roleplaying fun (mostly gypsies)

Meet the human version of Huiva, Suvoi's first love. (I just can't stay away from the scruffy gypsy boys. Saw one at the ren fair yesterday. Mmm.)

And little babby Suvoi. Not really. She's probably in her late teens here.

More young Suvoi, but with less clothes.

Post-Huiva's transformation, but pre-Crimson Hand adventure. This would be around the time she meets Marcus while stealing information for the Morfstarn. She went into the secret-dealing business after losing Huiva, needing a profession dangerous and exciting enough to keep her mind off her lover.

And present-day Suvoi, who is still struck from time to time by bouts of misery over Huiva's crow form. (And Kip cannot draw birds. Ech.)

And there she is in full Dealer of Secrets badass mode. Tried to do a nice portrait to replace the last one, which was wonky and not quite spot-on. Think I nailed her down much better this time, particularly her nose. (Although her arm is weird. Don't worry about it.)

And this plot bunny got vetoed by everyone right off. I suggested that when Lotus tries to possess Suvoi's body and make Marcus fight against her in the Mage battles, maybe Suvoi poisons herself first, swallowing the Rom venom in her poison ring and dying to save Marcus. Nobody was down with it.

Ian: "Marcus will be so destroyed, he'll be useless for the rest of the Mage battles and get killed anyway."
Katia: "Forget Marcus, Erik won't let it happen! He'll offer himself instead."
Anna: "Stop it."
Evan: "Hm, I'm almost sorry we can't use this."

But I wrote the scene for my own personal files anyway because it was too good to pass up. (And that's Marcus in the corner, being all consumed by the Vile.)

And still on the topic of MSG but not on the topic of Suvoi, this is Verdigris. She used to work for the Morfstarn as a researcher in the underground facility, but she hated what they were doing to the fabrants and managed to escape. She's been hiding in the Market ever since. Then, when Mana and Liriel wandered into the Market, Verdigris felt for them and decided to risk being caught and killed by the Mages in order to help them. Because she might look like a cantankerous old lady, but she's actually just a huge softie.

And speaking of cantankerous old ladies, my Avatar D&D character actually is one. I'm still working on her aesthetic design, but Kunan is a grouchy old earthbender whose village was destroyed by firebenders when she was a little girl. In last night's session, we met this bloodbender who was pissing us off, and Kunan yanked the jerk off the ground by his armor, discovering that she had metalbending abilities. It was pretty badass.

And not even on the topic of roleplaying, I doodled Juniper the shadowkind in my music history notes the other day. Not sure why she popped into my head.

And finally, Abigail the trigger-happy American treasure hunter. (With the distinction of being the only American on the expedition, and the only member under thirty.)

Now, to homeworks!

Commander Kip
"Thanks, Mako. Good thing you're so good at breaking girls' hearts."
Normal is overrated!

more from Arin's

The lovleh ladeh herself! We took several nice ones with her fancy camera. 

And now, us derping.

She tried to kiss my cheek first, but in every picture it looked like she was trying to swallow my face.

Don't worry, I got her back.

Also, a mushroom.

I haven't done much drawing besides the perpetual doodles in my notes, but our Avatar campaign is starting up this weekend, so you'll be hearing more about that if nothing else. I'm playing a grouchy old earthbender lady who hates firebenders and drinks a lot. Should be quite the party.

Also drawing ANOTHER picture of Suvoi. Because she's the best. Also, Ian and I decided to start a new thread detailing the first meeting of Suvoi and Marcus, and so far, it is shaping up to be epic. Seven or so years before the Crimson Hand job (that's 7 BCH, pronounced Bee See Haych, according to Ian,) they come into conflict while both attempting to steal the same piece of secret information from a Guaranian megacorporation. Much smartmouthing and comparing of weaponry ensues.

Commander Kip
"It's on page 69, after the word 'breast', and it's either a continuous or sexual variation." Music theory ftw.
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: Illumina

Just discovered this Two Steps from Hell album on Youtube. Liking it. Mellower than some of their other stuff. More ethereal and introspective, but with a fair variety of styles.

Some of my favorite tracks:

I Love You Forever


Lost in Las Vegas


A Hole in the Sun


Cloud Maker (holy frick, those vocals)


Eyes Closing


Tasty, right?

Lots of packing today, because tomorrow morning it's back to Viking territory for me! Woohoo!

EDIT: Experimenting with a more colorful look for the blog. May tweak things here and there in the next couple days/weeks. Do not fret. It's the same blog. You'll still be getting that particular brand of Kip craziness.

