#pactchat

[knife-and-candle]

I wish I knew how to stream art from an iPad. I think making art a social experience again would fix me

[knife-and-candle]

I’m really wanting to get back to being active again, I’ve just been reacclimatizing to a new job that’s far more physically demanding than my previous one and that starts a lot earlier too. That on top of some major life changes has meant there’s been a lot on my plate so now that the dust is settling some I’m hoping to carve some time for my creative endeavors again. I’m at that point of burn out where I feel creatively starved and the only way through that is to Actually Make Art Again, so what better way to start than putting down some oc thoughts I’ve been chewing on

Biggest one being that I’ve been having a lot of fun thinking about how all my flocs may know each other and having Rohan and my (kind of) sunless seas captain Caine have past history due to the fact they’re both neathborn has done wonders for me developing Caine more honestly. I need to figure out the best way of pinning these ideas down for myself but a lot of it boils down to them using their relationship as a temporary escape from their own living situations until Rohan got too sick to leave his house and Caine was beginning to get pushed out of the regiment. I’m also more into the idea that in Caine’s “current day” he’s not a captain but becoming one in the future is a bit of character growth for him.

Some old pics of his design under the cut from when I initially made him for a dishonored themed ttrpg a friend of mine was working on that never got finished. He will need a little bit of a redesign, but I’m genuinely glad I’m able to breathe some new life into this old character concept I had lying around collecting dust.

And some backstory/character notes too so I have them somewhat compiled:

Grew up an urchin (ex regiment) and has a lot of very complicated feelings about growing out of it. Found work as a zailor on a smuggling ship afterwards

Previous captain went into work with the presbyterate which ended up with Caine working on the Delight for much of his formative years as a young adult

Got injured and fell overboard during a conflict which proceeded into Caine’s Very Bad No Good Awful Horrible Day in which he barely scraped by scrambling to cling to a stalagmite for dubious safety. And by barely scraped by I mean he probably did die at least once from injuries sustained due to this ordeal

By some miracle gets rescued by Rurik’s hunting vessel due to Rurik having chased prey that was attracted to the fact that the Delight practically chums the waters wherever it goes. (I really want to make a couple of comic pages about this meeting honestly so hopefully I can get to that sooner rather than later)

Sticks around afterwards but is pretty shut down by the whole experience. The world is noticeably desaturated now, nothing feels right anymore, everything hurts and he kinda doesn’t know what to do with himself so the idea of seeking out another higher power to serve under so he’s got *something* is tempting but people keep stopping him from throwing himself overboard so he’s just kinda stuck. A fellow clayman zailor (who I wanna design if nothing else then because I like giving my flocs at least 1 adjacent “npc” that I don’t force myself to make into developing as a full fledged character but developing enough that I can make it feel like my flocs Live In A Community) helps work on bringing Caine back out of his shell, one of which ways by helping introduce him to his polythreme clothes colony prosthetic (which I also desperately need to design but I’m getting a bit of decision paralysis on oops lol)

Caine and his prosthetic bond Very Closely. Idk if I’d call it romantic but listen they love each other Very Much

[knife-and-candle]

@ last reblog is just reminding me about how while i was playing through Mask of The Rose, my friend and i were bouncing ideas around on how a dating sim-esque game route with each of our characters would look like. Fox would be a bit round about in that their main purpose would be that you could pay them to almost act as a private investigator to find out locations other characters would be at certain times of day or potential likes/dislikes of someone you were trying to court, almost acting like a hint system in a gameplay mechanic wise, but good luck getting them to talk much about themself. The main way to start their romance/friendship route would be to go out of your way to acquire a knife and candle token and either present it to them to ask about it (if you haven't asked anyone else prior) and they'd offer to take it for you if you don't want the risk of being seen with it or present it to them as a challenge and they jump you. ofc you'd get more approval for challenging them.

i should revisit this sometime, maybe use it as an excuse to play with tyranobuilder if i'm feeling particularly ambitious, but ultimately i think it'd be a lot of fun to draw up some visual novel type talk sprites for not just fox but all my guys. maybe even some fake gameplay screenshots or event cgs

[knife-and-candle]

I have an art trade piece I need to get finished first and foremost, but so help me god @ self you WILL get a reference sheet for Rohan and Dr. Gilligan for art fight, you hear me?

[knife-and-candle]

I couldn’t draw while I was recovering from a dog bite wound on my dominant hand but now that it’s closed up I’m needing some ideas for warm ups, so who would like either a rough sketch/meme redraw or an art trade?

[knife-and-candle]

It’s taking a lot for me to not cutely slip one of my old ttrpg characters Dr. Phineas Gilligan into fl’s setting. He would be such a freak about death and immortality in the neath and my man wants so badly to have some kind of medical discovery tied to his name it makes him look stupid.

Part of this temptation is cause I made him an npc in one of the games I’m dming and my players thought his vibes were so stinky they killed him even tho he technically didn’t do anything beyond expressing genuine anger for the fact that they kept letting go of his research specimens upon the fair country side of England.

[knife-and-candle]

- @the-totally-reliable-narrator

This is a quick check in for the Murder Mystery game tomorrow! Just making sure everyone is still able and wanting to participate. You do not have to respond to this ask and you can privately reach out if you can no longer act in tomorrow's game. I hope this message reaches you well.

(I'm trying it with anon disabled)

Yup! I’m excited for it ^^

[knife-and-candle]

New song for Fox’s playlist got me deep in the mind trenches thinking about their relationship with their deceased husband on the surface and their very very complicated relationship with their feelings about and for him. To bad Fox would literally rather gut themself then talk about it to anyone, including but especially the relationships they let his rotted corpse get in the way of for fear of it biting them.