Welcome to my brain dumping page! This is where I dump art, story ideas, other nonsensical mixtures that shark up my head. Because if I don't do it, nobody will. You can find my writings on Ao3 (NostalgiaPoisoning/StoryJoker) and FF.net (DurantExeggcute). ♣ Page and artistic skills are in development. ♣ ♣ Skill to level up: Digital drawing ♣ ♥ Names I Collect ♥ ♠ Ly (like the suffix) ♠ ♦ Suffie ♦ ♠ Joker ♠ ♦ Tissue ♦
A/N: I could be writing Sole Memorial (formulating the chapter while I’m at work does not make good production) or any other backlog fic I got, but instead I wanted to write out this ABL headcanon. So... enjoy!
Atta had thought her pacing days were over, at least those ones where she would act like the sky was falling. But things just couldn’t be so easy for her, could they?
No, they couldn’t, and that was why she was pacing to and fro in front of her bedroom, waiting anxiously for word from inside. “I should be in there,” Atta muttered, pausing to touch the leaves, and then go right back to pacing. “But can I really… No, no, I should. What kind of message am I sending by being out here?”
“Trust, for one thing,” Mother piped up, petting Aphie as she could any ordinary day. “Besides, Dr. Flora will need all the concentration she can get.”
Atta stopped and tried to force her wings still, but they still quivered. “But what if something happens and I’m not there?” she asked. “I should be there for my—”
“Trust me, you’ll be the first to know if anything changes.” Mother grasped her hands—Atta hadn’t even noticed her put Aphie down—and squeezed. “Now follow my lead. Breathe in… and out…” She herself took deep breaths to demonstrate, and the familiar guidance began to calm Atta’s nerves. “There we go, that’s my girl. Everything will be fine, I know, and do you know why?”
“Because Dr. Flora’s on the case?” Atta answered almost absently.
“Yes, and what else?”
After a little more consideration, Atta gave her a sheepish smile. “I guess Flik has gotten out of worse scrapes than this.”
“Well, that, but what I’m trying to say is this happens all the time”—Mother affixed her with a firm look—“and you still see plenty of fathers in the colony, don’t you?”
“Right, right.” Another smile, this time nostalgic. “It’s our lot in life.”
“Well, maybe not our lot, but it’s our life,” Mother chuckled.
No one knew why nor how, but there was a strange phenomenon among most bug species that males would fall ill after trying for a child. It varied from bug to bug, some mild and some severe; but it happened without fail. Every couple knew to expect the telltale symptoms of exhaustion that fell in the morning. Even Flik, it seemed, had no choice but to follow that rule.
Exhaustion just might have been an understatement, however. “He just looked so…”
As Atta recalled what happened earlier that morning, what peace she gained began to melt away. She'd woken up to find Flik awfully pale and unmoving, much like he’d been after the night of the colony’s revolution. It was because she’d seen him like this before that she thought she was just having a nightmare, only becoming horrified once she realized she wasn’t dreaming. How else was she supposed to feel, seeing such a jarring change when her consort had been so lively merely hours before?
After that, no amount of fact could phase her. It didn’t matter that this was something almost every ant parent went through at some point. It didn’t matter that there existed fathers in the colony, healthy as could be. It didn’t even matter that Flik had startled awake (though it was hard to tell) at her panicking. All she cared about was getting someone to help, please help, don’t let her lose him!
“I should have known this would happen. Something always happens, it’s Flik,” she muttered, and then she sighed wistfully. “But he’s so good with Dot and the other children, and I wanted—and he also—he said he’d be okay and like an idiot I believed him.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Mother began softly, understanding, “your father was much the same way when we agreed to have you, and didn’t he turn out fine?”
Atta bit back a retort.
But it seemed her message still rang clear. “I know you’re worried, and don’t you think I don’t understand.” Mother squeezed her hands again, this time a little tighter. “Just follow the doctor’s orders, and that boy will be up and running in no time. In the meantime”—she sent a knowing glance down—“you can go tell the colony the good news.”
