#this sketch came out absolutely by accident

[t-hal-mothman]

Poop Cola of Truce

"- I don't wanna see you like this, man, it's jast… not great. So.. Here you go. Get in a killer dose of sugar or whatever, cheer up"

[writingoddess1125]

saw ur request is finally open dlsksksks i hope modern au is your jam 🤞🏻

I would love to get your thought on buggy, shanks, and minawk reacting to reader accidentally sending them a nude pic 🤧

Oh I love you RN ❤️

Okay so did I go overboard? Absolutely Do I care? HELL NO!

You Accidently Send them a Nude Pic!

Buggy, Shanks, Mihawk

SPICY THEMES! ❤️‍🔥

You are gonna need some Ice cubes 🧊 after this one ;D

If you like please Support me on Ko-Fi

Buggy

"For fucks sake" You grumbled as you looked through google- You needed a specific pose for this commission, it was an expensive NSFW one and yet you could not find the right pose and for some reason couldn't figure it from memory-

"Fuck it time to go old school-" You grumbled, Peeling off your clothes and walking to the bedroom were your mirror was, Setting up you snapped a few pictures in the pose needed.

Looking at the few shots you couldn't help but pat yourself on the back. You looked good and got the pose perfectly- Dressing back you went back to your computer.

You kept your phone gallery opened to look at the photo, embarrassed you had to go to such lengths to do so- But money was money.

As you continued your sketch you saw a message ding and smiled- It was non other then Buggy, your close friend and truthfully your partner in crime.

Buggy Boo 🤡: U busy?

Me: Yeah I'm trying to find some references, but what's up?

Buggy Boo 🤡: NVM wanted to hang out

You smiled at this.

Me: You can still but at a price 😌

Buggy Boo 🤡: Price? 💰

Giggling you open up your text gallery. You scroll through the photos to find the McDonald's meme youd saved earlier and quickly sent it-

Me: Gotta Bring Me The Mickey D's 😩 💦

However you saw two images loading to be sent with the text. Raising a brow as you waited for it to load- However when it sent and showed you the second image you threw your device across the room.. there just below the McDonald's Meme was your nude reference photo.. You tried to panic unsend but saw he read it instantly.

Fuck FUCK FUCK!!!

Expecting a call or a WTF text of some sort but .

Silence- You didn't see him text back or anything. Fear eating you up inside as you thought the worse.. He's going to fucking hate you now- you two had just been really really good friends for years and maybe had a few drunken nights together however nothing like this!

In your panic you didn't realize how much time had passed before a knock snapped you from your thoughts.

You heard frantic knocks in your front door, surprised by the urgency of them and walked over- Opening the door your face flushed with what you saw. There was Buggy, with a shirt barely and clearly backwards, his hair down in thick waves looking wet and barely holding up his pants like he had gotten into clothes on the way to you however the 4 massive bag of McDonald's in his hand clued you in he had stopped at the restaurant right before.

"Buggy?-" You say shyly and face cherry red at seeing him in such a disheveled state- that and his boxers didn't exactly hiding him very well.

"I came over as fast as I could- I also got everything on the menu-" He said breathlessly holding up the bag and you glance to see his car parked sideways in your driveway, words seemed to leave you as you could practically see the desire in his gaze as he grinned widely.

He stepped forward and gently pushed you back into the house closing your door behind him as he quickly closed the space between you two, handing you the bag whicj you could barely hold onto.

"Gotta say, that was a welcomed surprised from you. I loved it~" He purred out, You squeaking in surprise at his words as his hands found their way to your hips.

"I have some modeling I'd like to see you do~ For art purposes of course" He said with a wink.

"Y-You actually liked those?" You manage out- Buggy laughed at this.

"Of course! It was sexy, flashy, surprising all at once. Not gonna lie if it wasn't for me needing to get the McDonald's I'd have came straight here and fucked you into the floor" He growled out in desire. You decided to not tell him you were joking about the McDonald's thing.

"In that case-" You sent the bag to the side and smiled as you felt him practically waiting for you to give the OK.

"Food can wait~"

Shanks

So bored- You thought as you laid on the couch of your boyfriends apartment. Shanks, The famed biker gang leader in your state. It was famous for his skills, the brutality of his gang and the unfortunate missing arm from a accident to save a child.

However for you he was just the love of your life- and also the one who had left 3 hours ago to do some sort of meet up with his gang which always ment leaving you behind-

Deciding to text him you open your phone to snapchat seeing he was still at the bar and sent a message.

Me: Red I'm Bored 😴

Red Head: I know Babe but I'll be home soon.

Me: It's been 3 hours 🙃

Red Head: Almost done here. I'll Bring you flowers if you're good.

You rolled your eyes- Flowers if your Good hm? You stewed for a moment before jumping up and marching to the bathroom. Maybe it was boredom or sexual frustration but you figured some teasing was in order- Deciding to take off your bottoms you poses in the mirror and snapped a quick picture. Smiling as you loaded it to send

Me: Good like this? {Image}

Prepared to hit send you stopped yourself and sgiggled... This was so stupid. Why would you do this? Rational thought clearing your heated mind and you tossed the phone on the couch to stop yourself.

"Just watch TV Jesus-" You said to yourself and plopped down. Turing in the TV but heard your phone rapidly ding, raising a brow you picked it back up and your face fell- It had sent dear God it had sent. It seemed when you tossed it the screen pressed sent by accdient.

Red Head: I'll be damned-

Red Head: Holy Shit did you just take this now?

Red Head: Baby?

Red Head: I'll be over in 10 minutes..

You saw Shanks text and you felt your face grow hot. This was not how you wanted it to happen but you weren't mad either-

In 8 minutes you heard a knock on the door and you quickly rushed over to open it. Assuming his hand was full-

He smiled at you, Holding the flowers in hand which had somehow survived his speedy ride to you.

"As promised flowers" He said with a grin and you stepped back so he could enter fully and took the flowers that were handed to you.

"Thank you" You say shyly but can't meet his gaze.

"You just love giving me a heart attack hm Love?" He purred out grabbing your chin gently to look up at him.

"I had to put away my phone so quickly cause I was at the bar with the gang" He said with a chuckle as you held the flowers close to your chest.

He leaned forward releasing your chin and began to kiss your check- His body pressing into you and you felt dizzy and warm.

"I-It was an accident" You Squeak out as Shanks layered kisses down your neck- His hand pulling you by your waist as he pulled you closer, your hand setting the flowers to whatever was closest to you as you felt warmth flutter through your body.

"Really?~ Didn't seem like one to me. As yoj said you were bored~" He said softly, you hadn't realized it but he had worked you two backwards till you felt the couch hit the back of your legs and you fell with a surprised yelp. Shanks smiling at this as he pulled away his leather jacket.

"Well let's make sure I don't leave you bored again~" He winked and lowered himself right after you.

Seems you were about to have the ride of your life~

Mihawk

You kicked off your heels with a sigh as you finally made it back to your home. Flopping on the couch with a groan- be a lawyer they said, You'll make a lot of money they said- BULLSHIT!

You were overworked, under paid and under laid- it was brutal honestly but you did like your work to some degree and you got to meet interesting people.

You hear a ding from your phone and sigh, already prepared for some client to email- But instead you were met with a text Ling saying your photos were ready.

Photos?... OH The Nude Boudoir Photos of yourself! Jumping up you quickly press the downloadable link and open it up quickly.

It had been a gift for yourself, when your confidence had been down and wanted something to make you feel beautiful and sexy. Opening up the downloaded folder you smiled, it was a bit weird to admire pictures of yourself but the photographer had done such a great job!

However you were cut off when another email rolled in- Sighing heavily as you saw it was non other then you poss and CEO of the firm Mihawk Dracule. The man was a sticklier about everything and he was just lucky he was hot or else you would have slammed a folder in his face by now-

Mihawk D: (Y/N) I need the file for Eros vs Tuller Case. Seems file did not send correctly.

You sigh, that wasn't hard and you'd already downloaded it on your phone. Attaching the document from you phone quickly you sent it-

So lucky!-

There it had been the last thing you...downloaded- wait... it hadn't been the last thing you downloaded.

Dread filled your chest as you slowly opened up your phone once again and clicked the downloaded tap- Seeing two downloaded files, slowly opening the file you sent Mihawk only to see your naked body...

You stared at your phone and screamed- Bloody. Murder

'NO NO NO NO-!!' You panicked as you literally through your phone across the livingroom.

"I'm so so fired I just sent my boss my naked photos!" You sobbed as you fell to the floor, your face as red as a tomato and you damn near cried. You hear another ding and crawl to your cracked device and took a look.

Mihawk D: Come to my office tommorow morning early. We have things to discuss.

You were dead- So very very dead... You cried that night and shot out your resume to several firms and waited for the next morning.

On cue you arrived to the firm brighf and early, having to psych yourself up before going in. You walked in to the building and up to the executive office- you half expected to see a box and a pink slip waiting for you- your head low as you stepped into your bosses office.

"Sir?.." You say softly, looking up you saw Mihawk sitting there looking through some papers- Your eyes focusing on what he was so interested in and you damn near had a heart attack. Seeing professional prints of your boudoir images on his desk and he was looking through them calmly, He glanced up at you finally seeing your wide eyes and flushed face he pointed you over to him calmly.

Slowly stepping forward you stood next to him behind the desk- Seeing the expensive professional prints of your intimate photos sprawled out.

"A-Am I fired?.." You finally asked, Your voice no better then a shaky whisper.

"No. I quite like these infact- I've had many people in my company who have tried to flirt, I was even curious when youd act.. But ive never seen one as bold as this" He said clearly amused, the humiliation burned in your chest- especially since he knew you had a crush on him.. but now you were curious why he didn't want to fire you.

He flicked back to one of the photos, one were you had worn something akin to a playbunny outfit made of lace. He tapped the imagine a bit playfully.

