#But!!!! Right now I just wanted to sketch my mental image!!!!

[therantingsage]

Very very intrigued by @protectorcraft's fic, a bell chimes somewhere. I never turn down an opportunity to draw a creature-beast, so I tried to figure out monster Siffrin! Probably got a lot of details wrong, but as of right now Siffrin's exact bodyplan is decently ambiguous. I leaned into the dragon part cuz that's my area of expertise.

[the-100-days-of-junkan]

THE 100 DAYS OF JUNKAN

Hello everybody! I’m Carbonated-Jem! 

I sincerely hope you’re having a good day as this post finds you.

You’re probably wondering what this is. Well this my good compatriot is the result of a very ill advised task I put upon myself at the beginning of this year. There’ll be a TL;DR at the bottom for those who don’t want my full ramblings (sorry about that btw, not very good at this), but I do appreciate anyone who’ll give a silly person like me the time of day.

You see, I am a fan of Danganronpa, and as a result I like to read a lot of gay fanfic (and if I’m feeling daring I’ll even look at fan art, shocking). This series for all its ups and downs is quite important to me and becoming who I am today. Tokomaru especially helped me through a period of a lot of stress and depression, among other things. 

But as you can tell by the name this isn’t a Blog Dedicated to Tokomaru, it’s a blog dedicated to Junkan. Which might be very surprising to anyone who I haven’t divulged this info to personally. 

I try to make it a habit to not delve too deep into fandoms for the sake of my mental health, I look up fanart, read some appreciation posts on tumblr, read fics, and depending on the series make art for others to enjoy. However one thing I tend to become vaguely aware of regardless of whether I want to or not is what ships are and are not controversial. So I am very aware of the fact that saying I ship Junko and Mikan is bare minimum getting some weird looks from a lot of the people reading this.

Before I give a reason why I’m doing this let me just make clear what this is in the first place.

This is the 100 Days of Junkan, a project I undertook (Kind of as a joke) at the beginning of the year. I have made 100 Pieces to post across the next 100 Days. Some are finished art, some are sketches, some are sketches I added color to later, some are multiple images grouped into one day, comics, and far more. I’ve learned a lot through this project artistically, and some of the surprises I have in store will hopefully be worth the effort. I don’t know 100% for sure what day this post will be on, however the event itself will begin October 1st, and if I did the math right will continue all the way till January 9th. 

Why would I put this much time and energy into this ship, knowing that there are a lot of people who downright hate it? Simple, I just like the ship a lot, and wanted to make more art for it.

And I should further note, there are plenty of fans of this ship as well, however they may be disappointed to hear that unless you’re very much like me, you probably won’t enjoy what I’ve made with these two. In canon (much to my chagrin, because I’m not partial to the direction it took in DR3) this is a very abusive relationship. This is not really my thing, anyone who has seen the ship art I’ve done on my main page will know that I much prefer to draw soft, fluffy shipping art. I try to make art which will leave a positive vibe on people for the most part.

That said I understand why there are people who like this ship for how it is represented in canon. Shipping Junkan has taught me to stop being judgy of people for what they ship (I used to really hate Togami x Toko for example, and while it’s still not my thing I can totally understand why people are into it now). Everyone has their own reasons for shipping something, whether it’s an interesting dynamic, they just like seeing the characters kiss, as a coping mechanism, and plenty of other reasons. I have my boundaries of course, but at this point I try to be open minded towards peoples proclivities.

So if I’m not drawing a Canon Compliant Depiction of this ship, what am I actually doing here?

Well I’ve decided that I’m going to draw niche art for an already very niche ship. I like Junkan on the softer side, where regardless of where it's supposed to be in canon or an AU they just actually love eachother, I've seen and have been inspired by a decent amount of Fanfics depicting this exact thing. It's the dynamic that I find the most interesting personally, as I like the directions you can take it with the characters.

So that’s the deal, for 100 Days starting from October 1st you can expect this blog to post a constant flow of soft Junko x Mikan art. If that’s your thing, I sincerely hope you like all this! It’s been my number one goal to give some art to the people who share a similar desire for softer depictions of this Ship, along with all the people who have already made amazing pieces of writing and artwork depicting the same. If this isn’t your thing, I hope you’ll at least stick around to give it a chance, and if I can’t sell you on it like I have with some of my friends, I hope you can at least walk away from this with a shrug.

Apologizing in advance to all those who peruse the Mikan and Junko tag, because this is gonna be flooding those for awhile I imagine. I fully understand if you wanna block me for this, hope you have a lovely day after that! 

Now dear viewer, please watch this long road unwind and behold such sights as: Me slowly memorizing these two to the point that I can draw them almost entirely without reference at this point, inconsistent colors schemes,  inconsistent heights, so much goddamn blushing, AU’s galore, and the unspeakable things I learned how to do for this project! (And by unspeakable I mean I don’t wanna spoil the surprise!) 

Oh! And as an extra bonus to all this, go check out my AO3 account. I have a singular Junkan Fic on there right now, however as a little bonus for this event (and sure, thematic for Halloween) I’m going to be posting a Vampire AU Junkan Fic periodically throughout October. Partially inspired by the fact that Day 30 depicts a scene I came up with way before the actual fic, and I really want to have it written out and available to read before that post comes out.

The other reason is that if I say i’m going to post it here, that means I am required to actually do it by the law of my brain. Which will likely outweigh my complete lack of self confidence in my ability to write anything making me too paranoid to actually let it go public~

Here’s the link!

And if you stumbled upon this post through the Junkan Tag and not my main account, here’s a link to it!

You’ll find plenty of other Danganronpa Art, including Junko and Mikan on their own. I do other stuff but I imagine that’d be the most immediately interesting, but hey you never know. So hopefully if this blog doesn’t provide anything you’d be into, my normal works will catch your attention! 

I’ve also opened an Ask Box for this blog, why? I dunno. I’ll be real it just seemed like the thing to do. But feel free to ask questions and I'll try to respond best I can!

And finally here is the TL,DR for those who didn't wanna read through my mind numbing rambling.

I like Danganronpa, I like drawing Soft Junkan art for a lot of reasons. I’m posting 100 Pieces for 100 Days of this ship, and hopefully ya’ll will enjoy it. If not, that’s okay! I hope you have a great day! 

Reblogs Appreciated!~ Stay hydrated Everyone!~

[potol0ver]

Could I request some hcs of Erik with a self-conscious s/o, something with lots of fluff, tysm x

Definitely dear <3, this is a very good ask to have right now given I’m in a angsty but fluffy mood rn so thank you.

