-He/They, Spooky- ‼️ I do not do commissions, I don't mind anyone rebloging my posts (however if you use/post my art please credit me :]). I use Tumblr for fun, nothing serious.‼️ Hello! I'm an artist, writer and common user of the internet. Sometimes we like to get a little spooky here. Sit back, relax, and feel free to browse my blog!
Hi, I've been participating in the YouTube boycott since it started, but I've currently hit a roadblock.
I love doing crafts/learning new skills, and YouTube was my main source for tutorials. It helped me a lot as I prefer being taught something by someone else rather than just reading about it.
I want to make a cape for my Halloween costume, and was wondering if there's any other places to access tutorials for such a thing. I've been scrolling through Pinterest, but I think the cape I want to sew would require a longer tutorial.
I can provide details on the type of cape I'm trying to make if needed, but wanted to focus on finding resources in this post.
Colors become a mere blur as destruction falls around me.
What once were refined color palettes specific to their piece were now muddled,
now becoming a part of noise.
Colors, shapes, figures and textures bleed together at my feet as the pile grows, and as I move around the room.
Walls become bare with flat color, their personality striped from them. All that remained were dents, holes and blemishes. All that remained, was nothing of meaning. All that remained was what had been before.
I stumble over the ground, over myself. I stumble over everything.
I stumble, for there is nothing more to hold onto, nothing more to keep my balance, nothing more to stabilize my grace.
Nothing to nurture my humanity.
I collapse out of exhaustion and grief, onto everything that is I, but is everything I'm no longer.
The blank walls tower over me like titans,
expressionless, dull, but all knowing.
Demanding, powerful.
Emotionless. Uninspiring.
I stare back with an unmatched bitterness, a temper born of nothing but fear and the desire to be.
I never saw beauty in those walls. Never even once.
As I lay on a floor made of my own skeleton and skin, it's apparent my power to behold means nothing any longer.
Saturday Stories 4: "The Spire of the Wise"/"Behold" snippet
Daylight had just started soaking into the ground from over the horizon when I opened my eyes. Dew had settled over the forest and on our tents. The sunlight caught on the droplets, leaving a strange almost otherworldly pattern of silhouettes on the tent wall. I reached for my pocket watch at my side, but my hand came back with nothing. Exhaling a tired sigh, I sat myself up from my sleeping bag and scanned my mess of strewn blankets and haphazardly placed belongings. My watch was nowhere to be seen.
Dammit Shawn, I thought as I freed myself from my man made den and left my tent.
Juliette was soundly asleep in her own tent. She had put her privacy covers up on the netted windows. I felt stupid for being forgetful and not doing that myself. I glanced at Shawn's tent, which was obviously abandoned. Uncovered windows exposed the interior, and everything inside was neatly packed and organized. That was a foreboding sign for what today's ventures would entail. At the sound of my growling stomach, I considered searching the forest for firewood. But as my eyes found the highest point of the Spire, I reconsidered the idea of leaving Julie on her own. I had no way to know when Shawn would be back, or how long he'd been gone, so the only thing I could do was wait and hope he'd be back soon. In the meantime, I retreated to my tent and began packing my own belongings up in an agonizingly slow manner. On one hand, I was hopeful we'd find something better than a spot to set up a lousy camp. We'd been sleeping on the hard ground for longer than I could remember, and the weather had been so gracious for so long as to not storm. On the other hand...I didn't want to take risks, not after what happened back at Deadman's Trail. Shawn, however, was impatient and stubborn. He was the prime manufacturer of 75% of the risks our group made, and the number of members had significantly decreased during his leadership. None of us can remember how he out of all people became our head of operations. It's clear, though, that no one felt confident enough in making a move to take his spot. It was a non-spoken mutual agreement.
I was almost done packing when I heard stirring from Julie's tent. The sound of a zipper being unzipped echoed through the mostly quiet forest, followed by a dramatic yawn. I looked out of my door's netted window to see Julie crouched and looking out into the forest.
"Morning," I called.
