wanderingwolf

Art by Wanderingwolf

I made this image for a Blender Artists competition last week. I didn’t win, so I took some more time to play with composition and coloring on this image. I’ve never used Blender’s real time compositor before, so this was a fun experiment.

Firefly - Second 'Verse

”Stubborn As a Mule”

Pelorum, Day 1

All those brownie points with whichever Almighty shepherded this stretch of the 'Verse amounted to beans once they'd set down in their Pelorum berth. That cold fury that nary permitted him a wink kept him from watching her go once the hatch was down; least that's what he told the blended piss he'd switched to, away from the mango wine. Their mango wine.

"Sam? You there?" he articulated cautiously.

"I'm here Cal," her tone was familiar, and a touch pitying.

He chewed the inside of his cheek, took another swallow.

The pair sat in silence, Sam leaving open the static from the empty bridge.

"Is she gone?"

There was a beat before her reply, "Yes, Cal, she's gone. Abby saw her off an hour ago."

He shook his head. He only meant to fill his glass once.

"You might still catch her if you tried," the perceptible arch of her digital brow and her matter of fact tone was enough to set his teeth on edge.

"Makes you think I wanna do that? Huh?," having no body to face, he gestured wildly to his empty and ransacked bunk. "You think if I wanted her here, I'd just let her go? She don't wanna be here, and I ain't no tyrant. Anybody's free to go what wants to go." He was breathing heavy, he smoothed his hair.

"Anybody?" Came Sam's cool and cutting tone. He set down his glass.

"Any body." Cal collected his hat and wrenched down the ladder to the bridge cooridor. Like a tempest the Captain made his way into the galley, whipping open cabinets and drawers, jaw fixed.

Lyen, who had been reclining in the galley lounge rose to her feet, Lucky perched on her shoulder. The state of him rifling through the preciously laid cutlery Edina had just filed away after the onslaught of university students set the nun to cross her arms. Lucky let out a perfunctory sqawk before hiding behind Ly's braided hair.

"Anything I can help you find," the nun's even tone barely betrayed her mounting consternation.

Over his shoulder the Captain barked, "Cigarettes, Sister." He pried open a particularly stuck drawer, sending wooden chopsticks clamoring to the floor. "Just a little vice," his eyes flashed before returning to the crescendo of his work, toppling bowls and bamboo plates onto the counter, reaching toward the back of a cabinet.

"Okay, that's enough," Lyen said, stooping to the floor to gather some of the fallen wreckage of cups; Lucky took flight to a nearby chairback. Cal was on his toes still grasping for something behind the stove vent. "There's no need for all of this," Ly righted an overturned mug, miraculously unscathed, and straightened. "What's really going on?" He was approaching manic, she thought, the way his eyes flared.

"Cig-ar-ettes," Cal repeated in staccato, retrieving a burlap pouch and kicking his way through fallen jugs and bowls on his way to the dining table.

His blatant response caused her to bristle. "Uh-huh," Ly intoned, following him to the table where he took a seat.

"You'll come to find, if you stick around my ship--and any body's free to go what pleases them, hear?--you'll come to find I'm a simple man," he placed his hat beside him as he unwrung the cord of the burlap pouch and wriggled it open, pouring its contents onto the wooden table. A stack of papers for rolling and a cloth bundle of tobacco lay bare before the Captain and the nun. His hands got to work as he continued, "A simple man only needs a few things," out slipped a roll of paper. "He needs a place to rest his head," a pinch of uneven tobacco lined the edge of the paper. "A job to keep his hands busy," the tight roll spun toward the edge, and he lifted it to his lips. "And a vice for when he aims to misbehave," his tongue trailed the slip. He surveyed his work, then his lighter appeared and a plume of smoke rose to the ceiling porthole.

"Interesting," the nun began, planting her palms on the table from where she stood, "a simple man has no need for a simple woman?" She wagered she'd sussed what got under the Captain's skin, though their knock-down-drag-out was on display for all to see not long ago. From heartell, the medic and the Captain had enjoyed a cautious romance, 'til Pelorum.

Cal wagged his finger, still breathing in smoke. "Simple women a simple man can handle; it's complicated women what jump at shadows and then tear into you for nothin' that cause him consternation." Pleased with his answer, the Captain reclined in his chair, maintaining his ember a magnificent orange.

"Ah," Ly gestured toward the shambles of the galley kitchen, "and no complicated man would do a thing like that." Her brow raised as she folded her arms.

"How should I know?" He asked, smile breaking across the left corner of his mouth, cigarette hanging in the right.