Tags; GN reader, only mention of body is very vague (not gendered or specific about their body), soft Erik, angst, fluff

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the beginning, he wouldn't have ever thought you'd have a self-image problem. You looked so perfect, so heaven sent to his eyes that he couldn't even entertain the thought you didn't like hwibyoy looked.

So when you did finally let it spill, even if it was the smallest remark about yourself, he would freeze and act like you just insulted a God he was devoted to.

Because in the end you practically did-

“How could you even say that?” he'd ask, more accusatory than he meant to have in his voice. It was just so blasphemous to him- it insulted him-

but he could never be mad at you, frustrated? Definitely, mad? Never.

Once you tell him everything you find wrong with your body, he'd take mental notes because he'd be worshipping those spots on your body more then others.

He’d fill your ears with poetic praise, “My angel you're so stunning, if I didn't know better that you were made of flesh and blood I’d think you were a Greek Statue that walked off its podium.”

For the rest of the day prepare yourself for him to worship head to toe. Hell make sure to have you thinking better if yourself by the time you go to bed.

It would become a nightly routine of sorts, he'd always find some poetic or romantic way to show how much your body was perfect.

Did you think the worship would stop at physical touch and words? Oh no no- he’d be buying the best clothing for you, making you look like you are with more than everything in the opera house combined.

He’d also be sketching you every time he had free time, admittedly, he's nervous to shoe you anything he's done because he doesn't think anyone could draw you with all of your perfection.

And in the end, he was mainly devastated because he knew what it was like to hate your own body. He’d never want you to go through that. So if he had to worship you without stop for the rest of his days so you'd live your body as much as he did, he'd so it in a heart beat.

[jojo-schmo]

I really like your artstyle. Especially whenever you draw Dedede. It inspired me to make this:

It's artwork I made nearly two years ago. The left is remade artwork.

How do you stay consistent with your style?

- Jocket

Oh wow!! That's a true honor to hear, thank you for telling me this! Both drawings are so lovely!! But I love how dynamic and in motion everyone's poses are in your new one, and the expressions and colors are so fun!! :D Keep drawing, it's looking great! <3

And that's very kind of you to say that about my artstyle! It's funny you say that, I've been feeling a slight struggle with my consistency these days. (But that's also probably my own perception :P )

I think... whenever I struggle with consistency, I aim for confidence. Confidence in my sketches and the lines I draw. Reminding myself that while the art might not look exactly like the image in my head, I'm doing this to the very best of my ability.

Even when I feel like I'm not drawing something "technically correct." Like backgrounds or perspectives or something I haven't drawn before. I try to remind myself, "This is the very best I can do right now, and it's better than having drawn nothing at all! Because this didn't exist before I put pencil to paper, or stylus to screen. And that's pretty magical!"

Also just studying new things to draw and plenty of practice, I suppose! Practice makes progress! I mean, I didn't draw Dedede AT ALL until I was like 24! And I've been drawing Kirby characters since like, age 11! I just learned to get over my own mental blocks that I created over time. Before, I thought that if I couldn't draw a character "well," I shouldn't even try at all. And that reluctance to leave my comfort zone when I was younger caused me to miss out on a lot of growth in my technical art skills! So I try to remember that mindset more these days.

And hey, maybe consistency isn't the ultimate end goal for everyone's art styles. I mean, art styles are allowed to evolve as much as an artist wants them to! I think I'm personally happier with my progress in my confidence than my progress in consistency. But I'll keep working on both.

I hope that all makes sense :) Keep up the wonderful work!! Your art is something only you can make! And I think that's beautiful!

[eltanin0]

I just found this blog and I noticed that a lot of your stuff seems, well, oddly 3D. I don't mean like in a bad way but it feels like rendered but untextured 3D models? I kinda want to ask what your art process is (sorry for mini-rant)

thanks for checking out my blog! and no need to apologize for anything.

hmm, my art process. honestly i have no idea what to say, i dont know how people normally answer this question so i cant base it off anything either. i'm still kinda new to this whole art thing but i'll try and answer, super sorry if i get this completely wrong and this was all a waste of time.

i guess i'll just talk about how i draw things step by step? for the high effort pieces at least.

ok, so for starters like step 0. when it's a high effort piece, i can already see the image in my mind. i see the pose, i see the general lighting, the layout of stuff, but it's a bit blurry. if i cant see this mental image, the drawing usually comes out extremely poorly.

this is kind of an example of what i see in my head? this might be all useless info idk, but this is i guess where i start.

well step 1 is just the sketch and line. i start with just sketching the general shapes, then slowly refining it until it fits close enough to the image in my head. then in the line layer i'll fix any mistakes the sketch had and add more details to it. oh and for brush, it's just a round brush, like default. i dont know how much of a difference using a drawing tablet does, but i dont use one so... yeah.

i should've put more effort into the sketch for this drawing, but i did not.

next i do flat colors. pretty simple, i just select the smart select the outside of the line layer, invert the selection and now i can't paint outside the lines. i dont really think about what colors i use, i just use whatever the characters normal colors are.

next i do the shading, but first. i duplicate flat layer and recolor it to like a cream color

like so. for high effort pieces, i was told online to shade in pretty much black and white. now actually onto shading. there's 2 kinda shading i do, 1 from the proper light source, and 1 that's kinda just a shadow because things are close together (like corners and stuff). and i'll shade them on separate layers so i can adjust them individually however i want. oh right, i'll either use a very dark color, pretty much black and the the layer blending mode set to multiply. or i'll use a light kind of gray, tinted slightly yellow or something and set the layer blend mode to difference. then i just use a soft air brush and shade in the ways i described above. shading from regular light source, and the corner stuff thing.

normal lightsource - - - - - corner thing

then toggle both layers on and mess with the opacity of each layer until you get what you want.

then you can toggle the normal flats layer, the one that has color and it should apply the shading decently. you can mess with the opacity again on the shadows.

next i do lighting. i just grab a very light color, usually pretty close to white and set the layer blend mode to overlay. then i use a soft airbrush and "light" it? idk i just do like the opposite of the normal shadows, lighter the closer it is to the light source

mess around with the opacity as usual. then i do pretty much the same thing if there's another light source. in this case there was a blue light kinda coming from underneath, so i did that.

now from here i would go back to the flats layer, make a copy, and mess around with different layer styles and properties and settings. sometimes just messing around is useful. in this case, i felt it was too bright and colorful, so i decreased the brightness and saturation of it.