She glanced in my direction before giving me a halfhearted smile and a quick wave, "G'Morning Marco." She let out another, less dramatic yawn before pointing to Shawn's tent. "Where's he?"
"I don't know, he was already gone when I woke up."
She made a face before nodding her head once in understanding. Julie headed back into her tent before emerging back at the entrance with a cantine of water.
"You should start packing up your stuff," I said as I reached for my own cantine, "From the way Shawn's tent looks, we're headed out of here." I unscrewed the cap as I took a sip. I watched Julie's expression as she considered what I said.
"He doesn't know when to quit, does he?" She looked at his tent with an expression I couldn't decipher. She sat her cantine beside her, "It's for the best, leaving here."
"How so?" I took a long sip of water.
She made eye contact with me, "I heard footsteps moving through last night, at least two. They went north and didn't come back."
I lowered my cantine from my lips. We simultaneously looked towards the Spire. I wondered if it's presence weighed on Julie as much it did on me. It was like a scar on my life, one that I constantly felt the need to marvel at.
I tore my eyes away and shook my head as if expelling a bug from my hair. When I looked back up, Julie was staring over my tent.
"He's back," she said, climbing out of her tent. I screwed the lid back onto my cantine before joining her outside.
Shawn looked dejected and stressed. The circles under his eyes not only made him look older, but they made him look like a threat. He was carrying many bags, along with a pack of his own gear.
"Shawn?" My voice was sheepish. He wouldn't make eye contact with me.
"We lost two more last night," he tossed a bag to the ground and looked at it with disgust, "Cass and Harlee left their camp. They won't be returning."
Julie and I exchanged a look as he sat his own belongings down in front of his tent and made a pile of the remaining ones, including the first he threw down.
"Marco, find wood to burn all this shit," he gestured to the pile, "I need a moment."
"What about me?" Julie stared at the discarded belongings.
"Pack everything of ours up. I'll join you in a minute."
She nodded, and we both started on our tasks.
As I grabbed a bag of gear from my tent and headed into the forest, I took one last look over my shoulder.
The one thing I miss about having cable tv are the seasonal cooking/decorating shows. Watching a Halloween one and some of the criticisms(insults) are ruthless "This looks amature" "This looks primitive", I cannot explain to you how much I eat this stuff up. I love it. I am here for the drama, the buttercream frosting, the extreme use of rice crispy treat and fondant as if it's the only material they are allowed to use. It's equally a train wreck and an art, and it is delightful.
Ava headed to her bathroom, costume in hand, preparing for a school performance. As she entered, she turned on the light. Immediately, the room was drowned in red light.
"What in the...." Ava stared in confusion as her eyes adjusted. Her family never used color lightbulbs. Something was off.
She brushed it off and continued getting ready. She needed all the time she could get to get into costume and finish getting ready. As she went through her routine, she noted a strange sound coming from the vents. It was like a skittering noise. Yet again, Ava ignored it, chalking it up to rats in the vents.
Until it got louder,
and louder,
and louder.
She turned to look up at the bathroom vent above the door, and as she did so she froze.
Fingers. Many of them. Reaching out as if trying to escape the vent.
"Oh hell no," she said aloud, rushing to get out of the bathroom.
"Mom! Mom!"
Her mom rushed to her from the living room, "Ava, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
"Mom, there's fingers in the vents." Her words came out jumbled and frantic.
"What?'
"There's fingers. In. The vents."
"Go to the car. I'll be out there after I get your dad and your brother, and call the cops."
Ava rushed to leave the house, climbed into the car, and waited. After a few minutes, her dad and her brother came to the car as well, her mother not far behind them. They stayed there for what felt like forever until military vehicles showed up. Her mother got out of the car and explained the situation to them. She then climbed back in, and quickly left with the rest of the the family. They drove for a while, Ava realizing that she left her phone back at the house and couldn't report back to her friends.
The family ended up at a safe house. No one knows what creature was lurking in people's vents. Regardless, they were safer away from home than in it.
