#sedimentarydearwatson

Sketch commission for @mojave-tiger of her character Vivian carrying @sedimentarydearwatson‘s character Larkin. :)

Okay in defense of the Watership Down movie…that is not a clip from the Watership Down movie.

Hi Silt! I’m up for it, but buckle in, because this is gonna get long. :)

Okay so the thing is, this is a broad topic and these days I try to resist treating it as a zero-sum game with “No Critique Allowed” on one side and “Relentlessly Harass People Who Make Bad Content According to Our Arbitrary But Obviously Correct Standard” on the other. 

Let me state clearly for the record: both of those options are terrible. Fortunately, it’s not all or nothing, and those aren’t the only horses in the race.

25 prompts meme

21. Glass breaking

(a direct sequel to this ficlet)

“Well,” said Quist, with a sort of dazed calm, “I suppose that was a valuable lesson.”

“I think I’m going to throw up,” said Berriole, eyes squeezed shut. She took a few deep breaths. “Maybe not.”

The bar was in the kind of shambles that could be expected when two Guardians had a violent disagreement. The blood, at least, was gone—transmatted by the unfortunate’s Guardian’s Ghost when it raised him, right before Ikora Rey took his weapons and dragged him out with her. But there were still broken glasses, overturned furniture, and shocked patrons everywhere.

The three students were crouched behind their overturned table. Quist had managed to stack the fallen books, and he was trying to gather up his loose-leaf notes, but his hands kept shaking and slipping. Berriole was hunched in on herself, while Shun held a broken shot-glass, running his thumb over the jagged edges.

“What kind of lesson?” asked Shun.

“Guardians,” Quist said flatly, “are bad news. And why are you playing with broken glass?”

“She broke it with her head,” said Shun.

“Yes! Right before she painted his brains across the wall with her shotgun!”

Berriole made an unhappy noise and took some more slow breaths.

“C'mon, that was Ikora Rey,” said Shun. “Am I the only one excited about this?”

“Yes,” said Quist. He slapped the last of his notes into a stack. “We should go.”

“Already?” asked Shun.

“Well, they clearly aren’t going to bring our fried plantains now,” Quist snapped.

“You never know,” said Shun. His smile was a little off-center. “It’s a very, um …” He trailed off, losing whatever joke he’d been about to make.

“Do we need to tell the authorities what happened?” asked Berriole, determinedly focused on the practicalities.

“The bartender can do that,” said Quist. “We should go.”

Shun did not say anything.

Shun was staring again at the broken shot-glass, still running his thumb over the edge. There had been a smudge of blood on it once, now absorbed by his skin. Ikora Rey’s blood, the blood of a Guardian raised by the Traveler, who fought like a whirlwind in the Crucible but who also protected the Last City from the Darkness. Who had helped raise its walls.

When the other Guardian threw her back, when her head slammed into their table, her eyes had stared up a moment into his. Dark, beautiful eyes—but that didn’t matter. What mattered was the dazed pain in her face. And it was lost a moment later as she pulled herself up and leapt back into the fight, but it had been real.

Shun Li had watched a hundred Crucible matches, had seen Guardians stabbed and shot and vaporized and burnt. But now, as he grasped the glass that Ikora Rey had broken with her head, he thought: they can bleed.

Eyahn is young. And that sounds obvious but she is young and small. When she was alive, she was scavenging the wilds, malnourished and scrappy. She didn’t interact with people, she didn’t get much of any social development. So she has the directness of a wise child. The thing where a kid sees someone do something dumb and gives them that judging look and just says “Wrong.” She cuts to the obvious part of matters and states what she sees and sometimes it’s a little hard to discern, without any context clues. But that’s kind of the charm.

Also due to the small thing, she’s incredibly fluid. She has the raw strength to handle really big sniper rifles (when I was running No Land Beyond and LDR back in Year 2 ish, I joked she could dual wield snipers taller than she was.) but at the same time she can’t stand her ground in a brawl or anything like that. So she does the slippery Hunter thing and stays moving, in everything she does. Combat, stealth, patrols, lurking in the tower, avoiding hugs.

She has a short list of “I like you” people but when you get up there she is incredibly tactile. Clutches hands, fabric, legs. Climbs people like trees when alarmed or bored, typically Titans. She has likely been startled in the past by someone coming to Shaxx for bounty turn in and subsequently scrambled up the back of his armor and wrapped herself around his shoulder.

She is a devil on the battlefield, a force of nature. She survived the Twilight Gap and took it back. If it is a fight, you do not have to worry about her. But the strength is a flaw, when focusing on keeping herself alive, it is not easy to protect others, and she is not used to it. She has always learned best how to survive alone.

Mack is smug. Always, at all times. He desperately enjoys knowing things and explaining them cryptically. If he has an opportunity to be smug he will take it, no matter the cost.

He is completely unshakeable when his mind has been made up. He decided to re-document every single plant species on earth and goddamn he’s going to do it. He chose a line of work unpopular with everyone in the tower, he chose something that would have every Vanguard ever on his case. And he’s kept at it. Four. Hundred. Years.

His work is his life. He has seen it’s effects. He has brought food to poorer people on the outskirts of the City. He personally collects herbs for the clinic Anie and Lorene will run someday. His work has improved agriculture, medicine, and benefited the lives of people more directly than he feels fighting as a Guardian ever would. He thinks it is the most fulfilling thing in the world and he will never ever admit it. Because he’s a smug bastard.

This is something I never would have thought of! 

It would take him quite a while to even learn they were there – probably only after he picked up a random patrol put out by one of the factions and asked his Ghost who New Monarcy or Future War Cult were. His opinions of the faction leaders would probably be heavily colored by his opinions of the factions, based on what he learned from his Ghost.

Arach Jalaal he wouldn’t be much of a fan of. Whether or not he remembers any Eliksni history is still a hand wave and a shrug, but what he’s seen in his short time as a Guardian would be enough to convince him that things may not be any better even if they leave the system (if he would be allowed to go with). As much as he wants the ability to leave Earth, he’s not sure he wants to leave Earth.

Lakshmi would probably freak him out a little. Too many unknowns with the War Cult, too much secrecy, too much of a call to violence. Jak’s pretty sure war is inevitable too – Guardians kill each other for sport when they get bored of killing the things outside the walls – but he wants to believe peace is possible and is leery of anyone who’s ready to eagerly embrace that idea of a coming war.

Hideo would probably be the only one he would slightly agree with. Jaksis can understand the desire for unity in the City. He still wouldn’t be chummy with Hideo (would probably avoid him, as he tries to avoid the rest of the civilians he can) and wouldn’t agree with some of the things Hideo shouts from his vendor area.

RULES: Tag 9 people you want to get to know better.

♡ Relationship status: unaffiliated

☆ Pets: 2 kitties! Boots and Benny! The best cats in the world I miss them so much...

☆ Last song I listened to: "We Were Better Off” by Elenowen. Such a chill song.. gave me Harvest feels

☆ Favorite TV show:  Hmm... there’s two that tie for first place. Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Farscape. Both have an incredible plot and story progression with fun and interesting filler episodes. There’s gorgeous character development and it just feels so real and visceral. Plus, in both shows, stupid stuff happens to everyone. No one is safe from getting the mickey taken out of them. I highly recommend!

☆ First Fandom: Uh.. hm. I think the first one I actually got involved in may have been Halo? Sort of? On tumblr I believe it was Supernatural.

☆ Hobbies!: I love drawing, playing video games, reading, watching movies and TV shows, and writing my dorky stories. I also like gardening now and then.