Spongebob Squarepants Close Up Products Appreciation Post

Got sucked back into this fandom again, oops. Anyway, I love Simon with my entire gay heart  🐟

AU where Dib is a lowly intern working a shitty job he hates under his super genius scientist father. Dib knows the lab has a lot of Super Classified Top Secret science shit but he never knew how deep it went until one day a mother fucking alien breaks out of confinement and passes out in Dib's arms, all beaten and exhausted. Save the alien and risk his life, his job, his father's trust?? Ye.

HTB - Ch.02 - Part 1 ♪

CHAPTER 2 COVER -- Next >>

This is the chapter where the "The art might fluctuate in quality and style as I experiment with new techniques for inking and colouring." part on my pinned post will come into play, because I sure am experimenting with the colouring.

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When you hear people going off about how you’re a horrible person because you can’t explore unhealthy dynamics in fiction, and yet those same people were nothing but toxic and unhealthy and constantly horrible to and cannibalizing each other in their actual lives despite only liking and touching “wholesome media”, and when you watch people be in long term abusive relationships and everyone around them deny it and praise how cute they are, but also go on about only liking wholesome stuff in fiction...

You start to realize most people are in varying levels of unhealthy situations and a lot of people are really not self aware about it. And part of the reason I explore unhealthiness in fiction is because it helped me recognize and make sense of the way these people treated me and others in a controlled environment because most people are unhealthy and so fiction was reflecting that.

It’s so baffling to me because the things I want in real life are so viscerally different than the things I want in fiction. I love shipping za//dr because they are super co-dependendent and possessive and the intense feelings created from a dynamic like that are, kind of awesome to explore in a removed way. But if anyone was say possessive of me irl i’d back out of that fast because I find that kind of unhealthy intensity scares me coming from real people. I only like it if I don’t actually have to be involved because I never want to be. A lot of the things I like in ZA//DR also just vent the feelings from past situations so it’s cathartic to be able to talk about it without retraumatizing myself through my art as opposed to being forced to only talk about myself and what happened to me directly which is triggering, instead I can have layers of removal by depicting it through characters. Then there’s also just the fact that I can learn about situations outside my own and gain a broader underetanding with experiences I don’t have. It’s like, the ship fills several purposes to me.

My point is like, this stuff seems so so obvious to me that fiction can be used in complex ways for individual people but today’s environment is set on it can only be a direct reflection of your real life wants? And I think if that’s the only way you know how to interact with fiction then you’re damaging yourself. There are some ships that are things I want IRL, and others that are more for venting or communicating feelings I’ve had, or exploring things outside my wants that I don’t desire IRL, or being symbolic for other things, and to me allowing myself to use fiction in a multitude of ways has been so healthy. But on the outside people may not always know the context, but I know what I’m doing with the fiction I interact with and so I know I’m not hurting myself.

It’s healthy to use fiction and art. Like normalization of bad things happens when people don’t have a strong grasp of what is and isn’t ok due to lack of education on it, but like that’s why in my opinion it’s more productive and important to have those discussions. Like no matter how much I explore say possessiveness and co-dependency in fiction (and use fiction to understand it) I will never desire it IRL because I already know it’s generally unhealthy and have had bad experiences with possessive people in my past to never want it near me again. If I didn’t know that maybe then it may influence my reality. But that’s kinda how it works. It’s definitely complicated. And again, i’ve seen plenty of people live and breathe these things in denial while refusing to touch it in fiction, while the worst i’ve done is come to understand it through fiction and work to avoid it in my actual life.

Grooming is a discussion people miss the point on by a mile and i’ll keep this brief bc it’s a lot to unpack and I don’t wanna get into all the nuances but people don’t get groomed by art simply existing, they get groomed because the art is used in a personally targetted way or normalizing things to them that gives the abuser more power over them. You can literally get groomed by “healthy ships” too if the abuser convinces you that your relationship to them is like that dynamic or if they make “wholesome” art that encourages you to want to trust them more (speaking from literal personal experience unfortunately). You’d probably be less likely to be groomed by art that you had a strong understanding you didn’t like and would wanna cut contact with anyone that interacted with you through it. So it’s important to know what you do and don’t want because then people have less control over you.

