dood days

Words cannot describe how talented and amazing @rowatree is. 

I am so glad I was brave enough to message her when I realized that her fanart took up 90% of my favorites for the ADSoM community, and so happy that she answered me in such a kind and down to Earth manner. I never could have imagined the friendship that followed! I adore chatting with her, and her work is beyond gorgeous (I even got a pretty sweet care package from her recently – I’d like you to know, I shrieked over it in my car when I opened it!) and this piece she’s done for me means a LOT.

It’s an anniversary piece for @potchwocket and I. 

Not only did I give Rowa pictures of the university Colby and I have attended since undergrad to choose from to draw a scene in, but she chose one of my favorites and brought it to life in this fanart, and when we become MA holders in December, I believe we’ll have to sneak into this building to have our graduation photographer take a similar photo. 

I’ve lost count on how many years we’ve technically been together now, but he shoved the Shades of Magic trilogy at me when I was extremely depressed after my mother passed, and when I caught a bad bout of Bronchitis, was quarantined, and anxious because my bosses were ready to fire me. I read the books in no time, stated to him that we’d be cosplaying Kell and Lila that year, and not only did we bring them to Dragon*Con in the same year, but we also met @veschwab in October, who had found a photo I posted of our finished cosplays talking about how we were going to Dragon*Con.

From there, we had so many people who liked and commented on V.E. Schwab’s photo of us find us at Dragon*Con, yell at us as we walked around that Saturday night brandishing various alcoholic drinks and laughing at nothing… we made so many friends (we were chased down going into a pub; I feel like that’s an important detail to note)!

This book series has brought me some of the best people in my life, inspired my first tattoo, gave me the first cosplay I worked on completely solo (that is subsequently my favorite cosplay to wear because I feel powerful and confident when I never feel like that on a day to day basis), and gave Colby and I characters we can relate to in a magical world full of adventures.

Thank you again, Rowa! This piece encompasses a lot of things for me, and you, once again, have created something so beautiful that I’m just… stunned.