Thing of the Day: Floridaaa

Yes, a vacation can totally be the Thing of the Day. Especially a good one like the one I just had.

And an excellent time was had by all.

I friggen love that place.

Commander Kip
*plaintively* "I woke up sweating and I said, 'why?'"
Normal is overrated!

this is getting pathetic

I replayed the final mission on Rannoch and I am still not pleased with how it went. There are no correct choices in this game and I hate everything and the frelling Reaper still incinerated me like forty times. Why can I not just save everyone and toddle off into the sunset?

Also I drew this the other night because I was so pissed at myself for screwing up so badly. 

"I'm sorry, Shepard."

Ugh why is this game so good. It hurts me.

Also I got to hang out with Arin a lil bit the other day and it was so good to see her.

Commander Kip

"Be careful, I have a fragile body!"

Normal is overrated!

yet more Sheps and turians

Seriously, I can't stop. I think maybe I have a problem. All of these were done at work over lunchbreaks on the backs of receipts and scrap paper. 

Everybody, meet Blondie Shep (also known as Ballerina Shep because of her ridiculous hair and her penchant for sashaying around the galaxy peacefully diffusing conflicts with her insane Paragon score). She's a sweetie and all, but not nearly as much fun to play as Ginger Shep. 

Ahhhh *sigh of relief and satisfaction* Good to have you back, Ginger Shep. She imported beautifully into 3; I have not done her cute haircut justice.

Always more turian practice. Because turians are awesome.

Sometimes I draw real pictures, I swear. They just never get done enough to post. 

We're currently chillin' in Florida, hanging out on the beach and being general bums. It's pretty great except there's no xbox which means I can't continue to torture myself emotionally with Mass Effect 3. Ah well. My tear ducts probably needed a break anyway.

Commander Kip

"Hey, Commander, check out my copilot!"

Normal is overrated!

Dreams of Gods and Monsters doodles

This book was beautiful and fantastic and wrenching and excellent and I know I promised proper Karou and Akiva drawings, but Mass Effect has been stealing all my drawing time, so you get this teeny notebook doodle instead.

Little Elazael (oh my god her life was so sad).

And (spoiler) Eliza Jones, all grown up and sassy and doin' her thing. For some reason I pictured her with a funky asymmetrical haircut.

I have been doing a fair amount of drawing lately, but nothing nice enough to post. I'll try to change that soonly.

Also I finished Mass Effect 1 last night and holy crap it was fantastic.

Commander Kip
"Where's Anderson when you need him?" "Punching senators, I think."
Normal is overrated!

House of Arcane Treasures

Still fiddling on and off with this story idea. I always enjoy trying my hand at creating new mythologies, and the antlered owls and cat-centaurs I've been playing with are such a good time. Also treasure hunters, because that's never not fun.

Jack Adrian of the ever-changing face. Because I have yet to nail him down exactly how I picture him.

Adrian and Kizungu, known by some as Stripes. Being cute as they do.

Abigail of the twitchy trigger finger.

And also some sihiri dawa. Hadharani's mother, for whom I have not yet thought of a name.

This is Talifa. She and the antlered owl Lorisander have been charged with the task of watching over the human girl Severine following her parents' disappearance. Over the past fifteen years of discreetly guarding the girl, the two myth-beings have become quite excellent friends.

I do plan on attempting to draw Lorisander as well, but I need to look at some reference photos first. Owls are hard. (And cat-ladies are naked. Wow, there has been much breasts on my blog lately. Huh.)

Currently having a blast roleplaying Erik and Suvoi with Gideon. God, they're such a hot mess.

Commander Kip
"I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees. (...) That is a joke."
Normal is overrated!

MSG dump

Because I definitely draw MSG characters in the margins of my notes waaay more often than anything else.

Suvoi Suvoi Suvoi

Remembering Thorn's death.

Sorry 'bout the naked.

"We've been down here for weeks, Erik! I need the sky, I need the air, I'm suffocating in this pit! I just... I'm cold."

