Jacob-Mace's Journals -- Fur Affinity [dot] net

hunterbahamut and I got some other things I still plan on coloring.

Now, about the D&D stuff I mentioned in the previous journal. Me and my friend Professor Awesome have been working for a long time off and on in making a Demordicai Diamonds variant of the Dungeons&Dragons tabletop RPG. There have been several times where we gathered some ideas but dropped it, picked up again, dropped it, picked it up again and played some standard 4.0 with my middle brother's friends who just got back into D&D, dropped it when the group fell apart for numerous reasons after only a few grueling sessions (probably the worse D&D game I ever played), and then picked it up again recently despite the fact of not having a group anymore to even try it out with. If this project was a baby, it would be either a very dead or a very retarded baby. Possibly the latter considering the acronym for this project would be DDDD. Try to pronounce that and not sound retarded. Mental disability jokes, ho!

I'm confident enough to start sharing what we have been creating for a while here for anyone who is interested. For this journal, I'm going to share the current ideas for how the Hit Points (HP) system, Armor System, and Weapon Systems will work in...-sigh- DDDD. Please, feel free to imagine me saying that as retarded as possible, maybe even with excess spit affecting the sound.

The HP will system is based on two core stats: Stamina and Endurance. Total HP is the sum of both Stamina and Endurance but it is important to keep in mind that Stamina and Endurance affect HP independently. Think of both Stamina and Endurance as separate HP pools, with your total pool being the two of them combined. Generally, most games have you die at 0HP (or in the case of some rules for D&D, a negative variant of either some ratio of your total HP or a set negative amount of HP) and this is usually the case for DDDD, but it is possible to die with HP remaining.

Because you have Stamina and Endurance affecting total HP, changes in either one affect your HP. If Stamina goes up, your HP goes up. If Endurance goes down, your HP goes down. It is best to consider your HP divided up into StaminaHP and EnduranceHP. They both represent different aspects of physical health.

Stamina represents how much energy you physically have. At full Stamina, you are energetic and ready to go! At 0 Stamina, you are worn out and too tired to do anything too complex. Stamina is depleted by doing certain complex or strenuous actions like climbing a rock wall, pushing a huge stone block, doing complex (and deadly) combat moves, getting hit by an enemy's attack, or traveling for long periods of time without rest. Some actions take more stamina than others, some take a very minimal toll. A tired character can't do certain actions if they don't have the stamina for it and is much easier to defeat in combat due to much of their HP being already depleted. The same goes for tired enemies. Stamina is easily restored by resting and as Stamina is restored, so is StaminaHP.

The Stamina system also logically prevents cases of repeated skill checks for certain things. For example, Hulk Hogan wants to push a stone block and has to roll a strength check. He doesn't know it but the number he has to obtain is only reachable by combining his Strength Modifier with the roll of a d20 (a 20-sided dice) landing on the 20 side. He rolls many times to finally get the 20 side but with the Stamina system, he can't just stand there and infinitely roll without getting tired. Now if he gets too tired, putting himself at greater risk should combat occur, another care can always step in or maybe a good rest for the party is in order. Maybe even a restorative item perhaps.

Getting hit in combat will reduce your Stamina. When you take damage, you lose HP and StaminaHP is on top and is lost first. Combat is serious business and not getting hit is very important when delving into deep and long dungeons. Get hit too much and you will run out of Stamina and will be unable to do more strenuous and deadly attack moves in the battle, leaving you with only the more basic hack and slash moves available. If only your StaminaHP is damaged, you're a little roughed up but nothing a good rest or some light healing can't easily cure.

Endurance is much more vital than Stamina and represents just how physically intact your body is. When your Endurance drops to 0, your body is no longer capable of keeping you alive and you die. Like Stamina, Endurance has it's own HP pool but there are only a few things that reduce Endurance and those are generally very bad things like taking damage.

EnduranceHP is layered underneath StaminaHP and is damaged last. If the player is wearing armor, the armor provides a third pseudo HP pool that represents the armor's durability in between StaminaHP and EnduranceHP. When a player takes damage, say from an enemy striking the player with a sword, here's how it works:

Falcor the Lv2 Hunter has 75HP
25 from his Stamina
25 from the Leather Armor he is wearing
25 from his Endurance

Falcor gets hit by a player who feels like doing some teamkilling and takes a whopping 55 damage. He now has 20HP left and is bloodied. His Leather Armor is damaged to the point of providing no more protection. He now has:
0 StaminaHP and can't use complex abilities (the damage hits this first)
0 ArmorHP from the now severely damaged Leather Armor he was wearing (this is hit second)
20 EnduranceHP left (this is hit last)

A player or enemy is considered "Bloodied" when their EnduranceHP is at any amount other than at a full 100% and sometimes certain things can be triggered when a player or an enemy becomes Bloodied or is currently Bloodied. Any damage you take to EnduranceHP represents you being physically hurt form anywhere to a small cut (like 1 point of damage) to possibly missing a limb or having your insides become your outsides. The more damage a player takes to endurance, the more their life is in peril.

EnduranceHP generally takes more time to heal than StaminaHP and should be protected as much as possible. A short rest may not be long enough to heal EnduranceHP, something more along the lines of heavy healing or a long rest in a safe town would be more effective. Even then, the more EnduranceHP lost, the more time and/or resources may be needed to get them back up to health. One day of a long rest may heal enough to mend any small cuts well enough but it may take a long rest of several days and some stitches, medicine, or other healing to mend a large gash. Broken bones are especially bad and a decapitated head generally doesn't make a verbal request for healing. Armor is your friend and you should treat it like one.

I hope that make sense. I'm not always good at explaining things. For other examples, it is similar to how Borderlands or recent Halo games work with their shield and health mechanics. Kudos to you if you can correctly guess just what game truly inspired this. It's one of Professor Awesome's favorites though I have never beat it and haven't played it since I was in elementary school (another thing on my to-do list).

When it comes to armor, we felt D&D core rules were just to be basic and disregarded armor, and weapons too but to a lesser degree, as relatively unimportant and not really worth mentioning much unless it is magical. In fact, the stat sheets generally give you a slot for a suit of armor but not for separate pieces. The separate pieces of equipment, like for hands, chest, head, legs, are generally to be only used if the armor piece in general is magical. Then it is important. DDDD will have a much greater focus on items and equipment, especially when it comes to looting and crafting.

There are 3 different classifications of Armor (4 if you count "unarmored", as in naked). These are simply Light, Medium, and Heavy and offer increasingly more protection in that order.

Light Armor is the lightest armor and is by far the weakest. It has only one beneficial stat at that is its ArmorHP. ArmorHP is the durability of the armor and this pool of HP protects your EnduranceHP, resting in between StaminaHP and EnduranceHP. when ArmorHP is depleted, the Armor itself is damaged to the point of providing no protection. Light Armor is generally weak equipment like a T-shirt, or Khaki Pants, or Bikini. While they do provide a very minimal amount of protection, especially bikinis, they are pretty much the worse thing you can wear into battle. The upside to them is that they are very light and a character equipped with light armor will often suffer no penalties at all associated with the Armor's weight or ease of maneuverability.

