Happy Leap Day (Thanks, 2024, for the Extra Day to Write This Up)

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I made it! It was a slog, and quite the trial (evidenced by this being a relatively short update published around 8pm on the last day of February), but I did manage to get a second blog post done this month (hooray for leap days). So, I'm back on track! Now to keep this up for the rest of the year....

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Before I get into it, though, I just wanted to point out that I'm back to using Mali. I still have no clue which font I want to stick with permanently, so it looks like I'm back to rotating them. Kalam may be out of the running, though. It feels like a fun, hand-written font, which is what I like for this blog. After all, I wanted it to feel like I AM just handwriting everything. But... is that still the look I want to go with??? And if so, is Kalam any better than my original font of Coming Soon??? At the very least, is it better than Mali? I'm thinking 'no' on both of those fronts, but I would still love input if anyone wanted to drop a comment below. Alternatively, Josefin Sans was a nice font. It definitely felt more "professional" and less "Geo-Cities". A way to make this blog feel a bit less like some 20-something's online diary from the early 00's and more like a (nearly) 40yo is writing it in 2024. Although... this blog clearly isn't a "professional" resource to learn ways to improve your own writing or whatever anyway. So why do I care that it looks a bit immature???? Especially since I JUST SAID I still like the aesthetic of this being "handwritten"? Gaaah! Why can't I decide on a font!? It's been a year of trying them out! And why is overall decision-making so hard for me lately?

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Yay... burn-out and stress! woooooooooooo

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Hubby and I really just need enough finances to take, like, a month-long sabbatical where we can forget the world exists and we can just fully recharge.... I need the Covid shutdowns back, but without the social isolation, and constant fear and panic that we could catch a disease that might kill us, or that we'd pass to our loved ones and indirectly kill them, or that we'd all catch and then have chronic health issues for the rest of our lives.

Hooray to the last one actually happening to us! wooooo again.....

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This past month, my husband has been prepping for D&D to start back up on Monday. Which means he's been busy plotting away the next stage of our campaign. The teasers he's given me are so good, and I love what he has planned for a repeat NPC. Aurora Morgen got the writing bug again and has been sending me more notes on nir plot for me to check out. It's been a lot of fun to interrogate the world ne built in order to help nir flesh it out a bit more. Plus, it's been cool to spaghetti-toss ideas at the wall to see which ones Aurora likes. There were some in particular that I've pitched that I truly love. If Aurora ends up not going with them I might have to swipe the ideas back for my own stories somewhere down the line...

Speaking of, since everyone else around me has been bit by the writing bug, and I've been coming up with ideas for Aurora, does that mean I have some new writing myself?

....

Yeah... no.

Hacker Girl
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by Birdman, Inc.

I dunno. I've tried changing up what I'm writing about. I thought, "Maybe I'm just burnt out on Miraculous Ladybug and need to write ANYTHING else." So I stepped away from Seduce with Caution and One and the Same and all of my ML plot bunnies.

Instead, I've worked on this blog, for more of a casual, "diary-like" writing style. I tried the Hailey's On It! fanfic idea I talked about in my December update. I tried working on a NoPixel OC. I played around with more ideas for Jolene. I tried thinking more about the OCs and world I created for my original story Blame Fate for This that I wrote for Ronoxym's 30th birthday. I tried even thinking more about my OCs and the world I came up with for The Race for Destiny, my old hodge-podge fanfic/original hybrid story I came up with while in college; my first-ever NaNoWriMo attempt. Hubby and I FINALLY started crossing things off of my massive To Watch list again. I got back into reading the webcomics and digital uploads of manga.

Oh! I don't think I mentioned that last time. Yeah. I have been reading manga on Comikey. It's like WEBTOON, but for manga. I found out about it because ChibiSunnie works as a copy editor at Comikey. I started really focusing three mangas there.

• My Housemate Sano-kun is Just My Editor!
        28yo Shinomiya Teiichiro is so engrossed in his own prolific writing that he frequently forgets self-care. During one of his multi-hour writing binges he faints from lack of sleep, food, and hydration. His dutiful editor (and biggest fan) Sano Satoru finds poor Shinomiya passed out on his floor, and nurses him as he recovers. Fearful that it may happen again, Sano suggests becoming Shinomiya's housemate. That way, Sano can do the house work, prepare the meals, and make sure Shinomiya isn't working himself to death. Plus, if he's already right there, he can always edit Shinomiya's writing on the fly, which will make their work turn-around that much faster.
        It takes some convincing, but Shinomiya agrees, and Sano starts his quest to get Shinomiya to a healtier work-life balance. It doesn't take long for the writer to realize (1) he's been neglecting his health WAY more than he imagined, (2) it's nice to have someone take care of him, and (3) it sure is lonely in the house whenever Sano is gone....
        Shinomiya's prolific writing (but not the self-care neglect that results from it) is such wish fulfilment for me. Also, Shinomiya feels VERY ADHD-coded in the limited chapters that I've read. He hyperfixates on his writing to the point that he doesn't even realize he's hungry or thirsty until his stomach loudly (and rudely... according to him) interrupts his flow, or he's about to pass out being the main bit of evidence. There's also a part that I just read where Shinomiya - who, again, isn't even 30 yet - stands up and his shoulders and knees loudly pop. He laments his aging joints and Sano asks him when was the last time he exercised. Even as little as taking a casual walk.
        ....
        Let me tell you... I felt so called out by Sano's question. I really do need to get better at that myself....
• The Lady Likes a Nerd Over Princes
        Plucky 14yo Sharina is the eldest daughter of the earl. While at her magical school, she meets the studious and quite somber Riol, third son of a baron. He stops her from touching a toxic flower, and she falls in love at first sight. She tries to win his affections by personally making him a picnicked lunch the next day. Problem being, the scent of the cookies she made Riol catches the interest of the first-prince of their country, Leonardo. An arrogant and entitled brat of a teen. Not recognizing the prince, Sharina calls him out on his rude behavior, which only intrigues Leonardo further. Even after revealing to her who he is, Sharina is unphased and calls Leonardo a thief when he takes the cookies to try. Leonardo is now fixated on Sharina and claims her as his own. "Ever the arrogant narcissist, Leonardo can’t fathom how anyone could turn him down and his persistence crosses into the realm of harassment" [from the official Comikey posting]. Riol's constant rescues of Sharina from the prince's advancements only paints a target on his back as Leonardo marks Riol his rival (and causes Sharina to fall all the harder for Riol).
        Poor Sharina and Riol now have to constantly dance around the varied harassment from the prince as he continuously tries to destroy Riol and claim Sharina as his trophy.
        The whole thing is cute and playful and the prince is gorgeous but the biggest prick in the most entertaining way. Plus, you have that good ol' romance plot going on as Sharina tries to win Riol's affections. Meanwhile, Riol won't even entertain the thought of them being romantically involved due to how much higher a societal ranking Sharina is (it wouldn't be proper). Riol is actually only at the school on scholarship. So, despite still being a noble, he's also very much a "fish-out-of-water" as most consider Riol barely a step above peasant. It's just a fun little story, and I love watching them thwart Prince Leonardo's advances.
• From General to Bride: Marrying My Strongest Rival
        First-princess Leone (age 23) gladly serves her kingdom of Alderia by being the general for their fearsome army. She even received the moniker "The Golden Lion" due to how fierce she is, and yet beautiful with her golden hair flowing like a mane. One day, while in the midst of a heated battle, her opponents - the Kingdom of Zergios - abruptly retreat. Leone soon after discovers that she has been betrothed to the marshal of Zergios as part of a peace treaty. She now has to learn how to make a new life in the land of her once most-heated enemy. Not only that, but she's tasked by her father to help their new allies to prosper.
        Leone is actually incredibly graceful and modest. She has no ill-will towards her new husband or compatriots. She instantly takes on the role of helpful citizen of Zergios. Or, at least, she tries to. The people of Zergios, especially its young prince, are understandably wary of her. She's also unsure of her dynamic with her new husband, who is too busy with war-recovery efforts to truly socialize with her. There's a connection there though, and a potential romance.
        I'm personally so invested in the budding romance between Leone and her husband, as well as how she'll win over the people of Zergios so they believe she truly is their ally now. It reminds me a little of The Dragon King's Bride with the whole warring nations and arranged marriage that might have a true romantic foundation. Plus, it's nice to see a strong female protag who is also kind, courteous, and helpful.