i think it helped a little bit but who knows.

now i do some kinda highlights and details. i grabbed the colors that were in the background and used those. it was a weird pale blue. i had 2 layers for this, 1 of them was specifically for his antenna things at the top, and one was just for his "skin". anyway, the antenna layer was normal, just kinda gave it an outline with the random reflective circles you see normally in pictures, no thoughts behind them. the skin tho had the layer blend mode set to soft light, i thought it looked best this way. it was just more random things to imply it was slightly reflective.

together the layers looked like this. i think it makes him look glossier which is what i was aiming for.

next, and it pretty much the end for pebbles, i got someone to look at it and let me know if they think anything was missing. they said it looked a little unsaturated. which it does. so i made a new layer, set the blend mode to saturation, grabbed the airbrush and made it pretty inline with the lighting layer.

that's kinda it. the background i didnt really care about, just drew and colored it. blurred it a bunch and added a bunch of shadows. i did add some like, "overshadows" is what i call it, i just draw some big shadows down the screen as the top layer.

but yeah thats literally everything i did to draw this. i would like to apologize if this was not at all what you wanted to know, i'm certain i've screwed this up bigtime. super sorry for wasting your time. if there's anything i can do to help, please ask. i owe you a proper answer to your question, i'm just really dumb. sorry for rambling. sorry. and sorry if the drawing i used for example didnt showcase what you wanted to know.

also, i really like your art! please keep up the great work!

[deoidesign]

Just wanted to say I absolutely adore your comic! It reminds me of all the comics I would read when I was little (except now they're gay), the style and shading is amazing.

What would you say is your favorite part of creating your comic, and do you have any tips?

Thank you I'm so glad to hear that!

I think my favorite part of making comics is the way it sort of feels like a puzzle. It's super mentally difficult but it's extremely rewarding to figure out plots and work out my best execution of it! I also LOVE editing, it's where things get to really pull together.

As for tips, I'm not sure what you mean! so I'll just share a few tips for a few different ideas...

Saving time

to save time I save every head I've ever drawn in a file so I can reuse the head (I redraw the face) which allows me to skip the sketching stage, since I only need to sketch for heads!

I also make my backgrounds a single very large image so I can reuse parts of it throughout the whole scene, recolor it for different times of day, etc, which saves a TON of time for me. Then, I just add in some spot blacks on top to make it feel cohesive with the character art! (this ALSO has saved me a TON when I've been converting my pages from scroll format to page format, as I have a high quality version of the background to use when I need the panels to be wider!)

But the biggest thing that saves me time is my line confidence.

So, next I'll talk about lineart tips!

most important is to draw from your elbow and your shoulder, instead of your wrist and fingers. this will get you cleaner lines, but will also save your body in the long run! The wrist is extremely fragile, so start learning to draw with more of your arm NOW rather than later.

Next is practicing line confidence! this basically is what gets you to draw the right line the first time, saving you a ton of time! These two tips sort of go hand in hand.

writing tips

First and foremost, you should be having fun! and I'm so serious, if you are working on a scene that feels like a drag to you, it will drag to your readers too. Whatever you feel like that scene HAS to be there for can almost definitely be accomplished in a different way!

but, really, I like to try to keep the big picture in mind. What is this scene accomplishing, what needs to happen to force these character changes, what needs to be revealed, what information about the world is canonized, etc, rather than thinking about your story as "events that have happened and will have to happen"

building off of that, my personal rule for establishing information is 3 times: If you've mentioned something three times, you can expect the audience to remember it. If you've mentioned it once or twice, it's really pretty likely they'll have forgotten by the time it's relevant.

This is getting really pretty long, I could get into character design tips, worldbuilding tips, tips for characters emoting, layout tips, marketing tips, business tips... there are SO many skills that go into making a comic, it's extremely hard to offer tips without knowing what you're looking for!

[bonnyhoddie]

Ocellus - Teenage Exocolonist OC

I need to post more so here’s something I made in February for a game I love a lot - I was a Teenage Exocolonist!

The character is called Ocellus (yes, like the changeling in MLP I could not think of anything else that sounded sciency or eccentric enough, ideas are welcome!) and their augment is chameleon, because I thought it’d be easiest for my mental health and art block to create a character with obvious signs such as that, without going into classic animals, like a cat or mouse. (Also I had a snake as a pet called Misty and I wanted to give a character a reptile tail)

The idea sketches (as you’ll find from the inconsistent outfits and lazier style, and also Ocellus being pink and blue to match the butterfly, when in the reference, it became decided that those colours would be romantic (I might change them actually)) and the reference drawing was actually made either on the same day or a day before I left my toxic environment lol

Also, fun fact, someone accused me of character theft because a bunch of members were planning to make a mod called Extracolonists (NOT Extracolonist by Seraphic on Reddit) so, AFTER I made Ocellus and just had to do some final details, I was like “omg how cool would it be if I joined in on the mod, they have some space left” so I looked through the discord search thing, looking up “chameleon” and I found a character called “Chanterelle”.

So, finding a chameleon augment character already I was like “oh ok so it won’t go in the mod, ah well, I’ll just post this in the art channel and make a little joke about it.”

Important thing to note: These characters looked nothing alike, aside from being POC and having multi-coloured hair. However, Chanterelle was default blue/pink and all I saw was an image, so I imagine a lot of the functionality stuff like the sign language and the tongue being too big in the mouth, is all mine (or, it’s ours now because sadly I did probably give too many ideas to them). Another thing to note is that I was exclusively following Exocolonist eccentric explorer styles, while the image I saw was Chanterelle’s child version just kinda in a blue hoodie.

And, at first I got compliments and, what confirms my thoughts about the functionality being mine, is that I was being COMPLIMENTED for my ideas AND my character. UNTIL, one person, decided to be like “I’m really uncomfortable with this” and, when I asked why, I get “Because it’s character theft! The characters look exactly alike!”

