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

[yourlocalartsonist]

Yk I despise capitalism with all my heart and soul dudes. A cup of coffee is $5 dawg I just wanna sit down at a cafe to do work instead of being cooped up inside my house but I have to spend five whole dollars to do so are we for real??? Why are you preventing me from touching grass and living life you greedy fucking dingbats

[redstonedust]

i understand (on paper) why companies are anti-piracy but its funny when random individuals are also strongly anti-piracy. like how does it negatively affect your life if someone you know downloads a cracked torrent of sims 4. you dont work for EA. EA isnt gonna pay you for this. you lose nothing. its fine. chill out.

[yourlocalartsonist]

First of all, based take. Second of all, my blind ass glanced at the profile pic and thought it was fucking Jacksepticeye’s tumblr (it also has black and red sorta) so I read this entire thing in his voice. I can’t tell if that helped or harmed the message but if I had to guess, it helped✨

[yourlocalartsonist]

Man I gotta say this has been one of the most fulfilling summers of my life! My research internship’s having their final presentation next Wednesday, and I’m continuing the project afterwards for at least the next year (possibly next two years). I’m almost done with Arc One of MFIP and will probably be done before the fall semester starts. SitP got a shit ton of development done with cleaning up the story, and I’ve gotten a good groove into how I wanna tackle all the new things I’ve learned for it. Hell, I started learning how to fucking BOX! That’s right, we’re Salena-Moni-ing fitness✨✨

I’ve been doing so much more and going outside so many more days compared to my usual summers and I’m honestly beyond happy! It feels like I’m living a life.

If I’ve learned anything this summer, screw the grind culture. I’ve done so much in such a healthier way. I’ve been so kind to my body. I feel rested and stimulated, not overworked and bored. I’m nervous for college starting up again, but I’m determined to try approaching it better this time.

[gailynovelry]

The fastest way to accomplish The Project is to cease being afraid of The Project. The Project cannot maim you. The Project cannot kill you. The Project is more afraid of you than you are of it. It is okay if The Project turns out differently from how it was in your head, and it is okay if it has flaws. You are capable of engaging with The Project.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Sneak peek into some SitP Max concept art ✨ I finally feel satisfied with a design for her teehee~! She's meant to be 12 in this rewrite so I tried making sure her proportions were correct. I'm honestly super proud of myself, especially since I can't rely on height to indicate age since like half the kids are taller than me, if not all-

Also based her design off of the blue spotted wasp, especially the skirt but ye that's all :3

[spacemancharisma]

do y’all remember usernames??? from back when every fuckin website didn’t need your email phone number home address social security number just to join/sign up for something?? when you could make website-specific accounts that weren’t linked to literally anything else??? they tried to boil us like a frog slowly switching to “username/email” and then just asking for your email. but I remember. I remember usernames.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Logging on to PBS Kids with a new username every time I wanted to replay all the Wild Kratts games and get all the creature power suits and explore all the environments again for the 174748392927474949th time😔💥 Modern-day gaming could never handle me

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[moonlight-lilymay]

I think about this a lot, because what stopped me from progressing in writing (and even quitting for a bit) was the specific NEED to write something trendy or mainstream so that OTHER PEOPLE will read your work

If someone wants to read a particular story with specific characters with a trendy plot with this chapter and that chapter and this that blah blah blah! Yk what they should do?

✨Write it themselves✨

It doesn’t matter if it’s good or not according to someone else, that’s YOUR creation and YOU should be proud of it just because you made it and did your best to give it your all. I started enjoying writing again because I’ve been 1) taking my time, and 2) not worried about what other people think of my story and writing.

This story is for ME and if some people like it, that’s awesome sauce! If some don’t, that’s fine too, just don’t make it my problem; be mature and just don’t read my story. I don’t care if I didn’t do what YOU wanted to do, I’m not gonna cater towards someone from out of nowhere that’s telling me my story’s no good. It’s intentional for it to be this way and if you don’t understand it, no worries, but don’t make it into a situation where you tell me I’m wrong for writing my story that way. Write your own if you care soooooo much.

With this breath of fresh air, I’ve been motivated to keep going and keep writing. New ideas come all the time! I’m able to discover things about myself that I haven’t before (especially because I’m at an emotional stage in my life) and that’s what I want to write about. I’m free to make my own decisions with writing and I don’t give two flying fucks if it meets the trends.

This is my opinion, if the mainstream loves it, it’s not good. “We can make any trope and/or scenario work. We just need to know how to execute it, that’s where the story really makes or breaks” —My Sister, Shaf.

I feel that anything can work but the mainstream falls flat whenever they DO show a trope on the big screen because they never actually CARE about the story, they only care about views or the trend. Fuck the mainstream/trends, I don’t care to meet that standard because it’s beneath my storytelling abilities in the first place, I’m not afraid to say that.

