"Are you nearly done?"
Both of the chiger's ears were trained backwards as he struggled to hold his slightly-tattered wings still. He had to resist turning his head to view the progress, as that would inevitably jostle the wings and goodness knew he didn't need to lose any MORE feathers.

His arms, for similar reasons, were being kept occupied by cradling a very sleepy magic construct.
He was seated on one of the many extravagant carpets of the Elwood estate, shifting in his seat uncomfortably as the valley of broken feather-stubs and bare patches on the wings were rustled through.

Preening was one thing, but such ugly damage to his plumage (that sure had been one savage storm he'd had to have flown through like he claimed-- why, it almost looked like a living beast had tried to pluck him!) was not something he had the expertise (or the flexibility) to fix.

----

Gale was finding himself more at peace with the situation than the boy he had come to think of as a surrogate grandson, and he didn't complain about Leo's fidgeting. A good half an hour of their evening had already been spent glueing feathers back into place, a procedure that had to tickle and itch something fierce. Leo's discomfort was a testament to that.
"You lost a lot of plumage."
Gale replied, fanning a couple to the side so he could find the empty sockets and decide how he was going to fix the remaining feathers back into place. Feathers that he didn't think were likely to have been lost in a storm. The silly old man smiled.
"Sometime, you'll have to tell me how it is you're so talented at losing feathers."

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I've been seeing a lot of artists putting story material with deviations, I thought I might try it myself. I actively roleplay several of the characters I like to draw and that's where a lot of my inspiration for art comes from. The above two posts are just something =katanisk and I cooked up.

In roleplay, Gale and Leo are like grandpa and grandson, there's no blood relation and Leo already HAS a surrogate father (=Wolfy-T's JW), but there's still a family-like relationship there. (I should point out, that despite Leo's pleasedontrapeme face it is ENTIRELY innocent XD).

The gluing feathers back into place is something I took straight out of Mercedes Lackey's The Mage Wars, where Amberdrake is repairing Skandranon's wing.

I draw Gale when I don't feel very good, he's so cuddly and teddy bear like and it makes me feel better. When I say Gale is pretty much for my personal entertainment, he really is. Though I wouldn't mind doing some story with him, he just seems so cliche, like I threw together all the things that make me feel comfortable.
I haven't felt so hot the last week for reasons I'd rather not try to explain. But it mostly comes down to anxiety, which is probably hormone related. I intend to go to the doctor soon to find out what's going on since this is happening a lot lately.
Obviously Wolfy and Kit have been around to make me feel better. XD I freaked out yesterday and ~rei-jin was just.. unbelievably sweet to me and calmed me down. I may be about to go through something that she knows front to back and I am lucky to have her around.

I will probably try to watercolor this, ~Kure-Ji-Ori reminded me how to prep non-watercolor paper to make it take the paints without bubbling up so bad and I'd like to try another piece. The lighting in this one will be much more challenging.

There's some perspective and anatomy issues here that I didn't get around to fixing, XD for some reason my staedtler erasers work GREAT at first and then inexplicably start to smear.
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And just to make this submission that much longer, this the conversation that happened before we got our crap together and wrote the posts:

Me: OH MY GOD we have to stop getting distracted. XD

Me: The ADD is in FULL SWING tonight.

Kit: XD OKAY

Kit: STOP TALKING UNTIL I POST

Me: LA LA LA LA LA LA

Kit: I MEAN IT YOUNG LADY

Me: ORF ORF ORF

Kit: IF YOU DON'T STOP, I WILL CALL THE POLICE.

Me: T-T-T-TATER SALAD. YOU TELL EM I'M WAITIN'.

Wolfy: AM I GONNA HAVE TO SPANK?