(They don’t, at all, whatsoever, again, aside from being POC and having multi-coloured hair with COMPLETELY different types of hair texture and multi-coloured types (Ocellus has straight thick hair that’s essentially just very tiny chameleon scales, so it’s a little heavy, with colours at the ends, while Chanterelle had afro space buns and split dye), which, is probably telling that those features make characters look “exactly alike” but idk I’m white, I don’t think I get to decide on what’s telling)

So then, the ENTIRE group, even ones that were COMPLIMENTING me, decided to just turn on me LMAO, (fucking pick a lane a stick to it dudes lmao /j) which, from the perspective of “I had just joined a few days ago and they don’t know me and they have established friendships” I get, but, first of all, I was doing a bachelor of ARTS at the time, which I stated on the first day, I’m sure that I wouldn’t be doing that if I was uncreative enough to be a thief, and, whenever I tried to defend myself and prove my innocence, I was not listened to and I had the EXACT SAME PHRASE repeated to me “you know how it looks right?” Over and over and over again no matter how many times I responded to that, it just was not going anywhere, my attempts of defusing the situation just was not working at all, and I was not being listened to. So then the person who “called me out” decided to post in another channel “let’s make another server for the mod because this doesn’t feel like a safe space for me anymore :(“

EXCUSE ME??? YOU accused me of character theft and dismissed my Timelapses, which is the ONLY way of proving that I didn’t steal a character design. I was reasonable and polite the whole time because I wanted to calm things down and clear up a misunderstanding, while you wanted to argue, and accuse me and my friend of being toxic because she has harsh tone sometimes, while YOU YOURSELF were displaying extremely toxic behaviours, the only bad thing I said to her was:

“I’m so sorry, this saying is only ever said in a mean way and I have no other way of saying this, but, I’m not gonna lie, I feel like it has to be said, you aren’t special, not every coincidence you see in a character is theft against you, and I’m literally in Uni for ART and MAKING CHARACTERS, where I am watched and observed when doing character design tasks, I’m not gonna be uncreative and steal a character design. I just checked to see if Ocellus could be in the mod, that’s it”

Because, I’m gonna be honest, the character wasn’t basic, and was fucking adorable, I’m not trying to insult the character, BUT, she had a LOT of popular character design choices when I checked, and not really much to separate her too much from the norm, which is absolutely ok, BUT, that means that that person is going to see a LOT of characters that look similar, and they can’t expect people to NOT have coincidental ideas of things that ARE unique to the character.

So I just sent a really long message about how I’m gonna leave because I TRIED to peacefully and calmly settle the issue, but everyone was willing to just attack me DESPITE complimenting me before, and not listen to me at all despite showing my Timelapses to show my thought process. And then for the person who started this whole thing to suddenly feel “unsafe” despite the fact that I was the one being attacked.

So, one of my friends (me and 3 others joined because we wanted to be a part of a community) stayed in the server, either that one or an 18+ one to see what happens after or for anyone to try and talk to me through her, and one of the mods did contact her, super sweet like:

“Hey I’m so sorry your friend went through that, we had a talk with the others, we don’t think Chari (me) did anything wrong and we’re gonna make a ticket system so things never escalate like this again, so if they want to join back at all, they are free to, again, we’re so sorry, we don’t let these things slide without a reaction.”

Anyway, I haven’t joined back since, because I said that I would if the person who called me out apologised, and, if I DID rejoin, I should get an apology from the people who escalated everything (bit immature I know and I did state that), but the mod kindly explained that she wouldn’t apologise and would just leave if I joined back, so I just decided that, instead of chasing her out of possible safe spaces by just existing, I was just gonna stick to talking about it with my friends and maybe in the future join another server, which I haven’t done yet. Also there was some Vace lovers /j

So yeah, fun story lol, I wonder how they’re getting on and I do hope the project is going well for them.

Might also add some more patterns and details to some parts of Ocellus and make an Ocellus mod, not out of spite at all, I promise, but because I really wanna do something with them and I really wanna make mods.

Also, despite how it seems, I’m not actually mad, I find this haha funny. I was also stressed and annoyed at the time but not exactly angry.

[metrovaliz]

Hi guys, I've been discharged from a psychiatric hospital.

And then, when I was driving to my native Mukhosransk, I threw up in the car

I am a winner in life

In short, it doesn't really matter, at least it made me feel better.

Well, my wife's tumblr account was blocked today

Ask me where my wife came from at the age of seventeen, and even in such a homophobic country as Russia... Well, we're just friends, but more than friends, and I jokingly proposed to her... So yes, we are married.

I don't know why her account was blocked at all, she didn't post anything like that, we also wanted to make a collage as if she (I) was an invader zim girl and she was a jthm girl, like in the meme

But then I was placed in a psychiatric hospital, and I was not up to cooperation, because once a day we were given phones for 30 minutes in VK, I had a delay so that others would not suspect that I was there, well, I did not have time to queue anything in the timer, and in general, I had to I would like to translate some of my content from Russian into English... In short, I didn't have enough time for all of this.

But now I'm here.

I'm not taking antidepressants right now because I've been drinking them for almost a year, although I haven't completely gotten rid of depression yet, but it's fixable, I guess

And the voice actor Gustav from metal family came to our psychiatric hospital, the one who shouted "Sebastian, where's the sharpener?!?" No, damn it, the sharpener, where is Sebastian, ahaha

Well, he brought a guitar, he played it and sang songs. They gave me a trinket for "the song of the king and the fool," and one kid from a mental hospital tried to take it away from me because they were jealous and I was supposedly not a real fan, but I hid it in my room, and now I took it home.

Well, at the end of the performance, this voice actor hugged us, and I asked if he understood the Goth subculture. Goth is a musical subculture of images, and music plays a big role there, and he replied that, of course, as a Goth it was nice

In fact, everything was not quite smooth in the psychiatric hospital, my drawing was torn... But what can you do

Basically, if it wasn't for the psychiatric hospital, I would have continued to hear voices in my head saying "kill yourself."

So to some extent I love the psychiatric hospital and I am grateful to it

Anyway, now I'm back... I have even more work to do, because in the psychiatric hospital I made a lot of sketches in a notebook, and I have to finish them all.

Life is a pain :_)

Well, okay, I'm not really complaining, I'm fine

[i-eat-worlds]

Hey! So. I don't actually know your OCs, as I'm new here. So tell me about them? And what whump they'll fit in particular, pls?

this is the ask of all time, thank you!

I have a vast, vast collection of many OCs, but we’ll do the Alex & Friends crew cause they’re my mains! I’ve a new series starting soon, so you might seen them floating around here soon.

For context, A&F is set in a modern superhero universe. Rest of ramble under cut! Because I am a little verbose lol

We’ll start with Alex, since she’s like. In the title.

