oh god so much Shadowrun

I definitely haven't made a post on this blog in about a trillion years and a lot has gone on in the meantime so let's start out with a bunch of Embers (and one Annie).

Not that I'm much expecting them to survive this long, but they'd make a pretty attractive androgynous 20-something.

After their first successful run, they went and got a tattoo of Ferrous' Matrix mark, the otter pawprint.

More soon! Not only are we almost done with this Shadowrun campaign, but Allana also started a whole new DnD campaign and I love my character in that, so you'll be seeing her too. And we're caught up with the Adventure Zone holy shit but that's for another day.


- KP

Quote of the Day: "Abraca-fuck-you!"

tumblr commissions are open!

I finally got all the info together and set up a commission post on my tumblr blog.

There's more info in the actual post, so head over there and check it out if you're interested!

Oh man I have a bunch of stuff to put up here, but I'm still trying to finish writing the End of Elion post that I started like... a month ago. Sorry I'm a bad.


- KP

Quote of the Day: "You remember how your backyard barbecue go, the Smiths? Pretty good it doesn't seem,"

Ember's adventures continue

 I keep drawing them as a tiny babby with huge burly Ferrous. Also for the record, Ferrous's Matrix mark is an otter pawprint.

Yet more babby Ember.

And an older Ember.

 So since Ember is a decker, I had to design Matrix stuff for them like a primary persona, a "business" persona, a Matrix mark, and Matrix icons.

When you want to do things in the Matrix, you usually have to Mark your target first, with a tiny symbol unique to you. Ember's Mark is a bear claw slash.

And because they run so many defensive programs all the time, their casual Matrix persona is an armored bear.

For those times and places where a metahuman avatar is required, they have a second Matrix persona, an ork businessman who goes by the name of Hanxi Feng.

Shadowrun has two modes of Matrix use, augmented reality and virtual reality. AR is just real life overlaid with virtual enhancement - signs, ads, window displays, etc. Anyone with a DNI or the necessary head/eyewear can use AR. VR is total Matrix immersion. Ember got their DNI when they were seven, so they can directly interface with the Matrix.

Unfortunately, because they're Scorched, Ember also has to make a check every time they enter the Matrix to see whether they end up with a migraine or not. And if they run into Black IC, they have to make a check to see whether they have a panic attack. 

The last mission we went on required Ember's knowledge of Seattle street gangs, specifically the Bloody Screamers, so I decided it was time to design a gang symbol for them.

After Ferrous's death, the Screamers' gang leader, Thumbless Abby, passed all of Ferrous's effects along to Ember and then made good on her word to oust the human kid from the gang, forcing them to find a new place to stay. 

They set up camp in an abandoned parking garage near the waterfront and set off to find work. Now that they've been on a few runs, they could probably afford something better than squatter's rent.

But yeah. Anyways. I love my child.

More on Ember soon, probably.

Oh, and we've started listening to The Adventure Zone!

- KP


Quote of the Day: "I take a swig from the flask. It tastes like GoGurt." "No, it doesn't. It definitely tastes like whisky, and in fact, it is whiskey." "Yeah but anything I imbibe tastes like GoGurt, so whatever's in the flask also tastes like GoGurt."

Cale is still truckin' along

I haven't done Virmire yet because I'm a baby and I'm not looking forward to, y'know, suffering, but anyway here's Cale.

He looks a lot like one of my art teachers from high school, which absolutely wasn't on purpose, but it does make me giggle from time to time.

He and Garrus have undeniably been flirting. The plan is to have Cale romance Kaidan in the third game, but I am a big fan of Bi Garrus.

 Oh, Noveria. Literally every possible pairing in ME1 has at least like ten fluffy "sharing body heat" fics set on Noveria.

Guns are hard. You'd think as much time as I spend drawing Mass Effect stuff, I woulda learned how to draw them by now.

In other (Dragon Age) news, I screwed up the end of Merrill's Act 3 quest and couldn't turn in like four other side quests, so I went back to a 3-hour-old save to try it again. Which means I have to kill a fully-grown dragon and a fairly large abomination again. Yay.

- KP


Quote of the Day: "Barrels of explosives and darkspawn galore? It's not even my birthday!"

I was Jack for Halloween! This costume was kind of a pain because it was not only held together by duct tape and prayers, but also because that body paint rubbed off on absolutely every single thing and I was tripping over my boot covers all day, but I think I at least looked awesome so I'm gonna say it was worth it.

We went to Cloor's and watched the first two episodes of Stranger Things, which were super good and I can't wait to see more of it. Good Halloween fare, too.

- KP


Quote of the Day: "Hey, DM, are there traps?"

Enna's final days

Boy, did my Warden go through the wringer. I already mentioned how things went down with Morrigan when they spent the night at Redcliffe, but I just wanna stress how distraught Enna was to hear that Morrigan would rather sleep with Alistair than her, because Morrigan and Alistair have never agreed about anything ever and can barely stand each other but Enna had been going out of her way to get on Morrigan's good side and be friends with her even though they didn't really agree about anything either.

It didn't matter in the end because Enna's persuasion wasn't high enough to convince Alistair to sleep with Morrigan anyway, so she didn't get her Old God baby, for better or worse.

Ah, but we're not even to the most scandalous part of this story yet. After Morrigan left and we went on to the final battle, Leliana barely spoke to Enna at all other than her short little scripted goodbye sequence, so all I could think was that she must have seen Morrigan go into Enna's room that night, and then seen Enna go into Alistair's room, and thought is there anyone besides me she hasn't slept with tonight?

