Hey all! I'm G.M. Gray (they/them), and I am currently publishing Triple Strike, a sci-fi comedy-adventure queer-romance light novel series with space pirates (but there are some other projects in the works as well!).
Interested in the Triple Strike series? You can learn more about here:
https://www.akula-games.com/projects/triplestrike
Or you can check out my Good Reads page here:
G. M. Gray has 1 book on Goodreads with 2 ratings. G. M. Gray’s most popular book is Triple Strike: Threads of Fate.
While my writing tends to be character-driven rather than technology-focused, consistent world-building is still important to me, as is plausible technology and cohesive cultures and politics (which is great most of the time, except when you're just wanting to make the characters kiss but they're busy discussing FTL...fml...).
In terms of influences, there are a lot but let's just say: Terry Pratchett, Ursula K Le Guin, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Mikhail Bulgakov, Zinaida Gippius, Leiji Matsumoto, 80s and 90s shounen anime (just...all of it), Mad Max movies, Metal Gear Solid, Team Ico games...
I wanted to draw Hildegarde and Shailen in a more shojo style.
Is their relationship sapphic, platonic, or "it's complicated"? Either way, it's definitely doomed by the timeline!
Plum blossoms in flower language represent loyalty, perseverance, and strength as they are the first flowers to emerge after the long, harsh winter. The other flower I considered is the spider lily, which is the flower of love, death, and final farewells, so take that as you will :D.
When I was younger everyone cared about Talk Like a Pirate Day. Every September 19th it'd be yars and shivers me timber all the way down, and people took delight in it. Now nobody ever talks like a pirate, on that day or any other. So few of us cling to the old ways. This is where our society went wrong. People not talking about pirates once a year, everything else about society is fine, probably
Triple Strike takes place 500 years in the future, and Talk Like a Pirate Day seems to be one of the few human holidays pyreans know about. Is this because it's the only human holiday still regularly celebrated across all human cultures, or is it because it's the only human holiday pyreans care about? The universe may never know...it's definitely the latter.
“And Talk Like a Pirate Day.”
Dirk gave up trying to hold his peace. “Lance, there’s no way that’s a real thing.”
“It is!” Lance insisted. “It’s a celebration humans created to foster cross-cultural exchange after first contact.”
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day and retroactively fostering cross-cultural exchange with interstellar space pirates!
Art for the Triple Strike newsletter! I'm trying to put out quarterly updates via a newsletter (as it is the least repulsive social media to me lol), and it's also a good excuse to draw some fun original pieces rather than just working on assets all day >_<.
If you are at all interested in learning what I'm currently working on, feel free to sign up for the newsletter linked on the main Triple Strike page. You info will of course not be shared with anyone for any reason.
Colin's base sprite from the Triple Strike detective game I am feeling compelled to work on. First act is written, so now I'm alternating between sprite work and programming. At least my sprite process is getting faster~.
A sprite from a visual novel style game I've started working on, because I've been playing way too much Phoenix Wright. Alan's pants do come off, but don't expect steamy content in the game, because Alan is too ace and too busy solving mysteries to notice everyone hitting on him lol.
It's that time of year when Tumblr celebrates Easter by posting pictures of crucified anime characters, and inevitably somebody in the notes will pop up to helpfully explain that crucifixion imagery has no cultural significance in Japanese media because Japan is only about 1% Christian, which bugs me because it's completely wrong.
It's true that in the majority of cases, crucifixion in Japanese cartoons isn't meant to be conveying any specific theological message, but something Western audiences are likely to miss is that a large portion of those random crucifixion scenes are referencing Ultraman.
Ultraman's creator was a devout Roman Catholic who explicitly intended the titular hero to read as a Christ figure, and consequently, various Ultramen have been crucified on multiple unconnected occasions throughout the franchise's history. Crucifixion scenes in Japanese cartoons are often directly name-checking particular crucifixion incidents from Ultraman, right down to emulating the compositions and camera angles of specific shots. It's like an especially morbid version of the Akira slide.
The upshot is that, while it's true that the inclusion of gratuitous crucifixion scenes in Japanese cartoons typically has no (intentional) theological message, stating that they have no cultural significance is incorrect. A large chunk of the Japanese viewing audience are going to see them and immediately go "hey, that's an Ultraman reference".
Anyway, as an image tax, have a shot of four crucified Ultramen miraculously resurrecting a fifth Ultraman by shooting laser beams out of their hearts:
having mutuals who are really into pro wrestling is so funny because one post will be like "i cant believe Cock Puncher Daryl still has a career after he got arrested for arson" and then they reblog 8 gifsets of what looks like gay bdsm
I created this cocktail to celebrate Heaven Official's Blessing season 2 release! For me, the negroni is an obvious cocktail to represent Hua Cheng (strong, bitter, secret sweetness...extremely red), and the fact that Calamity brand gin works well for the negroni is kind of perfect haha. Blood oranges add a bit more sweetness than a standard negroni but it is still fundamentally a very bitters-heavy cocktail.
Recipe:
1 part gin.
1 part Campari.
1 part dry vermouth.
A splash of blood orange
Mix ingredients together in a shaker and serve over ice. Add a slice of blood orange for garnish.
“Okay,” Dirk said, realizing their research was getting them nowhere. “What holidays did we figure out again?”
“Valentine’s Day for sure,” Lance said with complete confidence, and though Dirk disagreed based on his conversation with Alan after Merak, he didn’t want to keep arguing the point with his brother. “And Talk Like a Pirate Day.”
Dirk gave up trying to hold his peace. “Lance, there’s no way that’s a real thing.”
“It is!” Lance insisted. “It’s a celebration humans created to foster cross-cultural exchange with pyreans after first contact.”
“That doesn’t even make sense, Lance,” Dirk muttered.
“Dirk’s right,” a voice said from behind them. “That doesn’t make sense, Lance.”
Dirk and Lance both straightened, recognizing Ian’s voice.
“Chief!”
They hastily turned to look at Ian as he sauntered into the room. Ian regarded them with a suspicious look, but his lips were curled in vague amusement. Ragnar was beside Ian, and he had a hand raised to his mouth to hide his laughter.
“We came here to look into some things for Beringer and Mitchell,” Ian explained. “But now I just have to ask — what in the falling stars are you two going on about?”
Dirk and Lance regarded each other.
“We were looking into human holidays,” they admitted after a long pause.
Ian folded his arms. “You two do know that humans are like pyreans? There aren’t ‘human’ holidays. Festivals vary based on culture and religion.”
Dirk’s face fell. “Oh.”
It seemed obvious when Ian said it like that, but it hadn’t occurred to either Dirk or Lance. Dirk felt his stomach sink, as he realized he didn’t know the first thing about Alan’s ethnicity or religion — or even what human ethnicities and religions there were.
Dirk’s disappoint must have been plain on his face, because Ian’s tone immediately softened. He gave Dirk’s head a gentle pat.
“Now, lad, there’s no reason to look so glum. We learn new things every day.”
“Why are you two researching human holidays anyway?” Ragnar asked.
“Er…I guess we wanted an excuse to do something fun now that the humans back,” Lance muttered. “I know this is a serious case and all, but…”
It had seemed like such a brilliant idea when it was just Lance and Dirk talking about it, but now Lance trailed off, realizing how foolish it sounded once the words were out of his mouth.
“That’s so sweet,” Ragnar said, eyes growing round with excitement. “What a great idea!”
@illuminesce picked up a bunch of Japanese-exclusive Saiyuki merch for me, including a couple of these small-sized organizational notebooks <3<3<3. I've been using this one to handle con logistics because it gives me an excuse to look at Minekura's lovely art :3.
