The annual Buca di Beppo vore get together is scheduled. Meet outside the Westin lobby at 6 for a group trek across the river to Buca di Beppo for our annual vore dinner. Costs are usually $20 to $25 a person. I have reservations for 60 but we'll take however many show up. It's a tradition! (Tradition is something you got away with last year and would like to get away with this year.)

Yep,  valdreg_Galest won and I'll work on his pic as soon as I sort out some of the details. Congratulations!

I'm collecting ideas for things to draw at Anthrocon this coming weekend, so I'm doing a free raffle. Reply to this post with your idea, and if possible links to reference pics of the character(s) you want drawn, and I'll see if I can draw your idea at AC. It doesn't have to be a vore drawing, but if it is, bear in mind I don't like to draw human preds or scat. Pretty much anything else is a possibility, but if the theme is too complicated (such as a bunch of characters) we may have to negotiate a simpler one.

For the last week I've had extremely slow connections to those sites. The Twitters don't say anything about it, but I can't help but wonder if they are under attack?

Update: I pinged both sites and all seems to be well with my connection, yet after several minutes I still have a spinny thing in my connection tab to SF. It's a mystery.

Things I bring to furry cons – some of these are blindingly obvious but I include them for completeness's sake. Others are things I have learned to bring over the years. I don't go to cons to have sex but if you do you will need to add things to the list.

Toiletries - toothbrush, toothpaste, floss if you use it, mouthwash, deodorant. Soap if you don't like tiny hotel bar soaps, I bring a bar of Irish Spring to every con. Lately I've started bringing a suction cup soap holder too, since at BLFC the "soap shelf" in the shower was angled so the soap slid off. You will of course shower every day without fail.

I bought two tiny Listerine bottles at the travel section of Walmart and refill one with Listerine and the other with Act mouthwash for traveling. They are small enough to get through TSA without comment. Put these in a quart Ziploc bag in case they leak – all of my toiletries just barely fit in one of those.

I carry a beard trimmer to longer cons so I don't get neckbeard.

I sometimes buy cheap pump-type hand soap for people who don't want to share a bar. I don't recommend putting one of these in your luggage unless you lock it shut and put it in a plastic bag, as the pressure change while flying can make them spooge in your luggage. Another consideration is that especially smelly soap (like Irish Spring) can make your whole suitcase smell. Put it in an outside pocket of the suitcase.

A fresh pair of underwear, socks and T-shirt for each day of the con. One pair of pants should be enough for short cons, possibly bring a second for a 5-day con if you sweat a lot. Obviously you will want to bring at least a light jacket to a con in a cold area, like MFF.

Set of PJs, even if you don't wear them at home. No one wants to see you stagger to the bathroom in your tighty whities if they are awake at 2 AM.

A sweater, yes, even to summer cons. Sometimes the room you want to hang out in is right next to the Headless Lounge and is FREEZING, like Califur this year. An alternative is a long sleeve black shirt, such as some PJ tops. This can be worn under your cool T-shirt. If you bring a sweater, bring a cool one if you have it - I bring an animal face sweater from The Mountain.

Don't forget a small laundry bag so you know what to wash when you get back.

12' extension cord or even a Power Squid. Squids are nice because you can plug up to five "wall wart" adapters to one. Since extension cords are cheap I bring both a cord and a Squid if I have the room. http://powersquid.myshopify.com/ - Home Depot sells these and I think Walmart as well. A surge strip is a cheaper alternative but Squids are nice.

Chargers for everything you'll need to charge. I carry an Ipad charger, USB phone charger and car phone charger (thought I rarely need that at cons) in the pockets of my BDU pants and/or knapsack, plus USB to micro-USB cables. I even have 10' long USB to micro USBs in case I am a ways from an outlet.

If you find yourself complaining about the lighting in drawing areas - I am a light snob - bring a plug in lamp and a 12' extension cord. I actually went to Ross and bought one at FC this year, the lighting in the creator's lounge was so bad at night. In my “con stuff” area at home right now I have a hooded lamp with a 60-watt LED bulb along with a 12' extension cord.