"I must say, This is by far my favorite out of the lot... I'd like to make a proposal to you" He said, craning his head to meet your eyes as a smirk played on his lips.

You felt your brain turn to mush.. first that he liked them and second that Mihawk Dracule was smiling- Had you died?!

"A date if you will, But I'd like to explore your skills in your modeling afterwards. Back at my home. If you're more comfortable with a written contract that is fine with me, but verbal is just as good" He stated calmly, Heat flushing your form at his words and you skittishly nodded.

"What would be the terms of this contract?" You ask shyly, Now more interested then you thought it would be. Mihawk reaching into his caot and pulled out a satin case, opening it to reveal a beautiful necklace, it was very classy looking and could truthfully be worn with anything- but you realized it was a infinity choker with a key lock in the back.

Warmth hitting your body once again asnyou realized what this represented.. A collar.

"Dates, a more personal relationship and some.. let's say recreations of these works?" He said calmly still holding his favorite one.

You thought for a moment, before running your fingers over the necklace and nodding softly.

"I agree to those terms" You say a bit playfully, Earning a smile from Mihawk. He stood up calmly and picked up the necklace, moving behind you as he carefully clasped it and locked it into place.

"Wonderful" He practically purred out and admired you for a moment. Head flooding your body once more at his golden gaze.

"I will pick you up tonight then, 8 sound good?" He asked, you agreeing and he patted your behind playfully.

"Good. Now Run along now Bunny, I still need the file for the Eros vs Tuller Case" He said amused, You nodding quickly.

"Yes Mr. Dracule" You say softly and as you stepped out a blush on your cheeks and a smile on your lips.

That went better then expected~

[noblecorgi]

2024: A Re-Entry to Fandom

I guess this is a thing? (Oh shit this brackets bit was written at the end and I appear to have emotionally vomited an essay. Sorry ‘bout that.)

In late 2023 I experienced a personal tragedy and retreated to where I had always found comfort: books.

I read a series that had been recommended to me before, but I hadn’t had time to read it - The Simon Snow Trilogy by @rainbowrowell and it awoke a dormant-but-never-forgotten love of fanfiction in me.

In my teens and early 20s I wrote a lot of fan fiction on the ol’ FF net, all of it of atrocious quality I’m certain, which is why I haven’t tried to rediscover that account.

Instead I found AO3, and restarted regularly writing for fun instead of for work or study/research.

I didn’t do any summation for 2023 because I think my first fic was posted on like 10 December 2023, but AO3 tells me I wrote 4 works, all SnowBaz, at a total of 55,154 words.

In 2024, I’ve published 5 works, at a total of 94,323 words.

What truly blows me away (and honestly makes me a bit teary) is the 1013 kudos, 100 subscribers (inc 15 subscribers to just me rather than a fic!), and 222 comment threads on my works. 🥹

So: my 2024 works.

Use your words, SnowBaz, Rated: E, 3,930 words

A smutty lil gift fic wherein Baz teaches Simon how to sext.

Splendid Morons, SnowBaz, Rated: E, 12,886 words

Published for Erotic Grope Fest, aka Baz’s birthday. A collaboration with @alexalexinii and a story written to enable their amazing art of Baz in lingerie.

Precious to me for not only getting to work with Alex, but also for being the beginning of my relationship with Becky @rbkzz, my incomparable beta who has become one of the dearest people in my life.

On The Rocks, SnowBaz, Rated: E, 74,592 words (WIP)

My opus, as it were. It originated from a fluffy cute prompt of “what if Baz and Lady Ruth were work besties?!” And I came along like “YEAH! But with trauma, exploration of love in mental illness, and alcoholism!”

I began posting it in March and it’s about 2/3 done now. But for Becky it would be both an absolute pile of horse poop, and an abandoned WIP. Instead it has a clear direction and she found motifs that I’d repeatedly used by accident in my drafts and built imagery, greater meaning, and also debated me ad nauseam on my preference for spelt over spelled.

Immune Response, @lumosinlove’s Cubs, Rated: G, 1,421 words

I was a big consumer of WolfStar in my teens and was recommended Lumosinlove’s Sweater Weather and, like many before me, fell in love with the story, the original characters, and ice hockey itself (much to the surprised glee of my Canadian spouse, who for a decade has tried in vain to get me on board. Little did he know the key was obviously gays.)

This is a lil’ slice of life sick fic examining how each of the Cubs responds to getting sick.

I have a lot more unpublished drabbles about these characters and some fics that are being cocreated so stay tuned for 2025?

Preliminary, my dear Basil, SnowBaz, Rated: T, 1,494 words

A gift fic for @martsonmars as part of the Carry On Discord’s Secret Snowflake Exchange.

Among their suggestions was “Sherlock AU, but not BBC Sherlock, 19th century Sherlock” and it hooked me with the idea that Baz would absolutely fancy himself as Sherlock. I actually sketched out a plot to SnowBazify 4 of the Holmes stories, so maybe 2025 will see them unearthed.

There is one other published fic I worked on this year, but as a beta rather than a writer for @swoopswrites @rsbigbang piece Class A which was super fun to do (and got me to watch a great series - The Gentlemen on Netflix) and Swoops has a fantastic mind so I’d encourage you to to check it out.

Finally, I have always been a writer rather than an artist, but I do enjoy drawing, and the need to upgrade my iPad for work arose and so I also tried my hand at drawing again for the first time since I was 17 or so.

In order from the first one to the most recent one, the lil scribbles I did this year:

Penelope Bunce, Wolfstar on a train, Baz with coffee, cuddly Cubs, FinnLo being adorable, iconic Moony with a cane, emo Sirius Black.

And THAT was 2024 (and 2023).

@artsyunderstudy @asocialpessimist @angelsfalling16 @whatevertheweather @edenalix @emjaydellyone @erzbethluna @emeryhall @run-for-chamo-miles @raenestee @rimeswithpurple @roomwithanopenfire @thehoneyedhufflepuff @theearlgreymage @thewholelemon @lonleyhumanbeing @letraspal @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @youarenevertooold @iamamythologicalcreature @ichooseyousnowbaz @ic3-que3n @ileadacharmedlife @onepintobean @palimpsessed @prettygoododds @philaet0s @pacey-bunce-loves-joey @sorenphelps @skee3000 @stitchy-queerista @fiend-for-culture @facewithoutheart @fruitcoops @girlwithcurls96 @hushed-chorus @hihimissamericanbi @cutestkilla @cosmicalart @confused-bi-queer @noopienoopiernoopiest @messofthejess @monbons

[rosenclaws]

Ok first thing‘s first, I am absolutely adoring how you write these characters, Leopold in particular. Came for Logan and discovered a world of new possibilities 😄.

I was wondering what you‘d think of the idea of Leopold sketching stuff either because it looks nice, or to try and figure out how it works (new tech and stuff maybe, because I‘ve seen a clip at the beginning (?) of the film where he‘s drawing a bridge) either taking him places to draw stuff or finding a sketchbook of his by accident.

thanks for putting up with my brainworms,

love your work

ooo yes I love artist Leopold. Also sorry this took so long I've been swamped since last month asdfjhkl

Leopold and his Sketchbook

So in my head I think Leopold has a part of him that is incredibly technical and smart, I mean the man invented the elevator but he's got that soft artistic side to him too. He's literally both sides of the brain to perfection because of course he is.

I think he actually leans more towards the technical side of his brain than the creative one just because he thinks a lot. Like he likes to look at things and wonder just how they work and it lead to him sketching which improved his artistic ability.

The one thing he missed from his time was his notebook. It was filled with his old drawings and now it's gone. So of course you buy him one for the present day as well as some new art supplies.

I think he's constantly sketching. Just when he's walking around or even just at home. This world is full of new things for him to discover.

This is how you come home to find him dismantling your toaster. He doesn't know how to put it back. He promises to buy you a new one.

You cannot let this man walk around New York alone either. He will get lost because he sees something new and goes towards it. It's like a crow when they see something shiny. He could spend hours out just observing and sketching.

He fills his books with all kinds of things. I think he also starts to sketch people. Like he people watches from the fire escape of his apartment and there's just so many different characters in the city that he starts to draw them.

And of course he has pages dedicated to sketching you. He doesn't show them to you because he gets nervous. Would you think it was creepy? He just liked to sketch you in your natural beauty.

Anything you do he finds enchanting. So much so that he just wants to draw.

Eventually he needs a new sketchbook so you buy him one, finding his old one laying on his bedside table. You don't pry but when it falls on the floor and opens, you can't help yourself.

His drawings are beautiful. So detailed and intricate and then you find the ones of you.

They take your damn breath away. He draws you so beautifully, you wonder if this is how he sees you.

He finds you sitting on the floor going through his book. He gets shy at first but you're bursting with joy at his drawings, fawning over his art.

So he sits by your side and tells you the stories of each drawing. Even the ones of you. He speaks so eloquently that it's impossible to be bored.

He offers to teach you to draw one day and you happily accept.

God isn't he just perfect I swear.

[karvroom]

School Outside of Heroism

There’s classes outside of Homeroom with Mr. Aizawa, right? So what is Class 1-A like in science, PE, English, Math, etc.?

includes: Katsuki Bakugo, Izuku Midoriya, Shoto Todoroki, Denki Kaminari, Eijiro Kirishima, Ochako Uraraka, Tsuyu Asui, Momo Yaoyorozu

═════════════

⟢ KATSUKI BAKUGO

✮ surprisingly really good at math

✮ constantly wants to compare math answers with whoever is sitting next to him. if the person’s answer was wrong, he would say “shits easy. what aren’t you getting?” then would proceed to show step by step how he got his correct answer.

✮ absolutely hates english and modern literature

✮ as much as he doesn’t enjoy reading, he’ll still try the material, but would often get confused by the jumble of words.

✮ faded sketches of pro heroes are scattered in his notes. they’re only faded because he erases them at the end of class to ensure no one would ever see them.

