#STARTING ASKBLOG BACK UP AND WITH BETTER ART!!

[love--and--corruption]

Is that what Cube is going to wear to fight?? (referring to the full blue with triangle pattern on the back)

"Also yes but ???"

WOOOOO AND WE'RE BACK BABY!!!!

#just shapes and beats #jsab #jsab art #jsab au #jsab l&c #jsab love & corruption #jsab askblog #jsab love&corruption #l&c #jsab cube #jsab lc #jsab love corruption #cube jsab #just shapes and beats cube #love & corruption #STARTING ASKBLOG BACK UP AND WITH BETTER ART!!

[ask-andante]

Hi, I've decided to officially end this blog.

It took a lot of time thinking about it (tbh i was even thinking about it before the anon) and discussion with close friends and I think I am done.

This blog was used to help me get through various parts of my life, and it can no longer serve that purpose. It's done its job wonderfully and helped me cope and even make a friend circle after isolating myself for a few years. I never thought I'd ever have an actual friend group, but it's something that was made possible VIA this blog.

It hurts a lot to end it, I won't lie, I'm like actually mourning it rn but I've started to develop a sort of resentment towards the blog and plot askblogs due to Mental Illness and I think I just cannot keep holding onto this blog anymore. So, I decided it's best to let it go before I hate it. I doubt I'll come back to finishing it after posting the plot outline, seeing as it's all out in the open, but you never know.

The doc contains the outline with a header to jump to where this blog left off. I got pretty far in so I feel extra down about tossing in the towel here, but that's just how it is. I've tried many ways to salvage my motivation, lowering art quality being the main one as art is my job now and it's no longer the escape it used to be, but I don't think the workload itself is the issue.

If I move onto future projects, you will likely see me post them on @aibouart , so feel free to check the art blog out and follow if you'd like. I am not abandoning the characters here, I will continue to draw them likely and RP them and whatnot. You can send asks OOC anytime, just know I may not be very active~

Anyways, here's the plot outline. Some things are not included in it despite having been planned because they were either up in the air on their specifics, or were late additions not added in yet (nast stops appearing in the outline some ways into it as they were a new addition to help give Andan another person to have a better dynamic with. They were planned to become friends < 3 )

Thank you for reading and for your patience, as well as everyone's continued support over the years. This blog was great as a form of expression and art, and great to get me socialising. I discovered many things about myself over the course of being here on Tumblr and this blog was one of the starting points~

If you'd like some minor additional content, you can go and read over old memes: @andanteooc

Or the related blog: @andanterelated

The related blog consists of memes I've reblogged tagging relevant characters.

You can feel free to send me asks to talk about the plot outline or anything else. I won't post any spoilers until tomorrow, or I'll just tag them "andante spoilers///" if you were interested in the doc to read at a later date.

Please note it is missing quite a few details as I used to log the combat or speech sections separately before actually putting them in the doc (the og was pasted from a tumblr page). I can answer asks about things that weren't addressed because of its nature, but will not repeat myself if it's been asked haha.

Thank you again. I initially started this blog with a goal in mind and succeeded in it years ago, so I think I can be happy that it went above my original goals.

#yeahyeahyehayehay #you can dm me too about it if u don't wanna use asks or it's too much to send #but fanmail works for that as well #just note i may be less inclined to respond to DMs as they're more personal in that way #but i will read them #unless you ignored the giant plastered warning on the doc then i will just like #ignore u #text #update #queuedante

[homocidal-invader]

@the-best-invader is 2 years old now! For that, I think I'll do one of my incredibly rare OOC posts.

The Past

When this blog started it was just a fun way for me to socialize with other Invader Zim fans. At the time @z-ib was making waves with beautiful, intriguing, and shockingly frequent art posts in what I had seen as an interesting fusion between an ask blog and a roleplay blog.

Soon, a few others started showing up as well, and I wanted to throw a Zim into the mix because I hadn't seen any of that yet.

The version of the character was based off of an idea I had for a comic series that never came to be. It was supposed to be a self-aware crackfic version of Zim based off of an already silly highschool AU comic. It was meant to be played for jokes, and for me to get an idea of the character before I started to make "serious" material. Just for fun to play with other people.

Soon, an entire community had formed with people quickly sending asks to other blogs to make themselves known. A canon had formed, so I decided to make a Discord Server where people in this community could more easily collaborate on storylines, roleplay behind the scenes, and just get to know each other better.

My character quickly became more serious, had his personality become more developed, and I created strong ideas for worldbuilding that I hadn't had when I first started the blog, all because of the wonderful community supporting each other's work.

The Present

The Best Invader has been on a bit of a hiatus for a while, and it's not really a secret. As my plotlines became more serious, my comics because more ambitious and polished, so instead I would make one large post every once in a while instead of frequent sketch posts.

In January, I injured my hand and it has still not recovered, meaning that while many of my comics are halfway done, I haven't been able to finish any of them. I still interact and check in with the community from time to time, but things are much slower compared to normal.

The Future

None of this means I have a lack of motivation to continue, though. I have many plans for @the-best-invader in the future, collaborations with other artists that have already been underway for a long time, and storylines I've been plotting out and refining for over a year now.

It might not be soon, the blog will likely be in hiatus for a few more months, but it will come back in the future and it will be glorious. Keep biding your time, and just be patient 💖

Thank you to all the fans as well. Without the community support both from the people running the askblogs and from the people watching, this character wouldn't exist and I would have less friends than I do now. Hope to see you all again soon!

#quo rambles #iz askblog community #the best invader

[ask-pax]

For the mun from a curious anon: What got you into Minecraft askblogging of all fandoms? Is it an interest in a certain type of Mob? Inspired by a veteran mcaskblogger? For fun/curiosity? Or something else? Thank you!

MOD:: Okay, so you're gonna have to forgive me because my memory has not gotten better with age. I've forgotten a few things while only remembering feelings back when.

I remember things like... Starting this blog without ever having played Minecraft or with the intention of being an Ask-blog. I remember getting into the lore of MC because I was super big into creepy stories. Binging videos about Herobrine or those about Endermen with their screaming being played fast/slow/backwards so fans could pick apart if they were saying things. Slenderman was also huge around that time so it all kinda blended my interests together.

Before this was Ask-PAX, this was my mod blog. And I followed blogs that would post art about this sort of stuff. Don't ask specifics, I honestly can't remember or know if they're still around. So PAX was more just a fun thing to doodle here and there to interact with these blogs.

Then. I tried Minecraft. Through a plugin called Spoutcraft. I had Linux during this. And all I remember was the rage and frustration of constantly being griefed/raided/pillaged. So what started off as a funny hybrid of my fave mobs soon created a storyline of 3 asshole players griefing people and picking on a modded mob which in turn, would destroy their lives. Something that younger me wish could have happened to the people who kept messing with my builds and stuff.

So then I changed this into his blog, and made a mod blog on a side account. And the only reason this kept going was because of the ton of people who were around and also felt the same way, or just enjoyed the ideas of silly mobs and players go BRRRRRRR. I kept it up because those other MC blogs were super nice and we all had stupid fun together without the worry of being cringe or embarrassing.

#mod post #ooc post #sikfox talking #anonask #Not gonna lie had to dig through the archive to try and remember things #read more #Wonder why you want to know about this sort of thing

[dhmis-askblog-au-thingy]

(Mod: alright!! Gonna be answering asks again real soon BUT before we get all started up again I have a few updates I need to share! First off, my designs for the trio have changed a bit! ESPECIALLY Doi’s design- so, if a character looks different, well that’s why!! (Plus certain personalities may change just a tad to better fit the series BUT if a characters seems “out of character” for the series.. well i have a reason I’ll touch on in a sec-) Second, the events of the series aren’t necessarily canon here, being that, in this au, when Red pulled the plug, they all escaped the simulation, the au of mine where the series is canon to my au is in a different universe entirely- however, I may include some characters from the series and eventually I’ll figure out if there’s a way to incorporate “you-know-who” into this au, likely that won’t occur.. but i will give some nods to the series, JUST NOTE the events of the series aren’t canon in this au. ALONGSIDE THAT, if a character seems “out of character” when comparing them to the series, just note, there is a reason. This au follows June 19th and it’s aftermath, the whole June 20th debacle of the new series has not occurred and- in that universe- the trio essentially forgot who they were and who one another was so, in this au, the trio won’t constantly insult eachother and they have stronger bonds than that shown in the series because they remember who one another was- basically, the series version of these guys is basically, in my au, this trio but if they only remembered eachother within June 19th/20th- here they remember everything- keep that in mind. And finally, updates will be irregular- my motivation for this au comes and goes BUT IM NOT ABANDONING IT TILL I SAY SO- and even if and when that happens, I will still share what happens in this askblogs main storyline (WHICH will start very soon! As in in the next one or two asks or so-) but! Yeah! Also art style will be quite inconsistent i am so sorry- BUT ANYWAYS IM BACK AND! stay tuned!~ in the meantime, send some asks in!! The inbox is a little short of asks at the moment, I have a few saved, but if you wanna ask stuff, well, the floor is yours!! :DD Anywho see y’all hopefully soon!)

#not an ask #dhmis #dhmis askblog #dhmis au

[oumaheroes]

What are your best and worst memories of the fandom?

Oooooh Anon, this is a really good question

I’ll start with good first, because I have more of those

My best memories of the early fandom are honestly how creative and vibrant it was. Like, I cannot begin to describe what it was like. You’d refresh the page on FFnet and there would be two pages of new stories already. Deviant Art was flooded with images and memes (terrible ones, but still), Ao3 was still new and barren but even that was going. Facebook pages, askblogs (so MANY askblogs), and then, my favourite of all, the Kinkmeme

There were bad things on the Kinkmeme, anonymity does tend to bring out the extremes of everything, after all, but the concept of it was so good. You write a request, as people do to writers/ artists on tumblr these days, but it was like a pin on a noticeboard for anyone to see. A curious author would then come along and fill it if they wanted and both parties could stay in secret if they chose, or they could de-anon. You could find whole multichapter stories and sagas and you might have no idea who the author was and you could ask for anything without shame. You might even get several fills of the same story if it was a popular concept!

