trying to find when i last did off fanart as mentioned in previous post
and possibly this miku in the off style i did in jan 2014 (i also drew zacharie same month) UNLESS i skipped over something or like…i deleted something
cotton and Silk thread; https://redrockthreads.com/
Linen thread and wool fabric; https://burnleyandtrowbridge.com/ (they’ve got wool stuffs and worsted wool fabric for $15 a yard! I just got three yards of navy worsted wool I’m making a constellation winter skirt from)
More linen thread and wool; https://wmboothdraper.com/ (just ordered wool broadcloth to make a coat)
Silk fabric (THE best place to get silk lining fabrics and raw silk fabric):https://www.dharmatrading.com/
A varying assortment of wool and silk and cotton and even some leather, use coupon code spring2020 for 50% off your full order, worked yesterday when I bought some stuff there; https://metrotextilesnyc.com/
Wool. You want wool coating for under $20 a yard? Sure you do. It’s here. Not a huge variety of colors, most are black or brown, but hey https://www.fashionfabricsclub.com/Catalog?refinementIds=4096748&Keyword=wool&pageSize=16
I don’t know a lot about sewing, but I want to make or have my mom make some linen pants & shirts for when I’m watering, because it gets to 105 here and we have mosquitos so I need to be covered. What type of linen do I buy? Also, linen pajama shorts, yes/no?
(I’ve been wearing my renfaire pants which are a linen mix, I think. But the frikking mosquitos that hide in the tomatoes get my arms)
For wools, I cannot recommend Woolsome enough! They’re a bit more expensive then the above links, but they have a spectacular range of colours and weights, as well as diamond pattern and herringbone weaves. They also have a range of linens, though not as extensive.
Y’all in the American SW and west Mexico better check the national hurricane center and your weather for this weekend and next week.
Hurricane Hilary is about to make landfall and that whole desert area is supposed to get a years worth of rain or more. Death Valley is supposed to get twice the annual rainfall. Severe winds, massive flooding, and landslides are all strong possibilities.
This is gonna get ugly. Please spread the word. This is a majorly anomalous event and people may be unaware of the threat headed their way.
Flash floods are definitely gonna kill people, so here’s your regularly scheduled PSA:
Desert soil does not absorb a significant amount of water. It reaches maximum saturation very very quickly, and all the rest of the water rushes downhill. Even if you can’t tell that the ground is not perfectly flat, the water can. And it will move. Quickly. No, faster than that. Nope, still faster. If you try to cross moving floodwater, you will get swept downstream and probably die.
Do not try to wade in/cross flood water that is any deeper than the thickness of the sole of an average athletic shoe, no I am not kidding, the water will get deeper literally while you’re standing in it.
This goes for cars, too. I’ve seen entire vehicles getting swept downstream in flash floods because the driver thought they could cross the “puddle” and Found Out.
Relogging because I cannot stress this enough. Flooding is the main risk. Even if the hurricane gets downgraded, it’s still bringing rain. Strong winds are dangerous, but this is a bad enough situation without them.
I recently got a curiouscat asking for a primer on my characters, for someone who didn't know anything about them and was curious. Yippee!
Unfortunately, curiouscat has a 3k CHARACTER (Not word, but character!!) limit. I tried to keep this under 3k characters, but ultimately I don't know how to shut up.
Perhaps that's fortunate. Afterall, something like Tumblr gives me the chance to actually sit down and articulate my thoughts, as well as include pictures. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I can keep this short, but I am going to try and keep it contained. As such, I've formatted each character as such.
What they're based on, be it an idea, a personality, a scenario, ect. What their personality is. And some things about their story.
I actually have... a Tumblr Development blog. The character page is a bit dated, with some character designs already having some changes, and doesn't have the proper descriptions up yet. But it should at least be enough to put a name to a face for most of the characters I'm about to talk about.
Here's a link to the character page directly
Basically, all of these characters are for a game I'm making. It explores the idea of the afterlife as something entirely mundane, and domestic. It's the lazy day where you have the fan blowing because it's a little too hot, or wading in the shallows of the beach. This is a game where a happy ending is assured. The characters are already dead. Though they cannot remember their lives, they have lived them already, and are about to rediscover them. And so the point becomes. Do they deserve it? A lot of the characters have done Bad Things. Some of them aren't good people. They're fun characters, but my god they suck balls. Does that make them any less deserving of happiness? Do they still get to grow?
