#valyap

[vallahaii]

can I be notiker's #2 fan 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹 i love the old man

"Don't think I was many kids' favorite while this place was still open."

(fresh off changing my entire profile like a psychopath) he's fine I guess he's alright he's nothign special

I suspect we will both have to fight for third place though them's the breaks . see you in the pit 🫵

Rodger's one child vs Notiker's two adults call that adoption powerscaling → your scraps comes with a free goob

(focusing rly hard) how many heart shapes both overt and hidden can I fit in his design

bonus goob bc I had to figure his design out for this heehee. oh he's so cute

also if your ask is 8 billion years old and locked in the torment nexus it's probably bc I have a good chunk of art and/or discussion planned for it that I just haven't gotten around to yet

[vallahaii]

ok given I'm gonna expand into more toons and such soon I wanted to make clear how I approach character groups so there's no unnecessary strife or confusion heehee — I have an OC post coming up that makes this relevant so I wanted to get it out the way before somebody hits the second tower bc the bit will probably not land if I don't clarify how I see everyone and that will be annoying as hell

(I also still have a strawpage gimmick bumming around in my inbox that I only haven't answered yet bc I haven't explained this yet and I feel bad, and I don't wanna get hung up on potential posts just bc I haven't clarified what I be doing with these critters yet)

So consider two bubbles . One is how I like to draw and interpret and have fun with things and the other is all the different interpretations that other people come up with that I also really like but just haven't adopted into my own scribblings. I feel like the easiest duo for me to explain this idea with is Rodger and Glisten tbh

neither one is better than the other, all that's confirmed is that they're on good terms and Glisten has some degree of trust in Rodger, I just like the potential of the former more because I think I PERSONALLY can do more unique things with that dynamic but that doesn't mean I don't run off and shovel 500 pounds of reflectivedetective into my mouth like a possum in your dumpster

(more detail below the cut, as usual)

I tend to like a "one consistent whole" approach to how I create and manage character interactions — no conflicting narratives or pairings because I like everything to fit together nicely in one big story! Which means I pick the ones I enjoy the most and let 'er rip, creating what I guess I'll refer to as a "world bubble" but I think others have taken to calling them AUs as well — I pick dynamics that I think maintain the parts I find the most interesting about each character. For example, I will never hc somebody as having (or make an OC that has) an existing familial relationship with Dyle because to me the strongest and saddest part of his narrative is just how utterly isolated he is despite yearning for closeness, that he was always meant to be alone, so any familial relationships would be forged after the fact and not actually biological in nature (found family, or otherwise sort of adopted).

Similarly, the only age stratification we know for certain in DW is basically just this:

OCs added for giggles + to illustrate point

With the vast majority of toons fitting in the "adult" category without much further ado. And this is fine! Literally nothing wrong with it, but when it comes to more detailed and diverse interactions, it can be a bit boring for me. Especially if all the potential dynamics are generally considered to be either romantic or equal-terms friendship in nature due to how flat the age stratification is — I love varied platonic dynamics arguably even more !! There's a whole world out there of potential interfacing between characters at different stages in life, messy and ugly and embarrassing and sweet and beautiful, not to mention the unique torment of being past your prime since the day of your creation or doomed to never grow up, so I choose to stratify further:

OCs added for giggles + to illustrate point — any unsorted toons I just haven't picked their brains enough to decide what my favored age range is for them yet, and even a few of the Adults/Young Adults could swap spots with time; the distinction between adult and young adult doesn't exclude pairings or anything it's just bc that's a big-ass age range otherwise

And this is where my "world bubble" comes back in. See I rly like seeing, for example, Glisten x Rodger, but I'm more interested in (for MY OWN work) exploring the idea that Glisten is an idol who now exists without a manager or anybody to support him — he's in a profession that prizes the young and inexperienced to feed them to the wolves and is notoriously unstable and worsens mental health terribly, plus he's utterly alone in it post-closure. So the idea of Rodger being an impromptu mentor and supportive older figure that, due to his deductive skills, could see through his flimsy act and become somebody Glisten could trust and open up to for support, is rly interesting to me! Plus the idea that they were all sort of accidentally invalidated and infantilized and made to feel on the same level as each other by human caretakers, making their evolving relationships post-closure something very new and confusing, is bittersweet to me. So bc of that I choose to stratify Glisten as younger and Rodger as older, and their relationship as purely platonic and even beginning to verge on familial in nature due to the level of trust involved. Like mentor and mentee — not distinctly family, but older/younger and in a position of platonic trust.

Plus, given how I choose to interpret Rodger's inner world, it opens up the potential of a painful dynamic between an older siblinglike figure feeling responsible for a young child they don't actually have any relation to but are still united with in their affection towards, and worry for, an older paternal figure.