This hasn't happened and probably won't happen, but it is technically an option for Lotus-exorcism.

Playing around with a younger Erik Laroque, about the age he would have been when he destroyed the Tabara camp and killed Suvoi's family.

Still trying to nail down a haircut for Angarhad Dorsal, Ceridwen's perpetually naked sister. Too long here.

This is better, I think.

Also trying to age Kaly and Teris Thorn up by seven years so they can participate in the Rebellion thread. Teris remains much the same, but Kaly becomes more relaxed, more comfortable with herself. Her brother is a good role model. Now they're both fighting to take down the Cleansers like a couple of total badasses.

And then there's the End Times, which I would love to get going again. Here we have Razma standing guard over Noah as he freaks out about the voice only he can hear.

Also, psychic possession issues (Miasma you are a bad.) Also the potential for eventual cuteness.

Thee end. Thanks kids.

Commander Kip
"So, geth. On the ship. Geth. We're all frickin' insane."
Normal is overrated!

in which Kip is still completely absorbed by Mass Effect

I finished 2, lost Tali and Samara and Miranda, and was like NOPE NOT ACCEPTABLE so I did several of the loyalty missions and the suicide mission over and fixed it. Now I'm chugging through 1 and trying to lean more paragon where possible. 

Early on, I attempted to draw the entire team from 2, but you can see where I gave up (and where I didn't even really try.)

 And then there's Jack, who I think is really a beautiful character.

Also Garrus holding Shep's space hamster.

Also Garrus and my Shep being sweet.

 Ugh I will get better at drawing turians I promise.

I confess, I have been neglecting this blog in favor of my new Tumblr blog (http://lotusinaseaoffire.tumblr.com/) but I have not forgotten about this one entirely. I'm also working about thirty hours a week to make a little spending money for Italy and enough for a plane ticket to go see Matt. Basically these days I'm either at work, playing Mass Effect, or on the internet. Woo. Life.

Commander Kip
"Just don't ask me to dance unless you enjoy the sound of snappin' shin bones."
Normal is overrated!

hmm, been a while since I freaked out about X-Men

If this isn't the most epic thing you've ever heard, you are wrong.



Also, Days of Future Past was... delectable.

Commander Kip
"Yeah, he wasn't worth much, but he booped Wasea on the nose. That's an accomplishment."
Normal is overrated!

Kip's Return to the Verdant Land

That's right, y'all, there are TREES in Kansas. GREEN ones. It's pretty great.

Home for the summer, then on to the next adventure in Florence, Italy for the fall semester! I plan on making a separate travel blog to document that experience, which I will link here when the time comes.

Meanwhile, I'm missing my friends and scrambling to get a summer job and, oh yeah, unpacking. Why do I own so much junk? And Anna, I'm so sorry we made off with your entire box of summer reading. I do feel awful about that.

Things of import that happened at St. Olaf this year:

(1. I switched my primary instrument from standard piano to 7/8ths piano, which was an incredibly eye-opening experience. I was able to correct several bad physical habits in my playing since I didn't have to worry as much about stretches. Excited to tackle some rep next year that I've always wanted to play but could never reach before. Part of that journey was switching to a new teacher. This lady is such the bomb.

(2. Finished my frontloaded music theory and music history courses. I actually get to choose classes now. My final project for music history was a paper and an art project exploring Gustav Mahler's relationship with his wife by examining the Adagietto from his 5th Symphony. (View the project here.)

(3. I completed the Great Conversation program as of one week ago yesterday and that is a great feeling, lemme tell you. I instigated a dance party with this Enrique Iglesias song on the last day of class. Enjoy.



(4. Kept the party going over at Magical Steampunk Gypsies. We have big plot plans for the summer. Don't see this baby petering out anytime soon.

(5. Experienced my coldest temperature to date: -40 degrees Fahrenheit. It burns, preciouss.

(6. Had my first legal drink (and my only drink to date) thanks to the questionable influence of John Green's Looking for Alaska. As it turns out, Strawberry Hill is gross.

