theopteryx

hello! I'm theo and this is where my fanart lives. the current fanart rotation is mostly stranger things and critical role with occasional forays into other fandoms and too many pictures of my dnd pcs. you can find me also over on ao3: @theopteryx, twitter: @theopteryx, and instagram: @theopteryx_draws. i reblog for fun on tumblr at beerexington.tumblr.com.

[roseserpentpress]

This Tornado Loves You, a frerard fic by the amazing @theopteryx, and one of my favourites. It's been a fun ride doing this fic, as I ended up designing and hand painting the cover paper in gouache before subsequently affixing the painted paper to the cover (prev post of the cover design). As a result it is one of the most involved covers I've done; sometimes you have a design in your brain and you gotta see her through, and I really enjoyed being able to incorporate aspects of the story by doing so into the cover. Technique wise in retrospect, thick layers of gouache are not the most ideal to use for cover designs for bookbinding as they can flake, unlike acrylic, but that's food for thought later. This book was also my first attempt at double core endband (the other books I've posted I did after the endbands for this book), but the originals (although pretty and decently done) I actually scrapped as I came up with a design that more represents the maze, compared to the previous design; it's also not the only part I've re-done, as the grave corner design I actually re-painted to better fit the other corner art pieces.

Fic details and link below the readmore:

This Tornado Loves You by Theopteryx (M, 44k)

1933. Frank's been on the run a long time and he's forced to stop in his old hometown. At first things are about what he expects - old friends, unpleasant memories, and a less-than-desirable home life. Everything changes one night when he stumbles on an old hedge maze hidden in the woods. It's not the hedge maze that intrigues him the most, though, but the secrets of the house hidden inside.

[theopteryx]

LOOK! HOW! BEAUTIFUL! as always can't ever believe anybody would still think about these fics all this time later let alone make something like this. i'm in awe!!! i love art!!!!!!! i love people making things!!!!! look how beautiful!!!!!!!!!! !! !!!!!!

[blae-kitta]

Cover design for the frerard fic This Tornado Loves You by Theopteryx, whole and details.

Next step is to actually directly apply the painting onto the book to case it in, which ngl I'm a bit nervous to do, after all the time spent painting the damn thing... it always takes longer then you anticipate that's for sure... but also thrilled to see how it'll look applied. The flatness of the design I deliberately chose, as I feel it'll look good on the book itself, rather than something more cluttered that then has to wrap around the book...

[theopteryx]

LOOK AT THIS!!!!!!!!!!!

[annoyingcloudearthquake]

Got called a weirdo irl for the way I write my fics sooo

How do you write your fics?

Directly in Ao3 (Frightening)

Google docs, all on one doc

Google docs, each chapter on a separate doc

Google docs, each chapter on a document tab

Notes app

Nintendo 3DS Game Notes

Paper

Once again, telepathically transfer the words directly from your brain

Microsoft Word

Some other option (Tell me in tags)

Voting ended onMar 8, 2025

I am the “writes in document tabs” if anyone’s wondering

[theopteryx]

I need you to know that I go back and reread your steddie fics all the time they are both so incredible I don’t know that I’ll ever experience the high that I felt reading them for the first time again 😭 thank you for sharing them!!!!

this is so nice 🥲🥲 idk if it helps but i am trying VERY HARD right now to finish a third one! i'm desperate to get it done before the new season comes out and we have to deal with whether or not the writers decide that the reward for steve having a character arc is killing him off in the last season. I'M FINE! IT'S FINE! anyway steve is sooooo sad in this one :)

[incandescent-creativity]

Do you ever write a sentence and then realize “Nah, that’s too self aware for you” and backspace a bunch of times.

[incandescent-creativity]

[theopteryx]

new oc from our new planescape setting campaign! sabine, a yuan-ti hexblood, fighter/druid. ive never really clicked with druids as a class until i realized i could make a little louisiana swamp druid (my home state) but now i'm all in, baby

[theopteryx]

if you're still doing this: vuh (teen wolf, sterek)

"You can't drink werewolf blood," Derek said. 

"The fuck I can't," Stiles said. "Gimme."

18k???????? somehow????? of stiles getting turned into a vampire. this was wild to backread because i don't remember writing a single word of it. and it wasn't very good! but kind of fun to go back and reread bc i think there are subconsciously some similar threads to a special privilege for the resurrected (steddie) in it. i like what i like (suffering)!!!!!

WIP ask meme

[theopteryx]

slip away slow steddie??

Steve's dead asleep when someone knocks on his door, rat-a-tat fast. 

