So what’s the schedule going to look like for Paperboy? Because I await chapters on bated breath, no rush, I was just curious.
I have no idea, tbh. I am AWFUL with deadlines to the point where I'm starting suspect my mom passed her ADHD to me after all. I definitely wanna drop in March & the pages I've been stockpiling are adding up nicely.
But I'm also really picky about my art so I spend more time than you'd think just... re-doing & improving certain things.
I do have a lot of free time now, though. It's a LOT easier for me to work, especially since I now have a smaller drawing tablet and a job I can draw AT. 👀 Here's what I got done right now (except no sketch layer; gotta keep some secrets)
Apologies for late response, I just noticed this now 😭
Oh man Evelyn looking into grace soul practically she would have grace running for the hills lol and I hated the Russian storyline really stupid
Yeah, the Russians....are a weird storyline so it's debatable how much of any potential sequel would be canon-compliant. So I may only do season 1 + 2 for sure (if i can get Evelyn's arc figured out) and then one-shots if they are requests for a specific scene from season 3 + 4. It's all up in the air though. I'm not going to stress too hard as I have SONS as my priority fandom. If I think too hard I start doubting myself lol.
But since you guys have been so receptive I will share a rough draft of the scene that inspired Eye of the Storm initially. The bar scene from episode 2 with Grace and Tommy.
Tommy heads to Garrison. He needs a drink before having to tell his son that his beautiful horse was dead. He knows that he could make up some lie about the horse being sick and needed to go away, but what good would that do.
The lights are still on at the Pub and he bangs on the door.
The door opens and he pushes his way through. “We're closed, Mr. Shelby,” the posh voice of the barmaid rings out.
“Just get me a drink.”
“Shall I leave you alone?”
Tommy sighs. She always has fucking questions. “Where's Harry?”
“He took the night off. Went to the pictures,” she informs him as she slides his favorite whiskey in front of him.
Tommy grabs a cigarette from the open pack lying on the table.
“How's your beautiful horse?”
Tommy pauses his search for the cigarette as he leans back in his chair. He looks at the barmaid. “I just put a bullet in his head.”
“Was he lame?”
“He looked at me the wrong way. It's not a good idea to look at Tommy Shelby the wrong way.”
He watches as her blue eyes look away from him nervously. Good, he thinks. Let her be intimidated by him.
“People say the same thing about your wife,” she says hesitantly.
Tommy raises an eyebrow. Maybe it’s not him that has her nervous. “Maybe you should heed their warnings.”
“She’s very pretty.”
“I know.”
“Does your wife mind I’m going to the races with you?”
There is an edge to her voice. Almost arrogance to it. He lights his cigarette. “You’re going for me, not with me.”
He watches as that arrogance dims a little. She must be really stupid if he thinks he would openly step out on his wife. Besides, if Grace doesn’t take his warning, that’s on her. He isn’t going to stop Evelyn from handling the situation as she sees fit.
“And what am I doing at this race?”
“For £2, you'll do what I ask you to do.”
“I want three. If I'm meeting a king, I won't be wearing a cheap dress.” She fires back. “And I ask you to let me sing. It's part of the deal now, too.”
He bristles at the mention of the fucking singing.
“Saturday nights. Open and easy. Everyone gets to sing their song, just like we did in Dublin.”
“You never worked in Dublin. So don't lie to me,” he tells her. “My guess is, you're a girl from a good family who got herself pregnant.”
“It's not something I want known. You won't tell anyone my secret?”
Hiii!!! So I just re read the first chapter of Pink Boy and I was wondering if you knew when you would be updating that?! I need to know Harry's reaction!!!! Please and thank you
hmmm under the cut you’ll see the reaction
At twenty-two-years-old, Ellery was waiting for something, anything, from the boy on the other side of the phone. She would’ve settled for yelling, for cheering, for the sound of his phone hitting the ground, but the silence on the other side was agonizing.
She didn’t know if she should have said something, so she didn’t.
Harry deserved to absorb the information, like she did.
“Elle,” his voice was strained, his throat dry, “are you still there?”
“Yeah,” she replied.
“When did you find out?”
She felt sick again. “Thursday.”
Her heart tugged at the sound of his quick intake of breath.
“You’ve known since Thursday, and you’re telling me now?”
Ellery already felt the tears down her cheeks. “I know, I’m so sorry, fuck, Harry. I should’ve told you yesterday.” Her hand was shaking against the stark white of her bed spread, and no matter how tightly she gripped at the comforter the trembling wouldn’t stop. She couldn’t get over how broken he sounded, though his words weren’t clipped, she could tell that he was struggling to get them out, trying to process and formulate all of the information that was thrown at him.
“You should have told me the night you found out. We don’t keep stuff from each other, Elle. We never have.”
She brushed at her cheek. “I know, but you were nervous about SNL, and I didn’t want you to worry about-”
“You didn’t want me to worry about our child?”
Elle tried not to pay attention to the sound of Jeff in the background, his voice yelling out your what over the extraneous sounds of the tarmac. “I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.”
“And yet, here we are.”
Elle let out a sob, one that she had been trying to hold back since he spoke. “I didn’t know how to tell you. Your music is just now all coming to the surface and you have enough on your plate, I didn’t want to add on to that. And things were so busy on Saturday, and it slipped my mind. I know it will never make up for it, I should’ve told you immediately. I’m so sorry.” The one person in the world she couldn’t fathom being disappointed in her was Harry.