I also started up yet another new comic over on WEBTOON: I Will Live the Life of a Villainess.

      Korean woman Yuna Jeong dies when she's hit by a car that ran a red light. However, her life doesn't end there. Instead, she gets isekai'd into the land of Kartica; into the life of Duke Rosaria's only child Elena. Problem is, Katrica doesn't exist. It's a fictional country from a romance novel Yuna used to read in her previous life. The other problem? Elena Rosaria is the villainess of that novel.
      According to the novel's plot, Elena is betrothed to the crowned prince. However, he ends up falling in love with the novel's main character Rosetta. Elena then spends the novel making Rosetta's life miserable to try to keep her away from the prince, which would allow Elena to eventually become queen instead. When all other attempts fail, Elena tries to poison Rosetta. In the end, the prince and Rosetta marry, and Elena is beheaded!
      Obviously trying to avoid that outcome, Yuna tries to rewrite Elena's story. New problem: Elena is already an adult and betrothed to the prince. So her complete change in personality is a bit hard to try to hide. Plus, she has that whole struggle of trying to remove herself as far from the Elena/Prince/Rosetta love triangle as possible. On top of ALL of that? Turns out she's not the only one isekai'd into the story! The previously meek and overlooked first-prince is also acting a bit strange and a lot bolder lately. The first-prince and Elena dance around each other as they try to confirm that the other was originally from Earth, as they attempt to rework the fates of the characters they were forced to inhabit, and as a potential romance blossoms between them.

If you haven't noticed, I have a thing for fantasy romances... what can I say? A woman my age tends to read romance novels. I just do mine via pretty pictures online. Anyway, I do love how unique this story is, because the romance is actually SUUUCH a backseat plot that some of the main comments on the comic are "Oh. Right. This story is in the Romance category." The focus instead is on Elena (Yuna) empowering both herself and other female nobles that would otherwise be overlooked simply because they're women. It showcases Elena's craftiness and strategic mind. It also has a lovely little cat-and-mouse appeal to both Elena and the first-prince getting their footing in the lives they are thrust into. It's like a narrative game of chess. Quite engaging. I caught up on all of the available free chapters in a blink.

Honestly? Between those three mangas, adding in I Will Live the Life of a Villainess, and getting back into The Dragon King's Bride, FLOAT, and Rental Hero, I've managed to get a lot of reading in this month. Not nearly the 7.5hrs per month that I'm aiming for this year, but definitely better than my January record.

As mentioned, I also managed to wrestle the TV away from Hubby's obsessive watching of NoPixel content, and we crossed off a bunch of shows and movies I had on my To Watch list for a while.

I'm doing what a writer is "supposed" to. I'm consuming content. Engaging in it. Noting what I like about it, and what I would change. The Avatar: The Last Airbender live-action series on Netflix, for instance. If I went into that cold - never saw the cartoon - I would have really enjoyed it. The writing is a bit clunky, but I still liked the characters and the chemistry the cast had. The wardrobe and sets were gorgeous and captured how they looked in the cartoon. The actor they cast for Zuko - Dallas Liu - was so convincing as the character that he even straight up sounded like Dante Basco (Zuko's original voice actor) for a bunch of his lines. The CG and green-screening still needed a bit of help, but it was way cleaner and prettier than anything Marvel has given us the past couple of years.... sadly....

The plot of the entire series is "There's this 100year war that has been going on as the Fire Nation tries to conquer the rest of the world." The cartoon almost makes the war secondary to the Gaang's personal growth and development. The live-action, on the other hand, leans a lot harder into the war plot, and the idea that war isn't fun. That it's messy. That it's brutal. That people are suffering. That people are doing whatever they can to survive. The live-action focuses on the world more than the characters, I think.

Sokka is brooding as he suffers imposter syndrome in his attempts to be a Warrior(TM) to protect his home and impress his father. Katara is suffering PTSD from watching her mother violently die trying to protect her. Aang is wracked with survivor's guilt as well as the guilt of abandoning the world; unintentually allowing all the pain that has happened over the past century. Zuko is still his broody, angsty self... never change, buddy. Iroh is mostly unchanged as well, but... less goofy and relaxed. The side characters are also darker and angstier.

The cartoon knew what it was: a cartoon. It dealt with the heavy concept of a war-torn world, but still had the characters - especially the Gaang - as light, fun-loving, playful, snarky, sarcastic, and embracing what limited joys they could find. The cartoon was awesome because it had that great balance of light and heavy. It made you laugh, but also made you think about the seriousness of what these kids are going through.

