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!

Thing of the Day: Bat for Lashes - All Your Gold

Found this song through another blog I read. Liked it a lot. Like her other stuff too.



Commander Kip
*writhing on the floor* "Stop!... You are breaking... the English... language!!"
Normal is overrated!

in which I draw Suvoi a lot

But really, I'm pretty sure I've drawn this character more times than any other character I've ever written. I think I might have a problem.

(Pardon the breasts. Sometimes drawing clothes is just not worth the effort.)

And by default there's some Erik in there too. Also he's one of those people I can never draw the same way twice, probably for want of practice.

I swear I have been drawing actual things in my actual sketchbook (mostly MSG related), but since this computer doesn't have my scanner driver installed, there isn't much I can do about it. Hence all these crappy phone pictures. Eeew.

Sorry this post was sorta blah. I just needed a brain break from my music history paper real quick and Suvoi is always the answer when it comes to brain breaks. Either her or 2048, but that one's a bit more addictive/mesmerizing/time-consuming/hard to recover from. *sigh* Back to it then.

Commander Kip
"That's... not very many sleeps." "I think YOU need some sleeps."
Normal is overrated!

so many Mass Effect 2

Much Collectors. Wow.

I've been doodling a lot of Mass Effect in my notes of late. However, this computer doesn't play nice with my scanner, so you get crappy phone pics of homework doodles yay!

mah femShep

whining about her scars (she's hovering right between Paragon and Renegade currently)

in N7 armor (wow, I suck at guns)

Garrus *excessive drooling*

Jack, who is also pretty darn hot

Garrus again (with reference)

Thane (reference)

Tali (reference)

Those last three are from a whole page of sketches - I was gonna do the entire team, but ran out of steam when I could't find the reference angle I wanted for Miranda. I might go back to it sometime.

Now I should probably go do things with my life.

Commander Kip
"Garrus, that's nasty."
Normal is overrated!

a lull

Random Pinterest-inspired doodles from my notes. That's it really.

In about two weeks it's gonna get crazy around here again when ALL the papers become due at once. Meanwhile, practicing like a madwoman because I am behind and it is bad. Off to do that now.

Commander Kip
"Nobody would give me a mirror. How bad is it?"
Normal is overrated!

*absolutely dying*

This, my friends, this is truly beautiful.



There, now isn't your life just so much better?

(Real post sometime soon, I promise.)

Commander Kip
Goethe's poetry: "Nature is great, but that chick is bangin'."
Normal is overrated!

Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, whatever shall we do with you

I swear, she's got the hotts for every crewmember on the Normandy. Well, she can have them all, except Garrus. He's MINE.

So you can probably guess what I've been doing with my week. Lots and lots of Mass Effect. Only a few more loyalty missions to go, then on to the Collectors, woo! Also, my FemShep is legitimately torn between Garrus and Thane. Apparently, hot threesomes are not an option. Unfortunately. There are just too many sexy aliens in this game.

Also, going back to chilly grey Minnesota tomorrow. Pity, it was just getting warm and pleasant here in Kansas.

Commander Kip
"Wow, that metaphor just went somewhere horrrrrrrible."
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: 2048

Warning: addictive. Major procrastination tool. You will not get anything done ever again.

But it is such good fun.

http://gabrielecirulli.github.io/2048/

I just won the game, so perhaps I'll be free from the urge to play it for a while.

Commander Kip

"I quit." "No, you don't. That's the problem."

Normal is overrated!

impending

There are lots of things impending, actually, not the least of which are midterms and spring break! Also theory composition and aural skills test. Also Great Con party. But first, wasting time on the internet. 

Looksie, it's Suvoi being possessed by the evil consciousness of one of the Mages, Lotus. 

We are actually getting close to this point in the story, finally! Woo! It's going to be awful and everyone's significant others are going to either die or be horribly maimed, but I'm still really excited. The current plan is for Lotus to possess Suvoi's body and force Marcus to fight her, telling him that the only way for him to defeat Lotus is for him to kill his best friend. At the very least, she'll be losing a hand. At the very most, she gets run through with a katana. And meanwhile Erik will be watching them fight and having a meltdown all over the place. THERE WILL BE PLOT YOU GUYS. Muaa.

