OUR STORY
It started with the twerking gremlins.
No, really. That’s not a metaphor. Actual digital gremlins. Twerking.
But before we get to the unsolicited dance party, let’s rewind a bit.
Fin (aka FlameAndSong) and Andy (aka DarkPassionPlayNZ) met on DeviantArt in January 2025. At first, it was just mutual admiration. Fin was drawn to Andy’s artwork — surreal, emotional, textured in ways that felt like Fin's dreams or visions from his own inner world.
Also? Andy was funny. Like suspiciously funny. His memes made Fin laugh the kind of laugh that makes you consider marriage purely out of comedic compatibility. He even found himself thinking, “If I still drank, I’d buy this guy a beer.” (Fin is sober, but the sentiment was real.)
They became better acquainted through a now-defunct group called 7 Word Weirdos, where members created art based on seven random, often chaotic, words. And then came the piece — Andy's glorious alternate history of Tsar Nicholas II... as a polar bear. Naturally. And in the background, uninvited but living their best lives, were several bizarre little twerking gremlins.
Fin laughed so hard he immediately bought the image.
Then, as one does, he started poking around Andy’s gallery… and saw a photo of him.
Cue gay panic.
“Oh no. Stop being hot. Why did you have to be hot? Now I’m going to be an idiot every time I interact with you! OKAY FIN, JUST ACT NORMAL. HE’LL NEVER BE INTO YOU. DON’T MAKE IT OBVIOUS.”
Spoiler: the crush was very mutual.
At the time, Fin had no clue. So he kept engaging normally (read: internally screaming), occasionally posting art. One day he shared a series of elemental mages. Andy left a comment on the Fire mage, cheekily suggesting that Fin needed a “hot blond lightning mage” to round things out.
Fin, with all the social awareness of a well-meaning golden retriever, took that suggestion completely literally and created a hot blond lightning mage… specifically for Andy.
He still didn’t get it.
It wasn’t until the flirting got a lot more obvious — and a bit suggestive — that Fin’s brain finally clicked into place. When it did, he came storming over to Andy’s profile with a big ol’ info-dump, followed by a sheepish apology for being awkward.
Andy responded, “I enjoy info-dumps. I’m like a sponge.”
Fin valiantly refrained from making a perverted joke about that. He was trying to be a gentleman.
Andy: “I was hoping to make you break.”
Fin: Challenge accepted.
The result was a piece called Make Me Break, featuring two very familiar-looking characters — one suspiciously like Fin, the other unmistakably like Andy’s alter ego — in sensual, ahem, tension-filled poses. The comments section ignited. So did their inboxes. Within a day, they'd exchanged emails. The relationship officially began in February 2025 — equal parts romantic lightning strike, artistic collaboration, and cosmic-level meme exchange.
Since then, everything's only grown. They've made art for each other, about each other, and with each other. They constantly inspire each other to go bolder, deeper, and weirder (in the best ways). And now? They’re engaged, and consider each other already spiritually married and call each other husband.
Andy lives in New Zealand, but he’s planning a move to the US in the coming years to be with Fin. There are mountains of logistics involved, but they’re nothing compared to the joy of building a life together. Art is still the glue between them — that, and memes, music, laughter, constant inspiration, and a shared love of the surreal, the sacred, and the beautifully ridiculous.
They are partners in every sense of the word: in creativity, in adventure, in romance, in absurdity, in chaos, in softness, and in joy. The gremlins were just the beginning.
No, really. That’s not a metaphor. Actual digital gremlins. Twerking.
But before we get to the unsolicited dance party, let’s rewind a bit.
Fin (aka FlameAndSong) and Andy (aka DarkPassionPlayNZ) met on DeviantArt in January 2025. At first, it was just mutual admiration. Fin was drawn to Andy’s artwork — surreal, emotional, textured in ways that felt like Fin's dreams or visions from his own inner world.
