Pen Name: AJ Starboard (you can call me any variant of that, or Nova, if you'd like!)
Pronouns: she/they
Age: 21 ↑
Genre: Fantasy of all types! Though, there's a surplus of escapist fantasy here, as well as some dystopian thrown in the mix
Links: AO3 / Ko-fi
Tag system:
Primary tag: #• starboard bound
Inbox tag: #• mailbox retrieval
Tag game tag: #• passing the mic
WIP tags:
#wip • brass & barricades
#wip • overground
#wip • the mercinax run
#wip • high seas
I'm currently focused on a steampunk dystopian fantasy called Brass and Barricades that centres on the collapse of an espionage organisation and the subsequent rise of ruin and a country rife with sentinels
However! there's always something else in the works too!
High Seas (2k) — a dark and angsty tale following Rook, a merchant rigger caught out by knowledge he swore to keep secret, and an unrelenting captain willing to get that knowledge at any cost (semi-regular updates)
The Mercinax Run (unstarted) — a plunge into deep space sci-fi about two crews of intergalactic pirates locked in a race for exactly the same goal somewhere within the reaches of the most powerful empire in the galaxy
Overground (unstarted) — a hope fuelled, whimsical post-fallout dystopian about an underground society of tiny people and their first exploration in the overhead world, sparked by two twins who accidentally find a tunnel up
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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To those who see this: don't get your hopes up. However, is there anyone open for Blorbo Blursday and STS? Bc most of my usual pals are on hiatus/inactive. I figure it's time I send 2 asks per event every month to those willing. Reblog or reply to this if you're interested.
And as a bonus: you aren't required to send an ask back, it's cool by me.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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i do think we should normalise being like. platonically enamoured with someone. perhaps i love and admire you dearly and there's nothing romantic about it
I've been resource gathering for YEARS so now I am going to share my dragons hoard
Floorplanner. Design and furnish a house for you to use for having a consistent background in your comic or anything! Free, you need an account, easy to use, and you can save multiple houses.
Comparing Heights. Input the heights of characters to see what the different is between them. Great for keeping consistency. Free.
Magma. Draw online with friends in real time. Great for practice or hanging out. Free, paid plan available, account preferred.
Smithsonian Open Access. Loads of free images. Free.
SketchDaily. Lots of pose references, massive library, is set on a timer so you can practice quick figure drawing. Free.
SculptGL. A sculpting tool which I am yet to master, but you should be able to make whatever 3d object you like with it. free.
Pexels. Free stock images. And the search engine is actually pretty good at pulling up what you want.
Figurosity. Great pose references, diverse body types, lots of "how to draw" videos directly on the site, the models are 3d and you can rotate the angle, but you can't make custom poses or edit body proportions. Free, account option, paid plans available.
Line of Action. More drawing references, this one also has a focus on expressions, hands/feet, animals, landscapes. Free.
Animal Photo. You pose a 3d skull model and select an animal species, and they give you a bunch of photo references for that animal at that angle. Super handy. Free.
Height Weight Chart. You ever see an OC listed as having a certain weight but then they look Wildly different than the number suggests? Well here's a site to avoid that! It shows real people at different weights and heights to give you a better idea of what these abstract numbers all look like. Free to use.
I used to use Google docs, but the white mode only was really annoying me (tires my eyes), so I swapped to Ellipsus (which I genuinely love and recommend), but it was bothering me a bit that I need wifi in order to use it, so now I switched to LibreOffice Writer, which I do like.
It very much has a Microsoft Word feel, but is open source and you need no accounts to use it. It's local on your device, so no AI can scan it, and no wifi is needed.
I still wish it had the Google Docs cards, because, bitch, that thing is so good for easy organizing.