✮ during science, he would know every single answer when it came to anything regarding stars or planets. when he was a kid he had a major obsession with astronomy (even had the plastic glowing stars on his bedroom ceiling).

⟢ IZUKU MIDORIYA

✮ has definitely called All Might “dad” by accident when talking about him to Todoroki.

✮ has a hard time during anatomy because he’s too focused on the unit where they learn about quirks. he would bother the teacher everyday by asking questions about various different quirks.

✮ his notes are always disorganized, yet he somehow knows where the exact information he’s looking for is. to make it even worse, he doesn’t add any form of annotation—no highlighting, underlining, circling, etc.

✮ horrible hand writing.

✮ he keeps track of who’s absent in any class. the next day, he’ll give the person his notes of what they missed (even if they were unable to read his chicken scratch).

⟢ SHOTO TODOROKI

✮ neatest hand writing you’ll ever come across

✮ sneaks his phone under the desk just to text his mom/sister back when he knows he shouldn’t.

✮ the type to never ask for help in class from his classmates or the teacher, yet always gets a perfect grade on his assignments. when he does need help he’ll shyly ask Fuyumi for it.

✮ fell asleep in class one time and no one woke him up.

✮ you’ll find Midoriya as his partner in most classes

✮ his sister would find the time to make a large breakfast for the family every morning, but he always only eats a slice of toast or two strips of bacon.

⟢ DENKI KAMINARI

✮ used to always chew the tops of the erasers off of pencils.

✮ tries so hard to be the class clown (he is)

✮ always asks the group chat for class 1-a for the answers. when no one responds in the chat or Iida bites his head off for “not trying”, Sero would send him the answers in a private chat between them two.

✮ never has a pencil, yet keeps small knick knacks (fidget spinners, fidget cubes, small action figurines, etc.) in the front pocket of his backpack.

✮ Nike representative.

⟢ EIJIRO KIRISHIMA

✮ along with Iida, Kirishima is that one kid who shouts at the class to be quiet when the teacher is talking.

✮ a lot of girls outside of 1-A have a fat crush on him.

✮ lovesss taking culinary classes, even if he isn’t a great cook. he forced Kaminari to take them with him.

✮ struggles in math, but whenever he does get the correct answer he makes a big deal about it, showing it off to whoever is closest to him.

✮ very sociable; if he sees someone sitting by themselves, he’ll go up and ask if they want to sit with him or just plop in a seat next to them and strike up a conversation.

⟢ OCHAKO URARAKA

✮ finds dissecting any kind of animal in anatomy disgusting and forces Mina to do all the work.

✮ the one girl who is always out of her seat and socializing with everyone.

✮ is never seen alone. she’s always accompanied by midoriya, tsu, or hagakure.

✮ on the first day, when the teacher was calling names for attendance, she responded by saying “present”. Sero and Kaminari would not shut up about for the rest of the day.

⟢ TSUYU ASUI

✮ unable to dissect any animal during anatomy because…yk—so her and Uraraka make Mina do it.

✮best subject is history. she’s a history NUT when it comes to that class. she aces every quiz/exam. easily remembers dates of important events.

✮ teachers LOVE her, but she doesn’t feed into it (she doesn’t like being a teacher’s pet).

✮ never responds in the class 1-A group chat unless they are directly talking to her or something regarding her.

⟢ MOMO YAOYOROZU

✮ has every color highlighter she could ever need.

✮ carries a water bottle with her everywhere (stanley, hydroflask, etc.)

✮ has an extra tote bag that has all the essentials: hairbrush, hair ties, a book, an extra plastic water bottle, headphones, etc.

✮ freaks out when her grade goes below an A-

✮ ENGLISH QUEEN. loves reading and analyzing texts and speeches given by the teacher. she studies them even outside of class so whenever the teacher asks questions she’s always the first to answer.

✮ teacher’s pet but doesn’t acknowledge that fact

[im-his-druidess]

Hi!

I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a while, but I'm not the best at writing.

How would Vincent or Bo react to an S/O that came into town and was just a complete southern belle ? Maybe a bit ditsy but overall well meaning patient and kind. Like grew up pretty rural as well but maybe ended up moving to the city for college and finding out it wasn't really for her, so she's on a road trip back home and maybe gets lost. Some accident happens and she ends up in ambrose. Kinda similar to what happens to Allison in Tucker and Dale vs Evil if you've ever seen that movie? Without her friends of course 😅.

I always thought it would be interesting to put them next to someone who just completely contrasts there personally. They do say opposites attract!

Can be ABO of you'd like ! I have no preference

(Ps. Sorry for how long and hyper specific this is I've just had this thought for a while)

Good question!

I always liked the "Opposites Attract" idea so I always think about stuff like this. I even made my main OC due to these type of thoughts 😌

I think Bo would get the most amusement out of this situation. As much as he abuses women and forces them to be with him (Like tying Carly up in his murderfuck dungeon) he would absolutely love to have someone come to him willingly. Would feed his fantasy of having a normal life with a normal lover that wants him and treats him like a person.

He would absolutely dial up the charm and get you flustered and would flirt outrageously. Soak in you helplessness and sweetness before the real horrors begin.

Vincent would still be extremely cautious. Learning from a young age that wolves hide in sheep clothing. that just because someone smiles sweetly at him doesn't mean they want to be his friend. Would absolutely wait for the other shoe to drop and will sometimes, if worked up enough, strike before you even get a chance to prove or disprove his expectations. Forcing you to be his muse and greet him with that same sweetness or else face his displeasure.

If he's in a better mood then he might even try to sway you with pictures he's painted or sketched, scripts of poetry scrawled neatly on the bottom, and wildflowers appearing on the hood of your car where you're sleeping or outside the door of the room in their house that was so graciously offered to you.

When Vincent falls, he falls hard, and nothing will change his mind about making you his in every single way he knows how. Almost taking advantage of your ditsy behavior and sweet demeanor to make you stay with him.

[blackdungeon357]

bad batch X artist Reader

Authors note: this is just for fun I randomly thought of this I tried I hope you like it

You have been with the bad batch for a while. You usually just draw when the boys are on missions or when things are calm in hyperspace although it is usual for you to draw you never really show them to the boys or Omega and most of the time they never question it. Until one day you were out at the store and left your sketchbook open on accident Omega found it on your bed and it was open to a page you have drawn of your little family. Omega grabbed it to show to the others at first they were a little weary because your privacy but when they looked at it their face is dropped as they flipped through the pages there were pictures of all of them just doing regular things

Hunter:

As Hunter looked through the sketchbook at all the pictures of his brothers his eyes are gleaming with happiness as this shows how much you see them as a family when he gets to a picture of him it says a few things that you like about him and its nothing but sweet as he looks at the well drawn picture of him holding his knife he is very happy and proud of how it looks as he keeps looking he finds a picture of him and Omega with the words #galaxies best father he smiles he never knew that you would say that about him and it brings joy to his day when you came back he smiles and handed you back your sketchbook "mesh’la you are a beautiful artist keep going I would love to see more" Hunter is extremely supportive of your skills and would love to see more as it helps him calm down seeing the pictures you drew and the time and dedication you made for each of them he also loves the notes you write in them.

Wrecker:

This big boy absolutely love your art especially the ones about him he finds this as a way you show you love and care for him and that makes him so happy he especially lost a little notes that you wrote about him he can't help but feel joyful inside. wrecker makes it known that he saw it he walks up to you and embraces you in a bear hug like Hunter he is very appreciative of the time you spent to draw each picture of him he especially puts the picture of him holding his stuffed animal. "Y/N you are amazing at drawing! We should totally draw together one day" Wrecker is definitely the type to do art as well and he happily gives advice to you as you give advice to him Wrecker does love you to death and would do anything to see your art.

Echo:

This precious baby actually feels more secure about himself as he looks at the pictures you've drawn of him and everything you wrote that you like about him it makes me feel jittery inside he also blushes a bit overall he's very happy that you see him in a good way as he is very insecure about how he looks but his favorite is the old picture you drew of him and Fives. It reminds him of the good times before everything happened it gives him a sense of nostalgic and he loves it Echo is very thrilled that you took the time to draw him and he loves the details of the pictures. When you get back Echo looks at you with a very happy smile and a better feeling about himself because your opinion is the only thing that matters to him now "ca’tra you are so talented when I saw how you drew me and the sweet notes about me it made me feel so good about myself you are truly amazing" Echo now sees himself in a better light and its all thanks to you.

Tech:

Tech was quite busy looking at his data pad until Omega decided to show him the sketch by shoving it in his face to get attention after his attention was grabbed he takes a look at it and at first he doesn't really care until he realize it's yours he's impressed by your proportions and ability to capture their figures very well he decides to look through it he finds many pictures of crosshair, wrecker ,Hunter, and Echo then he comes across one of him looking at his dad in the middle of the night and he loves how it looks the shading is spot on the proportion is correct he is very impressed we all know Tech is very intelligent and probably good at human anatomy and like things to be perfect when you come home he hands you back the sketchbook "you're proportions are pretty good you know a lot about human anatomy I'm impressed" he is very happy and may start to questions about if you know of each piece of the body and will correct you if you get it wrong.

Crosshair:

He doesn't understand art at all like he's impressed that you can draw that well but he doesn't ever draw so he doesn't understand but he smirks at the notes about him he notes to tease you about it when you get back but other than that crosshair is ok with your drawings PS: he loves the drawings of him the most. Honestly Crosshair is very prideful what did you expect? So when you return home he is quick to tease you "so I'm charming eh?" He says this with a smirk on his face as he looks at you with that smirk and as you try to grab your sketchbook he keeps it out of your reach and laughs at you attempts to grab it Hunter has to tell hem to return the sketchbook but for the next week hes teasing you about it always steeling your sketchbook just to see the new things you wrote about him and more badass pictures of himself it annoys you but you can't do much but you will play his little game and it will continue until you can hide your sketchbook.