• Sokka got over his misogyny, and then got past his inferiority complex.
• Katara got past her anger, and no longer tried to compensate for her mom by being the Mom Friend to everyone else.
• Aang matured, embraced his responsibilities, and got past his guilt.
• Toph learned that it's okay to be vulnerable around the right people, because doing so doesn't diminish your strength.
• Zuko healed from his traumas, and grew the courage to stand up against his tormentors.
• Azula realized the emotional traumas and neglect she endured growing up. We don't get to see her overcome them, but realizing they're there and that she's broken was a character arc in-and-of-itself.

I don't see any of that happening in the live action though. With the exception of maybe Zuko and Azula (and we haven't met Toph yet), the live-action versions of the Gaang just.... aren't quite the same characters.

And they killed my favorite episode: "The Cave of Two Lovers". I mean, they kind of butchered a lot of the episodes... but did really well with others, such as combining "The Storm" and "The Blue Spirit".

I'm going off on a tangent. Point being, I watched something I really wanted to; was excited for. It was "mid". Not terrible. Not the greatest. Made me want to give the cartoon a rewatch. But decent for an adaptation, and good if it's the first introduction you have to the series. Anyway, I went in with a little bit of an analytical mind. I noted changes I liked. Changes that made sense. Changes that made no sense to me. Changes that just straight up made the story kind of worse. I sorted out WHY I felt that way.

That's what I'm "supposed" to do, right? That's supposed to help me improve my own writing?

I did the same thing for the other shows and movies we watched this month. Same for the many manga/comics I've been reading. Same with helping Aurora with nir story, and even Hubby with his campaign ideas.

So, why isn't any of this translating into ME doing narrative writing!? Why, whenever I bring up a word doc or this blog post do I INSTANTLY think of a million other things I should be doing? I have this work project that isn't crucial, but I've been meaning to do for ages. I have emails to check! I have Facebook or Discord messages to answer. I really SHOULD go through my Tumblr Drafts blackhole and start tagging and reblogging them. Seems like as good a time as any to research credit card options or get lost on Zillow house hunting or work on the dozens upon dozens of popped seems along the king-sized quilt my mom got me as a wedding gift. You know what? It's been AGES since I've played my mobile games on my tablet, or touched my Switch. Let's use the time to play some games instead! That'll help!

NuaNia
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by PRANEAT

WHYYYYYYYY!? Used to be that you couldn't STOP me from telling a story. My life was writing. I felt most myself when I was writing. I was bursting with ideas and couldn't write them down fast enough.

And now?

Now I run away from the IDEA of writing. Even this blog post. I'd get a couple of paragraphs in and then magically find something more pressing to do before I forced myself to come back and sit down and just TALK TO YOU FINE FOLKS. No thoughts needed. I'm just having a conversation.

I've NEVER been this writing-adverse before! In the 30-some years since I learned how to tell stories, I have never been this disconnected from writing. This bored with a blinking cursor. The blue lines on notebook paper blending together as my eyes lose focus and gloss over.

I just want to be pre-2020 LycoRogue again.

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The first half of March is going to be a bit crazy. (Implying my life hasn't been a hectic, inconsistent schedule for YEARS now....) I'm on a 9-day work week, leading directly into me and Hubby going to visit my out-of-state family for my sister's birthday, her soon-to-be niece's birthday, and my godson's birthday. In other words: work nine days in a row, have a four-day weekend to visit family, then back to work for a 7-day week before our schedules are semi-back to normal. We also have our first D&D session since October in the middle of my 9-day work week. Then have our second session the Monday after coming home from my long weekend. Oh! And I'll have to work on sale price tags the long week I have post-family-visit.

I'm sure I'll find time to work on writing somewhere in there. Right? I can still get that quarterly story written?

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Guys, I don't think I'll be hitting that stretch goal of publishing a new story at least once per quarter.... At least, not unless I push myself to maybe work on that Hailey's On It! fanfic. I have a skeleton written up. And the back half of the first season is supposed to start in March. Maybe the new episodes will re-inspire me to actually officially pen that fanfic. It would be a fitting time to post my first fic for the fandom too... when the show is back in swing.

We'll see how that goes, I guess.

If not the HOI fanfic, then.... honestly, I have no clue. The well is dry and I am BEGGING the Muses for enough rain to refill it. Not even all the way. Just enough to end the drought. Maybe nicer weather returning will be the key. Maybe roleplaying again will be. Maybe simply getting sunshine again so my brain isn't just static snow nearly every waking moment. I'll take anything.

Wish me luck. And, until next time...

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Head Empty; Time for a New OC

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Well, if this isn't an encouraging start to the year... publishing my first update - my JANUARY update - OVER A WEEK INTO FEBRUARY! Yup. Excellent start. (Do I get points for chipping away at it daily since January 30th?)

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I'll be honest. I hadn't thought of this blog or my New Year's Resolutions at all last month (minus the last two days because I was trying to make my January deadline). This is the main reason I'm still using Josefin Sans for the text font. I just couldn't find the energy to even begin to narrow down which font to permanently keep. As for writing itself, I only ever-so-briefly gave that any thought. Yup. This is an awesome start of a new year for a writer. Why am I STILL so burnt out!? (We'll get to that...)

Anyway, how about a quick refresher on the resolutions I came up with for 2024?

1. Take another run at posting at least one blog update every month; 12 updates in total before the close of 2024.
2. Read an average of 7.5hrs per month (that's the equivalent of 15min per day for a 30-day month)
3. Write Plagg-centric stories for the two Friday 13ths this year: September and December
4. Publish at least one narrative each quarter of the year: 4 stories total; once every 3 months.

How am I doing on those? Well...

1. I'm publishing January's post a third of the way into February. So, I'm clearly doing amazing with this goal already. I'll get more into the "why"s below. Regardless, I'm not letting that defeat me, and have been working on it steadily (albeit minimally) for the past 12 days. I'll consider that a little win.

2. I..... forgot to record how much I've read last month. I have no clue how close I got to this goal, but I can safely bet I wasn't close at all. I haven't read nearly as much as I would have liked. I've been so burnt out that I haven't even raced to instantly read the latest updates to those webcomics I started following (and excitedly talked about last post). It... it's been rough. This month hasn't been encouraging either given that I have barely cracked open any printed narratives a week into February... sooooooooo.... yeaaaaaaaah....

3. I have time for this one, but I have NO ideas on what the story plots would even be yet.

4. Head empty. No thoughts. No plots. I'm already fearful about hitting this "stretch-goal"....

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Hubby and I tried. We looked up a list of "20 good luck foods to eat at New Year's". We had at least half of them. We even stood on only our right foot at the strike of midnight so we could start 2024 off "on the right foot".

Maybe we overcorrected for 2023 and ended up jinxing ourselves????

