[Art Exchange] Covert Courtesy Commutation ~ 6/8 gifts are up.

[Gabi]

WhiteFox's gifter wants to know if he has a particular character he'd like drawn, and any references/descriptions of said character.

[Lisky]

Gabi has informed me that my gifter is curious about Ed's affinities.  His clan prefers confusion, and he has a personal taste for pain as well (assumed to come from the father, as Ed is pure-blood Cubi)

[WhiteFox]

Dear gifter;

As far as DSOF goes, any of the characters are fine. I don't have any references for them online at the moment, but I'm not fussy about accuracy when it comes to gift art. I'm open to interpretations.

I do have a "style guide" for my avatar at FA, however; http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3104772/ and http://www.furaffinity.net/view/3294417/

I say "style guide" rather then "model sheet" because it's not how I draw my avatar, but rather how anyone, regardless of their art style, could.

Anyway, I hope that helps.

[Gabi]

Hi all! I'm posting here to remind you that this Sunday's the deadline for round 7.

I have received only one gift so far.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Mine's close to completion, should make the deadline. If I don't, I'll only be off by a day or two.

[Suwako]

Hi all! I'm posting here to remind you that this Sunday's the deadline for round 7.

I have received only one gift so far.

Gah, the pressure.

Pft, I'm probably going to be a late sunday one ( school-projects been a b*tch, yo )

[WhiteFox]

It's in progress. No fear.

[Gabi]

OK, time's up! Here are the gifts!

-FSharp has made this gift for Tytaj.

-WhiteFox has made this gift for Corgatha.
/**
* Author's comments:
*
* My only real regret with this image was that I was unable to include his wings. They didn't fit in the margin, and expanding the image really threw the composition off.

This was really fun to draw. Jaguars are gorgeous looking. Drawing the spots was easy as long as I stayed fast and loose. I'm sure my head would explode if I had to draw him a second time. About 90% of the spots were done on paper, but I added a few on the arms and touched up some of the ones on the head.

The quote was something that popped into my head while I was sketching.

When I read his bio, he seemed to have a lot in common with the main character of my comic, Theonor (empire builder, has a vendetta, etc). That was very surreal, because Theo was originally going to be a jaguar himself.

Anyway, I hope you like it.
*
**/

-modelincard has made this gift for WhiteFox.

-Tytaj has made this gift for modelincard.
/**
* Author's comments:
*
Here we go, I wasn't able to finish the shading, and forgot to ad the wings, oh well.

^^;;

Schools and work practicum obsorbed way more time than they should have.
*
**/

-Basilisk has made this gift for FSharp.

That's all for now. I'm afraid I'm in a hurry right now, so I can't make a nicer post. I hope Corgatha posts his gift soon.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Edaric tapped along the slightly warm stone panels of the tower, held aloft a few feet in the air, supported on his tentacles. Holding himself completely horizontal was something of an effort, but one alleviated by shapeshifting his mass to distribute it more evenly.  The tower was pitch dark, and being that this was a deal with wizard, he was using a witch's sight instead of an illumination spell, limning the whole tower in a kind of silvery sheen, with bright, almost painfully bright bursts of illumination centered around magical traps and standing spells.

He wasn't sure why this one Zachariah left his tower replete with so many instruments designed to burn, hack, and pulverize, and disintegrate intruders.  As far as he knew, the little Being was just an unattached hedge mage. Sure, the guy was probably the most powerful in this city of perhaps twenty thousand, but he was just a being, comparing himself to other beings. Six decades were not enough to learn anything but the most rudimentary sorts of magic, as Edaric proved by easily slipping through his traps, actually deigning to deform the lines on another spell, designed to make opening a door trigger an explosion. Pitiful, really. The trap was still intact, and the being would have no idea that anyone had even been through.

Well, not until he noticed his missing items. Edaric hadn't chosen something in particular to walk away from this adventure with. He hadn't actually planned on this intrusion, until the arrogant being, at a party they had both been invited to, talked about the greatness of the city of Bethaltz, their ability to keep out any foe, even "Dragons and the 'Cubi.". Well, now this simply could not stand, not this sort of arrogant posturing. Nothing really all that bad, to be honest, but then again, Edaric was only planning a little bit of lighter vengeance. Steal something that caught his eye, leave the clan mark scrawled somewhere, let the being know to whom the world truly belonged.

