#Sydari Aralen

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Saw a meme, had to draw these idiots as a result.

Feel free to do the same!

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Thought I'd draw the Nerevarine and the Last Dragonborn again. :D

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Designing 4E 227 costumes is fun and didn't take 8 hours.

...or Joshi is struggling with it being 200 years since the Nerevarine thing and sending his kid to college.

also Azura is annoying him…a lot

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The birds pre Diplomatic Immunity. Putting Teldryn in netch leather because I just have to have him running around in it across games. Featuring the pretty circlet gift I referenced in an ask recently :)

Sydari is going to a really boring party and isn't impressed with the outfit Delphine picked out (too stuffy) so she's running around Proudspire Manor in her flimsy green robe thing.

Just wanted to draw these two together, it's going into that "To be rendered" list.

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oc asks: not-so-nice edition

Discord answers for Erra, Sydari, Teldryn and Vynna.

betrayal: Has your OC ever been betrayed by someone they thought they could trust? Has your OC ever betrayed someone who trusted them?

Sydari has been betrayed on a number of occasions, however, the one that affected her the most was when the Guild Master tried to kill her out in Snowveil Sanctum and frame her for the Thieves Guild's woes. She had thought he was taking her under his wing with these jobs, that she was getting somewhere within the Guild. She had started feeling safe and then he slit her throat and left her to die in that cold, dark tomb.

It's made her distance herself from the guild, even if she's been accepted back in and now runs shit…she just remembers there was a time when everyone she thought cared for her cast her out. She can forgive, but she can not forget.

break: What would cause your OC to break down completely? What do they look like when that happens? Has anyone ever seen them at their lowest?

Teldryn tends to break down after sudden changes and he's had a lot of those. His first was when he was nineteen and he sort of just went numb. Almost as if everything he was had left and he was a ghost going through the motions. He thinks that's how he survived both his time in the Camonna Tong and his prison sentence. He started snapping out of it as he reached his late thirties and started trying to break out. He slipped back into it when he was thrown into solitary in the Bastion, snapping out of it when he found out he was being transferred again.

His second was during his recovery from Corprus, the fact that he was now missing part of his foot and a large chunk from his chest that caused a weakness on his right side. That he now had almost no sense of taste and no ability to tell what his needs were until things became dire and the fact that he now needed crutches to walk sent him into a deep depression. It took him months just to leave his mother's apartments and wander the rest of the estate let alone leaving to go into town. It takes a new sense of purpose (an offer to work with the Twin Lamps) that gets him back on his feet. Starting with his prosthesis that he made to help him balance and walk a little easier.

His third was after the Battle of Red Mountain Round 2: Electric Boogaloo. This was marred by grief, first at losing Erra and at the possibility that the injuries he'd sustained to his pelvis after the battle may have crippled him for life. He didn't leave that yurt for a long time and when he finally did, it was with a lower half that felt like it was being held together by string. He technically should be using a stick to help him walk but he's been too stubborn to use it. So he suffers from the joints freezing if he overworks himself or tries to swing his legs outwards. This is when his drinking problem becomes severe and leads to all the shit he gets up to during the Oblivion Crisis.

He's been in a deep, highly avoidant depression for a few centuries now and the spiral takes a turn when he thinks he's killed a kid, finds out he didn't kill a kid then gets his identity blown out of the water. He's fucked out on Sleeping Tree Sap during the Dragon Crisis, the dependence getting worse when Sydari disappears when fighting Alduin. He only snaps out of this haze when Sydari finally comes back and tells him he's going to be a dad.

Unfortunately, he fucked up the island and got mauled by a dragon in that time she was gone. So now they gotta sort out that shit.

future: What's the worst possible future for your OC? Are they taking steps to avoid that outcome? Are they even aware it's a possibility?

Erra, unfortunately, met with this future. His life being cut short by the thing he spent his whole life trying to fight. He never got to see that success, never got to see the Blight leave their lands.