To be fair, the year has at least been kinder to us than it has been for many others that we personally know. Unfortunate for us, that still resulted in adding a lot to our plates. For example, my poor manager ended up losing two loved ones within the same week, and then had a major health scare with one of her pets. She thought she was going to lose him too. Thankfully, he pulled through, but she still had to call off of work the next day to monitor him while he was recovering. So, I had a couple of work days where I was running the shop solo. Weeeeee.

One of those days was the highest sales day of the week. Of COURSE everyone decided to come buy the day I'm alone. Sheesh.

On top of that chaos, Manager was sick for the better part of a week (probably due to a weakened immune system brought on by the stress of all of the above). Then it was Biker Coworker - whom, from now on, shall be simply known as Chatty... because... boy howdy is she! - who was sick for the week. She kept saying "It's not covid! It's not the flu! It's just my annual sinus infection!" The frequency she stressed this though almost makes me question it.... And my throat has been a bit scratchy lately.... yay!

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On top of that, I got into a.... bit of a verbal battle with my General Manager a couple of weeks back. Argument over paychecks and how a sale's payout should be handled. This resulted in GM having to have A Talk with Manager. Said talk was during Manager's Hell Week, so she ended up UNLOADING. It was very much needed and I'm super proud of her. It ended up leaving us in a weird limbo with the GM for the rest of the month, though, and I think he's lowkey avoiding talking to any of us now....

Although, he HAS been a little heavy-handed with the "really appreciate you!" and "Good catch!" and "Keep up the good work!" and "This really helps, thank you so much!" emails this past week, so....

On top of all of that, the work projects keep piling up on my desk. Both figuratively and literally. Before I can complete one I have two more to sort through. When I left work last Saturday I literally had three different piles of projects organized by priority. Meanwhile, both of my coworkers' desks were virtually empty....

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If I don't already have enough going on at work, I'm also apparently an unofficial copyeditor for other companies. For two different manufacturers that our company works with, I've had to go through different marketing material. One was price cards for the current national sale. The other was the merchandizing catalog for customers to flip through. The price cards had multiple typographical errors (such as incorrect pricing) and formatting issues - such as a text box being too small so it bumped the last letter of a word onto the next line - that I had to sort out. I also needed confirmation on a few things.... things the manufacturer sales rep has YET to respond to me about, and it's been two weeks! For the catalog, there were pages that we just got last week that were printed in October and were depicting items that were discontinued in July.... so.... I needed to figure out what to do about those.... There was also a catalog page where the item identification number had a typo in it. If we looked up the item based on the catalog's ID number we wouldn't be able to find it in order to price it up. After confirming that it WAS a typo - as opposed to a new model that we didn't get pricing for yet - I had to break out a permanent marker to manually correct the ID on the catalog page. Real professional looking.

Then, for our OWN company, we use a marketing company to produce our advertisements. I don't know what the hold-up was, but they were a week behind in getting our sale price tags and promotional flyer to us. They prioritized posting the sale on our website first. Fine. I printed the flyer off of the website in order to know what items are on sale for the month. I noticed that one of the items pictured didn't have the proper description. I emailed the GM asking which was the error: the description or the product item? Turns out it was the description. I got one of those "Great catch! Thanks for the help!" emails from him before he emailed the marketing team to fix the flyer online ASAP. On top of that, GM didn't even know what I was talking about at first. He forwarded me the email the marketing team sent him with a proof of the email blast flyer, and the item was properly described there. So.... THAT was a thing....

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Guys (manufacturers). I am begging you. I already have enough on my plate. Could you maybe hire your own copyeditors (and/or get your acts together) so this is sorted out BEFORE it gets sent to your retailers? What are the other retailers doing when they get these messes? Do they have people in their stores catching these errors as well? Or are they just unknowingly running with them?

I haven't even mentioned the cranky, demanding, and entitled customers. The whirlwind customers who can't be bothered to listen to your answer to their last question before they jump into another one. The customers who need you to explain/demonstrate something 3x because they aren't paying attention to you despite specifically asking for that explanation/demonstration. The customers who are told they are already getting an item 40% off and STILL ask "can't you do anything better about the price?" The customers who can't make up their mind, so they buy a product, only to cancel the sale and buy another product, only to cancel THAT and buy the original product again, only to cancel AGAIN and buy something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from what they came in for. The customers who are incredibly incorrect in the information they got from "researching on the internet" but are convinced that YOU are the uninformed one and/or you're simply trying to swindle them. The customers who "have spent a lot of money with this company" and so they feel you should just "throw in" $400 worth of items for free! The customers who specifically tell you that they do not want X, Y, or Z for the product they're looking for, so you avoid showing them items that include X, Y, or Z, and then they demand to know why you didn't show them those products - as if we're gatekeeping or something - and then COMPLAIN about how the product is DEFINITELY not something they'd buy when they try it out, how dare we show it to them! The customers who decide, four months after getting their item, that we clearly gave them the wrong item and we should correct this.

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When I get home my head officially turns off. There's just too much going on at work, and my brain taps out after that 8hr shift. I can't even really enjoy recreational things if it requires any semblance of brain power. I'm actually a touch grateful that Hubby hasn't started his D&D campaign back up yet. I have no clue how good at roleplaying I'd be right now. Ironic, since that's the limited amount of "writing" I've done in January. I'll explain in a bit.

But first! We need to power through a bit of an info-dump to properly set the stage. Join me as we sift through the drama that is

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As you could probably tell from my last update, I've been sucked down the NoPixel rabbit hole. More accurately, Hubby has. I'm just along for the ride. Mostly because it (a)allows me time with Hubby, and (b)requires virtually no mental effort on my part to enjoy.

While the main focus for us last year was on Ray__C and his character Raymond Romanov, the 4.0 launch brought back Sykkuno to NoPixel, and Hubby has been eating this content UP! There's an ongoing joke that Sykkuno himself has Main Character Energy (while still being humble and a little self-deprecating) and is protected by Plot Armor. This has resulted in the NoPixel running joke that Sykkuno's character Yuno Sykk is the "shadow leader" of Los Santos. Yuno's return to the server seems to prove that he truly is the Shadow Leader. He's already started, left, and joined at least four different "gangs" and has an apparent platonic harem.

My last post, I had introduced you all to Yuno's first gang "The Company". He was an original member and co-founder, but he pretty much did everything he could to not actually run it. While the other 5 founding members each had an executive branch they were in charge of - CEO, CFO, COO, etc - Yuno begged them to just let him have the humble title of "janitor" within The Company. We'll stick a pin in The Company for a beat as we move to Yuno's second "gang".