Grieving, of course, but knowing they all probably only had a few days left to live, she didn't confront Enna with her suspicions, but didn't sleep with her again either.

And at the end, when Alistair tried to take Enna's place and Wynne held him back while Enna went dead-eyed to her death (she'd looked like that ever since Morrigan deserted them), Leliana could only watch, knowing that she should protest Enna's sacrifice but knowing also how badly she wanted to die.

Enna did kill the Archdemon, and her soul was destroyed, but at least she had the pleasure of stabbing a dragon to death first.

Following her death, the dwarves made her a Paragon and named a new noble house after her, to which all the casteless flocked. The Wardens raised a towering statue of her in the courtyard of their new headquarters, which she would have loved. And Leliana grieved doubly, for both the person Enna had been at the start of their adventure and for the bitter shell she had become by the end.

And now on to an equally fucked up Hawke, woohoo!

- KP


Quote of the Day: "We could do it together." "WHAT"

oh god Dragon Age

I finished Origins last weekend and started 2 a few days ago while home sick. Boy. I have some feelings. And more art to post from the end of the game, but first, have a Hawke.

Imran was a top-rate smuggler for Athenril and is known in the shadier circles of Kirkwall for always being happy to help for a bit of coin and a good joke or two. Laughing is such a good way to hide your problems. He's probably going to rivalrymance Fenris if I can figure out how to do it.

- KP


Quote of the Day: "I can't believe you can't romance Varric!" "Yep, it is a shame. I myself wanted that dwarf!"

almost done with this ridiculously long game

Every time I think it's gotta be almost over, there's more. I'm fighting my way through Fort Drakon finally, so I should be done within the week!

Here's some Enna.

Soggy and displeased.

Doing what she does best - killing things twice her size.

Being sad about Rica.

Like really of all the people she could have been sleeping with, did it have to be the Donald Trump of the dwarves? I didn't want to be estranged from her forever but I also really didn't want Bhelen on the throne, being casteless and all.

Also this is my party right now and boy is it a party. None of them get along. Leliana and Wynne keep having arguments about religion, Morrigan keeps calling Wynne an ugly old lady and also they fight about magic, and poor Leliana just wants to see Morrigan in a red velvet dress, which, to be fair, I understand.

Remember when mage mom is actually dead and only still walking around because there's a friendly spirit wearing her like a flesh tuxedo? That was a weird conversation to be having randomly in the middle of the forest.

I only found out about Wynne's friendly spirit because I happened to do her personal quest right at the very last second, helped her find her old apprentice and make amends with him, and got a crap-ton of approval points. Same thing happened with Zevran, also by accident, when Taliesin shows up in Denerim with a whole bunch of Crows and you fight them off and Zevran is like "oh man thanks that was great I guess I'll just... leave you now?" and you're like "buddy no" and he's like ":3 kay." Also when we fought the Tevinter slavers in the Alienage I straight up killed them all because it was clear that nothing short of that was gonna fly with Zevran.

 I got Leliana's quest pretty late too, but I did go with her to confront Marjoleine and we got a sweet-ass bow out of the deal without being forced to kill her, so that was cool. Also we're dating, did I mention? (But only because Morrigan won't have me.)

I gotta say, she's a cutie. She just wants to sing you songs and tell you stories about Andraste or whatever and wear nice shoes and be cute. Enna doesn't deserve her quite frankly.

Unfortunately, Enna's heart still belongs to the infernal swamp-witch unto the last. Every time Leliana says "I love you" and Enna says it back, she feels a twist of guilt.

To be fair though, Morrigan is really hot. She's just got this dangerously magnetizing combination of power and scorn that Claudia Black plays so well. Enna hasn't been able to take her eyes off her.

I feel like the more I draw her, the more she looks like Claudia Black too.

Ah yes, the other day I realized I couldn't picture Morrigan with her hair down and had to rectify that immediately.

Then there was this unfortunate moment. I wrote a long thing on Tumblr that I'll try to briefly summarize here: basically Enna has always hated being naked because of her upbringing in Dust Town and seeing the way everyone judged Rica by her body. Enna prefers her merit to come from her skill as a warrior, and to be seen only in full armor whenever possible. Leliana has been trying to teach her that it's okay to show skin, that it doesn't make her less of a warrior, but she's had an easier time learning to be a beserker from Oghren than she's had taking Leliana's advice to heart... partly because her heart doesn't belong to Leliana, not really. So when the party is at Redcliffe Castle and Enna gets to her bedchamber after hearing Riordan's news about the Archdemon, she's distracted enough that she gets all the way down to her underclothes before realizing it's Morrigan standing by the fire and not Leliana. She's disgusted at the brief surge of hope when Morrigan says there's a way the Wardens won't have to die tomorrow - as if she actually cares whether Enna lives or dies. And then Morrigan lays the plan on her.

It was Alistair she was after, all this time. Enna knows damn well she has no right to feel betrayed after lying to Leliana for so long, but it still hurts when Morrigan calls her a fool. And she still can't stop herself from whispering "Please don't go," or from dissolving into tears after she leaves.

She never does get to sleep, and Leliana never comes to her room.

Yay feelings!

- KP


Quote of the Day: "If one more servant asks me if I would like a change of clothes, I will burn the house down!"