It was also not only without shame because you were anon, but without shame because that was the culture of the internet back then. Anything went, no matter what it was, and there was a good understanding of ‘Don’t Like Don’t Read’ which meant people didn't argue so much (in relation to how many people there were in the fandom, I mean. People still very much did argue, but they were the minority from what I remember)

This mean that the stories in the Kinkmeme specifically, but the whole fandom in general, was so wacky, the AUs were so so damn out there and the idea of each character wasn’t so fixed and rigid as it is now. The stories you got were unique in content, characterisation, tone, mood- everything! And if you went your own way with things there were bound to be people there who found you and liked your stuff

I love how free early fandom was and how busy, with people bouncing off of each other, and I miss very much that liveliness and energy

Now, for the bad

I’m very lucky in that I didn’t see that much bad stuff, most likely because I lurked in the background of it all- putting out a few stories and chatting to people on FFnet (bless its little cotton socks) but otherwise not really engaging with fandom. So, I don’t have the bad memories that other more active veterans do/ did: people gatekeeping ideas or bullying people out of spaces when their ideas clashed. Nor do I see the Kinkmeme as a bad thing, again I’m a big advocate of Don’t Like Don’t Read so I never took racist Nazi fic seriously- it was fic and it wasn't for me. But I knew it was there and I knew people got over zealous with it and I knew that patriotism and discovering more about your nation did lead to a lot of fans shoving their way into spaces they didn’t belong, talking over quieter, minority voices and misunderstanding, or refusing, to learn and listen

So, with all of that out of the way, my personal worst memories are also how busy it was. It was too busy, where stories or art that you worked so hard on would get swallowed up and lost to the void, the opposite of now. Hetalia as a fandom also has a terrible, ongoing habit of flocking to bigger names and then camping there, rather than give newer, smaller creators a chance. There were big name authors, fans and artists who everyone knew, stories that even today people know of and quote, (Gutters, anyone? I hated it) but there were far more brilliantly written (something better) stories that are lost to time amongst it all.

Which is very sad. Even today that work doesn’t get recognition because they're buried somewhere. People go back to the work that's left a fandom impact rather than dig (which, considering the size of Hetalia's ancient husk on the internet, is understandable) and there are fewer older folks about to remember them

At the time I found this very frustrating and it killed my motivation frequently, and as I didn’t have many fandom friends I felt quite alone amongst it all. But this is a very small bad memory compared to some of the horror stories I either heard about at the time or learnt of many years later, so I think I got off quite lightly! And overall, I've always had good memories of this fandom

Maybe that’s why I’m still here hahaha, I was always able to keep my love for the core fandom concept intact but not getting to close to it when it was actively spiteful and on fire

#hetalia fandom #hetalia history #heroes answers

[soulfullofold]

bro yes. yes. yes. i am menacing #31 and #41 and #48 lol and #22 for the spice. Also since you went certifiably deranged in my inbox this is my free ticket to you to answer any of them that look interesting to you >:)

(DOES A LITTLE JIG)

31. Pick one OC & explain what their tumblr would be like

Xiyu's tumblr would be so funny. Tan, charcoal grey, light green, light blue, and white as the color scheme. It starts off minimalist & "~aesthetic~" with just a left sidebar and a one-column scroll. Simple bio. Totally dedicated to posting her poetry. And then as it gets popular, it pivots into a writing help askblog of sorts. She's put her truncated FAQ as the right sidebar (with a link to a miles-long, hyper specific FAQ) and like the status of her inbox and what requests she's open for. Occasionally she reblogs her friends' calligraphy. and you Know she's got a dedicated tagging system. I would say she goes off in the tags but she doesn't hide ANYTHING in the tags. Commentary Straight on the post.

41. Has anyone drawn fanart of your OCs?

BUT REALLY I'm very veryveryveryvery thankful for it and so touched ;m; It's so hard to pick!! I keep any art I get of my OCs in my dA favorites. Here's only the tiniest sampling of some of my faves: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z ♥ And a THOUSAND MILLION other things I want to show but I'm trying to keep the parameters to only stuff posted on dA so it links directly back to the creators too if you wanna follow them :) <3

48. OC who is a perfect cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure

jesus christ kK;FLASDFJA;SDF the way 2015 smacked me in the ass ok. uh uh i wish i could come up with something better and snarkier and more witty but literally all of my ocs are scrappy like there isn't a single one who hasn't committed a crime, done something bad, or -- ... wait.

Ora's butterflies have done nothing wrong in their lives they are my bewinged cinnamon rolls. i guess.asdlkfj;a

anddd questions phoned in from vlpn: 31. Pick one OC & explain what their tumblr would be like

Elle's blog would be all blurry, low to the ground, kind of strange photos scanned from instant camera prints. They're both kind of unsettling in their contextless nature but also sort of whimsical and charming. 5. If you could make only one of your OCs popular/known, who would it be?

This is SUCH a hard question. Because like. On the one hand, of course I want to make my OCs known because I love them to death. But at the same time I just. I WORRY about them being tossed to the dogs. I'm going to say probably Ora since I've developed her the most and she could hold her own against anyone who would be weird about her.

24. If you could meet one OC of yours, who would it be and why?

There's literally. They're all ghosts. If I met any of them I would be in such deep shit. Maybe Mossclaw because I would give her a good home where she would never have to worry about being a feral cat again. ;m;

#asked and answered #1ore #ask box meme response #ocs #denora walker #xiyu #elle #1130 #mossclaw #thank you so muuuuch ;m; <3 <3 <3

[coatlscoatlseverywhere]

Hi! I'm Catherine!

(Long post, I tend to "write books" as they say! 😅)

I'm a Cis, white, Autistic, American, Asexual/Apothisexual, (whoops! Been spelling it with an E, Apothesexual is different!) adult (26 currently!), Aries, introverted female who started playing in February of 2019.

I'm a member of the Wind Flight!

I'm Lola96 #450127!

English is my native language, so it's the only one I can read and speak/type!

EST +3, but usually a night owl, it fluctuates from day to day, week to week, and month to month!

More info about me can be found with this pretty Imp!

Linktr.ee!

(I have an older Tumblr account somewhere with at least two blogs on it that I created years ago, but forgot the password to! 😅

Edit: Found em' but deleted the account, I like this one better!

I love the FR community!!!)

I came from a site called Pokéheroes.

I haven't played any gen 8 games because I don't have a Switch, so I'm not versed in anything SW/SH/don't have a particular attraction to most gen 8 mons.

I wasn't raised with LGBTQA+ stuff, though I knew of being Gay/Lesbian and thought I was Lesbian because I didn't know about Asexuality until I was an adult!

(Never acted on it, so I haven't really found what I like other than being Ace!)

Though I have also learned you can be Ace, but still want to be with someone, you can still be Bi, straight, gay, lesbian, pan, poly etc...Romantic and sexual love are two different things!

So I'm Ace sexually, but may be Bi or Lesbian romantically, if that makes a lick of sense!

So pardon me if I'm a little old fashioned with some things/misgender stuff.

I'm good with the sexuality stuff for the most part, but most other things make my head spin!

Also, I CAN get aggressive, so if I "roar in your face", I usually mean no harm/don't take it personally!

I have trouble wording things, and have less of a filter when tired as well.

I usually don't tag stuff unless its my post/the previous person had a TW on there, it will fluctuate, and I usually prefer to re-blog with a comment in the comments section to using tags if I have something to say.

More under the cut!

My other blogs!

CatOfAces- side blog for most everything else!

Mostly SFW I guess!

Not going outta my way to be 18+/raunchy in any way! 🤢

Clan of Mikiwing- Ask blog of sorts inspired by other FR blogs of this style/Pokémon askblogs.

(I usually keep my boxes open!)

(Most things with Lola Breon, a pink Umbreon/shiny Latias with shape shifting/color shifting powers among other things should be me, as she's my first OC created in 2015!)

Back to FR stuff!

Hatchery! -I sparsely update this. Usually putting dergs on the AH.

Hatchling Sales Tab! - Kept by Henry, kiddos I breed will be up for grabs here!

Adult Sales tab- Kept by Harmony and Josie- they're wives!

Get yer grown-ups!

G1 sales tab!- Kept by Lianna, she's a bit on the prissy/persnickety side, but she cares for those who have no parents.

(Check the den too!

General Hatchery Tab, usually the last tab is up for grabs, but the two I have in there atm are not for sale!

G1 tab-Some may be up for grabs.

Liz is named after a family member so she's off limits!

There may be G2 adults and G1's in there somewhere, hmm, perhaps I'll make a den sales tab someday?)

Prices may be a little scattered, but I'll usually accept anything over fodder price, which to me is 8,000t/8g and up!

I believe I have Dyscalculia and need prices written out so I can check my vault/a calculator.

Thusly I'm not good at conversions! 😅

I DO have a wishlist if you would prefer items!

Art is also good!

Clan greeter/Directory!

Jays Subspecies!

I have a thing for common eyes, Shadow Unusal being an exception, along with primal of course! 😜

All my dergs, unless clearly stated are Cis, most being straight because I haven't played around with LGTBQA+ too much!

#flight rising #fr #about me #pinned post #fr dragon share #dragon share #dragons #dergs #dragon sales #pokemon #pokémon #Pokéheroes #breeding sim #apothisexual #asexual #acepride #ace #ace pride #lgbtq+ #insert bane meme #dyscalculia #adhd #squirrel #umbreon #lola96 #lolabreon #lola breon #latias #shiny umbreon #shiny latias

[lizzie-wendigo]

Well, I did this in the hope that I could get past my art block (but it's not working) But I also have other purposes:

Reactivate anonymous questions (in hopes of shutting up those shitty haters)

Clarify why I don't mention the artists from whom I'm inspired

BRING ATTENTION!! Because here I'll clarify my personal reasons once and for all!

-------------------------------

Well, for a long time (when I started as an artist on deviantart, I was a beginner) I was inspired by artists who were much better than me, I had drawn gifts for them and written supportive comments saying how much I like their art, until then I didn't have problems; But when I started on Tumblr, the problems started.