He was meant to be Ashkhan, he was meant to start his life with his husband. He was meant to travel outside of Vvardenfell and breathe air that wasn't choked with ash. He was going to see sheep and snow and everything in between just as he and Teldryn talked about.

Instead, he dies trying to protect the Nerevarine from the influence of one of Dagoth Ur's Generals. He maintains that he would do it again but he's still upset over the loss of what could have been. His existence as an ancestor ghost is limited and time passes strangely. He's watching the love of his life break and shatter into tiny pieces and each time Teldryn summons him things are worse. He can't hold him and tell him it's okay unless there's a lot of magicka feeding his summoning.

Death sucks

alone: How does your OC deal with loneliness? Have they ever been completely alone before? How do they act when there's no one around to see them?

Erra retreats into himself when he's alone, and he's felt alone quite a lot throughout his life. He's always been an outsider for one reason or another so when he keeps being met with rejection he just switches off.

Instead, he seeks acceptance through deeds, finding that he's started garnering some healthy respect from the Redoran that inhabit Maar Gan. He's okay with that but he still gets that hollow feeling that he's always had in the pit of his stomach.

It's a cycle, he thinks. He makes a stand against something that makes him uncomfortable, he gets kicked out, he wanders and finds something else only to have that crumble underneath him. So when Josh meets him, he's a little distant.

hunt: Who or what is your OC hunted by? A person, a feeling, a past mistake? Is your OC able to let their guard down, or are they constantly alert?

I've talked a lot about Joshi's demons so I'm going to write something a little fun.

Vynna finds herself bored with studying at the College of Winterhold after that crap with the Eye of Magnus goes down. She leaves the college and starts working as a freelance battlemage. Eventually, she ends up joining the Dawnguard because hey, hunting vampires sounds like fun and if her alma and ata could bring down legends then she could handle a few vampires…right?

Dimhollow Crypt was not what she expected, none of the following events were what she expected. She finds herself running from the Dawnguard and seeking the help of her aunt in the ratway. Karliah calls her mother in and Sydari tries her best to get Vynna through this.

The only problem is that neither of them wants Teldryn to know about this. Knowing his daughter is undead would kill him so Sydari says she's leaving to handle guild business and that Joshi should go on that research expedition he wanted to go on. Joshi's a bit suspicious since usually he goes with her and just hangs out at Sydari's estate (she's gifted Goldenglow thanks to her alliance with Maven). Things aren't sounding right and he hasn't had contact from Vynna in a few months. He travels to Skyrim and visits both the Collage of Winterhold and the Thieves Guild and figures out something's gone wrong. All he knows is that his wife and daughter have been taken by vampires and he's got to fix it.

Joshi joins the Dawnguard and is hot on his family's trail. So Sydari, Vynna and Serana are running across the province avoiding both the Dawnguard and more importantly, Josh. When he finds them it's in the world's most disorientating place with the help of someone he thought he'd never see again.

Running from the one that loves you the most.

skin: How comfortable is your OC in their skin? Do they grapple with anything that lives inside them—a beast, a curse, a failure, a monster? How do they face the smallest, weakest, most horrible version of themself? Are they able to acknowledge it at all?

Joshi doesn't feel like his skin fits him, and at the same time feeling like this is exactly what he is deep down. He dreams of himself before Corprus took his beauty (according to him) and when he looks down at his old self, he feels like he's wearing a costume, that his skin doesn't fit.

When he looks at himself after his infection, all he sees is a twisted husk. Half his flesh is dead under the skin and the affected tissue twists all over his body. His mind is screaming with the sounds of the other ascended and he will always be prone to losing himself to their calls. Though as those calls slowly die the silence is increasingly invaded by Nerevar's taunts.

Sometimes he doesn't get to control his body, though he's gotten better at it over the years. Now he's dealing with the damage done to his body through the various, ill-healing injuries he's sustained during his life and just age in general. Sure, Joshi looks to be in his 50s (25-30 ish) but he's 300 years old under that skin. He's got arthritis!

wound: How does your OC handle being wounded? Are their wounds mostly physical? Mental? Emotional? What's the worst wound your OC has ever experienced?

This is leads on from the previous question so i'll be covering Joshi again.

Josh does not handle being injured well. He's painfully energetic and impatient. If he can move it then he's fine (he's not). Pair that with the fact that his body takes longer to heal and he'd a mess who's constantly reinjuring himself because he hates the feeling of laying in bed and twiddling his thumbs.

He's had four stints where he couldn't just power through it and those would all qualify as "worst ever".

Corprus- Josh had tumours growing from about 40% of his body, mostly on his right side (despite the entry point being his left arm). Part of the attempts at curing him involved cutting and cauterizing the tumours as they grew for testing. When he finally awoke he was missing his first and second toe and part of the ball of his right foot as well as finding that half his pectoral had to be removed. He's weak on his right side because of this but since he's left-handed for swordplay he manages to adapt well enough. He had to learn how to balance and control his magicka again as well which took a considerable time. Joining the Morag Tong actually helped him gain some confidence again in that respect.

Having a metal god land on him- Joshi gets trapped under the hand of Akulakhan, crushing his pelvis and femurs. It's eventually repaired through a very experimental procedure that involved cutting him open on either side and healing the bones themselves with magic. It worked well enough and Joshi can do most of the things that he used to… to an extent. He can't swing his legs outwards and had had to rely on magic more because of that. If he puts his feet wrong he could find himself having to use his crutches again and he hates that.

So you had a burning beam from a ship fall on your leg- As he's escaping the Sea Tiger he gets trapped under a heavy burning beam, breaking his right leg at the shin. The bone is crushed and he almost lost the limb entirely. He just happened to be lucky that the same three mages who performed that first procedure on his hips were in Raven Rock at the time. The leg was saved but he still experiences a lot of pain from it and doesn't give it enough time to heal before he starts moving around on it. He needs his crutches more frequently after this and ends up with a cane and a staff too…he's tied a knife to the latter.

Joshi picks a fight with a dragon whilst fucked out of his mind on wine and tree sap- He kills the beast but is ripped from head to toe in the fight. The worst of the scaring was on his face and he has some nerve damage from it. He's missing an ear and has a bit of paralysis in his face. He's mostly concerned about the cosmetic changes and starts wearing his mask again in public.

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Wip Whenever

Another week and some more art and writing. Tagged by @mareenavee <3 Tagging @orfeoarte, @thequeenofthewinter, @paraparadigm, @polypolymorph, @snippetsrus, @thana-topsy, @saltymaplesyrup, @tallmatcha, @kookaburra1701, @rosette-dragonborn Yea i have exactly 2 spoons and I'm using one to interact with others. 0 pressure of course but I wrestle with my desire to tag and my anxiety with annoying people :P lol Anyway! First I have some painting! More of that tarty Josh tarting about before kicking Dagoth ass. Playing with embroidery, accessories etc.

It's getting there! :) Writing under the cut.

A snippet from chapter 6 of Serious Mistakes (the Skyrim timeline)...or Josh is relying a little too much on potions to get him from point A to plan E.

“Hey! What are you doing?” Teldryn’s attention snapped back to the guard captain’s sudden change in tone. He watched as the outlander flashed the guard captain another overly sweet smile before dropping down into the tunnels, a larger cloud of ash arising from the impact of her landing.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! No! Teldryn chewed on his lip. A light metallic taste filled his mouth, mixing with the familiar, disappointing bitterness of ash. He grimaced, he’d never gotten used to that side effect. He wondered if he ever would.

“Get back up here!” Veleth was crouching over the grate, his voice panicked at the sudden deviation from regulation, “I… I can’t fit down there!” Teldryn waited for a moment, watching as the guard captain floundered, a small voice arose from below, though he couldn’t quite catch what was said. Too far away, too much echo. Teldryn moved himself back into the small alcove beside the cell, a small wooden table and a bookshelf sat by the sloping wall, obscured ever so slightly by the darkness. He leaned against the table and waited as Veleth muttered something under his breath, too low for Teldryn to hear but the tone was clear.

