So a bit of a funny story: This came about from poisoning my brain for several weeks now with Hogwarts Legacy drama. I'm personally NOT gonna go into more detail, cuz I don't think that war needs even more soldiers. I don't even have a Twitter account!
Seeing all the hullabaloo going on there, as well as the unfortunately sub-par character writing for Velma and Forspoken, I walked away feeling...inspired?
It was then that I asked myself!
How can one remix the idea of a wizard school? And then I hit upon something (Thank you Bloodborne!) Allow me to pitch it!
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NEW CONCEPT: A Wizard school...that teaches hapless students how to not go mad from in the face of cosmic horror.
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Some parts fantastic. Some parts science fiction. Some parts soul-sucking horror. A potentially new series, unrelated to FantasTech or my other TipsyVerse series!
A dark, sordid setting, accepting of people from many different walks of life, no matter of gender, race...or planet of origin. A reality where a character's entire fate can change abruptly, just from seeing something they shouldn't have seen. A tapestry of unearthly scenery--secrets nestled within a sea of stars. A battleground, where characters fight for their sanity, for themselves--for their right to be remembered by the rest of the world.
Yet...a reality not entirely steeped in doom and gloom. After all, there is a reason this place is an academy, and not simply a slaughterhouse for the insane. It is a place that teaches things that can be taught nowhere else! A fresh start for those who had nothing left to lose. A bastion of support for those who have just lost everything, encouraging students to hold each other up in the face of things so much bigger than themselves.
Ultimately, a place of learning--for those who welcome it.
But for those who do not, beware...it can be a humbling experience, in the worst of ways.
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"Come here, and you shall know the unknowable. Come here and your madness will open doors to understanding.
Come here and you will be at peace with all that is beyond comprehension."
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More ideas to come soon, if this gets greenlit!
Short life update (Without Vent!)
YUP! This is a version of my life's most recent updates, without any form of venting. I typed this up after I typed up my first draft, and promptly deleted it, because it turned into an aggressively negative vent post. I'll just tell y'all where I've been. :>
1) Playing Stardew Valley until I grow roots. Basically, I've been playing modded Stardew, and have been playing it so often that I'm in Year 4, Spring at the time I'm writing this. I think that's enough for me.
2) I quit my job. I finally turned in my two weeks notice, so I am no longer working. But also trying to get my health insurance sorted out.
3) I'm moving! Specifically from Duluth to Minneapolis. So tomorrow I will be packing my bags. That's going to take a while. I'm excited to go there because there's more food there. I like food. Okay that's all for now, BYE!!!
PaleoZoo Idea Dropbox
Ello! This right over here is but a sort of list that helps me keep track of ideas for PaleoZoo as they are conceived, either by myself or one of you fellows. Feel free to drop one in yourself! But basically, this is to help me figure out what to draw next. :>
- Stirton's Thunder Bird (Dromornis stirtoni)
It's time for Tara to enter the bird's enclosure to feed it some fruit--a task that she is ONLY willing to do with a riot shield in hand. And possibly a SWAT vest. Seriously, these things are scarier than cassowaries.
- Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius)
"Remember that time when Passenger Pigeons were completely extinct, never to be seen again?" https://i2.wp.com/www.socialnews.xyz/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/03/dd871f8dc43e3906f683ec3c574580fa.jpg?quality=80&zoom=1&ssl=1 "Yeah, me neither".
- Nebraskan Camel (Titanotylopus nebraski)
Featuring some kiddo screaming in his dad's arms. While feeding this unreasonably huge camel. I mean one can't really blame the kid for being scared of it.
- Broom's Roofnewt (Broomistega putterilli) and Smooth-nosed Dogtooth (Thrinaxodon liorhinus)
You may know these two from the so-called "Triassic Cuddle"--a fossil deposit where these two species were fossilized in a burrow together. But in the PaleoZoo? They actually ARE legitimately friendly towards one another. They're in the same exhibit; never one without the other.
- Common Shovel Tusker (Platybelodon grangeri)
A pool party seems to be brewing! During a hot summer day, the Shovel Tuskers retreat to their watering hole to cool down. Some try to scoop up the water with their trademark shovel tusks, while other zookeepers bring a hose and party favors (aka bowls of fruit).
