The Factory Of Ideas

Starving Artist

Author's Note: This could be triggering to those with disordered eating. 

     Ink's starving. He's starving himself to keep up with creating as much as he wants. That's the idea. 

     It's not like he's always trying to starve himself, nor is this is a forced creator story. Ink gets too caught up in ideas or inspiration one after the other, or he hyper focuses on one thing and/or action, so much so that he forgets to eat.(it doesn't help that he's already pretty forgetful) Not many people pull him out of that state. 

     People go "That's probably just how he is. It makes him happy." 

     Without intervention or notice of the issue, it gets progressively worse. Sometimes he ignores when he gets hungry, even when he remembers, and procrastinates on eating or taking care of himself to create. 

     Forgetting or postponing eating a meal or two turns into forgetting to eat for a day, then to a few days, then to multiple weeks at a time. 

     Dream and Blue, who hang out with Ink the most when he's not so busy creating, take notice. Error just wonders "Does he ever take a break?" 

     Dream is the first to start intervening, even if only small ways. Such as reminding Ink to eat more often, even making him food sometimes. Blue helps remind sometimes too. It doesn't help as much when Ink is gone creating for days or weeks at a time. It gets to the point where Dream has to physically track Ink down to give him food, which works for a little while, but Ink stops eating those as much too. 

     When Ink collapses out of hunger and exhaustion, that's when Dream starts taking things more seriously. Unlike Blue, Dream sees more of Ink's issues because he lives with him. So Dream's the only one who saw him collapse. He doesn't know what to do and the pressure of worrying and looking after Ink, mostly alone, gets to him so he calls Blue and breaks down. 

     Blue, worried about Dream, rushes over. Then he sees Ink and... Dream was right to be worried. How had Blue not seen how bad it was getting sooner? 

     When Ink wakes up, turns out he got himself sick. Ink attempts to get up to create more, but stumbles to the floor, not passed out this time. Even then, both Dream and Blue have to physically hold him down to stop him from confronting Error when he destroys an AU. Ink tires himself out quickly. 

     Ink gets bored easily, so he's like a dramatic child when he's sick. Also, from not eating as often or as much he's not noticing hunger as often as he should. He can't handle as much food as he used to either, though with his eating schedule he's hardly noticed. He just thought he was getting hungry less, which was more time to create. He ate smaller and smaller amounts of food when he did actually eat. 

     By this point, Ink thinks he doesn't need to eat that much, despite feeling weaker when he does physical activity. He likes to look on what he considers the more 'positive side' of things. It's made him feel lighter on his feet. He was already short, so he felt he might as well feel small too. 

     So Dream and Blue try to get Ink to eat and when he finally does he throws up. So they get him soup. He barely drinks any and their concern grows when he says he's full. 

     They try to get him eating consistently which is more or less easy depending on how he's feeling. They can coax him to eat while he's sick, though it can take awhile because he's dramatic and sick. 

     Eventually, he starts to accept the food without much fuss. When he starts really getting better, he starts to try sneaking out even if he's still sick. 

     They start giving him stuff to do when he gets stir crazy, like watching TV or playing board games with him when they can. 

     As he gets better, he notices he's started to feel heavier(healthier weight) and... It's weird. He doesn't feel as light anymore. When he stopped eating as much, it felt like he could slip in and out without much fuss. Well, until he collapsed and got sick. 

     ...It was certainly a change. Surely everything would go back to normal when he stopped being sick. He wouldn't be hovered over and monitored. He'd be in control of his own actions once more. 

     It was annoying to be made to eat, not like he needed to anyway. 

     Then he gets better and Dream and Blue both check on him routinely to make sure he's eating. He's not free. He feels bad when he forgets to eat now. 

     ...He could always start lying when he forgets.