#jurlan

[rawliverandcigarettes]

because it's been a while :>

[rawliverandcigarettes]

Hello, this is the first week without a Halfway Home update, and since I couldn't get myself to finish the super big thing about my feelings regarding release, please have this very first official artwork (tm) for The Empire of Preys instead.

[rawliverandcigarettes]

I reread parts of The Empire of Preys today (being stressed out about how to make progress because I need to make some structural changes due to a great decision I took but that also messes up with some stuff that's already in there), and YEAH yeah, I mean it's a first draft and has first draft bloating and awkwardness and convoluted writing, but I still think it's really gooddd, I just...

I am really happy with the Vibes. Halfway Home had "two cockroaches having an existential crisis while drowning in warm beer behind a stripclub" energy, with a low-buzz of constant stress and misery and painful, non-productive bursts of rage (and that's fine that's what this story wanted to be and I let it be exactly that), but The Empire of Preys is so... almost preppy at times? Like the energy is really sunny and summery and bright and proactive, and even the darker parts come from a place of involvement and electric mental gymnastics; everyone knows at least a good chunk of what's going on, and every character gets to have fun being smart and ambitious and a little ruthless/unhinged. Also, given we're on Sur'kesh quite often, the aesthetic borders on solarpunk at time: everything is green and full of water and bugs and flowers and it's a welcome change from Omega let me tell you --even Illium feels somewhat neater than the Citadel as a location (on the surface of course) because there is, like, a sky.

I don't know it's just such a fun project. I was so correct to make a prequel that feels so much more saturated and complex and politically savvy (annnd it also puts everything that happens next in an even bleaker light also, just by sheer contrast and because of how tragic it is that it had to end up that way). Also the thematic explorations are really neat, even if they are far from their final form yet: I am soooo happy about the exploration of the crossroad of ultraliberalism, post-imperialims and gender from kind of higher up in the social ladder than we ever get to see in Halfway Home. Why do I love writing about money this much??? I don't know, nobody unpacks that please and thank youuuu

The Empire of Preys just ... *feels* salarian, in a really exciting way. I'm so happy about this since it's exactly what I always wanted to capture about why this fictional alien culture enthralls me that much! So it feels great to just, soak in that world and spend time there.

Again I'm sorry it's a lot of me throwing myself a lot of flowers and that might feel weird (also there *are* flaws, I see them, I'll address them in time I hope --and also it will just be a demanding story that won't be for everyone because of this, it will ask for a lot of brainpower to get through just because it's about a fictional political and economical system that interconnects and everyone operates at a certain degree of mastery over it --except for Rhanda, BLESS Rhanda for being the ultimate himbo of the team and asking all the dumb questions and being the Voice of the People in the middle of all the rich and/or vaguely aristocratic pricks), BUT. Every time I return to this project after a break, I'm so happy to see that no, it is really good!!!! It might really be a banger!!!!

[rawliverandcigarettes]

So I really wanted to finish this portrait for the Citadel Fashion Weeks, but I was too ambitious and very busy. So for the last week of alien fashion, have a messy WIP of Jurlan, another one of my salarian OCs: a young, suave, privileged, ambitious (and somewhat self-righteous) dalatrass-to be, which is a role in salarian society I named dalateishee.

Jurlan is going to be my bread and butter for the next Citadel Fashion Weeks however. There's so many of her looks I want to give justice to.

[rawliverandcigarettes]

MSKDNSKLF SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG i’ve had a busy few days! I wish tumblr would let me send this on anon. Anyways, I’m love her.

THIS IS INCREDIBLE!!! She is downright gorgeous, you did my frog girlboss such a great honor by portraying her so well, she looks so high and mighty and elegant aaaaaaa ;___;

Thank you so very very very much!!!!

[rawliverandcigarettes]

Ocean for Jurlan?? I love me some hashtag Salarian Girlbosses

Hey, thank you very much!!

I do love my salarian girlboss, and I want to talk about her more so bad, but I can't!!! So I tried writing something that wasn't a spoiler, and came up with this convoluted description:

There was a vastness to Jurlan’s presence, one that surpassed even her towering frame.

Millenniums of exploration convoys, trade roads and understated conquests sailed the course of her skin; millenniums of cycles –vapor raised and befallen once again. Generation after generation of rebirths. The phassen traits she had been engineered to bear were bound to the ocean in that way: ever-changing and mummifying at once. From the initial crossing of the phassen people, the interweaving webs of commerce and diplomacy, the rejection later. And now, her.

The future, some dared to insist.

And so, Jurlan’s future moored in both waters. The warm coast, and the deep abyss. The uncontrollable vibrancy of new life, and the cold staleness of things long lost.

Taken from this ask: https://rawliverandcigarettes.tumblr.com/post/680188830983372800/describe-your-oc-as

[rawliverandcigarettes]

WIP Whenever

I’ve been tagged by @natsora, thank you!

Tagging @arani-writes, @illusivesoul and @mordinette if you feel like doing it.

Today I’m going to share something that shouldn’t be. I was supposed to take a break from HH entirely as I finished the draft 2 and needed some distance. Obviously I did not do that at all; not only did I made adjustments to the outline for the next draft (I’m SO pumped about them), but I also started the draft for The Empire of Preys, which is the next story in the Halfway Home series.

great break, congrats me for being able to take healthy breaks, everyone is very proud of you. =_=

So have the first paragraph of the second chapter of The Empire of Preys (which is multi PoV, so it’s quite exciting to write)!!

Pranas’ first glow incensed the rainforest whole. The warmth was new and the canopy weak, shivering. Leaves and moss would fume soon: feshe qer, the first transfer, the lesser one. Bruised willows, xates, azul ferns and the ancient firols alike –all of them fluttered with invisible birds.

Jurlan inhaled the gentle steam. The earth was soaked with late-night drizzles. So were the barks in which aquaprimates burrowed, the webs of keptels sparking with the colors of a dying star. The pollen from the previous day had dissolved in the dew, but the flavors remained fresh on her tongue. Beyond the curtains of vapor, the sky glowed a brazen pink, tattered with blue.

She may have taken her time but, in the end, Voice-Dalatrass Hassad picked a pleasant morning in which to loose her mind.

[rawliverandcigarettes]

Hey people! Very different style attempt this time, but look! at what I do instead of sleeping like humans are supposed to! I draw high fashion for space frogs. To each their own I suppose.

Of all my extended Halfway Home cast, Jurlan is easily the PGM fashionista of the lot. Also the most brilliant. Arguably amongst the most powerful. Too bad her mother is around and makes sure we can’t have nice things.