devil's in the details

Wanting to give Setsu alternate forms like Yuri has, but they are so ironclad about not wanting to be seen as either a man or a woman that it didn't feel right. Instead I guess the three genders are "pan (default)", "leji matsumoto character", and "bounty hunter".

Swordtember: "Fossil"

A fossil of a giant salamander was found in Öhningen, Germany. The naturalist who made the discovery believed it to be the spine and pelvis of a diminutive early human, perhaps a child; thus he named them Homo diluvii testis, or "man, witness of the Flood".

Swordtember: "Bell"

CRAVENLY DRAG YOURSELF FROM THE WATERS OF YOUR BIRTH,

YET THE WAVES WILL ALWAYS PULL YOU BACK WHERE YOU BELONG.

PRAY THAT THE FRAGILE ARMOR YOU'VE WOVEN WILL NOT FAIL

AND RING THE BELL OF YOUR OWN DEMISE.

ALTERED HUMAN: DESIS

---

(This is the most diverted-from-the-theme yet, but taking the opportunity to do some design for a tokusatsu-insp project i've had sitting around. Explanation: The character was initially based on diving bell spiders, and spiders in the genus Desis have very similar behaviours in terms of living and hunting for prey underwater, and storing air in a silk bubble. While it WOULD be extremely true to the genre (see: ryuki's kamen rider femme) to have a heroine titled "belle", "desis" works better for various reasons that are irrelevant right now.)

Swordtember: "Scale"

In the middle of a dried-out lake (or so it was at the time), there was a statue of a giant. The stone plates balanced on its dual blades were each large enough for a grown person to stand atop them, and back then they were hopelessly crooked. The plinth beneath the giant read: ONLY A TRUE MONARCH MAY BALANCE THE SCALES.

Many people took up the challenge over the years: Good men, arrogant men, both the ambitious and the innocently-curious. None could make the statue budge even an inch. One day a king arrived with his hunting party, and he ordered his retinue to lift him onto one of the plates.

Miraculously, the uneven stone blades began to move. As the king's side began to reach equilibrium, the empty plate on the other side began to fill -- slowly at first, and then with unnatural volume and speed -- with bright red blood.

Swordtember: "Automaton"

The king's paranoia only became worse when the royal children were born. He insisted they learn to defend themselves, but couldn't find a single swordsman he could trust to leave alone with the children -- an armed person! a hostile stranger! perhaps even a spy! Thus he commissioned a machine to act as both teacher and bodyguard. But the king soon mistrusted the new fencing-master as well, and (after a certain incident) ordered that most of its combat protocols be restrained to the point of uselessness, until it was finally dismantled.

Swordtember: "Moss"

Swordtember: "Shell"

Swordtember: 3 + 4. Cursed Relic + Divine Relic

"Among my grandfather's belongings, there were two artifacts of note: The Sword of Drowning and the Sword of the Anchor. According to his papers, the Sword of Drowning was forged in the blood of a dying god, and thereafter no amount of mortal blood would be enough to quench its thirst. The Sword of the Anchor was washed in the tears of a grieving god, and can only be wielded by one meant to end the sorrows of the world.

The problem is, for the life of me, I can't figure out which one is which."

Swordtember: 2. Floral

If you were to to drink rainwater collected from the footprints of wolves, you would certainly become a wolf yourself. But what if you watered a garden with it instead?

A whole wedding party once found themselves besieged when the floral arrangements awoke to their newly-monstrous nature. With no other recourse, the bride tore a tall stalk of aconite from the ground, and prepared to defend her new family.

Swordtember: 1. Wings

In the old days, it is said that for one day of every year, the Great Bird would nest on the cliffs near the village, one of countless stops on its migratory path across the worlds. The morning after its departure, the villagers would carefully gather its massive shed feathers, each one light as air and sharp as the wind. Only the nimblest of fighters could wield them without slicing their own limbs clean off.

But of course all those old stories are nonsense.

Breaking in a new tablet, first time trying a Huion and I'm pretty sold.

In 2009 (a lifetime ago), I drew the wiki image for SCP-085.

I’m going to draw a children’s book style illustration of a mushroom house, I said, like Beatrix Potter, and then I looked up her mycology illustrations and got intimidated and went, Maybe not quite like that.

* With the last of your strength, you pose dramatically! The crowd roars!

Undertale + JJBA stands, one corresponding to each route.

“OF COURSE OF COURSE. OF COURSE THEY ARE THE SAME.”