Fellow Company member Benji, played by Lysium, had a LOT of personal drama in the 3.0 era due to his messy love life. Because of this, Benji spent the in-universe five years between 3.0 and 4.0 to self-reflect. He decided to take a self-vow of celibacy. He wasn't going to let himself be messed up by carnal desires again. Benji and Yuno then met up with Tommy T., played by Zerkaa. Tommy had also decided to be celibate for 4.0. Add in Yuno, whom, much like Sykkuno himself, constantly claims that "girls aren't into me". Since a prominent gang in 3.0 was "Chang Gang" (aka CG), Yuno joked that they were the new CG: Celibate Gang. He then ran around the server recruiting any of his friends that also decided they weren't going to have any romance RP with their character, ergo the character would be celibate.

The main problem with Yuno co-founding Celibate Gang is that 4.0 somehow brought about "Yuno's Harem Arc". Sykkuno has always felt more comfortable having a bunch of female friends, and so Yuno likewise routinely hangs out with a bunch of female characters. He's also somehow both subtly and INCREDIBLY charismatic, so he's unintentionally wooing ladies left and right. But "Girls just aren't into me," so Yuno (and probably Sykkuno himself) has no clue these ladies have crushes on him. The main "totally not a love interest" is the character Lottie, played by MinksOfMars.

One of the big social "problems" of the 3.0 server was how easily characters could just adopt each other. It resulted in Yuno's 3.0 family tree turning into more of a family web.

Yuno Sykk's 3.0 family, as presented on the NoPixel wiki

Now, it's been pared down DRASTICALLY for 4.0, but Yuno still has his twin sister Ray Mond, played by Valkyrae, his adopted older brother Gloryon, played by Garek, and his adopted younger sister Raia, played by LadyDima. Although, a new server rule that just went into affect in February limited everyone to just one adopted kid, so Yuno isn't allowed to call Gloryon or Raia his siblings anymore... it's a whole thing...

Generated by Bitmoji

Along with Yuno's adopted-but-no-longer-adopted siblings, Yuno is an adopted cousin to Lottie. Or... used to be? Lottie's adoptive mother is Yuno's adoptive mother's adoptive sister. So, since Yuno's and Lottie's mothers aren't allowed to be adoptive siblings anymore Yuno and Lottie may not be adoptive cousins anymore??? Like I said. It's a whole thing....

Regardless, back when people could still have adoptive siblings and Yuno and Lottie were cousins, neither Yuno nor Lottie knew their familial connection when they started hanging out. They just really clicked and instantly became besties. Then his friends started teasing that Yuno and Lottie were an item. The two sorted out that they were related, and so Yuno would correct everyone shipping him with Lottie, letting them know/reminding them that he and Lottie were related. To which, Lottie kept reminding everyone "not by blood".... For a while a LOT of people leaned into this joke. Even setting up a wedding for the two, much to Yuno's embarrassment and chagrin. Benji and Tommy T. were some of the biggest offenders, teasing that they had to kick Yuno out of Celibate Gang. Yuno would then counter by pointing out how much Benji was flirting with Ray Mond, and how HE was the one who should be kicked out of CG.

As of this writing, all three founding members of Celibate Gang are still holding strong, but they also all still tease each other (or, more accurately, tease Benji and Yuno) about having to be kicked out of the group.

Especially because Yuno's "harem" also includes Ray Mond's best friend Gigi Costello, played by AngelKnivez. Gigi hated Yuno at first, but instantly fell for him when he went out of his way to make up for a wrong against her (despite Yuno not really having anything to do with the griefing). His adopted sister Raia, despite already being married, also wants to monopolize Yuno's time in a manner that may not be strictly platonic/familial.... The "most eligible bachelorette" on the server also has a passing crush on Yuno. Finally, there are a few female co-workers throughout the many jobs that Yuno works that also seem to have at least minor crushes on him.

But, according to Yuno, "Girls just aren't into me". Uh huh. Sure. It's endearing that the poor man has no clue when someone is flirting with him. And he has no clue how smooth he actually is. I'd give examples, but when I did that to poor Aurora Morgen ne ended up having a novella's worth of info-dumping to sift through, and this is getting pretty hefty already. So I'll spare the rest of you. If you're truly interested, you can check out Sykkuno's VODs on YouTube, or peruse some of the highlights on Sykkuno's side channel: Daily Sprout Clips.

There were also two dating-related events hosted in-game. The first was a fundraiser where people offered to be auctioned off for a date with the winning bidder. The second was a dating game with a potential cash prize. For the auction, those being auctioned off for dates were given 10% of their winning bid. Because Yuno has Main Character Energy, Gigi convinced the hosts of the event to give Yuno an exclusive deal: he got half of his winning bid. Gigi knew it would convince the founding member of Celibate Gang to participate (his main focus is to get more money). He ended up being one of the highest-going dates, with his sister Raia winning the date after an intense bidding war for Yuno (a bidding war poor Gigi got outbid in right out the gate). As for the dating game, a bachelorette (the aforementioned "most eligible bachelorette" who had a crush on Yuno) held a series of quick games and challenges to narrow a pool of contestants down to one. Then they would have to decide if they would split the $5k cash prize or if they would try to steal the whole amount from the other. Through a series of Plot Armor-infused events that I won't get into here, Yuno did end up as the winning contestant. The bachelorette sniped the money from him in the end, but watching him somehow sneak his way through the game was quite funny.

For those interested in killing about 20 to 30min each, here is the video compilation of the winning auction bid for Yuno, and here is one for the dating game.

So, as Yuno is going through his "harem arc" and is joking around with CG, he's also struggling to find traction in The Company. It feels like more drama than it's worth as 6 strong personalities clash against each other and half of their days are spent having meetings. Meetings that bore Sykkuno and that he feared were poor content for his streams anyway. On top of all of that, it was the actions of The Company - without Yuno's involvement - that caused Gigi to be mad at Yuno in the first place, because 98% of the drama on the server is simply due to miscommunication. The whole thing was starting to crumble around Yuno and it wasn't the healthiest environment.

Meanwhile, his in-game best friend and former gang leader Lang Buddha, played by Buddha, discreetly created his own gang, unofficially called OldBois; spiritual successor to his 3.0 gang Cleanbois, which itself was a spiritual successor to his 2.0 gang Leanbois. Yuno fairly quickly jumped ship on The Company and joined OldBois instead. Then, completely unrelated to Yuno (maybe a liiiiiiittle related to Yuno?) The Company and OldBois went to war with each other. It was actually pretty funny to see the extent The Company members went to in order to keep Yuno out of the war and to avoid being aggressive towards him despite Yuno technically being part of the opposing gang.