Luckily it's looking like Angarhad is going to survive after all, so at least that's good. *prostrates self at Anna's feet*

Commander Kip

*friends chew on name tag* "I'm sorry you can't have nice things."

Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: pillow poetry

Thought I'd inform you all of a strange but wonderful Thing my roomate and I have started. I highly recommend it.

Anna and I never really see each other except at meals or when we're asleep. She leaves the room before I wake up in the morning, and when I get back at night, she's already out. She often leaves sweet little notes on Post-its on my pillow, telling me how much she loves me or reminding me of something funny that happened that day. Recently she started leaving short poems instead. We've decided it's good practice, so now we leave them for each other. 

My favorite of hers so far has been:

Octopi are red,

Squid are blue,

If I had eight arms,

I'd devote two entirely

To hugging you.

And the other night she left a beautiful one, just a few lines, about snow and leaf-bare trees. And I left her one about being separated from someone you love. Also, being the creepers that we are, we have both left each other poems about watching the other one sleep.

This is why we are married. 

Commander Kip

"Whoa whoa, what was that Jedi magic you just did?!"

Normal is overrated!

MSG is actually a crippling guilt party

Storytime! 

Ian and I have been doing a side thread in Magical Steampunk Gypsies detailing the first meeting of Marcus and Suvoi, seven years before the current storyline. They're both trying to steal these plans for magic suppressants from a drug megacorp, and once they've made their daring escape with the plans, they're attacked by a Crimson Hand-employed freelancer who tries to steal their hard-won spoils. They knock his ship out of the air and bring him aboard. Turns out he's just trying to save enough money to retire and find his two daughters, who he left alone in the Ratways almost ten years ago. He's a reasonably nice guy, not to mention a passable pilot and a very good shot. Everybody, meet Enderos Thorn. 

 Marcus and Suvoi agree to help him find his daughters, and the party begins their search in a classy piloteer tavern in the Ratways. Enderos discovers that his younger daughter, Kaly, broke into a research facility several years ago, but that no one has heard anything about his eldest, Terissa. Moments later, his informer is quietly murdered by a hooded stranger. They flee the tavern, only for Suvoi to be stopped at knifepoint by the hooded stranger in the alleyway. As the two men bargain for Suvoi's safe release, the stranger lowers her hood and claims to be Kaly Thorn. Surprise - she's become a huge badass in her father's absence.

Kaly takes them back to her hidey hole in the basement of a hookah bar/brothel on the Promenade, a crowded strip mall and open air market in the Ratways. Despite Suvoi's repeated insistence that they're walking into a trap, they follow the girl inside, where they find a gangly young man who introduces himself as Teris, Enderos Thorn's transgender eldest child. As the hookah brothel floods with Crimson Hand mercenaries, the Thorn family, along with Marcus and Suvoi, make a spectacular escape that involves ziplines, hookers, electrocution, and the spur-of-the-moment theft of a Crimson Hand drop tank. Marcus leaps overboard to fetch the Composer, and the Thorn children confront their father about his whereabouts for the past ten years while Kaly evades fire, wrestling with the controls. They also fill him in on their backstory, including a bad experience with a gang of hired thugs that led to Teris's guilt over his failure to protect his younger sister and his subsequent gender change. That was why Kaly broke into the research facility; to steal the hormones Teris needed to make the switch. Teris aptly sums up the narrative with, "Now she's got skills and I'm a dude." Next on the docket - a spontaneous break-in at the Crimson Hand base in order to switch out the clunky (not to mention bugged) drop tank for Thorn's personal gunship, followed by some hiding out in the Grey while things quiet down.

So there's those guys. I'm really enjoying their group dynamic, because Kaly's all serious and badass and Teris is floppy and mildly sarcastic and Thorn's just shaking his head, all world-weary, and going what have I gotten myself into. It's a good time.

And continuing with our theme of crippling guilt, I did a doodle page of younger Verdigris and little fabrant Chiara on the back of a recital program the other day.

I wrote an excerpt for this scene quite a while ago cuz I needed something that would flesh out Verdigris's backstory and personality in as few words as possible, so Chiara (Ashes's older sister) became Verdy's reason to quit the Morfstarn.

“No, Chiara, you mustn’t bite,” she said, taking the four-year-old by the shoulders. “It will be over in just a moment.”

