One of the most memorable interactions was Saturday. Into our booth strolls a small family, tempted by free samples of freshly brewed tea. We chatter and give them the spiel, that the tea is character merch and we’re a cozy health-based app called Forage Friends.

The young girl zeroes in on our pride pins.

“They have my pin!” She says excitedly. “They have my flag!”

The dad blinks. He is surprised, but also calm and positive when he sees it’s the lesbian flag. “Oh. That’s… different from what you told me.”

“That was months ago, dad.” And she rolls her eyes. Definitely a teenager.

I turn to him and say, “Yeah, dad.” And we share a little laugh about it.

He says, “No, it’s great. That’s amazing, honey. It was just news to me.”

“Well, I guess I just decided to stop lying to myself. About liking guys. Like right now.”

A little lesbian just came out to her dad and he was super cool about it.

I’m standing there in my tie-dye mask and my cheery blue apron pouring tea and making small talk and I’m trying really hard not to cry or compare it to my experience, the fire & brimstone, the disgust, the conditional acceptance as long as I never bring it up.

So as this beautiful bonding is going on, the girl’s even younger brother turns his gaze around. He’s in a snorlax hoodie and bored and wants to go look at the swords across the hall. But on the other side of our booth….

“WHY DO PEOPLE DRAW THAT?” He asks loudly, and we all turn to our neighboring booth.

Our neighbors were extremely lovely people. Every time we had a break we would talk, and we became good friends over the weekend. They kept apologizing that their booth was next to ours and we kept repeating that it was totally fine. Their booth was great. I even bought their merchandise.

The thing that was so contentious, that they felt the need to apologize for, was that they were selling explicit titty hentai stickers of popular characters. They were censored with little yellow R18 labels but the content was very clear.

So back to the family: I freeze and immediately go somewhere else to let dad handle this question. With adult customers I’ve been loud and positive about our neighbors. (“Man, how has it been boothing next to them?” It’s been great! They bring a lot of foot traffic and they’re kind and wonderful professional neighbors. If anything it’s a fun juxtaposition. We believe in artistic freedom. I bought a sticker too!)

But this is a kid, it’s not my place to explain anything…. But I was extremely curious about what this chill dad would say.

“Well,” dad says with a long measured silence between each word. “Sometimes people are horny.”

ARTISTS FOR PALESTINE 🇵🇸 - On the 6th and 9th of March, I'll be doing art requests on stream with other notable artists to raise money for Operation Olive Branch and the PCRF.

I'm incredibly lucky to be counting quite a few big names in the roster, including known Jesus and Odysseus enthusiast @wolfythewitch, the extraordinary fanartist @denimcatfish, and the incredibly talented @troubledminnesotan, as well as Lilypichu from OfflineTV.

You'll be able to watch the streams on the day of the event either on my twitch channel here, or via the links provided by the artists below.

Lilypichu

Cuptoast

Akairosu_

Sevvanto

Wolfythewitch

friendships are too difficult. only got like three of them left and yet, it's a hassle. one of them is "ill hit u up whenever it benefits me and my time", okay, clear. another one is new and fun and we vibe very well but alas her sleeping schedule is so messy & we're both so chaotic that we can only do things together when she deems it so/makes it. but she shows me kindness i'd forgotten existed lmao like asking "how are you" or saying crazy shit like "i could've just helped you with that you know ?" (insane.) (pple like this exist ? fr)

third one is me being a therapist friend to a Very depressed person who doesn't listen to my advice and queries for them to see a therapist/psychiatrist, dumps their trauma/bad days/self hate on me and repeats them to anyone who will listen like my words & presence don't even matter at all, cuts me off often when i try to talk, ignores my words when that i try to bring up whats going on in my head, and constantly reminds me they have "no friends at all, no one" even though ive been here FOR YEARS adapting the way we work to make it fit and make it better, or to listen, or to laugh. and also yells/is a shit at their dog which triggers me and which i cannot escape if i wanna spend time with them. a beautiful combo. and of course i love them, and they're nice to me, and sometimes they tell me they appreciate me and i know they must mean it. but,,, like... its a lotttt idk how to act.

