[Art/Writing] Liatai's Library - Holiday Gifts

[Liatai]

*taps microphone* Testing, testing, one, two, three...

Hello, all! Thanks for dropping in.

Hopefully, this will become a place for my drawings, short stories, scripts, and random thoughts about the worlds I write for. There are two fantasy worlds I tend to write about most; one is Kandask, a kingdom consisting mostly of humans and furkin (anthropomorphic animals), with a healthy dose of dragons, wyverns, gryphons, elementals, and trouble-making fey of many kinds. Most of the stories I write dealing with Kandask take place in their 1800's. The other is a world from a Dungeons and Dragons campaign that fell apart a few years ago, and is now making a revival with a new group comprised of members from this very corner of the web; Akellon. Like many D&D worlds, Akellon is a bit of a fantasy melting pot.

Wait... scratch that. It might be three worlds, if you count all of the Off-Panel things I do as part of their own separate world. If something is off-panel, characters from different times, places, and worlds are free to mingle, usually for the sake of comedy or for the sake of breaking writer's block.

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--Card Catalog--

Pitch Night (WIP)
Wyvern Society, Names, and Sketches
Kittrick Sketches
Off-Panel #-2 and Sketch Dump
Sketch Dump #2
Christmas 2010

[Liatai]

I thought I'd start off by introducing you to several characters you'll probably see a lot of. This is still a work in progress -- the shading isn't done yet -- but here it is in flat color.


DeviantART Link

   "Just admit it already." Farin leered at the catkin over his cards. "You ain't got trump."
   "Now, whoever said that?" she coyly replied, draping one arm over the back of her chair.  
   "Don't need t'say it. Yer just stallin' the inevitable. If y'had somethin' t'beat my queen, you'd be playin' it already."
   "That doesn't mean I don't have trump, necessarily." She peered over her glasses at him, smiling. "I might just be deciding which one of my diamonds to play."
   "Decide more quickly," her wyverntouched partner grumbled. He had already been forced to play his only diamond, and was doing the best he could with the hand he was dealt; all low spades and clubs. "I'd rather not drag this out for any longer than it needs to be."
   As Farin continued to goad Crystal and gloat at Quentin, Densharr turned to his familiar, raising his cards up so that the owl could see them.
   "<I thought I had the Queen of Diamonds?>"

----

I. Hate. Drawing. Furniture.  

This is a good example of something I call Off-Panel; characters that would never meet in their own respective stories or universes, playing a card game that isn't native to either of their worlds. Maybe someday, I'll turn all of the off-panel things I've written or drawn into some sort of comic, but for now, I just draw them for silliness' sake. Plus, sometimes it's fun to bounce characters off of others that they wouldn't normally encounter.

From left to right, here, we have Crystal Felarion (an academy-trained catkin mage working for a theater company as an illusionist), Zelareth sroPakzur (Quentin's wyverntouched cousin from another weyr, a waiter and bartender-in-training), Farin Falmuth (a human rogue who has horrible luck with lycanthropes, specializing in picking locks and picking pockets), Quentin sroAlveth (former military, a wyverntouched scalecarver currently working with the Supernatural and Magical Investigative Agency of Kandask (SAMIAK)), Densharr Iridia (a catfolk wizard suffering from late-stage retinitis pigmentosa who runs an alchemical goods shop), and Trinnis (Densharr's familiar).

Crystal, Zelareth, and Quentin are all from one story, set in Kandask in 1837 KA; I'll call the story "Children of Balance" for now. Farin and Densharr, however, are NPCs I made for Akellon that I couldn't stop writing about. (They have also both served as PCs for me in other campaigns.) I could go on and on about these guys, their homeworlds, and their cultures, but since I'm trying to keep this short, if anyone's curious about anything, ask away.

By the way, they're playing Pitch (one of the few card games I actually know how to play) in teams. If you actually know the game (and if the picture was a little larger), there are a few little Easter eggs in the picture for you. For example, the fact that Crystal has two of the four points (low and Jack) in her hand, Farin won the first trick, and that Quentin's hand is truly terrible.

I was also trying to work on the apparent ages of these characters while I was drawing this; what do you think? How old do you think they are (in terms of age groups, I mean; teen, young adult, adult, mature adult, etc.)? Who do you think is the youngest person at this table? The oldest? I have cookies for people who guess right.

