a fanart i've been wanting to finish for a literal month.
she is complete. it really has been a full month. I started this on the night of November 30th and finished it like 10 minutes ago on December 30th.
(The marvelous design belongs to @bigfatbreak !!!! Thank you for dropping this masterpiece omg)
I'm not gonna lie, this is the first reason I wanted to open a blog in the first place.
(if you want to read my rambles and see a closeup of the drawing, i'll put everything under the cut!)
A few months ago, a friend introduced me to the absolute jewel that is Bigfatbreak's Miraculous Ladybug AU, and I was hooked from the very beginning. I mean, you have all the stakes, all the drama, all the edginess that the original show could only dream of having, and the art is so pretty!!! The color palettes used for each chapter are always so pleasing to the eye, and the "halos" are a beautiful addition to the characters and the visuals when important moments happen.
I knew that I would make some study doodles for myself at some point, but as soon as that chapter dropped and we got to see Marinette as the snake Miraculous holder... I dropped everything and RAN to my tablet. Her design is STUNNING and I couldn't express my admiration in any other way, I HAD to draw her.
For some reason, I wanted to go for something big with needles and a tarot card as an inspiration. So I spent maybe the next three days working on it, but uuuuh that wasn't it. I also wanted to include snakes and some tulle fabric for the background, without realising how hard these two elements were to draw, especially the fabric (it's torture. I'm very open to tips or resources if you've got something). Then I felt like I couldn't get the tarot format to work. Then the rendering sucked. And I still couldn't make the background work. I gave up for a month. <3
And I suppose that it's in those moments of creative emptiness and lack of motivation, that everything suddenly clicks as if it was obvious from the get go.
Let's just go for a simple, eye-catching background with very soft rendering and a mysterious glow emanating from twelve sewing needles turning counter-clockwise. I know this piece is still full of potential, but I wanted to finish it before 2024 and before my mind had a chance to make me give up.
I find my mind to be incredibly insulting when it happens. But uh, considering that I haven't done anything solid in a month, I still take it as a small victory. Small victory is classy snake speedrunner seamstress. You go, Marinette.
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Written for the @steddieholidaydrabbles December challenge.
Sleeping with Spiders
Prompt Day 12: Only One Bed | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: T | CW: Language | Tags: College AU, Meet-Cute, Only One Bed, First Kiss
"I think you're in my bed," a voice says, and Steve looks up from the class schedule he's studying while he lounges on his new dorm room bed.
There's a long-haired guy standing in his doorway.
“Uh, what?” Steve asks, staring at this guy.
Steve's room is a single, so this is definitely his bed. It's the only one in the room, and surely this guy can see that. It’s kinda hard to miss. The guy waves a paper at him, and steps inside, dropping his bags to the floor with a thud. He hands the paper to Steve, and Steve skims it, and sure enough, this is his room assignment, too.
Steve fetches the same paper with his name on it, and hands it over. Same room.
"They've fucked up," Steve says, comparing them, seeing the guy’s name at the top, “Edward.”
"Eddie,” he corrects, then adds, “and you don't say…”
“Steve,” Steve offers.
“They've definitely fucked up, Steve.”
They probably need to tell their RA, so this can get fixed.
Keith, the RA, is spectacularly unhelpful. His only advice was to wait until Monday to take it up with the housing department. It’s Friday night. Or, there’s an open bed in room 704, he offered. They both go look into 704 and there’s a shirtless guy with a mullet, cigarette dangling from his lip, stomping around like he’s mad at the world. They both look at each other. Hard pass.
Steve thinks taking their chances with each other has to be better than whatever that situation would be, so he nods his head back towards their double-assigned room.
They both sit on the bed. They can make this work for the weekend.
“I can crash on the floor,” Eddie says, “since you’ve already put on all your bedding.”
Steve nods, “Maybe we can get an air mattress?”
“I’m not buying an air mattress for three nights, rich boy,” Eddie says, teasing, but Steve can tell he’s serious. "Floor's fine."
And the first night does go fine, and they spend Saturday hanging out in this single room with two occupants. Eddie's fun, Steve likes him, even if they are nothing alike.
Eddie has a guitar, so he tries to teach Steve to play, but finally gives up once he realizes it's a losing game. But Eddie plays, and their floormates stop by the door Eddie propped open.
Steve wouldn't have thought to do that, but they're meeting people, even if none of them look like anyone Eddie would want to be friends with.
"I have a band, back home. They're younger than me, so I promised my Uncle I'd at least try college, while I wait for them to graduate."
Steve nods, "That's cool."
"I'm in the music program," Eddie adds.
Steve points to himself, "Business."
"Good, that's good. That means I can call on you to be the money man, when we get rich and famous."
Steve laughs, "Sure, you do that."
That night, Steve offers to switch bed for floor, but Eddie refuses. Which was fine until Steve bolts upright, startled awake.
"Spider! On my face!" Eddie screams, and someone next door bangs on the wall. Great. This asshole is going to make his neighbors hate him before he gets gone to the right room on Monday.
"I'm coming up!" Eddie says.
"You're not coming up!" Steve hisses back.
"It's my bed!"
"I think not!"
"You can share, or you can sleep with the spiders!"
This bed is a single, a twin XL, whatever that is. There's not room for two guys in it, no way. At least not two near strangers. Steve likes Eddie, and wouldn’t be opposed to a little company from him, not at all. And Steve doesn’t need dinner first, not really, but he also doesn’t just crawl in bed to actually sleep with random dudes. No way.
But he scoots towards the wall, trying to make room for Eddie.
Steve wakes up in the morning, and Eddie has a leg slung over his thighs, teetering on the edge of the bed. Steve puts a hand on Eddie's back, just to make sure he doesn’t fall and break his neck.
Eddie leans into the touch, and Steve scratches his blunt nails against the thin cotton of Eddie’s t-shirt. It’s kinda nice being close to someone, even if they’re a random stranger that’s just stuck in your room, with nowhere else to go.
Steve feels when Eddie wakes up, because he tenses.
“Shit. Sorry,” Eddie says, but there really isn’t much room to escape.
Steve rubs his back, “It’s fine. Honest.”
Eddie takes him for his word, and slings his arm across Steve’s bare chest. Steve likes it. He’s probably digging himself a hole here.
What else is new?
Eddie strokes his chest, running his fingers through the hair there, before moving down to the hair leading into his shorts. That's. That's interesting. He's interested in that. Definitely.
Steve rolls onto his side, scooting towards the wall to make more room, and Eddie follows. Steve reaches forward and tucks Eddie's wild morning hair behind his ear. He wants to see his face.
"This okay?" Steve asks.
Eddie nods, so Steve leans forward to kiss him. Eddie meets him, and Steve's loving this.
Eddie kisses him like it's all he wants to do in the world, and Steve clings to him, breathing hard and heavy into his mouth. He hopes his breath isn't terrible, but if it's, neither of them seem to care.
He keeps kissing him, touching him and thinks this room mistake was the best case scenario, now.
Eddie rolls on top of him.
Steve suddenly has a thought, "Was there even a spider?"
Eddie cackles, "No."
Later, Steve poses a question, "Maybe we just don't tell anyone we were both assigned here?"
"Only if you think we can sneak a double bed in here," Eddie says, grinning.
Steve thinks that's totally doable. Robin will happily create a diversion for that to happen.
If you want to write your own, or see more entries for this challenge, pop on over to @steddieholidaydrabbles and follow along with the fun!
If you want to see more of my entries into this month-long challenge, you can check them out in my Steddie Holiday Drabbles tag, right here!
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