It boils down to understanding what you interact with and why and having important discussions around how to protect yourself IRL and what is and isn’t ok. Your understanding of the world around you will influence how you take fiction in. I’ve gotten wildly different interpretations on some of my art alone because people have different experiences so take away different things from my art. It’s definitely more like fiction relfects reality through our personal understanding of the world more than anything and that’s how that interaction works.

monkey love language

i absolutely adore just how aggressively physical monkeys can be with affection. they just fully press their heads into each other, lots of tugging and pulling, almost throwing themselves at each other when they want attention. i bet it takes Wukong some adjustment so he doesn't use his full force when he gets grabbed by the need to just squeeze someone lmao, but just as much as the others need time to get used to a monkey perched on them every now and then. plus grooming is often a bargaining chip and a way to build relationships and a show of affection and trust. so, a bit of monkey love for each of the group! :D

aaaand Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing face reveal!! working on a fullbody lineup to show off their heights as well, so consider this a teaser ;3

Bajie is half wild boar, half babirusa. I love the four-tusk situation babirusa have going on, but his bristled mane is too iconic to handwave away. plus, pigs that go feral grow tusks and thicker fur, so i wanted to capture some of that with the half-and-half design.

as for Wujing, he's a complicated one to explain, but for his face i really wanted his beard to stand out as well as the six skulls necklace. i'm going for a "intermittent waters" concept with him, since he's originally connected to a desert before being made into a river demon, so i'm drawing on mudskippers for his ear fins and face spots.

heres the photoset version of my dib tutorial

Well, you are very cute, I made this drawing for you

Hii sweet heart, why u are si cute?

I dunno!!!! That’s just how I was made!!!!

since I started this and wanted to enter ... so I'm going to do it this year and I'm also going to do it only from ZaDr and I'll see how it goes ... someone else accompanies me?

desde que inició esto e querido entrar... así que lo voy a hacer este año y también voy a hacerlo solamente de ZaDr y ya veré qué tal me va.... alguien más me acompaña?

Zim had been thrilled when he first heard of the Imperial Civilization Masquerade, he truly had. It was an ornamental event, where the invaders got to share the cultures of their assigned planets with each other and higher ranking Irkens. Other invaders brought many things, fine silks, fanciful platters of sweets, odd fizzing liquids that tasted like melted sugar.

No one told Zim to bring anything, other than the dress that adorned his slim frame. In fact, no one had truly invited him to the lustrous event, the only reason he discovered it was because the tallest forgot to hang up after his report. After they mentioned it he inquired about it, cheer evident in his voice. They were hesitant to tell him more about it.

So there he was, underneath the shimmering, stardust chandelier of The Massives ballroom, the initial joy he once felt completely gone. Surrounded by faces familiar and new, each chatting, dancing, and eating, Zim felt something bubble up within him. It was something rotten that caused his chest to feel as though it was weighed down by gold, and his palms to sweat.

Everyone had someone. The almighty tallest were standing by the elaborate dessert table, boisterous laughs emitting from their shaking forms. The other invaders were sitting on some chairs that lined the wall. Elites, generals, and other such Irkens were dancing and cheering. Zim wished he could dance with someone…. Even the service drones seemed to have someone! Even if it was just another drone or someone they were serving.

Placing his free hand on his cheek, he sniffed and tried to blink the sudden blurriness from his eyes, the feeling of a warm liquid seeping through his thin gloves. Along with the other symptoms his throat suddenly felt as though it was stuffed with cotton. He took a sip of the exotic drink so rid of the feeling.

It tasted lonely.

A perfect song for Dib

#ZaDr

https://gryff.bandcamp.com/track/the-more-i-know-the-more-i-want-to-leave-home

If I get enough songs together I should make playlists for Zim and Dib individually tbh but anyways here’s a Dib song that would go on that playlist.