main is @dead-finch-420 • tes/oc account • header by noonfrost •🔞 sometimes • chronic case of girlkisseritis
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redid my sdra2 oc's sheet :] stayed up till 4 am looking for the right fonts, but it was worth it!!! please throw tomatoes at my snake daughter 🫶 now kokoro has TWO women at her throat
WIP WEDNESDAYYYY I got tagged yesterday by @saltymaplesyrup so thank you!!! I'm highkey i'm two days late but that's okay :]
tagging everyone who sees this!!
designing an sdra2 oc or whatever... releasing my mob doctor FREAK out into the wild soon... the power went out while i was making her, surely that doesn't wasn't an omen of some sort!!
Chapter length: 14,842 words.
Content warnings: none.
As always, mind the tags.
Teaser:
“You’ll tap a hole in the counter.”
Serana lifted her head, blinking back to attention to the sound of a man’s voice speaking over her shoulder. The pencil in her hand stopped in the air, and her eyes drifted downward - to the black dot she’d repeatedly marked out with thoughtless motions. In front of her, a sheet of paper; the letter, blank as the moment she’d started ‘writing’ it several minutes ago.
“R-Right… I apologize,” a stuttered reply squeezed from Serana’s throat while she pointedly avoided making eye contact. Just then, a man’s heavy hand set down a metal tankard just in front of her, sliding it forward across the counter. Inside, an amber-colored liquid swirled about, a thin layer of white froth bubbling at the tankard’s edges.
“Ale. Just brewing a new batch,” the barkeep’s voice explained as Serana glanced up at him, quizzical. A pause followed, as though he had expected that reply to be sufficient in and of itself, until the contrary had been made clear. He grunted, and tossed a rag over his shoulder once he was done wiping down the tap from which the drink came. “Looked like you could use a drink.”
Hey all!
So that "month long break" thing turned out to be a lie :D
I'm gonna be fully real, this chapter should not have taken as long as it did, but life just sorta spun me out in the past couple months. A family member had to get surgery and I was saddled with several big projects in an area I've never worked in before, so things have been… interesting, to put it one way.
Anyhow, I'm gonna bite my tongue and try not to make major promises this time around so as to not renege on them ahead of time. I'm posting this thing more or less unedited because I just woke up, finished the final scene, and I am kind of sick at staring at this document already lmfao. The next chapter is already in the outlining stage.
In the meantime, if you haven't seen it already, I did recently write up and publish a worldbuilding document I had made for Sovngarde to internally piece together how it works and how it fits into the world's cosmology, which can be found here. While it is technically for the fic, it does not contain any major spoilers.
Teeechnically not WIP anymore since I posted the chapter yesterday, but it sure is a Wednesday :)
Got tagged last week by @ego-osbourne, @mareenavee, and @chiqita! Thank you all <3
Forwarding to @sulphuricgrin, @kookaburra1701, @skyrim-forever, @trickstarbrave, @paraparadigm, @gilgamish, @dead-finches, @dirty-bosmer, @truth-01001001-liar, and whoever else likes their dragon gods nice and fucked up.
Today on the docket: Serana encounters Alduin for the first time :)
Fragment length: 694 words.
She was outside, sitting at the edge of the courtyard as the sun shone the last of its few daylight hours over the Karthspire. Tap-tap, tap. Somewhere behind her, Erik was still trying to practice the flourish that lost him three separate spars, drumming away at the dummy’s wooden sword with drilled motions while Esbern gave him pointers: short edge up to receive, rotate the wrist, down to overtake, forward and repeat. Tap-tap. Short edge up, rotate the wrist, long edge down, point forward and repeat. Serana knew in her heart she could not repeat the motions if given the chance. She knew them by rote just from listening to him mutter.
Tap, tap. A sigh.
Serana lifted her head and let her gaze fall forward without aim. She was afraid of heights. She never had to think about this information until half a year ago - not that she would have had many chances to find out in the first place. It was… odd. Feeling her legs dangle down, with nothing underneath. The way her gaze instinctively stopped just shy of the edge, and a pit opened up in her stomach at the mere suggestion of moving it even an inch further. Tap, tap-tap, tap.
She didn’t know why she picked this place to sit over all the others. It was not conducive to thought. It did nothing but distract every time her brain short-circuited into awareness, forcing her to lull it back to sleep. Tap, tap, tap. A pointless little exercise in sanity.
