#elymus

While im sure there's a lot, the one I stumbled upon today is an innate nihilism of sorts? like it's not quite nihilism and im not versed enough in these terms to tell you what it is, but essentially he's sure that the worst possible outcome will come to pass UNLESS he interferes in some way. Very much a "Rage, rage against the dying light" kind of guy.

This mentality is what keeps him from giving up and pursuing every possible way out, but it can also get real dangerous if/when he runs out of options. If he can't do anything, he assumes that it can't get better instead of thinking that time or others might make a difference. While I write both with this trait, it's perceived lack of available options that differentiates the two.

In both of their cases, they're out of options entirely. However for K, he doesn't know everything going on in his situation. He's dealing with an unknown power with unknown limits and unknown solutions that was all kicked off by himself. This puts him in a position where he's sure that there has to be a way to fix things because there are so many unknowns, which means it's not a concrete no, and because he caused this therefore, there must be a way for him to fix this, right? right??? It eventually escalates to an obsession, normally I'd say delusion, but since there IS a fix at the end of the day, he's not exactly wrong.

If I had to pick a song to match it, would definitely be The Alchemist by Philmont. It's very on point, even to where the solution isn't exactly something K would have been able to figure out through traditional methods.

Elymas on the other hand was operating on concrete assumptions for the longest time, his parents were elves, and he was an aasimar. He could hunt for a way to extend his life for his entire life and his parents would still be in their prime. What he didn't account for was that war and how elves can still be killed. He didn't account for finding his home in ruins, but he didn't see any bodies (because he couldnt bring himself to check), so he started running on those same unknowns K was. Until he was told without a doubt, hey yeah, family is dead. Like yeah, he could bring them back to life, this is DnD after all, but the fact that he hadn't come home in time to help them fight was another failure in of itself. Despite the time limit being his own lifespan, he was still somehow alive and too late. Even if he brought them back, it wouldnt change that he was too late. All of this turning into him self-sabatoging cause at least that was something he was in control of- at least that was actually his fault and not just. Ignorance cause he'd made a poor uninformed decision years ago.

If I had to pick a song to match this, funnily I'd pick LET THE GRASS GROW by Ruel. It's a relatively calm song, not one full of anguish but rather, a contented resignation of sorts? I dunno, the emotions Elymas is deeling with are... hard to put into words, cause he doesnt want things to end but, he doesnt exactly has anything to keep going for and is well aware that he's not exactly the nicest guy

Back to the chert barrens, Wild Cat Glades, MO. 

Riparian zone, chert glades budding directly up to the banks of shoal creek, the habitat remains rather open and dry, many upland forbes associated with open prairie with decent soil occur here along with many riparian grass since some alluvium is present along the banks. The aquatic section is somewhat intact for once, 

Saururus cernuus , lizzard tail, a plant that smells like root beer when crushed and a species known for bank stabilization along clean water ways and streams with karst cobble. In most cases it is a bank stabilizer though chert is insoluble and hard to weather so I don’t think it is going anywhere. 

The Riparian zone is a bit more complex but here is what was noticeably dominant:

The trees and scrub present are that of post oak/Quercus stellata that are krumholtzed, button bush/Cephalanthus occidentalis , and Viburnum dentatum are more present along with eastern sycamore/  Platanus occidentalis(occident means “of the west” but the western usa has a western sycamore so this name refers to how Europeons thought of North America as the “west”.

Sub shrubs and vines tend to be   Toxicodendron radicans, and a Rubus spp. (one of the uncommon/rare ones because I can’t find this species anywhere on I nat and I even tried to do the classic bonap comparison, I think I need to start collecting herbarium specimens of Rubus spp. so I can key). Campsis radicans is also present too.

While the Missouri goldenrods and bluestem goldenrods were not in bloom a few forbes were: Echinacea purpurea and Ratibida pinnata.

May or may not have whipped this up a bit ago purely cause I realized I didn't have any current images of K or David when I wanted to post a thing on my instagram story with songs relating to each character (Icarus by Emma Blackery for K [with someone telling him this when he's young] and King by Lauren Aquilina for David [where he'd be the one telling this sentiment to someone else]) and boy did I speedrun this at 2.5 hours

Not much to say otherwise, as for the Soular Flare timeline this would take place somewhere between the accident where K and David got their powers (the colored glasses being a telltale sign) and before Everything Went Wrong (we don't see them together after that....)

Like usual timelapse is below the cut!

Whoops, got talked into making a spidersona or two for Adie and K, K got two since there's two very different outcomes for if he's Pre or Post Incident, otherwise not a lot of thought went into these haha, mostly just anatomy and superhero outfit practice because oh my god superhero outfits are the bane of my existence.

As for who's who Adie's on the left in green, K Pre-Incident is on top in blue and purple, K Post-Incident is on the bottom in the ever classic red and blue

as per usual, speedpaint is under the cut!