Commander Kip
"KHAAAAAAAAAAN!!!"
Normal is overrated!

artses

because mi padre fantastico has gotten the bloody great lump of a scanner working!

Jace and Clary (and rat!Simon because I missed him in the movie) storming the Dumort.

Had to draw Katniss and Peeta spooning because I'm getting excited for the Catching Fire movie. (And because I miss my boy.)

Drew this after realizing that I enjoyed the end of The Great Game a little overmuch. I just adored John in that huge fluffy coat and thought, what if Sherlock suddenly developed a fetish for fauxfur?

Aaaand some tasty roleplay goodness. It's Dagnyr Thoricson, my yummeh Icelander from the letter game I'm doing with Anna. (Really enjoyed your last addition, by the way, dear.)

Andra and Nath being gooey. Because I still miss my boy.

And now some doodles from my ten-minute breaks at work. Ashes, called Antlers by the cast of MSG:

Faye Whitaker, the sassy indie barista from the fantastic webcomic Questionable Content, which I think I've linked to before (http://www.questionablecontent.net/):

And Neeva from the Star Trek roleplay. The other day I thought of giving her a distendable jaw so she could literally eat humans for breakfast, but I prolly oughta run it by Matt first.

Speaking of Star Trek, my dad and I have been having some great bonding time over the original series. Watched The Man Trap the other day. Hooboy, Kirk-pain is one of the most hilarious-things-which-were-not-intended-to-be-hilarious I've ever seen.

One more week of scorching Kansas weather (temps shot up from 60 to 100 all of a sudden) and then back to Minnesota for SCHOOLTIEMS! I can't wait. Seriously, I'm so excited.

Commander Kip
"Oh, and this is my friend River, nice hair, clever, has her own gun, and unlike me, she really doesn't mind shooting people, I shouldn't like that, kinda do a bit..."
Normal is overrated!

Family outing. Killed some demons.

Got the rest of my family to cosplay with me! 

Few notes: There ought to be a lot more buckles, straps, and glowing knives completing these ensembles, but we didn't want to get evicted from the theater, so no. Brennie borrowed my jeans. His legs look super spindly. Also, funny story about that corset; I found it on the lingerie rack at Tuesday Morning, where I work. It was 80% off but had no price tag, and it was a size 4XL. My boss sold it to me for 13 cents, and I sewed the back panel shut to make it fit. Winning.

So, the movie! (Spoilers. Beware.)

What I enjoyed:

(a. The environments. So pretty, and well thought-out. The Institute was gorgeous, internally and externally. (b. Portal references. And clever plot things hingeing on the Portal mechanics. (d. Simon. He was awesome. The scene where he confesses his love for Clary? Ohmygod. His lip goes all wobbly and you can tell he's holding back tears and aaugh I just wanna give the guy a hug. Also Jocelyn. She was perfect. (e. Jace's vulnerable moments. Hnngh. (f. Magnus Bane with no pants. (g. The sword pentacle Valentine used to summon the demons. What a cool aesthetic. (h. Unconscious Alec. Sexy. As. Hell. Although that might be my guys-in-pain and/or unconscious-guys fetish speaking. (i. The greenhouse scene. The kissing was hot. Sprinkler system coming on was a tad cheesy, especially since it was like three minutes AFTER midnight, but overall. And the music they picked for that scene was good too. (j. Finally, Clary. I think she nailed the part. Just the right amounts of fear and resolve. And cuteness. Good for her.

What peeved me:

(a. The entire things flowed well, but it went by too quickly. They just went from one crisis to the next with rarely any beats in between, and part of the beauty of the book is getting to know the characters in their moments of downtime, which I feel like they shortchanged in the movie. The few scenes we did get where it was just the characters interacting were super great. (b. They had to chop a lot out, and they did come up with creative ways to smooth over the holes, but I felt like a few of the things they omitted got omitted because the special effect budget wouldn't cover it. I wanted flying vampire motorcycles, dang it. And I wanted Jace to get his arm broken by the Forsaken, because Jace in pain is sexy. Hurr hurr. (c. Isabelle. She's pretty and all, and badass, but she's just too small and she didn't have the flirty allure of the book-Isabelle. She was very no-nonsense. Did enjoy the flamethrower, though. (d. Magnus coulda been more flamboyant. He was also too straightforward. In fact, most of my issues with the personalities of the characters was that they took themselves too seriously. Jace too. I needed more sardonic grinning from him, and he just sorta stood there and scowled a lot. (e. Thought what they did with the Ace of Cups card started getting a bit repetitive after a bit. It's in the card. Oh, she took it out. Whoops, and she shoved it back in again. Valentine made her take it out. Now it's in again. Just... stop. Once was enough. (Also missed the quote about the Mortal Toilet Bowl.) (f. Valentine just needed to be older. I'm sticking to that. He was really cool and stuff, but he looked barely older than the teenagers. It bugged me.