But it did feel strangely nice to let her legs hang off the edge. Tap, tap. Feeling the wind in her hair. It was colder now than it had been before. Erik would have to go indoors soon. Esbern certainly would. Tap. She wondered who would be making dinner today.
Tap, tap, tap.
It was cold.
Serana’s hand went still, and she lifted her gaze off the distant ground up at the sky. She hadn’t realized the sun had disappeared until she saw the metal-gray clouds staring back at her, a steel screen stretching up to the horizon, and the first flake of snow landed silently on the open page. With a small sound, the journal clapped shut with the pencil tucked between its pages. Serana furrowed her brows. She liked to believe she could trust her memory - within reason - but she could have sworn the clouds were not so near just a short while ago…
They were not staying still.
With alarmed haste, Serana scrambled back up to her feet and peeled her eyes into the distance as the clouded curtain overhead stretched impossibly onwards, as if pulled along by some invisible force through its weft. There was no wind, she could feel it - and yet forward they went, nebulous waveforms tearing at the fibers, tearing up, twine spun around an invisible spool that tugged them down, down, ever down towards the blackened scenery where the sky itself hung above like an opaque shadow. Her gaze narrowed; even a vampire’s vision was not without limits, but if she focused - really, really focused - she could have sworn the clouds were practically… collecting, far above a distant hill.
A single drop of ink fell down from them, and Serana felt like the back of her brain had been tenderly skewered.
She didn’t scream. She didn’t even make a sound. Only stood there, mouth open like a fish out of water, aware, suddenly and horrifyingly aware of a palpable lack where ventilatory reflex ought to be. Her diaphragm stuttered with imbecile contractions, static coursing through the inside of her ribs, the contents of her occital lobe leaking like brine through sand. Her thoughts broke.
After 18 months of on-and-off work on this task, I've finished concepting our set of lowerclass khajiit furniture for Beyond Skyrim: Elsweyr. This is a fraction of it selected by coolness factor :P
Our Khajiit furniture is designed with the varied morphologies of the Khajiit in mind, their communal nature, and the various parts of their daily life. You can catch a glimpse of the world in the materials used, depictions of wild & domestic animals, tools, spiritual beliefs and what they hang above their mantlepiece as a souvenir.
biker laezel comm for devotan on bsky ! thank you for commissioning! (and blessing the world with this concept HELLOOO) tried out a new shading style and I think it came out well!
Two weeks missed edition...!
Thank you to @chiqita and @kookaburra1701 for continuing to ping me <3
Forwarding this to @sulphuricgrin, @ego-osbourne, @trickstarbrave, @skyrim-forever, @mareenavee, @paraparadigm, @polypolymorph, @dead-finch-420, @kyneforged, @gilgamish, and anyone else interested!
Today on the docket: Big Fucking Infodumps, featuring Serana and the Blades
(I'm gonna be real this scene has been kicking my ass for the better part of the month now and it's driving me insane because of how dense it is, but alas it's important c':)
Total fragment length: 484 words.
“Where would we even begin searching?” The blonde woman beside Serana spoke up and she shot her a sharp glance. “Far as I understand, one of them just pulled out a scroll and-” she mimed a smoke puff with her hands, “-they vanished, Kyne only knows where. No trail, no clues.”
Serana’s throat squeezed dry at their words. There was no malice in their voices, but she sensed the undercurrents - felt the eyes slithering over her form in unspoken implication that made her gut twist up. She would prefer the blame; to have them say the quiet part aloud and spare her the awareness bubbling where the dead man’s words had been etched into her skull. If she had even one more thing, one tiniest detail to show for her efforts - she would have latched onto it and brought it to them in an instant.
The pause was dragging.
“No,” Fortunata suddenly spoke up, “the fact that they vanished is a clue.” She shifted in her seat, quickly turning to the older Blade beside her. “Esbern, I know you looked into this - did the Synod and Whisper-whatevers ever settle on who had rights to teleportation magic?”
