Tragic Hero :P

"Husk would be jealous of Angel's work-" Nah bro this is the vibe

Chip has moved in the shadows his entire life almost, he only stood out when he wanted to- when he knew he needed to.

Because he's a thief first and foremost, a bastard, with silent footsteps and the ability to dodge impossibly- to avoid and sneak past at every turn.

But when Jay and Gillion entered the scene, that changed.

When he looks at them he must admit he shines a little brighter, grins a little wider, stands a little taller- but it's not just that... Jay and Gillion are the sun and the moon, and when they turn to look at him, no matter how he tries to hide, to blend in to his surroundings, they always find him. Left, right and centre.

And it makes him feel vulnerable. But it makes him feel seen.

It's a terrifying feeling, having those eyes pierce through him and skewer him right through the middle. The one defense measure he's used his whole life, the thing that's kept him alive all this time- stolen away from him in the blink of an eye, in the turn of a head and the shine of a smile.

Yes, it feels a little bit like dying- but doesn't it also feel a little like love?

For the first time since he was taken on board and given a family, a sister; all of who were torn away from him, he is being looked at like a living, breathing, feeling thing.

Like running out onto the sunlit deck with not a fear in the world, like watching moonlight glimmer on the ocean and hoping to one day swim down there and feel it, like defeating his sister in their play battle and reigning victorious, King of the overseas, King of it all.

That feeling is distant to him now, hidden from the sun for so many years, staying far away from the chill of moonlit waters. All this time, it's felt unfair to him to know that he is alive when they are not. So he avoids sensation, avoids the gold and silver the world offers him freely.

Until he find the gold of a girl he can't help but run with, the silver of a boy who's hand is cool in his, as he helps him breach the surface of the swaying ocean.

Jay drags him out onto the sunny deck to spar, to dance, to laugh and navigate their course together.

Gillion grabs his hand and pulls him down into the cold midnight waters, pulling him through glimmering waves and showing him even more beautiful things he's never seen underneath it all.

Sometimes he wonders, when he sees Gillion pray or Jay drift, when their eyes begin to glow and magic seems to spill from their lips, seeping out of the corners of their mouth, if their goddesses ever missed him- if they ever noticed his absence, or more prominently, his return.

Kayne and The Manager

making art is so fucking hard. wheres that defunctland quote

The Hero

Really enjoying the sheer number of times that Chip and Jay are experiencing the exact same trauma and the trauma is terrible things happening to Gillion Tidestrider that seem to effect them way worse

CW: blood

But not the stag, never the stag😔

don't do it

It just occured to me that Stan technically canonically liked to draw, so here's my take of what Stanley's sketchbook would have looked like had he never gave up on art :]

Stanley first found this sketchbook left behind in a dumpster next to a library. The rings that once held the pages together were broken and warped, so he instead fashioned himself a jury rigged binder by weaveing one of his shoelaces through the holes in the side. In the end, it was essentially just a stack of barely held together paper, but he was still satisfied with it.

Pencils were easy enough to snag from the store since they fit so easily inside his pockets; but he had to settle for the shitty stubby pink erasers that barely did its job on the end of the pencils if he made any mistakes.

Stanley wasn't much of a poetic guy, and he didn't do the kind of art that had deep symbolism or meaning behind them. He was more the kind of artist that just drew what was in front of him, plain and simple. Had he been younger, he might have been able to fill in this cobbled together sketchbook in a matter of days, page after page filled to the brim with creatures and adventures of the wildest dreams.

Well, Stanley wasn't exactly a sprightly young child anymore with a boundless imagination to take inspiration from, but 10 years was a long time to be on the road and moving around, so there was plenty for him to draw.

(My primary goal was just to make these pages look as realistic as possible, but I did add in mini backstories in each of the pages' image description, if you feel like reading that :])

so i had an idea