Next up is Medium Armor. Medium Armor is the happy balance between Light and Heavy. It offers increased ArmorHP compared to Light Armor. It also offers a second benefit, an increase to "Armor Class" (commonly called AC in D&D). Armor Class, or AC for short, plays a large role in determining whether an attack hits you or not [NOTE: We may change the name of this stat later if we can think of anything better due to concerns with how the name itself does not fit accurately enough for our liking with what it is supposed to represent since there is a difference in realism when it comes to dodging an attack and an attack deflecting off of armor. To us, "Armor" shouldn't be associated with dodging/evading even though it is mechanically the same as a blow deflecting off a player's armor]. Medium Armor is not only more durable but it grants an increased probability for attacks to deflect of the armor and be ineffective entirely, protecting all pools of HP. Medium Armor would encompass types of Armor like Hide Gauntlets, a Leather Chestpiece, or a Chainmail Bikini that still is more fashion than function. So the upside to Medium Armor is a greater ArmorHP and an AC increase that makes the wearer more difficult to damage entirely. The downside to Medium Armor is that there may be minor penalties associated with it's weight and ease of maneuverability when wearing it, like a small hit to Dexterity for example.

The last tier of Armor is Heavy Armor. Heavy Armor is the best of the best and it weighs the most and can sometimes be very cumbersome and expensive to buy or craft!). The benefits it provides are the greatest of all Armor types. Heavy Armor has the greatest ArmorHP and is very durable and makes you very durable as well. It also grants a greater boost to Armor Class than Medium Armor, making enemy attacks more likely to ping of clink off a player's tough armor while the player laughs at their feeble attempts to inflict damage. Thirdly, Heavy Armor provides another boost that no other type of Armor does, it offers some damage resistance. This amount may be small but it's effect adds up greatly overtime. Say for example, a full suit of Platemail provides the player with General Damage Resistance +2. Any general damage that player would take, like being hit with a sword, is reduced by 2. Combine that with greater ArmorHP AND a greater chance for general attacks to do nothing at all and you get Armor that lives up to the tit;e of "Heavy". Heavy Armor does it's job well and enemies wearing it should be fought with care. But even Heavy Armor has it's weaknesses! (that's coming in a little bit). The upsides of Heavy Armor are the massive ArmorHP, high AC boost, and constant damage resistance. The downsides are the largest penalties in wearing it due to it's heavy weight and possible major problems maneuver while wearing it. Don't expect a physically frail character to perform well when wearing Heavy Armor but that doesn't stop them from being able to try, well, unless they can't even pick it up.

Anyone, regardless of Race or Class, can wear any type of Armor. Want to play a Sorcerer who charges his Platemail with lightning that electrocutes enemies with a deadly bear hug? You can do that! Want to be a thief who jingles about in Chainmail because Chainmail Bikinis are in fashion this season (and possibly magical)? You can do that to! Want to run around naked and die at Lv1 because you thought armor was for n00bs? You can do that to! And maybe even come back from the dead and feast upon your more intelligent allies' brains! The only restrictions in armor are that it has to fit you and that you have to be strong enough to wield it UNLESS you can fit into int and want to lay on the ground immobile. For example, someone playing a Drakune character will have make sure their Armor is designed in consideration of their generally thick tails. Characters of certain races, due to anatomy, may be able to wear special pieces of equipment like a tail ring for example. It's pretty hard to wear a tail ring when you don't have a tail or wear ear rings when you don't have your ears pierced (unless they are clip-ons).

On to the glorious world of Weapons! This is the last thing I will cover in this probably very long journal. The core D&D game, at least for editions 3.5 and 4.0 as far as I know, do allow for weilding all sorts of weapons but there is often very little difference between them, completely disregarding the weapon's way of killing. The only difference is usually something along the lines of a difference in damage and maybe an extra little ability like having an improved critical hit chance. There really isn't a whole lot of incentive to use other weapons beyond role playing and a few benefits that combo with it when it comes to playing a particular Class or Race. Some weapons are blatantly more powerful than others (though often not by too much) and with so little incentive to use anything else, there isn't a lot of room for customizing dramatically different play styles. And like armor, often the only weapons that are of importance are the ever present magical weapons. In DDDD (I still think it sounds retarded), we are changing that up!

Weapons, like Armor, come in a variety of types that perform different functions. Unlike Armor, there are 5 types of weapons. Those types are Slicing Weapons, Stabbing Weapons, Smashing Weapons, Sorcery Weapons, and Special Weapons. Look at that, they are all thematically named with the letter "S" too!

Weapons are generally made with only one purpose: killing. But not all weapons accomplish that purpose in the same way. Each weapon type, with the exception of Special, has certain bonuses that reflect it's method of killing.

Slicing Weapons are the most iconic and involve, well, slicing and slashing and enemy to death. Slicing Weapons almost always have a blade whose edge is used to cause gashes and cuts in an enemy, sometimes even severing body parts! Swords, knives, and other bladed objects that kill by using their sharp edges fall into this category. They get a big damage bonus against Unarmored and Light Armored targets as they rip through flesh and cloth. If of good quality, they are can be well balanced, easy to use, but like with all weapons, difficult to master. They have few if any penalties of any sort but don't fare as well against more armored targets compared to other Weapon Types. Want to quickly slaughter the poor, helpless farmers? Use a Slicing Weapon! Want to kill the pit fighter clad in Platemail and become arena champion? You should seriously consider pick a different weapon rather than use a Slicing Weapon unless you have a fetish for ticking heavily armored foes.

Pros: Great against Unarmored or Light Armored foes, Easy to use!
Cons: Generally worst Weapon Type against Medium and especially Heavy Armor.

Stabbing Weapons are all about stabbing, piercing, and penetrating. They are designed to do nasty damage to armor and hurt whoever is inside. They are not meant for slicing or severing body parts at all unlike Slicing Weapons. Of all the Weapon Types, Stabbing Weapons could be considered the most deadly. They consist of pointy stiletto daggers, spears, throwing knives, arrows, and other pointy objects. When a Stabbing Weapon hits an enemy, it bypasses StaminaHP completely (think Mordecai's Trespass skill in Borderlands 1 where StaminaHP = Shields) and does damage to ArmorHP first and then EnduranceHP. If the enemy is has no functional Armor remaining, it bypasses StaminaHP and goes straight to EnduranceHP. Sometimes Stabbing Weapons may bypass not only StaminaHP but ArmorHP as well, getting right to the meaty flesh inside depending on luck of the dice and the type and quality of the weapon itself. The downside is that unlike Slicing Weapons which are swung in a thick arc to hit the target, Stabbing Weapons must hit with their small point to deal their damage and their is a much higher margin of error to miss with a Stabbing Weapon, more so when the enemy is particularly nimble. In addition, some Stabbing Weapons are long and become clumsy in close quarters combat but some Stabbing Weapons, like stiletto daggers, are most accurate in very close quarters.

