D.L. Smith

in another world, when you are loved, you grow wings  to show it. the bigger the love, the bigger the wings. 

and a world that sees wings as the ultimate status symbol. celebrities with gigantic wings that cannot fly because they are too heavy. monarchs that have stylists to enlarge their (very stumpy) wings. 

babies born with the soft proof of their parent’s love, babies flaking off feathers when their parents don’t care enough. teenagers who watch their wings flake and grow every day, never sure who loves them or doesn’t. having your crush figure out you like him because his wings won’t stop fluffing up. 

bullies who fake having large wings, who hurt others because they never felt whole, who go home and try to wish their feathers into growing. gentle, soft people who have long wings they’re embarrassed of, who tuck them and try to be average because they don’t like showing off. 

weddings where there’s so much love in the room everyone’s wings swell up. the couple having perfectly matched wings which don’t stop their steady growth. waking up next to your husband of six years to find he’s gone and all your feathers have fallen off.

a girl who is pushed down and laughed at for her little wings, her broken home. who knows she’s ugly for it, who feels perfectly alone. who one day walks into a room with another girl who happens to complement her shirt and within six days has become the closest friend she’s ever learned. her wings spreading big and wide and proud over other people’s heads, her new feathers getting in the way because she’s not used to them, pushing her new feathers out of the way so she can kiss the girl she’s dreamed about.

finding your best friend and watching the feathers sprout. lying awake in bed feeling useless and yet having this proof that someone out there loves you. helping a stranger on the train only to have a few cautious pinfeathers tickle their way out. wondering if they felt that tickle, too.

waking up from a dream very confused, hoping a boy six blocks down doesn’t come into school with suddenly slightly larger wings. ace people with arching wings who are absolutely loved by their friends, who are absolutely loving. your boyfriend promising you that boy he’s flirting with means nothing, finding that your feathers are slowly falling out in the shower each morning. 

having average wings and a sad heart and doing your best to be alive and happy and whole but failing terribly - but working towards it, slowly, until one day you see your wings spreading and get excited about who it could be, who liked you enough to change you this drastically; only to figure out on a tuesday afternoon that it’s you, you’re the one who loves yourself for once; and the thought is so big and wide and lovely that you sit down on the floor and can’t stop crying because despite everything, you made it. and that’s amazing.

Is there a website to look up models or people  to draw, with gender, ethnicity, and age filters. (if possible)?

 For example if a wanted to make a cartoon character realistic and use a real person for reference or to edit the photo to look like them?

I’ve been just googling  white 20s male, black female 40s etc. (can’t find any good references for kids either)  and been sifting through the results.

i just really like titular character piranesi and passages like this make my heart ache

All the torso animated studies.

I hate carrying around this hand in my pocket cause its rlly fragile ughhhh.... one of its nails is chipping off rn. its also rlly sticky for some reason

as someone with less exposure to the higher level spells, i do find it funny how many of the high level spells are apparently just variations on "Spell Of Fuck You Die Immediately"

Stay?

an interactive fiction game from E. Jade Lomax (ink-splotch / dirgewithoutmusic), the writer who brought you Beanstalk & the @sortinghatchats quiz

Come explore the magical valley of Elaia through a choose-your-own-adventure game. It's got dangers to circumvent, morality to ponder, and folks of all sorts of genders for you to befriend and fall in love with.

What is Stay?

An interactive fiction story

A dating sim wrapped up in a fantasy adventure puzzle

A quest to find your own happy ending in a world where you always get a second chance

How to play?

It's free to play and doesn't require any downloads. Just go to ejadelomax.itch.io/stay on your mobile device or browser & hit "Run Game."

i refused to stay buried because i love you why are you running

Art by Camille Andre