Food - it isn't always convenient to go out and eat, depending on the con and it adds to the expense, plus, three meals a day of fast food isn't a great idea. Good things to bring with you or buy at cons are:

Instant oatmeal/Cup O Noodles or the equivalent. You can use the room coffee pot to make water for these. Bring a bowl or eat a Cup o Noodles first, cleaning and saving the cup for oatmeal.

Cereal and milk if your room has a mini fridge (I don't do this but Scotty the Minotaur swears by it. He also buys bananas.) Ask ahead of time if the hotel has mini fridges and ask for one if they don't normally provide them. They are too useful to do without.

Bagels and peanut butter! I live on these at cons. Well, one meal a day anyway. A bagel with peanut butter for breakfast lasts me until lunch.

Granola bars - put one or two in your knapsack in case you get hungry during the day.

Soda (bottled, not canned, so you can carry it with you once opened) - or just canned if you only plan to drink it in the room. You can buy it at the hotel but it is more expensive. Also pick up some bottled water or at least one bottle to refill, water in the U.S. is the safest around. I used to carry an insulated water bottle in my backpack but the pressure change when flying can make them leak and after this damaged two sketch books I learned my lesson.

Bring a spoon, knife and fork or scrounge plastic ones from a restaurant when you get to the con. If you fly to a con then don't put metal cutlery in your carry-on for obvious reasons.

Some cons have a store nearby and others you had better bring that food with you. Califur and MFF are two of the latter. BLFC has a Walmart across the street, FC has a market a ten minute walk away and so does AC, though AC's is just a pharmacy next to a McDonald's. Of course if you have access to a car things are easier.

Reference pictures of any character you may want to have drawn (printouts). Sometimes connectivity is spotty and this is convenient for artists. I know at least one fur who brings extras and leaves them in the creator's lounge/zoo area and I've drawn his characters (or at least the tips of their tails) a couple of times as a result.

Sketchbook(s), obviously, though some artists will draw in their own and send you a scan. Also art supplies like reference books if you are an artist, printouts of critters you like to draw, pencils and pens (obviously), a sharpener of some sort if you don't use mechanical pencils, Kneaded erasers, etc.

Lead pencil drawings should be sprayed with Workable Fixative (available at any art store) or hair spray and allowed to dry so they don't smear, but you can't carry the stuff on a plane so you might wait until you get home. If you don't spray them the movement of the pages in a sketchbook will eventually smear the lines.

Air mattress and pump – If I am going to con and I know bed space will be tight due to multiple roomies, I bring a camping air mattress and a plug in air pump about the size of a grapefruit. The two together will run you about $40 at Walmart. Do NOT bring a battery powered pump if you are flying, I had one turn itself on in my luggage and it got so hot the labels peeled off the batteries and it ruined the pump. It could easily have started a fire IN THE PLANE I WAS ON. Not optimal.

Don't forget your badges and any accessories you bring (like my headcrab hat).

This sounds like a lot of stuff but I can fly to a con with the mattress, pump, toiletries, clothes for 3-4 days (but not food or lamp) with just a knapsack and carry-on bag. If you are a suiter obviously this is not for you but if you are cheap and roll/fold your clothes tightly you can get quite a bit in a carry-on bag.

Try to set aside a shelf or box at home just for con stuff. I've only just done this myself and hopefully it will keep me from forgetting to bring helpful things like extension cords and laundry bags.

Stolen from  kayla-na

Where are you staying?
The Westin.


What day are you getting there?
Wednesday, leaving Monday

How are you traveling?
Since it's over 2,000 miles, I'm flying

Who will you be rooming with?
Cougar and Recherei.

How is the best way to find you?
I will likely be in the Zoo a lot. Look for the guy with a black (poison) headcrab hat.

Are there any panels you might be attending?
I haven't looked at the schedule yet. Maybe.

What do you look like?
See "How to find me" above.