[Drayco84]

You just introduced them and you want us to play "Guess their ages"?! I'm sorry, but I never assume ages unless it's spelled out. Especially since many cultures and continuities vary greatly in terms of "age of adulthood", which ties in to a race's average life expectancy.

Oh... Fine... The owl is the youngest. (No, I'm not sure. If it's a familiar, their age usually varies as well.)

[Liatai]

Haha, sorry. I had a line in there about the fact that all of these characters age like humans (75-100 year lifespan, although the legal definition of adulthood does vary depending on the culture), but I edited it out because I thought it was making the post too long. I should have kept it. *edits post*

But, yeah; not the answer I was expecting, but have a cookie!  

[Liatai]

I've been sketching a lot of wyverns and dragons lately; partly because I've been working on the constructs of Kandaskian wyvern society, and partly just because I like dragons.

Before I get into the sketches, though, have a few notes on Kandaskian wyverns and their social structure. While they are cousins of dragons, unlike their largely solitary four-legged cousins, wyverns are a highly social species, living in clans called weyrs. Unless he or she has been exiled, every wyvern belongs to a weyr, typically the one that they were born into. A wyvern can change weyrs in three main ways; being adopted by another weyr, marrying someone from that weyr, or founding their own.

Wyvern names are pretty simple to construct. First comes the personal name, which is usually an amalgam of name segments that each have a meaning. Next comes the ancestral name, which is the personal name of your same-sex parent with a prefix in front of it describing your relationship to that parent. (There are exceptions; feytouched wyverns whose same-sex parent is the fey they descended from often take their opposite-sex parent's name for their ancestral name. For example, Alveth sroRazurei is a son of the female wyvern Razurei and the male wind serpent Ki. If he was to use his father's name, he would be Alveth sroKi.) After that, you can add "of Such-and-Such" if you want to be formal, where "Such-and-Such" is the name of your weyr.

An example of a full, formal wyvern name would be something like "Alzurion sroHaliphrax, of Fallen Pines." (That's the blue wyvern in my current icon, if anyone's curious.)

Wyverntouched individuals (those who are descended from feytouched wyverns and one of the humanoid races; they usually resemble anthropomorphic dragons with large wings, long tails with barbs on the ends, and viper-like fangs) might have a traditional wyvern name, a name following their humanoid ancestor's traditions, or some combination of the two. (For example, Quentin sroAlveth. His mother is a wyverntouched woman descended from humans, while his father is Alveth, a wyvern.)

Ancestral Name Prefixes:
~ sro- = son of. Pronounced "srow."
~ si- = daughter of. Pronounced "see."
~ kesro- = estranged son of. Pronounced "kess-row."
~ kesi- = estranged daughter of. Pronounced "keh-see."
~ aisro- = adopted son of. Pronounced "eye-srow."
~ aisi- = adopted daughter of. Pronounced "eye-see," or "icy" if you say it quickly enough.
-----------------------

Okay, now that the lesson's out of the way, have some pictures. In the order I drew them in...

Pakzur sroRazurei, of Long Cave
One of the four feytouched children of Razurei and Ki, Pakzur is the warrior of the four. Many of his colleagues call him a "two-legged dragon" due to his ferocity and battle prowess, even on the ground. (Most wyverns prefer air battles, where they can out-maneuver many of their enemies. They are far more adroit fliers than their biggest competitors, the dragons.) When the Wild Spring weyr was threatened, he was often the first to answer the call and the last to leave the battlefield. In his youth, he was quite pugnacious, and as a result of a fierce battle with Razurei's second mate after Ki, he left they weyr to find his own territory. Eventually, he found a place in the mountains, where he fought another wyvern for dominance (losing half of one horn) and founded his own weyr, Long Cave. While his relationship with his mother is still sour due to the fight, his siblings look up to him, and relations between Long Cave, Wild Spring, and Fallen Pines are very good.

Pakzur's name means "Break-Stone" (pak = break, zur = stone). Razurei means "Ruby Queen" (ra = red, zur = stone, rei = queen. The male equivalent of rei is rex, which means "king").

Alveth sroRazurei, of Wild Spring
One of my favorites of Razurei's four feytouched children to write for. He's just so happily Zen. Alveth is Quentin's father, the smallest of Razurei's brood, and a scalecarver by trade. Scalecarvers are a certain brand of draconic spellcasters who work their magic into runes, which are inscribed on a dragon's/wyvern's scales. Think of them as magical tattoos, just less permanent since draconic creatures shed their scales slowly over time, and have one big shed every few years where most scales are replaced. Wyverns and wyverntouched people are well-suited for the job, since their venom naturally etches keratins. (This is how wyverns can fight and poison each other; they release the venom in two squirts, one to get through their foe's scales and another to inject the toxin.) It just needs to be diluted first. Alveth still plies his trade in Wild Spring territory.