I met more artists who inspired me, most of the inspiration I got from tumblr artists, so I started by making my first gift to an artist (I won't mention who). Since I had improved my drawing technique a bit, I decided to do it (without exaggeration, it had been difficult for me), but after publishing it tagging the artist, time passed and this artist didn't seem to have noticed. I wanted to give them more time, since I knew they was a busy person, but after seeing that they was still answering questions from other users, I decided to send them a private message mentioning that I had drawn them a gift (since tumblr sometimes doesn't warn about tags) But... completely ignored my message and didn't reply to the message again.

That was my first experience. But things got worse as time went by...

I decided that before making a gift, I should ask the artists (so as not to go through that embarrassment again). I asked another artist if I could draw their character, but again they ignored my message (I didn't want to insist) and things got worse.

Currently several of the artists that I used to follow, stop doing it, since it seems that they has something personal against me. I have sent questions out of curiosity, or to askblogs, and they didn't answer my questions, not even those of "I like your art" (ironic, seeing that other users answer saying the same thing)

IN OTHER WORDS...

Yes! I am inspired by the art of various artists, but I stopped mentioning them because there're some who don't deserve the merit! Their egos are so big that they forget that it's thanks to their followers that they are who they are! They're so self centered that they treat some followers like shit!

(I won't mention the artists who suck, but if you insist on knowing, I'll just say it by private message, although I don't recommend asking.)

The artists that I follow today are the few who still have a bit of humility and don't treat their followers like shit.

I don't mention any artsits (either egotistical or humble) because I don't know how they will react, the egocentric will be offended and the humble will congratulate. Well, I don't want ANYTHING anymore! I prefer to stay with the gains of giving gifts and giving credit, than giving them to artists who don't deserve it! I won't risk that the artist to whom I dedicate a gift, be a shit person and go back to spend a shame making a drawing in which I tried being discarded!

They may draw well having talent as an artist, but as people they are disgusting! drawing well doesn't give them the right to be egotistical and conceited!

Dedicated to all artists (especially superficial ones)

For now I made these drawings of my characters along with those of other artists (of course who I was inspired by) just so that the bullies and haters stop bothering me. Thanks to them I have this art block.

I think it goes without saying that my art is not the best, but as always, I try hard! I already mentioned the artists of some of the characters I was inspired by!

Now leave me alone! I did what you wanted, now stop bothering me! You fucking bullies!!

Camilla Teacup by @askteacupfollie

Caspian by @ninjahaku21art

Anna Thesia by @marreeps-art

Camilla Porcellana, Kai & Zila by @lizzie-wendigo (me)

#cuphead #cuphead oc #oc cuphead #cuphead au #cuphead oc zombie #ask teacup follie #askteacupfollie #camilla teacup #lizzie-wendigo #ninjahaku21 #marreeps-art #marreeps #anna thesia #cuphead original character

[t00thpasteface]

6, 11, 26 for the ask game!

6 - Has fandom ever made you enjoy a pairing you previously hated?

Oh my god, how's this for a throwback-- I first started playing TF2 in 2011 right when it went free-to-play, which was also when Meet the Medic dropped. You can imagine that HeavyMedic/"Red Oktoberfest" was absolutely everywhere on the interwebs at that moment. And I totally didn't jive with it!!

I don't remember exactly why, but I pushed back pretty hard. IDK, I was definitely still in the closet (I didn't come out until I was halfway through college) and sometimes that manifested as nitpicky ship police. Or something. It's been a while since I was a fiery and overwrought teenager so it's honestly difficult to get back in that headspace and remember what I was so worked up about.

Later that same year, I joined Tumblr just to follow all the TF2 askblogs I had found, and I think somewhere along the lines I must've followed an "Ask Heavy" or "Ask Medic" blog that finally swayed me after a year or so. Now I still love that ship over a decade later!!

11 - Is there an unpopular character you like that the fandom doesn’t?

Answered in a previous ask!! I think I wrote enough about Delphine to preclude any other ramblings about unfavorites...

26 - Most shippable character?

I've never really been one to multiship. I generally keep every character to one ship, if anything at all. Not sure why, but that's always been how I roll... That being said, there's two characters (off the top of my head) who've definitely made me entertain the idea of multishipping, however briefly:

(1) America/Alfred F. Jones from Hetalia. He's just a big bubbly ray of sunshine. He's like a human golden retriever. Anyone you pair him up with is going to see immediate improvements in their sad lives, and a lot of the other nations are typically more level-headed than he is, so he benefits too! I'm a diehard FrUS shipper, but RusAme, AmePan, AmeChu, KorAme, PruAme, etc. are all very, very cute. Sue me-- I just LOVE the culture clash of America absolutely smothering whoever he's dating with food, PDA, and all manner of grandiose gestures! (Although I always found England too annoying to ship USUK... ah well. Not worth the ship wars, anyway.)

(2) Dave Strider from Homestuck. Sort of the opposite of America for this guy. I can see him gelling pretty well with the outgoing bananas-bonkers craziness of pretty much anyone else he gets shipped with. My go-to Dave ship was always DaveRezi (Woe is me!! Is it better to become canon and get retconned, or to never have become canon at all???), but of course I can definitely see the appeal in DaveKat, JohnDave, DaveJade, you name it. Hell, there was even some EriDave(!) art eons ago that made me say, "Yeah, I can see that!" Dave is a cool guy; he can get along with anyone. One of the may perks of being named/themed after Aragorn, King of Negotiators and Motivational Speakers, I guess!

#i could've listed more shippable chars but those were the big dogs and i didn't want this to be TOO long! #shebbz shoutz #long post #ask game #tf2 #hetalia #homestuck #ask

[heloflor]

As Time Passes Prologue : The Estate

AO3 link

People never choose where they were born.

Balthazar was said to be lucky. He was a prince ! He had all the fame ! All the recognition ! All the things he could ever dream of !

Deep down, he knew it was all fake.

This life felt like a prison. A prison of boredom filled with duties that were choking him more and more. And through the bars, he could see the outside world, he could see the time-agents working for his parents, and all the things they accomplished.

And when Balthazar found an escape route, it was obvious he was meant to go sooner or later.

Note : And here’s the first part of a long fic that I’ve been thinking of for a while now. Note that I have NO idea when the second chapter will come out. While I’m basically done with the school year, I still have some work, so I won’t have all the time of the world. But I still really wanted to get that chapter done.

The prologue is going to be three to four chapters long and will mostly serve to give the characters a backstory along with introducing some side characters. But be aware that the ideas introduced in these chapters won’t be the subject of an arc in the main story, it will be more like things established about the characters that could get a mention or characters that will show up in the main story without much introduction, since the introduction will be done here.

There will also be some small “extra” chapters about things that are related to the fic but overall don’t really play a big role in the main story, like a flashback or, in the case of this chapter, a “where are they now” kind of thing. There could also be smut at some point if I ever decide to try writing about it (no promises).

As for the main fic, let’s just say that, while I write Cavendish and Dakota as a married couple, I’m still a sucker for “getting together” fics. So I might as well write about their history ; )  .

And fun fact, before Cavendish’s appreciation day, I never really thought of a backstory for him and Dakota. But after seeing people talk about them and their possible histories, in arts and even old fics and random posts, I started making my own headcanons. So thanks people for the inspiration !

This chapter can kind of be considered as a Royal AU I guess ? I mean, it’s more of a backstory related to it but the “aesthetic” is pretty much the same as a royal AU. As for the castle, it’s your usual renaissance castle but with futuristic technology like metallic automatic doors for the bedrooms and some floating telegraphic screen things to write notes on; stuff like that. Although, for the clothing, it would be more the Victorian era with royal outfits that look like general outfits (hope it’s easy to picture… Basically it’s not the Renaissance clothing with layer after layer, it’s a less heavy clothing). Also, the garden is an “English garden” with plants that can grow kind of randomly (compared to French garden in which everything is controlled and symmetrical).

I have no idea if this description makes sense but point is, this is basically what most people think about when you say 1700s royalty but with stuff from different time periods because no research had been made on a precise time period. In my defense, this takes place in 2149 so who’s to say people wouldn’t mix time periods ?

And since I took a royal approach and talk economy : know that this story is just some random fic and does not show any politic views or stuff like that. It’s the first ideas that came to mind to justify having the characters as royals. Even the royal situation is more out of convenience than anything. And the fact that this is posted now also has nothing to do with what happened a few days ago; I started working on this way before it.

And finally, if you have any questions or comments about this fic, feel free to ask ! I’m always open to criticism and for an excuse to infodump (as long as it doesn’t end up in spoiling the story) ! And since two fics are doing it, if you’re wondering : no, this fic won’t have an askblog. While I love askblogs, I don’t have the energy to make one. So if you have any questions about the fic, ask in general, not to a character.

One last comment : while this chapter is pretty chill in terms of content, be aware that the rest of the prologue, along with some parts of the main fic, will talk about some pretty serious topics, which is also why this fic might take some time for every chapter because a lot of research is needed here to make sure not to mess anything up (the thought of chapter three of the prologue already scares me). For each chapter, I will put a warning for the content. But overall, I’d advise you to look at the AO3 page if only for the tags (tags will change and be added as the fic goes on).

Anyways, enjoy !

“Greetings, class ! Today, we’re going to continue our history lesson on how our nation came to be. As promised last time, we are going to see the European Fallout of the 2080s.

Throughout the 21st century, Europe went through several economic crises. All of it led to a collapse by the end of the 2070s. At the end of the decade, a crisis raged in the United States and spread to our Europe. In only a few weeks, every country found themselves on the brink of poverty. The consequences of this fallout are still present nowadays as most European countries are much poorer than they used to be. A lot of people tried to find the root of this event and pointed the finger at the Louisiana Purchase.

As for what happened to our England, I told you last time how our country used to be part of the United Kingdom, an alliance made with three other countries. When the fallout started, the United Kingdom was the first to be affected and nobody knew how to make the situation better. After hundreds of arguments and decisions that didn’t go anywhere, the United Kingdom ended up splitting up.

