Molly. NSFW/18+ Only. She/her.

-JJ providing McDonald’s and beanies.

-Freaking out with Bri.

-Everyone chanting Kelly’s name.

-THAT TRAILER.

-Reylo in general.

-Meeting Claudia Gray and having her sign my book.

Winter Arrives on Ahch-To

Now into the panels, Forgive my crappy coloring and non existent backgrounds.

Or at least that’s always how it’s been phrased for me, by others. Now I realize that my interest for the old thing didn’t fade so much as my interest for something new outshined it, and that’s vastly different. 

I was always made to feel bad about it, with every abandoned endeavour I was told I needed to stop starting things if I wasn’t going to stick with them. I was told I was wasting time and money picking up these random interests and abandoning them after a year. 

So eventually, I stopped picking things up. I told myself “what’s the point, I’m going to give up in a year anyway”. Even worse, I started dismissing every new interest, because I had no way of knowing if my interest was “real” enough or just another passing phase. I stopped trying new things, I stopped looking up stuff that piqued my curiosity, and having chronic depression made it really easy to leave everything on the dirty floor of neglected ideas. The more they piled up, the more depressing it was. All these things that could be nice, but I just can’t take care of them. 

I realize now how bullshit that kind of thinking is. So what if I stopped doing karate after a year? That’s one more year of karate than most people I know. And in that year I learned discipline, I learned to listen to a teacher, something I had never done before in all my years of private education. I learned the true meaning of respect, that it’s something you do out of faith at first and maintain as it’s reciprocated, not something you do blindly and regardless of how you’re treated. 

It gave me the foundation for the determination and grounding I needed to practice yoga. Another year. Not enough to be good at it maybe, but again a year more than most people I know and a year that is not lost, but gained. I learned balance, I learned to listen to my body, I learned how to let go of emotional tightness through physical stretching. 

And then iaido, only a few weeks because I couldn’t afford to keep going. The year of yoga I had done a couple years previous had given me a better starting point than the other newcomers to the class. I already had balance, I had strength in my legs and I had better posture. In those months I learned the importance of precision, the true definition of efficacy, the zen state that is incessant repetition. 

Did I practice long enough to get good at iaido, and yoga, and karate? No. Of course not. It takes years to become proficient and decades to master any of those things, but I learned other skills and those skills were an invaluable part of my growth both spiritually and emotionally. Likewise for my forays into painting, sewing, graphic design, film. I’m a photography student now heading into my second year of school, and every single second of practice I have in those other disciplines has given me more experience in those areas and made learning easier. 

For a few months I was really into costume makeup. 

For a year I was into sewing clothes

For a few months I was into sculpting and molding and casting

I’ve always had a sustained interest in animals, but the hyperfocus on birds in particular made me very familiar with feather formations. 

Couple months I loved the idea of engineering moving sculptures. 

Add all that together, and hot diggity shit, that’s some SOLID basework for making costumes, cosplay, and other impressive props.

—–

For a week I was into welding and took a welding class.

A year of interest in woodworking and fiddling with the tools means I’m fairly good at that as well. 

Add that to the engineering from earlier and the focus on balance and stable structures means I can make my own furniture - Couches, shelves, desks, just give me the material and tools and I can make it happen. 

—

Brief interest in business law meant two classes taken in college, and an accidental qualification for a business degree. 

Those same classes let me point out some serious litigation bait in a friend’s startup company. 

—-

A wide array of interests means I also have a TON of little nitpicky facts about how the world works, which translates into amazing immersive writing. 

I know how it feels to use a chisel, and the delicate precision of electronics. I know the smell of forests and barns and old yarn being put to use again. The bloody smell of a freshly slaughtered chicken, and the anticipatory fear moments before skydiving. 

...make three kinds of cheese from scratch

...land five different figure skating jumps

...crochet a blanket, a stuffed toy, a scarf, a handbag

...use pointed and brush pens for calligraphy

...decorate cookies with an airbrush

...grow incredible varieties of gorgeous summer tomatoes

...speak a little bit of three languages, and a lot of two more

...paint galaxies with watercolors

...and a hundred other “useless,” “unrealized” hobbies that have NOT. A DAMN. THING. to do with my “real” job.

Animals in Film: Porgs in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) dir. Rian Johnson, played by the puffins of Skellig Michael

This edition: the desert porg.

Recently unknown in the galaxy, the porg is quickly becoming an invasive species on a number of planets.  The creature’s appearance seems to correlate with the rise of organized resistance cells on various worlds, leading some to speculate the species is somehow being promulgated by one or more Rebel starships. The phenomenon has earned the animals the moniker of “The Resistance Bird.”

The porgs’ planet of origin in unknown, however their physical characteristics seem to indicate a cool and oceanic environment.  Despite this, the porg is proving to be highly adaptive to a variety of environments, including the warmer and more arid climates of Onderon, Tatooine, and Jakku (see below).

Here we will specifically focus on the habits of the desert porg.

Though porg adaptation tends to stick to rocky or cliff face nesting, in the absence of these terrain features, the porg will form ground nests against low hills.

They have even been demonstrating a propensity toward burrowing and warren behavior, pushing other burrowing animals out of their habitats to claim those homes.

Porgs will take advantage of existing harsh environments to use as defense against predators.

Here, a lone female has temporarily nested in a grassy area, but will relocate when she mates.

The mating process for porgs can be violent. Here two males begin to signal the desire to compete for the nearby female. The victor will usually be the one that holds the high ground.

The victorious male will begin finding materials to build a strong nest, pulling detritus from a variety of sources as nesting material.

Here we see the male selecting a local desert lichen which will serve to line the nest, and provide nourishment to porglings when they hatch.

If you see porgs, please keep in mind they are not hostile, but highly curious, and are not afraid of human activity. They are just as likely to nest in buildings or machines as they are in the wild.

Reylo sketch ~

Original idea from 2016 (here) What a difference two years of practice and using references make!

Please look at this full res, cause Tumblr doesn’t do it justice otherwise. <3