the aforementioned birthday present

for Nath, who may or may not actually like it. Because what's happening here is this:

"Andra, it's been a year now. We have to talk."

"Maybe tomorrow. I'm going to bed." I turned away from him and headed for the stairwell. He followed me up the steps and stopped me by one of those tall, arched windows. Moonlight streamed in, edging one side of his face with cold silver. The torches that lit the manor at night cast fireglow on his other side.

"Please, just listen! You can't avoid this forever."

"Watch me." The words didn't come out as steady as they should have. I sank my teeth into my lower lip and bowed my head, glad for once that he couldn't see me.

"You're crying," he said.

"No, I'm not." I answered out of habit; he knew me too well to believe me.

His hand went to my face, thumb smearing through my tears. I pushed his arm away, shoved at his chest, five seconds too late. His sightless eyes narrowed. His brows furrowed together. "Andra -"

I stumbled backward up the stairs, pressing the side of my fist into one eye. "Not now. I can't talk about it now. I'll see you in the morning." My voice was shaking hard, but it didn't matter. I turned and fled up the staircase, leaving him standing beside the open window, with the moon gilding his skin.

This bit takes place a year after the end of the actual story. I figure that after all the crap I put them through, Andra and Nath would probably be pretty messed up and have lots of post-crisis angst and issues. Muaa, I'm so friggen evil to them. But you guys know by now that's how I show affection, right?

So about the picture: I've been staring at it so long that I almost hate it now. It wants color, but since I'm absolutely terrified of dual light sources and also have zero confidence in my level of coloring skill, color is unlikely to happen anytime soon. But I left it unshaded, just in case. I was so sick of dealing with this, I didn't even clean it up in PDN after scanning. Happy Birthday to you, Nath. You'd better like it.

By the way, Thaelen and Anabeth have been inspiring lately. I can't get them out of my head. But that's a good thing, I suppose. Many many scribbles to come soon!

Commander Kip
"Turn around, man, you'll never make it!" *VROOOOOMMMMM... pheeeeeewwwww.... THUD* "Made it."
Normal is overrated!

news from the Commandah

Firstly and foremostly, I'm back from Sioux Falls, and I got an honorable mention at regionals! Which is about the equivalent of third place. Works for me! I doodled quite a bit while I was there, but none of the stuff is scanned yet, since I have to go through all my homework and find 'em all, but there will be a veritable pile at some point.

In other extremely important news, we have like a foot and a half of snow all of a sudden!!! Which means no school today. Please and thank you. My dad and I shoveled the driveway like five times last night. *squees epically*

Also, I was sick, but I'm better now. Waaait... that was like at the beginning of the year. Where in the world has January gone?! In any case, that was a while ago, but I'm glad I got it over with in time to go compete still.

I'm listening to the Tron: Legacy soundtrack right now, because somebody was playing it in art class the other day and I thought it was fairly epic. Still haven't seen the movie, but I'm thinking about dragging my grandpa over to see it with me this weekend.

Room remod is going nicely, but I have to wait till spring break to do some of the spraypainting I wanted to do. We got a pegboard for my weapons, but it looks like it might be a bit of an ordeal trying to get it hung, so that might have to wait 'till spring break also.

I finished The Chestnut King! *incogerent gibbering ensues, as the Commander's mind has been effectively blown* So much epic cannot possibly exist in one place. It offends reason. Converging plots for teh win. Thank you, Pippin, for lending us the preciouss, yesss, we likes it muchly...

And that reminds me, I'm about due to watch LotR again, by my reckoning. Maybe not Fellowship of the Ring, since I've seen that like twice as many times as the other two put together, but definately Two Towers, cuz that one has all the best deleted scenes and Legolas and Gimli are hilarious in it. I love those two so freaking much. Extended edition is the ONLY way to go.

And, by the way, I got my driver's license. DON'T FREAK OUT - I still can't drive by myself, partly because I'm not comfortable with it, mostly because Mommie hasn't gotten me insurance yet... but I have the card in my possession, which must count for something. Those of you who've been nagging me about it *ahemREEDFROSThemhem* you all can just shut up naow.

You know what makes me sad? I had Chapter 12 all worked out with Lady Arin, and I didn't write down the friggen order of operations, so now I can't remember what we said. Gah, we just need to record every conversation we have... cuz now I gotta figure everything out all over again. Annoying short-term memory/Goldfish Syndrome...

Lastly, I discovered a new tv show on Cartoon Network that shows a bit of promise; it's called Young Justice, and it has Robin in it. And he pwns ur soul. Especially his new non-traffic-light-colored SUIT, and his hair, which lies down quite nicely (see, that's how you know the TT Robin is Tim Drake, cuz of his super-retarded spiky hair.) Howevah, we're apparently dealing with a thirteen-year-old Dick Grayson here, which messes slightly with my personal Batman/Teen Titans continuity, and he therefore has a hilarious snooty tweenager voice. Also, Aqualad looks nothing like Aqualad, although I actually like his design (except for his nasty costume - RED, can you believe it? RED for an Atlantean!) but I can't help but prefer the pretty-hair'd Asian Teen Titans version. Speedy, what I've seen of him so far, is a total jerk. But apparently he's not in the show much, so that's okay. I never really liked the Titan version of him either. And it looks like they pretty much kept the design for Kid Flash, which makes me happeh. I love that guy. He cracks me up. I have nothing to say about Superboy, just like I've never had anything to say about Superman. It would seem, according to the trailers, that Superboy's sole purpose in the show is to scream a lot and break things. See how I don't find that at all impressive? And I've yet to see Miss Martian in action, but from her bio, she's practiacally a Raven ripoff. Telepathy, telekinesis, flight, etc. I know next to nothing about her personality, but if she's anything like her uncle, I expect she will be rather boring. We'll see, I suppose. So yeah, bascially I miss Teen Titans now. I miss all the original characters and their dorky costumes and their equally dorky supervillains. I miss the spiky-haired, badly dressed, super angsty Robin with his Batman ripoff growly voice and his awesome bo stick and his ninja skillz. I miss Raven and her random tantrums and her daddy issues and her hilarious freaking deadpan. I miss Cyborg and Beast Boy and their slapstick best buddies relationship and the arguments they have over anything and everything. I even miss Starfire, with all her alien blondeness and her freaky purple miniskirt. Gaah.

Sorry, I'll quit ranting at you guys now. Bye.

Commander Kip
*computer lady voice* "Access denied." "Heh. Wanna bet?" *tapping keys* "Access granted." "Uh. How... are you... doing that?" *smirksmirk* "Same system as the Batcave."
Normal is overrated!

it snowed here

finally. About six inches, no school two days in a row. Thanks very much. I miss homeschooling.



Here, have some tasties.

Hokay, this is what I actually wanted to show you. His name is Magellan, and he is so fabulous. He lights up when you throw him on the ground or bang him against a hard surface. SO. ENTERTAINING. I cannot put him DOWN. Thank you, Brentalope.

I drewed this in history, because I didn't feel like listening that day. It's Princess Sarene and her Seon, Ashe, from Brandon Sanderson's first novel Elantris. Brilliant book, you gaiz. I liked Sarene because despite being blonde, she kicks some serious butt and gets the better of all the noblemen. It's hilarious. Oh, and she's married to a dead guy. Yay.

And here I did a little thingy for Zaraiah from the steampunk mess. She looks different every time I see her, I swear. Eh. Boring stuff.

Awright, that's it for the moment. Later peoples.

Commander Kip

Woodwork is not supposed to talk. When I'm speaking to the woodwork, the woodwork is not supposed to answer back.

Normal is overrated!

Christmas/New Year/mah BIRTHDAY, and some floaty things

Happy belated all of those. Bet you thought I'd gone and died again. I seem to be doing a lot of that these days. Anyhow.

I tried so hard not to, but despite my bestest of efforts, I somehow turned eighteen.

*cue the horrified screaming and running and freaking out*

But I had an awesome birthday parteh, so that helped somewhat. Although Peter's refusing to speak to me now. See him sulking in the corner there? He's saying quite loudly that he can't see me because I've been banished for growing up. Bah. I'll get the better of him eventually. And to avoid confusion, I know two Peters: the good Commodore Pan, and my friend from school who goes by San Pablo. I'm talking about the Commodore at the moment.

So this was supposed to be for the art fair at school, and I totally only made this one and one other, which wasn't cutting it. So I'll just stockpile a bunch of them to sell next year. The faerie dude living here is named Tide. He rather dislikes the butterfly, but that's too bad, because I like the butterfly. So there. This didn't come out quite how I wanted. Pics of the other one eventually. Oh, and you might recognize this person. Remember that massive gob of wordses from that other post? Yeah, this is Private Jenkins again, because I can't keep my pencil off her lately. I just love her shiny HAIR. This doodle took place in the middle of my history notes, so it's about two inches high and anatomically impossible, but I really liked the irritation that came out of the general pencil swoosh, so you get it anyway.

And here she is again, and I was actually trying this time. I had this brilliant idea to try drawing her at several different ages, and this was like the only attempt remotely worth showing. I can't remember ever having a character with a real widow's peak before! A real one, not one of those six-inch-tall anime things. Yaay, I love Jenkins.

In other news, I saw some good movies over the break: The Proposal, which was a really cute romantic comedy; The Perfect Storm, which was amazing but horrible all at once; and Tangled (!!) which rocked my soul and forced me to see it twice in the theater, which I generally try not to do, but GAAH IT WAS SO BRILLIANT. In my opinion. My mom saw it with me the second time, and I think she fails to see what exactly is so brilliant about it. *trying to decide whether to spoil or no* Eh, I'll leave the spoiling for later. You guys, go see it. Those of you who know me really well won't have too much of a hard time figuring out why I loved it. I mean, come on, they have epic duels with a freaking frying pan. Gimme a break.

Got some good birthday presents too (and Christmas, but the birthday ones were particularly epic.) I have a picture of the one from Brentalope that I will post later - it's the beastiest thing in the whole wide world - but suffice to say, I went to Borders and felt like a kid in a candy store. A kid in a candy store with a really big wad of cash in her pocket and free reign to buy whatever she wished. Thank you, wonderful people. Gift cards are the way to go. Whoever thought of inventing them is clearly a genius.

Also, I'm still working on my room, and with the new bedspread and curtains, it's finally starting to pull together. We'll be hopefully painting some things over spring break, so pictures will happen then if I remember.

Reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson right now, and just saying, the dude is an evil mastermind. For serious. I'm about halfway through and loving it dearly. The plotting, gaah, it's everywhere, and it's a little less intense than Mistborn, which is fine. And this was his first novel! *mightily impressed* Dang, if my first novel could be this epic, I would totally be set for life. Just saying.

I'm probably forgetting things... oh well, whatever's left, I'll pick it up in the next post. Love you people.

Commander Kip

"You know I can't swim!" "Yeah. Hence, the BOAT."

Normal is overrated!