Moreover, people stopped trusting the government of that time, which had a prime minister at its head, and asked for the royal family to stand up and take back the leadership role they gave up years ago. But since the Queen can only do so much, since not every part of the country was affected equally and since a government with one ruler making decisions with a council failed, the system changed. Our country was divided in Estates, each ruled by a Lady or a Lord. The Ladies and Lords were chosen among the richest and most influential families of England. This division helped bringing closeness between the people and the ones ruling over them. That way, solving local issues became easier.

Wishing to be old-fashioned, the Ladies and Lords decided to live in palaces, each palace near the biggest town of the Estate. They also started to refer to each other as kings and queens, though with no desire to question the authority of our Queen. They also chose to raise their children to take over after their passing and chose to host meetings, often turning into balls, to give their children the opportunity to meet the princes and princesses that could become their future spouse. Finally, these families all have a profession related to the Queen and the rest of her court. Of course, they are part of the court as well.

This system, our current system, had been created more than five decades ago now, and look at how greatly it managed to save us from the collapse the rest of Europe is barely recovering from !

And that, children, is why we live and thrive in the Cavendish Estate.”

    ---------------

April 20, 2149

  “Have you heard about what that person claimed last night ? I heard it had been all over the news !”

Balthazar chuckled. Gossip. Something people sure loved to spread in this town. There was something quite fascinating about it. To see people so willing to believe anything, if they know the person they heard it from.

“What does this weirdo want ?”, he heard one of the ladies whisper to the other.

“My apologies.”, Balthazar replied, knowing full-well the comment was aimed at him. After all, he was the only person wearing a black cloak while sitting on benches at the town’s only green space, looking at the people passing by. Not wishing to bring more attention to himself, and realizing how late it was getting, the blonde walked away, covering as much of his face as possible.

“What a creep.”

    Balthazar walked through the town, wishing he had the time to stop at one of the shops that displayed artisanal work. This work was so much insignificant compared to everything he was given, and yet it was so much more valuable ! Those were hand-craft objects, things that people made themselves, with their own talent ! Things they accomplished by their own abilities !

...But he didn’t have time, he had to hurry.

  He knew the road by heart by now. First leave the town by taking the smaller streets. Then, there was the long road through the forest. Balthazar always felt uncomfortable while crossing it. The woods were purely decorative, put there by his grandparents to make the ride to the castle more pleasant. This meant that nothing and nobody lived here, and the only noise that could be heard were the occasional blowing of the wind through the leaves and the electric movement of the cameras. They weren’t a lot of them, and Balthazar managed to find a path that avoided them all. He could now rush through the woods, only slowing down once he reached the walls surrounding the royal garden. There was a crack in one part of the wall, at the very back of the garden, hidden behind a set of bushes and just big enough to let the prince go through. It had been there for years.

All he had to do now was hide his cloak into the bushes, remove all eventual filth off his person, grab the book about time theories he left behind and go back inside, pretending to have been reading this whole time. When he started to open the back doors and felt the guards grabbing them to let him in, he felt reassured to see them do their usual greeting. Seemed like nobody had been looking for him.

“Balthazar.”, the prince almost jumped as his mother emerged from one corridor, and took back his previous statement. The queen had her face fully visible with her ginger hair tied into a bun. And while the woman looked calm and composed, the blonde knew that, had she not been raised as a royal, the glare from her icy eyes would lead to a full-blown rage. The queen opened her mouth to speak but no sound came out as she noticed the book in her son’s hands. When she looked back at him, he knew he was in trouble.

“Have you been so taken by your story that you did not hear the commotion inside ?”

“I…”, Balthazar didn’t know how to answer without making it worse for him. He had no idea his free-time had been replaced by something else. How do you pretend to forget about something if you don’t even know what it is ?

“The son of our closest ally was there, more than eager to meet you again.”

“Oh ! A meeting !”, his interjection only reinforced the frown on his mother’s freckled face and the prince gulped. “I…I mean, I thought we already had such a meeting Monday.”

“We chose to have them more often, you are aware of that.”, it wasn’t a question.

“I…”, Balthazar sighed. “I apologize for my lack of foresight.”, that was his best option right now.

“Apologies will not bring a husband.”, the queen reprimanded. She approached him and grabbed his head. “You are close to being thirty now.”, he tone soothed.

“I am only twenty-six.”, her son protested.

“It is already old.”, she insisted. “Soon enough, you will lose your youthful charm.”, she lifted his chin. “You are a handsome man, dear. Do not let it go to waste.”

“I assure you, I am not trying to.”

“Then why avoiding your chances ?”

“…”, the prince looked down.

“Is there something wrong with your suitors ?”, she tried asking. “Would you rather court Ladies ?”

“No, it’s not- ! I really do am interested in Lords.”, his mother raised an eyebrow, clearly expecting a better explanation. “I simply…I do not find these princes to be the most…attractive. Or interesting.”, he mumbled that last part.

His mother eyed him for a moment, before finally letting go of him.

“Remember. You are the heir of the Cavendish Estate. It is your duty to assure our progeny. It is already disappointing to know that you will continue our bloodline with a surrogate instead of your spouse. Do not force us to choose a husband for you.”, and with that, she left.

 Truth be told, Balthazar saw all these princes as the same. Rich egotistical men who boasted about the wealth and power their parents managed to get. They were all the same built, all told the same boring discussions, seemingly happy about their situation. Sometimes, Balthazar felt like the only one who wasn’t interested into such talks, who wasn’t satisfied with what he was.

Now, a real man, a strong and muscular man who could sweep him off his feet and crush him without effort, while still showing kindness and acting as a gentleman…Now that was his type of men !

However, he could never admit it to his parents. They would be disgusted with him.

 “Your highness ?”, Balthazar thoughts were interrupted by one of the servants approaching. The man bowed his head in respect.

“What is it ?”, the prince asked, taking his royal tone.

“I am here to notify you like you asked. Mr. Elmont and his team are about to come back.”

“Mr. Elmont is back ?”, he asked excitedly.

“He is.”, the servant confirmed.

“Thank you !”, Balthazar quickly said as he hurried down the hallway, his manners forgotten.

    It didn’t take him long to reach the basement under the right wing of the castle. This part of the property served as headquarters for the B.O.T.T. agents working for the Cavendishes.

The prince went to the garage. It was there that most people went to talk to the agents, as the rest of the space given to them was used for their personal accommodation.

The garage was a simple room. At the center, there were parking spaces for the cars of the five teams that lived here, including two spare vehicles that were rarely used. Near the walls rested equipment along with tools and car parts. There also was a cooler and several bags for long missions in hostile environments.

There were also pictures. Dozens of framed pictures of all the places they travelled to and the wonders they saw here. Balthazar was always in awe at their view. To think the world used to be so different ! That the world outside of those walls was so diverse ! That there had been so many civilizations, so many different kinds of people over the centuries ! But out of all these people, how many of them had their story told ? How many of them made a difference ? How many were completely forgotten ? The thought of it both fascinated and scared the prince as he wondered about his own place in the world. Would he be a hero, remembered for his great ruling, or would he be forgotten, becoming nothing more than a name on a family tree ? Or worse, what if he was remembered for the bad reasons ? He knew some of the people in the Estate were against the concept of Lords ruling over them. So what would this mean for his future ?

 Most often than not, Balthazar envied the time-travelers. Not only did they have the luck to see so many things in their lifetime, but they also had the opportunity to make a change in the world. Sometimes, Balthazar wished he could be in their place.

Ever since he learned to read, he had been studying about time-travel. He started off reading child books about the adventures of the incredible Professor Time and his loyal partner Perry, a creature Balthazar always figured was fictional. Then, as he grew up, he continued with theories and facts about the time-stream, alternate universes and other dimensions. His parents had always been skeptical about this hobby of him, claiming that it could ‘derivate you from your duties’. But overall, the prince managed to convince his mother to let him spend his free-time learning about it, as long as he kept paying attention to ‘important matters’.

Soon after he took the stairs leading to the garage, the portal to the past opened, letting three time-vehicles back. The time-travelers left their vehicles and the blonde quickly took sight of Mr. Elmont’s familiar shape. At the sight of the prince, the agents bowed.

“Your majesty.”, they greeted.

“Gentlemen.”, Balthazar replied, trying to keep his composure. “May I hear the report of your assignment ?”

“Certainly.”, Mr. Elmont replied. He took out one of his holographic devices to give to the prince.

“Thank you.”, the blonde dismissed the group with a gesture. After all, their priority was to report to the king and queen. If they had to clean or tend to the cars, they could do so later.

With the agents away, he turned the device on and a representation of the land visited appeared. There was a text at the bottom, explaining that the time was West-Asia in 1795 and what the objective was. Balthazar spent a good chunk of time reading it all, planning dozens of questions to ask the agents, until his father’s impatient voice brought him back to his royal duties. With envious glances towards the time-machines, he left the garage.

    When the evening came, Balthazar had a boring and uneventful dinner filled with talks with his parents about the state of their province before retracting to his room. He sighed, sliding down against the door. What was wrong with him ? He was a prince. He was smart, cultivated, respected, beloved by the court. So why did all the things supposedly important for him feel so dull ? Why did everyday feel like the same boring routine ? And with his parents wishing to intensify the number of meetings with other princes…

He shouldn’t be thinking like this. He knew his parents wouldn’t like it. He was a future Lord ! He was rich ! He had everything !

  Well…maybe not everything.

  Balthazar found himself drawn to his balcony, putting his weight onto the ramp as he admired the familiar view. He could see the capital from here, its light a display of the grooming activity of the people. Further away, there were other towns, some almost barely visible due to the distance.

What were civilians doing right now ? What kind of activities did they do at that time ? Did they know how lucky they were to live out there ? To be free to do and see anything they wanted ? Or were they envious of his life, just like he was of theirs ?

The prince sighed again. He didn’t know why he felt like that. Ever since he was a child, he had never felt satisfied with being a prince. He never liked having so many duties. He didn’t care about the politics of the allies and enemies his father had. He didn’t enjoy courting. But most importantly, he hated how people only knew and praised him for what his family was, instead of knowing who he was as a person, and what he could accomplish by himself. This was what made his entire work feel so meaningless.

Balthazar went to sit on his bed, putting Dennis on his lap.

