I’m doing #SlapDashSat on Twitter again today, and I thought I’d share a few tweet-sized excerpts from Heroic Lies. :)

1
He’s finally doing it.
The shock was the first thing to strike Alexandra’s senses.
Then there was the pain.
He’s finally decided to get me out of the way.

2
Her body was reeling across the room, her hands reflexively rising to defend her head from the shrapnel. Fear clawed for a hold in her mind, and was met with a wall of focused resolve.

3
I’m not dead yet. If I survive the landing and play possum, maybe I still have a-
The thought was cut off sharply by her impact with the tiles, but she managed to act on it for almost a full second.
Then the ground collapsed.

4
The side of their house caved in with thunderous violence, a wall of fire laced with shrapnel rushing toward her like a demon in physical form.
For an instant, she saw the culprit hovering in the sky, and she wondered if her child was anywhere near it.

5
She was trapped. Her head was aching, she was lying on her back, and she couldn’t get up.
A bit of air reached her lungs, and her chest began to spasm.
Calm yourself, calm down! Slow, deep breaths. Or shallow coughs. Whatever helps you get oxygen.

If you want to read more, you can read a longer excerpt, and get a copy of the book, here.

Sans gets his first glimpse of Frisk... and what he sees scares him.

You can read the comic from the beginning here.

​For a second, Sans thought it was Toriel who was coming out of the Ruins. Instead, it's the latest piece of the puzzle that's been haunting him ever since he learned of its existence.

Good thing he teleported far enough away that Frisk didn't hear it when his hand clenched on that whoopee cushion, haha.

Patreon  |  Ko-fi  |  Commissions  |  Physical merch with my art on it

More cute moments with this precious pair of goofballs from my upcoming novel, Upholding the Covenant, brought to you by this week's round of #SlapDashSat Tweets. :)

1.
“What’s in your mouth?”

The kitten’s eyes went wide, her ears flattened against her head, and as she hastily scuttled under the bed, Orennian sighed. “Apparently it’s something you aren’t supposed to have.”

2.
The kitten sniffed at his mouth, and Orennian wondered if this was a sign of affection.

Then she shoved her whole head between his teeth, grabbed the candy he’d been sucking on, and fell into his lap with her stolen prize.

3.
“That,” Orennian said sternly, thrusting a finger toward the kitten’s face, “was not good.”

Kivara stared at his finger for a moment, then affectionately rubbed her cheek against it, and the scolding words died in his throat.

4.
Orennian’s favorite way to wake Kivara was to place a ramekin of pudding next to her nose. She would sniff, twitch and lick in her sleep, until she awoke and her face lit up upon seeing that the pudding was real.

5.
“Kivara, I know you’re angry at the water for making you cold and wet, but slapping it and hissing at it will only make you wetter.”

I hope you enjoyed these Tweet-sized excerpts. If you want to read more funny catgirl stories while you wait for Upholding the Covenant to come out, check out my other novel, Catgirl Roommate.

Time for some more cute, Tweet-sized moments from my upcoming novel, Upholding the Covenant:

1.
​As Orennian walked past the play pen, the smallest kitten stuck her arms between the bars and wiggled them furiously, mewing for his attention at the top of her tiny lungs.

2.
For all her bravado, Kivara could still get overwhelmed. She didn't always voice the feeling, but when the feline toddler's ears went down and she started to suck the knuckle of her thumb, Orennian knew it was time to pick her up and hug her.

3. 
Almost every day, when his work was done, Orennian went shopping. He'd forgotten something yesterday. He wanted fresher food. There was always an excuse.

His bodyguards said nothing, but they knew he just wanted to see the kittens again.

4.
​Orennian flared his cobra-like hood, watching as the kitten's ears perked toward him.

He flattened one side of his hood, and one of her ears went down. He closed the other side, and both ears dropped.

He tilted his head, and she fell over.

5.
"If you want to see my kittens so badly, you could just visit them. No need to pretend to shop."

"I'm glad to hear that."

"Of course, to hold one, you must make a purchase. ...Haha, I jest. Purchase or no, Kivara will climb you all the same."