Image ID: A traditional pencil sketch bust of a white woman. Her hair is in a ponytail, and her bangs are long and cover her eyes. Her expression is neutral. Written beside her his “Alex” and below that is “@fishbaitinc. /End ID]

I tend to describe her as a “wet cat with sharp claws.” She suffers from a case of the world’s worst boss (he got her tortured for a few years, among other things). She’s a sleep deprived mess who spends the entire series bleeding, sopping wet, or often both. She’ll bite your arm if you startle her. I love her and she needs so much therapy. People love and care about you sweetheart I promise they aren’t all awful. Whump wise, she’s good for self sacrifice, hidden injury, and defiant whumpee, and recovery whump. Also crying.

This is my man, Joseph:

[Image ID: A traditional pencil sketch bust of a white man. He has hair with a long top and short sides. His eyes are wider, but his expression is still pretty neutral. Written beside her his “Joseph” and below that is “@fishbaitinc.” /End ID]

This is Joseph he’s a paramedic* (it’s complicated). I love him. I also should probably be nicer to him but eh. He is, in fact, just as screwed up as Alex, but he’s got some distance between a good portion of his Big Traumas, and a good support network. He’s also in a 10 year long mutual pinning situation with his old roommate and sometimes coworker Aaron. It’s not pertinent to the plot really, but it’s important that he’s trans. To me. Personally. He’s also a vehicle for my passion for medical hyper accuracy, and he’s grand fun to play with.

He’s good for all sorts of whump: forced to watch, medical whump, overworking, and stern but gentle caretaking

Next, a personal fave, Avia

[Image ID: A picrew by @/cherrycarat that shows a person with tan skin, dark eyes, and short black hair. They’re wearing a pink shirt and a blue jacket, and have a gold earring in their right ear. /End ID] This is Avia. I love her. I should do more with her. She kicks more ass than most of her teammates, and she’ll probably beat you at Mario kart too. Blood isn’t really her thing. She’s a responsible third who might just win the Turquoise Team mental health award.

Whump: Self surgery, good patient, anything severe that gets her bloody and miserable. I need to hurt her more.

Now for our tragic baby, Pat

[Image ID: A picrew by @/maetheellen the shows a white person with green eyes and red hair in two high buns. She has a scar over her left eye. She is wearing two unmatched earrings, and has a nose piercing. /End ID]

Oh Pat. My sweet child. She deserved so much better than what she got (and it’s my own damn fault). I love her to death. She’s survived so much, and she was able to recover and grow and find joy and people who cared about her. And it wasn’t enough.

She hurts me deeply. If you want to share this agony with me look here

One more, and then I’ll shut up lol. Teri!

[Image ID: A picrew by cherrycarat that shows a person with dark skin, long brown hair, and dark eyes. She’s wearing a purple scarf, headphones, and a geometrically pattered yellow button up. /End ID]

This is Teri. She got a doctorate, and she can magically throw objects at you with her mind. She’s the only person on this team whose food I would eat. She’s the team’s resident tech person, and she knows secrets that INSUPA would rather her not. One day she’s gonna cause a lot of trouble and I love her.

[femmmie]

I just don't want to be perceived anymore

Author's note: I'm so sorry about this lmao. This is all FICTION

word count: 691 rating: general read on AO3

The room was brightly lit. Cloudy blue wallpaper, calathea plants on shelves, a cat purring in on a small soft stool.

"I guess it's just really hard, you know? Or, maybe not hard... It's weird. Off."

"Please, elaborate?"

The therapist's smile was kind, and Anthony felt at ease with her. He sat on the couch as she sat behind her desk, not facing him directly. It made him feel more relaxed.

"You see... I've been 'on camera' for twenty years now. Sure, I've had my ups and downs, different looks, different eras. Still..." Anthony scratched the back of his neck. "It's like every time I see myself on camera now, I can't help but measure it to my best days. So I always lose."

"Why do you compare yourself to past versions? They are never coming back."

"No, and that's the problem. I'm beginning to see my losing battle with time. Little wrinkles, different kind of face shape..."

"Face shape?" The therapist raised her eyebrow.

"I know, I'm being very vain. And I know it's a part of life and it happens to everyone, if they're lucky to live long enough. Except Oprah of course, she's Benjamin Buttonning."

"Anthony. Let's stay on topic. Obviously everyone ages. But you've done more than age. I'm talking about your tattoos."

Anthony looked at his arms. Long brush strokes ran all the way down them, even over his fingers. He turned his hands. One palm was entirely covered in ink. "I really like them."

"Obviously you do. But, do you think you getting them has something to do with your self-image?"

"I just really enjoy getting them set, and I feel like I am expressing a truth from within me, on the outside. So maybe it does."

You said you're comparing yourself. Did you do that before?"

"I did. I've really done it my entire life. I've never felt like I was enough..."

Anthony looked out of the window. It was a sunny day in California, like always.

"How come?"

"You know my life's story by now, you know why. I can't help it, and I really am trying to work through it, but I don't want to broadcast an embarrassing set of displays of mental breakdown like I did when I first left."

"Left?"

"Smosh."

"Right. Is that all, though?"

"No, of course not."

"Please, Anthony, don't make me pry it out of you." The therapist shot Anthony a look and he laughed.

"Alright. So. I just don't want to be perceived anymore. This last year has been so so good, truly. Buuuut, I've also noticed myself falling into old patterns again. I keep trying to get validation from strangers, it's so addictive. I know better and still I keep doing it.

Anthony sighed.

"And now I have Ian back, it feels... sacred? What we have now, it's so special, truly, right? Like, we've won the lottery, we got our soulmates ending, we did the whole Your Name thing. And making the sketches together has been magical."

He fought back a sob.

"But when we're doing these public appearances, videos, podcasts and all the rest, people I don't know get to butt in on that sacred space. And I don't want them to see, you know? We're finally in such a good place and I don't want it to get contaminated."

The cat jumped from its stool and pushed it's little body against Anthony's tattooed calf. It purred loudly, and left Anthony no other choice than to pet it.

"Have you two done things together that you haven't shared with strangers online?"

Anthony's face lit up. "Yes, and those are the best days. We're in fact planning a short trip to Europe together right now."

"That's good. And do you think this holiday will make you feel differently about all of this?"

"No. In fact, I have made up my mind. I am taking a step back. I will be on screen a little, here and there, but that's it. It's been a long career. And I am ready to retire."

"Fair enough. How does that make you feel?"

"At peace, honestly. At peace."

[badlibbing]

So I read The Screwtape Letters over the weekend...

I enjoyed it a lot, especially the absolute shitlord of a character that is Screwtape himself. I felt a powerful need to draw him and Wormwood, except of course they have no physical descriptions, so I got to design them myself!