The girl’s teeth had grown needle-sharp since her second round of chemical alteration, and she bared them at Verdigris now, emitting a low, furious snarl. The heavy, curling ram’s horns on her head made her neck look spindly, like a dandelion stem. She snapped at Verdigris’s arm, strings of saliva flying from her teeth.

“Enough,” said Bastian, pulling on a long black glove made of thick, supple leather. “Hold her down. I’ve seen enough.” He picked up a syringe full of a bright blue liquid that glowed with internal luminescence.  “Verdigris? Hold her!”

But Verdigris had looked into the child’s eyes and seen the emptiness there, the animal absence of conscious thought. Chiara was lost, and Verdigris knew it well. They’d pushed too far. They’d broken her. She released the girl’s arms and stepped aside, knowing that she could never take back this choice. “No,” she said.

Chiara screamed, a high, feral howl, and sprang off the waist-high stone table. Bastian swore and brought the syringe to bear, like a weapon, but the tiny blonde girl’s leap carried her far enough to latch onto Bastian’s lapels, evading the syringe. She clung to the front of his bloodstained grey coat, snarling into his face with those awful teeth. Verdigris stood frozen beside the table, unable to stop herself from watching as Chiara angled her head and ripped out Bastian’s throat in one sharp yank. She rode the gurgling corpse to the floor and landed lightly on its chest, perched on all fours, wearing Bastian’s blood like a mask over her nose and mouth. Her eyes, black and hollow, showed no sign of recognition, though she looked Verdigris full in the face.

Sinking down against the edge of the table, Verdigris hugged her knees to her chest as Chiara scampered out through the open door. A scream rang the length of the hallway, then another, then many, and Verdigris sat and stared at the spreading pool of crimson under Bastian’s body.

Back to real things now. Oh, by the way, we had a proper blizzard here over the weekend. Like, a foot of snow overnight. And then we went romping in the Natural Lands where the snow had accumulated to our knees and there were sixteen-foot drifts just lying around. It was way too epic. We tromped around and visited the windmill and looked at the stars and got very cold and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Commander Kip
Bees?
Normal is overrated!

eargasm

We listened to the Mahler 5 Adagietto in my music theory class today. Homygod.



Right in the gut, man. In the best way possible. I think I'm gonna do this piece for my music history research project.

Commander Kip
"D'aww, you guys are adoraballs."
Normal is overrated!

scribbles: a variety pack

 First, MSG. Things are finally happening in the Asylum again, now that Anna and Alex are both posting with some regularity (although I am substantially worried about Angarhad, stop it Anna). I drew this picture of Suvoi and Ceridwen running and brandishing their respective weapons a while ago, but I just now realized Ceridwen should actually be wearing one of Suvoi's skirts because her own clothes burned off in the Nalucai fiasco. Oops. Continuity, who needs it.

Also, Mass Effect. I need more of it. This is my Shepard - brisk, no-nonsense, intensely loyal to her friends, with a strong sense of right and wrong. I am accidentally playing Holly Short. It's a good time. (Darn, I forgot her freckles.) And by the way, I have such a huge ladyboner for Garrus, it's not even okay. Have I mentioned GARRUS?

And here is everyone's favorite angstbunny, Nico di Angelo from the Percy Jackson series. My god, he just gets better and better and his life gets worse and worse. Poor baby.

Now, have some random doodles. 

Kay. Gotta go finish my abroad application now. Bye guys.

Commander Kip
Anna: "If we were Sherlock characters, I'd be Sherlock, you'd be Watson, and Matt would be Mary." Me: "Yeah, I can see it."
Normal is overrated!

Thing of the Day: Silk

Dude dude dude, I have the coolest Thing for you. 

http://weavesilk.com/

It's a site that lets you make stuff by drawing with strands of silk. You can mirror the image as you draw, or add up to six points of symmetry. It's frickin' awesome.

I have spent way too many hours playing with this over this past week. You can combine any two colors on the wheel, set the symmetry you want, and then save your work to your computer (to use as a desktop or whatever.) There's also soothing music on the site. It's pretty great. Of course, that means I have all my homework to do today. Woot.

Have fun playing!

Commander Kip
"'Lady of negotiable affections?' Who even says that?"
Normal is overrated!