“Do you think I overthink things ?”, he asked Dennis. Of course, the plush didn’t respond, but it didn’t stop the blonde from seeing a judgmental look on his companion’s face. “You’re right. I should not be complaining. Besides, surely I cannot be the only member of the court who complains like that…But still, why do you think I feel like this ? Was I not born and raised to rule ? And it isn’t as if I was not born here. Mother and Father care too much about lineage to adopt.

So if ruling is in my blood, why do I feel like I am not made for it ?”

    ---------------

April 21, 2149

 Another day, another meeting with other Estates, another potential husband to stand.

Everyone was gathered into the throne room. The high members of the Estate were here, along with members of the court and families of friend Estates. Balthazar was standing in front of his throne, next to his parents. The king was doing his usual welcoming speech, his tall stature and floating blond hair making his presence imposing. The prince half-listened to his father’s speech. He had heard it a million times before. Instead of listening, he studied the crowd. One of the men here might very well be his future husband. Whoever it might be, Balthazar hoped he would be strong but also compelling.

As he recognized the last words from the speech, he took it as his cue and walked down the steps separating the thrones to the rest of the room. His father announced the festivities and people started to merge together in a myriad of colors.

Each Estate had a dominating color in their clothing, adorned for the Lords with a dozen medals and titles like his father did. Balthazar wasn’t so bad himself. He was wearing a white shirt covered by a deep blue waist-coat along with leggings, all covered by a matching coat. The three pieces of clothing had gold patterns sewed on them. His stockings were white, contrasting with the black of his boots. His crown was quite simple : a circular piece of jewelry with emeralds engraved in it. The green created an enticing contrast with the rest of his clothing. The only exception were his glasses, carrying the same golden colors as the crown, with an emerald on each branch.

 Soon enough, he was approached by a man. He was wearing a brown outfit that complimented his dark hair. His clothes followed the same mold as Balthazar’s, the proper dress code for a prince. From his outfit, Balthazar guessed that he came from the Valjean Estate, an Estate form the far-South that had some French roots and recently became good acquaintances with his own province. The blonde had to admit, that prince wasn’t bad looking.

“Greetings. May your kingdom be prosperous and your family proud.”, the prince extended his hand.

“May your kingdom be prosperous and your family proud.”, the blonde shook his hand. “Prince Balthazar Tiberius of the Cavendish Estate.”, he introduced himself.

“Prince Clement Hugo of the Valjean Estate.”, the prince replied, his accent confirming his origin. “Pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”

“The pleasure is all mine.”, Balthazar replied. He knew the protocol, and the prince was slightly his style, so he might as well get things going. “Would you like to head for the garden ? We can have more privacy to talk.”

“A bright idea.”, the other man nodded, following him.

    They stayed in the garden for a while, walking along the path near the walls. At every step, Balthazar’s disappointment grew. For a moment, he had thought that he was finally with someone interesting. But like any other prince he met, the man ended up talking politics and royal meetings and other topics that the blonde would rather forget about, if only for one day.

“And that’s how my father solved the issue of that drought.”, the prince boasted. “And now, our Estate is more flourishing than ever. Rather impressive, is it not ?”

“Indeed. Your father is rather impressive.”, the blonde pointed out.

“…Well,”, the prince coughed. “I helped as well with a great work-“

“A significant work for sure.”, Balthazar said sarcastically while rolling his eyes.

“Why being so insulting ?”, the prince asked, stopping in his tracks. “Do you not deem your work important ?”

“As a matter of facts, I do not.”

“But…are you not a successful barrister for the Queen ?”

“Oh please ! Do you honestly believe that any of the people I defend would be declared ‘guilty’ without me ? They are part of the Queen’s court ! Our families are too rich and powerful to be opposed !”

The other prince just looked at him, flabbergasted.

“Don’t you see ?!”, Balthazar continued. “Neither of us accomplished anything ! Our professions are nothing but facades ! We didn’t earn any of the things we have ! All our wealth was made by our grandparents ! All the things people praise us for, it was all given to us by our families ! Even our meaningless professions were dictated by them !”

The prince opened his mouth, most likely to protest, but no sound came out.

“Don’t you want to be more than that ? Don’t you want to do something more with your life ?”

“I am doing something with my life !”, he protested.

“But don’t you want more ?”

“…What do you want out of your life, Prince Balthazar ?”

“I…I want to get out of there.”, he gazed at the top of the property’s walls. “I want to explore the world. I want to be the master of my own life. I want people to praise me for my own accomplishments. I want to be more than just a forgettable pawn working for this Estate !”

The prince stared at him, his surprise slowly fading away. For a moment, Balthazar thought that he was going to excuse himself, leaving and not feeling comfortable to talk to him again unless he was forced to. Not like the blonde would mind. This was how half of those ‘relationships’ ended up anyways. At least this one would be as short as he wished it to.

But instead, the prince looked at him with a much more serious expression.

“…I knew someone like you.”

“You…you do ?”

“The youngest prince of the Limgar Estate. He knew his turn as a ruler would never come, but he never wished for it anyways. He wished to leave his Estate, and he tried to.”

“He did ?!”, for the first time in years, Balthazar felt a bubbling excitement. Was it truly possible to leave ? Were there no consequences to it ?

The prince nodded. “Unfortunately for him, he had no choice but using the front gate. He tried to leave during the guards relaying but was seen. And while he managed to go far, as he was on a train by the time his family was warned and it was made clear that he was not supposed to be outside, it only took a call to the friends Estates to end his escapade.”

Balthazar deflated. Of course there was no easy way to get away with such a plan.

“Ever since this incident, he is followed at all times by a guard. As for his reputation…Well, I believe you understand that the entire court now show him every disdain. He is an outcast among his own people. Of course, this is not helped by his rank as the second born.”

The prince let Balthazar a few seconds to take it all in. “I will refrain from confessing your desires to your family.”, he then reassured. “But if I were you, I would reconsider a lot of things. Nobody wants to be shunned by their own kind, especially an heir.”, and with that, the prince bowed to excuse himself and headed back to the castle.

 Balthazar stayed behind, dozens of questions on the tip of his tongue but unable to talk. How long had it been since this event ? How many people were aware of this story ? Would it be possible for him to meet that prince ? Did other people feel that same way but never talk about it out of fear ? Not like it would matter anyways, if bringing it up only caused troubles. But still. For once, it would be nice to meet someone who shared his point of view, to prove that they had nothing insane to them.

The blonde watched as the other prince headed back inside, before glancing the other way. For an instant, he considered going to town to forget about this whole thing, but with the current meeting, he knew his parents were watching. With one last lingering glance towards the walls, he headed back inside.

    Balthazar almost collapsed in his throne as the evening came. The meeting ended soon after he came back inside. Afterwards, it had been time for his piano lessons, followed by sports and dance and then several hours of working for his law firm. And now, he had to attend as his parents took care of business for the people. Representatives would come to have hour-long discussions about what policies to adopt. Balthazar needed to pay attention and remember as much as possible despite his parents’ advisor noting it all down on a holographic tablet.

By the time they finished, the prince was trying to suppress his yawns, his head resting on his hand from boredom and tiredness. He quickly corrected his posture when his father glanced at him.

Without a word, the three royals stood up, the king dismissing the servants, and went for dinner.

    Despite his tiredness, Balthazar went to the B.O.T.T. quarters after dinner. With his mother promising more meetings, he would have little to no free-time in the upcoming days. So he might as well take any opportunity.

He reached the garage and was relieved to see Mr. Elmont here. The man was working on a device.

“Sir.”

The time-traveler looked up in surprise and quickly saluted. “Your Majesty.”

“Is this a bad time ?”, the prince asked.

“Not at all.”, Elmont reassured, a hint of amusement in his voice. Ever since Balthazar had been allowed to meet the time-agents, Mr. Elmont had been kind of a confidant to him. He quickly saw the interest the prince had for his profession and was always more than happy to recount his missions. And meeting the prince in his younger years helped partly close the gap tied to the power imbalance, making the agent more of a friend than a servant. “What can I do for you ?”

“I would like to hear more of your last mission, if this is possible.”, the blonde tried to sound as detached as possible. His parents tended to enforce the fact that Mr. Elmont was under his orders, and he didn’t want the agent to get scolded for patronizing him.

Elmont picked up his holographic device and rested his back against the working table, patting the space next to  him as an invitation for the prince.

For the next hour or so, the blonde listened as the time-traveler explained his last mission in detail, talking about the objectives, the places, the people. Balthazar let himself loosen, letting the man see his curiosity.

    “BALTHAZAR !”

The prince jumped as his father’s voice filled the room.

“Balthazar ! What are you doing in here at such a time ?!”, the king reprimanded while walking down the stairs.

“Your Highness.”, the time-traveler quickly greeted.

“Agent Elmont ! You know better than to waste the time of an heir on trivial babbling !”

“My deepest apologies, your Highness.”

“Father.”, the prince intervened. “I’m the one who chose to come here. Mr. Elmont did nothing but obey orders.”

“Balthazar…”, the king said in a warning tone. Without another word, he went back up the stairs. The prince glanced at the time-traveler, murmuring a ‘apologies’ before trotting after his father. Once he reached his level, the Lord looked at him. “Balthazar.”

“Father, I-“

“Son, listen. You are an heir. You have a duty, responsibilities.”, he lectured. “Your mother has left you loose for too long. You need to learn to spend your time on what truly matters.”

“I…I understand.”, Balthazar could only agree with his father’s wishes. It seemed that today was going to become the new norm.

    ---------------

April 28, 2149

  Balthazar collapsed in his bed, ignoring the crown slipping out of his face. It had been a week since his parents had decided to intensify his duties and it was already starting to show. He had had a trial yesterday and, while the client got acquitted like every other, his defense had been the flimsiest he ever displayed. His parents had lectured him, telling him how disappointing he had been. Of course, he had expected their reaction. His profession was a show before anything else. He had to be perfect to prove the greatness of his Estate.