I’ve seen some people claim that General Tullius can’t be blamed for the opening scene of Skyrim, in which the player character is nearly executed without cause in Helgen. After all, he was across the courtyard – he probably didn’t hear the captain say, “Forget the list, (s)he goes to the block.”

But after listening to several other lines of dialogue, learning more about the laws involved, and observing a few other events, I’ve concluded that Tullius was almost certainly both aware and guilty of the Last Dragonborn’s attempted murder. Here’s what led me to that conclusion:

1. General Tullius probably MADE the list.

For the list the LDB wasn’t on to exist, someone must have written it. The most likely candidate for this role is the mission’s commanding officer: General Tullius.

Even if he didn’t make the list himself, he should’ve at least been aware of who was on it, so he shouldn’t have needed Hadvar or the captain to tell him the LDB wasn’t on the list.

2. Tullius knew the LDB was there.

If you speak to him in Castle Dour, and tell him that you’ve already met/you were at Helgen, he’ll comment that you were “One of the prisoners, if I recall correctly.”

So not only was he aware of the LDB’s presence, but he noticed them enough to recognize them days, weeks, or even months later. And yet, even if they looked nothing like a Stormcloak, he couldn’t be bothered to say, “Hold up, who’s that and why are we killing them?”

3. The LDB wasn’t charged with a crime.

In the aforementioned Castle Dour conversation, upon being satisfied that the LDB is there to sign up with the Legion, Tullius says, “I’m sure your being imprisoned was all a terrible misunderstanding.”

In other words, he had NO knowledge of any crimes the LDB had committed. He didn’t offer a pardon, or demand that they pay off their bounty; he simply acknowledged that they’d done no wrong that he was aware of.

If he had no reason to believe they were guilty in Castle Dour, then he had no reason to believe they were guilty in Helgen. He just couldn’t be bothered to find out whether or not they were.

To Tullius, the life of a potentially innocent person simply wasn’t worth the bother of finding out whether or not they’d even committed a crime, let alone one worthy of death – not that a crime’s worthiness of death matters to Tullius, given that…

4. Look who else was on the list.

According to Imperial law, as outlined in the book Legal Basics:

“Any act of stealing, taking, or, without explicit written or verbal permission (or what a reasonable person would infer as implied permission) an item or items from a person, group of persons, or entity a reasonable person might assume to be sentient's place of residence, business, person, or other location a reasonable person would assume is secured from looting. The punishment for this crime may include a fine or incarceration, or a fine and incarceration.”

And yet, Lokir, a horse thief, was on the list to be executed. No other crime of his was mentioned, so it seems that Tullius knowingly sentenced a man to be killed for what a Legion general should have known was a crime worthy of a fine and/or incarceration, not death.

5. This isn’t Tullius’ only questionable execution.

Roggvir, the man who’s executed when the LDB first visits Solitude, claimed that Ulfric’s killing of Torygg was no murder – Ulfric challenged the High King to ritual combat, which was legal in Skyrim.

His claim is supported by Sybille Stentor, who’s firmly against the Stormcloaks’ goals. She acknowledges that “By Nord custom, once the challenge was issued in court, Torygg had no choice but to accept. Had he not, Ulfric would have had cause to call a new moot and a new vote for High King.”

She claims there was “no choice,” but in reality, Torygg had a choice: he could have refused, and allowed the moot to choose a new High King. He chose his career and his honor over his life, and consented to the duel.

Whether the way Ulfric won the duel was honorable or not is a subject for another discussion. Killing Torygg instead of incapacitating him was, in my opinion, unnecessary and therefore wrong, but that doesn't change the fact that the High King recognized the legality of the fight and consented to it.

Therefore, the duel was legal under Skyrim’s laws, and by extension, so was Roggvir letting Ulfric leave.

Now, there is some ambiguity as to whether Roggvir’s execution was ordered by Tullius or Jarl Elisif, but given Elisif’s kind nature and Lokir’s execution by legionnaires, Tullius seems like the more likely candidate.