(7. Lived in the smallest dorm room on campus with my favorite Anna. It was cramped, but she was a trooper. We spent a significant amount of time watching each other sleep. Also, the poem game. And she got some of her poems published in the campus literary magazine! I'm so glad we're married.

(8. Matt and I celebrated our one-year anniversary back in November, as you may recall. We continue to be very much in love and are also bros. I just keep finding out more awesome things about him. The plan is for me to spend a week visiting him in Maryland near the end of the summer before I go to Italy and he goes to Budapest. Not super looking forward to eight months of long distance, but we're boss ninjas at long distance and we will be okay.


Commander Kip
"So... do you think a girl would fall for that?" "... what just happened?"
Normal is overrated!

my brain is so done

We just turned in our cumulative Great Con essays that were supposed to synthesize everything we've learned in the past two years of this program. Pulled my first all nighter, woo! And by "woo" I mean "oh god everything hurts I just want to die but I have more papers due aaugh." 

So, y'know, I'm making a blog post instead. 

Have a teensy doodle of Alaska.

The angel Aziraphale from Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens. Oh my god, he is the most adorable thing, all bookish and awkward. I ship him and Crowley so hard.

This is a DnD character you guys haven't met yet! He's from the evil pirate campaign we started over Interim this year. His name is Jackdaw and he's not actually evil; he was press-ganged into joining the small and motley crew of this pirate ship and just really doesn't want to be there. He's also fifteen and likes dick jokes. Because he's a teenage boy.

Some elflady, I dunno.

And sometimes I actually draw in my sketchbook. Weird, I know. I was thinking about putting Kaly and Teris Thorn into our present-day Guaren threads on MSG. Because I like them and there's not much more to be done with them in the thread they're in right now. I sort of like the idea of Kaly morphing from this bitter, angular teenager into a serene young woman who's made peace with the demons of her past. Also, I want to have her and her brother working to destroy this "benevolent" childcare organization that takes kids off the streets and shelters them, only to sell them to chemical testing companies when they reach a certain age.

And on the subject of MSG, have a fabrant. An old one. I think I drew this last semester.

And a super super old sketch of Obi-Wan and Siri that I abandoned, came back to, and abandoned again. Gaah, they're so cute and I've never been able to do them justice in my art. 'Tis a sad thing.

Also, remember a while back when I read Clockwork Princess and decided that the love triangle could have totally been solved by a hot threesome? I may have tried to draw it a little bit. Will and Tessa and Jem, being unjealously hot together.

Oh, and speaking of hot, there will certainly be some Karou and Akiva art heading your way once I have time to properly draw again. Meanwhile, quick messy Ziri sketches that just happened after I finished Dreams of Gods and Monsters. Gyaah, that book was so pretty. I just wanted to, I dunno, lick it. And Ziri definitely grew on me, the sneaksy little bugger. (Also I've been drawing Eliza a lot because she is a hottie and a really awesome lady and I ship her and you-know-who super super hard. Seriously, they need their own spinoff, like Mik and Zuzana.)

So that was a good time. Although I did have to lie in bed and cry after I finished it because it was so beautiful and aching and bittersweet and certain and uncertain and just waaaaah.

Can't wait until I have access to a scanner again. Gross phone pix are gross.

Commander Kip
"I know, Blue Velvet Scrotum would be a good name for my tumblr!"
Normal is overrated!

back when we were babbies

Anna made the mistake of logging me into her Facebook account yesterday. I discovered last year's pictures. 

Once upon a time, we were freshmans in Kildahl. We had a lot more Nerf wars back then. Boy, we were badasses. (The shirt I am wearing belongs to Matt; that is why it is a massive sky-blue tent.)

I'm trying to find a nice patch of sunshine so I can take crappy phone pix of some of the drawings I've been working on of late, but this is Minnesnowta and we don't have sun here. Only clouds and rain and slush and hail and sadness. Though it is a bit warmer today.

And now, Great Con paper.

Commander Kip
"Does world peace come with fries?" "If freaking better. Or I will send it freaking back."
Normal is overrated!