But so far, nothing worth anything had presented itself. Basic traps, basic equipment, a basic set of bedrooms for apprentices, which were empty at the time, and he was already on the third floor of four. This one had some sort of workshop, but the only thing that had stood out from all the mess was a half-finished metal statue of a taur of some sort that Edaric didn't recognize, menacing even in it's incompletion, although much of that was the heavy strands of magical residue wrapped around the construct.

The hallway gently spiraled, up and to the right, and Edaric avoided a trap by suspending his weight on his tentacles on the upper walls, raising his legs over the floor and away from the pitfall. Along the slope of the inner wall, something caught his eye. Dim, in there, a lack of the magical residues that had saturated the tower hallways, and Edaric stared at the almost perfectly circular shape for a long moment before noticing the little knob on one end that proclaimed a doorway.

Another minute passed in silent inspection. It was far too out of place, far too innocuous to not invite suspicion, but the longer he inspected it, the more certain he was that there was no hidden trap. After all, it was only a Being magic thrower, to hide a trap beyond his ability to see was absurd. Balancing on three tentacles, he reached out with his top right one, gripped the door slightly, eased it open.

Nothingnothingnothingnothingnothing.

Stepping in almost blinded him. There was only one concentration of magic, in the far left corner of the room, powerful, hugely powerful, a standing portal, it seemed to be. Backdoor in, he supposed, to a waiting room perhaps? Squinting, he dismissed the witchsight spell, and after a few seconds to let his eyes recover, conjured up a small green glow, scanned the room.

A smirk made its way to his face, as the little light he had conjured up revealed the room. Pale lavender, soft sheets, and a low canopied bed. As if the resumption of natural sight allowed for the activation of his other senses, Edaric could distinctly smell perfume, faint honeysuckle, permeate his awareness.

Quickly, he extinguished his illumination spell. Zachariah was absent, something he had ascertained before embarking on this expedition, but spell throwers often had ways of coming and going, quickly. Framing his concentration for a moment, Edaric quickly formed the being's appearance in his mind's eye, half a foot shorter, same weight, some of it distributed in a rather unsightly fashion across his middle, dull, brown fox-fur, slate gray eyes, limp tail, half shorn off. He idly wished for a mirror to check his handiwork, but while he was sure there was one, he didn't want to turn his light up, risk letting whomever the girl was getting too awake, too alert.

Instead, he padded over to the bed, gracefully sidled in between the sheets, felt gentle swells at hip and breast, crooned soothingly. He distinctly recalled murmuring that "he couldn't stand a night without you", in his best approximation of Zachariah's voice, and he seemed to pass the rather soporific inspection, being soon reduced to the most basic level of cerebration.

Later, after hearing a gentle snore to his left, Edaric cracked his eyes open, and grinned wolfishly to himself. Stretching out his back, feeling a vertebrate pop  to loosen tension, he lazily pointed his right index finger to the underside of the bed canopy, scrawling a crude representation of a red serpent crawling up a staff. He eased himself out of the bed, and rapidly scuttled away from the room, and the tower, congratulating himself on a night well-spent.

He struck out, away from the city, and let his long wings unfurl to their full, eighteen foot span. He had no real plans, no commitments, and since he needed no rest, spent the remainder of the predawn hours jogging easily, towards the river  Bethaltz was built near and then following it downstream.  The path was straight, safe, easy. This was a relatively civilized area, and chances are, he was the most dangerous thing in miles. Even though, strictly speaking, there was no particular need for it, he felt a wish to sleep, and spent a brace of minutes stamping out a set of protective wards in a circle around himself on the riverside, before stretching out and closing his eyes.

When he awoke, the sun was half its way on a journey to the sky's zenith, and he wiped a bit of gunk out of his eyes. There was an ever so faint soreness in the back of his throat, and he ambled over to the stream, drank a bit to push back the discomfort. The water was clear, and cold, moistening the back of his throat nicely. When it hit his stomach, he felt like his organs had been bathed in acid, and the next thing he knew, he was doubled over, spitting up, and thankful that he had been feeding on emotions for the past few days.

He became aware of afoul odor somewhere in the vicinity, and it took him a few minutes to realize it was exuding, not from an outside source, but from his skin, or maybe his fur. Clenching his hands over his belly, he quickly muttered a spell to heat up a section of the river, and slid into the water. Drifting, with his eyes closed and his body buoyed, he was able to achieve some measure of relief, and wondered what sort of odd disease he must have contracted. He couldn't remember the last time he had gotten sick.