- American Cheetah (Miracynonyx trumani) and Kuri Dog (Canis lupus familiaris)
As it would seem, American Cheetahs occupy a very similar niche to modern African Cheetahs. They share not only their speed--but also the fact that sometimes they can have really bad anxiety. So the idea was to provide an emotional support animal! Namely, an extinct dog breed from New Zealand known as the Kuri. https://scx2.b-cdn.net/gfx/news/2015/otagoresearc.jpg The zoo's staff believe there were probably better options.
- Magnificent Teratorn (Argentavis magnificens)
It all started off as what was supposed to be an educational lecture about Argentavis and its habits. But well...because Tara can't hold a 150 lb bird on her arm, the presentation instead turned into an impromptu "Test Your Strength" booth. I.e. who can lift the bird up?
- Great Shaleshrimp (Anomalocaris canadensis)
The fact that it's NOT a merciless killer makes it quite a bit easier to place it in an aquarium with other contemporary animals. Albeit zookeepers are always sure to feed it mealworms. During the process, it'll often suck on the zookeeper's fingers. It feels weird.
- Giant Griffinfly (Meganeura monyi)
There is an insect house where some of the bigger flying insects are allowed to fly around freely during certain hours of the day. Before guests entered the zoo there are a few signs that explicitly warn: No swatting. No squashing. And no flamethrowers(?!) allowed.
- Hungarian Not-Meg (Megalodon hungaricum)
This was a deliberate troll move by the PaleoZoo itself. They've pranked a LOT of gullible zoogoers by advertising a "Megalodon exhibit"--only, said "Megalodon" is well...it's just a clam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megalodon_(bivalve) There's another exhibit featuring Otodus megalodon, but the increasingly small path should have given it away immediately. XD
- T-rex (Tyrannosaurus rex)
The most famous prehistoric animal of all time is released from his paddock, and taken for a supervised stroll in the dead of night, after hours. A bunch of teenagers who couldn't see him earlier (because there were so many goddamn people in the way) sneak into the zoo well after it's closed, to see the king as he roams in silence.
Well...long few weeks, to be more specific.
You might have prolly noticed that NOBODY'S heard from me for a while now. The reason? Two of my fellow co-workers at the front desk quit. So we were pretty short-staffed for a while. And thus, had to work a lot more than usual to help fill in the gap, while management looked for employees.
Soooo that was fun. Got a lot of hours in! But goddammit, was that exhausting. Pretty much just spent the rest of that time playing modded Minecraft (specifically SkyFactory 4) until my eyes fall off, or going to bed as soon as I get home.
But good news! I'm finally am catching a break from all that mess! Mayhaps I can finally do something about all the weird ideas that have been shelved in my brain for a while. Lemme give you an idea!
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1) Neil Blues Reincarnated in Another World As...His Own Frostbitten Corpse?!
When Isekai goes very, very...VERY wrong.
2) A Better Iron Golem
Kazwellor Roswaal comes back to the Gizmo Guild! Albeit this time? Because he wants to learn how to make a robot. After all...what is a robot but a more advanced golem? No doubt a more fun endeavor than working with something easy, like clay or straw.
3) The Molten Candy Kingdom
A tourist's eye view of one of the most hostile Kingdoms to ever float the skies. A candy-coated hellscape, flowing with oceans of molten candy and chocolate lava. A blazing sugar skull flies past you, as you hide behind the mellified corpse of a dragon, still crystallized in its sugary grave.
4) Bacon Trees, Donut Trees, Cookie Trees...Oh My!
Sometimes Queen Alicia is even more ashamed than usual of having been the Fallen King's lapdog. Because now she gets to see what happens when (by proxy) she allowed a Gremlin to make his own new species of trees.
(P.S. This Gremlin was one of the Fallen King's assistant engineers. For what? You'll see.
P.S.S. He's dead. Specifically, he died from high cholesterol.)
5) Jacklyn Irons in a "Healing Spring"
Did you know Jacklyn can heal by bathing in lava? After all, lava IS molten rock. It does her body much better than bathing in water. Plus, among her MANY other defensive qualities, she is wholly unbothered by the heat lava gives off.