One could argue that the duel, while legal under Skyrim’s laws, was illegal under the Empire’s. But Tullius didn’t declare the duel illegal. He simply pretended it never happened, and had Roggvir killed under false pretenses.
​
All in all, the Last Dragonborn's wrongful near-execution wasn’t one-off mistake.

It was part of an ongoing pattern of questionably legal executions, ordered or knowingly permitted by a man who almost certainly knew that the random traveler who wasn’t on the list was about to be killed, but who couldn’t be bothered to find out whether they or his other victims deserved to die.

I’m doing SlapDashSat on Twitter again this week, so here a few of the excerpts I’m sharing. The first four are from the novel version of my short story, Upholding the Covenant, and the last one is from Finding the Truth, the upcoming sequel to Your Truth Cannot Stand.

1.
"Sometimes I fear that my womb is cursed."

"My love. Did your womb cause your former masters to betray you? Did it cause an ailing person to visit our city and bring sickness to our children? No. These tragedies are not your fault."

2.
"You visit the ambassador a lot, my child."

"Yeah, 'cuz, he smells bad until he sees me, but then he smells better!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean he smells sad, like me when my sister won't play with me. But then he sees me and smells happy!"

3.
"Who kill your cat?" Kivara demanded, and Orennian smiled sadly at the child.

"Nobody. He died of old age. Time killed him."

Kivara snapped her jaws at the air, and he frowned. "What are you doing?"

"I'm biting time for killing your cat!"

4.
“You are just too precious.”

“No I’m not! I’m strong and fierce and BIG! See? I come all the way up to your nose!”

“But if I put you on the floor-”

“NOOOOO! I have to stay up here so I’ll be BIG!”

5.
There were days when the general didn’t know whether to pinch the bridge of his nose, rub his tightening forehead, or throw back his head and laugh.

The corpse in front of him deserved all three reactions.

For my latest pride flag cutout art series, I wanted to try something more ambitious. Instead of having a single theme for the pattern, I drew seven different layers of the world: 

1. Outer space, with planets, comets, moons, and UFOS.
2. High sky, with birds, wind, and clouds.
3. Low sky, with treetops, dragonflies, and butterflies.
4. Ground level, with flowers, grass, and other graceful plants.
5. Underground, with tree roots, bunnies, and mice.
6. Shallow water, with sea stars, sea horses, and vividly pattered fish.
7. Deeper ocean, with jellyfish, octopi, eels, naked sea butterflies, larval lionfish, and ctenophores. 

​
I'd initially planned to keep all the cutouts fairly simple, but as I so often do, I wound up getting more and more detailed. I went overboard with the butterflies and dragonflies, and I went absolutely apeshit with the fish, haha.

For those who are curious, I created this by placing a layer of black on top of the color layer, then erasing holes in the darkness, allowing the colors of the flags and the pastel rainbow background to shine through.

​I also added spots and shimmers of white to give it brightness and texture.

I hope you enjoy the result!

If you like this art enough to wear it or decorate your home with it, click "Read More" to see some of your options!

​I've decided to get back into doing #SlapDashSat on Twitter, and I like the excerpts I came up with for it this week. I think they set the setting, tone and characters for my upcoming novel, Upholding the Covenant, pretty well.

Here they are:

1.

"I know why you're here," the Imperial ambassador said tersely. "You want to convince Karushra to rebel."

"Their allegiance is their choice," Orennian replied smoothly. "Give the same respect and protection the Empire always has, and they'll make the right choice."

---

2.

The Path-Guide accepted his offer graciously, then ordered that it be divided into two bowls. "By tradition, the guest eats first."

An act of cunning practicality, disguised as generosity. Any who sought to poison him must be prepared to poison themselves.

---

3.

A Charishi kitten bounded past Orennian on all fours. The Wandering Days, he recalled from his studies; pre-bipedal kittens went through a phase of independent exploration, with every nearby adult responsible for their safety. The child of one was the child of all.

---

4.

Screams split the air, and Ambassador Orennian lunged into a run.