Still, a little more work to make sure he didn't flow with the current past his warm area, and

"That won't work you know."
The voice came above, off to his left, and a quick shapeshift allowed Edaric to spin his head far enough around to notice a short brown fox in a pale mauve robe. A cowl prevented the face from being clearly seen, but the menace that was coming off was almost palpable, only slightly lessened by the figure's odd translucence, a fact that quickly led Edaric to intuit he was dealing with some sort of projection. 

"You left fur in my bedroom, last night. And a sigil, of some sort. Don't worry, I'll be coming after your friends, soon enough. But in the meantime, a parting gift. You know, some who overindulge in bawdry attract all sorts of exotic ailments. You can think of this curse as like that. It won't kill you, but I don't think you'll be attracting too many females until you figure out a way of discarding it. Ta-ta."

Snarling, Edaric tossed out a bolt of disruption, broke apart the gloating image, and brought up witchsight. The water wasn't all that reflective in the odd pseudovision of the spell, but it was enough to get at least a sort of a view of himself, enough to tell him that a very complicated spell had wound itself about him. Directly picking the thing apart was several cuts above his magical grade.

Quickly, he started weighting his options. Directly breaking the spell wasn't possible. He could run back to SAIA, he was sure that the professors there could break a spell like this without too much effort. Still, he didn't want to run crying there if he had a problem, and shelved that solution for a last resort. That left seeking local help, and incognito. He had a few gems tucked away in his belt pouch, enough to pay for a few favors, but where to go?

Obviously, Bethalz was out. Zachariah was sure to have warned any local mages about someone with his exact symptoms showing up. There was another city down the stream, but his local geography was weak.  Still, travel would be easier, assuming he could fashion a raft, and that would allow him to rest on the way down. 

Of course, that meant he had to fashion a raft, and in his current position, that level of exertion was definitely not welcome.  Still, he reminded himself, it would be far easier in the long run. Groaning, he hauled himself to the bank, and crawled over to some brush. He wouldn't need something hugely sturdy, as he could shapeshift , make himself more balanced, maybe even warp away some mass.

Pulling together enough fibrous branches to make a rough square took three vomit trips, but hem managed to keep the effluvia away from himself, his clothes, and his little conveyance.  Eventually though, his wing tentacles shoved the raft into the water, and he clambered aboard, dripping. Another advantage became apparent as he was whisked by the current in the center of the river, namely that he could do his business and be washed away from the stink almost instantly. 

After taking stock, he recalled a lesson from long, long ago, and entered into a kind of voluntary stupor, not quite asleep, but not fully awake either, in order to limit his distress until he met signs of civilization. A timeless interval passed, and he found himself by a stone collection of buildings, in an unwalled community, with the sun in the west.

When he snapped out of his magically induced stupor, he felt even worse, his eyes gummed almost completely closed, and he made a mental note to avoid food or water until the curse had run it's course. He staggered down what seemed to be the main thoroughfare, croaking out that he needed help, he needed a magus. While there was a light amount of traffic in the street, none of the figures he passed would look him in the eye, and most either held their noses or melted to the side to avoid him. The smell seemed to have gotten worse as well, and the urge to retch hit him again, and darkness enveloped once again.

He came to in a small copse of trees that he felt he should be able to recognize, but wasn't able to. He rolled over, his money clinking at his right hip. A horse chuckle that whoever moved him didn't dare to rob him, and his thoughts moved in torturous, circuitous paths. 

Fur. That was how the spell tracked him, found him. It was still active, a continual construct.  He could almost taste it. A sprig of fur left on the bed. Connection of fur to fur, and that tracking him. Maybe he couldn't break the spell apart, but he could deny it a track. He whimpered at where the thought went, but the alternative was to break down and make his way back to SAIA.

No, that was intolerable.

With febrile strength, he broke branches off the trees with his tentacles, piled them into a small mound. Pulling together his last strength, he croaked out a spell of protection from fire, but wrapped it tightly around his skin, flush, perfectly flush. He dropped it twice in construction, but the third time he felt it go just right. A little conjured spark set the wood to roaring, and moaning, Edaric cast himself into the flames.

The pain annealed.



Much later, he found himself awake, alive, surrounded in ash. He shivered against the night's cold, but his head was clear, his belly pristine. Smiling a snarl, he shifted his features to that of a feline, almost perfectly copying a hairless cat he saw once, ages ago, and made his way towards that villiage, and wondered what exactly he was to do about this Zachariah.




