Odysseus And Athena

Black-Backed Jackal (Canis mesomelas) in full flight at Etosha National Park in Namibia (1965)

credit: American Institute of the Humanities

How do you feel about evolved forms of contractions? It'd've, for example :3

I think you should use whatever tools communicate your intentions best!

I've seen eggheads complain about excessive contractions, and against trying to phonetically write out how characters speak. but lol i say. lmao.

Beautiful writing is rhythmic writing, and every syllable is a musical note. Why would you restrict what notes you can use? Preposterous. Ludicrous!

Well now you and Anon have me rereading Ch14 and I've noticed that... Lemuel is much kinder than Duane! Sometimes it feels like Duane is mostly kind when it's convenient, whereas Lemuel looks out for others even outside of his immediate sphere. Heck, just one example: Duane heard how Lem had to strangle someone to death and... didn't even blink twice! I know they're at war, but that seemed so cold. I don't know! tl;dr They're great characters that make me think :)

It’s an interesting observation! I think that Lemuel and Duane are both very kind, but they are also pretty masculine. And at the risk of perpetuating stereotypes, it doesn’t seem that masculinity generally allows a man to easily give voice to his concerns and emotions. So Duane wouldn’t hear that Lemuel had to strangle a foeman to desperately save himself, and then turn around to Lem and ask if he was doing okay. He wouldn’t even do it in private. Likewise Lemuel wouldn’t ask Duane how he was doing after his travails at the Academy and his scary stint in Fachlyne. They just weren’t raised to talk to each other that way. Blame it on them mostly not having a mother, or on their grandpa being a hardass or on Alderode generally expecting men to be so emotionally opaque - but it’s not how these boys communicate with each other

But it doesn’t mean they don’t love each other or don’t do kindnesses for one another. Duane worked very hard to get himself transferred to the same Order as Lemuel. Duane’s very presence is in fact a great show of concern for his brother’s welfare. Seeking him out to fight alongside him in that first battle in ch14 was an act of kindness and concern. After the vliegeng falls from the sky, Lemuel goes into the chapel with Duane to be with him because he knew how nervous the whole thing had made him. The Adeliers may not *say* the right things to each other, but they are *there* for each other.

There were some other more subtle relationship dynamics at play in that chapter as well. In a sense, Lemuel’s ability to show concern for others was a privilege he could afford because he wasn’t an officer. Duane was, and didn’t feel he could show too much compassion because that’s a vulnerability. His charges would respect him less and have less confidence in their own roles if he wasn’t always a paragon of authority and strength to them. So he was always very concerned with their physical welfare, but showing concern for their emotional welfare was off the table.

(you see this learned pattern perfectly repeat fifteen years later with him and Sette)

You also see the brick wall between them in chapter 7 after their stickfight. Duane nudges a brick out of it and invites Lemuel to tell him why he’s been acting weird, but Lemuel does not budge. And Duane does not insist. Just like he never followed up with him in the army. Lemuel breaks down and bawls in his arms one night and Duane looks totally lost, defaulting back to how he would comfort him when he was a little boy. Lemuel holds on to his asploded comrade’s tooth and Duane just yells at him to burn it. Lemuel hacks up a giant boar in the wake of another comrade’s death and Duane continues on with his duties. Lemuel sets a cart of war prisoners on fire and Duane decides not to ever think about it again for fifteen years.

No, I don’t think the issue is one of a lack of kindness. It’s not knowing how to express his (frankly quite severe) concern for his brother in a socially acceptable way. Duane would have done anything for Lemuel, would have died for him happily, but he didn’t have the emotional tools to do what Lemuel really, truly needed.

I have so many poems memorized for the right moment but what they don't tell you is that there's pretty much never occasions to recite poetry unprompted. or prompted for that matter

This looks really nice, thank you! I especially love how floofy you've made his cloud... hair? Yeah let's just call it hair.

for @rainwvalker who said: “Umm if ya wanna how about some king C action”

he was so much fun! i had to mess around with brushes a little to get the effect i wanted and i love the brush now. im probably going to doodle with it a little more and see.

Hi Ashley - I asked a question about Uaid about a month ago and wanted to thank you for responding so quickly. It didn't help, but left me more amazed at how well you kept him drawn so (mostly) consistently all these years. In any case, I posted my newest creation in the discord and several people said I should send this to you. I've loved the comic for years and have been wanting to make a creation based on Uaid and other characters for a long while now. It's taken me just over a year, but I finally finished. So here it is: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pepa_quin/albums/72177720309065124 Thank you so much for the great comic, I'm looking forward to everything else you have to show us.

I'm absolutely flipping out right now, this is ASTONISHING! Everyone go look!

The colours, Uaid's perfect round face, the astonishing detail of it. Uaid's interior is so good and on-model! Pink toe nails! I see Matty, Jivi, Cutter (lol), even pukey Starfish in his early story attire. Even the slave cart is full of slaves! Then as if that's not enough, look at the Wand'ring Root in the back! Duane putting the smack down on it and Sette wigging out!

This is just one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I'm honoured you took the time. Thank you for sharing it with all of us! <3

Made a mouthwashing animation yayyy

Pier underside

I made beef stew tonight! It's incredibly good.

I glanced at a few recipes and listened to what the spirits had to say, and came up with this recipe:

Ingredients:

1.5 lb cubed stew beef 4 whole carrots, peeled and chopped into 1 inch pieces 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed  1 lb button mushrooms, halved Olive oil

2 cups red wine ¾ cup balsamic vinegar ½ cup worcestershire sauce 48 oz beef broth 2 Tbsp minced garlic

⅓ cup flour

Salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, Cholula hot sauce to taste

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 450F.  Oil the bottom of a roasting pan, and lay out the beef, carrots, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms.  Roast for 40ish minutes, turning as needed to brown all sides.

Put everything in a large stock pot, then pour red wine into hot roasting pan, scrape off browned bits, and then pour into stock pot as well.  Add other liquids and garlic.  Whisk in flour.  Season with salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, and hot sauce to taste.  Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 2 hours, until sweet potatoes are cooked through.

Serve hot.