NOTE FOR COMMISSIONERS: If I owe you art, don't worry! I'm still working on it. However, I suggest you add me on Discord (bloodymarley) for a quicker response, if you haven't done that yet.

Hey there! Like three-quarters of a year ago I posted a bulletin discussing how I hid all my stuff in order to redefine myself a little better-- it's been a while and I never really posted a follow-up, so I figured I'd talk a bit about that and the future of this account here.

The good news is that I've regained much of my passion for drawing to express myself. I've gradually moved away from the commercial side of TH (CS, adopts, etc) and more towards, y'know, having fun and being myself. I'm in a much better place now than I was when I posted the first bulletin I linked! I'm moving on to a bunch of new stuff in my life and I'm excited to see where it goes. Here's a speedpaint compilation I postedif you're interested in seeing what I made in my absence.

The uh, other news (I don't think it's necessarily bad?) is that I don't think I'll be posting on my "kirchhoff" account much anymore. I feel my identity here is tied too tightly with my commissions/adopts/CS work for me to be comfortable expressing myself completely (not to mention, a good majority of my subscribers are probably here for that as well). I started another account for myself-- BloodyMarley -- which I've actually been using for a while (and have made passing mentions about), but it's the first time I've officially announced it here, I think. I've moved a few of my most iconic characters to it and am in the process of moving a few more. If you're here for the more personal stuff I post, check that account out!

Also, if you just want to hang out with me, I made my own website (mostly for me to just post random shit) and also have started to upload the world's shittiest unboxing videos.

I'll still keep this account around to post sales and other stuff whenever I feel like, though as I've said don't expect much of that from me anymore. 

That's all! Happy 2024, and take care.

small bump to my last post since i've added a few more! check 'em out here: https://toyhou.se/51Sb/characters/tagged:purge/folder:all

currently if you buy any character with a listed price i'll toss in one of the ones marked PWYW for free!

im also selling this design of mine for $50 or best offer: https://toyhou.se/11825609.dusk50

anyway if you're interested, please ping BloodyMarley since i don't check this account of mine often :thumbsup:

birthday so soon.  turn 18

im not all that happy about it but eh i wont get too angsty about it here just have a drawing

its not technically impressive but i just wanted to draw something before then

Posted this in Steamtrain's Library but I'm posting it here too since a few of you follow me for my species and all that :0

Starting from today, I will no longer be running Steamtrain’s Library and all its associated species (Chiivae, Prisbuns, Dusklings, Caeleche) and will instead be passing ownership to Delusional! He will be taking FULL OWNERSHIP of this world from now on. He’s proven himself to be a dedicated member of the species, so I trust that you’re all in good hands. I’m forfeiting any ties I have with the species, so I will no longer be writing, drawing, nor designing for it.

I simply don’t find myself as interested in adoptables, CS/OS, and Toyhouse in general as I was before. I’ve travelled to another country to study; I’d be doing everyone a disservice by not leaving behind something I’ve lost my passion for. That’s about all! It’s nothing personal, I swear ;)

(This also means that I am completely unaffiliating myself with all species that I have done prior work in. Feels good to be free of responsibilities lol)

In any case, I’m not sure what direction this species will go in as I’m no longer in charge of anything (I had a rework in progress like… years ago, if anyone remembers, and while I sent my drafts to the new owner I’m not involved in production anymore), but I’m sure it’ll be a good one!

Well, that’s about all. Thank you Delusional, and thank you for reading!

To keep it simple, college life is pretty busy and I doubt I'd have as much time to engage with some of the adoptables I purchased/characters I made anymore. It'd also be nice to have some pocket cash, so I'm selling a few of them off! :]

I tried to pick out characters that weren't gifts and also had monetary values (and of course, the ones I'd actually be willing to part with) so the selection might be a little small. Might expand it in the future once I'm ready to give more away. Sorry!

Anyway, pretty straightforward. Just shoot me a comment/DM here or on Discord (BloodyMarley) to buy. PayPal only, all values are in USD.

If they have a price in their name, then that's how much you pay. "PWYW" means I designed it myself and don't have a price, so you're free to put down an offer.

https://toyhou.se/51Sb/characters/tagged:purge/folder:all

I’ll get the technical stuff out of the way first.