******************************************************************************************************************************************


Here you go. It doesn't have a title. I'll admit, it's not my best work, and when you're sick for a lot of the crafting of a story......... blegh, I went for a minimalist description style, and trying to use metaphors instead of literal depiction, but I'm not sure how well it turned out. Anyway, I hope it isn't too bad, and that I got into the sort of scrape that Edaric might find himself in.





As for Whitefox's picture.

We like. A lot. The wings? Who needs them anyway? Kedered spends a lot of his time trying to pass for Being anyway. Glad you had fun sketching, and yes, I actually framed some of Theonor's conversation and phrasing by thinking how Kedered would have acted in a situation.


Best wishes, Corgatha Taldorthar.

[WhiteFox]

Modelin: I like! Left comments at FA.

Corg: I'm glad it meets your approval. It's posted at FA now.

[Suwako]

FSharp, really nice, wow.

I love it, well done.

[FSharp]

-Basilisk has made this gift for FSharp.

Thanks! I really like the pose and the fur markings.

[Lisky]

If you'd like i can go and scan the other 4 or 5 sketches i did... suffice to say, that one seemed to catch my attention as the most interesting of them. *shrugs* if you'd like i can ink it and re-upload, probably sharpen the image just a bit

[FSharp]

If you'd like i can go and scan the other 4 or 5 sketches i did... suffice to say, that one seemed to catch my attention as the most interesting of them. *shrugs* if you'd like i can ink it and re-upload, probably sharpen the image just a bit

No need to ink and re-upload (unless you want the practice). I like the piece just as it is. I'd love to see the other sketches though.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

So, when does the next round start?

[Gabi]

I think it's a good time to start taking sign-ups.

[WhiteFox]

Signing up for more.

[Lisky]

sure, you can count me in as well...

[Sprocketsdance]

I'm so in this round.. I'm in it like marshmallows in s'mores   or.. or something. 

[FSharp]

Sign me up, please.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Count me in.

[Gabi]

OK, I guess we'll start tomorrow. Here's hoping someone else signs up in the meantime.

[Fibre]

I would like to join as well, if I may. I should have no problems being timely this round as I have a regular schedule now. I may not be able to use my tablet depending on whether or not I get around to setting up a machine for it but at least I now have a hopefully acceptable camera to take a photograph of a drawing.

[Gabi]

LavaRnd is down, so I've had to resort to PHP's built-in pseudo-randomizer. I hope that's good enough.

I'm sending the PMs now. The deadline for round 8 is Wednesday, 10th of March.

[Gabi]

We have a question!

Corgatha's gifter wants to know if he'd rather this gift be about him or a character of his.



--------------------------
More questions (don't make me triple-post):

Whitefox's gifter would like to know if he'd prefer [graphic] art or writing, and if he has any characters or ideas (references appreciated) he prefers.

Also, a question for Wuff: "Could she please name a 1--3 word theme that she would like to see? "

[Sprocketsdance]

Ooooo this I like.. lets see...........


Hmmm...

"In.. my...... closet" ^^  (yeah.. so was not going to say pants.. no way XP  )  If that is what you wanted, cool, if not let me know =D

[Lisky]

Not sure if my gifter has something in mind already or not, if they do, great, if not... just let Gabi know what you need and i'll get you the info...

As for characters, i've got several who i could go into great detail about, but i'd be happy with just about anything of:
Bas
Ed
Darkshine

or, if you'd prefer someone else, just let me know and i'll get you what you need

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Uhm, Corgatha is a character of mine, set in the wheel of time setting.

Basing a gift on me? I'm usually pretty reticent about my own personal information, outside of what you can derive from my personality from my on-forum blather. In general, I don't really mind much what you draw, as long as you don't portray my characters acting in a fashion that's too far from the way I've written them, but could you please be more specific as to what you mean?

[WhiteFox]

Whitefox's gifter would like to know if he'd prefer [graphic] art or writing, and if he has any characters or ideas (references appreciated) he prefers.

Graphic is definitely preferable. As for characters and references;

-I post a comic, (NSFW; Nudity, Violence) DSOF, here on the boards. Any characters from it would certainly be acceptable.
-I have a "styleguide" for drawing my avatar at my FA acct: Part 1, Part 2 It's a little rough, but it gets the idea across.

[Gabi]

Answer for Corgatha:

Ah, much apologies. What I'm planning on working on... I don't really want to give it away. Perhaps a better way to help me is if you were to list off.. well.. either 5-10 of Corgatha's favorite words/feelings.. or your own if you feel comfortable doing so. The more the better (but not to exceed 10 )