[tealin]

Antarcticans

I may not have used my sketchbook as much as I thought I would, with regard to locations, but I did fill a few pages with one of my favourite pastimes back in The World: people sketching.

My biggest anxiety about going to McMurdo was the human factor.  Whether it was school or work, a recurring motif in my life is that I do not do well in a big box full of Americans, and that is, almost literally, exactly what McMurdo is.  Sure, the continent wants to kill you, and every way of getting to and around it comes with risk of serious accident, but the only thing I was actually afraid of was finding myself in a stressful social situation and not having any recourse to escape.  I know how to build a snow cave.  I don't know how to deflect the ire of people who've taken a set against me – and, for whatever reason, I tend to rub people in the States the wrong way.  When I was shortlisted for the placement, the person handling the admin briefed me about the process and asked me if I had any further questions, and I raised this concern.  She responded that, speaking purely from her own experience, she had never felt more comfortable being herself than when she was at McMurdo.  Not knowing who 'herself' was, I took this with a grain of salt, but it was an encouraging answer nonetheless.

It turned out that the best thing about McMurdo was, in fact, those very people I had been afraid of.  Everyone I met was absolutely splendid.  In my first days there, my supervisor joked that if you shake the world, all the best people end up at the bottom; the remainder of my time there proved how right she was.  One of the main things that attracted me to the Terra Nova story, and has kept me committed to it for so long, was how wonderful the people were – far outside what I had come to expect from humanity.  Warm, genuine, accepting of and attentive to each other, a wide range of personalities and dispositions that nevertheless got on and functioned together as a society, in the face of environmental and emotional extremes ... I needed to know such people were possible, and clung to them as an ideal.  It was a wonderful surprise to discover that they would not be out of place amongst their modern counterparts.

Is it because they're scientists, as someone theorised? But they're not – most of the people at McMurdo are support staff, working in the kitchen or waste disposal or shuttle fleet; helping the science happen, yes, but that's not necessarily why they're there, personally.  Is it because a harsh environment triggers something in the human psyche to support each other, rather than compete?  Maybe, but these people seem like they'd be solid wherever they are, and were like that before going South.  

I suspect there is an element of self-selection – something about the sort of person who would want to go to Antarctica correlates with a certain mindset, one that gels extremely well with others who share it, however different they may be in other respects.  There is no denying that everyone there is a bit odd.  They tend to be types that exist on the fringes back in The World and, like me, may struggle to conform to its values.  A few years ago, I came across this adage from an Antarctic veteran: "You go the first time for the adventure.  You go the second time to relive the first time.  You go the third time because you don't belong anywhere else."  Many of them live in remote places, or travel, or do itinerant work when not on the Ice.  There is a bit of a running gag in Where'd You Go, Bernadette? that everyone doing a mundane job in Antarctica is a high achiever in something amazing, who left it all behind – and that's not exactly untrue.  Perhaps what unites Antarcticans is an awareness of what really matters, when you get right down to it: they've played the game enough to see through it, and are done with it.  "Glory? He knew it for a bubble: he had proved himself to himself. He was not worrying about glory. Power? He had power." So Cherry wrote about Wilson in 1948, but many modern Antarcticans might sympathise.  When you come out the other side of self-aggrandisement and jockeying for status, and are happy just to be yourself and let others be themselves, you get a happy, harmonious society.  Or so it would seem.

At midnight on my last day there, I had a deep conversation with someone I'd only met in passing before, but who was totally down to have a long talk with a random stranger on a footbridge in the middle of the night. I presented her my hypothesis that no one at McMurdo was popular in high school.  No, she replied; there may be a handful who were popular in high school ... but they're not popular at McMurdo.  Maybe the secret is in there somewhere.

Anyway, I didn't do nearly as much people sketching as I'd have liked, given that the base was populated entirely by Characters, but these are the pages I did manage to get. 

Two pages of random McMurdites, likely in the Galley:

These last four are from a meeting where team leaders were presenting their projects to some high muckymucks visiting from the NSF. I was only there because my project was allotted a space in the presentation, but the main focus was the massive Thwaites Glacier project, a collaboration between the US Antarctic Program and the British Antarctic Survey to study one of the most unstable regions in Antarctica.  They quite rightly took up the whole meeting time, and the privilege of being there meant I learned a lot about the project.  My longstanding habit is to draw during meetings, so I captured some of them in my sketchbook while absorbing the science into my head.

Notable characters in my sketches include: - David Vaughan, heading up the British contingent of the Thwaites team, was quite an engaging and affable guy but had a concentration scowl that puts mine in the shade. I was shocked when I heard he died of cancer earlier this year (2023) – a great loss to BAS, glaciology, and Antarctic science generally. - When Erin Pettit isn't studying glaciers with an eye to climate change, she's taking girls on wilderness adventures to foster an interest in science and art, as well as self-confidence. - Britney Schmidt, Queen of Icefin, not only earned my profound respect but has a whole episode of PBS's Terra dedicated to her work developing sub-ice autonomous robots with the aim of exploring Europa. (Seriously, so cool.)

I could go on about Antarctic people, but there's nothing so good as showing you, and luckily I can do just that. PBS sent a small team down in 2018 to do a YouTube series, and one of their episodes is all about the cool people who call McMurdo home.  It might make my point better than all my whittering, and is certainly more fun. If you'd like to see more, Werner Herzog's film Encounters at the End of the World is much of the same, but more so.  It had been recommended to me several times, but I hadn't managed to get my hands on it until a week before I left, when it turned out a Cambridge friend had a copy and lent it to me.  'I don't know how true it is,' he said, 'but I want it to be.'  When I got back, I was happy to confirm to him that it was, indeed, exactly like that.  And I miss it so much.

[2uhhyatko2]

super bakery au thoughts

Okay i just wanted to put down some ideas i had for it, it might get random as well as spoiler future sketches regarding flower ranchers+SPOIL FUCKING EVERYTHING OKAY

tango knew scar well before anybody else. Him, scar and zed were middle-high-post secondary school besties.

Scar technically knew mumbo during school but when mumbo just came to their primary school, scar was already on the last year of it(so like 2nd and 4th grade). During that time of being buttercup trio-besties*with feelings* they accidently found out about it when mumbo's mum found his old stuff in large amount and he ask scarian to help with it

Zed cut off all connections and just disappeared after he found out that tango applied for special group. they wanted to be scientists, find reasoning behind abilities. Tango received a couple of emails from unknown addresses and absolutely random ass IPs for Zedaph's name but yeah no connection(they were quite passive aggressive and even hostile after Tango officially got into that special group. and they were like years apart, so Tango knows that he is being watched)

Tango and Jimmy were boyfriends prior to knowing Scott and Ariana. I am speaking like 5-10 years of relationship before scott, they were engaged when they went the "wait i like that guy too" route

Jimmy is Grian's cousin, i am not changing the fanon

He knows.

Tango doesn't! but he knows about Scar, obviously

Tango has minor sparking abilities. With right ammunition he could actually use something close to fire balls, but usually his fights went like this: some time of general fighting+pistols, while doing all that he tried to get on/around the enemy as much fuel as possible, and SPARK it all up.

He and scar did work in pairs, as scar was great help both from behind and along with him

Whatever I draw on sketches with his leg needs an addition that they couldn't leave the area for more than 10 hours. So yeah, his first major injury was worsened A LOT and this gave the effect that it gave

Nobody knows Tango outside of work and family, he never had a public reputation, and Scar didn't receive his until much later

Scott knew ariana first and only then grian. He originally was just an intern at the place Ariana was randomly visiting and they simply found each other interesting.

Grian did think of making out with Scott, same with Scott, nobody did anything lol

Zed would appear with Impulse and Skizz if I don't die until then. Jeez they're gonna be interesting :)

Zed does have an ability too and combined with his sciences OH JEEEEEE it is gonna be interexting x2

Zed went into cyberbiology and bio 3d printing :3 I should stop now lol

Okay the last one: gempearl were real until both realised that they are aroace so say hi to aroace besties

[lilikitsune18]

Officer it’s this one right here he crashed my drawing program and refused to cooperate

@neodracunyan here’s the criminal the one who broke my drawing program so bad I’m going to have to archive everything and clear its data again and it hasn’t even been 3 months since I last did that for spring cleaning. I love how he came out in the end but he crashed my program 5 times while I was working on him and has caused it to lag and crash constantly ever since. I adore this boi but I will always have hard feelings for his reference sheet. He looks so smug about it too.

Below the cut is my usual ramble as well as the sketches and shape study for this one. (He has taught me many things completely on accident)

So let’s talk about this.

I started by sketching up a kickin that will never see the light of day fate just looking up my reference images and eyeballing it.

That kickin was really really ugly.

I know saying these things about one’s own art can seem degrading and derogatory but believe me when I say I got a second opinion and they agreed that chicken was ugly.

And they didn’t even know I was showing them my own art so I know it’s true.

So then I did the shape study and figured out why this wasn’t working the same as the others.

Then came a lot of trial and error of pushing different combinations of these shapes and builds together until I got a siluette that seemed to work (this was the one I used for the final version of kickin)

Then came the face which was also a matter with which I struggled but eventually figured out.

Despite all of these setbacks I do really like how kickin came out in the end (especially the side profile view) and once all of the struggles were through I really really ended up liking how he came out .

So let’s actually talk about this design now shall we?

Let’s start with the kickin hawk design. This design benefited from the fact that I knew who kickins partner is before choosing colors so I decided to make his grey clothing pieces blue toned in the same shade as bubba. It’s not super noticeable in the reference sheet because it’s surrounded by its complimentary and cross-complimentary colors (orange and yellow) making it look far more desaturated than it actually is. My intent is for the rest of the dark critters to have this same partnering motif from here on out in their color palettes (bubba will get kickins yellow, Bobby will get craftys cyan/teal color, and picky will get something green for hoppy) this will add a sort of visual synergy between each partner set making it more clear when they’re together as a group who the usual pairs are. (Instead of redoing catnap and dogday to fit this rule lets just say that their synergy thing is the red smoke bc when I designed them I didn’t know they were going to be put together as an individual pair instead of being with the rest of the critters as a group.) the idea for how kickin hawks weapons work is that they’re magnetic (either the holsters or a specific point on the weapon itself) and depending on which weapon it is will attach to a different point on his belt (think like polarity the nunchucks won’t attach to the spot where the guns go because the poles in its magnets don’t match the ones for the guns to attach to. This also means that if an enemy has a huge magnet they are guaranteed to never get all of kickins weapons because some of them will have opposing polarity and be repelled by the magnet instead of attracted to it a.k.a science is cool sometimes) The mask is for similar reasons to dogdays because of the fact that bubba uses lots of chemicals and gases similar to catnaps when fighting and kickin doesn’t want to deal with the loose gases effects (at that moment at least I feel like kickin would absolutely be bubba Guinea pig whenever he has a new variation to test) I also dyed some of his feathers with streaks of the reddish orange color because I feel like the moment he got the freedom to choose his appearance he’d go and change it. And uh yeah that’s about it for kickins ramble but if you have questions about the design choices feel free to ask ( while some of these guys may bite I won’t!)

[quitealotofsodapop]

MK ends up supervised at all times when he's pregnant specifically after he nearly burned down Pigsy's due to pregnancy brain, usually by Red Son and/or Mei but occasionally by the others. They let his siblings babysitsupervise him one time and the older adults came back to them all asleep in a cuddle pile on the couch with MK in the center, Mei's phone still on and playing the OSP 'History Hijinks' playlist because dorky mortals do be dorky sometimes

MK also absolutely has Wukong's "Gold Vision lets me see the baby(s)" thing and would just lovingly watch his kids as they developed via Gold Vision, drawing what he sees for Red and the others (except Wukong cuz he can ofc also see the developing grandkids). Red has all of the drawings compiled into a photo album, along with ultrasounds and so many pictures of just pregnant MK. He loves his husband very very much

Awwwww!!!! I havent much to add because these are so cute!

Wukong and Macaque are protective ofc, but they've been through the pregnant monkey motions before, so they give MK almost-complete freedom whenever he's with them. DBK and PIF in contast have an army of Bull Clones at the ready to attend MK's every need and ensure the safe arrival of their future grand-heirs.

Pigsy would def be the most insistent that MK take parental leave from work - both out of concern (thats his adoptive son and grandpiglets there), and out of fear for his poor restaurant. Tang thinks he's over-reacting a bit, but carrys MK's food to him irregardless. Sandy ofc is the most trusted expert when it comes to breathing exercises, teas, and aromatherapy.

Mei is chiller about letting MK do stuff for himself around the house, but wisely doesn't let him cook something unsupervised. Nezha and Chenxiang are chill in their own ways too, but they worry when MK carries anything heavier than a book. Bai He and the Eclipse Twins are determined to make sure MK stays off his feet until the spicynoodles baby(s) arrive. They would be mega-proud and bossy about it too since; "I'm their uncle/auntie!", and MK adores his little siblings too much to argue with them. Sibling cuddle piles/nests are a common occurance.

With Red, atleast MK can convince her to let him walk to the corner store for snacks. Red does insist that MK take a Bull Clone to carry any heavy weights tho (bonus: safety precaution).

MK using his Gold Vision to "peak in" at the developing baby(s) is such an adorable idea. He probably does it first on accident and is speechless. Wukong tells him how he did the same thing when Macaque was pregnant with MK (+when Shadowpeach had Rumble & Savage), and that its super cool to watch the little guy(s) grow. MK would def sketch up what he sees in there and pins it next to the corresponding ultrasound for comparision.

I feel like thats how they found out there was twins...

Ultrasound Technician: "Ok, looks like you've got a big healthy baby demon in there!" MK, turns on Gold-Vision: "Huh, but whats this blobby bit of energy here? Normally I see only one." Ultrasound technician: *moves sensor to the spot* "Oh!! Make that two healthy babies! That one must have been hiding behind its twin." MK: :D!! Red Son: *faints with joy*

Red Son def has an endless wallet/photo album of their growing family. Their almost as bad as their dad - Mr "Canonically brags about the exact time of his kid's birth to anyone who'd listen" DBK. Red Son got the timestamps ready for their own bragging.

[baby--charchar]

what was vaggies first accident like? I feel like she would’ve freaked out, depending on if it was with Charlie or Lucifer. Also unrelated, but does little vaggie like her hair being played with? I love the idea of luci or Charlie putting her hair up for her so she can play 💗

Oh yeah, it was an ordeal.

It was when she first started letting herself regress. Charlie and Lucifer were both there, but Charlie was directly watching Vaggie while Lucifer was just hanging out/brainstorming/sketching over by the window. They were watching Howls Moving Castle and Vaggie was absolutely enthralled. She was so absorbed by the screen, and getting up and pacing around while getting super stimmy. Well, one scene just engrossed her so much that her body just...relaxed. She didn't even realize that she had to go, she just started wetting herself without warning. She wasn't thinking straight, and it felt natural in that headspace.

It took a second before Charlie noticed and (shocked) she actually had to point it out to Vaggie. Vaggie startled and came back into her big headspace really roughly, ran to the bathroom, and cried in the shower for an hour. When she came out, all she said was, "I want to buy some diapers." And that was that.

Also, I think Vaggie is very 50/50 on hair. Sometimes she'll let you play with it, other times she might smack your hand away cuz ouchie!

[spacetravels]

hello! so i absolutely LOVED that mermaid au huntlow comic you drew; i was wondering if you had any more headcanons/ideas/world building/art for that au that you’d be willing to share?? i’m just a sucker for mer!aus AND huntlow, and yours was pretty much the first/only one i came across and i have a mighty need for that combo 🥹🥰

ps. i’m in sO MUCH LOVE with your art style aaaahhh 🥹🥹🥰🥰���✨✨

wahh thank you 🥺💖 !! the au idea itself was the prompt i got for the valentines event, but i latched onto it so excitedly cuz i’ve been dying for AGES to figure out a huntlow merm AU so i am super grateful to my giftee LOL i do have some ideas about it :]

here’s my initial design sketches for hunter & willow tho so this isn’t All Text

but my major ideas are like. willow’s an ecologist with kind of fantastical dreams of proving the existence of mermaids cause when she was a child she nearly drowned but was saved by what she believes is a mermaid, so it’s been a lowkey obsessive hunt for proof while conducting research for her uni thesis lol

meanswhile hunter’s a mermaid prince and is often out on scouts (both of his own insistence and the convenience of keeping him out of his uncle’s way) because he’s too curious for his own good…! very much ariel-esque in wanting to explore the surface/see what’s out in the world but is confined by like . the expectation that he’ll take over the throne someday. he doesn’t want that tho he wants to live his own life…

uhhh they meet by accident the first time cuz hunter got too bold seeing a human and it was like. pointing spider-man meme. the comic i drew is their technical second meeting, where they finally speak to each other hehe…

other things: willow’s staying at a lighthouse with longtime penpal luz, who’s been trying to find proof of mermaids for ages (they met on an online forum after willow was rescued and have shot theories back n forth ever since)

amity & gus are mermaids in the high court—gus is hunter’s advisor and closest friend, amity is hunter’s academic rival but in a fun friendly way and writes humanfic based on books that have made their way to the mer realm

is hunter the mermaid who saved willow and thus sparked their mutual interest in each other’s existence? 😳? is water wet? who knows—

[mimjandoodlesstuff]

April Fusions haha

They kept rotting my brain for a hot second so I started writing up concepts myself, but then this ask properly sprung me into action. @bluepeachstudios you've done it again with the hinting!

I suppose the only really interesting things about these takes are how I named them. I already have a fusion storyline planned for my own TMNT iteration, and the Turtles fuse with April in it so I combined their names there. I didn't want to do that again here, so instead I took a more unique approach. I named them after each of the Turtles' VAs' birthday months (because, you know, April). I mean, why not utilise canon/meta/out-of-universe facts for a project like this? I can't do this for my own characters. I did have two rules in place in case any of them overlapped, of which I was forced to use one.

May

May is probably my least favourite out of the bunch. There's really nothing about her that screams Leo besides like- a shell, blue eyes, injuries... It's probably therefore not surprising I drew her first, so I really didn't know what I wanted to emphasise and so on. I should probably have had her face the camera more to get a better sense of her jawline. Make sure to make it nice and boxy lol

The plastron pride flags are demigirl, aroace and lesbian. While I do in my heart of hearts believe Leo has a not insignificant crush on Captain Ryan, I still wanted our gal to be a flaming lesbian despite that lol.

March

March was incredibly fun to draw, and not just because @bluecookiesabi is an absolute joy to hang out with (thank the heavens for Discord streams!). I just really like drawing more feminine characters. I had most likely already sketched both May and March before I found the ask so I didn't know March is agender, but I don't think that's a problem at all. Agender people are allowed to be feminine, after all. And I don't consider Donnie to be some pinnacle of masculinity to begin with.

I figured, since the fic tags state that Donnie's autistic here, I'd give March just fluffy socks and slippers to keep dust and dirt from their feet for sensory reasons. That is definitely not projection on my part.

They're kind of giving 2003 April vibes with their hair in a bun. That was a happy accident which I'm really glad I kept to.

January

January is just green April. Hers and Mikey's designs are already so incredibly similar in-canon I'm convinced she'd look pretty much exactly like him had she been mutated into a turtle. I didn't even feel the need to open January's eyes since they'd just be the same shade of blue more or less.

I don't have much to say about him other than she was fun to draw. Gymnastics poses are honestly kind of therapeutic to draw. But also, how are they able to make that pose? The answer is simple: January is just built different.