In the several years I've lived in this small town, it never rained. I remember growing up, not knowing what rain was until my parents and I visited extended family in another state. During the week we were there, there was a day where it downpoured. I remember sitting on one of the couches in the living room, curled up out of fear and asking my parents what was going on. They told me that it was raining and explained very broadly how the water cycle works. It was such a brand new and interesting concept to me. The instant returned home, I wanted to tell my friends about rain. My parents told me not to, that we were living in a decade long drought and that bringing up rain would make people sad. I didn't want to make anyone sad with my excitement, so I simply forgot about telling anyone.
Then I remembered.
About a year ago, a new family moved into town. They seemed like a run-of-the-mill, suburban family. Their eldest child, the daughter Korie, was my age (16), and their youngest, the son Thomas, was seven. They moved right into our neighborhood, right down the street. We were on summer break at the time with only two weeks left until school. And when school did inevitably come around, I decided to try and make friends with Korie.
Korie was probably one of the nicest people I've ever met. She was calm and would always strike up a conversation with me before class started. She had this way of talking to people that would instantly put them at ease. Countless times I would make jokes that she had some sort of undiscovered super power, or maybe she was a long lost goddess. She would always smile, giggle and shake her head at me. I'd invite her over after school and sometimes on weekends if her parents didn't have any plans. It was one of these weekends that Korie would inevitably ask the question.
"Isn't it weird that it doesn't rain here?"
"What?" I replied, somewhat caught off guard.
"Yeah, haven't you noticed? Ever since I moved in it hasn't rained once."
I remembered what my parents told me; "It's because we're in a drought. It's lasted for decades at this point."
"A drought ?" Korie looked at me, confused, "Weird. I feel like my parents would've known about one before we moved in."
We were both silent for a moment before Korie's phone buzzed.
"Parents need me to watch my brother, I'll see you later."
Then she left.
I had lived in this town all my life and never thought the drought was weird. No one else did. And maybe her parents just never looked into the town's history far enough to know about it. Maybe all they knew was that the crime rate was low and the houses looked decent.
Never did I think that maybe, just maybe, there was a secret being kept, that even I didn't know.
Life continued on as it was. Wake up, eat breakfast, get ready, go to school, get home, do homework, hangout with Korie, go to bed, and repeat. My usual boring routine, interrupted by a knock at my door on one Thursday afternoon when Korie had stayed home.
It was Korie's dad.
"Hey, kiddo. Your parents home?"
"No, my dad's at work and mom's running a bunch of errands before her shift."
"Oh," There was something in his facial expression that I couldn't place. It was like uneasy curiosity. "Would it be alright if I asked you something then?"
"Uh...sure?" I scanned over him, a little freaked out. I didn't know Korie's dad that well, and absolutely wasn't sure of his intentions in that moment.
"So, Korie mentioned to me that this town is in a drought, and that you were the one to tell her. I was just wondering if that's true?"
"I mean, it's never rained once in my life since I can remember, so yeah, I think it's true."
"And everyone in the town knows this?"
"Probably, a lot of them have been here for generations."
Korie's dad just stared at me as he thought. It felt like I could see the gears turning in his head.
"Okay, well, thanks for the talk, pal. I'll uh, I'll see you around then." He gave me an awkward smile before stepping off the front steps and heading down the street. I figured that would be the last time Korie's dad would be interested in the drought. It wasn't. Soon after, he started protesting at Town Hall and trying to publish articles in the local newspaper about how a town was trying to hide a drought from the media. He created conspiracies over it, things like the government was doing some sort of testing, or this was once an uninhabitable site caused by radiation. He went crazy. All over a drought. A lot of the townspeople simply huffed and shook their heads at the whole thing. A few tried to argue with him, and some even tried to silence him. That was the weirdest part. There were a handful of people treating this weird guy's dilemma like it was taboo. Not like he was crazy, but like he shouldn't be talking about it. It confused me, all of this over a drought? Why would people even bother?
