Melioristicbeast - Desire To Desire Differently

My Name is Derek Hale page 02 - in which the song lyric text is too tiny but hopefully somewhat readable, and stiles is having A Morning.

Next page is once again queued up for next weekend! this and page 3 have too many panels crammed into them, it gets better i promise lol

[<<prev | P02] Original story on Ao3 by @isthatbloodonhisshirt

My subspecialty, i guess you could call it, is chronic pain - i did my master's thesis on sleep disorders in patients with chronic pain - so i've got a LOT of thoughts about the concept of 'stealing pain' in teen wolf.

The current definition of pain is

"an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage"

because pain is not purely a physical phenomenon, it's an experience not necessarily tied to any physical damage.

Of course you can delve into the different types of pain and argue that nociceptive and neuropathic pain is due to biochemical triggers (inflammation/tissue damage and nerve damage, respectively) as opposed to nociplastic pain - but even those are heavily modulated by how we perceive them.

In one of my psych classes we were shown a powerful example: In a segment from a local news station a lady had won a competition and as a reward she got a handful of minutes to 'empty out' a kitchen supply store - after all the excitement was done and she was being interviewed post-haul, suddenly a bystander points out that she's standing in a large puddle of blood. She'd dropped a knife into her foot at some point, resulting in a quite large gash. She'd felt nothing until someone pointed it out - endorphins, adrenaline, the works. (She was immediately attended to and recovered completely).

Studies show that pain perception increases dramatically in young, healthy subjects who were sleep-deprived even just for 24 hrs, and in the same vein stress, anxiety and distress also increases pain perception.

So where does that leave the idea of stealing pain in teen wolf? Rather than taking a physical representation of 'pain', maybe it's more stealing the perception of pain, the fear and distress?

Kind of a romantic notion, isn't it?

It's been so amazing seeing all your gorgeous Sterek art on my dash. What a gift! For prompts, I'd love to see them sharing/swapping something meaningful to the other (e.g. Stiles wearing something iconic of Derek's, or perhaps Derek adding a tattoo that reminds him of Stiles?)

S: What are you doing here? Huh? This is private property. D: I did not stand like that. S: Love to break it to you, big guy - this is a bonafide 1:1 recreation. I remember it very well.

TYSM 😭😭

Your suggestion was really sweet, sorry my brain went in such a silly direction 🥹 I've another one in the works <3 I'm imagining this a few years down the line, i'm just really attached to stiles' buzzcut!

I'm certain this moment is very meaningful to stiles though (and yes derek, you did stand like that, you weirdo)

jumpscare derek hale

I had the dumbest idea while working on some other TW art involving my choice in background noise while I draw...

It's Always Sunny In Beacon Hills

Alternate Title - Teen Wolf but with Brain Damage

(original iasip screencap below the cut...)

I can't express how much I LOVE the way you draw hands! They are just absolutely amazing and so SO expressive. Do you have any advice on how to improve? (other than the obvious, "practice", lol)

THANK YOU!! Hands are my #1 favorite thing to draw and i love using them and touching to enhance the feeling of a drawing so that makes me so happy to hear!! lol not the dreaded 'just practice' - I tried to put together an impromptu example for you: I’ve always loved drawing hands and include them in my art a lot but I can say for certain that there was a huge boost in my abilities when i started tracing from real life images to better understand the way fingers curve and deform around objects, especially - I’ll take a reference picture or two, trace, figure out which looks better and then try to re-draw it:

You want to draw a character holding a bottle? Alright, find an object that’s about the size you want, get your camera (a shitty res phone camera will do in my case), and get to it!

I like to do some variations because sometimes things just look *goofy* when you have simpler lines depicting them, so here’s 4 different ones:

Alright, next step - rough lines over to see how it translates to 2d:

#1 looks goofy so that one's out - I like #2 the best but the grip'll translate better if I close the grip of the two first fingers, so I'll do that (or retake the picture) and then re-do it on my own while eyeballing the reference i just made (I usually just draw the lines for hands directly but if i'm having trouble i break it down into rough shapes first) :

Think of it kind of like building a neat little reference library in your own brain - next time I want to draw a hand holding a bottle I can think back on this and what I picked up :)

Thanks again, hope this helps!

Stiles had just finished eating a brownie—fuck you, Jackson, I am not getting fat!—and was licking chocolate off his fingers when the door opened. He barely had time to look up before he felt a hand at his shoulder and tilted his head up in time to accept the kiss Derek dropped on his lips. 

“Hey, sorry I kept you waiting. I was grading papers and lost track of time.” 

Derek had done this twice before as a greeting, and both times, it was because Kate was nearby. If he walked in and came over to Stiles, asking if he could sit down, Stiles knew he was having a good day and the bitch was nowhere to be seen. If he walked in and kissed him as a greeting, chaste as it was, it meant there was a Kate somewhere. 

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@isthatbloodonhisshirt's works single-handedly drew me back into this fandom after 10+ years - i binged their works in early december and I've been determined to draw scenes from some of my faves of their works since! This is a scene from Don’t Leave Me Behind When I’m Still Learning How to Run, an incredible take on 'please pretend you're my partner because my terrible ex is about to walk in the door of this coffee shop.'

Before i dive further into my playlist for stiles, i bring you a brief shitpost - in my heart derek is a soft rock / country girlie who listens to drengr of ragnarok (power metal, but specifically the melodic, chanting variety with a lot of repetition) when he works out ♥️

Bonus stiles:

Other music headcanon posts: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8 / 9

“Sorry,” Stiles said, unsure of why he was apologizing. “I’ve never heard that song before. Did you write it?”  Derek looked uncomfortable, maybe a touch embarrassed, which was answer enough. “It’s good. I like it. It’s calming.”  The small smile he got in response melted his heart a little bit. Fucking hell, he was so gone for this asshole. Stiles didn’t know what he was going to do. He wished he’d never realized how much he loved him. Wished he’d just continued to think they were best friends and nothing more. It was slowly going to kill him being so close, and yet so fucking far. Clearing his throat, he brought the book back up to continue reading, muttering that Derek should keep playing. He did, his fingers plucking gently at the strings, filling the loft with soft music. It really was calming, and soothing. Stiles really liked it. He liked it even more when he realized Derek could honestly express himself with the guitar. It still wasn’t a voice, but it was something, at least. 

Actions Speak Louder than Words (ch18) by @isthatbloodonhisshirt

This fic is what spurred me to start doing sterek fanart back in the beginning of december - magic!stiles, cursed!derek, stiles/jackson terrifying everyone else as friends - an incredible 430K story with a completely endearing slow-burn and slowly unfolding exploration of the characters and their relationship, made complete with the perfect bow of cursed-mute-Derek because 'Derek's eyebrows have a language of their own but only Stiles is fluent' is my favorite and this author does it SO well. And gives Derek a guitar. Derek plays a guitar!!

Ella, consider this my loveletter to your works - they all, this one in particular, buoyed me through a tough time in my life and brought me back to a love of drawing that I haven't had in years and a fandom that has been so generous in their support of my silly art. Thank you for sharing your works!

And a huge thank you to everyone's support so far - the sweet comments in replies, the unhinged all-caps tags, yes-and'ing my silly ideas and headcanons, i'm just over here kicking my feet and giggling and definitely not getting teary-eyed over it no siree no lacrimal action happening here

Saw the last gif in this set and thought 'that man needs a blanket and a hug' - for @renmackree, hope things ease up for you soon ♥

First time making an animated gif, sorry if it's a lil choppy (':

Also psst, i have a redbubble shop now! let me know if there's anything specific you'd like available on there ☆

Frames under the cut: