had a fucking amazing day yesterday. hauled ass to the punk rock flea market, then spent the evening at a craft jam making friendship bracelets with this special guy. AND i looked incredibly attractive. champion of days

yes i'm rooting for m*leven breakup because byler is neat but mostly? i'm rooting for m*leven breakup for the sake of el and mike.

to me, their romance was always a puppy love born out of a combination of social pressures, naïve curiosity, and a lack of true understanding regarding intimacy and romantic love and what it really is. it was real in that they do truly, deeply care about each other and they are close friends, maybe even shared an attraction, but a maturing romance is so much more than that. they've grown up and out of being boyfriend/girlfriend, and that's okay! i think television/film needs to show more often that most of us don't have definite "soulmates" or first childhood loves that we spend our whole lives with. it doesn't mean these relationships meant nothing and didn't impact us, it just means they've run their course and that something else is in the cards, and this is part of life!

i've always felt el was at her best and most confident self when broken up with mike, discovering who she was and what she liked alongside another girl her age instead of just relying on mike for mentorship on how to live in the real world. she deserves more of an opportunity to find herself, her autonomy, and her independence, and to love who she is, and she's made it clear she's felt insecure in the relationship with mike because she isn't being loved and understood the way she wants, needs, and deserves from someone who is her partner.

also, it's okay if mike doesn't love her in "the way he should". he is not obligated to love her romantically and stay in a relationship with her just because she's a girl, because she "needed someone", or because he cares about her a lot. he shouldn't be pressured into a romance if it's not truly coming from his heart. he deserves freedom to find out and honour who he is, too, instead of just staying in his non-functional first relationship — one he got into as a child, essentially — and defining himself that way because it's what's expected when a boy and a girl are close. he loves her in some way, yes, but it's okay if he doesn't feel comfortable or secure being her boyfriend anymore, for whatever reason that is. he's felt insecure too, and that's valid and it matters.

they are their own people and are steadily growing and changing every day. they need time to figure out who those people are, and it's become clear (at least in my opinion) that those people aren't meant to be a couple at this stage.

they deserve freedom. they deserve to grow up and be authentic to themselves and not feel like they need to lie for the sake of a relationship. they deserve to move on from this version of their relationship that isn't making them happy and rekindle the best part of their bond: their strong, beautiful friendship. they don't have to be a couple if it doesn't make them stronger and better and happier people.

i think it would be healthy and wonderful for a show, especially one consumed frequently by young adults, to show a relationship starting, progressing, and ending on good terms in this way. sometimes things don't work out, and that is okay.

actually we're going to talk about Folie more because it makes me frickin insane that the two songs that took lyrics from to you unfinished are Coffee's For Closers and w.a.m.s. and in both cases the words are twisted to make them so incredibly painful. because to you is basically to my reading a huge love letter to the band's through all their ups and downs, "all us believers still believe every time we sing "two more weeks'," "you put my head in such a flurry," "send my love, to everyone above" etc etc etc and then not only does CFC take "preaching electric to a microphone stand" and pair it with the words I will never believe in anything again, but w.a.m.s. pulls "worry worry you put my head in such a flurry/ freckle freckle what makes you so special" from the heart of a poem about a band that is also a family and then IMMEDIATELY AFTERWARD says I'm gonna leave you, I'm gonna teach you how we're all alone. everything about the spirit of to you unfinished is flipped on its head, recontextualized and handed back poisoned. Folie is almost a breakup album and What A Catch, Donnie sounds like a farewell going into a hiatus that no one knew if they'd come off of. the way to you unfinished fits in feels almost like the same sentiment behind I Don't Care, lyrics taken and twisted around and pointed back, extra sharp, extra venomous, without concern for the harm caused. Pete going down with the ship, maybe. my love and hate for you are infinite, etc etc etc. do you get what I'm saying here?? *shaking you* do you get it?!

It's pomegranate season :)

A redraw of this piece from around a year ago

[Start ID. A drawing of @mieczmaszyna 's character Izzy. In the words of its creator, Izzy is a humanoid robot with a white chassis, oval head, black headset, square green glasses, claws, and a tail resembling a cable plug. Ai wears a cowboy hat, vest decorated by a star and bottle cap, pants with tassels, spurred boots, and a red bandanna. He's viewed from the side, kicking up one leg and holding both arms out in front of itself to shoot finger guns, looking excited and rather jaunty. The background is a dull yellow-green, muddied by the warm reddish tone of the drawing, and in paler green are the words "BANG BANG!!" by ais arms. End ID]

robot cowboy!!!

Honestly Ryomina makes me fucking insane like everytime i think about them i start to combust and fly around like a rocket

Just .. Them being together ever since Minato was ten, i imagine them as childhood friends of sorts, but in a extremely gut wrenching way, Ryoji learned everything through the eyes of Minato, and even when there was nothing but sadness in Minato's life, im sure Ryoji just saw all that with so much wonder

and i imagine Ryoji not understanding everything in his surroundings, but everytime Minato feels bad, he himself feels as if his entire being is set on fire

SO IMAGINE, Minato crying on the floor, back on the wall, hes just a little child with so much sadness within himself for whatever reason, and he just hears a voice that seems like his own, but also completely different "I'm with you, it's okay." and he doesn't understand, but he knows it's true, the only person who's with him through it all is himself, and for some reason, he feels it really is okay.