(: so with that established.
my characters.
Estelle - (It's complicated)
Estelle is purposefully based on the stock standard silent rpg protagonist. She's very stoic, is noted as not saying much in game. People respect her, but she's a reflection of the players actions.
Despite being someone who's really reliable, she's kind of like. Implied to be a little bit of a sarcastic cunt? You know just because someone can't speak doesn't mean they are nice. But shes willing to put up with and do a lot.
Laelia - Forest God
Laelia is based on the idea of a whale fall deity. Like, a goddess who's death will feed an ecosystem. She explores a lot of themes regarding love through apathy? She's a nature goddess. To her, Humans are no different then rabbits, which are no different to dogs, which are no different then crows. Why should the death of a human mean anymore - and therefore, any less, then the death of a crow. Does the act of kindness matter less to things that will never truly understand you? She cannot bring herself to hate humanity, as hating humanity is against her very nature as a nature deity.
Personality is based on like. Stoic, noble knight characters. She was originally based on heathers-esc mean girls, and there are still aspects of her personality and design that shine through that. But it's been muddled down a bit. She's a heathers esc mean girl who got Older. She's melancholic, more then anything else, though she chooses to spend her time around people that are Hard To Deal with.
Her story deals with ideas of heroism and honor in small acts. Despite being a demi-god who's biggest claim to fame should have been in her death, she is explicitly most known for silent kindness. She's someone reliable, even in her apathy. There's no honor in glory, and no glory in violence, and no honor in death.
Also she'll just Do things. I think i said that already, but she's the type of character who's willing to jump off a cliff to discover if there are rocks in the water. Her demi-god powers are kind of lame, because "i can't force animals to grow, so why would I be able to do that to plants?" But plants grow on her and that's a fun perk of her design.
Kimon - (: don't worry about it yet.
Kimon is based on the idea of very peppy macabre artists. He's friendly! He's a little sassy! He's introspective! He's the one with the least amount of blood on his hands, canonically. He does graphic gore and decay art. He's canonically a clone of one of the other characters that was made incorrectly, and so his body is actively beginning to stop from the inside out.
The point of his story is three fold. The first one is the idea of identity, and the meaning of that identity. He's canonically a clone. What does that mean for his sense of self? What makes his identity different to the person he's grown from. Is it his experiences? His art? His relationships? He's someone who knew the moment he woke up that there was a clock on his life. What's the point of living a life you know will but cut short? To create? To enjoy what time you have? Kimon plays with the idea of living when you can doing what you can and enjoying the life you're living, and the romance in the mundane.
The second one is a theme I play with in my current fandom, but its one I like so it's one I'm taking. What makes something art? Does art need to have meaning to be meaningful? He has my favorite event planned for the game, where he man handles all of the characters into creating something because he wants people to create and wants to see people through what they create.
But the third one is exploring what makes a good person. Kimon is a nice person. As previously stated, theres currently no plans for him to have killed anyone. He DID cheat on his husband. He canonically says slurs. His sense of humor is offensive in a way that the narrative is judgemental of (because I, as an author, know there's a fine line between just Making An Offensive Character and making something that advertises hate) Like, to be clear about the source of his inspiration, he's based so heavily on emo-subculture and the people in it.
I like Kimon a lot as a character. He's a very passionate person, and that's really fun for me to write.
Poppy - Human
Poppy is based on turn of the century hollywood stars and the corruption of the era. The point of Poppy's narrative is... Hm. Self-discovery. She grew up with a mother who controlled her image, got married at 15 to get away from her mother, only to fall into the arms of a man more controlling than she was.
Poppy starts the narrative performing everything about herself. She's a very surface level polite person. She comes across as soft spoken, if not bashful. She refuses gifts that are like treats because, despite liking things like chocolate and cake a lot, it's something she's never been allowed to have. For a bulk of her life, shes only ever been allowed to be what other people tell her to be. There's the reason she's An Actress. There's also themes of the cycle of abuse. Poppy is a mother, but her own abuse leads to her neglecting and abusing her own child. Even when she's outside of her abusive relationship, she's starting everything about herself from scratch.
