Hello! I really just adore your Andy and Quynh fanart for The Old Guard! Do you have an option to Buy You A Coffee? Or do you sell prints of your fanart anywhere? Thank you!
hello, i’m so sorry i took so long to reply to this, i literally didn’t know what to say!! thank you so much - i don’t have a Kofi or sell prints of my fanart, but i am very flattered by your interest :))
here, have this thing of our fave immortal wives partying with your icon; it amuses me v much to imagine them grabbing a drink with medusa
Hello! Loving all your prompt fills! If you wouldn't mind "Collapsing Off Of Horse" with the Nie Bros! Thank you!
Nie Mingjue looked up as Zonghui burst into the command tent.
“Zonghui—?”
“Zongzhu!” his cousin gasped, wiping sweaty hair out of his eyes. “It’s Er-gongzi!”
Nie Mingjue shot to his feet. “What? He’s in the Unclean Realm!” His brother had been there since the Sunshot Campaign started, and yet, Zonghui was shaking his head.
“Scouts found him on a horse galloping our way, a few miles out. The majority stayed to escort him here, but one flew back as fast she could.”
“Escort? He didn’t—?”
Zonghui shook his head again.
Cursing, Nie Mingjue grabbed Baxia and hurried from the tent, uncaring if Zonghui followed him or not. For Huaisang to ride, alone, over from the Unclean Realm deep in Qinghe to the border with QishanWen… Nie Mingjue dreaded to imagine what had driven his brother to do so almost as much as he dreaded seeing what state he would be in.
Shaking his head, Nie Mingjue skid to a stop at the road that led in to camp. There was already a crowd gathering as rumor spread, and he could see disciples shooting furtive glances between him and the forest and leaning into whisper to each other. Normally, Nie Mingjue would put a stop to it; he had no care for the harm rumors caused. Right now, though, the sound of hoof beats could finally be heard.
Hands held stiff behind his back to hide the way they shook, Nie Mingjue marched a few steps forward. The hoof beats were louder, now. Louder. Louder.
The disciples burst out of the trees, their green uniforms camouflaging them until they were in the open. They flew in an altered formation, allowing for the horse and rider galloping in the middle, and didn’t stop until they were right before Nie Mingjue.
“Huaisang!” he barked, hurrying forward. His heart beat worriedly in his chest as he took in his brother. He was usually paler than everyone else, due to the amount of time he spent inside, but he looked sickly pale as he swayed atop the horse, and his hair was in astonishing disarray.
“Da-ge?” Huaisang slurred, looking at him. “A—a small force of Wens snuck past the border and approaches the Unclean Realm.”
Then he fainted.
Nie Mingjue lunged forward, catching Huaisang roughly when he slipped fully from the saddle and swinging him up into his arms.
Turning, he marched towards the medical tent. “Zonghui! Prepare a plan and present it to me!”
Nie Huaisang woke to snoring. Opening his eyes, he found himself staring at a canvas ceiling—a tent, which must mean—
Nie Huaisang tried to spin to his side, but stopped quickly with a moan as his entire body screamed at him. He felt like Da-ge had coached him through two straight days of training, though that actually wasn’t far from the truth. He’d ridden hard for two days, after all, stopping only when the health of his horse forced him to.
“Huaisang?” someone asked, and he turned his head to the side slowly to see Da-ge blinking fuzzily at him and holding back a yawn.
“Da-ge,” Nie Huaisang said. “Did I—I don’t remember arriving, do you—?”
“You told us enough,” Da-ge said. “Right before passing out and falling off your horse.” He frowned, mouth a severe line. “Huaisang, what on earth possessed you to make such a ride? You could have sent a disciple on a sword; it would have been faster and safer.”
Nie Huaisang shook his head. “The Wens will be watching the skies. It was far easier to slip someone by on the ground, and Er-shixiong needed every fighter he had. We both know that’s not me, Da-ge.”
“That doesn’t mean you can just sacrifice yourself,” Da-ge said, voice hard. Reaching forward, he squeezed Nie Huaisang’s hand. “What would I do if you died? The entire Sunshot Campaign would fail when QingheNie withdraws in grief.”