I’m not gonna try and make my story fit in if it doesn’t make me happy, I’ll write my story and feel good doing so! It doesn’t matter if it’s considered garbage, I’m happy and who’s gonna raise their brow when I’m showing that I’m proud of my work. People on the internet are way too hard on themselves when it comes to creative work, fanfiction exists for a reason, come on!

Promi’s outta here! ᕕ(⌐■_■)ᕗ ♪♬

[yourlocalartsonist]

A quick add on: part of what made Indie beautiful back in the day was the lack of need to meet “professional standards”.

Indie used to be VERY creative and unique. Like chat, I grew up on random teenagers making full blown animated shows in between doing homework, that were voiced by people who volunteered their voices not for pay but because they thought the project was cool. Yeah, the animation had short cuts and the voice actors didn’t have great mics and the plot was very clearly written by someone less experienced, but that was part of the beauty. It was so unashamed in just being a cool story some kid wanted to write. No producers to impress, no room to pitch it in, no audience to satisfy. Just you, and maybe some people who thought it was cool too.

I really miss that energy in Indie works. Now to me, it feels the same as mainstream but with a smaller budget. People who do it often do so to make their name into the industry and move on to doing non-Indie stuff. Voice actors are the same people you’ve heard on every Indie show ever. Plots are whatever’s gonna get viral on tumblr or tiktok or Instagram and get the largest fanbase ever and trend all the fanart and fanfics, to the point where people will know the fandom works before your canon works. I don’t know maybe I’m old school, but I hate how much pressure the indie atmosphere has now. It feels like a training academy for getting into the professional mainstream industry rather than an area for creatives to express themselves authentically.

I really enjoy keeping the older energy alive in my works? personally. For a little bit, I fell into the trap of pressure and thinking I needed a whole team of beta readers and even wondering if I should take the advice of changing my story to make it more “marketable”. Fuck that lmao, this is a hobby for a reason and I will give it the honor and respect that passion projects deserve.

Also really funny to me seeing my name mentioned and referenced as if I’m an old philosopher or famous writer with a timeless quote.

[nolaplantdaddy]

I love when people ask "how did you learn this skill?" I just started, there's no secret. that's it. a vast majority of the time the only thing holding you back is your trepidation to start.

[noegrets]

[yourlocalartsonist]

I’m doing a lot of new (and exciting!) things this summer and one of my friends taught me a very useful thing to repeat to myself:

“There is no such thing as tough, only trained and untrained.”

I mean this so honestly and genuinely, it’s helped me battle so much of my imposter syndrome and insecurities. I’m much less trained than the people around me yes, but that’s a very exciting opportunity to learn and train myself further. There’s no one I have to impress, no exam to ace; just the task to do something I love and learn from it. The rest will happen as a natural consequence.

[yourlocalartsonist]

Hello Mothers and Fuckers, it appears I have lied to all of us myself included cuz I ended up getting a vision for a whole ass page layout from that one panel and I wanted to test it out. Dear god is this the coolest thing I’ve done yet—

I’m def very new to comics, but this page is such an improvement! I never would’ve been able to fit—three, four, five—NINE PANELS!? NINE PANELS IN ONE PAGE! THAT’S ME, THAT WAS ME! My highest was five just two years ago holy shit!

I’m so giddy chat, this concept page really tested my limits and I’m pleased with the result ;w;

[moonlight-lilymay]

“Is a sacrifice like mine the key to save humanity?”

Hi guys! It’s been a good long bit since I got to finish a piece and show it here. This is one that I did in one go and I’m genuinely happy with it! I tried nitpicking at it a while ago but couldn’t help but say, “This was made out of love and sorrow, why am I harsh on it?” So my worries faded and I wanted to show it.

This story behind the scenes is going great too, things are starting to solidify with characters and plot—I want to get this out of the way because it’s been aching in my brain: this story’s gonna be a hard one for me to write, emotionally. I’ve noticed that things are a lot harder for me to express and being able to have that freedom to do so is making me both excited and scared. Nonetheless, I’m very pleased with it and I think my darling needs some love when it comes to showing her as our protagonist. While I drew this, I was holding back lots of tears because of the emotional rollercoaster that’s gonna happen since this is a lot more close to home than I originally thought it would be.

Enjoy the night and hope to see you again soon!

Promi’s outta here! ( ~－ω－~)ｚｚｚ～

[yourlocalartsonist]

I’ve been working away on an MFIP illustration that I can’t spoil at the moment, and then switched gears to do some more concept art and sketches for SitP. So uh, ✨behold✨

Really happy with this one! I was focusing a lot more on character concept designs but I got SUUUPER bored of the same thing, so I thought I’d practice more comic panel layouts instead. I showed before but I got Steve and Shaf’s designs pretty decently thought out (although not finalized) so they’re kinda the perfect duo to explore more while sharpening my comic skills.

I’m so new to comics dude but I’m so proud of myself for this composition! It’s hard to fit illustrations and text and I underestimated how wide this panel needed to be at first- Hence why I’m only practicing individual panels now to get a better intuition for them, then I get to move on to page layouts! One step at a time peeps :>

[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