And with the revocation of his free-time, he found himself thinking more and more about the story prince Clement had told him. Worse, he thought of the way the younger brother tried to leave and what the flaws in his plan had been. Mainly, the issues were his choice to use the front gate and to head for a friend’s Estate. If a member of the court goes missing, of course calling friends and enemies was the first thing to do. Balthazar needed to find an Estate that tended to be forgotten by most if he wanted to-

No. He shouldn’t have these thoughts. Even if the outside world seemed so wide and exciting and-

Stop this., he scolded himself. You have a duty to fulfill. Besides, the outside world is dangerous. An accident-prone person such as you would struggle alone out there. And who’s to say other Estates are the same as the capital ? The places that Mr. Elmont sees are from the past. If I leave, I would find myself on my own in much duller places. Unless I pack enough money to get to study-

No. You have to stop this ! You were born to be a ruler !

…But isn’t being close to the people part of being a ruler ? Doesn’t that mean leaving the castle as well ?

Balthazar glanced at Dennis. The plush was standing on the bed near him. At the view of his companion, memories started to flood into his mind. His only day of freedom, a carnival in the middle of the capital. So many games, so many colors, so many noises, so much laugher, so much happiness. The prince had yet to top the feelings of that day.

He sighed. He wanted to get out of there, there was no reason to doubt this. He wanted another life, outside of these walls and among the people. He wanted to find a man that was different from all these princes, much more charming than any of them could dream to be.

But could this life ever become more than just a dream ?

    ---------------

May 9, 2149

 Balthazar was running down the halls, ignoring the looks from the servants. He had just been warned that every time-traveler would go on a mission that would last at least a month. If he wanted to talk to them, it was now.

He quickly went down the stairs to the garage and was relieved to see the agents still there, making their ways into the vehicles. Once a few took notice of him, they greeted him, getting the attention of the other agents.

“Is Mr. Elmont still there ?”, the prince asked between two breaths. He looked at all the cars and was relieved to notice the agent’s usual time-machine. A second later, Mr. Elmont left his vehicle.

“Go ahead.”, he told the rest of the group. “We will join you afterwards.”

Balthazar watched as the cars jumped into the time-stream. Elmont approached him while his partner entered their time-machine.

“I’m afraid I don’t have much time.”, the agent reminded. “What is it ?”

“I…”, the prince cleared his throat, trying to get his composure back. “I would like to know more about how you became a time-traveler.”

“Oh ? And why is that ?”, Elmont seemed hesitant. Has the king given him a warning due to last time ?

“Am I not allowed to know every part of your profession, including how to reach it ?”, he tried to sound firm. But when he saw the agent look away with a frown, his pretense dropped. “Mr. Elmont, please tell me.”, he insisted.

“…Alright.”, the agent decided. “To become a time-traveler, you need to study for twenty cycles. Each cycle is three months long, and you’re able to take a long break between each cycle. So the shortest time for the studies is five years, with four cycles per year and no break. You can start your studies by the age of fifteen, if you’re certain this is your calling.”, Balthazar listened intensely, maybe too intensely.

“During those studies, you learn about the histories and cultures of the past, including the different views of those times for when you need to do infiltration missions. You also learn about time-travel theories and how your machine works. There’s physical training as well, along with a few driving lessons, especially to learn to drive under pressure. But it’s better to learn to drive before starting out, or during the first cycles.”

“And where did you study ?”

The agent looked at him for a moment before answering. “Every big town has a branch of the time-travel agency where you can learn and be employed. But the B.O.T.T. headquarters are located in America, in the Tri-State Area where time-travel was invented. In the states, there’s also the Institution of Regulation and Punishment for Time-Travel, I.R.P.T.T. for short. So if you want to address B.O.T.T., it needs to go overseas.”

“Edward ?”, the other time-agent called from the car.

“I have to go.”, Mr. Elmont told the prince.

“I understand.”, Balthazar smiled. “May your journey be successful.”

“Thank you.”, the agent bowed. On his way to the car, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Your Majesty. Whatever you might be thinking of doing, please be careful.”

  And with that, the time-machine was gone.

  Balthazar stayed for a moment, looking at the spare engines. If he knew how to drive, could he be able to leave that way ?

He shook his head. Thinking about it was meaningless. He should go back before any of his parents noticed his absence. He had papers to sort for his next case.

That is, if he did attend to the trial.

    ---------------

May 18, 2149

 This was a terrible idea.

 It was the middle of the night. The castle was silent, devoid of any activity aside from the guards on patrol. Balthazar was standing in front of his bed, where was resting a brown satchel that he filled with books about time-travel, along with a few personal items, including Dennis. And cash. A lot of cash.

Balthazar’s hands were resting on each side of the bag. He was considering his options. Ever since the meeting with the Valjean prince, he had unconsciously been studying the routine of the guards, counting the time between each permutation. He had also gotten an interest for the other Estates, as his mother put it. In reality, he asked her and his father about the Estates they had a relationship with, either positive or negative, to see which places they never paid attention to.

Along with that, he got the opportunity to meet the oldest prince of the Limgar Estate and ask him about what happened with his brother. As expected, he was told about how terribly viewed the younger brother was now. This made the blonde more hesitant about his plan, but not enough to stop him. What he mostly learned from this story was one thing : do NOT get caught.

Finally, he had put in the steps forcing him to leave tonight. He bought bus and train tickets to reach another Estate, along with clothes using an anonymous name. He made sure the shop was near the last train station so that he could change the moment he got to the Estate. He also got himself a much less fancy pair of glasses that he was already wearing. As for the money, he took as much from his account as he could carry, hoping to set a new one to remove any possible suspicion.

Everything was ready. He just needed to go.

And yet…

 He started pacing and biting his nails, full of doubt. Should he really do this ? Could he really do this ? This had to be the biggest decision of his entire life ! Was it truly what he wished ? It wasn’t like he had it bad here. He had all the possessions he wanted ! And his parents were good people who wanted what was best for the Estate and for him.

But at the same time, he didn’t feel fulfilled here. He always felt like none of his actions mattered, like nobody would ever care about who he was as a person. The court only wanted to see a perfect royal figure out of him. They never cared about who he was on the inside, about what he liked, what he did and didn’t enjoy.

As for his parents…His father was always working and only talked to him if it had anything to do with the Estate or his profession. Or it would be to reprimand him for not being good enough. And while his mother spent more time caring for him, most of the time, it felt like she was mostly worried due to his accident-prone tendencies.

Being accident-prone…another reason not to leave. As long as he stayed here, he could be safe. But was all that safety really worth staying locked up ? And why wouldn’t he be able to survive on his own ? He lived for twenty-six years for goodness’ sake ! Besides, it wasn’t like anything truly bad ever happened to him. Tripping into bushes or having a vase almost fall on him weren’t going to kill him !

 Balthazar looked at his balcony and took a deep breath. His decision was made. It was probably crazy and incredibly stupid, but he was not going to back down now.

 He closed his bag and went to leave his room. But as his hand was about to touch the automatic panel, his thoughts went back on his parents. Guilt started to settle in. They were kind and fair people who truly loved him. They didn’t deserve to be left in the dark. The soon-to-be-ex prince went to a drawer and took out pen and paper.

 Dear Mother, dear Father.

I’m sorry.

Throughout my entire life, you raised me for one purpose : to be the future ruler of the Cavendish Estate, to make our province rich and prosperous.

But ever since my childhood, I showed reticence over my duties. I always wished for a different life.

I found a

Several years ago, I discovered a hole in the garden’s walls. I used it ever since every time I had enough free-time. I learned a lot about the outside world and all the kind of people that live out there. And I wish to join them.

Tonight. This is what I have decided to do. By the time you find this letter, I will be far away.

Please do not try to find me. I have no desire to remain a prince. I do not deserve to be called a prince.

I hope you will be able to forgive me for this. Believe me when I say I have no desire to hurt you. I love both of you dearly and I always will.

May you be able to move forwards and keep the Estate in its current glory.

My deepest love,

Balthazar Tiberius Cavendish, former heir of the Cavendish Estate

  He read the letter several times. After all, this was the very last time he would ever interact with his parents. He could already picture their reaction after finding the letter, their desire to call every Estate they can think of to try finding him. His father would be furious. His mother would be devastated.

…He hoped that one day, they would understand.

…

With a heavy heart, he put the letter on the nightstand. He then took out his crown to put with it.

“Goodbye.”, he whispered, eyes on the crown. He then looked at the time, making sure a permutation was near, and left the room.

    Balthazar navigated from bush to bush, avoiding any places where guards were present. Lucky for him, he studied their routines long enough to know where to go and, soon enough, he found himself in front of the plants hiding the crack in the wall. He crossed the plants, found his cloak, put it on and stood in front of the crack.

Sometimes, he wondered how nobody found out about it besides him. He assumed it was a lack of foresight from the gardeners and guards. As for his parents never realizing he was gone, their lack of investment in anything but his royal duties seemed like the most logical explanation.

As he looked at the forest on the other side of the wall, he found himself hesitating again. But he had to remain brave. There was no going back now.

He took a deep breath, and crossed the familiar crack for the very last time.

 Despite having crossed it a hundred times, the feelings he felt that time were like no other. There was a new sense of excitement, making him feel lighter than the breeze. For the first time in his entire life, he felt in peace. That was when he knew he had made the right decision.

 Once he reached the other side, he opened his eyes and let out a breath he didn’t know he had been holding. He started smiling, then laughing, feeling immense joy course through him. He did it ! He was free !

“Is anybody here ?”

Balthazar immediately covered his mouth and put himself against the wall, cursing himself mentally. Blast ! Of course he was still very far from being out of trouble !

“Albert ? was that you ?”

“Did you call for me ?”

“I believe I heard something near the wall.”

“It’s probably the wind. I just came from here and there’s nobody on sight.”

“Are you sure ? Just because nobody in years tried to invade doesn’t mean it can’t happen. You know some folks started to oppose the court. We wouldn’t be out there if it wasn’t the case.”

“You’re right. Let’s call for team West to investigate closer to the mansion. We’ll take the walls.”

“Alright. Let’s get to the communicator.”

Balthazar waited until he couldn’t hear their footsteps and bolted away, taking the path he knew to be cameras-free. Now it was time for phase two.

    The next few hours were extremely tense for Balthazar. His future wasn’t truly into his own hands yet. It would only take one person going into his room before morning to ruin his entire plan.