“Ellery, my music has been on the surface since I was 16 years old. Whether I’m in a band or on my own doesn’t matter. This is one thing that should be added to my plate,” He went quiet for a moment. “Are you sure you’re okay to travel? For Los Angeles?”
“Yeah.” Her voice was meek. “I’m seeing the doctor tomorrow, when I get there.”
“I’ll be there.”
Jeff was saying something that Ellery couldn’t hear. His tone was aggravated, angry that Ellery would again change the plans.
“It’ll be for 24 hours, Jeff.”
She was already fucking things up. “Harry, it’s-”
“Don’t,” he snapped, “don’t tell me it’s okay, Ellery. I’m coming, that’s the end of it.”
He was so upset with her. She couldn’t remember a time he spoke to her like that, saving the tone for those boys who made fun of her when they were 13 and at a school dance. She wasn’t used to it being directed at her, she wasn’t used to the way it cut against her skin. “I’m so sorry,” she didn’t even know if he would hear her, her voice less than a whisper.
Ellery didn’t know who she was saying it to anymore.
To herself, for letting someone else dictate her own precautionary measures solely because they didn’t like the way it changed her appearance. To Harry, for throwing the curveball of a lifetime at the worst time, and not even having the decency to let him look her in the eyes while she said it. To the baby, for not being ready for it, for not treating its father with the respect he deserved.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Ellery. Send me the information for the doctor, please.” He sounded so tired.
“Okay. I miss you,” she mumbled, her heart acting faster than her head.
Okay you have to share your secret in how you wrote a freaking 46k fic because holy crap!!
oh oh that shit was not easy, i’ll tell you that. like at times the words came naturally and that’s how ended up with like 20k after a few hours but there were days where i couldn’t come up with anything and it drove me nuts bc i didn’t wanna leave it as a wip forever but then when i did get inspo, i’d end up writing a whole ‘nother 10k!!! i was like !!! the !!! heck !!! man ??? i guess the only thing i can really say in “how i did it” is basically it was an idea i really wanted to write and i spent so much time thinking about it and being inspired for it that it just,, took a mind of it’s own?? if that makes sense ???
i don’t think i’ll ever be able to manage again and if i do i’ll have to break it up in parts bc i never knew that tumblr mobile was such an asshole that anything over 14k literally crashes the goddamn app
tuafw ur sensory issues are so debilitating and u cant do anything without having a meltdown or getting overstimulated. and for all ur life ppl just say ur bratty bc of it but like... no.. its the autism!!! (can i be pb asks?)
Every new piece of art I see of this upcoming comic, the more I grow eager for it. I'm really loving all of this so far~ ^^
Omg?? Thank you so much! I've noticed you hang around the page a lot (& I saw you on artfight-- still wanna draw your ocs!) & I really appreciate it :]
i just wanted to say that i’m so incredibly happy to see a comic that talks about special ed, i spend my entire late childhood to preteen-hood in the sped department, most of the staff members who would follow me around would physically and emotionally abuse me, i ended up having to be homeschooled and developed all sorts of mental issues as a result, and it took me years to heal from everything, i’m still working through my mental health, and knowing that i’m not the only person who went through this makes me super happy
...Makes me happy too :]
I wish you the best! It's true-- we really aren't alone. Even when it seems it. When I was a kid in the 2010s, I used to google "help, special ed makes me feel bad" or "special ed makes me sad" and I wouldn't be able to find anything except articles about how 'wonderful' of an environment it is, & why you should put your kids in there if you can. I thought I was going nuts for a while.
Kid-me felt so alone, I actually started Paperboy *as a child*, as a last-ditch way to cope. Summer between sixth and seventh grade, I would draw out all the terrible things that happened to my peers & I, but with different names and faces. In a little blue notebook. And I never stopped. Thank God other people are more vocal about it today, though. I don't want to be the only person who talks about this.
‼️[Heads up-- vague discussion of ableist abuse against a child & SA going onward!]‼️
I was in it for K-8, so ages 4-13. I was never hit by adults, but the emotional abuse & isolation ran so rampant that by 5, I was asking teachers, "Am I *good enough* to play with other kids yet? :D"
Needless to say, I was always noted to have self-esteem issues. (And staff had the audacity to wonder why?)
I'm so sorry, anon. Kids like you & me went through way too much. I remember it all: the screaming, the following, intimidation, condescension, EXTREME public humiliation, force-feeding, isolation, disabled kids bullying each other, botched education, violent situations, some times where I genuinely almost died, and then... well. I was sexually abused while I was in there, to say the least. And nobody would let me separate from the people who did it because the school insisted on keeping all their "special little things" together, away from everybody else. So I had to just... stay there. And take it. For months on end.
An adult even saw it one day. You could tell I was in trouble, I even screamed, "HELP ME!" at the top of my lungs. She looked right at me, straight-up eye contact, but... she turned her back. To talk to some General Ed kids on the other end of the recess yard.
Normal talk, too. She didn't send the girls to get help or anything. They had a pleasant little chat while I had the worst moment of my life.
I haven't healed up fully, but I'm doing... better? Working on Paperboy helps! My family wouldn't help me, but I did well enough that I got to be transferred out into General Ed at 13. And I got a therapist helping me out now at 19. But that environment genuinely took my entire childhood away from me; and that sucks! 4 is pretty much a toddler. 13 is a teenager already.
I will never understand why people think disabled students are to be treated like nothing. Special Ed & many of the people involved in it have some serious reform to do.