He hadn’t expected this either.

He watched as the guard captain stalked out of the cell, right past Teldryn and back towards the door. Conveniently leaving the cell door wide open. Perfect, that saves him fiddling around with the lock. He waited a few extra moments after he heard the door close. What he needed to do now would blow his cover and remove the effects of the invisibility potion he’d just downed. He needed to be absolutely sure he was alone.

He counted to three and exhaled slowly, taking off his helm and placing it on the table beside him. A cold sensation overcame him as the cloaking effects of the invisibility potion nullified. A stupid side effect really. Teldryn thought for a moment. He had one shot at this and he couldn’t afford to mess this up. He ran his modified plan over in his head one last time, staring at a small, dusty vial sitting on the shelf before him. Hang on! Teldryn reached for the vial and rubbed off some of the dust, revealing the pale, blue liquid that the vial contained.

Maybe he should start praying to Lady Luck instead. She seemed to be the only one listening. An interesting turn of events but Teldryn decided he’d embrace it. How often do you find magicka potions lying around Raven Rock after all? By the gods! Did he need this small win! He downed the entire vial; the bitter taste of ash coated his tongue as the pain in his head subsided slightly. It was weak but better than what he’d been working with earlier. Which was absolutely nothing. He summoned a small flame for a moment, felt the energy whirl around his fingertips as he allowed the magicka fuelling the tiny inferno to dissipate. It was more than he felt right asking for. He wouldn’t waste it.

It was time to finish this!

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Wips for the sake of wips

Erra render!

A meme

and the lineart

and I've been writing these two all day so may as well draw them XD

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Speaking of art influenced by scenes in fic, or planned scenes. This one occurs about two-thirds of the way through. Was a great opportunity to draw some colder-weather armour too.

Or Josh questions a jerk and then kills them because he doesn't like their answer. And Sydari is classically exasperated.

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Wip whenever

Tagged by @mareenavee, @gilgamish, @kookaburra1701, @rainpebble3. I'll get to reading all of your posts shortly <3 This week I finished a render which is here. I also started two more renders and started some more writing.

Art.

First we have Dwifi, which I started a while ago and have more progress.

I still love that his hair is up...idk XD Secondly, I wanted to start painting a 4th Era Josh...and this one I quite liked.

I can't wait to get to the scarification, it's an important edition between how he appears in 4E199 vs the above image (and pretty much all his renders since March) which is 3E 427. Writing under the cut-

Writing Oh look it corresponds directly with this snippet... I plan on this being a 4 chapter mini fic that covers Unearthered. Yes, I wish to write a zombie horror fic for spooky season, go me.

Sydari rested her chin in her hand and grinned. She’d only known the merc for a short time and she was starting to get used to his tells. He was nervous about asking her something like this. Teldryn Sero was no expert thief. Though he’d mentioned that he had dabbled in smuggling from time to time back on the mainland. He hadn’t detailed much. Teldryn never did, but she knew he was at least familiar with how this sort of thing worked. Yet he fiddled with the scarf that he wore around his neck as if he’d never so much as considered such a thing. It was sweet in a way. She decided she’d entertain his idea tonight. It might be fun.

“Teldryn Sero, are you suggesting we undercut this guy and smuggle artifacts through my networks?” She crossed her legs and leaned back in her seat. Sydari tilted her head, resting it in her hand again.

Teldryn nodded. His expression turning slightly grim, “Something like that.”

Sydari frowned, sitting up a little straighter in her seat. Something was wrong, “Teldryn what’s this about?”

Teldryn drummed his pigment-stained fingers on the table, “It’s-” He paused, Sydari could see that he was chewing on his lip again, considering his next words carefully, “It’s this place,” Teldryn gestured lightly around the dimly lit room, “We’re operating at such a loss that,” He paused again, sinking even further into his seat. If that was possible.