(Is this my first time sharing raw sketches here? I think it is.)

DESIGN NOTES:

I wanted to make them look pretty alien overall, since Screwtape emphasizes multiple times the unearthly nature of demons. I started with their heads, giving them humanoid base features and just sort of messing around until I got something I liked. I knew from the beginning that I didn't want them to have hair, but they looked weird without anything on their heads, and stereotypical demon horns didn't fit the image I was going for. I started thinking about their names; specifically the "tape" in Screwtape and the "worm" in Wormwood. The former gave me mental images of something flat, so I went with a sort of flaccid fin structure (I like to imagine it sticks up straight when he's emotional). The latter, naturally, evoked images of tendrils, so that practically designed itself.

You're probably wondering about those legs now. I originally intended to make them bipedal, but then I remembered an interesting detail in the book; Screwtape has a lot of snarky nicknames for humans, and among them are a couple that specifically mention their number of legs. He calls human beings "two-legged animals" in one instance, then "hairless bipeds" in another. This implies that demons themselves are not bipedal. When I realized this, I tried to think up a centaur-like body plan, but it didn't look quite right. So I got a little creative and ended up giving them four legs without a typical quadrupedal body. It ended up working nicely with my desire to make them alien-looking.

Finally, let's talk clothes... or lack thereof. I wanted to dress them at first, but in addition to not being able to come up with anything fitting, I asked myself why demons would wear clothes anyway. The obvious human-centric answer would be "to cover up their nads", but remember, folks, these aren't humans. I recalled a part in the book where Screwtape mentions that demons don't understand the feeling of lust despite its use as a vessel of sin. A complete lack of lust within demons implies asexual reproduction (and therefore no sex organs), which makes sense considering the emphasis placed on their unearthly qualities. Of course, this begs the question of why demons in the book refer to one another with male pronouns and titles. That's a simple answer; even if only one gender (or none at all depending on how you look at it) exists within a society, those folks still use pronouns, so my guess is the demons borrowed male ones from human society as a default.

That's all I have to say about my Screwtape and Wormwood designs! If the lore I mentioned sounds interesting, I recommend reading The Screwtape Letters for yourself. Even if you're not religious, or religious and not Christian, it's an entertaining read. It's also quite short, which is how I was able to blast through the whole thing in less than two days.

I'm bad at outros. Goodnight!

[silentwillowwhisperer]

I'm finally doing it.

Hi! Ummm... I'm pretty sure you've noticed the fact that I haven't posted the tattoo parlor thing for the past 2 weekends, but Imma do it now.

HUGE thanks to @multi-fandom-collection for their ideas!!! I'm gonna be using a few. (Some will come later though.)

I'm currently sketching out a tattoo for Lance, and I'll either do watercolor accents or just do the whole thing digitally.

By the way, here's a fun fact about me! I'd like to be a tattoo artist at some point. I have a mini-fantasy of opening a tattoo parlor that connects to a flower shop.

------------------------------------------------

Keith spent the next half hour asking Lance basic questions about why he wanted the tattoo, and what he had in mind.

As the other man spoke, Keith found himself drawn into his bubbly personality. Sure, he came off as rude and a bit cocky, but he could tell that Lance was a naturally friendly person.

Keith still ignored the various pick up lines hurled at him, though.

Apparently Lance had been wanting to do this for a while, and his friends had taken matters into their own hands. They placed a bet with him that they knew he would lose, but everyone knows that Lance can't back down from a bet.

As Lance mentioned something about getting his ears pierced, and Keith found himself imagining Lance like that. Hiding his blush, he made a mental note to ask Shiro about that. He was fine sticking needles in people, but it freaks him out to see it come out the other side. Whenever he gets a new piercing, he has to ask Shiro to get rid of the mirror. If he can't see what's happening, then he doesn't mind the pain too much.

Keith is derailed from his train of thought when he realizes that Lance is holding a phone in his face.

As he takes the device, he takes note of the Forget Me Nots and blue Hydrangeas dotting his phone case.

The image Lance is showing him is one of Keith's own designs. Its a purpleish-gray dagger surrounded by roses.

Shut up, Keith's allowed to be cliché sometimes.

"I noticed that you put a lot of flowers into your art. Could we maybe do something with that? I was thinking about going for a blue theme. I don't really mind what flowers you choose. And could we replace the dagger with a lion?"

Keith smiles. All his last client told him was that she wanted something 'aesthetic.' That's it. It makes Keith's job a whole lot easier when people actually know what they want tattooed onto their body for the rest of their damn life.

He grabs the nearest sketchbook and doodles a rough design of a lion.

"Like this?"

Lance nods excitedly. "Yes! Thank you! This is awesome."

It's so sincere that Keith decides to give Lance another shot. He holds out his hand.

"Hi. I'm Keith, and right now is gonna officially be our first time meeting. I have had no crappy first impressions of you, and as far as I know, you have no association to Allura."

Lance grins and returns the handshake. "Oh, thank goodness. I was honestly worried that you were gonna hate my guts for the rest of time. And my name is Lance. It's nice to meet you, Keith."

The both laugh for a second before Lance glances at the clock.

"Oh crap! I'm late to help Hunk out with his baking! See ya, Keith!"

Keith chuckles as he watches Lance race to his car through the window.

Thank goodness not all cute boys are jerks.

Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

[pretty-pink-seaslug]

Right so this is Simon Lovelace! He’s 23 at the time of PostIncident!Crystal (25 by the time Crystal’s 16) He runs a nightclub (been debating with myself lately whether he owns it or is the manager)

(As you can see his concept sketch image contradicts what I've typed out, that's because that sketch was from august of last year lol) ((also if you click on the right pic he's only holding a heart yall CHILL))

As you can guess I’ve been building his personality and lore in my head, but so far;

His personality: He’s suave, eccentric, very confident in himself, and very loving! He likes to sing, dance, and in general have fun, and make sure those around him are having a good time as well. In general, despite what you’d think with him being a years experienced heartbreaker, a very lively person!

Lore: I don’t have too much built up yet but before him getting the job as a heartbreaker, his major events go like this; He used to be in a circus performing as an acrobat with Attilio (Surprise bww oc + canon tie in! He’s Attilio’s cousin!) and he eventually quit either when the circus went down or when he just felt like it -> a distance started growing between him and his mom for an unknown reason -> he meets Madre, they talk and have a auntie and nephew relationship because 💝 -> his mom eventually cuts him off, in turn distancing him a lil from the rest of his family (still thinking this one out) -> he meets Madre once again and gets the job offer, he promptly takes it because yeah (still also thinking this one out like the reason as to why)

this post is already long enough (I just keep yappin and yappin) so tidbits under the cut!