But there's also this theme of growth I like with her. She has a breaking point. She cuts her hair, she lashes out and breaks down. Life goes on. She stops performing her personality. She's actually a very passionate "follow your heart, do what's right" type person, she'll speak her mind when she thinks something is wrong and place herself in danger for someone else. Break the rules to do what's right and burn the bridge trying.
She has a gun. She discovers she likes working with machines. She becomes a better mother, and life goes on.
Ida - Human +
I'm going to be honest with you going into this. I'm still figuring a lot of things about this character... Out? She's not like my other characters in that she's kind of a very passive one, and that's by design of what she's trying to do.
Ida is based on the idea of a corrupt spiritualist. She's someone vulnerable who was prayed on by the authority of her religion. It's important that I note - it's not a cult. It's a statement on how religion by its nature, while it can be very important and impactful for people, just as often even the most main stream religions can become damaging to the vulnerable.
She has a concept of fate that she feels she cannot break. She believes in fate as a finality. She cannot control the outcome of her own life, it is predetermined, and so anything she does she has to do because that's the Will of it. And she hurts for it. There's a comfort in the finality, but is the comfort of that finality worth the pain of not trying to change? She wants to be a good person, but what happens when you have to do bad things to fulfil your idea of what Good is. You're doing something "for the good" but you're hurting others for it.
She's Human + because she starts as a human, but this is a world with demigods and psychopomps and deities. Her religion consumes her body, and she becomes an echo of who she was.
Personality wise she comes across as a quiet academic type, but she's kind of arrogant and pretentious and it's not in a very Fun way. She can be a little patronizing, and incredibly manipulative, but she's also. Disconnected. Quiet. She might change a little bit, we will see when we get there.
Thales - Lich
Thales is a subversion of the mad scientist/necromancer archytype. The first thing you need to know is that necromancy in this world, while not accepted by the people in it, is accepted by the GODS in it. Olette, psychopomp, LOVES this guy. Isn't it interesting! Isn't it fascinating, watching someone try and avoid death, killing to avoid death, only to be taken by it anyway? Necromancy isnt anymore against the natural order than mending a broken bone, or restarting a stopped heart. Because you can only do it for so long before death will take you anyway.
He's a socialite! He's a party boy! He's nobility. He's so scared of death. And it's fun, because what do you do when you've spent your entire life worrying about dying, only to discover that death is a reflection of life? Have you wasted your life in that worry?
I'm trying to save most of the relationships for the bullet points section, but kimon and Thales are interesting to me in the way they foil the idea of life as something worth living. Kimon accepts his death and spends his days creating and enjoying, and even when he fucks up his community and hurts the people he loves he still has people he loves. Thales loves life and wants to keep life, and he's willing to burn the village to keep his life. He works. He works on keeping his failing bodies alive and growing new bodies to occupy, and at some point he doesn't have anything in life other than that work and the duty of that work.
And so it becomes a question of. Like. If your life is only ever that work, and that worry, did you even enjoy the life you had for as long as you got to have it?
His story also plays into themes of what makes a person good and what makes a person bad, both as he himself reflects it and how he's choosing to kill people. Death horrifies him, and so he only gives it to people worth killing. But that contrasts the theme of the game, doesn't it? What if the person you kill, that you've decided is irredeemable, can grow and change. What if you've killed the asshole, but hurt good people by doing so?
Floant is the little fox bitch I'm always drawing. Hes based on the idea of.. kitsunes, but also a asshole pacifist. He's the shopkeeper of the game! He's the only shopkeeper in the game!! He is everywhere, you literally will not escape this guy. He refuses to sell weapons, despite being the only shopkeeper in the game. Also, he doesn't actually understand the concept of importance of money. He'll just give people his wares if he likes them enough. He's kinda been shoe horned into this position, so why should he care? He's also the strongest character in the story, just sheer ability wise. But coming back to being a pacifist, he is useless for it. He is very good at running away.
The point of his story and the themes of it are... Tragic romance and love. He loves with everything he has.
And so Floant as a character plays into the concept of love as something neutral. You're not a better person for your love, suffering for your love is just a tragedy, clinging to ghosts
Personality? Masquerades as a Cheshire cat figure, but he's pretty strategic and level headed, all things considered. He likes being very annoying, like. He takes so much enjoyment out of being a shit for brains person. But he's not annoying because he's stupid, he's annoying because he thinks it's funny to get under people's skin.