Alveth's name means "Blue Craftsman" (al = blue, veth = craftsman or master).

Solshenia siRazurei, of Fallen Pines
Ah, Lady Solshenia. The founder of the Fallen Pines weyr, proprietor of the Crystal Wyvern tavern in Griffite, and a highly-respected mage and collector of magical items. Basically, you do not want to cross Solshenia. She is one powerful woman. One of Razurei's feytouched daughters, she takes after her mother personality-wise and has inherited a great deal of magical power from her wind serpent father. When she reached adulthood, she, like many young wyverns, struck out to build her own hoard; she ended up marrying a wandering wyvern named Haliphrax, having many children, declaring her own territory, and founding her own weyr! She has a keen head for business, due in large part to her fanatical interest in gold and magical artifacts. Her tavern, situated in the mages' district of Griffite, is one of the few with accommodations for creatures of larger-than-humanoid size, which attracts a wide variety of clientele.

Solshenia means "Sun Cliff Flower" (sol = sun, shen = peak or cliff, ia = flower or tree. The "ia" name fragment is usually reserved for female names). Haliphrax means "Salt-Scaled" (hali = salt; phrax = scaled, plated, or encrusted). Alzurion (one of their sons) means "Sapphire Claw" (al = blue, zur = stone, ion = talon or claw).

The fourth of Razurei's feytouched offspring is Colvatha, "Long Tail," but I haven't drawn her yet.

Zelareth sroPakzur, of Long Cave
Hey, look, it's not a wyvern! Well, not a full wyvern, anyway. These are the first few sketches I did of Zelareth, the orange wyverntouched fellow in Pitch Night. As you can see from my notes on the page, he's Quentin's cousin and the seventh son of Pakzur, and is currently employed by his aunt Solshenia in her tavern. A lot of people doubt that he's Pakzur's son, since he's so cheerful, easygoing, and playful, and Pakzur is, well... not. He does have a serious side, though, and definitely inherited his father's ability to calmly plan in a heated situation. When he isn't tending the bar, in the kitchen, waiting tables, or watching his little cousins, Zelareth enjoys writing autobiographical stories about the people he meets and the situations he encounters on the job. (Think James Herriot, if James Herriot was part wyvern and a bartender instead of a veterinarian.) I've been playing with the idea of making him the "writer" of "Children of Balance," but I'm still not sure. I'm also not sure what Zelareth's name means; I lost the translation. Whoops! I'll need to try to concoct it again.

Another sketch of Pakzur, done earlier today. He will EAT YOUR FACE.   Really, I just wanted to draw an angry wyvern. It sort of morphed into Pakzur when I started adding the scales. You can see how a wyvern's fangs come forward when he/she is ready to bite; compare Pakzur's fangs to Alveth's or Zelareth's. (As a side note, it will never cease to amuse me that the "pierce" scale carving on Pakzur's cheek resembles, of all things, the clan marking of Jin. )

And, on the same page as angry Pakzur, a random happy Eastern sort of dragon.

[Kipiru]

I like the way you've managed to make the dragons' faces- they seem so articulate, but If i may say that a bit of more variety in terms of horns and other facial features would make them even more distinguishable. Still, cool work with the table scene, can't wait to see it finished

[Liatai]

*blows cobwebs off the thread* Whew! Now that finals are done and I actually have time to draw again, let's see if I can't keep this thread more active.

Extremely delayed reply... Thanks, Kipiru! I'll keep that in mind. (They'd be easier to tell apart if they were in color, too; they all have different scale colors.)

Okay, now on to the art. I have a page from my sketchbook with several doodles of Kittrick, my courier Gryphon B character from the Deathtrap Dungeon roleplay in the Haunted Mansion. I've been trying to figure out ways to draw her more consistently; normally, the gryphons I draw are usually more leonine (and stocky) in body shape and more canine in ear shape. Trying to figure out a decent way to draw those long bunny-ears has been a struggle in and of itself, but I think I've got it now... or at least, I know how to fudge them well enough. The wings were drawn without references, so they're probably all wonky. Meh.

