margaret helstone

after much thinking, i made up my mind about the whole blog migration thing - and here's the result!

here's a few words to avoid possible confusion: i'm merging my old blog, @margarethelstone with this one. there are many reasons for that, none really worth mentioning. about the changes that will happen here from now on:

i will not stop posting art. there, the most important part. i won't be posting less, either. the only thing that will change will be proportions because...

…starting today (hopefully!) i will also be posting my writing! as some of my projects are a package deal, expect to be getting both at once every now and then!

my fandoms/interests remain unchanged, meaning it will still mostly be a mixture of miraculous, chihayafuru & and some occasional other fandoms from time to time. that applies for both writing and art!

that's all you need to know i think! thank you for being here and i hope you will still feel comfortable in the slightly changed space of this renewed blog.

it is happening. i'm merging blogs/migrating/moving on and away.

sad news is, i'm kind of saying goodbye to this blog (suddenly feeling nostalgic here). good news, i'll still be active! it's just... easier to have both art and writing in one place i guess, and emotions aside, i think it will just make more sense that way.

this blog will become inactive, even though i don't think i'll delete it. so, if you still want to share the journey with me, please follow @margarethelstone-2 (previously known as helstoneart-2)! If not, then I still want to thank you for being here with me all this time.

love you all!

after much thinking, i made up my mind about the whole blog migration thing - and here's the result!

here's a few words to avoid possible confusion: i'm merging my old blog, @margarethelstone with this one. there are many reasons for that, none really worth mentioning. about the changes that will happen here from now on:

i will not stop posting art. there, the most important part. i won't be posting less, either. the only thing that will change will be proportions because...

…starting today (hopefully!) i will also be posting my writing! as some of my projects are a package deal, expect to be getting both at once every now and then!

my fandoms/interests remain unchanged, meaning it will still mostly be a mixture of miraculous, chihayafuru & and some occasional other fandoms from time to time. that applies for both writing and art!

that's all you need to know i think! thank you for being here and i hope you will still feel comfortable in the slightly changed space of this renewed blog.

it is happening. i'm merging blogs/migrating/moving on and away.

sad news is, i'm kind of saying goodbye to this blog (suddenly feeling nostalgic here). good news, i'll still be active! it's just... easier to have both art and writing in one place i guess, and emotions aside, i think it will just make more sense that way.

this blog will become inactive, even though i don't think i'll delete it. so, if you still want to share the journey with me, please follow @margarethelstone-2 (previously known as helstoneart-2)! If not, then I still want to thank you for being here with me all this time.

love you all!

i saw season 3 and a blanket won't be enough.

So as the final chapter of the first volumes come closer (hopefully, I’ll be posting it tomorrow evening CET!), the wait for the next one will be much longer. After all, that’s why it comes in volumes in the first place: so that the only big gaps are the ones in between whole string of events (eg. the conversation in Volume 1!) and not coming unexpectedly in the middle of it due to unexpected events in my own life.

With that said, I’d still love to interact with anyone interested in the story and willing to talk about it! I know the taichihaya fandom is a small one, and even smaller the circle of readers interested in my work… But if you are one of them, then click here :)

I want to keep the discord simple. A few channels, some for art, some for the anime discussion, some for the manga chat - but basically a safe environment for all the taichihaya fans willing to talk about their obsession with others (like me!).

Love you all!

You guys responded so enthusiastically to my last post that I thought I might as well share a bit of this story with you already! It’s still going to be a while before I can post the whole thing… But I hope this will suffice for now!

Thanks for your enthusiasm, it really means a world to me!

(…)

Her eyes were full of tears again, and not because of the wind and dust that blew in her face. She wiped them hastily, again and again, but it was of little use; and yet, while the dark smudges marked her cheeks, her smile grew wide, once again mirroring the hope that seemed to have left her. The faster she ran, the more tired she was, the greater and more positive the emotions that filled her heart became.

Taichi’s words resonated in her mind but they were no longer a threat; somewhere along her feverish race they’d turned into a dare, a challenge she had to rise to. It wasn’t going to be easy – she still couldn’t give him the reaction he wished for, but she could at least face the truth of his feelings towards her and respond to that truth with a clear, honest answer.

He was her best friend in the entire world. And even if he still needed her to step away for a time, she refused to call it anything but a temporary change.

She was willing to give him space and freedom, if that was what he wanted from her – but she could not imagine a scenario in which she let their friendship end without putting up a fight first.

She wasn’t capable of letting him go like this.

She was way to greedy for that.

And she cared for him too much.

“I love you,” he had said. “I love the fingernails that you never grow. I love your fingers and your hair, and the mouth you open wide like an idiot. I love your face when you laugh. I love you.”

He’d found so many ways to tell her the same, single truth, when he could have easily backed off. Taichi was clever, there was no way that he couldn’t grasp her reaction from the very first moments of that stunned, hollow silence that had come over them because she couldn’t have uttered a single word on her part. He’d known that she would not respond in kind, that she would not accept him, no matter how long he might have waited for her.

She knew their friendship meant a world to him, too, and so he’d had every reason to retreat and turn the tables again. If he had told her it was a joke – If he’d said that it was just a dumb prank and she was silly to take any of it seriously, she would have believed him.

