#merit rambles

Like Kai keeps saying things that are thinly veiled love confessions and immediately after Baz is just like "Huh wonder how Emory is doing" like dude. pay attention to the pretty boy obviously head over heels for you OPEN YOUR EYES

Ive been really enjoying their interactions though :) And Emory amd Romie also although they frustrate me a bit

artfight stuffs. I realized that I would actually be able to redraw portraits for these guys if I just... made them all on one canvas LMAO no way I would have finished all 4 of these otherwise

anyways I don’t usually do long rambles anymore BUT!! I really want to talk about some design aspects of them :)!!

Matilda desperately needs a new ref,,,,, I was never crazy about the actual art for hers plus I’ve changed her design a bit (aconite too but at least I have a fully body drawing of her) I love Matilda but she feels both easy and hard to draw (all these rambles are going t9 be me complaining they’re hard to draw except despair) like I can’t draw her and I like her design in theory but I keep making her look lopsided because of her stupid giantass wings lmao (I might start simplifying them in some drawings idk)

been struggling to draw Wren,,, but that's not new I p much always have but I do have a design I like down which is nice! and I mean I have for over a year now but I haven't drawn him much because it's hard to make him? look right??

anyways random thought but while I was playing tomadachi life I realized that I picked the same hair colour for Matilda and Wren and somehow that sparked the thought that in another universe they could've been siblings and that thought makes me actually so emotional it literally brings me to tears omg I need to write a crossover au because I've been thinking about them (+ and Aco) interacting and both their stories deal with isolation haveing each other would have made them both better people oh my god oh my god. anyways I made them siblings in tomo life

Despair I don't really have much to say about tbh. I have her design down so we'll and I love it I like to doodle it a lot in my sketchbook like she's so easy for me to draw (FUCK YOU MERIT) I didn't really NEED to redraw her for artfight, I just wanted to lol. by next year I'll probably want to redraw her red even though I like it just for the actual art to be updated

Merits story (or re2) is set in 1998 so his segment is going to be a bit of a history lesson because I keep stressing myself out with historical inaccuracies lol. He's gay and would love wearing pins so my 2026 self wants to slap the gay flag in him and call it a gay. but the toothpaste flag was only created in 2016 and the lesbian flag that inspired it (pink, and also created by a terf) in 2010! side note but I like to think merit would collect any and all pins. like he'd totally also have like a "trans rights are human rights" pin, but I didn't want to add the flag for clarity since he's cis lol.

I don't know if I really understand the ending yet (probably doesn't help that I read the last chunk with a killer headache lmao) but I'm kinda of of in awe of how much the story has grown? Like if I visualized the curious tides as several ropes braided together, stranger skies is more akin to loose ropes vaugley resembling a braid. Like you can see how it used to be a brain and how it got to this state, and maybe *maybe* if you tugged at it just right, it could go back to normal, but also it feels so mixed up that it's hard to imagine that happening

When I first started stranger skies I was a little confused (though mostly excited) over why Kai and Romie also had chapters from their POVs when they were with Baz and Emory most of the time but even without the added perspective from the two of them, in book 3 all four of them are split up and I'm so excited that see what happens

Waiting after finishing curious tides was painful but at least stranger skies had a release date when I first finished it 💔 book 3 doesn't even have a NAME yet

Also I feel like I desperately need to reread curious tides again just to recontextulize everything, but I literally JUST lent my copy to my girlfriend to make her read it since I've been loosing my mind the last few days (and trying not to give her any major spoilers)

I also was planning on drawing Romie, Aspen and Tol as the scholar, the witch, and the warrior as well as the guardian when they showed up. you can tell I had that thought halfway through and now I'm too confused to do that (yet?)

Definitely want to draw the four main characters though. soon. promise