Saturday Update! (Patreon)

Hello! Good morning! It is a wretched -30C pre wind chill out here, and I didn't get a very good sleep [ even though Willow let me sleep in an hour like a little angel ] so I apologize in advance if this update is a little raggedy 🙏

I would like to start with a quick post-mortem honouring of the creaky semi-broken chair that held up my ass for TPOF and YKMET:Strade, a hand-me-down that was manufactured in 2015.

Thank you for all the hard work old chair! 🫡

It has been replaced by:

And I now have lumbar and neck support. Very good new chair. Willow also approves [ she likes to sit on my chair after she eats dinner to digest while I do dishes and clean up ]

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As for writing, I got an okay amount done, but I didn't write as much as the last two weeks. I found this chunk harder to write.

I think it was difficult for two reasons. The first is that it is honestly a colossal bummer 😂 I mentioned quite a while ago that there would be parts that lean more psychological and draw on some of the difficult experiences of my past. This chunk I just wrote is probably the major example of that.

Lawrence has taken on new roles during this project that have changed his character a lot- or magnified little bits that might have already been there. One of the roles he's taken on is an ambassador of negative self-talk, reframed as an outside antagonist. It's a little rough, having to dig out that part of myself I'd previously defeated and let it speak through Lawrence.

The second reason is that I also needed to be very careful writing this part, because I can't champion him. With any other character, I generally use words to describe evil acts. The words are a sort of buffer- they're the fiction. The fantasy. However, suicide is a monster made of words. When I'm using words like this, the buffer is thin. I want to tell a story that exposes this kind of darkness and says 'You are not alone, I too know what this is.' I want to give the player an experience of seeing these words come from someone else, to expose how hostile they really are, and how imperative it is to fight them. I just don't want my work to be actually harmful, so I have to be careful.

A snippet:

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A few sketches:

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And I am running out of timeee but just a couple last things!

I won't have a full week of work next week since I'll be taking some days off, but I will still post a saturday update regardless!

Also I have a bit of willow stuff!

Here she is refusing to sleep on top of my sweater because she doesn't like the material for some reason [ we are working it LMAO ]

I also attached a video showing her and a photo I took when I just got her several months ago. She really has grown! It makes me rather suspicious that the '2 years old' the humane society gave me was wrong. I think she may be younger since a domestic shorthair would generally be done growing by 2 years 🤔 [ and if I'm right she must have had kittens very young :( ] But she's looking healthier every week! Her digestive issues continue but they truly are a bit better all the time.

Anywho, stay warm folks! stay safe! And if the holiday season is daunting, please know I'm sending you strength! You got this!!

And of course, see you next week!