He had to find the source before it was too late. He wouldn't be like the Imperial military, who ignored Charishi in distress.

He flung open the flap of the tent... and found a woman giving birth.

---

​5.

Ambassador Orennian strode slowly through the streets, head high and chin level. With every step, his back was ramrod straight, his posture perfect, his measured movements careful and smooth.

They had to be. If they weren't, the kitten on his head might fall off.

---

If you want to stay up to date on all the new excerpts and developments for Upholding the Covenant, be sure to follow me on my social media channels!

If the title of this post pisses you off, I understand. Brunwulf is an immediately likable character, and when a person seems willing to stick up for the downtrodden, we want that to be real.

But the more I play Skyrim, the more I notice that some of his claims just don’t line up with my firsthand experiences, and I tend to believe observable events over unverified hearsay. So today, I thought I'd take a break from talking about my art and stories, and share my musings about someone else's.

In this post, I’ll share a few of Brunwulf’s claims, and the experiences that caused me to doubt them. If you have any lore that supports or contradicts my observations, please feel free to chime in!

Claim 1:

“He’s tough, loyal to his men and a good leader, but if you’re not a Nord, Ulfric will never trust you.”

My experiences and observations:

I’ve played through the Stormcloak questline as an Altmer and a Dunmer – two of the races Ulfric’s detractors would expect him to distrust the most. By having Galmar ask “Why’s an (insert race here) want to fight for Skyrim?”, the developers went out of their way to make it clear that the Stormcloaks know what you are.

And yet, once you’ve proven your mettle and commitment, you’re entrusted with delivering a message to Whiterun, acquiring enemy intel and delivering a forged replacement, blackmailing a government official, and more. I think it’s safe to say that Ulfric – or at minimum, Galmar – trusts you.

Claim 2:

“Whenever a group of marauders attack a Nord village, Ulfric is the first to sound the horn and send the men. But a group of Dark Elf refugees gets ambushed? A group of Argonians, or a Khajiit caravan? No troops. No investigation. Nothing.”

My experiences and observations: 

A few days before I wrote this, I collected a bounty on the giant at Steamcrag Camp. For those who aren’t familiar with it, there are a few things you should know:

1. It’s nowhere near Nord land.

2. There’s an “Official warning” sign nearby, which says:

“Attention citizenry

The giant here has been given leave to keep his camp. Please do NOT attempt to make trade, disrupt the mammoths, gawk at, or otherwise disturb the giant. Resting here is not advised.”

This implies that the giant has been behaving himself, until the events of #3.

3. Right beside the giant camp, there is a dead Khajiit, and a wagon whose severely smashed-up state strongly suggests a giant attack. There’s a second dead Khajiit inside the camp, as well as horse meat, presumably taken from the travelers’ slain horses.

4. Someone put a bounty on the giant who lives there, and it wasn’t Brunwulf. It was Ulfric.

Now, one could argue that “kill the giant” is a radiant quest, so it doesn’t really reflect on Ulfric’s character or intentions. But is that really going to be your in-universe explanation?

A giant who was officially allowed to keep his camp gets a bounty on his head after killing two Khajiit and their horses, and the only reason Ulfric put a bounty on him is because the Random Number Gods made him do it? You’re free to choose your own headcanon, but that’s sure not the one I’m going with.

And yes, one could argue that Brunwulf was right about Ulfric not sending the troops to deal with it, but how often do we actually see ANY Jarl on EITHER side of the war send their own troops after bandit camps, giants, or other such menaces outside their city walls? In Skyrim, leaving some paper at the inn and waiting for a random bounty-hunter to solve the problem is a bipartisan strategy.

That said, I do know of at least one instance where Ulfric (or someone under his command) DID send the troops. It’s an unmarked location known as “Trolled Stormcloaks Darkwater Overhang,” and in it, you find two dead Stormcloaks and the troll that killed them, as well as a note that says:

“Captain,

There have been multiple complaints about attacks near the river northwest of The Rift. We could use some more civilian support from that area for the war effort, so send a few men to investigate. It's probably just a couple of wolves, so you'll only need to send at most two men.