Teldryn lowered his voice, “I’m worried that if things keep going like this,” He paused again and started fiddling with the ring on his left index finger. Something he always did when he was overthinking something. He winced, having probably upset his barely healed fingers. He’d told her he’d shattered them in a door the day their paths crossed for a second time. Teldryn opened and closed his hand several times before he spoke again.

“I haven’t had to worry about this sort of thing,” he rubbed the back of his neck, pulling some of the hair that trailed down his neck over his shoulder, “It’s been a while since I’ve had to think about this kind of thing. But,” He shook his head, “I’m worried Miluth.”

Sydari reached across the table for his hand and squeezed it slightly. The sharp edges of the ring he always wore dug into the skin of her palm. Teldryn’s expression softened as he looked back at her, exhaling slowly.

“I wish you’d let me help, or at least pay for my room,” Sydari offered.

“I told you already. I can’t ask you to do that,” Teldryn removed his hand from hers, “I can’t ask that of you.”

Sydari sat back in her seat again. Stubborn fool that he was. Deep down she knew this was his way of asking her for help. He was saving face, trying to frame the question in a way that she’d benefit. As if helping him wasn’t something she’d been doing since she first landed on this barren, frozen ash rock. Or maybe it was because of that.

Teldryn was right. Sydari had maintained to her colleagues in Riften that her extended stay in Raven Rock was due to her trying to extend the guild’s reach throughout their former range. Fix Mercer’s mistakes. It wasn’t. Not really.  Things had gotten far more complicated than that. Though she wasn’t ready to acknowledge it herself yet. She couldn’t define what any of this was. Still…regardless of the reasons why she had chosen to stay put, Sydari figured she better start having something to show for her so-called efforts. And besides, Glover had been pestering her to send old Delvin an update so that he’d stop bugging him. She figured she could at least see what this “investment opportunity” was all about.

It would make Teldryn feel better at least.

Sydari sighed, “I guess it couldn’t hurt to go ask this guy about it, see what it’s all about.”

Teldryn looked up at her and grinned, his past distress slipping away as quickly as it had appeared.

“Sorry, I didn’t catch that, what were we doing?” He raised his hand to his left earlobe and pulled on in. Sydari shook her head, she knew where this was going.

“Teldryn!” She giggled, “Teldryn I know you heard what I said.”

He shook his head, “No I missed it, please, I’m all ear,” he laughed at his own joke. It was contagious, setting Sydari into a fit of laughter herself. Though one day she’d have to tell him. His joke wasn’t really that funny.

“We’ll talk to the fetcher in the morning. Yeah?” He sat back in his seat and tilted his head to the side again, awaiting her reply. She copied his motion, the movement unintentional.

“Fine Sero, you win. We’ll see this Dunmer in the morning.” 

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Wip Whenever

It's the first day of spring kids! I want winter to come back... Tagged by both @mareenavee and @orfeoarte <3 I get to this really late so I imagine everyone else has been tagged/ I probably shouldn't be a bother with my art wips lol. Anyway, we have art and writing... I've been doing a bit of costume design. That and we finished Josh's hair in the render and we will start with that.

Josh fucking about in his big, fancy warlord tent before assaulting Red Mountain. That man built an army and is choosing to be a tart about it. Let him be... also probably the longest extent of his hair. :P This is long so under a cut the rest goes!

Next, I've been playing with two concepts the first is Josh's Twin Lamps persona Molag’shaln. Oh, it's a whole arch.

And the next is Josh's appearance as of 4th Era 199. Complete with Ashlander ritual scaring. These symbolise atonement (yes Yani has the same style, he got them as atonement for familial mistakes, Josh's is Red Mountain related). Oh and the mullet stays, I can't help myself. It's too him.

Josh is done with everyone ever for the reasons below... Writing! Been working on Serious Mistakes again and yes...its a Josh chapter. Josh is in a fight then he gets tired.

Hang on.

“What?” He hissed under his breath.