"we are a little concerned about how willing you are to hurt yourself in the pursuit of knowledge peepaw PLEASE don't die"

It's the same as TADC discourse about Kinger x Caine — I prefer creator/creation as being familial bc baby I got mommy and daddy issues it's just the way the cookie crumbles, but the people that portray it as romantic got a GOOD POINT and they're REAL COMPELLING — both are great, just as long as they don't coexist because that's gross. I feel that way about the vast majority of DW pairings as well because they're only canonically stratified into three age groups at *most* and very few of them are confirmed to be related, so any further stratification is purely up to headcanon. Glisten/Rodger family is epic, Glisten x Rodger is epic, as long as they're not implied to be at the same time bc that's nasty

TLDR DW pairings between consenting adults didn't kill my grandma and I have no beef with any romantic pairing as long as it has soul (Jack Frost and Elsa shippers you are everything to me you were so committed) I just pick pairings I like the best for my own personal interpretation and fill out the rest of the cast with platonic dynamics of all kinds to keep things cohesive and interesting for me :))

hopefully this makes how I plan to depict Dyle, Rodger, and OCs like Notiker and Med on this acc make more sense heehee

[vallahaii]

made a pandora station play Sinatra/Dean Martin/Nat King Cole/etc to scratch an itch (good background for drawing Dyle, Rodger, Med, Notiker) and it has me not only spacing out repeatedly while trying to draw for an Actual post but thinking about Notiker having memories implanted from the show of being from New York and rly wanting to see it again in real life. does he know

[vallahaii]

all the new videos got me thinking things. I need to peel brusha and sprout and astro like fucking onions who knows how long it will take to get there however ohhgggg I have so many drafts

[vallahaii]

(sitting on 22 post drafts and 12 inboxes and 5 strawpages) "wow these two new oc ideas are crazy" I am never seeing heaven (/goofy)

[vallahaii]

i justwant to say how much i adore your art. I cant descrieb it as anything but it feeling like a really soft plush and i mean that in the best possible way ever its so charming oiguguhgouh ireeeaally like your art

this genuinely makes me rly rly happy sniffles...... like "squishy little heart feelings" happy auwaaaa .....

I've been unsure abt my digital art for a very long time, I haven't been able to make things quickly, consistently, or be above like a 60-70% happiness level with it perhaps ever until the past few months or so and upon reflecting on it now that you say it I think I've always subconsciously sought that feeling of softness and privacy in a lot of my scribblings, moments that can make even the platonic so intimate that they feel romantic, before ever knowing that's what I wanted to approach so the idea that I might be getting there is really lovely auuuehagwgwg 🥹🫶 ah ...... sniffles ...........

I also haven't rly participated in the creation of much fan stuff for general consumption (especially not in the past 5 years or so) so I've largely just been exposed to my own isolated opinion as . well, my own harshest critic that always has something to gripe about — "your poses are still too stiff, you need to get better at back angles, you ought to be better at these clothes and shoe types by now, you know that's not how those clothes fold, perspective, MOTION" so being able to stand still for a second and absorb what others see it as is rly nice. ah people think it's soft. I think that's what I've always wanted

[vallahaii]

I drew ur cat since ur latest post said you loved ur cat :D

MY SON !!!!!!!

his big goober-ass eyeballs oh my god gooby fanart I'm so enthralled . this thing is 30% eyeballs and 70% shadow it's going in the gooby archival museum straight away add it to the list officer

[vallahaii]

THE ULTIMATE QUESTION..

YOU..

RATHER

WHICH

ANIMAL FAMILY?

felines

Canines

Rodents

Reptiles

Aquatic animals (honestly I forgot the name of this one)

Insects

BIRDS (I forgot the name too)

Andnthats all I can think of NOW WHICH DO YOU RATHERRRR‼️‼️‼️‼️

this is so funny y'know what sure FELINES ALL THE WAY ‼️‼️‼️ I'm the biggest cat person you will ever meet in fact look at my terrible circus freak of a son

he licks batteries and skin cream and dead flies and a mummified dead mouse he found in the walls that made him throw up he's like 16 years old (yet you absolutely would not know it he hasn't changed since he was 6 aside from probably getting a little arthritic) and sounds like a door that hasn't been oiled since the turn of the century . his previous owners unfortunately declawed him in the front so he destroys even dog toys at the rate, and with the power of, your average dog and plushies should not be kept within approximately a five mile radius of him

I have many scars bc of this shithead's teeth and I have no idea why his last owner decided to name him after a crusty old US president (grover cleveland)

rodents however are a very close second bc I adore guinea pigs with my entire heart and soul and once I get into a more private living situation I'd like to get a pair and really spoil them make em the center of my world