I'd give it a thumbs-up overall. For a book-to-movie, they did alright. Not quite as good as Hunger Games, but way better than Percy Jackson. (And we're not going to talk about Eragon. That was a travesty.)

Music from the greenhouse scene (nailed it):



Few more days of work, then packing, then back to college, woohoo! All my friends are leaving this week, so I'll be here all by my own self.

Commander Kip
"You can hang your head out the window if you want." *skeptical face* "I'm a werewolf, not a golden retriever."
Normal is overrated!

church scribbles

Quite sick of scanning from my parents' scanner. Still trying to set up the clunky printer/scanner I'm taking to school. Something wrong with the driver right now. Apparently. Or something.

So have a few church bulletin scribbly things. I continue to fail at nailing Adrian, the elusive bugger. Bottom right's not bad. The chick is Abigail, the trigger-happy American woman on his team (every treasure-hunting team needs a trigger-happy American.) I think she gets a sassy short haircut.

Younger Severine! So cute.

Older Severine. Has realized that living alone in the House is going to suck if she has to do it for the rest of her life. Has started selling off the treasures that fill the House in preparation of moving out, but feels guilty about it, since she promised Hawksmith she'd take care of the place and its contents. Only human contact is with the treasure hunter Jack Adrian by phone.

And on another note, Matt and I accidentally started a text-based Star Trek roleplay for funsies, even though neither of us know very much about Star Trek. This is my character, Starfleet Commander Neeva. She is some sort of lizardthing with a prehensile tail, and she eats humans for breakfast.

I have more drawings in my sketchbook, but I'm trying to hold off on scanning them until my own scanner is working.

Later, doods.

Commander Kip
"You called me stupid." "I always call you stupid." *sloppy makeout*
Normal is overrated!

CoB: less than a week

Until City of Bones comes out! I am so totally dragging my mom and my brother to see it with me. I'm pretty sure it's gonna be awesome. I think a quick little I'm-so-excited post is in order.

I'll just go through the main characters here. Clary seems like she'll strike a good balance between terrified fifteen-year-old and instinctual badass. I think she'll do just fine.

And look, she and Jace have actual chemistry! (Unlike movie Katniss'n'Peeta.)

And speaking of Jace: at first, I didn't know how to feel about Jamie Campbell Bower. (Then again, it was gonna be nearly impossible to find a REAL HUMAN BEING that fit the image of Jace I had in my head.) But... some of these promo pics have me pretty convinced. This is Jamie:

This is Jamie-as-Jace:

Uhuh, okay, I can see it. He's growing on me.

The team:

Yesss, I am liking it. Isabelle: cute and badass, but too small. (Supposed to be "taller than most boys.")

Alec: nailed it.

Simon: sufficiently derpy and confused while still being unwittingly attractive.

Luke: pretty good, but I sorta wish he looked more like a middle-aged dad and less like Wolverine. Oh well.

The young Circle (whooee, that is a sexy picture, lookit all those BLADES):

And that's Valentine and Jocelyn in the middle. Jocelyn: yep okay.

Valentine: kay, sufficiently creeptastic, but why is he not white-blond? and why does he look like a twentysomething? Whatever, the braids are hot.

Finally, Magnus: oh yes. Dat eyeliner. And his little moustache is totally adorable. Overall, he could use more glitter and show more midriff, but I think he'll do.

I was laughing the other day because my mom finished the original Mortal Instruments trilogy and was like "I love Magnus. He's my favorite. He tries to be such a boss and act like he's too cool for everybody but really he's just a big sweetie under all that glitter." True fax, Mom. True. Fax.

So that ended up being not so quick. Oops. There will probably be another post about this after I've actually seen the movie, but I just couldn't wait to yell about it a little. Woohoo!

Oh, and in other geeky news, I decided to watch the original Star Trek since my dad has all the episodes on dvd anyway (since I feel bad delving into Stargate without any real intention of finishing it.) Second episode was a little hard to stay awake for; it was just everybody staring in horror at the spinning glowing cube onscreen while the music went "DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DA DA DA DA DA DA DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN!!!!" really fast. Lol old scifi.

Commander Kip
"If I jumped every time a light went on around here, I'd be talkin' to myself."
Normal is overrated!