6) POWER!!! Healing
In the wacky world of Cauldron, Healing Magic is kind of a blanket term. You have bodily magic (which is HEAVILY regulated, as it can--and has--been used to commit horrific crimes). Holy healing (powerful, but limited in application. And falling out of favor for various reasons!). Potionmaking (requires a license to perform, just like selling any other medicine). And.... POWER!!! Healing! The practice of using one's own vitality to boost another's. People using this kind of magic keep themselves very healthy and physically fit! So...rather than a cute girl in a priestess robe, expect your party's healer to be a big, sweaty buff dude who constantly works out, and tells you to never give up hope.
7) Night at The Dancing Tadpole
I found a sketch I made a while ago, of Tsuyu Asui (yes, THAT one). Specifically in her fantasy AU incarnation. So what the heck, I'll go with it! She is now an innkeeper, working with her family in a peaceful tavern in the middle of a luminescent swamp. Well...them, and various little talking frogs in suits. It's cute. XD
8) The Draconic Reactor
A running theme of Cauldron in general is the idea of a fantasy world which is NOT stuck in the past. A world that not only has magic, but one that had also progressed in their understanding of it--as well as their applications. And now, taken to its logical extreme with an invention that came out of Auric of all places! Aka, the domain of King Norbert.
His Kingdom has just invented something powerful. Something BIG.
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PHEW...thassit for now. I'll write down more ideas as I come up with them.
But yeh. If this seems like a lot....I've been holding it in for a while now. Had the ideas, just never the motivation to actually draw them. So this might be a good bit o' fun!
Work and the All Tomorrows Subreddit
If you're wondering where I was for those two months...the title is pretty much what it is in a nutshell. XD
But I'll go ahead and elaborate! I owe you guys at least that much.
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1) Work. Specifically, I work the front desk of a hotel in Duluth's Canal Park--THE tourist hub in town, and as it is with any customer service job, sometimes it can be a real piece of work. Not because of the work culture or my co-workers--they're all great people, and I appreciate them dearly. No, it's mostly just dealing with guests of varying temperaments and many demands. I'm at least out of my training phase, so I'm not as clueless and lost as I was a month ago, but dear me...it's a hard knock living sometimes. Especially because school's started again, and these shifts mostly happen during the weekends. Aka, when the hotel is at it's most insane.
This also kinda causes me to be off my computer more often. I rarely see my roommates much any more because at the time they come home form work, that's when I go to work. So I pretty much make it a point to hang out with them whenever possible, since there are so few opportunities to do that these days.
Although my days have NOT been solely comprising of drudgery and customer service suffering! But also, something that I've wanted to be a part of for years now.
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2) The All Tomorrows Fandom. Aka, a fandom for a book called "All Tomorrows: A Billion Year Chronicle of the Myriad Species and Mixed Fortunes of Man", by C.M. Kosemen. The whole story is over here. http://www.sivatherium.narod.ru/library/Ramjet/01_en.htm
And well...this is something I've been a fan of for YEARS now, and it's greatly influenced my art in the past. However, it's extremely niche--so niche that it's gone unnoticed for years now, making me rather hesitant to draw art for it. At least, until it suddenly gained an explosion of popularity several months back!
Funny thing...since my FantasTech well ran dry, and I had no idea what else to draw, I figured making a few pieces of fanart for it would bring back my creative muse. Just a few pics to get the All Tomorrows hype out of my system! And also decided to post a few of these pictures to r/AllTomorrows just to see if people would like it.
Next thing I know...it became my new hyperfixation, and I started regularly posting on r/AllTomorrows. Usually it involves rushing to make a new picture to post there, going to work, crashing, and repeating the cycle the next day.
Not to mention, thinking about making a journal post on deviantArt to explain my situation, procrastinating on it due to being exhausted, and then being scared to post a journal because I waited too long. Even more so when I finally checked my messages and saw how high they piled up in my absence.
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Yeah....I was kind of a mess. Still am, but slightly less so. I'll go ahead and make it a point to keep you guys in the loop from here on out!
As of now, my Reddit account is here https://www.reddit.com/user/Certain-Unit8147 . And yes, my current username there is Certain-Unit8147. I did try to change it to TipsyRa1d3n, but to no avail.
I don't have any FantasTech art planned at the moment. But I do have a lotta All Tomorrows art, and I'll go ahead and post my work on dA. While also keeping up with messages from Discord and dA as well.
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Phew....that was a lot to get off my chest. But at least I did it.
And again...a million apologies to you all.
And thank you.