artbyfinnbrown

[artbyfinnbrown]

happy New Year!!!

[artbyfinnbrown]

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hello Pearl,

What thing, sight, activity, or experience from the surface world do you think that each of your sisters would be most excited to see, if they had the opportunity to see it? 

Sincerely, a sightseeing fan. 

Interesting question! My sisters have seen many things on land that I hadn’t then. They had much more time to breach the surface after their fifteenth birthday than I had, and more opportunities to observe the experiences on land from the edge of the water. However none of my sisters are able to go beyond the riverbanks and shoreline in the extent that I am currently able, so I have been fortunate enough to be immersed in the world beyond the shore and to witness things I never thought imaginable.

I think Anemone would be quite fond of the vast array of knowledge humans have amassed within libraries and universities, as well as the church. She’d be so surprised humans were able to accomplish this! In fact, many of my fellow Marineids are unaware of just how intelligent and talented humans are, which is quite unfortunate to me. We do not have a fully fledged written language nor any permanent records outside our memorized stories and songs, so of course any one of us would be amazed at the compilations of literature that humans have stored. She’d find all this vast information useful to learning how to be a better leader and queen.

Ray I feel would absolutely love human sports and games! We have our own games similar to human ones, but many of them are meant to teach or sharpen hunting skills, though this certainly doesn’t take the entertainment out of them. Speaking of hunting, Ray would also enjoy the different methods of game hunting that humans partake in, as well as their weapons and tools. While we have no use for these things, I do believe that my sister would take a liking to the unique methods that humans use to make up for their lack of physical prowess. Perhaps she would be partial to short range weapons, she does love the chase and much prefers to give the finishing blow up close.

Sand may have a fondness for the sights she would see on the surface, and the possibility of traveling across the land. I think she is the type to want to experience everything the world has to offer that she possibly can, and if she were able to traverse the surface in search of new adventures she absolutely would. I can see her going far and wide to see every landscape, try every food, converse with every passersby, and take in every encounter she has in its absolute fullest. I can also definitely say that she would love the getaway resorts here and could be found relaxing in any one of them!

Coral is the one that initially got me curious about humans in the first place! Her personal garden is so different from the rest of ours; it is absolutely full of manmade artifacts and treasures! Human trinkets litter every nook and cranny of her garden, and she still sought out more before I left! I am …unsure if she continues to have such a passion for human creations, considering the scenario in which I last saw her… I sincerely hope that this horrible incident hasn’t soured her appreciation for the craftsmanship of humans, and for her to see that this doesn’t reflect on all humans.

…..

Perhaps she would take an interest in museums, or art galleries. I feel many of the things present in these places could spark her interest, and are quite similar to the treasures she has collected back home.

Kelp would love the fashion and accessories land dwellers have! She loves to gather the prettiest oysters and shells then clip them to her tail and fins. I don’t know how they don’t bother her, especially with the amount she has on at a given time. She says they don’t hurt her much, but they were terribly painful for me! :< I think she may also like makeup and jewelry humans have. I unfortunately believe that Kelp may be insecure about her tail deformity, and may have taken to excessive accessorizing to compensate. She does seem to find genuine joy in modifying and enhancing her appearance, so I do not worry too much about this.

… just talking about my sisters, my pod, makes me miss them dearly. I wonder if they are well, especially since what happened to Coral.

I worry greatly about my pod on land, the other Larks I mean. Elle is… currently not present. I am at a loss for what to do, I wonder what my sisters would do. What did Anemone, and the rest of my pod, do when Mother was gone? I suppose there was nothing they could do, she was already….

Elle is not dead. I have been assured of this. I— we, still have time. We can still do something. We have to try. I suppose Elle will not be happy with me for doing this… I am trying not to be reckless again. I have to think very carefully about what I must do.

The matriarch of her pod must plan effectively and carefully about what she must do to protect and lead her pod and shoal.

What would Anemone do?

What would Grandmother do?

What would my Mother have done?

[artbyfinnbrown]

Heyyyy Augustian !

Flea chose to continue being a member of the Larks for a variety of reasons, but a big one was because he assumed you wanted him to stay there for now too, even though you guys didn’t have a specific conversation about it. (you gotta communicate more!)

Hypothetically, what would you have done if he decided to part ways with the team after being freed?

And since he’s staying, what do you think of the Larks In general including Flea?

Sincerely,

Someone you definitely don’t know.

Hey! I think we communicate just the right amount!

The kiddo’s gotten pretty good at acting independently, I really don’t think I need to interfere any more that I already do. 

If he left the Gracers? Well, if he left, he would probably have had an idea for where he wanted to go next, so I probably wouldn’t have had to do anything?

If he seemed really directionless, I’d probably send him east? Give him a story about a magic item rumoured to be around one of the coastal settlements and let him chase that lead for a while. At least until I finish my preparations. 

As for the Larks in general… 

(Angelica)

She’s been a plan of my plans for a while. A skilled thief is needed to take the Queen of Winter’s Crown. I was going to have the kiddo recruit her himself (why do you think I made sure they ended up in the same cell?), but then she ended up dying, and that really conveniently smoothed the whole recruitment process over. 

I hope she makes it through all of this alive and gets to go back to her family. She really deserves that. 

(Elle)

She’s an interesting one. On the surface, you’d think they’re just a regular paladin, but given how much she’s covered up for her team, that’s clearly not the case.

I haven’t quite figured her out yet. Maybe she’s just forgiving and cares for her teammates more than the she does the Church. Or maybe they just want pawns that are loyal to her instead. Or maybe it’s a bit of both. 

They seem to like the kiddo though. So she’ll be a useful enough ally. 

(Pearl)

Connected to the Royal family. I’d say that the Kiddo could use that, but getting the government involved would just make things tricky.

She’s also a transformed Marineid. Which probably means that….. She was involved. Ugh. Hate thinking about that. Poor girl, too. Probably doesn’t know where the parts that made her new body came from. 

Seems a bit more volatile compared to the Kiddo’s other teammates, but volatility can still be useful when given the right direction. 

(Calypso)

She’s an unlucky girl, that one. Keeps getting tied up in situations where she doesn’t know who’s pulling the strings.

Also, isn’t her dad….. No, he cut ties with his family a while ago. So he probably isn’t connected to what she got involved in. Probably just a coincidence. 

Anyways, about the lady herself. She’s a good wizard. Seems to have a good head on her shoulders, and a decent set of morals. Wizards are always useful to have as allies. Even if those Wizards have had some…. incidents in their past. 

(Flea)

Ah, my lil’ kiddo. He’s great. They best weapon an archfey could ask for! makes me proud. 

…

I wish I felt worse about using him like this, but he has a very… convenient existence. He’s almost perfectly suited to be my instrument of vengeance. I need him, he needs me, We compliment each other. 

So it doesn’t make sense to feel bad about using a weapon for it’s intended purpose. 

Overall, I’d say the Larks have been good for the Kiddo! The’ve really helped him grow and develop into the tool I need him to be.

[artbyfinnbrown]

Steve, you aren’t scared of Pearl now, are you? She seems to be the only one who agrees that your situation is ridiculous! Besides, she explicitly said she wouldn’t eat you! No meat on your bones, too small :)

Of course I’m scared of her! She’s a sea monster that eats people! 

Saying that you won’t eat someone is totally a trick monsters use to trick people into trusting them! There’s no way I’m going to fall for that! 

The fact that the only person who sympathizes with my situation is a people-eating fish monster just goes to show how messed up my life is! 

[artbyfinnbrown]

This month’s art of “The Larks”, a D&D campaign I have been running.

[artbyfinnbrown]

It's the aaa goddess

[artbyfinnbrown]

New calypso sketch :3 she's got a hat now :3

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hello Calypso,

If you had the chance to learn any one spell, what would it be? (As a restriction, this has to be a spell you are learning for your sake. Don’t go picking some kind of healing spell because it would be the right thing to do) 

Sincerely,  an esoteric fan. 

Speaking of spells, there's honestly so much I wish to learn just about them and how to use it, and in general I was always fascinated with enchantment and illusion spells - ability to affect mind is very interesting on itself, but also.... it can quite useful when other means is just... nor suitable or possible.

But! As much as I want to study more enchantment and illusion focused spells and hope it would be helpful for me and my companions.... if talking about something more selfish - "simulacrum" is just to selfishly experiment and study it's full abilities. It's supposed to be completely the same as the person coping so even seeing it fight could be quite interesting👀.

I'm not sure if I even can try to learn this spell in a future because,,, more complicated spells are still hard to me, but this is the one I can think of right now :3c

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hello Elle,

Which of your siblings do you remember the most? What to you remember about them?

Sincerely, a thoughtful fan. 

All of what I know about the Fonaciers are blurry, at best. My clearest memories aren’t exactly positive either… but there’s still some other memories that come back to me, at times.

Maybe it’s a little hard to believe now, given my relationship with the Larks as of late, but I was the youngest out of my siblings. The youngest, and the runt on top of that. I was smaller and weaker than everyone else for years, I think… it meant I was the baby of the group, and everyone knew it.