And yet, he hadn’t. In fact, he’d done the opposite, pushing forward until it was all out in the open. Every feeling he’d suppressed, every ounce of affection he’d spent years hiding from her, it was there; even if it hadn’t resonated fully in his words, it’d still been reflected in his body, his expression, in the way he’d looked at her. Those big, bright eyes so full of tenderness she’d never been allowed to see, or maybe simply had failed to recognise.

“I love you, I love you, I love you.”

He had given himself up, made himself completely and entirely vulnerable. Hers to take, and hers to reject. He had offered her his heart, even though he must have known how slim his chances had been.

She had taken that heart and crushed it, and hadn’t even had the guts to tell him why.

a part of me wants to go back to the days when i could still tease you about this and not feel guilty about not working on it

“They both knew that it wouldn’t last, that, come tomorrow, the so undesired feeling of awkwardness would take over them again, to some degree at least. They would pass each other in the corridors and a nod and a smile would be all they might expect; they’d meet at the train station occasionally but fail to exchange more than a few words.

And yet somehow, it was fine. Because for the first time since Taichi’s confession, they could hope that the distance they had built was not that of resentment and sorrow, but of mutual respect and readiness to wait.

It was an agreement.”

Read under the cut and on AO3!

Howl's Moving Castle

“They knew that it wouldn’t last, that come tomorrow, the old feeling of awkwardness would take over them again. They would pass each other in the corridors and a nod and a smile would be all they might expect; they’d meet at the train station occasionally but fail to exchange more than a few words. And yet somehow, it was fine.”

As the first two volumes are finally all out and I work on the next ones, I’d like to use this moment of break to advertise this story again to those who haven’t heard of it yet! Basically, if you know and love Chihayafuru (like you should) and care for some slowburn (like you should) and maybe have a bit of interest in the friends-to-lovers trope (LIKE YOU TOTALLY SHOULD) then please consider giving this one a try! It’s anime-based, canon compliant, and set directly after the horrible cliffhanger of season 3 finale!

also i’m not sure why but people seem to enjoy it so it really can’t be all that bad right

Anyway, here are the links to Chapter 1 on tumblr and to AO3 vol. 1.

Here’s to hoping you’ll enjoy! :)

yes you

you right there

hello, hello, my dearest followers! glad to see you here! oh wait, wait no - don't go yet, and please read what I have to say (i'll try to make it brief!)

here's the thing: i am struggling with this blog. or more like, i'm trying to decide what it should really be about, seeing how there really is little interaction between me and all of you. i'm not blaming you! it's just... it got me thinking.

see, as of now, I have over 630 followers. that's a lot. but you, know, at the same time, this blog is pretty old, created all the way back in 2015 when my main interest was httyd and non/disney stuff in general. i made videos and edits, and wrote fanfic for those. so my guess is, most of my followers are from that era and not necessarily into the things i'm interested now - aka, miraculous/anime, chihayafuru most of all.

tldr; i feel like people following me aren't really interested in what i'm currently doing and so i'm confused comparing the official count and the interactions/reactions i get. not your fault. but:

it would really be cool if, upon seeing this message, you reached back to me and said what you think. are you here only for old times' sake? are you here for the new fandoms, and if so, which ones? comments, reblogs, asks (anonymous or not), dm, all is fine. still, if you can just let me know, i will be so very grateful for that.

that's it! thank you for reading to the end.

A little something snatched from a bigger something I’ve been working on but can’t post yet. Perfect for V-Day! Happy V-Day! :)

PS It’s not even Feb 14th where I am anymore, but hey, who cares.

PS2 The setting is their college lives. They’re friends. And that’s all you need to know.

Payback Chocolates / Read on AO3!

Taichi’s gaze shifted from Chihaya’s face to the package in her hands, only to go back to her eyes again.

He blinked, still not able to guess what all of this meant.

What could he possibly have done to deserve Goudi pralines from her?

And on Valentine’s day, no less.

“Just to make it clear, these are payback chocolates,” Chihaya mumbled with conviction, looking away and crossing her arms the moment Taichi took the bag from her hands. “Nothing to make a fuss about. They’re long overdue, anyway.”

“Wait. Payback chocolates? Not even friendship chocolates? My, Chihaya, you’re colder than I thought you could be.”

She glanced up at him, irked.

If looks could kill, Taichi would have dropped dead at the spot.

“Of course they are friendship chocolates,” she parried. “But that’s obvious, right? It’s the payback part that needs mentioning.”

“What on earth are you paying me back for?”

“What do you mean: what? That’s obvious, too.”

“Not to me, it isn’t.”

“How so?” she asked. “No, wait. You’re the one with a freaky memory here. I was sure you’d remember this, if only so you could tease me. You have teased me about this. Have you really forgotten?”

Suddenly, she was looking straight at him, her eyes round with astonishment, as if all of her irritation and embarrassment alike had evaporated completely. More than a little taken aback himself, Taichi could do little more than stare back, brow raised and mind reeling, as he tried to think of any situation to which she could be referring to.

Just what could she be repaying him for?

...or how to help an author out

So, as I struggle to get back into the writing mode, I thought some interaction with you guys might be helpful! I'm not vain enough not to realise the number of my readers isn't that big, but if any of you have anything to ask - about the process, ideas, a bit of what-happens-next perhaps - then I'll be more than happy to answer!

and then hopefully, i'll feel motivated enough to actually work on the story again at last

i'll be answering your question all day today, so please don't hesitate to ask! i sure will be glad to talk to you about my work (and hopefully, that will motivate me to write more, too!)