I also labelled xir as only aroace since I don't know what you have planned for Mikey.

September

I'm really happy with how he turned out. While sketching I couldn't get the pose really working but once I did she really came together. I'd say September is the only Fusion (besides maybe March) that actually looks like the people he's made up of merged. Raph's stocky build fits April surprisingly well. And the choice to give her April's kunoichi getup but tattered was a really good idea in my opinion, and I'd like to give @pechtothevoid the credit they are so deservedly owed for that idea.

While not fic accurate at all, I had such a difficult time coming up with a good weapon for September. Who knew combining sai with tessen would be difficult? So instead I gave her a boomerang, which reminded me of Sokka, so I just straight up gave him Sokka's boomerang. I like the idea of her, upon fusing, just snagging Sokka's boomerang from the Mae Whitman-verse and using it as a blunt force weapon. I wanted to in a similar vein give him the One Ring from the Sean Astin-verse, but I couldn't get that to look good no matter how I placed it.

I like the name rules I came up with. Basically, since I didn't know in which months any of their actors were born in I had to come up with a replacement idea for naming in case any of them happen to overlap. The first rule was that if Rob and Greg happened to share a month with anyone else, the Donnie and Mikey Fusions would automatically get assigned December and May respectively. If Seth or Sean were to have overlapped with anyone, Leo's and Raph's Fusions would get the/a month whose first letter is the closest to either character's first name. March and January checked out, but since Seth and Sean are both born in February, I was forced to assign Leo and Raph May and September each. Small price to pay, honestly.

Tcest DNI and NO REPOSTING. Both groups can go die UwU

[bsd-cherish-official]

BSD: Cherish Second Anniversary Interview

On September 21st, the second anniversary of the fanfic, Bungou Stray Dogs: Cherish, a post was made on this account by myself, its author and first artist, @linklethehistorian, stating that in celebration of the big milestone, I would be running a poll-based interview consisting of 10 polls with five questions each — which fans of the fic could vote on and have the most popular questions in each poll to be answered at the end of the voting period.

This is the result of those polls, and my responses to the winning questions that were determined therein.

Full interview below the cut for minor Cherish spoilers. Proceed on to read.

Q: Why did you choose to have four different artstyles used throughout the fic?

A: Well, in the beginning, you know, for the first…almost a year or so, I didn’t really have a co-artist on the project with me; it was just me, myself and I that was working on Cherish alone, and I knew from the very beginning that I wanted to have artwork for — and included in — the fic, so in that first year-ish that it existed, I basically just had to make do with using my own artstyle that was based on the BSD anime.

So, you already have that going on, and I was pretty happy with that, but the truth is that from the beginning, I’d always really wanted to have at least some of the art — especially the cover art I’d sketched up years and years back — resemble the actual official art from Harukawa-sensei in the BSD  manga and light novels. After about a year of procrastinating and overthinking everything about it, I finally worked up the courage to ask my friend, Asachuu, who was not only a fan of the story but also had a very lovely artstyle and was very good at recreating the look I wanted, if it would be possible for us to collab on a piece, and sent the old sketch for the cover, and from there things kind of just…took off. Pretty soon, one single collab had very happily turned into me suddenly having a dedicated co-artist who could contribute some absolutely beautiful BSD manga-reminiscent artworks for certain chapters.

Then, after the Storm Bringer Stage Play had come out, I ended up extremely inspired by a lot of the very cute and lighthearted official chibi artworks and merch that sprung up from it, and thus, by the end of last year, I ultimately wound up endeavoring to create some chibi artwork of my own for Cherish; originally, this was not intended to be any sort of long-term staple for the story, as I expected it would just be a one-and-done thing to surprise fans with during the holidays, but…as I’m sure most of you have seen, after discovering how fairly quick and easy yet still adorable the end result was, I made the choice to continue with that style of art for all of our little celebrations, events, and milestones. 

Lastly, those little chibi drawings also unintentionally came to invent a brand-new style of coloration in regards to my methods, which resulted in the final type of my artwork that you see involving Cherish — a sort of lighter, softer way of coloring that results in an almost crayon-like effect. This was initially a complete accident, as it was nothing more than me using a random brush for the first colored sketch of the holiday 2022 piece, but after some experimentation with keeping it for the finished work, I found that I really liked it quite a lot and later began using it for more than just the chibi-style artworks, as it brought a certain warmth and light-heartedness to the scenes, and reminded me a tiny bit of this one still image from the first season of the BSD anime:

And so, there you have it! Although the gorgeous manga-reminiscent style of my co-artist may be the well-known face of the fic in a lot of ways given that our collaborations are reserved for and make up the bulk of many of the most intense or important scenes and chapters of the story, every artstyle that is involved with Cherish’s official art has its own special and equally important part to play therein.

Asachuu’s manga-like style lends a certain extra feeling of authenticity to Cherish as having its place among the other BSD light novels, and presents certain scenes and chapters in a uniquely stunning form, and with extra attention to detail that likely wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

The more typical BSD anime artstyle that is my usual signature, with its fuller and more official-looking coloring technique, is used to depict the rest of the darker, more somber-toned scenes that do not receive the previous treatment; this, I feel, not only properly represents the anime artstyle in some form as I had wanted to begin with, but also brings forth a sadder, more down-to-earth aspect than its lighter and fluffier, almost crayon-like colored counterpart, which is conversely used to evoke the happier, more heartwarming moments and emotions within the fic.

And, of course, the chibi artstyle allows me to make much more quick, cute, and mostly much less serious little drawings to share with my friends and fans of the story, easily celebrate special events and milestones, and express my endless gratitude toward Cherish’s continued support. 💖

Q: Who are your least and most favorite characters to write for in the fic?

A: Oh, this is kind of a tough one. I actually wouldn’t say I genuinely dislike writing for any of the characters that have appeared in Cherish thus far, but I guess if I had to pick one that I liked dealing with a little less than the rest, that would have to be Ango; it’s not that he’s a bad character by any means, and I honestly like him in BSD quite a fair bit, it’s simply that he’s the most…I guess you could say “ordinary” or “stiff”…out of the group, in terms of outward personality — at least, under the circumstances in which he was introduced and presented up until now. 

“He was still pleasant to write and there was a moment or two there that was a little fun to do, he just didn’t really have the chance to truly show off the more intricate parts of his soul in that scene”, is I guess how I’d put it.

As for most favorite, that’s a bit harder to pin down. haha I like all of the main cast in different ways. 

Obviously, I’m very, very fond of both Arthurs; not only do I just really love both of their personalities and find them both super interesting, but I also relate to them both in a lot of different ways, and the subjects that often get tackled with their scenes, dialogue, and thoughts are all very important matters to me that I treat with a lot of personal care, respect, and passion, so it would be very hard for me to say that those two aren’t one of the absolute main highlights of writing Cherish to begin with.

At the same time, though, also really into writing for Chuuya and Paul — especially when they’re interacting with each other, because of how perfectly their polar opposite personalities, apparent outlooks, and ways of communicating their feelings play off of each other, though definitely not exclusively there, either. I really just find them fun, well-written, and fascinating to explore in general, too.

And then of course there’s Mori. I guess if we had to talk about pure novelty and entertainment value alone when it comes to writing, then he would have to be the top pick for the most fun and smooth experience overall, since his ability to change from cheerful to chilling on a dime, like the simple flip of a light switch — or even accomplish both at the same time, without even doing anything explicitly threatening at all — is a uniquely cool concept and character trait to play with. 

I don’t know, to be honest, I just think they’re all super neat in their own ways.

Q: Are there any outfits you really want to draw someone in, in a future artwork?

A: Oh God, you have no idea how many, but yes; I have a lot of planned outfits for the future that I want to draw and release some proper Cherish art for, and some that I really already have done and just haven’t been able to share with all of you because it is spoilery.

I think two outfits in particular I’d really like to draw in a full-on chapter artwork, though, are the outfit Arthur was wearing to the restaurant in Chapter 10, and then the cute little casual number Chuuya was wearing in Chapter 11. You can actually see both of those in the Valentine’s and White Day chibi artworks I’ve made for this year, but I consider those to be a little bit different from drawing it in a more properly proportioned piece…

Q: Are there any minor plotholes you’ve had to go back and fix that nobody noticed?

A: Well, technically, yes — if memory serves, at least; I mean, I believe the day that I released Chapter 10, I had left in one instance in which Mori called Paul “Verlaine-kun” right there in front of Arthur, despite that the doctor himself had been the one to insist that he use an alias, and I think I then had to go back and fix that retroactively so that he called him “Marion-kun” instead. 

Granted, they were both speaking Japanese to begin with, so it’s not totally impossible that Arthur wouldn’t have picked up on what Mori was calling him, but…yeah, to be honest, I think that’s one thing that both Mori wouldn’t risk and Arthur wouldn’t so easily overlook or fail to hear.

Other than that…well, this isn’t technically a plothole or anything because it did have a reason from the start — it’s more just a case of something not having been elaborated on as much as I’d like — but there’s currently a scene in Chapter 6 where Rimbaud, in a fit of frustration and emotion, goes off to Paul about how no one back home was worth returning to or would even really miss him if he died or disappeared, and he references his past lover fairly clearly as having been a man.

The possible “problem” that I think there’s potential for someone to take away from this moment is that later on, Arthur acts deeply worried about Paul finding this fact out and being severely discriminatory or cruel to him as most people in his original time were about such things and refusing to continue being there for him or even helping him as a result — thereby possibly making it seem like I’d forgotten that Arthur had had this outburst.