Something whizzed past Teldryn’s right ear, the sound vibrating the hollow helmet. He felt a heat erupt behind him and smelt the stench of burning fabric, wood, roasting fish, ash yams. He turned to face the bazaar and saw the canopies had caught alight, the flames spreading through the marketplace with a ferocity that suggested an accelerant. He realised that he hadn’t smelt anything but sulphur, ash storms... Surely, he hadn’t missed something that obvious! He rushed back towards the marketplace. A small group of well-armoured mercenaries were clashing with a growing contingent of Redoran Guard. He scanned the battle scene, searching for the Argonian who stole his belongings earlier that day. Nothing! Wait! Scales!

The scene was a blur as Teldryn rushed in. Golden moonstone sword clashing with blades of iron, steel. He moved between the mercenaries like a dancer, skewering one particularly persistent one who would just not fall to his sword the first five times he slashed at him. He hastily pushed the dying Nord off his blade with the heel of his boot.

He looked around the scene before him, the shadows from the fire were disorientating and the smoke was beginning to choke the air from his lungs. No! He can’t have lost that bastard yet! Not when he was so close! There was a sudden movement. A peculiar figure in dark leather armour was racing north up the main street towards the city gates. Slight, his tail bobbing in rhythm with his gate. He’d found his man! 

He heard a woman scream.

He looked behind him, attempting to locate the out-of-place noise. Not far from the entrance to the Netch was his answer. A Khajiit was tugging a slight dunmeri woman by her hair. His clawed hands unsheathing his sword. Time seemed to stand still for several moments. Teldryn looked back towards the fleeing Argonian. Then towards the Khajiit. He watched as the Dunmeri woman reached for the small weapon at her belt. The Khajiit moved his blade towards her abdomen. Shit! He ran towards the mercenary, sword in hand. He grabbed the fucker by the throat and plunged his blade through the cat’s spine. Bone cracking and giving to his blade, the slightest smell of burned flesh and hair wafted on the wind. The Khajiit gurgled as his body finally went limp against the blade.

They really just make it too easy?

He let out a breath and looked over the mess before him. The Dunmeri woman had landed on the ground. Auburn hair fell wildly over her face. The front of her terracotta tunic now soaked a dark red. She stared back up at him with those same wide, amaranth-coloured eyes he’d first noticed at the corner club weeks ago. What was she still doing out here? Practically unarmed and totally underprepared!

What was she thinking?

Why do you care?

“Damn Outlanders, never paying attention! You’ll get yourself killed!” He scolded. Teldryn pulled his blade from the now lifeless mercenary and dropped the sod to the ground before the woman. He lightly flicked the errant blood to the side and watched as the woman before him smiled and tilted her head to the side. 

He didn’t mind that. He also didn’t have time for this.

Don’t lose him!

Shit! Right again! Teldryn looked back towards the main gates, the faint shadow of his mark disappearing amongst the darkness. He was right, the Raven Rock Gaols were the target. He took off in pursuit, all his focus on reaching those cells before that fuck could disappear into the tunnels. He moved through the dying chaos, certain that the rest of Veleth’s men could handle whatever mercenaries were left. Teldryn sprinted back through the main street slowing down to a light jog as he approached the Bulwark. He can’t lose him down those tunnels. Not now!

He reached the shabby wooden door that led to the town’s gaols. It had been left wide open.

Teldryn quickly entered the narrow passageway, carefully closing the door behind him. He didn’t need anyone else following him. Not when he was so close! He stomped through the dimly lit corridor towards the singular cell that lay at the end. The barred gate had been unlocked and left wide open. The room before him was empty save for the small, extremely uncomfortable cot that lay in the corner. He had spent more nights than he cared to admit on that thing. And yet, as exhaustion began to settle in his bones once again that old cot seemed just as inviting as his bed back at the Retching Netch.

By Azura had he really wasted this much energy?

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The past week's blue sketch concepts that I'll hopefully finish...at some point (And the one I actually did finish)

I'm a bit bouncy and inconsistent with my ideas atm. But have a Josh dump featuring Sydari.

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Finally, I jumped on a funny meme just in time to exploit it for these two idiots!

Teldryn has an idea!

The plan: Help Veleth rid the Redoran Guard of Emberbrand Wine. Take the stash and get paid for fixing the problem. Sell back the wine to the Guards at a premium so they get sloshed. Whilst they are distracted by wine get Glover to divert ebony shipments to the Guild.

Simple?

No, they also drank the wine. Aphia mumed them to Veleth and he's very, very disappointed...in Sydari. Teldryn just... he's been in that gaol 15 times that month for being heinous.

But the plan worked, they distracted everyone enough to divert shipments. No one suspects a thing!

And they both have Ken's attitude about the whole situation.

There may have been arson.....

Sydari stays overnight...Teldryn got to stew for a week.

They're bad decision buddies. And they are both off their face!

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Just yesterday's (and today's) sketch dump, put the elf trash together! YAY!

The result of people encouraging my brain worms!

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Wips on a Thursday

I have no wives to give you @thequeenofthewinter, @mareenavee, @paraparadigm But I do have JOSH Thursday!

And yes, most weeks are Josh weeks but I did also draw Sydari, I'll post that too. But guess what you also get a snippet from Sleepers Awake.

I hear you guys don't mind my horror adventure into the corprus cure.

Art First

Guns for Josh! Straight Outta Blacklight kids!

Hey this is getting posted with an ask but I need to draw like 4 more things first!

Ok Writing under the cut. CW Horror imagery, graphic descriptions, body horror. This is corprus and Morrowind related. You know the drill...

“SPEAK TO US!”

Blind, lost, they fumble. He fumbles, writhes. The star is gone. The cavern glows red, lost, wandering, face to the dirt. The drum beats, the heart beats, his heart stops and there is nothing.

“Again,” A man’s voice, old but firm, “do it again Uupse.”

He felt his muscles contract, relax, contract, the pain searing through his chest, as his body slams against stone. His muscles are fire, everything moves of its own accord, and he can’t will himself to stop. Again and again, an eternity. He writhes in one spot, scraping, twisting. His arm numb, his shoulder out of socket. He is aware and not, his body moves of its own accord. Snapping striking, scraping. He can’t breathe. He screams out, the sound little more than a rasping exhale as his body continues to slam against the stone. His head hits the hard, cold surface that he lay upon. Again and again and again. Over and over. Then suddenly it stops and he relaxes. Everything is wet. He burns, and his heart lurches in his chest. Fire throughout his body, a torch, immolation. It stops and he is suddenly unbearably cold. His heart stops.

“Again Uupse.”

A crack, a burning in his chest, it spreads from the centre outwards, his head turns, jaw clenches, and again he writhes, something in his chest snaps. Everything is muffled, it's too much. There are voices in the ether, distant, the language unrecognisable as he once again loses consciousness.

***

“Go to him, beneath Red Mountain, kneel before him, and he will show you mercy."

He speaks the words from his own lips, drawn tightly against his teeth. Dry. His skin is stretched across his bones, the joints split, oozing, and he crawls before himself upon his knees. They ooze a black substance as they scrape along the ground. He reaches his mirror’s feet, his forehead touches the ash before him. His reflection met him at his level. He lifted his chin up, traced his lip, and forced him to look at him, his face hollow, reforming, falling in, and reforming. His eyes dead, the crimson dulled. Clouded. The same images over and over. Teldryn spoke.

“What are you? Where is this place?” His voice was alien, not his own, ashen, rough. Unrecognisable.

His reflection smiled, it was menacing, lips stretched, uncanny. His eyes are dead.

 “Go to him, kneel before him, as you do me, and he will show you mercy.”

Teldryn tried to speak again, a long, bony finger pressed against his lips, silencing him before a could verbalise.

"What are you doing?” A laugh, “You have no idea, do you? Poor animal. You struggle and fight. You resist!”

“YOU UNDERSTAND NOTHING!”

The words did not come from either of them. Deep, rasping, hollow. It screeches from the darkness. He watches himself stiffen as the creatures approach. A mess of ash, malformed, elephantine proboscises emerging from their faces. Pits for eyes, ornate yet tattered robes. They hum, they writhe. One takes his reflection by the ear and tosses him to the side. His naked, emaciated form breaks against the rocky walls of the cavern. He watches himself twitch, thrash before he stills. The thing that stands before him offers its hand, skeletal, the ash and its skin mingled, he could not tell where one ended and the other began.

He did not want to take it.

He felt a shock in his chest, and he shuddered. Again. Another. He seizes. He awakens. The thing offers him its hand again.

And he refuses.

A second shock, stronger, it burns at his very being. His every nerve set aflame. His head hits the ground, grazes the stone. He is forced to his feet, a dead, decrepit arm hooks either side of him. He is forced forward. His body taught, unable to move of his own accord.

He drags his feet all the same.

[changelingsandothernonsense]

First Line, Last Line, Best Line (Fanfic WIP Edition)

So the gist of this game is to share the very first line of your current fic WIP, the very last line of it, (you may cheat a bit if your last line is too spoilery) and your favorite line so far. You don't have to explain why. You can just leave it there with no context. Tagged by @mareenavee, @thequeenofthewinter and @archangelsunited Thanks for including me! Tagging @paraparadigm, @friend-of-giants, @snippetsrus, @saltymaplesyrup, @tallmatcha and @thana-topsy and @orfeoarte because I know you're writing something! Look at me trying to tag people...please don't kill me! HELP XD Dumping stuff from the ongoing fic Serious Mistakes. First Line (Chapter One) Sydari threw the flyer back onto the bed. Last Line (Chapter Six) There was a series of old buildings on the far side of town, most having been destroyed in the wake of Red Mountain’s eruption.

Best Line (Chapter Four)

“Oh, great Nerevar guide me!” Teldryn mumbled sarcastically, he made a point of using Dunmeris, “Obviously the intention was to fuck my foot!” (Sass Nerevar when Nerevar is sassing you? Of course!)

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Asks for Sydari, your Dragonborn: 4, 6, 16, and 29!

Hi there! Thank you for the ask! 4. How old is your OC? Is their age typical for their race, or are they an outlier? Sydari is 51 by the time of the Dragon Crisis. This is roughly the equivalent of mid to late twenties for Dunmer and she's still treated as a child by a lot of older Dunmer. She's a quarter Nord and is unsure if that'll effect her lifespan in any meaningful way. So far it hasn't. 6. Does your OC have any formal education? Via what organization, if so? Sydari spent most of her life with a very bare bones education- if any at all. Mostly because she never really had the opportunity whilst trying to scrounge enough gold to eat that day. She was pretty much illiterate when she joined the Thieves Guild. She was slowly taught by Delvin how to read and write Common. The guy's like a father figure to her and she trusts him with that secret. She still cannot read Dunmeris, which leads to a huge misunderstanding with her on and off partner later. Once that secret gets out, however, he does try to teach her.

16. Can your OC swim? Do they like or dislike it? Another thing that she learnt whilst in Riften. Windhelm was always too frigid. Swimming was never really a thing. So she was completely lost when she was taken by a few fellow thieves to Lake Honrich not long after joining the Guild. These days she loves it. She just wishes she could spend more time at Honeyside to enjoy it.

29. Your OC sits down at a tavern. What food/drink are they ordering?

A bottle of Blackbriar mead (she's not actually a fan but she's stuck with Maven's monopoly on liquor because she's too damn good at her job). Sydari actually has a huge sweet tooth and will mostly order deserts. As far as savory she'll be inclined to ordering breads, cheeses (until she starts traveling with a certain Dunmer who can't stomach dairy). She does enjoy most things made from chicken so she'll usually order something that involves that. though usually she'll just order the special. She's not fussed.

A Mostly Very Specific Elder Scrolls OC Ask Game