Pros: May bypass StaminaHP and even ArmorHP and thus very effective against armored foes!
Cons: They are generally less accurate than other Weapon Types, some are clumsy at varying ranges.

Smashing Weapons are for those characters who love to smash and crush their enemies! To quote a great hero of Jersey City: "We tried no smashing, and that didn't work. From now on, I'm sticking to my strengths. And smashing is my strengths. I just need to find the right way to smash him." Smashing Weapons encompass both blunt and hafted weapons that rely on brute force to get the job done and do major damage. Hammers, axes, maces, even the most basic wooden staff or even a stick for that matter goes in this category though the last two examples may vary considerably from their more burly smashing brethren. Smashing Weapons are not only high damage weapons, especially the two-handed ones, but they are also very effective against Medium and especially Heavy Armor but in a way different than Stabbing Weapons. Unlike Stabbing Weapons that goes deals damage going through Armor, Smashing Weapons focus on busting op the armor as much as possible and whatever is inside it. In addition to doing already high damage, they do additional damage to ArmorHP, the heavier the armor the better! Any benefits to AC given by the enemy's Armor may also be negated to an extent, making Smashing Weapons far less likely to be deflected off even the strongest of Armor. Out of all the Weapon Types, Smashing Weapons are usually the heaviest and most unbalanced (there are exceptions) and users may suffer some steep penalties if they aren't strong enough to wield it proficient enough to wield it effectively.

Pros: High Damage, Devastates enemy Armor, especially Heavy Armor.
Cons: Cumbersome to use for the weak and inexperienced.

The 4th Weapon Type is a special type, it's Sorcery Weapons. These weapons are very unique and very deadly when used by uniquely gifted individuals. Sorcery Weapons is often more of a subtype rather than a completely different classification as any Slicing, Stabbing, Smashing, or some Special Weapons can also be a Sorcery Weapons. A Sorcerer's Sword works just like a regular Slicing Weapon, same as a Sorcerer's Warhammer follows the traits of Smashing Weapons. What separates these is sorcery of course! But not in the usual D&D way of being "enchanted". You won't see a +2 Flaming Iron Long Sword of Swiftness or anything like that when it comes to Sorcery Weapons. They are technologically advanced weaponry utilization gems that are commonly called "Blood Diamonds" that function like a crystalline cancer that infects and saps the Life Force out of living beings until they die. Most of the time this relationship is parasitic but in some cases it is symbiotic but that's going into the Sorcery-oriented Classes. Since Blood Diamonds feed off of Life Force, or Life Energy, of a living being, they often need be used by a living being to be utilized to their full potential. In some cases, that alone is not enough and the wielder must know how to channel their Life Energy into the Blood Diamonds in the Weapon for a particular effect to occur. Not all Blood Diamonds are created equal and Sorcery Weapons even more so.

For example, say you want to have a Sorcery Sword, one of the kind that slices and slashes just like a regular sword but unlike a regular sword, the blade can heat up upon command, maybe even burst into flames in the process, so it can cut threw Armor and flesh like a giant hot knife through buttery flesh and Armor. There are a few ways this Sorcery Sword may work, limiting the potential users.

Method 1 (Very Limited):
The sword has Fire-aligned Blood Diamonds that require Life Energy to be channeled into them. The user must know how to do this. Second, the user's Life Energy must be Fire-aligned as well to a certain, probably significant degree, thus requiring the user to be infected with Fire-Aligned Blood Diamonds. Essentially a Sorcerer's and only a Sorcerer's weapon. No need to worry about it being very dangerous should it fall into the hands of most people. It would be wielded only as a common sword to most or scraped for the Blood Diamonds inside.

Method 2 (Somewhat Limited):
This method is almost exactly like Method 1. The user must know how to channel their Life Energy to activate the Blood Diamonds but the Blood Diamonds are either particularly voracious and not picky at all in what they consume and/or a combination of Blood Diamonds with the former's traits along with a very particular Blood Diamonds that does the blade heating. In this case, the user only needs to know how to channel their Life Energy to activate it. You could have an Elementalist of any type wield it, a Monk wield it, or someone who just knows how to channel their Life Energies wield it to it's full potential. Potentially a little more dangerous should it get lost and wind up in someone else's hands.

Method 3 (Not Very Limited, May Still Have Problems):
This method requires no magical expertise or Life Energy channeling skill whatsoever. It's so easy a caveman (or worse) can do it. The sword may ignite and heat up with a simple action depending on the machinery inside the sword. It could be a switch system that activates when you hold it upside down and heats up over five minutes, or you turn the pommel to activate it, or maybe it has a trigger or a button on the handle somewhere. It's made so anyone can use it and can be very dangerous in anyone's hands. There is a catch though. Because Blood Diamonds operate like batteries, they eventually run out of charge and become inoperable. Most can be recharged but this method of crafting is made so anyone can use it, so long as the Blood Diamonds inside are charged. You will need to find a way to recharge it one way or another depending the specifics of the sword and it's components. You may need to get your Sorcerer buddy to charge it for you, or maybe you need have to go through a lot of hassle to dismantle part of the sword even to get the Blood Diamonds out. Maybe slaying someone and letting their blood flow down the channel and into little canals in the hilt onto the Blood Diamonds inside (blood has oodles of the original owner's Life Energy inside). So just because anyone can use it in the short term doesn't mean it won't be a hassle in the long term when it comes to Sorcery Weapons made under this method.

Sorcery Weapons can have a variety of additional effects, flaming and/or a heat blade is just one. They are elementally aligned due to Blood Diamonds being aligned to one of the four elements: Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water (sorry Captain Planet, Heart isn't an element). It is also possible to have Sorcery Armor and other objects but that gets even more technologically advanced and the amount of energy needed increases and sometimes they may not be as useful in the same way as Sorcery Weapons. Most people probably wouldn't want to wear anything that burns them alive or freezes them solid.

Sorcery Weapons are a lot more complex than their regular counter parts but can be EXTREMELY deadly. In DDDD, Sorcerers and melee weapons can get along very, VERY well. The downside to these weapons, besides certain compatibility problems is that you have to drain your own life, or in this case StaminaHP to use them to their full potential. A Sorcerer may have to be careful on when to utilize his Sorcery Weapon, he won't want to tire himself out and drain too much of his StaminaHP. Power comes with a price but being wise can go a long way. So to sum it up:

Pros: Works like regular weapons with added powerful magical effects!
Cons: Possible usage restrictions, StaminaHP is often sacrificed for magical effects.

And the last Weapon Type is Special Weapons. These are weapons that don't easily fall into the other categories. Weapons that don't Slice, Stab, Smash, or use Sorcery exclusively and have almost no other practical weapon uses (like a wand or a ring that shoots fireballs) go into the Special Weapons category. These Weapons may have unique rules applied to them or they may be very mundane. Whips, many improvised weapons like throwing random items, thrown potions, and other odd weapons fall into this category. It's pretty much a catch-all category for all the weapon misfits.