"Eddie?" he asks, squinting in the harsh bright light of the uncovered bulb by his front door. He peers around Eddie's shoulder and down the steps like that'll make sense, but there's no car in the driveway; it's pitch black outside.

"How are you here?" Steve's still half-asleep, his brain back in bed. 

"I took a cab," Eddie says, pushing past him and into the apartment. As soon as Steve closes the door Eddie's on him, hands up under the hem of his shirt, and Steve melts, because of course he does. He always does.

"Wait, wait a sec—aren't you supposed to be in Detroit?" Steve tries again. 

"I was in Detroit," Munson says, kissing up his neck. "But now I'm here." He gets to the spot under his ear; Steve tries not to hit the floor, tries to stay focused. It's--hard.

"A cab drove you all the way from Detroit?"

"Yes." His mouth is hot against Steve's skin, impatient. "And If I knew foreplay was gonna involve so much talk about this country's incredible interstate system I'd've boned up on my geography facts first."

"I'll bone up on your geography," Steve says automatically.

"That's awful," Eddie says. "I missed how awful you are."

"Thanks," Steve says, pleased; Eddie's voice is warm in the cold little room.

from a rockstar!eddie/normal-guy!steve au i'm working on - in progress! like 30k in. i have no idea if it wants to be like. 25k. or 75k. i guess we'll see! i'm such a slow writer but i'm determined to finish this one.

WIP ask meme!

[theopteryx]

for the WIP ask game: the other other

Adam watched the two mosquito hawks bump into the dim ceiling light, too soft to even make a noise. He'd cracked the small window above his bed to prick the thick heat inside the apartment, with little success, and the bugs had followed the light inside. "Apparently they don't even eat mosquitos," he said, letting his physics textbook rest on his chest.

Ronan didn't look up from the corner he'd staked out earlier by the pile of Adam's other textbooks. He'd shown up that night with his backpack over his shoulder but as far as Adam could tell he hadn't even opened it except to pull a rubber band ball - that was absolutely property of the guidance counselor - from the side pocket, and that'd been at least a couple of hours ago. He'd instead spent the time snapping rubber bands into the air so Chainsaw could swoop down from the top of the door frame and snatch them out of the air. He had the same amount of exams as Adam, but Adam didn't mention it.

A long-abandoned Raven Cycle Adam/Ronan fic, where Ronan accidentally dreams an Adam who comes into the real world; complications ensue!

WIP ask game

[theopteryx]

WIP game - tagged by @obscurecurse!

RULES: make a new post with the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

i'm putting the ship names and fandoms because these are. absolutely nonsensical. out of context. enough that i had to open some of them to stare and remember what they were about. also i went back pretty far for some of these just for fun and have listed them in order from most to least recent. okkkkk here we go!

slip away slow (stranger things, steddie)

it's my party (stranger things, steddie)

steddie exes (stranger things, steddie)

dimension door (stranger things, harringrove)

hcsg (critical role, shadowgast)

the other other (raven cycle, ronan/adam)

sbbb (captain america, stucky)

vuh (teen wolf, sterek)

spark (teen wolf, sterek)

tagging @mistresscurvy @dsudis @giddygeek @magicalrocketships @writesharriet @strictlybecca @drunktuesdays @brooklinegirl @ziusik :)

[spid3r-trans]

nothing scarier than activity on an old post.....where did u find that thang

[sharkface]

They are already selling data to midjourney, and it's very likely your work is already being used to train their models because you have to OPT OUT of this, not opt in. Very scummy of them to roll this out unannounced.

[nodsgay]

It's under "Visibility" on the blog configuration menu. You have to set it individually for each blog.

[theopteryx]

i am sooooooo happy d20 fantasy high is back :) ❤️‍🔥

[theopteryx]

2023 recap! it's been a little bit of a quiet year over here. i sometimes go into phases where hobbies have to feel 'productive' to feel worth doing - it's not a GOOD phase, i don't recommend it, but sometimes our brains are a box of cats and what can you do - but drawing time suffers because so much of my drawing time is me spinning my wheels. which is part of the fun, and the point, but i also know sometimes it means i gotta focus on other things for a while and then come back to it when the cats have worn themselves out a bit. as always i appreciate y'all being here, and cheers to hopefully being more productively unproductive in 2024 <3

nyahh (steve/eddie, stranger things)

i am not immune to vampires with a fucked up backstory (astarion, baldur's gate 3)

mercy (dnd oc, elf rogue/wizard)

enzo (oc, half-elf psi knight/barbarian)

that's my little war criminal (essek, critical role campaign 2)

cozy (steve/eddie, stranger things)

and i posted another steddie fic this year! - no reason, 31k, E. eddie kisses steve before he dies, but then he doesn't actually die, even though, in retrospect, that seems like it maybe would have been easier. 🙃

[theopteryx]

14 & 19 for the ask meme!