Also? Andy was funny. Like suspiciously funny. His memes made Fin laugh the kind of laugh that makes you consider marriage purely out of comedic compatibility. He even found himself thinking, “If I still drank, I’d buy this guy a beer.” (Fin is sober, but the sentiment was real.)
They became better acquainted through a now-defunct group called 7 Word Weirdos, where members created art based on seven random, often chaotic, words. And then came the piece — Andy's glorious alternate history of Tsar Nicholas II... as a polar bear. Naturally. And in the background, uninvited but living their best lives, were several bizarre little twerking gremlins.
Fin laughed so hard he immediately bought the image.
Then, as one does, he started poking around Andy’s gallery… and saw a photo of him.
Cue gay panic.
“Oh no. Stop being hot. Why did you have to be hot? Now I’m going to be an idiot every time I interact with you! OKAY FIN, JUST ACT NORMAL. HE’LL NEVER BE INTO YOU. DON’T MAKE IT OBVIOUS.”
Spoiler: the crush was very mutual.
At the time, Fin had no clue. So he kept engaging normally (read: internally screaming), occasionally posting art. One day he shared a series of elemental mages. Andy left a comment on the Fire mage, cheekily suggesting that Fin needed a “hot blond lightning mage” to round things out.
Fin, with all the social awareness of a well-meaning golden retriever, took that suggestion completely literally and created a hot blond lightning mage… specifically for Andy.
He still didn’t get it.
It wasn’t until the flirting got a lot more obvious — and a bit suggestive — that Fin’s brain finally clicked into place. When it did, he came storming over to Andy’s profile with a big ol’ info-dump, followed by a sheepish apology for being awkward.
Andy responded, “I enjoy info-dumps. I’m like a sponge.”
Fin valiantly refrained from making a perverted joke about that. He was trying to be a gentleman.
Andy: “I was hoping to make you break.”
Fin: Challenge accepted.
The result was a piece called Make Me Break, featuring two very familiar-looking characters — one suspiciously like Fin, the other unmistakably like Andy’s alter ego — in sensual, ahem, tension-filled poses. The comments section ignited. So did their inboxes. Within a day, they'd exchanged emails. The relationship officially began in February 2025 — equal parts romantic lightning strike, artistic collaboration, and cosmic-level meme exchange.
Since then, everything's only grown. They've made art for each other, about each other, and with each other. They constantly inspire each other to go bolder, deeper, and weirder (in the best ways). And now? They’re engaged, and consider each other already spiritually married and call each other husband.
Andy lives in New Zealand, but he’s planning a move to the US in the coming years to be with Fin. There are mountains of logistics involved, but they’re nothing compared to the joy of building a life together. Art is still the glue between them — that, and memes, music, laughter, constant inspiration, and a shared love of the surreal, the sacred, and the beautifully ridiculous.
They are partners in every sense of the word: in creativity, in adventure, in romance, in absurdity, in chaos, in softness, and in joy. The gremlins were just the beginning.
In the summer of 2025, as ongoing harassment on DeviantArt escalated and the platform’s staff repeatedly failed to intervene, Andy and Fin began asking a hard but necessary question: what would it look like to keep creating without putting ourselves back in harm’s way?
This site was born out of that moment. We started using this site in earnest after leaving DeviantArt together on January 2, 2026 (see our page Why We Left DA for more on that decision).
Platforms that run on engagement and metrics are a burnout factory. When creators are pressured to chase likes, comments, algorithms, and constant interaction, the work stops being about making art and starts being about playing social games.
That’s how you end up with feeds full of samey slop: content engineered for clout, recycled trends, and outright scam rings—while people who actually care about their craft get buried or even harassed till they leave. Popularity becomes about who’s loudest, most connected, or most willing to game the system, not whose work is any good.
We’re not interested in that.
Personal websites are healthier. There’s no algorithm to appease, no performance anxiety, and no obligation to perform socially just to be “seen.” We can make what we want, take our time, and share it because we’re proud of it—not because a dashboard told us to.
This site exists so our work can live without being optimized, ranked, or farmed for engagement.
That’s the point.
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