Pros: Exotic or Odd Weapons???
Cons: Weapons may be very basic???

I think I'll stop there for now with the DDDD stuff. Didn't think it would take 5 HOURS to type but whatever. Probably should have just covered one aspect but 3 is good I suppose. MY HANDS FEEL LIKE THEY ARE GOING TO FALL OFF NOW. This journal is an extremely long read. I'll probably go into some more DDDD gameplay stuff in a later journal. If you're interested and read through all that and would like me to cover a certain topic for next journal in regards to DDDD, let me know! On a side note, I wonder if this is my longest journal ever?

16 Comments | View Journal

October Journal Time and DD Story Time

Posted 13 years ago

Yet again, another long time in between journals. I was planning on doing a new one at the beginning of this week but I got distracted and it got put off. So better late than never. Sorry again for seemingly vanishing off the face of the internet for a month and for not much new art or new Demordicai Diamonds pages. I've been having to deal with a combination of family drama, financial problems (worse than the usually grim finances), and on top of that, a bad case of art block.

For the past several, I've been trying to deal with some nasty art block. I don't know what's up but my art mojo just feels really drained. I managed to color a few sketches this month but besides a few other sketches I have yet to color, I haven't been able to produce much of anything. The next page of Demordicai Diamonds, which I thought was going to be a quick and easy one considering it's a one-panel page, has been giving me a heck of a lot of trouble and I've had to restart the drawing process on it several times. Ugh, it hasn't been wanting to come to be and Rune and Dalken just won't cooperate with me on the paper. I took a break from attempting art at all this week and decided to focus on working with Professor Awesome on the story of Demordicai Diamonds from where we are currently at with planning. Crafting the story is by far the funnest part of making Demordicai Diamonds and it's been a while since we've taken the time to continue the story further. The comic is so ridiculously far behind and getting even farther still. To put things in a better comparison, the comic has documented less than a full 24 hours of time in the world following Dalken and Rune around. Story-wise, there is more than 2 years chock full of days of time following Dalken and Rune around with no time skipped. This week so far of work on the story has added almost another week to the mountain of story that has yet to be made into comic. I suppose I can share some of it, nothing SUPER important to the main story plotlines but if you don't like spoilers of any sort then stop reading now even though I'll probably die of old age long before the comic gets this far at the current rate.

So currently, Dalken, Rune and assorted friends have taken up winter quarters in Dalken's homeland high in the Rahmspine mountains. As if winter isn't already cold enough, it's even colder up in the mountains but the drakunes that have lived and mined there for centuries have sturdy and warm shelters in the clifftop mining towns which are currently under the rule of the High Priestess Delilah, one of Dalken's younger and noticeably taller sisters. Despite the added harshness of the environment, what it lacks in warmth outside it more than makes up for in safety. Nestled in between feuding countries isn't a good thing either but being high up and hard to get to (especially if you have no wings) makes it much safer than the lands below for those that have reason to be wary.

In recent times, Dalken and his family (well, much more Dalken's family than Dalken himself who is somewhat sorta ostracized) have been dealing with a recent mine collapsed. Rumors of sabotage are spreading throughout the populace and the temple and speculations of sorcery playing a role are growing. In the meanwhile, the current and hopefully temporary ikeeri population is bored sick and is getting together to throw a festival despite the winter cold. All sorts of preparatory tasks have been taken up by various folk. Some are contributing with cooking, with decorating, with cleaning, with "wine tasting"/getting prematurely drunk, and with other tasks. The drakune priestesses of the temple pay little heed to the festive planning as they mainly focus their attention more on the mines and what aftermath of the collapse.

One task in particular that needed done for the festival preparations was one that came as a bit of a surprise. Turns out the majority of people that live in the Rahmspine mountains are terrible musicians and should rightly feel very bad about that. So Rune decides to take up the job and descend into the lands below to search for some musicians. Specifically and minimally, one muscian who specializes in a string instrument, one in a woodwind instrument, and one in a percussion instrument. Should Rune fail in her epic quest, many people will have only the dreadful sounds of chewing, drinking, and/or vomiting to boost their spirits during the days of festivity. A tragic fate indeed.

For once in a long time, Rune goes on quest all by her lonesome and the title of "shut-in" doesn't quite fit so much. Some folk just don't understand why Rune would rather stay safe in a warm town, with warm-hearted friends, with warm food and drink, than wander the lands looking for new and unique ways of possibly dying and/or having a generally bad time. For some reason, some residents just expect Rune to not mind at all and have to worries or fears or any other cause for hesitation when it comes to dealing with the undead, dragons, various and often hungry beasts, villainous thieves and highwaymen, corrupt persons of particular powers, nefarious nobles, necromancer mimes and their necromancer jester cousins, savage tribes of darkri, creepy fanclub members (not to be confused with the delightful fanclub members), assassins, excessively smelly people who are oblivious to just how horrid their smell is, and other vile horrors that lurk in shadows of the world and in public restrooms. But even Rune gets cabin fever and wants to be helpful and get a little taste of adventure. And this time in peace without Dalken heckling her.

Just having herself and her stuffed traveling pack to travel with, Rune descends down the mountain and starts her journey. Lucky for Rune, she is one of two ikeeri residents on the mountain who grow a thick and extra fluffy fur coat in the winter time though her color stays a depressing little cloud shade of gray (not to be confused with the book that features 50 shades of the color in particular that is currently being read by an equally particular tavernkeeper). Unlike other jealous and envious people who refuse to be in any sledding competition with Rune participating, Rune has an easy and fun time descending down the mountain into the lands below and passes the burnt remains of another township she had residence in for a few months previously. Of course Rune takes a little bit of time to wander around the ruins and stops at the little house she lived in for a time. It is burnt but still stands badly damaged, making it one of the few buildings that can still be considered a building. Golden Meadows, now Somewhat Formerly Bloody Meadows, is just empty and haunting. Could have been worse, other towns nearby has suffered much more grislier fates.

The weather is fair, cold but clear as Rune makes her way down the path. The snow starts to clear off the path due to frequent use as she gets closer and closer to more well-traveled stretches of road. She hasn't even begun to break into the provisions Juna packed for her. In Rune's semi-rushed departure, Rune only now realizes she has almost no idea of just what Juna supplied her with in her traveller's pack. It may have been best that Rune pack herself but sometimes it can be a good thing to be considerate of others who may worry about you and let them pack for you so they can rest assured that at least you'll be prepared. It seemed like sound logic at the time but Rune doesn't really care too much at the moment, Juna is at least a good cook and has a better mind about her than Dalken.

