Hey, welcome to my main blog! I mostly do art and occasional writing based off of my interests, but you can also see a bunch of other random shit here as well.
I have a secondary blog where I reblog all of my art and other relevant things, in case you just want to look through all of my art without a sea of reblogs in-between, or just want to spam like my posts: @legnd-of-monarch
Other blogs/projects I’m a part of:
@stp-faceless-au - I’m an editor and concept artist for this project, please check it out (we haven’t made much, but still)
@slay-the-tourney - I’m one of the mods! It’s a tournament about the different vessels in StP and gives people a chance to let their own designs and interpretations of the ladies to shine! Currently we have Beast’s rounds posted, and will be switching back and forth with @/voice-of-the-sexyman
My current fixations are: Scarlet Hollow, Slay the Princess
Other fandoms I’m in include: Epic: the Musical, ENA, AvA, Dead Plate, Sanders Sides, Nimona, Arcane, SPoP, TOH, Amphibia, Gravity Falls, Mouthwashing, Kpdh, and general indie animations and projects
Ask games that I like to do:
Voice ramble (Give me a voice and I’ll ramble about them and the routes that they're featured in. I also ramble about the vessels)
Design ask game (Ask me about a design and I will ramble about why I designed it with certain details and such)
Shipping ask game (give me a ship and any number from this list and I'll answer them! Any StP ships are welcome (except for Skeptic and Smitten)
Character ask game
What character would I be ask game
StP ask game
I should probably add a tag guide, and I will eventually, just not today lol
!MY MUTUALS ARE FREE TO CAUSE AS MUCH CHAOS AS POSSIBLE PLEASE INTERACT WITH ME!
!AND ALSO NON MUTUALS IDFK I LOVE INTERACTING WITH PEOPLE AS LONG AS THEY AREN’T CREEPY!
🎵 last song: whoomp! there it is - tag team. saw this phm tiktok edit and haven't stopped listening to it.
📺 currently watching: adults fx (yes again. so much better the second time watching it through the panton lens), widow's bay (i want to marry matthew rhys so BAD), and you rang m'lord? (an oldie, used to watch it with my dad and he bought me the box set not long before he died. i never watched them again until now.)
💖 current obsession: adults fx, half man, and project hail mary. also jigsaws (i've been doing so many, we have a little club at work) and going to the cinema (i go at least once a week these days!).
📚 currently reading: still working through young mungo by douglas stuart, about halfway through. idk why it's taken so long, i guess i'm just not vibing with it the way i hoped i would. it's so so similar to half man in a lot of ways but it doesn't quite hit the same. oh! and i reserved butter by asako yuzuki at my library and that just became available this morning so i guess i'll start that soon.
✍️ currently working on: my half man fic that i'm not talking about. i'm about halfway through, trying not to burn myself out so i'm slowing down with the updates as the chapters get longer.
🔍 last google search: picross e7 solutions po86. bcus fuck that puzzle.
🎵last song: autumn town leaves by iron & wine, part of the playlist i listen to most, very good song!
📺 currently watching: leverage redemption (for the first time, though I’ve loved leverage itself for a while, MASH (for the first time since I was a kid), and Columbo! (Watching it out of order using a spreadsheet and a lot of audacity, nearly done the whole thing!) (also for the first time since I was a kid!)
💖 current obsession: Columbo, baking, pokemon, secordle (wordle but you play 16 wordles at once)
📚 currently reading: designing your life: how to build a well-loved, joyful life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, as recommended to me by the lovely @shrimptacodaniels , I’ve been reading it slowly cuz it’s a real thinker, oh and I’ve been slowly rereading the ASOUE series!
✍️ currently working on: a big secret project also with her (because… when is this not the case?), also currently working on RESTING MY DAMN ELBOW, oh and am part of a MASH big bang (as an artist!), I really want to write again but 1- my evil elbow and 2- its been so hard to focus on a fic lately
🔍 last google search: old man with cane pokemon, because i was talking about pokemon sprites with my brother and i had such an intense memory of the old guy with cane sprite that i had to find it
📌 tag 10: truthfully I cannot think of 10 and also I have SO much anxiety about cold-tagging people but I am trying so hard and also literallyyyyyy no pressure at all
@finndiseicla @future-dregs @hazellight11 also emma I tagged you above but you can also do this if you wish, even though I know most of these 🥰👋 (seriously no pressure tho)
I would literally do anything for @mossterious sooo 👋🥰
TEN PEOPLE YOU'D LIKE TO GET TO KNOW BETTER GAME
🎵last song: sneakernight by vanessa hudgens, which is terrifying and fantastic. thanks for your unsettling club beats queen
📺 currently watching: misfits & magic s2!
💖 current obsession: watercolor and bracelet making
📚 currently reading: project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (finally!)
✍️ currently working on: big secret project, little secret project, aaaand an art gallery with my siblings
🔍 last google search: the packing list for my brother’s summer camp! had to double-check we had everything :)
📌 tag 10: i make no promises
@oh-no-here-we-go (no pressure!! I know we’ve only met briefly), @song-jay (👋🥰), and I’ve run out of people I don’t know well yet so let’s tag a darling to keep the chain going @lucy-frostblade
🎵 last song: Bones Don't Rust by The Mountain Goats! I've been listening to the Bleed Out album a lot while cleaning this week
📺 currently watching: Nothing currently, but I watched Project Hail Mary with my sister a few nights ago. I'd like to rewatch Drawtectives this week though!
💖 current obsession: HLVRAI and Project Hail Mary
📚 currently reading: Finished the PHM book last week and haven't started anything new yet, might be starting A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett soon
✍️ currently working on: Lots of cleaning and a short comic. Definitely need to start my Artfight refs soon
🔎 last google search: "a drop of corruption book" I forgot the author's name lmao
📌 tag 10: No pressure of course! Only respond if you'd like to!
@full-time-femboy @bread-cat-luna @willowberecki @allthecastlesonclouds @a-decent-human-being5 @aroace-elgyem @most-certainly-not-lennard @bardace and anyone else who wants to!!
🎵last song: Dumpster Fire by Thesaurus Rex; was just sitting outside and listening to a lot of songs but this is the one I ended on
📺currently watching: Witch Hat Atelier as it airs but outside of that nothing really
💖current obsession: oh there’s just so many right now. Drawfee and drawtectives is basically always on the brain, slay the princess is another one that’s like obvious, got into camp moonmirror recently and that’s been rotating in my brain like crazy, also bunch of friends I’ve been watching a lot of them lately
📚currently reading: nothing unfortunately not even some fanfics rip
✍️currently working on: a lot of things mostly fanart though. I have a few slay the princess drawings I want to get to, I keep on making moonmirror art, and I have a sketch of the drawtectives I want to get done. I’m also planning to do art fight for the first time this year and need to submit some ocs still.
🔎last google search: “white claw” I saw that what’s your wolf name post and mine was white claw and I went to double check that white claw is in fact just a beer
📌tag 10: if you’re a mutual I didn’t tag you are absolutely welcome to add on as well and if I did tag you there’s no pressure to respond. You know the usual.
🎵last song: Im listening to music right now as usual, so the last one I listened to as of right now is Us and Pigs by SOFIA ISELLA.
📺currently watching: I have so many things I still need to watch, but currently I’ve mostly just been watching some indie animation stuff on YouTube and some comfort YouTubers
💖current obsession: Scarlet Hollow, as shocking as that may seem/silly. Im also super obsessed with an oc i made for it so yk. Also StP is always in the back of my mind, of course
📚currently reading: I haven’t been great at reading stuff either lol. Some of @/writingdevil’s fics that I have yet to read and I have a lesbian book I need to finish on the back burner.
✍️currently working on: So many things lol but my main priority is art fight prep and hopefully getting comms off the ground this year.
🔎last google search: “cyberchase” because me and some friends were talking about it but I’ve never really seen much of it.
📌tag 10: no pressure tags, and like before, anyone else is welcome to join!
There is an odd thing I see in books sometimes where a character who is defined by their steadfast loyalty to a person or organization is presented with one (1) piece of evidence against them and immediately changes their mind.
I was just reading a book where a character is deeply loyal to the royal family despite being their literal whipping girl, but she immediately decides that the king must be a bad ruler the first time she sees poverty exists. And he is--but it's weird that the 15 years of being whipped didn't convince her but the existence of poor people did.
It often reads like a plot-convenient way of having a character change their mind without having to do any of the actual work or spend any actual time on what it means for them to change their mind. But it also often rings false--we know for a fact that people with deeply held beliefs are often not convinced no matter how much evidence they see to the contrary, much less because one piece of evidence was presented to them.
Writing partner and I were recently working on a piece that involved a character escaping brainwashing like that and we had a convo about this exact thing. Because I thought the character need more than one thing to break the brainwashing, and partner, who has actual experience escaping a cult she grew up in, said something very interesting. 'Not if there were cracks.'
She went on to explain how for her, there had always been little things about the cult that bothered her, but she excused them, pushed them aside, papered them over in her own mind. And then one thing happened. One very specific thing that went directly contrary to all the things the cult taught her.
And that one thing put enough pressure on her belief that all those cracks... exploded and she lost faith in the cult practically overnight. And the thing is, from my outsider perspective, it was like one day I talked with her and she was true believer, and the next time religion came up she was an ex- and talking about how she'd just recognized this thing about how harmful her former religion was.
I knew another man, briefly, who grew up evangelical protestant, spent more than half his life living and proselytizing as a true believer, then one day just... stopped. He said that he had always had doubts, never really believed, but he pushed all those doubts and disbeliefs down and acted all the more fervent to prove to himself that he was a good Christian. Until one day he realized what he was doing and... was done.
Now, with writing, we truly hope an author is good enough to convey this kind of internal conflict, but when someone spends half their life suppressing these kinds of things, it can be very hard to see even from the 'inside', because hiding it from themselves is the whole point. And when aren't talking about a PoV character or are in a real world situation...
Not long ago, i would have agreed with you. Now I can say that actually, sometimes I can be 'just one thing' -- or at least look that way because all the little things that came before are so small they're invisible.
God, I didn't even need to reblog with ny addition; you absolutely had it covered. Screenshotting and putting it here so they can be together.
I also want to say that this doesn't mean, to me, that we shouldn't take this note as writers. If fiction were completely realistic, there would have been a lot more bathroom breaks in Homer's Odyssey, but we take liberties to get to emotional truths rather than things that absolutely totally could have happened that way. Loved reading both the original post and your addition.
This is absolutely how it happened to me, too. It wasn't even in the moment--I was just in my car at work, making deliveries, and my brain was turning something over and over in the back of my mind. All of a sudden, things just... fell apart, and I wasn't even fully able to identify where that last straw came from. I went out on that delivery a believer, and I got back to the store afterward feeling lighter and happier than I had in a very long time.
Of course, if you want that to be seen in a work of fiction it's important to have that set up and payoff, but there's nothing wrong with wanting to experiment with how you do it. Is there a way to make that single sudden change of mind feel satisfying? Is there a good way to express to the outside people the changes that are happening subtly? Maybe the logic of it doesn't even need to be expressed--the most important thing might be simply hammering in the profound and sudden feeling of understanding. It all depends on your story and character.
Me: *Removes my cat from my lap to do something else.*
My cat: Father is...evil? Father is unyielding? Father is incapable of love? I am running away. I am packing my little rucksack and going out to explore the world as a lone vagabond. I can no longer thrive in this household.
I am so incredibly glad we finally moved on from "i can has". Cats are clearly smart enough for advanced sentence structure and dumb enough to draw entirely incorrect conclusions about what they're talking about.
My cat, banging the cabnet door over and over and over: bang bang bang
Me: you will not earn what you desire by banging the cabinet door.
My cat: This is a test of wills, is it not? We shall see if your ability to put up with my incessant banging outlasts my eternal lust for snackie treats. Years of conditioning have hardened me for this purpose. bang bang bang
Me: ksst!
My cat, throwing herself to the ground like she's been shot: Oh! Oh I have been assailed in my own home! Have mercy, have pity! Surely in the cruel darkness of your heart there is some mote of goodness that might stay your hand! Do not strike me, I pray you!
Me: ok
My cat, after waiting about 3 minutes: bang bang bang
Strange racists and homophobes on the internet seem to have access to an alternate way cooler version of TV than me. "every white character on TV is in an interracial relationship" "every show has a gay couple in it" "main characters keep having to secretly be bisexual and nonbinary" "every show has gratuitous full frontal nudity" like damn promise?? What channel???
they are sexually mature at ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY YEARS OLD.
their (live!) young gestate for. wait for it. eight to eighteen (??) YEARS. can have up to 10 at a time. good grief.
longest lifespan of any vertebrate, up to five hundred years
toxic flesh
has giant eyes but is usually blind because of a weird little crustacean that's evolved to live on and eat their eyes. this doesn't seem to bother them much.
lives in deep cold water and has the lowest swim speed and tail-beat frequency for its size across all fish species. just generally lives life in extreme slow motion
largest genome of any shark
eats everything including moose and polar bears
ma'am you are delightfully strange and I'm privileged to share a planet with you
I’ll try my best to describe this. It’s a video with a mash-up of a bunch of different Disney movies, set to a song that’s a mash-up of a bunch of other songs. That in and of itself wouldn’t make it praiseworthy, but this is DONE SO WELL that just, holy cow.
not exactly a req but it can be one! have you consider stubborn x damsel yuri
(I have considered it!! In fact, in my human au, Stubborn and Damsel are in a throuple with Adversary. I thought the two of them would be really funny but also really cute together, just this really aggressive bird who won't give up his beliefs, paired with a princess who struggles with having her own opinions and beliefs in the first place. So I'm gonna take this as a request and write something for them. Enjoy!!)
"Shit, where is it?"
Damsel perked up at the sound, of Witch huffing and pacing up and down in the living room.
"What's wrong?" Prisoner asked, and Witch's tail flicked about in agitation as she glared at the room.
"My book. Hunted gave me a book the other day, and now I've lost the bloody thing!"
"Did you check the other bedrooms?" Prisoner asked, and Witch sighed harshly, nodding.
"Where was the last place you had it?"
Witcg groaned loudly, throwing her arms around wildly. "The only time I can remember having it is when I got it and-"
Witch abruptly stopped her yelling, face blank as realisation dawned on her.
"I forgot to bring it home," she quietly said. "It's still at the house of birdbrains."
Damsel's heart thumped in excitement, and she tried not to let it show on her face too much as she stood up. Witch was cursing under her breath, muttering complaints about the trek she would have to do just to get a book back, and Damsel latched on to her opportunity.
"I can go get it for you," she happily spoke up, making Witch jump as she whirled around to face her, suspicion on her face.
Damsel smiled brightly at Witch. "I'd be happy to get the book for you, and I always love visiting the birds."
Witch glanced at Prisoner, who was sharing the same suspicious look with her.
"You want to walk all that way just to get my book?" Witch asked, and Damsel nodded, heart thumping at what she was doing.
Witch and Prisoner exchanged a doubting look with each other, and then Prisoner asked, "Why do you want to go? I'm sure Witch is perfectly capable of going herself."
At that moment, Witch started stammering in protest, earning herself a glare from Prisoner as she said, "Well I don't exactly want to deal with those pesky birds today-"
"So I'll go for you!" Damsel declared, bunching up her dress in her clenched fists.
She turned to look at Prisoner directly, who didn't seem to believe a word that Damsel was saying.
"Besides, I want to visit them again. I haven't seen them in awhile."
"Didn't you visit them last week?"
Damsel paused, panic momentarily freezing her in place, before she said, "Y-Yeah! But I already miss them so much!"
Prisoner sighed, but didn't say anything else.
"So you want to get my book for me?" Witch asked, for clarification, and Damsel nodded.
"Yep! I'll go there for you!"
Prisoner narrowed her eyes at Damsel, pinning her in place like she was cornered prey, and asked, "Damsel, you're not doing this just to make Witch happy, are you?"
Damsel gulped, but the answer came easily to her. It was just hard to keep her nerves under control while being the target of Prisoner's scrutinising gaze.
Damsel shook her head. "No, I'm not just doing this to make someone else happy. I genuinely want to go to the birds."
That was the truth, but Damsel still found it hard to admit things like this in a straightforward way. She had to find a way to achieve her wants in such a roundabout way, especially because she really wished to see him right now.
Somehow, Prisoner saw something like that in her assessment, and she sighed in defeat. "Okay then, have fun, and please be careful."
Damsel gasped in delight, jumping on the spot excitedly. She barely waited to give a proper goodbye, immediately bolting over to the door, waving at her two friends from over her shoulder and went, "Bye girls!! I'll be back later- oh, yeah! Definitely with your book, Witchy!"
She was out on the path before she even heard their replies.
-
Panting, Damsel stood in front of the cabin that the birds inhabited, a trinket hanging over the porch, a simple gold chain that held eleven feathers, which were all tied together.
Prisoner once asked Hunted what it was for, and he had answered that it was to keep the predators of the universe from coming in and tearing the flock apart. Damsel thought it was beautiful.
She took a few minutes to collect herself, catching her breath and running a hand through her hair, combing through any knots.
She was trying to make herself look presentable, to not look like there was any other reason she was here. She knew it wouldn't be bad if people knew, but the thought of showing up with her own intentions for everyone to know and judge her for- it didn't put her mind at ease.
Damsel took a deep breath in, smoothing down her dress, and then she knocked on the door.
She didn't have to wait long, as the door swung open to reveal Hero's kind face.
He smiled at her warmly. "Hey, Damsel. I wasn't expecting you."
"Hi Hero!" Damsel replied, keeping her voice light and happy, back straightening up out of habit, to appear better before him.
"I'm sorry to show up unannounced, Hero-"
"Don't apologise," Hero gently said with a wave of his hand. "Everyone here loves seeing you."
That did make her feel better, her shoulders relaxing as fearful tension slowly left her body.
"I'm here because Witch accidentally left a book here, and I said I'd get it back for her."
"A book?" Hero echoed, leaning against the doorway as he hummed in thought.
He glanced over his shoulder, his eyes going up the stairs behind him. "Well, chances are, it's been put into the bookshelf upstairs if you wanna have a look."
"I'd love to!" Okay, maybe that was a bit too energetic, but Hero didn't seem to care. He just smiled and stepped aside to let her in.
Damsel felt her heart pounding as she stepped inside, the warmth of the cabin surrounding her like a fluff blanket.
Hero motioned at the upper floor and said, "Help yourself," before walking off with smile.
Damsel let a breath out, waiting to see or hear if anyone else was around, but the house seemed quiet today.
She walked over to the stairs, picking up her dress as she went up the steps, straining to hear something that would let her know that she wasn't being annoying for doing all of this.
It was only when she took that final step up to the second floor, that she heard it.
It was muffled, but it still felt like it was hitting her right to her core, making goosebumps and a shiver pass over her body.
Thump- thump- thump!
Damsel smiled as she listened to the sound, hearing a low grunt soon after, and her heart longed to reach out to that voice.
Still, she had come here for a reason, so she rushed over to the bookcase that Hero had been talking about, almost tripping over her dress on the way.
She kept hearing that thump-thump-thump in the background as she quickly searched for Witch's book, then almost clawing it off the shelf once she found it.
She held the book to her chest tightly. It helped ground her in this moment, as she took in a deep breath, praying that she wasn't intruding on anything, or that her surprise presence would just be ruining someone's day.
But every thump that she heard, was just another tugging from her heart, this desperate urge to do this before she exploded. She couldn't back out now.
Damsel slowly made her way closer to the sound, until it was rattling against the walls and shaking the objects out in the hall. The closer she got, the more clear she heard the grunting and the low swearing.
She stood in front of a door, feet momentarily frozen. But then she felt a soft fluttering in her heart, just the smallest of sparks inside of her, past all the fear and worry- and she opened the door.
The first thing she saw was a swinging punching bag, right in front of her. There were many other things in the room, but the punching bag was in the very center, and Damsel couldn't take her eyes off it if she tried.
But there was one person who could steal her attention.
There was panting, and then there was out of breath chuckling, as Stubborn turned to face her, feathers glistening in the light.
He smiled in amusement at her arrival. "You came, huh? You didn't even warn me this time, I like it."
Damsel took a step forward, into this space that was so foreign to her but so fascinating, so full of raw passion and life.
It made her skin tingle.
She smiled up at Stubborn, and said, "I hope I wasn't interrupting something."
Stubborn just waved her worries away, rubbing his bruised knuckles. "No, you're good. I was getting bored of it anyway."
Their eyes met, and Damsel's heart pounded at the electrifying spark in them. It was like Stubborn was always hungry, always searching and fighting in his soul, and Damsel couldn't tell if it felt heavy or freeing, to feel so much like that.
Stubborn blinked rapidly, sheepishly looking away, and Damsel wondered what he could possibly see in her.
She was nothing like Adversary- someone strong-willed and who knew exactly what she wanted, and who never took no for an answer.
Damsel was just- Damsel.
Stubborn turned his attention to the book in her hands, jerking his chin at it as he asked, "What's that you got?"
It was Damsel's turn to look away timidly, gazing down at the book in almost guilt. She tried to keep her voice upbeat, but it fell off at the end as she said, "Well, um- Witch accidentally left a book here, and I really wanted to see you, but I couldn't just say that so-"
"So you used the book as an excuse."
Damsel winced at the truth, forcing herself to look up at Stubborn, expecting disappointment or annoyance, but was surprised to see him smiling.
He grinned down at her, making her flush at how big and wild it looked, and stepped closer to her, moving his tattered wings to shield her from the world.
He leaned down, and that was when Damsel saw his bright passion in his eyes turn into something- softer.
Damsel found herself reaching out and holding his arm gently, feeling it tremble beneath her palm.
Stubborn smiled down at her and quietly said, "Dams, I don't care what excuse you come up to see me. I actually think the whole sneaky thing is fun coming from you."
Damsel giggled at him, at this big, impulsive bird being soft and honest with her.
She admired it so much- the fact that Stubborn wasn't afraid of chasing his own goals, while also going headfirst into something he wasn't used to.
Damsel couldn't help but be drawn to that strength, to that drive. She wished she had even a drop of it.
Stubborn leaned down closer to her, and whispered, "I think you're so full of life, you know that?"
Her jaw dropped. "Me?" she whispered back, and Stubborn nodded.
"Yeah, you're going out and trying everyday, fighting for the things you want, one step at a time, and I don't think I've ever seen you run away from it once."
She couldn't look away from his hypnotic eyes, the warmth of his feathers against her back giving her comfort.
"You really mean that?" she asked, and Stubborn just grinned and tilted his head to the side.
"I dunno, did doing this make you happy?"
Damsel's breath hitched, and she realised that, yes, being here and making the choice to see Stubborn did make her happy.
It may be hard for her to admit her own desires right now, but she does have them, and she is chasing them.
Stubborn felt like a blazing fire she wanted to stick her hand in, no matter the risk. She wanted to feel his flames, take in his passion, and let it absorb into her own soul, and the thought of not doing that made her want to scream.
Maybe they were more alike than she thought.
Damsel smiled, feeling the book drop from her grip, and Stubborn pushed her closer with his wings.
She looked up at him, and he just gave her an expectant look, letting her make the first move, and she squealed, jumping up into his arms and doing what she's had on her mind for days now.
She kissed Stubborn, and he laughed into the kiss, picking her up and spinning her around as he kissed her right back, and they burned so bright, so beautifully together.