14. Favorite book you read this year?

Tough!! TOUGH!! I WEPT reading Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. I loved Hell Bent, the sequel to Ninth House, even more than the first book. I went down a rabbit hole of David Grann's books and devoured Killers of the Flower Moon and The Wager in a fury and am currently halfway through The Lost City of Z. But honestly as far as just incredibly pleasurable reading experiences go I'm giving it to Dark Heir, the sequel to Dark Rise. I read the first book when it came out a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it but hadn't read it again since. My friend E came in from out of town for Thanksgiving which coincided with the release date so I let her read DH while I reread DR to refresh my memory and the absolute pleasure of reading a book while your friend is reading the sequel and just GAAAAASPING in delight/horror/surprise the whole time next to you is just, like, the MOST fun way to read a book, and she pretty much stared at me as I read it and did all the same gasping in delight/horror/surprise. I love tropes, I love tropes done on purpose, I love reading with friends, I love getting to finish a book and putting it down on the bed and laying first face into the mattress and screaming and your friend going I KNOOOOOOOW. I've reread the last few chapters of the book like at LEAST four times already. Also I enjoyed DR soooooooo much more on the reread, it went from 'really enjoyed' to 'loved,' which is also a wonderful way to experience a book.

19. What’re you excited about for next year?

well a few of us lost our minds and bought overpriced tickets to that fest where my chemical romance is going to play the black parade front to back, and there's a good chance i will straight up explode into tears! it's gonna be great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[theopteryx]

11 and 9!

9. Best month for you this year?

so obviously going to japan in the spring was up there but i've already talked about it a lot so i'm actually going to give a shout out to july, which had some of the more frustrating parts of this year (fighting with my landlord, someone hit and running my car, other stupid bullshit) but included: an absolutely incredible family beach trip that was one of our best family trips of all time, and that even includes the part where my SIL accidentally set a toaster on fire and almost burned the condo down and i had to fire extinguisher it on the floor of the kitchen and we had to throw out all the food that was out, EVEN THEN! THAT'S JUST MAKIN' MEMORIES, BAY-BEE! AND a trip to british columbia for a cousin's wedding which was a hoot n hollerin good time, AND a friend's taskmaster-themed birthday party which was. deeply unhinged.

i hate summer, and my good friend hates summer, and so this year we decided that we would NOT hate summer, we were going to become the kind of people who LOVED SUMMER, we would love summer SOOOOO much, even if it was out of spite, and we literally sat down and made a list of fun summer to-do's (we love lists. we love to check things off a list. it's fun. what is the problem here.) and by god we checked a lot of things off that list, which rolled into just having like. a ton of fucking silly fun, lmao. we ice dyed. we made spaghett (miller high life. campari. lemon juice. it's good i swear!). we sat in a creek in the woods on a hot day. we floated in a pool. we went to barbie movie opening night. we got shitty perfect drumstick ice cream cones from the gas station that melted down our arms as we walked back to her house. we went to a midsommar screening where everyone was dressed up like the may queen. we rewatched all the scream movies. i literally made and presented two powerpoint presentations about wrestling and friends listened to them WILLINGLY. i swear!! anyway sometimes it turns out that if you force yourself to have fun you will in fact have fun. fake it till you make it ☀️

11. Something you want to do again next year?

i wrote fic this year, and i'm working on another one right now that is tough but that i'm enjoying, and there's no way it's done before the end of the year but i'd definitely like to post it at some point. hopefully. who knows! 🫠

[theopteryx]

Hello! For the ask meme, what’s something you learned this year? :>

this year i learned that i am apparently mildly allergic to cat hair - not enough to keep me from being in the same room as them, but potentially enough to not be able to have a cat of my own, and i have long dreamed about having a little black cat called bug so i'm PROCESSING. also that i'm much better at doing the chores i hate (washing dishes, brushing my teeth, taking my trash out to the dumpster) if i'm listening to podcasts, that there is a point where my work nemesis is just never going to like me and that's honestly just her loss, because i'm very nice to her but she's got her own shit going on, and that sprite zero doesn't have caffeine in it, SORRY I DON'T READ LABELS, CAN'T BELIEVE HOW OFTEN I DRANK IT AND THOUGHT 'MUST JUST BE IMMUNE TO CAFFEINE I GUESS', just living in a fantasy world of my own creation