I’m sure I must’ve been a burden and an annoyance… other people usually are annoyed by their baby siblings, aren’t they? But I still have bits and pieces of good memories regardless. They’re fragmented, of course, but it’s more than nothing...

Mother telling us bedtime stories. Stolas sneaking me out to go stargaze with him past curfew. Calisto dragging me away to spy on Iribosk's ice sculpture festival. Flyne acting out shadow puppets with me next to the fireplace. Andros… he's the blurriest figure in my mind, but he's the oldest. Someone I probably looked up to, back then... I think Andros was usually the one fussing over us if it wasn’t Mother doing the fussing… I remember him tucking me into bed, giving me extra portions of his food at dinner, telling me to get out of trees I climbed otherwise Mother would be mad...

…

Forgive my rambling. If nothing else, I believe Penny is actually the one I remember the clearest. She had the loudest personality, after all. She was the most spirited out of all of us, the one we thought was going places. She wanted to be everything and anything, travel the world, see what life had to offer in its entirety. The current teachings of the church pale in comparison to that—Penny was the embodiment of all of them. She tried to encourage all of us, make us laugh when we were down, remind us of all the dreams we had past our little cabin in the woods. Or—what dreams we could have, if we managed it.

Living up north in Iribosk can be quite cold, as you can tell. And because there were six of us, we traded around hand-me-downs. Penny liked Mother's old cloak. It was a bright red, I remember that much, and always pretty large on Penny. I think... yes, Penny is the one that... stayed... the longest... I was the one no one was really all that optimistic about. The one that always had to be prioritized, because I was slower and weaker than the rest. Penny was our shining light, the one with the strength and will and ability to make it through. Right? Just Penny and her bright red cloak grabbing me by the hand and running through the woods.

...

I'm sure I was quite the impressionable child. After all... being with the Larks has reminded me of... them... again. It's funny that the church placed me into a team of people who have or had light hair at some point. Light hair... and I'm the assigned leader. You know, I've always liked observing others my whole life. Once I became a true part of the church rather than just a little girl they were giving their pity to, families were one thing I liked to observe heavily. Was this how the Fonaciers were? Could I find more of my memories this way? Did I even want to remember them, past all the small pieces I have?

So maybe if I tried harder, I could've found Andros sooner.

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hi Leiris!!

What’s your favorite Elle quality about Elle ? Big fan of your work btw

Oh, that-is ea-sy!

My fa-vou-rite quality of Bee-zle-bub is their kind-ness. Their cab-a-bility to-love is-what drew-me to-them, and the grea-test way they express their love is in how-kind they-are.  They-are al-ways car-ing and re-spectful to the people around them, e-ven when they some-times do-not de-serve it. 

Her kind-ness is not al-ways a trait of hers that Bee-zle-bub likes-to emph-a-size. She-likes to pre-sent her strength, her cour-age, her com-po-sure and o-ther qua-lities that make-her a good-knight. But to-me, that makes the mo-ments where she lets-her kind-ness shine through all the more pre-cious.  Al-so when-she does this, it-is fun to find ways to-make her lose that com-po-sure and make-her flustered. Tee-Hee!

So-yes. When-I think of what makes-me love Bee-zle-bub, it is al-ways their kind-ness that I think-of first.  A Bee-zle-bub without kind-ness is a Bee-zle-bub I would-not be ab-le to love.

I-am glad you-are a fan! Ex-pect more e-xci-ting things from-me co-ming soon! 

(Version without the stylized speech under the cut)

Oh, that is easy!

My favourite quality of Beezlebub is their kindness. Their cabability to love is what drew me to them, and the greatest way they express their love is in how kind they are.  They are always caring and respectful to the people around them, e-ven when they some-times do not deserve it. 

Her kindness is not always a trait of hers that Beezlebub likes to emphasize. She likes to present her strength, her courage, her composure and other qualities that make her a good knight. But to me, that makes the moments where she lets her kindness shine through all the more precious.  Also when she does this, it is fun to find ways to make her lose that composure and make-her flustered. Tee Hee!

So yes. When I think of what makes me love Beezlebub, it is always their kindness that I think of first.  A Beezlebub without kindness is a Beezlebub I would-not be able to love.

I am glad you are a fan! Expect more exciting things from me coming soon! 

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hey Seagulls! Of all the monsters you’ve fought, what was the scariest? Or the most difficult to defeat? What monsters do you feel you wouldn’t be able to take down if you encountered them, maybe monsters only his Majesty the King could ever possibly slay? ;)

Iekarious: That’s sort of a leading Question, don’t you think?