I’ve handed the species over to TheyOfDarkness, which I trust will have more time, energy, and dedication towards it than I did. For now I’m sticking around just for a little bit to help clean things up, but I couldn’t leave the weight and burden of the species for anyone else to carry— my poor decisions in the past have stressed both staff and community members out and I think it’s time for me to move on.

Previously I stepped down merely in the administrative department— I decided I’d stick around as a creative director, but I believe it’s best for both me and the species if I left entirely.

I’ve left most of the lore and worldbuilding intact. All I did was remove the bits and pieces that focused around my own characters, but that shouldn’t leave many holes to patch considering I wrote most of those pieces as supplementary material anyhow. Don’t worry, you won’t need to rewrite your Jels— unless their relationship with one of my characters was central to their identity, nothing is probably going to change.

It took me a few days to draft this announcement as I was busy with college and didn’t have the time. Alongside my departure, both Mishouzaki and Serphelius have stepped down from their roles as staff.

I’ve debated about resigning from my role of owner for quite a bit. Simply put, running the species was fun until it wasn’t— it started off as simply a passion project. I didn’t care about the money, so I made it a charity drive. I wanted to create a space where people could make connections— and given the heavier nature of the lore— make meaningful insights into their characters and own ways of thought. That was fun. Seeing everyone happily solving the puzzles, chatting with others, and designing their OCs made me happy too.

But of course, being a kid on the internet, that wasn’t enough for me.

I had a habit of constantly worrying about what others thought of me, whether that was in terms of sales, my ability to moderate, write, or draw, or even how popular my species was. It was an addiction and a virus. It ate away at my motivation, my thoughts, and most of all my actions. In other words, out of fear of disappointing or offending people, I would almost always refuse to say no, opting to take the safer route instead of the one I knew was better. My indecision and passivity had previously led to some fairly intense drama a little less than a year ago, and recently, has also resulted in another situation unfolding. I originally posted my announcement to leave on that thread, but it’s fairly well written so I’ll paste some portions of it here:

I’m a good writer. I’m not a good leader. There have been many, many embarrassing moments for the species that would have been avoided had I displayed better leadership skills. It started off as a non-profit passion project meant to bring people together— it ended up destroying more than it’d built.

Part of this decision is also for my own sake. OP [of the PSA] mentioned this in one of their posts, but I am indeed starting college, and my decreasing free time and energy will only weigh myself and the species down. Frankly I have also made some VERY poor decisions while in power (for one, deciding to even run an CS in the first place as an minor) and, well, the species deserves someone better.

I’m both mentally ill and disabled, and in my bouts of poor self-control I’ve hurt many people, staff and members alike, including people like OP. While I’m an optimistic fellow and believe in my ability to grow, I’d like to pursue my passion in a more private manner until I have reached that level of growth.

I know my writing is what drew many people to the species in the first place, but unfortunately it doesn’t cover for the fact that I don’t know how to handle power. In any case, the moderators do understand the consequences of their actions and are working to ameliorate the situation [described in the PSA]. I’m just hoping for the best.

If you’re still interested in my writing and characters, I moved the parts that I took out from the SCYPH canon into a personal story. I don’t have the time to do much with it at the moment and none of it is cleaned up, but here it is if you’d just like to check it out.

I just want to pursue my passion in a way that won’t hurt myself or others. I’ve stressed myself out enough already.

Thank you. Goodnight, and godspeed, you funky fish.

Lucas Kirchhoff, signing out.

TL;DR: TheyOfDarkness is the new owner. Lore hasn’t changed, but my personal characters have been removed (though this shouldn’t affect much). I’m off to do new things now.

P.S. Joseph has canonically died of ligma.

https://toyhou.se/~bulletins/1218571.free-myo-turn-in-event

sorry for so many CS event bulletins but this is a CS birthday month

https://toyhou.se/~bulletins/1210216.angemos-opening-free-myo-event-raffle

I don't usually make bulletins about this sort of stuff, but I've had such a loaded storage account for so long that I feel like I'm ready to make it a little smaller     

Also as a double-feature, I got accepted into my dream college! Sweet! I suppose you could consider this a digital cleaning before I'm off, lol

I'm looking for the following!

