Icymasamune Appreciation Post
So it’s one thing to say your friends with someone, and it’s another to actually BE a friend to that person. Now, I realize that some people are really bad with dates, which is why I’m doing this ten days early.so some of you slackers can have the opportunity to at least look like you’re on the ball.
@icymasamune‘s birthday is April 21st
Now, for those of you who don’t know, Icy is one of my very few close friends, has been one of my best friends for the past ten years, knows me better than pretty much everyone else in the world, and is one of the best people I know. This year is in fact the tenth year that we’ve been friends, which is a huge deal for me. I don’t have a lot of friends, and most of the ones that I let get close either end up drifting away or accuse me of being a terrible person, so someone being my friend for a good chunk of my life is a huge deal to me. The fact is that this guy knows and understands me better than I even know myself sometimes, has been infinitely patient with me, and has overextended himself to help me and anyone else he considers a friend to the point of being unhealthy for himself. After putting up with ten years of my drama and still being as close if not closer friends than we’ve ever been, I felt it only fitting that I change up the way I celebrate his birthday this year, and I invite you to do the same.
Similar to a previous 10 year friendiversay I celebrated, let me relate the circumstances underwhich Icy and I became friends:
It was online in the magical land of DeviantArt, and to be honest I don’t actually remember much outside of I started following his work and he started following me back, and I was so surprised I sent him a message because SURELY this amazing artist was too awesome to be interested in my mediocre work. This somehow led to IMs that led to friendship. I honestly wish I remembered more about it, because it sorta feels like things “just happened”, which sounds like a cop out explanation, but from my side we sorta just fell into being close friends really fast and things have worked out pretty awesome so far.
He has been there for me when I had to go on depression meds, then when my family and I were freaking out about the possibility of me being bipolar, and in general has been a great support and friend in helping me understand the very weird brain things going on in my head. He was encouraging and a huge boon to my artistic development, as well as being very supportive and contributing to my ideas; my work and stories would not be half so interesting and amazing without his help and creative genius. He’s helped shape and define a number of my moral beliefs and ideals (despite the fact that we both have very different views on many things) by being a sounding board and a general good person who knows how to have a discussion without letting it devolve into an argument or screaming match. As long as I have known him, his priorities tend to lie outside himself and to this day he continues to support me and my ambitions while asking for very little in return.
He is one of the most selfless and gentle people I know, and as a result it can often lead to him getting hurt by people who take advantage of his friendship, and it pisses me off to no end.
If you are a friend of Icy’s, a fan of Icy’s, never heard of him before but see something you like about his work, I encourage you to either reblog and add your thoughts to this post or send him a message direct and let him know that THIS year on his birthday that he is not alone, unappreciated, or forgotten. And you have ten days to do it, so no excuses! Even if you don’t see this till a day/week after his birthday, do it! He won’t appreciate it any less, I promise.
I caution that if you do add a thing or something like-wise, to please refrain from being negative, insulting, or adding personal information that’ll get you in trouble- my main goal here is to lift up and brighten my best friend’s day. I would hope that this would be common sense, but you never know. And if you’re going to be a jerk about any part of this, please direct your comments at me, I’d love to receive them.
I’m bad at these kind of things, but I really want to add something because Icy did something that no one else has really done for me?
Like, I really like to commission people, but I get so fucking shy and nervous that I just sort of really sideways throw a character at them and spit out the few things I can think of (I’m not a very original person, so I tend to commission fanart, then I can just send refs and be done). And I was in a stream that Icy was in, and we got to talking about commissions, and I had just recently sort of designed an OC (I say sort of because he’s a character from a radio show so like, there’s no actual pics of him? But he’s his own character that someone else made so I don’t want to call him an OC but yeah)
All I had of him was a rough sketch that a friend drew, and my own words. And man, am I bad with words.
But Icy was so- insanely, amazingly patient with me. He didn’t just take the sketch and make his own stuff to fill in the blanks, he sat down with me on this stream, and talked me through all this character creation stuff that just never crossed my mind. Stuff like- how he holds himself, how he would walk, what are his ears like, what’s his nose like. I never had to think of these things before, I just let an artist do whatever. But he wanted my opinion, my input, he wanted and was able to help me finish this character with me.
He never got frustrated that I had no idea where I was going, or that I couldn’t understand some of the things he asked me. He joked around and kept everything easy going. It was a real morale booster for me- I’m always so afraid when I commission people because I know I don’t know much, and I hate to inconvenience people because I slow them down, but he led me every step of the way and was just so fucking nice about it. Icy made me have to think about things I’ve never considered, got me thinking and imagining and doing- and for that and his patience, I am so grateful to have gotten a chance to meet and talk with him.