Will you be suiting?
Nope.

Do you do free art?
Maybe if I'm at the zoo.

Do you do trades?
If I go to the zoo - depends on how many drawings I have planned.

Do you do badges/commission?
I don't draw for money, it stresses me out.

What is your gender?
I'm a guy in his 50s but look a bit younger.

How tall are you?
6'1"

Can I talk to you?
I welcome company BUT sometimes I am so into a drawing that I zone out. I'm not intentionally ignoring you if this happens, I'm just not good at multitasking.

Can I touch you?
I'd rather not, I'm a dozen cons into a no-con-crud streak and I'd like to keep it that way. 83

Are you nice?
I hope so.

Will you be going to parties?
BBB's vore party, and it looks like I am setting up the Buco Di Beppo dinner again this year.

If I see you, how should I get your attention?
Call me Strega, naturally.

Can I come with you for food/fun/etc?
If we invite you, sure.

Can I look in your sketchbook?
If I'm not drawing in it at the moment.


What's your goal(s) for the con this year?
Draw, have fun.

The dice came up 72 (too high, only fifty entries) and then amazingly the 10's die rolled 00 and the 1's die rolled 1. 01 is normally a bad roll (except in Runequest) but it's excellent for  illogical!

I''ll see if I can draw his request this weekend at the con. His request is macro on micro vore, REALLY macro on REALLY micro, which I've not drawn before. Variety is good!

It's Califur in 4 days and I could use another drawing to add to my list of things to do. I didn't have such a list at BLFC and ran out of ideas. Sooo...

Enter the raffle by replying to this journal with a brief description of what you'd like to see drawn. Try to keep it reasonably simple, 3 characters is the absolute most. It doesn't have to be a vore drawing, it could be a character image or whatnot.

On Thursday night I'll roll for a winner. At that point I'll ask for any other information I need via PMs. Hopefully I will draw whatever the winner likes this coming weekend at the con and will color it next week.

Good luck!

I attended Biggest Little Fur Con in Reno a few weeks back and that con has experienced the most amazing growth these last two years. In 2013 it had 800 attendees, last year it had something like 1400, and this year it was over 2400! This from a con in a somewhat out of the way city (Reno).

Midwest Fur Fest shot past FC to be the second biggest fur con last year, if I remember the numbers right. It too grew by many hundreds of attendees.

Now, MFF is in a hub city and is easy to get to, so its growth is understandable. BLFC is harder to understand though it does have some advantages - it's located in a casino and as of this year has the most extravagantly executed con theme I have ever seen. The "Biggest little brother" posters were everywhere (the theme was 1984), there were fake surveillance cameras, and even the PA messages were 1984-themed.

But meanwhile, FC is growing slowly if at all and Califur too seems to be stagnant - and Califur is in a major hub too, so it's easy to get to.

What factors govern the success of a con? The hotel and transportation would seem to be to be the biggest ones, but I've heard that con management is also an art rather than a science. Running a con is presumably a godawful amount of work and an all around thankless task. Some cons are stillborn (Antheria) or wither and die (Confurence) and while I've heard rumors of management issues there's too much going on there for me to know exactly why.

I suppose I should just wait and ask some friends at the next furry party, they've been in the scene longer than I have and more to the point they have run conventions. Still, I wouldn't mind hearing some opinions. What makes a furry con thrive?

There is NO option to view images wider than ~750 pixels now. 1280 was already pretty small but forcing people to download or View Image to see something larger than a big thumbnail is awful design. I was already creating work at 1280 because of FA and if an unnecessarily huge sidebar makes even that "too big" then the people doing the site design work at FA need a stern talking to. There must be somewhere that info could go without shrinking everyone's work to nigh on thumbnail size.

 valemosp volunteered this interesting character as Renaud's companion for the evening:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15684110/

Who happens to be one of the few females in the entire raffle. Since we've seen him almost exclusively with males lately it's nice to see the other gender represented. (Not that the big fox cares.)