And so Rune travels and stuff happens. The End. Nah, I'm just getting tired of sitting here at 3:00 AM typing for a few hours and I don't want to delay a new journal any longer. If anyone is interested, I'll continue a bit further with a very rough description of the newest bits of story me and Professor Awesome are currently adding to Demordicai Diamonds. Also, expect next journal, probably soon-ish, to have more details on other stuff going on with my life including: Zuko (my cat) has a tooth problem and won't eat, my parents' negligence on bills (even ones they can afford), my brother trying to get my dad to cosign on a $25,000 loan for a crappy flood-prone house that will SUPER COLEGATE BUTTFUCK my family's already horrible financial situation...and my dad is considering doing it too, other stupid drama and crap, not enough food to eat, and some other job news that may be hopeful but at the same time is starting to have the silver lining that I thought that might be there vanish. So yeah, fun stuff for me to vent about. And that's not even getting into politics!

Oh, I do have some more fun things to discuss like worldbuilding stuff, the Demordicai Diamonds variant of Dungeons&Dragons, and some other world design stuff. There are a few things that I'd like to hear some input on when it comes to world design and other design stuff if anyone would like to share their thoughts but that's for next journal. I'm tired, good night for now internet.

0 Comments | View Journal

Robots ate my baby

Posted 13 years ago

Oh, boy. It's been well over a month since my last journal and I've put this one off even more than usual! A lot has happened in the last month and a half, that's for sure.

My birthday has came and gone and I'm another year older. I had a big dinner and I got a few brony t-shirts that I've been wearing a lot lately. I didn't really have a party and I don't really care much for having a party, it's just my birthday after all though a big dinner is always welcome!

The chicken coop is pretty much done (close enough) and the chickens are safe within it's confines. It does need to be winterized now before the real cold weather hits and I'm going to have to do that sometime soon. All 16 of them are laying eggs now and one is laying double yolk eggs. It's good that they are finally laying eggs and not a single one of them has died (unlike MY chickens from last year). Though they are my mom's chicken's, they're considered mine when it comes to the work involved but hers when it comes to the profit. I had to confront her on that bullshit back in August when I found out she was secretly pocketing the money from some eggs that I didn't even know we were selling yet. Even when she was in better health, she didn't put forth any effort to care for them, even something as simple as feeding them (it's so easy a toddler can do it) warranted calling me and demanding I drive about 10 miles back to the house just to spend less than 5 minutes feeding them because no one else wanted to but they still would fed the cat and the dog. It was the same crap last year when I had my flock of chickens. Of course my dad has been a pain with his involvement in trying to make the chickencoop due to his extreme particularness combined with a horrible habit of going beyond an advisory role AND never finishing what he starts and throws a fit when someone else attempts to finish what he started because it isn't exactly what he would do...if he ever would finish anything that is.

Anyway, chickens laying eggs, work is pretty much done, I have bad sunburn from fixing coop and stuff up, egg profit now goes first to maintaining chickens, and things seem to be fairly sorted out with chickens for now.

My mom has been in and out of the hospital a lot since my last journal. And it's one big medical mess. The short summary is that she's suffering from reduced lung function combined with congestive heart failure. A very bad combination. I'm usually one of the last to know what's going on as most of my family will pester me with irritatingly silly and trivial things but never contact me when something serious and important comes up and even then I only get distorted bits and pieces of info that may or may not even be accurate. Well, my mom has been a smoker most of her life and that has probably only made things worse. Ever since she had a cancerous mole on her nose removed, she went downhill fast. First she was isolated in the hospital with some type of pneumonia that caused fluid build up in her lungs. I don't know if this was somehow caused by nose surgery but after the infection was cleared up, she was fine for a few days until she took another spell and it came back. After dealing with the idiots at the hospital she was currently going to who really didn't know what they were doing, she went to a different one a little further away and they started doing heart tests and found that her heart function wasn't good. I've been told stuff from bad valves, to fluid build up, to damaged electrical system. It's overwhelming for me trying to make sense out of everything I'm told. So she eventually got released again but she had to wear a special vest that if I'm correct, works like a defibrillator should her heart's electrical system fail. And she was doing well again for a while. This probably was a bad sign of heart function and blood flow in the past but I noticed my mom would crank up the furnace all the way sometimes, even in summer occasionally because she was cold and it certainly WASN'T cold in the house. Normal people don't do that but trying to tell her that could be a problem just never got through to her.

So earlier this month, me and Professor Awesome were heading out to the midnight release of Borderlands 2 (more on that later in the journal). Turns out I left my wallet in my other pants pocket back at my house so we had to head out there first to get it and make a big loop into town instead. So I get there, find my wallet definitely not where I left it, and I talk to my dad who surprises me with the fact that my mom is in the hospital...again. And no one bothered to take a minute and call me up and tell me. If I hadn't have forgot my wallet, it would have been another 5 days or so until I would have headed home and learned about it. Supposedly she had some sort of heart attack (not the blockage kind I don't think since a heart catheter earlier showed no blockages, I believe electrical failure maybe?) while in the hospital and me and my dad brought her coffee and donuts from a new Dunkin Donuts that opened up over in West Virginia (Woo! We've never had a Dunkin Donuts anywhere withing 100 miles of here previously and damn do they sell some fine donuts and coffee!). She was released Monday this week with some special medication and she'll probably have to go back for various check ups. At some point maybe she might get a pace maker but I really don't know. Like I said, this is a lot for me to take in and try to figure out and weed out good info from bad.

Now with her home and in frail shape, it looks like it's going to be up to me to watch over her and I'm going to be stuck a lot more than what I really want. Hell, I hate it here but it's not like any of my older siblings are going to help out. My sister is even in denial about our mother's health but she and my mom have butted heads for quite some time so their relationship has a lot of animosity in it (and a lot of annoying drama). I'm pretty much going to be the guy who has to call 911 should anything happen, that's what I'm going to have to be stuck at the house for. It really puts a monkey wrench into some plans, especially when it comes to employment and art.

Professor Awesome managed to get both of us job interviews at a grocery store in town for a butcher's apprenticeship program. He got to mean the store manager and talk with him as well but I didn't. The interviews for both of us went well but like usual, never well enough to net either one of us a job. It's tough trying to break into the job market around here when you have little to no work experience and so many people with oodles of work experience, families, and impressive resumes in general are unemployed and taking any job they can. It's tough competing with them. No one wants to hire someone who has been out of high school for 4 years and barely has any work experience when they can hire someone much older who has decades of work experience. When Professor Awesome spoke to the store manager, he told me that what the store manager told him was that he gets swamped with job applications from college graduates alone who graduate college with tens of thousands of dollars in debt and find themselves with a worthless degree that they can't get a job with. Pretty much the same boat me and Professor Awesome are in with the exception that neither one of us has any debt. More competition though. I've been still trying to figure out what I can do to be an entrepreneur and make a little bit of a business with this bad economy seeing how it's hell trying to get hired anywhere but I haven't had much success with besides a little with the chickens but that is more of a family thing, especially with my mom being in poor health right now. Still, an interview is a lot better than no interview and if a job ever pops up at that grocery store again, applying for it will be a breeze the next time around.

