LeoSimp (she/they)

I only came back for Rise!Leo || 21~ || “愛してます, Leo”

[yourlocalartsonist]

Take Me to a Stranger Place...

𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐌𝐍𝐓: 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐅𝐥𝐲 𝐈𝐧 𝐏𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐬

“You Are Worth The Work It Takes To Love You”

Is what Salena was raised to believe. But after her mother mysteriously disappeared and her father passed a year later, living with her aunt only provided conditional love—if you could even call it that. Same deal with the only two friends she made at school. Love is strangely hard to find, no matter how easily you give it.

Yet, maybe all she needs is a change of pace? Some new faces, some new friends, some new adventures? Yeah, that'd be pretty nice! A fresh start on this tricky trail of love.

Who knew those friends would be green though, am I right~?

[Ao3 Version Here!]

WARNING:

Dear Reader, this fanfic is rated Mature, as it deals with heavy and traumatic topics such as: violence, abuse, neglect, major depression, mild sexual harassment and assault. I add specific content warnings before every chapter so please read safely!

𝙰𝚛𝚌 𝟷 — 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝙼𝚎, 𝚃𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝙼𝚎 𝙽𝚘𝚝 (12/14)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Stormy Days Create Stronger Bonds; By @moonlight-lilymay Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Dear Moon “Are You Free Tomorrow?” Chapter 10 Bubblegum Black Chapter 11 Midnight Phone Call Chapter 12 Fan the Flames You Lit With Your Cigarette Chapter 13 Meet Me in My Dreams Chapter 14

𝒜𝓇𝒸 𝟤 — 𝒪𝒽, 𝐿𝒾𝓁𝒶𝒸! (0/—)

𝔸𝕣𝕔 𝟛 — ℍ𝕠𝕦𝕤𝕖 𝕠𝕗 ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕕𝕤 (𝟘/—)

Character Reference Sheets

[thepeacefulgarden]

[yourlocalartsonist]

Just a Disney Princess Waiting for the Day Her Dream Comes True

Finally finished an art piece on my tablet! :D Like fully rendered and everything and WOOWWWW IT LOOKS GREATTT TEEHEE

Perfect way to celebrate Arc One nearly coming to an end, watching our beloved princess staring at the Moon.

[yourlocalartsonist]

New thumbnails I wanted to share hehehehehe GOD IT FEELS FREE TO NOT CARE ABOUT SPOILERS

I keep saying this but it’s because I can’t stop thinking this: WE’RE SO CLOSE TO ARC 2 ITS CRAZY! It’s been a hectic but really fun week settling into my cool ass research program thingie and hanging out with the best people ever. I haven’t been writing or drawing much, but I got some thumbnails out to relax.

Thought it’d be cool to make a signed poster for Lilac (not the arc cover) and got a vision for a lil Arc 1 artwork because ✨vibes✨. The last one is a chapter artwork🤭

Also I finally got my first ever research assignment! Weekend’s gonna be full of reading TEEHEEEEE

[yourlocalartsonist]

Tweaking tweaking tweaking we’re almost done we’re almost done AHAHAHAHAHHA ONE MORE FINAL THE NIGHTMARES ALMOST OVER HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

[yourlocalartsonist]

Updatarooni folks! So we’re nearly done with the Arc: Both bonuses and Chapter 13 are completely written! All that’s left is to edit the bonus after Ch 13, and then write and edit Ch 14. I’m super excited to post them, it’s almost done! :D

I have my last final exam tomorrow so wish me luck lmao. It’s quantum physics 💀 Buuuuut I get to do my first ever research project over the summer AND FINISH CHAPTER 14 WITH NO HEADACHES WOOP WOOOOP! I’ll catch y’all later! Gonna spend this day studying and write a bit more during my breaks. See ya~!

-Shaf

[valtsv]

this is like basic foundational misogyny 101 but the fact that it's almost unconsciously ingrained to consider trousers a more "practical" alternative to skirts across the majority of human cultures does make me feel a little kicked in the head. this isn't even anything against pants, it's just that skirts are functionally not dissimilar at all. they're comfortable, capable of being tailored to suit a variety of purposes both aesthetic and functional, and simply what some people prefer. and yet, because they're so strongly tied to women and femininity, they're derided. a long skirt is an impediment; shortening a skirt is a sexual act. throughout history humans of all demographics have worn skirts and skirt-like clothing for a variety of purposes, but to wear a skirt in our enlightened modern age is a heavily gendered and politically loaded notion. and we just tolerate living like this. fucking unreal.

[valtsv]

🚬 yeah.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Grew up with so many of my female classmates calling skirts impractical exactly for this reason. I remember being angry because I actually love skirts AND… I’ve ran in long skirts before. Like, full blown sprinted with no problem. I actually loved how it felt a lot more than pants. To this day, I prefer a skirt and tights over jeans during hot days or working out because of how comfy they are and how I actually don’t sweat nearly as much as pants. I love skirts so much, I really wish our culture would stop shitting on them. So many people acted like they were superior than me because they wore pants and I wore skirts.