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Happy STS! How is your characters' handwriting? Do they have a writing utensil of choice?
hello, happy sts!
yk, i actually put a fair deal of thought into this a while ago, and i kinda wanna come prepared w examples so i'm gonna do just that!
scout writes in a thin, italicised way that my sister is wont to call "war veteran handwriting". i have dubbed him as left handed, so it's a bit of a mess at the best of times (ink runs, okay? it's not easy to find a pen that doesn't run or smudge, and i am telling you this from experience 😔), but he does insist on writing in pen because he's a Professional™
klaus also writes in ink, but his handwriting is all caps, because that's the fastest he learned to write so he could make observations and send directives quickly. but it's that variant of caps where the letters that are supposed to be caps are bigger than the lowercase caps, if that makes sense?
copper's got my handwriting but a little bit more legible, since she's probably the closest character i've ever written to myself, in a way? so her handwriting is literally mine, but a bit more open and a bit more round. surprisingly she can still write really fast, and she prefers a pencil! because she's in the habit of making doodles or diagrams while she writes, so it's easier to stick to pencil
we gotta get back to torrent distribution, i just watched someone eat eight grand in bandwidth charges because they ran a direct-download piracy site with local file hosting through cloudflare. torrents were invented literally for this exact reason
i have a file or folder on my pc that i want to share with other people. let's call it gayshit.mp3
unfortunately gayshit.mp3 is 750mb and im not paying for discord nitro so i need another way to send it
i put it into qbittorrent and it makes a torrent file. this is essentially a very small file that points to gayshit.mp3 so other computers can find it. kinda like a treasure map
i send this tiny file to my friend, who loads it into qbittorrent. their computer takes a moment to find mine over the vast expanse of cyberspace and then (as long as my pc is running and the file is still where it should be), it gets copied from my hard drive to theirs
this is the cool part: if somebody else loads that tiny file, they can download it from both of us. if i'm offline but my friend is on, the third person can still get it. this also means that if two people have separate halves of the file, they can download the other half from each other. as long as some combination of people have the pieces between them, they can all have the whole thing.
crucially this does not require a server!!! you can just upload the file to a few people and as long as they keep it, it's still accessible. as long as somebody, somewhere is still connected, it's available forever. the only way it goes away is if everybody disconnects from it.
Thank you to @gaslightwestern, @wintersenwritings, @gioia-writes-and-others,
@willtheweaver and @beeonaspiderweb !
More zero draft description of Tristan's childhood, aka why he's Like That (a huge brat).
He was given a variety of amusements: toy soldiers, dolls, even automatons that danced and gestured and played their tinkling fairy music using the magic mechanisms within them. He was denied balls, stick and hoop, and any physical game; and was also forbidden dance or music, lest it excite his system to deadly degree. He was given his meals in this room, and though a strict diet mainly consisting of bland porridge and bread water was recommended by the physics, and enforced for periods of time, Tristan was not long subjected to these things and most of the time was instead catered to with a separate menu prepared to appeal not only to his sensitive stomach, but also to his taste. Very often Tristan was given whatever he wished, even if it was hardly appropriate for an invalid. He was particularly fond of sugary cakes and jellies. As time went on, two or more dishes would be presented to him, whereupon he would choose one by pointing languidly. Trays of confits and cakes were laid about his room so he could nibble at whatever he desired at his leisure.
Passing the tag along toooo: @starboard-writes, @talesofsorrowandofruin,
my word is GREAT and i'll be pulling from How to Fail a Field Practicum!
G
Grease stained his rough knuckles. One thumbnail was split. A shallow scrape brushed the back of his wrist, just deep enough to be pink, not quite deep enough to bleed.
R
“Revenge requires calories. Blood-iron first, then dismantling Jeremy.”
E
“Extremely unrelated to the battery you two are supposed to be fixing.” Cadnos’s voice cut through their bickering.
A
Adiro smirked and leaned against his table with both palms. “Uncle, you flatter me~”
T
“Thank you for that astute observation, Piers.” Cadnos rested one hand beside the damaged battery, carefully not touching it. Nobody with a survival instinct touched a ticking spell battery barehanded.
tagging ;; @theink-stainedfolk - @starboard-writes - @pertinax--loculos - anyone who wants to take part!
your word is EXPLAIN!
taglist for htfafp: @echever ; @moss-covered-cat ; @ashen-crest ; @ceribrennanwrites
(lmk if you want to be added/removed!)
divider by @uzmacchiato, so cuuute ❤
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality✓ Free Actions
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
[ a young rigger sees trouble on the horizon, and in an attempt to warn his captain, he comes face to face with an ambush that nobody could be prepared for. ]
taglist (ask to be +/-): @badthingshappenbingo , @ceribrennanwrites ,
The life at sea had named the forest elf Rook, for an incredible feat of dexterity that came almost unmatched. His captain had likened him to the flightly bird a long time since, and he saw very little point in disagreeing with her.
So, the name had stuck. Not like they really minded; it was quite an honour to be bestowed a nickname, especially from one such as Vellor Thunderwind.
Working under her was exactly the escape that Rook had needed from the dulcet tones of the everyday. Every bone in his body craved adventure, and the open seas were like a melody to him, catering to his every whim. He'd found his place as the prominent rigger of the crew, preferring the view from the height of the crow's nest to anything found on deck.
In a strange way that was both fortunate and extremely unfortunate, the crow's nest was exactly where they were when they spotted the other ship cresting the horizon. At first, they thought nothing of it— ships pass each other on the horizon all the time— but when it raised a black flag up the mast, they really started to panic.
"Captain?"
He made quick work of slipping down the ropes to a point where Thunderwind could hear him clearly. Then he scanned the deck for her, and called out in the direction of the wheel.
"Captain, we have a problem on our hands…"
"What kind of problem, Virati?" Thunderwind asked, her brow creasing in a slight of worry.
"Pirates, ma'am." Their eyes graced the horizon again, picking up the flag almost before they registered the sheer size of the ship. That was, to no point of exaggeration, one hell of a galleon. It had been a long time since they'd seen a ship that magnificent, with three large masts situated to hold up the multitude of unfurled sails. They were almost genuinely impressed by the size of it, but then the pirates raised another of their colours, and Rook's heart sank into their chest. "And they're looking for blood."
"Fuck." While Thunderwind had been trying to keep the fear to herself, Rook had caught the way her breath hitched. Everyone else started catching on as the ship cut the ocean towards them. Thunderwind sighedm barely managing to keep her composure, and immediately started spreading out the crew as much as possible. "Alright, lads, eyes to the skies! We've pirates on our six, and there ain't no outrunning 'em, so we've gotta prepare ourselves for a fight! Costa, Sereviah, make sure the powder's set. Jodakai, rally everyone below deck. Virati, get yourself armed in case they decide to board!"
The ship descended into chaos immediately. Rook slipped down the rigging and touched base on the deck. As soon as his feet were on solid ground, he started running, barrelling towards the stairs and absently checking his six for the sign of the powder men. He heard footsteps behind him, and turned his head to find them both running after him with just as much haste. The three of them ducked below deck and took just a moment to catch their breath.
"Gracious Nasture, why the hell'd it have to be pirates?" Costa straightened and sighed, pressing his hand into the table.
"And the red flag, too?" Rook could feel the pounding of their heart in their chest, at even the thought of the blood coloured flag. "straight away?"
"What?!"
"They raised the red flag at sight of us."
"Must know the ship," Seriviah reasoned solemnly. "Fuck knows how, Thunderwind has owned this thing forever."
A loud rumble shook them out of their thoughts, and an insane force knocked the three of them off balance and almost slammed them into the wall. Rook pulled himself to his feet, then extended a hand to Sereviah.
"Shit. Go, lads. They're closer than we thought."
The three of them separated as soon as Costa managed to find his footing. Rook ran to the armaments, knowing full well that he'd need to arm himself with some haste if he wanted a fighting chance. It was standard practice on Thunderwind's vessel, but if he had a sword at his side, scaling the rigging would be a far harder and far messier job.
They grabbed a blade just as another rumble shook the hull. This time, something flew past them a few meters ahead, and smashed through the wall on the other side. They instinctively ducked, slamming their hands over their ears.
"Holy shit—!"
The only thing he could count himself lucky for was the fact that the splinters left with the cannonball, extending out beyond the ship and into the sea. Because that had come desperately close to hitting him, and if he was in any way inclined towards it, he'd have started praying.
Instead, they scrambled out back to the top deck and watched the galleon pull up to the side of Thunderwind's ship.
"Brace yourselves!"
Thunderwind's voice rang out clear, and everyone scrambled for purchase as the first of the harpoons clawed into the taffrail.
Rook was tossed to the ground and had to roll to soften the blow. He dug his hand into the planks, trying to stabilise himself. He heard the sound of someone gearing up to cross the gap— the familiar creak of wax-treated rope from a distance— and perked. "Captain!"
Heavy boots thudded against the deck.
Thunderwind looked up, and blanched.
It was too late.