[VAE]

Now, this is pretty much from a noob coming, but methinks it is awesome, especially the detail bits which is well something i can't do (as well as draw an un-wobbly line)

The wings are alright as far as anyone bothers resolving them, and i have seen enough wings considering my family has hens and ducks.

The only thing which did not look right was the eyes and so in the "eugh slimey" image - since beak cannot change shape like mouth this is harder, and the ears are good step but well the way i would imagine it would be generally pulling back, and possibly contracted pupils as well - after all exaggerating an expression does not always hurt.

The "Blah blah blah" one just bristles with awesome! i actually laughed when seeing it

[Drayco84]

Awwww, she's pretty. Good luck trying to get Dee off of her back now, you'll need it...

[WhiteFox]

I really like how you draw Gryphons. Usually the seem kinda stocky to me, but kit looks pretty slender.

The expressions are pure gold.

[Tapewolf]

Awesome.  You based those on ospreys, right? 

[Liatai]

The only thing which did not look right was the eyes and so in the "eugh slimey" image - since beak cannot change shape like mouth this is harder, and the ears are good step but well the way i would imagine it would be generally pulling back, and possibly contracted pupils as well - after all exaggerating an expression does not always hurt.

Yeah, that one gave me a lot of trouble, especially because of the beak issue. It got to the point where I just had to say "forget it" and move on to the next drawing. I think contracted pupils would show stronger disgust/distress than I was aiming for, but I hear you on the exaggerated body language. Good point.

I really like how you draw Gryphons. Usually the seem kinda stocky to me, but kit looks pretty slender.

That's the impression I was trying for, so thank you! My gryphons usually are a little stockier, but I was hoping to give her the appearance of being lighter and quicker than my other gryphons. Less like a lion, and more like a bird of prey.

Awesome.  You based those on ospreys, right? 

Speaking of birds of prey... You know, I hadn't noticed how osprey-like she looked, especially in black and white. I was actually aiming for something reminiscent of a blue jay (but not exactly like one; just enough to give her a nickname), which is... really hard to tell when she's not colored. Ospreys are nifty, too, though. I'm fine with a "blue osprey" label for Kitt.

Good luck trying to get Dee off of her back now, you'll need it...

Must... resist... urge... to... doodle...

[techmaster-glitch]

I love how expressioned Kittrick's face is! It conveys mood decievingly well (love the little Dee in the last one, too ) The unusually thin and lithe body structure is pretty sleek, as well.

Good luck trying to get Dee off of her back now, you'll need it...

Must... resist... urge... to... doodle...

Awwwww! Come on, give into your doodle urge! Doodle is a good thing!

[Liatai]

Okay, time for a sketch dump.

First off, have a little sketch comic inspired by the Random Hug thread. It's been a long time since I've drawn a comic, and I need to get back into the habit. (Does anyone have any tips for making speech bubbles look neater in the GIMP, by any chance? Or any general comic-making advice?)

Why do I need to get back in the habit, you ask? Hm... I wonder if this has anything to do with it...?

(By the way, if anyone's curious, the "Read Responsibly" shirt comes from a longtime favorite webcomic of mine, Unshelved. If you like books, libraries, or just want to find something to read, I encourage you to check it out.)

Now for some rapid-fire sketches!

• Crystal says ""
• Robert Grimlasher, wererat cleric of pestilence, demands coffee. (Come to think of it, I made Robert a few years ago for a DND campaign, but I think this is the first time I've taken a stab at drawing him.)
• A series of Crystal face sketches from a game of IC Apples to Apples. Sometimes, when I'm writing or roleplaying, I like to draw these sorts of sequences of faces to track how the character's expressions change as the scene rolls on.
• Finally, at the end of the game I drew those faces for, which was full of tension, some bigotry, and pastries, Crystal left the room with this line. I had to draw it. I made her legs a bit long, I think I made Vladim look too young, and I had to change Dosve's headwings from batlike to feathered after I'd drawn them, but all in all, it's not bad for a sketch, I think.

More to come eventually, once I've installed all of my programs on this computer again.

[VAE]

Awesome stuff... specially the facial expressions (hmm, i need to learn drawing those better) and the last image dealing with killing each other....
Age-related methinks Vladim in your rendering looks fine, is just the way you draw makes everyone look younger, including Robert, the Glup-snack wererat...
Only thing i would nitpick is that at the end of that particular session , he would look eager rather than surprised, with the mutual love they had with Dosve at that point...  (It seems however pastries fix everything, specially to someone who lived mostly on tin rations for the last 8 years.... the person who mentions Whiskas near to him will get badly hurt)

[Chairtastic]

Them some good sketches.  *munches*  Good sketches.

