I accidentally found myself binging through this romantic comedy manga, Ijiranaide Nagatoro-san. No idea how it happened, I'm definitely outside its target demographic and boy some of its segments really aren't for me, but I got hooked to its more wholesome aspects of the story.

I've been trying to draw more characters that aren't my own OCs lately, so I decided to make a quick fanart of the protagonists.

A couple more preparatory sketches under the cut.

Over 15 years of playing DnD have taught me to never kill named characters. Friends or foe, you just want to keep seeing the fun and cool characters stick around to show up in more story beats.

But sometimes, playing this game, you realize that no matter what dialogue options you choose, you're not getting out of an interaction without a fight, and it has me feeling like this.

I've avoided getting Baldur's Gate 3 until now because, quite frankly, I was afraid of how everyone said it was a hundreds of hours commitment, and I don't know if I have that much time to sink into it. But I finally caved and bought it, Collector's Edition and everything.

I ended up spending something like three hours and a half just creating my character. It doesn't bode well.

I know we usually save the #faceyourart challenges for the end of the year, but just for fun I wanted to put one together.

For reasons outside my control my art output has been embarassingly low for a couple of years, and I feel like it's only been since last year that I've gotten back into gear. The last collage I did was from 2020, and I really wanted to make a new one with the art from the last twelve months, as a pat on my own back I guess.

Maybe I'll update it at the end of the year.

Autumn in Sharlayan

I thought it'd be safe to trust Yoshida when he said the FFXVI collab wouldn't have any spoilers. I don't know why they thought mentioning named characters' deaths and traumatic plot twists qualifies as "no spoilers for the game". What the fuck.

Four years. Four years I've been trying to dodge all spoilers for this goddamn game, refused to watch trailers, kept myself away from reviews and any kind of discourse online, I'm interested in the game, I want to get it on Day One, cool, but that Day One still hasn't arrived yet. The game isn't out yet for me.

I was very paranoid about the collab but I decided to trust Yoshida. And in return I get hit by what feels like a middle finger in the face of all those who didn't think it was a reasonable idea to go haggle with scalpers to get a PlayStation 5 just to play one single game a few months earlier.

i miss them...

Jill, meanwhile, observed him carefully as he kept his gaze trained diligently ahead in an effort to not meet hers, on the surface intent on observing Delen’s training. She knew she had touched a nerve, not from his reaction, but his distinct lack of it. Who on Hydaelyn would listen to something like that and not even blink? As he failed to come up with a response after a couple of seconds, she continued to press her offensive. “Have you not wondered how come she asked you to teach her how to fight?” “Well,” he hurried to say something, anything to break his silence and regain control of the conversation. “She wanted to be able to look out for herself, she said as much, which is a good idea considering she wants to keep traveling.” “I mean why she wanted you to teach her” she corrected him, stressing the pronoun. “You said it yourself, these are just fundamentals you’re teaching her, she could have turned to anyone for those. She could have asked me, I would have taught her this much, she knows it too. Instead, ever since she made up her mind she chose to intentionally avoid learning as much as possible and wait half a year for you to get back from a war front just so she could take basic lessons from you.”

Guess who got around to writing!

I had this chapter in progress for months now, it was like 70% done too, but then life happened. But I finally managed to find not only the time, but also the peace and quiet needed to sit down and finish writing it. And all it took was getting my sleep cycle out of sync because of the DST.

Boop.

(Her form is all wrong but it's her first day, she'll figure it out.)

X'rhun Tia is actually the funniest mentor in ffxiv you can't change my mind

I've been trying to preorder Dawntrail for a few hours now, but Square-Enix's website seems to be out of commission; it won't even let me login into my account, much less placing an order.

The game is barely out for preorder and we're already having congestion issues.

And I know, I KNOW, everyone's been telling me it won't be like Endwalker, that we have more and better performing servers now, that we have no sudden influx of players from WoW, that the new expansion isn't generating as much hype... And yet...

... I can't help having flashbacks...

Here’s what I spent all night doing!!!!!!! A map of Coerthas and Dravania, specifically with an eye to reconciling the world maps and zone maps (and 1.0 with 2.0+) in a way that emphasizes information important to me as a roleplayer, like overland routes and rivers.

Was it worth it? … Probably not. I mean, I did want to draw my own map for Greening Coerthas purposes but I should have just drawn a messy blobmap instead of trying to do this.

Long long rambling commentary below cut:

Continua a leggere

On a date by the sea

For a while now I've been trying to design an "alternate design" for my new OC Julian Rowley. While I feel the design I've come up with is perfectly adequate for a dashing sky pirate, Julian is also the captain of his own airship and I wanted him to have a more official-looking ensemble. Something that'd alter his silhouette slightly enough to give him an air of importance without making him come across as too pompous, something he could easily put on and off as the situation needed, and ideally something that would swirl in the wind for dramatic effect.

I've been experimenting with different kinds of coats, but nothing seems to work. Today, I think I've found my solution: shoulder armour pieces that attach to his harness, and a shoulder cape.

And that seems to do the trick! It's a very small addition to his design but I feel like it does a lot to change the way he comes across at a glance.

Alright now, let's see, what do I have left on my to-do list?

Design for his gun

Design for his violin

Design for his airship

... boy, am I glad I don't have a deadline for this.

Rumble in the Wastelands