“The colony! That’s right, I have to make an announcement!” Then Atta pulled away and groaned when she realized just what she had to explain. “Though I wouldn’t be surprised if they already know. I must have woken everyone up.”
“Maybe our younger members, sure,” chirped Dr. Flora, peeking through the leaf curtains. “But I recall when a certain queen before you screamed so loud we formed an army!”
“Flora,” Mother chided and sent her a halfhearted warning look, “I trust you have some words to ease your queen.”
“Oh, yes.” Dr. Flora stepped aside and allowed her nurses to leave. “You can come inside, now. We’ll be back later to check on him, but he’s stable.” She giggled knowingly. “I should go make sure Thorny hasn’t keeled over by now.” Another giggle, and then she was on her way. “Congratulations, Your Majesty!” Almost immediately after, nearby passing ants followed with their own greetings and congratulations—some had noticeably stiff edges to them.
Atta groaned again and would have hid her quickly heating face if not for her growing desire to return to Flik’s side. Straightening up, she marched through the leaves, ready to face whatever sight lay within.
And once she did, her anxiousness fell away.
Flik was nearly fully hidden under the petals save for his hands, which had bunched some of the petals against his face in a clear display of embarrassment. Sickly pale as he was, he was still very much alive. Even his groans were more akin to awkwardness than pain.
Atta sat at the edge of the flower, soon torn between taking a hand or crossing her arms. The first option won out. “You scared me to death, you know,” she scolded him.
Flik startled and lowered the petal hiding him. “A-Atta, hey!” He flashed her a smile; tired in his current state, but still oddly charming. “W-what brings you here?”
“To our room?” Atta said, raising a brow.
“Oh, of course! Ours. We’re…” He brought the petal back up a little, but he looked more thoughtful now. “So, we’re actually having a…”
“We are.” Atta gave Flik’s hand a small squeeze. “Hard to believe.”
“Yeah…” Oh, he’s got stars in his eyes now. “A little tyke of our own. Who’da thought?”
“You hadn’t?”
“It was more of a fantasy to me.”
It was certainly more than Atta ever thought, but she kept that to herself. “Tell me about this fantasy,” she said instead. “Maybe… any names?”
“I have, actually, though it’s been a while since I thought of them,” Flik confessed. “Let’s see… I guess, for our first girl, I’d always liked—”
Before he could finish, the leaves forcefully parted. The pair turned their eyes to see a buzzing and lilac blur making a beeline to the bed.
Thankfully, for all her obvious worry, Dot refrained from barreling into her brother-in-law. “Flik! You okay?!” she cried. “I heard you got really sick, but I was stuck in Blueberry Scouts and had to stay until we were done!”
“Aw, I’m fine, kiddo,” Flik chuckled and patted her head. “Just need a little rest, that’s all.”
“What happened? You were fine yesterday.”
“Uh—well…” Flik tried to laugh the awkwardness away. “Atta and I were working on a special project, and I may have overexerted myself?” He sent her an apologetic glance.
Dot glanced at her sister, frowned suspiciously, and set her attention back to Flik. “But how come Atta’s okay?”
The apologetic glance returned with a plea for help.
And thus began a long and hopefully friendly explanation for the coming of a new member of the family.
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A/N: Hope you enjoyed! And yes, my headcanon that I wanted to write out is that bug fathers get sick instead of outright dying. ( -v-)
This can go either two ways: a general sick story with no stakes, or something that leads Atta (and maybe also Dot) on a small quest to get some medicine that happened to run out.
P.S. If there’s interest, I may write more snips involving the likely OC that would come out of this. Got a name picked out and everything!
How do you draw your favorite characters after weeks/months of not drawing? Doodle badly. DX
Not my usual quality of stuff, but I wanted to get back into drawing and didn’t feel well enough for getting every detail in. Double whammy for it being my first time drawing these characters and them being hard to draw. Hope you have a laugh!
Explanations for Each Doodle
1) Upper left: Not sure what Dot’s puppy-eying for, but you know she would.
2) Upper right: I imagine Dot would like to practice flying, and she and Flik would totally do stupid sibling things like tug a leaf boat over a river.
3) Middle: Dot trying to lift Flik off the ground, and failing. She’s too little.
4) Lower right: Just felt like drawing Flik singing.
5) Lower left: The way the worker ant antennae are rendered in the movie seem perfect for bunny ears, don’tcha think?
Got plot shark'd with a story idea (instead of thinking of new chapters for existing stuff), for A Bug's Life. I'd like to see if there's any interest before I try writing it out. Hopefully it'll be short.
Plot below the cut (title to be determined):
One ordinary day on Ant Island brings a shock as Flik inexplicably walks out of his room with wings. Not artificial and made with gears, but organic wings attached to his back!
He wastes no time learning all he can about these newfound limbs, enlisting Dot's help to teach him to fly and helping fill in for Atta wherever possible. There's a lot of potential to come from a flying ant.
But not all is as it seems, and these wings bring more than just physical changes. Male winged ants aren't known for their brains.
Some years ago, I made this silly story joke because of my hyperfixation with Bug’s Life and I had been playing Pokemon Ultra Sun. Hope you enjoy!
You are a trainer with an Exeggcute in your party. You are going down a Route when you encounter a Durant and a shiny Cutiefly that are apparently in a deep conversation.
The Durant has a Leaf Stone in his possession and is showing it to the Cutiefly while gesturing to a tall tree nearby. The Cutiefly does not seem to understand what the Durant is trying to say (and neither do you). The Durant is quite frustrated that his message is not coming across.
You approach the duo and the Durant spots you. It notices your Exeggcute and gets excited and hurriedly passes the Leaf Stone to you. Now both Durant and Cutiefly are watching you intensely. It seems they won’t appreciate you leaving unless you do something with the Leaf Stone.
You use the stone to evolve your Exeggcute into an Exeggutor. Somehow that satisfies the wild Durant and Cutiefly.
You have completed the Seed to Tree special cutscene.
so question!! i’ve been thinking for a while about starting a lil etsy shop or something with a bug’s life themed stickers and such because there just isn’t enough quality ABL merch out there.
i’m still VERY far from that happening so don’t get too excited, but what are some ABL themed things you would like to see?? (not like the actual products you want - tbh it’s probably going to just be stickers and maybe little prints for a while hahah - but the drawings themselves? flik? dot? the circus bugs? the grasshoppers? all of the above? specific character pairings or scenes?)
let me know! just trying to gather some ideas and you guys are the first ones i wanted to ask 🥰
(•v• ) So many ideas running through my head for suggestions! The top two I'll put below.
1. Flik and Atta dancing in the air (somehow). Atta will do the flying; maybe Flik uses her feet as support? Or he is given wings by Disney wish magic. ( °v°)
I was sharing funnies (highlights being Mugman and the chomper demon, Mugman calling the Devil's "Cuphead is dead" bluff) from The Cuphead Show 1C with my sisters...
WARNING: Spoiler under the cut.
I asked my sisters (Middle and Youngest) if they wanted to see a character (Chalice) getting killed on screen. Middle was like "Sure," but Youngest wanted to pass because she just came home from watching Black Panther and said she had enough violence for one day. So I started just showing Middle.
Now, Chalice gets hit at the end of her song, and Youngest hates when a song gets cut, so I told Middle I would have to play the whole thing because of that.
I guess the song charmed Youngest so much that she forgot my warning and decided to watch right when Chalice was finishing on up...
Me: *thinking of warning her, but wanting reaction* 😶
Middle: *starts watching Youngest* 👀
Youngest: "Hey! It's Miss..." *trying to remember Chalice's name* "Cup--"
So I made a poll (which is still open) for what Cuphead thing folks might want to see from me, and the brothers’ reunion was chosen as the thing to draw. X3 Here’s the first part!
I’ve got the rest of the scenes outlined. Just need to draw them.
blakekathryn
kaledo-art
ellievsbear
dailybridgerton
kianamaiart
baratheonpilled