[Finally, at the end of the game I drew those faces for, which was full of tension, some bigotry, and pastries, Crystal left the room with this line. I had to draw it. I made her legs a bit long, I think I made Vladim look too young, and I had to change Dosve's headwings from batlike to feathered after I'd drawn them, but all in all, it's not bad for a sketch, I think.

Sorry to give ya trouble with the wings, Liatai!   As well as all the drama.   As for the legs, I think of it as a perspective thing.

Only thing i would nitpick is that at the end of that particular session , he would look eager rather than surprised, with the mutual love they had with Dosve at that point...  (It seems however pastries fix everything, specially to someone who lived mostly on tin rations for the last 8 years.... the person who mentions Whiskas near to him will get badly hurt)

Oh, you shouldn't have mentioned the Whiskas.   Now I've got some ammunition to accelerate the plot! 

And yes, Dosve's pastries are known to end even the most terrible of wars, if only through comparison to rations. 

[Liatai]

Age-related methinks Vladim in your rendering looks fine, is just the way you draw makes everyone look younger, including Robert, the Glup-snack wererat...

I see what you did there.

That's true; I do have a tendency to make people look young, don't I? Hmm. If I end up inking and finishing that last sketch, I'll make sure to fix Vladim's expression then, too.

Sorry to give ya trouble with the wings, Liatai!   As well as all the drama.   As for the legs, I think of it as a perspective thing.

Oh, pfft, it wasn't any trouble! Don't worry about it. Same with the drama; it was pretty fun, actually.

Oh, you shouldn't have mentioned the Whiskas.   Now I've got some ammunition to accelerate the plot!   

... We have a plot?

[Chairtastic]

The Dosve vs Vladim plot of course. 

[techmaster-glitch]

Oh wow, the palindrome comic is so cute I can't believe I actually inspired that!

And again, I -love how you do facial expressions. They're just so....expressive! (That little neko-smiley hovering next to her head in the third panel was a neat touch, too )

[Ghostwish]

I am so trollin- I mean, watching this thread. Post moar art! Moooarrr!!

[Liatai]

All right, all right, I'll post! Hopefully, I'll be able to keep this thread updated with sketches, at least.

So... have a sketch dump from the past few months to kick things off!

These three sketches were from quite a while ago, when I was bored and polled some people in the IRC, asking if they wanted anything sketched. I think the first one came from Inumo, the second from techmasterglitch, and the third one from Meany.

Sketchy design for a fan depicting a bird and a dragon - this is a first draft of a design for the Dungeons and Dragons campaign I'm running in Akellon.
Two birds - the owl is a wizard's familiar, and the hawk is a druid's animal companion. It's also one of the first times I've attempted to draw a hawk; I went a little feather-crazy.
Sketch dump containing lots of animals
An attempt to draw the metallic dragons from D&D from memory.

Then, there came a time when we started up a DMFA-based Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and I began to draw sketches of our characters to use for tokens in MapTool. You can already see attempts at my character, Tamika Hatila Coris the succubus red panda cleric, in the sketch dump... But here are more doodletokens!
The first two - Shenodah the fox were sorcerer and Jerico the skunk demon rogue.
Fenix Quoar McField, incubus bard - his hair was a blast to color.
Fwuffy, rabbit angel sorcerer.
Fwuffy's mother Silky, who is quite fond of using her angel powers to dominate others.
Dosve Donya Piflak, just out of SAIA. He bakes a mean cake. Literally.

And, to wrap things up, a few sketches from the D&D campaign I run in Akellon.
Our drow monk Sszeyl's "I will murder you and your family with an icepick and enjoy every second of it" face.
The Dungeons and Dragons version of Barbarus -- yes, the same Barbarus who was on a Segway up there.

[Ghostwish]

.. Okay I just HAVE to know what people were asking for in the sketches! The third one made me laugh out loud, that's for sure!

That sketch dump contains more than just a few cute drawings.. is that a Tamika I spot?

OGAWD. It's Jerico! Why does he look so -innocent- in his sketch?

More! More! More! These are all so great!