My attitude quickly changed as soon as Korie went missing. It happened a week ago. Her dad reported her missing when she didn't come home from school, after he rushed over to our house. He looked so disheveled and frightened. I didn't know where she was either, I thought she had stayed home sick that day because she wasn't at school. The town joined the police's search efforts. We were out looking for hours, some of the adults posted things on social media for their friends in neighboring towns to see. News stations covered it. I was so shocked, scared and confused. I prayed that no one in the town had taken her. I prayed that she wasn't hurt, hoping that her dad's outburst hadn't caused someone to go over the edge.
I've been crying for the past few days. She was my best friend. Everything feels off. And today, when I looked out my bedroom window, I saw it.
Something came from the woods. Neither my sister or I could remember how or when it arrived. We didn't even know what it was. All we knew was that one day the back door was wide open and there were dirty footprints coming into the house. They were human footprints. Our parents had called the police, we all thought we were going to be robbed or worse. The police didn't find anything, but we were all on edge regardless.
After that, weird things started happening. There would be movement in the attic, things like old furniture moving, and footsteps. My parents called the cops again, but they found nothing. They told us it was likely raccoons or other animals finding a way in and advised us to call pest control. I'm not sure how rats could sound like a couch being moved across the floor, but pest control came in a week later. There was a pile of dead, decaying mice up in the attic. It hadn't been there when the police stopped by, but some of the mice looked a week or two dead. My dad asked if they could do a sweep of the house and get rid of any unwanted critters, dead or alive. My mom, my sister, and I left to stay with my aunt while the house was cleaned.
That's when it felt like I was being followed.
No matter where I went in my aunt's house, alone or not, it felt like I was being watched. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck standing up, and the room would feel chilly. Sometimes I swore I could hear faint footsteps behind me. I tried to be around my sister or my mom when I could, just to feel somewhat safe. It didn't feel like I was the only one being paranoid. My sister went from relaxed and happy to having what felt like a facade, which would drop when she would look over her shoulder. She would always check when my eyes were on something else, but I'd catch her in my peripheral now and again. It was scary, feeling like we were being haunted even when we were away from our own home.
When we got back home, the feeling remained, but with it came shadows. Ones that would look around corners at you, but would move back around the corner and vanish when you faced it. The shadows, the paranoia, the attic noises, and things moving on their own made me feel like I was living in a horror movie. Things were escalating, and it was taking a toll on my family. It continued to get so much worse.
The cabinets, attic noises and the objects moving stopped. In their place, she showed up. I was the first to see her. I was up in my room, brushing my hair when I suddenly felt like I was being watched. I looked over at my open bedroom door to see my sister. She was standing there, looking at me, motionless and expressionless. I asked her if she needed something, but she didn't answer.
"Please act normal. Things are weird enough, you don't need to scare me more."
She still didn't respond. I had enough and stood up from my bed. As I did, she immediately turned and ran down the stairs. I yelled after her as she turned around a corner, and I saw her room was opened, too. I went to peek in, and my sister was almost at the doorway, where I stood.
"What?" She looked at me, concerned and confused.
I was so freaked out I almost cried. She asked me what was wrong again, to which I could only respond with a quaking voice and a shaky hand pointing at the stairs, "I saw you...but it wasn't you."
Feast on a drawing for my theater class, where we made/wrote our own characters. Just a lil sketch for fun that I did. His name's Silvious and is half mermaid, half pirate!
Attention FNAF fans!! I don't know if anyone else has noticed this or pointed it out, but I figured it's an interesting find. It's likely it's a coincidence since a lot of other words use the same letters, but I found it interesting nonetheless. May try and see if I can make more anagram solutions with it.
Been gone for a while, here's a lil drawing of a cat
(His name's Lucifer and he belongs to one of my characters)
Also, I'm working on drawing more characters, mainly masculine figures since that's something I've been wanting to work on so I may post those here! Have a nice day!
Headshot doodle of one of Amaris' coworkers: Cass. Working more and more on their story, and it's been fun so far! Might end up doing a full body digital of them like I did with Amaris.
(Tw: Blood [drawn/fake]) In a group chat, a few of my friends were telling another one they should try and make the angsty-est character they can. I thought it would be fun to also try this, just for a challenge and out of curiosity. Meet one of my newest OCs/characters, Amaris.