He took the bus to the closest station, then the train, ignoring all the odd looks people were giving him. It sure was hard for a hooded figure to stay discreet during the night. Lucky for him, the vehicles were driven by robots, so nobody forced him to show his face.

He spent the travel in train looking out the window. Upon reaching the border and seeing the “Now leaving the Cavendish Estate” sign, he felt an odd sense of sadness, almost like nostalgia.

And yet, he was smiling.

  It was almost dawn when he reached the Stanmar Estate. It was one of the five Estates unknown or ignored by most, due to their difficulty to rise back after the Fallout. Nobody would look for him here.

After getting off the train, he hurried to the clothes shop. Luckily, they had an automatic system to give out orders anytime. All that was needed was money and a password. Balthazar was glad he didn’t have to talk to anyone. How do you explain a man with thousand in cash but not even owning a phone ? And let’s not forget his dialect. He would have to learn to speak in more familiar terms if he didn’t want to bring unwanted attention to himself.

 Balthazar went to an alley, changed clothes, and disposed of his royal outfit with fire. As he watched the clothes burn, the same feelings from before resurfaced, this time mixed with excitement. He truly was free now.

He wondered what to do with the cloak and ultimately decided to burn it as well. It was part of the past. He didn’t need to hide his face anymore.

His new clothes were much more comfortable than he expected. After wearing a tight outfit for years, it felt like a nice change of pace. Pleased with himself, he left the alley.

  The first ray of sunshine started to show as the blonde walked with confidence in the town, his plans in mind. He would have to find an apartment and get a job. Maybe he should work into a law firm since he had the experience. He also needed to buy a lot of essentials he had been forced to leave behind, like a phone or a computer and of course a lot of bathroom products. Finally, he needed a bank account, and to get his driver license.

But most importantly, he needed to sign up to the closest school of time-travel. He would start as quickly as possible. Besides, the sooner he was an agent, the better. While he knew people wouldn’t recognize him here, as common folks never learned the names of far Estates, let alone the appearance of their rulers, having a lawyer bearing his name could definitely be suspicious. If he was a time-agent, it could take longer to make a connection.

  Balthazar took a deep breath and smiled happily. It was a new day, the start of an entirely new chapter of his life. No longer would he feel like a pawn, getting shaped the way other people wanted. Now he was going to be his own man ! A savior, like Mr. Elmont ! Like the great Professor Time ! People would remember the name Balthazar Tiberius Cavendish as the one of a hero ! For all the missions he accomplished by himself ! He would become a top agent! A savior of the world !

Balthazar jumped in excitement. He couldn’t wait to get started !

      -------------------------

Note : Well, here’s the first part ! Thanks for reading ! I hope I didn’t go too OOC with Cavendish here, but in my defense, it is a younger version of him who doesn’t know much about the real world, so he’s a bit idealistic (and he got one hell of a reality check after leaving). I also hope that I didn’t hammer his point of view with the whole “wishing to do something of his life” side. Also, yes, he’s gay in this story (rip Hildegard). And yes, he’s a twink with a few kinks. There ! I said it and I assume it ! (I’m actually very ashamed of that part with Cav talking about his ideal man. But at least I see him grow more or less out of this view of toxic masculinity as what a perfect man should look like. And by that I mean that it would still be his type of guy, but he’d learn to get attached to men even if they didn’t fit this type).

And is Cavendish autistic in this ? Honestly I’m not sure. Thing is, I’m writing Cav with the habits he has in the show (though I yet have to make him say “huzza !” in one of my fics), and those habits can be read as autistic. Same for his interest towards time-travel and Professor Time that in this chapter can be read as a special interest. But at the same time, him being so interested by the travel and the outside world is mostly due to how dull and boring his life is, so he gets excited by the things he doesn’t know.

So overall, I guess it can be read as both autistic and not; but I’m not writing him with the intention to insist about him being autistic, the same way I won’t do research on autistic behavior in opposition to how I started looking up info about children with ADHD for the next chapter.

And a word about this chapter : I know that there are a few plot conveniences there and there, especially at the end with the escape, but I tried to make them as cohesive with the story as possible or make them related to future technology, so I hope it doesn’t take people out of the story. Though I guess the inaccuracies with how royalty works is what is the most likely to take people out of the story.

As for Cav’s parents, I hope I was descriptive enough. But if you want more info about their appearance, don’t hesitate to ask ! Just don’t expect a drawing since I can’t draw to save my life 😅. And for their names, after looking up British names I decided to settle with Victoria and William but maybe it could change ? I mean I’m pretty sure William has something to do with the current royal family but I don’t know shit about the British royal family. I didn’t really look anything up about them since this chapter has more of a made-up royalty.

Thanks again for reading and stay tuned for chapter two, in which, after learning about the prince, we’re now jumping into the life of the pauper !

#Milo Murphy's Law #mml #Balthazar Cavendish #my fanfics #As Time Passes #Cav be like : #'aren't you tired of being nice ? #don't you want to go apeshit ?' #hope this chapter is good ! #it sure was longer than expected #and yet it still feels like it goes too fast #oh well #now time to wonder how long chapter two will be #As Time Passes Prologue

[miru667]

A few notes on Audrey (and the Once-ler)

I’ve gotten a lot of new followers lately and also a lot of words of support and kindness from so many ppl, so I first wanna say thank you, you know who you are and it all means more than i can say ♥

I’ve been asked to explain more on what I think about Audrey and the Once-ler as a ship, so I’ll use this space to talk.

And I think I’ll first talk about Audrey. When I draw Audrey nowadays I’m really only drawing my own Audrey OC or my friends’ Audrey OCs, and we’ve all made them different ages from the canon Audrey in the 2012 movie. Everyone’s Onceler ocs are different ages, so why not Audrey ocs? I’ve seen Audreys as young as 5 and as old as 60. This isn’t unusual at all for the onceler fandom; it’s this level of imagination and creativity that has kept the fandom going for over 8 years. I haven’t drawn canon Audrey in a rly long time (but maybe I could again someday, who knows).

I headcanoned my own Audrey as 15-16 during the movie, and I made a mainverse askblog for her back in 2012 which took place right after the movie’s plot had finished. In 2018 I then revisited her to rp her in a zombie apocalypse AU, BUT I wanted to start her story with her already being a seasoned zombie slayer, so I pretended some years have passed since her mainverse days and made her 18. That is the only reason I aged her up.

And true to the OG onceler fandom, my friends and I then made more AUs, so I kept my Audrey at 18 or older since I got used to it. She actually should be 24 right now if I used her mainverse askblog as a starting point and let her age in real-time (which is what a lot of onceler fandom mods have done with their characters), but I have a couple college AUs with my friends for example so I kept her younger than 24 for those.

Being passionate about your own versions of the movie’s characters, changing them a little (or a lot), putting them in AUs, letting them grow up, this is all natural onceler fandom-brand progression for any person who invests themselves in a lorax-related oc for longer than a few months.

You are free to agree or disagree with changing a character’s age. Please curate your own fandom experience by ignoring, blacklisting or blocking content you don’t want to see.

As for shipping, if you got to know me at all then you'd know that i actually very rarely ship or think about ships in any fandom, relative to everything else i engage in/share/talk about. I know you guys have seen me talk about 7212 but that was only cuz I was prompted, even tho it’s my fandom otp. Shipping just isn’t a big part of my life at all in the grand scheme. I’ll say like 2 things about a ship i think is neat and then just move on usually.

That said, I DO ship my non-canon Audrey with my friends’ characters for fun once in a blue moon, and a few of those characters ARE Once-lers, also non-canon. But we have always agreed beforehand that they are the same or similar ages, and that they’re both consenting adults. I’ll do my best to mention this detail in the tags or description of any audrey ship art i draw and post, and please let me know in private if I forget to. I’m extremely uncomfortable at the thought of a teen with an adult, and I do not condone it.

Some other odds and ends...I’ve portrayed my Audrey having a celebrity crush on the Once-ler before in mainverse, but it was obviously one-sided and never to be reciprocated. I think that’s pretty normal for a teenage girl. I also have my Audrey’s Ted crushing on her, but that won’t be reciprocated romantically either.

When I have reblogged non-oc audler before, I have always assumed that they were both consenting adults as well. Audler is a crackship, which means it can’t ever exist in canon, which means we are free to imagine space and time shenanigans for Audrey and Onceler to have met while they were similar ages. People age down Norma to ship her with a young Once-ler when they don’t even know either character’s canon ages (like who knows, what if old onceler and grammy norma are actually 10 yrs apart?), but in young normaler art we think of them as similar ages. So the same can be applied to audler art as well. We should just think they’re mostly the same age for our own mental peace.

I have tagged a few posts/reblogs with #audler even if it looked like they were just friends in the picture - this is to keep people who have blacklisted audler as safe as possible while still getting to make my blog my own personal organized space. I reblog art mostly because I like the execution/style; the content is actually of lower importance to me. If you read the tags I write in my non-onceler-fandom reblog blog, you can see i am 90% of the time gushing about how beautiful the lighting is etc and only 10% of the time saying i love the character or ship. or at least that’s how it feels like in my head. im here to look at art, not ships.

I understand if there are still people who are uncomfortable with all this and you’re of course allowed to not interact with any of it. I am not interested in engaging in drama or discourse but I think a lot of new people in the fandom must not be familiar with how the fandom has been working since the beginning and the things we had collectively agreed upon in the fandom since the beginning, so I hope this post helps clear up some confusions.

Thank you for reading if you’ve made it this far and thank you to all my followers for supporting me and sticking with me and being interested in my stuff, it really means the world to me. Please stay safe and let’s hope the new year is better.

#mirusays #under a readmore cuz it's long #reference

[bittersweet-au]

Behold, something (kind of) new is coming...

Hello Hatoful Boyfriend community. I am Kiro. Again!

Last year I made the blog @kazushuu (It’s really crazy that an entire year has passed since then) and initially I didn’t have much thought put into it, and was making stuff up along with the asks... Then my hyperfixation on Hatoful went from 70% to 170% and I developed an entire AU dedicated to rewriting Hatoful Boyfriend. Not in a “I’m gonna fix Hatoful’s plot holes” way but mostly in a “I am lonely and crave self indulgent headcanons” way. But fixing plot holes also.

