JPenstock

Side blog for posting fan arts and stuff, although chiefly right now my Baldur's Gate comic. Characters from across the series might show up.

[jpenstock]

Elsewhere on the web:

JPenstock (@jpenstock.bsky.social)

Fan art and comics and fiction. Mostly Baldur's Gate right now. My account for original writing and pet photos: https://bsky.app/profile/jp

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

My main Tumblr:

[coutelier]

The next movie I go to see will likely be Supergirl, which seems like it will be showing Kara Zor-El as somewhat traumatized since, unlike her cousin, she actually had a life on Krypton and remembers its destruction.

Although as a fan of Aerie from Baldur's Gate 2, I am of course well aware that while whenever a male character is brooding, reckless, or lashes out because of his past, it is because they are deep, complex, tortured individuals. When a female character does any of those things, it is because she is annoying, whiny, or secretly evil, because obviously it is physically impossible for women to actually be affected by trauma.

I kind of think Aerie is the ultimate example of this double standard because she is in fact very kind and very sweet for the most part. She just has some moments where she expresses anxiety, grief, has lapses in patience, because she is a young woman healing from having her limbs hacked off and before that years of abuse and slavery - she is not a perpetually cheerful waifu 100% of the time, but instead of empathy that is enough for her to be branded the things I mentioned before.

It is interesting to note that Viconia in the same game constantly insults people and is catty pretty much the entire time she's on screen, and no-one bats an eyelid at it. I would say that is because Viconia fits the 'femme fatale' archetype and never really subverts those expectations; you just get exactly what you signed up for with her. Whereas although Aerie appears to be the innocent 'girl next door', whenever she lashes out or is bitter, she confronts you with the reality that trauma isn't sexy or entertaining; it is actually very messy and uncomfortable and people can't always just smile their way through it.

[coutelier]

Ah, yeah... never change Bethesda.

[coutelier]

Yeah, there's no denying that even after all these years, Skyrim is one of the prettiest games ever made. Almost any direction you look is like a postcard.

[jpenstock]

Nick Valentine's Day! Here he is with my Fallout 4 character, Shelly Valence.

[jpenstock]

Shelly Valence, my Fallout 4 character, recreated in Daz Studio.

Fallout 4 infamously gives you Power Armor very early in the game. While I did kind of like how tanky the Power Armor in Fallout 4 feels, I found after my first playthrough that stomping around in it kind of gave me motion sickness. Something of an achievement for the game since I've never been travel sick before.

So, I decided to deal with it by making a character who basically never leaves her Power Armor unless she has to.

[lelianasbong]

romancing aerie for the first time and you guys.. . she's so incredibly charming. even her leitmotif is lovely. her romantic scenes are super endearing & yes, i would like to subscribe to Avariel Facts.

all that is to say: NEVER listen when fandom dismisses female characters as whiny and annoying. they're inevitably allergic to women with interiority and her own priorities, every time, and it shows.

[jpenstock]

Getting ready for Nick Valentine's Day. It's weird that a video game character has a whole day devoted to them, but I guess he was one of the best parts of Fallout 4.

[jpenstock]

Xan of Evereska

Figured it was time I did a portrait. Haven't really done any Baldur's Gate 1 companions for a long time. The good thing about Baldur's Gate 1 is the world feels a lot bigger and more open than in the other games. But, the companions are really more catchphrases than they are actual characters, so most of them are far less memorable than the ones from Baldur's Gate 2 onwards with just a couple of exceptions.

If you're not familiar with Xan, he's kind of like a gloomy Doctor Smith from original Lost in Space, but not evil. If you don't know Doctor Smith, he's like Xan, but evil.

[coutelier]

The Wanderer

Aerie from Baldur's Gate 2, Elven Wizard/Cleric of the Gnomish god of wandering, curiosity, and mischief.

(I'll be honest though, I really just wanted to use the raccoon model).

Made and rendered in Daz Studio.

[jpenstock]

Unlike a screenplay, I don't believe there's an agreed upon way of laying out game scripts. I gather many use a spreadsheet, something like this I guess?

[coutelier]

Seems I actually forgot to share part one on the blog. Anyway, this was my first attempt modding and creating a scene in Baldur's Gate 3. I had a few issues, like every time I tried to speak to Aerie afterwards it just tried to play this scene, but I fixed it in the end. Just part of the joy of modding; bashing your head repeatedly against the keyboard into it does what you want. (And yeah; Aerie actually appears twice in this. I wanted to quickly test but the only convenient savegame I had was when I was testing her headmesh).

[jpenstock]

Here is the portrait I use for Aerie now. I keep thinking I should make the eyes more angled, but I've already gotten quite far into a comic with her. Maybe no-one would really notice though as it would only be a small change.

Sometimes described as a 'controversial' character, although that's really just for committing the sin of being a young woman (let's face it; I could pretty much just end the sentence there) who has been kidnapped by slavers, sold, abused, and lost her wings and identity, and been a little bit traumatised by all that. Naturally she has a lot to overcome at the start of BG2 - she's claustrophobic, using muscles she never really has before, and there's the whole being traumatised thing - but by ToB she mostly has. She's still a bit sensitive and self-conscious.

By the time my comic is set (and potentially a future mod for BG3) she's become much more at ease with herself. She's enjoying her freedom, just wandering and exploring, and she jokes and gets up to mischief more, as befitting a follower of Baervan Wildwanderer.

Technical stuff: The tunic she wears here has been converted from a much older Poser figure. It looks fine here, but is a little rough in places, especially if she raises her arms. I'll work on it.

[jpenstock]

So it seems a bunch of stuff got flagged as mature. Some, like Shadowheart's feet, I guess - I mean its not really anything to me, but whatever. Others, like Aerie hovering in front of a Dragon - yeah I just don't get how the bots are deciding that.

[coutelier]

I don't just do Baldur's Gate fanart btw. Here's a bunch of my old Fallout fan art as well, featuring my Fallout 3 character Nixie Penstock, and a bunch of Fallout 4 companions since I found DazStudio models for them online.

[coutelier]

So I have lots and lots of ideas for storylines for an Aerie mod in BG3. One involved her being hunted by mercenaries, likely hired by either slavers or various other types of bully and abuser she's annoyed, or by librarians (she has a few overdue books). That's probably not the storyline I will use though. Also this version of Jaheira was an old one adapted from her BG2 version; I hadn't made the BG3 version yet.

Also why I never liked that tunic: partly because I don't think it really suits Aerie's character, even though she is far less self-conscious than she used to be. It was just the best I had at the time. But also it is dynamic cloth, which means the software runs a simulation to drape it over her like natural cloth. It can look very good when it works. Very often it just explodes, or in this case, the front of it often droops low enough to expose her nipples, and we know how Tumblr would feel about that.

[coutelier]

Another short comic strip from a few years ago when I started thinking of ideas (again with the tunic I don't really like). As a small pretty blonde elf, Aerie is often underestimated which can work to her advantage in getting out of trouble. OTOH, it attracts trouble in the first place, so swings and roundabouts, innit?