• USD, through PayPal
  • AB is the price in a character's name if there is one, but there are some characters I'm not allowed to sell.
• Art 
  • Please refer to my wishlist! You may also look at his gallery to get a better idea. Drawing humans is a must.
• Character trades
  • Humanoids preferred, I'm very rarely interested in anthro/feral characters. Again, refer to my wishlist!
  • I'd prefer to trade multiple of my characters for one of yours, just so I can cut down on my roster size.
• Gift cards 
  • Can depend, please be specific and mention if it's region-locked! I'm in Canada
• CS MYOs 
  • Again, depends! If I can't use it, I might just trade it off.

BEFORE OFFERING ART, KEEP IN MIND:

• Please provide specific examples.
• I'm not picky with finish or quantity. No need to offer loads of rendered pieces-- just do whatever you're comfortable with!
  • I prefer smaller quantities over larger ones. Less stress for the both of us.
• I prefer if you have a Discord where I can keep in touch with you, and if you have a public and regularly-updated to-do list.
• Be mindful and respectful of both my time and yours. When offering, please consider the amount of art you already owe, if any.
• If possible, please state a turn-around time (or how long you think this offer will take to complete.) I am flexible with wait times, so long as I can see progress being made.
• I do not send the character until the offer is complete.
• IMPORTANT: If it has been ONE MONTH after we have agreed on a deal and you have NOT MADE ANY progress, I will check in and ask you to re-confirm your interest. If you DO NOT RESPOND IN A WEEK or state you are no longer interested, I will take off your hold and open the character back up for offers.
• Please let me know that you have read these conditions before offering, thanks!

It’s 2 in the morning and against my better judgement I am going to make an announcement in my very tired state. sorry about the poor grammar, typing it up on my phone so I’m likely going to have some mishaps 

so you may have noticed that my characters are now gone. i hid them, they’re on “me only” in terms of privacy but if you just want to look at them for whatever reason or if you need a reference, you’re free to ask me to send you a key. don’t ask for authorization, it’ll do nothing

reason being isn’t so simple but a large part of it is just that i want to reinvent myself and my brand, in a way. i don’t have the time to redesign and rework everyone nor do i have the energy or will, so what’s likely going to happen is that they’ll be slowly un-hidden as i get them to a place i’m happy with, but i can’t say for sure

to get into specifics, this is mostly about my art style. i hate the brand and association my name has so far being the “cutesy uwu pastel anime artist” because it feels really infantilizing to me and my genuine work, which is my writing and a lot of the themes i’m hoping to explore. i’m not putting the blame on any one individual because it’s only natural that you see someone’s art first because of how easy and how little time and effort it takes, but to be honest my art and my writing are on two separate planes lole. hopefully you can understand why i want to change this, i don’t like having my work trivialized because i have a “””cute anime style”””. 

ofc i still like anime and all that blablah but there’s a specific vibe and all that i’m trying to leave behind and a new one i’m trying to tend towards, hopefully that’s all clear. in any case, i feel extremely unheard and misunderstood and i feel my art style is a large part of that, so i want to change it

part of it has to do with my writing styles too because i genuinely don’t think many people understand what i’m trying to say with my characters, and without getting much into specifics, i’m bad at communicating. this is another skill i will have to hone and something for myself to curate, so please understand, there may be changes to my writing as well as i try and find the most effective way to express myself.

i don’t have much owed art (only 1 commission, a trade and a raffle prize) and rest assured, i will still be delivering the product i promised you in the style you ordered. i’ll be clearing that out first before working on myself

i also know that i’m inevitably going to be getting “nooo but i love your style” comments, and to put it in the most polite way possible, this isn’t about you. i understand people don’t like it when content creators shift directions, but i create for myself just as much as for you, so i’d argue that my intention is more important than your preference, sorry 

i should also note that yes, sometimes stuff i do is just supposed to be cute or silly. that’s true, but i feel like in general, everything i do is put under that blanket of “trivial cuteness” or “goofy fun”. it’s also true that cute or silly things can be used to express more profound thoughts and concepts, and that can be done really well, but i just don’t think that’s what people think of me and my work as of now. my frustration is real lmao

in any case i’m still online to answer inquiries and all that in case you need me, i’m not leaving the internet or anything like that lol. i also don’t need to vent, i kind of did that here already

TLDR: i’m very tired of my work not being taken seriously and i suspect it’s due to my art style, and part of my style of writing too. i feel i’m not properly expressing myself and i want some time where i can just work on that in peace, please understand. being proactive here and solving the problem lololol