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So that one Two Truths and a Lie post...

The lie is the third one! Celain's favorite animal is actually a sea turtle, but...

In case anyone was wondering why the last option on the poll was so specific... there was a reason haha

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Two Truths and a Lie (Tag Game)

Thank you for the tag, @blind-the-winds! (In this post!)

Rules: Post a 24-hour poll featuring two truths and one lie about your OC!

Last time I did this for Sterling (from Minding Q's), so this time I'm going to do one for Celain! And I've decided to make it very silly.

I'mma gently tag @akiwitch, @my-cursed-prince, @basalamander-corner, @maddstermind, @athenswrites, @theglitchywriterboi, and anyone else that wants to do this!

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OC in 15 (Tag Game)

For this one, I was tagged by @tabswrites in this post! I had a lot of fun the last time I did this, so here we go again!

Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

Okay, for this one, I'm actually going to do some of Laurie's dialogue from Stained Integrity:

“Oh, hello. Come to join me in isolation?”

“Your nobility here sure are uppity. Don’t get me wrong—I’m flattered that the ladies here find me attractive, but they sure don’t mince words, do they?”

“Oooh, mysterious backstory? I’m listening.”

“Well, it’s certainly not only for the charm.”

“I don’t know what it is you’re trying to prove, but coming after me was really stupid. And, quite frankly, you coming along with me anywhere is a bad idea.”

“Because that’s the sort of comment that gets a man slapped back where I’m from!”

“I already told you—I don’t owe you my life story.”

“My dear, I am the drama.”

“You sure ask a lot of questions. Hasn’t anyone ever told you that curiosity killed the cat?”

“My dear, can we please not fight? The both of us are suffering enough as it is.”

“Ah—unfortunately, I believe you’ve dug deep enough into my life for one morning.”

“I’m flattered, darling, really—but I can’t be spilling all my secrets.”

“Look, I appreciate that you assume I have some twisted backstory—but it’s really none of your concern.”

“Some things are beyond helping, my dear.”

“...Would you prefer the abridged version?”

I'm going to gently tag @my-cursed-prince, @akiwitch, @serpentarii, @writingbyricochet, @betweenthetimeandsound, @wheres-all-the-tea-gone, and leaving the tag open for anyone that scrolled all the way down here!

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“Imperial Princess Kallima is next in line for the Crisoxian throne, as she is the eldest child of the emperor—even though she is not related by blood to the empress. I’m not quite sure what the story is on that."

I've been meaning to design/draw Kallima for a while, and I'm finally getting around to it! It was really fun to go heavy with the butterfly theme.

Sketch and alternate versions beneath the cut:

There's so much going on with her outfit and I'm here for it haha

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✨️Important News✨️

I hath opened commissions!

If you are interested in commissioning me, thank you from the bottom of my heart! Please read below for more details, and then go ahead and let me know with a comment or email! (We can also chat over Discord or Tumblr DMs)

Oh, wow, you hit the read more! Thank you for your interest! Okay, here are some things to keep in mind about my commissions:

☆ These are my character price sheets! I am not currently doing landscape commissions, but if you want a scene or background, we can definitely work that out!

☆ Payment is half up-front, then the rest when the piece is halfway complete.* (I currently accept payment through Venmo, and I will have my Ko-fi up and running soon.)

☆ I love drawing OCs, but I'm not limited to them! As long as I have refs, I can draw! (And I accept both written and drawn refs.**)

☆ I tend to draw on ~900×1200px canvases, so please let me know if you have a different size in mind!

☆ I currently cannot (and will not try to) draw the following:

Extreme gore/extremely bloody content (although I am okay to draw minor scrapes and whatnot)

Anything specifically meant to be sexually gratifying -- (Basically, NSFW stuff is a no! It's just not my sort of thing.)

Mechs/other robotic machines -- (The reason I won't draw mechs is because the current amount of effort I have to put into it is not a price I want to dangle in front of people. If you really want me to draw mech stuff, please reach out to me and we can talk about it and my current pricing!)

Anthropomorphic animals -- (I'm sorry, but I'm just not good at this yet! I don't want to be unable to deliver good art.) -- (This is different than humanoids with animal features! I'm better at drawing those.)

OCD triggers -- (for me, this includes needles and insects)

If you aren't sure whether or not something is within my realm of work, please ask me! I promise I won't be mean about it.

If you want to see some more examples of what I can do, please check out this page for specifics!

Thank you for scrolling all the way down here! I really appreciate your interest.

Here are the embedded images for potential higher quality:

The additional notes on the price sheets are as follows:

Both a color-coded & black-line version will be provided for uncolored sketches!

Please note that prices will vary based on complexity/level of detail

Simple glowy effects are free! Complex ones average an extra 3 USD.

(Referencing the bust and waist-up prices) Prices may vary depending on arm placement!

Colored sketches will not be "shaded", and coloring is loose (can go outside the lines)

Uncolored clean/detailed pieces can be filled gray or left white!

Colored clean/detailed piece will include appropriate shading, but there are options to choose from!

Things to note: -- Additional characters in a single commissioned scene will have a 40% discount. -- I will default to a solid gray background unless told otherwise! -- Complicated poses, props, and/or complex color palettes will increase the price!

Once again, thank you for your interest, and sorry for this insanely long post!

*If you would like to pay entirely upfront, that is perfectly fine!

**If you don’t have colored/a lot of refs, that’s okay! I will work with you during the sketching and coloring process to make sure I am drawing the character the way you want.

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OC in 15 (Tag Game)

I was tagged by @aziz-reads in this post! I'm excited to try this one for the first time, so thanks for tagging me!

Rules: Share 15 or fewer lines of dialogue from an OC, ideally lines that capture the character/personality/vibe of the OC. Bonus points for just using the dialogue without other details about the scene, but you're free to include those as well!

I think for this one, I'm going to share dialogue spoken by Sterling from Minding Q's, mostly because it's going to be really funny to me at least (CW: strong language)

“I wasn’t sure if it was gonna be warm or cold today, since it’s s’posed to rain later or whatever, so I just went with layers like usual. I think I made a mistake wearing pants, though. Damn, it’s hot out here.”

“Don’t die in there!”

“Wow—okay, stalker.”

“Okay, I should actually start heading back so I don’t get struck by lightning. Uh, but thanks for talking!”

“You’re not my real mom!”

“I don’t have a Pilea yet, actually. But-- I mean, if you want, we could swap. Not the whole plant! Just, like, a cutting. Or a leaf. I’d give you a cutting from one of my plants that you like. Maybe not the albo, though. Just ’cuz-- Sorry, I just sell cuttings from him, so I dunno if I could give you one for free. I could if I didn’t have to pay rent—but unfortunately, capitalism exists! And I have to buy groceries. Whiiiiich I totally forgot to do yesterday. Fuck—why does adulting have to be so hard?”

“Can you just let me deal with the consequences of my actions in peace?”

“Wait—oh my god, you’re right. It’s already Wednesday today. Ugh! I hate Labor Day! Not having classes on Mondays always fucks me up. I mean-- Sorry, you don’t mind swearing, right?”

“What! That’s lame. Seriously, why does being an adult have to be so lame?”

“Oh, sweet! They have grilled cheese sandwiches! I fucking love grilled cheese.”

“Sure! My class gets done at... Hang on. I literally just checked this. It ends at... No, not that button. That’s also the wrong button. Can I just-- Can I-- Oh my god—can I please open the right tab? There we go. That should not have been that hard. Uh... Thursday... Thursday... Where the hell did it go? Wait, I’m stupid—it’s right there. Jeez. Okay, it ends at two fifteen.”

“Yeah, I definitely was not paying attention.”

“That’s another thing I don’t like! Fucking roller coasters!”

“Huh? Oh. Oh, wait. Shit! I forgot—I’m super angry at you and never want to speak to you ever again!”

“Yeah, that’s prob’ly a good idea. I’m not really in the mood to die today.”

Yes I put those entire paragraphs in there on purpose. It’s just who he is.

I'm going to gently tag @mary-is-writing, @veneritia, @maddstermind, @asablehart, @amaiguri, @macabremoons, and anyone else that managed to scroll all the way down here!

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Find the Word (Tag Game)

I was tagged by @pb-dot in this post for this game! The words I was given are fruit, ditch, joke, and smoke.