Nie Huaisang squawked and reached out with his free hand, lightly swatting his brother’s arm. “Da-ge! You can’t just say that!”
“Why not? You know I always speak the truth—”
“Da-ge!”
His brother grinned and squeezed his hand again, but when he spoke again his words were serious. “I don’t know what I would do without you, Didi.”
Nie Huaisang softened. Squeezing his brother’s hand back, he murmured, “That’s a two-way road, Da-ge.”
Da-ge hummed. Letting go of Nie Huaisang’s hand, he stood up and tucked the covers in closer around him.
“I have to go see what’s happened while we were resting. If you need anything, there’s a disciple right outside.”
Nie Huaisang nodded. He watched his brother go, then closed his eyes—but no matter what he tried, he didn’t fall asleep until some time later.
Possibly I can only remember recent things, but our little pre-Christmas celebration was really nice. It was me, my wife, her girlfriend, girlfriend’s fiancée, and family friend. (We’re all part of a cohort, or bubble, or whatever it’s called.) We had dinner and chatted by the fire and listened to music and it was very cozy.
12 biggest regret of the year?
I actually have no idea! I’ve done the best I can! Maybe that I didn’t get myself organized in time for Christmas, so we’re doing gift giving in January, or maybe that I didn’t make more music.
15 did you make any new friends?
Yes! I started joining @wordwarchat (which I learned about via @judearaya). It’s ostensibly a productivity chat where we encourage each other to get our work done, but sometimes we just chat, or even play games like pictionary lol. I’ve met a bunch of new people there like @throwing-roses-into-the-abyss @insectbah @alittledizzy @natigail @tarredion-nr2 and a bunch of people whose usernames I don’t know!
19 do you look different from the beginning of the year?
Yes! I stopped getting haircuts in March and my hair is looong. (Previously it was fairly short, and shaved on the sides.) This (plus face masks) has made it even more of a toss up how I get gendered, which is good! Also I’ve gotten fatter, and gained new stretch marks. I’m very grateful to my body for doing such a good job of taking care of me and keeping me alive!
Hi! So I really love your Old Guard Art, and I just wanted to check. Do you get pretty compensated from Redbubble sales or would you rather we buy you a coffee? (I got a mug with the beautiful Old Guard PRIDE art on it, but I completely forgot to ask before I got it!). Thanks for sharing all of your lovely art!
Ohh, that’s so kind of you to ask! Thank you so much and thank you for buying the pride mug 💕 💖
well, the artist margin in redbubble is 20%
i’m very thankful for whatever people decide to buy, the fact that they are buying something i drew makes me so incredibly happy... but unless people buy the expensive stuff i don’t obtain much from redbubble...
actually, the last person who bought me coffee donated the amount of money i made from redbubble in months 😆
For me it’s been more about rediscovering pieces of me which I’d lost - listening to more music has put me back in touch with who I was in my 20s and 30s, which is great, and I’ve also gone back to some of the interests I had before I was derailed by a major bout of depression in 2016, like reading comics, which has been really rewarding.
16. Did you learn anything about your sexuality this year?
As this post from May indicates, yes! Though it wasn’t so much any great realisation about myself, as I’ve always been happy with who and how I am, really just a change in the labels I feel I can and should use about myself.
18. What surprised you the most this year?
I doubt I’m alone in saying how much things can change in a short time. Certainly in universities we all pivoted very rapidly to online teaching and seminars, and a lot of groups were set up to share online resources. I suspect that quite a lot of the changes in working life for me will be here to stay.
20. How did this year treat you in general?
Honestly, not so well. In the autumn I thought I was finally starting to recover health-wise, only to get another series of kicks in the teeth, and over here we’ve had the unending horror of Brexit, as the UK lurches towards disaster in a fog of 50s nostalgia and jingoism. Work has been non-stop as we’ve tried to adapt to changing circumstances, and really, it’s not been a year to look back on fondly.
the purge: if all crime were legal for one night, what would you do?
Well, I know some people who very much need at least mildly stabbed. And I would like to go for a mad joyride in a fast car. But tbh, mostly I’d just go steal a lot of shit.