So Borderlands 2 finally came out and it was well worth the wait! I've been playing that here and there and Professor Awesome's big investment in Xbox stuff for himself has paid off since for once both me and him and his sister as well can all play together. It's been a lot of good fun and a big stress reliever shooting psycho midgets and lighting them on fire and listen to them babel. I definitely recommend picking this game up and giving it a play, especially if you enjoyed the first one. It's a lot heavier on story than the first one and that's a major improvement. Also, all the previous main characters all have speaking roles and fleshed out personalities and are very important to the story. We haven't beaten it yet which is a good thing, there is plenty of game in it (unlike other shooters like Halo where it only takes a day to get through the campaign on legendary difficulty and much, much less time on normal difficulty).

Alright, time for the art stuff! Demordicai Diamonds is starting to get a little back on track now that Page 68 is done. I already have Page 69 scripted though it is giving me some trouble. I was pretty confident that the next page was going to be easier and you'd think it would be if you saw what I had planned for it but Rune and Dalken are being derps again and not cooperating that well. Still, I have some of it penciled as of this journal and even if I restart, I have a fairly good idea with just how I'm going to draw it. There is also the trouble of trying to work a bit from home since I may be stuck here for a while. Me and Professor Awesome have been trying to find ways to work around it as best as possible to keep new pages coming and with as minimal delay as possible.

There is still a good bit of Chapter 2 left to finish, more than I was originally estimating a while back ago but that's alright. It's like rolling cookie dough, the more you roll it and get closer to cutting, the longer the dough gets (you just don't want it too long though!). There is a small chance that I may be done with Chapter 2 by the end of the year but if you're reading this than you are probably woefully aware at how horrendous my updating tends to be. There is a good chance that I might be able to get Page 69 done by this Friday or maybe the weekend.

As for other art, I have a few things sketched out and another drawing planned but whether I'll finish them or not is a different story. I really can't say for sure but there may be some new stuff I'll be posting sometime in the future. This whole thing with my mom's health is going to be hard to work around but I may still be able to get art done. Since I don't have a scanner here I will still need to once way or another get my art to Professor Awesome's house to scan it but that shouldn't be a problem. I'm more concerned with being able to draw, that's were the biggest problems hit.

That's about all I can think of for now. Ugh, I shouldn't have put off typing up a new journal for so long. I normally feel like I'm forgetting something but this time I feel like I'm forgetting a lot of things, it has been a month and while since the last journal.

Lol, title of this journal is Borderlands 2 related. Professor Awesome has been singing that line Aerosmith-style and is trying to make a full song out of it...well, sorta. It would be awesome to hear a psycho sing something like that.

0 Comments | View Journal

Job Interview, Art Plans, D&D, and More

Posted 13 years ago

It's been another long while since my last journal and a lot of stuff has happened since then. Where to start? I had a job interview about a week ago. The call came out of the blue and was a really pleasant surprise. I thought it went pretty well but I didn't get the second call-back telling me I got the job unfortunately. I'm a little disappointed but it was nice to at least get a call for an interview after months of not being able to get even that. Back to the seemingly never-ending job hunt for me again.

Me and Professor Awesome went and played a game of D&D earlier this week over at where my middle brother has been staying. Took hours to just get through a few encounters but it was fun though still confusing. Professor Awesome made note cards for me which was a BIG help but while I think I finally got a grasp on how the game actually works mechanically now, I still get overwhelmed by the complexity of it. We had a six-man group going on, bigger than any game I've ever played in, and we were playing by 4.0 rules if anyone was curious. This was Professor Awesome's first game though I've played a little, and died a lot, in the past. We've been talking about it for the past few days and we've decided that we're going to customize a lot of things and make our own Demordicai Diamonds based version. We're definitely going to change things stat-wise now that we have a good idea of just how it all works. I may talk more about it in future journals if we make any good progress with it.

My eldest brother's dog, Rudy, got killed a few days ago. My eldest brother still wouldn't give Rudy away to a home that would actually take care of him and he was adamant in keeping his dog even though he left the dog at my house and he rarely ever seen it or took care of it in anyway. It's a shame but my house is notorious for having animals get killed but Rudy didn't die from the usual cause: the road. The road I live on is out in the country but is a major country road and people drive around 50 - 60mph on it consistently and some of the folks around like to make a sport of running over animals purposely. I found Rudy's mangled corpse in the field past the fence. Our landlord's sons often use the barn near our house and the adjacent fields for their cattle and we have cows often about 35ft or so away from the house at closest. When I was getting chicken eggs from underneath a bush (a chicken coop would have been nice but that's just one fiasco after another), I saw Rudy and called for him but he just laid there out in the fields beyond the fence. When I went to check on him, he was laying very awkwardly with blood coming out his ears and had all the hallmarks of getting stomped on by cows. He was an extremely hyper active dog and would chase anything that moved and I'm figuring he went and decided to chase and harass the cows that are in the fields and the cows didn't take too kindly too that. It's a shame too but my eldest brother absolutely refused to give away his dog and my mother of course took his side (she's guilty of the same thing with her dog, Emmi). I don't like having to bury animals but we pretty much got our own pet cemetery from how many animals the road has claimed but now the cows have a hand in it as well I suppose.

Alright, time for something less gloomy to talk about. How about my future art plans? And boy do I got more art plans than what I normally do. I apologize for the lack of new art recently, my sudden job interview and Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask kept me away from art (I finally beat it and got all the masks too and I really enjoyed that Zelda game, unlike the latest retarded installments). Plan-wise, I got three main art projects I'm going to be working on in the coming days. One is the next page of Demordicai Diamonds. Me and Professor Awesome already have it scripted and it's ready to be worked on. Chapter 2 is almost done though at my current rate it's still going to be a while before it wraps up. I'm really excited to finally be done with this chapter after having spent so much time stuck in it. If I really worked hard on it, I could possibly be done by the end of the year but as you all probably know, I'm REALLY slow with comic pages and that outcome is probably very unlikely at best. Still, Chapter 2 is pretty damn close to being finished.

My second project is one I decided on after finishing up my latest character concept art of Rebecca. I think I'm finally ready to move on to full scenes now that I have a good idea what a good handful of upcoming characters look like. There are still plenty that need to be conceptualized or refined some more but I got a good amount to work with for now. I already got some plans for some full scenes that may have two or more characters (with full background as well) but each one is probably going to take me a while. If there is any characters you'd like me to prioritize art for that you'd like to see more of, let me know and I'll see what I can do. I got plenty of ideas to choose from churning in my head and plenty room for some more. I haven't started on anything yet but I plan to sometime in the relatively near future.

