MISSION REPORT

Pencil practice continues. This time, I used Procreate and did a digital sketch instead of using traditional media. I'm splitting my time roughly by halves between the two, which I figure will stand me in good stead for the long run. 


As always, roast me if you've got a moment so I'll learn quicker.

Self-critique: I'm really pleased with the shapes here, except for the lightest two diagonally right-pointing petals at the center, which needed to wrap more around the bud. Generally, I'm also pleased with the rendering of the bottom five petals. The top half is a mess of competing half tones with no clear and consistent light source, not enough deep shadow, and a mix of under- and over-blending that makes it tough to decipher the directionality of the petals in the way that they curl, fold, and cup around each other. 

Anyway my wrist is DYING, and I'm back in a brace. Not sure why I grip my pencil like it's the last thing holding me in this reality, but holy shit, I have to change it or I'm going to cripple myself. 

Still having a blast with this, though!

Title: Invisibility (read on AO3)

 

Title: Y2K Crash (read on AO3)

Fandom: Marvel MCU

Prompt: hostile climate

Medium: fic

Wordcount: 1865

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: significant gore; vaguely implied sexual assault (not explicit, not acted upon); use of homophobic slur

 

Summary: On the eve of the new millenium, a Hydra-infiltrated STRIKE Team's quinjet crashes in the Arctic Circle. The Winter Soldier is only recently attached to the team, and he has some opinions about their newest rookie operative. Rumlow has some opinions of his own about Hydra's asset, but it's hard to convey them properly as hypothermia sets in. 
 

( Read more... )

 

Title:I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT

Fandom: Marvel MCU

Prompt: hospital stays

Medium: fic

Wordcount: 697

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: implied torture both medical and otherwise (not explicit); PTSD

Summary Steve thinks Bucky should go to the field hospital after the march back from the Hydra facility where he'd been held captive with the other Howling Commandos. Bucky very strongly disagrees, thank you very much. The Howlies kick back and watch the ensuing bitchfest.

Or, one fresh hot mess of a terribly formatted, script-like outline that commits many grammatical sins and engages in general editorial mayhem, but will soon become a fic.

Or, tl;dr: a draft-stage tragedy in three acts, masquerading as a comedy.
 

( Read more... )

 And lo, another flood.

This time, due to our condensate pipe cracking and our sump pump burning itself up at the same time. 

Totally independent of the yard-heading French drain and cracked window well nonsense of summertime.

Totally different from the time our plumbing pipes froze and burst.

So now we've got contractors tearing up carpet and cutting out drywall to do remediation, and insurance adjustors seeing whether any of the damage will be covered, and I'm cancelling holiday celebration plans with family for tomorrow and probably also canning our possible Xmas surprise getaway bc $$$$$$$$.

Anyway, tl;dr UGHHHH

Apparently I've written about ~99k across four long-sustained RPs* this year. My actual near-year's-end total is probably closer to ~120-130k, given the handfuls of RPs that only lasted for several exchanges before sputtering out. 

I'm sick of my default perspective, which is to look at every second spent on this type of partner-based writing as an extraordinarily foolish waste of time. I judge it as such because only one other person ever sees it and because I'm not creating the stories all on my own; thus, it's not "real" writing.

I imagine I am not the only fannish person on the planet who may hold, or may have held, this view about their own RPing, which is really quite a garbage view. It's just nonsense. Listen: Fandom's in tumult, the blue hellsite is caving in on itself, and 2k18 was a real donkeyfucker of a year in many regards. So we're gonna just take what positivity we can from whatever endeavors bring us joy. 

Here's what RP can be at its best: a deeply engaging and creative endeavor that keeps me on my toes, immerses me in canon & keeps me hooked into fandom, encourages me to do loads of research, and constantly tests my ability to keep a plot moving forward while maintaining good characterization. 

(Thanks for coming to my TED talk.)

Anyway, given a full-time job that often runs well past 40hrs/wk and two kiddos to parent, 120-130k doesn't feel too bad for roughly a year's worth of hobbying. 

*RP means different things for different people; for me, it's basically just authoring stories with a writing partner via email, with the partner taking the lead on certain characters' POVs and plot arcs while I take the lead on others.

It appears that The Great Tumblr Fuckening of 2018 is upon us. Mass fandom exodus seems imminent.

Sigh. How many times must we do this. I am Tired(tm).

Listen. I am a Fandom Old. I know this is how it goes. I know we will be fine, but we will never be the same, and the "we" will be inevitably altered. Some people I saw regularly on my Tumblr dash are folks I will never ever find again. Their art and their fic and just their general presence will be missed.

Fandom will go on, of course. Cue Celine Dion bg music, all that. But like. LIKE. It is just so damn exhausting.

Anyway, I'm camped out here for now waiting to see what happens and to watch the scattering; we'll see where everything coalesces, and it'll probably be someplace highly unlikely, as Tumblr was after the LJ exodus.

In the meantime: THANK FUCK FOR AO3/OTW