Tidbit time!! My favorite!!

He can drive both a car (Havent decided on what kind of car yet but it's definitely a very nice looking one +..｡*ﾟ+) and a motorcycle! Do not expect to draw EITHER of these lol I can barely draw weapons

Crystal has a sort of puppy love crush on him (ﾉ∀`) ehehehehehe-

Back when Crystal was still 14 and still reeling from The Incident, Simon tried his best to help her heal, even though he knew he didnt have to since like he's only her job trainer, he still wanted to because he has this innate need to help people where he can <33

-> His help came in the form of ego building and self care! He basically taught her to compliment herself more, how to take better care of herself, and indulge in things that make her happy. It worked! (obviously it didnt heal her all the way because that's not how trauma works- it just helped her to be in less mental and emotional pain)

He can SANG my boy got pipes <3 aside from that (or affiliated with idk) I havent fully decided on a voice claim for him, but so far I'm thinking the main vocals on Tears of Love by SUI UZI is pretty nice (SUI UZI GOATED SUI UZI GOATED)

I was originally debating on whether he should be hispanic, italian, or french, and then while thinking about him being italian I got this idea screaming in my head like *slams fist on table* "DUDE ATTILIO!!!1!!!1!11" So now he's italian! Hooray!

Still thinking about a final design for him graghhgggh

I got his surname from Garcia Lovelace off Black Lagoon (was on a huge Black Lagoon kick when first thinking up his name)

[motionjames]

Wake up girlies, it's time to return to the frontline!

Guess who has insomniaaaa! 🤗💕💕

A month of cramps, nausea, increasingly worse insomnia (but a strangely good mood) has lead me down the path once again. I caught wind of some strange "gfl2" thing and after being struck with nostalgia, I grabbed bluestacks and fell into hell once more. I'd deleted gfl off my phone simply because it took too much space but now that it's on my computer, it's become DANGEROUS...! Github and clip studio up front with logistics running forever in the background. Yes, the ideal working experience.

Anyhow, everyone say hello to Contender.

I've been making more progress in these past two days than I had in the entire two months I spent with my new account because I realized how to (partially) Not Be An Idiot. Turns out there's a thing called "anchored construction" and you can get some pretty nice units (eventually) if you realize it exists! Wow! I got the girly and now I'm working on grabbing Carcano because she is pretty but also insane skillz.

Also, there's a discounted gatcha running right now and that means I can finally get over my mental block and spend tokens... I was surprised at how easy it's been to acquire them, so I've just been shilling em out. My dorm was totally bare until now. I'm sorry, everynyan...

As for actual gameplay, I finally made it past 2-6. It might seem like a simple thing to most but I was yet again, being an idiot. I was under the impression that I HAD to have dupes of the girls to dummy link them when I actually was swimming in dummy cores 🤦🏽‍♂️ What's wrong with me... Well, I jumped over that hurdle, blasted through the emergency missions, and am finishing chapter 3. The first parts arent so bad when you learn how to read! 😃😃😃

First eschalon is good, it's the standard one that everyone seems to use to clear the early game. This second one is a WIP mess that I'm readying for night missions. You see, I'm really hurting for half-decent SMGs and rifles, the second one there is kinda lacking in defense/fire power... I wanna create a decent second eschalon and night mission groupie but I gotta figure out what units to invest in. I hope for Carcano soon. She is cute. Also, feel free to berate me for my bad decisions and suggest decent compositions. I am so lacking in SMGs that dont immediately explode (mpk you are so cute but so stupid). I'm currently looking at friend's compositions to figure out what formations work...

In completely different news and only further proving how dense I am, I only recently learned that Girl of the Bakehouse was related to GFL. I've had my eye on Reverse Collapse for a while now since it's a remake (of a remake?! I didnt play the previous one) of a visual novel I played in 2012 or so. The original vn was made in 2009 in like Kirikiri script and I was a young lad very fixated on all things with girls and guns (Gunslinger Girl was and still is a favorite of mine, I would've read it one summer at my Uncle's out on the front porch). There's an english patch now, but back then it was only in Chinese so I had to use text extracting and image translators, looking up the characters as I went. I got a cup of coco and opened up a patched version last night for old times sake. It's clearly a doujin work with those rough edges but it's so damn confident in its presentation you can't not get swept up in the presentation. The sound work make it very immersive. I highly reccomend reading it if you want a solid, emotional war story. Looking at the sepia soaked sketches, down-to-earth narrative, dense wordbuilding and general war otaku sentimentality... It really predicted a lot of my tastes, huh... 😅

Behold, teh wolfguy...

Back to work. Logistics still running. I can and WILL continue being stupid. The nostalgia is really strong, I'm tempted to draw fanart despite the sour memories of the past. Again, please berate me and tell me of your team compositions. I think my ID is 772030 but I promise you, I won't be any good on teh battlefield 😇 this machine runs off hopes and dreams, not realities!

[gamebunny-advance]

Grab Bag Doodles

Nothing really feels "right" anymore. I dunno, I just feel creatively bankrupt as of late. But nonetheless, I still find some occasions to put the pen nib to the tablet.

Notes under the cut.

1-2) A few attempts at some different "mini Kun3h0s." I'd like her mini form to look fairly consistent across appearances, some I'm trying to work out a good simplified look for her.

3-5) Misc. Kun3h0 Sketches. Still getting a feel for drawing her more consistently. I keep drifting back towards her original proportions. Also the rare semi-x-ray view. I've done a lot more recently, but I just wanted to post a small sampling since they're all essentially the same.

6) Sweetie & Katrina doodle. Going through the old posts made me a little nostalgic, so I drew a couple of the girlies from TPS. No, the show really hasn't aged that well, but it's always gonna a special place in my heart.

7) Mini!Kul Fyra + Young Kliff. Silly doodle trying to solidify their young designs. You can still see the original sketch underneath the new one, so you can probably tell that originally Fyra was supposed to be picking up Kliff by his shirt collar. It's my headcanon that at some point she just started carrying him around like luggage because it was more convenient.

8) Puppet Party. A call back to this doodle from a while back. I originally joked that how sinister the image was depended on how you interpreted Kliff as a character, so here's that more sinister take on the idea. But I'm not that into it, so I doubt I'm gonna come back for it.