YEAH ME TOO ANON ME TOO 🤝🤝 YOU UNDERSTAND YOU GET ME if i think about them too hard i feel like I'm gonna explode. I'm internally bouncing around the walls.

ALSO OUUUGGGH WHY DID U HAVE TO COME INTO MY INBOX WITH THIS :(( <- /POS ryoji feeling everything minato's feeling with so much intensity... (bcs he's never experienced anything like emotions before) AUGH... I love them being unaware childhood friends, but also something so much more intimate than just childhood friends soso much, I'm nodding. you get it anon. ough. (also I'm not gonna get the image of little mina being comforted by ryoji out of my brain orz) The strange familiarity when ryoji and minato "meet" and the inescapable feeling that they've known eachother their entire lives and they know eachother like they know themselves. yeah.

I adore the idea death being minato's only comfort throughout those 10 years... death took so much and yet it was the only sort of companion mina had. death was right there with him for every dark hour he had to experience alone for those 10 years of his life...

thank u sm for the ask anon ^_^ I'm gonna spend the entire day brainrotting about this 👍

Im dying at your tags on that last anon 😭😂 youre now the dr.sloth pinup artist that neopets needed

Not the title i wanted to craft for myself when i started this blog but hey, it brought us such good memories like

Its-using animals club!

Alas i feel your pain, especially when someone's go-to response is "isn't using it/its dehumanizing?"

right. like. it doesn't matter if you think it's dehumanizing. it's what i want to be called, and like my name, you'll call me by it / its or we will not be having further conversation.

to me, personally, that's like. kind of a huge part of the appeal? full respect to those living in the "it can be a moment, it can be the mountains or the sunset" because, me too! but also a massive appeal to it / its is i can easily sum my gender up as some kinda boygirlthing. it/its he/she. like an animal you don't know the gender of.

I really wish Demo was more involved in the main series. His biggest break was in the War! update and comics, where we get to see his personality shine more. We get a lot more with so many more characters.

Spy and Scout have a whole short dedicated to their relationship. Soldier is the main star in several comics. Medic, Sniper, Pyro, and Spy have arguably the most memorable and bombastic Meet the Team videos. Engie and Heavy are neglected as well, but they make up for it with their backstories. Spy and Pyro don't have a ton of info as well, but that's largely in part to their mysterious nature.

Demo doesn't...really have much. He's a one-eyed black Scott that is a crippling alcoholic. He likes swords, has connections to Merasmus through his haunted missing eye, has a blind mother, possibly converted several organs into distilleries, was abandoned at birth until his parents deemed him 'worthy' to rejoin the family...yeah.

A lot of the stuff with him isn't all that explored and feels more or less like a joke. It's a bit sad since he's one of the more interesting mercs to me. Even in fan content, Demo feels like an accessory and an add-on to a joke. Like those AI voice videos where he's the straight-man character who chews out the other mercs for being a furry or something.

And what makes it a bit less fun is how Demo never really does too much deeper than with his stereotype. All of the other mercs are more than just their superficial stereotype. Heavy isn't a dimwitted and evil communist, but rather a somewhat kind and incredibly intelligent man who opposes the U.S.S.R for what they've done to his family. They have layers to their jokes and are more than one-note stock characters.

Then you have Demo. The joke with him is that he's an alcoholic. That's pretty much it in terms of content for him.

I dunno. I wish Demo was more involved in the main comics. I think it's saying something that, while Miss Pauling and Spy are having a heart-to-heart about their eventual demise, Demo is curled up and mumbling about reinforcing his body to sustain more alcohol.

What a year this year has been, huh? :DD

Cheated a bit, cause I had nothing worth of showing for June&July, but hey, will try to challenge every month with at least one drawing, even low effort one C:

About the challenges tho, tried so many things and mediums this year I had no idea I could do! :DD And one of my proudest pieces for sure is the big Your Internal Haunted House infographic!

Got a chance and absolute pleasure to do fun collabs, challenges and competitions with my friends (you can even see the lovely piece I had pleasure to make with @jellybeandrawsthings in March! :>) and did some lovely paintings that maybe you'll get to see when I figure out how to get a good photo of (one piece especially, probably the best work I've ever done!)

Had many pieces of work this year I really really like and I think I'm getting more confident in my skills&abilities to draw and how I want my art to look like and how I vibe with my general artstyle, which I'm super happy about! :DD And I've been getting more and more out of my comfort zone with stuff I wanted to do and things I wanted to be a part of, which I wouldn't be able to do if not for my absolutely lovely group of friends that Icouldn't be happier to have C:

Hope you all had a lovely Year and that the next one will only get better, thanks for sticking around to see what shenanigans I'll be up to next C:

if you want to know where I am on my "dealing with wwdits s5" journey, I've got like six long meta posts in my notes on my laptop that I just haven't posted. lmao

I'm. workin through it.

AUUUUUUGH! I miss my little guy your honor!! I miss him so damn much!!!

Omg old ass Arven artdump........ from the beginning of this specific sketchbook (only did the bare minimum to clean it up LMFAOO -- also just imagine a giant ass Pokemon looming menacingly behind them topmost drawibg I couldn't be assed 😅🧍)

ValeYellow origin story question mark 🤔

Airstrike is only on four pages this chapter but she's at peak performance so i'm a little consoled by that.

also... lookit these two liberal arts nerds practicing science unsafely: