I miss these guys. I should play with them more.

@braincoins had an allergy attack that sounded suspiciously like "draw Bren and Snake" so I did that, as a 'remember how to hold a pen' practice. Made 'before and after' versions to give Bren an excuse to smile. He's such a gloomy walnut.

Some sketches/WIPs/etc that have been sitting on my phone for a few months. I don’t think I’ll finish most of them, but I want them to see the light of day anyway.  Some commentary:  1. A self portrait. That was an outfit I wore a lot in the winter, though I didn’t bother putting the stripes on the red shirt.  2. My niece drew a cute ‘dragon’ and I wanted to draw it too.  3, 4, 5: A scene from ch.5 (I think) of my old longfic, which I am still tinkering with. I apparently lost track of Camille’s glasses between one frame and the next, pfft.  6: Another of Snake’s babies. This one is equal parts human, grey, and reptilian. She looks scary but is very nice!  7. The edge of the driveway of my brother’s house.  8. Initial design of Arby the Android. I know I’ll change it, but I needed something after years of not having any pictures. I wish I could properly convey that her skin is semi-metallic.  9. What I see when I take a break at my PF workplace, incl. a drink from Dunkin lol

But that’s the Greys, and they’re all humanoid nerds.  But then you’ve got Snake, the lone reptilian. Bren has an impossible time deciding on a gender for it, and eventually gives up. Snake’s gender is officially “it”, which it’s perfectly fine with because it never considers gender. But while the Greys genuinely do not have any biological sex, Snake can both ‘have’ and ‘give’ babies, and is adamant about having them.  Snake is the last of its kind; it’s never going to be ‘giving’ babies to anyone. But as it’s parthenogenetic (meaning it can sort of asexually reproduce little clones of itself) and is able to absorb DNA through skin contact with nearly any living creature, its primary identity (and role in the story) revolves around typically female attributes. It can have babies, it wants to have babies, and it will have babies. The fact that it could technically impregnate someone is irrelevant, because it never will, and doesn’t want to.  So, therefore, does it make some sense to refer to it as a female instead? A she? A female using it pronouns? A nonbinary using female pronouns?  The issue is that it doesn’t look female. It looks like a lizard with humanoid mannerisms. ‘Cishet’ Bren (who really is not, but that’s another story) is the POV of the story, and not always a reliable narrator. Everyone in the story is referred to the way he thinks of them, even if it’s not accurate. BUT, as the writer, I can influence his thoughts by changing elements in the story. For example, if I have the Greys refer to Snake as “a female (because it lays eggs, and that’s a female thing, right? I have no idea; we Greys don’t do that)”, then Bren will unquestioningly do the same. He won’t assume that it has other parts as well, and he certainly won’t ask.  I’m quite happy with Snake being an “it”. I like that “it” doesn’t allow the reader to make assumptions or come with preconceived notions about its shape, ability, desires, mannerisms, etc.  But there would be a charm in calling Snake a “she” as well, and I think that charm would be in allowing the reader to develop assumptions, and then skewing those assumptions slightly. “She” has no feminine physical attributes. “She” is not beautiful. “She” has parts not typically associated with females. “She” barely knows the difference between male and female. “She” doesn’t know or care how women are supposed to act. “She” just eats raw fish and picks high-security locks for fun.  The reason I started thinking about this was that sci-fi picture I reblogged the other day, of the guy with the female bug alien on a foreign planet somewhere. I thought it was both funny in its strangeness, and also very nice, with how it allowed the alien to really remain distinctly alien, and not be made overly feminine, even though she was still very pretty and feminine in her way. I thought it was intriguing, and I think it kind of made the viewer think, “oh, women can be this way!” Which is like, yeah, we know that! We do! But still sometimes seeing it... it’s different. And I thought... maybe my own story would have a different feel if I applied that. Better? Worse? I’m not sure.  No decisions being made today. I’m just considering it. I’ve loved Snake since the moment I thought of it; I will love it and its obsession with having human-hybrid babies no matter what gender ultimately falls to it. 

Ellery and his dragon, Teresa, reunited~.  I just tried posting this from mobile, but for some reason the ‘post’ button was non-existent? Okay, tumblr. 

Some quick Milus. Teenage and adult Milu; two for the price of one!

Honestly? O_O I'm horrified. I'm sorry, Snake, dear, but you can never be allowed to get that peachy. It's just not your color.

Stumbled upon @ummmmandy‘s adorable dollmaker today, and spent way too long making a bunch of my characters. So here’s the moptail crew... roughly humanized because there wasn’t a blue skin option.  Up top we’ve got standard Milu (mom) and Mitchel (dad). In the middle are two variant Milus (having a wildly good time vs back in the day). And on the bottom are the kids: Milly (younger daughter), Yoseph (neighbor kid who has adopted himself into the family), and Mika (older son).