Helped out with a Tae Kwon Do test today. All beginners, but DANG was I impressed. Three of them I didn't know. The youngest looked like he couldn't be much older than eight at most, yes was the most-experienced of them. (And it showed.) The two behind him in position were also both strong for their level. (I don't remember being that good at their age.)
The fourth, the lowest in position (because she's the newest), was a brand-new student. As in, I forget whether it's been one or two months since she started, but it's record-fast time either way; she was able to keep up with the younger kids and sometimes exceed them in spite of having done it for FAR less time. (Presumably, the kids started during the beginning of the school year, which would be some time in Fall of 2015.)
There were some mistakes made, likely from a combination of major test anxiety, and maybe from one or two bad habits starting to develop, but overall, I was INCREDIBLY impressed.
...Of course. Now, it's Friday. Apparently, we do NOT have family night, and I do not have access to the desktop, since my mom is using it.
I'm determined to do something I consider productive. That may not be productive to others. Right now, I'm leaning towards doing mafia stuff, for instance, which is...well. You know. Not exactly, saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, getting my blog running again. (Which, in spite of me writing each day, has yet to have an update POSTED for a month and a half.) But *I* consider it actually productive.
Another thing I could do is hash out more of Red Hood Rider. I've done a lot of mental detailing as of late, and too little of it is getting to paper. The most major of these is a character I'm thinking of calling "Asp": a really, really, REALLY cool-looking character I randomly envisioned during the power outage which is now a MUST-incorporate into the storyline.
I haven't drawn him yet (though I want to!), but the basics of his appearance are: wearing layered plate armor (as in, sectionalized, like Roman armor), but with the sections having diagonal splits through the middle, pointing up. Think like this:
^
^
^
^
Where each carat would be a section covering a part of the torso. This would extend from the hip all the way up to the neck. The plates, though, are not heavy: they're a synthetic material, which absorbs magic to strengthen itself temporarily. It's not something which can be shattered nor broken, but is incredibly hard to pierce through and nearly impossible to hack through (especially given the overlay).
For his face, the lower half is obscured by a typical bandit bandanna, in this case, black. However, it also serves as an air filtration device, while doubling as a voice modifier: his voice still sounds human, but you can tell that it is not natural. For his eyes, he wears black goggle-like glasses, which apparently act as a HUD, containing information which he uses to better anticipate the movements of his foes. (He fights supernaturally-fast opponents, yet is only human.) His hair is black.
He wears a white cloak, which has the hood always up, covering the majority of his head, as to allow for (when combined with the glasses/mask) obscuring his identity. This cloak (which goes down to near the bottom of his shins) has additional properties, identical to the armor, but with the additional benefit of being heat, cold, AND electricity-resistant, just in case he should fight a foe who uses non-magical attacks of those nature. On his shoulders, he wears white shoulder pads as well.
Then, you get into his weapons: two curved daggers. They are enchanted to be anti-magic, immune to any pure magical attack and cutting through any magical defense. Embedded within the daggers is a poison which only affects supernatural creatures, that weakens and fatigues them without killing them: it's harmless to humans and passes right through, but against enhanced creatures will immediately start "bringing them down", so to speak, leveling the playing field. Said daggers can also shoot out and become deadly whips (akin to Ruby's own technique which is similar), cutting from afar, and shooting back in an instant. Furthermore, these are vibroblades, meaning they can cut through nearly anything.
There is a tradeoff: when turning the daggers into the whips, they cannot vibrate, since the vibration ability comes from the hilt, but Asp compensates for this: the daggers, with the push of a button, can become electrified (including the rope), shocking a foe who would hope to exploit the weakness. As a final bonus, the daggers are easily modified: they can be consumed by flames, for instance, if fire is needed.
The poison within can be changed to fight different foes. While it normally requires a cut to activate, the blades (akin to that one snake which shoots venom, would need to look up its name) can be modified to blast out sprays of the venom and hope to land in an area where they can take effect (e.g. eyes, mouth).
I imagine his belt is a utility belt of some sort, but honestly, I don't have the details of his design below the waist worked out all that much. I just have all those neat little bells and whistles for his top, to fit with the snake-like theme of his character.
I even developed his backstory, with him effectively being a Mercenary of the supernatural world, hired to take care of problems: usually (but not necessarily) supernatural creatures, hiring him to take care of what is usually (but not necessarily) other supernatural creatures.