That isn’t really the case, though; moreso, it was originally intended for there to be a scene at some point where Arthur would reflect back on what he had said and inwardly question why Paul had continued to be so kind to him despite knowing that he had been involved with a man, ultimately deciding that it was likely that Verlaine didn’t really pay attention or give enough thought to all of the finer details of all of what he was rambling on about back then, in the heat of the moment, too focused on calming the teen down to be bothered with picking apart every statement he’d made — as Arthur himself simply couldn’t imagine he’d have been lucky enough, on top of all the other ‘highly fortunate’ circumstances he’d landed in, to have also just so happened to find someone who would be that ‘absurdly’ willing to overlook his orientation. (It’s not like he could have imagined that Paul simply wouldn’t think anything of it at all — which was actually the case…)

Unfortunately, I forgot to put that dialogue in, so at present, it kind of just has to be inferred by the reader… I do have plans to go back at some point before the start of the next arc and add this in, in some manner, but thankfully no one so far seems to have cared that this wasn’t explicitly explained, so I’m glad of that, at least.

And if you have wondered…well, I guess you have the answer for now. Sorry it’s not explicitly in the fic at the moment, but hopefully it will be quite soon.

Q: Is there anything you’re afraid you might have been TOO subtle about?

A: Well…yes. I’m going to put up a disclaimer here and now that the response to this question could not only be potentially triggering for some people who have experienced certain types of trauma, but also is kind of NSFW, so…if either of those things might be a problem for you for any reason, you may want to skip over this question.

We alright? Have you decided whether you wanted to keep reading this or not?

Okay. Let’s get into it, then.

So…while I don’t exactly want to say there isn’t plenty of room or time or even plans to perhaps go into it more deeply later, since there definitely is and I most likely will in some manner, given that it is my first time delving into such topics, I do wonder now and again if some of the dark implications made in Chapter 7, Chapter 8, and Chapter 13 — namely, that Arthur had been through multiple cases of extreme sexual trauma, in addition to the other emotional and physical traumas he had endured throughout his life — were altogether too cryptic to have been picked up on by the average reader at present. 

I did intend from the very beginning to be more subtle about the matter in these chapters and only make little references to it in passing where it was immediately relevant and/or was natural to come to mind for Arthur in light of the situation, but I frequently worry if the things that I see as having been decently clear indications towards that end actually were decently clear or not. I suppose it doesn’t matter if they were or not, since that is something that as I said is bound to be more obvious at some point in the future chapters anyway, but it is something I think about nonetheless.

I think that if you were fully familiar with and completely in the current know about the poet Arthur Rimbaud’s life as it unfolded in our world, and especially have kept up with all of the most recent findings, then you might have a slightly better chance at putting two and two together on your own, and in that case I think my words will almost certainly have served their purpose, but for anyone else, I do have some minor concerns that maybe my desire to have been more subtle about it at this stage in the story actually ended up backfiring and making it altogether impossible to assume or even question…

Anyway, that particular heavy subject aside, I often also just in general worry about whether or not I’m coming off clearly enough when it comes to any existing or possible future hints towards anything that is remotely non-traumatically sexual or relating to sexual attraction in nature as a whole, since, as an asexual person who myself doesn’t experience sexual attraction whatsoever, it is a subject matter that on some levels is fairly unnatural to my own personal human experience and sexuality; I don’t think that I’m bad at talking about it by any means, I just don’t know that I’m particularly amazing at it, either.

But yeah, those are…pretty much my only main times when being too subtle might have ever crossed my mind, I think…?

Q: What’s the message you most want people to walk away with after reading Cherish?

A: Good question.

The thing is, I wouldn’t say that I originally created Cherish with any specific message in mind at all; I mean, obviously, there were always going to be heavy themes and topics that I knew it would have to tackle, and there were things that it definitely represented to me on a personal level after it came into being, but back when I first created the headcanons themselves that would eventually become this story, considering that I had absolutely zero plans to share it with anyone at the time, I didn’t really ever consider the idea of it carrying an actual message I wanted to convey.

Even now, I don’t want to define Cherish as this thing that exists solely for the purpose of communicating a particular idea to others, because it isn’t; I’ve known from the very beginning that to some people, this tale is just going to be something they look at and enjoy on a completely surface level — as something that is exactly what it says on the tin and nothing more — and I’m fine with that.

To me, Cherish is both of these things: a story that exists simply for the sake of itself — for the love of its characters, its pairings, and its plot, taken entirely at face value — and something which on a deeper level also represents and carries a great deal of messages and concepts which happen to be very important to me, that I hope other people might see and feel touched by as well.

Given that it does represent more than one thing in my eyes, though, that makes this question a little hard to answer; provided I had the ability to ensure it somehow, I’m really not sure which message I would want everyone to walk away with the most.

I suppose, in the end, if I could only choose one thing, then the message that I would most want my readers to see would depend upon who they themselves are, and what they need to hear most.

As I’ve mentioned in one post before, I would very much like it if some victims of abuse and/or trauma might be able to feel seen and heard by the fic, and maybe even find hope or at least catharsis in reading it. I don’t want to say too much about the matter in this particular interview, as a lot of the commentary I could make beyond that could lead to spoilers for people who would rather not know certain things that will happen or the outcome of them, but I will say that there are many questions and themes in this fic that I would like to believe might strike a comforting note for some people who are going through a lot of uncertainty in their lives, in the aftermath of traumatic and/or abusive experiences.

Likewise, I would hope that for anyone who maybe knows someone who has gone through abuse or trauma but struggles with understanding it, because this story has not only been carefully researched and written about, but also by, someone who has been through certain types of abuse and experienced the lasting effects of trauma, it might be able to help them get a closer look at some of the possible ways those things can present themselves and the things that can potentially go through our heads as a result.

For someone who might be reading this with either a newly budding or already pre-existing interest in the real life Arthur Rimbaud who once lived here in our world, I would like to think that this story — albeit having some minor differences here and there that I will get to in a later question — might show a bit more nuance towards his situation compared to how many other forms of media surrounding the topic (especially, but not limited to, the English ones) tend to present it.

Having spent the many, many years that I have researching his life story in multiple languages and every possible remotely credible source I could find, digging to the bottom to find the absolute truth as best as one can, I have found that in many cases, there is sadly far too much of a focus around sensationalism when it comes to coverage of the individuals and events involved, and far too little of a focus on actually bothering to get all of the facts and the interpersonal dynamics straight in order to present the most accurate and nuanced recounting of history that can humanly be given. 

While I don’t want to get too into it in this little interview, as I’ll probably be making a separate post about it sometime anyway, I will put it out there that it is largely thanks to this failure to share crucial details that for quite a while into my earliest endeavors of research, I myself was led to believe the very much false and yet sadly most widely spread, highly sensationalized narrative that either, at best, both Verlaine and Rimbaud were equally terrible people who were, likewise, equally to blame for what happened between them, or at worst, that Rimbaud was the one to blame almost entirely for Verlaine’s supposed “descent” into a crueler and less respectable person — both of which narratives, by the way, cannot exist without completely ignoring and omitting several key facts that provide much more nuance than most of these various coverages were willing to provide: such as the several extreme power dynamics involved in their relationship coming from Verlaine’s side, the extremely traumatic background that Rimbaud had come from and how that had left him a vulnerable target in numerous ways, and most notably, that Verlaine had a pre-established pattern of alcoholism, extreme abusive tendencies of practically all varieties, homicidal urges, guilt-tripping tactics, and exactly everything else for his entire adult — and to some extent even teenage — life, far prior to meeting Arthur, and also continued on that path for the rest of his life even after their parting, whereas Rimbaud by all accounts prior to their meeting was nothing more than what, by today’s standards, would be considered overall a perfectly normal, if (and understandably so, given his background) troubled, teenager, who would later also go on to be a perfectly normal if somewhat withdrawn, well-adjusted adult once their relationship was over.

My hope, then, in that vein, is to tell this story without shying away from or missing those facts, and in doing so, to hopefully present his life story from an angle that is rarely seen or covered by many of the most popular sources of information out there, allowing people to perhaps step away from the great echo chamber of omissions, sensationalism, and misinformation for a moment and view and understand Arthur from a much more real and human perspective — to see him as a real, feeling, troubled human being who once lived, breathed, loved, struggled, and suffered just like nearly anyone else, rather than some dehumanized, over-exaggerated spectacle spoken of purely to be gawked at and made into a shocking and scandalizing caricature into which only the most extreme of rumors and actions are projected, as is so often sadly the case.

So, uh…yeah, those are my main messages I’d like to get across, I guess. I’d like to return to talking about this more in the future when the fic is complete, since by then I can truly get into the topics more, but for now, there you have it.

…I think at the end of the day, though, what’s most important is that people who need it get from Cherish whatever it is they came for; if there’s a message they really need to hear right then, then I hope they hear it. Sometimes as writers, we see a certain message in our stories and we intend to have that come through, but someone finds an entirely different and equally beautiful one inside it instead — one that we didn’t even intend to be there — and it helps them. I think that’s pretty awesome. 

Q: What chapter are you most/least looking forward to recording for?

A: Well, to be honest with you, despite that by the time of answering this, I’ve already finished what I think will be the final recording for it, Chapter 2 has been a massive bitch to work with from beginning to end — nothing like Chapter 1 — so…yes, that would be the one I was least looking forward to recording out of the thirteen chapters that already exist; I’m honestly relieved it’s over.

I don’t really know how to explain what the problem even was with that one; it’s not a bad chapter by any means, but the first time I recorded it — an impossibly perfect take all the way up to the last third of the fic, by the way — I sadly found out that the audio ended up somehow distorted beyond any repair or salvaging, and ever since then the lines for some reason have just refused to be spoken out loud the same way that they do when I read it in my head. 

As of this moment, I still haven’t listened to that recording more than the few seconds that were necessary to make sure that it took this time, so I don’t even know whether or not I’ll end up completely unsatisfied with the result, but it was really the best that I could do, so whatever the case, I’m stuck with it the way that it is. Let’s just hope it doesn’t totally suck.

