I try to draw "Agas" on my birthday in honour of this username that I've been using since high school LOL. I think I missed last year because I forgot, but yeah LMAO.
I don't really draw fanarts of him anymore, so every time I draw him he just randomly looks kinda different 😂😂😂
Also shout out to my art from like 10+ years ago LOL:
I downloaded an entire 20-Season series via a torrent. The torrent came in around 160+ GB. After re-encoding everything as AV1 via Shutter Encoder, it's currently on path to being around 55 GB when it's complete.
This shit's crazy. I wish torrent makers would utilize modern codecs and file types before seeding them. It'd sure save a lot of bandwidth, data, and time downloading 7zips and AV1 media, rather than ZIP and H.264/5 media. And, like, given that 7zip is open-source and VLC supports AV1, and both are free and open-source, there's literally no excuse.
Raw, unedited, incomplete and pretty cringey - do what you want with them - take them, adopt them, complete them, play with them, however you want. For more info, read here.
Memories
He found her by a small stream.
The sword singer had her back turned on him, but he could tell she was crying by the trembling in her shoulders. His steps faltered. He'd never seen her cry before.
Now unsure, he considered leaving and giving her some privacy… but it was too late. She looked up, surprise flashing across her face.
"Lars."
"Rhen."
"What are you doing here?"
"Everyone's worried about you."
"Oh."
Rhen looked away briefly, her hair gently blowing in the mountain breeze. She then turned back and gave him a small, reassuring smile. A comfortable silence fell between them, and Lars took the opportunity to seat himself down right next to her. She passed him a small pebble and he dutifully threw it into the stream.
"I'm alright. Just needed some time."
"Oh. Should I…?"
He started to get up.
Rhen shook her head. "No, it's fine. You can stay. I needed to get away. From Pa. From everyone. Especially from all the stares… I can't bear it," she sighed, looking up at the blue sky.
Lars looked up as well.
"You're a Princess."
"Apparently."
"You're the sole heir to the throne of Thais."
"Stop."
"It's really unexpected news."
"You don't say."
They exchanged smiles. His smile widening into a grin, Lars looked around. "So anyways, Clearwater, huh? This is where you grew up in."
Rhen nodded. "The one and only. It hasn't changed much though. Everything pretty much looks the same." She then told him about Clearwater's cultures and traditions, about the highly anticipated annual harvest festival, and most importantly, the village's obsession with apples. She then pointed to a distant farm across the stream and laughed.
"That's Billy Harper's farm. He had so many sheep back then, everyone's lost count. I used to chase all of them. With my friend, of course, Peter…"
She trailed off, disturbed.
Lars saw a small frown forming on her face.
"That's where it all started," she said softly, pointing to a path that led away from the stream. He noticed a slight tremble in her hand.
"What started?"
"Everything."
"You're losing me."
She looked at him slowly, sadly. "That was where I was kidnapped. The exact spot. He asked to see the village. I thought he looked nice - he had that sort of face, you know? But he… anyways, after that I was taken, shipped away to the Eastern Isle. That's how I met you. That's how all of this started."
"Oh."
Another silence fell, this time uncomfortable. Lars couldn't meet her eye, so he stared off into the distance, feigning interest in the green mountains. For a while they listened to the birds chirp in the trees. Then he spoke.
"I'm sorry," he said softly, looking her in the eye.
"Why? It wasn't you."
"I know. But I really am sorry… for what came after, I mean. After everything you've been through, ripped away from everything you know…" He pinched the bridge of his nose, his voice cracking, "All you needed was a friend, and I treated you horribly."
"Lars," she started but he interrupted her.
"Thinking about it, what I did - and for no good reason at all - it's horrible. I felt so insecure with myself. I guess I thought I would feel better if I picked on somebody else. And you were there, and the easiest target, and I just -"
Rhen cut him off. "Lars, wait."
"I'm sorry."
"I know," she replied softly. "Look, we've been through quite a bit, haven't we?"
"Plenty, actually. Harpies. Oh, crazy bees?"
"Killer Hinds!"
"Vampires, for goodness' sake." Lars let out a small laugh.
Rhen joined him. "Exactly! You and I. I mean, we've fought demons. Together. You had my back, I had yours. What happened back then… There was no excuse, that's true. And it's no lie that I absolutely hated, no, loathed you back then."
Lars winced.
Seeing his reaction, she grinned. "I don't now, not anymore. I think."
"Greaaaaat."
Rhen punched his shoulder. "How are you always sounding sarcastic in everything you say? Anyways, it's hard for me to admit it too, but you've changed."
Lars rolled his eyes. "Not too much, I hope."
"Just enough."
"Sounds good to me." They exchanged smiles. She passed him another pebble, but he studied it instead. "They must be wondering where we are. Are you feeling better?"
Rhen sighed, rubbing her forehead. "I suppose so. I can't exactly change things, can I?"
Lars thought for a while.
"You know, if I practiced magic under a Time Master, I could learn to change the laws of time. One day, maybe I could travel backwards in time and help change your destiny. Implant an idea, move an important rock, step on a butterfly, that sort of thing."
Rhen's eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped. "You can do THAT?!"
Lars stayed silent, watching her face. Then he burst out laughing.
"No, I can't! Time Magic doesn't work that way!"
"You i-di-ot!"
"You should've seen the look on your face!"
"I take it back, whatever I said earlier. I hate you!"
She cupped some water from the stream and flung it at his face. He gasped and reeled back in shock. "It's COLD!" Immediately, he bent down and did the same, making sure to recite a little spell under his breath to make it a little colder before aiming it straight at her face.
Rhen glared at him, droplets flowing down her face. "That's cheating!"
She got up quickly. Before she could take a step forward, Lars held both his hands up in peace. "Truce?" he asked, laughing.
Rhen narrowed her eyes.
"Fine."
She held out her hand and helped him up, reaching for her scabbard and shield after. Lars bent over and shook out his hair, causing water droplets to fly around.
"Hey!" Rhen exclaimed, then laughed. "You're like a dog. A wet dog."
Part of my gift to @annelaurant for the Aveyond Winter Exchange! This was the greatest prompt I could have fulfilled. I did, in fact, go back and play all of AV1 again just so I could immerse myself in the game and its mechanics just for this bit.
tbh some of the best warmups I've ever done for a piece of art lol
Aight my first art piece done for 2024! This one was actually a wip back in 2022 so I’m not sure if this actually counts lol.
Anyway just enjoy the beautiful view with these babies as they live this happy moment. They picked an undiscovered location near Clearwater which was a whole meadow with flowers everywhere.
Remember that small cave in Clearwater that we go through to enter the forest? Lars accidentally blew the wall using those dynamites to prove a point during an argument (I don’t know what that argument was though lol), and VOILA! Secret location unlocked.
Of course they had to make a flower crown. Where there’s a field of flowers, a floral crown shall be made. Obviously Rhen was the one who made them and taught Lars as she was crafting them.
changing my mind on webm (we'll see about webp) but the filesize difference between two identical video streams in mp4 and webm, plus vp8/9 and vorbis/opus being open codecs (even if vp8/9 was developed by a company google acquired, and vorbis is kinda old now). i hope av1 ends up making it as standard in webm since it's completely open (no google offering it openly but also holding patents on some parts nonsense).
i do wish they'd pick a different file extension (i'm a bikeshedder, alright ? )