Mumrik: Huh? 

Iekarious: Isn’t it weird that it specifies “monsters that only his majesty could slay?”. That’s a strange detail to put into an otherwise very general question.

Mumrik: Who cares? Aren’t we supposed to take turns answering this question?

Iekarious: I think the questioner’s trying to wonder how we would fare against Sea Devils.

Mumrik: The fish monsters?

Iekarious: Yes. The king killed an especially large one during the Striloss war. I’ve heard they are quite dangerous creatures. 

Mumrik: Huh. Well, we’d probably die then.

Rahkert: Marineids. 

Mumrik: What? 

Rahkert: Called Marineids. Sea devils is nickname.

Iekarious: Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll afraid I hadn’t done much studying on monsters before I joined the Gracers. I guess that’s just another thing I’ll have to work on improving in the future.

Mumrik: Wait, how do you know what they’re called when Iek doesn’t?

Iekarious: My mom told me. 

Mumrik: Who the fuck is your mom?

Iekarious: The woman who raised me? Who else? 

Mumrik: That’s not- I- Why do I even bother?

Iekarious: Because you are kind and care for your teammates?

Mumrik: No I don’t. Shut up.

Iekarious: Um! Anyway, I think we’ve gotten off topic. We’re supposed to talk about what the most challengeing monster we’ve faced was. I… think we all know what the answer to that is.

Mumrik: The Horse

Rahkert: The Shadow Steed.

Iekarious: Yes. the horse. We’re pretty new to being Gracers. The mission to hunt the horse down was only our third mission as Gracers. Which isn’t an excuse for our poor behaviour! It’s just to say that we haven’t really been up against anything more scary than that.

Mumrik: Don’t make it sound like our previous two missions went any better. Those fuckers in the bird masks were just as annoying to fight as well. They kept running away, just like the stupid horse.  

Rahkert: Varie = theoretically scarier. We were lucky that we were not the people she targeted.

Iekarious: Yes, Varie… her case was certainly the most tragic of the missions we’ve been one. She wasn’t even a monster, she was just a person who was wronged and was willing to go to regrettable lengths to get payback. Ah! But getting attached to someone who’s done bad things isn’t very becoming of a Gracer. Disregard that.

Rahkert: We did bad things. You are attached to us. Not bad. Attachment = good. 

Iekarious: Oh! um, thank you, Rahkert, that was very kind of you, I’m not sure I deserve such praise. 

Mumrik: Ugh, can we stop this? We answered the damn question. And I think we answered the other one to, about what monsters we wouldn’t be able to take on. That would be…. just about any of them. We couldn’t beat a horse with a bone in its head, what makes you think we could take a real monster?

Rahkert: Most heads have bones. Called skulls.

Mumrik: Shut up! 

Iekarious: Mumrik is… unfortunately right  We really aren’t that skilled compared to a lot of the other Gracers. I can’t see us faring well against most of the monsters we go up against. 

Rahkert: Combat = not simple. Location matters. Numbers matter. Resources matter. Preparation matters. Speculating what can and cannot be beaten without defining details = waste of time. 

Iekarious: I suppose that is a more positive way to look at it. Maybe you’re right, Rahkert. We may not have the individual skills, but if we work together, I’m sure there’s no monster we can’t defeat throught the power of cooperation!

Rahkert: You will probably still die though. You sound the the first character who dies in a story.

Iekarious: I do? Oh…. 

Mumrik: I hate everyone here.

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hi Sara(ntha)!

Thoughts on each of the Larks! Go 🫵!

The Larks? Oh yes, the team of Gracers that assisted me with my research. 

Hmmmm, I have to admit, most of them didn’t really leave that lasting of an impression on me.  There was… the red-haired one, I think her name was Ange? and the grey one was maybe Calypso? And the leader was named Elle. I do remember that. I can’t really say I interacted enough with any of them to form any especially complex opinions on them.  Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the assistance they where able to provide me, they just weren’t interesting people. 

On the note of people who where interesting, that Pearl girl is an odd one. She’s a marineid, but she doesn’t have a mark placed on her to prevent her from harming humanoids? More than that, she seems to be deeply invested in helping civilians whenever she can. Considering how Marineads typically interact with humanoids, this is strange. Was her attachment to land dwellers to what led her to take a different form? Or did she become attached to humans after becoming one herself?

Also, it seems that the Church at large as is not aware of her true nature… And then there’s the matter of this “Sea Witch” who is responsible for her transformation…. What a mystery.  Well, it’s not my mystery to solve!  … It was rude of her to slap me like that.   