There are way too many chapters that I think will be a cool experience to record for me to narrow it down to just one right now, but the closest one that I’m really anticipating is actually Chapter 3; I’ve always been really fond of the whole exchange that happened between Paul and Chuuya there, and I think getting to narrate those lines would be really exciting, since up until now, I haven’t had a great opportunity to get into the more emotionally intense lines. I hope that when the time comes, I’m able to do them justice.

Some other chapters I’m really looking forward to recording, I think, are 6, certain parts of 7, 10, and 12.

Q: Is there anything you wish you had been able to keep in the fic, but couldn’t?

A: Well, I definitely think there are some things that would have been more intense and exciting for people who were maybe expecting a more canon-typical plot to what we’ve gotten so far, but I don’t really know that I have regrets about not being able to use them in the fic.

For example, because the very first iteration of the original headcanons that make up what would eventually become Cherish were, well, headcanons, and tied to a much longer overarching storyline with no clear-cut beginning or end, both the way that the story started and, in some aspects, how it will wrap up is somewhat different from how it was back then.

I’m not going to elaborate on that at this time, because there are some aspects of those things that I had to change which I intend to still try to potentially incorporate at a different point in the fic, and thus I don’t want to spoil any of what might happen in the future, but there were definitely things and characters that had to be cut from the final version of Cherish that I do wonder what it would have been like for my readers if I had kept it; I wouldn’t say it’s a regret, though, as I’m quite proud of the fic I have now, and I think it’s probably best as it is currently.

Other than that, I guess my only potential regrets about things I couldn’t keep would have to be some of the deleted scenes and lines delving into certain characters’ mindsets, but I talk about those in the development notes already, so I won’t delve into that here, either. 

Q: Do you plan to find a way to reuse all of the scrapped content for Cherish?

A: As much as I reasonably can without impacting the story in a negative way, at least, yes; it would be utterly impossible for me to keep literally everything in the fic that was ever discarded, but within the margins of good sense, I will try to re-incorporate whatever I feel is important, insightful, cool, or interesting and works with the plot.

Almost anything worth talking about that is left over after that is likely to end up in my Cherish Development Notes, so maybe keep an eye on those if scrapped content tends to pique your fancy.

Q: Do you think Cherish would’ve been as successful if it kept its original title?

A: Honestly? In some ways, I think it probably would’ve been a lot more successful – at least, in terms of marketing. 

The thing about Cherish as a title is that although it’s very fitting for the story, and I do love it a lot, it’s very definitely not even half as marketable as a name like Storm Chaser would’ve been; there’s simply no getting around that fact.

Yes, for a fic, something short, sweet, and romantic like ‘Cherish’ does just fine – it’s expected, even; searching it up as a fic title right now, in fact, there are a total of 764 results, 3 of which by the exact same title are in the BSD fandom – obviously including mine. That’s just the issue, though; sure, it’s a perfectly normal and acceptable title, but that just means that when it comes to marketing, it doesn’t help it to stand out at all from the others.

If we’re talking in terms of more conventional ideas of success and popularity, then for a fic that is meant to be a fully-fledged light novel of the same quality and effort as its official canon kin – and which has been made into such a massive project stretched out across so many forms of media – having a title that sounds like what one would usually expect to be some little oneshot drabble of the most common kind is absolutely a bad move.

Storm Chaser as a title for a fic, on the other hand, has only 29 total entries on AO3, none of which are in the BSD fandom, and it sounds like an actually plausible name for an official sequel to Storm Bringer; there is no doubt that at the very least, something like that would absolutely generate more clicks and hits out of pure curiosity alone than Cherish ever could. 

That being said, though, generating more curiosity clicks doesn’t necessarily mean generating more genuine love and interest, and I’d rather have people clicking out of interest in the summary and description and tags than over something as petty as the title to begin with – not to mention that I decided a long time ago I’d rather make Cherish from the depth of my heart in every way, in accordance with what I want it to be, than to worry about its popularity levels.

Q: How historically accurate do you feel that this fic is in its representations?

A: Well, at least more accurate than a great deal of the more popular sources of information out there, when it comes to irl Rimbaud and Verlaine’s life stories and situations, unfortunately — as I said further up above.

Granted, there are going to be some small differences and creative liberties taken here and there, given that the versions of them presented in Cherish come from a slightly alternate universe to ours, but that’s mostly just to do with the fact that in this alt-world, Paul actually succeeded at making a second attempt on Arthur’s life at the train station where the teen intended to have their final parting; apart from that and the obvious connecting of dots and filling in of blanks wherever information simply didn’t fully exist about the more intimate and intricate details of their lives, great care was taken to ensure that everything was presented as realistically and accurately as possible, according to all of the intensive research I have done about them over the years.

As for the general historical representation of the time period they come from itself, I’d like to think that I’m doing well with it, as I try to do my research on every aspect the very best that I can, but aside from certain highly specific subjects, I don’t claim to be half so much of an expert of the general late Victorian era itself as much as I am an expert on them and their life stories, relationship, and circumstances specifically; if there’s a minor slip-up or two in regards to facts about the era that I somehow managed to overlook or misunderstand, I’m truly sorry about that. haha

Q: What is your favorite fan interaction you’ve had to this day?

A: I’m going to guess that my interactions with my dear co-artist don’t count here, right? In that case, it would definitely be finding out that my new pal, @dazaisshippingcontainer, is making fanart of my fic; that was such a touching moment for me — the thought that someone out there (especially someone that at the time I wasn’t close to) had been reading my fic and loving it enough to actually make fanart for it. 😭 Moments like this are moments I truly treasure beyond compare. Ily Clover, buddy. 💖

Let’s be honest, though; I love and live for every single fan interaction I’ve had to date. 🥺💖 They all mean the world to me.

And of course there’s Art — my dear, dear friend and co-artist, whom I appreciate so, so much… I truly feel blessed by it all.

Q: Do you ever read your own fic?

A: Oh, you have no idea... lol Yes, yes, and a thousand times more: yes. I adore Cherish; it’s not just something I wrote for you all to enjoy — it’s something I wrote for me, too, something precious that I adore with all of my heart, and something that I’m immensely proud of.

Every time I release a chapter, I read it together with my partner, and besides that, I probably re-read a chapter from my fic —if not multiple or all of them — just by myself at least once a week.

Needless to say, I really love Cherish.

Q: How many animatics do you plan to have for Cherish?

A: Ideally, I’d like to have at least one for every arc in the fic, plus one last animatic at the very end as a final look back on the story and a great celebration — which would make for six — but I don’t know how that will actually work out, in the end, given how massive of a project making even just one can be; I may end up making more than that or less — we’ll just have to wait and see, I suppose.

—

And, that would be all. Thank you for your questions, everyone, and I look forward to the next time we hold an interview like this together!

[houseoffourcats]

What Do You Need to Know? Pick a Pile and Find Out!

CW: Illustrated nudity and bondage

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Pile 1

Queen of Wands - The Moon (Reversed) - The Hermit

Wow, with two Major Arcana cards and the Queen of Wands, this is reading hints at some major things to come! As far as the illustrations here, notice how the Queen of Wands is looking away from the Moon, and the Hermit is likewise walking away from it.

You’re going to be at the helm of something major, responsible not only for having the vision of what you hope to accomplish but carrying it out as well. It will be very anxiety-inducing and overwhelming at first, even if you were the person who came up with the idea, but once you sort out all the components and steps required, it will become a lot more manageable.

Taking dedicated time to reflect isn’t a bad idea, and in fact it’s absolutely necessary to carry out something as complex as what you’re doing. Still, there’ll be a point at which thinking things through will bog you down with too many details, making you more confused instead of less. When you get to the point of asking yourself or others the same questions and getting the same (non-) answers, you should pick the easiest step to start with and do it - even if it’s just answering an email or drawing a rough sketch. Starting to get things done will build your confidence and help you remember your ultimate purpose in this spurring you on to see it through.

Pile 2

The Magician (Reversed) - X of Coins - The Devil

The interesting thing we have here is a very encouraging card in the middle surrounded by a couple of Major Arcana cards that are major red flags. This suggests that the good signified by the X of Coins comes at a high price, and might not be all it’s made out to be.

More specifically, someone who you want to trust will offer you something exciting. This is likely to be in the realm of your career, but could also be in the form of property such as a new house or a future inheritance. There’s a very good chance that this offer will result in financial success and security that will allow you to support or even start a family. However, it comes with strings attached. The job may not be something you enjoy even if it’s lucrative, or a relative might impose unpleasant conditions on being included in their will. Improving or maintaining your standard of living may depend on remaining beholden to whoever made you the offer - someone who may not have been completely honest in making it.

Think carefully about what you’d do for stability, both for your happiness and your integrity. Ask questions of whoever is offering you something, and do your own research if it still seems too good to be true. Try to come up with a limit for yourself, where you’ll walk away if it gets too unpleasant, and assert this boundary early before you get too invested.

Pile 3

Temperance (Reversed) - III of Wands (Reversed) - Page of Wands (Reversed)

Being both first in the spread and a Major Arcana card, Temperance reversed is going to be the driving factor of the situation here. The meaning of this card matches up with that of the reversed Page of Wands, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they apply to the same person.

You’re starting out on something that will be important to you, whether you know it or not. Unfortunately, you’re at risk of making a major mistake that will delay your progress and set you back - spending too much money at the beginning, possibly, or getting into a car accident as a result of drunk driving. If you do make such a mistake, you’ll be tempted to just continue on, and other people in your life may be impatient with you, expecting you to get back on track immediately.

Be patient with yourself and the process, though, and take the time you need to regroup. In addition to taking care of your physical and mental health in the aftermath of any emergency, your task is to figure out how not to end up back in the same situation next time, If the people urging you to hurry up and get back to it are relying on you, like family members or clients, try to find other people who can meet your needs until you can again. Otherwise, they can wait - they’re not in your position, and this is your journey.

—

I hope you enjoyed this reading! If so, please check out my Etsy page for personalized readings. For now, though, here’s Wes with his broom, pretending he has opposable thumbs with which to use it: