Mal by @mercymaker features in a lot of fics, I just picked one for the title. honestly, i recommend just checking their tumblr posts; i always enjoy getting mal lore 🫀
Serafina by @tragedybunny also features in a lot of fics, collected into the series the vampire's fairy tale.
project info here. 10 tavs left to draw, then i'm finally done and ready to put together the final post! reminder that the reason that i'm doing these individual posts to give y'all a chance to tell me what i've fucked up so i have chance to correct it! i don't miss details because i don't care, i miss them because the canvas is too small for me to have a reference open so i'm drawing these from memory and my memory is faulty. and sometimes i use a ref that doesn't showcase the character properly. i've been told by two people to add elf ears!
for example, i am just now remembering that both these characters have piercings, woops. i'll add!
some fandom thoughts below 🫀
mercymaker made a long cool post today about engagement today and man it just reminded me of why i'm doing this.
this fandom—and i'm talking, especially, about the astarion part of it—is slowing down, getting less and less engagement. i've seen mentions of disappointment about subscribers dropping at each new chapter at three different servers the past week alone.
this fandom isn't like most fandoms. in most fandoms, the ship is canon x canon. here, we all have our own version of the main ship—a version that is very precious to us.
i find it all very hard to comprehend that someone other than me would care about my version of this ship. i have a hard time even replying to comments because of this. i don't understand why you guys spend time with my little self-indulgent fantasy. you have your own!
so i try and give back. and i can't read and i'm pretty shitty at commenting on things, so i do this instead. and it is, of course, a definite net negative for me: if i spent all my time on my own writing/drawing my own characters, i would get more engagement than drawing others get me.
and as much as i love people's ocs—and i do really love them. i have a blast hearing about them; please yap ocs with me—i still care about my own so much more.
but thinking that way is how this fandom dies.
and this is why @tragedybunny's oc is featured in this post. bunny, on her server, replies to everything. it's amazing, and it does so much for the fandom spirit. she also spends time arranging events, like this tarot one that went up today. we really need to take care of people like her, because without them this fandom is done for.
there are more people i wanna mention for their incredible spirit of giving as well here, but i don't have time tonight. so i just wanna say, take care of each other. the casuals have left. we're all we got. i love you guys so much.