"How," the nun said, "You know," she said, gracefully seating herself opposite the conflagrating Captain, "I don't have much expertise in the matters of the heart, but in my experience the 'Verse has a way of working things out in its own time." (trans. 'Okay')

After taking a long drag, Cal exhaled and stood, "Da Chung Wu Dahn, Sister." He placed his hat on the back of his head, "You're welcome aboard my boat, but stow yer sermon for some soul less ragged, dohn-luh-mah?" (trans. 'Impressive display, but no substance', 'are we clear?')

Lyen smiled, nodding her head, "Nah Mei Guan Shee." (trans. 'In that case, never mind')

Cal made his way for the aft stairwell, but before he disappeared through the passage, Ly added, "Captain? Are you familiar with the concept of Anatta? No? It means no-soul. It is said that to reach enlightenment, we must come to the realization that we have no soul. Yěxǔ nín bǐ nín xiǎngxiàng de yāo jiējìn qǐméng." (trans. 'Perhaps you're closer to enlightenment than you think')

Without another word he quit the galley and rode the stairs down to the cargo bay two at a time. All he needed was another woman to set her sights on all the things wrong with him. Although his and Alana's fight ended hours ago and the cold numbness had set in, he clung to that fire to push him forward. No woman, digital or otherwise, could convince him he was in the wrong.

The empty spot where the mule usually sat strapped in braced his mind to his task: to find another mule. Armed with a job to keep his hands busy, the simple man amazed himself with how quickly he could move on from one mule to another. With one last pull on his cigarette, Cal's boots touched Pelorum, and his mind wandered to his vices.

Firefly - Second 'Verse

Happy Monday from the cargo bay!

This week we made some major strides in our group chat on Discord--thank you to Bugman and Xan for joining us! As a result of that meeting, we've come up with a document to peruse and float plot ideas for the current
or upcoming episodes! Please feel free to take a look at the plot ideas we have down and jump into an open plot that looks like fun, or come up with your own for us to jump into! The idea behind this document is for visibility not only into the overarching plot for the episode that Sail and I come up with, but also for subplots to get to stretch their legs. I'll post the Google doc in our Google chatroom.

Bear in mind that nothing in the Gdoc is carved in stone. It's a living document through and through, and each of you have edit privileges. Feel free to offer your alternatives or to suggest changes to what you see there.

So I told you I would summarize some of the things I heard from the four of us chatting together, and here I am to make good on that:
1. We LIKE JP/Collabs because it fits in with the very character-based plot movement in the TV show, Firefly, and we like it because it feels easier than running solo posts.
2. We do not prefer solo posting per se, given the character interactivity of the original source material, not to mention the limitations and repetition of life in the black. Be that as it may, we welcome and encourage any solo posts for your character. If you've got a story to tell, your character has thoughts to think, or even if you wish to share the daily grind, we're delighted to read and respond, if you wish. I'm planning some solo work for Cal, Lyen, and SAM while we're here on Pelorum. At the rate Abby's going, someone will need to either bail her out or drag her back to the boat!
3. We would like to see some interconnectedness among the crew; maybe some back story from one character relates to another, and pieces of the puzzle will coalesce as we keep telling our tale. This is a bit of homework for Sail and me, but feel free to add your two-cents at any stage.
4. We need to make room for characters to take their time in the limelight in some episodes dedicated to them. We heard a bit from Bugman and Xan about how their CS pointed them in the direction of some arcs
they'd like to realize.
5. We're going to be pushing forward with our current crew and massage things into place with a time jump of two months. We should use the plot document linked in the Google Chatroom to float some ideas of how crew interacted with each other in the two month interim to establish some familiarity or background. Sail has an idea to help facilitate this called a 'caper.' More to come on this.

And that's the long and short of it! I'm posting this in our OOC, Discord (because why not), and in the Google Chatroom so we'll stumble over it in one place or another. Thank you again for making time to plot with us on your Friday night!

For now, we're playing out episode five: Shore Leave, until the end of day three. We have a crew-wide JP slated at the end, but feel free to jump into plots set forth in the doc.

Keep flying,
Wolf & Sail

Crimson Crusade here

Welcome to the guild! Hope you find a 1x1 or group that gets you the substance you're looking for.

Old school role player back from Hiatus.

Hey howdy, best of luck finding a home rp here!

Firefly - Second 'Verse

Happy Friday from the cargo bay, cast and crew!

We've tallied the votes and they've fallen thusly:

Hiatus - 3
Keep Flying - 4
Reboot - 5

That means we'll be heading into a new era for the game with a reboot! Can I just echo what Sail said in our Google Chat room about how touching it is that, even though we all have real life obligations, every writer wants to keep writing together as a group. That buy-in is infectious, and I can't wait to see the stories we have yet to tell together.

Before I launch into the below questions to be raised, I think it might be a good idea for us to get together at the same time in our Google Chat room to discuss. Let's open up the dailog for time and day, but I thought I'd point us to Friday, April 14th, at 10pm Eastern Daylight Time--7pm PDT. I know we have writers across a few time zones, so feel free to chime in on days and times that work best for you.