I'll start work on this tonight. First up is fixing some weird problem with Renaud's body that I can't quite work out, then changing Anonymous to Zenzie.

And he elected to have me color this one:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/15704729/

I don't draw enough elephants, so it's a good choice. 83

Just as with the last raffle, winning this one lets you pick one of my sketches - new or old - to update and/or color. I'll let this one run until Thursday night and then roll a winner. If it's a very complicated sketch like a comic, I may just touch it up and add a panel or two if needed, whereas if it is a single panel sketch (like the one Terastas chose last time, Blackfur eating a lion) I'll color it. Good luck!

Edit: It will help if you include a link to the sketch in your reply. That way I can look at it and see if I've already colored it, for example.

Due to the very small number of entries (very restrictive raffle, short duration raffle is the reason for that I suspect) there were only a few entries.

Terastas chose to have me color the Blackfur pic, and I am happy to do so:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/16118523/

Sketches are fun and I've done a lot of them lately. I can crank one out in an evening and still have time to play games. However, the result of this is a lot of uncolored sketches. (Note that the all-blue drawings I do, even the ones with large areas of blue, are still sketches). A lot of them deserve more attention and to be colored.

So, raffle. Enter by replying to this journal and tomorrow night I'll roll for a winner and then color the sketch that person asks for. You can include a link to the sketch in your reply to this journal if you want to save time.

The one proviso is, please don't ask me to color "At the Ziggurat buffet" strip yet, I still need to sketch the second page before I worry about coloring them.

This has happened before, and system restore has fixed it before, but it's not fixing it this time. Neither my Intuos 1 or 2 is working in Windows 7 now. I've tried downloading the drivers again, updating Java, and restores, and nothing works. Something in the bowels of the Windows update broke my Intuos and it looks as though I'm going to have to work on my laptop until Microsoft fixes the issue...assuming they ever do.

Short version, did yesterday's Windows update break anyone else's Intuos?

The first thing I should say is the poll was corrupted by ballot stuffing. Among other things, there were more than 40 votes for "He lives" in just a minute. If I were going to do this again I'd use a poll site that tracks IP addresses to make it more difficult to stuff that box.

However, before the box stuffing began the votes were almost equal for all three possibilities. There was no clear trend toward sparing him, seeing him get eaten or eaten and then removed from play.

So I'm going to take a middle ground. He's going to get eaten and generally abused,but will be reformed (though at the time he is eaten he won't know this is going to happen.) If nothing else this gives me a chance to spotlight a female character who has appeared peripherally in both of the Yellowstripe stories, and some conflict and a new character is a good things.

http://goo.gl/8O8ZbK

Let's see if this works.

Yellowstripe is the newest of my asshole preds and, as we saw in the recent mini-story, a serial killer who preys on humans in general and hookers specifically. The response to that story/pic here on FA has been essentially nonexistent and I'm wondering if people dislike that character. He is objectively evil, as least as seen in said mini-story, where he rapes and eats a hooker and probably eats another one.

I have a lot of asshole characters and even other kzinti I could introduce, so I am thinking of killing off Yellowstripe by having him run into a previously seem female character who knows what he'd been up to and doesn't approve. It would involve him hitting on a female only to be overpowered, reverse raped (as in forced to have sex with her) and then eaten.

It's not often that I take an active dislike to one of my characters but I think I'd enjoy seeing something bad happen to this one, so if no one's super fond of him it may be time for Yellowstripe to have done to him what he's done to a few people in pictures and story. 83

Similar to but smaller than Monstertown or Sigil, the Ziggurat is an interdimensional hangout where you can do to drink, do things, or have things done to you. I'll post this as a text file once people have a chance to critique it.

The Ziggurat
by Strega

The Ziggurat is a mysterious tiered building built, it is thought, in a pocket universe little if any larger than the building itself. Doors, some permanent and some temporary, link the structure to other universes. Visitors to the Ziggurat may be from stone age worlds, magical kingdoms or from technological civilizations. The Ziggurat has its own internal rules and physics that prevent a single god, mighty wizard or high-tech denizen with impossibly advanced equipment from simply walking in and taking over. Such attempts do not typically end well though magic and technology are not entirely blunted; it is as well that the Ziggurat is able to repair itself.