Plot Armor.

The final "gang" Yuno is a part of? Well, as I mentioned, he does a lot of different jobs to grind out money. His main job is Gruppe 6 aka G6. Basically a NoPixel/GTA parody of those Brink's security trucks for money transfers. Due to the nature of the job, and the fact that most non-cop characters on the server didn't have access to guns yet - including the G6 workers, ironically - G6 workers get robbed pretty frequently. On January 30th, Yuno was doing a job and was the victim of one such robbery. Later that same day, while doing another G6 run, he became involved in a full-on brawl between three or four G6 trucks - with roughly 3 workers each - and a gang of at least 6 robbers. Roughly half of the Gruppe 6 workers were downed and the robbers ended up getting away. All the while, despite 9 different G6 workers calling in-game 911, not a single cop responded. We later found out that they were all busy trying to stop the bombing of a prominent city business. At the time, though? The lack of cop presence to protect the workers, combined with the G6 workers not hesitating to come to each others' aid, sparked Yuno's desire to keep his coworkers safe. For his next job, Yuno teamed up with Raia, her husband Jason, played by Nmplol, and their roommate Clayton, played by Boruleum. They also called up Lottie for extra backup. Yuno, as a joke, convinced the team to don his signature cat-ear motorcycle helmet and glowing shoes, each in a different color, that way they would look like the Power Rangers. They dubbed themselves the "G6 Rangers".

L-R: Jason as the Pink Ranger, Raia as Purple Ranger,
Yuno as White Ranger, Clayton as the Red Ranger (Leader),
and Lottie as Green Ranger

My favorite part of that picture is that Yuno is the only one looking at the camera and he wasn't even the one who took the picture. Raia was.

The G6 Rangers' mission was to do all they could to keep their coworkers safe, and to promise to come to any G6 worker's aid. As the group did their run they actually did manage to scare away some would-be robbers, which inspired more G6 workers. Within 24hrs there were already G6 Ranger impersonators and G6 workers who wished to officially join The Rangers. Within three days, there were 22 official members of the G6 Rangers! The cat-ears motorcycle helmet and glowing shoes are included as an official G6 Ranger uniform within the Gruppe 6 employee handbook! And Yuno/Sykkuno only created them as a passing joke!

Main Character Energy.

OK, so, what's my point with info-dumping all of this about Yuno and NoPixel? Well, we've circled back to what I said about the limited "writing" I did in January and the irony of it being RPG-based given how I'm probably too burnt out to play D&D.

The more that Hubby and I watch the NoPixel content - mostly via Sykkuno's VODs, but also sometimes catching Ray__C's or MinksOfMars's streams - and the more miscommunication there is between characters, the more I think of what I would have said to try to clear things up a bit (but not SO much as to kill the content).

In January, I found myself fantasizing about joining NoPixel and interacting with these characters. Being part of these storylines somehow. It was almost a PAINFUL amount of fantasizing. I seriously had to take a step back and not watch as much of NoPixel with Hubby. It was getting a bit... unhealthy... the amount of time I spent fantasizing and how pained I felt when I realized the minuscule likelihood of me not only getting onto the server but also running into these characters with any sort of regularity... like I said, I had to take a mental break from this obsession.

Before I did though? Well, I can't fantasize about playing on NoPixel if I don't have a character, right? I mean I COULD just picture a self-insert character, but I don't know if I'd want to do something like that in an RPG. I'd want to run a CHARACTER; not MYSELF. What character would I play on NoPixel though?

I debated bringing in manic arsonist and psychopath/sociopath (? I'm still not sure which one she is) Trish "Lighter" Morrison. She's proooooobably not the greatest option for a starter character, though. Trying to sort out how to even play the game and create connections while cursing up a storm, dropping f-bombs (which is totally out of character for *ME*) every other sentence, and being as destructive as possible..... it would be A LOT. I don't know if it would even bring me the sort of attention I would want as Trish. I'm sure it would bring in both the hardcore fans and the vicious haters, and I don't have the skin for the haters. Not yet, at least. I also don't know if I would be able to build the character connections I would want to establish for myself on the server. Ignoring all of that, I have no clue if I would even be able to do Trish justice if she was my first character out-the-gate. I mean.... how do you even DO arson in GTA???

I then debated importing Jolene. She'd be a great fit. Sexy. Slinky. Sneaky. Manipulative. Constant flirt. Man eater. Seductress. Cat burglar. Her backstory has her constantly run out of town once her prostitution and thievery is noticed by enough people, so there's my reason for her to be new to Los Santos: running from wherever the hell she was last. Her personality means it should be relatively easy for her to make connections with a bunch of people. Perfect!

Except.... April Fooze, played by Fuslie, is already RIGHT. THERE!

"Siren"
Song by April Fooze (Fuslie),
feat Ryan King and Hubcap Jones

April's also just the character that I'm most familiar with. She's a full-on trope on NoPixel: man-eater manipulators that make money via Sugar Daddies. Jolene would just be another dime-a-dozen. Probably not the best option. Plus, I never remember how I spell her damn last name. So I'd have to either (a)keep a reference sheet on me, (b)constantly look at my character's ID, or (c)accept that I'd be misspelling her last name all the time....

OK, so Jolene's out.

Willow's essentially Jolene-Lite, but with super powers. So, without her powers, I don't know if she'd be able to get around the same issue I was mentally having with placing Jolene in Los Santos. She's out. Lia is just a meeker self-insert of me once you take her powers away. So she's out. Amara is anti-social, so probably not the best choice for a starter character. Plus, I'm White. I don't know if I'd feel comfortable playing a mixed-race character with internalized racism towards both of her heritages because they each traumatized her one way or another. Also... survivor of massive physical abuse....

Generated by Bitmoji
Cropped by LycoRogue

Yeeeeeaaaaaah... let's avoid Amara for NoPixel.... Probably best to keep her in the safety of my own private playgroup until I can sort her out more. And if I do ever officially write out Amara's story, you know for SURE that I'll be going through a plethora of sensitivity readers before posting anything publicly.

Moving on! How about my info broker Maggie (aka Magpie) from Scum & Villainy? Again, I don't really know the game's mechanics well enough nor would I have the connections needed to actually GET the secret info to broker. At least, not at first. I COULD still use her in my mental exercise of building a NoPixel character; trust that in my mental mock-up I could succeed in gathering important info. The character Gigi Gambino (different from the one referenced above), played by GEEGA, was able to essentially do what I was picturing for Maggie. Namely, just sit and patiently people-watch to get the tea. Too many characters are "loud" about what criminal activities they're trying to do or what their drama is. Add in some Yuno-like charm where Maggie tries to be friends with everyone, and: boom. Info broker.