Here's what Sail and I have hashed out that we'd like everyone to think about and chime in with their opinions and feelings on. Bear in mind, these are just touch-stone questions and so feel free to ask for anything here as we brainstorm together.

1. If you could change anything about FF2V, what would you like to change?
2. Do you want to keep writing the same character, or sunset that character and introduce a new one?
3. Would a time jump be interesting to you? Why?
4. As a writer, do you have particular roles or plots you'd like to see come to fruition in the scope of the game?
5. Do you like the China Doll as a ship and want to keep it around, or get a completely new ship (The Mariposa, perhaps?)?
6. Would you like to play a different role on the ship? (Companion, mechanic, pilot, etc. (see the below info))

Sail and I have a few mainstays during this reboot:
1. Abigail will keep flying with the ship.
2. Sail will write the 'First Mate' role (as Yuri, or whomever that might be) so he can fill in for the Captain when he goes on a bender.
3. Cal will stick around the ship as captain.
4. I'll probably keep SAM and Lyen around, too, but I'm still considering these characters.

As way of reminder (I had to sound this off, too), here are the current roles filled by hosts and member writers:

1. Medic - Alana
2. Companion - Quill
3. Mechanic - Elias
4. Muscle - Imani
5. Deckhand - Abigail
6. First Mate - Yuri
7. Deckhand - Edina (Cal: "Am I payin' you fer sumthin'?")
8. Captain - Cal
9. AI - SAM

That leaves a couple spots open just by way of necessity:

1. Pilot
2. Spiritual Guidance

However, apart from Sail and my mainstays, everything can get shaken up above (as long as the writer in that role is keen to vacate the role for something else, mind).

So that's all the news fit to print! Feel free to reply in our OOC in RPG or in the Google Chat with your thoughts, and let's find a time to get the gang together around the galley table all at once to talk this out.

May the road rise,
Wolf & Sail

Firefly - Second 'Verse

That feeling of falling

In the black on the way to Pelorum...

This ship, it felt strangely familiar, yet completely foreign. She walked the confined passages while in the black, making sure the refugees and students alike had what they needed. Her feet remembered what it was like on that Firefly all those years ago, and she caught herself looking for those same familiar faces. But around each corner there was no Dorian, no Vas, no Riley--and no Marisol. She even missed the big dog, Daisy, which she took on walks around the cargo bay while in the black. But that was a closed chapter in the book of her life. No matter how familiar this transport ship felt, it was not that one. She wasn't that Lyen any longer, either.

Once, she was naive about the world outside of the monastery. The ten years she had served and learned while on Santo had prepared her for a far more complicated life among the secular. If her memory of the chapter she led while on that ship had taught her anything it was this: sometimes the 'Verse has a sick sense of humor.

A double edged sword, Ly remembered, looking out through the cargo bay, as the China Doll took flight above the Blackout Zone, the feeling of accomplishment for completing her calling: free the captives. And the mixed feeling of loss at the lives she could have saved, had been able to remain. The captian of this ship appeared to be a caring man; one who understood the value of life. Had it not been for Badger's debt, though, she was unsure if he would have volunteered in retrospect. On Bernadette, the Captain offered her the option to stay aboard the China Doll; in that moment she had accepted, and joined her lot with theirs, whomever this crew might turn out to be.

That fluttering feeling in her stomach hadn't settled yet--probably wouldn't until Pelorum. In her heart of hearts, the idea of relaxing on a beach for a while felt like a welcome gail of good luck, but whether she would let herself partake in this fantasy was a whole other matter.

The ship felt empty, now, since they made birth and offloaded the refugees and volunteers on Bernadette. Only the crew remained. The crew, and a nun, it seemed. What I wouldn't do for a task to busy my hands, she thought, but the kitchen was stocked, the clothes were cleaned, even the latrines were spotless after the onslaught which was the students of OU.

And so it was that she found herself reclining at the galley lounge, stroking the feathers of a particularly preening bird with blue plumage. It clicked at her contentedly while she followed the flow of its feathers with her fingertip. At least there was something she could do; Lucky agreed.

Art by Wanderingwolf

Finally completed the walk cycles for these guys, now on to idle animations and actually getting through an episode:

Firefly - Second 'Verse

Can I just say a huge thank you to @sail3695 for getting us to the next episode! I'd give you a round of applause but seeing as this is written text I have to rely on emojis!

Thank you for all you do keeping us in the black Sail!

Art by Wanderingwolf

Working on a walk cycle. First time I've used the action editor, and hope to learn more about the NLA.



Youtube turned it into a short so it won't embed here for some reason...

youtube.com/shorts/cRUko--akK8?featur…