Momoko - Kitsune (2 of them!)
Momoko is based on the idea of mothers who never grow to love their children. She's a Rotten Mother. Nevermind the fact that having children ruined her life, she is someone dealing with a lot of grief that she refuses to acknowledge or touch on. So she could not bring herself to love who she brought into the world. I won't say she's never hurt one of her children, because. Lmao. This bitch guilty of period typical infanticide. But she was not physically abusive to the child she chose to raise, nor was verbally or emotionally abusive. She just could never come to love him.
And so, that brings in the question of what actually makes a good mother, and really, what love even is. Momoko is mean. She's brash and loud, easily irritated and kind of snappy as a person. But she takes care of her son and keeps him safe in a world and time that really wants the both of them dead. She spends time with him, actively verbalizes that she holds a great amount of respect for him, and she does see him as his own person with agency. Is that still love, even when she says she hates him?
I'll give you a guess as to who her son is, based on the species alone. First guess doesn't count.
I do not generally like to advertise my characters for their queerness. I personally think.. well, one, it should go without saying. But two, the selling point of the character should be their story and the queerness of it should be an accessory rather than the point of it? It's the type of representation I like to see. I'm personally very, very tired of coming of age queer stories, and so I aim to write stories that happen to have queer characters in it, rather than stories about being queer. Or at the very least, I want to write stories where queerness is weaved into and reflective of the relationships and community of the characters, rather than the plot.
Having said that, I do want to talk about the fact that kitsunes bastard 1 and 2 are very purposefully playing in the realm of gender ambiguity. Like, a lot of characters are, but with these two specifically... Floant is drawn in very effeminate cultural clothing, long hair, ect, and Momoko has a very purposefully androgynous silhouette. Despite being The Mother, she's given a lot of very masculine traits and tendencies. Floant is the Romantic and The Caretaker, but he's the guy. If you're ever thinking "is this intentional?" The answer is probably yeah.
There are a few other trans characters. I refuse to say who.
I swap between they/them and he/him-She/Her pronouns for the two of them, but ultimately the pronoun aspect of it does not matter. Like I mentioned in the first paragraph of this ramble, I want the idea of it weaved into their design, rather than just placed there.
Anyway. Small tangent over. I like them a lot, they're fun characters.
Olette - Psychopomp
Olette is based on horror movie girl archetypes. Shes the nerd, she's the final girl, she's the popular girl, she's the killer and the monster and the victim. She's so much of everything at once. She's loud! She's performartive! The world is a theater and she's playing in it! I mentioned it in another recent curiouscat, but shes the only character who has Every Single Emote as a new indivual full body pose.
She's a lovecraftian protagonist. She saw the horrors and just rolled with it. She doesn't have to understand the old gods to know that they're there. She loves the horrors! She gave herself to them because she had no one else to give herself too.
There's a building joke that every character in this game starts off hating olette, and she loves them all despite that. They think she's annoying. She doesn't know how to stay out of their business, she's the reason they are where they are and why they're going through what they're going through.
Her personality is... She performs being loud and arrogant and confident and mean, but she's kind of pathetic and sad. She's a theater kid. If she succumbed to the mortifying ordeal of being known, it would mean admitting she's so horrifyingly lonely, so she won't! She's also kind of clingy, and scatterbrained. She chooses to dress like that. Yeah. In my idv au for her I had her as a fake psychic, and I think that fits still.
==
Bullet time. Important relationships
Laelia and Floant - Weird co-dependence. They Do Love Eachother, but ...
Laelia and Ida - what do you do when you can only consider yourself a good person if you manage to guide someone to their death? What if you grow attached to the person you're supposed to kill? Yeah.
Floant and Momoko - look back at momokos section.
Thales and Poppy - What do you do when the first person who has ever respected your agency as a person is Kind Of An Asshole? Let's find out.
Kimon and Laelia - they're just buddies. It's important to me that they're buddies.
Floant and Olette - they're so fucking funny to me personally. Floant cannot get under this girls skin and he's so thrown off by that it loops back around into him becoming a straight man to her antics.
Estelle and Olette - Ghost wearing my childhood friends face. No I'm not delusional. Why are you looking at me.