However, I have two issues: (1)Gigi is already doing more-or-less what I would try to do, and she has more practice at it, so she's going to be more skilled. Why would characters come to Maggie instead of Gigi? (2)If I'm playing through these mental scenarios under the guise of prepping myself for it to come true - manifest it - then I'll have to accept that maybe Maggie CAN'T be a good info broker. I mean, it's largely dependent on my OWN skills.

One of the main downsides of this style of roleplay, as opposed to my normal stats-driven RPGs, is that dependence on my own, actual, IRL skills. When I'm playing D&D or Scum & Villainy or Blades in the Dark or whatever, I don't have to be skilled at, say, lock-picking for my character to be a master at breaking-and-entering. I don't have to be a good musician for my character to move people to tears with their song. My own personal charisma won't help nor hinder my character's attempts at selling snake oil. I have a stat. I tell the game master what I'm planning to do. I roll the stat. If I roll high enough I'll succeed. If I roll too low I fail. Easy. For NoPixel, however, my character is only as skilled and gifted as I am. I could have plans for Jolene to be a master seductress and cat burglar, but what happens if my charisma fails her seduction attempts? What if I personally suck at anything dealing with the various crime mechanics in-game? What if I'm not as sneaky as I'm mentally picturing Maggie? What if people don't open up to her as much as I need them to? What if no one cares about the information she gathers, or she's late to the party and everyone already knows?

If I magic my way onto the server with these character tasks in mind, and I suck at them - at least, at first - what do I have to fall back on for my character until I can get her to where I envision her?

Tanuki Facebook sticker
by Yanare Ku

So, there goes most of my established characters. It would probably be safest to think of a brand new character for GTA anyway. One that could grow and evolve with my gameplay, instead of trying to import a character and HOPE I could be skilled enough to do my character justice. What would I do for a new character though?

Head empty. Remember? Nothing but rattling going on up there. And I'm now tasking myself to come up with a NEW character!? For a game I have no clue if I'll ever play???

But try I did. First up: a name. I did that with Jolene, and her whole personality grew from her name. Maybe it could work for this hypothetical character too. But, what do I even use for a name?

There are a fair amount of characters with pun/joke names on the server. Such as Ash Ketchup played by Ash, Penelope "Penny" Farthing played by raine, and Whippy's two characters Irwin Dundee and Crocodile Steve (if you can't tell, Whippy's Australian). You also have a lot of streamers - especially within Sykkuno's circle - that just do a nod to their streamer name. Sykkuno himself created an Asian character (so the family name is technically first) named Yuno Sykk; said correctly, his name is Sykk Yuno.... April Fooze is played by Fuslie, whose streamer name is sometimes shorted to Fooze. Ray__C plays Raymond Romanov and Raycardo Flick. Buddha plays Lang Buddha. Valkyrae plays Ray Mond. New player Ellum, after two failed character attempts, ended up landing on Eli Lum. Prominent player Ssaab had the characters Al Saab and Sam Baas. Former Cleanboi and current OldBoi member Tony Corleone is played by AnthonyZ.

You get the idea.

I'm not the greatest at pun names, but I COULD maybe do a play on my online handle!

Generated by Bitmoji
Cropped by LycoRogue

Who's ready for some lore drop?

While it's not the reason I had originally included it into my handle, "Lyco" could be a reference to wolves. I am also routinely describing myself as a Mama Wolf and do have a bit of a penchant for the pack animal. I also included "Rogue" in my handle for two reasons: (1)it is my favorite D&D class. I have such a love/hate relationship with the Rogue class mainly because of how diverse the class is. It is the Communications Degree of D&D classes. You can be a Rogue and then make your character be just about anything you want. It's amazing. But also a bit overwhelming if you don't know which direction to take your character... hence the "hate" part of the relationship I have with the class. My second reason for adding in "Rogue"? (2)Rogue is my favorite X-Men. Well... she's kind of tied with Wolverine, but over the years I've definitely leaned more into Rogue. And that TOTALLY has NOTHING to do with Hubby's favorite X-Men being Gambit.....

Point being, while Rogue exclusively goes by her nickname, she DOES have a canonically-known birth-name: Anna Marie. Coincidentally enough, in the Bryan Singer X-Men live-action trilogy, Rogue was played by Anna Paquin. So, if I were to name my hypothetical NoPixel character after my online handle, and therefore after Rogue from X-Men, she'd be Anna Marie. Even if I went an extra layer deep and used the actress's name, it would still be Anna. Alternatively, I could go with the original voice of Rogue for me. In other words, her voice actress from The Animated Series: Lenore Zann. I think I'd be more likely to respond to Anna Marie than Lenore, though... So that locks "Anna Marie" in. I would just struggle to not accidentally say my name was "Anna Maria" since I've already mentally made that mistake. Or... do I lean into it and change it to Anna-Maria instead of just Anna Marie??? Either way, I'd probably make sure to hyphenate her first name. Then you add in that wolf reference and, boom!

Anna-Marie Wolffe.

Generated by Bitmoji

Man, if only I could get onto the NoPixel character creator to just generate Anna-Marie, even if I wouldn't be able to actually play her. It would be so cool to see what she might look like if I could make it onto the server. Just get that visual so I could have a proper mental image. The best I had access to, though, was good ol' Hero Forge. It may not be the NoPixel/GTA model, but it's also not too shabby of a recreation of my Bitmoji self. Right?

Maneuvering the braid so it would go over her shoulder was tricky, but I like how it turned out. Also, a rose-wrapped sword was my wedding motif, so the second I saw that it was a shirt detail option I knew that I HAD to include it! Not to say that I could create this outfit at all in NoPixel, but it was still fun to try to generate my Bitmoji Me on Hero Forge. Give me some sort of mental image of what Anna-Marie could look like in GTA.

The more I look at the side-by-side the happier I am with my end result. It was a fun way to fill some of my "brain empty" time.

I also played with the idea of adding Rogue's signature white-bangs. It's fun, but probably not a feature I'd keep. What do you guys think? Hypothetical yay? Nay? Add it specifically for Anna-Marie to make her a bit more distinct from my LycoRogue Bitmoji self (to make her less self-insert-y)?

I still don't know much about Anna-Marie. I started up a few character-building questionnaires, but... "Head Empty" and all that. So, I didn't get terribly far in any of them yet. Maybe that will be one of the things I work on for the rest of February.

