Introducing Emerald Gaze

I meant to work on this blog last night. That way I just needed to edit it this morning, and then I could actually get it published by noon. Instead, I got distracted with my desire to finish editing a few pictures I wanted to share today, as well as chatting with Wolfhearted and Cyhyr about Miraculous Ladybug. Because... what else do I talk about anymore?

Ya-Ya Facebook sticker
by Birdman, Inc

ANYWAY! My point is, as per usual, my initial plans were foiled by my own terrible time management, and my desire to socialize.

DARN YOU, EXTROVERTED TENDENCIES!

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(Also, I'm not sure why the hair color
is so de-saturated this time.)

To try to combat my inefficient use of time, I figured I'd wake up nice and "early" at 7am so I have more time to work on writing my blog before I have to take Hubby into work at 10:45. That... well, it didn't work.

I had forgotten that I had written something this past week - I'll get to that - and I wanted to share it with you fine folks. However, I had neglected to go back and edit it since it was written, and I still needed to publish it so I had links to share with you. Which meant my priority was to edit and publish said story.

A little over two hours later, and I FINALLY started up my draft of this post at around 9:30am - after also responding to comments on past posts before I forgot again.

So much for trying to tackle this blog at a new angle so I can actually go back to publishing at noon. What a pipe dream. I could try again next Monday though. I do have it off again, so perhaps I can actually get the draft written the day before, and only have to focus on editing next Tuesday!

We'll see how it goes...

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Let's get on topic though: my writing week... or... lack there of?

It was an oddball week. I was equal parts productive and not. This seems to be a trend with me.

Cyhyr pitched on the 2nd that we should do a Goal Month. We check in twice a week to talk about how our writing has been going, vent about any hang-ups, and gush about what we did manage to get out of our heads. It's been fun having that little extra push of needing something to tell her twice a week, as well as hearing about her writing. Although, she is quite the shy one when it comes to her writing, so I usually have to poke at her a touch before she actually tells me about what she's working on.

That being said, though? My track record for August thus far is... mediocre.

I have a couple of smileys up there... And to be fair, Sunday was the only day I didn't do ANYTHING creative, so there's that I guess.

Since my last blog post, I've pretty much exclusively focused on the creation of my D&D character for this past Friday's session. Panda is trying her hand again at DMing a campaign. Last Tuesday we met up to do character creation, and, well, I had no clue what I wanted to play.

The group already consisted of a half-elf, a dragonborn, and a lizardfolk. Hubby and I decided to keep the trend of non-humans going, and even joked that we wanted Quarthix's half-elf to be the most human out of all of us. Hubby decided on a Firbolg, which are a race of giant-kin, and a race Hubby rarely sees played. I still had no clue, so I told the group to just sort of decide for me. Hubby decided on the Tabaxi race; cat-folk. Mainly because... it's cat-folk! I HAD to play a cat! I agreed, but decided I wanted to bring in my obsession with Miraculous Ladybug if I was going to play a cat person. My Tabaxi was going to be a black cat with green eyes. Most of the race is stylized off of wild cats, so that meant I was going to be a black panther.

Now, there isn't actually a species of cat that makes up what is known as a black panther. Instead, black panthers are leopards or jaguars with a melanistic color variant to their fur. The black fur mixes with the black rosettes, making the spots hard to see. Anyway, I decided I wanted to go with the jaguar variant of a black panther, mainly because I felt like jaguars aren't used all that frequently in stuff like this - compared to leopards, that is. Which leads to a fun factoid I realized while researching the difference between jaguars and leopards.

The main difference is that leopards are native to Asia and Africa, whereas jaguars are native to the Americas. They are pretty much only found in South America now, but they used to be in North America as well. Which means, my high school mascot - a black panther - was actually a melanistic variant of a jaguar.

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Anyway... so Hubby decided I needed to be a cat person, I decided to be a jaguar variant of a black panther, but I still needed more for my character. Like a class, for one. That was when Quarthix threw out that I should be a warlock with a celestial patron; mainly because I could then gain an invisible familiar in a few levels. It sounded like too much fun to turn down. Plus, aside from playing a rogue again, I had no other ideas as to what I wanted to try. So, "Warlock with Celestial Patron" was decided. Next was figuring out who my patron was. There were a few options, but the group quickly zeroed in on "unicorn" and thought it would be so much fun if my warlock's magical patron was a unicorn.