My third art project is both an old and a new one. Me and Professor Awesome have been talking for a long time on the topic of religion in the world of Demordicai Diamonds and we've been trying to figure out just what we want to do with it. We want something that seems to naturally fit and isn't an allegory to something else or just a copy/paste with a name change of something else. After much discussion and and a final 6 hour phone call on the topic, we figured out a rough idea of the direction we are going to go in with religion and I came up with a new art project along with it. It's going to be a story and illustration type of project detailing parts of backstory, such as origin, of many different Fates (sorta like demi-gods) that some people worship and some people detest though it is often more individual-specific Fate-wise than just grouping them all together. I can go into more detail with that general topic if anyone would like to hear it as it wouldn't really be too much of spoilers. So the Fate I'm planning on starting out with is the meddlesome ikeeri Fate (more specifically of the felkri race of ikeeri,commonly distinguished by red, orange, yellow, and brownish colored fur) of...-sigh-...love and fertility, Myra. I'm laughing about it really. Her origin tale is a bit absurd, and sorta, umm, "unique" and definitely caters more toward an ikeeri sense of humor/interest rather than a drakune's.. I choose to start off with Myra because she's, fortunately or unfortunately, by far the most developed religious icon deity-ish character that Demordicai Diamonds has at the moment. I'm actually recycling a REALLY old idea and some old art and making it new and improved with her but I will probably do a character concept of her first before I officially start the story and illustration part of this project. Lol, this project is going to be different alright. Felkri lore is silly and weird.

I got lots of art planned and it's been a wonderful day out today so I've been already at work on some stuff. My dad is going to be having some time off soon and I fear/hope that we'll be working on fixing up the bathroom soon. It's discomforting to be sitting on the toilet and having to worry about whether the whole bathroom floor is going to collapse into the basement. It's not very stable and the wood has been rotting for a long time and I think it might even be the original flooring of this old house. If my dad does want to begin work on it, it might be another week before I am able to post any new art since I'll be at my house without a scanner. But even if that's going to be the case, by that time I may have a good amount already done and ready to post after me and my dad repair the bathroom (assuming he doesn't quit halfway through like usual and then the bushes become the new bathroom).

So that's what's been going on with me and what I'm planning on working on in the next coming days.

2 Comments | View Journal

Shit-kicker Super Storm

Posted 13 years ago

That was some bad storm that pushed through here. I don't know how many of you journal readers keep up with the news but if you've heard about a nasty storm that swept through Ohio, Virginia, and West Virgina and had all three states issue emergency status declarations, well, that's what I and everyone else who lives around here just got hit buy several days ago. The storm knocked out power for most of the southern half of Ohio as far as I know. I got my electricity back recently but it's been out for several days. It may not be until the end of the week that most of the are has their power restored. I was away at Professor Awesome's house when it hit and I went home afterwards.

It's been NOT FUN AT ALL these past few days. No electricity for the whole area obviously means now power but it also means no water since the water pumps for the area got their power cut too. The whole grid got messed up bad! Since we couldn't get any water here at my house, I had to go two days with no water at all and since we couldn't find any ice, all the food in our refrigerator went bad quick due to the hot 90+ degree temperatures. Of course we didn't have much food to begin with so things got pretty bad here. I hate being unprepared for crap like this but I'm not in charge of the money and trying to convince my parents to prepare is like pulling teeth. Anyway, we got our power back on and have had to restock on everything. Going two days without any water screwed me up a little bit and I ended up getting my sleep cycle messed up as well. I've been awake for about 48 hours and I'm hoping I can get some sleep now. Have you ever encountered lag while playing a game online? It's really weird when you are so tired but can't sleep that real life starts to lag right before your eyes. I'm feeling better though now that I've gotten some water though I'm still mentally exhausted.

Due to all this stuff going on, my sister bought be a track phone so that way we can keep in touch during emergencies when the electricity and phone is out. A track phone would have came in handy two years ago back when my mom stranded me at Wal-mart intown and conveniently forgot to pick me up. I'm really grateful to my sister for buying me this and she even went ahead and bought me a minute card though I'm going to have to stick around the house for a while for that to come in the mail. I may have to pay for the minute cards after the first but that shouldn't be too much of a problem if I can find some employment...but if I don't, just having the phone already bought for me and some minutes to start off with is something nice that I've never had before and have a real use for as well.

I was intending to get back to Demordicai Diamonds AGAIN but it seems yet again my plans have been foiled for the week. If it isn't one thing, it's another. This time was a heck of a lot more of a serious distraction but it's still frustrating. Once my phone card comes in the mail, me and my sister will set up my phone and I'll probably head on back to Professor Awesome's house to hopefully work on DD66. It's strange how every time I get ready to work on it, some bad stuff happens that pulls me away from it. My mom has a major health crisis and goes to the emergency room, a nasty storm wipes out power for the whole area, I wonder what's next? Whatever it is, it seems like it's getting progressively worse. If I'm lucky, there won't be a nuclear holocaust, biological warfare, or Justin Bieber in town to pull me away from it again.

I'm just glad things are slowly returning back to normal. This storm definitely packed a punch and I really didn't need another storm to deal with after the ridiculous Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare to deal with. What a crazy week it has been.

Well, that's it for this journal. I'm hoping I'll be back to art and comic work maybe in several more days but it all depends on how fast the mail travels.

0 Comments | View Journal

Crap + Fan = Zidane Headbutt

Posted 13 years ago

What a crazy week it has been. I had originally hoped to finally get back to doing some artwork and no sooner than the day after I left my house to go to Professor Awesome's house, did the shit hit the fan. Things started out okay, my 90-year-old grandma, who's been visit from North Carolina since May went back home with family after they came to pick her up. It's been a bit stressful to an extent having her here though it was nice seeing her especially considering how old she is and that I may not get to see her again. The stressful part comes from some of my family, particularly my eldest brother using her presence like a shield to do what they want and not have to worry about any retaliation from me or anyone else. It's like being blocked by a piece in chess and I didn't want to start any confrontations in front of my grandma. With her going back home, I'm finally able to call bullshit when I see it and I wouldn't be as bound to the house as I have been this month.

Or so I thought.

My mom went to the emergency room at the local hospital earlier this week due to breathing problems. She was admitted to the hospital and has been there several days now. It's been nerve wracking for the past few days for me with her in the hospital and not being able to do anything about it. Turns out she has a combination of emphysema and bronchitis. She's a big smoker though she quit a few years ago and got hooked back on it again. Of course having sixteen chickens crapping all over the basement for weeks on end isn't going to be good for anyone's lungs but it was only recently that my mom and dad reconsidered the thought of putting the chickens outside regardless of the status of the construction of the chicken coop (it still isn't finished yet for the same reasons as last year's coop).

I've been visiting my mom everyday along with my sister. She's been making a good recovery, slow but improving. She's no longer confined to isolation and can go and walk around the hospital and get food at the snack bar though she's still very weak. The doctors think she may also have a weak heart that only compounds the problems she now faces. It took some convincing to get my middle brother to go visit her as he seems to be more concerned with getting pot than visiting but he eventually showed up though he wouldn't go with me and my sister. Better than not showing up at all at least. But when it comes to my eldest brother, he hasn't visited at all despite how much my mom coddles him and pays for everything he wants. I haven't talked to him about it yet but it's yet another thing that's making me mad. On a side note, after visiting my mom today, I come home to find the front door slightly ajar and that all the chickens held a pooping party inside the house. -sigh- And what a mess it was. At first I thought that somehow maybe a dog or my cat opened it but then I found water around the toilet meaning that someone was here when I was gone and flushed the toilet. The pipes are bad and leak in a certain pattern on the floor whenever you flush and it's easy to discern. I haven't figured out just who was here yet but I'll get to the bottom of it. Whoever it was left the door open enough either for another animal to open it further or just left it open enough to let the chickens in. Either way, I'm not happy about it.