Two way travel is normally possible but the building seems to have a mind of its own. An attempt at a major invasion, such as by a puritanical government army bent on shutting the place down, will result in that portal shutting before an unmanageably large force makes it through. Other times a portal will shut for no apparent reason, preventing visitors from returning from whence they came. The Ziggurat moves in mysterious ways and sometimes changes size or even shape unpredictably. Portals have been known to shut simply because of excessive traffic, so the location of a door to the place is own a closely held secret. Other times the building will grow bored, it is thought, and open a portal where none existed before, and thus allow entry to wide-eyed newcomers.

There is only one owner at a time, but the competition for this spot is spirited. The owner has access to the luxurious top-floor office and its many surveillance systems and is granted powers such as the ability to travel anywhere in the building at will but on the other hand, does not benefit from the immortality effect that all other employees enjoy. Typically a new administration happens when either a manager becomes so unpopular the staff rebels or a clique of would-be conquerors arrives a few at a time. Deposed rulers who survive are sometimes exiled and for whatever reason (the will of the Ziggurat?) find it difficult to return, they are most often killed by their successors. Since the deposed ruler often has powerful friends it is common to feed them to a visiting predator so that they are far away and difficult to find afterward, not to mention digested.

The next tier of management is the floor supervisors and their staffs. This is a risky position as well but not so much due to attempts to depose them but rather in that they interact with customers more, and customers by their nature are unpredictable. Floor supervisors have access to less sophisticated surveillance system that covers only their floor and can contact other floor supervisors at will. The Ziggurat will not accept a floor supervisor as a new owner, which is presumably a measure to prevent incessant plotting by the chiefs of the various floors. As a result the floor supervisors tend to be hard working, loyal and long serving employees.

Below the floor supervisors are shift heads, section heads and finally the main body of the staff, which includes everything from the cleaning staff to waitresses, gaming table dealers, cooks, security guards and even gladiators and their trainers.

Staff are housed in a maze of living quarters that exist between the floors of the Ziggurat despite the fact that judging by the height of the floors no such space should exist. The higher the rank of the staff the better the quarters and floor supervisors have their own private suites which rival mansions in size and luxury. The Ziggurat has its own gardens and its own garbage and sewage disposal systems which are not fully understood (like much of the rest of the place) but nevertheless operate. The gardens provide most of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the place while a thriving trade for various meats and luxuries exists between the staff and dozens of worlds. While the Ziggurat is only the size of a small town the constantly changing horde of visitors means that its population consumes far more food than one would think. There are rumors that at least once in the last thousand years and several times before that all of the portals shut, causing an outbreak of cannibalism until the population was small enough for the gardens to support. As a result a reserve of foodstuffs is maintained but these events are so rare that they weigh little on the minds of the staff, much less the visitors. It is thought they only occur during events of multiversal significance.

The Floors

Each floor of the Ziggurat save the highest (the owner's office and suite) features at least one bar and restaurant or, failing that, there is room service from other floors. There are many healers on staff, and they can work wonders, but they can be overwhelmed in the event of major bar fights and avoid some of the floors entirely unless they are summoned by staff or customers.

The Zigguraut is simultaneously a bar, a gaming house, a whorehouse, a sporting arena, a meeting hall, and a place of unthinkably violent debauchery. Just how dangerous it is to visit really depends on which floor you are on.

The first floor of the Ziggurat is devoted to gaming, food and drink. There are many chambers with pool tables and similar games of skill, card tables, dancing halls, a dozen bars and restaurants and numerous lesser rooms that can be reserved for anything from private meetings to orgies. The staff frowns upon large scale hostilities breaking out here but not a day goes by without several major bar fights. Passages with portcullis between the four largest bars serve as firebreaks to hopefully prevent a floor-wide brawl from breaking out but these do happen on rare occasions. One of the functions of the many smaller rooms is to serve as a refuge for the less violent when violence does occur.