9-12) Animal Crossing Open Seas character sketches. Some terribly rough sketches of a few NPCs from Open Seas. I'm not happy with any of them yet, but I hope that I'll find the motivation to put more work into them.

First are "The Katz," the potential cover band that teaches you how to play different instruments in exchange for food. I don't have names for any of them yet and I'm not even sold on them being cats.

The Faraway Museum Curator. This sketch really isn't close to what I want for them. I'd like something more "wise" and imposing looking to contrast with the kind of bumbling Blathers. I'm thinking that they're a stoic looking character that nonetheless gets really giddy when you show a genuine interest in the museum. Kind of like a tsundere, but they're old.

Brewster's Apprentice. I think they're supposed to be a budgie, but I honestly can't remember XP. I haven't developed them at all~

Castaway Creature. Implied to be the mayor that got lost during "the incident". They got washed up on a small neighboring island and have been living there ever since. The idea was to completely obscure what kind of animal they originally were, so their fur has grown out and matted so much that most of their features have been obscured. I need to refine it, but I think they're really cute. I have a distinct mental image of them waddling around and wagging their tail when you give them something nice. I'll try to detail exactly what they do in the "Boats" post for Open Seas.

Snowman Seal Villager. An idea for a potential seal villager. I think the seal lends itself to a snowman-esque design, so I made one. The name isn't set in stone, but I've taken to calling them "Snowbert" for the time being. Alternative name suggestions are welcome~

I have a few more sketches of both seal and ferret designs, but this one is the most complete right now.

[ladyhoneydee]

30 Day Song(fic) Challenge: Day 4

The prompt today for my Song(fic) Challenge was "song you listened to most recently". I must admit I did a little fudging on this--I simply couldn't come up with something for the song I'd most recently listened to ("Standing Next to You" by Jungkook, for those curious), so I opened up a playlist made for me by a beloved irl friend and fellow zelink writer, Gourdkin. What played was the instrumental piece "Elk (Acoustic)" by TTNG, and the trumpets set to peaceful guitar took me immediately to the mental image of...a goron in a forest. Of course, there's only one iconic goron consistently found in a forest in the LoZ series to my knowledge: Gorko!

Written in Stone

Game: Skyward Sword, very early on in the game

Pairing: None

Word Count: 847

Keywords: character study, peaceful

“Goddess, if you want to send down one of your sky people to teach me, I would appreciate it!” he calls up to the heavens. The angle strains his neck, and he tips his chin back down with a rumbled laugh. He’ll never meet such a person, of course, but it sure is nice to dream. 

Read the fic on Ao3, or under the cut!

You might think the woods are no place for a goron, and you might be right. But Gorko had never been great at listening to public opinion. His ears had always been tuned to the voices of those long past, after all. Even though, as he’d once heard from his Papa Stone before setting off, that archaeology and myth were no fields for a goron—lava fields were. He’d just let the words roll right off the plating of his back, and left them there on the igneous ground between them.

Gorko has been outside the Sealed Grounds for the greater part of two weeks now. His most recent pilgrimage—back from Lanayru, the mines of which being the other location he can’t stay away from—is set with supplies of felsite and basalt from home for three more moons, and then he’ll need to move on. But for now, he finds himself back at the temple. 

During the mornings, like any archaeologist worth his rock salt, Gorko gets to work at studying the temple. Over the years, he’s very carefully tested the stone from which it’s built (he has a very refined, built-in palette for such a thing, after all) and gone on field trips to the overgrown open-air mine two leagues away that the stone was quarried from. He’s detailed blueprints of the structure’s exterior and endless sketches of the carvings etched into it. A few times, the old woman who lives alone there has allowed him inside the temple, and he very respectfully recorded every observation he could. He’s hopeful that she’ll grant him entry this time, too.

In the afternoons, Gorko indulges in racing down the huge pit in the temple grounds, gleefully gathering speed along the downward spiral. He’s gotten his overall time down to a mere two minutes, without cutting any corners by dropping a level. It’s quite impressive, if he says so himself.

At night, he camps out below the stars, chowing down into a rock roast or tossing back handfuls of gravel, and he imagines the joy of someday having an apprentice he can share all his research with. 

This morning, Gorko has switched tracks a little, so to speak. Rather than the temple or its grounds, he’s investigating the bird statue outside its eastern border. He’s always found it intriguing—a landmark for people coming up or down from the sky? How would people up in the clouds notice such a little marker? They’d have better luck aiming for the big honking temple just a few dozen paces to the west, surely! It’s a shame the whole thing has long been papered over with lichens and mosses, and the runes on its surface weathered by the Faron region’s annual rainy seasons, or else maybe it would have more information for him. All Gorko’s been able to find about the bird statues, to date, comes from dusty scrolls and tomes.

After pacing circles around the statue, recording every detail in his sketchbook—it’s the same as any other sprinkled across the land, down to the purple shade of the old paint, but he’s nothing if not thorough—Gorko pauses in the center of the clearing to study it from a greater distance.

He’s always been fond of the birds featured on each of the statues. All the same variety, no matter the region a particular statue might be found in. He’s never seen a bird quite like them, even among the waterbirds near Lake Floria and the waterways between regions, and he wonders what importance they must have held to those long-ago civilizations. On his most homesick of days, when he misses the sulfur scent of the mountain and the taste of his Papa Stone’s obsidi-bites, it’s a comfort to see the big-billed bird in the desert vistas of Lanayru or the tucked-away temple hidden in the depths of Faron.

Great goddess, he wishes he were able to swim, and not just sink like a rock! Someday he’ll make it across the water and through that tantalizing koi-mouth entryway, instead of just sketching its contours from the shade of a nearby tree. Maybe he should ask the kikwis and the Water Dragon for permission to cut down some trees to build a bridge, one of these days. But he digresses. 

Gorko shifts his weight to one leg and rubs his chin thoughtfully, as the sun creeps higher overhead. Once again, a morning spent coming up with more new questions than answers. But then, that’s the whole reason he’s here. And there, and everywhere, and not just sitting at home in the same dusty mine all day. To learn, and learn, and learn.

But sometimes, it would be nice to get some answers…

“Goddess, if you want to send down one of your sky people to teach me, I would appreciate it!” he calls up to the heavens. The angle strains his neck, and he tips his chin back down with a rumbled laugh. He’ll never meet such a person, of course, but it sure is nice to dream. 

In the distance, a bone horn blows.