“Hm? Oh, yes, yes, I remember…” Esbern lifted his hand to his chin, scratching his beard as he sifted through his mental library. “From what I was able to find, the conflict came down to management of the old teleportation network established by the Mages Guild. Since both organizations had their antecedents in the guild and inherited much of the membership, this posed a significant security risk - as porters from either side had access to the entire network, and neither side wanted the other spying on their premises. In the end, the Cyrodiilic court ruled that it would be impossible to enforce trespassing laws if both sides wanted to continue benefitting from the network, and ordered the existing infrastructure be completely dismantled in favor of new, closed-access portals usable only by their respective members…” The old man then trailed off, abruptly realizing he might have started rambling, and so cleared his throat to catch himself before turning to Fortunata. “Naturally, this meant that public access to teleportation had been restricted, as well. Quite thoroughly, I might add.”
“Right,” Fortunata nodded. “Which means that whoever we’re dealing with has ties high upstairs. And that narrows us down to…”
She paused, the triumph of drawing the conclusion swiftly marred by the understanding of what it actually means. A frown. Serana’s gaze flew between everyone’s faces, as the same dark expression gradually seeped into the wrinkles beneath their brows and pulled their lips tight. Of everyone present, only her face and Erik’s stayed light with ignorance. Fultheim seemed almost envious as he met her gaze and voiced everyone’s thoughts aloud:
“Either it was the Penitus Oculatus, the Emperor’s men… or the Thalmor.”
COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN AGAIN!! I've made an updated comm sheet that should more accurately reflect the product you'll get! You can find my portfolio + request to be on the wait list here!
VGen: (vgen.co/deadfinches)
Terms of Service: (tinyurl.com/finchTOS)
NOTE: I will not be taking any time sensitive commissions at the moment! Please expect wait times that may go up to a 3 months!
soooo embarrassing to get obsessed w a specific character when no one else gives a damn. like yeah heres post #574934. heres au idea #26482. heres art piece #9383. yes its all about the same person, yes i am rambling in the corner blair witch style. feel free to shoot me dead for this btw
*wakes up covered in cobwebs and rattling like a skeleton after not doing art for like five months and throws up dust* Bweh. Hi guys look at my baby :)
More notes under the cut:
So I realize in hindsight that I never actually shared the original for this one on tumblr, which I would say is a shame if not for the fact that I don't actually like the original that much lol. As such, I have decided to redraw it recently with some help from my historical fashion guru friend @thedeafprophet, leading to this little side-by-side:
This is an outfit that Saya wears to the New Life Festival held in Whiterun, which happens in Chapter 35 of Aad Semblio Impera. The original design was conceived back in 2022, and in hindsight definitely felt a little too "modern" even for the fantastical world of TES, not to mention completely weather-inappropriate.
(Which isn't to say that I completely solved those two things, but hey - at least now she doesn't have open thighs and a miniskirt lol)
One of the big things that I wanted was to preserve the overall shape language of the outfit - the layered skirts, the corset visually thinning the waist while the puffy upper body exaggerates the otherwise modest chest and provides contrast for the neck and toned shoulders. I also really wanted to keep the tall boots and I just really loved this riding boot design design I found on pinterest that I decided to exaggerate because I am a whore for tall boots and shan't apologize for being right.
As for the long gloves and the stockings... I dunno, bare skin didn't feel right and I didn't want more yellow. In the original it really looks more matte, but the intent was for the fabric to be more reminiscent of gold, which I think I managed a little bit better in this rendition. Instead I ended up having some trouble with my eraser so her skin ended up looking a bit more gray than intended, but that works out fine enough since I don't have a pencil matching her exact skin tone anyhow.
Anyway, to finish off the rant, I think I'm gonna tag a few moots who might be interested in seeing this, and if you aren't! I apologize in advance.
In the late Third Era, traveling alchemists are common between the smaller settlements that lack temples or other healing institutions. They also do a fair bit of business with adventurers, merchants, or foresters met on the road. Many are independent, but Mages Guild affiliation grants the most esteem (and better prices). Those are recognized by the standard uniform above.
Here's an outfitted guild alchemist with the tools of her trade:
A staff, carried mostly for self-defense. It also signifies that she has passed her apprenticeship, and probably knows what she's doing.
A basket, worn on the back, containing her kit. More on that below
A sickle for harvesting aerial plant parts
A knife purpose-built for digging up roots or stripping bark. It has to be sharpened often.
The hip pouch is used to carry small utilities-- trail snacks, seeds, twine, oilstone. The horn contains aqua vitae used as a base for her elixirs, and the small cone hanging to the left is used to measure doses.
A standard guild token. Our alchemist here had it enchanted to ward off poison ivy rash :)
And here's a look at the efficient little kit she uses to create her wares right in the field:
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