[regretisstoredintheme]

I want to write SO BAD 💔💔 but THIS WEEK IS A NIGHTMARE ON MY WORK SCHEDULE 😔😔 wdym I have to get uuuuppppp earrrllyyyy nnnnoooooooooooo

[regretisstoredintheme]

Glanced at my inbox of 50+ messages again… sniff… there’s so many good ones I wanna do… 😔

[yourlocalartsonist]

Genuine suggestion since it’s something I tried recently and it worked for me: literally tell your brain to take a mandatory break to write. Like for me: I’ll study before my classes but force myself to take a one-hour break before my class starts. During that break I won’t be studying, but I’m also not letting myself scroll (which shuts down my brain) or draw (which gets me lowkey addicted to finishing it where I can’t even focus in class afterwards). Instead, I write. So for an hour most days, I’ve been slowly chipping away with writing. Not only do I feel rested without wanting to turn into mush before having to work again, but I also got a GREAT amount of progress done in a super short amount of time!

Since you have a job, maybe try giving yourself that break after you come home? It doesn’t have to be an hour long, that was just what worked for me. I would also like to say that the writing won’t be perfect, but at least it exists so you can edit it later, AND YOU FEEL GREAT BECAUSE YOU WROTE! I don’t know if it’s just me, but I think sometimes my ape brain just needs to be told that taking a healthy break cannot be avoided for me to actually implement it, AND I gotta restrict myself from scrolling so I’ll actually do something relaxing for my brain instead of constantly overstimulating it. It might not work, but at least worth a shot! Good luck fam :D

[yourlocalartsonist]

Wanna be a scientist and got humbled ‘cause I can’t spell continuous

[yourlocalartsonist]

I woke up today with the ideas for different iterations of Salena and just had to draw them. WIP that I couldn’t help sharing, these gals are 1987 and 2003! She’s 15 in ‘87 and 16 in ‘03! I’m gonna do 2012, but I don’t know yet if I’ll do MM (didn’t really get inspired). Promi and I have a lil lore to share about each Salena but that’s after I draw them all!

[dragon-in-a-fez]

obliterate the concept of "spoiling" a child. excise it from your lexicon like a cancer. that is some "the opposite of sin is suffering" Puritan ass bullshit. it is not possible to ruin a person through an overabundance of kindness.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Really funny to me that ironically what harms children is neglect. Parents who buy their kids everything, let them have screen time 24/7, and don’t call them out when they do something wrong don’t love their child. Love includes setting boundaries, spending time together, and having nuanced conversations especially when it’s hard. Neglect is saying “too much work fam” and letting your kid have to find out bullying is bad when they inevitably get punched in the face for calling someone a slur, just because it’s easy for you personally. Neglect and abuse are serious things; the term “spoiling” is pretty damn misleading to what actually causes “spoiled” children. Loving your kid won’t lead to that.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Character we won’t see till Arc 5 but do I care? NO! Everyone say hi to (still a concept version of) Mengjia! She’s gonna be fun to write hehehehehehehe

[abortionado]

The entire comment section was like this. Maybe there IS hope for women ❤️‍🩹☺️

[yourlocalartsonist]

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[going2hell4everythingbutbeingbi]

the way people act about crime is so insane. like yeah there's more crime in cities because there's more people, and it's caught more because there's more cops. its not that the ratio of crime:people is any different. "oh but there's less violent crime in the suburbs-" is there? is there really less? or is there still fights and assault and rape that's just ignored because it doesn't "fit the town image" so everything's just swept under the rug. "rich white people don't do violent crime" is such bullshit

[crazy-pages]

Also, yeah, there are cities and places in cities where some metrics of crime are actually higher. Things like violent robberies of corner stores.

But I dunno, maybe if you systemically concentrate a ton of desperately poor people in a small place, and then put a bunch of money in a shop that thousands of people cycle through a day, eventually some of those tens of thousands of people are going to make a desperate decision about that money.

[crazy-pages]

Also to be really clear, this isn't saying cities make more crime. This is saying that you're taking a bunch of people who have financial reasons to commit a specific kind of property crime (as opposed to other crimes), putting them in one place, and then setting up one very clear target for that crime. So statistics about those crimes should be taken with a grain of salt.

[fuckinmiki]

I would also like to talk about the idea of crime. The unhoused person who publicly urinated because they don't have a place to go is included in the crime statistics. Usually over and over again for loitering, public nuisance, etc.