Hubby even decided my main attack - Eldritch Blast - actually explodes in a concussive force of glitter.


Oh, and for the binding brand for the warlock pact, I decided I wanted it on my character's tongue, and Hubby decided I should have a rainbow-colored tongue, because... unicorn!

One of the final decisions I had to make for 5th edition D&D is my character's background. Quarthix came in again with the suggestion of "Far Traveler." My character was from the island on the opposite side of the region Panda created for her game, so it seemed fitting. Especially since tabaxi tended to stay close to their homeland. One of the starter items Far Travelers got was a small piece of jewelry worth 10 gold pieces.

You all should probably know where I went for this piece of jewelry....

Ring designs by Black Bazaar
Edited by me

Trying to get good images to edit, I actually found these nice looking recreations of the de-activated and activated Cat Rings on amazon:

The de-activated ring just looked so nice, and the images were at nearly the exact same angle, so I took the face of the activated ring, and added it to the de-activated. It actually was super easy to do! Yay! So, my character has a silver ring with a hematite face and jade paw-print accent. It's the symbol of her clan, and she wears it on her right ring finger, just as Adrien does.

I also debated for about a minute naming my tabaxi either Adrien or Son of Butterflies - because, Tabaxi have more "tribal" names like the latter - but decided to just go with something new. Besides, how would I shorten his name? Son? Butterflies?

Instead, I focused on her piercing green eyes.

I'd like for you to meet Emerald Gaze:

She kept me about seven hours to draw - which is why I am NOT an artist - and another two - off-and-on - to color in. My black colored pencil went MIA, so I had to settle with a dark gray coupled with a standard pencil to try to darken it up. I also played a bit in an editing program to try to darken her fur to the ebony I wanted.

(These were the pictures
I was fixing up last night
instead of writing this blog
or editing my story.)

Without the added nuance in her face via the easier to see lines and the spots, she seems much more intense! So... picture the above picture, but with this darker fur??

Also... HANDS ARE SUPER HARD TO DRAW, YOU GUYS!!!!

Okay, so Emerald was figured out on Tuesday. Then, on Wednesday I did research on the tabaxi, on jaguars vs leopard, on unicorns, on warlock pacts, and other such things to better get a feel for my character. Friday I drew her so I had an example for the group to see before we started role playing. I only had the pencil sketch done at the time - and two photocopies in case I "screwed up" during the coloring - so Hubby decided to color her in while we were waiting for the session to officially start.

Hubby's mechanical pencil coloring

Saturday and yesterday, when I wasn't running around crazy getting actual work done at my job, I colored in Emerald Gaze.

But Thursday? Thursday I decided to figure out why and how Emerald got into a warlock pact with a unicorn. What was she getting out of it? What was the unicorn getting out of it? Was Emerald tricked? Was the unicorn forced? What is their dynamic?

While trying to figure that out, I actually started up a sort of character study... from the unicorn's POV. That turned into the story I finished editing this morning.

"Sigil's Pact"

On FanFiction       On ArchiveOfOurOwn       On DeviantArt
 On Tumblr       On FictionPress

It's a "simple" 3000 words. It is also something to read at writing group tonight that doesn't need the same level of explanation as "Painfully Close" or "Love Taps." It also doesn't need the censorship that "Sparks for a Moment" needs. I may still read those three at group at some point, but for now, I'm happy to read off "Sigil's Pact."

Also, side note, I have no clue what sex Sigil is. I keep bouncing from a "traditional" female unicorn, and a male unicorn, which seems more cheeky and chaotic. I think I'm leaning towards male, but I just don't quite know. Once I learn more about both Emerald Gaze and Sigil, perhaps I'll learn which Sigil is, or if Sigil is non-binary? I may also elongate this story into an anthology of Emerald's past, and/or Sigil's. We'll have to see.

In the meantime, perhaps I'll focus more on WRITING and less on drawing/coloring, in order to get back on track. It was fun to leave my comfort zone and create in another means though.

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