So I've happened upon the game by the name of Divinity 2: Original Sin and... It's good. It's freaking good. It's like a turn-based RPG sort of thing, kind of like Diablo I'd say. And... It has really good characters and I'm crushing on a skeleton now. Yep. He's the best. Gonna get as much art of him as I can too.

But for now enjoy this little comfort piece if you will. Markus found a way to shrink himself in an ancient excavation site and Fane has to deal with the consequences. It's gonna be great!

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Field Test

“Oh for heaven’s sake… Did I not tell you to be careful?” With the tips of his fingers resting firmly on his temple, Fane let out an exasperated sigh. “What in bloody hell am I supposed to do with you now? I suppose it’s my fault for leaving you and those needlessly adventurous hands of yours unattended…”

On the table just in front of the skeletal scholar stood a lone humanoid figure, about 3 inches in height and looking quite annoyed with itself.

Suddenly Fane’s hand lunged forward, roughly grabbing the small fleshy figure with its noticeably fleshless fingers. “Come now… It’ll be a while until I figure out how to operate this device properly and you still need to do those things you mortals do… Drink, and eat, and sleep, and such…” Clear distaste was written on Fane’s skeletal features as he listed those off, dismissively waving his hand in a circle as he did. Though there was also a faint hint of pity in his voice.

Despite this, Markus felt the now-titanous skeleton’s grasp around him tighten as Fane began walking. The human grunted, struggling a little to get the giant’s hand to relent at least a little, which it hurriedly did.

“Ah! I keep forgetting how fragile you are!” The skeleton exclaimed, decidedly undisturbed by the pained grunts of creature currently residing in his hand. “Heavens… Sometimes I wonder how your kind are not swept away by the wind in broad daylight with how easy it is to break you. I dread even the idea of what could happen to you now. You’d probably pop like a grape if I so much as squeezed you too hard.” There was a poorly masked chuckle hiding behind those words as Fane was clearly amused with the situation.

“Hmmm…” The giant hummed cocking an eyebrow as he raised the miniature human up to his face. He tightened his grip yet again as if thinking to test out that theory on the spot before promptly letting go and giving Markus a sympathetic but not apologetic look. “Perhaps this will prove illuminating.” The skeleton pondered out loud as he reached his other hand closer and poked little Markus’ stomach with a single pointy finger making the guy gasp and flinch away. “Say Markus, since you need my help to get back to normal anyway… Would you be opposed to assisting me with a little field study?”

For the first time since the device in the ruins shrunk him down, Markus spoke up, looking at the giant skeleton with a mixture of nervousness and awe. “You’re not going to hurt me, are you?”

“Heavens no! Why would I?!” Fane responded, his tone laced with righteous indignation. “We’re ‘friends’, are we not?” He noted, using the word he wasn’t entirely comfortable with but he knew it would serve to calm Markus down. It always had, after all. “Or at the very least, teammates. What reason could I possibly have to do that?”

Despite this, the shadow of concern did not disappear from Markus’ face and Fane rolled his eyes, metaphorically speaking. “Fine, fine…” He raised his other boney hand in the air, palm open and facing in the human’s direction. He then proudly proclaimed. “I hereby solemnly swear to bring no harm upon you, Markus.” He said and was glad to see a relieved sigh coming from the little guy. “Well… Not intentionally at least.” He added with a shrug though that particular addendum did not seem to disturb the small fellow in his hand quite as much.

A meek response came from the little man as he bowed his head in gratitude. “Thank you, Fane. I’m glad that we’re-”

“Ah… don’t mention it.” The skeleton waved his hand, as if to chase the preposterous sentiment away. “I’m quite used to bailing you out of trouble by now. Just par for the course as far as I’m concerned.” As if completely unconcerned by Markus’ predicament, the skeleton took out his notebook and scribbled a few notes down in it having to resort to hold the thing in his hand right next to Markus. “And besides, I do still owe you for all the trouble you went through to assist me.” Fane took a deep breath and sighed once more, seemingly having difficulty admitting being indebted to the little fleshling that fit so neatly in the palm of his hand at that very moment.

A moment later he put the notebook away. “As for the field test, I did have a few… not entirely safe ideas in mind but nothing that should damage your body permanently.” He held out a meaningful pause. “Nothing a few potions can’t fix at least. Hell, if our… eugh… encounter is anything to go off of, you might actually enjoy yourself.” Once again a hint of repulsion showed itself on the skeleton’s rigid features, yet he didn’t seem to mind the particular interests of Markus’ that they had discovered back then, even if it did seem somewhat crude to a man of intellect like Fane.

“Now… This excavation site is not someplace you should be allowed to traverse on your own, clearly. So why don’t you sit tight and let me handle things, little Markus?” The eternal asked and without waiting for so much as a peep from the little man, tucked him away in one of the many pockets within his robes, poking the little guy atop the head with a single finger for good measure. “Hmm… I could get used to you being this way.” He remarked with a small chuckle and left Markus to sift through the context clues to figure out whether he was being serious or not. That should occupy the little troublemaker for at least a little while, yes?