man all the people i've ever had as friends Hated themselves, or were su£cidal, or were heavily depressed/anxious. and me too like, i get the struggle so badly. but most of these people don't care to deal with me or my mental health at all, they don't ask how i've been, what i enjoy, what i do, & they share a lot of their heavy stuff with me all the time without asking, and they don't care that much to share other things&moments with me that much except to not be alone. and like. i'm a mess, and i'm not very healthy, and i'm pathetic most days, sure, but also i do deserve to be appreciated and known. and i want to appreciate and love my friends too. and i want to create stuff together, to lift each other up, or to try methods together and build something if we can. and i fled my family exactly due to being the therapist child, so having the exact same trauma responses/fleeing attitude/anxiety as i did with them now into my closest friendship fkcing Sucks ass. and i knooow its scary to go see a therapist, but like.. you have the mOney. you have the time. you have the ressources, and if you dont, i'll help youuuu. so just do yourself a favor right,,, i was the exact same of course i get it.

people really hate themselves sm that they go on to punish themselves from any type of help or break in the cycle like. pleaseeee listen to me, please do it for the tiny friend in your pocket or you from the future. fucking Call me to meditate until it works, i don't knooow, but coming in with the heavy heavy shit, and being like "no i cant do this with you right now" and LEAVING like im not a person with worry and feelings like heyyoooo you dumb bitch people love you actually don't be like that. be responsible !!! text me a "yo, doing better, watching tv, didnt off myself" idk we can be casual abt this right just be civil don't treat me like a dirty dog i swear

these two are so interesting to me

characters belong to @canisalbus

a couple scribbles i cleaned up. also i think i like drawing him in varying states of distress

i feel like people are sleeping on the occam's razor situation of how buckwild it is to outright accuse a guy of being a clone of your friend even if you DO have a lot of circumstantial evidence. there's other options is what im saying. they could just be like. a guy. that's a sensible deduction. you should explore that deduction. ignore my shirt that reads I <3 RED HERRINGS.

i still think odile has the correct theory on lock but she's smart enough to know it needs like... a real smoking gun to be able to bring it up without sounding insane.

anyway. (mirabelle voice) i know its rude to speculate but has anyone else noticed the grieving? they seem to be grieving. does anyone have any thoughts on the grieving? i have some thoughts on the grieving.

kisses of affirmation (ID in alt)

okay

God I'm so tired of people acting like not wanting to attract a lot of (often negative) attention is somehow Capitulating To Bigots like. The other day I was talking to someone about my strategic deployment of pronouns based on how much of an issue I think a person is likely to make about it and they were like "oh I just do what I want I'm done catering to cis people" and I was like BUDDY. I LIVE IN THE RURAL SOUTH WANTING TO NOT HAVE TO CONSTANTLY GET INTO IT WITH PEOPLE ABOUT MY PERSONAL GENDER IDENTITY IS NOT CATERING TO CIS PEOPLE I HAVE A RIGHT TO WANT TO MOVE THROUGH THE WORLD WITHOUT CONSTANT INTERPERSONAL CONFLICT

Or like I was talking about how I hate swimwear options bc they're all revealing but if you choose to wear like, a t shirt and shorts, people still stare at you because that's socially unusual so it sucks either way and someone was like "I just do it anyway and if people don't like it they can die mad about it" and like... okay. I want to be able to go to the local pool and not either be uncomfortable with what I'm wearing or have people treat me weird about it. I would like for my presence and clothing choices to be considered neutral and it's fine for me to state that actually. This is not assimilationist or capitulating to people. It's going "hm I would love if stepping out my front door didn't have to be a revolutionary act!!!!!" Agghhhhh

(voice of a man slowly losing his mind) does it ever strike you that the plot of aftg is moved by little acts of kindness kevin offered to people who never had any semblance of it before. loving riko when no one would, befriending jean in the nest and keeping him alive through debilitating amounts of trauma, telling andrew he was worth it in a dingy high school locker room, teaching neil every night even if he knew he was about to die

modern AU seb and clora's first interaction 📘📗 (and by modern AU i actually mean super trope-filled high school romance set in the 80's/90's LOL)

does chilchuck get an cunty outfit like marcille did or does he stay in his usual outfit? (im assuming he becomes the master of the dungeon in the tragedy au) because i think he deserves one, let him have a funny outfit

no clue what you mean by "master of the dungeon" -- but chilchuck is on vacation , so i dont imagine him wearing anything super fancy. just whatevers comfortable + presentable enough :D his usual outfit is for work , so thats out of the question, of course.

(inspired by @cabinette's dm chilchuck design :D)

Bit of a weird question, but what is your overall least favorite thing about MLP? 

Sparity.

That. That screentone on Chilchuck’s chest in the low open collar. Is Chilchuck having chest hair canon Kui. Kui? Gripping my knee

@chipper-smol I couldn't get the thought out of my head of dragon loop flying on unfamiliar wings away from their problems because obviously that's why they have them haha ha ha

barista neil ☕️

to match barista andrew