like~

And of course, my most popular piece this year was worm on a string Nova.

A classic TBH. She is still so sad and gorgeous in this piece XD I made it into a sticker to put on my laptop! :)

To more years of art and art improvement! ✨ To a 2024 filled with more self-indulgent OC art ✨ Happy New Year!

[guildtree]

merkasjory? 👀👀👀👀👀

So last May I made this piece of art for Mermay: https://www.tumblr.com/guildtree/718019938315599873/huh-oh-hello-i-always-wondered-if-there-was

And then I gave myself brainrot so I wrote a story around it lol. Pretty classic early Kasjory with an underwater twist.

There’s a scratching of rocks from above, and a few pebbles drift past her cave entrance. Marjory pops her head out and finds herself nearly face-to-face with another mer, who seems to be halfway through clambering down the rocks. Her hands grasp the rock tightly while her tail flows up and over the clifftop. And what a tail it is; pink scales fading to cream like the inside of a shell, with long, fanned fins that sparkle even in the dim light. The scales fade into tan skin and pale blonde hair, kept free to flow with the currents. She’s a beautiful swirl of pink and cream and white, so flowy and sparkly it’s almost hard to focus on. Her blue eyes widen when she spots Marjory. “Huh? Oh, hello! I always wondered if there was somebody living down here. I’m not bothering you, am I?” “Nah.” Marjory shakes herself out of her glitter-induced daze and gives her most charming smile. She might not be able to ID exactly what fish this mermaid is, but she knows drop-dead gorgeous when she sees it. “Serves me right for venturing up this high during the day. What’s your name, angelfish?” “You can call me Kasmeer.” The strange mermaid flips herself over to drift in front of Marjory’s cave, hands on the lip Marjory leans on. Nope, definitely not any ordinary mer. She has fins on her arms, ink makeup coats her face, and she’s wearing basically nothing. Ropes of golden beads and pearls highlight her features rather than conceal them. “That’d be Lady Kasmeer, I take it?” The strange mermaid leans back slightly. “Is it that obvious?” “Most people don’t wear diamonds on their day trips out.” Without even thinking, she flicks the gemstone resting right over Lady Kasmeer’s sternum. It’s probably a faux pas, but the noble doesn’t seem bothered. “Oh, but shark teeth are?” She gestures to the handmade assemblage of fishing net across Marjory’s chest, held up by a necklace of teeth she’d scavenged from the sea floor. “It’s all the rage right now. You really are new here, aren’t you?” Lady Kasmeer just shrugs. “I like exploring. And occasionally meeting new people…” Marjory takes the hint and holds out one hand for a shake. “Marjory Delaqua.” Lady Kasmeer hesitates for a moment, before timidly taking Marjory’s hand and laying a quick kiss on the knuckles. It looks like an unpracticed motion, something she’s had done to her plenty of times but hasn’t had much cause to do to others. For a second they both blink at each other in confusion. Finally Marjory chuckles, and Lady Kasmeer frowns. “What’s so funny?” “Nothing. You’re adorable.” She’s heard nobles are terrible flirts, and it seems to be true, as Lady Kasmeer just tosses her hair back. “What brings you all the way down here, cutie?” “Nothing but my own curiosity. I’ve been down here a few times, but I’ve never seen you before.” Lady Kasmeer glances down at the blue abyss below them. “Do you live down in the Twilight Zone? Or the Depths?” “Mmm. I migrate a lot for work.” It’s a non-answer, but it actually seems to make Lady Kasmeer more curious; she leans forward slightly, eyes sparkling. “But yes, I’ve seen plenty of both.” “Really? What’s it like?” Ah. Okay. Marjory has her pegged now: a wealthy noble who’s barely left her own palace, without the ability or perhaps the courage to see what the rest of the world looks like. Maybe her parents keep her cooped up, maybe it’s her own fear, but now she’s “rebelling” by sneaking out when they aren’t looking. Marjory hears stories of one or two like that every year. Still, it can’t hurt to answer a few questions. She did come all this way, and it’s not like Marjory has anything else to do. And she’s certainly easy on the eyes…