Happy hunting”

It doesn’t say anything about the race of the people complaining. It just says they need civilian support for the war – something settlements are better equipped to provide than travelers.

That, combined with the bounty on the Khajiit-killing giant, makes me wonder if Brunwulf is mistakenly assuming that Ulfric’s troop deployment decisions are based on race, when they’re really based on wartime strategy.

Claim 3:

“If Ulfric had his way, anyone who wasn’t a Nord would be shipped right out of Skyrim.”

My experiences and observations: 

I’ve finished the Stormcloak questline twice, and the only indication that anyone besides the Thalmor and the people still fighting for the Empire was getting deported or otherwise kicked out, either during the questline or after, was the following line of dialogue from Stormcloak commanders:

“Soon we’ll rid Skyrim of elves, their bloody Justiciars, and the Jarls in their pockets.”

I can definitely see how that would lead people to assume that all elves will be unjustly deported, and it is undeniably wrong of these commanders to make innocent elves worry for their futures like that.

But I can’t recall hearing or reading a single line of dialogue from Ulfric or Galmar that indicates that either of them intends to banish any elves besides the Thalmor. In fact, an Altmer named Niranye is heavily implied to have moved into Windhelm and bought a house there during Ulfric’s reign, and the people who mix Windhelm’s medicines are an Altmer and/or an Imperial.

Based on those facts, I believe that by “elves,” those Stormcloak commanders meant “Thalmor.” If that is the case, of course, they should just frikkin’ SAY “Thalmor,” but the fact that they’re careless with their phrasing doesn’t mean Ulfric is going to deport all non-Nords from Skyrim, or even that he wants to.

Claim 4:

“All I did was talk to Ulfric.” (I couldn’t find a line of dialogue that neatly encapsulated the whole thing, but several related lines of dialogue indicate that Malthyr Elenil asked Brunwulf to talk to Ulfric about the Windhelm Dunmers’ problems, and Brunwulf claims that he did so.)

My experiences and observations: 

I believed this one was true, until I heard the following dialogue:

Jorleif: “Sir, there continues to be unrest in the Gray Quarter.”
Ulfric: “Blasted dark elves. I don’t suppose you could tell them that I presently have larger concerns? Such as all of Skyrim?”
Jorleif: “They don’t seem to be very sympathetic to our cause, sir.”
Ulfric: “Let me know if you hear anything more substantial.”
Jorleif: “Of course, my lord.”

While this isn’t a great response to the revelation that your citizens are upset, it strongly implies that Ulfric doesn’t know the specifics of the Dunmers’ concerns, but that he actually WANTS to. Why would he ask for more substantial information if Brunwulf had already given it to him?

Ambarys Rendar’s line, “I tried to get Ulfric to even come down here to see the squalor, but the High Lord of His Mightiness couldn’t find the time,” implies that Ambarys – not Brunwulf – told Ulfric about the Dunmers’ displeasure with the state of the Grey Quarter.

But given that even the steps leading up to the Palace of the Kings are in disrepair, AND the fact that Brunwulf himself isn’t able to start repairs right away if the war ends with him becoming Jarl, I think it’s safe to say that, as with the deployment of troops, the decision not to renovate the city in the middle of a war is based more on tactical and logistical considerations than racial ones.

All in all, I can’t help but question whether Ulfric has even been made aware of the issues, such as Rolff and Angrenor’s harassment, that he could realistically address during a war.

Did Brunwulf actually speak with him, and if so, did he give him anything specific and realistic enough to even be actionable? Given all the other questionable claims he’s made, I’m not convinced that he did.

Add in the fact that he's in love with the blatantly racist Elda Early-Dawn, and his credibility sinks even further.

So, what do you think?

Is Brunwulf Free-Winter lying? Is he telling the truth, based on information I missed? Did he make a few superficial observations, base some sweeping assumptions off of them, and never bother fact-checking them before sharing them with anyone who would listen?

If you’ve got any lore to support or further refute his claims, I’d love to see it.