In the meantime, the bits I have at least semi-figured out are as follows.

1. I think I'd have her be roughly my age IRL. Perhaps a touch younger.
2. I'd probably lean into the Wolffe last name and have her be a Mama Wolf on the server. Maybe even see if I could convince people to just straight up refer to her as Mama Wolffe.
3. She'd be part-Yuno: friendly with just about everyone on the server; trying to make connections; trying to build up her "pack". She'd also be part-Raymond Romanov: viciously protective of said pack; her found family. She'd also probably be part Gigi Gambino: sneaky and discreet info-gatherer.
4. If you hurt someone she cared about she wouldn't overtly retaliate like Raymond. I am not nearly good enough with aiming (in games or otherwise) to attack the way Raymond would. Therefore Anna-Marie wouldn't be terribly skilled at personally physically retaliating (at least, not at first). Instead, Anna-Marie would find sly ways to hit you where it hurts, or just persuade you into making up for the slight. She'd probably be a bit like Mickey Sinclaire, played by Blau, in that regard.
5. I don't know enough of her backstory yet to know why, but Anna-Marie, much like most of Los Santos, moved to the island city in an attempt to start anew. She felt like it was time for a change in her life, and she saw opportunity in the rebuilding of this once-great city (assuming my mental roleplaying is happening this first year of the server, when everything is still new and building).
6. She has no intentions of participating in criminal activity (not that she couldn't be persuaded/corrupted into doing them eventually). She has no qualms, however, at being "criminal adjacent". Being "in the know" and being a look-out or whatever, but purposefully tries to keep herself the clean face for any criminal friends/found-family she may make in Los Santos. A way to casually chat with the cops and maybe try to throw the scent off of her friends.
7. Her main goal in Los Santos would be to earn enough money to get a nice, large house that people can just crash at. If you need a place to stay and shelter in, you find Mama Wolffe. She is Sanctuary.
• 7b. My personal "main goal", if I ever were to truly make it onto the server, would be to interact with Raymond Romanov in such a way that Ray__C nearly breaks character as he does his classic "No way!" yell at his chat as he walks away from his desk. If I could interact with this man and garner this sort of response, I will consider it a Bucket List item checked off.
  ....
  Maybe that's what I should aim to do for my 40th. I've got 5 months to find a way to set up a gaming PC, purchase and play some GTA V Online to get used to the gameplay, apply to NoPixel, get approved, bring in Anna-Marie, meet up with Raymond Romanov, and get him to crack. Think I could do it?
  (Probably not with my current chaotic scheduling.....)
8. She'd probably excitedly try to sign up to be a G6 Ranger.....
9. She'd probably try to stick to the "Blue and Yellow/Gold" color scheme I have going for my LycoRogue persona.

Aaaaaand that's all I have right now. It will be interesting to see what kind of backstory and/or personality I can come up with for her. I'll have to touch base with you fine folks later about that.

While I was on Hero Forge anyway, working on building Anna-Marie, I got the itch to use the site to come up with minis for some of my other OCs. Some of them are still works in progress. The more features the site adds in the closer I can get to making these characters how I actually picture them.

First up was my black panther Tabaxi Emerald Gaze.

My Hero Forge recreation of the drawing I did of Emerald Gaze back in 2019.

I wish I could give EG rounder cheeks and make her a bit more muscular. Her variant of black panther is designed off of a jaguar, which are chunkier bois than their leopard counterpart. I'm also not sure I like how shaggy the fur on her forearms and hands are when the rest of her body is short-hair. But, for what I had to work with, I'm happy with how faithful I was able to keep the design.

Next up is my eccentric theater nerd... I mean bard: Bronze Dragonborn Myastan Kriv.

My Hero Forge design of Kriv vs the official D&D 5e image of a Bronze Dragon

I tried to recreate elements of a Bronze Dragon within my boy. I was able to find a beaked dragonborn head. Unfortunately, it had spikes down the back of the skull instead of smooth like the other dragonborn head options. I also couldn't give Kriv the Bronze Dragon boney finned cheeks, but I was able to find finned ears with little spikes at the end of them. I tried dropping the ears down enough to look more like the finned cheeks of the dragon. I think I'm close, but I feel like it needs tweaking still. I also couldn't add the fin down the back of his head and neck, so I gave him a green mohawk instead. Canonically, he does have the fin though. I was able to use the bronze metal coloring for Kriv's skin tone. I then added tiger stripes and colored them green to match the dragon. You can't really see here, but I also made his chest and palms that lighter silvery color the dragon has on its neck, chest, and belly. Kriv also has the dragon's green eyes and black horns on the crown of his head.

Kriv probably needs the most tweaking, given the limited selections I had for him, but I'm still proud of what I was able to build in the meantime.

My final D&D character would be good old Jolene.

My attempt at recreating my OG inspirational image of Jolene.
Original image is a character design by Grafit Studio
for an undisclosed Game Insight! game.
I doctored Grafit Studio's image to give Jolene purple hair and eyes.

Poor Jolene looks like she's 10yrs older in my Hero Forge version. Oh well. Grafit Studio's version is just Jolene in her 20s while Hero Forge Jolene is pushing 40.... Posing her to match her pose in the Grafit Studio image was soooooo tricky, but I think I did a pretty decent job.

Side Note: back when I first grabbed Grafit Studio's image and doctored it to be my visualization of Jolene, I had found it on Pinterest. I didn't bother to backtrack the image to the artist at the time. Dumb move. Bad form. I knew I needed to track down who actually drew the original art and at least link back to them. It kept me AAAAAAGES to track the image down! It was a TRIAL, but I managed it! I'm so glad to be able to now link back to the studio, at least, if not the actual artist.

Anyway, back to my Hero Forge depictions of Jolene. In truth, I can't really have Jolene without also showcasing her possessed version, so here's poor Jolene possessed by the Prime Evil Deception.

Canonically, she was terrified and tried to pretend nothing was wrong with her (only feeding Deception further.... not the smartest move on her part). It's more fun, though, to pretend her possession also started to turn her evil. More compelling imagery that way. Also, I couldn't showcase that Jolene's tongue became forked and snake-like. So... pretend that's there too.

I started working on building Trish from the X-Future canon, along with Hubby's character Chayse. I haven't perfected them yet, but here's some starter images of them.

Clearly, I am doing some important writing work here....

Anyway, that's what limited "writing" progress I've done in January. And... the first week of February, I guess.

Considering how long it kept me to write this update, I guess I better stop here so I have time to get started on the next one. Hope to see you a second time this month! Until then!

Generated by Bitmoji