On top of my mom being in the hospital, I got hit with another bombshell. Now my mom has a month to go back to her job or she's going to be fired but I found out just last night that my dad may be in jeopardy of losing his job too around November. Well, he might not exactly "lose" it but get transferred but there is no way he could drive even father than what he already does. He drives 50 miles to work (and that's just one way!) almost everyday and there is no way he can drive even further. Of course gas prices are more than double what they used to be way back when he first got his job as a corrections officer. He's the big bread winner of my family and he has practically kept the family afloat financially for years now. He's only a few more years from retiring with a good pension too.

If worse comes to worse, my mother will still be decent but fragile health after she get's out of the hospital and possibly lose her job and my dad might lose his job, leaving my family with no income whatsoever. I still haven't been able to get any employment myself after my family sabotaged my Wal-mart janitor job back in April of 2010 so I'm still stuck being completely dependent on my parents unless I manage to land some employment by November. It's a slap in the face when I hear the stupid propaganda on the news about how employment is rising in the area I live and unemployment is going down. People like me aren't included in the mathematical gymnastic-like equation for area unemployment. People who still don't have jobs and whose unemployment benefits have finally run out aren't counted and people who have never been hired before and are trying to get employment are not counted. This one official was even saying that there are less people on food stamps around here so that must mean that unemployment has gone down, right? Wrong, the food stamp program here requires you to work at least some type of job. If you don't have a job, you don't get food stamps. Sometimes they (the government) will give you something to work but the program has been so overloaded that most people on food stamps without regular jobs may only work the job they are given once a month because of the sheer amount of people on food stamps. These jobs entail stuff like mowing grass for a few hours once a month, yes, ONCE A MONTH, on abandoned property. They really don't have employment to give out besides tiny amounts of busy work that amount to nothing. If they can't give you even the most useless hour or two long job a month, then they can't have you on the food stamp roll. But it's spun like the area is improving and jobs are coming back, just in time for election season this fall. Isn't that convenient?

I just don't know what to do. I can't seem to get any employment and if both my parents lose their jobs by November, I doubt that they will be able to find employment let alone decent enough employment to pay the bills. It's really got me worried about the future not only for myself but for my mom and dad. I don't expect much help from my siblings (with maybe the exception of my sister) if things go for the worse. I'm going to keep job hunting and applying to what I find but if my luck doesn't pick up soon, things could be looking really bad for me and my family come the end of the year.

So I had to take a break from typing this journal to deal with my eldest brother and his girlfriend showing up to the house. I haven't seen my eldest brother in a while and I had some choice words for him for not making any attempt visiting my mom in the hospital. Things got heated and I brought on my whole list of grievances of shit he has caused around the house, to me, and to the rest of my family. Well, it had an interesting conclusion to say the least.

My eldest brother headbutted me. No joke, he seriously headbutted me in the face.

I didn't fight back, I didn't throw a punch. I just stood there. It was weird, I didn't feel the pain at first but then I started to feel warm blood on my face and found I was bleeding. I have about what I think is an inch-long gash on my nose and it's a little too bloody for me to be able to measure it properly. I'm waiting right now for my dad to get back from town with some medical supplies (turns out we don't have anything here) and I think I'll take up his offer to take me down to the emergency room to get some stitches. It's been a bit and my gash doesn't look like it's going to stop bleeding anytime soon. I took some pictures of it cause I know my other siblings are going to want to see what happened.

So I told my eldest brother to fuck off and never to show his face back here again though I know he will come back. He ALWAYS comes back but that's mainly becuase my parents let him do so regardless of any previous action even though he doesn't even live here anymore. Maybe it's about time I just say fuck it and get out of here. I'm done with dealing with my eldest brother and all the crap he causes. I've been sternest out of everyone but even then I've been pretty damn lenient with dealing with and he's had far too many extra chances to redeem himself instead of being a pain in everyone's rear end and their wallets as well.

I really don't know what I'm going to do now. I suppose first things first is to get my nose mended up at the emergency room once my dad gets back. Maybe I'll head over to my friend Professor Awesome's house for a bit and have some peace and quiet to myself and time to think.

As for artwork, if I do go over to Professor Awesome's house then maybe I might be able to work on something but my head is spinning a little too much to really plan ahead. I do want to get DD66 done sometime soon as it is ridiculously overdue but it's been really hard to get any artwork done at all. It really is just one thing after another for me to deal with and real life crap comes first. But for those of you optimists out there, there is a decent chance I may have something new to show for in the next coming days. I had talked with Professor Awesome previously about maybe doing some art detailing the currency and a map of Relma sometime but like most potential projects, I can't make any sort of guarantee on it, especially now.

Man, getting headbutted sucks. I'm surprised a pokemon didn't come out of my nose.

0 Comments | View Journal

Older

Browse

Search

Support ▼

Log In or Create an Account

Log In
Create an Account

Home

Gallery

Scraps

Favs

Journals

Commissions

Time traveler.

Still alive

Halfway Homeless

Blind Reboot

My journey into digital art begins!

Doing commissions to raise money for a digital art tablet

Newfound Employment!

25th Birthday

Looking for advice on Character Creation

Family gone, Back to Art

Family Coming In

Paypal commissions open

Restocking and Layering

No Wheels

You win some, you lose some, you do commissions

Employment at last!

Art Update and Some DD World Building

Holidays suck

Flat tires, a dead cat, and new art

Employment Sabotage And DnD Stuff

October Journal Time and DD Story Time

Robots ate my baby

Job Interview, Art Plans, D&D, and More

Shit-kicker Super Storm

Crap + Fan = Zidane Headbutt

Support ▼

Community Walls

SUPPORT FA

RULES & POLICIES

SOCIAL

CONTACT EMAILS

Log In or Create an Account Log In Create an Account

Time traveler.

Still alive

Halfway Homeless

Blind Reboot

My journey into digital art begins!

Doing commissions to raise money for a digital art tablet

Newfound Employment!

25th Birthday

Looking for advice on Character Creation

Family gone, Back to Art

Family Coming In

Paypal commissions open

Restocking and Layering

No Wheels

You win some, you lose some, you do commissions

Employment at last!

Art Update and Some DD World Building

Holidays suck

Flat tires, a dead cat, and new art

Employment Sabotage And DnD Stuff

October Journal Time and DD Story Time

Robots ate my baby

Job Interview, Art Plans, D&D, and More

Shit-kicker Super Storm

Crap + Fan = Zidane Headbutt

Log In or Create an Account

Log In
Create an Account