He works with the Hunters some, and he works for the vampires some, and works for others some. He is DANG good at his job, so he has conditions upon which he will take the job:
-He will not kill any he deems innocent.
-He will deal with threats as he see fit.
-He will only take jobs that he holds an interest in.
-He reserves the right to ask for critical items and equipment which are not supposed to be given away. (Most of his toys he acquired in this manner.)
-He will almost always ask for pieces of information, which may seem trivial but are never trivial when combined with information he has already acquired. (This is how he often learns OF the things he asks for above.)
-He reserves the right to confiscate for himself anything he acquires that he is not specifically asked to return, AND to not disclose any information he acquires he is not specifically asked to divulge.
-In spite of the above conditions, he will always 100% of the time demand a HUGE fee. The more he asks for equipment/information-wise, the less his charging price will be, but even if he charges one third his normal rate, it is still absurdly high; his services are always costly.
These conditions are often considered a bit steep (particularly the items/equipment one, since supernatural creatures are not fond of parting with dangerous items they would prefer remain in their hands, and the Hunters are no different in that regard), but because he is SO good at what he does, AND his services are in high-demand especially in the current world, he can afford to ask for this since his clients are always willing to pay. (Especially since there's always the risk that if they don't pay him, he'll be hired out by their enemies first!)
That's the most major character I want to work on, but I've done a ton on others, too. A bit on Whitney, a LOT on Vili (which she desperately needs), bits and pieces on Sally, LOTS of vampire stuff (and I do mean a LOT), and also...I'm increasingly working on the script.
Particularly the second and third episodes, which I am getting more and more mapped out. I love the second episode, since it revolves around Sally and is incredibly humorous while also very revealing.
The third episode was originally too short, being one jump cut of a fight after another (basically various ways Dale loses to Ruby), but now, I might actually have overshot and made it one of the longer episodes, covering Ruby's origin in flashbacks, going over how she killed Lord Darkblood, going into depth about important pieces of her character, while also showcasing a lot of Dale, too.
But still having the multiple fights which all end humorously. Except the last, which I now have much, much, MUCH better lead-in to from both sides than I used to. It now makes sense why Dale can suddenly beat Ruby, and it now makes sense why Ruby decides to fight as she does.
All-in-all, just because this blog isn't busy doesn't mean I am not.
I've spent basically an hour typing all of this, so we'll see what I end up doing today.
The fourth, the lowest in position (because she's the newest), was a brand-new student. As in, I forget whether it's been one or two months since she started, but it's record-fast time either way; she was able to keep up with the younger kids and sometimes exceed them in spite of having done it for FAR less time. (Presumably, the kids started during the beginning of the school year, which would be some time in Fall of 2015.)
There were some mistakes made, likely from a combination of major test anxiety, and maybe from one or two bad habits starting to develop, but overall, I was INCREDIBLY impressed.
...Of course. Now, it's Friday. Apparently, we do NOT have family night, and I do not have access to the desktop, since my mom is using it.
I'm determined to do something I consider productive. That may not be productive to others. Right now, I'm leaning towards doing mafia stuff, for instance, which is...well. You know. Not exactly, saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay, getting my blog running again. (Which, in spite of me writing each day, has yet to have an update POSTED for a month and a half.) But *I* consider it actually productive.
Another thing I could do is hash out more of Red Hood Rider. I've done a lot of mental detailing as of late, and too little of it is getting to paper. The most major of these is a character I'm thinking of calling "Asp": a really, really, REALLY cool-looking character I randomly envisioned during the power outage which is now a MUST-incorporate into the storyline.
I haven't drawn him yet (though I want to!), but the basics of his appearance are: wearing layered plate armor (as in, sectionalized, like Roman armor), but with the sections having diagonal splits through the middle, pointing up. Think like this:
^
^
^
^
Where each carat would be a section covering a part of the torso. This would extend from the hip all the way up to the neck. The plates, though, are not heavy: they're a synthetic material, which absorbs magic to strengthen itself temporarily. It's not something which can be shattered nor broken, but is incredibly hard to pierce through and nearly impossible to hack through (especially given the overlay).
For his face, the lower half is obscured by a typical bandit bandanna, in this case, black. However, it also serves as an air filtration device, while doubling as a voice modifier: his voice still sounds human, but you can tell that it is not natural. For his eyes, he wears black goggle-like glasses, which apparently act as a HUD, containing information which he uses to better anticipate the movements of his foes. (He fights supernaturally-fast opponents, yet is only human.) His hair is black.