All but a few of the portals that will bring one to the Ziggurat open onto the first floor.

The second floor of the Ziggurat is devoted to sports, often violent ones. There is a gladiatorial area and many smaller fighting rings which can also be used for less violent sports such as ball games. It is possible to take down the walls between the arena and the four next largest rooms and play large scale team sports, but the popularity of the gladiatorial games is such that this happens only a few times a year.

Various beasts and monsters are purchased from other worlds for use in the games and in some cases, typically when the creature is a very popular combatant, the beast too will benefit from the 'staff immortality' effect. Over the years enough of these popular creatures have been accumulated that they have become part of the staff, the more social ones mingling with the bar-goers when not training or fighting. Bloodfeather the griffon, for example, has worked in the arena for more than a century and has absolutely no trouble finding a lover among the bar-goers when the mood strikes him. He is also one of the very few staffers who will visit the fourth floor as a predator.

Customers can (and often do) enter the area, where the games range from merely risky to lethal. The smaller fighting rings are often used for boxing matches, wrestling, and duels and are a good place to go if you want to see greatly mismatched opponents duking it out. Staff healers can attend matches if the participants agree or the matches can be to the death. Customers who find they greatly enjoy the matches can become staff, and career gladiators from other worlds are sometimes invited to join. The promise of extended life for as long as they want to serve is a potent lure.

The third floor of the Ziggurat is mainly a hangout for those into violent, usually deviant and often dangerous acts. Couples or groups can retire to private rooms for events that sometime require blood or other fluids to be hosed from the walls afterward. Selected staff members who are up for that sort of thing can participate in torture or sex of such an extreme nature that their immortality is tested. This is where a dragon can go if he wants to smoke potent herbs from a hookah while a team of halflings fellates him. Sometimes the drugs, drink, or the violent nature of the play is such that participants do not survive, but the staff will not kill a customer unless they request it. They'll get close if that's what you want, though.

The fourth floor is even more dangerous than the third, for this is where you go if you like to eat, torture or kill people. Unlike the third floor, where death is a strong possibility, here it is a near certainty for at least one person per event. Most of the people killed here are staff who while they will pretend to resist or show fear, are actually quite happy to be torn apart, swallowed whole or tortured to death. Again, the staff will not kill customers unless this is specifically requested, but this floor is used for the disposal of troublemakers or, occasionally, deposed Ziggurat owners. The ones who do the killing are most often visiting predators who have no idea the person they just ate won't reform the way Ziggurat employees do, though quite a few of them would not only not care, but might actually enjoy the meal more if they knew.

Due to the will of the Ziggurat, even deaths that would normally be irreversable (such as undead life drain or soul consumption) will not prevent a staffer from returning.

For a fee, the protection of the Ziggurat can be extended to a customer, allowing them to experience whatever sort of death they wish without permanent consequences.

The fifth floor is a high-stakes gambling hall. It is this high on the Ziggurat because of the stakes involved. Fortunes, whole cities and rarely even entire worlds can be won or lost here, and busting out of a game can land you in the gladiatorial arena or even on the fourth floor, where your visit will not end well save for the hungry or depraved person you are presented to. Those who visit the fifth floor are often enormously powerful beings in their own right, but the will of the Ziggurat still has precedence.

The sixth floor is a series of exclusive meeting rooms which are (as far as is known) completely secure. Only the elite attend the meetings and parties here, which, as might be expected given its position on the Ziggurat, are not necessarily safe for the participants. Most often these are used for exclusive business or diplomatic meetings that require neutral ground and which might be spiced up by visiting a nice bloody gladiatorial match or the gaming tables.

The seventh floor is the owner's office and suite. No one may come here without the permission of the owner, and some of the longer-serving owners have simply camped out here and refused to emerge, which makes for an ineffective leader. This tends to annoy the Ziggurat, and it makes the rules. It is more proper to say that “No one may came here unless you ask them to or you have annoyed the house.”