The executive or small business owner who violated labor laws to enrich themselves and hurt multiple, sometimes thousands, of households living paycheck to paycheck is, at worst, going to see their company pay a fee in civil court and face no criminal charges.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Really great piece of info I learned from my Criminal Justice class is college: The American Police System directly emerged from Slave Patrol. It’s not inspired by it, it’s not even a different branch of it; it legitimately started as Slave Patrol to captured escaped African Americans and just over time day had more responsibilities beyond that. I think that explains a lot, don’t you?

[i-am-a-fish]

I just want to love and be loved. why is lunch twelve dollars now

[yourlocalartsonist]

Because billionaire want money and to be moneyed

[thewriteadviceforwriters]

writing advice that actually made my writing worse

okay but can we talk about writing advice that actually made my writing worse for a second

like not in a “this is bad advice for everyone” way in a “this absolutely sabotaged me personally” way

because ??? some of this set me BACK

1. “show don’t tell” (taken too literally) this one almost ruined my prose

i got so scared of “telling” anything that every sentence turned into… over-explained action

instead of writing:

she was nervous

i’d write:

her fingers tapped against the table, her leg bouncing, her breath uneven, her gaze flickering toward the door--

and it just KEPT GOING

like yes, showing is important but at some point you’re not “immersive” you’re just exhausting

2. “cut all adverbs” this made my writing feel so stiff it hurt

i started replacing simple phrasing with weird, clunky sentences just to avoid using one single “-ly” word

like… why am i doing gymnastics to avoid “quietly”

no one is giving out medals for adverb avoidance 😭

3. “write every day no matter what” this one burned me OUT

because instead of listening to my brain when it was fried, i forced myself to produce words i knew weren’t going anywhere

and then i’d reread it later and hate everything i wrote

which made me want to avoid writing even more

consistency matters, yes but forcing it when you’re running on fumes just trains you to associate writing with dread

4. “plan everything before you start” this killed my excitement SO fast

i’d spend weeks outlining every detail and by the time i actually started writing…

the story already felt “done” in my head

no curiosity left. no momentum.

now i leave gaps on purpose so i actually want to keep going

5. “make your writing sound pretty” this is the one that made my writing feel the most fake

i was so focused on making sentences sound “good” that i stopped focusing on what was actually happening

everything turned vague. floaty. kind of… nothing

like yeah it sounded nice but nothing hit

now i care way more about clarity and impact than sounding impressive

6. “your first draft should be terrible” okay this one is half true but also messed with my head

because i took it as: “don’t even TRY”

so i’d write things i knew weren’t working and just leave them

instead of… fixing them a little? making them better?

your draft doesn’t have to be perfect but it also doesn’t have to be painful to read 😭

idk i think the biggest thing i’ve learned is:

advice isn’t universal

what helps one writer can absolutely wreck another

so if something is making your writing worse, harder, or more miserable

you are allowed to drop it. immediately.

no guilt. no “but everyone says this works”

like okay… it doesn’t work for ME.

and that’s enough.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Ooh! Adding to the chain with my personal gripes too!

Don’t write long chapters

Hey man I know a lot of people dig shorter works, and I do love reading shorter stuff, but I as an author love to write longer things! My chapters go long because I want them to; I think it feels more satisfying to read. I’m careful to make sure everything flows and doesn’t feel like reading 15K words, but I’m still gonna write 15K words if that’s what the chapter needs. It’s unbelievable how many times I’ve been told by people to cut my chapters shorter when, mind you, these people weren’t even giving my stuff a chance! Just went “too long, didn’t read” and made it my problem. I know it won’t be for everyone, but I don’t care! My writing satisfies my tastes as a reader, that’s what I value more.

Make it marketable

Annoyed the hell out of me. Especially for a story I wrote to specifically get my own voice out there, a voice I’ve never seen expressed before. It will never be marketable because I wanted it to be Real and Specific, not hyper-relatable to every hetero white man. I don’t care if I’m getting less readers this way, at least my book knows what it is instead of being some wishy-washy vague nonsense for the sake of being marketable. I’m writing a fucking fanfic, this isn’t even my source of income????

Make it an x Reader

Hey. No. I make my story what I wanna make it. You want an x Reader? There’s plenty, and plenty of great ones to boot! Go read them. Ridiculous how often I got pressured to take my character out of the fic just to make it an x Reader so they can be the one with Blue Turgle and ignore literally every other aspect of the story. Respectfully, fuck you.

Signing off to study for finals!

-Shaf

[yourlocalartsonist]

Something very healing about updating Salena’s design and giving them more of my unconventional features. She has my tooth gaps, my puffy lower lids, my body hair. She looks like me, even the things I thought were super pretty but got called ugly for. It helps me remember how beautiful I am because of these features; I wouldn’t be me without them and neither would Salena :3

[yourlocalartsonist]

Quality stupid stinky cuz it’s a screenshot of a giant ass canvas BUT you can kinda see the hair! On the legs, arms, fingers, and chest. She looks like me :D