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year 5 ruxandra
DRABBLE CHALLENGE 2024: DAY 5 / RING Roma gets new clothes.
Rahadin’s armor fit Roma perfectly--an honest surprise considering so few things did. The fine leather breast piece lay flat and uncomplicated over his clothes. The boots neither squeezed his toes nor chafed his ankles. Even when the collar was clasped fully shut, he felt like he could breathe comfortably.
For someone who had a lot of complaints about clothes, Roma could admit that these were nice. They would serve as a good replacement for his tattered traveling leathers... though, cynically, Roma was fairly sure whatever benefit they provided would be negated by Strahd’s rage upon seeing that he, of all people, was wearing the chamberlain’s armor.
Roma fished out the signet ring Rabbit had plucked from Rahadin’s body; like everything else, it was a satisfying weight at the center of his palm. Roma remembered the monster hunter they’d parted ways with just a few days earlier.
“Knives would like this.” He thought as the raven insignia glinted in the early morning light. “I’ll give it to her the next time we meet up.”
Roma pocketed the ring again.
Well. Whatever. Strahd was dead set on killing everyone anyway. Not something a ring and some armor was going to change.
---
DRABBLE CHALLENGE 2024: DAY 3 / UNHEALTHY Stella Wachter eats a rat.
Stella could no longer take it.
The rat squirmed against her fingers as she pinned it to the floor. Dirt and debris shed off its fur, no doubt from the attic above her room where it was so loudly skittering around. It was curious, Stella was sure, for her mother had taken great pains to isolate her room in particular from the outside world--part safety, part shame, part real desperation for her condition--and it must have noticed the oddness of it all. Strange meows from a room within the house of the oh-powerful Fiona Wachter that appeared to have no door or windows to the outside? Of course it would take notice. Of course the Devil would care.
Normally, Stella could steer herself away from these sort of harmful distractions, but the skittering. The squeaking. The cat in her body remained awake at night, tip-toeing on the corner of her bed where it could reach the ceiling and claw at the boards with its blunted, human fingernails. Exhaustion seeped into the sanctuary of her broken mind.
The best Stella could do was stop her body from eating it--her disgust was enough for at least that--but the hunt that preceded it? Her mouth closing around its dusty, fuzzy body? The crunch of grit between her teeth and snap of bones in her ears? The hot blood on her tongue and the alien silence that followed?
There was a dull thud as Stella forced her jaws open and the now dead rat tumbled out. She could pray to whatever gods still listened that her mother would not notice, but the irony of her condition was that her mother always seemed to notice the things she wanted to hide away the most.
In the dark, Stella could see its broken silhouette. Part of her was grateful her mind could retreat to a place where the senses posed no threat.
I’m so sorry mother.
--
DRABBLE CHALLENGE 2024: DAY 2 / PEPPER
A new tree appeared leeside the mountain suddenly one morning, as an almost sure sign of a shift within the Fey courts.
Of what shift, Roma could almost be sure.
It was some trek to get there--past the landslide from two springs ago and the waterfall that flowed even in winter--so it was no signal for the humans in the village. Were anyone hoping to make an audience, their introduction would also go unheard, for its location so far above the treeline meant it was beyond the listening ear of noble houses Oak and Maple.
There's an outsider. Roma concluded.
It was grand; flies and bees swarmed around the enormous crown choked with tiny white blooms, delighted by the abundance of flowers so late in the season. Clusters of bright red berries grew like grapes along the lower boughs, and even lower so--below the branches-- the shade was so thick that when he reached into it, his fingers disappeared.
As was custom, Roma stepped back ten paces and buried the offering within the loamy soil--not so close as to impose, but close enough to show deference. However the courts changed, he wanted to be on the right side of it.
The decision proved to be prudent.
The next day, the birds moved slower than usual. As he cut open the pheasants from that morning’s hunt, Roma saw their stomachs were full to bursting with bright red berries.
---
binge read Medalist manga a while ago and it made me wanna do a bunch of skating figure draws feat. Roma
Marionette, Kingmaker | A comic about dark powers, promises, and what it means to be a King
Left all our stuff in Ez's cart before we split, so quick comic about how she's probably going through all our things
some clothing updates with and without cloak! we're heading to the amber temple
THE FOX a comic about my PC Roma and his relationship with his favorite person in the whole world, Rudolph Van Richten
rux character design, reassessed
recently "cured" our fated ally, so made an updated v2 stella
wanted to do a drawmeme and flew absolutely off the rails
been replaying Hades and wanted to try my hand at those screenshot redraws
design for new non canon insane woman my dm just dropped into our game
various ez and roma doodles
friend convinced me to join artfight for the first time this year and i made new portraits and fullbody refs for both ez and roma to inaugurate the occassion :)
our fated ally loves licking cursed objects and hissing at water AMA
currently it's roma's turn to babysit the party cat and since she's cast levitate on herself roma's been pulling her around like a balloon, which has been very cute to me
latest ez design!!! wanted to do a small update (mostly expression practice and deciding that i, in fact, Do want her to have swallowtails)
being slammed by life stuff but can i just say. everyone talks about getting screwed (lol) by the vampires in strahd but absolutely no one talks about how fucked up the houses are. everything is booby trapped. our party keeps getting eaten alive by these home alone castles and towers and we were NEVER WARNED!!!
oh m ygod i dont have more art to post bc ive been in work/life hell but i did a one on one with dm for roma to have a date with ez and it went. EXTREMELY WELL
roping in peepaw in your band au shenanigans because ur his most beloved, annoying grandchildren (pt 2 to this thing!!!)
Will you be an anarchist with me? Sleep in cars and kill the bourgeoisie?
some figure draws taken to finish feat. ez and roma and boygenius' WONDERFUL stage outfits
sometimes interacting with ez feels like THIS
margin doodle i ended up coloring in between other wips! roma's just a big dog