Tag: Art

“Again!” Retta barked as the sword clattered to the floor. Nelli left the sword where it was.

“This is pointless,” Retta lowered her own sword until the tip was just touching the ground.

“Nothin’ that can save yer life is pointless, Jackanelli Shey,” she said.

“I’m an archer, not a swordswoman. If it comes down to fighting then I’ll rely on my bow.”

“This ain’t gonna be like fighting pirates from the safety of yer own beaches. We don’t do archery. Ya won’t be able to bring that there bow with ya onto the ship. An’ besides, this is not about that.” Retta ran a hand through the tangled mane of her hair. “I’m Wild Hyberetta O’Kread. That name means nothing to ya but it means somethin’ out there.” She pointed to the ocean.

“No one will believe yer my first mate if ya can’t even fight. An’ no O’Kread would ever accept any pirate less than the best.” Nelli crossed her arms.
“So you’re saying that if I can’t fence with you then I don’t meet your considerable standards?”

“What I’m saying is…well, if they catch wind that ya ain’t a pirate proper, that yer workin’ for the General…they’ll gut ya afore ya can blink. An’…an’…well, blaze me, girl, but I love ya. An’ I don’t want nothin’ to happen to ya, especially if it’s because I didn’t teach ya right. So, ya pick up that sword an’ try again.”

“Alright, alright,” Nelli said. She used the motion of picking up the sword to hide her smirk. Retta was always full of so much brag and bluster that one could never tell what she thought on any particular matter. But by the time Nelli stood up again, sword in hand, she was as serious as ever.

“You better watch yourself, Retta. Because you may have a reputation out there, but I have one right here. And Captain Jackanelli Shey D’Grayslen is not one to let a pirate beat her in anything.”

“Oh,” Retta said, lifting her sword back into position, “I was countin’ on that.”

May I have your hand, milady?
And we’ll dance the night away
From five till eight till dusk till dawn
And who cares what the others will say.

Would that I could, my general, dear
But that scene will never play.
Imagine the look of the court
If they think you’ve lead me astray
They’ll chase both out of the kingdom my dear,
And our skin they’ll surely flay.

Just one dance, my lovely queen
No matter how risqué
One dance after the ball is through
Where courtiers hold no sway.

Avalbane always dressed for dancing, in full skirts meant for spinning and low heeled shoes. More than that, even, she always danced. She would hum to herself and float around the library with graceful footwork – as long as no one was watching. Brynn loved to watch her. Every now and again she could catch Ava at it, but never for more than a measure or two. Ava seemed to know instinctively when she was there and stopped, ever self-conscious.

At least Ava managed to practice. Dancing was something they had both done, separately, in the spirit world. But now…Brynn felt there was never enough time for it, not when Laurette had all that work to that needed doing. And if there was no time to dance alone, then there was certainly not enough time to dance with Ava, considering the crowded nature of the house and the chaotic nature of their various jobs.

Still, Laurette always treated her servants better than most wizards. Brynn never asked how Laurette had managed to find out – most likely she would have not given a straight answer anyway. But it came to pass that at least once a month Laurette would make up some excuse to get the others out of the house for the day. On those days the record player was always left out, and a bottle of wine sat chilling in the fridge.

Afterwards they would have to clean out the wine glasses and dispose of the bottle, fix the rugs and clean scuff marks off of the library floor, all before the others arrived home for dinner. But a day alone together, a day to dance, was always worth a little cleaning.

With her usual lenience, Laurette never asked them where the wine went, or why her usual classical records were replaced with swing music. She would only smile in that way she had and ask if they’d had a nice day off.

ANYWAY. This is the first of my Femslash February posts. There should be one every other day. And while I know it’s supposed to be a fan thing I didn’t think there’s any harm in highlighting the many lesbian relationships in my own novels because it’s pretty prevalent for me to just…add lesbians.

So this is Brynn Erin and Avalbane, characters from my novel On the Trail of the Fox!

Did the art progression thing! I thought for sure that this year I’d drawn at least one thing every month but poor August. I did actually draw in November (things for NaNo) but I never scanned it in and I’m too lazy to do it now. Oh well.

Also I can’t believe that I only drew one thing in July and it was fucking GNG fanart. Lame.

Again I know a lot of you only watch me for cross-stitch so sorry!

Current work on Martin – in all honesty I haven’t been working on him all that much…
Current work on Grima – Getting there, I guess! I’ve been trying to work on his wings a lot since that’s the frame for the whole thing but I also get distracted easily so…

I’m still just trucking along.

So this appears to be the final version! It should make a good cross stitch project – especially if I can find a piece of black Aida fabric big enough to take it cause wow it looks a lot better with a black background!

The colors will be tweaked a little bit as I figure out what floss to use for everything but oh well. I know I can’t start it for a few more months but I’m just excited to have it done and actually be a thing to look forward to!

You can at least have the top half of my new pattern, somewhat referenced from in-game events. The colors are a little suspect, for some reason my print screen completely changes the colors??? Oh well.

And I just realized he’s missing a wing. Oops! Still, I think it’s coming along quite well.

We’ll have to see how much I hate myself when I’m actually stitching it though. That is the ultimate test in the embroidery pattern design process.