I wanted to draw the canon LGBTQA+ zr characters and did so!
Five, Jack and Eugene, Maxine and Paula, and Louise! If there's any I've forgotten about I'm sorry and I am only up to season 4 so there might be people I've not met yet.
First time drawing Louise Bailey and quite frankly I really enjoyed drawing her 💕
Five is there because they are cannonly whatever the hell you want them to be!
Bonus:
Samual "I don't know what my sexuality is and at this point I'm too afraid to ask" Yao
My favourite headcanon is that Sam's sexuality is '???' Because he almost confesses to Five several times even though Five's sexuality or gender could literally be anything.
And the award for the most popular request goes to..... Radio Cabel!
I hear Zoe's name and I have a primal need to give her ALL THE FRECKLES!
This one is for @indelible-colouring-markers @roamingneverland and @running4chaos 💕💕💕
If you’d like to request something please go here to see who’s who! I’ve had a few requests so far and I’m starting to work through them, but there’s still plenty of characters available 💕
Info below the cut for neatness 🥰
Radio Abel - No Spoilers
The very start of Five’s life at Abel, before they really knew anyone else, Five had Radio Abel.
It wasn’t that there wasn’t anyone who was willing to try to be friends with Five, but they were mute, and no one knew at this point that they knew BSL because... well, Five didn’t expect anyone else to know it. In Mullins, no one had really been bothered about learning either, so they had sort of accepted that it would be the same in Abel.
So, whilst everyone else would spend their evening in the rec room together, Five would take their headset and a transmitter, go and sit in their bunk, and listen to Jack and Eugene’s show. And for a while, they didn’t feel so lonely.
The moment Sam realises they know how to sign, the loneliness is eased tremendously, and Five finally begins to mix with others. But Five is always fond of the show, and listens almost daily. Even if it’s just old reruns, it’s comfort for them.
The first time they meet Jack or Gene, its after a decontamonation shower. They’re rubbing their hair dry on a towel, heading to the mess hall, and suddenly Jack has seized them.
“You’re the new runner! How about an interview for the listeners?”
Five is stunned. It takes a moment of confused silence for Jack to realise: “ohhhh, so you’re like mute mute!” Gene, of course, is wondering how the hell he had fallen for someone with quite literally 0 braincells.
Still, Five is a little honoured. They find Sam, drag him to the radio shack, and the interview goes ahead with him translating for them.
After that, if Jack and Gene ever catch Five leaving the comms shack, they’ll come them in and ask them to pick the next song for the listeners.
Eugene makes the mistake of criticizing Five’s choice in song one day. He groans and says it’s the worst song he’s ever heard, how could they like that rubbish? Five looks at him for a moment, then smirks, and switches the song to the actual worst song ever, ramps up the volume and switches the music to Abel’s tannoy system so the entire township can hear it.
Three hours. Three hours it goes on for. For hours, all anyone in the town can hear is Disney’s ‘It’s a Small World’ on loop. The boys try everything to change the song, to get it off the tannoys, but nothing they try works. Five doesn’t turn it off for them until Gene apologises and promises never to criticize again.
After that, Janine decides that Five is not allowed in the radio shack ever again. They are banned. That doesn’t stop them from breaking in constantly. Jack and Gene have no idea how they do it.
Five is not good with mental health stuff. Anyone else's, they are fine. They know what they can do to help. They know who to fetch if they can’t do anything. But their own mental health? They’re particularly bad at dealing with it. They don’t tell anyone when they’re starting to feel panicky, when their chest is tightening, or their heart racing. But Radio Abel: that always helps. They go to their bunk, put their headphones on, and close their eyes as they listen to the boys. It helps to ground them.
Radio New Tomorrow - Season 2 spoilers
When Five finds themselves as a refugee in New Canton, Five finds themselves panicking. There’s nothing but confusion about the attack on Abel. Sara’s probably dead. They’re in the middle of the enemies territory The last they heard of Sam or Janine was before the rocket launcher attack. As far as they’re aware, everyone is dead. They can feel themself panicking. So they find themself a quiet corner amongst the hubbub, switch to Radio Abel... and are met with nothing. Error tones. And a replay of the attack. The explosion. Five feels sick.
And then comes Phils voice.
They hear static-y sounds of Jack and Gene’s voices coming through but they tell themselves that it’s just old footage. They yank their headset off at these points and waits a few moments until they hope it’s tuned out again.
Five resents Phil and Zoe for the longest time. They continue to tune in out of habit alone. But its not Jack or Eugene. Five has no way of contacting Abel, and no one is willing to do it for them. They’re stuck in another place where not a soul can talk to them, and once again they’re alone.
One morning, after doing a few laps around New Canton, they tune into Radio New tomorrow... and hear Jack and Gene’s voice, loud and clear and alive.
And then Five is racing to New Canton’s radio shack. The moment the doors open, their hands are signing so quickly. Phil and Zoe have no clue what the hell is happening or what they want. But Five pushes past them and sends ‘Its a Small World’ over to Abel before either of them can pull Five away.
Once dragged away from the controls, Five FIGHTS to get back, and Phil and Zoe are shooketh.
Phil: “Who the hell is this- this goblin in our shack! OUCH! THEY BIT ME!”
J&G: “HOLY COW! THAT’S FIVE!”
After Five is given a stern talking to how they can not bite people with things the way they are, Jack and Gene keep the communication private between Zoe and Phil between songs. Five’s scrawling questions onto scraps of paper (Phil’s notes) and they get a message across. Five almost cries when they tell them that everyones okay. Sam, Janine, Max. They’re alive.
Five goes to the radio shack whenever they need send a message to Abel. Sometimes, they even get to talk to Sam. But Zoe and Phil are particularly bad at learning BSL. Maybe its because Five doesn’t have a translator. How the hell do they not know the sign for Abel Township yet after Five has used it so many times? It’s frustrating. But Phil has started hiding his notes.
Knowing Jack and Gene are alive and as well as they can be in the apocalypse, Five begins to warm to Phil and Zoe. They think their bickering is funny.
Plus, it’s quite sweet to hear the four of them get close.
Five adores playing with Zoe's cats. Sometimes, when they're at New Canton, Zoe will just... Find Five there with her pets. She doesn't mind, as they seem to like them, and she learns of cat related signs from that.
Phil is still salty for a while that Five bit him. But Phil has a kind heart. He trades for a notebook and a pencil so Five doesn't scrawl over his notes again, and when they show up to contact Abel he always puts the kettle on and provides them with biscuits.
After they hear there's been some bad missions, Zoe and Phil always plays Five's favourite songs. Or at least songs that Five had ended up dancing around like a kid in their radio shack. This all amounts to them both having that moment that everyone who meets Five has: wait this lovable kid is THE Runner Five?!?!!
They're glad to return to Abel when they do. They'd wanted nothing but to be able to go home the entire time they stayed at New Canton. But when they visit, it's nice to see Zoe and Phil around. And they always seem somewhat pleased to see them.
I have no idea what any of the dorks are, but enjoy Sam, Five, Jack, Gene and Maxine playing Darkness and Demons! I bet Sam is amazing at DM! Amazing suggestion!
Story Time!
Okay, figured I should explain this as there's so many of you who might not have witnessed the chaos which was my first request for prompts. So in early days of this blog, I had what I believed to be the most Galaxy Brain idea of opening my ask box and asking for emoji prompts.
Honestly - the idea had been simple. Someone sends me an emoji, and I use it to inspire a drawing of Five. I THOUGHT it would be a fun way to explore and experiment with facial expressions. I was foolish. I was naive.
The first emoji I recieved? 🐸
Admittedly it was a prompt off a friend referencing an age long argument we've been locked in about whether Shrek is an amphibian or mammal (he's a mammal) but it was the START.
The amount of non-human emojis I got KILLED ME. The amount of times I stared at my phone and wondered how the hell I was going to pull any of them off. I don't think I actually got a single expression prompt - not any I was expecting anyway. I wanted things like 🙂 or 😉 or 😔 but y'all made it HARD.
At the same time: it was probably that prompt that did give me a better idea of who Five was: a chaotic ball of joy, the start of the gremlin child. Before that they were very... bland.
So when I got 🤠 by @fairlyaltheticquails followed swiftly by dragon 🐉 from @endless-fluffering it resulted in this slightly crappy drawing that apparently a lot of people loved. (Link here for anyone wanting to relive the drawing I once thought was okay but am now realising is terrible).
@inkfire-scribe recently reminded me of dragon cowboy Five, and this prompt gave me the excuse needed to draw Five in their historic outfit.
I half want to open the emoji prompt up again at some point as my art is significantly less shit. But at the same time I do not trust any of you not to take advantage of it. Y'all'll send me to an early grave 😂😂😂
@lucidii requested radio cable on insta and I couldn't resist!
@inkfire-scribe's last fic with Jack and Gene suggested pirate Captain Gene was going away at sea for some plundering. Thought I'd draw him returning to his dorks 💕
I wanted to draw the cliche image of mermaids attracting sailors with their song. I did struggle to decide who was going to be mermaid/pirates but then decided Phil wouldn't be able to survive very long and Zoe would probably prefer sunbathing. They're sipping on some water to help with the whole 'being out of water' thing.