So... I’ve started work on a webtoon, no clue what the title is, but ya know what that means? (Well yes I know it means I now have a webtoon to promote but aside from that)

Yep. It means that my fav characters Adie and K (from a story that actually has a title [Soular Flare]) and my second favorite characters Elias, Holly, Taylor and Leo (no I totally didn’t forget the last two names and had to look em up in my files) who live in the same universe and ALSO have a named story (Binary Pair) all of which are supposed to become webtoons are NOT getting produced anytime soon.

If you can’t tell I’m a bit (very) grumpy about that.

So, today (21/05/2022) I have made a clear and rational decision with a completely level head (I currently have a fever of 99.9 degrees fahrenheit) to post the writing bits I found in my documents that include said characters here on tumblr, and all of them shall be linked to this post (and also the webtoon in question should be linked at the top once that gets released)

So yeah, have my shitty writing that quite frankly wasn’t supposed to see the light of day when it was written. Feel free to send in asks about terminology I never explained since I was writing for myself or comments about what your liked or didn’t or questions about things in the world/universe. Spoilers be damned I plan to answer everything openly because I’ve had this stupid story cooped up for almost 6 years now so I figure by the time I publish it people will have probably forgotten.

Without further ado:

A WORLD THAT BUZZED AND BLEETED WITH THE MAGIC OF LIFE. TOWERING FORESTS, ROILING STEPPE, SHIMMERING SEAS, AND FROM A PALACE OF ICE INSIDE THE BELLY OF A GLACIER, HER VOICE SANG TO ME. AN OLD VOICE, A VOICE AS CLEAR AS THE ICE, AS DEEP AS THE SHEETS OF WHITE THAT SWALLOWED CONTINENTS, THAT SWALLOWED EIGHT THOUSAND CENTURIES AND MORE. 

HER CALL WAS NOT TO BECKON, FOR THE PATH THAT I FLY IS FIXED. FATED. MOVABLE BY NEITHER WIND NOR WILL. HERS WAS A CALL TO WELCOME, TO PRELUDE MY EXPECTED ARRIVAL, A CALL OF RECOGNITION. ITS MELODY WAS HERALDIC AND GRAND. ITS TONE WAS EERIE AND INTIMATE.

SHE SANG TO ME, THROUGH THAT UNMEASURED SPAN OF DARKNESS SHE SANG, FROM BEHIND THE PALE GRAIN OF THE SUN, FROM BENEATH LONG LONESOME EONS SHE SANG.

 ALWAYS SHE HAD SUNG.

AND ONLY NOW DO I HEAR. HURTLING TOWARD THAT GLITTERING GRAIN AND THE TINY JEWEL OF A WORLD THAT TWISTED AROUND IT. FIXED, FATED, INEVITABLE, IT IS MY DESTINATION AND MY DESTINY. WHEN THE CURVE COMES TO A CLOSE, WHEN THE LAND BEARS MY BRUNT HEADLONG, WHEN THE CRATON CRACKS AND SPLINTERS APART, WHEN THE MOTTLED COLORS OF THAT WORLD ARE MADE PALE, ITS LIVING MAGIC STILLED, CHILLED, COLD, AND BURIED-

THEN I WILL MEET HER. 

- - -

ELYMUS SPOKE TO HIMSELF ABOUT THE STARS. His tongue clicked out the one hundred fourty-four syllables that ordered the major branches of the sky. Even children of the Riverine could recite the sky to at least the third or fourth syllable. His people’s was an elegant system, he thought. And now, alone, as he was, crossing the prairie by moonlight. it was far more practical than the ornate drawings the Bosmen used. Elymus of course had needed to master that dull art of drawing, to be initiated into the Mysteries Guild. But he cared less for the abstract and the esoteric, and preferred pragmatic-even practical- magics. 

Restless, impatient and frankly opportunistic as he was, he could not suffer the burden of lugging around scrolls and plates and exotic trinkets. During his monastic training, he frequently absconded from the long, wordy demonstrations of the Smokefathers, he instead would frequent the Seedtender’s caves and offered his manual labor in exchange for long walks with the older witches, who often were more crafty than they let on. From them he had learned the songs of birds and serpents, the generosity and patience of grandmothers, and many filthy jokes. 

To the Riverine peoples, to Elymus, the night sky was a glassy sparkling river in winter, the stars, pearls and flecks of silver on the riverbed suspended in clear ice. Implied between the stars was a branching network of currents and rivulets, each forking path defined by the sequence of sounds that gave the star at the end its name. Laurentia’s song, named each star in order, and following the formula, subsequent syllables could be added, specifying smaller, dimmer and more obscure stars. In principle, any star could be named- though some stars may have prohibitively long and complex names.

To the Bos, that sprawling confederacy that had burnt and herded its way through the steppe, into the wet east and now gave their laws in the Riverine’s ancestral lands, to them the stars were so many campfires burning in the night. The largest stars corresponded to terrestrial Bos settlements. Trading posts, and monuments. Thus their map of the sky was also the map of their land. On Bos star maps, they drew extant the paths between settlements and learned the stars as points along one of various trade routes.

The Bos had, only a lifetime ago, overran the Riverine, captured and converted them. Much was lost quickly, as his small and scattered culture was consumed piecemeal. But the Riv’s tongue remained, and so the Riverine still lived.