End of the Month Post - June 2024

Hey everybody,

It's the time of the month where I prattle a bit. Thank you for your support.

Operation Priscylla Re:Design

Along with other excitement over the last couple of weeks, I've been digging through the Priscylla Prizzell archives, slurping the pictures, rereading our weird stories, and asking myself the deep questions, like, "Who is Priscylla," and, "What were we trying to do with her?"

At her core, Priscylla was a college student with a big heart and bigger bust who found herself whisked into a surreal video game world filled with perverted creatures who were burning to apply their "game mechanics" all over her body. Priscylla, an all-round helpful person and good natured floormat, was always willing, begrudgingly or otherwise, to help these creatures in need while hopefully gaining some clues on how to return to her world in the process.

When last we saw Priscylla, she was set to escape a farm (styled after a popular mobile game) that was gradually transforming her into a complacent, compliant, milky tittied cowgirl... or something like that. Actually I think the story is farther along then that. It's been a decade since I've done much with her, and I'm still digging up, catching up on, and rereading the work that myself and others put towards her story. Stay tuned.

Last year... or maybe it was 2022, I started to reimagine Priscylla as a type of pro gamer or something. Mostly I was keen to remix her design and junk it up with fresh VTuber stylings. Maybe I could give her bunny ears, and demon horns, and pixel art braces, and gamer tag tattoos, and stickers everywhere!

(I like the letter jacket, but maybe in black.)

Upon reflection, I'm not sure what I was thinking. In any case, we've reconsidered the original design, and then the incomplete pro gamer redesign. The design I'm currently working on synthesizes aspects of both and collapses the dialectic. Anyway, Hegel would be proud.

Getting there. :)

(So proud!)

What character would Hegel have on a dakimakura? For some reason, my gut tells me it's Artoria Pendragon from Fate. Just a hunch. Comment below with your pick if you majored in philosophy.

Smash Poll

As for the Smash Beach character poll, the results are below:

As you can see, everyone received love, but not in equal amounts. Among the contenders presented, the blade duo, Pyra and Mythra were at the top picks. Feel free to write an essay on why this was the outcome of the poll.

So that's settled. I just need to figure out if I'm doing a comp with both Pyra and Mythra smooshed together in one composition, or if I'll do a separate comp for each character. I could see merits to either approach. If memory serves, based on some spoilerific outcomes of XC2's story, the both-present-simultaneously angle should work. IDK, gotta think about it. Chime in if you have any thoughts on the matter.

Non Smashers, but very popular Midna and Cynthia tied for second. It's unknown if the Midna fans are smitten with her goblin or womanly form, or both. I mean, I like both. Considering the current erotic meta, with all the interest in shortstack goblin girls... well, who knows. Anyway, I'd draw her again. :)

2006's hottest woman in the world - Smol Goblin B*tch.

Meanwhile, I've never drawn Cynthia, at least, I don't think I have. She's pretty cool, very elegant and all. I know she's another S-ranked blonde Poké/girl from Diamond and Pearl. I played that game... maybe at the gym, or maybe I just did endgame content on Mina's copy, but In any case, while I know about her, I don't really know her. Sorry everyone. I'll have to go watch some anime or let's plays and get schooled.

She's got that Galaxy Express - Maetel look but softened, remixed, and Pokéfied, resulting in a character that also bears a striking resemblance to Rosalina... but darker. Dark Rosalina, sounds pretty great. SarukaiWolf has probably already drawn this, heh.

Life Update

Along with working on Priscylla, I'm also acting as an emotional support dog for Mina. If you haven't heard, her hands finally gave out due to years of overuse and abuse from art, typing, and general computer usage. She's seeing doctors, taking NSAIDs, bracing, and resting. Medical tests, and perhaps surgery await her.

It's been about 6 weeks since she last picked up a pencil to draw and it's been tough on her. There's been no drawing, no vidya, no computer time. Is there life beyond these things? It's 2024, if you're us, not really. It's been hard to accept the situation, adapt, and hard for her to simply rest. Turns out, most activities involve using the hands.

An extended vacation, 6 weeks away from work, reading, chilling, and watching TV and anime, that might sound pretty sweet, and I suppose it could be. But for Mina, drawing isn't just her job, it's also one of those core activities that fills her life with meaning. Like most of us weirdo artists, she loves drawing. When she can't do it, well, that good old depression sets in.

Part of what I've been doing of late involves helping her through all this. Based on her condition and circumstances, she'll probably need surgery to resolve the damage and regain full function. We'll get there, but going through the gauntlet of diagnostics and doctor scheduling availability makes this into a much longer road than we'd like. In the end though, I'm confident she'll be okay and back to drawing emotion laden yuri pics just as soon as she can.

Video game report

I haven't bought or had a chance to play the Elden Ring DLC yet. I hear it's miserably hard and the game had to be rebalanced in wake of a review bombing campaign from broken and forlorn fans. Yikes! Dark Souls 2 was about the limit of my skill and ability to endure. Seikiro was completely beyond my ken. Alas, I studied the pen while others studied the blade, and I'm okay with that. I'll probably check out Shadow of the Erdtree sometime later, whenever life eases up and my soul seeks the luxury of safe, sadistic torture.

In other gaming news, I've been playing a bit of Splatoon 3, a half-hour here or there. It's a refreshing adrenaline filled diversion after drawing and painting for hours, though it's somewhat strenuous on the hands, so I have to be careful. Nintendo Friendzone me if you'd like and maybe we'll lobby-up together. I've played Splatoon since its inception on the Wii U 9 years ago. Unfortunately, since I'm 45, my reaction time and reflexes are shot, and I consistently suck ass despite my many hours on the clock. Still, I have fun. Squid game is fun.

Friend Code: SW-3829-6750-9976

Later chaps,

Ecchi