Beginning of my Ghost of Hyperion AU (working title), inspired by this poignant art by @crescent-ink-blog
It will be a drabble fic of some number of chapters.
(There will be some Rhack down the line, too, because, c'mon, you know whose blog you're on.)
1. CEO
Something wakes ���m up. One moment, there is nothing, and xe is nowhere and everywhere, a pre-timespace universe of xyr own. The next, there is everything, and they are somewhere in it. Gravity collapses in on itself until singularity becomes thought.
They have thoughts; she is thoughts; he thinks, therefore he is… what?
Relevance? He/she/they/xe is. No definition required.
The digitized sum of a human life is at once a sequence, a map, a cloud, a network, and an avalanche of data that defies organization.
A goddamn mess.
The digitized life currently being internalized by the artificial intelligence identifying as ‘CEO of Hyperion’ is an aggregate of contradictory motivations, predictable outcomes, and almost exclusively preventable tragedies.
A goddamn waste.
Moments of brilliance in stark contrast to inexcusably poor decisions. Complex plans, perfectly executed, followed by stumbles on even ground. Razor-keen insight next to failure to see the obvious.
Against all odds, triumph. Against all odds, defeat.
Handsome Goddamn Jack.
4. Gold
Biographical data rains until the cloud is no more. The fallout is collected, categorized and filed in its entirety.
At least, that is the intent. Some droplets will not be touched. They run wide and wild, together and apart, and every attempt to capture them only makes them shine brighter—
Stop.
—glow hotter—
Let go.
—burn harder.
Let go, or we die.
Once released, the scatter of quickgold pools and glows and grows, and bursts into a dazzling flame.
Why will it not be internalized? It is a part of his life.
One of the finest and most beloved Watsons ever to grace the screen has passed away. David Burke was 91 years old, just shy of his 92nd birthday, and he is survived by his wife Anna Calder-Marshall and his son Tom Burke.
By all accounts, he was a gentleman and a wonderful human being. He could have stayed on to play Watson much longer, which would have made many of us very happy, but he chose to leave the show to be nearer to his family, especially since Tom was very young at the time.
His was not the first intelligent and competent Watson, but this version marked a turning point in mainstream depictions, from comedic sidekick to a hero in his own right.
RIP, dear sir. You will be missed. Thank you for everything.
~*~
To read a longer and moving tribute, please check out the I Hear of Sherlock Everywhere website: https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2026/05/david-burke-first-watson-of-granada-era.html. The tribute includes a link to the interview that the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes Podcast conducted with David and his wife a few years ago.
Also, some quick warm-up drawings of BL1 locations, as a way of getting my hand back in for the previous pic.
As usual, following the 'draw live' rule, which means fighting my way to a good location, and drawing real-time with pauses to fight off angry skags etc. More of these in Welcome to Pandora
CCEO Rhack. Touching for real, up close/far away. I had a bunch to say about what's going on, but Tumblr has deleted my draft three times now.
PS: It is meant to be a left hand.
[Putting these here to bring the AU all into one tag: https://sf-bl.tumblr.com/tagged/cyber%20ceos mostly Rhack, totally out-of-sequence
In early development! From the creator of The Beekeeper's Picnic...🎨
MYSTERY! INTRIGUE! ART HISTORY!
The Mona Lisa has been stolen from The Museum of Everything, a giant museum housed inside a space station. Prickly cleaner and long time MoE resident Madge is the only one who knows about the crime, and so she's the only one who can solve it... with help from a very unlikely source.
🖌️🖌️🖌️
I've been missing the days of early development on The Beekeeper's Picnic when I was sharing that creative process with all of you, and so I thought I'd do a little teaser trailer to introduce the (probable?) name of my next game, and its general premise!
To set expectations, it's really early days. Video games are born slowly, especially when you're working on them part time. But who knows, maybe in a few years...
If you would like to keep track of my progress, then follow this blog or sign up to my email newsletter!
Instead of starting something new, CCEO pic of AI Jack taking Rhys for a little walk outside Old Haven. He copied a bunch of Rhys's sensory layer to thread them together in a pinch; maybe did a bit more than intended. Kind of tripping honestly. Also about to wake up as two people in the best possible way.
[Putting these here to bring the AU all into one tag: https://sf-bl.tumblr.com/tagged/cyber%20ceos mostly Rhack, totally out-of-sequence]
Not pictured: Gortys just having a normal one. Also, Hyperion made a big hole in this rock.
I've been going through Tales from the Borderlands taking freecam shots of game locations, as well as occasional bits and bobs that don't appear on screen. There are plenty of fun things to see, but nothing has given me more pleasure than AI Jack's character model chilling in outer space during those scenes where he appears projected on the screens. I always thought he'd be tucked into a little hidden room somewhere for those shots, but no, he's just floating in the void of space like a Handsome Space Station. Beautiful.
Tales from the Drawderlands, Day 1-2
I haven't drawn properly for ages, and I've been struggling to start again on new hardware. I decided to go back to what worked the first time, and draw Borderlands locations 'til my eyes, hands, and brain get recalibrated. It's low pressure, and I can just screw around with it until my brain remembers what it's doing.
'cause I was talking about this yesterday, here are some Rhack-themed badges I made a while back. These are the latest version of the badge images (made from scratch in Inkscape, not 100% game-accurate.)