The proud man Rook assumed to be the captain of the galleon strode forth, accompanied by no less than two score of his crew, rugged and vicious-looking. He found Thunderwind quickly, and glanced down towards her from under his brow. "Ah, you must be the esteemed Vellor Thunderwind. Your name certainly preceedes the legends it was wrought in…"
"What do you want?"
"And stalwart, too…" he shook his head. "You have something I want. You know of what I speak, don't you?"
Her silent resignation spoke volumes. She knew exactly what he was talking about, and judging by the weight of the silence, Rook did too.
Their heart bottomed out into their stomach.
The captain smirked. "Here is my proposal. You hand over the contents of your knowledge— in whichever form that may take— and we reconsider what we're about to do to your crew."
Thunderwind narrowed her eyes. "You don't get to board my vessel and lay your claim to something you don't understand."
"You think me ill-informed?"
"I think you a fucking fool."
He laughed— actually laughed— and rested one hand on his sword. "Very well. Tarrance, turn the whole ship upside down if you must."
Thunderwind glanced back and caught Rook's eye.
Run.
The pirates didn't waste a moment, drawing weapons and spreading out. Rook's eyes widened. He understood perfectly what she'd said, but couldn't reason why he would get to escape this if she didn't.
What?
She sighed, desperation laced in her expression. Go! Fucking run!
They scrambled to their feet as someone rounded on them. Hastened as they were to try and fight the order, they knew where it was going to end. So, they pushed themselves into a sprint and made an attempt to outrun the pirates.
Running was what he was good at. A feat of dexterity he'd honed over years, and the fight or flight response deeply imbued into him that seemed to always choose the latter were all he'd brought with him when he'd boarded, and still, he'd intended to put them to good use.
So, they tried. They ducked below one deck, then sprinted through the storage in the hopes of losing their pursuer before they got back to the top. They broke the surface once again, and was met with an onslaught of a number of brigands seemingly waiting for them. They went to turn around, but their pursuer blocked their path.
"Hell you runnin' for, little elf?"
His breath shorted as his pursuers closed in on him. One of the other pirates scoffed, turning to someone else on the deck.
"I think he knows somethin'…"
Their pursuer grabbed them by the shoulders and forced them up the stairs. Thunderwind caught sight of it as soon as the small crowd dissipated and revealed them. They were brought before the pirate captain, fighting though they were, and the pursuer shoved them down onto the deck in front of him.
"This one tried to do a runner. Might know somethin' 'bout Mariana."
Rook's hair fell in front of his eyes, an attempt to hide the knowing look in his eyes that might've given the whole game away. His knees ached with the sudden sting of the planks, and he could see the shadow of the captain looming over him, and had separately acknowledged how afraid that made him, but he was tryin to fight for once instead of choosing the latter option.
"Is that so? Your captain is willing to divulge, after all, it would seem."
Rook refused to say anything. They heard Thunderwind inhale a sharp breath off to the side. What were they doing to her?
Before he could steal a glance in her direction, he felt a barrel pressed to the back of his head, and his own breath hitched.
"I don't ask twice, lad," the pirate growled. "What the fuck do you know?"
Finally, Rook looked up, guided by the barrel of the gun, and dared themself to spare a glance at Thunderwind. She was defiant as ever, but she looked a little hurt, moreso that they'd been caught.
"Ain't shit worth knowing…" Rook muttered in spite of himself. The pistol lifted from his head, and he felt the threat of it about to crack down. He flinched without meaning to, hearing them flip the pistol around.
But nothing happened.
They glanced at the captain, who had raised a hand to stop the action altogether. He crouched, then, meeting their eye and somehow making his intimidating stature even worse. "You needn't compensate. I imagine you're normally hard to find, that's why your dear captain had the good sense to tell you what you know… But you're not incredibly hard to catch. So, do her a favour before you damn more than just yourself."
Thunderwind— when she had told him this in confidence— had him promise not to tell anyone no matter the cost. This was a secret worth his life, and he had vowed to protect it with the same fervour.
As such, he remained silent.
A certain look crossed the captain's face. Rook felt themselves blanche. They knew that look, that was the face of someone who had a plan and was not afraid to have it known.
"Take him. He is of no use to us when they're both together. And while we break her for the plans, I'm sure the lad will confess sooner or later."
He was forced up, staggering to his feet. Thunderwind called out to him, but the pirates on either side of him were far too strong for him to even think of escaping.