There are rumors of an eighth floor, but if so its nature, and what it might contain is unknown.

Due to a mistake on my part, Cougar and myself didn't get a room reserved for AC and for various reasons we want to stay in the Westin. I can bring an air mattress, so we need only one bed space (though I will sleep on one if one is available, obviously).

There are quite a few months between now and AC but I'm hoping to get this sorted out soon since it was my fault we didn't get a room of our own. Anyone have space in their room for two more? Our current plans are to arrive on Wednesday and depart on Monday but if worst comes to worst, Thu-Mon would work.

So, I somehow left my little pencil bag and one of my good battery pencil sharpeners at MFF this last December. This was a Panasonic KP-4A, in my experience by FAR the best battery powered pencil sharpener I've ever tried and out of production for fifteen years. Very hard to replace unless you want to pay 3-4x the original price for a used one.

Anyone have a brand of currently available battery powered pencil sharpener they'd recommend? It has to be reasonable small and preferable flat-ish to fit comfortably in a knapsack.

By way of comparison, here's a KP-4A: http://images.officeworld.com/produ.....KP4ABK_1_1.JPG

Lo and behold! Someone won whose name I recognize. Namely,  tervicz Tervicz is all about ferals, so I expect I'll be drawing one or two of those for him. It's up to him, though. 83

Once again it is Saturnalia, and once again here we are in a Christmas raffle, albeit a late one since I was distracted by videogames. Here's how it works.

Enter by replying to this raffle. Only reply once, and don't reply to other replies. (This simplifies my job when I roll for winners.) Don't number your entry, I will do that myself.

On 3 January I will dice roller (or roll real dice) to roll for a winner. The winner gets to ask me to draw something. You don't need to put your request in your initial reply to the raffle, but you can if you want. Odds are I will have questions about references, etc., that will cause me to send you PMs about it anyway.

The request does not have to be for a vore drawing. It could be something like a profile picture of your character. I do ask that the request not be tremendously complicated. I will negotiate with the winners on this subject should I decide the requested drawing is too labor intensive. It's not as though you are paying me to draw, after all. 83

One last thing, should the winner not reply to my PMs or otherwise be reachable for two weeks after the 31s, I will roll a new winner. Believe it or not, this has happened a couple of times over the years.

One of the great strengths of DS1 was the superb interconnected world design. With one exception (the Painted World) everything fit together and you could see other areas from wherever you were. If you could see it, odds are you could walk there once you knew the way. You can see the sky over Kiln of the First Flame from Firelink Shrine and you can see the Duke's Archives and Anor Londo from Firelink/Undead Burg. There are multiple ways into almost every area and while the levels are challenging they make sense.

Then there's Dark Souls 2. Very little of the world makes sense. The worst example yet and the one that made me throw in the towel is Aldia's Keep and Dragon Aerie. First there's the problem that the Keep is much larger on the inside than the outside. The long specimen room with the ogres is longer than the entire keep as seen from outside. And holy shit, Dragon Aerie. It's made of rock pillars MILES tall and should be visible from every outdoor area that isn't shrouded in fog.

It is Dragon Aerie that made me throw in the towel. It's painfully clear that the designers had a bunch of game ideas they wanted to stick in and didn't especially care if they belonged in the same game. Now the game is still pretty good, barring some dumb design decisions, but suspension of disbelief goes right out the window when we somehow ride an elevator miles into the sky when half an hour before we were standing in a field and there was no elevator or miles-tall rock pillars anywhere in view.

If they are going to have their levels floating in hyperspace with no realistic connection to each other just do it. Portal us between them, fine. Just don't expect we won't notice when you do an amazingly shoddy job of stitching your world together.

Me, I've thrown in the towel on DS2. I've put almost a hundred hours into it and I got my money's worth. Time to see if Lords of The Fallen is any better, it was on sale this weekend on Steam.