[Chairtastic]

Holy tartar sauce!  Seeing all this in one place is so freaky.  Somehow, it felt like there were more of them floating around for some reason.  Aw well.  Excellent work!

[Gabi]

Wow, so many sketches! Anything for Arroyo?

[Drayco84]

Then, there came a time when we started up a DMFA-based Dungeons and Dragons campaign, and I began to draw sketches of our characters to use for tokens in MapTool. You can already see attempts at my character, Tamika Hatila Coris the succubus red panda cleric, in the sketch dump... But here are more doodletokens!
The first two - Shenodah the fox were sorcerer and Jerico the skunk demon rogue.
Fenix Quoar McField, incubus bard - his hair was a blast to color.
Fwuffy, rabbit angel sorcerer.
Fwuffy's mother Silky, who is quite fond of using her angel powers to dominate others.
Dosve Donya Piflak, just out of SAIA. He bakes a mean cake. Literally.

The only way those could look better is if they were colored. (It would also help me see and distinguish between them them a bit better since I use a screen that's not only bigger than my netbook, but is 3-4 feet away from my eyes. Higher res=smaller pic.)

Still, awesome sketches.

[Ghostwish]

Totally seconding the colored idea. PESTER PESTER PESTER.

[WhiteFox]

The only way those could look better is if they were colored.

That's kind of like saying "the only way this car would be more awesome is if it flew and never needed refueling."

There's just way too much here for me to comment on all at once. @_@ In general, though, the characters are very expresive, and have a lot of individuality and personality to them. There's subtlety to the emotions too, which you don't see very often... at least, I don't. Not often enough.

The faces are fairly stylized, which holds back the expressions in places. Some of the smiles and eyes look like icons, rather than cartoons of actual facial features, if that makes any sense at all... I don't know how else to put it.

[Liatai]

The faces are fairly stylized, which holds back the expressions in places. Some of the smiles and eyes look like icons, rather than cartoons of actual facial features, if that makes any sense at all... I don't know how else to put it.

It makes a lot of sense, and it's something I really need to work on; thanks for the reminder. I've been working on putting less 'stamp-like' mouths on my dragons and creatures with muzzles/beaks, but I seem to have neglected it somewhat with my more humanlike creatures!

Anyway! Today, I have a slew of Christmas/winter solstice/holiday gifts to share. Going in alphabetical order, for the heck of it...

Basilisk: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Caswin: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Danman/VAE: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Drayco84: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Faerie_Alex/modelincard: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Ghostwish: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Inumo: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Llearch: Just color for this one.

Meany: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Techmaster-Glitch: Black and white Color FurAffinity

WhiteFox: Black and white Color FurAffinity

Happy Holidays!  

[Lisky]

wow! Lots of awesome work, Liatai.  Love the variety you're getting into here with all the different characters, body types, and that you colored them all is just, well, really impressive.  Thanks for the gift, i can't tell you how awesome it is to get something like this out of the blue!

Keep up the good work!

[Caswin]

Well, I think you've captured as much of the essence of Llearch as can be captured in a single picture.

Nah, I kid.  Llearch is much, much more than a box.  But the Yuletide likeness is remarkable.

Which is only to be expected, of course -- that box is in good company.  I would comment further, but...

Oh, what the hey.

-Basilisk: ...Oh... for a moment, I thought that was a gi with a D20 as its logo.  By chain of association, I'm now imagining fortune-cookie philosophy on the concept of determining the future by the roll of the dice...
-Caswin: Have I thanked you for this picture lately?  I haven't thanked you in the last hour.  That's long enough. ... For what it's worth, she looks younger than I usually imagine her... but besides me not giving any detail regarding that or having her planned out that well... sorry, ideas are forming.  Be back later. *hangs up sign*
-Vladim: I think the picture speaks for itself, but did you ever see that Christmas episode of Pinky and the Brain?  It's one of the best of the series.
-Drayco: "Haters gonna hate." (Sorry.)
-Faerie_Alex: ...every time I see this picture of Miranda, I think she's crossing her arms behind her head.
-Ghostwish: Ooh... intric-- Is that a face on his well-dressed warforged abdomen?
-Inumo: ...could have sworn I put a coin there... well, here you go.
-Llearch: See above.  Whatta box.
-Meany: Just smiles on this one.  Fond memories.
-Techmaster: I like the way you think. (Puttin' on the ritz!)
-WhiteFox: Ooh... stylishly foreboding.  I might have more to say but it's 12:13 AM.