Since this is going to get long, I'll put my tags up here: @asablehart, @veneritia, @akiwitch, @maddstermind, @athenswrites, and anyone else that sees this and wants to do it! I'll give you guys the words beginning, right, leg, and tired!

Anyways, I know for a fact that all of these words are in one of my less-known WIPs, the Final Straw, so I'm using that WIP for this because, as you will see, it's going to get extremely comedic:

Fruit

“Why do you say your name’s Kiwi?” I ask her after I finish telling her about the farm. “Well,” she says, “I was reading a book about places across the sea, and it had stuff about a bunch of different kinds of fruit. I dunno what a kiwi tastes like, but I’m gonna eat one someday!” I grin at her. She actually wants to be named after a fruit.

Ditch

“Straw,” Mr. Hank Davis says, looking at me, “go ask your father if he moved things outta the shed. If you see Casper on the way to the house, ask him if he knows, too.” “Who?” “Mister Davis, don’tcha know you’ve gotta call him Ditch when talking to Strawbs?” Liver flashes a grin. Mr. Hank Davis sighs. “Ditch, then. Straw, can you do that?” I nod and leave the shed, hearing Liver burst into peals of laughter again. Ditch’s name isn’t really Ditch, but I can never remember his real name. I just remember that he was the one that helped me out of the ditch I fell into, so I would say things to my dad like “Where’s the one that helped me outta the ditch?” and eventually it shortened down to me just saying “Ditch” and that’s what stuck.

Joke

“Oliver,” Mr. Hank Davis is saying, “I don’t appreciate you ragging me. Where’d you put them hoes?” “I ain’t got none, Hank, Mister Davis. I’m a gentleman, Sir.” And then Liver bursts into laughter at some joke that clearly isn’t funny to Mr. Hank Davis and I just plain don’t understand. “Well if you don’t be knowing where they are, then I s’pose you and Straw are gonna have to make a trip to town to pick some up.” “Aw, but Mister Davis! Ain’t Strawbs a bit young to be picking up hoes?” Liver goes wild with laughter again. Mr. Hank Davis has gone very red in the face, and his bushy mustache twitches, kind of like how a mouse twitches its nose. Maybe he can smell cheese somewhere. “I’m too young for what?” I decide to say, mostly because I think Liver has caught sight of me.

Smoke

He grins, spinning the stick from his sucker in his teeth like a toothpick or the funny sticks that catch on fire that I sometimes see Ditch have in his mouth. Then he has to spit out the smoke because his stick’s caught on fire. “You know I can’t remember your real name,” I say. “Yah, I know. Which is why I don’t keep telling it to ya.” He sits on my bed and bounces a few times. He doesn’t even weigh down the blankets. “I’d better go. My pops will get mad if I ain’t home soon.” “Where do you live?” “You won’t remember,” he says, then goes to the window.

This WIP is a hot mess and I love it. If anyone wants context, you can read the first few (unrevised) chapters over on my Wattpad. I can already see stuff that I want to change in these snippets AAHHHH

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Character Voice Tag

I was tagged by @ahordeofwasps on this post for this game! It's my first time trying this game, so I'm excited >:}

Rules: Rewrite the line of dialogue from the person who tagged you into the voice of your OC’s! (You can include a short beat of action to help establish character if you want.) Pass on the tag with a new line of dialogue.

I was given the phrase "We have to get out of here, now!" and I've decided to use the main characters from Torn of Seeds, which is a bad decision because there are 9 main characters. ANYWAYS--

• Odile - "Let's get out of here already!"

• Marcello - "We're leaving, now!"

• Phillipa - "Let's go; we need to get out of this place!"

• Conate - "We need to leave. Now."

• Ta'ashiri - "Uhhh... I think we should prob'ly get outta here."

• Kaekil - "A'ight—why the hell are we still here?"

• Tethys - "...Maybe we should leave?"

• Lurania - "Okay, we need to get the f*ck out of here."

• Herb - "Well, I believe that's my cue to leave. Anyone else feel like joining me?"

I shall gently tag @my-cursed-prince, @akiwitch, @harleyacoincidence, @aziz-reads, @toribookworm22, @card-queen, @amaiguri, and leaving the tag open for anyone that sees this and wants to do it! Your phrase is, "Would you like help with that?"