Much more importantly, Flea! He’s the real interesting one. Much friendlier than the others, too!  He must have fey blood in him. That’s the only explanation for the Shapeshifting. Well, I suppose there could be other explanations, but it’s the one that makes the most sense.  He’s also a warlock. That means he’s in contact with an archfey. I wonder how difficult it would be to arrange a meeting with this archfey… …hmm, probably difficult. If he wants to help me with my research, Flea’s patron must not be in the habit of giving out knowledge themselves.   Well, that works out well for me! I’m sure we will learn many new things about the fey together.

His Shapeshifting offers so many possibilities for future research. It doesn’t affect his clothes so it must be a biological mechanism rather than an illusion. I wonder what the limits to it are… Oh, there are so many studies I’d like to with him… and on him. He’s a curious person, I’m sure he’d be happy to go along with any of my ideas. I’m very excited to continue working with him.  

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hey Calypso! During your studies, have you ever learned about Marineids, or as they’re known in layman’s terms, Sea devils / Sirens? How do you feel about your teammate being one?

Unfortunately, I can't say that i know a lot... there's little information about them, and again very unfortunately because they are very fascinating and interesting beings (sadly they know as something dangerous tho)...

...and you know, actually I can ask my teammate about her as being one, and what it's like (I only hope she doesn't find it rude)..

As for my personal feelings, I gonna be honest, there was things were I was a little... concerned (her specific "diet" if I can call it that, and how she wants to... continue it) she just a good kid with a big heart so how I can see her as anything else but that?

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hey Mumrik do you notice anything… odd, about the other human in the Larks? Angelica seems normal but, what about the little girl? Doesn’t she seem off? Like in appearance and behavior?

She’s not any weirder than any of the other people I have to work with. 

Iek talks on and on about useless things but folds like a wet shirt the moment someone wants a real opinion. Rahkert signs the stupidest shit and constantly tells people that he’s a liar, but then expects people to pay attention and figure out what he says that’s actually true. And don’t get me started about our boss!

No one one in this stupid monster hunting party is normal. So yeah, the girl’s a bit preachy and stubborn. It means she fits right in about the rest of us wackos.  

….

Is this about her eyes? Are you trying to say that she’s “off” ‘cause she has weird looking eyes? That’s a stupid thing to judge a person for. 

Blame them for something they actually have control of, like being stupid and naive. Who the fuck judges people for having different looking eyes?

[artbyfinnbrown]

Augustian

Can I have more spellslots

- F. Kyteler

What, you think I’m just made of spell slots? You think I can just wave my hand and give people magic whenever I feel like it?

No! I will have you know that my magic is something to be treasured! You should be more appreciative of the spell slots you already have, or I might just take them away!

…

Nah, I’m kidding, I wouldn’t do something that messed up to ya, kiddo. 

But yeah. you’re going to have to do something pretty impressive for me to just give you more magic. Talk to me again once you’ve a accomplished a semi-great deed. Yeah, a semi-great deed, that’s spell slot gaining material right there. Semi-great deed, heh. I’m pretty clever sometimes…

(He falls asleep at the bar)

[artbyfinnbrown]

Hello Flea, 

If you could turn into any animal (not just animal people), which animal would you most want to turn into?

Sincerely,  a wild fan

Interesting question, mister wild fan !

Never thought that much about it before but I suppose if I could turn into any critter something useful…would be flight. Yeah. So maybe something like a corvid. A raven seems like something you’d see around enough that it wouldn’t draw any attention if I was tryna scout out a spot or somethin’

A lark would be pretty on brand too though ! But idunno. would have to test out a few different form’s weight carrying capacity and eyesight and stuff but land on a specific one but for right now my answer is vaguely any common bird but a raven seems pretty nice.

And corvids are supposed to be pretty smart right? I can communicate with animals so maybe that could be something as well.

Boooooo what a boring no fun all work answer !!

Fineeeee I realize when people usually ask this question they mean it in a “you turn into this creature forever” way and not “what would be the most useful animal shapechange for most scenarios, Flea!” way so… uhhhh UHHHH

*thinks about it for an hour*

UHHHHCAMEL. The mythical Camel yeah. No idea what Camels look like, Augustian was telling me about them uhh they live in the deserts? Admittedly the warm climate of their habitat is pretty appealing…

*Augustian whispering from behind the camera*

They- They can go How long without food and water ?? That’s.. literally the coolest thing ever uhm-

Sincerely,

A Camel