He wears a white cloak, which has the hood always up, covering the majority of his head, as to allow for (when combined with the glasses/mask) obscuring his identity. This cloak (which goes down to near the bottom of his shins) has additional properties, identical to the armor, but with the additional benefit of being heat, cold, AND electricity-resistant, just in case he should fight a foe who uses non-magical attacks of those nature. On his shoulders, he wears white shoulder pads as well.
Then, you get into his weapons: two curved daggers. They are enchanted to be anti-magic, immune to any pure magical attack and cutting through any magical defense. Embedded within the daggers is a poison which only affects supernatural creatures, that weakens and fatigues them without killing them: it's harmless to humans and passes right through, but against enhanced creatures will immediately start "bringing them down", so to speak, leveling the playing field. Said daggers can also shoot out and become deadly whips (akin to Ruby's own technique which is similar), cutting from afar, and shooting back in an instant. Furthermore, these are vibroblades, meaning they can cut through nearly anything.
There is a tradeoff: when turning the daggers into the whips, they cannot vibrate, since the vibration ability comes from the hilt, but Asp compensates for this: the daggers, with the push of a button, can become electrified (including the rope), shocking a foe who would hope to exploit the weakness. As a final bonus, the daggers are easily modified: they can be consumed by flames, for instance, if fire is needed.
The poison within can be changed to fight different foes. While it normally requires a cut to activate, the blades (akin to that one snake which shoots venom, would need to look up its name) can be modified to blast out sprays of the venom and hope to land in an area where they can take effect (e.g. eyes, mouth).
I imagine his belt is a utility belt of some sort, but honestly, I don't have the details of his design below the waist worked out all that much. I just have all those neat little bells and whistles for his top, to fit with the snake-like theme of his character.
I even developed his backstory, with him effectively being a Mercenary of the supernatural world, hired to take care of problems: usually (but not necessarily) supernatural creatures, hiring him to take care of what is usually (but not necessarily) other supernatural creatures.
He works with the Hunters some, and he works for the vampires some, and works for others some. He is DANG good at his job, so he has conditions upon which he will take the job:
-He will not kill any he deems innocent.
-He will deal with threats as he see fit.
-He will only take jobs that he holds an interest in.
-He reserves the right to ask for critical items and equipment which are not supposed to be given away. (Most of his toys he acquired in this manner.)
-He will almost always ask for pieces of information, which may seem trivial but are never trivial when combined with information he has already acquired. (This is how he often learns OF the things he asks for above.)
-He reserves the right to confiscate for himself anything he acquires that he is not specifically asked to return, AND to not disclose any information he acquires he is not specifically asked to divulge.
-In spite of the above conditions, he will always 100% of the time demand a HUGE fee. The more he asks for equipment/information-wise, the less his charging price will be, but even if he charges one third his normal rate, it is still absurdly high; his services are always costly.
These conditions are often considered a bit steep (particularly the items/equipment one, since supernatural creatures are not fond of parting with dangerous items they would prefer remain in their hands, and the Hunters are no different in that regard), but because he is SO good at what he does, AND his services are in high-demand especially in the current world, he can afford to ask for this since his clients are always willing to pay. (Especially since there's always the risk that if they don't pay him, he'll be hired out by their enemies first!)
That's the most major character I want to work on, but I've done a ton on others, too. A bit on Whitney, a LOT on Vili (which she desperately needs), bits and pieces on Sally, LOTS of vampire stuff (and I do mean a LOT), and also...I'm increasingly working on the script.
Particularly the second and third episodes, which I am getting more and more mapped out. I love the second episode, since it revolves around Sally and is incredibly humorous while also very revealing.
The third episode was originally too short, being one jump cut of a fight after another (basically various ways Dale loses to Ruby), but now, I might actually have overshot and made it one of the longer episodes, covering Ruby's origin in flashbacks, going over how she killed Lord Darkblood, going into depth about important pieces of her character, while also showcasing a lot of Dale, too.
But still having the multiple fights which all end humorously. Except the last, which I now have much, much, MUCH better lead-in to from both sides than I used to. It now makes sense why Dale can suddenly beat Ruby, and it now makes sense why Ruby decides to fight as she does.
All-in-all, just because this blog isn't busy doesn't mean I am not.
I've spent basically an hour typing all of this, so we'll see what I end up doing today.
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