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Heads Up, Seven Up! (Tag Game)

I was tagged by @toribookworm22 in this post ages ago, but I'm finally sitting down to get caught up on my tag games. Here we go!

Today I shall be sharing a goofy snippet from Feather Candles:

“Bah! Hardly anyone does,” Levine airily replied, despite the fact that the bright yellow tattoo—which branched from his neck to his left cheek—was pretty much the most noticeable thing about him. “I’m assuming you are Lord Herron Wulfram, son of the duke of Halisin?” “I am,” Lord Herron said. “Have you already met my father? Everyone says I look just like him, so it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s how you know who I am.” “Well, yes—but you also happen to have your hand placed quite scandalously on Crown Princess Paloma’s waist,” Levine said, giving a cheeky grin. Both Lord Herron and my sister blushed—and they hastily put some distance between each other. “Ah, young love...” Levine dramatically fanned his face. “I can’t be that much younger than you,” Lord Herron protested. “You aren’t,” I said. “In fact, you’re nearly seven years older than him.”

I'm too tired to provide context for this one.

My seven gentle tags shall be: @my-cursed-prince, @thewritersplace, @serpentarii, @asablehart, @veneritia, @k-v-briarwood, and @lorenfinch!

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Notice Me, Reader! (Tag Game)

Thank you for the tag (in this post), @ahordeofwasps! It's fun to see that this one has been going around a bit!

Rules: Share 3 (or more!) small details from your WIP that you feel have gone/will go unnoticed. (You can choose whether or not to share why the detail is significant!)

I feel like sharing some random details from Minding Q's! Here's a few:

It's mentioned that Sterling is allergic to latex, as well as kiwis. This is actually correlated, and so is his unmentioned allergy to bananas and avocados. (The thing that is a coincidence is that Max also happens to be allergic to kiwis.)

In chapter 7, the video game that Max is playing is actually Splatoon. (He gets jumped during Tower Control and keeps missing his shots thanks to controller drift, hence why he yells at the TV.)

Josh has a Tumblr account, as revealed during his intro sequence in chapter 13, when Celain tells him she likes his shoelaces and he tells her that he stole them from the president.

In a similar vein, the webcomic that Celain and Josh mention reading in chapter 13 is a real webcomic (and I spent way too long deciding which webcomic I thought would tie together their fairly different personalities).

I'm going to no-pressure tag @my-cursed-prince, @charlies-storybook, @veneritia, @maddstermind, @bisexualfantasyfox, @faeriecinna, @innocentlymacabre, and @basalamander-corner! Also leaving an open tag for anyone that wants to play! If you see this, you can consider yourself tagged >:}

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Happy STS! What's the most nuanced relationship you've written so far?

I somehow missed this in my inbox, which is a shame because I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ABOUT THIS ONE--

Anyways, hi Tori! Thank you for the ask!

I have written so many extremely nuanced relationships, most of them non-romantic—although I usually don't have a plan whenever I write the dynamics between my characters. It just kind of... happens?

That being said, I'm pretty sure the most nuanced relationship (in a story that I can talk about without major spoilers) is in Minding Q's (of course): my lovely side characters, Nic and Chase.

And it turns out, this post I made forever ago is now coming in handy! (It's basically just me rambling about them and also the entire backstory of their relationship, which has pretty much stayed the same.) I think the only thing that's sort of changed is that Nic does not like labels, and he does not like being perceived incorrectly, which leads to a lot of tense situations when other people pry about the relationship. (Chase uses the labels panromantic-asexual, but just when people ask about it.)

The important thing is that they refer to each other as "companions," and they care for each other. The rest is honestly hard to describe outside of the story, but it's all there in their words and actions. (Also this post ended up a lot shorter than I thought it would be because I forgot I had that post I could link 😭)

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Apparently I never posted this???

It’s one of my favorite music sketches that I've done (probably because it was my first attempt to use more than 3 instrument channels in a full-length song).

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i read brant grey as grant brey.

OH NOOOO BAHAHAHAHAHJAHJAHHAH

Okay but for real—this is so funny to me and now I'm probably going to have someone in the story accidentally say this spoonerism.