Thus came the Shrine AU. A timeline whose basis is “Shuu ended up seeing Ryouta and Hiyoko on the street on the day of that terrorist attack, but turned away, and never asked Ryouta for his wish... prompting him to lead a more depressing and remorseful life.” And thus a butterfly effect is caused, and Nageki didn’t die, Kazuaki never died, but! Hitori still developed narcolepsy, and there is a strange inverted mirror-reflection happening between Kazuaki and Hitori. A perfect neutral between the happenings of Holiday Star and MIRROR’s storylines.

--And on April Fools this year I made the blog @hitotohri which has been a shitty little ask blog for Hitori and Tohri as “no homo boyfriends” meanwhile kazushuu was about Shuu and Kazuaki as “yes homo boyfriends”.

And then I decided to start writing... stories that take the story back to the very beginning of the year, before Shuu and Kazuaki become boyfriends. I’ve been uploading chapters here and there, showing the point of views of Shuu, Kazuaki, the students, and some other stuff... Basically I decided to take my shipping game a step higher and write an entire novel dedicated to the partridge and the quail’s love story. There are also some fix-it elements to Anghel’s character and somewhat to Nageki, Kazuaki, and his childhood, even the Ichijou situation. So I hope that even if you’re not a full-on ShuuKazu shipper, you can still enjoy it to some extent. The most niche pairing in Hatoful receives its own ““novel””. Because I am that much of a simp.

So now... I decided to take all this scattered and disorganized mess and combine it into something neater. Behold! ...This blog!

This is an askblog for Shuu, Kazuaki, Hitori, and Tohri, from my fanfiction series, which will update along with new chapters of the fanfiction, and you may or may not impact the way the story will flow! Or you can just call Shuu a gay baby and make me draw his reaction.

The more in-depth about page is here, the rules page is here, the muses are here, and the fanfic series itself... is here!

Because yeah, you kind of have to read all the chapters that have been written thus far to be up-to-date with the plot. it’s like an ARG but not mysterious. Please dont fret, there are only 11 chapters so far... 52k words... I mean, you don’t gotta get into the plot if you just want to call Shuu a gay baby. I GUESS.

maybe this’ll be a complete failure and i’ll just retreat onto the old pseudo-askblog pseudo-rp pseudo-send me hatoful art requests format. but hey it’s worth a try.

Also, I renamed the AU from “Shrine” to “BitterSweet” because that certainly fits the story better. But because I’ve used it for so long and it still sounds catchy, I’ll still call these AU hc-based characters “Shrine Shuu” “Shrine Hitori” etc.

anyway feel free to ask the dudes whatever you feel is relevant! assume that the current status is; right after the recent chapter “Relevation!”

#hatoful boyfriend #hatoful kareshi #shuu iwamine #kazuaki nanaki #hitori uzune #tohri nishikikouji #shuukazu #hitohri #askblog #writing #fanfiction #ask blog #anime askblog #fanart #( ooc. ) #( not ask. ) #( announcement. )

[jsab-corrupted-hero]

did any other blogs inspire this one?

Oh, definitely. I started this blog mostly out of pure nostalgia for the JSAB fandom. Most of the blogs that inspired this one are sadly inactive, but I still love to look back at them. 

@justasksandbeats was what got me into the JSAB fandom in the first place, and I really loved how it stuck to the game’s style and canon with its own twist. I love AUs, but that askblog really seemed like it could pass for canon and get away with it sometimes, just from the tone and art style. I’m really sad that the creator is on hiatus, but I hope they’re doing better nowadays.

@shapesquad was another one that got me to like JSAB so much. I remember reading through almost all of it in one sitting.

@ask-paradise-and-co is one that I really love!! It seems to be newer than the others, but the art style is so cute, and I love the Blixer design. Seeing the newer askblogs popping up was what inspired me to make another JSAB askblog, since for the longest time, I thought the fandom was dead until I saw the newer blogs coming out.

And I’d say @switching-beats is an honorable mention because that one is run by a friend of mine and was (to my knowledge) the first in the fandom to have the “switched roles” plot.

#Into the Void | Munday #mun qwerty

[neko-snicker]

A super fun walk through of how my art has changed over the years

check it out if you’re interested! 

I’ve always drawn things as a kid, I honestly can’t remember a time in elementary school where I wasn’t getting in trouble for drawing all over something. I always drew traditionally until my grade six “graduation” when my parents got me an Ipad 2. I got to choose one app to buy, and that app was Idraw, a simple Vector-based drawing app that immediately took over my life.

 I would draw all sorts of stuff on that app from Nyan cat to my Minecraft avatar. And then I found the horse show. Feeling Pinkie Keen was my gateway drug to horse fandom. I watched all of season 1 (which was all that was there at the time) and my little 12 year old mind got an amazing idea: I’LL MAKE MY OWN PONY. Her name is Firefly and I still love her, fight me.

 I drew a TON of drawings of her (which I don’t have anymore ;n; ) It wasn’t until I started looking for information on season 2 that I discovered the fandom: mostly through YouTube videos of askblog dubs. And then I found DEVIANTART and I was hooked. I started actually posting my drawings around 2012-2013 I remember my only art goal was to get into EQD’s Drawfriend

 And then came the ask blog. After discovering Jan Animation’s Ask The Crusaders, I knew I had to do it. Here are some of my first few posts. It’s obvious that even from a young age, I craved that horse clout.

 And then I got THE ACTUAL DRAWING TABLET, my good old Wacom Bamboo that my mom picked up at winners or something. I torrented Sai and got right to doing my first raster-based drawings

By late 2013 I was in much better shape vector drawing wise, and my ask blog picked up! I’m still proud of the adventures these three dorks went on, I even still have a huge archive of fanart of them <3 It was also around this time that my first version of “Neko” appeared and I came up with the name “NekoSnicker”

Here’s some more of my early sai Work. Some big inspirations for me at the time were Jitterbugjive and DVixie (at the time, DennyButt)

2014 was a lot of askblog stuff and learning more about Sai. I was just watching ponies and chatting on skype with my other horse art friends like ShibaRoll (ThunderDaze at the time) and TheLikeableArtist. I think this is the year I made my Neko-Snicker tumblr account started doing paid commissions as well.

By late 2014, my ask blog was at an all time peak and my style had gotten a lot better and I had started getting good at animating. I was involved in projects and other blogs and was posting art regularly every day.

December 2014 would be last time I updates Ask-Firefly and the last time I had any presence on my other accounts for about seven months. Needless to say, I was going through some hard life times. When I did finally come back, I had completely changed the direction I wanted my art to go (before and after break):

I still feel awful for leaving without a word for so long, 15 year old me was not kind to do that. 

It was during this break that I started my Ask Student Luna Blog. I think I hid under another name because I was scared of people not liking my new art style. All I wanted to do was use harsh shading, interesting shapes and exaggerated faces. The freedom of a new name gave me the confidence to do this.

Student Luna really was the art outlet I needed at the time and I am soooo happy I deviated from the on model, cute style I was using before because it turns out, people liked this side of me a lot more. I gained 12,000 followers over the span of a year, 4X as much as I ever had with Firefly. And it was so much more fun.

Of course, when I did come back to my “NekoSnicker” accounts, I cut Neko’s hair and made her into who she it today to fit my new aesthetic a bit more

And from then on, I wasn’t afraid to experiment and draw less cute and more abstract horses

The last few years has really just been a steady pace of me improving my style and gaining more of a presence. I also met these two losers who have each been a big part of my art journey: Modularpone and Anticular

Thanks for reading about my art journey! There were highs and lows but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I am now happy where I am and excited to see where I’ll go next. Let’s finish off with some of my favs from the last year:

#nekotalks #long

[lacusmoonrise]

Original post found here made by @pokeblog-positivity

1. What is the name of your pokeask blog?

I have several! elementaltrio, cloudinbottle, connectedspace, biteoflove and timepetal

2. Do you have other blogs?

This is my modblog! infectois is my main, and tekhal is my art blog. I have others but eh

3. Do you have a mod blog?

Yes............ this one

4. What is your blog(s) about?

They all vary! CIB is about an amnesiac castform trying to figure out what happened, accompanied by a baby Mienfoo they hatched and a powerful but kind of mean Raichu. CS is about a Hoopa who lives in the void.

5. What made you come up with the idea?

I’ll focus on CIB. Hermes was a tabletop pokemon muse I made almost two years ago now, and I liked the very basics of their story so I grabbed it and made it my own! I’ve been wanting to make a more concrete but easy blog since I started ET

6. Do you recommend any other blogs to check out?

fallenpkmntrainer - even if pokepasta isn’t your thing, i would say the style of story differs greatly from regular pastas and is. its just really good and i love sparks

ask-scrafty - jazzy has been an absolute doll and i adore what she does. this blog in particular has been fun to follow and jazzy is charming, funny and sweet.

askunseeliecourt - points i made judge so im biased but jojo makes really good content. love those funky fae

psychicduo - russ has such a good character design and story telling sense i always love when he posts

asktheisle, crewel-intentions, clown-posse, and askthe-editor are some faves of mine

7. What Pokemon do you mainly use in your blog?

I actually try to be really diverse! I tend to want eevees a lot but I go out of my way to make it not so. Though I do have a lot of them. If I could have a blog with only aipom, I would.

8. Do you allow human interaction?

CIB, CS and BOL have human interactions. ET doesn’t but thats an inactive blog right now

9. Do you allow magic anons, or anons in general?

I do but I’m so low energied I never really use M!A’s pensive. And yes I allow anons

10. Do you have any rules or warnings to note of?

I won’t follow messy blogs, and generally be a nice person. If you’re a jerk and I find out I will never talk or interact with you.

11. Anything else we need to know that has not been already covered?

I’m ND, ADHD affecting me the most so I lose track of time! This makes it hard for me to update regularly along with having low energy so I update whenever I’m physically able.

12. Tell us a random fact about you so we can get to know you better!

My first ever askblog was back in 2015/2016 under the url triple-deluxe, it was undertale. It’s been long deleted though.

#ask meme