I mean, I already have someone mispronounce "Galeknights" for the bit so I might as well just go the whole extra mile

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“That knight was named Brant Grey. He was the prince’s closest companion—and his only real friend at the time. And because of the prince’s mistake, he was taken from this world.”

Finally got around to drawing Brant! (Don't worry about spoilers; this man's gone way before the first page of the story.)

Sketch and version without the dramatic lighting under the cut:

He did have a helmet, but he didn't really wear it.

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Happy WBW! What are the sacred professions in your world? I don't necessarily mean religious-- but of course they can be. Just what are the high ranking, prestigious, and/or powerful jobs?

Oh this is the perfect opportunity to ramble about The Astrals' Weapons in Stained Integrity! >:} (I'll also talk about Master Alchemists because those are pretty important too.) Thank you for the ask!

So, in the world of Stained Integrity, there is what is literally known as "the faith" because it's so widespread. The Astrals are the main 3 that are prayed to (and The Wyrds are the ones you plead to).

There is one specific being that is known as the Diviner, who delivers The Astrals' Will to the three beings that are known as The Astrals' Weapons. A lot of people refer to the Diviner's power as "seeing into the future," although it's a bit more complicated than that.

(CW below cut: mention of death, mention of poison)

The Astrals (Méni Lune, Heló Sol, and Aura Stell) each have one Weapon that they are the benefactor of. There's Lune's Blade, Sol's Bow, and Stell's Spear (AKA the Moonblade, the Sunbow, and the Starspear). The purpose of the Weapons is to carry out The Astrals' Will, which is usually just a specific task told to them by the Diviner.

For context, these are the only beings that are bowed to by kings, queens, sovereigns, and other leaders of the skylands. That's how important they are. They each have very specific cloaks that they wear at all times, which makes them easily recognizable.

The exciting part about all this is how the successors are chosen. The Diviner will receive a vision about the successor, and the Weapon is then sent to find this particular individual to train them as a successor until they die. (Yes, they basically get their impending death foretold, although they aren't told how or exactly when they will die, just that it's going to happen.)

Once the Weapon's thread is cut, their literal weapon (the sword, bow, or spear) basically dematerializes and reappears in the Diviner's shrine, which is where the new Weapon will travel to retrieve the weapon and be given their first task from the Diviner.

Each Weapon is also given a specific power by their benefactor that is tailored to their own personal abilities. In the current timeline, Malina (Stell's Spear) has the ability to sense magic and trace magical residue back to its caster, which is in tangent to her ability as a practitioner to sense the presence of souls. She also has heightened healing powers, since stellar magic is based around healing.

At the start of the story, the current Moonblade (Jeyen) has the power to polymorph natural materials into different natural materials (so he could literally turn lead into gold) for various periods of time. The current Solbow (Tache) has the power to augment their own strength to a certain degree, which means pretty much what it sounds like it means.

And I'm going to shamelessly self-promote because I've drawn Malina and posted it here, and I've also drawn the new Moonblade that is Jeyen's successor.

Okay, now about the Master Alchemists!

Basically, the Master Alchemists are those that have learned every single recipe that there is to learn. The reason this is such a feat is that, by law, an alchemy apprentice must ingest anything that they learn to make, before they learn to make it. This includes poisons, potions, and more. The only exception to this is tickerbane, since the poison is so powerful that there is no lower dose that someone can take to make it nonfatal. All other poisons are either diluted or given in a small enough dose that it's just really really painful instead of deadly.

In the current timeline of the story, there is only one Master Alchemist left, since no one has wanted to take on such a difficult apprenticeship.

That's all from me! Thank you again for the fun ask!

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“You must forgive our dear Phoenix. He has a personal vendetta against Crisox—and a terrible sense of humor.”

Managed to do a drawing of Phoenix today! (He's the knight with trust issues from this post hehe)

Sketch and helmet-less version under the cut:

I was going be serious with drawing the armor, and then I got lazy

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“Well, I assure you that I am not here to usurp your position. If you’d prefer that I stay out of your way, I will gladly leave all tasks to you.”

I just felt like drawing Milo today! (It's about time I solidified the elements of her outfit anyways ashfkkajfshfsk)

Sketch + version without the veil and light under the cut:

If you can't tell, I've been having fun with these doodles haha